Enarratio in prophetam Isaiam

Is your profit to be squandered beforehand in grief? You received the law as a help. Great indeed was the natural fitness for the good that was present in you, but God, bringing this to completion, also added to you the guidance that comes from the law. Do you wish to be persuaded about things to come? Do what is commanded according to the law, and await the enjoyment of good things. Honor your father and your mother, that it may go well with you and that you may be long-lived on the earth which the Lord your God gives you. Do you desire good things? Do what is commanded. Do not ask the diviner about your health, but submit to the physician when he prescribes what pertains to health, of which you yourself are master. Why are you taught by another? No diviner grants immortality, no one leads up to heaven; no one sets you before the judge with boldness, but the law and its exact observance; keeping which, do not busy yourself about the future, but await the recompense. He therefore gave the law as a help, so that they might say: Not as this word concerning which there are no gifts to give concerning it. But this law is not as this word of the ventriloquist. For it was not devised for deceit, as those things were, but it is a teacher of truth. And those men divine for silver; for this is the ridiculous thing, that those who are deceived even pay silver to them, the wage of falsehood. But this word, that is, of the law, is not such that one gives gifts concerning it. For no one repays the grace of God: Freely (he says) you received, freely give. Do you see how Peter was indignant at Simon, who brought silver for the grace of the Spirit?

For (he says) let your silver be with you for destruction, because you thought that the gift of God was to be acquired through money. The word of the Gospel, then, is not like the words sold by ventriloquists. For what could one give as a worthy exchange for them? Hear David in his perplexity saying: What shall I repay to the Lord for all that he has repaid to me? It is not possible, then, to give gifts for this that are worthy of the grace from him. There is one worthy gift: the guarding of what has been given. The one who gave you the treasure does not demand a price for what was given, but a guarding worthy of what has been given. And a harsh famine will come upon you (he says), and it shall be that when you hunger, you will be grieved and will speak evil of the ruler and of the ancestral customs. The Lord, who orders all things for salvation, sometimes brings even a famine for the benefit of those being trained. For I afflicted you (he says) and made you hunger, that I might do you good. He calls a harsh famine, then, the one that is without consolation, the one beyond understanding. For there are differences of famines. Some occur through a lack of grain alone; others also through the scarcity of the rest of the things that can be eaten. For this is the harsh famine which the word promises to bring, so that through the want it may produce grief, which is able to work a salvation not to be regretted. But when they are grieved according to God, then they will speak evil of the ruler and of the ancestral customs. Who is the ruler who is spoken evil of by those who grieve rightly? Clearly it is the ruler of this world, whom they will speak evil of out of repentance, when they come to a sense of the harm that comes from him. And they also speak evil of the ancestral customs.

The ancestral customs of those who live in sins are the pursuits of this life, in which all who love glory are entangled. The ancestral customs of the sinner are the works of the flesh (adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, passion, evil desire). His ancestral customs are deceit and falsehood, plots and villainies and hypocrisies. Therefore the one who has sobered up, as it were from some drunkenness, from the affairs of the world, will speak ill of his ruler, the one who led him to the works of destruction. And he will speak ill of his ancestral customs, living with which he did not receive the law given to us by God for help. You cannot come to be under the true King unless you speak ill of the ruler. For this reason the Church taught you to say: I renounce you, Satan. This is the speaking ill of the ruler. And what is the speaking ill of the ancestral customs? I renounce you and your works. These are the ancestral customs, the works of the devil. Blessed is the one who has genuinely spoken ill of the ruler. For thereafter he comes to the true one and is enlightened. Blessed is the one who has censured the old ancestral customs; for he will find as his fatherland the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of those like the blessed Paul. Ancestral customs are also the evil habits handed down to us from our fathers. Did your father leave you possessions from greed? Give them back to the one who was wronged; do not lay claim to them as your own; it is an inheritance of sins. Did your father, having unjustly enslaved someone, leave you a slave? You give him his freedom, and you will make his torment lighter, and you will prepare for yourself true freedom. Then what does he say? And they shall look up to heaven above and look down to the earth below.

And behold, narrow perplexity and darkness, so as not to see. And he who is in straits shall not be perplexed until the time. He speaks concerning these, those who through straits were brought to compunction, that they shall look up to heaven above. Those who previously were bowed down and unable to contemplate the lofty things of divine visions, these, as if released from some bond of sympathy toward earthly things, shall turn their eye freely toward heaven, beholding the nature of things invisible and intelligible, and contemplating the place where it is necessary to deposit the treasure. Then They shall look upon the earth below. Those who until then were elated and thought great things of themselves shall understand the cheapness of their own nature from their kinship to the earth. But marvel how carefully Scripture used its words, devising for each matter an expression suited to it. For heaven lies before us for contemplation, and earth. Concerning heaven, then, it says: They shall look up to heaven above; and concerning the earth: They shall look upon the earth below. Then, at the wonder of the contemplation of such great things, they shall be perplexed, and shall be straitened and darkened in mind, the astonishment at what has been grasped producing in them this great disturbance. For when a man has finished (it says), then he begins; and when he has ceased, then he shall be perplexed. No one knows how many things he does not know, unless he has received a taste of knowledge. Nevertheless the good Master promises them better things. For he who is in straits shall not be perplexed (it says) until the time. This ignorance shall not hold the race of men forever.

But the one who now seeks out its truth and labors in travail for its discovery will one day see face to face and will receive the perfection of knowledge, when the time of the restoration of all things arrives. For this is the "Until the time." 9. CHAPTER 9. "Do this first; do it quickly, land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, and the rest, those by the coast, and beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walk in darkness, behold a great light; those who dwell in the land and shadow of death, a light will shine upon you. The greater part of the people, which you brought down in your gladness; and they will rejoice before you, as those who rejoice at the harvest, and as those who divide the spoils; for the yoke that lay upon them has been taken away, and the staff upon their neck. For he has scattered the staff of those who exacted, as in the day against Midian. For every garment gathered by deceit and every cloak taken in exchange they will pay back; and they will wish that they had been burned with fire. For a Child is born to us, a Son and is given to us, whose rule is upon his shoulder, and his name is called Angel of Great Counsel. For I will bring peace upon the rulers, peace and health to him. Great is his rule, and of his peace there is not

To the throne of David and to his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it in judgment and in righteousness from now and forever. The zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will do these things." About to proclaim the things of the Lord's becoming human, the Word, as it were offering a kind of first draught of spiritual gladness, thus welcomes the one who brings good tidings: "Drink this first." The one who drinks first receives the drink into himself, approaching it with desire. For then especially is the grace from it naturally given forth, when one is not nauseated nor spewing it back, but through excess of thirst longing for the comfort that comes from the drink, and moistens himself with the drops of what he has drunk. For this reason even now the one bringing good tidings to a people that thirsts for the expected grace says: "Drink this first." Receive the gladness into your soul; implant the doctrine of salvation. Do not reckon it second to anything else, nor consider anything else more honorable than this. It is before all things. Nor can anything be conceived by you before the One who created you, nor is anything by nature more honorable than the Firstborn of all creation. Drink first. Learn that in the beginning was the Word. Nothing is before the beginning, nothing before the "in the beginning." Do not drink down beforehand an age, nor an interval, nor a place empty of the Son's existence; not time, not a season; nothing of the vain things of imagination that can come near the soul. Drink this first; do it quickly. Not slackly, nor in a slothful manner, nor without zeal, nor loosely come to the reception of the work, but intently and with haste. Such was Paul: at once he drank the faith, and he put off no time for the proclamation.

He who did not consult with flesh and blood, but immediately, like a runner, at once received the signal for the race and hastened to the finish, pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling. The region of Zebulun. The Prophet addresses the same people among whom the Lord sojourned, who formerly walked in the darkness of ignorance, but at the rising of the true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world, saw a great light. And let no one suppose that there is any disagreement with the prophetic utterance in what Matthew says, if indeed the one said, "The people who sit in darkness," while Isaiah appears to have said, "The people who walk in darkness." For "to walk in darkness" and "to sit" have the same force, since both alike fall short of the appointed end—the one because he does not move, the other because he wanders about aimlessly. For he who walks without a goal gets nowhere, and he who is bound in idleness does not reach the end. This people, then, darkened in the ignorance of the Gentiles, saw a light—not such as comes from fire, nor such as comes from stars or the moon, nor such as the light of the sun or of lightning; but a great light, which shines upon things both intelligible and sensible, which is with the Father, which enlightens men and cheers angels, which suffices for all, and still has its rays stretching out beyond itself toward more. And the people of the Gentiles—where did they dwell? In a land overshadowed by death. For as it were a deep cloud lay upon them through idolatry, until the light came and broke through the mist and spread over them the brightness of the truth.

Then the discourse turns to the very person of the Lord. Saying what? "The greater part of the people, which you brought down in your gladness." For not all received the word, but the majority followed the one calling them to eternal gladness, who also "shall be glad before God, as those who rejoice in the harvest." For whatever each one sows, that he will also reap. Therefore on the day of recompense, those who received the word and bore fruit in proportion to what was laid up beforehand for them here, receiving their rewards from the righteous Judge, shall be glad "as those who rejoice in the harvest," and in the manner of "those dividing spoils." Those who rejoice in the harvest have the beginnings of their gladness from their own labors; but those who grow rich from spoils receive the source of their wealth all at once. For this reason he mentioned both—both the good things that come by recompense, and those that will be given by grace from the Great Giver. For the yoke that lay upon the nations has been taken away; they have shaken off the heavy yoke of him who subjected them to slavery of sin and bent their neck with a rod, so that, having cast down the apostolic proclamation of the soul, they might not bow down to slavery of sin. For he scattered the rod of those who exacted, "as in the day upon Midian." A terrible exactor has stood over human life, beating with a rod and exacting his own wills—our common enemy. Do you wish to learn the blows of this rod? Hear the one who says: "My wounds have festered and rotted." The evil rod produces foul-smelling wounds in the one struck.

Consider, then, someone held fast by various desires and intensely given over to the enjoyment of pleasures; how he resembles one being beaten with a rod and led away to sin. Desire does not let up, producing goads and pains in the intemperate man, until it inflicts on the soul the welt from sin, leaving behind a foul odor in the recollection of shameful things. This rod, then, he will scatter, as he scattered the rule and dominion of the Midianites—whose history, I think, you remember, either that in Numbers or that in Judges. For in Numbers it says: "They arrayed themselves against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they killed every male, and they killed the kings of Midian together with their slain." And in Judges: "Gideon returned to the camp of Israel and said: 'Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into our hands.'" But what is this: "Every garment gathered by deceit and a cloak with reconciliation he will repay"? I think it means that those who impose the heavy yoke of sin and crush with the rod, who compel men to sin—these will repay the garment gathered by deceit and the cloak with reconciliation. Those who have stripped men like robbers and by deceit shown them naked of their coverings will repay with reconciliation. For when the common enemy takes us under his own authority, he strips from us the garments that give comeliness to our unseemly parts. And the garment of Christians, covering the unseemliness of our sin, is faith in Christ.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. But even before faith in Christ, our enemy was stripping bare our thoughts—with which our life was adorned—exposing the human shame of those who were naked, and making public our nakedness. Since, then, he stripped us by deceitful devices, he shall repay every garment gathered by deceit and every cloak with restitution. For we not only receive back what we were deprived of, but are also made better by the addition of the knowledge of Christ. For he has clothed me, it says, with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness. Therefore every garment gathered by deceit—that is, secretly stolen away—they shall repay with restitution, and they shall wish they had been burned with fire, because a Child was born for us. The evil powers, after the coming of the Lord, cried out: What have we to do with you, Son of God? Have you come here before the time to torment us? Then they choose rather to be burned with fire than to be condemned by the appearing of Christ in the flesh. Because a Child was born for us, and a Son was given to us, whose government was upon his shoulder. His name is called Angel of Great Counsel. How many names of the Lord have we already been taught, which we heard before. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Here his name is called Angel of Great Counsel. This is he who made known the great counsel hidden from the ages, which was not revealed to other generations. This is he who announced and made manifest his unsearchable riches among the nations, that the nations might be

co-heirs and of the same body, for this very one whose rule is upon his shoulder—that is, the kingdom and the power are in the cross. For being lifted up on the cross, he drew all to himself. For I will bring peace upon the rulers, peace and health to him. Great is his rule, and of his peace there is no limit. From this it is established that the things spoken are from the Father's Person. Because he made peace through the blood of his cross, whether things on earth or things in heaven, it has been said: For I will bring peace upon the rulers, and health to him. I think the mystery of the resurrection is shown through this. For since he was crucified from weakness, but lives from the power of God—for this reason health is said to be brought to him, with reference to the weakness of the flesh which he took up for our sake. And of his peace there is no limit. Peace (he says) I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. For this reason there is no limit of his peace, since the gift is beyond the world; for if it were from the world, it would have been fitted together with the constitution of the world. But now, the one who receives his peace and keeps it for all time will live together with the good things that come from peace. The peace of Solomon was bounded by the years written of; but the peace from the Lord extends along with the whole age, being without limit and without end. For all things will be subjected to him, and all things will acknowledge his dominion; and when God becomes all in all, the turbulent having been quieted in their apostasies, they will hymn God in peaceful concord.

Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it. Because it has been said, "The ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until that which is laid up for him comes," nearly all with one voice proclaim that the Lord according to the flesh is from the seed of David. Upon the throne of David, therefore, and upon his kingdom he shall sit, so as to establish it and to uphold it in judgment and in righteousness. "Your judgments," it says, "are a great deep"; and "Your righteousness is like the mountains of God." Neither, then, are the judgments comprehensible, nor is the righteousness observable according to the worth of its height. And the zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will do these things. Having been zealous for us, who were perishing in ignorance, he will receive us, in order to procure us for his own kingdom, the dispensation among men. The zeal of the Lord Sabaoth, therefore—of the God of hosts, to whom all power is subject—this will do these things. The Lord sent a word upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel. And all the people of Ephraim and those who dwell in Samaria shall know, speaking in insolence and with a lofty heart: "The bricks have fallen; but come, let us hew stones and cut down sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves a tower." In the name of Jacob and of Israel the word seems to suggest to us the notion of two things: both the introduction of the more imperfect, and the perfection unto the very summit of virtue. And the manner of the patriarch's renaming suggests this meaning to us; for at his birth, because he had grasped the heel of his brother, he was called Jacob.

But after the struggle, as a prize for victory, the name is given to him: For your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. The Word, then, was sent to Jacob, and came to Israel. For through mercy the Word first condescends to the weaker, but those more discerning, perceiving the benefit from him, as it were snatch him away, anticipating the sluggishness of those to whom he was sent. The Lord, therefore, sent the Word to Jacob. Do you know the Word, who was in the beginning, who was with God? This one the Father sent to Jacob. But the true Israel knew him, the souls more discerning. And all the people of Ephraim knew, those formerly dwelling in Samaria, in insolence and a lofty heart. This is Ephraim, from whom the apostate Jeroboam sprang, who tore away the ten tribes for himself and, fashioning golden calves, persuaded the people to depart from the worship of God and to worship the idols of the Egyptians. Those, then, dwelling in Samaria, in insolence and a lofty heart, these, having come to an awareness of the truth, received the word, just as the Acts also relate, that the Apostles heard that Samaria had received the word. Then the Prophet describes their insolence and how great their pride was; for despising the portion of David, as having a kingdom easily overthrown, they said in mockery, The bricks have fallen, but come, let us hew stones. They called the building of the kingdom of the sons of Jesse bricks.

They called the hardness of stones fitted together with one another their own strength, and their concord with the affairs of life. And let us cut down, he says, sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves a tower, instead of the temple which Solomon built for Judah. They thought the same things as those who, through the construction of a high tower, attempt to make heaven accessible to themselves. For those men also said: Come, let us make bricks for ourselves and bake them with fire; and again: Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose head shall be up to heaven. Now the sycamore is a tree most abundant in fruits, which have no quality unless someone, by careful scraping, draws over them a certain juice that produces pleasure in the taste. Hence we consider it to be a symbol of the Gentile congregation, which is numerous but, as it were, grown foolish through its familiarity with Gentile customs; if someone is able to scrape it through the Word, it is sweetened by the change and is turned to usefulness. And cedars are sometimes taken also as an image of great souls that possess a notable elevation, from their being exalted in mind and having their citizenship in the heavens; just as we were taught in the Psalms, when David now takes them up for the praise of God, saying: Fruit-bearing trees and all cedars; and again: The trees of the field shall be filled, the cedars of Lebanon which he planted. But already also the hard and inflexible characters, which are lifted up against the knowledge of God, we have understood to be called cedars: Therefore the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

And those who are lifted up by falsely named knowledge and imagine that they have grasped the mysteries of the God who is above, are called cedars; for I saw the impious one exalted exceedingly and lifted up, like the cedars of Lebanon, whose destruction is swift; for they passed by, and behold, they were not. These cedars, then, those who, before the coming of the Word, sat in Samaria in insolence, took for the building of the tower, and who mocked the piety of Judah and said that the buildings in their doctrines were fallen bricks. And God will crush those who rise up against Mount Zion against him, and will scatter his enemies, Syria from the east and the Greeks from the west, those who devour Israel with the whole mouth. He promises, then, to crush them and to cast down all who rise up against Mount Zion, and to scatter their impious concord against the truth. And the enemies are Syrians and Greeks: the one holding the regions toward the east of the sun, the other those toward the west. And for this reason they will be scattered, because they devoured Israel with the whole mouth. And by mouth he now means the sophistical power of speech, which they employed entirely for the plotting against those who in simplicity believed in God. For all these things his anger was not turned away, but still his hand is high. And the people was not turned back until it was struck; and they did not seek the Lord of hosts.

In addition to all these things, because the enemies of God have not yet been pricked to compunction while being scourged, his wrath has not yet been turned away, but still the hand—the punishing power—is raised against those who do not repent of the evil and wickedness that they have done. Since, then, this people is healed not by word but by a blow, it is written: "And all the people did not turn back until it was struck." Therefore blows are necessary for such people. Let no one, then, busy himself with the causes of the gloomier things: why droughts, why floods, why thunderbolts, why hailstorms. It is for our sake, who have an unrepentant heart and do not turn back beforehand unless we are struck. "And the Lord will take away from Israel head and tail, great and small, in one day." After the Word that was sent has reached them, he says that their whole evil order will be confounded, and that rulers and those who follow them will be taken away—both those who are greatly puffed up in power and those of lower rank. The precedence of elders will be dishonored, and that of those who judge by partiality. But those who have no rank among the people, but are self-appointed and falsely claim for themselves a prophetic gift (which they did not receive from the Spirit) and teach lawless things—such as Ananias was in the time of Jeremiah, and the false prophets in the time of Micah, among whom there came a lying spirit that deceived Ahab, urging him to war against the Syrians—these also will be taken away, as it were holding the rearguard of the people. But also those who call this people blessed, and lead them astray, and reap profit through the deception.

For this reason the Lord will not rejoice over the young men and those in their prime. Nor, if there is an orphan among such a people, nor if there is a widow, will mercy be shown. For what is weak and helpless is worthy of mercy; but what is powerful in wickedness and evil is worthy of aversion and hatred. Then he adds that his wrath is not yet turned away, but still his hand is raised high against those who lead astray among the people and those who are led astray, among whom all are lawless and wicked and speak unjust things. But the threat has some appearance of beneficence, in that lawlessness will be burned as fire. For the material prepared from lawlessness has been arranged by the good Master to be handed over to destruction for the benefit of men. And as dry grass (he says) it will be devoured by fire, and it will be burned in the thickets of the forest. As long as the soul is buried in earthly passions, its passions, like grass, springing up from the mind of the flesh, creep along, having their generation from one another, and others being begotten upon others. For as grass is the most prolific of plants and its generation nowhere comes to an end, but always the end of the first generation becomes the beginning of the next, such also is the nature of sins: it succeeds itself. And fornication begets fornication; and the habit of lying becomes the mother of lying, and he who has practiced theft easily dares the injustice. For the sin that came before becomes an occasion of sin. If, then, we strip sin bare through confession, we have made it dry grass, worthy to be devoured by the purifying fire.

But this is burned in the thickets of the forest. Observe what is said about forests in the first book of Kings: the people, being warred against, entered the forest, and perished for lack of food. But Absalom too, being warred against, enters a forest. If, then, our sin does not become like dry grass, it will not be eaten by fire, nor burned up. And the thickets of the forest he calls those who are deceitful and darkened in mind, those who keep many evils hidden in the secret of their own heart. Then he adds: Because of the anger of the Lord's wrath the whole earth has been burned together. He shows that earthly things are handed over to the punitive fire for the benefit of the soul, in accordance with what the Lord also indicates, saying: I came to cast fire upon the earth, and I wished to see if it were already kindled. And the people shall be as a man burned up by fire. He does not threaten annihilation, but indicates purification, according to what is said by the Apostle: If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Then he describes the wickedness among the people and the unceasing factionalism among them, now advanced entirely to an incurable state. For, he says, no man will have mercy on his own brother, but when one comes near to obtain some assistance from someone, he will turn aside to the right—that is, he becomes unskillful, because he will hunger and eat from his left. For the one who does not work things right and worthy of acceptance, this one will be filled from the more crooked and forbidden things. What then is "He will eat from his left," he explains. And, he says, a man will not be filled eating the flesh of his own arm. He hints at a certain beast-like condition of the soul, recounting the mutual devouring of brothers, who savagely set upon one another. For Manasseh will eat Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh. For wickedness makes them savage and causes them to be likened to raw-flesh-eating beasts, not being filled by eating from the flesh of the other's arm, whose end is complete destruction, according to what was said by the Apostle: If you bite and devour one another, take heed lest you be consumed by one another. And though they are thus disposed hostilely toward one another, nevertheless in plotting against their neighbor they will agree together. For at the same time, he says, they will besiege Judah—that is, those who confess God and remain in his service. For Judah is interpreted as confession. Nevertheless wickedness, being discordant with itself, is shown to have a certain agreement in its battle against virtue; for instance, boldness and cowardice are opposed to each other, the one being excess, the other deficiency.

But they fight against courage itself, which lies in their midst, as it were besieging it from both sides. For this reason Ephraim and Manasseh are said to eat each other's flesh, and, having come together, to besiege Judah. 10. CHAPTER 10. Woe to those who write wickedness. For in writing, they write wickedness, turning aside the judgment of the poor, seizing the judgment of the needy of my people, so that a widow becomes plunder for them and an orphan spoil. And what will they do in the day of visitation? For your affliction will come from afar. And to whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory, so as not to fall into captivity? And they shall fall beneath the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still lifted high. There are some who disdain to follow the fathers and the doctrines handed down by them, yet themselves desire to begin heresies. Therefore they devise certain innovations alongside right reason, writing wickedness and impiety; upon these comes the woe, upon the fathers of falsely named knowledge, and the authors of godless doctrines. For such men snatch away those who are poor in faith and tyrannize souls widowed of the true bridegroom, God the Word. But even if they see anyone orphaned of God through sin, they make even this one their prey, promising them all license and offering a life of pleasure, if only they might receive them as agreeing with the doctrines of godlessness.

Such is the heresy of the Anomoeans that has now sprung up, promising forgiveness of sins even to fornicators and adulterers and sodomites and slave-dealers and perjurers and liars, if only they take them to themselves as partners in the blasphemy against the Only-Begotten. To these the word says: What will they do in the day of visitation? He calls "day" the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ from the heavens, in which he will come to the world, rendering to each according to his works; in which they will receive the affliction coming upon them from afar, as those who write iniquity. But to whom will you flee for help? For you have written against God, who judges the living and the dead. Your own writings will be your accusation. Then he says: Where will you leave your glory? You who make a display of yourselves and cling to human honor and desire to lead a heresy, so that you may obtain a name, and for this reason have spoken iniquity on high—where then, in the day of judgment, will you leave your glory? And beneath, he says, such men will fall among the slain. Now you are the protector of the deceived and are admired by them, carrying about the name of teacher and guide, honored and called blessed by them; but then you will be more dishonored than these very men, than those you have murdered. For it is the murder of a soul, the acceptance of false doctrine. Beneath them, then, you will lie fallen, and the weight of those slain by you will press upon you.

Since each of us writes, as it were, handwritten documents through his life, stamping the impressions of his deeds upon his memory, perhaps the word also pronounces woe upon such people, as those who write wickedness. For the heart of the righteous is inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; while the heart of the unrighteous is inscribed not with the Spirit of the living God but with ink, which is akin to darkness and hostile to light. So each person either writes in his own favor, doing good, or, doing evil, deposits handwritten documents against himself. There is, then, a handwritten document against us, written by our own hands, whenever we do the worse; and there is a handwritten document in our favor, whenever we do the better. Indeed, some also, easily forging the letters in contracts and falsifying the characters of letters in acquisitions of fields and in wills and pledges and various agreements—all things that have their validity through the evidence of letters—write wickedly; and such people write wickedness, perverting just judgment against the poor and plundering the possessions of the needy of the people, so that the widow becomes food for them and the orphan a profit. Such are the things that accrue to those in power in the plunderings of wars, whom the word reminds: What will they do in the day of visitation? He called the day of judgment and of recompense according to the worth of each one's offenses the day of visitation, which he threatens against them: Your affliction will come from afar. Let us understand what he means by "from afar" thus: our salvation is not from afar, but is near to us.

For God says, "I am a God who is near," and "I will be near to them more than the garment is to their skin"; and again, "This commandment which I command you today is not too high for you, nor is it far from you. It is not in heaven above, saying, 'Who will go up to heaven and take it for us?' Nor is it beyond the sea, saying, 'Who will cross over for us to the other side of the sea and take it for us, and having heard it we will do it?' The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart." And our Lord also says, "The kingdom of God is within you." So then, the better things and those through which salvation comes are near us and within; but the opposite things come from far away, existing outside us. For sin does not exist in our constitution, but came upon us afterward. For this reason the affliction that is brought on because of transgressions is threatened by the Prophet to come from far away: "Woe to the Assyrians. The rod of my anger, and wrath is in their hands. I will send my anger against a lawless nation, and I will command my people to take spoils and plunder and to trample the cities and make them into dust." But he did not intend so, nor did his soul reason so, but his mind will depart, and that to destroy no few nations. And if they say to him, "You alone are ruler," he will say, "I did not take the land above Babylon and Chalane, where the tower was built; and I took Arabia and Damascus and Samaria. In the manner

I received these, and I will take all the principalities. Because of the multitude of the people's lawless deeds, the Assyrians are brought against them—not because of their own righteousness, but because of the people's exceeding injustice. But nevertheless these too (not understanding that they were given as a corrective scourge against the people who transgressed the divine laws, but exalting themselves over themselves, as though they possessed some power) are pronounced wretched by the Word: Woe to you, Assyrians, who are the rod of my wrath, you are an instrument of punishment; you do not act by your own power, but by the energy of the One who moves you, you are brought against those worthy to be crushed. And wrath (he says) is in their hands. Here he openly calls the chastisement wrath, as also the psalmist says: Nor in your wrath chasten me. The chastisement of Israel, then, is in the hands of the Assyrians. I will send my wrath against a lawless nation. I will bring punishment upon the people that does not endure living according to the law appointed for it. And to my people I will command to make spoils. Because of his love for humanity, the good God still calls the people who sinned his own people. For because they sinned, he sends his wrath; but since he once chose them through the election of the fathers, he does not renounce his own relationship with them. I command, then (he says), to make spoils and plunder and to trample the cities and reduce them to dust; so that we may know that all the grievous things we suffer, we endure by divine ordinance. For he does not hand us over to the evil and punitive powers, but he himself sets the measure of the punishments, having regard to the strength of those being healed.

Spoils, then, are the things that lie upon the dead, upon those who have fallen in war—whether weapons, or clothing, or some other adornment. And plunder is the distribution of the spoils, apportioned according to the worth of those who have conquered. The Assyrians, then, were commanded to despoil Israel and to plunder and to trample down its cities and reduce them to dust. But he did not think so, and in his soul he did not reckon it so; rather, he was lifted up in his mind—not as though the people had been handed over to him because of their sins, but exalted in his mind and having banished the true account from his own thought, he supposes that he is able to destroy not a few of the nations. And since those subject to him, flattering and fawning upon him, say, "You alone are ruler," he speaks to them as if in irony: "I have not taken the land beyond Babylon and Chalanē." Not yet, he says, have I become lord of all; the land beyond Babylon escapes my kingdom, and Chalanē, where the tower was built. By that tower he means the ancient one, which they built in the plain of Shinar, saying, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower, before we are separated from one another, whose head shall reach to heaven." But the name Chalanē is not found in the usage of Scripture; we conjecture that it lies somewhere in the region of Babylonia, since Babylon is named from the confusion of tongues, which the Lord confounded, tearing apart their agreement toward evil. For Scripture says that the name of that place was called Confusion, and in Hebrew Babel. And I took, he says, Arabia and Damascus and Samaria.

In the same way I took these, I will take all the principalities. Since, then, he took to himself the power to make all the cities subject, and did not understand that he prevailed over men not by his own strength but through the dispensation of God, who disciplines those who have sinned, for this reason the prophetic word sets him as worthy of lamentation. Wail, you graven images in Jerusalem and in Samaria. For in the same way I did to Samaria and to its handmade things, so I will do to Jerusalem and to its idols. How will graven images wail—things made of wood and stone, or of some other material, with craft fashioning them into the likenesses of men, or of irrational four-footed beasts, or of birds, or even of reptiles, such as the consecrated images of the Egyptians? And wailing is a mournful sound, presenting the pain of the heart by some indistinct utterance. How, then, will graven images wail? Because upon the woods (or stones, or perhaps also gold and silver, or ivory, or whatever else among the nations are idols of more or less precious material that are worshipped) shaped by human hands, certain demons, darting in from unseen places, sit beside them, enjoying the pleasure that comes from their pollutions. For just as greedy little dogs linger around the places of butchers, where there is blood and gore, so too the greedy demons, hunting the enjoyment that comes from the blood and the fat of sacrifices, coil around the altars and the statues dedicated to them. For perhaps their aerial bodies are also nourished—whether fiery, or mixed from both elements.

The history of the Kingdoms also shows that the demonic power attends the idols named after them. For (it says) the foreigners took the ark of God and brought it in beside Dagon. And the Azotians rose early on the next day, and behold, Dagon had fallen forward on his face to the ground. So Dagon was the visible idol; but the one falling on his face was the demon, being defeated by the glory concerning the ark of God; and he himself falls on his face, and drags down with himself the work of hands. For this reason those who eat things sacrificed to idols are said to be partakers of the table of demons. Since the victim brought to the idol was in part assigned also to the demon that attends it, from the blood poured out and the fat burned up and the rest of the burnt offerings, the demon receives some portion. And he who drinks from the cup from which the libation is made drinks the cup of demons. For this reason the carved images shall howl, that is, the demons that bear the same names as the carved images. And when it is said that the Lord will come into Egypt and the works of hands of Egypt shall be shaken and their heart shall be defeated, we interpret it with the same meaning. For the demons that dwell in the region around the earth shall be shaken, being put to flight, and shall be driven out to their own place of the abyss, at the coming of the Lord.

Therefore cursed is everyone who makes a carved and molten image, the work of a craftsman's hands, and sets it in a secret place, because he stores up evil for himself: through the carved image he has brought upon himself the demon that follows it, and through the demon he has drawn down a curse to dwell with him. And it shall be, when the Lord has finished doing all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will bring upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon the height of the glory of his eyes. After he has commanded wailing upon the carved images in Jerusalem and in Samaria, and by the threat against them (as though Jerusalem had by now been purified and freed from the defilement of idols and disciplined by the punitive blows which she endured by being handed over to the Assyrians), then at last the word threatens that he will transfer the blow to the ruler of the Assyrians. For since he was lifted up in his pride and did not understand that their sin was the cause of such great evils, but thought that by his own device and power he had prevailed against Jerusalem, because of this arrogance and the irrational height of his mental exaltation, He will bring (it says) upon the great mind, upon the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon the height of the glory of his eyes. One is great by his own nature; another by his conceit and the excess of things that in no way belong to him. And a great mind, in truth, is the one that contemplates great things, the one able to apply itself to the creative words and from them to perceive the beauty of the wisdom of the craftsman of all things.

Great is the one who is able to apply himself to the economy of the things that come to be from God, and to the providence that extends from him even to the minutest details, and from this to contemplate his righteous judgments. Great is the mind that, through the Angels and the Powers and all the glory that surrounds the supramundane realms, understands the King of glory and Lord of the Powers. However, the one who blesses himself and exalts himself, being rather opinionated-wise and vain-minded, would rightly be called great according to the mind, or rather not. But nevertheless, since it is customary for Scripture to follow the opinions of the many in regard to names, it has called him a great mind, not attesting to the greatness that is by nature, but naming what has been ascribed to him from his conceit. For this reason the Lord, punishing pride and humbling his lofty-mindedness, is said to bring [judgment] upon the great mind of the Assyrians. And exposing the weak supposition, he says that he will bring punishment upon the height of the glory of his eyes. For glory, being a word with many meanings, some have defined according to one of its meanings as a weak supposition. And the great mind and the prudent one can be understood in place of the cunning one. As the serpent is wiser than the beasts upon the earth; and the steward of unrighteousness acted prudently; and the sons of this age are wiser than the sons of light in their generation. And the Apostle has interpreted for us the meaning of the prudent one, in [his letter] to the Corinthians, saying: But I fear, lest as the serpent deceived Eve in his cunning...

For he showed that the narrative testifies to the blameworthy prudence of the serpent, from the fact that he changes the prudent into cunning. So then also a great mind—not in reference to anything praiseworthy, as those who accurately distinguish the meanings among the Greeks have laid down, saying that mind is concentrated prudence, but falsely so called—either admiring itself, or being addressed in this way by flatterers, has now been named by Scripture. And this great mind, since it knows that the eyes of the wise man (of the truly wise man) are on his head, glorifies his own eyes, as not looking downward nor busying itself with earthly things, but inquiring into things on high and making its dwelling above. Such are the wise men among the Greeks, whose life is wallowed in the most shameful passions of the flesh, while they philosophize about heaven and the stars and the ethereal things and the occurrences in the air, and put a certain glory around their own eyes. For he said: In my strength I will do, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations, and I will plunder their strength. And I will shake inhabited cities and I will seize the whole world with my hand as a nest, or I will take them up as abandoned eggs. And there is no one who will escape me or contradict me. Now he explains clearly why he has called him a great mind, and why against the height of his eyes he threatens to bring punishments, [namely] the boasting of his words, which he uses against those inferior to him, threatening them with every kind of destruction with all bitterness, saying that his power is invincible and unopposable by himself.

For just as one who is master of what he wishes and will certainly accomplish his purposes, so he boasted. Since I have great cavalry and infantry force and no one to oppose me, and since the wisdom in matters of strategy is present with me, unapproachable, and my understanding is irreproachable, for this reason (he says) I will remove the boundaries of the nations and plunder their strength. For having compelled all the nations to bow beneath my own kingdom, I make one boundary of them all—my own dominion. For now each is separated from the other by its own boundaries; having removed their boundaries, then, I will compel all things to come under one scepter of my kingdom. And I will plunder their strength. Plunder is the name given to the distribution among the victors of what has been captured from the enemy, when either captive bodies, or some of the flocks, or certain other things of daily life, the victors divide among one another. And each one, being deemed worthy of a share of the plunder from the spoils according to the preeminence that belongs to him, thus partakes of the things from the

of war. And the cities that are now firmly established, he says, I will shake and convulse by my own power, and I will seize the whole inhabited world in my hand like a nest. For what effort is it to capture in one's hand nestlings that cannot fly, warmed in the nest by the birds that feed them, since they can use neither wing nor feet for flight? Then, intensifying his contempt for human beings and exalting his own power, he says, not as a nest, but as eggs left abandoned, so will I take the inhabited world. And there is no one who will escape me or contradict me. So then, as regards the wording, the ruler of the Assyrians will say these things, puffed up in his mind because of his success against Judea and Samaria, and thinking that he will capture all the nations by a sudden assault, and that no one will have hands to raise against him, but that all the boundaries of the nations will be confounded by his power, and that the whole inhabited world will be shaken by the fear of his arrival; and that anyone who comes to grips with him will be more easily caught than a bird's nestlings, and will be more easily swept up by his power as it overruns the whole inhabited world under the sun, than as one might take eggs, bereft of the bird that warms and gives them life. But since this arrogance is, as it were, greater than is human, some have thought that these words are fitting for the truly arrogant one, for him who stiffened his neck against the Almighty, for the insubordinate and apostate one, and for the evil spirits that followed him, which he caused to apostatize with him into his own wickedness.

For that one thinks himself a great mind and imagines that he surveys lofty things, and he threatens to make the whole inhabited world his own—he who did not even decline to answer the Lord when he asked, "From where have you come?" saying, "I have gone around the earth under the sun and walked about under heaven, and I am here." This one dared even to show the Lord the kingdoms of the earth of all creation and to say, "All these things are mine; now therefore, if you fall down and worship me, I will give them to you." Perhaps, then, the word hints at the king of the Assyrians, the ruler of this age; for the Lord also names a ruler of this age, saying, "Now the ruler of this world will be cast out." And a little later: "I will no longer speak many things with you; for the ruler of the world is coming, and in me he has nothing." Since there are many rulers—certain ethnarchs, appointed for the guard and preservation of each nation under them—as Moses says in the song: "When the Most High divided the nations, as he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God." And again the Apostle says: "But we speak wisdom, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age; but we speak God's wisdom, which none of the rulers of this age has known." And again in Daniel, a certain ruler of the Persians and a ruler of the Greeks is recorded. For the Angel says to him: "And I came in your words. And the ruler of the kingdom of the Persians stood opposite me. And behold, Michael, one of the first rulers, came to help me, and I left him there, with the ruler of the kingdom of the Persians.

And after a little: "And I went forth," he says, "and the ruler of the Greeks came." Perhaps, then, if these things are spoken from the person of the devil, his pride is directed not against men but against intelligences or certain powers. "Shall the axe be glorified without the one who cuts with it? Or shall the saw be exalted without the one who draws it?" Likewise, as one might take up a rod, or a piece of wood. The argument is convicting of the pride of the ruler of the Assyrians. Why do you think highly of yourself, as though you cut down nations and bring down the dominions of cities? For in this way the axe too would be proud, as it casts the towering trees to the ground, and the saw, as it divides the joined and united pieces of wood. But neither does the axe cut without the hands, nor can the saw saw without the one who draws it and skillfully prepares the wood for some use. And praiseworthy, if anything, is the one who uses the axe, and the one who draws the saw knowledgeably. So neither should the wood, which was transformed into a scepter, reap the honor of ruling, but rather the one who handles these things, as a symbol of the dominion that belongs to him. So then I too took you up for the punishment of the people that has sinned, employing you in your cruelty as an axe and a saw, for the just discipline of the people, worked out for their benefit.

Just as, then, in courts of justice the executioners appointed to punish are not masters of the punishment, nor do they do anything by their own strength or authority, but only what has been entrusted to them by the laws, so too the Assyrians, a nation not strong nor able to do anything of itself, but according to the measure given to it by him who serves the cause of those who have sinned, have employed their energies for doing harm. And not so, but the Lord of Hosts will send dishonor upon your honor, and a burning fire shall be kindled against your glory. And the light of Israel shall become a fire, and he shall sanctify him in a burning fire, and it shall devour the forest like grass. This is the recompense of irrational pride. Since, exalting yourself as a great mind, you said, and boasted in the height of the glory of your eyes, the Lord will send dishonor upon your honor, and fire upon your glory. For since you threatened to take away the boundaries of nations and to shake inhabited cities and to seize the whole world as a nest and to carry off eggs that have been left behind, with no one escaping, nor any who contradicts, therefore a burning fire shall be kindled, and the light of Israel shall become a fire. The state of affairs (he says) shall be overturned, and Israel (he says) shall be in splendor—the one now humbled and handed over to you for punishment because of sin. His conspicuousness, then, shall become your destruction. For (he says) the light of Israel shall become a fire.

And since there are two energies concerning fire (the illuminating and the burning), the sweet and gracious part of the fire will remain with Israel, illuminating and shining around him; but the bitter and grievous part will be apportioned to the proud man, burning him and delivering him over through the burning to inconsolable pain. And he will sanctify him in burning fire, and it will devour the material like grass. He shows the nature of fire, that it is purifying. For he will sanctify him, as in burning fire. But how does the fire sanctify? When it has devoured the material, like grass. Since, then, our God is a consuming fire, he will consume (evidently) the material and the passions that have come from material, not in the spirit, but in the soul that dwells in the flesh. But one must know that those who are precise about meanings have distinguished glory from fame; and they say that glory is the praise that comes from the many, but fame is the praise that comes from the good. Likewise they also divide honor, asserting that one kind is something refined and falls to the earnest man, being the claim of a prize; but the prize they set as the reward of virtue; and another kind of honor is a recompense from those who have obtained it, given to those who have not conducted themselves altogether acceptably. On that day the mountains and the hills and the thickets will be extinguished, and it will devour from soul even to flesh.

After the Lord Sabaoth sent dishonor in place of the honor of the ruler of the Assyrians, and a burning fire in place of his glory, and after the light of Israel became a fire for the Assyrian (so that the one not sanctified in the brightness of the light might be purified through the burning of the fire, which is worked for purification and devours like grass the underlying material of sins)—then at last, when the material that kindles the punitive flame has been consumed, the mountains that burn and the hills and the thickets will cease (he says), and the fire of the conflagration will stop devouring and feeding on all things, making its beginning from the soul and reaching as far as the flesh. And it is unknown to no one that the custom of Scripture is to call mountains and hills those who have come to be in positions of preeminence and, as far as their constitution goes, possess something more than the many; but those who are unfruitful and have grown together with one another at random, having, as it were, a life jumbled together and incomplete, and not planted from the planting of the true farmer, it calls thickets. Yet the fire touches all things, beginning from the soul and ending upon the flesh. For sins that have stopped at thoughts (such as to commit adultery in one's heart) are material in the soul, worthy to be devoured by fire; but those that have reached as far as deeds, when sins have been distributed among the activities that come through flesh and action—these I understand to be sins. For beginning from the soul, and ending in the heart, the evil reasonings are not even limited to that point.

But they also come forth and, as it were, lean out, passing through the flesh and appearing outwardly. For if someone conceived in his mind to commit murder but did not do it, the murder did not go out from his heart. And he who looked at a woman to desire her, but did not corrupt the temple of God, nor make the members of Christ members of a prostitute, made his heart, as it were, the boundary of his sin; so that the evil thought did not go out from the heart of such a man. Thus one can also speak about theft and about idolatry and sorcery and whatever other kinds of sins there are, when they are not contained by the body, but, as if flowing through a leaky vessel, are carried outward. And he who flees shall be as one fleeing from a burning flame. And those left from them shall be a number, and a child shall write them down. After the conflagration that comes upon the mountains and the hills and the thickets from the fire, he speaks of the fewness of those who are saved. And thus (he says) their multitude will be brought to a number easily marked out, so that even by a child—one not at all, nor in any way, experienced in counting or writing—they can be enrolled. Perhaps, then, he who flees from the conflagration flees the evil life by repentance, and by his conversion escapes the flesh that punishes. For everyone who, after being caught in sins, perceives that he is worthy of the correction that comes with rod and scourge (fleeing sin as the fuel of punishment) flees as from a burning flame.

And then those who are left shall be a number, not only because they are easily numbered (as we have set forth) but also because those who remain are worthy to be taken up into the number, as we have found in the Book of Numbers—children and women and old men, as many as have an age useless in wars, and the mixed multitude (as alien to Israel) left outside the numbering, while those from twenty years old and upward, mighty in war, are numbered. And all the firstborn of Israel are numbered, from a month old and upward. Likewise also the Levites, from a month old and upward; and the priests who minister are numbered up to fifty years. But what child will write down such as these (not the man, nor the elder)? No one will deny that it is the overseers in the Church, because they live in guilelessness and because those who have sinned entrust to them their secrets, of which no one is a witness except the one who searches out the hidden things of each. This one will write down such as these; those who have been, as it were, blotted out through sin, he will again enroll—those who have escaped the conflagration and the purification through repentance, having received, as it were, a fire that consumes the underlying matter of evils; he writes down such as these. Or perhaps (since they are written in the book of life, and are enrolled together with the righteous—those worthy to be numbered by the right hand of the Most High) it is worthy to understand the writer of those being saved as one who takes them up together with the righteous and ranks the names of those who turn back from evil works in the book of the heavens. For rejoice (he says) because your names have been written in the heavens.

What child, then, in the heavens is able to write the names of the approved, or of whom it was said, "A child is born to us, and a Son is given to us"? That Child, whom the Magi worshiped; that Child, who went down into Egypt and returned again to the land of Israel. Since, therefore, there are many conceptions of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, one of the things understood concerning him is also the Child, who will write those who draw near through repentance in the knowledge of God. And it shall be in that day, the remnant of Israel shall no longer be added, and those saved of Jacob shall no longer trust in those who wronged them, but they shall trust in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. And the remnant of Jacob shall be upon God who strengthens. Clearly these things have their reference to those who depart from evil works and transfer their hope to the living God. But we who sin are added to the enemies, and we have trusted in those who wrong us. Some evil army of demons goes about, overthrowing our souls through the enticements of pleasure. Added to these, like foolish children to slave-dealers, who often, having first displayed certain childish playthings, have deceived the children, and having removed them far from their father's eyes, through brief delight prepared bitter slavery for them. So those also are added to those who wrong; and we, attending to the enticement of pleasure, remove ourselves far from God and subject ourselves to the heavy tyranny of the inexorable demon.

who, since he is condemned to eternal fire, strives contentiously to have many share his condemnation. Concerning those, then, who repent, he says that those who are left and those who are saved shall no longer be added, nor shall they ever again set their hopes upon those who did wrong, but they shall be trusting in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. Blessed is he who has removed himself from every hope of the things of this world and has God alone as his hope. For as "Cursed is the man who has his hope in man," so blessed is he who is established in the Lord. Do not, however, pass over the addition idly; for they shall be, he says, trusting in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. For hope in God does not admit of wavering, nor does the Lord consent to provide the whole of his help to one who has sometimes hoped in wealth and human glory and worldly power, and sometimes puts himself forward as his own hope; but one must truly rest upon the help that comes from God. And the remnant of Jacob shall be, he says, upon God who is strong. These things clearly refer to what the Apostle calls the remnant according to the election of grace, as what follows makes plain. And if the people of Israel become as the sand of the sea, their remnant shall be saved. For he is completing and cutting short a word in righteousness, because the Lord will make a shortened word in the whole inhabited world. Changing a few words, the Apostle made use of this saying in the Epistle to the Romans.

If anyone asks the reason why the Apostle omitted some things and altered others, let him know this: that, being a Hebrew, he did not enslave himself to the editions which we have used, but having interpreted the saying as it seemed fitting to him, so he delivered it. For indeed the others also appear to have concurred rather with the apostolic exposition. However, the meaning of the saying is as follows: It was said above that even a child shall write down those who are saved from sin. Here let no one marvel (he says) if so great a number of Israel is reduced to a few. Do not attend to the multitude of those who are called God-fearers, since to many belongs the name of Christ, but to few does the testimony of works confirm the appellation. If the people of Israel become as the sand of the sea, the remnant of them shall be saved. It has been said concerning the former people that salvation is not in the multitude, but in the remnant, which is saved according to the election of grace. And what is the manner of salvation? That he is completing and cutting short the word in righteousness. For he who has encompassed the whole legal impress and the prophetic ordinance in the brevity of the Gospel, and who works what was shown to him by the Lord, this one shall be saved. For you shall love the Lord your God and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. In these two commandments the whole law hangs and the Prophets. Therefore he who completes the word, who brings it into action and cuts it short and, as it were, sums up its breadth in the shortest commandments, this one is the remnant that is saved.

All things (he says) whatsoever you wish that men should do to you, do you also to them in the same way. For this is the law and the prophets." You see the whole word accomplished and summed up in natural understanding and in righteousness: "For the Lord will make a shortened word in all the world." The Apostle, however, said: "The Lord will make it on the earth." And Symmachus and Theodotion agree with him: "In the midst of all the earth." For the hard-to-observe parts of the law—"do not touch, do not taste, do not handle"—the ordinances concerning feasts, concerning days, concerning whole burnt offerings, concerning purification, concerning atonement, all were summed up into one short and easily observed chapter, so that no pretext is left for those who do not live according to the Gospel. 11. CHAPTER 11 And it shall be in that day the root of Jesse, and he who rises to rule the nations. The word proclaims to us the Christ from the seed of David. For in that day, that is, in the times long ago foreordained and in the preappointed time, the root of Jesse shall be. Elsewhere he says that a rod shall spring from the root, and a flower shall come up from the root of Jesse, taking the rod to mean the rule, and the flower the beloved and pleasing-to-all visitation. And that, having provided the grace of the incarnation in a brief time, he makes his visitation swift and, as it were, passing. But here he says that the root of Jesse shall be. Attend to "shall be": he does not say "shall seem," nor "shall seem to be," but according to truth, "shall be." For not in appearance, nor in imagination did he take the flesh, but in very truth.

Therefore the root of Jesse will be—that is, the lump of flesh from Jesse—it will be truly, and will subsist. And he who rises is himself both root and he who rises. Root of Jesse, because the God-bearing flesh was taken from the royal succession. And he who rises to rule the nations. For this reason the nations hoped in him, as is clear from the Church of Christ among the nations. For having risen from the dead, he began to rule the nations, leaving behind the murderous people; for to them he fastened death, but to the nations he granted the resurrection as a gift; because they cried out, "Let him be crucified," and "His blood be on us and on our children"; but the others received the Crucified One and were redeemed from death by his blood. And his rest (he says) will be honor. This is the rest of Christ—the honor of those who honor him as the Word of God and the wisdom of God and the power. He who gives rest to Christ confesses his equality of honor with the one who begot him, the communion of worth, the existence of his nature from eternity. But those who are anxious about what words of dishonor they may invent do not speak what contributes to the rest of Christ. However, the rest can be understood not only as that in which the Lord himself rests among those who glorify him, but also as that in which he will give rest to those who love him, according to what is written: "I glorify those who love me." For the rest which the Lord will give is honor, which after the righteous judgment of God will be distributed according to the worth of what has been done. For he will honor those who

with greater honors, and others with lesser, since star differs from star in glory. And since there are many mansions with the Father, some he will bring to rest in more excellent and higher states, and others in lesser ones. Yet all will have their rest through honor. And it shall be in that day, the Lord will add to show his hand. The hand of the Lord was shown in various ways in each generation, through those able to contain the working of his wonders. For formerly he showed portents in Egypt, then in the wilderness; then in the times of Joshua the son of Nun, then in the times of the Judges, and through the great Prophets who ministered. But now the hand of the Lord is said to be shown at the coming of our Savior, healing every disease and every sickness among the people, and doing the things proclaimed in the Gospel. For this power the Lord added to show, since the things that came before did not appear sufficient to lead the disobedient people to the knowledge of God. To provoke to zeal the remnant left of the people. Therefore he will add to show his hand, so that he may bring to zeal the remnant of the people, which he calls a remnant preserved from the enemies. And the multitude of those who warred is enumerated: Assyria and Egypt, and Babylonia, the Ethiopians and Elamites and those from the rising of the sun, and the Arabians. The history is full; speaking concerning the Ethiopians, that Zerah the Ethiopian went out in power with a thousand thousands and three hundred chariots. And Asa went out to meet him and cried to the Lord and said:

Lord, it is not impossible with you to save by many or by few. Strengthen us, Lord our God, for we have trusted in you, and in your name we have come against this great multitude. Lord our God, let not man prevail against you. Now the Assyrians were those who took them captive, and the Egyptians those who enslaved them from the beginning, and Nebuchadnezzar from Babylonia. The Elamites are the race of the Parthians, which, together with those from Mesopotamia of Syria, often attacked Israel. And the Arabians are a hostile nation, at war with Israel all the time. So when all these were warring against the noble seed, some are defeated and others prevail; and because they prevail and have been exercised in many labors, they receive as a kind of prize the addition of seeing the hand of God that is shown forth. Therefore they will also be envied after their exploits and labors. And he will lift up (it says) a sign to the nations, and he will gather the lost of Israel, and he will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The root of Jesse, then, the one who arose to rule the nations, he will lift up a sign to the nations, so that the lost of Israel may be gathered. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. And this is the sign that he lifted up to the nations, the one spoken of in the Gospels: They will see the sign of the Son of Man, which you will say is the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to the saints, and they to the world; in which he also speaks of the power of the sign.

Why was the economy of the incarnation accomplished through the cross? So that those who are saved might be gathered from the four corners of the earth. For the parts of the cross are divided fourfold, so that each part inclines toward the four regions of the world. Either, then, it was so that all the parts might be ordered to salvation through the parts of the cross, and for this reason the death through the cross was preferred; or because, before the wooden cross, a certain intelligible cross was fixed together with the whole world, the four parts of the universe being joined into the middle, and the power in the middle reaching out to the four parts. When this sign is taken up, therefore, those of Israel who were lost will be gathered, and those of Judah who were scattered will be gathered from the four corners of the earth. When this sign is taken up (having power to overthrow principalities and powers, which he triumphed over on the tree, having disarmed them and, as it were, cast off the garment that had been woven for us from them), he stripped off the principalities and the powers and made a public display of them with boldness, triumphing over them on the tree. For this reason Paul, being one of the lost of Israel and the scattered of Judah, understanding the sign taken up by Jesus to the Gentiles, ran to the cross and said: But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there follows upon the gathering of those of Israel who were lost (who were ruled by Ephraim) and of those of Judah who were dispersed (who were governed by those of the seed of David) that there is no longer jealousy of Ephraim against Judah, nor do the enemies of Judah prevail any longer.

For after the sign has been lifted up and the lost ones of Israel (who is called Ephraim) have been gathered, and the scattered ones of Judah have also been gathered, the jealousy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Judah shall perish. Consider carefully that Israel is said to have been lost, but Judah to have been scattered. Nevertheless, through the harmony that is in Christ, who makes peace between things on earth and things in heaven and reconciles all things in himself, the passions are abolished—those passions that formerly, from rivalry and dissension, held power in human life. For this reason, then, Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall no longer oppress Ephraim, since the enmity between them toward one another shall perish. For jealousy seems especially to become for many the occasion of enmity. But jealousy here is not the imitation of good things, but the envy at others' prosperity, as spoken of by Scripture. Then, therefore, having come into harmony, they shall fly in ships of foreigners, and at the same time they shall plunder the sea. Through the sea he has well represented those who sail swiftly, likening their motion to a wing—when, with the sail full, the wind standing fairly at the stern, they are borne over the sea. And they plunder the sea, overcoming the dragon and those who are initiated under him; whom the Apostles of Christ, transferring them to the knowledge of the truth, would rightly be said to plunder, making as it were spoils of their own the things formerly held by the one who led man away captive. And by "sea" here one must understand the place of affliction, which elsewhere we have learned to call the valley of weeping.

The ships of the foreigners are perhaps our bodies, because they have no natural kinship with the constitution of the soul. For the flesh is not subject to the law of God, but lusts against the spirit. These are said also to plunder Idumea, that is, to prevail over earthly things, and to lay hands on Moab. Moab is interpreted as "from a father." To them, then, the Lord has said, "You are from your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father." Upon these they lay their own hands, so that through their own good action they may take them captive. Then the sons of Ammon shall be the first to obey. Ammon is interpreted as "a people with us." Perhaps those who have less evil will be the first to obey the word, compared with those who have more of it and it poured out more extensively. Then he adds: And the Lord shall desolate the sea of Egypt. Just as Ezekiel says that the rivers of Egypt are those which Pharaoh boasts that he has made, so Isaiah names the sea of Egypt, which the good God shall desolate. For it is a benefaction when desolation is brought upon worthless things at the acceptable time. And just as the Lord shall desolate the sea of Egypt, and shall bring upon the river a violent spirit, so also he shall strike the seven valleys of Egypt. And then anyone shall cross the river of Egypt wearing sandals. This signifies the poverty of the water that is left to the river water; for thus it shall be little (or even completely dried up), so that not even a drop of moisture is left, through

which one will be compelled to take off his sandals and enter the river. Or perhaps, since it was said to Moses and Joshua to loose the sandal from the foot, because the ground on which they stood was holy—not indeed that it was Egypt, but profane—they are commanded to tread the river with sandals on, and not to take off their shoes. But it is dried up, held fast by the violent Spirit of God. For this reason the soil of Egypt is unworthy to receive bare the footprint of the holy ones who pass through. Hence also those who eat the Passover were commanded to have sandals on their feet. For where there is a serpent that bites and a scorpion, let the sandals be on the feet, protecting the feet that they cover; but whenever someone has already reached the holy place, then let him take off his sandals, like the Apostles of Christ, to whom it was said not even to take up sandals. And it shall be to Israel as the day when it came out from the land of Egypt. For then it passed through the Red Sea with sandals, since the Mighty One rebuked it, and it was dried up. And they crossed the Jordan on foot, keeping their footprint dry, since all moisture fled from their step. 12. CHAPTER 12. Then therefore the people will say: I will bless you, O Lord, because you were angry with me, and you turned away your wrath and had mercy on me. A person is often forgiven and abandoned, because he was once drawn aside into Egyptian evils, and for a time enjoyed his own folly, so that he might reap what he sowed badly; who, when he is not abandoned completely, but obtains some benefit, will say: I will bless you, O Lord, because you were angry with me, and you turned away your wrath and had mercy on me.

Similar to this is the saying, "I will bear the anger of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, to justify him in my cause. And after this he will bring judgment to completion." For he will not be angry to the end, nor will he be wrathful forever. But the one who says, "I will bless you, Lord, because you were angry with me and had mercy on me," perceiving the beneficence of God, will boast in it and say, "Behold, my God, my Savior; I will trust in him, and I will not be afraid, because the Lord is my glory and my praise." Those who practice almsgiving before men will not say these things, nor those who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God, and in general those who transgress the commandment of him who says, "Let us not become vainglorious." But since the Lord promises, "Those who glorify me I will glorify," it is clear that the one who glorifies God rightly is glorified by him. Thus also the face of Moses was glorified, because he knew well how to glorify God. Praise agrees with glory, so that the one who glorifies rightly will also praise soundly. And let no one among those who hold mistaken opinions about God suppose that his praises in psalmody are acceptable to him. For it belongs to the same heart to glorify perfectly and to praise soundly. Since, then, the remnant of the people in Egypt was saying, "I will bless you, Lord, because you were angry with me and you turned away your wrath and had mercy on me," these, having crossed Egypt, will say, "I will not be afraid, because the Lord is my glory and my praise, and he has become my salvation.

Remember also the song that the people of Israel sang at the Exodus, with Miriam leading and saying, "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been glorified gloriously." So those who now say, "The Lord is my glory and my praise, and he has become my salvation," renew the ancient praise. And following the praise of the Lord, the one who rightly worships him draws water with gladness from the springs of salvation. If the people who practiced idolatry are accused (namely, "They abandoned me, the fountain of living water"), then clearly the one who believes in God and is watered in his soul from faith in him by the saving doctrines—this one draws water with gladness from the springs of the Savior. And how great the gladness is that arises in those deemed worthy to draw from there, you will understand from the image taken up by David: "My soul thirsted for God, the strong, the living." For the excess of desire produces an ineffable gladness in those who attain what they earnestly long for. And the one who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night (concerning whom it is said, "The mouth of the righteous will meditate on wisdom"), searching the Scriptures and by rightly seeking finding the Lord, because of the gladness at the finding, understanding the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures, will draw water with gladness. When, then, we ourselves are filled with the drink from the springs of salvation, then we also take in others, encouraging them and saying, "Sing to the Lord, cry out his name." And the cry is a voice possessing magnitude, able to reach even those far off. Cry out, then:

Instead of thinking small thoughts about God, but rather understanding the things concerning him with a great mind, theologize in such a way that your word may be heard even by those far from salvation, because of the clarity of the teaching. The following words make this meaning clear: "Declare among the nations his glorious deeds," it says, "speak of his wonders." Show to the foolish the order of the world, so that they may be drawn to the love of God, the Creator of all things. "Sing praise to his name, for he has done lofty things." Either recount the wonders in the world, that they are lofty and inaccessible, or the powers in the heavens, that he himself made the lofty things there; or his goodness in us, that he exalts the humbled and the broken in heart. For the Lord exalts the righteous. He has therefore made him lofty, and having been humbled by sin, he has exalted him exceedingly by his own glory. 13. CHAPTER 13 The vision against Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz saw. This vision is not perceptible, nor is it beheld through bodily eyes, but it is understood by the mind, when God enlightens it and grants it to see him. What is Babylon, and what are the things that will befall her? It is clear that the prophets did not speak in ecstasy. For those possessed by evil spirits, carried away in their mind, do not see the fantasies that arise in them from the demons, but overlook them. Just as those possessed by demons see rivers and mountains and wild beasts that are not present;

And they seem to have certain colors, and the appearances of men, either friends or strangers, are presented to their imagination, none of which is a vision, but a derangement and ecstasy of a mind that is muddied and has lost its own proper activity. In the case of the saints, however, it is not so. For God himself says: I have multiplied visions. And the Lord, when he grants a vision, does not blind the mind that he himself made, but enlightens it and makes it more translucent by the presence of the Spirit. For this reason the prophets also received oracles by seeing, because their mind's faculty of sight was, as it were, stretched out by the presence of the Spirit who enlightens them. Who then made the seeing and the blind? The seeing, clearly, is the prophet, because by the sharpness of his understanding he is able to look ahead to what is to come; and the blind (the one blinded by wickedness), so that profane eyes may not see the spectacles of the blessed. For this reason the Lord also says: I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. What then is Babylon, against which the vision has been seen? According to the historical sense, then, it seems that Babylon was called the

The place where the language of those who said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose head shall reach to heaven," was confounded. There, then, God descended and confounded the tongues; for this reason its name was called Confusion. The place of Babylon, therefore, is a region of confusion—not of language only, but also of doctrines and thoughts, and of the mind that seems to see these things. The vision, then, is against Babylon, as it were bringing consolation to Israel, which had been afflicted by the Babylonians. So that they might not lose heart, nor despair of God's providence as though it had abandoned them, Isaiah, by prophecy, anticipating the things to come, recounts that gloomy things will befall Babylon, so that they might not be swallowed up by the sorrow of present circumstances, but might become more at ease through the expectation of what was coming. For the vengeance expected shortly brings no small relief to those who are afflicted. The name of the father is added to the prophecy, not so that we might know this very man—the father who served at the birth of the blessed one—but because he also became his teacher of prophecy, having taken care that he obtain a holier and purer upbringing and education, and one more excellent than others. For this reason Amos is inscribed along with him as a sharer in the prophecy. On a level mountain lift up a sign, raise your voice to yourselves, encourage with the hand; open, you rulers. I give the command, and I lead them. He shows how Babylon is destroyed and overthrown, and how the dominion of those who work confusion becomes captive.

When someone goes up a mountain that is not steep nor rugged, but level and gently sloping, so that it has height because of its elevation and the distance from the earth up into the air, and provides safety for those standing on it because of its gentleness. For what is broken off and cut away on every side makes the footing of those who step on it slippery. So that you may both understand the lofty things concerning God and expound them safely—by reason of the height, let one be mounted on a mountain, and by reason of the safety, let him remain unshaken. On the level mountain, then, lift up a sign and exalt your voice; encourage with the hand. He who proclaims the things concerning the cross with a loud voice—he it is who lifts up the sign on the level mountain. He who is able to magnify the word concerning the Passion—this man fulfills the prophetic command, not lingering in valleys and ravines, but ascending to the height of the word, and delivering the proclamation upon wisdom itself with levelness and clarity of the things announced. But since in another edition we read, "On a cloudy mountain," he clearly sets forth the height by another expression. For cloudy is that whose summit is always covered with clouds. And such a thing is lofty and stands above all things. Exalt (he says) your voice to yourselves, that is, from yourselves receive the height of your voice; the starting points that exist within you for the glorification of God from common notions—these stir up. Do not look downward, nor gaze at earthly things. For in this way the voice of those who speak from the earth becomes lowly—of those who babble vain things.

The one who speaks from humbling grief and from forbidden fear does not lift up his voice. And the one who, in proclaiming the word, is mastered by the desires of the flesh has a voice that is lowly and unable to peer upward. How, then, is a voice lifted up? If you are magnificent in rising up against the passions, and even in the very times of temptations do not bow down to the temptations, but preserve the noble-mindedness of your soul, then you lift up your voice. And he exhorts with his hand who offers exhortation to the afflicted through good works, and fulfills almsgiving in cheerfulness. If you see someone worn down by poverty, exhort the poor man with your giving hand. For the sharing through works is able to exhort more in a soul that is weak than the encouragement through words to bear poverty nobly and without abasement. And open, he says, you rulers. Opening the hand follows exhorting with the hand, which Scripture is accustomed to take for the giving activity, when it says: When you have opened your hand, all things will be filled with goodness. Open, then, your houses, and open the treasuries of your possessions to strangers and the poor; do not hold back what you have for the consolation of those who are worn down. And do this first, you rulers, so that by the example you may lead the people also.

But it can also be understood of opening the Scriptures and showing forth the things that were closed, so that no one may become liable to the judgment of the Pharisees and Scribes, who, having the keys of the kingdom, neither enter in themselves nor permit those who are able to enter. Therefore it is spoken to the rulers, those who have the keys of knowledge. Having heard this saying, Paul said: Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians. I give command, and I lead them. It is necessary for us to do what is possible for us. But the one who leads them is the Lord, and the one who appoints each one in the body of the Church according to his own worth. Giants come to fill up my wrath, rejoicing and at the same time insolent. The word threatens the arrival of certain wicked and God-fighting men, sent for vengeance against those who have sinned. Therefore, foreseeing for those who fear him, he leads them up to the steadfast height of the mountain, and secures them by the smoothness of the summit. And he gives them the sign as a safeguard, suggesting to them that through good works they should encourage the afflicted with the hand, open the mouth for the teaching of those being instructed, so that they may escape the assault of the giants. For giants, for the most part, are ranged on the side of the worse. And perhaps the Psalm named the giants here more clearly as evil angels, saying: He sent out upon them the anger of his wrath, wrath and anger and affliction, a sending by evil angels.

For this reason such ministers have been devised for those who have done things worthy of punishment, since from great cruelty, having no sympathy for those being punished, nor being able to take up the bowels of compassion, they rejoice over men being scourged and they insult them, making their own enjoyment the pain and the anguish and the grief of those being scourged. The voice of many nations upon the mountains, like many nations, the voice of kings and nations gathered together. Perhaps the voice of the many nations upon the mountains is that of the Church. For this reason she herself was chosen as a mountain in the plain, so that she might have room for the gathering of the multitude of those ascending to the height of the knowledge of God. He saw, then, on the mountain in the plain the great multitude of those gathered from many places, and sending forth one voice of faith. And the Holy Spirit says through the Prophet: The voice of many nations upon the mountains (on which the sign was raised) like many nations. And the voice is one, and it resembles the many voices of nations. One, indeed, according to the harmony of faith, but it resembles many voices because of the division of tongues of fire by the Holy Spirit upon each of the Apostles who were to sow the Gospel among the nations in the inhabited world. The voice of kings (he says) and of nations gathered together. Perhaps we ought to understand the nations as those who have run together from everywhere to the calling; and kings as the elect in the Church, whom the Lord also named sons of the kingdom. Or perhaps it indicates the multitude of the giants, that it is the voice of many nations and the voice of kings.

For because they rejoice and exult to run to the fulfillment of the wrath of the Lord, having been appointed to the ministry, they imitate the din of many nations, and of certain kings exalted in their pride, not knowing that they are servants of punishment, tormentors of those who have sinned—not by their own authority, nor by the dignity that belongs to them do they bring these things upon those who deserve them. The Lord of Hosts has commanded a nation armed for battle to come from a land far off; from the very foundation of heaven, the Lord and his armed warriors, to destroy all the inhabited world. The Lord of Hosts has commanded a nation armed for battle. Do not fear the one who strikes, but entreat the one who commands. Let the idolaters be taught, those who say they bring sacrifices to evil demons, propitiating their own wickedness. The Lord has commanded them. Whether you serve or do not serve, he will do what has been commanded; it is not possible to overstep the boundaries. He neither subtracts from the bitterness nor adds anything of his own, but uses the measure given to him inexorably. Therefore the Lord has commanded a nation armed for battle. The evil demons have weapons, disposed in opposition to the construction of the righteous man's weapons. For the righteous man has the shield of faith, but the shield of the evil one is the shield of unbelief; the one has the sword of the word, the other the sword of unreason; the one is secured with the breastplate of righteousness, the other is clothed with the breastplate of unrighteousness; the helmet of salvation binds tightly around the head of the one, while the helmet of destruction is placed around the other; the one has his feet ready for the Gospel of peace, while the feet of the other run to the proclamation of evils.

To this warrior nation, armed with these weapons, the Lord has given command. And these are also from a land far off, so that you may know that they are strangers to this life. For those who labor with us for salvation, fellow dwellers and neighbors, providing help from near at hand, are peaceful Angels. But those taken up for punishment are led from far off, the loving-kind God having used their cruelty for our healing, just as the wise physician has used the viper's venom for the healing of the sick. To such as these is handed over not the spirit, but the flesh for destruction, so that the spirit may be saved. But Hymenaeus and Hermogenes were handed over by Paul to Satan, not for destruction, but so that they might be disciplined not to blaspheme. How then does this warrior nation come from a land far off and from the end of heaven? From the land, because it chose the region around the earth and is mingled with earthly passions; from the end of heaven, because from there its fall from the beginning came about. Wail, for the day of the Lord is near, and tribulation from the Lord will come; therefore every hand will grow weak and every soul of man will be afraid. Since a threat is set before them, that the Lord Himself will come with His warriors to destroy the whole inhabited world, therefore wailing and lamentation have been commanded, so that by these the Lord may be moved to turn away the wrath that is being brought on. For the loving-kind Lord does both: He threatens fearful things, and upon those who repent He does not bring the things threatened. Weep and lament, each one, for your own sins, lest you suffer the things that have been proclaimed.

If God did not will the repentance of the sinner, why was the destruction after three days proclaimed in Nineveh? But since the merciful one saw their contrition, he set aside his anger and scattered it like a cloud. Therefore from the Lord himself will come the crushing, as he usefully crushes the things worthy of destruction, as he crushes Satan under the feet of the righteous, and crushes wars. For the Lord is the one who crushes wars; the Lord is his name; and the Lord crushes the cedars of Lebanon, those who boast greatly and vaunt themselves and are exalted against the truth, whom he calls the cedars of Lebanon. Since, then, crushing comes from the Lord, we must first crush our own proud heart, so that its humility may become a sacrifice to God. Every hand, then, both the most practical and the most active, in relation to God and his works, will be weakened; therefore he says: Be strong, hands that are slackened and knees that are paralyzed. Let no one trust in strength to ward off those who come against him

...armed warriors. Let no one place hope in swiftness of feet, as though able to escape the day of crushing, in which they come to destroy the whole inhabited world. For every soul of man will be afraid. Rightly is "of man" added; for neither is the soul of angels subject to fear (because it is superior to this passion), nor that of irrational beasts. For fear does not touch irrational beasts, since it is a passion of the rational faculty and a deficiency of the doctrines of courage. For irrational beasts are subject to being startled; but rational beings, whenever they are terrified by things not worthy of fear, because the reason in them fails (the reason that produces in the soul a well-strung tension against terrible things), are caught by the passion of fear. And great is the time since the day of the Lord is said to be drawing near, with all the Prophets testifying to its nearness, so that no one, having fallen back as though it were delayed, might be caught unprepared. Zephaniah also testifies to these things, saying, Be reverent before the face of the fear of the Lord, because the day of the Lord is near. And shortly after: Near is the great day of the Lord; near and very swift. The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter and harsh; that day is a day of affliction and distress, a day of untimely ruin and destruction, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and mist, a day of trumpet and cry. And even if the common day of the consummation of the whole world is far off, yet the individual day of each one's departure (which is the consummation of each individual man) is near at hand; keeping this before our eyes, we must observe what is said by Isaiah: Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; and obey the one who says:

Blessed are those who mourn, and blessed are those who weep. Many, being vexed by the circumstances of life, hasten their own departure and call upon death; to whom the saying of Amos is well applied: Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord; and this is darkness, and not light. As when a man flees from the face of the lion, and the bear meets him; and he leaps into the house and rests his hands upon the wall, and the serpent bites him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light, and gloom having no brightness? If, then, anyone has not built upon the building of his own life wood, or hay, or stubble, let him desire the day of the Lord, in which the fire will test each one's work, what sort it is. But if no one is pure from forbidden works, let him fear that day. For if anyone's work remains, which he built upon, he will receive a reward; if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. The ambassadors will be troubled, and pains will seize them, as of a woman giving birth. And they will rush one against another, and they will be astonished; and they will change their face like a flame. Who are the ambassadors who are troubled, whenever the day of the Lord comes upon them? Or is it clearly those whom the Lord intimates through parables, which he spoke when he drew near to Jerusalem, to those who supposed that the kingdom of the Lord was about to appear. For a certain nobleman, he says, went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.

Then, having spoken about the ten minas which he gave to the ten servants to trade with, he added: But his citizens hated him, and sent envoys after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. Now a noble man is one who has kinship of race with no other than the God over all. For just as we call those of royal blood noble, so truly noble is he who has his existence from the substance of the Father. And the man according to the Savior would be called noble. For the Lord is understood as noble not only according to his divinity, possessing in himself what is pure and unmixed and unalloyed in nature, but also altogether according to his humanity, being of the race from the seed of David according to the flesh. He journeys, then, into a far country, not so much distant in place as in the condition of affairs. For the same God is both near to each of us, when good deeds procure for us intimacy with him, and becomes far off, when we remove ourselves far from him by drawing near to destruction. This noble man, seeing the world ruled by sin and subjected to the bitter tyranny of the enemy, taking pity on their anarchy, deigned to reign over them. For he must reign until he puts his enemies under his feet. Since, then, he came to this region around the earth (the country that was far from God) in order to receive the kingdom over the nations, according to what is said in the psalm:

Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance—those who are appointed under the ruler of this age (not only men, but also the powers that are arrayed under him) did not accept his kingdom; but (when he gave them the commandments and their work, and commanded that these should not lie idle upon them, but sought out their work) they sent envoys after him, denying his kingdom. Who then are the envoys, but those who brought about the death of the Savior? Those who thought that by the cross they could cut off his kingdom over the world, those who said to Pilate: Do not write that he is "the king of the Jews," but that he himself said, "I am king of the Jews." But nevertheless the wickedness of those who hindered condemned them, yet did not obstruct the dispensation. For having taken hold of the kingdom and distributed to the servants according to the worth of each one's work, he commanded them to be summoned, so that he might know what they had gained by trading. And to the first, who had gained ten minas besides, he gave authority over ten cities; and to the second, who had acquired five minas, he says: Be over five cities. But the one who had returned it unproductive in a napkin, he ordered to be taken away. And when he had arranged matters concerning the Jews (For it is time, he says, for judgment to begin from the house of God), then also the enemies, those who had denied his kingdom, he commanded to be brought into the midst and slain. Many, then, are those who in this life do not wish Christ to reign over them.

For those who are ordered under fornication, and those dominated by anger, and those enslaved by greed, do not wish the Lord to reign over them, and as far as lies in their own choice, they reject his kingdom. Concerning these Isaiah says, that They shall be troubled. For when those who lived in sins and despised the gospel manner of the kingdom see the Lord at his second coming, they shall surely be troubled, and pangs shall seize them as of a woman giving birth. The sharpness of the pain, piercing their heart and wounding them deeply through the conscience of their sins, he set forth by means of the birth-pang. For a birth-pang is a certain keen pain, arising in the most vital parts of women giving birth at the time of delivery. And they shall change their face as a flame. It is characteristic of those who are thrown into confusion and fall into unexpected calamity to change the color of their face, becoming red in countenance and signifying the passion of the soul through the change that appears on the surface. For behold, the day of the Lord comes, incurable, of wrath and anger, to make the inhabited world desolate and to destroy the sinners from it. Above he said, The day of the Lord is near; but here, The day of the Lord comes, to make the inhabited world desolate. One who carefully observes what has been set forth will find that both passages of the prophecy do not speak about the same day; for the former concerns each person's own consummation, which is near at hand; but the one in hand concerns the universal one.

For she will make the inhabited world desolate, because of what is brought in: "And the stars of heaven and Orion shall give no light." Perhaps that day is properly called day because of the unity of its condition; for it is not interrupted by night, nor does evening mark its bounds. And because the hidden things of darkness are made manifest in it, that day is properly called by that name. But this life is night, in which the works of shame are covered over, whence also "The night," he says, "has advanced, and the day has drawn near." And that day is also called incurable, being a day of wrath and anger, in which there is no propitiation, nor any healing, so to speak, of the pains brought upon it. Let us not, then, store up our confessions for that day, but let us understand the economy of Scripture, which wishes to beget the fear of God and to train those who encounter it to work while it is day: "Night comes, when no one can work any longer." He who walks in the light of the commandments of Christ is in the day; he who is handed over to eternal darkness will be in the night. In that night there is no longer work, no longer confession; but the hands and feet are bound with the bonds of one's own sins: "For having bound him hand and foot, cast him into the outer darkness." And the tongue will no longer speak confession, nor praise of God, being occupied with the groaning that arises in it from its pains. For this reason that day comes incurable.

For the stars of heaven and Orion and the whole array of heaven shall not give their light, and the sun shall be darkened as it rises, and the moon shall not give her light. And I will command evils upon the whole inhabited world, and upon the impious their sins. The Prophet plainly describes the consummation and the transformation of the whole. For then the light of the sun shall fail, and the moon shall be a body without brightness, and Orion, the brightest of the stars, shall not give his light: "The stars of heaven and Orion shall not give their light," not being darkened by being illuminated by the risings of the sun. For this also happens on the present day, and it is agreed by all who have examined the phenomena in the heavens that the stars are not extinguished when they are situated in the hemisphere above the earth, but are obscured by being outshone by the sun's rays. This also happens on nights of full moon, when the brightness of the moon shines around the stars and does not allow their beams to show through. The word therefore presents none of these things that happen by nature, but a complete darkening of the stars and a reordering of the whole. It is clear that the Scripture calls Orion the cluster of twenty-two stars, which some name Boötes; those skilled in these matters divide them up and say that four of them are of the third magnitude, nine of them of the fourth, and the other nine of the fifth. This gathering of stars lies in the northern part, which the Scripture has also named Orion, as one body.

These are called "stars" (not "a star"), since "stars" indicates the multitude as a collective, while "a star" is said of each one individually. Scripture also mentions Arcturus, which we see situated among the parts of Orion, a star, reddish. In like manner, the Pleiad is also named by Scripture, as also by those outside, namely by the Hebrews who diligently investigated the hidden things. And there appear in the Pleiad seven stars, close together and densely packed toward one another (not six, as some think); and they lie in a triangular shape. As, then, we found here the name of Orion, so too the name of Arcturus and of Hesperus and of the Pleiad in Job, who says: Who makes the Pleiad and Hesperus and Arcturus and the treasuries of the South. He, therefore, who numbers the multitudes of stars and calls names to them all, has both the number of all of them and their appellations. But few are those that have been uttered, which the Greeks, using them, also wove the rest from themselves, and they address both the fixed stars and the planets by countless names. And some they divide into twelve parts, others according to the zodiacal circle, through which the

he sun makes its course, while those that have wandered to the northern and southern regions they named as they wished. And I will destroy, he says, the insolence of the lawless, and the insolence of the proud I will humble. It is the work of a good God to make evil things disappear, so that he may restore his own creation pure from every wickedness and, once it has been delivered from every infirmity, bring it back to its natural state. For elsewhere it is said: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the prudent, and that the wisdom of the world, deceiving those who receive it and being thought to be true, produces ignorance of the doctrines that lead to salvation. So wisdom is made to vanish when it is overturned by the truth, its sophistries and plausibilities being dissolved, so that the one who has been taken in by it may be rescued from deceit and false opinion. Therefore, just as disease is destroyed by a physician and darkness is destroyed by the sun, so the insolence of the lawless is destroyed by the good God, and the insolence of the proud is humbled. For this reason Jacob too, when blessing his sons Simeon and Levi, says: Cursed be their anger, because it is headstrong, and their wrath, because it was hardened. He consumes the evil disposition of the curse, so that what remains in them may become worthy of the patriarch's blessing. And in this way Noah also, when he knew what his younger son had done to him, said: Cursed be Canaan. And yet it was Ham who had grieved him; nevertheless he does not curse him, but his offspring and his deed, which is symbolically named Canaan, because Canaan is interpreted as a tossing.

Because, then, the disposition (hexis) coming to be in motion accomplishes the passion, he does not curse the disposition but the deed that comes from it. For it is difficult for what is pure in the heart to be preserved in human nature. And it is clear that, in destroying the insolence of the proud, he does not consume only one of the evils, but from one sin, by way of ordering, it is fitting to hear it extended to all the forms of wickedness of insolence. For the lawless are insolent against the temple, they are insolent against the neighbor, they are insolent against what is according to the image of the Creator, and through the image the insolence ascends to the Creator. For just as one who insults a royal image is judged as having sinned against the king himself, so clearly he is liable to sin who insults the one who has come to be according to the image. And the fornicator insults himself before all, through corruption; the adulterer, through the deed of shame; the thief, through the base and shameful and illiberal act; the liar, through the denial of the truth; the perjurer, through alienation from God. So that every sin is insolence and is a sprout of insolence, touching first the insulter himself. And he will humble the insolence of the proud, because pride also is a sister of lawlessness. For the unjust man will be proud against righteousness and will exalt himself over it; and the licentious man speaks against chastity, when he spits upon the one who has been strictly observed in all things and who disciplines even the movement up to the eyes. The prodigal mocks the one who is moderate in his manner of life, the foolish man mocks those who are abundant in wisdom and who laboriously gather learning for themselves from every side.

The Lord, therefore, who opposes the proud and humbles sinners to the earth, promises that he will bring low the insolence of the proud. He who humbles the proud rescues them from likeness to the devil, who is the father of pride, and leads them to become disciples of him who said: Learn from me, that I am gentle and humble in heart. And those who have been left behind shall be honorable rather than unrefined gold; and an honorable man shall be more honorable than the stone from Souphir. After the great temptations have been brought on and the warriors have come who wipe out the inhabited world, and after all pride has been humbled, then the men who are found—out of many, having suffered no harm in their soul from fellowship with the lawless, but having been tested through countless temptations and trials, having given a precise proof of their own disposition—shall be more precious than all unrefined gold and than every most precious stone, which is thought to be found in Souphir. It seems that he is speaking of a certain region in the Indian nation, Souphir, around which the highly valued stones naturally occur. Unrefined gold is that which has no ambiguity of foreign matter in itself, but as soon as it appears persuades the sight of those who see it that it is genuine and unmixed with bronze or any other admixture. For heaven will be enraged and the earth will be shaken from its foundations, because of the fury of the anger of the Lord Sabaoth, on the day when his fury comes upon it. All creation is stirred together with the Master for the vengeance of those who have sinned against him.

For just as heaven is thrown into disorder and shudders at the unexpected lawlessness of the people, when they forsake the Lord, so, when the sins of those who have fallen away are fulfilled and the time of recompense comes, he is said to be angry and to rise up together with the wrath of God. By the anger of heaven one must understand the fearful things that fall from it upon those being punished, when there is a darkening of the stars, and the sun is lightless and the moon no longer illuminated; when lightning bolts run across and thunders break forth fearfully; when the air above our heads is darkened, so that from every side the torment is beyond consolation for those handed over to wrath. For creation, serving its Maker, is strained for punishment against the unjust, but is relaxed for beneficence on behalf of those who have trusted in him. And these things come about through the fury of the Lord's anger. Scripture is accustomed to call the fury of anger the exhalation and, as it were, the kindling of the punishment that comes upon the recompense of evil deeds. And the earth shall be shaken from its foundations. He shows that the shaking will not be superficial nor ordinary, occurring only at the surface of the agitation, but it overturns its very seat, and its convulsion will touch it through and through. The foundations of the earth are unknown to human nature, as we have learned in Job, when the Lord says: Where were you when I founded the earth? Declare to me, if you understand discernment. Who set its measures, if you know? Or who stretched a line upon it? Upon what are its clasps fixed? And who is it that laid its cornerstone?

Perhaps, according to the opinion of those outside, the Lord founded the earth at the center of the sphere that encompasses the world, so that by its equilibrium, being equally distant on all sides from heaven, it stands securely and is established without inclination. But if the earth has been so firmly fixed, it is clear that when it is moved from its foundations, it will be displaced from the base that it has. And since being angry is proper to rational and living beings, some have already imagined that heaven too is living and possesses reason, so as to be able to rise up together with the Master in indignation. But such a thing is a mythical fiction. For often Scripture, by metonymy, calls the heavenly creatures "heaven," as is our custom also to say: "The whole city has gone out," and "The city asked the ruler for such-and-such"; for instead of the inhabitants we speak of the city. So then heaven also is angry, when the heavenly powers concur with the just wrath of God. For just as there is joy in the heavens over one sinner who repents, so also there is provocation and grief over those who apostatize through the sin of the Creator. And those who are left shall be as a gazelle fleeing and as a sheep wandering, and there shall be no one to gather them, so that a man may turn back to his people and a man may pursue to his country. For whoever is caught shall be defeated; and those who are gathered together shall fall by the sword. And they shall dash their children before them, and plunder their houses and take their wives. In the assault of the enemies, those who come to hand,

They fell in that very battle line; but those who escaped are fleeing like a gazelle. The creature is easily startled and timid, and by the swiftness of its feet it flees far and does not stand still. They shall be, then, like a gazelle and like a wandering sheep. For the sheep has no understanding of its own to rush to the nourishing pastures, or to lodge in safer places, or to seek out drink for itself, unless there is someone to shepherd it and lead it to these things. Those at that time, then, shall be like gazelles in escaping, but helpless like wandering sheep, because they have no ruler. And there shall be no one to gather them, but the timid shall be scattered by their pursuers, and those left behind shall be defeated by the enemy; and even if they are able to stand together and make some fellowship of help, yet they shall fall by the sword. Then he speaks of the pitiable sufferings of those being enslaved. They shall dash their children in the sight of their parents, and plunder their houses, and carry off their wives for outrage. Behold, I will rouse up the Medes against you, who do not reckon silver, nor have need of gold. They shall shatter the arrows of young men, and they shall not pity your children; nor shall their eyes spare your children. [Many years later, as history has handed down, the Medes attacked the empire of the Assyrians and destroyed Babylon. The prophecy of Isaiah is, then, many generations before the captivity of Israel; but again, after Israel, many years later the Medes appear, marching against the Assyrians.]

The consolation, then, of those being taken captive is the expectation of vengeance, which will soon overtake the people that maltreated Israel. I will rouse against you, he says, the Medes, who will be persuaded neither by silver nor by gold. Nor will you, the Babylonians, be able to buy off from them by the abundance of your wealth the suffering of nothing. For they are not excited about money, since they themselves are exceedingly rich. Therefore they are not distracted in wars by the despoiling of the dead, nor are they busy about the spoil, and they consider it base to take from the captives. But they will shatter the archery of your young men, and they will show no pity nor spare the infants. The name of the Medes, when translated, means "from what is sufficient." Therefore the Sufficient in all things and mighty to bring on things according to worth—this one stirs up the Medes. Or perhaps, since Madai is the founder of Media, and this name is interpreted as "measurement," the Medes might be said to be brought on to punish in due measure those who have lived badly, because with whatever measure each of us has measured, whether in doing right or in sinning, in this he will receive either the things of recompense or the things of punishment. Such are the Medes: they will not have mercy on the children of the Babylonians, nor will they consent to preserve them alive. Perhaps the Scripture now calls "children" the fruits and offspring of the soul of the Babylonians. Such, I think, are also the children of the one called blessed in the Psalm, in which the woman is wisdom, whom the Lord sought out and led as a bride and made his housemate, having become a lover of her beauty.

The sons, however, are the offspring of the mind and of wisdom coming together at once. It is about these children, I think, that it was said in the 136th Psalm: “Daughter of Babylon, the wretched one; blessed is he who will repay you your repayment, which you repaid to us. Blessed is he who will seize and dash your infants against the rock.” For it foresees that day of repayment, on which the Medes, having gained control of the Babylonians, will show no mercy, nor will their eyes spare their children. Consider that the Psalm pronounces blessed, not the one who has destroyed a Babylonian child in any chance way, but that first it wants their infants, newly born, to be destroyed, not permitted to come to growth, so that evil may not advance further; and second, that they be destroyed not in just any manner. For it blesses the one who has seized and prevailed by his own wisdom over the child-bearing of the confused mind, which is called Babylonian, and then dashes them against the rock. And the rock in this too is Christ; for the one who strikes the base doctrines with the word of truth, this is the one who dashes the Babylonian infants against the rock. If, then, the children of Babylon are the doctrines of the heterodox (which confuse the soul of the one who receives them), rightly would the Babylonian child, once seized, be dashed against the rock. And Babylon, which is called glorious by the king of the Chaldeans, will be as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; it will not be inhabited for ever, nor will they enter into it for many generations, nor will Arabians pass through it, nor will shepherds rest in it.

And there wild beasts shall rest, and the houses shall be filled with noise. And there sirens shall rest, and demons shall dance there; and onocentours shall dwell there, and hedgehogs shall make their nests in their houses. It comes quickly and shall not delay, and her days shall not be drawn out. After these things he recounts the humiliation of Babylon. And since the reminder of her former glory makes the effect more forceful, he shows from what condition to what change she came. And Babylon (he says) shall be, she who is called glorious. As though this had become her own surname, and all named her with the addition: Babylon the glorious. And the king of the Chaldeans made her renowned, by having overthrown many and transferred to her the strength of the captives, and by having thrown great walls around her, and equipped a great military force, and exalted her with splendid buildings. This city, then, shall be overthrown in the manner in which God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and shall not be inhabited for a time everlasting. Perhaps he limits her overthrow and desolation to a certain time, which is why he did not say absolutely “and she shall be overthrown forever,” but added: for a time everlasting. And the things that follow also make clear that he does not foretell her desolation as complete: For they shall not enter into her through many generations, as though the desolation would come to pass through many generations, and after these things she would again be inhabited. Nor shall Arabs pass through her, nor shall shepherds rest in her.

The word depicts a gloomy desolation, such that it will be so deserted that not even a shelter will be found in it for shepherds, nor for Arabians, those who dwell in the desert. These, plundering and robbing everything, search out cities and villages; yet they do not enter, because of its hopelessness, since neither are there inhabitants, nor is anything for living found there. But it shall be (he says) a dwelling-place of wild beasts, and the houses shall be filled with noise. The noise signifies the excess of the desolation; for noise is a sound reflected back, returning again from hard and resisting surfaces to the one who emitted it. And this in the wilderness returns with a good sound; but in inhabited cities or villages, being broken up both by the air being cut through by objects carried about and by the voice falling in from the side, it is not permitted to be completed. There, then, the houses shall be filled with noise. Noise is a symbol of desolation. And there sirens shall rest, and demons shall dance there; and onocentours shall dwell there, and hedgehogs shall make their nests in their houses. The outside account has handed down that sirens are certain women who sing; but here it seems to be a name of demons; therefore Aquila called the sirens ostriches. And the creature is a lover of the wilderness and, for the most part, lurks in the most barren sands. The word therefore delivers the excess of the desert through the dwelling of ostriches. But the onocentours, which the Seventy called, Aquila named hairy ones. It seems to represent a certain kind of demons, of a swinish and darkened appearance, whose work is

the instability and the fact that they never stand firm on their feet, nor use their mind. And onocentours shall dwell there. And this too the Scripture seems to present as another kind of demons, which the rest, translating the Hebrew speech itself, called Sein. And there, he says, the hedgehogs shall make their homes for it. The passage describes all creatures that love the desert, as those that will become at home in Babylon after its desolation. It comes quickly and will not delay, and her days shall not be prolonged. He says that the overthrow of Babylon is hastened, and that there is no postponement of the threats. But since Babylon has been threatened to be overthrown like Sodom, we must know that there are many interpretations of the name Sodom. For the same name is interpreted both as blindness and as barrenness, and as standing silence and as likeness, and as calling and as their foundation. And Gomorrah is rendered as measure and as standing. But I do not think that anyone who wishes to interpret needs all of these, namely how Babylon will be overthrown like Sodom. For God seems, in benefiting those who are overthrown, to overthrow them as a physician does blindness; and the overthrow of blindness is the beginning of sight. And he overthrows barrenness, so that, having driven out childlessness, he may grant them the offspring of works of righteousness. And he overthrows the standing silence, so that he may implant speech in hearts for the glorifying of God. And so, overthrowing Gomorrah also (since Gomorrah is interpreted as both measure and standing), he demolishes the standing and the confusion in it, so that those who are in faction, and are in the state opposite to peace, may be improved.

But everyone who accepts the things of generation and champions necessity and fate and destiny, and—as far as lies in his power—through the constitution of these things separates men from faith in God and from piety, this man calls the affairs of the Babylonians glorious. For astrology is the invention of the Chaldeans, who say that existing things depend on themselves and not on God; and, subjecting affairs to the motion of the stars, they cast out the providence that orders the affairs of men, so that neither prayer nor piety can do anything, but even if these things seem to happen, by the account of fate they too are subject. And he calls something glorious Babylon, and worldly wealth and reputations and noble births according to the flesh and whatever is similar to these, glorifying them. For all these things are confounding to the mind and worthy to be homonymous with Babylon. This the Lord overthrows, and it becomes a dwelling-place of savage demons, whether you wish to take it as the city or as a confounded soul. For it is necessary that what has been made desolate from the dwelling of God become a dwelling-place of evil spirits. There, then, a shepherd does not lodge. For it is not the part of a good shepherd to encamp in the flock entrusted to him when it has been overthrown. But sirens (he says) and demons and onocentours and hedgehogs. When, therefore, you see a confounded soul, know that it has been filled with noise, because no word in it is made clear or articulated, but a confused din, raised up by the passions, occupies the governing principle of that soul.

Certain evil powers, then, seem through the invocation of the voice to produce pleasure in souls, and by the things they sing to destruction they hunt those who pass by. Whether the pleasure comes through the voice, or whether incitements and provocations to sin come about through those demons in some other way, is unclear; except that those enchanted by luxury forget the return to the true fatherland. But if you see someone whose ear is being tickled, who turns it away from the truth and diverts it to myths, who does not endure a vigorous word, nor reproof, nor a stern rebuke (one that leads the hearer to conversion), but is a friend of the word that speaks for favor and pleasure, consider such a person to be held by sirens, deceived by fair speaking and smooth words. And the demons, who work various sins in us, are said to dance, because dancing is a movement of limbs of every kind. And just as dancers, wearing now one mask and now another, occupy the stage, so the demons, using us as masks, sometimes dance the angry man, sometimes the man of desire, frantic for the enjoyment of the flesh, and at other times the liar; and so we become receivers of the various workings of demons, shifting both our own heart and the members of our body according to their will.

When, then, you see someone now possessed by unrestrained laughter, now brought low by grief, torn apart in lamentations and weeping and wailing, consider that someone is dancing in him, taking on now one shape and now another; and now the drama of love of money enters, now that of vainglory, at another time that of pride. In short, he leaps wildly over the race of humans, joining in the dance and dancing upon souls that are pliant and easily changed toward sin. The name of the onocentaurs indicates a certain composite and strange constitution of an animal, except that it too is a form of a demon, now making us look toward human things, now dragging us down toward bestial passions. The hedgehog is an animal clothed with spines instead of hair, hard to catch and crafty. All these things will quickly come upon the confused soul, and there will be no extension of the days. 14. CHAPTER 14: And the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will choose Israel. I think there is reason that "will have mercy" is assigned to Jacob, which was the name he bore until the wrestling of Jacob, and "will choose" to Israel, which was given to the patriarch as a prize for the wrestling. The one who receives mercy indicates the more lowly, while the one who is chosen indicates the more excellent. Therefore, "The Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will choose Israel" is similar to this: "Jacob my servant, I will help him; Israel my chosen, my soul has accepted him." For Jacob is taken of the people still under elementary instruction and bodily, while Israel is taken of the better and spiritual.

In general, Jacob and Israel will rest upon their own land, that land concerning which it is said: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land—a land that is not a part of this land, which has come under a curse, which the one who works it eats in sorrows all the days of his life. And the geōras will be added to Jacob and to Israel, who rests upon his own land. The one who labors around the land, the proselyte, this is the geōras. Perhaps this is the people from the nations, the one being added to Jacob, whom Scripture calls a geōras, as being a sojourner and a proselyte. And it is a benefaction for those who are inferior and do not know how to rule themselves, to be slaves to those who rule according to knowledge. Therefore it was said in blessings to Esau: And you shall serve your brother. This, then, is that And they shall be multiplied upon the land of God as male and female slaves. Instead of a benefaction, slavery is set before them. And the captives shall be those who took them captive. The one side led them into captivity tyrannically, subjecting those held captive to the slavery of the devil; the other side leads them back in captivity in a humane way, bringing them from the tyranny of the devil to the slavery of Christ. And there is a promise to Israel of release from the harsh slavery with which they served the Babylonians, and an exhortation to compassion, so as to take up a lamentation over the king of Babylon, and not to rejoice over his fall, but to lament him, as

...having suffered things worthy of pity and mercy. Just as a garment soaked in blood is not clean, so neither shall you be clean. Because you destroyed my land and killed my people, you shall not endure forever. There remain also portions of lamentation against the ruler of Babylon and his affairs. For since the one who fell from heaven, the Morning Star, said in his heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will be like the Most High—in order that it might be shown how far he is from likeness to the Holy One, he who is defiled in all uncleanness and bloodshed is compared to a garment; to the extent that, by its own nature, it was made for the adornment of a man, but because it has been soaked in blood, it can no longer be accepted for human use. From this it is clear that the evil one does not have uncleanness in his constitution, but because he was soaked in blood, having destroyed the land of the Lord and killed his people through sin. Already elsewhere we have learned that human nature is likened to a garment by the Prophet himself, when he says to those grown old through wickedness: Behold, all of you shall grow old like a garment, and a moth shall devour you. But dreadful is the threat—that he shall not even afterward be clean. For one who has been soaked in some sin loses his present purity, but he is not deprived of the purification hoped for in the future through repentance. Here, however, the sentence is absolute—that he shall not even afterward be clean, because he has been soaked in the blood of the people of God, whom he put to death through disobedience, dragging him down into wickedness.

Perhaps even before man was created, some place of repentance was left even for the devil, and his blindness (even if it was an older malady) could nonetheless have been healed, if he had cured himself through repentance, and have restored him to his original state. But from the time when the world's construction and the planting of paradise and man in it and God's commandment and the devil's envy and the murder of the honored one came to be, the place of repentance was closed to him as well. For if Esau found no place of repentance, having sold his birthright, what place of repentance is left for the one who killed the first-formed man and through him brought death in? They say also that the stain that comes upon a garment from human gore can in no way be washed out, but the alteration once produced in it from the dyeing in blood grows old with it; so neither is it possible for that one, having put off the stain from blood, to become clean. Observe the wording, vividly presenting the filth from murder. For he did not say "dyed in blood" but "steeped," so as to indicate that he was wallowing in the slaughter of those being killed. This one destroyed the land of God and killed his people. Now Nebuchadnezzar laid waste the land, cutting off its fruit-bearing plants, delivering villages over to destruction by burning; he also took the people of Israel, some he killed with the sword, and some he led away captive to Babylon. But already the one mystically named the king of Babylon is the ruler of this world. For one might fittingly call the confusion of this world Babylon as well.

For he made the people of God captive, having removed them from life to death; and he laid waste the land, having corrupted each one's flesh through sin, as it is written, that "All flesh corrupted its way." Evil seed, prepare your children to be slaughtered by the sins of your father, so that they may not rise up and fill the land with cities. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Hosts, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed. Not only will he himself not be clean, but the succession of the evil one will also be utterly destroyed with him, through the goodness of the man-loving God, who permits the destruction of the children—not so much of fleshly childbearing as of the works carried out from an evil disposition. Evil seed. Since there was no father of evil, but it received its origin from another who first began evil, and it has acted according to the wickedness of the one who sowed it, it is called an evil seed. Prepare your children to be slaughtered by the sins of your father. And sometimes someone is called an evil seed, not altogether having come into being from a preceding sowing, but that which itself first begins into another's generation is also called a seed. For just as in the creation of the world, the things that first sprouted were seeds of others, but were not themselves from others (for they were older than those brought to completion by seed), so perhaps now too the word calls "evil seed" the one who first begins as an example of wickedness for others and, as it were, becomes a seed through imitation—not as having its existence from predecessors, but as providing the beginning for those who come after.

But a person can be an evil seed of himself, being the originator of wickedness; and again, one who has been taught by evil teachers is addressed in the same way. That sinner heard "Seed of Canaan, and not of Judah"—not because he had a spurious and mixed fleshly lineage from Canaan, but because of his imitation of Canaan he is called a seed of Canaan. Each person, then, can by his own free choice be either a holy seed or the opposite. For hear Paul saying: "For in Christ Jesus through the Gospel I begot you." And: "As many as received him, he gave them authority to become children of God." And: "Everyone who commits sin has been begotten of the devil." But with what intent does the word command the evil seed to prepare its children for slaughter by the sins of the father? We have observed in many places that each person's works and the fruits of the soul are called children. For she will be saved (it says) through childbearing, if they remain in faith and love and holiness with modesty. For the soul is saved, as the wife of the bridegroom who was not deceived, when through the word she makes herself bear fruit in children—that is, good deeds—if she perseveres in the good disposition and is not darkened by any sins that arise afterward. So we too (hearing according to the spiritual and divine law of the blessing that says, "Blessed are the offspring of your womb") consider these to be nothing other than the fruits of the soul. For from your fear, Lord, we conceived in the womb and were in labor and gave birth to a spirit of salvation, which we wrought upon the earth.

The destruction of evil works, then, is called the slaughter of children, taking place for the benefit of the father who begot them. So the figurative treatment in this passage has a hidden love for humanity, commanding the evil seed (as far as possible) to be lightened of the burden of its own vices. For those who have been formed according to the evil one and have become sons of wickedness ought to slaughter all the offspring of their own soul by their sins. For if we do not die to sin, how shall we live to righteousness? "So that," he says, "they may not rise up and fill the earth with cities." For the uprising of evil is evil; therefore it must remain dead, and not be allowed to become a body and a multitude. For this is the city. For it is fitting for the Lord of Hosts to destroy the name of evil, and the remnant, and the seed. Blessed is the condition of a soul and of human society in which the name of evil does not hold sway, according to the Apostle, who said: "But fornication and impurity or licentiousness—let them not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints." And secondly, that there be not even a remnant. For many who have turned from evil works, as it were retaining the memorials of their former deeds, are often through them renewed to the sin that was at rest. So that there may not even be a remnant—that is, that there may not exist a final seed of evil teaching left behind for those who come after through the imitation of those who went before—"Thus says the Lord: And I will make Babylonia desolate, so that hedgehogs dwell there, and it shall be for nothing; and I will make it a pit of mud for destruction." The Lord, who loves humanity, will make Babylonia desolate

He threatens. The desolation of an evil dwelling and the obliteration of a disordered life is a good greatly sought after by those who perceive it. He threatens the desolation of Babylonia to such an extent that no Babylonian man dwells there any longer, but hedgehogs are brought in instead. This creature is fenced about with hard and very sharp spines, and it draws in its head and feet whenever it wishes, forming itself into the exact shape of a sphere, so as to be hard to grasp, with its head and feet coiled together and its surface bristling with spines on every side. For this is the only creature that defends itself against attackers while at rest. For whoever lays hands on it is terribly scratched, and the more he wishes to squeeze it tight, the more grievously is he pierced by its spines. Perhaps, then, it hints at the characters of men who have settled in the city in place of the Babylonians—unsociable, repulsive, rejoicing in a harsher manner of life. For that the species of animals are transferred to the characters of men, we were taught from the vision of Peter, when in the vessel let down from the heavens there was every kind of animal, reptiles and birds and four-footed beasts. For the word hinted at those who were to be brought to the faith from various sins, that these are the ones made like either four-footed beasts because of their brutishness, or reptiles because of their venomousness, or birds because of their lightness and instability. So the hedgehog too is perhaps allegorized in Scripture with reference to certain men, as serpents are with reference to the Sadducees and Pharisees, and the fox with reference to Herod, and lustful horses with reference to the pleasure-loving.

The sheep are for the more innocent of men; the goats for the unsociable and ungenerous. So that it is reasonable to compare even hedgehogs (a creature having the hope of not being harmed in its own thorns) to the rich of this age, whom the Lord has said are choked by their own thorns and make the word unfruitful. And Babylon shall become as nothing, and as a pit of mire. With respect to the sensible, the word shows that the river Euphrates (cutting through its midst), not obtaining an outlet along its channels, flooding it, will utterly destroy it and show it to be a pit, not of clear water, but of mire. For such is the end of the destruction of those who provoked the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: As I have spoken, so it shall be; and as I have counseled, so it shall remain: to destroy the Assyrians upon my land, and upon my mountains. And they shall be for a trampling underfoot, and their yoke shall be taken away from them, and their glory from their shoulders. The Israel according to the flesh supposes that the prophet's word concerns the land that they think belongs to God, and these earthly mountains in sensible Judea, and that Assyria leads Israel captive, imposing on them a yoke of slavery. But we, who have been raised together with Christ and pray to seek the things above, call the good heart a land, according to what we have been taught by the Lord himself, who says:

But the one sown on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, and bears fruit and produces, one a hundredfold, one sixty, one thirty. Therefore a mountain of God can also be called that on which the Assyrians will be trampled down—the one who has grown in good works and stands out above others in word and knowledge; in him the enemies will be trampled down. And every yoke of the Assyrians will be taken away by God. For they were greatly proud, as though treading upon the shoulders of men who belong to God's portion and bringing under their own yoke those who through sins had been torn away from the servitude of God. Having, then, the hope according to what has been said—that our enemies will perish in the land of God and be trampled down on his mountains, and that their yoke and the glory in which they exulted (as though ruling over us and trampling upon us) will be shattered—let us do all things, so that we may shake off their dominion completely. For if we become mountains of God, his foundations will be in us, when the word of truth has been laid down in our hearts and good works are built upon faith. But we must renounce sin purely, so that we may have our neck free from the yoke of the Assyrians and be able to become a beast of burden of Christ. For two yokes cannot lie upon our neck, the Lord's and the Assyrian's: For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, or what communion has light with darkness?

This is the counsel that the Lord has counseled against the whole inhabited world, and this is the high hand against all the nations of the inhabited world. For what the holy God has counseled, who will scatter? And his high hand, who will turn back? He clearly shows that these things are said concerning those in the whole inhabited world and among all the nations, since no one is able to scatter what the holy God has counseled, and no one is able to turn back the champion hand of God from his land and from the mountains. At the same time, observe that the word "who" is not only used, as we have set forth in many places, in the sense of the rare, such as "Who is wise and will understand these things?" and "Who is a faithful and prudent steward?" For now, "Who will scatter?" is equivalent to "No one." For it is not even lawful to conceive that there is anyone able to scatter the counsel of the Lord. In the year in which King Ahaz died, this word came: Do not rejoice, all you foreigners, for the yoke of the one who strikes you has been broken; for out of the seed of serpents shall come forth the offspring of asps, and their offspring shall come forth flying serpents. And the poor shall be fed by him; and poor men shall rest in peace; but he shall destroy your seed with famine, and he shall destroy your remnant. If indeed all the things written by the prophets were spoken by the Holy Spirit, then clearly the record of the time of the prophecy has not been inserted in vain. For what benefit is there from learning that this word came to the foreigners in the year in which Ahaz, the king of Judea, died?

We reason, then, that just as it is written in Exodus, that the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel groaned because of their works, and their cry went up and God heard their groaning. For while the wicked king was alive, they could not groan to God; for he compelled them in harsh works, not permitting them to look up to God. But when the wicked one was removed, then it was fitting to clap and rejoice at the fall of the enemy. But they are recorded, contrary to expectation, as groaning, the account indicating that (as long as the body-loving mind prevailed) through their insensibility they did not even know how to bewail the evil that comes from sin; but when they got leisure from the passions, they begin their healing from groaning, weighed down in material and bodily works. Therefore the philanthropic God also heard them. The same, then, as in this narrative is also made clear in what follows in Isaiah. For it came to pass (he says) in the year in which Ozias the king died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lifted-up throne. Ozias is handed down by the history as a wicked king, because his heart was lifted up to corrupt, and he did wrong against the Lord his God, and he entered into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar and was struck with leprosy. And then, therefore, when the wicked ruler had been overthrown and the worship according to the law had been freed from its defilements, the mysteries of theology are made manifest to the Prophet.

And here, then, the word records the death of Ahaz, a ruler who was not good, so that it might be shown that when the worse one withdraws, the word comes against the Philistines from the beneficent God. For we have found in the Fourth Book of Kingdoms that this Ahaz did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord; indeed, he even passed his own son through fire, according to the abominations of the nations, and he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. This man also sent gold and silver from the treasures of the house of the Lord to the king of the Assyrians, in which his impiety concerning the sacred money is not a little accused. When the evil dominion has fallen, then the word against the Philistines comes to pass. And Philistines is properly the name for the Phylistiaioi, whom the Greeks call Palaistinoi. But it must be known that also in each of our lives, whenever the sin that reigns in our mortal body dies, then the word of the Lord comes to be in us. For perhaps each sin has a certain analogy to each of the kings accused in the Scriptures and altogether blameworthy, whose names are made clear in many places throughout all the Scripture; as even now Ahaz is interpreted as "possession," being a symbol of an evil doctrine that has preoccupied and possesses our soul; when this has died, our soul, freed from what possessed it, is made sufficient to contemplate the word against the Philistines. This, then, is the ready sense: Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, for the yoke of the one who strikes you has been broken.

Do not suppose, O Philistines, that when Ahaz has died you will be freed from the fear that lies upon you from Israel; so do not rejoice over the fall of the king. For even if the yoke has been shattered—that is, the slavery imposed on you by those who trample and scourge you through their dominion—nevertheless, from the seed of serpents shall come forth the offspring of asps. (He signifies the succession of Ahaz.) For if this one had the venom of a serpent and for this reason you rejoice at his death, there shall rise against you from the seed of this serpent offspring of asps; and again their offspring shall come forth. The word sets forth from this the bitterness of the succession of the kings who follow in order. For there shall be (he says) flying asps, possessing both the venom of creeping things and the swiftness of winged creatures. Then (since the sequence of the genealogy leads to the Lord) the word, cutting off the continuity, passes over to a good promise. For the poor shall be fed by him (he says). Who is it that feeds the poor, if not the shepherd of the sheep? And he calls poor not those who are lacking in money, but those who are diminished in mind. And these poor, who are pronounced blessed by him (for the Lord says, Blessed are the poor in spirit), shall rest in peace, but he shall destroy your seed with famine. The seed of the foreigners shall be corrupted by famine, and their remnant shall be destroyed. Those who are fed by evil words (for the benefit of their souls) are handed over to famine. For the destitution of the teacher who supplies them toward evil becomes a starting point for the good health of their souls and for salvation.

It is possible to understand the thought of the saying in this way: Let no one who is shattering the yoke laid upon him, the yoke imposed by the one who strikes him, rejoice; for often the blow that comes from the word, and the rebuke from it, scourging and punishing the conscience of the one who has stumbled for his sins, becomes a pretext for someone to shatter the yoke of Christ (even when he has already been called to the salvation that is in Christ). For someone, unable to bear the pain that comes from the rebuke and the reproof, becoming unruly, after the manner of a horse and mule, and freeing himself from God while enslaving himself to sin, is unworthy of the gladness that is in God. Far better, then, to endure a corrective word than, chafing against it, to shatter the yoke of the one who strikes him. Those, however, who have not shattered it but have submitted to the corrective visitation—those who through lowliness of heart are accounted poor—shall be fed by him. For the end of good discipline is the pasture that has been promised, concerning which the Savior says, "He shall go in and out and find pasture." And the Prophet also says, "In a rich pasture

I will feed them. So that poor men will rest in peace, whenever they do not make light of the Lord's discipline, nor are they unnerved when reproved by him. But the seed of the foreigners will be destroyed by famine, undergoing the lack of food as the penalty for the shattering that came upon them under the yoke. Wail, gates of cities; and let the cities, thrown into confusion, cry out—all the foreigners—because smoke comes from the north, and there is no being for it. And what will the kings of the nations answer? That the Lord has founded Zion, and through him the humble of the people will be saved. The gates of the cities (he says), wail. The threat is still directed against the foreigners. And let the cities, thrown into confusion, cry out. Let them be filled with shouting (he says) from the confusion that arises among the inhabitants from fear. Let the gates wail, because of the siege being brought against them. And let the cities cry out—that is, those dwelling in the cities. Yet let not even the foreigners in the countryside keep quiet. For the smoke from the north will touch all alike, both cities and those in the country. For smoke comes from the north. He sets forth the weakness of the foreigners, that they cannot endure even the assault of smoke—so far are they from enduring the fire that is kindled from the foreigners. Smoke comes from the north, and there is no being for it. It has no being (he says) in its own substance, nor is the nature of smoke substantial and embodied; for it is a pungent vapor, sent up by the rising of fire from things that are smoldering.

While the foreigners are thrown into confusion by the smoke—a nature that cannot stand—what will the kings of the nations say, seeing Israel's place in peace? What else, indeed, but that the Lord has founded Zion, and through him the humble of the people will be saved? He himself has fixed the unshakable foundations of Zion; for he himself, God, is the craftsman and maker of the city above. And in it will be saved not the powerful in wealth, nor the strong in body, nor those who have practiced the arts of war, but the humble of the people, as it says; because God has chosen the weak things of the world, so that in them he might establish the surpassing greatness of his own power. Nevertheless, so that we may not fall entirely short of the contemplative examination of the saying, come, let us attempt, if it is possible to take any guidance from the interpretation of the names toward the deeper sense of what is said. We have found the name Philistine, when translated into the Greek language, to mean those falling by a drink. Consider, then, whether you can, by way of allegory, name those who are drunk and given to fornication, who give their own soul to bowls and cups, and afterward walk more naked than a spindle (as the proverb says)—whether you can call these the ones falling by the drink, that is, by the immoderateness of the drink. And these fall by the drink because they cannot ascend to the height of the kingdom of God, since Paul plainly says, Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God. For many are the falls and various the causes that make us fall from the height and fail to reach the prize of the upward calling.