Enarratio in prophetam Isaiam

And one desire and zeal, and not the least, is that concerning drinking. Therefore the gates of these drunken men were commanded to wail—gates through which unmixed wine entering drags in a swarm of evils. So the ways through which sin is committed, these the word commands to be turned into wailing, so that through the mouth the one who committed the sin of drunkenness through the mouth may groan. And the cities of these gates are the very sensory organs of the soul, in which gatherings of wicked thoughts and a multitude of desires and revels and drunkennesses have their dwelling; which, disturbed and thrown into confusion by the fantasy arising in them from the wine, do not have peace—the peace that surpasses all understanding—but are always in tossing and tumult. Therefore they have cried out. To these now the north wind brings smoke, concerning which Solomon said that the north wind is a harsh wind, but by name is called favorable, that is, the harsh spirit. He who has stiffened his neck before the Almighty and hardened his own heart, this one brings them smoke, a cause of tears; which some also call favorable. And who are these, but those who have the judgment of their mind corrupted, and who pronounce opinions about matters in a reversed way? Those who say that the bitter is sweet, and the sweet bitter? Those who set light as darkness, and darkness as light? These, deceived by him who transforms himself into an angel of light, call him favorable who is sinister and to be rejected. And that the north wind is assigned to the opposing activity is clear from the words, From the face of the north wind evils shall be kindled.

which was spoken in the vision of the cauldron set on fire. But such men have fallen away from being. Since the one who truly is is not in them, therefore it is said: And he is not of those who are. And what will the kings of the nations answer? That the Lord founded Zion, and through him the humble of the people will be saved. Since, then, none of the foreigners in whom being exists remains—but they have become as those who are not, because of their own wickedness (For sinners and the lawless shall fail from the earth, he says, so as not to exist; not as though they had gone on to annihilation, but as having been separated from the visitation of God, who is the one truly being)—what will their kings say, seeing so great a difference between the nations and Zion? Surely they will come to a perception that those who walk according to the nations are in a tossing to and fro because of their own wickedness, while those who have their mind purified—which is named Zion, since from there is the watchtower of every nature. For as from some peak of the mind's height, the world is contemplated, and the good order concerning it, and through these, God. And the affairs of life are contemplated, and the cheapness in them. As, then, the mind that is drenched in wine and the remaining passions falls under drunkenness, so the pure mind has God as its foundation. And through him the humble of the people will be saved; for Blessed are the poor, and woe to the rich, because they have received their consolation.

15. CHAPTER 15. The word of the Moabitess. Gather together the things concerning Moab, so that you may be able to grasp the meaning of the whole prophecy concerning it. From Genesis, the things concerning Lot, who by his elder daughter begot Moab, the father of the Moabites; and from Numbers, the things after the bronze serpent. For the sons of Israel set out and encamped at Oboth; and setting out from Oboth, they encamped in the wilderness, which is opposite Moab. Further, also the things concerning Balak, who was the son of Zippor, king of Moab. Wishing to destroy Israel through a curse, he sent to Balaam, son of Beor of Pethor, the augur, a counselor of fornication and idolatry, through whom (it says) the people was defiled with the daughters of Moab, and they called them to the sacrifices of their idols. Examine also the things concerning Ruth, who, from the Moabite seed, was joined to Israel, and was ennobled to such an extent that not only David, but also our Lord sprang from her. And try from every angle to find the word of the Moabitess, in which the discourse has formed some things by way of threat, and some by way of promise. But all things have been spoken with a covering, so that the veil lying over the reading of the Old Testament, if we are truly grieved as we turn to the Lord, may be taken away from us. By night the Moabitess shall perish; for by night the wall of the Moabitess shall perish. The punishment brought on in the night is more bitter. For one who suffers some of the circumstances in the day has the light itself as a consolation for what happens; but the night also...

itself a gloomy thing; but if it also takes on sufferings and calamities, it greatly increases the distress. Consider, then, for me a night assault of enemies, an unexpected raid, the enslavement of women and children, the plundering of goods, the slaughter of those who fall into their hands, the overthrow of a wall, the burning of a city. So by night the wall of the Moabitess will perish. For when those who are deprived of the circuit of the walls are left desolate, necessarily those also who put forward the safety that comes from them will perish together. Be grieved, then, for yourselves (he says). For Deebon also will perish, where your altar is; there you shall go up to weep. Be grieved for yourselves. Blessed is the one who, having his soul pure, has no private ground for grief; but because love does not seek its own, when a member suffers, he too suffers with it and grieves with it and weeps with those who weep, according to the Apostle, for the many who have sinned beforehand and have not repented. Who again says: That I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. But if anyone is not such a one, but wallows in his own sins, let this man be grieved for himself, being defeated by the enemy against whom the struggle is. His grief gladdens the one who, by teaching words, leads him to a sense of compunction.

For just as caustic and punitive medicines cleanse ulcers and the foul odor from pus and make corrupted wounds and bodies more fit for healing in the affected place, such, it seems to me, is the meaning of "Be grieved for yourselves," spoken to those who think highly of themselves for some wisdom, such as are the leaders of heresies, who perish by night, because "Everyone who practices evil hates the light and does not come to the light." And since, being in night, they will perish by night, by night their wall also falls—that is, the sophistical strongholds, behind which, lying in wait, they seemed to have thrown up sufficient security for themselves from them. For dialectic preserves the heresies of the falsely named knowledge like a wall; when it falls, those who have been captured must wail. Be grieved, then, for yourselves, since they have perished. And Debon also is worthy of destruction, where your temple was built. We understand Debon by attending to its interpretation. Debon is interpreted as "their flux." Therefore, just as the word of truth is firm and steadfast, founded and not moved, and he who is rooted in faith is compared to a man founding on the rock. And the manna is said to be like frost on the ground, the divine word indicating by its congealing what is solid and vigorous. So the opposing doctrines and the plausibilities that advocate them are fluid and unstable, unable to stand; and the father of lies does not stand in the truth. The instability, then, of falsehood was named "flux.

Let those therefore be grieved who build such things, who hold unstable and unsteady words about God. For this is the altar that has been condemned to destruction in Dehebon, where its altar had been built. Go up therefore weeping—not sacrificing, but repenting for the things you once prayed for badly, because your prayer has become to you a sin. For he who serves the creation rather than the Creator, and does not worship the Son, nor through the Son the Father, but sets up his own doctrines and offers the sacrifice of his own praise upon alien altars—such a one should weep, since the grief that is according to God procures for him a salvation without regret. But these things have been said not only to those who have received their opinion about God from heretical doctrines, but also to all who accept fleeting things and place their hope in them, disregarding him who says, "If wealth flows in, do not set your heart upon it," and who are excited about the glory of the flesh, which is grass, and their glory is like the flower of grass. Such also is the beauty in flesh and blood, for which

The foolish woman is proud, compared to a gold ring in a pig's snout. And in general, the name Dehebon will apply to all who have gone astray, so that one might aptly say that those who have erred in life or in word have their altar at Dehebon. Let those, then, who once were proud over it go up weeping. Wail over Nabau of Moabitis. On every head is baldness, all arms are cut down. In her streets gird yourselves with sackcloth and beat yourselves on her rooftops, and in her lanes wail all of you with weeping. For Esebon has cried out, and Eleale, as far as Iassa her voice was heard. Therefore the loins of Moabitis cry out, her soul shall know; the heart of Moabitis cries out within herself, as far as Segor. For it is a three-year-old heifer on the ascent of Louith. Weeping they shall go up to you on the road of Arounieim; a crash and a shaking cry out. The water of Nebrim shall be desert, for there shall be no green grass. And shall it be saved even so? For I will bring Arabians against the ravine, and they shall seize it. For the cry has joined the border of Moabitis of Gallim and her wailing. But the water of Dehebon shall be filled with blood. For I will bring Arabians against Dehebon and I will take away the seed of Moab and Arahel, and the remnant of Adama I will send out, as creeping things upon the earth. He urges them to godly sorrow—those who have gone astray from the thoughts of the human mind and have not given themselves over to the benefit of the Spirit—so that they may wail over the land of the pestilent teachers. For it seems to me that the word hints at these by Nabau, because Nabau is interpreted as "settlement.

For there are some who sit in wait with deceitful sophistries and sometimes corrupt good morals by their evil associations. It is necessary, then, that those who have been made disciples of their wicked doctrines repent, and wail over the teaching in which they took great pride. For this is the baldness on every head: to cast off the teachers and make themselves bare of the adornment that comes from them, and through good conduct to despise their precepts of practical teachings, and as it were to cut them to pieces with sound reason, so that all may be arms cut to pieces—that is, the practical precepts, being brought to refutation by sound reason through the division and the piecemeal examination of evil teachings. And since they were led along the broad way by the wicked, he commands those who have chosen the tested life to beat themselves in the broad places, repenting for the amusement of those things that lead to pleasure, and beating themselves in the broad place, and seeking the narrow and afflicted way, so that, rightly repenting, they may gird themselves with sackcloth and take up the garb of mourning, and as it were through the very things that are seen make their loins cry out, leaving behind the traces of their repentance in the places where they went astray. And on every roof and in all the streets they were commanded to wail with weeping. For he called the lofty and empty things of teachings roofs, and the so to speak divisions of thoughts the streets of Moab.

Whether, then, anyone has come to be among exalted heights raised up against the knowledge of God, or in some dialectical division of arguments and problems, which seem clearly to handle each of the matters set before them, let him wail in repentance, so that he may fulfill what is written, when the word commands crying out in the broad streets and on the houserooms and in all the streams. And this must happen because Heshbon has cried out. For Heshbon is interpreted as reasoning; and Elealeh as the ascent of God; and Jassa as a commandment that has come to be. Heshbon, then, has cried out, that is, it openly testifies that the teachings of the Moabites are human reasonings, and not revelations of divine mysteries. And Elealeh. This too has cried out through the facts, that those who give themselves over to those studies put God to shame and exalt themselves against him. For this is the ascent of God: the lifting up to the heights of pride. And Jassa. Even if it seems to be a commandment that has come to be, yet in truth it is not a commandment, but a certain shaping of strictness of life, for the persuasiveness and acceptance of the wicked, teachings suggested from the wicked mind. For this reason it has been said in what follows: All arms are cut off, so that if any wicked teacher, deceiving the souls of those who follow him by false opinions, while seeming to attend to a stricter life, those who have repented of having given themselves over to such a teacher may cut off their own arms, that is, the practical form of their conduct.

They shall shear off, as it were, his hair and alienate it from their own body, because those who preside over the body of the Churches are in place of a head. And now, therefore, Jassa has cried out, that the exactness displayed in one's manner of life is a bait toward the plausibility of the truth. This, then, is the cause of wailing with weeping, that Esebon and Eleale have cried out as far as Jassa. For this reason the loin of the Moabitess cries aloud. The loin is taken in many places for the generative parts. For he was still in the loin of his father (evidently Levi of Abraham) when Melchisedek met him. And: Let your loins be girded about. We understand that he hints at contracting the appetites that serve generation. The mourning, then, that lies upon the Moabitess, becoming a cause of the temperate life, cries aloud at the cry of Esebon and Eleale and Jassa. Her soul (he says) shall know. Already the word shows the progress of those who have done the things previously mentioned in repentance: And the heart of the Moabitess cries out within herself as far as Segor. And this Segor is that place where Lot, having gone out from Sodom, was able to arrive. For the Angels wished him to go up to the mountain and said to him: Save your own soul. Do not look back behind you, nor stand in all the surrounding country. Save yourself in the mountain, lest you be taken up along with them. But he said: I beg, Lord, that the evils not overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near, for me to flee there. Is it not small? And my soul shall live. For this reason the name of the city was called Segor, that is, small.

The heart of the Moabitess therefore cries out as far as Segor, which already lies on the borders of Palestine. The word, then, showing us the strong and intense repentance, or the heavy lamentation that comes from the blow of the evils done to her, hints to us the distance—how far the cry of Moab becomes audible. Repentance calls first for a person to cry out within himself and to crush his own heart; then, so as to become a good example for others, to make himself heard abroad and to publish the manner of his repentance. For a heifer of three years is a perfect one in age. For a three-year-old heifer already has the strength to bear young and to submit its neck to the yoke. In order, then, to show that it is proper to those who are able to turn back to be perfected in the age of a man, and to possess reason able to come under the yoke of truth, he has called it a heifer of three years. For he who has not yet, through age, attained what is perfect among men, nor has his mind fully completed, but is imperfect through smallness, is not required to perform the works of repentance. Therefore also in Genesis, when Abraham sought a sign from God and said, "Master and Lord, by what shall I know that I shall inherit the land?" God said, "Take me a heifer of three years and a ram of three years," choosing in the three years the perfection of the animals and their fitness for generation. But the turtledove and the dove he did not define by time, because these animals begin to generate at once. And at the ascent of Luith they shall go up weeping.

The beginning of gladness is to weep rightly, and the grief that is according to God is the ascent and progress toward the things above. Therefore also the Apostle rejoices over those who grieve, seeing that his words bring them to a sense of their state and work in them the grief according to God, a repentance unto salvation not to be repented of. For those who weep over their evil deeds and their evil thoughts will no longer go down, nor will they enter into the lowest parts of the earth; but they will go up, as it were by a leading by the hand, using the grief according to God as their exaltation toward the things above. And it cries out: crushing and shaking. For the word that has convicted and touched them crushes the evil disposition and produces, as it were, a certain tossing in the thoughts that have been evilly implanted, so that some are rooted out and sound words are brought in in their place. For this reason God will not despise a broken and humbled heart. For while the habit of sinning is still compact and not yet shaken, those who sin will neither weep nor go up to the things above; but when the wretched disposition has been crushed, and the soul has suffered, as it were, a certain shaking and agitation over its evil opinions, the cry becomes audible, for the benefit of those who hear. The water of Nebrim shall be desert. The water of false opinion, which formerly flowed abundantly and in great quantity to the harm of those who received it, shall be brought to nothing, he says, and shall be desert. But if one knew the force of the name, some starting point would have been taken for penetrating more deeply into the mind of the prophetic thought, and for applying the things signified in the names to the realities.

Except that this water is opposite to the water of rest, by which the Lord nourishes those shepherded by him; and opposite to the water which the Lord gives to those who believe in him, of which whoever is deemed worthy to drink has within himself a spring of water leaping up to eternal life. And this water is so worthless and of no account because it nourishes nothing other than grass, which itself will not be. That is, the souls that have been trained in this temporary and quickly withering glory of the world will quickly wither, once the word that, as it were, waters them has been deserted. Will not Moabitis be saved even so? The word shows that Moabitis, though destined to be saved, will be saved by certain ways and guidances, and will be led by more laborious chastisements, and will be led by more laborious chastisements to salvation. For the words "Moabitis shall perish, and by night shall she perish," and whatever else has been said, have reference to this: that these things happen for the sake of her salvation. For I will bring Arabians against the ravine. For the former will be saved through weeping, but those who have an unrepentant heart will be saved through the plague brought on by the Arabians. And the Arabians are the westerners. Or perhaps the powers akin to darkness are here called Arabians, through whom the chastening plagues are sent to those who have an unrepentant heart. For the cry has joined the border of Moabitis, Gallim, and her wailing. The border of Moabitis has been named Gallim. Nevertheless it is interpreted as "judged," a name akin to the ruling and governing animal.

Since, then, the same thing can be both the end of a region and a beginning, the boundary of Moabitis has now taken its name from the beginning. And a wailing has filled all of it. Again he calls the water teaching, which he says is full of blood, because those who are taught become liable to death—those who lead badly. So that you may at some point aptly apply to destructive words that destroy souls the prophetic saying that says: But the water of Deeb shall be filled with blood; for I will bring upon Deeb Arabas, and I will take away the seed of Moab, which does not pass over to better things, but has remained among those who do not enter the Church of the Lord. The seed of Moab. For Moabites shall not enter the Church of the Lord until the tenth generation and forever. The word threatens to remove what it names the seed of Ariel. And Ariel is interpreted among the Hebrews as the lion. The Lord also says that murderous men have been born of the devil, in what he says in dialogue with the Jews, seeing their

...a murderous disposition: "You are from your father the devil, and you do the works of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning." The seed of Moab, then, are the apostates of the Church; the seed of Ariel are those who breathe murder against their brothers and through their deadly words bring death into their souls. After these things he says: The remnant of Adama (which means virgin land, from which the body of Adam was made) I will send as creeping things upon the earth—that is, the remnant of men, of those who mind earthly things, have therefore been born from their own wickedness as creeping things and venomous creatures. Creeping things, by casting off the height on which they had stood in their first constitution; venomous, because of the corrupting power they have upon those who associate with them. These, the word says, it sends forth. After the former Moabites, then, about whom the better things have been said, if anyone is left in the land and is made like the serpent, of which it has been said, "Dust you shall eat all the days of your life," this one is sent forth as the creeping things. And he eats dust who sows to the flesh and reaps corruption from the flesh.

16. CHAPTER 16. Is not the mountain of the daughter of Zion a desert rock? For you shall be as a nestling of a bird that has flown away, a nestling taken away; you shall be, daughter of Moab. Then, Arnon, take more counsel. Make a shelter of mourning for her continually. In the midday darkness they shall flee; they are astonished. Be not grieved; the fugitives of Moab shall sojourn with you. They shall be a shelter for you from the face of the pursuer, because your alliance has been taken away, and the ruler has perished, the one who trampled from the earth. And a throne shall be set right with mercy, and he shall sit upon it with truth in the tent of David, judging and seeking out judgment, and hastening righteousness. The word is still directed to Moab. Is not the mountain of the daughter of Zion a desert rock? He reproves her arrogance, by which she despised Zion, supposing the mountain to be a desert rock, as having neither notable size nor able to receive the good things of agriculture, so as neither to feed those who dwell there nor those who pasture on it. For she who supposed these things about the mountain and despised it, and was puffed up with boastfulness, and exalted herself with neighing and vanity, you shall be like a nestling left behind by the bird that warmed it, when it flies away from the nest startled, and leaves the one it was rearing desolate. For the one is gone, fleeing, and the other is easily caught by whoever wishes. For an eagle, or any other of the great birds, of those that are by nature raised far aloft from the earth, is beyond harm from those who attack it;

But you shall be like a nestling, needing another's help for nourishment, just now peeping out from the egg, not even clothed about the body with a deep feather, but still needing shelter from elsewhere so as to be kept warm in the night and not to be frozen by day. When your mother, then, has been driven into exile, you shall be destroyed from the nest, being weak for defense and powerless for flight. And the same one shall be he who both brings you down from the nest and drives away the mother who sheltered you. It is clear, then, that souls nurtured by the evil and unstable spirit (whenever they obtain someone who nobly drives them away through good works and through the invocation of the name of Christ) having been made desolate with the good desolation, are more easily taken up for nurture in Christ, which leads to perfection. You shall be, daughter of Moab, when the weakness concerning you has been exposed, the remnant. What shall you be, daughter of Moab? What you were, this shall be made manifest. For you forgot your own low birth, that you were born of a father from stolen marriages

when he had come, your mother having joined with night and wine for the theft of your father's seed. Then, Arnon, take counsel for more. Since your former counsels profited you nothing, O Arnon, nor did it profit you to philosophize much about doctrines, those woven together from every philosophy, add, if it seems good, to your counsels. It seems that by some mockery and irony she is challenged to unprofitable counsels, Arnon, so that, having taken her fill of her own vain counsels and learned their uselessness, she may thus come to sound teaching. Arnon is a Moabite place, and from one place the word shows us the whole region of Arabia. But the name of Arnon was preferred because of the meaning interpreted from it; for Arnon is interpreted as "their illumination." Since, then, those who suffer great elation from the conceit of wisdom especially think that their own mind lives in light, while in truth they are darkened in understanding and alienated from God, he directs his word to those who suppose they are in the light that comes from knowledge. Then he exhorts: Make for her a shelter of mourning continually. Nadab and Abihu, having brought strange fire to the altar, were burned up. And those who did not receive the true light, but welcomed him who transforms himself into an angel of light, if they perceive that they were in a fantasy of knowledge but were deceived from the truth, will necessarily mourn for themselves. Therefore the word transferred the exhortation to those who care for them, and says: Make for her a shelter of mourning continually.

For those who, on account of sins—whether in life or in knowledge—work up grief in themselves, so that some come to a blessed mourning, these make a shelter of mourning. I have seen some who, possessed by uncontrollable grief, shut themselves into a small room and block every passage of light and, as it were, punish themselves by their dwelling in darkness. So then, lest the customary thing, deceiving their mind—the conceit of wisdom, which in truth is darkness but is imagined to be light—confuse their senses, he says, Make for them a shelter of mourning, so that by shutting out the deception that comes from the heterodox, you may give place for the true light to shine in the hearts of those who have believed in it. Before the day of the Lord comes, in which all the tribes of the earth shall lament, according to what is said in Zechariah (that the lamentation shall be magnified in Jerusalem, as the lamentation of a pomegranate grove; and the land shall lament by tribes; the tribe of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the tribe of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; all the remaining tribes, tribe by itself, and their wives by themselves)—you who teach the people and turn back those who have sinned at every season of life, make for her a shelter of mourning, so that by your word those who were previously corrupted by evil may be led to a blessed mourning. In the midday darkness they shall flee. The midday condition of the day seems to have a brighter and more manifest light.

Since the truth from the creation of the world can be understood by those who apply themselves intelligently to the words of creation, those who live in the world and are illumined on every side by the wisdom of God, but are sick with ignorance of God—these are those who are in the noonday darkness, since the things themselves have their noonday, while the darkness is present in the souls of those who do not know. Such people, then, flee in the noonday darkness; they have gone out of their minds, because the doctrines of such people differ in no way from the fantasy that madmen imagine. And the interpretation of the noonday darkness is this ecstasy, since even those who are carried aside by some passion of their reasonings neither think that the sun shines nor that there is light in the air. So it is truly an ecstasy and a manifest madness, when such evident things proclaim the power of our Maker, to attend to idols and molded images, and to deify things that do not exist, and often through heretical doctrines to be carried outside the truth, and, as it were, having stepped out of the light, to live in darkness. Do not be distressed. The word exhorts us not to be led by the persuasiveness of the heterodox; for it is manifest madness to follow those who have gone out of their minds. Recognize them, that they have gone out of their minds. They are outside the way that leads to God; do not use them as guides, lest you ever be led by them into a precipice and an abyss. For if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. The fugitives of Moab will dwell beside you.

After this, it is said by the oracle of the humane God to the daughter of Zion concerning the Moabites, who are returning and are about to dwell as sojourners with her—those who long ago, having fled from God, will return to their own Master: "The fugitives of Moab shall sojourn with you." And these, he says, shall be sheltered among you, suffering nothing from the face of a pursuer. For those who once were allies shall become pursuers, warring against him because of his turning to the true God. Since, therefore, they became like a young bird taken from a flying bird, he was lifted up from the wicked protection and set free from the wretched ruler, who perished through pride and tyranny, trampling all things underfoot. Upon him who was lifted up, the prophecy adds the good things that shall come: "For the throne," it says, "and the kingdom of David shall be set right." Since, therefore, all shall be ruled by Christ (according to what is said, that "he must reign until he puts his enemies under his feet"), he said that the throne shall be corrected, in that those who are ruled obtain correction—which comes about not according to the worth of those who are to be ruled, but according to the mercy and goodness of God. Therefore, he says, David shall sit—that is, Christ, who is mighty in hand and power—with truth. And he shall reign in a tent until, judging, he executes judgment upon all. And the seat with truth shows the destruction of falsehood. And he shall reign until he executes judgment.

He sets before us His righteous judgment upon all things, according to which He does not pronounce concerning each one at random, but seeking what is fitting and appropriate, so as to bring the judgment to a good end for each person, eagerly hastening and pressing on righteousness, not slackly nor at a slow pace, but working it with all diligence. We have heard the insolence of Moab; he is exceedingly insolent; his pride I have brought down; and his insolence and his wrath—not so is your divination, not so. Moab shall howl; for in the land of Moab all shall howl. To those who dwell in Zedek—meditation, and you shall not be put to shame. The plains of Heshbon shall mourn. These things must be read from another beginning, as not depending on what precedes. For in many places Scripture, causing the hearer to breathe again through the more gracious things and to look upon the goodness of God and the end that shall be according to it, repeats (for our conversion) the threats and the things concerning punishments. For the most of us need such things, lest, despising the wealth of His goodness and longsuffering, according to our hardness and impenitent heart, we treasure up for ourselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation and righteous judgment of God. For we find something of this sort also in the Psalmist: The Lord is good to all. And having said many things about His goodness (that He supports those who fall, that He gives food in due season), he did not stop at these things, but adds: The Lord guards all those who love Him, and all sinners He will utterly destroy.

And here, then, having shown great goodness in what was said to those who have turned back, from another beginning he again threatens the harsher things. We have heard the insolence of Moab. These things are said against the ruler of this world, the first to innovate the apostasy, the one who has shown insolence toward the Creator, the one who insults men and tramples them down with insolence and arrogance. For this is the one who insults those in the Church, some as slavish and through ignorance differing in nothing from them. This is the one who works slander in each one; this is the one who persuades the leaders of certain heresies to speak injustice on high, and if ever they should condescend to inquiry, teaching them not to test the word but to insult the one able to refute the absurdity of his doctrines. Healing him, then, the Lord says: I have taken away his arrogance. For the removal of the disease is the wicked passion of boastfulness. But also his insolence (he says) and his wrath. These passions are the peculiar property of Moab; Moab is the master of wicked possessions, of insolence devised for the dishonor of one's neighbor, and of wrath that is persistent and prolonged anger. Then he adds: Not so is your divination, not so. He reproaches the ancient device of Moab, since the divination of Balaam was able to do nothing against Israel, inasmuch as the Lord God turned his mouth from cursing into blessing. Not so (he says) is your divination, not so. For Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, summoned Balaam the seer, whose divinations were in his hands, and said:

Curse this people for me. Was it not so, then, that he asked for the oracles, when Balaam himself answered: How shall I curse whom the Lord does not curse? And how shall I denounce whom God does not denounce? Then he prophesies a wailing for Moabitis: For Moab shall wail, he says; for in Moabitis all shall wail. Since, then, wailing is a voice of pain, uttered for the most part by women overcome in the heaviest mourning, he shows both the grievousness of the blow and the weakness of those who suffer, by saying that Moab shall wail. To those who dwell in Sedek, meditation. This phrase, being obscure, the others clarify; for Symmachus says: To those who rejoice in the wall of potsherd, speak. There are some who pride themselves on dialectic and, as it were, wrap their doctrines in the aid derived from it as in an indestructible wall. These, then, are found rejoicing in the wall of potsherd. And that it might be shown what the wall of potsherd is, he added: Speak. For what could be more easily captured than a potsherd? Those who exult in cheap and worthless fables, these rejoice in the wall of potsherd as they speak. This is the meaning of To those who dwell in Sedek, meditation. Good, then, is meditation—to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night; but evil is the meditation of the Moabites, because it shall be meditation to those who dwell in Sedek. Those, then, who meditate on words worthy of shame shall not be put to shame. Therefore the plains of Heshbon shall mourn. The punishment for not being put to shame is the barrenness of the plains of Heshbon.

There is also the name of a Moabite city, which has spaciousness in the suburbs lying around it; these, because of the wicked study of those who dwell there, shall be barren and unfruitful, providing no benefit to the inhabitants. And if one must also take some starting point from the meaning of the word, Heshbon is interpreted as reasoning. Therefore the multitudes of vain reasonings (which have been called plains) shall mourn, since the wickedness, as it were, of the impious doctrines advances to nothing. The vine of Sibmah: swallowing up the nations, trample down her vines as far as Jazer. You shall not join together; wander in the wilderness. Those who were sent were abandoned, for they crossed the sea. And for this reason they shall weep (as with the weeping of Jazer) for the vine of Sibmah. Your trees Heshbon and Elealeh have cast down, because upon your harvest and your vintage I will trample, and all things shall fall down. And gladness and exultation shall be taken away from the vineyards, and in your vineyards they shall not rejoice, and they shall not tread wine into the wine-vats, for it has ceased. Afterwards it has been said: The plains of Heshbon shall mourn; now it is added that also the vine of Sibmah (with "shall mourn" understood in common).

Each nation, then, is said to have a vine of its own; for example, the vine of Sodom and Gomorrah is their own particular vine. Therefore it is written: Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their branch from Gomorrah. So too is the vine of the Egyptians, which God strikes down, according to what is said: He killed their vine with hail, and their mulberry trees with frost. There is also a vine that the Lord planted: For I will sing to my beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a horn, in a fertile place. Again, the kingdom of God is called a vineyard, as the Lord set forth through the parable of the farmers, who took the vineyard on lease but did not give the fruits. For (he says) the kingdom of heaven will be taken away from you and given to a nation that produces its fruits. As if he were saying: the divine oracles will be taken away from you—the Law and the Prophets—because you do not conduct your lives according to their will; and the understandings will be given to a nation that, through its conduct, produces its fruits. As, then, here the word of truth is a vine, so the false word that dwells among the Egyptians is the vine of Egypt, handed over to them by the ruler of this world of darkness for cultivation. And the vineyard planted in Sodom is the one worked by the wicked habit of life, by the evils of those there who are hired for pay by the devil. Those, therefore, who have learned his teachings and have cast off the doctrines of the Lord have rooted themselves out from the vine of the true God, who said: I am the true vine.

They brought their branch from Sodom and Gomorrah, and for this reason they also cultivate a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness; and their wine is the wrath of dragons, and the incurable wrath of asps. Therefore the so-called vine Sebama, since Sebama is interpreted as "turning," is perhaps a certain figurative account, pretending to have some piety and withdrawal from evil enticements, but in this pretense drawing many into its own perversion. You would find also many of the heterodox who have turning words and words that urge toward an ordered life; if we understand certain of these not as truly turning, but as set in ambush and put forward for the piety of the many, we would fittingly exclaim that the field of such people is a vine Sebama—that is, not teaching about piety, nor about sound theology, but certain counsels about dignity and about the social and generous life. This is the vine Sebama, the one cultivated by the Moabites, which, producing many of its own offspring, is said to swallow up the nations. For those who preside over foreign doctrines, through dialectic, in which they happen to be trained, and through all their facility in words, defeating the unphilosophical and many of mankind, as it were swallow up those who are captured. To these, then, the word says: You who swallow up the nations. Having despised such words, trample them underfoot. For you will not be able, from being occupied with these things, to join and unite yourselves to Jazer, which is interpreted as "strength.

It is impossible, then, for you to receive the power that comes from the Spirit, which arises in those who walk rightly, unless you trample down the vines of Sebama. Forget your own wilderness and no longer linger in it; but having wandered away from it and left it behind, linger in better places. Those who were sent out have been abandoned. There are certain false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ, who have been abandoned by God. Let them not, therefore, deceive you as though they had power in matters; for they are helpless and abandoned. These very men also crossed the sea. But what this too hints at must be understood: that some have been abandoned for this reason worthily, since they have done something blameworthy—the crossing of the sea. It seems to me, then, that the sea is taken to mean temptations that are bitter to those who are tempted. For such is the meaning of "I came into the depths of the sea." Therefore the athlete does not flee from hardships, nor does he cross over the sea, but goes to meet them and submits to every temptation. But those who, in order not to be persecuted, are carried about with the nations, and in order not to struggle and labor against bodily desires, yield to pleasures—these have crossed the sea. After this it is said: "For this reason they shall weep, as the weeping of Jazer, the vine of Sebama." Perhaps, then, the weeping of Jazer is the weeping of strength, which the strong weep blessedly, groaning at their sojourn in this life and weighed down by it, but longing in soul and fainting for the courts of the Lord.

Or perhaps, just as strength is bewailed when it has withered away through sickness, because it is no longer present to the one who once possessed it, so also there will be a weeping over the vine of Sebama, since it has withered away and is about to be handed over to fire. After this it is said to the land of Moab: Your trees Hesebon and Eleale have cast down. Therefore Hesebon and Eleale have cast down the trees of Moab. Now come, let us set forth, as far as we are able, what is signified by these things as well. Hesebon is interpreted as reasonings, and Eleale as the ascent of God. Therefore the alien vine is cast down, and as many trees as the heavenly Father did not plant, and the planting of the heterodox is overturned by right reasonings and by the ascent that lifts us up toward God through good works. Blessed, then, is the man whose help is in you; your ascents are in his heart. So the one who has the ascents of God in his heart and takes care for his own reasonings will be able to overthrow the doctrines of the heterodox, which are badly planted and bear fruit unto destruction. Then he says: At your harvest and at your vintage I will trample, and all things shall fall. For since the wheat that one harvests and the wine that one vintages are contrary to the bread that strengthens man's heart and the wine that gladdens man's heart, God, being good, tramples them, not allowing them to become food or drink for those who, through ignorance of the harm that comes from them, partake of them without discernment. At your harvest, then, and at your vintage I will trample, and all things shall fall.

This can also serve to edify us with respect to the bodily sense: that many who have in their hands the gathering of fruits have lost what they expected by some sudden blow (from hail, or from some other scourge), because of the ingratitude and greed of men, God not permitting them to come to the enjoyment of them. And gladness and exultation shall be taken away from the vineyards; and they shall not rejoice, and they shall not tread wine into the wine-vats; for it has ceased. Gladness, then, and exultation have been taken away from the vineyards. The kingdom of God has been taken away from Israel and given to a nation producing its fruits. But the phrase can also be understood according to the bodily sense: that all gladness is taken away from those who suddenly have their hopes for the harvest of their cultivated lands removed. Or, since we have called the false word a vine, it can be understood that the gladness arising in those who have been deceived from every falsely named knowledge, as from a vine cultivating an illusion of gladness and not the truth, is taken away, so that those who are deceived no longer exist. For no longer will those who formerly admired these things rejoice over them when they have been exposed, nor will those who have been taught the harm that follows from it for those who drink cultivate a Moabite grape. And perhaps the wine-vats are souls receiving the worthless teaching. Therefore my belly shall sound over Moab like a harp, and my inward parts like a wall which you have renewed, and it shall be for your shame. And Moab has labored at the altars and shall enter into the

her handmade things, so as to pray, and he shall not be able to rescue him. This is the word which the Lord spoke against Moab, when he also spoke. The belly of the Prophet, then, against Moab shall sound like a harp, that is, it will produce a harmonious and musical sound, well-rhythmed, from the skill of the one who strikes it artfully. And he calls "belly" what the Psalmist elsewhere called "within": for he says, Bless my soul the Lord, and all things within me his holy name. For who commands the things within himself to bless the name of the Lord, except the nature of the thoughts that come out from within? Of these the order is twofold: for some are wicked—murders, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies, and an evil eye; and others are good and saving—love of humanity, chastity, the communal and well-speaking, and the testimonies according to God, and the pure eye, and things like these. To whomsoever, then, all things within have been set right for readiness to bless the holy name of God, this one rightly takes along the inner disposition for the thanksgiving of God. And Isaiah, then, had the things within himself as a wall which God renewed. For thus he had been furnished from the grace of the Word toward him renewing the inner man; and his thoughts were as it were an indestructible wall, so as to give no entrance to worse thoughts, nor to enemies sitting around for assault. It is good, then, having understood these things, to emulate and to say like the Prophet: My belly shall sound like a harp, and the things within me as a wall which you renewed.

And it shall be (he says) for your being put to shame, because Moab has labored at the altars. The word is addressed to the same. What then does that which seems to have been said boldly mean, "It shall be for your being put to shame"? For this reason (he says) you have been granted strong reasonings from within, so that those who now do not turn to you may be put to shame before you through the refutations brought against them, from the vigor of the reasonings given to me. The word "them" is therefore missing, so that the sense of the words may be rendered soundly: "And it shall be for their being put to shame before you." For just as those standing face to face in battles, as long as they seem to be equally matched, do not turn, nor give way, but when the other side prevails over them, they turn and flee, so also a soul drawn up in battle line by shamelessness stands, not feeling shame, but when refuted by the word that fastens upon it, it turns to shame. And since the turning takes place in the hidden part of the man, it has been called "turning to shame." For this reason, then, the belly shall sound, and the inward parts like a wall which God has renewed for the Prophet, so that they may change and be put to shame, having not previously known how to feel shame before God—the profitable shame. Because Moab has labored at the altars, and he shall enter into the handmade things, so as to pray, and they shall by no means be able to rescue him. Isaiah now prophesies the final destruction of all idolatry from the manifestation of the Word, that all labors upon the constructions of temples are vain, and the unprofitable hopes in handmade things. For they shall pray (he says) and shall by no means be able to rescue him. This has now been fulfilled at the coming of Christ.

For instead of rocky crags, the temples stand—those much-heralded temples; but no longer are there the deceits that come from the demons, since the opposing power has been put to flight through the mystery of the cross, which has been proclaimed throughout the whole inhabited world. For this is the word which the Lord spoke concerning Moab, when he also spoke. It is, as it were, an epilogue of the whole word proclaimed against the Moabitess: "This is the word which the Lord spoke." For the text had been set out beforehand in this way: "The word against the Moabitess"; and to the whole portion of the passage is appended: "This is the word which the Lord spoke concerning Moab, when he also spoke." What is "when he also spoke"? It shows the rarity of God's voice coming to the Moabites. For to Israel he speaks continually, but to the nations for the most part he is silent, as to those alien to his own portion. Yet he does not wholly conceal the word, but even these he lets taste of his own love for humanity, so that through experience in a few things they might press on toward the desire for things perfect... Since, then, he speaks only rarely to the Moabites, for this reason it has been said: "This is the word which the Lord spoke, when he also spoke." And now I say: in three years (of a hired servant's years) the glory of Moab shall be dishonored in all its great wealth, and there shall be left a very few and not honorable. Through these words he seems to me to define a time of punishment for Moab, which he called three years of a hired servant. Since, then, the whole nature of time is divided into three parts, wishing to set forth the completeness of time, he said three years. In three years, then, of a hired servant's years, the glory of Moab shall be dishonored.

The hired worker is also maligned in the Gospel by the Savior, who says: But the hired worker, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and flees, because he is a hired worker, and he does not care about the sheep. And the sojourner and hired worker of the priest does not eat the holy things, according to the law. Moab, then, hired himself out and became a hired worker. For he did not love God, but acted as he did out of a fantasy of wages and the hope of personal gain, and not out of a disposition toward what was being done. For three years, then, he shall be dishonored with the years of a hired worker. As, therefore, the hired shepherd is not a shepherd, so too the one who gives alms in order to be glorified by men has received his reward and is not merciful, nor is he generous. And the temperate man who acts for the sake of human approval is not temperate, since he does not pursue virtue but hunts the glory that comes from it. Dishonored before God, then, are those who do anything for show. So Moab too shall be dishonored in three years, that is, in the whole measure of time; and it is the dishonor of a hired worker, because the work of virtue in him is not from disposition but is counterfeit. He is dishonored in all his great wealth. For to the extent that the esteem of this world belonged to him, to that extent, after our hidden things are revealed, the wage of shame will be repaid to him. And the one who gathers much barrenness with his hands has more material for the dishonor that is brought upon him; and the one who stores up treasures with a lying tongue pursues vain things and will come upon the snares of death.

And a few will be left, and they will be without honor. The discipline that comes from this is a benefit to those who have been banded together for evil.