In Isaiam

PREFACE 1. The peculiar excellence of this prophet is something one can see especially even from the text itself, but Paul, who knew his virtues more accurately than all, shows it more perfectly, inasmuch as he spoke by so great a Spirit. For displaying his freedom of speech and his unenslaved mind and his lofty understanding and the great clarity in his prophecy concerning Christ, he set all these things before us in one phrase, saying: But Isaiah dares and says: I was found by those who did not seek me; I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. Great too is his sympathy. For he did not merely stand up against the madness of the people, nor did he with free tongue and loftier mind announce with great boldness the grievous things that were going to overtake them, but even in the very circumstances of their affairs he grieved and was stung no less than those who fell into them, and he lamented more bitterly than those who were captured. And, so to speak, such is the character of all the prophets and saints: they concealed a father's affection in their disposition toward those they ruled, and they far surpassed the tyranny of nature by much abundance. For no one, no one ever so burned with love for his children among his offspring as these died for those they ruled, lamenting, wailing, beseeching God when they suffered ill, being carried along with them, sharing in their terrors, doing and suffering all things so as to rescue them both from the wrath from above and from the onslaught of events. For nothing is so suited to the choice of rule as a philosophical soul that knows how to grieve with others.

For this reason God also raised up the great Moses to the throne of leadership, since he had already shown beforehand through his deeds his affection for the people, and afterward he said: If you forgive them their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me out of the book which you have written. And this same man, seeing them perishing, said: Leave me, I will weep bitterly. Do not force me to be comforted over the destruction of the daughter of my people. And Jeremiah composed long lamentations when the city was brought down. And Ezekiel went along with them and considered a foreign land lighter than his own, having as the greatest consolation in misfortune his being present with those who were suffering and setting right the affairs of others. And Daniel also, for the sake of their return, remained without food for twenty days and more, and showed every zeal, entreating God that they be released from bitter slavery. And each of the saints appears shining from this. Thus David too, seeing that God-sent wrath being borne against the people, called the blow upon himself, saying: I, the shepherd, have sinned, and I, the shepherd, have done evil; and these, the flock, what have they done? Let your hand be upon me, and upon my father's house. And the patriarch Abraham, standing far from the evils and having nothing in common with the evils that would overtake those in Sodom, as though he had stepped into the very midst of the terrors, so pleaded and entreated God, and would not have desisted, doing and saying everything so as to undo that grievous conflagration, had God not left him and departed.

But those in the New Covenant displayed even greater virtue than this, inasmuch as they had enjoyed a greater grace and had been called to a longer course. For this reason Peter also, when he heard Christ saying that for the rich the entrance into heaven is most difficult, was in anguish and trembling, and brought forward a question, saying: Who then can be saved? — although he was confident concerning his own affairs. For they were not looking to their own interests, but were caring for those of the whole world. And

Paul, through all and every one of his letters, shows this to us — he who did not even endure to see Christ before the salvation of men, speaking thus: To depart and to be with Christ is better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Such a character as this the prophet also preserves for us, both declaring the judgments of God with great boldness and rebuking those who sin and continually entreating him, and by lengthy speeches provoking him against them; and this is especially to be seen at the end of the prophecy, but for now it is necessary to begin with the prefaces themselves.

CHAPTER 1. The vision which Isaiah saw. He calls the prophecy a vision, either because through it he saw many of the things that were to come to pass with his own sight—as Micah saw the people scattered, and Ezekiel the captivity and the transgression of those who worshiped the sun and Thammuz—or because the hearing of the prophets, which came to them from God, was in no way inferior to sight, but gave assurance in like manner, which is not the case in the affairs of daily life. For that they heard in a different way from the rest of men, he says: He added to me an ear to hear. And he makes the account trustworthy by calling it a vision, and he rouses the hearer and sends him on to the One who showed the events. For it is the custom of all those who transmit from God the things that are spoken, to establish this before all else: that they utter nothing of their own, but that the things spoken are certain divine oracles and letters come down from heaven. Thus David also says: My tongue is the pen of a swift-writing scribe. Do not, then, suppose that the letters belong to the pen, but to the right hand that holds it—that is, not to the tongue of David, but to the grace that moves it. And another prophet also, indicating this very thing, said: I was a goatherd, says he, pricking sycamore figs—lest anyone should reckon the things spoken to be human wisdom. And he was not satisfied with this alone, but added something else, saying: But indeed I was filled with strength in the Spirit of the Lord, and with judgment and with might. For grace made them not only wise but also strong—not in the constitution of the body, but in the mind.

For since they had to do with a people reckless and shameless, thirsting for the blood of prophets, and practicing the slaughter of the saints, they reasonably needed great power, so as not to be overwhelmed by their unspeakable violence. For this very reason he says to Jeremiah: I have made you as an iron pillar and as a bronze wall; and to Ezekiel: You dwell in the midst of scorpions, do not fear their face, nor be dismayed. And Moses too, when he was being sent, seems to me to have shrunk back not only out of fear of Pharaoh, but most especially out of fear of the people of the Jews themselves. At any rate, conversing with God and leaving the barbarian aside, he sought with great eagerness to learn what he must say to them when they disbelieved, namely that he had come from God; and he received the signs for the sake of their disposition; and very reasonably so. For if one man so frightened him—and that after being benefited—what was it likely he would suffer as he considered that disorderly people? For this very reason he received the Spirit not of wisdom only, but also of power, and said: I was filled with strength in the Spirit of the Lord, and with judgment and might. And another again: The word of God came to Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah. And another again: The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. For this man too by another word indicates the same thing as those before him, calling the possession by the Spirit a burden. For since, being taken hold of by the Spirit, they spoke the things they spoke, he thus named the working of grace. For this reason Paul also everywhere sets before his Epistles the name of his apostleship, which the prophets did through

Of speaking—vision and word and utterance and saying—he establishes this through the name of apostleship. For just as the one who speaks a vision and a word of God does not utter his own things, so too the one who calls himself an apostle does not teach things of himself, but what the one who sent him commanded. For it is the dignity of an apostle to introduce nothing of his own. Therefore Christ also said: Do not call anyone teacher on earth, for one is your teacher, who is in the heavens—showing that the beginning of all our doctrines took its root from above, from the Master of the heavens, even if the ones who minister to the things spoken are human beings. Which Isaiah saw. How the prophets see these things which they see is not ours to say; for the manner of the vision cannot be interpreted in words, but only that one knows it clearly, who has learned by experience. For if no one could set forth in words the works and affections of nature, much more the manner of the Spirit's working. But if one must venture to employ faint images—not so as to set forth the clear truth, but so as to provide a riddle—it seems to me that the same happens also in the case of the prophets: as if the nature of pure waters, having received the sun's rays, were made radiant, so also the souls of the prophets, purified first by their own virtue, receive the gift of the Spirit and, being brought to that radiance, thus receive the knowledge of things to come. Son of Amoz. For what reason does he mention the father? Either because of the homonymies, or so as to teach that no lowliness of a father casts a shadow over a son's virtue.

Nor is nobility this—to be born of great people—but to become great oneself. And this man, being of an obscure father, became brighter than all, shining by the surpassing greatness of his own virtue. Which he saw against Judea and against Jerusalem. For what reason did he mention each of the places separately? Because the punishments also came about separately and at different times, God wisely arranging this too—not to destroy all at once, but gently and little by little, so that by the punishment of those led away, those remaining might become more prudent. But if they did not use the medicine as they ought, the blame is not the physician's but the sick people's. He does this continually and in every generation, not punishing all at once who sin the same things at the same time; for otherwise our whole race would long ago have been snatched away beforehand. But some he exacts justice from here, both making the punishment there lighter for those very people and laying up beforehand for those flourishing with them the greatest occasion for change to the better; but those who are willing to gain nothing either from themselves or from such arrangement, he reserves for the inexorable and fearful day of judgment. In the reign of Uzziah and Jotham, and Ahaz and Hezekiah, who reigned over Judea. He necessarily sets forth the time as well, sending the diligent hearer to the history of what happened. For thus the prophecy will be both easier to learn and clearer, if we learn how matters stood and how the wounds of the Jews were, when these men prepared the remedies.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. The preface is full of great wrath. For if the anger were not vehement and inexpressible, he would not have passed over men and turned his word to the elements. And he does this not only to display his anger, but also to turn those who are about to hear with great excess of shame, showing that those honored with reason are in a worse condition than the elements, which are by nature without sensation. And this is also a custom of other prophets. For this reason, the one sent to Jeroboam also, passing over the king to whom he was sent, speaks to the altar. And Jeremiah called to the earth, saying: Earth, earth, earth, write this man, a man cast out. And another again said: Hear, O valleys, foundations of the earth. I have begotten sons. He does not set before them the common beneficence toward all men, which was to be born, but the exceptional one, which was to become sons. For everywhere God begins his beneficences, and just as when he formed man, he honored him with rule before he yet existed, saying: Let us make man in our image and likeness; and in the case of the New, even more greatly: for he honored through the regeneration of the bath not only those who had done nothing, but even those who had done countless evils; so also here it is possible to see that he honored with adoption not only those who had accomplished nothing, but even those who had stumbled. Yet because he honors before labors, he does not deprive after labors, but even then gives greater rewards. And I exalted. The things in Egypt, the things in the wilderness, the things in Palestine he passed over in a single word.

For this is God's custom, because of the abundance of his benefits, not to linger over the narration of what has happened in detail. But they themselves have rejected me. They have transgressed my law, he says, they have abandoned my commandments. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey the manger of its lord. These comparisons increase the accusation, especially when they are drawn from unequal things, just as Christ also says: The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; and again, The queen of the south will be raised up in the judgment and will condemn this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And Jeremiah again says: Go to the islands of Kittim and see; and send to Kedar and know, whether nations will exchange their gods; but my people has exchanged its glory, from which it will not profit. He shows the gentleness of the legislation and how great a measure he requires of men, which it is easy even for irrational creatures to accomplish, and for the more foolish among irrational creatures. But someone will say that those creatures have the knowing by nature. But it is possible that what is accomplished by nature in them should be done by us from free choice. The ox knows its owner; he does not set before them the excellence of the gift, but by the excess of their wickedness he increases the accusation. For just as he calls the elements to their shame, so again he compares them not to men but to irrational creatures, and to the most foolish of these, and shows that they are worse even than those.

Jeremiah does the same, bringing the turtledove and the swallow into the midst; and Solomon too, now sending the idle man to the ant, now to the bee. But Israel did not know me. This is an intensification of wickedness, when even those who were closely related, and after so many honors, and all together have deserted to wickedness. He did not say "Jacob," but "Israel," so that by the virtue of the ancestor he might show the ingratitude of the descendants to be greater. For the one attracted the blessing of the name by the virtue of his soul, but they betrayed it through lawlessness. And my people did not understand me. Me, he says, who am clearer than the sun. Woe to a sinful nation. And this is a custom of the prophets, to lament those who are incurably sick. So too Jeremiah in many places; so too Christ saying: Woe to you, Chorazin; woe to you, Bethsaida. For this also is a form of teaching. For the one whom discourse did not correct, lamentation often set right. A people full of sins. Another addition of accusation, that they are both all of them, and with intensification. A wicked seed. He does not slander their origin, but shows that they have been wicked from their earliest age. For just as John, saying: Serpents, offspring of vipers, does not dishonor nature itself—for he would not have said, "Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance," if they were such by nature and from birth—so too here, saying "A wicked seed," he does not slander their birth. Lawless sons. He did not say "transgressors of the law," but "lawless," being in no better state than those who never received the law at all. But he makes clear the difference of their choice. You have forsaken the Lord and provoked him to anger.

He said this vividly. For the name of God alone was sufficient for accusation; which Jeremiah also charges, saying: "For they have even revolted from him, and are fastened to demons." "The Holy One of Israel." And this too is an intensification of the accusation, that being Lord of all in common, he was known to them then. "They have become alienated backward." "Why should you be struck any more, adding lawlessness?" It is the greatest condemnation when they do not become better even by punishments. And this too is a form of beneficence—the punishing. For they could not say that he honored and benefited them only, but let them go on sinning; rather, he both drew them by honors and disciplined them by fear of punishments, and in both they remained incurably sick. He displayed every form of healing, cutting, cauterizing; but the disease did not yield even so, which is the chief sign of being incurable—the inability even to receive treatment. "Every head unto pain, and every heart unto grief. From feet to head there is no soundness in it, neither wound, nor bruise, nor inflamed blow." Then he speaks of the chastisements and punishments; for this is no less a form of beneficence, and of the honor that had been shown to them. For all, he says, I afflicted and cast them into grief. If every head is unto pain, how is there neither wound nor bruise? A wound, while the rest of the body is healthy, then appears to be a wound; but if the whole happens to be ulcerated, the sore would no longer be visible. This, then, is what he wishes to indicate: that the whole body was ulcerated, and it was not that one part was healthy and another swollen, but all was inflammation, all one bruise. There is no poultice to apply.

This is heavier than the former. For being sick is not so grievous as being sick and unable to be healed, and especially when the physician is of such a kind. Neither oil, nor bandages. So as to make the speech emphatic, he persisted in the metaphor; for this is its peculiar excellence. Your land is desolate. He does not announce these things as having happened, but foretells them as about to be. And the prophets have used this custom, at once frightening the hearer and displaying the power of their own truth. For just as past things cannot not have happened, so neither can future things spoken by the prophets fail to come to pass, unless perhaps those who are about to be punished should repent. Your cities are burned with fire. For he did not utterly destroy them, but left the remnants of the barbarian conflagration standing, which are rather able to strike the sight of those who see them. Strangers devour your land before you, and it is made desolate, laid waste by foreign peoples. An intensification of calamity, when they become spectators of their own calamities and do not learn of them only by hearing.

The daughter of Zion shall be left as a booth in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a cucumber field. The images also have great force, and especially those in Scripture, for the intensification of what is said. And he calls Jerusalem the daughter of Zion also because it lies beneath the mountain. As a booth in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a cucumber field. For when the fruit has been taken away and the farmers carried off, the building of the city is henceforth superfluous. As a city besieged. This is a riddle of their weakness and of their abandonment. For when there is no one to help, then of necessity they are shut in, expecting only the safety that comes from the walls. And unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become as Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. It is always the custom of the prophets to foretell not only those terrible things which the offenders are about to suffer, but also those which they deserved to suffer, so that even in the very time of punishment they may know many thanksgivings to God, paying a penalty not according to the worth of their offenses, but much less. This, then, is what he says here also: that their sins were not these things that have been mentioned, but demanded utter destruction and the complete obliteration of the whole race; which indeed also happened in the case of Sodom. But the love of God for humanity did not permit this to happen, bringing on a punishment much less than the sin. And since there is a great kinship of the Old to the New, Paul rightly made use of this; and he spoke more aptly than the prophet. For just as in that time, if the great

it has become God’s mercy, all would have been swept away, so also in the time of Christ’s coming, if the things of grace had not appeared, all would have suffered things worse than these. But he left us a seed: he means those saved from the captivity. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Since he said that they were worthy to suffer the things of Sodom, he shows that they even dared the things of Sodom. Therefore he also names them by the common designation. Since if this were not so, the word would not even have had a proper occasion. For that he is not now addressing the Sodomites, but the Jews, calling them by the fellowship of the designation, the things said afterward show. For he mentions sacrifices and offerings and the rest of the legal service, of which there was not even a trace among the Sodomites. By the law of our God, he means by the reproof. What to me is the multitude, he says, of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and of goats I do not want. The forty-ninth psalm is entirely similar to this passage, woven with different words but the same thoughts. For what is in the psalm: He will call upon heaven above and earth, to judge his people, is equivalent to Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, that the Lord has spoken; and the things that follow are of the same kind. For just as David says: I will not reprove you for your sacrifices, but your burnt offerings are before me continually; so also Isaiah says: What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. And again David says:

I will not accept bulls from your house, nor goats from your flocks; and Isaiah says: I do not want whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats. For since, being continually accused of being destitute of the rest of virtue, they put forward sacrifices as their greatest defense, as though they were continually performing them, reasonably each prophet—or rather all the others as well—casts them out from this defense. Whence it is clear that these were not given as a primary matter, but so as to become a training for their conduct in the rest from that point on. But since, neglecting the necessary things when they pressed, they occupied themselves with these, God says he no longer accepts even these. Nor if you come to be seen by me. If you come, he says, into the temple. For who sought these things from your hands? And yet the whole book called Leviticus is composed, legislating about the exactness of sacrifices. And in Deuteronomy and in many other places there are many laws about these things scattered. How then does he say: Who sought these things from your hands? So that you may learn that it was not God’s primary will to legislate such things, but the legislation about these things took its beginning from their own weakness. For just as he did not wish a woman once joined to a husband to be put away, but cutting off a greater evil—that those not prevented from putting away should be compelled to slaughter those still in the house and hated—he conceded the lesser; so indeed here also, preventing them from sacrificing to demons, he accepted what he did not wish, in order that he might accomplish what he did wish.

This very thing again the prophet Micah was showing when he said: Did you bring me slain victims and sacrifices for forty years, says the Lord? And Jeremiah also says: These are not the things I commanded your fathers.

For since even demons were worshipped in this manner, and he himself, so that no pretext for destruction might arise from this for the weaker, says these things continually through all the prophets. For those men were indignant even when gifts were not given, and pressed continually, demanding the fat and the smoke and saying: For we have received this as our prize. But he neither asked for it from the beginning, and when he commanded it, he showed that he did not permit it because he wanted it—not only in this way, but also by quickly abolishing them and not accepting them even when they were being performed; and through all things he made it plainly clear that this manner of worship is far unworthy of his majesty. This, then, he says now: that it was for your sake I put up with this, not that I myself needed these things. You shall no longer tread my court. Either he foretells the captivity, or he forbids this also to them, since they were not entering with a right mind. If you bring me fine flour, it is vain. For of the commandments, some were commanded to be done for their own sake, and others for the sake of other things; for example, to know God, not to murder, not to commit adultery, and all such things, were legislated for the benefit that comes from them themselves; but to sacrifice, and to offer incense, and to keep the sabbath, and all such things again, were not so that these very things might simply happen, but so that from the practice of these they might be led away from the worship of demons.

Since, then, these people were performing these things but were not reaping any profit from them, but were still fastened to the demons, reasonably these things too are cast out; just as one might reasonably cut down a tree that has leaves and branches but is destitute of fruit. For the farmer's whole care is for the plant, not for the bark and the trunk, but so that he may enjoy the fruits. Incense is an abomination to me. Do you see that he did not delight in the nature of the things offered, but examined the disposition of those who brought them? For this reason he called the smoke and the fat-smell from Noah's sacrifice a smell of sweet savor, but the incense an abomination. For, as I said, he seeks not the substance of the gifts but the disposition of those who offer them. Your new moons and sabbaths. One must observe that he does not cast out any of the necessary things, but those things which Christ also abolished when he came. Therefore Paul also, using his argument more vigorously when he contended against the Jews, having set down not only these things but also many others besides these, said that those who displayed nothing of their own gained nothing from there, speaking thus: But if you are called a Jew and rest upon the law and boast in God and know his will and approve the things that differ, being instructed out of the law. And again: For circumcision indeed profits if you practice the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. And he did not say that those who were entrusted with the law reaped any fruit from having been entrusted with it, since they were unfaithful; which indeed David also, hinting at it in another way, said: But to the sinner God said: Why do you recount my statutes?

For since they were greatly proud because of their hearing of the law, though they were destitute of practice, Paul too cast them out of their boasting, saying: You, then, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? And you who preach not to steal, do you steal? And David likewise says: If you saw a thief, you ran together with him, and with adulterers you placed your portion. And I cannot endure a great day. He means Pentecost, Tabernacles, Passover, and the rest of the feasts. My soul hates your fasting and idleness and your feasts. He speaks to them in a more human way. You have become to me a fullness—a satiety, a hatred. For this shows his ineffable longsuffering, both that he bore with them when they had sinned many times and did not proceed against them beforehand, until those who had transgressed provoked him by the excess of their wickedness. I will no longer let go your sins. I will no longer be longsuffering. The same thing is what was said by David: These things you did, and I was silent. When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my eyes away from you; and if you multiply your supplication, I will not hear. From this it is clear that there is no benefit in prayer, even when it becomes long, when the one praying persists in his sins. For nothing is equal to virtue and the voice that comes from works. For your hands are full of blood—that is, murderous; but he did not say murderous, but full of blood, showing that they made sin their practice, and everywhere with intensity.

And this too is a mark of his gentleness, that when he threatens he also makes defense. For he sets forth the reasons for which he does not accept the prayer. Wash yourselves, become clean. How is it, having said, I will no longer forgive your sins, that he counsels and, having shown them incurably sick, introduces a remedy? It is God's custom, even when he threatens, to forbid salvation, so as to increase fear and not to bring the word to an end there, so as to suggest good hopes and by this means again lead them back to repentance. And one may see this happening everywhere. In the case of the Ninevites, however, he did this not through words but through deeds. For in his words he promised nothing good, but left the punishment standing naked in the threat; yet when all those barbarians had shown what was in their power, he quickly dissolved his anger. So too again David in the psalm: for I said beforehand—since the whole opening is entirely like this—and just as this one says, Wash yourselves, become clean, after the threats, so also that one, after saying, I will reprove you and set your lawless deeds before your face, added: A sacrifice of praise will glorify me, and there is the way, where I will show them the salvation of my God; calling praise the glorification through works and the knowledge of him. But so that, having heard Wash yourselves, become clean, they might not think of the customary purifications, he added: Remove the wickednesses from your souls before my eyes, cease from your wickednesses. He showed the ease of virtue and the freedom of authority, that it was in their power to change. Learn to do good.

So greatly had they been cast out by their abundant wickedness even from the knowledge of virtue. Thus also the prophet David says: Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. For this is higher than all sciences and requires greater zeal, inasmuch as it also has more things hindering it: the tyranny of nature, the slackness of the will, the plots of demons, and the crowd of affairs. Thus indeed also Baruch: This is our God; no other shall be reckoned beside him; he has devised every way of knowledge. Seek judgment. That is, to avenge those who are wronged, which requires much toil and a sober soul. Therefore he said, Seek. For there are many things that overshadow justice—bribery, ignorance, power, shame, fear, and respect of persons—and there is need of much vigilance. Rescue the wronged. This is more than the former; for he does not demand only that one vote for what is just, but also that one bring it to completion. Judge the orphan and justify the widow. God has much to say about no one suffering evil, but more when, along with suffering evil, certain persons are also clothed in another calamity. For widowhood and orphanhood are unbearable even by themselves; but when they are also maltreated by others, the shipwreck is double. And come and let us reason together, says the Lord. It must be observed that everywhere in the prophets God seeks nothing so much as to defend those who are wronged. Thus indeed also elsewhere, as in Micah, when the Jews say: If I give my firstborn for my impiety, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul, he added, saying:

It was announced to you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, but only to do judgment and to love mercy and to be ready to walk after the Lord your God. And again the prophet David said: I will sing to you of mercy and judgment, O Lord. And come now. First having armed them with the statutes, then he draws them to the tribunal, and having taught them how they might strip off the charges, then he demands the accounts, so that he may not take them naked of defense and condemn them. And let us be convicted. Let us reason together, he says. The one being judged becomes an advocate and a physician. Then showing that even if we accomplish great things, we still need his love for mankind in order to be released from our sins, he says: If your sins be as scarlet, I will whiten them as snow; taking qualities diametrically opposite and promising that he himself will change them to the contrary. And if they be as crimson, I will whiten them as wool. Great is the power of the protection of widows, if indeed the soul so defiled as even to receive a self-dye of wickedness, he not only releases from evil, but also makes it thus radiant. And if you are willing and

If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the earth. But if you are not willing, nor listen to me, the sword shall devour you. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things. Since for the more grossly sinful, the release from sins is not so much longed for and easily seen as the enjoyment of the things that seem in the present life to be good, he promises these things along with those; for this too is from that source. Then, showing that virtue is easy, he places it in the willing of it alone. But so as not to relax the good, having again shut up his word with fearful things, he makes it trustworthy by the power of the one who declared these things. How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot? The perplexity is both of the speaker's grief and of the great insensitivity of the Jews, and of the fact that what happened came about beyond expectation. Paul too expresses such perplexity concerning the Galatians, saying: I marvel that you are so quickly turning away; which is in the order of accusations and a form of exhortation, calling back to virtue those who are being called out. For even if what is said is admirable and praise is mixed with the accusation, it makes the accusation more severe. For we do not so reproach those who are nothing and pursue a base life, as those who previously seemed to be earnest but afterward display the deeds of the wicked. He calls her a harlot here, not hinting at bodily licentiousness, but at ignorance of God, which is more grievous than that harlotry. For there it is a man who is being outraged, but here it is God who is being set aside. This one and all the other prophets do this as well.

Since God also deigned to be in the city in the rank of a man, displaying the ineffable love for them; and they speak in many places as about a man and a woman, not in order to bring the word down to human coarseness, but in order through things familiar to them to lead them by the hand to the knowledge of God's tender affection; and at the same time they wish to touch them with the shame of the appellation. Faithful: that is, pious and full of every virtue; so that even from this it is clear that he does not mean the fornication of bodies; otherwise he would have said: A prudent city; for this would be the thing set in contrast to the harlot; but now, showing that he hints at impiety through fornication, he has set down the opposite of it, faith. Full of judgment: that is, full of righteousness. Again a very great accusation, not that they deserted to vice in its entirety, but that they also betrayed virtue in its entirety and, having cast all the wealth of good things at once from their hands and been brought down to the last poverty of evils. In which righteousness slept in her. It lodged, it dwelt, that is, it had been planted, it had taken root, it was being set right with zeal by all the citizens. He dwells on the former praises, at once increasing the accusation that comes from the change, and at the same time holding out good hopes and showing that it is easy for them to recover again. But now murderers. Murderers, he says. Your silver is unapproved. That is, counterfeit, base, adulterated. Your innkeepers mix the wine with water.

Since in his preface he did not state their wickedness specifically, but said that they had rebelled and were an evil seed and lawless sons—which seemed to be more a matter of abuse than of accusation—here he sets out the charges themselves specifically, and first that which is first and middle and last of evils: love of money and the huckstering that goes on around contracts. But some, not understanding the ineffable wisdom of God, took what was said in an anagogical sense. For the great and lofty Isaiah, they say, would not have discoursed about the wrongdoing of money-changers and the corruption of hucksters; but here, they say, the silver means the oracles of God, and the wine means the teaching, which they were muddying by introducing their own doctrines. I, however, neither dishonor this interpretation, and I say that the other is truer. For it is not only not unworthy of the prophet to discourse about these things, but it is also exceedingly worthy both of him and of God's love for mankind. And why need one say much? When, at any rate, the only-begotten Son of God came bringing the lofty teachings and was about to plant the citizenship of the angels, he himself discoursed no little about measures and about things that seem more trivial than these—greetings and middle seats and chief couches. For these things that seem small, when neglected, become great kindling for sins.

But if these things had to be corrected in the time of the New Covenant, much more in the time of the Old, when the hearers were also coarser and their whole life was set straight from this source, the people being thus trained more in these matters to keep far from all injustice and to take no advantage of their neighbor in anything, nor to crush the poverty of those who are worse off by the villainy of their huckstering. For when these things were neglected, cities too were often overturned and rulers were brought down from their thrones and implacable war arose; just as, when they were done rightly, there was great peace and good order and security leading them by the hand toward virtue. Your rulers are disobedient. It is a sign of the greatest disease and perversion when the physicians aggravate the diseases. For it is the task of rulers to restrain the disorders of the people and to set them in order toward what is needful and to make them obedient to the law; but when they themselves are the first to transgress the laws, how could they become teachers to others? For the phrase They are disobedient means: they do not obey the law, they do not endure the commandments; which Paul also brings as a charge, saying: You then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? When, then, the root is corrupted, what good is there to suspect concerning the branches? Companions of thieves. This is an addition to the accusation, that they not only do not restrain the evils, but even resist; not only do they not make war on the thieves, but they even cooperate with them, pursuing vice in direct opposition to the virtue befitting a ruler. Loving gifts. Another grievous form of love of money, having a fair-seeming pretext, but under the guise of friendliness displaying the utmost greed. Pursuing a recompense.

Bearing grudges against enemies, eager to repay those who have caused them grief, which is the greatest form of wickedness. For this reason it is forbidden not only in the New Covenant but also in the Old with great earnestness. For each one, he says, do not bear a grudge against his neighbor in your hearts. For especially the common citizen, but much more the ruler, must be free of this wickedness and of voting for hatred against those who are judged, so that the harbor may not become a reef. They do not judge for orphans. That is, they do not stand up for them, so that they may obtain justice. And they do not pay attention to the judgment of widows. It must be observed that not only doing evil, but also not doing good, is reckoned in the category of wickedness, just as indeed also in the New Covenant. For those who did not feed the hungry are sent into the fire of Gehenna, not because they snatched what belonged to others, but because they did not give up their own possessions to those in need; just as therefore these are now accused, not because they take advantage, nor because they oppress, but because they do not extend a hand even to those who need their help. Therefore the Lord, the Master of Hosts, the Sovereign of Israel, says these things—that is, of the people. And he has not set down "Sovereign" without reason, but reminding them both of the benefits beyond expectation and of the harsh punishments which they endured. For since they often sinned greatly and enjoyed great forbearance, they fell into negligence; he wishes to show this, that he is able, when he wishes, to punish, and he does not need seasons or times, but all things are ready and prepared for him. Woe to those who are strong in Israel.

For my anger will not cease against my adversaries. For what is more wretched than those who have God as their enemy? He said "will not cease" not to cast them into despair, but so that, having increased their fear, he might call them to repentance. For than "My anger will not cease," more fearful is "against my adversaries." For nothing is so accustomed to provoke God as the injustice committed against the poor in their case. "Woe to those who are strong"—

he said this not simply slandering power, but power used for evil. For here he does not mean strength of body, but the dominion that comes from the abundance of possessions. "And I will execute judgment from my enemies." I will punish my enemies, calling his enemies the enemies of the poor because they are so through their abuse; and he said this so that you might learn the magnitude of the injustice. "And I will bring my hand upon you and I will burn you into purity." So that you might learn that whatever the nature of God's wrath and punishment, it does not come for evil and merely to exact penalty, but for the purpose of making better even those who are punished. "And I will burn you," he says, "into purity." Therefore it is not when we are punished, but when we sin, that it is right to grieve; for the one produces filth, the other purification. And what is "into purity"? So that not even a trace of stain remains in you. For what fire is to gold, punishment is to the slack. "But those who disobey I will destroy, and I will remove all the lawless from you and I will humble all the proud." For those, he says, who are incurably sick and who do not yield even to punishments will be destroyed. For what profit is their life, when they plot against both themselves and others in their living?

But those who are able to become better from their punishment will remain. And here he seems to me to hint at the captivity as well. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as from the beginning. Here he speaks of the return. For when those who were incurably sick have been removed, and those who were able to receive care have been corrected, the remaining form of treatment is also seasonably applied—through the appointment of approved rulers and the abundance of good counselors—so that, with the body yielding to the remedies and the physicians being the best, the parts of the city may return from every side to health. For it is no small form of beneficence to obtain good rulers. And after these things you shall be called a city of righteousness, a faithful metropolis, Zion. And yet we find this name nowhere applied to the city of Jerusalem. What then should we say? That here he speaks of the designation derived from the facts. And this will contribute no small help to us when the Jews demand of us the interpretation of Emmanuel. For since Isaiah said that Christ would be named thus, and he is nowhere so named, we would say to them that he spoke of the meaning derived from the facts as a name—just as, then, also here. For her captivity will be saved with judgment and with mercy. With judgment, that is, with justice and the punishment and chastisement of the enemies. With mercy, that is, with great philanthropy.

Here he promises them two very great gifts: that those who carried them away should pay the penalty, and that they themselves should enjoy great prosperity; each of these, even by itself, is able to provide the greatest pleasure. But when both come together, the gladness would be beyond expression. And besides, wishing to show that even after the long captivity they are brought back to their own land not because they paid a worthy penalty and their sins were cut off, but because of his love for humanity, and that their salvation is a matter of mercy rather than of recompense and repayment, he added: And with mercy. And the lawless and the sinners shall be crushed together. This too is a third kind of benefit: that there should be no one to drag them away and draw them to deception, but that the teachers of wickedness should be removed. And those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. But the impious, he says, shall perish. For now they shall be put to shame in their idols, in which they themselves took pleasure. Some attempt to apply what has been said also to the present time; but we shall neither blame those men nor fail to follow the sequence. For these are the things which he says will happen at the invasion of the enemies. For when the barbarian overruns the country and besieges the city and holds all in the midst as in nets, and there is no one to defend and to beat back that cloud because of God's abandonment, reasonably also from the very

The shame of those who worship idols will be poured out abundantly by the actual experience of events. "Concerning the things which they themselves desired," he says, "and about which they were zealous." And they shall be ashamed of their carved images, which they themselves made. He sets forth the accusation in the manner of a narrative. For it was sufficient, he says, even before the outcome of their wounds, that the very manner of such idol-making should put them to shame. For what is more shameful than for a person to make a god for himself? And they shall be ashamed of their gardens, which they desired. For they did not only bow down to carved wooden images, but they also tended trees in gardens. For they shall be like a terebinth that has cast off its leaves. Either the idols or the inhabitants of the city themselves. And he brought forward the image of this tree both because the plant is especially native to the region and abundant among them, and because it blooms and flourishes exceedingly when it is at its peak, and then displays the utmost ugliness when it sheds its leaves. And like a garden without water. And the second image is clearer than the first and confirms the statement made about the first. For neither is a flourishing garden more delightful nor a desolated one more unpleasant, both of which happened to that capital city. For it was always better and more splendid, adorned with countless ornaments; and it became more worthless and more shameful than all, losing in a moment so great a wealth of good order. And their strength shall be like the stubble of tow. The earlier images were used for the unpleasant, but this one for the weak; and all are very vivid and possess much clarity and force.

Like stubble of flax, that is, weak. And their works are like a spark of fire. Here he shows that their evils are from themselves, and that they themselves gave birth to the captivity and kindled the furnace. For just as sparks falling upon matter stir up fire, so their sins, gathered together, kindled the wrath of God. And the lawless and the sinners shall be burned up together, and there will be no one to quench it. Again he forbids salvation for the same reason once more, not so that they might despair, but so that, having received fear at its full strength at least by this means, they might shake off their great negligence. And here he also hints at something else: the invincible nature of his power, and that when he punishes and takes vengeance, no one will be able to withstand and undo the terrors.

CHAPTER 2. The word that came to Isaiah the son of Amoz. From this it is clear that they did not speak all the prophecies under one heading, but being inspired at different times they delivered certain passages, which, having been put together later, made one complete book. Therefore he also begins in this way. And this will be clear to us not only from this, but also from the fact that as he proceeds he marks the times, now saying: "In the year that Nathan entered Azotus"; and now saying: "And it came to pass in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up." For the prophecies were not put together under one heading like the Epistles of Paul and the Gospels, but, as I said before, at different times. Hence he also begins the account from another beginning.

And not only for this reason, but also because the subject about which he is about to speak is very closely connected with what has been said before and is more elevated. For he speaks to us about the calling of the Gentiles and the conspicuousness of the proclamation and the knowledge that has been spread throughout the whole inhabited world and the peace that will take hold of the earth. And if, when about to touch on such doctrines, he mentions Judea and Jerusalem, that is nothing strange. For what was said was a prophecy, for the time being veiled by the names used. Since indeed David, when he was about to compose the seventy-first psalm, inscribed it to Solomon, and going on he sang things far greater than Solomon's worth, or rather even than the nature of all men. For the words, "Before the sun his name endures," and "Before the moon his throne," and all such things, no one, not even of the very foolish, would say are spoken of human nature. And Jacob too, when he foretold these things that Isaiah is now about to say, and more than these—for along with the calling of the Gentiles he also spoke of the death and the resurrection and the time at which he was to be present—he too did not set them down nakedly, but hiding what he was about to say under the mask of the name of his son, he thus foretold them, appearing to foretell the things that would happen to Judah, but as the outcome of events bears witness, foretelling the things that Christ was to accomplish. For Judah was not the expectation of the Gentiles, nor did the tribe shine forth then, when their commonwealth failed; but all these things came to pass when Christ appeared.

But if the Jews should shamelessly try to distort this law of prophecy, they could most readily be refuted even from the very words spoken, if someone, unfolding the prophecies with precision and examining every utterance with the attention that is due, should show that what was said fits what has come to pass. But so that I may also sew up their mouths out of abundance, I will attempt to make this clear not from what was said about Christ, but from what was prophesied about their own patriarchs, showing that many of the prophecies were spoken about the tribal heads, but came to pass for those descended from them. And for the sake of example, having mentioned one or two instances, I will take up what lies before us. For when Jacob, having called Simeon and Levi, foretells beforehand what would befall them, he spoke thus: Simeon and Levi are brothers, and having accused them of their lawlessness and the unjust slaughter that took place against the Shechemites, he goes on to say: I will divide them in Jacob, and I will scatter them in Israel. But no one could see this as having happened to Levi and Simeon themselves, but to the tribes descended from them. For the tribe of Levi was scattered, each tribe having its tenth portion; and that of Simeon, which suffered almost this very same thing, was extended throughout all of them in the allotment, and did not, like each of the others, receive its inheritance as one compacted together and united to itself. And Jacob, having received blessings from his father, did not himself enjoy any of them. For his father foretold great prosperity and perpetual dominion for Esau;

But this man was also in want of necessities and was fed as a hired servant, and he was so far from prevailing over his brother that he was even in danger of his very life, and having met him only once with great fear, he was glad to be able to escape him and be saved. What then should we say to these things? That the prophecy is false? Far be it! But that such is its custom in many places—to speak of things that will come to pass for others as if other persons were set before it, and to use other names in place of others; which also happened in the case of Canaan. For we do not see that man serving his brothers, nor indeed did the curse fall upon him, but it received its fulfillment in the Gibeonites, who were descended from Canaan. For what was spoken was a prophecy in the form of a curse. Since, then, there are so many and such examples proving to us that many of the things said are spoken of some but come to pass for others, and the prophets have used other names, what wonder if now also the prophet, having set forth the name of Judea and Jerusalem, proclaims beforehand concerning the Church? For since his discourse was directed to the shameless who were destroying the prophets, burning the books, and tearing down the altars, fittingly the veil lay upon the reading of the Old Testament, according to the blessed

Paul. For they would have destroyed the books too, if they had understood the power of the prophecy concerning Christ. For where they did not reverence him when he was present and working wonders and providing complete proof of his own power and of his harmony and concord with the Father, nor did they desist until they crucified him, how would they have spared the writings that spoke of him, which even without this they were continually tearing to pieces? For this reason, lingering over their own familiar names, they shadow the prophecies with this person. For that the word is not about Judea and Jerusalem, we shall know precisely by bringing each phrase forward and examining what is said. That in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest. Observe the prophet's precision, not only stating the events but also marking the time. For what Paul says: When the fullness of the times had come, and again elsewhere: For the dispensation of the fullness of the times, this the prophet says: In the last days. And he calls the Church a mountain, and the invincibility of the doctrines. For just as against mountains, even if countless armies attack, bending bows and hurling spears and bringing up siege engines, they will be able to do them no harm, but will depart having destroyed their own strength; so indeed all who have warred against the Church have not shaken it, but having lost their own power they were put to shame, being broken in striking and weak in shooting and conquered by those they suffer at the hands of.

This is also a paradoxical manner of victory, and one possible not for humans but for God alone. For the wonderful thing about the Church is not that she conquered, but that she conquered even in this way. For while being driven out, persecuted, and cut to pieces in countless ways, she was not only not diminished, but even became greater, and by the very act of suffering she destroyed those who attempted to do these things to her—just as the adamant does in relation to iron, by being struck alone dissolving the strength of the one who strikes; and as goads do to those who kick, themselves becoming no duller from this, but making bloody the feet of those who kick. For this reason he called her a mountain. But if the Jew does not tolerate the metaphor, let him receive the refutation from his own sources again. For this very prophet said that wolves and lambs would share the same pasture, and that God would whistle for flies and for bees, and bring up a rushing river against the Jews, because they did not wish to have the water of Siloam. If one were to take these things according to the mere words, it has much that is unintelligible; but one must † receiving the meanings that come from these things, thus vary the sequence of the thoughts. † What then are the meanings that come from these things? By the wolves and the lambs, the beast-like and gentle manners of humans; by the flies, the shamelessness of the Egyptians; by the river, the vehemence of the barbarian's campaign; by Siloam, the gentleness and equity of the ruler of the Jewish nation at that time. And no one, not even of the most foolish, will contradict us on these points.

For just as those things were indicated by other names, so too the firmness of the Church, its immovability, its height, its being unsubdued, he hinted at through the designation of a mountain. For another prophet also compares those who trust in God to a mountain, showing their invincibility. This is clear. This no longer needs interpretation from the word. Thus the very nature of the things sends forth a voice brighter than a trumpet, showing the conspicuousness of the Church. For the sun is not so bright, nor the light from it, as are the works of the Church. And the house of God on the tops of the mountains. How could the Jew interpret this? For nowhere did the temple stand on the tops of the mountains; yet the power of the Church reached the heavens themselves. And just as a house lying above the summit of the mountains is visible to all, so also, much more, she herself has become conspicuous to all humans. And she will be exalted above the hills. He interpreted this same thing again, which never happened in the case of the temple, not even when it seemed to be doing best. For how could it, when it was often dishonored by the Jews themselves and destroyed by barbarian hands? But the strength of the Church was warred against more harshly and more than that one; yet it never yielded to the hands of those who warred against it, but became higher and more conspicuous especially because of its enemies.

Then indeed the multitudes of the martyrs, then the throngs of the confessors, then souls proved harder than iron and shone more brightly than the stars themselves, their bodies being cut to pieces, but their resolve not conquered, but prevailing and being crowned. Who has seen, who has heard of slaughter bearing a crown and killing working victory, and the camp becoming more glorious then, when those being slain by the enemies appeared more numerous? And all the nations shall come to him. Proceeding, the prophet becomes clearer and more fully unveils the word and shows the prophecy more distinctly and more precisely stitches shut the mouths of the Jews. For this, even if they should be exceedingly shameless, they will not be able to fit to the temple [of the Jews]. For it was both forbidden and with exaggeration prohibited for the nations to enter the temple. And why do I say to enter the temple, when the law itself with great threat forbade them even intermarriage with the nations and demanded the ultimate penalty for these things? At any rate the prophet Malachi consumed his entire prophecy on this, accusing, threatening, demanding account for the improper intermarriage. But our affairs are not such, but the Church, having opened her bosom with all freedom, receives with outstretched hands every day all the nations of the world. For this is what the first teachers of the doctrines were also commanded by the Only-Begotten, immediately hearing this voice: Go, make disciples of all the nations.

Observe with me how the prophet did not merely hint at the calling of the Gentiles, but also at their obedience with eagerness. For he did not say, "They shall be brought," but "They shall come"—which another prophet, showing more clearly, said: "And they shall not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them." For in the case of the Jews, both creation was marshaled and threats were continuous and punishments unremitting and wonders piled one upon another and the courses of prophets and the fear of the lawgiver and threats of wars and invasions of barbarians and divinely sent angers and terrors dispatched from the heavens; and they remained stiff-necked and uncircumcised, as the Scripture says, stubborn and hard to persuade. But in the case of the Gentiles, a bare word sufficed and hearing alone, and all at once they ran forward. Which David also, hinting at, said: "A people whom I did not know served me"; and marveling at the manner of their obedience, he added: "At the hearing of the ear it obeyed me." This very thing Jacob also, indicating more enigmatically, said: "Binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his donkey to the tendril." And yet who ever saw a foal bound to a tendril and standing by a vine and not damaging the fruit? For in the case of irrational beasts, no one; but in the case of humans this has come about with great exactness. For the Jews, bound with countless bonds, shattered the yoke, tore the bond, as the prophet says.

But the nations, bound by no such necessity, obeyed readily, like a colt harnessed to a yoke, and they did no harm to the commandments, but stood by displaying great obedience. And many peoples shall go and say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob. See them dancing and celebrating and urging one another on and all becoming teachers; and not one, nor a second, nor a third, but many nations running together. For many peoples shall come, he says, and from various lands, which never happened in the case of the Jews; but if

some drew near, they were a few proselytes at any time, and they too with great effort, and never were nations called, but proselytes. For proselytes shall pass over to you and shall be your servants, he says. But if the prophet persists in the metaphor, calling it a mountain and the house of the God of Jacob, do not marvel. For, as I said before, now he opens up and now he shadows over the prophecy: the one, so as to give the more understanding an occasion to perceive what is said; the other, so as to restrain the disorderly impulse of the senseless; and from every side he varies his discourse. But if he said "of the God of Jacob," do not be disturbed, beloved; for the only-begotten Son of God was the God of Jacob. For he both gave the law and worked all their wonders; and this is especially to be seen from the Old Testament itself, since from the New there is not even one word to the Jews. Jeremiah therefore says: I will make with you a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers.

showing that he himself was the lawgiver of both laws. And that he himself freed them from Egypt, he added: In the day when I took hold of their hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt. But if he himself led them out, then all those wonders, both those in Egypt and those in the wilderness, he himself performed. And he shall announce to us his way, and we shall walk in it. Do you see that they are seeking another law? For Scripture is accustomed to call the commandments of God a way; but if he had been speaking of the former covenant, he would not have said: He shall announce to us; for it was clear and manifest and known to all. And that we do not say these things out of cleverness, what has been said is enough to persuade even those who are utterly shameless. For since he mentioned only a way, he says both what sort of way and sets down many of its marks. At any rate he added, saying: For out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem. Against these things even the children of the Jews, though utterly shameless, will not be able to open their mouth. For that these things were said of the New Covenant, it is possible to perceive from the place, from the time, from those who received the law, from the event that came after the law, and simply from every angle. And first from the place, the mountain of Zion. For the law through Moses was given to their forefathers on Mount Sinai. How then does he say here, Out of Zion? And he was not satisfied with this alone, but he also added the time. For he did not say: A law went forth, but, A law shall go forth, which is of future time and of an event not yet having happened. But when the prophet was saying these things, the law had been given many years before.

But the New Covenant was going to be given after many years. For this reason he did not say, "It went forth," but, "It shall go forth," that is, after these things. And again he takes refuge in the same place, saying: And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. With precision he sets before us here the distinctive mark of the New Covenant. For now, seated on the mountain, he was legislating the lofty commandments worthy of the heavens; now, dwelling in Jerusalem. Having stated, then, both the place and the time, he adds also those who were going to receive him, stitching shut from every side the mouths of those who contradict. Who, then, are those who were going to receive him? Is it the people of the Hebrews and the children of the Jews? By no means, but those from the Gentiles. Therefore he also added: And he shall judge between nations. For this is especially the work of law, to judge those who strive against it. That the word is not about the Old Covenant is clear from the facts themselves. For we do not keep the Sabbath, we have not received circumcision, nor their feasts, nor any other of the ancient things. For we heard Paul saying, that If you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing; and: You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years? I fear lest I have labored in vain for you. From this it is clear that the word is about the New Covenant, that he judges between nations, just as Paul also says: In the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men. How shall he judge? Tell me: according to the Old Covenant? By no means, but: According to my gospel. You have seen that the words are different,

Are the meanings in agreement? Isaiah says: He shall judge between the nations; and Paul says: He shall judge according to my gospel. And he shall reprove many peoples—those who fight and transgress. And declaring this, Christ said: I do not judge you, but the word which I have spoken, that will judge you. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And nation shall not take up sword against nation, and they shall no longer learn to wage war. The prophet was not satisfied with the earlier signs. For great is the abundance of the truth. Therefore he also sets down another mark of the New Covenant, shining throughout the whole inhabited world. And what is this? Peace and the abolition of wars. For when these things come to pass, he says, such great good order will take hold of the inhabited world that even the weapons of war themselves will be forged into instruments of farming—something no one could see having happened in the times of the Jews, but rather the complete opposite. For throughout the entire period of their commonwealth they did not cease waging war and being warred against, with enemies attacking them after a long time and after a short time. For those dwelling nearby, or rather even those in Palestine itself, often caused them severe troubles and hung the ultimate danger over them.

The history of the Kingdoms clearly makes these things plain, woven through and through with wars; and all the prophets make them plain, proclaiming the things that happened and crying them out beforehand before they came to be; and from the very day, so to speak, on which they were delivered from the tyranny of the Egyptians, they lived their whole time in wars. But not so now, but there is great peace throughout the world. And if some wars do occur, yet not as formerly. For then both cities clashed with cities and regions with regions and peoples with peoples, and one nation was cut into many parts. And anyone who reads the book of Joshua and of the Judges will know how many wars Palestine received in a short time then. And this was not the only hardship, but that the law commanded all to take up arms, and no one was exempt from this service. And this law prevailed not among the Jews only, but everywhere throughout the world; since indeed orators and philosophers, having nothing more than a cloak, when war called, would take up the shield and stand in the battle line. At any rate, Socrates the son of Sophroniscus, who shone most among the Athenians for his freedom from affairs and his philosophy, stood in the battle line once and twice. And Demosthenes, the foremost of their orators, went out from the speaker's platform to war many times. And if no law exempted orators and philosophers from war, scarcely would any other of the people have enjoyed this exemption. But no one could see any of these things happening now.

For since the sun of righteousness has shone forth, both cities and peoples and all nations are so far from living in such dangers that they do not even know how to handle any of the arts of war, but sitting within cities and walls, they learn of the affairs of war from afar, and every people lives in freedom and exemption from this most bitter service. And if wars do even now occur, they are somewhere far off and at the farthest reaches of the Roman empire, not in city and country as before. For then, as I said before, even within a single nation countless uprisings kept occurring, and wars of many forms; but now, as much land as the sun looks upon from the Tigris to the British islands, all of it, and with it Libya and Egypt and the nation of the Palestinians, or rather everything that lies under the Roman empire—you know that these cities enjoy every kind of security, learning of wars only by hearsay. For Christ could indeed have destroyed even the remnants, but he left the incursions of the barbarians as a basis for discipline for the slack and those growing more relaxed by peace. And the prophet also hinted at this very thing for those able to perceive it accurately, which I have already

having said this, that the uprisings no longer take place at short intervals. For he did not say, "There will be no war at all," but what? "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation"; and he has added the freedom of the peoples, saying, "They shall no longer learn to make war"—we do not know how to make war, except for the few soldiers appointed to this. And now you, O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. For he has released his people, the house of Jacob. Having completed the prophecy concerning the Church, he again passes over to the history, as if following the words that come next. For such is the custom of the prophets, to shadow the prophecy not only by the obscurity of what is said but also by the arrangement of the sequence. Therefore he does not make his discourse complete either, but as if drawing out a single chain, he thus passes over again to the admonition of the Jews, and says: And now you, O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord—that is, in his commandments, in his law. For a lamp is the commandment of the law, and light and life and reproof and instruction; and David again says: The commandment of the Lord is radiant, enlightening the eyes; and: Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths. And everywhere one could see the law called by this name. Thus Paul also says: You are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish. For the rays of the sun do not guide the eyes of our body by the hand as the commandments of the law illumine the eyes of the soul.

Showing, then, that even before the recompense and before the requital, in the very fulfilling of the requital the commandments grant us their gift, he called them light. For just as the eye gains in the very act of being enlightened, so too the soul, in the very act of obeying the law, reaps the greatest fruits, being purified and delivered from vice and ascending to virtue itself. Just as, then, on the contrary, those who transgress, even before their punishment, exact the penalty in the very act of transgressing, being in a more wretched state than those who sit in darkness, full of fear and trembling and an evil conscience, and at high noon dreading and trembling before all—those who know, those who know nothing. For he has let his people go, the house of Jacob—that is, he has permitted, released, overlooked them, stripped them of his providence. Then, having struck fear, he also states the cause, so as to correct what has come to pass. What, then, is the cause? That their land was filled with clangings, as with those of the aliens. For previously he charged them with huckstering and love of money and contempt for widows; but here also with the remnants of evil doctrines and impiety, drawing them little by little toward the deception of the demons. Then, striking at them, he did not say that they merely clang, but that their land was filled. With great excess, he says, their wickedness again increased. Just as above he said, "A people"—not simply "sinful," but "full of sins"—so also here: "was filled." Then again, intensifying the reproach, he added, "as from the beginning." From the beginning—when?

When they had not known God, when they had not received the law, when they had not had experience of his beneficence, when they lived among the nations—which was the ground of the utmost condemnation—they were now no better off, after so great a providence and care, than those who had enjoyed none of these things. And he did not stop even there, but to strike them again he added: As the land of the aliens; by the comparison of the person making the accusation more severe. This is what Paul also customarily does continually; as when he says: But concerning those who have fallen asleep, I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, so that you may not grieve, as also the rest who have no hope; and again: That each one know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of desire. And he was not satisfied with this, but added, saying: Just as also the rest of the nations who do not know God. For this word especially is accustomed to sting even those who are greatly fallen. But if the Jews are accused of these things, what pardon would we obtain, what defense—we who, after so great a grace and ineffable honor and immortal hopes, fall into the same error as they? For many even now are afflicted with this disease and corrupt their own life, who, giving themselves over to the irrationality of rumors, along with offending God, also reap superfluous griefs and are enervated for the labors that pertain to virtue.

For the devil has earnestly sought through everything to persuade the more foolish that the things of virtue and the things of vice are not in their own power, nor are they honored with any freedom of choice, but wishing to accomplish these two most shameful things—both to slacken their labors for virtue and to take away the greatest gift of freedom. This he introduced into life—this grievous disease—through omens, through symbols, through the observance of days, through the wicked doctrine of fate, through many other things, turning everything upside down. For this reason the prophet also stood vigorously accusing, so as to tear out the passion root and branch.

And many children of foreign stock were born to them. What is this: Children of foreign stock? There was a law laid down for them from above, because of the slippery nature of their will and the easily deceived character of their mind, that they should not mix with any of the rest of mankind, so that such kinships might not become a pretext for impiety. For since they were not only unable to correct others, but were not even able to ward off the harm that came from others, he walled them in with the law and separated them from intermingling with the rest, and formed and ordered them privately; for it was desirable that even when led in this way they should be able to preserve the citizenship given to them by God.

But just as they were transgressing the other commandments, so too they despised this one and turned to the marriages of their neighbors, and from there taking brides from the Moabites, from the Ammonites, from other impious nations, and embracing other kinships, they received teachers of wickedness and corrupted the purity of their noble birth. This, then, along with the other things, the prophet brings as a charge. For their land was filled, he says, with silver and gold, and there was no number to their treasures. And their land was filled with horses, and there was no number to their chariots. And what sort of charge is this, someone might say, to have money and to possess horses, and especially in that generation, when there was no great precision of philosophy? What then should we say? That he was not condemning the use, but the disposition that used them not as they ought. For just as when he says, Woe to those who are strong, he does not blame the power, but those who use power badly; so indeed also here, not that they possessed money, but that along with great wealth they gathered even beyond their need. There was no number, he says, to their treasures. And not only this, but that being puffed up by wealth and by the power of horses, they were gradually drawn away from hope in God, which the prophet also said to them elsewhere: Woe to those who trust in their own strength and boast in the abundance of their wealth. And again elsewhere: A king is not saved by much power, and a giant will not be saved in the abundance of his strength. And in another psalm again he says:

He does not delight in the strength of a horse, nor does he take pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him. And the earth was filled with abominations, the works of their hands, and they worshiped what their fingers made. Like a wise physician, the prophet states the cause before the disease and the source of the disease. For when he was about to accuse them of impiety, he first set out the occasions of the sickness—love of money, folly, improper unions—making clear that from these they were gradually tripped up into the pit of destruction and worshiped idols. Then, mocking their

religion, he added: The works of their hands. For what could be more ridiculous than when man is the maker of a god? Scripture is accustomed to call idols an abomination; hence even the statue standing in the temple is called the abomination of desolation. For when you see, it says, the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place—let the reader understand. For since he was leading them away from being fascinated by perceptible things, he forbade them to make any image at all, and called this an abomination, restraining them beforehand from impiety; for to abominate is to hate with excess, as something unclean, as something accursed. Therefore what is hateful and worthy of aversion is called an abomination in Scripture. And every idol is such. And they worshiped what their fingers made. And man bowed down and man was humbled. For just as the worship of God leads up to height, so the worship of those idols humbles and brings down.

For what is more lowly than a man who has fallen from salvation and has the God of all as his enemy, and who bows down to soulless things and serves stones? For God raised us to such great honor as to make us higher even than the heavens; but the devil hastened to drag down those who obey him into such great worthlessness as to make them more senseless than senseless things. Therefore the prophet says: And man has bowed down and man has been humbled. This accusation alone was enough to lead a person of understanding away from the disease. But since many people fear sins not so much as punishments, he added the chastisement also, saying: I will not forgive them. I will not pardon, he says, I will not let go, I will not overlook, but I will exact penalties and accounts for the offenses. And now enter into the rocks and hide yourselves in the earth from the face of the fear of the Lord. Having sufficiently ridiculed the folly of those who worship idols, and having shown both the madness of those men from the manner of creation and the weakness of the idols, he contends in his argument again, entrusting the examination of what has been said to the experience of events, and says: this very thing—that they were made by human hands—was enough to show the folly of those who are deceived; but since, stupefied as if by some drunkenness of impiety, they are blinded to the manifest and clear facts of things, such evils will overtake the city as to teach even the utterly senseless how great is their weakness and how great is the power of God.

For this reason, before speaking of the war, he tells what will result from it, commanding them to enter into the rocks and to hide beneath the earth itself—not so that they might do this, but so that from these things they might learn how unbearable is the wrath borne from God at that time. For hide yourselves, he says, in the earth from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he rises to shatter the earth. He did not say simply "from his strength," but "from the glory of his strength." For such are his achievements, such his trophies, possessing great conspicuousness and splendor. Here he seems to me to signify the victory over Hezekiah, calling the multitude of men "earth" and the downfall "shattering," and his "rising" the going forth to their aid. Since David also says thus: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; and again: Arise, O God, judge the earth—characterizing God's activities by human forms. For the eyes of the Lord are lofty, but man is lowly. Then, so that no one of those hearing at that time might disbelieve what was said (for what would happen was far beyond hopes and higher than all expectation), he fled for refuge to the power of the one who does it and the lowliness of those who suffer. For neither, he says, is anything higher than God, nor anything more lowly than men. Do not, then, be at a loss whether this great and strong one will be able thus suddenly to humble the lowly. And well did he say: The eyes of the Lord are lofty. Not

he said: "The power," but rather, "The eyes of the Lord," as though even the sight alone were sufficient to bring down all things that oppose him—which David also said elsewhere: "He who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble"; and again another prophet: "I will look upon him and I will be able to him." And the loftiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For when that victory had come to pass beyond expectation, and those splendid and wondrous trophies, demons were also put to shame and idols were dishonored and false prophets were silenced and the tyranny of the barbarians was destroyed, and every mouth that opposed God was stopped. For this reason he says: "The Lord alone shall be exalted." There will be no one left thereafter to contradict, nor to doubt concerning the power of God, since the demonstration of the facts has become so very clear. For the loftiness of his nature he has perpetually, never having begun, but always being; but he is said to be exalted in the mind of men whenever those who contradict and oppose, persuaded by the very demonstration of the facts, bow down and render the fitting praise. For the day of the Lord Sabaoth comes upon every insolent and proud man and upon every lofty and exalted one, and they shall be brought low. And upon every cedar of Lebanon, of the lofty and exalted ones, and upon every tree of the acorn of Bashan. And upon every high mountain and upon every high wall. And upon every high tower. And upon every ship of the sea, and upon every sight of the beauty of ships. And the loftiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

Here he calls powerful men a wall, a cedar, a hill, and an oak, figuratively indicating their dominion by the height of these trees; and by speaking of a ship and the sight of the beauty of ships, he hints at those of them who are more wealthy. What he means to say is this: that every strong man, every ruler, every general, every man clothed in wealth—every, so to speak, comeliness and strength of men—will then be gone and dissolved; and nothing will be able to stand forth so as to escape the wrath of God—not strength of body, not experience in war, not abundance of money, not the trappings of power, not a multitude of troops, nor anything else of that kind. He speaks of the cedars of Lebanon for this reason: because that tree grows especially in that place, or because the events are happening nearby; and the sight of the beauty of ships means the comeliness of generals adorned with wealth and arms and spearmen. It seems to me that he also hints at the long journey abroad of the barbarians. And they will hide all things made by hands, carrying them into the caves and into the clefts of the rocks and into the holes of the earth, from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he arises to crush the earth. For so far, he says, will the gods be from providing them any aid, that they will even need help from men and safe places, so as not to be captured: from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he arises to crush the earth.

For so that no one might reckon these things to be due to the assault of the barbarians, nor think that the fear comes from their strength, he brings the account back to the God of all things, saying that he himself is the commander of this war, and that from him comes the power † in so great a danger of those who had already transgressed †. For on that day a man will cast out his abominations, the silver ones and the golden ones, which they made for themselves to worship their vanities and the bats, to enter into the solid rocks and into the clefts of the rocks from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he arises to shatter the earth. He has sufficiently mocked them, showing that they hide together with their gods and sink down into the earth, and that not even the lavishness of the material could avail anything against the calamity that presses upon them. And he called the idols bats, either because of their weakness or because of the darkness

of their error, and because everything is done in secret by the demons. For just as for bats the sun and the light are hostile, but the night and the darkness are dear; so too for the demons and for those deceived by them, all wickedness and lawlessness are familiar and dear, but virtue and the works of the light are hateful, and when these shine forth, they are immediately darkened, the one who lives in virtue not needing any toil or labor. For it is enough for it merely to appear, and it destroys all those things. Cease from man, in whose nostril is breath; for in what has he been reckoned? Here it seems to me that he hints at Hezekiah, who from fear and great agony was at his last breaths.

Since, then, the barbarians had taken him as it were in their nets and supposed they had a catch ready at hand, and that no effort was needed for the capture of the city and his captivity, the opposite befell the barbarians. Therefore he says: Cease from the man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for in what was he reckoned by them? That is, he was reckoned as nothing. For they hoped that all things would be destroyed as by a sudden assault; but the opposite of everything came about; and he who was thought to be nothing among you, but contemptible and easy to overthrow, this man will appear more illustrious than all, enjoying the favor that comes from God.

CHAPTER 3. Behold now the Master, the Lord Sabaoth, will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman. Just as a most excellent physician, now cauterizing, now cutting, now giving bitter medicines, contrives the health of the sick, so too the man-loving God, tightening the slack and fallen state of the Jews with varied and diverse punishments, now frightens the ungrateful by the incursion of the barbarians, now even before their attack subdues them with other threats, preserving fear at its peak among them by the variety of his threats. Now, at any rate, he threatens them with weakness and famine and drought—not of necessities only, but even of those things which no less than necessities sustain our life. For it is not famine alone that is grievous, but also to be left in a desert without those who govern affairs; which is wont to make even abundance more grievous than famine.

For what benefit is it that everything flows from springs, when civil wars are bred and the sea is stirred up and the waves rage, with neither a helmsman nor a lookout nor anyone else able to weather the storm of affairs and restore calm? But when, along with these, there is also famine, consider the excess of evils. All these things, then, God threatens, and first the most grievous of all. For behold, he says, the Lord, the Master, Sabaoth. The prophets have continually used this expression, "Behold," when they wish to fully assure the hearer about what is said. And it is possible to see not only here but also above and from the beginning that sins have often preceded bodily weakness, as in the case of Cain; for since he did not use his strength well, he was rightly paralyzed. So too with the man at the pool; for that the source of his paralysis was sins, Christ says: Behold, you have become healthy; sin no more. And Paul also says: For this reason many among you are weak; because they were sinning, partaking of the mysteries with an unclean conscience. And he hands the fornicator over to weakness of body, exacting this penalty for his sins. Yet this is not everywhere the punishment for sins, but there are cases where the matter becomes a basis for crowns, as with Lazarus and Job. And not only weaknesses but also other deformities of the body came from sins, as the leprosy of Uzziah because of the shamelessness of his mind, as the hand of King Jeroboam which endured dryness because of his folly and his

...arrogance. And Zechariah's tongue was not educated from anywhere else, but through the sin of his soul. Since, then, for the Jews both being well-bodied and vigorous and exulting in these advantages became a basis for madness, he drew away the root of their arrogance, admonishing them and making them better and giving greater things than he was taking away from them. For what harm is it that the body be weak, when the soul is educated from this? Then, so that they might not think the affliction that occurred was from a weakness of nature, the prophet proclaimed these things beforehand, and he did not stop the threat at the men, but transferred the punishment also to the female sex, since both natures had been corrupted, and proceeding on account of the excess of the absurdity he addresses even the women themselves, charging them with offenses that were overturning the city itself from its foundations. For this reason he also surrounds them with the plague; for either he seems to me to hint at a plague when he says, "I will take away the mighty man and the mighty woman," or some other bodily weakness, one that does not yield even to the arts of physicians. For such are the plagues of God. The strength of bread and the strength of water. The most grievous punishment is when he does not destroy the substance itself, but the power that arises from it, so that they are punished even by sight, never being filled, and from this very fact perceive that the wrath was sent from God. Giant and mighty man. Scripture is always accustomed to call the mighty man a giant, or the one who surpasses the many by the proportion of his limbs. For indeed in the creation, when it says:

These were the giants, the renowned men; the passage does not relate that some other race came into being, but it hints at those who are strong, vigorous, and full of swelling strength. And a warrior and a judge. The punishment is unbearable and the things said are a proof of the utmost destruction, and, though the walls stand and the towers, it could hand the city over to the enemy with its inhabitants. For the safety of cities lies not in stones and timbers and enclosures, but in the understanding of those who inhabit the city, who, whenever they are present, even when enemies exist, wall it more securely than all things; but whenever they are absent, even with no one troubling it, they make it more wretched than a city under siege. So the prophet through these words taught both those men and all the hearers no small doctrine of philosophy, persuading them never to trust in the size of a city, nor in trenches and siege engines, but in the virtue of upright men. Frightening them, then, he says that he will desolate it of its safety, snatching away not only those who know how to make war, but also those who know how to judge, who contribute to cities no less than those who make war, both arranging peace well and often repelling wars that come upon them. For since these too grow continually from the root of sins, it is possible for the guardians of the laws and those who preside over justice with exactness, by checking the greater part of sins, to destroy them and the occasion of war. For what reason, then, does God sweep them away? Because when they were present they did not use them as was fitting.

For just as his saving teachings brought great benefit to those who heard them, but when he was addressing the Jews publicly he concealed what was said in obscurity, since they did not attend to what was said; so also these great gifts of his, which convey great salvation to us, he often removes from our midst, whenever those who receive them wish to reap no fruit from them. And a prophet and a diviner. Nor is the failure of prophecies a small form of wrath. At any rate, when God turned away from the people of the Jews because of the sins of Eli's sons and the great wickedness of the multitude, prophecy failed; for the word was precious, it says, and there was no vision distinguishing. Precious, that is, rare. And in the time of Uzziah this same thing happened; for they reaped no small benefit from this too, if indeed they wished. For to learn the things that come from God, and to be prepared for future dangers, and to inquire about hidden things, and when one must attack

enemies and when to keep quiet, and how one ought to ward off all painful things—this brought them great ease of salvation. But since, though learning, they did not act, for this reason he also took away their learning; which was a proof of God's great love for humanity, that even foreknowing the future and that they would not use his gifts as they ought, he nonetheless provided all things from himself. And after the prophet, he says, he also removes the diviner. Here he seems to me to call a diviner one who by great understanding divines future things, and from the very experience of affairs. For divination is one thing and prophecy another;

For the one speaks by the divine Spirit, contributing nothing of his own; but the other, taking his starting points from things that have already happened and rousing his own understanding, foresees many future things, as it is likely for an intelligent man to foresee. But great is the difference between this one and that one, and as great as the difference between human understanding and divine grace. And that I may make the argument clear also by an example, let us consider Solomon and Elisha; for both brought hidden matters into the open and uncovered hidden things; but both not by the same power; but the one from human understanding, taking his starting points from nature, in the case of those harlot women; but the other using no reasoning at all (for what reasoning could have been able to uncover Gehazi's theft?), but by divine grace foreseeing things that had happened from afar. And an elder and a captain of fifty. Along with these, he says, he will destroy both an elder and a captain of fifty; calling an elder not simply one who has grown old, but one who along with gray hair preserves the understanding befitting gray hair. And when he says a captain of fifty, he does not mean some one captain of fifty, but by this name he hints at all rulers. For nothing, nothing is more grievous than anarchy, just as nothing could be more precarious than a ship that has no pilot. And he does not stop even here, but threatens to destroy another great security, those who know how to give the best counsel, who bring no less benefit to cities than arms. For I will take away, he says, both the wondrous counselor and the wise master builder.

Not speaking of the builder, but of the man experienced in affairs and knowing many things, and who knows how to arrange all the affairs of the city with understanding.

And with these things: And a discerning hearer. For if this is absent, even if all the other things are present, there will be no benefit for the cities, even if there are prophets, even if counselors, even if rulers, but no one is listening—all things are in vain and to no purpose. And it seems to me that here the phrase I will take away means I will let go and I will dismiss, just as Paul says: God gave them over to a reprobate mind—not showing that he cast them into folly, but that he let them go and allowed them to be foolish. And I will set young men as their rulers. This is worse than anarchy and far more grievous. For the one who has no ruler is deprived of the one who leads him by the hand; but the one who has a wicked ruler has one who casts him into precipices. And here he said young men, not simply disparaging their age, but from what is more prevalent he demonstrates their folly. For it is possible both for the young to be discerning and for the aged to live with folly; but since this tends to happen rarely, while the opposite is more prevalent, from that he called them foolish. Since indeed Timothy was young, and he set the churches in order more wisely than countless aged men; and Solomon, when he was twelve years old, conversed with God and enjoyed much boldness of speech, and was proclaimed and crowned, and seated a theater of his own wisdom from the barbarians, and not only men but even women coming from afar had this alone as the reason for their journey—to learn something and hear from his voice.

But when he came to old age, he fell far short of virtue. And his father, the blessed David, committed that grievous sin not when he was a boy and a youth, but when he had passed beyond that age, then he sinned. But when he happened to be a little child, he also set up a wondrous trophy and brought down the barbarian and displayed all philosophy, and his youth was no hindrance to him for these achievements. And God did not accept Jeremiah's excuse based on his age, but brought him out to the people of the Jews, saying that nothing from this hindered him, if the things of his mind were strong. It was at this age, or rather much less than this, that Daniel judged the elders. And Josiah, when he was not yet even ten full years old, ascended the throne of the kingdom; and at that time he was held in high esteem, but afterwards, having become negligent, he slightly harmed the virtue of his soul. And what of Joseph? Was he not young, and very young, when he took up that grievous war, fighting not against men but against the very tyranny of nature, and leaped out unharmed from the midst of the furnace and flame far more grievous than the Persian one, remaining no less unscathed than the three children? For just as those then brought out their bodies intact with their very hair, showing that they came forth rather from a fountain than from a furnace—

Thus also this man, once released from the defiled hands of the Egyptian woman, went out, having suffered nothing of that sort either from her touch, or from her words, or from her sight, or from her garments, or from her perfumes, which kindled the flame of desire more fiercely than vine-brushwood and pitch, nor even from his age itself, such as it is likely for a man to suffer. And these three youths themselves, being in the flower of their age, both mastered their belly and trampled on the fear of death, and prevailed over so great an army and a king who breathed fury more violently than the furnace itself, and nothing struck them with terror, but they remained continually with their mind unenslaved. Therefore he does not say these things to slander age; since Paul too, when he says, Not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil, does not mean the young in age, but the one newly planted, that is, the one newly catechized; for he calls catechizing and teaching planting, as when he says, I planted, Apollos watered. And Christ calls such a thing a planting, saying, Every planting which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. Since if he meant the young man by "novice," he would not have brought Timothy, who was very young, and so young that he said, Let no one despise your youth, to so great a height of rule and permitted him to bear so many churches. And mockers shall lord it over them. Do you see that he does not slander age simply, but the corrupted mind? For by the addition he made this clearer.

He calls deceivers here "mockers," the hypocrites, the flatterers, those who through the grace of their words drink them down to the devil. And the people shall fall, man against man, and man against his neighbor. For just as when the timbers that hold buildings together are corrupted or even removed, the walls must necessarily collapse, since there is nothing to hold them up; so too when these previously mentioned are removed—rulers, counselors, judges, prophets—there was nothing to prevent the people from collapsing upon itself and great confusion arising.

The child shall stumble against the elder, and the dishonored against the honored. The young man, he says, shall oppose the aged; he shall look down on him, despise him. These things, even before the enemy's assault, were more grievous than any war. For when old age is dishonored by youth, and the worthless and cast-off trample upon those formerly respected, such a city will be in no better state than a ship tossed by the waves. For a man shall seize his brother, or the member of his father's house, saying: You have a garment, become our leader, and let my food be under you. And answering in that day he shall say: I will not be a leader; I

For he says, there is no bread in my house, nor a garment. I will not be a leader of this people. Here it seems to me that he hints either at some most grievous siege, which brings them down to the utmost destitution, or, apart from a siege, at an unbearable famine and a great scarcity of necessities. And he has used common custom; and just as many say, if it happened that the whole city were sold for an obol, I would not have it to buy, indicating the utmost poverty—so too the prophet says that if the offices were to be bought for a single garment and only bread, there will be no one to buy them; such will be the scarcity of necessities. For Jerusalem is let go—that is, it has been abandoned, it has been laid waste, it has been stripped of God's providence. And Judea has fallen—it has been filled, he says, with confusion and tumult, with disorder and lawlessness. And their tongues with lawlessness disobey the things pertaining to the Lord. Then also the cause of the evils: the intemperance of the tongue. Which Hosea also charges, saying: Ephraim has become a desolation in the days of reproof; in the tribes of Israel I showed faithful things; and Malachi again saying the same things: Those who provoke God with your words; and you said: In what have we provoked him? In your saying: Everyone who does evil is good before the Lord, and in them he himself was well pleased. And where is the God of justice?

This is exactly what he himself also charges them with, bringing a double accusation: that they not only disobey, nor only transgress the law, but that when they ought at least to be ashamed of this and to blush, to cover themselves and bow down, they even contend alongside their former deeds, and along with not doing what is commanded they utter burdensome words—as if some senseless servant, abandoning his master's commands, should even grow bold. Therefore now their glory has been brought low, and the shame of their face has stood against them. Again he speaks of future things as past, using the customary law of prophecy. By the bringing low of glory he means the captivity. For it was not an ordinary shame that those who were in the rank of rulers of the world should be subjected to profane and barbarian men. By shame of face he here means that which arises from sin. For such was their life. Since, then, by their prior deeds they shamed themselves through what they did, for this reason God cast them out of their glory, delivering them over to a lesser punishment than that which they had brought upon themselves. For they were not so reproachable when dwelling in a foreign land as when, possessing the mother city, they broke the law. For then the things of wickedness were even hindered for them; but in their fatherland it was raised even to greater height. The prophet, then, was teaching them a great doctrine, everywhere persuading them, before punishment, to flee wickedness and to cover themselves and be ashamed—not when barbarians take them as slaves and lead them away, but when the tyranny of sin holds them captive.

Their sin, like that of Sodom, they announced and made manifest. What I have often said, I say now also: that the prophet, demonstrating God's love for humanity, foretells not only what they are going to suffer, but also what they deserved to suffer. For their sins were equal to those of Sodom, but their punishment was less. For he did not snatch them away root and branch, nor did he tear the city up from its foundations, nor did he obliterate the remnants of the race. The phrase "They announced and made manifest" is spoken in a more human way. For God does not learn what has happened at the time it happens (how could he, who knows all things before their coming to be?), but he said this to show the greatness of their vehemence. For just as elsewhere he says, "The cry of their wickedness has come up to me," not removing God somewhere far away and enclosing him in heaven, but declaring the greatness of the sin—so indeed here too, by "They announced," he speaks to indicate the excess of their wickedness. For since the lesser sins could even escape notice, but the excessive and great ones are known to all and manifest, even if no one is accusing or convicting. For they themselves

He declares and makes them manifest. Wishing here to show the magnitude of the evils, the prophet says, "They announced and made manifest"—that is, with great excess, with great boldness they were doing evil, neither ashamed nor covering themselves, but making wickedness their practice. "Woe to their soul, because they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying, 'Let us bind the righteous man, because he is troublesome to us.'" It is an intensification of wickedness when they not only sin, nor only sin with boldness, but when they also drive away those able to correct such things. For just as those possessed by frenzy have often struck down the physician, so too these brought forth this greatest proof of their incurable disease—the casting out of the righteous. For such is virtue: even merely appearing, it suffices to grieve the one living in wickedness. Such is wickedness: even when not reproved, it is often burdened by the very presence of those who choose to live in equity. Here the accusation is double: both binding the righteous man and binding him as useless. When, then, someone not only does not admit the things that profit him, but even considers them harmful, what pretext for correction is left thereafter? Therefore the prophet, seeing them cast down to the very last, begins again from lamentations, not from accusation and charges, saying, "Woe to their soul," and what follows with great understanding: "Because they have devised an evil counsel against themselves." And yet the deeds seem to have been ventured against the righteous man; but if one examines accurately, the counsel turns not against the one suffering but against those doing it.

Here we learn that the good man, even if he suffers countless evils, will be harmed in no way by those who inflict them; but those who plot, these are rather the ones who thrust the sword against themselves, just as these men did. For in binding the righteous man they harmed him not at all, but they brought themselves into greater darkness and desolation, taking the lamp out of the way. Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their works. For such is wickedness: it has its punishment within itself. This is what he says here as well—that is: they shall enjoy the fruits of their own deeds, bringing themselves into greater desolation and making the precipices many. Woe to the lawless man, for evil things shall befall him according to the works of his hands. Do you see that the measures of punishment always begin from us? For this reason the prophet again laments and bewails and is cut off, because the Jews themselves plotted against themselves and harmed their own salvation more grievously than any enemy could; and what could be more wretched than this? My people, your exactors strip you bare. This is the mark of the best teacher: to vary his discourse, and neither to make it harsh only, nor gentle only, but now to employ this form, now that, so that great benefit may come from the mixture. For this reason the prophet not only accuses but also laments, which is weightier than accusations, yet provides less pain; and this is the wonder, that in the deeper cut the pain is gentler. And he does not only lament but also heals, and again stirs up another wondrous manner of teaching. What then is this?

Not to rebuke everyone alike, but to separate the people from the rulers and turn the accusations back upon their head. For so great is the gain of this kind, that Moses also practiced it with greater excess. For this man, when all were liable to the charges, turns his discourse against the rulers; but Moses, finding that the people were then especially the ones who had committed that transgression, while Aaron was not worthy of so great an accusation, passed over those who were exceedingly liable and turns his accusation against the one not so liable, giving to their conscience, by the charges against that man, to pronounce against themselves a punishment greater than their deeds—which indeed came to pass. For he no longer needed other words to the people, but those bare words spoken to Aaron sufficed to restrain so many thousands, as one man, and to bring them down from so great a boldness to the utmost fear and agony. Foreseeing these things, Moses, having come down immediately, broke the tablets and said to Aaron: What did this people do to you, that you made it a laughingstock to your enemies?

This the prophet also does, imitating that holy man in a twofold manner. For Moses did not merely accuse them at that time, but also, assuming the mask of one who grieves with them, so he made that accusation. Thus this one also imitated both, saying: My people, your exactors strip you bare. For he both accused them and spoke these things as one grieving with the people. And here "exactors" seems to mean those who demand payment; but I think he hints at the robbers, the covetous among them; if not that, then those who collect taxes. Observe his understanding here too. For he does not abolish the practice, but the excess. For he did not say, "They demand," but, "They strip bare," that is, they strip them of their possessions, they deprive them of everything under the pretext of exaction. And he has used this word from the metaphor of those who glean. For "to glean" is said of gathering after the harvest the ears of grain that fell from the reapers and leaving nothing at all on the field; which indeed these men were then doing, snatching whole possessions and leaving them naked. And those who demand payment lord it over you. And what is even worse, that not even here did they stop in their covetousness, but they advanced their tyranny even further, making free men slaves. My people, those who call you blessed deceive you. Here he seems to me to hint at the false prophets or those who speak to them for favor, which becomes the cause of the utmost corruption everywhere. At any rate, declaring the harm from this, he added: And they trouble the path of your feet.

That is, they do not allow them to walk straight, but twist them, weaken them, and make them more slack. But now the Lord will stand up for judgment, and he will set his people for judgment; the Lord himself will come for judgment with the elders of the people and with their rulers. He still persists in the same form of correction, turning the rebuke from the people to the aged and the rulers, and handling his discourse more fearfully; and he brings in God himself judging and condemning, and charging the sins of the peoples to the rulers. Therefore he also says: But now the Lord will stand up for judgment. For since he spent his discourse on accusations, and to those who are insensible the being accused is not very burdensome, but the being punished is fearful, he says that matters will not stop at accusation, but judgment will also follow upon the sins, since he himself is about to condemn, henceforth demanding an account and being judged against those who have transgressed. This also shows the great condescension of God, that he endures to be judged with them, and it makes the discourse shame-inducing, which is also accustomed to cast even those of understanding into great agony. And it is not only for that reason which I mentioned before that he turns his discourse to the rulers and the aged, but also to teach all that the accounts required of rulers are heavier than those of the ruled. For the one renders account for himself alone, but the other for himself and for the people whose rule he happens to have been entrusted with; and the elders too, not unreasonably, are required to show such exactness.

For what their origin is, that old age is to these. For the young man too is worthy of rebuke when he sins terribly; but the one who has the incompleteness that comes from age, and is not besieged by so many waves of passions, but is able both to be self-controlled more easily and to endure the other things of life more readily, and has acquired greater understanding from experience of affairs, would justly be condemned more than all, displaying in old age the deeds of dissolute young men. But you, why did you set my vineyard on fire, and the plunder of the poor is in your houses? Everywhere God has great providence for those who are wronged; and he is provoked no less—but in some places even more—by sins against himself than by offenses against fellow servants. For he permitted the man who had a wife who was a prostitute to put her away, but no longer the man whose wife was a Greek; and yet the one sin is against himself, the other against a human being. And when the sacrifice was set before him, he commanded the one who had grieved his neighbor to leave the gift and not bring it first, until he had set matters right toward his brother. And when he judged the man who had devoured the ten thousand talents, for the sins charged against himself he neither called him wicked nor was he reconciled quickly and forgave the whole debt. But for the hundred denarii, he both calls him a wicked servant and hands him over to the torturers and said he would not release him until he should pay the whole debt. And when Christ himself was struck, he did nothing to the servant who dealt the blow, but even answered gently, saying: If I spoke evil, testify concerning the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?

But when Jeroboam stretched out his hand and attempted to seize the prophet who at that time had rebuked him, he made his hand withered, instructing you also to bear your own wrongs gently, but to avenge those against the Master with great vehemence. For this reason also, when giving the law, even if he said that love of neighbor is second, yet it is like the first; and just as he demands the former with every excess, so also this one. For of that one he says: With your whole heart and with your whole soul; but of this one: As yourself. And from another place, and in many ways, one could see how much exactness God demands of us concerning the rights we owe to one another. Observe, then, that here too he presses vehemently and increases the accusation with the heaviest words: But you, he says, why have you set my vineyard on fire? What enemies and certain cruel barbarians would have done, these things you have done to your own. And he calls the people a vineyard because of his great zeal for them and his care from above. And magnifying the charge, he did not say: Why your fellow servants, your neighbors, your brothers? But: My things, he says, you have destroyed, my things you have ruined? Then, making clear the kind of burning, he says: The plundering of the poor is in your houses. For hail does not so customarily ravage vines, as the injustice done to the poor and needy is by nature wont to set the soul on fire, consuming it with a despondency harsher than any death. Everywhere, then, plundering is evil; but especially when the one being wronged is in the utmost poverty.

He does not merely rebuke by saying this, but also corrects, directing them to the contemplation of the plunder. For the sight itself, set before the eyes after the utterance, is sufficient to pierce with compunction the one who is not exceedingly insensible. Why do you wrong my people? He persisted again in the same manner, just as there: My vineyard, so also here: My people, he says. And do you put to shame the faces of the humble? Those whom you ought to set upright, you push down; those whom you ought to raise up, you crush down. For along with the plunder they also spat upon the more worthless and treated them more harshly than slaves, adding arrogance to greed and acquiring from the injustice of this wealth great folly. For the disease of pride is yoked together with greed; and to whatever extent one increases wealth, to that extent this disease also grows worse. This says the Lord, the Lord of hosts. And what is "of hosts"? He means the angels, the archangels, the powers above, leading the hearer up from earth to heaven, casting into his mind the thought of his great kingdom, so that by this at least he might strike him with amazement and make him more self-controlled, and show that such great forbearance is not of weakness but of long-suffering. Thus says the Lord: Because the daughters of Zion have been lifted up and walked with a lofty neck and with beckonings of the eyes and with the

dragging their garments along as they walk, and at the same time playing with their feet. And God will humble the ruling daughters of Zion, and the Lord will uncover their form in that day. And the Lord will take away the glory of their clothing and their adornment, and the headbands and the crescents and the little moons and the necklace and the adornment of their face and the composition of the adornment of their glory, and the bracelets and the armlets and the headband and the rings and the bracelets on the right hand and the earrings and the purple robes and the half-purple garments and the coverings that are in the house and the transparent Laconian garments and the fine linen and the hyacinth-colored and the scarlet and the fine linen woven together with gold and hyacinth and the enclosed summer garments of gold. And it shall be that instead of a sweet smell there shall be dust, and instead of a belt you shall be girded with a rope, and instead of the adornment of your head you shall have baldness because of your works, and instead of the half-purple garment you shall be girded with sackcloth. These things are for you instead of adornment. And your son, the most beautiful one whom you love, shall fall by the sword, and your strong men shall fall by the sword and shall be humbled. And the receptacles of your adornment shall mourn, and you shall be left alone and shall be dashed to the ground. This is strange—the prophet himself has done it, stretching out a long discourse to the women, which we see nowhere in the Scriptures having happened in this way. What then is the cause of the strange thing? It seems to me that there was great folly among the women at that time, and that they contributed the greater part to the wickedness of the men.

Therefore he addresses them specifically, charging them with the most grievous accusations and tracing the matter back to its origin, speaking again in the person of God. Thus says the Lord: Because the daughters of Zion have been exalted and walked with a high neck. He charges them with the chief of evils: arrogance and boastfulness. For this is grievous everywhere, but especially when it is bred in the female nature. For a woman filled with pride, being more frivolous and irrational, is easily overturned and submerged and suffers shipwreck from every evil spirit, since conceit and boastfulness submerge her. And he seems to address those in Jerusalem; therefore he also called them daughters of Zion. And they walked with a high neck. Here he both mocks them and exposes the female mind, which cannot be contained even in thought, but bursts out and displays itself through the movements of the body. And he accuses them not only of arrogance but also of licentiousness, saying this and making it clear from what follows. For he added: And with nods of the eyes, which is the mark of women who prostitute themselves, twisting their eyes and from this displaying great wantonness and softness; and there is no sign of daintiness and softness so much as this. And dragging their garments along with the walking of their feet. This is no small accusation, even if it seems small, but it is proof of the utmost destruction and of being soft and broken down and dissolved—the dragging of garments. At any rate, one of the pagan comic poets also set this down against his adversary, saying:

having let down the garment as far as the ankles. And at the same time playing with their feet. And this again is a proof of the same indecency. For through all things—through the eyes, through the garments, through the feet, through the gait—both chastity and licentiousness are made manifest. For while the soul sits within, the movements of the senses are, as it were, certain heralds of it. And just as painters, blending colors, portray the images they wish, so too the movements of the members of the body bring the soul's characters outward and set them before our eyes. Therefore another wise man also said: A man's attire and the laughter of his teeth and his footstep will declare the things concerning him. And God will bring low the ruling daughters of Zion, and the Lord will uncover their form in that day, and the Lord will take away the glory of their attire. Having set down two charges, arrogance and licentiousness, he applies to each the appropriate remedy—to the former the former and to the latter what follows: to arrogance, humiliation; to the adornment of their form, the removal of that adornment. For when war overtakes them then, he says, all things will be gone. For those who are inflamed and arrogant, checked by fear, will be rid of the disease; and those who are soft and dainty in every way, having fallen under the yoke of captivity, will be freed from all that luxury.

So as to make his discourse more burdensome to them and to fasten upon the minds of the hearers, he also recounts in detail the adornment of their garments, their gold ornaments, that upon the face, that upon the rest of the body, and he proceeds also to the ornamentation of the house. For they did not adorn only their bodies, but they carried this wantonness even as far as the walls, spending on nothing needful; and twisting their hair, they spread out from every side the wings of such deception. And this at any rate he charges them with, saying: that he will take away the glory of their raiment and their ornament and their braided bands and their topknots. By topknots he means either some ornament about the head or the very shape of the headband. And the crescents: a moon-shaped ornament about the neck. And the necklace. He means the summer garment. And the ornament of their face. Here he seems to me to hint at cosmetics and painted marks. And the composition of the ornament of their glory. This, he says, is gilded over. And the bracelets: the gold ornaments about the arms. And the armlets: those about the wrists. And the braided band: a golden ornament about the head. And the rings and the right-hand ornaments: which they call dexiaria. And the earrings and the purple-edged garments and the garments with purple in the middle and the coverlets in the house and the transparent Laconian fabrics. For such was their zeal for licentiousness that they used not only native products but gathered these from afar and from foreign lands and sent out overseas journeys on their account. For great is the distance between Palestine and Lacedaemon, and the sea between them is boundless.

He has not, then, simply set down their homeland, omitting the garments, but so as to make manifest their exceeding licentiousness. Both the fine linen and the hyacinth-blue and the scarlet, and the fine linen woven together with gold and hyacinth, and the fringes enclosed with gold. For they left no kind of adornment untried, neither in garments nor in the rest of their ornament, but they traversed every path of extravagance, driven to frenzy by the tyranny of wantonness. But if these things were charges even then, before grace and such philosophy, of what forgiveness would those be deemed worthy who are now called to heaven and drawn to longer courses and to the zeal of the angels, and who surpass this wantonness with greater excess and conceal the things done on the stage? And what is yet more grievous, they do not even consider it sin. Therefore it is necessary to arm the voice of the prophet even against them. For indeed the words that follow will be spoken not only against those women but also against these: For dust shall be instead of a sweet smell. Do you see how he casts out even the anointing of perfumes and sets a great punishment for it? For he calls dust here that which is raised up after the razing of the city and the assault of the barbarians. For indeed they divided her between fire and iron, razing part of her and handing part over to burning. Foretelling these things, then, he said: Instead of a sweet smell there shall be to you dust, and instead of a girdle you shall be girded with a rope; bringing before their eyes the form of captivity and the leading away into the barbarian land. And instead of the ornament of your head you shall have baldness.

Either because their hair had fallen out from wretchedness, or because the enemy did this, or because they did it to themselves. For it was an ancient custom in mourning and calamity to shear and shave oneself. For indeed Job shaved his head when he heard of the calamity of his children. And the prophet, proceeding further, said that it came about with sackcloth and beating of the breast and shaving. And

another again says: And shave and shear upon your tender children. And instead of the purple-bordered tunic you shall gird yourself with sackcloth. Do these things not seem fearful and unbearable? But in our case the punishments will not stop at these things, but a venomous worm and endless darkness will follow. For if captivity and slavery and the worst evils awaited those women instead of their adornment—for listen how, having enumerated those things, he added the reason as well, that this was demanded as a penalty and that he punished this sin specifically: These things are yours instead of adornment—if, then, Jewish women adorned so greatly endured such punishment, their homeland torn up from its foundations, and after their great luxury becoming slaves and captives and stateless, carried off to a foreign land and handed over to famine and plague and countless deaths, how is it not evident that we shall suffer more grievously, falling into the same things? For just as the honors are greater, so also the punishments are heavier. And if some woman adorned with such things has not yet suffered this, let her not take courage. For this is God's custom, to define punishments upon one and a second, and through those to legislate for all the rest the terrors that will overtake them.

But to make what I say clearer: those who once dwelt in Sodom sinned a grievous sin, and they paid the ultimate penalty, when those thunderbolts were hurled down and their cities and peoples and the land itself were burned up together with their very bodies. What then? Did no one after them dare the same things? Many indeed, and in many places throughout the world. How is it, then, that they suffered nothing of the kind? Because they are reserved for a different and more grievous punishment. For this reason God, having done this once, withdrew, so that those who dare the same things, even if they pay no penalty here, may know clearly that they will never escape. For how could it be reasonable that those before the grace and the law, who had heard neither prophets nor anyone else, should suffer such things for having sinned, while those after them, who enjoyed such great providence and did not become more temperate even by the example—which makes the sin far more grievous—should escape the penalty appointed for this? How is it, then, that they have not yet paid it even to this day? So that you may learn that they are reserved for a far more grievous punishment. For that it is possible to suffer things worse than Sodom, hear Christ saying: It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. So even if women who now adorn themselves do not suffer what the women of that time suffered who adorned themselves, let them not be of good courage. For that very forbearance and long-suffering heaps up a furnace of fire more grievous than that fire and makes the flame greater. This also happened in the case of Ananias and Sapphira.

For those men at the beginning and the outset of the preaching, having stolen those goods, were suddenly snatched away; but after them many who dared the same things suffered nothing. How then could it be reasonable that the just judge, who assigns equal measure to all, should punish those who sinned less, but let go those who did worse things? Is it not evident that, since he has appointed a day in which he is about to judge the world, for this reason he deferred the punishment, so that either by his long-suffering they might become better, or by persisting in the same things they might suffer worse? Whenever, then, we who have sinned the same things as those who already transgressed and were punished do not suffer the same things, let us not be confident, but rather let us fear. For just as a law, God brought forth the punishment upon those men, exhorting and saying to all that for this reason I punished the one who sinned from the beginning, so that you also, who after them transgress in this way, might expect the same things, so that you might change and become better. For such punishments are laid up for such sins, even if they do not come immediately. And I have not dwelt on these things without reason, but because a wicked disease has entered into the houses of men through the softness of women—the love of adornment, which also increased the tyranny of wealth, casting men into untimely expenditures, and becoming a cause of war and sedition and daily strife, and stretching out the [affairs] of the poor—

For when a woman compels her husband to spend all his substance, or even more than he has, on the outrage of the body (for the gold that is worn about is an outrage of the body), the hand must of necessity be drawn back from the generosity of almsgiving. And many other kinds of sins born from this may be seen. But leaving these things to be clearly known from the experience of those who suffer them, let us take up what follows. For after setting forth the form of the captivity and saying that I bring this in place of their adornment, he intensifies the calamity, saying: And thy fairest son, whom thou lovest, shall fall by the sword, and your strong men shall fall by the sword. For this is harsher than captivity. For life is bitterer than death. For when, along with slavery, they are compelled to lament untimely griefs, consider how great is the magnitude of the calamity, when things that are bitter even in themselves are joined to one another. For even if it were captivity alone, the evil would be unbearable; and if such griefs befell those living in freedom, life would be bitterer than death. But now both shall be, he says, joined to one another. Or rather one must call this a double calamity and triple and quadruple, when both a son and the fairest and the beloved, and by barbarians, and not by the common law of nature, ends his life; and along with this all those in their prime, so that they have no good hope left, as far as human help and alliance extends. And the tombs of your world shall be brought low and shall mourn, and thou shalt be left alone and shalt be razed to the ground.

Through all of this he magnifies the lamentation, intensifies the fear, makes the agony reach its height, brings the terrors before their eyes, expands the narrative of the calamity, running everywhere, gathering griefs from every side because of the insensibility of the hearers. For it was desirable that they, shaken by so many threats, should be brought to their senses and perceive the griefs that were about to befall them. For this reason he added this too, which seems to be very pitiable—the sight of a chest of gold emptied, a reminder of former prosperity, preserving the pain at its height through the sight. For calamities are wont to bite us most especially then, when we compare them with former prosperities; and the comparison makes the wound more grievous. This, at any rate, Job once said in his lamentation: Who would set me months after months of the days that are before? and he recounts all his wealth and the good things that flowed as if from springs—the honors, the revenues, all the splendor—so that by comparison with these he might show the present evils that had overtaken him to be far more grievous. This, indeed, the prophet has now done as well, reminding them of the chests, and not being content with these either, but even introducing them as mourning. For this form of speech is more vivid, when it produces such personifications. Indeed, he already introduces vines lamenting, and wine, so as to strike the hearers more and lay hold of their dullness. But what is this, You shall be left alone?

And, he says, being bereft of allies and of the providence of God, and stripped of all the rest of her splendor, and surrounded on every side by enemies, and taken in the midst of barbarians. Then, wishing to set forth the excess of her humiliation, he says: And you shall be dashed to the ground. He did not say, "you shall fall," nor "you shall be brought down," but he employed another word that more clearly indicates all her worthlessness.

CHAPTER 4. And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying: We will eat our own bread and clothe ourselves with our own garments; only let your name be called upon us, take away our reproach. He wishes to show the scarcity of men that came about from the war, and how the people of the Jews were reduced to the smallest number. For they said they did not need the protection that is proper to women to be provided by men, but that he should be released from this service as incomplete and should be content and satisfied if only, simply and as it happened, they might be rid of the name of widowhood. For this is: Take away our reproach; since in ancient times this seemed to be a reproach. And in that day God will shine forth in counsel with glory upon the earth, to exalt and to glorify the remnant of Israel. Since he greatly shook their mind by the threat of grievous things, and vividly dramatized the calamity and stretched out a long account narrating the fearful things, he now changes to the more favorable things. For this is the manner of the best healing: not only to cut and cauterize, but also to soothe the pains that arise from these with gentle remedies; this indeed he himself also does.

For he did not say that the whole would be brought down to gloom, but that once the wicked were taken out of the midst, better things would follow; and that there would not only be a removal of unpleasant things, but also great renown and great splendor. For this he calls an illumination of God, which dissolves the darkness of despondency and makes the day bright and renders things conspicuous. And the phrase "In counsel," he says, means that he will do all things wisely and with the wisdom that befits him. And the remnant of Israel in Zion and the remnant in Jerusalem shall be called holy, all those written for life in Jerusalem. So that you may learn that the salvation of those who escaped the danger came not from some chance, but that, walled about by the decree from above and being in the midst of terrors, they were not captured—for this reason he says: All those written for life in Jerusalem shall be called holy. Those, he says, who were set apart, who were approved, who were stamped, so as to suffer nothing terrible. And with good reason he calls them holy, showing that it was not simply their being set apart that delivered them, nor simply God's decree; but the virtue of their ways also contributed something, both the former and that which came after. For even if some were good and equitable, nevertheless they became better and more exact through what befell them. For just as gold handed over to the fire lays aside every blemish, so too the zealous become more zealous in temptations, washing away all slackness. Because the Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will purge the blood of Jerusalem from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.

Here it seems to me he speaks of a double purification: both the paying of the penalty for the sins they committed, and their becoming more earnest for the future as a result. By the blood of Jerusalem he means the murders, the unjust slaughters. Then, heightening the charge, he says, From their midst. For they did not dare their man-slayings in secret and hidden, but worse than robbers and those who lie in wait on the highways. For those men, hidden by darkness and in desolate places, dare their customary deeds; but these men, in the midst of the marketplaces, in the midst of the city, in the very courts of justice, transgressed in the manner of those men. But also the stain that arose from there, he says, the war that came upon them will consume. For even in the time of good things he offers a defense for the former sorrows, that those very things which happened came to pass for this reason: that they might be washed out, that they might be purified, that they might be tried by fire, that they might put away every stain, that they might wash off the reproach that came from their sins and their slaughters. But what is it that he says: By a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning? He has persisted in the metaphor of smelted materials. For just as there the wind, falling upon the furnace and fanning the flame and making the coals hotter, consumes all the filth; so also here the God-sent wrath and the assault of the enemies, falling upon them, has become as fire to the city—fire that does not destroy but burns and purifies, punishes and corrects. For the phrase By a spirit of judgment means, that is, of chastisement, of punishment, of vengeance. And the Lord will come, he says. He calls his visitation his working. And every place of Mount Zion shall be

And a cloud will overshadow all that is around her by day, and as of smoke and as of a burning fire by night, with all her glory shall she be covered. And it shall be for a shade by day from the heat, and for a shelter and for a hiding place from hardship and rain. Here he calls the cloud the consolation that arises from troubles, and the fire the conspicuousness that comes along with the comfort. For what a cloud is in heat, that a fire brightly kindled is in darkness and deepest night. For the one drives off the drought, the other dissolves the gloom. So he compared the conspicuousness to the brightness of the fire, and the relief to the shadow of the cloud. Then, showing that these things will not come about as the troubles are dissolved little by little, but that the change will happen all at once in the very peak of the afflictions, so that from this too they may learn that the transition to the better did not come about from some cycle of fortune or chance, but that the whole has been set right by the power from above: As of a burning fire by night, he says, so shall the change be; and it shall be for a shade by day. What shall be? The help of God, he says, and his alliance, like a shade in heat and like a roof or some recess of a cave, when a violent rainstorm bursts down, keeping the one who flees there in safety. So indeed the alliance of God will not allow him to suffer any evil, even when war bursts down so great, but will preserve those whom he has chosen from the beginning.

CHAPTER 5. Let me sing now to my beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. Having terrified them with grievous things and gladdened them with good things, and having wrought a varied form of healing, he leads his discourse again to another beginning, a beginning resembling the preface of the prophecy. For just as in the beginning he declared the benefits of God that had been bestowed upon them, saying, "I have begotten sons and raised them up," and then brought in and added the transgressions they had dared to commit, saying, "But they themselves have set me at nought," and "Israel did not know me, and my people did not understand me"—so indeed here too, with different words but the same meanings, he sets forth the same things as before. But for what reason, when about to accuse, does he call the accusation a song? For Moses reasonably did this with Miriam, since he was about to sing the song of victory, and reasonably began thus, saying, "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea." And Deborah too, after that wondrous trophy and paradoxical victory, reasonably weaves that song of victory, bringing up praise to God. But this one, when about to accuse and needing intense speech and a soul not relaxed but strained, promises to sing to us and calls the charges a song. Nor does he do this alone, but that great Moses also, who then sang the song of victory, when accusing the Jews, made the charges a long song, saying, "Do you thus repay the Lord? This people is foolish and not wise"; and having composed many accusations, he ordained that they should say these things while singing.

And even now we too say these things as we sing them. For what reason, then, do they make the accusations into a song? Because they employed spiritual wisdom and wished to implant great profit in the souls of the hearers. For since nothing is so useful as to remember one's transgressions continually, and nothing makes memory so lasting as melody, lest through the excess of the accusations they shrink back and recoil and flee from continually remembering their own sins, stealing away, by the tune of the song, the shame that comes from the memory and consoling the unbearable despondency, he made these things into songs, so that, compelled by the longing for melody to utter them continually, they might be continually mindful of them, and being mindful might have continual remembrance of their sins as a teacher of virtue. At any rate, you know that even now the other Books are not familiar to the many even by name; but all carry the composition of the Psalms on their lips, and these very songs—so that it is shown by the facts themselves how great the profit from melody is. For this reason he too says: But I will sing to my beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard. A song, he says, to my beloved, concerning the vineyard; I will sing concerning the beloved himself. For I sing to him, he says, and the subject of the song is concerning him and his affairs. And if, intending to accuse, he calls him beloved and beloved, do not marvel. For this too is the greatest provision for accusation—that although they were loved and enjoyed so great a favor from God, not even so did they become better. This, at any rate, another prophet also was hinting at when he said:

As one finds a grape in the desert, I found Israel; as one sees an early fig on a fig tree, I saw their fathers—showing them to be desirable and lovely through these fruits. And he is desirable and lovely not because of his own virtue, but because of God's goodness. What he means is this: I loved them so greatly, as one would love a grape found in the desert, or as one would love an early fig on a fig tree. For even if the examples are unworthy of God, they are nonetheless suited to their gluttony. But they, he says, having enjoyed such great love, became estranged and went in to Beelphegor. So here too he calls him beloved and shows him to be loved, indicating that God displayed everything on his part, not because they began first, but because God took the lead. Yet they, not even after these things, showed themselves worthy of the beneficence, but displayed the very opposite in everything. A vineyard was made for the beloved on a horn, in a fat place. By the name of the vineyard he has indicated all his providence and care for them. Nor does he stop at this, but he also enumerates the other benefactions; and first he does this from the position of the place. For the phrase on a horn, in a fat place, praises on the one hand the nature of the land, and on the other its position—which David also said in song: Jerusalem, mountains are round about her, and the Lord is round about his people. For he walled her about, he says, also by the position of the place; yet he was not satisfied with this, but he himself became her greatest wall—which this one also hints at, saying:

In the horn, he indicates both the untamable and the unconquerable character of the place, and before this the help that comes from God, by a metaphor drawn from the horn of the ox. For indeed a popular proverb of this sort has been uttered concerning those who flee for refuge to some secure place. For since the bull is the strongest of all creatures, and the horn is the stronger part of that animal—for it uses it as a weapon—because of its being hard to subdue, most people are accustomed to say this; and Scripture also often calls those who are in safety the horn of a unicorn. In the horn, then, he says here: in safety, in height, which he was saying at the beginning: I begot sons and exalted them. In a fat place: which Moses said: a land flowing with milk and honey. And I set a hedge around it, and I fenced it in. A hedge means either the wall or the law, or his own providence. For the law enclosed them more securely than a wall. And I fenced it in, that is, I made their safety strong. For since often a hedge is easy to attack, he says, I threw around them another alliance as well. And I planted a vine of Sorech. He persists in the metaphor, which one must not interpret word for word, but, knowing the aim, be content with this. And Sorech here means true, well-born, not one of the worthless plants, nor of the inferior ones, but of the choice and first-rate. For there are many kinds of vines. And I built a tower and a winepress in the midst of it. Some say the tower is the temple and the winepress the altar, since the fruits of each one's virtue and all the offerings and sacrifices are gathered there; I, however, will say this, which I said before and say now, that one must attend to the aim of the metaphor. For through

He wishes to say this of all things: that I have fulfilled all that was mine, I have shown every care. I did not stretch them out with toils, I did not wear them down with labors, I did not command them to build, nor to dig, nor to plant, but I handed over the work completed. And I did not stop the matters of loving-kindness only up to this point, but: And I waited for it to produce a grape, and I awaited the fitting time of fruit-bearing, having exercised great longsuffering. For the phrase I waited makes this clear. But it produced thorns. He indicates their fruitless life, the rough, the hard. Of what forgiveness, then, would they be worthy, who after so much care returned such fruits to the vinedresser? And now, man of Judah and those dwelling in Jerusalem, judge between me and my vineyard. Great, then, is the abundance of the righteous acts, when he seats the very ones who are liable as judges of the things done by him and by them. And now. I do not speak of the old things, he says, but even today I am ready to be judged. Thus I never cease fulfilling my own things, as neither do you fulfill your own. What shall I do yet for my vineyard, and I have not done for it? The things I have done, he says, are these, except that I am not satisfied with what has been done, nor do I say that I have done many good things, but if I have not done all good things, if I have not done all things after which nothing remained to be done, I demand you to say this, you who have enjoyed the benefits and are witnesses of what has been done and have learned these things by experience, not certain strangers and foreigners; because I waited for it to produce a grape, but it produced thorns.

The statement seems to be rather unclear, so it must be made clearer. For what he says is this: What ought I to have done and did not do? That they sinned so greatly—what do they have to blame, or as though certain things had been omitted, that they transgressed so? Now therefore I will announce to you what I will do to my vineyard. Since he had taken the victory and had shown their ingratitude, then at last he brings in also the verdict and says these things which he is about to do, not in order to condemn, but in order to make them more reasonable by the fear of the threat. I will take away its hedge, and it shall be for plundering; and I will tear down its wall, and it shall be for trampling.

I will withdraw, he says, my alliance, I will strip them of my help, I will make them destitute of so great a providence, and they will know through the opposite things of what they formerly enjoyed, when they are set before all for plundering. And I will let my vineyard go, and it shall not be pruned, nor dug. Again I say that he has used the metaphor. But if anyone should wish to examine it more closely, he means the care that comes from teaching, from the commandments. For they will not enjoy the same things as before; they will not have teachers, not rulers, not prophets in like manner to correct them, to take care of them. For just as those who tend the vine dig, prune, so those who correct souls threaten, frighten, teach, reproach; but they shall be in a desert of these things, he says, carried off into a foreign land. And thorns shall come up in it as in dry land; and I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.

Or he means the desolation of the city, or their own desolation and that of each person's soul; but some say that "clouds" here are the prophets, inasmuch as they receive the rain from above and pass on to the people the things that are spoken. But not even these, he says, will do the customary things. For even if one here and a second there went down together, yet the people of the prophets at that time was silent. For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah a beloved new plant. I waited for it to produce judgment, but it produced lawlessness and not righteousness, but a cry. Since he used the metaphor extensively through the names, speaking of a vineyard and a tower and a winepress and a hedge and a hoe and the pruning of the vine, so that no one of those at that time might foolishly suppose that what was said was about a vineyard, he quickly, near the end, interpreted the whole. For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel. For my account, he says, is not about plants, nor about lifeless earth, nor about stones and walls, but about your people. Therefore he also added: And the man of Judah a beloved new plant; since it had something more than the ten tribes, and the temple was nearby there, and the rest of the worship, and it flourished more than the others, and the tribe was more kingly and more powerful. And he said "beloved," again attacking them, because they had become such toward their vehement lover. For such is the law of those who love, not even in their very accusations to conceal the excess of their own love. From this we learn no small and other thing besides. What is this? When and which things of the Scriptures one ought to allegorize.

And that we are not ourselves masters of these laws, but must follow the very thought of the Scripture, and so use the manner of allegory. What I mean is this. The Scripture has now spoken of a vineyard, a hedge, a winepress; it has not allowed the hearer to become master and fit what is said to whatever matters or persons he wished, but going forward it has interpreted itself, saying: For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel. And Ezekiel again, calling a great eagle with great wings, coming into Lebanon and cropping the top of the cedar, does not permit the interpretation of the allegory to lie with the opinion of the hearers, but he too says who the eagle is and who the cedar. And this same one again, going forward, brings up a certain violent river, speaking of Judea, so that the hearer might not be free to fit what is said, according to his own opinion, to whatever person he wishes; he also named this king whom he called a river. And everywhere in the Scripture this is the law: when it allegorizes, to state also the interpretation of the allegory, so that the unrestrained desire of those who wish to allegorize may not wander and be carried about everywhere, simply and at random. And why do you marvel if the prophets do so? The author of Proverbs also does this. For having said: Let the deer of friendship and the colt of graces converse with you; and let the fountain of water be yours alone — he interpreted for what reason he said these things: that it was about a lawful and free woman, turning one away from touching a prostitute and another's wife. So then this one too here said what he declared the vineyard to be.

Then, since he had spoken of their crimes, he spoke of their punishments; and again at the end he sets down the defense, saying: I waited that it should do judgment, but it did lawlessness, and not righteousness, but a cry. For justly, he says, do I demand judgment. For I waited, that it should do judgment, that is, righteousness; but they showed the opposite—lawlessness and injustice and a cry. By cry here he means greed, unjust anger, irrational rage, battles, rivalries. Woe to those who join house to house and field to field, drawing near, that they may take something from their neighbor. Having said that it made a cry, that is, greed, robberies, he also speaks of the form of injustice, filled with much wickedness. And again he begins from lamentations, showing the magnitude of the sins and exposing those sick with incurable diseases. One might see these things dared even now by those who use wealth badly, who devise neighboring properties not for security but for plotting against their neighbors, like fire walking along a road, thus devouring all those from the neighborhood. Will you not dwell alone upon the earth? For these things were heard in the ears of the Lord Sabaoth. He shows, then, that they labor unprofitably and in vain and to no purpose. For since punishments and penalties are not accustomed to turn such people away as much as learning precisely that they will not enjoy the plunder, he brings this threat upon them, saying that they will toil and suffer hardship and reap their sin, but will fall away from enjoyment. For the unsleeping eye, he says, does not keep quiet about what is done.