Commentarii in Isaiam

And according to the others also, instead of "as a half-boiled beet, as a netted or captured owl," it is said. The owl is a bird, to which he compares the sons of Jerusalem, wrapped around by the net of the devil. Therefore they were also handed over to wrath. And instead of "he who judges his people," Symmachus says, "he will fight in defense of his people." And "I have taken" means "I will take." For he promises to release his wrath when she does the things commanded, which were "awake, awake." For if she persists in her fall, she will be the cause of the hindrance of the promises. Such also is this: "Does not the one who falls rise again? Or does not the one who turns away turn back? Why do you turn away with a shameless turning? says the Lord." But perhaps, he says, you will no longer drink, because of the turning at the last. For he was saying, "They will forget their former affliction," and the rest. And it is a custom sometimes in the divine Scripture to call a cup that which is repaid for good or for evil, as with David: "Fire, and brimstone, and a stormy wind, the portion of their cup." And the righteous man says: "I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord." He says, then, that the cup will be given to her enemies, and to those who have wronged her; therefore according to Symmachus it is said: "And I will put it into the hands of those who deported you." And it is likely that these things are said also concerning opposing powers, to which a soul that has revolted from God subjects itself, and, thinking earthly things, bows down to the earth, and finally, stretched out to the ground, is trampled by the feet of those who have taken it captive.

But she who comes to God stands upright, looking upward, and lifted up toward him. Some say this refers to those who wronged her—the teachers who did not allow her to walk upright. For in proportion as they were in luxury and glory, so much the more bitter judgment did they taste, being deprived of what they had. And concerning those who wronged her in the spiritual sense, Paul also says: "But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, in whom the God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not shine through." Something of this sort is also indicated by the unclean spirit who returned with seven other spirits more wicked than himself to the place from which he had gone out. For he adds: "So will it be for this evil generation." For in Egypt, having acted impiously, they had the evil spirit dwelling in them, from which they were delivered when they heard: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." Then, when they did not receive Christ by faith as a dweller within them, the unclean spirit, finding the former place empty, leaped into it again—the same spirit that also entered the traitor after the morsel. These evil powers the Savior cast down to Tartarus in Hades and handed over, in return for the fact that by casting souls down to the earth they bent them double—such as was the woman in the Gospel who was utterly unable to straighten up, concerning whom the Savior said: "And this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for eighteen years." And the whole synagogue of the Jews was of this kind; therefore he again commands her to be raised, according to the saying: "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you." And according to the saying:

Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet." And, he says, clothe yourself with your strength, since the rational soul has a very great strength. First, the being awakened from the fall is spoken of frequently. For where the bitterness of judgment is, there also is the constant exhortation. Then, the recovering of one's own strength. And she has also the greatest glory, having been made in the image of the Creator, and having that very glory which he wishes to recover, having become a holy city, so that the foreigner, or the idolater, no longer passes through her. And that the Lord of glory, who is Christ, is glory, David also makes clear: "Awake," he says, "my glory." And concerning those who believe, "that you are the boast of their strength." And in what manner we should clothe ourselves with strength and glory, the wise Paul set forth, saying: "Put on our Lord Jesus Christ." And again: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ." And Isaiah introduces the person of the Church, saying: "Let my soul rejoice in the Lord. For he has clothed me with a garment of salvation, and a robe of gladness;" which he now calls holy, as being conformed to Christ and partaking of the Holy Spirit, in whom we were also sealed for the day of redemption, having washed away every stain, who also repels every diabolical assault of ours, saying: "The uncircumcised and unclean shall no longer pass through you." And historically, the neighboring nations, making continual incursions, all but passed through her as she lay on the ground.

And as one rising from the earth, and full of earthly things, he commands her to shake off the dust—clearly the carnal mind, which one must first put aside, and so come to Christ, as Paul says: "Put off the old man," and the rest. Having done this, we rise with reason upright and steady, as one prophet enjoins: "Stand yourself, Zion." And David also says: "He set my feet upon a rock." To this follows also: "Put off the bond of your neck." For each one is bound fast by the cords of his own sins. And those subjected under the yokes of sin, "Let us break their bonds, and cast away from us their yoke," accomplishing the good with a free mind, as it has been said by one of the prophets: "And you shall go out, and leap like calves released from bonds." For he calls Zion a bondwoman of sin and the devil, and a captive slave, pitying her in her most bitter capture. Calling her also a daughter, he shows how then she was captured: as she, by herself, not through the weakness of the one who saves, but having kicked against the fatherly compassion. Therefore he says she was sold for nothing. For above he also said: "Behold, for your sins you were sold, having received nothing in exchange for the

of their own destruction." For we were led away, so to speak, unwillingly. Therefore Christ also despoiled the strong man, unwilling though he was. He brought about what he had done, redeeming without money those who had fallen not into bodily captivity but into spiritual captivity, and who needed the precious blood. Then he shows that he had always been the Savior and Redeemer of Israel: both when he willingly went down into Egypt, when Jacob dwelt there because of famine, and when Israel was violently taken captive by the Assyrians because of their sins—by the perceptible redemption declaring, in another sense, the gift accomplished at his coming. Therefore he adds: "And now what is there here?" or, according to the others, "And now what is there for me here?" For, he says, I find nothing here among them, according to what was said: "Because I came, and there was no man. I called, and there was none who obeyed." But if he signifies the captivity under the Romans, "here" might mean in the lands of the Gentiles, into which they were scattered; that is, in such a state of affairs, clearly, those who crucified their own Redeemer suffer these things. Then, while the teachers among the Jews marvel how the one called God's portion and the holy Israel acted so piteously, and while they wail as though all hope had been taken from them, he blames them for the capture of their subjects. For they did not permit them to believe in the Savior who had come to them. But the Gentiles, ignorant of the cause of the capture, blamed the God of these men for weakness, as though he had not been able to save them, according to the word of Rabshakeh. For he too came against you, not through my weakness. Therefore his power has fallen, but it was because you had sinned.

That these things are addressed to the rulers, the version of the others has established. For Symmachus says, "Those who exercise authority over him wail aloud." And Aquila, "those who exercise authority." But Theodotion, "rulers." Therefore also above he said: "The Lord himself will come for judgment with the elders of the people, and with its rulers." For they themselves stirred up the multitudes to use their voices against the Savior. Therefore, according to the others, there is not added to "my name is blasphemed," the phrase "among the nations." Accordingly Symmachus says: "Continually, all the day long, my name is blasphemed." For the rulers always blasphemed the Lord, and incited others to do so. But you are such. But the people from the nations, in place of you, will glorify me, having come to know the power that plunders my name, which, not knowing, you blaspheme. And these things will be on that day on which I, who say these things through the prophets, will come to dwell among men. Paul also says this: "In many portions and in many ways, God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets, in these last days has spoken to us in his Son." 15. "As an hour upon the mountains, as the feet of those proclaiming good news, a report of peace, as one proclaiming good things." "For he will make your salvation heard, saying: O Zion, your God will reign." "For the voice of those who guard you has been raised, and with the voice they will rejoice together, for eyes shall see eye to eye, when the Lord has mercy on Zion," etc. Having spoken of the coming of God the Word to men, he consequently joins the matters concerning the gospel proclamation. But Symmachus rendered it thus:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who makes hearing, who proclaims peace, who brings good tidings of good things, who makes salvation heard—which things Paul, having translated them in his letter to the Romans, says: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings of good things, who bring tidings of peace." But in place of "salvation," the Hebrew text contains "Jesus." And if they had not interpreted the word, nothing would have prevented them from saying "making Jesus heard." Instead of which Aquila and Theodotion said "making salvation heard." And in place of "how beautiful," the one said, "how beautiful have they become," and Theodotion, "beautiful." The passage marvels at the course throughout the whole earth of the heralds of the Gospel, whose feet are beautiful because of their purity, since the Savior washed them. And the height of their preaching is indicated by "upon the mountains." And they brought good tidings of peace with God to those far off and those near, declaring Christ who made both one and broke down the middle wall of the partition, the enmity in his flesh. Therefore Paul, writing to the churches, writes, "Grace to you and peace." And they brought good tidings of the truly good things, proclaiming the beatitudes. And the preaching said to Zion, that is, to the God-fearing commonwealth, and to the choir of the apostles, "Your God shall reign." Therefore they proclaimed the kingdom of heaven to all men. But according to the edition of the Seventy, "how beautiful upon the mountains" must be assigned to what precedes, so that it reads: "I myself who speak am present, how beautiful upon the mountains." And he calls the spring "beauty," in which are new flowers and the births of fruits. Therefore also the Bridegroom says to the Bride:

Arise, come, my neighbor, my beautiful dove, for behold, the winter has passed; the rain has passed; it has gone its way. The flowers have appeared in the land, the time of pruning has come." For the dragon, having brought winter upon us, made us unfruitful, so that we did not produce goodness. But we have sprouted again in Christ, having become full of spiritual fruitfulness, so as even to be able to say: "Let my brother come down into his garden and eat the fruit of his trees." And he has become as the feet of one bringing good tidings, a hearing of peace, according to the explanation given beforehand. But some have interpreted the present passage thus, saying that it makes clear the visitation of the people that took place in the things that followed, which might rightly be called a presence—not that his essence moves from place to place, but that his activity becomes evident. Therefore he is said to be present to us when we are purified, but absent when we sin. He says, then, that the assistance will be so manifest that you will confess that the same one is both foretelling now and again fulfilling. For just as it is impossible for the hour of the day to escape notice, in which the sun, having shone forth, illumines the mountains, so the inclination from me toward you will be manifest to all, and you will be filled with joy and exultation in this way, just as those who receive a peaceful and pleasant hearing. And I will deem you worthy to be called your king when you are set right. For Zion will be so prosperous that all those things will be fulfilled, as many as are in the glorious and peaceable cities.

While watchmen were guarding the city with their voice, and greeting one another with gladness, so as to awaken joy in one another at their meetings, and to proclaim the mercy shown to them. And the desolate places of Jerusalem might reasonably be said to share in their gladness. For just as through the words "The ways of Zion mourn" he indicated the desolation of the inhabitants and of those passing through, so now, having said that the desert will celebrate together, he sets forth the gladness that has come upon them, saying that the cause of these things is the mercy of God, through which God redeemed Jerusalem with his arm, that is, by the working of his power, while the nations acknowledge that God has visited Jerusalem; and these things are what they say. And instead of "the voice of those who guard you has been lifted up," Symmachus interpreted it as "The voice of your watchmen has raised up," and added, "they shall praise together." For they shall see openly when the Lord restores Zion—again signifying the God-fearing commonwealth. And instead of "openly," the others say, "they shall see eye to eye." And now he calls the disciples of the Savior "watchmen." For in ancient times they called the prophets thus, and now the apostles have become watchmen and guardians of the new people, guarding the sheep from the wolves for the chief Shepherd through the teaching that is fitting. And having become eyewitnesses and earwitnesses of the Savior openly, they lifted up their voice, so that it became heard by all the nations and the two peoples were gathered into one, according to the text: "Rejoice, O nations, with his people." Therefore David also says:

Hear this, all you nations." And just as the multitude of demons perished with a sound, so that no one was unaware, in the same way the saving proclamation became heard by all who received the Lord as king in place of the ancient tyrant. This very thing has become for us an occasion of festal celebration, according to the text: "The Lord has reigned, let the earth rejoice." How he reigns he makes clear, saying, "The voice of those who watch over you has been lifted up." To these Isaiah was speaking: "Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion. Lift up your voice with strength." These were filled with gladness, as the new Zion was shown mercy, seeing at once the deed together with the proclamation and the faith of those who heard. And Paul writes to those who came to believe through him: "My joy and my crown." That they both taught and at the same time had those who were persuaded is clear from what he says in the Acts, that three thousand men were added in one day. And the jailer, when he heard Paul say, "Do no harm to yourself, for we are all here," was amazed and was baptized with his whole household. His eyes saw eye to eye, according to the text, "God will come openly." That is, not with your eyes rejoicing, but at once with your voice, those who hear. Instead of "let the desolate places of Jerusalem break forth together in gladness," Symmachus says, "Be glad and rejoice together, you desolate places of Jerusalem." And to "break forth with the voice" indicates using the tone of voice, sending up songs of thanksgiving, through which God would be gladdened, according to the text:

And my tongue will meditate on your righteousness, all day long on your praise." He speaks of desolation historically, because when most had been consumed after their daring against Christ, desolation held most of the city. In the spiritual sense, however, because the Church, though few in number at the beginning, later advanced to a countless multitude; to which he said: "Lift up your eyes all around, and see your children gathered together." Such also is this: "For many are the children of the desolate rather than of her who has a husband." How this might come about he sets forth, saying, that the Lord will reveal his arm, declaring the visitation of the Only-Begotten, which will shine upon all the nations. Therefore, whenever he addresses Zion and Jerusalem, what has been said is referred to the calling of the nations. For the godly commonwealth was at one time among them, and at another time among the nations, which indeed are named Zion and Jerusalem. Hence such a city of God has always stood among men. Therefore it makes no difference whether such an election is called Jerusalem or Zion; but to the apostles the prophetic Spirit now addresses the command to depart from the unbelieving and unclean people. And the vessels of the Lord are their holy bodies chosen by the Lord, or the Gospels of the New Covenant, which, as they carry them, he commands them to be released from the unbelief of the people of the Jews and to abstain from communion with them. For there is no communion of light with darkness. Nor is there a portion for the faithful with the unfaithful. To the Galatians, then, who had run back again to the legal worship, Paul gives rebuke, and says at the end:

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh?" For those who had already believed were being circumcised. But they have vessels in another manner, those who have become partakers of his divine nature and bear the gifts of the divine Spirit as vessels for Christ, obeying Paul who says: "Put on the whole armor of God." This is the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, through which they defend both themselves and the peoples under their hand. "Nevertheless," he says, "you shall not go out with turmoil." For they did not go forth into the circuit of the nations as those being driven, nor did they suffer this, but by choice and eagerness, having been commanded to make disciples of all the nations in his name. And they made their journey in peace, having present with them the one who said to them: "Behold, I am with you all the days, until the end of the age." This is what he now also makes clear: "The Lord will go before you." But some say that he commands them to take care of their own soul, and before places, to depart from the customs of the Chaldeans, which is also enjoined upon the Levites who carry the holy things. And concerning future things, Scripture customarily speaks as though they had already happened; as also David, before the city was captured and the temple, said: "God,

Nations have come into your inheritance," and the following. But he makes clear that their return will be with peace, which, escorted with calm and leisure according to the command of Cyrus, they have accomplished, with God fighting alongside them and gathering them to their own city. 13. "Behold, my servant shall understand, and shall be exalted, and shall be glorified exceedingly. Just as many shall be astonished at you, so shall your form be dishonored from among men. And your glory from the sons of men," etc. Instead of "my servant shall understand," Aquila rendered: "My servant shall be made knowing." And Symmachus: "My servant." And concerning this servant or slave he also said earlier: "Behold my servant, I will uphold him." And shortly after: "And in his name shall nations hope." To which he again adds: "And I have given you as a covenant of a race, as a light of nations." And going on again: "Become witnesses to me, and I am a witness, says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen." And the present words follow closely upon those shortly before, in which he said, "For I am he, the one who speaks, I am present," and the following. In which, having spoken concerning his coming and the eyewitness of the evangelists, he now shows how he will appear among men—he who said: "I myself who speak am present." The human element is called servant, he who is by nature son, and is to be glorified through the resurrection and exalted through the ascension. For having first spoken the more favorable things, he has brought upon them the things concerning the passion. And "he shall understand," that is, "shall be made knowing," fits human measures. For having taken the form of a servant, on account of which he is also called servant, he filled it with all wisdom.

For how could he not be understanding by his own knowledge and reason, and inseparable from the flesh he took up through the utmost union? Nothing, therefore, in the things that have happened on your behalf is without understanding. For according to David, "He made all things in wisdom." Therefore, some say, he is exalted by us as God, and glorified. For believing in him, we call him Savior, and Redeemer, both God and Lord. To these he adds: In the manner in which many shall be astonished at you. Or, according to Theodotion, in the manner in which they marveled. For until those who do not believe marvel at the lowliness of his coming to men, being at a loss how one who became man, both cheap and inglorious (for they called him a Samaritan, a glutton and a drunkard, and one born of fornication, and a sinner), he is set above those who attempt to fight against him. But the faithful, and the nations, marvel as they worship his divinity, struck with amazement at the dispensation; such a one was Habakkuk saying: "Lord, I have heard your report, and I was afraid. I considered your works, and I was astonished." And kings, after the blasphemies against him, and after persecuting his Church, having profited nothing, fell silent, defeated by his teaching. Since indeed others were driven by other God-sent scourges instead of these, for your sake indeed they kept silent. But some ordered by decrees that the Churches be raised up, and that the customary things be done in them; and distinguishing these faithful from unbelievers, he adds: To whom it was not announced concerning him, they shall see; setting the Gentiles in contrast to those of the circumcision. For the former had the law and the prophets; and he preached first, when he came, to the lost sheep of Israel.

But these men were unhearing of these things. And yet they beheld the salvation that comes from him, seeing him with the eyes of the soul, and understood his teaching, so that the prophecy fit them: "You shall hear with hearing, and you shall by no means understand." And: "Seeing you shall see, and you shall by no means perceive." And when the Savior spoke the word to these, "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed," the prophet speaks concerning those who understood. For faith is the root of understanding: "For if you do not believe," he says, "neither shall you by any means understand." This indeed also provided a marvel to the prophets. CHAPTER 53, 1-2. Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We announced as a child before him, as a root in a thirsty land; there is no form to him, nor glory. And we saw him, and he had no form, nor beauty. But his form was dishonored, and failing

beyond all the sons of men, etc. Therefore he adds: Lord, who has believed our report? For they marveled at both things, both the unbelief of the Jews and the conversion of the Gentiles. And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? To whom, then, he made clear through the preceding words, saying: and the Lord God will reveal his holy arm before all the nations, namely the Only-begotten. For those men, as to Christ, so also long ago to the prophets who proclaimed him beforehand, were saying: But speak to us and announce to us another deception. As also Jeremiah says: Neither did I profit, nor did anyone profit me. And the prophetic chorus, "We healed," it says, "Babylon, and she was not healed;

Let us abandon her." He called Jerusalem Babylon, as being no different from the impiety of the nations, nor making any care for the law. These things, then, the prophet marveling at, thereafter narrates the passage of the forementioned child into men, saying: "We announced as a child before him, as a root in a thirsty land." And according to Aquila: "And he shall go up as one nursed into his face, and as a root from an untrodden land." For into his face (I mean of the forementioned arm) he shall go up as one nursed, which was the one born of the Virgin, concerning whom he said: "Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in the womb," whom he also calls an untrodden land, as a virgin. And he says that root concerning which he said: "A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall go up from the root." And there too is the "shall go up," but from a root, as here, from the untrodden. And Symmachus: "He went up as a branch before him, and as a root from a thirsty land," he says, having called the untrodden land thirsty; and Theodotion rendered, "he shall go up as one sucking." For this was that concerning which it was also said before: "Before the child knows good or evil, he disobeys wickedness." And again: "Before the child knows good or evil, he shall receive the power of Damascus." And again: "For a child was born to us and given." And having spoken the generation of the Savior, he narrates his sojourn on earth. For there was not, he says, a glorious form to him. Therefore Symmachus says: "There was no form to him, nor dignities, that we might see him. Nor appearance, that we might desire him. Despised, and the least of men.

A man of suffering, and known to sickness, and knowing how to bear weakness—yet not himself weakened. These things he endured, hiding the face of his divinity. For this is the meaning of "he turned away his face." For according to Aquila, it is "as a hidden face of his." But according to Theodotion, "he was not reckoned." We did not reckon him. And according to the rest, "Despised." Therefore we did not reckon him. And out of love for humanity the prophet also put forward his own person to those who rejected Christ. For it was necessary, he says, that we consider that this man was then the Savior of our souls, bearing our sins and grieving on our behalf. But Symmachus says: "Truly he himself took up our sins, and endured our labors." But we reckoned him to be in affliction, stricken by God, and brought low. With this the rest agreed in their editions. We, then, like infants, have thought these things about him. But he suffered for our sake, delivering humanity from the punishment owed because of sins. But Aquila says: "He himself was profaned for our impieties." For he was truly profaned, because he became a curse for our sake, according to the Apostle, because it is written: "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." So then he did not have the beauty that befits God, but was dishonored. For compared to the divine splendor, everything human is dishonored. At any rate it has been said: "Beautiful in beauty beyond the sons of men." And besides, having been born of a poor mother, he traveled through all lowly things, in order to exalt what is lowly. And being Lord and King of all things, what splendor among men did he need?

Perhaps the face of the Savior was seen downcast and troubled before the cross, so as to say: "Now my soul is troubled, and my soul is deeply grieved even to death." For being impassible as God, he yielded to our nature so as not to be without feeling when temptation assails, removing the suspicion of mere imagination. And, they say, his face was turned away, meaning he was put to shame. And he was dishonored and not esteemed—when Pilate sent him to Herod, who sent him back treating him with contempt. Again also when he suffered the most insolent treatment at his trial, and at the very cross. Therefore also in the words spoken beforehand he said: "I gave my back to scourges," and what follows. He suffered, then, not for his own debt (for he committed no sin) but for ours, he who alone is more worthy than all, as Paul says: "One died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose for them." But one should know that some, writing the phrase "we announced as a child" in this way, say: for it is likely that the prophet objected, saying, "You were taught his coming by the Spirit, but you ought also to teach others." And he says that all we prophets did not cease announcing to you as a plain, that is, as a field blooming and fruitful, or also as a root in a thirsty land, while the Only-Begotten waters us, "in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden," who long ago were, along with other men, a dry and fruitless land. But we sprouted again through the provision of the Spirit like a root, that is, like a plant beautiful and blooming.

To whom it was also said by one of the prophets: "And all the nations shall bless you, because you shall be a land desired, says the Lord, so as no longer to bear thorns." For it has been foretold: "Instead of the stibium the cypress shall come up. And instead of the fleabane the myrtle shall come up." And again: "I will make the desert into marshes," and the rest. We said before, then, that having believed in him, we shall be before him, that is, observed by him as vegetation in a land that was once thirsty. What then, they say, is it that we announced his coming? But when he appeared in a manner befitting God, he was going to become accessible, as perhaps at Sinai when we said to Moses: "You speak to us, and not God, lest we die." To whom he answers: He shall be seen as having an dishonored form. And these men interpreted these things in this way. But to the things foretold is added: the chastisement of our peace was upon him. For the things which we, being chastised, ought to have suffered, these came upon him for the sake of peace with God, as Paul says: "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, whether the things on earth or the things in the heavens." And again: "For he himself is our peace, who has made both one." For the suffering was for our sake, while he in experience underwent the insults, and we by faith appropriated the sufferings, suffering with him and dying with him, and by grace being saved. For he paid off the scourges owed by us, from which he received the welts, by which some of us were healed, we who long ago wandered as sheep, one turning to one kind of sin and another to another, and to a different opinion concerning him. But the Father handed him over for our sake as a ransom for our life.

For thus he also became the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Therefore Symmachus says: "But the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him." And Christ, knowing this, himself said: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes should not perish but have eternal life." But when you hear that he was handed over, do not suspect compulsion, but understand it as voluntary. For indeed the Apostle has used this very name, indicating the authority and will of the Father. And having willingly endured the passion, he bears it in silence, offering himself to us as a law of endurance. For not resentfully but rejoicing, he was fulfilling the Father's commandment. And in another sense, he does not open his mouth as in a time of affliction: "He who understands in that time will be silent, because the time is evil." And "You have made me a reproach to the foolish. I became deaf, and I did not open my mouth." Therefore there was true suffering in Christ according to the human nature. But instead of "And he does not open his mouth because he has been afflicted," Symmachus says: "He was brought near, and he himself

He obeyed. But to whom was he brought, if not to Pilate? And he was silent while false testimony was being given. For he knew that a defense would accomplish nothing (for he was being judged among enemies) but would kindle their anger more savagely, since he was saying that he himself was the Son of God, and Savior and Redeemer of all. Nevertheless he did not make their sin without excuse, when he said to Caiaphas who was adjuring him: "From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power"; and when he said to Pilate, who was asking whether he was king of Israel: "You have said it." Therefore, raging against them, he handed himself over to be scourged. Whence he added: "As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent." For he is silent, even though, as is likely, the knife, touching the skin, brings grief. Thus also Christ, when reviled, did not revile in return. Suffering, he did not threaten; but he was handing himself over to the one who judges justly. True, then, is the saying: "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away." For they brought forth their verdict against a worthless man readily. He makes clear, then, the lawless and unjust judgment that took place against him. But even if, he says, he was judged in a lowly manner, he was God by nature. Whence he adds: "Who will declare his generation?" For in the case of both births, the perplexity follows alike: how God, and how a virgin, gives birth. For this much only have we known: on the one hand, that God is from God, light from light; on the other, that "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." In the case of each, the question "How is he born?" is beyond narration; because his life is taken away from the earth. That is, his conduct was higher than the things on earth, and his life according to the flesh.

For he alone did not commit sin. And in another sense, the existence of the Only-Begotten is above every created thing. But Symmachus rendered it: For he was cut off from the land of the living, and because of the injustice of my people, a plague upon them. And Theodotion: Because he was cut off from the land of the living, from the lawlessness of my people it touched them. For rather it touched them, and his death became a very great plague to them. But some say that the phrase "he is taken away from the earth" signifies the glory after his resurrection; for the experience of the things dispensed in the economy demonstrated his divine worth, his death being subjected, while all were made alive to incorruption by his grace and redeemed by faith. But how was he who knew no sin brought under a death sentence? The Father says: From the lawless deeds of my people he was led to death, either because of their lawless deeds, or because they, acting lawlessly, killed him. And in place of "I will give the wicked," Symmachus says, "and he will give the ungodly." But who will give, if not the judge of all things? And he means those who did the things that were said. For they were handed over to the Romans. And the formerly rich, in the advantages in which they were preeminent, he says he will hand over in place of his death. And he means those honored with legal knowledge and priestly and royal dignity; for these, in addition to killing him, also gave sufficient silver, wishing to conceal the resurrection. And in this respect, then, he calls them rich; or also as lovers of money. For they killed Jesus so that they might be rich from not judging rightly. Concerning whom the prophet was saying:

Companions of thieves, loving gifts, pursuing repayment." And they understood also that, when the worship according to the law had ceased, they would not have the first-fruits brought to them according to the law—those whom he also pitied, saying, "You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and you have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, and mercy, and faith." And the justice of their condemnation is shown by the clause that follows, "He committed no lawlessness." For having killed him unjustly, they themselves have been justly condemned. And the Father is a trustworthy witness, having declared the Son sinless. So then they lied at one time when they said, "This man stirs up the people and forbids giving tribute to Caesar," and at another time, "If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over to you." For the Father has thus testified to his sinlessness both by deed and by word. And this is said in a human sense; for the divine nature is unchangeable.

But no man except him is clean from defilement. Therefore he died for all, in order to take away the sin of the world. For this reason the Father also judged to cleanse him from the blow—that is, from the suffering brought upon him. For he rose again, having trampled death. But some say that, by the penalties which the Father exacted on his behalf, he showed that he had not suffered unjustly, and made him clean from the suspicion of having been condemned on a just charge. But some have spoken thus: just as he took upon himself and made his own the passions owed by us, so also he says that he received the cleansing that comes to us through faith. "If you give an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed.

Even though you have sinned in such ways, if anyone wishes to bring a sacrifice for his own sin—that is, to repent of the things in which he sinned—he will escape the words, "I will give the wicked in place of his burial, and the rich in place of his death." And he will see the long-lived seed, about which he spoke in parables: "The sower went out to sow." And again: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man sowing good seed in his own field." That is, he called eternal life by this name. But some say this was spoken to the nations, as if to say: Since he has suffered so much for you, if you also believe, confessing your sins, you will be made partakers of eternal goods. Everyone gives for sin, about whom he says: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me"—what kind of person was the one who said, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me"? But the one who loves father or mother more than him is not such a person. For he says, "He is not worthy of me." Therefore, to love Christ with all one's heart and soul is to give for sin. But some, setting out the passage thus: "If he lays down for transgression, his soul will see a seed that lengthens," have added: The day after the passion, the spiritual child-bearing of the indescribable race that endures forever, fulfilled according to the promise to Abraham by divine power after the dissolution of corrupting sin and the ascent of the Redeemer. And in place of "And the Lord wishes to remove from the pain of his soul," Symmachus:

And the will of the Lord, he says, shall be prospered in his hand; which fits only the Savior. For continually the will of the Father was prospered in his hand. And he gave him also light, so that those who are justified through him might be enlightened, and understanding. For the spirit of wisdom and understanding rested upon him, so as to make them understanding and to justify those worthy of being justified. But some say thus: The Lord wishes to change the grief upon the cross into joy, by showing him those once darkness and led astray transformed into light, concerning whom Paul says: "Who once were darkness, but now are light in the Lord." And being molded by understanding; that is, being transformed from glory to glory. But to the one who is not such, Jeremiah says: "Behold, your eyes are not, nor is your heart, good." But he who believes in Christ is remolded into his divine beauty, such as this is: "Little children, for whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you. For those whom he foreknew, he says, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, these he also called." And God is said to have created both peoples into one new man, that is, having remolded them. For since the Only-Begotten counts our salvation as his own gain, having taken a body for the sake of those things which he suffered, necessarily the Father calls our healing a removal of the pain of Christ, and our enlightenment his light, as we are repaid with better things and remolded by the understanding of God. To these things he adds: To justify the righteous one who serves well for many.

For Christ did not come to be served, as he himself says, but rather to serve the economy of the incarnation. And since he did all things in obedience to the Father, it followed that he also, girding himself with a towel, put water into the basin, and undertook servitude toward all. Therefore Paul too calls the economy a ministry, saying: "For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory." And again he is justified, either when we are justified, or when those who put him to death have been enslaved, as a demonstration of the unjust condemnation against him. And who are those justified through him, he has set forth, saying: "And he himself shall bear their sins"; or according to Symmachus, "And he himself shall endure their impieties." For taking them upon himself, he stripped us of the garment of sin; therefore also, "He has served many," that is, the nations. For Israel was one nation; but those from the nations are ten thousand times more, whom he also inherits, having made them his own inheritance, and saying: "The Lord said to me: You are my Son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession." And he divided the spoils of the strong—clearly, snatching them from the opposing powers, and making those enslaved by them his own spoils; which spoils he distributed to his own disciples, having established from them various churches. Therefore he said beforehand:

They shall rejoice before you, as those who rejoice at the harvest, and in the manner of those dividing the spoils. And he is mighty to do these things, in return for which he was delivered over to death, receiving as it were a reward from the Father—namely, to save and to inherit those who are perishing. For because he suffered, he raises up with himself his own, and he prevails over those who are not his own: those who suffer with him he raises together with himself, but those who rise up against him he humbles. Some have called the apostles mighty, and those who are once for all powerful in Christ, to whom, as to those who have conquered Satan, he distributes spoils—the provisions of spiritual gifts. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, and the things akin to these. But how was he reckoned with the lawless, except that the robbers were crucified together with him, which indeed Mark also notes? CHAPTER 54, 1. Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear. Break forth and cry out, you who do not travail, for many are the children of the desolate more than of her who has a husband. For the Lord said: Enlarge the place of your tent, and fix the skins of your curtains, do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your pegs; still to the right and to the left spread out, and your seed shall inherit nations, and you shall inhabit desolate cities, etc. Having spoken of the Savior's generation, and his life, and the cause of his death, and that he will inherit many, he has accordingly transferred his discourse to these very people, and to the Church that came from them, which was formerly barren and desolate, such as were the souls of the Gentiles.

For it had no one among them who was ranked as a child of God through virtue and piety. For they were godless and without hope, according to the voice of Paul. But now, as to one who has received seed and is about to give birth, he commands her to cry out, just as midwives [urge] women in labor, when the passages are widened for an easy delivery. Instead of "Break forth and cry out," Symmachus has said "Resound with praise." But Aquila: "Make merry in exultation and neigh." But Theodotion: "Break forth in gladness and delight." Instead of "of the deserted one that has been made desolate," Symmachus said: For she was made desolate and deserted, not yet having acquired the heavenly Bridegroom. And the cause of the gladness, he says, is the future fruitfulness, through which she was going to conquer the Synagogue of the Jews, being from all the nations, [she] who was constituted from one nation. Which God through Moses brought near to spiritual kinship, and made the mother of many children. But she was made childless through Christ, although, according to Jeremiah, she was [once] great among children. And he has given a bill of divorce to God, who marvels: "How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot?" For he himself did not give it, saying: "What is this bill of divorce of your mother, by which I sent her away? But

She has become the cause to herself, he says: "Because I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none who obeyed." And elsewhere he says: "You did not call me as one of your own, nor as a Father and leader of your virginity." And again: "You are a daughter of your mother, who abandoned her husband." And by custom of Scripture he calls the widow desolate. For she did not have the Word, the sower of good things; receiving him as Bridegroom, she ran past the other in bearing, so as to need the greatest breadth for the reception of children, the tabernacle of Moses having been taken as an image of this. For it used the same expressions, at once making clear the unshakability of the Church through the tent-pegs. For that tabernacle sketched a type of her, even if in exceedingly smaller measures. Therefore in each region it had courts set around, long and broad alike. But what are these things, and the measures of the temple, compared to the multitudes and magnitudes and beauties of the Churches established everywhere, while the catholic Church is one of all? To which he adds: And your seed will inherit nations. And this makes clear the evangelical word, about which he says: "The sower went out to sow." And did you not sow good seed in your field, from which she has become the mother of very many saints? From which nations it happened that rulers were set over them, initiating the people of those who come. To whom Christ also promised to be a leader into the age to come, to one five cities, to another ten, for the distribution of the talents. And they say with rejoicing: "He subjected peoples to us, and nations under our feet.

He chose for us his own inheritance. For the lot of leading the peoples belongs to Christ alone. Therefore he commands that no one be called Rabbi. "For one is your leader," he says, "the Christ." And he shared this dignity with his disciples. For being the true light, he calls his own disciples light. And being Son by nature, he gave authority to those who believe in him to call God Father, boasting in the dignity of sonship, who also inhabit desolate cities, that is, cities that have been destroyed, according to Symmachus. And he calls the Churches of God that were formerly desolate; that is, he says, "Your seed shall be so great that cities full of people will by no means suffice for them, but they will be able even to fill the desolate places"; in these things he exhorts her to despise her former shame, when she was barren and a widow apart from the Word her Bridegroom, saying that the Lord of hosts is the one who made you. For it was not established by men, nor through a man, but through the Lord himself, who also says: "Upon this rock I will build my Church." The word, then, is of God, who grants forgetfulness of wrongs in return for the polytheistic and shameful error. For just as a father has compassion on his sons, the Lord had compassion on those who fear him. And as far as the east is from the west, he has removed our sins far from us. He therefore takes away the fear that arises from sins. For he came not to judge but to save. "For God," he says, "did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him." Grace, then, which justifies the ungodly, prevails.

For God," says Paul, "is he who justifies; who is he who condemns?" And how does he make her so, except by creating her into conformity with himself through the Spirit? For he says in Ezekiel: "I will take out their heart of stone from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh, that they may know me, that I am the Lord." Christ, then, created the two peoples into one new man, renewed according to the image of him who created him. And so that the matter might not be disbelieved as though it were changing, he called himself Lord of hosts. And what the time of the re-creation is, he made clear when he said, "He who rescued you, the God of Israel himself, shall be called over all the earth"—that is, when Christ reigned over all the nations, according to the saying: "And the Lord shall be one, and his name one, encircling all the earth." For formerly God was known only throughout Judea; but now every knee bows to him, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore David also said: "All you nations, clap your hands," and

What follows. And again: "The Lord has reigned; let the earth rejoice." Persisting, then, in the promises concerning the desert, he says: Not as a woman forsaken and fainthearted has the Lord called you. Scripture calls a woman "forsaken" who, for certain causes, has received a bill of divorce according to the law, and "hated," the one defamed for licentiousness—to whom the charge of faintheartedness would also fittingly apply, as one unable to endure and to bear the yoke of marriage; such has the Synagogue of the Jews become toward God after the law, through which she was joined to God, having turned back to the things in Egypt. Therefore, having rejected her, he said through one of the prophets: "Contend with your mother, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband." And for the rest he speaks about her fornication. What the manner of her fornication is, he recounts in Ezekiel, taking, as it were, two women, whom he calls Oholah and Oholibah, signifying Jerusalem and Samaria, and recounting their impieties—how they slaughtered their children to idols and passed them through fire—and calling these things adultery. Hence he says to her also through Jeremiah: "You have had the face of a harlot; you have acted shamelessly toward all." But you, he says, who are from the Gentiles were not called according to these. For to them there has been a hardening in part, as it seems to Paul. And their eyes were darkened so as not to see. And their backs were bent, as they gaped always at earthly things. But enlightenment has come to the Gentiles. And all—but not a remnant—have been saved. But for a little time, he says, I left you.

For in the generations that went before, as Peter says, God allowed the nations to walk in their own ways." But brief is the time judged in comparison with the mercy that runs through to endless ages. And great is the mercy—to free through Christ from all filth and from punishment, and to grant the dignity of adoption, and to make heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Then he says: "From the water of Noah this is to me." But Symmachus rendered the whole thus: "As the days of Noah this is to me. As I swore that the water of Noah should no more come upon the earth, so I have sworn not to be angry with you, nor to rebuke you. For the mountains shall be shaken, and the hills shall be troubled; but my mercy shall not turn away from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be recalled, said the Lord who has compassion on you." For sooner, he says, shall the mountains be moved from their own places, and the hills be troubled, than my mercy shall be moved from you. But according to the Seventy, it is not by way of example, but rather it shows that from the flood it has been judged by me no longer to strive against human transgressions, and to appoint one judgment against all, showing that even in the time in which he came, by divine vote all ought to have undergone that ancient judgment. For they were alike liable; but I transfer my anger to mercy, keeping my own boundary. And the covenant of peace is through Christ. For he himself is our peace, which Isaiah, asking, spoke: "O Lord, our God, give us peace; for you have repaid all things to us." For through Christ it was joined to God and the Father.

These things God promises to the godly commonwealth, which he transferred to the nations, since the Jews had fallen away. And what sort of thing the godly commonwealth among the Jews was, he sets forth, calling it lowly and unstable; for it was bodily circumcision, and sacrifices. But those from the nations, having become easily accessible to the assaults of the demons, were subject in a lowly manner. And the heart of those who wander is unstable, shaken by passions like a drunken man. For they are carried about by every spirit, and according to the proverb, they endure a wandering of desires; which indeed God blames Jerusalem for having suffered, saying: In the desires of her soul she was carried about by spirits. And a soul carried about by spirits is altogether unstable. But why art thou propitious to thee? First, because I am merciful. Then, because thou didst not turn aside. And if he speaks concerning the godly commonwealth among the Jews, since no prophet, or godly man, was so great as to take it up and restore it. But if concerning the nations, because they did not, like Israel, receive a law, or prophets, exhorting them to spiritual vigor. Which is signified by those hired last in the parable, to whom he said: Why have you stood here all the day idle? And they said to him: Because no one hired us. For the Master of the vineyard called them alone at the last. Then he says: Behold, I prepare for thee coals, thy stones. In place of which Symmachus says: Behold, I set thy stones in stibium. And Aquila: Behold, I lay down thy stones in stibium. And Theodotion: I cast in stibium. For as a woman adorning herself might be stibiumed;

Thus I will arrange the stones of your building so beautifully. Perhaps the Seventy [Elders] among them hint at the coal, the purification of the soul. For by a coal Isaiah's lips were also cleansed. He shows, then, that no stone of the building will be unclean, according to the saying: "Holy stones roll upon the earth," spoken concerning the saints, from whom the city of God is constituted. Some say that Jesus was called a coal, whom he said was placed in the foundations of Zion, in whom whoever believes shall not be put to shame. Amos calls him a diamond, saying: "I set a diamond in the midst of my people Israel." And Zechariah says: "Behold, I bring forth my servant the Branch. Because the stone which I have given before the face of Jesus, upon the one stone there are seven eyes." For Christ is all-seeing. This coal, then, they say, is the foundation and basis of the city; approaching it, the apostles, who are themselves foundations, were called sapphires, made clear also through the seventeenth psalm, which says: "The fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were uncovered at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your anger." For when those of Israel were rebuked for the things they dared against Christ, the purification through water appeared; and the disciples of the Savior were also revealed. And the prophets are also called a foundation, Paul saying: "Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." And the sapphire has a heavenly color. And their citizenship, according to the Apostle, exists in the heavens.

According to Ezekiel, also, the place beneath the throne of God is like a sapphire. Thus, then, it has been spoken because it bears the image of the heavenly. But by another interpretation, they say, the stones that adorn are coals, as in stibium, the eyes of the Bride of Christ—the holy martyrs, tested through fire. And the battlements of the new Jerusalem are jasper, the carchedonius according to Symmachus, excellent and transparent. By these are signified those in the Church who have strengthened their faith by rational preparation, being as it were bulwarks and able to cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And the gates, he says, are stones of crystal, representing the transparency and purity of sound faith—the first and introductory teaching of those who have believed. And Symmachus says, your gates are stones of carving. And Aquila, stones of drilling, hinting in this way at the variety of elementary teaching. And chosen stones, he says, the circuit signifying those who by their prayers fence in the great and splendid buildings of the city, signifying the multitudes of the other inhabitants. And let us understand all these things from the apostolic interpretation that says: "You are God's building. As a wise master builder I laid a foundation." And again: "For no one can lay another foundation besides the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work will become manifest." And again:

Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.” And again: “In whom all of you are built up as living stones.” All these, then, the prophet says will now be taught by God, who said: Do not call anyone teacher on the earth. For one is your teacher in the heavens. From him also the disciples

received it and became teachers of the nations; and they are called holy stones rolled upon the earth, carrying the proclamation everywhere. Concerning them God speaks beforehand through Isaiah: “I will destroy the insolence of the lawless, and the insolence of the proud I will bring low. And those who are left shall be more honored than unalloyed gold. And man shall be more honored than the stone from Souphir.” All the sons of the city, then, are taught by God, and Paul is a witness, saying: “In many portions and in many ways God spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets, in these last days he has spoken to us in his Son.” But the Word himself, having been made flesh, spoke. And he promises peace to them as well, who said: “My peace I give to you.” To whom he adds: And in righteousness you shall be built. For according to what is most just, he himself, the builder of all things, the wisdom of God, joining the living and well-fitted stones to the building, made some of them battlements, laid others as foundations, and stationed others in the enclosures. And some he set apart for the temple of the city, and others for the innermost parts of the sanctuary.

But those things adorned the rest of the city, not distinguishing between human dignities, nor looking at the person, but receiving all on the basis of what is just—free and slave, poor and rich, and those both undistinguished in life and illustrious. Having promised these things to the Church, he next sets them apart for her: Keep away from the unjust man, and trembling shall not come near you. For he initiates them into the mysteries by showing in deed that “they shall be taught by God.” Concerning which the Bride also says: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” For long ago he used to greet her through the prophets, calling her to union with himself through sanctification and righteousness. But when he appeared in the flesh, we have been kissed with the kisses of his mouth, he having spoken to us mouth to mouth. He says, then, that No enemy of yours shall prevail, since you honor what is just. And behold, strangers shall come near, he says, through me—meaning those who come to the faith in each age from the Gentiles, or also from the Jews themselves. For they have been placed behind the Gentiles, although they hold the first rank, and they have become strangers to those from the Gentiles—those who long ago received them as strangers. Nevertheless, this too is through me, he says. For through Christ is the conversion of all, and the way to the Father and God. “For no one comes,” he says, “to the Father except through me.” And again: “I am the way.” And, “I am the door.” But some have called strangers those who come not genuinely nor purely, but for the sake of protection or some benefit. These, he says, shall sojourn, but not dwell. For such persons make their entrance as in passing by, as it were fleeing to her. Concerning these he says:

Behold, I create you, not as a smith blowing on coals. I do these things for you, says the Lord, since I am also your creator. For Moses, and Solomon, and Zerubbabel made bodily and short-lived things: the one a tabernacle, the others temples. But now I myself, the Lord of all, have created you by myself, having built my Church upon the rock. And I created you not by any human craft, but by divine and ineffable grace. For not as a smith does, through an instrument and fire—for such are the crafts of men, and therefore the things they make pass into corruption—but my work is incorruptible. Some have taken "I created" in the sense of "I created anew." It signifies the renewal through the Holy Spirit, just as he is also said to create the two peoples into one new man, according to the saying, "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind." And that courage follows upon such things, spiritual understanding also declares, saying: Every corruptible vessel I will not prosper against you, and every voice, and the rest—calling the servants of the devil's perversity corruptible vessels, who are children of corruption and perdition, and who sometimes bring persecutions and afflictions upon the saints. But they shall not obtain their prey; and every tongue that fights against God, he says, shall be conquered by you. For according to David: "In God we shall do valiantly, and he will bring to nothing those who afflict us." And it was necessary to remind, after all things, also of the reward laid up in the

for the age to come of inheritance, which is: "What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not ascended upon the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him." Therefore he says: There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord. And those who serve him love him, through serving him with all reverence. But for the lawless it is set down in the Seventy: and your guilty ones shall be in it. He makes clear that after the renewal through the Spirit, if any are found guilty of sins, they shall be in it, that is, in corruption; therefore he added at once, there is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord. But some said that this whole passage can also be understood of the sensible Jerusalem, saying that gladness can arise when a sudden change for the better takes place. To this gladness he also urges Jerusalem, bursting the bonds of sin with which she bound herself when she was made barren of good things and fell away from God. For thus, he says, you shall have more inhabitants, having obtained me as a protector, taking hold like a husband, and I will make you greater after the captivity. And your seed shall inherit nations—those who came together to prevent her resettlement. For thus they were defeated, so that even their weapons sufficed for burning for seven years. And he says that the cities laid waste by Israel shall be resettled. Do not then reckon, he says, that you will not be restored to your ancient glory. For you shall wipe off the ancient reproach. Job used such words: "For even if I wash myself with snow, and cleanse myself with pure hands, you have sufficiently dipped me in filth." But my garment was abhorred.

For the assurance of the promise, there is the phrase, "The Lord who made you," who created you from not being into being. And I will not be God of you alone, but also of all the nations. For I will not bear a grudge against you, nor reproach you, which is what men do who cast off for a little while wives who have sinned. For even if they are reconciled, they are accustomed to reproach them for what came before. But I am a God who forgets wrongs. And for a little while I handed you over for the sake of discipline, so that having repented you might be filled with mercy. He also deems it right that He be known from former times by His goodness. For even before you came to be with Noah, He says, I had mercy on you, preserving you according to foreknowledge. For it was from him, when he was saved, that you were to come to be. And out of goodness I also promised to men who from youth are set upon evil no longer to bring a flood upon them, nor to remove hills and mountains. Therefore I neither falsified those things then, nor the present promise concerning having mercy on you, and that you will enjoy all peace. He says these things, not as though He were under compulsion to do what He foretells. For these things He establishes in the judgment of those who hear. For also in the case of Sodom one city was saved, the easily-borne Master having taken a pretext from Lot to withdraw it from wrath. And to Abraham He promised an increase of offspring, and the passing over of blessings to them, clearly on condition that those from him should keep the paternal commandments, as he himself also says: "For I knew that Abraham will command his sons to fear God." Then He accuses the cruelty of the Chaldeans, saying: You were not comforted. For they made the yoke of the elder heavy, and did not have mercy on children.

For I was angry for a little while, but they themselves joined in against me for evil." But I will comfort you, granting you a better resettlement. For when he merely wills it, all material stands ready as precious—only if you become worthy by repenting. But if this does not happen, even the things of the promise are idle. For the promises belong to those who live according to the law, whom he calls taught of God. Then he teaches them not simply to trust in walls and in the things that seem to guard a city, but in righteousness. For this is the meaning of "you shall be built in righteousness." For when they practiced this, the lofty walls of Jericho were thrown down without a struggle. Practicing this, then, you shall not be afraid; rather you shall be invincible, so that even the nations warring around you shall dwell alongside you, and be helped by you, since my favor is present with you. And the untiring nature of his own nature, and his power to do whatever he wishes from authority, he presents by the removal of the labors of the forge. "I create," he says, not intending to destroy what has been brought forth. For I did not make humans so that I might have those to punish, but creating from goodness, I also govern with it. And when enemies, he says, come against you, every weapon of war will be idle; for just as the Jews hated every righteous man, calling him useless, so those around Judea turned away from the God-fearing people, being vexed at the things in which they saw the favor of God present with them. Finally the prophet shows that it is not an soulless instrument that serves God, but as one who himself also has an understanding of what is done, or he rebukes those who sin, saying:

Woe to a sinful nation"; or he rouses the negligent, as also now: "It will not be," he says, "that your believing in God is unprofitable for you, but you will have hopes of becoming an heir of God." And showing virtue to be free in its own power, he says: "You shall be righteous to me." CHAPTER 55. 13. "You who thirst, go to the water, and as many as have no money, having gone, buy and drink without money and without price, wine and fat. Why do you pay with money, and your labor is not for satisfaction? Hear me, and you shall eat good things, and your soul shall delight in good things," etc. Christ proclaimed to all: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me," saying that rivers would flow from his belly, by which he signified the Holy Spirit. And to the Samaritan woman he also says: "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly." And David spoke concerning Christ himself: "And you will give them to drink from the torrent of your delight, for with you is the fountain of life." And again: "The streams of the river gladden the city of God." And Christ himself spoke in the prophets: "Behold, I turn aside upon them like a river of peace"; and Zechariah also says that "a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of the cords." In accordance with these things the prophet now also exhorts, saying that the gift lies open for all freely. But Aquila and Symmachus say, "Without exchange, wine and milk," so that these are in addition to the water. For instead of "fat," they say "milk." Now the water signifies the gospel preaching. And wine and milk are the mystical symbols of regeneration.

For those who are reborn of water and the Spirit are fed, like newborn babes, on the rational milk, and they drink wine, of which he says: "This is my blood which is poured out for you." And of old, milk together with the body and the blood was offered to those being illumined. And in certain churches, they say, the custom is still observed. Moses also hinted at this when he said: "His eyes are cheerful from wine, and his teeth are white if milk." But the fat, the rich and nourishing part of the food in Christ, hints at the body of Christ, called flesh in the Gospels, but here fat; just as there blood, but now wine. For the fat and the flesh signify the incarnate economy. But wine and blood signify the mystery of the passion, which he promises to give without payment to those who thirst for salvation, and when he said to the disciples: "Freely you received, freely give. But how does he say, Buy, and again, Without price? Because it is sold for faith, not for silver. Whence it is said: Why do you weigh out silver? And why do you not spend your time on nourishing words, laboring in vain over external learning, buying these not with silver, things which in beauty of diction are empty of truth and of intelligible food? Therefore Symmachus said: Set apart silver, not for them, and your labors, not for satiety. This will also fit those who buy the tradition of the Jewish readings. For they learned the bare letter. But among the wise outside, as in a golden vessel, the falsehood was hidden like mire. For we have the treasure of Christ in earthen vessels.

Therefore Paul also says: "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" And again: "For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe"—calling it foolishness, that is, the lowliness of the wording of the Holy Scripture. These things, then, having set aside, eat the good things of the gospel preaching, and you shall delight, he says, being fed in truth, both knowing God and living according to virtue, receiving these things as the reward of obedience and of understanding hearing. Whence the others published: Hear, hearing. And since the good things are not bodily, he reasonably added "with your souls." And he says, And follow after my ways. According to, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." And he indicates the spiritual life laid up for the saints, which eye has not seen, and the things that follow this. Having thus stirred the hearing to attentiveness, he begins the teaching, saying: I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the faithful holy things of David. For the old covenant, given for a time, has passed away; but the one I have made with David, having promised to reveal the Christ from him, I will make faithful, bringing it to fulfillment as I promised. And the holy things, Symmachus calls mercies, concerning which it was said: "The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever." And after a little: "Once I swore in my holy one, if I lie to David, his seed remains forever.

And his throne shall be like the sun before me. These things, then, I will grant to you who attend to my words. For he was speaking of the good things and the delight of the soul, which he now calls eternal. For the law lay, according to the Apostle, until the time of correction. Therefore he says in the prophets: "I will make a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers," and what follows these things. For the one was shadowy, but the other true. Therefore John also says: "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." And you might call the holy oracles of Christ holy things, as making people holy, just as David says the fear of the Lord is pure, that is, purifying. And the Savior also said: "The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and life," meaning spiritual and life-giving; and again faithful, meaning making faithful. For this is the power of the oracles given through Christ. David, then, having called him who is from the seed of David, adds concerning him: Behold, I have given him as a testimony to the nations. Therefore he also beforehand announced good tidings to the barren woman. And in another way, foreknowing that the Jews would have these voices and profit nothing from them, he transfers the word to the nations, saying things in agreement with what was said before, that those to whom it was not announced shall see concerning him, and those who have not heard shall understand. And he calls it a testimony, as testifying concerning the truth, and being heard by the nations, while Israel disobeyed. And the nations were also testified to, that they are henceforth acceptable to God, and that no one bars them from the knowledge of God. They say, then, that the testimony is the preaching concerning him, as he himself taught, saying:

This Gospel must be proclaimed in the whole inhabited world as a testimony to all the nations. And David too, having called all the nations, said: "My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be understanding." For it was fitting that wisdom be given to those who through folly served idols and the creation rather than the Creator. But if he had said only "testimony," he would seem to be pointing to himself as one of the prophets. Now, however, he set forth his divine authority, adding "ruler" and "commanding," according to the verse, "And he who rises up to rule the nations." For Moses and the prophets, ranked among servants, said, "Thus says the Lord." But Christ, as a lawgiver, legislates in opposition to Moses, saying, "But I say to you," changing the letter toward the truth. Hence the Jews marveled that he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. And the Father glorifies him. For he who glorifies the Father also glorifies the Son; just as, then, also the reverse. And he is glorified according to the flesh, as having taken the form of a servant. Therefore he says: "And God highly exalted him, and gave him the name that is above every name," and the rest. And the word "he glorified" has reference to, "We saw him, and he had no form nor beauty." And he grieves concerning us. And to, "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter." For this reason he also says:

Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world existed." And since it was because of the sins of my people that these things happened to him, rightly I have given him as a testimony not to the Jews but to all the nations, foreseeing the obedience of these and the disobedience of those. And instead of "glorified you," Symmachus says, "made you a boast," so that his disciples say, "But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Next he exhorts them to seek the Lord; for as he himself said to the Jews, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." And the Father also says: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." For the Father placed the wandering nations, who were enemies, under the Son, not as though he were weak, but for the sake of the dispensation. The Father therefore says to the nations, to whom he gave the Son as a testimony: Seek God, the testimony given by the Theologian. And the seeking is not local (for the Divine is incorporeal and fills all things), but in the intimacy of the soul; and in finding, call upon, that is, praise, and call, as Symmachus says, according to "Praising, I will call upon the Lord, and I will be saved from my enemies." And this will be when you find him near you, and not far removed. For God is near. As those standing therefore in his presence, put away the old error. For until the sun, darkness. And until the coming of Christ, impiety. For he does not will the death of the sinner, as he does repentance.

For he will forgive our sins for a long time, meaning completely and entirely. "For where sin abounded, grace superabounded." For it is written concerning Christ, "Behold, he himself enters like a refining fire, and like the grass of those who wash," and the rest. For he baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire. And the fire is the cleansing power of the Spirit, melting away all filth. For if you think your own affairs are incurable, as things despaired of among men, yet they are not incurable with me. For great is the difference between God and men. As God, then, patient of evil, I call you to repentance, promising salvation, if you would receive the Savior sent from me. For I do not bear grudges as men do, and repent again after promising. It is necessary, then, when God calls, not to shrink back from repentance because of the multitude of sins—which is what the Jews have suffered, saying: "Our wanderings and our lawless deeds are within us, and in them we are consumed, and how shall we live?" To whom God says: "Turn back from your way, house of Israel, and they shall not be for you as a punishment for injustice." And to confirm the promise which he has made to the ungodly one who turns from the Gentiles, he uses the parable of the rain and the snow, showing that God the Word in the beginning, coming down from above from the Father like rain and snow, in order to water their souls and make them fruitful, and not to run back up to the Father before doing these things. And the mouth of the Father, and the Word, must be understood in a manner befitting God. For neither is that bodily, nor is this without subsistence.

For how could one who has set things right turn back to the Father without being poured out, since the word of men is only significant? But some said that the rain clearly means the supply of the gospel proclamations, through which the whole has become fruitful, as David sings in addition: "You visited the earth and made it drunk; you multiplied it to enrich it. Make its furrows drunk. Multiply its produce. In its drops it will rejoice as it springs up." And through Moses he says: "My utterance shall descend like rain." And Paul also says: "But the God of peace will increase your seed and multiply the produce of your righteousness." And how would these divine oracles not accomplish these things? For according to the present prophet: "What the holy God has planned, who will scatter? And the high hand who will turn back?" From which we have obtained the spiritual fruitfulness, so as not only to gather the sacred food and to have the life-giving bread, but also seed for the sower. For those who initiate peoples into the mysteries sow in their hearts the seed which they have treasured up for themselves. For according to Paul, we are God's field, God's fellow workers, of him who says concerning himself: "The sower went out to sow his seed." And to those from the nations who approach the saving word he says: "For you shall go out with gladness," that is, from the ancestral error, according to the saying, "Go out from your land." And with joy you shall be taught the saving Gospel. Therefore he foretold: "I will make your ways prosperous, and my commandments." For it is difficult to depart from fleshly pleasures and from error already seized upon.

And it is necessary that God guide us on the upward journey and make us light. "For the mountains," he says, "are high for the deer." And elsewhere he says: "The way of the pious became straight, and the way of the pious was made ready." And another prophet says: "The ways of the Lord are straight, and the righteous shall walk in them"—which is God-given; he does not say the opposite concerning the Synagogue of the Jews: "Therefore behold, I will block her ways, and she shall not find them." There follows rejoicing for those who prosper in virtues and in the knowledge of God. "For how sweet," he says, "are your words to my throat, beyond honey and the honeycomb to my mouth." In these things the divine powers rejoice, signified by mountains and hills. For the Savior also says that there will be joy in the heavens over one sinner who repents. For they are ministering spirits sent for the service of salvation. And their difference is according to the higher and the lower. And the trees of the field clapping with their branches would be the fruitful souls rejoicing at the conversion of the lawless. But some say the mountains are the teachers of the Church who have nothing lowly, and the hills those after them. For their joy is the salvation of those who come near, as Paul also says: "My joy and crown." And the trees of the field are the peoples under their hand. For the garden of the Savior is fair-flowered. Therefore the Bride also says: "Let my beloved come down into his garden, and let him eat the fruit of his trees." And these too rejoice, seeing so great a change in themselves. For formerly they had nothing productive or nourishing—

But as in a desert and a dry land they bore a heap of useless woodland and the most foul-smelling fleabane. But now, when they have partaken of the divine grace, they bore the most fragrant myrtle and the tallest, and again the sweet-smelling cypress. But Symmachus says, instead of a heap, "juniper shall come up." And instead of fleabane, "myrtle shall come up," as if he had said: Instead of vice, righteousness; instead of licentiousness, temperance; and instead of rashness, courage; and instead of folly, prudence. And you would find this also among the Israelites by blood. For once being a heap and fleabane, Matthew and Paul—the one a tax collector, the other a persecutor—give forth the fragrance of Christ in every place, both among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. And he promises something else wonderful to the nations who have turned to the Lord. For "the Lord," he says, "shall be to them for a name and for an everlasting sign." For everywhere one may see those called Christians from Christ. And they inscribe upon themselves the name as a sign of salvation, which will never fail. For the gifts of God are irrevocable. But some have said the sign is the cross through which we have been saved; and others have interpreted the whole passage thus: when God had promised to save them if they repented, and to subdue their enemies to them, and when the prophet had stirred them up to faith (for they would inherit salvation), when those who heard were moved to longing, and said they wished to be saved, the prophet, as it were, urges on their thoughts as those who thirst. But some say that for this reason they were brought to a lack of good things, so that at some time they might hasten toward them with longing.

Therefore, just as those who thirst come to the springs, so also you come to God, having received in place of all silver the awareness of your sins. For the things that come from God are not purchased, nor is there need for a libation of wine, nor for a sacrifice of fat, which

when purchased you carry away nothing more for your benefit than toil and hardship, since they are not sufficient appeasements. For these things are idle for the erasure of sins, which repentance and faith in God accomplish. But for the gift of good things, He seeks a hearer who is not merely well-disposed but also understanding, and one who runs to the one who calls. And He says, Give heed with your ears; and if this refers to the bodily ears, it is incongruous. For it is the property of the eyes to give heed. But if it refers to the soul, it is fitting. For being simple and uniform, it possesses the inner senses in a single faculty. Therefore the one who reads letters hears with his eyes, and the one who writes with them converses with his fingers. Then he remembers David, and the relationship toward him, on account of which he granted him every inclination, which he says these also will obtain, if only they are willing to hear. For thus they will live, not the present life only, but also the life that remains; and not only will you, by emulating his manner and his repentance, obtain the same things, but in every nation the one who lives similarly to him will be acceptable. For He does not make kin by race, but by heart and manner of life. Thus, then, you also will be glorified everywhere, as all people from everywhere, being enlightened by you into the knowledge of God, run together to you, longing for the intimacy that is with me, as happened in the case of the queen of Sheba and the Ethiopian eunuch, the piety of the nation also rushing toward them by report. These things God was promising to them.

But when they were careless about this, the Only-begotten came to men and made a calling of all nations. He says that it is impossible to obtain the things previously promised without God. Therefore he must be sought and called upon, not reckoning the multitude of sins, nor the impiety committed against him. For he is very merciful. For what multitude of sins conquers his love for mankind? And even when I am rejected, I do this for a good end, and I will give this to those who have already despaired. And being great in compassions, he will give you great forgiveness. For he does not experience any human passion. For a man, even if he wishes to forgive, is sometimes hindered by anger, receiving the memory of grief. And even if he wishes to grant something to a child, the deprivation of what is given often holds him back. But for me, who wish to forgive and to give, neither the memory of old sins nor deprivation troubles me. And you, when you deliberate, change your minds. But I am without regret. For I differ from you by an infinite distinction. The rain that I supply to you makes this clear, which, when I give it for the fruitfulness of the earth, I have never revoked. From this learn that no word spoken by me will be empty, if you turn and ask for the forgiveness of your sins. And to the commandments of the law, he says, I will guide you prosperously, giving strength to keep it, and I will make the return from captivity glorious, and escorted by Cyrus and by your enemies. For as, they say, when they were departing from Egypt, the sea withdrew before them, and the Jordan became passable; so it is recorded that after the captivity the Tigris became passable by foot.

And it is as if the mountains were moved in exultation, and underwent so great a change, instead of the desolation that had come upon them from their enemies, that even foreign trees, beyond those that existed, put forth shoots, the goodwill of God being shown through them. And from what has been said, understand that the counsel of God is unchangeable through all ages, even if it is not fulfilled in one or more generations. CHAPTER 56.1. Thus says the Lord: Keep judgment, and do righteousness. For my salvation is near to come, and my mercy to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does these things, and the man who holds fast to them, and who keeps the Sabbaths without profaning them; and who keeps his hands from doing unjust things, etc. Having concluded the prophecy concerning the nations, the discourse turned to the order of the Jews who were then with the prophet, who prided themselves on their noble birth, and on keeping the Sabbaths, and considered a numerous offspring a gift of piety, so that on this account the proselytes and the eunuchs were cast down—the former as lacking noble birth, the latter as deprived of children. Therefore

God shows that blessedness consists in dispositions and virtues. For one who is deprived of righteousness and judgment, even if he has some of the things mentioned, is utterly unprofitable. Therefore he says: Cease from every unjudged opinion, pursuing the just with a judged reasoning; that is, Keep the right judgments, or the divine judgments, clearly the commandments. And it is necessary both to keep them with reasoning and to do them with action. Therefore he says: and do righteousness, having promised as the reward salvation and mercy, or, according to the others, righteousness. But some say: Lest they think that they are exhorted to the observance of the law in shadows and types, he says that salvation and mercy are near, that is, Christ. For having pitied us, he saved us through forgiveness. So also Habakkuk: "Yet a little while, and the one who is coming will come, and will not delay." And he says that he was revealed, since the prophets foretold concerning him, but he was made manifest in his own times. David also said this: "The Lord made known his salvation before the nations. He revealed his righteousness." With such hopes, then, he adds, Blessed is the man who does these things. He means judgment and righteousness, but not the one who boasts in bodily advantages, nobility and having many children. John the Baptist said things in harmony with these: "Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say, We have Abraham as our father." Likewise also the Savior: "If you were children of Abraham, you would have done the works of Abraham." And it is necessary, in addition to keeping [the Sabbaths], also to hold fast to righteousness and judgment, and not to approach them carelessly.

For along with these things, the keeping of the Sabbaths is also praiseworthy, which consists not simply in idleness, but in keeping the hands—that is, the actions—pure from shameful deeds. For thus those who keep the Sabbath must offer spiritual sacrifices. Then he comforts the proselytes and the eunuchs, as being deprived of none of the great things by reason of bodily nobility and the begetting of children. For these things will not hinder them from obtaining the divine goods, if they live piously, keeping the Sabbath by doing justice as they ought. For he who spoke at the beginning of the book does not want bare Sabbaths: "Your new moons and Sabbaths and the great day I cannot endure"; but even if at that time the Sabbath had to be kept bodily, because of the commandment of the law, it was to be kept with judgment and righteousness. Therefore the foreigner will not be harmed by the baseness of his race. For one who pleases the Lord will be brought to completion into a holy nation and among the children of Abraham. "For not all who are of Israel are Israel," as Paul says. Nor, "because you are the seed of Abraham, are you all children." But the children of the promise are reckoned as seed, and the promise was given to Abraham not for those from him alone, but also for all who are through faith. For Abraham was justified in this way. Nor will childlessness harm the eunuch who fears God, even if having many children is given in the order of blessing when the time calls for it. Therefore, instead of many children, he promises to give them in his house and within his wall a named place; or according to the other interpreters: a hand and a name better than sons and daughters.

And he says, I will give them an everlasting name, which shall not be cut off, such as was the one given to Jacob, and which made him Israel, a man who beholds God. For this is what the name signifies, and it has also become a reality. But if, according to the word of the Savior, they have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven, since there are many mansions with the Father, and there is a heavenly city of God, Jerusalem, it follows that a place is given to them there within the wall of this city—that is, also of the Church on earth, in which men stand out who are companions of chastity and dignity, and who consider the glory in the Lord that comes from these things better than having many children, and who keep his Sabbaths—clearly those of Christ—which are true and not shadowy. And he promises that those who do the same things, even the foreigners, he will bring into his holy mountain, and will accept sacrifices from them—clearly those made through prayers and praise, or even bodily ones, if the word concerns things before the coming. For his house has been opened to all the nations, refuting the arrogance of those from Israel who were puffed up against the foreigners, calling themselves a portion and inheritance of God and a holy people, and saying: "Blessed are we, Israel, because the things pleasing to the Lord are known to us." And see how the ancient things have passed away, and all things have become new. For the law says: An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. But Christ promises to bring all into the holy Church. For she is the holy mountain. Entering into it, they rejoice in the gifts that come from him. And as from an example of the worship according to the law, he said that their sacrifices become acceptable.

For proportionally, of the whole burnt offerings, those who consecrate themselves wholly to God; but of the partial offerings, such as is the life of those who have married in the Lord, divided between God and the world. Yet the Savior is not gentle to those from the Gentiles only. For he will gather, he says, also the dispersed of Israel. For they departed from the citizenship in the law rather than came to be outside Judea, both practicing idolatry and teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. From these comes the Israel gathered together from the dispersion, both those who were pious of old and the disciples of the Savior. And the beasts of the thicket gathered together with Israel signify the Gentiles. For he customarily calls the multitude of foreign nations a thicket, which he summons to a spiritual feast. Therefore according to Aquila, instead of all the beasts, every living thing of his has been said. And again, all his living things. But whose, if not God's? And he does not simply call the beasts, but his own. For they were made beastly, having been reared under the tyrant the devil, and living not in a human way. But now he calls them to the noetic table, to eat the bread of life, so as to say rejoicing: "He prepared a table before me." And through another prophet he says: "Eat and drink and be drunk, you who are near." For being far from God, through faith they drew near, and they partake of the bread that strengthens the heart of man. And according to the history you will understand it in two ways. For either, speaking of the return of the people from Babylon that took place under Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes, he says he will gather Israel, and with them he says he will gather the beasts as well.

For then it was likely that even a multitude of foreign nations would have become proselytes to them, whom he calls beasts because of their being of alien race and savage. Or he calls beasts, in the customary way, those who utterly destroyed Israel and devoured him with their whole mouth, because of their impiety toward Christ. Therefore he calls them as beasts for the eating of the nation, and demonstrates the reasonableness of the punishment, saying: See that all have been blinded. But some say that, foreknowing that the beasts would be persuaded by the preaching, while the multitude of the Jews would remain in unbelief, he reasonably called them blind, who have not even become equal to the beasts. Instead of "See that they have been blinded," Symmachus and Theodotion say, "his watchmen are blind." But Aquila says "watchers." And instead of "dumb," Symmachus says "speechless." But Aquila says "stammering." And you will understand the watchmen here to be blind, in contrast to other clear-sighted watchmen, about whom it was said: The voice of those who watch over you has been lifted up. In place of which the others say: The voice of your watchmen has raised its voice. And the word was about the apostles, the clear-sighted watchmen of the Church. And he says to Ezekiel also: Son of man, I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel. But here the rulers of the nation of the Jews are called blind watchmen, and dumb dogs unable to bark, nor to drive away the wolves from the flock of God. And how could those who first blinded themselves, and did not receive the true light? And yet he cried out clearly: "I am the light of the world." And again: "He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life;" about whom the prophet says: "While they waited for light, darkness came upon them;

...having remained in the light, they walked in the darkness." And the Savior also says, "They are blind guides of the blind," clearly meaning in their understanding. Hence the prophet now adds, "and they did not know how to understand." Therefore David also exhorted them: "Lay hold of

instruction, lest the Lord be angry and you perish from the way of righteousness." Since they were not persuaded, they perished from the gospel way together with those whom they shepherded, in addition to not keeping watch as dogs, having done the things of wolves, so that it is said of them: "The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who clung to the law did not know me." And the shepherds were impious against me. They did not even proceed as far as barking, but, differing in no way from those who sleep, they attended to phantasies alone as if dreaming. Therefore Symmachus says: "visionaries sleeping, loving to slumber." And Aquila: "imagining in sleep, loving to have slumbered." And such were they toward those outside, over whom they ought to have been awake and sober. But toward their own they were shameless, devouring the flocks placed under them, and this most insatiably. For they judged unjustly for gifts, as the prophet said beforehand: "companions of thieves, loving gifts." And Habakkuk, having uttered indignant words to God, adds: "Judgment has come against me, and the judge takes. Therefore the law has been dispersed, and judgment does not come forth to the end, because the impious one oppresses the righteous." And in addition to devouring the tithes alone, they became those who tithe mint and dill and cumin, and overlook judgment and mercy and faith, as the Savior says.

For this reason, he says, all followed their own ways, not the ways of God. And they were not such merely as individuals, but also gathered together in the same councils, doing wicked things, such as those against Christ and the apostles. For following their own ways, they were lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. CHAPTER 57. 14. "See how the righteous man has perished, and no man lays it to heart. And righteous men are taken away, and no one considers. For from the face of injustice the righteous man has been taken away. His burial shall be in peace. He has been taken away from the midst. But you, draw near here, sons of the lawless, seed of adulterers and a harlot," etc. Therefore he immediately brings forward their daring deeds against Christ and the righteous, saying: "See how the righteous man is taken away, and no one lays it to heart." And how were the blind to see? For they would have seen him, had they understood the dispensation concerning them, and they would not have said from their opposition, "Let us bind the righteous man, for he is troublesome to us"? And he was righteous, as one who knew no sin; and his disciples also, not sharing in sin, are called righteous, whom they also killed, as those who proclaimed to them the word of the Gospel. At any rate they killed James the brother of the Lord, and Stephen, not understanding the greatness of their impiety; which is the same as not laying it to heart. And the righteous man has been taken away from the face of injustice; that is, the unjust prevailed against the righteous. And at the same time he has indicated both the death and the resurrection of the Lord: by the burial, the death; and by this being taken away from the midst, the resurrection.

For it has become hidden, since the one buried in it did not remain, as even the angel says: "Come, see the place where he lay." And how did his burial come to be in peace, except that he was put to death in silence and contradicting nothing? Or because the ruler of this world did not claim him as his own, finding nothing in him? Or, as they say, because all the leaders of the Jews, together with their subjects, killed him in unanimity, with no one contradicting. And from great love of God the prophet thereafter assails them, those whom the blood of the prophets did not suffice, but they ran back to the very capital of murder. For it is dreadful that they also long ago used to slander the prophets. Nevertheless they were men bearing the rank of servants. But what would you say, he says, that against the very Master of all they moved their tongues? For they called him a Samaritan, and a wine-drinker, and one born of fornication, and demon-possessed. And finally, bringing him before Pilate, they said: "This man stirs up the crowds, and forbids giving tribute to Caesar." Therefore the Savior says through Isaiah: "Woe to them, for they have leapt away from me. Wretched are they, for they have acted impiously against me. But I redeemed them. Yet they—

They spoke falsehood against me." For although they knew that he himself is the heir, they said, "Come, let us kill him." And through the psalm he says, "Instead of loving me, they slandered me." He calls them children of destruction, as those who did not receive the one who saves; and an unlawful seed; "For Moses," he says, "wrote concerning me," so that they also transgressed the law. He calls them a seed of adulterers and of a harlot, calling adulterers in these words the leaders of the Jews. For, as it were, they committed adultery against the Synagogue, teaching their own commandments, not those from the law. Receiving their seeds, the Synagogue was justly called a harlot. Having declared them murderers of the Lord, he shows that they had been sick with hatred of God from of old. For you are the ones who from ancient times invited others to idols, even though the law taught: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." And it was not enough for them alone to be impious, but they also taught others. You shall therefore be a portion of foxes, clearly of demons whom you served, for whom the outer darkness has been prepared; the curse, then, says that the slaughter of the children will come back upon them, when enemies bring it on. He says also that behind the posts of the door you placed your memorials, calling the images that served instead of phylacteries memorials of idolatry, so as to remember these things standing by continually or engraved on the doors. For alas for me, these things turn out to be more profitable. For how could evil become choiceworthy unless it were colored with an appearance of good? And the phrase, "on a high mountain there is your bed," because they lay beside the idols for the sake of dreams.

These things are said with reference to the so-called blind watchmen and the senseless dogs. But what follows he brings forward with reference to Jerusalem herself and the synagogue of the Jews, saying, "You loved those who sleep with you." And in another sense, "you loved their bed"—namely, of the watchmen just mentioned—with whom you filled the way of every fornication: idolatry, necromancy, augury, and all such things; and when these were done, you made many depart from you. For the prophets and the God-fearing, fleeing Jerusalem, said, "We healed Babylon, and she was not healed. Let us forsake her, and let each depart to his own land," calling Jerusalem Babylon because of its superstition. Or, he says, she multiplied for herself gods far from her, busying herself with the objects of worship of her neighbors. This is also shown by "you sent envoys beyond your borders." But Symmachus rendered it thus: "And you multiplied your perfumeries. You sent your hostages far away." The discourse is directed, as it were, to a harlot adorning herself for the pleasure of those who come to her. Hence he says, "you were brought low even to Hades. You grew weary with your many ways." For since she did not remain exalted before God, she has been brought low. Therefore he said, "I begot sons and exalted them, but they have rejected me." And what is the manner of this lowliness? The many ways. For you did not walk one royal road, but many and wandering ones, always passing from one set of gods to another. This same thing pleasure also knows how to bring about in the case of those devoted to outlandish pleasures—wealth, licentiousness, and empty glory troubling them. Therefore Jeremiah says:

In the desire of his own soul he was carried along by the Spirit." A soul that has suffered this is hard to call back. Hence he adds: "She was given over; who will turn her back?" And he says that Jerusalem too, pressing intently upon evils, did not cease. To her he says: You did not entreat me. Or according to Aquila, you did not supplicate, so as to obtain forgiveness. For not to suffer at all from the beginning is the mark of one who is self-controlled. But to persist as well is the mark of one utterly despaired of. To this it is said: "Does not the one who falls rise again? Or the one who turns away, does he not return?" For he is ready to receive those who repent, having said through one of the prophets: "Return, sons who return, and I will heal your bruises." But they, as though God were unable to save, when the Babylonians were expected, intensified their idolatry. Therefore he says: Whom did you fear and lie to me? For what could the Babylonian, being a man, prevail against divine power? For it is written concerning God: "He who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it, are as locusts." And Isaiah also says: "Are not all the nations as a drop from a bucket, and as the scale of a balance will they be reckoned, and as a turning of the scales were they counted? To whom have you likened the Lord?" But Aquila, instead of "whom did you fear and lie to me," says, You remained from of old without fear and without seizure; showing that, even if you once seemed to promise to worship God, even then you lied to the promise. For neither before these did you take me into remembrance, and even now you have remained such as this. Therefore I will leave you desolate, and for the rest avenging wrath will seize you, convicting you of your evils. And who then of your gods will deliver you? And elsewhere he says:

And in the time of evils, he says, they will say, 'Arise, save us.'" But in place of "let them deliver you in your affliction," Symmachus says, "let your synagogues deliver you," clearly teaching that their synagogues are useless—unless perhaps he thus called the multitude of idols gathered among them. And these, he says, a wind shall take, meaning either the gods or those who have been accused. For through Ezekiel too he says to their synagogue: "As you have done, so shall it be to you." And Isaiah also says: "Woe to the lawless one; according to the works of his hands it shall befall him." And now he says that as one who has disregarded me, you shall be disregarded, suffering justly in return for your own evils. And these things are for them. But those who have chosen the good portion, God, shall have the fitting recompense. For they shall possess the land promised to the meek, and the holy mountain, the heavenly city; and they shall appear as teachers of others, exhorting them to make level the ways of the people, making the teachings pure and smooth, having nothing crooked. For he who has succeeded before God does not care for his own salvation alone, but also commands that the way of piety be made level, and that the apparent stumbling blocks of the divine readings be removed through their interpretation into greater clarity. And these things would fittingly be said concerning the choir of the apostles, who inherited the holy mountain. Concerning which David also says: "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord?" and what follows.

Those who clung fervently to the love of Christ were saying, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" To whom, he says, it will be spoken: "Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight his paths." But in what manner, he says, "Take up the stumbling blocks"? That is, show the smooth road, the road through faith, when the legal commandments, which were hard to set straight, are taken out of the midst. Of this sort is also the saying, "Go through my gates, and cast out the stones from the way." That is, free the road from difficulties. But others have expounded the whole passage thus: After the promise of the things foretold, he shows how those who live accordingly will attain them. After these things he comforts the proselytes; then the eunuchs, who thought it a curse not to have seed in the blessed race, nor to be able to receive an inheritance in the land of promise. And necessarily he advised these things to those who were about to lie under the sentence spoken to Hezekiah, that from his race they would make eunuchs; falling under which, Daniel and the three children obtained comfort through these words, as not pursuing the commandments of God unprofitably. Such persons, then, together with the God-fearing foreigners, he says he will gather together. But to the others who disobey he foretells the things that will befall them from the Chaldeans, leaping upon them like wild beasts. And the cause is that they were willingly made foolish, imitating the rabid dogs, which do not recognize their masters nor those who feed them, nor are able to bark; which indeed they have suffered.

For, hearing as in sleep and on their beds the things spoken by the demons, they pretended to be drowsy, having abandoned the things foretold by God with demonstration of what was at hand, when the sun went back and the hundred and eighty-five thousand were destroyed. Blinded to these things, they did not take their fill of evils; but even seeing the calamities that befall the righteous, and the deaths violently brought upon them, they slandered virtue as profiting nothing. Hence, having set before them the words of those saying that the righteous man has perished, he adds, reproaching them, that they see their bodily destructions, but that it is for their benefit that the time has been shortened, and they are unwilling to consider that they are being released from labors in good hopes, simply running down the life of the righteous man. Then he convicts them of their impieties—those who raise up altars on the mountains and at home upon their own thresholds, and hang up symbols of auguries. Therefore they shall be handed over to captivity. For in the midst of these very terrors you fled for refuge to everything rather than to me, sending embassies to Egypt for alliance, and to the nations far off. And when they contradicted, you ran to others. And there was no surfeit of labors and hardship. Then, having threatened them with calamities, he promises that those who cling to him will obtain relief. And having taken possession, he says, of my holy mountain, they will counsel that every idol be removed, and every stumbling-block be cleansed from the ways of God, so as to walk unhindered in my ways. 15.21.

Thus says the Lord, the Most High who dwells on high forever, holy among the holy ones, whose name is the Lord Most High, who rests among the holy ones, and who gives patience to the faint-hearted, and gives life to those whose heart is crushed, etc. Having said the things before these against the rulers of the nation of the Jews, whom he called dumb and blind dogs and the like, and against the peoples under them, he now directs his word to the devout among them, and to those who repent of the sins they have committed, whom he also calls crushed in heart; for there were among them, even if few, prophets who devoted themselves to God, and disciples of these, weeping for themselves and for the people, being destitute, afflicted, and so on. For God, even if he is beyond all things, does not overlook the humble, but also gives them grace, raising them to height—he who opposes the proud, according to the saying: "He who humbles himself will be exalted," and being exalted he receives God dwelling in him. For this reason he also now converses with them, so that he may exalt them, and, having become holy, may rest in them. Therefore the height in God is not local but relational, through which he is present to those worthy and to himself. Such is also the humble-minded man in the face of sins committed. And if, being men, they are afflicted for the sake of piety, he makes them steadfast (for being long-suffering, he makes them long-suffering); but also, being the source of life, he gives eternal life—he who does not despise a heart crushed and humbled. Who also says to them: I will not exact punishment for all the sins committed by men as men.

But after chastening them briefly, and overlooking their being maltreated together with the sins of the people, those who are truly impious, not having repented, I will hand over to eternal punishment; but for you I will soften my anger. For as the Creator of the Spirit given to you by me, which Spirit, when I was creating man, I breathed into a living soul, concerning which it is also said: "Let every breath praise the Lord." And Job also says: "The Spirit of the Lord is that which remains in my nostrils, and the breath of the Almighty is what teaches me." Therefore, even when I chasten you, I do this as a Father; "for whom the Lord loves, he chastens." And having suffered this, you grieved with a very keenly felt godly sorrow, being sullen over your sins. And seeing the life that comes from repentance, I reasonably healed you, having truly encouraged you. For the things from me are true. And I gave peace, not simply, but so as to have it both from those near and from those very far removed. And this is the end for those who have been benefited by my discipline. But such people will be tossed about. For how is it natural for those alienated from God to rest and rejoice? And according to Symmachus: "But the impious are like a tossing sea." For they will not be able to be still, and they will be cast out beside its waters, and a trampling-place, and mud. And Aquila: "And it casts out its waters, a trampling-place and mud." So that if one should say the "once," as concerning

of Egypt, or concerning certain waters, we will receive the multitude of the impious. But some say that the present passage was spoken concerning all Israel, whose remnant he promises to save through faith in Christ. And the phrase, "he who dwells in the heights," shows the undiminished nature of his natural preeminence (for the divine nature is above all things), which remains, even if Israel humbled it by comparing it to idols. Just as, therefore, he defiled the holy one with impure thoughts, and rested among those purified through faith; those whom he sees to be fainthearted, he says: "Be courageous, and let your heart be strengthened," and he gives true life to the poor in spirit, and to those who obey the word. "For the rest of Israel was being burned up by Christ. Nevertheless, he also makes them hopeful through the remnant, and through their salvation in the last days. For I will not continue my anger to the end, because of the promise to the Fathers, and because you are all my creatures. For he says 'the going forth of the spirit,' not of the all-holy Spirit. For how could creation be understood in his case? But by a loose usage of the word he hints at what is created in us. But some, setting down the saying as 'will be enfolded' instead of 'will go forth,' say that it indicates the breath that is intertwined with the body, even if it is not of the same essence as it, but is sent from above, as Moses says. And he calls the punishment small in comparison with their sins, and the drunken outrage they committed against Christ, on account of which he turned away from them, having foretold: "When you stretch out your hands to me, I will turn my face away from you. And if you multiply your supplication, I will not hear you.

For your hands are full of blood." But I will put an end to the turning away, when you, having repented, go your way in gloom. For you will obtain true consolation, since the grace of Christ justifies in faith and fills with sanctification; for it imparts both adoption as sons and the good things to come, and peace upon peace. That is, Israel will willingly give near; for they had known the law and the prophets as a song, and the Gentiles far off, that they have been deprived of these things. For Paul also says to these: "But now you who once were far off have become near in the blood of Christ. Yet Christ made both one, creating the two peoples into one new man, and having broken down the middle wall of partition, he made peace with the Father," to whom he said: "I desire that just as I and you are one, so they also may be one in us." And the prophet added the sum of the matter, saying: I will heal them. But those of them who are disobedient will be tossed about; for even at the time of the calling some of them will disobey, concerning whom Paul says: "Because they did not receive the knowledge of the truth, therefore God will send them a working of error." And the Savior also says: "I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him" — clearly the son of lawlessness; such people endure a psychic tossing like the sea, punishing themselves, since it raises continuous waves and sends them to the shores, and receives their reflux back into itself again, just as these, surging with thoughts from the heart, will not be able to obtain rest.

Therefore they cannot rejoice, since they have been deprived of the true joy, Christ. For even if the impious rejoice in fleshly pleasures, yet they end in destruction. For only that joy is true which through afflictions secures eternal life. But it should be known that the healing and peace just mentioned, and the cessation of wrath, some have understood as concerning the recall from the Assyrians, who also understood the phrase "to those far off and to those near" in this way: that God, being good, gives relief not only to those who repent, but for their sake also to those who are in captivity, having gathered all together by one token, even if some draw near through repentance, while others who persist in evils are far from God, for whom their conscience, always troubled, is sufficient for punishment. CHAPTER 58. 21. Cry aloud in strength, and do not spare; lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their sins, and to the house of Jacob their lawless deeds. They seek me day after day, and they desire to know my ways, as a people who have done righteousness, and have not forsaken the judgment of their God, etc. The Word, having healed those among the multitude of the people who are humble and broken in heart, now passes on to the order of the impious among them, concerning whom he said, "There is no rejoicing for the impious," teaching both who these are and for what reason he pronounced against them. Therefore he exhorts the prophet to cry these things out fearlessly and with boldness. For this is to lift up the voice, bringing forth reproofs as from a trumpet. And in due season the trumpet is taken up as it were against the enemies of God. To the evangelists, then, it was said through the things that came before:

Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion," and what follows. Here, however, the prophet is not commanded to go up on a mountain (for he was not about to speak to those who were in a high place), but only to cry out exceedingly, as into the ears of the deaf, whom he also calls, "My people," for their condemnation. "For I," he says, "took care of them, but they fled from me. For your sins," he says, "separate between me and you," and you have been tried all the more by your sins. And the reproof is that they seem to seek me daily, assembling at their synagogues. And they pretend to seek the Scriptures, attempting to learn my ways, as though they had set the rest aright. And these things they did in appearance, wishing, because of the war that lay upon them, to know the dispositions concerning each matter, and what was the end of the war. For thus the ways are to be understood, which was the mark of men who had lived lawfully. For no one will know the ways of God unless he is righteous. But from their very deeds they are convicted of having abandoned the judgment of God in impiety and transgressions. And nevertheless, out of insensibility, they claim my good things as their due, as though asking for victory in war as a reward for virtue; and they accuse me of injustice, as though I were thrusting away those who are pious. "For we fasted," he says, "and you did not see." For when enemies pressed upon them, they thought God was propitiated by bodily fasting, abstaining from foods, not from the soul's wickedness. And such fasting they called the humbling of the soul. This, then, O prophet, he says, is the reproof which they also put forward, having shown from this one thing their remaining manner of life.

But "you did not see" does not signify ignorance of God, but the failure to obtain what comes of itself. And they would have accomplished something great, if they had truly pursued these things. For David also says: "I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer shall return into my bosom." And again: "My knees grew weak from fasting." And God also says: "Return to me with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation." That is, in abstinence and repentance for sins committed; and these men, not doing this, but abstaining from foods, thought they had everything, as though they would please God, unless he should take thought for more food for them. For while fasting they not only did not abstain from evils, but then even committed the greatest evils, striking those subject to them—not, to be sure, in every case with their hands, but by outrages and acts of greed, wearing themselves out in quarrels against one another, so that those struck by them let out cries of weeping and unseemly shouts. Therefore also at the beginning he said: "Your fasting and idleness, and your new moons, my soul hates." And now he says: I have not chosen this fasting, nor such a day of humiliation. And he said that the one who walks with a gloomy countenance in his ways, and has the contrition of the Spirit in his life and deeds, would be healed; but the one who puts on the show of a fleeting humiliation in fasting he does not receive. But some say that, doing their own wills, they also subjected those under their authority to judgments and battles, when they ought to arbitrate peace. And the phrase "that your voice be heard today in crying out," as though true fasting has a cry before God.

For it is said that the things done by us have a voice before God, according to "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me." Unless perhaps he calls a cry accompanied by unprofitable fasting a prayer. And even if you endure every bodily toil without the change according to disposition, not even so, wishing to speak the truth, will you call these an acceptable fast. For the true fast makes bodily toil in secret, but according to what is visible makes the face bright, and anoints the head, according to the voice of the Savior. And it provides fruits of piety for all to see, through loosing every bond of injustice. For as those ignorant also of the manner of the true fast, he taught them. According to "Guide me, Lord, in your way, and I will walk, in your truth." And the loosing of the bond of injustice is release from greed, and not binding the weaker by the entanglements of accusations. And dissolve the contracts that consist of injustice, having been made with a distorted disposition, giving release to those from these, or to those broken by the bond of injustice, whom he also calls crushed. And tear up the documents that were not made justly. But one must first depart from evils, and then pursue virtue. Having stated the first, then he brings on the second: "Break your bread to the hungry," and what follows this, indicating that the bread we would eat without fasting, we ought to distribute. For one must not make abstinence from food a pretext for shameful gain. But the soul we will nourish in another way, restoring the one in need of food. And into the house one must not invite the rich, who repay the recompense through similar things.

But not even men who have the shelter of a roof. Nor pass by the naked man. For the God of all made some needy and others rich, for the testing of both: that the one might have fruit by giving, and the other might have poverty as a training-ground. He calls kinsmen of seed in the Jewish sense those from Israel, but in the Christian sense the kinsmen of the faith. For Paul also exhorts this. It is especially at the time of fasting that one must do these things and then draw near and entreat God, in agreement with "If you offer your gift, and there remember that your brother has something against you," and what follows. And for the one who guards these things, as from night suddenly the light of day will shine upon you, bringing you heavenly good things, and being the light of knowledge, let down upon you like lightning with impulse and swift course, through which the eagerness of the giver is shown. Therefore he called it early, as though God through love of humanity anticipates even the season, and when the sicknesses in the soul have been removed, the better things will rise. This is what "Your righteousness shall go before you" makes clear. That is, having partaken of the divine light, you will become light to others; for the virtue that is yours through works will appear shining forth to others, according to "Let your light shine before men," and what follows on this. And you will be crowned with the glory of God before him and before men, receiving this over and above the fruits of your works out of abundance. You will have besides this the divine ear also obedient. For while you are still speaking he will say: Behold, I am present. And he said that the cry in fasting of the unjust and merciless man is vain.

But the shout of the righteous man will be heard, indicating his earnest supplication, according to the verse, "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears unto their prayer." Fasting is also effective for this shout. For the saints prayed with fasting. Thus Daniel, thus the apostles. And the "Behold, I am present" was also made known to Daniel after the three weeks, when he had learned fasting, since from the beginning his words were heard. And these things will be for you a bond of sins, like a collar, when you have cast them off. For according to the Apostle who said, "To say the same things to me is not burdensome, but to you it is safe," the prophet also repeats himself. You shall remove, he says, also the unjust ordinations and appointments; that is, the stretching out of the hand toward unjust gains; that is, the repaying of evil for evil. According to what is in the Psalms: "He stretched out his hand in repaying; which is alien to meekness." But some say thus: The one who wishes to pursue the good fast, let him be righteous; and as if performing some ordination or good ministry, let him complete it without grumbling, so as not to be lacking in necessities,

when he supplies his neighbor — that is, the desire for pleasures — not crying out against the laborious conduct according to God, just as Israel grumbled against God in the wilderness and paid the penalty by being destroyed by serpents. Therefore Paul also says: "Do not grumble, as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the serpents." But the surpassing light, which he shows belongs to the one who flees these things and does the opposite, he likened to midday. And the greatest thing, and the provider of every good, is that God is always with him. But some, setting out the passage about the laying on of hands thus: "If you remove from yourself the bond, the stretching out of the finger, and the speaking of what is unprofitable," added: "For the removal of wicked men is salvation for the people." Bonds are those who do not allow the common good to prosper. Then he promises food for the soul, up to the fattening of its bones — thus of the so-called psychic powers. For these are fattened by the spiritual gifts. "For man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds through the mouth of God," of which the manna is a type. For how could bread of angels, or bread of heaven, be understood by itself? When Israel fell away from this food, the nations partook of it through faith. Therefore he says: "Those who serve me shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, those who serve me shall drink, but you shall thirst." The discourse about the bones is shaped from those accustomed to living luxuriously in the body. And there shall be for you, he says, both a fountain of living water, and an ever-flourishing garden bearing fruit through the plantings of the Holy Spirit. And the Church has become a garden of Christ, saying:

Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat the fruit of his trees.” And there was also a spring, whose water did not fail. For the divine initiators bring forth teachings as from an ever-flowing spring. “For,” he says, “from the belly of the one who believes shall flow rivers of living water.” And similarly to the Samaritan woman. And your bones, he says, shall spring up like vegetation, and they shall be fattened, and they shall inherit generations of generations. By these words he seems to indicate the resurrection of bodies, rising up like some grass—dead in winter, but sprouting again in spring. And how does it rise? Clearly by the life-giving grace, being fattened. For as David says: “You will send forth your Spirit and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth”—that is, of those on the earth, when we also inherit generations of generations in boundless life, death and corruption having been wholly abolished. And the bones are also spoken of as the powers of the soul, as in: “God scattered the bones of those who please men.” For he does not crush the bones of the body, but the powers of the soul, so that they accomplish nothing toward virtue. “For no one is crowned unless he competes lawfully.” But those who gape after the praises of men, not the glory of God. Such is also this: “Because I kept silent, my bones grew old from my crying out all the day long.” For when I kept silent from ascribing glory and praying, and fell into human faint-heartedness, my bones grew old. That is, the powers of the soul were rotted away. These, then, sometimes paralyzed a little by laziness, spring up again like vegetation by spiritual consolation, and we shall become heirs of eternal goods.

And the places of the soul that were formerly desolate will be built up in you, being filled up through teachings and divine words. For you will build yourself up with divinely inspired teachings, always fitting your thoughts together into what is fitting. And you will fence around your soul as well, being guarded round about from external troubles by Christ as by a wall. For he makes his discourse as concerning a city that is desolate and unwalled. And it applies both to each person's soul and to the whole people, with the "bones" understood as the powerful among them, and those who hold the whole body together, concerning which "eternal desolations" might be spoken—the things that have become desolate over a long time because of sin. And you will understand its foundations according to the apostolic writing that says, "Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." And you will be called a builder of fences. But according to Symmachus, you will be called one who walls up a breach. And the divine Paul also makes these things clear, saying, "As a wise master builder I laid a foundation." And he builds fences who walls around the doctrines of the Church with dialectical proofs, so that those who wish may not pass through it as through a desolate garden. For this is what a soul also suffers when it is negligent, when every opposing thought and demon passes through it, until it fences itself around with the fear of God. And he who removes the apparent stumbling blocks from the divine readings through clarity—this is the one who removes the stones from the middle of the paths. And along with what has been said, he wishes the Sabbaths also to be kept, so as not to devote oneself to drunkenness and carousing, but to sanctification and purity, and through these that the day be sanctified, becoming luxurious and painless through the leisure that is according to God.

And it is necessary that those who devote themselves to the divine Scripture not be occupied with other matters, not even to the extent of moving a foot or defiling the lips. But the divine Apostle, setting aside the shadow of the law, sets forth spiritual circumcision and a sabbatical rest, saying: "But circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter." And again: "So then, a sabbatical rest remains for the people of the Lord." For the one who has entered into his rest has himself also ceased from his works, just as God did from his own. Therefore a sabbatical rest according to God is the ceasing from one's own works and wills. This is what the present prophecy also says. And Paul also says: "But I see another law waging war against the law of my mind." It is against this that the wills are, which, since we are inclined toward them, we ought to cut off. For in this way we shall fulfill delightful Sabbaths, having nothing of a hard and God-opposing disposition, according to the saying, "And Pharaoh's heart was hardened." Thus God said to Israel: "I know that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze." But now he wishes us to gain mastery over the tongue and over anger: "For if anyone does not stumble in word, this is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also." And again: "A man prone to anger is not comely." And, "For the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God." He wishes those who keep the Sabbath, and those who call a fast acceptable, to be such as these.

For thus, he says, you will be confident, not in any rotten and temporary thing, but trusting in the God of all for the rest of your life, as one who has his promises free from falsehood, among which is also this: to be brought up from this present sojourn to a certain land, to obtain those things "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they ascended upon the heart of man," and to enjoy the promised spiritual food of the fathers in the city that lies above, concerning which Paul says: "For those who say such things make clear that they are seeking a homeland." And if they were seeking that homeland from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to turn back. But now they reach out for a better one, that is, a heavenly one. And that these things will certainly come to pass, he says, God is the one who has spoken. But how is it that, as though they had not yet received the land of promise into which Joshua the son of Nun led them, he now gives a promise to bring them in? It is clear, then, that he is speaking about the land of the meek. But some say that the return from captivity is promised to them. These also explained the earlier passages bodily, concerning the bones being made fat, and being likened to a well-watered garden, and to a spring that does not lack water. And that the desolate places of the city will be rebuilt, and these things will stand for a long time. And it remains also unplundered, no longer to be a passage for foreigners. For it will be guarded by God, when you have changed toward virtue. For the guard of each man is this: to be imprinted by God, and to keep the ordinances, and the Sabbaths, which those who do not keep them transgress. For these, going out of the city, as though they had obtained license to sin, transgress.

It was necessary for those who keep the Sabbath everywhere to do this, and so on for what follows. CHAPTER 59, 1. Is the hand of the Lord not strong to save? Or has his ear grown heavy so as not to hear? But your sins stand between you and between God. And because of your sins he has turned his face away from you, so as not to have mercy. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins, etc. Having divided what must be done, and having promised good things to those who do right, but punishments to those who do not obey, now, as to those who have disobeyed and for this reason have fallen into evils, he brings the reproof. And since, when war surrounded them, they said, We fasted, and you did not see, the prophet, out of great love of God, refutes them, showing that God is able to save, but that they have been hindered by their own transgressions falling in between, so as not to allow the help for them to pass through. For neither is he weak, nor, as if from old age, hard of hearing. But to save the wicked is neither just nor advantageous to those saved. And because their sins have been said to build a wall, the Savior is said, through the forgiveness of these, to have loosed the middle wall of the fence. And he turns his face away from sins, not bearing to look upon them as both ugly and foul-smelling. From this it is clear that the ear that hears the just man but not the unjust is the righteousness of God, not a bodily ear. And having accused their sins in general, he goes through them in detail, and blames murder and slander, but nowhere now idolatry. For they killed the prophets, and falsely accused the righteous. Jeremiah, at any rate, said:

My strength has failed because of those who curse me. And the present prophet also said: See how the righteous man is taken away, and the things that follow. From these things, as if from a lesser study of evils, they rushed on to the murder of the Savior, which the prophet seems especially to indicate through the present passage. For even if the hands of the Savior—well, they became the cause, and his blood cried out against them, and against their children. And speaking evil, they did not cease to stir up the crowds, and to call him mad, and to accuse him of being a Samaritan and of fornication, and of casting out demons by Beelzebub. Therefore he says: No one speaks just things, nor is there true judgment—and in another way accusing them as false and unjust judges. Then, since deceiving themselves they expect another Christ, inventing human myths about him, he adds: They have trusted in vain things, and they speak empty things. Therefore Paul warns against paying attention to Jewish myths, and to the commandments of men who turn away from the truth. And they were in another way vain, and spoke empty things to one another: This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us have his inheritance. These, stitching together blasphemous words against him from their own reasonings, conceive pain and give birth to lawlessness, not knowing how to say: From your fear, Lord, we conceived in the womb, and we were in labor, and we gave birth to a spirit of salvation. But they conceive such things as have also been said through another: Behold, he was in labor with injustice. He conceived pain, and gave birth to lawlessness, and the things that follow. And it is the custom of Scripture to call envy pain.

For it is a pain to those who are sick with it, wasting them away. They therefore travailed with envy against Christ, and brought forth murder against him; since even in their assemblies they said, "What are we doing, because this man performs many signs?" And Caiaphas said, "It is expedient for us that one man should die, and that the whole nation should not perish." And such would also be all the evil doctrines that someone belches forth from his own heart. And such people have also broken the eggs of asps, having conceived in themselves the seeds of the opposing powers. Therefore it was said to the offspring of their wickedness, "Serpents, offspring of vipers." And by analogy with the divine seed, he called the seed of the opposing powers eggs, giving as an example the creeping kind. For asps and serpents and such things belong to those that lay eggs. But since, after such great wickedness, while professing the study and teaching of the divine Scriptures, they fall away into mythical old-womanly tales and the commandments of men, he compared them to a spider's web, the rotten and dishonorable character of their own interpretation and tradition. Perhaps, then, he thus calls the slanders against Christ? For weaving plots, they thought that from their own

To grow rich in resources for shelter, and to hunt for something profitable. But having become naked of the shelter from above, they profited nothing. And he who is about to eat of their eggs, he says, having crushed one, found it wind-egg. He speaks of those of whom he said: "They broke the eggs of asps." Those, then, who are perfect in wickedness, having broken open the things brought to fulfillment, received them into themselves. But the more imperfect, eating of them before they are brought to fulfillment, perish. Therefore the rest have given utterance: "He who eats of their eggs shall die." But the prudent man, who is also able by refutation to overturn these things, has found in them the windy, and the wind-egg, and the foul-smelling, and the basilisk hidden within them, destructive from its mere glance. According to Aquila: "And the warmed thing was split into a viper." According to Symmachus: "But the coiled thing, bursting apart, shall be an asp." According to Theodotion: "The warmed thing was burst into an asp." Thus for the Jews the plot devised against Christ has become unprofitable, as for those who break such an egg—or rather, it has procured every destruction. Some say that to eat of the eggs which sinners lay is to be persuaded by their words; as Abel was by the word of Cain, from which came death. For their word comes to this end; which also the phrase "the warmed thing was split into a viper" makes clear. And having said, "They weave a spider's web," he sets out the account concerning this more broadly, saying: "There shall not be of them a garment for anyone." For they were composing, as has been said, teachings, the commandments of men, having despised the law. Therefore he says, "There shall not be a garment.

Some say this means: He will not bring order to them for what they do, just as the deed done without God brought no order to Adam's body either. Then he explains what the web is. For their works are works of lawlessness. Because those who, through divine words, compare spiritual things with spiritual things weave a divine garment. But those who waste themselves uselessly on Jewish mythologies compose a web like a spider's for the hunting of the simpler sort. And he recounts their affairs in detail, demonstrating the justice of their rejection. Their feet run to evil, since even the bodily members acquire a fitness for movement toward whatever they are accustomed. They are swift to shed innocent blood. For the rest rendered it thus. From this, then, they advanced to the truly innocent blood. As Judas, from base gain, was led by practice to the worst base gain. And the way of peace they did not know. Therefore the Savior also wept over Jerusalem, saying: "If you too had known the things for your peace, that days will come upon you, and your enemies will throw up a siege-wall around you, and surround you, and dash your children to the ground." But neither is there judgment in their ways, but all is without judgment and injustice. And David thus called the commandment given through Moses: "You executed judgment and righteousness in Jacob." But also their paths are twisted. For evil is a twisting of the straight. And they do not know peace. For they did not receive the prince of peace, concerning whom it is said: "For he himself is our peace." And he who says: "My peace I give to you." And because of all these things, he says: Their judgment has departed.

Concerning which he said: "Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul has delighted; he will bring forth judgment to the nations." This judgment, then, that was given to the nations has departed from them, and the righteousness that was given to them through the saving grace. And in another way, injustice had a place against them, so that they were driven away by the ungodly—for instance, by the Assyrians. When they waited for light, it became darkness to them. For being occupied with the mere wording of the Scripture, they seem to grope at it like a wall. Therefore they will grope at the word, as the blind grope at a wall. And again: They will fall at midday, as at midnight, and as those who are dying. For at the time of the noonday light of the nations, when the Church of God is illumined by the evangelical rays, as it were, those who have sinned unto death alone have fallen, and they pass their time as in midnight. Such fruits of the deeds spoken of have they had. For they expected the illumination that comes from Christ, while the prophets cried out: "Be illumined, be illumined, O Jerusalem. For your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." But they did not receive the true light, and they have willingly become blind and guides of the blind, as the Savior says. For they did not obey him when he said: "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest the darkness overtake you." But the phrase, they will go as a bear together with a dove—not that some go after this one and others after that one, but the same people after both. For their groanings were not for repentance on account of the bloods they had shed, but they were lamenting the sensible Jerusalem. With good reason they were likened to a wild beast.

And as has been said again elsewhere, they have become like a bear bereaved of her cubs. For they say that bears bear the loss of their cubs terribly, and roam about raging with lamentation, leaping upon those they encounter. They were called a bear, then, because they too devoured men, polluting themselves with the blood of the prophets. Or "bereaved of her cubs" because of their greater savagery, and because of the destruction of their own children. And the doves send forth a mournful voice most continuously, such as these have become, bewailing their own city. For it is said, that they shall be on the mountains like doves that meditate. But it must also be understood thus: They shall walk in savagery of mind coupled with folly. For a certain prophet says: "And Ephraim was a senseless dove, having no heart." For the understanding and gentleness that comes from Christ is not in them. Concerning whom Jeremiah says: "Every man has become foolish from knowledge." And again: "What wisdom is there in them, since they have rejected the word of the Lord?" Or as a bear and a dove: that is, bold against the weaker, and cowardly toward the stronger. Symmachus and Theodotion rendered: As a dove we shall meditate with meditation. And Aquila: As doves we shall speak with a voice. For even now they attempt to meditate on the Scriptures and to learn them by heart, chanting with a bare voice, so as to differ in no way from an irrational dove uttering an inarticulate sound. And this passage, and what follows, the rest rendered from the person of the accused people. Symmachus, then, adds: Therefore judgment has become far from us, and righteousness shall not overtake us.

Let us wait for light, and behold darkness, and what follows. And the Seventy also placed the things that follow upon the person of the people: We waited for judgment, and there is no salvation. As though the prophet were teaching them to confess their own sins to God, and to accuse themselves in repentance. But some say that whenever the prophets make mention of the casting off of the people that came after their impiety toward Christ, they also usefully make mention of the final recall that is in Christ through faith; therefore he also introduced here the person of those repenting: We waited for judgment, and it is not—calling "judgment" the one given to the nations through faith, which, having expected it, they did not obtain. And the cause, they say, is: For our lawlessness is great. For we did not receive the one who blots out sins through faith, who said to them: "Amen I say to you, that unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins." And declaring the things dared against Christ, they say: We acted impiously, and we lied. But Symmachus says: We knew to do injustice and to lie against the Lord. And Aquila: to deny in the Lord, setting forth their denial: But we also departed, they say, from behind our God, we spoke slander. Do you see how nowhere he accuses them of idolatry, but of slanders, and false words, and such things? At one time, slandering the divine signs, they said: "By Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons, he casts out the demons." And belching forth from their heart things false and unjust, they called him a Samaritan and one possessed, a glutton and a wine-drinker, and said that he was stirring up the crowds. Therefore they say:

We turned judgment backward. For it was not, he says, that judgment itself abandoned us, but we abandoned it, as it were turning our backs to it. And these are the voices of those seeking to be shown mercy by Christ, and continually confessing their denial of the truth, and their own false reasonings. But the prophet, taking up the argument again against himself, accuses them, saying that the truth had been squandered and had utterly failed in their ways. But walking in falsehood (which is the same as saying, in darkness), how could they have had straight ways, having turned away from Christ, the light, and from the truth? And the Lord saw, and it did not please him, that there was no judgment—that is, no righteous judgment. And he saw, and there was no man; for he had already said: "Because I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none who obeyed." For being a lover of mankind, he remits the charges against a whole city for the sake of one man alone. For through Jeremiah he says: "Run to and fro in the ways of Jerusalem, and seek in her broad places, and see if you can find a man; if there is one who does faith and loves mercy, and I will be merciful to her, says the Lord." And he also promised to spare Sodom if they had five righteous men. For since it was the Pentapolis, he seeks one in each. Therefore the one who was able to save the others by righteous action, he also called now as one who takes hold to help. But finding no one such, he says, he defended himself against them by his power. For this is the meaning of "by his arm." And he was also supported by almsgiving; or, according to the others, he established himself. For he did not destroy all. For he saved the remnant, keeping the promise to their fathers unerring.

By these things, indicating their final capture, he suggests that God is armed against them, to whom it is said: "You are fearful, and who will withstand you from your wrath?" But when they have suffered such things, he says, the rest of the inhabited world will fear the violent wrath against those who disobeyed. And instead of "And he avenged them with his arm," some, setting it out as "And his arm saved for him," added: since they had no strength against their enemies because of their sins, the victory and salvation will be present through Christ in the strength of God. And again: instead of "And by his mercy he established," and "by his righteousness he established," having stated the text, they added: for righteousness in the Lord becomes a support of the just judgment against the impious. And they spoke of God's warlike preparation, as the Apostle exhorts us to put on this armor. In the Lord, then, is the truth of righteousness, which is the breastplate of hope. Which is the helmet, and in us is imitation. And there follows, they say, also the critical, as it were, armament against those who afflict Christ, both in the uprising against him and against the saints. These things are made clear also in the second psalm. But some have expounded the whole passage from above as follows: since God often promised to help the people, and on the contrary handed them over to captivity, they cried out against God as being weak. Refuting them, then, he says the causes were their own sins, on account of which he was considered both disobedient and powerless.

For they were slaying their children and examining livers, so that their hands were defiled with blood, and they were being impious with their lips, from which they begot for themselves labors, as from seeds, toiling in vain in them. For the desires which they gathered together, like the eggs of asps that come to no fulfillment, and like a spider's web, are things that harm rather than being able to profit. And if they should be brought to action, it is in no way unlike a basilisk. Through this, by way of anagogical interpretation, we shall understand the devil, the provider of evils. And from all their evils they wove a garment, which after the common death will not be a covering for their evils, while they have strength until burial, according to what is in Job: "Until the coffin I have kept watch." And from their wicked thoughts they are in misery, not having peace. For as though they had lost the faculty of judgment, they did not come to the royal road, wandering up and down. For thus they pursued wickedness, as though they would enjoy light from it, which has become darkness to them, indicating indeed the punishment that will overtake them in the present and in the future. As also their most luminous day became darkness to them, so that they groan greatly like a bear over her cubs, and frequently like a dove. Then he says, "We waited for judgment, and it is not," indicating those who have lingered in their own sins and have failed of divine assistance. And he calls judgment that by which all choose for themselves the better things. Or, having abandoned them, they perished, when there came upon them

to them from their enemies, since God was not helping. For he teaches them the things that will befall them, and how it will be necessary for them to repent, so that they might obtain forgiveness. Since David too, before the building of the temple, foretells both its destruction and again its rebuilding. For God knows all things together with one another. Then, having accused their own wickedness in deeds and words, they say, We have turned judgment backward, as David says in the forty-ninth psalm: "But you hated discipline, and you cast my words behind you." Some say that the phrase "We conceived and meditated from the heart" was spoken against the false prophets. On account of these things God, being angered, brought wrath upon them, mingling it with mercy. For every discipline of God is beneficial. On account of these things, he says, God appropriates to those who are punished the salvation that comes from repentance, clothing himself with their righteousness, and as it were arming himself with their righteous deeds, consoling them as those who are able to become strong with God's strength on our behalf, as it were bearing arms, correcting our cowardice, on account of which also to Gehazi the angels appeared as armed men, though they are not so by nature. 19. And those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun, the glorious name. For the wrath from the Lord shall come like a violent river, it shall come with fury, and the one who delivers shall come for the sake of Zion, and he shall turn away impieties from Jacob, etc. Having said that God is hostile to those from Israel because of their many impieties, he passes on to the calling of the Gentiles, and the coming of Christ.

But he indicated the whole race of mankind through the east and the west, who will fear the Lord. "For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." Which Israel did not partake of, but those concerning whom he said: "Behold, these shall come from far away," and the things that follow; through which he indicated the four regions. And how many things the fear of God brings about, he shows by: "Blessed is the man who fears the Lord." And: "There is no want to those who fear him." And: "The fear of the Lord is instruction, and wisdom." And: "The fear of the Lord adds days." Which he promises to give not to the Jews, but to the nations. For also in another prophet he says to them: "I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord Almighty. And I will not accept sacrifices from your hands." But concerning the nations: "Because my name has been glorified among the nations from the rising of the sun." And the cause of their salvation: For he will come as a violent river, and wrath from the Lord. He will come with fury. But of wrath and fury neither the Hebrew nor the rest have made mention. For neither is it reasonable in the promises of good things. For Aquila says, "Because the Spirit of the Lord will come as a river, a sign to himself." But Symmachus: "The Spirit of the Lord will come as a river pressing on. It hastens and will come." But Theodotion: "For he will come as a river besieging. The Spirit of the Lord was marked in him." But how the Spirit of the Lord will come as a violent river, he indicated in the Acts, "When they were gathered together in the same place, suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind being borne," and the things that follow. Of which the end is also, "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit." But also a sign, he says, to himself.

For he set this as the sign of his own departure, saying: "If I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come." And again: "When I go away, I will send you the Spirit of truth." But in place of "He will come for Zion's sake, the one who delivers," Aquila says, "And he will come to Zion, the near kinsman." And Symmachus: "And he will come to Zion, the near kinsman." For the Savior said: "I did not come except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And Paul also says: "For I say that Christ has become a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." But some say: Just as above, having mentioned the wrath against the Jews, he also mentioned the mercy in later times, saying, "And by the mercy which he established," so too now, having spoken of wrath and fury, he brought in the salvation through Christ, saying: "And he will come for Zion's sake, the one who delivers"—from sins, clearly, and from death, and from corruption, and from the cruelty of demons.

And Zion again is the God-fearing commonwealth of the Church. But in place of "[And] he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob," Symmachus says: "And to those who turn away ungodliness in Jacob." And Aquila: "And to those who turn away faithlessness in Jacob." For to these he will come, and these he will deliver. But those who do not turn themselves back will have themselves to blame. And this, he says, is the covenant from me to them. And what is this? The Spirit that is mine, which is upon you, which when giving to the disciples he said: "Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven him." This, then, is the New Covenant, and the chief point of the mystery, which is in you, the near kinsman, and of those who are rescued, whom he said was from the root of Jesse, saying that the Spirit of God rests upon him. This indeed he imparted to the disciples, so that they too might impart it to those who are worthy. But the words which Christ has spoken, he says, are my covenant, and it remains forever. And the Savior also said: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away." Therefore the clearest proof of redemption is to have a share in the Holy Spirit, through whom both the boast of adoption as sons is borne, and, as some say, the receiving in the tongue of the word of faith, since Paul says: "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart." For we have received the word of faith, the saving confession that procures righteousness. For in this way Christ justifies the ungodly, he who long ago cried out: "I have blotted out your lawless deeds like a cloud." This, being always in us, is also passed on to those after us, always saving those who believe. But some have explained the whole matter thus: God made a covenant with Abraham, when he had made the sacrifices upon the promises; and through Moses in like manner he gave law; and now through the prophet he says he makes a covenant through the words spoken to the people, which will have force not only for those present but also for those to come, if they wish through repentance to blot out their own sins. For in this way God fulfills the promises, giving to those who repent, not to the unworthy. CHAPTER 60. 22. Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem.

For your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the nations. But upon you the Lord shall appear, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And kings shall walk by your light, and nations by your brightness. Lift up your eyes round about, and see your children gathered together. Behold, all your sons have come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on shoulders. Then you shall see, and fear, and be astonished in your heart, because the wealth of the sea, and of nations, and of peoples shall be turned over to you, and so on. Having announced the coming of Christ, he wills that those from Israel be the first to partake of it, according to the saying: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." This he also commanded the disciples, forbidding them to go in the way of the nations, nor into a city of the Samaritans. They also said: "It was necessary that the word be proclaimed to you first." But Christ was the light, and the truth, and the life, and the light that enlightens every man coming into the world; from which he urges that Jerusalem, that is, its inhabitants, be enlightened, and he says that the light is pre-eminently hers, both because of the promise to the fathers and because the things concerning Christ had been proclaimed to her by the prophets. For this reason he did not say simply "a light," but "the light" with reference to it, of which if she had partaken, she would have remained in peace forever, according to the saying: "If you too had known the things that make for peace." But since she did not receive it, he adds: "But now days shall come upon you," and the things that follow. And she has fallen from all the promises now spoken, which perhaps would have come to her even bodily.