Interpretatio in Ezechielem

OF THE BLESSED THEODORET, BISHOP OF CYRUS, INTERPRETATION OF THE PROPHECY OF THE DIVINE EZEKIEL. HYPOTHESIS. The eyes of the body were made judges of shapes and colors; and they judge, when healthy, rightly and most justly; but when disposed weakly, they err from what is fitting, and greatly do violence to justice; for either they do not see at all, or seeing other things in place of others, they do not rightly discern the nature of the things seen. But the seeing faculty of the soul supplies this same activity also to these eyes; and it has received from its Maker another power besides, through which it discerns not only the qualities of shapes and colors and vapors and tastes and other such things, but also judges by words, and by reasonings, and distinguishes the impious from the pious in these matters, and knows the difference between things divine and human, and, simply put, according to the wise Solomon, understands a parable, and a dark saying, and the words of the wise and their riddles. But it discerns each of these things when it is well disposed and free from unbelief; but when such a mist stands in the way, it suffers the same as the eyes of the body, and sees other things in place of others, or does not see at all, since the affliction has prevailed. Having fallen into this disease, some have attempted to accuse the divine Scripture, and especially the prophetic oracles, as being veiled in obscurity. To whom the inspired Paul would fittingly say: "But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those who are perishing.

For we speak wisdom among the perfect. And in agreement with these things are also the words spoken by our Master and Savior to the holy apostles: "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to those it has not been given." And teaching the reason, he immediately adds, that "seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not understand." For they, he says, willingly draw upon themselves the cloud of ignorance; for if they turn to the Lord, as the divine Apostle says, the veil is taken away. Therefore the divine things are not unclear to all, but to those who willingly blind themselves; whom it behooved to consider and to perceive that none of the precious things is readily at hand for men. For the sea's deep hides the pearl, and likewise the flower of the royal purple; and the veins of gold and silver do not lie upon the surface of the earth, but are concealed beneath its folds; and in our houses we keep the more precious of our possessions within, in treasuries, placing bonds and bolts and seals upon the doors; and of our counsels we are accustomed to reveal the more serious to the truer of our friends, but not simply to all. And the divine things are more venerable than all these things that have been said, and so much better as things invisible are than things visible, and things intelligible than things perceptible, and things abiding than things flowing. These things, then, ought to be deemed worthy of greater guard, and, to speak as is fitting for the Master, the pearls should not be cast before the swine; for truly the acquisition of things readily at hand is easily despised, but things acquired with toil are thrice desired and exceedingly lovely.

To these things, moreover, another point must be added to what has been said: that the oracles of the divine prophets contain an accusation of the lawlessness of the Jews, but offer a promise of good things to the nations. And it was necessary that the prophecy be obscured, so that the Jews, who were accustomed to serving envy and dared to plot against the good things belonging to others, might not destroy the books that signify these things. And that this too is the cause of the apparent obscurity, the facts bear witness. For formerly these things happened to be unclear to the Jews, so that the record of the blessing concerning the nations might be preserved. But when the foretelling received its fulfillment, and the facts followed the writings, then at last the oracles of the prophets became clear and manifest; for those who read the prophetic books receive the interpretation from the facts. Let no one, therefore, and especially of those nurtured in piety, be bold against the divine Spirit, blaming his words for obscurity; but let him who desires to understand the sacred words cry out with the inspired David: "Open my eyes, and I will understand the wonders of your law." For he will certainly obtain his request, having promised his knowledge for the purpose of benefit.

For we too, offering this supplication to the Master, who makes the blind wise, according to the divine David, and those in darkness and in mist, according to the blessed Isaiah, let us venture upon the interpretation of the wondrous Ezekiel, and let us attempt to search out the depth of the prophecy, as far as is attainable by us, and to set before all the pious as a common possession the gain gathered from it. Come then, before the interpretation, let us go through the subject in summary. This prophet began his prophecy in the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiakim, who is also Jechonias; but this captivity was not the first, as some have thought, but the third for Jerusalem, the fourth for Judah, and the sixth for all Israel. For first Tiglath-Pileser took captive the greater part of the ten tribes; second, Salmanasar took Samaria and, having enslaved the cities around it, departed; third, Sennacherib besieged the other cities of Judaea and relocated many captives; but when he attempted to march against Jerusalem with great impiety, he received the wages of his blasphemy, and having destroyed his army by a divinely sent plague, he reached his own land with few men. After him, fourth, Nebuchadnezzar, having reigned in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, came into Judaea with a great army; and taking many talents of gold and silver, and many captives from the royal family, and some of the sacred vessels, he departed from there, having placed a bond upon the king.

After a short time had passed, Jehoiakim was unwilling to pay the tribute that had been agreed upon. So Nebuchadnezzar, in the eleventh year of that man's reign, but the eighth of his own rule, again marched against Jerusalem. He put Jehoiakim to death and ordered him to be thrown from the wall, and he left him unburied for a very long time. Taking all the officials captive, and appointing as king over those who remained Jehoiachin (this man was the son of Jehoiakim), he departed for Babylon. After three months and a few days had passed, learning that this man had rebelled, he came again. He bound him and led him away as a captive of war with no small multitude, and he appointed as king his uncle—the brother of the former Jehoiakim, and son of Josiah—Mattaniah, also called Zedekiah, after receiving oaths from him that he would both preserve goodwill toward him and pay the tribute at the appointed time. But when this man too again transgressed the oaths, and was willing neither to pay the tribute nor to preserve goodwill, but had fled to the Egyptians, he gathered a great army and came. Taking the city with its inhabitants, he set fire to the palace, the divine temple, and every splendid house. And all those who had escaped the destruction of famine and the slaughter of war he led away as captives. And all the vessels—not only those made of silver and gold material, but also the columns constructed of bronze—and all the other things he carried over to Babylon.

The captivity of Jeconiah, then, was not the first, as some have supposed, but the third of Jerusalem. And this the fourth book of Kings teaches us, and the book of Chronicles, and the divine Daniel the prophet; for thus he also begins his prophecy: "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and besieged it, and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, and part of the vessels of the house of God." And after a little: "And the king," he says, "spoke to Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring in from the sons of the captivity of the sons of Israel and from the seed of the kingdom." The first captivity of Jerusalem, then, took place in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim; and this was the first year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. And the same prophet teaches us this, saying as follows: "In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he dreamed a dream." The second captivity, as I said, took place in the eleventh year of the reign of Jehoiakim, but the eighth of the rule of Nebuchadnezzar; and the third in the first year of the reign of Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, but the ninth of the rule of Nebuchadnezzar. And the blessed Jeremiah the prophet also clearly teaches us these things, and it is easy for one who wishes to gather the times together and to learn these things clearly from that prophet. Therefore Ezekiel began his prophecy in the fifth year of the captivity of Jehoiakim, who is also Jeconiah.

And it was the fifth year also of the reign of Zedekiah, who had been chosen king of the Jews in place of Jeconiah. And Daniel began his prophecy twelve years earlier; and at these same times, these men were prophesying in Babylon, while in Judea were Jeremiah, and Zephaniah, and Urijah the son of Shemaiah. But again those men also were older not only than Ezekiel, but also than Daniel; for in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah the blessed Jeremiah began his prophecy, and Zephaniah also, he says, made his prophecy in the time of Josiah the king. And Urijah the son of Shemaiah, having prophesied in the time of the earlier Jehoiakim and foretold grievous things, endured an unjust slaughter by that man's murderous hand. Of those, then, who prophesied at the time of the captivity, the last prophet is the divine Ezekiel. But Haggai, and Zechariah, and Malachi prophesied after the return; and this prophet sees divine revelations full of dread and trembling; and he foretells not only the utter destruction of the Jews, but also that of the Tyrians, and Sidonians, and the other foreigners, the Moabites and Ammonites, and the Idumeans, and in addition to these the Egyptians. And he foretells also the release of the Jews from captivity, and the building of the divine temple, and countless other things, which we shall preserve in the detailed interpretation, so that we do not stretch out the subject to great length. Having therefore entreated the God of the prophet himself through the prophet to grant us the grace of knowledge, come, let us begin the interpretation. TOME 1. CHAPTER 1. 1.

And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month. Some have thought that the thirtieth year is of the Jubilee; and the Jews call the number of fifty years a Jubilee. For just as the Romans count the cycle of time by fifteen years, so the Jews by fifty. Some said that the time of the prophecy was the thirtieth year of these fifty years. But I, first having sought the time in the chronicles, found the fifth year of the captivity of Jeconiah, not contemporaneous with the thirtieth of the Jubilee, but with the twenty-fifth year. Then, considering that none of the holy prophets ever indicated this time, I searched and found that this was the thirtieth year of the captivity. For after a little, this same prophet is commanded to lie upon his right side, and to bear the sins of Judah forty days, the day being reckoned as a year.

Having considered, then, that the loving-kind Master limited the captivity of Judah to seventy years, and that forty years remain of the seventy, I perceived that the prophet calls the thirtieth year the year of the captivity. But going back and searching out the time, I find that the captivity had not occurred thirty years before, but thirteen years before. But God, being good and loving-kind, is accustomed to count the time of chastisement from His own decree, not from the outcome of events. Thus He also did in the case of the patriarch Abraham. For having said, "Your seed shall be a sojourner in a land not their own, and they shall enslave it and afflict it four hundred years," He did not allow them to complete all that time among the Egyptians, but counts the number of the four hundred years from the decree; and in the case of Noah too, having given a term of one hundred and twenty years for repentance, when He saw the increase of lawlessness, He did not wait for the end of the decree, in order to stop the course of sin. Thus, then, here too we shall find the number of the thirty years, making the decree of God the beginning of the count. And God pronounced the sentence of captivity and slavery upon the Jews in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.

For when Hilkiah the high priest had found the law of Moses buried (for such great lawlessness prevailed in Judah that the divine things had been consigned to complete oblivion), and then the king had read it and considered that the things dared by the people were plainly contrary to the law, and for this reason was greatly terrified, and entreated the high priest to propitiate God, the high priest comes to Huldah the prophetess, a pious woman and a guardian of the divine laws; and she, becoming inspired and full of the divine Spirit, said to him: "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Say to the man who sent you to me: Behold, I am bringing evils upon this place, and upon those who dwell in it, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read; because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; and my wrath shall be kindled in this place, and shall not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who also sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Because you heard my words, and your heart was moved to repentance, and you were ashamed before my face, when you heard all that I spoke against this place, and against those who dwell in it, that it should become a desolation, and you tore your garments, and wept before me, and I heard, says the Lord—is it not so?

Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evils that I am bringing upon this place and upon those who dwell in it. The book of Chronicles also teaches these things. These things were done and spoken in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah; and he reigned thirty-one years. From the eighteenth, then, to the thirty-first, there are fourteen years. After him Jehoahaz reigned three months, which one must join to these years, because the prophecy came to pass in the eighth month of the eighteenth year; then, joining the eleven years of Jehoiakim to the preceding years, we shall find twenty-five. And the three months of Jeconiah and the few days, again, we shall substitute in place of the remaining months of the eighteenth year. And adding the five years of Jeconiah's captivity to the twenty-five, we shall find the number of thirty years; and thus we shall be able to grasp the truthfulness of the seventy years of the captivity. For from the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign until the first of Cyrus, king of the Persians, under whom the first recall took place, the

A period of seventy years is completed. And whoever wishes to count the seventy years of the temple's desolation should begin from the eleventh year of Zedekiah—for it was then that the divine temple was set on fire—and should end at the second year of Darius the son of Hystaspes, in whose reign they rebuilt the divine temple with all zeal, and the work reached its completion. The prophet says, therefore, that: In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was in the midst of the captivity by the river Chobar, and the heavens were opened, and I saw a vision of God. (2.) On the fifth day of the month: this is the fifth year of the captivity of King Joachim. And he himself has clearly taught us that it is not simply the fifth year of the captivity, but of the captivity of King Joachim. This man, as I said, was Jechoniah, who reigned three months and a few days; for his father Joachim was slain in Jerusalem in the eleventh year of his own reign. He said that the heavens were opened, not in truth and fact, but in spiritual contemplation: "And I saw," he says, "a vision of God"—not the essence of God, but a "vision," a certain unveiling and, as it were, a impression, such as is attainable by human nature. "And I was in the midst of the captivity": the pious man among the impious, the righteous among the lawless. For such is the lovingkindness of the Master, that for the sake of sinners he delivers his own servants even to grievous calamities. (3.) And the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chobar. He is adorned with double gifts, priesthood and prophecy.

Both are gifts of the Spirit; and he also mentions the land and the place where he was deemed worthy of the divine revelation, signifying many things through these. First, that the Deity is unbounded, having authority not in Jerusalem alone, nor ruling over Jews alone, but being over all, both maker and ruler. This also shows the ineffable goodness, that even when he has handed them over to captivity he does not leave them uncared for, but deems them worthy of all providence and the fitting guardianship. And he deems him worthy to be by the waters of the vision, fore-signifying the salvation of all men, and fore-declaring the knowledge of God that will come to the pious through the regeneration of water. Thus also the wondrous Daniel beheld those divine visions by the waters, and the lawgiver Moses, cast out beside the bank, obtained salvation through waters; thus again the very well and the water procured the marriage; and this happened also to the patriarchs before him, not to Jacob only, but also to Isaac. But let us return to the interpretation; for the discourse does not have its impulse toward these things at present. "And the hand of the Lord came upon me." He thus called the working of the divine Spirit. For indeed the wondrous Paul, bringing discipline upon Elymas who resisted, said thus: "Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time." And it was a working of the divine Spirit, as Paul himself says, in power of signs and wonders, in power of the Spirit of God. "The hand of the Lord came upon me," he says.

And I saw, and behold, a spirit lifting up was coming from the north, and a great cloud in it, and brightness round about it, and fire flashing. It is necessary first to state the cause of the revelation, and then in this way to bring in the interpretation part by part. Many false prophets in this time contradicted the prophets; and the blessed Jeremiah especially teaches us this. For when God commanded him to wear a yoke and to foretell the captivity of the king and of all the people, a certain false prophet Hananiah broke these things and contradicted what was said by the prophet, lying outright and crying out that not only would the city not be laid waste, but also those who had already been captives before would return before long. Therefore the Master, God, being more greatly angered, orders iron bonds to be placed upon him instead of the wooden ones, and to foretell to those in Judea the siege and the enslavement, and to write to the captives in Babylon to build houses and plant vineyards, since the decree of the seventy years is true. It was necessary, then, that not only should Jeremiah say and write these things in Judea, but also that those in the captivity should learn these things through the prophets among them; yet the prophet sees the utter destruction of Jerusalem that will come to pass. For this is what "a spirit lifting up was coming from the north" signifies, or, as Symmachus said, "a rushing storm"; and the violence of the spirit signifies the assault of the Babylonian.

But the "very great cloud" means the deluge of spears and javelins and all kinds of missiles; and the "fire flashing" means not only the terror it brings, but also the destruction of the city brought about by fire; and the "brightness round about" means the glory of God made manifest through the punishment. For since they did not enjoy his benefits, nor were willing to perceive the benefactor from them, through punishment they receive the knowledge of him; therefore they also cry out: "Afterward, when I was taken captive, I repented." — "And in the midst of it, as the appearance of amber in the midst of the fire, and brightness in it." Up to this point, then, he has shown us the whole revelation together; but from here he comes to the detailed explanation. 5. And in the midst, as the likeness of four living creatures. Both man and angel are called a living, rational being; but the one is rational and mortal, the other rational and immortal. And who could clearly interpret the revelation, when the prophet himself has grown weak in the telling? For he did not simply say that he beheld four living creatures, nor indeed the likeness of living creatures, but "as the likeness of four living creatures"; so that it is clear that the inspired prophets did not behold the very natures of invisible things, but certain likenesses and impressions shown by the great Giver for each need. He tells us, then, also the forms of the living creatures that appeared to him. For this, he says, was their appearance: the likeness of a man in them. (6.) And the one had four faces, and the one had four wings. And their legs were straight, and their feet were winged, and sparks like flashing bronze, and their wings were swift.

And a hand of a man beneath their wings on their four sides. He says, then, that the appearance of the things seen is upright and like a man; but each was four-faced and four-winged, and he said they had hands equal in number to the wings, and that their feet were full of wings. By the number of the faces and of the wings of the powers that bear the divine form, he intimates the all-pervading oversight of God the King of all. And "under the wing" signifies the sharpness of their nature; and the sparks resembling the brightest bronze signify the cheerfulness and the purity of their mind; and the hands hidden beneath the wings signify their invisible and varied activity. To these he adds: 9. They did not turn as they went; each went straight before its face. For a man, going toward the north and then wishing to pass over to the south, is necessarily turned about, having obtained to have one face; but for those whose faces are equal in number to the four regions of the world, there is no south, but everywhere they look upon all things with their face, and wherever they wish they go, needing no change of position. 10. And the likeness, he says, of their faces: the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right for the four, and the face of an eagle for the four, and the face of a calf on the left for the four; these were their faces. But let no one suppose that the invisible powers have the images of beasts and irrational animals; for he hints at other things through these: through the lion, kingship—for the animal is royal;

But by the calf, the priesthood; for on behalf of the high priest one calf was offered. And by the eagle, prophecy; for the creature is high-flying and very keen-sighted; and such is prophecy, having a lofty contemplation, and foreseeing things to come from afar. He teaches, then, through what has been said, that the whole nature of men, together with their own rulers, is subject to the king of all things, and that with so many gifts he adorned the human race. 11. And the wings, he says, were stretched out above for the four, for each two joined to one another, and two covered over their body. And he shows through these things that not even for the divine powers are all things comprehensible, but some things are clear and some hidden; and that they do not overstep the bounds set before them; but they stretch out the two wings, delighting in the contemplation given to them; and with the two they cover the body, accepting the ignorance of hidden things, and not striving to learn what it is not lawful to learn. 2. And each went according to their face; wherever the spirit was, they went, and they did not turn back. He signifies the obedience in all things of the invisible powers, and that they did not abandon the appointed path. And the divine David teaches this same thing, saying: "Bless the Lord, all his angels, mighty in strength, who do his word, to hear the voice of his words." 13, 14. And in the midst of the living creatures, as the appearance of burning coals of fire, as the appearance of lamps being gathered together in the midst of the living creatures, and the brightness of the fire, and from the fire went forth lightning.

And the living creatures ran and returned, like the appearance of bezek. Symmachus interpreted this as "like the appearance of a flash of lightning." Fearful is the vision, and full of shuddering, and foretelling a threat of punishment; for the coals of fire, and the torches whirling together, and the lightning sent forth from there, and the running of the living creatures here and there, and the gleam emitted from their running, are indicative of the evils to come; for the blessed David also places this among punishments, now saying, "Hail and coals of fire," and now, "Coals of fire shall fall upon them," and elsewhere, "He multiplied lightnings, and troubled them," and in another place, "Flash your lightning, and you will scatter them; send forth your arrows, and you will trouble them." 15, 16. And I saw, and behold, one wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, for the four. And the appearance of the wheels, and their construction, was like the appearance of Tharseis. But according to Symmachus, "as the vision of hyacinth." —"And there was a likeness in the four, and their vision, and their work was one." In each of the living creatures he beheld one wheel following, having the appearance of hyacinth; and he said that he had seen no difference among them, but that the four were exactly like one another. For their vision, he says, and their work is one, just as a wheel within a wheel. 17, 18. They went upon their four sides, and they did not turn as they went, nor their backs. And there was height to them, and they were fearful. Just as he calls the living creatures four-faced, the Word indicating through these the oversight of God extending in every direction;

Thus he also interprets the appearance of the wheels, saying that it was, as it were, a wheel within a wheel. One could observe this by taking two circles in thought and interweaving the one with the other in the manner of a cross; for such a shape, remaining on the same base, admits of motion toward the four directions—I mean the east and the west, the north and the south. This, then, the blessed prophet says: "As it were a wheel within a wheel, they went upon their four sides, and they turned not when they went." For such a shape does not need turning; for when it is moved from the same base toward each of the regions, it sets forth easily. And this likewise signifies the presence of God everywhere, these things having been contemplated more crudely and more bodily on account of human weakness: "And I saw them, and behold, their backs were full of eyes round about, for the four." Verses 19–21. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went with them, and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Wherever the cloud was, there the spirit hastened to go.

The living creatures went, and the wheels were lifted up with them, because the spirit of life was in the wheels. When they went, they went; and when they stood, they stood; and when they were lifted up from the earth, they were lifted up with them, because the spirit of life was in the wheels. The blessed Paul clearly teaches us this, when he enumerates the orders of the invisible natures and ranks certain Thrones alongside the other powers. "For in him," he says, "all things were created"—that is, in Christ—"whether visible or invisible, whether Thrones, or Authorities, or Angels, or Powers; all things were created in him and for him." Therefore the Thrones too are a rational and incorporeal order; and for this reason the prophet says that the spirit of life was in the wheels, whence also their motion was spontaneous and voluntary. For neither was any pole nor yoke laid upon the living creatures; but the cloud led the way, and that violent and impetuous spirit followed. The divine chariot moved of itself, the living creatures leading the way, and the wheels moving of themselves and being borne toward the four directions without turning back. For their backs, he says, were full of eyes—that is, they were filled with knowledge; and the interpretation of the Cherubim makes this clear too; for when translated into the Greek tongue, the name means "multitude of knowledge." 22–25. And there was, he says, a likeness over the heads of the living creatures, as it were a firmament, like the appearance of terrible crystal, spread out over their heads above. And under the firmament their wings were stretched out, each one fluttering toward the other.

Covering their bodies, two for each. And I heard the sound of their wings when they flapped them, like the sound of many waters, like the voice of God Shaddai; and when they went, a sound of speech, like the sound of a camp, and when they stood, their wings rested. And behold, a voice from above the firmament that was over their heads; when they stood, their wings were let down. Everywhere the divine prophet sets down the likeness, teaching us that we have beheld a kind of shadow-sketch of divine things, and not the very nature of the invisible things. For having said above that he saw the heavens opened, now he sees above the living creatures as it were a likeness of a firmament, and the living creatures placed beneath, and moving their wings, not simply, but toward the voice borne from above; for obeying that, they both moved them and again kept them motionless. He teaches us also the sound borne from there, now likening it to the abundance of waters, now to the voice of a camp; and finally, at a loss, he added a comparison, "as the voice of God Shaddai," which Aquila and Symmachus interpreted as "of the Sufficient." For what, he says, do I wear myself out seeking images worthy of the matter, and finding none at all? It is enough to show the one who acts, and through him to indicate the greatness of the sound; for being sufficient and almighty, he does all things easily, as he wills. 26. And above, he says, the firmament that was over their heads, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, a likeness of a throne upon it. And this form too, the deep and invisible, hints at the divine nature.

For cloud and thick darkness are round about him," he says. And again the same prophet says, "He made darkness his hiding place." But darkness, cloud, and thick darkness are indications of the divine invisibility; for that pure and unapproachable light is darkness to us, who cannot gaze upon it because of the weakness of our nature. For if someone, wishing to look closely at the disk of the sun, fixes his eye there more than he ought, he both loses the moderate vision and reaps darkness from light—what would one not suffer if he boldly ventured against the divine and unapproachable light? And concerning the likeness of the throne, he says, there was a likeness as the appearance of a man upon it, above. (27, 28.) And I saw as the appearance of amber, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of the loins and upward; and I saw, and from the appearance of the loins and downward, I saw as the appearance of fire, and its brightness round about. As the appearance of a bow, whenever it is in the cloud on a day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. Everywhere he adds both "the likeness" and "as," teaching us not to stop at this point, but to know that each of the visions is adapted to the need. For to the patriarch Abraham, the Master of all appeared as a man, and he showed him nothing fearful, since he was about to give good promises, both to him and through him to the whole inhabited world. For the promise to Isaac also contains the birth according to the flesh of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; therefore the blessing of the nations was also joined to the promise to Isaac.

For in your seed," he says, "all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." But when he foretold to him the servitude of his race, he did not appear so kindly, but he also showed a smoking furnace and lamps of fire passing between the divided pieces. Thus, wishing to comfort Jacob when he feared Esau, he appeared as a man. To Moses at first he showed the fearful things—the fire in the bush, and the bush burning yet not consumed; but after these things he converses with him gently, showing nothing of the things able to produce dread. And wishing to frighten Israel and to make his own power known, he shows the whole mountain smoking, and thunders crashing, and trumpets sounding, and much gloom, and in a word he so terrified them that they offered supplication to the prophet, that God should not converse with them, but that he himself should convey the divine words. This difference of visions he also showed to the great Elijah: first a shaking, then fire, then a spirit crushing mountains and making rocks thin, and after these things a breath of a gentle breeze, and in it the Lord; for he himself rejoices in goodness, and wishes to order the affairs of men with patience and gentleness; but great impiety and lawlessness prepare him to employ those other means as well. Therefore he said he was not in those, but in the gentle breeze; since those things were not of his own will, but of the need of men; but goodness and love of mankind are proper to his nature. When, therefore, you hear of different visions of God, do not suppose the Divine to be multiform.

For it is incorporeal and wholly without form, simple and incomposite, and without shape, invisible and unseen, and bounded by no limit; but he shows appearances, fashioning these for the need at hand. And here, therefore, he showed those fearful things; and he also showed the beneficence that was to come to all men—I mean the incarnate economy of our God and Savior. For this reason he speaks of a human form, but of two natures: the one of amber, the other of fire; and the one bearing, the other borne; for the divine nature put on the human nature. Therefore he says that the upper part was seen as the appearance of amber, but from the loins and below, as the appearance of fire; the fire intimating the divine nature ("For your God," he says, "is a consuming fire"), and the amber the human nature. For such is amber, having its appearance, as it were, mixed, and resembling neither gold nor silver, but being as it were a blend of both. Such also is the human body; for it is not only earth, nor water by itself, nor fire, nor air, but it is compounded of the four elements. Rather, such is the nature of man—neither only a rational soul, nor a mortal body, but both together in him. For this reason the prophet sees from the loins and above, as the appearance of amber, but also as a vision of fire within it round about. For the human element of God the Word became radiant and bright and glorious, immortal and incorruptible, by the nature that dwelt in it; therefore he said fittingly:

And I saw as the appearance of amber, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of the loins and downward, as the appearance of fire. For the divine nature bore the human. And his brightness was round about. As the appearance of the bow, when it is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. And these things are significant of the divine gifts; for going forth from there like a gleam, they benefit the race of men, signifying and bringing the rain from there. Having thus related all things, the prophet added: CHAPTER 2. 1. This was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And he did not say, This is the nature of the Lord, nor the glory of the Lord, but "the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." For, he says, having fashioned the sight as he willed, he deemed me worthy of the contemplation. And I saw, and I fall upon my face. And very reasonably; for if the Seraphim, as they hymn, cover their faces, what would not a man suffer, clothed in a mortal body and come into the contemplation of a true vision? But the man-loving Master casts out fear. For I heard, he says, one speaking to me, and he said to me: Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak to you. And he addresses him as son of man, almost saying: Do not forget your nature, having been deemed worthy of the contemplation of what is above your nature, but know yourself; nor remain in the excess of fear, since I am enjoining you to take courage, but standing, hear what is said by me, not being turned about, but by your standing signifying steadfastness. And not only did the good Master say these things, but through the very deeds he removed the fear. 2.

For he says, a spirit came upon me, and took me up, and lifted me up, and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. For some divine energy touched me and constrained me, dissolved as I was by fear, and prepared me to stand and to hear the words that were being brought. 3. And he said to me: Son of man, I send you to the house of Israel, to those who provoke me to anger, who themselves provoked me to anger, and their fathers, and they rejected me until this present day. Who could measure the divine love for humanity in words? What mind could reach the sea of goodness? After countless impieties and transgressions he does not renounce their salvation, but he accuses both them and their fathers, as having rejected and transgressed the covenants that had been made, and as having persisted in wickedness even until today; yet he calls them back, and calls to health those incurably sick, and this though he knows their disobedience and hardness of hearing; therefore he adds: 4. And sons hard of face and bold of heart, to whom I send you to them. That is, reckless, not knowing how to blush, not willing to be softened; neither persuaded by words of counsel, nor changed by the compulsion of punishments. And you shall say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord. And Adonai itself signifies Lord; but it also has a certain other slight emphasis: Thus says, he says, the Lord, my Lord. 5. Whether then they hear, or are terrified, because it is a house that provokes to anger, and they shall know that you are a prophet in the midst of them. The phrase whether then is not indicative of ignorance.

For he who knows all things before their generation is ignorant of none of the things to come; therefore also the blessed David cries out to him, "You have known my sitting down and my rising up; you have understood my thoughts from afar; you have searched out my path and my line, and you have foreseen all my ways. Behold, Lord, you have known all things, the last and the first." Knowing therefore precisely their inflexibility, he sets down the "if perhaps," teaching through these words the free choice of the will, that it is possible for them to be changed if they wish; of such a kind is also what is said in the Gospel in the person of the Father: "I will send my son to the husbandmen; perhaps they will reverence him." For not even there is the "perhaps" a matter of doubt; for he knew that they would not reverence him; but he does what is fitting to his own righteousness. For lest anyone suppose that his foreknowledge is the cause of the outcome of events, he necessarily sets down the words of doubt, showing the self-determination of the will, and keeping a defense for himself on the day of judgment. For this reason, also foreseeing the

Disobedient and unwilling to hear, he sets every device in motion for their change from wickedness. Therefore he also cries out through Isaiah the prophet: "What more shall I do for this vineyard of mine, and I have not done it?" and again through Hosea: "What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Judah?" Nevertheless, knowing that they are sick with incurable diseases, he offers the remedies, so that on the day of judgment those who disobey may receive without contradiction the verdict brought against them, when the divine benefactions are set forth in their midst. For this reason the blessed David also cries out: "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." For our lawlessness, when set alongside the divine benefactions, justly subjects us to punishments; but the righteous judge himself receives the victory even from those who are punished, since he has presented every form of loving-kindness and left no means of beneficence unmoved. Therefore the phrase "Whether perhaps they will hear or be terrified" does not signify God's ignorance, but gives them room for repentance; since God, knowing also the disobedience of Pharaoh, said, "For I know that Pharaoh will not let you go, except with a mighty hand and with an uplifted arm," and he continued being long-suffering. For if the Master had brought punishments from foreknowledge, how would the justice of God be known to those who do not see the outcome of foreknowledge? For this reason he awaits the outcome, and then brings the punishment. And so, he says, O prophet, convey both me and the things from me to those of the same nature, so that you may become for them a procurer of benefit, and they may learn that you are a prophet in their midst, a servant of the divine words. 6.

And you, son of man, do not fear them, nor be dismayed at their face, because they will rage and gather together against you round about, and you dwell in the midst of scorpions; do not fear their words, and do not be dismayed at their face, because they are a house that provokes to bitterness. The wickedness of those who attempt to plot is a sufficient occasion for contempt; for they are lawless and destitute of divine help. Therefore, he says, it is not necessary to fear such people, even if they rush like scorpions, even if they bring bold words, even if they come against you with great frenzy and madness. For he hinted at this by "they will rage," by a metaphor from oxen, which the gadfly drives as they graze and often forces to be carried down cliffs; and it is a kind of fly, driving oxen more violently than any sting. Thus, then, he figuratively called their madness by this name. 7. And you, son of man, you shall speak my words to them, if perhaps they will hear or be terrified, because they are a house that provokes to bitterness. Again he has added the uncertainty, devising their repentance; for it is likely, he says, that they will be terrified by the threat of punishment, and will entreat the end of the threat, since they are unwilling to yield to better words. 8. And you, son of man, hear the one speaking to you, and do not become provoking to bitterness, as the house that provokes to bitterness; open your mouth, and eat what I give you. Do not contradict, he says, the things commanded you by me; nor be jealous of those who contradict, but fulfill what is commanded. 9, 10. And I saw, and behold, a hand stretched out toward me, and in it a roll of a book.

And he rolled it up before me, and in it were written things behind and things in front, and there was written in it a lament, and a song, and a woe. CHAPTER 3. 1. And he said to me: Son of man, eat this scroll, and go, and speak to the sons of Israel. With good reason he said above, "Whether perhaps they will hear or be terrified"; for the things offered to the prophet are full of horror—"a lament, and a song, and a woe"—written on the whole scroll, within and without. And he calls rolled-up books a scroll; for thus the ancients preserved the memory of writings. And the Jews even to the present day have the divine Scriptures in such rolls. 2, 3. And he opened my mouth, and fed me this scroll. And he said to me: Son of man, your mouth shall eat, and your belly shall be filled with this scroll that is given to you; and I ate it, and it became in my mouth like honey sweetening. "How sweet," says the divine David, "to my throat are your words; beyond honey to my mouth." And sweet, and exceedingly pleasant, is the lament over sins; for "Faintness," he says, "seized me from sinners who forsake your law"; and, "I saw the foolish and I wasted away, because they did not keep your words." And his son also exhorts, saying: "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of laughter." Thus the eating of the scroll became like honey to the prophet, though it had nothing pleasant or delightful, but a lament, and a song, and a woe. But let no one suppose the eating of the scroll to be perceptible and bodily.

For just as he contemplated that vision spiritually, so too does he partake of this tasting spiritually. 4–6. And he said to me: Son of man, go, enter into the house of Israel, and speak my words to them. For you are not sent to a people of deep lips or of heavy tongue, but to the house of Israel. Nor to many peoples of foreign speech or foreign tongue, nor to those who are strong of tongue, whose words you would not hear. Here he clearly shows the difference between apostolic and prophetic labors. For the one were entrusted with the care of a single nation, starting from among them and having the same language; but the other were entrusted with the inhabited world and all the nations, according to the voice of the Lord: "Go," he says, "and make disciples of all the nations," who had countless and diverse tongues, varied customs, and contrary laws. But nevertheless those who were entrusted with the many nations, the diverse tongues, the varied manners, and the laws of every kind, transformed the inhabited world for the better; while those who were entrusted with that stubborn people endured much toil, but reaped fruits unworthy of their toils. And the cause was not the idleness of the cultivators, but the perversity of those being cultivated. For this reason the Master himself also says: Even if I had sent you to such people, they would have listened to you. (7.) But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, because they do not wish to listen to me; for the whole house of Israel is contentious and hard-hearted.

Through these things he showed the obedience of the nations and the disobedience of Israel; and he also explained the phrase "If perhaps they will hear," clearly teaching that he does not ignore but knows precisely their disobedience; and he indicates at the same time that this is from choice, not from nature. "For the house of Israel," he says, "will certainly not be willing to hear you, because they are unwilling to hear me" — that is, Do not be grieved at being disregarded; for those who contradict me are falling against the words offered by you. The cause of their contradiction is the contentious disposition, the resistance of the heart, and the rashness of the mind; but do not be afraid, though sent to such people. 8–9. For behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and I will make your contention prevail against their contention. And it shall always be: I have made your face harder than rock; do not fear them, nor be dismayed at their face, because they are a house that provokes bitterness. Knowing, he says, their wickedness of disposition, banish all fear from your mind; for I will give you strength proportionate to their contradiction, and I will provide power commensurate with the labor, and I will make your forehead harder than any rock, so that neither being driven mad, nor being struck, nor enduring any other of the terrible things, you may flee the ministry of the word and abandon the care of these. 10–11. And he said to me: Son of man, all the words that I have spoken with you, take into your heart, and hear with your ears. And go, enter into the captivity to the sons of your people,

And you shall say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: If perhaps they will hear, if perhaps they will yield. Say nothing of your own, he says, when you speak to them, but minister my words, and bring them what I command you; for it is likely that they will respect your labors and fear my threats. But the ambiguity again, as I said, does not signify ignorance, but stirs up the impulse of free will. 12. And the Spirit took me, and I heard behind me the sound of a great earthquake: Blessed is the glory of the Lord from his place. For having received these commands, he says, I hastened to fulfill the ministry, and I was not even permitted to use my feet, but by divine cooperation I was carried to those to whom I was sent. And necessarily he also receives the perception of the earthquake, so that, pricked by fear, he might fulfill the ministry. And he also speaks the hymnody which he sent up when he perceived the earthquake: "Blessed is the glory of the Lord from his place." And he said this having been taught by God himself; for when the blessed Moses asked to see God knowingly, he said, "No one shall see my face and live." Then he adds: "Behold, there is a place with me, and I will set you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face you shall not see." Not because the Divine is divided into face and back; but by "face" the divine essence is understood, and by "back," the economies and benefactions which are many and manifold toward us.

He calls his goodness his "place," through which, being by nature uncontainable, he becomes containable, as far as is possible, to those who are worthy. 13. And I saw the sound of the wings of the living creatures, as they beat one against the other, and the sound of the wheels accompanying them, and the sound of a great earthquake. For when these things had been said to me, the living creatures were set in motion, using their wings, and the wheels followed along; and a very great earthquake was brought about as these moved; for the din borne from every side was great. 14. And the Spirit lifted me up and took me, and I went on high in the impulse of my spirit. For the grace of the divine Spirit, having come to be in me, prepared me, as it were some winged creature, to cleave the air between heaven and earth. "And the hand of the Lord became upon me mighty." Again he signifies the same grace of the Spirit. 15. And I entered into the captivity on high—that is, not walking, but borne through the air. "And I went around to those dwelling by the river Chobar, those who were there, and I sat there seven days, moving about in the midst of them." For having reached, he says, those whom I was commanded, I spent seven days in silence, awaiting the divine working. 16, 17. And it came to pass after the seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, I have given you as a watchman in the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from my mouth, and you shall threaten them on my behalf. Take, he says, the figure of a watchman, whom men set upon some hill, commanding him to forewarn them of the coming incursions of the barbarians.

You, therefore, as if standing on some watchtower and vantage point of prophecy, proclaim to the people what you foresee, and convey my words to them. 18. When I say to the lawless man, "You shall surely die," and if you do not set it before him, nor speak to set it before the lawless man, to turn him from his ways, that he may live, that lawless man shall die in his lawlessness, and I will require his blood at your hand. Fearful and full of shuddering is the threat, and sufficient to terrify even those who are utterly stone-like; but inexpressible too is the goodness that appears through the threat; for he threatens the righteous man with the exacting of penalties, if he does not signal to the lawless man the threat of death, and teach what is the cause of life and what is the procurer of death. So greatly does the Maker and Master of all things desire the repentance of sinners, that even if someone should gather together all virtue, but neglect the souls entrusted to him, he will profit nothing from his own achievements, but will pay the penalty for

exacting payment for negligence. But since it is likely that he brings every form of care, while they are incurably sick and do not accept the treatment offered, he necessarily adds: 19. And you, if you distinguish the lawless man, and he does not turn from his way and from his lawlessness, that lawless man shall die in his lawlessness, and you shall deliver your soul. You shall be innocent, he says, doing what is proper and contributing what is in your power; for even if his disease remains incurable, he alone will pay the penalty for his disobedience. But it is fitting to understand that he said the lawless man, both above and here, will be punished, remaining in transgression, whether he has one who distinguishes him, that is, one who teaches, or whether he does not; for nature is sufficient for the discernment of what must be done, while teaching is offered out of abundance, divine goodness devising every means for the salvation of men. 20. And when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits a transgression, and I will set the torment before his face; he shall die, because you did not distinguish him; he shall die in his sins, because his righteous deeds which he did shall not be remembered for him, and his blood I will require at your hand. He did not say simply, If the righteous man sins, but, If he turns away from his righteousness and commits a transgression, that is, if he abandons the straight road which he traveled and turns to the other. Since even blessed David sinned and committed the greatest sins:

But he did not abandon the path he was traveling, but after stumbling and falling he rose, and keeping to the same course he continued. If, then, he says, a righteous man abandons his own path and embraces the opposite one, and you, knowing this, do not refute the absurdity, nor strive to lead him back to his former path, that man will find the end of the second path to be what it deserves, having lost all his former labor; for he came to another path, and the ends are opposite, and suited to the paths; for the end of the one is life, and of the other death. Therefore he will necessarily lose the profit of his former labors, having fallen into the end of the evil path; and his life that has been lost I will require at your hand, and I will exact from you the penalty for your negligence. 19. But if you distinguish to the righteous man so that he does not sin, and he does not sin, the righteous man shall live by life, because you distinguished to him, and you shall deliver your own soul. For you accomplish a double life, both for yourself and for him. For he, through your instructions, escapes the pit of destruction and finds the end worthy of the righteous path; and you shall be released from accountability and shall escape the greatest danger, having cared for the salvation of your neighbor. And these things suffice to stir us to zeal and to prepare us to make every care for the brethren, and not to cease both speaking and acting toward their benefit, so that we may both escape the threatened punishment and obtain the promised salvation, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father be the glory, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. TOME II. 22.

And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and he said to me: Arise, and go out into the plain, and there it shall be spoken to you. For stillness is suited to the contemplation of divine things; for when the mind is released from outward distractions, and is no longer divided this way and that, but turns toward itself, it is able more accurately to perceive divine things. And I arose, and went out into the plain; and behold, there the glory of the Lord stood, as the vision, and as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the Spirit came upon me, and set me upon my feet. More frequently he enjoys the vision, so that he may become more zealous for the ministry of the word. And it is fitting to observe that not even the revelations proportioned to human nature could the exceedingly pure in mind behold, just as indeed this prophet also, having already had experience of the vision, falls at once upon seeing, and needs the grace that raises him up. And he spoke to me, and said to me.

Go in and shut yourself inside your house. Through actions he commands the prophecy to be brought about, and the siege of Jerusalem to be foretold through the things the prophet was commanded to do. 25, 26. And you, son of man, behold, bonds have been given upon you, and they shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out from among them. And I will bind your tongue to your throat, and you shall be made mute, and you shall not be to them a man who reproves, because they are a house that provokes to bitterness. Like a trainer, the Master anoints the prophet as a kind of athlete, foretelling to him the sorrowful things that will come and the grim things that will be inflicted by the people, and urging him to endure and persevere and to keep silence until he himself permits him to speak; and everywhere he adds, because they are a house that provokes to bitterness, teaching him not to fear those who provoke God "fearlessly"; for the lawless are easy to despise. 27. And when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Let the one who hears hear, and let the one who disobeys disobey, because they are a house that provokes to bitterness. And these things clearly make plain the free choice of the will. For you, he says, offer the teaching in common to all. But teaching the voluntary nature of obedience, he adds to his words that the one who wishes should obey, and the one who disobeys, who thinks the opposite, should speak against it; for each will receive the reward according to the choice of his will.

CHAPTER 4 1, 2. And you, son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you shall place it before your face, and you shall draw upon it the city Jerusalem; and you shall set a siege around it, and you shall build siege-works against it, and you shall cast a rampart around it, and you shall set camps against it, and you shall station battering-rams in a circle. He is commanded to draw the siege of Jerusalem; and the drawing is made on a brick, because of the weakness of its inhabitants; for they did not build their house like that prudent man, upon the rock, but upon the sand; therefore the rivers came, and the rain descended, and the winds blew, and they beat against their house, and it fell, and its fall was great. 3. And you, take for yourself an iron pan, and you shall place it as an iron wall between you and between the city, and you shall set your face toward it, and it shall be in a state of siege, and you shall besiege it; this is a sign to the sons of Israel. The prophet is commanded to hold the place of God; therefore he is also ordered to place an iron pan between himself and the city drawn on the brick, being taught that God, even when present and beholding the things done against Jerusalem, will grant them no providence; but as if separated by some iron wall, he will neither seem to see what is done, nor will he hear those who supplicate. And these things, he says, do, giving as a sign the prophecy through the events to those who now disobey and contradict. 4, 5.

And you shall sleep on your left side, and you shall place the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the days, a hundred and fifty, which you shall sleep upon it, and you shall take their iniquities. And I have given you the two iniquities of theirs for a number of days, a hundred and ninety days; and you shall take the iniquities of the house of Israel, and you shall complete them. After Solomon, in the time of Rehoboam, the twelve tribes were divided, and the ten were called sometimes Ephraim, sometimes Israel, while Judah and Benjamin were called Judah; but nevertheless there was one people, tracing its lineage both from Israel and from Abraham; therefore, as concerning one people, the things he spoke by way of division he again joined together; for having assigned the hundred and fifty days to Israel, and the forty to Judah, he again joined them together, as concerning one body and one kinship, the hundred and ninety days; and having joined them he divided them again, and he says: 6. And you shall sleep on your right side a second time, and you shall take the iniquities of the house of Judah forty days, a day for a year I have set them for you. For greater was the transgression of the one called Israel; for having wholly revolted from God, they sometimes served the calves, and sometimes bowed down to idols of every kind. For this reason he appoints a hundred and fifty days for that one, and forty for Judah, each day being reckoned as a year. And the forty days of Judah signify the forty years remaining of the seventy years. For God declared through the prophet Jeremiah that they would spend seventy years in Babylon;

But thirty years had already passed; for in the thirtieth year of the captivity the divine Ezekiel began his prophecy, and from the fifth year of the captivity of Jeconiah until the first year of the reign of Cyrus the Persian, the remaining forty years are completed. And this is possible to gather not only from the chronicles, but also to learn from the divine Scriptures; for the blessed Jeremiah the prophet, and the book of Paralipomenon, teach that in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah, Evil-merodach lifted up his head and brought him out of the prison house in the year of his reign. And after him, Belshazzar reigned over the Babylonians for no long time; for having acted impiously, he was slain; and he held power for about three years; for in the third year of his reign Daniel beheld the one vision. And after him, Darius the son of Ahasuerus, being of the seed of the Medes, received the kingdom; and he too led it for a short time. And the blessed Daniel teaches us this, having said, in the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus.

In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books the number of the years, of which the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the fulfillment of the desolation of Jerusalem, seventy years." Therefore the forty days appointed to Judah signify the number of the remaining forty years, and the hundred and fifty to Israel signify a number of a hundred and fifty years, after which the city was built and became full of inhabitants, having been walled and having received back its circuits, and the other cities of both Israel and Judah were restored, receiving many inhabitants. And this happened in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes son of Xerxes, under whom Nehemiah, having become his cupbearer and having asked a favor of the king, with great zeal reached Judea and did all the things previously mentioned. And the writing of Ezra clearly teaches this. But if anyone wishes to learn the number of the years accurately, let him take as the beginning of the count the fifth year of the captivity of Jeconiah. For from that point we have also counted the forty; for you will find forty years until the first year of Cyrus the Persian, from there the remaining years of Cyrus, twenty-nine, then seven of Cambyses, then thirty-five of Darius son of Hystaspes; in addition to these, twenty of Xerxes, and nineteen of Artaxerxes; for in the twentieth year he ordered the walls of the city to be rebuilt. And let no one say that the building of Jerusalem in no way concerned Israel, which had long ago been divided from the tribe of Judah.

For after the return, the division did not remain, but all who had obtained the return continued in harmony, having Jerusalem as their mother city. 7. And for the siege of Jerusalem, he says, you shall set your face, and you shall strengthen your arm, and you shall prophesy against it. The "setting of the face" signifies indignation, and the "strengthening of the arm" the discipline that is brought upon them. 8. And behold, I have given bonds upon you, and you shall not turn from your side to your other side, until the days of your siege are completed. For they must learn through what you practice, that before the appointed time they will obtain no recall. Therefore it is fitting that you remain on each side for the appointed time, not being moved, so that they may learn the sentence brought against them. 9, 10. And you, son of man, take for yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and you shall cast them into one earthen vessel, and you shall make them for yourself into loaves, according to the number of the days in which you sleep on your side; for ninety and a hundred days you shall eat them. And your food, which you shall eat, by weight twenty shekels a day, from time to time you shall eat them. The prophet is commanded to endure hardship, receiving in himself the type of those who are punished, and teaching the people, through what he was commanded to do, the famine that would be in Jerusalem. Therefore he is commanded to prepare the bread not from wheat only, but also from millet, and spelt, and beans; and such food is a sign of want.

And the weight again signifies scarcity. For once, he says, in the day you shall eat twenty shekels, which make three ounces and a little more, as those say who have accurately determined these weights and measures. 11. And you shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. And this again indicates the severity of the want that the siege produced; and the hin was a measure among them, the sixth part of which contained half a xestes according to the Syrian standard; and the prophet was commanded to drink this measure, in order to foretell the scarcity of necessities that would come upon them from the siege. 12. And you shall eat it as a barley cake, and you shall hide it in dung of human excrement before their eyes. And you shall bake, he says, all these various seeds, as they are accustomed to prepare barley loaves; and let human dung be the fuel for the fire of the baking, to indicate the defilements that would come upon them among the nations. Therefore he adds: 13. Thus the sons of Israel shall eat their bread unclean among the nations, where I shall scatter them. For it was necessary, being captives and mingling with foreign nations, not to live according to the law, but to take many occasions for lawlessness from the mingling. 14. And I said, By no means, Lord God of Israel; behold, my soul has not been defiled in uncleanness, and I have not eaten of a carcass or a beast's prey from my birth until now, nor has any stale and profane flesh entered my mouth.

Compelled, the prophet lays bare his lawful manner of life, entreating the man-loving Master to dissolve by another command what had been enjoined; and at once he persuaded him. For he is good and easily bends to suppliants, just as indeed at that time also, when he cried out, he commanded them to use pulse for the baking of bread. To these things he adds: 16, 17. Son of man, behold, I break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and in want, and they shall drink water by measure and in desolation. That they may become destitute of bread and water; and man and his brother shall be destroyed, and they shall be consumed in their iniquities. But two things are signified through that baking of bread: through the weight, the famine in Jerusalem; through the unclean preparation, the manner of life among the lawless nations. But the punishment contains what is just. For they shall be consumed, he says, in their own iniquities; for they shall pay the penalty, he says, for the sins they continued to commit.

CHAPTER 5 1. And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword, like a barber's razor, and acquire it for yourself, and bring it upon your head and upon your beard, and you shall take a yoke of scales and divide them. The sword hints at the punitive power; the removal of the hairs of the head and the beard, the deprivation of comeliness; the yoke and the scales, the justice of God's verdict; for nothing is unweighed in his unsearchable judgments. 2. You shall burn a fourth part in the fire in the midst of the city, according to the completion of the days of your confinement, and you shall take a fourth part and burn it in the midst of it, and a fourth part you shall cut down with the sword round about it, and a fourth part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will empty out a sword after them. These things he himself interprets a little later, and calls fire, and famine, and death; wherefore he commanded the two fourths to be handed over to the fire, since both this and that ravage men with the punishment of fire; and through the sword he signified the assault of the enemies, and the slaughters that would be made by them; and the scattering, the captivity and the dispersion that would come to be, concerning which he added: "And I will empty out a sword after them"; for even after they became captives of war they endured countless forms of death. 3, 4. And you shall take, he says, from there a few in number, and you shall gather them up in the fold of your robe. And from these you shall take still more, and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in fire; from it fire shall go out upon all the house of Israel.

By these things he signifies those who were left behind, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left with Gedaliah, who in turn were consumed in various ways: now being slain by one another, now fleeing to Egypt, and not departing from impiety. And the prophecy of Jeremiah clearly teaches us this. But the phrase, "From it fire shall go out into all the house of Israel," hints at the indignation of the Babylonian that occurred then, and the destruction brought upon them in Egypt; and it also foretells the seditions that took place after the return, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, through which they fell into those countless calamities. And in a distinct manner it foretells the madness against the Lord Christ, and the utter destruction of them that came after the cross, and their dispersion into all the inhabited world. Having done these things, he says, speak also the causes of the punishment. 5, 6. Thus says Adonai the Lord: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the lands round about her; and you shall say, She has rejected my statutes unto iniquity, more than the nations round about her. For they thrust away my statutes, and in my laws they did not walk in them. The God of all chose the nation of the Jews, wishing through them to benefit all men; therefore he also gave them a law that separated them from all, so that from this too they might have the distinction; and he gave them also a place for dwelling in the middle of the inhabited world: for toward the east and the north they had Asia, toward the west Europe joined by the sea, and from the south Libya.

For Noah's sons divided the inhabited world into these three parts. "I have therefore set Jerusalem," says God, "in the midst of the nations, so that they might draw benefit from her and learn all godliness and good order from her; but she has done the very opposite. For not only did she not share with them the good order given by me, but she also partook of their impiety. 7, 8. Therefore thus says the Lord Adonai: Because your form is from the nations round about you, you did not walk in my statutes, and you did not do my judgments, nor did you do according to the judgments of the nations round about you. Therefore thus says the Lord Adonai: Behold, I am against you, and I will execute judgment in your midst before the nations. For since you imitated the character of the nations and were inflamed with their practices, and spat upon my judgments and statutes, and by excess of lawlessness surpassed the nations in impiety, from whom you learned it—for this cause I will judge you openly, while the nations behold the tribunal and listen to the judgment; so that, since they were not benefited by your good order, they might at least draw benefit from your punishment. 9. And I will do in you what I have not done, and I will never do the like again, because of all your abominations. Then he teaches what are the

...threatened. 10. Therefore fathers shall eat children in the midst of you, and children shall eat fathers. This also happened in the siege of the Babylonians and in that of the Romans, the excess of famine having brought about the impious deed. "And I will execute judgments in you." That is, I will judge you justly. "And I will scatter all your remnant to every wind." The statement does not need interpretation, since the facts cry out. 11. Therefore, as I live, says Adonai the Lord, surely because you have defiled my holy things with all your abominations and with all your detestable things, I also will thrust you away. He calls "holy things" not only the legal ordinances but also the temple set apart for him, which they profaned by their setting up of idols; and he names the idols "abominations" and "detestable things"—detestable things as full of loathing, abominations as filled with all disgust. Such is what is said by Rebecca: "I have loathed my life because of the daughters of the Canaanites; if Jacob my son takes a wife from them, why should I live?" That is, I utterly detest the daughters of the Canaanites. And again God through David: "Therefore I loathed that generation, and I said: They always go astray in their heart"; that is, I detested them. And again concerning the lawless man, the same prophet says: "But he did not loathe wickedness"; that is, he did not detest wickedness. "My eye shall not spare, and I will not have mercy." So great is the excess of lawlessness that the merciful one does not endure to show mercy, and the lover of humanity does not spare those who are punished.

Then he recounts what has already been explained: how he will deliver a fourth part to famine, and again another portion to death; then another to slaughter through war, and the remaining fourth to captivity, with punishment again following upon these as well. And he adds: 13. And my fury shall be accomplished, and my wrath upon them, and I shall be comforted, and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath upon them. The Divine is impassible and wholly free from anger, but it employs human terms, thus designating the punitive energies. And the phrase "My wrath shall be accomplished upon them" is instead of "it shall receive an end." But when they have learned through experience that I am God and Master, that having loathed their lawlessness I brought punishment upon them, I shall be comforted; for it was for this that I brought the chastisements upon them. 14. And I shall make you a desert, and a reproach to those round about you. This too is enough to grieve bitterly, that those dwelling nearby and perpetually at war should laugh at you and revel in your desolation. "And your daughters round about you before every passer-by." He calls daughters the cities and villages subject to you. 15. And you shall be a groaning, and manifest in chastisement and destructions, and your daughters round about you among the nations round about you. I shall make you, he says, conspicuous in evils, so that all who hear of your destruction, and of the cities and villages subject to you, may groan and lament.

When I execute judgments among you in anger and in wrath, in vengeance of fury, and with reproofs." Then he shows the truthfulness of what has been said: "I, the Lord, have spoken," he says. For the declaration of the person is sufficient to show the truth. "When I send my arrows of famine against them, and they shall come to destruction; and I will send them to destroy you, and I will appoint famine, and I will break the staff of your bread. (17) And I will send against you the sword, and evil beasts, and I will punish you, and death and blood shall pass over you, and I will bring the sword against you round about; I, the Lord, have spoken." He says the same things many times, wishing to terrify those who hear, so that by the fear of grievous things he might turn them to piety, and not bring upon them the experience of the threat. And "evil beasts" he called the most savage Chaldeans, who attack like man-eating beasts, some slaughtering, others taking alive and capturing as prisoners of war. CHAPTER 6 1, 2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, and you shall say. The mountains are not rational, nor indeed animate, but even insensible; yet for the reproof of rational beings he converses with soulless things; thus also in the case of Jeroboam the man of God made his words to the altar. 3, 4. Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Adonai: thus says the Lord Adonai to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the valleys, and to the ravines: Behold, I bring upon you the sword, and your high places shall be utterly destroyed.

And your altars shall be made desolate, and your sanctuaries shall be shattered, and I will cast down your wounded before your idols. For since in all these places they had raised up altars to the idols, he necessarily foretells the coming assault of the enemies, and the slaughters that will take place everywhere, and the plundering of the idolatrous sanctuaries. 5, 6. And I will give the corpses of the sons of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars, in all your dwelling places. He has transferred the discourse from lifeless things to rational beings, and he threatens that he will fill the sanctuaries of the idols with the dead, and the altars of the demons with human bones, teaching through the punishment that they derived no benefit from the worship of the demons, nor indeed did they enjoy any assistance from them in the calamities that were brought upon them. "And the cities shall be made desolate, and the high places shall be made desolate, so that your altars may be utterly destroyed and may fail, and be shattered." The Symmachus translation rendered "may fail" as "may be made desolate." "And I will cause your idols to cease, and your sanctuaries to be taken away, and your works to be blotted out." He has shown the causes of the punishment; for the philanthropic Master punishes in a medicinal manner, in order that he may stop the course of impiety; for all these things, he says, I do, and I will bring desolation, in order that I may quench the madness and frenzy concerning the idols. 7. And your wounded shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the Lord. So that the punishment is a teacher of the knowledge of God.

Therefore also the blessed David said, "It is good for me that you humbled me, that I might learn your statutes." 9. And I will leave a remnant, that there may be from you some who escape the sword among the nations, in your dispersion in the lands. For since he said, "You shall know that I am the Lord," he necessarily shows those who will be benefited; for those scattered from the captivity will reap benefit from the punishment. Therefore he adds: 9. And those of you who escape shall remember me, where they were carried captive. Useful, then, is the discipline brought upon them by God; for it is the mother of repentance. For I have sworn to their heart that prostitutes itself, that has departed from me, and to their eyes that prostitute themselves after their practices, that they shall weep before their own face for the evils which they did in all their abominations. (10.) And they shall know, because I the Lord have not spoken in vain to do all these evils. Irreversible, he says, will be their repentance for the things in which they abandoned me and loved the service of idols; for this he called prostitution here; and they shall learn through experience itself that neither unjustly nor unprofitably did I surround them with these punishments; for injustice demonstrates the just, and repentance demonstrates the benefit. 11. Thus says Adonai the Lord: Clap your hand, and stamp your foot, and say, Well done, well done, upon all the abominations of the evils of the house of Israel, who shall fall by the sword, and by famine, and by death.

When I, he says, give my verdict and condemn your manifold punishments, do you clap your hands and marvel at the justice of the sentence. Then again, having foretold the same things—that they will be handed over to famine, to death, to the slaughter of enemies, and to captivity, and that around the idolatrous altars they will be slaughtered, and in the groves honored by them. "And under a thick oak," he says, "they gave a sweet-smelling savor to all their idols." He also indicates the boundaries of the desolation. 14. "For I will make," he says, "the land a desolation and a destruction from the wilderness of Deblatha in all their dwellings, and they shall know that I am the Lord." Chapter 7. And knowing the continuity of the grievous prophecies, and that those who are exceedingly stubborn need sufficient softening, he again foretells the sorrowful things in another way. 1, 3. "For the word of the Lord came to me," he says, "saying: And you, son of man: Thus says Adonai the Lord to the land of Israel: An end has come, the end has come upon the four wings of the land. The end has come now, and the end shall come upon you who dwell in the land." And he calls "four wings of the land" not of the whole world, but of Israel's land; instead of, "The end of your affairs has come; for do not suppose that you will escape the threatened evils, if you do not practice repentance; for destruction will come upon all of you." "And I will send my wrath upon you, and I will judge you according to your ways." Now is the time for me to say with the blessed Paul: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;" for he will render to each according to his works. For this is what he also said here: "And I will judge you according to your ways.

And I will give upon you all your abominations, meaning: You will reap what you have sown, and you will receive recompense worthy of your deeds. 4. My eye shall not spare you, nor will I have pity. For when we fall into measureless lawlessness and are driven into an incurable disease, we shut out God's mercy. "Because I will give your way upon you, and your abominations shall be upon you, and you shall know that I am the Lord." The greatest consolation for those being punished is the knowledge of God who punishes. 5–7. Thus says Adonai the Lord: One evil, behold, an evil comes. The end has come, the end has come; it has awakened against you, behold, the end has come. The knot has come upon you who dwell in the land. Ineffable is God's love for humanity: he threatens punishments so as not to bring punishments; but when we do not fear the threats, we receive them by experience—which is exactly what these people suffered: they heard that the end had come, but did not fear the end. And he calls the utter destruction brought upon them "one evil," and the bonds of sin a "knot"; for "each one," he says, "is strangled by the cords of his own sins." And Isaiah says: "Woe to those who draw their sins to themselves as with a long rope, and their lawless deeds as with the strap of a yoke for a heifer." The time, he says, is at hand; the day has drawn near—not with tumults nor with birth-pangs. (8.) Now I will pour out my wrath near upon you. There will be, he says, no postponement of the punishment, but its time is present and at hand. Then again he recounts how they will pay the penalty for their own injustices. And shortly after he adds:

The rod has blossomed, and insolence has risen up, and it will shatter the support of the lawless." He called the punishment a rod, watered and made to blossom by lawlessness; and he named insolence the impiety against God, which they continued to practice to the greatest extent, despising the divine forbearance. But this, he says, has now "risen up, and will shatter the support of the lawless." Therefore he adds: 12–13. Let not the buyer rejoice, and let not the seller mourn; for wrath is upon all its multitude. And the buyer shall no longer turn back to the seller. This means: wishing to overturn the contract; for all will fall into equal evils, lamenting and groaning alike. Nevertheless, he says: "While they are still alive, their living, because the vision concerning all its multitude shall not return." For with so many evils pressing upon them, he says, they do not renounce life, nor does the prophetic vision seem trustworthy to all of them. But they ought, he says, to know that "a man shall not prevail in the eyes of his life." That is, human hopes do not altogether govern affairs, but one who often hoped to live found the opposite end. 14. Sound the trumpet, and judge all things, and there is no one going to war, because the

My anger upon all her multitude. Since, he says, you think that what is foretold by me is false, use your own trumpets, consider yourselves better than all; but you will gain nothing from this; for you will not have those able to wage war; for in common I bring upon all every kind of punishment. 15. War, and the sword outside, and famine, and death inside. He who is in the plain shall die by the sword, but those in the city famine and death shall finish off. How then, he says, will you be able to wage war, surrounded by so many and such great evils? 16. And those who are saved from them shall be saved, he says, and they shall be on the mountains, like meditating doves. For mourning and lamenting they shall be likened to meditating doves; for the voice of doves resembles groaning. "All, he says, I will kill, each in his own injustices." Not unjustly will I bring the punishment, but I will exact from each the penalties he deserves. 17. All hands shall be loosened, and all thighs shall be defiled with moisture. Each is a sign of cowardice. 18. And they shall gird themselves with sackcloth, and amazement shall cover them, and shame upon every face, and baldness upon every head. For when, he says, they see the cloud of the evils brought upon them, and no help appearing from anywhere, then, giving up, they shall throw away their weapons of war, and shall take up the garb of mourning; therefore he mentioned sackcloth and a shaved head; for those who mourn at such times are accustomed to practice these things. 19.

And their silver will be cast into the streets, and their gold will be despised. Then he also teaches the reason for the contempt of wealth. "For their silver and their gold cannot deliver them in the day of the Lord's anger." For seeing the possession of silver and gold to be useless, they will overlook them as cast away, no longer keeping their former guard over them. "Their souls shall not be filled, and their bellies shall not be satisfied; because the torment of their iniquities has come." For what profit will gold or silver provide them when famine wages war and the scarcity of necessities presses upon them, on account of which their stomachs are empty of food, and their souls long for sustenance, and the torment and examination of their iniquities takes place? Then he teaches again the causes of the punishment. 20. They set the choice things of the world for arrogance, and they made images of their abominations and loathsome things from them. For gold, silver, and precious stones they held as material for both boastfulness and impiety, fashioning costly adornment for themselves from them, but spending most of it on the making of idols. For this reason, he says, I have given them to them for uncleanness. (21, 22.) And I will deliver them into the hands of strangers to plunder them, and to the plagues of the earth for spoils, and they shall profane them. And I will turn my face away from them. And he called the Babylonians "plagues of the earth," being the most savage and most lawless, and reared together with all impiety.

To these, he says, I will deliver the golden and silver idols that you made, and the costly adornment that you made for yourselves. And they will profane them—that is, they will use your precious idols for another purpose. And they will defile my oversight, and they will enter into them without guard, and they will profane them. (23) And they will make a confusion. He calls his oversight the temple consecrated to him, from which he seemed to oversee Israel and to deem it worthy of his providence. But I will deliver, he says, not only their idols to the Babylonians, but also the temple consecrated to me, from which I made my oversight of you. "And they will enter into it without guard"—instead of: not purified, nor cleansed according to the law, nor having received circumcision beforehand, but with their bloody equipment, clad in the military panoply, slaying those within, and daring even the innermost sanctuaries themselves; for this he indicated, saying, "And they will profane them, and they will make a confusion." Then also the

the reason: "Because the land is full of peoples, and the city is full of lawlessness." For, he says, the multitude of their lawlessness is likened to the multitude of men throughout the inhabited world. 24. And I will bring the wicked of the nations, and they shall inherit their houses, and I will turn away the arrogance of their strength, and their holy things shall be defiled. And he did not say, My holy things, but Their holy things—that is, the things consecrated to me by them, which I did not need, but on account of their diligence I accepted. But again, on account of their lawlessness, I will overlook these being defiled and trampled underfoot. 25. A propitiation shall come, and you shall seek peace, and it shall not be. And they shall beg, he says, in the height of their evils to obtain favor and deliverance, and they shall not obtain it. 26. Woe upon woe shall there be, and report upon report. And evils shall succeed evils for them, and an evil report shall succeed an evil report. "And a vision shall be sought from a prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders." These things are even now and today still prevailing among them; for neither is the priesthood administered among them according to the laws, and the grace of prophecy has been extinguished. 27. The king shall mourn, and the ruler shall be clothed in desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be paralyzed. Jeremiah teaches us this more clearly, expounding the events concerning Zedekiah and his flight. "According to their ways I will do to them, and by their judgments I will take vengeance upon them, and they shall know that I am the Lord." These, he says, are the penalties I will exact from them, demanding the reckoning for the things in which they transgressed.

Therefore it is fitting for all of us, gathering benefit from each of the things said, not to provoke by wickedness the punishment against us, but to heal the wounds of sin with the tears of repentance, so that the vessel, having become waterlogged, may not render us submerged, according to the just judgments of God; to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. TOME 3. CHAPTER 8. 1. And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me. It is clear that the prophet fell into captivity together with Jeconiah; therefore he marks the time everywhere. And he continued like some paedagogue, regulating those in captivity and guiding them toward the divine will; and this he made clear by saying, "The elders of Judah were sitting before me." Then he adds: "And the hand of Adonai the Lord came upon me." He calls the operation of the divine Spirit the hand of the Lord. 2. And I saw, and behold, a likeness of a man from his loins and downward, fire, and from his loins upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the form of amber. The one he beheld upon the Cherubim, this one he sees apart from the Cherubim; for at one time he appears to him fearfully, at another gently, ordering all things according to need; for his is the voice, "I have multiplied visions, and was likened in the hands of the prophets." He was not seen according to essence; therefore the prophet also says he saw a likeness. 3.

And he stretched out, it says, the likeness of a human hand, and took me up by the crown of my head, and the Spirit took me up between the earth and between the heaven, and brought me to Jerusalem in a vision of God, to the porch of the inner gate that looks toward the north, where was the pillar of the image of jealousy that provokes. It must be noted that the prophet said he had seen these things in a vision of God. Therefore it was not a bodily transference, nor was the sight by the eyes of the flesh, but sitting in the house among the elders of Judah he saw this whole vision; and he makes this clear after the narration of it: "For I went up, it says, from my vision," that is, I returned to myself. For since he foretells the harsh punishments, he necessarily also teaches their causes, and he sees in the divine temple the pillar of the image of jealousy; and it was an idol unlawfully set up there; and he calls it jealousy by a metaphor from adulterous women, who bring their husbands to jealousy. And God himself said this also through the great Moses: "They provoked me to jealousy with what is not God;" and interpreting it he added, They provoked me to anger with their idols. And behold, there was there the glory of the Lord God of Israel, according to the vision which I saw in the plain. And he said to me: Son of man, lift up your eyes toward the north; and I lifted up my eyes toward the north, to the gate that is toward the east of the altar, where was the image of this jealousy as one enters.

And we have already said beforehand that the prophet is being taught the justice of the Jews' punishment; for this reason the righteous judge shows him all the things dared by them. 6. And he said to me: Son of man, have you seen what these are doing, great lawless deeds, which the house of Israel does here, so as to keep away from my holy things? You see, he says, how they themselves by their own wickednesses draw punishments upon themselves? For being impious and despising my worship, they will be far from my holy places, according to the prophecy of David, that those who distance themselves from you will perish. 7–9. And he brought me to the porches of the court, and I saw, and behold, a hole in the wall. And he said to me: Son of man, dig now in the wall; and I dug, and behold, one door in the wall. And he said to me: Enter and see the evil lawless deeds which these do here. The Master, having shown him the impiety openly dared by them, shows also the things done in secret. 10, 11. For I entered, he says, and I saw, and behold, every likeness of reptile and beast, vain abominations, and all the idols of the house of Israel drawn on the wall all around completely. And seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel, and Jazonias son of Shaphan, stood in their midst, and each held his censer in his hand, and the vapor of the incense went up. Great is the excess of folly in addition to the impiety; for what is more foolish than those who worship the images of venomous reptiles and irrational beasts? For we are accustomed to destroy them, as destructive and treacherous;

But the Master assigned to our servitude and service. "For," he says, "to what springs up on the mountains, grass—and herbage for the service of men." Let us consider, then, how full of irrationality it is for household servants and slaves to worship images. Whence, reasonably, the Master, being indignant, says to the prophet: 12. You have seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do, each in his own chamber, in secret, because they said: The Lord does not see; he has forsaken the land. For the cause of impiety is forgetfulness of God, and having persuaded themselves that God observes nothing of what is done by them, they proceeded to that lawlessness. But by the blessed David we are taught both to think and to say the opposite: "For," he says, "I foresaw the Lord before me continually, because he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken." 13, 14. And he said to me: You will see still greater lawlessnesses, which these do. And he brought me to the thresholds of the gate of the house of the Lord, which looks toward the north; and behold, women sitting and lamenting Thammuz. But he accuses them not only of impiety but also of licentiousness. For Thammuz is Adonis in the Greek tongue. The lament, then, is of Aphrodisian orgies, of a licentious demon, and one who receives worship through licentiousness. 15, 16. And he said to me: Son of man, you will see still greater practices than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord; and at the thresholds of the temple of the Lord, between the ailam and between the altar, as it were twenty-five men—

Their backs were toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces were directly toward the east, and they themselves were bowing down toward the east to the sun. This too is a very great undertaking of impiety; for to give one's back to the Master and worship the sun, a fellow servant—what excess of madness does this leave behind? And he called the porch of the divine temple "ailam"; for the bronze altar was set before it. And he said that, standing between the ailam and the altar, they dared that impiety. And well, in each of the things shown, as if the Master were defending himself before his own servant concerning the punishment of the Jews, he says to him: 17. Have you seen, son of man, is it a small thing for the house of Judah to do the lawless deeds which they have done here? Because they have filled the land with lawlessness, and they have turned away to provoke me to anger; and behold, they themselves stretch out the branch, as if mocking me. For I, he says, chose them, and I wished through them to turn the others away from impiety; but they not only did not share in the benefit, but they even dared more impious things, so that from then on the whole land became full of lawlessness; for they stretched out the branches of impiety, doing things contrary to my purpose. Therefore he says: 18. And I will deal with them in fury; my eye shall not spare, and I will surely not have mercy; they will cry out in my ears with a loud voice, and I will surely not listen to them. For just as they stretched out branches not of piety but of impiety, and extended the harm of their neighbors, so I will bring upon them the surgical cut without sparing, neither enduring them when they entreat nor hearing them when they cry out.

For there is no mercy in sparing such people; for it is fitting that the physician pay no heed to the tears and words of the one being cut, but to the law of his art. CHAPTER 9. 1. And he cried out in my ears with a loud voice, saying: The vengeance of the city has drawn near, and each had the vessels of destruction in his hand. Then he teaches also what sort of vessels they were. 2. And behold, six men were coming from the high gate that looks toward the north, and each had a battle-axe in his hand. For since the idol had also been set up from the north, and the women were lamenting Tammuz, of necessity the punishment also takes its entrance from there; and it is fitting to recall what was said above, that he said the fourth part of the city would be handed over to death; observe, then, the punitive powers ready for the appointed chastisement; and yet one angel struck down the many myriads of the Assyrians, and one was commanded to destroy the firstborn of the Egyptians; but here six of the Jews were entrusted with the punishment, because of the excess of their impiety. "And one man," he says, "in the midst of them, clothed in a long robe, and a girdle of sapphire upon his waist." The figure of the seventh is priestly; for he was not among those punishing, but among those ransoming those worthy of salvation; for since he declared the seventh day to be honored, of necessity he shows the seventh to be most honored. "And they entered, and stood beside the bronze altar." And this had been set up in the court before the vestibules of the temple. 3. And the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherubim, which was upon them, to the open air of the house.

For since he is about to pronounce the sentence against the city, he does this outside the holy places; for those places are receptive of salvation, not of punishment. And he called the man clothed in the long robe, who had the belt upon his waist. (4.) And the Lord said to him: Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and give the sign upon the foreheads of the men who groan and are in anguish over all the lawless deeds being done in their midst. For it is good to admonish and counsel those who sin; but when they speak against it and do not obey, lamentation is necessary and useful. Therefore also the blessed Paul said: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn?" And again: "Lest, when I come to you, my God humiliate me, and I mourn for many of those who have sinned beforehand and have not repented." These, then, were pious men, bewailing and groaning over the transgression of the people; therefore they are marked, so that they may not share in the punishment. Thus, he says, having given these commands to that man, he exhorts the rest. (5, 6.) Go into the city after him, and cut down, and do not spare with your eyes, and do not have mercy. Elder, and young man, and virgin, and infants, and women—kill unto destruction; but do not come near all those on whom is the sign, and begin from my holy ones. Again I say: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," according to the voice of the blessed Paul; and I add also that of the inspired David:

Blessed are those who keep judgment, and do righteousness at all times; for in the evil day the Lord shall deliver them." For we find both these things in what has just been said: that some were cut down without mercy, whole families together, and the punishment advanced against every age; while others were justly saved, and remained free from fellowship with those men. And he commands the punitive powers to begin from his holy ones, not calling them truly holy, but because they were supposed to be such, as having been set apart for the divine service. For this was not said, as some have supposed, about the holy places, but about the men set apart for the service of God; and what follows in the prophecy makes this clear. For immediately he adds: "And he began with the men, the elders, who were inside the house." These he orders to be slain within; for it is just that those who break the law there should pay the penalty there. 7. For he says, he said to them: "Defile the house, and fill the streets with the dead; go forth and strike." For since they themselves defiled the house with idols, the just judge commands that this be done by the slaughter of the lawless. And going out, they struck the city. (8.) And it came to pass, while they were striking, that I alone was left, and I fell upon my face, and cried out, and said: "Alas, Adonai Lord, are you wiping out the remnant of Israel in pouring out your wrath upon Jerusalem?" The prophet is a lover of mankind, and is bent toward mercy; such was the blessed Paul, praying to be anathema from Christ for the sake of the Jews.

But the Master also heals the most well-disposed servant, and teaches the justice of the punishment. 9. For the iniquity, he says, of the house of Israel and of Judah has become exceedingly, exceedingly great. And by the doubling he indicated the excess of the intensity. "Because the land was filled with many peoples, and the city was filled with iniquity and uncleanness, because they said, The Lord has forsaken the land, the Lord does not look upon it." These things, he says, they dare, having persuaded themselves that I do not oversee, nor see what is done. CHAPTER 10. 1. And I saw, and behold, above the firmament that was over the head of the Cherubim, as it were a sapphire stone; the likeness of a throne upon it. Here at last he clearly names the living creatures which he saw, Cherubim; and the name signifies, as I said, full of knowledge. 2. And he spoke to the man clothed in the robe: Enter into the midst of the wheels that are under the Cherubim. It must be noted that he did not command any of the six to approach the Cherubim, but the one clothed in the robe; evidently as though they themselves were not worthy to draw near to the divine powers, the Cherubim. "And fill your hands with coals of fire, from the midst of the Cherubim, and scatter them over the city." And the things beheld are full of shuddering: coals of fire being scattered; that is, punitive powers going about the city. 4. And the glory of the Lord departed from the Cherubim to the open court of the house. For since he commanded the coals to be taken and scattered against the city, he seems in some way to withdraw, giving place to the one commanded to do what was ordered; for he surely feared to approach

While the divine glory was riding upon the cherubim, a very great sound was produced as the cherubim moved their wings, so that one might suppose it to be thunder, or a divine voice. For the phrase "as the voice of God Saddai"—Symmachus and Theodotion interpreted it as "the thunder of the sufficient God"—that is, you would liken the sound to the voice of the sufficient and powerful God; meaning, to the thunder produced by divine activity. And he came, it says, and stood beside the wheels. (7.) And the cherub, it says, stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the midst of the fire that was in the midst of the cherubim; and he took, and gave into the hands of the one clothed in the holy robe, and he took it, and went out. From this too one may learn the difference among the invisible orders; for the six were not even commanded to approach the cherubim, but he approaches, yet does not dare to reach the midst of the cherubim, but the cherubim themselves extend the coals. 8. And I saw, it says, the cherubim like hands of men beneath their wings. For the hands are significant of activities. Then he explains again the matters concerning the wheels, having said all that we have already said before; but he says that he saw only the appearance of the color changed. For there, according to Symmachus, he said he beheld it as the appearance of hyacinth; but here, according to the Seventy, as the appearance of a coal; so that from this too we may learn that he did not see the very natures of the invisible beings, but certain likenesses and images; and for this reason he beholds them also changed. And this change he also beheld in the case of the cherubim.

For there he said that the first face resembled a man, the second a lion, the third a calf, and the fourth an eagle; but here the order is reversed, and he said that the face of the cherub, which is that of a calf, was seen first, then that of the man, then that of the lion, and that of the eagle. The nature of the invisible powers is therefore not of this kind, but the Master arranges such visions according to need. And I think that, since he saw this vision in the temple, for this reason he saw the face of the calf set first, since this was taken as a type of the priesthood. And he teaches that their backs and their hands and their wings and the wheels were full of eyes, instructing us in the abundance of their knowledge; which the name gelgel also signifies. 13. And to these wheels, he says, the name gelgel was given while I was listening. That is, they were commanded to roll and to be moved. 15. And the cherubim, he says, were lifted up. Then, teaching us that he had already seen these things before, he says: "This is the living creature which I saw by the river Chobar." But at that time he enjoyed the vision but did not know the name; and now he has learned this too. 16, 17. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went with them, clinging to them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to be raised from the earth, their wheels did not turn back, and indeed they themselves did not turn back from those clinging to them. And when they stood still, they stood still, and when they were raised up, they were raised up with them, because the spirit of life was in them.

They followed, he says, the cherubim in all things: when these moved, they moved together; when they flew, they followed; when they stood still, they stood still, not dragged by any compulsion, but each of them acting of its own accord; for they too, in a spiritual manner, partook of life. 18, 19. And the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house, and stood upon the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and were raised up from the earth before me when they lifted them up, and they stood at the entrance of the gate of the house of the Lord that faces east, and the glory of the God of Israel was upon them from above. For when he commanded that the coals be taken, he seemed in some way to withdraw, so that the one commanded might take courage to approach; but when that was done, he appears again to return and to ride upon them; and he says that the cherubim were lifted up and were borne more easily through the air, using the motion of their wings in place of feet; and the wheels followed, not separated even a little; and the glory of God rode upon them, not God himself; for he is uncircumscribed, and present everywhere, and fills all things; but it is his glory that appears for the dispensations. 20. This, he says, is the living creature that I saw beneath the God of Israel at the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim. For I had already enjoyed the vision before; but the name I have learned at the present time. And from this it is clearly possible to learn that he did not see the very essence of the invisible natures, but certain likenesses and images; for in the former vision he said that the one cherub had four wings, but here eight.

Nature would not have undergone a change, but the vision was shaped to meet the need; for since the prophet received greater knowledge from the divine conversation, and the wings signify the swiftness of knowledge, indicating the increase of knowledge that came to him, he shows him the wings of the cherubim doubled; for this very name, in the Greek tongue, signifies the abundance of knowledge. CHAPTER 11:1, 3. And the Spirit, he says, took me up and brought me out to the gate of the house of the Lord that faces east; and behold, at the entrance of the gate, as it were twenty-five men, and I saw in their midst Jezonias the son of Jezek, and Phaltias the son of Banaias, the leaders of the people. And the Lord said to me: Son of man, these men who devise vain things and counsel an evil counsel in this city, who say: Have not houses been recently built? This is the cauldron, and you are the meat. He accuses both the leaders and their subjects, as counseling things contrary to God, and contradicting the prophets, and unwilling to be persuaded that they will be handed over to the enemies, but that they will inhabit the city and there receive the end of life. For the houses, he says, are newly built, and in these we shall dwell and receive the end of life; for this reason God, being displeased, foretells through the prophet the coming assault of the enemies. 5. For the Spirit of the Lord, he says, fell upon me, and said to me: Thus says the Lord. That is, being filled with the working of the Spirit of God, I was commanded to say these things in the person of God.

Thus say, O house of Israel, and the deliberations of your spirit I know. (6:8) You have multiplied the dead in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore thus says the Lord: Your dead whom you have struck down in the midst of it, these are the flesh, and it is the cauldron, and I will bring you out from the midst of it. You fear the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, says Adonai the Lord. You, he says, have declared the city to be a cauldron, filling it with countless dead; for this reason you shall not obtain what you hope for, nor shall you receive a painless end to your life, but you shall be delivered at once to the enemies whom you fear, and you shall become a prey to their sword. (9) And I will bring you out from the midst of it, and I will deliver you into the hands of strangers, and I will execute judgment among you. Justly, he says, I will punish you; for since you have slain those of your own race, you shall justly be delivered to strangers and enemies. (10) On the borders of Israel I will judge you; and you shall know that I am the Lord. Outside the city, he says, you shall pay the penalty for the impieties you have committed, and through experience you shall learn that I am Master. (11, 12) This shall not be a cauldron for you, and you shall not become flesh in the midst of it; on the borders of Israel I will judge you. And you shall know that I am the Lord. You shall not die, he says, in the city, nor shall you be deemed worthy of burial in it, according to your hopes, but you shall be slain far from it; and teaching the causes, "Because in my statutes, he says, you did not walk, and my judgments you did not perform;

But you did not act according to the judgments of the nations around you. It is an excess of lawlessness, and the greatest proof of impiety, not only to transgress the divine law, but also to do things more impious than the nations that live in impiety. 13. And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Paltias the son of Banaias died; and I fell upon my face, and cried out with a great voice, and said: Alas, alas, Adonai Lord, are you making an end of the remnant of Israel? The prophet sees the work of those who were commanded to smite the city without sparing, and fearing lest it should undergo utter destruction, since all were being slain—for from his despondency he had forgotten that many had received the signs of salvation—he entreats the loving-kindness of the Master to temper justice with mercy. And he is taught that these indeed shall be delivered to the enemies because of their great wickedness; but those who have already been led away captive shall enjoy consolation in a foreign land, and shall obtain a return. 15. For, he says, son of man, your brothers, and the men of your captivity, and all the house of Israel are completed. He says that some, having become captives of war and having paid the penalty for what they dared, I will keep for myself as a people. To whom those who dwell in Jerusalem said, You are far off from the Lord; to us the land has been given as an inheritance. Those who now dwell in Jerusalem dared to say, mocking them, that the Master has put you far from himself, but to us he has allotted the land of the promise. Therefore, he says, the very opposite shall come to pass: you I will deliver to slaughter, but for them I will make provision. 16. Therefore he said:

Thus says Adonai the Lord: Because I will thrust them out among the nations, and scatter them over all the earth, and I will be to them a small sanctuary in the lands wherever they may enter. For up to now I have made them captives, sojourners, and scattered; but nevertheless in the sojourning, by the expectation of a change of misfortunes and by the hope of good things, I will provide them consolation; and this he indicated by saying, "I will be to them a small sanctuary." And after no long time I will restore them again and bring them back to the land of their fathers. XVII, XVIII. For I will gather them, he says, from the nations, and receive them from the lands where I scattered them among them; and I will give them the land of Israel, and they shall enter there, and they shall put away all its abominations and all its lawless deeds from it. The history of Esdras teaches this, and the writing of the Maccabees. For after the return from Babylon, having abandoned the worship of idols, they continued diligently serving the God of all. XIX. And I will give them, he says, another heart, and a new spirit I will give them. Through these things he indicated not the removal of free will, but the assistance that will come from him, and the alliance for the working of good things; and he called the impulse of the soul toward good things a new spirit; for since they were inclined to the opposite, he named the change toward the better a new spirit; for just as, having said "another heart," he signified not a change of nature, but the inclination of the will toward the better, so also through the new spirit he made this same thing clear.

The words that follow also bear witness: "For I will tear out," he says, "the heart of stone from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh." And none of the prudent would suppose the heart of stone to be the nature of stone, but rather the disobedient and stubborn heart that does not wish to yield to God; and again, the heart of flesh, the obedient and attentive one. 20. That they may walk in my commandments, and keep my statutes, and do them, and they shall be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. For since their way of life is henceforth carried out according to my laws, I shall be called their God, and they shall be reckoned as my people. Having said these things concerning those who had already become captives of war, he again brings the discourse back to those who at that time dwelt in Jerusalem. 21. But as for them, he says, their heart went after the abominations and their lawless deeds, and I have given their ways upon their heads, says Adonai the Lord. To these, he says, since they were not brought to their senses by the evils of those others, but persist in cleaving to impiety, I will bring upon them the penalties worthy of their audacious deeds. 22.

23. And the Cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were close by them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which was opposite the city. When these things, he says, had been thus spoken, the Cherubim departed from the city, bearing the glory of God riding upon them; and it stood upon the mountain over against Jerusalem; and this is the mountain called the Mount of Olives, from which also the bodily ascension of our Savior took place. Reasonably, then, even at that time, having appeared in human form and having shown the two natures in one person, hinting at the divine nature through the fire and indicating the human nature through the electrum, having pronounced the verdict against Jerusalem, he goes to this mountain, and from there makes his ascent into the heavens. For indeed, after the cross and death, having again pronounced the verdict against Jerusalem—that not one stone shall remain upon another which shall not be thrown down—he went up to that mountain with his disciples, and, borne by intellectual and invisible powers, was taken up into the heavens. Therefore the things shown to the prophet are also a type of things to come. And having seen these things thus, he says: 24. The Spirit took me up, and brought me into the land of the Chaldeans in a vision, in the Spirit of God. For not in truth, he says, bodily—now to Judea, now to the land of the Chaldeans—was I being transported, but in a vision, that is, in an apparition; and "in the Spirit of God" instead of "being enlightened in mind through the operation of God, and receiving prophetic eyes, I was beholding each of these things.

And making this clearer, he added: And I went up from the vision which I saw. (25.) And I spoke to the captivity all the words of the Lord, which he showed me. I returned, he says, to myself, the spiritual contemplation having come to an end; and those things I no longer saw, but only the elders who were present with me, to whom I also related each thing, both what I saw and what I heard. But it is time now to speak that evangelical voice: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." For this has sufficiently taught us, along with what has been said; for though many were sitting together, only the prophet enjoyed that spiritual contemplation. Let us both strive and pray to attain this purity, so that, freed from every defilement, we may continually carry the memory of God in our soul during the present life, and be deemed worthy to see him with boldness on the day of his appearing. To him belongs the glory forever and ever. Amen.

BOOK IV. CHAPTER 12. 1, 2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a house that provokes bitterness; they have eyes to see, and do not see, and they have ears to hear, and do not hear, because it is a house that provokes bitterness. The word has made clear the inclination of the soul toward both sides; for he says, They have eyes to see, and do not see, and they have ears to hear, and do not hear. And teaching that these passions did not come to them from nature, he added, Because it is a house that provokes bitterness. Symmachus interpreted "provoking bitterness" as "quarrelsome," that is, contentious, disobedient, and unwilling to hear. The Master foretold these things to the prophet, being about to command him to make his prophecy through actions, and as it were making a defense, that because of the people's hardness and disobedience he is compelled to give such commands. 3. And you, son of man, make for yourself vessels of captivity, and be taken captive for days

before them, and you shall be carried captive from your place to another place before them, so that they may see, because it is a house that provokes bitterness. And making what has been said clearer, he adds: 4–6. And you shall bring out your vessels, as vessels of captivity by day, before their eyes, and you shall go out in the evening before them, as a captive goes out. Dig for yourself into the wall, and you shall go out through it before them. You shall be taken up on shoulders, and you shall go out hidden, you shall cover your face, and you shall surely not see the land; for I have given you as a portent to the house of Israel. Imitate, he says, one who is being besieged, then, when the city is captured, is compelled to flee, and digs through a wall, and devises an exit, and covers his face, so that he may not be recognized by those who see him; for through you, doing these things, I wish the coming captivity to be signified beforehand to those who dwell in Jerusalem. And each of these things the inspired Jeremiah teaches us more clearly, recounting how Zedekiah, when the city was captured, escaped by night with his own people and his guards, having contrived some exit through the king's garden. Then the prophet teaches that he brought each of the things said to completion, since he was fulfilling divine commands. And when these things, he says, had been done by me in this way, 8–11. The word of the Lord came to me early in the morning, saying: Son of man, did not the house of Israel, the house that provokes bitterness, speak to you? What are you doing? Say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord to the ruler and leader in Jerusalem, and to all the house of Israel, who are in the midst of them.

Say, "Because I am a sign to you: just as I have done, so shall it be to them; they shall go into exile and captivity." When questioned, he says, by these disobedient and resistant people about the reason for what is being done by you, say to them plainly: "I am a sign and a token to you," prophesying through the events and sketching in myself what will befall the king of Jerusalem and all the rulers. 12. For their ruler also shall be lifted up on shoulders in their midst, and he shall go out secretly through the wall, and they shall dig through it so that he may go out through it; he shall cover his face, so that he may not be seen with eyes, and he himself shall not see the land. But nevertheless, even while making his flight in this way and contriving everything so as to escape notice, he shall be captured by the enemies. 13. And I will spread out my net over him, he says, and he shall be caught in my enclosure, and I will bring him to Babylon, into the land of the Chaldeans, and he shall not see it, and there he shall die. Through all that has been said he taught that, using the enemies as instruments, he will exact punishment for impiety from the king, the rulers, and all their subjects. For he called the enemies his net, and the siege his enclosure. The fourth book of Kings and the blessed Jeremiah clearly teach these things.

For Nabuchodonosor, having sent a cavalry detachment into the desert near Jericho and having captured Sedekias and those who had fled with him, brought them to Deblatha, and there, having first slain the children of Sedekias and made him a spectator of the slaughter of his children, he then gouged out his eyes, and having put fetters made of bronze around him, he led him away to Babylon, forcing him to dwell in a mill. Therefore the prophecy also says, "He shall be led to Babylon, and he shall not see it." And all those around him, his helpers, and all who took his part, says he, I will scatter to every wind, and I will pour out a sword after them. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I scatter them among the nations, and I will disperse them in the lands. But as many as escape the slaughter in war, I will cause to be led away as captives, and I will make them sojourners and wanderers, so that through the things themselves they may learn that the idols are deaf and utterly powerless, but I am Lord and Master. And I will take from them men by number from the sword, and from famine, and from death, so that they may recount all their lawless deeds among the nations, where

they went in there, and they shall know that I am the Lord. But these very men, he says, who shall be the remnant of famine and death and the slaughter of war, shall become accusers of their own impiety and lawlessness, teaching the nations among whom they dwell as sojourners that they pay the penalty for the offenses they committed against me. 17, 18. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, you shall eat your bread with pain, and you shall drink your water with torment and affliction. And this again is a sign of the famine that will come about during the siege. 19, 20. And you shall say to the people of the land: Thus says Adonai the Lord to those who dwell in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread in want, and they shall drink their water with destruction, so that the land with its fullness may be destroyed, in the impiety of all who dwell in it. And their cities that are inhabited shall be made desolate, and the land shall become a destruction, and you shall know that I am the Lord. For since, enjoying the good things that come from me and luxuriating in the fruits of the earth, you did not acknowledge the giver, and you became ungrateful toward your benefactor, in the deprivation of good things and the desolation of cities you shall learn my dominion. But the prophet foretold these things to those in Jerusalem while he was in captivity, God willing both to comfort those who had already become captives, that not they alone had suffered such things, but that they would also have others as sharers in them, and desiring to persuade those still dwelling in Jerusalem, by the fear of the prophecy of evils, to cease from their wickedness.

Moreover, since those dwelling in Jerusalem contradicted the words of the divine Jeremiah, and likewise those living in Chaldea contradicted the words of the inspired Ezekiel, they necessarily confirm their prophecies as agreeing with one another, and through this agreement they show that the words are divine. For if they had lived near one another, suspicion against the agreement of their words would at least have had some ground; but since they were separated from one another by many stages of journey, and yet foretold the same things, what is said is necessarily shown to be divine. For this reason, Jeremiah writes to those in Chaldea, and Ezekiel to those in Judea, while the God of all contrives every means of benefit for both these and those. 21, 22. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, what is this parable among the land of Israel, saying: The days are far off, and every vision has perished? Why is it, he says, that those dwelling in Judea are accustomed to say to the prophets, that you foretell things that will happen after a great number of years, mixing falsehood with your words, and predicting nothing true? 23. Therefore say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: And I will turn back this parable, and the house of Israel shall no longer say this parable, because you shall speak to them, saying: The days and the time of every vision have drawn near. For since they call long-suffering falsehood, let them be persuaded that the fulfillment of the prophecy is at hand, and that the foretold punishment will now appear at the doors. 24. For there shall no longer be any false vision, nor one divining things for favor in the midst of the sons of Israel.

For he says, I will cause your false prophets to cease, who attempt to foretell things contrary to my prophets, and falsely announce to you the presence of good things. 25. Because I will speak my words and will perform them, and I will no longer delay, because in your days, O house of Israel that provokes me. I will speak a word and I will perform it, says Adonai the Lord. Do not give heed, he says, to my prophets, as though they were speaking in vain; for I speak through them, and sooner than a word I will bring the fulfillment to the word, making you eyewitnesses of the truth of the words. Thus again, having signified the same things through other words, and having threatened those who accuse the prophets, as though they did not foretell the present things but falsely foretold what would happen in later times, with the swift truth of the things prophesied; 28. For all my words, he says, which I shall speak, shall no longer be delayed, because I will speak a word and I will perform it, says Adonai the Lord. CHAPTER 13. He now turns his discourse against the false prophets. 2. For he says, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy. And so that the sameness of name might not work harm to people (for both the true and the false were called prophets), he fittingly added: "And you shall say to the prophets who prophesy from their own heart." That is, to those utterly destitute of the operation of the Spirit, but who speak falsehoods from their own reasonings. And you shall prophesy, he says, and you shall say to them: Hear the word of the Lord. (3.) Thus says Adonai the Lord:

Woe to those who prophesy from their own heart, who walk after their own spirit, and do not see at all. A lamentation, he says, will overtake those who are not energized by the divine Spirit but are persuaded by their own impulse. For he called the soul's deliberate choice their own spirit. 4, 5. Like foxes in the deserts are your prophets, Israel. They did not stand in the firmament, and they did not gather a flock to the house of Israel. They did not rise up as in war, those who say as in the day of the Lord. But Symmachus interpreted these things more clearly: "Like foxes in ruins are your prophets, Israel; you did not go up to the breaches, nor did you fence a fence around the sons of Israel, so as to stand, as in war, in the day of the Lord." For your prophets, he says, O Israel, are like foxes dwelling in ruins. For just as those do not block up the exits of the ruins, but it is permitted to anyone who wishes to go up through them and to enter, so these, seeing the people's slackness, did not wall off its paths to wickedness, nor did they fence it about with words of piety, so that in the day of wrath it might be able to prevail over the enemies; but they used the people's weakness for their own gain. 6, 7. Seeing, he says, false things, divining vain things, those who say, The Lord says, and the Lord has not sent them, and they began to raise up a word. Did you not see a false vision, and speak vain divinations, and say, The Lord says, the Lord, and I did not speak? By my name, he says, you made base use, offering false divinations to the people.

But I inspired nothing of these things in you. 9. Therefore say: Thus says Adonai Lord: Because your words are false, and your divinations are vain, therefore behold, I am against you, says Adonai Lord. And I will stretch out my hand against the prophets who see false things and who utter vain things. They shall not be in the discipline of my people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel, and they shall know that I am Adonai Lord. My own people, he says, I will discipline; but these shall be handed over to utter destruction, and they shall not have their memory recorded, nor shall they be numbered with my people. And showing the cause, 10. Because, he says, they led my people astray, saying: Peace, peace, and there is no peace. For I was foretelling to the people war, and slaughter, and captivity, wishing to bring them to their senses by the threat of evils; but these, doing the opposite of me, were promising them peace in vain. And he, he says, builds a wall, as though solid, and they smear it. If it shall fall? (11.) Say to those who smear it, It shall fall. For the people, he says, builds a rotten wall, through wickedness and impiety; but these bring good prophecies and good promises to the wall like some ointment and anointing, when they ought to tear down the unstable building and prepare it to become solid. But by smearing the wall, they thought to make it secure through the smearing. Say to them, therefore, that it shall fall and

It will be dissolved. 12. For there shall be, he says, an overwhelming rain, and I will give stone-hurling stones against your bonds, and it shall fall, and a sweeping wind shall come, and it shall be broken. And behold, the wall has fallen. He has spoken all these things figuratively as of a wall, and through them all he has indicated the assault of the enemies. By the bonds of the wall he foretold the king and the rulers, who, like straps on a building, thus held the people together. And so the overwhelming rain, and the stone-hurling stones, and the sweeping wind, he has named the Chaldeans. Since the wall has fallen, then, he says, "Will they not say to you: Where is your plaster, which you plastered?" When through the events they learn that your predictions are false, and that war, and slaughter, and captivity have come instead of the hoped-for peace, will they not say to you: Where are your fine words, and the promises of peace? Thus again, having said the same things through more expansive terms, and having threatened the deluge of warlike missiles, and the snowstorms of stones, and the destruction down to the foundations of the badly built wall, and the refutation of the falsehood of those who foretold good things, he makes his word clearer. For I said, he says, to you: There is no wall, nor are there those who plaster it. (10.) The prophets of Israel, who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see peace for her, and there is no peace, says Adonai Lord. All things, he says, shall come to nothing—both the plaster, and the wall, and the prophets who applied the plaster.

For siege and captivity, he says, will overtake Jerusalem instead of the peace that was promised. Having said these things about the false prophets, he turns his discourse to the false prophetesses. For the avenger of human nature, finding these also as instruments, was working falsehood through them; and he set the false prophets against the prophets, and against the women who had been deemed worthy of the prophetic grace, those who had received the working of falsehood. He foretells, then, to these also the things that will happen. 17, 18. And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy from their own heart, and prophesy against them, and you shall say: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Woe to those who sew cushions under every elbow of the hand, and make coverings upon every head of every age, to pervert souls. They were perverting the souls of my people, and they were gaining souls for themselves. Symmachus interpreted this more clearly, saying thus: "Woe to those who sew arm-cushions under every elbow of the hand, and make neck-pieces for the head of every age, to hunt souls." Figuratively, through these things he hinted at the softer and more pleasant words; for both the neck-pieces and the arm-cushions offer a certain rest and care to the limbs on which they are placed; and the more pleasant words, even when false, for a time tickle the ear, but bring all kinds of perversions to souls.

Thus the false prophetesses were procuring spiritual harm for the people and financial gain for themselves, prophesying what seemed to be favorable things. For this is what he hinted at when he said: "They were perverting the souls of my people, and they were procuring souls for themselves." For by perverting the people and leading them away from God, they prepared them to attach themselves to the prophetesses. Then he speaks of the cheapness of the gain. 19. And they were profaning me before my people, for a handful of barley and for fragments of bread. For what is cheaper than these? And what is more grievous than the injury brought about by them? "To kill," he says, "souls that ought not to die, and to procure souls that ought not to live, by your speaking vain utterances to a people that listens." For for the sake of a small gain, you praised some vainly before the people, and you said others were worthy of punishment, making wicked use of the people's levity and readiness to believe. For those who believed what was said by you were preserving some unjustly and slaughtering others to no purpose. Having thus convicted their impiety, he threatens punishment. 20, 21. Therefore thus says Adonai

The Lord says: Behold, I am against your pillows, upon which you gather souls there, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will send away the souls that you have turned aside, their souls, into scattering. And I will tear your veils, and I will rescue my people from your hand, and they shall no longer be in your hands for gathering, and you shall know that I am the Lord. He says: I will convict your words and show them false, and in place of those favorable promises, which resemble soft neck-pillows and arm-cushions, I will bring painful things upon the people who were persuaded by you, and I will scatter them, teaching your falsehood by experience. Yet I will set them free from your false speaking, persuading them, through what they suffer, no longer to pay attention to your words, but to acknowledge me as Lord and Master. Verses 22, 23: Because you turned aside the heart of the righteous unjustly, and I did not turn him aside, and to strengthen the hands of the lawless utterly, so that he should not turn back from his own evil way and live. Therefore you shall surely not see falsehood, and you shall no longer practice divinations; and I will rescue my people from your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord. For, he says, since you were unsettling and storm-tossing the righteous (for thus Aquila translated it), foretelling painful things to them, and you were making the lawless more bold, foretelling good things, and you were doing both contrary to my purpose—for this reason I will deliver you over to utter destruction, and I will put an end to your false divination, and I will free my people from the destruction that comes through you.

Having thus foretold the things concerning these, he transfers his discourse to another matter. CHAPTER 14. 1–3. And there came, he says, to me men from the elders of Israel, and they sat before my face. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, these men have set their thoughts upon their own hearts, and have set the punishment of their iniquities before their own face; shall I be answered and judged for them? Aquila translated this more clearly: "These men have brought up their idols upon their own hearts, and have set the stumbling-block of their lawlessness before their own face." For the things which, he says, they evilly devise and carry out, and despising shamelessly the punishment threatened against the unjust, they have come to you, wishing to inquire of something, and expecting to be deemed worthy of an answer. 4–5. Therefore speak to them, and you shall say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: A man from the house of Israel, whoever shall set his thoughts upon his own heart, and shall set the punishment of his iniquity before his own face, and shall come to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him in those things in which his thought is entangled, so as to turn aside the house of Israel according to their hearts, which are alienated from me in their devices. Since those who were enslaved to impiety treated prophets and false prophets alike, and inquired, not in order that they might altogether accomplish the things commanded by God, but wishing to learn whether the predictions accord with their reasonings;

For this reason, the God of all says through the prophet: Every man of the house of Israel who contradicts the divine teachings, obeys only his own reasonings, and despises the punishment threatened against the lawless—even if he goes to a false prophet, wishing to fulfill his own desires and making a test of whether the predictions agree with his own reasonings—I, he says, will answer him. Since he has not used an upright mind, I will permit the false prophet to confirm his reasonings; for he is worthy of destruction and perdition. Therefore, he says, "so that he may turn aside the house of Israel according to their hearts, which are alienated from me in their thoughts." For since they set themselves far from my care and rejoice in the deception of false prophets, I will permit them to reap the fruits of their own labors. This can also be found to have happened in the case of Ahab. For Zedekiah the false prophet, having made for himself horns of iron, said to Ahab: "With these you shall gore Syria." But when Jehoshaphat did not accept what was said by the false prophets, but sought a divine prophet, Micaiah was summoned; and having prophesied contrary to Zedekiah, he did not persuade Ahab. For he was not asking the prophet because he wished to do those things that God had foretold, but by every means he wanted to ratify his own purpose. Therefore, when God permitted it, the false prophets foretold false things; and he, being persuaded, went out and paid the penalties for his impiety.

Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Turn, and turn away from your practices and from all your impieties, and turn your faces. He offers exhortation that procures salvation, and shows the gain that will come from it. 7. For a man, a man from the house of Israel, and from the proselytes who sojourn in the house of Israel, who has become estranged from me, and sets his own thoughts upon his own mind, and places the punishment of his own injustice before his own face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of him in me—I the Lord will answer him in those things in which he is entangled. These things again he has said more clearly: that everyone who makes himself a stranger to my care, and uses evil as his guide in reasoning, and knows the punishment threatened against the wicked but despises it, and comes to one of the false prophets, as though wishing to learn from me what ought to be done—I, he says, will make the answer, and I will permit the one called a prophet to answer in accordance with his reasonings. Then he threatens the punishment that is deserved: 8. And I will set my face against that man, and I will make him a desolation and a destruction, and I will remove him from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And showing that he says these things not about the divine prophets, but about those who have the name but are destitute of the reality, he added: 9, 10.

And if the prophet is led astray and speaks a word, I the Lord have led that prophet astray, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity. But it is not proper to the righteous judge both to lead the prophet astray and to punish him when he has been led astray. Therefore he does not say that he leads the prophet astray by an active operation, but by permission; that is, Being able to convict his falsehood immediately, I bear with it, and I am long-suffering, and I permit him to employ the deception; for he practices it by choice, and not by compulsion. Therefore he threatens equal punishment both to the one who asks wickedly and to the one who answers wickedly. For according to the iniquity of the one who asks, he says, so also shall the iniquity of the prophet be, so that the house of Israel may no longer go astray from me, and that they may no longer defile themselves in all their transgressions; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says Adonai the Lord. Not in vain, he says, will I bring this punishment upon them, but through their destruction I will benefit my people and free them from their impiety. For I wish to have them as a people, and I wish to be their God, exercising all care for them. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, if a land sins against me by falling into transgression, and I stretch out my hand against it, and break its staff of bread, and send famine upon it, and remove from it man and beast; and if these three men are in the midst of it, Noah, and Job, and Daniel, they in their righteousness

They shall be saved, says Adonai the Lord. If, he says, I wish to punish a nation that has sinned, and to deliver it over to famine, but those who are being punished do not wish to practice repentance, they will obtain no forgiveness, not even if Noah, Job, and Daniel should be found among them. But these men will reap the fruits of their own righteousness and will enjoy salvation, yet they will not deliver those others from the punishment that is being brought upon them. He mentioned these men because what was said corresponds very closely to what happened in their times. For Noah, found in a generation of the impious, was not able to deliver from the utter destruction of the flood those who were unwilling to practice repentance. And Daniel likewise, being in the time of the captivity, did not free the others from the evils that were brought upon them because of their great impiety; but he himself, though taken captive by the spear, prevailed over his enemies and took as subjects those who had enslaved him. Nor did Job's children enjoy the benefit of their father's righteousness, but he alone was shown to be superior to the plot of the one who warred against him. And again he says these things through several other examples: For even if I bring death upon that land, or a rising up of wild beasts, or an assault of enemies, and those three men are found in the midst of them, they will not be able to save even their own sons or daughters, but they alone will obtain salvation. It is clear that those who are destitute of repentance reap no benefit from the righteous; for that salvation follows repentance, divine Scripture is a witness, teaching this everywhere.

For the Ninevites, having neither Noah, nor Job, nor Daniel, but Jonah—not interceding, but wishing to speak truth—found salvation through repentance. The prophetic word teaches, therefore, that those who live in lawlessness and do not wish to practice repentance, yet pride themselves on dwelling with the righteous, will have no forgiveness. In addition to these things, the God of all wishes to show that what he did not do to another nation, he did to Israel. Verses 21, 22. For thus says Adonai the Lord: If I also send my four evil punishments (and he calls severe punishments "evil")—sword, and famine, and evil beasts, and death—upon Jerusalem, to destroy from it man and beast. And behold, those left in it who are saved from it, who will bring out from it sons and daughters—behold, they themselves will come out to you, and you will see their ways. He calls sudden death "death," slaughter "sword," and famine obviously "want," and those who cruelly enslave "evil beasts," and severe and bitter punishments "evil punishments." These punishments, he says, having brought upon Israel, I leave behind sons and daughters saved from them, so that all may learn their great impiety and their evil practices, and may know the justice of the punishment. And you, who are of the same race as they, will not accuse the punishment of cruelty, having seen their wickedness. And making this clear, he added:

And you shall repent for the evils which I brought upon Jerusalem, for all the evils which I brought upon her. (23) And they shall comfort you, because you shall see their ways and their thoughts, and you shall know that I did not do all that I did in her in vain, says Adonai the Lord. For this reason, he says, I will not deliver all to utter destruction, but I will leave some of them to be saved, so that through those who are saved all may learn the justice of the punishment brought upon them. CHAPTER 15. 1–4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, what would the wood of the vine be among all the woods of the branches, which are among the woods of the forest? Will they take from it wood to make something for work? Will they take from it a peg, to hang upon it any vessel? Except that which is given to fire for consumption, the fire consumes its yearly cleansing, and it fails completely. Since he always named Israel a vine through the prophets—for through David, he says, "You brought a vine out of Egypt"; and Isaiah: "A vineyard was made for the beloved"; and Jeremiah: "How have you turned to me into bitterness, the true vine?"—figuratively from the branches of the vine he shows the uselessness of Israel. For just as, he says, beyond all woods the wood of the vine is unfit for work—for no one can make from it even the most worthless peg, but it is only food for fire, and its yearly cleansing is given over to fire—