Interpretatio in Ezechielem

From those desolate souls, he says, you received the teachings of impiety, and you welcomed them on musical instruments struck with a sweet sound. "And you gave them bracelets on their hands, and a crown of boasting on their heads." For those who choose to worship idols receive nothing from them, but they offer to them the gifts given by God, adorning them with every kind of ornament. 43. And I said, Do they not commit adultery in these things, and are these not the works of a harlot, and has she herself played the harlot? For they said, he says, using the prophets as instruments, that your adultery is dared against lifeless things, and such practices are harlotries for you. 44. And they went in to her, in the manner that men go in to a harlot woman, so they went in to Oolla and to Ooliba, the lawless women, to commit lawlessness. For having thereafter obtained license from their transgression, as toward courtesan women and those exposed to all, so they entered into Samaria and Jerusalem, both the avenging demons of souls and the Chaldeans who had been taught their worship. He transfers, then, thereafter to

He calls them righteous in this word, saying: "These men are righteous." He has put "righteous" not as bearing witness to their righteousness—for they were most unjust and most lawless, and exceedingly most impious—but by way of comparison with her abominations he has put "righteous," in the sense of: when examined alongside you, they are righteous. This he also did above when speaking to Jerusalem; for he said, "And you justified your sisters in your sins, and in all your lawless deeds which you did." And here he says, "These men are righteous," that is, more than you. "And they shall execute judgment upon them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of those who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands." They shall pay the penalty, he says, for murder and adultery, receiving their own lovers as judges, and they shall suffer the very things that adulterous women and murderers suffer. Having thus completed the enigmatic narrative, he pronounces the verdict against them. "Thus says the Lord Adonai: Bring up multitudes against them, and give among them tumult and plunder. And let them be stoned with the stones of crowds, and let them be pierced through with their own swords; they shall kill their sons and daughters, and burn their houses with fire." Then he shows the benefit that will come from this. "And I will turn away impiety from the land, and all the women shall be instructed, and they shall surely not do according to their impieties." For when these women, he says, endure these things and are handed over to stones, swords, and fire, every city will reap benefit, learning what are the wages of impiety.

Again here he has called the cities "women." 49. And your impiety will be given upon you, and you will receive all the sins of your desires, and you will know that I am the Lord. You will reap, he says, the fruits of your impiety; for you did not undertake this under compulsion, but by choice and desire; but from the punishment you will harvest the greatest benefit—the knowledge of my dominion. May it be ours to enjoy this, not being taught by the experience of evils, but perceiving the divine benefactions, and loathing the ungrateful disposition, and being renewed each day by divine remembrance, and being set aflame toward the love of God by the working of the all-holy Spirit, and awaiting the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. VOLUME 10. CHAPTER 24. 1, 2. And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying: Son of man, write for yourself the name of this day, from which the king of Babylon set out against Jerusalem, from this day. He has taught us the time at which the Babylonian campaigned against Jerusalem. And while he was besieging the city, the prophet foretells to those who had already been taken captive the evils that would overtake them.

Therefore the Master, demonstrating the truthfulness of the prophecy, commands that the day be marked, on which the enemy began to assault the city, so that both from the time and from the outcome of events they might learn—both those already made captives and those under siege—that God foretold these things concerning them from above, and that they were not defeated by the strength of the enemies, but were paying the penalty for their own sins. 3. And speak a parable against the house that provokes me. After marking the time, the prophet is commanded to teach in parabolic and enigmatic fashion the things that will befall the city, so that through the obscurity of what is said the hearers, having become more earnest in inquiry, might learn the divine oracles more accurately. And you shall say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: (4, 5) Set on the cauldron, set it on, pour water into it, and cast into it pieces cut in two, every good piece cut in two, leg and shoulder, fleshed from the bones. From choice cattle taken, and kindle the bones beneath them. He calls the city a cauldron; the water poured out, the manifold calamities; and the pieces cut in two, and legs and shoulders from choice cattle, those in prosperity and wealth and power—rulers and leaders and priests—delivered together to the calamities; the bones kindled beneath, those living in poverty, delivered first to famine; and the fire, the Babylonian and his array. To these he adds:

It has boiled, it has boiled, and indeed her bones are boiled in her midst." For, he says, when the fire was cast in, both the bones that were kindled by the fire were consumed; for it became a waste of famine, and those who escaped the assault of famine have come to the height of evils, receiving the assaults of those besieging them. 5. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: O city of bloods, a cauldron in which there is rust in it, and the rust has not gone out from it, it has brought it out according to its limb; no lot has fallen upon it. He taught us here that above too he named the city a cauldron, and he calls the sin the rust of the cauldron. And it is the greatest accusation that not even so great a fire of calamities consumed the rust of the cauldron. But "It has brought it out according to its limb, no lot has fallen upon it" shows that no one escaped the calamities brought upon them, nor were they allotted, some to destruction and some to salvation, as happened in the sieges that had already occurred before, but all without exception, some were handed over to famine, some to plague; and those who passed through these were either killed in war or, having been besieged, were enslaved; and he teaches also the cause of the evils. 7. Because her blood was in her midst. And these things, he says, they endure, paying the just penalty for their excessive bloodshed. I have set it upon a bare rock, I have not poured it out upon the earth, to cover it with the earth. (8) That wrath might rise up for vengeance, I have given her blood for vengeance; I have set it upon a bare rock so as not to cover it.

I will not cover up, he says, the lawless deeds they dared to commit, but I will set them bare and display them to all, like blood not poured out on the ground and swallowed up, but cast upon a smooth rock and kept continually, for the accusation of those who dared to pour it out. 9–12. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: O city of bloodshed, even I will magnify the torch. And I will multiply the wood and kindle the fire, so that the flesh may be melted away and the broth diminished and the bones burned together. And it shall stand empty upon her coals; it is set ablaze so that it may be burned further and heated, and her bronze be scorched, and her uncleanness be melted in her midst, and her rust fail. Her rust shall be brought low, and it shall not come out of her. I will magnify, he says, the torch, that is, I will increase the beginning of evils. And I will multiply the wood, instead of: I will supply many occasions and materials to the fire of evils, so that I may kindle this, and cause the flesh that is boiled, that is, the people in the city, to be melted away; and some are consumed by famine, burned together like bones, while others are burned up by manifold calamities, like flesh being boiled; and by the great assault of the fire the broth also shall be consumed, and every necessary need and occasion of relief, so that at last the bronze itself, conversing with the fire by itself, is melted away and consumed together with the rust. For when those who fought in defense of the city were defeated, it was from then on captured and made desolate, and given over to fire.

But nevertheless, he says, even when so many evils had fallen upon her, she was not freed from her poison, but the inclination to sin remained in her. Therefore he adds: Her poison is great; her poison shall be put to shame. (13.) In your uncleanness, a boiling. You, he says, in your lawlessness kindled this boiling and the flame of the fire; for you had a great poison of sins, which, being now laid bare, shall be filled with shame. "Because you were defiled, and were not cleansed from your uncleanness, and you shall no longer be cleansed, until I fulfill my wrath in you." For since you did not wish to heal your wounds through repentance, you shall not obtain pardon, nor shall you enjoy cleansing, until you pay the penalty for the things you transgressed; then he shows the truthfulness of what has been said by the character of the person. 14. I the Lord have spoken. And the incontrovertibility of what is to come: "And it shall come, and I will do it; I will not delay, I will not spare, and I will not be entreated." For I will not let some go and hand others over, but I will deliver all to the evils that have been threatened. And he indicates also the justice of the punishment. "According to your ways, and according to your thoughts I will judge you, says Adonai the Lord." And the same more broadly: "Therefore behold, I will judge you according to your thoughts, and according to your bloods I will judge you, the unclean, the renowned, and great in provoking to bitterness." You have become, he says, notable for wickedness; and the cause of your lawlessness was following evil thoughts; and this he indicated by saying:

According to your thoughts, and according to your bloods, I will judge you." For first we reason, whether good or evil, and then we bring the deed upon our reasonings. From here he transfers the prophecy to another kind, and says: 15–17. The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, behold, I take from you the desires of your eyes; you shall not cut yourself, nor shall you weep, nor shall tears come to you. Groan in silence; a groan of blood is the mourning of the loins. Desires, or thoughts, of the eyes—for some of the copies have it thus—he calls the wife of one's yoke, whose death the prophet is commanded neither to weep for nor to lament, but to groan in silence, and this while the mourning is about the loins. For through the loins he indicated the desire for childbearing; for thus also the divine Apostle, making his statement about Levi, said: "For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him and blessed him." Therefore we are also commanded to gird our loins, so that we may check the desire and hold back its impulses. Wishing, then, to show the excess of the passion, he reasonably said: A groan of blood is the mourning of the loins—that is, the groan and mourning of death is about the loins. But nevertheless, even when the calamity is such, he exhorts him not to lament: "For you shall not make human mourning." Then he also teaches the manner:

Your hair shall be braided upon you, and your sandals shall be on your feet, and you shall not be comforted with their lips, and you shall not eat the bread of men." He says, do not endure to do any of the things that mourners are accustomed to do—neither to shear your head, nor to walk barefoot, nor to enjoy any consolation through what are called funeral feasts. And the prophet seems also to be a Nazirite; for he says, "Your hair shall be braided upon you." And above he was commanded to drink not wine but water; and both are peculiar to Nazirites. 18. And I spoke to the people in the morning, as he commanded me; and my wife died in the evening, and I did in the morning as I was commanded. And the prophet fulfills a certain type of the God of all. For since the Israelite people was joined to the Master in the rank of a bride, and was about to be delivered over thus to enslavement and slaughter, and the divine temple to be set on fire, the prophet gives a certain type of things to come; and when his wife died suddenly, he enjoins that he neither lament nor weep, nor assume a mourning appearance, nor enjoy a consolatory table, but groan in silence, showing that he himself will grant no kindness to those joined to him, yet will bring punishment upon them contrary to their will; "For he does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live." For this reason he also urges the prophet to groan in silence.

By this he signifies that he himself also endures against his will the calamities that come upon the people, having great goodness and, because of it, inclined toward loving-kindness, but being compelled to punish because of the excess of lawlessness. 19–24. And the people, he says, said to me: Will you not tell us what these things are that you are doing? And I said to them: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Say to the house of Israel: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I am profaning my holy things, the pride of your strength, the desires of your eyes, and those for which your souls spare; and your sons and your daughters, whom you left behind, shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done; you shall not be comforted from their mouth, and you shall not eat the bread of men. And your hair shall be upon your head, and your sandals upon your feet; you shall neither cut yourselves nor weep; and you shall waste away in your hearts, and you shall not comfort each one his brother. And Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; according to all that he has done, you shall do, when these things come, and you shall know that I am Adonai the Lord. Through the events, he says, I have shown you the prophecy, and in myself I have sketched out beforehand the things that shall befall you. For just as I, when my yokefellow received the end of her life, did none of the things customarily performed for the dead—neither lamentation, nor tear, nor mourning attire—

Thus you too, when your sons and daughters are slaughtered and the holy temple is profaned by the entry of the impious barbarians—the temple in which you have boasted until now and in which you continued exulting and vaunting yourselves—and when you are tried by countless other evils besides, you will not even have leave for lamentation, nor will you be permitted to do the customary things: not to cut off the head, not to bare the feet of the shoes, not to unload the weight of grief in streams of tears, not to enjoy a consoling table, not to perform any other of the customary rites. And you will remember what was done by the prophet, and you will learn through the outcome of events that, just as the prophet became a portent and a sign for you, so through events he brought you a foretelling of what was to come. 25–27. And you, son of man, is it not on the day when I take from them their strength, the pride of their boasting, the desires of their eyes, and the lifting up of their soul, their sons and their daughters? On that day the one who is saved shall come to you, to announce it in your ears. On that day your mouth shall be opened to the one who is saved, and you shall speak, and you shall no longer be made mute, and you shall be a portent to them, and they shall know that I am Adonai the Lord. Not only in the present will you teach them these things.

But when the prophecy has reached its fulfillment, and the holy things have been handed over to the impious barbarians, and their sons and daughters have been handed over to slaughter, and someone comes from there reporting what has happened, reminding them of the prophecy, do not endure to keep silent, so that they may learn that these things have happened because I willed and permitted them, and that they pay the penalty for their impieties; and they have suffered not through the strength of the enemies, but through my just anger. From here on, then, he turns the prophecy against those who dwell in the neighborhood of Israel and rejoice over them, and first he brings the sons of Ammon into the midst. CHAPTER 25 1–5. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face toward the sons of Ammon, and prophesy against them. And you shall say to the sons of Ammon: Hear the word of Adonai the Lord: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Because you rejoiced over my holy things, that they were profaned, and over the land of Israel, that it was destroyed, and over the house of Judah, that it went into captivity; therefore behold

I will hand you over to the sons of Kedem as an inheritance, and they will pitch their tents among you in your own allotted portion, and they will set up their tents among you; they themselves will eat your fruits, and they themselves will drink your fatness. And I will give the city of Ammon as pasture for camels, and the sons of Ammon as pasture for sheep, and you shall know that I am Adonai Lord. The other interpreters translated "sons of Kedem" as "sons of the East"; and these are by race descended from Ishmael. Therefore the God of all things says through the prophet to the sons of Ammon: Because you rejoiced when you saw the temple consecrated to me trampled by foul and impious men, and the land of Israel laid waste, and the tribe of Judah made captive, I will make you subject to those far inferior and weaker than the Babylonians, who will surround you with many calamities, pitching their tents in your cities, and grazing their herds of camels in your land, and appointing you yourselves as shepherds of sheep. When these things, then, happen to you, you shall learn that it was not because of my weakness that my people suffered what they suffered, but because of their own transgression. 7. Therefore thus says Adonai Lord: Because you clapped your hand, and stamped with your foot, and rejoiced in your soul over the land of Israel; therefore behold, I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will give you as plunder among the nations, and I will utterly destroy you from the peoples, and I will destroy you from the countries with destruction, and you shall know that I am Adonai Lord.

For, he says, because you were glad and rejoiced at the evils of my people, and you clapped your hands, and made a noise with your feet, leaping and dancing, for this reason you will suffer harsher things, and through the very events you will learn my dominion. From here he transfers the prophecy to Moab, who is a brother of Ammon and a neighbor. 8–11. Thus says Adonai the Lord: Because Moab and Seir said, Behold, just as all the nations, so are the house of Israel and Judah; therefore behold, I will paralyze the shoulder of Moab from his cities, from his headlands, the choice land, the house of Beth-jeshimoth above the spring of the city by the sea, Baal-meon and Kiriathaim. The sons of Kedem I have given to the sons of Ammon as an inheritance, and I will give it for a lifting up, so that there be no remembrance of the sons of Ammon among the nations. And in Moab I will execute vengeance, and you shall know that I am the Lord. He joined Seir to Moab, since it too was among the neighbors; and he calls Seir those who derive their race from Esau; it was also called Edom, that is, the red or ruddy; and Seir, that is, the shaggy and hairy. Both of these Esau, the brother of Jacob, had. For, he says, the first came out red, all over like a skin, hairy; and the patriarch Jacob also said concerning him to his mother.

Esau my brother is a hairy man, but I am a smooth man. Since, then, he says, Seir and Moab, delighting in the evils of my people, dared to say that my people have no difference from the rest of the nations, and this blasphemy has reached me—if indeed, being weak like the idols of the other nations, I was unable to help my people—for this reason I paralyze the shoulder of Moab from his cities; that is, I will destroy their strength; and not only those situated on the heights, but I will also make desolate his coastal cities. And he calls coastal those situated beside the Dead Sea; for the Moabites dwelt far from the other sea. And he also gives the names of the cities, of which a small remnant has remained until the present; and some belong to this Arabia, and some to that. And he adds that he will hand these over to the same enemies as their brothers the sons of Ammon, and that by experience they will learn that the Master is mighty, able to help, but because of the transgression of the people not consenting to do this. Therefore he added: And

they shall know that I am the Lord." Having thus foretold what would befall Moab, he transfers the discourse to Seir, which is also Edom, verses 12–14. Thus says the Lord Adonai: Because Idumea took vengeance with vengeance in anger against the house of Judah, and bore malice, and exacted punishment from them; therefore thus says the Lord Adonai: And I will stretch out my hand against Idumea, and I will destroy from it man and beast, and I will make it desolate, and those pursued from Teman and Dedan shall fall by the sword. And I will give my vengeance upon Idumea into the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Idumea according to my anger, and they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord Adonai. For since they not only rejoiced in like manner with the Moabites and Ammonites, but also demonstrated their own wickedness by deeds, preserving that former anger: "For Esau," he says, "was hostile to Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him"; for this reason I will not hand them over to other enemies, but to my people themselves, who were wronged by them, so that through complete desolation they might learn the power of my dominion. Teman is a city of Idumea, and Dedan likewise, named after the settlers, who were born to the patriarch Abraham from Keturah. And Dedan was near to Idumea, and was in agreement with it. Having thus foretold the things concerning them, he transfers the prophecy to the foreigners. For the Idumeans are not foreigners, being descendants of Isaac; nor indeed are the Ammonites and Moabites, who trace their lineage from Lot.

They were indeed foreigners—both Tyrians and Sidonians, and all the others who were their neighbors. But Scripture especially calls "foreigners" the Ascalonites and Gazites, the Gittites and Acaronites, and the Azotites, since they held the land adjoining the tribe of Judah and were very much borderers and neighbors. So he speaks also of what will befall them, verses 15–17. Thus says the Lord Adonai: Because the foreigners acted in wrath, and rose up for vengeance, rejoicing with their whole soul, to destroy out of eternal enmity. Therefore thus says the Lord Adonai: Behold, I will stretch out my hands against the foreigners, and I will utterly destroy the Cretans, and I will destroy the remnant who dwell along the coast. And I will execute great vengeance upon them in the rebukes of my wrath, and they shall know that I am the Lord Adonai, when I give my vengeance upon them. Against these too, just as against the Idumeans, he brings a charge of wrath. For, he says, having borne a grudge against my people, as though they had conquered and had established their own kingdom, they made the time of calamity a time of punishment, and rising up they inflicted countless evils upon them. For this reason I will exact from them the penalty for their wrath, and I will deliver them over to divinely sent plagues, and I will destroy the subjects together with their rulers, and I will give them over to inescapable evils, so that through what they suffer they may come to know the power of my dominion. But let us not wait to come to know our Master through the experience of evils.

But through his ever-flowing gifts having received the knowledge, let us be grateful for his benefactions, and let us flee the passion of wrath, having learned its destructive fruits; and let us keep the apostolic commandment, not waiting for the sun to set upon our anger against one another; but before its setting let us extinguish our wrath. For thus we shall both stop the wrath of the righteous judge against us, and reap that desirable and thrice-longed-for serenity; may it be that we all attain it, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be the glory, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen. TOME 11 CHAPTER 20 1, 2. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken, she is destroyed, the nations have turned to me, she who was full is laid waste. In the eleventh year of the captivity of Jeconiah, and the fourth month of the reign of Zedekiah, on the ninth day of the month, Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians. A few days, then, before the capture, the prophet is commanded to make his prophetic utterances against Tyre. For Tyre is called Sor in the local tongue. And she too rejoiced at the siege of Jerusalem, and supposed that, once that most illustrious city had been destroyed, she herself would rise up to dominion over all the neighboring nations. 3–. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I am bringing upon Sor, and I will bring up against you many nations, as the sea rises with its waves, and they shall cast down your walls;

And they shall tear down your towers, and I will winnow her dust from her, and I will make her a bare rock. She shall become a drying-place of nets in the midst of the sea, because I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord, and she shall become a spoil to the nations. And her daughters who are in the plain shall be slain with the sword, and they shall know that I am the Lord. By these words he threatens her with the campaign of the Babylonians; and he says that her walls also shall be destroyed, and that she shall become desolate, so as to resemble certain smooth rocks, on which fishermen are accustomed to spread out their nets. And he says also that the cities and villages subject to her shall be laid waste; for these he calls her daughters. And he signifies also the gain that comes from the calamities. 7, 8. For they shall know, he says, that I am the Lord. Because thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I am bringing against you, Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the north; he is a king of kings, with horses and chariots, and horsemen, and the gathering of very many nations. He shall slay your daughters who are in the plain with the sword, and he shall set a guard against you, and shall build around you, and shall cast up a trench against you, and shall build around you a palisade in a circle, and a surrounding of weapons, and he shall set his spears opposite you. – He calls a guard the bases of operations, which invading enemies are accustomed to build, so as both to plunder the things outside and to destroy the besieged by scarcity of necessities; and he calls building around the walls that are built outside by the enemies.

He will add, it says, to this wall both palisades and trenches and embankments, so that no one dares to go out, and all kinds of missiles are easily hurled. Then he adds: “Your walls and your towers he will tear down with his own weapons. From the multitude of his horses their dust will cover you, and at the sound of his horsemen and of the wheels of his chariots your walls will shake, when he enters your gates, as one enters a city from the plain. With the hooves of his horses they will trample all your broad streets; your people he will destroy with the sword, and the foundation of your strength he will bring down to the ground. And he will plunder your power, and despoil your possessions, and throw down your walls, and tear down your desirable houses, and your stones and your timbers and your dust he will cast into the midst of the sea. And he will destroy the multitude of your musicians, and the sound of your harps shall no longer be heard. And I will make you a bare rock; you shall be a drying-place of nets, and you shall no longer be built, because I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord.” All things, it says, that are foretold by me are true. Receive, then, the prediction as free from falsehood, that the Babylonians will both tear down your walls and, having destroyed your houses that are near, will fill them up from the stones themselves; and so great will be the crash of the horses and chariots that the city will seem to be shaken by some earthquake. And they will plunder your possessions, and your inhabitants

They will enslave them. Such great desolation will come upon you that fishermen will dry their soaked nets in you, and what they are accustomed to do on the smooth rocks near the sea, this they will do in you because of the great desolation. But the words "You shall no longer be built" we shall learn from the prophecy of the blessed prophet Isaiah. For that prophet also foretold grievous things for Tyre, but he limited the grievous things to a certain fixed time: "For Tyre shall be left, he says, seventy years, as the time of one king, as the time of a man; and it shall be, after the seventy years, that God will visit Tyre, and it shall again be restored to its former state, and it shall be a marketplace for all the kingdoms of the world, before the face of all the earth, and its merchandise shall be holy to the Lord," and the rest. Therefore "It shall not be built" hints at a change of ways: that according to its former impiety it shall not be built, but shall receive another and directly opposite building, which, according to the prophet Isaiah, shall be holy to the Lord. And the facts bear witness, and the piety that now prevails. For from its former superstition and its error concerning idols, having turned to God, it received the light of the knowledge of God. 15, 10. For thus says the Lord to Sor:

Will not the islands be shaken at the sound of your fall, when your wounded groan, when they are slain by the sword in your midst? And all the rulers of the nations of the sea will come down from their thrones, and they will take the mitres from their heads, and they will put off their embroidered clothing; they will be astonished with astonishment, they will sit upon the ground, and they will fear their own destruction, and they will groan over you? Tyre was renowned from of old, not only in Asia but also in Europe; necessarily, therefore, the calamity that befell it also became known. Learning of this, says he, those who dwell in the islands will be terrified, and their kings, out of despondency and distress, will bare their heads of their diadems—for these he called mitres—and they will put off their costly clothing and assume the garb of mourning, expecting to suffer the same things. For this is what he indicated by saying, "And they will fear their own destruction." So greatly will the report of your evils grieve them that they will even take up a lamentation over you and say: How you are destroyed and brought to ruin from the sea, O praiseworthy city, which became strong in the sea, you and those who dwell in you; you who gave your terror to all who dwell in you. And the islands will fear from the day of your fall, and the islands will be troubled at your authority in the sea. Reckoning, says he, your former authority, and beholding the calamity that has now overtaken you, they will lament you, who were of old much talked of and renowned.

But they will be anxious about their own affairs, fearing lest they fall into the same things. 19, 20. For thus says Adonai the Lord: When I make you a desolate city, like the cities that shall not be inhabited, when I bring up the abyss against you, and much water covers you. And I will bring you down to those who go down into the pit, to a people of old, and I will settle you in the depths of the earth, as an eternal desert, with those who go down into the pit, so that you may not be inhabited, nor rise upon the land of the living. He called the army of the Babylonian an abyss because of its multitude. For since that place is also famous and like an island, lying entirely within the sea, and having one entrance from the land, he fittingly used the figure, calling the multitude of the enemies much water and an abyss. And the phrase, "I will bring you down to those who go down into the pit, to a people of old," signifies death, under which all who pass through this present age complete their course. Therefore he called the dead a people of old. And the phrase, "that you may not rise upon the land of the living," indicates that saying from the Psalms: "Therefore the ungodly shall not rise in judgment, nor sinners in

by the counsel of the righteous. But the Tyrians who lived at that time, being impious, will not rise into the land of life; and blessed David calls this the land of the living. For he says, "For he has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from slipping, that I may be well-pleasing before the Lord in the land of the living." And the Lord in the holy Gospels makes this same distinction. For he says, "These will rise to eternal life, and these to punishment and eternal shame." He threatens, therefore, both those who at that time inhabited Tyre, living in impiety, not only with the approach of the Babylonian and the destruction brought about by him, but also with grievous and painful things in the life to come. For what is more grievous than not to rise into the land of life? To these he adds: 29. I will give you to destruction, and you shall exist no more, and you shall be sought, and you shall not be found forever, says Adonai the Lord. All the divine prophets and the holy apostles were deemed worthy of the same Spirit; they do not, therefore, speak things contrary to one another; for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. And if the divine prophets were deemed worthy of the same Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, the oracles of the blessed prophets are in agreement. And even if we find the desolation of Tyre limited in the prophet Isaiah, and hear the prophet Ezekiel saying to Tyre, "You shall be sought, and you shall not be found forever, says Adonai the Lord," we shall not say that the prophets disagree, but from the idioms of Scripture we shall resolve the question.

For divine Scripture often calls even a short time an "age." Such is what was said by blessed David: "Our age is for the light of your face." And indeed the same man says: "The days of our years in them are seventy years, but if in strength, eighty years, and the greater part of them is toil and pain." And so, knowing the human life to be of such length, he called it an age. Therefore, "You shall not be found in the age," that is, in the age of desolation appointed for you; and a period of seventy years was appointed for it through Isaiah the prophet. But if someone wishes to understand the passage in a more spiritual way, he will find the prophecy true in this way as well. For if anyone seeks Tyre, he will not find that former Tyre; for that one was impious, but the one that flourished and blossomed after the one that was laid waste is seen to be pious, illumined by the light of the knowledge of God. Whether, then, one wishes to understand the prophecy according to the literal sense, he will find the appointed time called an age; or whether one wishes to dive into the depth, he will find again that Tyre is not that Tyre, but directly the opposite of that one.

CHAPTER 27 1–3. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre. And you shall say to Tyre, which dwells at the entrance of the sea, to the marketplace of the peoples from many islands. What is said indicates an excess of God's love for humanity and goodness. And the word also teaches us, bringing some discipline upon those who sin, that we should not do this with any hostility or hatred, but rather sympathizing and grieving greatly. For he himself, judging justly and most righteously, commands the prophet to lament the city that is being punished, thereby indicating the disposition with which he was punishing. Thus says Adonai the Lord to Tyre: You said: I have put beauty upon myself. (4.) In the heart of the sea, to Beelim. By these words he convicts her ingratitude and arrogance; for having received the occasions of her comeliness from God, she became ungrateful toward the provider of good things, and she ascribed the abundance of good things that came to her to her own wisdom and power, and she attributed it also to Beelim. Thus the idols [were] the divine...

Scripture calls it. The impiety, then, is twofold: for it not only was ignorant of the Giver of good things, but also dared to ascribe the provision of these things to utterly powerless beings, which cannot even put sensible beauty around themselves. Then it recounts how many and what kind of gifts it enjoyed, and from how many nations the sources of its wealth were offered to it. 5. Your sons put beauty around you. A cedar from Sanir was built for you; planks of cypress from Lebanon were taken for you, to make masts of fir; from Bashanitis they made your oars. These are mountains productive of various woods. It enumerates, then, the things brought to it from every side, and that you cut the masts from Lebanon and carried them, and the oars from Bashanitis, and the buildings from Sanir. To these it adds: "Your sanctuaries they made of ivory, wooded houses from the islands of the Chettieim." Instead of "your sanctuaries," the other translators have set "your horn," following the sequence of what was said before; for to the mast and the oars the horn also follows. But if it be said also concerning the idols, it is nothing unlikely. For it made, it says, ivory idols, and "wooded houses," that is, covered with planks; for thus Aquila also interpreted it. And indicating the preciousness of the woods, it also signified their places: "For you brought these things, it says, from the islands of the Chettieim." And it calls the Greek islands Chettieim. For God also says through Jeremiah:

Go to the islands of the Kittim and see, and send to Kedar and consider carefully, whether such things have happened, whether nations will exchange their gods, and they are not gods." By Kedar he indicates the nations situated toward the east, and by the Kittim those toward the west. The city of Kition is in Cyprus, and to the present day it is so named; when aspirated, according to the idiom of the Hebrews, it shows the kinship of the Kittim. And Cyprus at that time held sway over the islands. Therefore he names the Greek islands Kittim. From these islands, he says, the precious things of your wood were brought to you. To these he adds: 7. Fine linen with embroidery from Egypt became your couch, to give you glory and to clothe you; blue and purple from the islands of Elishah became your coverings. Egypt, he says, offered you couches of every kind and variety—he means the carpets and the other things brought from there. And Greece sent you coverings of every kind, some dyed with purple, others wrapped in the color of blue; for he calls Greece Elishah. 8. And your rulers who dwell in Sidon, and the Aradians, became your rowers. The Hebrew and the Syriac do not have "your rulers," but "your neighbors." But so that we may also understand the interpretation of the Seventy, let us receive it thus: that your former rulers, the Sidonians, now together with those who dwell in Arad, fill up your naval force, rowing your ships; and those among you who are skilled fulfill the office of the helmsman.

For your wise men, he says, O Tyre, who were in you, these were your pilots. (9) The elders of Byblos, and their wise men, who were in you, these strengthened your counsel. They did not strengthen their own city, but offered to you the best counsels and advices. "And all the ships of the sea, and their rowers, were in you, trading in your commerce, and they became for you upon the west of the west." From everywhere, he says, merchants were streaming together, some selling, some buying; for this is what "trading in your commerce" means; and not only those near you put in at the harbors, but also those who dwell in the very farthest reaches of the west. For "upon the west of the west" means this: not only, he says, those who dwell to your west, but also those more western than they. (10, 11) Persians, and Libyans, and Lydians were in your power, your warriors, who hung shields and helmets in you; these gave your glory. The sons of the Arabians, and your power,

They were on the walls all around. But also the Medes were in your towers as guards; they hung their quivers on your shoulders all around; these perfected your beauty. Having recounted the differences of the woods, the varied colors of the clothing, the sailors and pilots, the counselors who show what must be done, the merchants who arrive from everywhere, he also enumerates the military roll, coming from different nations and those instructed in civil affairs—Persians, and Lydians, and Libyans, and Aradians, and Medes. He speaks also of the kinds of full armor: quivers, and peltai, and helmets. A pelte is the small shield which the light-armed troops carry in wars; this is used also by those who perform the pyrrhic dance. (12) The Carthaginians were your merchants, from the abundance of all your power; they gave silver, and gold, and bronze, and iron, and tin, and lead for your market. Carthage (it is the metropolis of what was formerly called Libya, but now Africa), both the Syrian and the Hebrew call Tharsis; and through the metropolis he indicated the trade of the materials mined there, brought from the whole nation. (13) All Greece, and the regions extending alongside it, traded in you in human lives, and they gave vessels of bronze for your market. Slaves, he says, and vessels of bronze were brought to you from Greece and the neighboring regions. (14) From the house of Thogorma they gave horses, and horsemen, and mules for your market. Horses, he says, and those who ride them, and mules, Phrygia sent to you.

For thus they interpret the house of Thogorma, 15. The sons of the Rhodians were your merchants; from the islands they increased your trade, with horns and teeth of ivory. Symmachus translated the horns as ebony, from which what are called ebony objects are made. These things, he says, the Rhodians, sailing across the sea, brought to you, and supplied your need of them. And to those who imported them you gave back your wages; (19.) men of your trade from the multitude of your mixed population. All these things, he says, you received and gave back to those who brought them—slaves, since you had very many resident foreigners; for these he called "mixed," those who came from other nations but chose to dwell among them. "Cassia, and purple, and embroideries, and fine linen from Tharsis, and Rhaamoth, and Choth gave your market." Besides the things already mentioned, you also had other goods from Carthage, not only adorning you with clothing and wrapping you in varied garments, but also offering you spices with great fragrance. For "cassia," he means what is called balsam; "Choth," onyx; "Rhaamoth," the other aromatics. 17. Judah and Israel, these were your merchants in the sale of wheat, and myrrh, and cassia; and first honey, and oil, and resin they gave for your mixed population. For so great, he says, was the abundance from the Jewish trade brought to you, that those with you, and the foreigners and resident aliens among you, partook of the goods brought in, using some for food and others for the luxury of fragrance. 18.

Damascus was your merchant in the multitude of your works, because of the multitude of all your power. What was produced among you, he says, Damascus used to buy; you therefore traded with this city too, selling off your surplus and collecting gold from it. Rich wine from Chelbon, and shining wool from Miletus. (19.) And they gave wine of Daidan, and Ioanan, and Meozel to your market. He calls Ioanan Ionia; and Daidan a city of Idumea; and Chelbon was a certain village near it. From every side, he says, good things were brought to you: sweet and fragrant wine from this nation, and the finest wool from Miletus—this too is a city formerly of Ionia, but now of Caria; and Symmachus translated Chelbon as Chalbanes. From Asel comes wrought iron, and wheels are in your mixed trade. (20, 21.) Daidan were your merchants with choice cattle for chariots. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, these were your merchants by your hands: camels, and rams, and lambs, in which they trade with you. Some, he says, brought you wrought iron, others mules and horses for chariots, others camels, and rams, and lambs, so that some might carry burdens, and others might provide food and clothing. And he calls Kedar the descendants of Ishmael; and Daidan a city of Idumea, as we have already said. For thus also in Jeremiah, and in Ezekiel himself in the vision against Idumea, we have found Thaiman joined with Daidan; and some have supposed Asel to be Asia, which has the best craftsmen of iron, and fashions iron vessels very well. 22.

The merchants of Saba and Regma, they too were your merchants, with choice spices and precious stones; they also gave gold for your merchandise. Saba and Regma trace their descent from Chuz; for Chuz was the firstborn of Ham. These, then, are Ethiopian and Indian peoples; and the goods brought from there make this clear: precious stones, gold, and spices. 23. Charran, and Chalan, and Daidan, these were your merchants. Charran is Carrhae, and Chalan is Chalane, where the tower was built. But Daidan we have often interpreted. Saba, and Assur, and Charman were your merchants; (24.) bringing merchandise in Machalim and in Galima: hyacinth, and embroidery, and choice treasures stored in magoza, bound with cords and in cypress boats—in these was your trade. He names Saba as an Indian people; for we find this name also in the genealogy of Shem. Assur he means as the Assyrian; and Charman as what is called Carmanene. But the phrase "In Machalim and in Galima, hyacinth, and embroidery, and choice treasures stored in magoza," Aquila interpreted thus: "In well-wrought packages of hyacinth and embroidery, and stored in magoza." And "in magoza" he renders into Greek from the Hebrew; it means "in hidden vessels"; for thus the Syrian also understood it and translated: costly and embroidered clothing, he says, covered with precious wrappings, and laid up in most excellently finished vessels, and bound with cords, was brought to you. 25. Ships of the Carthaginians in your trade, in the multitude of your mixed goods.

You also made use of the ships of the Carthaginians for trade, having an immense multitude not only of your own people but also of imported goods. And you were filled, and you were greatly weighed down in the hearts of the seas. (20) In many waters your rowers led you. Satiety, he says, made you leap about, and enjoying good things you did not know your benefactor. He made this same accusation also against Israel. "For Jacob ate, he says, and was filled, and the beloved one kicked." Since you reaped no benefit from prosperity, I will teach you to be wise by means of adversities. For the spirit, he says, of the south broke you in the heart of the sea. In a figurative sense he thus addressed the Babylonian; since the south wind is naturally disposed to raise the greatest waves, and to stir up a harsh surge against those who sail, figuratively, as in the case of a coastal city, he calls the onset of the enemies a south wind. Then he says, so that we may not dwell on the same things, that both you, and your resident aliens, and your rowers, and your pilots, and your counselors, and your merchants, and those who fill up the military register, will be overtaken by utter destruction; for this is what he indicated by saying: "They shall fall in the midst of the heart of the seas." He adds that, when the siege and the capture have taken place, your pilots who live far away will fall into great fear, and will turn to flight; and the sailors together with the look-out men will do the same, and leaving their vessels, lamenting and wailing, they will reach the land.

And they shall sprinkle their head with earth, and they shall lie down on the ground itself, wiping off the dust from there; and they shall bare their heads of the comeliness that comes from hair, and girding themselves with sackcloth, they shall continue lamenting and wailing. Then he also speaks the lamentation made by them: "Who is like Tyre, silenced in the midst of the sea?" In quiet, he says, and peace you passed all this time, since no one dared to raise a tumult against you. 33. How great a wage did you find for yourself from the sea? This is sufficient to teach all men not to be proud over apparent prosperity, because of the change that follows; for he says this also to Tyre: What have you gained in so much time from your great commerce? And indeed he says: And from your mixed multitude and your trafficking you enriched all the kings of the earth. (34–35.) But now you are broken in the sea, in the depth of the water; your mixed multitude and all your company have fallen in the midst of you, and all your rowers. Those who dwell in the islands shall be gloomy over you, and their kings shall be utterly astonished, and their face shall weep. Merchants from the nations shall hiss over you; you have become destruction, and you shall be no more forever. Consider, he says, how the toil of your commerce profited you nothing, nor the arrival of all the nations. For having become submerged like a ship, you were covered over by the untimely ruin of evils, receiving as it were waves the snowstorms of the hostile ranks.

For this reason all the islanders and those along the coast, together with their own kings, lament you, O king, seeing the city that was once most renowned suddenly become invisible and gone; and marveling at your change into utter desolation, they will signify the astonishment of their mind by their hissing. But the phrase "you shall no longer be forever," we will understand according to the interpretation already given by us. And if it is necessary to add another interpretation to what has been said, we will not shrink from it. We have heard the God of all saying through Jeremiah the prophet: "I will speak a end concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to exalt them, and to pull down, and to destroy; and if that nation turns from their evils, I will repent concerning the evils which I devised to do to them; and I will speak a end concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to rebuild and to plant; and if they do evil before me, so as not to hear my voice, I will repent concerning the good things which I spoke to do to them." Therefore the Master both pronounces and dissolves the pronouncements, and the truth does not lie. For he pronounces against those who do not make use of repentance; but upon those who have received the medicines of repentance, the vote of punishment is idle. This also happened in the case of the Ninevites; for he condemned them to utter destruction, having said: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." But he received them when they repented, and dissolved the pronouncement. And here, therefore, the change of their descendants dissolved the vote of perpetual punishment. CHAPTER 28:1, 2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre:

Thus says Adonai the Lord: Because your heart was lifted up, and you said, I am God; I have dwelt in the dwelling of God in the midst of the sea; but you are a man and not God, and you have set your heart as the heart of God. All the forms of sin are indeed abominable, but the most abominable of all is pride: "For every high thing," it says, "is an abomination before the Lord"; and, "The Lord resists the proud"; and the divine Apostle says, "Not a novice, lest, being puffed up, he fall into the condemnation of the devil." This disease was also had by the ruler of Tyre, both the visible one and the invisible one. For we who are pious are ruled truly and really by the God of all; and we are also ruled by men adorned with piety. And Tyre, therefore, now in a manner similar to ours, has both God as king and the men appointed by him to rule. But long ago, sick with ignorance of God and enslaved to impiety, it had as ruler and king the devil, the inventor and teacher alike of evil and impiety; and it also had a visible ruler, who was evilly energized by him and enslaved to ungodliness. To both, therefore, the word is addressed, but not everything fits the one or the other; some things fit both, some one of the two; and the things now read fit each. For the devil also rushed headlong into that madness, and raging, God

He called himself God, and he persuaded men to offer him that worship; and the visible ruler of the Tyrians, having fallen sick with this delusion, and looking to his great prosperity, supposed himself to be God. Therefore God says to him: "But you are a man, and not God." And by way of comparison: 3. Are you wiser than Daniel? Have the wise not instructed you in their knowledge? So far, he says, am I from comparing your works with the divine nature, that I will show them to fall short even of understanding men. For Daniel had both the divine wisdom and also acquired the Chaldean knowledge; but you are both deprived of the divine grace, and have not acquired knowledge from wise men. Then the refutation comes from the facts themselves: 4, 5. Was it in your knowledge, or in your understanding, that you made yourself power, and procured silver and gold in your treasuries? Or in your great knowledge and your trade, did you multiply your power, and was your heart lifted up in your power? By these things, he says, learn from the facts themselves, that it was not from your own wisdom, but from my provision, that you had this trade and the abundance of goods. For when I willed it, I will immediately strip you of all these things, and I will set experience of the facts as your teacher. For if you had this possession from your own wisdom, then having used that same wisdom you would not have been stripped of what you possessed; but being stripped, and becoming destitute of all these things, cast away your foolish reasonings, and know that I both gave these things to you and again took them away. For since when you received them you did not know me, you will learn me by being stripped. 9–10.

Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Because you have given your heart as the heart of God; therefore behold, I bring upon you alien plagues from the nations, and they shall empty their swords upon you, and upon the beauty of your understanding, and they shall spread your beauty out for destruction. And they shall bring you down, and you shall die the death of the wounded in the heart of the sea. Will you say, "I am God," in the presence of those who slay you? But you are a man, and not God, in the hand of those who wound you. You shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised in the hands of aliens, because I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord. When, he says, those hostile men sent by me against you strip you of royal authority, and send you on to death by slaughter, will you not, again puffing yourself up and boasting, call yourself God, as though terrifying them by the divine appellation? But this shall not come to pass as you think; for the change of circumstances will work a change of mind, and you shall learn that you are a man and not God, being wounded and slain, and slaughtered like your uncircumcised subjects. For my decree is strong and irrevocable; for this is what he signified: "Because I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord." These things are fitting also for the avenging demon who wrought wickedness in the visible ruler of the Tyrians; therefore he threatens him with destruction from aliens, and plagues, and nations. Such were formerly those who through the gospel preaching received the change to the knowledge of God.

Therefore also the divine Apostle says, "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, enslaved to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." And God himself through the great Moses says, "They provoked me to jealousy with what is not God, they angered me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with what is not a nation, with a foolish nation I will anger them." Through these, then—the formerly foolish, and senseless, and led astray, and hateful, and pestilent, and alien, and gentile—the prophetic word foretells the destruction of the devil. And one can also find the name of "aliens" applied to the faithful and pious: "For you," he says, "who once were far off, have been brought near." These, he says, with their own swords destroy and make away with the beauty of the devil's assault—that is to say, they shall tear down your devices, and put an end to your plots against men, and uproot from their foundations the shrines made by them for you, and deliver you over to forgetfulness as to a kind of death, having received authority "to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all your power." And through the events themselves you shall learn that you persuaded men in vain that you are God. And these things you shall suffer, because you had an uncircumcised mind, and did not circumcise the grievous passion of your arrogance. 11–13. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation over the prince of Tyre. And say to him: Thus says Adonai the Lord: You are the seal of likeness, full of wisdom, and a crown of beauty.

And you were in the delight of the paradise of God; you were bound with every precious stone: sardius, and topaz, and emerald, and hyacinth, and carbuncle, and sapphire, and jasper, and silver, and gold, and ligurion, and agate, and amethyst, and chrysolite, beryl, and onyx; and you filled your treasuries and your storehouses with gold, from the day you were created. One might take these things by forcing them to apply also to the visible ruler of Tyre; but properly and truly they fit the accursed demon who worked in him. So then, taking these things as referring to the visible ruler of Tyre, we shall understand them thus: "You are the seal of likeness." For man was fashioned according to the divine image, full of wisdom; for he is rational, and honored with reason, and a crown of beauty; for he is better than all irrational creatures, both those that walk and those that fly, those in the water and those that live both on land and in water. "And you were in the delight of the paradise of God." For you derive your race from the forefather, who, as soon as he was formed, was placed in the paradise of delight, to work it and to guard it. And with good reason he also calls Jerusalem, the city named holy and divine, a paradise, since it had the plants of prophecy of God and of the high priesthood, which provide life and salvation. And there was of old a friendship between the king of the Tyrians and the king of the Israelites, and there was also an intermingling between them; and this is easy to learn from the Books of Kings. But the phrase "You were bound with every precious stone" is clear when understood according to the letter, and when taken as referring to the king.

For I adorned you with countless good things, and I brought together for you materials of every kind from every side, from which I fashioned diadems and crowns, brooches and belts, and rings, and filled your treasuries—yet you continued to think the opposite, on account of the abundance and beauty of these things. But we will not understand these things of the devil in this way, but rather the words "You are the seal of likeness" we will take as referring to the rule and authority given to him long ago. For the divine Apostle says: "According to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience." So that it is clear that long ago he was entrusted with the stewardship of this air, but having fallen from his leadership through arrogance, he displays his own activity among those who do not believe the word of the proclamation. "Full of wisdom and a crown of beauty, and you were in the delight of paradise." By these words he hints at his former virtue. For, he says, "God saw all things that he had made, and behold, they were very good." And this one too was among the things that were made, not yet having received the change from his will toward what is worse. And by the stones mentioned, he signifies his wisdom and knowledge of every kind. For the high priest, carrying on his breast the oracle of judgment, which enclosed these same stones, entered into the Holy of Holies; and the breast is, as it were, a treasury and a guard-house of the heart. And all the things that follow suit not the visible ruler of Tyre, but the invisible one. 14. For you were established, he says, with the Cherub, anointed by God who dwells.

For along with those holy and venerable powers, you were deemed worthy both of creation and of anointing; and here he calls anointing the sanctification that is bestowed by the divine Spirit upon the incorporeal and holy powers. "And I placed you on the holy mountain of God; you were in the midst of stones of fire." He calls the holy mountain of God the height of knowledge, and stones of fire the most holy powers; for they possess both what is precious and what is light-bearing. And divine Scripture often knows how to call pious men also holy stones. "For holy stones," it says, "roll upon the earth." But these are holy, yet not of fire. And concerning the powers above, let us hear the divine David saying: "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." None of these things fits the visible prince of the Tyrians, even if some of the contentious, striving in rivalry, should say ten thousand times that the stones of fire are the Jews, and the intercourse of the Tyrians with them; for not even are the Jews stones of fire. And if someone should call the prophets among them stones of fire, not even so will the meaning stand; for the Tyrians had no fellowship with the prophets, living as they did in impiety; but they carried on their commercial dealings with the lowly and humble among the Jews, whom no one of sound mind would dare to call stones of fire—men who transgressed the divine law, and contrary to what seemed good to it made compacts with the Gentiles. But neither is the phrase "I placed you on the holy mountain of God" to be seen as fitting this one.

For he was not living in Jerusalem, so that we might say these things are spoken concerning Mount Zion; and what follows clearly shows this. 15. For you walked, he says, blameless in your days, from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. For such was the devil before his fall. But concerning men we have heard: "No one is pure from defilement, not even if his life on earth be a single day." But this one, being incorporeal, was blameless in the beginning; but since he used his inclination toward the worse, he journeyed on the road diametrically opposite. 16. For from the abundance of your trafficking you filled your treasuries with lawlessness, and you sinned, and you were wounded. For not being satisfied with the wisdom and authority given to you, but lusting after greater things, you became full of lawlessness, and you received the wounds of sin. The prophet Isaiah says these things concerning him: "How has the morning star, which rises early, fallen from heaven? He who sent to all the nations has been crushed to the earth!" For having all as subjects, through the saving cross he fell from his tyranny. Then he recounts his former madness, and his exceeding arrogance: "But you said in your mind: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will place my throne, I will sit on a high mountain upon the high mountains toward the north, I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High." And he calls the mountains toward the north the starting points of evil. For from the north, according to the prophet, evils shall be kindled against all who dwell on the earth.

Having thus stripped bare his vanity, he foretells also his destruction: "But now you shall go down to Hades, to the foundations of the earth." This the divine Ezekiel also is taught by God to say. "For from the mountain of God," he says, "the Cherub that overshadows brought you down from the midst of the stones of fire." At that time, then, the Cherub, when he was deemed worthy to bear the divine glory, separated him from the holy powers, which are indeed also called fiery; but now those who are worthy of the divine ascent through the purity of the soul, in whose hearts are the ascents of God, according to the divine prophet, have received authority to tread him underfoot with their feet. 17. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. Great things, he says, did you think, beholding the good things supplied to you by me. "Your knowledge was corrupted with your beauty." You were stripped, he says, of all things, having abandoned the rank given to you. "Because of the multitude of your sins I cast you down to the earth; I gave you to be made an example before kings." Having practiced great wickedness, he says, you fell from the rank above, and were cast down below, to be laughed at by those who keep the rank given to them, and who know well how to rule the passions within them. 18. Because of the multitude of your sins, and the injustices of your trading, you profaned your sanctification. Let them say, those who

Those who object, what sanctification did the impious king of Tyre have? But they would not be able to show it. This one, however, about whom the discourse now is, when he was one of the holy archangels, was in participation of all holiness; but he himself profaned the sanctification by making a wicked use of his commerce, and desiring more, he also fell away from what had been given. This he also prepared man to suffer. For he too, having been made in the image of God, was led astray by his own glib words and desired to become God, and he lost besides his being the image of God. "And I will bring forth fire from the midst of you." This fits both, both the one who wrought the evil and the king of the Tyrians in whom it was wrought; for both provided the occasions for the punishment brought upon them. Such is what was said through the prophet Isaiah to the Jews: "Behold, all of you kindle fire, and you prevail with a flame; walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled." And here, then, he says: "I will bring forth fire from the midst of you. This shall devour you." That is, I will use your transgressions as fuel for the punishments against you. "And I will give you over to ashes upon your land, in the sight of all who see you." And this fits both. For the man, having fallen in his own land, became dust, and the devil, seeming to rule the inhabited world, having been brought down by God and our Savior, is trodden underfoot by the pious like ashes. 19. And all who know you among the nations shall be gloomy over you.

For those who still persist in your service, seeing the cessation of the idols and their temples utterly destroyed, live in dejection, disheartened, and continually distressed. "You have become a destruction, and you shall exist no more forever." By these words he made clear his complete destruction. Having thus completed the lamentation over Tyre, he moves on to Sidon, which is likewise neighboring, and briefly foretells what will befall it as well. 20–23. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against Sidon, and prophesy against it. And say: Thus says the Lord Adonai: Behold, I am against you, Sidon, and I will be glorified in you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I execute judgments in you, and I will be sanctified in you. And I will send death upon you, and blood in your streets, and they shall fall wounded in your midst by swords in you and round about you, and they shall know that I am the Lord. Since, he says, being in prosperity you did not know me, O Sidon, I will surround you with many and manifold evils, and with famine, and with slaughters of enemies, so that through calamities you may learn my dominion. He also states the causes of the destruction. 24. And there shall no longer be for the house of Israel a pricking thorn of bitterness, and a thorn of grief, from all those round about them who dishonored them, and they shall know that I am the Lord Adonai. These things, he says, I will bring upon Tyre, and upon the foreigners, and upon all those dwelling nearby, so that my people may have neither a pattern of impiety, nor enemies continually attacking them and ceaselessly afflicting them.

Having thus foretold the sorrowful things, he foretells good things to Israel, intensifying those sorrowful things for them; for being hostilely disposed, they made Israel's prosperity an occasion of pain. 25–20. Thus says Adonai the Lord: And I will gather the house of Israel from the nations where they were scattered, and I will be sanctified among them before the peoples and the nations, and they shall dwell upon their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell in it in hope, and shall build houses, and shall plant vineyards, and shall dwell in hope, when I execute judgments among all those who dishonored them in their surroundings, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, and the God of their fathers. God, the ruler of all things, does not discipline all who sin in the same way, but those who are his own he treats as a physician, and the others as a judge. Therefore the prophet also, praying, said: "Discipline us, O Lord, but in judgment, and not in wrath.

The same thing, indeed, the blessed David also asked: "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath." This same distinction can also be seen in the things recently interpreted. For to the others, for a time, he promised nothing good; but to Israel, restoration, and reconciliation, and the building of houses, and the tilling of the soil, and the planting of trees, and the hope of good things, and the sum of all good things, the divine knowledge. For when these things have come to pass, he says, "they shall know that I am the Lord even of them, and the God of their fathers." May it be granted to us also to have this knowledge continually, so that we may love him with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with our whole strength, and with our whole might, not dividing our affection, but dedicating it wholly there, so that we may breathe him in, and carry about an unquenchable remembrance of him, both sitting and rising up, and lying down, and walking on the way; for thus we shall also continually enjoy his providence, and obtain the good things promised, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father be the glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Volume 12.

CHAPTER 29 1, 2. In the tenth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against the king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and speak against all Egypt. Having brought the prophecies concerning Tyre to an end, he transfers his discourse to Egypt. 3. And say: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the dragon that sits in the midst of the rivers, and says: The rivers are mine, and I made them. Some of the interpreters spoke of the river in the singular, but the Seventy in the plural; and both are true: for the Nile is one, but its channels are very many, and each channel is called a river by the inhabitants. He reproves, then, the arrogance of Pharaoh, and shows him boasting greatly over the rivers, as though they had been made by him. And he calls him a dragon, because of his tyrannical and god-opposing nature. For thus the divine Scripture also addresses the devil: "For on that day, it says, God will bring the holy, and great, and strong sword against the dragon, the serpent," and the rest. 4–5. And I will put a bridle in your jaws, and I will stick the fish of your river to your wings, and I will bring you up out of the midst of your river, and all the fish of your river, and they shall stick to your scales. And I will cast you into the desert, and all the fish of your river, and I will cast you down quickly, and all the fish of your river.

You shall fall upon the face of the field, and you shall not be gathered, and you shall not be wrapped up; I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of heaven. And all who dwell in Egypt shall know that I am the Lord. The threats are fearful and full of horror; for he threatened to deliver not only him but also his subjects to slaughter; for he called the subjects fish that cling together. And just as in the case of Tyre he took the starting points of the allegory from the sea (for the city is by the sea), so here he has used the figure from a river. And he called his scales and wings the rule and the authority, in which those who were ruled necessarily shared the punishment of the king. And through the bridle he hinted sufficiently at the prancings that came before the bridle. And he threatened to send some as captives into a desert land, and to deliver others to slaughter, and to leave them as food for the beasts. And he adds the cause: Because you became a staff of reed to the house of Israel. (7.) When they took hold of you with their hands, and you were crushed, and when

Every hand clapped against them, and when they rested upon you, you were broken, and you shattered all their loins. To Tyre, then, and to the foreigners, concerning whom we have spoken above, he threatened to bring disasters, because they rejoiced at what had befallen Israel; but to Egypt he does not reproach this, but quite the opposite—that having caused the people to take courage in the help that came from her, she stripped him of divine providence, and profited him nothing by her own assistance. For this he indicated through the rod of reed, broken through weakness and shattered. Thus also Sennacherib in Isaiah named the help of the Egyptians: "For he has trusted," he says, "in the rod of reed, the broken one, upon Egypt; as when a man leans upon it, it will enter into his hand; so is the king of Egypt, and all who have trusted in him." This he also said here: "They took hold of you with their hand, you were broken, and every hand clapped against them." They became, he says, ridiculous and a cause of rejoicing to their enemies, shattered and defeated in the manner of a rod of reed. 8, 9. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy men from you, and cattle. And Egypt shall become a destruction and a desolation, and they shall know that I am the Lord. But since, being proud and promising help to others, you shall learn by experience that you will not be able even to defend your own land, when I bring punishment upon you; and my people shall recognize my dominion.

Then again, reminding them of their arrogant words, he says, "For you said, 'The rivers are mine, and I made them.'" He threatens Egypt with desolation—not all of it, but from Magdol and Syene as far as the borders of the Ethiopians, and not even for those cities a perpetual desolation, but for a certain time. 10–12. Therefore behold, I am against you, and against all your rivers, and I will give the land of Egypt to desolation, and sword, and destruction, from Magdol and Syene, and as far as the borders of the Ethiopians. No foot of man, he says, shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it, and they shall not be inhabited for forty years. And I will give its land to destruction in the midst of a desolated land, and its cities shall be in the midst of desolated cities, invisible for forty years; and I will scatter Egypt among the nations, and I will winnow them in the countries. Ineffable is the philanthropy of God, bringing punishments with a certain measure and weight, and again healing those who are struck; for his is the voice: "I will kill and make alive; I will strike, and I will heal." Here, then, he threatens the Egyptians with captivity, and dispersion, and desolation, but he limits the desolation to a short time. For forty years, he says, it shall be untrodden, and not all Egypt, but from Magdol and Syene as far as the borders of the Ethiopians, and he immediately promises the return. 13–14. For after forty years, he says, I will gather the Egyptians from the nations where they were scattered. And I will turn back the captivity of the Egyptians, and I will settle them in the land of Pathoures, in the land from which they were taken.

Having thus promised release from captivity, he also foretells the future smallness of that kingdom. 15. For he says, "And there shall be a lowly rule there, compared with all the rules, and it shall be the lowliest, so as not to be exalted any more over the nations, and I will make them few in number, so that they may not be more numerous among the nations." The facts bear witness to the truth of the prophecy. For the kingdom of the Egyptians, having been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, flourished again under Cyrus the Persian, but did not recover its former dominion. For after no long time, Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, having destroyed it again, made it subject and compelled it to pay tribute; and later it also received Macedonian kings, the Egyptians having ceased entirely to have kings. 16. "And they shall no longer be for the house of Israel a hope that brings iniquity to remembrance, in that they went after them, and they shall know that I am the Lord." For in this way, he says, I will diminish the kingdom of the Egyptians, so that my people may no longer trust in their help and take from them occasions of impiety, but may seek my providence; for they shall learn my lordship. 17, 18. And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great servitude against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, and there was no wages for him, nor for his army, for Tyre, nor for the servitude which he served against it.

He had foretold those things in the fourth year of Jeconiah's captivity, or the twelfth; for thus both the Hebrew and the Syrian say. But these things in the twenty-seventh year after the capture of Tyre and the long siege, on account of which he says that every head became bald and every shoulder shaved. For dwelling in the open air is accustomed to produce such things, the scorching heat often stripping the bare parts of the body's limbs exposed to it. And he promises to give Nabuchodonosor Egypt as his wages, for the labors that had occurred around the siege of Tyre; not because he did this by design, serving the divine counsel (for using his own impulse he campaigned against all these nations), but through these things he indicates that nothing will happen without his will. "For," he says, "are not two sparrows sold for an assarion, and one of them will not fall apart from your Father in the heavens?" For nothing that happens escapes him; but some things he directs himself, and others he permits to happen, now yielding to the free will of men, now permitting the worthy to be punished through others. Wishing, then, to show that it was by his permission that Nabuchodonosor received this power, he promises also to give him wages for the siege of the Tyrians—the enslavement of the Egyptians. 19, 20. Thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I give to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon the land of Egypt, and he shall take its multitude, and he shall despoil its spoils, and he shall plunder its plunder, and it shall be wages for his army.

Instead of his service, with which he served against Tyre, I have given him the land of Egypt, in return for all that he did. Again he has said the same things, confirming the prediction by repetition and a second declaration: Thus says Adonai the Lord: (21.) In that day a horn shall spring up for the whole house of Israel, and to you I will give an opened mouth in their midst, and they shall know that I am the Lord. Scripture sometimes calls piety a horn, sometimes power, sometimes kingship; and he has used "a horn shall spring up" from the metaphor of calves, which are weak before the growth of their horns, but after their increase receive much strength. When Egypt, then, he says, is destroyed, my people shall flourish and shall acquire piety, having no teacher of wickedness; and they shall also submit their hearing to the prophetic words, having learned my dominion. For this is what he indicated by saying, "And to you I will give an opened mouth in their midst"; for through Ezekiel he signified the whole prophetic choir.

CHAPTER 40 1–3. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, prophesy and say: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Wail, alas, alas the day. For the day of the Lord is near, and the day of a cloud draws near, and it shall be a time of the nations. Through all that has been said he strikes terror, urging them to lament and mourn. He calls the time of punishment a day; and a cloud, the darkness that comes upon souls from the calamity; and he called the time of the nations the punishment brought upon the nations. For not only, he says, shall my people fall into these evils, but the nations also shall pay the penalty for their impiety. 4–5. And a sword shall come upon the Egyptians, and there shall be turmoil in Ethiopia, and the wounded shall fall in Egypt, and their multitude shall be taken, and its foundations shall collapse. And the Persians shall be seized, and the Cretans, and the Libyans, and the Ethiopians, and the Lydians, and all Arabia, and all the mixed peoples, and some of the sons of my covenant among them shall fall by the sword with it. What befalls Egypt, he says, will bring confusion also to Ethiopia; for being a neighbor, it will be in anguish lest it suffer the same things. Then he recounts the allies of the Egyptians being slain together with the Egyptians—Cretans, and Libyans, and Ethiopians, and Lydians, and Arabians. And Greek histories also teach the alliance of the Lydians and Egyptians. But by Persians he does not mean those who came from Persis to bring them aid; for how could it be possible, when the Assyrians and Chaldeans were warring against them, for them to have Persians as allies?

But those who were once long ago deported from there, and had become resident aliens in Egypt. And they say that the Egyptian Babylon was for this reason given the same name as the Persian one, since Persians had settled it. He calls the Jews themselves sons of the covenant—those who, after the siege of Jerusalem, went down into Egypt, taking the prophet Jeremiah with them. And to these likewise he threatens punishment, because against his purpose they abandoned Judea and arrived in Egypt. These things were also spoken through Jeremiah the prophet: "For all the remnant of Judah, who dwell in the land of Egypt, shall know," he says, "whose word shall stand, mine or theirs; and this shall be your sign, says the Lord: Behold, I give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt as a deliverable into the hands of those seeking his life, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and one seeking his life." The things foretold by the divine prophets agree with one another, then; for they are the words of one Spirit. Thus again, having previously foretold the desolation of Egypt with its definition, and having called the Assyrian king fire, he adds: 9. In that day messengers shall go forth from my presence in Seim, hastening to destroy Ethiopia, the hope; and there shall be confusion for them in the day of Egypt, because behold, it has come. —He called Ethiopia "hope," because the Egyptians trusted in their help; and Seim in the Greek tongue means "in strength.

But these things, he says, while the Egyptians endure, the Ethiopians their allies will be thrown into confusion, not only because of the evils that have befallen them, but also because of the calamities that will overtake them, through certain angels sent by me and hastening to fulfill what has been commanded. 10–12. Thus says Adonai the Lord: And I will destroy the multitude of the Egyptians by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his own and his people with him; plagues sent from the nations to destroy the land; and they shall empty all their swords against Egypt, and the land shall be filled with the wounded. And I will make their rivers desolate, and I will give the land into the hands of wicked men, and I will destroy the land and its fullness, into the hands of strangers; I the Lord have spoken. To the Babylonians, he says, the cruellest of all the nations, I will hand over Egypt, so that their whole land may be filled with slaughters, and their rivers become desolate of their inhabitants. And the phrase, "I will give the land into the hands of wicked men," he has set down in place of "I will hand over." And this too fits with what has been said before; for he said that he would give Nebuchadnezzar as wages the enslavement of Egypt, in return for the labors that came to him in the siege of Tyre. Then he foretells that their abominations, that is, the idols full of abomination, will be overthrown by the enemies. 13. And the princes of Memphis shall cease. At that time, those entrusted with the reins of Egypt

...nor. And fear will fall upon all the Egyptians, when Tanis is set on fire, and Diospolis undergoes utter destruction; and when the most powerful city of the Saïtes falls into the most grievous calamities; and, to put it simply, when the enemies, like fire, divide up all Egypt, so that even Syene, which lies in the innermost region, receives the tumult from them. And he has sufficiently indicated the sudden onset, having said: "There shall be wars in Memphis on the same day"; for at the same time as the report, the battle will also take place. And the phrase, "In Diospolis there shall be a breach, and waters shall be poured out," hints at the destruction of the walls and the entrance of the enemies, flowing in like waters and spreading into all its streets and houses. To these things he has added: 17. That the young men of Heliopolis and Bubastus shall fall by the sword. And it is clear that even in these they took great pride, as being the bravest and most powerful; but also "The women," he says, "shall go into captivity." Then he adds: 18. That even in Taphnis the day shall grow dark. Signifying the darkness that comes from calamities. And he has signified this same thing again, having said: "And a cloud shall cover it." For those who fall into evils do not see the light in the same way, but regard the day as more gloomy than all darkness. Then he has made clear the purpose of these events. 19. And I will execute judgments in Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. For all these things, he says, I will permit to happen, so that even the Egyptians may learn not to be proud on their own account, but to acknowledge my dominion. 20.

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying. This same form is also found in Jeremiah the prophet; for he too sets down the times in scattered fashion, and having first set forth the things that happened under Zedekiah, who reigned last, he again recounts the events concerning Jehoiakim, who held the kingship before him. The reason for this is that they do not simply write history, but prophecies that came to pass at certain times. And necessarily and very fittingly he has now made mention of this time. For since he had threatened Egypt with so great a cloud of calamities in the twenty-seventh year, he teaches us the justice of the punishment. For in the eleventh year, he says, the Lord said to me: (21.) Son of man, I have broken the arms of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold, they were not bound up to give him healing, to apply a poultice to him, to bind him up, and to strengthen him, and to take hold of a sword. Thrice, he says, I brought punishment upon him, and he did not wish to use the medicines of repentance so as again to take hold of his former dominion. 22–24. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and I will crush his arms, both the strong and the outstretched, and the already crushed, and I will cast down his sword from his hand. And I will scatter Egypt among the nations, and I will winnow them into the countries. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon.

For since he was unwilling to be disciplined by moderate corrections, I will subject him to the greatest punishments, and I will strip him of all his strength, so that he cannot even use the instruments of war; but I will fill the Babylonian with all strength and power. For through the arms, both in the case of the Egyptian and in the case of the Babylonian, he indicated power; since it is through the arms that the works of war naturally operate, "And I will give," he says, "my sword into his hand; and he shall bring it against Egypt, and shall plunder her plunder, and shall despoil her spoils." I, he says, will deliver to him the punitive action, so as to do all the things previously spoken against Egypt. And these things he has added again, confirming the former by repetition. Therefore, as being clear and made evident from what has been previously interpreted, I have left them uninterpreted. CHAPTER 31. 1, 2. And it came to pass in the tenth year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: To whom have you likened yourself in your height? Since he was unwilling to make proper use of long-suffering, but persisted in vanity and arrogance, he brings these words to him in the form of a question. Speak, he says, O king of Egypt: to what do you compare yourself? And to whom among kings do you think you are like, that you have used such great pride? Then he adds: 3. Behold, Assyria is a cypress in Lebanon, beautiful in its branches, and tall in stature, and dense in its shade, and his rule came to be in the midst of the clouds.

Again he has used the figurative character, and says that the king of the Assyrians is like the cypress that grows in Lebanon, both in the greatness of its height, and in the dense and far-spreading multitude of his subjects, and in the comeliness of his governors and generals; for these he called offshoots. And the phrase, "His rule came into the midst of the clouds," he has set down not only hyperbolically according to the idiom of men (for many are accustomed to say, "So-and-so was exalted as far as the clouds"), but he has also revealed the arrogance of his thoughts; for it is his voice: "I will ascend above the clouds, above the stars of heaven I will set my throne;" and this can be learned from the divine Scripture from every side. For Sennacherib cried out, "The Lord will not deliver Jerusalem out of my hand;" and Nebuchadnezzar, having made a golden image, commanded all his subjects, both rulers and ruled, to worship it. Here, therefore, he has also made known his haughty mind through riddles. To these things he adds: 4. Water nourished him, the abyss exalted him, it led its rivers round about his plants, and it sent forth its gatherings into all the trees of the plain. And by water and abyss he has named the countless nations enslaved by him, which, bringing tribute and tax to his army as it were a watering, nourished them like plants, and prepared its gatherings, that is, the military companies, to be sent forth into all the trees of the plain, instead of, those not yet subdued nor enslaved, so that these also might become subject. 5.

For this reason his size was exalted above all the trees of the plain, and from there his branches were widened, and his shoots were lifted up by much water when he stretched out. This, he says, became the cause for him both of his boastfulness and of his arrogance; for receiving irrigation from countless nations, he grew together with his shoots. 5. In his shoots, he says, all the birds of heaven nested. By this he indicated the more rational among men, and as it were the winged. "And under his branches all the beasts of the field gave birth." By these he signified the barbarous among the nations, being beast-like and low-minded in soul; and he himself also interpreted this, having said: "In his shadow dwelt a multitude of nations." And what he said above in a divided and figurative manner, this he has added here in a common and clear manner. And his shadow, and shoots, and branches, he called not only governors and generals, but also the satraps who ruled over the nations, to whom their subjects continually remained in servitude. These things Nabuchodonosor himself also saw in a dream, and the blessed Daniel interpreted the dream of the tree. 7. And there was, he says, beauty in his height because of the multitude of his branches. And the blessed Daniel also teaches us the matter of the multitude, having said that Dareios, who succeeded to the kingdom of Baltasar, had a hundred and twenty satraps. Then he also teaches the cause of the multitude: "Because his roots became much water." For everywhere, he says,

Having stretched out his roots and received abundant watering, he nourished these branches. And continuing with the figurative language, he says in the eighth place: "The cypress," he says, "did not surpass him in the paradise of God." For no one, he says, of those reigning over the inhabited world at that time became more conspicuous than he; for here he called the inhabited world a paradise, since for the present he speaks all things figuratively. "And the pines," he says, "were not like his branches, and the firs were not made like his shoots." For not only did he himself, he says, become more conspicuous than the other kings, but also his branches and shoots surpassed by a great measure, both in height and in density, the kings of the other nations. And by "pines" and "firs" he figuratively called the kings of lesser nations, over whom he set satraps, who compelled them to obey. He says, then, that he became greater than the greatest kings; and than the lesser ones, not only he himself, but also his rulers became more powerful and more conspicuous. Then concisely: "Every tree in the paradise of God was not likened to him in his beauty," (ninth,) "because of the multitude of his branches." And by "beauty" he means the visible, that which pertains to the body—purple robes, crowns, thrones studded with gems, spear-bearers, shield-bearers, and all the other things that are able to make kings splendid in visible appearance. He says, then, that no one of those who reigned over the earth at that time was made equal to him; and he adds that he also became an object of emulation to all those.

For," he says, "all the trees of the delight of the paradise of God envied him." Then he lays bare the vanity of his soul: 10, 11. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Because he became great in size, and set his rule in the midst of the clouds, and his heart was lifted up in his height, and I saw when he was exalted. And I delivered him into the hands of the ruler of the nations, and he wrought his destruction according to his impiety. For since, he says, he was not satisfied with dominion over men, but also used arrogance against me, "I delivered him," he says, "into the hands of the ruler of the nations." He means Cyrus; for he, being a Mede on his mother's side and a Persian on his father's side, and coming from two nations, overthrew the kingdom of the Assyrians and Babylonians. "And he wrought," he says, "his destruction according to his impiety;" for, he says, he suffered what was worthy of the lawless deeds he committed. According to the history, then, these things happened to Nebuchadnezzar, who was sick with such cruelty and arrogance together with impiety.

But if anyone wishes to understand precisely, he will find that the common avenger of men, the hostile and warlike devil of God, is also indicated by these words—he who, created good and noble, equal to the principal powers and more illustrious than those beneath him (for he called the paradise of delight and the trees in it, according to the laws of allegory, the incorporeal natures), raged against his Maker who had given him both such beauty and such power, and, meditating tyranny and dreaming that he would be God, fell away. The blessed Paul also hints at this, saying, "Not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil." For not knowing how to use honor as he ought, he will suffer the same as the devil, who made the honor given to him an occasion of arrogance and pride. He says that this one "will be delivered to the ruler of the nations." And who is this ruler of the nations but the only-begotten Word of God, the Lord Christ, to whom the prophet says: "Who will not fear you, king of the nations?" And the blessed Jacob: "A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes to whom it is reserved, and he is the expectation of the nations." Isaiah also cries out these things: "For there shall be," he says, "the root of Jesse, and the one who rises to rule the nations; in him shall the nations hope." And the Father to him: "I have given you as a covenant of a people, as a light of the nations, that you may be for salvation to the ends of the earth." And the same prophet again to him: "Egypt has labored,

And the trade of the Ethiopians and the Sabeans, lofty men, shall come up against you, and they shall be servants to you; they shall follow after you bound with handcuffs, and they shall pray in you, because God is in you, and there is no God besides you, and so on. And he himself says through the blessed David: "A people whom I did not know served me." And one can find countless other testimonies teaching this same thing. To this one, then, he says the common avenger and enemy was handed over, and by this one his destruction came about according to his impiety. To these things he adds: And I cast him out. (12) And alien plagues from the nations utterly destroyed him, and they cast him down upon the mountains. For when the Lord had conquered him and had put him outside of dominion and tyranny, the plagues of old, and those alien to God from the nations, having believed the divine proclamation, utterly destroyed him and tore up his tyranny by the root, and cast him down upon the mountains, where previously he had his sanctuaries and altars, setting up the pillars of philosophy. "And in all the valleys his branches fell, and his stems were shattered in every plain of the earth." By his branches and stems he called the manifold idols, which received from him the occasions of their establishment, and these, from the mountains and from the plains, were shown to be utterly gone through the plagues of old and afterward through the faithful nations.

And all the peoples of the earth went down from his shelter, and they brought him down to the ground. For when they recognized his deceit, they not only fled from his dominion, but they brought him down even to the ground itself, fulfilling the Lord's commandment which says: "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy." 13. At his fall all the birds of heaven rested, and upon his branches all the beasts of the field came to be. For if any bird, says he, having the eye of the mind toward heaven, rejoices to behold his destruction and the stripping bare of his impiety. And those who were formerly beast-like shall rush against his branches, and with their own hands shall tear down the precincts of the idols; for these he called branches. 14. So that all the trees that are by the water may not be exalted in their greatness, and may not give their rule in the midst of the clouds, and those who drink water may not stand in their height against him. His destruction, says he, and the overthrow of his dominion, shall be a benefit to others, and an occasion of safety; for seeing what has befallen him, they will not endure to employ a disposition beyond their worth; nor will they attempt to seize a rule that is in no way fitting, taking as provision for tyranny, as it were some irrigation, the honor supplied to them by me. "Because all were given over to death." For not only the devil himself, but also the demons who shared his tyranny, underwent utter destruction. But it is time again to return to the history.

For what has been said is sufficient to teach that these words were spoken not only about Nebuchadnezzar, but also about the one who worked in him and taught him his own arrogance. He says, then, that Nebuchadnezzar himself, and those with him, will be handed over to death, to suffer the same things as other men. "Into the land of depth," he says, "in the midst of the sons of men, when they are brought down into the pit." To these things he adds: 15. Thus says Adonai the Lord: In the day when he was brought down to Hades, the abyss mourned for him, it covered him and set its rivers over him, it restrained the multitude of water. — He called the abyss the subject nations, which campaigned with him, mourning not his slaughter, but their own defeat and destruction. For that they were not mourning for him, he sufficiently indicated by saying: "It restrained the multitude of water" — that is, It will no longer endure to send you the tribute. "Lebanon is darkened over him, all the trees of the plain are loosened over him." He does not call the mountain Lebanon, but the density of the kingdom, and the trees of the plain, those rulers under him, the lesser of the governors, and as it were planted in a certain plain. He means the satraps, those subject to the governors and generals; and those planted in Lebanon, the greater rulers. Just as, therefore, we do not understand Lebanon here as Lebanon, nor the plain as the plain, nor the trees as the trees, so neither do we understand the paradise of delight as the paradise called of God, but in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdoms of the inhabited world, and in the case of the devil, the intelligible and incorporeal powers. 10.

From the sound of his fall, he says, the nations were shaken, when they were bringing him down to Hades with those who go down into the pit. And this has happened in both cases. For when the king of the Babylonians was slain, the report, running everywhere, threw the subject nations into confusion; and when the devil was destroyed, the nations were shaken and were transferred from their former deception to the truth of the saving doctrines. For indeed the blessed Paul calls the transfer a shaking. And they comforted him, he says, in the nether land, all the trees of delight, and the chosen ones, and the fairest of Lebanon, all that drink water. (17.) For these too were brought down with him to Hades, with the slain by the sword. But the nether land, and the pit, and the dungeon, in the case of Nebuchadnezzar he calls death; in the case of the devil, the utmost humiliation. He says, then, that those who exercise power alongside them in destruction will share in these things and those; for when a kingdom is dissolved, the principalities that are subject to it must necessarily receive the change. And the phrase "They will comfort him" has been said from what happens among us; for somehow the fellowship of misfortunes naturally offers some consolation to the despondent.

Not only, he says, will those under him, the rulers appointed by him, be destroyed, but also "his seed, those who dwell under his shelter, perished in the midst of their life." For Belshazzar, being seed and son of Nebuchadnezzar, was not permitted, because of his great impiety, to reach old age, but when the time appointed for men was already at its midpoint, he was handed over to slaughter. But in the case of the devil, "seed" should be understood as the teaching of impiety sown by him, since both it and those who strive to fight in its defense will be utterly destroyed. Then he turns his discourse to him. 18. To whom were you likened in power, and in glory, and in greatness, among the trees of delight? Come down, and be brought down with the trees of delight to the depth of the earth. For since, he says, you did not wish to be likened to the trees planted together with you, but to the planter, with these trees, those who have thought the same things as you, I command you to be cast down, and to be cast down to the depth of the earth. And this, then, fits both. To these he adds: "In the midst of the uncircumcised you shall sleep with those wounded by the sword." By "uncircumcised" he speaks not of the body but of the heart; for not only the New but also the Old Scripture knows a circumcision of the heart; and God says this through the prophet: "For all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but the house of Israel is uncircumcised in their heart." Since, therefore, you were unwilling to circumcise your arrogance, but the excess of arrogance remained in you, you will suffer the same things as those who have done these things. Then he completes the thought.

Thus Pharaoh, and all the multitude of his strength, says the Lord Adonai." For having said above, "To whom have you likened yourself in your height?" and having recounted the things concerning the Assyrian, that is, the Babylonian, he added: "Thus Pharaoh and all the multitude of his strength." For if that one, he says, who is much greater and more illustrious than you, will suffer these things, wait also yourself for the same punishment, having the same impiety. CHAPTER 32. 1, 2. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him: You have been likened to a lion of the nations, and as a dragon that is in the sea, and you were butting with your rivers, and you were troubling the water with your feet, and you were trampling your rivers. And again he accuses his arrogance and pride, and says that he has emulated the haughtiness of the dragon in the sea. And we have been taught that this is the devil, who once long ago dwelt among the nations in a bitter and salty disposition. And Isaiah also says that God will bring the holy sword against the dragon that is in the sea; and he says that he attempted to be likened also to a lion; and we have learned that the Lord is the lion reigning over the nations: "For having lain down, he says, he rested, as a lion and as a cub, who will rouse him?" He says, then:

Because you were rash enough to liken yourself to the lion of the nations, in like manner to the dragon in the sea, and you took up a boastful mind against the God of all things, trusting in the river and its channels, as though you had no need of clouds, nor rain, nor the providence and care from above, but using your feet, and troubling the water, and channeling it for irrigation; for this reason, he says: 3. I will cast my nets upon you in the assembly of many peoples, and I will bring you up with my hook. Fittingly and very appropriately to the river he mentioned hook and nets; and he explained these things too by saying, "In the assembly of many peoples." For as if by some net, by the army of the enemies, and as if by some hook, by my will I will catch you and hunt you, like a fish. 4–5. And I will stretch you out, he says, upon the earth, and the plains shall be filled with you, and all the birds of heaven shall settle upon you, and I will fill all the beasts of the earth from your midst. And I will give your flesh upon the mountains, and I will fill the plains from your blood. And the earth shall be watered from your outflows upon the mountains, and I will fill the valleys from you. When, he says, you are caught by the enemies and slain, you will remain unburied, and you will fill the bellies of the beasts and of the birds; and the streams of blood, and the ichors of putrefaction—for these he called outflows—will fill both the plains and the mountains. 7–8. And I will cover the heaven when you are extinguished, and I will darken its stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not appear with her light.

I will darken all the luminaries of heaven over you, and I will give darkness upon your land, says Adonai the Lord. He does not say that these things have come about by nature, but by the disposition of those who are grieved; for those who are in calamities suppose the day to be more lightless than night. And teaching this, he said: "And I will give darkness upon your land"—not upon all the land. But if someone says that darkness truly came about in Egypt at the time of the war, God showing that he himself used the Babylonians for the punishment of the Egyptians, he will not err from the pious understanding. 9, 10. And I will provoke the heart of many peoples, whenever I lead away your captivity among the nations, into a land which you did not know. And many nations shall be appalled at you, and their kings shall stand in amazement, when I draw my sword before their face, awaiting their own fall from the day of your fall. When your captivity comes to pass, he says, those who remember your former recklessness will appear merciless toward you; but others will lament and be grieved, inferring from the evils that have befallen you the evils that will overtake them. Then he teaches that the expedition of the Babylonians will come having certain champions as foremost fighters; for these he called giants. And since they are more savage than all the nations, he says, O Egypt, they will exact punishment for your arrogance; for this he called hubris; for the boaster is a man of hubris. And he says that the

They will destroy their strength, and they will lead them away as captives, and they will plunder their cattle, and for a long time the stream of the river will remain undisturbed, with neither cattle nor man troubling it, because of the desolation that has come about from the captivity; and because, when the channels have ceased to be diverted this way and that, they will go, he says, like oil, that is, quietly and gently, with nothing standing in the way. And these things, he says, will be, when desolation has overtaken it and its inhabitants have been led away captive. "And they will know, he says, that I am the Lord." For by the experience of evils they will be taught their own worthlessness, and they will recognize my dominion. Then he says that also the daughters of the nations [he means the cities and the villages] will lament for him, over Egypt and over all its strength, they will lament for him, says Adonai the Lord. Not only, he says, will the nation of the Egyptians, but the cities of the other nations will also lament for their king, reckoning up his former prosperity and seeing the change that has suddenly come about. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, lament over the strength of Egypt, and, bowing him down, drag him along. By the word, he says, of the prophecy, bending him aside from his station and dragging him away from his royal thrones, bring him down.

And they will bring down her daughters, the nations, dead into the depth of the earth, to those who go down into the pit. Again he calls cities and villages her daughters, which he says will be handed over to death; for he named death a pit, having taken the designation from the grave. 19. From pleasant waters come down, and sleep with the uncircumcised. She who of old, he says, reveled in the river waters, and received beauty from the fruits that grow from them, but did not circumcise the impiety of her heart—share in the slaughter with those like you. Then again, having said the same things, he added: 21. And the giants who are in the depth of the pit will say to you: Become—for whom are you better? Come down, sleep with the uncircumcised in the midst of those wounded by the sword. The blessed Isaiah also says these things about the Babylonian: And the rulers who are from of old will say to you: And you too have been taken, just as we also were; and you were counted among us; your glory has gone down to Hades, and your great gladness; beneath you they will spread rottenness, and your covering a worm. And here too he says: Those who have become illustrious in power will say to you, and those who died long ago; for these he called giants: Become, that is, dead like us; for whom are you better, that you try to be immortal? Come down, therefore, and receive the end of life, and receive a slaughter like that of those who have dared the same things as you; then he speaks of those who have become notable in power. 22, 23. There is Asshur, and all his gathering; all are wounded, there they were given.

And their burial is in the depth of the pit, and his assembly has been gathered around his grave. Who, he says, became much-famed, as the king of the Assyrians? But nevertheless, he says, even this one received the end of his life, and all his army has shared in his death. "All the wounded who have fallen by the sword, who gave their burials in the thighs of the pit." He has named the form of the tombs in this way; for the tombs are elongated, and resemble thighs. "And an assembly has been gathered around his burial, all the wounded falling by the sword." For together with their king they too likewise received the slaughter, and beside his tomb they were handed over to slaughter. And these things, he says, men suffered, "who saw their fear upon the land of life." But nevertheless all those who terrify and intimidate will receive, he says, their shame together with those who go down into the pit; for stripped of that glory, they will end their life with shame, receiving slaughter like those slain by them. Then he speaks of the tombs according to the nation. 24. There is Elam and all its power

around his grave, and all his multitude, and all the wounded who have fallen by the sword, and those who have gone down uncircumcised into the depth of the earth. It was a custom among the nations in wars for graves to be made; for their kinsmen, gathering their own people together, delivered them to one burial. This, then, he has shown here that the nation of Elam did; and this is near to the Assyrians. And he teaches that they also received death uncircumcised, in no way having been freed from their impiety. Then again, having said that those who were formerly feared by all received their own torment, and died similarly to the others, he added: 25. Each one's burial is around him, of all uncircumcised wounded by the sword. And he speaks of the other nations that received this slaughter. 20. There were given Mosoch and Thobel. And the Iberians are called Thobel, and the Cappadocians Mosoch. And again, having said the same things that he also said about the Elamites, he added: 27. And they placed their swords under their heads. For the weapons are superfluous, since those who used them have been slain. And he also states the cause of the slaughter: "And their lawless deeds came upon their bones." They paid the penalty, he says, for their impiety. Then he also indicates the form of their impiety: "Because giants terrified in their life, and they became a fear of the powerful in the land of the living." For with so much, he says, did they employ cruelty and boldness, as to impose fear on all, not only on the lowly, but also on those who pride themselves on strength and power. Therefore, he says, you also received a slaughter similar to those slain by you.

These things they also endured, as did the other nations. 29. For there is Edom, and her kings, and all her rulers, who gave their strength to wounds of the sword. That is, those who used their strength for bloodshed. And having shown these too slain in like manner, he added likewise: 30. There are all the rulers of the north, all of them, all the generals of Asshur, who were brought down with the wounded along with their fear. "For his spirit shall go forth, and return to his dust, as the divine David says: in that day all his thoughts shall perish." This God also said here: "Who were brought down with the wounded along with their fear;" for with death the fear of dominion was also dissolved. "Being defeated," he says, "from their strength," that is, they became stripped and destitute of strength. "Being ashamed they slept uncircumcised." For nothing so fills one with shame as the accusation of an evil conscience. And again he called uncircumcised those who do not circumcise the excesses of sin. Then, having said that they received their torment with those who go down into the pit, that is, their punishment, he added: 31, 32. Pharaoh king shall see them, and shall be comforted over all their strength, wounded by the sword of Pharaoh, and all his power, says Adonai Lord; Because he gave his fear upon the land of the living, and he shall sleep in the midst of the uncircumcised, wounded by the sword of Pharaoh, and all his multitude, says Adonai Lord.

For, he says, when Pharaoh sees that those men have become greater and far more powerful, he will receive some consolation, and with him his subjects; yet he will nonetheless pay the penalty for his impiety, because, having laid great fear upon his subjects, he himself did not receive my law, but left his soul uncircumcised. For this reason, together with such men, both he himself and those who have thought the same things as he will receive slaughter along with those who have lived in like manner to him. Having therefore learned these things, and having come to know through the divine oracles what sort of penalties those who have an uncircumcised soul pay, let us receive, I beseech you, the circumcision made without hands of the all-holy Spirit, concerning which the blessed Paul says: "And circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." And we have been taught that the circumcision of the heart is the removal of sin and the excision of the evil motions of the mind. And teaching this, the Master said: "If your right eye causes you to stumble, cut it out and cast it from you." And concerning the hand and the foot he has said the same and added: "It is profitable for you that one of your members perish, and not your whole body be cast into Gehenna." And here he called the activities of the members "members," which it is fitting to circumcise and cut off, and to purify the rational part, and to dedicate and consecrate the whole to the divine laws. For thus we shall become strangers to fellowship with the adversary, and we shall receive our own Master and Benefactor as a dweller within us, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. Volume 13.

CHAPTER 33 1, 2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the sons of your people. God, being gracious, calls the people his own people; but turning away from them because of their transgressions, he no longer uses the name of kinship. This can also be seen to have happened in the case of the great Moses. For before the transgression he said to Pharaoh: "Send out my people, so that they may serve me"; but after the worship of the calf, he says to Moses: "Hurry, go down quickly from here, for your people has acted lawlessly." So then, in the same way here too, he calls the people not his own, but the prophet's. And you shall say to them: O land, upon which I bring a sword, and the people of the land take one man from among them, and set him for themselves as a watchman; (3–5.) and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and sounds the trumpet, and signals to the people; and the one who hears the sound of the trumpet hears it, and does not keep watch, and the sword comes and overtakes him, his blood shall be upon his own head. Because he heard the sound of the trumpet and did not keep watch, his blood shall be upon him. He calls war a sword, and the watchman a lookout; and the word teaches us that he himself provides peace to men through his goodness, but permits war to come about because of men's transgressions, which draw upon themselves grievous things.

If, then, he says, when war is made against some city, those who are besieged station a lookout on some hill, and then he, having seen the army advancing, signals with the trumpet, and does not disregard it nor neglect the things for which he was appointed—he himself, he says, will be innocent, having fulfilled the task entrusted to him; but the one who was unwilling to guard himself and to care for his own safety will become the cause of slaughter and captivity for himself. Therefore he says: "His blood shall be upon him": let him, he says, attribute to himself the causes of the slaughter. "But this one, because he guarded himself, delivered his own soul." But if, he says, he guards himself, he will become the cause of safety for himself. 9. And the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and does not sound the trumpet and does not signal the people, and the people do not guard themselves, and the sword coming upon them takes a soul from among them—that one indeed was taken because of his own lawlessness, but his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman. But if, he says, the appointed watchman, having been negligent, does not signal the people of the enemies' attack, those who are destroyed will pay the penalty for the things they transgressed, but he himself will bear the reckoning for the betrayal that occurred through the watchman. He said these things so that the prophet might be more zealous in the ministry of the word. Therefore he adds: 7. And you, son of man, I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from my mouth, and you shall guard it from me. What, he says, the watchman is accustomed to do among enemies, this, O prophet, it is fitting for you to do, and to transmit with all eagerness the things spoken by me. 8.

When I say to the sinner, "Sinner, you shall surely die," and you do not declare to the sinner to guard himself from the wicked man, to turn him from his way so that he may live, that lawless man shall die in his lawlessness; his blood I will require at your hand. If, he says, I condemn someone to death, and you do not make known to him the sentence passed against him, so that through repentance he may annul the sentence, that man will indeed find the end of his life to be deserved, but I will exact from you the reckoning for his destruction. But if, he says, you make all things from me clear to the one living lawlessly, and that man despises your words and persists in his own wickedness, he will indeed undergo just punishment, but you will free yourself from the reckoning. 10. And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have spoken, saying, "Our wanderings and our lawless deeds are within us, and in them we are consumed, and how shall we live?" While I, he says, am managing all things for the salvation of Israel, and do not wish to forbid them, they have used words of refusal, and they think that salvation through repentance is impossible, saying that they bear the heaviest burden of sins, and that even today they continue in their wandering and lawlessness; and they consider it impossible that those so disposed should obtain salvation through repentance. 11. Say to them therefore: As I live, says Adonai the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but rather that he turn from his way and live. Who could worthily marvel at the goodness of the Master?

For though he is treated with ingratitude and is greatly unthanked, he still cares for the ungrateful and makes every provision for them, desiring to see their change. Therefore he adds a fatherly exhortation filled with affection: "In turning, turn back from your evil way, and why do you die, house of Israel?" The doubling is an idiom of the Hebrew tongue, and it signifies the genuineness of the conversion. 12. And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people: The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day when he goes astray, and the lawlessness of the lawless shall not kill him in the day when he turns back from his lawlessness. Wishing to persuade them that he accepts the sinner's repentance, he demonstrates this from the opposite. For just as, he says, if one of those who have lived in virtue should abandon this path and choose instead the path of wickedness, he must necessarily find an end worthy of his path; so too, if one brought up in lawlessness should wish to return to the path of virtue, he will be wholly released from the punishment appointed for the lawless. 13–15. When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, and he trusts in his own righteousness and commits lawlessness, all his righteous deeds shall not be remembered; in the injustice which he has done, in it he shall die. And when I say to the ungodly, "You shall surely be put to death," and he turns back from his lawlessness and does judgment and righteousness, and restores a pledge he owes, and repays what he has seized, the lawless man has walked in the commandments of life so as not to do injustice, he shall surely live, and shall not die.

He says: Neither will the promise of good things made by me benefit the righteous man, if he does not persevere in the working of good things, but he will pay penalties worthy of the life he has lived; nor will the sentence of punishment harm the sinner who wishes to use the medicines of repentance, and to be released from all unrighteousness, and to exercise love toward his neighbor, and, simply put, to choose to keep what has been declared by me; for by his change he will loose the sentence, and he will enjoy life. And what is most desirable of all: “All his sins, which he has sinned, shall not be remembered against him, because he has done judgment and righteousness, he shall live in them.” Having thus shown his own goodness, he convicts the people of their ingratitude. “And the sons of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not straight,’ and this way of theirs is not straight.” He says: Though such goodness and love for mankind is set before them by me, they dare to slander my dispensations as not upright. And yet they ought to have understood

them from the facts, that all my ways are both right and just, but their own are perverted. Then he says the same thing more clearly in the form of a question: 18. But hear, O house of Israel: is my way not straight? are your ways not crooked? Then he repeats what has been said, and says that the righteous man who chooses wickedness will be punished, and the sinner who returns to righteousness will obtain salvation; but to you, he says, this did not appear just. Therefore he added: 20. And this is what you have said: The way of the Lord is not straight. Then declaratively: "I will judge each of you according to your ways, O house of Israel." And this is sufficient to persuade even those whose love of wickedness is exceedingly adamantine to change. 21, 22. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our captivity, that the one who had escaped came to me from Jerusalem, saying: The city has been taken. And the hand of the Lord came upon me in the evening before the escaped man came, and he opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning, and my mouth, having been opened, was no longer restrained. The Syrian says, "In the eleventh year and in the twelfth month," and this is more consistent; for in the eleventh year the city was taken. He says that at the time mentioned someone came announcing the capture of Jerusalem, but the Master, having anticipated it from evening, instilled the word of prophecy; and at dawn, when that man appeared and brought the report, he no longer allowed me to hold the prophetic words in silence, but commanded and prepared me to bring them forth unceasingly.

For the Master knows above all the right time for silence and for speech. 23, 24. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, those who dwell in these desolate places in the land of Israel say, saying: Abraham was one, and he possessed the land, and we are many; the land has been given to us for a possession. They are sick with insensibility beyond measure; for after such great and so many punishments, they are still bold, and seeing the desolation of Judea they dare to say: If Abraham, being alone, possessed this land, much more shall we, being many, be lords of it. But they ought to have considered both the virtue of Abraham and their own wickedness, and not to trust in numbers, but to seek righteousness. Therefore the Master also brings this reproof against them: 25, 26. Therefore say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Because you eat blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood, shall you inherit the land? You stand upon your swords, you have committed abominations, and each of you has defiled his neighbor's wife, and shall you inherit the land? Trusting, he says, in your own works, you hope to gain possession of the land of your fathers; and yet your life is lawless, for you do the things forbidden by the law. For you eat blood, which I forbade when I gave law to Noah, and through Moses I commanded it to be poured out upon the ground; and you make much of the worship of idols, and you continue to practice murders and adulteries. Daring such things, then, do not hope to inherit the land. 27, 28.

Thus says Adonai the Lord: As I live, if those in the desolated places shall not fall by the sword, and those on the face of the plain shall be given to the beasts of the field for food, and those within the walled cities and those in the caves I will kill with death. And I will give the land over to desolation. The oath "As I live" is the seal of what has been said; he says that both those who dwell in the walled cities and those in the caves and those in the desolate places shall pay the punishments previously mentioned. And showing the cause he adds: And the insolence of her strength shall perish, and the mountains of Israel shall be made desolate because there is no one passing through. (29) And they shall know that I am the Lord; and I will make their land desolate, and it shall be made desolate because of all their abominations which they have done. Through all these things both they and we have been taught, living in lawlessness, not to trust even in many and countless myriads, but only in the medicines of repentance, which the Master showed beforehand. 30, 31. And you, son of man, the sons of your people will speak about you by the walls and in the gateways of the houses, and each will speak to his neighbor and each to his brother, saying: Let us come together and hear what is the word that proceeds from the Lord. And they come to you as a people comes, and my people sit before you, and they hear your words, but they will not do them. Now all the things previously said were spoken concerning those in Judea.

But these things concern those who had already been taken captive and were dwelling in Babylon, who wished to hear the prophetic utterances but were no longer willing to obey what was said; rather, in their own gatherings they kept urging one another to run to the prophet and learn what had been declared by God, yet they continued to contradict. Therefore he says, "And they shall not do them. For falsehood is in their mouth." The heart, he says, does not agree with the tongue. "For their heart goes after their defilements." For they hear the word for pleasure only, not for profit. Hence he aptly added: 32. "And you shall be to them as the sound of a sweet-voiced, well-tuned psaltery." Just as, he says, those who hear an instrument producing a harmonious sound reap pleasure from it, but not the learning of its strokes, so too your words, O prophet, delight only their hearing, but do not charm the soul that lives with wickedness. For this he added: "And they shall hear your words, and they shall not do them, because falsehood is in their mouth." But now, he says, not believing, when they see the outcome, they will believe through experience. 33. For when, he says, they come, they shall say: "Behold, he has come," and they shall know that a prophet was in their midst. For the things they now disbelieve, they will believe through the events themselves, and at that time they shall learn the prophetic power. From here he transfers the word to the shepherds; and he calls shepherds not only kings but also priests; and he accuses them of shamelessness, negligence, and the betrayal of the sheep. Chapter 34.

2. For he says, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to the shepherds: Thus says Adonai the Lord: O shepherds of Israel, do the shepherds not feed themselves? Do the shepherds not feed the sheep? Tell me, he says, what is proper to a shepherd—to pasture himself, or to feed the sheep? 3. Behold, you eat the milk, and you clothe yourselves with the wool, and you slaughter the fat, and my sheep you do not feed. He says all these things figuratively. For you, the priests, used to devour the firstfruits, the tithes, and the portions taken from the sacrifices; and you, the kings, receiving the tribute and the tax, were not content with these things, but even slaughtered the wealthy and devoured their riches; and neither did your priests nor did you take care for the tending of the sheep. Then he recounts their absurdity in detail. 4. You did not strengthen the weak, and you did not heal the sick, and you did not bind up the broken, and you did not restore the sickly, and you did not turn back the wandering, and you did not seek the lost (and this is the most grievous of all), and the strong you oppressed with toil, and you disciplined them with might, and with mockery. For not only did you not bring the proper care to the sick, but upon the healthy you laid many labors. And this is easy to see from the histories.

For the evil shepherds were unwilling to heal those who worshipped idols and lived in lawlessness and to turn them back to God, but they kept torturing and imprisoning the divine prophets, who possessed the strength of virtue, and subjecting them to countless pains, and while doing this they mocked them, making comedy of what was said by them. Therefore he says: "And you ruled them with strength, and with mockery," showing that at one and the same time they brought sorrows upon the saints, while they themselves considered it sport, and what was happening a jest. 5. Because of these evil shepherds, he says, I scattered my sheep, and they became food for all the beasts of the field. Again he called the beasts figuratively, since he applied the same term to the sheep as well. He calls demons the noetic beasts, the avengers of souls, and the enemies who came against them from every side the perceptible beasts. 6. And my sheep were scattered and wandered on every mountain, and on every high hill, and on the face of all the earth my sheep were scattered, and there was no one seeking them out, nor turning them back. — Mountains and hills and all the other things he mentioned, he called the worship of idols that took place among them; for on mountains and hills and in every place they set up the precincts of idols, with neither kings nor indeed priests hindering the impiety. For this reason he said: "And there was no one seeking out, nor one turning back." Having thus made the accusation, he threatens the shepherds with punishment, and says:

Because through ease and neglect my sheep have become a prey to wild beasts, and they have enjoyed no care or forethought from you; for you cared only for your own luxury and bodily comfort. 9, 10. For this reason, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep from their hands, and I will make them cease from shepherding my sheep, and the shepherds shall no longer shepherd them; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, and they shall no longer be food for them. By these words he foretold both the cessation of the kingdom of the Jews and that of the high priesthood. For I will set free, he says, my sheep from their evil oversight, who never deemed them worthy of any care, but only kept devouring them. Then through the Lord and our Savior he promises salvation. 11, 12. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I will require my sheep and I will visit them. As a shepherd visits his flock on the day when there is gloom and cloud in the midst of his sheep that have been separated, so will I require my sheep and rescue them from every place where they were scattered on the day of cloud and gloom. – Here he called cloud and gloom the darkness of ignorance, which had been poured out over the world before the incarnation of our God and Savior.

He says, then, that like a diligent shepherd who takes especially greater forethought for his own sheep, whenever he sees a fog lying upon them, which gives freedom of access both to wolves and to thieves, I too will take thought for my own sheep, and I will gather them when they have been scattered, and I will make those that have been separated into one flock; and such is the Church gathered from Jews and from Gentiles. Then he makes the prophecy twofold. For what is apparent fits the Jews alone; but what is mystical and hidden fits all men, and especially the things that happened to the Jews are a type of our own affairs; for with their recall and their release from captivity there coincide also our return from the devil to God, and our freedom from that tyrannical slavery. 13, 14. And I will bring them out from the nations, and I will gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land, and I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, and in the valleys, and in every dwelling place of the land. In a good pasture I will feed them. And indeed the law is good, and the commandment, according to the Apostle, is holy and just and good, but he promises them another pasture; for they had the pasture of the law. And what is this good pasture that is beyond the pasture of the law? Is it not clear that he hints at the teaching of the divine Gospels, in which the sheep of God, as they pasture, are fed and fattened and enjoy salvation? And declaring this more clearly: "In the

On the high mountain of Israel," he says, "shall be their beauty." And indeed he mentioned many mountains and ravines, and he makes special mention of a certain high mountain, in which he foretells the beauty that the pastured flock will have. The blessed David also remembers this mountain, saying: "The mountain of God is a fertile mountain, a curdled mountain, a fertile mountain." Then, to the mountains of Israel that envy this mountain, he says: "Why do you suppose, you curdled mountains? The mountain which God has chosen to dwell in; for the Lord will tabernacle in it forever." In vain, he says, you are jealous of this mountain, since God has chosen to tabernacle in it; for he will do this forever. The other interpreters have taught us to understand it this way: Aquila, having said, "Why do you strive, you curdled mountains?" and Theodotion, "Why do you contend about this mountain?" And Isaiah cries out, and Micah likewise: "In the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of the Lord upon the tops of the mountains, and all the nations shall come to it," and the rest; and the Lord in the holy Gospels: "A city," he says, "set upon a mountain cannot be hidden." Therefore the high and conspicuous mountain of the gospel teaching he has also named here, in which he promised that the beauty of the sheep would come to be. Then he adds: "And their folds shall be there." And this too fits us plainly, but not the Jews; for they had one fold, the temple in Jerusalem; but we have churches beyond number throughout the whole inhabited world.

And they shall sleep and rest there, and in good luxury and in rich pasture they shall be fed on the mountains of Israel. (15.) And I will shepherd my sheep. — He calls the divine oracles good luxury and rich pasture; for he says, "Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the requests of your heart"; and the mountains of Israel are the prophetic books, on which we are again pastured, having through them a kind of step toward the greatest mountain; for through the prophetic oracles we are led by them to the gospel teaching, which is attested by them; and we have as shepherd the Master and Lord himself, who cries out, "I am the good shepherd." This he also foretold here, saying, "And I will shepherd my sheep. And I will give them rest, and they shall know that I am the Lord." For being shepherded by him, and resting as on some grass of his teaching, we recognize his lordship. 10. Thus says Adonai the Lord: I will seek the lost, and I will turn back the wandering — as Paul and those like him; "and I will bind up the broken" — as the tax collector, and the harlot, and the robber, and those like them; "and I will strengthen the weak" — as Peter when he denied; "and the fat and the strong I will guard" — as the holy apostles, and those who have chosen a life like theirs; "and I will shepherd them with judgment," providing good things, and disciplining when it is necessary.

Having thus concluded both his discourse against the evil shepherds and the prediction of the care that would come from him, he transfers his discourse to the sheep, teaching that the wickedness of the shepherds gives no defense to the sheep; for the sheep are rational, and have discernment, and are able both to flee from evil things and to choose good things. Therefore he says: (17.) And you are my sheep, thus says Adonai the Lord. Behold, I will judge between sheep and sheep, and between rams and goats. For, he says, just as I judge shepherds and sheep, so also I will be a judge of the sheep, and I will punish those who do wrong. (18, 19.) And is it not enough for you that you grazed on the good pasture, and trampled with your feet what was left of your pasture, and drank the settled water, and troubled with your feet what was left? And my sheep grazed on what your feet had trampled, and drank the water troubled by your feet? The discourse is directed against the wealthy who have squandered their wealth in prodigality, and do not reap from it only their need,

But also things beyond need; and one might see this happening even in the present by some. And the parable of Lazarus also testifies, having shown that rich man not even giving of the crumbs falling from his table to the poor man. But the phrase "You were trampling the remnants with your feet" was spoken figuratively as of sheep, eating the grass and treading the rest, and first drinking the water, then fouling it with their feet. 20. Therefore thus says Adonai the Lord: Behold, I am against you, and I will judge between a strong sheep and between a weak sheep. Then he speaks of the boldness of the strong. 21. Because with your sides and with your shoulders you were pushing, and with your horns you were butting, and all that was failing you were crushing, until you drove them outside, and my sheep were scattered to everyone passing by. And I will save my sheep, and they shall no longer be for plunder. He has spoken all things as of sheep: shoulders, and horns, and sides; but through all the things in their power he convicted the unjust domination; nevertheless he promises safety to the sheep. "And I will judge between sheep and sheep, and between a ram and a ram." I will judge, he says, and I will not overlook those who are wronged, but I will exact justice from those who do wrong. Then the promise of the common salvation of all. 23. And I will raise up over them one shepherd, who will shepherd them, my servant David; he will shepherd them, and he will give them rest, and he will be their shepherd. Having said above, "I will shepherd," here he says that David will be their shepherd, whom he also addresses as servant.

Who is this? Is it not clear that it is the Master Christ, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh? Therefore he is also called a servant, as a man; and this according to nature, not according to worth. For if those who have believed in him are not servants but sons, much more is he himself, through whom the servants have enjoyed freedom, not a servant but a son. Thus also the blessed Paul says: "Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." And Isaiah also cries out in his person, saying: "Thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to gather Jacob to himself as a servant; and Israel shall be gathered to him. Behold, I have given you as a covenant of a people, as a light of the nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth." And also: "But Jacob is my servant, I will help him." In the Hebrew, "my servant" is written. And the divine evangelist also applied this testimony to our Lord Jesus. He is called a servant, therefore, as a man, and this, as I said, not according to worth but according to nature; for he took the form of a servant. And concerning there being one shepherd of the sheep, the Lord also said in the Gospels: "And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; those also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there shall be one flock, one shepherd." Then he adds: 24. And I the Lord will be to them for God, and my servant David a ruler in their midst. And the infallibility of what has been said he shows by what is added: "I the Lord have spoken." For the worth of the speaker is sufficient for the confirmation of the words. 25.

And I will make a covenant of peace with David. Paul is the interpreter of this; for he cries out concerning Christ: "He himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition." And he said this also above: "And I will raise up over them one shepherd." For he shepherds both those who have believed from the Gentiles and those from the Jews. "And I will destroy evil beasts from the land." Both the swarms of evil demons and men afflicted with a beast-like nature—some being changed and becoming rational, and being wholly freed from being beasts, while others are brought to an end by death. "And they shall dwell in the wilderness trusting, and shall sleep in the woods." Both are unfruitful; but he says that they shall both occupy and cultivate the wilderness of the Gentiles, and in the wood of the Jews they shall have rest and care. And above, wishing to show the unfruitfulness of Jerusalem: "Prophesy, son of man, against the wood of the Negev"—he means the south, as we have said before. 20. And I will give blessing round about my mountain, and I will bring down the rain upon you in its season; they shall be rains of blessing. For such are the teachings of the divine apostles, offering abundance full of blessing to the souls of those who believe. That the divine Scripture often calls teaching rain, the prophet Isaiah is a witness, speaking in the person of God and threatening the old vineyard, that "It shall not be pruned, nor dug; and I will command the clouds not to rain upon it." 27. And the trees in the field shall give their fruit, and the earth shall give its strength.