Commentariorum In Joelem Prophetam Liber Unus

THE BOOK OF COMMENTARIES OF SAINT EUSEBIUS JEROME OF STRIDON, PRESBYTER, ON THE PROPHET JOEL. TO PAMMACHIUS.

PROLOGUE.

The order of the twelve prophets is not the same in the Septuagint translators as is retained in the Hebrew truth. For they place second Amos, third Micah, fourth Joel, fifth Obadiah, sixth Jonah, seventh Nahum, eighth Habakkuk, ninth Zephaniah, tenth Haggai, eleventh Zechariah, twelfth Malachi; but the Hebrews, after Hosea, who is first among both, read second Joel, third Amos, fourth Obadiah, fifth Jonah, sixth Micah, seventh Nahum, eighth Habakkuk, ninth Zephaniah, tenth Haggai, eleventh Zechariah, twelfth—which is also the last—Malachi. And since we have once enumerated all the prophets of one volume, it seems useful to us briefly to note the meaning of each, both in Greek and in Latin. Hosea is interpreted as him whom we can call the Savior. Joel, that is, beginning. Amos, who among the Latins is said to be bearing. Obadiah, that is, servant of the Lord. Jonah, that is, dove. Micah, a name composed of two parts of speech, which among us sounds, who is like, or who as it were? Nahum, that is, consolation. Habakkuk, that is, embrace or wrestling. Zephaniah, that is, hidden of the Lord. Haggai, whom we can call festive, or solemn. Zechariah, that is, memory of the Lord. Malachi, that is, my messenger.

In what sense all these things are to be understood will be discussed in their own volumes. But the four remaining prophets, so that we may complete the sixteen—Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel—have this meaning: Isaiah is interpreted as “the salvation of the Lord”; Ezekiel, which we can call “the strength or dominion of the Lord”; Jeremiah, that is, “the exalted of the Lord”; Daniel, that is, “the Lord has judged me.” Since these things are so, I beseech you, my Pammachius, who struggle with every art of fighting against the devil, that while we fight against Amalek you lift up your hands lightly with Moses to the Lord, and overcome the adversaries of Israel by your prayers. (Exod. 17.) Recently we went out from Egypt, and with Pharaoh drowned in Hosea, we crossed the Red Sea (Exod. 14); now, after the broad desolation of the wilderness, we must sweat with great labor so that we may be able to reach the seventy palms and the apostolic springs. Let the scorpion rise up, and let it try to strike with its curved wound: do you, companion of the journey and charmer of poisonous bites, show us spiritual things; and what we have promised to the holy and venerable Paula, your mother, do you, as a dutiful heir, receive, and whatever we can do—whether by talent or by teaching—less than your expectation, sustain it by the favor of a friend, and do not consider our strength, but our will.

HERE BEGINS THE BOOK.

(Chapter I—Verse 1.) «The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Phatuel.» The Seventy translators rendered Phatuel as Bathuel, which has no resonance at all among the Hebrews. But Phatuel is translated into our language as “the breadth of God,” or “God opening,” as we read in Mark of the Savior saying to the deaf and mute man: EPHPHETA, that is, “be opened” (Mark 7). For since with the Apostle he could say: “Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged” (2 Cor 6:11); and he heard from the Lord: “Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it” (Ps 80:11): this very opening of the mouth is in the power not of man but of God, as Paul says: “A great and evident door has been opened to me; but many adversaries” (1 Cor 16:9); therefore God is called “the one opening.” And since the saint always advances, knowing in part and prophesying in part, until what is perfect comes, born of breadth and opening, he is called Joel, which in our tongue sounds as “beginning,” or “God is,” as the Apostle says: “Brothers, I do not consider myself to have grasped it” (Phil 3:13); growing by this humility, with Moses he deserves to hear: “He who is, sent me” (Exod 3:14). For to distinguish them from those who are not, of whom we also read in Esther: “Do not hand over your scepter to those who are not” (Esther 14:11), God and his saints are shown to be.

Let these points about the name of Joel and of his father be touched on briefly, so that the word of God, which was in the beginning with God, may rightly be told to have been made, as John the Baptist reports: He who is to come after me was made before me, because he was before me (John 1:30). Moreover, the word is said to have been made to the one who deserved it, to whom it was made, not with reference to the condition of him who is said to be made, as we read elsewhere: The Lord was made for me as salvation (Psalm 117:21). But just as in the prophet Hosea, whom we explained at the beginning of the twelve prophets before this book, the prophecy is delivered under the name of Ephraim to the ten tribes, which are often called Samaria or Israel, so in Joel, who according to the Hebrews is second, everything that is said must be believed to pertain to the tribe of Judah and to Jerusalem, and no mention at all of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, is made in this book. We ought also to understand the times in which he prophesied to be the same as those we read of in Hosea: In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel.

(Verses 2, 3.) "Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all inhabitants of the land, whether such a thing has happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers: tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation." The Septuagint reads: "Hear these things, you elders, and give ear, all inhabitants of the land, whether such things have happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers: for these things, tell your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation." The elders are commanded to hear, the inhabitants of the land to give ear. To the elders it is not said, "Hear, all"; to the inhabitants of the land it is added, "Give ear, all." For hearing in the Holy Scriptures is not that which resounds in the ear, but that which is perceived by the heart, according to what the Lord says in the Gospel: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 13:9). But what we have translated as "give ear" is one word both among the Greeks and among the Hebrews: among the Greeks; among the Hebrews EEZINU, which is properly perceived not by the heart but by the ear. And so that we may know that hearing is more sacred than that which resounds in the ears, let us learn from Isaiah speaking: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth" (Isaiah 1:2). Those who are elders and heavenly hear spiritually; those who dwell on the earth, and are called earthly, give ear. And this must be noted in all the Scriptures, wherever these two words are placed together.

We read the same thing concerning Lamech the sinner, who spoke to his wives Ada and Sella: "Hear my words, wives of Lamech, perceive with your ears my words, because I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt" (Gen. 4:23). He knew that what he was saying was obscure, and therefore he urged his wives not merely to the simple sound of the words but also to the hidden understanding of what was said. If anyone, then, is an elder, and an elder of mature age chosen in the Lord, as we read in the following verses according to the Seventy Translators, and has left behind the infancy of little children, let him hear what is said. But he who still dwells in the land, and cannot say, "I am a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers were" (Ps. 38:13), let him perceive with his ears. "If," he says, "this has happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers." By the art of rhetoric he makes the hearer attentive through the magnitude of the matters: "No age," he says, "remembers these things which I am about to speak, nor were they done in your time, nor in the time of your fathers and ancestors." But understand fathers as grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and sons of sons, and all subsequent offspring, according to that Virgilian line (Aeneid 3): "And the sons of sons, and those who shall be born from them." Therefore both the elders and the inhabitants of the land, tell your children and descendants; let him who is an elder teach his children the mysteries; let him who is an inhabitant of the land narrate the simple history.

Hence even to this day we who believe in Christ, from whose eyes the veil has been removed together with Moses, and of whom it is said, "The hoary head of a man is his wisdom" (Wisdom 4:8), recount to our children things secret and wondrous. But the Jews who dwell in the land speak of earthly things and things clinging to the ground, of whom it is written: "He who is of the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth; he who comes from heaven is above all" (John 3:31).

(Verse 4.) "What the caterpillar left, the locust devoured; and what the locust left, the bruchus devoured; and what the bruchus left, the rust consumed." The Septuagint reads likewise. The narrative follows the opening; there, to make the hearer attentive, he promised that he would speak great and incredible things, which neither ancient history knew nor the present age had come to know as accomplished facts. Here he set down the caterpillar, the locust, the bruchus, and the rust, so that what individually occur but rarely might be recorded as having all happened at once, and for that reason be marvelous. The caterpillar, which in Hebrew is called GEZEM and in Greek is, the Hebrews interpret as the Assyrians, the Babylonians and Chaldeans, who, proceeding from one region of the world, laid waste all things belonging both to the ten tribes and to the two, that is, of the Israelite people. But the locust they interpret as the Medes and Persians, who, after the empire of the Chaldeans was overthrown, held the Jews captive.

The locust, the Macedonians, and all the successors of Alexander, and especially King Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, who settled in Judaea like a locust and devoured all the remnants of the earlier kings, under whom the wars of the Maccabees are narrated. The rust they refer to the empire of the Romans, who, fourth and last, so oppressed the Jews that they drove them from their own territories. Josephus writes more fully in seven volumes, narrating the triumphs of Vespasian and Titus. We also read of the expedition of Aelius Hadrianus against the Jews, who so overthrew Jerusalem and its walls that from the remnants and ashes of the city he founded a city of his own name, Aelia. These four kingdoms which overthrew Judaea, Zachariah writes that he saw in four horns, when the angel said to him: "These are the horns which scattered Judah and Israel and Jerusalem" (Zech. 1:19). And again: "I lifted up," he says, "my eyes and saw, and behold four chariots coming out from the midst of two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze: in the first chariot, red horses; and in the second chariot, black horses; and in the third chariot, white horses; and in the fourth chariot, dappled and strong horses" (Zech. 6:1). And when the prophet had said to the angel who spoke in him: "What are these, my lord?" the angel answered: "These are the four winds of heaven, which go forth to stand before the Ruler of all the earth" (Ibid. 4:5): and the meaning is: these are they who go forth from the face of the Lord, to fulfill his will.

With the inhabitants of the land we have perceived with our ears what the eruca, the locust, the bruchus, and the rubigo signify; now let us hear with the elders what has been said. That there are four perturbations by which the health of souls is overturned, all the schools of the philosophers proclaim. Two are present and contrary to each other, two are future and at variance with one another. The present ones are grief and joy. We call it grief of the mind; otherwise it is not grief of the body but sickness that is named. Either, then, we are sad and are consumed by sorrow, and the state of our mind is overturned—whence also the Apostle warns that a brother be not swallowed up by excessive sorrow (II Cor. 2); or, on the contrary, we rejoice and exult with gladness, and we cannot bear our good fortune with moderation. It is the part of the just and strong man neither to be broken by adversity nor lifted up by prosperity, but to be moderate in both. We have spoken of the perturbation of present things; let us speak also of future things, in which there is fear or hope. We fear adversities, we await prosperities; and what grief and joy work in the present, fear and hope do for the future, while either we fear that adversities will come more than is fitting, or the prosperities that we hope for make us exult to such a degree that we do not keep moderation, especially in those things which are uncertain, because future things are hoped for rather than held. These perturbations the illustrious poet comprehended in one, and not even a full, verse (Aeneid, book

For those who are wrapped in the darkness of the passions cannot gaze upon the clear light of wisdom. We must therefore take care lest sickness, like the eruca, devour us; lest the locust lay waste in joy, flitting hither and thither, and in exulting gladness tossing itself about in all directions; lest the bruchus, that is, dread and fear of things to come, consume the roots of wisdom; lest the rubigo, that is, desire for things to come, covet useless things and carry us off to ruin. Rather, as in all things, we should guide with the reins of wisdom the four chariots and the four horns, and the four horses—red, and dappled, and white, and black—that is, whether adversities, or prosperities, or things compounded of both. I judge the eruca to be the passion that is just beginning in the mind, which is slow and cannot run about, and by its very delay and stubbornness drinks up and sucks out all greenness. If we have not killed it, it grows within us and flies away, and now devours whatever it has touched, now leaving things half-eaten it proceeds to others; and returning to its former seat it becomes the bruchus, so that by its slowness it devours not only the crops and leaves and bark, but even the very marrow. But if it should happen—though this is rare—that even after the bruchus some vital spirit still remains in us, the rubigo lays all things waste, so that it turns the stalk and the worthless hay to blackness, so that they are useless not only for food but even for dung.

Concerning these four perturbations, at the beginning of Amos as well, if life accompanies us, we shall discuss, where it is written: "For three crimes, and for four, of Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Idumaea, of the children of Ammon, and Moab, and Judah, and Israel, I will not turn them back, says the Lord" (Amos 1 and following). These we have interpreted as perturbations, which the Greeks call [pathē], and if we turn them into passions, we shall have expressed the word rather than the sense of the word.

These men fear and desire (this concerns the future), they grieve and rejoice (this concerns the present), nor [he says] do they look upon the breezes, shut in darkness and a blind prison.

(Verse 5.) "Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you who drink wine in sweetness: for it has perished from your mouth." The Septuagint: "Wake up, you who are drunk with your wine: and weep and lament, all you who drink wine in drunkenness: for it has been taken away from your mouth." We ought to hear this as old men and presbyters: nothing so intoxicates as a perturbation of the mind. There is a sorrow that leads to death: this is the drunkenness to be abhorred. There is an anger that does not work the righteousness of God, and being close to fury, it makes a man powerless over his own mind: to such an extent that his lips tremble, his teeth chatter, his face is changed with pallor. And rightly is that saying of Archytas of Tarentum praised, who when he was angry with his steward said: "I would have killed you already, if I were not angry.

What shall I say of joy and pleasure, and especially of love, which blinds the eyes of the heart and allows the lover to think of nothing but the object of his love? Is it not to be called drunkenness when, for the sake of a vile harlot and a shameful part of the body, the freedom of the soul is bent to servile flatteries? When a man makes another's pleasure the reward of his own toil? When by theft, crime, and perjuries he prepares wealth for future pleasure? And when he is seen by all, he thinks he is not seen, so long as he obtains what he desires? But avarice also blinds the mind of the man to whom nothing is enough, as does womanly fear and the desire for sweet vices. Therefore it is said to them: Awake and arise, you who are drunk—not with wine, as is contained only in the Septuagint, but with every perturbation of vices. Weep, and wail, and do penance; and take up the sorrow that leads to life, and howl, all you who drink wine in sweetness, or in drunkenness. For vices are sweet, because honey drips from the lips of the harlot woman (Prov. 5); and therefore it is not offered in God's sacrifice, since the wine, the drunkenness, and the sweetness that deceived you has perished, or been taken from your mouth. For often by God's providence it comes about that those who did not know God in prosperity may know him in adversity, and those who misused riches may be corrected unto virtues by want.

According to this sense, let the elders hear; and let the inhabitants of the earth perceive with their ears that the command is now given concerning that wine in which is luxury (Eph. 5), and with which those who have been drunk cannot possess the kingdom of God. Let him who has been lulled to sleep by the drunkenness of wine awake and weep that he was drunk, and howl, so that afterward his howling and weeping may be turned into laughter, and he may rejoice that he has no occasion for drunkenness, which through abundance had made him drunk and insane.

(Vers. 6, 7.) «For a nation shall ascend upon my land, strong and innumerable: its teeth as the teeth of a lion, and its molars as the whelps of a lion. It has made my vineyard a desert, and has stripped bare my fig tree: laying it bare it has despoiled it, and cast it away; its branches have become white.» The LXX: «For a nation has ascended upon the land, strong and innumerable: its teeth are a lion's; and its molars as the whelps of a lion. It has made my vineyard a desolation, and my fig trees a breaking; searching it has searched it out, and cast it away; it has made its branches white.» The Jews think that in the days of Joel such an innumerable multitude of locusts came upon Judea that they filled everything, and left behind not only the crops but indeed the bark and branches of the vines and trees, so that, with all greenness consumed, the dry branches of the trees and the withered shoots of the vines remained. Whether this happened or not, we cannot affirm for certain, for the history of Kings and Chronicles does not narrate it.

For if this had been the case, how is it that we read of the famine under Elijah of three years and six months (1 Kings 17), and Scripture would never have passed over it in silence? We say only this: that under the metaphor of locusts is described the coming of enemies—whether of the Assyrians and Babylonians, who were then threatening; or of the Medes and Persians, who were to come afterward; or of the Macedonians, whom we know existed long after; or finally of the Romans, of whom we have spoken above. Although at present it seems to us to be said rather of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, whose cruelty and savagery against the people of God is described; and, unless I am mistaken, I seem to have discovered something in this prophet. The impiety of the enemies is narrated under the figure of locusts; and again it is said of the locusts themselves as if they were being compared to enemies, so that when you read "locusts," you think of "enemies"; and when you have thought of "enemies," you return to "locusts." Therefore the nation of locusts ascends from the wilderness—or the army of the Chaldeans—upon the land of God, both strong and innumerable. For what is more innumerable and stronger than locusts, which human industry cannot resist? Its teeth—that is, of the nation of locusts (understand all things likewise)—are like the teeth of a lion; and its molars like those of a lion's cub, so that those who are equal to locusts in strength and multitude may be compared to lions in ferocity and cruelty.

This people, he says, has laid waste my vineyard, which I brought over from Egypt and planted, and has stripped the bark from my fig tree—the people of the Jews, to whom the Savior came that he might eat its fruit and found none; and he cursed it, and it withered forever (Matthew 11). But let us know that all these things were spoken under the metaphor of locusts, which ravage everything to such a degree that they gnaw away the bark of trees, strip them bare and cast it aside, and when all their greenness is consumed, they leave the branches white and dry. We have spoken according to the historical sense; let us pass on to the spiritual understanding, so that with the elders we may hear: A people has come up against the land of God—that is, against the human soul. For all souls are God's; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son. And there has come up the people of the princes of this world, and of darkness, and of the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, against whom we have our struggle and contest, of whom it is said: If the spirit of one having power rises up against you, do not leave your place (Ecclesiastes 10:4). The teeth of this people are like the teeth of a lion, of which the apostle Peter speaks: Our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). And its jaw teeth are like those of a lion's cub. Understand the lion's cub either as him who exalts himself against everything that is called God and religion, or certainly as every perverse doctrine.

The Psalmist also rejoices over its broken-down walls—the walls that lie hidden within and are not seen, so that they are not easily avoided—saying: The Lord will break the lions' molars (Ps. 57:7). If, then, we give this people a place to ascend into us, it will immediately turn our vineyard into a desert—the vineyard from which we used to make wine that gladdens the heart of man (Ps. 103)—and it strips the bark from our fig trees, or breaks them, so that we may not have within us the most sweet gifts of the Holy Spirit, (??) under our vine and fig tree the holy man may rest; and when he is under them, he will not fear the assaults of adversaries. Nor is it enough for this people to destroy the vineyard and break the fig tree, unless, searching, it search them out and kill whatever in them is vital, so that, with all greenness consumed, the little branches may remain white and dead, and there may be fulfilled in us: If they do these things in the green wood, what will they do in the dry? (Luke 23:31)

(Verse 8.) "Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth, over the husband of your youth" (Vulg. "her youth"). The Septuagint: "Wail to me over the bride girded in haircloth, over her virgin husband." The husband of youth—or, as the Septuagint rendered it, whom the common tongue calls the "virginal" one, because he was the first to take the flower of her virginity—is understood to be none other than God, who in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob betrothed to himself a virgin bride, unstained by any defilement of idolatry. To her he also speaks through Jeremiah: "You did not call me as lord, and father, and prince of your virginity" (Jer. 3:4). Whence also the Apostle says to the believers: "I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). As long as the bridegroom is with this bride, she cannot fast (Matt. 9), nor wail, nor show by tears her longing for the absent bridegroom. But when the bridegroom has been taken away from her, she wails and weeps, and girds herself with sackcloth and haircloth, and instead of a belt is wrapped about with a rope. We have understood who the virginal bridegroom is; but because this bridegroom, or husband, not only took a virgin bride, but also in Hosea takes me, a harlot, as his wife, therefore it is written in Deuteronomy: "If you go out against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you lead them away captive, and you see among the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and you love her.

you may wish to have as wives, he brings into your house; and she shall shave her hair and cut her nails and put off the garment in which she was captured, and sitting in your house she shall weep for her father and mother for one month, and afterwards you shall go in to her and sleep with her, and she shall be your wife (Deut. 21 ff.). Such a woman does not have a husband, that is, a virginal lord, but he has taken a harlot from the nations as his wife. We can say this also of every soul of the faithful. If from a small age she has believed in the Lord, she has the Lord as her virginal bridegroom. But if, whether from the Jews or from the gentiles and the foulest dregs of heretics, she has come to the truth of the faith and passed from darkness to light, she will indeed have a bridegroom, but not a virginal one; and of such people it is said: In Egypt your breasts were broken and there you were deflowered (Ezek. 23:3).

(Verses ff.) "The sacrifice and the libation have perished from the house of the Lord, and the priests, the ministers of the Lord, have mourned; the region is laid waste, the land has mourned, because the wheat is devastated. The wine is confounded, the oil has languished, the farmers are confounded. The vinedressers have howled over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished; the vineyard is confounded, and the fig tree has languished; the pomegranate, and the palm and the apple, and all the trees of the field have dried up: because joy has been confounded from the sons of men.

The Septuagint reads: “The sacrifice and the libation have been taken away from the house of the Lord: mourn, you priests who minister to the Lord, because the fields are desolate: let the earth mourn, because the wheat is afflicted, the wine has dried up, the oil is diminished; the farmers have dried up: mourn, you possessions, for the wheat and the barley, because the vintage has perished from the field, the vineyard has dried up, and the fig trees are diminished; the pomegranate and the palm and the apple and all the trees of the field have dried up, because they have confounded the joy of the sons of men.” As far as history is concerned, because of the multitude of locusts—or of enemies, who are described under their likeness—all things having been laid waste and consumed, the sacrifice and the libation perished from the house of the Lord; of these they were accustomed to offer one from fine flour, the other from wine. For this reason the priests mourned, who are the ministers of the Lord, since neither sacrifices nor libations were duly celebrated: especially because the tithes also, which they had been accustomed to receive, were by no means offered. For the whole region was laid waste. The ground mourned—that is, those who dwell on the ground; the wheat, wine, and oil grew faint; the farmers themselves and the vine-dressers also were confounded and wailed, because not only the wheat but also the barley, which is cheaper and more abundant, dried up. And the legumes, which I think are signified in what it says, “the harvest of the field has turned,” that is, all things that the ground is accustomed to produce.

Why should I speak of grain, wine, oil, and barley, when even the fruits of the trees have dried up, the fig tree has withered, and the pomegranate, the palm, the apple, and all trees, whether unfruitful or fruit-bearing, have been consumed by the devouring locust? All these things happened so that joy might be taken away, or confounded, from the children of men. We can say that these same things happened to the people of the Jews after the coming of the Savior, when with like frenzy they cried out, saying: Crucify, crucify such a one: we have no king but Caesar; when Jerusalem was surrounded by an army, and they came into such great straits of famine and pestilence that they fed on the not-yet-mature bodies of their children, and all sacrifices were taken away, and joy was confounded from the children of men, because they were unwilling to receive the joy of which the angel speaks to the shepherds: I announce to you great joy. According to this, the sense seems to us to be: After the bride, who had received the teaching of God, has been separated from the bridegroom through sins, and instead of fine linen and garments has been clothed in sackcloth, that is, has taken up the dress of one who mourns, then the sacrifice will perish, of which it is written: A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit, and the libation of wine, which gladdens the heart of man, from the house of God, which is the Church, as the Apostle says to Timothy: That you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God.

But the sacrifice and libation will be taken away from the house of the Lord, when, with iniquity multiplied, the love of many has grown cold; and the princes of the people and the ministers of the altar will see that the fields and plains of believers bring forth no fruits of virtues, but that all things bristle with vices; when the grain and barley, the vines and the oil, the wild rocket, the locust, the bruchus, and the blight have consumed, and we no longer have the cup of which it is written: Your cup that inebriates, how glorious it is, and the oil has perished of which we read in Ecclesiastes: At all times let your garments be white, and let not the oil fail from your head, by which the face is made cheerful, and the head of the fasting man is anointed. Then the farmers will be confounded, when they see that in their possessions there is born no wheat, by which men are nourished, and no barley, by which irrational beasts are sustained, and that the vineyard is confounded, of which it is written: Israel is a leafy vine, abundant fruit in it, while the Lord expected that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth thorns. The fig tree also has languished, under which Nathanael was before he believed, and the pomegranate, whose heart is compared to the cheeks of the bride in the Song of Songs, and the palm which, having lost its greenness, has dried up, of which it was once said: But the just man shall flourish like the palm tree, and the apple of which we read in the same Song: As the apple among the trees of the woods, so is my kinsman among the sons.

What need is there to run through all the trees, when everything has dried up, and instead of joy and gladness, grief and confusion have overwhelmed the children of men?

(Vers. 13, 14.) "Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; go in, lie down in sackcloth, you ministers of my God; for the sacrifice and libation have perished from the house of your God: sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, into the house of your God, and cry out to the Lord." The Septuagint has: "Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; mourn, you who minister at the altar; go in, sleep in the sacred precincts, you ministers of God, for the sacrifice and libation have failed from the house of your God; sanctify a fast, proclaim a healing; gather the elders, all the inhabitants of the land, into the house of your God, and cry out to the Lord earnestly." He who is a holy priest and eats the Lord's passover, let him be girded with the belt of chastity, and let him hear with the apostles: Let your loins be girded, and lamps burning in your hands (Luke 12:33). But he who is a sinner, and whom his own conscience stings, let him be girded with sackcloth and lament, either his own sins or those of the people, and let him enter the Church, from which he had gone out because of his sins, and let him lie down, or sleep, in sackcloth, so that by the austerity of his life he may make amends for the past pleasures by which he had offended God. For those who are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings (Matt. 11).

But let the priests gird themselves and lament and wail, and sleep in sackcloth, with the prophet urging them to repentance, who says: "Ministers of my God, how has the sacrifice and the libation perished from the house of your God," concerning which things it was said above. Nor is it enough to weep, or to lament and assume the dress of a mourner, unless they sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly. If a fast were pleasing to God in every case, he would never say: "Sanctify a fast." And: "I have not chosen such a fast, says the Lord" (Isa. 58:5). And in the Gospel those are condemned who disfigure their faces so that they may appear to men to fast (Matt. 6); and "in the days of your fasts," he says, "you strike with your fists and oppress the poor." Therefore now he says: "Sanctify a fast." The Manichaean fasts, and many heretics, and especially the Encratites, whose leader is Tatian, but this fast is worse than satiety and drunkenness. And "call a convocation," or a healing, so that through repentance we may heal our sins. In place of "assembly" the Hebrew reads ASARA, which Symmachus translated as "synod" and Aquila as "day of gathering." "Gather the elders," whose age is near to death and whose judgment is mature, and who more readily receive the fear and worship of God. Also "all the inhabitants of the land," concerning whom he had said above: "Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land," so that both the elders and the inhabitants of the land may be gathered into the house of God, which is the Church.

And when they shall be in the Church, and from the distinct flock of priests and people, of old men and inhabitants of the land, one flock shall have been made, cry out, he says, to the Lord in your hearts, and say:

(Verse 15.) "Ah, ah, ah for the day, for the day of the Lord is near, and as a devastation from the mighty one it shall come." The Septuagint: "Woe to me, woe to me, woe to me in that day! for the day of the Lord is near, and as misery upon misery it shall come." For what we have translated as "from the mighty one," and in Hebrew is called SADDAI, which we have often said is one of the ten names of God, the Septuagint translators rendered as "misery," reading SOD for SADDAI. The voice, therefore, of the priests and the people crying out to the Lord is introduced, so that they say three times, "Woe to me!" I believe because on account of the sins they had committed they had offended the holy Trinity. But that day of retribution for all sins is the one about which all the prophets write, and especially Isaiah cries out: "Behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of fury and wrath, to make the whole world a desert, and to destroy the sinners from it" (Isa. 13:9). This day is rightly called incurable, because when the day of judgment has come, there will be no place for repentance. Compared with eternity, it is near and not far off. And what follows: "And as misery upon misery shall come," or "devastation from the mighty one shall come," the sense here is that evils succeed evils, and every affliction is dispensed by God as judge, who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell (Matt. 10).

What we have said in a general way about the day of judgment, let us apply specifically to the time of the Jewish captivity, when Jerusalem was captured and the temple destroyed; for not long afterward came also the captivity of the ten and the two tribes by the Assyrians and Chaldeans. And it is foretold that it will come, so that when it has come it may not seem to have happened by chance or by the strength of enemies, but by the anger and threatening of God—or certainly, if the people will do penance, that which is to come will not come, if they remain in their sins.

(Verse 16.) «Have not foods perished before our eyes; from the house of our God, gladness and exultation?» The Septuagint: «Before your eyes foods have perished: from the house of our God, gladness and joy.» The foods of sinners perish before their eyes, when the fruits they had hoped for are snatched from their hands, and the locust gets ahead of the reaper, so that what was stored in the barns in hope, the grub and the blight consume. For those also who dwell in the Church, according to the quality of their merits, if they sin, the grain of the spirit and the barley of the letter are taken away, so that they suffer a famine of the word of God. And when the foods have been taken away, gladness and joy are consequently taken away from the house of God, so that those who once heard the Apostle saying: Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice (Philippians 4:4), may afterward hear the Lord urging them to penance: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:5).

(Verses 17, 18.) "The beasts of burden have rotted in their own dung; the granaries are destroyed, the storehouses are scattered, because the wheat is confounded; why did the animal groan, did the herds of cattle bellow? because there is no pasture for them; but even the flocks of sheep have perished." The Septuagint: "The calves have leaped about in their stalls: the treasures are scattered, the winepresses are dug out, because the wheat has dried up: what shall we lay up for ourselves? The herds of oxen have wept, because there were no pastures for them, and the flocks of sheep have perished." After the food has perished, and joy and gladness have been taken away from the house of God, the beasts of burden too have rotted in their own dung, or, according to the spiritual understanding, have grown wanton in their stalls and kicked against their Creator, so that what is written might be fulfilled: If they are not satisfied, they will murmur (Psalm 58:16). He rots in his own dung whose god is his belly, and who says: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die (Isaiah 22:13); for him the granaries of future happiness are destroyed, and the storehouses of eternal abundance are scattered, or the winepresses are overturned, because if there are no grains and wines, the granaries and winepresses are prepared in vain. And when all things have dried up, then with a tearful voice they will complain and say: What shall we lay up for ourselves?

And what follows according to the Septuagint: "The herds have wept for the good, because there are no pastures for them," compels us to understand what is said not of oxen and herds, but of those who on account of their simplicity are called oxen and sheep. Of whose pastures the Savior speaks: "He shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures" (John 10:9). But understand all these things under the metaphor of the caterpillar, the locust, the bruchus, and the blight: that, with the crops carried off and laid waste, famine and pestilence have taken possession of all things.

(Verses 19, 20.) "To you, O Lord, I will cry: for fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert, and flame has set ablaze all the trees of the region; but even the beasts of the field, as a parched threshing floor thirsting for rain, have looked up to you: for the fountains of waters have dried up, and fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert." The Septuagint: "To you, O Lord, I will cry, for fire has consumed the beautiful things of the desert, and flame has set ablaze all the trees of the field, and the beasts of burden of the plain have looked up to you, for the outpourings of waters have dried up, and fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert." With the prophet crying to the Lord, or the people through the prophet: because fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert, and flame has set ablaze all the trees of the region, the beasts and the beasts of burden of the field, or of the plain, have looked up to the Lord, like a little threshing floor thirsting for rain. For Aquila signifies this with one word, saying: "and they have looked up to him, because the fountains have dried up.

or the springs of waters, and fire has devoured the beautiful places of the desert—namely, that the locust, the grasshopper, the grub, and the blight have done this, as fire does to stubble and flame to briars. But the beautiful places of the desert, which in Hebrew are called NAOTH, let us understand either as the level plains of the fields, or the flowering meadows, or places green with grass, which provided pasture for the beasts of burden. But that the beasts cry out to the Lord through the prophet, and that they look up to him, has been caused by the fire that devoured the beautiful places of the desert, and the flame that set ablaze all the trees of the region, so that crops and fruits alike perished, and because the springs of waters dried up, and whatever could be found in the desert the devouring flame consumed. And at the same time let us consider that, were it not for distress and the removal of delights, neither the prophet nor the beasts would have cried out to the Lord or looked up to the Lord—which indeed can also be referred to a certain righteous man, who, when he has turned aside and done evil, will by no means be helped by his former virtues; but the Lord will judge him in the things in which he finds him. We can call those the beautiful places of the desert of whom it is written: More are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband (Isa. 54:1). But the flame that set ablaze all the trees of the region must be believed to be that which is sent in by the burning arrows of the devil, so that nothing of good crops remains in us, but all things are consumed by fire. For all adulterers [Al.

Every seed of the adulterer, their hearts are like an oven; and not only the prophet, or the people through the prophet, who is a rational animal (Hosea 7), but also the beasts, of which it is said: You will save men and beasts, O Lord (Psalm 35:7); and elsewhere: I have become like a beast before you (Psalm 72:23); and again: I will sow them with the seed of men and of beasts (Jeremiah 31:27)—they looked up to the Lord and earnestly sought the dew of his mercy, because the springs of waters have dried up, which the deer desires. And of these the Lord speaks through Jeremiah: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water (Jeremiah 2:13). But when the springs of waters have dried up—springs that bring and cool all things that are parched—consequently whatever was beautiful in us has been consumed by the heat of fire, of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel: I was watching Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18).

Blow the trumpet in Zion, wail on my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the earth be troubled, for the day of the Lord has come, for the day of darkness and gloom is at hand, a day of cloud and whirlwind; like the spreading dawn over the mountains, a numerous and mighty people, the like of which has not been from the beginning, and after it there will not be for years and generations. Before his face a devouring fire, and after him a burning flame; like a garden of pleasure the land before him, and after him a desert wilderness: and there is none who escapes him: like the appearance of horses, their appearance, and like horsemen so shall they run, like the noise of chariots they shall leap upon the tops of the mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring stubble, like a mighty people prepared for battle, at his face the peoples shall be tormented: all faces shall be turned into a pot, like the strong they shall run, like warriors they have ascended the wall: men shall walk in their ways, and they shall not turn aside from their paths: each one shall not press upon his brother, they shall walk each in his own path.

But they shall also fall through the windows, and shall not be destroyed; they shall enter the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up the houses, they shall enter in through the windows like a thief: at his presence the earth trembled, the heavens were moved, the sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their brightness, and the Lord gave his voice before the face of his army, because his camps are exceedingly many, because they are strong and do his word. For great is the day of the Lord and very terrible, and who shall endure it? The Septuagint: Blow the trumpet in Zion, proclaim upon my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the earth be troubled: for the day of the Lord is at hand, for the day of darkness and gloom is near, a day of cloud and frost; as the morning shall a numerous and strong people be poured out upon the mountains, there has not been the like of it from the beginning, and after it there shall not be until the years of generation of generations. Before him a consuming fire, and after him a flame kindled. As a paradise of pleasure is the earth before his face; and his latter parts, as a wilderness plain, and there shall be none that escapes him; as the appearance of horses, their appearance, and as horsemen so shall they pursue.

Like the sound of chariots leaping upon the tops of the mountains, and like the sound of a flame of fire devouring stubble, and like a numerous and strong people prepared for battle, at his face the peoples shall be crushed, every face like the scorching of a pot, like warriors they shall run, and like men of war they shall ascend upon the walls, and each one shall walk in his own way, and they shall not turn aside from their paths, each one shall not withdraw from his neighbor, weighed down with their weapons they shall go, and in their javelins they shall fall, and they shall not be consumed, they shall seize the city, and they shall run to and fro upon the walls; they shall ascend upon the houses, and through the windows they shall enter like thieves, at his face the earth shall be confounded, and the heaven shall be moved, the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall take away their light, and the Lord shall give his voice from the face of his strength, for his camps are exceedingly many, for the works of his words are strong, because great is the day of the Lord, great and exceedingly glorious, and who shall be sufficient for it? Again through the metaphor of locusts, the onslaught of the Chaldeans is described, and the prophet is commanded—or rather, through the prophet, all who are able to hear the word of God are commanded—that as with a trumpet they should lift up their voice, and proclaim in Zion, and sound the trumpet on his holy mountain, so that at the noise of the shout and the trumpet all the people of Jerusalem may tremble.

And when you have sounded, he says, say this: The day of the Lord shall no longer be delayed, that is, the day of vengeance and retribution; the captivity is at hand, the army of the Babylonians has already gone forth from its place, the day of darkness and distress is near, the day of gloom and cloud and whirlwind, in which every light of joy [variant: of justice] shall be taken away, and all things shall be overwhelmed with darkness. Just as, he says, the morning and dawn suddenly put the darkness to flight, and the dawn illumines all the mountains, so the army of the Babylonians shall be poured out over all your land. And do not think that it is a weak multitude: it is a numerous and strong people, the like of which no other nation could be found either in the past or in the future. Whatever it touches it shall consume like a devouring flame, and it shall leave nothing intact behind it; every land it has not touched is like a garden and a paradise of delight; whatever it has plundered is like a solitude and a desert, and no one can be found who may escape its hands. Their appearance is like that of fierce horses, and like horsemen they shall run hither and thither. Not that the Babylonians are compared to horsemen, but that the locusts, by a transference of meaning, are said to run hither and thither like the horsemen of the enemy. As the noise, he says, of four-horse chariots and of cars, so shall be the noise of the locusts. They shall leap upon the tops of the mountains, so as to climb over all things; and as a flame quickly consumes the stubble, so the noise and terror of their voice shall lay all things waste.

And what he adds: As a strong people prepared for battle, he again refers to the locusts, so that he may seem to speak not as it were of enemies but as it were of locusts; and yet while we read of locusts, let us think of the Babylonians. So great will the terror be that all the nations round about will shudder in soul and body, nay rather be tormented; and by the magnitude of the dread the faces of all will be turned into the likeness of a pot, which, burned by fire, shows blackness and soot to a foul sight. They shall run, he says, as mighty men, doubtless meaning the locusts; and as warriors they shall climb the wall, so that the height of walls cannot withstand the charge of the strong, and they shall enter not at all through the gates but through the walls: Each shall walk in his own ways, and they shall not turn aside from their paths. This we have lately seen in this province. For when the swarms of locusts came and filled the air that is between heaven and earth, they fly in such order by the arrangement of God who commands, that after the likeness of tesserae which are fixed in pavements by the hand of a craftsman, they keep their place, and do not turn aside to another by even a point, and, so to speak, a finger's breadth. And to make the metaphor plain, he says, And through the windows they shall fall, and they shall not break them down. For nothing is impassable to locusts, since they penetrate fields, and crops, and trees, and cities, and houses, and the secret places of bedchambers. But this is said of the locusts, that it may be understood of the enemies.

And what we have translated as "they will strike through the windows, and they will not break them down," the Septuagint rendered as "burdened in their arms they will go, and in their javelins they will fall and not be consumed." This seems to me in no way to fit the order of the exposition, but the error arose in this, that the Hebrew word SALA they understood as javelins, while we understood it as windows. And he keeps to the narrative he has begun, so as to say that they enter the city, run about on the walls, climb the houses, and enter through the windows like thieves—not that they have the fear of thieves, since they are victors; but just as thieves are accustomed to enter through windows and seize secretly, so those men, with the doors shut, so that there be no delay, will burst in through the windows with all boldness. At the face of locusts of this kind the earth trembled and the heavens were moved—which we should understand as said hyperbolically, not that locusts or enemies have such force as to be able to move the heavens and shake the earth, but that to those suffering adversity, out of the greatness of their terror, both the heaven seems to fall and the earth to surge. Finally, by the multitude of the locusts covering the sky, the sun and moon will be turned into darkness, and the stars will withdraw their brightness: the light, placed in the midst of the clouds of locusts, does not allow it to reach the earth. The Lord also will give his voice before the face of so powerful an army, because his camps are many, and the greatness of his power is demonstrated even in small living creatures.

But these many camps are exceedingly numerous and strong, and they carry out his word. By this statement it is shown that the Babylonians will come by God's will and will obey his command. Great, he says, is the day of the Lord, on which Jerusalem must be captured, and exceedingly terrible, and no one will be able to endure it, or escape from the necessity of captivity or death. I did not wish to divide a passage joined and coherent in itself, lest what was one in meaning be torn apart into different chapters. Let us pass to the spiritual understanding, going over each point one by one. We read of the blast of trumpets and horns not only in Leviticus and the book of Numbers (Lev. 23; Num. 10), where Moses is commanded to make two silver trumpets, with which those appointed to this office are to sound on the Kalends, and in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, and in the jubilee, and on the other festivals, and when they go out to war; but it is also written that the walls of Jericho fell at the blast of trumpets (Josh. 6). And the Lord says that he will send an angel with the sound of a trumpet (Matt. 24), and the Apostle proclaims that the resurrection of the dead will take place at the sound of a trumpet (1 Cor. 15). And in the Apocalypse of John too we read that seven angels received each a trumpet, and as they sounded in order, the things which Scripture describes came to pass (Rev. 8).

Therefore the command is now given to the priests and teachers to lift up their voice like a trumpet and to fulfill what is written: Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice, you who announce to Jerusalem (Isa. 40:9), so that the trumpet may sound in Zion, that is, in the Church, which is interpreted as watchtower and height, and on the holy mountain of God, which is Christ, so that all the inhabitants of the earth may be disturbed or confounded, and confusion may draw them to salvation. But understand the day of the Lord as the day of judgment, or the day of each person's departure from the body. For what will happen to all on the day of judgment is fulfilled in each individual on the day of death. It is a day of darkness and distress, a day of cloud and whirlwind, because all things are full of punishments and torments. A numerous and strong people of angels will come, to render to each according to his works; and just as the morning and the dawn rising first seizes the mountains, so judgment will begin with the exalted and the powerful, so that the powerful may suffer torments powerfully (Wis. 6). There has not been one like him from the beginning, and after him there will not be one for the years of generation and generation. For all the evils contained in ancient histories, which have befallen men either by the flooding of the sea, or by the overflowing of rivers, or by pestilence, diseases, famine, beasts, or the devastation of enemies, cannot be compared to these punishments which are to be rendered on the day of judgment.

Before the face of this people, which is strong and numerous, there will be a devouring fire, or a consuming one, so that it may consume all the hay, wood, and stubble in us. Hence it is also said of God: God is a consuming fire, and after him flames will burn (Deut. 4:24), so that he leaves nothing without punishment. Whatever this people has not touched, and has found in it no material for burning, will be likened to the garden of God and the paradise of pleasure, which in Hebrew is called EDEN. But if it has burned anyone up, it will reduce him to ashes and embers as though to a wilderness, and there is no one who can escape his fury, whose cruel aspect will have the likeness of neighing horses, and they will run about thus to torment those whom they have received into their power, like horsemen flying hither and thither. Their sound will be terrible, like that of chariots rushing down slopes; and they will leap out over the tops of the mountains, desiring to torment those who are exalted and set at the summit of the Church. And because before their face there is a devouring and consuming fire, they will lay everything waste just as flame consumes stubble; so will they come to punish, so ready and prepared will they be, like a strong people for battle. So great will be the fear of all, so great the consciousness of sins, that no one will shine or have the splendor of joy, but his face will be turned to darkness like a scorched pot.

They will climb the wall and every fortification; and, completing their work for their own advantage, they will not turn aside to the other part; but they will gape over the punishments of the wretched, and they will not be satisfied with their torments; but each one will pursue the punishments entrusted to him against the sinners. But they will also enter through the windows, or they will fall; or, weighed down by their own weapons, they will walk, and those whom they have received to be consumed will fall among their javelins. These are the windows of which Jeremiah also speaks: Death will enter through our windows (Jer. 9:21): for the enemies desire to enter all our senses, and to capture the city of a good conscience, and to run about through our fortifications, and to destroy the houses that we have built for ourselves by good works. But those who enter through the windows do all things like a thief: for they do not enter freely, so as to shoot in the dark at the upright of heart (Ps. 10). At the face of this people, which is strong and numerous, the earth trembled, and the heavens were shaken. For heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of the Lord remains forever (Matt. 24). But also the sun and the moon will not be able to see such great punishments of the wretched, and they will mourn, not having the righteousness of their own office, and instead of clear light they will be covered with dreadful darkness: the stars also will withdraw their brightness, while even those who are holy will not see the presence of the Lord without fear. In all these things the Lord will give his voice, before the face of his army.

For just as the Babylonians, when they punished Jerusalem, are called God's army, so the most wicked angels, of whom it is written: "Wrath, and anger, and tribulation, a sending in through evil angels" (Ps. 77:49), are called God's army, and their camp is named, while they do the will of the Lord. Great is the day of the Lord and terrible, of which it is written elsewhere: "Why do you desire the day of the Lord?" (Amos 5), and this is darkness and not light; and it is exceedingly terrible; and rarely or never will anyone be able to endure it without offering in himself material for its raging.

(Verses following.) "Now therefore says the Lord: Be converted to me with your whole heart, in fasting, and weeping, and mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and be converted to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and of great mercy, and ready to relent over evil: who knows if he will turn and forgive, and leave behind him a blessing, a sacrifice and a libation to the Lord our God?" The Septuagint: "And now says the Lord our God: Be converted to me with your whole heart, in fasting, in sackcloth, in weeping, and in mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments, and be converted to the Lord your God: for he is merciful and compassionate, patient and of great mercy, and repents over evils: who knows if he will return and repent, and send forth behind him a blessing, a sacrifice and a libation to the Lord our God?

The preceding chapter, from the place where it is written, "Blow the trumpet in Zion, wail on my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the earth be troubled," up to the place where we read, "Great is the day of the Lord and very terrible, who shall endure it?"—through the figure of locusts, announces the coming of the Chaldeans and the evils that are to come upon the people. Now he stirs them to repentance and exhorts them to turn to the Lord, so that, corrected with their whole mind, they may not suffer what the Lord threatens; and the sense is: all that is contained in the preceding discourse has been spoken for this reason, that I might terrify you by my threatening. Therefore turn to me with your whole heart, and show the repentance of your soul by fasting and weeping and lamentation; so that you who now fast may afterward be filled, you who now weep may afterward laugh, you who now lament may afterward be consoled. And because it is the custom, in times of sorrow and adversity, to tear your garments—which the high priest is recorded in the Gospel to have done to aggravate the charge against the Lord Savior (Matt. 26), and which we read that Paul and Barnabas did upon hearing words of blasphemy (Acts 14)—for that reason I command you not to tear your garments at all, but rather your hearts, which are full of sins, which, like wineskins, unless the vessel is torn, will burst of themselves. And when you have done this, return to the Lord your God, whom your former sins had made a stranger to you; and do not despair of pardon because of the greatness of your crimes, because great sins will be blotted out by great mercy.

For he is kind and merciful, preferring repentance of sins to death (Ezekiel 33), patient and abundant in mercy, who does not imitate human impatience but waits long for our repentance; and he is ready to be appeased, or repents, over evils, so that if we have repented over our sins, he too may repent of his threat and not bring upon us the evils with which he threatened us, and by our change of mind he himself may be changed. But "malice" in this place we should not take as the opposite of virtue, but as affliction, according to what we read elsewhere: "Sufficient for the day is its own malice" (Matthew 6:34). And: "If there is malice in a city, which the Lord has not done" (Amos 3:6). And likewise, because above he had said, "kind and merciful, patient and abundant in mercy and ready to be appeased," or "repenting over evils," lest perhaps the greatness of his clemency should make us negligent, he joins in, in the person of the prophet, and says: "Who knows if he will turn and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him?" "I," he says, "exhort, as far as it is mine, to repentance, and I know God to be ineffably clement, as David says: 'Have mercy on me, God, according to your great mercy, and according to the multitude of your compassions blot out my iniquity' (Psalm 50:1, 2).

But because we cannot know the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, I temper my judgment, and I prefer to hope rather than to presume, saying: Who knows if he will turn and forgive? What he says, "who," must be understood as either impossible or difficult. Sacrifice and libation to the Lord our God, so that after he has given blessing and forgiven us our sins, we may be able to offer sacrifices to God.

(Vers. seqq.) «Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people; sanctify the church, assemble the elders, gather the little ones and those sucking at the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her bridal chamber; between the vestibule and the altar the priests, the ministers of the Lord, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, your people, and do not give your inheritance to reproach, that the nations may not rule over them. Why do they say among the peoples: Where is their God?» The Septuagint: «Sound the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, preach healing, gather the people, sanctify the church, choose the elders: gather the little ones and those sucking at the breasts, let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her bridal chamber. Between the threshold and the altar the priests, the ministers of the Lord, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, your people, and do not give your inheritance to reproach, that the nations may not rule over them, lest they say among the nations: Where is their God?» He still exhorts them to repentance, before the hostile army comes.

Above, he says, I had said: Blow the trumpet in Zion, wail on my holy mountain, and the rest, because the day of the Lord has come, because the day of darkness and gloom is near, the day of cloud and whirlwind, announcing to you that a great and strong people is about to come, who would overturn your possessions and cities. Now, because I am kind and merciful, patient and abundant in mercy, I again command and say: Sound the trumpet in Zion, and preach repentance among the peoples; sanctify a fast, proclaim a gathering, or assembly, of which we have already spoken before; gather the people, so that one who had sinned while scattered may cease to sin when gathered. Sanctify the Church, so that there be no unholy persons in the Church, lest perhaps your prayers be hindered, and lest a little leaven corrupt the whole lump that has been cleansed (1 Cor 5). Assemble, or choose, the elders, so that not age but holiness be chosen in them. Gather also the little ones and those sucking at the breasts, so that there be no age that does not turn to the Lord; little ones and infants, of whom we read in the Psalms and in the Gospel: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise (Ps 8:3; Mt 21:16). These Peter says are nourished with rational and guileless milk (1 Pet 2); to these Paul speaks: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food (1 Cor 3:2); and the Savior also remembers them: Do not despise one of these little ones (Mt 18:10).

Let the bridegroom also come out from his chamber, and the bride from her bridal room: so that in the time of fasting, of calling and assembly, of the Church's sanctification, of the choosing of elders, of the gathering of little ones and of infants at the breast, bridegroom and bride may not be occupied with the work of marriage, to whom even by the Law it is permitted that they not go out to war. Whence also the Apostle commands that one withdraw for a little while from intercourse, so that we may be free for prayer (1 Cor 7). Therefore, whoever in chastisement of food and in fasting and almsgiving says he is doing penance, promises this in vain by his speech, unless he comes out from his chamber and fulfills a holy and pure fast with chaste penance. And what follows: Between the vestibule and the altar the priests shall weep; for "vestibule" the Seventy translated as "threshold"; Symmachus and Aquila, Theodotion set down the very Hebrew word ULAM ( ); which we can call the porch before the doors of the temple. And note what he commands the priests, who are the ministers of the Lord, that they weep between the temple and the altar, and say with the Apostle: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not burned (2 Cor 11:29)? And: Weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15). And a place suited to penance and confession is the temple and the altar; and he teaches what the priests ought to say, indeed how they should entreat the Lord: Spare, O Lord, your people; who when he was sinning was called not your people: now, after he has withdrawn from vices, he is called your people.

And lest you give your inheritance over to reproach, so that the nations may rule over them. The riddle that lay hidden is opened. For that great and strong people, which above was described under the name of the caterpillar, the locust, the bruchus, and the blight, is now more plainly shown to be what it is: And the nations, he says, shall rule over them. But the inheritance of the Lord is given over to reproach when they have served their enemies, and the nations have said: Where is their God, whom they boasted of as their leader, whom they claimed as their defender? We can interpret the nations also as the hostile powers, which, as long as we do not do penance, rule over us and reproach us and say: Where is their God? The Jews refer this passage to Gog and Magog, the most savage nations, which they say will come against Israel in the last time, concerning which it is written more fully in Ezekiel.

(Verses following) The Lord has been jealous for his land, and has spared his people: and the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold, I will send you grain and wine and oil, and you shall be filled with them, and I will no longer give you over to reproach among the nations: and him who is from the North I will remove far from you, and I will drive him out into a land pathless and desert: his face toward the eastern sea, and his end toward the last sea: and his stench shall ascend, and his rottenness shall ascend, because he has acted proudly against you.

The Septuagint reads: “The Lord has been jealous for his land, and has spared his people, and the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold, I will send you grain and wine and oil, and you shall be filled with them, and I will no longer give you up as a reproach among the nations, and I will drive away from you the one who is from the North, and I will lead him out into a land that is without water, and I will destroy his face in the first sea, and his rear parts in the last sea: and his stench has risen, and his rottenness shall rise, because his works have been magnified.” After the priests prayed on behalf of the people and said, “Spare, O Lord, your people, and do not give your inheritance over to reproach,” and the people did what was commanded, so as to sanctify the fast, proclaim the healing, gather the multitude, sanctify the Church, choose the elders, gather the little ones and those who suck at the breasts, and so that the bridegroom might go forth from his chamber and the bride from her bridal room, and they might serve not at all flesh and pleasure, but the soul and tears: the Lord was jealous for his land, which he had previously despised as if it were foreign, and had allowed to be laid waste by the ravaging locust, and he spared the penitent to such an extent that he made them worthy of his answer, and said that, since the locust, the grub, and the blight had laid waste all your fruits, therefore I will give you grain, and the rest that the prophet describes, and I will no longer hand you over to captivity.

And the Assyrian and the Chaldean who is from the north, I will remove far from you, concerning whom it was written above: A numerous and strong people, before whose face is a devouring fire, and after it a burning flame, like the appearance of horses is their appearance. And I will drive him out, he says, into a land of solitude, and his foremost parts shall fall into the eastern sea, and the latter parts into the last sea, and his stench shall rise, that is, of him who is from the north, and his rottenness, because he acted proudly. I have often reminded you that under the figure of locusts the assault of the Chaldeans is described, by which Judaea was laid waste. Therefore he preserves the metaphor in what follows, and according to the situation of the province he speaks thus, as if he seemed to be reporting not about enemies but about locusts. Even in our own times we have seen swarms of locusts have covered the land of Judaea, which afterward, by the mercy of the Lord, between the vestibule and the altar, that is, between the place of the cross and of the resurrection, while the priests and the people were entreating the Lord and saying: Spare your people, when the wind arose, were hurled headlong into the first sea and the last. Understand the first sea, which is near the wilderness and faces toward the East, to be that in which Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim once were, which is now called the Dead Sea, because no living creatures dwell there. But the last sea is that which is toward the West, and which leads into Egypt, on whose shore Gaza, and Ashkelon, and Ashdod and Joppa, and Caesarea, and the other maritime cities are situated.

And when the shores of both seas were filled with heaps of dead locusts, which the waters had vomited up, their rotting and stench was so harmful that it corrupted even the air, and a pestilence was bred among beasts of burden as well as among men. Let the learned reader ask where this was done literally concerning the Chaldeans. Not long after these things were prophesied, since we read in Isaiah that a hundred and eighty-five thousand Chaldeans were struck down in one night by the angel raging under King Hezekiah (Isa. 37). This we have said according to history. But according to tropology, every soul is the earth of the Lord, in which the father of the household sows his seed; and when it has produced tares instead of wheat—that is, oats and darnel—and has offended its Lord, and afterward has done penance, and lamenting has said, "Spare, O Lord, your people," the Lord is zealous for his land, and he will spare it which he had lately despised, and deigns to speak to it and says: I will send you grain, of which it is written: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24-25); and wine which gladdens the heart of man, and oil which makes the face cheerful, so that the old sorrow of sins may be tempered by the joy of grain and wine and oil—that is, of the virtues—and they will have such abundance of all good things that they may be filled and satisfied with them.

And when they have attained this, they will by no means be handed over to the reproach of the nations, of which the Apostle speaks: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). Him also who is from the North, of whom Jeremiah speaks: Out of the North shall evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land (Jer. 1:14); of whom Solomon also writes: The North wind is the harshest wind—him, he says, I will remove far from you, and I will drive him out into a land impassable and desolate, which has no knowledge of God, in which the Holy Spirit does not dwell. And his face shall be toward the first sea and the last sea, in those who have opened to him the door of sins, and with whom they have remained even to the final time of life, and his stench and rot ascend even upon those who promise great things to themselves, and fall through pride, because human frailty is never safe, and the more we grow in virtues, the more we ought to fear lest we fall from the heights. According to the letter, swarms of locusts the South wind rather than the North is accustomed to bring, that is, they do not come from cold, but from heat; but because he was speaking of the Assyrians, setting down a likeness of locusts, he therefore interposed the North, so that we may understand not a true locust, which is accustomed to come from the South, but under the locust the Assyrians and Chaldeans.

(And the following verses.) "Fear not, O land: exult and rejoice, for the Lord has magnified himself to act: fear not, you beasts of the field; for the beautiful things of the desert have sprouted, for the tree has brought forth its fruit, the fig tree and the vine have given their strength: and you children of Zion, exult and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you a teacher of righteousness, and he will cause the morning rain to descend upon you, and the late rain at the beginning, and the threshing floors will be filled with grain, and the winepresses will overflow with wine and oil, and I will restore to you the years which the locust, the bruchus, the mildew, and the caterpillar have eaten. My great strength, which I sent among you; and you will eat and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of your God, who has done wonders with us, and my people will not be put to shame forever: and you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am the Lord your God, and there is no other, and my people will not be put to shame forever." The Septuagint: "Take courage, O land, rejoice and be glad, for the Lord has magnified himself to act: take courage, you beasts of the field, for the fields of the wilderness have sprouted, for the tree has brought forth its fruit, the fig tree and the vine have given their strength: and you children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, for he has given you food of righteousness, and he has rained upon you the timely rain and the late rain, as from the beginning, and the threshing floors will be filled with wheat, and the winepresses will overflow with wine and oil.

And I will repay you for the years in which the locust consumed, and the bruchus and the rust, and the eruca. My great strength which I sent among you, and you shall eat, eating, and you shall be filled: and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders with you, and my people shall not be confounded forever, and you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am the Lord your God, and there is no more besides me, and my people shall not be confounded forever. To all the things which he had threatened above, he now promises the contrary. Above he had said: fire has consumed the beautiful things of the desert, and flame has set fire to all the trees of the region, and the beasts of the field like a threshing floor thirsting for rain have looked up to you: because the fountains of waters have dried up, and fire has devoured the beautiful things of the desert. Now he soothes the sadness of the joyful, and turns tears into laughter. Do not, he says, fear, you animals of the region: because the beautiful things of the desert have sprouted, because the tree has brought forth its fruit, the fig and the vine have given their strength; and there will be such abundance of all things, that grain, wine, and oil by which you may be filled will by no means be lacking to you; but the threshing floors shall be filled with grain, and the winepresses shall overflow with wine and oil, so that you may be able not only to eat yourselves, but also to provide for others.

He speaks also specifically to the sons of Sion, that they may exult and rejoice, not in any trivial thing, but in the Lord their God, who gave them the nourishment of righteousness, and, as the Seventy translated, both the early and the late rain, so that they may eat and be glad, and praise the name of the Lord their God, who has done wonders with them, and that they may by no means be confounded, and may know that the Lord God of Israel dwells in their midst, and that besides him there is no other, because the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father; and his people shall not be confounded forever. These things, according to the letter, because they were promised by the Lord, we believe have happened, and that the past barrenness was compensated by new fruits, so that whatever the locust, the bruchus, the rust, and the eruca had consumed was filled up in the following years. We ask why the eruca was called the strength, or power, of the Lord, and not only power, but great power. How was the power of God shown in the plagues of Egypt through small creatures, and especially the gnats, which are so small as scarcely to be seen by the eyes. So too now, in a small and slow worm, which can scarcely move and is crushed by a light touch, the power of God and human frailty are demonstrated. Not that God cannot, at his nod and by the majesty of his power, come to the aid of the lands and cover all things with a flood, or burn them up with lightning; but through small things, and, so to speak, mere points of bodies, he shows human frailty.

Hence we usually give this answer to Mardonius and the other heretics who tear apart the Old Testament: that God made even fleas and gnats and bugs and animals of this sort so as to show the frailty and weakness of our flesh, which is so utterly nothing that it is wounded by creatures that are small. But if the caterpillar, a slow and tiny little worm, is stronger than man, why does earth and ashes boast; and why, puffed up with pride (though it is from the ground, from which man takes his name), does human nature scorn others? Some interpret this passage as follows: we read of powers and strengths of God at the right hand and at the left, which the Greeks call virtues. At the right hand are the Seraphim and Cherubim and all the angelic powers; at the left, the opposing powers, of which it is written: He sent upon them the anger of his indignation, fury and anger and tribulation, a sending through evil angels; of which Micah also speaks in the book of Kings: I saw the Lord God of Israel sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven stood beside him on his right and on his left. I think that the spirit who went out and stood before the Lord and said, I will deceive Ahab and go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets, was on the left.

To this left and contrary power, which was suited for deceiving and practiced in bringing about ruin, and had deceived many before, God says: You will deceive and prevail: go forth and do so. That spirit also which was suffocating Saul, of which his servants said to him: Behold, an evil spirit of God makes you grow numb, was from the left-hand side, one that serves the Lord for punishing those who have deserved to be tormented on account of their sins. For not only are men ministers and avengers of his wrath against those who do evil, and bear the sword not without cause; but also the contrary powers, which are called the fury and wrath of God, which the prophet, seeking to avoid them, says: Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chastise me in your wrath. To questioners and torturers of this kind, so to speak, the Apostle handed over the sinner to the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit might be saved, of whom Satan also is one, to whom he handed over others so that they might learn not to blaspheme. This much concerning the caterpillar, why its power was called God's.

Let us pass to the order of spiritual understanding: Fear not, O earth; rather take courage and rejoice, you who before had lost the Lord's seed through your dryness, because the Lord has magnified himself to show mercy to you, to such an extent that even the beasts of the region and of the desolate wilderness were filled with new-born wool, and the wood of the cross brought forth its fruit, and the most sweet gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed their bounty upon all. You also, whom after repentance I rightly call children of Zion and of the Church, rejoice and be glad, because God the Father has given you a leader of righteousness, or has granted you the nourishment of righteousness, and has caused the early and the late rains to descend upon you (Jeremiah 5). The early rain is when we first receive doctrine; the late rain is when we receive the fruit of our labor and arrive at the perfect knowledge of the holy Scriptures. The early and the late rain can be understood as the Old and the New Testament. And not only, he says, did he give this; but he made you abound in new fruits of the virtues, and be satisfied and inebriated with grain, wine, and oil, of which we have often spoken. And the years that you had lost within yourselves while confusions reigned before, when the locust, the grub, the blight, and the caterpillar had consumed your works, God did not allow to perish for you. Then you shall eat the fruits of righteousness, and you shall be satisfied, and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God, who has done marvelous things with you.

But if after repentance God promises such great abundance of all things, what will Novatus answer, who denies repentance and that sinners can be restored to their former state, if they have performed works worthy of repentance? For God receives the penitent to such a degree that he calls them his people, and by no means asserts that they are to be put to shame; and he promises that he will dwell in their midst, and that they will no longer have another God, but will trust with their whole soul in him who remains in them forever. (And the following verses.) "And it shall be after these things: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions; but also upon my servants and my handmaids in those days I will pour out my spirit, and I will give portents in heaven and on earth, blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall be that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." The Septuagint: "And it shall be after these things: I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions; and upon my servants and upon my handmaids in those days I will pour out of my spirit, and I will give portents in heaven, and upon the earth blood, fire, and vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. And it shall be that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The blessed apostle Peter expounded this passage as fulfilled at the time of the Lord's passion, when on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended upon the believers, and they all spoke as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance, so that those present were amazed and said: Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear our own tongue in which we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the rest; but others said, What does this mean? And while others mocked and said, They are full of new wine, Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said: Men of Judea, and all you who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words: for these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass after these things, says the Lord, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and they shall prophesy, and the rest up to the passage which we have set forth in this chapter.

Since, therefore, Peter records that the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled in that time when the Lord suffered, we ask only this: how can the earlier parts, the middle, and what follows all the way to the end of the book cohere with one another, so that within a single text and sequence of discourse, a varied and discordant interpretation does not appear to gush forth? From the beginning, then, up to the place where it is written, "The day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who shall endure it?" it is a threat and a description of what the Lord is about to bring upon a sinful people. But from the place where we read, "Turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning," up to the place where it says, "Why do they say among the peoples, Where is their God?" it is the Lord's exhortation, provoking to repentance after punishments and penalties. Again, from the place that follows, "The Lord has been jealous for his land and has spared his people, and the Lord answered and said," up to the place where it is written, "And my people shall not be confounded forever," it is a promise of future things, the good things they ought to await after they have done penance. And after many things which it would now be tedious to unfold, these things too are spoken in the promise, which we are presently attempting to explain: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy," and the rest. It seems to me that from the beginning up to this place I have preserved the sequence of the discourse.

It is a matter of the greatest difficulty how the things that follow are to be fitted to those we are now discussing. One writer says that what was promised in general terms for the last time has now been fulfilled in part. And because the apostles were experiencing the reward of future things in the first coming of the Lord, he recalls certain libations and first-fruits of miracles poured forth, so that until that which is perfect should come, we might perceive that which had gone before in part. But another asserts that this is the custom of the apostolic age, according to what is written of the holy man: He shall order his words in judgment (Ps. 111:5): so that whatever they perceived to be useful for their hearers and not contrary to the present circumstances, they would confirm from testimonies of another time—not that they abused the simplicity and ignorance of their hearers, as the impious Porphyry slanders, but according to the apostle Paul, they preached in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4). And following the rule of the prophets, whatever the Jews claimed was promised to them carnally in the last time, they said was fulfilled spiritually in the first coming of the Lord Savior—especially since both they and we say that the things promised are to be fulfilled in Christ; differing only in this, that they contend they are future, while we demonstrate they have already been done. This must be discussed more fully in what follows. But all flesh upon which the Lord promises to pour out his spirit is that of which Isaiah speaks: And all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Isa. 40:5).

Therefore the salvation of God cannot be seen unless the Holy Spirit is poured out. And whoever says he believes in Christ but does not believe in the Holy Spirit will not have the eyes of perfect faith. Hence also in the Acts of the Apostles, those who had been baptized with John's baptism into him who was to come, that is, in the name of the Lord Jesus, because they answered Paul when he asked, "But we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit" (Acts 19:2), are baptized again—rather, they receive the true baptism, because without the Holy Spirit and the mystery of the Trinity, whatever is received in one or another person is imperfect. Nor indeed will everyone who has received the Holy Spirit immediately also have spiritual grace; but through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit they will obtain various graces (1 Cor 12). To some prophecy, like sons and daughters who are of greater merit; to others dreams, like the aged who are already more advanced; to others visions, like the young who have conquered the evil one. But male and female servants who still have the spirit of fear and not of love—because perfect love casts out fear—will not have prophecy, not dreams, not visions; but, content with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they will possess only the grace of faith and salvation. Then the Lord will give signs in heaven and on earth: in heaven, because the sun is turned into darkness and the moon into blood; on earth, because the earth trembled with such a violent and unusual motion that tombs were opened and rocks were split apart.

But what he says—blood and vapors, or the vapor of smoke—that blood is the one of which we read in the Psalms: That your foot may be dipped in blood (Ps. LXVII, 24). And in Isaiah: How red are your garments (Isa. LXIII, 2), and when, after the Savior's side was struck, the Roman soldier poured out mixed waters (John XIX). And the fire of the Holy Spirit which descended from heaven, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in various tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance (Acts II, seqq.). This is the fire which the Lord came to send upon the earth, and before he suffered, he desired it to burn in his disciples (Luke XII). Fire is of a twofold nature: it has light for believers; it has darkness and punishments for unbelievers, who are called vapors of smoke. This is the most bitter smoke which blinded the eyes of the Jews, of which we read in Proverbs: As smoke is harmful to the eyes, and an unripe grape to the teeth, so is iniquity to those who use it (Prov. X, 26). Of this smoke Isaiah also speaks in the great vision, in which the blindness of the Jews was foretold: And the threshold was moved, and the house was filled with smoke. Whence afterward it follows: Go, and say to this people: Hearing you shall hear, and not understand; and seeing you shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people has grown thick, and with their ears they have heard heavily (Isa.

VI, 9, 10). The sun also is turned into darkness, when it did not dare to look upon its hanging Lord, and the moon into blood—which we should believe either happened according to the historical sense and was passed over in silence by the evangelists (for not all the things that Jesus did are recorded; which if they were written one by one, I do not think that even the world itself could contain the books that are to be written, John XXI, 25), or certainly, just as the sun is turned into darkness not because it itself was changed into darkness, but because it brought darkness upon the world, so also the moon was not turned into blood, but condemned the Jews, covered over with the horror of blasphemies and of denial against Christ, by the eternal blood of its testimony, saying: His blood be upon us, and upon our children (Matt. XXVII, 25). All these things he describes as going to happen before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. But the great and terrible day of the Lord must be believed to be either that of the resurrection, or certainly, after many ages, the day of judgment, which is truly great and terrible. But because it follows: And it shall be, that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and the apostle Paul refers this to the time of the Lord's passion, it is to be understood rather of the day of the resurrection. For he says, writing to the Romans: There is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all: rich unto all who call upon him. For everyone, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.

How then will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how will they believe him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent (Rom. 10:14–15)? And what he says, "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved," let us believe is no small matter. For although the same apostle writes, "No one says 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3), nevertheless this very saying must be weighed not as a matter of speech but as an affection of the heart. For "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved." Hence both Paul and Sosthenes write to the Church of God which is at Corinth: "To those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1), according to what is read in the Psalms: "Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he himself heard them; he spoke to them in the pillar of cloud" (Ps. 99:6–7). If, therefore, it is written of the believing Corinthians, and of Moses and Aaron and Samuel, that they called upon the name of the Lord, let us believe that this grace belongs not to beginners but to the perfected.

The word of pouring out also, which in Hebrew is called ESPOCII ( ), and which all have translated similarly, shows the generosity of the gift: that the gifts of the Holy Spirit have descended not at all upon a few prophets (as once happened in the Old Testament), but upon all who believe in the name of the Savior; not upon this one and that one, but upon all flesh. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, because we are all one in Christ (Rom. 10). Hence also Agabus prophesied at Caesarea (Acts 21), and in Antioch there were very many prophets; and the Apostle instructs that if, while one is prophesying, it is revealed to another, the first should be silent (1 Cor. 14). And we read that the four daughters of Philip the evangelist prophesied (Acts 21). Old men also saw dreams, when Paul, already an old man, heard a Macedonian man saying to him: Cross over into Macedonia, help us (Acts 16:9). And all the young men who proved themselves most valiant in Christ and waged the Lord's wars saw visions, their Lord fulfilling what he promised: I multiply visions, and I was made like in the hands of the prophets (Hos. 10:12).

(Verse 32). "For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be salvation, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord has called." The Septuagint: "For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be one who has been saved, as the Lord has said, and declaring those whom the Lord has called." In the place where we have put "salvation," or "one saved," the Hebrew also has PHALETA ( ); Symmachus translated it as "who has fled." And again, where we have said "in the remnant," and the Septuagint translated "declaring," the Hebrew reads SARIDIM ( ), which the Jews consider to be the name of a place. After therefore the great and terrible day of the Lord has come, and whoever after the Lord's resurrection has called upon his name has been made saved, everyone who was in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem has been saved; for from Zion the law has gone forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isa. 2), of which it is written: "A prophet cannot perish outside Jerusalem" (Luke 13:33). The beginning, then, of those who have been saved was in Zion and Jerusalem, in the watchtower and in the vision of peace, and in those who were the remnant whom the Lord called. We ought to understand as the remnant those who believed from the people of the Jews, of whom Isaiah speaks: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah" (Isa. 1:9). These remnant the Lord called, or evangelized those whom he called; for thus the Septuagint translated it.

This passage is very difficult and admits of a manifold explanation: so that under the trope we refer all that has been said to those times to which the apostles Peter and Paul referred it, that is, when the Lord suffered and rose again. For it cannot be that we understand the earlier things as belonging to the time of the passion, and the things that follow as belonging to the day of judgment, especially since there follows: "For behold, in those days and in that time," and this little verse, connecting the lower things to the preceding, declares that all things were accomplished in one time.

(Chapter 3, and the following verses.) "For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall have turned back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations, and I will lead them down into the valley of Josaphat, and I will dispute with them there concerning my people and my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations: and they divided my land, and cast lots upon my people: and they put a boy in a brothel, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

LXX: "For behold, in those days and at that time, when I shall have turned back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations, and I will lead them down into the valley of Josaphat, and I will dispute with them there for my people and my inheritance Israel, who have been scattered among the nations; and they have divided my land, and cast lots over my people; and they have set a boy in a brothel, and sold girls for wine, and drank." Let us say, as we promised, first according to the anagogical sense, joining later things to earlier ones, and, if we can, we shall attempt to refer these same things to the day of judgment. When those who believe on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem have been saved, and the remnant of the people of the Jews have been called—those who believed with the apostles and through the apostles—at that time, after the Lord has turned back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, he who had come to preach sight to the blind and release to the captives, and freed those who confess the Lord and who dwell in the Church, in which is the vision of peace, he will gather all the nations that refused to believe; and he will lead them down into the valley of Josaphat, which, according to the Hebrew truth, is more significantly expressed in Greek, that is, "I will lead them down," and I will drag them down from the heights to the lower places. And at the same time consider that, whenever the Lord summons the unbelieving, or the hostile powers, to judgment, and disputes with them for his people: "I will lead them down," he says, "into the valley of Josaphat.

But when he exhorts believers to battle, he says: "Rouse the strong: let them come near, let all the men of war come up; let them rise up and come up, you nations, into the valley of Josaphat"—they are exhorted not to descend but to ascend. For everyone who is judged for his sins is placed in the valley which is called Josaphat, that is, the judgment of the Lord. For he who believes in the Lord will not be judged. And there he will dispute with them, not by the power of majesty, but convincing them by the truth of reason—those who divided the people of God and scattered his inheritance among the nations, so as to compel the servants of God to serve them; and they divided his land, separating it among themselves by many errors, so that some worshiped Jove, others Juno and Minerva, and Fever and Blight, and Anubis and the crocodile, and the ibis, owls, hawks, and storks. Under these names the people of God was once divided; which hostile nations, that is, the princes of this world and the rulers of darkness, not only divided the people of God among themselves, but set boys in the brothel, forcing them to change their male nature, of whom the Apostle speaks: "Therefore God handed them over to shameful passions: for indeed their women changed the natural use into that use which is contrary to nature.

Likewise also the males, having abandoned the natural use of the female, burned in their desire for one another, males working shamefulness with males, and receiving in themselves the recompense that was fitting for their error (Rom. 1, and following). Nor were they content to have done this: they sold a girl for wine, that they might drink, and preferred gluttony to lust. The Jews recall that all these things were fulfilled according to the letter in the times of Vespasian and Titus, and especially of Hadrian. But if we wish to refer what has been written to the day of judgment, we say that everyone who is saved is saved in the Church, or in the heavenly Jerusalem. And after the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem has been turned, then all are to be gathered and led down into the valley of Josaphat; and there the Lord will dispute with those who persecuted his people, and divided his inheritance among themselves, and scattered them among the nations, and cast lots upon his land—which we ought to understand not only of the heretics, who have divided God's people among themselves and make them to be Gentiles, but of every rigid and proud teacher, who under the name of doctrine and priesthood lord it over the clergy and oppress those who are subject to them. And when they have been negligent and have scandalized one of the least, they even put children into a brothel, or hand them over to prostitutes; and for the sake of their own pleasure—whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their confusion (Phil. 3)—they sell girls, that they may drink wine.

But he hands over the young men to prostitutes and sells the girls to luxury, he who for the sake of shameful gain does not rebuke those who do wrong.

(Ver. 4–6.) "But what have you to do with me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the border of the Palestinians? Will you render vengeance to me? And if you take vengeance against me, swiftly and speedily I will repay the recompense to you upon your own head. For you have taken my silver and my gold, and you have brought my desirable things and my most beautiful things into your shrines, and you have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, so that you might remove them far from their borders." The Septuagint: "What have I to do with you, Tyre and Sidon, and all the Galilee of the foreigners? Will you render retribution to me, or do you keep anger in your heart against me (for this is what the Greek means)? Swiftly and quickly I will repay your retribution upon your own heads, because you have taken my silver and my gold, and you have brought my chosen and best things into your temples, and you have sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, so that you might cast them out from their borders." And the Jews think that these things are said against Tyre and Sidon and the borders of the Palestinians, or the Galilee of the foreigners, because in the time of the Jewish captivity, when they were conquered by the Romans, they persecuted the people of God—indeed, in the people of God, God himself who presided over the people, according to that which is written: "Whoever receives you, receives me" (Matthew 10:40).

Therefore, on the contrary, whoever persecutes the people of God persecutes God himself, whose people they are. "I will repay," he says, "to you what you have done to my people: because you have taken my silver and gold," that is, the vessels of the temple, and whatever was most precious and beautiful in it—the golden lampstand and the golden table of the showbread, and the two golden cherubim, and the mercy seat, and the golden bowls and censers—"and you have consecrated them to your idols" (2 Kings 25). Now history relates that the Chaldeans did this rather, who placed the vessels of the Lord's temple in the temple of Bel; whence afterward Belshazzar drank from the bowls, and immediately his kingdom was transferred to the Medes and Persians (Dan. 5). But because these things are said to be future after the great and terrible day of the Lord—which we interpret as fulfilled in the apostles at the Lord's resurrection, while the Hebrews defer it to the future time of judgment—it is rather to be understood of the Romans: that Vespasian and Titus, after the temple of Peace had been built at Rome, consecrated the vessels of the Temple and all the votive offerings in that god's shrine; Greek and Roman history relates this. At that time the sons of Judah and Jerusalem (by no means Israel and the ten tribes, who to this day dwell in the cities and mountains of the Medes) were sold to the sons of the Greeks, so that they might be driven out from their territories, and the whole world was filled with Jewish captivity. This they report, so that they may confirm that the vengeance for the blood of Christ and the overthrow of Jerusalem, which happened by God's judgment, came about against Tyre and Sidon through them.

But we, following the tropology we have begun, will interpret Tyre and Sidon and the Palestinians as those who hem in and afflict and persecute the people of God (for Tyre in our language means this) and hunt them to death, which the name Sidon indicates, and who, drinking blood, fall down, or wallow in the mire, which Philistia and Galilee signifies. Quickly and swiftly the Lord will restore to them what they deserve, because they have persecuted him. And his silver and gold, namely the utterances of the Scriptures and, that is, the sentences, and everything that was beautiful in the Church, they have enslaved to their own errors. Whatever heretic he has deceived, and made to worship his idols, he sells the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the Greeks, or to the gentiles, and makes them from Christians into pagans: so as to drive them out from their own borders, in which they had been begotten in Christ, and so that they may no longer be in Judea and in the confession of the truth, but may be engaged in the error of the gentiles. All these things we can also refer to the day of judgment, with no discrepancy in the vengeance, although in time they seem to differ from the foregoing. For Galilee, in the Hebrew, is written GALILOTH, which Aquila and Symmachus translated as "borders"; but the other, that is, "heaps of sand," let us refer to the shores of Palestine, not to the Philistine Galilee, which does not exist at all.

(Verses 7–8.) “Behold, I will raise them up from the place where you sold them, and I will turn your recompense upon your own head, and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabaeans, a distant nation, because the Lord has spoken.” The Septuagint has: “Behold, I will raise them up from the place where you sold them, and I will repay your recompense upon your heads, and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them into captivity to a nation that is far away, because the Lord has spoken.” The Hebrew word SABAIM, which Aquila and Symmachus translated just as it is written, the Septuagint rendered as “captivity,” which more properly means “captives.” Now Sabaim is said to be a nation beyond India, from which also came the queen of Saba, who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 10), and of whom Isaiah also speaks: “And the Sabaim, lofty men, will pass over to you” (Isa. 45:14). Whence also frankincense is said to come, as Virgil says (Aeneid 1), although some suspect the Sabaeans are Arabs. The Jews therefore promise themselves—indeed, they dream—that in the last time they will be gathered by the Lord and brought back to Jerusalem.

Nor are they content with this prosperity: they claim that God himself will deliver the sons and daughters of the Romans into their hands, so that the Jews may sell them—not to Persians and Ethiopians and the other nations that are nearby, but to the Sabaeans, a most distant people—because the Lord has spoken and will avenge the wrong done to his people. This is what those Judaizers among us also say, who promise themselves a kingdom of a thousand years within the borders of Judea, and a golden Jerusalem, and the blood of sacrifices, and sons and grandsons and incredible delights, and gates adorned with a variety of gems. But let us say that the Lord has raised up after his coming, and daily raises up, and will raise up those whom various error had led out from their own territories. And well does he say, I will raise up, as it were, those who lie fallen and ruined, so that those who lay in heresy may stand in the Church, rendering to the heretics what they did: that their sons and daughters, whom they had instructed both in mystical and in carnal matters, he may deliver into the hands of the sons of Judah, into the hands of those who have been leaders of the Churches, and have been equipped with the armor of the Apostle, and hold the shield and spear of the Old and New Instrument. So that when they have taken them, they may sell their sons and daughters to the Sabaeans and make them captives, so that they may be far from their own territories; and, converted to better things, they may begin to be subject to ecclesiastical doctrines.

... and with Sabaean incense the altars are warm.

(Following verses) “Proclaim this among the nations: sanctify war: rouse the strong. Let them draw near, let all the men of war come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your mattocks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ Break forth and come, all you nations from round about, and gather yourselves together; there the Lord will make your strong men fall.” The Septuagint: “Proclaim these things among the nations: sanctify war, rouse the fighters, bring and come up, all you men of war. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your sickles into spears. Let the strong say, ‘I prevail.’ Gather yourselves and enter, all you nations round about: and gather yourselves there, let the fighter be gentle.” This passage is understood in two ways: for some think that these things are proclaimed to the holy nations, that they may be prepared for war and fight on behalf of the people of God, so that they turn all the instruments of agriculture into swords and spears, so that the weak may say he is strong, and all may come from round about and be gathered for the Lord’s contest, especially because according to the Septuagint it follows: “Let the fighter be gentle and meek,” in accordance with what is written in Paralipomenon (1 Paral.

(Joel 3:8): And beyond the Jordan, from Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in all their weapons of war, a hundred and twenty thousand: all these men, warriors ready for battle with a peaceful mind. They wish these to be imitators of the true David, of whom we read: Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness (Ps. 131:1). And he himself says in the Gospel: Learn from me, for I am humble and gentle (Matt. 11:29), or meek. They also wish these to be understood as men who, destroying the beginnings of little children, have come to the strength of perfect age, and who have turned all the zeal with which they formerly cultivated the fields of their souls to the necessity of battle. But to us, following the opinion of the Hebrews, this seems to be contrary. For it is for this reason that the nations hostile to Israel are prepared for battle, and change their plows and mattocks, or their sickles, into swords and spears (Isa. 2), and the weak man declares himself strong, and they burst forth and come from round about, and are gathered together against the army of the Lord, so that the Lord may make their strong men fall, and they may understand that, with God opposing them, they have been overcome. This miserable Israel promises itself according to the letter. But we, according to the tropology we have begun, can understand both the nations of demons and those who daily fight against the Church, and at the last those who under the Antichrist will fight against the saints of the Lord, who are gathered together for this very reason, that they may perish.

(Vers. seqq) «Let the nations arise and come up to the valley of Josaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about: send forth your sickles, for the harvest is ripe. Come and go down, for the winepress is full: the vats overflow, for their wickedness is multiplied.» LXX: «Let all the nations arise and come up to the valley of Josaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about: send forth your sickles, for the vintage is at hand. Enter and tread, for the winepress is full, and the vats overflow, for their evils are filled up.» And these things, according to the foregoing sense, are interpreted in two ways. For some understand it in a good sense that the nations come up to the valley of Josaphat, which is interpreted as the judgment of the Lord, and that God sits there to judge all the nations that come from round about: namely, that the saints also may be gathered against the adversaries of God, and may send forth their sickles to reap the ripe harvest of the enemies, and may come and go down and tread the winepresses, because the vintage is at hand, and the new wine overflows to such an extent that the winepresses cannot contain it. And so that we might know what the vintage is, and what the full winepress is, he added: Their wickedness is multiplied, doubtless signifying those who have gathered together against the Lord.

But others assert that the nations will rise up and assemble in the valley of Josaphat, and the Lord will sit to judge all the nations, for this reason: that they may be able to take up and put on all the weapons of warriors, and be cut down in the valley of Josaphat by the Lord's sickles. For the time of judgment has come against them, and their evils have grown so great that they have overcome God's patience. For the Amorites too were then driven out, when their sins were completed. The Jews refer this passage to Gog and Magog, the most savage nations, of whom we have spoken above, thinking that in the last time, when Jerusalem has been restored, under the reign of a thousand years they will come against the people of God, and will fall in the valley of Josaphat, which is situated on the eastern side of the temple; for the time of their slaughter has come, and the vintage of pouring out blood is at hand.

(Vers. 14, 15.) «Peoples, peoples in the valley of concision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of concision. The sun and moon have been darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their splendor.» The Septuagint: «I have heard sounds in the valley of judgment, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment; the sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall make their splendor to fall.» In the place where we have put, peoples, peoples, and the Septuagint has translated, sounds have been heard, in Hebrew is written, AMONIM, AMONIM ( ), which certainly signifies the multitude and crowds of those who are to be judged, and the din and sound.

Again, where we have said "in the valley of concision," following the translation of Aquila and Symmachus and the fifth edition, the Seventy and Theodotion translated it as "of cause and of judgment"; in place of this, the Hebrew has HARUS, which the Hebrews think means not only "concision" but also "gold"—namely, that in the valley of judgment, which they suppose to be Gehenna, once the dross of sins has been burned away, pure gold may remain. For this reason, then, the peoples of the nations, of whom we spoke above in the valley of judgment or of concision, are gathered together, so that they may be killed and fall, and be judged by the Lord. The sorrow of that day and the torments of those who perish—not even the sun, nor the moon, nor the other stars will be able to look upon; but they will withdraw their brightness, and they will not dare to behold the severity of the Judge who renders to each one his work upon his own head. Not that they are more merciful than God's judgments, but that every creature, in the torments of others, may be terrified concerning its own judgment.

(Verses 16, 17.) "And the Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give forth his voice, and the heavens and the earth will be moved, and the Lord is the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain, and Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will no longer pass through it." The Seventy: "But the Lord will cry out from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give forth his voice, and heaven and earth will be moved, and the Lord will spare his people, and will strengthen the children of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain, and Jerusalem will be holy, and the foreigner will no longer pass through it." When the splendor of the sun and moon and of all the stars has been changed into darkness, the Lord will roar from Zion like a lion, or cry out, and his voice will be so lofty and terrible that the hinges of the heavens and the foundations of the earth are shaken. And though he is so severe toward those who are to be punished, he will be merciful toward his people, and will give strength to those who are called the children of Israel—that is, the mind that sees God; or, as we may most rightly say, the mind of God—those who have not walked along crooked paths, but walking in the way of Christ have done all things uprightly. Then both those who are to be punished and those who are to be taken up into glory will know that the Lord dwells in his watchtower Zion, and in Christ his holy mountain, or in him who has prepared himself to be a worthy dwelling place of God.

Then holy Jerusalem will be the vision of peace, from which Solomon also received his name, and foreigners will no longer pass through it. Understand the foreigners either as demons, who are estranged from God, or as all the most wicked thoughts and sins, of which the Prophet speaks: "From strangers spare your servant" (Ps. 18:14); these would no longer find a way in us if we hold God's peace and our heart lies not open to adversaries. This, as we have said, the Jews and our Judaizers refer to the fable of a thousand years, when they think Christ will dwell in Zion, and peoples of the saints will be gathered into a golden and jeweled Jerusalem, so that those who in this age were oppressed by all nations may in this same age rule over all nations.

(Verse 18.) "And it will be in that day: the mountains will drip sweetness, and the hills will flow with milk, and through all the streams of Judah waters will go." The Septuagint: "And it will be in that day: the mountains will drip sweetness, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the outpourings of Judah will flow with waters." With the Lord dwelling in Zion and on his holy mountain, when no one has attempted to pass through holy Jerusalem, whoever has been a mountain in it and has reached the heights of the virtues will sweat sweetness and honey, and spiritual graces will drip from him, of which the Prophet speaks: "How sweet to my throat are your words, beyond honey to my mouth" (Ps. 118:103)!

But the one who is lower than the mountains, and has not yet ascended to the summit of perfection, will be called a hill, and rivers of milk will flow from him, by which the tender infancy of one newly begun in Christ is nourished, and rivers of waters, which the Lord testified flow from his belly (John 7). For all the rivers, or the outpourings of Judah, will be filled with waters, and nothing in them will be dry, since all things overflow with spiritual grace. “And a fountain will go forth from the house of the Lord, and will water the torrent of thorns.” For “the torrent of thorns,” the Seventy translated as “the torrent of cords,” that is, which signifies either cords, or, according to the Egyptians, the measure of a fixed journey, as the Psalmist says: You have searched out my path and my cord (Psalm 138:3). For on the river Nile, or on its streams, ships are accustomed to be towed with ropes, having fixed intervals which they call “cords,” so that the necks of those pulling may be refreshed in place of the labor of the weary. Nor is it strange if each nation calls fixed stretches of road by its own names, since both the Latins call them a thousand paces, and the Gauls leagues, and the Persians parasangs, and all Germany rastas, and in each name there is a different measure. These things are said because the Hebrew word SATTIM the Seventy translated as “cords.” Otherwise, no one doubts that all the things which we read in the tabernacle of God were made perfect from the wood of Settim, which the Seventy interpreted as incorruptible wood.

But there is a kind of tree in the desert, similar to a white thorn in color and leaves, though not in size. Otherwise, they are trees so large that very broad planks are cut from them, and the wood is very strong, and of incredible lightness and beauty, so that even the vats of the winepresses, as they call them, are made from them by the wealthiest and most diligent, and these woods are not found in cultivated places, and in Roman soil, apart from the wilderness of Arabia. For “the torrent of cords,” or “of thorns,” Symmachus translated as “the valley of thorns.” Now there is a place next to Livias, across the Dead Sea, six miles distant from it, where Israel once committed fornication with the Midianites. The prophet Micah mentions this place in the person of God, saying: My people, remember, I pray, what Balak, king of Moab, devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered, from Shittim to Gilgal. In place of this the Seventy also translated there, that is, “from the cords to Gilgal.” Therefore a fountain will go forth from the house of the Lord, which is interpreted as the Church. Concerning this both Ezekiel and Zechariah set it down at the end of their books, so that our thorns and vices and sins, which bore no fruit of righteousness, may be changed into the Lord’s new fields, and our dryness may be watered with most abundant waters, and in place of thorns and briars we may bring forth the manifold flowers of the virtues.

And in that place where Israel once committed fornication and was initiated into Beelphegor, let lilies of chastity and roses of modesty and virginity abound.

(Verse 19.) "Egypt shall be a desolation, and Idumea shall be a desert of perdition, because they have dealt wickedly against the children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land." The Septuagint: "Egypt shall be in perdition, and Idumea shall be a plain of desolation, because of the iniquities of the children of Juda, for they have shed just blood in their land." And in this place the Jews sleep a most heavy sleep: in the last time, when they are to receive not Christ but Antichrist, they fashion for themselves, with vainest hope, vengeance upon the Egyptians who are near, and upon the Romans, whom they interpret as the Idumeans. That is, just as Pharaoh and all his army, which for four hundred and thirty years held the people of God captive, was drowned in the Red Sea, so also the Romans, who for the same span of years are to possess the Jews, may be destroyed by the vengeance of the Lord. This let them promise themselves in their empty hope. For they cannot explain why, when there are so many nations in the world, only two peoples, of the Egyptians and the Idumeans, are sought out for punishment; or why the Romans should be understood in place of the Idumeans, when with the same license of lying we could assert on the other side that under the name of the Idumeans are signified the Persians or the Elamites, or the Franks, the Alemanni, and other nations.

But let us say that at the time of the Lord's resurrection, or on the day of judgment (for we accept both), both Egypt and Idumea are to be destroyed in that they are Egypt and Idumea. Egypt is called Mesraim, which is interpreted as meaning one who persecutes and afflicts the saints of God; Idumea means earthly, or bloody. Therefore, whoever has persecuted the people of God, and has devoted himself to earthly works, and by a multitude of sins daily sheds innocent blood—namely, of those whom he deceives—will be unto perdition, as we know the souls of the martyrs under the altar have cried out: How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?

(Verses following.) "And Judaea shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation: and I will cleanse their blood, which I had not cleansed, and the Lord shall dwell in Sion." The Septuagint: "But Judaea shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation, and I will require their blood, and I will not suffer it to go unpunished, and the Lord shall dwell in Sion." Surely this is not the Judaea that shall be inhabited forever, which we see to be desolate; not this Jerusalem, whose ruins we behold; but that Judaea whose daughters exulted and rejoiced in all the judgments of the Lord. And of which we read at the end of the fiftieth psalm: Deal kindly, O Lord, in your good will with Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built.

In this province of confession and glory, and in this city in which the peace of the Lord is beheld, there will be an eternal dwelling place, not for one generation, or three, or more, but "for generation and generation"—that is, in the two generations of those who have believed, both from among the Jews and from among the Gentiles. And the Lord will cleanse the blood of all sins, which he had not previously cleansed, so that in the Gospel he may cleanse those whom, sinning under the Law, he had left unclean. For this reason he "shut up all things under sin, that he might have mercy on all" (Rom. 11); or he will avenge the blood of his servants, which they shed in martyrdom for the confession of his name. And the Lord will dwell in Zion, of which it is written: "Her foundations are in the holy mountains; the Lord loves the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob" (Ps. 86:1).