Commentariorum In Abacuc Prophetam Libri Duo

THE TWO BOOKS OF THE COMMENTARIES OF SAINT JEROME THE PRIEST OF STRIDON ON THE PROPHET HABAKKUK, ADDRESSED TO CHROMATIUS.

PROLOGUE.

First, Chromatius, most learned of bishops, we ought to know that among the Greeks and Latins the name of the prophet Ambacum is read incorrectly, who among the Hebrews is called Abacuc, and is interpreted as "embraces"—or, to translate more significantly into Greek, 1, that is, "embracing." Then, where the Seventy translators and Symmachus and Theodotion, that is, have interpreted it as "assumption," in the Hebrew is placed MASSA, which Aquila renders as "weight"; concerning which we have disputed more fully in the prophet Nahum. Now "massa" is never prefixed in a title except when what is seen is grave and full of weight and labor. Whence it is necessary that the present prophecy have something of austerity, so that just as in Nahum the weight that was seen against Nineveh, the city of the Assyrians, was grave, so also in this one it may be asked to whom the weight is that is revealed to the prophet's sight. Moreover, there are four prophets in the volume of the twelve prophets, of whom three have "weight," that is, as a title at the beginning: Nahum, Abacuc, and Malachi. Furthermore, Zacharias in the middle and near the end sets two titles of this kind. Of these one is: The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus its rest (Zach. IX, 1); the other at the end, The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel (Zach.

Concerning Nahum, a book has already been published by your prayers; concerning Zechariah and Malachi, if life accompanies me, it will be discussed. Now we have Habakkuk in our hands, who either from the fact that he is the beloved of the Lord is called "embrace," or because he enters into contest and struggle and, so to speak, an embrace with God, he has received the name of one who embraces, that is, of one who wrestles. For no one has dared with such bold voice to provoke God to a dispute of justice and say to him: Why is there such iniquity in human affairs and in this world? I cry out to you, suffering violence, and you will not save? Why have you shown me iniquity and made me see labor? The law is torn apart, and judgment has not reached its end, because the impious prevails against the just; therefore judgment goes forth perverse. You see that it is a rash voice and in a certain manner of one blaspheming thus to provoke his creator to judgment, and for a fragile vessel against the potter to dispute why such and such a thing has been made. And also this must be noted, that the assumption or burden, which we have already said are heavy things, is the prophet's vision, and he understands what he sees contrary to the perverse dogma of Montanus: nor does he speak as one out of his mind, nor after the manner of raving women does he give forth sound without sense. Whence also the Apostle commands that if, while others are prophesying, it has been revealed to another, those who were speaking before should be silent, and immediately: For God, he says, is not of dissension but of peace.

XIV). From this it is understood that when someone is silent by choice and gives another the opportunity to speak, he can both speak and be silent when he wishes. But one who speaks in ecstasy, that is, unwillingly, has neither silence nor speech in his own power. Learn this also (since you once forcefully demand it of me, that I may interpret the historical sense for you as it were by certain steps and a ladder for one striving toward higher things): that the prophecy is against Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans; so that just as the earlier prophet Nahum, whom Habakkuk follows, had a prophecy against Nineveh and the Assyrians, who devastated the ten tribes that were called Israel, so Habakkuk may have a prophecy against Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, by whom Judah and Jerusalem and the temple were overthrown. And that you may know Habakkuk was of that time when the two tribes that were called Judah had already been led into captivity, Daniel will be able to teach you, to whom Habakkuk is sent with a meal into the lions' den (Dan. 14). Although among the Hebrews this same story is not read. Therefore, whether one receives that Scripture or does not receive it, either way it is in our favor: for either he receives it, and the book of Habakkuk is composed after the event had already happened; or he does not receive it, and he writes as a prophet the things he knows are to come.

BOOK ONE.

(Ch. 1—verses 1, 2.) "How long, Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I shall cry out to thee, suffering violence, and thou wilt not save? Why hast thou shown me iniquity and grief, to see plunder and injustice against me?" The Septuagint: "How long, Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? I shall cry out to thee, suffering violence, and thou wilt not save? Why hast thou shown me labors and griefs, to see misery and impiety?" Meanwhile, according to the letter, the prophet brings a complaint against God: why does Nebuchadnezzar lay waste the temple and Judah? Why is Jerusalem, once the city of the Lord, destroyed? Why does the people cry out and not be heard? Why does one oppressed by the Chaldeans cry out to the Lord and not be saved? Why, moreover, has the prophet himself—or the people in whose person he now speaks—lived for this, and been brought to this point, that he should see the iniquity of the enemy and his own labor? Why does injustice prevail against him? And he says this out of the anguish of his mind, not knowing that gold is refined in fire, and that the three youths came out of the furnace purer than they had entered (Dan. 3).

But we can also take it in a general sense, that the prophet, seeing from the person of human impatience sinners abounding and possessing riches in the world, their sons like a young plantation in their youth, and their daughters adorned like the likeness of a temple; their storehouses full, overflowing from this to that, their sheep fruitful and multiplied in their ways, and the rest which is written fully in the hundred and forty-third psalm, breaks forth into a querulous voice and one full of grief. Why dost thou look upon the contemptuous, and art silent, when the impious tramples underfoot the one more just than himself: and makest men like the fishes of the sea, and like creeping things that have no leader? We read something of this kind also in the seventy-second Psalm: But my feet were almost moved, my steps were almost slipped (Ps. LXXII, 2), and the rest. And again in the same Psalm: And if there is knowledge in the highest. Behold, for sinners and those abounding in the world have obtained riches, and the rest up to, my hands (Ibid. 11, 12). But these things they speak not knowing the judgments of God which are unsearchable (Rom. XI), and the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge, because God does not see as man sees (I Reg. XVI). Man regards only things present: God knows things future and eternal. And just as if a sick man and one burning with fevers should ask for cold water, and say to the physician: I suffer violence, I am tormented, I burn, I am faint: how long, physician, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear?

And let the most wise and most merciful physician answer him: I know at what time I ought to give what you ask; I do not show mercy now, because that mercy is cruelty, and your will asks for what is against you. So too our Lord God, knowing the weights and measures of his clemency, sometimes does not hear the one who cries out, so as to test him, and all the more to provoke him to ask, and, as if refined by fire, to make him more righteous and purer. Understanding this, the Apostle, according to the mercy he obtained from the Lord, says: Let us not grow weary in tribulations (Eph. 3:13); and he blesses God at all times (Ps. 33); and he knows that whoever perseveres to the end will be saved (Matt. 10:22). And he glories in labor and sorrow. And with Jeremiah he says: I will call upon tribulation and misery. So that, just as another calls upon God, so the holy man and invincible warrior, in order to exercise and test himself, desires tribulation and misery to come.

Verses 3–4. "And judgment was made, and contradiction more powerful: therefore the law is torn apart, and judgment has not reached its end: because the impious prevails against the just, therefore perverse judgment goes forth." The Septuagint: "Judgment was made against me, and the judge receives: therefore the law is torn apart, and judgment has not reached its end: because the impious prevails against the just, therefore perverse judgment goes forth." The prophet, or the people, still speaks to the Lord, saying that judgment was given against him not by truth but by power, and that he obtained nothing from the law and justice. Hence even that judgment did not have its own end. But the end of judgment is to judge justly. And why he dares to say this, he shows in what follows, saying: Because the impious Nebuchadnezzar prevailed against the just Judah (2 Kings 24), and this is the reason why he said that judgment had not reached its end; because it is unjust and perverse that Josiah the just king should be slain by the king of Egypt (2 Kings 23); that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah should serve (Dan. 3); and that the Babylonian emperor should rule, and Belshazzar should drink from the vessels of God among his harlots and concubines (Dan. 5). The prophet says these things about the state of his own times (for we follow, since you once willed it, even the lowliness of history).

But according to the Septuagint, the common complaint of the saints to God is why unjust judgment is rendered against them, and why they shed innocent blood in persecutions; and if at any time they stand before the tribunal of secular courts, the judge, having received bribes, condemns the innocent and sets the guilty free. This can indeed be said not only of secular judges but sometimes also of the leaders of the churches, that for the sake of gifts they tear the law apart and do not carry judgment through to its end, and the impious prevails against the just, and in judgment the sin of the rich man is defended more than the truth of the poor man. Hence the complaint is that judgment comes forth perverse; but we ought not to be disturbed over this inequality of things, seeing that even at the beginning of the world the just Abel was killed by the impious Cain (Gen. 4), and afterward, while Jacob exulted, Esau reigned in his father's house (Gen. 28), and the Egyptians afflicted the sons of Israel with mud and brick; and the Lord, against whom the complaint is now directed, is crucified by the Jews (John 19), and Barabbas the robber is chosen (John 18). The day will fail me if I wish to enumerate how in this world, with the impious prevailing, the just are oppressed.

(Verse 5.) “Look among the nations and see, and be amazed, and be astonished, for a work has been done in your days that no one will believe when it is told.” The Septuagint: “Look, you despisers, and regard, and be amazed at wonders and be destroyed, for I am working a work in your days that you will not believe if anyone tells it.” Symmachus, for what we rendered as “for a work has been done in your days,” translated as “for a work will be done in your days”; the rest similarly. Again, at the beginning of the chapter, where in Hebrew it is written RAU BAGGOIM ( ), and we translated “look among the nations,” the Septuagint put “look, you despisers”—except for Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, who agree with our interpretation. In a certain other edition I found “you will see slanderers,” and in another likewise, without the author’s name, “you will see those who turn aside.” Therefore, to the earlier complaints of the prophet protesting and saying, “How long, Lord, shall I cry out and you will not hear?” and the rest up to the end of this preface, the voice of the Lord responding is introduced, so that this iniquity, which he thinks is being done in Israel alone, he may perceive among the nations; and that it is not only Judah and Jerusalem that have been handed over to the Chaldeans, as the prophet supposed, but all the nations round about; and that he will prevail so greatly, and afterward fall, that if anyone foretells what is to come, by reason of the magnitude of the matter it will seem incredible.

But also this, which the LXX and the other translators have set forth—“Look, you despisers,” or “you will see the slanderers and those who turn aside”—fits the sense of this passage, and from this very speech they are convicted of audacity and of contempt toward the Lord; in whose person the prophet had cried out, asking why they dared to despise the majesty of God, and to speak rashly, and, as far as in them lay, to slander God’s providence, and to turn aside from the Lord by accusing him of iniquity. You will see, therefore, the despisers, and then you will marvel, and you will count all your complaint as nothing, when you have perceived that I am doing something in your days; lest perhaps you say: “What does the future have to do with us?” The work will be so great, and will suppress every excuse of yours, that if anyone now foretold that it was going to happen, you would not readily give credence. But what this work is is shown in what follows.

(Verse and following.) “For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching across the breadth of the earth, to possess tabernacles not its own; it is dreadful and terrible; from itself its judgment and its burden will go forth.

His horses are swifter than leopards and faster than evening wolves, and his horsemen will spread out; for his horsemen will come from far away; they will fly like an eagle hastening to devour; all will come for prey, their faces like a scorching wind; and he will gather captivity like sand, and he himself will triumph over kings, and tyrants will be his laughingstock; he himself will laugh at every fortification, and he will heap up a siege mound and capture it; then his spirit will be changed, and he will pass on and fall; this is the strength of his God. The LXX: "For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, which walks over the breadth of the earth, to possess tabernacles not its own; it is terrible and illustrious; its judgment will be from itself, and its taking up will go out from itself. And his horses will leap out beyond leopards, and they will be faster than the wolves of Arabia, and his horsemen will ride, and they will come with a rush from afar; and they will fly like an eagle prompt to devour; destruction will come upon the impious who resist their faces from opposite, and he will gather captivity like sand; and he himself will delight in kings, and tyrants will be his sport; and he himself will mock every fortification, and he will send a siege mound, and he will obtain it; then he will change his spirit, and he will pass over, and he will be propitiated; this is the strength of my God.

What I had said to you: Look among the nations, and see, and be amazed, and be astonished: for a work will be done in your days which no one will believe when it is told—this is what the following passage describes: Behold, I will raise up Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, a most warlike and swift nation, whose strength and boldness for war almost all the Greeks who wrote barbarian histories are witnesses to. This nation is not content with its own borders, but running hither and thither roams over the breadth of the earth. And this is its work, not to work the land with the plow, but to live by plunder and the sword, and to possess cities not its own; before it lays on its hand, before it bursts forth to war, it carries terror in its face. But what it says: From itself its judgment and its burden shall go forth—for which Symmachus translated: it will judge for itself, and by its own decree it will go forth—is either to be understood thus, that it appoints princes from its own people, and its power and sword will have no attendants from other nations; or certainly, as it has done, so it shall be done to it, and it will be laid waste just as it has laid waste. Its horses too and horsemen, who will come from far away, will be so swift to pursue and to lay all things waste that they will surpass leopards and evening wolves. Indeed, wolves are said to be fiercer as night draws near, and all day long, goaded to madness by hunger.

The horsemen will therefore fly not to fight, since no one will resist, but to range about like an eagle, to which all things among the birds are subject, hastening to devour. And just as at the blast of a scorching wind all green things dry up, so at their sight all things will be laid waste, and so great will be the number of captives and of plunder that it can be equated even with the sand. He himself too, that is, Nabuchodonosor, will reign in the whole world, and, triumphing over kings before his chariot, he will hold them in derision and count them among his delights; and he will be of such great power and pride that he will strive to surpass nature, and to capture the most strongly fortified cities by the strength of his army. For he will come to Tyre, and, casting up a mound into the sea, he will make a peninsula of an island, and the land will provide an entrance into the city amid the waves of the sea. For this reason he will laugh at every fortification, and he will heap up a mound, and capture it, that is, the fortification, or Tyre; which indeed is clearly shown in Ezekiel, where it is said: Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, subdued his army with great labor against Tyre. Every head was bald, and every shoulder was stripped bare, and no wages were given to him and to his army against Tyre, and for the work in which he served against her (Ezek. 29:18). But when he has heaped up the mound, and nothing has stood in the way of his forces, then his spirit will be changed into pride; and believing himself to be a god, he will set up a golden image in Babylon, which he will compel all nations to worship.

When it has done this, it will pass into the form of a beast, and afterward it will fall; for this Aquila and Symmachus translated as, that is, "and it shall offend": the holy Scripture having this custom, that it places VASAM ( ), that is, "it shall offend," in place of that which is, "it shall cease to be what it was." We have something of this kind also in the idiom of our own language, saying: "The army was beaten," in place of that which is, "it was killed and cut down"; and, "The vineyard and the field sinned," in place of that which is, "the vintage and the crops had no yield." But what is said at the end of the chapter: "This is the strength of his God," is to be read so that the sense is: This is his strength, which Bel his god gave him. To whose worship he was compelling all nations even through Scripture and the threat of death by a most savage empire. These things according to the Hebrew; now let us come to the Seventy, so that, with the individual sentences set forth, we may fit an allegorical interpretation to them. Behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, which walks upon the breadth of the earth, to possess tabernacles not its own. God threatens against those who despise and slander his providence, that he will raise up the Chaldeans, which is interpreted as "like demons"; either signifying the worst angels, who minister to his fury and wrath, and to the tribulation which he brings upon sinners; or the souls of the worst of men, through whom he torments those who deserve it. But those Chaldeans are a bitter and swift nation, sparing no one and quickly fulfilling what has been commanded them.

And he walks upon the breadth of the earth. For wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, along which that rich man in the Gospel also walked, who shone in purple, and those of whom it is said: Who sleep upon beds of ivory, and abound in delights upon their couches. Who eat calves from the herds, sucklings, and drink strained wine, and are anointed with the finest ointments: who, because they walk in the wide way, are called the breadth of the earth, which is trodden by the footsteps of the Chaldeans. For they refused to walk through the narrow and strait way, which leads to life, and through which Paul walked, glorifying God in tribulation and distress. But the Chaldeans walk upon the breadth of the earth, that they may possess tabernacles not their own. For every rational soul, although through its vice and fault it has been made a lodging of the Chaldeans, is nevertheless by nature a tabernacle of God. And although in the Gospel the most wicked demon says: I will go into my house from which I came out, he is not to be believed; since no rational creature was made for this, that it be a dwelling of a demon. It follows: He is terrible and illustrious: from himself his judgment will be, and his assumption will go out from him. The Chaldean is terrible because of the many and varied punishments which he brings upon those who despise him; illustrious, because he assumes for himself the glory of divinity.

And through his oracles and false responses, and through the healings of diseases which he himself had inflicted, he seems illustrious among the inexperienced and the despisers of God. For the judgment and punishment of the despiser will come from him, that is, from himself, or from the Chaldean. For they themselves, according to the Apostle, will be handed over to punishment, so that they may learn not to blaspheme (1 Tim 1); and whoever has repented of him and turned to God will go out from him, though previously he was held in his hands and was the Chaldean's assumption. If at any time we see someone who has served the devil for a long time and afterwards has turned to God, let us say of him: And his assumption has gone out from him. For all who have repented and have abandoned the demons, to whom they previously offered their backs like horses to be ridden, and by the speed of leopards and of wolves at evening have thrown down and dashed their riders, and have come with empty and light back to carry him who, gentle and poor, ascended upon the foal of a donkey (John 12)—these, hastening as if from afar and not content with running and impulse, will assume flight and will come like an eagle, so that they may feed on the flesh of God's word and satisfy the hunger of so long a time. For in what is said, and the Seventy translated it: And his horsemen shall ride, according to the sense we set out above, Symmachus interpreted it: his horsemen shall be poured out, that is, they shall fall and be dashed upon the earth.

But the wolves of Arabia, that is, of the evening and the West, are rightly called these, whose utterly wicked way of life has set, and who, previously established in darkness, abandon the evening with their whole step; and when they have left it and have flown swiftly to eat the flesh of the word of God, then consummation will come upon the impious, that is, upon the Chaldeans who were resisting the faces of the penitents lest they return to their Lord. Wherefore consummation will come upon the impious, who resist their faces from opposite. But when they have been consumed, and the captivity has been snatched from their hands, then the divine word will gather together as it were the sand of the Chaldean captivity, and will delight in kings, and tyrants will be its sport, seeing that the once most powerful devil and his kingdoms (which he also showed to the Savior, saying: All these things I will give you, if falling down you will worship me) have been destroyed by his advent; for the delights of prudence are there, and the pleasure of wisdom, when folly is destroyed, and the once-powerful might of tyrants, overcome and cast down, is turned into mockery. For not only was the dragon formed to be had as a plaything by the Lord, who is the beginning of his formation, made a laughingstock for the angels. Nor will God give him alone, as a sparrow to a little child; but if there is also anyone else cruel and of a tyrannical mind, he will be handed over to the word of God for mockery. And he himself said, he will mock at every fortification.

But what other stronghold is there, except that of which the Apostle speaks: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God unto the destruction of strongholds, destroying thoughts and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. If, then, there are any strongholds, whether in words that promise that they possess a height and magnitude contrary to the truth, or in all glory and riches and strength that is praised in the world, all things will be destroyed, and the word of God will mock every stronghold. And he will cast up a siege mound, and he will take it by siege mound, and he will reprove the earthly things it brings forth, convicting it of weakness in those things in which it previously seemed to itself to have some strength. But when this has been fulfilled, then the spirit will be turned, and he will by no means punish as he had punished before, but passing through the sinners he will plead for them, and he will reconcile them to their former Lord: in all of which the strength of our God is shown, which has accomplished such great things. You see how rough and rugged these places are, and opposed to the truth of history. And how those things which we interpreted according to the letter as concerning the Chaldeans now, by way of tropology, seem to sound forth the clemency and freedom of those who have escaped from the hands of the Chaldeans. History is strict, and has no capacity to wander off.

Tropology is free and circumscribed only by these laws: that it follow piety of understanding and the context of the discourse, and that it not be violent in joining together things that are much contrary to one another.

(Verse 12.) «Art thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one? and we shall not die? O Lord, thou hast set him for judgment, and hast made him strong to reprove? thou hast founded him?» The Septuagint: «Art thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one? and we shall not die? O Lord, thou hast set him for judgment: and he formed me, that I might reprove in his discipline.» Symmachus more clearly: «Art thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, that we should not die? To the Lord, thou hast set him for judging, thou hast established him strong for reproving.» To the prophet's complaint, saying: How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? God had responded, saying: Look among the nations and see: and after the preface he had added: Behold I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation. And when the whole description was completed, whether concerning Nebuchadnezzar or concerning the devil, he mentions at the end: Then his spirit shall be changed, and he shall pass over, and shall fall, this is the strength of his God.

Hearing and understanding this, the prophet therefore says that Nebuchadnezzar, or the devil, receives power against Judah, or against believers, so that he may correct them, and after the correction he himself too may be punished in the end. He answers the Lord: Are you not, O Lord my God, my Holy One (but he says this with the affection of one who is flattering and repenting), who created us from the beginning? By whose mercy do we subsist until now? For I did not know that our adversaries could do so much, nor had I known that Nebuchadnezzar, or the devil of this world, had received power over all nations. As far, then, as his strength goes, none of us can resist him. But as far as your mercy goes, everything by which we live is yours, that we have not been killed by him and led to the works of death. For you, O Lord, have set him for judgment, so that he himself may be the enemy and the avenger, and so that through him you may correct whoever has sinned against you. But since we have once interpreted the Chaldeans as the demons, and Nebuchadnezzar as the devil, their king, we ought briefly to touch on the description of the devil and his power, so that the prophet may rightly say: O Lord, you have set him for judgment, and you have founded him strong so that you might correct him. Against unbelievers and despisers a nation of demons is stirred up, bitter to punish and present everywhere. It walks wherever the breadth of the earth extends, so that it may possess men, in whom Christ ought to have dwelt.

He is horrible and terrible, and he can be overcome by scarcely anyone, nor is he broken before, weighed down by the magnitude of his sins and the weight of his iniquity, he comes to consummation. His horses and horsemen, in the likeness of leopards and wolves, will always thirst for blood and desire plunder; they will feign absence, and when they are not expected, they will come quickly from afar. They will fly like an eagle, which, exalting its flight, wishes to place its nest among the stars of heaven, and always hastens to the prey. And in Ezekiel, under the figure of Nebuchadnezzar and the king of Egypt, he is described as concerning the devil. There is no demon that spares; all will come swiftly to the prey; before their face is a burning wind; whatever they have looked upon, whatever has come before their face, they will desire to burn and destroy. But the most powerful king will be in the midst of the captives, and he will receive their number like the sand of the sea from his attendants on every side, and he himself will triumph over kings, and tyrants will be his laughingstocks. For he will deceive many saints by his supplanting, and those who seemed to themselves most powerful, and to exercise tyranny against demons, and to cast them out of possessed bodies, he will subject to his servitude, and he will count them for laughter. But he himself, the strongest, with his hand gathered and the army of the lost assembled, will laugh at every fortification, and whatever is strong, he will strive to overturn.

For he will heap up a mound, that is, he will surround it with earthly works; and when the earth has been heaped up, he will easily capture every fortification. But after so great a victory his spirit will be changed, and his mouth will pass through even to heaven, and making himself God, he will begin to blaspheme his Creator. When he has done this, he will fall, and his ruin will show how strong his divinity was, and the pretense of the idols under whose images he subjected men to his own worship. Therefore the prophet, hearing these things—that such and so great is the king of this world, that he gathers captivity like the sand of the sea, and triumphs over kings; and that his tyrants are ridiculous, and he laughs at every fortification, and first heaps up a mound, and afterward captures it; and that he is of such great pride that he dares to resist against his Creator, and to make himself as if a god, who previously spoke boldly to the Lord; and he had recalled that he himself, or his people, or those in whose person he was complaining, were just—now he breaks forth into words of flattery and says: Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my Holy One? And that we do not die, nor are we captured by so great an enemy, is due to your clemency. For you, O Lord, have appointed him as a executioner; and you have made him strong, so that either no one or scarcely anyone can resist his strength.

Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, what is said in the line "And he formed me, that I might reprove in his discipline" can be referred to the person of the prophet, so that the sense is: I, however, was for this reason inspired as a prophet, that I might reprove the transgressors and teach the Lord's discipline. Some think this is said of the Lord, who was for this reason formed by the Father and took up a body, that he might instruct men in the teaching of God the Father. But how much this disagrees with the context of the preceding words and the coherence of the whole passage will be not so much my judgment as the reader's.

(Verses 13, 14.) "Your eyes are pure, so that you do not see evil, and you cannot look upon iniquity. Why do you not look upon those who do wicked things, and are silent when the impious devours one more just than himself: and you make men like the fish of the sea, and like a creeping thing that has no ruler?" The Septuagint: "Pure is the eye, so that it does not see evils: and you cannot look upon sorrow. Why do you look upon the contemptuous, and will be silent when the impious has devoured one more just than himself? And you make men like the fish of the sea, and like creeping things that have no leader." Jeremiah says something of this kind to God: You are just, Lord, I confess: yet I will speak judgments to you: What is it that the way of the impious prospers, and all who transgress and do wrong abound? You planted them and they have taken root, they have begotten children and have produced fruit: you are near to their mouth, and far from their reins (Jer. 12:1, 2).

Therefore Habakkuk too, in the same sense, says: Your eyes, Lord, are pure, and I know that you do not willingly look upon evil and injustice, nor can anyone doubt your justice. Yet why do you allow the Babylonians to exult with such cruelty, and Israel, the just, to be oppressed by the impious Nebuchadnezzar—not that the one who is oppressed is perfectly just, but that he is more just than his oppressor. And just as fish that have no ruler, and irrational beasts, and a multitude of creeping things without providence, are subject to the stronger, and whoever prevails more in strength dominates the other, so among men—a rational animal, created in your likeness—reason does not prevail, nor merits, but bodily strength and irrational might. But if we wish to understand this generally, with the prophet asking about providence—why the devil has such power in the world, and, while God rules, another exercises tyranny—the sense will be of this kind, and this exposition will be joined to the preceding: I know, Lord my God, my holy one, that, with you providing and defending, we do not die; and I know that for this reason you have set an adversary, so that, using him as a kind of executioner, you might reprove and not kill sinners. I know that nothing unjust pleases you, and that your eyes are pure from all iniquity, nor can you see the sorrows of those who are subject to injustice. Yet I cannot find the reason why the unjust Cain kills the just Abel, and you are silent?

Why, when the whale rages and devours all things, is not only the smaller fish but even your own Jonah devoured? Why does the impious man conquer and the just man is conquered? Nor do I say this because I know that anyone is justified in your sight and is without sin, or because I am ignorant of human frailty; but just as Sodom and Gomorrah are just by comparison with Jerusalem, and the tax collector in the Gospel becomes more just by comparison with the Pharisee, so too this man who is oppressed by the devil is indeed a sinner, but by comparison with his oppressor he is more just. Why, then, is there no measure and no weight, so that if a just man is once oppressed and subjected, he is subjected not to the impious man but to one more just than himself? Shall I say that anything is done without you, and that the impious man can do so much against your will? To think this is blasphemous. Since, therefore, you are the ruler and Lord of the universe, it is necessary that you do what cannot be done without you. And he says these things not because the prophet himself thinks this way, as I testified above, but because he expresses human impatience in his own person—just as we frequently see the Apostle take upon himself the various opinions of men, and now say: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. And as if beginning, he says: Brothers, I do not consider that I have apprehended; and, We know in part, and we prophesy in part.

And again, as though he were perfect: "As many of us, therefore, as are perfect, let us be of this mind" (Philippians 3:15), although surely it is not the part of one and the same man both to say that he knows in part and to be perfect. And lest perhaps you think it is not an apostolic custom but an argument of my own, that which he himself says to the Corinthians: "But these things, brethren, I have transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you may learn" (1 Corinthians 4:6). Otherwise, how can God regard men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler, when the angels of each one daily see the face of the Father who is in heaven (Matthew 18), and the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and delivers them (Psalm 33). Just as, therefore, among men God's providence runs even through each individual, so in the other animals we can understand a general dispensation and order, and the course of things. For example, how the multitude of fishes is born and lives in the waters, how creeping things and four-footed beasts arise on the earth, and by what foods they are nourished. But otherwise it is absurd to bring the majesty of God down to this, that it should know at every moment how many gnats are born, or how many die, what multitude of bugs and fleas and flies there is on the earth, how many fishes swim in the water, and which of the smaller ought to fall prey to the greater.

Let us not be such foolish flatterers of God that, while we drag his power down even to the lowest things, we become injurious to ourselves, saying that the providence over rational and irrational creatures is the same. Hence that apocryphal book is to be condemned as folly, in which it is written that a certain angel named Tyri presides over the creeping things, and in like manner that proper angels have been assigned as guardians to fishes too, and trees, and all beasts.

(Verses and following.) "He lifted up the whole in his hook, he drew it in his dragnet, and gathered it in his net: over this he will rejoice and exult. Therefore will he sacrifice to his dragnet, and offer sacrifice to his net, because in them his portion has grown fat, and his food is choice: therefore he has spread out his dragnet, and he never ceases to kill the nations." The Septuagint: "He lifted up the consummation in his hook, and drew him in his net, and gathered him in his dragnets: therefore he will rejoice and be glad: therefore will he sacrifice to his dragnet, and burn incense to his net, because in them he has made fat his portion, and his foods are choice: therefore he has spread out his net, and he never ceases to kill the nations.

Because above he had named fish, saying: And he will make men like the fish of the sea, and like the creeping thing, which is expressed more significantly in Hebrew as REMES, that is, plainly everything that can move, for that reason he keeps to fish in what follows: so that just as a fisherman casts a hook, and a net, and a dragnet, so that what the hook could not take the net may catch, and what has escaped the net may be surrounded by the broader dragnets, so too the king of Babylon will lay everything waste and make the whole human race his prey (Dan. 3). Furthermore, what he says: He will rejoice and be glad, and will sacrifice to his dragnet and offer sacrifice to his net, signifies the idol that he made in the plain of Dura and the image of Bel, to which, as to a great dragnet, he sacrificed the fattest victims, forcing all the nations he had conquered to the worship of it. For in them—that is, in his idols—believing himself to have grown fat, and that he held his portion, that is, all riches, he subjected even all the princes and kings to his dominion like great fish, which he calls choice foods. And because once he has been satiated by a most opulent fishing, and has filled his dragnet, that is, his army, for that reason he does not cease to kill the nations, that is, always to fight and to slaughter.

Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, the impious devil (who oppresses the just man, and holds men like the fish of the sea, and lays waste all things like creeping things that have no leader) sent his hook, contrary to that hook by which the first fish was caught through the apostle Peter, in whose mouth a stater was found (Matthew 17). And Adam clung to his hook, and he drew him out of paradise with his net, and covered him with his dragnets, with various and manifold deceits and fallacies. Therefore he will rejoice, and will reckon his snares to be more than the commandment of the Lord. And he will sacrifice, not to his hook (which is understood as perverse speech, and still established in the beginning), but to his net, because he has seized the fattest victims in it. And: By one man many were made sinners (Romans 5:19), and in Adam we all died (1 Corinthians 15), and all the saints thereafter were cast out of paradise together with him. Hence his foods are also choice: so that, according to the Psalmist, He may seek food for himself from God (Psalm 103:21), wishing to subvert the prophets and the apostles. And because he first deceived man, he does not cease daily to kill the whole human race.

But it can also be understood of the perverse and manifold doctrine of heretics, that they too with their hook, their net, and their dragnets catch very many fish and grasp many creeping things, and therefore rejoice, and worship as God the word by which they were able to deceive and persuade, and honor it, and despoil it: they devote themselves with every art to him through whom they know that so many victims have been slain by them, and so many of the powerful and the holy have been deceived, whom Scripture now calls the fat portion and the choice morsels. Therefore, in the likeness of beasts, which once they have tasted blood thirst for it forever, they spread their net, and this is all their zeal, that they may kill not a few, as at the beginning, but many. He does not doubt the slaughter of many nations, who has seen so great a multitude of heresies and perverse doctrines caught by the devil's hook, net, and dragnets: and yet their catch (is the end, destruction.

(Ch. II—Ver. 1.) "I will stand upon my watch, and fix my step upon the fortress, and I will look out to see what is said to me and what I should answer to the one who reproves me." The Septuagint: "I will stand upon my watch, and I will climb upon the rock, and I will look out to see what will be spoken in me, and what I should answer to my rebuke." Symmachus has followed this more clearly: "Like a watchman upon a lookout I will stand, and I will stand as one shut in, and I will look out to see what is said to me, and what I should answer, and I will speak against the one who reproves me." In place of the fortress and the rock, for which Symmachus translated "shut in," the Hebrew has MASUR, which Theodotion rendered as "circle," and Aquila and the fifth edition as "compass." The Lord had answered the first cause: Look among the nations, and see, and marvel, and be astonished. In penitence, as it were, for the preceding utterance, the prophet had moderated his question, saying: Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die. But nonetheless, with veneration and praises of God, he had inquired of him: Your eyes are pure so as not to see evil, and you do not know how to look upon iniquity. Why do you not look upon those who do wicked things, and are silent, when the impious devours the one more just than himself? And what the devouring of the just man would be, he has set out in detail: that men should become like the fish of the sea, and like creeping things.

And because by hook, and dragnet, and their net all were being dragged to destruction, and there was no end to their slaughter. Therefore, because he is a prophet, and for that reason seeks, and says he doubts, so that what was answered to him might be answered to all: "I will stand," he says, "upon my watch," that is, on the height of my prophecy, "and I will see" after the captivity of the people, and the overthrow of the city and the temple, "and thereafter what follows." Or certainly thus: I will guard my heart with all diligence, and I will stand upon Christ the rock. And with this circle and compass, as if with a wall, I will hedge myself about, lest the roaring lion be able to break in upon me, and I will see what God answers me after the second question; and after he has answered me and reproved me for having complained wrongly, what I too ought to answer him. Elegantly and with wonderful sense, moreover, he describes human impatience, which we are always accustomed to have in disputes: so that before someone answers us from the other side, and we know in what he has accused us, we prepare ourselves to respond. From this it is shown that the response is not of reason, but of contention. For if it were reason, the response ought to have been awaited, and thus to see whether he ought to respond, or to agree to a reasonable response. But this too must be noted from what he had said, "That I may see what is spoken in me," that the prophetic vision and utterance of God do not come to the prophets from outside, but respond inwardly and to the inner man. Whence also Zechariah.

And the angel, he says, who was speaking in me (Zech. 1:9). And in the Psalms: I will hear what the Lord speaks in me (Ps. 84:9).

(Verses following.) "And the Lord answered me, and said: Write the vision, and explain it plainly on tablets, so that he who reads it may run through it, because the vision is still far off, and it will appear at the end, and it will not lie: if it should delay, wait for it: because coming it will come, and it will not be slow: behold, the one who is unbelieving, his soul will not be upright in himself. But the just shall live in his faith." The Septuagint: "And the Lord answered me, and said: Write the vision, and plainly on boxwood, so that he who reads these things may pursue them: because the vision is still for a time, and it will rise at the end, and not in vain. If it should fail, wait for it, because coming it will come, and it will not be slow: if he should draw back, my soul will not be pleased in him. But the just shall live by my faith." For "tablets" and "boxwood," which in Hebrew is called ALLUOTH, Symmachus translated as "pages." And where the Septuagint put: "But the just shall live by my faith," all equally translated, "he shall live by his own faith." Finally Symmachus, translating more significantly, said: "But the just shall live through his own faith," which in Greek is BAEMUNATHO; for that which is interpreted as "in his faith," if it had the letter JOD and not VAU at the end, as the Septuagint supposed, and were read as BAEMUNATHI, they would have translated, "in my faith.

But now the similarity of the letters VAU and JOD, which differ from each other by so great a measure, was the cause of error. Why this was said, the following discussion comprehends. According to the promise which is made to the holy man in Isaiah, saying: While you are still speaking, I will say, Behold, I am here (Isa. 65:24), now also the Lord answers the prophet, and commands that he write the vision, and set it out clearly upon tablets, that is, write it more plainly. But I think those are the tablets of which the Apostle also speaks to the Corinthians: You are our letters, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all; manifested, because you are the letter of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshy tablets of the heart (2 Cor. 3:2-3). But Solomon also signifies such a thing in Proverbs, saying: Describe her upon the breadth of your heart (Prov. 3:3). But he is commanded to write more plainly, so that the reader may run, and no impediment may hold back his speed and his desire to read. And he commands this, because the vision is still far off, and at the appointed time. And when the end of things has come, then he too will come, and the prophecy will be proved true by the work fulfilled.

But if perhaps, O reader, because of your desire and the ardor of seeing the vision, it has seemed to you that what was promised delays a little, do not despair that it will come; but wait patiently; for you have me, who promise and say to you: Coming, he will come, and he will not delay. But if anyone is unbelieving of this promise of mine, when I say, Coming, he will come, and he will not delay, and begins to waver and silently fluctuate within himself, thinking that what is delayed for a time will not come, this one will displease my soul, according to that saying: Your new moons and your sabbaths my soul hates (Isa. 1:13). But when God said his soul, we must understand it as meaning his mind and thought, so that the sense is: he will displease my understanding. But just as that one will displease me who, when I promise, has doubted that what I promise will come, so the just man who has believed my promise will live in his faith. The picture of this chapter has been described, as it were, with lines. But what he says is of this sort, only in such a way that we also include the translation of the Seventy. Write in your heart, and like little children who are receiving the first elements of letters, who are taught the curved tops and the trembling hand on the boxwood, and by practice become accustomed to writing correctly: so you also, who have spoken in the person of the doubting people, write what I say on the tablets of your heart and on the boxwood of your breast.

For it is a vision that is promised and commanded to be described and written more plainly, so that it may be veiled by no cloud and obscured by no winding riddles; let manifest hope have a manifest pledge. But this, O prophet, I command, not because you do not know (for you would not be a prophet if you did not know), but so that what you have written more plainly, the reader may be able to read and run through without hindrance and difficulty; which the Seventy translated as "that he who reads may pursue," according to that sense which is written to Timothy: Pursue righteousness, and godliness and faith, love, patience, gentleness (1 Tim. 6:11). And to the Romans: Pursuing hospitality (Rom. 12:13). And to the Corinthians: Pursue love (1 Cor. 14:1). But the vision itself, of which I have said to you: Write the vision, and make it plain on the boxwood, so that he who reads may pursue, is still at the appointed time, of which the Savior says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you (Isa. 49:8). And it will arise at the consummation of the world, and in the last hour of the day, of which John also speaks: Little children, it is now the last hour (1 John 2:18). And it will not come in vain; for it will save many, and with the remnant of the Israelite people it will gather a multitude of the nations.

But if it has withdrawn itself a little, and the vision has begun to come more slowly to your wishes, reader, who are commanded to read on boxwood and on tablets which the prophet has written, wait for it: Because coming it will come, and it will not delay. But if your faith has doubted, and you have thought that what I promise will not come to pass, you will have as a great punishment that you will displease my soul. But the just man who believes my words, and does not doubt those things which I promise, will have eternal life as his reward. Nor should you immediately argue, either by killing yourself or by giving life to that one, that there is acceptance of persons with me, because he himself is the cause of his own vivification, who will live by his faith: just as you, from the fact that you withdrew yourself and were unwilling to believe, have displeased my soul. But manifestly in these things there is a prophecy concerning the advent of Christ. Whence also the proposed question is solved, that until he comes, iniquity rules in the world, and judgment does not reach its end: and the true Nebuchadnezzar catches men with his net and dragnet as if little fish, and the rational animal as if a reptile, having no prince. Furthermore, what we have interpreted in place of “vision,” Because still the vision is seen afar off; and if it has made a delay, wait for it, that is, the vision; let no one think, deceived by error, that in place of “vision,” which is of the feminine gender, he has put “visum,” which is of the masculine gender, and is less usual in Latin.

For indeed HAZON, which Aquila translates as "vision," is in Hebrew of the masculine gender, and not even at the end is the masculine declension preserved under the same gender of vision, that is, of sight. But the Seventy, saying, "Write the vision," and afterwards, "If it has failed, wait for him, because coming he will come and will not delay; if he withdraws himself, my soul will not be pleased with him," first translated "vision" in the feminine gender, which in Hebrew, as we have said, is masculine. Then, according to the Hebrew gender, where it is declined in the masculine, they too declined "wait for him" and "my soul will not be pleased with him" in the masculine gender. Yet they ought, in accordance with what they first translated as "vision," to have used the feminine gender of "vision" in the remaining parts as well, so as to say, "Wait for her, because coming she will come; but if she withdraws herself, my soul will not be pleased with her," that is, with the vision. This I have said so that we might not seem to pass over in silence what we knew.

Furthermore, I am not unaware that according to their interpretation it can also be understood in this way: Write the vision in which Christ is promised, and commit this discourse of your prophecy to writing either on boxwood, or on tablets, or, as Symmachus translated, on pages, because at the appointed time, and at the consummation of the world, my Son will come, who will save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and will join the other sheep as well to the ancient sheep, and making one flock will unite the two rods which Ezekiel—that is, the power of God—holds joined together and clinging to one another in his prophetic hand (Ezek. 19). But if, O prophet, or you, O people (from whose person my prophet also seems to have doubted), Christ has withdrawn himself a little and has seemed to delay, wait for him, for coming he will come and will not delay; and the rest which we have already expounded above. Moreover, that the Apostle made rather loose use of the testimony of the Seventy, writing to the Romans: The just man, however, shall live by my faith (Rom. 1:17), and not of what is found in the Hebrew, the reason is clear. For he was writing to the Romans, who did not know the Hebrew Scriptures; nor did he care about the words, since the sense was safe, and the present discussion would suffer no loss from it. Otherwise, wherever the sense is different, and it is written one way in the Hebrew and another way in the Seventy, note that he uses those testimonies which he had learned from Gamaliel, the teacher of the law.

And the following verses: “And as the drunken man deceives, so will the proud man be, and he will not be adorned, who has enlarged his soul like hell, and he himself is like death, and is not filled. And he will gather to himself all nations, and heap together to himself all peoples. Will not all these take up a parable against him, and a dark saying of his riddles, and it shall be said: Woe to him who multiplies what is not his own: how long does he weigh down against himself thick mud? Will they not suddenly rise up who bite you; and they will be stirred up who tear you, and you will be for a prey to them? Because you have spoiled many nations, all who remain of the peoples will spoil you, because of the blood of man, and the iniquity of the land, the city, and of all who dwell in it.” The Septuagint: “But he who is arrogant and a despiser, the proud man, brings nothing to completion: he who has enlarged his soul like hell, and this one is like death, is not filled. And he will gather to himself all nations, and will take to himself all peoples: will not all these take up a parable against him, and a proposition for his narration, and say: Woe to him who multiplies to himself what are not his own; how long does he weigh down his burden heavily, because suddenly they will rise up biting him, and your ambushers will watch, and you will be for a prey to them?

Because you have despoiled many nations, all the remaining peoples will despoil you, because of the blood of men and the impieties of the land, and of the city, and of all its inhabitants. Since these things are promised concerning the coming of Christ, or, as some prefer, concerning the end of the vision and the completion of God's help—that whoever believes he is to come will live by his faith, but whoever is unbelieving will displease the soul of the Lord—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon will be deceived by his own pride. And just as wine acts against the drinker, and after he has risen neither his foot nor his mind keeps to its duty, and all gladness and cheerfulness of mind is turned into ruin, so the proud man will not be adorned, nor will he bring his will to its end, and according to Symmachus, that is, there will be a scarcity of all things. He, like death and hell, is not satisfied by the slain; and subjecting all nations and all peoples to his empire, he did not think there was any end to his avarice. Will it not be that when he has been made drunk with the cup of the Lord and lulled to sleep by the pure draught, all will speak against him by way of comparison? Woe to him who, laying waste the whole world, is not satisfied with plunder, nor ceases to despoil those already naked, and rages only for this, that he may devour, and weighs himself down with the burden of iniquity and spoils as with a most heavy collar. And at the same time consider how elegantly he has called multiplied riches thick mud.

Will not the Medes and Persians rise up suddenly, who, destroying the empire of the Babylonians, will bite him first and afterward tear him to pieces, and Nebuchadnezzar will become a prey to them, and the despoiler of the whole world will be despoiled by the remaining peoples who were able to escape his hand and cruelty? But this will be done to him because of the blood of man, that is, of Judah, and the iniquity of the land, namely of Israel, and of the city—undoubtedly meaning Jerusalem—and generally signifying all the people in it. Let us also examine the Septuagint. All that we have said about Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar can be referred to this world and to the devil, who is truly arrogant and proud, and believing himself to be something, will bring nothing to an end. Indeed, his efforts and all his labor will have destruction: he who, in the likeness of hell and death, is not satisfied by those slain, and rejoices in the deception of all nations, and gathers peoples to himself. When they see him cast into the Abyss and delivered over to Tartarus, seeing that the things which they had read in the prophets figuratively are fulfilled, and interpreting them concerning him, they will recall with one voice: Woe to the devil, who multiplied to himself things not his own. Woe to the partridge, which gathered what it did not bear. For how long? Either this is the voice of those rebuking, or of those declaring the day of judgment. And weighing down his chain with infinite weight.

And fittingly, because he is arrogant and proud (pride, moreover, is properly shown in the stretching of the neck and the raising of the head), the most grievous yoke is upon him, so that what had been erect might be bent down. And this will happen because those who bite him will rise up suddenly—either the angels, with whom the devil will be handed over to punishment, or those who had been held by him, afterward doing penance; and having turned to the standards of Christ, they will bite him, according to that which is said elsewhere: Your peaceful men have set ambushes for you (Jeremiah 38:22). Finally it follows: And your ambushers will awake—that is, those whom you had previously lulled to sleep, whom you had made drunk, you will be subject to their ambushes, as they lay waste your kingdom and bring those who were captives into the ranks of Christ. For you have plundered many nations, and you have stripped the Jewish people of the adornment and garments which I had given them; therefore all the remaining peoples who have not bowed their neck to your empire will plunder you and make you naked. Because you also killed very many nations and shed their blood. But also the impiety of the lands—that is, of the Jewish land, and of the city of Jerusalem, and of all its inhabitants [who said against their Creator: Crucify, crucify him; his blood be upon us and upon our children (John 19:6)]—will return upon your head, and they will be the causes of your despoiling.

But this very thing can also be interpreted of the Antichrist, who will be so arrogant and proud that he will sit in the temple of God, making himself God. And, like a hell and death, he will kill so many and gather them to himself, so that, if it were possible, he might deceive even the elect of God (Mark 13). He will also gather to himself all nations and lead all peoples into his own error. When afterward they see him slain by the spirit of the mouth of Christ, they will understand that the things foretold concerning him are true, and they will say all the things that follow, with the same understanding by which we have expounded them concerning the devil. But what he says, all the remaining peoples will despoil you because of the blood of men, and the impiety of the land, and of the city, and of all who dwell in it—let us understand the remaining holy peoples, who did not serve the Antichrist, by whom the impious one will be despoiled because of the impiety he practiced against the whole earth, and the devastation of the city of the Church, and the persecution of all who dwelt in it. For so great a devastation, and so great an impiety at the end of things, with the Antichrist raging, will spread through the churches, and with iniquity multiplied among many, charity will grow so cold (Matthew 24) that the Lord, who knows the secrets of the heart and is not ignorant of what is to come, said: Do you think that the Son of man, when he comes, will find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)?

We can also, according to the apostle John (who writes: "As you have heard that Antichrist will come, but now there are many Antichrists" (1 John 2:18); whence we also know that it is the last hour), say that all heretics, and every perverse doctrine of those who arrogate knowledge to themselves and despise the simplicity of the Church, who bring nothing to completion but delight in the deaths of many, are arrogant and proud, and apply the whole content of this chapter to their own understanding: they truly multiply to themselves things that are not their own, and, gathering to themselves as it were the heaviest mud and a burdensome chain by which they may be dragged to punishments, they despoil many nations, and shed the blood of men, and practice impiety against the Church and against all its inhabitants. But the rest of the people, namely ecclesiastical men, who have not been deceived by their error, will suddenly rise up and awake as from a heavy sleep, and they will bite them and lie in wait for them and hold them as prey. Some think that what is said—"Woe to those who multiply to themselves things that are not their own," and the rest—can be understood of the rich, who extend the boundaries of their possessions and, reckoning as a man's own the things that are not a man's, gather them to themselves, and will suddenly be abandoned by them. But that a earthly possession is not a man's—that is, a rational animal's—the Lord also shows, saying: "If you have not been faithful in what is another's, who will give you what is your own?" (Luke 16:12).

They expound the whole text of the chapter concerning this person. But I do not know whether they can preserve the order of the prophetic question and solution.

(Verse 9.) "Woe to him who gathers evil covetousness for his house, so that his nest may be on high, and he thinks he is delivered from the hand of the evil one: you have devised confusion for your house; you have cut down many peoples, and your soul has sinned. Because the stone will cry out from the wall, and the wood that is between the joints of the buildings will answer." The Septuagint: "O you who multiply evil covetousness for your house, so as to place your nest on high, and to be plucked out from the hand of evils: you have devised confusion for your house; you have consumed many peoples: and your soul has sinned; therefore the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beetle will speak these things from the wood." The speech is still addressed to him who heaps up evils for himself, and does not understand that the multitude of riches is the cause of the ruin of his house; and at the same time he is accused, by a metaphor of pride, because, like the birds, he has placed his nest on high, and has thought that he is plucked from his seat by the hand of the evil one—that is, that he will never come into the power of enemies; which counsel of pride and arrogant thought had disgrace as its end. You have killed many peoples, and in slaying others you have raged against your own soul, and you have reveled in such great cruelty that, if it can be said, the stones of the city and the wood of the walls that you have overthrown cry out against your ferocity.

The Lord also says something of this kind in the Gospel against the Pharisees, who were finding fault because he did not rebuke the children who were crying out to him: "Hosanna in the highest to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." "Have you not read," he says, "that it is written: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise? And if these were silent, the stones would cry out." For although many think it should be understood thus—that if the Jews were silent, the multitude of the Gentiles would confess him—nevertheless this is the more express and truer understanding: even if men were silent, and a tongue envious of the multitude of my signs did not speak, nevertheless the stones themselves, and the foundations of walls, and the building of walls could resound my greatness. And to make this more significant, let us set forth examples of secular literature as well. Crispus says in his Histories: "The Saguntines, renowned for their loyalty and their hardships, beyond all mortals, with greater zeal than resources—since among them even then the half-ruined walls, the roofless houses, and the scorched walls of their temples displayed Punic hands." Cicero says something similar to Caesar in his speech for Marcellus: "The walls of this senate house, by my faith, as it seems to me, long to give you thanks, because in a short time that authority will be present in these seats of their ancestors and of their own.

But what we have translated as "And the wood that is between the joints of the buildings shall answer," for which the Seventy put "And the beetle shall speak these things from the wood," Symmachus has rendered more clearly in his own manner, that is, "and the wooden joint of the building shall speak these things." Theodotion also, and likewise the Fifth Edition, and these interpretations themselves agree with Symmachus and with our translation; for what in the Hebrew tongue is called CHAPHIS signifies wood, which is placed in the middle of the structure to hold the walls together, and is commonly called among the Greeks [—]. This, then, according to the historical sense, is what the prophetic word signifies: the stones of the walls that have been destroyed by you, and their burned timbers, shall sound forth your cruelty. I have found, apart from the five editions, that is, Aquila, Symmachus, the Seventy, Theodotion, and the Fifth, in the twelve prophets also two other editions, in one of which it is written: "Because the stone from the wall shall cry out as a worm speaking in the wood"; and in the other: "For the stone from the wall shall cry aloud, and from the wood it shall speak these things." But Aquila too has set down something other than what we have said, that is, "and the mass from the wood shall answer." What their interpretation intends, we shall discuss in the exposition of the Seventy translators, in which instead of "woe," "O" is placed, and the discourse is directed either to the devil or to Antichrist, or to the heretics, who multiply for themselves evil covetousness.

But avarice is called evil to distinguish it from good, so that there may be a good avarice of the church teacher, who is never satisfied with a multitude of followers, and the more disciples he has, the more he is stirred to the study of doctrine. Woe, therefore, to him who multiplies for himself the worst avarice, so as to gather perverse conventicles for his own house, and to place his nest on high, so that he may be plucked from the hand of the wicked. For both the devil and Antichrist and the heretics promise that those who accept their teaching will possess the kingdoms of heaven in the heavenly places and will not feel the fires of Gehenna. And when they have promised these things, their plan will not be able to come to fulfillment; but the plan of their house will be one of confusion and disgrace, after the very outcome of events has shown the things that had been promised to be false, when it is proven that the plan is one of confusion, not of salvation. This one, as we have said, the teacher of perversity, has consumed many peoples, and the more he had in his company, the more he sinned against his own soul. Finally, his church's stones—and, that is, the beetle from the wood—will cry out against the avarice of the proud man, because he has deceived all nations by his persuasion. By stones we can understand the dull hearts of believers [formed] by the teachings of heretics, and by the beetle from the wood, any perverse teachers who, taking up the preaching of the cross for the sake of shameful gain, speak from the belly.

For their God is their belly, and they do all things for the sake of food, who are reduced to dung (for the scarab or beetle is a worm of dung); and they take up the cross only for this, that they may teach the avarice and pride of their master the devil with a viper's mouth. Whenever you see any one of the heretics speaking against the Church as if of hidden and secret mysteries, and preferring the house of the devil to the house of Christ, say: The stone cries out from the wall, and the beetle speaks from the wood. I have read in a certain man's volume that the beetle is therefore understood of heretics, because their doctrines are to be compared to dung. Whence also the Apostle says that he reckoned the error of the old doctrine as refuse, that is, as dung (Philippians 3). Not that the old law, as the Manichaeans think, is reckoned as dung in comparison with the Gospel (which it is impious to say, since both are the Testament of one God), but that the doctrine of the Pharisees, and the precepts of men, and the Deuterosis of the Jews are called dung by the Apostle. I know a certain one of the brethren who understood the stone that cried out from the wall to be the Lord Savior, and the beetle speaking from the wood to be the thief who blasphemed the Lord; which, although it can be piously understood, yet how it can be fitted to the whole context of the prophecy I do not find. There are some who think that the beetle speaking from the wood can also be referred to the person of the Savior, which is shown to be impious from the very order of the discourse.

For the cantharus will speak those things from wood; it is not understood in a good sense but in a bad one, that is, it will speak of the worst avarice of one multiplying against his own house, and of the devil's confusion, and the other things that preceded from his iniquity and crime. But as for what Aquila says, "and the mass from wood will answer," we refer "mass" to that sense which the Lord set forth in the Gospel: "Take heed to yourselves from the leaven of the Pharisees" (Matthew 16:11). And when the apostles doubted and could not know what it was, the evangelist explained it, saying: "He had spoken to them about the doctrine of the Pharisees." Rightly, therefore, does the doctrine of the heretics speak from wood; for otherwise they cannot persuade, unless they set the glory of the wood before their own perversity. Moreover, also that which we had said: "Because the stone from the wall will cry out," as the worm speaking in the wood, or "the stone from the wall will cry out, and will speak those things from wood," some of our own say that the worm speaking in the wood is the one who says in the Psalm: "But I am a worm and not a man" (Psalm 21:7); and they refer the bird that calls out to the person of the same one who says: "I have become like a solitary sparrow on the roof" (Psalm 101:8), and other things similar to these.

(And the following verses.) «Woe to him who builds a city in blood, and prepares a city in iniquity: are not these things from the Lord of hosts? For the peoples will labor in much fire, and the nations in vain, and they will fail: because the earth will be filled, so that they may know the glory of the Lord as waters covering the sea.» The Septuagint: «Woe to him who builds a city in blood, and prepares a city in iniquities: are not these things from the Lord Almighty? And many peoples have failed in fire, and many nations have been straitened: because the earth will be filled so that it may know the glory of the Lord, like water to cover the seas.» No one doubts that according to the letter the prophetic discourse is still speaking against Nebuchadnezzar, and laments him because he builds Babylon in blood, and constructs its walls by the ruins and deaths of very many. And because he did this to the city which he had built in blood, afterwards he hears what things are brought upon him by the Lord. For it follows: Are not these things from the Lord of hosts? that is, the things which are said. The peoples will labor in much fire, and the nations in vain, that is, with Babylon set on fire, the peoples will labor in vain, and will strive toward nothing, and the peoples of the Chaldean nation will fail. Because the earth will be filled so that it may know the glory of the Lord, that is, when Babylon has been overthrown, the power of God's virtue will be made manifest to all, like waters covering the sea: thus the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord, just as the waters cover the channel and the bottom of the sea.

These things are to be understood more divinely, according to the letter. But it is clear that the devil, and Antichrist, and the perverse doctrine of heretics build a city in bloods—that is, their own church—in the destruction of those whom they have deceived, and prepare a city in iniquities, speaking iniquity against God, and setting their mouth on high. And when they have done this, it is manifestly shown that of themselves they build a city in bloods, and prepare it in iniquities. For it follows: Are not these things from the Lord almighty? that is, such a building is not from the Lord Sabaoth, whom the Seventy translated as almighty. For many peoples will fail, and although countless nations are led into their error, yet either they will grow weary, which is more significant, or certainly they will be pressed into a narrow place, and will not be able to be compared to the multitude of the Church. For while those fail in fire—which is understood either as consumed by the fire of the devil their prince, or certainly as set ablaze by the fire of the Lord, of which he says: I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled (Luke 12:49), and drawn back from their former course, and doing penance, and abandoning the journey they had begun, which is what means—the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord, when at the preaching of the apostles their sound has gone out into the whole world (Ps.

as waters covering the sea, that is, so that they may cover every saltiness and bitterness of the world, which the earth had drunk, with the water of the Lord raining down from above through the devil; and they may cause the place of the sea and of its former bitterness not to appear. Whence also it is said in the Psalm: Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (Ps. 32:1). But it can also—although it does not fit the order of the reading, nor pertain to the present text of Scripture—be understood of the city of Jerusalem, full of the blood of the prophets, concerning which Scripture records (Matt. 23) that the blood of the saints overflowed in it from gate to gate. And which says at the Lord's passion: His blood be upon us, and upon our children (Matt. 27:25). And to which God speaks in Isaiah: When you lift up your hands to me, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood (Isa. 1:15). This city has been built in iniquities; in which, according to the same prophet, justice has fallen asleep. Nor is its building from the Lord of hosts. Whence many peoples have failed in the fire, and many nations have grown weary, at the time when it was surrounded by the armies of Vespasian and Titus, and those coming for the solemn day of Passover were shut up in the city as in a prison; and they failed from famine and want, and the siege led them even to the utter destruction under Hadrian.

But when the city of bloods and the city of iniquities has been overthrown, and the peoples consumed by fire, and the nations that had come to their aid scattered here and there, and letting their weary hands fall, the whole earth is filled with the glory of Christ, and as with waters, so with his words and teaching the whole world is covered.

(Vers. seqq.) « Woe to him who gives drink to his friend, sending his gall and making him drunk, so that he may look upon his nakedness. He is filled with disgrace instead of glory; drink you also, and be stupefied; the cup of the right hand of the Lord will surround you, and the vomit of disgrace upon your glory: because the iniquity of Lebanon will cover you, and the devastation of the beasts will terrify them, because of the blood of men and the iniquity of the earth, and of the city, and of all who dwell in it. » The LXX: « Woe to him who pours drink to his neighbor in turbid overthrow, and makes him drunk, so that he may look into their caves: drink also you the fullness of disgrace instead of glory: and be stirred, the cup of the right hand of the Lord has surrounded you, and gathered from disgrace upon your glory: because the impiety of Lebanon will cover you, and the misery of the beasts will terrify you: because of the blood of men, and the impieties of the earth and of the city, and of all who dwell in it. » For "turbid overthrow," Symmachus translated , that is, and sending forth his fury without judgment. Theodotion, which is interpreted "from your outpouring." The Fifth Edition, which signifies "from the unforeseen overthrow of your wrath.

Aquila has it as "from the sending forth of your fury," which we can render. In another edition I found the very same meaning in our language: "Woe to him who gives his friend a flying whirlwind to drink." But elsewhere I have read the translation: "Woe to him who gives his neighbor a drink," that is, a murky madness. This is so that the Hebrew word MASPHA, which the Seventy translated as "subversion," may be known—how greatly it disagrees with itself across all the editions in its variety. Therefore the invective is still against Nebuchadnezzar, because, forgetful of his own condition and as if ignorant that he is a man, he poured out gall and bitterness for another man to drink. But we can understand him either as the king of Judea, or generally as all men, in that he made them drunk with evils, so that he saw the nakedness of Zedekiah and of all the captives. In place of this, Symmachus and the Fifth Edition translated it as "so that he might see their shame." These things are said, moreover, by the metaphor of a drunken man, and of one defiled by nakedness, because Nebuchadnezzar made all drunk with the cup of his fury, and saw them all stripped and captive, and those who had once been glorious were reduced to the utmost slavery; for this is what he says: "He is filled with shame in place of glory," so that "friend" and "neighbor," or "partner in the kingdom," is to be understood—the one who drank your cup, O Nebuchadnezzar.

Therefore, because you have made many drunk, you too drink from the cup of the Lord and be lulled to sleep: you will be surrounded by the punishments of the Lord's right hand, and with the shame of your vomiting you will bring up everything you had swallowed, and from the height of glory you will be brought down to the lowest evils. Because the iniquity of Lebanon will cover you; your pride, he says, and the overthrow of the temple, and the plundering of the sanctuary will lay you waste and devastate you. And because he had once named Mount Lebanon, under its name he compares the victims and sacrifices, or certainly the multitude of peoples that was slain in Jerusalem, to animals or beasts, saying: And the devastation of animals will crush you. But you will suffer all this because you laid waste Judah, you overthrew the land of promise, and the city of Jerusalem and all its inhabitants. I heard a certain one of the Hebrews at Lydda, who was wise among them, and was called, telling a story of this kind: Zedekiah, he said, was blinded by King Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, that is, at Antioch, and after being mocked in various ways, was led to Babylon (IV Kings XXV; Jeremiah XXXIX).

When one day Nebuchadnezzar was celebrating the festivities of a banquet, he ordered that a drink be given to him; once it was drunk, the belly of the one drinking was loosened into a flux, and suddenly brought in before the faces of the feasting guests, and compelled by the force of his belly he was defiled with dung, and this is what the Scripture here now says: Woe to him who gives drink to his friend, sending his gall and making him drunk, so that he may look upon his nakedness, and shame instead of glory—namely, that he who had been a most powerful king was brought down to such disgrace through him. Therefore God also threatens him that he himself will drink a draught of this kind, and will suffer all that Zedekiah suffered. How ridiculous this is, you understand even while I am silent. For if what follows—Drink you also, and be lulled to sleep, and the cup of the Lord's right hand will surround you, and the vomit of shame upon your glory—they do not understand as concerning the cup, but as concerning the evils which Nebuchadnezzar is about to drink, then also that cup with which Zedekiah was pledged must be understood as evils, not as they wish. But if they say it truly happened, and that a draught of this kind was mixed, as I recounted above, then also this cup which Nebuchadnezzar is about to drink must be reckoned full, so that God of hosts and the Lord almighty may pledge Nebuchadnezzar in great vengeance, and make him be defiled with his own dung. This is against the Jewish tradition. But let us come to the spiritual understanding.

Woe to you, devil—or Antichrist, or the perverse doctrine of heretics—who by your teachings and your turbid draught make drunk the peoples of the deceived, and overturn their former faith, giving them a drink not from Siloam, not from the Jordan, not from the springs of Israel, but from the brook Kidron and from the river of Egypt, of which Jeremiah says: What have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you drink the water of Geon? In place of this, in the Hebrew, is written SIOR, that is, turbid and muddy. For although the rivers of Egypt are believed to flow from the paradise of the Scriptures, nevertheless, because they are trodden under Pharaoh's feet, they have lost their splendor, and, polluted by Egyptian mud, they have been turned into torrents—torrents which the saint rejoices to have escaped, saying: Our soul has passed through the torrent. But if anyone objects with the brook Cherith, from which Elijah drank, and the other brook from which the Lord drank on the way (for so it is written: He shall drink from the brook on the way), it must be said that whoever is in Egypt and on the way of this world—though he be Moses and Aaron, though he be Jeremiah and Elijah—must nevertheless drink from the temptations of Egypt and of the wilderness. Hence the Lord's own word, who had for this reason assumed flesh, that he might drink from the brook, considering his majesty, said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Again, seeing that he is in Egypt and that the waters cannot be cleansed unless he himself has drunk, he says: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will (Ibid.). These things are said because the devil, by subversion and by a turbid draught and by perverse doctrines of every kind, makes his neighbors drunk—that is, the rational animal—and causes those whom he has deceived to look toward his caves. For the dogmas of the Church are free; they rejoice in day and in light. But those who are made drunk are made drunk at night (I Thess. 5:7); and those who make them drunk do not lead them into the courts of the Lord, which are pressed by no shadow of roofs, but into caves. For they have made the house of the Father, which had been a house of prayer, caves of robbers (Matt. 21), promising certain initiations and mysteries, and secrets hidden and known only to heretics, of which Isaiah also speaks: And they shall hide all things made by hand, bringing them into caves and into the clefts of the rocks and the holes of the earth (Isa. 2:18–19). Let us not, therefore, enter the caves of heretics, nor hide ourselves there, where the impious Saul was accustomed to discharge the dung of his doctrines (1 Sam. 24); but rather let us ascend to the high cave of Mount Sinai, where both Elijah saw the Lord (1 Kings 19) and Moses beheld his back parts beforehand (Exod. 33). And Isaiah, crying out concerning the Lord: This one, he says, shall dwell in a high cave (Isa. 32:16).

But if someone does not have a turbid cup and heretical teaching, and is a teacher of the Church, and does everything for the sake of shameful gain, and sells doves in the temple—that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit—and strangles free birds in the priestly chair, this man does not indeed make the house of prayer a den of thieves, but he makes the house of the Father a house of commerce. After these things it follows: Drink your fill of ignominy in place of glory, and be moved—that is, O devil, O perverse doctrine, O heretic, who thought yourself to be the golden cup with which all nations are made drunk, so that they might see your caves and secrets—instead of the greatness of glory, to be filled with satiety of ignominy, and to reckon in a vessel of clay the works of the potter's hands; drink you also from the cup of the Lord, of which it is said in the Psalm: The cup in the hand of the Lord, full of pure wine well mixed, and he has inclined it from this to that: yet its dregs are not emptied out (Ps. 74:9). And from the former sentence be moved, and do not think those things to be firm and stable in which you first desired to stand; because the cup of the Lord's right hand has surrounded you. Furthermore, because you have given drink to your neighbor in turbid subversion, ignominy will be gathered upon you, and upon your glory, which you first believed you had; and you will suffer this, because the impiety of Lebanon will cover you, according to that which is said: And his prayer shall be turned into sin (Ps. 108:7).

For Lebanon, according to the Greek word, is the mountain of incense; and incense is that of spiritual offering, which is the worship of God. Therefore the perverse speech of heretics, not directed by the simplicity of the Gospel, will be turned to them into sin, and the impiety of the worship of God will cover them. Whence it follows: And the misery of the beasts shall terrify you because of the blood of men, and the impieties of the land, and of the city, and of all who dwell in it. And the sense is: Those whom you have deceived by your frauds, and have made your beasts out of the sheep of Christ, when you see them in misery and suffering punishments for their error, then you will be terrified, then you will lie low. And lest you think that, because I have named Lebanon and its beasts, I am speaking of brute animals and not of men, I tell you more plainly: You will endure these things because you have shed the blood of many men, whom you caused to perish for God. And you have practiced impiety in the land of the living, in the land of the meek, and your impiety raged also in the city of the Lord, that is, in His Church; and many who dwelt in it you made to be partakers of your impiety. Let this be said in the person of heretics. But if we wish to understand it of the Antichrist, or of the devil who will work in the Antichrist, he too by his cup, with which he will desire to overturn the discipline of Christ, will inebriate very many, so that the drunken may enter his caves; but after the end has come, in return for that glory by which he had magnified himself, he will be filled with ignominy.

But it will be filled, because he will drink the cup of punishments, and he will be shaken, in no way firm in his malice, but trembling and repenting late. For the cup of the right hand of the Lord will surround him—he who is Lord and Savior—when he has killed him with the spirit of his mouth and destroyed him by the brightness of his coming. Then all the disgrace that he gathered for himself by his thoughts, deeds, and words will come upon his glory, so that however illustrious he was thought to be before, afterward he may be filled with disgrace. For he blasphemed against God, and the impiety that he practiced against Lebanon will cover him, and the fury of many men who raged against the Church of God will be imputed to him; nor will he be able to lift up his neck, but will be pressed down to the earth by terror. For he killed many men and laid waste the whole world—that is, the Church of Christ and its inhabitants—by his impiety. It must therefore be known that this chapter as well, which we have now expounded—that is, "Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, bringing about a turbid overthrow"—along with the three preceding ones, in which it is said, "Woe to him who multiplies for himself what is not his own," and "Woe to him who gathers evil covetousness for his house," and "Woe to him who builds a city in blood"—can be understood equally according to history and according to anagogy, whether against Nebuchadnezzar or against the devil and Antichrist and the heretics.

(Verse 18.) "What profit is the graven image, that its maker has graven it, the molten image and the false likeness? Because its maker has hoped in his own fashioning, to make dumb idols." The Septuagint: "What profit is the graven image, that they have graven it; they have formed it, the molten image, the false likeness? Because the maker has trusted in his own fashioning, to make dumb idols." Consequently, following on the preceding matters, it is said of Nebuchadnezzar that he fashioned a statue of an idol and set it up in the field of Dura—or, as it is written in Hebrew, Dora—concerning which we read more fully in Daniel (Dan. 3). And so Scripture marvels at the king's madness and folly, because he himself ordered a golden statue to be made, and the maker trusted in the idol which he cast; which indeed we can take also in a general sense against all worshippers of idols. Nor should we think that what is graven and what is molten are one and the same. For we can understand graven work in stones and in marbles; but molten work is understood in those metals which can be melted and cast—for example, gold, silver, bronze, lead, and tin. Let this be said so that, according to the tropological sense, we may know what the difference is between a graven image and a molten image. We read in Deuteronomy: Cursed be every one who makes a graven image and a molten image, the work of the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret (Deut. 27:15). I judge the graven image and the molten image to be perverse doctrines, which are adored by those who made them.

See how Arius carved an idol for himself out of the creature, and adored what he carved. Observe how Eunomius cast a false image, and bowed his neck to his own casting. And the Scripture says pointedly: "And he will place it," it says, "in a hidden place." For they too have their own orgies, and as though for perfectly instructed disciples they hand on hidden sacraments, which, if they come forth into the light, are at once convicted of being fabricated. Nothing, therefore, will their carving and casting profit them. The carving, which refers to stones, is understood as those doctrines which display their folly at first glance. The casting is present where some appearance of worldly wisdom seems to be, and as if with a kind of gold, so the idol has been cast from the teachings of the philosophers and the splendor of eloquence. Nothing, therefore, will the thing fashioned profit its fashioner. And the mute and deaf image will not be able to hear its adorer. If ever you see someone unwilling to believe the truth, and, when the falsity of his doctrines has been shown, persevering in the course he has begun, you can fittingly say: He hopes in his own fashioning, and makes mute or deaf idols—for among the Greeks the word signifies both; although Symmachus, in his translation, seems to have understood "mute" rather than "deaf." Nor should that passage of the Scriptures disturb anyone, of which we have often spoken: "Who, do you think, is the faithful and wise steward?" And in another place: "Who is wise and will understand these things?

For this reason, "who" or "what" is taken as rare; whereas we can also take this very expression from another passage as meaning "impossible": "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribulation, or distress" (Rom. 8:35)? and the rest. And from the present chapter: "What profiteth the graven image, because its maker hath graven it?" For in both, impossibility is demonstrated—that neither can many tribulations and distress separate the Apostles from the love of Christ, nor is there any profit in a graven idol.

(Verses 19, 20). "Woe to him who says to wood, Awake; arise, to the silent (or: lying) stone: can it itself teach? Behold, this one is covered with gold and silver, and there is no spirit at all in its inward parts. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before his face." The Septuagint: "Woe to him who says to wood, Awake and arise; and to the stone, Lift yourself up; and it is itself an image, and it is a production of gold and silver, and there is no spirit at all in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple: all the earth is revealed before his face." And this can likewise be understood either against Nebuchadnezzar, or against all who worship idols. And human error is described—that they reckon as gods silver, gold, gems, and silk, with which idols are either wrapped or covered, on account of the splendor of the material, when the craftsman could indeed give the form, but could not give the soul by which the limbs are animated. And on the contrary, the Lord is said to be in his holy temple (Ps.

not in a temple made by hands, but either in the heavens, or in each one of the saints, according to the Apostle who says: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Cor 3:16)? And elsewhere: Your bodies are the temple of God (1 Cor 6:19); or in the Son, as he himself says: The Father who abides in me, he does the works (John 14:10). Or certainly according to that saying, that the heavens and the earth, the seas and the whole world (Virg. Aen. 6: the whole world which consists of heaven and earth, and is enclosed by the circles of the heavens, is declared to be the house of God. Whence also the Apostle confidently says: For in him, he says, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). But if anyone objects, how is it said that the spirit is not in idols, when unclean spirits attend upon all images alike, let him learn the custom of Holy Scripture, that a perverse spirit is never called a spirit absolutely, but with some addition: as there: They were seduced by the spirit of fornication (Hos 4:12). And in the Gospel: But when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man (Luke 11:21), and other similar things. But wherever spirit is read alone and absolutely without any addition, it always refers to the good part, that is, to the Holy Spirit, as is that saying of the Apostle: He who sows in the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life (Gal 6:8). And elsewhere: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (Gal

and in another place: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh (ibid. 16). Nor do we say this because the Holy Spirit is not also set down with an addition; for he is called both the Holy Spirit, and the principal spirit, and the right spirit, and the spirit of God, and other things similar to these; but because the Holy Spirit is often set down both with an addition and alone; whereas the perverse spirit is never read except with an addition. But this too can be said (if anyone contentiously wishes to take the perverse spirit in this place), that it is one thing to say: Every spirit is not in him; and another if he had said: Every spirit is not around him; for it can sit beside idols, but it cannot be within. Hence Aquila also translates the Hebrew more significantly, saying: And his spirit is not as in the inward parts, or in the midst of him. Therefore it must be known that in certain Hebrew volumes the word every is not added, but the spirit is read absolutely. But if anyone, overcome by reason, has taken the spirit in a good sense, and has asked why, if it was said of the Holy Spirit, it is read with an addition: And every spirit is not in him? let him know that every spirit means the various graces of the Holy Spirit: so that the sense is: He will be able to have nothing of grace, nothing of virtue in himself.

This is indeed understood more in the tropological sense, that in all the idols of heretics and the figments of the devil there is no grace of the Holy Spirit; but they seem to display the image of divinity and the beauty of doctrines, when in them there is nothing that breathes or is living. Let us also say this, lest we seem to have concealed from the reader what we know: that among the Hebrews spirit and wind are called by the same word, that is, RUA, and according to the sense of the passage it is customarily taken either as spirit or as wind. Therefore in this place too we can take spirit as wind, since the idols are inanimate. But that spirit is taken for soul, the Savior's prayer clearly signifies: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46). For neither could Jesus commend to the Father a perverse spirit (which even to think is impious), nor the Holy Spirit, who is himself God, and not rather his own soul, of which he had said: My soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matthew 26:38 and Mark 14:34). And: No one can take my soul from me; but of my own will I lay down my soul, and of my own accord I take it up again (John 10:17-18).

The spirit nourishes within, and, poured through the limbs, the mind stirs the mass and mingles itself with the great body.

BOOK TWO

631–632 We write, my Cromatius, venerable father, a second book on Habakkuk, dedicating to his own Canticle a special little work, and undertaking with all our strength an epic discourse and one composed in the manner of the Psalter, that is, in lyric fashion. Let the viper therefore hiss, and let Sardanapalus mock, fouler in his vices than in his name (from Cicero); let us pursue the journey we have begun; and by your prayers, you who have overcome the flesh by virtue, let us discourse on the most manifest prophecy concerning Christ in the eighth prophet, that is, in the number of the Lord's resurrection.

"The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet for ignorances." The Septuagint: "The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet with a canticle." Aquila and Symmachus and the fifth edition, like us, translated it as "for ignorances"; only Theodotion, that is, "for voluntary sins," and for those who sin of their own will. This is so that we may understand (with the exception of the Seventy) that no one translated the prayer "with a canticle." For in the Hebrew it also has AL SEGIONOTH, which is rendered, and we have translated, "for ignorances." Now the sense is that above he had said rashly: "How long, Lord, shall I cry, and you will not hear? I will cry out to you suffering violence, and you will not save?" And then in the second complaint: "Why do you not look upon those who do iniquity, and are silent, when the impious devours one more just than himself?" To this he had heard: "Write the vision, and explain it upon tablets.

And after the rest: Behold, the one who is unbelieving, his soul will not be upright in himself; but the just one will live by his faith. And he had learned—whether Nebuchadnezzar, or the devil, or Antichrist—that he was set in the judgment of sinners, and strong to seize the nations; now he repents and laments that he spoke rashly, and asks forgiveness, that he may obtain mercy, because he did it in ignorance. Hence also David says: The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember. There are those who think it is the prophet's prayer, that at the coming of Christ the error of men may be taken away; whence also the name of prophet is prefixed in the title, because he prays with prophetic spirit that the darkness be taken away and the light restored, that the image be removed and the truth granted. But that it is prophecy, both the whole text of the Song shows, and especially that: In the midst of two animals you will be known. And: When the years have drawn near, you will be known. And concerning judgment: When my soul has been troubled in wrath, you will remember mercy. And again concerning the coming of Christ: God will come from Theman, and the holy one from the shady and thick mountain. And also concerning the future: The tabernacles of the land of Midian will tremble, and ascending upon your horses, and stretching out you will stretch out your bow over the kingdoms.

If, however, anyone asks why Theodotion alone translated "for spontaneous [sins]," we can say either that it is the prophet's confession, that he sinned not by any necessity but voluntarily, thinking wrongly about God's judgment; or certainly that the future faith of the nations is being demonstrated, that they, voluntarily abandoning their former error, will believe in him who is promised in the Canticle. We read in the sixteenth Psalm: "A prayer of David." And similarly in another: "A prayer of David." And in the eighty-ninth: "A prayer of Moses, the man of God." And in the hundred and first: "A prayer of the poor man when he was anxious, and poured out his supplication before the Lord." And wherever else the name of prayer is introduced; yet in no place is it read together with "Canticle." And I do not know whether it is fitting to pray together with a Canticle, unless perhaps according to the Septuagint we say that the prophet prays for the coming of Christ, and prophesies this very thing with delight, both in Psalms and in a Canticle, so that in that it is a prayer, he entreats the Father, and in that it is a Canticle, praise is spoken of the Father, who sent the Son, and of the Son, who came. This much concerning the title of the Canticle. Let us now see what is said in the Canticle.

(Cap. III.—Vers. 1.) «O Lord, I have heard your report, and I was afraid: O Lord, your work in the midst of the years, give it life.» The Septuagint: «O Lord, I have heard your hearing, and I was afraid: O Lord, I considered your works, and I was astonished: in the midst of two living creatures you will be known.» For what we and Aquila and Theodotion translated as "give it life," Symmachus rendered as "revive it." But what the Seventy said, "I considered and I was astonished," is found neither in the Hebrew nor in any of the other translators, so that, with those things removed which are not in the Hebrew, it can be read according to the Septuagint: "O Lord, your works in the midst of two living creatures you will be known"—which, because it seemed [so], the preceding words have been joined to it. Now we read in the Hebrew ADONAI, that is, "O Lord," PHALACH, "your work," BACE-REB, "in the midst," SANIM, "of years," HELEU, "give it life." This is why we may recognize that the superfluous things have been manifestly added in the Septuagint. The Hebrews explain this passage according to the history as follows: "O Lord, I have heard your report, and I was afraid." I heard, he says, the punishments which you prepared for Nebuchadnezzar and the devil, in which you said to him: "Woe to him who multiplies what is not his own" (above, II, 6). And secondly: "Woe to him who gathers wicked avarice for his house" (vers. 9). And thirdly: "Woe to him who builds a city in blood, and prepares a town in iniquity" (vers. 12). And fourthly: "Woe to him who gives drink to his friend, sending his gall and making him drunk" (vers. 15).

And fifth: «Woe to him who says to wood, Awake: arise, to the silent stone» (verse 19). And just as I have been struck with terror, because the great dragon is to be pierced with such great wounds, so I beseech you, O Lord, that you fulfill what you have promised, and, when the time is finished, restore your Christ. For you have said that he will still be seen from afar and will appear in the end, and he will not lie. Give life, therefore, to what you have promised—that is, fulfill your promise; let not your word be made void, but be completed in deed. This, indeed, according to our understanding, can also be understood concerning the resurrection of the Savior: that he who died for us may rise from the dead and be given life. But according to the Septuagint the sense is much different, and we must also set forth the explanation of the Vulgate edition. «O Lord, I have heard in the Scriptures your word,» and, since you give me an ear, according to that which Isaiah says: «He added to me an ear to hear» (Isa. 50:5); I have heard in such a way as you wish your word to be heard. And having contemplated your works more diligently (lest it be said to me: «But they do not regard the works of the Lord, and they do not consider the works of his hands»), I understood the Creator from the creatures, and through each of the things which you have made and which you daily work in the whole world, I was wholly astonished, and, having lost the sense of humanity, I was turned into a holy madness. Or certainly, disturbed by admiration, I burst forth trembling into your praises, saying: «In the midst of two animals you will be known.»

What many think is understood of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in that the Father is understood through the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, both the two Seraphim in Isaiah (chapter 6) and the two Cherubim in Exodus (chapter 25) are interpreted as written, which face each other and have the oracle in their midst; and in Isaiah (chapter 6), veiling the head and feet of the Lord, they fly only in the present age, and cry out the mystery of the Trinity to one another: and one of the Seraphim is sent, which is interpreted as burning, and comes to earth and cleanses the prophet's lips, and says: I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled (Luke 12:49). Others reckon this, and use many testimonies of the Scriptures for this interpretation. Furthermore, the simple interpretation and the opinion of the common people understands it of the Savior, that he was recognized crucified between the two thieves (Mark 15; John 19). But those who say better hold that in the first Church, which was from the circumcision and gathered from the uncircumcision, with the two peoples girding him on either side, the Savior was understood and believed. There are those who understand the two animals as the two Testaments, the new and the old, which are truly living and life-giving, which breathe, and in whose midst the Lord is recognized.

In the middle of the years you will make it known. The Septuagint: When the years have drawn near, you will be known. When the time, he says, has come, and you have fulfilled the promises by deed, you will show that what you promised is true. Or when the consummation has drawn near, and your Son has come in the last hour to destroy sins, you will be known more manifestly. There follows:

When the time has come, you will be shown, when my soul has been troubled. This, apart from the Septuagint, is found neither in the Hebrew nor in any of the other translators. And the sense is: When the time has come, of which it is said, In an acceptable time I heard you, the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor 6:2), then, O God the Father, your name will be known, which before was hidden from men, of which the Lord says in the Gospel: Father, I have revealed your name to men (John 17:6). But what is added, When my soul has been troubled, in the edition of the Septuagint is joined with what follows, so that it can be read: When my soul has been troubled in wrath, and up to this point is the division; then let there be added, you will remember mercy; namely, that for the prophet his trouble alone suffices as punishment, and his soul was troubled at the wrath of God, and no punishment is added, but mercy excludes wrath. But the wrath of God also has its measures: how much, and for how long, and for what causes, and in whom it is implanted, according to that which is written: You will feed us with the bread of tears, and you will give us tears to drink in measure (Ps

79, 6) But if the prophet is troubled at the anger of God, and he who was troubled obtains mercy, what ought we to hope, or rather to fear, whose works are worthy of wrath? And what follows according to the Hebrew:

"When you have been angry, you will remember mercy." We must not think that God forgets and after his anger remembers his own mercy; but that we, when placed in punishment, think that he has forgotten, according to that saying: How long, O Lord, will you forget me to the end? For even if at times we are covered over by temptations as by waves, and the swift storm of demons rages against us, we speak as to one sleeping: Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? And at the same time consider the clemency of God: he did not say, when you have brought in punishments, you will remember mercy; but when you have been angry. For he who is angry sometimes does not strike, but only threatens. Sensing this, the Apostle also said: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and iniquity of men. But where it is revealed, it is not brought in, it does not strike; but it is revealed that it may terrify, and that it may not be brought in upon those who have been terrified.

(Verse 3.) "God shall come from the South, and the Holy One from Mount Pharan. Selah." The Septuagint: "God shall come from Theman, and the Holy One from the shadowy and thick mountain. Diapsalma." Aquila and Symmachus, and the Fifth Edition, set down the Hebrew itself, THEMAN: Theodotion alone interpreted what Theman means, saying ELOIM, he shall come from the South, and the Holy One from Mount Pharan, unto the end. From this we understand that it was set down by the Seventy as "from the shadowy and thick mountain." But also this which the Seventy translated, and we have set down, "selah"; Symmachus interpreted as "for eternity"; Theodotion, "unto the end"; the Fifth Edition the Hebrew itself, SELA. God therefore shall come from the South, that is, from the meridian, from clear light, and from those who are called sons of days. Whence also in the Song of Songs the bridegroom drives away the north wind and calls the south, saying: "Arise, O North, and come, O South, blow upon my garden, and let my spices flow" (Cant. 4:16). God is always in the south: "Where," he says, "do you feed? where do you lie down? in the south" (Cant. 1:6). And to Abraham, when he was under the oak, God did not come except in the south (Gen. 18). And Joseph, who in type preceded the Savior, makes a feast for his brothers in the south (Gen. 43). The knowledge, therefore, of God the Father comes to those who are worthy in full light. And the knowledge of the Holy One, that is, of the Son of God, comes from the shadowy and thick mountain.

The shady and dense mountain is understood either as the Father himself, full of virtues and all wisdom, both protecting all things by his majesty and spreading his wings and cherishing his chicks; or certainly as paradise and the heavenly places, full of angels, full of powers, full of the most fruitful trees. And would that it might fall to me also, that at my voice and at my exposition God might come in clear light, and his Son, of whom it is written: "Be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 20:26), from the height of the shady and dense eloquence, and from the testimonies of the Scriptures woven together on this side and that, and with the Father and the Son coming together, he who hears them might become their dwelling place, and the Scripture might be fulfilled, saying: "I and my Father will come to him, and make our dwelling with him" (John 14:23). But because in place of the shady and dense mountain, in the Hebrew it is written Mount Pharan, and Pharan is interpreted as "the mouth of the seer," beautifully according to our interpretation, from the speech of a learned man comes the knowledge of the Son, and not from any speech whatever, but from that which is full of light, full of eyes, so that it may be brought manifest and pure to the ears of the hearers. But what he says "from the mountain," understand as lofty doctrines. I have heard a Hebrew expound this passage thus: that Bethlehem is situated to the South, in which the Lord and Savior was born, and that this is what is now said: "The Lord will come from the South," that is, he will be born in Bethlehem, and from there he will rise up.

And because he who was born in Bethlehem once gave the law on Mount Sinai, he is the Holy One who came from Mount Pharan; for Pharan is a place near Mount Sinai. And what is added, diapsalma, that is, "always," has this meaning: he who was born in Bethlehem, and who gave the law on Sinai, that is, on Mount Pharan, is always the author and bestower in all benefits, past and present and future. Concerning the diapsalma, which in Hebrew is called SELA, there has been a fuller discussion in the Psalter. And at the same time observe, according to the Septuagint, that diapsalma is not placed except in the Psalter and in the present passage. From this we understand that the title "Canticle" was rightly prefixed by the Septuagint.

(Verse 4.) "His glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. His splendor shall be as the light: horns are in his hands. There his strength is hidden." The Septuagint: "His power covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise, and his splendor shall be as the light; horns are in his hands, and he set the strong love of his strength." For what the Septuagint translated as "And he set the strong love of his strength," and we have said, "There his strength is hidden," Aquila rendered, "And he set the hiding of his strength"; Symmachus, "And he set his hidden strength"; only Theodotion, agreeing with our translation, says: "And there is the hiding of his strength.

For the word SAM, according to the character of the place, is understood both as "he placed" and as "there"; and in the present passage it should rather be read as "there" than as "he placed," so that the sense and order of the sentence may be: His horns are in his hands—and let "there" be understood, that is, in the horns his strength is hidden. It is clear, moreover, according to the Hebrew, that at the coming of Christ all things have been filled with glory, according to that which is said in the Gospel: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14). And elsewhere: He made peace in heaven and on earth through the blood of his cross, and he sat at the right hand of majesty; for his word runs swiftly. And elsewhere: O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is your name in all the earth (Ps. 8:2, 10). And again in the eighteenth Psalm: Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps. 19:5). And his splendor, like the sun of righteousness, has shone with clear light; and the horns in his hands are the standards and trophies of the cross, and in those very horns his strength is hidden. For though he was in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; he became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:6 ff.). In the cross, therefore, his strength was for a little while hidden, when he said to the Father: My soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matt. 26:38).

And: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. And on the cross itself: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, in what is said: His power covered the heavens, we must understand that what is covered is less than that which covers it—provided, that is, that the whole is covered, and not only in part, which is covered. Since, then, the power of God covers the heavens, his power by which the heavens are covered is greater than the heavens. But that the heavens are those who bear the image of the heavenly one and who declare the glory of God, we read frequently. And that the Lord Savior is the power of God, the Apostle proves: Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. This power is, as it were, the mother of all particular virtues; for example, it is called power, wisdom, courage, justice, temperance, truth, holiness, redemption. But Christ has been made for us by God wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption. These particular virtues, then, in which Christ is shown—according to the progress of those who receive him either as wisdom, or as courage, or as justice, and the rest of this kind—are contained in the general power of God, that is, in the Lord Savior; and in this way we also understand concerning the earth, that those who were first called earth because of the image of the earthly one, and to whom it was said: You are earth, and to the earth you shall go, at the coming of the Savior are filled with the praise of the Lord.

But when the heavens also have been covered by the power of God (that is, protected and clothed on every side), and the whole earth has been filled with the praise of God, then his splendor will be as the light. And that the Savior is the image of God and the splendor of his glory, the apostle does not keep silent: who, after he appeared to us as the splendor of the glory of God (Hebr. I), returned to his former majesty. For even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him according to the flesh (II Cor. V, 16), but according to the spirit; because what was made, in him was life, and the life was the light of men (Joan. I, 3, 4). The Savior also shows this more plainly in the Gospel, saying: Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was made (Joan. XVII, 5); so that after the ascension to the heavens, he may be splendor, which is light, that is, the Son may begin to be what the Father is. But what follows: Horns in his hands, it is the custom of the Scriptures always to put horns for kingdoms. For even that which is spoken to Anna in the first book of Kings: He has exalted the horn of his Christ (I Reg. II, 10), signifies the magnificence of the Savior's kingdom. And in Daniel, the ten horns demonstrate ten kingdoms (Dan. VII). So now it is said: Horns in his hands, just as we also read written elsewhere: The heart of the king is in the hand of God (Prov.

and the mind and ruling principle of the heart of the holy man (who presses on toward the kingdom of heaven, who, while still placed on earth, rules his body without sins) does not wander outside; but is situated in God's protection. But since both in the Hebrew and in the other editions it is not written "Horns in his hands," but "in his hand," which is called JADO, let us understand the strong and robust hand of God to be his Son. And in this hand let us say that all the kingdoms of the heavens, and of those who strive to ascend to the heavens, have been placed: which Isaiah also echoes, saying: "A vineyard was made for the beloved in a horn, in a fertile place," for that which is, "in a kingdom." I think that for this reason no horned animal is placed among the unclean in Leviticus, and that the same thing is signified by the unicorn in the Psalms, or; and that: "In you we shall winnow our enemies with a horn." But what we read according to the Septuagint: "And he placed the love of his strong virtue," this too must be understood of Christ, that God the Father for this reason covered the heavens with his virtue, and filled the earth with praise, and made his splendor to be as the light, and placed the kingdom in the hand of his Son, so that he might cause his beloved to be loved by men, and to be loved not lightly, but vehemently and strongly, so that those who had loved him strongly and clung in his love, no one would take them from his hand.

On the contrary, the devil acts to make us love the world, and instead of love of virtue to love vices, and not lightly, but strongly, so that it can be said of us: And the devil has set the strong love of his vices.

(Verse 5.) "Before his face death shall go: and the devil shall go forth before his feet." The Septuagint: "Before his face the word shall go, and it shall go forth into the field after his feet." In place of what we have translated as "death," in the Hebrew three letters are set down, DALETH, BETH, RES, without any vowel, which if they are joined as DABAR signify "word"; if DEBER, "pestilence," which in Greek is called [loimos]. Accordingly both Aquila translated it thus, "Before his face pestilence shall go"; Symmachus, "Before his face death shall precede"; the fifth edition, "Before his face death shall walk": only the Septuagint and Theodotion translated "word" in place of "death." Moreover in the following verse, where we have said: "The devil shall go forth before his feet," and the Septuagint translated otherwise, which we shall discuss afterwards; Aquila translated in place of "devil" as "flying thing"; Symmachus however and Theodotion, and the fifth edition, "bird," which in Hebrew is called RESEPH. The Hebrews moreover hand down that, just as in the Gospel the prince of demons is said to be Beelzebub (Matt.

XII); thus Reseph is the name of a demon who holds primacy among others, and because of his excessive swiftness and his rushing in different directions he is called a bird and a flying creature; and that it was he who spoke to the woman in paradise under the figure of a serpent, and received his name from the curse by which he was condemned by God: indeed, BESEPH is interpreted as "creeping on the belly." This, then, is what is said: as soon as the Lord has come and been baptized in the Jordan, and at the descent of the dove the voice of the Father has thundered, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17), the devil will meet him as he comes out of the waters; and death will stand before his feet, and the ancient serpent, who tempted him for forty days in the wilderness. But if we read according to the Septuagint, "Before his face shall the word go, and it shall go forth into the fields after his feet," this signifies that the word of God precedes his visitation, which is now called his face allegorically, and prepares the hearts of believers: so that it may make the crooked straight and level the uneven places, and the soul of the hearer, like a well-tilled field, may be able to receive the spiritual seed.

(Verse 6.) "He stood, and measured the earth: he looked, and dissolved the nations, and the mountains of the age were crushed, the hills of the world were bowed down, from the paths of his eternity." The Septuagint: "He stood, and the earth was shaken: he looked, and the nations wasted away: the mountains were crushed by violence: the hills of the age wasted away at the path of his eternity." The Savior standing and beholding all things, and measuring the whole world with his eye, scattered the multitude of the nations: and when they were scattered and dissolved, the mountains of this age were crushed, and the hills of this world were bowed down. For there are also other mountains and hills, which the bridegroom leaps over and passes by in the Song of Songs (chapter II), of which it is also said in the second of the gradual Psalms: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me (Psalm CXX, 1). But the mountains of the age are the same as the dark mountains, concerning which Jeremiah commanded that our feet should not stumble upon them (Jeremiah XXXI). These are the hills in which Saul reigned when he was killing the priests of God (1 Kings XXII): for Gabaa is interpreted as a hill. And elegantly, he says, the hills of the world were bowed down. For before the coming of the Savior they walked with erect neck, and no one could humble their pride. But they were crushed and bowed down from the paths of his eternity, that is.

of God, because his eternity deigned to come to us, or because from the beginning of the world he always came to the saints until his incarnation, and the word of God was made in the hand of each one, and in all living things he himself prevailed, and bent his eternal path, and crushed the hills and mountains. These things are said metaphorically according to the Hebrew. But according to the Septuagint, after the word of God has gone before his face, and has gone forth into the plains, God the Father comes to that place where a region has been prepared for him for his word, and he comes behind the feet of his word, and stands; never going before, but always waiting, so that that one may pave the way for him. But where he has stood beside the feet of his word, there immediately the earth—that is, the works of the flesh and of bodies, not having the strength to endure the presence of God—is moved. And when they have been moved, the power of the word and the presence of God looks upon all the nations of the soul, which we can understand as thoughts and manifold opinions directed in different directions, which are forthwith dissolved and melt away. If anything also had exalted itself against the knowledge of God on the earth, and had occupied the understanding of the hearer, this, with the word going before and the coming of God, will be broken and crushed. But when the mountains have been broken and crushed at the sight of God, the hills will be consumed utterly and reduced to nothing. For they are not the mountains of God, but the mountains of the world.

For looking upon the everlasting journey of God toward those things that his word precedes, and stronger than the hills of the age, he will consume and destroy them. But mountains and demons can be understood, which dwell in heretics and lift themselves up against the knowledge of God; hills too, other powers of demons, which make men admire bodily beauty, dignities, riches, nobility of birth, and the other goods of the world. One may see after the coming of the word of God and the presence of God the Father how human souls are stirred, and everything earthly is dissolved, and former thoughts are brought to nothing. Then demons are destroyed, then the heights of the age are brought to nothing, and all the knowledge of heretics, which at first was puffed up, is humbled at the coming of the word of God, crushed and consumed. And what previously seemed beautiful and greatest is cast aside as if despised and small. And this happens because of the coming of God and the hospitality of Christ, according to what is written elsewhere: I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Lev. 26:12).

(Verse 7.) “For the iniquity, I saw the tents of Ethiopia; the skins of the land of Midian shall be troubled.” The Septuagint: “For the labors I saw the tabernacles of the Ethiopians; they shall fear, and the tabernacles of the land of Midian.” The Ethiopians—gloomy and lovers of darkness, and estranged from all light, who feed on the flesh of the dragon (of whom it is written: You have given him as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians [Psalm 73:14])—are understood to be demons, whose tabernacle is made by whoever in this world has labored for honors and riches; which is significantly shown under the single word “iniquity”: “For every rich man is either unjust, or the heir of an unjust man.” See men cross the seas, keep watch before the doors of the powerful, endure all things which the condition of slaves scarcely endures, in order to gather riches, in order to receive some dignity; and after they have obtained this, to give themselves over to luxury and pleasures and every iniquity, so that what avarice gathered, luxury may consume. These, therefore, in return for their labors, are made a lodging for demons, and those who ought to be a temple of God become a tabernacle of the Ethiopians. But also what follows: “The skins of the land of Midian shall be troubled,” or “they shall fear, and the tabernacles of the land of Midian”—understand these same to be the tabernacles of the Ethiopians, and the tabernacles of the land of Midian.

For after they have become rich and have climbed to the highest rank through right and wrong alike, then, by the consciousness of their sins, they will always dread death, always dread judgment; and at a slight fever, like thieves in prison, so will they sigh over eternal punishments. But Midian in our language means "from judgment," that is, condemnation, and it is shown that through fear of judgment and of eternal punishments they are always in dread, and the torments which they feel they deserve they endure with daily terror.

(Verse 8, 9). "Was it in the rivers that you were angry, Lord; or in the rivers was your fury, or in the sea your indignation? Because ascending upon your horses, and your chariots are salvation. You will surely raise up your bow, the oaths to the tribes which you have spoken. Always." The Septuagint: "Was it in the rivers that you were angry, Lord; or in the rivers was your fury, or in the sea your onslaught? You who ascend upon your horses, and your riding is salvation: aiming, bending your bow over the scepters, says the Lord. Diapsalma." Where the Septuagint has diapsalma, and Aquila "always," the others translated similarly as above. And because my discourse hastens to the tropological interpretation, briefly comprehending the sense of the chapter according to the letter, I shall proceed to the rest.

Just as you dried up the Jordan and the Red Sea, fighting for us—for you were not angry at the rivers and the sea, nor could things without feeling contract any offense against you—so now, mounting your chariots and seizing your bow, you will give salvation to your people, and you will fulfill forever the oaths that you swore to our fathers and to the tribes. But what he says: Was it in the rivers that you were angry, O Lord, or in the rivers your fury, or in the sea your onslaught? he says ambiguously, and in the language of one asking rather than one approving. For there are both good rivers and bad rivers. There is a very bad sea, and there is a very good sea. Of the good rivers that is the example: The rush of the river gladdens the city of God (Ps. XLV, 4). And that whoever drinks of the Lord's water, rivers of living water will flow from his belly into eternal life (John IV). Of the bad rivers is that which Pharaoh says in Ezekiel: The rivers are mine, and I made them (Ezek. XXIX, 9), in which the dragon dwells, and many things similar to these. But that the sea is taken in a good sense, the twenty-third Psalm is testimony, in which tropologically it is said concerning the Church under, that is, the circle of the earth: The earth is the Lord's and its fullness, the circle of the earth, and all who dwell in it: he himself founded it upon the sea and prepared it upon the rivers, that is, the circle of the earth. But that which is founded by the Lord upon the rivers, and prepared upon the sea, is certainly taken in a good sense.

Also, that which is said of the vine that was brought out of Egypt—"You extended its branches as far as the sea, and its shoots as far as the rivers" (Ps. 79:12)—I think can be taken in a good sense, as far as the sea is concerned. And we say that the divine words which are more manifest, and which offer, as it were, a drink to the thirsty, are called rivers; but those which are full of mysteries and placed in the deep—of which the Apostle says, "O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God" (Rom. 11:35), and the Prophet agrees: "Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord" (Ps. 129:1)—are called in the Scriptures the sea. This much on the point that the sea can also be understood in a better sense. But that it is also taken in the opposite sense, there are many testimonies, among which is that in the Psalms: "This great and spacious sea; there the ships shall pass, small animals with great. This dragon which you formed to mock him" (Ps. 103:25-26). And from the Gospel, when the Savior rebuked the winds and the sea, and said to it: "Be silent and be still" (Mark 4:39). For what is rebuked is evil, according to that of Zechariah: "May the Lord rebuke you, O devil" (Zech. 3:2). And to Timothy: "Reprove, console, and rebuke" (2 Tim. 4:2). And so the Prophet, asking: "Was it in the rivers that you were angry, O Lord, or in the rivers was your fury, or in the sea your onslaught?

Let us say, if there are rivers of Egypt, and the Red Sea—and the sea of blood—the Lord is angry and strikes them, and with all his force he is borne against the swirling waters that raise themselves against the knowledge of God. Whence the sea saw and fled (Ps. 113), not enduring to bear the presence of God. And the Jordan turned back, yielding to the glory of the people passing through, which is also divided by Elijah and by Elisha. But to speak more plainly, understand the eloquence of heretics, which flows against the truth and the Church, as the rivers with which the Lord is angry. But the souls of those who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, and always toss upon malice, and are overwhelmed by salty swirling waters—observe the sea upon which the Lord's force comes, that it may feel his coming and know by what boundaries and barrier it is enclosed, and hear: In you your waves shall be broken. But if the rivers are good and the sea is good, Jesus is washed in them, and he places his Church upon a sea of this kind. After these things it follows: You who look upon your horses, and your riding is salvation. I ask what horses the Lord ascends, and I think there are no others than the souls of the saints, upon which the divine word ascends, so that it may save both them and others through them. Let us set forth examples of horses. The bridegroom speaks in the Song of Songs: He has likened you to my chariot-horses in the chariots of Pharaoh, my neighbor (Song 1:8).

Not that Christ compares the Church, or the word of God the soul whom he calls his bride, to the chariots of Pharaoh; but that every soul, however holy and perfect it may be, when compared to God, is, as it were, a chariot of Pharaoh and a beast of burden. Hence Moses also says to the Lord: I am slow of speech and slow of tongue, that is, irrational. And David: I have become like a beast of burden before you. Not that it is absolutely a beast of burden, but that it is a beast of burden before God. To these horses those are contrary which Pharaoh has, and of which it is said: The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea: such horsemanship is not salvation but destruction. Let us seek also other horses, upon which the Lord rides: in the fourth book of Kings we read that the servant of Elisha rose at dawn and, going out, saw the army surrounding the walls of the city, and horses and chariots. And after his eyes were opened at the prophet's prayers: He looked, it says, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Note carefully that horses and chariots are seen, and yet among so many thousands of horses and chariots there is no rider: of these horses he was the charioteer and he the driver of whom the Psalmist sings: You who sit upon the Cherubim, show yourself. By such horses and such a chariot Elijah too was caught up to heaven.

But if anyone wishes to learn from Zechariah what are the red horses, and the black, and the dappled, and the white going forth from the myrtle groves and from the mountains set in the deep—or, as it is written in the Septuagint, the bronze mountains—I shall attempt to explain it in that same prophet (Zech. 1), if the Lord grants a span of life. John also saw white horses and their riders (Rev. 6); of these I think the white horses are the bodies of those who will rise in glory, and the riders the souls of the saints. But if anyone is a sinner, and like me, he will sit on a black horse, and it will be said of him: All they who mount horses have slumbered (Ps. 75:7). Of such horses it is written: A horse is a vain thing for safety (Ps. 32:17); for the flesh lusts against the spirit, and its wisdom is hostile to God. Let this be said of those who love their bodies and sit on black horses. But let us prepare our souls as horses and as chariots of the Lord, who ascended in Paul, ascended in Peter, and riding in chariots of this kind traversed the whole world. Bending his bow also, or his arrows, he uprooted, destroyed, and brought to ruin the scepters—that is, the kingdoms—against which Jeremiah was sent (Jer. 18); and he caused sin not to reign in our mortal body.

But the scepters, that is, the kingdoms of the devil, which he also showed to the Lord, understand as the various sins—avarice, lust, anger, slander, theft, perjury—against which the word of God, sitting upon horses and in his chariots, aims the twisted arrows of his brightness, and for a time does not shoot them, so that one who has been terrified at the drawn bow may not feel the release of the arrows. And he does this always, which Aquila translated as "for the diapsalm." For he always sits among his saints, he is always armed. And preparing sharp arrows in their tongues, he rides and runs hither and thither for the salvation of the world.

(Verse 10.) "You will cleave the rivers of the earth." The Septuagint: "The earth will be cleft by rivers." Because the Lord has raised up his bow, so as to render to the tribes the oaths which he spoke, consequently it is said, "you will cleave the rivers of the earth," that is, the kings of the earth fighting against your people, you will divide and scatter. According to the Septuagint, however, who said, "The earth will be cleft by rivers," let us first set forth an example, so that by this as by a step we may come to higher things.

We have read in those who composed volumes about marvels, and who brought down the Olympiads of Greece even to our own memory, setting forth what new thing happened in the world in each year—that among other things, by an earthquake rivers burst forth which had not existed before, and again others were swallowed up and utterly perished; namely, that all the veins of the earth hold hidden waters within themselves, as blood in the human body, which are broken open by the shaking of the earth and flow forth as rivers. If we have understood this, let us see that the human soul naturally has within itself waters and rivers, and that through our sloth they are hidden and do not flow. But when it has been shaken by the preaching of the word of God and moved from its former state, then what lay hidden bursts forth and flows for the refreshment of those who drink. I think this very thing is also signified in Genesis by the wells that are dug by the servants of Isaac, which the Philistines had filled with earth—wells made by Abraham (Gen. 26). As long as Abraham lived, his wells were not closed; but when he died and the wells were stopped up, if servants dig, the Philistines oppose them, and there is a quarrel. But if Isaac himself comes and digs a well and finds water, the Philistines cannot oppose him. Look at Peter and Paul, and you will not doubt about the wells and rivers of Christ. Consider all the apostles, and you will understand that now not four rivers, but twelve rivers flow out from the paradise of the Scriptures.

These rivers were hidden before the earth was shaken, and though they were in the veins of the earth, they did not offer drink to the thirsty. But after the coming of Christ the world and all the earth was shaken, suddenly they burst forth, and then was fulfilled: He turned rivers into a desert, and the outlets of waters into thirst, a fruitful land into saltness, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it (Ps. 107:33-34). He turned the desert into pools of waters, and the waterless land into fountains of waters; and he made the hungry to dwell there, and they established a city to dwell in. For after the Lord came into the world, and that was fulfilled which he said in the Gospel: For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John 9:39), then the land of Israel, from which the rivers formerly flowed and watered the whole people of Judea, dried up, and its fountains were stopped. But the whole world, which was desert and barren and had no waters of the Lord's preaching, was turned into pools of waters; and as many teachers as it sent forth, so many fountains it had. Nor was it enough for them—that is, for the fountains and rivers—to water the peoples of the world; but in each province, gathering into one people those who were hungry and suffering the famine of the word of God, they built up the Church, which is called the city to dwell in, and which the rushing of the river gladdens.

(Verses following.) "The mountains saw you and trembled; the torrent of waters passed by; the deep gave forth its voice; the height lifted up its hands; the sun and the moon stood still in their dwelling; they will go in the light of your arrows, in the splendor of your flashing spear. In the roaring you will tread down the earth; in fury you will make the nations tremble; you went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your Christ; you struck the head of the house of the wicked, you laid bare the foundation even to the neck. Always." We have set down only our own edition, so that, following it—that is, following the Hebrew—as we weave together the sequence of the passage, we may afterward discuss the Septuagint briefly, chapter by chapter. The mountains saw you, God, and trembled: namely, the lofty kingdoms and the exalted powers of this world, and the four chariots in Zechariah, which go forth from the bronze mountains (Zech. 6): these saw you and shuddered. And the torrent of waters passed by: that is, all their onslaught and persecution, by which they harassed your people, after they saw you, passed by. Then the deep, that is, the lower regions, praised you; then also the higher powers, that is, the angels, clapped their hands in applause, so that by a kind of gesture and dancing of uplifted hands they might show you to be the victor. Your sun and moon, and all the splendor with which you had formerly shone upon your people, and which afterward by the weight of evils had been wholly covered with the horror of darkness, received their light and held their former brightness.