Commentariorum In Abacuc Prophetam Libri Duo

Your arrows and your flashing spear, that is, your plagues and your instruction, provided light to your people. Finally, in the light of your arrows and in the splendor of your spear, which rebuked them for this purpose, that it might correct them, your people walked in your roaring. When, therefore, you will avenge the injury of your people, you will tread down earthly kingdoms, and you will cause all nations to marvel, because you went forth for the salvation of your people, and you came to them with your Christ: although in the Hebrew it is written: You went forth for the salvation of your people with Jesus Christ your Savior; or with Christ your Savior: for Jesus is interpreted as Savior. But when Jesus Christ your Son came, you struck down the Antichrist from the house of the impious, that is, in this world, which is placed in wickedness: or you struck down the devil himself, who is the head of impiety, and you laid bare his foundation up to the neck, that is, you made his hidden things open, not for a brief time, but forever: for this is what SELA signifies, that is, always.

LXX: "They will see you, and the peoples will grieve [or, be in labor]," for the word signifies both. Accordingly, with the earth split open and the rivers flowing, the peoples who had drunk from the rivers of God will see God and be in labor. For from this very fact that they see God, they immediately conceive by the word of God and say: "From fear of you, Lord, we have conceived in the womb, and we have been in labor and have given birth: we will bring forth the spirit of your salvation upon the earth" (Isa. 26:17-18). "Blessed," he says, "are the clean in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). And so these peoples, washed by the rivers, have not yet seen, but will see God; and when they have seen, they will conceive, so that they may be able to bring forth the fruits of teachings. But because they are called peoples, and it is not for peoples to see the face of God, although the statement is extended into the future—they will see and will give birth—nevertheless, according to tropology, the Hebrew must rather be followed, where it is said: "They have seen you, and the mountains have given birth"; for it belongs to the mountains to see God and to bring forth sons, whom they have conceived from the word of God.

LXX: "Scatter the waters of the way." There are different waters: some everlasting, some brief. Of the everlasting waters, and those that flow from the springs of Israel, it was said: "The earth will be split by rivers." Of sudden waters, and those that run for a time: "All the torrents go into the sea." For the end of such waters is destruction. God therefore will scatter all the waters that have been trampled by perverse doctrines, when he has dispersed the counsels of princes and the wisdom of this world. If at any time you see some heresy flourish briefly and afterward be dispersed by God's grace, say that this has been fulfilled: "You will scatter the waters of the way." But that which is said, "of the way," can be understood as "of the devil," so that the sense is: The waters that the devil has trampled, and that have offered a way in themselves to many—that is, have lain open to many errors—the Lord will divide and scatter. Hence the other translators too, wishing to describe heretical frenzy, rendered it: "The dashing, or the rush, of waters will pass by." For they are borne along in a headlong course of eloquence and precipitate, so that whomever they find in their path and light-minded, they drag along with them.

LXX: "The deep gave forth its voice, the height of imagination." "The deep" is often taken in a good sense, often in a bad sense, and sometimes indifferently. In a good sense: "Your judgments are a great deep" (Ps. 35:7). And: "Deep calls to deep" (Ps. 41:8), and the rest. In a bad sense: "The waters saw you, O God" (Ps. 86:17), and the rest. But also the demons plead that they not be sent into the deeps (Luke 8), and in Genesis: "The deep over which there was darkness" (Gen. 1:2)—I do not know whether it can be taken in a good sense. Indifferently, however, it is placed there: "The fountains of the deep were broken up, and the floodgates of heaven were opened" (Gen. 7:11). And that passage in the one hundred forty-eighth Psalm: "Dragons and all deeps: fire and hail and the spirit of storms"—unless perhaps, from the fact that it is placed among dragons and fire and hail, it should be drawn into a bad sense. But I do not know whether one who has seen it resound together with the rest in praise of the Lord could say this. If, therefore, we have taken "the deep" in a good sense, let us say: when the waters of the worst way were scattered, your wise men saw you, and the height of knowledge, which they had as if borrowing from your sight (because they saw you and the mountains were in labor), whatever they had previously thought concerning you, they brought forth in the praises of their voice. And beautifully he calls the opinion of imagination a "height," according to Jesus son of Sirach, who says: "Who will search out the deep and wisdom?" (Sir. 1:2). Hence also concerning the little mountain (Ps.

that is, by the assumption of a human body, which Daniel calls the stone cut from the mountain without hands, that is, without the work of marriage (Dan. 2), Christ the abyss calls upon the Father, another abyss, in the voice of his cataracts (Ps. 41), that he may give to those who evangelize the word with great power. Or certainly the abyss of the New Testament, in testimony of the small mountain by which the prince of Tyre was wounded (Isa. 14), calls upon the abyss of the Old Testament, so that through the cataracts of Christ, that is, the apostles, the preaching may become more firm. But if anyone wishes to take in a bad sense what is said: "The deep gave forth its voice, the height of its imagination," he will use the argument that after the waters of the journey have been scattered—which certainly have been taken in a bad sense—this too is rightly understood in the opposite way. And at the same time observe that it did not say "its height," but "the height of its imagination," that is, of shadow and image. For they seem to have height and knowledge of the Scriptures; but all their height, compared with the truth, is imagination, and it lifts up its voice in vain, because the waters of the journey have already been scattered. Let us search the Scriptures to see whether we can find "imagination" anywhere in a good sense, and since it is either rarely or never found, we shall more firmly interpret the abyss and its imagination in a bad sense.

LXX: “The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order.” If we follow the simple interpretation, from these present words the advance of the sun and moon is demonstrated: that, according to Isaiah, in the future age the sun shines sevenfold, and the moon shines with the brightness of the sun (Isa. 30:26). For because the creature will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8), which is now subject to vanity, on account of him who subjected it in hope of freedom, when in the consummation of the world every creature has been freed, the sun too and the moon will be freed, and will stand in their order. But if we wish to take the sun of justice, Christ, in whose wings is healing, and the moon, which is illuminated by the splendor of this sun, as the Church: it is not difficult to say that the true light, and the light of men, and the splendor of the glory of God, and the splendor of eternal light, illuminates her: who now in this age grows and wanes according to prosperity and pressures. But when the sun has been lifted up, and, according to the Apostle, God has exalted him and given him a name above every name (Phil. 2): then also the Church, which in the present age cannot keep her order, will return to her due order, and will by no means be changed; but she will stand with fixed step, and will hear with Moses, “But here you shall be with me” (Exod. 34:2).

LXX: “In the light your arrows will go, in the splendor of the flashing of your arms.” God’s arrows—that is, the darts that go and press on—are not sent for the purpose of killing, but of enlightening. To distinguish these darts and arrows, Christ is called a chosen arrow through Isaiah, crying out: “He made me a chosen arrow, and hid me in his quiver, and said to me: This is a great thing for you, to be called my servant” (Isa. 49:2–3). This arrow will have many arrows, which it sends into the whole world. Hence also the bride, wounded by the chosen arrow, says: “I am wounded by love” (Song 2:5); according to which we too can say: I am wounded by chastity, I am wounded by wisdom. Wounded by this arrow of wisdom, the Queen of the South was no longer in herself, and, astonished, she found more in the true Solomon than report had told her (1 Kings 10). These arrows, therefore, which are sent into the light, press on also in the splendor of the flashing of his arms—that is, God’s. For whoever has been armed to stand against the wiles of the devil, and girded with the armor of the Apostle (Eph. 6), the darts of light will come to him, so that it can be said to him: “You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). But if anyone is a sinner, and groans that he dwells in the tents of Kedar, the sharp arrows of the mighty are sent to him with desolating coals (Ps.

that he may first be pricked by the words of God and say, “I was turned in my misery, when the thorn was fixed in me.” And after he has been pricked, then let the coal of desolation be sent through the Seraphim, that is, through the burning word of God, a coal that burns away not only the lips, which Isaiah alone had unclean, but all the parts of his members as well, and leads them back to a wilderness of sins.

LXX: “In threatening you will diminish the earth, and in fury you will drag down the nations.” This can be understood of the consummation of the world, when, with the multitude slain in frequent wars, few men will be found, and these, who refused to be of the people of God but remained nations and Gentiles, will be led down to Tartarus by the fury of the Lord. But it is better that we interpret the earth diminished by threatening as earthly works, and those who, established in the Church, do not wait as sinners to be seized by the fury of the Lord, but, hearing in the Scriptures what punishments hang over sinners, do penance and little by little diminish their earth and advance toward heaven. If any one of us dreads the threatening of the Lord, his earth is diminished for him; but he who perseveres in the number of the nations and does not wish to be of those whose earth decreases, nor of the people of God, of whom it is said, “They will see you, and the peoples will travail,” that man will be dragged down with the nations into punishment.

LXX: "You went forth for the salvation of your people, that you might save your christs." First let us see how many kinds of christs there are, and afterwards we shall discuss how the Lord went forth for the salvation of his christs. In the Old Testament, the patriarchs too were called christs, of whom it is written in the Psalms: "He reproved kings for their sake: do not touch my christs, and do not mistreat my prophets" (Ps. 104:14-15). And in the first book of Paralipomenon (1 Chron. 16), all who came out of Egypt are called christs. Moreover, in Exodus (ch. 30) the priestly chrism is compounded, with which the priests are afterwards said to be anointed in Leviticus (ch. 8). There is also another ointment with which kings are anointed to kingship, and it is divided into two kinds. For if it is David and Solomon, that is, mighty of hand and peaceful (1 Kings 1), the horn is anointed (1 Sam. 16). But if it is Jehu and Hazael, they are poured over with a lentil, that is, a small vessel (2 Kings 9): for the earthen vessel is so called, that is, . But Cyrus also, king of the Persians and Medes, who released the people from captivity (although many err and think this was written of the Lord Savior), hears through Isaiah: "Thus says the Lord to my christ Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that the nations may hear before him" (Isa. 45:1), etc. And at the end it is said: "But you did not know me," which it is impious to understand of the Savior. There is a prophetic ointment, by which Elijah is commanded to anoint Elisha as prophet (1 Kings 19).

And beyond all kinds of ointments there is a spiritual ointment called the oil of exultation, with which the Savior is anointed, and it is said to him: "Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of exultation before your fellows" (Psalm 44:8). And I consider those to be his fellows to whom John also speaks: "And you have an ointment from the holy one" (1 John 2:20). And a little after: "These things I have written to you concerning those who seduce you: and the chrism which you have received from him, let it remain in you: and you have no need that anyone teach you; but the chrism itself will teach you concerning all things, and it is true, and it is not a lie, and as it has taught you, remain in it" (ibid. 26-27). And lest perhaps those who have lost the chrism of baptism should despair of recovering the chrism, it is written in Leviticus: that when the leper cast out beyond the camp has come to the priest, and his leprosy has been cleansed, the priest shall put oil into his own left hand, and having dipped his finger, shall sprinkle the oil seven times before the Lord, and shall touch with that same oil the ear of him who had been a leper, and his right hand, and his right foot, and whatever remains of the ointment he shall put entirely on his head (Leviticus 14). And when he has duly completed all these things, then let him offer a burnt offering for him, and let he himself be called a christ of God. I wish to say something; but I fear lest I give an occasion of ruin to the negligent: that in the holy Scriptures the same man is frequently found anointed. Finally David was anointed a third time (2 Kings

(V, 12): which we should not understand as concerning one who has sinned; and again he is anointed (for it is enough for the leper that, after the first ointment is lost, he be anointed a second time), but concerning one who advances day by day, and whose anointing is always increased, and who passes from the oil of the leper to the oil of the people and of the saints, and from the oil of the people comes to the oil of the priests, and from the priests passes over to the chrism of the high priest, and from the high priest to the king, and from the king to the patriarchs, and from the patriarchs proceeds to Christ, and is anointed with the oil of exultation (Ps. 44:8), with which whoever has been smeared becomes one spirit with God, and where the Father and the Son are, there he also will be. But this is rare, and it is the vow of believers. Otherwise I do not know whether the effect follows. For it is said: God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions, that is, with that oil which those who are your companions will be able to find either rarely or never. For the salvation of these chrisms, then, God has gone forth from his place, as Micah also says: And he will go forth from his place to save (Mic. 1:3). For because those who needed salvation were unwilling to enter in to him, he himself went forth from his majesty and from his place, in order to lead those who were outside into the land of the meek and the region of the living, from which Adam had been expelled (Gen. 3); from which Cain, having gone forth, dwelt in the land of Naid (Gen. 4, according to the LXX).

But it must be known, as we said above, that where the Seventy placed it in the plural number, "that you might save your anointed ones," there in the Hebrew is LAJESUA ETH MESSIACH, which Aquila translated "for salvation with your Christ"—not that God went out to save the people and to save his Christ, but that he came for the salvation of the people with his Christ, according to that saying of the Gospel: "The Father is in me, and I in the Father; and the Father abiding in me himself does his works" (John 14:10). But the Fifth Edition also translated it similarly: "You went out for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your Christ." But Theodotion, truly as a poor man and an Ebionite, and Symmachus too of the same opinion, following a poor understanding, translated it in a Jewish way: "You went out for the salvation of your people, that you might save your Christ," and: "You went out to save your people, to save your Christ." I am about to say something incredible, but nevertheless true. These semi-Christians translated in a Jewish way, and the Jew Aquila interpreted as a Christian would. The Sixth Edition, revealing the mystery most clearly, translated it thus from the Hebrew: "You went out to save your people through Jesus Christ your," which in Greek is said. To this meaning can be adapted the fact that the Father went out with the Son from the temple and from the ceremonies of the Jews, saying: "Your house will be left to you desolate" (Luke 13:35); and came for the salvation of the Gentiles, to save those who believe through Jesus Christ his Son.

LXX: "You sent death upon the head of the wicked." Let us not think this is said of the common death by which we all die, and Abraham died and was gathered to his fathers (Gen. 25), and the prophets, and Christ himself died (John 19), but death was sent upon the wicked, so that those who formerly lived for iniquity, being dead to sin, might live for righteousness (1 Pet. 2). Anna also signifies this in her prayer: The Lord puts to death and gives life (1 Kings 2:6). For he puts sinners to death, sending death upon the heads of the wicked, so that he may give them life for righteousness. I will say something more boldly: Christ came into the world for this purpose, to send death upon the heads of the unrighteous. And just as he himself died once to sin (1 Pet. 3), so too they might die to iniquity; and those who had been made partakers of this death might also be made partakers of life. According to the Hebrew, however, where it is written: You struck the head of the house of the wicked, let us understand the head, as I said, as the prince of this world, and his house as the world, and every soul of the sinner in which the devil had his lodging. But the head in the house of the wicked is struck for this reason, that, once it is struck and cast out, the house may become God's, and righteousness may dwell and walk in it. And this is a worthy thing to think of God, who went forth for the salvation of his people with his Christ, so that, once this kind of head is struck, he might become in us the head who is the head of every man and of his Church.

If anyone, then, still feels himself to be the house of the wicked, let him pray for the coming of the Son of God, that the head of the wicked may be crushed within him.

LXX: "You have raised up bonds even to the neck, unto the end." The Lord has raised up the bonds of love, so that, with the former burden laid aside and the very heavy yoke by which we were oppressed cast off, we might take up the light yoke of Christ; and, placed in his chariot, we might carry the best of charioteers. Theodotion too, taking this in a good sense, says: "You have adorned the foundation even to the neck." The Fifth Edition: "You have laid bare," or, "you have emptied the foundation even to the neck, selah," that is, "forever." For because the foreigners' land had buried the foundation of Christ, which was in the soul of each person, the heaped-up earth is cleared away, and the best foundation is laid bare and adorned, so that what lay hidden may appear and receive its own brightness; and this happens forever, which in Hebrew is called SELA. And at the same time consider that the very translators of the LXX, compelled by the necessity of the matter—they who always interpreted sela as diapsalma—now translated it "unto the end.

(On the following verses.) "You have cursed his scepters, the head of his warriors, who come like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their exultation is like that of one who devours the poor in secret. You have made a way in the sea for your horses, in the mire of many waters. I have heard, and my belly is troubled; at the voice my lips trembled. Let rottenness enter into my bones, and let it swarm beneath me: that I may rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may go up to our people that is girded." And now we discuss only the Hebrew, so that we may discuss the edition of the Septuagint separately, for it disagrees greatly with the translation of all others. "You have cursed," it says, "his scepters," that is, his kingdoms—beyond doubt the kingdoms of the impious man, of whom it had said above: "You struck the head of the house of the impious; you laid bare the foundation even to the neck." Now we understand the impious man to be either Nebuchadnezzar or every adversary of the people of God. And not only his scepters, but also the head of the warriors whom you had struck, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, that is, to overturn Israel and lead them captive in various directions. For they exulted in this way, devouring the poor and Israel made subject to them, as though they were doing this in secret and devouring us while you did not know. And so you came to battle on behalf of your people, and driving your chariots into the waters, that is, into the many nations, you made a way for them in the mire of many waters, that is, so that you might trample them underfoot and crush them like mire by the hoof of your horses and the wheel of your chariots.

But what follows: "I have heard, and my belly is troubled; at the voice" (that is, yours, to be understood) "my lips trembled, let rottenness enter into my bones, and let it swarm beneath me: that I may rest in the day of tribulation, that I may go up to our people that is girded" — this is the meaning: Now we gladly endure all distresses, and at your threatening we tremble in all our inmost parts. Now my lips tremble, and the fear of a trembling mind is marked upon my mouth; and not only that, but I also freely seek and freely desire something further: let rottenness enter into my bones, and let it swarm beneath me; that is, I gladly suffer what Job suffered — I desire not only my flesh but even the marrow of my bones to waste away, and my bed to swarm with the corruption of my body and with countless worms, so that after I have endured these things here for my sins, I may rest in the bitter day, in the day of tribulation, in the day of need and anguish. And I shall go up to our people that is girded — that is, strong, warlike, and ready for battle. And rightly, "I shall go up"; for one always goes up to a people that is girded. And elegantly "our": for he who has been troubled, and has gladly endured pressures, and has balanced present evils with future rewards, boldly says "our," so that, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he too may sleep in a good old age, full of days, and be gathered to his fathers.

But if someone has said: "Look, in expounding the history, without realizing it, you have been caught in the nets of allegory, and you have mixed tropology with history"—let him hear that metaphor does not always agree with history, nor allegory with history, because history itself is often woven metaphorically, and under the image of a woman or of one man it is proclaimed concerning the whole people. And now, therefore, we can say in the person of the people: "I gladly undergo captivity, I bear hardships with a calm mind, and I am pressed by the most grievous yoke of the Babylonians, and whatever belongs to the last and harsh necessity, I shall suffer rejoicing"—only that I may rest at the time when you will curse the scepters of the impious, and your horses will trample the mud of many waters, so that afterward, with your saints Zerubbabel and Joshua son of Jozadak, and Ezra the priest, and Nehemiah, I may return to the land of promise. Up to this point, lest we seem to have passed over the history entirely, we have in a certain manner done violence to the understanding, and dragged into captivity meanings that do not follow: now let us return to the Seventy translators and to the tropological exposition.

LXX. "You divided in astonishment the heads of the mighty." Just as Christ is the head of the Church and of every man (1 Cor 11), so Beelzebub, the prince of demons, is the head of all the demons who rage in this world, and each of their bands has its own heads and princes. For example, the spirits of fornication have their own overseer, the spirits of avarice have theirs, the spirits of vainglory, the spirits of lying, the spirits of unbelief have their own rulers of their wickedness. Therefore God, most merciful, who had sent death upon the heads of the wicked, who had raised up chains even to the neck, at the end divides even the heads of the mighty in astonishment, so that he may first separate the princes from their subjects, and, as it were, behead the body from its head, and where the worst head had been, there the best head may be placed. Let us give an example, so that what we say may be made clearer: when a tyrant is cut down, his images and statues are also taken down; and with only the face changed and the head removed, the countenance of the one who has conquered is placed over it, so that, with the body remaining and the heads cut off, another head is substituted. I like to understand this of the conventicles of heretics: that, with the heads of the heresies separated from the rest of the peoples, Christ begins to be the head in their place.

At the same time consider the significance of Holy Scripture, that it did not say, "you cut off" or "you cut down" the heads of the mighty, but "you divided"; for what is divided is not so much amputated and destroyed as separated into parts. Just as at the building of the tower (Gen 11), the tongue that had been wrongly united was separated, and the worst alliance was torn apart by a useful division, so also these heads, which seemed to have agreement among themselves with their bodies (for the heads of heretics are many; and though they have different eyes, yet in one tongue, so to speak, of blasphemy they bark against the Church), were divided into parts, and separated from the deceived bodies, they made room for the good head. We can use this verse whenever we see their kings and leaders shedding Christian blood, and afterward the vengeance of the Lord following. This we have long since seen in Julian, and before him in Maximian, and above in Valerian, Decius, Domitian, and Nero; and to say to the Lord with exultation and prayer in the Canticle: "You divided in astonishment the heads of the mighty," that is, in the astonishment of believers, or in the astonishment of all nations, which did not think they could fall so quickly. While I was still a boy and being trained in the grammar school, and all the cities were being polluted with the blood of victims, and suddenly in the heat of persecution the death of Julian was announced, one of the pagans said elegantly: "How is it that the Christians say their God is patient, and—?

Nothing is more irascible, nothing more present than this fury: he could not defer his indignation even for a tiny space of time. » He may have said this in jest. But otherwise the Church of Christ sang with exultation: You divided in astonishment the heads of the mighty. I too will say something similar to this: Divide, Lord, in the astonishment of all, Ahab and Jezebel. I am certainly no Elijah; but yet those Ahab and Jezebel killed Naboth and took his vineyard (3 Kings 21), and made it a garden of their luxury. Let some Obadiah, your servant, be found, to feed your poor and needy one; let the blood of the harlot be given to the dogs; let the impious and avaricious Ahab be slain by the dart of the Lord (3 Kings 18).

LXX: «They shall be moved in it, they shall open their reins like one eating the poor in secret.» When the heads have been cut off from their bodies, and divided in no other way than in astonishment, which in Greek is called: whence according to it it is declined and called, that is, in it, they shall also open their reins, or their own (for both can be understood), so that that dominion by which they previously ruled over the bodies subject to them, relaxing it, they may give place to a better horseman and a better charioteer. And let them do this as those eating the poor in secret, not having freedom, nor any abundance of foods, but small morsels, which eating secretly they would wish no one to see what they do.

It can also be interpreted another way: when the heads have been divided in stupefaction, as if decapitated from the rest of the body, they will open their mouth, which had been bridled as if by the bit of condemnation, and they will gnash with teeth striking against one another in the likeness of those who eat, wishing to eat again but having no power to devour. Understand how, after the coming of Christ, the heads of demons, separated from the nations that had previously been subject to them, wish to exercise their ancient power again. But because they have been cut off from their bodies, they do not have full freedom to eat: they eat like paupers, and they are not only paupers, but paupers in hiding. They are paupers because they have lost their former riches; they eat in hiding because they always sit in ambush, so that in secret they may kill the innocent. These heads have the same teeth as they have arrows. And although he said earlier: I will ascend above the stars of heaven, I will set my nest on high, and I will hold the whole world in my hand like eggs, nevertheless they will be dragged down from the heights, and losing their former furnishings and all the substance of their house, they will scarcely attempt, like paupers, to eat and bite in secret. I know that the Hebrew differs greatly from what has been said; but what can I do? To whom it has once been resolved to interpret both the Hebrew itself and the Scriptures that have been made public throughout the whole world?

LXX: "And you led your horses into the sea, troubling many waters." After God had sent death upon the heads of the wicked and had struck down the heads of the powerful in stupefaction, and had shattered them in the sea (for it is written in the Psalms: You shattered the heads of the dragon [Ps. 73:14]), with the princes slain or shattered, and the strong man conquered, one comes to his house, and all his vessels are plundered (Mark 3). But the vessels and the house of the strong man and the furnishings of the prince—what else can we interpret them as but the sea of this world, in which the dragon dwells? Therefore God, that distinguished horseman and preeminent charioteer, has led his horses—that is, the angels and the lofty powers—over the sea of this world, so that he may trouble the many waters, the demons and the opposing powers. But if we wish to interpret this of the coming of Christ, according to what is written in the Apocalypse (ch. 16), that the word of God sits upon a white horse and all his army follows him on white horses, we shall see how Christ ascended in his apostles, saying to them: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age; and: Going, go, baptize all nations, and the rest (Matt. 28:19-20). And afterward he ascended upon one white horse, which I think is none other than the apostle Paul, riding upon whom he has gone around the whole world.

But the word of God ascended upon his horses, so that many waters might be troubled—that is, either the many peoples who were previously in the sea and were held subject to the dragon (for wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, and they were troubled, first forsaking their former error; then, thrown into confusion, they would receive the coming rider). Or certainly, as we said above, the hosts of demons would by no means so dominate in the sea; but, troubled, they would yield and dread the wounds of the fighting rider. And would that the word of God might ascend also in me, and through the spear of my mouth slay him who reigns over many waters, so that, at the death of the king, the waters that had been subject to them, thrown into confusion, might offer their necks to my rider, and, gathered into one chariot, we might become the Lord's Cherubim, which is interpreted as the multitude of knowledge. For never is a charioteer so composed, and so borne along adorned, as in those who are joined to one another by a multitude of knowledge and by the reins of wisdom.

LXX: "I kept watch, and my belly trembled at the voice of the prayer of my lips: and trembling entered into my bones, and beneath me my strength was troubled." Or, as we find written elsewhere, what we may render as "my condition"; for diverse copies are found. But these words can be spoken in the person of the prophet, connected with the preceding: Because you sent, O Lord, death upon the heads of the wicked, and you raised up chains even to the neck, and you divided in astonishment the heads of the mighty, and you brought your horses into the sea, troubling many waters: therefore I kept my heart with all watchfulness, and my inward parts trembled, and all of me, whether my strength or my condition, was troubled, lest I should suffer similar things. It can also have, as it were, its own beginning, with the prophet narrating his fear, and how he dreaded lest he should sin in anything, and, warned by the voice of the prayer of his lips, feared God so greatly that trembling entered into his bones; and, placed under the exalted hand of the Lord, he was troubled in all the strength or condition of his soul. But what he says—"Trembling entered into my bones"—must be understood so that we may see the greatness of the fear of God penetrating the whole of the soul and moving the whole man, lest he do anything that would displease God.

And because Scripture, speaking allegorically, mentions members of the body and also members of the soul, let us understand the "trembling belly" as that power of the soul which receives spiritual foods, and the "lips" as those with which the mind speaks to itself, and the "bones" as strong and solid doctrines by which the whole frame of the soul is made firm. These things I have said briefly. But if anyone finds things more sagacious and truer than these, give your assent rather to his explanation.

LXX: "I will rest in the day of my tribulation: that I may ascend to the people of my pilgrimage." Because I have kept my heart with all watchfulness, and my belly trembled at the voice of the prayer of my lips, and trembling entered into my bones, and beneath me my strength, or my condition, was troubled, and because of such great watchfulness I have been made a stranger to sins; therefore now I say confidently: I will rest in the day of tribulation, that I may ascend to the people of my pilgrimage, that is, to those who have sojourned in this world just as I have. But I, though placed below, will ascend, and as if striving from the valley toward higher things, I will contend with all eagerness, so that at the time when others are in tribulation and distress, my concern may be about ascending, how I may rest with the people of my pilgrimage in higher places. But I think the day of tribulation is the consummation of the world, of which Isaiah also says: The day of the Lord is incurable, of fury and wrath, to lay the whole circle of the earth waste, and to destroy sinners (Isa. 14:6-7).

(Ver. 17.) «For the fig tree shall not blossom, and there shall be no bud on the vines: the work of the olive shall lie, and the fields shall not bring forth food: the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.» The LXX: «Because the fig tree shall not bring forth fruit, and there shall be no buds (variant: offspring) on the vines: the work of the olive shall lie, and the fields shall not produce food: they have failed, because the sheep have eaten, and there are no oxen in the stalls.» According to the Hebrew, in which we said above: Let rottenness enter into my bones and swarm beneath me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation: and I shall go up to the people girded as ours (variant: as mine): thus what has gone before will be joined to what follows. Therefore I wished to endure tribulation for the present, and afterward to go up to the strong people, because the day of tribulation and distress will come, and when the rest are set in anguish, I in your majesty will rejoice: For the fig tree shall not blossom, and there shall be no bud on the vines; the work of the olive shall lie, and the fields shall not bring forth food, and the rest. And because these do not differ much from the LXX, let us discuss them together with their interpretation. When the day of tribulation comes, and I shall have gone up to the people who once sojourned with me: or certainly when the day of the overthrow of the Jewish nation and of the former people comes, and the daughter of Zion has been forsaken, like a booth in a vineyard, and like a hut in a cucumber garden, and like a city that is stormed, I who have been chosen from the perishing people (of whom it was said (Isa.

(I, 9): Unless the Lord had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrha, I will join myself to the disciples of Christ: and because he teaches them on the mountain, leaving the crowds and the weak below, I will ascend to the heights. For the fig tree has not given fruit, the one to which the Lord came hungry in the Gospel, and he found no fruit on it, and he cursed it, saying: You shall bear no fruit forever (Matth. XXI, 19). And consider carefully what he said: You shall bear no fruit forever, he did not say, forever and ever: but when this age has passed away, and the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, then this fig tree also will bring forth its fruits, and all Israel will be saved. This is the fig tree to which the householder came a third time, and as though it bore no fruit he wishes to uproot it: on whose behalf the vine-dresser to whom it had been entrusted pleads, that he give it space, and says: Lord, let it alone also this year, until I dig around it, and put dung, and if it bears fruit: but if not, then you shall cut it down (Luc. XIII, 8, 9). This vine-dresser is either Gabriel, or Michael, to whom the people of the Jews was entrusted, who pleads with the Lord in his passion, and says: Lord, give them space for repentance, and do not uproot them, and if they bear fruit: but if not, then you shall uproot them.

If they have produced fruit, he says—he did not state what they would undergo; nor did he say, "If they have produced fruit, they will remain as they were"; but "if they have produced fruit" is a suspended sentence, so that it may be understood: you will transfer them into the Church of the Gentiles, and transplant them into another vineyard. The Lord came a third time, and found no fruit in them. He gave the first law through Moses; second, he spoke through the prophets; third, he himself descended. And after his passion, with forty-four years given for repentance, because they did not produce fruit, fourth, they were overthrown. But this is left to our understanding. For in the parable it is not written what the father of the household did afterward, but only what the farmer entreated. From this we observe that those who produced fruit from this fig tree were transferred to the people of the Gentiles, to whom the prophet also ascended, saying: I will rest in the day of tribulation, that I may ascend to the people of my pilgrimage. But those who did not produce fruit, and remained in their hardness, were overthrown. The voice of John in the Gospel signifies this very thing: Behold, the axe is placed at the roots of the trees. Every tree that has not produced fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10; Luke 3:9). We have spoken of the fig tree, showing that it is the people of the Jews; let us also speak of the vineyard, which indeed he will easily understand who has read Isaiah: A vineyard was made for the beloved on a horn, in a fertile place (Isaiah 5:1).

And afterwards: And I waited for it to produce fruit, but it produced thorns, and not judgment, but a cry (Ibid. 2). And in Jeremiah: But I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true; how have you turned into bitterness, a foreign vine (Jerem. II, 21)? And more plainly in the Psalms: You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations, and planted it (Psal. LXXIX, 9). This vine, then, to which the householder had often sent servants (Matth. XXI), so that he might receive from it wine that gladdens the heart of man, because it has turned into bitterness, has finally dared even to kill the son of the householder, producing not grapes but thorns, and not judgment but a cry: Crucify, crucify him! And: We have no king but Caesar (Joan. XIX, 6, 15). Therefore the boar from the forest has laid it waste, and the singular wild beast has devoured it (Psal. LXXIX, 14). He will also clearly prove the people of the synagogue to be an olive tree, for one who has read in the Apostle of the broken branches of the olive (Rom. XI), and of us inserted from the wild olive, will understand in the branches that the Jewish multitude was cut off, and in the roots that the election of the apostles was preserved, in whom we shall remain secure if we have produced fruit, and it shall be said of us: Your children are like shoots of olive trees around your table (Psal. CXXVI, 3). Many think that the fig, the vine, and the olive are taken in the mystery of the Trinity, because the fig, on account of the sweetness of its fruits, is understood as the Holy Spirit.

The vine is our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who says in the Gospel: I am the vine (John 15:1). The olive, however, is God the Father almighty, by whom all things are enlightened, and from whom light goes forth, and to whom we can say: O olive, in your light we shall see light (Psalm 36:10), that is, in the Son we shall see the Holy Spirit. To these fruitful trees and this most abundant vine come the unfruitful trees in the book of Judges (chapter 9), and they ask that they reign over them. But the olive, the fig, and the vine never reign over the trees of the forest, which are destined for burning; rather, the buckthorn full of thorns rules over them, and one like a hedgehog, who dwells in Babylon and is always occupied in pits. This little tree not only has thorns, but also fire, wounding and burning whatever it touches. Finally fire went out and consumed the trees of the forest. But so that you may know, according to the earlier understanding in which we have taken what was said of the synagogue: The fig shall not produce fruit, and there shall be no buds on the vines, that it is said not of fruits but of good works. In the olive the riddle is clearly opened, and it is said: The work of the olive shall lie. For the fruits which they ought to have brought forth are shown in works; but the work of the olive shall lie, promising one thing and doing another, saying to Moses: All things whatsoever the Lord has said, we will do (Exodus 24:7); and refusing to believe in him who was foretold by Moses. The fields also shall not produce fruit.

Consider that Jerusalem, which was once situated in the mountains, and the mountains are round about it (Ps. 124:2), and its foundations are in the holy mountains (Ps. 86:1), is now called lowly and of the plain—a city that not only does not nourish men, that is, rational animals, but not even cattle and oxen, of which Solomon also speaks in Proverbs: Give attention to the regions that are in the field, and cut the grass, and gather the hay, that you may have sheep to feed (Prov. 27:25–26). Nor will the oxen be in the stalls, because where the stalls are full, the strength of the ox is manifest (Prov. 14:4). The ox is a laborer: the ox of the Lord bearing the yoke: the ox in whose track whoever sows is blessed. All these things will be taken away from the people, because it acted wickedly against God its Creator. But if you wish to take the day of tribulation as the day of consummation, you will refer all these things to those who say they are of the Church and do not have the works of righteousness. And the fig tree, and the vine, and the olive—that is, the mystery of the Trinity—will not bring forth their fruit in them; and not only will they not have the grains and the foods of rational beings, but they will not even have the food of cattle and beasts of burden in their fields, and their stalls are empty, and instead of lofty mountains we dwell in level and lowly places.

But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus. God the Lord is my strength, and he will set my feet like those of deer. And he will lead me victorious upon my high places, singing in the Psalms. The Septuagint has: "But I will exult in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Savior. The Lord God is my strength, and he will set my feet for completion; he will set me upon the high places, that I may overcome in his Song." The fig tree and the vine and the olive, as I have explained, will not produce their fruit, and the fields of the Jews will not bring forth food, and the sheep will have been cut off from the fold and the herds from the stalls, after they heard from the Lord: Your house will be left to you desolate (Matt. 23:38), and the people too will have been handed over to captivity and scattered throughout the whole world. The prophet, from among the people of the Jews—which is interpreted as "embracing," because he loved the Lord and clung to him and joined himself to him—speaks in the person of the apostles and of the people who believe in Christ: But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus. For this the Septuagint translated as "my Savior." The same is meant by Gabriel's interpretation: And he will be called Jesus, for he will save his people (Matt. 1:21). God the Lord is my strength: for I will have no other power except in Christ, and all the righteousnesses of the law I will count as refuse.

And he will set my feet like those of deer, so that I may tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and like a little child put my hand into the hole and draw out the serpent, and play with the viper; for my kinsman is like a gazelle or a young stag (Song 2:9). And because he himself is a stag, he has also granted to me to be a stag—lofty with horns, cloven-hoofed, chewing the cud, and putting serpents to flight at my scent—of whom it is said in the seventeenth psalm: Who has made my feet like those of deer, and will set me upon the high places. And in the twenty-eighth: The voice of the Lord perfecting the stags. He will therefore set my feet among his other stags, and lead me to heavenly things, so that among the angels I may sing the glory of the Lord, and upon earth announce peace to men of good will. But I will sing of his victory and triumph and the trophy of the cross. Let us refer all these things, according to the Hebrew and the fifth edition, to the time of the Jewish overthrow and to the coming of the Lord. But if we wish to understand them of the consummation of the world, it must be expounded thus: as in Exodus (chapter

IX) when Egypt was struck, and God struck their vines and their fig trees, and killed the firstborn of men and of beasts with hail, and the bruchus and the locust consumed the fruits of Egypt; the fig tree in Egypt bore no fruit, nor were there any buds on their vines, the work of the olive gave false promise (if anywhere at least it could be found in Egypt), and their fields gave no food; and they failed, because their cattle had no food, and there were no oxen in the stalls. But the people of Israel exulted in the Lord, and rejoiced in God their savior: so at the consummation of the world, when, with iniquity multiplied, charity has grown cold (Matt. 24), and the fig tree has borne no fruit, and the vines have had no grapes, and the work of the olive has given false promise, and the fields have not sprouted food, and the rest that follows: then whoever is found just and worthy of God's election will speak exulting: But I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my savior, the Lord is my strength. And as one set by God over the consummation of the age, so that afterward he may ascend to the things above, and be led out by God to the summit, he will say: And he will set my feet for the consummation, he will set me upon the high places; so that, when by Jesus, who first conquered in the contest, the prize has been set for those who sing: I shall conquer in his song, and my hands shall compose the cithara, and the psaltery, and every kind of instrument, and I shall write a panegyric for the triumphant one.

And I, who said at the beginning, "How long shall I cry, and you will not hear? I shall cry out to you, suffering violence, and you will not save?" and who pleaded concerning his justice and judgment—afterward I shall praise his equity, and in my song I shall surpass the rest of the singers.