Commentaries on the Twelve Prophets [1]

Table of contents :
Vol. 1 (Nahum, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Habakkuk, Jonah and Obadiah)

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ANCIENT CHRISTIAN TEXTS

COMMENTARIES ON THE TWELVE PROPHETS

VOLUME 1

Jerome

EDITED BY

THOMAS P. SCHECK

SERIES EDITORS

THOMAS C. ODEN AND GERALD L. BRAY

CONTENTS

General Introduction

Volume Editor’s Introduction

Abbreviations

Commentary on Nahum

Commentary on Micah

Commentary on Zephaniah

Commentary on Haggai

Commentary on Habakkuk

Commentary on Jonah

Commentary on Obadiah

Bibliography

Notes

General Index

Index of Holy Scripture

Praise for Ancient Christian Texts

About the Editors

Ancient Christian Texts

More Titles from InterVarsity Press

IVP Academic Textbook Selector

Copyright

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Ancient Christian Texts (hereafter ACT) presents the full text of ancient Christian commentaries on Scripture that have remained so unnoticed that they have not yet been translated into English. The patristic period (AD 95–750) is the time of the fathers of the church, when the exegesis of Scripture texts was in its primitive formation. This period spans from Clement of Rome to John of Damascus, embracing seven centuries of biblical interpretation, from the end of the New Testament to the mid-eighth century, including the Venerable Bede. This series extends but does not reduplicate texts of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (ACCS). It presents full-length translations of texts that appear only as brief extracts in the ACCS. The ACCS began years ago authorizing full-length translations of key patristic texts on Scripture in order to provide fresh sources of valuable commentary that previously were not available in English. It is from these translations that the ACT series has emerged. A multiyear project such as this requires a well-defined objective. The task is straightforward: to introduce full-length translations of key texts of early Christian teaching, homilies and commentaries on a particular book of Scripture. These are seminal documents that have decisively shaped the entire subsequent history of biblical exegesis, but in our time have been largely ignored. To carry out this mission each volume of the Ancient Christian Texts series has four aspirations:

1. To show the approach of one of the early Christian writers in dealing with the problems of understanding, reading and conveying the meaning of a particular book of Scripture.

2. To make more fully available the whole argument of the ancient Christian interpreter of Scripture to all who wish to think with the early church about a particular canonical text.

3. To broaden the base of the biblical studies, Christian teaching and preaching to include classical Christian exegesis.

4. To stimulate Christian historical, biblical, theological and pastoral scholarship toward deeper inquiry into early classic practitioners of scriptural interpretation.

For Whom Is This Series Designed?

We have selected and translated these texts primarily for general and nonprofessional use by an audience of persons who study the Bible regularly. In varied cultural settings around the world, contemporary readers are asking how they might grasp the meaning of sacred texts under the instruction of the great minds of the ancient church. They often study books of the Bible verse by verse, book by book, in groups and workshops, sometimes with a modern commentary in hand. But many who study the Bible intensively hunger to have available as well the thoughts of a reliable classic Christian commentator on this same text. This series will give the modern commentators a classical text for comparison and amplification. Readers will judge for themselves as to how valuable or complementary are their insights and guidance. The classic texts we are translating were originally written for anyone (lay or clergy, believers or seekers) who wished to reflect and meditate with the great minds of the early church. They sought to illuminate the plain sense, theological wisdom, and moral and spiritual meaning of an individual book of Scripture. They were not written for an academic audience, but for a community of faith shaped by the sacred text. Yet in serving this general audience, the editors remain determined not to neglect the rigorous requirements and needs of academic readers who until recently have had few full translations available to them in the history of exegesis. So this series is designed also to serve public libraries, universities, academic classes, homiletic preparation and historical interests worldwide in Christian scholarship and interpretation. Hence our expected audience is not limited to the highly technical and specialized scholarly field of patristic studies, with its strong bent toward detailed word studies and explorations of cultural contexts. Though all of our editors and translators are patristic and linguistic scholars, they also are scholars who search for the meanings and implications of the texts. The audience is not

primarily the university scholar concentrating on the study of the history of the transmission of the text or those with highly focused interests in textual morphology or historical-critical issues. If we succeed in serving our wider readers practically and well, we hope to serve as well college and seminary courses in Bible, church history, historical theology, hermeneutics and homiletics. These texts have not until now been available to these classes.

Readiness for Classic Spiritual Formation

Today global Christians are being steadily drawn toward these biblical and patristic sources for daily meditation and spiritual formation. They are on the outlook for primary classic sources of spiritual formation and biblical interpretation, presented in accessible form and grounded in reliable scholarship. These crucial texts have had an extended epoch of sustained influence on Scripture interpretation, but virtually no influence in the modern period. They also deserve a hearing among modern readers and scholars. There is a growing awareness of the speculative excesses and spiritual and homiletic limitations of much post-Enlightenment criticism. Meanwhile the motifs, methods and approaches of ancient exegetes have remained unfamiliar not only to historians but to otherwise highly literate biblical scholars, trained exhaustively in the methods of historical and scientific criticism. It is ironic that our times, which claim to be so fully furnished with historical insight and research methods, have neglected these texts more than scholars in previous centuries who could read them in their original languages. This series provides indisputable evidence of the modern neglect of classic Christian exegesis: it remains a fact that extensive and once authoritative classic commentaries on Scripture still remain untranslated into any modern language. Even in China such a high level of neglect has not befallen classic Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian commentaries.

Ecumenical Scholarship

This series, like its two companion series, the ACCS and Ancient Christian Doctrine (ACD), is an expression of unceasing ecumenical efforts that have enjoyed the wide cooperation of distinguished scholars of many differing academic communities. Under this classic textual umbrella, it has brought together in common spirit Christians who have long distanced themselves from each other by competing church memories. But all of these traditions have an equal right to appeal to the early history of Christian exegesis. All of these traditions can, without a sacrifice of principle or intellect, come together to study texts common to them all. This is its ecumenical significance. This series of translations is respectful of a distinctively theological reading of Scripture that cannot be reduced to historical, philosophical, scientific, or sociological insights or methods alone. It takes seriously the venerable tradition of ecumenical reflection concerning the premises of revelation, providence, apostolicity, canon and consensuality. A high respect is here granted, despite modern assumptions, to uniquely Christian theological forms of reasoning, such as classical consensual christological and triune reasoning, as distinguishing premises of classic Christian textual interpretation. These cannot be acquired by empirical methods alone. This approach does not pit theology against critical theory; instead, it incorporates critical historical methods and brings them into coordinate accountability within its larger purpose of listening to Scripture. The internationally diverse character of our editors and translators corresponds with the global range of our audience, which bridges many major communions of Christianity. We have sought to bring together a distinguished international network of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox scholars, editors and translators of the highest quality and reputation to accomplish this design. But why just now at this historical moment is this need for patristic wisdom felt particularly by so many readers of Scripture? Part of the reason is that these readers have been longer deprived of significant contact with many of these vital sources of classic Christian exegesis.

The Ancient Commentary Tradition

This series focuses on texts that comment on Scripture and teach its meaning. We define a commentary in its plain-sense definition as a series of illustrative or explanatory notes on any work of enduring significance. The word commentary is an Anglicized form of the Latin commentarius (or “annotation” or “memoranda” on a subject, text or series of events). In its theological meaning it is a work that explains, analyzes or expounds a biblical book or portion of Scripture. Tertullian, Origen, John Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine and Clement of Alexandria all revealed their familiarity with both the secular and religious commentators available to them as they unpacked the meanings of the sacred text at hand. The commentary in ancient times typically began with a general introduction covering such questions as authorship, date, purpose and audience. It commented as needed on grammatical or lexical problems in the text and provided explanations of difficulties in the text. It typically moved verse by verse through a Scripture text, seeking to make its meaning clear and its import understood. The general Western literary genre of commentary has been definitively shaped by the history of early Christian commentaries on Scripture. It is from Origen, Hilary, the Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum, John Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria that we learn what a commentary is—far more so than in the case of classic medical, philosophical or poetic commentaries. It leaves too much unsaid simply to assume that the Christian biblical commentary took a previously extant literary genre and reshaped it for Christian texts. Rather it is more accurate to say that the Western literary genre of the commentary (and especially the biblical commentary) has patristic commentaries as its decisive pattern and prototype. It is only in the last two centuries, since the development of modern historicist methods of criticism, that modern writers have sought more strictly to delimit the definition of a commentary so as to include only certain limited interests focusing largely on historical-critical method, philological and grammatical

observations, literary analysis, and socio-political or economic circumstances impinging on the text. While respecting all these approaches, the ACT editors do not hesitate to use the classic word commentary to define more broadly the genre of this series. These are commentaries in their classic sense. The ACT editors freely take the assumption that the Christian canon is to be respected as the church’s sacred text. The reading and preaching of Scripture are vital to religious life. The central hope of this endeavor is that it might contribute in some small way to the revitalization of religious faith and community through a renewed discovery of the earliest readings of the church’s Scriptures.

An Appeal to Allow the Text to Speak for Itself

This prompts two appeals: 1. For those who begin by assuming as normative for a commentary only the norms considered typical for modern expressions of what a commentary is, we ask: Please allow the ancient commentators to define commentarius according to their own lights. Those who assume the preemptive authority and truthfulness of modern critical methods alone will always tend to view the classic Christian exegetes as dated, quaint, premodern, hence inadequate, and in some instances comic or even mean-spirited, prejudiced, unjust and oppressive. So in the interest of hermeneutical fairness, it is recommended that the modern reader not impose upon ancient Christian exegetes modern assumptions about valid readings of Scripture. The ancient Christian writers constantly challenge these unspoken, hidden and indeed often camouflaged assumptions that have become commonplace in our time. We leave it to others to discuss the merits of ancient versus modern methods of exegesis. But even this cannot be done honestly without a serious examination of the texts of ancient exegesis. Ancient commentaries may be disqualified as commentaries by modern standards. But they remain commentaries by the standards of those who anteceded and formed the basis of the modern commentary. The attempt to read a Scripture text while ruling out all theological and moral assumptions—as well as ecclesial, sacramental and dogmatic assumptions that have prevailed generally in the community of faith out of which it emerged—is a very thin enterprise indeed. Those who tendentiously may read a single page of patristic exegesis, gasp and toss it away because it does not conform adequately to the canons of modern exegesis and historicist commentary are surely not exhibiting a valid model for critical inquiry today. 2. In ancient Christian exegesis, chains of biblical references were often very important in thinking about the text in relation to the whole testimony of sacred

Scripture, by the analogy of faith, comparing text with text, on the premise that scripturam ex scriptura explicandam esse. When ancient exegesis weaves many Scripture texts together, it does not limit its focus to a single text as much modern exegesis prefers, but constantly relates them to other texts, by analogy, intensively using typological reasoning, as did the rabbinic tradition. Since the principle prevails in ancient Christian exegesis that each text is illumined by other texts and by the whole narrative of the history of revelation, we find in patristic comments on a given text many other subtexts interwoven in order to illumine that text. In these ways the models of exegesis often do not correspond with modern commentary assumptions, which tend to resist or rule out chains of scriptural reference. We implore the reader not to force the assumptions of twentieth-century hermeneutics upon the ancient Christian writers, who themselves knew nothing of what we now call hermeneutics.

The Complementarity of Research Methods in this Series

The Ancient Christian Texts series will employ several interrelated methods of research, which the editors and translators seek to bring together in a working integration. Principal among these methods are the following: 1. The editors, translators and annotators will bring to bear the best resources of textual criticism in preparation for their volumes. This series is not intended to produce a new critical edition of the original-language text. The best urtext in the original language will be used. Significant variants in the earliest manuscript sources of the text may be commented upon as needed in the annotations. But it will be assumed that the editors and translators will be familiar with the textual ambiguities of a particular text and be able to state their conclusions about significant differences among scholars. Since we are working with ancient texts that have, in some cases, problematic or ambiguous passages, we are obliged to employ all methods of historical, philological and textual inquiry appropriate to the study of ancient texts. To that end, we will appeal to the most reliable textcritical scholarship of both biblical and patristic studies. We will assume that our editors and translators have reviewed the international literature of textual critics regarding their text so as to provide the reader with a translation of the most authoritative and reliable form of the ancient text. We will leave it to the volume editors and translators, under the supervision of the general editors, to make these assessments. This will include the challenge of considering which variants within the biblical text itself might impinge upon the patristic text, and which forms or stemma of the biblical text the patristic writer was employing. The annotator will supply explanatory footnotes where these textual challenges may raise potential confusions for the reader. 2. Our editors and translators will seek to understand the historical context (including socioeconomic, political and psychological aspects as needed) of the text. These understandings are often vital to right discernment of the writer’s intention. Yet we do not see our primary mission as that of discussing in detail these contexts. They are to be factored into the translation and commented on as needed in the annotations, but are not to become the primary focus of this series.

Our central interest is less in the social location of the text or the philological history of particular words than in authorial intent and accurate translation. Assuming a proper social-historical contextualization of the text, the main focus of this series will be upon a dispassionate and fair translation and analysis of the text itself. 3. The main task is to set forth the meaning of the biblical text itself as understood by the patristic writer. The intention of our volume editors and translators is to help the reader see clearly into the meanings that patristic commentators have discovered in the biblical text. Exegesis in its classic sense implies an effort to explain, interpret and comment upon a text, its meaning, its sources and its connections with other texts. It implies a close reading of the text, using whatever linguistic, historical, literary or theological resources are available to explain the text. It is contrasted with eisegesis, which implies that interpreters have imposed their own personal opinions or assumptions upon the text. The patristic writers actively practiced intratextual exegesis, which seeks to define and identify the exact wording of the text, its grammatical structure and the interconnectedness of its parts. They also practiced extratextual exegesis, seeking to discern the geographical, historical or cultural context in which the text was written. Our editors and annotators will also be attentive as needed to the ways in which the ancient Christian writer described his own interpreting process or hermeneutic assumptions. 4. The underlying philosophy of translation that we employ in this series is, like the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, termed dynamic equivalency. We wish to avoid the pitfalls of either too loose a paraphrase or too rigid a literal translation. We seek language that is literary but not purely literal. Whenever possible we have opted for the metaphors and terms that are normally in use in everyday English-speaking culture. Our purpose is to allow the ancient Christian writers to speak for themselves to ordinary readers in the present generation. We want to make it easier for the Bible reader to gain ready access to the deepest reflection of the ancient Christian community of faith on a particular book of Scripture. We seek a thought-for-thought translation rather than a formal equivalence or word-for-word style. This requires the words to be first translated accurately and then rendered in understandable idiom. We seek to present the same thoughts, feelings, connotations and effects of the original text in everyday English language. We have used vocabulary and language structures commonly used by the average person. We do not leave the quality of translation only to the primary translator, but pass it through several levels of editorial review before

confirming it.

The Function of the ACT Introductions, Annotations and Translations

In writing the introduction for a particular volume of the ACT series, the translator or volume editor will discuss, where possible, the opinion of the writer regarding authorship of the text, the importance of the biblical book for other patristic interpreters, the availability or paucity of patristic comment, any salient points of debate between the Fathers, and any special challenges involved in translating and editing the particular volume. The introduction affords the opportunity to frame the entire commentary in a manner that will help the general reader understand the nature and significance of patristic comment on the biblical text under consideration and to help readers find their critical bearings so as to read and use the commentary in an informed way. The footnotes will assist the reader with obscurities and potential confusions. In the annotations the volume editors have identified Scripture allusions and historical references embedded within the texts. Their purpose is to help the reader move easily from passage to passage without losing a sense of the whole. The ACT general editors seek to be circumspect and meticulous in commissioning volume editors and translators. We strive for a high level of consistency and literary quality throughout the course of this series. We have sought out as volume editors and translators those patristic and biblical scholars who are thoroughly familiar with their original language sources, who are informed historically, and who are sympathetic to the needs of ordinary nonprofessional readers who may not have professional language skills.

Thomas C. Oden and Gerald L. Bray, Series Editors

VOLUME EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

In the thirty-eight volumes of the Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, the great series of English translations that was first published in the nineteenth century, with few exceptions the Scripture commentaries of the church fathers were excluded, due to their excessive length. This was particularly unfortunate for St. Jerome (347–419/20), since his commentaries on Scripture are considered to be his most learned and important theological works. M. Hale Williams has recently written: “The greatest achievement of Jerome’s career as a biblical scholar was his commentaries on the Hebrew Prophets. No other patristic writer, either in Greek or in Latin, came close to equaling the comprehensiveness of Jerome’s exegesis of the Prophets.” ¹ A similar assessment was made by Erasmus of Rotterdam in his 1516 edition of St. Jerome’s writings, an edition that is credited with establishing the great St. Jerome renaissance of the sixteenth century. In the fifth of Erasmus’s nine-volume edition, the Amerbach brothers, his collaborators on the project, describe St. Jerome’s Commentaries on the Prophets as follows:

These commentaries are so outstanding that it can be said of Jerome what he himself said about Origen and his commentary on the Song of Songs: In his other works he has surpassed everyone; in these commentaries on the prophets he has surpassed himself. For his [Jerome’s] learning had already matured with prolonged study. And indeed the Old Testament seems almost to have been neglected by the Greeks since they were more inclined to the New, written as it was in Greek. But Jerome joined the two cherubim together on an equal footing and united deep to deep. ²

Though well known during the Latin Middle Ages (though not nearly as dominant as St. Augustine), and most certainly during the crucially important sixteenth century, Jerome has been far less familiar in the twentieth and twentyfirst. It seems that the lack of easy accessibility by means of English translations

is one of the reasons for this. St. Jerome’s name is usually associated only with his translation of the Bible known as the Latin Vulgate. He is not well known today as a biblical interpreter. It is therefore a boon to theological studies that InterVarsity Press is endeavoring to remedy this deplorable situation by their Ancient Christian Texts series. I am happy to contribute two more volumes to this series—namely, St. Jerome’s Commentaries on the Twelve Prophets—in the role of volume editor and cotranslator. Jerome’s first seven commentaries will be presented in this volume, and the remaining five in the second—in the chronological order in which Jerome wrote them, not in the order in which the Twelve Prophets appear in the Bible or in which they originated historically from the respective Old Testament prophets. The following chart illustrates this.

Table 1. Order of the Twelve (Minor) Prophets

Number

Septuagint

Hebrew

St. Jerome’s Commentaries

1

Hosea

Hosea

Nahum (392–393)

2

Amos

Joel

Micah (392–393)

3

Micah

Amos

Zephaniah (392–393)

4

Joel

Obadiah

Haggai (392–393)

5

Obadiah

Jonah

Habakkuk (392–393)

6

Jonah

Micah

Jonah (396)

7

Nahum

Nahum

Obadiah (396)

8

Habakkuk

Habakkuk

Zechariah (406)

9

Zephaniah

Zephaniah

Malachi (406)

10

Haggai

Haggai

Hosea (406)

11

Zechariah

Zechariah

Joel (406)

12

Malachi

Malachi

Amos (406)

Survey of Jerome’s Life and Scholarly Career

Jerome was probably born in 347 and was baptized in Rome during Lent 367. He then traveled to Gaul, where he made copies of some works by St. Hilary of Poitiers (d. 368), whose theological and exegetical formation had been influenced by the writings of Origen of Alexandria (185–254). In his work On Famous Men Jerome reports that Hilary had imitated the Greek Origen in his commentaries on the Psalms but also added some original material (100). Moreover, in his Commentary on Job Hilary had translated freely from the Greek of Origen’s commentary. In the preface to book two of his Commentary on Micah in the present volume, speaking in his own defense to the accusation that he had compiled Origen, Jerome explicitly refers to Hilary’s precedent. In many of his early writings Jerome adopted the same irenic stance toward Origen that had been represented by churchmen, such as St. Pamphilus the Martyr, Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Hilary, Didymus, St. Ambrose, Rufinus, St. Gregory Nazianzus and St. John Chrysostom. Throughout his career Jerome will continue to encounter theologians and exegetes of untainted orthodoxy who adopted an irenic attitude toward Origen and recognized that he was the ancient church’s exegete par excellence. Origen’s great zeal in studying Scripture was famous and appreciated. While it was acknowledged that Origen had made some mistakes, Jerome later remarked that he would gladly trade his knowledge of the Bible with Origen, who “knew the Scriptures by heart.” ³ He describes Origen as the “greatest teacher of the Church after the apostles,” a man endowed with “immortal genius,” who was of “incomparable eloquence and knowledge.” Origen “surpassed all previous writers, Latin or Greek.” ⁴ It is also noteworthy, but not very well known, that even in his translations of Origen, Jerome endeavored to protect Origen’s reputation from malicious misrepresentation, especially against the anachronistic charge of proto-Arianism. Jerome did this by glossing his translations of Origen, removing passages that might be subject to misunderstanding in the post-Nicene church, and by adding clarifications directly into his translation of Origen’s text. ⁵ When Rufinus of Aquileia called attention to Jerome’s method as the model for his own in public disputation with Jerome during the Origenist controversy, he

would earn Jerome’s everlasting resentment. In 374 Jerome began living as a hermit in the desert of Chalcis, a region located slightly east of Syrian Antioch. ⁷ During this period he made the acquaintance of a converted Jew named Baranina, who introduced him to the Hebrew language. From this point onward Jerome developed the ambition to use this knowledge in combination with his fluency in Greek to advance the Latin church’s understanding of Holy Scripture. He aimed by means of newly composed exegetical works to transmit to the Latin world the erudition of both the Hebrews and the Greeks. By assimilating and compiling the learning of rabbinic Judaism and of Greek Christian writers from earlier centuries, Jerome would instruct and edify the Latin-speaking church of the West. Jerome went to Antioch in 379 and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Paulinus. From there Jerome went to Constantinople, where he became a pupil of St. Gregory Nazianzus (d. 389), whose eloquence he respectfully mentions in his Commentary on Isaiah at 3.3. This saintly Cappadocian father likewise encouraged Jerome to combine Bible study with the assimilation of Origen’s spiritual exegesis of Scripture. At this time Jerome completed translations of Origen’s Homilies on Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah. ⁸ He also translated Eusebius of Caesarea’s Chronicle of World History around 381. Eusebius of Caesarea was another Greek Christian author deeply appreciative of Origen’s works. Thus both directly and indirectly Jerome was being formed theologically and exegetically under Origen’s massive influence on ecclesiastical literature. Jerome translated Origen’s Homilies on the Song of Songs, which he dedicated to Pope Damasus. Again he praised Origen to the skies in the preface. At about this time he also wrote his Commentary on Ecclesiastes, a work that essentially reproduces Origen’s interpretation of this book. Returning to Rome in the early 380s, Jerome undertook important scholarly activity under the patronage of Pope Damasus. In 385 Jerome settled in Bethlehem, where he set up a type of monastery and guesthouse for pilgrims to the Holy Land. Being within range of Caesarea, he traveled there frequently to consult its magnificent library, which included a copy of Origen’s Hexapla , in which the entire text of the Old Testament was displayed in at least six columns in the Hebrew and various Greek versions. ¹ This work assisted Jerome enormously in his biblical translations and commentaries, since he could consult its Greek versions for assistance in translating and comprehending the Hebrew text. Although Origen’s massive work does not survive, hundreds of its readings are preserved in

Jerome’s Old Testament commentaries. In order to give the reader a mental picture of Origen’s Hexapla , the following chart, originally transcribed in Swete’s standard work on the Septuagint, is here presented. ¹¹ The first column of Origen’s Hexapla contained the Hebrew version of the Old Testament. Indications are that Origen’s Hebrew text is in substantial agreement with the Masoretic Text, which is the medieval Hebrew text on which modern versions of the Hebrew Old Testament are based. This text was transliterated into Greek in the second column. Aquila’s Greek version occupied the third column. Aquila was a Jewish scholar of the second century who published a slavishly literal Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament intended to replace the Septuagint that was in use by the Christians. He was a native of Sinope in Pontus (though some modern scholars conjecture that he was Palestinian) and lived under Emperor Hadrian (117–138). Jerome and Origen admitted the fidelity of his translation to the Hebrew. The fourth column was occupied by Symmachus’s version. According to Epiphanius, Symmachus lived in the time of Emperor Severus (193–211) and was a Samaritan who became a Jewish proselyte. Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 6.16-17), on the other hand, claims that he was an Ebionite Christian. Jerome follows Eusebius (Vir. ill. 54). Symmachus’s rendering is more literary than Aquila’s. Jerome judged that he aimed to express the spirit of the Hebrew rather than the letter.

Table 1. Psalm 45:1-3¹

The fifth column of Origen’s Hexapla was occupied by a recension of the Septuagint itself. The Greek Septuagint (from the Latin septuaginta, meaning “seventy,” and frequently referred to by the Roman numerals LXX) is the Alexandrian Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was begun in the third century BC and that became the Bible of the Jewish Diaspora. It was translated into Latin and became the “common version” in use in Christian churches in Latin-speaking regions prior to Jerome’s day. Jerome would eventually edit and produce a new version of Scripture based directly on the Hebrew, which in time became one of his most famous achievements (the Latin Vulgate), although it took centuries for Jerome’s version to come into common use. Finally, the sixth column of Origen’s Hexapla was occupied by the version of Theodotion, whose translation was completed during the reign of Commodus (180–192). Jerome calls him an Ebionite (Vir. ill. 54) and a “half-Christian,” whereas Irenaeus makes him a proselyte at Ephesus (Adversus Haereses 3.21.2). Theodotion’s translation is a revision of the Septuagint, harmonized with the Hebrew text. It is of unique importance for the book of Daniel because it contains the deuterocanonical portions of the book translated from Hebrew into Greek. Theodotion’s version of Daniel was in use in the Christian churches of Jerome’s day. In his commentaries Jerome also mentions a Fifth and Sixth Version in the Hexapla. By this he means fifth and sixth columns in addition to the four translations: Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion and the LXX. Jerome cites readings from these columns as well. I will say a bit more about Jerome’s textcritical theories at the end of this introduction. Jerome copied and otherwise obtained important manuscripts of the Scriptures and the writings of Origen and other Greek writers. In the early Bethlehem period, Jerome completed commentaries on Ephesians, Philemon, Galatians and Titus. ¹² In 398 he published his influential Commentary on Matthew . ¹³ It should not surprise us to learn that all of these New Testament commentaries as well are heavily indebted to Origen’s Greek exegesis. The following chart shows the approximate length (in columns of J.-P. Migne’s Patrologia Graeca) of Jerome’s translations of Origen’s homilies and of his own commentaries on Scripture. (Only Jerome’s exegetical works are included here.)

Table 2. Length of St. Jerome’s Translations of Origen’s Homilies and of Jerome’s Own Commentaries on Scripture

Date

Title

Dedicatee(s)

Length (PG 11-17, PL

379–382

Origen’s 9 Homiliae in Isaiam

—

35

Origen’s 14 Homiliae in Jeremiam

—

96

Origen’s 14 Homiliae in Ezechielem

Vincentius

96

383–384

Origen’s 2 Homiliae in Canticum canticorum

Damasus

21

386–387

In Philemonem

Paula and Eustochium

17

In Galatas

Paula and Eustochium

130

In Ephesos

Paula and Eustochium

115

In Titum

Paula and Eustochium

45

388–389

In Ecclesiasten

Paula and Eustochium

107

392

Origen’s 39 Homiliae in Lucam

Paula and Eustochium

99

392–393

In Nahum

Paula and Eustochium

41

In Michaeam

Paula and Eustochium

79

In Sophoniam

Paula and Eustochium

50

In Aggaeum

Paula and Eustochium

29

In Habacuc

Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia

63

In Ionam

Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia

35

In Abdiam

Pammachius

21

397

In Visiones Isaiae

Amabilis, bishop

53

398

In Mattaeum

Eusebius of Cremona, monk

201

406

In Zachariam

Exsuperius, bishop of Toulouse

124

In Malachiam

Minervius and Alexander, bishops

37

396

In Osee

Pammachius

131

In Ioelem

Pammachius

41

In Amos

Pammachius

107

407

In Danielem

Pammachius and Marcella

93

408–410

In Isaiam

Eustochium

661

410–414

In Ezechielem

Eustochium

475

414–416

In Hieremiam

Eusebius of Cremona

223

The Origenist Controversy

Jerome’s series of commentaries on the Twelve Prophets was interrupted by the Origenist controversy in the mid-390s. He alludes to this in the preface to Jonah when he mentions his own Apology (against Rufinus) and his treatise On the Best Method of Translating (which was a defense of his Latin translation of Epiphanius’s Greek invective against Bishop John of Jerusalem). These particular works were the direct byproduct of the controversy. Since Jerome presumes that his readers are familiar with what had gone on, I will briefly summarize the events. Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, entered Palestine in 393 and accused Jerome’s bishop, John of Jerusalem, as well as the monk Rufinus of Aquileia, of being “Origenist” heretics, because they refused to sign a petition circulated by a monk named Atarbius declaring Origen to be a heretic. Jerome signed the petition, reversing his earlier irenic approach and even defensiveness toward Origen. A quarrel ensued, which led Epiphanius to introduce a schism in Palestine by ordaining Jerome’s brother Paulinian to the priesthood. John of Jerusalem responded by excommunicating Jerome and his monks. A bitter controversy ensued. Reconciliation was temporarily achieved in 397, through the mediation of St. Melania, and Jerome was reinstated, but an even worse controversy over Origenism was soon to break out in Rome and Constantinople. The best primary sources of information are the respective apologies written by Rufinus and Jerome. ¹⁴ In the midst of this controversy Jerome changed from being one of Origen’s most vocal advocates and defenders into Origen’s most immoderate and violent accuser. To me it appears that Jerome was caught in disingenuous behavior during the Origenist controversies and that Rufinus was largely correct in observing that Jerome was inconsistent and even untruthful with respect to his attitude toward Origen. This is not to say that Jerome ever advocated Origen’s theological errors or innovative speculations, but he did report them without reproach in his early writings and at first strove to see Origen treated fairly. He later abandoned such irenicism and moderation and became Origen’s accuser. In any case, in spite of his intermittent outbursts against Origen’s alleged heresies, Jerome continued his reliance on Origen’s spiritual exegesis. In an interesting

and most relevant passage for the present volumes, Jerome admits as much in On Famous Men 75, where he reports that he possessed Origen’s twenty-five-book Commentary on the Twelve [Minor] Prophets, transcribed by the hand of the martyr St. Pamphilus himself, “which I hug and guard with such joy, that I deem myself to have the wealth of Croesus.” Since Jesus had said: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt 6:21), we can assume that Jerome’s heart was found in the possession of Origen’s commentaries. His preface to book two of Micah is another outstanding testimony to this admission of massive exploitation of Origen’s writings. P. Courcelle summarizes the influence of Origen’s writings on Jerome’s corpus this way:

The range of his reading in Origen is therefore extensive and his knowledge of this writer far exceeds our own, since the majority of Origen’s works are lost. To Jerome, Origen appears as the indispensable source. If he writes a commentary on a book or merely on a verse of Scripture, Jerome searches out a corresponding homily by Origen on such a book or verse. If by chance he cannot find such a homily, for instance in commenting on a passage of Psalm 126, he apologizes, saying that Pamphilus no longer possessed the homily. But he regrets the thought that Origen did write it and that time destroyed it. Similarly, he notes that the twenty-sixth of Origen’s thirty books on Isaiah cannot be found. . . . If Jerome knows that Origen did not make any particular commentary on a book of Scripture, for instance the Book of Daniel, he looks for explanations in another of Origen’s works, namely the Stromateis. But he feels particularly satisfied when he has at his disposal for a single subject (as in the case of the Psalms, Isaiah, and Hosea) a large amount of Origen’s works to compile. It is therefore not surprising that Jerome’s contemporaries were even then charging him with compiling Origen. ¹⁵

Clearly Origen’s exegetical writings underlay Jerome’s and are the principal source of Jerome’s commentaries. Below I will say a few words about some of the points in Origen’s theology that Jerome eventually came to repudiate.

Introduction to Jerome’s Commentaries on Nahum, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Habakkuk, Jonah and Obadiah

St. Jerome’s Commentary on Nahum was written around 392, while he was in the midst of preparing his Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. This commentary was the first in a series of commentaries on five of the Minor Prophets, Nahum, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai and Habakkuk, that were written in the space of one year. This initial series of five was interrupted by the Origenist controversy, as he mentions in the preface to Jonah. It was then followed by commentaries on the seven remaining Minor Prophets and then the Major Prophets. There is no evident reason why Jerome chose Nahum for his first commentary at this time. ¹ He was clearly aware that Nahum was not the first prophetic book written and that it is found in the first place in neither the Septuagint nor the Hebrew ordering of the Scriptures. The seven commentaries contained in this volume have a wealth of material and exegesis that is interesting from a number of perspectives. In terms of the history of Jerome’s involvement in the Origenist controversy, only with Jonah and Obadiah do we begin to observe Jerome distancing himself from some of Origen’s controversial views. Jerome’s Commentaries draw on two main sources. He mentions repeatedly and rather proudly that he was instructed in the meaning of the prophetic text by “Hebrews.” ¹⁷ It is typical of Jerome’s exegetical style to offer the Jewish interpretations of the Old Testament Scriptures, although not always with a receptive attitude. A second source for Jerome’s exegesis was of course the work of Origen of Alexandria. There is no extant text from Origen’s commentaries of the Twelve Prophets, so it is not possible to directly compare parallels. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, Jerome is known to have possessed a copy of Origen’s Commentaries on the Twelve Prophets . ¹⁸ There are many echoes of Origen’s thought in Jerome’s commentaries on the Twelve Prophets. Jerome often failed to mention his reliance on Origen’s works, even before his 393 embroilment in a controversy over the orthodoxy of the fine points of Origen’s theology. Therefore it is almost beyond doubt that Origen’s exegesis was a major source of the material found in Jerome’s explications.

A prominent feature of Jerome’s exegesis is the abundance of scriptural quotations from both the Old and New Testaments. Jerome clearly understood all of Scripture to be a unity, so that the first and best commentary on the doctrine contained in any one part of the Scriptures was the teaching contained in other verses. Often Jerome weaves in his Scripture references very skillfully to produce a smooth text, but in a few places he seems to have taken less care. Sometimes, as with Origen’s exegetical method, his list of quotations centers on a particular word. This results in an explanation that is more like a concordance than a commentary. Jerome’s commentaries have the homiletic style of most ancient commentaries, but they are also works of exegesis, which focus on illuminating the text of the prophecy from the perspective of the paschal mystery, which throws an entirely new light on the Old Testament. Jerome describes the prophecies as having a meaning applicable to Christians today. He says, for example, that Nahum’s intent is “to console the saints, so that they may disdain whatever they see in the world as things passing away and perishing, and may prepare themselves for the Day of Judgment, when the Lord will be the avenging enemy to the true Assyrians” (Nahum pref). Here Jerome surpasses some modern commentators, who find it difficult to see past the intensely nationalistic sentiments of the Prophets to a wider message. Jerome emphasizes the truthfulness of the Scriptures as the Word of God. This theme is a major thrust of Jerome’s explication of the historical sense of the prophecy. A striking example is his defense of the historicity of Jonah. He carefully unravels the meanings of the various details in order to show that they truly were fulfilled. The painstaking care that Jerome takes in considering varying translations and possible meanings of the Scriptures stems from his reverence for Holy Scripture as the Word of God. Jerome strongly stresses the justice and mercy of God in his care for his people. This theme applies to all the commentaries contained in this volume. In the exposition of the literal sense, Jerome points out that God shows care for his people Israel by bringing punishment on the enemy Assyrians or Babylonians, who took the tribes of Israel and Judah into captivity. Jerome also emphasizes the justice brought about in Christ’s advent, through the casting out of demons and mercifully making a renewed heart available to humankind. Dealing with issues of Christian life in the contemporary church, Jerome calls on Christians to draw on God’s aid and to live a just life, being justified through God’s gift. On

this level of interpretation, Jerome aims a large amount of invective against heretics. This becomes tiresome, but it is also noteworthy that he gives almost an equal amount of space to offering the same heretics the possibility to repent. In interpretations that I believe stem originally from Origen, prophecies of destruction against the Assyrian and Babylonian kings on the literal level become, on the tropological level, invitations to the heretics to allow heresy to be killed in them so that they may obtain the peace that passes all understanding. The force with which Jerome denounces heretics is not mere personal anger (though he has plenty of that!), but he realizes that a heretical alienation from the truth of Christ is a grave misfortune that only God’s good mercy can heal. Finally, Jerome points out the justice that will come on all the earth at the consummation of the world, a justice that will bring punishment to sinners but will mercifully end the siege the people of God endure.

Compiling Origen

In his preface to book two of Micah, Jerome defends himself from the attacks of his detractors who were accusing him of compiling from ancient writers, mostly from Origen, and then of defiling those compilations by adding to or subtracting from them according to his style. In response he inveighs against his accusers by openly declaring that their accusation, instead of being an insult, is a compliment, for he wants to imitate one who, without a doubt, is pleasing to his readers. He notes that if by drawing from Origen he is guilty of contaminari (plagiarizing), then the writings of the ancients are equally guilty of this fault. He supports his claim by saying that the great Roman writers Ennius, Plautus, Statius and Terence, the immortal Roman poet Virgil, the most illustrious Roman orator Cicero, and the venerable father of the church Hilary of Poitiers also drew much of their writing from Greek authors. This preface strikes me as a remarkable and extremely important apologia for Jerome’s exegetical method that merits further discussion. Jerome plainly admits to having written his commentaries according to the model of classical authors who make use of contaminari, which he understands not in the sense of “adulterating” the writings of others, of which his detractors had denounced him, but in the sense of a harmonious “blending.” Jerome refers to Rome’s greatest Latin playwright, Terence, whom he read with great delight, who was in need of defending himself in his own prologues against those who assailed him with the same accusation. In brief Jerome seeks refuge against his accusers by drawing from Terence’s prologues to his plays The Lady of Andros and The Brothers either verbatim statements or very closely paraphrased sentences. Following Terence’s pattern set forth in the prologue to The Lady of Andros, Jerome states that he is responding to his enemies, just as Terence had used respondere as the base verb that discloses the reason for which he is engaging his detractors. Elsewhere Jerome borrows almost verbatim from the prologue to Terence’s play The Brothers. The comparison shows that Jerome, indeed, is fully aware of practicing contaminari (blending) in the way that Terence and the other ancient authorities whom Jerome mentioned had practiced it. Jerome’s genius rests not only on his vast scholarship, his knowledge of

languages and his saintly desire to be faithful to the utterances of the Holy Spirit, but also on his docile spirit, which he allowed to be illuminated by Origen, the brilliant luminary of the ancient church.

Reflections on Jonah

I must admit to agreeing with J. Kelly that certain of Jerome’s interpretations in the Commentary on Jonah miss the essential point of the book. For example, Jerome twists Jonah’s distress at Nineveh’s conversion to signify Christ’s weeping over Jerusalem. “As a result the original message of the book, and the delicate irony with which the author depicts God as chiding Jonah’s narrow religious outlook, are totally lost on Jerome.” ¹ Jerome’s culpability in this (mis)interpretation may be mitigated somewhat when we consider that his source was Origen, who was locked in combat with heretics and pagans who had accused Jesus of moral blemishes based on the distress he displayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jonah was interpreted along the same overly defensive lines as Jesus had been explained. I discussed this subject briefly in the introduction to my translation of St. Jerome’s Commentary on Matthew . The Commentary on Jonah (at 3:6-9) contains another remarkable passage in which Jerome fiercely repudiates the Origenian idea that all rational creatures, including the devil and his angels, will eventually be saved (the apocatastasis). Jerome does not deny that God is mild and that the justice of God is surrounded by mercy. He knows that God’s judgment spares so that it may judge, and it judges so that it may show mercy. But Jerome denies that God’s clemency means that all rational creatures will end up on the same level. This would essentially entail the destruction of free choice and of merit, both of which are thoroughly biblical concepts. If there ends up being a single ranking for all the soldiers who engage in the Christian battle, “what difference shall there be between virgin and prostitute?” “Shall Gabriel and the devil be the same? Shall the apostles and the demons be the same? Shall prophets and false prophets be the same? Shall martyrs and persecutors be the same?” Jerome says, if the end for everyone is the same, the entire past counts for nothing. It appears to me that Jerome’s assessment, which to my knowledge has been officially embraced by the Catholic dogmatic tradition, deserves a careful hearing today, especially since the views he opposes and repudiates are very much alive today and represented by highly respected theological voices. ²

Use of the “Hebrew Truth”

Finally, I wish to illustrate the principles Jerome adopts in the field of textual criticism. I will cite only one passage, from his Commentary on Zephaniah 2:57. Referring to Zephaniah 2:7 Jerome says:

But that which is read in the Septuagint: “from the face of the sons of Judah,” we have marked with an obelus, for it is found neither in the Hebrew nor in any of the translators, and it disturbs the context and meaning of the section; not that it will be difficult to put the thought together, howsoever it came to be placed there. But we have once and for all decided to follow the truth of the translation, and of the educated reader, rather than the judgment of the populace (vulgi).

In the fifth column of the Hexapla, Origen, using critical signs adapted from great Homeric critic Aristarchus, marked with an asterisk (*) words or lines lacking in the Septuagint but present in the Hebrew (as attested by the other Greek versions); he marked with an obelus (†) words or lines that were lacking in the Hebrew. Origen did not himself advocate for a new text of Scripture based on this reconstructed text, but by means of his critical marks desired merely to show to Christians which readings were obtained among the Jews. Origen, unlike Jerome, was wary of displacing the old Bible (the LXX) with a new version. Yet his “corrected” text of the Septuagint was transmitted to posterity as the fifth column of the Hexapla. Eusebius of Caesarea believed that Origen’s revised LXX was the original authentic text. He reproduced and published it, aided by St. Pamphilus, around 307, at first with the critical signs included, but eventually they were deleted. The result was to circulate a version that was not the original text of the LXX and that in reality consisted of a mixture of the LXX with Aquila and Theodotion. This is called the Hexaplaric recension of the LXX. In the passage from Zephaniah cited above, Jerome is reflecting his adoption of

Origen’s critical signs. At first glance Jerome seems to be presenting himself as the great Christian defender of the Hebrew original over against later corruptions. He thinks that all educated Christians will concur that the truth of the Hebrew text should be followed, not dubious additions made in the Septuagint version, even though he almost unfailingly explicates the Septuagint readings as well. However, a closer inspection of the passage reveals a more complicated picture. Thanks to his acquaintance with Origen’s Hexapla, Jerome rightly recognizes that the Greek Septuagint (and hence the Old Latin version that is a translation of the LXX) contains lines that are not found in the later Hebrew manuscript that appears in the first column of the Hexapla (which corresponds roughly with the Masoretic Text). Jerome assumes that the original Hebrew version used by the Septuagint translators is the same Hebrew text known to him from the Hexapla. The Jewish translators Symmachus, Theodotion and Aquila, whose Greek translations are displayed in the other columns of the Hexapla, used a Hebrew text that approximates the Hexaplaric Hebrew text. Yet the modern science of textual criticism can assist us in seeing the inadequacies in Jerome’s reasoning. Jerome does not seem to envision the possibility that lines that are missing from or added to the LXX accurately reflected the far more ancient Hebrew manuscripts used by the LXX translators. If that were in fact the case, then the LXX version would be providing a superior witness to the original Hebrew version; thus to defend the LXX in its Old Latin version would be essentially a defense of the original Hebrew. Jerome’s text-critical theory appears defective because he vastly underestimated the value of the Greek Septuagint as a witness to the original Hebrew text. M. Hale Williams writes the following:

Although modern textual critics of the Hebrew Bible are far from according the Septuagint the inspired status it enjoyed among Jerome’s Christian contemporaries, they hold it in much higher esteem than did Jerome. Jerome’s privileging of the Hebrew text used by the Jews, together with its attendant traditions of interpretation, as the ultimate sources of biblical truth was by no means a simple recognition of scientific fact. Rather, it was an idiosyncratic insight, which allowed Jerome to construct for himself a unique position as an authority on the scriptures. ²¹

I am not certain about the latter postmodern judgment according to which Jerome is seeking to enhance his own authority by his arguments. But it does seem clear to me that Jerome’s persistent advocacy of the “Hebrew truth” was not an uncomplicated and purely scientific quest aimed at recovering the original Hebrew Vorlage of Scripture. Instead, Jerome presumes that that Vorlage is visible in the first column of Origen’s Hexapla, and that divergences between that particular Hebrew text and the LXX translation must be explained by faulting either the LXX or its transmission. On the other hand, it is not my intention to find excessive fault with Jerome on this point. For these are precisely the kind of mistakes that pioneers in a field inevitably make, and Jerome and Origen were very much pioneers in the field of introducing Hebrew scholarship and textual criticism to the Christian world. As historical-critical mistakes they are not very blameworthy, nor do they really diminish Jerome’s spectacular exegetical achievement, which was largely based on his knowledge of the Hebrew text and of Greek exegetical sources. Nor is this discussion intended to give too much credit to Jerome’s Catholic critics (such as Rufinus and Augustine) who sometimes wrote uncharitably and unjustly from their own standpoint as Christian defenders of the Septuagint/Old Latin. Often Jerome’s critics offensively and harshly rebuked him for his criticisms of the LXX, thus provoking him; yet, they were equally in the dark about the real reasons for the incomparable value of the LXX as a text, which they attributed to some sort of mystical divine inspiration of the Alexandrian Jewish translators. In any case these reflections do tend to complicate the question of the precise meaning of Jerome’s campaign on behalf of the “Hebrew truth.” Was he really defending the primacy of the “Hebrew truth” in the abstract, or of one particular Hebrew text known to him from Origen’s Hexapla?

Text and Translations

Six of the seven commentaries contained in this volume were initially translated by graduate students (Surmansky, Cazares, Garland) or advanced undergraduate students (Beller, Whitehead, DeTar-Gonzalez) at Ave Maria University. This was done with my intensive collaboration. I received the students’ work and carefully vetted these translations, endeavoring to conform them to a uniform style. (The commentaries on Nahum and Micah were originally printed as MA theses in the students’ own names. I have revised and annotated these translations even more extensively for the present volume.) In this volume only Habakkuk is my own unaided piece of work, though even for that commentary I received assistance from John Audino, an Ave Maria University classics major, for the first third. John entered seminary and left the remainder of the work to me. These translations have been made from the Latin text found in S. Hieronymi Presbyteri Opera: Commentarii in Prophetas Minores, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 76, 76a (Turnholt: Brepols, 1969–1970). For the commentary’s lemmata (the passage from the Twelve Prophets cited in the cue heading of each section) and for Jerome’s biblical citations that seem to reflect his own Vulgate edition of the Old and New Testament, we have used either the online (www.drbo.org) or printed version of the Douay-Rheims English translation of the Latin Vulgate as our base translation. When Jerome cites at length from the Septuagint, either in the lemmata or in the body of his commentary, we have used either the online (www.ellopos.net) or printed version of Sir Lancelot Brenton’s nineteenth-century English translation of the Septuagint. But we have not adopted either of these modern versions in a slavish manner. We have always updated the archaic English and endeavored to follow Jerome’s wording as carefully as possible. I have endeavored to impose some measure of consistency in translation choices from the various contributors. For most of the names of persons and places, we have endeavored to use those of the RSV Catholic edition. Scripture citations are given in the footnotes solely according to their locations in the RSV, even in cases when the LXX and the Hebrew have a different versification from the RSV.

As volume editor, for convenience I have frequently provided in parentheses a standard meaning of the Greek terms used by Jerome, especially when he does not provide an explanation in his immediate comments. Often we have simply transliterated Greek rhetorical terms into English. Another important convention I have tried to employ consistently pertains to the use of italics and quotation marks. Jerome’s translation of the Hebrew lemma is given in bold. When he also provides the Septuagint (Old Latin) lemma, it is presented in regular font between quotation marks. When Jerome’s comments below the lemma seem to reflect the wording of his own translation of the Hebrew, I have indicated this by placing the words in italics. When he seems to be reflecting the wording of the Septuagint (Old Latin) version, I have used quotation marks to indicate this. All other citations from Scripture beyond the lemma are indicated by using quotation marks. This convention is intended to assist the reader in recognizing Jerome’s use of Scripture. To me it appears that Jerome normally cites Scripture in the Old Latin version, not according to his new version based directly on the Hebrew, which he does not seem to have regarded as some sort of sacrosanct version. The Old Latin was the Bible he grew up with. Moreover, the Septuagint was the Greek version used by his main exegetical source, Origen. Thus Jerome normally reflects the wording of that version in his explanations. I fear that, due to my own negligence and to the incompleteness of the CCSL critical apparatuses, numerous scriptural allusions have been overlooked. Jerome and Origen require translators/critical editors who know Scripture by heart, as they did, but such persons are not forthcoming.

ABBREVIATIONS

Ant.

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities

bk

book

Comm. Eccl.

Jerome, Commentarii in Ecclesiasten

Comm. Ezech.

Jerome, Commentariorum in Ezechielem libri XVI

Comm. Gal.

Jerome, Commentariorum in Epistulam ad Galatas libri III

Comm. Isa.

Jerome, Commentariorum in Isaiam libri XVIII

Ep.

Epistula (Epistle)

fl.

floruit

Hist. Eccl.

Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica

Nom. hebr.

Jerome, De nominibus hebraicis (Liber nominum)

J.W.

Josephus, Jewish War

Jdt

Judith

PG

Patrologica Graeca. Edited by J.-P. Migne. 162 vols. Paris, 1857–1886.

PL

Patrologia Latina. Edited by J.-P. Migne. 217 vols. Paris, 1844–1864.

pref

preface

Sir

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)

Vir. ill.

Jerome, De viris illustribus

Wis

Wisdom of Solomon

COMMENTARY ON NAHUM

Translated and annotated by Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, OP, and Thomas P. Scheck

Preface of the Commentary on the Prophet Nahum

According to the Seventy Translators, Nahum comes after Jonah in the sequence of the Twelve Prophets, because they seem to prophesy about the same city. For indeed, it is written in Jonah: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying: Arise, and go to Nineveh the great city, and preach in it,” ¹ while in Nahum the title is: “The burden ² of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.” ³ In this way, they both carefully craft a prophecy about Nineveh, the city of the Assyrians, which is now known as Ninus. In contrast, Micah comes after Jonah in the Hebrew [Bible], and Micah is followed by Nahum, which means “Consoler.” For, since the twelve tribes had already been taken into captivity by the Assyrians during the reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, now a vision against Nineveh is seen during his reign to console the displaced people. ⁴ Nor was it a small consolation either to those who were already serving the Assyrians, or to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who remained under Hezekiah and were besieged by the same enemies, to hear that the Assyrians would be captured by the Chaldeans, as will be shown in the following parts of the book. ⁵ It should also be known that—because Nineveh means “beautiful” when it is translated into our tongue, and beautiful designates the world here, just as the world receives the name κόσμος among the Greeks because of its adornment — everything that is spoken against Nineveh is announced figuratively about the world. For this reason burden , which the Seventy translate as λῆμμα , ⁷ and Aquila ⁸ translated as ἄρμα , is recorded by the Hebrews ¹ as massa , that is, a heavy load, because it oppresses her against whom it is seen, and it does not allow her to raise up her neck. ¹¹ Concerning Nahum of Elkosh, some think that Elkosh is the father of Nahum. ¹² In fact, according to a Hebrew tradition he too was a prophet, although even today Elkosh is a village in Galilee: small, certainly, and only just barely showing signs of the ancient ruins of houses, but nevertheless known to the Jews, and shown to me by a guide. ¹³ It should also be noticed here that this burden, or load, or weight, is the vision of the prophet. For it is not spoken in

ecstasy, ¹⁴ as Montanus and Prisca and Maximilla ¹⁵ rave, but since he prophesies, the book is the vision of one who understands all the things that he says, and it is a weight for the enemies of the one telling the vision among his own people. Also, concerning the consummation of the world according to anagogy, o Paula and Eustochium, ¹ the prophecy is crafted to console the saints, so that they may disdain whatever they see in the world as things passing away and perishing, and may prepare themselves for the Day of Judgment, when the Lord will be the avenging enemy to the true Assyrians.

The Book Begins

1:2a God is jealous, and the Lord is avenging. ¹⁷

The voice of the prophet praises God because he is the avenger of the injury inflicted on his people by the Assyrians; or, according to a deeper understanding, because he hears the groaning of his saints and makes their enemies suffer punishment at the consummation of the world. For zeal can be understood in a good way, as Paul the apostle shows, saying: “be zealous for the better gifts,” ¹⁸ and he says in another place: “For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God,” ¹ and the Lord himself says in a psalm: “The zeal of your house has consumed me,” ² and Elijah says: “With zeal I have been zealous for the Lord Almighty God of Israel.” ²¹ We also read about the zeal of Phinehas and Mattathias. ²² Further, there is Simon the Zealot, an apostle of Jesus Christ whom Mark the Evangelist calls Simon the Cananaean. ²³ Now the Lord is zealous for the salvation of those for whom he is jealous, so that he may save with his jealousy those whom he could not save through his clemency. For this reason, when Jerusalem was no longer worthy of God’s jealousy and fury because of her great sins, he said to her in Ezekiel: “My jealousy has departed from you, and I will be angry with you no more.” ²⁴ And so, as long as the world did penance its consummation did not come; yet, afterward truly, when iniquity has multiplied, and the love of many has grown cold, ²⁵ so that even the elect of God are tempted, then the jealous Lord comes for vengeance, not because he himself is an enemy and avenger, which are names for the devil, but because his vengeance is inimical, and, as a fire, it consumes the wood, hay and stubble, so that the pure gold and silver may remain. ²

1:2b The Lord is avenging, and has wrath: the Lord takes vengeance on his

adversaries, and he is angry with his enemies.

Septuagint: “The Lord is avenging with wrath; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he takes away his enemies.” According to both understandings, because “the Lord disciplines whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives,” ²⁷ he is angry in that he takes away what is opposed and inimical to himself, and when both his enemies and their adverse thoughts have been broken and their words removed, they may return to their former state. Then in the following verses he says: “The Lord is patient and boundless is his power.” ²⁸ But because we first proposed to explain this historically, let us understand the enemies and adversaries of God to be the Assyrians, with whom he long was patient and then afterward will rise up as an avenger with wrath and anger.

1:3a The Lord is patient, and great in power, and cleansing will not make innocent. ²

This is said more expressively in Greek: καί ἀθῳῶν οὐκ ἀθῳώσει. ³ And this is the meaning: He has indeed long been patient with the crimes of the Assyrians, and has borne their iniquities with the power of his magnanimity, calling them to repentance, but because they have stored up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath according to their impenitent heart, ³¹ with contempt for the goodness of God, he who was patient before will suffer none of them to go unpunished as if they were clean and innocent . Or, at least—because we prefer to receive what is said in a good way—he is patient who “sustains all who fall and lifts up those who are cast down.” ³² Who “heals the troubled of heart, and binds up their bruises”; ³³ and great is his power, dissolving hostility in the flesh and not making the guilty innocent. For when anyone commends himself excessively, even he is proven to be guilty, because he is not saved by his own merit but by the mercy of God. For although he may say: “Behold, for so many years do I serve you, and I have never transgressed your command,” ³⁴ nevertheless, because “the Lord is good to all, and his mercies are upon all his works”; ³⁵ and “all have sinned, and lack the glory of God,” ³ “having been freely justified by him,” he will hear: “Is your eye evil, because I am good?” ³⁷ And so it will come

to pass that by the very fact that he rebukes and forgives, he allows no one to go away blameless.

1:3b The Lord’s ways are in a tempest, and a whirlwind and clouds are the dust of his feet.

In place of tempest and whirlwind, the Septuagint translated “consummation and shaking.” Although we cited this as in a tempest, and it is written besupha in Hebrew, it could also be understood as “shaking.” Now this signifies that at the end of the world the universe will be shaken. This agrees with what is written in Haggai: “Yet a little while, and I will shake the heaven and the earth, the sea, and the dry land”; ³⁸ and when all things have been shaken—so that they might believe in the way of the Lord, who says in the Gospel: “I am the way and the life and the truth” ³ —and “when the Son of Man comes on the clouds,” ⁴ which are commanded in Isaiah “to rain no rain upon the vine” ⁴¹ and which the truth of God reaches, as the psalm writer says: “Your truth [reaches] even to the clouds,” ⁴² then these very clouds, namely, the prophets and the souls ⁴³ of the saints, which were previously weighed down by being joined to the flesh, will be made of a more delicate substance, raised on high and, having been made the footstool of God, they will serve in far reaches and in certain offices among the angels. ⁴⁴ Of course, they will not be able to know the earlier and ancient things that belong to the head. Others understand the clouds in the opposite way, that they always disrupt the fair weather and strive to cloak over the shining of the sun and the light of the stars with their own gloom, and that afterward, subjected to the power of the Lord, they will be reduced to dust and nothingness, and the earth, on which they are thickly clustered, will be dissolved. ⁴⁵

1:4a He rebukes the sea, and dries it up: and turns all the rivers to desert.

According to the literal sense this describes the power of God, that he will take vengeance on the enemies of Israel, since for him whose majestic power can even alter the elements it is no great thing to destroy the Assyrians. Or at any

rate, since we have already said that the prophecy is about the consummation of the world, this can also be received as simply referring to that. When the consummation of the world will come, and “heaven and earth will pass away,” ⁴ the sea and the rivers will also be dried up. But when I read the following words in the Psalms: “This is the sea, great and wide, there are reptiles without number, living things small and great. There the ships go, and the dragon which you formed to play in it,” ⁴⁷ it seems worthy of the goodness and mercy of God to destroy all the bitterness and saltiness of the sea and to bring down the dragon who rules in the waters, and to dry up the evil whirlpools in which there swim small reptiles without number; for those who dwell with the dragon are not worthy of having a number. And he also turns rivers to desert everything falsely named knowledge, ⁴⁸ which raising itself against God uses a river of eloquence, and with a flow of words and twisting swollen whirlpools amazing to behold, is swept down. See Plato, ⁴ look at Demosthenes, ⁵ and also Tully, ⁵¹ equally a philosopher and orator; consider also the leaders of the heretics, among whom are Valentinus, ⁵² Marcion, ⁵³ Bardesanes, ⁵⁴ Tatian, ⁵⁵ and you will not be in doubt about the rivers . ⁵ But “the Lord Jesus will kill all these with the spirit of his mouth; and will destroy with the brightness of his coming,” ⁵⁷ and turn [them] to deserts. Likewise recognize that according to the title, which says: “The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh,” ⁵⁸ the world is rightly understood under the figure of Nineveh, and its sea, the rivers of eloquence that are dried up in the consummation.

1:4b Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon fades away.

Septuagint: “Bashan and Carmel are brought low, and those of Lebanon which flourished faded away.” Through Bashan, Carmel and Lebanon, the fertile region and rich mountains, the destruction of Assyria is shown metaphorically, ⁵ since that which once was powerful, flourishing and ruling many nations must be laid waste by the anger of the Lord. We can also understand that as referring to the consummation of the world, when those who are powerful and noble and abound in an excess of wealth will perish suddenly, and it will be said to them: “You fool, this night your soul will be taken from you: and whose will those things be

which you have provided?” Again, following the interpretation of names, since Bashan means confusion and disgrace, ¹ we say that all who are worthy of disgrace and embarrassment will languish at the consummation of the world when the Lord will come. Not only will sin be brought to nothing, but Carmel also, which is understood as the knowledge of the circumcision, and those who consider themselves to be rich and flourishing in good works will fear when Christ comes, and that will be fulfilled which is spoken in the Gospel: “When the Son of man comes will he find, do you think, faith on earth?” ² For when iniquity increases and the love of very many will grow cold, ³ the wrath of God will come on account of it.

1:5 The mountains are shaken by him, and the hills are made desolate: and the earth trembled before his face, and the world, and all who dwell in it.

Septuagint: “The mountains are shaken before him, and the hills quake, and the earth recoils before his face, the universe and all who dwell in it.” This can be taken simply to refer to the consummation of the world, when the Savior will come in his majesty, and the mountains and the hills, and the world and the earth, and all things will be shaken. For if the sun fled during his passion, the rocks were cleft and the earth trembled, how much more greatly will all things be disturbed by his glory. ⁴ But the mountains and hills can also be understood as the high and mighty, who will be thrown prostrate on the ground and, cast down from their thrones, will be pressed to the hard earth. For “the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to destroy the remembrance of them from the earth.” ⁵ Then even the earth will tremble, and the world and the universe will dread the face of the Lord; for they will not dare to look upon his countenance on account of the great torment and approaching punishment.

1:6a Who will stand before the face of his indignation? and who will resist in the fierceness of his anger?

Septuagint: “Who will endure the face of his anger? and who will resist in the

anger of his wrath?” This is translated freely by Symmachus: “And who will endure the anger of his wrath?” Therefore either few or none can be found who are not worthy of punishing anger. Nor will there be any soul who does not dread the judgment of God when even “the stars are not pure in his sight.” Or again, we can understand the Hebrew word yaqum , which both Aquila and Symmachus translate as resist , to apply to that which is said in the second book of Kingdoms and in the first book of Chronicles concerning the anger of God in the masculine gender. ⁷ And there is no doubt but that there the devil is understood to be the anger of God, and with him the evil angels, who are sent to buffet those who deserve his anger. And so it is difficult to know who will be so pure and immaculate as to dare to say: “Behold the prince of this world comes, and he will find nothing in me,” ⁸ and will freely stand upright facing him. Now this should be understood against the Assyrians, so that, when the Lord will come in tempest and whirlwind, drying up the empire of Babylon, which is understood by the sea, and overthrowing all its kingdoms, which are understood by the rivers, and turning to nothing its power and riches, which are metaphorically Bashan and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon and are also called the mountains and the hills, and cutting short the breadth of the empire, which is called the world, at that time no power will be able to resist the wrath of God and his vindication of his people.

1:6b His indignation is poured out like fire, and by him the rocks are melted.

Septuagint: “His wrath consumes the principality and by him the rocks are burst asunder.” For that which we have recorded as poured out, Aquila has translated as σύνεχωνεύθη, that is, “heaped up”; Symmachus and Theodotion rendered it as ἐσταξεν, that is, dropped. ⁷ Either, therefore, the anger of God was heaped up like a fire, or his wrath dropped in the likeness of fire, so that the hard hearts of men, which are called rocks, were worn down and dissolved. Beneficial is the indignation of God, which, having endured our sins so long with patience, is rarely ever heaped up, and yet does not completely break forth in punishment but drops onto us with moderated ardor. If, however, a drop of indignation “consumes the principalities” against which we struggle in battle, ⁷¹ what would happen if the whole wrath of God were poured out against us? May Jesus grant

that our heart of stone be removed and changed to a heart of flesh in us, ⁷² so that with its hardness softened, it may be able to receive in itself the commands of the Lord, which are written: “For a sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit, a contrite and humble heart God will not despise.” ⁷³ And that you may know that what has been said expresses God’s clemency, not his severity, learn the things that follow.

1:7 The Lord is good and strengthens in the day of tribulation: and knows those who hope in him.

Septuagint: “The Lord is sweet to those who wait for him in the day of tribulation; and he recognizes those who fear him.” When he begins to be angry with the nations and to devastate the once-powerful kingdoms, he will “know those who are his own” ⁷⁴ and will not sink those sailing with a single storm. We should understand the day of tribulation, however, according to anagogy ⁷⁵ to be the Day of Judgment, about which Isaiah wrote: “Behold, the incurable day of the Lord is coming, cruel, of wrath and anger, to make the world desolate, and to destroy the sinners from it.” ⁷ Let us hope in the Lord and await his coming with patience, so that when he comes we may know him as good and not as a judge, and he may recognize us as either hoping in him or “fearing” him. “For the Lord knows those who are his.” ⁷⁷

1:8 And with a flood that passes by he will make a consummation of its place, and darkness will pursue his enemies.

Septuagint: “But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end: darkness will pursue those that rise up and his enemies.” “The Lord is patient and of great mercy,” ⁷⁸ and “he will not be angry in the end,” ⁷ nor be “wrathful forever,” ⁸ but when evil will have increased upon the earth, and “all flesh will have corrupted its way,” ⁸¹ he will bring down a flood that passes by, yet it will not continue to an eternal consummation . Or, he will make an end of that place, that is, of the flood, so that, as it is said of the impious: “And I passed by, and he was

not in his place,” ⁸² and “the course of the wicked will perish,” ⁸³ as the course of the flood perishes after the anger of the Lord, so that clemency alone appears. This indeed can be understood historically, that when he will have devastated Israel and inundated the Promised Land as if by a flood, he will make an end of captivity, by calling him back to his former habitations. ⁸⁴ But on the other hand, darkness will follow after his enemies , the Assyrians, who led the people into captivity. Moreover, that which we said about Israel and the Assyrians can be understood to refer to the consummation of the world and to the saints and the persecutors, or the opposing powers. After his anger, God will have mercy on the saints, but their persecutors and enemies, who chose darkness and not light, ⁸⁵ will be overcome by that darkness which they chose, ⁸ and they will be cast forth into the outer darkness, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ⁸⁷ All have divided the word meqomah, which we have translated as its place, into two parts of speech in such a way that they make me a preposition, that is, ἀπὸ, and they explain qomah as those rising up. Thus Aquila says ἀπὸ ἀνισταμένων, that is, “from those rising up”; the Seventy say “those rising up”; Theodotion says “to those rising up to it”; and the Fifth Version [in Origen’s Hexapla] says “from those rising up to that.” Symmachus, alone agreeing with our translation, says: “But with a flood passing though he will make a consummation of its place.” Some of our people interpret “those rising up and the enemies” as Marcion and all the ancient heretics who rail against the Creator.

1:9 What do you devise against the Lord? He will make a consummation, there will not arise a double tribulation.

Septuagint: “What do you devise against the Lord? He will make a consummation: he will not take vengeance by tribulation twice for the same thing.” Symmachus translates freely: “They will not sustain the force of a second affliction”; Theodotion: “A second tribulation will not arise.” Now this is said tropologically against Marcion, about whom we spoke above, and about all the ancient heretics, who, inventing I know not what good God, say he will bring about the consummation of the world and who accuse the God of the law of cruelty, because he punishes many and imposes torturous punishments for sin.

What therefore, he says, do you devise against the Lord? He who created the world will also bring about its consummation. But if he seems to us to be cruel, harsh and bloodthirsty, since he obliterated the human race in the flood, ⁸⁸ rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, ⁸ drowned the Egyptians in the waters and made the corpses of the Israelites fall in the desert, ¹ know that the reason why he doled out punishment in the present time is so that he would not have to punish for eternity. It is certainly true that what the prophets say is either true or false. If those things are true that seem to speak of his severity, they have also said: “The Lord will not take vengeance by tribulation twice for the same thing.” If they are false and this that they say is false: “there will not arise a double tribulation,” then the cruelty that is described in the law is false too. But if it is true, as they were unable to deny, since the prophet says: “The Lord will not take vengeance by tribulation twice for the same thing,” then those who have been punished are not punished again afterward. If, however, those are punished afterward, the Scriptures lie, which it is criminal to say. Therefore, even those who perished in the flood, and the Sodomites and the Egyptians, and Israelites in the desert, received their own evils during their lives. ² Another may ask here, if one of the faithful caught in adultery is beheaded, what befalls him afterward. For either he will be punished, and that which is said: “The Lord will not take vengeance by tribulation twice for the same thing” is false; or, he is not punished, and one should pray for adulterers that they escape eternal torments through the short and swift punishment of the present. We will respond to this that God knows the measure of all matters and so also of punishments, and the verdict of the judge is not hindered, nor is power over the case of the sinner removed from him by the punishment that must be imposed here, and a great sin is cleansed by a great and long-lasting punishment. Nevertheless, if anyone has been punished, as he of the Israelites who had blasphemed against the law, ³ and he who had gathered wood on the Sabbath, ⁴ nevertheless, such are not punished afterward because their light guilt was removed by present punishment. ⁵ A Hebrew explained this passage in this way: “What are you thinking, o Assyrians, devising evil against the Lord, because he consumes the people Israel, that is, the twelve tribes even to extermination?” “A double tribulation will not arise,” that is, he will not hand over Judah and Jerusalem as he handed over the ten tribes and Samaria.

1:10 For as thorns embrace one another, so is their feasting and drinking

together; it will be consumed as stubble that is fully dry.

Septuagint: “For even to the foundations they will be driven back in thorn bushes, and will be devoured as bindweed, and as stubble fully dry.” The prophet seems to me to be unfolding the three different situations that the Lord describes in the parable of the sower (excluding the good ground that yields fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and one hundredfold): the one that fell by the wayside, and the next, which fell among stones, and the third among thorns. Indeed, even the apostle shows that there are some who build with wood, hay, stubble, ⁷ when he speaks about those who do not build well upon the foundation of Christ. Therefore we can connect the wood to what is said now: “For even to the foundations they will be driven back in thorn bushes.” The hay is related to that which follows: and will be devoured as twisted yew. Finally, the stubble is clearly referred to as stubble, which is mentioned now: and as stubble fully dry. Therefore “the Lord will not take vengeance twice for the same thing,” ⁸ because the evil which had arisen in the authors of heresies will be consumed even to their foundations and their roots. Moreover, if it is seen that anyone had merely a show of words, that is, fruitless leaves but with a delightful appearance, as a bindweed, which in Greek is called σμῖλαξ , he will be devoured and consumed into nothingness. The bindweed is a plant similar to ivy that tends to twine about with vines and branches and to reach out with long shoots. For everyone who seems to have in himself the beautiful appearance of green fields but does not have the ears and seeds of grain will be handed over for burning like stubble fully dry. This is according to the Septuagint. There is another interpretation, which follows the Hebrew, that the pacts and bonds of the heretics are like thorns twining about themselves, and their feast and mysteries (because they say that they have the Lord’s table) make a pact of thorns, and likewise their eating and drinking together. For is not their feasting that of thorns when, inebriated by the vine of Sodom, they blaspheme against their Creator with foaming mouths? Yet these will be consumed with their authors, as stubble fully dry. ¹

1:11 Out of you will come forth one devising evil against the Lord, contriving treachery in his mind.

Septuagint: “Out of you will come forth a thought against the Lord, devising evil hostile things.” Truly, “a thought against the Lord will come forth” from the heretics. Or do those things that Valentinus says not seem to be evils and treachery against God, that the Creator came forth last, as if he were something strange brought forth abortively by erring wisdom? ¹ ¹ Is not the impudence of Basilides “a thought against God,” and also the revolting name ἄβραξας , which is preferred to the Creator Lord? ¹ ² Because, taught by the Hebrews, we desire to follow their tradition too and to give an explanation of the history to our people, that is, to Christians, it must be said: “There will not arise a double tribulation,” ¹ ³ that is, the two tribes will not be captured by the Assyrians as the other ten were. It is possible that the Assyrians are in the land of Judah at this point. And while they twine themselves about like thorns, rejoicing and making merry, they are cut down by an angel, so in one night 185,000 of the enemy were slain. ¹ ⁴ The multitude of that army is also compared beautifully to a drunken feast . He said that this feast is like neither roses, nor lilies, nor flowers, but an intertwining of thorns, which are always thrown into the fire , and like “stubble fully dry,” ¹ ⁵ and are burnt up in the flames. Now that which follows, Out of you will come forth one that devises evil against the Lord, contriving treachery in his mind , they prefer to understand as a reference to the Rabshakeh, because he came from Assyria, blasphemed God and hoped to persuade the people to despair of help from the Lord and to hand themselves over to the Assyrians, that they might not serve God but idols. ¹

1:12-13 Thus says the Lord: Though they were perfect, and many of them so, yet thus will they be cut off, and he will pass; I have afflicted you, and I will afflict you no more. And now I will break his rod from your back, and I will burst your bonds.

Septuagint: “Thus says the Lord ruling over many waters, even thus will they be

divided, and the report of you will not be heard any more. And now will I break his rod from off of you, and will burst his bonds.” According to the letter the sense is clear: Although, he says, the Assyrians are hardy, and their strength is augmented by the number of all the nations, they will be cut down thus by the destroying angel. For just as a great number of hairs does not turn back sharp scissors, so the great number of the enemies of God will fall easily under the cutting, and Assyria will pass away, or cease to be, or, with its army devastated, will return to its fatherland, leaving you safe behind. And in contrast, a word is directed to Judah and Jerusalem: I have afflicted you, and I will afflict you no more, not that he is promising eternal security, but only for that time, and from those enemies by whom it was then being besieged. And finally he adds: And now I will break his rod, that is, the Assyrians, from your back, and I will burst your bonds; either metaphorically, signifying his power, or at least the rod that tried to strike them and the bonds that he prepared for the prisoners, although it is possible to understand that the blockade around the surrounded multitude is meant by bonds. The sense according to the Septuagint is very different. For he still seems to be speaking against those to whom he had said: “What are you devising against the Lord?” ¹ ⁷ And: “Out of you will come forth a thought against the Lord, devising evil hostile things.” ¹ ⁸ Therefore, “Thus says the Lord ruling over many waters,” or powers, ¹ which refers to the waters above the heavens, and they are commanded to praise the Lord. ¹¹ Or else it refers to the understanding and wisdom and teaching of God. For just as rivers will flow from the heart of the just, ¹¹¹ and copious springs to everlasting life, ¹¹² through many and different decrees to those whom the word of the Lord commands, so do the authors of heresy have their waters, which they command and which flow first from their font. Now that which follows, “And thus will they be divided,” can be understood to apply either to the heavenly powers that serve God on high, [and to mean] that each one has his own office and ministry, or [it can be understood to apply] to the many varieties of wisdom. There should not be thought to be a confused and indiscriminant number of meanings because it was said “ruling over many waters,” but each sentence has a division of meanings within itself, and separate material and a particular topic. ¹¹³ For this that is said, “the report of you will not be heard any more,” is a rebuke against those who had devised things hostile to God, that by showing their sophistry and the snares in which the people of God

were entangled, their word might go no further and not be accepted by the people. But what he adds, “And now will I break his rod from off of you, and will burst your bonds,” is said on behalf of those against whom the threat was made, so that they might not be cut down by the devil and be subjected to that instigator by which they had contrived and devised such great things. Therefore his power over them will be broken, and the chains by which the souls of sinners were bound will be burst by the word of God, who says to those who are in chains: “come out.” ¹¹⁴

1:14 And the Lord will give a commandment against you: No more of your name will be sown. I will destroy the graven and cast image out of the house of your God. I will make it your grave, for you are disgraced.

Septuagint: “And the Lord will give a command concerning you; No more of your name will be sown: I will destroy the graven and cast images out of the house of your God, I will make it your grave; for they are swift. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, and announces peace.” I have written more here from the Septuagint translators, because the second pericope ¹¹⁵ could not be separated from the first one. For where it says, for you are disgraced , and the Fifth Version has recorded ὅτι ὑβρίσθης , ¹¹ the Septuagint translated: “for [they are] swift,” which in Hebrew is written ki qallot . Swift dangles from the sentence, however, unless you apply it to the feet in the next section. And so according to my custom I will first air the history and then afterward the meaning of the common version. ¹¹⁷ The Lord will give a command, he says, against you, o Assyria. Thus what you will endure will not come about by chance and without any judge, but you will suffer by the proclamation of the Lord. No more of your name will be sown: for when Sennacherib returned to Nineveh he immediately was slain by his own sons. Read Isaiah: he was killed in the house of his God, which he had entered to adore. ¹¹⁸ For this is what it says: I will destroy out of the house of your god , you will be punished there where you were hoping for help. The graven and cast image will be your grave , so that your wicked blood will be shed among the altars and pedestals for worshiping idols.

Now, according to the translators of the Septuagint, join those things that came before with those that follow: “No more,” he says, “of your name will be sown.” In no way, o heretics, will the souls of those deceived by your teachings use the names that they had formerly called on in your lands, as is figuratively sung in the forty-eighth Psalm. ¹¹ And this very cessation of the sowing, which tended first to kill the soul of the sower, and then afterward the soul of him in whom it was sown, will profit you. Therefore, the errors of your teaching will die for you; and you also, who earlier seemed to yourself to live, will die to error and, having died for your own good, you will consider the idols that you worshiped a “grave.” And it will come about that all errors are removed from your breast, which before was a temple of your god that you had fashioned. Now this will happen to you, who formerly “devised things contrary to the Lord,” ¹² when the word of God, which always ascends up to the “mountains,” namely, to the high and sublime souls, will come to you “swiftly,” and trampling underfoot the streams of former errors and reducing them to tranquility, will give “peace” and the sense of the faith back to you. Forgive the length, for I am not able to deal with everything briefly following both the historical and tropological senses, especially when I am tortured with a great variety of interpretations, and I am sometimes forced to create coherence in the common version, against my better judgment.

1:15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, and who announces peace. Celebrate, O Judah, your festivals, and pay your vows: for he will increase no more, nor will Belial no more pass through you, he has been utterly cut off.

I will postpone discussing the Septuagint translators for a little while because this section is obscure in their translation on account of its variation. I will arrange their version with my speech after I have briefly explained the history. ¹²¹ In the book of Chronicles it is written that while they were besieged by Sennacherib they were not able to observe the Passover in the first month. Then, when his army had been cut down by the angel, and his flight and death had been proclaimed, they celebrated the Passover day with high festivity in the second month. ¹²² Therefore, that which he says is like this: O Judah, you who

reign in Jerusalem, do not be concerned, your enemy has been killed in the temple of his god. Behold , your messenger is coming, running across the mountains and hills, ¹²³ and as one seeing from a far distant height, he announces the death of Sennacherib and the liberation of the world from his rule. Celebrate the festivals, pay the vows on account of the death of your enemy, which was promised by God; in no way will the liar and rebel ¹²⁴ pass through you again, for this is the meaning of Belial. ¹²⁵ He has been utterly cut off , that is, the army, and the king and empire of the Assyrians are totally fallen. And this is indeed according to the letter. Moreover, it can also be understood to refer to the church anagogically, ¹² by saying to the souls confessing the Lord that the devil who previously ravaged you and oppressed you with a most heavy yoke, in and with idols that he made, has perished: Celebrate your festivals and pay your vows to God , singing continuously with the angels, for in no way will Belial again pass through you, about whom the apostle also says: “What accord does Christ have with Belial?” ¹²⁷ since Nineveh has been laid low and utterly cut off . If a very heavy persecution ever comes, like that under Valerian, ¹²⁸ and Decius, ¹² and Maximian, ¹³ and the vengeance of the Lord appears against his enemies, let us say to the church (Septuagint): “Celebrate, o Judah, your festivals, pay your vows: for they will not appoint to pass through you no more to your aging. It is all over, it is consummated; one breathing into your face has come up, freeing from tribulation.” I said once before that because of the variety within the translation this section is divided differently, and it is not possible to make it agree completely with the sense of the translation from the Hebrew. And so, that which is now said, is like this: O member of the church, because the name of your enemies will be sown no more, and their rod has been broken, and the bonds have been broken, and he has come who announced peace to you, “celebrate your festivals,” not with wine and feasting, as the carnal Jews understand, but in spiritual delights and “a torrent of pleasure.” ¹³¹ “O Judah, pay your vows,” because “in no way will enemies pass through any more,” who contribute “to your aging,” that is, who want you to bear the image of the old man. ¹³² Because what is old is aging and what is aging is near to perishing: ¹³³ the world is “all over,” the adversary is consumed. Christ has come to you, who first breathed “into your face” when he formed you from the earth, ¹³⁴ and after the

resurrection he also said: “Receive the Holy Spirit,” breathing “into the face” of his apostles. ¹³⁵ It is he who will free you from tribulation. For Nineveh has been devastated, and as the world passes away, ¹³ so tribulation will also pass away.

2:1-2 He has come up who disperses before your face, the one keeping the siege: watch the way, strengthen your loins, increase your power greatly. For the Lord has rendered back the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel: because the plunderers have laid them waste, and have marred their branches.

I am compelled by necessity to steer the course of my words between the historical and the allegorical, as though among rocks and cliffs in near danger of shipwreck, and to attend carefully, lest it immediately strike something. For indeed, as in the tale of the poet: “Scylla blocks the right side, implacable Charybdis the left”; ¹³⁷ if we flee the rocks, we will run out onto the deep; if we avoid the twisting whirlpools, we will be dashed on the rocks. The Lord is my witness, that as I explain everything according to the Hebrews, I am not speaking out of my own understanding, ¹³⁸ as is charged against the false prophets, ¹³ but I follow the explanation of the Hebrews, from whom I learned for no small length of time. I am obliged in my own explanation simply to make known what I learned. Of course, it will be up to the reader, once he has briefly considered both, to decide which ought to be followed more closely. And so this discourse now turns to Nineveh (and this is why the prophets are particularly obscure, because while one thing is happening, the persona is suddenly changed to another), and it is said to her: Nebuchadnezzar who besieges you has come up to you, he who devastates your fields before your face, persecutes your farmers, plunders your countryside, who also holds you enclosed. And behold, since war is imminent for you I, a prophet, make a prediction rejoicing: watch carefully and look, and see, this will come forth to you. Strengthen your loins, that is, gird them; increase your power greatly, that is, gather an army because as the Lord avenged Judah because of the pride of Sennacherib when his army was killed in Judea, and he also was murdered by his sons, ¹⁴ so he will avenge Israel; that is, the ten tribes will be taken by Nineveh. For the Assyrians came forth and devastated both Judah and Israel, and under the metaphor of a vine, marred the branches of both.

Septuagint: 2:1-2. “Watch the way, master your loins, greatly increase your strength, for the Lord has turned aside the insult to Jacob, as the insult to Israel: for shaking out, they have shaken them out, and the plunders have destroyed their branches.” Three commands are given to Judah. First, that he “watch the way” and carefully consider the road on which he will walk, according to what is written in Jeremiah: “stand in the ways, and seek for the eternal paths, and see which is the good way, and walk in it.” ¹⁴¹ Thus when you stand among many ways, you will come to that way that says: “I am the way.” ¹⁴² Next, he is told to “master his loins”; that is, after the choice of his way he should mortify his body and subject it to servitude, so that proclaiming himself king and teacher to others, as it were, he may not find himself rejected. ¹⁴³ It would take too long to discuss now how the power of the devil is strongest in the loins, ¹⁴⁴ and that it is promised to David: “The fruit of your loins I will set upon your throne,” ¹⁴⁵ and this from the apostle: “For Levi was yet in the loins of his father Abraham, when Melchizedek met Abraham.” ¹⁴ Also that John is girded with a leather girdle, ¹⁴⁷ and the disciples are commanded by the Savior: “Let your loins be girded.” ¹⁴⁸ And the apostle writes to the Ephesians: “Stand, therefore, with your loins girt in truth.” ¹⁴ For although someone excel in the greatest asceticism, ¹⁵ and in the life of self-control by mortification of the loins, nevertheless nothing mortifies them so much as the mind in truth. Wherefore it is said: “Let your loins be girded in truth.” ¹⁵¹ For if Christ is the truth, he who has believed in Christ with his whole mind has mortified his loins in Christ. The third thing commanded is “greatly increase your strength”: You have chosen, he says, the way; you have mastered your loins; take up “strength” ¹⁵² so you may fight with your enemies. And that you may not lack confidence, a cause for hope is given: “The Lord,” he says, “has turned aside the insult to Jacob, as the insult to Israel.” This is ambiguous. For either he turns aside the insult of Jacob himself, by which he caused injury to others, or the Lord turns aside the insult that Jacob sustained from others. But it seems to me better that the insult that Jacob was accustomed to cause to others has been turned aside by the Lord. For it does not take as much virtue to sustain an injury caused by others than to be, by the grace of the Lord, so peaceful, meek and tranquil so as not to be able to cause injury. ¹⁵³ It is asked how the injury has been turned aside from Jacob, as it had been turned aside from Israel. After Jacob wrestled with the angel, he merited receiving the name Israel, ¹⁵⁴ and because he saw God, he ceased causing insult. Therefore, just as Israel, a mind or a man seeing God, ¹⁵⁵ and one who is always thinking of God, does not know how to cause injury, so every

effrontery and abuse has been turned aside from Jacob, that is, from the supplanter by him who still supplants his enemies when he is in a contest. Now, so that we may know how injury can be understood in a bad way, Solomon gives witness, saying: “Insulting eyes, an unjust tongue.” ¹⁵ The following words give clarification according to both understandings concerning how the injury has been turned aside from Jacob that first had been turned aside from Israel: “For shaking out, they have shaken them out, and their shoots have been destroyed,” or marred. The angels, he says, of each one, who always see the face of the Father, ¹⁵⁷ have “shaken” off every speck of dust that clung to Jacob and Israel. This is also why the feet of Peter are washed. ¹⁵⁸ And it was said through the prophet: “Shake off the dust and arise, Jerusalem.” ¹⁵ The disciples were also commanded by the Savior: “Shake the dust from your feet.” ¹ And in the Psalms it is written: “As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so the children of those who have been shaken.” ¹ ¹ And so the mind quick to insult has been turned aside from the true Jacob and from the true Israel, because whatever in them was earthly and from the lower dust has been “shaken out” and cleansed by the ministering angels, or by the admonishing teachers, who have not only shaken these out but have destroyed the vices that now so charm the senses with pleasure like shoots or branches that are full of leaves but lack fruit, ¹ ² as the word of the Lord says: “Every branch, that remains in me, and bears fruit, my Father prunes, so that it may bear more fruit, but that which does not remain in me and does not bear fruit, my Father will cut off and will throw into the fire.” ¹³

2:3-7 The shield of his mighty men [is] like fire, the men of the army [are] clad in scarlet; the reins of the chariot flaming in the day of his preparation, and the drivers were stupefied. They were in confusion in the ways, the four-horse chariots dashed against one another in the streets: their looks like torches, like darting lightning. He will remember his valiant men, they will stumble in their ways: they will quickly get upon its walls: and a covering will be prepared. The gates of the rivers have been opened, and the temple has been thrown down to the ground. And the soldier has been led away captive: and her maid-servants were led away mourning as doves, murmuring in their hearts.

Septuagint: “[They have destroyed] the arms of his power from among men, their mighty men sporting in fire; the reins of their chariots [will be destroyed] in the day of their preparation, and the horsemen will fear in the ways going out, and the chariots will clash together, and will collide in the streets. Their looks are like torches of fire, and as darting lightning. And their mighty men will be remembered and flee by day; and they will be weak in their way; and they will hasten to the walls, and will prepare their defenses. The gates of the cities have been opened, and the palaces have fallen into ruin, and the substance has been revealed; and she has gone up, and her maidservants were led away as doves speaking in their hearts.” The sequence follows the history of Nineveh and describes the army of the Babylonians coming against them. When he says the flaming reins of the chariots, the fires of the straps signify the speed of those preparing, and the ostentation, as it were, of the equipment ¹ ⁴ of those preparing themselves for battle is pictured. The scripture is woven together in a confused way, now describing what Israel has already suffered, now what Assyria will do, and now what the Babylonians are training to do against the Assyrians. Therefore it is not, he says, surprising if they come to destroy so swiftly, when the drivers and mighty men either of Israel before, or of the Assyrians later on, were stupefied . And returning to the progression of the description: He says that the multitude of those approaching is so great that the column is in confusion on its way and cannot be seen clearly. Those chariots also dash against one another in the streets because of their multitude, when they do not find the way. The looks of the Babylonians are like torches, like darting lightning, that they may terrify their enemies by their sight rather than lay them low with the point of the sword. Then Assyria will remember his valiant men, and he will seek those who have stumbled in their ways: he will quickly get upon the walls of Nineveh and will prepare coverings for warding off the heat on account of the very long siege. But what is the use of building a house, unless the Lord builds it? ¹ ⁵ What help comes from closing gates that the Lord opens? ¹ The gates of Nineveh, which had a multitude of citizens in the likeness of rivers, have been opened , and the temple , that is, its power, has been destroyed, and the soldier has been led away captive ; that is, all have been led to Babylon. Truly, understand the maidservants of Nineveh metaphorically to be the smaller cities and villages and towns. Or else, the women will be led away captive before the faces of the victors; and so great will be their terror that their grief will not even burst forth in sobbing and in wailing, but they will mourn silently within themselves, and with quiet

murmuring they will swallow up their tears in the manner of murmuring doves. This is according to the Hebrew version. Now let us proceed to the Septuagint translators. Those shaking out, who have shaken out Jacob and Israel, and have destroyed their branches, ¹ ⁷ and they have also “destroyed the arms,” which they used to have when they were insulting and by which they had also oppressed all of the weak, and they did not do only this, but they likewise destroyed “the mighty men who were sporting in fire.” Consider whether it is possible to say that “the mighty men sporting in fire” are the hostile powers who minister by means of the flaming darts of the devil, ¹ ⁸ who used to be mighty and were “sporting in the fire” of Jacob and Israel and had “chariots” and horses by which they were carried to the battle in war, “in the day of its preparation.” Therefore the reins of these chariots and the horsemen will be thrown into confusion “in the ways,” and they will “collide in the streets.” When Jacob and Israel have been healed by the manifestation of the Lord, both the demons and those who serve their desires will be overthrown by the Lord. We can understand this as applying to his first coming, when the mighty men and the drivers of horses said: “What have you to do with us, Son of David? Have you come to torment us before the time?” ¹ But since we have already accepted that the prophecy against Nineveh applies to the consummation of the world, it is better that we should say that the arms of the power of the devil will be removed from men at that time, and his mighty ministers who sported with men in the fire [will be removed]. For, “all their adulterous hearts are like an oven,” ¹⁷ and the bonds too, by which they were led captive into vice, and the riders of chariots will be weakened. For the horsemen will fear in the ways going out, that is, in the consummation of the world, and the “chariots will clash together, and will collide in the streets”; for although wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, ¹⁷¹ nevertheless, crowded together by the pressure of the time, they will not be able to find the right way but will dash against each other, and will nevertheless breathe forth ancient fury, and will dart here and there like “lightning.” “I saw,” says the Lord, “Satan falling like lightning from heaven.” ¹⁷² When the devil and his mighty men understand this, they “will remember” the consummation that had been predicted long ago, and “they will flee by day.” For no one will move about by night, but when the day dawns the darkness will flee, and “they will be weak in their way,” making no progress, “and they will hasten

to the walls.” For such great terror of the coming Lord will invade them, and so foolish will they be as to resist that they will flee to the ends of the world, by which walls, as it were, the world is enclosed and encircled. And they will prepare themselves to offer resistance, for just as if anyone flees his enemy whom he does not dare to resist, yet if perhaps the enemy follows him when he comes to a deserted place, he will be forced by necessity to resist. Yes, surely for those thinking this, all the things they had obtained and possessed will be brought forth publicly, and “the gates” that they closed will be opened, and their “palaces” will fall, and the “substance,” that is, their riches, will be “revealed.” Yet this very “substance” of the world, and all its “maidservants,” when they have subjected themselves to Christ and have begun to serve him, will be led forth rejoicing and making merry and believing with the intimate confession of the heart, so that they are compared with the cleanness of “doves,” [and] they will murmur or “speak in their hearts.” And then that which is said in the sixty-seventh Psalm about the victory of the Savior will be fulfilled: “Ascending on high, he has led captivity captive.” ¹⁷³

2:8-9 And Nineveh, her waters are like a pool of water, but they themselves have fled away. Stand, stand, but there is not one who returns. Plunder the silver, plunder the gold, and there is no end of the riches of all the desirable vessels.

Septuagint: “And Nineveh, her waters [are] as a pool of water, and those fleeing did not stand, and there was not one who looked back. They plundered the silver, they plundered the gold, and there was no end of their adorning; all vessels of desire were heaped up.” It is clear that when the citizens of Nineveh—which the Scriptures call her daughters—were led into captivity, Nineveh herself, who had nourished so many people that she is compared to pools of water, had a useless multitude, so long as there was no one to resist and to bear the attack of the invading Babylonians. For she had people who merely fled, and when the mother cried out: Stand, stand, close the gates, ascend the walls, repel the enemy, there was no one who would return, no one who would look back at the mother, but all turned their backs and abandoned the city to the pillaging enemy. And so he said to the Babylonians, because the men fled: Plunder the silver, and then

pillage the wealth that is gathered together in the swift destruction. For there is no end of riches, of the furnishings, and of the vessels that were stored up in Nineveh, nor can you seize as much as is available for pillaging. But since Nineveh means beautiful, that is, the world, as we said already, ¹⁷⁴ let us see what the pool of the world is. The Scriptures do not say that the waters of Nineveh are like the waters of the sea, nor like the waters of rivers, nor like the waters of fountains, nor like the waters of wells, but like the waters of a pool, just as when Jeremiah blames the people who forsook the fountain of living water and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which could not hold water. ¹⁷⁵ In Nineveh the waters are also of this kind. They fell from heaven and, leaving the ancient height, flowed down to the lowest place. For all the doctrines of this world that are outside the fountain of the church and its sealed garden cannot say “The stream of the river gives joy to the city of God,” ¹⁷ and are not of those waters that praise the name of the Lord above the heavens. ¹⁷⁷ Although they may seem great, yet they are small and confined within narrow limits. And do not let anyone be disturbed that we interpret the pool in a bad sense when that pool to which Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz is commanded to go up is understood in a good sense. For something additional is said there: “the conduit pool of water, and the pool of the fuller,” ¹⁷⁸ which was used for cleansing the dirty and for removing stains from clothing. Since this pool is found very high up, the prophet is commanded to go up to it and in a meeting with the king to promise victory against the two smoking brands. ¹⁷ Those fleeing did not stand, namely, the inhabitants of Nineveh. First, they ought not to have fled from God, and second, even if they had fled, at some point they ought to have stood. For there is a great difference between him who had fled and stood and him who flees and never stood. For he who stands has ceased to flee, while he who does not stand has taken flight. Therefore, in such a great crowd of fugitives there was no one who looked back and did penance and heard the voice of the Lord: “Returning, return to me, children, and I will heal your griefs.” ¹⁸ Wherefore the saint says in the Psalms: “flight has failed me.” ¹⁸¹ I think that this can be understood to apply to the mystery of leprosy, which is mentioned in Leviticus: When a leper is made by the priest to separate himself outside the camp, if the leprosy has stayed, ¹⁸² the man is clean, and he who has been cast outside as a leper is cleansed and returns to the camp and lives among the people. But, he says, if the leprosy has spread, that is, has not stayed but

increased, and has progressed in its evil appearance and has changed the color of his former clean [flesh], then the leprosy is clearly confirmed by him who has knowledge about inspecting and cleansing leprosy. ¹⁸³ We are commanded even by the true Solomon to dwell in Jerusalem and never to go out from her. ¹⁸⁴ But if what was previously subjected to us flees from us and goes to the foreigners, let us not go forth from the walls of our city, nor follow the tracks of the fugitives; nor, although we desire to save the fugitives, shall we ourselves perish. In fact, we should rather “let the dead bury their dead,” ¹⁸⁵ and pluck out and cut off the scandalizing eye, hand and foot from us while it is allowed. ¹⁸ Now, this which is said, “They plundered the silver, they plundered the gold, and there was no end of their adorning; all vessels of desire were heaped up,” is said about the waters of Nineveh, and about the fugitives who had fled and did not stand, and there was not one who looked back; and who were content not to have fled, and not to have looked back. Beyond this, they plundered the silver— whatever there seemed to be in the world of eloquence—they plundered the gold —whatever was glorious in the statements of the doctrine of the world—that they might adorn Nineveh, that they might build their teachings with every flower of meaning and word. For this reason, Nineveh was heaped up upon every desirable vessel; for as she had such a quantity of possessions of silver and of gold and a variety of furnishings, which were heavy, so much more was she herself weighted down, and she loved the burdensome weight. And thus in Zechariah, iniquity sits upon a talent of lead, ¹⁸⁷ and the Egyptians, who had heavy sins, were drowned in the sea like lead. ¹⁸⁸ And it is said in the Psalms under the person of a sinner: “As a heavy burden, they have become heavy upon me.” ¹⁸ And Peter, who before his doubt walked lightly on the waves with a wavering step, afterward, weighted down by his lack of faith, was devoured by the waves, is raised by the hand of the Lord. ¹

2:10 She is destroyed, and rent, and torn, and the heart melts, and a loosing of the knees, and all the loins lose their strength: and the faces of all are as the blackness of a pot.

Septuagint: “There is a shaking out, and a violent shaking, and tumult, and heart breaking, and there is a loosing of the knees, and pains in all loins; and the faces

of all are as the burning of a pot.” Under the metaphor of a captive woman Nineveh is described as destroyed, rent and torn; with a melting heart, loosened knees and crushed loins, and all of her inhabitants, from terror of the enemy and great fear, seem to have faces that are burnt like pots—wasting away and disfigured by terror. According to the Septuagint, one should understand more deeply what is expressed as “a shaking out, and a violent shaking.” This is said about the people of God, as though it were a man who had formerly sinned and has returned to his original state, and what is said to Jerusalem is directed to him: “Shake off the dust and arise, Jerusalem.” ¹ ¹ And he is of such kind that, after he has been shaken, he deserves to return among the arrows of God, and to be drawn by the Lord against his enemies, and it is sung about him: “As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so are the children of those who have been shaken.” ¹ ² And when his footsteps will have become rough with dust, as of one who walks over the earth, he will hear from the Savior: “Shake the dust from your feet as a testimony to them.” ¹ ³ Doubtless he says this to those who would not receive preachers. But he who is truly from Nineveh, which was “weighed down with all the vessels of their desire,” is not “shaken” once but repeatedly. And after he has been shaken again and cleaned on the surface—lest any filth remain inside— there again comes to him a “tumult,” which in Greek is expressed more meaningfully as ἐκβρασμὸς; for indeed ἐκβρασμὸς has been properly said about things of this nature when that which lay hidden inside breaks out on the surface. Just as the blisters that come upon the lips after sickness are also called ἐκβράσματα, and when they have broken forth on the skin of the sick man it seems to be a sign of health. Yet not only this remedy, that it be shaken frequently and the hidden sickness be forced to go out from its vital parts, is applied to Nineveh, but also “heart breaking” and a “loosing of the knees” are also announced. Thus just as the hard and stony heart of Pharaoh, which he had for as long as he would not let the people of God go, ¹ ⁴ was broken, so also Nineveh’s broken heart is softened and changed to flesh, and the stiff knees that before would not bend before God are loosened and bow to God, “from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named,” ¹ ⁵ and “at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and on earth and under the earth.” ¹ Thus after they have known their Creator, they may hear: “Be strong feeble hands, and make firm the weak knees.” ¹ ⁷ “And pains,” he says, “in all loins.” We already said above that the loins signify

sexual intercourse, and all the works that pertain to comingling are shown by the term “reins.” ¹ ⁸ Therefore, there will be great “pains” in the “reins” at the consummation, because all the “strength” of the dragon “is in the loins,” ¹ and for all these, on account of which there preceded “the shaking and violent shaking, tumult, heart breaking, loosening of the knees, pains of the reins, the face of all will be as the burning of a pot,” or as something close to a fire and to flames, or when it grows black like charcoal, having lost the brightness of polish, and is covered with eternal shame, ² from which the holy one is far removed, saying: “The light of your countenance, o Lord, is signed upon us.” ² ¹ For he “contemplates the glory of the Lord with unveiled face.” ² ² And I think just as there is “one glory of the sun, another of the moon, another of the stars and star differs from star in glory, so in the resurrection of the dead,” ² ³ there will be a great difference of glory among the saints, and of blackness among the sinners.

2:11-12 Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, to which the lion went, to enter in there, the young lion, and there was none to make them afraid? The lion caught enough for his cubs, and killed for his lionesses: and he filled his caves with prey, and his den with rapine.

For caves and lioness, the Septuagint has translated “lair” and “cubs,” but in the rest it has the same meaning. This is spoken about Nineveh, which was the dwelling of kings, and about the palaces of the nobility, to which came the lion, the king of Babylon, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, and also the lion’s “cubs,” his subordinates, and there was no one who could resist them. The lion caught enough for his cubs, and killed for his lioness. Clearly, this same Nebuchadnezzar took possession of all things by right of victory and handed captives over into slavery, to his children and their cities, or else to his wives, and he filled his caves with prey or, as it has in the Hebrew, he filled his holes and his den with rapine, filling both his treasure houses and his cities with gold, silver, clothing and every ornament, so that he took possession of what Nineveh had owned and [which] Babylon had conquered. Now, according to anagogy, ² ⁴ we have interpreted Nineveh to be this world

both in Jonah and in this prophet, and also according to John: “The whole world has been placed under the wicked one.” ² ⁵ Therefore, after the world ceases to be a habitation of beasts and one in which lions pastured, then we will say wondering and rejoicing: Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions , to which the lion, the devil, went about, which Peter speaks also: “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour”? ² And where is the lion cub, the antichrist, and all perverse doctrines and hostile words? “You have heard,” John says, “that the antichrist will come; even now there are many antichrists”; ² ⁷ for there are as many antichrists as there are false teachings. And before the coming of Christ there was no one who could make them afraid , but after our Lord came into the world and entered Nineveh, he “saw like Satan falling like lightning from heaven,” ² ⁸ and Lucifer fell from heaven who arose in the morning. ² For the true Samson came to the foreigners, ²¹ and while he continues to Timnah, which is interpreted to mean his consummation, ²¹¹ so that he could marry poor little Delilah from the Gentiles, he killed a lion to which consummation had come, and when it was dead he ate sweet honey. ²¹² Moreover, the true David also overtook a lion and killed it when he was keeping his father’s sheep. And Benaiah, which is interpreted to mean the Lord the builder, ²¹³ descended into a pit at the time of the year when warm water freezes and killed a lion . ²¹⁴ In the vision of Isaiah, where certain four-footed beasts are seen opposite him, the first thing said concerns the distress of these beasts: “In affliction and distress, the lion and the lion’s cub.” ²¹⁵ Before this lion was killed by Christ, it caught very many as spoils for his cubs, and it killed them for his little lions, his attendants, namely, the demons. Behold the congregation of the heretics, and you will look no further for the many who have been captured by the lion. Consider the dead who have abandoned life, and their churches, which you will not call a sheepfold of the shepherd but the lion’s den, which he has filled with the corpses and blood of the dead. David says: “You have appointed darkness, and it has become night, in it will all the beasts of the wood go about. The young lions seizing their prey, and seeking their food from God.” ²¹ It is difficult to find the lion in the day, but in the night he always paces about in order to pillage the church of God, so that according to Habakkuk, he may be satiated with choice meat. ²¹⁷ After all, Judas belonged to the sheepfold of Christ and, snatched by the lion, was strangled by hanging. ²¹⁸ Moreover, that prophet whom the Lord had commanded not to eat bread in that

region near where the golden calves and the false worship were was also struck down by a lion because he ate. ²¹ Jeremiah also says about sinners: “They have been stricken by a lion out of the forest, and a wolf has destroyed them even to their houses, and a leopard has watched over their cities. All who go forth from them will be captured.” ²² Notice in this that no one would be captured, except he who went out from the cities of God. Likewise, in the fourth book of Kingdoms those dwelling in the cities of Samaria and who did not know the judgment of God upon the earth were killed by lions until they learned to worship God and were freed from the lions. ²²¹ For this reason I think that whatever has been captured by these beasts is not offered among the sacrifices of God, and it is said by the prophet: “That which is taken by a beast is unclean and will not enter into my mouth.” ²²² Therefore the lion has been killed and false teachings have been confounded: “out of the eater came forth food, and from the strong came forth something sweet.” ²²³

2:13 Behold I [come] to you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots even to smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions: and I will cut off your prey out of the land, and the voice of your messengers will be heard no more.

Septuagint: “Behold, I am against you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will burn up your multitude to smoke, and the sword will devour your lions; and I will remove your prey from the land, and your deeds will be heard of no more.” O Nineveh, I am the guarantee that you will suffer all these things that have been spoken. I the Lord will burn your chariots even to smoke and consumption, and I will cause all your nobles and princes to be devoured by the sword. By no means will you ravage lands any longer, nor levy tribute, nor will your emissaries be heard throughout the provinces. Or, I will no longer listen to the angels who guard you and pray for you. And this is spoken to the world in which there is a multitude that goes down to death through the wide and spacious way. ²²⁴ It is threatened that the Lord will burn it with fire and choke it off in the smoke of its own wickedness because of its excessive vanities. And the sword , the living and sharp word of God, ²²⁵ twoedged, ²² will devour the lions too, and indeed he promises to remove its prey

from the earth , so that no one will be captured ever again in Nineveh. And, as he mercifully takes away evil deeds and holds them in check, no voice or sound of them can be heard any longer. Wherefore he says: And your deeds will be heard of no more .

3:1-4 Woe, O city of blood, all full of lies and violence; rapine will not depart from you. The voice of the whip, and the voice of the rattling of the wheel, and of the neighing horse, and of the running four-horse chariot, and of the horseman coming up, and of the shining sword, of the glittering spear, and of a multitude slain, and of a grievous destruction; and there is no end of corpses, and they will fall down on their bodies. Because of the multitude of the fornications of the beautiful and agreeable prostitute, and who made use of sorcery, who sold nations through her fornications, and families through her sorceries.

Septuagint: “O city of blood, all full of lying unrighteousness; the prey will not be handled. The voice of whips, and the voice of the rumbling of wheels, and of the pursuing horse, and of the bounding chariot, and of the horseman going up, and of the glittering sword, and of the gleaming arms, and of a multitude of wounded, and of a grievous destruction: and there was no end to her nations, and they will be weak in their bodies because of the multitude of fornication. She is a beautiful and agreeable prostitute, a leader in sorceries, that sells the nations by her fornication, and tribes by her sorceries.” Where we have written full of violence, in Hebrew it says phereq mele’ah, which is translated by Aquila as ἐξαχενισμοῦ πλήρης, that is, “full of stubbornness”; Symmachus, however, writes ἀποτομίας πλήρης, which we can say means “full of cruelty” or “severity.” In another version I have found μελοκοπίας πλήρης, that is, “with severing of the flesh and members cut in pieces.” In short it is immediately thrown down, where rapine is unceasing. Further, the Hebrew word phereq does not mean “stubbornness,” which we found as ἐξαχενισμòν in Aquila’s version, but it is rather translated as “governance” that is, κυβερισμòν, to show that the city was royal and as in a ship held governance over all the nations. Its power, that is, Nineveh’s, is described, and it is convicted by means of the lamentation of its cruelty.

Woe, o city of blood, in which there is no truth but every lie, full of rapine and the tearing of the prey. Always there is the voice of the cruel whip and of raging power, and the voice of the rattling of the wheel. We understand this voice to be a sound. A wheel rattling through its various movements, and the voice of the neighing horse, and of the running chariot is also heard everywhere. Now, these words are so beautiful in the Hebrew, and the description is so like a painting of an army preparing itself for battle that all my words seem poor. For what he says and of a grievous destruction; and there is no end of corpses, we should understand to be about the enemies which they slaughtered. And they will fall down on their bodies, they will either be slain by their own multitude, when they are closely crowded upon each other, or they will fall among the corpses of the slain: for αὐτῶν can mean both their own or of those. Because of the multitude, he says, of the fornications of the prostitute, because she had fornicated with many nations, and because of the whole world, which debased itself by worshiping idols. Beautiful and agreeable, and who made use of sorcery signifies the enchantress who sold nations through her fornications, and families through her sorceries, that is, who held authority over all nations. This is said literally about Nineveh. In another respect, if we have reasonably understood Nineveh to be the world on account of the name of beauty, it is the world that has been rightly described as evil, and called a city of blood on account of the multitude of archers, and of those who kill men with their tongues as with swords; ²²⁷ therefore it is consistent that all full of lying unrighteousness refers to the perversion of doctrines when perverse teachings hold sway everywhere, while the word of God “does not have a place where he can lay his head.” ²²⁸ “There is no one who understands or seeks for God”; ²² “They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together: there is none that does good, no, not one.” ²³ This, although it is partially true now, will be more fully completed in the consummation, when iniquity will have multiplied, and the love of many will have grown cold. ²³¹ So many are taken by the giant Nimrod, a very fierce hunter because, proud against God, he caught many creatures from the woodland in his snares so that few will ever equal him in plunder or hunting. ²³² For he has many attendants and fellow hunters with him who rejoice in his hunting and assist him in his way of catching prey. The voice of whips is also heard in the world because many are the afflictions of the just, ²³³ by which they are whipped, and they cry out and witness to the

greatness of their pain with tearful voices. Whenever they are chastised, one by a demon, another by anger, which is similar to wrath, another by lust, hatred, envy or pride, the whip of the Assyrian king cracks against them. But we also recognize the devil’s whips in the evils of the body, about which this is spoken to the just man: “And the whip will not approach your tabernacle.” ²³⁴ We would not hesitate to say that the voice of the whips is in Nineveh when we see that someone has putrefied with the royal sickness ²³⁵ and remains alive in his corpse; another one swims with dropsy and almost loses the original human form through his bloated body and swelling members, as we now see in the viper; ²³ and another one is wounded in the lungs and discharges certain corrupt matter; and another one has a humor that has dried up into stones and urinates with pain and is tormented in the bladder. Yet some understand this to be caused by the corruption of the air or by diverse foods and bodies. We who have read about the Lord curing both an acute bout of the fever and about a woman bound by the devil for eighteen years should know that these are all whips in Nineveh. ²³⁷ Thus it follows the noise of the rumbling of wheels, while the human race is dragged here and there, and runs about through all paths uncertain where danger will be found and where safety. We are going to ignore the wheel written about in the beginning of Ezekiel. ²³⁸ In the seventy-sixth Psalm we read: “The voice of your thunder in a wheel.” ²³ Now Nineveh also has both the pursuing horse , which with neighing and its hoof pawing the earth and its breath seething always desires war, as the Lord says against the devil: “he smells the war from afar”; ²⁴ with leap and outcry he does not spare the fleeing, nor does he allow those who turned their backs to get away, but he follows so that he may overcome, kill, trample underfoot and crush. In Nineveh there is also the voice of the bounding four-horse chariot, the kind I believe Pharaoh had that were submerged by the Lord. ²⁴¹ To this chariot four horses are harnessed, namely, the four passions, about which the philosophers dispute and Maro [Virgil] is not silent, saying: “These desire, and fear, sorrow and rejoice.” ²⁴² All Nineveh is disturbed by these horses and this chariot . Moreover, the voice of the horseman going up resounds in her, who having been prepared for war with a certain skill and in the circuit advances not without danger for the one fighting against him. This horseman has the sword of speech, sharpened with the point of dialectic and smoothed with the oil of the art of rhetoric. He has gleaming arms, since Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, ²⁴³ which oppose the arms of the apostolic armory. ²⁴⁴

Nor is it amazing if in Nineveh there is a multitude of wounded when there is a multitude of archers. And just as we fight and are covered by these four, they are the shields of the virtues, prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, ²⁴⁵ so on the other hand there are the four vices, folly, wickedness, self-indulgence, fear, by which we are struck by the foe. Those who have each of these springing up in themselves, like many kinds of archers by whom wounds are inflicted, unless they are cured immediately by medicine, there comes grievous destruction . And I wish that, as many as there were in Nineveh who fell easily and were easily wounded, there would be so few who, weighted down to destruction, have sunk even to the netherworld. And there was no end to her nations; her wickedness does not have an end, and as many as there are species of sins, so many are the nations of Nineveh, which will be weakened in their bodies because of the abundance of fornication. Although it is possible to take this as referring to those who are weakened in body as a result of venereal diseases, and who also break the flesh to which they are enslaved as they ruin their souls, nevertheless, these nations about which we have spoken do not fall, according to the Hebrews, except in their bodies, and do not offend—as Symmachus has translated—except against the corpses of the dead, which were laid low by the multiplication of fornication. In this passage, although we have written it according to the Hebrews as because of the multitude of the fornications of the prostitute, the Septuagint translators said: “because of the multitude of the fornication,” as though they wanted there to be another beginning. Having ended the sentence here, they began again afterward: “She is a beautiful and pleasing prostitute, a leader in sorceries.” In place of “a leader in sorceries” Aquila and Symmachus translated “having sorceries.” Nor will it be surprising that Nineveh is now the most pleasing of prostitutes, since such a multitude of men were seen to fornicate with her, almost all drawn to her love by those sorceries and by certain incantations. This one sold the nations by her fornications, which take the members of Christ and make them the members of a prostitute, ²⁴ and tribes by her sorceries . For she makes them love those things that they ought to hate and to detest those things that they ought to love, so that, when they have been deceived, according to that which has been written, “Evil company ruins good morals,” ²⁴⁷ they overthrow others by the magical art. I have read in the Holy Scriptures that even sorcerers can be interpreted positively: “and of the sorcerer who makes incantations wisely.” ²⁴⁸ But such a sorcerer makes incantations for this purpose, to draw back to a sound mind those who have been conquered by the love of the prostitute Nineveh.

3:5-6 Behold I [come] against you, says the Lord of hosts: and I will reveal your shame to your face, and will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. And I will cast abominations upon you, and will disgrace you, and will make an example of you.

Septuagint: “Behold, I [come] against you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will lift up your skirts over your face, and I will show the tribes your disgrace, and the kingdoms your shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon you according to your unclean ways, and will make an example of you.” Because, o Nineveh, you have “sold the nations by your fornications, and families by your sorceries,” ²⁴ and you have spread your legs to all like a public prostitute; ²⁵ therefore, I myself will come to cast you down. I will not send an angel, nor trust your judgment to another. I will reveal your shame to your face so that what you did not see earlier is placed before your sight. I will show the tribes your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame , so that those who fornicated with you may despise you, mock you and afflict you with insults, and you will be an example to all who see [you]. Now all this is told using the metaphor of an adulterous woman, who, after she has been discovered, is revealed in public and dishonored before the eyes of all. The word of the prophet Ezekiel also describes this most fully but transfers it to Jerusalem. ²⁵¹ Nevertheless, it is more truly and usefully addressed to the world, to which the true doctor comes from heaven equally to cut and to heal. ²⁵² Behold, I [come] against you, says the Lord Almighty ; because I am almighty I can heal all ills, and that which is impossible for others is possible for me. I will reveal your skirts ²⁵³ to your face; that is, although you do not deserve it, I will make you see my virtues, precepts and words, which you have hidden behind your back. For I commanded that my words should always be moving before your eyes and should be bound and hanging down. ²⁵⁴ Yet you, with scorn for the authority of the one commanding, have ceased to walk after them, so that, not only did you not do them, but you did not condescend even to see what I had commanded. Or else, I will make you see and know your errors, which earlier, when you were being carried away blindly and dangerously, you supposed to be virtues.

For afterward I will show your nakedness to the nations that you sold with your fornication so that they may no longer be captivated by your love but may cease to fornicate with you when they see your filthy and disgraceful inner body, by whose outward surface they were first enticed. Also, I will show the kingdoms, which are greater than nations, ²⁵⁵ your shame that you had, those very things you did. And I will cast abominable filth upon you according to your unclean ways so that, as you are unclean, so you shall appear unclean, and you may not deceive all those who used to cling to you and who were made one body with you. ²⁵ And I will make an example of you so that the fear of similar punishment will prevent similar offenses.

3:7 And it will be: everyone who will see you, will shrink from you, and will say: Nineveh is laid waste. Who will trouble himself over you, the head? Whence will I seek a comforter for you?

In Hebrew head is not included, but we have added it so that the sense may be clearer. After all, Symmachus has translated it thus: “And everyone who will see you, will fall back from you and say: Nineveh is destroyed, who will mourn with her?” Furthermore the Septuagint says: “And it will be, everyone who will see you will go down from you, and will say: Wretched Nineveh, who will lament for her? Whence will I seek comfort, tuning the string for this?” The one will see the ruin of Nineveh and, knowing that she had been set up as an example to all, will be frightened and wonder and will say: Nineveh is laid waste, who will trouble himself over you, the head? That is, who will sorrow over you, who will be able to be your consoler? You who, when you were powerful, were a cruel mistress who had no mercy on the old, nor regarded the young, and you did not prepare a companion for your grief, since you did not want to have a partner in ruling. Now he who disdains these earthly things and has despised the sorceries of the enchantress Nineveh, and has not become entangled in her false beauty, will begin to hate what others love when he sees all her interior disgrace, and he will flee and shrink from you, or, as the Septuagint says, “go down.” For as long as we honor earthly things and consider them to be exalted, it is as though we are on a hill of pride and we are amazed by the beauty of Nineveh. But when we

have considered her nature and have despised all corporeal goods as base, subjecting ourselves to the power of the hand of God, then we will pity Nineveh, and judging all earthly good as worthy of mourning over, we will say: Wretched Nineveh, how many have been entrapped by your snares, how many do you hold bound in your chains! Who, do you think, will shrink from you and “go down from” your pride and judge you to be wretched? We ought to understand that he asks who not so much because it is difficult to do this but because it is rare, as we have often said: “Who, do you think, is a faithful and wise steward?” ²⁵⁷ and, “Who is wise and he will understand these things?” ²⁵⁸ and, “Who will ascend the mountain of the Lord?” ²⁵ Who , therefore will lament for Nineveh? Who can be found, who, weighed down by this tabernacle, would say with Paul: “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” ² Daily we see that if death approaches anyone and he realizes that he is going to be taken out of this world either by a fever or by a wound or by any kind of disease, he is frightened and trembles, and with his whole body shaking he clings to Nineveh with tight embraces and is only torn away by force from the body of the beautiful prostitute . Then follows: Whence will I seek comfort, or a comforter for you who can tune the string? This is still spoken in the persona of him who will shrink from or “descend” from Nineveh, and he will say: Wretched Nineveh, who will lament for her? He is discussing the confused manner of life in this world in which nothing can please anyone permanently, but that which has pleased, displeases, and that which had displeased, again pleases. And so who can be found to be such a consoler? As if to say: Who can find a composer of lyrics and player of the cithara who can tune his dissonant strings into a single harmony and produce musical concord in praise of God? That which we have expounded as who can tune the string, or one tuning the string, and in Greek is ἅρμοσαι χορδήν, is not in the Hebrew, nor have we found it in the other translators, but in place of it there is the beginning of the speech: “Are you better than Ammon, who dwells among the rivers?” And so it seems to me better to join it with what follows.

3:8-12 Are you better than Ammon, who dwells among the rivers? Water is round about her: whose riches are the sea, the waters are her walls. Ethiopia is her strength, and Egypt, and there is no end: Africa and Libya were her

helpers. Yet she is also carried in the removal into captivity: her young children will be crushed at the head of every street, and upon her nobles they will cast lots; and all her great men will be bound in fetters. Therefore you also will be made drunk, and will be despised: and you will seek help from the enemy. All your strong-holds will be like fig trees with their green figs: if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of the eater.

Septuagint: “Tune the string, a portion for Ammon: who dwells among the rivers, water is round about her, whose beginning is the sea, and water is her walls. Ethiopia is her strength, and Egypt; and there is no end of your flight; and the Libyans became her helpers. Yet she will go a prisoner into the removal, and they will dash her infants at the beginning of all her ways: and they will cast lots upon all her noble possessions, and all her great men will be bound in fetters. And you will be made drunk, and will be despised; and you will seek where you can stand firm from your enemies. All your strongholds will be as fig trees that have have green figs: if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of the eater.” In place of what we read in the Septuagint, “Tune the chord, a portion for Ammon,” other interpreters have translated: “Can it be that you are better than Amon?” The Hebrew who instructed me in the Scriptures insisted that it could be read thus: “Are you better than No, Amon?” And he said that in Hebrew No refers to Alexandria, while Amon means multitude or people. And this would be the import of the reading: Are you better than populous Alexandria or of the people that dwells among the rivers with water around her? It was not at that time called Alexandria, since it obviously received the name a long time afterward from Alexander the Great of Macedon, but under its first name, that is, No, it was always a metropolis of Egypt and abounded in peoples. ² ¹ After all, even those who handed down Alexander’s deeds into memory assert that it was the principal city of Egypt. Moreover, the prophet Jeremiah also recognized Amon or No as Alexandria in a vision against Egypt, to which he says: “Egypt, a fair heifer, a goader will come to her from the north.” ² ² He adds to this even more clearly: “The daughter of Egypt is confounded, and she was delivered into the hand of the people of the north, says the Lord of powers the God of Israel. Behold I will visit upon Amon Menno,” that is, upon the people from Alexandria. For Amon means, as we have

said, the peoples, men signifies the preposition “from,” while No means Alexandria. He says: “And I will visit upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her kings, and upon Pharaoh, and upon those who hope in him. And I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants.” ² ³ And so it is said to Nineveh: Are you more populous or more powerful than Alexandria? And the site of Alexandria is described, which is seated upon the Nile and the sea, so that there the waters and the rivers embrace. Water is around her: whose riches are sea, the waters are her walls . For it is encircled on one side by the river Nile, on another by Lake Mareotis, and on another side by the sea. The very site of the provinces and of the city shows that Ethiopia and Egypt and Africa (which is written Phut in Hebrew) and Libya are her guards. And therefore that city which my words describe, says that prophet, will be captured by the Babylonian king, and the very same king will be both your destroyer and the destroyer of that city. Josephus, the writer of the history of the Jews, refers to this in his books. ² ⁴ Her little ones will be dashed at the crossroads; her nobles will be divided by lot of the victors, and those who used to be the most powerful of her princes will be led into captivity in chains. Since, therefore, Alexandria will suffer this, and you also, o Nineveh, will drink from the same cup, and will be made drunk, and becoming stupefied you will be despised, and will come to such great distress that you will seek help from the Babylonians, or from your enemies against the Babylonians. All your foundations, and walls stretching to the heights, and the loftiness of [your] towers, which you now think to be impregnable, and your strong and warlike men, will be compared to unripe figs, which if they are shaken by a light touch will fall into the mouth of the devourer. In contrast, what is read in the Septuagint, “Tune,” or arrange, “the string,” is still being said to Nineveh. And this is the meaning: Under the images of strings, Nineveh, “tune” your disorder and your disarray, which lacks harmony in many ways, because nothing of your beauty and greatness on which you especially pride yourself will be of use to you unless you prepare yourself for singing. For consider carefully the lot of the sons of Ammon and that all the good things they were thought to possess were not able to defend them from having to go into captivity and from their little ones being dashed in the ways. What have the rivers profited her, the rivers close to where the city of Ammon is

situated? What, leaving out the rivers, have such a great multitude of wells and springs beginning from the Dead Sea and encircling her region profited her? What have the Ethiopian guards and Egypt, who used to be her allies, profited her? Therefore, just as the aid of her friends did not help her, so also there will be no end of your flight, o Nineveh, but you will also be devastated. What shall I say about the Ethiopians and about the Egyptians, who were the protectors of the sons of Ammon, since they were her allies along with the Libyans? And so this one will be led into captivity, and her little ones will be killed in the ways and laid low before the eyes of their parents because they are not strong enough to make the journey, and all her riches will be divided by lot among the victors. Neither will any one of the nobles escape, because they will be bound by iron and fetters. And you, therefore, o Nineveh, will be made drunk, and you who had many lovers, formerly rich and beautiful, will be despised by all, and you will seek rest from your pursuing enemies, and you will not find it. All your warlike men and all your auxiliary forces will be spoils for the enemies, and without any effort they will be captured like green figs, which when shaken do not fall on the earth, nor require even a minimal effort from the harvesters, but will fall immediately into the mouth of the devourer. This has been said as a kind of paraphrase ² ⁵ according to the Seventy Translators: for it has been our intention to follow the common version as well, ² lest we seem to provide another occasion for the viper and Sardanapalus to blame [us]. ² ⁷ Another way of interpreting the destruction of Nineveh, which connects it to the sons of Lot who are called Amman, seems unsatisfactory to me. ² ⁸ In the first place, the Scriptures say Ammon and not Amman; further, Ammana , which is now called Philadelphia, ² is not located on rivers, nor are its riches gathered from the sea, since it is inland, nor are the waters its walls , and it does not have as allies Ethiopia, Egypt, Africa and Libya . Thus all things that belong to the imagery, and to power, and to the description of the place and of the region, and to the supporting nations fit Alexandria much more closely. Indeed, the very powerful city Nineveh cannot in any sense be compared to Philadelphia as lesser, as the prophet said: Are you better? Now, when she is asked: Are you better? it is shown that she is lesser than that to which she is compared and that she should not bear resentment if she is captured when that which was greater and stronger and more powerful, not only in the nature of its location but also in it strong men, was overcome by the same foe. Now Nineveh, which we have interpreted to be this world, is commanded to “tune” and arrange “her strings” and prepare herself for a mournful song,

considering the lot of the sons of Ammon, which was much greater than Nineveh and “dwelt among the rivers,” since the punishment of her crimes caught hold of her when she was found to be in error. And so the first interpretation has to be made according to the history of Alexandria, since Ammon should be understood to mean peoples. And this is the sense according to the principles of allegory: Consider the peoples of the church, which dwells upon the streams of the prophets and has the doctors around her, from whose womb rivers flow forth, ²⁷ whose entrance is by the sea. For, from reading the law, which without the wood of Christ ²⁷¹ is bitter like Marah, ²⁷² this mystery of how she has Ethiopia in strength becomes known. For “Ethiopia will stretch forth her hands to God,” ²⁷³ and Egypt, into which the Lord comes on a swift cloud, ²⁷⁴ and the Libyans, who first lived in the parched lands and afterward came as help. Therefore, if this one does not pay attention and guard her heart with all diligence, she will be led captive and will mourn her sons. Her little ones also, who are in the beginnings of the ways, will not come to the middle of the journey but will be crushed in their beginnings, and most fierce enemies will hurry to divide by lot the beautiful things among themselves, and the great men, whom we are able to understand are princes and commanders, they will drag into captivity in chains, shackled with the heavy weight of fetters. And you, therefore, Nineveh, namely the unbelieving men, men inwardly clinging fast to the world, you will experience punishment, and you will be stupefied by my cup, since those too who were mine have drunk and were ruined by their own vices. And you will be despised by me, you will seek an end among the vices and passions that will oppress you, but you will not be able to find a place to stand or an end of evils, but all your desires and charms and the worldly powers and teaching that you seemed to regard as completely certain will be devoured by the eater, about whom Samson speaks a parable: “Out of the eater came forth food and out of the strong came sweetness.” ²⁷⁵ For then those strong things of yours also, and those things that promised sweet fruits to the eyes of the watchers, will fall at the first shaking of the tree into the mouth of the devouring devil, by whom Nineveh was always held and possessed. That which we passed over earlier, And there is no end of your flight, is spoken to Nineveh but is placed among those things which were written to Ammon, and it seems unusually inserted in a disconnected place, as if we are referring to Nineveh by hyperbaton, ²⁷ as if this were the order, And you will be inebriated, and there is no end of your flight, and you will be despised , and the other things

that are said to Nineveh. We will interpret it to mean that there is no end to the flight of Nineveh from God because she always makes progress in fleeing and never desires to stand still, according to that which we said above: “and they fled, and did not stand, and there was not one who looked back.” ²⁷⁷ And we will say that the reason Holy Scripture is woven with these difficulties, and especially the prophets, who are filled with enigmas so that the difficulty of the words enwraps the difficulty of senses, is so that what is holy may not be easily available to dogs, nor pearls to swine, nor the holy of holies to the profane. ²⁷⁸ But if we want to interpret Ammon as the sons of Lot, we could say that Lot had two sons, Moab and Ammon, from his two daughters, of which the name of the older, Moab, is understood to mean from a father, or paternal water, while the name of the younger, Ammon, means either the son of my race, or our people. ²⁷ And I think that, just as he who was born from Judah through sin was addressed as “Seed of Canaan, and not of Judah,” ²⁸ and is said in Ezekiel to sinful Jerusalem, “Your root and your generation is of the land of Canaan, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite,” ²⁸¹ so also, all those who were from the first people, that is, from the Jews, were figuratively named Moabites, and those who were from the younger, that is, from us, ²⁸² Ammonites. And because they turned aside from their father—Lot indeed is interpreted as turn aside—they will be subject to punishment and will suffer all those things that we have expounded. For if the severity of God begins with those who used to be holy, and she who dwelt among the rivers will be purged by the fire of Gehenna, how much more will Nineveh, which did not previously have the law and did not receive the yoke of the commandments of God, fall in the end into the mouth of the devourer on account of her pride.

3:13-17 Behold your people [are] women in the midst of you; the gates of your land will be spread open to your enemies, fire will devour your bars. ²⁸³ Draw water for yourself for the siege, build up your fortifications: go into the clay, and tread, work it and make bricks. There the fire will devour you: you will perish by the sword; it will consume you like the young locust: assemble together like the young locust; multiply like the locusts. You have made your merchandise more than the stars of heaven: the young locust has spread himself and flown away. Your guards are like the locust: and your little ones

like the locusts of locusts which swarm on the hedges in the day of cold: the sun arose, and they flew away, and their place where they were was not known.

Septuagint: “Behold, your people within you are as women: the gates of your land by opening will be opened to your enemies: the fire will consume your bars. Draw water for yourself for a siege, and secure your fortifications: enter into the clay, and tread down the chaff, secure the bricks. There the fire will consume you; the sword will destroy you, it will consume you as the locust, you shall be pressed down as a young locust. Multiply as the young locust, you have multiplied your merchandise as the stars of heaven.” The utterance of the speaker is still composed to Nineveh: Nor is it surprising if your brave men and fighters, under the likeness of green figs, drop down immediately into the mouth of the devourer, since your people are effeminate and unable to resist. Therefore your gates will be open, and the city will lie open to the enemy and fire will devour the very solid bars by which the gates were closed. Draw water, therefore, and take care that drink does not fail at the besieged fortifications; construct bricks, so you can build up the gaps in the walls, for the siege in near. And although you have done all these things, you will still be devoured by the sword just as the land is devoured by the young locust. But when you have multiplied like the young locust, and have been gathered together like the locust, and your riches have been gathered like the stars of heaven like the locusts and young locust, and your little ones like the brood of locusts, which are called the swarming locust and fly away and are not found when it grows warm, so you will be scattered, and will flee. For the nature of these locusts is that, although sluggish in the cold, they fly around in the heat. ²⁸⁴ Further, the swarming locust, which is more meaningfully translated by Aquila as the consumer, is a small locust between the locust and young locust. With small wings it crawls rather than flies and is always jumping. For this reason, wherever it has emerged it consumes everything even to dust, because until its wings grow it is not able to leave. I have explained this clearly according to the Hebrews, treading the path of the Scriptures to help the understanding of the reader.

Now, I will also speak according to the Septuagint and following the tropological ²⁸⁵ sense which was begun earlier, first briefly, that is, in a summary, and afterward treating the details at greater length: Your people, o Nineveh, namely, your worldly men who properly are called the people of the city of Assyria, have been so weakened by passions and made languid by vices that they are compared to the feebleness of women; for they possess nothing strong in their souls, nothing stout and virile. Wherefore the enemies prevailing against them have opened all their senses and have gone in through bodily doors. And the senses of the body are symbolically called the gates of the Ninevite land. Now, from the first creation of God, even those who have surrendered themselves to the vices have opportunities to know God, like stout bars by which they could block and close the gates of the senses. But fire that has been made winged on the burning arrows will set them on fire, for which reason it is said to Nineveh: Draw water for yourself, and sprinkle yourself with the word and with reason, and with the opportunities of understanding God, and of exercising the virtues that have been implanted in you, expend yourself in fighting. But you have ruined whatever strength you had in yourself by weakened hands, that is, by deeds of luxury; therefore convert and repent, and again secure your fortifications. And because the clay has already been entered, and you are confined in your body—which is built from flesh, blood, veins, nerves and bones as if from earth and chaff and water—bear injury and bodily lack, be trampled underfoot by your enemies and endure all things appropriate to penance to subdue the body. For having taken up the clay and chaff, and having been enveloped in the meaningless business ²⁸ of this world, you should be freely trampled underfoot through injury, and yet do not completely lose hope of salvation. Be confident and reduce your body, that is, your brick, to servitude by taking up the word, as though it were water, and subject it to yourself so that you may rule over your brick. Unless you do this, a lively flame will consume you, either in punishment in Gehenna or enkindled by the flaming darts of the enemy, ²⁸⁷ and you will be ravaged not only by fire, but the sword also will devour you, just as locusts devour the green growth of the land. You will suffer this if you are not upon the brick and crushed by your weight, and with every flight frustrated you will be completely dragged down to the earth just as a young locust suddenly falls to the earth, when although it is tired by flight it does not stop trying to fly farther. And so you must have virtues as countless as the young locust so that you may not be dragged down to the earth by your own weight like the young locust. You have

endured all of this because you multiplied your riches and merchandise ²⁸⁸ in different doctrines, thinking them brighter than the stars and more shining than the constellations of heaven. As I have said, we have treated these things briefly to summarize the meaning of the passage. Now let us return to the beginning of the section and explain the individual details as we are able. Who would not call beautiful Nineveh the soul that is lovely by nature but dirtied by the luxury and self-indulgence of this world, which has arrived at womanly delicacy and, with its virility destroyed, has weakened into a woman. For if the soul of the just man reaches the perfect man ²⁸ and preserves the toughness of its condition and clings to God, being made one spirit with him, ² why, on the contrary, should not the soul that loves the world become one with the world and, having been reduced to feminine softness, lose its virile toughness? I think it was for this reason that in Exodus Pharaoh commanded that every male that was born to the Hebrews be thrown into the river and every female be allowed to live. ² ¹ For this Egyptian king, who said in another place: “Mine are the rivers, and I made them,” ² ² was unable to order anything else except this, that whatever of the Hebrews, and of those who pass through this world, is strong and virile should be cast into the waters and carried to the sea by their currents. And on the other hand, what seemed feminine and soft and shapely in this world was allowed to live, to mature and to generate. At the same time, consider how the Egyptian commander was not able to kill the Hebrew men, nor those who had come forth from infancy, but only those who were still of a tender age and whose bodies were soft and just beginning to grow. He knows that it is not possible to foster the females unless the men are killed first. And so he wants to drown in the whirlpool of his river the strong and virile Hebrews, so that only those things that are feminine would increase freely. Now this which follows, The gates of your land by opening will be opened to your enemies, you can understand using the testimony of Jeremiah, in which it is written: “Death came up through your windows.” ² ³ You will grasp that what is represented in Jeremiah by windows is here represented by gates, and you will refer these things to the senses. For the divine word, knowing that senses are twofold, says in Proverbs, in order to make a distinction from the evil senses, “You will find the divine sense.” ² ⁴ Now, do not understand sense here to mean the spirit and the mind, which is called νοὺς ² ⁵ in Greek, but to mean αἰσθήσει , ² and from which the five senses are named, sight, smell, ² ⁷ touch, taste, hearing. And so the gates of the land of Nineveh are understood to be the

corporeal senses, but the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem are every divine sense and that coming from above. ² ⁸ Her people open these gates of Nineveh through seeing and hearing and all the remaining senses, as through a wide and spacious way that leads to death, ² seeking to make room for the bodily pleasures to which men of God close their gates, stopping up their ears, lest they hear the judgment of blood, closing their eyes lest they look on wickedness, ³ stopping up their noses, lest they breathe in choice perfumes to make the soul effeminate by scent, closing the mouth of the appetite and of the greedy belly and withdrawing their hands from the soft touch, lest the belly seething with lust drives the burning soul to a woman’s embraces. Now those who are men of God open their senses, that is, the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, so that the Word of God may enter into them. This is an example of the evil gates: “You who lift me up from the gates of death.” ³ ¹ This an example of the good gates: “That I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion.” ³ ² When you see a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God, who is given over to luxury, immediately say of him: He has opened the gates of his land to his enemies, for they open the gates of the land of Nineveh not to the friends of their soul but to the enemies. But if even those who are considered princes among the people do the same, you will not fear to say this about them too: The leaders of my people have been cast out from the house of their delights. ³ ³ If, however, you see them fettered by pleasures and by encircling luxury, so that they have no mercy on the poor and are not solicitous for the people of God, you will apply to them that which follows: “Those who sleep upon beds of ivory, and flow with luxury on their couches: who eat the lambs out of the flocks, and the unweaned calves from the herds; who drink pure wine, and are anointed with the finest ointment; and they were not concerned for the affliction of Joseph.” ³ ⁴ That which is said afterward—the fire eats up your bars—can be understood in this way: if the natural good in your soul seemed to be that which, under the image of bars, was able to stop and repel the enemies who were trying to burst in through the gates of your senses, this has been kindled by the Babylonian fire. And indeed draw for yourself water for the fortification, is said about the Word of God, meaning that he should surround himself as with the strongest wall made of the teaching of the Scriptures and reason so that the enemy will not be able to burst into his interior. Secure, he says, your fortifications. Hold fast for your defense, o unhappy soul Nineveh, whatever good you have in yourself through nature and whatever the beginning work of the best builder preserves in you, and

do not allow it to vanish from the realm of your heart. Now, someone might think that which he adds after that—enter into the clay, and tread down the chaff—is spoken about the soul, which, fastened in the clay of the body and in the chaff of this world, namely, among empty and perishing things, living complete in itself of this world, is trodden down by the demons. Yet to me it seems that this is what is said to her: Bear up under the trials and injuries to which you have been handed over. You are suffering the punishments that you deserve. Know that you endure for your healing when you tread upon the emptiness of this world and its passing merchandise, but only if you prevail over the brick and subjugate your flesh to the authority of the soul. Finally it follows: There the fire will consume you. If you have not been over the brick and have not had dominion over the flesh but have remained in the brick and loved the chaff and lived in the flesh according to the flesh, ³ ⁵ not only will the flaming darts of the enemy devour you ³ but his sword will kill you. And in the likeness of locusts they will consume with their sharp teeth whatever in you seemed to be growing green and was germinating spontaneously from the good of nature, and you will be dragged down to earth by the heavy burden of sins like a young locust fallen from flight and grounded by its own weight. Therefore, so you may not suffer such awful things, multiply as the young locust, and have as many virtues as the young locust have in their numbers. For you have multiplied your merchandise by every method as if you desired to possess the heavenly bodies. You have gathered to yourself perishing riches through good and evil means. Now you ought to equal the multitude of your sins with a multitude of virtues. The above explication, which includes the place where it says, The sun arose, and they flew away, and their place where they were was not known, and everything connected to these words has been explained according to the Hebrews. Now, because the unique meaning of the Septuagint seems to begin with the testimony recorded here, I will continue the progression of the explanation I have begun. Septuagint: 3:16b-17. “The young locust has attacked it, and flown away. Your mixed multitude has suddenly departed as the swarming locust, as the locust that climbs up onto a hedge on a cold day; the sun arose, and it flew away, and it knows not its place.” Here it seems to me that the multitude of Nineveh, which lacks a ruler and is confused without order, rushing about wherever it has an urge to go, is compared to the young locust, to one small among the living creatures and innumerable, and which can be observed only to lift itself from the

earth a little. But we can understand the swarming locust, which is called σύμμικτός in Greek and which has been translated into Latin as mixed multitude, to be a vulgar crowd, and the people gathered from diverse nations, that is, who are not citizens but foreigners. This is why the people of Israel who came forth from Egypt are described as having with them a πολὺν σύμμικτον, ³ ⁷ which was made up of the Egyptians and of the Ethiopians and of those from various nations. And therefore this mixed multitude of Nineveh, so to speak, is compared to the swarming locust and the flying locust, which, not able to fly on a day cold to them, sit on a hedge, and afterward, when the sun has risen and they are warmed by its heat, they leap up and fly to other regions and in no way remember the hedge on which they rested in the time of cold. I have said this periphrastically ³ ⁸ so that the word of the prophet can be more easily understood. However that may be, you cannot hesitate to call the multitude of men living in the world who walk in the wide way ³ “young locusts” when you see them wholly given over to the earth, running about here and there with fickle judgment and not able to fly up to the higher things. Consider Rome, and Constantinople exchanging its former poverty with its former name. ³¹ See Alexandria, the head of Egypt, when riots occur, either because of a shortage of grain or (this should cause shame and blushing) because of the charioteers and mimes and actors, the people rush about in the likeness of young locusts and they all cling together in their vices and fly here and there in their lightness, changing their purpose from moment to moment, and then you will be able to say truly: the young locust left the attack and flew away. Further, “the swarming locust departed, and your mixed multitude as the locust.” I think that the mixed multitude differs from the young locust in that the young locust is compared to an ignorant and innumerable mob, while the mixed multitude has been gathered here and there from all nations. And in the way that in cities some are citizens and others are foreigners whom it pleases to live in a city not their own, so I think the mixed multitude that lives in Nineveh are those who seem to follow certain doctrines of truth according to their own opinion and in this way are better than the young locust, since the young locust does nothing else except continually sit on the earth. And, lacking wings, it is a slave to food and to the stomach. Now, the swarming locust at least has small wings, and although it cannot fly on high, nevertheless it struggles to leap up from the earth. Finally, the locust indeed flies but is not perpetually in flight, for it settles down with faltering wings restricted by the cold, and settles down not on a fruit-

bearing tree and on green foliage but on a hedge, woven with thorny branches, or on a wall erected by chance from stones from here and there. Let us consider the wise men of Greece and of the Egyptians and of the Persians, and the Gymnosophists of India, and the Samaritans, and the various opinions among them, and the Jews and their Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the many heresies of the church, and we will see the swarming locust lifting himself a little from the earth, and the locust certainly flying but not in a full course. And since it does not have the heat of the sun of justice, ³¹¹ it settles down on the thorny hedges, cold in the love of God. For all their teachings find a seat for themselves and a resting place among the spines of Aristotle ³¹² and Chrysippus. ³¹³ From there Eunomius ³¹⁴ states that “That which has been begotten did not exist before it was begotten.” From there Mani ³¹⁵ introduces another creator of evil so that he could acquit God of creating evils. From there, Novatian ³¹ removes pardon and so destroys repentance. And so that I may conclude all this with a brief word, from these springs all teachings draw the brooks of their arguments, so that the very places from which these arguments are taken up have been written above as τοπικά . ³¹⁷ Therefore, this locust that now sits on the hedges will leave its seat and the places to which it clung in the time of cold when the time of judgment has come and the world will have grown hot at the rising of the sun. And, turned to better things, it will remember nothing of the former seat. Now that which we have said generally about the time of judgment can also now be understood in part, ³¹⁸ that the light of the sun of justice ³¹ can rise upon locusts of this sort through educated and learned men and, leaving their thorns, they can go forth in free and pure flight.

3:18-19 Your shepherds have slumbered, O king of Assyria; your princes will be buried: your people have been scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them together. Your bruise [contritio] is not hidden, your wound is grievous: all that have heard tell of you, have clapped their hands over you: for over whom has your wickedness not passed continually?

Septuagint: “Woe to them! Your shepherds have slumbered, the Assyrian king

has put to sleep your mighty men: your people have departed to the mountains, and there was none to receive them. There is no healing for your bruise [contritioni]; your wound swells: all who have heard the report of you will clap their hands over you; for over whom has not your wickedness run continually?” It is not surprising, if your shepherds have slumbered, o king of Assyria, who ruled in Nineveh, and the princes, namely, the lords, and the leaders of all the nations who previously served you are buried, or else wander, since your people have become women in the midst of your city and its gates have been opened to your enemies; and the whole multitude sitting upon the wall has been compared to the locust, which fled from the ramparts at the coming of Nebuchadnezzar as at the breaking of dawn and turned their backs to their enemies, and its place was not found. And so, since God was angered because you have laid waste his people, o Assyria, and you have raised up your dwelling even to heaven, for which reason you are called great mind, ³² your city is destroyed. And since all the princes who were able to resist the adversaries have been killed, your remaining people, unwarlike and ignoble, have been scattered in the mountains, and there is no one from the leaders who can be found who gathers them together and afterward puts together an army from those collected. Your wound is not hidden, nor is it the sort of blow which can be cured by the hand of a doctor. All who will hear that Nineveh has been overcome, and the king of Assyria overcome, and that the most powerful city and formerly the king of the rulers has been wounded and lies thrown down half-dead and rolling in his own blood, will either be amazed on account of the greatness of the event and the unhoped-for tidings and will clap their hands, or else they will applaud you with their hands, dancing with great joy, and will make a great noise of joy. For there is no one who can lament over you and shed tears over your overturning and wound, because there is no one over whom your wickedness had not passed continually. And it has passed away beautifully, for the wickedness of the king of Assyria cannot remain continually against his enemies. And thus far the progression of the history has been woven together. Now, explaining the Hebrew before the Septuagint version—for these are far different and have diverse meanings—we ought to ascend a little from history into the heights and show that an apostrophe ³²¹ is made the devil in the final prophecy of Nahum. He is the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, who formerly gloried, saying: “I will do it by strength, and by the wisdom of the intellect I will remove the bounds of the nations, and will take their spoils, and I

will disturb the cities which are inhabited,” ³²² and it is said to him: “O Lucifer, who did rise in the morning, you who sent your flames to all the nations, how have you fallen to the earth, and are crushed?” ³²³ Nineveh is destroyed, your beautiful and powerful city, in which you assumed such great authority, that you even dared to say to the Son of God: All these things have been handed over to me; if you fall down and adore me, I will give them to you. ³²⁴ Your shepherds have slumbered, and also your rulers, who did not pasture the men in safety but nourished them for your slaughter so that you devoured fatter sacrifices. All your people and the crowd of the peoples that previously worshiped you have deserted you and your city, and they fled to the mountains, and they have gathered themselves under the refuge of the apostles and doctors of Christ, and meanwhile there are none of your leaders who call back your former crowd to themselves. Your wound and your blow resound through the whole world. All who were previously misled by your deceit have jeered at you. For either there is no one, or he is rare, whom you have not deceived at some time and over whom your wickedness had not passed. It should be noticed that wherever the wickedness of the devil has stood, he was not able to jeer at its ruin and its wound, since it is from the shepherds and the people of the king of Assyria; but in whomsoever, wherever it has passed through, he jeers at him and at his good and straight works as though a hand claps over him. And up until this point we have spoken suitably according to the Hebrews’ text about the ruin of the world; ultimately by blow and wound a declaration is being made about the ruin of the devil himself too, who was the prince of this world: since “the whole world has been placed under the wicked one.” ³²⁵ Now, according to the Septuagint this is still being addressed to the σύμμικτον, that is, to the mixed multitude of the world. They are told that their shepherds have slumbered, and they were put to sleep by the Assyrian king so that they would slumber. And so it is that what the Assyrian king did among others is described in their presence, and not what he himself suffers, and it is silent about the injury and wound and slaughter of the devil. Woe, therefore, to those who are teachers of perverse teachings in Nineveh. And it is fittingly said to them: Your shepherds have slumbered. For they gave sleep to their eyes and slumber to their eyelids. And therefore they have not found room for the Lord, nor a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Nor will they hear about Ephrathah, that is, the fruitful church, nor will they find it in the fields of the woods. ³²

Now, not only have the pastors of this mixed multitude and the locusts that sat on the hedges at the time of frost slumbered, but they have also been put to sleep by the king of the Assyrians. For the Assyrian king knows he is not able to deceive the sheep unless the pastors have been lulled to sleep. The aim of the devil is always to put watchful souls to sleep. After all, even in the passion of the Lord he weighed down the eyes of the apostles with heavy sleep, whom the Savior aroused, saying: “Watch and pray, that you be not led into temptation.” ³²⁷ And again: “What I say to you, I say to all: watch.” ³²⁸ And because he never ceases to lull the watchful to sleep, so that he might deceive them all as the sweet and dangerous song of the sirens allured into sleep, the divine word arouses and says: “Awake you who sleep, and arise and Christ will enlighten you.” ³² Therefore, at the coming of Christ, and of the Word of God, and of the teaching of the church and of the consummation of Nineveh, formerly the most beautiful prostitute, the people who had been put to sleep under its former teachers will be roused and will hurry and go to the mountains of the Scriptures, and there they will find the mountains, Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, the mountains of the prophets, the mountains of the New Testament, the apostles and Evangelists. And when a person will have fled to such mountains and will have lived by reading mountains of this sort if he does not find anyone who can teach him, “For the harvest is great, but the laborers are few,” ³³ then both his zeal will be proven, because he fled to the mountains, and the negligence of the teachers will be exposed. For he adds: and there was none to receive them. It follows: There is no healing for your bruise; your wound swells. Therefore the mixed multitude of Nineveh cannot be healed because it does not lay aside pride, and its wound is always fresh and is hit daily by the striking devil. And after all these things, there is no healing for his bruise; ³³¹ for, although it seems to him to be healed, nevertheless his soul is broken and bruised, since the hammer of the entire world strikes it from above, and it is not healed because it always stands erect. If, however, it will be humbled, and subjected itself to Christ: “A contrite ³³² and humble heart God does not despise,” ³³³ and: “A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit.” ³³⁴ At the end it is recorded: all who have heard the report of you will clap their hands over you; for upon whom has not your wickedness run continually? When you begin, ὦ σύμμικτε, ³³⁵ to suffer punishment, all who hear the report , with unanimous voice and clapping, and so to speak, will jeer at you with sound and

song of [these] deeds and will rejoice. For there is no one, or certainly he is rare, upon whom your wickedness has not run, or reached, continually. For if the city of Nineveh has a σύμμικτους of shepherds and of mighty men, and every false doctrine and lying opinion of knowledge comes to them from the mixed multitude, it must be feared that there will perhaps be no one upon whom the wickedness of the σύμμικτου has not come. And observe carefully that he did not say: On whom your wickedness did not enter, σύμμικτε : but whom your wickedness has not reached. ³³ For often the darts of false doctrine reach us, as though they desire to enter the secret place of the soul, but when we close our gates, the σύμμικτος indeed reaches [us], and whatever is in it attacks [us] and always does this, but, with Christ the Lord helping [us], and in guarding [us] with all watchfulness, it indeed reaches our heart, but it cannot enter in.

COMMENTARY ON MICAH

Translated and annotated by Anthony Cazares and Thomas P. Scheck

Preface to the Commentary on the Prophet Micah

In the sequence of the Twelve Prophets, Micah, on whom I now desire to dictate a commentary, is the third according to the Septuagint translators, the sixth according to the Hebrew truth. He follows the prophet Jonah, who comes after Obadiah, and thus it happens that Amos is the third and Joel is the second after Hosea, who is the first among them all. Therefore, placed as it were in the heart of the volume, he ought to contain profound mysteries, and the word of God, which always comes down to prophets, has descended to Micah also, which means “humility.” The word came to Micah of Moresheth, which up till today is scarcely a large village of Palestine near Eleutheropolis. Now, Moresheth in our language means heir. Beautifully, therefore, “humility,” which is chief among virtues, is born from the hope of the Lord’s inheritance. Humility is not, however, that which comes from the awareness of sins, but which is placed among the virtues, according to what is said: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in the time of his visitation.” ¹ And: “He who humbles himself will be exalted.” ² And: “Before contrition, the heart of man is lifted and before vainglory it is humiliated.” ³ Wherefore, even the Lord says: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” ⁴ Therefore just as there are vows and, as it were, designations are given on account of the prospect of virtue, for example, victor, chaste, pious and good, and among the Greeks one is called σώφρων and εὐσεβής , and names of address are turned into proper ones, ⁵ so among the Hebrews the names of Micah, Obadiah, Zechariah and others similar to these are imposed on children by their parents as a designation of their virtues.

Book One

1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw over Samaria and Jerusalem.

Or according to the Septuagint: “Concerning what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem.” The word of the Lord therefore was given to Micah after Hosea, Amos ⁷ and Isaiah, ⁸ who prophesied under Uzziah. From this we understand that Micah did not prophesy during the time of Uzziah but under his son Jotham, after whom Ahaz reigned, with Hezekiah succeeding in his father’s command, under whom the ten tribes were led into captivity by the Assyrians. As far as pertains to history, therefore, this accords with the sequence of captivities—for Samaria was the first Israelite metropolis that was captured, afterward Jerusalem, a city of Judah. The title of the prophecy is recorded first concerning Samaria, second concerning Jerusalem. But as far as pertains to the spiritual understanding, since Samaria is always understood for the heresies, Jerusalem for the church, we say that the word of God comes to Jerusalem and to the coheir of Christ, concerning perverse doctrines and concerning the church, if perchance it has committed any sins, and the Lord’s word is composing the sequence of the entire book. But because Samaria and the ten tribes that were cut off from the lineage of David ¹ during the time of King Jeroboam, let them be understood as representing the heretics, and indeed all the Scriptures testify to this, but especially the prophet Hosea. And this very book calls impious heretics and churchmen sinners. For it immediately follows: “What is the impiety of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?” ¹¹ This is, at any rate, how it reads according to the Septuagint translators. On the other hand, we will explain later how it reads in the Hebrew. Moreover, that which the heretics always trust in their teachings, in their socalled sublimity, and the way they look down on the simplicity of the church, is expressed in another passage: “Woe to those who despise Zion, ¹² and trust in the Mountain of Samaria; ¹³ for from Zion the law will come forth and the word of

the Lord from Jerusalem.” ¹⁴ What is more, Samaria fashioned for herself by her own devices golden calves, having indeed beauty on the surface, but having no life-giving power, and she built them in the house of God, which is what Bethel means. For the Israelite people could not receive gods, except those that are built from the Scriptures and in the house of God. Now, although they call their own districts Bethel, nevertheless, after the fashioning of idols, Bethel ceased to exist, and it is called Bethaven, which means house of the idols, which according to the Septuagint is translated as house Ὦν . From this heading, let us now come to the beginning of the prophecy, and while the Lernean beast ¹⁵ rages, let us call upon the advent of the Holy Spirit. You, o Paula ¹ and Eustochium, ¹⁷ pour forth your prayers to our Lord and Savior, so that ill will may not harm me, but that my free mind may ponder only what it endeavors to explain, nor may it feel the slaps of the jeers, which the Lord scorned in his passion. ¹⁸

1:2 Hear, all people, and let the earth in its fullness attend, and let the Lord God be a witness among you, the Lord out of his holy temple.

Septuagint: “Hear, all people; and let the earth give heed, and all who are in it and let the Lord God be among you for a testimony, the Lord out of his holy house.” Since the historical meaning is clear, I leave the understanding of it to the prudent reader. Now, according to tropology, he is summoning the people to listen, that is, the churches of the whole world, and the earth to “give heed,” because the earthly doctrines of the heretics are constructed on it. But that the heresies number among the works of the flesh, which are always related to the earth, both the apostle is not silent about when he writes to the Galatians, ¹ and the Lord in the Gospel indicates to the prudent listener: “He who is from earth speaks from the earth.” ² And again, to distinguish them from churchmen he says: “But, he who comes from heaven is above all.” ²¹ And: “He bears witness to what he has seen and heard.” ²² But if what he says, “Listen, people,” expresses something more according to the Lord’s statement, “He who has ears to hear, hear,” ²³ than what is added later, “Attend! Earth,” we will apply it to the church: “All people, listen.” But “Let the earth attend and all who are in it” applies to the heretics, who have received earthly teaching so that the former hear, and if the latter attend they would not experience what the word of the Lord later threatens. And let the Lord be “a testimony,” or as it reads in the Hebrew, a

witness , or as Symmachus translated more clearly, “testifying,” and testifying not from just anywhere but out of his house, which is the church, or certainly in the Son, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, who truly is the temple of God the Father, ²⁴ and from whose mouth the Father speaks, penetrating the entrails and the marrow ²⁵ of those who want to attend and listen.

1:3-5 For behold the Lord will come forth out of his place, and he will come down, and will tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be consumed under him, and the valleys will be split, as wax before the fire, as waters that run down a steep place; for the wickedness of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?

Septuagint: “For, behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place, and will come down, and will go up upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will be shaken under him, and the valleys will melt like wax before the fire, and as water rushing down a slope. All these things are on account of the impiety of Jacob, and for the sin of the house of Israel. What is the impiety of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?” O Samaria and Jerusalem, hear and diligently attend to your Lord, who testifies to you from his own temple and proclaims what is about to be done. Behold, the Lord will come forth out of his place. Indeed, he who is meek and gentle, ² and whose nature is merciful, on account of you is compelled to assume a persona of fierceness. And he will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth . It is the descent of God and the downward movement of his majesty to the lower places, to tread upon the earth , and to fill with terror those who are powerful. The mountains shall be consumed , he says, or “be melted,” and the valleys under him, which we understand as the princes and the people. And just as wax does not endure the near presence of fire, and waters are carried headlong down a steep place in a straight course, so all the pride of the impious will be dissolved and flushed away by the coming Lord. Now, this all will happen on account of the wicked deeds of the ten tribes, which he calls Jacob and Israel, and on account of the transgressions of Judah, because among the ten tribes Samaria

was the metropolis, and in the kingdom of Judah, in the high places of Jerusalem, idols were fashioned. This is according to the letter. Now with regard to tropology, the Lord will come forth out of his place, which we can understand as either the Son or all the holy ones. For the Son himself says, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me,” ²⁷ and with respect to the saints, “I shall inhabit and walk among them, and I shall be their God and they will be my people.” ²⁸ From these, therefore, he will go out, not that he abandons them; for the Word of the Lord went out to the ones hearing even from the apostles, and yet it did not abandon them; and in these very places, that is, in those who merit to have God as guest, as it were, rising with Christ and sitting with him in the heavens, they are placed above. ² Whence this is said also to those who are not able to hear his doctrine on the mountain. ³ And when he descends he will not ascend to the lowly and to those who are placed below, but to those who are called the high places of the earth and those who will be “shaken” by understanding the majesty of the Lord’s coming. And although they are a mountain, they will be terrified by the presence of such a charioteer and ascender. Now, the valleys, that is, the souls, inserted in the χοικοῖς (earthly) bodies, ³¹ not rising with the heavenly man, will not be able to endure his presence, but everything in them that is hard will be dissolved, and thus they will flow, like water on unlevel ground; and they are carried headlong into the depths. The awe-inspiring Lord will come, therefore, to teach, that is, to “shake mountains,” and to dissolve the low places of the valleys, because Jacob committed “impiety,” and because of the “sin of Israel.” But the impiety of Jacob is the assemblies of heretics, which are called Samaria. And the sin of Judah, that is, of him who confesses the Lord, is nothing but Jerusalem, in which many crimes are found. But to show that the house of Judah may be applied to Christ, whose church it is, as we have often said, let us record for the present: “Judah, your fathers will praise you; your hands will be on the back of your enemies.” ³² This can also be understood in this way, that on account of the impieties of Samaria and the crimes of the Jews, the Lord has come out of his own place, as it were, and will say to the Jews: “Behold, your house will be forsaken and deserted.” ³³ And he descended from heaven and ascended upon the heights of the earth, that is, upon those who by becoming believers out of the lowliness of the Gentiles deserved to be exalted. And the mountains were shaken, the teachings of the philosophers, the eminent kingdoms, and those who have remained in lowliness have been consumed and crushed by the coming of the Savior. And with the church’s increase, and with the rising of mountains on high, the idols have fallen into the depths. The Lord, therefore, has come out from his

own place, and the church has been constructed out of the Gentiles, so that the mountains were shaken under his feet and the depths of the valleys dissolved, because Jacob acted impiously and Israel sinned and all tribes have denied the Lord.

1:6-9 And I shall make Samaria as a heap of stones in the field when a vineyard is planted and I shall bring down the stones thereof into the valley, and shall lay her foundations bare. And all her graven things will be cut in pieces, and all her wages will be burned with fire, and I shall bring to perdition all her idols for they were gathered together of the hire of a harlot, and unto the hire of a harlot they will be returned. Therefore, I shall lament, and howl. I shall go stripped and naked; I shall make a wailing like the dragons, and a mourning like the ostriches. Because her wound is desperate, because it has come even to Judah, it has touched the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

Septuagint: “And, I shall make Samaria into a post of the fruits of the field, and into a planting of a vineyard, and I shall drag down the stones thereof into a gorge, and I shall lay bare her foundations. And they will cut to pieces all her graven things and burn with fire all her wages, and I shall put all her idols to perdition; for she has gathered out of the wages of fornication, and out of the wages of fornication she has destroyed. Because of this, she will lament and mourn, she will go barefooted and naked. She will make a lamentation as that of dragons, and a mourning as that of the daughters of sirens. Because her plague has become desperate, because it has come even to Judah, it has touched the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.” As the order of sins goes, so goes the order of penalties. Samaria sinned first, and idols were made, and she worshiped the calves instead of the Lord; therefore she was the first to perish. When the Assyrians come I shall destroy her and I shall make her as a heap of stones when a vineyard is planted that it be reduced into mounds. And I shall bring down the stones thereof into the valley. Indeed, she was situated on the mountains, where now Sebaste is located, ³⁴ in which even the bones of John the Baptist are buried. And I shall lay her foundations bare . Indeed, there will be so much destruction and so much subversion of the

city that not only walls and buildings will fall down but the foundations also will be laid bare down to the very last stone. And all her graven things and all her divinities, which in her had behaved as diverse kings, will be cut into pieces and burn with fire and will be reduced to nothing. Indeed, the resources and her multiple furniture, which out of fornication, as was thought, had been the gathered things of idols, will be led to another harlot, that is, to Nineveh, so that just as they have fornicated their land with the idols they had made, so too they would walk to another land of idols and fornication, that is, to the land of the Assyrians. Thus far it concerns Samaria. And because the same plague will come to Jerusalem—for she sinned with a similar vacillation, namely, abandoning her God and fashioning idols—for this reason the prophet makes προσωποποιίαν ³⁵ of God and in his own name introduces the emotion of one lamenting, and he says: Therefore, I shall lament, and howl; I shall go stripped and naked ; namely, for I have destroyed the ten tribes and I shall make a wailing like the dragons and a mourning like that of ostriches. For just as dragons cry out with a terrible hiss at that time when they are conquered by elephants, according to the descriptions of those who have written things pertaining to the physical world; and just as ostriches forget their own eggs, and just as if they did not give birth to them they abandon their offspring on the sand, where they are trampled by the feet of wild animals; of which, it is written in more detail in Job, ³ so too shall I go forth stripped and naked without children. And I shall do this because her country has lost hope, that is, Samaria. And the same sin, or more precisely, the same penalty of sin that had overthrown Samaria, will come upon Judah and upon the gate of my Jerusalem. For as Samaria has been overthrown by the Assyrians, likewise, Judah and Jerusalem will be overthrown by the Chaldeans. But because, on one occasion, we understood Samaria as the church of the heretics, which was separated from God and became an assembly of people, the Lord threatens that he will place her in a post of apples, in a field and among a planting of a vineyard. For it is much better to overthrow a useless city, and to drag down her stones with which she had been built and that she be prepared as a planting of apples and vines, than for it to remain as an evil structure. For when they are destroyed and her foundation is laid bare, by which she seemed to be concealing her own mysteries and to be holding solid doctrines in which she stood, and all the idols that seemed to possess beauty and the beauty of affected speech are cut down by the ministers of God, that is, by men of the church, then in place of the evil edifice different apples of the church will be produced, and not only will they be produced but also they will be guarded, and Sorec ³⁷ will be planted as a

vineyard ³⁸ from which wine is made, which the Lord has promised to drink in the kingdom of his Father. ³ Now, not only her foundations, which before were being pressed by the ground, will be revealed and exposed to view, and the idols, which she had fabricated for herself, will be chopped down, but her glory and the wealth also, which she seemed to have from her fornication and error, will be consumed by my fire. The Gospel speaks of this: “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it were burning,” ⁴ and they will be burned and reduced to nothing, because they are not made from the truth of doctrines but from the fornication of the soul, and from that source they are congregated in error. Of course, the heretics do not have riches coming from a paternal inheritance, but day by day they till what they find and fabricate idols with their own skilled hand and with their imaginative mind. On account of this, when a field is converted into a post of apples and prepared for vineyards, ⁴¹ and the stones, with which a city was built, are dragged down into the depths, and their foundations are revealed, and all the engraved things are cut and burned, and the wages that were promised to her in empty hope, and whatever else they seemed to worship as God is reduced to nothing because on account of the fornication of the soul, they compare the whole price to itself, then those who have returned to themselves will understand and lament their earlier error, on account of which they laughed before, and they will mourn over those things in which formerly they rejoiced while fornicating. And they will put aside from their feet whatever they had had that was liable to cause death, and they will go shoeless, because the ground in which they will stand is a holy place, ⁴² and they will cast away all the clothing of their fornication; and they will be naked, so that they can put on the garment of Christ, ⁴³ and they will make a lament as that of serpents. For even the serpents will wail at that time when they see the very great serpent captured and hanging from a hook, and the sea deserted. ⁴⁴ And they will mourn as the daughters of sirens, for the songs of the heretics are sweet and deceive the people with a soft voice. Neither can she pass by their songs unless she stops up her ears and evades them like a deaf man. ⁴⁵ Now on account of these very things Samaria will wail and mourn because she has been wounded by the arrow of the Lord, and receiving the blow of the word she will recognize her error. But not only she herself has sinned, but she wanted to introduce her iniquity and error into the gates of Judah as well. Whence it is said about her: It has come even to Judah, and it has touched the gates of my people, even to Jerusalem. It has touched the gates, he says, which we understand as the ears. Moreover, she was not able to enter into the midst of the city; but if it were to enter, it would have made a Samaria of Jerusalem.

Whenever we see some men of the church scandalized at the words of heretics and searching for how they may respond to their questioning, not yet withdrawing from the church, let us say, Samaria, or the blow of Samaria, has come to the confessing people, to the ears of the people of God and to the ears of Jerusalem. For that which is said “has touched the gates of my people,” ἁπό κοινοῦ ⁴ must be understood so that it should be supplied in thought; it has likewise touched the gates of Jerusalem. Up to this point, he is speaking against Samaria and against Jerusalem; let us consider the rest as well, which follows.

1:10-15 Declare it not in Gath (Geth), weep not with tears; in the house of Dust sprinkle yourselves with dust. And pass away, O you that dwell in the habitation of Sapphir (Saphir), covered with shame: she went not forth she who dwells in Zaanan (Sennan). Bethezel (Asel)’s house will receive mourning from you, which stood by herself. For she has become weak unto good that dwells in Maroth; for evil has come down from the Lord into the gate of Jerusalem. A tumult of chariots has astonished the inhabitants of Lachish (Lachis). It is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion (Sion) for in you were found the crimes of Israel. Therefore she will send messengers to the inheritance of Gath (Geth): the houses of lying for the deceiving of the kings of Israel. Yet I shall bring an heir to you that dwell in Moreshah (Maresa): even to Adullam (Odollam) shall the glory of Israel come.

Septuagint: “You who are in Gath (Geth), exalt not yourselves, and you who are in Bethleaphrah (Bachim), do not rebuild out of the house of derision; sprinkle earth into your desire, which you inhabit well among her cities. The inhabitant of Zaanan (Sennaarn) has not come forth. Mourn for the house next to her; she will receive from you the stroke of grief. Who has captured in good for her who dwells in sorrows? For calamities have come down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem, a sound of chariots and horsemen, the inhabitants of Lachish (Lachis); she is the leader of sin to the daughter of Zion (Sion). Because in you were found the transgressions of Israel. Therefore, he will send emissaries all the way to the inheritance of Gath (Geth); there were vain houses for no purpose for the kings of Israel; until I shall bring the heirs to you, you who inhabit Lachish, the inheritance will go all the way to Adullam (Odollam).”

The Hebrew differs greatly from the [Septuagint] translation, and both my translation and theirs are entangled in such great difficulties that if we have ever needed the Spirit of God—but we always need him to come to us in the exposition of the Holy Scriptures—now especially we should desire his presence. May he open up for us what He has spoken in the Prophets so that it can be understood by us also, which he himself deigns to promise somewhere else: “Open your mouth and I shall fill it.” ⁴⁷ As the history of kingdoms testifies, Gath is one of the five cities of Palestine, near the border of Judea, and near those going to Gaza and from Eleutheropolis. It is still a town, indeed a very great one, from which Goliath the Gittite came, whom David killed in battle. ⁴⁸ Since the prophet, or rather, the Lord through the prophet had said, “I shall lament, and howl. I shall go stripped and naked; I shall make a wailing like the serpents, and a mourning like the ostriches because she has lost hope and the blow of Samaria is incurable and has come even to Judah, and has touched the gate of my people, Jerusalem”; ⁴ therefore, with the voice of one still crying I command: Declare it not in Gath , lest our enemies hear and be glad: weep not with tears , that is, do not even let sorrow burst out into sobbing; disguise your tears, lest the enemies be gladdened; may your mouths have no tears, though your breast may have grief, do not let it out, but in the house of dust, sprinkle yourselves with the falling ashes of destructions. Pass away, o you that dwell in the habitation of Sapphir , for Syrus means “beautiful” in Hebrew speech. For Samaria is now being shown as the most beautiful place in Judea, and situated in a place that is most fertile. Therefore it is said to her: O you who inhabit the most fruitful region, since you are covered in shame , thus go over, thus lead out to the captivity, that before the greatest of evils, not even a nearby Philistine will hear your voice. On the other hand, what follows: She went not forth she who dwells in Zaanan, which means “exit,” or as Symmachus translates: “the abundant habitation did not go out,” is said about the same Samaria that is on the very threshold of the Assyrian captivity, and as soon as it has been roused from its own borders it enters a hostile land. For “the abundant habitation” must be understood according to what we have already said above, a beautiful habitation. Therefore, it did not go out, she who was living at the exit or in the abundance by her own will, but she was led by force to the Assyrians. Whence, the nearby house hidden away, which is interpreted Bethezel, namely, the kingdom of Judah, from you she will take up lamentation, which now for the time being, while Samaria was captured, stood and had God as defender. But she took up the wailing, and having been stricken with terror, she is weakened for her own good, she who

dwells in Maroth, that is, in bitterness; or as Symmachus renders it, “a habitation provoking bitterness,” that is, ἡ κατοικία ἡ παραπικραίνουσα, which in Hebrew is expressed as yoshebet marot. This is on account of the captivity of the neighboring tribes. For evil came down from the Lord into the gate of Jerusalem; that refers to the Assyrians, obviously. When Samaria was devastated, he came likewise to Jerusalem, at the time when Rabshakeh was sent with his insults. The fourth book of Kings and Isaiah have written plenty about this. ⁵ When it is said that the Assyrian king will send to Jerusalem from Lachish, and afterward Lachish was captured, he went across to besiege Lobnam. He will come therefore, o Lachish, city given over to idols, and to you the “chariots and horsemen” of the Assyrians, because even in you were found “the transgressions of Israel,” and you were the beginning of idolatry in Judah; for through you, as it were through a gate, the impiety of the ten tribes migrated to Jerusalem. But not only upon Lachish will the commotion come and the chariots but also upon Gath, the metropolis of Palestine, of which we had said above: Declare not in Gath: For the Assyrian will send his brigands, whom he calls “emissaries,” and he will possess the house of idolatry and the city of fraud that was a stumbling block to Israel. But as for what follows: Yet I shall bring an heir to you that dwell in Moreshah, he has beautifully hinted at the name, for, indeed, Moreshah means inheritance. He has spoken of the coming of enemies to her as heirs, and Moreshah, that is, the inheritance, will come up to Adullam a city of Judah. Adullam is glorious among the cities of Israel. Finally, Symmachus translated thus: Ἔτι κληρονόμον ἄξω καὶ σοι κατοικία Μαρέσα ἕωσ Ὀδολλάμ ἥξει τῆσ δόξησ Ισραηλ, that is: Yet I shall bring an heir also to your habitation of Moreshah: even to Adullam will Israel’s glory come; that is to say, you who are glorious among the cities of Israel. And where there is talk of glory, this should be the genitive case and singular number, “of this glory,” and not nominative plural, “these glories.” Or at least, let us understand it thus. The captivity of Israel that comes in Lachish and Gath and Moreshah will also come to Adullam. And Israel of glory must be read in a rather subdued manner, as κατά ἀντιφρασιν, ⁵¹ the sense of which is ignominy or devastation. On the other hand, what we translated above as city, the inheritance of the prophet of Moresheth, the reader should know what we set down on the same brief line: Therefore she will send messengers to the inheritance of Gath . In Hebrew, instead of inheritance of Gath, Moresheth-Gath is recorded. Up to this point we have discussed according to the Hebrew as we were able,

and as it seemed to us, at least as we have heard from the Hebrews. We have directed our little ship, as it were, between rocks and very sharp boulders. Whether it has entered port or is still floating on the high seas, the prudence of a reader will decide. Now, let us proceed by your prayers to other waves, and with the shipwreck of the exposition threatening on both sides, let us escape if we are able. Gath means wine press. Those “who are in Gath,” then, are in a wine press, thinking that they have harvested the fruit of life, and have trodden the grapes from Sorec’s vineyard. ⁵² They are lifted up in pride, ignoring the fact that the grapes of the land of Judea are not found in the borders of the Philistines. “Do not be extolled,” he says, you who are in the wine presses. Because your vineyard is from the vineyard of Sodom, and your offspring from Gomorrah, ⁵³ and your grape is of bitterness, and your grape cluster is bile, and the fury of serpents is in your wine, the incurable fury of asps. For even if you will produce fruit—since your harvest is not only from Sodom and Gomorrah but also from Egypt and from other heathen enemies—the Lord will give your fruit to rust, and your produce to the locust, and he will cut down your vines with a hailstorm and your mulberry trees with hoarfrost. Let not the likeness of wine deceive you; do not call sweet what is bitter; taste your wine very carefully, and you will find, in place of the wine of Sorec, the fury of serpents and venom of snakes. ⁵⁴ Wherefore, do not be proud but humble yourselves more under the powerful hand of the Lord, ⁵⁵ and pass on that wine press, of which the one ascending out of Edom, and the one who is ruddy from Beor, ⁵ speaks in the prophet Isaiah: “I have trodden the wine press alone, and from the nations no man is with me.” ⁵⁷ Again, because they are foreigners they are different; the province of the Philistines has many regions and cities. They speak through evil works and senses opposed to God: “We are demolished, but returning let us rebuild what has been destroyed.” ⁵⁸ Whence they are also called the limits of impiety, and the people with whom the Lord was angry. To them, it is said: “In Bachim do not build the house of derision.” In our tongue Bachim signifies wailing and weeping. Finally, except for the Septuagint, all translated κλαυθμόν as weeping. Therefore, you who are in works and judgments of this sort, which are worthy of weeping, do not rebuild an evil building; do not think your meaning is God’s construction; do not build upon sand, lest when a storm comes your house too will fall. ⁵ Vain effort might provoke the laughter of those who look on. But instead understand that your construction is worthy of derisive laughter; sprinkle your heads with dust and with ruins. Do penance, because you wanted to build a

home destined to fall apart from your plan. It follows: “She who dwells well in her cities did not go out from living in Zaanan.” To me the meaning seems to be: You, who are proud in Gath and in Bachim, are trying to build a house that deserves to be laughed at. Sprinkle yourselves with dust and repent, because you wanted to press out a detestable wine and to construct a building opposed to God. But she who dwells well in the church of Christ and possesses churches in the whole world is joined with the unity of the Spirit, and has cities of Law, of Prophets and the Gospel, and of the apostles; she did not come out from her own borders, that is, from the Holy Scriptures, but retains the possession with which she began, because she dwells in Zaanan, which as we said above is interpreted abundance, as Symmachus says. For she has the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, with whom are all those spiritual graces and abundance of virtues. Whence it is said to her: “Let there be peace in your power, and abundance in your towers.” ¹ But you who dwell next to Zaanan, that is, next to the abundance of the church, o heretics, o opposed dogmas, lament to yourselves, because you built for yourselves a house of derision, and in haughtiness pressed the wine, and this was not in the Scriptures, but in your house, in the vicinity of the Scriptures no longer worthy of a laugh but of a lamentation, and you built with tears. This is why it continues, “mourn for the house which is next to her,” that is, next to Zaanan. But what is added, “She will receive from you the lamentation of sorrow,” is said to those same heretics, to whom it is commanded to lament the nearby house of the church, because the devil, enemy and avenger, to whom they are to be handed over in punishment, ² he himself inflicts blows upon them and wrenches sorrow out of blows for their evil edification. These things will be inflicted, then, so that they may perceive the sins they had committed and do penance, and there would be a habitation of sorrows and an occasion of good things to them. Or, the sorrow of the church may be indicated, because she strikes her children once, and she herself becomes a cause of salvation for the heretics, if they want to return in mourning to their mother. On the other hand, it is added: “Because evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem.” Both the Marcionites ³ and the Manicheans ⁴ use this scripture to show that the God of the law is the creator of evil things. We would say that evil things came down from the Lord in the way in which the Savior speaks in the Gospel: “I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven.” ⁵ For just as Lucifer fell there from heaven, he who used to rise with the morning, and was crushed upon the ground, he who sent to the Gentiles, so also these evil

things that fell from the Lord and came to the gates of Jerusalem were not evil before they fell, but because they fell down from the Lord, on that account they became evil. And that we may know the snares of evil things: they came, he says, to the gates of Jerusalem, which because they were firm and adamantine are closed by the apostles, to whom the keys of Jerusalem were entrusted; ⁷ the enemies come and go before these gates and they kill whomever they see coming out. If anyone, therefore, is from Jerusalem, she who lives well in her cities, she does not go out when she lives in abundance, but she always remains within; nor does she go out her gates, which the one who goes from is killed; but she is killed by those who lift themselves in Gath and those who dwell in Bachim and build a house of derision. Finally, the evil things that came down from the Lord to the gates of Jerusalem have such a loud noise of chariots and uproar of horses, and the confused sound before the doors of Jerusalem, that they kill as many as they see with the lance of their mouth. After these things it is written: “You who inhabit Lachish: the chief of sin is of daughter Zion.” Lachish is interpreted πορεία εστίν, that is, walking. And those, therefore, who went up in their chariots, and had horsemen and such a great uproar and useless sound, to whom she spoke, she who inhabits well among her cities, “these ones in chariots and those ones on horses, but we will invoke the name of Lord our God.” ⁸ Because they moved their feet and were borne by every wind of false doctrine, and they wanted to exit from the church, which means watchtower, that is, Zion, the chiefs of sin were the daughters of Zion. And in her, that is, in Lachish, were found the impieties of Israel, which separated the people of God from the former kingdom. The chief of sin, therefore, is of daughter Zion, she who inhabits in Lachish, that is, the worst mode of walking, with a step unendingly fluctuating, and the impiety of Israel is among those who always move their feet and are said to inhabit in Lachish. They too will be given emissaries up to the inheritance of Geth; evil Geth and the wine press of venoms, that is, built against the house of God, where there are vain houses, which were built in derision. And those vain houses were made in vain by the kings of Israel. Inasmuch as it pertains to history, this refers to those kings whose sins are recorded in the books of Kingdoms and Chronicles, but inasmuch as it pertains to anagogy, it refers to the princes of the heretics, and to the leaders of perverse dogmas; for theirs, indeed, are the empty houses that were built in vain. And by persevering for so long they must be led by the Lord until they possess those heirs. After these things, it follows: “You who inhabit in Lachish, the inheritance will

come up to Adullam.” Adullam means testimony of a draught, or of their swallowing, which is expressed in Greek more meaningfully μαρτυρία ἀντλήσεως αὐτῶν. We read in the book of Proverbs: “If you are evil, you draw only evil things.” ⁷ Therefore, she who dwells in Lachish, that is, on an evil road, will come up to the testimony of her full draught, to fully draw out and drink up according to the measure of her works. Or, this distinction must be made, that what is said “You who dwell in Lachish” refers to what is above, and the order and meaning is: “I shall lead the heirs to you from the church, you who dwell in Lachish, because even you will be from the inheritance of the Lord when you draw and receive what you deserve.” I entreat the reader at the end of the section not to think that necessity equals will. Let him not reckon a copious exposition as wordy. Instead, let him marvel that I have found anything in such rough passages that is not overlooked, whatever needs to be said.

1:16 Make yourself bald, and be shaved above the children of your delights; enlarge your baldness as the eagle: for having been captured they were led into captivity away from you.

Septuagint: “Glory of the daughter of Israel, shave and cut over your delicate children; increase your baldness as an eagle; for having been captured they were led into captivity away from you.” The Hebrews read that which was said by the Septuagint, “Glory of the daughter of Israel,” with the addition of daughter at the end of the previous section. To us, however, in accordance with what you who have willed, ⁷¹ and what we have once accepted, necessity presses on to interpret the Scriptures in such a way as they are read in the church and never to omit the Hebrew truth. Therefore, for the time being, according to the letter, it is spoken to Israel, so that we understand either the ten tribes in Samaria or all Israel universally. Since the people were led captive, and all Judea was devastated by the Assyrians and Babylonians, they take up a lamentation and weep over their children. And just as the eagle, which is the queen of the birds, at a certain time sends away her chicks and remains without feathers, so too Israel put away all his glory, by which he was surrounded, and lamented his children, who were subjected to the authority of enemies. Now even in the Psalter it is written that the eagle at a certain time is accustomed

to lose her feathers: “Your old age will be renewed like the eagle’s.” ⁷² Moreover the comic poet says in the Heauton timoroumenos : “What they truly call an eagle’s old age has appeared.” ⁷³ But if we want to understand this of the overthrow of the Jews of the present time, we will see that all the grace, by which it once flourished before God, has completely departed. For where is the prophet? Where the teacher of the law? Where the protections of angels? Where is the victory hoped for by the few against the many? ⁷⁴ Jerusalem has been shaven bald, and she has lost all hair of her former glory, and her children, who cried out against the Lord: “Crucify, crucify him,” ⁷⁵ were led into captivity. I have read in someone’s commentary that what is said, Make you bald, and be cut above the children of your delights, can be understood of the human condition: so that the discourse is directed from God to Adam, or to the heavenly Jerusalem. O human soul, o city formerly mother of the saints, you who previously were in paradise and used to enjoy the delights of diverse trees and had very beautiful hair, now because you have been thrown forth from sublime places and led off into Babylon, and you have come into the place of captivity and you have lost your hair, be shaven and assume a penitential demeanor, and you who formerly used to fly in the heights as an eagle, mourn for your children, your progeny, which has been led off from you as captive.

2:1-5 Woe to you who devise that which is unprofitable, and work evil in your rooms; in the morning light they execute it, because their hand is against God. And they have coveted fields, and taken them by violence, and houses they have forcibly taken away, and oppressed a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold I devise this evil against this family, from which you will not withdraw your necks, and you will not walk haughtily, for this is a very evil time. In that day a parable will be taken up upon you and a song will be sung with sweet melody by them that say: We are laid waste and spoiled; the portion of my people is changed. How shall he depart from me, whereas he is returning that will divide our land? Therefore you will have none who casts the cord of a lot in the assembly of the Lord.

Septuagint: “Evil thoughts, exertions and works were made in their rooms, and at once they consummated them during the day, for they have not lifted their

hands to God. And they kept desiring the fields and were plundering the orphans, and were oppressing the houses, and were spoiling a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. Because of these things says the Lord: Behold, I devise evils against this tribe, out of which you will not withdraw your necks, neither will you walk away speedily for the time is the worst. In that day, a parable will be taken up against you, and a lamentation will be stricken in a canticle of those who say: We were made miserable with misery, the portion of my people has been measured with a cord, and there was none who would hinder him so that he may be turned away. Our fields were divided. Because of this, you will have none who casts a cord in the inheritance.” What we put at the end of a section according to the Hebrew, in the assembly of the Lord, which the Septuagint translated “in the church of the Lord,” ⁷ is the beginning of the subsequent section in the common edition. ⁷⁷ Consequently we will discuss it in that place, if the Lord wills. Woe , therefore, to you , o Jewish people, you who devise evil and fulfill it in action. And rooms that were given for the purpose of resting you dishonor with sexual activity, and you carry out each of these iniquities at night; as if it were not licit to postpone them, immediately, as day dawns, you hasten to fill up, not considering that your strong hand is against God. And that the Scripture may show what it is that they were devising during the night and doing during the day, he explains in detail. They have coveted fields , he says, and have taken them by violence , and the houses , supply in thought, they have coveted, and those that they had coveted, they plundered; and not only were they oppressing men and their households but also their posterity too, who were deserving mercy on account of their young age, they kept devastating with a ravenous mouth. Because you have done these things and have devised unprofitable things , I, the Lord, will also devise evil against this family ; not that what I devise is evil, but what I inflict seems evil to those who endure it; it will press you in such a way that you would not be able to lift up your necks , nor would you walk haughtily , namely, those whom the time of captivity had oppressed. Then a parable will be said against you, and your miseries will be turned into a canticle: We are laid waste and spoiled; the portion of my people. My temple, he says, which I alone was having among the rest of the nations, will be changed into ruins. How will the Assyrian withdraw from me, when he returns in order to divide my fields among themselves by lot? Therefore, o Israelite family, against which I devise evil, you will have no part in the inheritance of the just ones. But this very thing can also be understood concerning the final captivity, that all

things will happen to them because they have crucified the Lord, but only thus so that the edition of the Septuagint translators may be explained. For “the glory of the daughter of Israel has been made bald and she has been cut over her formerly very delicate children,” ⁷⁸ and if thereafter some of her hairs were to regrow, they have been chopped with a successive cutting and shaving. Then all their plans were turned in their efforts, and what they had devised with a sleeping mind and heart, they brought their labors to them. They worked them out immediately when the light of Christ and his vengeance appeared, and they were upset. For when they had read that Israel conquered when Moses lifted his hands to the Lord, and was overcome by Amalec when Moses’ arms were weary and he put them down ⁷ and did not lift his hands to the Lord, but rather, they were perpetrating all crimes against the Lord among the poor and common people, they coveted fields and plundered orphans and laid waste to the houses, and despoiled a man together with his wife and children and their substance. Therefore the Lord has “devised evil things against that tribe,” not against the twelve tribes but against the tribe of malice and against the one befouled by transgressions, from which they could not lift up their neck, nor proceed uprightly. Finally, up to the present day they were made subjects to the Roman Empire and are oppressed under the yoke of captivity, and they do not raise up their necks. But as for what follows, ἐξαίφνης, that is, “suddenly,” it is not in the Hebrew books, and yet is able to be congruent with the present passage, so that we may say: Therefore, the Lord says these things: “Behold, I suddenly devise evil things against this tribe,” from which they are not able to lift their necks, and on account of it they could not lift it, because the time is evil. For just as they worked evil things against the Lord Jesus, so too, they will sustain the evils of a continual captivity, and they will proceed in such a great anguish that all their canticles and psalms are turned into mourning. And the people will know no other speech except this: “we are made miserable with misery.” For the Promised Land, which formerly was divided by lot ⁸ by two and a half tribes across the Jordan, ⁸¹ when Moses sent a “cord,” ⁸² and afterward was distributed by Joshua to the remaining tribes, ⁸³ this was given to the nations by a Roman surveyor, and “no one was there who could hinder him.” On the contrary, when they obtain all the nations, none was there from the Jews who would possess their ancient ground with their freedom. But if we want to follow a third exposition, about which I had spoken above, the whole discourse is directed to the human soul, which fell from paradise into the

captivity of this world. We will see that all our devising is labor and sorrow, and even our bedrooms are filled with evils, and the light itself that is seen is mixed with darkness, and we carry out these things at night, ⁸⁴ we are filled with darkness. ⁸⁵ For instance, who of us lifts up his holy hands to our God without wrath and devising? Who does not desire the estates of this world while forgetting the possession of paradise? You may see that someone else’s fields touch yours and his boundaries join your boundaries, and country farms of cities do not satisfy the tiny body of a man. ⁸ Therefore the Lord devises evil things against us, ⁸⁷ from which we would not be able to lift up our necks, nor to walk uprightly, because the time is very bad, according to the words of John, who says: “The world is set in evil.” ⁸⁸ It signifies the same thing as that daughter of Abraham in the Gospel, the noble soul whom Satan had conquered and had bent over and could not be raised to the heights until the coming of the Lord, nor could she look up to her own Creator. This is why the Savior says: “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, ought she not be released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” ⁸ Since therefore all our glory has been shaved, and we have enlarged the razor, or rather our widowhood—for this is found in some manuscripts—they were sent out, they who lamented with Jeremiah, and they took up a parable against us, and said with the apostle: “I will mourn the many who have sinned, and have not repented.” ¹ For who does not lament when he sees human souls becoming so many pieces of furniture for demons and being possessed by diverse vices? One demon casts a cord of fornication, another of avarice, another of murder; this one holds the strings of perjury. The portion of the people of God has been divided by a cord, and the fields of former holiness and paradise, with whose odor Isaac was delighted in his son Jacob, ² have been handed over to the Assyrians and to the Babylonian king. And though foxes have holes and the birds of the sky nests, “The Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” ³ I have explained this according to the restraints allowed by my meager talent, both the first captivity by the Assyrians and the captivity by the Babylonians, and the second by the Romans, because they crucified the Lord, and the third one, the spiritual, by which each one of us fell from paradise along with Adam; and he is turned into the captivity of this world, from which, when the Lord will come, he will raise up the ones crushed and will release those in fetters, ⁴ and he will lead those who have been formerly made captives of the devil back into his possession, and the word of the psalmist will be fulfilled when he says, “Ascending on high, he led the captive into captivity.” ⁵ According to this exposition, the fourth captivity can be understood as the captivity of the church,

from which each one goes out through sin, and afterward by Ezra, who is interpreted as “assistant”; that is, he is led back by the word of God to Jerusalem. But if someone who has meditated on the law of the Lord night and day ⁷ has in his possession a greater zeal for study, greater talent, and leisure and grace, and can say something more probable regarding the present section, I am not jealous of him, nor do I scorn him, but rather, I desire to learn from him what I do not know. And gladly I will profess myself to be his pupil, provided that he teach and not lead astray. For nothing is easier than for the one who is idle and sleeping to dispute about the effort, work and vigils of others.

2:6-8 Speak not, saying: It shall not drop upon these, confusion will not take them, says the house of Jacob. Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened or are these his thoughts? Are not my words good to him that walks uprightly? But my people, on the contrary, are risen up as an enemy; you have taken away the cloak off from the coat, and them that passed harmless you have turned to war.

Septuagint: “Do not you weep with tears in the assembly [ekklesia] of the Lord, nor do they weep over these things. For he will not remove the reproaches, who says: The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord; are not these his practices? Are not the Lord’s good words with him? And have they not proceeded correctly? Even before time my people withstood his enemies against his peace; they have stripped off his skin to remove hope in the contrition of war.” He says: “Speak not, saying,” which Aquila interpreted as: “Dropping do not drop.” There was once a Hebrew idiom that spoke of speech as that which flows and reaches the ears of those who hear, like the downfall of a falling rain. ⁸ Do not deceive yourselves, o house of Jacob, and say in your mutual consolation, God is good, the captivity that we expect will not come. Will his abundant mercy and his most clement Spirit , who has risen for all widely and abundantly, be straightened and be severed only in respect to us? Or are these his thoughts that we discern among men, that he holds back his ancient wrath and is aroused to avenge by a sudden outburst of fury? To which the Lord answered: I am good indeed, and my words speak clemency, but for those who walk on the straight

path. But he who has worshiped idols, I do not say once upon a time but yesterday, in mockery of me, and as much as was in him, for he seized tyrannical weapons against me, who plundered the unhappy people with the help of God and has worn a cloak as it were over his coat . All those who are simple believers and accept the authority of their ancestors turned against me in war. Will not the Lord drop upon him, and will not confusion seize him? But we have translated this: But my people, on the contrary, are risen up as an enemy, for the word mul means both “against” and “yesterday.” Symmachus translated it more clearly when he said, “One day ago my people withstood as an enemy,” in order to solve the question that God does not impute to the people past vices but recent ones, and those which seemed to have been committed yesterday. These things have been said according to the understanding of the Hebrew. On the other hand, the Septuagint interpreters do not completely cohere with themselves in this passage. For in respect to that which was said first, “Do not weep in the assembly [ekklesia] of the Lord,” what is the logical reason for the addition: “For he will not cast away the reproaches that he says the house of Jacob has provoked against the Spirit of the Lord”? Moreover, consider what follows: “Are these his doings? Are not my words good with him? Did they walk uprightly?” How are these things pertinent to what comes later which are said: Even before my people withstood him as an enemy against his peace, have they stripped off his skin to remove contrition of war? Now, it seems to me, in this most difficult passage, the sense can be restored, or rather expressed, as follows, but only if the prudent reader acquiesces to our reasoning. And thus, if the assembly (ekklesia) is being commanded not to have sadness and anxiety over the things of the world and over lost possessions, things that were wont to happen in this world, it is said to her inhabitants, o you who are in the church of the Lord, always be glad and render thanks for whatever happens to you from God’s judgments. Nor do I say that you ought not to weep, for indeed, “Blessed are those who weep, for they will laugh,” but I admonish this: do not weep for those things that belong to the world. ¹ If one of your relatives dies, if the imperial exchequer invades your estate, ¹ ¹ if your body becomes afflicted with arthritis, or if some other sickness oppresses you, do not weep, do not shed tears and do not consider the present things but those that are to come, and you are weighed down more and longer in this tent of death in which you dwell. On the other hand, be careful not to mock those who fall and to reckon someone

else’s ruin as your edification. Let each one measure himself according to his own strength and not according to the weakness of others. Otherwise, what kind of justice is this, that the branches of a wild olive tree insult the branches of the olive, who were broken off on account of their own infidelity, ¹ ² and to say the house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord to wrath by killing the prophets, worshiping idols and crucifying the Son of God? He who does this will not be a stranger. By the reproach and with the measure with which he has judged he too will be judged by him, ¹ ³ and just as he himself speaks about the sins of the one who falls, so the other will mock the ruin of another. It follows: Are these his doings? Are not my words good with him? Did they walk uprightly? Because the Jewish people offended in order that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, ¹ ⁴ so it remains in the providence of God, afterwards, when Israel believes, that all men should be saved ¹ ⁵ and all would require God’s mercy. Whence, even the apostle, when he comes to questioning this passage, proclaims that the depth of wisdom and knowledge and judgments of God is an unsearchable abyss. ¹ If therefore these are the doings and thoughts of God, that the former branches of olives are broken off and others are inserted from the wild olive tree, you ought not to insult but to fear lest you fall. Do not reckon in this that you are pleasing to God if you read the words, that is, his Scriptures. ¹ ⁷ Scriptures are useful to the reader only when what is read is fulfilled in work; if when speaking about the Scriptures, you are able to say, “Or do you seek a proof that Christ speaks in me?” ¹ ⁸ For, “The Lord will give the word to them that preach the good news with great power,” ¹ and, “He ascends upon the high mountain, he who brings good tidings to Zion, and lifts up his voice with strength, he who brings good news to Jerusalem.” ¹¹ And in this way the words of God are good, if they are with him, that is, if God does not desert the one preaching, whose heart and lips are in agreement. On the other hand, there are some who confess God with their lips, but their heart is far from him, ¹¹¹ and who speaks about his just works and takes the covenant through his mouth and is defiled in the filth of sins, since they are not good words of God. This applies not only to the sinner but also to him who does not have spiritual grace, that is, of prophecy, of doctrine, and of interpretation, and of the greater gifts. ¹¹² This must be said, that a man of this sort, if he wants to render an account for the causes of the elements and the rationale for the faith and explain why God, who is good and the Creator of all things, came only to the Jews alone, ¹¹³ and now in the last age called the nations, he would not have the good words of God with himself but those that are the good from his own

inexperience. He debases the words of God, words that walk rightly and seek the right ears. And the Lord commands these things, indeed, to the succeeding people, and to the church gathered out of the Gentiles, that she not insult the former generation and by her insults not be estranged from reproaches herself. Now, he himself, he who is the true judge, relates and speaks without disturbance how during his own passion Israel was opposed to him and did this. It is not that they were able to harm their own Creator but that they had done all things against his peace. Whence even to Jerusalem this word is said: “If you had known those things that are for your peace.” ¹¹⁴ But peace was lost, their skin was scraped off; that is, they carried off the help of God from themselves by which they were being protected, and they left flesh naked, as it were, and without skin and covering, so that whatever seemed to be beautiful, while the mercy of God covers it over, when that is withdrawn, showed its hideousness to those who saw it. But when the peace and help of God draws back, because they had withstood the Lord, of whom it is said, “The Lord crushes wars, the Lord is his name,” ¹¹⁵ they could not withstand their adversaries, but in every combat they were conquered. There was none to beat down the nascent wars against them, in accordance with each persona of the enemies, ¹¹ either that of the human beings who led them as captives or the strength of the opponents, who daily were slitting their souls by means of blasphemies.

2:9-10 You have cast out the women of my people from the house of their delights; you have taken my praise forever from their children. Arise and depart, for there is no rest here for you, because of their uncleanness, the land shall be corrupted with a grievous corruption.

With regard to the translation of the Septuagint, if indeed it is the Septuagint; for Josephus writes, ¹¹⁷ and the Hebrews hand down, that only the five books of the Law of Moses were translated by them, and they translated them under King Ptolemy, ¹¹⁸ and the books of kings were also translated; so much is it at variance in the present passage with the Hebrew truth that we are neither able to record the sections in parallel fashion, nor can we explain their sentences concurrently. On this account, first our translation should be discussed, and afterward we will come to those. Up to this point, the words are directed against the people of God,

to whom above he already said: “On the contrary, my people are risen as an enemy, you have removed the cloak from the coat”; ¹¹ for they not only did this, but they made the women also, that is, the formerly delicate matrons, to go as captives, or metaphorically the cities of Judah, which also in Isaiah he calls daughters of Zion, ¹² because Zion was the capital city. You have carried away my praise forever from their children also, he says; no one was left from the people, for all were either killed or taken captive, who sang my psalms, but even the few who survived in Babylon testify that they are not able to sing. “How,” they say, “shall we sing a canticle of the Lord in a foreign land?” ¹²¹ And so, rise and go into captivity, because in this land you will have no rest, which on account of your crimes it is polluted, and it is unable to be cleansed unless it celebrates a long Sabbath first. Now, therefore, I say to you, here you have no rest, because your land is polluted, it will be corrupted with the worst degradation, namely, with captivity, either the Babylonian or the Roman, because they shed the blood of the Lord; for it can be understood according to each truth of history. Septuagint: 2:9a. “The leaders of my people will be cast forth from their houses of delights; they are cast out because of their evil practices.” This can be taken generally to be about the rulers of the Jewish people, the priests and Pharisees, who after the passion of the Lord were thrown out from the city of their delights, in which previously they had been impudent on account of their evil practices; and especially from the lineage of David, because as soon as the Lord was born, the prince ceased to be from Judah, and the leader from his thighs, when he comes to whom it was reserved and when the expectation of the Gentiles appears. ¹²² But the prophetic words are also befitting in respect to the princes of the church, who abound in luxuries and believe that they are observing modesty in the midst of banquets and lasciviousness, that they must be cast out from their spacious houses and sumptuous banquets, meals acquired by much effort. They must be thrown out because of their evil thoughts and works. And if you want to know where they are to be cast out, read the Gospel; namely, “to the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹²³ Or is there no confusion and shame in preaching to bodies that are gorged a crucified Jesus, a teacher, poor and hungry, and to set forth a doctrine of fasting to men with reddened cheeks and swollen mouths? If we are in the place of the apostles, let us imitate not only their words but also their manner of life, and let us embrace their abstinence. By all means the ministry of the apostles is holy, to serve the widows and the poor. They said: “It is not fitting to us to abandon the word of God so that we may serve tables.” ¹²⁴ But now, Christ’s priest invites to lunch, I

do not say the poor, I do not say brothers, and those who are not able to invite again, ¹²⁵ of whom, with grace having been removed, the bishops’ hands hope for nothing else, but soldiers and those girded with a sword, and judges, with centurions sleeping before their doors and with troops of soldiers. The clerics run from the whole city; they seek to present to the judges what they are not able to find in the praetorian courts, or at least they buy up what has been found. But it must not be imagined that this invective is directed in general to all men, but the prophetic sermon strikes those who are such, and it threatens them with torments, and the everlasting darkness, so that they who are not held in check by decency and shame at least may repent at the threat of punishments. Septuagint: 2:9b. “Draw you near to the everlasting mountains.” We can understand the everlasting mountains to be either the angels or the prophets, about whom it is also written in the psalm: “Its foundations are in the holy mountains,” ¹² and in another passage: “I have lifted my eyes to the mountains, whence he will come as a help to me.” ¹²⁷ Now, he draws himself near to the everlasting mountains, who is not separated by his sins from the company of the blessed, just as Moses drew near to God, not spatially but by merit. And to those who drew near to the everlasting mountains, the Lord himself said, “I am a God who draws near, and not a God far off.” ¹²⁸ Now, they are called everlasting mountains in distinction from those that are not everlasting, namely, those dark mountains of the rulers of this world, which, although they may have been raised as high as the cedar of Lebanon, they are passing away with the world; their place cannot be found. Septuagint: 2:10a. “Arise and walk, because there is not a place of rest for you here.” We are commanded to think not of rest in anything of the world but, as those resurrecting from the dead, to strive for the heights and to walk behind our Lord God and to say: “My soul has cleaved behind you.” ¹² But if we were to show contempt and were not willing to hear the one saying, “Arise you who sleep, and get up, and Christ will enlighten you,” ¹³ we shall be sleeping, indeed, but we shall be deceived, and we shall not find rest, because where Christ does not shine on the rising one, what seems to be rest is tribulation. Septuagint: 2:10b. “On account of uncleanness, you have been consumed with corruption.” What we have expressed according to the Greek understanding as “you have been consumed” can mean in Latin speech “you have been corrupted,” so that the sequence would be, because of uncleanness you have been corrupted “with corruption.” Now, this is said to those who enslaved

themselves to the pleasure of the body and are subservient to wantonness. They have corrupted not only their soul but also their body; they are lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God. ¹³¹ He could have said, on account of uncleanness you have been corrupted, and the sense would have been complete without the word “corruption.” But now, because he says, “You have been corrupted with corruption,” it seems to me that he said this to make a distinction between salutary corruption, according to which even the apostle speaks: “And if he who is our outward man is corrupted; but yet, he who is the inward one is renewed day by day.” ¹³² He who always carries the death of Jesus in his own body, ¹³³ and he corrupts the exterior of man, and subjects his flesh to the command of his soul, ¹³⁴ that one is corrupted indeed, but not “with corruption,” because his corruption is salutary. Septuagint: 2:11a. “You have fled with no one pursuing you.” It is said to those who are corrupted with corruption on account of uncleanness that by the consciousness of their sins, even apart from the punishments, they do not dare to resist and to fight with their enemies. Wherefore, even the fearful in battle of the enemies may frighten the minds of their brothers; they are cast out from the camps; they are driven from the battle line, and among the curses of Leviticus ¹³⁵ the word is directed to men of this sort. “The sound of a shaking leaf will chase you, and you will flee, although there is no one pursuing you.” ¹³ I know that I have read something in someone’s commentary at the beginning of the exposition of John the Evangelist: “Through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made.” ¹³⁷ He said that the word nothing refers to malice; and on the other hand he interpreted malice itself to refer to the devil. ¹³⁸ And with this as his starting point, so to speak, he understood that which was made without Christ as nothing, as the devil. If therefore malice, or rather the devil, is nothing, and they have fled, they who were corrupted with no corruption, that is, by pursuing nothing, the devil pursued them to nothing. But if this seems excessively forced to anyone, and explained in a way that is contrary to the simplicity of the Scriptures, more by the artifice of eloquent speech than by the true interpretation, let him indeed follow the exposition he himself has discovered.

2:11-13 Would that I were not a man having the spirit, and that I rather spoke a lie. I shall drop to you into wine, and into drunkenness, and it will be upon whom it fell in drops that is this people. Assembling, I shall gather Jacob

together, all of you; I shall lead into one the remnants of Israel together. I shall put him as if it were a flock of sheep, as a herd of cattle in the midst of the sheepfold. They will make a tumult by means of a multitude of men; for he will go up the way spreading before them; they will divide and will pass through the gate and go out through it; and their king will go before them and the Lord at their head.

Also in this section the Septuagint interpreters differ widely from the Hebrew. Hence we shall explicate first according to that which was handed down to us by the Hebrews, and afterward, God willing, we shall discuss their translation. O Jewish people to whom the promises were made, and to whom belong the covenants and the law, ¹³ “and from whom Christ according to the flesh,” ¹⁴ to whom, when the Babylonians or the Romans threaten, I said: Arise and go into captivity, for there is no rest for you in this land, which on account of their uncleanness will be corrupted by the last plundering. Do not think that I am speaking willingly and proclaiming gladly, for I see the things that are to come; and I would wish “to be myself accursed for my brethren.” ¹⁴¹ Would that I could speak according to my sense and not have the Holy Spirit; and that I were reckoned instead among the false prophets, to perish alone, and that what I say were not true things. Would that such a great multitude believed in the Son of God and were not handed over to perpetual captivity. But because I am a prophet, and I speak with the spirit of God, and I have been sent by the Divinity, I proclaim the truth, therefore, I shall drop my words for you in undiluted wine, which will inebriate you, and it may make you fall. But as I drip and sing of the evil of the coming captivity, this people will receive my rain; that is, they do not will it and have to endure what I say. And do not think that I am only a seer of evils; now, indeed, the foretold captivity will come; but behold, the word of God speaks in me that comes to all the prophets. By it, when the prophet is silent, it does not speak, and now it says: I shall come, and I shall assume a human body, I shall be born from a virgin. ¹⁴² Or thus: Because I have come in the humility of the flesh, ¹⁴³ you have not believed in me. ¹⁴⁴ At the consummation of the world, I shall come in my majesty with the angels ¹⁴⁵ and the other powers, and then I shall gather you all, o Jacob; then I shall assemble into one the remnants of Israel, and I shall unite my people equally with the people of the Gentiles into one sheepfold; ¹⁴ then I shall fence you in with a very firm wall, and there will be such a great multitude of believers, and the confused uproar of the flock set

between the sheepfold, so that the number of cattle is overcome with largeness. And lest, perhaps, you think because I said, I shall put him as a flock in the fold and as a herd in the midst of the sheepfold, I speak of the sheep, understand me when I say that these sheep are human beings. For it follows there will be a tumult by a multitude of men ; a tumult is the sound of very many, and a clamor of an excessive multitude is equally emitted, lest we think the voice is one. But it is common to everyone, the good shepherd of all who praise, he who has leveled all the steep ground and made it level by his own feet, for he himself is the guide of their journey, the door of paradise, and he says: “I am the gate.” ¹⁴⁷ Whither the journey divides and precedes, both the way and the gate, the trusting flock will go across through him. Now, this shepherd is the King and the Lord. Whence it follows: And their king will pass across before them, and the Lord at their head . But if we want to understand all these things of his first advent and understand the whole Jacob and the remnants of Israel as referring to the apostles, and apply it to the multitude, which was saved in the Acts of the Apostles from the Jews, ¹⁴⁸ the exposition of the one treating things this way will not shrink back from the truth. For the Lord has truly gathered these ones into his sheepfold and has placed them in the midst of the sheepfold; and he has made the journey before them, and has led them into the church, and he was their king before them, and the Lord is at their head forever. Septuagint: 2:11b-12a. “The spirit has set falsehood. It has dropped on you into wine and drunkenness, and it will be from the dripping of this people, deserving to be congregated Jacob will be gathered.” It is not as many think, a lying spirit that stood there, but it must be read: “The spirit has set falsehood,” for in Greek it is said πνεῦμα ἔστησε ψευδές, that is, τὸ ψεῦδος. For just as when wounds have become putrid, lest cancer creeps in and the dead body devours living flesh, the doctors set the wound and burn it by cauterizing or by καυστικῷ ¹⁴ powder, thus with the Spirit of God, he set a limit to the falsehood, lest the people of God be subverted further by the voices of pseudo-prophets. But we have often said that the Spirit should be understood in a good sense both in the New Testament as well as in the Old whenever it is recorded without something added, and now we shall record it, lest it be doubtful to anyone. “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,” ¹⁵ and, “If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit”; ¹⁵¹ and somewhere else: “But if by the spirit you will mortify the works of the flesh, you will live”; ¹⁵² and in the Old Testament: “he who is in these things giving breath to the people and spirit to them who tread it.” ¹⁵³ It is hardly doubtful from the

preceding that it indicates the earth. For they who tread earthly works and subject it with their feet certainly do not deserve to receive an evil but a good spirit. On the other hand, an evil spirit is always read with something else added, as for instance here: “But when an unclean spirit has gone out from a man,” ¹⁵⁴ and in another place, “He rebuked the unclean spirit,” ¹⁵⁵ and, “An evil spirit entered into Saul,” ¹⁵ and other things similar to these. The Spirit of God, therefore, which put an end to the falsehood in the false prophets, he himself will drop for you into wine and drunkenness. This refers to the wine that makes glad the heart of man; ¹⁵⁷ and the drunkenness by which Noah was made drunk, ¹⁵⁸ and about which it is said elsewhere, “Friends, eat up and be drunk.” ¹⁵ But this happiness and drunkenness are in relation to the wisdom of God, which waters the heavenly Jerusalem as a river; it is a very small drip. And they will not hesitate to call it a driblet of the wisdom of God in men, who have read of the stone that was cut out without hands from the mountain, ¹ and that the foolishness of God is wiser than the knowledge of men, ¹ ¹ and that the apostles themselves knew in part and prophesied in part. ¹ ² From this wisdom, therefore—that is, from the driblet of the Jewish people, for he came only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel ¹ ³ —Jacob is gathered: everyone who trips up Esau and snatches his rights of firstborn and blessing, and even before he was born, while still in the womb, he seizes the heel of his hairy brother. ¹ ⁴ Septuagint: 2:12b. “With all his people, I will surely receive the remnant of Israel.” When the people of the Gentiles has believed, he says, and the whole world has been brought to my faith, and the fullness of the Gentiles will have entered in, ¹ ⁵ then also the remnants of Israel will be saved, not that remnant about which it is written in the book of Kingdoms, “I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent their knees before Baal,” ¹ and concerning which Paul says, “Therefore, even in this time, a remnant has been saved according to the election of grace,” ¹ ⁷ and about which here the prophet testifies this: and it will be from the dripping of this people, deserving to be congregated, that Jacob will be gathered. Instead he means that remnant that will be received by God at the end, after all have been received, and about which it is now said: with all, I will surely receive the remnant of Israel, as accords with what is written: “God shutting up all under sin would be merciful to all.” ¹ ⁸ Septuagint: 2:12c. “I shall put aversion in them as sheep in tribulation.” After I have received all the remnants of Israel, which I am going to receive, now,

meanwhile, because they have turned away from me, I shall put them in tribulation, I shall confine them to a narrow space, and I shall make them to remain, without priest, without altar and without prophet, so that the one whom they did not perceive through his benefits they may understand through punishments. Septuagint: 2:12d. “As a herd in the midst of their flock,” “I shall put” is understood. Not only, he says, their aversion, by which they turned away from me, will be put as a herd in tribulation, but after they have been afflicted and have completed the time of anguish, they will be placed in repose, that is, in their own fold. And then from men they will move elsewhere and they will transcend the state of the human condition, and will fulfill what follows: Septuagint: 2:12e. “They will leap forth from among men.” Now, not only they will leap forth and will depart, but all to whom the word of God comes, and who, leaving behind their vices, imitate the divine way of life, and hear, “I have said, you are gods and all sons of the most High,” ¹ will leap forth from among men, and as it were will be brought to the heavens. Septuagint: 2:13a. “Ascend, through the division.” The present passage as it were has its own beginning and apostrophe ¹⁷ of prophetic speech, to him who wishes to be saved, to whom it is commanded that he “ascend through the division.” This indeed will become clearer if we take an example from Genesis, where the twins come forth from Thamar, with whom Judah, the patriarch, lay: “It happened,” it says, “when she gave birth, and had twins in her womb; during the very moment of delivery, one put forth his hand, and the midwife tied a scarlet strip on his hand, saying: this one will come forth the first. But then he drew back his hand, immediately, his brother came forth, and she said: Why has the barrier been divided because of you? And she called his name Phares,” which means division. “And after this his brother came out, on whose hand was the scarlet thread, and she called his name Zara,” ¹⁷¹ which in our tongue means “seed” or “rising.” The elder people, therefore, in whom the seed was raised even before the church was born from the Gentiles, show their hand through their works, and then he drew it back, hearing through Isaiah: “For your hands are full with blood.” ¹⁷² And when that one drew his hand back and ceased from the works of justice, his brother, the people of the Gentiles, came out. And because of him the fence was divided, and the Lord and Savior tore it down, so that he could walk through the wall, which was in the middle, and the barrier that separated the two peoples; and he made one flock, and created two in

himself in one new man, making peace. ¹⁷³ Whence also the midwife speaking prophetically says to Phares, the younger people: “Why has a wall been divided because of you?” ¹⁷⁴ If you have understood the example from Genesis, ascend, you who desire to be saved, not through the old people who have a contracted hand, but through the new, in which there is Christ as the way, ¹⁷⁵ in which there is Christ as the gate, ¹⁷ through whom we shall walk to the Father, for he himself has destroyed the wall in the middle and the barrier, ¹⁷⁷ that is, the obscurity of the prophets of old, and he unveiled all the mysteries of the old law, and by removing the difficulty of entering, he revealed the way to the eyes of all, so that he who wants to proceed is hindered by no obstacle, nor terrified by the gloom of obscurity. ¹⁷⁸ Septuagint: 2:13b. “Before their face they have made a division, and passed the gate and gone out by it; and their king has gone out before them, now the Lord is their leader.” The reason I said to you, “Ascend through the division,” you who have risen with Christ, and seek those things which are above, ¹⁷ is that the angels, or the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ¹⁸ have divided what seemed to make an impediment, and they made a way to enter for those who are willing; and because they entered upon the journey through an open way, not only did they enter the gate but also they passed through it. Now, they entered because even their king has entered through the same gate and opened the road to them so that they would walk without any difficulty. For the Lord himself, both king and shepherd, is the way and the gate, and he says: “I am the gate; he who enters through me, will be saved; he will go in and go out and will find pasture.” ¹⁸¹ About this gate it is prophesied somewhere else: “This is the gate of the Lord, the just ones will enter through it.” ¹⁸² Now, whoever enters ought not to remain in that state in which he had entered, but he should go out to pasture, that in the entering there may be a beginning and in the going out and in the finding of pasture there may be perfection of virtues. He who enters is still in the world and understands his Creator from the creatures. But he who goes out transcends all creation, and when he has reckoned all that can be seen as nothing, ¹⁸³ he will find pasture above the heavens, and he will feed on the words of God, and he will say: “The Lord is my shepherd, and there is nothing I shall want.” ¹⁸⁴ For this reason we thus understood the testimony of the Gospels, “He will go in and go out, and he will find pasture,” ¹⁸⁵ and what now is said by the prophet: and they passed the gate and went out by it. Yet, a passage and exit cannot be allotted without Christ our king, who is king and Lord. ¹⁸ For it is immediately linked: “Now, Lord, you will be the leader.”

3:1-4 And I said: Hear, O you princes of Jacob and leaders of the house of Israel. Is it not your part to know judgment, you that hate good and love evil, you who violently pluck off their skins from them and their flesh from their bones, you who have eaten the flesh of my people, and have flayed their skin off them; and have broken, and chopped their bones as in a cauldron, and as flesh in the midst of the pot? Then, they will cry to the Lord, and he will not hear them; and he will hide his face from them at that time, as they have conducted themselves wickedly in their practices.

It is clear that the words are against the princes of Israel, and their cruelty is being described under the metaphor of lions or robbers, for they have plundered the poor and killed them, and they have ground their flesh and bones; and, as in the middle of a pot, they afflicted the common miserable people of Jerusalem as such in the midst of the city, and because of these things punishment is brought afterward to them on the day of captivity, whether it be by Nebuchadnezzar or by Vespasian and Titus. And they would cry to the Lord, and he would hear them not, and he would hide his face from them because they have acted wickedly in their crimes. Septuagint: 3:1. “And he will say: Hear these things princes of the house of Jacob and remnant of the house of Israel.” The thought adheres closely with the things above. For above he had said: “Now the Lord will be the leader, and he will say: Listen, princes of the house of Jacob, and the remnant of the house of Israel.” For the “remnant” of the house of Israel, all but the Septuagint translated this as “leaders” of the house of Israel. The Lord, therefore, who made the way for his people and has gone out before them, and he himself is the prince of the journey of a simpler people, whom he calls his flock; ¹⁸⁷ to these who are unwilling previously to follow him but are haughty, and as judges of the people they follow not his tracks, he threatens and says: Listen, princes of the house of Jacob, and the leaders of the house of Israel . What is it that he compels them to hear? It is not your part , he says, to know judgment, you that hate good and search for evil things; that is, you do not deserve to know the judgment of God, which is a great and deep abyss of his justice; ¹⁸⁸ the crooked mind cannot find it. Or how can you know the judgment of God, you who hate the good and seek the evil, you who detest the holy poor and honor the wealthy sinners? And at the

same time, let us consider the meaning of the words: not to love good things is of sin, and to hate is a very great crime. And on the other hand, if not to flee evil things is of vice, how great an impiety is it to seek them diligently? After these things is described the savageness of the judges and their cruelty toward their subjects. Septuagint: 3:2-4. “You who tear their skins off them, and their flesh off their bones. As they devoured the flesh of my people, and flayed their skins off them, and broke their bones, and chopped them as flesh for the cauldron, and as meat for the pot, thus they will cry to the Lord, but he will not hear them; and he will turn away his face from them at that time, because they have done wickedly in their practices.” It was not sufficient to have plundered the subjected flock, but they afflicted their bodies also with harsh ruling, and they ground their bones, so that whatever strength had been in them they broke and crushed. Therefore, just as they plundered my people and stripped from the skin all beauty and comeliness, and threw their flesh and the bones into the boiling pot, which the Assyrian king kindled, handing over my flock to the devil and to his angels, so too they themselves, when the day of vengeance will come, will cry to the Lord, and they will not be heard, because they themselves did not hear their suppliants; and they will stretch out their hands to the Lord, and God will turn his face away from them because even they turned away their face from those imploring. ¹⁸ And they will suffer all these things because they have acted wickedly in their pursuits and in their desires; and there were no kings but tyrants, no officers but lions, no teachers of students but wolves of sheep, and they have satiated themselves with the flesh and have grown fat, and as a most fat victim for slaughtering, thus they have been prepared for the punishments of the Lord. Hitherto, the word is against evil princes, but the following is against pseudoprophets and wicked doctors, who with their flattery trip up the people of God, ¹ promising them the knowledge of the Scriptures.

3:5-8 These things the Lord says concerning the prophets, they who lead my people to themselves, they who bite with their teeth, and preach peace, and if someone were not to give something into their mouth, they sanctify war against him. Therefore, night will be to you instead of vision, and darkness to you instead of divination; and the sun will go down upon the prophets, and the day will be darkened over them. And they who see visions will be confounded, and the diviners will be confounded, and they all will cover their faces,

because there is no answer of God. But yet I am filled with the strength of the spirit of the Lord, with judgment and truth, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

Septuagint: “These things the Lord says concerning the prophets, they who lead my people to themselves, they who bite with their teeth and preach peace upon it and when nothing was given into their mouth, they have sanctified war against him. Therefore, night will be to you instead of vision, and darkness will be to you instead of divination; and the sun will go down upon the prophets, and the day will be darkened over them. And they who see dreams will be confounded, and the soothsayers will be ridiculed, and all these people shall speak against them, because there is none who will hearken to them, except I shall derive strength from the Spirit of the Lord, his judgment and power, to proclaim to Jacob his impieties and their sins to Israel.” We read that there were false prophets in Israel, who on account of gifts were preaching peace that was not given to them, and if someone did not give gifts, although he were a holy man, they proclaimed that the wrath of God was about to come upon him. This is why it is now said to them that they are speaking lies and their words are not prophecy but divination, and neither do they have light but darkness and error. And when they have been turned to the opposite of what they had promised, then they were covered in confusion, because he says there will be no response from God. The demons will no longer have power to deceive men with their fraud. The oracles will be muted; the unclean spirit will be silent and will not dare to mock. This is said of the false prophets. On the other hand, a prayer of the prophet speaking of himself is introduced by those who have predicted falsehood and are covered with confusion and shame. I speak these things, I speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I speak the judgment and the truth of the Lord. And when the false prophets bite with their teeth and preach peace, I proclaim the crime of Jacob without any fear and the sin of Israel, because either they have worshiped idols instead of God or they have crucified the Son of God. ¹ ¹ But if we would prefer to take what is said about the heretics, in accordance with the Septuagint, those who truly are false prophets, and say, the Lord says these things, and the Lord did not send them, we shall not err. For once they deceive the people of God with error, and do this in order to devour them, either literally,

by acquiring gifts, or mystically, by killing their souls; and they promise to them peace and the kingdom of heavens, and they say there is no need for you to live continently and holily, give credence to what we teach and you will obtain all the things promised by the Lord, those who say these things stir up the wrath of the Lord against them, and they “sanctify war” against them. On account of this, o heretics, who think that you have prophecy and imitate the church of God, where you reckon a vision to be, there will be night, and where you cast prophetic prediction, there will speak an unclean spirit. For the sun of justice ¹ ² will go down upon prophets of this sort; and they will see their own darkness and will be confounded. And when divines rather than prophets have been approved, they will be laughed to scorn on account of their dreams, and the people who previously had been deceived by them will speak against them. Then also the teachers themselves will do penance, and no one will hear them, except I whom they had offended. And because I am clement, and I do not want the death of the sinner but I wish that he return and live, ¹ ³ when I shall hear them, I shall give to them the power of my Spirit, and I shall fill them with my judgment and strength, so that they who were formerly deceiving the people with blandishments, afterward by announcing truth would inspire fear, and they would call back to a straight life, and those who had been the cause of their error would begin to measure by the wounds which they had inflicted and to be an opportunity for healing. Pay attention to the present passage, that someone can teach after sin but only if he will wash away his former vices with a worthy repentance. Whence even David after adultery and murder says in a psalm: “You will sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed; you will wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.” ¹ ⁴ And he is not content merely with his own purity but adds: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and strengthen me with the principal spirit. ¹ ⁵ When you do this, “I shall teach unjust men your ways,” he says, “and the impious will return to you.” ¹

3:9-12 Hear this, you princes of the house of Jacob, and you judges of the house of Israel, you who abhor judgment and pervert all righteous things. You who build Zion in blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her princes were judging for bribes and her priests were teaching for hire, and her prophets were divining for money, and they kept resting upon the Lord, saying: Is not the Lord in our midst? No evils will come upon us. Therefore because of this

reason of yours, Zion will be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem will be as a heap of stones, and the mountain of the temple as the high places of the forests.

Septuagint: “Hear this, you judges of the house of Jacob, and remnants of the house of Israel, you who abhor judgment and pervert all righteous things. You who build Zion in blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her leaders were judging for bribes and her priests were answering for hire, and her prophets were divining for money, and they kept resting upon the Lord, saying: Is not the Lord among us? No evils will come upon us. Therefore because of you, Zion will be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem will be as a post of fruits, and the mountain of the Lord as a grove of the forests.” No one doubts that Jerusalem was overthrown on account of her crimes, which are described in this section, and that the threat to the judges or the false prophets had preceded. “Hear, princes of the house of Jacob and leaders of the house of Israel.” And after a few short verses: “Thus says the Lord about the prophets who lead my people to themselves,” and the rest. Now the prophetic words are composed in general, both against the judges, and against the false prophets and against the priests, and against them who kept promising to themselves knowledge of God, and he convicts them that on account of their crimes Zion must be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem will fall as a pile of stones, and the mountain of the temple of the Lord is about to become as the high places of forests. We see the fulfillment of those things that were said, eyes prove the speech of the mouth, and sight is witness to the prophecy. This same testimony is also written in the book of Jeremiah, ¹ ⁷ where mention is made of the prophet Micah and the devastation of Jerusalem is preached. Judges and princes of the house of Jacob and of the house of Israel, that is, of the twelve tribes, were not only passing judgment but they were abhorring it and perverting all righteous things, lest the least bit of justice might remain in the city. For they have built Zion in blood and Jerusalem in iniquity, by plundering the poor, hewing down the guiltless and killing the holy ones. But if anyone from among the princes seemed to judge what was right, he would instead sell his decision and judge for bribes. The priests also were not teaching the people unless for the right price, and though it is said to the holy ones: “freely you have received, give freely,” ¹ ⁸ they brought forth a response from God after taking the money, and

they sold the grace of God for a greedy wage. And after these evil things, since they did not understand their own sin, they bought the love of God, as it were, by crimes, they remembered that they were judges, priests and prophets of God, and following their impenitent heart they were saying: “The Lord is in our midst and no evils will come upon us.” Therefore, because they did not do penance, and all the people imitated the vices of the leaders, the priests and the prophets, Zion will be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem will be as a heap of stones, and the temple, which before shone with gold and silver, will collapse in final ruin. These things are said against the Jewish people, whose true captivity and final ruin were imposed both on account of their crimes, described above, to be sure, but mostly on account of their shedding the blood of the Lord. Whence too Zion was ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem was turned into a mound of rocks, and the temple, once noble and lofty, has been pulverized into final ashes. But someone may apply to the church any of these things that are said about Jerusalem and Zion, for she herself is the house of Jacob and the house of Israel, according to that which is written in Isaiah, “Jacob my boy, I shall support him,” ¹ and that to Timothy, “That you may know how it behooves you to behave in the house of God which is the church.” ² He will see very clearly that the princes of the house of Jacob and the remnant of the house of Israel, or as it is written better in Hebrew, “the judges of the house of Israel,” are no others except the bishops, priests and deacons, who, if they have not preserved their own heart with all watchfulness, “abhor the judgment and pervert all righteous things.” For when they judge according to the person, and the merit of the case does not prevail during a dispute of business but the power of wealth, are they not abhorring the judgment and perverting all righteous things? But it can also be understood in another way, that the princes of the house of Jacob and the judges of the house of Israel may abhor and detest the judgment by diverting the decision of God the judge and by perverting every rule of the Scriptures with their evil interpretations. These ones build Zion in blood and Jerusalem in iniquity. When, indeed, the Scripture orders, “Do not lead the wicked into the tent of the just ones,” ² ¹ and, “The Lord abhors the bloody cunning man,” ² ² these ones ordain as their clerics whomsoever of their followers, even those exhibiting a life that is scandalous to the people. They are culpable for the infidelity of those who are scandalized. This is why it is said to be better for a man to have a donkey’s millstone fastened to his neck and cast

into the deep than to scandalize one of the least ones of the church. ² ³ And when the prophet Malachi calls the priests “angels” and says that their mouth is an oracle of the Lord, ² ⁴ this shows that they do not judge without taking bribes, as we read: “Gifts blind even the eyes of the wise men, and as a bridle in the mouth they avert chiding.” ² ⁵ And though it is said to the apostles: “Do not possess gold and silver, nor let there be money in your belts,” ² and even the savings that one has acquired with labor is to be shaken off, out of the hands of a holy man; the voices of the Lord offer for sale, and they trade doves in the temple. ² ⁷ Moreover, the prophets were divining for money in Jerusalem. They did not realize that prophecy is one thing, divination something else; for divination is never understood in a good sense in the Scriptures. It says: “There will not be augury in Jacob or divination in Israel.” ² ⁸ To themselves they seemed indeed to be prophets, but because they were accepting money, their prophecy was turned into divination. The apostle Peter says: “Silver and gold I do not have”; ² surely, he could have sold to Simon the Magician that which he was seeking, or could have feigned that he was selling it, for the Holy Spirit can neither be sold nor bought; but he condemned the money offered along with the one offering the money. ²¹ Now, you should consider that the prophets of Jerusalem do not have a prophecy in their mouth, and they rest in the Lord and say: “No evils will come upon us.” The reason for their speculations of God is divided by the enemy’s plough; and the former place of peace becomes full of ruins, and the temple of the Lord is converted into briers and thorns and is a habitation for beasts. And may that which we read in the first book of Kingdoms not disturb anyone, that Saul wanted to go to Samuel and said to his boy that he could not go to him because he did not have the money to offer for the prophetic omen, and the boy answered: “Behold, there is found in my hand a fourth part of a shekel of money; and I shall give it to the man of God, and he will tell us our way.” ²¹¹ For it is not written that Samuel accepted it or that they offered it to him, but rather that they are fed by the prophet and invited for lunch. But let us grant that he accepted it. This should be considered more as a donation for the tabernacle than as a bribe for the prophecy. For a shekel comprises twenty obols, and a fourth part of a shekel is five obols. And our priests, therefore, if they want to sell prophecy and to set out doves on their chairs, which the Lord overturns with a whip, ²¹² they should receive five obols and not the price of a cottage. He indicates this very thing in the third book of Kingdoms, ²¹³ that the wife of Jeroboam, when her son is ill, goes to Ahijah, the man of God, and brings to him loaves of bread, raisins and a small vessel with honey. ²¹⁴ Indeed, it is said that she carried those things

with her, and yet it is not written whether the prophet accepted them. For when he chastised her and predicted that she would mourn, although those who were accustomed to go to the fortune-tellers were able to, because there were many soothsayers and fortune-tellers in Israel, this itself was reckoned as an evil custom even of the prophets, and they wanted offerings to be made to holy men because they were accustomed to offer to the soothsayers. Scripture has merely reported what they wished; but it did not add either that they dared to offer them or that the prophets accepted them. The apostle Paul says, “they who serve at the altar partake and live from the altar.” ²¹⁵ It is permitted to you, o priest, to “live from the altar,” not to grow luxuriant. The ox cannot tread the corn with its mouth shut. ²¹ We know these things, and yet the apostle does not abuse this privilege, and he is satisfied when he has food and clothing. He works night and day with his own hands, lest he be a burden to anyone. ²¹⁷ And he swears in the epistles that he has lived holily and without avarice in the gospel of Christ, and not only regarding himself, but also he asserts this same thing regarding his disciples, that he has sent no one who would either demand anything from the churches or would receive anything. ²¹⁸ But if he gives thanks in some letters, and calls the gifts of those who send them God’s benevolence, ²¹ he is not so much gathering for himself as for the holy poor, who were in Jerusalem. ²² Now the holy poor were those who were in Jerusalem, the first from among the Jews who had believed in Christ. They had been cast out by their parents, relations and neighbors; ²²¹ they had lost both their possessions and all their furniture had been pillaged by the priests of the temple and by the people. If there are such poor ones, let them receive. Now if under the occasion of the poor, a few houses are enriched, and we devour gold out of an earthen vessel and in a glass, let us either exchange clothing with treasures or let the poor man’s attire not aim for the richness of senators. What benefit is there in not having around one’s neck a bandana for wiping off the sweat? What help is it to be wearing the μονοχίτωνας ²²² and to prefer the attire of poverty ²²³ when our purse sighs with universal distress at the sight of the poor? Because of this, we who are such, we who build Zion in blood and Jerusalem with iniquity, we who judge by bribes, we who answer for hire, we who divine for money, and beyond this laying claim to a feigned sanctity ²²⁴ for ourselves; we say: “Evils will not come upon us”; let us hear the judgment of the Lord that follows: Zion and Jerusalem and the mountain of the temple, the lookout place and the vision of peace, and the temple of Christ at the consummation, and at the end, when charity has grown cold, ²²⁵ and faith will be rare, ²² it will be ploughed as a field, and reduced to a mound, and it will be as high places of the forests or as a post

of fruits, so that where once were spacious houses there will be piles of fruits without number; there will hardly be a tiny hut preserving any kind of food, the souls of those who have no refreshment.

4:1-7 And it will come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be prepared in the top of the mountains, and high above the hills, and people will flow to it. And many nations will come in haste, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us about his ways, and we shall go along his paths; for the law will go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations up to remote lands; and they will chop their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into mattocks. No nation will take sword against nation, nor will they learn to wage war anymore. And each man will sit under his vine, and under his fig tree, and no one will frighten, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all people will walk, everyone in the name of his god; but we shall walk in the name of the Lord, our God, into eternity and beyond. In that day, says the Lord, I shall gather up the one halting, and her whom I had cast out, I shall gather her up: and whom I had afflicted. And I shall make the halting one into remnants, and her who had worked among a strong nation: and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion, from this time now and into eternity.

Septuagint: “And it will be clear at the last days that the mountain of the Lord will be prepared atop the mountains, and it will be lifted above the hills; and the peoples will hasten to it. And many nations will go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and they will show forth to us his way, and we will walk in his paths; because out of Zion the law will go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge among many peoples and will rebuke strong nations up into remote lands; and they will chop their swords into ploughs and their spears into sickles; and a nation will no more lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn to wage war. And every one will rest under his vine, and every one under his fig tree; and there will be none who frightens, for the mouth of the Lord Almighty has spoken these things. For all peoples will go, and everyone in his own way. We, however, shall go in the name of the Lord our God into eternity and beyond. In that day,

says the Lord, I shall gather her who has been bruised, and she who had been cast out I shall receive, and those whom I had rejected. And I will make the one who was bruised into remnants, and the one who was rejected into a mighty nation; and the Lord will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, and all the way into the ages.” Because the princes of the Jews abhorred judgment and had perverted all righteous things, and had built Zion in blood and Jerusalem with iniquity, and not only had they done this but also they had judged for bribes, and the priests in Jerusalem answered for hire, and his prophets were divining for money, and on account of them Zion had been ploughed as a field and Jerusalem fallen into a mound of stones, and the mountain of the temple of God has been desolated as the high places of forests, therefore now, with their house abandoned and deserted, when the Son of God goes out of the temple, he says, “Rise, let us go hence,” ²²⁷ and, “Your house will be left to you, desolate.” ²²⁸ The angels also, as Josephus reports, say: “Let us pass from this location.” ²² In place of Mount Zion the mountain of the Lord has been elevated, of which it is said to the prince of Tyre: “You have been wounded in the mountain of the Lord.” ²³ Now that mountain of the Lord has shone forth in the last days, when the kingdom of heaven has come near. If indeed at the consummation of the ages our Savior appeared for the putting away of sins through the sacrifice of himself, and at the eleventh hour he came to hire workers; ²³¹ and when his passion was completed, John says: “It is the last hour,” ²³² for in six thousand years, if five hundred years are divided by the each hour of a day, consequently, the last hour will be called the time of the faith of the Gentiles. “And it will be clear,” he says, “that the mountain of the Lord will be prepared atop the mountains.” It will be clear, what was hidden before, and it will be prepared not only in the mountains but atop the mountains, Moses and the prophets, who predicted him. ²³³ For granted that all that they have written down are holy things, yet in comparison to the prophecy, in which they have prophesied about the coming of the Savior, the rest is lowly and does not reach all the way to the tops of the mountains. “And it will be exalted,” he says, “over the hills.” A man indeed has appeared and he has assumed the form of a slave, having been humbled unto death, even death on the cross, but the Father exalted him, and gave to him the name that is above any name. ²³⁴ And compared to his way of life, the whole life of men is said to be plains and valleys. To this mountain, therefore, which has been prepared above the tops of the mountains, and exalted over the hills, they will hasten, or, as the Hebrew says, all people will flow; that is, in the manner of rivers, crowds of innumerable people will be congregated.

Now, the people will hasten when they together have believed in him, “Parthians and Medes, Elamites and the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya which is next to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.” ²³⁵ Do they not seem to have hastened to the mountain to whom it is said: “Follow me and I shall make you fishers of men,” ²³ and at once they followed the Savior? And again, the Scripture reports of James and John that they left behind their boat, father and the waves of the world and hastened to the mountain. ²³⁷ And Matthew, the publican, hearing: “Follow me,” ²³⁸ immediately ran. Moreover, in the Gospel, when large crowds followed him, from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and across the Jordan, and he cured them, ²³ he proves that the people are hastening. Now, with the people hastening, very many nations also will go to the mountain; namely, the whole world that believes in him, and they will say to the banner of the gibbet, challenging themselves mutually: Come let us ascend into the mountain of the Lord . There is need of the ascension, so that someone may succeed in reaching to Christ, to the house of the God of Jacob, the church, which is the house of God, the pillar and solid foundation of truth. ²⁴ Furthermore, Jacob signifies the Savior, as we said above: “Jacob my boy, I shall receive him.” ²⁴¹ Moreover, they will say this to those to whom they say: Come, let us ascend into the mountain of the Lord and into the house of the God of Jacob , and they will add: so that they show his way to us. The way should be understood either of the angels that govern the churches or of the Holy Scriptures, which show beforehand the way of the Lord, and him who says: “I am the way.” ²⁴² And let us walk on his paths, namely, on the apostles, through whom we have believed in Christ. The spiritual law has gone out from Zion, and the word of the Lord has passed to the nations from Jerusalem, which will judge among many nations. For “the Father has given all judgment to his Son.” ²⁴³ And he will chastise mighty nations all the way into the far off. For the Lord “has seized the wise ones in their cunning” ²⁴⁴ and “has known the devising of the wise, because they are empty.” ²⁴⁵ Now, he judges among the people who are worthy of salvation and those who are unworthy, and at his coming all zeal for war will be applied to peace. Swords will be changed into ploughs, spears will be pounded into sickles and nation will cease to war against nation. ²⁴ No one will learn to fight when the need to fight has been put away. There will be such repose that not only in the cities but also in villages and in the fields everyone will be safe. And this will happen because the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And first, indeed, according to the letter, before the boy was born to us, whose dominion he has on his shoulders, ²⁴⁷ the

whole earth was filled with bloodshed. People were divided against people, kings against kings, nations fought against nations. Finally even the Roman Republic itself was torn apart by civil wars; when Cinna, ²⁴⁸ Octavius ²⁴ and Carbonus ²⁵ were fighting; Sulla ²⁵¹ and Marius, ²⁵² Antony ²⁵³ and Catilina, ²⁵⁴ Caesar ²⁵⁵ and Gnaeus Pompeius, ²⁵ Augustus ²⁵⁷ and Brutus ²⁵⁸ and the same Augustus and Antony, in whose wars they shed blood in all the kingdoms. But after Rome was allotted to the empire of Christ, a unique empire, the world was made accessible for the journey of the apostles, and the gates of the cities were opened to them and to the preaching of the one God; a single empire was established. The words “They will chop their swords into ploughs, and their spears into sickles” can also be understood in a tropological sense, so that we say this in reference to faith in Christ, that wrath and unbridled clamors have been put away, that each one puts his hand on the plough and does not look behind his back, ²⁵ and when he breaks the javelins and spears of insults he desires to harvest spiritual fruits, as others work, we enter into their labors, ² and it may be said of us: “Now when coming, they will come in exultation, carrying their own bundles.” ² ¹ Now no one fights against another, because we read: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” ² ² No one learns to strive for the subversion of listeners but puts silence on his mouth and he is quiet, because the time is evil. ² ³ And everyone will rest under his own vine in order to press the wine, which rejoices the heart of men, ² ⁴ under that vine, whose farmer is the Father, ² ⁵ and under the fig tree when he plucks off the sweet fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace and the rest. ² Now, all these things happen according to both the other expositions because the words of the Lord are true, and for him to have said it is to have done it. All people will go, each one in his own way, but we shall walk in the name of the Lord our God into the ages and beyond. With all the nations going, they said, according to their own error, we have hastened to the mountain of the Lord and have said: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob,” ² ⁷ and we shall walk in the name of Christ our Lord, because he himself is the mountain, which is God. On that day, in which the sun of justice will shine, ² ⁸ that which before was crushed will be gathered, and what had been repelled will be taken up, and the one crushed will be congregated to this, that he is set into remnants, and the one left out is placed into the mighty nation. For, “unless the Lord Sabbaoth had left behind a seed to us, we would be as Sodom and we should have been like of Gomorrah.” ² But according to the Hebrew he says beautifully, “I shall gather the one halting

and her who had walked boldly,” and to what Elijah had said, “How long do you go halting?” ²⁷ His foot was scandalized and was cut off. ²⁷¹ I shall gather up her whom I had cast out, and her to whom I had handed a bill of divorce, and her whom I had afflicted with various captivities, or her whom I had handed over to the devil and his angels. But perhaps the careful reader will immediately object to us, in what sense are you declaring the halting one to be gathered and the one that had been thrown out to be collected, seeing that the Jews remain in their infidelity? Let him hear concerning the first church of Christ to be called, which believed out of the Jews, from which came the apostles, about which Luke writes in Acts of the Apostles that in one day three thousand believed ²⁷² and somewhere else five thousand, ²⁷³ and about whom James speaks to Paul: “You see, brother Paul, how many thousands there are from the Jews who have believed, and they all are zealous for the law.” ²⁷⁴ Moreover, consider the prophetical significance: He did not say, I shall make the halting one all saved, but I shall make the halting one into remnants, so that the remnants and chosen are saved, and she who had worked among the mighty nation, obviously in the Christian name, that neither sword, nor fires, nor torments will conquer. See the faith and the suffering of the martyrs, and you will not be in doubt about the mighty nation. And the Lord will reign over them, that is, over the many nations, and over the halting remnants in Mount Zion in the church, in the watchtower, in the contemplation of the virtues from the present age and all the way into the time to come. Now if someone wants to understand what is said, I shall gather her who was crushed and I shall take her, who had been cast out, and the rest, of the human soul, that before the coming of Christ, it was a slave ²⁷⁵ to various passions and vices, and that as a wandering and sick lamb she had been mangled by the bites of wolves, he will not err, provided that he knows that she that had been crushed and afflicted will afterward be under the kingdom of the Lord and will conquer in Zion and will be carried back to the original mountain on the shoulders of the good shepherd. ²⁷ It must be known also that with respect to both this section that we are now explaining and the one similar to it from Isaiah, ²⁷⁷ the Jews and the heirs of their error refer this to the empire of Christ and of the saints during the thousand years’ reign. ²⁷⁸ And that which is said, All people will walk, everyone in the name of the Lord his God , is so interpreted that each nation is diverted to its own idol and is sent into the fire of eternal punishment. But they are proven wrong from the things that follow, that this is not said of the end of the ages but of the first coming of Christ, in which the remnants of the halting one are gathered and the nations are saved before.

Therefore Isaiah recorded the testimony of this kind: “The word which came to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem for in the last days, the mountain of the Lord will be glorious, and the house of God over the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and all nations will come to it. And many nations will go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will proclaim our way to us, and we shall walk in it; for out of Zion will the law go forth, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem. And he will judge among many nations, and will rebuke very many people, and they will beat their swords into ploughs, and their spears into sickles; and a nation will not take up sword against nation, neither will they learn to war anymore.” ²⁷ This is said so as to convey the clear meaning that the word of God, when it goes out from Jerusalem, will judge among many nations and will rebuke particularly the Jewish people. For it will judge us as sinners according to the measure of our works, but them it will judge not as those who are wicked and deniers, but it will expose them as condemned.

Book Two

We always answer the envious, since envy does not cease, and the prefaces of our books silence the curses of the envious who assert publicly that I write nonsense, sterile and barren of speech, and that although I do not know how to speak I cannot be silent. Consequently, I beseech you, o Paula and Eustochium, to close your ears to barking like this and help my inability to speak (infantiam), as they say, with your prayers, and obtain for me the opening of my mouth according to the apostle ²⁸ so that it can be adapted to one who is speaking about the Scriptures, “The Lord will give the word to those who bring good tidings with great strength.” ²⁸¹ But I warn the fat bulls who have surrounded me ²⁸² to be quiet and to stop cursing, lest they experience their own curses, which will be brought forth later on if they will continue to do harm. For what they say, that I compile from the books of Origen and that it is not becoming for the writings of ancients to be plagiarized ( contaminari ), ²⁸³ which they think is a vehement curse, I regard this as a very great praise. ²⁸⁴ For I wish to imitate one who, I do not doubt, pleases you and all experienced people. For if it is a crime to translate the things well spoken by the Greeks, let them accuse Ennius, ²⁸⁵ and Maro [Virgil], ²⁸ Plautus, ²⁸⁷ Caecilius [Statius], ²⁸⁸ and Terence, ²⁸ and also Tully [Cicero], ² and other eloquent men, who translated not only verses but many chapters and very long books and whole narratives. Moreover, our Hilary ² ¹ would be guilty of theft because he translated nearly a thousand verses according to the meaning of the above-mentioned Origen on forty psalms. ² ² I earnestly desire to emulate the carelessness ² ³ of all of these [Latin writers] rather than to keep in darkness the diligence of those [Greeks]. However, it is now time to hammer out another book on Micah and to crush the reborn heads of the hydra with the prophet’s ῥοπάλῳ . ² ⁴

4:8-9 And you, O cloudy tower of the flock, of the daughter of Zion, He will come all the way to you; the first power will come, the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem. Now, why are you drawn together with grief? Is there no king to you, or has your counselor perished, because sorrow has taken you as a

woman in labor?

Septuagint: “And you, tower of the flock, misty daughter Zion, to you he will come and the first principate will enter, the kingdom from Babylon to the daughter of Jerusalem. And now, why have you known calamities? Was there not a king to you? Or has your counsel perished because the pangs as of a woman in travail have seized you?” We should understand the misty or squalid tower of the flock, which in Hebrew is said as ʾophel, of nothing else but that about which Isaiah says, “And I built a tower in the midst of it,” ² ⁵ that is, of the vineyard. “Now, the vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.” ² As long as this tower has a wine press, that is, an altar, and a wall about it, namely, the protection of angels, and the devil does not enter the vineyard as a wild boar, ² ⁷ it is neither squalid nor gloomy but is allotted a designation from the brightness of the Lord. It is called a city that cannot lie hidden, for it has been situated on the mountain. ² ⁸ Therefore, the one-time tower of the flock and of the people of God, because very wicked tenants killed the son of the householder, ² now it is squalid and abandoned and cries from the ground under the name of Ariel in Isaiah. ³ And this is the tower of the daughter of Zion, or as Symmachus translated it in the Greek, “She herself is daughter Zion,” and God will come to her, or the first power , which power is the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. Now, the first power comes to this tower, or “the first principate,” he who said: “I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” ³ ¹ And he who says in Proverbs under the person of the human being he assumed, “The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways for his works,” ³ ² or as it is written in the Hebrew, “The Lord possessed me.” For qanani does not mean “he created me” but “he possessed me” and had me. And the first power comes, and the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem , so that after the first even the second was made, for just as he speaks confidently, “I am the light of the world,” ³ ³ so too he gives himself to the disciples so that they too may be called the light of the world; and he says to them: “You are the light of the world.” ³ ⁴ Moreover, in the Gospel he calls himself the true vine, ³ ⁵ and he speaks through Jeremiah about believers: “Yet, I planted you an all true fruit-bearing vine.” ³ And since he is the living bread who came down from heaven, ³ ⁷ he gave himself to his disciples that they may be called bread. Whence even the apostle Paul speaks confidently: “All of us indeed are one bread.” ³ ⁸ In this way, therefore, the first power goes in and the

kingdom in Jerusalem, so that those believing in these things, he makes a power and a kingdom. Now, what is read in some manuscripts, “the first principate will enter the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem from Babylon,” we should know that it is an addition, because it is not found either in Hebrew or among the other translators. And it seems to me, indeed, that he meant this of the Babylonian captivity, that the people would come back to Jerusalem going out thence. It follows: And now, why are you drawn together with grief? Or, as it is written in the Septuagint: “And now, why have you known calamities?” to whom he says the Lord and the first power and the kingdom are about to come. Why are you drawn together with grief, or why have you known calamities? Immediately it is answered and said: Because there is no king to you, and your counselor has perished, because sorrow has seized you as one who is giving birth. Or certainly since you have all these things by your own fault, you deserve the aid neither of king nor counselor. Now, as for his words “why have you known calamities?” this must be taken in that sense, that all who earn and suffer calamities are said to “know” calamities (mala) and not to know goods (bona). This is in accordance with what is written in the first book of Kingdoms: “The sons of Eli, sons of pestilence, did not know God.” ³ And somewhere else: “He who keeps the commandment will not know an evil word.” ³¹ And to the sinners: “Depart from me,” says the Lord, “you who work iniquity,” ³¹¹ because “I know you not.” ³¹² On the other hand, concerning the Lord, “He who, although he did not know sin, he made him sin for us,” ³¹³ it is understood that God the Father made him this. Now, the king and the angel of great counsel is understood of the Savior, ³¹⁴ who perished on behalf of a nonbelieving people. They did not understand him whose pangs were as those of one giving birth for Israel, thinking that they could obtain the empire that was suddenly devastated. And just as one giving birth escapes the pangs, so too they could not put off the imminent captivity and avoid the army surrounding the city. Let us read the Scriptures, and we shall never find that holy women suffered pangs as they gave birth, except for Rachel, ³¹⁵ who, because she was on the road and in the hippodrome, ³¹ that is, on the race course for horses, which are for sale in Egypt, ³¹⁷ she gave birth to the son of her pain ( Ben-’oni ), whom afterward the father called the son of his right hand ( Binyamin ). When Eve was cast out from paradise and heard, “You will give birth in pains,” ³¹⁸ she is being described as having given birth in pain. The wife of Phineas was wrinkled and did not raise herself, ³¹ as that woman in

the Gospel whom the devil had bound. ³² After she gave birth she would have recognized the destruction of the people of God when the ark of God had been captured. Now, Sarah, because she was holy and her feminine attributes had failed, when Isaac had been born she said: “God has made laughter for me, for whoever will hear this will rejoice with me.” ³²¹ The sorrows, therefore, that prevailed upon the tower of the flock are the sorrows of hell and the pains of death, which surrounded, indeed, and walled in even the Savior, but they could not prevail upon him, as he himself says in the seventeenth Psalm: “Pains of death have surrounded me and rushing streams of iniquity have disturbed me and pains of hell walled me in.” ³²² Some think that the squalid or dark tower and the daughter of Jerusalem are understood of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of the saints, about which the apostle says, “You have come to Mount Zion, and city of living God, the celestial Jerusalem,” ³²³ which is squalid for as long a time as her sons are not led back to her, and the king and counselor is not in her, ³²⁴ and the pains seize her as those of one giving birth, because she gives birth in vain while seeing so many of her children killed. ³²⁵

4:10 Grieve and be in labor, O daughter of Zion, as a woman giving birth, for now you will go out of the city, and will dwell in the country, and will come even to Babylon, there you will be made free, there the Lord will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies.

Septuagint: “Grieve, and act manly, o daughter of Zion, as a woman in travail, for now you will go forth out of the city, and will dwell in the plain, and will come even to Babylon; thence the Lord your God will deliver you, and thence will he redeem you out of the hand of your enemies.” She whom he commands to grieve, or rather give birth, and it is after that that she “acts manly,” is not commanded in vain; but in order that when she endures the pains patiently, she may go out of the city and dwell in the field or in the country, and she may come all the way to Babylon, and when she sustains captivity bravely on account of sin and has borne what was brought, then the Lord will free her and God will redeem her from the hand of her enemies so that, after she has been freed, she may say to those insulting her, “Do not insult me, my enemy, for although I have

fallen, I shall rise again, and indeed I shall walk in darkness: The Lord is my light. I shall bear the wrath of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he justifies my case and makes my judgment, and he brings me out into the light, and I shall behold his justice. And she who is my enemy will see it and will cover herself with shame.” ³² Wherefore also in the Psalms it is sung with a harmonious voice: “He will not always be angry, nor will the Lord threaten forever.” ³²⁷ Now this, “Grieve and act manly,” pertains to the salvation of the one grieving and acting with manly strength. Joshua also, the son of Nave, is a witness to this, to whom the Lord says: “Be strong and act manly.” ³²⁸ Now the daughter of Zion grieves and acts manly, because her shoes have been removed, and naked she went out of the city and had to be led captive into the field of Shinar ( Sennaar ), ³² and in times to come to Babylon, until Zerubbabel comes, ³³ and Ezra, which is interpreted helper, and he leads her from the hand of the Chaldeans. Since this is clear according to the letter, it seems to me that he means the soul, driven out of the church because of her sin and completely handed over to her enemy and avenger for the destruction of flesh so that its spirit may be saved, ³³¹ and it leaves the city, which the force of the river makes glad, ³³² and it dwells not in the mountain, where she formerly had been, but in the field in which the army of the Assyrians wanders, and it is in the confusion of their vices; and afterward she will have fetters, and will drag a millstone, and make flour for the Babylonians, and she returns to herself and says: “How many hired workers of my father are filled with bread, and here I am perishing on account of hunger.” ³³³ And afterward, returning to her father’s house, she is received by her most clement father and redeemed from the hand of her very harsh master. Let us offer an example to show that what is commanded and said to daughter Zion, “Grieve and act manly as a woman in travail,” refers not to punishment but to an act of kindness. Paul says to the Galatians: “My little children, for whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you.” ³³⁴ And he grieved for as long as he was travailing, until again he begat sons through their penance, they who had perished through their offense. Suppose a doctor says to one suffering of fever or to a wounded man, “Grieve and act manly,” endure the thirst, bear the cauterizing iron in order that a more definite healing may be attained.

4:11-13 And now have many nations gathered together against you, and they

say: Let her be stoned and let our eye look upon Zion. But they have not known the thoughts of the Lord, and have not understood his counsel; because he has gathered them together as the hay of the threshing floor. Arise, and thresh, O daughter Zion, for I shall make your horn iron, and your hooves I shall make brass: and you will beat in pieces many peoples, and you will immolate their spoils to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of the whole earth.

Septuagint: “And now have many nations gathered against you, saying, Let us mock [her] and let our eyes see Zion. But they have not known the thought of the Lord, and have not understood his counsel, for he has gathered them as sheaves of the threshing floor. Arise, and thresh them, o daughter of Zion; for I shall make your horns iron and I shall make your hooves brass: and you will utterly destroy many peoples, and will consecrate their abundance to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth.” O Jerusalem, o daughter Zion, you who shall come all the way to Babylon and there will be made free, and the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies; now in the meantime many nations have gathered together against you, who speak of you as if about an adulteress and say, Let her be stoned and let our eye look upon her. Or, as it is written in the Septuagint: “Let us mock her and let us rejoice, let our eyes look down upon Zion; but they have not known the will of the Lord and his counsel,” since the reason nations have gathered together against you is so that you may grind them as hay or as straw of the threshing floor. Rise, therefore, daughter Zion, and with your iron horns, which I promise to give to you, with your brass hooves, which you will receive, brandish and crush peoples and immolate them to the Lord of all the earth. For with such a victim and sacrifice he is delighted. But when the Jews realize that this is not yet fulfilled, they promise that it will happen at a future coming of Christ, and they say that all the nations will be at the service of the Jewish people, even the very empire of the Romans, which they interpreted under the name Edom. It must be crushed under their hooves and brandished by their horns. How foolish this is is easily proven from all the Scriptures, but that pertains to another time. We, therefore, who do not follow the letter that kills, but the spirit that gives life, ³³⁵ say that many nations of demons are gathered together against daughter Zion, which is interpreted as

referring to the church, and in the present age, which lies under the evil one, ³³ they mock and rejoice over the killing of her children, not knowing the thoughts of the Lord nor recognizing his plan. “For if they had known, they would have never crucified him, the Lord of majesty.” ³³⁷ Thus he will gather them together as sheaves of the threshing floor, so that anything that seemed thorny and rough, empty and thin, he crushes with his hooves and brandishes with his horns, and the pure grain that remains is offered as fitting to the Lord. Now, what is the significance in that which he says: “And you will utterly destroy many peoples, and will consecrate their abundance to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth.” Let us read in the book of Numbers, in Joshua son of Nave, and in the first book of Kingdoms, and we shall see in which way from the vanquished nations, since all were about to perish by the edge of the sword, a fixed amount of the plunder, whether gold and silver, and even from the men and from the cattle, is consecrated to the Lord. Finally, even Achor, ³³⁸ who stole something out of the banned items from Jericho, confounded the people, and from the sin the name was given to the valley ‘emeq ‘akhor , that is, the valley of trouble or the valley of uprisings. Now you should realize that the “consecration,” according to the interpreters of the Septuagint who said, “You will consecrate their abundance to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth,” should be understood in a good sense. Theodotion translated “gifts” instead of multitude; the Fifth Version translated it “advantage,” that is, ὠφέλειαν ; Symmachus, “profit,” that is, τὸ κέεδος αὐτῶν .

5:1 Now, you will be laid waste, O daughter of the robber: they have set a siege against us, with a rod they will strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.

Septuagint: “Now the daughter will be obstructed with obstruction; he has set a distress against us; they will strike the tribes of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.” It is not that one tribe strikes the cheek of another but that some strike the tribes of Israel on the cheek. I promised, indeed, to you, o daughter Zion, that there will be a time when I will make your horn iron and your hooves brass, ³³ and with the multitude of demons completely destroyed you will offer something to the Lord of all the earth from that which they had previously possessed. But because this will take place at that time when the fullness of the Gentiles will

have entered and all Israel would be saved, ³⁴ now in the meanwhile because of your merits you are being laid waste, or as is found in the Hebrew, you are being cut. For according to the apostle you are not called circumcision but mutilation. ³⁴¹ I call you not my daughter, but my daughter’s robber, which in Hebrew is said as bath gedud , that is, of the devil who is always armed for the purpose of plundering. For you made my house a den of robbers, you fought back against me, and your children set upon me and upon my Son and my Spirit. ³⁴² Is it not an insult to the Trinity when at your instigation the Romans struck the head of the judge of Israel with a rod and a reed, saying: “Prophesy to us, Christ; who struck you?” ³⁴³ Or when one of your attendants struck him on the cheek, saying: “Is that how you answer the high priest?” ³⁴⁴ This has been said according to the Hebrew. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion and the Fifth Version agree with this translation. Now, according to the Septuagint the sense is much loftier and is understood as it were from its own beginning. Now, the synagogue is obstructed with obstruction, and they who have been shut in it will say, “he has set a distress against us” and has subjected us to the power of the Romans; the tribes of Israel will be stricken on the cheek. For the Lord has taken away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong and the mighty, and the wise architect, and the intelligent listener, and their roads are closed up till today. ³⁴⁵ They are unable escape from captivity but are oppressed by a very harsh empire. But if according to the sense above we want to understand the saying concerning the church, “Now the daughter will be obstructed with obstruction,” we would bring forth that example from Hosea in which the adulteress speaks: “I shall go after my lovers, who gave to me my bread and my water, my clothing, and my linen cloths, my oil and all things that are beneficial to me.” ³⁴ And afterward, God, wanting to impede such a wicked plan, does not let her fulfill what she desires, but he obstructs her ways, lest she pursue her lovers and fornicate all the more. For he says: “Therefore here I shall barricade her road with stakes, and I shall block her ways, and she will not find her path; and she will not pursue her lovers and will not seize them, and she will not find them, and she will say: I shall walk and return to my first husband because he was good to me.” ³⁴⁷ Pay attention to the work the Lord has done: An adulteress, indeed, not finding her way, nor being able to go where she wanted, because she was compelled to return to her former husband, and she acknowledges that it is better for her to be in the house of her first husband than she once was with her lovers; thus Israel is instructed by means of tribulations and plagues. Hence he even says mystically to David, under the figure of Christ: “If his children will forsake my law, and will walk not in my judgments, if they

will profane my justices and will not keep my commandments, I shall visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes; but I shall not take away my mercy from him.” ³⁴⁸ God, therefore, set tribulation against the daughter of Israel, and the angels will strike her on the cheek, those that have been placed in charge. And lest you happen to be ignorant of who the daughter was who is obstructed with obstruction and is set in distress, immediately it is added and it is said, the tribes of Israel. But we are Israel who discern God with our mind. In distinction to this the apostle says: “You see Israel according to the flesh.” ³⁴ For he would never have called them fleshly Israel unless he knew likewise a spiritual one.

5:2 And you, Bethlehem Ephrata, are a little one among the thousands of Judah, out of you will he come forth unto me who is to be the ruler in Israel, and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

Septuagint: “And you, house of Bethlehem Ephrata, are the least, though you be among thousands of Judah, out of you will he come forth unto me who is to be the prince of Israel, and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of the age.” In the Gospel according to Matthew, when the magi came from the east and Herod sought from the scribes in which place Christ the Lord would be born, they said in response: “In Bethlehem, land of Judah.” ³⁵ They added the testimony of the prophet and said: “And you Bethlehem, the land of Judah, are by no means the least among the princes of Judah; for out of you will the leader go out who rules my people Israel.” ³⁵¹ It is clear even if I keep silent about it that this testimony agrees neither with the Hebrew text nor with the Septuagint translators; and I think that Matthew, wanting to expose the negligence of the scribes and the priests in respect to the reading of the divine Scriptures, thus likewise recorded it as it was said by them. Now, there are those who assert that there are errors of this sort in almost all the testimonies that are taken from the Old Testament, so that the order is changed, or the words, and now and then even the sense itself is different. This was done either by the apostles or Evangelists, who are not plucking testimonies out of a

book but trusting their memories, which sometimes fail them. Let us therefore explain the Hebrew text: And you, Bethlehem, that is, house of bread, you who are called Ephrata, you are indeed “the least” among the cities of Judah; and compared with so many thousands, you are hardly a small village, but from this small village Christ will go out, he who is the ruler in Israel. And lest you think that he is merely from the seed of David, to whom I promised, saying, “From the fruit of your womb, I shall set up my throne,” ³⁵² the assumption of the flesh does not impede the majesty; for he was born from me before all ages; and the creator of time cannot be held in time. He is the one to whom in another psalm I said: “Before the morning-star, I conceived you.” ³⁵³ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God.” ³⁵⁴ And therefore his going forth was from the beginning , from days of eternity . But the book of Genesis shows that Bethlehem itself is Ephrata, in which Scripture records: “Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrata, that is, Bethlehem.” ³⁵⁵ And he signifies a mystery in both names: for it is called “house of bread” because of the living bread, which came down from heaven. ³⁵ And Ephrata, which means “he sees the wrath,” on account of the insanity of Herod, because when he was fooled by the magi ³⁵⁷ he was greatly angered, sent and killed all the infants in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding regions from two years old and under, according to the time that he had inquired from the magi, and on account of such extreme bloodshed her voice was heard on high, lamentation and wailing, as Rachel mourning for her children. ³⁵⁸ We read, according to the Septuagint interpreters at least, in Joshua son of Nave, where the tribes, cities and towns of Judah are described, among the rest even this is written: “Theco, and Ephratha, that is, Bethlehem, and Phagor, and Ætan, and Culon, and Tami, and Soris, and Carem, and Galem, and Bether, and Manocho: eleven cities, and their villages.” ³⁵ This is found neither in Hebrew nor in any other translator, and it was either erased from the old books because of the wickedness of the Jews, lest Christ seem to have risen from the tribe of Judah, or it was added by the Septuagint, who did not clearly recognize what we know as certain. Nevertheless, we can prove this very thing also out of the book of Judges, that Bethlehem is in the tribe of Judah; for it is written: “And there was a Levite dwelling in the remote parts of the house of Ephraim, and he took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem of Judah; and his concubine was made angry against him and went away to the house of her father in Bethlehem of Judah.” ³ Now, it is nicely said, in Bethlehem of Judah, in order to distinguish it from another Bethlehem, which is situated in Galilee, as I discovered in the same

book of Joshua. ³ ¹ Ephrata can mean in our language καρπυφόρον , “fruitful” and in particular “fertile,” and that is itself shown in the mystery, because it is the “house of bread.”

5:3 Therefore, he will give them up till the time in which the one who travails will bring forth; and the remnants of his brethren will be converted to the children of Israel.

Septuagint: “Therefore, he will give them up till the time the one who travails; she will bring forth, and the remnants of the brethren will return to the children of Israel.” Because Christ the ruler in Israel has gone out from Bethlehem, which is Ephrata, ³ ² and his going forth was not only at the time in which he was seen in the flesh but from the beginning of eternity or from the beginning of the age. Because he himself has always spoken through the prophets, and the word of God came in their hand, consequently, he will give to the Jews and will allow them to reign up till the time of the one who travails, when that is fulfilled: “Rejoice, barren one, you who do not give birth; break forth and cry, you who do not travail; for more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.” ³ ³ For when the barren one bears seven, and she who had many children grows weak, ³ ⁴ and by the transgression of the Jewish people the fullness of the Gentiles enters, ³ ⁵ then all Israel will be saved, ³ and the remnants of their brethren will be converted to children of Israel. ³ ⁷ And when the prophet Elijah arrives, whose name means the Lord [is] God, he will convert the heart of the fathers to their children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, ³ ⁸ and the very new people will be joined to the old, so that they will truly be called true children of Abraham, ³ when they believe in him whom Abraham saw, and he rejoiced. ³⁷ But when will the barren give birth? I suppose it is that of which Isaiah says: “At the acceptable time, I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.” ³⁷¹ Even Paul understood this as having been announced concerning the time of Christ when he said: “Behold now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation.” ³⁷² I believe that this same thing is shown in that mystery that is recorded in Ecclesiastes: “There is a time for giving birth and a time for dying”; ³⁷³ that at that time in which the people of the Gentiles were born out of the

barren one the synagogue dismissed her children. But it can be understood in another way: The Lord will give the temple, and Jerusalem, and the Jews up till that time in which the virgin will give birth. ³⁷⁴ After she gives birth, and her little one is born, he will receive the spoils of Samaria and the strength of Damascus; ³⁷⁵ when the people of the Jews are destroyed, the remnants of Israel will be saved. And the brothers of Christ, that is, the apostles, will be converted to the faith of the prophets and patriarchs, they who proclaimed that Christ would come. And this will fulfill the prediction of the psalm: “Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you,” ³⁷ and the rest that follows.

5:4 And he will stand, and will feed in the strength of the Lord, in the height of the name of the Lord their God; and they will be converted, for now he will be magnified even to the ends of the earth.

Septuagint: “And the Lord will stand, and see, and feed his flock in strength, and they will be in the glory of the name of the Lord their God; for now they will be magnified to the ends even of the earth.” After the sun of justice ³⁷⁷ comes forth to the summit of the heavens and reaches even to their ends, and the one bearing gives birth, and the remnants of his brethren will have been converted to children of Israel, ³⁷⁸ then the Lord himself, who previously was walking, and was with those who were on the journey, did not yet have a fixed step, he will stand and will feed them in the strength of the Lord , so that they may be able to say: “The Lord feeds me, and there is nothing I shall want; in the place of pasture, there he has placed me, next to refreshing waters he has nurtured me, he has converted my soul.” ³⁷ Now he feeds them not only in the strength of the Lord but also in the height of the name of the Lord his God, when he says to the Father: “Holy Father, keep them in your name, those whom you have given me, so that they may be one as we are. When I was with them, I kept them in your name; I guarded those whom you have given me, and none of them perished.” ³⁸ And they will be converted or, better, as Symmachus translated, “they will inhabit,” for yashabu is a Hebrew verb that has both meanings. Now, they will inhabit in the church of the Lord, for Christ is magnified even to the end of the earth. Or, according to the Septuagint, because they themselves will “be magnified” with their shepherd

“unto the end of the earth,” as “their sound” goes forth “into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world.” ³⁸¹

5:5a And this [man] will be peace: When Assur will come into our land, and when he will trample in our houses.

Septuagint: “And this [woman] will be peace: When Assur will arrive into your land, and when he will ascend upon your country.” When the devil comes, which is interpreted εὐθυνῶν, that is, the one who convicts and censures, upon the land and country of believers, and of those whom the Lord will feed in strength and in the height of the name of the Lord his God, ³⁸² and he tramples them with various tribulations, even the houses of our souls, that is, our bodies, as if the proud one “ascends” and presses down heavily, yet nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. ³⁸³ At that time the peace of Christ, or rather Christ himself, will be in us, and it will be said about the holy one: “The enemy will have no advantage over him.” ³⁸⁴ Let us give an example so that what we are saying may become clearer. Assur once came upon the land of Paul and “ascended upon his country,” when he was “in labors” beyond measure, “he was lashed very abundantly, incarcerated many a time, in danger of death frequently,” when “five times from the Jews” he received “forty stripes minus one. Thrice he was beaten with rods, once he was stoned, thrice he was in shipwrecks,” he was “at night and at day in the depths of the sea,” he was “in peril from robbers, in peril among feigned brothers, in peril from those of his race, in peril from the Gentiles.” ³⁸⁵ Yet in the midst of all these things Paul conquered because of that one who had loved him. ³⁸ And consequently he was filled with peace, because he had been filled with insults. The Jews claim that all these things will come to pass according to the letter at the coming of their imagined Christ.

5:5b-6 And we shall raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. And they will feed the land of Assur with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the spears thereof; and he will deliver us from Assur when he will come into our land, and when he will tread in our borders.

Septuagint: “And they will raise against him seven shepherds, and eight attacks of men. And they will feed Assur with a sword, and the land of Nimrod with her trench: and he will deliver from Assur, when he will come upon your land, and when he will ascend against your borders.” Where we recorded principal men, and in Hebrew is written as nesikhe ’adam, Symmachus translated as “Christ of men,” Theodotion and the Fifth Version “princes of men,” Aquila “grave or appointed men,” that is, καθεσταμένους. Again in that place where I and Aquila translated “with the spears thereof,” so that one supplies in thought of the land of Nimrod, Symmachus rendered it ἐντὸς πυλῶν ἀυτῆς, that is, “within his gates,” Theodotion “on their gates,” the Fifth Version ἐν παραξίφεσιν ἀυτῶν, which we can express as, “in their daggers”; but in Hebrew baphethee is recorded. At that time, therefore, he will be peace, ³⁸⁷ when the remnants of Christ’s brethren are converted to children of Israel, ³⁸⁸ and Assur comes into our land, and with the help of the Lord we shall crush swiftly under our feet the one who wanted to tread our houses. ³⁸ For the Lord himself says, We shall raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men , or “attacks of men.” Now, I and my Son, and the Holy Spirit, we shall raise , according to that which is written in Genesis: “Let us make man according to our image and likeness.” ³ And in the beginning of Obadiah: “Arise ye and let us ascend against her in battle.” ³ ¹ I think the seven shepherds are all the patriarchs and prophets and the holy men, who comprise the number seven; that is, they served the Old Instrument. ³ ² Now, eight attacks of men, or eight principal men, and as Symmachus has translated Christs , refer to all the people of the New Testament, who from the apostles up to this age attack Assur, tearing him to pieces with their teeth. Hence even in Ecclesiastes it is commanded: “Let us give portions to seven and to eight.” ³ ³ And in the temple of Ezekiel, which is interpreted as the church and celestial Jerusalem, one ascends by seven and eight steps. ³ ⁴ Moreover, in the psalter there are fifteen steps by which we ascend to sing the praises to God. ³ ⁵ On the eighth day the spiritual circumcision is celebrated, and in the temple of the Jews the Sabbath is destroyed, and some Psalms are written for the eighth. These seven shepherds, therefore, and the eight attacks of man will feed Assur with the sword. For the Word of God is living and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword; ³ it was sent by him who came to send the sword against the earth, that two may be divided against three. ³ ⁷

And they will “feed the land of Nimrod,” which means “descending temptation,” with his trench; for the land of the giant and hunter ³ ⁸ and of the one who is arrogant against the Lord is not on the mountains but in the trenches. That one has fallen as a lightning from the sky. ³ He always lives among the beasts, for he is a hunter. ⁴ And he cleanses the forests and unfruitful trees. As far as I can remember, then, I have never read of hunter in a good sense. ⁴ ¹ Ishmael and Esau were hunters and came first as types of the Jewish people, one of whom was the son of an Egyptian woman. ⁴ ² He walked according to the flesh and lived according to the flesh. ⁴ ³ The other lost his rights as firstborn because of a little lentil soup; ⁴ ⁴ and being jealous of the blessings of his brother, he caused him to flee to Mesopotamia. ⁴ ⁵ When the land of Nimrod therefore has been reduced into trenches: for “he who digs a trench, will fall in it,” ⁴ and he who “has opened a hole and dug it will fall into the pit he made,” ⁴ ⁷ and “his sorrow will be turned on his own head, and his iniquity will come down upon his top”; ⁴ ⁸ and when Assur was pierced by seven shepherds and eight attacks of men, Christ delivered us from the hand of Assur, who came upon our land and was desiring to tread upon the boundaries of Israel. But what Symmachus says, “And they will feed the land of Assur with a sword and the country of Nimrod within his gates,” this must be understood, that the strong enemy will be bound and wounded in his own house. And according to Aquila and the Fifth Version he is stabbed with the daggers and spears of the seven shepherds and of the eight anointed ( christorum ) men.

5:7-14 And the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples as a dew from the Lord, and as drops upon the grass, which wait not for man, nor tarry for the children of men. And the remnant of Jacob will be among the Gentiles in the midst of many peoples as a lion among the beasts of the forests, and as a lion’s whelp among the flocks of sheep: who when he will go through and tread down, and take, there is none to destroy. Your hand will be lifted up over your enemies, and all your enemies will perish. And it will be in that day, says the Lord, that I shall take away your horses out of the midst of you, and shall destroy your chariots. And I shall ruin the cities of your land, and shall destroy all your fortifications, and I shall take away sorceries out of your hand, and there will be no divinations in you. And I shall destroy your graven images, and your statues out of the midst of you; and you will no more adore the works of your hands. And I shall pluck up your groves out of the midst of you: and

shall crush your cities. And I shall make vengeance in wrath and in indignation among all the nations which have not heard.

Septuagint: “And the remnant of Jacob will be among the Gentiles in the midst of many peoples, as dew falling from the Lord, and as lambs on the meadow; that someone may not gather nor be among the sons of men. And the remnant of Jacob will be among the Gentiles in the midst of many peoples, as a lion in the forest among cattle, and as a lion’s whelp among the flocks of sheep, even as when he goes through, and selects, and snatches, and there is none to destroy. Your hand will be lifted up against those who afflict you, and all your enemies will be utterly destroyed. And it will be in that day, says the Lord, that I shall kill your horses out of the midst of you, and I shall destroy your chariots; and I shall subvert the cities of your land, and shall take away all your strongholds; and I shall take away your sorceries out of your hands; and there will be none who speak among. And I shall utterly destroy your graven images and your statues out of the midst of you; and you will never any more adore the works of your hands. And I shall cut off the groves out of the midst of you, and I shall demolish your cities. And I shall make vengeance in anger and wrath against the Gentiles because they hearkened not.” When we were freed from Assur, when he comes upon our land and ascends upon our borders, ⁴ and when, having been freed by the Lord who has stirred up the seven shepherds and the eight attacks of men against him, ⁴¹ the remnant of Jacob , which we understand to be the apostles and the first converts from the Jews, will be in the midst of many peoples as dew falling from the Lord . For with the darts of the devil ignited, they were setting aflame the hearts of the peoples, and all the Gentiles had hearts that were debasing themselves away from God as an oven kindled with fire. ⁴¹¹ Hence “the dew falling from the Lord” became health to sick ones. ⁴¹² And what we read about Ananias, Azarias and Mishael, that the breath of the dew extinguished the furnace of hissing fire, ⁴¹³ we should understand this in a general sense of everyone, that in the midst of all the Gentiles the teaching of the apostles is as dew from the Lord. Now we should understand of those what follows: “And as lambs on the meadow; that someone may not gather nor be among the sons of men.” This refers to those who refused to believe from the Gentiles that the apostles and the remnant of Jacob are over them as lambs grazing in a meadow and are cutting

away grass with their teeth. And they will do this so that those who were not willing to be angels, by taking in the spiritual dew, will not be congregated among men nor reckoned in the rational portion, but it would be said about them: “They are not in the labor of men, nor with men will they be scourged.” ⁴¹⁴ And they will be the remnant of Jacob in the midst of the Gentiles as a lion among beasts in the forest, and as a lion’s whelp among the flocks of sheep. For the Lord Jesus, of whom it is prophesied in Genesis, “Judah is a lion’s whelp: from a tender plant, my son, you have ascended; lying down, you have slept as a lion, and as a lion’s whelp”; ⁴¹⁵ and in another passage: “lying down, he rested as a lion and as a lion’s whelp, who will awake him?” ⁴¹ and he gave power to his apostles, to whom he had said: “Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” ⁴¹⁷ so that, just as no one is able to resist a lion among the beasts and a lion’s whelp among the sheep, so they are to be freed from the hand of the Assyrian, and seize beasts and cattle from the hand of the devil; for the Lord will save men and beasts. ⁴¹⁸ And they snatched not in order to kill but to select, that is, to separate them from the unbelievers, and there were none to resist them. Now with the lion and the lion’s whelp wandering through among beasts and sheep, the hand of God is raised upon those who previously afflicted either God or the remnants of Israel. And all his enemies will be destroyed, not that the enemies perish and cease to exist but the respect in which they are enemies perishes. As it is written to the Thessalonians: “Whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the spirit of his mouth.” ⁴¹ This killing does not signify annihilation but the cessation of wicked life, by which before they were living evilly. After all, he adds: “And he will destroy by brightness of his coming.” ⁴² But he would never destroy if the killing meant annihilation, since he would have already ceased to exist. In this way also is understood this destruction of enemies according to the Proverbs of Solomon, in which it is written: “Ruin will be visited upon the wicked.” ⁴²¹ It will not be visited forever, it will not reduce them to nothingness, but it will be visited among them as long as the impiety that is among them needs to be devoured. For God did not create man to perish; and he did not make death. ⁴²² After these things, it follows: And it will be in that day, when your hand will be lifted upon your enemies, o Israel, and all your enemies will perish, I shall kill your horses from your midst, that is, from the principal part of your heart, horses that attack each other lasciviously and in the manner of horses, with the fetters broken, they rush forth, and your chariots in four-horse chariots, by which you were pleasing your own vices within you and were uniting sins with sins, and

you were borne around as one who was triumphant. And I shall demolish the cities of your land. For you did not build a city that the force of the river of God makes glad, ⁴²³ and that is situated on the mountains as the celestial Jerusalem, ⁴²⁴ but as that which Cain had built. ⁴²⁵ Hence they are called cities of the earth constructed out of works of the earth. And I shall take away , he says, all your fortification , namely, the riches and the pomp of the age, and the rhetoric of eloquence, and traps of dialectical speech, in which you were trusting as in fortifications. And I shall take away sorceries from your hand , by which either you yourself were being deceived by others, or as one deceived you were deceiving others, and when they speak, or rather, proclaim, they will be nothing to you. Now the world is full of those who speak and proclaim; they speak what they do not know, they teach what they have not learned; they are teachers, though they themselves were not previously disciples. ⁴² Therefore, when God will have taught man knowledge, false presumptions will cease, and their perverse doctrine will be removed. And I shall destroy your graven images and your titles from your midst. Our graven images are those things that are made by those speaking, or that we ourselves mold for ourselves. Hence it is prescribed in the law ⁴²⁷ that we are not to make graven images and we are not to put titles in our land, ⁴²⁸ and you will no longer adore the works of your hands. ⁴² The unhappy human condition is full of foolishness and error; it knows from which sense teachings are composed, it is not unaware that an idol has been feigned from itself and, instead of God, it worships the works of their hands, and man is stooped over, so that the one deceived deceives. It is added in the promise that is directed to the remnants, that is, to the ὑπόλειμμα of Jacob, “And I shall cut off the groves out of the midst of you, and I shall demolish your cities,” so that he destroys and consumes all the trees of the woods, and the groves that it is forbidden to be planted in the temple of the Lord, and the cities evilly constructed, which previously he had called cities of the earth. Now, after this happens to the remnant of Jacob, then they will turn to the nations that the apostles have fed as lambs of the meadow. And because they have refused to receive the dew of the word, I shall execute vengeance against the Gentiles, he says, in anger and wrath because they have refused to listen. Hence even the prophet says: “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor chastise me in your anger.” ⁴³ This has been discussed according to the translators of the Septuagint, because of the spiritual understanding, and we ought to join this sense with the sections above.

Moreover, the Hebrews dream up delusions of the following sort: After the seven whom they fabricated, and the shepherds whom they want, and the eight principal men of the Assyrians, the land of Nimrod, they have conquered and they fed with their swords, so that this will have been done before Assur comes into the land of Judah, then when the Christ comes, they say, with Christ, all the remnant of Jacob that would be able to be left among the Gentiles, they will be in blessing, as a dew coming from Lord ⁴³¹ and as rain upon the grass. And they will not hope in men and in the children of men but in God. And they will be in the midst of the Gentiles and of the peoples, bloody and savage, and arrogating themselves over their old former masters as a lion among the beasts of the woods, and as a lion’s whelp among the flock of sheep, and there will be none who could resist their strength. Then your hand will be exalted, o God, or o Israel, upon the Assyrians, and all your adversaries and enemies who now possess you will perish. In that day, namely, when you are freed from among the Gentiles, I shall take away your horses and your chariots, which you had in the midst of your cities. It is not that Israel had horses and chariots at that time, but they used the horses of the Assyrians and their chariots that were in the midst of the cities. And I shall demolish all your cities, and strongholds that you have consecrated to idols; and I shall take away from your land all magi and soothsayers; I shall make all your graven images and statues perish, and you will no longer adore the works of your hands. I shall also pluck up and subvert all your groves and your cities that you had dedicated to idols. And when I do this to you, and I am so placated that whatever evil is in you is taken away, then even in my fury and indignation I shall avenge you from all the Gentiles, who did not want to hear my word. Let carnal Israel respond to this passage, whether he would say that these things have been done or shall be in times to come? If he recalls that these things have happened, let him furnish the history, let him grant the authority of the old books, let him show that all the Gentiles and Assur were subject to Israel. If, however, he thinks that what is said is coming in the future, playing with a vain hope, when the Christ will have come, which idols will be taken away from Israel at that time that he does not adore now? What groves are to be cut down that he does not have? Which cities will be undermined that once were already undermined? Who are the soothsayers who will be taken away, since he would not have any or boast that he has them? Yet the daughter Zion was abandoned for so much time, and sits without an altar and without priests, and their crops have been eaten by others; they themselves with dry mouths have promised themselves that things that they do not know will come to pass.

6:1-2 Hear what the Lord says: Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, mountains the judgment of the Lord, and the strong foundations of the earth; for the Lord is in judgment with his people, and he will plead against Israel.

Septuagint: “Hear what the Lord has said: Arise, judge with the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, o mountains, the judgment of the Lord, and the valleys and foundations of the earth: for the Lord is in a judgment against his people, and will plead with Israel.” Instead of the strong foundation of the earth, which the Septuagint translated as “and the valleys [and] foundations of the earth,” Symmachus and Theodotion translated it as the ancient foundations of the earth; but the Fifth Version recorded the Hebrew word itself, ’ethanim, the foundations of the earth. The first words, then, are the prophet’s: Hear what the Lord says. Then God speaks to the prophet: Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Then again the prophet speaks to the mountains, as it had been commanded to him, but not only to the mountains but also to the foundations of the earth, and he says: Hear, mountains, the judgment of the Lord, and the strong foundations of the earth. And he gives a reason why he compels them to hear: Because the judgment of the Lord is “against his people,” and he will plead against Israel. Instead of the mountains to which the prophet speaks, and in place of the strong foundations of the earth, the Septuagint translated “hills and valleys.” It seems to me that they understand the following: the people have done nothing worthy of hearing the mountains but deserve either the “hills,” which are lower than the height of mountains, or the “valleys,” which are sunk down to the bottom. Arise, he says, contend in judgment with the mountains and let the “hills” hear your voice. One who is either sitting, or lying down, sleeping, or who is dead is given this order according to what the apostle says: “Get up, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.” ⁴³² Arise from the dead that you may walk in the newness of life, ⁴³³ that by abandoning the earth you may strive for those things above. ⁴³⁴ Contend in judgment against the mountains, which, I believe, signify no other than the angels to whom the guidance of human affairs has been entrusted. ⁴³⁵ This agrees with the song of Deuteronomy: “When the Most High divided the nations, when

he scattered the sons of Adam, he established the boundaries of the earth according to the number of the angels of God.” ⁴³ These are the “ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who will possess the inheritance of salvation.” ⁴³⁷ And contend in judgment , so that either mountains or “hills” will have been exposed, that they did not look after the peoples worthily, either that it would seem to be my [judgment], I who have set such ones in charge, or that the fault would be removed from the people and be referred to the princes. Let us read the Apocalypse of the apostle John, in which the angels of the churches are praised and accused for the virtues and vices of those over whom they are said to preside. ⁴³⁸ For just as sometimes bishops are at fault, sometimes the people, and often the teacher of sin, often the disciple, sometimes it is the fault of the father, sometimes of the son, so that they are educated either well or badly, so in the judgment of God, guilt will be referred either to the angels, if they have not done all that was pertinent to their duty, or to the people, if while the angels were doing everything they themselves refused to listen. There are those who interpret mountains, hills and strong foundations of the earth to be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and other patriarchs, to whom, as if to an audience and to those summoned to judgment, the business of the people of Israel must be displayed. Others, as we said above, think that the mountains, hills, valleys, are angels, who either serve God in heaven or preside over men on this earth, or have been established in the lower regions for those who are said to have stood forth as earthly foundations by their own vice, about which foundations of the earth we find it written elsewhere: “A fire has been kindled out of my wrath, it will burn to the lower regions below; it will devour the earth and its foundations.” ⁴³ The strong and ancient foundations of the earth—on account of which the earth hitherto has not passed away, and hanging above emptiness, subsisting in a balanced state—are the merits of the just, about which the apostle speaks: “Built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets.” ⁴⁴ Just as, therefore, the apostles and the prophets and the whole choir of martyrs are the strong foundations of the earth, so according to the Septuagint the valleys and steep places, which more significantly are called φάραγγες in Greek, are the foundations of those who have received the image of the χοϊκοῦ. ⁴⁴¹ Therefore the judgment of the Lord is with his own people, and he will plead in judgment with Israel. He who as God could have inflicted punishments for the crimes of sinful people does not want to seem powerful, but just, and he summons sinners to judgment according to this prophecy: “Come, and let us judge, says the Lord.” ⁴⁴² Even now he compels the people of Israel before the angels who are present,

and before every creature, to see whether it has anything to say in response, so that God may be justified in his words and may conquer when he is judged. ⁴⁴³

6:3-5 O my people, what have I done to you, or in what have I molested you? Answer me. For I led you out of the land of Egypt, and delivered you out of the house of slaves; and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam (Mariam). O my people, remember, I pray you, what Balak the king of Moab devised against you, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Setim to Galgal, that you might know the justices of the Lord.

Septuagint: “O my people, what have I done to you? or wherein have I grieved you? or wherein have I molested you? Answer me. For I led you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, and sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam (Mariam). My people, remember what Balak, the king of Moab, devised against you, and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him, from Schoenis to Galgal; that the justice of the Lord might be known.” Instead of with justices or rather with justice, Symmachus translated “mercies.” And where the Septuagint has schaenis, all the others translated by the Hebrew word Shittim. Now this location, where Balak, the king of the Moabites, gathered an army against Israel ⁴⁴⁴ ὁμώνυμος ⁴⁴⁵ the trees that are produced throughout the wilderness of Mount Sinai. For it is related in the Septuagint that the ark of the covenant and the altar and the tabernacle and other things were made from incorruptible wood. In Hebrew they are referred to as trees of Shittim . ⁴⁴ They resemble the tree that we call in common speech the whitethorn. Hence I think that the Septuagint translated it as σχῖνον, that is, lentiscus, but little by little an error crept in that the copyist made, and it eventually was read as σχοῖνοι, that is, “cords,” instead of σχίνοις, that is, lentisci. God, therefore, is speaking to the people of Israel and summoning them to judgment. He grants them permission to dispute against himself. O my people, what have I done to you? What should I not do? “Or wherein have I grieved you?” although this is not found in the Hebrew. Now a father “grieves” a scourged son, and a shepherd visits the iniquities of the sheep with a rod. ⁴⁴⁷ In what have I molested you? Or, as it is written more meaningfully in Hebrew, by

what labor have I oppressed you? Or will you interpret my kindness as an insult and long for the watermelons and the Egyptian meats? ⁴⁴⁸ Will you grieve that you were led forth from the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage, delivered from slavery by my help? ⁴⁴ For I gave leaders to you: my friend Moses , and Aaron my priest, and Miriam my prophetess. But if this seems to you a petty thing, remember that time when Balak, king of Moab , hired for a wage Balaam the divine against you, and see how against his own will he blessed you, although the soothsayer himself desired to curse you. ⁴⁵ From Settim to Galgal , when Israel checks over the whole army with his eyes, and when he changes places, as if I could not continue with them proceeding, and to pass on with them passing on. And I did this in order that they, my mercies and justices for you, would be known as those of one who loves you alone, that I would not leave you cursed by an enemy, although I am cursed daily by the mouth of blasphemers. The Hebrews explain this passage wherein it is said, From Setim to Galgal, that you might know the justices of the Lord as follows: from that time when you fornicated in Madian, ⁴⁵¹ up to the time when Saul was anointed king near Galgal, ⁴⁵² call to mind what evils you have done and what great goods I did for you. Then you will recognize my mercy to you. God was saying this to carnal Israel, according to history. But we who desire to contemplate the glory of the Lord with an unveiled face ⁴⁵³ and who truly have Abraham for father, ⁴⁵⁴ let us hear God disputing with us when we sin and convicting us in respect to the greatness of his benefits. For we were subservient for a time to Pharaoh and made mud and bricks, ⁴⁵⁵ and he redeemed us who gave himself as redemption for all, ⁴⁵ that those who were redeemed by the Lord, whom he redeemed from the hand of enemies and whom he gathered from the countries, might say: “For his mercy is forever.” ⁴⁵⁷ He sent out the spiritual Moses too before our face, and Aaron the great priest, bearing the ephod as a type of the truth, ⁴⁵⁸ but having on his forehead the sign of sanctity that God the Father had sealed. And he sent Miriam , the prediction of the prophets, and not only did he offer this to us but he also delivered us from the hands of our enemies. Let us remember, indeed, what the devil, the true Balak , devised against us, he who wanted to devour and to lick our congregation. For Balak means ἐκλείχων , that is, the one who licks, the king of paternal water; since indeed, Moab, according to another etymology, is called paternal water. When, therefore, Balak lay in ambush against us, and lay in ambush of us by his own vain people, which is interpreted as Balaam, God did not allow us to lie exposed to his curses, but on the contrary he blessed us, the empty people of the Gentiles having been compelled by the truth of this very

thing and having been born of that which is on the skin, for Beor is interpreted “on the skin,” always given to the flesh and the works of death, and the vain people answered for us, having arisen from him who is on the skin, always changing places, whether standing upon “thorns” or upon thin “cords,” so that we may follow the error of the common edition as well. Now, thorns, according to the utterance of our Savior, are the cares of this world and riches, and they are the pleasures in which a vain people exist. ⁴⁵ But let them stand on “cords”—that is to say, in the fetters of sins, for each one “is bound with the cords of his own sins” ⁴ —and Isaiah testified, saying: “Woe to those who draw sins as if by a long rope, and iniquities as by a strap of leather for the yoke.” ⁴ ¹ If, therefore, he stands, he does not stand except on thorns and cords, but if he wants to go about, he does not have a stable step but is always fluctuating and vacillating; he comes up to Galgala, which means κυλισμός , that is, whirling or wallowing place. If we ever see someone rising up against us and with greedy jaws thirsting for our blood, and out of the unforeseen dispensation of God they become for us those who have come against us, let us say that “Balaam came from cords up to Galgal,” ⁴ ² in order that the justice of God would be known.

6:6-7 What shall I offer to the Lord that is worthy? Wherewith shall I kneel before the most high God? Shall I offer holocausts unto him, and calves of a year old? Can the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fat he-goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my wickedness, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul?

Septuagint: “By what shall I reach the Lord? Shall I lay hold of my God most high? Shall I reach him by whole-burnt offerings, by calves of a year old? Will the Lord accept thousands of rams, or ten thousands of fat he-goats? Should I give my firstborn for my impiety, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul?” God had called forth the people to judgment. ⁴ ³ One who knows his sin does not want to contend but to beg, and yet he does not have confidence in the prayers themselves. For there is nothing worthy that could be offered to God for sin, and no humility is able to wash away the stains of transgressions, because it is

impossible that the blood of bulls, and the burnt offerings of calves’ marrow, and the spilt blood of rams, and the fat of he-goats, wash away the filth of the soul. ⁴ ⁴ Should I give, he says, my firstborn for my wickedness, as king of Moab is said to have done? ⁴ ⁵ Or the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul, as Jephthah did when, on account of the temerity of his vow, he sacrificed his own daughter? ⁴ We, therefore, who are from the people of God, know “that no one living will be justified in his sight,” ⁴ ⁷ and we say, “I have become a beast before you.” ⁴ ⁸ We do penance for sins, we deliberate and say: “By what shall I reach the Lord?” “Shall I lay hold of my most high Lord?” How shall I be able to hold him? With how much cleanness shall I be able to prepare lodging for the Trinity? Or shall I grasp him with holocaust, so that I offer myself to him whole in a holocaust, or calves of a year old, so that leaving behind the milk I may come to the solid food? ⁴ How shall I become worthy of the acceptable year of the Lord? ⁴⁷ If I shall have offered a thousand rams, ten thousand he-goats, and I shall have presented all the victims of Leviticus, understanding them spiritually in reference to myself, and if a thousand should fall at my right side, and ten thousand at my left, yet I shall be able to give nothing worthy ⁴⁷¹ by which I shall reach him or shall lay hold of God. ⁴⁷² If I were to give my firstborn for my impiety and the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul, I shall indeed give whatever is first in me, but for my sin and impiety I shall offer nothing worthy to God. Hence even David prays and says: “More and more, wash me from my iniquity and from my sin cleanse me. Since I know my iniquities and my transgression is always against me.” ⁴⁷³ Blood alone is offered worthily for the soul’s sin, and the blood not of calves, not of rams, not of he-goats, but only one’s very own can worthily be offered, since the prophet says and asks: “What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things that he has rendered to me?” ⁴⁷⁴ And afterward he responds: “I shall take the chalice of salvation; and I shall call upon the name of the Lord.” ⁴⁷⁵ “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” ⁴⁷ But we do not give this blood; instead, we pay it. And what is that like? Since the just one died on behalf of sinners, ⁴⁷⁷ the Son of God on men’s behalf, ⁴⁷⁸ should we sinners and men die for the confession of his name?

6:8 I shall show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires from you: Verily, to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk solicitously with your God.

Septuagint: “It has been proclaimed to you, o man, what is good, or what the Lord requires from you, except that you do justice, and love mercy, and be ready to walk with your God.” Because you doubt, o people of Israel, or rather the whole human race—for I do not speak to the Jewish people, but my word reaches universally to every man—just as you would not be able to appease God for your sins if you do not have victims with which your impiety may be compensated, I shall answer to you, what God requires, or rather, I have previously demonstrated it in the law. For it is written in Deuteronomy: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, except that you fear the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and that you love him and serve the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul; to keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his ordinances, all that which I shall command to you today, that it may be well with you?” ⁴⁷ The Lord requires from us, and since he holds what are the things necessary for our salvation, he demands to receive. It profits the giver that we do judgment—that is, that we do nothing without reason and counsel, ⁴⁸ that the mind should first judge what it should do and then complete the work; that we should love mercy , and not as if by compulsion, or that we should be merciful from necessity, since “God loves the cheerful giver.” ⁴⁸¹ Let us not say: “Go today and return tomorrow, then, I shall give to you.” ⁴⁸² And when we do judgment and love mercy , what reward shall we receive? We shall walk with the Lord our God, as Enoch did, ⁴⁸³ who according to the reliability of the book of Hebrews, “walked with God,” and pleased him, ⁴⁸⁴ “and he was found no more, because God translated him.” ⁴⁸⁵ For you have said in what I may find the Lord, or wherein I shall reach him. I promise you more fully, do judgment and love mercy, and you will walk with your God . Or certainly, to walk with God is not a prize but a precept. ⁴⁸ For just as it is ordered to us that we should do judgment , and love mercy , likewise it is prescribed that we should be “prepared to walk with the Lord our God.” We ought to sleep at no time, to be secure at no time, but always to await the coming of the father of the family ⁴⁸⁷ and to dread the Day of Judgment. ⁴⁸⁸ And during the night of this world we should say: “I sleep, and my heart watches.” ⁴⁸ As for the word which the Seventy translated “to be prepared,” and for which we said to walk solicitously , Theodotion expressed it more meaningfully: καὶ ἀσφαλίζου τοῦ πορεύεσθαι μετὰ ᾿Eλωαίχ , that is: “And carefully beware, that you walk with your God,” as the Fifth Version translated: καὶ φροντίζειν , namely, to act solicitously and to have this concern, that you walk with your God. For he who says that he believes in Christ should walk even as he walked. ⁴ And the apostle

Paul says: “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.” ⁴ ¹

6:9a The voice of the Lord cries to the city, and salvation will be to them fearing your name.

Septuagint: “The voice of the Lord will cry to the city, and he will save those fearing his name.” In Hebrew this is the beginning of another section, but according to the Septuagint interpreters it is the end of the previous one; and it makes sense: God requires nothing else from you, o man, except that you do judgment, and love mercy, and that you be prepared to walk with your God. ⁴ ² For the voice of the Lord is heard in his city, the church, and daily it sounds forth through the Holy Scriptures, that not only those who love mercy but also those who are inferior and still fear the name of the Lord are saved by his teaching and clemency. But if this is the beginning of the next section, let us refer to the history, which is said to Samaria, the capital of the ten tribes, which was captured while the prophet Micah was prophesying, and let us say: the Lord is rebuking Samaria and threatening her with plagues that are about to come, so that the people of Judah, or those fearing the name of the Lord, upon hearing that others are suffering punishments, may gain salvation when they have been chastised by fear. For with pestilence as a scourge not only the wise man but also the fool will be made wiser. ⁴ ³ And you will apply this to sinners generally and to the just ones, that the affliction of some may become an example for others. This indeed was the Lord’s interpretation in the Gospel of those ones upon whom the tower of Siloam fell. ⁴ ⁴ He said that they were not the only sinners among all the people, but he summons the rest to penitence by means of their punishment.

[6:9b] Hear, O ye tribes, and who will approve it?

6:10-16 As yet there is a fire in the house of the impious, the treasures of impiety, and a lesser measure full of wrath. Shall I justify wicked balances,

and the fraudulent weights of the bag? By which her rich men were filled with iniquity, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue was deceitful in their mouth. And I therefore began to strike you with perdition over your sins. You will eat, but will not be filled, and your humiliation will be in the midst of you, and you will take hold, but will not save; and those whom you will save, I will give up to the sword. You will sow, but will not reap; you will tread the olives, but will not be anointed with the oil, and even the new wine you will not drink. For you have kept the precepts of Omri (Amri), and all the works of the house of Ahab and you have walked according to their wills, that I should give you into perdition, and the inhabitants thereof into a hissing, and you will bear the reproach of my people.

Septuagint: [6:9b] “Hear, o ye tribes, and who will adorn the city? Is there not fire, and the house of the wicked treasuring iniquitous treasures, and with injury iniquities? Shall the iniquitous be justified on the balance, and in the fraudulent weights in the bag, whereby they have accumulated their ungodly wealth, and they who dwell in the city have uttered iniquities, and their tongue has been exalted in their mouth? And, I have tormented you with perdition on account of your sins. You will eat, and will not be satisfied; and I shall cast you out into yourself, and you will seize, and you will not save, and whosoever will have been saved, will be handed over to the sword; You will sow, but you will not reap; you will press the olive, but you will not be anointed with oil; and [you will press] the grape, but you will not drink the wine; and the ordinances of my people and all the works of the house of Ahab will be utterly abolished. And you have walked in their counsels on account of that I might deliver you into perdition, and the inhabitants thereof into hissing; and ye will receive the reproaches of peoples.” In many places in this section the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew truth, at the beginning in particular: “Hear, o ye tribes, and who will adorn the city? And the ordinances of my people will be destroyed.” This is in place of what we recorded for the sake of the coherence of the words And you have kept the precepts of Omri (Amri), although it is also written in Hebrew: And the precepts of Omri (Amri) are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab. For if it had been written ‘Ammi in Hebrew, the Septuagint has rightly translated “my people”; but now, since ‘Omri (‘Amri) is written, and the [Hebrew] letter resh is added, it does not signify the term “people” but Ahab’s father, of whom the

history of Kings narrates, ⁴ ⁵ and no one doubts that the Septuagint is in error. After all, the name of the father and the name of the son are recorded, and it is said: “And all the works of the house of Ahab.” Therefore let us return to the beginning of the section. And first discussing it according to the letter, assisted by your prayers, ⁴ let us strive to pursue the spiritual sense. Hear, o ten tribes of Samaria, what the Lord calls you to witness: There is still fire, that is, iniquity in the house of the impious Omri (‘Amri), and the treasures of impiety persevere in the royal house. Are you willing to hear in detail each of the evils your city is full of? Learn: the lighter measure provokes the wrath of God, the fraudulent scale and the diverse weights, and buying merchandise at one weight, selling it at another. ⁴ ⁷ And if indeed the poor were doing this, scarcity could have justified the crime as necessary. But in fact it is the wealthy, who are filled not so much with riches as with iniquity, because while they plunder all the riches of others, they beget iniquity. She follows the lying gathering of riches, and her hand is accustomed to store away treasures; she possesses a fraudulent tongue. Truth begets poverty, wealth falsehood. ⁴ ⁸ Though your princes were doing this, I did not want to overthrow you immediately, but I began to strike you little by little and to admonish you with various plagues. I sent famine to you, I sent thirst, I sent sickness and hostile devastation all around; the grain did not produce a crop, the olive was pressed but did not make oil, the harvest of the sterile grapes failed to produce wine. Over against the iniquities and deceitful measures and fraudulent weights, I brought these things against you as punishments. But because you have kept all the ceremonies of idolatry that the impious King Omri (‘Amri) had established, and in place of my law you preserved all the work of the house of Ahab and Jezebel, ⁴ I have been inspired by your wickedness to give you and your inhabitants “into hissing,” and you would bear the reproach of my people while they were captured by the Assyrians, as you, the people of God, are conquered. And because of you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles. ⁵ It must be noted in the present passage that where it reads, And you will bear the reproach of my people , or as the Septuagint translated, “And ye will receive the reproaches of the peoples,” “my people” is written as ‘Ammi in Hebrew. If, therefore, ‘Ammi signifies “of my people,” there is no doubt that my people was poorly translated above instead of Omri ( ‘Amri ). Hitherto we have expressed what seemed right to us according to the Hebrew; now returning to the translation of the interpreters of the Septuagint, let us

discuss each point as we are able. The Samaritan tribe is called for a hearing, for she cut herself off from the people of God. And it is said to her: In vain, you make idols, golden calves composed by the artifice of your hand, ⁵ ¹ and you want to build another metropolis in imitation of Jerusalem but estranged from her power; for who will be able to adorn the city? The fire, which is ignited by the flaming darts of the devil, ⁵ ² and the iniquitous house, which “according to its hardness and impenitent heart is treasuring up for itself wrath for the day of wrath, and of revelation of the just judgments of God.” ⁵ ³ Injury increases iniquity, so as to snatch not only from the house of God, which is the church, but also to devastate other things with arrogance and haughtiness. Can he be justified who without scales and weights gathers fraudulently his own wealth from the testimonies of the Scriptures, which are the riches of the treasure of iniquity? For since the Lord commands, “There will not be a large and small weight in your bag,” ⁵ ⁴ they always show partiality for the sake of base gain and in the same cause judge the rich and not the poor in different ways, not according to the matter but according to the diversity of their substance, and the inhabitants of their city, which they think need to be adorned by themselves with depraved dogma and perverse teaching, they speak falsehood and set their own mouth on high and despise the simplicity of the people of the church. Hence the most clement God does not strike them together but little by little tries to warn them by plagues, saying, And I shall begin to strike you with perdition on account of your sins; and this is the meaning: O city that the heretics want to build, I shall strike you, in order that you perish, not in the sense of annihilation, but in respect to your being a sinner. It follows: You will eat, but will not be filled. For they read indeed and do not understand; and feeding on the words of the Scriptures, they suffer from a scarcity of truth. “I shall cast you out,” he says, “and you will seize, and you will not save, and whosoever will have been saved will be handed over to the sword.” He says: I shall abandon you to your judgment; and afterward seeking many things, you will find nothing; understanding your own error, you will see that you cannot be saved by all your teachings. Now, whoever thinks that they will be filled, and will not be cast out from themselves, and have not understood the truth, will be handed over to the sword and will be instructed by punishments. Therefore, you will sow, o tribe, and o worst city, which the heretics build with fire and iniquity and with insults and by fraudulent scales and by the falsehood of your bag; you will sow, and you will not harvest; you will press the olive, and you will not be anointed with oil, and you will press the grapes, and you will not drink the wine. For it is useful to you, when you have recognized your error, not to have disciples, not to anoint

your head with the oil of sins, not to drink and get drunk with wine of Sodom. And the ordinances of my people, or of Omri (‘Amri), will be destroyed, and all the works of the house of Ahab of those who have stood forth in the heresies as patriarchs and princes. We can refer them either to the contrary powers, or to the leaders of heresies, as were Marcion and Basilides, ⁵ ⁵ and more recently Arius ⁵ and Eunomius. ⁵ ⁷ And you have walked in their will, namely, of Omri ( ‘Amri ) and Ahab. And his words “in their will” are nicely said. For the wicked doctrine of the teachers is not the doctrine of God but the inventions of their heart. ⁵ ⁸ And I will hand you over into perdition so that you may perish insofar as you are heretical. And your inhabitants will be “in hissing”; like the good shepherd according to Zechariah, you follow the whistle of the one saying: “I shall whistle to them and I shall gather them because I have redeemed them.” ⁵ Or certainly in the hissing of the serpent, that is, in the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved and the one chastised may learn not to blaspheme. ⁵¹ And they will suffer all this ⁵¹¹ so that they may understand their error because they have carried the sins and reproaches of all the Gentiles and of many nations. I know that some have applied this to the church, things that we have interpreted in respect to the heresies. But I do not well understand how the name of Omri ( ‘Amri ) and Ahab, of the princes of Samaria, could be referred to Jerusalem and Judah, under which names the church is understood.

7:1-4a Woe is to me, for I am become as one who gleans in autumn the grapes of the vintage. There is no cluster for eating; my soul desired the first-ripe figs. The holy man has perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in ambush for blood, a man hunts his brother to death. The evil of their hands they call good; the prince demands, and the judge is for rendering and the great one has uttered the desire of his soul, and they have troubled it. He who is best among them is as a brier; and he who is righteous, as the thorn of the hedge.

Septuagint: “Woe is to me! For I am become as one gathering straw in harvest, and as one gathering grape gleanings in the vintage, when there is no cluster for eating the first-ripe fruit; what my soul has suffered. Woe to me, o my soul, the

one revered has perished from the earth; and the one who corrects among men is no more; they all are judged in blood, each one afflicts his own neighbor with tribulation; they prepare their hands for evil; the prince demands, and the judge has spoken appeasing words; it is the desire of his soul. And I shall take away their goods as a devouring moth, and as one who walks by the rule in a day of your inspection.” Having predicted the captivity, both of the ten and of the two tribes—for the word of the Lord came to Micah of Moresheth about Samaria and Jerusalem ⁵¹² —the prophet laments that no one out of the people is found just in the land who is able to resist the wrath of God and to put himself in between as a wall. In vain, he says, I have spoken; in vain, I have wished to seek, as it were, grape clusters of the new vintage and the lost city, and there is no cluster to eat, at least I could take for food the unripe figs, which the Hebrews call bikkorah , that is, unripe figs. It is as if he is saying: not finding bread because of the intensity of the hunger, I begged for the waste and the bran. ⁵¹³ The holy one has perished from the land, and the righteous is not among men; everywhere there are snares, everywhere frauds, innocent blood is poured out; because of avarice and lust, brotherhood is ignored. And not only do they do them but they also defend evil things. ⁵¹⁴ And by having changed the names they call what is bad good. The princes themselves do not accept gifts from those who offer them, but they compel and require their subjects to give. And the judge is in favor of rendering back, thus judging another in the way he himself is judged by another, so that they exhibit mutual favor for their crimes and defend themselves in the other’s crime. Whosoever is great and, as it were, the most learned in the law, not God’s but his own, speaks his will. And they have troubled it, either the city or the truth, or the land, of which above it is said: The holy man has perished out of the earth. For he who is the best among them is as a pricking brier, ⁵¹⁵ and by holding back he wounds the one approaching it and seizes with hooked tooth. And the one who is found upright is like a thorn from the hedge, that sorrow may be found where aid was counted on. This is according to the Hebrew. On the other hand, according to the Septuagint, which differs in some things, and at the end of the section is translated altogether differently, this seems to me to be the meaning. The prophetic or apostolic discourse is lamenting humankind in general, which sows the seed of doctrines in vain and, instead of the crops and instead of grains, at the expected hour the reaper finds but empty bundles and hollow stalks. And he cannot even find small clusters in the vineyard ⁵¹ and the

remaining things down to the end of the section. For if he is blessed who speaks ⁵¹⁷ to the ears of the listener, ⁵¹⁸ and the desire of the wise man is the ear of the hearer, and the joy of the speaker is the hearer who understands; on the other hand, the mourning of the learned man is bad for the disciple, since the words of Jeremiah agree with this complaint: “I have neither benefited nor has anyone been beneficial to me.” There are those who think that this is said under the persona of the Savior, who is pleading that among such a great multitude of believers and in the whole world of humankind he finds hardly any work worthy of his blood, he who says in the twenty-ninth Psalm: “What profit is there in my blood, while I go down to corruption?” ⁵¹ Although others claim that this scarcely fits his persona, to say that: “Woe is to me! For I am become as one gathering straw in harvest,” he who in the Gospel spoke: “Lift up your eyes, and see the fields; for they are already white to harvest.” ⁵² And somewhere else: “The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few.” ⁵²¹ Therefore, the ones who want this to be understood under the persona of the Savior say that it is not surprising if he says, Woe to me , who wept at the death of Lazarus, ⁵²² and he shed tears even for Jerusalem. ⁵²³ Moreover, the words “I am become as one gathering straw in harvest,” they refer to the consummation of the world, which they interpret more meaningfully of the harvest; and they say this prophecy can be fulfilled at that time when iniquity has been multiplied and the charity of many will have grown cold ⁵²⁴ and the coming Son of man will have found little faith on the earth. ⁵²⁵ Then, indeed, they think it is confirmed by what follows, that as straw after the harvest, and as grape clusters after the vintage, the ones who keep faith in the devastation of all things would hardly be found among these, because these words are spoken under the persona of his assumed humanity, “Woe to me, o my soul,” of which he said, “My soul is saddened, even to death.” ⁵² He perishes when he returns from the land, or when the antichrist kills the saints, ⁵²⁷ or when everyone falls before the intensity of the scandals. “And the one who corrects among men is no more; they all are judged in blood,” not for light and small sins but for great ones and those that involve bloodshed. Neither proximity, nor friendship, nor relationship will hinder crime. They all will lift up their hands to evil, and even the one who is not able to do evil nevertheless while he prepares his hands he transgresses in the will. The prince himself seeks and the judge speaks appeasing words; for he accepts gifts, the desire of his soul. Because this is clear, and I am wary of the ill will of the leaders and judges, I leave this to the understanding of the reader, adding

only this: “Gifts blind even the eyes of wise men”; ⁵²⁸ they also vivify the soul that they ought not to have enlivened, and they kill the soul that lives by her merit and virtues, and they do this on account of gifts that they demand imprudently and accept very disgracefully. The Lord threatens them, saying this: “I shall take away their goods,” which they think are good things, which to them seem to be good things. However that may be, they will never be called good things according to the truth of the matter, which both rob the giver and kill the recipient, although it is not so much a threat as a blessing to remove evil things from them, and for the Lord himself and the divine word that enters their consciences and eats away as a moth at whatever is corrupted, and devastates the loot, the evil deeds and thoughts, and walks upon the norm and rule of truth to draw them back to the right path, they who were being led by depraved ideas; and to do this in the light of truth, and in that day when those who are the saints and the elect of the church will ascend to the watchtower, and they will discuss heavenly things in the sublime height of their doctrines and of works.

7:4b The day of your inspection, your visitation comes: now it will be their destruction.

7:5-7 Believe not a friend, and trust not in a leader. From her that sleeps in your bosom, keep the doors of your mouth. For the son dishonors the father and the daughter rises up against her mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law; and a man’s enemies are those of his household. But I shall look toward the Lord, I shall wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

Septuagint: [7:4b] “Woe, woe, your vengeances have come; now will be their lamentations. Believe not in friends, confide not in leaders. Beware of her who lies with you, do not believe in her. For the son dishonors his father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are those of his household. But shall I contemplate the Lord; shall I wait upon God my Savior? My God will hearken to me.” With the exception of the beginning of the section, both versions agree in the remaining portions, and meanwhile, according to the history, at the day of the

inspection of Samaria, or of Jerusalem, which it often had expected and feared that it would come, he signifies her visitation and captivity by saying, Your devastation comes: now it will be their destruction, that is, of the inhabitants, or the siege: for in Hebrew mebukatam means πολιορκίαν and φρούρησιν; that is, siege and custody, rather than devastation. Do not believe, therefore, the speeches of the prophets, do not adapt your ear to the deceiving blandishments of the diviners, because if faith is rare between persons dear to each other and who have the affection of blood relationship, how much more in those who flatter you and tell lies for the sake of their loot, and in those who being sick, as it were, demand not what is beneficial but what is delectable and pleasing. Do not believe in a friend: for even Ahithophel rose up against David, ⁵² and the true Ahithophel, Judas, did so against Christ. ⁵³ And do not confide in a leader , as the men of Shechem ( Sekem ) did in respect to Abimelech; for they themselves made him king and were oppressed by him. ⁵³¹ From her that sleeps in your bosom, keep the doors of your mouth , lest you suffer what Samson endured from Delilah. ⁵³² For the son dishonors the father ; namely, Absalom did this to David, for not only did he stain the kingdom but also the concubines of his father by having incestuous intercourse. ⁵³³ The daughter rises up against her mother . While we find no example of this in the Holy Scriptures, there are so many examples in daily life that we should mourn that they are so frequent rather than search for them. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law , as the wife of Esau rose up against Rebecca. ⁵³⁴ A man’s enemies are those of his household. Here I do not seek examples, since there are more than we need as testimonies. Therefore, since things are this way, do not believe in the false prophets of Samaria and Jerusalem. But I shall look toward the Lord , says the prophet; I shall exult in God my Savior , or my Jesus, and my God will hear me . The exposition of the Septuagint follows, which said, “Woe, woe, your vengeances have come,” that is, the punishments which must be carried out against your crimes. “Vengeance is mine,” he says, “and I shall repay, says the Lord.” ⁵³⁵ And in another place, “the days of your retribution have come.” ⁵³ For the Lord executes vengeance for those who cry out to him day and night: “How long, o Lord holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them who inhabit on earth?” ⁵³⁷ Therefore, the vengeances have come, and now there will be their lamentations, that is, of the vengeances, that those who laughed before may mourn, ⁵³⁸ and immediately those going out from the world may sustain the torments that the rich man endures in hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, ⁵³ though he was once dressed in fine clothes and overflowed with

luxuries. ⁵⁴ But as for what follows, “Now they will be,” understand either at the end of each one’s life or at the consummation of all things, and in the Day of Judgment when general vengeances will come upon all. “Do not, therefore, believe in friends,” because each friend trips up with deceit, ⁵⁴¹ and he who is a friend because of something is not so much being his friend as pretending to love him, for the word friend ( amicus ) comes from love ( amore ) as the things that pertain to what he loves. Someone was asked what a friend is. He answered: Another self. ⁵⁴² But if the Pythagoreans raise the following example as an objection to us, the men who gave themselves for one another as guarantees to a tyrant, ⁵⁴³ we say that God did not make this statement universally against all friends’ affection of love, nor for all times. Rather, it pertains to him of whom the apostle said: “In the last days will come dangerous times. For men will be lovers of themselves, covetous, disdainful, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, unable to keep agreement, slanderers, unrestrained, cruel, without kindness, traitors, violent, puffed up and lovers of pleasures more than of God,” ⁵⁴⁴ and the rest. For at that time, brother will hand over brother, and father son, and mother daughter, and a man’s enemies will be those of his household. ⁵⁴⁵ Moreover, at present faith is rare, as something on the lips rather than dwelling in the heart, a sugarcoated tongue conceals the venom of the soul. Many are the friends of the rich, but even those who seem to be friends depart from the poor. ⁵⁴ Hence it is said: “If you have a friend hold him in temptation.” ⁵⁴⁷ I have read in someone’s discussion: “A friend is sought for a long time, hardly found, kept with difficulty.” ⁵⁴⁸ Theophrastus ⁵⁴ wrote three books on friendship, preferring it to any other form of love, and yet he claimed that it is rare among human affairs. It is the book On Friendship of Cicero, ⁵⁵ which he dedicated to Laelius, in which the following is instructed, which is among our own people: that with us a friend should be as old wine, and we should drink it in sweet times. ⁵⁵¹ It was recorded nearly in the same words. Friendship either accepts or makes men equal. Where there is inequality and one is eminent, the other subject, that is not so much friendship as adulation. Whence we also read elsewhere: “A friend should be the same as the soul.” ⁵⁵² And the lyric poet, praying for a friend, says: “May you preserve half of my soul.” ⁵⁵³ “Therefore, do not believe in friends,” that is, in those men who pursue profit from friendships. If you want to be delighted by true friendship, be a friend of God, as Moses was,

who used to speak to God as a friend to a friend. ⁵⁵⁴ Be a friend as the apostles were, to whom the Savior said: “I shall no longer call you servants, for the servant knows not what his lord does, but I shall call you friends, since you have persevered with me in all my trials.” ⁵⁵⁵ Friendship is fragile that seeks the riches and happiness of friends. Such kinds of men, to me, do not seem to love their friends but themselves. Let us consider more attentively the words of the Lord: He says: “But I shall call you friends.” ⁵⁵ And he gives the reasons why he calls them friends, “Because you have persevered with me” in trial, and he did not stop there, but he says: “in all my trials.” ⁵⁵⁷ For sometimes it happens that one who has persevered in one trial with us, having been overcome, draws back from others. Second, it is commanded: “Do not keep your hope in leaders.” For “the man who has his hope in man is cursed.” ⁵⁵⁸ Hope in man is empty, but in God it is true. Hence even Paul says: “And from your own selves men will rise speaking perverse things.” ⁵⁵ And the Lord himself says through the prophet: “The leaders of my people know me not; they are foolish sons and not intelligent; they are skilled in doing evil things, but they know not how to do the good.” ⁵ The leaders indeed, he says, were called mine, and leaders of my people, but because they did not know me, and they have destroyed the designation by their deeds, because of this they are foolish sons and not intelligent; because of this they only have prudence to subject to themselves the simple folk and to crush him under their feet; but they do not know how to do good and how to rule the people well. “Do not believe in leaders,” nor in a bishop, nor in a priest, nor in a deacon, nor in any human rank. I do not say this because you ought not to be subjected to such ranks in the church, for “whoever curses father or mother, will die by death”; ⁵ ¹ and the apostle teaches that those who are in charge in the church must be obeyed; ⁵ ² but because to honor leaders is one thing, to have “hope in leaders” is something else. Let us honor the bishop, let us defer to the priest, let us rise before the deacon, and yet let us not hope in them, because hope in men is empty, but hope in the Lord is certain. The third commandment is “Beware of her who lies with you,” do not believe in her. Hence even the apostle calls women the weak vessel and orders them to show honor to their husbands. ⁵ ³ “For the man was not created for the woman but the woman for the man,” ⁵ ⁴ and he says: “Let the wife fear her husband.” ⁵ ⁵ The wife is to fear and to love her husband with fear. Men are only to love, for love pertains to the perfect. “Men,” he says, “love your wives and do not be

bitter against them,” ⁵ although they may provoke you to anger, and may do other such things by which they deserve to sustain bitterness. For παραπικραίνεσθαι signifies this, yet do not pay them back with mutual bitterness. Moreover, Solomon in Ecclesiastes says: “And I found one man in a thousand, and I found not a woman among all these.” ⁵ ⁷ Perhaps he learned by example that one must not believe in women, through whom he had offended God. ⁵ ⁸ Moreover the lofty poet—not the “second Homer,” as Lucillus ⁵ conjectures about Ennius, but the first Homer among the Latins—: “Woman is ever a fickle and changing thing.” ⁵⁷ Of how many men are the Greek and Latin histories full who were deceived by their wives and their life was betrayed? From the Scriptures, there is Delilah, about whom we made mention above, and before Delilah they testify to an example of another who, with tears, forced a secret out of Samson over seven days and, with a feigned love, she found out what he was hiding. Whence Samson speaks afterward: “If you had not ploughed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.” ⁵⁷¹ Up to this point it is commanded that we not easily believe in friends, leaders and wives. And a reason is given that is not an adequate answer to the proposition; for he says: “For the son dishonors his father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are those in his household.” For what does it have to do with a friend, a leader, a wife, if a son, daughter and daughter-in-law rise up against father and mother and mother-in-law? Therefore it seems to me it can be joined to what is above as follows. Do not believe in friends and leaders and wives, who are capable of changing and exist only for a time, when son and daughter also would have forgotten their rearing and infancy to rise up against the authors of their life and bodies and dishonor them, whom it even happens that they strike on the face. But this exposition fits badly to a daughter-in-law rising against her mother-in-law, and to a man whose enemies are the people of his household. Terence says in Hecyra: “What is this? All mothers-in-law hate their daughtersin-law.” ⁵⁷² Although this is ambiguous, yet it is practically second nature for daughters-inlaw to hate their mothers-in-law, and for mothers-in-law to hate their daughtersin-law. The prophetic word will have described these things regarding the consummation and end of the world, the kind of generation that would precede the coming of the antichrist.

Now, there is need to discuss the second interpretation above, in which we spoke regarding the heretics: “Listen, tribe, and who has ordered the city? Was it indeed the fire and house of the impious?” ⁵⁷³ And again, about the church: “Woe to me, because I have become as someone who collected straw at the harvest.” ⁵⁷⁴ And again: “Woe to me, o soul, the one revered has perished from the earth, and the one who corrects is no more among men.” ⁵⁷⁵ And then: “The prince demands and the judge has spoken appeasing words, by the desire of his soul.” ⁵⁷ Whence a double curse follows: “Woe, woe, your vengeances have come: Now there will be wailings of theirs.” ⁵⁷⁷ And let us say that this is written of the heretics: “Do not believe in friends,” o simple people, and in wicked leaders, who promise to be friends and princes of the heresies; for they seek not your salvation but your money, and they crush the deceived flock with their feet; and to her who sleeps with you, beware believing anything from her, she whom I cannot understand of anything but the flesh, that we should not believe easily the blandishments of the flesh, lest the hardness of the soul and the constancy of virility be tamed and softened by its enticements. For the son who was born from God, having neglected his own creator, blasphemes him by whom he was constituted, since the Scripture says: “Has not one God created you? Is there not one father of you all?” ⁵⁷⁸ And the soul despises the heavenly Jerusalem and condemns mother church, for which she had contempt. She will die by death. ⁵⁷ And “the daughter-in-law rises up against her own mother-in-law.” This seems difficult to understand according to tropology, but the one who reads the Song of Songs and understands that the bridegroom of the soul is the word ( sermonem ) of God, and who believes in the Gospel according to the Hebrews , which we have recently translated and published, ⁵⁸ in which it is said from the persona of the Savior, “Just now, my mother, the Holy Spirit, carried me by one of my hairs”; ⁵⁸¹ he will not hesitate to say that the word of God arose from the spirit, and that the soul, which is the bride of the word, has as its mother-in-law the Holy Spirit, which among the Hebrews is expressed in the feminine gender, ruah . The heretics, therefore, since they believed in the Scriptures before, which were composed and published by the Holy Spirit, are transferring themselves to new doctrines, and to the leaven of the Pharisees, ⁵⁸² and the commands of men. ⁵⁸³ And while they mock the word of God, they injure their own mother-in-law. And lest you perhaps doubt that the Word (verbum) and the Son of God was born from the Holy Spirit, consider the words of Gabriel to Mary: He says: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will

overshadow you; therefore the Holy one who will be born from you will be called the Son of God.” ⁵⁸⁴ After this it follows: “A man’s enemies are those in his household.” It seems to us that this must be explained according to the tropological sense: “The head of each man is Christ,” ⁵⁸⁵ and Christ is the head of the church. ⁵⁸ Of this they are often enemies, who are thought to be in their house, that is, in the church, and indeed they do not draw back from the head, but they sense things that are contrary to their own head. ⁵⁸⁷ Without a teacher and without the grace of the Lord, they are puffed up and know nothing, ⁵⁸⁸ promising the knowledge of the Scriptures ⁵⁸ by their own judgment, and they weary themselves with questions and contentions and verbal disputes, ⁵ who, though they are truly standing in the house, they are the “enemies” of the truth. But we ought to know that in the Gospel nearly the same words are found that we read now in the prophet, and according to the context of that passage it has another meaning that, whether they are taken from the prophet or are unique commands of their own authority, it is known to the Lord, who has spoken through the prophets and in the Gospels. But the Lord says in that place: “I came to set man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household.” ⁵ ¹ And so, since these things have been explained, but only if we were able to attain the sense of the Scriptures, the holy man, when he understands that love has grown cold, ⁵ ² and that men at the consummation of the world are not lovers of God but lovers of themselves; ⁵ ³ while some do believe in friends, leaders and wives; and when son, daughter and a daughter-inlaw rise up against father, mother and mother-in-law, and when a man’s enemies are the men of his household, he himself believes in the Lord, and all his contemplation is in his God. And although he may be oppressed by the trials and pressures of the world, yet he trusts in no one apart from him who says: “Do not fear, I have conquered the world.” ⁵ ⁴ He awaits his God and Savior ⁵ ⁵ and believes in him, always directing his eyes toward him. He hopes that he will be heard, as often as he calls upon him.

7:8-13 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because I have fallen, I shall arise; though I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light. I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him; until he judge my cause and execute my judgment; he will lead me forth into the light, I shall behold his justice. And my enemy will behold, and will cover herself with shame, who says to me:

Where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trodden underfoot as the mud of the streets. The day will come, that your walls may be built. In that day far off, the law will be made. In that day, Assur will come up to you, and up to the fortified cities, and from the fortified cities up to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. And the land will be in desolation, because of the inhabitants thereof, and for the fruit of their devices.

Septuagint: “Do not insult me, my enemy, because I have fallen; I shall arise; for though I should walk in darkness, the Lord will illumine me. I shall bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he justify my cause and execute my judgment, and he will lead me out into the light, and I shall behold his justice; and my enemy will see me and will cover herself with shame, she who says to me: Where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look upon her; now will she be for trampling as mud in the ways. It is the day of making of bricks, that day will be yours to utter destruction, and the day of the erasing of the surface, your abolition. And your cities will come into conclusion, and parted among the Assyrians; and your fortified cities will be parted from Tyre up to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. And the land will be utterly desolate together with them that inhabit it because of the fruit of their doings.” It seems to me that according to the letter Jerusalem is speaking against Babylon and the rest of the nations, which had “insulted” her: Do not rejoice in my downfall, because when the Lord has mercy, I shall rise. After I sit in captivity, he will lead me out from darkness, and he will be my light. I shall endure the wrath of the Lord, because I know that I have deserved what I have suffered, until I take vengeance on the Gentiles, and he executes my judgment. Certainly, I know that he will lead me forth into the light and I shall behold his justice, and my enemy Babylon will see and the rest of the nations all around, and she will cover herself with shame, she who now insultingly says: Where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look upon her and not after a long time, but even now when she is trodden underfoot in their presence as mud of the streets. Thus far, Jerusalem, or the prophet under the persona of the people, has spoken; now God is brought in, responding to Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, the days have come that your walls may be built that were destroyed by the Babylonian

devastation. In that day far off, the law will be made, or the precept and the order, as Symmachus and Theodotion have translated it, saying ἐπιταγὴν καὶ πρόσταγμα. This is the meaning: You will not lie subject to the Babylonian empire in that day in which your walls will be built. They will come to you from Assur, and from the fortified cities; from the fortified cities, I say, up to the Jordan, through which the people passed previously as well, ⁵ and by the Red Sea ; ⁵ ⁷ and from all the nations even down to the Dead Sea , which is near your land, and to Mount Zion, from the mountains of the Persians and the Medes, where they had been removed previously; and the land of the Chaldeans will be in desolation , and of those who had laid you waste in devastation, on account of your inhabitants and their evil works. The Jews promise this for themselves up to today, and in that passage in which we have explained: In that day far off, the law will be made, as it seemed to us, and as the more skilled of their men discuss it some frivolously lie and say: In that day, in which the walls of Jerusalem will be built by the Christ, the Holy Scriptures of the Law and the Prophets, which now are retained by us, would be removed from our hands and handed over to the Jewish people. For what is said according to the Septuagint, “the day of the erasing of the surface, your abolition,” we should understand to be said not to Jerusalem, as we have explained according to the Hebrew, but still to Babylon, because even she is to be blotted out and must be trampled underfoot like a surface. And the lawful day will resist, not lawful to God but those lawful things that you, o Babylon, had decreed to be observed contrary to God. “And your cities will come to their conclusion,” or into division, with the “Assyrians” fighting against you—since Babylon was a city of the Chaldeans, not of the Assyrians. And your fortified cities will be in the division of a hostile army, “from Tyre up to” the Tigris River, by which you are encircled, and from the Great Sea up to the Red Sea, which runs laterally for those going to India and touches your lands, and “from mountain to mountain”; namely, from the mountains of Judea up to the mountains of the Media and of the Persians, the whole of Mesopotamia and the entire country, which now is held by you in the middle, it will be subjugated by the empire of the enemies. “And the land will be in a desolation” on account of the wicked “fruits of your doings.” Where the Septuagint has translated “from Tyre” we should know that in Hebrew it is written matsor, a word that, if it is divided with the preposition ma and the name Tsor, is understood “from Tyre”; but if it is one word, it means fortification. After all, everyone else translated it περιοχὴν καὶ περίφραγμα καὶ

πολιορκίαν, not “from Tyre” as the Septuagint has it, but “fortification,” and the enclosure of a walled city. This is according to the Hebrew, and the promises of fleshly Israel and of the people of the mutilation, ⁵ ⁸ as it were, leisurely words have rehearsed from the surplus. Now let us come to the spiritual understanding, and with the Holy Spirit himself explaining the things which are written, let us exert ourselves vigorously over these actually very difficult passages. It seems to me that it refers to each soul of Jerusalem, in which the temple of the Lord has been built, and the vision of peace, and the knowledge of the Scriptures, and afterward is overcome by sins, is led into captivity and handed over for torments. It says against the Babylonians, that is, the confusion of this world, and against the opposed forces that preside in this world, “Do not insult me, my enemy, because I have fallen, and I shall rise”; for “the Lord lifts up the fallen ones,” ⁵ and it is spoken through the prophet, “Surely, he who falls, will rise again?” and, “I desire not the death of the sinner, but only that he convert and live.” ¹ But if you despise me, because I endure tortures, learn through Ezekiel that punishments are imposed first upon those more holy, and it is said by the Lord: “Begin with my holy ones.” ² Because if I have walked in darkness, then, the Lord is my light. ³ For although the rulers of this darkness have deceived me, and I sit in darkness and the shadow of death, ⁴ and my feet have struck against dark mountains, yet for those sitting in the darkness and in the shadow of death, a light has risen, ⁵ “and the light shines in darkness.” “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear,” ⁷ and I shall speak to him, and I will say: “Your word, o Lord, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” ⁸ For he himself instructs me when I am set in the darkness of this world: “Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands.” It follows: “I shall bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he justify my cause and execute my judgment, and he will lead me out into the light, and I shall behold his justice.” Each rebuke at present seems not to be joyful but sad, but afterward it will produce the peaceful fruit of justice to those who have been trained through it. ¹ Therefore the soul, feeling that it has sinned and has the wounds of sins, and that it is living with dead flesh and requires cautery, constantly says to the physician: burn my flesh, dry my wounds, harden all these humors and this noxious ῥεῦμα , ¹¹ compress me with a potion of hellebore. It was because of my vice that I was wounded; ¹² it is of my sorrow that I sustain so many torments, and afterward I shall receive health. ¹³ And the

true physician shows how to save and secure the soul by the cause of the medicine and shows that he has rightly done what he has done. ¹⁴ Finally, after the torments and punishments, the soul is led out from the outer “darkness,” and when the last penny has been paid, ¹⁵ he says, “I shall behold his justice,” and I shall say: God, your judgments are justified. ¹ But if Christ “was made, for us by God wisdom and justice and sanctification, and redemption,” ¹⁷ the one who says that he “sees justice” after God’s wrath is promising himself a glance at Christ. And these things at least are about penitents. However that may be, it is far better not to have wounds and not to need a physician. Medical treatment is not a blessing of the healthy but a solace after the pain. Therefore he who has been cured should avoid sinning again, lest again something worse may happen to him. ¹⁸ We read in Leviticus, if only we read it with open eyes, and the veil that has been placed over the law does not block the sight of the interior eye, ¹ that leprosy is accustomed to arise in an ulcer and in a scar of a burning. It changes the color of the skin, and a new foulness replaces the former deformation of scar. ² The reason this is said is to prevent someone who is secure due to his penance from sinning on the ground that after sin he can say: “I shall bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he justify my cause.” He would then be in need of cauterization and, having been healed, he would again be wounded. But when the Lord “leads us forth into the light,” and we “see his justice,” then our enemy Babylon will see and will be “covered with shame,” she who previously was saying to us “Where is the Lord your God?” when she reckons that Jerusalem could be healed after her wounds. And our “eyes will look back at her,” and “she will be for trampling as mud of the streets.” And because each end of punishments is the beginning of good things, and sorrow leads to healing, from this “mud” they will become a “surface,” and there will be the formation of the “surface as an erasure.” And in that day she will throw out the old errors, and her cities, which had been badly fortified, will “come to their conclusion,” or division, and they will be “parted among the Assyrians.” “From Tyre” too, which is interpreted συνοχὴ, that is, distress, other powers will rise, and there will be constant sedition for them who delight in the stream of this world and produce lusts in human beings. And “from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain,” wars will rise one after another, ²¹ as bitterness fights against bitterness, and self-erected sublimity must be humiliated, as it contends against another height,

and then truly it would be fulfilled: “Come, therefore, let us go down, and confound their tongues, lest each one hears his neighbor’s voice.” ²² Certainly, it is useful to the wicked strongholds not to have harmony among themselves. And when Satan has been divided against Satan, only then will the demon of each kingdom be destroyed. ²³ And because frequently it is accustomed to happen among large armies that when the tyrant is killed his attendants divide the kingdom among themselves, and they rise against themselves, and there is internal war among themselves, this too will happen at the consummation of the world, when the walls of Jerusalem are built, and Babylon falls, and the Assyrians and Tyrians will fight among themselves from river, and from sea, and from mountains, that is, all the nations of demons. And when their kingdom is destroyed, the kingdom will come to Jesus, the Lord, and “every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” ²⁴ But in order that you know that the end of this sedition has served to advance the virtues, at that time “the land” of Babylon “will be utterly desolate together with all its inhabitants,” and it will not produce Babylonian fruits.

7:14-17 Pasture your people with your rod, the flock of your inheritance, them that dwell alone in the forest, in the midst of Carmel; they will be pastured in Basan and Galaad according to the days of old. According to the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt, I shall show marvelous things to him. The gentiles will see, and will be confounded at all their strength. They will put their hands upon the mouth, their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like serpents, as the reptiles of the earth; they will be disturbed about their buildings. They will dread the Lord our God, and they will fear you.

Septuagint: “Pasture your people with your rod, the sheep of your inheritance, them that dwell alone in the forest in the midst of Carmel; they will be pastured in the land of Basan, and in the land of Galaad, as in former days. And according to the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt, I shall show to them marvelous things. The Gentiles will see and be ashamed at all their might; they will lay their hands upon their mouth, their ears will be deafened. They will lick the ground as serpents crawling on the earth, they will be disturbed in their

siege; they will dread the Lord our God, and will fear you.” What is said, Pasture your people with your rod, God the Father is speaking this to the Son, that is, to our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the good shepherd, and he lays his life down for his sheep. ²⁵ He “pastures his people with his rod, and the sheep of his inheritance.” And lest we think that the “people” are same as the “sheep,” we read in another passage: “Now, we are your people and your fat sheep.” ² The “people” refer to all reasonable men, but the “sheep” to them who are not yet using their reason but are content merely with simplicity and are named from the “inheritance” of God. For both the “people” as well as the “sheep” are in need of the pastoral “rod,” about which even the apostle speaks: “What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod; or in charity, and in the spirit of meekness?” ²⁷ For this reason, I think, the people of Israel had a stiff neck and were always sighing for the Egyptian meats. Moses used it not only against the Egyptians, whom he struck with ten plagues, but also against his people in the wilderness. It was the rod of the law that breaks every earthenware and fragile vessel. Now for the apostles of the Lord and Savior, who spoke wisdom among the perfect, ²⁸ he struck the rod from their hands, because “perfect charity casts out fear.” ² But if someone objects to us, how is it now said to Christ, that is, to the good shepherd, ³ who assuredly is greater and better than the apostles, ³¹ that he use a rod, when there would be greater progress not to have a rod than to chastise people and sheep with a rod, we shall respond to them according to that which the Lord promises to his apostles, that they would do greater signs among the people than he himself had done. ³² And because the Lord was still speaking to the fleshly Israel, and not yet to him who was able to know the mysteries completely, therefore it was said about him that he “pastures his people and his flock with his rod,” but for the apostles, the rod was struck from their hands and the severity of the law was tempered by the clemency of the gospel. On the other hand, the reason this people and these sheep will be struck and shepherded with the rod is that they had dwelled alone in the forest, which indeed we can understand of those who have separated themselves from the church and give themselves up to parties and friendships with pagans; and what is more, concerning those who seek a solitary life out of hatred for humankind. We read that Timon of Athens ³³ was like this. I am not saying that the prophetic and solitary life that Elijah ³⁴ and John [the Baptist] ³⁵ led must be condemned, but that if someone despises others and becomes arrogant and lives in the forest

of vices, he needs to be chastised with a rod. He who dwells alone and does not dwell in the forest is praising virtue, but the one who is alone and does not do works of justice and merely enjoys the pleasure of rest and does not sweat in the work and labor of Christ and does not seek food with his own hands, as the apostle orders, ³ and is lifted up by arrogance, this man dwells in the forest and lives among unfruitful trees. Nevertheless, because he is the good shepherd, and the reason his rod strikes is so that it may correct, the prophetic word promises better things and says, In the midst of Carmel, they will be pastured in Basan and Galaad, according to the days of eternity, and according to the days of your going out from Egypt. Carmel means “knowledge of circumcision,” Basan “confusion,” and Galaad “transmigration of testimony.” The people of God, therefore, and the sheep of his pasture, which formerly used to pasture away from the flock of the Lord ³⁷ and outside his church, and lived in the forest of errors, afterward will be transferred to the knowledge of the true circumcision and will serve God in spirit ³⁸ and will glorify in the Lord and will not trust in the flesh, and they will be the true circumcision and not the mutilation. ³ And when they are fed, the spiritual circumcision will understand their former sins and will be confounded in their faults and “ashamed.” And they will be ashamed in a way that leads to life, because there is also another shame that leads to death, in which once dwelt Og, king of Basan, for Bashan means “shame,” and the Lord has promised to liberate his people from this evil shame: “The Lord said, I shall turn [them] from Basan, I shall turn [them] from the depths of the sea.” ⁴ And when we recognize the true circumcision and are ashamed of our sins, then we shall be in Galaad, which means the “transmigration of the testimony,” in the church of Christ, to which the testimonies of the Law and the Prophets transcended eloquence. And this will be done to us according to the days of old, according to the days when we came out of the land of Egypt, of which Moses says, “Remember the days of eternity,” ⁴¹ not the days of this world, which are termed evil, ⁴² but the eternal days. Now, he remembers the days of eternity who does not look upon the things of the present and has risen with Christ ⁴³ and sits with him in the heavenly places already anticipating in his mind that he has been delivered from the days of this present age. ⁴⁴ The divine word promises also to show marvelous things to his people and the sheep of his inheritance: Then, he says, the Gentiles will see and will be confounded at all their strength, because formerly they had laid waste and

prevailed against the people of God, and their confusion will bring advancement when they realize their own evils. For they will put their hands upon their mouth, the bad deeds will remove all their freedom to speak. But just as how the hands of the wicked Gentiles shut their mouths, so the hands of the just will open the mouths of those who receive the ability to speak with God of the good work. And “their ears will become deaf” because their malice has not only blinded their eyes but also made their ears deaf, for they did want to hear the voice of the enchanters and of the magic that was enchanting wisely. And according to Isaiah, “Their ears heard heavily,” ⁴⁵ although it is far less to hear heavily than not to hear at all and to become deaf so that he does not hear the word of truth. After such great evils, it is said of them that they will “lick the ground as serpents, which crawl on the earth,” walking on their belly and eating earth during all the days of their life. ⁴ And the flesh—that is, those who do earthly work—drag along with them all the way to the day of vengeance and of the visitation of the Lord not the dust, nor small tracks, but the whole ground. When they have done this and have come to the judgment of God, and they have been shut up and troubled for so long as they will be troubled, they will be shut up as long as the earth that they had drawn as snakes continues in them. But when that ceases, they will be astonished, and will wonder not in the Lord their God—for as yet they will deserve that it should be said, the Lord their God—but in “the Lord our God.” And suddenly there is an ἀποστροφὴ to Christ, ⁴⁷ and it said to him: “And they will fear you.” Indeed, “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.” ⁴⁸ And these things will be done so that the Gentiles may see and be confounded in every evil in their strength, and they lay their hands upon their mouth, and their ears grow deaf, and they lick the ground like serpents, who crawl the ground, so that first they are shut in and once made shut in they are troubled, thereupon, terrified, they are astounded before the Lord God of the saints, and at last they, too, fear him. These things are according to the Septuagint. On the other hand, because our version does not differ much from theirs, at least in the present passage, let us reckon what was said there also to have been said here.

7:18-20 Who is a God like to you? Who takes away iniquity, and passes by the sin of the remnant of your inheritance? He will no longer send in his fury, because he is willing mercy. He will turn again, and have mercy on us: he will

put away our iniquities: and he will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give the truth in Jacob, the mercy to Abraham: which you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

Septuagint: “Who is a God like you, taking away iniquities and passing over the injustices with these ones who have remained from your inheritance? He has not kept his anger for a testimony, for he is willing mercies. He will return and will pity us; he will sink our sins, and all our sins will be cast into the depth of the sea. He will give the truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers, according to the former days.” The prophet understands that the reason the multitude of Gentiles was thrown into confusion over its own shutting in was so that it would be astounded and would fear God. And the reason the Lord is enraged ⁴ is in order that he may take away sins ⁵ and may give salvation. ⁵¹ He praises the Lord and wonders and says: “Who is a God like you, taking away iniquities, and passing over the injustices?” Thus, just as he, the destroyer in Egypt, passed over the people of Israel ⁵² and did not destroy them—whence he did not understand phasah (that is, “the Passover”) from “crossing”—so you spare the Gentiles, not imputing to them their iniquities. ⁵³ Further, what follows, “With these ones who have remained from the inheritance of his, he did not maintain his anger for a testimony,” here is the meaning: If he spared the Gentiles, who refused to believe his law, and some of the people who remained were left over from those left behind by the people, he did not want to impute to them their iniquities, nor did he want to inflict his wrath as testimony of their just punishment, what will he do about his flock, which is fed in the midst of Carmel, and in Basan, and in Galaad? For he wants to be merciful, and when he returns he will pity us, and our heavy sins and the iniquities that sit upon the talent of lead ⁵⁴ he himself will bear and plunge them into the sea. He will make them appear no more. He will give the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, so that to the tripping up and new people, who are ever in a wrestling match, ⁵⁵ he renders his truth in Christ and for the multitude of the Gentiles—for Abraham is called the father of many nations ⁵ —he grants mercy as he has sworn to them ⁵⁷ who stood forth as the fathers of our faith according to the days of old, that from the entire multitude of human beings he saves some in truth and others in mercy. On the other hand, what we translated as He will no longer send in his fury Symmachus

translated “into eternity,” Theodotion “into the end,” and the Fifth Version and the Septuagint “for a testimony.” The Hebrew records this as la‘ad . It can be understood both as “longer,” “forever” and “testimony.” And I shall say at the end of the book, attesting to the labor of my little work with an invocation of the Lord: Who is a God like to you? Take away the iniquity of your servant; pass over the sin of the remnant of my soul, do not send your fury against me, nor in your wrath chasten me. For you are compassionate and your mercies are many. ⁵⁸ Return, and have mercy on me; cast down my iniquities and send them into the depths of the sea, so that the saltiness and bitterness of vices may completely perish in the false region. Give the truth that you have promised to your friend Jacob, and the mercy that you have promised to your friend Abraham, and deliver my soul from the persecutors of your prophets, Ahab, and Jezebel, as you have sworn to my fathers in the days of old, saying: “As I live, says the Lord: I do not will the death of the sinner, only that he return, and live.” ⁵ And elsewhere: “As soon as you convert, you will have groaned, you will be saved.” Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame, the one who now says to me: Where is the Lord, your God? I shall see your revenge against her, and she will be as the mud of the streets, and will be trodden down, lest she build Egyptian cities any longer with mud and straw.

COMMENTARY ON ZEPHANIAH

Translated by Mary Catherine Beller and Thomas P. Scheck Annotated by Thomas P. Scheck

The First Book of the Commentary on the Prophet Zephaniah

Preface

Zephaniah is ninth in the sequence of the Twelve Prophets. Before I tackle it, it seems necessary to respond to those who think that I deserve to be ridiculed because I leave men out and write chiefly for you, o Paula and Eustochium. They would never deride me behind my back like this, if they knew that Huldah prophesied when the men were silent; ¹ and Deborah, who was both a judge and a prophet, overcame the enemies of Israel, while Barak was afraid; ² and Judith and Esther, as types of the church, both slew their adversaries and delivered Israel from danger when it was on the verge of destruction. ³ I shall say nothing about Hannah ⁴ and Elizabeth, ⁵ and the rest of the holy women, who like sparkling stars, as it were, have kept secret the bright light of Mary. I shall come to the pagan women, so they may see that it is customary among the philosophers of the world to look to the differences of souls, not of bodies. Plato introduces Aspasia into a disputation. Sappho is a writer, along with Pindar and Alcaeus. ⁷ Themista philosophizes among the wisest men of Greece. ⁸ The whole multitude of the city of Rome admires Cornelia, [mother] of the Gracchi, that is to say, your Cornelia. ¹ Carneades, the most eloquent of philosophers, and an extremely sharp rhetorician, who was accustomed to rouse applause in the Academy among the consular men, was not ashamed to discuss philosophy in his private home before the audience of his wife. ¹¹ Why should I refer to the daughter of Cato, wife of Brutus, whose virtue makes us admire the constancy of her father and husband so much the less? Both Greek and Latin history is filled with the virtues of females, and these would demand entire books. Since another work is pressing, let it merely suffice for me to have said this at the end of this preface, that the risen Lord appeared first to women, and those women were apostles to the apostles, so that the men were put to shame for not having sought out the Lord, whom the weaker sex had already found. ¹²

1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Chusi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon king of Judah.

The Septuagint is similar. The Hebrews hand down the tradition that for any prophet whose father or grandfather is recorded in the heading, such ancestors were themselves prophets. And this is why Amos, one of the Twelve Prophets, who had said, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, but I am a herdsman of goats and a picker of wild figs,” ¹³ does not have his father’s name in the heading. If this is true, the prophet Zephaniah, whom now we are attempting to explain, was begotten from the glorious root of his forefathers by a prophetic custom, so to speak. For he had Chusi as his father, Gedaliah as his grandfather, Amariah as his great-grandfather, Hezekiah as his grandfather’s grandfather, and himself as the final charioteer who filled such a four-horse chariot. Some have translated the name of Zephaniah as “watchtower,” others as “the hidden of the Lord.” Therefore, whether it is interpreted as “watchtower” or “the hidden of the Lord,” both fit the prophet. For it is said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, I have placed you as watchman to the house of Israel”; ¹⁴ and in another place: “For the Lord shall do nothing but reveal his instruction to his servants the prophets”; ¹⁵ and the title of the ninth Psalm translates as “for the hidden things of the son.” ¹ Therefore this prophet, who was stationed in a watchtower and in lofty places and had become acquainted with the mysteries of the Lord, was the son of Chusi —which means “humility,” or “my Ethiopian,” which we will discuss later on. Also he had as his grandfather Gedaliah , which means “the Lord’s greatness,” and as his great-grandfather Amariah , which is translated into “the Lord’s discourse,” and as his grandfather’s grandfather Hezekiah , which means “the Lord’s strength.” And so the Lord’s discourse was born from the Lord’s strength, and the Lord’s greatness was born from the Lord’s discourse, and humility was born from the Lord’s greatness, so that when someone comes to perfection, he says, “I am not worthy to be called an apostle,” ¹⁷ and that statement in the psalms: “Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes haughty.” ¹⁸ Up to this point, it is as if we were running over a level surface and have fallen on our face, pinned down by the fact that Kushi also means “my Ethiopian.” For after such great virtues, how will the name of Ethiopian be able to signify a praise? And indeed, if Scripture had said Kush, that is, “Ethiopian,” an unsolvable problem would have appeared; for Kush was born of Ham. ¹ But because it says Kushi , that is, “my Ethiopian,” it seems to signify a mystery. For

he who was formerly an Ethiopian has turned to repentance. This is in accordance with what is said, “Ethiopia shall hasten [to stretch out] her hands to God,” ² and in another place, “Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down.” ²¹ Let him say with the bride in the Song of Songs: “I am black and beautiful, a daughter of Jerusalem.” ²² And we read in Jeremiah that the Ethiopian eunuch Abdimelek pleased God; ²³ and in the Acts of the Apostles the Ethiopian eunuch of Queen Candace had such great zeal for the Scriptures and law of God that he was reading in the carriage and was going to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in the temple. This is why such faith is crowned with a worthy reward, and Philip the evangelist is sent to him, and straightaway he is taught, believes, is baptized and is saved. ²⁴ And he is not merely a eunuch, but he is recorded with the addition of “man,” so that he is the “Ethiopian eunuch man.” For since he was Christ’s eunuch and had made himself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, ²⁵ therefore he had not lost the designation of man. Rightly too does Zephaniah, as a son of Chusi, that is, of the Ethiopian, write about repentance of the Ethiopians in the subsequent part of the book: “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,” he says, “they shall bring me sacrifices.” ² These things have been said about the genealogy of Zephaniah, who prophesied in the days of Josiah. Now just as they are called the “days of Elijah” ²⁷ that were illuminated by him, so too they are the days of Josiah who had raised himself to the Lord, because Josiah means “raising of the Lord”; and he was a just man, and the history of both Kings and Chronicles writes of his praises. ²⁸ And he had Amon as father and Manasseh as grandfather. We read that Manasseh repented after many sins and after a captivity in Babylon and that he turned back to the better things, having obtained mercy from the Lord. ² And this is why he gave his son an ἐπώνυμον ³ from his faith, by which he had believed in God, that is, Amon, since indeed Amon means “faith.” At the same time, observe that it is not as above that the kings of the ten tribes are recorded, that is, the kings of Israel, but only the kings of Judah. For the ten tribes had already been led into captivity by the Assyrians under King Hezekiah, the father of Manasseh. ³¹ This has been said about the preface and the heading concerning the generation and time of Zephaniah. Now let us see what the prophecy itself also contains.

1:2-3 Gathering, I will gather together all things from the face of the land, says the Lord, gathering man and cattle, gathering the birds of the air and the fish of the sea; and the ungodly shall be ruined, and I will destroy men from

off the face of the land, says the Lord.

Septuagint: “With a failing let it fail from the face of the land, says the Lord. Let man and beast fail; let the birds of the air fail, and the fishes of the sea; and the ungodly shall be made weak, and I will take away the transgressors from the face of the land, says the Lord.” What we have recorded in the Septuagint, “and the ungodly shall be made weak,” was added from Theodotion’s translation. Symmachus translated it as “And stumbling blocks with the ungodly,” so that one must supply in thought “will be gathered together” or “will fail.” But the Fifth Version says: “And weakness will fail with the ungodly.” Following our custom, therefore, we should first cover the history and afterward treat the higher things. Certainly no one doubts that under Josiah occurred the final kingdom of the two tribes, which were called Judah and Benjamin. For after he was killed his sons and grandsons who reigned afterward should not be believed so much to have reigned as to have lived in disgrace under the Egyptian king and the Chaldeans, and they were afflicted by various kinds of imprisonments and deaths. ³² Therefore, since the people could have made excuses for themselves in the bad kings and said, “We want to serve God, but we are hindered by these kings,” a just king is given, who is zealous with zeal for the Lord, and the people nonetheless persist in the worship of idols. Just things are brought forth from the Lord out of anger, and the overthrow of Jerusalem is prophesied, and the captivity of Judah, and the victory of Nebuchadnezzar. And the Lord says through the prophet: No longer will I grant repentance, but I will cut off everything from the face of the earth. Neither man, nor beast, nor bird, nor fish of the sea will remain. For even the senseless animals feel the wrath of the Lord, and that from the ruined cities and slain men has come a desolation and a scarcity of beasts, birds and fish. Illyricum is witness, Thrace is a witness. The soil on which I grew up is a witness, where everything has perished except for the sky and land and the growing thorn bushes and dense woodlands. ³³ But the prophet says, this will happen, because the multitude of the godless was too great. Therefore the ungodly will sink and men will be destroyed, and there will be a desolation upon the face of the land. But we can also understand the same thing concerning the consummation of the world, that both men and cattle and birds and the fish of the sea and everything

will “fail,” and “the ungodly will be made weak,” and iniquity would be removed from the face of the land. But if we want to understand anything loftier —on account of what is said by the Septuagint, “With a failing let it fail from the face of the land”—and to understand the “failing” in a good sense, in accordance with this, “And Abraham failing died in a good old age, an old man and full of days, and was added to his people”; ³⁴ and concerning those things that Scripture relates about Isaac and Jacob, we shall see in what manner they “fail with a failing from the face of the earth” and how they fulfill this command. Those who have their manner of life in heaven and campaign as soldiers in the flesh, but not according to the flesh, ³⁵ because they know that those who live in the flesh cannot please God, ³ do everything, as far as it lies in them, so as not to be in the flesh but in the spirit. And by withdrawing from the earth, they say: “He raised us up and seated us in the heavens in Christ.” ³⁷ We have interpreted in a good sense the words “With a failing let him fail from the face of the land.” But if someone raises as an objection to this that which is written concerning Ishmael, “These are the years of Ishmael’s life, a hundred and thirty-seven, and failing he died, and was added to his race,” ³⁸ we shall respond to him first that Ishmael himself is a son of Abraham, and he received gifts and portions from his father according to his capacity; ³ second, that it is written without qualification “failing he died,” and it is not added what is written about Abraham: “in a good old age, an old man and full of days, and he was added to his people.” ⁴ Or concerning Isaac: “But the days of Isaac which he lived were one hundred and eighty-five years, and failing, Isaac died, and he was added to his race, old and full of days.” ⁴¹ And besides, it is also said of Jacob: “And Jacob ceased instructing his sons; and lifting up his feet on the bed, he failed, and was added to his people.” ⁴² From which we understand that it is one thing merely to fail, something else to have equally many virtues with the failing. But what he had first said generally, “With a failing let him fail from the face of the land,” afterward the divine Scripture has divided into parts: let man fail, and let the beasts and the birds of the air fail, and the fish of the sea. There are four things that are commanded to fail: first rational man, then the three things that are subjected to man: beasts, birds and fish. ⁴³ I think that these are recorded in the eighth Psalm: “And moreover the cattle of the field, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea, who traverse the paths of the sea.” ⁴⁴ But what he had said at first, sheep and all oxen, he separated as being the choice things of the beasts, and he was unwilling to count them with those that remained beasts. And so, let man fail, let beasts fail, let the birds of the air fail, let the fish fail; and he did not

say: let the wild beasts fail, let the creeping things of the earth fail. For these things ought not to fail but to perish. But let those that are able to receive correction fail. Just as womanish ways of Sarah failed, ⁴⁵ and Abraham is commanded to listen to whatever Sarah had bid. One person fails as a man if he disdains things that are human, and he would die no more as a man and would hear: “I have said you are gods.” ⁴ Another fails as a beast who by ascending to the heights is not reproached by the prophetical words: “When man was in honor, he did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and was made like them.” ⁴⁷ One fails as a bird of the sky who makes for himself the wings of an eagle and returns rich to the home of his own teacher and forsakes all poverty. ⁴⁸ He fails as a fish of the sea who, when caught by the Lord’s nets, is separated with the good fish. ⁴ When these things have been accomplished, according to the Lord’s command, the ungodly will be made weak, having less strength than before. But also the unjust will be taken away—it is not said, will be killed, but will be taken away—to be converted to better things, to be brought over from impiety and iniquity to piety and justice, that they may begin to be that which they were not before. These things have been said according to tropology. For we ought to record the interpretation of our forefathers. ⁵ It will now be left to the reader’s choice and will to sound out with severity or clemency in response to the things that have been said.

1:4-6 And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will destroy out of this place the remnant of Baal, and the names of the keepers of the temples with the priests, and those who worship the host of heaven upon the rooftops, and those who worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Milcom, and those who turn away from the back of the Lord, and who have not sought the Lord, nor searched after him.

Septuagint: “And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all who inhabit Jerusalem; and I will remove the names of the Baals out of this place, and the names of the priests with the priests; and those who worship the host of heaven upon the rooftops, and those who swear by the Lord, and swear by their king, and those who turn aside from the Lord, and those who do not seek after

the Lord, and those who do not hold fast to the Lord.” After the ruin of the ungodly and the removal of the unjust from the face of the land, ⁵¹ it is spoken consequently from the persona of the Lord against Judah and against Jerusalem: And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem . For the stretching out of the hand shows the gesture of one striking. And I will destroy out of this place the remnant of Baal . This is not because, according to the Septuagint, the “names of the Baals” must be utterly eradicated, but because, in accordance with the Hebrew, he is threatening his worshipers from the people, who had remained few in Judah or Jerusalem from the slaughter of the enemies, to remove themselves. Also the names of the keepers of the temple with the priests , because Judah and Benjamin had come into such ungodliness, that in the temple of the Lord—as Ezekiel writes, and the fourth book of Kingdoms shows—they had erected a statue of Baal, which the Lord calls the idol of jealousy, ⁵² and in the same sanctuary they worshiped idols and the Lord equally. Whence it is significant that he has named them the priests of the idols, not priests, but τεμενίτας , that is, the keepers of the temple or those inspired ( fanaticos ), which in Hebrew is expressed as kemarim . And thus the Lord will “remove” or destroy from the “place” of Jerusalem (for this is understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ ⁵³ ) the keepers of the temple and the priests formerly of God, and those who worshiped the host of heaven upon the rooftops , the sun, the moon and the rest of the stars; and those who were swearing by the name of the Lord , and by the name of the idol Milcom of the Ammonites—which was translated “king” by the Septuagint. And I will destroy out of this place the remnant of Baal, and I will destroy the names of the keepers of the temples with the priests, and I will destroy those who worship the host of heaven upon the rooftops, and I will destroy those who worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Milcom, and I will destroy those who turn away , or “turn aside” from the back of the Lord, and who do not seek after nor “hold fast” to him. But they are turning their backs on the Lord of Israel and abandoning his worship, when they swear by Milcom and worship the host of heaven and adore Baal, the idol of the Sidonians. Up to this point the historical sense has been set forth. Let us also consider the anagogy. On account of the Lord, who was descended from the tribe of Judah, ⁵⁴ and on account of Jerusalem, where Judah reigned, that is, the Lord and Savior, let us say that when iniquity increases, and the love of many grows cold, ⁵⁵ and at the Lord’s coming, faith will seldom appear on the earth, ⁵ to such a degree that even the elect of God would be tempted, ⁵⁷ at that time the Lord stretches out his

hand to punish sins over Judah, who seems to confess the name of the Lord, and over Jerusalem, the church, which was allotted this designation from the word for peace; and he removes from the church “the names of the Baals,” which means “loftier ones.” But the Lord will remove the names of vainglory and false admiration, which obtains in the church, in which according to James, the one who has a gold ring is venerated, and the poor man is disdained, ⁵⁸ when the whole people rise up at the coming of a judge and of a senator, and in common with all rich men; and for the holy poor man, not even is room granted to them to stand among the throngs of the mighty by their leave. But also “the names of the priests with the priests” refer to those who to no purpose applaud for themselves in the name of bishop, and who hold the office of presbyter, but not the works associated with the office. Whence it is significant that he does not say “and the works of the priests with the priests,” but “names,” referring to those who prefer merely the false names of the offices, and who destroy their names by evil deeds; and “those who worship the host of heaven upon the rooftops,” who are raised up against the knowledge of God; ⁵ and everything that is carried on in the world, promising themselves false knowledge, they refer to the rising and setting of the stars, and they follow the errors of astrologers ( mathematicorum ), and those who worship the Lord and Milcom, who think that they can serve both the world and the Lord equally, and can satisfy two masters, God and mammon. Those who, while campaigning as soldiers of Christ, involve themselves in the business of the world, and they offer the same image to God and Caesar, ¹ and while they say that they are priests of Christ, they consecrate their sons to Milcom, that is, to their “king.” For they rightly have a man as king, who have lost the Lord as king and who “turn aside” from the Lord through their evil deeds, and “do not seek after him”; they “hold fast” to the one fleeing his sins. But if anyone wants to understand this in accordance with the meaning of the names of Judah and Jerusalem with respect to the soul of each one, he will not err, that the Lord removes everything which we said, either at the consummation of the world, or at the death of each individual, when they will hear: “Fool, this night your soul will be removed from you.” ² And he will “stretch out his hand over” him who does not confess the Lord, and over him who boasts that he has a mind of peace, in order to remove and destroy all pride from such a Jerusalem, and her false worship of God, and the errors of various teachings, and her service to both God and the world, and by her daily sins, her turning away from the Lord and her disregard of God.

1:7 Be silent before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he has sanctified those whom he has called.

Septuagint: “Fear before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared his victim, he has sanctified those whom he has called.” What the Septuagint translated as “Fear,” and we recorded as Be silent, in Hebrew it is an interjection ³ of one who is commanding silence. The comic poets make use of it often. Moreover, silence is enjoined upon all without qualification, because the day of the Lord is about to come. Now, we should understand the day of the Lord as the day of captivity and retribution against a sinful people, and the sacrifice as Jerusalem’s overthrow, and the sanctification as those whom he set apart for the slaughter, in accordance with what is said in Jeremiah: “Sanctify them for the day of their slaughter.” ⁴ And the sense is: The predicted captivity came once against an ungodly people; it is now near. For the prophecy is composed under King Josiah; when he is killed: “Fear before face of the Lord God; for the day of the Lord is near; for the Lord has prepared his victim, he has sanctified those whom he has called.” Total devastation is coming, of which he also speaks in Ezekiel, “The end is coming, the end is coming,” ⁵ and the rest. This “victim” is pleasing to me, I have sanctified these sacrifices to myself. Now what he says, “He has sanctified those whom he has called,” can be understood about the Babylonians, whom he calls even his own servants in the retribution of the people, since they are avenging their own injury. He says, “I have called Nebuchadnezzar my servant.” And in the same book, he calls him not only a servant but also a dove: “Before the face of the dove’s sword.” ⁷ On the other hand, according to tropology, because the “face of the Lord” is over those who do evil things, to destroy their memory from the earth, and the judgment “day is near”—for compared to eternity, all the time of this age is short —or the death of the individual; let all “fear,” and be silent , lest the Lord’s face —concerning which the holy one says: “The light of your countenance, o Lord, is signed upon us” ⁸ —burn up the hay, straw and wood of sins. For “the Lord has prepared” his sacrifice , the whole mystery of Leviticus, when through fire and the outpouring of blood and the true offering, they shall be saved who must

be saved, and those called shall be sanctified. Some of our own people understand the day of the Lord and his sacrifice, and the sanctification of those called, of the coming of the Savior, when the Lamb was sacrificed, and in his blood the apostles and the rest who were called through them were sanctified.

1:8-9 And it will come to pass in the day of the sacrifice of the Lord, that I will visit upon the princes, and upon the king’s sons, and upon all who are clothed with a foreign garment. And I will visit every one that enters arrogantly over the threshold on that day, who fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit.

Septuagint: “And it will come to pass in the day of the sacrifice of the Lord that I will take vengeance on the princes, and on the king’s house, and upon all who are clothed with strange garments. And I will openly take vengeance on all who are in the forecourts on that day, who fill the house of the Lord their God with ungodliness and deceit.” On the day of the Jewish captivity, when the whole people has to be sacrificed, the Lord will visit, both upon the princes who drank strong drink in the morning, and upon the king’s sons, either all from royal lineage, or certainly especially the sons of Josiah, whom we read were either killed or captured; ⁷ and upon all who are clothed with a foreign garment , that is, those who venerated idols in place of the worship of God. And upon everyone since they enter arrogantly over the threshold on that day , that is, against the proud, who with a certain disdain and arrogance of authority climb the steps of the temple and the threshold of the sanctuary. On the other hand, what we have translated as Those who enter arrogantly over the threshold can be understood according to the Hebrew as those who leap over the threshold. And it must be understood historically, “I will take vengeance upon those,” who according to the first book of Kingdoms, being slaves to superstition, do not tread upon the threshold of the idols, who have filled the house of their Lord God not only with the worship of idols but with iniquity and wickedness and every falsehood, so that iniquity too was joined to the error of religion in those subject to falsehood even against neighbors.

But since we have once begun to explain this tropologically: The Lord will visit, in the coming and passion of the Savior, that is, on the day of the sacrifice of his Son, upon the high priests and priests of the Jewish people and upon the royal “house.” For up to that time, the kings of Judah continued from the stock of David, according to the prophecy of Jacob: “A prince will not fail from Judah, nor a ruler from his thighs, until he comes to whom it was reserved, and he will be the expectation of nations.” ⁷¹ For the kingdom was taken away from the Jews after the Lord’s sacrifice. ⁷² He says, “and upon all who are clothed with strange garments,” those who withdrew from the protection and garment of God, and were covered with their own error. “And I will openly take vengeance on all who are in the forecourts,” that is, those who went out from God’s temple; and though they should have been inside, on account of their sins they went outside, and they withdrew from God’s church, filling up his temple with “ungodliness and deceit.” Let this be understood of the Savior’s first coming. But because we once explained this about the consummation of the world and the judgment day, which everyone translates as on the day of the Lord, we ought to know that at that time the Lord visits upon the princes and upon the shepherds, who devour the milk from the sheep, and though they shear their fleeces, they do not care for the dismay of the flock, ⁷³ and upon the king’s sons , those who boast that they are Christians, and who glory that they are sons of Christ the king, “and upon all who are clothed in strange garments.” Christ is the garment of the king’s sons and the robe of the princes , which we receive in baptism, according to the following passage, “Clothe yourselves with Christ Jesus,” ⁷⁴ and “Clothe yourselves with the bowels of mercy, goodness, humility, modesty, patience,” ⁷⁵ and the rest. In these things it is commanded that we be clothed with the new heavenly man, in accordance with our Creator, and we should cast off the garment of the old man with his works. ⁷ Although, therefore, we ought to be clothed with such garments, we are clothed with cruelty instead of mercy, impatience instead of patience, iniquity instead of justice. And to say it once and for all, instead of virtues we are clothed with vices; that is, instead of Christ, with the antichrist. Whence it is said about such a man: “And he put on cursing like a garment.” ⁷⁷ And the Lord will most “openly vindicate” in his coming, also “upon those” who should have been in the church with good works but cast themselves out because of their evil behavior. And having been handed over to Satan, ⁷⁸ they dwell in his “forecourts,” or rather, not in his “forecourts,” but “before his forecourts,” which is expressed in Greek more distinctively as ἐπὶ τὰ πρόπυλα . And he will

“vindicate upon all” who “fill” the church with various “iniquities” and sins, and with ungodliness and deceit , and who mingle blood with blood. ⁷ But if we want to understand this same thing with respect to the souls of individuals, we should understand the princes and the “house of the king” as the λογισμοὺς , that is, the thoughts and feelings, and as the soul itself, which ought to be the lodging of the “king.” And in accordance with the explanation given above, we should refer the “foreign garments” and everything that follows to each believer, who, though they should have been clothed with Christ and always lived inside, they covered themselves with the various garments of sins and went out of the church, that is, from the congregation of the holy ones, and they filled the temple of their body ⁸ with iniquity and deceit instead of with virtues.

1:10 And there will be in that day, says the Lord, the sound of a cry from the fish gate, and a wailing from the second, and a great destruction (contritio) from the hills.

Septuagint: “And there shall be in that day, says the Lord, the sound of a cry from the gate of remorseful men, and a wailing from the second, and a great destruction from the hills.” In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, ⁸¹ when he will stretch out his hand upon Judah and upon all those dwelling in Jerusalem, ⁸² and [when] an enemy’s army surrounds her, there will be the sound of a cry from the fish gate and a wailing from the second, and a great destruction from the hills. They called it the fish gate, which leads to Diospolis and Joppa, and among all the roads to Jerusalem was nearer the sea. Ezra refers to it: “But the sons of Asnaa built the fish gate, they roofed it, and set up its doors, bolts and bars.” ⁸³ But as for what he says, And a wailing from the second , he means the gate of the second wall in the same direction, of which it is written in the book of Kingdoms: “And Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe, and this woman lived in Jerusalem in the second .” ⁸⁴ But he speaks about a great destruction from the hills down from Mount Zion and the upper part of the city, because when the higher part and stronghold of the city are seized, the descent on the slopes is easier.

But if, as above, we want to understand that day that the Lord threatens as the judgment day, at that time when the Ancient of Days shall sit down, ⁸⁵ and books will be opened, and individual consciences will be revealed, at that time will be fulfilled “the sound of the cry from the gate of remorseful men.” For the first gate will be that of the eyes, when sins will be shown to us before our eyes, and all the pomp and images of our old wickedness, vices and extravagance will be made public. Then that will be true which is written: “Behold the man and his works before his face.” ⁸ Therefore his conscience will torment him, and after he cries out in remorse from the first gate of the eyes, he will also wail from the second , which we can understand as that of the ears. For through these, or especially through the senses, by means of which they had fallen into vices, their punishment will be perceived, when we will see what we have done, and while listening to the speech of the learned man, and every class of sins, we are compelled to wail , and whatever had been lofty in us is crushed, as well as whatever was not known by us on account of our blindness and deaf ears. Or certainly, since lofty words and instruction coming from on high will destroy and shatter us, and it will be fulfilled by the deed, “I roared with a groan from my heart,” ⁸⁷ so that “the afflicted spirit” in us is “a sacrifice to God,” ⁸⁸ we who are men, and have not committed sins so grave that they are compared to the mountains, are destroyed ( contriti ) as hills . But the highest parts of the mountains will be crushed in the devil and his angels. ⁸ What we have referred to the time of the Babylonians, many think in terms of the history that it must be understood about the Savior’s first coming, when on account of excessive sins, and the cry of the people shouting, “His blood be upon us, and upon our sons,” Jerusalem was surrounded by an army, ¹ and the crowd of mocking boys was devoured by two bears, ² namely, Vespasian and Titus. This interpretation indeed agrees with our faith to a great extent, but it does so in such a way that we should know that it can also correspond with the earlier history, or at least, that the earlier captivity was a type of the second and of the final overthrow of Jerusalem. And indeed, this needs to be noticed—that in Hebrew dagim clearly denotes not the “gate of remorseful men” but the fish gate. Allegorically, the fish gate is in Jerusalem, through which they bring in the good fish, which have been separated from the bad, ³ and they will mourn over the rest of those entering, who have remained outside. Or certainly at the end of the world and at the consummation those will mourn from the first fish gate who have not preserved their baptism; they shall mourn from the second who did not do suitable penance for their sins. And there will be a great destruction upon the hills , those who were not bent over for their sins so that they lowered their neck

and lamented for their evils. For either entrance or return into Jerusalem, that is, into the church of God, is through these two gates of baptism and penance.

1:11a Howl, inhabitants of the mortar. All the people of Canaan fell silent.

Septuagint: “Lament, you that inhabit [the city] that has been broken down, for all the people became like Canaan.” In Hebrew mortar is called maktesh and was translated by Aquila as εἰς τὸν ὅλμον. It must not be read with a short first syllable, lest we think of a σφαῖραν, ⁴ but with a long syllable, so that we might know that it is said about the mortar in which grain is crushed, a hollow bowl, and suitable for doctors to use, in which barley in particular is accustomed to be struck. Anyone might say that he has understood what mortar means but wants to know why it is adopted in the present passage. Because there is once a description of the captured city, and it is said, “the sound of a cry from the fish gate, and a wailing from the second, and a great destruction from the hills”; ⁵ now the same arrangement of the description is preserved, and there is talk of the wailing of those who dwell in the valley of Siloe. And it is nice that the Scripture did not say, “You who inhabit the valley, you who inhabit the hut,” but you who inhabit the mortar , namely, because just as the grain is crushed by a pestle striking it from above, so from the fish gate, and from the second gate, a rushing army will descend upon you from the hills. Now he has called the Jewish people people of Canaan. This agrees with what we read in Daniel, “O seed of Canaan and not of Judah,” and to Jerusalem, “Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite”; ⁷ and in another place: “Canaan, in your hand are the scales of iniquity.” ⁸ But if we should want to compose a tropology according to both versions, they are rightly stirred up to wailing and lamentation who dwell in the extreme dregs of sins, and being immersed in the deepest places of their wickedness, they say: “I am stuck in the mire of the deep,” he says, “and there is no sure standing.” And this is why it is added: “You who inhabit [the city] that has been broken down,” that is, the soul that has been wounded by many iniquities, or the church, which has been torn apart by schisms and heresies, and bewails the slain sons for every single wound. But that which he says: “All the people became like Canaan,” or fell

silent , signifies that their blasphemy will cease on the judgment day; and the mouth that they set against the Most High, ¹ and the tongue that reaches all the way to the ground, will fall silent in eternal silence. And because Jerusalem committed sin, and therefore was made into a commotion, it is called the people of Canaan, which is translated “commotion.” For it cannot say, “He set my feet upon a rock,” ¹ ¹ but being uncertain and wavering, it is always in motion. And this is why the holy man Noah, after he awoke from his sleep, laid a curse upon the name Canaan, saying: “Cursed be the boy Canaan; he will be the servant of his brothers . ” ¹ ² But not only are all sinners “like Canaan,” but owing to the nature and diversity of their sins, some “are like” Pharaoh, others are like the giant Nimrod. ¹ ³ And, on the other hand, through good works and virtues, because the paths of virtue are diverse, one person adopts Abraham’s spirit, another that of Moses, another that of Elijah. That is why it is said by the apostle: “Be zealous for better gifts.” ¹ ⁴ But the one who is perfect, but only in accordance with the perfection that the human condition is capable of attaining to, is sealed with the likeness of God.

1:11b All that were wrapped up in silver have utterly perished.

Septuagint: “All that were exalted by silver have utterly perished.” He says, those who trusted in riches, and had such great wealth that they thought of themselves as if they were wrapped up in their riches protected by them; or certainly, according to the Septuagint, those who were “exalted” in their pride and disdained the poor, were laid waste when the wrath came. And likewise consider that he did not say: Those “who were exalted by silver” shall perish, but have perished and fallen, already now, before the day of punishment comes upon them, in the very fact that they are proud and are always thinking about their treasures and hoarding them. I think that the one who understands this does not desire riches too much. Those who “were exalted” in them have perished, not shall perish. But it must not be thought that only those who were “exalted in silver” have perished, but according to this definition, even that one will perish who takes pride in the nobility of his birth. He who is puffed up with honors shall perish; he who boasts in the strength of his body shall perish; he shall perish who, having been made soft, attends to his hair with an effeminate

idleness, who plucks out his hair, who polishes his skin, and who grooms himself before a mirror, which is uniquely a passion and craze of women. But if someone wants to be lifted up and “exalted” by a holy pride, let him be “exalted” with the apostles, when he becomes worthy “to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus Christ.” ¹ ⁵ Let him boast with the apostle, who rejoiced in his tribulations, knowing that “tribulation produces endurance, endurance hope, and hope does not disappoint.” ¹

1:12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and will visit upon the men that are stuck in their dregs; who say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil.

Septuagint: “And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will search Jerusalem with a lamp, and will take vengeance on the men who despise their charges, and say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil.” At the time and on the day of Jerusalem’s captivity, either by the Babylonians or by the Romans—since she abandoned the law of the Lord, and acted impiously toward the Lord her Creator—the Lord will search everything hidden in Jerusalem with a “lamp” and will allow no one to escape unpunished. Let us read the history of Josephus, and there we will find a story written about sewers, and also caves, hollows and tombs, from which princes, kings, powerful men and priests were removed who had hid themselves in these from the fear of death. ¹ ⁷ He says, And I will visit upon those who trust in their own bodies and in their own strength, which he διασυρτικῶς ¹ ⁸ calls the dregs , or sins, in which they were completely stuck . Taking away providence, they said that God was the author of neither good nor evil , that is, that he shall pay back neither good things to good men, nor bad things to bad men, but that everything is thrown back upon the choice of fortune and comes about by uncertain chance. But at the consummation of the world, because this is understood as the “day” of the Lord, the Lord will search Jerusalem, that is, his church, “with a lamp.” And “he will take vengeance upon” scornful “men” who were unwilling to protect their “charges”; that is, they showed contempt for the Lord’s commandments, and in addition, by saying that they sinned by reason, they blasphemed “in their

hearts,” saying that “to do good” brought no benefit and “to do evil” did no harm, since God neither pays out a reward for good deeds nor punishment for bad ones. But rightly Jerusalem—that is, the church—which formerly was called Jebus, ¹ which means “trampled upon”—when it was trampled upon by the nations, and was the laughingstock of demons, it was called Jebus, and when the peace of the Lord began to dwell in her, and it was made his place in peace, the name of Jerusalem was allotted to it. ¹¹ Therefore, because at the last time , what we have often already said, that iniquity will be increased and love will grow cold, and the light of the sun will withdraw from Jerusalem, and there will be so much devastation, that even the elect of God will be saved with difficulty; ¹¹¹ at that time the Lord will search all vices in Jerusalem “with the lamp” of his speech and reason and will expose them publicly. And there will be a judgment and a vengeance even for the idle word, ¹¹² not against sinners—for even sin could have earned a pardon—but against the “despisers,” concerning whom it is said in Habakkuk, “Behold, you despisers, and look”; ¹¹³ and in another place, “Why do you not look back to the despisers?” ¹¹⁴ and again, “But he is an insolent man, a despiser and arrogant,” ¹¹⁵ and so forth. “Vengeance” will come upon those who did not preserve the Lord’s “charges” and who say in their hearts: “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil.” It is not that God would do evil, but that the punishment seems evil to the one who suffers it. Otherwise, the doctor’s scalpel shall be evil, because it cuts into wounds and amputates the rotten flesh. And a father will be evil who spanks his son in order to correct his vices, and a teacher will be evil who rebukes his student in order to educate him: “For no discipline seems joyful in the present, but sorrowful; but afterward it will yield peaceable fruit for those who are instructed by it.” ¹¹

1:13-14 And their strength will be for a plundering, and their houses as a desert. And they will build houses, and shall not dwell in them, and they will plant vineyards, and will not drink of their wine. The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and exceedingly swift.

Septuagint: “And their strength will be for a spoil, and their houses will be destroyed completely. And they will build houses, and will not dwell in them; and they will plant vineyards, but will not drink of their wine, because the great day of the Lord is near; near, and exceedingly swift.”

It is clear that in each of their captivities their whole army was cut to pieces, and their houses were plundered, and their fields and vineyards were ravaged, and the patience of God no longer postponed dealing with them. But when they said to the prophets, this will happen at a time and in days that are far distant, the great and exceedingly swift day of the Lord will come to them. But according to tropology, when the time of judgment comes, or of each person’s death and departure from the world, at that time all their strength will be for a plundering, so that the evil that prevailed and was raised against the Lord is turned infirm and broken for the better. Just as if someone plunders the strength of a bandit and pirate and thief and renders them weak, their weakness is beneficial to them; for the crippled limbs, which before they were not putting to good use, shall cease from evil deeds. But as for what follows, and their houses as a desert: there are many in the church who build Zion in blood and Jerusalem in iniquity, ¹¹⁷ for whom it is beneficial that such houses be destroyed. Let us read Leviticus, where it is commanded that the leprous house be destroyed. ¹¹⁸ And because leprosy is lasting and spreads, it is commanded that his stones and timbers and all dust be thrown outside the town into an unclean place. Moreover, in the beginning of Jeremiah, something like this is written: “Behold I have put my words in your mouth: Lo, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root up, and pull down, and to destroy and to build, and to plant.” ¹¹ The evil building is destroyed so that afterward a good building may be constructed; a crooked plant is uprooted so that a straight plant may be set up. And this is why we read in Solomon: “It is better to dwell under the open sky than in plastered limestone with iniquity and in a new house.” ¹² Therefore the good God destroys, as it were, the houses of those who were “stuck in their dregs” ¹²¹ and who had said in their heart: “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil.” ¹²² And he does not permit them to dwell in leprous and unclean houses, nor let them drink wine from the vineyards that they had planted. For if they had planted the vineyard of Sorec, ¹²³ and the entire true and chosen vine, ¹²⁴ they would have drunk their own wine, and would have been intoxicated with the patriarch Noah ¹²⁵ and Joseph at midday. ¹² But because they said, “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil,” ¹²⁷ and, “For their vine was of the vine of Sodom, and their vine branch was of Gomorrah. Their grape was a grape of gall, their cluster, one of bitterness to them. Their wine was the rage of serpents, and the incurable rage of asps”; ¹²⁸ therefore they have planted vineyards and will not drink of their wine . And mysteriously it is said of Sodom and Gomorrah that every planting of theirs will perish. For if they had remained in that which they had begun and become like God’s paradise, and if they had not finished in evil

and become like the land of Egypt, their planting assuredly would have remained. The following passage in the Psalms about the Egyptians signifies this sort of meaning: “He destroyed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with hoarfrost.” ¹² For God, as one who is very clement, killed and overturned the entire Egyptian planting and saplings, which, being rooted in Egypt, have bloodstained fruit, lest those who had planted badly should drink and should consume the fruit from them. The great and exceedingly swift day of the Lord is near; no one can withstand it. But it is near, either on account of eternity, because nothing is far distant in comparison with that, or on account of the extent of the punishment, because punishment that has to be inflicted never seems far off to the one suffering it. Or near, as we said above, when we leave this world, and each one’s death brings about the consummation of the world. And not only near but also exceedingly swift, so that the swiftness of his coming may be shown in that word that is added, exceedingly.

[1:14b] The voice of the day of the Lord [is] bitter, the mighty man shall there meet with tribulation.

1:15-16 That day [is] a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress (angustiae), a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and storm, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities, and against the high corners.

Septuagint: [1:14b]: “The voice of the day of the Lord, bitter and harsh, is appointed strong. A day of wrath is that day, a day of tribulation and distress (necessitatis), a day of misery and destruction, a day of darkness and storm, a day of clouds and gloom, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities, and against the high corners.” Interpret this in accordance with what is said above, either of the Babylonian captivity or of the last one, which they suffered under the Romans, over which even the Lord wept for Jerusalem, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill

the prophets, and stone those sent to you,” etc. ¹³ For truly vengeance was demanded “from the blood of Abel the just, even to the blood of Zechariah, whom they killed between the temple and the altar.” ¹³¹ Ultimately they even said of the Son of God “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” ¹³² They experienced the bitter day because they had provoked the Lord to bitterness; the day appointed by the Lord, in which not just any weak man but the mightiest men will be overwhelmed, and wrath will come upon them in the end. ¹³³ For often they endured the wrath of the Lord even previously, but that wrath was not that of the consummation and of the end. Why is it necessary now to describe the extent of the calamities that they endured in each of their captivities, and how those who rejected the light of the Lord dwelt in darkness and gloom, and those who were unwilling to hear the trumpets of the feast days heard the alarm of those waging war? But concerning the fortified cities and high corners of Judea, which were razed all the way to the ground, I think that the judgment of the eyes is preferable to that of the ears, especially to us who now are in the very province. It is possible to see it; it is possible to prove what is written. We scarcely make out tiny traces of the ruins of cities that were once great. In Shiloh, where the tabernacle and the ark of the Lord’s covenant were located, ¹³⁴ it is not easy to point out the foundations of the altar. Gibeah, the illustrious city of Saul, ¹³⁵ has been razed all the way down to its foundations. In Rama and Bethoron and the rest of the noble cities constructed by Solomon, the smallest hamlets are shown. Let us read Josephus and the prophecy of Zephaniah; we will see its history. And this has to be said not only about the captivity but all the way up to the present day, the treacherous tenant farmers, after the killing of his servants and ultimately of the Son of God, ¹³ are not permitted to enter Jerusalem without beating their breast. And in order for them to be allowed to weep over the ruin of their city, they pay a fine, so that those who formerly had purchased the blood of Christ ¹³⁷ may purchase their own tears, and not even their weeping comes without a fee. You should see how on the day in which Jerusalem was captured and plundered by the Romans, the people come mourning, the feeble, foolish women assemble, and the old men, covered with years and rags, show the wrath of the Lord in their bodies and in their physical appearance. A crowd of miserable people is assembled, and with the gibbet of the Lord flashing forth, and with his ἀναστάσει ¹³⁸ shining, and with the banner of his cross gleaming from the Mount of Olives, a miserable people mourn for the ruins of their temple, and yet they are not miserable . With tears still on their cheeks, black and blue arms and

disheveled hair, a soldier demands pay, so that one may lament for them all the more. And does anyone who sees this doubt about a day of tribulation and distress , about a day of calamity and misery , about a day of darkness and gloom , about a day of clouds and storm , about a day of the trumpet and alarm ? For they use trumpets even when they mourn, and according to a prophecy the sound of the feast day has turned into lamentation. ¹³ They wail over the ashes of the sanctuary, and over the ruined altar, and over the once fortified cities , and over the high corners of the temple, from which they once hurled James the Lord’s brother. ¹⁴ Let these things be said about the captivity of the Jews. Moreover, if we refer the day of the Lord, as above, to the consummation of the world, or to a person’s departure from life, the interpretation will be clear, that the voice of the day of the Lord is bitter, and is full of “distress” and wrath, and the mighty man shall there meet with tribulation, since even those who are holy are indeed saved, but yet as through fire. ¹⁴¹ That day is a day of tribulation , and of distress and calamity , and of misery , in which they will say: “Woe to us, for we have become miserable.” ¹⁴² It is a day of darkness : “For everyone that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light.” ¹⁴³ And of necessity darkness overtakes one who hates the light. It will be a day of clouds and storm , for the tempest of the Lord will come upon him, and the alarm of the trumpet , which the apostle indicates when he says: “At the last trumpet .” ¹⁴⁴ For it will be a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities , which they had built for themselves in the multitude of their sins with Cain. ¹⁴⁵ And against the high corners , namely, perverse works that lead away from the straight way of the Lord. And this is why the Savior convicts the Pharisees of being ὑποκρίτης (hypocrites) because they worship on the corners of the streets. For straight and narrow is the way that leads to paradise, and constricted is the way that leads to life. ¹⁴ But broken and twisted with corners is the wide and spacious way that leads to death. And simultaneously, amid words of severity, perceive the Lord’s mercy, for the reason the day is bitter , and a day of wrath and a day of tribulation, and a day of the trumpet and alarm , is so that the badly fortified cities and the perverse corners may be torn down.

1:17-18 And I will distress men, and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood will be poured out as earth, and their bodies as dung. But even their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; all the earth will be devoured

in the fire of his jealousy, because he will bring a consummation with haste to all them that dwell in the land.

Septuagint: “And I will distress men, and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; and he will pour out their blood as dust, and their flesh as dung of oxen. And their silver and their gold will not be able to rescue them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; and all the earth will be consumed in the fire of his jealousy; for he will bring a consummation and haste upon all them that dwell in the land.” It is not difficult to say, in accordance with the earlier meaning, that Jerusalem had experienced these things, which she sustained on account of the Lord’s cross. For the visitation of the Lord withdrew from it, ¹⁴⁷ and all men were distressed in all of Judea, and on account of the extent of the distress they walked like blind men , not knowing what they were doing. And they endured these things because they sinned against the Lord , that is, against the Son of God. For because they shed the blood of the prophets ¹⁴⁸ and the blood of Christ, their blood was poured out as earth in the whole country, and their bodies remained unburied, as dung upon the face of the land . Their rich men too, who gathered silver and gold with extreme iniquity, were unable to be delivered by their wealth from the day of the wrath of the Lord . For the fire of the Lord’s jealousy was kindled against them and devoured the whole province. Nor was the time in between lengthy, for forty-two years after the Lord’s cross Jerusalem was surrounded by an army, ¹⁴ and its consummation came with haste , and not only for it, but for all them that dwell in the land of Judea. But at the consummation , either of the world or of each man, all men will be distressed who have remained as men and died as men. And they will walk as blind men because they have lost the light of the virtues and will have no room for repentance. And they will undergo these things because they have sinned against the Lord . For if the Lord is justice, truth, holiness and the other virtues, ¹⁵ then anyone who has acted unjustly and lied and ran after harlots and vices has sinned against the Lord . But that which follows, and their blood will be poured out as earth, and their bodies “as dung of oxen,” seems absurd, that in the resurrection of the dead, and at the consummation and judgment of the world, we should say that blood is poured out and bodies lie there as dung. Therefore the following is said to Noah:

“And I will require the blood of your souls from the hand of all wild beasts, and I will require the soul of the man from the hand of man and from the hand of his brother. He who sheds man’s blood, his own blood will be shed for that blood.” ¹⁵¹ And in the resurrection, it is ridiculous to believe this, and these things cannot stand in life. For how many people have shed blood, and their blood was not been shed? And some have killed a man with poison, or by hanging, and yet though the man is dead, his blood was not shed. How then shall the Lord shed their blood in retaliation, when the one who kills does not shed blood? Therefore human blood ought to be understood as τὸ ζωτικὸν αἶτος , that is, the life-giving principle, that by which he is invigorated, is sustained and lives. On the Day of Judgment the blood of the one who sheds it, either through a stumbling block or through false teaching, will be poured out from him; that is, he will be forced to part with that which seemed to be his life-giving principle. In accordance with this sort of blood, “flesh” is also understood, of which Isaiah also says, “All flesh [is] grass”; ¹⁵² and the Lord says in Genesis, “My spirit will not remain in these men, because they are flesh”; ¹⁵³ and the apostle speaks of both, “Flesh and blood will not be able to possess the kingdom of God, neither will corruption inherit the incorruption of God.” ¹⁵⁴ Thus in the day of consummation, either the general or the special one, all blood that has been poured out will call out to the Lord ¹⁵⁵ and will appear in public, and the earthly works of blood will lie there as “dust and dung,” and silver and gold will be unable to deliver the wealthy from the day of wrath , when he who dies will hear: “You fool, this night your soul will be taken from you; but whose shall those things be which you have prepared?” ¹⁵ It is not that we deny that gold and silver can deliver the wealthy from death—“For the redemption of a man’s soul is his own riches” ¹⁵⁷ —but that they will not be able to deliver at that time, when they are forced to give up their riches. For all the earth and everything that is earthly will be devoured by the jealousy of the Lord . And as for what he says, by jealousy, understand that the Lord is still showing love. For if he did not love the human soul, he never would be jealous for it. He is like a husband who avenges the sin of his wife, who, if he did not love her, he would not be angered by her adultery. And the Lord will do thus with haste to all them that dwell in the land, to those who gave themselves up completely to the earth and were not strangers and foreigners, as was the just man, who says: “I am a stranger in the land, and a sojourner, like all my fathers.” ¹⁵⁸ And again in another passage, one who is unwilling to dwell any longer in the tabernacle of the body says with a tearful voice and testifies: “Woe to me, because my

sojourning was prolonged.” ¹⁵ For indeed, we who are in the tabernacle of this body ¹ groan and complain: “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” ¹ ¹

2:1-2 Come together and be gathered together, O unlovable nation, before the decree brings forth the day as dust passing away; before the wrath of the Lord’s fury comes upon you, before the wrath of the Lord’s indignation comes upon you.

Septuagint: “Be gathered and closely joined together, o unchastened nation; before you become as the flower that passes away by day, before the wrath of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of the wrath of the fury of the Lord rushes in upon you.” After the description of the evils that will come on the day of the Lord— according to the twofold explanation of the captivity that we have given above— the people are challenged to repentance, and it is said to them: Come together, and be gathered together, or as it was written in the Septuagint: “Be closely joined together,” that is, be united to yourselves in the bond of love, in accordance with the apostle’s word, ¹ ² unlovable nation , you who are unworthy of God’s love, or “unchastened nation,” of which it is spoken in Deuteronomy, “a foolish and unwise people,” ¹ ³ and in Jeremiah, “Without cause I have struck your children; you have not received correction.” ¹ ⁴ Do this before that takes place which was prophesied, before the consequence follows the warning, which will come as easily as dust that “passes away,” before the Lord’s fury against you is fulfilled. At the same time, discern God’s mercy. It would have been sufficient to prudent men to have described the onslaught of the evils that were coming; but since he does not want to inflict punishments, but merely to frighten those who are to experience them, he himself challenges them to repentance, so that he might not do what he has threatened. But generally, the entire crowd of believers and of those who are called God’s people are gathered together in the church, and it is said to them: Come together in the church, unite yourselves in charity and peace, o “unchastened nation,” you who do not wish to receive God’s correction, nor to have a knowledge of his

commands, but you are delighted with your riches and bodily health and the beauty of this age, also with the pleasures of the flesh, which passes away “like a flower” that withers in one “day.” But on account of this, I say to you: Come together, unite, lest when the time of judgment comes, and all your glory passes away, you then should wish to repent, at a time when there will be no opportunity for repentance but only for punishments. Someone may ask how this could be understood of each one who departs from this world. Therefore it is said to each one: O you who are involved in the business of the world and who run about here and there, return to the church of the holy ones and join yourself to the life and company of those whom you see are pleasing to God, and bring together into one bond of wisdom the feeble members of your soul, which do not cleave together, and cleave to its embrace, and listen to the mystery: “Be strengthened, o feeble hands, and be firmed up, o weak knees.” ¹ ⁵ And do not boast in the goods of the flesh and in its flower that passes away: “For all flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass: The grass withers, and the flower fades; but the word of the Lord abides forever.” ¹ We can make use of this section as suits the occasion, if we ever see someone who is occupied by worldly honors and by the gathering of riches, who comes to church either rarely or not at all. We can tell him to gather and join himself to the people of God, you who do not listen to the Lord’s warnings, before your glory “passes away,” before the day of the Lord’s fury comes to you.

2:3-4 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, you who have worked his judgment; seek the just, seek the meek, if by any means you may be hid in the day of the Lord’ s fury. For Gaza will be destroyed, and Ascalon will be a desert. They will cast out Azotus at noonday, and Accaron will be rooted up.

Septuagint: “Seek the Lord, all the humble of the earth; work judgment, and seek justice, and answer these things, that you may be protected in the day of the wrath of the Lord. For Gaza shall be plundered, and Ascalon will be a desert; and Azotus will be cast forth at noonday, and Accaron will be rooted up.” He is called “humble of the earth,” not one who is humbled by humility, which is a virtue, but by sins, and who is unable to say with Christ: “Learn from me,

because I am meek, and humble of heart.” ¹ ⁷ “For everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.” ¹ ⁸ And in another passage the words are directed to the saint: “To the extent that you are greater, humble yourself all the more, and you will find favor before God.” ¹ But the one who is humbled by sins and weighed down by his awareness of transgressions and says, “As a heavy burden, they have weighed down upon me,” ¹⁷ he ought to hear: “Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” ¹⁷¹ Let this be said in the beginning, according to the Septuagint translators. However that may be, the sense according to the Hebrew is different. For it is said to the holy ones: O you, who keep my commandments, who are set on the earth and know that everyone who humbles himself will be exalted, ¹⁷² you have imitated my meekness, and you have worked judgment . Seek the Lord in your meekness. And if you wish to know who is this Lord, seek the just , seek the meek . “For the Father has given all judgment to the Son,” ¹⁷³ who will judge justly. And because you are meek , on account of this, seek the meek , so that anything that is lesser in your meekness may be filled up by him who is the font of meekness. But I say this to you: If by any means you are hid on the day of the Lord’s fury , that is, if by chance, because you have sought the Lord , and have worked his justice, you could avoid the wrath of the day that is coming and escape the captivity that is to be inflicted on the Jewish people by either Nebuchadnezzar or the Romans. But if the one who has done his judgments is in doubt about these things, and says, If by any means you are hid in the day of the Lord’s fury , what shall happen to sinners? For so much devastation will come to the land of Judea, and so lofty a conqueror as the Babylonian army will ascend to this place, that the same captivity would overtake even the most powerful cities of the Philistines, which always stood firm against you in even combat. For Gaza will be destroyed , and Ascalon will be reduced to a desolation, and they will drag Azotus into captivity, not by deception, but by war, that is, by the clear light and victory, and Accaron , which is translated “uprooting,” will experience precisely what is expressed in its name, that is, it will be rooted up . This has been said in accordance with the letter and Hebrew truth. But according to the Septuagint, the command is given to the “humble of the earth,” of whom it has been spoken above, that they “work judgment and seek justice,” which I think is no one else but Christ. ¹⁷⁴ And because “Everyone who seeks will find,” ¹⁷⁵ let them answer to others what they have found, that is, let them teach others: “For wisdom that is hidden, and treasure that is hoarded up: what profit is there in both?” ¹⁷ And he says, I warn you of this that you may be

“protected on the day of the wrath of the Lord,” either at the consummation of the world, or at the departure of each individual from this world. For Gaza, Ascalon, Azotus and Accaron will experience different punishments. For Gaza means “his strength.” Thus all who applaud for their strength of body and worldly power, and say with the devil, “I will act with strength,” ¹⁷⁷ will be “plundered on the day of the wrath of the Lord” and will be reduced to nothing. Ascalon too, which means “weighed down” or “killing fire,” when “the day of the wrath of the Lord” comes, it will perceive the measure of its wickedness and will be overwhelmed with the same weight with which it “worked.” And because it burned to shed blood, and scandalized many souls, and in this was fulfilled: “the Lord abhors the bloody and deceitful man,” ¹⁷⁸ it will not be “plundered” as Gaza but, having been reduced to a desolation, it will be burned to dust by the fires of Gehenna. And surely also Azotus, which in Hebrew is called ’ashdod , and in our language means “fire of generation,” will be ravaged by the bright light; for it burns with lust and rages with the fire of generation. And because all adulterers with hearts like an oven have also been wounded by burning darts, not in the darkness, not in a hidden judgment, but “at noonday,” that is, when the saints will take in the full brightness, they will be “cast forth” into the darkness and will have no fellowship with the saints. But Accaron, which means “sterility” or “uprooting,” because it bore no fruit and uprooted a large number by its false doctrine, it too shall be “rooted up.” But understand all these differences in respect to the vices and sins of souls, and that on the Day of Judgment fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁷

2:5-7 Woe to you that inhabit the border of the sea (funiculum maris), O nation of the ruined: the word of the Lord upon you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines, and I will destroy you, so that there will not be an inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be the resting place of shepherds, and folds (caulae) for cattle. And it shall be the border (funiculus) of him who will remain of the house of Judah; there they will feed, in the houses of Ascalon they will rest in the evening, because the Lord their God will visit them, and turn away their captivity.

Septuagint: “Woe to you that inhabit the border of the sea, neighbors (accolae) of the Cretans; the word of the Lord upon you, o Canaan, land of the foreigners,

and I will destroy you out of your dwelling place. And Crete will be a pasture of shepherds, and a sheepfold (ovile) for cattle. And the border of the sea will be for them who remained from the house of Judah; they will feed upon them in the houses of Ascalon; after midday they will turn off from the face of the sons of Judah because the Lord their God will visit them, and he will turn away their captivity.” As far as the history goes, it is not difficult to interpret this, because he had said higher up: “Gaza will be destroyed, and Ascalon will be a desert, they will cast out Azotus at midday, and Accaron will be rooted up.” ¹⁸ To the four great cities of Palestine that are named, it is now made clear that the word of the Lord is coming universally to the province itself, and it is predicted to it: Woe to you that inhabit the border of the sea , since Babylon is coming, because even those who dwell near the sea shall perish and be taken away. Now, there is no doubt that the land of the Palestinians is the land of Canaan. And I will destroy you , he says, so that there will be no inhabitant , and you will come into such a state of devastation, you that rejoiced in the overthrow of Judea, that all your most fortified cities are “sheepfolds” of shepherds . And after the Lord has visited his people and made them return under Zerubbabel and Jesus, ¹⁸¹ and they have built the temple and reconstructed Jerusalem, you will be trampled down to such an extent and so covered over with thorn bushes and nettles that shepherds from the remainder of the Jews in Ascalon will rest there after midday , and in the formerly noble city they shall make their flocks lie down. And this will happen because the Lord will visit his people and will turn aside his captivity . Whether this has been done or [it is said] that it might not happen, let God see. It is not our purpose at this time to compose the truth of history but to make known to our people these things that we have received from the Hebrews. But according to the spiritual sense and the translation of the Septuagint, the understanding is difficult, particularly because it contains discrepancies in the translation. For where we translated o nation of the ruined, they have said “strangers (advenae) of the Cretans”; and what is written in Hebrew as goy kerethim, for goy, that is, nation, they wrote car, that is, “stranger.” And for kerethim, which is expressed as of the ruined, they thought the island of Crete was being named. Finally, both Aquila and the Fifth Version translated as ἔθνος ὀλεθρίον and Theodotion as ἔθνος ὀλεθρίας, Symmachus too as ἔθνος ὀλεθρευόμενον. ¹⁸² They all render it like our translation. Again, where we said, And the border of the sea shall be the resting place of shepherds , and all the translators agreed in this translation, it is written in the Septuagint: “and Crete

will be a pasture of flocks, and a sheepfold for cattle.” Therefore, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, ¹⁸³ and holding to the path of the common ( vulgatae ) edition ¹⁸⁴ once begun, we ask whether elsewhere in the Holy Scriptures we read the name of Crete. And unless I am mistaken, there is this one at hand: “The Cretans [are] always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies. This testimony is true . ” ¹⁸⁵ Those who waver and are borne around by every wind of teaching ¹⁸ in the deception of men, in the cunningness of error, though they ought to dwell in the land of confession, that is, in the land of Judea, they willed rather to be the “strangers of the Cretans” who are buffeted here and there by the changing tides of the sea, and resound with Corybantian brass, ¹⁸⁷ and they are, according to the apostle, “like a tinkling cymbal.” ¹⁸⁸ And because they are “strangers of the Cretans,” therefore the word of God, that is, his threat, comes to them, and they are called the land of “Canaan,” always in flux, always in motion, and “land of foreigners.” For they live estranged from God, on the “border of the sea” and in the country of “Crete.” And so God’s word comes to them, either at the consummation and end of the world or daily through men of the church, and those who are able to say with the apostle, “Or do you seek proof that it is Christ who speaks in me?” ¹⁸ In order that they may be cast out from “Crete,” and may be blotted out of their former “dwelling places,” even that country that before contained a ruined flock begins to be the “sheepfold” of Christ’s “cattle.” And “Judah,” that is, “true confession,” inhabits “the border of the sea.” And though the world has already begun to be at evening, and few are chosen from the many who are called, ¹ and the remainder who are called come “from the house of Judah,” “they will feed those” who first were pastured on the sea and in Crete and in falsehood; they will turn aside “in the houses of Ascalon,” that is, where formerly the fire of the devil and the blood of the slain flowed. For “Ascalon” is translated “killing fire.” And this will happen because “the Lord will visit” his people, and those who before were easily taken captive by the philosophical fallacies of the heretics, as those coming from “captivity,” will conquer their adversaries and will dwell in their tents. But that which is read in the Septuagint, “from the face of the sons of Judah,” we have marked with an obelus, for it is found neither in the Hebrew nor in any of the translators, and it disturbs the context and meaning of the section; not that it will be difficult to put the thought together, howsoever it came to be placed there. But we have once and for all decided to follow the truth of the translation, and of the educated reader, rather than the judgment of the populace ( vulgi ).

2:8-11 I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the blasphemies of the sons of Ammon, which they reproached my people, and have been magnified upon their borders. Therefore as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab will be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah, the dryness of thorns, and heaps of salt, and a desert even forever, the remnant of my people will plunder them; the residue of my nation will inherit them. This will befall them for their pride, because they have blasphemed, and have been magnified against the people of the Lord of hosts. The Lord will be terrible against them, and will diminish all the gods of the earth, and they will worship him, men from their own place, all the islands of the nations.

Septuagint: “I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the sons of Ammon, with which they have reproached my people, and have been magnified upon my borders. Therefore, as I live, says the Lord of powers, the God of Israel, Moab will be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah; and Damascus left as a heap of the threshing floor, and scattered all the way into eternity, and those who remain of my people will plunder them, and the residue of my nation will inherit them. This will be theirs in return for their insult, because they have reproached and have been magnified against the Lord Almighty. The Lord will appear against them and will utterly destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth; and they will worship him every one from his place, all the islands of the nations.” The prophet Zephaniah is now doing, although briefly, and yet in the same order, what Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel do ¹ ¹ : after a vision of Judah against the rest of the nations that are around it, they turn to a prophecy, and they report according to the ἰδιωμάτα ¹ ² of the details what shall come to pass among them, and what in their description will be delayed for a rather long time. The prophet Daniel is an exception to this. Quite often he sees visions of four kingdoms and explains their differences by means of various images. ¹ ³ For after the Philistines, against whom his threat above preceded, ¹ ⁴ Gaza, he says, will be destroyed, and Ascalon made into a desert. ¹ ⁵ They will cast out Azotus at noonday, and Accaron will be rooted up. ¹ Now the prophecy is composed against Moab , and the sons of Ammon , or as was added in the Septuagint, against “Damascus,” which is called “Aram” in Isaiah, ¹ ⁷ because they offered aid to Nebuchadnezzar, ravaged Judah, trampled upon its sanctuary, also overthrew the temple, subjugated the people of Israel and blasphemed the Lord.

For Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, once they had demolished the cities of the Jews, oppressed the rest of the nations. And it was done in such a way that those who had insulted God’s people were themselves also overwhelmed by the same distress of evils, and they had Judah as their fellow slave, whom they thought they had subjected. Therefore the prophecy is directed against scoffers, before the captivity comes, while Josiah is still king, though Jerusalem and the temple have not yet been overthrown, that the evils of God’s former people might be alleviated by the evil upon the rest of the nations. He says, I have heard the reproach of Moab (which is now called Areopolis) and the blasphemies of the sons of Ammon (which being itself the second city of Arabia after Bosram is called Philadelphia); “with which” they have reproached my people, and once the Jews were cast out, they extended their territories in their land. Therefore, because they have blasphemed against me, and reproached my people, I the Lord of hosts, who can fulfill that which I threaten, and who am the God of Israel, who myself suffer the injury against my people, will bring it about that Moab will be as Sodom and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah. Let us read the visions of this sort in Isaiah and Jeremiah, and we shall find the same things that we are now reading here. ¹ ⁸ The dryness of thorns, and heaps of salt, and a desert even forever . I do not know what the Septuagint intended when they translated this as “Damascus uprooted and abandoned.” Unless I am mistaken, they were deceived by the ambiguity of the word. For in Hebrew dryness is spelled mimesaq . If the first letter mem is removed and dalet is added, it has the same remaining letters as “Damascus” and can be read for the word above as damaseq . But it is asked in what way such cities, that is, Moab and the sons of Ammon, have been reduced into Sodom and Gomorrah, and as the dryness of thorns and heaps of salt, are not built even unto eternity? Now, there is no difficulty in explaining that they were indeed ravaged as Sodom and Gomorrah. But as for what follows, They shall be deserted even forever, either we will interpret this as the destruction of their kingdom—because after they were overthrown by the Chaldeans, they lost their kingdom, and from then on they were occupied in succession by either the Antiochenes or by the Ptolemies, lastly they submitted their necks to the Roman empire; or certainly it is to be understood as said hyperbolically, for ‘olam means eternity and the age, because it can be understood for one age, for a certain period of time, and for a single lifetime. And “those who remain from the people” of Israel will ravage them, and they will “inherit” the previously blasphemous aid of the Chaldeans. But this will

come to pass for their pride, because they have blasphemed, and have been magnified against the people of the Lord of hosts, who will be terrible against them, and dread of him will destroy the haughty. And he will not shed the blood of the blasphemers but will “scatter” and diminish all their idols in order that they who before were being held in the grip of error and did not perceive the Lord’s benefits, having been overwhelmed by the distress of the evils, will know that idols are good for nothing, and they will worship him, “everyone” from his own place, all the islands of the nations. Thus far I have spoken in accordance with the Hebrew. Now let us return to the Septuagint, and let us compel the Jews, who follow merely the history, to explain to us when “Moab and the sons of Ammon” were made “as Sodom and Gomorrah,” and as heaps of salt and were deserted even forever. They ought to point out the sulphurous rains, vines, earth changed into ashes and embers, and that the sea above flooded from the wells formerly of salt, which is now called “Dead,” when the Jews plundered them, when the residue of the Israelite nations inherited them. Or what is the Lord’s indignation to diminish and scatter them for their blasphemy and “insults”? It is not for Moab and Ammon, but for the whole earth to worship him, “everyone” from his own place, all the islands of the nations? He will pay this out to blasphemers more as an act of kindness, so that they may come back from their error to salvation. But if they want to say that after the return from Babylon these nations were subjected by the people of Israel, first we shall demand the authority of the Scriptures from which they may prove that this happened. Then, when they will scarcely be able to demonstrate this, we will gratuitously concede it to them and say: We shall grant that what you say took place; where was God’s justice that grandfathers committed blasphemy, and great-grandfathers committed reproaches, and later on their descendants paid the price for this? For certainly that judgment, by which it was stated before in the law that the sins of the fathers are paid back to the sons in the third and fourth generation, ¹ was dissolved through Ezekiel: “As I live, says the Lord; this parable will not be spoken, but the soul that sins, the same will die.” ² And likewise notice that what was spoken is a parable, and it does not mean what the letters say on the surface. But if it is unjust to pay back to the descendants for what the ancestors did wrong, how much more unjustly for the folly of the Jews to expect this same thing to happen at the consummation of the world, when not their Christ, as they think, but the antichrist will come. For whenever they get hemmed in by the history, in order to show that what was said has been fulfilled, at once they jump ahead to the future time of the Christ, and they promise themselves after many ages everything that they cannot

explain. And they say that both Moab and the sons of Ammon, and Egypt and Philistia and Idumaea, who now insult the Jews, are to be punished at that time. Therefore let us ask them why God punishes those nations in particular and not the whole world in which the Jews have been scattered far and wide. For if Moab deserves to be rebuked for insulting the Jews, and the sons of Ammon and the remaining nations around, why is Gaul not rebuked? Why does he not record Britain in his threat? Why is Spain estranged from punishment? Why is nothing said about Italy? Why is he silent about Africa? And to say it once and for all, since the whole world holds the Jews captive, what scandal did only the nations that are around it commit, that they alone are especially named? This is said against the Jews and as a general explanation in all of the prophets, wherever some prophecy is spoken against the nations. Now, that which we said above, that “Damascus” is not found in the Hebrew, nor in any other translator, we will prove likewise from the very arrangement of Scripture. For to that which he had said, I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the blasphemies of the sons of Ammon, afterward he related, because Moab will be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah. Therefore what follows, “and Damascus will be deserted, ² ¹ as a heap of the threshing floor,” would have required that he had first said something about Damascus, just as he had spoken about the two nations: Moab will be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah , whose sins he had already spoken of before. So too of Damascus, he should have described either its reproaches or blasphemies, in order that afterward he could have seemed to inflict punishment deservedly. But even that which is said, “as a heap of the threshing floor,” which in Greek is expressed as ὡς θιμωνιὰ ἄλωνος , we think that the Septuagint translated as ἀλος , that is, “of salt.” But with two letters ω and ν added by inexperienced men, who thought that what was recorded was θιμωνίαν , that is, a heap of grain or produce, ἄλωνος , that is, threshing floor, instead of ἀλος , ² ² as if to make it consistent with produce. This has been said about the variation and error in the translation and about the difficulty of the history. But he who is a learned man and compares spiritual things with spiritual ² ³ and does not seek those things that are below but that which is above, ² ⁴ and rises with Christ from the lower world, who, laying aside the old man, puts on the new, ² ⁵ he will apply the “reproaches of Moab” and the blasphemies of the sons of Ammon to the teachers of doctrines that are contrary to the church, who even themselves seem to be of the race of Abraham and to have escaped from the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah and dwell in tiny Segor. ² But because they were born

in darkness, ² ⁷ and they cannot see the light of truth—for they have turned aside from God the Father, which is the translation of the names Lot and Moab—and they have ceased being sons of God, which is called my people, and having been conceived in a dark cave by an unchaste marriage, ² ⁸ they have halted; therefore even to today, being insulting to the simplicity of the sons of Judah, they desire to magnify their inheritance upon their borders, concerning which it is said in Proverbs: “Do not remove the eternal landmarks, which your fathers set in place.” ² See how the heretics take delight in logic, rhetoric and teachings of all fallacies, condemning the simplicity of the church and disdaining it as if it is unworthy of their mysteries, things that they have fabricated for themselves as idols. And they regard the church as of no account; and you will not seek those things that are the “reproaches of Moab,” and the insults of the sons of Ammon , in which they have reproached God’s people. And so the Lord has sworn through himself, saying: as I live, says the Lord . And beautifully he calls himself living in order to make a distinction between the dead gods who are called idols and the God of Israel, that is, of the people who see God. We spoke above about what these nations were blaspheming, that is, Moab and the sons of Ammon: they will be like Sodom and Gomorrah; they indeed seem to themselves to have come forth from Sodom and Gomorrah, because they are not Gentiles; but because they blaspheme God’s people and act against Israel, they will be reputed as Sodom and Gomorrah. And they will be annihilated to the same degree that those places were blotted out before, having in them no trace of verdure and life. And this is not surprising, if we understand this about the heretics, that they are reckoned as Sodom and Gomorrah, since it is said through Isaiah even to churchmen who have not heeded God’s commandments and have departed from his precepts: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; and attend to the law of the Lord, you people of Gomorrah.” ²¹ And Daniel says to the elders who desire to corrupt the chastity of the church under the figure of Susannah: This is God’s judgment, “seed of Canaan, and not of Judah.” ²¹¹ Now that you may know that whenever Sodom and Gomorrah and Egypt are named, he is not speaking about those provinces that we see with our eyes, but about other spiritual things, to which the prophetic discourse is making a threat, read in the Apocalypse of John: “But the place in which the Lord was crucified is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt.” ²¹² Thus if the Jerusalem in which the Lord was crucified is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, why, on the other hand, should not Egypt and Sodom and Gomorrah be transferred to the land of the Lord’s fate, if they have done the works of Jerusalem and of the land of

Judah? After all, even David was not one of the priests, nor was he permitted to eat the bread of proposition, but because he was increasing through each of his works, and Saul’s persecution had led to his progress in the virtues, therefore in his flight, though he does not know it, he is suddenly made high priest and receives the bread of proposition and does not violate God’s commandment. ²¹³ We have said all this because Moab will be as Sodom, and the sons of Ammon as Gomorrah. “Damascus” too, which is interpreted as “one drinking blood,” or the “blood of the sack,” will be “left” by God’s mercy as a heap of salt. For because its prince is King Aretas, and the Damascenes desire to kill Paul, and he is let down through the wall in a basket, ²¹⁴ it is not said to Damascus: “You are the salt of the world”; ²¹⁵ nor is it called that salt that is always offered in the sacrifices, ²¹ but that which is deprived of its savor, and concerning which it is written in the Gospel: “But if the salt loses its savor, with what will it be salted? It is good for nothing, neither on earth, nor in a dung heap, but they cast it out to be trodden on by men.” ²¹⁷ And therefore Moab , Ammon and “Damascus,” who equipped themselves against knowledge of the Lord and blasphemed God’s people, and spoke very many insults against him and wished to extend their borders into the land of the church and to inherit God’s people, will be deserted and destroyed, and the remnant of God’s people , that is, men of the church, having been instructed in the Lord’s Scriptures, will plunder them , and the residue of the Lord’s nation will inherit them , and “this will be theirs for their insults,” by which they “reproached and were magnified against the Lord almighty.” See the mildness, see the mercy of the Lord; he suffers the insult, he is blasphemed, his borders are plundered, and what does he do? He sends to the rest of his people, of whom we have spoken, in order to apportion to himself those who are blaspheming and to lead them into his inheritance. For it is far better to be a slave to a fool than to a wise man, and that his foolishness be cured by the Lord’s wisdom, than for him to be left to his folly. And so the Lord Almighty will come and will be evident against them, of whom they are now ignorant, whom they know not; and he will scatter all their teachings, that is, their gods, and the idols of the various nations, that after the images have been overthrown, which they had set up for themselves by their senses, the nations may return to the Lord, and “each one will worship him in his own place,” whom he did not know before.

2:12-15 But you, Ethiopians, will also be killed with my sword. And he will stretch out his hand upon the north, and will destroy Assyria; and he will make the beautiful city a wilderness, and as a place not passable, and as a desert. And flocks will lie down in the midst of it, all the beasts of the nations, and the pelican and the hedgehog will lodge in its thresholds; the voice of one singing in the window, the raven on the lintel, for I will consume her strength. This is the glorious city, dwelling in security, that said in her heart: I am, and there is no longer another beyond me; how has she become a desert, a lair for beasts? Every one that passes through her will hiss, and wag his hand.

Septuagint: “And you, Ethiopians, will be wounded by my sword. And I will stretch out my hand upon the north and will destroy the Assyrian. And I will make Nineveh a wilderness and waterless as a desert. And flocks, and all the beasts of the land, will feed in the midst of it; and chameleons and hedgehogs will lodge in its enclosures, and wild beasts will cry in her breaches, and ravens in her gates, because her loftiness [was as] a cedar. This is the city that devoted itself to evils, that dwells in hope, that says in her heart: I am, and there is no longer [any] after me; how has she become desolate, a pasture of wild beasts? Every one that passes through her will hiss and wag his hands.” The Jews relate this whole section and the two above it against the Philistines, Moab and the sons of Ammon ²¹⁸ to the advent of the Christ, who they think will come at the consummation of the world. He will build up Jerusalem and deliver his people from the hand of the Gentiles by which they are being held; and this is what the words mean that say, “And they will worship him, men from their own place, all the islands of the nations.” ²¹ However, not only the nations above, but also the Ethiopians and the Assyrians and “Nineveh,” the city of the Assyrians, are to be made a wilderness at that time, and “all the beasts of the land” shall lie down in it, or as it is written in the Hebrew: all the beasts of the nations , by which they think is indicated [those] from all the nations that are going to overthrow “Nineveh.” And because “Nineveh” is translated “beautiful,” they refer the beautiful city in the present passage to Babylon. And everything that follows: The pelican and the hedgehog will lodge in its thresholds , and the rest, is more appropriate to Babylon, the same desolation of which is foretold in Isaiah. And on the other hand, others claim that it is plainly said about the Assyrian,

about whom it had already preceded: And he will stretch out his hand upon the north and will destroy Assyria; and he will make Nineveh a wilderness. For through the Assyrians Nineveh is understood more than Babylon, which is a city of the Chaldeans. But as for what it says, that the pelican and the hedgehog in its districts, and the raven on the lintel, this is evidence of its desolation. And there are two breeds of pelicans: one aquatic and the other of the desert. And what it says, the voice of one singing in the window, this is either to be understood as demons or as the sounds of various birds that are accustomed to lodge in deserted cities. Moreover, what both we and the Septuagint translated similarly as the raven on the lintel is recorded in Hebrew as horeb, which according to the different ways of reading it is understood either as drought, sword or raven. And this is why Aquila translated it as “sword,” others as “drought.” And after the destruction, as if scoffing at its fall, the prophetical discourse says: This is the glorious city, dwelling in security, that said in her heart: I am, and there is no longer another beyond me; how has she become a desert, a lair for beasts? Every one that passes through her will hiss and wag his hand. Now, in accordance with what we said above, either beasts truly shall dwell in the deserted city, or at least the variety of the many nations is shown under the figure of beasts. But if someone asks how this prophecy may be applied to the time of Nebuchadnezzar according to history, likewise to those called Ethiopians and Assyrians, against whom the Medes and the Persians accomplished nothing, let him read the historical accounts, and he will see that the Assyrians and the Ethiopians too were subjected to the Medes, both the kingdom of Cambyses ²² and the power of Cyrus, and everything that followed in succession. These things have been said in a Jewish manner. However that may be, if we take note of the fact that in all of Scripture they are called Ethiopians who are completely immersed in vices, according to what we read in Jeremiah, “If the Ethiopian will change his skin,” ²²¹ there will be hope for Ethiopians who have been converted to better things. For no one who is willing to repent shall be estranged from salvation. This is why a soul formerly stained and polluted by the filth of transgressions says: “I am black.” ²²² And afterward, at the end of the Song of Songs, it is written about the same soul now cleansed and washed through penitence: “Who is this that comes up all white?” ²²³ Moses too, that is, the spiritual law of the Lord, married an Ethiopian wife from the nations. ²²⁴ And Miriam ( Maria ), that is, the synagogue of the Jews; and Aaron, that is, the fleshly priesthood that is not according to the order of Melchizedek, ²²⁵ murmur against the law, but in vain. For at once the synagogue

is overspread by leprosy, and having been cast outside the camp until the time is completed, as Moses himself prays, it is led back into the camp. For the hand of the Ethiopian had already anticipated God. And so the divine discourse now makes a threat to those who are cleaving to their sins and have forgotten about the filth of their transgressions; they do not wish to be converted to better things and to wash away the dark color; and he threatens them with a sword, about which I think it is written in Genesis, “He stationed cherubim and a fiery sword, that turns about to keep the way of the tree of life”; ²² and in Isaiah, “He will bring a great and holy sword upon the dragon, the coiled serpent, and he will destroy him in that day.” ²²⁷ And he says that they will be either “wounded” or killed by the sword , so that by becoming afraid of the punishments, they may copy Nineveh and repent ²²⁸ and not experience what the Lord is threatening. Indeed, the prophecy of Jeremiah expresses this as well when he says: “Should I speak against a nation and against a kingdom, that I will cut them off and destroy them; and if they repent, then will I also repent of all the evils which I said I would do to them?” ²² And that you may know that the reason the Lord now threatens a sword to the Ethiopians is in order to convert them to better things, after a little bit, in this very book, he adds about the Ethiopians: “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed people, will bring me a gift”; ²³ or, as it is found in the Septuagint: “From the boundaries of the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive my dispersed ones, and they will offer sacrifices to me.” ²³¹ After these things, it is not the Lord who speaks, as above, but the prophetical spirit says about him: And he will stretch out his hand upon the north and will destroy Assyria. This is the north of which Jeremiah has written: “From the north, evils will flame out upon all the inhabitants of the land.” ²³² And Solomon mentions it: “The north wind is hard; but it is called by name propitious ( dexter ).” ²³³ But the reason God stretches out his hand to inflict punishments is in order that the north may feel the punishments, and those who are in its land, to which according to Zechariah the black horses go, concerning which it is said: “There were black horses; they went out to the land of the north.” ²³⁴ And beautifully, he who moved his feet and went back from the east, about which the same prophet says, “Behold the man, East is his name,” ²³⁵ and he looked back to the west, at once proceeds to the north, which is not the right ( dexter ), but is called by name propitious ( dexter ). ²³ This is indeed also understood physically, so that whoever stands in the east and

turns himself by looking back to the west has the north on his right, those who call it the right, who have gotten cold by its breeze. It is only right by name; for the rest, in reality and actuality it is rather on the left. But after the Lord stretches out his hand upon the north, he will also destroy Assyria, which is translated εὐθύνων, which many think to mean “one who guides,” but that is false. For εὐθύνων means “convicting” and also “refuting.” And since the devil himself is the enemy and avenger, and he suggests sins and then convicts sinners in their sins, on that account he is called εὐθύνων. I think that this is the prince of the Assyrians, who dwells to the north and has Nineveh as his capital city, and says in Isaiah: “I will act in strength, and in the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations, and will spoil their strength.” ²³⁷ On the other hand, it follows concerning ravaged Nineveh: “And flocks, and all the beasts of the land, will feed in the midst of it; and chameleons and hedgehogs will lodge in its enclosures, and wild beasts will rest in her districts, and ravens in her windows,” and the rest. It seems to me that this ought to be understood either like that which is written in Jonah or in the prophet Nahum. And in Jonah, we indeed interpreted Nineveh, that is, the beautiful one, which repented at the preaching of Jonah, that is, of the dove, as the church assembled from the nations. But in Nahum we adapted the interpretation to the world. And about the world it is not indeed difficult to interpret this and say that when the Ethiopians were “wounded” by the Lord’s “sword,” and he “stretched out his hand upon the north” and “destroyed the Assyrian,” namely the prince of the world; the world itself likewise perishes with its prince and is reduced to a very great “wilderness” and is pitiable to no one, but all “hiss” at its downfall and “wag their hands.” But at first glance it seems blasphemous to say this about the church, that it will be not passable and deserted, and that beasts would dwell in her, and afterward it would be said to her with mockery: “This is the city that devoted itself to evils, that dwelled in hope, that said in her heart: I am, and there is no longer any besides me, how has she become desolate, a pasture of wild beasts?” But the one who has considered what the apostle says: “In the last time, evil times will come, and men will be lovers of themselves, greedy, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, haters of good, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, lovers of pleasures more than of God; having the form of godliness, but denying its power.” ²³⁸ And indeed, there is that which is written in the Gospel, that when iniquity has been multiplied, the love of many will grow cold, ²³ to such an

extent that at that time it is fulfilled: “But when the Son of man comes, do you think he will find faith on earth?” ²⁴ It will not be surprising concerning the final desolation of the church, that, when the antichrist rules, it must be reduced to desolation, and handed over to beasts, and it will suffer whatever the prophet now describes. For if on account of unfaithfulness God did not spare the natural branches but broke them off, ²⁴¹ and if on account of the wickedness of its inhabitants he turned rivers into desert, fountains of water into thirst, a fruitful land into saltwater, ²⁴² why, on the other hand, would he not destroy and reduce to the same thirst in which they were before those of whom he had said, “He turned a wilderness into pools of water, and a dry land into streams of water, and he caused the hungry to dwell there,” ²⁴³ and so forth; and those whom he grafted in from the wild olive tree onto the root of a good olive tree, ²⁴⁴ if they forget his kindness and withdraw from their Creator, and worship the Assyrian? Although this can be understood generally at the coming of the antichrist, or at the end of the world, yet it can be understood daily in those who pretend that they are of God’s church and deny him by their works, ²⁴⁵ and who are hearers of the law and not doers, ²⁴ those who boast in vain that they are beautiful , though “flocks,” namely, a multitude of vices, dwell in them and they are brute animals that are enslaved to the body. And all the “beasts of the land,” which devour their hearts, and “chameleons,” which do not have one color but are changed moment by moment by various sins, now by greed, now by extravagance, now by cruelty, now by lust, now by sadness, now by exultation. And the “hedgehogs in their enclosures,” a prickly animal and full of thorns, wounding anything it touches. Moreover, the “wild beasts” will lie “in the breaches,” that is, in their hearts, and the “ravens,” unclean birds, ²⁴⁷ “in their gates,” either in the mouth, or in the ears, by which they either speak or listen to evils. After this it is added and said: the reason the church will suffer these things, or has endured them, is that it elevated itself into arrogance and raised its top as a “cedar,” having “devoted itself to evil” works, and promising nonetheless future happiness to itself, despising others in its heart and not thinking that there is anyone besides itself, and saying: “I am, and there is no longer another besides me. How then has she become desolate, a pasture for beasts?” For when the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit first dwelled, and his angels presided over its ministries, then wild beasts will dwell, about which the prophet laments, saying: “Do not deliver to the wild beasts a soul that confesses to you.” ²⁴⁸ “Everyone that will pass through her will hiss and wag his hands.”

But if we understand this about the angels, we will interpret it thus: When the angels “pass through” her and do not remain in her, as they before had been accustomed to do, they will be astounded and surprised, and they will not support her, and they will endure the one sweeping with its “hand,” but they will lift up their hands and pass by. Or certainly they will raise their hands with a hiss, and as if lamenting in the manner of mourners, they will sound out. But if we want to take this of the devil and his angels, ²⁴ who also ravaged the vine that had been transplanted from Egypt, ²⁵ we will say that the serpent “passes through and hisses” at the soul from which Christ has withdrawn, and which before had been a temple of God and ceased to be, and he spews out the venom of its malice, and not only does he do this but he also “wags” its works, which tropologically are called “hands.” And lest you think that we have done violence by naming a serpent and understanding the “hands” of the serpent as its effect, hear the testimony of Solomon: “Death and life are in the hands of the tongue.” ²⁵¹ We have said these things as best we could, in service to the allegorical interpretation. But if anyone has discovered what has a greater appearance of truth and reasonableness than what we have discussed, let the reader be guided by that person’s authority instead.

3:1-7 Woe to the provoking, and redeemed city, the dove. She did not hear the voice, and she did not receive correction, she did not trust in the Lord, she did not draw near to her Lord. Her princes are in the midst of her as roaring lions, her judges are evening wolves, they left nothing for the morning. Her prophets are senseless men without faith. Her priests have defiled the sanctuary (sanctum), they have acted unjustly against the law. The just Lord is in the midst of her, he will not do iniquity. Morning by morning he will bring his judgment to light, and it shall not be hid; but the unjust man has not known shame. I have destroyed the nations, and their corners have been beaten down; I have made their ways deserted, because there is none that passes by; their cities are desolate, there is not a man remaining, nor any inhabitant. I said: Surely you will fear me, you will receive correction, and her dwelling shall not perish, for all things in which I have visited her. But they rose early and corrupted all their thoughts.

Septuagint: “O glorious and redeemed city, the dove. She did not hear the voice;

she did not receive correction; she did not trust in the Lord, and she did not draw near to her Lord. Her princes within her were as roaring lions, her judges as the wolves of Arabia; they did not leave in the morning. Her prophets, bearing the spirit, are scornful men. Her priests defile the holy things (sancta) and act impiously against the law. But the just Lord is in the midst of her and will not do iniquity. Morning by morning he will bring his judgment to light, and it is not hidden, and he does not know iniquity by extortion, nor injustice forever. I have brought down the proud; their corners have been beaten down; I have destroyed their ways so that they do not pass by at all; their cities have come to an end, because no man existed or dwelled [in them]. I said, but you shall fear me, and shall receive correction, and you will not perish from his eyes, for all the vengeance I have brought upon her. Prepare, rise early, all their produce is ruined.” Many think for the sake of consistency that the speech is spoken against Nineveh, of which it says above: “And he will destroy the Assyrian, and will make Nineveh a wilderness.” ²⁵² But never would Scripture have called Nineveh a dove , although some think that in Jeremiah the words “from the face of the sword of a dove” ²⁵³ refer to Nebuchadnezzar. But one should know that others maintain, on the contrary, that dove there can be understood as Ἑλαδα , that is, Greece, so that the sense is “from the face of the sword of Iona,” that is, “from the face of the sword of Greece.” For Iona means both dove and Greece. Whence even to today the Greeks are called Ionians, and the sea is called the Ionian, and among the Hebrews their ancient name abides. Moreover, among the foreign nations Roman princes keep their ancient designation and are called Caesars. Consequently, the entire discourse is against Jerusalem: Woe to the city, formerly a dove, always sinning, and handed over to captivities, and once again redeemed by the Lord. Woe to the provoking city, which is expressed more meaningfully in Hebrew as mor’ah, that is, παραπικραίνουσα, which we can say as: one who makes God bitter; that is, by your own fault, you turn the sweet and mild Lord to bitterness, so that the one who wishes to be merciful is being forced to inflict punishment. She did not hear the commandment of the Lord, and when rebuked she did not wish to receive correction; nor did she ever trust in the Lord her God, when the evils beset her; nor did she walk behind him; nor did she want to draw near to him when he said: “I the Lord am near, and not far off.” ²⁵⁴ Also her princes, judges, prophets and priests are described, so that we may understand by the city, the people, and in those which I called with names of

authority, the princes. Therefore its princes were always coming and going as lions against their prey, to shed the blood of those subject to them; their judges were rapacious, not leaving to others what they could snatch. Their prophets were senseless or astounded, which in Hebrew is called phokazim, and Aquila translated as θαμβευταὶ; they spoke as if from the Lord’s mouth but proclaimed everything contrary to the Lord; the priests committed sacrilege against the place of sanctuary, and though they were acting against the law they offered sacrificial victims based upon the law. Therefore, since they acted unjustly, the just Lord will not do iniquity but will pay back to the wicked city what it deserves. Morning by morning, that is, openly and without any ambiguity, he will bring his judgment about it, nor will there be anything that can be hidden from him. And the Lord will do this in order that the chastised city may be changed for the better. But unjust Israel has not known its shame, nor did it understand the reason for the misfortunes brought against it: to enact repentance. I have punished you, he afterward says of the nations, and I have destroyed their empires, so that you who had not perceived me through misfortunes would at least have recognized me through my kindnesses. Or certainly it should be understood in this way: I have destroyed all your cities, o Judah, and all the districts and tribes and various borders subject to you; and there was such a devastation of men that there was none who dwelled in your cities. And after I did this, I sent my prophets, I who rose early and summoned you to repentance, and I said: Indeed I did these things to you, o Jerusalem, but I did it so that you would fear me, and receive correction, and that your dwelling would not perish, that is, the temple, on account of all the wickedness that you had done. But on the other hand, when I summoned the inhabitants of Jerusalem to repentance, they rose early as if out of diligence and with an effort, to carry out all their thoughts with the haste by which they ought to have returned to me, and they showed by their deeds, what they had conceived with their mind. This is said according to the Hebrew. Moreover, “the glorious city redeemed” by Christ’s blood is clearly understood as the church, in accordance with what is said above, which is also called a “dove,” on account of the simplicity of the multitude of those who believe in her. She “did not hear” the Lord’s “voice,” nor “did she” wish to “receive correction,” nor “did she trust in the Lord,” because she did not wish to “draw near to the Lord” her God to earn pardon for her sins. For in vain does someone

say he “hears the voice of the Lord” his God and “trusts in the Lord,” when he destroys his faith by his works and clings to mammon rather than to the Lord his God, ²⁵⁵ and approaches him with a divided heart, and believes that he can serve as soldier for two masters: the world and God. ²⁵ Her “princes” are like “roaring lions.” We do not doubt about the meaning of the roaring and wandering about of “lions” when we see that her “princes” rage like thunder against the people under them and so terrorize the people with a tyrannical voice and frenzied outcry that you would think not of a shepherd among a flock but of a lion gnashing its teeth among little lambs. Her “judges” also are as “wolves of Arabia,” killing in the evening and “leaving” nothing “in the morning.” ²⁵⁷ They do not notice the sunrise but always stay in darkness and turn into their own profit the small possessions of the church and the things that are given as gifts to God so that the poor people do not have anything to eat in the morning. They plunder everything, as it were, by night and with no one watching. And when they plunder everything like “wolves,” they do not even leave behind a little food for the needy. The “prophets” also, that is, the teachers who think that they teach the people and deliver sermons on the Scriptures, πνευματοφόροι , that is, those “bearing the spirit,” or spiritual men—and this must be read εἰρονικῶς ²⁵⁸ —are “scornful men ( contemptores ).” For it is not teaching but doing that is befitting in the church, not destroying one’s words by one’s deeds. Moreover, when you teach another and do not do it yourself, you are to be called not so much a teacher as a despiser (contemptor), about which it is written in Habakkuk: “Behold, you despisers, and look, and wonder marvelously, and be scattered.” ²⁵ The “priests” too, who serve the Eucharist and share the Lord’s blood with his people, “act impiously against the law” of Christ when they think that the words, not the life, of the one who prays confects the εὐχαριστίαν (thanksgiving), and that solemn prayer alone is necessary, not merits of the priests, of whom it is said: “And any priest who has a blemish on him shall not draw near to offer sacrifices to the Lord.” ² Although the “princes, judges, prophets and priests” of Jerusalem do these things, “the Lord” is nonetheless merciful and just. Merciful, in that he does not draw back from his church; just, in that he renders to each one that which he deserves. For when he comes “in the morning” and the night of this age passes away, “he will bring his judgment to light,” and neither he nor his judgment will be “hidden.” And when he begins to demand the money from each one that he had entrusted to them, ² ¹ he will not be unjust, nor will he cause “injustice” to prevail “forever,” but he will “bring down the proud” princes, whom God

opposes, from their seats and from the summit that they held, and their “corners” will be demolished, that is, perverse desires; and those who turn aside from an upright path, in which also the Pharisees had been accustomed to pray, having held in contempt the “corner”-stone. But I think that it is beneficial for the haughty to be “brought down” from their arrogance, and for their alleys and “corners” to be “destroyed,” in order that afterward they might walk on the right path. After all, it follows: “I will make their ways deserted, so that there is none that passes by.” This agrees with what is written in the first Psalm: “And the way of the ungodly will perish.” ² ² And also in Hosea, where it is said about fornicating Jerusalem: “Behold, I will block her roads with thorns, and I will obstruct her ways, and she will not find her path. And she will follow after her lovers, and will not overtake them; and she will seek them, but will not find them; and she will say, I will go and return to my former husband; for it was better with me then than now.” ² ³ Notice that if the roads had not been blocked and the ways fenced off, and if the Lord had not “destroyed her ways,” the fornicating soul would never have been able to say: “I will go and return to my former husband.” ² ⁴ Therefore let the “ways” of the haughty and their “corners” be “destroyed,” lest they walk in arrogance and in depravity, and their cities, which had been built badly in arrogance and pride, be torn down, lest they go on “existing” while having evil inhabitants. And lest anyone think that we are doing violence to the Scripture, let him learn from what follows. But I did these things, he says, in order that I might say to them: Behold, the ways of wickedness have been destroyed; for the rest, “fear me” and learn “correction,” lest my correction perishes when it finds no fruit of conversion in you. And everything would be wasted through which I wanted to correct you, and that speech which is written in Jeremiah would be able to be applied to you: “In vain have I struck your children; you have not received correction.” ² ⁵ Or certainly, “Fear me, and receive correction,” that everything may not “perish” from the sight of Jerusalem, nor may it be thoroughly reduced into desolation by these evils with which I threatened it. And let it not trouble anyone, as I have often said already, that I interpret these things as having been said against the church, since he knows that in Holy Scripture Jerusalem always contains a type of the church, from which there is one who sins or who is led off to Babylon, or, if he wishes to go down to Jericho voluntarily, is wounded by robbers. ² For what is so “glorious” as the church, which is established in the whole world? What is so “redeemed” by Christ’s blood, and a “dove,” on

account of the grace of the Holy Spirit, ² ⁷ as the church gathered together from the nations? In which there are very many who say that they believe in Christ, but they have neither “heard his voice,” nor “received correction,” nor wished to be near him. But as for what he says, “Her princes within her are as roaring lions,” I know that I will offend many when I interpret this of the bishops and elders, though even the evil elders who wanted to violate Susannah do not condemn those who lived well. ² ⁸ And the evil “princes,” whom the prophetic discourse describes, are not a reproach to the good princes: “For when the foolish man is scourged, a simple man is made wiser.” ² But if a simple man is made wiser, how much more he who is wise? But her “judges” and “princes,” by receiving gifts and selling justice, are they not rightly called “wolves of Arabia,” or of evening , as Symmachus translated it? For they do not deserve to be called wolves of Benjamin, who snatch away in the morning and give food in the evening, ²⁷ but evening wolves , who devour by night and leave nothing for the morning . But as for what follows, her πνευματοφόροι prophets, that is, “bearing the Spirit,” are “scornful men,” let it agitate no one that we interpret this about teachers and call the same men both “prophets and scornful,” since the apostle also gives this warning: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in which you have been sealed for the day of redemption.” ²⁷¹ And David speaks in the fiftieth Psalm: “Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” ²⁷² For unless the Holy Spirit had been accustomed to flee his former lodging when he is grieved and to leave his dwelling, Paul would never have given the warning that I said above; and after his adultery David would not have feared losing what he had received. This is what is being written about to the Hebrews: “How much more do you think he deserves worse punishments, who has trodden the Son of God underfoot, and considered the blood of the covenant as unclean, in which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” ²⁷³ Moreover, it is written in the third book of Kingdoms that a man of God, doubtless the prophet who had said to the altar in Samaria, “Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: behold, a son will be born to David,” ²⁷⁴ and the rest, was killed by a lion ²⁷⁵ because he “scorned” the words of the Lord and ate in the house of a false prophet ²⁷ —for this is how Josephus explained this passage and interpreted it. ²⁷⁷ And lest it be thought that this happened by chance and not by the Lord’s judgment, even the false prophet who had deceived him ²⁷⁸ predicted that this would happen, ²⁷ and the very lion who inflicted the punishment on the “scornful man” spared the donkey. ²⁸ Thus it is no wonder if the teachers who had been filled with the Holy Spirit

could become “scornful” when among the neglectful, who do not guard their hearts with all watchfulness; this same thing customarily happens because of pride and contempt against the Lord, that they may have the knowledge of God and may have known his goodness, which he hides from those who fear him, ²⁸¹ and they despise the riches of his goodness, treasuring up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath and revelation. ²⁸² The “priests” also, who give baptism and pray for the Lord’s coming at the Eucharist, make the chrism oil, lay on their hands, instruct catechumens and ordain Levites ²⁸³ and other priests—let them not so much become angry with us who are explaining these things and with the prophets who predicted these things, but let them entreat the Lord and be careful in their behavior, lest they deserve to be among the priests who “defile the holy things” of the Lord. For it is not the office and the titles of those offices but the work of that office that is accustomed to save princes, judges, prophets and priests: “He who desires the office of a bishop,” he says, “desires a good work.” ²⁸⁴ See what he says, “he desires a good work,” not an office. But if, having disdained the work, he looks only to the office, the tower in Siloam quickly falls, ²⁸⁵ and the heights of the cedar are struck by lightning, and the raised neck is broken, and the swan, with its neck extended, as it stretches itself on high, is reckoned among the unclean birds. ²⁸ On the other hand, what we have explained according to the Hebrew, But they rose early and corrupted all their thoughts, is recorded in the Septuagint as “Prepare, rise early: all their foliage is destroyed.” Since this differs much from the Hebrew, and it seems to agree more with what comes later according to the Septuagint, we will explain it in the following section.

3:8-9 Wherefore wait for me, says the Lord, in the day of my resurrection that is to come, for my judgment [will be] to assemble the nations, and to gather the kingdoms; to pour upon them my indignation, all the wrath of my fury; for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth will be devoured. For then I will restore to the people a chosen lip, that all may call upon the name of the Lord, and may serve him with one shoulder.

Septuagint: “Therefore wait for me, says the Lord, in the day of my resurrection for a witness, because my judgment [will be] in the gatherings of the nations, to receive kings, to pour out upon them all my wrath, the wrath of my fury; for the whole earth will be consumed in the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the peoples a tongue for her generations, that all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve him under one yoke.” The Jews interpret these things of the advent of the Christ, whom they hope will come, and they say that when all the nations have been assembled, and when the Lord’s fury has been poured out upon them, the earth is to be devoured in the fire of his jealousy. And just as it was before the building of a tower, when all people spoke one language, ²⁸⁷ so when all have been converted to the worship of the true God, they will speak Hebrew and the whole world shall serve the Lord. But we who do not follow the letter that kills but the Spirit that gives life, ²⁸⁸ and not Jewish tales, hear from the Lord: “Prepare, rise early: all their produce is spoilt.” ²⁸ And having been prepared, we say: “My heart, o God, is prepared, my heart is prepared.” ² And we hear the one who is commanded in Proverbs: “Prepare your works in flight.” ² ¹ And that which is spoken of sacredly in Leviticus, where in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, Aaron offers for the people a goat, one to be sent away as the scapegoat and one living; ² ² and placing his hands upon its head, he calls down upon it all the sins of the people of Israel and hands it over to the hands of a man who has been prepared , and he sends it into the desert. We understand this in respect to ourselves, and we prepare ourselves by the command of the true priest and remove evil from the midst of the church. And when we have done this, night passes by, day draws near, and walking honorably as in the day, ² ³ we say: “O God, my God, I watch for you early.” ² ⁴ And at once we add: “In the morning you will hear my prayer, in the morning will I wait upon you, and will see.” ² ⁵ For if we are not prepared, the sun of justice will not rise for us. ² But when the sun has risen, all the “produce” from the vine of Sodom is “destroyed” and perishes, so that not only the full-grown grapes but also that which seemed to be small perishes by Christ’s light shining in us. And God promises a reward to us for all these things when he says: “Wait for me in the day of my resurrection as a witness.” For after vices and sins God will rise in us. And in accordance with what he teaches in another passage: “Be my witnesses, and I am witness, says the Lord God, and my boy whom I have chosen.” ² ⁷ The Father is a witness to us, with the Son and Holy Spirit, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. ² ⁸ And to me the pronouncement seems to stand and the truth seems to be confirmed under these three witnesses more in this way than

through the letter. For there were two witnesses against Susannah, ² and against the Lord and Savior himself, and nevertheless the word did not stand in their mouth. Against Naboth also almost the whole city gave “witness,” and the agreement of the evil witnesses did not have the firmness of truth but the conspiracy of wickedness. ³ For “my judgment,” he says, [will be] “in the gatherings of the nations, to receive kings,” namely, in the place of their punishments, “to pour out upon them my wrath, all the wrath of my fury.” One who is lesser quickly merits pardon and is near to mercy: “But the mighty will be mightily tormented.” ³ ¹ This is why the nations and the multitude of the nations is gathered for judgment. But the “kings,” that is, the princes of perverse teachings, will be led to punishment so that “all the wrath of the Lord’s fury” may be “poured out” upon them. And this is not by some sort of cruelty, as the bloodthirsty Jews think, but by mercy and by the counsel of the physician. For it follows: “For the whole earth will be consumed in the fire of my jealousy.” For when the “nations” have been gathered together for judgment and the “kings” for punishment, that his wrath may be poured out upon them, and not just partially but all of it, and when the wrath and fury are combined, anything in the whole world that is earthly is consumed, whatever pertains to the works of the earth, that is, of the flesh. The fire of my jealousy ravages and will devour all his thornbushes and thorny thickets. And then I will “turn the tongue upon the people in their generation,” so that each one may lay aside his error and might return to the old speech of the Lord’s confession, and “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” ³² Once the sides have been thrown down, and the pitch, which we had instead of stones and clay, by which we were building the pride of our error against the Lord, we may receive the “tongue” that we had lost before, and we may be “under the yoke” of Christ, who says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” ³ ³ But it must be noted that in that place, where we have translated I will restore to the people a chosen lip , for chosen , the Septuagint said “for her generation,” so that one should supply in thought: “the earth’s.” And hence the error has arisen that the Hebrew word berurah , which Aquila and Theodotion translated as “chosen,” was translated by Symmachus as “world.” The Septuagint read bedurah , supposing the letter to be dalet , on account of the extreme similarity between these letters. They are distinguished by a tiny dash. And also with regard to what we translated as In the day of my resurrection that is to come ,

and everyone else translated “for a witness,” the Hebrew who educated me in the Scriptures claimed that le‘ad ought to be understood in the present passage as εἰς ἔτι , that is, “that is to come,” rather than as “for a witness.” For ‘ad , which is written with the letters ayin and dalet , means ἔτι , that is, “still to come,” and μαρτύριον means “witness.” We can explain this passage also with reference to the first coming of Christ, when, once every error has been removed, and the demons have been crushed underfoot, ³ ⁴ and earthly things have been destroyed, the apostles spoke in all tongues, ³ ⁵ and when the old error had been removed, one lip of confession was restored . But even the kings who are destroyed and consumed by divine fire must be thought of as the princes of perverse teachings.

3:10-13 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, the sons of my dispersed people, will bring me an offering. In that day you will not be ashamed for all your practices, by which you have transgressed against me; for then I will take away out of your midst your proud boasters; and you will no more lift yourselves up on my holy mountain. And I will leave in the midst of you a poor and needy people, and they will hope in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel will not do iniquity, nor speak a lie; nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they will feed, and will lie down; and there will be none who terrifies [them].

Septuagint: “From the borders of the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive my dispersed ones; they shall offer sacrifices to me. In that day you will not be ashamed of all your practices, by which you have acted impiously against me, for then will I take away from you your disdainful pride, and you will no more magnify [yourself] upon my holy mountain. And I will leave in you a meek and lowly people; and the remnant of Israel will revere the name of the Lord and will not do iniquity; and will not speak vanity; nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they will feed and will lie down, and there will be none who terrifies them.” When the Lord restores to the people of believers a chosen lip, and they all call upon the name of the Lord and bear his yoke, ³ then also beyond the rivers of Ethiopia , from whence came the Queen of Sheba to hear the wisdom of Solomon, ³ ⁷ they will bring “sacrifices” to the Lord, “And Ethiopia will

anticipate [stretching out] her hand to God”; ³ ⁸ and an Ethiopian woman will marry the true lawgiver, who struck Egypt with ten plagues, while the synagogue of the Hebrews is envious. But that which it says according to the Hebrew, From there my suppliants, the daughter of my dispersed people, will bring me an offering, is of this nature: O Israel, o synagogue, formerly a daughter, which I have scattered in the whole world, although you may be envious, although you may be tormented by jealousy, nevertheless “sacrifices” will be brought to me from Ethiopia, that is, from the people of the Gentiles. In that day, that is, when the multitude of the nations will have believed, you also will not be completely ashamed of all your errors, by which you have transgressed against me, by choosing Barabbas and by crucifying the Son of God. ³ Then I will take away out of your midst the scribes and priests and Pharisees, your proud boasters , and you will no more boast on my holy mountain but you will have a poor people , illiterate men and fishermen, who will hope in the name of the Lord . The remnant of Israel , not the multitude who cried out, “Crucify, crucify him,” ³¹ not the high priests and the noblemen, but the remnant will not do iniquity , nor speak a lie against Christ, believing in the truth; nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth , knowing that every lie is from the devil; ³¹¹ since they will feed and say: “The Lord feeds me, and there is nothing I shall want. In a place of pasture, there he has made me dwell. He has nourished me by the water of rest. He has converted my soul.” ³¹² And there will be none who terrifies , since the faith of the believers overcomes the arrogance of the persecutors. This should be understood about Christ’s first advent, which the Jews promise to themselves at the end, and they hope that they will dwell in Jerusalem, and like cattle they will be filled with the physical gifts and the wealth of Judah and fed with fresh grass, and when all of the nations are blotted out and have been subjected to themselves, there would be “none left to terrify them.” But taking this fable as an opportunity to express the true history, we will say that we have left behind in the rivers of Ethiopia all the blackness of soul and foul color and serpent’s poison, by which we had been stained by vices and sins, once a chosen lip was restored to us, ³¹³ or a “clean” and bright one, as it was translated by Symmachus, namely, the teachers of perverse doctrines, by which we were watered before, and when they have been scattered, former Israel will bring offerings to Christ. In that day, in which the light of Christ appeared to us, it will be said to us individually, You will not be ashamed of all your practices, namely, your evil thoughts, by which we “acted impiously against” the Lord, and all the pride and

“disdain” will be taken away, by which we were lifted up against the Lord and against his holy mountain, our Lord and Savior. And a “meek and lowly people” will be left in us in place of haughty and vain names, that we may think nothing arrogant, nothing conceited, nothing that displeases God. Likewise, consider that in the judgment day and at the consummation of the world, all names of rank are taken away, and one people remains, and a flock under the good shepherd, ³¹⁴ who is “meek and lowly.” Then the people of Israel also will “revere the Lord’s name,” once the fullness of the nations enters in, “For God has shut up all under sin, that he may have mercy on all.” ³¹⁵ And “the remnant of Israel” will no longer “do iniquity,” by which they denied the Lord, and “they will not speak vanity,” promising themselves foolish fables; nor will a “tongue” of lying “be found in their mouth,” when Christ, who is the truth, ³¹ speaks through them. For then “they will feed” and will be in one flock, and “they will lie down” in the church, and they will not fear the attacks of the true Nebuchadnezzar. When we see these things, and read about such great mysteries, let us cry out with apostle and say: “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!” ³¹⁷ Indeed the prophet perceives this and ponders it within himself; he surmises about God’s judgments. “I struggled with my heart by night, and diligently searched my spirit,” ³¹⁸ and I said: “Will the Lord cast off forever? Will God forget to show pity? Or will he hold back his mercies in his wrath? And I said, Now I have begun; this is the change of the right hand of the Most High.” ³¹ And the meaning is: What I used to think, that the Lord abandones sinners forever and limits his mercies once his wrath comes into play, I have come to understand that the reason this is done is so that he might convert everything by the change to his right hand, which is the right hand of the Most High, and this is done so that he may have mercy on those whom he had previously cast away. And therefore we and the remnant of Israel, knowing that we are going to render an account for every idle word, ³² and that the Lord will destroy all lying lips, ³²¹ let us “not speak vanity.” “For vanity of vanities, and all is vanity,” ³²² and, “Every man living is altogether vanity.” ³²³ And let us not bring forth “a lie from our mouth,” but having received power to trample upon serpents and scorpions and against all the power of the enemy, ³²⁴ let us fear no terror, and since Christ is our guardian against the wolves, let us fear no ambush, but let us say, “The Lord is my light and my Savior; whom will I fear?” ³²⁵ and the rest that is

contained in the twenty-sixth Psalm.

3:14-18 Give praise, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad, and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your judgment; he has turned away your enemies; the king of Israel the Lord is in your midst, you will no longer fear evil. In that day it will be said: Jerusalem, do not fear, Zion; Let your hands not be weakened. The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will be silent in your love; he will rejoice over you in praise. I will gather together the triflers who have departed from the law, because they were from you, that you may no longer suffer reproach for them.

Septuagint: “Rejoice, o daughter of Zion; proclaim, o daughter of Jerusalem; rejoice and delight with all your heart, o daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your iniquities, he has redeemed you from the hands of your enemies, the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you will not see evils any more. At that time the Lord says to Jerusalem: Trust, o Zion; let your hands not be weakened. The Lord your God is mighty in you, he will save you, he will bring joy upon you, and will refresh you with his love; and he will rejoice over you with delight, as on a feast day. I will gather together your afflicted ones. Woe to him who has taken up a reproach against her.” Let it not seem surprising, as we have often said, that the Hebrew section terminates in one way, the Septuagint in another, that is, the Greek and the Latin. For where the translations differ in meaning, it is inevitable that the beginning or ending would be different. The Jews promise all these things to themselves with the Christ, whom they think will come, all the things that we who have received Christ have already attained with him. Therefore if some Christian, and especially of those who are newly wise, whose names I leave unmentioned, lest I seem to offend anyone, thinks that the prophecy is not yet fulfilled, let him know that he bears the name of Christ falsely and that a Jewish soul does not have merely circumcision of the body. For if these things have not yet been done but belong to the future, we have believed in the Savior’s coming in vain; but because we do not believe in vain, we understand that the mystery has been completed in us, which was concealed for ages of time, and now has been manifested through the prophetic

Scriptures and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ³² Finally let us consider the order of the reading, and we will see that what is said pertains not to the Jews but to Christ’s church. For it comes after what had preceded, “My judgment [will be] in the gatherings of the nations, to receive kings,” ³²⁷ all the way to this passage, where he says: “That all may call on the name of the Lord, and serve him under one yoke,” ³²⁸ and, “Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, I will receive among my dispersed people, who will bring me sacrifices.” ³² And it comes after the remnant of the people of Israel, who believe in Christ and are saved, about which it is said: “And they will fear the name of the Lord, who are the remnant of Israel, and there will be none who terrifies them.” ³³ The Holy Spirit is proclaiming the general consummation of the world, and says: “Rejoice, o daughter of Zion; proclaim, o daughter of Jerusalem, rejoice and delight from your whole heart, o daughter of Jerusalem.” For every soul belonging to the church, which has been set in the watchtower and contemplates peace, is “gladdened” and “rejoices” that its “iniquities” have been “taken away” from it, and they have been “redeemed” by him who redeemed them with his precious blood. ³³¹ “For Christ was made for us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption.” ³³² And the “king of Israel redeemed” us, who dwells “in the midst of us,” saying: “My Father and I will come, and we will make our abode with him.” ³³³ And, “I will dwell and walk in them”; ³³⁴ and we will “see evils no more,” since we will think and do only virtues. In that day , “says the Lord,” when we see peace and are set on high, lest your “hands be weakened,” who said through Isaiah: “Strengthen your feeble hands, and let your works be strong.” ³³⁵ “For the Lord is mighty,” whom no one can stand against; your savior, he himself will restore to you the “joy” that you have lost, and once the old man has been cast off ³³ he will make you walk in the new man, ³³⁷ and he will do these things “in his love,” not for your merit but by his mercy. And He will “rejoice” and “take delight” in you, accepting your salvation as the richest sacrifice of your feast; and he himself will say to you: “I will gather together your broken ( contritos ) ones.” For “God will not despise a contrite and humbled heart,” ³³⁸ and “A bruised ( contritum ) reed he will not break.” ³³ These things have been said for the time being if we wish to understand this of the Savior’s second coming. On the other hand, since the prophet Zechariah exhorts Zion and Jerusalem to the same joy, ³⁴ and Matthew says that this very prophecy was fulfilled in Christ’s first coming, ³⁴¹ we are compelled by

necessity, or rather, we are led by the very order of truth, not to hope that what is spoken in Zephaniah belongs to the future but has been done. For it is written in Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion; proclaim, o daughter of Jerusalem; behold, your king is coming to you, just, and a Savior; he is humble and riding on an ass, and a young foal.” ³⁴² This was said according to the Septuagint. However that may be, according to the Hebrew, the church is commanded to praise, and Israel to shout, when it sees God in its understanding, and the place of peace is commanded to be glad and rejoice with its whole heart, to which it was said: “My peace I give to you, my peace I leave you.” ³⁴³ For in the end and consummation of the world, he took away his judgment , not judging and chastising her but saving her; and he turned away her enemies , the throngs of demons. The king of Israel, the Lord , will be in her midst , she will no longer fear evil . In that day, it will be said to a free Jerusalem, which does not serve with her children but who is the mother of the saints ³⁴⁴ : Do not fear, Zion , for this is also Jerusalem, your works will not be weakened ; and you will not do that which you shall mourn having done. The Lord your God , who will save you , mighty and powerful, he will himself dwell in your midst, he will rejoice over you in exultation and joy, and he will be silent about your sins in the love by which he loved you; and he will rejoice over you in praise , either because you are praiseworthy or because you sing with your praises. Or, as it was translated by Aquila, I will gather together the transferred triflers , who have departed from you, because they were from you ; that is: Those who through vices and sins had fled from your bosom, and came under the power of the demons, when the condition of all things has been restored, they will come to you, and you will no longer suffer reproaches over your lost children. We should know that what we have expressed as “triflers” is the same word in Hebrew as in Latin, and this is why we recorded it this way, just as in the Hebrew, in order to realize that the Hebrew language is the mother of all languages, but there is not enough time to discuss this. ³⁴⁵ But I am surprised that Aquila and the Septuagint wished to translate as “woe,” or οἱ , what we translated as “they were,” namely, in that passage where we said: I will gather together, because they were from you . They did not render as “they were” that which Aquila always records not as “mourning,” but as “summoning” and “calling upon.” For hay , which is the beginning of this word, signifies “I am,” but in the past tense and plural number, thus “they were” or “they had been.” I know that these things are annoying to the reader, who if he observes that I am

not writing debates and declamations and that I do not exult in general topics but rather commentaries, and commentaries on the prophets, he will prefer to find fault, if anywhere I have wished to play after the manner of the rhetoricians rather than prove that it is worth devoting some attention to this in matters that are so obscure.

3:19-20 Behold I will kill all that have afflicted you at that time and I will save her that limps, and will gather her that was cast out; and I will make them a praise, and a name, in all the land of their shame. At that time, when I will bring you; and at the time that I will gather you; for I will give you a name, and praise among all the people of the earth, when I convert your captivity before your eyes, says the Lord.

Septuagint: “Behold, I will work in you for your sake at that time, and I will save her that was oppressed and receive her that was rejected; and I will make them a glory, and named in all the earth. And they will be ashamed at that time, when I will deal well with you and at the time when I will receive you, for I will make you named and a glory among all the people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before you, says the Lord.” The synagogue, which does not limp but is maimed in both feet, promises itself this as well at the coming of their Christ, who they hope will come, and they think that all the nations who had afflicted Israel are to be killed by the Lord, and the synagogue is to be saved, and she who had received the bill of divorce is to be brought back together, and they are to be made a praise and a name in all the land of their captivity, in which they were ashamed before. And they say that this will happen at a time when the captivity has been brought back to Jerusalem and the temple rebuilt and the remaining series of ceremonies preserved. It promises these things to itself, and therefore does not repent, and while it hopes for unsure things, it loses a sure salvation. Nor am I surprised that the synagogue says these things, which, because it does not receive Christ, has sore eyes and is bleary-eyed with Leah ³⁴ and unloved by Jacob and is neglected, as Rachel succeeds her. ³⁴⁷ I am surprised that Christians, or rather, half-Jews, who appear to themselves to be of the church, speak this

way and profess these things that, if they are true, we believe in Christ in vain, and our entire mystery is destroyed, and we are more pitiful than all men, ³⁴⁸ we who believe that he who did not come has come. But because our hope is sure and the wishes of the Jews are in vain, let us now compose the end of the section at hand in accordance with the former interpretation. And let us cite a testimony from Jesus, the son of Sirach: “He who casts a stone on high casts it on his own head.” ³⁴ For since Zion and Jerusalem are set on high, whoever drags Zion and Jerusalem down and casts stones of abuse against them hurls them at his own head, and his reproach will be turned back against his own head: “His sorrow and his iniquity will come down on his own head.” ³⁵ How many souls find fault today with the one who pursues the mysteries of God and who wants to see his peace, and they say: He is crazy, and drunk, and full of fresh wine, ³⁵¹ he flees the assemblies of men; he scorns luxuries, reckons gold for mud; he loves only poverty. But those who are unfaithful find fault even with the cross of Christ, and if they ever see him in distress and in temptation, they say: “Where are your mercies, and the justices which you have wrought?” ³⁵² Why should I speak about the unfaithful when some princes of churches find fault with men of this sort and think that their life is madness and do not praise their present conduct but reproach them with old sins? Nor do they listen to the warning: “Do not reproach a man that turns from his sins.” ³⁵³ Therefore woe to him who has borne and received a reproach and has sold himself to a duty like this in order to drag down to Zion, and to the city of God, because the Lord is the avenger for this injury to his city, and he will say to Zion: “Behold, I will work in you for your sake,” that is, “I will work” for your vengeance, “and I will save” her that was afflicted, or as it is said in Greek, “her that was oppressed,” so that the sense is: I myself will save her, who at present has been pressed and afflicted by temptations and pressures, just like a grape and olive, as it were, by the winepress and board, in order that she might produce wine and oil, and Jesus may drink from the wine in the kingdom of his Father; ³⁵⁴ but he was anointed with oil before his sharers. ³⁵⁵ I myself think that Job endured many things on the account of the pressing out of such wine and oil; but that after he made the wine and oil, he heard from the Lord: “Do you think that I have answered you in any other way, except that you might appear just?” ³⁵ It is as if he should say to the grape and olive: Do you think that I would have pressed and afflicted and crushed you in any other way, except that I might squeeze wine and oil from you? It follows: “And I will receive her that was rejected.” It seems that God rejects

us when he abandons us to temptation. And this is why Job says: “The Lord’s visitation has looked back at me.” ³⁵⁷ And not only do the just speak this way and say, “But now you have rejected us and put us to shame,” ³⁵⁸ as it is written in the forty-third Psalm, but the Lord and Savior himself says from the persona of the humanity which he had assumed: “But you have rejected and despised; you have put off your Christ; you have overthrown the covenant of your servant.” ³⁵ But that this is the persona of just men speaking in the forty-third Psalm, “But now you have cast off, and put us to shame,” ³ is proved from what follows: “All these things have come upon us; and we have not forgotten you, neither have we dealt unjustly in your covenant; and our heart has not gone back.” ³ ¹ Therefore in the end the Lord will receive the one who seemed to have been cast off in the temptations and will “make them a glory and named in all the earth,” namely, sons of the one who was oppressed and rejected, that is, of the church. But what others are we able to understand as those “named” sons of the church, if not the apostles? Picture for me Peter and Paul and Matthew and John, and consider that what was promised to Abraham, “I will magnify your name,” ³ ² has been accomplished in reality in them. Daily he is named in the church, daily their name is magnified, not that it benefits them to be named by us in the church, but by magnifying their name and by reading repeatedly what they have written, we attain to salvation. “At that time,” he says, the one oppressed and abandoned has been received, and her sons are set in glory—for the Lord is glorified in his athletes when he sees them crowned, just as he was glorified against the devil concerning Job; whence the apostle, rejoicing in the advancement of his disciples, says, “Even through your glory” ³ ³ those who had been your enemies and had borne reproach against you “will be ashamed.” And then they will see that those whom they thought wretched are happy, and that those whom they esteemed poor and cast down are made powerful and glorious. Then they will see that their “captivity,” through which they had been subjugated to a cruel empire in this world, is led back to the heavenly Jerusalem and that they themselves rise again in reproach and eternal shame. ³ ⁴ Grant to us, o Jesus Christ, who are oppressed and afflicted and rejected in this world, that you may receive us and “make us into glory.” At the right moment let the serpent be put to shame, let his hissing cease, let his venom be ineffective, and let his shame result in salvation. These things have been said according to the Septuagint. But since the Hebrew does not differ much from their translation, except for the beginning, about which we spoke at the end of the previous section, I do not think it requires an explanation.

COMMENTARY ON HAGGAI

Translated and annotated by Daniel M. Garland Jr. and Thomas P. Scheck

The Preface to the Commentary on the Prophet Haggai to Paula and Eustochium

The prophet Zechariah is also a witness that in the second year of Darius, king of the Persians, son of Hystaspes, the seventieth year of the desolation of the temple was completed, which Jeremiah predicted. ¹ When he had prefixed a heading to his vision, in the second year of the same king, ² in the eleventh month of Sabat, ³ on the twenty-fourth day, ⁴ he added to this and said: “O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which you are angry? This is the seventieth year.” ⁵ Moreover, Ezra, when merely the altar was constructed and the foundations of the temple laid, refers to a letter of King Artaxerxes that hindered the work: “Then the work on the house of God in Jerusalem was interrupted and ceased up to the second year of the reign of Darius, king of the Persians.” And immediately he added: “But Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo prophesied, prophesying in the name of the Lord of Israel to the Jews who were in Judea and Jerusalem. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jesus the son of Jehozadak rose up and began to build the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them helping them.” ⁷ At this time Tarquin the Proud, the seventh from Romulus, was reigning among the Romans in the twenty-seventh year of his command. After eight years he was expelled by Brutus; and henceforth consuls administered the republic for four hundred and sixty-four years up to Julius Caesar. The reason we have said this, o Paula and Eustochium, is so that you may recognize immediately from the very heading in what epoch Haggai the prophet prophesied. ⁸ And in the meantime one should know that according to the letter both Haggai and Zechariah were prophets of great courage to the point that they ordered the temple to be constructed even contrary to the edict of King Artaxerxes, and in opposition to the Samaritans and all the nations around, who were impeding the building of the temple. Know too that Zerubbabel, Jesus the son of Jehozadak and the people who were with them were of no less faith and that they preferred to listen to the orders of the prophets than to the command of the king who hindered them.

Book One

1:1a In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet.

Because the people who seemed to themselves to have returned from captivity had not yet built the temple and had neither raised up the walls of the city, nor considered the glory of the former Jerusalem, but were living in hollowed out dwellings, and as it is expressed more meaningfully in Greek, κοιλοσταθμιος, that is, placed below and submerged in an enclosed valley; for this reason the word of God does not come to them under King Hezekiah, or Amon or Josiah, those who had ruled over the people of God for as long as Jerusalem was standing, but under King Darius , prince of the Persians, about whom Daniel also refers mysteriously in his book. ¹ Now in our language Darius means “generations having been,” or that “were,” which is expressed in Greek as γενεαὶ γενομέναι. Without the temple and while living below, the people did not deserve to have any other king but one who was serving acts of generation and who loved the flesh and was guarding the first pronouncement of the still-ignorant man who had been cast out of the paradise: “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth.” ¹¹ Therefore, because Darius was a lover of sexual intercourse and an ally of the dragon, all of whose power is in his loins, ¹² on that account the vision is seen by the people in the second year , in an unclean number that signifies the garments of skin and [comes] after the unity of virginity and nakedness of paradise. After all, in Genesis, although it was said, “And God saw that it was good,” ¹³ on the first day, and on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth days, after the completion of each work; according to the Hebrew, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion these words are not found on the second [day]. ¹⁴ For since it creates a number that divides unity, the second day could not be approved by the pronouncement of God that it was good. ¹⁵ The sixth month is also recorded as one that does not have feast days of God, ¹

as does the seventh month, ¹⁷ yet it is neighbor to the six days in which the world was made. ¹⁸ One labors on it, and by the sweat of the face one eats bread; ¹ and the earth produces thistles and thorns for us, ² and though it may receive the seed of wheat, the ground is more fertile for darnel and weeds. But because the altar had already been built, and they had wished to construct the temple against the opposing enemies, and they had not constructed it; on the first day of the sixth month the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet , as the people abandon the second year of King Darius, which divides unity. And during the sixth month, which had passed and is a number which is reputed for work, they turned back to the unity of God and followed an odd and solitary number, which the pagan poet also knew to be clean when he said: “God delights in an odd number.” ²¹ But the word of the Lord comes, seeking to whom it should come and whom it should teach, by the hand of Haggai the prophet, who had good works, and in whose deeds the word of God was able to rest. On the other hand, where hands are full of blood, ²² and Jesus is killed, and the people dare to say, “His blood be upon us and upon our children,” ²³ there the word of God does not come. Up to today fleshly Israel has unclean hands and stretches them out to the Lord, but because they are full of blood the Lord speaks to them through the prophet: “If you stretch out your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you; for your hands are full of blood.” ²⁴ The word of the Lord does not come into their hands because they are unclean. The word of God comes not to them because they have killed the word of God in themselves. And one must not think that the word of the Lord came only by the hand of Haggai the prophet, but since Haggai means “festive,” all who are able to celebrate feasts, “not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth,” ²⁵ are able to receive the word of God. Let us too have clean hands and be called ἑορτάζοντες , that is, “those celebrating feasts,” and the word of God will come to us. Since the law is spiritual, ² let us display before our eyes the spiritual solemnities, about which it is written: “Three times every year you shall celebrate feasts to me. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread, as I instructed you in the time of the month of new things; for in that one you came out of Egypt. You shall not appear before me empty-handed. And the feast of the harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, whatsoever you have sown in the field. And the feast of consummation at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.” ²⁷ If we want the word of the Lord to come

into us, let us be Haggai’s, that is, “those celebrating feasts,” and let us not appear empty-handed before God, and as those sowing in the spirit, let us reap eternal life from the spirit, ²⁸ so that we may celebrate the feast of consummation in the end of the year, that is, the gathering together of our works from the field, the feast of the firstfruits of our works, whatsoever we have sown in the field that the Lord has blessed. ² Let us also be Haggai’s, and throughout all our life up to the consummation of the year, that is, up to our departure from this world, let us celebrate feasts in our works, which have grown up for us in our field. There are many things that might be said about the feast, in which the careful reader may be able to apply the spiritual understanding from all of Scripture, but now is not the time.

1:1b To Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jesus the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying.

We read in Chronicles (Paralipomenon) that Shealtiel was the son of Jeconiah, who was led to Babylon, from whom Zerubbabel was born. ³ Indeed Matthew also says this when he lists the genealogy of the Savior and says: “But after the transmigration of Babylon, Jeconiah begat Shealtiel; and Shealtiel begat Zerubbabel; and Zerubbabel begat Abiud.” ³¹ This Zerubbabel, descending from the tribe of Judah, that is, from the lineage of David, is a figure of the Savior, who truly built the temple that had been destroyed, that is, the church, and he led back the people from captivity. And both from the stones of the old temple and from the new [stones], which formerly had been unpolished, ³² he built the church, that is, both from the remnant of the Jewish people and from the multitude of the Gentiles he constructed a tabernacle to God the Father. Now, according to the numerous intonations of Hebrew speech, it is translated either as ῥεῦσις παρακειμένη, that is “an adjacent flow,” “set forth,” or “arisen in Babylon,” or “prince from Babylon.” That flow is opposed to the first translation, which is signified in the name Jezebel, that is, “empty flow” or “the flow of a menstruating woman,” which clearly signifies uncleanness. But also Zebulun is expressed as “night flow.” Therefore, as those who have abandoned the empty, filthy and dark flow of this world, let us follow the flow of Jesus, which has been “set forth” for us to drink and offers itself from the most

bountiful fount. This accords with what is said in the Gospel: “Jesus stood in the temple and shouted, saying: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” ³³ And from here we will be able to drink it at that time when we ask from God the Father according to that which we read: “Ask, and it shall be given to you.” ³⁴ Shealtiel, of course, means “request of God.” And no one comes to Jesus unless the Father brings him. ³⁵ A flow will “arise” in us, therefore, “set forth” through supplication of God, and it will be from the tribe of Judah, namely, from the royal tribe that confesses or praises the Lord, for Judah means both. On the other hand, having “arisen in Babylon,” according to history it is truly indeed said to be from Zerubbabel, for he was born there. But also according to a higher understanding it signifies our Lord Jesus, since he too was born in the confusion of this world, and he was close to the very heavy river Chebar, and he saw that great vision that Ezekiel sees at the beginning of his book as a figure of him. ³ As for what I said, that Zerubbabel means “prince from Babylon,” it is not that it truly means prince. I meant this: If indeed in the view of the Hebrews the tradition exists that his name has been composed out of three units; for ze means “that,” rub means “teacher” or “elder,” babel means “Babylon” proper, and this yields the name Zerubbabel: “that teacher from Babylon.” But as a summary understanding of the above-mentioned minutiae, I wanted to translate this “prince from Babylon” or “in Babylon.” So that just as Jesus son of Nun, who also himself was a figure of the Savior, led the people from the wilderness into the promised land, so also the reason this one arose in Babylon was to lead back those who were in Babylon into the promised land, from which they had been carried off as captives, and to say to those in chains: Come forth! and who were sitting in darkness: “Be enlightened!” ³⁷ In fact the word of the Lord, which came by the hand of Haggai, is directed not only to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, about whom we now have spoken, but also to Jesus son of Jehozadak, the high priest. As far as it pertains to history, the one, Zerubbabel, is from a royal tribe, and the other, Jesus, is from a priestly tribe. But as far as it pertains to the spiritual understanding, he is one and the same, our Lord and Savior, king and high priest, whose figure Zerubbabel was bearing according to the fact that he was a king; but according to the fact that he was high priest Jesus was bearing this signification, who has the same name as Jesus. ³⁸ Jesus means salvation of Iao , ³ that is, salvation of the Lord, and he is the son of Jehozadak, which itself translates into our language as Iao ’s just one, that is, the Lord’s just one. For both God the Father is just and holy, and God the Son, and there is no iniquity in him. ⁴

This goes against Marcion and the other heretics, who assert that the Lord and Savior is of another good God, the son of some god or other but not of the Creator, whom they call just. And Jesus truly is the high priest (magnus sacerdos), to whom every high priest (antistites) of God in comparison is small and nothing. For if he is called a high priest, certainly it is said in order to distinguish him from those who are inferior. The inferior are all who are outside of him and who come after him, so that just as he is the firstborn of all creation ⁴¹ and the firstborn from the dead, ⁴² so he is the chief and great one among all priests.

1:2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: This people says: The time has not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord.

Carefully notice that neither Zerubbabel nor Jesus say: The time has not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord, but the people who were still under King Darius, who had not yet shaken off the yoke of servitude. And those who are always being kept back in captivity and went out from Jerusalem dissemble and delay the building of the temple of God, and they say: The time has not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord. And when you see someone who has gone out from the church, who had been handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit might be saved, ⁴³ thinking and making arrangements to build the temple through purity, which previously he had destroyed by lust, and nevertheless day after day drags on, say to him: Truly you too are a member of the captive people ; and you are saying: The time has not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord . Every time is suitable to build for the one who has determined once and for all to restore the temple of God. Neither the devil king is able to hinder it, nor the enemies around, nor the feigned piety of parents, relations or children. Immediately when you are converted you will call upon the name of the Lord and will say: “Behold, I am here.” ⁴⁴

1:3-4 And the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying: Is it time for you to dwell in paneled houses—or as the Septuagint has

translated it: Κοιλοστάθμοις, that is “hollowed out”—and this house lie desolate?”

On the same day as above ⁴⁵ this vision is seen again. And while the works of the prophet were advancing, the prophet’s gifts also increase, and though he had kept his silence for a short time in response to what the people had said, The time has not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord , the Lord’s wellthought out response, as it were, is published, and it is said to them: Is it time then for you to dwell in houses situated below and placed in a valley; and my house , which is on a mountain, lie desolate? Or as it is found in the Hebrew, for you to dwell in paneled houses , that is, ornate and well made, and that are not so much useful as luxurious. And my dwelling place in which was the holy of holies, the cherubim and the table of proposition, ⁴ will it be drenched by rain showers, will it be left in squalor, will it be scorched by the sun? On the other hand, according to anagogy: All times are unsuitable for us to choose the valley as a dwelling or to be slaves to pleasure. And this is why the Stoics, whose concern is to define every word, have said that there is a time for correction or efficiency, which is expressed more meaningfully in Greek as χρόνον εἶναι κατορθώσεως. For all time is wasted in which we serve not the virtues but the vices; and it is as if it never was, it is reputed as nothing. If anyone of us, therefore, either lives in a valley or furnishes his house with the beams of voluptuousness and luxury of this world, that one does not build the temple of God, nor does the Lord have in him a place where he may recline his head. ⁴⁷ And when he builds his home for jackals, ⁴⁸ he is allowing what was once a dwelling place for God to lie desolate .

1:5 And now thus says the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts upon your ways.

Let there not be one time for speaking and another for doing; turn my commands immediately into action. For it is the “Lord Almighty” who commands it, and certainly the command of the Almighty God is not trivial. Thus far you have had hearts enslaved to vices, disordered, without an instructor, going wherever your desires dragged you. Now, however, the Lord commands you to put love in order

within yourselves and set your hearts on your ways so that you do nothing without judgment and consideration, but may the lamp of the law always go before your feet, and may you say: “Your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” ⁴ Or surely it means this: Because you say it is not the time to build the house of the Lord , and you yourselves dwell in dwellings that are submerged in the depths, but my house lies desolate , consider what you have done, as I the Lord command, recall to your memory what you have allowed.

1:6 You have sown much, and brought in little; you have eaten, and you have not been filled; you have drunk and have not become inebriated, you have clothed yourselves and have not warmed up. And he who collected wages put them into a bag with holes.

All the effort you have expended in building your homes and neglecting the house of God has had no success. For you have sown more, and you have gathered far less than what was sown. And you cannot say that the reason a famine followed is that the farmer ceased cultivating the land. You have eaten, also, lest perhaps one of you should claim that it was a voluntary fast; and you have not been filled, because you had gathered few crops into your barns. ⁵ You have drunk wine from the vineyards, but not merely to make your heart glad, that it could be said about you: “And wine cheers the heart of man.” ⁵¹ You had a cloak, but one that did not keep off the cold nor keep in the heat. Likewise, every one of you who has collected wages , whether by means of business or as a hired hand, his labor has been spent in vain without a reward for the effort. For all the money has vanished, just as if he puts it into a bag with holes . But also according to the spiritual understanding, those who have returned from Babylon and have not yet built the temple of God but daily postponed building it and have said, “The time is not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord,” ⁵² they are neither captives nor yet have been gifted with complete freedom. Instead, it is as if they were placed in the middle, as it were; they have sown much and brought in little ; they have eaten and not been filled , they have drunk and have not become inebriated , they have clothed themselves and not warmed up . They have collected wages and lost them, as if they had put them in a purse with holes .

If you ever see someone in the midst of his many works of sins who does a few things that are just, God is not so unjust as to forget the small number of good works on account of the many evils. But he will cause him to reap only those things that he has sown in the good earth and to collect it into his barns. But the one who is thoroughly ἀποστάτης, ⁵³ that one will not eat at all but will perish from hunger. On the other hand, he who sows much and brings in a small amount eats very little and is not filled. This agrees with what the Lord threatens among the curses of Leviticus: “And you will eat and shall not be filled.” ⁵⁴ But the one who is holy will eat to the point of being filled, and what has been written will be completed in him: “When the just man eats he fills his soul.” ⁵⁵ Similarly, he who does not drink thoroughly will die of thirst. Just as [it says] also in Judith, ⁵ but only if one is willing to accept a woman’s book: And the young children perished from thirst. ⁵⁷ But the one who drinks very little drinks indeed, but not to the point of drunkenness. On the other hand, he who is able to say to the Lord, “Your inebriating cup which is splendid,” ⁵⁸ and he is inebriated with Noah, ⁵ and although placed in Egypt, nevertheless he is intoxicated with wine at the banquet of Joseph together with the patriarchs and his brothers; that man is turned to a state of ecstasy with the apostles because of the extent of his gladness and daily joy. He will be said to be full of new wine. ¹ But in the commentary on Jeremiah I will explain more suitably how it is not contrary to this exposition the fact that the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, did not drink wine, and they are praised by the Lord. ² After these things it is said to those who were neglecting to build the temple of the Lord: You have clothed yourselves and have not warmed up. We understand this from the hundred and third Psalm, in which it is said of God: “The deep is his covering, as a garment.” ³ For although according to the Hebrew truth it may refer to the lands that are encircled by the ocean, yet, according to the Septuagint translators, who have said τὸ περιβόλαιον αὐτοῦ , ⁴ [the possessive pronoun being] in the masculine gender and not αὐτῆς in the feminine, we are compelled to think that this has been said with regard to God, because his wisdom is unsearchable, ⁵ and the Lord makes the darkness his hiding place, and his mysteries are not revealed to any who are unworthy. And for this reason the just man is gladdened and says: “I have hidden your words in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” ⁷ This cloak is woven out of the manifold senses and words of wisdom, and it does not allow those who are fervent in spirit to become cold, nor the heat of love to be chilled by the blowing of the north wind. But as for the one who is in the middle, and who to be sure has a cloak but he is not completely covered by it; just as he has carried very little into his barns, and he eats but is

not filled, and he drinks but is not made drunk; so he shall be clothed indeed by the cloak of his senses and works, but he will not warm up. But the one who does not have a cloak, owing to too great a poverty of soul, the reason he does not have one is that his iniquity has been multiplied and his love has grown cold in him. ⁸ And this is why it is instructed in the law concerning such a man, whose cloak is possessed by another: “You shall return the garment to him before the sun sets, because he is poor and has hope in it.” But even this happens to those who were dwelling in the valleys, or in paneled houses, and were saying, “The time is not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord,” ⁷ so that they were collecting wages into a bag with holes in it. If any of us does things that are good and worthy of a reward—which the Lord will repay to us, of whom it is said: “Behold the Lord, and his reward is in his hands,” ⁷¹ “to repay each one according to his works,” ⁷² and another thing that is said by the apostle: “If the work of anyone remains, which he has built upon it, he will receive a reward” ⁷³ —this one collects wages that are intact and lasting. He always adds virtues to the virtues, he compiles money into a sack without holes . But the one who sins after his good works, not once or twice but repeatedly, and who darkens and soils his past love by subsequent vices, collects his money into a sack with holes . All these things have happened to those who said, “The time is not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord,” and who, while they themselves were dwelling in valleys, they allowed the house of the Lord to lie desolate. ⁷⁴

1:7-8 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts upon your ways; go up in the mountain, bring timber, and build the house; and it shall be acceptable to me, and I shall be glorified, says the Lord.

Septuagint: “Thus says the Lord Almighty: Set your hearts in your ways, go up upon the mountain, and cut timber.” The rest is similar. Once again, I the Lord command you, I who had previously ordered you to set your hearts on your ways and to consider all the things that you are doing, and forsaking the pursuit of your lowly houses to go up in the mountain, where there is no timber that is burned up but that contributes to the work on my house; and you should do this quite carefully, and know that what you do will be pleasing to me. The Hebrews

say that only timber was necessary to build it, since the walls of the temple were standing after the fire. So much for them. We, however, are commanded not to set our hearts outside our ways, but what we had recorded previously, again to set them “in our ways.” And after we have done this, to go up from our homes, hollowed into the mountain, so that when we reach the top of the mountain, in which there is the necessary timber to build the temple of God, from every mountain of Holy Scripture, in which the various trees of the virtues and of paradise have been planted, we may “cut” it down and build the temple of the Lord by means of good works and doctrines of truth. When it has been constructed, may it please the Lord to be glorified in it. Therefore, because we have this command to set our hearts in our ways, let us go up into the rational mountain, and by seeking suitable timber for each problem from the testimonies of the Scriptures, let us “cut it down” and build a house of wisdom in us. For after this is constructed, the building will be finished, so that the Lord would be glorified in us.

1:9 You have looked for more, and behold it became less; and you brought it home, and I blew it away.

Septuagint: “You have looked for many things, and they became few, and you brought them home, and I blew them away.” In order that you might cast aside delay, put away hesitation and more zealously build my house, I declare something else that will happen to you, who have postponed building my house. It is not as was said above, “You have sown much,” and because the earth did not give a return for the seed, “you brought in little.” ⁷⁵ But since the crops were already growing bright, and the time of the harvest was approaching, and you thought you held the harvest in your hands, you reaped empty stalks, and you collected a crop of worthless stubble without ears of grain. The threshing floor was full: hope was before your eyes, but sorrow was in your hands. But this very thing, also, which had been selected with difficulty from many crops and endless heaps, you brought it home , and it had been scattered about by my power. For I blew it away , and reduced it to nothing, because the crops have died and the pods are empty, which are good to

eat, they did not have meal and fine flour. But what he has said, you brought it home, and I blew it away, can also be understood of the votive offerings that they offered on the altar, and God blew those away. But because he said, you brought it home, if we understand what was brought as the votive offerings, then surely we are saying that they are brought into the temple. And it shall not suit us, because at that time the house of God still had not been built. This indeed happens to the majority up to today, who dwell in humble buildings, and so far as it lies within them they despise the desolated house of God, and though they are able to build it they treat it with contempt. And, as it were, they already see ripe crops, they promise themselves the fruit of their own works and, deceived by this hope, instead of a great amount they hardly find little. But even this little bit also, which they had stored up in the house and the barn of their mind, is blown away by the word of God, as if it is unworthy of protection and care. How often have I seen a very great amount hoped for from certain people, both in teaching and in manner of life; and afterward it has come about that when harvest time came for them, that is, the time for them to teach and to display their own life to the people as an example, they were cast down from the height, and less was found in them than the opinion of everyone was hoping for. This is how it happens that little by little, as negligence gradually sneaks in, they have lost even the little bit that they seemed to have. ⁷ But the reason they experienced this is that they were secure in their own former homes, and they neither went up the mountain of the Scriptures, “cutting timber” from it for the Lord’s building, nor did they construct in themselves daily the house of the Lord. Instead, by showing contempt for its desolation, they lost even that which they thought they had. ⁷⁷ For this is the reason given for the above-mentioned evil.

[1:9b] Why, says the Lord of hosts? Because my house is desolate, and you hasten each man to his own house.

1:10 Therefore the heavens over you were kept from giving dew, and the earth retained its shoot.

Not only did the heavens not give rain, he says, by which well-watered soil produces crops, but not even morning dew, as well as that of the night, so that at least the parched fields would be relieved by a small amount of moisture. The land devoured seed as well and would not produce a yield for the farmers, and in its greedy bosom it kept back what customarily shoots forth spontaneously. I think that this is the dew about which it is spoken in a blessing to Jacob, “May God give you some of the dew of heaven,” ⁷⁸ and the dew of Hermon that falls on mount Zion ⁷ and falls not from the air, in which a multitudinous number of eagles, hawks and vultures fly about, but from heaven . Thus if someone’s soul burns with disturbances and has been wounded by a dart of the devil, he may be cooled off by this dew and may temper his burning passions. While it is held back, the earth also does not produce its shoot . For a soul cannot produce any fruit without the dew of Christ.

1:11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the wheat, and upon the wine and upon the oil; and whatever the ground brings forth, and upon men and upon beasts, and upon all the labor of their hands.

The Septuagint translated drought as μάχαιραν, that is, “sword,” but even in the Hebrew, I have found it written with three letters, khet, resh, bet, which, if we read as hareb, it means sword; if horeb, it means καύσωμα, which we translated as drought, although it can be translated better as a “burning wind.” And actually, because the word concerns the land and the barrenness of the fields, it seems preferable to me that a “burning wind” ought to be understood in the present passage, rather than a “sword,” granted that all plagues that are inflicted on account of human sins can also be understood as a sword. A drought, however, has been called for, or a “sword,” upon the land, and upon the mountains, so that they might not bring forth wheat and wine and oil, and whatever the ground produces of its own accord. Now, since a famine precedes, death comes as a result on men and beasts. And the same “sword” or “burning wind” consumes everything that the hands of men have labored for. And so the living and efficacious word of God is called for, or brought in, sharper than any two-edged sword, ⁸ so that the negligent soul—which is the interpretation of the dry land , and desires to dwell in hollows rather than to build the house of God—

is struck by its point; and it destroys whatever crop it thinks it has. A “sword” is likewise brought in upon the mountains that raise themselves against the knowledge of God, ⁸¹ and upon the grain and the wine, and oil, by which food, drink and refreshment, as it were, the little meeting places of the heretics entice the deceived people. A person will fittingly say that their bread is the bread of mourning, ⁸² and their wine is the fury of the dragons, and the incurable fury of the asps. ⁸³ Their oil too is the promise of the heavens, with which they anoint their disciples, as it were, and promise them the rewards of labors. The prophet calls down a solemn curse on this oil when he says: “But let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head.” ⁸⁴ Moreover, the sword of God strikes other things that they invent and fabricate of their own accord, as if by apostolic tradition, but without the authority and testimonies of the Scriptures. But we should understand the men and beasts as their λογισμοὺς and αἰσθήσεις, that is, thoughts and perceptions. Or certainly the reasonable and irrational ones among them, that is, the learned and ignorant equally, and all the labor of their hands refers to their fasts, and various observances, and couches, that is, sleeping on the ground. The tribes who fast for forty days per year, and those who humble their soul by ξηροφαγίαις, ⁸⁵ and especially those who grow from the root of Tatian, ⁸ hear the following about such labors: “You have suffered so much in vain.” ⁸⁷ Now, everything that I have said can be understood about the rulers of the church. The things that they build are a house of flesh, since they provide for their children and possessions and do not care to construct in themselves the temple of God or to restore the church of the Lord, which has been covered over and demolished. Often their inconsistent lives and words scandalize very many and drive them out from the church and lead the house of God through the desert. Nor do we say these things in order to accuse everyone generally but because in each office and rank there are some who build, others who destroy the temple of God and, on account of their vice, the earth gives neither the dew of heaven nor a shoot. The ground is dry, the mountains are parched, wheat and oil perish, and all things that the earth brings forth, as do the men themselves and the beasts, and all the labor of their hands, by a severing sword, drought or a burning wind.

1:12 And Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jesus, the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, heard the voice of their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God sent him to them,

and the people feared before ⁸⁸ the Lord.

Pay careful attention: since there are two understandings of the Savior, in Zerubbabel the governor and in Jesus the priest, for he is both king and priest, he did not say that Zerubbabel and Jesus feared, but that Zerubbabel, Jesus and the people heard the words of Haggai the prophet, which are the words of the Lord, and the people alone feared before the Lord, that is, solely the multitude, who had not yet reached the one perfect man, ⁸ and that which was spirit did not deserve to be joined to the Spirit. But the people feared before (a facie) the Lord because they knew that the face ( facies ) of the Lord is on those who do ( facientes ) evil, to destroy their memory from the earth.

1:13 And Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, [as one] of the Lord’s messengers, spoke to the people, saying: I am with you, says the Lord.

Some think that both John the Baptist and Malachi, which means “angel of the Lord,” and Haggai, whom we now have in our hands, were angels, and that by the dispensation and arrangement of God they assumed human bodies and lived among men. Nor is it surprising that this is believed about angels, since the Son of God actually assumed a human body for the sake of our salvation. And for this reason they supply testimony even from apocryphal writings, where it is said, “For Jacob, who afterward was called Israel, was an angel,” ¹ and this is why he supplanted his brother in the womb of his mother. It is said that John, too, leaped in Elizabeth’s womb at the voice of Mary the mother of the Lord. ² They also say there is one nature of all rational beings, and for this reason men who have pleased God become equal to angels. ³ Let them think this. ⁴ However that may be, we should understand the messenger of the Lord , that is, the angel, which in Hebrew is called Mal’ak , as simply the prophet, the statement from him that announced the will of the Lord to the people; or, because in many passages our Lord and Savior is called an angel, such as here, “The angel of great counsel,” ⁵ we say that a figure of the Savior had preceded in Haggai. On the other hand, his words The messenger of the Lord, [as one] of the Lord’s messengers mean this: it is as if he had said, the prophet of the

prophets. As for what he says, The messenger of the Lord, saying to the people: I am with you, says the Lord, he is not speaking to Zerubbabel and Jesus, with whom and in whom the Lord always was—for we said once that they are understood according to diverse understandings with reference to the person of the Savior—but he speaks to the people who had feared before the Lord. Because they were the people, they had not yet come to the love of God that casts out fear. Therefore the people receive a reward for their fear of God, that the Lord would be with them. And the sense is: I will be your helper; build my house, which has been destroyed in you; establish me in your midst; no one will be able to prevent you from building it.

1:14–2:1 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Jesus the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the remnant of the whole people; and they went in and did the work on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God. On the twentyfourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. ⁷

The Septuagint translated governor of Judah as “of the tribe of Judah,” and they translated work as “works,” but the rest is similar. But wherever we record Lord of hosts (Dominum exercituum), they translate diversely, either as “Lord Almighty” (Dominum omnipotentem) or “Lord Sabaoth” (Dominum sabaoth), or “Lord of powers” (Dominum virtutum). So then, according to the letter, the spirit of Zerubbabel and the spirit of Jesus are stirred up for the time being so that the kingdom and the priesthood may build the temple of God. Likewise, the spirit of the people is stirred up, which previously was asleep in them; not the body, not the soul, but as we have said, the spirit, which knows more how to build the temple of God. And they went in, for they had been outside, they “did works,” which were worthy of the inner precincts of the house of the Lord; in the same year of Darius the king as above, in that month which was recorded at the beginning, ⁸ but not on the same day. For there “one day of the month” is recorded, but here it is the twenty-fourth , so that between the first day, on which the Lord speaks through Haggai, and the twenty-forth, on which they went in and did the work in

the house of the Lord , twenty-two days had come in between, as many [days] as there are letters among the Hebrews. For they needed to be taught the alphabet of the words of God. This would have prevented them from saying, “The time is not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord,” ¹ and from living in hollowed-out homes ¹ ¹ and, as I said above, from being submerged in the depths. In fact they were summoned to set their hearts on their ways, ¹ ² and they recalled how much they had suffered because of their negligence. And [they are summoned] to go up in the mountain, and to cut down timber and to build the house of the Lord, ¹ ³ and not to undergo that which they had previously suffered. After all, in these twenty-two days, the people “feared before the Lord,” ¹ ⁴ and they went in on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king , and they did the work on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God . But we are being instructed that a spiritual house can be built into a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God, ¹ ⁵ to present ourselves ¹ as such persons that the Holy Spirit might be stirred up in us, and we might enter into the house of the Lord and do the works of the Lord. For a Zerubbabel from the lineage of David has already been stirred up by the Father in power, as well as Jesus, a priest forever ¹ ⁷ according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, ¹ ⁸ so that he might preside over the work. But let us do this by his aid and direction. Yet, we are not able to do these works of God unless we first fear before the Lord, ¹ and believe, and enter into the temple of God, and carry out those things that are worthy of the house of God. But since we are still in the world, also the time of our building is spent under Darius the king, in which there is service to reproduction, marriage and the flesh. For that reason in the number six, in which the world was made, ¹¹ and in the second year, which breaks the unity—for the matter in which consists the restoration of the world and offspring loves a double number—we enter the house of the Lord , and when both peoples have been gathered together we construct the temple of God. For the sum of the number twenty-four consists of the number of two times twelve, because the first church of Christ that had been overthrown was rebuilt from both the circumcision and from the Gentiles. But we are also able to say that the number eight, which is a holy number, and is understood as a type of the true circumcision, ¹¹¹ when tripled it makes the number twenty-four. Figuratively we are being taught to build the house of the Lord in the cutting off of the flesh and in the circumcision of the vices and to believe that true purity is in the name of

the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. ¹¹² On the other hand, someone else has computed the number as being six times four, four referring to the [four] elements of the world from which we subsist; six referring to the creation of the world [in six days], in which the elements themselves are involved. And he says: because we are still in the midst of matter, and surrounded by a heavy body, and we are slaves to reproduction, we indeed build a temple, and enter into the house of God, and our spirit is stirred up as it were from a deep sleep, but we still do this on the twenty-fourth day. ¹¹³

2:2-10 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying: Speak to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jesus, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and to the remnant of the people, saying: Who is left among you, who saw this house in its first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not so as if it is nothing in your eyes? Yet now take courage, Zerubbabel, says the Lord, and take courage, Jesus, son of Jehozadak, high priest, and take courage, all the people of the land, says the Lord of hosts, and perform. For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. The word that I covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt, and my spirit will be in your midst, do not fear. For thus says the Lord of hosts, yet one little while, and I will move heaven and earth, and sea and dry land, and I will move all nations. And the one desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. Great will be the glory of this last house, more than the first, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts.

In the same year, but in the seventh month, in which the solemnities of God take place, on the twenty-first day of the month, that is, at the completion of three seven-day periods, and in the perfect rest in the mystery of the Trinity, and the word of the Lord came the third time by the hand of Haggai the prophet, who was sweating with the constant effort, so that the word of God would always have an access in him. For forgetting the past, and stretching himself forth toward the future, ¹¹⁴ he was laboring daily in this way, as if he had no preceding works. Therefore it is said to him: Speak to Zerubbabel and to Jesus , and [to] the remnant of the people , who saw the ancient house of God; and now they are

in the midst of its restoration. In comparison with the former house, is that which is seen not such that in a certain manner it seems not to exist? But do not despair, do not let your weary hands drop, ¹¹⁵ but even you, Zerubbabel , and you, Jesus , and all people , take courage , and perform work on my house. For I am with you , and my word that I covenanted with you, when you came out of the land of Egypt . And my Spirit shall not withdraw from you; do not fear , I am he who commands, the “Lord Almighty,” for whom to have spoken is to have done it. When I gave the first covenant, and I was seen on Mount Sinai, I moved heaven and earth, and the Red Sea and the desert, so that I might record a covenant with you. Now, however, I promise you that once again I will move heaven and earth, and sea and dry land, so that when those things have been moved, all nations might be moved, and there may come, according to the Septuagint, “the Lord’s chosen objects from all the nations”; but according to the Hebrew, the one desired by all nations will come, our Lord and Savior. Then I will fill that house with glory greater than before, and I will add to you always, says the “Lord Almighty.” And lest perhaps you think it a weak promise, the gold is mine, and the silver is mine, and all wealth is mine. I shall donate gold and silver for the adornment of the temple so that the glory of this house might become greater than before. And because what I promise seems difficult, and human faithlessness is always at a loss in the presence of greater promises, therefore I say it again, I who am making the promise, I am the “Lord almighty.” Further, because I know that nothing so achieves this as much as peace, for the construction of the illustrious house, which will even surpass the former house, therefore I promise this too. For I shall give peace in that place, says the Lord of hosts, so that “the peace which surpasses all understanding may guard” ¹¹ my house, and my location may be in peace . Meanwhile let me trace the following outline of an exposition παραφραστικῶς, ¹¹⁷ so that the wise reader may ascend from these things to a more sublime understanding even while we remain silent. The word of God therefore comes to those who had begun to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, now at rest, that is, “in the seventh month,” and in the fullest mystery of the Trinity, “on the twenty-first of the month,” and to “Haggai,” one celebrating the feasts of God, who had again prepared his hand for the word of God, and it says to him: “Speak to Zerubbabel of the tribe of Judah, and to Jesus, the high priest,” who deemed it worthy to become both man and priest for us, “and to the remnant of the people.” For in comparison with the whole world, at the beginning the portion of

believers was small. Therefore let us hear what he said. There was formerly in Israel the “house” of God, which now is so deserted that it is believed not to have existed. For what was loved has become not loved, and those who were not the people of God have begun to be the people of God. ¹¹⁸ And that “formerly glorious house” is now in the sight of Zerubbabel and Jesus and the remnant of the people “as though it were not.” But we ought to understand this not only with regard to the buildings of the temple, which we see have fallen down, but about all things that the Jews formerly held as illustrious. But yet, because the former house was as though it were not standing, Zerubbabel the governor is provoked, and Jesus, the priest, so that the kingdom and priesthood of Christ may be “strengthened,” and so that its people, who formerly were the people of the land, may do works in the house of the Lord and know that God is present “with them.” Let them do the word also, which the Lord covenanted with them when they came out of the land of Egypt. And would that we too might come out of Egypt to fulfill the word of the covenant that we have received. The Lord God also promises his “Spirit” to those who do works in his house and fulfill the word that they have received, saying: “and my Spirit will be in your midst.” Perceive the mystery of the Trinity: “I am with you,” and “my Spirit,” and the Word, in which I established a covenant when you came out of Egypt. Now his words “in your midst” ought to be understood according to what one reads as written in the Gospel: “For in your midst stands one whom you do not know, who shall come after me.” ¹¹ Therefore, “thus says the Lord” of hosts to you who see that the former house is thus “as if it is nothing.” I have “shaken heaven,” when my voice was heard from heaven. ¹² I “shook the earth,” when I handed down a covenant to the former people, and at my coming was seen gloom, a whirlwind and darkness. ¹²¹ I “shook” the Red “Sea,” when I provided a way for the people to pass through it. ¹²² I “shook the dry land,” either Egypt emptied of the worship of God by means of the plagues ¹²³ or the wilderness, through which I led the people around for forty years. ¹²⁴ These things I will shake yet once more. We see that this was done at the coming of the Lord and Savior. For at the time of his passion, when the sun took flight, “heaven” was shaken and darkness came on the whole land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. ¹²⁵ The “earth” was shaken, and rocks were split, and graves opened. ¹² The “sea” was shaken when the serpent that was in it was killed. ¹²⁷ The “dry land” was also shaken, the formerly unfruitful wilderness of the nations. But in this shaking of the universe all the nations have been shaken as well, because “the sound” of the

apostles of the Lord “has gone forth into all the earth, and their words” have reached “to the ends of the world.” ¹²⁸ But the reason all the nations were shaken is so that from their movement might come the “chosen things of the nations” and those things that are illustrious in whatever place. For example, the “chosen things” from Corinth, because the people of God in it were many; the “chosen things” from Macedonia, because the church of God gathered in Thessalonica was great, it had no need to be taught about love; ¹² the “chosen things” from Ephesus, so that they recognized the secrets of God and the mysteries not revealed to anyone before. ¹³ What more? All the nations have been shaken, to which the Savior had sent the apostles, saying: “Go, teach all nations”; ¹³¹ and the few who are chosen out of the many who were called ¹³² constructed the church of the firstfruits. ¹³³ And this is why the apostle Peter says, “She who is chosen in Babylon greets you, and Mark my son”; ¹³⁴ and John says, “The elder, to the chosen lady”; ¹³⁵ and then he mentions the sons of the chosen lady. When the nations have been shaken, therefore, which indeed we are able to understand even as hostile powers who do not have the strength to endure the splendor of the Lord, the “chosen things” of all nations came, and the house of the Lord, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth, ¹³ is “filled with glory.” This has been said according to the Septuagint. However that may be, it is found better and more meaningfully in the Hebrew, as we recorded above: And I will move all nations, and the one desired by all nations will come. For the house of the Lord was truly filled with glory after he came. And to the degree that the Lord stands apart from the servant, so also the house of the Lord, over which the Lord is in charge, is better than the previous house, over which a servant was in charge. ¹³⁷ But as for what he says, The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts , I do not think that anyone imagines that he is speaking about the silver and gold that is possessed by the wealthy and by kings. For not only is silver and gold God’s in this fashion, since he is its creator, as it were, but other metals too, brass, tin, lead and iron that subdues all things. But I believe that the silver by which the house of God is decorated refers to the oracles ( eloquia ) of the Scriptures, about which it is said: “The oracles of the Lord are pure oracles; as silver tried by fire, tested from the earth, purified seven times.” ¹³⁸ And the gold , which is constantly present in the hidden mind of the saints and in the secret place of the heart, and shines by the true light of God, which it is clear that the apostle understood with regard to the saints, who build upon the foundation of Christ, gold, silver, precious stones. ¹³ Thus the hidden meaning is in the gold, fitting speech is in silver, works pleasing to God are in the precious stone. By means of these metals the Savior’s church

becomes more illustrious than the synagogue was formerly; by means of these living stones ¹⁴ the house of Christ is built and eternal peace is made available to it. On the other hand, as for what follows in the Septuagint, “even peace of soul for a possession to everyone who builds so that he raises up this temple,” we have omitted this as superfluous and scarcely coherent. For it is not reported by the Hebrews or by any other translator.

2:11-15 On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts; Ask the priests [concerning] the law, saying: If a man carries sanctified flesh on the surface of his garment, and with its skirt touches bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be sanctified? And the priests answered and said: No. And Haggai said: If one that is polluted in soul touches any of all these things, shall it not be defiled? And the priests answered and said: It will be defiled. And Haggai answered and said: So [is] that people, and so [is] that nation before my face, says the Lord. And so [is] all the work of their hands, and all that they have offered there shall be defiled.

Septuagint: “On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year under Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai, saying: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Ask the priests [concerning] the law, saying: If a man should take holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and the skirt of his garment should touch bread, or cooking, or wine, or oil, or any food, if it shall be sanctified? And the priests answered and said: No. And Haggai said: If one that is unclean in soul touches any of all these things, shall it be defiled? And the priests answered and said: It shall be defiled. And Haggai answered and said: So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, says the Lord; and so [are] all the works of their hands. And whosoever shall approach there, shall be defiled, because of their early gifts, they shall be pained in the presence of their evils, and you make fragrant those reproving in the gates.” The reason we also have recorded the version of the Septuagint translators is that they seemed to disagree [with the Hebrew] in certain words. And that which is said, “because of their early gifts, they shall be pained in the presence of their

evils and you make fragrant those who reprove in the gates,” is found neither in the Hebrew nor among the other translators. It ought to be noted, however, that in that passage, On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year, it is not said as above in the third position, “the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,” ¹⁴¹ but to Haggai the prophet . For there—because he still had progress and merely clean works, but his heart had not yet received full wisdom, or because he still dwelt among those who were saying: “The time is not yet come for the building of the house of the Lord” ¹⁴² —“the word of the Lord came” only in his works. But here, since the foundations of the temple have already been laid, and the people have gone in with the leaders into the house of God ¹⁴³ and are doing work suitable to the temple of God and have heard the mystery, “I will move all nations and the one desired by all nations will come,” ¹⁴⁴ and are filled with the prophecy; for this reason “the word of the Lord comes to Haggai” as a whole. We have already spoken about the twenty-fourth day and the second year. As for the number of the ninth month that is added here, this is never read in a good sense. The people sacrifice the Passover and celebrate other feasts; all their solemnities are finished on the eighth day and do not come to the ninth. Those who prepare the lamb for Passover begin to prepare it when the ninth day has been completed. ¹⁴⁵ Also, the Day of Atonement and expiation of the seventh month is celebrated after the ninth day. ¹⁴ And Jerusalem is besieged in the ninth year by the Babylonians, as can be evident to those who read Jeremiah. ¹⁴⁷ Accordingly, because the prophecy was about the future uncleanness of the people, therefore the ninth month is joined to the second year of Darius . On the other hand, because room for repentance is granted after the reproach of uncleanness, “the word of God comes to Haggai the prophet on the twentyfourth” day so that he may examine the inquiry from the priests that came from the law, as it were, in the Lord’s name, and it is said to him: “Ask the priests [about] the law, saying.” And likewise, consider that it pertains to the duty of priests to respond to one who asks about the law. If he is a priest, he should know the law of the Lord; if he is ignorant of the law, that one proves himself not to be a priest of the Lord. For it is a priest’s task to know the law and to respond to questions about the law. This indeed we also read in Deuteronomy, that if anywhere in the cities of Israel an inquiry has come forth between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, leper and leper, contradiction and contradiction, they should go to the priests and the Levites, and to the high priest who has been appointed in those days, and they should ask from him [about] the

law of the Lord. When these ones respond, they should do as they are commanded. ¹⁴⁸ But if they will not do this, they are to be banished from their people. And lest perhaps these precepts seem to be only in the Old Instrument, the apostle also says to Timothy that a bishop ought to be not only above reproach, and the husband of one wife, and wise, and chaste, and honored, and hospitable, but also a teacher. ¹⁴ And lest he should seem to have said this casually, the same warning is preserved also to Titus concerning the ordination of priests, whom he wishes to be understood even as the bishops. “The reason I left you in Crete was so that you might set right whatever was remaining and ordain priests throughout the cities, just as I have commanded you: If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of extravagance or insubordinate. For a bishop must be above reproach as a steward of God, not insolent, not hot-tempered, not a drunkard, not a striker, not desirous of base gain, but hospitable, chaste, kind, just, holy, temperate, having faithful speech in teaching, so that he may be able to comfort in sound teaching, and to convict those who contradict it. For there are also many who are insubordinate, boasters, and seducers, and especially those who are of the circumcision, on whom it is necessary to impose silence.” ¹⁵ I have set this down at some length so that both from the Old Testament and from the New we will be aware that it is an obligation of priests to know the law of God and to answer inquiries that have been made about it. Nor is simplicity and abstinence from food sufficient in the teacher unless he is able also to educate others in what he does himself. Certainly I think they will respond that this belongs to those who are preparing themselves from youth to teach. Frequently, however, by the judgment of the Lord and by the vote of the people, the uneducated (simplices) are chosen for the priesthood. Let them at least hold to the following, that after they have been ordained priests they should learn the law of God, so that they may be able to teach what they have learned, and let them increase in knowledge rather than in wealth. And they should not be ashamed to learn from the laity, who have obtained knowledge of those things that pertain to the office of priests; and let them spend their nights and days more in discussion of the Scriptures than in accounting and calculation. But what is it that Haggai asks the priests in the name of the Lord? If a man carries sanctified flesh on the surface, or in the skirt of his garment, and from its skirt touches bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be sanctified? Before we discuss this question, we meanwhile need to understand it according to the letter. What is sanctified flesh, and what is one unclean in the soul? The

sacrifice that was immolated on the altar was its holy flesh, and there was much diversity between those sanctified pieces of flesh. For the priests ate some of it in the precincts of the temple, ¹⁵¹ some in the home of their neighbor, ¹⁵² some [was eaten by] those who seemed to be stained from the priests, some [by] the Israelites who had no uncleanness. A full account of this diversity is given in Leviticus. ¹⁵³ Now one was said to be unclean in the soul who had touched the body of a dead man. ¹⁵⁴ In this it ought to be observed that as long the soul is in the body, the human body is not unclean. But as soon as the spirit that imparts energy to the limbs has withdrawn, what is earthly becomes unclean, just as it is written in the same book of Leviticus: “And the Lord said to Moses, saying: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and you will say to them, They will not be defiled in their souls in their nation; but in the kin who draw close to them, concerning mother, and father, and sons and daughters, and brother and his maiden sister who draws close to him, and is not bequeathed to a man; concerning these he will not be defiled, and he will not suddenly be polluted with regard to his own people to the defilement of himself.” ¹⁵⁵ Observe that these priests are instructed not to enter toward just any corpse but only to those of relatives and neighbors, about whom it was spoken above. But the high priest, that is the pontifex , had somewhat more than the other priests; and neither piety nor affection was able to persuade him to become unclean among the persons named above. For Scripture says: “And he shall not enter upon every soul that has died: upon neither his father nor his mother, he will also not be defiled.” ¹⁵ Now that we know what sanctified flesh is, therefore, and one unclean in soul, let us see what the prophet asks. If a man, no matter who—it is not spoken here of the high priest, or of a priest, or of a Levite, but any man—where a persona is not recorded generally for everyone, it is lawful to touch flesh. If he carries sanctified flesh, he says, and ties it to the skirt of his garment, and that very skirt of the garment touches bread, or any other “cooking,” or wine, or oil, or all things in addition to these that man is able to eat, can it be that bread or pottage, or wine, or oil or any food can be sanctified by contact with a garment onto which the sanctified flesh has been tied? And the priests answered and said: It cannot; that is, none of these things of which you ask will be sanctified, but each one will remain just as it was. Then another question is proposed to the priests, namely, because they responded well to the first one, and something that resembles a difficult problem is added, in which the unskilled could easily slip up. For grant that someone is ignorant of the law, and just as he responded concerning sanctified flesh that

bread is not sanctified, nor pottage, nor wine, nor oil, nor any food; and in this he will respond equally and say: the man defiled in soul does not defile those things which holy flesh was not able to sanctify. He asks, therefore, and says: If one who is polluted in soul, that is, one who has been made unclean by contact with a corpse, touches any of all these things, namely, bread or pottage, or wine, or oil, or the rest of the foods, shall these things that he touched be defiled from contact with them? And the priests responded, whose leader was Jesus, son of Jehozadak, from which source they had also known the law, and they said that by contact with that which is unclean, all that has been touched by it is defiled. And Haggai responded and said, passing over in silence the things above, that sanctified flesh is not able to sanctify other foods, and composing the occasion of his words from the second question only: So [is] that people, and so [is] that nation before my face, says the Lord. He who is unclean in soul and has touched a dead thing, all that he touches, and that he offers to me, will be unclean. But what he is saying according to the letter is of this nature: O people, who have only built the altar while my house lies in ruins, you offer to me sacrifices on the altar, and you think that you are sanctified by its victims and flesh, know that you are not so much sanctified on the basis of sacrifices that, while the temple lies in ruins, will not be able to profit you, as all your works are defiled and all that you do, because you are being negligent and you have attempted to build your house rather than mine. Holy indeed is what is offered on the altar; but you are not so much sanctified from the sacrifices as you are defiled, because you dwell in valleys and are involved in dead works. These things are said according to history, although we shall draw an outline of the spiritual interpretation in them. However that may be, according to anagogy the ecclesiastical man who sacrificed the year-old spotless lamb and has been clothed with Christ, if he carries some of its flesh, and ties it to the skirt of his garment, and that skirt itself touches the bread of the Scriptures, which strengthens the hearts of believers; or the “cooking,” the apostolic letters, which they chop up as pieces of flesh of the old law, as it were, and boil it and offer it as savory food for eating; or the wine that gladdens the heart of man; ¹⁵⁷ or the oil, with which the face of the hearer is brightened; ¹⁵⁸ or any food : milk, by which the Corinthians are nourished, ¹⁵ and vegetables, which the weak eat, ¹ and other similar things; they shall not immediately eat these things as things sanctified, no matter what they have been given. For they sanctify the hearers not on the basis of what is said but on the basis of what is received, because there are many hearers of the law, but they are not doers. ¹ ¹

But I also think on this account that none of these things that I have said are sanctified are transferred from contact with a garment to those who eat them, because they are touched only by the skirt of the cloak, and sanctified flesh has not inwardly known fluid, blood, veins and nerves. Therefore, just as the skirt of the Lord’s garment and its light touch does not sanctify anyone but the one who has eaten the flesh of the lamb and has drunk its blood, ¹ ² so conversely, the man unclean in soul , that is, every perverse doctrine, no matter what it has touched, necessarily makes one unclean. For in their mysteries they have bread, and wine, and oil, and all food; but their mysteries are as the bread of sorrow, ¹ ³ all who touch them will be defiled. They themselves also read the Scriptures, and they sprinkle the bread, as it were, with testimonies from the Scriptures, and cook it all night long in the oven. But when it is given to eat, it provokes the eaters to madness. They have pottage and “cooking,” as they try to weave whatever mysteries from the Scriptures according to their perverted understanding, and to cook it, as it were, and to season the flesh of the lamb, but that “cooking” is destruction. They also have wine, but not from the vine of Sorec ¹ ⁴ and that which the Lord planted in Jeremiah, ¹ ⁵ a chosen and entirely true one, but of the vine of Sodom. ¹ They even have oil that they forcefully press out from the testimonies of the old and new Scripture, and they promise this to deceived and weary minds, as if in a dining room, but the holy one detests it and says: “But let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head.” ¹ ⁷ They have also diverse foods, namely, the multiple and diverse discussions of various ὑποθέσων , ¹ ⁸ which everyone who touches will be made unclean and will be drawn into their error, because those who wrote them are unclean, and they have been brought forth from an unclean surface. For this reason Haggai, who knows the distinctions between the solemnities, responded, and on account of that he was allotted the name of a feast. So [is] this people and so [is] this nation, namely that of the Jews as well as of the Gentiles, and of all the heretics in my sight, says the Lord. All that they do, all that they offer to me, either prayers for health, or peace offerings, or for sin, or for a transgression, or as a burnt offering, or alms, or fasts, or a continent way of life, and chastity of body, will be defiled in my sight. For although those things that are offered by such people may appear holy in appearance, nevertheless all will be defiled, because they have been touched by one who is defiled in soul.

2:16-18 And now place your hearts from this day and upward, before a stone was placed upon a stone in the temple of the Lord. When you came to a heap of twenty bushels, and they became ten, and you entered into the press to press out fifty jars, and they became twenty. I struck you with a burning wind, and with mildew and with hail, all the works of your hands, and there was none among you who returned to me, says the Lord.

Septuagint: “And now place upon your hearts from this day and upward, before a stone was placed upon a stone in the temple of the Lord, who you were when you sent into the corn bin twenty measures of barley and they became ten measures of barley; and you went into the press to draw out fifty pitchers and they became twenty. I struck you with barrenness, and with a corruption of the air, and with hail, all the works of your hands; and you have not returned to me, says the Lord.” Although all that you have offered to me on the altar has been defiled because you had not built the temple—for without the building up of the temple, every gift is polluted—nevertheless now I exhort you, o people, to turn back in your mind to the past and to consider what has been done, that is, even from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, ¹ to embrace with your mind whatever has been carried on formerly, and on account of which, how much you have endured, so that when hereafter prosperous things happen to you, you may know for what reason they have happened. Therefore, before you began to build the temple and to place a stone upon a stone , when you came to a heap , and you thought that you had twenty bushels , were you not able to collect scarcely half that amount? Or according to the Septuagint: “When you sent twenty bushels of barley” into the vessel, which is called a “corn bin” ( cypseles ), and you reckoned that you would be secure, although you sent in barley, the food of mules, even with regard to these twenty bushels, when you returned afterward to the vessel, did you not find hardly ten bushels? When you also came “to the press,” and you saw the grapes, and your eyes promised to you “fifty pitchers,” you were scarcely able to press out I do not say half but “twenty pitchers.” And I have done these things, striking you with a burning wind , and “with a corruption of the air,” and with dying crops, and with empty shells of grain stalks and grapes of vines. Thus did I call you forth to my notice by the weight of the evils; and thus there was none who returned to me .

A Hebrew explained the whole content of this passage, from that which is written, And now place your hearts from this day and upward, down to that passage where he says: “the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree has not flourished, from that day I will bless you,” ¹⁷ thus: Certainly now the foundations of the temple have been laid; therefore, from this day on which you have laid the foundations—when in the past, I punished you with “barrenness,” and famine, and “hail,” and drought, and there was no one among you who returned to me through these scourges— place your hearts in the future and the hereafter and see that everything will flow for you by a prosperous course. But this will happen because you have begun to build my temple; and do not despise the building of my house by trusting in the altar alone. According to this meaning, we can briefly say that some men offer gifts to God in vain and think that the Lord can be appeased with alms and oblations when they themselves have not built a temple for the Holy Spirit in themselves. ¹⁷¹ For alms are beneficial, and gifts that are offered on the altar at that time when a person has built himself into a temple of God and after the building of the temple offers gifts on the altar. On the other hand, according to tropology, it is said even to us who now believe in Jesus Christ, but only if we believe and show the truth of our faith by works, so that we return in mind to that time when we were Gentiles, when we were daily enslaved to vices, and had not built a temple to God in ourselves. But just as a builder and a most skilled stonecutter joins stone to stone and cements the lower one to the higher one with limestone and gypsum, so also the builder— whom the apostle says that he is, saying: “As a wise builder I have placed a foundation,” ¹⁷² and whom the Lord threatens to remove from Jerusalem ¹⁷³ —he knows how to join works to works, and little by little he builds the temple of God. But Jesus is placed as the foundation of this temple, upon whom each one may see what he should build. One builds gold, silver and precious stones; another wood, hay and straw. ¹⁷⁴ And to the three goods are opposed three contrary evils. These are the stones from which the Lord himself promises to build Jerusalem: “Behold, I will prepare for you carbuncle for your stone, and sapphire for your foundations, and I will place jasper for your ramparts, and your gates from crystal stone, and your wall from chosen stones.” ¹⁷⁵ For one must not think according to the Jewish fables and foolish fictions that God will be building Jerusalem with gold and gems and not with living stones, which now are rolled upon the earth, even according to the natures of stones; or they have been ignited by faith, as a carbuncle; or they are entirely heavenly, and changed into the throne of God, as sapphire; or harmless and shining with the simplicity

of good works, as crystal. It is being said to us, therefore, that we should consider what things we have suffered before we build a temple of God in ourselves. When you came to a heap of twenty bushels, he says, and they became ten; or according to the Septuagint: “When you sent into the corn bin twenty bushels of barley, and they became ten bushels of barley.” For whatever virtues and good works we seemed to have before Christ, it was not grain but “barley.” And this barley was not according to our hope and prayers, which we read concerning Isaac, that it produced a hundredfold crop; ¹⁷ but we were hardly able to find half of our labor from it, and it was said to us: “Have you suffered so many things in vain?” ¹⁷⁷ But even when we entered into the press, and we counted up fifty pitchers of wine—which number comprises the unity of divinity, once the seven weeks have been completed—and we thought we had the wine that makes glad the heart of man, ¹⁷⁸ the holy number of thirty was subtracted from us—in which the Lord is baptized, ¹⁷ and Ezekiel sees the vision at the introduction of his prophecy, ¹⁸ and, according to the Hebrew, priests approached to the ministry of God—and twenty were left behind. This is the number Esau loves, for which reason also Jacob, knowing that he took delight in this number, sends some animals as a gift by twenties. ¹⁸¹ And at the same time discern also that Jacob himself, although he is holy— nevertheless at that time in which he was not with his father Isaac, that is with laughter, ¹⁸² and with his mother Rebecca, that is with patience, but had Assyrians for neighbors, and dwelt in Mesopotamia, surrounded on both sides by rivers—served the very cruel and avaricious Laban for a period of twenty years. ¹⁸³ Nor should it disturb anybody if we say that some are able to gain half for themselves from their own labor before faith in Christ and the building of his temple, though among unbelievers there is no profit from good works. For he does not store up twenty and find twenty, but though he has stored up twenty he finds ten, that is, half of his labor. The Jews, heathens and philosophers of this world, and others who lay claim to wisdom, grasp both the glory and the fruit of their labor only in the present time of their lives, and all their hope and reward of a future age is taken away. Now the reason this happens is so that they may not completely despair and spurn repentance but be converted at some time to place a stone upon a stone and to build a temple of God. But if they continue in unbelief, they will lose that half that they seemed to have. ¹⁸⁴ For it follows: I struck you with a burning wind,

and with mildew and with hail, all the works of your hands . Now, whatever is struck with mildew and hail and a burning wind is reduced to dust and ashes, and nothing is found in it that pertains to usefulness and eating. The Lord has done all this, indeed, because he was not found in them who returned to him. But if they shall return and build a temple of the Lord, from the day in which they shall begin to build they will have what the word of the prophet attaches to this.

2:19-20 Place your hearts from that day and in the future, from the twentyfourth day of the ninth month, from the day on which the foundations of the temple of the Lord have been laid, place upon your heart. Is the seed as yet sprung up? And have the fig tree and the vine and the pomegranate, and the olive tree as yet flourished? From that day I will bless.

Septuagint: “Place your hearts from this day and in the future, from the twentyfourth of the ninth month, and from the day on which the foundations of the temple of the Lord have been laid, place in your hearts. If it will be known further upon the earth in the threshing floor, and if still the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate, and the olive trees which do not bear fruit? From this day I will bless.” I have explained to you, he says, what things you have endured before you began to build my temple; now I will explain what prosperous things will be coming to you because you have begun to build my temple. Therefore from the twentyfourth day of the ninth month in which the foundations of the temple have been laid, consider how great an abundance of things there will be. The ninth is the month we call November, or December. For among the Hebrews, Nisan is the first month, which is called the month of new things; it is at that time when they celebrate (faciunt) the Passover, that is, starting at the beginning of spring, which according to the course of the moon often occupies a portion of the month of March; sometimes it begins in April. Therefore, if we understand Nisan to be April, according to the reckoning of the Hebrews the ninth month will be December. Therefore the tenth month is at that time when the seed lies hidden in the earth and the future fruitfulness is not able to be imagined. Is the seed as yet sprung up? he says. This is expressed better in Hebrew, in the shell, so that it signifies the covering of the grain. Have the vine and the fig tree, and the

pomegranate and the olive tree given their flower, so that even the “fruit” should be understood from the flower? Certainly not; for in the month of December, as we have said, there are no signs of the future harvest. Therefore do not say that I am guessing this by a wise calculation and surmising the future fruitfulness of the flowers of trees and the herbs of grain fields; behold, there are no signs, and nevertheless I foretell to you the fruitfulness of all the crops because you have begun to build my temple for my blessing. We have said this according to the Hebrew. However that may be, the sense is quite different according to the Septuagint, which we ought to set forth first of all according to the letter, so that afterward the arrangement of the tropology that has been begun may be discussed. “Place your hearts from this day” on which the temple has been founded “in the future” and you will see that there will be grain fields of such size, and a harvest carried in from all the fields of such an extent, that the “threshing floor” would not recognize its crop, or that there would not be individual threshing floors, but in view of the amount, threshing floor would be joined to threshing floor, and any separation between the threshing floors would not be recognized “on the earth.” “The vine” also “and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree,” which formerly “did not produce fruit” from your vice because you had not yet begun to build a temple for me, shall be bent over with such a great abundance of grapes and apples that the evident fruitfulness will proclaim an evident blessing. Now both the fourth book of Kingdoms ¹⁸⁵ and the history of Jeremiah ¹⁸ narrate that the ninth month is not understood in a good sense. In it Jerusalem is said to have been besieged. Yet because “the foundations of the temple are laid” at the end of the ninth month, we are able to understand this, that one should not begin to build the temple of the Lord unless one’s evil works are terminated. For this reason also “on the twenty-fourth day” of the same month, the foundation of the temple is set in place, in which number there is a double δωδεκὰς (twelve), three ὀγδοάδες (eights) and four ἐξάδες (sixes), about which there has already been a very detailed discussion above. Therefore whoever has devoted himself to the worship of God and has despised ῥάθυμον, ¹⁸⁷ that is, the negligent patron, who in the book of Ezra according to the Septuagint interpreters forbids the building of the temple of God, ¹⁸⁸ that one does not know the measure of his harvest and of his recompense. Or certainly on account of what is said, “If it will be known further upon the earth in the threshing floor,” he who sows in the Spirit will also reap eternal life from the

Spirit, ¹⁸ he will not store up treasure for himself on earth, ¹ but all his works and the recompense of his works will be collected in the heavens. The “vine” too, that is, the word of God, of which the Father is the gardener in each one, ¹ ¹ and the “fig tree,” the sweetest gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the “pomegranate,” church teachings and the knowledge of the Scriptures, which is compared to the cheeks of the bride in the Song of Songs, ¹ ² and the “olive tree” will give refreshment and illumination ¹ ³ of the heart to him who begins to build the temple of God. But that the vine, fig tree and olive tree—for the moment I postpone the pomegranate—may be applied to the person of the Savior, and of God the Father and of the Holy Spirit, one reads this in more detail in the book of Judges; ¹ ⁴ where the unfruitful trees go to set up a king over themselves, and they speak in order to the vine, the fig tree and the olive tree to rule over them. The vine, the fig tree and the olive tree refuse such a command, and they do not deem themselves worthy to rule over the unfruitful trees. Then they come to the tree who is the king of their sterility, that is, to the thorny bramble bush, and the sapling entwined with thorns and hooks, which holds on to whatever it touches and injures what it fastens on to and delights in the blood of the wounded; and in addition it both emits fire from itself and devours the trees that it has ruled over. But we apply the bramble to the devil, and we will interpret that one’s nature according to the nature of a thicket. On the other hand, the vine and the fig tree and the olive tree will be there, where the pomegranate has been, which tree is always recorded in the Scriptures of the persona of the church. ¹ ⁵ This is because of the geometrical arrangement, as it were, of its interlocking membranes and indeed its diverse chambers that arise from an excessive multitude of grains, but nevertheless they are all held together firmly by one cortex.

2:21-24 And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month saying: Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will move heaven and earth together, and I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms, and I will crush the strength of the kingdom of the Gentiles; and I will overthrow the chariot and its rider; and the horses and their riders shall come down, the man by the sword of his brother. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, my servant, says the Lord, I will set you as a seal, because I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts.

In the Septuagint it is added “the sea and dry land” and leaves out I will crush the strength of the kingdom of the Gentiles. This will be known more fully by reading it. It ought to be noted, however, that on the same day, that is, on the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, having left unmentioned the number of the month, because it was prophesied with regard to the coming of Christ and with regard to his reign, the word of our Lord comes a second time to Haggai, not “by his hand” as before, ¹ and not “to Haggai the prophet,” ¹ ⁷ as in the fourth vision, but only to Haggai , that is, to the one celebrating the feasts of the Lord. For he announced and saw not the one who would come in the future but who had come. And just as Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced, ¹ ⁸ and John pointed out the Lamb of God with his finger, ¹ so too he saw the kingdom of the Son of God and held all the solemnities in himself. There are differences of opinions about this passage among very many. For some suppose that it is being said about his first coming, others about the second, when he will be in his majesty. We accept both, because he both reigned then when he came and he shall reign afterward. But yet if we want to understand it of the end of the world, we shall say what the apostle says to the Corinthians: Every principality and every power and virtue must be destroyed, “so that God may be all in all.” ² And because what is said is mystical and pertains to the end of things, therefore the prophet is ordered to speak to Zerubbabel only, whom we have shown had come forth from the seed of David as a type of Christ, on account of his assumption of a body. Things that will come at the end are said to him, therefore, because the form of this world is passing away ² ¹ and a new heaven and a new earth are coming, ² ² and the Lord shakes heaven and earth, and destroys every principality, and power, and virtue, and demolishes the seats of kings, or, as is found in the Hebrew, of kingdoms, and kills every hostile power, so that to those also who previously had reigned and kept the nations under their power a destruction of their kingdom may bring benefit, and when all zeal for waging war has been dissipated, peace may follow. For this is what he says: and I will overthrow the chariot, or “chariots,” and their riders; and the horses and their riders shall come down. And so that you may know that in the ruin of the chariots and of the falling horsemen that which we have said is being signified: See how it is said in Zechariah with regard to Christ

that a gentle king comes, and riding upon a yoked animal and young foal of an ass, and he destroys the chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, ² ³ so that there may be one flock and one shepherd. ² ⁴ And each herd, both from the Gentiles and from the Jews, is kept under the peaceful shepherd. But in order that those things that are perverse may be destroyed, each one with his sword — which I think is the very sharp word of teaching that cuts through every perverse thing ² ⁵ —will rise up against his brother , cutting off every thing that is opposed. But the end of all these things is the best. For after the destruction of the thrones and the power of those ruling, and of the chariots and of the horses and of the horsemen in that day, says the Lord almighty: I will take you, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, my servant . Now, servant is said on account of his human body, because at that time even the Son himself will be subjected to him who has subjected all things to himself. ² And among the “all things” that will have been subjected he himself will be seen as subjected. But when this will have been completed, God will place him as a seal in his hand: “For this one God the Father has sealed,” ² ⁷ and this is “the image of the invisible God,” ² ⁸ and the “form of his substance,” ² so that whoever believes in God is sealed by this one, as if by a ring. I entreat you, reader, to pardon the swift speech of my dictation. Do not look for the charm of eloquence, which I lost a long time ago when I undertook the study of the Hebrew language. Although Alecto ²¹ may always judge me to be an inarticulate mute, I will say to her: “The Lord will give the word with great power to those who preach the good news.” ²¹¹

COMMENTARY ON HABAKKUK

Translated and annotated by Thomas P. Scheck

The Preface of the Commentary on the Prophet Habakkuk to Chromatius ¹

In the first place, Chromatius, most learned of bishops, it befits us to know that the Greeks and the Latins read the prophet’s name in a corrupt form, as Ambacus. He is called Habakkuk by the Hebrews, which means “an embrace,” or as we may more meaningfully translate it into Greek, περίληψις, that is, “embracing.” Second, where the Septuagint ² translators and also Symmachus and Theodotion translated λῆμμα , that is, “assumption,” in Hebrew it is recorded as “burden,” which Aquila rendered as “weight.” We have discussed this word more fully in the prophet Nahum. ³ A “burden,” however, is never displayed in the title, unless, since what is seen is heavy and filled with weight and labor, for this reason it is necessary that the present prophecy too has some severity to it, so that just as in Nahum the weight of what was seen against Nineveh the city of the Assyrians was heavy, so too it should be sought in this one, for whom the weight would be that which is revealed to the sight of the prophet. Now in the book of the Twelve Prophets, three of four prophets have at the beginning the title λῆμμα, that is, “weight”: Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachi. ⁴ Furthermore, Zechariah records two titles of this kind in the middle and near the end. One of them says: “The burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrac, and for his rest in Damascus.” ⁵ The other is at the end: “The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel.” Concerning Nahum, a book has already been published through your prayers. I will discuss this in connection with Zechariah and Malachi if life continues to be my companion. Now we have Habakkuk in our hands. He is called “embracing,” either due to the fact that he is beloved of the Lord or his name was allotted to him because he engages God in battle and struggle and, so to speak, in the embrace of the one embracing, that is, struggling. For no one has dared with so bold a voice to challenge God to a debate about justice and to say to him: Why is such great iniquity involved in the realities of human affairs and in the πολιτείᾳ ⁷ of the world? “Shall I cry out to you suffering violence, and you shall not save?” ⁸ “Why have you shown me iniquity and to see labor?” “The law is torn in

pieces, and judgment has not reached its end, because the wicked prevail against the just; therefore a perverse judgment goes out.” ¹ Do you see that he has a rash voice and in a certain way it belongs to one who is blaspheming, in a way calling out his Creator unto judgment? The fragile vessel is disputing against the potter as to why this thing or that has been done. ¹¹ And indeed the following also must be noticed, that the “assumption” or “weight,” which we just said is heavy, is the “vision” of the prophet, and he understands what he sees. This contradicts the perverse teaching of Montanus. ¹² He does not speak while out of his mind, nor does he utter a sound apart from his mental faculties like Montanus’s crazy females. Whence also the apostle commands that if there is a revelation to someone while other people are prophesying, they who previously were speaking should be quiet. ¹³ And immediately he says: “For he is not a God of dissension, but of peace.” ¹⁴ From this it is understood that when one keeps silent willingly and gives an opportunity to another to speak, he is able both to speak and to be silent when he likes. The one, however, who is in a state of ecstasy, that is, who is speaking unwillingly, does not have it within his own control either to be quiet or to speak. Learn this too—seeing that you are once and for all exacting from me by violence a historical interpretation for you who are, as it were, trying to take certain steps and to climb up a flight of stairs to the heights —that the prophecy is directed against Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of the Chaldeans. Thus just as the former prophet Nahum, whom Habakkuk follows, had a prophecy against Nineveh and the Assyrians, who destroyed the ten tribes, which were called Israel, so Habakkuk has a prophecy against Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, by whom Judah, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. And that you may know when Habakkuk lived, Daniel will be able to teach you. It was already at the time when the two tribes that were called Judah had been led into captivity. Habakkuk is sent to him in the lions’ den with a meal. ¹⁵ It is true that this story is not read among the Hebrews. Therefore either someone receives that Scripture or he does not receive it; both are in our favor: for either he receives it, and the book of Habakkuk is now being composed after that happened, or he does not receive it, and he is writing as a prophet about those things he knows are to come.

Book One

1:2-3 How long, O Lord, shall I cry and you will not hear? Will I shout out to you suffering violence, and you will not save? Why have you shown me iniquity and grief, to see plunder and injustice against me?

Septuagint: “How long, o Lord, will I cry and you will not hear? Will I shout out to you suffering violence, and you will not save? Why have you shown me labors and griefs, to see misery and wickedness?” For the time being, according to the letter, the prophet is pleading against God over why Nebuchadnezzar is wrecking the temple and Judah. Why is Jerusalem, once the city of the Lord, being destroyed? Why do the people cry out and are not heard? Why do they shout out to the Lord when oppressed by the Chaldeans and are not saved? Why has even the prophet himself, or the people in whose name he now speaks, lived to see this? Why has he been led to this point of seeing the iniquity of his enemies and his own “labor”? Why is injustice prevailing against him? And he says this because of the anguish of his mind, unaware that gold is refined by fire and that the three youths came forth from the furnace purer than when they entered. ¹ But also we can understand this generally, that in the name of human impatience, when the prophet sees sinners abounding and possessing wealth in the world, that their sons are as a new plant in its youth and their daughters are adorned like the temple, their storerooms are full overflowing from this into that, their sheep are fruitful and multiplying in their ways, and the other things that are written of more fully in the one hundred forty-third Psalm, ¹⁷ he erupts in words of a complaint that is full of grief . Why do you behold despisers, and why are you silent while the wicked tramples upon one more just than himself? ¹⁸ And why do you make men as fish of the sea, and as the creeping things having no leader? ¹ We also read something like this in the seventy-second Psalm, “But my feet were almost moved, my steps had well-nigh slipped,” ² and the rest. And again in the same psalm, “And if there is knowledge on high. For behold sinners and those abounding in the world have obtained riches,” and the rest up to “my hands.” ²¹ But these things are said by those who do not know the

unsearchable judgments of God and the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge, ²² because God does not see as man sees. ²³ Man only looks at the present; God knows the future and eternity. And just as, if a sick man who is burning with a fever were to ask for ice-cold water, and say to the doctor, I am suffering violence , I am tormented, I am burning up, I am exhausted; how long, o doctor, will I cry out, and you will not hear? And the very wise and merciful doctor were to answer him: “I know when I need to give what you ask; I am not showing mercy now, because that kind of mercy is cruelty, and your will is asking for things that are contrary to your own interests.” Thus also the Lord our God knows the balance and measure of his own mercy; sometimes he does not hear the one crying out to him, in order to test him and provoke him to ask all the more and to make him more just and more pure as one who has been roasted in a fire. The apostle understands this in accordance with the fact that he has attained mercy from the Lord. ²⁴ He says, “Let us not grow faint in tribulations,” ²⁵ and he blesses God at all times, ² and he knows that “he who perseveres to the end shall be saved.” ²⁷ And he boasts in labor and in grief . ²⁸ And with Jeremiah he says: “I shall call upon tribulation and misery.” ² Thus just as one man calls upon God, so the holy man and undefeated warrior desires to come into tribulation and misery in order to train himself and be put to the test.

1:3c And judgment was made but the opposition was more powerful.

1:4 Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment does not come to the end, because the wicked prevails against the just, therefore perverse judgment goes forth.

Septuagint: “Against me judgment was made, and the judge accepts; on account of this the law is torn in pieces, and judgment does not come to the end, because the wicked prevails against the just, therefore perverse judgment goes forth.” The prophet, or the people, are still speaking to the Lord, because judgment has been made against them not by means of truth but by power, and they have not

endured anything on the basis of the law and justice. Whence also the judgment itself will not have its own end. But the end of judgment is to judge justly. And in what follows he shows why he dares to speak when he says, For the wicked Nebuchadnezzar has prevailed against the just Judah, ³ and this is the reason, that he said that judgment has not come to the end, because it is wicked and perverse, that Josiah a just king is killed by the Egyptian king, ³¹ that Daniel, Ananias, Mishael and Azarias are enslaved; ³² and that a Babylonian commander is in control, and that Balthasar drinks from the vessels of God in the midst of his mistresses and concubines. ³³ These are the things the prophet is saying about the state of his own times—for we are following this because you once wished for the triviality of history. ³⁴ However that may be, according to the Septuagint it is a common complaint of saints to God: Why is an unjust judgment being made against them? Why do they pour out the blood of the innocent during persecutions? And what is more, if at some time they stand before a tribunal in a secular court, why does the judge receive bribes, condemn the innocent and exonerate the guilty? That certainly can be said not only concerning judges of the world but sometimes also about leaders of the churches. On account of bribes they “tear the law to pieces,” and “the judgment does not come to the end,” and “the wicked prevails against the just,” and in a judgment the sin of the rich man is defended more than the truth of the poor man. Whence there is the complaint that a “perverse judgment goes forth.” But we should not be disturbed by this inequality of things, seeing that even at the beginning of the world the just Abel was killed by the wicked Cain. ³⁵ And later while Jacob was rejoicing, Esau ruled in the house of his father, ³ and the Egyptians afflict the sons of Israel with mud and brick, ³⁷ and the Lord, against whom this complaint is now directed, is crucified by the Jews, and the thief Barabbas is chosen. ³⁸ The day shall fail me, if I should wish to enumerate how the just are oppressed in this world while the wicked prevail.

1:5 Look among the nations and see, and wonder, and be amazed, that a work has been done in your days, that no one will believe when it will be told.

Septuagint: “See the despisers, and behold, and wonder at the wonderful things and you will be scattered, because I am working a work in your days, that you

will not believe, if anyone will have told [you].” In place of what we expressed as that a work has been done in your days, Symmachus has translated “that a work will be done in your days.” He translated the rest similarly. On the other hand, at the beginning of the section, where in Hebrew it is written re’u baggoyim, and we translated as Look among the nations, and the Septuagint recorded “See the despisers,” with the exception of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, who agree with our translation, I have found in some other ἀνωνύμη ³ version “You will see the contrivers,” and in another version that is similarly lacking an authorial designation “You will see those who turn away.” Therefore the voice of the Lord is brought in to respond to the above complaints of the pleading prophet, who says: “How long, o Lord, will I cry out and you will not hear?” ⁴ and the rest all the way to the end of this opening speech. He observes that this wickedness, which [Habakkuk] thinks is being done only in Israel, is among the nations. It is not as the prophet thought, that only Judah and Jerusalem were handed over to the Chaldeans, but all the surrounding nations, and only he will prevail, and afterward he will be ruined, so that if anyone has proclaimed what is coming it would seem incredible in view of the magnitude of the thing. But also what the Septuagint and the other translators published as “See the despisers,” or “you will see contrivers and those who turn away,” this agrees with the meaning of this passage, and from this very word their impudence and contempt against the Lord is rebuked. It is in their name that the prophet had cried out, why had they dared to despise the majesty of God and to speak rashly, and to the extent that it is in them to criticize the providence of God, and to turn away from the Lord those who equally accuse him of injustice? Therefore “you will see despisers,” and then you will be amazed, and you will reckon your every complaint as nothing, when you see what I am doing in your days, lest perhaps you should say: How does the future pertain to us? A work that will be so great, and will put down your every accusation, so that if someone would now proclaim that it is coming, you would not easily put faith in him. But what this work is is shown in the following passage.

1:6-11 For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, walking upon the breadth of the earth, to possess tabernacles that are not their own. He is dreadful and terrible, from himself shall his judgment and his

burden proceed. His horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread abroad; for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall fly as an eagle that makes haste to eat. They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind; and he shall gather the captivity as the sand. And he shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock; and he shall laugh at every stronghold, and shall cast up a mound, and shall take it. Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass through, and fall; this is his strength of his god.

Septuagint: “For, behold, I shall raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation that walks upon the breadth of the earth, to possess tabernacles that are not their own. He is terrible and famous; his judgment shall be of himself, and his assumption shall come out of himself. And his horses shall bound beyond leopards, and they shall be swifter than the wolves of Arabia, and his horsemen shall ride forth and shall come with force from far; and they shall fly as an eagle eager to eat. Consummation shall come on ungodly men, resisting with their adverse front, and he shall gather the captivity as the sand. And he shall take delight in kings, and princes are his toys, and he shall mock at every stronghold, and shall cast up a mound and take possession of it. Then shall he change his spirit, and he shall pass through, and make an atonement, [saying], This strength [belongs] to my god.” What I had said to you, “Look among the nations and see, and wonder and be astonished, for a work will be done in your days which no one will believe when it shall be told,” ⁴¹ this is what the words that follow are describing: Behold, I will raise up Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans , a most aggressive and swift nation . Nearly all the Greeks who have written barbarian histories are witnesses of their [the Chaldeans’] strength and courage in making war. This nation is not content with its own borders, but they travel here and there and wander about upon the breadth of the earth . And this is their work, not to work the earth with the plough but to live by conquest and the sword and to possess cities that are not their own. Before they bring their hand into play, before they break forth to war, they bear terror on their face. But as for what he says, from himself shall his judgment and his burden proceed, which Symmachus translated “They shall judge for themselves and by their own decree will it go forth,” either it should be understood like this: From their own nation he will set up princes, and their power and the sword of other nations will not have servants; or certainly just as

he did it, it will be done to him; and just as it brought devastation, so it will be devastated. The horses too and the horsemen who will come from afar, so destructive in their pursuit, shall plunder everything so that they would surpass leopards and evening wolves. Indeed wolves are said to be fiercer when night approaches and when they are driven to madness by hunger that lasts all day long. Therefore the horsemen will fly not to fight, since no one will resist, but to rush about like an eagle to which all things lie exposed among the birds as it hastens to devour. And just as all green things dry up before a breeze of burning wind, so at their sight all things will be destroyed, and there will be such a great number of the captives and of prey that hyperbolically it could equal even the sand. Also he, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, will rule over the whole world, and, triumphing over kings before his chariot, he will hold them up as a laughingstock and he will consider them among his delights, and he will possess such power and pride that he would strive to overcome nature and to capture the most fortified cities by the strength of his army. For he will come to Tyre and, having cast a mound of earth into the sea, he will turn the island into a peninsula, and the mainland will provide the entrance into the city between the waves of the sea. For this reason he will both laugh at every stronghold and he will cast up a mound and shall capture it, that is, the stronghold, or Tyre, which certainly is shown clearly in Ezekiel, where it is said: “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon subjected his own army to a great work against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled and wages were not given to him nor to his army against Tyre; and for the work in which he served against it.” ⁴² But when he casts up the mound and nothing stands in the way of his strength, then his spirit will be changed into pride, and convinced that he is God, he shall erect a golden image in Babylon, which he will compel all nations to adore. ⁴³ When he does that, he will pass into the figure of a beast, ⁴⁴ and then he will fall , which Aquila and Symmachus translated as καὶ πλημμελήσει , that is, “and he will offend,” ⁴⁵ since Holy Scripture has this custom, that it records the vessel, ⁴ that is, “he shall offend,” for that which is, he will cease to be what he had been. We also have an idiom like this in our language when we say “the army was beaten” for what is really: it was killed and slaughtered; and “the vineyard and the field sinned” for what is really: the grapes and the crop produced no harvest. But that which is said in the end of the section, this is his strength of his god , must be read ironically, so that the meaning is this: this is his strength , which Bel his god gave him, to whose worship he was compelling all nations by a most savage command even through writing and the threat of death. ⁴⁷ This is all said

according to the Hebrew. Now, let us come to the Septuagint, so that when each of the thoughts has been laid out we may apply an allegorical interpretation. “Behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation that walks upon the breadth of the earth to possess tabernacles that are not their own.” God threatens his despiser and those who slander his providence that he will “raise up the Chaldeans,” who are understood to be demons; ⁴⁸ or he means the bad angels who are at the service of his fury, wrath and tribulation, which he inflicts upon sinners; or he means the souls of very bad men, through which he tortures those who deserve it. But these “Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation,” do not spare and quickly fulfill what was commanded to them. And it “walks upon the breadth of the earth”—“for broad and spacious is the way that leads to death” ⁴ —on which also that rich man in the Gospel walked who was decked out in purple, ⁵ and those of whom it is said: “Those who sleep on beds of ivory and those who abound in delights upon their couches. Those who eat the suckling calves of the herd and drink pure wine and are anointed with the finest perfumes.” ⁵¹ Because they walk on the broad way they are called the “breadth of the earth,” which is imprinted by the footprints of the Chaldeans. For they did not want to walk on the narrow and difficult way that leads to life, ⁵² and upon which Paul walked, glorying in his tribulations and difficulties. ⁵³ But the Chaldeans walk upon the breadth of the earth “to possess tabernacles that are not their own.” For although every rational soul has made a guest room for the Chaldeans through its own vice and fault, nevertheless by nature it is a tabernacle of God. And although in the Gospel a very wicked demon says, “I shall go into my house whence I went out,” ⁵⁴ he must not be believed; for certainly no rational creature was made for this, to be the dwelling place of a demon. It follows: “He is terrible and famous; his judgment shall be of himself, and his assumption shall come out of himself.” The Chaldean is “terrible” because of the many and various punishments that it inflicts on the despisers; “famous” because he assumes to himself the glory of divinity. And through his oracles and false answers, and by healings of diseases, which he himself had inflicted, he seems “famous” among the inexperienced and the despisers of God. For “there will be a judgment” of the despiser and a punishment “of himself,” that is, “out of himself,” or out of the Chaldean. For according to the apostle they will be handed over to punishment to learn not to blaspheme. ⁵⁵ The one who repents and is converted back to God will “come out” from him, since he was previously held by his hands and was the “assumption” of the Chaldean. If we have ever

seen anyone who has served the devil for much time and afterward is converted to God, let us say of him: “And his assumption went forth from him.” For whoever repents and forsakes the demons to which they previously offered their backs to sit upon like horses, and with the speed of leopards and evening wolves they cast off and rid themselves of their riders, and with an unencumbered and light back they came to the point of carrying him who is gentle and poor, mounted on the colt of a donkey, ⁵ they, like those hurrying “from afar,” and not content with a march and “with force,” they will take flight, and they will come “as an eagle to eat” the flesh of the word of God and to satisfy the hunger that had lasted so long a time. For in what is expressed as Καὶ ἐξιππάζονται οἰ ἱππεῖς αὐτοῦ and we translated as “And his horsemen will be ridden,” according to the meaning which we recorded above, it was translated by Symmachus as “His horsemen will be poured out,” that is, they will fall and be struck down to the ground. But the “wolves of Arabia,” that is, those rightly called wolves of the evening and of the west, by means of which their evil manner of life lay dead, and those earlier established in darkness abandon the evening on the double, which when they leave it, and “fly eager to eat” the flesh of the word of God, then “consummation shall come on ungodly men,” that is, on the Chaldeans, who “resisted” the faces of the repentant to keep them from turning back to their Lord. For this reason “consummation will come on ungodly men,” who “resist” their faces “with an adverse front.” But when they will have been brought to consummation and “the captivity” has been snatched from their hands, then the divine word will gather together as the “sand” of the Chaldean captivity, and it will “take delight in kings,” and “princes” will be his “toys,” when he sees that the once most powerful devil and his kingdom—which he showed to the Savior and said, “All these I will give to you, if you fall down and worship me” ⁵⁷ —has been destroyed by his coming. For they are the delight of prudence and the pleasure of wisdom, since folly is destroyed, and the power of former “princes” has been overcome and cast down. He is turned into a laughingstock. For it is not the dragon alone who was formed to be regarded by the Lord as a plaything, who is the beginning of his creation, having been made a plaything for the angels; ⁵⁸ nor will God give that one alone as a sparrow to a small child; ⁵ but if anyone else is cruel and of a tyrannical mind, he will be handed over to the word of God to be mocked. And he himself says: “He will mock at every stronghold.” But what other stronghold is there but that one of which the apostle speaks: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty unto God for

the destruction of strongholds, destroying thoughts and every height raising itself against the knowledge of God.” If therefore there are things that, either in words that promise that they have height and magnitude, as strongholds against truth, or in all glory and riches and strength, which is praised in the world, everything will be destroyed, and the word of God will “mock at every fortress.” And he will “cast up a mound and take possession of it” by means of the mound and the earthly things that he brings forth. He will expose its weakness in those things in which it seemed before to have some strength. But when this is fulfilled, then his “spirit” will be converted, and he will not punish as he had punished before, but, “passing through” sinners, he will ask on their behalf and he will reconcile them to their former Lord. This applies to all in whom “the strength of our God” is shown, which accomplished such great things. You perceive how jagged the passages are and contrary to the truth of history. And just as we interpreted these things according to the letter about the Chaldeans, now according to tropology they seem to mean the mercy and freedom of those who have escaped from the hands of the Chaldeans. The history is constrained, and it does not have the ability to move about. Tropology is free and is circumscribed only by the law that it should pursue a pious interpretation and the context of the words, and in the subject matter it should not be too forced by joining together things that are opposed.

1:12 [Are] you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my Holy One? And we shall not die? Lord, have you appointed him for judgment, and made him strong for correction?

Septuagint: “[Are] you not from the beginning, o Lord God, my Holy One? And we shall not die? O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment; and he has formed me to chasten with his instruction.” Symmachus is clearer: “[Are] you not from the beginning, o Lord my God, my holy one, so that we may not die? O Lord, you have appointed him for judging, you have established that one as strong to correct.” To the complaint of the prophet who says, “How long, o Lord, shall I cry, and you will not hear?” ¹ God had responded, saying: “Behold among the nations and see.” ² And after his preface he had added: “Behold, I will raise up the

Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation.” ³ And when the entire description was completed, at the end he recalls either concerning Nebuchadnezzar or concerning the devil: “Then his spirit will be changed, and he will pass through and fall; this is his strength of his God.” ⁴ When the prophet hears and understands this, that the reason Nebuchadnezzar received power against Judah, or the devil against believers, is to correct them, and after correction he too would be punished in the end, he responds to the Lord: “Are you not, then, o Lord my God, my holy one?” Now he says this with the disposition of one who is flattering and penitent. “Are you not the one who created us from the beginning?” And is it not by his mercy that we have been sustained thus far? For I did not know that our enemies were capable of so much, nor was I aware that Nebuchadnezzar had received power over all nations, or the devil over this world. Therefore, as far as concerns his strength, none of us are able to resist him. But with regard to your mercy, our whole life is yours, because we have not been killed by him and led to the works of death. For you, o Lord, have appointed him to judge , so that he is an enemy and an avenger, and so that through him you may correct whoever has sinned against you. But because we once interpreted the Chaldeans as demons, and Nebuchadnezzar as their king the devil, we ought to touch briefly on the portrayal of the devil and his power, so that the prophet would say justly: “O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment, and made him strong so that you may correct.” A “nation” of demons is “raised up” against the unbelievers and the “despisers.” ⁵ It is “bitter” in its punishment and present everywhere. It travels everywhere about the “breadth of the earth to possess” men in whom Christ should have dwelled. It is a “dreadful and terrible nation” ⁷ and can be overcome by someone with difficulty. It is only broken when a soul weighed down by the magnitude of its sins and by the burden of its wickedness reaches the consummation. His horses and horsemen, like leopards and wolves, will always thirst for blood and will desire prey. ⁸ They will pretend to be away, but when they are not expected they will quickly come from afar. They will fly as an eagle, ⁷ which rises up in its flight and wishes to place its nest among the stars of heaven, ⁷¹ and it always hastens after prey. ⁷² And the devil is described in Ezekiel under the figure of Nebuchadnezzar and of the Egyptian king. ⁷³ There is no demon who spares, they all come in haste to the prey; before their face is a burning wind, ⁷⁴ whatever they look at, whatever their face meets, they will desire to burn and destroy. But the most powerful king will be in the midst of the captives, and he will receive from his minions on this side and that a number of them as the sand of the sea, ⁷⁵ and he will triumph over kings and shall have

princes for a laughingstock. ⁷ For he will deceive many saints with his treachery, and those who seemed to themselves most powerful and to exercise tyrannical rule against the demons and to cast them out of possessed bodies, he will subject them to his servitude and will regard as a laughingstock. ⁷⁷ But he that is strongest, with a forced hand, gathered into an army of the lost, will laugh at every stronghold, ⁷⁸ and he strives to destroy whatever is strong. For he will build up a mound, ⁷ that is, he will encircle the earthly works, and when earth has been piled up, he will easily seize every stronghold. ⁸ But after such a great victory his spirit will be changed and his mouth shall pass through all the way to heaven, ⁸¹ and, making himself a god, he will begin to blaspheme his own Creator. When he does that, he will fall, ⁸² and his ruin will show forth how strong his divinity was, and the pretense of idols under whose images he was subjecting men to his own worship. When the prophet hears these things, therefore, that the king of this world is like this and has such greatness that he gathers a captivity as the sand of the sea, ⁸³ and triumphs over kings; ⁸⁴ and princes are his laughingstock, and he laughs at every stronghold, ⁸⁵ and first builds up a mound and afterwards takes it; ⁸ and is of such great pride that he dares to resist against his Creator, and makes himself like a god, ⁸⁷ the one who previously spoke boldly to the Lord, and he recalled that he himself was just, or his people, or those in whose name he was complaining; now he bursts forth in the words of flattery and says: “Are you not then from the beginning, my Lord God, my holy one?” And it is of your mercy that we do not die, that we are not captured by such an enemy. For you, o Lord, have established him as an executioner, and you have made him strong, so that either no one or rarely can anyone resist his strength. On the other hand, what is said at the end according to the Septuagint, “And he formed me to chasten with his instruction,” can be referred to the persona of the prophet, so that the meaning is: “But I on account of this was inspired as a prophet to chasten the transgressors and to teach the instruction of the Lord.” Some think this is said concerning the Lord, who was “formed” by the Father and assumed a body in order that the “instruction” of God the Father would educate men. But how this is discordant from the context of the things above and from the content of the whole passage will be left not so much to my judgment as to that of the reader.

1:13-14 Your eyes are [too] pure to see evil and you cannot look upon iniquity. Why do you not look upon those who do unjust things, and why are you silent while the wicked devours one more just than himself? And will you make men as the fish of the sea, and as the creeping thing that has no ruler?

Septuagint: “[His] eye is [too] pure to see evils, and you cannot look at grief. Why do you look on despisers? Will you be silent when the ungodly swallows up one more just than himself? And will you make men as the fish of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no guide?” Jeremiah also says something like this to God: “You are just, o Lord, I confess; nevertheless I will speak judgments to you: Why is it that the way of the wicked prospers; they all abound who transgress and go astray? You have planted them and they have taken root, they have begotten sons and produced fruit; you are near to their mouth and far from their reins.” ⁸⁸ Therefore Habakkuk speaks also with the same thought: “Your eyes are pure, o Lord,” he says, and I know that you do not look gladly on the evil and the unjust, nor can anyone doubt concerning your justice. Nevertheless, why do you allow the Babylonians to boast over such cruelty, and just Israel to be oppressed by the wicked Nebuchadnezzar? It is not that the one who is being oppressed is perfectly just, but that he is more just than the one oppressing him. And just as fish who do not have a ruler, and irrational beasts, and a multitude of creeping things without providence, lie subject to the stronger, and whichever prevails more in strength dominates over the other, so among men, a rational animal, and made in your likeness, ⁸ reason shall not prevail, nor merits, but strength of body and irrational power. But if we wish to understand this generally about providence, since the prophet asks: Why does the devil alone prevail in the world, and while God is the Lord, another exercises rule? the meaning will be of this sort, and this explanation will be joined with the things above: “I know, o Lord my God, my holy one, that while you foresee and defend, we do not die. And I know that the reason you appointed the adversary to be as an executioner was to correct and not kill sinners. ¹ I know that nothing unjust is pleasing to you, and your eyes are pure of all iniquity, and you cannot see the griefs of those who are subject to injustice. Nevertheless, I cannot discover the reason why the unjust Cain should kill the just Abel, and you are silent? ² Why not only smaller fishes but also your Jonah

is swallowed by a savage whale that devours all things? ³ Why does the wicked man conquer, and the just man is conquered? I do not say this because I know that anyone is justified in your sight, and is without sin, ⁴ and because I am ignorant of human frailty; but just as Sodom and Gomorrah are just in comparison with Jerusalem, ⁵ and the publican in the Gospel becomes more just by comparison with the Pharisee, so also this one who is oppressed by the devil is certainly a sinner, but he is more just than the one oppressing him. Why then is there neither measure nor weight, ⁷ so that if the just is once oppressed and subjected, he should be subjected not to the wicked but to one who is more just than himself? Shall I say that anything happens without you, and that the wicked man can only do things contrary to your willing it? To think this is blasphemy. And so, since 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 attested above, but because he is expressing human impatience under his own persona; just as frequently, we see the apostle adopting for himself the various thoughts of men, and at one time he says: “But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive to the law of sin, which is in my members.” ⁸ And as if he were a beginner he says: “Brethren, I do not consider that I have comprehended,” and “We know in part, and we prophesy in part.” ¹ And again as if he is perfect he says: “Therefore, as many of us as are perfect, let us think this way.” ¹ ¹ For surely it is not one and the same thing to say that he knows in part and that he is perfect. And lest perhaps you should think that what he says to the Corinthians pertains not to apostolic usage but to our argument: “But brethren I have transformed these things to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us”; ¹ ² otherwise how can God have men in this way, as the fish of the sea and as creeping things having no ruler , since everyone’s angels daily “see the face of the Father who is in heaven,” ¹ ³ and “the angel of the Lord encamps around those that fear him and delivers them” ¹ ⁴ ? Therefore the providence of God accompanies each one, just as among men likewise, so indeed we can understand among the other animals a general governance and ordering and running of affairs. For example, there is the way in which a school of fish is born and lives in the water, the way creeping things and four-legged animals appear on the land, and by what foods they are nourished. However that may be, it is absurd to reduce the majesty of God to this, that he knows at any given moment how many

gnats are being born, and how many are dying, what is the number of bugs, fleas and flies on the earth, how many fish are swimming in the water, and which of the lesser ones ought to yield as prey of the greater. Let us not be such fatuous flatterers of God that we drag his power down to the lowest things while harming ourselves by saying that his providential governance of rational creatures is the same as that of those without reason. Therefore the apocryphal book must be condemned as foolish nonsense in which it is written that a certain angel by the name of Tyre ¹ ⁵ is in charge of creeping things, and what is analogous with this, that individual angels have been assigned to stand guard over the fish too and the trees, and all the beasts.

1:15-17 He lifted up all them with a hook, he drew them in his dragnet, and gathered them into his net; for this he will be glad and rejoice. Therefore will he offer victims to his dragnet, and he will sacrifice to his net; because in them his portion is made fat, and his food choice. For this cause therefore he spreads his dragnet, and will not cease continually to slay the nations.

Septuagint: “He has lifted up a consummation with a hook, and drawn one with his net, and caught another in his dragnets. On account of this he will rejoice and be glad. Therefore will he offer victims to his dragnet, and burn [incense] to his net, because in them he has made his portion fat, and his meals choice. For this cause he spreads his net, and will not cease continually to slay the nations.” Since he had spoken of fishes above, when he said, “And you shall make men as the fish of the sea, and as the creeping things,” ¹ which is expressed more meaningfully in the Hebrew as remes , that is, κινούμενον , namely, everything that is capable of moving, therefore in what remains he preserves the metaphor of fish. Thus, just as a fisherman casts a hook, a net and a dragnet, so that the net may catch what the hook couldn’t, and what escapes the net may be enclosed by the larger dragnets, so too the Babylonian king will destroy everything and make the whole human race his prey. ¹ ⁷ Moreover, what it says, He will be glad and will rejoice and shall offer victims to his dragnet and shall sacrifice to his net , signifies the idol that he made in the plain of Dura, and the image of Bel to whom he offered the fattest victims as to a great dragnet, when he forced all the nations that he had conquered to worship him. ¹ ⁸ For in them , that is, in his own

idols, he believed that he was made fat and that he had his portion , that is, all his riches. He has subjugated to his rule both rulers and kings like great fish, which he calls his “choice meals.” And since he was once filled with the most opulent fish, and he filled his dragnet, that is, his army, on account of this he does not cease to slaughter the nations , that is, continuously to fight and slay. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, the wicked devil—the one who oppresses the just, and has men as the fish of the sea, and devastates all things as creeping things that have no leader ¹ —sent his own “hook” against him with a hook, by which through the apostle Peter the first fish was captured in whose mouth was found a stater. ¹¹ And Adam stuck to his hook, and he dragged him out of paradise with his net, and he covered him with his dragnets by various and multiple lies and deceptions. Therefore “he will be glad” and will think that his snares are greater than the Lord’s command. And “he will offer victims” not to the hook—which is understood as perverse speech and still established at the beginning—but “to his net,” because he catches his fattest sacrifices in it. And “through one man many were established as sinners.” ¹¹¹ And in Adam we all died, and after that all the saints were equally cast out of paradise with him. ¹¹² Whence also his foods are “choice,” so that according the psalmist he “seeks his meal from God,” ¹¹³ since he wants to overthrow the prophets and the apostles. And since he deceived the first man, “he does not cease” daily “to slaughter” the whole human race. But it can also be understood of the perverse and varied doctrine of the heretics that they capture very many fish both by their hook, net and dragnets, and they capture many creeping things, and on that account “they rejoice,” and their speech, by which they were able to deceive and persuade, as if they are adoring God and worshiping him, they despoil him; they are completely enslaved to every artifice, through whom they know that so many victims have been slain by themselves, and so many of the powerful and of the holy have been deceived, whom the Scripture now names “fat portion and choice meals.” On account of this in the likeness of beasts that always thirst for blood once they have tasted it, they “spread their net,” and this is their whole pursuit, to “slay” not just a few, as in the beginning, but very many. He does not doubt concerning the “slaughter of many nations” who sees that such a great multitude of heresies and perverse doctrines has been captured by the devil’s hook, net and dragnets, and yet the outcome of their capture is destruction.

2:1 I will stand upon my watch, and fix my step upon the tower, and I will watch to see what is said to me, and what I may answer to him that reproves me.

Septuagint: “I will stand upon my watch, and mount upon the rock, and I will watch to see what he says in me, and what I may answer to my correction.” Symmachus has followed this more clearly: “I will stand as a guard upon a watchtower, and I will stand as one enclosed, and I will watch to see what is said to me, and what I may answer and speak in opposition to the one reproving me.” In Hebrew matsur is recorded for tower and “rock,” which Symmachus translated as “enclosure.” Theodotion translated it as “circle,” Aquila and the Fifth Version as “compass.” To the first accusation the Lord had responded: “Look among the nations and see, and wonder and be astonished.” ¹¹⁴ To which the prophet, as one doing penance for the earlier statement, tempered the question, to be sure, when he said: “O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die.” ¹¹⁵ But nonetheless he asked the same thing with reverence and praises of God: “Your eyes are [too] pure to see evil, and you do not know how to look upon iniquity. Why do you not look upon evildoers, and why are you silent, while the wicked one devours one more just than himself?” ¹¹ And he has pursued in sections what the devouring of the just consisted in, that men were as fish of the sea, and as creeping things; ¹¹⁷ and that all were dragged to destruction with his hook, dragnet and net; ¹¹⁸ and that there was no end of their slaughter. ¹¹ And so, because he is a prophet, and on account of this he asks and says that he doubts that what was answered to him should be answered to all, he says: “I will stand on my watchtower,” that is, on the height of my prophecy, and I will look beyond the captivity of the people and the destruction of the city and the temple, and what follows from there. 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, I will be fenced in as by a wall, lest the roaring lion be able to tear me apart. ¹² And I will see what God may answer to me after the second question, and what I also ought to answer him after he answers me and corrects me, because I have complained badly. But elegantly and with a wonderful sensibility he is describing human impatience, which we have always been accustomed to have in debates, so that we are prepared to respond before the person answers from the other side and before we know what he is reproving in us. ¹²¹ From this it is shown that the

answer is not based on reason but on contention. For if it were based on reason, it would be necessary to wait for the answer, to see whether one needs to respond that way, or to agree with the reasonable answer. But the following also should be noted based on what he had said: “to see what he says in me,” that the prophetic vision and speech of God is not made exteriorly to the prophets but interiorly to answer in the inner man. And this is why Zechariah says: “And the angel who spoke in me.” ¹²² And in the Psalms: “I will listen to what the Lord says in me.” ¹²³

2:2-4 And the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision (visum) and make it plain upon tablets, that he that reads it may run over it. For as yet the vision (visus) is far off, and it shall appear at the end, and shall not lie; if it makes any delay, wait for it, for coming it shall come, and it shall not tarry. Behold, he that is unbelieving, his soul shall not be right in himself. But the just shall live by his own faith.

Septuagint: “And the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision (visionem), and [that] plainly on a writing tablet, that he that reads it may pursue. For the vision (visio) [is] yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain. If it fails, hold on for him; for coming he will come, and will not tarry. If he should draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But the just shall live by my faith.” For tablets and “writing tablet,” which is expressed in Hebrew as hallukot, Symmachus translated “pages.” And where the Septuagint recorded “But the just shall live by my faith,” all translated univocally shall live by his own faith. Finally, Symmachus translates more meaningfully when he says, “But the just shall live through his own proper faith,” which is expressed in Greek as ὁ δίκαιος τῇ ἑαυτοῦ πίστει ζήτει, for be’emunato, which means “in his own faith.” If it would have had the letter yod and not vav at the end, as the Seventy thought, and was read as be’emunati, then they would have translated it correctly “in my faith.” But now the cause of their error was the similarity of the letters vav and yod, which differ only in size. The discussion that follows summarizes why this has been said.

In accordance with the promise that is made to the holy man in Isaiah, which says, “And while you are still speaking, I will say, Behold I am here,” ¹²⁴ now too the Lord answered the prophet and commanded that he write the “vision” and arrange it on tablets , that is, write it more clearly. But I think that these tablets are those of which the apostle speaks to the Corinthians: “You are our epistle, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all men; openly manifest, that you are an epistle of Christ, the result of our ministry, and written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart.” ¹²⁵ But also Solomon signifies something like this in Proverbs when he says: “Write it out on the breadth of your heart.” ¹² But he is bidden to write it more plainly, so that the reader can run, and with nothing hindering his speed, let him also be held fast by the desire to read. And he commands this because the “vision” is still far off and “for an” appointed “time.” And when the end of things arrives, then also shall he come, and the prophecy will be proven true when the work has been accomplished. ¹²⁷ But if perchance in light of your eagerness, o reader, and your burning desire to see the “vision,” he shall seem to you to delay a little in fulfilling what has been promised, do not lose hope that it shall come but wait patiently, for you have me, the one who is promising this to you, and I say: “Coming, it will come, and it will not be late.” But if anyone is unbelieving concerning this promise of mine, and though I say, “Coming, it will come and it will not be late,” he begins to waver and to struggle silently within himself, thinking that what is delayed for a time will not come, he will displease my soul, in accordance with this: “My soul hates your new moons and Sabbaths.” ¹²⁸ But we ought to understand what God has called his soul as his mind and thought, so that it is understood to mean: it will be displeasing to my mind. But just as he will be displeasing who doubts that what I promise and guarantee will come, so the just who believes in my promise will live in his own faith . And with this outline of this section, as it were, a picture has been painted. But as for what he says, it is of this nature, at least insofar as we may also intermingle the Septuagint translation. “Write” on your heart, and as little children who are receiving the first elements of letters, they learn the curved tips and the trembling hand on a “writing tablet,” and they are accustomed to write correctly by means of practice; so you also who spoke from the persona of a people who were in doubt, write what I say on the tablets of your heart and on the “writing tablet” of your breast. For it is a “vision” that is promised, and it is commanded to be described and to be written more clearly. Thus let it not be wrapped up in a cloud and obscured by the

ambiguities of any enigmas; let manifest hope have a manifest guarantee. But I command this, o prophet, not because you do not know—for you would not be a prophet, if you were ignorant—but in order that a reader may be able to read and run over without obstacle or difficulty what you write more clearly. The Septuagint translated this as Ὅπως διώκῃ ὁ ἀναγινώσκων, that is, in order that he who reads may pursue. It is said according to that meaning that is written to Timothy: “Pursue justice, piety, faith, love, patience, meekness.” ¹² And to the Romans: “Pursue hospitality.” ¹³ And to the Corinthians: “Pursue charity.” ¹³¹ But this very “vision” of which I said to you, “Write the vision and make it clear on a writing tablet, so that one who reads can pursue it,” is “yet for” the appointed “time,” concerning which the Savior says: “I heard you at the acceptable time, and on the day of salvation I helped you.” ¹³² And it will “shoot forth” 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,” ¹³³ and “not in vain” shall it come ; for he will save many, and with the rest of the Israelite people he will gather a multitude of the nations. But if it drags on for a little bit, and “the vision” begins to come later than your prayers, o reader, you who are bidden to read on the “writing tablet,” and on tablets , which the prophet wrote on, wait for it , for coming, it will come , and it will not be late . But if your faith gives in to doubt, and you think that what I promise is not going to happen, you will have for a great punishment the fact that you will be “displeasing to my soul.” But the just who believes my words and does not doubt concerning those things that I promise, he shall have everlasting life as his reward. And you should not immediately raise the accusation that there is acceptance of persons with me either in respect to killing you or to giving that one life, for he who lives from his own faith is the cause of his own vivification, just as you were displeasing to my soul based on the fact that you drew yourself back and were unwilling to believe. But clearly in these things there is a prophecy concerning the coming of Christ. And this is why the proposed question is solved, that until he comes, wickedness will predominate in the world, and judgment will not reach an end, and the true Nebuchadnezzar seizes in his net and dragnet men like little fish, and the rational animal like a creeping thing not having a ruler. ¹³⁴ Moreover, what we translated instead of “vision” (visionem): For the vision (visus) is still far off and if it delays, wait for it, that is, the vision (visum), let no one think I was deceived by a mistake in recording visum, which is of the masculine gender and is less used in Latin, instead of visio, which is of the feminine gender. For indeed hazon, which Aquila translates as ὁραματισμὸν, is expressed among the Hebrews as visus in the masculine gender, and it is

preserved in a masculine declension all the way to the end under the same gender of visio, that is, of visus. But the Septuagint says, “Write down the visio,” and afterward, “If it fails, hold on for him, for coming, he will come, and he will not be late; if he draws himself out, my soul will not be pleased with him.” At first they translated visio in the feminine gender, which is masculine among the Hebrews, as we said. And then, in accordance with Hebrew gender, where it is declined in the masculine, they declined in the masculine gender: “wait for him and my soul will not be pleased with him.” Since assuredly, in keeping with the way they translated it at first, as visio, they should have recorded likewise in the rest as visio, in the feminine gender, so that they should have said, “Wait for her, for coming, she will come; but if she draws herself out, my soul will not be pleased with her,” that is, in the visio. We have said these things lest we should appear to be silent about things we were aware of. However that may be, I am not unaware of the fact that it can also be received in a way that agrees with their translation, as follows: “Write down the visio” in which Christ is promised, and for your prophecy, compose this speech either “on a writing tablet” or on tablets, or, as Symmachus translated it, “on pages,” that at the appointed time and at the consummation of the world, my Son is coming, who shall save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, ¹³⁵ and other sheep also he will join with the old sheep, ¹³ and by making the flock one he will join the two rods that Ezekiel, that is, the power of God, ¹³⁷ holds in his prophetic hand that cohere and are joined to each other. ¹³⁸ But if Christ draws himself out for a little while and he seems to be late, o prophet, or o people, from whose persona even my prophet has appeared to doubt, wait for him; for coming, he will come, and he will not be late, and the rest that we already explained above. On the other hand, there is an obvious reason why when writing to the Romans the apostle has preferred to use the testimony of the Septuagint, “But the just man shall live from my faith,” ¹³ and not that which is found in the Hebrew. For he was writing to the Romans, who were not familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures; and he was not concerned about the wording, since the meaning was intact, and the disputation that was under way would not thereby have incurred a loss. In other situations, whenever there is a diversity of meaning, and one thing is written in Hebrew, and something else in the Septuagint, take note that he uses those testimonies that he had learned from Gamaliel, a doctor of the law. ¹⁴

2:5-8 And as wine deceives the one drinking it, so shall the proud man be, and he shall not be honored; who has enlarged his desire (animam) like hell, and is himself like death, and he is not satisfied. But he will gather together unto him all nations, and heap together unto him all peoples. Shall not all these take up a parable over him, and a dark speech concerning him, and it shall be said: Woe to him that multiplies that which is not his own? How long also does he load himself with thick clay? Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and be stirred up that shall tear you to pieces, and you shall be a plunder to them? Because you have spoiled many nations, all that shall be left of the peoples shall spoil you because of man’s blood, and for the iniquity of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

Septuagint: “But the arrogant man and the scorner, the proud man, shall not lead through to the end; who has enlarged his desire (animam) as hell and is himself like death, he is not satisfied. And he will gather to himself all the nations and will receive to himself all the peoples. Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a proverb to tell against him? And they shall say, Woe to him that multiplies to himself the things that are not his! How long does he heavily load his collar? For suddenly there shall rise up those that bite him, and they that plot against you shall awake, and you shall be a plunder to them. Because you have despoiled many nations, all the peoples that are left shall 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 have been promised concerning the coming of Christ, or as it pleases some, concerning the “end” of the vision, ¹⁴¹ and concerning the completion of the help of God, that he who believes that it will come shall live from this faith; ¹⁴² but the one who is incredulous shall displease the soul of the Lord, ¹⁴³ Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king will be deceived by his own pride . And just as wine works against the one drinking , and after the man gets up, neither his feet nor his mind function properly, and all gladness and the exhilaration of his mind is turned into ruin, so shall the proud man not be honored , nor “shall he lead” his own will “to the end,” and, according to Symmachus, οὐκ εὐπορήσει ; ¹⁴⁴ that is, he will be in need of all things. Like death and hell he is not satiated with killing, and while subjecting all nations and all peoples to his rule, he has not thought of an end to his avarice.

Is it not the case that when he becomes inebriated by the cup of the Lord and lulled to sleep by the undiluted chalice, all will speak about him using a comparison, a πρόβλημα? Woe to him who devastates the whole world and is not satiated with his plunder and does not cease to despoil those who are already naked. He is so cruel that he devours, and he weighs himself down with the burden of iniquity and of prey, as with the heaviest collar. And at the same time, consider how elegantly he has called riches that have been multiplied thick clay. Will not the Medes and the Persians rise up suddenly to destroy the empire of the Babylonians, at first to bite at it and afterward to tear it to pieces? And Nebuchadnezzar becomes spoil to them, and the destroyer of the whole world is despoiled by the remaining peoples, who were able to escape his hand and his cruelty. But this will happen to him because of man’s blood, that is, Judah’s, and because of the iniquity of the land, namely, of Israel, and of the city, doubtless referring to Jerusalem and all those dwelling in it, meaning the people generally. Let us also discuss the Septuagint. All that we said concerning Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar can be applied to this world and to the devil, who is truly “arrogant” and “proud,” and though, believing that he is something, “shall not lead” anything “through to the end.” For indeed, all his effort and endeavor will end in destruction, who in the likeness of “hell and of death” is not satiated with killing, and he rejoices in the deception of “all nations” and “gathers peoples to himself.” When they see him sent into the abyss ¹⁴⁵ and handed over to Tartarus, ¹⁴ things that they had read in the prophets in parables and αἰνιγματωδῶς , ¹⁴⁷ on seeing that they have been accomplished and interpreting them of him, with one voice they will recall: “Woe to” the devil, “who multiplied to himself what was not his own.” “Woe to” the partridge, who has “gathered together” those things that he did not give birth to. ¹⁴⁸ “How long?” This is either the voice of those rebuking or of those pointing to the Day of Judgment. And he “loads down his collar” with an infinite weight. And nicely it says that the “collar” is very heavy, since he is arrogant and proud, and pride is shown uniquely in the outstretching and straightening of the neck. Thus he bends what had been straight. And this shall come to pass because suddenly “they will arise who bite him,” either the angels with whom the devil will be handed over to punishment, ¹⁴ or those who had been tempted by him but afterward repented; and having been turned back to the banners of Christ, they shall bite him, according to that which is said elsewhere: “Your men of peace have laid snares ( insidias ) for you.” ¹⁵ After all, it follows: “And your traitors ( insidiators ) shall awake,” that is, those whom you previously had lulled to sleep, those whom you had made drunk, you will be subject to the snares of those who destroy your kingdom and of those who bring

back to the squadrons of Christ those who had been captives. For you plundered many nations, and you have spoiled the Jewish people of their adornment and clothing that I had given to them. Therefore all the remaining peoples, who did not subject their neck to your empire, will spoil you and make you naked. For you also have killed many nations, and you have shed their “blood.” But also the “impiety of the land,” that is, the Jewish land and the city of Jerusalem, and “of all its inhabitants,” they who spoke against their own Creator, “Crucify him, crucify him; his blood be upon us and upon our children,” ¹⁵¹ will be returned on your head, and they will be the source of your despoiling. But this very thing can also be interpreted concerning the antichrist, who will be so arrogant and proud that he will sit in the temple of God, making himself God. ¹⁵² And like hell and death he shall slaughter and gather to himself so many that if it were possible he would deceive even the elect of God. ¹⁵³ He will also gather together all nations to himself, in order that he might lead all peoples into his error. After they see that one slain by the spirit of the mouth of Christ, ¹⁵⁴ they will understand that what was previously predicted concerning him was true, and they will say all that follows, with the same understanding with which we explained concerning the devil. But as for what he says, “all the remaining peoples will despoil you on account of the blood of men and the wickedness of the land, and of the city and of all dwelling in it,” we should understand the remaining peoples as the saints, who did not serve the antichrist. The wicked one will be despoiled by them on account of the iniquity that he practiced upon the whole earth, and the devastation of the city of the church, and the persecution of all who have dwelt in her. For so great will be the destruction and so great the wickedness at the end of things, when the antichrist wreaks havoc, he will rage in the churches, and having multiplied the iniquity of many, charity will grow so cold ¹⁵⁵ that the Lord, who knows the secrets of the heart, and is not ignorant of what is to come, will say: “Do you think that the Son of man, when he comes, will find faith upon the earth?” ¹⁵ We can also say in accordance with John the apostle, who writes, “As you heard that the antichrist will come, but now there are many antichrists; therefore also we know that this is the last hour,” ¹⁵⁷ that all heretics are arrogant and proud, as is every perverse dogma of those who lay claim to knowledge for themselves and look down on the simplicity of the church. They “shall not lead anything through to the end” but take delight in the deaths of many; they adjust the entire content of this section to their understanding, who truly “multiply to themselves things that are not their own,” “gathering” them to themselves, and, as it were,

the heaviest clay and most burdensome “collar,” by which they are dragged to punishments, they “spoil many nations” and “shed the blood of men,” and they practice “wickedness” against the church and all her “inhabitants.” But the “remaining people,” namely, churchmen who will not be deceived by their error, shall suddenly “rise up,” and they shall awake as from a heavy slumber, and they shall “bite them,” and shall ensnare them and have them for “plunder.” 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 concerning the riches that expand the limits of their possessions, and those things that are not man’s, they reckon them to men and gather them to themselves. Suddenly these things will leave them. But even the Lord shows that what is not “man’s,” that is, of a rational animal, are earthly possessions, when he says: “If you have not been faithful with the things of another, who will give you what is yours?” ¹⁵⁸ And they have discussed the whole text of the section under this persona. But I do not know whether they can preserve the arrangement of the prophet’s questions and answers.

2:9-11 Woe to him that gathers together an evil covetousness to his house, that his nest may be on high, and thinks he may be delivered out of the hand of evil. You have devised confusion to your house, you have cut off many peoples, and your soul has sinned. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the timber that is between the joints of the building shall answer.

Septuagint: “Oh, to him that multiplies an evil covetousness to his house that he may set his nest on high, and be delivered from the hand of evils. You have devised confusion to your house, you have consumed many peoples, and your soul has sinned. Because of this the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beetle shall speak these things out of the timber.” The words are still being addressed to the one who is heaping up evils and a multitude of riches to himself. He does not understand that this is the cause of the ruin of his house. And likewise he is convicted of pride by means of a metaphor, that in imitation of birds he has “set his nest on high” and has thought that he is “delivered from the hand of evil,” that is, that he would never come

into the power of the enemy. This counsel of pride and arrogant devising has a shameful end. You have slaughtered many peoples and in the killing of others you have raged against your soul, and you have raved with such great cruelty that, if it can be said, the stones of the city and the timber of the walls that you toppled cry out your ferocity. The Lord in the Gospel also says something similar to this against the Pharisees who were scolding him for not rebuking 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.” ¹⁵ He says: “Have you not read that it is written: Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise? And if these are silent the stones will cry out.” ¹ For although very many think that it needs to be understood in the following way, that if the Jews are silent, the multitude of the Gentiles will confess me; nevertheless the more obvious and truer understanding is this: even if men are silent and the one who is jealous of the multitude of my signs does not speak with his tongue, nevertheless these stones and the foundations of the walls and the structure of the walls would echo forth my greatness. To make this clearer, we should record examples from secular literature as well. Crispus ¹ ¹ says in his histories: “The residents of Saguntum, ¹ ² famous beyond mortals for their faithfulness and labors, though their devotion was greater than their resources—for among them even then, the half-demolished walls, the roofless houses, and the burned-down walls of the temples displayed the Carthaginian handiwork.” ¹ ³ And Tully ¹ ⁴ says something similar to Caesar in Pro Marcello : “I swear, the very walls of this Senate-house appear to me eager to return thanks to you; because, in a short time, you will have restored their ancient authority to this venerable abode of themselves and of their ancestors.” ¹ ⁵ Further, what we translated as and the timber that is between the joints of the building shall answer, which the Septuagint recorded as “and the beetle shall speak these things out of the timber,” Symmachus translated more clearly in his fashion καὶ συνδεσμὸς οἰκοδομῆς ζύλινος ἀποφθέγξεται αὐτὰ, that is “and the wooden joints of the building shall speak these things.” Theodotion too has καὶ συνδεσμὸς ζύλον φθέγξεται αὐτὰ, and besides the Fifth Version has καὶ συνδεσμὸς ζύλον φθέγξεται αὐτὰ. These translations agree with mine and Symmachus’s. For what is expressed in Hebrew as kaphis signifies the timber that is set into the midst of a structure to hold the walls together. Among the Greeks it is commonly called ἱμάντωσις. This, then, is what the prophet’s words are signifying according to history; the stones of the walls and their burned-up

timber, since they have been demolished by you, shall resound your cruelty. I have found that apart from the five versions— namely, those of Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint, Theodotion and the fifth—there are two other versions of the Twelve Prophets, in one of which it is written: “For the stone shall cry out of the wall as a worm speaking in the timber.” ¹ And in the other version it says: “For the stone shall shout out of the wall and a σκώληξ shall say these things out of the timber.” But even Aquila has recorded something different from what we said, καὶ μάζα , that is, “and a lump of wood will answer.” What these translations mean we shall say in our exposition of the Seventy translators, where “O” is recorded for Woe , and the words are directed to the devil or antichrist, or to the heretics who “multiply an evil covetousness” for themselves. Now an “evil covetousness” is spoken of in distinction from a good one. Thus there can be a good kind of covetousness, namely, that of a teacher of the church who is never satisfied with the number of his adherents, and to the extent that he has more disciples, so much the more is he stirred up with an enthusiasm for doctrine. Woe, therefore, to him who “multiplies an evil covetousness” for himself, in order to gather together perverse little groups “to his house” and to “set his nest on high” so that he may be “delivered from the hand of evils.” For the devil, the antichrist and the heretics promise those who receive their doctrine that they will possess the kingdom of heaven in the heavenlies and that they will not experience the fires of hell. And though they promise these things, their counsel will not be able to come to perfection; but it will be a counsel of “confusion” and of shame on their “house” when the outcome of events shows that the things that had been promised are false, when it will be proven that the counsel was one of confusion, not salvation. That teacher of perversity, as we have said, has “consumed many peoples,” and to the extent that he had more in his company, so much the more did he transgress against his own “soul.” After all, “the stones” of his church, and the κάνθαρος, ¹ ⁷ that is, the “beetle,” shall “cry out of the timber” against the covetousness of the proud, because he deceived all nations by his persuasion. We can understand the “stones” as the insensitive hearts of the believers in the doctrines of the heretics, and the “beetle from the timber” as all perverse teachers who take up the preaching of the cross for the sake of base gain and speak thus from their belly ( utero ). For their belly ( venter ) is god, and they do everything for the sake of food, who are driven into the dung pile—for the beetle or cantharus is a dung worm. ¹ ⁸ And they take up the cross for this purpose only, to teach with a viper’s mouth the covetousness and pride of their teacher the devil. If you ever see some heretic speaking

recondite and hidden mysteries against the church and preferring the devil’s house to Christ’s house, say: “A stone is crying out from the wall, and a beetle ( cantharus ) is speaking from the timber.” I have read in someone’s book that the reason the cantharus is understood for heretics is that they have doctrines that deserve to be compared with dung. ¹ And this is why the apostle says that he regards the error of his old teaching as scybala , that is, dung. ¹⁷ It is not that the old law is reckoned as dung in comparison with the gospel. That is what the Manichaeans think, and it is impious to say such a thing, since both covenants come from one God. It is rather that the doctrines of the Pharisees and the precepts of men and the Deuterosis ¹⁷¹ of the Jews are called dung by the apostle. I know that one of the brothers interpreted the “stone that cries out of the wall” as the Lord and Savior, and the “beetle speaking out of the timber” as the thief who blasphemed the Lord. ¹⁷² Although this can be understood in a pious way, yet how it can be applied to the prophetic context as a whole escapes me. ¹⁷³ There are some who think that the “cantharus speaking out of the timber” can be referred also to the person of the Savior. That appears to be impious based on the very arrangement of the words. For “a beetle (cantharus) shall speak things out of the timber” is not understood in a good sense, but only evil; that is, it will speak of the evil covetousness of the one who multiplies over against his own house, and the confusion of the devil, and the other things that have proceeded from his iniquity and crime. But as for what Aquila says, “and a lump of wood will answer,” we refer the lump to that sense which the Lord recorded in the Gospel: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” ¹⁷⁴ When the apostles were in doubt about this and were unable to know what it meant, ¹⁷⁵ the Evangelist interpreted it and said: “But he had spoken to them about the teaching of the Pharisees.” ¹⁷ Rightly, therefore, the teaching of the heretics “speaks out of timber”; for they are unable to convince in any other way but to prefer the glory of their timber to its perversity. And certainly, with respect to what we had said as “ For the stone shall cry out of the wall, as a worm speaking in timber,” or “the stone shall shout from the wall, and the σκώληξ shall speak these things from the timber,” some of our own people say that the worm speaking in the timber is that one who says in the psalm: “But I am a worm and not a man.” ¹⁷⁷ But they refer the vocal bird to the same person, who says, “I became like a lonely sparrow on a bed” ¹⁷⁸ and other things similar to these.

2:12-14 Woe to him that builds a town (civitatem) with blood, and prepares a city (urbem) by iniquity. Are not these things from the Lord of hosts? For the peoples shall labor in a great fire, and the nations in vain, and they shall faint. For the earth shall be filled, that they may know the glory of the Lord, as waters covering the sea.

Septuagint: “Woe to him that builds a town with blood and prepares a city by iniquities. Are not these things from the Lord Almighty? And many peoples have fainted in the fire, and many nations have been in anguish. For the earth shall be filled, that it may know with the glory of the Lord, as water for the covering of the seas.” There is no doubt that according to the letter the prophet’s words are still speaking against Nebuchadnezzar, and he is bewailing him because he builds Babylon with blood and constructs its walls by the ruin and deaths of many. Since he does this to the city, which he had constructed with blood, he hears the things that the Lord will inflict later on. For it follows: Are not these things from the Lord of hosts? That is, the things that are being said: the peoples shall labor in a great fire, and the nations in vain. That is, when Babylon has been burned, the peoples shall labor in vain and shall strive for nothing, and the peoples of the Chaldaic nation shall faint. For the earth shall be filled, that it may know the glory of the Lord; that is, when Babylon is overthrown, the potency of God’s power will be clear to everyone, like waters covering the sea, so the entire earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord, as waters cover the bed and bottom of the sea. We have said these things according to the letter. In addition, it is clear that the devil, the antichrist and the perverse doctrine of the heretics build a town with blood, namely, their church in the destruction of those whom they have deceived; and they “prepare a city by iniquities,” as they speak iniquity against God and set their mouth on high. ¹⁷ Since they are doing this, it is shown clearly that they are “building a town” for themselves “with blood and preparing it by iniquities.” For it follows: “Are not these things from the Lord Almighty?” That is, a building like that is not from the Lord Sabaoth, which the Septuagint now has translated “Almighty.” For “many peoples will faint,” and although countless “nations” are led into their error, nevertheless either they shall be “exhausted,” which is the preferable meaning of ὠλιγοψύχησαν , or certainly they shall be hemmed in by anguish, and they were

not able to compare to the multitude of the church. For when these have “fainted in the fire”—which it is perceived to mean either consumed by the fire of the devil, their leader, or certainly burned in the fire of the Lord, of which he says, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it would burn,” ¹⁸ and having withdrawn from their previous course and doing penance, and abandoning the journey they had begun, which is what ὀλιγοψυχία means, the whole “earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord,” when their sound goes forth into the whole world ¹⁸¹ at the preaching of the apostles, “like waters covering the sea”; that is, as the devil rains down from above, the waters of the Lord would cover all the salty brackishness and the bitterness of the world, which the earth had drunk in, and they would bring it about that the place of the sea and of the former bitterness does not appear. And this is why it is said in the psalm: “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.” ¹⁸² But it is possible—although this does not fit with the arrangement of the reading, nor does it satisfy the present text of Scripture—that it be understood also of Jerusalem, a “city” full of the “blood” of the prophets, ¹⁸³ of which the Scripture relates that the blood of the saints overflowed in it from gate to gate. ¹⁸⁴ And which says at the passion of the Lord: “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” ¹⁸⁵ And to which God says in Isaiah: “When you lift up your hands to me, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood.” ¹⁸ This city was constructed “by iniquities” in which justice was asleep, according to the same prophet. ¹⁸⁷ Nor is its construction “from the Lord Sabbaoth.” And this is why “many peoples have fainted in the fire, and many nations have been exhausted” at the time when it was surrounded by the armies of Vespasian and Titus, and those who came on the solemn day of the Passover were shut in the city as in a prison, and they “fainted” from hunger and need, and the siege of Hadrian brought about their final ruin. When “the town of blood” and the “city of iniquities” was overthrown, and the “peoples” were consumed by fire, and the nations that had come to help them were scattered here and there and dropped their weary hands, “the whole earth was filled with the glory” of Christ, and the entire world was “covered” both with his words and teaching even “as with waters.”

2:15-17 Woe to him that gives drink to his friend, and presents his gall, and makes him drunk, that he may look upon his nakedness. You are filled with shame instead of glory; drink you also, and fall fast asleep. The cup of the right hand of the Lord shall compass you, and shameful vomiting shall be on

your glory. For the iniquity of Libanus shall cover you, and the ravaging of beasts shall terrify them, because of the blood of men, and the iniquity of the land, and of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

Septuagint: “Woe to him that gives his neighbor to drink from the troubled upsetting [of wine] and makes him drunk, that he may look upon their dens. Drink you also [your] fill of disgrace from glory, and shake. The cup of the right hand of the Lord has compassed you, and dishonor has been gathered upon your glory. For the ungodliness of Libanus shall cover you, and the misery because of wild beasts shall dismay you, because of the blood of men, and the impieties of the land and city, and of all that dwell in it.” For “troubled upsetting,” Symmachus translated Καὶ ἀφιὼν ἀκρίως τὸν θυμὸν ἑαυτοῦ—that is, “and sending forth his fury without judgment.” Theodotion says, Ἀπὸ χύσεώς σου, which means “from your outpouring.” The Fifth Version has Ἐξ ἀπροσκοκήτου ἀνατροπῆς τῆς ὀργῆς σου, which means: “from the unexpected upsetting of your wrath. Aquila says, Ἐξ ἐπιτρίψεως χολού σου, which we can translate as “from the sending out of your fury.” I have found in another version Ὀυαὶ τῷ ποτίζοντι τὸν ἐταῖρον αὐτοῦ ἀέλλην πετομένην, which means this in our language: “Woe to him who offers a flying whirlwind as a drink to his friend.” Moreover, elsewhere I have read the translation “Woe to him who gives ἔκστασιν ὁχλουμένην,” that is, “troubled insanity” as a drink to his neighbor. In this way, therefore, the extent of the discordant variety among all the versions can be known as they translated the Hebrew word maspeh, which the Septuagint rendered “upsetting.” Therefore the invective is still against Nebuchadnezzar, that forgetful of his own condition and ignorant, as it were, that he is a human being, he gives gall and bitterness as a drink to another man. We can understand this to mean that he made him drunk with evils, either the king of Judea, or all men universally, so that he saw the nakedness of Zedekiah and of all the captives. ¹⁸⁸ Symmachus and the Fifth Version translated this as “to look upon their disgrace.” Now, these things are being said using the metaphor of a drunken man and of one disgraced by nakedness, that Nebuchadnezzar will make everyone drunk by the cup of his fury and look on all the despoiled captives, and those who were once glorious will be reduced to final servitude. For this is what he says: He is filled with shame instead of glory , so that friend should be supplied in thought, and

“neighbor” or partner in the kingdom who drinks your cup, o Nebuchadnezzar. Since you have made very many drunk, this is why you also are to drink from the cup of the Lord and fall fast asleep . You shall be compassed by the punishments of the Lord’s right hand , and when you discharged with your shameful vomiting everything that you had swallowed, you will be brought down from your sublime glory to ultimate evils. For the iniquity of Libanus shall cover you , your pride, he says, and the overthrow of the temple, and the plundering of the sanctuary shall wreck and destroy you. And since he had once named the mountain Libanus, under the same metaphor of victims and sacrifices, or at least of a multitude of peoples who were killed in Jerusalem, he compares it to animals and wild beasts, saying and the ravaging of beasts shall overwhelm you. But you will experience all this because you devastated Judah, you destroyed the Promised Land and the city of Jerusalem and all its inhabitants. I have heard a certain Hebrew from Lidda, who was called wise among them and a deuterotes, telling the following story: Zedekiah, he said, was blinded by King Nebuchadnezzar in Reblatha—that is, in Antioch— having been mocked in various ways, and was led to Babylon. ¹⁸ When on a certain day Nebuchadnezzar was celebrating at a festive banquet, he commanded that he [Zedekiah] be given a drink. When he had drained it, the belly of the drinker acquitted itself into a flowing stream, and suddenly what had been introduced in the presence of the faces of the feasters was compelled by the force of the belly to be defiled with dung. He said that this is what the Scripture here is now saying: Woe to him that gives drink to his friend, and presents his gall, and makes him drunk, that he may look upon his nakedness and shame instead of glory ; namely, because he who had been the most powerful king was brought down through it to such a degree of disgrace. And this is why God threatens him that even he will drink a potion of this sort and will suffer everything that Zedekiah suffered. You understand how ridiculous this story is, even if I were to keep silent. For if they do not understand what follows about the cup but about the evils that Nebuchadnezzar will drink, namely: Drink you also, and fall fast asleep, and the cup of the right hand of the Lord shall compass you, and shameful vomiting [shall be] on your glory; then that cup too that he gave Zedekiah to drink must be understood as evils, not as they think it means, as a καθαρτικὸν. ¹ But if they say this truly happened, and a drink of this sort was concocted, as I have related above, therefore also the cup that Nebuchadnezzar will drink should be thought to be filled with καθαρτικῶ [sic], so that the God Sabaoth and Lord Almighty gives Nebuchadnezzar a καθαρτικὸν as a great act of vengeance, and he causes him to be defiled by his own dung. We have said

this against the Jewish tradition. But let us come to the spiritual understanding. Woe to you, o devil, or antichrist, or perverted teaching of heretics, who by means of your doctrines and “troubled” drink make drunk the peoples whom you have the deceived, having upset their former faith, presenting them a drink not from Siloah, not from the Jordan, not from the springs of Israel, but from the torrent of Kidron and from the river of Egypt, of which Jeremiah says: “What do you share with the ways of Egypt that you should drink the water of Gihon?” ¹ ¹ In Hebrew this is written as shikhor , that is, “troubled” and muddy, for although the rivers of Egypt are believed to proceed from the paradise of the Scriptures, nevertheless since they are trampled by the feet of Pharaoh they have lost their splendor. They have been harmed by Egyptian mud and have been turned into torrents. When a saint escapes from them he gives thanks and says: “Our soul has crossed the torrent.” ¹ ² But if someone offers as an objection the torrent of Korath, from which Elijah drinks, ¹ ³ and another torrent, from which the Lord drinks on the way ¹ ⁴ —for this is what is written: “He will drink from the torrent on the way” ¹ ⁵ —the following 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, nevertheless it is necessary for him to drink from the temptations of Egypt and of the desert. And this is why the Word of the Lord had assumed flesh on this account, to drink from the torrent; considering his own majesty, he said: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” ¹ On the other hand, when he saw that he was in Egypt and that the waters could not be cleansed unless he were to drink them, he said: “Yet not as I will but as you will.” ¹ ⁷ Let these things be said, therefore, since the devil “makes drunk his neighbors,” that is, the rational animal, with his upsetting and with his “troubled” cup and with all his perverse doctrines. And he makes those whom he has deceived “look upon their dens.” For the doctrines of the church are free; they rejoice in the day and in the light. “But those who get drunk, get drunk at night”; ¹ ⁸ and those who get them drunk lead them not into the courts of the Lord, which no shade from rooftops covers, but into the “dens” ( speluncas ). For they made his Father’s house, which was a house of prayer, “a den ( speluncas ) of thieves.” ¹ They promise certain kinds of initiation rites and mysteries and recondite secrets known only to the heretics, of which Isaiah also speaks: “And they shall hide all [things] made with hands, having carried [them] into dens ( speluncas ), and into the clefts of the rocks, and into the caverns of the earth.” ² Let us therefore not enter into the “dens” ( speluncas ) of the heretics, nor let us lie hidden there, where the wicked Saul was accustomed to discharge the excrement of his doctrines; ² ¹ but let us ascend instead to the den on high of Mount Zion, where both Elijah saw the Lord

² ² and previously Moses viewed his back parts. ² ³ And Isaiah, crying out of the Lord, says: “He will dwell here in lofty dens.” ² ⁴ But if someone does not have a “troubled” cup and heretical doctrine and is a teacher of the church, and does everything for the sake of base gain and sells doves in the temple, that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and strangles free birds on the seats of priests, he does not even make the house of prayer a den of thieves but he makes the Father’s house a house of merchandise. ² ⁵ After this it follows, “Drink you also [your] fill of disgrace for ² glory, and shake,” that is, o devil, o perverse doctrine, o heretic, you who thought that you were a golden cup, from which all nations are made drunk, to look upon your dens and secret places, to fill them with the fill of your disgrace in view of the greatness of glory, and to reckon as a clay vessel the works of the potter’s hands. “Drink you also” from the cup of the Lord, of which in the Psalm it is said: “[There is] a cup in the hand of the Lord, full of unmingled wine; and he has turned [it] from side to side; but its dregs have not been wholly poured out.” ² ⁷ And from the former statement, “to shake,” do not think that these things in which you longed to stand at first are firm and stable, for “the cup of the right hand of the Lord has compassed you.” Further, since you have “given your neighbor to drink from the troubled upsetting,” “disgrace” will be “gathered” over you and over your “glory,” which you thought you had at first, and you will suffer the following: that “the ungodliness of Libanus shall cover you.” This agrees with what is said: “and let his prayer become sin.” ² ⁸ For Libanus is a mountain. According to Greek speech it is a homonym of “frankincense.” But frankincense is a σύμβολον ² of spiritual incense, which is the worship of God. Therefore, the perverse prayer of the heretics, which is not governed by evangelical simplicity, shall be turned to sin for them, and the wickedness of their worship of God will “cover” them. And this is why it follows: “And the misery because of wild beasts shall dismay you, because of the blood of men, and the impieties of the land and city, and of all that dwell in it.” And the meaning is: Those of Christ’s sheep whom you have deceived by your deceits and made into your beasts, when you see them in “misery” and enduring punishments for their error, then you will be “dismayed,” then you will lie down. And what is more, lest you think that I am speaking about dumb animals and not about human beings, since I have named Libanus and its beasts, I tell you quite plainly: You will endure these things, for you have shed the blood of many men, whom you caused to perish in respect to God. And you practiced impiety on the land of the living, on the land of the meek, and your impiety wreaked havoc in

the city of the Lord as well, that is, in his church, and you made many who were dwelling in it sharers in your impiety. Let this be said under the persona of heretics. Moreover, if we want to understand it of the antichrist, or of the devil, who will be at work in the antichrist, that one too will make very many drunk from his cup. By it he will long to overthrow the instruction of Christ, so that drunkards enter into his dens. But after the end comes, he will be filled with disgrace instead of that glory by which he had magnified himself. But he will be filled because he will drink the cup of punishments, and he will be shaken, not firm in his malice but quivering, and repentant too late. For the cup of the Lord’s right hand, who is the Lord and Savior, will compass him, when he kills him by the spirit of his mouth ²¹ and destroys him by the illumination of his advent. Then all the disgrace that he gathered to himself by thoughts, deeds and words will come “upon his glory,” so that to the extent that he was previously thought to be famous to that degree afterward he is “full of disgrace.” For he committed blasphemy against God, and the “impiety” that he practiced in Libanus will “cover him,” and the fury of many men who raved against the church of God will be imputed to him, and he will not be able to lift up his neck, but he will be weighed down to the ground in dismay. For he killed many men, and the whole world, that is, the church of Christ and its inhabitants, he devastated by his impiety. One should know, therefore, that this section too that we have now explained, that is, “Woe to him that gives his neighbor to drink from the troubled upsetting,” and the previous three sections in which it was said, “Woe to him that multiplies to himself the things which are not his,” ²¹¹ and “Woe to him that gathers together an evil covetousness to his house,” ²¹² and “Woe to him that builds a city with blood,” ²¹³ both according to history and according to anagogy can be received equally as directed against Nebuchadnezzar or against the devil and the antichrist and the heretics.

2:18 What does it profit the graven thing, that its maker has graven it, the molten work, and the false image? Because its forger has hoped in a thing of his own forging, to make dumb idols (simulacra).

Septuagint: “What does it profit the graven thing, that they have graven it? They

made it a molten work, a false image. For the forger has trusted in a thing of his own forging, to make dumb idols (idola).” In a way that is coherent with what comes above, it is said about Nebuchadnezzar that he made a statue of the idol Bel, and he set it up in the plain of Dura or, as is written in Hebrew, Dora, about which we read in more detail in Daniel. ²¹⁴ And so Scripture marvels at the insanity and folly of the king, that he commands a golden statue to be made, and the “forger is trusting” in an idol that he has fabricated. To be sure, we can understand this also generally as directed against all worshipers of “idols.” Nor should we think that graven and molten are one and the same. For we can understand graven thing in respect to stone and marble, but molten work is understood of those metals that are able to be loosened up and melted: for instance, gold, silver, copper, lead and tin. And this may be said so that we may be able to understand according to tropology the difference between graven and molten. In Deuteronomy we read: “Cursed [is] the man whosoever shall make a graven and molten image, the work of the hands of a craftsman, and shall put it in a secret place.” ²¹⁵ I think that graven and molten are perverse doctrines that are adored by those by whom they have been made. Consider how Arius engraved for himself an idol of a creature and worshiped what he engraved. Perceive how Eunomius melted down a false image and bowed his neck to his own molten thing. And the Scripture says meaningfully: “and shall put it in a secret place.” ²¹ For they also have their orgies, and, as it were, for all their perfect disciples they hand down secret mysteries that, if they would bring out into the light, at once what has been fashioned is exposed. Therefore their graven and molten thing does not profit them. A graven thing applied to stones is understood in respect to those doctrines that show the folly at first glance. A molten thing is where there seems to be some reasoning of secular wisdom and, as it were, with some gold, so the “idol” is molded with the instruction of the philosophers and with the splendor of eloquence. The thing forged, therefore, does not profit its forger, and the deaf and dumb image will not be able to hear its own adorer. If you ever see someone who is unwilling to believe in the truth and who perseveres in the pursuit he has undertaken when the falsity of his doctrines has been shown, you can fittingly say: He hopes in a thing of his own forging, and he makes deaf and dumb idols. For among the Greeks κωά means both, although Symmachus, by translating it as ἂλαλα, seems to have understood mute rather than deaf. Let no one be

troubled by the scriptural idiom of which we have often spoken: “Who do you think is the faithful and wise steward?” ²¹⁷ And in another passage: “Who is wise and shall understand these things?” ²¹⁸ In these instances “who” or “what” are understood for what is rare. For we can also understand the same words to mean impossible: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ: tribulation or anguish, etc.” ²¹ And from the present section: What does it profit the graven thing, that its maker has graven it? For impossibility is shown in both passages, since no tribulation and anguish can separate the apostle’s love from Christ, nor can there be any profit in “idols.”

2:19-20 Woe to him that says to wood: Awake; to the silent stone: Arise. Can it teach? Behold, it is covered with gold, and silver, and there is no spirit in its bowels. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.

Septuagint: “Woe to him that says to the wood: Awake and arise; and to the stone: Be exalted! And it is an image, and this is a production of gold and silver, and there is no breath in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be reverent before him.” This too can be understood similarly as directed either against Nebuchadnezzar or against all who venerate idols. And the human error is being described that in view of the gleam of the material they reckon as gods the silver, gold, gems and silk with which the idols are either wrapped or covered. Though the craftsman can give form, to be sure, but he cannot give breath by which the limbs are invigorated. And in contrast the Lord is said to be in his holy temple; not in the temple made with hands, but either in heaven or in each of the saints, in accordance with the apostle, who says: “Or do you not know that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” ²² And elsewhere: “Your bodies are a temple of God”; ²²¹ or in the Son, as he himself says: “The Father abiding in me does the works.” ²²² Or, certainly, this is in accordance with the fact that the heaven and earth, the seas and all the world:

The spirit nourishes from within . . .

and mind, infused through the joints, vivifies the whole mass, and mingles with its great body. ²²³

The entire world, which subsists with the sky and is enclosed by the earth and the circuits of the heavens, is declared to be the house of God. And this is why the apostle says confidently: “For in him we live and are moved and are.” ²²⁴ But if someone objects, how can it be said that there is no spirit (spiritus) in “idols” when unclean spirits attend to all images? let him learn the usage of Holy Scripture. It is not called a perverse spirit without qualification but with the some addition, as there: “They were led astray by a spirit of fornication.” ²²⁵ And in the Gospel: “But when an unclean spirit goes out of a man,” ²² and other things similar to these. But wherever one reads spirit alone without any addition or qualification, it is always referenced in a good sense, that is, to the Holy Spirit, as for example in the following words of the apostle, “He who sows in the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life”; ²²⁷ and elsewhere, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,” ²²⁸ and in another passage, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.” ²² Nor are we saying that even the Holy Spirit may not be recorded with an addition; for he is called the Holy Spirit, ²³ the principal Spirit, ²³¹ the right spirit, ²³² the Spirit of God and other things similar to these; but that the Holy Spirit may often be recorded both with an addition and alone, but a perverse spirit is never read without an addition. But the following can also be said—if anyone wants to understand perverse spirit in this passage disputatiously—that it would be one thing if he had said “There is no spirit in it”; something else “There is no spirit about it”; for it can attend idols, but it cannot be within them. And this is why Aquila very meaningfully translates the Hebrew saying, “and its spirit is not in the bowels,” or in its midst. Additionally, it should be known that in some Hebrew books “all” is not added, but spirit is read without qualification. But if someone overcome by reason receives spirit in a good sense, and asks why, if it is said of the Holy Spirit, since it is read with an addition, “And there is no spirit in it,” let him know that every spirit is understood as the different graces of the Holy Spirit; so that the sense is: It can have no grace, no virtue in itself. Which indeed is understood more according to tropology, that there is no grace of the Holy Spirit among all the idols of the heretics and fabrications of the devil, but they seem to

prefer the image of divinity and the beauty of doctrines, though there is nothing breathing and vital in them. Let us say this as well, lest we should seem to have concealed what we know from the reader, that among the Hebrews spirit and wind are expressed with the same term, namely ruah, and it is customary to understand either spirit or wind in view of the sense of the passage. Therefore in this passage as well, we can understand spirit either as wind, that it does not blow among idols, or for breath, because images are animated. But that spirit may be understood for breath, the Savior’s prayer clearly signifies: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” ²³³ For Jesus could not commend to the Father either a perverse spirit—which it is criminal even to think—or the Holy Spirit, who is God himself, but rather his own soul, of which he had said: “My soul is grieved unto death,” ²³⁴ and “No one can take my soul from me, but I lay down my soul by my will, and freely take it up again.” ²³⁵

Book Two

We are writing a second book on Habakkuk, my reverend father Chromatius, devoting a proper little work to his song and attacking with all our strength the speech composed in that of the epics and of the Psalter, that is, in the fashion of lyric poetry. Let the serpent hiss, therefore, and Sardanapalus mock, ²³ more disgraceful in his vices than in his name; ²³⁷ let us hit the road we have undertaken, and by your prayers, since you who have overcome the flesh by virtue, let us discuss this very obvious prophecy of Christ in the eighth prophet, ²³⁸ that is, in the number of the Lord’s resurrection.

3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet for ignorances.

Septuagint: “A prayer of the prophet Ambacum with a song.” Only Aquila, Symmachus and the Fifth Version translated as we did, for ignorances. Theodotion has ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐκουσιασμῶν, that is, “for voluntary acts,” and for those who transgress of their own accord. On account of this we should understand that no one apart from the Septuagint translated this as “a prayer with a song.” For even in the Hebrew it reads ‘al shigyonot, which means Ἐπὶ ἀγνοημάτων, and we translated it for ignorances. But this is the meaning: Since he had spoken above with temerity: “How long, o Lord, shall I cry, and you will not hear? Shall I cry out to you suffering violence, and you will not save?” ²³ And then, in the second complaint: “Why do you not look upon them that do unjust things, and hold your peace when the wicked devours the man that is more just than himself?” ²⁴ To this he had heard: “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets.” ²⁴¹ And after the rest: “Behold, he that is unbelieving, his soul shall not be right in himself; but the just shall live in his faith.” ²⁴² And he had learned that either Nebuchadnezzar or the devil or the antichrist was set in place for the judgment of sinners, and the strong one for the correction of the nations. Now he repents and bewails that he spoke with temerity and he seeks

pardon, that he may attain mercy, because he acted in ignorance. And this is also why David says: “Remember not the transgressions of my youth and my ignorances.” ²⁴³ There are those who think that this is the prophet’s prayer, that at the advent of Christ the error of human beings would be taken away; whence the prophet’s name is prefixed in the superscription, because by a prophetic spirit he is praying that darkness be removed and light given, that the image be taken away and the truth be granted. But the entire text of the song shows that this is a prophecy, and especially this, “You will be known in the midst of the two living creatures,” ²⁴⁴ and, “When the years draw near, you will be known,” ²⁴⁵ and concerning judgment, “When my soul is troubled in wrath, you will remember mercy,” ²⁴ and again concerning the coming of Christ, “God will come from Themam and the holy one from the dark shady mountain.” ²⁴⁷ And certainly it is with respect to the future that he says, “The tabernacles of the land of Madian shall be dismayed,” ²⁴⁸ and, “You will mount upon your horses,” ²⁴ and, “bending you will bend your bow over kingdoms.” ²⁵ But if someone asks why Theodotion alone translated “for acts of one’s own accord,” we can say that it was either a confession of the prophet, because he sinned not by any compulsion but of his own accord, when he thought wrongly concerning God’s judgment; or certainly that the future faith of the nations is being shown, since by abandoning their former error voluntarily they will believe in him who is promised in the song. We read in the sixteenth Psalm: “A Prayer of David.” ²⁵¹ And in another likewise: “Prayer of David.” ²⁵² And in the eighty-ninth: “A prayer of Moses the man of God.” ²⁵³ And in the one-hundred-first: “The prayer of a poor man when he was worried and poured out his prayer before the Lord.” And if the word “prayer” is added anywhere, yet in no place do we read it with the word “song.” And I do not know if it would be befitting to pray with a song, unless perhaps in accordance with the Septuagint we should say that the prophet is praying for the advent of Christ and is prophesying this with delight and with psalms and with a song, so that even in the fact that it is a prayer, he is praying to the Father, and in the fact that it is a song, praise of the Father is being expressed, who will send the Son, and praise of the Son, who will come. These things have been said of the title of the song. Let us now see what things are said in the song.

3:2a O Lord, I have heard your hearing, and was afraid. O Lord, your work, in the midst of the years bring it to life.

Septuagint: “O Lord, I have heard your report, and was afraid. O Lord, I considered your works, and was amazed; you shall be known in the midst of the two living creatures.” Instead of what we, Aquila and Theodotion translated as bring it to life, Symmachus interpreted it as “bring it back to life.” But what the Septuagint expressed as “I considered and was amazed” is neither in the Hebrew nor among any of the other translators, so that when these words are removed, which are not found in the Hebrew, it could be read according to the Septuagint: “O Lord, your works, you shall be known in the midst of the two living creatures,” which because it seemed ἀδιανόητον ²⁵⁴ the things above were conjoined. But in the Hebrew we read Adonai , that is, Lord , pha‘alka , your work , beqereb , in the midst of , shanim , of the years , hayyeyhu , bring it to life . For that reason we should understand this, that the things that are superfluous in the Septuagint have clearly been added. The Hebrews explain this passage historically in this way. O Lord, I have heard your hearing, and was afraid. He is saying: I have heard of the punishments that you have prepared for Nebuchadnezzar and for the devil, in which you have said to him: “Woe to him who multiplies what is not his own.” ²⁵⁵ And a second time: “Woe to him who gathers together an evil covetousness to his house.” ²⁵ And a third time: “Woe to him that builds a town with blood and prepares a city by iniquity.” ²⁵⁷ And a fourth time: “Woe to him that gives drink to his friend and presents his gall and makes him drunk.” ²⁵⁸ And a fifth time: “Woe to him that says to wood: Awake! To the silent stone: Arise!” ²⁵ And just as I was gripped with fear because the great serpent had to be pierced by such great wounds, so I pray, o Lord, that you fulfill what you have promised, and at the appointed time you bring your Christ. For you have said that the vision is still far off and will appear at the end, ² and it will not be proven false. Therefore bring to life what you have promised; that is, fulfill your promise. Let not your words be futilely delayed, but let them be fulfilled in deed. Among us this can indeed be understood also of the resurrection of the Savior, that he who died for us would rise from the dead and would be restored to life. But according to the Septuagint the sense is much different, and we ought to record the explanation of the common version ² ¹ as well. “O Lord, I have heard”

your words, and when you give me an ear, in accordance with what Isaiah says, “He gave me an ear to hear,” ² ² I heard in such a way as you want your words to be heard. And by contemplating your works very carefully, lest it be said to me: “But they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor do they consider the works of his hands,” ² ³ I understood the Creator from the creatures; and through each of the things that you have made and that you daily bring about in the whole world, I was totally “amazed” and, having lost awareness of humanity, I was turned to a holy madness. Or certainly, troubled with wonder I am breaking forth boldly into your praises, saying: “You will be known in the midst of the two living creatures.” Many think that this is understood of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in that the Father is understood through the Son and the Spirit. ² ⁴ Of this indeed also both the two seraphim in Isaiah ² ⁵ and the two cherubim in Exodus ² may be understood to be written, which look back on themselves and have the mercy seat in between; and in Isaiah they cover the head and feet of the Lord, and fly ² ⁷ only in the present world and cry out to each other the mystery of the Trinity, and one of the seraphim, which means “blazing,” is sent and comes to the ground and cleanses the lips of the prophet ² ⁸ and says: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were blazing.” ² Some think this, and for this interpretation they make use of many testimonies from Scripture. On the other hand, a simple interpretation and the opinion of the common crowd understands it of the Savior, that he is acknowledged to have been crucified between two thieves. ²⁷ But they speak better who say that in the first church, which was from the circumcision and gathered from the foreskin, the Savior has been understood and believed in with two peoples girding themselves on both sides of him. There are those who understand the two living creatures of the two Testaments, New and Old, which are truly living and vital, which breathe, and the Lord is known in the midst of them.

3:2b In the midst of the years you shall make it known.

Septuagint: “You shall be acknowledged when the years draw nigh.” When the time comes, ²⁷¹ he says, and you fulfill your promises in deed, you will show that what you have promised is true. Or, when the consummation “draws nigh,” and in the final hour your Son comes to destroy sins, “you shall be acknowledged”

more openly. It follows:

3:2c “When the time comes, you will be shown, when my soul is troubled.”

Except for the Septuagint, this is found neither in the Hebrew nor in any of the other translators. And the meaning is: When the time comes, of which it is said, “At the acceptable time I heard you,” ²⁷² the time of the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, then, o God the Father, your name will be known, which previously was hidden among men, of which the Lord says in the Gospel: “Father, I have revealed your name to men.” ²⁷³ But as for what is added, “when my soul is troubled,” in the edition of the Seventy Translators, it is joined with what comes next so that it can be read “When my soul is troubled in anger,” and the break comes at that point. After that it is added “You will remember mercy,” namely, because the prophet’s disturbance alone suffices for a punishment, and his soul, troubled over the anger of God, should not be added punishment, but mercy excludes anger. But even the anger of God has limits, how much and for how long, and for what reasons and on whom it is inflicted. This agrees with what is written: “You will feed us with bread of tears, and will cause us to drink tears within a limit.” ²⁷⁴ But if the prophet is troubled about the anger of God, and he who is troubled procures mercy, what should we expect, or rather, fear, all of whose works deserve God’s anger? But what follows accords with the Hebrew.

3:2d When you are angry, you will remember mercy.

We should not think that God forgets and that after his anger he recalls his mercy. Instead, we should think that he forgets the one who is placed in punishment, in accordance with this: “How long, o Lord, will you forget me unto the end?” ²⁷⁵ For even if when we are covered by temptations as by the waves, and a sudden storm of demons rages against us, we say, as it were, to one who is asleep, “Arise, why do you sleep, o Lord?” ²⁷ perceive at the same time the clemency of God. He did not say, When you inflict punishments, you shall remember mercy, but When you are angry . But with respect to one who is

angry, sometimes he does not strike but only threatens. The apostle also sensed this when he said: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all wickedness and iniquity of men.” ²⁷⁷ But when it is revealed, it is not inflicted, he does not strike, but it is revealed in order to frighten, and it is not inflicted on those who are frightened by it.

3:3a God will come from the south and the holy one from mount Pharan. Always.

Septuagint: “God will come from Theman, and the holy one from the dark shady mountain. Pause.” Aquila, Symmachus and the Fifth Version recorded the Hebrew word itself, Teman. Theodotion alone translated what Theman means when he said: “Elohim will come from the south, and the holy one from mount Pharan, unto the end.” From this we understand that it was recorded by the Septuagint alone “from the dark shady mountain.” But also what the Septuagint translated as διάψαλμα and we recorded as always, Symmachus translated “forever,” Theodotion “unto the end,” the Fifth Version gave the Hebrew word itself: selah. So then, God will come from the south, that is, from the midday, from the bright light, and from those who are called sons of the days. And this is why in the Song of Songs the bridegroom banishes the north wind and summons the south when he says: “Arise, north wind, and come, south wind, blow upon my garden and let my perfumes spread abroad.” ²⁷⁸ God is at midday always . He says: “When do you pasture? When do you have them recline? At midday.” ²⁷ And to Abraham, when he was under the oak tree, God comes only at midday. ²⁸ And Joseph, who came first as a type of the Savior, makes a feast with his brothers at midday. ²⁸¹ Therefore the knowledge of God the Father comes to those who are worthy in the full light. And the knowledge of the Holy One , that is, of the Son of God, comes “from the dark shady mountain.” The “dark and shady mountain” is understood either of the Father himself, full of virtues and all wisdom, and covering everything with his majesty, and extending his wings and nursing his chicks; or certainly paradise and heavenly things full of angels, full of virtues, full of very fertile trees. And would that it would

happen even to me that at my voice and at my exposition God would come in the bright light, and his Son, of whom it is written: “Be holy, since I am holy”; ²⁸² from the loftiness of his “dark and shady” utterance, and woven together with testimonies from the Scriptures on both sides, as both the Father and the Son together come, the audience would become their dwelling place, and the Scripture would be fulfilled that says: “I and the Father shall come to him and we shall make our abode with him.” ²⁸³ But since instead of “dark and shady mountain,” Mount Pharan is written in Hebrew, and Pharan means “mouth of one who sees”; according to our translation it is beautifully said that the knowledge of the Son comes from the speech of the educated man, and not just from any sort of speech but from that which is full of light, full of eyes, ²⁸⁴ so that clear and pure speech may be brought to the ears of the audience. But as for what he says, “from the mountain,” understand lofty doctrines. I have heard a Hebrew explaining this passage as follows: The Bethlehem in which the Lord and Savior was born is situated to the south, and that is what he is now speaking of: “The Lord will come from the south,” that is, he will be born in Bethlehem, and thence he shall arise. And since he who was born in Bethlehem once gave the law on Mount Sinai, he is the holy one who comes from Mount Pharan . For Pharan is near the location of Mount Sinai. And what is added, “diapsalma,” that is, always , has this meaning: He who was born in Bethlehem and who gave the law in Sinai, that is, on Mount Pharan , is always also the author and bestower in all benefits, past, present and future. In the Psalter we have discussed “diapsalma” in greater detail. In Hebrew it is expressed as selah . And likewise observe that according to the Septuagint “diapsalma” is only recorded in the Psalter and in the present passage. From this we correctly understand that the song is given the heading of a prayer.

3:3b His glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise.

3:4 His brightness shall be as the light; [there were] horns in his hands. There is his strength hid.

Septuagint: “His virtue covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise, and his brightness shall shine, as it were; [there were] horns in his hands, and he placed a mighty love of his strength.” Instead of what the Septuagint interpreted as “and he placed a mighty love of his strength,” and we expressed as There is his strength hid, Aquila translated “and he placed a hiding of his strength,” Symmachus “and he placed his hidden strength”; only Theodotion agrees with our translation when he says: “and there is a hiding of his strength.” For the word sham, depending on the nature of the passage, means both “he placed” and there. And it is preferable for it to be read in the present passage as there than as “he placed,” so that the sense and sequence of thought is [There are] horns in his hands, and it is understood that there, that is, in the horns, his strength is hid. But it is clear according to the Hebrew that at the advent of Christ everything would be filled with glory, in accordance with what is said in the Gospel: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” ²⁸⁵ And elsewhere: He made peace in heaven and on earth through the blood of the cross, and he sat down at the right hand of the greatness. ²⁸ For “his word runs swiftly.” ²⁸⁷ And elsewhere: “Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth.” ²⁸⁸ And again in the eighteenth Psalm: “Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” ²⁸ His brightness too, as the sun of justice, ² has radiated with bright light , and [there were] horns in his hands , the banners and trophies of the cross, and his strength was hidden in those very horns . “For though he was in the form of God, he did not think it robbery that he was equal to God, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. And he was made obedient to the Father unto death, even death of the cross.” ² ¹ In the cross, therefore, for a little while ² ² his strength was hidden , when he said to the Father: “My soul is sorrowful unto death.” ² ³ And, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” ² ⁴ And in the same cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” ² ⁵ On the other hand, with respect to what is said according to the Septuagint as “His virtue covered the heavens,” we need to know that what is covered is less than that which covers: but if the whole is covered, what is covered is not in part. Therefore, when God’s “virtue covers the heavens,” his virtue, by which the heavens are covered, is greater than the heavens. But we frequently read that the heavens are those who bear the image of the superheavenly ² and who tell the glory of God. ² ⁷ The apostle proves that the “virtue” of God is the Lord and Savior: “Christ is the virtue of God and the wisdom of God.” ² ⁸ This “virtue” is, as it were, the mother of all particular virtues; for instance, virtue is called

wisdom, strength, justice, moderation, truth, holiness, redemption. But Christ has become for us wisdom from God, and justice and sanctification and redemption. ² These particular virtues, then, in which Christ is shown—according to the level of progress of those who receive him, either his wisdom or strength or justice and other things of this sort—are contained in the general virtue of God, that is, in the Lord and Savior. And in this manner we also understand concerning the earth, that those who were first called earth because of the image of the earthly, and it was said to them, “You are earth, and to the earth you will go,” ³ are filled with the Lord’s “praise” at the advent of the Savior. But when the heavens too are covered with the virtue of God—namely, protected and clothed in every part—and the whole earth is filled with God’s praise, then his brightness will be as the light. But the apostle is not silent about the fact that the image of God and the brightness of his glory is the Savior God. ³ ¹ After the brightness of the glory of God appeared to us, ³ ² it returned to his original majesty. ³ ³ “For even if we knew Christ according to the flesh, but now we know him no longer according to the flesh,” ³ ⁴ but according to the spirit, since “what was made was life in him, and the life was the light of men.” ³ ⁵ The Savior shows this even more clearly in the Gospel when he says: “Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was made.” ³ Thus after his ascension to the heavens, his is the brightness that is light; that is, the Son begins to be that which the Father is. But as for what follows, [there were] horns in his hands, it is customary in the Scriptures always to record horns for kingdoms. For even what Anna says in the first book of Kingdoms signifies the magnificence of the Savior’s kingdom: “He has exalted the horn of his Christ.” ³ ⁷ And in Daniel the ten horns point to ten kingdoms. ³ ⁸ But it is said now, [there were] horns in his hands , in the sense in which elsewhere we read that it is written: “The heart of the king [is] in the hand of God.” ³ This is in view of the fact that it is the mind and the principal part of the heart of the holy man—who is traveling to the kingdom of heavens, who still placed on earth rules his body without sins—he does not wander extrinsically but he is situated in God’s watchful care. But because both in the Hebrew and in the other versions it is not written horns in his hands, but in his hand, which is expressed as yado , we should understand the strong and powerful hand of God as his Son. And we should say that in this hand all the kingdoms of the heavens are placed, and of those who strive to ascend to heaven. Isaiah indicates this too when he says, “There was a vineyard for my beloved on a horn, in a fertile place,” ³¹ because it is in a kingdom. For this reason, I think, no horned animal

is recorded in Leviticus among those that are unclean, ³¹¹ and the same thing means unicorn in the Psalms, ³¹² or ῥινοκερότα , and this: “In you we will scatter our enemies with a horn.” ³¹³ But what we read in the Septuagint, “and he placed a mighty love of his strength,” even this must be understood of Christ, that the reason God the Father covered the heavens with his virtue and filled the earth with his praise and made his brightness to be like light and placed his kingdom in the hand of his Son was so that he could make his own beloved one loved by men, and loved not lightly but vehemently and mightily, so that those who love him mightily and cleave to his love, so that no one would take them from his hand. ³¹⁴ On the other hand, the devil makes us love the world and to esteem the vices in place of the love of virtue, and not lightly but mightily, so that it can be said of us: And the devil “placed a mighty love” of his vices.

3:5 Death shall go before his face and the devil shall go forth before his feet.

Septuagint: “A word shall go before his face, and it shall go forth into the plain behind his feet.” What we translated as death, in Hebrew three letters are recorded: dalet, bet, resh with no vowels. If these are read as dabar, they mean “word” (verbum). If they are read as deber, they mean “plague,” which is expressed in Greek as λοιμός. After all, even Aquila translated it this way, “A plague shall go before his face”; Symmachus “Death shall advance before his face”; the Fifth Version “Death shall walk before his face”; only the Septuagint and Theodotion translated it “word” (sermonem) instead of “death.” And besides, in the subsequent little line where we said, The devil shall go forth before his feet, and the Septuagint translated it differently—we will discuss this later on—Aquila translated “swift one” instead of devil; but Symmachus, Theodotion and the Sixth Version rendered it “flying thing.” In Hebrew it is expressed as Resheph. But the Hebrews hand down the tradition that, just as in the Gospel the prince of demons is said to be Beelzebub, ³¹⁵ so Resheph is said to be the name of the demon who holds principal authority among the others, and on account of his very great speed and movement in different directions, he is called a bird and a “swift one.” And they say that he is the very one who spoke with the woman in paradise under the form of a serpent, ³¹ and that after the

curse with which he was condemned by God, ³¹⁷ he took this name, since indeed Resheph means “crawling on the belly.” This, then, is what is being said: As soon as the Lord shall come and be baptized in the Jordan, and at the descent of the dove the voice of the Father rings out: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” ³¹⁸ the devil will meet him as he is coming out of the water, and death will stand before his feet , and the ancient serpent ³¹ who tempted him for forty days in the wilderness. ³² But if we read this in accordance with the Septuagint, “A word (verbum) shall go before his face, and it shall go forth into the plains ³²¹ behind his feet,” it means this: that the word ( sermo ) of God would go in advance and prepare the hearts of believers before his visit, which is here being expressed allegorically as “face,” so that it paves the crooked places straight, the uneven places level, and the soul of the hearer becomes like a plowed field capable of receiving spiritual seed.

3:6 He stood and measured the earth. He beheld, and melted the nations, and the mountains of the age were crushed to pieces; the hills of the world were bowed down by the journeys of his eternity.

Septuagint: “The earth stood and trembled; he beheld, and the nations melted away; the mountains were violently crushed to pieces, the hills of the age melted at his everlasting journey.” While the Savior was standing ³²² and beholding all things and measuring the entirety of the world with his eye, he scattered the multitude of the nations. When they were scattered and melted away , the mountains of this age were crushed to pieces and the hills of this world were bowed down . For there are other mountains and hills, which the bridegroom in the Song of Songs springs across and leaps over, ³²³ of which also in the second Psalm of degrees it is said: “I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence shall come my help.” ³²⁴ But the mountains of the age are those that are also the dark mountains of which Jeremiah instructed that our feet should not be dashed against them. ³²⁵ These are the hills in which Saul reigned when he was killing the priests of God. ³² For Gibeah means “hill.” And it is elegantly said that the hills of the world were bowed down . For before the Savior’s coming they walked with an erect neck, and no one was able to lower their pride. But they

were crushed to pieces and bowed down by the journeys of his eternity , that is, God’s, since his eternity deemed it worthy to come to us, or because always since the beginning of the world until his incarnation he came to the saints, and the word of God came into the hand of each one, and it won the victory in all those who conquered, and it bowed down before his eternal journey, it crushed to pieces the hills and mountains. Let these things be said metaphorically in accordance with the Hebrew. On the other hand, according to the Septuagint, after the word of God has gone before the face of God and come forth into the plains, God the Father came to his word, there where a country was prepared for him, and he goes “behind the feet” of his word and stands. He does not go ahead in advance but always waits to secure the way for himself. But when he stands beside the feet of his word, immediately the earth there trembles, namely, the works of the flesh and of bodies that are unable to endure the presence of God. And when they tremble, the power of the word and the presence of God look back on all the nations of the soul, which we can understand as the thoughts and multiple judgments on diverse things, which melt away there and vanish. If anything likewise would have raised itself up on earth against the knowledge of God, and had occupied the mind of the hearer, when this word and the coming of God goes in front, it will be shattered and crushed to pieces. But when the mountains are fractured and crushed at the sight of God, the hills clearly will be consumed and reduced to nothing. For they are not mountains of God but mountains “of the age.” For the “everlasting journey” of God looks back to those things that its own word precedes, and being stronger than the hills of the age, it will consume and destroy them. But the mountains can also be understood as demons who frequent the heretics and raise themselves up against the knowledge of God; ³²⁷ the hills too are other forces of demons that make men admire beautiful human bodies, ranks, wealth, noble birth and other goods of the world. It is possible, after the coming of the word of God and the presence of God the Father, to see how human souls are made to tremble and all that is earthly melts away and the former thoughts are reduced to nothing. Then the demons are destroyed, then the heights of the age are brought to nothing, and all knowledge of the heretics, which at first was puffed up, is laid low before the coming of the word of God, it is crushed and consumed. And what previously seemed beautiful and very great is cast away as a despised and trivial thing. And this happens on account of the coming of God and the reception of Christ as guest, in accordance with what is written

elsewhere: “I will dwell in them and walk about, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” ³²⁸

3:7 I saw the tents of Ethiopia for their iniquity, the curtains of the land of Madian shall be troubled.

Septuagint: “I saw the tents of the Ethiopians for their troubles, the tabernacles also of the land of Madian shall be dismayed.” The revolting “Ethiopians” are both lovers of darkness and estranged from all light. They feed on the flesh of the dragon, of which it is written: “You gave him as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians.” ³² Demons are understood whose “tabernacle” becomes whoever “troubles” himself in this world for the sake of honors and wealth. This is shown significantly under the one word iniquity . For every rich man is either wicked ( iniquus ) himself or the heir of a wicked man. Consider how men cross the sea, sleep outside the gates of the powerful, endure all things that the condition of slaves scarcely endures in order to accumulate wealth, in order to attain the next rank, and when they have obtained it they hand themselves over to luxury and pleasures and all iniquity, so that their luxury may consume what their greed has accumulated. These ones, therefore, “because of their troubles” become the guesthouse of demons, and those who were supposed to be God’s temple become a “tabernacle of the Ethiopians.” Moreover, with respect to what follows, the curtains of the land of Madian shall be troubled or “the tabernacles also of the land of Madian shall be dismayed,” understand of the same ones as the tabernacles of the Ethiopians and the tabernacles of the land of Madian. For after they become rich, and through crime and wickedness ascend to the highest level, then due to the awareness of their sins they always dread death and judgment, and so they shall heave a sigh at a slight little fever, just as thieves in prison gasp over the eternal punishments. Now, in our language Madian means “from the judgment,” that is, condemnation, and it is shown that they are always in a state of anxiety from their fear of the judgment and eternal penalties. Daily they endure with a sense of dread the torments that they feel that they deserve.

3:8-9a Were you angry, O Lord, with the rivers? or [was] your wrath upon the rivers? or your indignation against the sea? For you will ride upon your horses, and your chariots are salvation. You will surely take up your bow, [according to] the oaths which you have spoken to the tribes. Always.

Septuagint: “Were you angry, o Lord, with the rivers? or [was] your wrath against the rivers, or your attack against the sea? You who mount on your horses, and your riding is salvation. Surely you bent your bow at scepters, says the Lord. Diapsalma.” Where the Septuagint translated “diapsalma,” and Aquila always, the others translated similarly as above. And since our oration is hurrying on toward the tropological interpretation, I shall move on to the remaining things, after briefly summarizing the sense of the section according to the letter. Just as when you fought on our behalf by drying up the Jordan ³³ and the Red Sea, ³³¹ for “you were not angry with the rivers and the sea,” or with any offense insensible things were able to produce, so now in mounting your chariots and seizing your bow, you will procure “salvation” for your people, and you will fulfill for eternity the oaths that you swore to our fathers and tribes . But as for what he says, “Were you angry, o Lord, with the rivers? or [was] your wrath against the rivers, or your attack (impetus) against the sea?” he is speaking hesitantly and with the utterance more of one who is asking a question than of one who is putting someone to the test. For there are both good and bad rivers. There is a wicked sea, and there is a very good sea. An example of the good rivers is this: “The force (impetus) of the river gladdens the city of God.” ³³² And rivers of water shall flow from the belly of the one who drinks from the Lord’s water, springing unto eternal life. ³³³ An example of evil rivers are those of which Pharaoh speaks in Ezekiel, “Mine are the rivers, and I made them,” ³³⁴ in which the dragon lives. And there many passages similar to these. Now the twenty-third Psalm is witness that the sea may be understood in a good sense in which the church is spoken of tropologically under the term οἰκουμένη, that is, world: “The earth is the Lord’s and its fullness, the world and all who dwell in it. He established it upon the sea, and prepared it,” that is, the world, “upon the rivers.” ³³⁵ But what is established by the Lord upon rivers and prepared upon the sea assuredly is understood in a good sense. And certainly

with respect to the following as well, which is spoken of the vine that was transferred from Egypt: “You have spread forth your branches all the way to the sea and your shoots to the rivers”; ³³ I think that “all the way to the sea” can be understood in a good sense. And we say that divine words that are quite clear and offer a drink, as it were, to the thirsty are called rivers; but in the Scriptures those words are called “the sea” that are filled with mysteries and located in the depth of which the apostle speaks, “O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God”; ³³⁷ and the prophet harmonizes with this: “From the depths I cried out to you, o Lord.” ³³⁸ This arises from the fact that sea too can be perceived in a better sense. But there are many testimonies to show that it is understood also in the opposite sense, of which the following is found in the Psalms: “This is the sea, great and wide; there ships shall pass through, living creatures, the small with the great. That dragon whom you formed to play in it.” ³³ And from the Gospel when the Savior rebuked the winds and the sea and said to it: “Quiet and be still.” ³⁴ For what is rebuked is bad, in accordance with the following from Zechariah: “May the Lord rebuke you, o devil.” ³⁴¹ And to Timothy: “Convict, console and rebuke.” ³⁴² And so, when the prophet asks, “Were you angry, o Lord, with the rivers? or [was] your wrath against the rivers, or your attack against the sea?” we should say, If they are the rivers of Egypt, and the red and bloody sea, the Lord is angry and strikes them, and with his whole attack they are brought against the whirlpools raising themselves up against the thought of God. This is why “the sea saw and fled,” ³⁴³ being unable to endure the presence of God. And “the Jordan turned backwards,” ³⁴⁴ yielding to the glory of the people who were passing through. It is also split by both Elijah and Elisha. ³⁴⁵ That I may say this more clearly, understand the rivers with which the Lord is angry as the eloquence of the heretics, which flows against the truth even of the church. But note down as the sea their souls, which are borne around by every wind of doctrine. ³⁴ They always vacillate in their malice and are overwhelmed by the salty whirlpools. The “attack” of God comes over it, since it senses his coming and knows by what limits and barrier it is shut in. ³⁴⁷ And it hears: “But your waves shall be confined within you.” ³⁴⁸ But if there are good rivers and a good sea, Jesus is washed in them, and he locates his church upon a sea of this sort. After this it follows: “you will ride upon your horses, and your riding is salvation.” I inquire about the horses upon which the Lord rides, and I think that

they are none other than the souls of the saints upon which the divine Word rides in order to save both them and others through them. Let us record some examples of horses. The bridegroom says in the Song of Songs: “He has likened you, my companion, to my horses among the chariots of Pharaoh.” ³⁴ It is not that Christ is comparing the church to the chariots of Pharaoh, or that the Word of God is so comparing the soul that it calls its bride, but that every soul, however holy and perfect it may be, when compared to God, is like Pharaoh’s chariot and beast. And this is why Moses says to the Lord, “But I am ἄλογος ,” ³⁵ that is, irrational. And David says: “I became like a beast before you.” ³⁵¹ It is not that he is a beast without qualification, but that he is a beast before God. To these beasts they are opposed whom Pharaoh has and of whom it is said: “Horse and rider he has cast into the sea.” ³⁵² “Riding” of this sort is not “salvation” but perdition. Let us inquire about other horses as well on which the Lord mounts. In the fourth book of Kingdoms we read that the servant of Elisha raised his hand and went out to look at the army encircling the walls of the city, and the horses and chariots. ³⁵³ And when his eyes were opened at the prophet’s prayers, it says: “He looked, and behold the mountain was full of horses and there were fiery chariots around Elisha.” ³⁵⁴ Notice carefully that horses and chariots are seen, and yet amid so many thousands of horses and chariots there is no rider. He was the charioteer of these horses, and he was the guide of whom the psalmist sings: “You who sit upon the cherubim, shine forth.” ³⁵⁵ It was with horses like these and a chariot like that that Elijah was taken to heaven. ³⁵ But if anyone wants to learn from Zechariah who are the red horses, and who are the black, and who are the dappled and who are the white going forth from the myrtle trees and from the mountains that are set in the bottom, ³⁵⁷ or, as it is written in the Septuagint, “bronze,” we shall attempt to explain it in [a commentary on] the same prophet, if the Lord grants me length of life. John too saw white horses and their riders. ³⁵⁸ From that I think that the white horses are the bodies of those who rise again in glory, but the riders are the souls of the saints. But if someone is a sinner like me, he will sit on a black horse, and it will be said of him: “All who were mounted on horses were asleep.” ³⁵ It is written of such horses: “The horse is deceptive in respect to salvation.” ³ For the flesh lusts against the spirit, ³ ¹ and its wisdom is inimical to God. ³ ² Let this be said of those who love their bodies and sit on black horses. But as for us, let us prepare our souls to mount on the Lord’s horses and chariots, which mount upon Paul and Peter, and which ride in chariots of this sort, traversing the whole world.

And “bending its bow” or arrows “at scepters”; that is, it has uprooted, destroyed and ruined the kingdoms against which Jeremiah was sent, ³ ³ and it has brought it about that sin does not reign in our mortal body. ³ ⁴ But with respect to the “scepters,” that is, the kingdoms of the devil, which he also shows to the Lord, ³ ⁵ understand different kinds of sins, greed, luxury, wrath, slander, theft, perjury, against which the Word of God, sitting on the horses and in its chariots, bends the brandished darts of its splendor; and for the time being it does not release them, so that the one who has become terrified at the bent bow may not feel the release of the arrows. And he does this always , which is Aquila’s translation, instead of “diapsalma.” For he always sits in his holy ones, he is always armed. And preparing sharp arrows in their tongues, he rides and maneuvers here and there for the world’s salvation.

3:9b You will divide the rivers of the earth.

Septuagint. “The earth will be divided by rivers.” Since the Lord has taken up his bow to pay back the oaths which he has spoken to the tribes, ³ it is said in a way that is consistent with this, You will divide the rivers of the earth ; that is, you will divide and disperse the kings of the earth who fight against your people. But according to the Septuagint, which said, “The earth will be divided by rivers,” we should first record an example so that we may come to higher things by means of this step, as it were. We read in those who have produced books about marvels and who have brought to our continual remembrance the Olympiads of Greece by explaining what new things happen in the world each year, that among other things earthquakes cause rivers to spring forth that were previously not there. And then, on the other hand, others are swallowed up and sink into the ground, namely, because all the veins of the earth, as with the blood of the human body, thus have water hidden within them that are ruptured by earthquakes and flow out in rivers. If we have understood this, we should see that the human soul has waters and rivers naturally within itself, and they are hidden and do not flow due to our laziness. But when they have been struck by the proclamation of the Word of God and are shaken from their former condition, then what was lying concealed bursts forth and flows for the refreshment of those who drink. I suppose that this

exact thing is what is being indicated in Genesis, that wells are dug by Isaac’s servants that, though they were made by Abraham, the Philistines covered them with earth. ³ ⁷ As long as Abraham is alive, his wells are not closed; but when he is dead, and his wells are blocked up, if the servants dig, the Philistines object and there is a quarrel. But if Isaac himself should come and dig the well and find water, the Philistines cannot object. Consider Peter and Paul and you will not be in any doubt about the wells and rivers of Christ. Observe all the apostles, and you will understand that it is no longer four rivers ³ ⁸ but twelve rivers that come forth from the paradise of the Scriptures. Before the earth quaked these rivers were hidden, and though they were in the veins of the earth, they did not provide drink to the thirsty. But after the coming of Christ, the world and all the earth was shaken, and suddenly they burst forth, and then was fulfilled: “He placed rivers in the desert, and streams of waters for thirst; a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the wickedness of them that dwell in it.” ³ He has placed a desert in the pools of waters, and land without water in the springs of waters, and caused to dwell there those who thirst, and has established a city to live in. For after the Lord came into the world and fulfilled what he said in the Gospel, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who did not see may see, and that those who were seeing may become blind,” ³⁷ then the land of Israel dried up, from which rivers were previously flowing and were watering all the people of Judea, and its springs were blocked up. But the entire world, which was a desert and barren and had not waters of the Lord’s preaching, turned into pools of waters, and it had as many springs as the number of teachers who were sent out. Nor is it sufficient for them, that is, for the springs and rivers, to water the peoples of the world, but in each province gathering into one people those who thirsted and who suffered a famine for the word of God, ³⁷¹ they have built the church, which is called a city to live in and which the force of the river gladdens. ³⁷²

3:10-13 The mountains saw you, and were grieved, the great body of waters passed away. The deep put forth its voice, the height lifted up its hands. The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation, in the light of your arrows, they shall go, in the brightness of your glittering spear. In your anger you will tread the earth underfoot, in your wrath you will astonish the nations. 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 his foundation even

to the neck. Always.

We have recorded only our translation so that by weaving together the coherence of the passage based on it—that is, based on the Hebrew—later on we may explain the Septuagint in verse-by-verse fashion and by sections. The mountains saw you, God, and were grieved; that is to say, the lofty kingdoms and sublime powers of this age and the four chariots in Zechariah that go forth from the bronze mountains. ³⁷³ These saw you and trembled. And the great body of waters passed away , that is, all their force, and the persecution by which they troubled your people passed away after they saw you. Then the deep , that is, those below, praised you; then too those above, that is, the angels, sounded their applause with their hands , to show the victory with a certain gesture, as it were, and the ritual sign of raised hands. Your sun and moon and all their brightness , by which you had first begun to shine upon your people and afterward everything had been covered over in the horror of darkness through the weight of evils, kept back their own light and held on to their original brightness . Your arrows and your glittering spear , that is, your blows and your erudition, offered light to your people. Finally, in the light of your arrows and in the brightness of your spear , which chastised them in order to correct them, your people walked in your grumbling. When therefore you vindicate the injury done to your people, you will tread the earthly kingdoms underfoot, and you will cause all nations to be astonished . For you went forth for the salvation of your people , and you came to them with your Christ, although in Hebrew it is written, You went forth for the salvation of your people with Jesus your Christ , or with the Savior your Christ. For Jesus means savior. But when Jesus Christ your Son came, you struck the antichrist from the house of the wicked, that is, in this world, which is set in evil. ³⁷⁴ Or, you struck the devil himself, who is the head of wickedness, and you laid bare his foundation even to the neck ; that is, you caused his hidden things to be exposed, not for a short amount of time, but forever; for this is what selah means, that is, always . Septuagint 3:10a. “The peoples shall see you and be grieved,” or “will suffer birth pangs,” for that is what ὠδινήσουσι means. Consequently, when the earth is broken apart and the rivers flow forth, ³⁷⁵ the “peoples” who had drunk from the rivers of God “shall see” God and “suffer birth pangs.” For from the very fact that they see God, at once they conceive by the Word of God and say: “We have

conceived in the womb, o Lord, because of your fear, we have suffered birth pangs and have brought forth; we shall make the breath of your salvation upon the earth.” ³⁷ He says: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” ³⁷⁷ And so, these “peoples,” having been washed by the rivers, no longer have seen but “shall see” God. And when they see, they shall conceive in order to bear the fruit of doctrines. But since they are called “peoples” and it does not pertain to “peoples” to see the face of God, though the prayer may be prolonged into the future: they shall see and shall give birth, yet according to tropology it is preferable and necessary to follow the Hebrew, where it is said the mountains saw you and gave birth; for it does pertain to mountains to see God and give birth to sons, which they have conceived from the Word of God. Septuagint 3:10b. “You shall disperse the waters of the journey.” There are different kinds of waters, some are everlasting, others are short-lived. It is said of the everlasting waters and those that flow from the springs of Israel: “The earth will be divided by rivers.” ³⁷⁸ Of those that emerge suddenly and run only for a time: “All the torrents go to the sea.” ³⁷ For the end of such waters is perdition. Therefore God will disperse all waters that have been trodden underfoot by perverse dogmas when he disperses the counsels of princes and the wisdom of this world. If you ever see that some heresy has flourished for a brief time and then been dissipated by the grace of God, you should say that this has been fulfilled: “You shall disperse the waters of the journey.” For what is said here, it is also possible to supply in thought “the devil’s journey,” so that the meaning is: the Lord will divide and disperse the waters that the devil trampled upon and that provided a journey to many in them, that is, they were exposed to many errors. And this is why the other translators in their desire to describe heretical fury translated: “The collision or force of the waters will leap.” For they are borne headlong by the steep course of eloquence so that they drag with them any lightweight person they happen to meet. Septuagint 3:10c. “The deep (abyssus) uttered her voice, the height of her vision (phantasiae).” The “deep” is understood sometimes in a good sense, sometimes bad, sometimes neutrally. It is used in a good sense here: “Your judgments are a great deep,” ³⁸ and, “Deep calls to deep,” ³⁸¹ and other places. It is used in a bad sense here: “The waters have seen you, o God,” ³⁸² and in other places. Moreover, the demons pray not to be sent into the deep. ³⁸³ And in Genesis it says: “the deep upon which there was darkness.” ³⁸⁴ I do not know whether this can be understood in a good sense. Neutral uses of the word occur here: “The fountains of the deep burst forth, and the floodgates of heaven were opened”; ³⁸⁵

and the following in the one hundred forty-eighth Psalm: “Serpents, and all deeps, fire, hail, and stormy wind”; ³⁸ unless perhaps it must be taken in an evil sense in light of the recording of serpents, fire and hail. I do not know whether the one who sees it shouting out in praise of the Lord along with the others can say this. If then we take “the deep” in a good sense, we may say that when the waters of the evil journey have been dispersed, your wise ones saw you, and they exchanged the height of knowledge that they had from your sight—since the mountains saw you and suffered birth pangs—they broadcast in the praises of their voices whatever notions they first had of you. And he nicely calls “height of a vision” a notion, in accordance with Jesus son of Sirach, who says: “Who will find out the deep and wisdom?” ³⁸⁷ And this is why from the little mountain, ³⁸⁸ that is, from the assumption of a human body, which Daniel calls a stone cut from a mountain without hands, ³⁸ that is, without the marital act, Christ the deep calls to the Father, another deep, in the voice of his own cataracts, ³ in order to give “the Word with much power to those preaching the good news.” ³ ¹ Or surely, the deep of the New Testament, in the testimony of a little mountain, ³ ² by which the prince of Tyre was wounded, ³ ³ calls to the deep ³ ⁴ of the Old Testament, so that through the cataracts of Christ, that is, the apostles, the preaching may become stronger. But if anyone wants to take what is said in a bad sense, “The deep uttered her voice, the height of her vision,” he will use this argument, that after the dispersed waters of the journey, which assuredly have been taken in a bad sense, even this may rightly be perceived in the opposite sense. And at the same time notice that he did not say his own height but “height of his vision,” that is, of a shadow and image. For they seem to have height and knowledge of the Scriptures, but all their height, when compared with the truth, is a vision and raises its voice in vain, since the waters of the journey have already been dispersed. Let us ask in the Scriptures whether we can ever find “vision” in a good sense, and when it is found, either seldom or not at all thus, we shall interpret the “deep” and its “vision” more definitively in a bad sense. Septuagint 3:11a. “The sun was exalted, and the moon stood still in her course.” If we follow a literal interpretation, from the present words the progress of the sun and the moon is shown, because according to Isaiah in the future age the sun shines sevenfold, and the moon reflects the brightness of the sun. ³ ⁵ For “since creation will be set free from the slavery of corruption unto the freedom of the

glory of the sons of God,” ³ which now has been subjected to futility, on account of him who subjected it in the hope of freedom, ³ ⁷ when at the consummation of the world all creation will be set free, both the sun and the moon will be set free, and they shall stand still in their course. But if we want to understand the sun of justice as Christ, in whose wings there is healing, ³ ⁸ and the moon as the church, which is illuminated by the splendor of this sun, 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 illumines it, which now in this world waxes and wanes according to fortunes and afflictions. But when the sun is exalted and according to the apostle God exalts it and gives it the name above every name, ³ then likewise the church, which is not able in the present world to hold to its course, will return to the course owed to it, and it will not be changed but will stand in a fixed position and will hear with Moses: “But you stand here with me.” ⁴ Septuagint 3:11b. “Your darts shall go forth at the light, at the brightness of the gleaming of your weapons.” The darts of God, that is, his arrows that go and proceed, are not sent to destroy but to enlighten. In distinction from these arrows and darts, Christ is called by Isaiah a chosen dart who cries out: “He has appointed me as a choice dart, and he has hidden me in his quiver; and he has said to me: This is a great thing for you that you are called my servant.” ⁴ ¹ This arrow will have more arrows that he shoots at the whole world. And this is why the bride who was wounded by the choice dart says: “I was wounded by love.” ⁴ ² In accordance with this we can say: I was wounded by chastity, I was wounded by wisdom. And when the queen of the south was wounded by this dart of wisdom, she was not in her right mind but was completely overwhelmed that she had found in the true Solomon more than his reputation had told of. ⁴ ³ These arrows that are sent “at the light” also proceed “at the brightness of the gleaming of his weapons,” that is, God’s. For whoever is armed to stand against the crafty schemes of the devil and girded with the apostle’s armor, ⁴ ⁴ the darts of light will come to him so that it can be said to him: “You are the light of the world.” ⁴ ⁵ But if someone is a sinner and groans because he lives in dwellings of cedar, ⁴ “sharpened arrows of the mighty with coals of the desert” ⁴ ⁷ are shot at him so that he may first be pierced by the words of God and say: “I became thoroughly miserable while a thorn was fastened in me.” ⁴ ⁸ And after he is pierced through, then a desert coal is sent through the seraphim, that is, the blazing word of God, which bakes not merely his lips, which Isaiah alone had as

unclean, ⁴ but all parts of his members as well, and leads him back to the wilderness of sins. Septuagint. 3:12. “You will diminish the land with threatening, and in wrath you will drag down the nations.” This can be understood with respect to the consummation of the world, when a multitude will be slaughtered by frequent wars and seldom will men be found, and those who were unwilling to be a part of the people of God but continued as nations and pagans are dragged down to Tartarus by the wrath of the Lord. But it is better to interpret the “land diminished with threatening” of earthly works, and of those who are established in the church and do not wait as sinners to be corrected by the wrath of the Lord, but they listen to the Scriptures about the punishments that hang over sinners and they repent, and gradually they “diminish their land” and advance toward heaven. If any of us dreads the Lord’s threat, this one’s land is diminished; but the one is decreasing who continues in the number of the nations and does not want to be a part of those of the land, nor of the people of God, of whom it is said: “They shall see you, and the peoples will suffer birth pangs.” ⁴¹ That one is “dragged down” to punishment. Septuagint 3:13a. “You went forth for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed ones (christos).” First let us consider how many kinds of anointed ones there are, and then we shall treat the question of how the Lord “went forth for the salvation of his anointed ones.” In the Old Testament they were called “anointed ones” (Christi) and patriarchs, of which it is written in the Psalms: “He rebuked kings for their sakes [saying]: Touch not my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.” ⁴¹¹ And in the first book of Chronicles (Paralipomenon), all who went forth from Egypt are called “anointed ones.” ⁴¹² In Exodus too priestly chrism is made, ⁴¹³ with which later on in Leviticus the priest are reported to have been anointed ( uncti ). ⁴¹⁴ There is another ointment ( unguentum ) with which kings are anointed ( unguntur ) in the kingdom that is torn in two. For if there is a David and a Solomon, that is, one who is “strong of hand” and a “peacemaker,” he is anointed from a horn. ⁴¹⁵ But if there are Jehus and Hazaels, ⁴¹ it is poured out through a lentil-shaped vessel, but it is a so-called clay flask, that is, φακὸς . But even Cyrus, king of the Persians and Medes, who released the people from captivity—although many are mistaken and think the text was about the Lord and Savior—hears through Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord to my anointed one ( Christo ) Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, so that the nations may listen before him,” ⁴¹⁷ etc. And at the end it is said, “But you did not know me,” ⁴¹⁸ which it is wrong to understand of the Savior. There is the prophetic

ointment with which Elijah is commanded to anoint the prophet Elisha. ⁴¹ And over and above every kind of ointment there is the spiritual ointment, which is called the oil of exultation, with which the Savior is anointed, and it is said to him: “For this reason God your God anointed you with the oil of exultation above your companions.” ⁴² But I think the companions are those to whom John also speaks: “And you have an anointing from the holy one.” ⁴²¹ And after a little bit: “I have written these things to you concerning those who lead you astray and that the anointing that you have received might abide in you; and you do not need anyone to teach you, but the anointing itself shall teach you about all things, and it is true and it is not false, and just as it taught you, abide in it.” ⁴²² And perhaps it was to prevent those who have lost the anointing of baptism from losing hope over the restoration of the anointing that it is written in Leviticus that, when the leper who has been cast out of the camp comes to the priest and his leprosy is cleansed, the priest should send oil for him on his left hand, and when he has dipped his finger he should sprinkle the oil seven times before the Lord, and touch with the same oil the earlobe of the one who had been leprous, and his right hand and right foot, and he should put all that remains of the oil on his head. ⁴²³ And when he completes all these rituals, then he will sacrifice a burnt offering for him, and he is called God’s anointed one ( christus ). I want to say something, but I am afraid of offering an occasion to the negligent to fall away, that in the Holy Scriptures the same man is found to be anointed (unctus) repeatedly. After all, David was anointed three times, ⁴²⁴ which we should not understand of the one who sinned and is again anointed—for it is sufficient for the leper to be anointed a second time after losing the first anointing—but concerning the one who makes daily progress and whose anointing is constantly increasing; and from the leper’s oil he moves on to the oil of the people and of the saints, and from the oil of the people he reaches the oil of the priests, and from the priests he passes to the anointing of the high priest, and from the high priest to the king and from the king to the patriarchs, and from the patriarchs he goes on to the Christ; and he is anointed with the oil of exultation with which the one who is smeared becomes one spirit with God, ⁴²⁵ and where the Father and the Son are, there too he shall be. ⁴² But this is truly rare, and these are the prayers of believers. Moreover, I do not know whether the effect follows. For it is said, “God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions,” ⁴²⁷ that is, with that oil that those who are your companions either rarely or never were able to attain to. Therefore, God “went forth” from his place “for the salvation

of” these “anointed ones,” just as Micah also says: “And he will go forth from his place to save.” ⁴²⁸ For since those who were in need of salvation were unwilling to enter unto him, he “went forth” from his majesty and from his place to bring those who were outside into the land of the meek and the country of the living, ⁴² from which Adam had been expelled, ⁴³ from which Cain went forth to dwell in the land of Nod. ⁴³¹ But one should know, as we said above, that where the Septuagint recorded this in the plural “to save your anointed ones,” in Hebrew it reads leyesha‘ ’et-meshikhekha , which Aquila translated “for salvation with your anointed one ( Christo ).” It is not that God went forth to save his people and to save his anointed one, but that he came for the salvation of the people “with” his anointed one, in accordance with the following words from the Gospel: “The Father is in me and I am in the Father; and the Father who abides in me does his own works.” ⁴³² But also the Fifth Version translated it similarly: “You went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your anointed one.” But Theodotion, being the poor Ebionite that he truly was, and also Symmachus who was of the same doctrine, followed a poor ⁴³³ sense and translated it in a Judaic fashion: “You went forth to save your people, to save your anointed one.” I am about to say an incredible thing, but it is true. These half-Christians translated it Jewishly, but the Jew Aquila interpreted it like a Christian. The Sixth Version reveals the mystery most clearly by translating it from the Hebrew as follows: “You went forth to save your people through Jesus your anointed one.” In Greek this is expressed as ἐξῆλθες τοῦ σῶσαι τὸν λαόν σου διὰ Ἰησοῦν τὸν χριστόν σου. The following can be applied to this sense, that the Father went forth with the Son from the temple and from the ceremonies of the Jews, saying, “Your house shall be left to you desolate,” ⁴³⁴ and he came for the salvation of the nations to save those who believe through Jesus Christ his Son. Septuagint 3:13b. “You have sent death on the head of the impious.” We should not think that this is said of the common death whereby we all die, and Abraham died, and was laid with his fathers, ⁴³⁵ and the prophets, and Christ himself died. But “death was sent to the wicked” so that those who first lived for wickedness might live to justice, once they have died to sin. ⁴³ Indeed Hannah also signifies this in her prayer: “The Lord kills and makes alive.” ⁴³⁷ For he kills sinners, “sending death upon the heads of the impious,” to make them live for justice. Let me say something even bolder: Christ came into this world for this purpose, to send death on the heads of the wicked. And just as he died once to sin, ⁴³⁸ so too they would die to wickedness, and those who had become sharers in this death

became sharers in this life. But in the Hebrew where it is written You struck the head of the house of the wicked, we should understand head, as I have said, of the prince of this world, and his house as the world, and every soul of the sinner in which the devil had a guest room. But the reason the head is struck in the house of the wicked is so that when he has been struck and cast out, it may become a house of God, and justice may dwell there and walk about in it. And it is worthy to think this of God, who went forth for the salvation of his people with his anointed one (Christo), so that when a head of this sort is struck, he who is the head of every man and of his church might become the head in us. ⁴³ Therefore if anyone senses that he is still a house of the wicked, let him pray for the coming of the Son of God so that the head of the wicked may be crushed within him. ⁴⁴ Septuagint 3:13c. “You have raised up bands even to the neck unto the end.” The Lord “raised up bands” of love so that when the former burden was laid aside, and the very heavy yoke by which we were pressed down was cast off, we might take up the light yoke of Christ. ⁴⁴¹ And having been set in his chariot, we might bear the best charioteer. Indeed Theodotion also takes this in a good sense when he says: “You have adorned the foundation even to the neck.” The Fifth Version has: “You laid bare” or “you emptied the foundation even to the neck, selah ,” that is, “always.” For since the Philistines covered with earth the foundation of Christ, which was in the soul of each, the heaped-up soil is removed and the best foundation is exposed and adorned, so that what was concealed might appear and receive its own brightness, and this happens everlastingly, which is what is expressed in Hebrew by selah . And at the same time notice how the Septuagint itself was forced by the necessity of the facts to translate selah here as “unto the end,” which they had always translated as “diapsalma.”

3:14-16 You cursed his scepters, the head of his warriors, them that came out as a whirlwind to scatter me. Their exultation was like that of him that devours the poor man in secret. You made a way in the sea for your horses, in the mud of many waters. I have heard and my belly was troubled; my lips trembled at the voice. Let rottenness enter into my bones, and swarm under me, that I may rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may go up to our people that are girded.

At this time we are discussing only the Hebrew, so that we may treat the Septuagint version separately. For it differs greatly from all the other translations. It says, You cursed scepters, that is, kingdoms; of him, doubtless of the wicked one of whom he had said above: “You struck the head of the house of the wicked; you laid bare the foundation up to the neck.” ⁴⁴² But we understand the wicked one either as Nebuchadnezzar or as every adversary of the people of God. And not merely his scepters , but also the head of his warriors whom you had struck, who came out as a whirlwind to scatter me , that is, to demolish Israel and lead it into different captivities. But in this way those were exulting who devoured the poor man and Israel subjected to itself, as if they were doing this in secret and with you unaware of us. And so you came to the battle on behalf of your people, and sending your chariots into the waters , that is, into the many nations, you made a way in the mud of many waters , that is, to trample them and, as it were, to crush like mud the hooves of your horses and the wheels of the chariot cars. But as for what follows, I have heard, and my belly was troubled; my lips trembled at—supply “your”—voice. Let rottenness enter into my bones, and swarm under me, that I may rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may go up to our people that are girded, here is the meaning: We willingly suffer distresses, and we groan internally at your threat. Now my lips are trembling, and the panic of a troubled mind is sealed on my mouth, and not only that but also something else further do I seek and desire further. Let rottenness enter into my bones, and swarm under me, that is, I suffer willingly what Job suffered, I desire that not only my flesh rot but the marrow of my bones too, and that my blanket swarm with the rottenness of my body and with countless vermin, so that after I endure these things here because of my sins, I may rest on the bitter day, on the day of tribulation, on the day of necessity and distress. And I may go up to our people that are girded, namely, the strong and militant warrior. And he says nicely, I will go up; for one always goes up to a people that are girded. And it is elegantly said: our. For the one who has been afflicted and has endured the pressures willingly and has counterbalanced the future rewards with the present evils boldly says our, so that like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he too might fall asleep in good old age full of days and be laid with his fathers. ⁴⁴³

But if someone says: Behold, in your exposition of the history, you do not realize that you have been enclosed in the nets of allegory, and you have intermingled tropology with history, let him hear that the metaphor of the history does not always harmonize with the allegory, since frequently the history itself is composed metaphorically, and under the figure of a woman or of one man the entire people are being proclaimed. And now we can say, therefore, under the persona of the people: I undergo captivity willingly, with equanimity I endure distresses, and I am pressed down by the very heavy yoke of the Babylonians. And whatever pertains to the final hard distress, I suffer gladly, only in order that I might rest at that time when you will curse the scepters of the wicked and your horses will trample the mud of many waters, so that later on with your saints Zerubbabel and Jesus son of Josedec and the priest Ezra and Nehemiah I may return to the Promised Land. Up to this point, lest we should appear completely to overlook the history, we have done some measure of violence to the understanding, and we have discussed thoughts that do not follow with respect to the captivity; now let us turn back to the Septuagint translators and to the tropological explanation. Septuagint 3:14a. “You divided the heads of princes with amazement.” Just as Christ is the head of the church and of every man, ⁴⁴⁴ so Beelzebub the prince of demons is the head of all the demons who rave wildly in this world, ⁴⁴⁵ and all their throngs have their own heads and princes. For instance, the spirits of acts of fornication have their commander; the spirits of greed have their ἄρχοντα (ruler), the spirits of vainglory, the spirits of falsehood, the spirits of infidelity have generals over their militia. And so the most clement God, who had sent death on the heads of the wicked ones, ⁴⁴ who had raised bands up to their neck in the end, ⁴⁴⁷ also “divided the heads of princes with amazement,” so as to first separate the princes from their subjects, and, as it were, remove the head from the body, and where there had been an evil head, there the best head might be put back. Let us offer an example so that what we are saying may become clearer. If a tyrant is ever cut down, the images of him and the statues are also brought down, and with merely the face changed and the head removed, the face of the one who conquered him is superimposed, so that while the body remains, when the heads have been cut off, another head is exchanged. I would like to understand this of the gatherings of the heretics, that when the heads of the heresies have been separated from the rest of the people, in their place Christ begins to be the head.

At the same time, consider the significance of sacred Scripture, that he did not say, you have lopped off, or you have cut off “the heads of the princes,” but you have “divided.” For what is “divided” is not so much cut off to perish as separated into parts. Thus, just as in the building of the tower, the language that had been badly unified was separated, and the bad covenant was torn apart by an advantageous division; ⁴⁴⁸ so also these heads, which seemed to have harmony among themselves with their bodies—for there are very many heads of heretics that, though they have different sets of eyes, yet with one blasphemous tongue, so to speak, they bark against the church—were “divided” into parts. Once separated from the deceived bodies, they made room for the good head. We can use this little verse if we ever see kings and their rulers shedding Christian blood who afterward obtained the Lord’s vengeance. Long ago we have clearly seen this done in respect to Julian, and before him Maximian, and moreover Valerian, Decius, Domitian and Nero. We can say to the Lord in exultation and prayer with the song, “You divided the heads of princes with amazement,” or in the amazement of all nations which did not think that they could so quickly collapse. When I was still a youth and was being trained in grammar school, and all cities were defiled by the blood of victims, and what is more suddenly, in the midst of the very fires of persecution the death of Julian was proclaimed, a pagan eloquently said: “How can Christians say that their God is patient and ἀνεξίκακον? ⁴⁴ Nothing has ever been done with greater anger; nothing has ever showed the presence of greater rage. He could not even postpone his indignation for a brief time.” ⁴⁵ He said this in mockery. However that may be, the church of Christ sang with exultation: “You divided the heads of princes with amazement.” I shall also say something similar to this. “Divide” Ahab and Jezebel, o Lord, “with the amazement” of all. It was not indeed I, Elijah, but they, Ahab and Jezebel, who killed Naboth and took his vineyard and made it a garden of luxury. ⁴⁵¹ Let some Obadiah, “your servant,” be found, who may feed your poor and needy man. ⁴⁵² Let the blood of the harlot be given to the dogs. ⁴⁵³ Let impious and greedy Ahab be pierced by the Lord’s dart. ⁴⁵⁴ Septuagint 3:14b. “They shall tremble in it; they shall burst their bridles, [they shall be] as a poor man eating in secret.” When the heads are divided from their bodies, and divided in no other way but with amazement (stupore), for which reason it is declined as a him, ⁴⁵⁵ which is expressed in Greek as ἐν ἐκστάσει , and it is said ἐν αὐτῇ —that is, with her—they also “burst their own bridles” or those “of them”—for it can be understood either way—so that by relaxing the

power of command by which they previously held domination over the bodies subjected to themselves, they make room for a better rider and a better charioteer. And they do this as poor men eating in secret, having no freedom, nor any abundance of food, but small meals, which they eat secretly and want no one to see what they are doing. It can also be interpreted in another way: When the heads are divided with amazement, as those that had been decapitated from the rest of the body, they will open their mouth, which had been bridled as with a muzzle of condemnation, and with the teeth grinding against themselves like those who are eating, they shall grind them, eager to eat again but not having the strength to devour. Understand how after the coming of Christ the heads of the demons were separated from the nations that had previously been subject to them. They want again to exercise their original authority. But because they have been cut off from their bodies they do not have complete freedom to feed; they “eat as poor men” and not only are they poor but they are “poor in secret.” They are poor because they have lost their original wealth; they eat in secret because they always lie in ambush in order to kill the innocent in secret places. ⁴⁵ These heads have the teeth that are also arrows. And although he said before, “I will ascend above the stars, I will set my nest on high, and I will hold all the world in my hand like eggs,” ⁴⁵⁷ yet they will be dragged down from the heights, and, losing their original furnishings and all the property of their house, they shall try to eat and bite secretly like the poor. I know that the Hebrew differs greatly from these things that have been said; but what can I do, since I have once and for all resolved to interpret both the Hebrew itself and the Scriptures common throughout the whole world? Septuagint 3:15. “And you led your horses over the sea, disturbing much water.” After God had sent death on the heads of the wicked ⁴⁵⁸ and struck the heads of princes with amazement ⁴⁵ and broke them to pieces in the sea—for it is written in the Psalms: “You broke to pieces the heads of the dragon” ⁴ —when the princes were killed and broken to pieces, and the strong man was defeated, one comes to his house and all his vessels are plundered. ⁴ ¹ But of what else can the strong man’s vessels and house be interpreted and the furniture of the prince if not the sea of this world, in which the dragon dwells? God, an outstanding horseman and an excellent charioteer, causes his horses, namely, the angels and

lofty powers, “to come upon the sea” of this world to “trouble the many waters,” namely, the demons and contrary powers. But if, in accordance with what is written in the Apocalypse, we want to interpret this of the advent of Christ, that the Word of God sits on a white horse, and all his army follows him on white horses, ⁴ ² we shall see how Christ is mounted on his apostles, saying to them: “Behold, I am with you all the days to the consummation of the world,” ⁴ ³ and, “Going, go baptize all nations,” ⁴ ⁴ etc. And when he has mounted one white horse, which I think is none other than the apostle Paul, he rode upon him as he went about the whole world. But the Word of God mounts his horses so that “many waters are troubled;” that is, either many peoples, who were previously in the sea and were at the mercy of the dragon—“for broad and spacious is the way that leads to death,” ⁴ ⁵ and they were disturbed, at first abandoning their former error, then having been troubled, they took up the rider who came to them—or certainly concerning whom we said above, throngs of demons are not so dominant in the sea, but when they were disturbed, they yielded, and they dreaded the wounds of the battling horseman. And would that the Word of God would mount me as well, and through the spear of my mouth would kill him who reigns in the “many waters,” so that at the destruction of the king the waters that had been subjected to them and were troubled would offer their necks to my horseman, and having been reduced to a single four-horse team, we might be made into cherubim of the Lord, which means multitude of knowledge. For never is a charioteer reported to be so composed and so well-equipped as in those who are joined by a multitude of knowledge and by the reins of wisdom among themselves. Septuagint 3:16a. “I watched, and my belly became terribly afraid at the sound of the prayer of my lips; and trembling entered into my bones, and my strength was troubled within me.” Or, as we have found it written elsewhere, ἡ ἕξις μου, which we can express, “my different bearing,” for copies are found. This can be said even under the persona of the prophet, cohering with what comes above it: Since, o Lord, you sent death on the heads of the wicked, ⁴ and you raised up bands to the neck, and you divided the heads of the princes with amazement, ⁴ ⁷ and you led your horses into the sea troubling many waters, ⁴ ⁸ for this reason I kept my heart with all watchfulness and my innards trembled and all my strength, or my bearing was disturbed, lest I should suffer similar things.

It can also be its own introduction so to speak, with the prophet narrating his own fear and how he dreads sinning against anyone. And when he is warned by the sound of the prayer of his own lips, he fears God alone, so that trembling enters his bones. And placed under the lofty hand of the Lord, he is disturbed with all the strength of his soul, or with his bearing. But what he says as “trembling entered into my bones” must be understood ἐμφατικώτερον, ⁴ so that we see the extent of the fear penetrating the entirety of his soul and shaking the whole man, lest he should do anything that would displease God. And since Scripture also mentions the parts of the soul allegorically, in terms of members of the body, we may understand the terribly frightened “belly” of that virtue of the soul, which takes in spiritual food, and the “lips,” with which the mind speaks with itself, and the “bones” as strong and solid doctrines by which the entire framework of the soul is made solid. Allow me to have said these things briefly. But if anyone discovers more insightful and truer things here, offer agreement with that explanation instead. Septuagint 3:16b. “I will rest in the day of affliction to go up to the people of my sojourning.” Since I kept my heart with all watchfulness, and my belly became terribly afraid at the sound of the prayer of my lips, and trembling entered my bones, and my strength or bearing was troubled within me, ⁴⁷ and on account of such a great watch I became estranged from sins, therefore, now I say confidently, “I will rest in the day of affliction to go up to the people of my sojourning,” that is, to those who like myself are equally sojourners in this world. Located below, I will go up, and from the valley, as it were, I will strive to reach the heights and aim for it with all eagerness, so that at the time when the rest are in affliction and anguish, my concern would be to ascend, how I might rest in the loftier places with “the people of my sojourning.” But I think that “the day of affliction” is the consummation of the world, about which Isaiah also speaks: “The day of the Lord is incurable, of fury and wrath, to establish the whole world as a desert, and to destroy sinners.” ⁴⁷¹

3:17 For the fig tree shall not blossom, and there shall be no sprout on the vines; the labor of the olive tree shall deceive, and the plowed fields shall yield no food; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.

Septuagint: “For the fig tree shall bear no fruit, and there shall be no sprouts on the vines; the labor of the olive shall deceive, and the fields shall produce no 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 under me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation, that I may go up to our people that are girded,” ⁴⁷² the things that came before are thus joined to the things that follow. The reason I wanted to endure affliction in the present and afterward to go up to a strong people was that the day of affliction and necessity shall come, and when others are placed in anguish I shall rejoice in your majesty: For the fig tree shall not blossom, and there shall be no sprout in the vines; the labor of the olive tree shall deceive, and the plowed fields shall yield no food , etc. Since these things do not differ much from the Septuagint, let us discuss them together in the interpretation. When the day of affliction comes and I go up to the people who once sojourned with me, ⁴⁷³ or surely when the day of Judea’s overthrow comes, and of the first people, and the daughter of Zion is forsaken, as the tent in the vineyard and as the hut in the cucumber patch, and as the city that is under siege, ⁴⁷⁴ I who was chosen from the perishing people—of whom it was said, “Unless the Lord had left us seed, we would have become as Sodom, and we would be like Gomorrah” ⁴⁷⁵ —I will join myself to the disciples of Christ, whom he teaches on the mountain, with the crowds and crippled left below. ⁴⁷ I shall ascend to the mountainous places. For “the fig tree” has not given its fruit. When the hungry Lord comes to it in the Gospel and does not find fruit on it, he cursed it and said: “You shall not bear fruit unto the age.” ⁴⁷⁷ And consider carefully what he has said: “You shall not bear fruit unto the age.” ⁴⁷⁸ He did not say, “unto the ages of ages,” but when he passes through that age and when the fullness of the Gentiles enters, then even this fig tree will bear its fruit and all Israel will be saved. ⁴⁷ This is the fig tree to which the householder came three times, wanting to dig it up, as one that bears no fruit. ⁴⁸ But the farmer to whom it had been entrusted pleads for it, that he give it time, and he says: “Lord, leave it for just one more year, while I dig around it and put down manure, and perhaps it will bear fruit; but if not then you may cut it down.” ⁴⁸¹ This farmer refers to either Gabriel ⁴⁸² or Michael, ⁴⁸³ to whom the Jewish people were entrusted. At the passion he pleads to the Lord and says: Lord, give them time to repent and do not destroy them, and perhaps they will bear fruit; but if not then you shall destroy them. If they bear fruit, he says; he did not say what they endured, nor did he say, If they bear fruit, they shall remain as they were; but, if they bear fruit, the verdict is

suspended, so that it is understood: you will transfer them into the church of the Gentiles, and you shall transplant them into another vineyard. The Lord comes three times and finds no fruit on them. First, he gave the law through Moses; second, he spoke through the prophets; third, he himself came down. And after his passion, when forty years were given them to repent, since they did not produce fruit, on the fourth occasion they were destroyed. However, this is left to our interpretation. For the parable does not record what the householder did afterward, but only what the farmer pleaded. From this we note that those who produced fruit from this fig tree were transferred to the people of the Gentiles, to which the prophet also goes up and says: “I will rest on the day of tribulation to go up to the people of my sojourning.” ⁴⁸⁴ But that those who did not produce fruit and continued in their hardness were overthrown, the words of John as well signify in the Gospel: “Behold, the axe is placed at the roots of the trees. Every tree that does not produce fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” ⁴⁸⁵ We have spoken of the fig tree, showing that it is the Jewish people; let us speak also of the vineyard, which indeed he will understand easily who reads Isaiah, “[My] beloved had a vineyard on a horn in a fertile place”; ⁴⁸ and later on: “And I waited for it to bear fruit; but it bore thorns, and not judgment but a cry”; ⁴⁸⁷ and in Jeremiah: “Yet I planted you a fruitful vine, entirely true; how did you turn into the bitterness of a strange vine?” ⁴⁸⁸ And more clearly in the Psalms: “You transferred a vine out of Egypt; you cast out the nations, and planted it.” ⁴⁸ This, then, is the vineyard to which the householder repeatedly sent his servants, ⁴ to receive from it the wine that gladdens the heart of man. ⁴ ¹ Since it turned to bitterness, ⁴ ² and, last, it even dared to kill the son of the householder, producing not grapes but thorns, and not judgment but the cry ⁴ ³ “Crucify him, crucify him,” ⁴ ⁴ and “We have no king but Caesar.” ⁴ ⁵ For that reason, “a wild boar from the forest destroyed it, and a solitary wild beast devoured it.” ⁴ He will also clearly show that the people of the synagogue are the olive tree who reads in the apostle that branches were broken off from the olive tree and we were engrafted from the wild olive. ⁴ ⁷ Thus we should understand in the branches that the Jewish multitude was cut off; in the roots of the apostles that an election was preserved, in which we who were inserted shall remain, if we bear fruit, ⁴ ⁸ and it will be said of us: “You sons [shall be] as young olive plants around your table.” ⁴

Many think that the fig tree, the vineyard and the olive tree are understood in respect to the mystery of the Trinity. They say that the fig tree is understood of the Holy Spirit on account of the sweetness of its fruit. The vineyard is our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who says in the Gospel: “I am the vine.” ⁵ But the olive tree is God the Father Almighty, by whom all things are illuminated ⁵ ¹ and from whom light proceeds, ⁵ ² and to whom we can say: O olive tree, “in your light we shall see light,” ⁵ ³ that is, in the Son we shall see the Holy Spirit. It is to these fruit-bearing trees and very fertile vineyard that the unfruitful trees come in the book of Judges and ask them to reign over them. ⁵ ⁴ But an olive tree, fig tree and vineyard never reign over trees of the forests, which are destined for burning, ⁵ ⁵ but rather Nemesis ⁵ commands them, full of briars, like the hedgehog that dwells in Babylon and always lives in holes. ⁵ ⁷ A little tree like this not only has thorns but also fire, wounding and setting on fire whatever it touches. After all, fire came forth and consumed the trees of the forests. ⁵ ⁸ But that you may know, in accordance with the understanding above, in which we have interpreted the statement of the synagogue, “the fig tree shall not bear fruit, and there shall be no sprouts on the vines,” that this is not being said of fruits but of good works, the riddle is manifested clearly in respect to the olive tree when it is said: the labor of the olive tree shall deceive. For the fruit that they should have produced is shown in the labors; but the labor of the olive tree deceives, since it promises one thing but produces something else. They say to Moses, “Everything whatsoever the Lord has said, we shall do”; ⁵ but they are unwilling to believe in him who was proclaimed by Moses. ⁵¹ The “fields” too will not bear fruit. Consider that Jerusalem, which was once situated on mountains, and there were “mountains around it,” ⁵¹¹ and its “foundations were in the holy mountains,” ⁵¹² is now called lowly and of the plain. Not only does it not feed men, that is, rational animals, but not even cattle and oxen, of which Solomon also speaks in Proverbs: “Take care of those things that are in the field from the regions, and cut the grass, and gather the hay that you may have sheep to feed.” ⁵¹³ There will also be “no oxen in the stalls,” since where the stalls are full, the strength of the ox is manifest. ⁵¹⁴ The ox is a worker; the Lord’s ox endures the yoke; the ox in whose track the one who sows is blessed. All this will be taken away from the people because they acted unjustly against their Creator God. But if you want to understand the day of tribulation as the day of the consummation, you will refer everything to those who claim to be of the church

and do not have works of justice. The fig tree, the vineyard and the olive tree, namely, the mystery of the Trinity, shall not bear their fruit in them, and not only crops and meals for rational creatures, but they do not even have food in their fields for cattle and beasts of burden, and their stalls are empty, and instead of high mountains they live in plains and in lowly places.

3:18-19 But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like the feet of deer, and he the conqueror will lead me upon my high places singing psalms.

Septuagint: “But I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in my saving God. The Lord God is my strength, and he will set my feet in the consummation; he will place me upon high places that I may conquer by his song.” The fig tree, the vineyard and the olive tree were not bearing fruit, as I explained above. The fields of the Jews were not producing food, and the flock was cut off from the fold, and the herds from the stalls. This happened after they heard from the Lord: “Your house will be left to you desolate.” ⁵¹⁵ Moreover, the people were handed over to captivity and dispersed into the entire world. Under the persona of the apostles and of the people who believe in Christ, the prophet, whose name means “embrace”—because he loved the Lord, cleaved to him and united himself with him—says concerning the Jewish people: But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus . The Septuagint translated this τῷ σωτῆρι μου , that is, “in my Savior.” Moreover, Gabriel translated the same word: “And he shall be called Jesus, for he will save his people.” ⁵¹ The Lord God is my strength, for I shall have no other virtue except in Christ, and all the justifications of the law I shall count as trash. ⁵¹⁷ And he will make my feet like the feet of deer so that I may tread upon the asp and the viper, ⁵¹⁸ and like a small boy I will put my hand in an opening and draw out a serpent, and I will play with the adder. ⁵¹ “For my kinsman is like a wild goat or a young deer.” ⁵² And since he is a deer, he granted to me too to be a deer with lofty horns, splitting hooves, chewing food and putting snakes to flight at my smell. Of whom it is said in the seventeenth Psalm: “He has made my feet like the feet of deer, and he shall set me on the heights”; ⁵²¹ and in the twenty-eighth: “The

voice of the Lord that makes deer.” ⁵²² Therefore, he will set my feet among the rest of his deer, and he will lead me to heavenly things, so that I may sing the glory of the Lord among the angels and announce peace on earth among men of good will. ⁵²³ But I will sing of his victory and triumph and the trophy of his cross. This is said according to the Hebrew and the Fifth Version, so that we should relate everything to the time of the overthrow of the Jews and to the Lord’s advent. But if we want to understand it of the consummation of the world, it must be explained in this way. In Exodus when Egypt was struck and God struck their vineyards and their fig trees, he killed the firstfruits of men and of cattle with hail. The locust and grasshopper consumed the Egyptian crops; ⁵²⁴ the fig tree in Egypt did not bear fruit, nor were there sprouts on their vines. But if anywhere the labor of the olive tree could have been found in Egypt, it would have deceived; 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 were exulting in the Lord and rejoicing in their saving God. So it will be at the consummation of the world, when iniquity is multiplied, love grows cold, ⁵²⁵ and the fig tree will bear no fruit, and the vineyard will have no grapes, and the labor of the olive tree will deceive; and the fields will not sprout food, and the other things that follow. At that time whoever has been found just and worthy of God’s choice shall say with exultation: “But I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in my saving God. The Lord God is my strength.” And as if set by God on the consummation of the world, so that afterward he may ascend to higher things and be led by God to the summit, he will say: “and he will set my feet in the consummation; he will place me upon high places.” Since from Jesus the ἀγωνοθέτῃ, ⁵² who first overcame in his contest ( agone ), there is a prize in store for those who sing, “I shall conquer by his song,” and my hands will play the harp and the Psalter and every kind of instrument, and I will write a song in honor of the one who is triumphant. And I who said at the beginning, “How long shall I cry out and you shall not hear? Shall I shout out to you suffering violence and you shall not save?” ⁵²⁷ and I pleaded about his justice and judgment, afterward I shall praise his fairness, and I shall surpass the other singers by my song.

COMMENTARY ON JONAH

Translated by Daniel Whitehead and Thomas P. Scheck Annotated by Thomas P. Scheck

The Preface of the Commentary on the Prophet Jonah

Approximately three years have passed since I interpreted the five prophets: Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai. ¹ I was detained by other work, and I have not been able to complete what I had begun. For I wrote the book On Famous Men , ² two volumes Against Jovinianus , an Apology too, ³ and an essay addressed to Pammachius, ⁴ On the Best Way to Translate . ⁵ I also wrote two books to or about Nepotianus, and other works, which it would take too long to recount. Therefore, after such a long time, I am returning to my rights and privileges, as it were, and am commencing a commentary on Jonah. I “beseech,” ⁷ as did the one who is a type of the Savior, and who, by spending three days and nights in the belly of a whale, prefigured the resurrection of the Lord, ⁸ to grant us our former fervor, so that we might merit the arrival of the Holy Spirit to us. For if Jonah is translated as “dove,” but “dove” refers to the Holy Spirit, then we can also interpret the dove as signifying the dove’s coming unto us. I know that churchmen of old, both Greeks and Latins, said much about this book. Yet in spite of all their grand questions, they have not so much clarified its thoughts as obscured them. The result is that their interpretations require an interpretation, and the reader comes away far less certain than he was before he began reading. I am not saying this to criticize these great minds and to praise myself by insulting others. Rather, I want to emphasize that it is the duty of a commentator clearly and concisely to elucidate things that are obscure. One should not so much display one’s own eloquence as discuss the meaning of that which he is expounding. Therefore we ask, apart from his own book and the Gospels, that is, the Lord’s testimony about him, ¹ where else in the Holy Scriptures does one read about the prophet Jonah? Unless I am mistaken, the following is written about him in the book of Kings: “In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, reigned Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel in Samaria, for forty-one years. And he did evil before the Lord, and he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He restored the borders of

Israel in Samaria from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the wilderness, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai the prophet, who was from Gath, which is in Ofer.” ¹¹ Now, the Hebrews hand down the tradition that he was the son of the widow of Zarephath, whom the prophet Elijah raised from the dead. ¹² After this the mother said to him: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord in your mouth is of truth.” ¹³ And for this reason the boy himself was named Truth. For in our language Amittai means “truth,” and because Elijah spoke true, the one who was raised up is said to be a son of Truth. On the other hand, Gath, where Jonah’s tomb can be seen, is by no means a large village. When you are going to Tiberias it is two miles from Sepphoris, which today is called Diocaesarea. Others, however, prefer to place him, both his birthplace and his grave, near Diospolis, that is, in Lydia. They do not understand that Ofer is added to distinguish this Gath from the other cities of this name that are shown even today near Eleutheropolis, or Diospolis. The book of Tobit also, although not considered canonical, yet it is employed by men of the church, recounts such a thing, when Tobit says to his son: “Son, behold, I am old and ready to leave this life. Take your sons and go to Media, my son; for I know what the prophet Jonah spoke about Nineveh, that it shall be overthrown.” ¹⁴ And indeed, according to both Hebrew and Greek history, and especially Herodotus, we read about the extent to which Nineveh was overthrown while Josiah was reigning among the Hebrews ¹⁵ and Astyages was king of the Medes. ¹ From this we understand that the first time the Ninevites obtained pardon at the preaching of Jonah when they repented, but later on they persisted in their former vices and provoked God’s judgment against themselves. And the Hebrews hand down the tradition that Hosea, Amos, Isaiah and Jonah prophesied at the same time. This much has been said to lay down the foundations of history. Moreover, we are not unaware, venerable father Chromatius, that it is a matter of extremely great effort indeed to apply the entirety of the prophet to the Savior and to to understand everything of him: that he flees, ¹⁷ sleeps, ¹⁸ is cast headlong into the sea, ¹ is swallowed by a whale, ² is thrown back onto the shore, ²¹ preaches repentance, ²² is grieved on account of the salvation of a city countless in number, ²³ is delighted by the shade provided by a gourd, ²⁴ is rebuked by God for why he has greater concern for a green plant that had dried up than for such a great number of human beings, ²⁵ and the rest, which we shall try to explain in this book.

And yet, to summarize the entire meaning of the prophet in a short preface, there shall be no better interpreter of his type than he who himself inspired the prophets and has marked out for his servants ahead of time an outline of the truth to come. He says, therefore, to the Jews who disbelieved his words and who did not know that he was the Christ, the Son of God: “The men of Nineveh who repented at the preaching of Jonah shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; and behold, more than Jonah is here.” ² The generation of the Jews is condemned, while the world believes; and while Nineveh repents, Israel perishes in unbelief. The latter have the books, we have the Lord of the books; they hold on to the prophets, we to the understanding of the prophets. “The letter kills” them; “the Spirit makes” us “alive.” ²⁷ Among them Barabbas, a robber, is released, for us Christ, the Son of God, is set free. ²⁸ The book begins here.

1:1-2 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying: Arise, and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it, for its wickedness has come up before me.

The Septuagint translated this similarly except for the words “The cry of its wickedness has come up to me.” Jonah is sent to the Gentiles in condemnation of Israel, because when Nineveh repents, Israel persevered in their wickedness. Furthermore, as for what he says, its wickedness has come up before me, or “the cry of its wickedness has come up to me,” this is the very thing that is said in Genesis, “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has been multiplied,” ² and to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the earth.” ³ But according to tropology our Lord, Jonah, that is, “dove,” or “sufferer”—for it means both; either because the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and remained in him, ³¹ or because he suffered for our wounds, and wept over Jerusalem, ³² “and by his bruises we have been healed” ³³ —truly is the Son of truth, for God is truth. ³⁴ He is sent to Nineveh the beautiful, that is, to the world, in which we see nothing more beautiful with the eyes of the flesh. And this is why among the Greeks kosmos ³⁵ took its name from “adornment.” And when all the works were completed, it is said of it: “God saw that it is good.” ³

To the great city of Nineveh, I say, so that, since Israel refuses to listen, the entire world of the Gentiles may hearken. And this is because its wickedness has come up before God. For although God, as it were, built a very beautiful house for man, ³⁷ who would be his servant, man was corrupted by his own will and from childhood set his heart earnestly on evil, ³⁸ and “he set his mouth against heaven.” ³ And having constructed a tower of pride, ⁴ he merits the descent of the Son of God to himself, so that he might ascend to heaven through the downfall of repentance, he who was unable to succeed through his swollen pride.

1:3a And Jonah rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord.

The Septuagint is similar. By an inspiration of the Holy Spirit within him, the prophet knows that the repentance of the Gentiles spells the downfall of the Jews. Therefore, being a lover of his homeland, it is not so much that he is jealous of the salvation of Nineveh as unwilling that his own people perish. In any case, he had read about Moses pleading on their behalf, that he had said: “If you forgive them this sin, forgive it; but if you do not forgive it, blot me out of your book that you have written.” ⁴¹ Israel was saved by his prayers, and Moses was not blotted out from the book, but rather the Lord used the opportunity offered by his servant to spare his fellow servants. For as long as [the Lord] says, “Let me,” ⁴² he shows that he can be restrained. The apostle also says something like this: “For I wished to be an anathema for my brethren, who are the Israelites according to the flesh.” ⁴³ It is not that the one for whom “to live is Christ, and to die gain” ⁴⁴ desired to perish, but rather he earns life, so long as he wants to save others. Besides, when Jonah sees that his fellow prophets are being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, ⁴⁵ to summon the people to repentance, and that Balaam the divine had also prophesied concerning the salvation of the Israelite people, ⁴ he is grieved that he alone has been chosen to be sent to the Assyrians, Israel’s enemies, and to the greatest city of the enemy, where there is idolatry and ignorance of God. And, what is greater than these things, he was afraid that by the occasion of his preaching, when they had been converted to repentance, Israel would be utterly forsaken. For he knew by the same spirit by which the office of herald of the Gentiles was entrusted to him that when the nations had

believed, then the house of Israel would perish, and he was apprehensive that whatever was going to happen might come to pass in his own time. This is why he imitates Cain and withdraws from the face of God. ⁴⁷ He wanted to flee to Tharsis , which Josephus interprets as Tarsus, the city of Cilicia, with merely the first letter changed. ⁴⁸ Indeed this can be understood in Chronicles ( Paralipomenon ), since a certain place in India is called by this name. ⁴ On the other hand, the Hebrews claim that Tharsis is said generally of the sea, according to the following passage, “With a violent wind you shall shatter the ships of Tharsis,” ⁵ that is, “of the sea.” And in Isaiah: “Howl, o ships of Tharsis.” ⁵¹ I recall that I have already spoken about this many years ago in a letter to Marcella. ⁵² Therefore the prophet did not desire to flee to a definite location but to enter the sea and try to travel anywhere he could. And this is more befitting for a fearful fugitive, that he does not select the location for his leisurely flight but seizes the first opportunity to set sail. We can also say this: the one who thought that God was known “only in Judea, and his name is great in Israel,” ⁵³ after he perceived him in the waves, confesses and says: “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” ⁵⁴ But if he made the sea and dry land, why do you think that by leaving the dry land, you are able at sea to escape the creator of the sea? At the same time he is taught by the salvation and conversion of the sailors that even such a great multitude as Nineveh can be saved by a similar confession. But we can say of our Lord and Savior that he left his house and homeland, ⁵⁵ and when he assumed flesh, in a certain way he fled from heaven and came to Tharsis, that is, to the sea of this world. This agrees with what is said elsewhere: “This is the great and wide sea; there are the reptiles without number, creatures great and small. There the ships shall pass by. There is the dragon that you formed to play in it.” ⁵ For on that account he said during his passion, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” ⁵⁷ lest, when the people shouted in unison, “Crucify him, crucify him,” ⁵⁸ and: “We have no king but Caesar,” ⁵ the “fullness of the Gentiles enter in,” and the branches of olive tree be broken off, in whose place wild olive trees grow shoots. ¹ And he had such great devotion and love for his people, in view of the election of the fathers ² and the promise to Abraham, that when he was put on the cross he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” ³ Or certainly, since Tharsis means “contemplation of joy,” the prophet, on coming to Joppa,

which itself means “beautiful,” hastens to go to this joy and to enjoy the blessedness of rest, to hand himself over completely to contemplation. He thought that it is better to be enjoying the beauty and the variety of knowledge than that his people perish on the occasion of the salvation of the rest of the Gentiles, his people from whom Christ had to be born in the flesh.

[1:3b] And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tharsis, and he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord.

Septuagint: “And Jonah went up to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tharsis, and he paid his own fare and went up into it, to sail with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord.” We read in the books of Kingdoms and Chronicles that Joppa is the port of Judea ⁴ to which also Hiram, the king of Tyre, transported wood from Libanus on rafts, which was then conveyed to Jerusalem by an earthly route. ⁵ This is the place where even today on the seashore the rocks are shown on which Andromeda was once bound and later set free with the help of Perseus. The educated reader knows the story. But in agreement with the nature of the country, the prophet is correctly said to have come down from steep mountainous places when he came to Joppa on the plains. And he found a ship that was being untied from the shore, and as he was approaching the sea, he paid its fare, or the price for the ship, that is, for its voyage, as the Hebrew states, or “the fare” for himself, as the Septuagint translated it. And he either went down into it, as is contained properly in the Hebrew—for yired means went down, so that the fugitive was carefully looking for a hiding place—or “he went up,” as is written in the common version, ⁷ so that he would reach wherever the ship might be going. He thought that if he leaves Judea, he has escaped. But our Lord is also on the furthest shore of Judea, which, because it was in Judea, was called “very beautiful.” Jonah does not want to take the children’s bread and give it to dogs; ⁸ but because he had come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he pays the price to the transporters, so that the one who wishes in the first place to save his own people may save the inhabitants of the

sea. And having been plunged into hell in the midst of whirlwinds and storms, that is, of his passion and the jeers of the cross, he saves those whom he neglected while asleep in the boat. ⁷ The wise reader must be asked not to look for the same arrangement of the tropology that he finds in the history. For even the apostle applies Hagar and Sarah to the two covenants, ⁷¹ and yet not everything that is narrated in the history can be interpreted tropologically. Moreover, in Ephesians he discusses Adam and Eve and says: “For this reason shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I am speaking of Christ and the church.” ⁷² Yet can we apply the whole beginning part of Genesis, both the creation of the world and the making of human beings, to Christ and to the church, just because the apostle made use of this testimony like this? For grant that what is written, “Therefore the man shall leave his father,” applies to Christ. Thus we may say that he left God the Father in heaven in order to be united to the church of the Gentiles. How are we to interpret what follows, “his mother,” unless perhaps we should say that he left the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of the saints, ⁷³ and other things that are far more difficult than these? Likewise, consider what is written by the same apostle: “For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.” ⁷⁴ This hardly constrains us to apply the entire book of Exodus to Christ. For what can we say of the fact that this rock was struck by Moses, ⁷⁵ not once but twice; ⁷ that waters flowed, and the torrents were replenished? ⁷⁷ Shall we on these occasions force the entire history of these passages under the law of allegory? Is it not better that each passage shall receive a different spiritual understanding according to the diversity of the history? Therefore, just as these testimonies have their own interpretations, and neither the things that precede nor the things that follow call for the same allegory, so too not without danger to the interpreter shall the whole of the prophet Jonah be able to be applied to the Lord. And it is not the case that, because it says in the Gospel, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign shall be given it except for the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth, three days and three nights,” ⁷⁸ the rest of what is recounted in the prophet likewise applies to Christ by the same arrangement. Of course, we too shall strive to do this wherever it can be done without danger.

1:4 But the Lord sent a great wind (ventum) on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken apart.

Septuagint: “And the Lord raised up a wind (spiritum) on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken apart.” The flight of the prophet can be applied generally to the human person, who despised the commands of God, withdrew from his face ⁷ and handed himself over to the world, where, afterward, when a storm of evils and the shipwreck of the whole world raged against him, he was forced to perceive God and to return to him from whom he had fled. From this we understand that even those things that men judge salutary to themselves are turned into destruction, when God wills, and not only is his help not beneficial to those to whom it is shown, but even those who offer it are equally broken apart . Thus we read that Egypt was conquered by the Assyrians, since it brought aid to Israel contrary to the will of the Lord. ⁸ The ship was in danger that had taken on board one who was in danger; the seas are stirred up by the wind , a storm begins over a calm sea; nothing is safe when God is against it.

1:5a And the sailors were afraid, and the men cried to their god, and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it of them.

Septuagint: “And those who were sailing were afraid, and they cried, everyone to his god, and they tossed out the wares of the ship into the sea to lighten the ship.” They think that the ship is weighed down with its usual cargo, but they do not understand that the entire burden is that of a fugitive prophet. The sailors are afraid, and “each one” cries to his god. Though ignorant of the truth, they are not unaware of providence, and under a religious error they know that something ought to be worshiped. They cast out their cargo into the sea, so that their ship might leap across the immensity of the waves more lightly. But Israel, on the other hand, understands God neither through good things nor bad, and while Christ weeps for the people, ⁸¹ Israel has dry eyes.

1:5b And Jonah went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep.

Septuagint: “But Jonah went down into the belly of the ship and was asleep and snored.” With respect to the history, the secure mental state of the prophet is being described; he is not disturbed by the storm, nor by the dangers, but he bears the same spirit in calm and when shipwreck threatens. After all, the others are crying out to their gods, throwing the wares overboard, each one doing what he can. This man Jonah is so calm and secure, and of such a tranquil spirit, that he goes down into the inner part of the ship and enjoys a peaceful slumber. But this can also be said: he was aware of his flight and sin, by which he had neglected the commands of the Lord, and he perceived that the storm was raging against himself, though the others were unaware of this. Therefore he goes down into the inner part of the ship, and the one who is sad hides himself, lest he should see that the waves, like God’s avengers, are swelling up against him. But his sleep is not out of a sense of security but out of grief. For we read that the apostles too were overwhelmed by sleep during the passion of the Lord, on account of the greatness of their sadness. ⁸² But if we interpret this as a type, the “falling asleep” of the prophet and the deepest sleep signify that man is groggy with the deep sleep of error, to whom it was not enough to have fled from the face of God, ⁸³ unless his mind, overwhelmed by a sort of madness, was ignorant of the anger of God. And being secure, he fell asleep, as it were, and his very profound slumber resounded in the snores that came from his nostrils.

1:6 And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him: Why are you fast asleep? Rise up, call upon your God, if perhaps God will think of us, that we may not perish.

Septuagint: “And the helmsman came to him, and said to him: Why are you snoring? Rise up, call on your God, if somehow God may save us, and we may not perish.” It is natural for each one when he is in danger to place more hope in another man. This is why the shipmaster, or “helmsman,” who should have consoled the frightened sailors, when he perceives the greatness of the danger, wakes the one sleeping and rebukes him for his thoughtless ease. He admonishes him as well to entreat his God with all his strength, so that the one who shared in the danger might share in the prayers. Furthermore, according to tropology there are very many who sail along with Jonah, who have their own gods, and are trying to reach the “contemplation of joy.” But after Jonah has been detected by means of lots, ⁸⁴ and the storm of the world is quelled by his death, ⁸⁵ and calm is restored to the sea, then one God will be adored, and spiritual sacrifices will be offered, ⁸ which they surely did not have according to the letter while they were in the midst of the waves.

1:7 And a man said to his fellow: Come, and let us cast lots, and we may know why this evil (malum) is upon us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

Septuagint: “And each one said to his neighbor: Come, let us cast lots, and we may find out for whose sake this evil (malitia) is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.” They knew the nature of the sea, and having been sailors for a very long time, they knew what causes storms and winds. Surely if they had seen the usual waves rising that they had experienced at various times, they would not have sought by lots the person responsible for the shipwreck, nor would they have longed to escape a certain danger by means of an uncertain thing. We do not immediately need to believe in lots based on this precedent, or make a connection between this testimony and that passage from the Acts of the Apostles where Matthias is chosen by lot for the apostolate. ⁸⁷ For the special cases of individuals cannot make a universal law. For just as Balaam’s ass speaks in condemnation of him; ⁸⁸ and Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar recognize the future by means of their dreams, leading to their own judgment, ⁸ and yet they do not understand the God who reveals this; and Caiaphas too prophesies in ignorance that it was better for one man to perish for all; so too this fugitive is

detected by lot, not by the power of lots, and especially the lots of pagans, but by the will of him who ruled over uncertain lots. Now as for what is said, “and let us find out for whose sake this evil is upon us,” here we ought to understand “evil” as an affliction and a disaster. This agrees with that verse, “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,” ¹ and in the prophet Amos, “Is there evil in a city, which the Lord has not done?” ² And in Isaiah: “I am the Lord who makes peace, and create evils.” ³ In fact in another passage “evil” is understood as the opposite of truth, according to what we read above in this same prophet: “The cry of its evil has come up to me.” ⁴

1:8 And they said to him: Tell us for what cause this evil (malum) is upon us. What is your business? Of what land are you? And where are you going, or of what people are you?

Septuagint: “And they said to him: Declare to us for whose sake this evil (malitia) is on us. What is your business, and where do you come from, and where are you going? And of what country and what people are you?” They compel the one whom the lot had made known to confess with his own voice, why there is such a storm, or why the wrath of God is raging against them. Tell us, they say, for what cause this evil is on us, what business do you do, of what land and from what people do you set out? Where you are hastening to go? Also, the brevity that we used to admire in Virgil deserves notice:

Young men, what cause has driven you To try unknown ways? Where are you heading? he said. What race are you? Where is your home? Do you bring here peace or arms? ⁵

They ask about his person, country, journey and city, so that from this information they may know the cause of the danger.

1:9 And he said to them: I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.

Septuagint: “And he said to them: I am a servant of the Lord, and I worship the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” He did not say, “I am a Jew,” the name that he gave to the people after the schism of the ten tribes from the two. But I am a Hebrew ; that is, a περατὴς , one passing through, like Abraham, who was able to say: “I am a stranger and a sojourner, just as all my fathers.” ⁷ It is written of this in another psalm: “They passed from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another people.” ⁸ Moses said, “Let me pass by and I shall see this great sight.” And I fear the Lord the God of heaven, not the gods whom you are calling on, and who cannot save, but the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. The sea, on which I am fleeing, the dry land, from which I am fleeing. And it is elegantly named dry land, not “earth,” in distinction from the sea. And the maker of the universe is shown succinctly, who is the Lord of heaven, earth and sea. But it is asked, how may it be proven that he is saying truly I fear the Lord God of heaven, since he is not doing his commands? Perhaps we might say that even sinners fear God, but for slaves it is not for them to love, but to fear; although it is possible to understand fear in this passage in the sense of “worship.” This agrees with the understanding of those who were listening and were still ignorant of God.

1:10 And the men feared with a great fear, and they said to him: Why have you done this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them.

Septuagint: “Then the men feared with a great fear, and they said to him, Why have you done this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he would have told them.” The order of the story is reversed. For he should have said: there is no reason to fear, because he confessed to them,

saying: I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Immediately it is added that the reason they were afraid is that he had told them that he was fleeing the presence of the Lord and had not done his commands. Finally they plead and say: Why have you done this? That is, if you fear God, why do you flee? If you preach that the one whom you worship has such great power, how is it that you think you can escape from him? And they fear with a great fear, because they understand that the man is holy and is from a holy nation. For since they had unmoored from Joppa, they would have known the privileged status of the Hebrew nation; and yet they cannot hide the fugitive. Great is the one who is fleeing, but greater is that one who seeks him. They dare not hand him over, they cannot hide him. They rebuke the fault, they confess their fear. They ask that the one who had been the cause of the sin be the remedy for it. Or at least when they say, Why have you done this? they are not rebuking him but asking him, wishing to know the reason for the flight of a servant from the Lord, of a son from his father, of a man from his God. What is this great mystery, they say, that makes you leave the land, look to the seas, abandon your homeland and seek out foreign places?

1:11 And they said to him: What shall we do to you, that the sea shall cease to us? For the sea came and swelled.

Septuagint: “And they said to him: What shall we do to you, that the sea shall grow quiet to us? For the sea came and lifted its waves all the more.” Are you saying that it is on your account that the winds, the waves, the sea and the whirlpools have been unleashed? You have revealed the cause of the sickness, now tell us the cure. Because the sea rises up against us, we understand that there is anger for taking you aboard. If we were at fault for taking you aboard, what can we do in order that the Lord may not be angry? What shall we do to you? That is: Shall we kill you? But you are a worshiper of the Lord. Shall we save you? But you are fleeing from God. It is ours to surrender; it is your part to command an action to be done that will cause the sea to “grow quiet,” the sea that is now testifying to the Creator’s anger by its swells. And immediately the narrator gives the reason for such a question. He says: The sea came and swelled. It came, as it had been commanded; it came to avenge its Lord; it came to pursue the runaway prophet. It swelled with every passing moment, and as the

sailors were lingering, it was “lifted up” into even larger “waves,” to show that the Creator’s revenge cannot be postponed.

1:12 And he said to them: Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall cease to you; for I know that for my sake this great storm is upon you.

Septuagint: “And Jonah said to them: Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall grow quiet to you; for I know that for my sake great waves are against you.” A storm is thundering against me, it seeks me, and it threatens to shipwreck you in order to capture me; it shall capture me in order that you might live by my death. For I know that for my sake this great storm is upon you, he says. I am not ignorant of the fact that the elements are troubled on account of my punishment, and that there is confusion in the world. There is anger directed at me, a shipwreck rages against you. The very waves are commanding you to toss me into the sea. If I feel the storm, you shall recover calm seas. At the same time, notice the magnanimity of our fugitive: he does not turn his back on them, he is not evasive and does not deny anything, but the one who had confessed his flight freely accepts his punishment. He desires to perish himself in order to prevent others from perishing on his account. He does not want the crime of killing someone else added to the sin of flight. Up to this point we have spoken to the history. Moreover, we are not unaware that the blowing winds represent those that the Lord commanded to grow still in the Gospel. ¹ The boat that is in danger, in which Jonah was sleeping, and the swelling sea, which is rebuked, “Peace, be still,” ¹ ¹ refers to the Lord and Savior, and to the church in peril, or even to Christ’s waking the apostles, ¹ ² who, by deserting him during his passion, ¹ ³ in a certain manner cast him headlong into the waves. That Jonah says, For I know that for my sake this great storm is upon you , because the winds are watching me sail with you to Tharsis, that is, to the “contemplation of joy,” in order that I might lead you with me toward joy, so that where I and the Father are, there you may be also. ¹ ⁴ This is why they rage, this is why the world, which is set in evil, ¹ ⁵ groans. ¹ Therefore the elements are disturbed and death desires to devour me, to kill you along with me. It does not understand that it captures the food as with the hook, so that it will die by my death. Take me up, and cast me into the

sea . For it is not our business to seize hold of death, but gladly to accept that death that had been inflicted by others. And this is why during persecutions we are not permitted to commit suicide except when one’s chastity is imperiled. ¹ ⁷ Instead one must offer one’s neck to the executioner. Thus placate the winds, he says, thus pour libations into the sea; the storm that rages against you on my account shall subside when I die.

1:13 And the men rowed hard to return to the dry land, but they were not able, because the sea came and swelled upon them.

Septuagint: “And the men tried hard to return to the land, but they were not able, for the sea came and rose up all the more against them.” The prophet has pronounced sentence against himself, but they did not dare to lay a hand on him when they heard that he was a worshiper of God. For this reason they tried to return to the dry land and to escape the danger, lest they should shed blood. They wanted to perish rather than to destroy. Oh, how things change! The people who had served God ¹ ⁸ say: “Crucify him, crucify him!” ¹ They are ordered to kill him, the sea is raging, the storm commands this, but they ignored their own danger and are concerned for the safety of a foreigner. For that reason the Septuagint says παρεβιάζοντο ; that is, they desired to use force and to overcome the nature of things, lest they should do violence to a prophet of God. As for what it says, the men rowed hard to return to the dry land , they thought they could save the ship from danger apart from the mystery of him who was to suffer, since Jonah’s being plunged into the depths would lighten the ship.

1:14 And they cried to the Lord, and said: We beseech you, O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood; for you, O Lord, have done as you willed.

Septuagint: “And they cried to the Lord, and said: By no means, o Lord, let us not perish for the sake of this man’s life, and lay not upon us just blood; for you, o Lord, have done as you willed.” The faith of the sailors is great. They

themselves are in danger and yet pray for the life of another. For they know that the death of sin is worse than the death of a life. And lay not upon us innocent blood, they say. They make God a witness that whatever they are about to do may not be reputed to them, and in a way they are saying: We do not wish to kill your prophet, but he himself has admitted to your anger, and the storm speaks, for you, O Lord, have done as you willed. Your will is being carried out through our hands. Do not the words of the sailors seem to us to be the confession of Pilate, who washes his hands and says: “I am clean of the blood of this man” ¹¹ ? The Gentiles do not want Christ to perish; they speak on behalf of his innocent blood . But the Jews say: “His blood be upon us, and upon our children.” ¹¹¹ And therefore, if they raise their hands, they shall not be heard, because they are full of his blood. ¹¹² For you, o Lord, have done as you willed . It is your will, o Lord, that we took him on board, that this whirlwind arises, that the winds rage, that the sea is stirred up with waves, that the fugitive is betrayed by the lot, that he tells what must be done. For you have done as you willed . And this is why the Savior says in the psalm: “Lord, I wanted to do your will.” ¹¹³

1:15 And they took Jonah, and cast him into the sea, and the sea stood still from its raging.

Septuagint: “And they took Jonah and cast him into the sea: and the sea stood still from its commotion.” It did not say that they seized hold of him, it does not say that they attacked him, but they took him. It is as if they are carrying him obediently and honorably, and they cast the one who is not fighting back into the sea. They surrender themselves to his will. And the sea stood still, because it had found the one it was looking for. It is as if one who is pursuing a fugitive and, running fast, stops running after he has caught up with him. He stands still and holds the one he has apprehended. Just so the sea, which was enraged when Jonah was absent from it, but when it holds in its bosom the one it desired, it rejoices and cherishes him assiduously. And out of that joy calm returns. Let us consider the contrary breezes to signify the errors of the world and of different dogmatic beliefs before the passion of Christ. ¹¹⁴ Let us consider the boat that is in danger to be the whole human race, that is, the Lord’s creation. And after his

passion there is the calm of faith, the peace of the world, the security of all things and conversion to God. Then we shall see how the sea stood still from its raging after the headlong fall of Jonah.

1:16 And the men feared the Lord with great fear, and sacrificed victims to the Lord, and made vows.

The Septuagint is similar. Before the Lord’s passion, men were afraid and cried to their gods; ¹¹⁵ after his passion they fear the Lord , that is, they revere and worship him, and they do not fear in an unqualified sense, as we read that they did in the beginning, ¹¹ but with a great fear . This agrees with what is said: “with your entire soul, and with your whole heart and with your whole mind.” ¹¹⁷ And they sacrificed victims , which clearly they did not have literally in the midst of the waves. But because “the sacrifice to the Lord is an afflicted spirit,” ¹¹⁸ and in another passage it is said: “Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High.” ¹¹ And again: “Let us render to you the calves of our lips.” ¹² Therefore, they sacrifice victims on the sea, and they promise other victims of their own accord by making vows never to depart from the one whom they have begun to worship. For they feared with a great fear, because they discerned from the calm of the sea and the flight of the storm that the words of the prophet were true. Jonah, a shipwrecked, dead fugitive at sea, saves the floundering boat. He saves the pagans who had been tossed about before by the error of the world into different beliefs. Yet Hosea, Amos, Isaiah and Joel, who prophesied at the same time as Jonah, are not able to reform the people in Judea. From this it is shown that a shipwreck cannot be quelled except by the death of the fugitive.

2:1a And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.

Septuagint: “And the Lord commanded a great whale, and it devoured Jonah.” “The Lord commanded” death and hell to receive the prophet. Thinking of him with its eager jaws as prey, it rejoiced greatly in “devouring” him, as much as it

mourned in vomiting him out. ¹²¹ And then was fulfilled what we read in Hosea: “O death, I will be your death; o hell, I will be your bite.” ¹²² Now in Hebrew we read great fish . The Septuagint translators as well as the Lord in the Gospel call it a “whale,” ¹²³ explaining the thing itself somewhat briefly. For in Hebrew it is expressed as dag gadol , which means great fish , but doubtless signifying a “whale.” Notice also that what he was thinking of as his destruction, there he found protection. Furthermore, when it says he prepared , it means either from the beginning, when he created it, of which it is written in a Psalm, “This is the dragon which you formed to play therein,” ¹²⁴ or certainly he made it come next to the ship to receive Jonah into its belly, who had been thrown headlong, and to offer him a little living space instead of death. Thus he who had perceived an angry God while he was in the ship sensed a propitious one in death.

2:1b And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Septuagint: “And Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights.” The Lord explains the mystery of this passage in the Gospel, and it is superfluous to say either the same thing or something else, rather than what he himself who suffered has explained. ¹²⁵ We ask only this: how did he spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth? ¹² Some divide up the παρασκευὴν (day of preparation) into two days and nights, since the sun had taken flight from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, ¹²⁷ and night succeeded day. They reckon that the three days and three nights must be calculated by adding the Sabbath day to these two. But we should understand it as synecdoche, a whole from a part. Thus, because he died ἐν παρασκευῇ (on the day of preparation), ¹²⁸ we should count it as one day and night. The Sabbath is the second. But we should refer the third night, which is transferred to the Lord’s day, to the beginning of another day. For even in Genesis night is not associated with the preceding day but with the one that follows, that is, it is the beginning of what is coming, not the end of what is past. ¹² Let me speak more simply so that this can be understood. Imagine that someone has left his home at the ninth hour and has reached another’s home on the second day at the third hour. If I say that he made a journey of two days, I will not immediately be accused of being a liar, just because the one who did the walking did not use up all the hours of both days, but only a certain part for his journey. Certainly this interpretation seems

good to me. But if someone does not accept it and is able to explain the mystery of this passage with a better understanding, his judgment should be followed instead.

2:2-3a And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish. And he said.

The Septuagint is similar. If Jonah refers to the Lord, and he reveals the Savior’s passion from the fact that he spent three days and nights in the belly of a whale, ¹³ then his prayer ought to be a type of the Lord’s prayer. Nor am I unaware that there will be some to whom it seems incredible that a man could be preserved for three days and nights in the belly of a whale in which the shattered remains of shipwrecks are digested. Now, surely these people shall be either believers or unbelievers. If they are believers, they shall be compelled to believe greater things by far. How is it that the three boys who were cast into the raging furnace of fire were so unscathed by it that their clothing did not even contract the scent of fire? ¹³¹ How did the sea recede and stand rigid like walls on both sides so that it offered a pathway to the people passing through? ¹³² How does human reason explain the frenzy of starved lions who gazed with fear on their prey but did not touch it? ¹³³ And there are many things like this. But if they are unbelievers, they should read the fifteen books of Ovid’s ¹³⁴ Metamorphoses , as well as all Greek and Latin history. There they shall see either Daphne turned into a laurel tree, ¹³⁵ or the sisters of Phaethon changed into poplar trees. ¹³ How did Jupiter, their loftiest god, change into a swan, ¹³⁷ flow into gold, ¹³⁸ commit rape in the form of a bull ¹³ and the other things in which the very baseness of the stories signals a repudiation of the divinity’s sanctity? They give credence to these things and say that all things are possible to God, and though they believe in those filthy things and defend everything by the power of God, they do not attribute the same power to the honorable things. ¹⁴ Now as for what is written, And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish, and he said, we understand that after he sensed that he was safe in the belly of the whale, he did not despair of the mercy of the Lord but devoted himself wholly to prayer. For God was present with him, who had said of the just

man, “I am with him in tribulation,” ¹⁴¹ and, “when he shall call on me, I shall say: I am here.” ¹⁴² And the one who has been heard is able to say: “In affliction you enlarged me.” ¹⁴³

2:3b I cried out of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me; I cried out of the belly of hell, and you heard my voice.

The Septuagint is similar, the sole difference being: “my cry out of the belly of hell.” He did not say, I cry out, but I cried out; and he is not praying for the future but giving thanks for the past, indicating to us that he remembered the Lord ¹⁴⁴ from that time when he was thrown headlong into the sea and saw the whale and such a great bulk of a body and gigantic jaws swallowing him through an open mouth. And he cried out , either when the waters receded and he found an opportunity to cry out, or he cried out with the whole feeling of his heart, according to what the apostle says: “crying out in your hearts: Abba, Father.” ¹⁴⁵ And he cried out to him who alone knows the hearts of men, and who says to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me?” ¹⁴ though surely Scripture does not record that Moses cried out before these words. This is what we read in the first Psalm of ascents: “When I was afflicted I cried out to the Lord, and he heard me.” ¹⁴⁷ Now we should understand the “belly ( ventrem ) of hell” to refer to the belly ( alvum ) of the whale, which was so large that it resembled hell. But it is better to refer it to the person of Christ, who sings in David’s name in the psalm: “You shall not leave my soul in hell, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.” ¹⁴⁸ The one who was alive in hell was free among the dead. ¹⁴

2:4a And you cast me forth into the deep in the heart of the sea, and a river has surrounded me: all your billows, and your waves have passed over me.

Septuagint: “You cast me into the deep of the heart of the sea, and rivers surrounded me.” In terms of applying this to the person of Jonah, the interpretation is not difficult, because when he was shut inside the belly of the whale, he was way down deep in the midst of the sea and was walled in by the

waves. As far as applying this to the Lord Savior, we should take up the example of the sixty-eighth Psalm, in which he says: “I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep and there is no standing. I have come into the deep of the sea and a storm has overwhelmed me.” ¹⁵ In another psalm as well it speaks of this: “But you have rejected and despised; you have put off your Christ. You have overthrown the covenant of your servant; you have profaned his sanctuary on the earth. You have broken down all his hedges,” ¹⁵¹ and the rest. For in comparison with heavenly beatitude and his place, of which it was written, “And his place is in holy peace,” ¹⁵² every earthly dwelling place is full of waves, full of storms. Furthermore, the heart of the sea signifies hell, which we read in the Gospel as “in the heart of the earth.” ¹⁵³ But just as the heart of an animal is in its middle, so too hell is said to be in the midst of the earth. Or certainly, according to anagogy, in the heart of the sea means this: he is recalling that he is in the midst of storms. And nevertheless, though he was among the bitter waters and he was tempted in every way without sin, ¹⁵⁴ he did not sense the bitter waters but was surrounded by the river , of which we read in another passage: “The force of the river makes glad the city of God.” ¹⁵⁵ To others who drank from it the waves were salty; but I swallowed down the sweetest streams in the midst of the storms. Nor should it appear ungodly to you, if the Lord should now say, You cast me into the deep , since he says in the psalm: “Because they have persecuted him whom you struck.” ¹⁵ This agrees with what is recorded in Zechariah from the persona of the Father: “I shall strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” ¹⁵⁷

2:4b All your whirlpools and your waves have passed over me.

Septuagint: “All your liftings and your waves have passed over me.” No one doubts that swollen waves of the sea passed over Jonah, and the savage storm thundered. However, we ask how did all the “liftings,” whirlpools and waves of God pass over the Savior. “The life of men on earth is temptation,” ¹⁵⁸ or as is found in the Hebrew, “a military service.” For here we make war, in order that we might be crowned elsewhere. And there is no man who is able to endure all temptations apart from him who was tempted in all things, like us, but without sin. ¹⁵ This is why it is said to the Corinthians: “No temptation should lay hold of you, except a human one. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be

tempted beyond your ability; but he will make an exit with the temptation, so that you may be able to endure it.” ¹ And the reason they are called whirlpools of God and waves , which did not overwhelm Jesus, but passed over him , is that no persecutions and nothing that happens to us rushes on us apart from the will of God. These things merely threaten shipwreck but do not inflict one. Therefore all the persecutions thundered on my head, and the whirlwinds by which the human race was being harassed, and all the boats were being broken to pieces. I endured the storms, and I broke up the savage whirlwinds, so that others might sail more safely.

2:5a And I said: I have been cast away out of the sight of your eyes.

Septuagint: “And I said: I have been cast away from your eyes.” Before I cried out from my affliction, ¹ ¹ and you heard me, since I had taken the form of a slave, ¹ ² having imitated the slave’s weakness too, I said: I have been cast away out of the sight of your eyes . When I was with you, and I enjoyed your light, and I was light in your light, I did not say: I have been cast away . But after I came “into the deep of the sea” ¹ ³ and was surrounded by the flesh of a man, I imitate human feelings and say: I have been cast away out of the sight of your eyes . I have spoken this as a man. Even so, as God, and as the one who, though I was in the form of God, I did not regard it robbery that I was your equal, ¹ ⁴ since I wanted to bring the human race to you, so that where I am and you are, there all those who have believed in me and you might also be; ¹ ⁵ I say:

2:5b But yet I shall see your holy temple again.

The Septuagint translated this as “Do you think that I should indeed look again at your holy temple?” That which is expressed in Greek as ἆρα, the common version ¹ also retains. “Do you think” can be translated as “therefore,” so that it is the final conclusion of a proposition and an assumption, and of a confirming assertion and of a syllogism. ¹ ⁷ It does not arise out of the uncertainty of one who is wavering but is based on the confidence of one who affirms. We

translated this as But yet I shall see your holy temple again . This agrees with what is said in his name in another psalm: “O Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the tabernacle of your glory.” ¹ ⁸ It also agrees with the Gospel reading in which it is written: “Father, glorify me with you with that glory that I had before the world was.” ¹ And the Father responded from heaven: “I have glorified, and I shall glorify.” ¹⁷ Or certainly, since one reads, “The Father [is] in me, and I [am] in the Father,” ¹⁷¹ just as the Son is the temple of the Father, so the Father is the temple of the Son. For he himself says, “I came forth from the Father and have come,” ¹⁷² and, “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” ¹⁷³ Or, one and the same Savior asks as a man, promises as Lord, and he is sure of his own possession, which he always held. But it can be understood from the persona of Jonah, who either desires this or trusts in it with calm feelings, that when he was set in the deep of the sea he longed to see the temple of the Lord, and he is elsewhere in his prophetic spirit, and he is contemplating something else.

2:6a The waters surrounded me even to my soul, the abyss walled me in.

Septuagint: “Water was poured around me even to my soul; the deepest abyss walled me in.” Those waters are located near abysses, and they cycle and flow about the earth. They drag much mud with them, trying to kill not the body but the soul. For they are on friendly terms with bodies and nurture its pleasures. This is why, in accordance with what we said above, the Lord says in the psalm: “Save me, o Lord, for the waters have come in even unto my soul.” ¹⁷⁴ And in another place it says, “Our soul has passed through a torrent,” ¹⁷⁵ and, “Let not the well press its mouth upon me, nor hell shut me in.” ¹⁷ Do not refuse me an exit, I who freely made the descent; let me ascend freely, I who came as a captive voluntarily. I must set the captives free, in order that this might be fulfilled: “Ascending on high, he led captivity captive.” ¹⁷⁷ For he captured for life those ones who previously had been captives in death. Now, we ought to understand those destructive abysses as certain very evil forces, or of the powers who are devoted to inflicting the torments and punishments to which also in the Gospel the demons ask that they might not be compelled to go. ¹⁷⁸ And this is why “darkness was over the abyss.” ¹⁷ Sometimes the abyss is taken also to mean the mysteries and the deepest senses and also the judgments of God: “The

judgments of the Lord are a great abyss,” ¹⁸ and, “Abyss calls out to abyss at the sound of your cataracts.” ¹⁸¹

2:6b The open sea has covered my head.

2:7a I went down to the lowest parts of the mountains, the bars of the earth have shut me in forever.

Septuagint: “My head entered the clefts of the mountains; I went down into the earth, whose bars are the everlasting barriers.” No one doubts that the open sea covered the head of Jonah, and that he went down to the lowest parts of the mountains, and he came to the deep places of the earth, where the globe of the earth is supported by the will of God by bars and pillars. Elsewhere it is said of this: “I have strengthened its pillars.” ¹⁸² But it seems to me that this can be understood concerning the Lord and Savior, according to both versions, in the following way. His principal part and head, that is, his soul, which he befittingly assumed for the sake of our salvation along with a body, went down to “the clefts of the mountains,” which were covered by waves. They had removed themselves from the freedom of heaven. He went down to the abysses and walked among them, which had cut themselves off from the majesty of God. After this he even penetrated into hell, to places to which souls were being dragged, as it were, in the deepest mud, since the psalm writer says: “They shall go into the lower parts of the earth; they shall be the portions of foxes.” ¹⁸³ These are the bars of the earth, and they do not want the captive souls in hell to leave, being, as it were, certain bolts of a final prison and of punishments. This is why the Septuagint translated this meaningfully as κάτοχοι αἰώνιοι , that is, “desiring to hold on to forever” those whom they had once seized. But our Lord, of whom we read in Isaiah under the persona of Cyrus, “I will shatter the bronze doors, and will burst the iron bars,” ¹⁸⁴ went down to the lowest parts of the mountains . He was shut in by “eternal” bars , in order to set free all those who were shut in. ¹⁸⁵

2:7b And you will raise my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

Septuagint: “And let my life ascend from corruption, o Lord my God.” He has spoken properly, you will raise, or “let my life ascend from corruption,” because he had descended to corruption and to hell. This refers to what the apostles interpret as having been prophesied in the fifteenth Psalm from the persona of the Lord: “Because you will not leave my soul in hell; nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.” ¹⁸ That is to say, David both died and was buried, but the flesh of the Savior shall not see corruption. But others interpret it to mean that the human body, which is sown into corruption, ¹⁸⁷ is corruption, in comparison with heavenly blessedness and with the Word of God. And in the one hundred second Psalm it is signified from the persona of the just man: “Who heals all your infirmities, who redeems your life from corruption.” ¹⁸⁸ This is also why the apostle says: “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” ¹⁸ And it is called a “body of death,” or a “body of lowliness.” ¹ They fashion this into an occasion for their own heresy, and under the persona of Christ they invent an antichrist. They adhere to the churches in order to feed their fat bellies, and while living in a fleshly manner, they carry on disputations against the flesh. ¹ ¹ But we know that the body he assumed from an uncorrupted virgin was not the corruption of Christ but his temple. But if we are drawn into the apostle’s statement to the Corinthians, in which the body is said to be “spiritual,” ¹ ² to avoid seeming contentious, we shall say indeed that the very same body and the same flesh rises again that was buried and laid in the ground; but that it changes its glory, it does not change its nature. “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” ¹ ³ When he says “this,” in a certain way he is showing that the body is being grasped by two little fingers: “this” one in which we are born, “this” one in which we die, “this” one that those who must be punished fear to receive, “this” one that virginity expects as a prize, whereas adultery dreads as a punishment. But with respect to Jonah, we can understand it this way. Because he should have been corrupted in the belly of the whale according to the nature of bodies, and he should have provided food to the beast, and even been dispersed through its veins and blood vessels, he remained safe and whole. Furthermore, when he says, O Lord my God, this is the emotion of one who is fawning. For because of the greatness of his kindness to him, Jonah perceived that the God who is common to all was his own God, in a unique and personal way, as it were.

2:8a When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord.

Septuagint: “When my soul was failing me, I remembered the Lord.” Although I expected no other help, he says, remembering the Lord was my salvation. This agrees with that verse, “I remembered the Lord, and rejoiced,” ¹ ⁴ and in another passage, “I remembered the days of old, and I kept in mind the eternal years.” ¹ ⁵ Therefore, when I despaired of my salvation and the weakness of the flesh in the midst of the belly of the whale allowed me to hope for nothing from life, whatever seemed impossible was overcome by remembering the Lord. I saw that I was shut in the belly, and the Lord was my entire hope. We learn from this that, according to the Septuagint, at the time when our “soul fails” and is severed from the framework of the body, we must not direct our thoughts anywhere else but to him who is our Lord, both in the body and outside the body. ¹ But the interpretation that relates this to the persona of the Savior is not difficult, who said, “My soul is sorrowful even unto death,” ¹ ⁷ and, “Father, if it is possible, let this chalice pass from me,” ¹ ⁸ and, “Into your hands I commend my spirit,” ¹ and other things similar to these.

2:8b That my prayer may come to you, unto your holy temple.

The Septuagint is similar. The reason I remembered the Lord in my affliction ² was so that my prayer might ascend to heaven from the depths of the sea and the clefts of the mountains, ² ¹ and might come to your holy temple , in which you enjoy eternal beatitude. And this too should be noted, that in a new fashion, a prayer is made for a prayer, and he pleads that his prayer might ascend unto the temple of God. But he asks this as high priest, that in his own body the people might be delivered.

2:9 They that vainly guard vanities will utterly forsake their own mercy.

Septuagint: “They that guard vain things and falsehoods have forsaken their own mercy.” God is merciful by nature and is prepared to save by his clemency those whom he is unable to save by justice. But by our fault we lose and “forsake” the mercy that is prepared and the one who offers himself to boot. And he did not say they that do vanities—“For vanity of vanities, all is vanity” ² ² —lest he should seem to damn everyone and to deny mercy to the entire human race, but they that guard vanities , or “falsehood.” The vanities have crossed over into the affection of the heart. They not only do them but guard vanities as if they love them, and they think that they have discovered a treasure. And at the same time, observe the magnanimity of the prophet. He is in the depths of the sea, surrounded by an eternal night in the belly of such a great beast. He is not thoughtful of his own danger, but he philosophizes on the nature of things with a universal judgment and says, They will utterly forsake their own mercy. Although mercy may be offended, which we can understand as referring to God himself—“For the Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy” ² ³ —nevertheless he does not “forsake” those who guard their vanities nor abhor them, but he waits for them to return; but they utterly forsake the mercy that stands there and that offers itself freely to boot. From the persona of the Lord, this can be a prophecy of the perfidy of the Jews, who so long as they think that they are keeping the precepts of man ² ⁴ and the things mandated by the Pharisees, ² ⁵ which are vanity and “falsehood,” they “forsake” God, who had always been merciful to them.

2:10 But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to you, I will pay to the Lord whatever I have vowed for my salvation.

Septuagint: “But I with the voice of praise and confession will sacrifice to you, I will pay to you, the Lord who saves, whatever I have vowed.” Those who guard vanities have forsaken their own mercy; ² but I who have been devoured for the salvation of many, “with the voice of praise and confession will sacrifice to you,” by offering myself, “since Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.” ² ⁷ And as high priest and sheep, he has offered himself for us. ² ⁸ And I shall “confess,” he says, as I confessed to you before, when I said, “I confess to you,

Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” ² And I shall pay my vows , which I made to the Lord for the salvation of all, so that all that you gave to me might not perish forever. ²¹ We see what the Savior has promised in his passion for the sake of our salvation. Let us not make a liar out of Jesus. ²¹¹ Let us be clean ²¹² and separated from all the defilement of sins, so that he might offer us to God the Father as the sacrifices that he had vowed.

2:11 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land (aridam).

Septuagint: “And he commanded the whale, and it cast up Jonah on the dry land (siccum).” In the belly of the whale the Lord prayed these things, which we are reading under the persona of Jonah. ²¹³ Job also speaks of this mysteriously: “But let him that has cursed that day curse it, [even] he that is ready to capture the great whale.” ²¹⁴ Therefore this great “whale” is “commanded,” as is the abyss and hell, to restore the Savior to the earth. And the one who had died leads out with himself very many to life, so that he delivered those who were being held by the chains of death. ²¹⁵ Now as for what is written, he vomited , we ought to understand this as spoken very emphatically, ²¹ to the effect that out of the deepest vitals of death, life emerges as the victor.

3:1-2 And the word (verbum) of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying: Arise, and go to Nineveh the great city, and preach in it according to the former preaching that I say to you.

Septuagint: “And the word (sermo) of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying: Arise, and go to Nineveh the great city, and preach in it according to the former preaching that I said to you.” He does not say to the prophet: Why did you not do what you were commanded to do? But the sole rebuke of a shipwreck and of being devoured suffices, so that the one who had not perceived the Lord when he was commanding might understand him when he delivers. In any case, it is superfluous after the beating to wish to charge a delinquent servant with

what he did, for a rebuke of this sort is not so much a corrective as it is an upbraiding. But our Lord is sent to Nineveh the second time after the resurrection, so that the one who had previously fled, in a manner of speaking, when he said, “Father, if it is possible, let this chalice pass from me,” ²¹⁷ and who had not wished to give the bread of the sons to the dogs; ²¹⁸ now, since they had said, “Crucify him, crucify him”; ²¹ “We have no king but Caesar”; ²² he goes to Nineveh of his own accord, and after the resurrection he will preach what he had been commanded to preach before the passion. But we should refer to the human being and to the form of a servant ²²¹ all that he is commanded, that he obeys, that he is unwilling, that he is again compelled to be willing, that he follows the will of the Father the second time . Such words befit him.

3:3-4a And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord; and Nineveh was a great city of God, of three days’ journey; and Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey.

Septuagint: “And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, as the Lord had spoken to him. Now Nineveh was a great city to God, of about three days’ journey by road; and Jonah began to enter into the city about one day’s journey by road.” At once Jonah carried out in deed what he had been commanded to do. “Now Nineveh,” to which the prophet traveled, “was a great city,” and of such a great circumference that it was hardly possible to walk around it in a journey of three days. But he was mindful of the command and of the earlier shipwreck, and he completed a three days’ journey with haste in one day. On the other hand, there are those who understand this literally, that he preached only to a third part of the city and that the word of his preaching spread rapidly to the rest. Now, our Lord appropriately is said to have risen after being in hell and to preach the word of the Lord when he sends the apostles to baptize those who were in Nineveh in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²²² that is, in a journey of three days . And this very mystery of human salvation is a “road of one day”; that is, it is accomplished by the confession of the one God, not so much by the apostles as by Jonah preaching in the apostles. For he himself says: “Behold, I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the world.” ²²³ No one doubts that Nineveh was a great city of God , since the world and all things were made through him, and without him nothing that was made. ²²⁴ It must be noted

also that he did not say “in three days and nights,” or “in one day and night,” but he says without qualification “days” and “day.” This was to show that in the mystery of the Trinity and in the confession of the one God there is no darkness.

3:4b And he cried out and said: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Septuagint: “And he preached and said: Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The number three, which is recorded by the Septuagint, is not appropriate to repentance, and I am quite amazed at why it was translated this way, since in the Hebrew there is no commonality between the letters, syllables, accents or the word. For the Hebrews express “three” as shelosh, and forty as ’arbayim. Moreover, a prophet who was sent from Judea to the Assyrians on such a lengthy journey would have demanded a penance worthy of his preaching, so that the old putrid wounds could be cured by a dressing placed upon them for a long time. Furthermore, the number forty is appropriate to sinners, fasting, prayer, sackcloth, tears and perseverance in prayer. For Moses fasted for forty days on Mount Sinai, ²²⁵ and so did Elijah, who is said to have fasted forty days when he was fleeing from Jezebel, ²² after disclosing the famine to the land of Israel, ²²⁷ when God’s anger was hanging over them. The Lord himself too, the true Jonah, fasts for forty days when he was sent to preach to the world, ²²⁸ and he leaves to us fasting as an inheritance when he prepares our souls to eat of his body by this number. But as for the words cried out , this is fulfilled in the passage of the Gospel: “Standing up, he cried out in the temple and said: Whoever is thirsty, let him come and drink.” ²² For every “word” of the Savior is called a cry, because he preaches about great things.

3:5 And the men of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.

The Septuagint is similar. Nineveh believed, and Israel perseveres in unbelief. The uncircumcision has believed, and the circumcision remains unfaithful. And

first of all the men from Nineveh believed, those who had reached the age of Christ; ²³ and they proclaim a fast , and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least . Both the food and clothing of repentance are fitting, as those who had offended God by their luxury and ostentation please him by condemning those things by which they had previously offended him. Sackcloth and fasting are the weapons of repentance, the reinforcements of sinners. First comes fasting, then sackcloth; first what is concealed, afterward what is plain to see; the former is always seen by God, the latter is occasionally exhibited to men. And if one of these two necessary things must be removed, I would prefer fasting without the sackcloth to sackcloth without fasting. The greatest age makes the beginning, and it reaches all the way to the least ones, for no one is without sin, not even if his life is only one day long ²³¹ and the years of one’s life are few in number. And if the stars are not clean in God’s sight, ²³² how much more are the worm and putrefaction, and those who are held guilty for the sin of Adam the offender? Moreover, the sequence is very nice: God commands the prophet. The prophet preaches to the city; first the men believe, and while they proclaim a fast, all ages are clothed in sackcloth. The men do not preach sackcloth but only a fast. But those to whom repentance is commanded consequently unite sackcloth to fasting, so that the empty belly and the mournful attire may plead to the Lord all the more urgently.

3:6-9 And the word came to the king of Nineveh; and he rose up out of his throne (solio), and cast away his garment from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he cried out and said in Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor cattle, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth. And let them cry out to God with all their strength, and let a man be turned from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who knows if God will turn and forgive, and turn back from the fury of his anger, and we shall not perish?

Septuagint: “And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from off his throne (throno) and took off his robe from him and was covered with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And proclamation was made in Nineveh by the king and by his great men, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, nor oxen nor sheep,

taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water. So men and beasts were covered with sackcloth, and they cried out to God earnestly; and they turned back, everyone from his evil way, and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying, Who knows whether God will repent and turn back from the anger of his fury, and so we shall not perish?” I know that very many interpret the king of Nineveh as a symbol of the devil at the end of the world. ²³³ As the last to hear the preaching, he would both come down from his throne and cast aside his original adornment. And clothed with sackcloth he would sit in ashes . And not content with his own conversion, he along with his leaders shall also preach repentance to others, saying: let men and beasts, both oxen and cattle be tormented by hunger. Let them be covered with sackcloth . And let them betake themselves without reservation from their former damnable vices to repentance. For [they say that] no rational creature that has been made by God should perish. When he comes down from his own pride, he shall repent and be restored to his original place. To prove this interpretation, they also cite the following passage from Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar performed penance for seven years and is restored to his original kingdom. ²³⁴ But since sacred Scripture does not say this, and since this interpretation completely undermines the fear of God—for men easily fall into vices when they think that even the devil, who is the author of evils and the fount of all sins, is able to be saved by repenting—let us cast this thought from our minds. And we should know that the sinners in the Gospel are cast into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. ²³⁵ And it is said of them: “Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched.” ²³ To be sure, we know that God is mild, and we who are sinners do not delight in his cruelty, but we read: “The Lord is merciful and just, and our God shows mercy.” ²³⁷ The justice of God is surrounded by mercy; it proceeds toward the judgment by this kind of campaign: it spares so that it may judge, it judges so that it may show mercy. “Mercy and truth have met: justice and peace have kissed.” ²³⁸ Otherwise, if all rational creatures are equal, and of their own accord either are raised on high by their virtues or are plunged into the depths by their vices, and there shall be a restitution of all things and a single ranking for the soldiers, after a long cycle and infinite ages, what difference shall there be between virgin and prostitute? What distinction shall there be between the mother of the Lord and—what is criminal even to say—the sacrificial victims of the lusts of public prostitutes? ²³ Shall Gabriel and the devil be the same? Shall the apostles and the demons be the same? Shall prophets and false prophets be

the same? Shall martyrs and persecutors be the same? Imagine what you like, double the years and time, and heap up infinite ages for the torments. If the end for everyone is the same, the entire past counts for nothing, since we seek not what we were at one time but what we shall be forevermore. Nor am I unaware of what they ordinarily say in opposition to this, and to prepare hope for themselves and salvation with the devil. But now is not the time to write in more detail against perverse doctrine and the devil’s σύνφρεγμα ²⁴ from those who teach this in private and then deny it in public. It suffices for us to have made known our perceptions of this passage and, as is appropriate for a commentary, to have briefly hinted at who is the king of Nineveh whom the word of God reaches last of all. Just how much worldly eloquence and secular wisdom are worth among men is attested by Demosthenes, Cicero, ²⁴¹ Plato, Xenophon, Theophrastus, Aristotle and the other orators and philosophers, who are regarded just like kings among men. Their precepts are received not like the precepts of mortal men but as oracles of the gods. And this is why Plato says that republics shall be happy if either philosophers rule or rulers philosophize. ²⁴² Yet how hard it is for men of this type to believe in God! I shall pass over everyday examples and be silent concerning the old histories of the pagans. For us the apostle’s testimony suffices, who says when writing to the Corinthians: “For consider your calling, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and God has chosen the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible,” ²⁴³ and the rest. This is why again he says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the prudent I will reject,” ²⁴⁴ and, “Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy, and vain deceit.” ²⁴⁵ From this it is clear that the kings of the world are the last to hear the preaching of Christ, and once the splendor of eloquence and ornamentation and charm of words has been laid to the side, they hand themselves over to the simplicity and rusticity, and they are reduced to a plebeian manner, as they sit in the dirt and tear down what they had previously proclaimed. Let us set before us the blessed Cyprian, who was formerly a champion of idolatry. ²⁴ He possessed eloquence to such a degree that he even taught the art of rhetoric in Carthage. At last he heard the word of Jonah and was converted to repentance. ²⁴⁷ He reached such a degree of virtue that he proclaimed Christ in public and for him he laid his own neck under the sword. Indeed, we understand

that the king of Nineveh has come down from the throne and has exchanged his red gown for sackcloth, his perfumes for dirt, his cleanliness for sordid things: not sordid things of meanings but of words. And this is why it is said in Jeremiah concerning Babylon: “Babylon is a golden cup that has made all the earth drunk.” ²⁴⁸ Who is not made drunk by secular eloquence? Whose minds have not been dazzled by the composition of words and by the splendor of its eloquence? It is difficult for powerful men, nobles and rich men to believe in God; far more difficult than these, those who are eloquent. For their mind is blinded by their riches, wealth and luxury, and being surrounded by mistakes, they cannot see the power and simplicity of sacred Scripture. They judge it not by the majesty of its meaning but by the commonness of its words. Yet when they who had first taught wickedness are turned to repentance and begin to teach good things, that is, when we shall see the Ninevite populace converted by one proclamation and becoming that which we read in Isaiah, “Has a nation been born at once?” ²⁴ —understand with the same sense that both the men and beasts are covered with sackcloth and are crying out to God. This refers to the rational, irrational, wise and simple, who repent at the preaching of Jonah, in accordance with what is said elsewhere: “You will save men and beasts, o Lord.” ²⁵ Yet we can interpret the beasts covered with sackcloth in another way as well, particularly from those testimonies in which we read: “The sun and moon will be clothed with sackcloth.” ²⁵¹ And in another passage: “I will clothe the sky with sackcloth.” ²⁵² That is to say, sackcloth is a metaphorical designation for an attitude of mourning, sorrow and grief. As for what is also said, Who knows whether God will turn and forgive? the reason this is recorded as something doubtful and uncertain is so that the men who are wavering about their salvation may repent more resolutely and may invite God’s mercy all the more.

3:10 And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way, and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.

Septuagint: “And God saw their works, that they turned back from their evil ways, and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do to them, and he

did it not.” According to both understandings, God threatens in order that they might repent, either the city of Assyria, then, or the peoples of the world daily. If they shall be turned, he too will reverse his sentence and be changed by the conversion of the people. Let Jeremiah and Ezekiel explain this more clearly, namely, that God does not fulfill either the good things that he promised, if the good are turned toward vices, or the evils that he threatens the wicked with, if they turn back to salvation. ²⁵³ So then, even now God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way . He did not hear the words that Israel was often accustomed to promise, “We will do all that the Lord has spoken,” ²⁵⁴ but he saw their works . And because he prefers the repentance of the sinner to his death, he willingly changed his sentence, because he saw that their works were changed. Or rather, God has continued in his purpose, since he wanted to be merciful from the beginning. For no one who is longing to punish threatens what he plans to do. Now evil should be understood, as we said above, as punishments and torments, not that God was thinking of doing something evil.

4:1-2a And Jonah was afflicted with great affliction, and was angry, and he prayed to the Lord and said.

Septuagint: “But Jonah was grieved with great grief, and he was confounded, and he prayed to the Lord and says.” When he sees that the fullness of the Gentiles are entering, ²⁵⁵ and that what is said in Deuteronomy is being fulfilled, “They provoked me with those that are not gods, and I shall provoke them with a nation that is not, I shall incite them to anger with a foolish nation,” ²⁵ he despairs of Israel’s salvation. ²⁵⁷ He is struck by a great pain, which breaks out into words, and he sets forth the reasons for his sorrow and says more or less this: I alone was chosen from such a great number of prophets to announce a downfall to my people through the salvation of others. Thus he is not “grieved,” as some think, because the multitude of the Gentiles is being saved, but because Israel is perishing. ²⁵⁸ This is also why our Lord wept for Jerusalem ²⁵ and did not wish to take the bread of the sons and give it to dogs. ² And the apostles first preach to Israel. ² ¹ And Paul wishes to be anathema for the sake of his brothers, who are the Israelites, whose is adoption, glory, the covenant, the promises and the law; from whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh. ² ² But one who suffers in a fine way, which is what Jonah

means, is afflicted with suffering, and his soul is sad until death. ² ³ For he suffered much, to the extent that it was in him, lest the Jewish people should perish. Also the name of the sufferer fits the story more, since it means “weary prophet,” and one who weighed down by the misery of being a stranger and shipwreck.

4:2b-3 I beseech you, O Lord, is not this my word, when I was yet in my own land? Therefore I seized the opportunity in advance to flee into Tharsis. For I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, long-suffering, and of much compassion, ready to forgive evil. And now, O Lord, I ask you to take my life from me, for death is better for me than life.

Septuagint: “O Lord, are not these my words when I was yet in my land? Therefore I seized the opportunity to flee to Tharsis. For I know that thou are merciful and compassionate, long-suffering, and of much compassion, and repenting evils. And now, Mighty Lord, take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” What I translated as “I beseech,” and the Septuagint translated as ὦ δή, reads in Hebrew as ’annah. It is an interjection that seems to me to indicate the emotion of one who is begging and fawning. Since therefore his prayer in a certain way rebukes God for injustice, so long as he says justly that he wanted to flee, he tempers his complaints by commencing a plea. Is not this my word, he says, when I was yet in my own land? I knew that you would do this, I was not ignorant of your mercy; for this reason I refused to denounce you as harsh and cruel. Therefore I wanted to flee into Tharsis, to be free to contemplate things, and I preferred peace and quiet on the sea of this world. I left my home, I abandoned my inheritance, ² ⁴ I left your bosom, and I came here. If I had spoken only of your mercy, clemency and readiness to forgive evil, no one would have repented. If I had denounced you as cruel and merely a judge, I knew that this is not your nature. Therefore set in this dilemma, I preferred to flee rather than to deceive the repenting ones with leniency or to preach about you what you were not. “Take my life,” then, O Lord, because death is better for me than life . Take my soul , which was sad until death. ² ⁵ Take my soul : for “into your hands I commend my spirit,” ² for death is better for me than life . While living, I could

not save the one nation of Israel; let me die, and the world shall be saved. The history is clear and can be understood of the persona of the prophet in such a way that, as we often repeatedly said, the reason he is “grieved” and wishes to die is so that Israel might not perish forever when the multitude is converted.

4:4 And the Lord said: Do you think you have good reason to be angry?

Septuagint: “And the Lord said to Jonah: Are you very much grieved?” The Hebrew word kharah lakh can be translated both are you angry and “are you grieved.” Both renderings fit the persona of the prophet and of the Lord, either that he is angry, lest he should seem to have been a liar to the Ninevites, or “grieved,” understanding that Israel is going to perish. And it is reasonable that he does not say to him, you are angry, or “grieved” wrongly, in order that he not seem to fault the one who is “grieved.” ² ⁷ Nor, on the other hand, does he say, you have good reason to be angry , or “grieved,” lest he run counter to his own sentence. Instead he asks the one who is angry and “grieved.” Thus either he may give the reasons for his anger or sorrow; or, if he remains silent, the true judgment of God may be proved from his silence.

4:5 Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city, and he made himself a shady shelter there, and he sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would befall the city.

The Septuagint is similar. Cain, the first fratricide and murderer, consecrated a cruel world with the blood of his brother, ² ⁸ and he built a city and called it after the name of his son Enoch. ² And this is why Hosea the prophet says: “I am God, and not man, the holy one in your midst, and I will not enter into the city.” ²⁷ For “escape routes from death belong to the Lord,” says the psalmist. ²⁷¹ This is why one of the cities of the fugitives is called Ramoth, ²⁷² which is translated as “vision of death.” And rightly whoever is a fugitive and does not merit the right to live in Jerusalem on account of sins lives in the city of death, and he is across the streams of the Jordan, which is expressed as “descent.” Therefore the

dove, or the sufferer, goes out from such a city, and he lives toward the east side, where the sun rises, and he is there in his tabernacle, contemplating all the time that is slipping away. He waits for what is coming to pass for the abovementioned city. Jonah was under a shady shelter before Nineveh was saved and the gourd withered, before the gospel of Christ flashed forth and the prophecy of Zechariah was fulfilled: “Behold a man, the East is his name.” ²⁷³ For this was while the truth had not yet come, of which the same Evangelist and apostle says: “God is truth.” ²⁷⁴ And it is elegantly added: He made for himself a shady shelter , next to Nineveh. He made it for himself , for no Ninevite of that time would have been able to live with a prophet. And he sat under the shade , either with the attitude of a judge, or drawn in from his own majesty, with his loins girded in strength, ²⁷⁵ so that his whole robe did not run down to his feet, and toward us, who are lower, but it was held tightly by a belt. Furthermore, as for what it says, that he might see what would befall the city , this uses the customary usage of the Scriptures in that it attaches human affections to God.

4:6 And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonah, to be shade over his head, and to cover him, for he was fatigued; and Jonah was glad of the ivy with great gladness.

Septuagint: “And the Lord God commanded a gourd, and it came up over the head of Jonah, to be a shady shelter over his head, and to cover him from his evils; and Jonah was glad of the gourd with great joy.” Recently in Rome I was reportedly accused of sacrilege on this very passage by Canterius, ²⁷ from the ancient family of the Cornelii, ²⁷⁷ or, as he himself boasts, from the race of Asinius Pollio, ²⁷⁸ because I translated “ivy” instead of “gourd.” ²⁷ Apparently he was afraid that if ivy grew instead of “gourds,” then he would not have anything from which to drink in secret and in the dark! And in fact on these very gourds, when they are made into small cups, which are commonly called saucomarias , they are accustomed to sketch the images of the apostles, from whom that man too adopted a name for himself that is not his own. ²⁸ But if it is so easy for names to be changed, so that in place of the seditious tribunes the Cornelii they are named Aemilii, ²⁸¹ the consuls, I wonder why I am not permitted to translate ivy instead of “gourd.”

But let us come to serious matters. The Hebrew word for “gourd” or ivy is qiqayon, which is expressed likewise in the Syrian and Punic language as ciceia. It is a type of shrub or sapling that has broad leaves like a vine, and it casts a very dark shadow. It supports itself with its trunk, and it grows remarkably quickly in Palestine, especially in sandy places. And if you cast its seed into the earth, when nurtured it grows quickly into a tree in a wonderful manner, and within a few days, what you had seen as a plant you look on as a small tree. And this is why at the time when we were translating the Prophets we wanted to express the very term found in the Hebrew language, because Latin speech did not have a name for this species of tree. But we feared the grammarians, lest they may have discovered an undue freedom in their commentaries and fabricated beasts of India, or mountains of Boeotia, or certain portents of a similar kind; and we followed the old translators who themselves translated it as ivy, which is called in Greek κισσὸς, for they had nothing else to call it. Let us investigate the history, then, and let us brandish the letter alone, before the mystical understanding. Gourds and ivy creep along the ground by nature, and they do not seek higher places without fork-shaped props or poles by which they are supported. How then could a gourd grow in a single night, without the prophet’s knowledge, to provide a “shady shelter,” when it is not in its nature to rise on high without little poles, reeds and shafts? But when qiqayon offers the miracle of its sudden appearance, and when it displays the power of God in covering protection of a flourishing “shady shelter,” it has followed its own nature. But let us not completely abandon the “gourd,” on account of our φιλοκολόκυνθον. ²⁸² It can be applied to the person of the Lord and Savior when we recall the following passage from Isaiah: “The daughter of Zion shall be left as a tabernacle in a vineyard, and as a hut in a cucumber patch, as a besieged city.” ²⁸³ And since we have not found a “gourd” in any other passage of the Scripture, let us say that where the cucumber grows, there customarily gourds grow too. And Israel is compared to this kind of plant, because at one time it covered Jonah under its shade while he waited for the conversion of the Gentiles; and it provided him no small gladness by making a “shady shelter” for him and a tabernacle rather than a home. It had something like a roof, but no foundations to the house. Furthermore, the ivy ( qiqayon ), our little sapling that grows quickly and withers quickly, shall be compared to Israel in order and life by the way it sends forth little roots into the earth and, to be sure, tries to reach up to the high places, but it is not equal to the height of the cedars of God and the fir trees. ²⁸⁴ To me this is what the locusts that John ate appear to represent. ²⁸⁵ He says, as a type of

Israel: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” ²⁸ The locust is a small animal with weak wings that indeed rises up from the ground, but it cannot fly very high, so that though it is more than a reptile, yet it does not measure up to birds.

4:7-8 But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day, and it struck the ivy and it withered. And when the sun had risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind (vento), and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he broiled with the heat and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live.

Septuagint: “And God commanded a worm in the morning on the following day, and it struck the gourd, and it dried up. And immediately when the sun rose, God commanded a burning wind (spiritui) of heat; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he was distressed, and it irked his soul, and he said: It is better for me to die than to live.” Before the sun of justice arose, ²⁸⁷ a shady shelter was flourishing, and Israel was not dry; but after he rose, and the darkness of Nineveh was dispersed by his light, a worm is prepared, when the morning arose on the following day . The twenty-first Psalm mentions this in the title, “For the morning assumption,” ²⁸⁸ and he who rises from the earth without any seed and says, “I am a worm, and no man,” ²⁸ struck the shady shelter, which lost all greenness, having been bereft of the help of God. The Lord commanded a hot and burning wind , of which it is prophesied in Hosea: “The Lord will bring a burning wind that shall rise from the desert, and it shall dry up his springs, and shall make his fountain desolate.” ² And Jonah began to broil and again wishes to die ² ¹ in the baptism with Israel, so that he could receive moisture in the bath, which he had lost in his refusal. This is also why Peter says to the withering Jews: “Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” ² ² There are those who understand the worm and burning wind as the Roman generals who completely destroyed Israel after the resurrection of Christ.

4:9 And the Lord said to Jonah: Do you think you have good reason to be

angry about the ivy? And he said: I am angry with good reason even unto death.

Septuagint: “And the Lord God said to Jonah: Are you very much grieved about the gourd? And he said: I am very much grieved, even to death.” Above, when the Ninevites repented and the city of the Gentiles was saved, the prophet was asked the same question: “Do you think you have good reason to be angry?” ² ³ He did not respond but confirmed the question of God with silence. For since he knew that God is kind, merciful, long-suffering, full of compassion and forgiving of wickedness, he was not pained over the salvation of the Gentiles. But here, after the gourd dried up, Israel withered, and when he is asked with a difference, Do you think you have good reason to be angry about the ivy? he responds confidently and says: I am angry with good reason , or “I am grieved even to death.” For I did not want to save some so that others would perish, nor to gain ² ⁴ foreigners only to lose my own people. And in fact all the way to the present day Christ mourns for Jerusalem ² ⁵ and mourns until death, ² not his own, but that of the Jews. Thus do those who deny him die, and those who confess him to be the Son of God rise again.

4:10-11 And the Lord said: You are suffering over the ivy, for which you have not labored, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and in one night perished. And shall not I spare Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts?

Septuagint: “And the Lord said: You were sparing toward the gourd, for which you have not labored, nor did you rear it; which came up in the night and perished in the night. But shall not I spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than twelve thousand men who do not know their right hand and their left hand; and much cattle?” It is extremely difficult using tropology to explain how it may be said to the Son, You are suffering for the ivy, for which you have not labored, nor made it to grow, seeing that “all things were made through him and without him nothing

was made.” ² ⁷ This is why one person who interpreted this passage fell into blasphemy in an effort to solve the present question. For he referred to the passage from the Gospel, “Why do you call you me good? No one is good but the one God.” ² ⁸ He interpreted this to mean that the Father is good, but he placed the Son in a lower rank in comparison with him who is truly and perfectly good. And when he said this he did not take into consideration that he had fallen more into the heresy of Marcion than that of Arius. Marcion introduces one God who is merely good, another one who is a judge and the Creator. Arius proclaims that the Father is greater and the Son is lesser, yet he does not deny that the Son is Creator. ² Therefore what we are about to say must be heard with indulgence, and our efforts must be aided by good will and prayers rather than by criticism from a spiteful audience. For the ignorant are indeed capable of carping criticism and detraction; but it belongs to the learned and to those who know how much sweat has been expended by those who labor at this task either to extend a hand to the weary or to show the way to those who are astray. Our Lord and Savior did not labor in Israel in the way he labored among the people of the Gentiles. After all, Israel says confidently: “Behold, for so many years do I serve you, and I have never transgressed your commandment, and yet you never gave me a goat to make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours comes, who has squandered his money with prostitutes, you have killed the fatted calf for him!” ³ And yet the father does not refute him but speaks to him mildly: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours; but you ought to have made merry and rejoiced, for this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and has been found.” ³ ¹ The fatted calf is sacrificed for the people of the Gentiles, and precious blood has been poured out, which Paul discusses in great detail to the Hebrews. ³ ² And David says in the psalm: “A brother does not redeem, a man shall redeem.” ³ ³ Christ decreed that that [brother] would increase; he died, so that he might live; he descended to hell, so that he could ascend to heaven. But with respect to Israel, his labor was not that great. This is why he is jealous of the younger brother, because after his money was squandered with prostitutes and pimps, he receives the ring and the robe, ³ ⁴ and he is esteemed with his original dignity. But as for what it says, which in one night came up, this signifies the time before the coming of Christ, who was the light of the world, ³ ⁵ of which it is said: “The night has passed, and the day is at hand.” ³ And in one night it perished , when the sun of justice ³ ⁷ set for them, and they lost the Word of God. But the great

and very beautiful city of Nineveh prefigures the church, in which the number is greater than the ten tribes of Israel, which even the fragments of the twelve baskets in the desert represent. ³ ⁸ But they know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left. This is either because of their innocence and simplicity, so that he is showing the age of those who are still nursing, and he leaves to intellectual reflection how large is the number of the ages, since there is such a great number of infants. Or surely he says this because it was a great city, and in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also ones of wood and clay. ³ There was a very great multitude in it that did not know before their repentance what the difference was between good and evil, between the right hand and the left . But there are also many beasts ; for “much” is the number of Nineveh’s “cattle” and irrational men, who are compared to the senseless cattle and are like them. ³¹

COMMENTARY ON OBADIAH

Translated by Marian R. DeTar Gonzales and Thomas P. Scheck Annotated by Thomas P. Scheck

Preface of the Commentary on the Prophet Obadiah

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; after I became a man, I set aside the things of childhood.” ¹ If the apostle makes progress, and daily forgets the things of the past and stretches forth to what is ahead; ² and, following the command of the Lord and Savior, while holding on to the plough handle, he does not look behind him; ³ how much more am I entitled to be pardoned? For I have not yet reached the age of the perfect man and the measure of Christ. ⁴ In my youth I was provoked with ardor and zeal for the Scriptures to interpret the prophet Obadiah allegorically. ⁵ I was ignorant of its history. My mind was ablaze with mystical knowledge, and since I had read that all things were possible for those who believe, I did not know that there were varieties of charisms. ⁷ I had learned the literature of the world, and on account of this I thought was able to read a sealed book. ⁸ I was foolish, since the twenty-four elders holding bowls and harps in their hands, ¹ and four living creatures full of eyes who rise from their throne confess their ignorance. ¹¹ They sing glory to the Lamb ¹² and to the rod from the root of Jesse. ¹³ Yet I thought that I was capable, because I believed into whose hand the Word of God had not come, ¹⁴ nor was I able to say, “From your commandments I have understood,” ¹⁵ nor was I mindful of the blessedness of the one from the Gospel: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” ¹ Not yet had a coal that was lifted up from the altar cleansed my lips. ¹⁷ Not yet had the error of ancient ignorance been circumcised with the fire of the Holy Spirit, so that I could say boldly to the Lord: “Behold, here am I; send me.” ¹⁸ I was hoping that the book I had written would be kept hidden in some desk drawer, since I had consecrated the first thoughtless act of my meager talent to the flames. All of the sudden a copy is brought from Italy by some young man whose age in years is the same as I was when I wrote the work. And he praised my little work. I confess that I am astonished, that however badly someone writes he finds a reader who likes him. That man was proclaiming the work while I was turning bright red; that man bore my mystical interpretations up to the sky, so to speak, while I lowered my head and refused to let him acknowledge my embarrassment. What then? Do we condemn those things in

which we played as boys? Not at all. For we know that both gold and goat’s hair together are offered as gifts in the tabernacle of God. ¹ We read in the Gospel that the two mites of the poor widow were approved as being more than the abundant fortune of the rich. ² Back then we offered what we had, now too we pay back to the Lord what is his own, but only if we have made some progress. ²¹ For “by his grace I am what I am.” ²² I do not deny that I have perspired in his work and labor over these thirty years. The father is clement; he quickly receives the returning son. ²³ He does not wait for someone to open the door, but he himself goes out to meet him and prepares a ring and a robe. ²⁴ Although his brother is jealous and calls him both a fornicator and a prodigal, ²⁵ a symphony of angelic joy and of all the powers resounds in heaven over his salvation. ² That is the time, my Pammachius, sweeter than this light, when we exited the school of rhetoric and were borne off by different studies, when I and dearest Heliodorus ²⁷ together wished to live in solitude in Syrian Chalcis. A work that I thought was concealed is commonly known. I shall again enter on this work along the old tracks, correcting if possible the curved tips of letters. I was a child then; I had yet not yet learned how to write, my hands were shaking, my fingers trembling. Now, since I have made no other progress, at least I have the statement of Socrates: I know that I know nothing. And your Cicero ²⁸ says that he lost some unfinished and unpolished works of his youth. If he in comparison with his skill as an older man was able to say that about the books to Herennius ² and the one on orators, ³ which I regard as absolutely perfect, how much more will I profess freely both that my earlier book was a work of childish nature and that this one is a work of mature old age. Also, Septimius Tertullianus experienced this same thing in his books Against Marcion , as did Origen on the Canticle of Canticles , and Quintilian in the twelve books of his Instruction in Oratory , from which it is clearly shown that each age of life is perfect on its own terms and ought to be judged by the [author’s] number of the years. But now it is already time to set forth the beginning of Obadiah, and with the help of your prayers, to whom this volume is being written, to cross over the rough sea and the curved-back billows of the world. Here begins the book.

1a The vision of Obadiah.

The Hebrews say that this is the man who, under Ahab the king of Samaria and the very wicked Jezebel, fed in caves the one hundred prophets ³¹ who did not bend their knees to Baal ³² and who belonged to the seven thousand for whom Elijah is reproved for having been unaware of them. ³³ Moreover, in Sebaste, which once was called Samaria, his tomb is held in reverence even to this day with a mausoleum of the prophet Elisha and of John the Baptist. Herod, king of Judea, son of Antipater, called this city in Greek speech Augusta in honor of Caesar Augustus. Therefore, because he had taken care of a hundred prophets, he received the grace of prophecy, and from being a leader of an army he is made a leader of the church. At that time he had fed a small flock in Samaria; now he feeds the church of Christ throughout the whole world, and φερωνύμως , ³⁴ just as Stephen was crowned ³⁵ with martyrdom in the Acts of the Apostles, ³ so too this man was named “servant of the Lord.” Moreover, when he discerns something against Idumea, he sees not a “burden,” that is, a λῆμμα, and a weight of Idumea, following the rule and distinction we wrote about in Nahum. ³⁷ That is the reason that either Edom, that is, Esau, is not reckoned from the foreign nations, [being] the son of Isaac and brother of Jacob; whence also his land is not given as a possession of Israel, nor is he allowed to wage war against him, and arms are prohibited against his brother; or certainly it is a vision , not of Idumea, which could have raised the question, if it had been thus written, but of Obadiah , that is, of the servant of the Lord, which he sees among the nations, to whom the Lord sent him as an ambassador. And to whom it is said: “Arise, and let us rise up against her in battle.” ³⁸ For the vision of Nahum is the destruction of Idumea. But if it is asked why it is recorded in the title, the vision of Obadiah , yet he shows nothing afterward that he “saw,” according to the following passage in Isaiah, “I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up,” ³ and Ezekiel: “The heavens were opened, and I saw the visions of God.” ⁴ And immediately it is added: “And I saw , and behold a sweeping wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, and brightness was about it.” ⁴¹ But after vision of Obadiah , it is immediately added: “Thus says the Lord to Edom.” ⁴² And again: “Behold, I have made you small among the nations.” ⁴³ [To answer this] let us cite a passage from Deuteronomy, in which it is not a thing but words that are seen: It says: “Take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest perhaps you forget the words that your eyes have seen .” ⁴⁴ And John in his epistle says: “What we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked closely at, and our hands have handled, concerning the

word of life.” ⁴⁵ And Moses says that he saw the voice of the Lord, which spoke to him. ⁴ If, therefore, after the vision , things are introduced that are spoken and seen with the eyes of the mind that are ordinarily perceived by the ears, the seer rightly prefixes the word vision to his title, because prophets were formerly called seers. ⁴⁷

1b Thus says the Lord God to Edom.

The prophet is minor by the reckoning of the number of verses, but not in terms of its meaning. In a way that is similar to the three books of Solomon’s Canticle of Canticles, the shorter it is, so much the more difficult it is. And we have expressed what meaning the letter to Philemon had. ⁴⁸ The abbreviated Gospel discourse too is more confined than the intricate works of the Law. So too is this prophet, as a servant of the Lord like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, ⁴ and Moses the attendant of God, ⁵ and the apostle the slave of Christ. ⁵¹ He sees things, he hears things, that are worthy of his prophetic service. In accordance with the interpretation of his name, many think that he is that servant of the Lord to whom it is said in Isaiah, “It is a great thing for you to be called my boy,” ⁵² who “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” ⁵³ But if we understand it that way, we would have to look for another ambassador who was sent to the nations. ⁵⁴ And by following a tropology [like that], we destroy a very clear prophecy. Therefore we ask who is this Edom, or Idumea, to which the Lord is speaking now through Obadiah. In the book of Genesis we read very clearly that Esau, the son of Isaac, was named Edom, because he sold his birthright for the sake of a red meal of lentils. ⁵⁵ For Edom means πυρρὸς , that is, red. In the same book it is written that this same man was called Seir, that is, hairy, because he was shaggy and did not have the smoothness of Jacob. ⁵ Therefore one and the same man is called by three names: Esau, Edom and Seir. And he possessed that country that now is called Gebalena and is on the borders of ἔλευθεροπόλεως , ⁵⁷ where the Horites dwelt earlier, ⁵⁸ who are interpreted the “free people,” whence also the city itself afterwards was allotted that designation. Therefore what is said in Hebrew as Edom , and in Greek as ἰδουμαία , now is a small village of Palestine whose name was imposed on it from its founder. Both Latin and Greek history record this.

This is the one to whom it is said through Amos: “For three sins of Edom, and for four I will not convert him, because he has pursued his brother with the sword and has outraged his mercy and has held on to his fury and has kept his wrath to the end.” ⁵ Also in Isaiah we read in the Hebrew: “The burden of Dumah calls to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” And Jeremiah in the same prophecy concurs and uses an equivalent expression when he says: “Is wisdom no more in Theman?” ¹ And the rest up to the end of the same prophecy, where it is said: “And in that day the heart of the valiant ones of Idumea shall be as the heart of a woman in labor.” ² Most of Obadiah is contained in the book of Jeremiah, except that the order is altered and some things appear to be discordant. These are the mountains of Seir against which the face of Ezekiel is strengthened, ³ and it is said: “And I will make Mount Seir desolate and deserted.” ⁴ And a little later: “You shall be laid waste, o mount Seir, and all Idumea.” ⁵ It would take too long, should I wish it, to display and publish all the Scriptures that concern the mountains of Seir, and especially from Malachi, where right at the beginning it is written: “Was not Esau brother to Jacob, says the Lord, and I have loved Jacob, but have hated Esau? And I have made his mountains a wilderness, and given his inheritance to the dragons of the desert. But if Idumea shall say: We are destroyed, but returning we will build up what has been deserted—thus says the Lord of hosts: They shall build up, and I will destroy, and they shall be called the borders of wickedness, and the people with whom the Lord is angry even unto eternity.” Therefore, since we have learned that the land of the Idumeans is opposed to the promised land, and we read that Esau is the enemy of Jacob, and that there are people with whom the Lord is angry forever, we ought to know that, according to the laws of tropology, the discourse was made either against the Jews—who are jealous of Christians, and persecute their own brother Jacob, a supplanting people, who has snatched away the rights of firstborn from them ⁷ —or certainly against all the heresies and dogmas contrary to the truth, which indeed seem to be similar but are more contrary, and they strive to expel the simple man ⁸ from his paternal inheritance and the inhabitant of the house of Jacob. Furthermore, because Idumea is also interpreted as “earthly,” and on account of the red color it can also be understood as stained with blood, therefore the Savior reports his victory over the world to the Father, when the angels cried out together: “Open your gates, o princes, and the king of glory shall enter in.” And in Isaiah they asked in astonishment: “Who is this who comes up from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosor, this one so beautiful in his shining robe?” ⁷ And close by this he said: “Why is your apparel red, and your garments like theirs that tread in

the winepress?” ⁷¹ He himself speaks in triumph, exposing the palms of his cross: “I have trodden the winepress alone, and there is not a man from the Gentiles with me.” ⁷² There are those who refer Idumea to the flesh, and they think that the spirit is called out to battle against it, so that by mortifying our members on earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, we may obtain eternal victory in Christ. ⁷³ In vain do the Jews dream that this prophecy, as well as that which is written in Isaiah as “The burden of Dumah” ⁷⁴ is being made against the city of Rome and the Roman Empire. They say that if the tip of a letter is altered somewhat, resh can be read in place of dalet and the word can signify Rome. For in their language the letter vav is understood both as u and o.

1c We have heard a rumor from the Lord, and he has sent an ambassador to the nations: Arise and let us stand up against him in battle.

Septuagint: “I have heard a rumor from the Lord, and he has sent a fortification among the nations. Arise and let us stand up against him in battle.” Above we have already said that Edom is the same as Idumea, because in Hebrew he is the one who founded it. In Greek the city that was founded is named after him. Therefore either Obadiah heard or all the prophets equally heard—for they all write against Edom—that an ambassador was sent to the nations, “a mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” ⁷⁵ The Father also speaks of him through Haggai: “I will move all nations, and the one desired by all nations shall come.” ⁷ That man is recorded in Isaiah as “the angel of the great counsel and the Father of the future age.” ⁷⁷ Now, the Septuagint translated the word for ambassador , that is, sir, as περιοχὴν, that is, “fortification.” We are able to say that this ambassador of ours is also a “fortification,” who says the things that the prophetic word has composed: Arise, and let us stand up against him, or her, ⁷⁸ in battle. The ambassador , who was sent to the nations , says this: “Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you.” ⁷ And what is more, lest perhaps the fight seems unusually burdensome to you, he says, you have me at the front of the line of battle. I will be your ἀρχιστρατηγος ⁸ of the battles. I both appeared to Jesus son of Nave, holding a sword, ⁸¹ and while Moses fought I defeated Amalek with the standard of my cross. ⁸² In his vision

against Idumea, Jeremiah does not disagree by much from these things. He says: “I have heard a rumor from the Lord, and an ambassador has been sent to the nations; gather yourselves together, and come against her, and let us stand up in battle.” ⁸³ It follows in the prophet Obadiah:

2-4 Behold, I have made you small among the nations; you are greatly contemptible. The pride of your heart has lifted you up, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, and exalt your throne, who says in your heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground? If you are exalted as an eagle, and if you should set your nest among the stars, from there will I bring you down, says the Lord.

Septuagint: “Behold, I have made you least among the nations; you are greatly dishonored. The pride of your heart has elated you, you who dwell in the holes of the rocks, exalting your habitation and saying in your heart: Who shall lead me down to the ground? If you are exalted as an eagle, and if you set your nest among the midst of the stars, from there will I bring you down, says the Lord.” Jeremiah, of whom above we made mention, agrees with this and nearly in the same words, saying: “Behold, I have made you small among the nations, contemptible among men; your arrogance has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, you who dwell in the caverns of the rock, and endeavor to seize the height of the hill; but when you should exalt your nest as an eagle, from there will I bring you down, says the Lord.” ⁸⁴ When interpreting the Prophets, we ought to follow our custom of laying down the foundations of history first, then, if we are able, erecting lofty towers and plastering the roof. O Edom, he says, who though you are “least” among all the nations around, and small in number in comparison with the other nations, you will be lifted up in pride beyond your strength. And though you dwell in caves, or rather, in the “caverns” of “rocks,” lowly and very poor, and not possessing lofty roofs on your buildings, you are lifted up on high as an eagle, and you are so swollen in thought that you think you dwell among the stars. Even if you could go beyond nature and be able to reach the heights of heaven, I would bring you down from there, and I will lead you down to the ground, says the Lord

God. But as for what was added in Jeremiah, “and you endeavor to seize the height of the hill,” this has opened up the riddle: the hill signifies Mount Zion; and moreover, he intends us to understand either the very city of Jerusalem or the temple that was built in it. Now, even those who investigate the nature of birds have reported that the eagle flies higher than all birds and is said to possess eyesight so great that when it is borne aloft motionless in flight over the sea it does not lie exposed to the human gaze. From such a great height it sees little fish swimming, and when they come near the shore, it descends like a shot and drags its captured prey to the shore with its wings. If we have learned the history, let us pursue the spiritual understanding. Although you seem to be great in your own eyes, o heretic, and you despise the littleness of the church, yet you are small among the nations, and contemptible, and not only contemptible, but ἐπιτάσει ⁸⁵ greatly contemptible . The pride of your heart has lifted you up . For what heretic is not lifted up in pride ? They demean the simplicity of the church and reckon faith as ignorance. Dwelling in the clefts of the rock, exalting your throne . Although rock is recorded frequently either for the person of the Lord, or for solidity, whence also the prophet says, “He set my feet upon a rock,” ⁸ and it is said to Peter: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,” ⁸⁷ yet it is frequently understood in the opposite sense. It says: “I will take away the stony heart, and will give you a heart of flesh”; ⁸⁸ and, “God is able to raise up sons of Abraham from these stones.” ⁸ This is the sense particularly here, where he did not say, dwelling upon the rock on which the wise builder built his house, but in the clefts of the rock . Thus he is signifying the clefts of heresies from the rock of Christ and from the church. Further, as for what follows, Exalting your throne , and who says in his heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground? he is showing the swelling of the heretical mind, of those who trust in themselves, in their own mysteries and secrets, and as much as it is in their power. But we ought to understand this as hyperbole, of those who promise themselves the kingdom of heavens. This is why the apostle writes to men of this sort: “You are already reigning without us; and would that you did reign, so that we also might reign with you.” ¹ David also says something like this: “They have set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue has passed through the earth.” ² If, therefore, they were exalted as the eagle—for they even promise themselves the likeness of eagles, which are accustomed to gather near the Lord’s corpse ³ —and if they “set their nest among the midst of the stars,” from there I will bring them down, says the Lord . For just as an enemy man sows over cockle among

the good seed while the householder is sleeping, ⁴ so it is customary for that “great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage of many colors, which has the intent of entering into Libanus,” and which “takes from the top of a cedar, and plants it upon many waters, as young trees sprout into a vineyard,” ⁵ to put its nest among the stars of the church, of which even in another place it is said: “But the just shall shine as the stars.” I said above that this same thing can also be understood as directed against the flesh, because its strength is unfortified at the coming of Christ, and it is contemptible and subject to the command of the soul. And it is raised up in vain, when it dwells in the “caverns of the rock,” either the senses or the thoughts; and it wishes to rule over the soul, exalting its throne, and not believing that its own works can be surmounted. To whom it is said that although it raises itself up and strives for the heights of the eagle and deceives many of the saints, nevertheless it is overcome and cast down by the Lord. We have interpreted this in respect to the heretics and to the flesh. It can also be understood as directed against the Jews.

5-6 If thieves had gone in to you, if robbers by night, how would you have held your peace? Would they not have stolen a sufficiency for themselves? If the grape-gatherers had come in to you, would they not have left you at the least a cluster? How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out his hidden things?

Septuagint: “If thieves had gone in to you, or robbers by night, where would you have been cast away? Would they not have stolen a sufficiency for themselves? And if grape gatherers had come in to you, would they not have left a cluster? How has Esau been searched out, and how have his hidden things been detected?” Jeremiah speaks similarly, although in an altered order: “If grape gatherers had come upon you, would they not have left a cluster? If thieves [had come] in the night, assuredly they would have taken what was enough for them. But I have made Esau bare, I have revealed his secrets, and he cannot be hid.” ⁷ What he is saying is this: If thieves and robbers, who were accustomed to dig

into houses at night and to seize those things that were in the houses, had gone in to you, hiding in the dark, and encircled the corners of your house, certainly they would have carried off what they thought was sufficient for themselves and would have left behind something in your houses, either through satiety or ignorance. If grape gatherers had come in to your vineyard and hostilely stripped it bare, or if your hirelings wanted to reap from you, however careful their grape harvest would have been, nevertheless they would have left behind clusters hidden on vines and in the soil, between the young vine branches. But the enemies who came to you at the Lord’s command—but he means the Babylonians and the army of Nebuchadnezzar—took everything, they discovered all your secrets, and they checked both the cavities and the openings of the caves in which you dwell. And indeed we should say something about the nature of the location. All the southern regions of the Idumeans, from Eleutheropolis to Petra and Aila—for these are Esau’s possession—have little dwelling places in caves. And they use underground huts on account of the sun’s excessive heat and because it is a southern province. He says, “I have made Esau bare,” ⁸ that is, I made public what was covered with earth, and everything that you closed was opened, and as I searched for your property along with your enemies, they were not able to conceal any secrets. Another way: I think the thieves and robbers can refer to heretics. They come out at night , because they are sons of the night and the darkness. They proclaim doctrines contrary to the truth and steal what is sufficient to themselves . They daily hasten to snatch from the flocks of the church. They enter the vineyard of our Lord, which he transferred from the Egypt of this world, ¹ and so desire to pillage from its wine, the fruit of the vine that he promises to drink in the kingdom of the Father, ¹ ¹ that all that they leave behind in it is scarcely a cluster. But, on the other hand, the Lord acts; for all their secrets and hidden mysteries, and those of the patriarchs of Esau—for I understand them as those who first devised heresies—are publicly exposed through his saints and ecclesiastical men and doctors. His first victory is to lay bare what was concealed in secret. And this is why it is said with wonder: “How has Esau been searched out, his hidden things been detected?” Behold Marcion and Valentinus, and all the heretics, how they congratulate themselves for having the teachings of demons. They have seared consciences ¹ ² and with ornate speech they deceive simple souls, just as if they are initiating them into certain divine mysteries. But when their discourse has publicized the thirty aeons, the tetrads, the groups of eight and twelve, the two deities and the monstrous Abraxas, ¹ ³ then the wisdom of Esau will be shown up as foolishness and his secrets will be

found out. ¹ ⁴

7 They have sent you out even to the borders, all the men of your alliance have deceived you, the men of your peace have prevailed against you, they that eat with you shall set snares under you; there is no prudence in him.

Septuagint: “They have dismissed you even to the borders, all the men of your covenant have withstood you, your peacemaking men have prevailed against you; they have set snares under you; there is no wisdom in him.” Some punctuate what we set forth above: “How has Esau been searched out, and his hidden things been detected” ¹ ⁵ even to the borders , so that the sense is your “hidden things” and secrets have been revealed even to the borders . However, it seems better to us to join it with what comes later. Therefore with the coming of Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is said in Jeremiah against Idumea, “Behold, he shall come up as a lion concerning the pride of the Jordan, against the strong and beautiful, for I will make him run suddenly upon her,” ¹ and then, “Behold, he shall come up as an eagle and fly, and he shall spread his wings over Bosra, and in that day the heart of the valiant ones of Idumea shall be as the heart of a woman in labor,” ¹ ⁷ all who previously had been allied with Edom, and were there for the defense of the most proud city, abandoned him; and having joined with the enemy against him, they have spread out snares and have “prevailed against” him, and then it was made known that there was “no wisdom” in Edom, while he hopes in those who are shown to be adversaries. Another way: when the hidden things of Esau are made public, and his magnificent mysteries, so to speak, by which the people had been formerly ensnared, so that the ecclesiastical man could say, “For we are not unaware of his cunning,” ¹ ⁸ they will forsake the “borders” of Edom and “dismiss” him, and transmigrating him “even to the borders” of the church they will make known his very evil teachings. Then they will deceive and “resist” their former teacher, saying that the things that they had learned are false; they will “prevail against” him, and, having been instructed in the faith of the church, they will refute the false teaching. Those who once were eating among the heretics, not the bread of

the Eucharist, but the bread of sorrow ¹ and the bread baked under the ashes that is not turned, ¹¹ shall bring forth questions from the Scriptures. They shall spread out a “snare” for the Idumean and for the earthly man, and for the fleshly teacher among all—for we read in the letter to the Galatians that heresies are numbered among the works of the flesh ¹¹¹ —and then it will be shown that there is no prudence in Edom .

8-9 Shall not I in that day, says the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and prudence out of the mount of Esau? And your valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that man may perish from the mount of Esau.

Septuagint: “In that day, says the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and understanding out of the mount of Esau. And your warriors from Theman shall be dismayed so that man may be removed from the mount of Esau.” When the enemy possessed your borders, and all the men of your alliance deceived you and prevailed against you, ¹¹² then wisdom will disappear out of Idumea, and his shrewdness will be revealed as foolishness. The Lord himself will also remove prudence out of the mount of Esau, that is, out of the mountains of Seir, either because the city of Idumea is situated on a mountain or because that whole country that is situated to the south borders a desert. It was built in rugged mountains. Whence also it is said, “Your warriors from Theman shall be dismayed,” which we translated of the south . However, just as I had said above, that Esau was addressed by three names, so too the region of his kingdom, which is situated to the south, is called by three names: Darom, Theman and Negeb. All of these names are used in Ezekiel to signify that region: south wind ( austrum ), Africa ( africum ) and midday ( meridiem ). But when the valiant men of his kingdom who dwelled in the south ( meridie ) shall be afraid , then the man will perish from the mount of Esau , who was accustomed both to fight for the city and to offer prudent counsel. Another way: When those who were previously deceived shall be converted to the church, then, with the Lord himself doing battle, the wise men of Idumea will perish, who were mindful of fleshly and earthly things, ¹¹³ and prudence “will be removed from the mount of Esau,” which was lifted up against the knowledge of God. ¹¹⁴ And those who previously were fighting with the

dialectical skill for Esau and Idumea, and who were there in the defense of “Theman,” which means “the consummation,” will cease fighting for their former teachers. Or, those who formerly were promising themselves the light of knowledge and thought themselves to be in the south ( meridie ) ¹¹⁵ , shall be afraid and “dismayed,” as the ecclesiastical man prevails over their fallacies, to such an extent that no one stays behind who would be able, either by counseling the king or by providing a fighter’s strength, to fight for the pride of the heretics and their false teaching.

10-11 For the slaughter and the iniquity against your brother Jacob, confusion shall cover you, and you shall perish forever. In the day when you stood against him, when strangers carried away his army captive, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, you (tu) also were as one of them.

Septuagint: “For the slaughter and the impiety against your brother Jacob, confusion shall cover you, and you shall be taken away forever. From the day that you stood in opposition against [him], in the day when foreigners were taking captive his strength, and strangers entered into his gates and cast lots on Jerusalem, you (vos) also were as one of them.” The reason a man will perish from the mount of Esau, and wisdom will perish from Idumea, and prudence from the mount of Esau, ¹¹ is that you have slaughtered your brother and have acted iniquitously against your brother Jacob . This was when the Chaldeans and Babylonians laid waste to Jerusalem, attacked the city, entered its gates and cast lots for the distribution of the plunder. You were their ally, and you were considered among the number of enemies. Another way: You will suffer all that was written above, o bloody, earthly, cruel Edom, because with your false and deadly teaching, and as you speak “impiety” against God, you have slain your brother Jacob. We read in Solomon: “They are the ones who speak and slaughter with a sword.” ¹¹⁷ And in another passage: “The poison of asps is under their lips,” ¹¹⁸ and, “Their tongue is a sharp sword.” ¹¹ Therefore confusion shall cover you , and you shall say, “Confusion of my face has covered me,” ¹² and you shall perish , not for a brief time but forever . For you, for your part, struck your brother with an eternal wound. But even this will be a

cause of torment: for when strangers laid waste the army of Jacob and entered through his gates into formerly peaceful Jerusalem , and they cast lots to divide up its spoils among themselves, you were one of the enemy. We read, we see, daily we prove it true, when persecution arises against the church, Jews and heretics become much worse persecutors of the Christians than the pagans. We are able to say that the foreigners entering the gates of Jerusalem are λογισμοὺς , that is, evil thoughts, and to interpret the gates of Jerusalem, that is, of the soul that is at rest seeing God, of the five senses, through which the enemies enter and divide up the spoils of Jerusalem. If we look on a woman to lust after her, ¹²¹ death has entered through our windows. ¹²² If we receive through our ears falsehood and the judgment of blood, ¹²³ the enemy has entered by another gate. This also applies to smell, taste and touch: if it is taken captive either by various fragrances or by sweet foods or by delicate embraces, the adversaries have entered through other gates and divide up the spoils of pitiable Jerusalem. Therefore, at that time when at the onset of persecution anyone from the church should fall into deadly pleasures, we would see the heretics exulting, the Jew rejoicing, and there is one from the persecutors, and they are reckoned among the number of heathens.

12-13a And you shall not look down upon in the day of your brother, in the day of his leaving his country. And you shall not rejoice over the children of Judah, in the day of their destruction, and you shall not magnify your mouth in the day of distress, neither shall you enter into the gate of my people in the day of their ruin.

Septuagint: “And you shall not look down on the day of your brother in the day of strangers. And you shall not rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; and you shall not speak great things in the day of distress, neither shall you enter into the gates of the people in the day of their troubles.” The sense is the same as above: when a man perishes from the mount of Esau for the slaughter and impiety against his brother Jacob, and eternal confusion has covered him, ¹²⁴ he will not do what he did before against his brother; for he will not look down on and make little when he sees his brother go into captivity; nor will he rejoice over the children of Judah . For the two tribes (excepting the Levites) that ruled in Jerusalem and were called Judah were captured by the

Chaldeans. “And you shall not speak great things,” and, believing yourself to be one of the conquerors, as it were, laugh at the “distress” of your brother. Nor, on the day of the devastation and ruin of my people, shall you enter through the gate of Jerusalem boasting. And the reason you shall not do those things is that you also shall suffer similarly. Another way: when you see your brother captured by diverse persecutions and led away in chains from the faith of the church, and that he pursues not a city but everything of a sojourner, you shall not rejoice, because you also shall suffer similarly. For you rejoiced when Jacob was captured, and you were exulting over the children of Judah, who we understand as disciples of Christ, in the day of their destruction. However, it is indicated that the soul is placed in the middle of vices and virtues and is able to be turned in either direction at all moments of time. He says, You shall not magnify your mouth in the day of distress. We ought to understand this in a twofold sense: bodily distress, in respect to persecutions and sins; spiritual distress, when the soul has been captured by enemies and vices and led captive into Babylon. Neither shall you enter into the gate of my people in the day of their ruin; for when either a denial or pleasure has overwhelmed us and a wretched conscience has not preserved its original rigor, then we slide easily into contrary doctrines that flatter our error. These do not cure our wounds but caress them. It is the solace of misery to hope to have something, no matter how lost it is.

13b Neither shall you also look down [on him] in his evils in the day of his calamity, and you shall not be sent out against his army in the day of his desolation.

14 Neither shall you stand in the outlets to kill them who flee; and you shall not shut up them that remain of him in the day of tribulation.

Septuagint: “And also you shall not look down on their gathering in the day of their destruction, nor shall you attack their strength on the day of their destruction, neither shall you stand in the passages that lead out to kill those of them that were saved; neither shall you have shut up their fugitives in the day of

tribulation.” When you are captured and destroyed in the Babylonian devastation, among the other things that you did do, do not do these things that follow. You shall not look down on, nor shall you contemn, your brother Jacob in the day of his calamity, “nor shall you attack” the Babylonian army or be sent out against the army of Judah, when in defeat he turns his back on his adversaries. And when they begin to flee through ways known to themselves and forks in the road and the footpaths leading to the desert, you shall not stand in the byways, nor shall you await those coming into the crossroads to kill those who were freed and to shut up others who have been seized, and you yourself either capture or preserve them as captivity of the enemy. We have said these things according to history: for we ought to move on to things that are obscure while briefly plucking some of the things that are clearer. What heretic does not look down on men of the church? Which of them does not exult in their evils, if they are ever handed over to persecution because of the sins of the people? You see them exulting, rejoicing and thinking that our downfall is their own victory, when many who are either weak in faith or have been sown upon rocky places ¹²⁵ fall into a denial. This happens to such an extent that they join with the Gentiles and the persecution becomes all the more savage, either from the Jews or from those who pretend to be our brothers and are assessed with the same name. And when someone falls, either by flight or in penance, they stand in the forks of the road and set forth their sophisms and testimonies, as though these are brought forth from the Scriptures, so that they offer pillows sewn together to those who are exhausted and worn out, and they put them under every elbow of the hand. ¹² And thus it happens that those who perhaps fled a persecution in fear, or surmounted one with virtuous strength, having been deceived by the perverse doctrines, are held again in the prison of errors, and this tribulation becomes much worse than that one that was from the Gentiles; for it is easier for you to free a man captured by the heathens than one ensnared by the deceptions of heretics.

15-16 For the day of the Lord is near upon all nations; as you have done, it shall be done to you. He will turn your reward upon your own head. For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all nations drink continually; and they shall drink and swallow down, and they shall be as

though they were not.

Septuagint: “For the day of the Lord is near on all the nations; as you have done, he shall do to you: your reward shall be returned on your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain [so] shall all nations drink wine; they shall drink and swallow down, and they shall be as though they were not.” But the reason you shall cease doing these things, o Idumea, is that the revenge of the Lord will come on you. For if there was no judgment for them, according to Jeremiah, so that the drinkers drank in order to drink the cup, ¹²⁷ you shall be left as if innocent, you shall not be innocent, but as one drinking you shall drink. Moreover, as for what he says, the day of the Lord is near upon all nations , let us read the same Jeremiah, and we shall see that the cup of the Lord is given to all nations to drink. ¹²⁸ This is why it is said in the same prophet: “Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, making all nations drunk.” ¹² For the Assyrians and Babylonians held control over all the nations all the way to the Propontis, the Scythian Sea, and the Ionian, or Aegean. Should we read Herodotus and the Greek and barbarian histories, we shall see how it was under the Babylonians and Assyrians that this is fulfilled which is said: The day of the Lord is near on all nations . But as for what follows, As you have done, it shall be done to you. He will turn your reward on your own head, this is the sense, which we read in the psalm: “Remember, o Lord, the children of Edom, on the day of Jerusalem, who say: destroy it, destroy it, even to the foundation in it.” ¹³ Whence the prophet also prays against Babylon: “O wretched daughter of Babylon, blessed shall he be who shall repay you your reward, which you have paid us. Blessed be he who shall take and dash your little ones against the rock.” ¹³¹ For just as you drank with the Babylonians on my holy mountain , Zion, and what is more you rejoiced, so all the nations that the Babylonian king had with you, when they convert, they shall drink against you and rejoice. And not only shall they drink, but they shall so swallow you down that the Idumeans would be as though they were not ; or certainly the nations themselves, when they shall swallow you down , shall be swallowed down by the Medes, and a circle of vengeance shall proceed, so that you devour Israel, the Babylonian devours you, the Mede and Persian devour the Babylonian. Let us pursue the arrangement of our interpretation. The day of the Lord is near

on all nations, o heretic, the time of judgment is at hand in which all nations must be judged. As you have done against the men of the church, your suffering shall be turned on your own head, and your iniquity shall descend on your own crown. ¹³² For just as you rejoiced in their death, and you celebrated a banquet, and you drank on my holy mountain, that is, the church, not my chalice but the chalice of the devil, of which it is said in Habakkuk, “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor with the dregs turned upside down,” ¹³³ so all the nations , either the opposing powers appointed for punishments, or all the adversarial forces, shall drink and shall swallow down your blood, and ultimately, as torment comes to everyone, they also shall be as though they were not . For according to the rule of the Scriptures, he who perishes is said not to be [in relation] to him who is and who says to Moses: “He who is has sent me to you.” ¹³⁴ Whence also we read in Esther: “O Lord, do not deliver your kingdom to them that are not.” ¹³⁵ We can interpret this passage in another way as well: because you rejoiced over the downfall of my servants, the same persecution will also come against you, and you shall suffer whatsoever things you did. And just as you with the rest of the nations rejoiced against my people, so all the nations shall rejoice against you, and they shall devour and drink, and they shall wipe you out in a similar persecution.

17-18 But on mount Zion shall be salvation, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess those who had possessed them. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble, and they shall be kindled in them, and shall devour them, and there shall be no remains of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.

Septuagint: “On mount Zion shall be salvation, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess those who had possessed them. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau stubble, and they shall be kindled in them and shall devour them, and there shall not be a wheat dealer to the house of Esau, because the Lord has spoken.” When Idumea is overthrown and devoured by the unfriendly nations with whom

it had previously entered into an alliance against Jacob, there will be a remnant on Mount Zion, and there shall be salvation, and it shall be holy; that is, either the Lord himself shall return to the temple, which he had left on account of sins, or it shall be holy absolutely, that is, the holy of holies. And, under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, the house of Jacob shall possess those who possessed them as their inheritance. And the house of Jacob, that is, Judah, shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph, that is, the ten tribes, a flame. For Ephraim was born from Joseph, from which tribe came Samaria’s kingdom; “but the house of Esau,” that is, of the Idumeans, who had stood out so savagely and cruelly against their brother, shall be turned into stubble. And just as fire and flame quickly devour stubble, so the two kingdoms in their allied union of one rod, according to Ezekiel, ¹³ shall ravage Idumea and devour her, and there will be no remains of the people, who would be able to declare the overthrow of the adversaries to the neighboring nations. For this is what the Septuagint translated as πυροφόρον , which we translated as wheat dealer , according to an expression of old speech. For the ancients called wheat dealers those whom they now call those active in affairs, or “messenger boys.” ¹³⁷ But it is better for us to follow the actual Hebrew, that is the sharid , which means either “remnant,” according to Aquila, or “one who flees,” according to Symmachus, or, according to Theodotion and the Fifth Version, “remains.” But all these things shall happen because the Lord has spoken, and for him to have given the command is to have done it. Another way: When the works of the flesh have been destroyed, and earthly power has been forsaken, there shall be salvation in the church for those who did not depart from their mother. And the saint, of whom it is said in Isaiah, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God Sabaoth,” ¹³⁸ will linger in her, because both “he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one.” ¹³ And the house of the supplanter Jacob shall possess those who had possessed them as an inheritance, making Christians out of the persecutors and receiving the very Idumeans into the faith of the church. But the house of Esau shall be turned to stubble . And just as straw cannot abide the nearness of fire, so the house of Esau will not be able to endure the dispute with Jacob, which was ignited by the words of the Lord, “for the utterances of the Lord are tried by fire”; ¹⁴ and the flame of Joseph , which means “growth,” and who, after he was sold by his brothers, ¹⁴¹ fed the people in Egypt. But at the first meeting their fallacies shall be turned into nothing. And they shall be devoured for their own salvation, according to what is said to Esau in the blessing of Isaac: “But I have made him your lord, and have subjected all your brethren to him as his servants, and you shall serve your brother.” ¹⁴² And there shall be no remains of the house of Esau , when

everything in heaven, on earth and down below shall genuflect to Christ, ¹⁴³ and all things shall be subject to him, “that God may be all in all.” ¹⁴⁴ But because Esau, by his own fault, built upon the foundation of Christ ¹⁴⁵ with hay, wood and stubble , for this reason the house of Jacob and of Joseph shall be turned into fire and flame , imitating their own God, who says, “I, God, am a consuming fire,” ¹⁴ so that, when the chaff of sins has been devoured, the pure wheat may be collected into the storehouse. All that we have said, and that we shall say, the Jews promise themselves in a future time, when they shall receive the antichrist in place of the Christ. This will fulfill the prophecy of the Lord and Savior: “I have come in the name of the Father, and you have not received me; if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.” ¹⁴⁷ And whatever we have interpreted against Idumea, they dream up against the kingdom of Rome; which we say either has already been accomplished according to history under Zerubbabel or, certainly, as prophecy and in accordance with the mystical understanding, are happening daily in the church and are being fulfilled in each one in the realm of the spirit against the flesh. But according to tropology we say that the “wheat dealer” ceases to exist among heretics when there will be no one who boasts that he has a grain of wheat among them, because it died in the earth, ¹⁴⁸ and the bread from heaven. There are those who think that the Septuagint translated not πυροφόρον , that is, a “wheat dealer,” but πυρφόρον , that is, he who is able to carry a spark. Therefore those who assent to diverse interpretations shall say according to tropology that not only the wheat dealer will cease to exist among the heretics but also he who pretends to have the light of Christ. For even Satan himself is transfigured into an angel of light. ¹⁴

19 And they that are toward the South (austrum) shall inherit the mount of Esau; and they that are in the plains, the Philistines; and they shall possess the region of Ephraim, and the region of Samaria; and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

Septuagint: “And they in the Negeb shall possess the mount of Esau, and they in the Sephelah the foreigners, and they shall possess the mount of Ephraim, and the plain of Samaria, and Benjamin, and Gilead.” When Judah returns to his own kingdom, who dwelled in the south (meridie) and possessed the whole region, according to the division of Jesus son of Nave, ¹⁵ which was situated toward the

Scorpion, that is, all of Acrabitthena, those who previously were hemmed in by the narrow borders shall possess the mount of Esau , that is, the mountains of Seir, and the mountainous regions that Edom had possessed before. But those who dwelled in the “Sephela,” that is, in the plains —he means Lidda and Emmaus, namely Diospolis, and Nicopolis—shall possess the Palestinians, the five cities of the Palestinians, Gaza, Ashkelon, Azotus, Accaron and Gath, or all that region that is called Sharon in the Acts of the Apostles. ¹⁵¹ But others think this “Sephela” that is being promised is the flat country that is around Eleutheropolis, because it must extend to Rhinocorura and all the way to the sea; that is, those from the tribe of Judah control not only Eleutheropolis, but also they reach even to the places on the sea, and they subject the Philistines under their power, whom they did not have as subjects before. And the boundary of the children of Judah shall be expanded all the way to Ephraim , where Neapolis is now, and even to the region of Samaria , where Sebaste was founded. And Benjamin , whose borders immediately are expanded from Jerusalem to the North, shall possess all of Arabia, which before was called Gilead and now is called Gerasa. Now, according to the Septuagint those who will be in the South (meridie) “shall possess” both “the mount of Ephraim,” the plains of “Samaria,” “Benjamin” and “Gilead.” Whether this has happened, God will see to it. For it is possible that it was fulfilled partially over the five hundred years up to the coming of Christ, but as I know with complete certainty, it is being fulfilled and confirmed daily in the kingdom of the church. For those who dwell in the south (meridie), that is, in “Negeb,” are also in the true light; and those who possess the plains and the lowly places, that is, his disciples, to whom he says: “Learn from me because I am meek, and lowly of heart,” ¹⁵² shall possess the mount of Esau and the Philistines . We can understand them in the persona of the heathens, on account of the pride of their doctrines and secular eloquence, so that the teachers are on the mount, in the Philistines , and disciples are represented in the “foreigners,” who are led by the authority of the teachers. And not only shall they possess the mount of Esau and the “foreigners,” but also the region of Ephraim and Samaria . We often read of Ephraim and Samaria in Hosea, and we have interpreted them of the heresies that divide the church under the Christian name. For also rich fertility is hoped for there, and there they promise to guard the faith. Further, Benjamin , the son of the right hand, ¹⁵³ and of virtue, where the temple of God is, shall possess Gilead , which means “transmigration of the testimony.” He is signifying fleshly Israel; for the testimony of the Lord migrated from them to us. But according to the Septuagint, those who were in the south shall possess both

Benjamin itself and Gilead.

20-21 And the transmigration of this army of the sons of Israel, all the places of the Canaanites even to Sarepta. And the transmigration of Jerusalem that is in Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south. And saviors shall come up onto mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be for the Lord.

Septuagint: “And this [shall be] the domain of the transmigration for the sons of Israel, the land of the Canaanites even to Sarepta, and the transmigration of Jerusalem even to the Euphrates ¹⁵⁴ shall possess the cities of the Negeb. And they that were saved shall come up from mount Zion to punish the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be for the Lord.” In this passage our translation differs a great deal from the common edition (editione vulgata). This is why we ought to follow the Hebrew truth in the exposition of history. Those who had returned to Judea from Babylon, according to the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, shall rightly also be called the sons of the transmigration. That whole army of the sons of Israel toward the south, to be sure, and toward the west, and toward the north, shall possess the Idumeans, the Palestinians, the mount of Ephraim, and Samaria. ¹⁵⁵ And Benjamin, because it borders the desert, shall obtain Gilead in particular. ¹⁵ But toward the east they shall command all that are in the land of the Canaanites, even to Sarepta of the Sidonians, where the widow once fed Elijah. ¹⁵⁷ Furthermore, those who had been brought from the very capital city of Jerusalem to Sepharad , which we translated Bosphorus , shall possess the cities of the south , which are in the tribe of Judah; for those who have returned to their own city shall possess those things that are near their city. And when these things shall have been fulfilled, just as in the book of Judges, the Lord sent saviors who saved the people from captivity. They shall come up to mount Zion and arrive in such a way as to judge and discern the mount of Esau , as it were, a place subjected and subservient to them, that is, the Idumeans; and to all who have been subjugated, the kingdom shall be for the Lord . Where we recorded Bosphorus, the Hebrew has Sepharad. I do not know why

the Septuagint was able to translate this Ephrata, ¹⁵⁸ since Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion agree with the Hebrew truth. But we learned from the Hebrew man who trained us in the Scriptures that Bosphorus is thus called; and, as a Jew, he says, this is the region to which Hadrian transferred the captives. Therefore when our Christ shall come, then even that captivity will return to Judea. But we are able to understand any place to belong to the kingdom of Babylon, although I think something else. For it is a custom of prophets, when they speak against Babylon, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Philistines and other nations, to use many words from their language and to preserve the idiomatic terms of the provinces. Therefore, because in the language of the Assyrians a border is expressed as Sepharad , which in Hebrew is called Gebul , I conjecture that the meaning is this: The “transmigration of Jerusalem,” which was divided up by all the borders and regions, shall receive the cities of the south , that is, of their own tribe. But in Hebrew moshi‘im is written in the place where we translated saviors shall come up , and the Septuagint rendered “they who were saved.” This is not to be understood passively, as Aquila, the Septuagint and Theodotion thought, σεσωσμένοι or ἀνασωζόμενοι , but actively, as Symmachus understood it, σώζοντες , that is, saviors . For indeed σεσωσμένοι , that is, “those having been saved,” is expressed in Hebrew speech as pheletim . Since we have interpreted this to the best of our ability according to history, guiding our boat between the jagged reefs, let us spread the sails of the spiritual understanding, so that we may joyfully reach the port with a breeze from the Lord and with him laying open his own mysteries. At that time when Benjamin had possessed Gilead, there shall be this: a transmigration of the army of the sons of Israel, or certainly “a domain of the transmigration” of the former fleshly Israel. It will reach even to the land of the Canaanites; and the prophetic words, which were in danger during the famine in Judea, when the fleece of Israel had been dried out, ¹⁵ cross over to the dew of the nations, and there it is both nourished and provides nourishment, while he is both received by believers, and he himself nourishes the believers. Sareptha is either composed from two parts and means “the distress of bread,” or it is one word and means “fire.” But Canaan translates as σάλον , that is, “motion,” or certainly is called a merchant and humble man. Therefore the transmigration of the sons of Israel , when they let go of the letter that kills and come to the life-giving Spirit, ¹ shall move all things that are of the law. He shall engage in business for the one most precious pearl out of many pearls, ¹ ¹ and when the pride of the Jews has been set aside, he shall follow Christian humility. And he shall reach the point that where before there was the “tribulation of bread,” and the widowed woman, deserted by her

maker, was scarcely nourishing her orphan son, ¹ ² and when all his sins and vices are consumed. However, the captivity or “transmigration of Jerusalem,” where once there was the vision of peace, and which now is scattered in the whole world, shall possess the cities of the south —that is, churches of the true and perfect light—and shall say in penitence with the bride: “Where do you feed, where do you recline in the south ?” ¹ ³ And when she has been received back with Joseph into the ancient brotherhood, she shall be drunk with the blood of the shepherd and of the prince. But if according to the Septuagint we read “Ephrata,” there is no doubt that it is understood as the faith of Christ. For “Ephrata” means καρποφορία , that is, fruitfulness, and is δυώνυμος , ¹ ⁴ and is called Bethlehem, ¹ ⁵ where the heavenly bread was born. ¹ But when these things have been done in this way, saviors shall go up , or “those who have been saved,” from the remnants of the Jewish people to Mount Zion , in order to judge , and to avenge the mount of Esau . Just as the Lord, who is light, ¹ ⁷ calls his apostles light, and says, “You are the light of the world,” ¹ ⁸ and the rock himself ¹ has granted that Peter be the rock, ¹⁷ and the good shepherd has bestowed the names of shepherds on them, ¹⁷¹ and whatever is said to the servants, he has granted that they may be called that, so the Savior himself wanted his apostles to be saviors of the world, who have gone up to the watchtower of the mountain of the church, and, having set aside Judaic arrogance and that of all the mountains that were lifted up against the knowledge of God, ¹⁷² they have prepared a kingdom for the Lord . With hasty speech I dictated these things and I opened my mouth in two nights of work by lamplight. I followed the authority of the ancients and especially the Hebrew exposition, but I do not know whether Christ has inspired my speech. ¹⁷³ This is why the wise reader ought to look for coherence more in the meanings than in the charm of eloquence. For we dictate as we write without that polish and fine arrangement of the words. It is one thing, my Pammachius, to turn over the pen often ¹⁷⁴ and to write things worth remembering; it is something else to dictate to the ready fingers of shorthand writers whatever comes into one’s head, ¹⁷⁵ due to the embarrassment of keeping silent. Both as a young man I played around with this prophet; as an old man I have become presumptuous. Go over to the thoughts of the man who shall speak truer and better things than I have.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Briggs, Charles. Messianic Prophecy: The Prediction of the Fulfillment of Redemption Through the Messiah. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1988.

Cain, A. The Letters of Jerome: Asceticism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets. Translated by J. Owen. 5 volumes. Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1846–1849.

Catechism of the Catholic Church. New York: Doubleday, 1994.

Courcelle, P. Late Latin Writers and Their Greek Sources. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.

Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible, Latin Vulgate Bible. Online edition. http://www.drbo.org.

Erasmus, Desiderius. Patristic Scholarship: The Edition of St Jerome. Edited, translated and annotated by James F. Brady and John C. Olin. Collected Works of Erasmus 61. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

Fürst, Alfons. “Jerome Keeping Silent: Origen and His Exegesis of Isaiah.” In A. Cain and J. Lössl, eds., Jerome of Stridon: His Life, Writings and Legacy, 14152. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2009.

Grützmacher, G. Hieronymus. Eine Biographische Studie zur alten Kirchengeschichte. 3 vols. Reprinted, Berlin: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1969.

Hale Williams, Megan. The Monk and the Book. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Hegedus, T. M. “Jerome’s Commentary on Jonah: Translation with Introduction and Critical Notes.” MA thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University, 1991.

Hennecke, Edgar, and Wilhelm Schneemelcher, editors. New Testament Apocrypha. Translated by A. J. B. Higgins et al. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965.

Hollerich, M. J. Eusebius of Caesarea’s Commentary on Isaiah: Christian Exegesis in the Age of Constantine. Oxford: Clarendon, 1999.

Horace. The Satires of Horace. Translated by Nial Rudd. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1966.

Jerome. Commentarii in Prophetas Minores. Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 76, 76a. Turnholt: Brepols, 1969–1970.

———. Commentary on Matthew. Translated by Thomas P. Scheck. Fathers of the Church 117. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2008.

———. On Illustrious Men. Translated by Thomas P. Halton, Fathers of the Church. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1997.

———. St. Jerome: Commentary on Isaiah; Origen Homilies 1-9 on Isaiah. Translated by Thomas P. Scheck. Ancient Christian Writers 68. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2015.

———. St. Jerome’s Commentaries on Galatians, Titus and Philemon. Translated by Thomas P. Scheck. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010.

Josephus. Jewish Antiquities. Loeb Classical Library. 9 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Kamesar, A. “The Virgin Birth of Isaiah 7:14: The Philological Argument from the Second to the Fifth Century.” Journal of Theological Studies 41, no. 1 (1990): 51-75.

Kelly, J. N. D. Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

Larsen, Lillian. “Disciples of Origen.” In Westminster Handbook to Origen, ed. J. McGuckin, 86-91. Louisville, KY: Westerminster John Knox, 2004.

Lubac, Henri de. History and Spirit: The Understanding of Scripture According to Origen. Translated by Anne Englund Nash. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2007.

Martin, Ralph. Will Many Be Saved?: What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012.

Murphy, F. X. Rufinus of Aquileia (345–411): His Life and Works. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1945.

Newlands, G. M. Hilary of Poitiers: A Study in Theological Method. Las Vegas: P. Lang, 1978.

O’Connell, John P. The Eschatology of St. Jerome. Mundelein, IL: St. Mary of the Lake Seminary Press, 1946.

Origen. Homilies 1-14 on Ezekiel. Translated by Thomas P. Scheck. Ancient Christian Works. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2010.

———. Homilies on Jeremiah. Translated by John Clark Smith. Fathers of the

Church. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1998.

———. Origenis Hexaplorum Quae Supersunt. Tomus II. Edited by Fridericus Field. Hildesheim: Olms, 1964.

Plato. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Quasten, Johannes. Patrology: The Ante-Nicene Literature After Irenaeus. Volume 2. Westminster, MD: Newman, 1953.

Robert, A., and A. Feuillet. Introduction to the Old Testament. New York: Desclee, 1968.

Robinson, George L. Twelve Minor Prophets. New York: Harper, 1926.

Roukema, R. “Patristic Interpretation of Micah: Micah Read as a Book About Christ.” In Die Septuaginta: Texte, Theologien, Einflüsse, ed. W. Kraus, M. Karrer, 702-19. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.

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The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English. Translated by Sir Lancelot

Brenton. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1986.

Schedl, Claus. History of the Old Testament: The Age of the Prophets. New York: Alba House, 1972.

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Terence. The Brothers. Translated by John Barsby. In The Loeb Classical Library, 2:245-367. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.

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Van Doorslaer, J. “No-Amon.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 11 (1949): 280-95.

Wicks, J. “Christ’s Saving Descent to the Dead: Early Witnesses from Ignatius of Antioch to Origen.” Pro Ecclesia 17, no. 3 (2008): 281-309.

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NOTES

Volume Editor’s Introduction

¹ M. Hale Williams, The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 66.

² Cf. Ps 42:7. Amerbach brothers’ preface, in Desiderius Erasmus, Patristic Scholarship: The Edition of St Jerome , ed., trans. and annotated by James F. Brady and John C. Olin, Collected Works of Erasmus 61 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 235.

³ Jerome, Ep. 84.8.

⁴ Jerome, Nom. hebr. , preface; Vir. ill. 54.8; Ep. 33.4 to Paula; Jerome’s preface to his translation of Origen’s Homilies on Song of Songs .

⁵ See Alfons Fürst, “Jerome Keeping Silent: Origen and His Exegesis of Isaiah,” in A. Cain and J. Lössl, eds., Jerome of Stridon: His Life, Writings and Legacy (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2009), 141-52.

I have discussed this in my new English translation of St. Jerome’s translation of Origen’s Homilies on Isaiah , found in appendix 1 of Jerome’s Commentary on Isaiah , Ancient Christian Writers 68 (New York: Newman Press, 2015).

⁷ For a study of the letters Jerome wrote during this period, see A. Cain, The Letters of Jerome: Asceticism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

⁸ See Origen, Homilies 1-14 on Ezekiel , trans. Thomas P. Scheck, Ancient Christian Works (New York: Newman Press, 2010). The Homilies on Jeremiah are available in the Fathers of the Church series, trans. John Clark Smith (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1998).

See the new translation of St. Jerome’s Commentary on Ecclesiastes by R. J. Goodrich and D. J. D. Miller in Ancient Christian Works 66 (New York: Newman Press, 2012).

¹ For a description of the library see Lillian Larsen, “Disciples of Origen,” in W estmin ster Handbook to Origen , ed. J. McGuckin (Louisville, KY: Westerminster John Knox, 2004). For a description of Jerome’s own library, see Williams, Monk and the Book . For a reconstruction of Origen’s Hexapla on Isaiah, see PG 16.II, 1611-1986, and Origenis Hexaplorum Quae Supersunt , Tomus II, ed. Fridericus Field (Hildesheim: Olms, 1964).

¹¹ The image has been copied and reformatted from H. B. Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1900), 62-63.

¹² See R. Heine, The Commentaries of Origen and Jerome on St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); Thomas P. Scheck, St. Jerome’s Commentaries on Galatians, Titus, and Philemon

(Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010).

¹³ See Jerome, Commentary on Matthew , trans. Thomas P. Scheck, Fathers of the Church 117 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2008).

¹⁴ Of the many excellent secondary sources, my favorites among the older works are still F. X. Murphy, Rufinus of Aquileia (345–411): His Life and Works (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1945); and J. N. D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (New York: Harper & Row, 1975). Among more recent works, see E. Clark, The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).

¹⁵ P. Courcelle, Late Latin Writers and Their Greek Sources (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969), 111-12.

¹ Kelly, Jerome , 163.

¹⁷ There is debate about the extent to which Jerome’s references to Jewish interpretations come directly from Jerome’s contact with Jews, and how much Jerome found in the writings of Origen. Megan Hale Williams argues that a significant portion of Jerome’s Jewish interpretation comes from firsthand contact with Jewish scholars. Cf. Williams, Monk and the Book , 227-31.

¹⁸ Jerome, On Illustrious Men , trans. Thomas P. Halton, Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1997), 107.

See also R. Roukema, “Patristic Interpretation of Micah: Micah Read as a Book About Christ,” in Die Septuaginta: Texte, Theologien, Einflüsse , ed. W. Kraus, M. Karrer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), 702-19.

¹ Kelly, Jerome , 221.

² See the impressive critique of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s implicit universalism penned by Ralph Martin: Will Many Be Saved?: What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012). On the other hand, in her comment on this passage, I. Ramelli states: “Jerome is misrepresenting Origen’s thought. In the latter’s view, there will be a big difference between saints and sinners in the next life, and this will disappear only after the complete purification of all sinners” ( The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis: A Critical Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena [Leiden: Brill, 2013], 20). Ramelli insightfully observes (p. 639) that Jerome has arbitrarily equated Origen’s eschatological views with those of Jovinian. That latter had been condemned by synods in Rome and Milan in 390, maintaining that all Christians will have the same reward in the next world—in particular, ascetics and nonascetics alike—because baptism levels all differences in merits. In Against Jovinian , Jerome had argued that it was impossible that a virgin and a prostitute would have the same reward in the next world. The current passage agrees with Jerome, Apol 2.12; Ep. 84.7.

²¹ Williams, Monk and the Book , 71.

Commentary on Nahum

¹ Jon 1:1-2.

² Latin assumptio.

³ Nahum 1:1; Latin Elceasei.

⁴ 2 Kings 18:10-11.

⁵ Nineveh fell to the Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC.

In Greek the word κόσμοϛ means both “world” and “adornment.”

⁷ “Matter,” “substance,” “argument,” “title.”

⁸ The originator of one of the several of the Greek translations compiled in Origen’s Hexapla . Origen’s compilation of the Old Testament, with parallel columns, contained the Hebrew; a transliteration of the Hebrew; the Greek translations of Aquila and Symmachus; the Septuagint; the translation of

Theodotion; and in some places an additional two columns with two further Greek versions known as the Fifth and Sixth Versions, or the Quinta and Sexta. Jerome apparently had access to Origen’s Hexapla and made use of it in his exegesis.

“Something carried.”

¹ The critical edition has apus Hebraeos . This appears to be a simple typographical error for apud Hebraios .

¹¹ Latin eam . . . quam. Jerome uses the feminine to refer to the city of Nineveh both here and later.

¹² Today Elkosh is universally understood as Nahum’s birthplace rather than his father. The location of Elkosh is not certain. Many modern commentaries on Nahum consider several options possible, including Jerome’s understanding that it was a village in Galilee. Cf. A. Robert and A. Feuillet, Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Desclee, 1968), 299; Ralph L. Smith, Micah–Malachi , Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1984), 63; George L. Robinson, Twelve Minor Prophets (New York: Harper, 1926), 108.

¹³ J. N. D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 134, reports that some scholars base on this statement and others the claim that Jerome undertook extensive topographical expeditions from Bethlehem in the late 380s. “It is much more likely, however, in view of the mistakes he makes about places and the curious gaps in his knowledge of them, that these references are to his pilgrimage with Paula in 386, and that after that he spent most of his time at home in his monastery.”

¹⁴ ἐκστάσει .

¹⁵ Montanus (ca. AD 170) was the founder of a heretical Christian sect that originated in Phrygia and was characterized by ecstatic prophecy. Prisca and Maximilla were two female prophetesses of the sect. Later Tertullian would join it. Members of this group were still active during Jerome’s lifetime. He wrote his Ep. 41 to Marcella in order to refute their doctrines.

¹ ἀναγωγήν .

¹⁷ In the lemma the word used for “jealous” is aemulator , which has stronger connotations of jealousy than of zeal . Jerome continues his exposition with a meditation principally focused around the Latin word zelus , which in English can be translated either “zealous” or “jealous” according to context.

¹⁸ 1 Cor 12:31.

¹ 2 Cor 11:2.

² Ps 69:9.

²¹ 1 Kings 19:10, 14.

²² Cf. Num 25:11; 1 Macc 2:26.

²³ Cf. Acts 1:13; Mk 3:18.

²⁴ Ezek 16:42.

²⁵ Cf. Mt 24:12-13. Throughout his works this is a favorite description of Jerome’s for the antichrist’s effect on the world. Cf. John P. O’Connell, The Eschatology of St. Jerome (Mundelein, IL: St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, 1946), 29. Cf. In Sophoniam 2:12 (PL 25, 1370); In Michaem 7:1 (PL 25, 1217). It may seem peculiar here that Jerome uses a past tense to describe something that will definitively take place in the future. It seems as though Jerome may want to draw a close connection between the growth of evil in the world and God’s vengeance on it at all times in salvation history.

² Cf. 1 Cor 3:12.

²⁷ Heb 12:6.

²⁸ Nahum 1:3.

² Jerome chooses not to include a Latin translation of the Septuagint here, most likely because there is no significant difference from his Vulgate. He does comment on the Greek.

³ Literally “and holding innocent, he will not hold innocent.”

³¹ Cf. Rom 2:5.

³² Pss 145:14; 146:8.

³³ Ps 147:3.

³⁴ Lk 15:29 (note that these are the complaining words of the prodigal son’s elder brother).

³⁵ Cf. Jer 33:11; Ps 144:9.

³ Rom 3:23.

³⁷ Mt 20:15.

³⁸ Hag 2:6.

³ Cf. Jn 14:6. Jerome has reordered life and truth as he quotes this verse.

⁴ Cf. Mk 14:62.

⁴¹ Is 5:6.

⁴² Ps 36:5.

⁴³ The critical edition has animaequae , “ calm,” so the sentence would read “the prophets, calm of the saints,” while PL has animaeque , which gives the reading I have favored. The critical edition does not note animaeque as a variant reading, which suggests that the text in the critical edition is a typographical error.

⁴⁴ This is an instance of Jerome’s tendency to interpret in an allegorical manner many of the details given in the Bible surrounding Christ’s second coming. Cf. O’Connell, Eschatology of St. Jerome , 32.

⁴⁵ Cf. 2 Pet 3:10.

⁴ Mt 24:35.

⁴⁷ Ps 104:25-26.

⁴⁸ 1 Tim 6:20.

⁴ A Greek philosopher (428–348 BC), student of Socrates, writer of the Socratic Dialogues and founder of the Academy in Athens.

⁵ A Greek orator and statesman (384–322 BC). He seems to be more a political figure than a religious one.

⁵¹ Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman philosopher, orator, statesman (106–43 BC). Skeptic, Stoic.

⁵² An Egyptian ex-Catholic and Gnostic heretic (fl. AD 120–160). His dualistic Gnosticism was influenced by Plato’s writings. It was the most popular Gnostic system, flourishing from the second to the fourth century.

⁵³ Marcion of Sinope, one of the most influential Christian heretics in the early church (AD 110–154). The most salient feature of Marcion’s heresy was a strict separation between the God of the Old Testament and of the New. He combined a strict ascetical discipline, a ritual that imitated that of Christianity with dualistic and docetist Gnostic elements. After his death, the beliefs of his followers drifted closer to full Gnosticism. The need to refute Marcion was an important impetus for early Christian study of the Old Testament.

⁵⁴ A Syrian Gnostic poet, astrologist and philosopher (AD 154–222). Although personally sincere, he confused elements of Babylonian astrology with Christianity and originated a sect that degenerated further into Gnosticism after his death.

⁵⁵ A Syrian Christian convert (ca. AD 150) and disciple of Justin Martyr before the latter’s death. Tatian wrote several instructive and apologetic works, including the Diatesseron , an attempt to harmonize the four Gospels into one continuous narrative, before leaving the church to join a Gnostic sect.

⁵ According to G. Grützmacher, Hieronymus: Eine Biographische Studie zur alten Kirchengeschichte (Berlin: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1969), 2:115, this comment derives from Origen.

⁵⁷ 2 Thess 2:8.

⁵⁸ Nahum 1:1.

⁵ μεταφορικῶς .

Lk 18:8.

¹ Cf. Jerome, Nom. hebr. 16, 18-19.

² Lk 18:8.

³ Cf. Mt 24:12.

⁴ Cf. Mt 27:51-52; Lk 23:45.

⁵ Ps 34:16.

Job 25:5.

⁷ Cf. 2 Sam 24:1. This is the story of David numbering the people of Israel. In 2 Sam the anger of the Lord stirs up David. Here the Vulgate does use the word furor , which is masculine, although Jerome is more likely referring to the Hebrew word for anger, ’aph , which is also of the masculine gender. In the parallel account in 1 Chron 21:1, Satan performs the same function as the wrath of the Lord in the first account.

⁸ Jn 14:30.

μεταφορικῶς .

⁷ Jerome has the correct reading of the Hebrew here.

⁷¹ Cf. Eph 6:12.

⁷² Cf. Ezek 11:19; 36:26.

⁷³ Ps 51:17.

⁷⁴ 2 Tim 2:19.

⁷⁵ ἀναγωγὴν .

⁷ Is 13:9.

⁷⁷ Cf. 2 Tim 2:19.

⁷⁸ Ex 34:6.

⁷ Is 57:16.

⁸ Cf. Ps 103:9.

⁸¹ Gen 6:12.

⁸² Ps 37:36.

⁸³ Ps 1:6.

⁸⁴ Cf. Zech 14:10; Ezra 2:1.

⁸⁵ Cf. Jn 3:19.

⁸ Cf. Jn 1:5.

⁸⁷ Mt 8:12.

⁸⁸ Cf. Gen 7:17-24.

⁸ Cf. Gen 19:24-25.

Cf. Ex 14:24-28.

¹ Cf. Num 14:29.

² Cf. Lk 16:25. Jerome’s exegesis is deeply Origenist, as Grützmacher observes ( Hieronymus , 2:117). Views that Jerome will later attack are left unreproached here.

³ Cf Lev 24:10-14, 23.

⁴ Cf. Num 15:32.

⁵ It is somewhat surprising to hear blasphemy referred to as a light sin; in the case mentioned in Leviticus, a man blasphemed in the course of an angry argument with an Israelite, so his blasphemy lacked both full deliberation and direct malice against God.

Cf. Mt 13:3-8; Mk 4:3-8; Lk 8:5-8.

⁷ 1 Cor 3:11.

⁸ Nahum 1:9.

Latin volvola , convolvulus plant. Morning glory and bindweed are two of the more familiar examples of this group of flowering but fruitless plants.

¹ Notice that in this case Jerome offers a spiritual interpretation according to the Hebrew text, thus departing from his normal method of interpretation.

¹ ¹ In Valentinus’s system, various aeons emanated from the Primal Being. The created world came into being through the sin of Sophia, or Wisdom, the lowest of these aeons.

¹ ² Basilides, an Alexandrian Gnostic (fl. 120–140). His precise doctrine is unclear. Abraxas was his name for the Uncreated-Father God. Grützmacher, Hieronymus , 2:115, traces this comment to Origen.

¹ ³ Nahum 1:9.

¹ ⁴ Cf. 2 Kings 19:35.

¹ ⁵ Cf. Nahum 1:10.

¹ Cf. 2 Kings 18:23-25; Is 36:13-20.

¹ ⁷ Nahum 1:9.

¹ ⁸ Nahum 1:11.

¹ Latin virtutibus. He is likely referring to angels.

¹¹ Cf. Gen 1:7; Dan 3:60; Ps 148:4.

¹¹¹ Jn 7:38.

¹¹² Jn 4:14.

¹¹³ ὑποθέσεις .

¹¹⁴ Is 49:9.

¹¹⁵ Περικοπή .

¹¹ “For you were disgraced.”

¹¹⁷ That is, Vulgatae editionis . St. Jerome is not referring to his own translation, which is today known as the Vulgate. He means the Old Latin translation of the Septuagint, which was commonly used in his time and today is referred to as the Vetus Latina .

¹¹⁸ Cf. Is 37:37-38.

¹¹ Cf. Ps 49:11.

¹² Nahum 1:9.

¹²¹ M. Hale Williams, The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 122-23, analyzes Jerome’s exegesis of this section and concludes: “This passage shows that Jerome did not lack the resources to present an allegorical interpretation of his own translation iuxta Hebraeos —whether he found them in the works of other exegetes, who had perhaps based their own comments on the literal translation of Aquila, or created them himself. That he gave such an interpretation very rarely is striking evidence that his association of each mode of interpretation exclusively with one translation was intentional, not a mere by-product of the limitations of his sources.”

¹²² Cf. 2 Chron 30. St. Jerome seems to have his chronology out of order here. Hezekiah celebrated the Passover in the second month because of a delay occasioned by the necessity of purifying the temple and consecrating priests after the idolatry of his father, Ahaz. Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem in the following years.

¹²³ Cf. Song 2:8.

¹²⁴ ἀποστάτης .

¹²⁵ Cf. Jerome, Nom. hebr. 76.4-5. The Hebrew word b ə liy a ʾ a l actually means “worthlessness.”

¹² ἀναγωγὴν .

¹²⁷ 2 Cor 6:15.

¹²⁸ Publius Aurelius Licinius Valerianus, emperor AD 253–260. He continued the persecution of Decius.

¹² Caius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius, emperor AD 249–251. In his efforts to increase the political and religious unity of the empire, he instituted a severe persecution against the church, which lost many members to apostasy as well as martyrdom.

¹³ This likely refers to Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus, emperor AD 305–311. He encouraged Diocletian’s persecution and continued the policy of persecution until just before his death.

¹³¹ Ps 38:8.

¹³² Cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9.

¹³³ Cf. Heb 8:13.

¹³⁴ Cf. Gen 2:7.

¹³⁵ Cf. Jn 20:22.

¹³ Cf. 1 Jn 2:17.

¹³⁷ Virgil, Aeneid 3.420-21.

¹³⁸ Cf. Jn 8:44.

¹³ Cf. Deut 18:22.

¹⁴ Cf. 2 Kings 19:37.

¹⁴¹ Jer 6:16.

¹⁴² Jn 14:6.

¹⁴³ Cf. 1 Cor 9:27.

¹⁴⁴ Cf. Job 40:11.

¹⁴⁵ Ps 132:11.

¹⁴ Heb 7:10.

¹⁴⁷ Cf. Mt 3:4.

¹⁴⁸ Lk 12:35.

¹⁴ Eph 6:14.

¹⁵ ἄσκησις .

¹⁵¹ Eph 6:14.

¹⁵² Latin virtutem.

¹⁵³ While thoroughly Christian in Jerome’s formulation, this sentence echoes Plato’s Socrates; cf. Plato, Gorgias , in The Collected Dialogues of Plato , ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 251-52 .

¹⁵⁴ Cf. Gen 32:24-28.

¹⁵⁵ Cf. Jerome, Nom. hebr. 13.21; 63.22; 74.15; 76.20.

¹⁵ Prov 6:17 LXX .

¹⁵⁷ Cf. Mt 18:10.

¹⁵⁸ Cf. Jn 13:8-9.

¹⁵ Is 52:2.

¹ Lk 9:5.

¹ ¹ Ps 127:4.

¹ ² Cf. Mk 13:13.

¹ ³ Jn 15:2.

¹ ⁴ ἐπισκευῆς .

¹ ⁵ Cf. Ps 127:1.

¹ Cf. Rev 3:8.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Nahum 2:2.

¹ ⁸ Cf. Eph 6:16.

¹ Mt 8:29.

¹⁷ Hos 7:4.

¹⁷¹ Mt 7:13.

¹⁷² Lk 10:18.

¹⁷³ Cf. Ps 68:18; Eph 4:8.

¹⁷⁴ See preface.

¹⁷⁵ Cf. Jer 2:13.

¹⁷ Ps 46:4.

¹⁷⁷ Cf. Ps 148:4; Dan 3:60.

¹⁷⁸ Cf. Is 7:3.

¹⁷ Cf. Is 7:4.

¹⁸ Jer 3:22.

¹⁸¹ Ps 142:4.

¹⁸² Latin steterit , translated above as “stood.”

¹⁸³ Cf. Lev 13:14-17.

¹⁸⁴ Cf. 1 Kings 2:36; Lk 24:49.

¹⁸⁵ Mt 8:22.

¹⁸ Cf. Mk 9:42, 46.

¹⁸⁷ Cf. Zech 5:7-8.

¹⁸⁸ Cf. Ex 14:28.

¹⁸ Ps 38:4.

¹ Cf. Mt 14:29-31.

¹ ¹ Is 52:2.

¹ ² Ps 127:4.

¹ ³ Mk 6:11.

¹ ⁴ Cf. Ex 4:21; 7:3.

¹ ⁵ Eph 3:15.

¹ Phil 2:10.

¹ ⁷ Is 35:3.

¹ ⁸ See 2:1 above.

¹ Cf. Job 40:11.

² Cf. Dan 12:2.

² ¹ Ps 4:6.

² ² Cf. 2 Cor 3:18.

² ³ 1 Cor 15:41.

² ⁴ ἀναγωγὴν .

² ⁵ 1 Jn 5:19.

² 1 Pet 5:9.

² ⁷ 1 Jn 5:19.

² ⁸ Lk 10:18.

² Cf. Is 14:12.

²¹ Latin allophylos. The Greek cognate of this word is the one the Septuagint uses to translate “Philistines.”

²¹¹ Jerome, Nom. hebr. 30.29-31.

²¹² Cf. Judg 14:5-9.

²¹³ Cf. J e rome, Nom. hebr. 38.1; 57.1-2.

²¹⁴ Cf. 1 Chron 11:22.

²¹⁵ Is 30:6 LXX .

²¹ Ps 104:20-21.

²¹⁷ Cf. Hab 1:16.

²¹⁸ Cf. Mt 27:5; Jn 13:30.

²¹ Cf 1 Kings 13:17-24.

²² Jer 5:6 LXX .

²²¹ 2 Kings 17:26-28.

²²² Lev 22:8; Ezek 44:31.

²²³ Judg 14:14.

²²⁴ Cf. Mt 7:13.

²²⁵ Cf. Heb 4:12.

²² Cf. Rev 1:16.

²²⁷ Cf. Pss 57:4; 64:3.

²²⁸ Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58.

²² Cf. Ps 14:2.

²³ Ps 14:3.

²³¹ Cf. Mt 24:12.

²³² Cf. Gen 10:9.

²³³ Ps 34:19.

²³⁴ Ps 91:10.

²³⁵ Probably gout.

²³ This is possibly a reference to Rufinus of Aquileia (340–410), a contemporary of Jerome. Originally close friends, Jerome and Rufinus parted ways in 392 during a controversy over Origen’s works. Rufinus criticized the way in which Jerome used Origen’s exegesis while joining in the popular denunciation of certain of Origen’s ideas. Since many scholars date the Commentary on Nahum to several years before any conflict is known to have broken out between Jerome and Rufinus, it is not clear whether this is a reference to Rufinus or to another of Jerome’s many

enemies. For a scholar who judges that this is Rufinus, based on the similarity of this comment to later attacks on Rufinus under the images of repulsive animals, see Kelly, Jerome , 169. For a scholar who judges that the dating precludes the possibility of this reference being to Rufinus, see Grützmacher, Hieronymus , 1:113-14.

²³⁷ Cf. Lk 4:38-39; 13:11-13.

²³⁸ Ezek 1:15, 21.

²³ Ps 77:18.

²⁴ Job 39:25.

²⁴¹ Cf. Ex 14:38.

²⁴² Virgil, Aeneid 6.733.

²⁴³ Cf. 2 Cor 11:14.

²⁴⁴ Cf. Eph 6:11-13.

²⁴⁵ Cf. Wis 8:7.

²⁴ Cf. 1 Cor 6:15.

²⁴⁷ 1 Cor 15:33.

²⁴⁸ Ps 58:5.

²⁴ Nahum 3:4.

²⁵ Cf. Ezek 16:25.

²⁵¹ Cf. Ezek 16:32-38.

²⁵² Cf. Deut 32:39; Is 19:22.

²⁵³ Latin posteriora.

²⁵⁴ Cf. Deut 11:18.

²⁵⁵ Latin gentibus.

²⁵ Cf. 1 Cor 6:16.

²⁵⁷ Mt 24:45.

²⁵⁸ Hos 14:10.

²⁵ Ps 24:3.

² Rom 7:24.

² ¹ The city of No-Amon is today most often identified with the populous city of Thebes, which was the chief city of Egypt from 2000 BC until it was captured and brutally destroyed by the Assyrians in 663 BC. Cf. Smith, Micah–Malachi , 63-64. One author in the last century has made a case for Alexandria as No-Amon, partly based on Jerome’s locational arguments and partly on linguistic-historical grounds. Cf. J. Van Doorslaer, “NoAmon,” in Catholic Biblical Quarterly 11 (1949): 280-95. The lemma here differs from Jerome’s final choice for his Vulgate text, where he incorporates the interpretation given here into his translation and writes Alexandria populorum in place of “No-Amon.”

² ² Jer 46:20.

² ³ Jer 46:25-26.

² ⁴ Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian (AD 37–100), in his Antiquities of the Jews , Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 8.128-9. Josephus quotes a rather different version of this section (3:8-13) of the prophet Nahum and applies it to the destruction of Nineveh about 150 years after the time of the prophet.

² ⁵ παραφραστικῶς .

² As noted above, Jerome is not referring to his translation according to the Hebrew, which later came to be known as the Vulgate, but the Old Latin translations according to the Septuagint.

² ⁷ Traditionally, Sardanapalus was the luxurious and effeminate king of Nineveh who died when it was sacked by the Persians. This is possibly another reference to Jerome’s conflict with Rufinus. See note 236 above.

² ⁸ In Jerome’s Vulgate translation, the younger son of Lot (Latin Loth ) is called Ammon , but the nation that springs from him is that of the Ammanites .

² This is the ancient Ammonite city of Rabbah. After being destroyed in the sixth century BC, it was rebuilt and known as Philadelphia during St. Jerome’s time. Nowadays it is known as Amman.

²⁷ Cf. Jn 7:38.

²⁷¹ That is, the cross.

²⁷² Cf. Ex 15:23-25.

²⁷³ Ps 68:31.

²⁷⁴ Cf. Is 19:1.

²⁷⁵ Judg 14:14.

²⁷ ὑπερβατόν . A figure of speech in which words (or in this case a sentence) are taken out of their usual order for emphasis.

²⁷⁷ Nahum 2:8 LXX .

²⁷⁸ Cf. Mt 7:6.

²⁷ Cf. Gen 19:36-38.

²⁸ Dan 13:56.

²⁸¹ Ezek 16:3.

²⁸² The Gentiles.

²⁸³ Latin vectes.

²⁸⁴ St. Jerome uses three words for locust— bruchus, attelabus and locusta —which I have translated as “young locust,” “locust” and “swarming locust,” respectively, since Jerome describes them as three stages in the development of the locust . The word attelabus does not appear in Jerome’s Vulgate, only in the Old Latin from the Septuagint.

²⁸⁵ Τροπολογίαν .

²⁸ Latin negotiis .

²⁸⁷ Cf. Eph 6:16.

²⁸⁸ Latin negotiationes.

²⁸ Cf. Heb 12:23.

² Cf. 1 Cor 6:17.

² ¹ Cf. Ex 1:22.

² ² Ezek 29:3.

² ³ Jer 9:21.

² ⁴ Prov 2:5. The sensum divinum invenies . In the Vulgate, scientiam Dei invenies .

² ⁵ “Mind.”

² “Sense perception.”

² ⁷ The critical edition has adoratus for odoratus . This appears to be a typographical error.

² ⁸ Jn 8:23.

² Cf. Mt 7:13.

³ Is 33:15.

³ ¹ Ps 9:14.

³ ² Ps 9:14b.

³ ³ Cf. Mic 2:9.

³ ⁴ Amos 6:4-6.

³ ⁵ Cf. Rom 8:12.

³ Cf. Eph 6:16.

³ ⁷ Cf. Ex 12:38, “a mixed multitude without number”; LXX ἐπίμικτος πολὺς .

³ ⁸ παραφραστικῶς . Periphrastically, using many words in place of few.

³ Cf. Mt 7:13.

³¹ Constantine established the imperial capital in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) in 330. He built a larger and more prosperous city on the site

of ancient Byzantium.

³¹¹ Cf. Mal 4:2.

³¹² Aristotle of Stageira, a Greek philosopher (284–322 BC). Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.

³¹³ Chrysippus of Soli, a Greek Stoic philosopher (279–206 BC).

³¹⁴ Eunomius of Cyzicus (d. 395), bishop of Cyzicus and the most distinguished member of an extreme form of Arianism sometimes known as Eunomianism. This school of Arianism employed methods of logical reasoning drawn from the writings of Aristotle. Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa were two of Eunomius’s strongest opponents.

³¹⁵ Mani, Persian founder of Manichaeism (AD 215–276). In his dualistic system, the material world was created by an evil god. Manichaeism seems to have originated as entirely distinct from Christianity but, in later contact with Judaism and Christianity, incorporated elements of both and so took on characteristics of a Christian heresy.

³¹ Novatian, antipope and schismatic (d. 253). He eventually fell into heresy by denying that the church had the power to absolve those who had lapsed during persecution. His followers extended this denial to many other serious sins.

³¹⁷ “Concerning places.” Jerome is referring to the end of verse 17, “and it knows not its place”; in the Septuagint καὶ οὐκ ἔγνω τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς .

³¹⁸ Cf. 1 Cor 13:12.

³¹ Cf. M a l 4:2.

³² Latin magnus sensus. This seems to be a reference to the vengeance foretold on the great mind or proud heart of the king of Assyria in Is 10:12. Jerome’s translation of magnus sensus for the Septuagint’s τὸν νοῦν τὸν μέγαν is found in his Commentary on Isaiah where he comments on Is 10:12 .

³²¹ ἀποστροφή , a figure of speech in which someone who is not present is addressed directly.

³²² Is 10:13.

³²³ Is 14:12 LXX .

³²⁴ Mt 4:9.

³²⁵ 1 Jn 5:19.

³² Cf. Ps 132:4-6.

³²⁷ Mk 14:38. Cf. Mk 14:40.

³²⁸ Mk 13:37.

³² Eph 5:14. Cf. Homer, Odyssey 12.39-54, 158-200.

³³ Mt 9:37; Lk 10:2.

³³¹ Latin contritioni.

³³² Latin contritum.

³³³ Ps 51:17.

³³⁴ Ibid.

³³⁵ ὦ σύμμικτε : “O mixed multitude.” Despite having translated this word above, here Jerome leaves the original Greek.

³³ Latin supervenerit : “reached” or “arrived at.” Jerome is varying his reading here. In the lemma it reads super . . . irruit : “run over.”

Commentary on Micah

¹ 1 Pet 5:6.

² Lk 18:14.

³ Prov 16:18.

⁴ Mt 11:29.

⁵ Jerome himself is known as Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus.

Cf. Hos 1:1.

⁷ Cf. Amos 1:1.

⁸ Cf. Is 1:1.

Cf. 2 Chron 18:1.

¹ Cf. 1 Chron 12:20.

¹¹ Mic 1:5.

¹² Zion is a poetic name for Jerusalem.

¹³ Amos 6:1.

¹⁴ Is 2:3.

¹⁵ In Greek mythology the Lernean beast was the hydra, which, according to Hesiod, was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. The hydra was a gigantic monster of nine heads, of which the center was immortal. Its lurking place was the marshes of Lerna near Argos. In this allusion Jerome is probably referring to Satan, who is always vigilant and ready to strike (cf. 1 Pet 5:8). From Satan’s malevolence, Jerome, as any other of the faithful, needs to be aided by God in order to triumph over the evil one (cf. Eph 6:11; Jas 4:7). J. N. D. Kelly, however, asserts that Jerome used the Lernean beast epithet as a soubriquet for one of his attackers; see Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 169.

¹ St. Paula was born of nobility in Rome in AD 347 and died at Bethlehem in 404. She was the mother of four daughters and one son. In 382 during the synod held at Rome that followed the council of Constantinople (381), she

hosted in her house the bishops Epiphanius of Salamis and Paulinus of Antioch. Through them Jerome became intimately acquainted with her. After her husband’s death in 384 she accompanied Jerome to Palestine in 385 and lived the rest of her life in Bethlehem. The chief facts of her life are given by Jerome in Ep. 108 to Eustochium.

¹⁷ St. Eustochium Julia (370?–418) was the third daughter of St. Paula and the Roman senator Toxotius. She accompanied her mother to Palestine. In Bethlehem, Paula and Eustochium established a hospice and convent, over which Eustochium presided after her mother’s death. She had taken a vow of perpetual virginity, and Jerome wrote his famous Ep. 22 to confirm her in this resolution.

¹⁸ Cf. Mk 14:65; Jn 18:22.

¹ Cf. Gal 5:19-21.

² Jn 3:31.

²¹ Jn 3:31.

²² Jn 3:32.

²³ Lk 8:8.

²⁴ Cf. Jn 2:19-21.

²⁵ Cf. Heb 4:12.

² Cf. Mt 11:29.

²⁷ Jn 14:10.

²⁸ Lev 26:12; 2 Cor 6:16.

² Cf. Col 3:1.

³ Cf. Mt 5:1.

³¹ Cf. 1 Cor 15:49.

³² Gen 49:8.

³³ Mt 23:38; Lk 13:35.

³⁴ Latin Augusta , a city in Samaria. Cf. Pliny 5.13.14.

³⁵ Προσωποποία (prosopopeia) is a figure of speech whereby an imaginary or absent person is made to speak or act.

³ Cf. Job 39:13-18.

³⁷ The Hebrew word soreq describes a choice species of vine. Cf. Is 5:1.

³⁸ Cf. Is 5:1.

³ Cf. Mk 14:25.

⁴ Lk 12:48.

⁴¹ Cf. Ps 79:1.

⁴² Cf. Ex 3:5.

⁴³ Cf. Rom 13:14.

⁴⁴ Cf. Rev 20:13.

⁴⁵ Homer, Odyssey 12.44-60.

⁴ “From the context.”

⁴⁷ Ps 81:10.

⁴⁸ Cf. 1 Sam 17:4-52.

⁴ Mic 1:8-9.

⁵ 2 Kings 18:17; Is 36:12.

⁵¹ “As an opposite.”

⁵² Cf. Is 5:1.

⁵³ Cf. Is 1:10.

⁵⁴ Cf. Deut 32:33.

⁵⁵ Cf. 1 Pet 4:6; Jas 4:10.

⁵ Cf. Is 63:1.

⁵⁷ Is 63:3.

⁵⁸ Mal 1:4.

⁵ Cf. Mt 7:24-27.

Cf. Lk 14:29-30.

¹ Ps 122:7.

² Cf. 1 Cor 5:5.

³ See note on Marcion on p. 5.

⁴ See note on Mani on p. 36.

⁵ Lk 10:18.

Cf. Is 14:12.

⁷ Cf. Mt 16:19; Is 22:22.

⁸ Ps 20:7.

Cf. Eph. 4:14.

⁷ Prov 9:12.

⁷¹ Jerome is addressing Paula and Eustochium.

⁷² Ps 103:5.

⁷³ Terence, Heauton timoroumenos 520/521.

⁷⁴ Cf. Is 33:18; 1 Cor 1:20.

⁷⁵ Jn 19:6.

⁷ Hab 2:6 LXX .

⁷⁷ The “common edition” refers to the Old Latin translation of the Septuagint.

⁷⁸ Hab 1:16.

⁷ Cf. Ex 17:8-13.

⁸ Cf. Num 26:55-56.

⁸¹ Cf. Num 34:15.

⁸² Num 13:1-3.

⁸³ Cf. Josh 12–21.

⁸⁴ Cf. 1 Cor 13:12.

⁸⁵ Cf. Eph 5:8.

⁸ Cf. Lk 12:18.

⁸⁷ Cf. Lk 12:20.

⁸⁸ 1 Jn 5:19.

⁸ Lk 13:16.

Cf. Mt 2:17-18.

¹ 2 Cor 12:21.

² Cf. Gen 27:27.

³ Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58.

⁴ Cf. Ps 145:14.

⁵ Ps 68:18.

Cf. Ezra 7:6-7.

⁷ Cf. Ps 1:2.

⁸ Cf. Deut 32:2.

Lk 6:21.

¹ Mt 6:31-34.

¹ ¹ This actually happened to Origen’s family; cf. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6.2.

¹ ² Cf. Rom 11:17-19.

¹ ³ Cf. Mt 7:2.

¹ ⁴ Cf. Rom 11:25.

¹ ⁵ Cf. Rom 11:26.

¹ Cf. Rom 11:33.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Mt 7:22.

¹ ⁸ 2 Cor 13:3.

¹ Ps 68:11.

¹¹ Is 40:9.

¹¹¹ Cf. Is 29:13; Mt 15:8.

¹¹² Cf. 1 Cor 12:27-31.

¹¹³ Cf. Mt 15:24.

¹¹⁴ Lk 19:42.

¹¹⁵ Jdt 16:3.

¹¹ Rev 13:7.

¹¹⁷ Josephus, Ant. XII.ii.

¹¹⁸ This was King Ptolemy II of Egypt, who ruled 285–246 BC.

¹¹ Mic 2:8.

¹² Cf. Is 26:1.

¹²¹ Ps 137:4.

¹²² Cf. Gen 49:10.

¹²³ Mt 22:13.

¹²⁴ Acts 6:2.

¹²⁵ Cf. Lk 14:12-14.

¹² Ps 87:1.

¹²⁷ Ps 121:1.

¹²⁸ Jer 23:23.

¹² Ps 63:8.

¹³ Eph 5:14.

¹³¹ 2 Tim 3:4.

¹³² 2 Cor 4:16.

¹³³ Cf. 2 Cor 4:10; Col 1:22.

¹³⁴ Cf. Gal 6:7-8.

¹³⁵ Cf. Deut 20:8.

¹³ Lev 26:36.

¹³⁷ Jn 1:3.

¹³⁸ This interpretation of the “devil” as “nothing” resonates with what

Origen says when commenting on the Gospel of John (cf. Commentarii in evangelium Joannis II.7).

¹³ Cf. Rom 9:4.

¹⁴ Rom 9:5.

¹⁴¹ Rom 9:3.

¹⁴² Cf. Is 7:14.

¹⁴³ Cf. Jn 1:14.

¹⁴⁴ Cf. Jn 1:11.

¹⁴⁵ Cf. Mt 25:31.

¹⁴ Cf. Jn 10:16.

¹⁴⁷ Jn 10:9.

¹⁴⁸ Cf. Acts 2:41.

¹⁴ “Pulverizing.”

¹⁵ Gal 5:22.

¹⁵¹ Gal 5:25.

¹⁵² Rom 8:13.

¹⁵³ Is 42:5.

¹⁵⁴ Mt 12:43.

¹⁵⁵ Lk 9:43.

¹⁵ 1 Sam 16:14.

¹⁵⁷ Cf. Ps 104:15.

¹⁵⁸ Cf. Gen 9:21.

¹⁵ Song 5:1.

¹ Cf. Dan 2:34.

¹ ¹ Cf. 1 Cor 1:25.

¹ ² Cf. 1 Cor 13:9.

¹ ³ Cf. Mt 10:6.

¹ ⁴ Cf. Gen 27.

¹ ⁵ Cf. Rom 11:25.

¹ 1 Kings 19:18.

¹ ⁷ Rom 11:5.

¹ ⁸ Rom 11:32.

¹ Ps 82:6.

¹⁷ In rhetoric an apostrophe is a digression in the form of an address to someone not present or to a personified object.

¹⁷¹ Gen 38:27-30.

¹⁷² Is 1:15.

¹⁷³ Cf. Eph 2:14.

¹⁷⁴ Gen 38:29.

¹⁷⁵ Cf. Jn 14:5.

¹⁷ Cf. Jn 10:7.

¹⁷⁷ Cf. Eph 2:14.

¹⁷⁸ Cf Heb 12:18-22.

¹⁷ Cf. Col 3:1.

¹⁸ Jerome’s exposition of the angels as symbolic of the divine persons resonates with what Origen says in his Homilies on Isaiah (translated by Jerome).

¹⁸¹ Jn 10:9.

¹⁸² Ps 118:20.

¹⁸³ Cf. Phil 3:8.

¹⁸⁴ Ps 23:1.

¹⁸⁵ Jn 10:9.

¹⁸ Cf. Lk 2:11.

¹⁸⁷ Cf. Jn 21:15-17.

¹⁸⁸ Cf. Ps 36:6.

¹⁸ Cf. Mt 18:32-33.

¹ Rom 16:18.

¹ ¹ Acts 2:22-23, 36.

¹ ² Cf. Mal 4:2.

¹ ³ Cf. Ezek 18:23-32; 33:11; 2 Pet 3:9.

¹ ⁴ Ps 51:7.

¹ ⁵ Ps 51:12.

¹ Ps 51:13.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Jer 26:18.

¹ ⁸ Mt 10:8.

¹ Is 41:8.

² 1 Tim 3:15.

² ¹ Ps 5:7.

² ² Ps 5:6.

² ³ Cf. Mt 18:6.

² ⁴ Cf. Mal 2:7.

² ⁵ Deut 16:19; cf. Sir 20:31.

² Mt 10:9.

² ⁷ Cf. Jn 2:16.

² ⁸ Num 23:23.

² Acts 3:6.

²¹ Acts 8:9-25.

²¹¹ 1 Sam 9:8.

²¹² Cf. Mt 21:12-13; Mk 11:15; Lk 19:45-46; Jn 2:14-16.

²¹³ Cf. 1 Kings 14:1-3.

²¹⁴ 1 Kings 14:2.

²¹⁵ 1 Cor 9:13.

²¹ Cf. Deut 25:4; 1 Cor 9:9; 1 Tim 5:18.

²¹⁷ Cf. 1 Thess 2:9.

²¹⁸ Cf. 1 Thess 2:10.

²¹ Cf. 1 Cor 16:3.

²² Cf. Rom 15:25-26.

²²¹ Cf. Jn 9:22.

²²² Μονοχίτων , from the two Greek words μόνος (“one”) and χιτών (“tunic”), was an item of clothing of a single piece pinned or sewn at the shoulder.

²²³ Cf. Mt 6:19-21.

²²⁴ Cf. Lev 19:11.

²²⁵ Cf. Mt 24:12.

²² Cf. Lk 18:8.

²²⁷ Jn 14:31.

²²⁸ Mt 23:38; Lk 13:35.

²² Josephus, J.W. V.i.1-2.

²³ Ezek 28:16.

²³¹ Cf. Mt 20:6, Heb. 9:28.

²³² 1 Jn 2:18.

²³³ Cf. Mt 17:1-3.

²³⁴ Cf. Phil 2:7-9.

²³⁵ Acts 2:9-11.

²³ Mt 4:19.

²³⁷ Cf. Mt 4:21-22.

²³⁸ Mt 9:9.

²³ Cf. Mt 4:25.

²⁴ Cf. 1 Tim 3:19.

²⁴¹ Is 2:3.

²⁴² Jn 14:6.

²⁴³ Jn 5:22.

²⁴⁴ Job 5:13.

²⁴⁵ Ps 94:11.

²⁴ Cf. Is 2:4.

²⁴⁷ Cf. Is 9:6.

²⁴⁸ Lucius Cornelius Cinna became a Roman consul, the highest office in the republic, in 87 BC. Shortly after his election, he attempted to revive a bill of Publius Sulpicius Rufus that advocated equal distribution for newly enfranchised Italians among the thirty-five tribes, for which he was expelled from Rome. Cinna then gathered a large army and, with Marius, a former consul, and the support of the Roman Popular Party, captured Rome and put many citizens to death. With the death of Marius in 86, the command of operations against their archenemy, Sulla, belonged solely to Cinna. He was killed in 84.

²⁴ Gnaeus Octavius was elected consul alongside Cinna. He opposed Cinna’s popular policies and decried his abuses before the senate. With the help of his supporters, Octavius managed to expel Cinna and those of his party from Rome. At the seizing of the city by Cinna, Octavius was executed.

²⁵ Gnaeus Papirius Carbo had been a great supporter of Marius and was called to the consulship by Cinna in 85. Carbo was arrested by Pompeius Magnus and executed.

²⁵¹ Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix became consul in 88 BC. After conquering the king of Pontus, Sulla marched with a large army against Cinna, who was then governing Rome. By 82 Sulla had managed to put down those who were against him and was then made dictator under lex Valeria , which invested him with legislative, military and judicial power without limiting the duration of his dictatorship. Sulla died of a fever in spring 78.

²⁵² Gaius Marius was a Roman politician who was elected consul seven times, including for the last time in 86 BC, also the year of his death.

²⁵³ Marcus Antonius joined the men of Julius Caesar, under whom he eventually became a general. After Caesar was assassinated Antony gained control of the treasury and turned his aims at finding Caesar’s murderers. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide in summer 30.

²⁵⁴ Lucius Sergius Catilina was an aristocrat who planned an insurrection. Cicero, being consul, denounced him before the senate and obtained from it his condemnation. Catilina withdrew from Rome and died in battle.

²⁵⁵ In 60 BC Gaius Julius Caesar entered into a pact with Magnus Pompeius and Marcus Licinius Crassus that came to be known as the first Triumviri . When ordered to give up his command in Gaul, Caesar instead led his troops to Italy and on January 10, 49, crossed the Rubicon, essentially declaring war on the senate. He won the civil war, completely destroying the senate’s forces by 45. He was assassinated on the Ides of March in 44.

²⁵ Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus was a major player in the Roman civil war of 49 BC. He was betrayed and killed on September 28, 48.

²⁵⁷ Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus was Caesar’s heir. After his triumph at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, he came to be recognized as Augustus by senatorial decree in 27. During his reign of more than forty years, he set up the foundations for Rome’s imperial age. Augustus died in AD 14.

²⁵⁸ Marcus Junius Brutus was one of the leading conspirators in the successful plot to murder Caesar in 44 BC.

²⁵ Cf. Lk 9:62.

² Cf. Jn 4:38.

² ¹ Ps 126:6.

² ² Mt 5:9.

² ³ Cf. Eph 5:16.

² ⁴ Cf. Ps 104:15; Sir 40:20.

² ⁵ Cf. Jn 15:1-5.

² Cf. Gal 5:22-23.

² ⁷ Is 2:3.

² ⁸ Cf. Mal 4:2.

² Is 1:9; Rom 9:29.

²⁷ 1 Chron 18:21.

²⁷¹ Mk 9:44.

²⁷² Cf. Acts 2:41.

²⁷³ Cf. Acts 4:4.

²⁷⁴ Acts 21:20.

²⁷⁵ Cf. Jn 8:34.

²⁷ Cf. Lk 15:15.

²⁷⁷ Is 40:11.

²⁷⁸ Cf. Rev 20:1-6.

²⁷ Is 2:1-4.

²⁸ Cf. Eph 6:19.

²⁸¹ Ps 68:11.

²⁸² Cf. Ps 22:12.

²⁸³ The original meaning of contamino is “to bring into contact,” “to touch”

or “to blend,” and by extension “to deteriorate by mingling”—hence “to defile.” Cf. Tertullian, Apologeticus 17. The word is used in Terence for the blending of parts of different comedies into one whole. Cf. Terence, Heauton timoroumenos prol.17; Terence, Andria prol.16.

²⁸⁴ Jerome’s self-defense of his use of Origen’s writings is one of the most important passages in his corpus for defining his exegetical sources and method. M. Hale Williams, The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 191, comments: “Instead of attempting to refute the accusations, Jerome confirms them. He contends, however, that his close adherence to Origen’s work should be applauded rather than condemned. Not only has he modeled his own exegesis after the best of his illustrious predecessors, but he has followed in the footsteps of the great founding figures of Latin literary culture, drawing on the Greek tradition just as Ennius, Virgil, Cicero, and the comic playwrights had done. Other Latin exegetes too had blazed the trail that Jerome followed. The orthodox bishop Hilary of Poitiers, for example, had incorporated about forty thousand lines of Origen’s work, loosely translated, in his treatments of the Psalms. We may conclude that Jerome’s procedure, here and elsewhere, was much the same.”

²⁸⁵ Quintus Ennius (239–169 BC), epic poet, dramatist and satirist. He was the most influential of the early Latin poets and thus is called the founder of Roman literature. His epic Annales , a narrative poem telling the story of Rome from the wanderings of Aeneas to the poet’s own day, was the national epic until it was eclipsed by Virgil’s Aeneid. Suetonius called him “half-Greek” due to his fluency in that language. In the first proem of his Annals , Ennius presents himself as the reincarnation of Homer himself, the greatest Greek poet. He thoroughly imitated Greek style in his writings.

²⁸ Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC), best known for his national epic, the Aeneid, wherein he remodels episodes and characters from Homer’s Iliad.

²⁸⁷ Titus Maccius Plautus, who along with Terence ranks as one of the two greatest Roman comic dramatists. His comic genius has had lasting significance in the history of Western literature and drama. Plautus took the bulk of his plots, if not all of them, from plays written by Greek authors of the late fourth and early third centuries, notably Menander and Philemon. However, although the forms, setting and dress presented in his plays are Greek, the flavor is Roman, and Plautus incorporated into his adaptations Roman concepts and terms. Plautus allowed himself many liberties in adapting his material, even combining scenes from two Greek originals into one Latin play, a procedure known as contaminatio.

²⁸⁸ Caecilius Statius (219?–166? BC), Roman comic poet. Some forty titles and three hundred lines of his work survive. Caecilius adapted Greek plays to the Roman stage, modeling himself after the influential Greek dramatist Menander. Ancient critics spoke highly of Caecilius, with Volcacius Sedigitus ranking him first among Roman comic poets.

²⁸ Publius Terentius Afer (195–159 BC), after Plautus the greatest Roman comic dramatist. He was the author of six verse comedies: Andria (166), Hecyra (165), Heauton timoroumenos (163), Eunuchus (161), Phormio (161) and Adelphi / Adelphoe (160). Terence was taken to Rome as a slave by Terentius Lucanus, an otherwise unknown Roman senator who was impressed by his ability, giving him a liberal education and subsequently his freedom. Like Caecilius, he admired Menander, whose plays he adopted according to his own style into Latin idiom.

² Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC). A Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar and writer, he tried inexhaustibly during the civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic to uphold republican principles in the final phase of the republic. His writings include books of rhetoric, orations, philosophical and political treatises, and letters. He is remembered in modern times as the

greatest Roman orator and innovator of what became known as Ciceronian rhetoric. His philosophical discourses are largely Latin adaptations of Greek works.

² ¹ St. Hilary was born in Limonum, later Pictavi and today Poitiers, circa AD 315 (cf. Jerome, Comm. Gal . 2.3) and died there in 367. While in exile he wrote De Trinitate , De Synodis , Ad Constantium and Contra Constantium . It is not clear how his exile ended, but he was back in Gaul around 360/361. In his last years Hilary’s work was predominantly exegetical. To this period belongs his Tractatus super psalmos , his Liber Mysteriorum and his Commentariorum in Matthaeum . His exegetical works are heavily dependent on Origen’s Greek writings. See G. M. Newlands, Hilary of Poitiers: A Study in Theological Method (Las Vegas: P. Lang, 1978), 7-9.

² ² In Vir. ill. 100 St. Jerome writes of Hilary: “And in Commentaries on the Psalms , . . . he imitated Origen and added not a few things of his own. And the Tractates on Job which he translated from the Greek of Origen.”

² ³ Jerome obviously is using sarcasm here.

² ⁴ “Club.”

² ⁵ Is 5:2.

² Is 5:7.

² ⁷ Cf. Ps 80:12-13.

² ⁸ Mt 5:14.

² Cf. Mk 12:1-12.

³ Cf. Is 29:2.

³ ¹ Rev 22:13.

³ ² Prov 8:22.

³ ³ Jn 8:12.

³ ⁴ Mt 5:14.

³ ⁵ Cf. Jn 15:1.

³ Jer 2:21.

³ ⁷ Cf. Jn 6:51.

³ ⁸ 1 Cor 10:17.

³ 1 Sam 2:12.

³¹ Eccles 8:5.

³¹¹ Ps 6:8.

³¹² Mt 7:23.

³¹³ 2 Cor 5:21.

³¹⁴ Cf. Is 9:6.

³¹⁵ Cf. Gen 35:16-18.

³¹ When Jacob is about to die and is recounting God’s blessings before Joseph and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, he recalls the death and burial of Rachel (see Gen 48:7); here, the Septuagint has a phrase that is not present in Jerome’s Hebrew text: κατὰ τὸν ἱππόδρομον (“by the Hippodrome”). Probably at the time the Septuagint translators carried out their translation there was near Bethlehem a hippodrome, and the

addendum was given as a directional reference.

³¹⁷ Horses were introduced in Egypt, probably by the Hyksos, during the Second Intermediate Period (1750–1550 BC). During the New Kingdom (1550–1069) the Egyptians became adept in using horses in battle. During this time horses were mainly the animals of the nobility. From this time onward Egypt was famous for its horses.

³¹⁸ Gen 3:16.

³¹ Cf. 1 Sam 4:19-22.

³² Cf. Lk 13:10-16.

³²¹ Gen 21:6.

³²² Ps 18:4-5.

³²³ Heb 12:22.

³²⁴ Cf. Is 9:6.

³²⁵ Cf. Mt 2:18.

³² Mic 7:8-10.

³²⁷ Ps 103:9.

³²⁸ Josh 1:6.

³² Cf. Gen 11:2.

³³ Cf. Ezra 2:2; Neh 12:47.

³³¹ Cf. 1 Cor 5:5.

³³² Cf. Ps 46:4.

³³³ Lk 15:17.

³³⁴ Gal 4:19.

³³⁵ Cf. 2 Cor 3:6.

³³ Cf. 1 Jn 5:19.

³³⁷ 1 Cor 2:8.

³³⁸ Cf. Josh 7:26.

³³ Mic 4:13.

³⁴ Cf. Rom 11:25-26.

³⁴¹ Cf. Phil 3:2-5.

³⁴² Cf. Mt 21:13; Mk 11:17; Lk 19:46.

³⁴³ Mt 26:68.

³⁴⁴ Jn 18:22.

³⁴⁵ Cf. Is 3:1-3.

³⁴ Hos 2:5.

³⁴⁷ Hos 2:6-7.

³⁴⁸ Ps 89:31-34.

³⁴ 1 Cor 10:18.

³⁵ Mt 2:5.

³⁵¹ Mt 2:6.

³⁵² Ps 132:11.

³⁵³ Ps 110:3.

³⁵⁴ Jn 1:1-2.

³⁵⁵ Gen 35:19.

³⁵ Cf. Jn 6:51.

³⁵⁷ Cf. Mt 2:16-17.

³⁵⁸ Cf. Jer 31:15; Mt 2:18.

³⁵ Josh 15:59 LXX .

³ Judg 19:1-2.

³ ¹ Cf. Josh 19:15.

³ ² Cf. Mic 5:2.

³ ³ Is 54:1; Gal 4:27.

³ ⁴ Cf. Jer 15:9; 1 Sam 2:5.

³ ⁵ Cf. Rom 11:12, 25.

³ Cf. Rom 11:26.

³ ⁷ Cf. Rom 11:25-26.

³ ⁸ Cf. Mal 4:5-6; Lk 1:17.

³ Cf. Jn 8:33, 37, 39.

³⁷ Cf. Jn 8:56.

³⁷¹ Is 49:8.

³⁷² 2 Cor 6:2.

³⁷³ Eccles 3:2.

³⁷⁴ Cf. Mt 1:23.

³⁷⁵ Cf. Is 8:4.

³⁷ Ps 45:16.

³⁷⁷ Mal 4:2.

³⁷⁸ Cf. Mic 5:2-3.

³⁷ Ps 23:1-3.

³⁸ Jn 17:11-12.

³⁸¹ Ps 19:4.

³⁸² Cf. Mic 5:4.

³⁸³ Cf. Rom 8:38-39.

³⁸⁴ Ps 89:22.

³⁸⁵ 2 Cor 11:23-26.

³⁸ Cf. Rom 8:37.

³⁸⁷ Cf. Mic 5:3.

³⁸⁸ Cf. Mic 5:3-4.

³⁸ Cf. Rom 16:20.

³ Gen 1:26.

³ ¹ Obad 2.

³ ² Jerome sometimes uses the word Instrumentum rather than Testamentum when referring to either part of salvation history.

³ ³ Eccles 11:2.

³ ⁴ Cf. Ezek 40:26, 31.

³ ⁵ Cf. Jerome, Comm. Eccl . 11; Comm. Ezech . XII.40.32-34; Ep . 36.9; 53.2. There are fifteen psalms entitled ᾠδὴ τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν , or canticum graduum , “songs of degrees”: Pss 120–34.

³ Cf. Heb 4:12.

³ ⁷ Cf. Mt 10:34.

³ ⁸ Cf. Gen 10:8-9.

³ Cf. Lk 10:18.

⁴ Cf. Gen 10:8-9.

⁴ ¹ This statement probably translates Origen’s words. Cf. Ambrose, Expositio Psalmi CXVIII ; Pseudo-Jerome, Breviarium in psalmum XC (PL 26, 1163 A).

⁴ ² Cf. Gen 16:1-4.

⁴ ³ Cf. Rom 8:1-17.

⁴ ⁴ Cf. Gen 25:34.

⁴ ⁵ Cf. Gen 27.

⁴ Prov 26:27.

⁴ ⁷ Ps 7:16.

⁴ ⁸ Ps 7:17.

⁴ Cf. Mic 5:5.

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴¹¹ Cf. Hos 7:4.

⁴¹² Dan 3:14-23.

⁴¹³ Cf. Dan 3:26-27.

⁴¹⁴ Ps 73:5.

⁴¹⁵ Gen 49:9.

⁴¹ Num 24:9.

⁴¹⁷ Mt 28:19.

⁴¹⁸ Cf. Ps 36:6.

⁴¹ 2 Thess 2:8.

⁴² Ibid.

⁴²¹ Cf. Prov 6:15.

⁴²² Cf. Wis 1:13. This passage seems to reflect an Origenian understanding of punishment as purgation and reform.

⁴²³ Cf. Ps 46:4.

⁴²⁴ Cf. Heb 12:22.

⁴²⁵ Cf. Gen 4:17.

⁴² Cf. Rom 2:17-19.

⁴²⁷ Cf. Ex 20:4.

⁴²⁸ Cf. Lev 26:1.

⁴² Cf. Deut 5:8-9.

⁴³ Ps 6:1.

⁴³¹ Cf. Ps 133:3.

⁴³² Eph 5:14.

⁴³³ Cf. Rom 6:4.

⁴³⁴ Cf. Col 3:1.

⁴³⁵ According to G. Grützmacher, Hieronymus: Eine Biographische Studie zur alten Kirchengeschichte (Berlin: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1969), 2:117, Jerome’s exegesis here derives from Origen and is left unreproached by him.

⁴³ Deut 32:8.

⁴³⁷ Heb 1:14.

⁴³⁸ Rev 2:1-29; 3:1-22.

⁴³ Deut 32:22.

⁴⁴ Eph 2:20.

⁴⁴¹ “Earthly”; cf. 1 Cor 15:49.

⁴⁴² Is 43:26.

⁴⁴³ Cf. Rom 3:4.

⁴⁴⁴ Cf. Josh 24:9; Num 22:2-5.

⁴⁴⁵ “Has the same name as.”

⁴⁴ Cf. Ex 25:10; 37:1.

⁴⁴⁷ Cf. Ps 89:32-33.

⁴⁴⁸ Cf. Ex 16:3.

⁴⁴ Cf. Ex 16:2.

⁴⁵ Cf. Num 22:7-20.

⁴⁵¹ Cf. Num 25:1.

⁴⁵² Cf. 1 Sam 10:1-8.

⁴⁵³ Cf. 2 Cor 3:18.

⁴⁵⁴ Cf. Jn 8:39.

⁴⁵⁵ Cf. Ex 1:14.

⁴⁵ Cf. Gal 1:4; Eph 5:2; 1 Jn 3:16.

⁴⁵⁷ Ps 107:1.

⁴⁵⁸ Cf. Ex 28:6-9; 39:2-4.

⁴⁵ Cf. Mt 13:22; Mk 4:18-19; Lk 8:14.

⁴ Prov 5:22.

⁴ ¹ Is 5:18.

⁴ ² Cf. Num 23.

⁴ ³ Cf. Mic 6:3.

⁴ ⁴ Cf. Is 1:11; Heb 10:4.

⁴ ⁵ Cf. 2 Kings 3:27.

⁴ Cf. Judg 11:29-40.

⁴ ⁷ Ps 143:2.

⁴ ⁸ Ps 73:22.

⁴ Cf. Heb 5:12-14.

⁴⁷ Cf. 2 Cor 6:2.

⁴⁷¹ Cf. Ps 91:7.

⁴⁷² Cf. Ps 139:10.

⁴⁷³ Ps 51:2-3.

⁴⁷⁴ Ps 116:12.

⁴⁷⁵ Ps 116:13.

⁴⁷ Ps 116:15.

⁴⁷⁷ Cf. 1 Cor 15:3; Rom 5:8.

⁴⁷⁸ Cf. 1 Pet 3:18.

⁴⁷ Deut 10:12-13.

⁴⁸ Cf. Prov 15:22.

⁴⁸¹ 2 Cor 9:7.

⁴⁸² Prov 3:28; cf. Jas 2:14-17.

⁴⁸³ Cf. Gen 5:24.

⁴⁸⁴ Cf. Heb 11:5.

⁴⁸⁵ Gen 5:24; cf. Sir 44:16.

⁴⁸ Cf. Mt 5:48.

⁴⁸⁷ Cf. Lk 12:35-38.

⁴⁸⁸ Cf. Mt 3:12; 13:30; 25:32-33; Acts 3:19-23; Rev 20:12.

⁴⁸ Song 5:2.

⁴ Cf. 1 Jn 2:6.

⁴ ¹ 1 Cor 4:16; 11:1.

⁴ ² Cf. Mic 6:8.

⁴ ³ Cf. Prov 19:25.

⁴ ⁴ Cf. Lk 13:4.

⁴ ⁵ Cf. 1 Kings 16:28-33.

⁴ Paula’s and Eustochium’s.

⁴ ⁷ Cf. Deut 25:13-16; Prov 11:1.

⁴ ⁸ This seems to be a sarcastic adaptation of the Latin adage found in Terence’s Andria 68: “Flattery wins friends, truth engenders hatred.” Cf. Jerome, Comm. Gal. 4:15-16.

⁴ Cf. 1 Kings 16:28-33.

⁵ Cf. Is 52:5; Ezek 36:20; Rom 2:24.

⁵ ¹ Cf. 1 Kings 12:28.

⁵ ² Cf. Eph 6:16.

⁵ ³ Rom 2:5.

⁵ ⁴ Deut 25:13.

⁵ ⁵ Basilides of Alexandria, who flourished about AD 120–140, was an early Gnostic patriarch who believed that Nous (“Mind”), the firstborn of the eternal Father, appeared on earth in order to bestow deliverance on those who believed in him.

⁵ Arius (AD 256–336) was an Alexandrian priest. Not understanding the nuance that the Son proceeds from the Father not by division but by a spiritual act, Arius affirmed that the Son was the firstborn and hence there was a time that he was not, and as such could not be consubstantial with the Father.

⁵ ⁷ Eunomius (d. AD 396) was consecrated bishop of Cyzicus in 360 but was deposed about a year later for supporting extreme Arian beliefs. His theodicy asserted that the absolute intelligibility of the divine essence is accessible to humans.

⁵ ⁸ Cf. Jn 8:44.

⁵ Zech 10:8.

⁵¹ Cf. 1 Cor 5:5.

⁵¹¹ Cf. 1 Tim 1:20.

⁵¹² Cf. Mic 1:1.

⁵¹³ Cf. Lk 15:16.

⁵¹⁴ Cf. Rom 1:32.

⁵¹⁵ Paliurus refers to a thorny Eurasian shrub.

⁵¹ Cf. Lk 13:6-7.

⁵¹⁷ Cf. Is 52:7.

⁵¹⁸ Cf. Rom 10:17.

⁵¹ Ps 30:9.

⁵² Jn 4:35.

⁵²¹ Mt 9:37.

⁵²² Cf. Jn 11:31.

⁵²³ Cf. Lk 19:41.

⁵²⁴ Cf. Mt 24:12.

⁵²⁵ Cf. Lk 18:8.

⁵² Mt 26:38.

⁵²⁷ Cf. Rev 13:7.

⁵²⁸ Deut 16:19.

⁵² Cf. 2 Sam 15:12; 17:1.

⁵³ Cf. Lk 22:3-5.

⁵³¹ Cf. Judg 9:1-5, 23-24.

⁵³² Cf. Judg 16:19.

⁵³³ Cf. 2 Kings 16:22.

⁵³⁴ Cf. Gen 26:34-35.

⁵³⁵ Deut 32:35; Rom 12:19.

⁵³ Hos 9:7.

⁵³⁷ Rev 6:10.

⁵³⁸ Cf. Lk 6:25.

⁵³ Cf. Mt 8:12; 13:42-50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30.

⁵⁴ Cf. Lk 16:19-22.

⁵⁴¹ Cf. Jer 9:4.

⁵⁴² Cf. Cicero, Laelius 80; cf. H. Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics (Goeteborg, 1958), 135.

⁵⁴³ Cf. Cicero, De Officiis III.45; Tusculanae disputations V.63; V alerii Maximi Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium IV.7, ext. 1; cf. Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics , 135.

⁵⁴⁴ 2 Tim 3:1-4.

⁵⁴⁵ Cf. Mt 10:35-36.

⁵⁴ According to Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics , 135, the source is unidentified. Cf. Jerome, Ep. 3.6.

⁵⁴⁷ Sir 6:7.

⁵⁴⁸ According to Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics , 135, the source is unidentified.

⁵⁴ Theophrastus (371–287 BC) was a student of Aristotle and his successor in the peripatetic school.

⁵⁵ Cf. Cicero, Laelius 67; cf. Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics , 135.

⁵⁵¹ Cf. Sir 9:15.

⁵⁵² Cf. Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics , 135.

⁵⁵³ Horace, Carmina 1.3.8. Horace is praying for Virgil.

⁵⁵⁴ Cf. Ex 33:11.

⁵⁵⁵ Jn 15:15; Lk 22:28.

⁵⁵ Jn 15:15.

⁵⁵⁷ Lk 22:28.

⁵⁵⁸ Jer 17:5.

⁵⁵ Acts 20:30.

⁵ Jer 4:22.

⁵ ¹ Lev 20:9.

⁵ ² Cf. 1 Pet 2:13.

⁵ ³ Cf. 1 Thess 4:3.

⁵ ⁴ 1 Cor 11:9.

⁵ ⁵ Eph 5:33.

⁵ Eph 5:25; Col 3:19.

⁵ ⁷ Eccles 7:29.

⁵ ⁸ Cf. 1 Kings 11:1-10.

⁵ Gaius Lucillus was from Suessa Aurunca, on the borders of Campania and Latium. After returning from the Spanish wars around 133 BC, he began writing satires and continued until his death in Naples in 102. In the early stages of his writing he experimented with iambic, trochaic and dactylic hexameter, but after a few years he settled on the hexameter as being most suitable for his purpose.

⁵⁷ Virgil, Aeneid 4.569-70.

⁵⁷¹ Judg 14:18.

⁵⁷² Terence, Hecyra 201.

⁵⁷³ Mic 6:9-10.

⁵⁷⁴ Mic 7:1.

⁵⁷⁵ Mic 7:2.

⁵⁷ Mic 7:3.

⁵⁷⁷ Mic 7:4.

⁵⁷⁸ Mal 2:10.

⁵⁷ Cf. Ezek 18:13.

⁵⁸ Evangelio secundum Hebraeos . Edgar Hennecke notes that this book, which is the only one of the Jewish gospels whose title has been handed down, was probably the gospel of a Greek-speaking Jewish-Christian circle (Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher, eds., New Testament Apocrypha , trans. A. J. B. Higgins and others [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965], 1:162-63). Since the most important witnesses to this work are Clement and Origen of Alexandria, it seems that it originated in Egypt (139, 163).

⁵⁸¹ According to Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha , 160, this quotation indicates that this Jewish-Christian gospel included syncretistic-Gnostic elements, because the carrying of Jesus and the Holy Spirit as his mother are strongly mythological. Hennecke thinks that the excerpt is a variation of Jesus’ temptations in the desert (cf. Mt 4:1-11); Jesus himself is describing his experience, and the devil is replaced by Holy Spirit, who is also identified as Jesus’ mother (120). This citation is also found in Origen, Commentarii in evangelium Joannis II.12; Homiliae in Jeremiam XV.4; Jerome, Comm. Isa . 40:9; Comm. Ezech . 16:13 (Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha , 154).

⁵⁸² Cf. Mt 16:6, 11.

⁵⁸³ Cf. Mt 15:3.

⁵⁸⁴ Lk 1:35.

⁵⁸⁵ 1 Cor 11:3.

⁵⁸ Cf. Eph 5:23.

⁵⁸⁷ Cf. Col 2:18.

⁵⁸⁸ Cf. 1 Tim 6:4.

⁵⁸ Cf. 2 Pet 2:19.

⁵ Cf. 1 Tim 6:4.

⁵ ¹ Mt 10:35-36.

⁵ ² Cf. Mt 24:12.

⁵ ³ Cf. 2 Tim 3:4.

⁵ ⁴ Jn 16:33.

⁵ ⁵ Cf. Tit 2:13.

⁵ Cf. Josh 3:7-17.

⁵ ⁷ Cf. Ex 14:21-29.

⁵ ⁸ Cf. Phil 3:2.

⁵ Ps 145:14.

Jer 8:4.

¹ Ezek 33:11.

² Ezek 9:6.

³ Cf. Amos 5:18, 20.

⁴ Cf. Ps 107:14; Is 9:2; Lk 1:79.

⁵ Cf. Mt 4:16.

Jn 1:5.

⁷ Ps 27:1.

⁸ Ps 119:105.

Lk 12:35.

¹ Cf. Heb 12:11.

¹¹ “Flowing.”

¹² Cf. Lk 10:30.

¹³ Cf. Ps 41:3.

¹⁴ Cf. Lk 10:33-36.

¹⁵ Cf. Mt 5:26.

¹ Cf. Ps 51:4; Rom 3:4.

¹⁷ 1 Cor 1:30.

¹⁸ Cf. Jn 5:14.

¹ Cf. 2 Cor 3:13.

² Cf. Lev 13:19-28.

²¹ Cf. Mt 24:6-7.

²² Gen 11:7.

²³ Cf. Mt 12:26.

²⁴ Phil 2:10-11.

²⁵ Cf. Jn 10:11.

² Ps 79:13.

²⁷ 1 Cor 4:21.

²⁸ Cf. 1 Cor 2:6.

² 1 Jn 4:18.

³ Cf. Jn 10:11.

³¹ Cf. Mt 10:24; Lk 6:40.

³² Cf. Jn 14:12.

³³ According to Plutarch, Timon of Athens lived during the time of the Peloponnesian Wars (431–404 BC). Lucian of Samosata reports that Timon was the wealthy son of Echecratides and lavished his money on flattering friends. When funds ran out, friends deserted, and Timon was reduced to working in the fields. One day he found a pot of gold, and soon his fairweather friends were back. This time he drove them away with dirt clods. Because of his strong dislike and mistrust of human beings, he was reputed as a misanthrope.

³⁴ Cf. 1 Kings 17:5; 19:4.

³⁵ Cf. Mt 3:1; 11:7.

³ Cf. 1 Cor 4:12.

³⁷ Cf. Jn 10:16.

³⁸ Cf. Jn 4:23.

³ Cf. Phil 3:2.

⁴ Ps 68:22.

⁴¹ Deut 32:7.

⁴² Cf. Jn 7:7.

⁴³ Cf. Col 3:1.

⁴⁴ Cf. Gal 1:3.

⁴⁵ Is 6:9; cf. Mt 13:15.

⁴ Cf. Gen 3:14.

⁴⁷ In rhetoric an apostrophe is a digression in the form of an address to someone not present or to a personified object.

⁴⁸ Prov 1:7.

⁴ Cf. Mt 21:12.

⁵ Cf. Jn 1:29.

⁵¹ Cf. Jn 10:10.

⁵² Cf. Ex 12:23.

⁵³ Cf. 2 Cor 5:19.

⁵⁴ Cf. Zech 5:6-8.

⁵⁵ Cf. Gen 32:24.

⁵ Cf. Gen 17:5.

⁵⁷ Cf. Ex 33:19.

⁵⁸ Cf. Ps 38:1.

⁵ Ezek 33:11.

Cf. Ex 1:11.

Commentary on Zephaniah

¹ Cf. 2 Kings 22:14.

² Cf. Judg 4:4-16.

³ Cf. Jdt 13:9; Esther 7:10.

⁴ Cf. 1 Sam 1–2.

⁵ Cf. Lk 1:41-55.

Cf. Plutarch, Pericles 24. Aspasia was the mistress of the Athenian statesman Pericles, living with him in Athens from about 440 BC. She was famous for her intellectual attainments at a time when Greek women were uneducated. She was the target of attacks and jokes in comedy because of her supposed influence over Pericles. After Pericles’s death she married the democrat Lysicles.

⁷ Sappho, Alcaeus and Pindar were all Greek lyrics poets. Sappho (b. 612 BC) was of Mytilene in Lesbos. Alcaeus was a friend and contemporary of Sappho. Pindar (518–438 BC) was born in Boetia and educated in Athens,

and was considered the greatest of the Greek poets; he was much admired by Horace.

⁸ Themista was an Epicurean philosopher of Lampsacus. Cf. Cicero, De finibus 2, 21, 68.

Cornelia was a daughter of Scipio Africanus and the model Roman matron. She is known through Plutarch’s biographies of her sons, social reformers Tiberius and Gaius Grachus. She retired to Misenum after their deaths (in 133 and 123 BC, respectively), and her home remained a center of culture. Plutarch tells the well-known story of how a visitor asked to see her jewels, and in response she brought out her boys with the words, “These are my jewels.”

¹ Paula and Eustochium descended from the Gracchi. Cf. Jerome, Ep. 33.1.

¹¹ Carneades was a distinguished philosopher of Cyrene, a pupil of the Stoic Diogenes, the founder of the New Academy in Athens. Cf. Cicero, Acad emicae quaestiones 2.6.16; 2.42.131; 2.45.137; Tusc ulanae disputationes 4.3.5; De oratore 1.11.49; 2.38.161. Jerome’s referent in the next sentence is Porcia (70-43 BC), wife of Julius Caesar’s assassin Brutus.

¹² Cf. Mt 28:1-10.

¹³ Amos 7:14.

¹⁴ Ezek 3:17.

¹⁵ Amos 3:7.

¹ Ps 9:1.

¹⁷ 1 Cor 15:9.

¹⁸ Ps 131:1.

¹ Cf. 1 Chron 1:8.

² Ps 68:31.

²¹ Ps 72:9.

²² Song 1:4.

²³ Cf. Jer 38:7-13.

²⁴ Cf. Acts 8:27-38.

²⁵ Cf. Mt 19:12.

² Zeph 3:10.

²⁷ Cf. Lk 4:25.

²⁸ Cf. 2 Kings 23; 2 Chron 34.

² Cf. 2 Kings 21:1-17.

³ “Surname.”

³¹ Cf. 2 Kings 18:10-11.

³² Cf. 2 Kings 24–25.

³³ Is this autobiographical to Jerome?

³⁴ Gen 25:8.

³⁵ Cf. 2 Cor 10:3.

³ Cf. Rom 8:11.

³⁷ 2 Cor 4:14.

³⁸ Gen 25:17.

³ Cf. Gen 17:20.

⁴ Gen 25:8.

⁴¹ Gen 35:28-29.

⁴² Gen 49:32.

⁴³ Cf. Gen 1:28.

⁴⁴ Ps 8:7-8.

⁴⁵ Cf. Gen 18:11.

⁴ Ps 82:6.

⁴⁷ Ps 49:20.

⁴⁸ Cf. Prov 23:5.

⁴ Cf. Mt 13:48.

⁵ I believe he is referring to Origen’s interpretation, which he has just recorded.

⁵¹ Cf. Zeph 1:3.

⁵² Cf. Ezek 8:7-16; 2 Kings 10:18-21; 17:40-41.

⁵³ “From the context.”

⁵⁴ Heb 7:14.

⁵⁵ Cf. Mt 24:12.

⁵ Cf. Lk 18:8.

⁵⁷ Cf. Mt 24:24.

⁵⁸ Cf. Jas 2:2.

⁵ Cf. 2 Cor 10:5.

Cf. Mt 6:24; Lk 16:13.

¹ Cf. Mt 22:20-21.

² Lk 12:20.

³ Cf. Quintilian 1.4.19.

⁴ Jer 12:3.

⁵ Ezek 7:2.

Jer 25:9.

⁷ Jer 25:38.

⁸ Ps 4:6.

Cf. 1 Cor 3:12-14.

⁷ Cf. 2 Kings 24–25.

⁷¹ Gen 49:10.

⁷² Cf. Mt 21:43.

⁷³ Cf. Ezek 34:1-4.

⁷⁴ Rom 13:14.

⁷⁵ Col 3:12.

⁷ Cf. Eph 4:24.

⁷⁷ Ps 109:18.

⁷⁸ Cf. 1 Cor 5:5.

⁷ Cf. Is 9:5.

⁸ Cf. 1 Cor 6:19.

⁸¹ Cf. Zeph 1:8.

⁸² Cf. Zeph 1:4.

⁸³ Neh 3:3.

⁸⁴ 2 Kings 22:14.

⁸⁵ Cf. Dan 7:13-14.

⁸ Cf. Is 58:8-9.

⁸⁷ Ps 38:8.

⁸⁸ Ps 51:17.

⁸ Cf. Mt 25:41.

Mt 27:25.

¹ Cf. Lk 21:20.

² Cf. 2 Kings 2:23-24.

³ Cf. Mt 13:47-50.

⁴ “Ball.”

⁵ Zeph 1:10.

Dan 13:56.

⁷ Ezek 16:3.

⁸ Hos 12:7.

Ps 69:2.

¹ Cf. Ps 73:9.

¹ ¹ Ps 40:2.

¹ ² Gen 9:25.

¹ ³ Cf. Gen 10:8-9.

¹ ⁴ 1 Cor 12:31.

¹ ⁵ Acts 5:41.

¹ Rom 5:3-5; cf. Jas 1:3.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Josephus, J.W. 3.332.

¹ ⁸ “Disparagingly.”

¹ Cf. 1 Chron 11:4.

¹¹ Cf. 2 Sam 5:5.

¹¹¹ Cf. Mt 24:12-13.

¹¹² Cf. Mt 12:36.

¹¹³ Hab 1:5.

¹¹⁴ Hab 1:13.

¹¹⁵ Cf. Prov 21:24.

¹¹ Heb 12:11.

¹¹⁷ Cf. Mic 3:9-10.

¹¹⁸ Cf. Lev 14:39-45.

¹¹ Jer 1:9-10.

¹² Prov 21:9.

¹²¹ Cf. Zeph 1:12.

¹²² Zeph 1:12.

¹²³ Cf. Is 5:2.

¹²⁴ Ibid.

¹²⁵ Cf. Gen 9:21.

¹² Cf. Gen 43:25.

¹²⁷ Zeph 1:12.

¹²⁸ Deut 32:32-33.

¹² Ps 78:47.

¹³ Mt 23:37.

¹³¹ Mt 23:35; cf. Gen 4:8.

¹³² Mt 27:25.

¹³³ Cf. 1 Thess 2:16.

¹³⁴ Cf. 1 Sam 4:3.

¹³⁵ Cf. 1 Sam 10:26.

¹³ Cf. Mt 21:33-42.

¹³⁷ Cf. Mt 26:14.

¹³⁸ “Resurrection.”

¹³ Cf. Amos 8:10; Tob 2:6.

¹⁴ Cf. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 2.23; Josephus, Ant. 20.200.

¹⁴¹ Cf. 1 Cor 3:15.

¹⁴² Cf. Jer 4:13; Lam 5:16

¹⁴³ Jn 3:20.

¹⁴⁴ 1 Cor 15:52.

¹⁴⁵ Cf. Gen 4:17.

¹⁴ Cf. Mt 7:14.

¹⁴⁷ Cf. Zeph 1:12.

¹⁴⁸ Cf. Mt 24:34-35.

¹⁴ Cf. Lk 21:20.

¹⁵ Cf. 1 Cor 1:30; Jn 14:6.

¹⁵¹ Gen 9:5-6.

¹⁵² Is 40:6.

¹⁵³ Gen 6:3.

¹⁵⁴ 1 Cor 15:50.

¹⁵⁵ Cf. Gen 4:10.

¹⁵ Lk 12:20.

¹⁵⁷ Prov 13:8.

¹⁵⁸ Ps 39:12.

¹⁵ Ps 120:5.

¹ Cf. 2 Cor 5:4.

¹ ¹ Rom 7:24.

¹ ² Cf. Eph 4:3.

¹ ³ Deut 32:6.

¹ ⁴ Jer 2:30.

¹ ⁵ Is 35:3.

¹ Is 40:6-8.

¹ ⁷ Mt 11:29.

¹ ⁸ Mt 23:12.

¹ Cf. Sir 3:18.

¹⁷ Ps 38:4.

¹⁷¹ Mt 11:28.

¹⁷² Cf. Mt 23:12.

¹⁷³ Jn 5:22.

¹⁷⁴ Cf. 1 Cor 1:30.

¹⁷⁵ Mt 7:8.

¹⁷ Sir 20:32.

¹⁷⁷ Cf. ?

¹⁷⁸ Ps 5:6.

¹⁷ Cf. 1 Cor 3:13.

¹⁸ Zeph 2:4.

¹⁸¹ Cf. Ezra 3:8.

¹⁸² “Ruined nation,” “nation of ruin,” “nation that will be ruined.”

¹⁸³ Cf. 1 Cor 2:13.

¹⁸⁴ This refers to the Old Latin translation of the LXX , not to Jerome’s new translation, which eventually came to be called the Vulgate.

¹⁸⁵ Tit 1:12-13.

¹⁸ Cf. Eph 4:14.

¹⁸⁷ The Corybantes were priests of Cybele whose religious service consisted in noisy music and wild, armed dances.

¹⁸⁸ 1 Cor 13:1.

¹⁸ 2 Cor 13:3.

¹ Cf. Mt 22:14.

¹ ¹ Cf. Is 13–22; Jer 46–52; Ezek 25–32.

¹ ² “Individual characteristics.”

¹ ³ Cf. Dan 2:31-45; 7:1-28.

¹ ⁴ Cf. Zeph 2:5.

¹ ⁵ Cf. Zeph 2:4.

¹ Ibid.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Is 17:1.

¹ ⁸ Cf. Is 15:1-9; Jer 48:1-9.

¹ Cf. Ex 20:5.

² Ezek 18:20.

² ¹ The lemma had “left.”

² ² “Of salt.”

² ³ Cf. 1 Cor 2:13.

² ⁴ Cf. Col 3:1.

² ⁵ Cf. Col 3:9-10.

² Cf. Gen 19:30.

² ⁷ Cf. Gen 19:35.

² ⁸ Cf. Gen 19:34-38.

² Prov 22:28.

²¹ Is 1:10.

²¹¹ Dan 13:56.

²¹² Rev 11:8.

²¹³ Cf. Mt 12:3-4.

²¹⁴ Cf. 2 Cor 11:32-33.

²¹⁵ Mt 5:13.

²¹ Cf. Lev 2:13.

²¹⁷ Mt 5:13.

²¹⁸ Cf. Zeph 2:8.

²¹ Zeph 2:11.

²² Cambyses was the father of the elder Cyrus.

²²¹ Cf. Jer 13:23.

²²² Song 1:4.

²²³ Song 8:5.

²²⁴ Cf. Ex 1:21; Num 12:1.

²²⁵ Cf. Ps 110:4.

²² Gen 3:24.

²²⁷ Is 27:1.

²²⁸ Cf. Jon 3:6-9.

²² Jer 18:7-8.

²³ Zeph 3:10.

²³¹ Zeph 3:10.

²³² Jer 1:14.

²³³ Prov 27:16.

²³⁴ Zech 6:6.

²³⁵ Zech 6:12.

²³ Cf. Prov 27:16.

²³⁷ Is 10:13.

²³⁸ 2 Tim 3:1-5.

²³ Cf. Mt 24:12.

²⁴ Lk 18:8.

²⁴¹ Cf. Rom 11:17.

²⁴² Cf. Ps 107:33-34.

²⁴³ Ps 107:35-36.

²⁴⁴ Cf. Rom 11:17.

²⁴⁵ Cf. Tit 1:16.

²⁴ Cf. Rom 2:13; Jas 1:22.

²⁴⁷ Cf. Lev 11.

²⁴⁸ Ps 74:19.

²⁴ Cf. Mt 25:41.

²⁵ Cf. Ezek 17.

²⁵¹ Prov 18:21.

²⁵² Zeph 2:13.

²⁵³ Cf. Jer 25:38.

²⁵⁴ Jer 23:23.

²⁵⁵ Cf. Mt 6:24.

²⁵ Cf. 1 Jn 2:15.

²⁵⁷ Cf. Gen 49:27.

²⁵⁸ “Ironically.”

²⁵ Hab 1:5.

² Lev 21:21. This is an interesting passage, especially when read (anachronistically) in the light of the later Donatist controversy, in which Donatus asserted that sanctity was essential for the administration of the sacraments and church membership.

² ¹ Cf. Mt 25:14-30.

² ² Ps 1:6.

² ³ Hos 2:6-7.

² ⁴ Hos 2:7.

² ⁵ Jer 2:30.

² Cf. Lk 10:30.

² ⁷ Cf. Mt 3:16.

² ⁸ Cf. Dan 13.

² Prov 19:25.

²⁷ Cf. Gen 49:27.

²⁷¹ Eph 4:30.

²⁷² Ps 51:11.

²⁷³ Heb 10:29.

²⁷⁴ 1 Kings 13:2.

²⁷⁵ Cf. 1 Kings 13:24.

²⁷ Cf. 1 Kings 13:11-19.

²⁷⁷ Cf. Josephus, Ant . 8.8-9

²⁷⁸ Cf. 1 Kings 13:19.

²⁷ Cf. 1 Kings 13:21-24.

²⁸ Cf. 1 Kings 13:28.

²⁸¹ Cf. Ps 31:19.

²⁸² Cf. Rom 2:5.

²⁸³ In a transferred sense this can refer to deacons.

²⁸⁴ 1 Tim 3:1.

²⁸⁵ Cf. Lk 13:4.

²⁸ Cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:16.

²⁸⁷ Cf. Gen 11:1.

²⁸⁸ Cf. 2 Cor 3:6.

²⁸ Zeph 3:7.

² Ps 57:7.

² ¹ Prov 24:27.

² ² Cf. Lev 16:7-29.

² ³ Cf. Rom 13:13.

² ⁴ Ps 63:1.

² ⁵ Ps 5:3.

² Cf. Mal 4:2.

² ⁷ Is 43:10.

² ⁸ Cf. Deut 17:6; 19:15; Mt 18:16; 2 Cor 13:1.

² Cf. Dan 13:28-41.

³ Cf. 1 Kings 21:1-16.

³ ¹ Wis 6:7.

³ ² Phil 2:10-11.

³ ³ Mt 11:30.

³ ⁴ Cf. Rom 16:20.

³ ⁵ Cf. Acts 2:11.

³ Cf. Zeph 3:9.

³ ⁷ Cf. 1 Kings 10:1-10.

³ ⁸ Ps 68:31.

³ Cf. Mt 27:21-22.

³¹ Jn 19:6.

³¹¹ Cf. Jn 8:44.

³¹² Ps 23:1-3.

³¹³ Cf. Zech 3:9.

³¹⁴ Cf. Jn 10:16.

³¹⁵ Rom 11:32.

³¹ Cf. Jn 14:6.

³¹⁷ Rom 11:33.

³¹⁸ Ps 77:6.

³¹ Ps 77:7-10.

³² Cf. Mt 12:36.

³²¹ Cf. Ps 120:2.

³²² Eccles 1:2.

³²³ Ps 39:5.

³²⁴ Cf. Lk 10:19.

³²⁵ Ps 27:1.

³² Cf. Rom 16:26. I believe Jerome is referring to Christian Chiliasts, who believed in a literal reign of Christ on earth after his second coming. Jerome fiercely (and excessively) repudiates such eschatological views and accuses

the adherents of Judaizing.

³²⁷ Zeph 3:8.

³²⁸ Zeph 3:9.

³² Zeph 3:10.

³³ Zeph 3:12-13.

³³¹ Cf. 1 Pet 1:19.

³³² 1 Cor 1:30.

³³³ Jn 14:23.

³³⁴ Lev 26:12.

³³⁵ Is 35:3.

³³ Cf. Col 3:9.

³³⁷ Cf. Col 3:10.

³³⁸ Ps 51:17.

³³ Is 42:3.

³⁴ Cf. Zech 9:9.

³⁴¹ Cf. Mt 21:5-10.

³⁴² Zech 9:9.

³⁴³ Jn 14:27.

³⁴⁴ Cf. Gal 4:26.

³⁴⁵ Jerome is attempting (fancifully) to explain the Hebrew word ‫ נוגי‬of Zeph 3:18 via the Latin nugae (“nonsense,” “trifle,” “trifler”) by simply transliterating the Hebrew word into Latin. Some modern scholars think that the Hebrew text in Zeph 3:18 is corrupt. Cf. A. Kamesar, “The Virgin Birth of Isaiah 7:14: The Philological Argument from the Second to the Fifth Century,” Journal of Theological Studies 41, no. 1 (1990): 51-75 (on

69).

³⁴ Cf. Gen 29:17.

³⁴⁷ Cf. Gen 29:30-31.

³⁴⁸ Cf. 1 Cor 15:19.

³⁴ Sir 27:28.

³⁵ Ps 7:16.

³⁵¹ Cf. Acts 2:13.

³⁵² Cf. Tob 2:14

³⁵³ Sir 8:6.

³⁵⁴ Cf. Mt 26:29.

³⁵⁵ Cf. Heb 1:9.

³⁵ Job 40:3.

³⁵⁷ Job 19:12.

³⁵⁸ Ps 44:9.

³⁵ Ps 89:38-39.

³ Ps 44:9.

³ ¹ Ps 44:17-18.

³ ² Gen 12:2.

³ ³ 1 Cor 15:31.

³ ⁴ Cf. Dan 12:2.

Commentary on Haggai

¹ Cf. Jer 25:11.

² Cf. Zech 1:1.

³ Cf. Zech 1:7.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Zech 1:12.

Ezra 4:24.

⁷ Ezra 5:1-2.

⁸ Literally “sang.”

Cf. Hag 1:4; 1 Kings 6:9 LXX .

¹ Cf. Dan 5:31–6:28.

¹¹ Gen 1:28; 8:17; 9:1.

¹² Cf. Job 40:11.

¹³ Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25.

¹⁴ Cf. Gen 1:8.

¹⁵ According to G. Grützmacher, Hieronymus: Eine Biographische Studie zur alten Kirchengeschichte (Berlin: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1969), 2:116, the “numbers games” Jerome plays throughout this commentary (by interpreting numbers allegorically) derive from Origen.

¹ The sixth month in the Jewish calendar is Elul (August/September) and does not have solemnities.

¹⁷ The seventh month in the Jewish calendar is Tishri (September/October) and has the feasts of New Year (1), Day of Atonement (10), Tabernacles (1521).

¹⁸ Cf. Gen 1:31.

¹ Cf. Gen 3:19.

² Cf. Gen 3:17-18.

²¹ Virgil, Eclogae 8.75.

²² Cf. Is 1:15.

²³ Mt 27:25.

²⁴ Is 1:15.

²⁵ 1 Cor 5:8.

² Cf. Rom 7:14.

²⁷ Ex 23:14-16; cf. Deut 16:16.

²⁸ Cf. 2 Cor 9:6.

² Cf. Gen 27:27.

³ 1 Chron 3:17-19.

³¹ Mt 1:12-13. 1 Chron 3:19 says that Zerubbabel was son of Pedaiah, not Shealtiel. The two different fathers may indicate that a levirate marriage had taken place.

³² Cf. 1 Kings 6:7.

³³ Jn 7:37.

³⁴ Mt 7:7.

³⁵ Cf. Jn 6:44.

³ Cf. Ezek 1:3.

³⁷ Is 49:9.

³⁸ As in Hebrew, both of the names Joshua and Jesus are represented by the same name in Latin—Iesus.

³ The name Iao is the Latinization of the Greek form of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton.

⁴ Cf. Ps 119:133.

⁴¹ Cf. Col 1:15.

⁴² Cf. Col 1:18.

⁴³ Cf. 1 Cor 5:5.

⁴⁴ Is 6:8.

⁴⁵ Cf. Hag 1:1.

⁴ Cf. Heb 9:1-5.

⁴⁷ Cf. Lk 9:58.

⁴⁸ Cf. Is 34:13; Jer 9:11; 10:22.

⁴ Ps 119:105.

⁵ Cf. Lk 12:18.

⁵¹ Ps 104:15.

⁵² Hag 1:2.

⁵³ “Rebellious.”

⁵⁴ Lev 26:26.

⁵⁵ Prov 13:25.

⁵ Cf. Jdt 12:17, 20.

⁵⁷ Cf. Jdt 7:22.

⁵⁸ Ps 23:5.

⁵ Cf. Gen 9:21.

Cf. Gen 43:34.

¹ Cf. Acts 2:13.

² Cf. Jer 35:6.

³ Ps 104:6.

⁴ “His covering.”

⁵ Cf. Rom 11:33.

Cf. 2 Sam 22:12; Ps 18:11.

⁷ Ps 119:11.

⁸ Cf. Mt 24:12.

Deut 24:15.

⁷ Hag 1:2.

⁷¹ Cf. Is 40:10; 62:11.

⁷² Mt 16:27.

⁷³ 1 Cor 3:14.

⁷⁴ Cf. Hag 1:4.

⁷⁵ Hag 1:6.

⁷ Cf. Lk 8:18.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ Gen 27:28.

⁷ Cf. Ps 133:3.

⁸ Cf. Heb 4:12.

⁸¹ Cf. 2 Cor 10:5.

⁸² Cf. Ps 80:5.

⁸³ Cf. Deut 32:33.

⁸⁴ Ps 141:5.

⁸⁵ The ascetical practice of eating dry foods.

⁸ See note at Nahum 1:4.

⁸⁷ Gal 3:4.

⁸⁸ Literally “from the face of.”

⁸ Cf. Eph 4:13.

Cf. Ps 34:16.

¹ My conjecture is that Jerome has taken this reference from Origen, but I have been unable to confirm the apocryphal source.

² Cf. Lk 1:41-43.

³ Cf. Lk 20:36; Acts 6:15.

⁴ Jerome is reporting Origen’s views. J. Lienhard argues that Origen’s views of John the Baptist evolved during his lifetime, from his speculative and ambiguous early writings to a more ecclesiastically orthodox position in his later writings. See “Origen’s Speculation on John the Baptist,” in Origeniana Quinta , ed. R. Daly (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1992), 449-53.

⁵ Is 9:6.

Cf. 1 Jn 4:18.

⁷ The RSV versifies this as 1:15.

⁸ Cf. Hag 1:1.

Ibid.

¹ Hag 1:2.

¹ ¹ Cf. Hag 1:4.

¹ ² Cf. Hag 1:7.

¹ ³ Cf. Hag 1:8.

¹ ⁴ Hag 1:12.

¹ ⁵ Cf. 1 Pet 2:5.

¹ Cf. Rom 12:1.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Heb 7:3.

¹ ⁸ Cf. Rom 1:4.

¹ Cf. Hag 1:12.

¹¹ Cf. Ex 20:11.

¹¹¹ Cf. Gen 17:12.

¹¹² Cf. Mt 28:19.

¹¹³ Once again, this sounds very much like Origen’s interpretations.

¹¹⁴ Cf. Phil 3:13.

¹¹⁵ Cf. Heb 12:12; Is 35:3.

¹¹ Cf. Phil 4:7.

¹¹⁷ “By way of a paraphrase.”

¹¹⁸ Cf. Hos 1:9.

¹¹ Jn 1:26.

¹² Cf. Deut 4:36.

¹²¹ Cf. Ex 19:18.

¹²² Cf. Ex 14:21.

¹²³ Cf. Ex 8–12.

¹²⁴ Cf. Deut 8:2.

¹²⁵ Cf. Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44.

¹² Cf. Mt 27:51-52.

¹²⁷ Cf. Is 27:1.

¹²⁸ Ps 19:4; cf. Rom 10:18.

¹² Cf. 1 Thess 4:9.

¹³ Cf. Eph 3:5, 9.

¹³¹ Mt 28:19.

¹³² Cf. Mt 22:14.

¹³³ Cf. Heb 12:23.

¹³⁴ 1 Pet 5:13.

¹³⁵ 2 Jn 1.

¹³ Cf. 1 Tim 3:15.

¹³⁷ Cf. Heb 3:2-6.

¹³⁸ Ps 12:6.

¹³ 1 Cor 3:12.

¹⁴ Cf. 1 Pet 2:5.

¹⁴¹ Hag 2:2.

¹⁴² Hag 1:2.

¹⁴³ Cf. Hag 1:14.

¹⁴⁴ Hag 2:8.

¹⁴⁵ Cf. Ex 12:3.

¹⁴ Cf. Lev 16:29; 23:27-28; 25:9.

¹⁴⁷ Cf. Jer 39:1; 52:4; 2 Kings 25:1.

¹⁴⁸ Deut 17:8-10.

¹⁴ Cf. 1 Tim 3:2.

¹⁵ Tit 1:5-11.

¹⁵¹ Cf. Lev 6:26; 7:6.

¹⁵² Cf. Ex 12:4.

¹⁵³ Cf. Lev 6–7.

¹⁵⁴ Cf. Lev 22:4.

¹⁵⁵ Cf. Lev 21:1-4.

¹⁵ Lev 21:11.

¹⁵⁷ Cf. Ps 104:15.

¹⁵⁸ Cf. Ps 104:15.

¹⁵ Cf. 1 Cor 3:2.

¹ Cf. Rom 14:2.

¹ ¹ Cf. Rom 2:13.

¹ ² Cf. Jn 6:56.

¹ ³ Cf. Ps 80:5.

¹ ⁴ The Hebrew word soreq describes a choice species of vine. Cf. Is 5:1.

¹ ⁵ Cf. Jer 2:21.

¹ Cf. Deut 32:32-33.

¹ ⁷ Ps 141:5.

¹ ⁸ “Theses.”

¹ Cf. Hag 2:11.

¹⁷ Hag 2:20.

¹⁷¹ Cf. 1 Cor 6:19.

¹⁷² 1 Cor 3:10.

¹⁷³ Cf. Is 3:3.

¹⁷⁴ Cf. 1 Cor 3:12.

¹⁷⁵ Isa 54:11-12 LXX .

¹⁷ Cf. Gen 26:12.

¹⁷⁷ Gal 3:4.

¹⁷⁸ Cf. Ps 104:15.

¹⁷ Cf. Lk 3:23.

¹⁸ Cf. Ezek 1:1.

¹⁸¹ Cf. Gen 32:14-15.

¹⁸² Cf. Gen 21:5-6.

¹⁸³ Cf. Gen 31:38.

¹⁸⁴ Cf. Lk 8:18.

¹⁸⁵ 2 Kings 25:1.

¹⁸ Jer 39:1; 52:4.

¹⁸⁷ “Laziness.”

¹⁸⁸ Cf. Ezra 4:21.

¹⁸ Cf. Gal 6:8.

¹ Cf. Mt 6:19.

¹ ¹ Cf. Jn 15:1.

¹ ² Cf. Song 8:1.

¹ ³ Because olive oil was used in lamps.

¹ ⁴ Cf. Judg 9:8-15.

¹ ⁵ Cf. Song 4:3; 6:7; Ex 28:33-34.

¹ Cf. Hag 1:1.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Hag 2:11.

¹ ⁸ Cf. Jn 8:56.

¹ Cf. Jn 1:29.

² 1 Cor 15:28.

² ¹ Cf. 1 Cor 7:31.

² ² Cf. 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1.

² ³ Cf. Zech 9:9-10.

² ⁴ Cf. Jn 10:16.

² ⁵ Cf. Heb 4:12.

² Cf. 1 Cor 15:28.

² ⁷ Jn 6:27.

² ⁸ Cf. Col 1:15.

² Cf. Heb 1:3.

²¹ One of the three Furies of Greek mythology. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid 7.324, 341, 415.

²¹¹ Ps 68:11.

Commentary on Habakkuk

¹ Chromatius was bishop of Aquileia from 387 until his death in 407. He was a friend and correspondent of Ambrose, Jerome and Rufinus, and a strong supporter of John Chrysostom against his Eastern assailants. Pastorally active, he worked for the peace of the church, particularly in the quarrel between Jerome and Rufinus. He commissioned Rufinus to translate Eusebius’s Church History and was the dedicatee of that work and of Rufinus’s translation of Origen’s Homilies on Joshua .

² This is the Latin word for “seventy.”

³ See Commentary on Nahum preface.

⁴ Cf. Nahum 1:1; Mal 1:1.

⁵ Zech 9:1.

Zech 12:1.

⁷ “Administration.”

⁸ Hab 1:2.

Hab 1:3.

¹ Hab 1:4.

¹¹ Cf. Is 45:9; Jer 18:6; Rom 9:20.

¹² See note on Montanus above in Nahum, p. 2.

¹³ Cf. 1 Cor 14:30.

¹⁴ 1 Cor 14:33.

¹⁵ Cf. Dan 14:35-39.

¹ Cf. Dan 3:93.

¹⁷ Cf. Ps 144:12-13.

¹⁸ Cf. Hab 1:13.

¹ Cf. Hab 1:14.

² Cf. Ps 73:2.

²¹ Ps 73:11-13.

²² Cf. Rom 11:33.

²³ Cf. 1 Sam 16:7.

²⁴ Cf. 1 Cor 7:25.

²⁵ Eph 3:13.

² Cf. Ps 34:1.

²⁷ Mt 10:22.

²⁸ Cf. 2 Cor 11:30.

² ?

³ Cf. 2 Kings 24:10.

³¹ Cf. 2 Kings 23:29.

³² Cf. Dan 3:1-7.

³³ Cf. Dan 5:3.

³⁴ Jerome is addressing Chromatius.

³⁵ Cf. Gen 4:8.

³ Cf. Gen 28:3-15.

³⁷ Cf. Ex 1:14.

³⁸ Cf. Mt 27:21-22.

³ “Anonymous.”

⁴ Hab 1:2.

⁴¹ Cf. Hab 1:5.

⁴² Ezek 29:19-20.

⁴³ Cf. Dan 3:1-7.

⁴⁴ Cf. Dan 4:28-33.

⁴⁵ The Greek word means “to make a false note in music” or metaphorically “to go wrong,” “offend,” “err.”

⁴ Cf. Dan 3:1-7.

⁴⁷ Cf. Dan 3:6.

⁴⁸ G. Grützmacher, Hieronymus: Eine Biographische Studie zur alten Kirchengeschichte (Berlin: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1969), 2:116 claims that the detailed demonology of Jerome’s Commentary on Habakkuk derives from Origen. This can be proven from the parallels found in Rufinus’s

translation of Origen’s Homilies on Joshua .

⁴ Mt 7:13.

⁵ Cf. Lk 16:19.

⁵¹ Amos 6:4.

⁵² Cf. Mt 7:14.

⁵³ Cf. 2 Cor 11:30.

⁵⁴ Mt 12:44.

⁵⁵ Cf. 1 Tim 1:20.

⁵ Cf. Jn 12:14-15.

⁵⁷ Mt 4:9.

⁵⁸ Cf. Job 40:14.

⁵ Cf. Job 40:24.

2 Cor 10:4-5.

¹ Hab 1:2.

² Hab 1:5.

³ Hab 1:6.

⁴ Hab 1:11.

⁵ Cf. Hab 1:5.

Cf. Hab 1:6.

⁷ Cf. Hab 1:7.

⁸ Cf. Hab 1:8.

Cf. Hab 1:9.

⁷ Reading aquila in place of aliqua . Cf. Hab 1:8.

⁷¹ Cf. Is 14:13-14.

⁷² Cf. Hab 1:8.

⁷³ Cf. Ezek 29:2-3.

⁷⁴ Cf. Hab 1:9.

⁷⁵ Ibid.

⁷ Cf. Hab 1:10.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Ibid.

⁸¹ Cf. Hab 1:11.

⁸² Ibid.

⁸³ Cf. Hab 1:9.

⁸⁴ Cf. Hab 1:10.

⁸⁵ Ibid.

⁸ Ibid.

⁸⁷ Cf. Hab 1:11.

⁸⁸ Jer 12:1-2.

⁸ Cf. Gen 5:1.

Cf. Hab 1:12.

¹ Ibid.

² Cf. Gen 4:8.

³ Cf. Jon 1:17.

⁴ Cf. Ps 143:2; Job 9:2; 25:4.

⁵ Cf. Ezek 16:48-52.

Cf. Lk 18:14.

⁷ Cf. Wis 11:20.

⁸ Rom 7:23.

Phil 3:13.

¹ 1 Cor 13:9.

¹ ¹ 1 Cor 13:10.

¹ ² 1 Cor 4:6.

¹ ³ Mt 18:10.

¹ ⁴ Ps 34:7.

¹ ⁵ Shepherd of Hermas speaks of an angel Thegri who presides over the beast (vision 4.2.4). Grützmacher, Hieronymus , 2:125, reads Tegri in his discussion of Jerome’s commentary and makes the link to the passage in Hermas. The Corpus Christianorum Series Latina critical edition, however, reads Tyri with no indication in the apparatus of variant readings.

¹ Hab 1:14.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Hab 1:9.

¹ ⁸ Cf. Dan 3:1-7.

¹ Cf. Hab 1:14.

¹¹ Cf. Mt 17:26.

¹¹¹ Rom 5:19.

¹¹² Cf. 1 Cor 15:22.

¹¹³ Ps 104:21.

¹¹⁴ Hab 1:5.

¹¹⁵ Hab 1:12.

¹¹ Cf. Hab 1:13.

¹¹⁷ Cf. Hab 1:14.

¹¹⁸ Cf. Hab 1:15.

¹¹ Cf. Hab 1:17.

¹² Cf. 1 Pet 5:8.

¹²¹ This is a striking admission on Jerome’s part, that he himself lacked patience in his debates with others. This was illustrated a few years later, when he wrote a response to Rufinus’s Apology before he had even received a copy of the work. Instead of waiting to read Rufinus’s published criticisms, Jerome responded to hearsay about the work.

¹²² Zech 1:9.

¹²³ Ps 85:8.

¹²⁴ Is 65:24.

¹²⁵ 2 Cor 3:2-3.

¹² Prov 3:3.

¹²⁷ Cf. Deut 18:23.

¹²⁸ Is 1:13.

¹² 1 Tim 6:11.

¹³ Rom 12:13.

¹³¹ 1 Cor 14:1.

¹³² Is 49:8.

¹³³ 1 Jn 2:18.

¹³⁴ Cf. Hab 1:14.

¹³⁵ Cf. Mt 10:6; 15:24.

¹³ Cf. Jn 10:16.

¹³⁷ Cf. 1 Cor 1:30.

¹³⁸ Cf. Ezek 37:15-17.

¹³ Rom 1:17.

¹⁴ Cf. Acts 22:3. Jerome’s claim is not tenable. In the first place, he is

begging the question, that is, assuming what needs to be demonstrated, namely, that the meaning is the same in two passages that are translated differently. Second, St. Paul characteristically cites the Old Testament according to the Septuagint version. This is not to deny that Paul did indeed know Hebrew and had studied under Gamaliel.

¹⁴¹ Cf. Hab 2:3.

¹⁴² Cf. Hab 2:4.

¹⁴³ Ibid.

¹⁴⁴ “He shall not prosper.”

¹⁴⁵ Cf. Rev 20:10.

¹⁴ Cf. 2 Pet 2:4.

¹⁴⁷ “In riddles.”

¹⁴⁸ Cf. Jer 17:11.

¹⁴ Cf. Mt 25:41.

¹⁵ Jer 38:22.

¹⁵¹ Jn 19:6; Mt 27:25.

¹⁵² Cf. 2 Thess 2:4.

¹⁵³ Cf. Mk 13:22.

¹⁵⁴ Cf. 2 Thess 2:8.

¹⁵⁵ Cf. Mt 24:12.

¹⁵ Lk 18:8.

¹⁵⁷ 1 Jn 2:18.

¹⁵⁸ Lk 16:12.

¹⁵ Mt 21:9, 15.

¹ Mt 21:16; Ps 8:2.

¹ ¹ This is the surname of the Roman historian Sallust.

¹ ² A city on the east coast of Spain, allied with Rome, that Hannibal attacked in 219–218 BC, thus starting the Second Punic War (218–201).

¹ ³ Sallust, Historiarum fragmenta 2.64. These fragments are collected and translated in Sallust: Fragments of the Histories; Letters to Caesar , ed. and trans. J. T. Ramsey, Sallust II, Loeb Classical Library 522 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015).

¹ ⁴ I.e., Cicero.

¹ ⁵ Cicero, Pro Marcello 10. According to H. Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics (Goeteborg, 1958), 134, these classical quotations are not being cited from memory but prove that Jerome had the books at hand and looked them up.

¹ I believe that in spite of the autobiographical claim being made here, Jerome is simply translating what he has found written in Origen’s Commentary on the Twelve Prophets .

¹ ⁷ Refers to a beetle worshiped in Egypt. Jerome will proceed to transliterate this Greek word (as cantharus ) below.

¹ ⁸ Pliny describes how a species of beetles nests its grubs in manure ( Nat uralis historia 11.34.98).

¹ According to Grützmacher, Hieronymus , 2:116, it is certain that Jerome’s reference is to Origen.

¹⁷ Cf. Phil 3:8.

¹⁷¹ The Greek word δευτεροτες means “repeater” ( δευτεροσις = “repetition”) and refers to Jewish scholars who memorized texts of the Mishna and recited them in the colleges before the rabbis. Cf. J. Braverman, Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel: A Study of Comparative Jewish and Christian Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1978), 7; Jerome, Ep. 121; Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 11.5 (513C; M21.825B); M. J. Hollerich, Eusebius of Caesarea’s Commentary on Isaiah: Christian Exegesis in the Age of Constantine (Oxford: Clarendon, 1999), 145-53.

¹⁷² Cf. Lk 23:39.

¹⁷³ J. N. D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 166, takes this criticism as aimed at Ambrose.

¹⁷⁴ Mt 16:6.

¹⁷⁵ Cf. Mt 16:7-11.

¹⁷ Mt 16:12.

¹⁷⁷ Ps 22:6.

¹⁷⁸ Ps 102:7.

¹⁷ Cf. Ps 73:8-9.

¹⁸ Lk 12:49.

¹⁸¹ Cf. Ps 19:4.

¹⁸² Ps 32:1.

¹⁸³ Cf. Mt 23:34-37.

¹⁸⁴ Cf. Rev 14:20; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24.

¹⁸⁵ Mt 27:25.

¹⁸ Is 1:15.

¹⁸⁷ Cf. Is 1:21.

¹⁸⁸ Cf. 2 Kings 25:4-7; Jer 39:4-6; 52:2-30.

¹⁸ Cf. 2 Kings 25:6-7; Jer 39:5-7.

¹ “Vomit-inducing drink.”

¹ ¹ Jer 2:18.

¹ ² Ps 124:5.

¹ ³ Cf. 1 Kings 17:5.

¹ ⁴ Cf. Ps 110:7.

¹ ⁵ Ps 110:7.

¹ Mt 26:39.

¹ ⁷ Ibid. The interpretation of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane provided here seems to stand in tension with the way Jerome interprets it in his Commentary on Matthew .

¹ ⁸ 1 Thess 5:7.

¹ Cf. Is 56:7; Jer 7:11; Mt 21:13; Mk 11:17; Lk 19:46.

² Cf. Is 2:18-19.

² ¹ Cf. 1 Sam 24:4.

² ² Cf. 1 Kings 19:9.

² ³ Cf. Ex 33:23.

² ⁴ Is 32:18.

² ⁵ Cf. Is 56:7; Jer 7:11; Mt 21:13; Mk 11:17; Lk 19:46.

² The lemma had “from.”

² ⁷ Ps 75:8.

² ⁸ Ps 109:7.

² “Symbol.”

²¹ Cf. 2 Thess 2:8.

²¹¹ Hab 2:6.

²¹² Hab 2:9.

²¹³ Hab 2:12.

²¹⁴ Cf. Dan 3:1.

²¹⁵ Deut 27:15.

²¹ Deut 27:15.

²¹⁷ Lk 12:42.

²¹⁸ Ps 107:43.

²¹ Rom 8:35.

²² 1 Cor 3:16.

²²¹ 1 Cor 6:19.

²²² Jn 14:10.

²²³ Virgil, Aeneid 6:724-27. Cf. Jerome, Comm. Ezech. 40:32-34.

²²⁴ Acts 17:28.

²²⁵ Hos 4:12.

²² Lk 11:24.

²²⁷ Gal 6:8.

²²⁸ Gal 5:22.

²² Gal 5:16.

²³ Cf. Ps 51:11.

²³¹ Cf. Ps 51:12.

²³² Cf. Ps 51:10.

²³³ Lk 23:46.

²³⁴ Mt 26:38; Mk 14:34.

²³⁵ Jn 10:18.

²³ Sardanapalus was an Assyrian king whose name was a byword for effeminacy.

²³⁷ Hagendahl, Latin Fathers and the Classics , 134-35, identifies this as a paraphrase of Cicero, Republic 3, fragment 4. According to Kelly, Jerome , 169-70, Jerome’s target is Rufinus of Aquileia, who had criticized Jerome’s attacks on the church’s common translation (the Old Latin rendering of the Septuagint); cf. Apologia adversus Hieronymum 2.32-35. Kelly conjectures that Jerome and Rufinus began drifting apart far earlier than normally supposed. Kelly says that the objection can be dismissed that, in dedicating this commentary to Chromatius, Jerome could not have spoken so abusively of Rufinus, who was very dear to Chromatius. For Chromatius may not have guessed the identity of the man being pilloried, or, alternatively, “assuming he did guess it, he also knew Jerome, and may have shaken his head sadly” (Kelly, Jerome , 169).

²³⁸ That is, Habakkuk is the eighth of the twelve Minor Prophets.

²³ Hab 1:2.

²⁴ Hab 1:13.

²⁴¹ Hab 2:2.

²⁴² Hab 2:4.

²⁴³ Ps 25:7.

²⁴⁴ Hab 3:2.

²⁴⁵ Ibid.

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁴⁷ Hab 3:3.

²⁴⁸ Hab 3:7.

²⁴ Hab 3:8.

²⁵ Hab 3:9.

²⁵¹ Ps 17:1.

²⁵² Ps 86:1.

²⁵³ Ps 90:1.

²⁵⁴ “Unthinkable.”

²⁵⁵ Hab 2:6.

²⁵ Hab 2:9.

²⁵⁷ Hab 2:12.

²⁵⁸ Hab 2:15.

²⁵ Hab 2:19.

² Cf. Hab 2:3.

² ¹ The common version is the Old Latin translation of the LXX .

² ² Is 50:5.

² ³ Is 5:12.

² ⁴ This is Origen’s interpretation. Jerome will later violently assail it as impious and proto-Arian. See A. Fürst, “Jerome Keeping Silent: Origen and his Exegesis of Isaiah,” in Jerome of Stridon: His Life, Writings and Legacy , ed. A. Cain and J. Lössl (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009), 141-52. I have discussed this in detail in my translation of St. Jerome’s Commentary on

Isaiah .

² ⁵ Cf. Is 6:2.

² Cf. Ex 25:18.

² ⁷ Cf. Is 6:2.

² ⁸ Cf. Is 6:6-7.

² Lk 12:49.

²⁷ Cf. Mt 27:38; Mk 15:27; Lk 23:33; Jn 19:18.

²⁷¹ Hab 3:2.

²⁷² 2 Cor 6:2.

²⁷³ Jn 17:6.

²⁷⁴ Ps 80:5.

²⁷⁵ Ps 13:1.

²⁷ Ps 44:23.

²⁷⁷ Rom 1:18.

²⁷⁸ Song 4:16.

²⁷ Song 1:6.

²⁸ Cf. Gen 18:1.

²⁸¹ Cf. Gen 43:25.

²⁸² Lev 20:26.

²⁸³ Jn 14:23.

²⁸⁴ Cf. Ezek 1:18; 10:12; Rev 4:6; 4:8.

²⁸⁵ Lk 2:14.

²⁸ Cf. Col 1:20; Heb 1:3.

²⁸⁷ Ps 147:15.

²⁸⁸ Ps 8:1.

²⁸ Ps 19:4.

² Cf. Mal 4:2.

² ¹ Phil 2:6-8.

² ² Cf. Heb 2:9.

² ³ Mt 26:38.

² ⁴ Mt 26:39.

² ⁵ Lk 23:46.

² Cf. 1 Cor 15:49.

² ⁷ Cf. Ps 19:1.

² ⁸ 1 Cor 1:30.

² Ibid.

³ Gen 3:19.

³ ¹ Cf. Heb 1:3.

³ ² Cf. Tit 2:11.

³ ³ Cf. Heb 1:3.

³ ⁴ 2 Cor 5:16.

³ ⁵ Jn 1:3-4.

³ Jn 17:5.

³ ⁷ 1 Sam 2:10.

³ ⁸ Cf. Dan 7:7, 20, 24.

³ Prov 21:1.

³¹ Is 5:1.

³¹¹ Cf. Lev 11:3-42.

³¹² Cf. Pss 22:21; 29:6; 78:71; 92:10.

³¹³ Ps 44:5.

³¹⁴ Cf. Jn 10:28-29.

³¹⁵ Cf. Mt 12:24; Mk 3:22; Lk 11:15.

³¹ Cf. Gen 3:1.

³¹⁷ Cf. Gen 3:14.

³¹⁸ Mt 3:16-17.

³¹ Cf. Rev 20:2.

³² Cf. Mt 4:1-2; Mk 1:13; Lk 4:1-2.

³²¹ The lemma used the singular.

³²² Cf. Acts 7:55-56.

³²³ Cf. Song 2:8.

³²⁴ Ps 121:1.

³²⁵ Cf. Jer 31:9.

³² Cf. 1 Sam 22:17-18.

³²⁷ Cf. 2 Cor 10:5.

³²⁸ Lev 16:12.

³² Ps 74:14.

³³ Josh 3:17.

³³¹ Cf. Ex 14:21.

³³² Ps 46:4.

³³³ Cf. Jn 4:14.

³³⁴ Ezek 29:9.

³³⁵ Ps 24:1-2.

³³ Ps 80:11.

³³⁷ Rom 11:33.

³³⁸ Ps 130:1.

³³ Ps 104:29-30.

³⁴ Mk 4:39.

³⁴¹ Zech 3:2.

³⁴² 2 Tim 4:2.

³⁴³ Ps 114:3.

³⁴⁴ Ps 114:5.

³⁴⁵ Cf. 2 Kings 2:8, 14.

³⁴ Cf. Eph 4:14.

³⁴⁷ Cf. Job 38:8-10.

³⁴⁸ Job 38:11.

³⁴ Song 1:8.

³⁵ Ex 4:10.

³⁵¹ Ps 73:22.

³⁵² Ex 15:1.

³⁵³ Cf. 2 Kings 6:15.

³⁵⁴ 2 Kings 6:17.

³⁵⁵ Ps 80:1.

³⁵ Cf. 2 Kings 2:11.

³⁵⁷ Zech 1:8.

³⁵⁸ Cf. Rev 6:1-2.

³⁵ Ps 76:6.

³ Ps 33:17.

³ ¹ Cf. Gal 5:17.

³ ² Cf. 1 Cor 1:20-21.

³ ³ Cf. Jer 18:7.

³ ⁴ Cf. Rom 6:12.

³ ⁵ Cf. Mt 4:9; Lk 4:5-6.

³ Cf. Hab 3:9.

³ ⁷ Cf. Gen 26:15, 18.

³ ⁸ Cf. Gen 2:10.

³ Ps 107:33-34.

³⁷ Jn 9:39.

³⁷¹ Cf. Amos 8:11.

³⁷² Cf. Ps 46:4.

³⁷³ Cf. Zech 6:1.

³⁷⁴ Cf. 1 Jn 5:19.

³⁷⁵ Cf. Hab 3:9.

³⁷ Cf. Is 26:17-18.

³⁷⁷ Mt 5:8.

³⁷⁸ Hab 3:9.

³⁷ Sir 40:11.

³⁸ Ps 36:8.

³⁸¹ Ps 42:7.

³⁸² Ps 77:16.

³⁸³ Cf. Lk 8:31.

³⁸⁴ Gen 1:2.

³⁸⁵ Gen 7:11.

³⁸ Ps 148:7-8.

³⁸⁷ Sir 1:2-3.

³⁸⁸ Cf. Ps 42:6.

³⁸ Dan 2:34.

³ Cf. Ps 42:7.

³ ¹ Ps 68:11.

³ ² Cf. Ps 42:6.

³ ³ Cf. Ezek 28:1-19.

³ ⁴ Cf. Ps 42:7.

³ ⁵ Cf. Is 30:26.

³ Rom 8:21.

³ ⁷ Cf. Rom 8:20.

³ ⁸ Cf. Mal 4:2.

³ Cf. Phil 2:9.

⁴ Ex 34:2.

⁴ ¹ Is 49:2-3.

⁴ ² Song 4:9.

⁴ ³ Cf. 1 Kings 10:7; Mt 12:42.

⁴ ⁴ Cf. Eph 6:11.

⁴ ⁵ Mt 5:14.

⁴ Cf. 2 Sam 7:2; Hag 1:4.

⁴ ⁷ Ps 120:4.

⁴ ⁸ Ps 32:3.

⁴ Cf. Is 6:5-7.

⁴¹ Hab 3:10.

⁴¹¹ Ps 105:14-15; 1 Chron 16:22.

⁴¹² 1 Chron 16:22.

⁴¹³ Cf. Ex 30:23-25.

⁴¹⁴ Cf. Lev 8:2, 12, 30.

⁴¹⁵ Cf. 1 Sam 16:1; 1 Kings 1:34.

⁴¹ Cf. 2 Kings 9:1-6; 1 Kings 19:15-16.

⁴¹⁷ Is 45:1.

⁴¹⁸ Is 45:4.

⁴¹ Cf. 1 Kings 19:16.

⁴² Ps 45:7.

⁴²¹ 1 Jn 2:20.

⁴²² 1 Jn 2:26-27.

⁴²³ Cf. Lev 14:2-3, 26-30.

⁴²⁴ Cf. 1 Sam 16:13; 2 Sam 2:4; 5:3.

⁴²⁵ Cf. 1 Cor 6:17.

⁴² Cf. Jn 14:3.

⁴²⁷ Ps 45:7.

⁴²⁸ Mic 1:3.

⁴² Cf. Ps 27:13; cf. Mt 5:5.

⁴³ Cf. Gen 3:23-24.

⁴³¹ Cf. Gen 4:16.

⁴³² Jn 14:10.

⁴³³ Ebion is the Hebrew word for “poor.”

⁴³⁴ Lk 13:35.

⁴³⁵ Cf. Gen 25:8.

⁴³ Cf. 1 Pet 2:24.

⁴³⁷ 1 Sam 2:6.

⁴³⁸ Cf. 1 Pet 3:18.

⁴³ Cf. 1 Cor 11:3.

⁴⁴ Cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 16:20.

⁴⁴¹ Cf. Mt 11:29-30.

⁴⁴² Hab 3:13.

⁴⁴³ Cf. Gen 25:8-9.

⁴⁴⁴ Cf. 1 Cor 11:3.

⁴⁴⁵ Cf. Mt 12:24.

⁴⁴ Cf. Hab 3:13a.

⁴⁴⁷ Cf. Hab 3:13b.

⁴⁴⁸ Cf. Gen 11:3-9.

⁴⁴ “Long-suffering.”

⁴⁵ This passage is of importance for the question of the date of Jerome’s birth. Prosper of Aquitaine gives the date for Jerome’s birth as AD 331. Julian the Apostate died in June 363. If Jerome was still a schoolboy at this time, as he claims here, he would have been about thirty-two according to Prosper’s dating. If, on the other hand, Jerome was actually born in 347, as the majority of modern scholars think, he would have been around sixteen. Kelly (who supports Prosper’s dating), Jerome , 339, comments: “It is possible that Jerome, looking back when he was about sixty, mistakenly attributed to his schooldays an incident which in fact occurred in his early manhood. Alternatively, since his object in recording it was to highlight a

pagan’s comment, he may have sought to give it an enhanced authenticity by suggesting that he had been present when it was made. Whatever the explanation, however, the reminiscence cannot by itself warrant our abandoning the date indicated by Prosper and supported by the bulk of the evidence at our disposal.”

⁴⁵¹ Cf. 1 Kings 21:1-29; 2 Kings 9:8, 26, 30-37; 10:7.

⁴⁵² Cf. 1 Kings 18:3-13.

⁴⁵³ Cf. 2 Kings 9:30-37.

⁴⁵⁴ Cf. 1 Kings 22:34-38.

⁴⁵⁵ Stupore is masculine.

⁴⁵ Cf. Wis 2:12.

⁴⁵⁷ Is 14:13-14; cf. Is 10:14.

⁴⁵⁸ Cf. Hab 3:13.

⁴⁵ Cf. Hab 3:14.

⁴ Ps 74:13.

⁴ ¹ Cf. Mk 3:27.

⁴ ² Cf. Rev 19:11-14.

⁴ ³ Mt 28:20.

⁴ ⁴ Mt 28:19.

⁴ ⁵ Mt 7:13.

⁴ Cf. Hab 3:13.

⁴ ⁷ Cf. Hab 3:14.

⁴ ⁸ Cf. Hab 3:15.

⁴ “Quite emphatically.”

⁴⁷ Cf. Hab 3:16.

⁴⁷¹ Is 13:9.

⁴⁷² Hab 3:16.

⁴⁷³ Cf. ibid.

⁴⁷⁴ Cf. Is 1:8.

⁴⁷⁵ Is 1:9.

⁴⁷ Cf. Mt 5:1; 4:24.

⁴⁷⁷ Mt 21:19.

⁴⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁷ Cf. Rom 11:25. These are clearly Origenian interpretations that imply a future restoration of Israel.

⁴⁸ Cf. Lk 13:7.

⁴⁸¹ Lk 13:8-9.

⁴⁸² Cf. Dan 8:16; 9:21.

⁴⁸³ Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1.

⁴⁸⁴ Hab 3:16.

⁴⁸⁵ Mt 3:10; 7:19; Lk 3:9; Jn 15:6.

⁴⁸ Is 5:1.

⁴⁸⁷ Is 5:2, 4, 7.

⁴⁸⁸ Jer 2:21.

⁴⁸ Ps 80:8.

⁴ Cf. Mt 21:33-39.

⁴ ¹ Cf. Ps 104:15.

⁴ ² Cf. Jer 2:21.

⁴ ³ Cf. Is 5:4, 7.

⁴ ⁴ Jn 19:6.

⁴ ⁵ Jn 19:15.

⁴ Ps 80:13.

⁴ ⁷ Cf. Rom 11:17.

⁴ ⁸ Cf. Rom 11:22; Jn 15:2, 6.

⁴ Ps 128:3.

⁵ Jn 15:1.

⁵ ¹ Since olives provided the oil used in lamps.

⁵ ² Cf. Gen 1:3.

⁵ ³ Ps 36:9.

⁵ ⁴ Cf. Judg 9:8-15.

⁵ ⁵ Cf. Heb 6:8.

⁵ Literally Rhamnus , the northernmost town of Attica, famed for an ancient temple of Themis and in later times for a statue of Nemesis.

⁵ ⁷ Cf. Is 14:23.

⁵ ⁸ Cf. Judg 9:15.

⁵ Ex 24:7.

⁵¹ Cf. Jn 5:46.

⁵¹¹ Ps 125:2.

⁵¹² Ps 87:1.

⁵¹³ Prov 27:25-26 LXX .

⁵¹⁴ Cf. Prov 14:4.

⁵¹⁵ Mt 23:38.

⁵¹ Mt 1:21.

⁵¹⁷ Cf. Phil 3:8.

⁵¹⁸ Cf. Lk 10:19; Is 30:6-7.

⁵¹ Cf. Is 11:8.

⁵² Song 2:9.

⁵²¹ Ps 18:33.

⁵²² Ps 29:9.

⁵²³ Cf. Lk 2:14.

⁵²⁴ Cf. Ex 9:22-25; 10:13; 12:29.

⁵²⁵ Cf. Mt 24:12.

⁵² “The director of the games.”

⁵²⁷ Hab 1:2.

Commentary on Jonah

¹ This list reflects the canonical order of the books, not the order in which Jerome wrote these commentaries.

² De viris illustribus , which is based on Eusebius’s Historia Ecclesiastica .

³ He means the two books of his Apology against Rufinus .

⁴ St. Pammachius was a senator of the family of Furii, fellow student and friend of Jerome. Jerome dedicated some works to him and wrote him many letters ( Ep. 48, 49, 57, 66, 83, 84, 97). He married Paulina, daughter of the Roman matron Paula, and, widowed in 397, entered monastic life. When Jerome wrote his books against Jovinian in 392, Pammachius rebuked Jerome for his excessively violent language. He intrigued on Jerome’s side during the Origenist controversies. Jerome dedicated to him his commentaries on the Minor Prophets and Daniel. Pammachius spent his fortune to assist the poor and built a hospice for pilgrims at Porto. He died in 410 during the invasion of the Goths.

⁵ This refers to Ep. 57, written to Pammachius in 395. In the previous year Jerome had translated into Latin Ep. 51 (from Epiphanius’s Greek letter to John of Jerusalem during the Origenist controversy). Jerome’s Latin version soon became public and incurred severe criticism from someone not named by Jerome but supposed by him to have been instigated by Rufinus.

Jerome was charged with having falsified his original. In Ep. 57 Jerome attempts to refute the specific charges by carrying on a general discussion of proper methods of translation from one language into another. While Jerome makes a number of valid points in his general discussion, it appears to me that his critics remained substantially correct in their specific charges, that he had misconstrued and exaggerated the sense of Epiphanius’s original Greek.

He means Ep. 52 and 60, respectively. Nepotian was the nephew of Heliodorus (for whom see Jerome, Ep. 14). Like his uncle, he had abandoned the military for the clerical calling and was a priest at Altinum, where Heliodorus was bishop. In 394 Jerome wrote his Ep. 52 to him, as a systematic treatise on the duties of the clergy and on the rule of life they ought to adopt. It became a very well-known epistle but also evoked much indignation against Jerome. Jerome’s Ep. 60 to Heliodorus is considered one of his finest letters. It was written to console his old friend Heliodorus, bishop of Altinum, for the loss of his nephew Nepotian, who had died of fever shortly before.

⁷ Cf. Jon 4:2.

⁸ Cf. Mt 12:40.

Cf. Mt 3:16.

¹ Cf. Mt 12:39-41; Lk 11:30, 32.

¹¹ 2 Kings 14:23-25.

¹² Cf. 1 Kings 17:17-22.

¹³ 1 Kings 17:24.

¹⁴ Tob 14:3-4.

¹⁵ Cf. Zeph 2:13-3:7.

¹ Cf. Herodotus 1.102-6.

¹⁷ Cf. Jon 1:3.

¹⁸ Cf. Jon 1:5.

¹ Cf. Jon 1:15.

² Cf. Jon 1:17.

²¹ Cf. Jon 2:10.

²² Cf. Jon 3:4.

²³ Cf. Jon 4:1.

²⁴ Cf. Jon 4:6.

²⁵ Cf. Jon 4:9-11.

² Mt 12:41.

²⁷ 2 Cor 3:6.

²⁸ Cf. Mt 27:15-23.

² Gen 18:20.

³ Gen 4:10.

³¹ Cf. Mt 3:16; Mk 1:10; Lk 3:22; Jn 1:32-33.

³² Cf. Lk 19:41.

³³ Is 53:5.

³⁴ Cf. Jn 14:6.

³⁵ “World.”

³ Gen 1:10.

³⁷ Cf. Ps 127:1.

³⁸ Cf. Gen 8:21; 6:5.

³ Ps 73:9.

⁴ Cf. Gen 11:3-9.

⁴¹ Ex 32:31-32.

⁴² Ex 32:10.

⁴³ Rom 9:3.

⁴⁴ Phil 1:21.

⁴⁵ Cf. Mt 10:6.

⁴ Cf. Num 23:1-30.

⁴⁷ Cf. Gen 4:16.

⁴⁸ Cf. Josephus, Ant. 1.6.1; 1.127.

⁴ Cf. 2 Chron 20:36-37. See Jerome, Comm. Isa. 1 (on 2:16); Commentary on Daniel (on 10:6).

⁵ Ps 48:7.

⁵¹ Is 23:1, 14.

⁵² Cf. Jerome, Ep. 37.2.

⁵³ Ps 76:1.

⁵⁴ Jon 1:9.

⁵⁵ Cf. Jer 12:7.

⁵ Ps 104:25-26.

⁵⁷ Mt 26:39.

⁵⁸ Lk 23:21.

⁵ Jn 19:15.

Rom 11:25.

¹ Cf. Rom 11:17-24.

² Cf. Rom 9:4-5; 11:28.

³ Lk 23:34.

⁴ Cf. Ezra 3:7.

⁵ Cf. 2 Chron 2:16.

Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.663-752; Josephus, J.W . 3.420.

⁷ Editione Vulgata . This refers to the Old Latin translation of the Septuagint.

⁸ Cf. Mt 15:26.

Cf. Mt 10:6; 15:24.

⁷ Cf. Jon 3:5; Mt 8:24-25.

⁷¹ Cf. Gal 4:22-31.

⁷² Eph 5:31-32; cf. Gen 2:24.

⁷³ Cf. Gal 4:26.

⁷⁴ 1 Cor 10:4.

⁷⁵ Cf. Ex 17:6.

⁷ Cf. Num 20:11.

⁷⁷ Cf. Ps 78:20.

⁷⁸ Mt 12:39-40.

⁷ Cf. Gen 3:8.

⁸ Cf. Is 20:3-6.

⁸¹ Cf. Lk 19:41.

⁸² Cf. Lk 22:45.

⁸³ Cf. Gen 3:8.

⁸⁴ Cf. Jon 1:7.

⁸⁵ Cf. Jon 1:15.

⁸ Cf. Jon 1:16.

⁸⁷ Cf. Acts 1:23-26.

⁸⁸ Cf. Num 22:28.

⁸ Cf. Gen 41; Dan 2, 4.

Cf. Jn 11:49-50; 18:14.

¹ Mt 6:34.

² Amos 3:6.

³ Is 45:7.

⁴ Jon 1:1.

⁵ Virgil, Aeneid 8.112-14.

Cf. 2 Kings 12:19; 14:21.

⁷ Ps 39:12.

⁸ Ps 105:13.

Ex 3:3.

¹ Cf. Mt 8:26.

¹ ¹ Mk 4:39.

¹ ² Cf. Mk 14:37-42; Lk 22:45-46.

¹ ³ Cf. Mk 14:50.

¹ ⁴ Cf. Jn 14:3; 17:24.

¹ ⁵ Cf. 1 Jn 5:19.

¹ Cf. Rom 8:22.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum libri II 41. For other opinions on this subject, see Ambrose, De Virginibus 3.7; Augustine, De civitate Dei 1.26.

¹ ⁸ Cf. Deut 10:12.

¹ Lk 23:21; Jn 19:6.

¹¹ Mt 27:24.

¹¹¹ Mt 27:25.

¹¹² Cf. Is 1:15.

¹¹³ Ps 40:8.

¹¹⁴ Cf. Eph 4:14.

¹¹⁵ Cf. Jon 1:5.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹¹⁷ Deut 6:5; Mt 22:37.

¹¹⁸ Ps 51:17.

¹¹ Ps 50:14.

¹² Hos 14:3.

¹²¹ Cf. Jon 2:11.

¹²² Hos 13:14.

¹²³ Cf. Mt 12:40.

¹²⁴ Ps 104:26.

¹²⁵ Cf. Mt 12:39-40; Lk 11:29-31.

¹² Cf. Mt 12:40.

¹²⁷ Cf. Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33; Lk 23:44.

¹²⁸ Cf. Mk 15:42; Lk 23:54.

¹² Cf. Gen 1:4, 5, 8, 13, 19, 23.

¹³ Cf. Mt 12:40.

¹³¹ Cf. Dan 3:19-23, 94.

¹³² Cf. Ex 14:21, 22, 29.

¹³³ Cf. Dan 6:23.

¹³⁴ Latin Naso .

¹³⁵ Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.452-567.

¹³ Cf. ibid., 2.333-367.

¹³⁷ Cf. ibid., 6.109.

¹³⁸ Cf. ibid., 6.113.

¹³ Cf. ibid., 6.103.

¹⁴ J. Steinmann, Saint Jerome , trans. R. Matthews (London: Chapman, 1959), 256, comments: “It must be admitted that the suggestion of Ovid’s Metamorphoses as a standard of comparison with the Bible was hardly calculated to inspire respect for the Holy Scriptures.” Cited in T. M. Hegedus, “Jerome’s Commentary on Jonah: Translation with Introduction and Critical Notes” (MA thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University, 1991), 83. In Jerome’s defense, one might say that he is not endeavoring to establish standards of comparison between Scripture and pagan literature but making an ad hominem argument in a manner that resembles Origen’s approach in Contra Celsum . Why should pagans mock the miraculous in the Christian writings when their own traditions are filled with even more miraculous episodes?

¹⁴¹ Ps 91:15.

¹⁴² Is 58:9.

¹⁴³ Ps 4:1.

¹⁴⁴ Cf. Jon 2:7.

¹⁴⁵ Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6; cf. Col 3:16.

¹⁴ Ex 14:15.

¹⁴⁷ Ps 120:1.

¹⁴⁸ Ps 16:10.

¹⁴ Cf. Ps 88:4-5.

¹⁵ Ps 69:2.

¹⁵¹ Ps 89:38-39.

¹⁵² Ps 76:2.

¹⁵³ Mt 12:40.

¹⁵⁴ Cf. Heb 4:15.

¹⁵⁵ Ps 46:4.

¹⁵ Ps 69:26.

¹⁵⁷ Zech 13:7.

¹⁵⁸ Job 7:1.

¹⁵ Cf. Heb 4:15.

¹ 1 Cor 10:13.

¹ ¹ Cf. Jon 2:3.

¹ ² Cf. Phil 2:7.

¹ ³ Cf. Jon 2:4.

¹ ⁴ Cf. Phil 2:6.

¹ ⁵ Cf. Jn 14:3; 17:20-24.

¹ This refers to the Old Latin translation of the Seputagint.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Jerome, Ep. 53.8.

¹ ⁸ Ps 26:8.

¹ Jn 17:5.

¹⁷ Jn 12:28.

¹⁷¹ Jn 10:38; 14:10-11; 17:21.

¹⁷² Jn 16:28.

¹⁷³ Jn 1:1.

¹⁷⁴ Ps 69:1.

¹⁷⁵ Ps 124:4.

¹⁷ Ps 69:15.

¹⁷⁷ Eph 4:8.

¹⁷⁸ Cf. Mt 8:30; Mk 5:10; Lk 8:31.

¹⁷ Gen 1:2.

¹⁸ Ps 36:6.

¹⁸¹ Ps 42:7.

¹⁸² Ps 75:3.

¹⁸³ Ps 63:9-10.

¹⁸⁴ Is 45:2.

¹⁸⁵ Cf. J. Wicks, “Christ’s Saving Descent to the Dead: Early Witnesses from

Ignatius of Antioch to Origen,” Pro Ecclesia 17, no. 3 (2008): 281-309.

¹⁸ Ps 16:10; Acts 2:31; 13:35.

¹⁸⁷ Cf. 1 Cor 15:42.

¹⁸⁸ Cf. Ps 103:3-4.

¹⁸ Rom 7:24.

¹ Cf. Phil 3:21.

¹ ¹ I believe this is Jerome’s (unjust) polemic against those whom he regards as Origenists, such as his bishop John of Jerusalem.

¹ ² Cf. 1 Cor 15:44.

¹ ³ 1 Cor 15:53.

¹ ⁴ Ps 77:3.

¹ ⁵ Ps 77:5.

¹ Cf. 2 Cor 12:3-4.

¹ ⁷ Mt 26:38; Mk 14:34.

¹ ⁸ Mt 26:39.

¹ Ps 31:5; Lk 23:46.

² Cf. Jon 2:2.

² ¹ Cf. Jon 2:6.

² ² Eccles 1:2.

² ³ Ps 145:8.

² ⁴ Cf. Is 29:13.

² ⁵ Cf. Mk 7:7.

² Cf. Jon 2:9.

² ⁷ 1 Cor 5:7.

² ⁸ Cf. Heb 7:26-27.

² Mt 11:25.

²¹ Cf. Jn 6:39; 10:28; 17:12.

²¹¹ Cf. 1 Jn 1:10.

²¹² Cf. Is 1:16.

²¹³ Cf. Jon 2:2-10.

²¹⁴ Job 3:8.

²¹⁵ Cf. Heb 2:14-15.

²¹ Greek.

²¹⁷ Mt 26:39.

²¹⁸ Cf. Mt 15:26.

²¹ Lk 23:21.

²² Jn 19:15.

²²¹ Cf. Phil 2:7.

²²² Cf. Mt 28:19.

²²³ Mt 28:20.

²²⁴ Cf. Jn 1:3.

²²⁵ Cf. Ex 34:28; Deut 9:18.

²² Cf. 1 Kings 19:1-8.

²²⁷ 1 Kings 17:1.

²²⁸ Cf. Mt 4:2.

²² Jn 7:37.

²³ Cf. Eph 4:13; Lk 3:23.

²³¹ Cf. Job 14:5.

²³² Cf. Job 25:5-6.

²³³ This passage is probably Jerome’s best-known repudiation of the Origenian speculation of the apocatastasis . For a discussion of the consistency of Jerome’s views during his career, see J. P. O’Connell, The Eschatology of St. Jerome , Dissertationes ad Lauream 16, Pontificia Facultas Theologica Seminarii Sanctae Mariae ad Lacum (Mundelein, IL, 1948), 152-55. Also worthy of careful study (in light of the prevalent and cavalier universalism in modern theological studies) is R. Martin’s work Will Many Be Saved?: What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012). See also fn. 20 on p. xxvii.

²³⁴ Cf. Dan 4:24, 29, 33.

²³⁵ Cf. Mt 25:41.

²³ Is 66:24; Mk 9:48.

²³⁷ Ps 115:6.

²³⁸ Ps 85:10.

²³ Cf. Jerome, Ep. 14.5; 123.8; Adversus Helvidium de Mariae virginitate perpetua 20.

²⁴ “Defense.”

²⁴¹ Tullius.

²⁴² Cf. Plato, Republica 5.18.

²⁴³ 1 Cor 1:26-28.

²⁴⁴ 1 Cor 1:19; cf. Is 29:14.

²⁴⁵ Col 2:8.

²⁴ Jerome greatly admired Cyprian, who was the bishop of Carthage (ca. 248–258) and wrote important treatises, On the Lord’s Prayer , On the Lapsed and On the Unity of the Church , as well as Epistles . His deacon, Pontius, composed his biography, which is really a panegyric. He was beheaded in 258. Cyprian’s writings are accessible in Ante-Nicene Fathers 5.

²⁴⁷ I do not think that Jerome means to say that Cyprian was actually converted by reading the book of Jonah.

²⁴⁸ Jer 51:7.

²⁴ Is 66:8.

²⁵ Ps 36:6.

²⁵¹ Joel 2:10; 3:15.

²⁵² Is 50:3.

²⁵³ Cf. Jer 4:1; 7:23-28; 15:19; 17:10; 18:8, 10; 26:3, 19; 31:9, 34; 36:3; Ezek 18:21-24; 33:11.

²⁵⁴ Ex 24:3, 7.

²⁵⁵ Cf. Rom 11:25.

²⁵ Deut 32:21.

²⁵⁷ Jerome appears to be transmitting the same erroneous interpretation that he set forth in his Commentary on Matthew , in which he explained Jesus’ anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane as grounded in his grief over the loss of Israel.

²⁵⁸ Jerome’s interpretation strikes me as far-fetched and seems to invert the plain meaning of the text. John Calvin wrote disparagingly of Jerome: “What then will the foolish and puerile apology of Jerome avail the Prophet, since God has declared that he acted perversely in grieving? Nay, the dullness of Jerome is thus become evident; (thus indeed do I speak of a man, who, though learned and laborious, has yet deprived himself of that praise, which otherwise he might have justly earned)” ( Commentary on Jonah 4:1, in John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets , trans. J. Owen [Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1846–1849], 3:117).

²⁵ Cf. Lk 19:41.

² Cf. Mt 15:26; Mk 7:27.

² ¹ Cf. Acts 13:46.

² ² Cf. Rom 9:3-5.

² ³ Cf. Mt 26:38; Mk 14:34.

² ⁴ Cf. Jer 12:7.

² ⁵ Cf. Mt 26:38; Mk 14:34.

² Ps 31:5; Lk 23:46.

² ⁷ John Calvin responds to Jerome’s interpretation by severely denouncing the saint’s competence as an exegete: ‘But I wonder how it came into Jerome’s mind to say that Jonah is not here reproved by the Lord, but that something of an indifferent kind is mentioned. He was indeed a person who was by nature a sophister ( cavillator ) and thus he wantonly trifled with the work of falsifying Scripture; he made no conscience of perverting passages of holy writ” ( Commentary on Jonah 4:4, in Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets , 3:131; cf. 142).

² ⁸ Cf. Gen 4:8.

² Cf. Gen 4:17.

²⁷ Hos 11:9.

²⁷¹ Cf. Ps 68:20.

²⁷² Cf. Deut 4:43.

²⁷³ Zech 6:12.

²⁷⁴ Jn 3:33; 14:6; 1 Jn 5:6.

²⁷⁵ Cf. Prov 31:17.

²⁷ The word means “ass,” “mule.” Cf. Tertullian, Apol ogetics 16; Ad Nat iones 1, 14. By metonymy it refers to a useless person or a man impotent through age. Cf. Plautus, Cist ellaria 4, 2, 83.

²⁷⁷ According to Lewis and Short’s Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon, 1879, 1993), Cornelius was a designation of a Roman family celebrated as embracing the most distinguished Roman men and women (the patrician Scipios, Sulla, the Gracchi and their mother, etc.). The numerous laws made

by the different Cornelii, but especially by L. Cornelius Sulla, were called Leges Corneliae . Cf. Cicero, Epistulae ad familiares 12, 5, 2.

²⁷⁸ Gaius Asinius Pollio was an orator, poet, historian and patron of literature (76 BC–AD 4).

²⁷ The same accusation is mentioned in Jerome, Ep. 112.22, and described by Augustine, Ep. 104.5. In Ep. 40.3.5 (Jer. 67), Augustine reports to Jerome that one of his brother bishops in the town of Oea introduced Jerome’s translation of this verse in the church. A tumult broke out in the congregation, especially among the Greeks, correcting what had been read and denouncing the translation as false. The bishop was compelled to ask the testimony of the Jewish residents, who answered (“whether from malice or ignorance”) that the Old Latin translation of the Septuagint had correctly rendered the Hebrew in this case. Augustine concluded that Jerome was capable of making occasional mistakes in his translation from the Hebrew. In his sarcastic response, Jerome in Ep. 112 (Aug. 75) said that those Jews of Oea were either unacquainted with Hebrew, or they lied “in order to make sport of the gourd-planters.”

²⁸ I have not been able to determine who or what Jerome is referring to here.

²⁸¹ According to Lewis and Short, Aemilius was the name of a Roman family greatly distinguished for the illustrious men whom it furnished. The most celebrated of them was L. Aemilius Paulus, the conqueror of Perseus, and the father of Cornelius Scipio Africanus Minor. Cf. Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 2, 14; Livy, 38, 36.

²⁸² “Love of pumpkins.”

²⁸³ Is 1:8.

²⁸⁴ Cf. Ps 80:10; Is 37:24; Zech 11:2.

²⁸⁵ Cf. Mt 3:4.

²⁸ Jn 3:30.

²⁸⁷ Cf. Mal 4:2.

²⁸⁸ Ps 22:1.

²⁸ Ps 22:6.

² Hos 13:15.

² ¹ Cf. Jon 4:3.

² ² Acts 2:38.

² ³ Jon 2:4.

² ⁴ Cf. 1 Cor 9:19-21.

² ⁵ Cf. Lk 19:41.

² Cf. Mt 26:38.

² ⁷ Jn 1:3.

² ⁸ Mk 10:18.

² Presumably Jerome’s polemic is directed against Origen’s interpretations.

³ Lk 15:29-30.

³ ¹ Lk 15:31-32.

³ ² Cf. Heb 9:28; 10:29.

³ ³ Ps 49:7.

³ ⁴ Cf. Lk 15:22.

³ ⁵ Cf. Jn 8:12; 9:5.

³ Rom 13:12.

³ ⁷ Cf. Mal 4:2.

³ ⁸ Cf. Mt 14:20; Mk 6:43; Lk 9:17; Jn 6:13.

³ Cf. 2 Tim 2:20.

³¹ Cf. Ps 49:12.

Commentary on Obadiah

¹ 1 Cor 13:11.

² Cf. Phil 3:13.

³ Cf. Lk 9:62.

⁴ Cf. Eph 4:13.

⁵ The reference is to a now-lost allegorical commentary on Obadiah, which was Jerome’s first effort at biblical exegesis and was written ca. 374. Cf. J. N. D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 44-45.

Cf. Mt 17:19; 21:21; Mk 11:23; Lk 17:6.

⁷ Cf. 1 Cor 12:4.

⁸ Cf. Rev 4:4, 11.

Cf. 2 Cor 12:11.

¹ Cf. Rev 4:4; 5:8; 14:2; 15:2.

¹¹ Cf. Rev 5:6.

¹² Cf. Rev 5:13.

¹³ Cf. Rom 15:12; Is 11:1.

¹⁴ Cf. Hag 1:1.

¹⁵ Ps 119:104.

¹ Mt 5:8.

¹⁷ Cf. Is 6:6-7.

¹⁸ Is 6:8.

¹ Cf. Ex 25:3-4.

² Cf. Mk 12:42-44.

²¹ Cf. Mt 25:27.

²² 1 Cor 15:10.

²³ Cf. Lk 15:20.

²⁴ Cf. Lk 15:22.

²⁵ Cf. Lk 15:30.

² Cf. Lk 15:7.

²⁷ Heliodorus was one of Jerome’s early companions in the practice of asceticism and the study of Scripture. They were drawn together at Aquileia ca. 372. He went to Jerusalem, where he enjoyed the hospitality of Florentius (cf. Jerome, Ep. 4). He was present in 381 as a bishop at the council of Aquileia. He became bishop of Altinum near Aquileia ca. 400. Later he was closely allied with Chromatius, bishop of Aquileia, and they both kept up communications with Jerome in Bethlehem. They supported Jerome’s translation of the Scriptures and frequently encouraged him to

complete the project. They provided amanuenses to assist him and were gratefully mentioned by him in the prefaces to the books last translated of the Latin Vulgate.

²⁸ Tullius.

² Cf. Cicero, Academica prior a 2.74.

³ Cf. Cicero, De oratore 1.1.5.

³¹ Cf. 1 Kings 18:4.

³² Cf. 1 Kings 19:15-18; Rom 4:11.

³³ Cf. 1 Kings 18:13.

³⁴ “Bearing the name.”

³⁵ Stephanos means “crown” in Greek.

³ Cf. Acts 7:56-59.

³⁷ See preface to Commentary on Nahum .

³⁸ Obad 1.

³ Is 6:1.

⁴ Ezek 1:1.

⁴¹ Ezek 1:4.

⁴² Obad 1.

⁴³ Obad 2.

⁴⁴ Deut 4:9.

⁴⁵ 1 Jn 1:1.

⁴ Cf. Ex 20:22.

⁴⁷ Cf. 1 Sam 9:9; Is 30:10; 32:3; 33:7.

⁴⁸ See St. Jerome’s Commentaries on Galatians, Titus and Philemon , trans. Thomas P. Scheck (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), 355.

⁴ Cf. Ex 32:13.

⁵ Cf. Josh 1:13, 15; 8:31-32; 11:12.

⁵¹ Cf. Rom 1:1.

⁵² Is 49:6.

⁵³ Phil 2:7.

⁵⁴ Cf. Obad 1.

⁵⁵ Cf. Gen 25:30-33.

⁵ Cf. Gen 25:25; 27:11; 32:3.

⁵⁷ Eleutheropolis.

⁵⁸ Cf. Gen 14:6; Deut 2:12, 22.

⁵ Amos 1:11.

Is 21:11.

¹ Jer 49:7.

² Jer 49:22.

³ Cf. Ezek 35:2.

⁴ Ezek 35:7.

⁵ Ezek 35:15.

Mal 1:2-4.

⁷ Cf. Gen 25:29-34.

⁸ Cf. Gen 25:27 LXX .

Ps 24:7.

⁷ Is 63:1.

⁷¹ Is 63:2.

⁷² Is 63:3.

⁷³ Cf. Col 3:5.

⁷⁴ Is 21:11.

⁷⁵ 1 Tim 2:5.

⁷ Hag 2:8.

⁷⁷ Cf. Is 9:6.

⁷⁸ Cf. Jer 49:14.

⁷ Eph 5:14.

⁸ “Commander in chief.”

⁸¹ Cf. Josh 5:13-14.

⁸² Cf. Ex 17:9-13.

⁸³ Jer 49:14.

⁸⁴ Jer 49:15-16.

⁸⁵ “With the addition.”

⁸ Ps 40:2.

⁸⁷ Mt 16:16.

⁸⁸ Ezek 36:26; cf. Ezek 11:19.

⁸ Mt 3:9.

Cf. Mt 7:24.

¹ 1 Cor 4:8.

² Ps 73:9.

³ Cf. Mt 24:28; Lk 17:37.

⁴ Cf. Mt 13:25.

⁵ Ezek 17:3-6.

Mt 13:43.

⁷ Jer 49:9-10.

⁸ Jer 49:10.

Cf. 1 Thess 5:5.

¹ Cf. Ps 80:8.

¹ ¹ Cf. Mt 26:29.

¹ ² Cf. 1 Tim 4:2.

¹ ³ Irenaeus, Haereses 1.24.7, mentions Abraxas as chief of the 365 heavens, or supreme deity in the Gnostic system of Basilides.

¹ ⁴ According to G. Grützmacher, Hieronymus: Eine Biographische Studie zur alten Kirchengeschichte (Berlin: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1969), 2:206-7, Jerome is entirely dependent on Origen here.

¹ ⁵ Obad 6.

¹ Jer 49:19.

¹ ⁷ Jer 49:22.

¹ ⁸ Cf. 2 Cor 2:11; Sir 1:6.

¹ Cf. Ps 80:5.

¹¹ Cf. Hos 7:8.

¹¹¹ Cf. Gal 5:19-21.

¹¹² Cf. Obad 7.

¹¹³ Cf. Rom 8:5.

¹¹⁴ Cf. 2 Cor 10:5.

¹¹⁵ Or “at midday.”

¹¹ Cf. Obad 8-9.

¹¹⁷ Prov 25:18.

¹¹⁸ Ps 140:3.

¹¹ Ps 57:4.

¹² Ps 69:7.

¹²¹ Cf. Mt 5:28.

¹²² Cf. Jer 9:21.

¹²³ Cf. Is 33:15.

¹²⁴ Cf. Obad 10.

¹²⁵ Cf. Mt 13:5, 20; Mk 4:5, 16.

¹² Cf. Ezek 13:18; Origen, Homiliae in Ezechielem 3.3-4.

¹²⁷ Cf. Jer 25:15-16.

¹²⁸ Cf. Jer 25:15.

¹² Jer 51:7.

¹³ Ps 137:7.

¹³¹ Ps 137:8-9.

¹³² Cf. Ps 7:16.

¹³³ Hab 2:15.

¹³⁴ Ex 3:14.

¹³⁵ Esther 14:11. This is from the LXX additions to Esther. That Jerome can cite verses from this version that are not found in the Hebrew suggests that he his borrowing from Origen’s exegesis.

¹³ Cf. Ezek 17:12-21.

¹³⁷ For veredarius , see Vulgate Esther 8:10; Jerome, Ep. 22.28.

¹³⁸ Is 6:3.

¹³ Heb 2:11.

¹⁴ Ps 12:6.

¹⁴¹ Cf. Gen 37:28.

¹⁴² Gen 27:37.

¹⁴³ Cf. Phil 2:10.

¹⁴⁴ 1 Cor 15:28.

¹⁴⁵ Cf. 1 Cor 3:12.

¹⁴ Deut 4:24.

¹⁴⁷ Jn 5:43.

¹⁴⁸ Cf. Jn 12:24.

¹⁴ Cf. 2 Cor 11:14.

¹⁵ Cf. Josh 15:1-12.

¹⁵¹ Cf. Acts 9:35.

¹⁵² Mt 11:29.

¹⁵³ Cf. Gen 35:18.

¹⁵⁴ In the exposition of the LXX below, Jerome reads Ephrata .

¹⁵⁵ Cf. Obad 19.

¹⁵ Cf. Obad 19.

¹⁵⁷ Cf. 1 Kings 17:10.

¹⁵⁸ The lemma read “Euphrates.”

¹⁵ Cf. Judg 6:40.

¹ Cf. 2 Cor 3:6.

¹ ¹ Cf. Mt 13:45-46.

¹ ² Cf. 1 Kings 17:10-12.

¹ ³ Song 1:6.

¹ ⁴ “An alternate name.”

¹ ⁵ Cf. Mic 5:2.

¹ Cf. Jn 6:32, 41.

¹ ⁷ Cf. Jn 8:12; 9:5.

¹ ⁸ Mt 5:14.

¹ Cf. 1 Cor 10:4.

¹⁷ Cf. Mt 16:18.

¹⁷¹ Cf. Jn 10:14; Mt 9:36.

¹⁷² Cf. 2 Cor 10:5.

¹⁷³ Literally “filled my mouth.”

¹⁷⁴ He means, to erase and revise what one has written. Cf. Horace, Saturae 1.10.72-73.

¹⁷⁵ Literally “cheek.”

GENERAL INDEX

Locations are given according to the chapter/verse lemma of the individual commentaries contained in this volume.

Abraxas, Nahum 1:11; Obad 5-6 Aemilii, Jon 4:6 Alcaeus, Zeph pref Alecto, Hag 2:21-24 Alexandria, Nahum 3:8-12, 13-17 allegory, Nahum 2:1-2; 3:8-12; Zeph 1:10; 2:12-15; Hag 1:1; Hab 3:5, 14-16; Jon 1:3b; Obad pref Ambrose, Mic 5:5b-6; Hab bk 1 pref; 2:9-11; Jon 1:12 anagogy/anagogical, Nahum pref; 1:7, 15; 2:11-12; Mic 1:10-15; Zeph 1:4-6; Hag 1:3-4; 2:11-15; Hab 2:15-17; Jon 2:4a Andromeda, Jon 1:3b Antony, Mic 4:1-7 apostrophe, Nahum 3:18-19; Mic 2:11-13; 7:14-17 Aquila, Nahum pref; 1:6a, 6b, 8; 3:1-4, 13-17; Mic 2:6-8; 5:1, 5b-6; Zeph 1:11a; 2:5-7, 12-15; 3:1-7, 8-9, 14-18; Hag bk 1 pref; 1:1, 5, 6-11; 2:1, 2-4, 9-11, 15-17; Hab 2:19-20; 3:1, 2a, 3a, 4, 5, 8-9a, 10-13; Obad 17-18, 20-21 Aristotle, Nahum 3:13-17; Mic 7:5-7; Jon 3:6-9

Arius/Arian, Nahum 3:13-17; Mic 6:10-16; Hab 2:18; Jon 4:10-11 Asinius Pollio, Jon 4:6 Aspasia, Zeph bk 1 pref astrologers, Zeph 1:4-6 Augustine, Mic 1:10-15; Jon 1:12; 4:6 Augustus, Mic 4:1-7; Obad 1a Balthasar, Hans Urs von, Jon 3:6-9 Bardesanes, Nahum 1:4a Basilides, Nahum 1:11; Mic 6:10-16; Obad 5-6 Braverman, Hab 2:9-11 Britain, Zeph 2:8-11 Brutus (ancient Roman king), Hag pref Brutus (murderer of Julius Caesar), Mic 4:1-7; Zeph pref Caecilius. See Statius Caesar, Mic 4:1-7; Hag pref; Hab 2:9-11 Calvin, John, Jon 4:1-2a, 4 Canterius, Jon 4:6 Carbonus, Mic 4:1-7 Carneades, Zeph bk 1 pref Catilina, Mic 4:1-7 Cato, Zeph pref

cherub(im), Zeph 2:12-15; Hag 1:3-4; Hab 3:2a, 8-9a, 14-16 Chromatius, Hab bk 1 pref; 1:4; bk 2 pref; Jon pref Chrysippus, Nahum 3:13-17 Cicero, Nahum 1:4a; Mic bk 2 pref; 7:5-7; Zeph bk 1 pref; Hab 2:9-11; bk 2 pref; Jon 3:6-9; Obad pref Cinna, Mic 4:1-7 Cornelia, Zeph bk 1 pref Cornelii, Jon 4:6 Corybantes, Zeph 2:5-7 Crispus. See Sallust Cyprian, Jon 3:6-9 Daphne, Jon 2:2-3a Decius, Nahum 1:15; Hab 3:14-16 Demosthenes, Nahum 1:4a; Jon 2:6-9; 3:6-9 deuterotes/deuterosis, Hab 2:9-11, 15-17 Domitian, Hab 3:14-16 Donatist controversy, Zeph 3:1-7 Ebionites/Ebion, Hab 3:10-13 ecstasy, Nahum bk 1 pref; Hag 1:6; Hab 2:15-17; 3:14-16 Ennius, Mic bk 2 pref Epicureans, Zeph bk 1 pref

Eucharist, Zeph 3:1-7; Obad 7 Eunomius, Nahum 3:13-17; Mic 6:10-16; Hab 2:18 Eustochium, Nahum bk 1 pref; Mic bk 1 pref; Zeph pref; Hag pref Fifth Version (of Hexapla), Nahum 1:8, 14; Mic 4:11-13; 5:1, 5b-6; 6:1-2, 8; 7:18-20; Zeph 1:2-3; 2:5-7; Hab 2:1, 9-11, 15-17; 3:1, 3:3a, 5, 10-13, 18-19; Obad 17-18 Gracchi, Zeph bk 1 pref Grützmacher, G., Nahum 1:4a, 9, 11; 3:1-4; Mic 6:1-2; Hag 1:1; Hab 1:6-11, 1517; 2:9-11; Obad 5-6 Gymnosophists, Nahum 3:13-17 Hadrian, Hab 2:12-14; Obad 20-21 Hagendahl, H., Mic 7:5-7; Hab 2:9-11; bk 2 pref Hebrews, gospel of the, Mic 7:5-7 Hegedus, Jon 2:2-3a Heliodorus, Obad pref Hennecke, Mic 7:5-7 Herodotus, Jon bk 1 pref; Obad 15-16 Herrenius, Obad pref Hippodrome, Mic 4:8-9 Horace, Mic 7:5-7; Zeph bk 1 pref; Obad 20-21 Illyricum, Zeph 1:2-3 instrument, Mic 5:5b-6; Hag 2:11-15

Irenaeus, Obad 5-6 John of Jerusalem, Jon 2:7b Josephus, Nahum 3:8-12; Mic 2:9-10; 4:1-7; Zeph 1:12, 15-16; 3:1-7; Jon 1:3a, 1:3b Jovinian, Jon bk 1 pref; 1:12 Julian, Hab 3:14-16 Jupiter, Jon 2:2-3a Kamesar, A., Zeph 3:14-18 Kelly, J., Nahum bk 1 pref; 3:1-4; Mic bk 1 pref; Hab bk 2 pref; 2:9-11; 3:14-16; Obad pref Lienhard, J., Hag 1:13 Mani(cheus), Nahum 3:13-17; Mic 1:10-15; Hab 2:9-11 Marcella, Jon 1:3a Marcion, Nahum 1:4a, 8, 9; Mic 1:10-15; 6:10-16; Hag 1:1; Jon 4:10-11; Obad pref; 5-6 Marius, Mic 4:1-7 Maro. See Virgil Martin, R., Jon 3:6-9 martyrs/martyrdom, Nahum 1:15; Mic 4:1-7; 6:1-2; Jon 3:6-9; Obad 1a Maximian, Nahum 1:15; Hab 3:14-16 Maximilla, Nahum bk 1 pref Montanus, Nahum bk 1 pref; Hab bk 1 pref

Naso. See Ovid Nemesis, Hab 3:17 Nepotianus, Jon bk 1 pref Nero, Hab 3:14-16 Novatian, Nahum 3:13-17 O’Connell, J. P., Nahum 1:2a, 3b; Jon 3:6-9 Octavius, Mic 4:1-7 Olympiads, Hab 3:8-9a Origen, Nahum 1:4a, 8, 9, 11; 3:1-4; Mic 2:6-8, 9-10, 11-13; bk 2 pref; 5:5b-6, 7-14; 6:1-2; 7:5-7; Zeph 1:2-3; Hag 1:1, 13; Hab bk 1 pref; 1:6-11; 2:9-11; 3:2a; Jon bk 1 pref; 2:7b; 3:6-9; 4:10-11; Obad pref; Obad 5-6, 14, 15-16 Ovid, Jon 1:3b; 2:2-3a Pammachius, Jon bk 1 pref; Obad pref; 20-21 Paula, Nahum bk 1 pref; Mic bk 1 pref; Zeph pref; Hag pref Perseus, Jon 1:3b Phaethon, Jon 2:2-3a philosophy (philosophers), Nahum 1:4a; 3:1-4; Mic 1:3-5; Zeph pref; 2:5-7; Hag 2:16-18; Hab 2:18; Jon 2:9; 3:6-9 Pindar, Zeph bk 1 pref Plato, Nahum 1:4a; 2:1-2; 3:13-17; Zeph bk 1 pref; Jon 3:6-9 Plautus, Mic bk 2 pref; Jon 4:6 Pliny the Elder, Hab 2:9-11

Plutarch, Zeph bk 1 pref Pompey, Mic 4:1-7 Prisca, Nahum bk 1 pref Prosper of Aquitaine, Hab 3:14-16 Pythagoras/Pythagorean, Mic 7:5-7 Quintilian, Zeph 1:7; Obad pref Rhamnus, Hab 3:17 Romulus, Hag pref Rufinus, Nahum 3:1-4, 8-12; Hab bk 1 pref; 1:6-11; 2:1; bk 2 pref Saguntum, Hab 2:9-11 Sallust, Hab 2:9-11 Sappho, Zeph bk 1 pref Sardanapalus, Nahum 3:8-12; Hab bk 2 pref Scipio, Zeph bk 1 pref Sebaste, Obad 1a, 19 seraph(im), Hab 3:2a, 10-13 Shepherd of Hermas, Hab 1:13-14 Sixth Version (of Hexapla), Nahum bk 1 pref; Hab 3:5, 10-13 Socrates, Obad pref Statius, Mic bk 2 pref Steinmann, J., Jon 2:2-3a

Stoics, Hag 1:3-4 suicide, Jon 1:12 Sulla, Mic 4:1-7 Symmachus, Nahum 1:6a, 6b, 8, 9; 3:1-4; Mic 4:11-13; 5:1, 5b-6; 6:1-2; 7:8-13, 18-20; Zeph 1:2-3; 2:5-7; 3:8-9; Hag 1:1; Hab bk 1 pref; 1:5; 2:1, 9-11, 15-17; 3:1, 2a, 3a, 4, 5, 10-13; Obad 17-18, 20-21 Tarquin the Proud, Hag pref Tatian, Nahum 1:4a; Hag 1:11 Tegri, Hab 1:15-17 Terence, Mic 1:16; bk 2 pref; 7:5-7 Tertullian, Nahum bk 1 pref; Mic 1:10-15; Jon 4:6; Obad pref Thegri, Hab 1:15-17 Themista, Zeph bk 1 pref Theodotion, Nahum 1:6b, 8, 9; Mic 4:11-13; 5:1, 5b-6; 6:1-2, 8; 7:8-13, 18-20; Zeph 1:2-3; 2:5-7; 3:8-9; Hag 1:1; Hab bk 1 pref; 1:5; 2:1, 9-11, 15-17; 3:1, 2a, 3a, 4, 5, 10-13; Obad 17-18, 20-21 Theophrastus, Jon 3:6-9 Thrace, Zeph 1:2-3 Titus, Zeph 1:10; Hab 2:12-14 Trinity, Mic 5:1; 6:6-7; Hag 2:2-10; 3:17; Jon 3:3-4a tropology/tropological, Nahum 1:9, 14; 3:13-17; Mic 1:1, 3-5; 4:1-7; 7:5-7; Zeph 1:2-3, 7, 8-9, 11a, 13-14; 2:12-15, 16-18, 19-20; Hab 1:6-11; 2:18, 19-20; 3:8-9a, 10-13, 14-16; Jon 1:1-2, 3b, 6; 4:10-11; Obad 1b, 17-18 Tully/Tullius. See Cicero

Valentinus, Nahum 1:4, 11; Obad 5-6 Valerian, Nahum 1:15; Hab 3:14-16 Vespasian, Zeph 1:10; Hab 2:12-14 Virgil, Nahum 2:1-2; 3:1-4; Mic bk 2 pref; 7:5-7; Hag 1:1; 2:21-24; Hab 2:1920; Jon 1:8 Wicks, J., Jon 2:7a Xenophon, Jon 3:6-9

INDEX OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

Locations are given according to the chapter/verse lemma of the individual commentaries contained in this volume.

OLD TESTAMENT

Genesis 1:2, Hab 3:10-13; Jon 2:6a 1:3, Hab 3:17 1:4, Hag 1:1; Jon 2:1b 1:5, Jon 2:1b 1:7, Nahum 1:12-13 1:8, Hag 1:1; Jon 2:1b 1:10, Hag 1:1; Jon 1:1-2 1:12, Hag 1:1 1:13, Jon 2:1b 1:18, Hag 1:1 1:19, Jon 2:1b 1:21, Hag 1:1

1:23, Jon 2:1b 1:25, Hag 1:1 1:26, Mic 5:5b-6 1:28, Zeph 1:2-3; Hag 1:1 1:31, Hag 1:1 2:7, Nahum 1:15 2:10, Hab 3:9b 2:24, Jon 1:3b 3:1, Hab 3:5 3:8, Jon 1:4, 5b 3:14, Mic 7:14-17; Hab 3:5 3:15, Hab 3:10-13 3:16, Mic 4:8-9 3:17-18, Hag 1:1 3:19, Hag 1:1; Hab 3:4 3:23-24, Hab 3:10-13 3:24, Zeph 2:12-15 4:8, Zeph 1:15-16; Hab 1:4, 13-14; Jon 4:5 4:10, Zeph 1:17-18; Jon 1:1-2 4:16, Hab 3:10-13; Jon 1:3a 4:17, Mic 5:7-14; Zeph 1:15-16; Jon 4:5

5:1, Hab 1:13-14 5:24, Mic 6:8 6:3, Zeph 1:17-18 6:5, Jon 1:1-2 6:12, Nahum 1:8 7:11, Hab 3:10-13 7:17-24, Nahum 1:9 8:17, Hag 1:1 8:21, Jon 1:1-2 9:1, Hag 1:1 9:5-6, Zeph 1:17-18 9:21, Mic 2:11-13; Zeph 1:13-14; Hag 1:6 9:25, Zeph 1:11a 10:8-9, Mic 5:5b-6; Zeph 1:11a 10:9, Nahum 3:1-4 11:1, Zeph 3:8-9 11:2, Mic 4:10 11:3-9, Hab 3:14-16; Jon 1:1-2 11:7, Mic 7:8-13 12:2, Zeph 3:19-20 14:6, Obad 1b

16:1-4, Mic 5:5b-6 17:5, Mic 7:18-20 17:12, Hag 1:14–2:1 17:20, Zeph 1:2-3 18:1, Hab 3:3a 18:11, Zeph 1:2-3 18:20, Jon 1:1-2 19:24-25, Nahum 1:9 19:30, Zeph 2:8-11 19:34-38, Zeph 2:8-11 19:35, Zeph 2:8-11 19:36-38, Nahum 3:8-12 21:5-6, Hag 2:16-18 21:6, Mic 4:8-9 25:8, Zeph 1:2-3; Hab 3:10-13 25:8-9, Hab 3:14-16 25:17, Zeph 1:2-3 25:25, Obad 1b 25:27, Obad 1b 25:29-34, Obad 1b 25:30-33, Obad 1b

25:34, Mic 5:5b-6 26:12, Hag 2:16-18 26:15, Hab 3:9b 26:18, Hab 3:9b 26:34-35, Mic 7:5-7 27, Mic 2:11-13; 5:5b-6 27:11, Obad 1b 27:27, Mic 2:1-5; Hag 1:1 27:28, Hag 1:10 27:37, Obad 17-18 28:3-15, Hab 1:4 29:17, Zeph 3:19-20 29:30-31, Zeph 3:19-20 31:38, Hag 2:16-18 32:3, Obad 1b 32:14-15, Hag 2:16-18 32:24, Mic 7:18-20 32:24-28, Nahum 2:1-2 35:16-18, Mic 4:8-9 35:18, Obad 19 35:19, Mic 5:2

35:28-29, Zeph 1:2-3 37:28, Obad 17-18 38:27-30, Mic 2:11-13 38:27, Mic 2:11-13 41, Jon 1:7 43:25, Zeph 1:13-14; Hab 3:3a 43:34, Hag 1:6 48:7, Mic 4:8-9 49:8, Mic 1:3-5 49:9, Mic 5:7-14 49:10, Mic 2:9-10; Zeph 1:8-9 49:27, Zeph 3:1-7 49:32, Zeph 1:2-3

Exodus 1:11, Mic 7:18-20 1:14, Mic 6:3-5; Hab 1:4 1:21, Zeph 2:12-15 1:22, Nahum 3:13-17 3:3, Jon 1:9 3:5, Mic 1:6-9

3:14, Obad 15-16 4:10, Hab 3:8-9a 4:21, Nahum 2:10 7:3, Nahum 2:10 8–12, Hag 2:2-10 9:22-25, Hab 3:18-19 10:13, Hab 3:18-19 12:3, Hag 2:11-15 12:4, Hag 2:11-15 12:23, Mic 7:18-20 12:29, Hab 3:18-19 12:38, Nahum 3:13-17 14:15, Jon 2:3b 14:21, Hag 2:2-10; Hab 3:8-9a; Jon 2:2-3a 14:21-29, Mic 7:8-13 14:22, Jon 2:2-3a 14:24-28, Nahum 1:9 14:28, Nahum 2:8-9 14:29, Jon 2:2-3a 14:38, Nahum 3:1-4 15:1, Hab 3:8-9a

15:23-25, Nahum 3:8-12 16:2, Mic 6:3-5 16:3, Mic 6:3-5 17:6, Jon 1:3b 17:8-13, Mic 2:1-5; Obad 1c 19:18, Hag 2:2-10 20:4, Mic 5:7-14 20:5, Zeph 2:8-11 20:11, Hag 1:14–2:1 20:22, Obad 1a 23:14-16, Hag 1:1 24:3, Jon 3:10 24:7, Hab 3:17; Jon 3:10 25:3-4, Obad pref 25:10, Mic 6:3-5 25:18, Hab 3:2a 28:6-9, Mic 6:3-5 28:33-34, Hag 2:19-20 30:23-25, Hab 3:10-13 32:10, Jon 1:1-2 32:13, Obad 1b

32:31-32, Jon 1:1-2 33:11, Mic 7:5-7 33:19, Mic 7:18-20 33:23, Hab 2:15-17 34:2, Hab 3:10-13 34:6, Nahum 1:8 34:28, Jon 3:4b 37:1, Mic 6:3-5 39:2-4, Mic 6:3-5

Leviticus 2:13, Zeph 2:8-11 6:26, Hag 2:11-15 6–7, Hag 2:11-15 7:6, Hag 2:11-15 8:2, Hab 3:10-13 8:12, Hab 3:10-13 8:30, Hab 3:10-13 11, Zeph 2:12-15 11:3-42, Hab 3:4 11:18, Zeph 3:1-7

13:14-17, Nahum 2:8-9 13:19-28, Mic 7:8-13 14:2-3, Hab 3:10-13 14:26-30, Hab 3:10-13 14:39-45, Zeph 1:13-14 16:7-29, Zeph 3:8-9 16:12, Hab 3:6 16:29, Hag 2:11-15 19:11, Mic 3:9-12 20:9, Mic 7:5-7 20:26, Hab 3:3a 21:1-4, Hag 2:11-15 21:11, Hag 2:11-15 21:21, Zeph 3:1-7 22:4, Hag 2:11-15 22:8, Nahum 2:11-12 23:27-28, Hag 2:11-15 24:10-14, Nahum 1:9 24:23, Nahum 1:9 25:9, Hag 2:11-15 26:1, Mic 5:7-14

26:12, Mic 1:3-5; Zeph 3:14-18 26:26, Hag 1:6 26:36, Mic 2:9-10

Numbers 12:1, Zeph 2:12-15 13:1-3, Mic 2:1-5 14:29, Nahum 1:9 15:32, Nahum 1:9 20:11, Jon 1:3b 22:2-5, Mic 6:3-5 22:7-20, Mic 6:3-5 22:28, Jon 1:7 23, Mic 6:3-5 23:1-30, Jon 1:3a 23:23, Mic 3:9-12 24:9, Mic 5:7-14 25:1, Mic 6:3-5 25:11, Nahum 1:2a 26:55-56, Mic 2:1-5 34:15, Mic 2:1-5

Deuteronomy 2:12, Obad 1b 2:22, Obad 1b 4:9, Obad 1a 4:24, Obad 17-18 4:36, Hag 2:2-10 4:43, Jon 4:5 5:8-9, Mic 5:7-14 6:5, Jon 1:16 8:2, Hag 2:2-10 9:18, Jon 3:4b 10:12, Jon 1:13 10:12-13, Mic 6:8 11:18, Nahum 3:5-6 14:16, Zeph 3:1-7 16:16, Hag 1:1 16:19, Mic 3:9-12; 7:1-4a 17:6, Zeph 3:8-9 17:8-10, Hag 2:11-15 18:22, Nahum 2:1-2

18:23, Hab 2:2-4 19:15, Zeph 3:8-9 20:8, Mic 2:9-10 24:15, Hag 1:6 25:4, Mic 3:9-12 25:13, Mic 6:10-16 25:13-16, Mic 6:10-16 27:15, Hab 2:18 32:2, Mic 2:6-8 32:6, Zeph 2:1-2 32:7, Mic 7:14-17 32:8, Mic 6:1-2 32:21, Jon 4:1-2a 32:22, Mic 6:1-2 32:32-33, Zeph 1:13-14; Hag 2:11-15 32:33, Mic 1:10-15; Hag 1:11 32:35, Mic 7:5-7 32:39, Nahum 3:5-6

Joshua 1:6, Mic 4:10

1:13, Obad 1b 1:15, Obad 1b 3:7-17, Mic 7:8-13 3:17, Hab 3:8-9a 5:13-14, Obad1c 7:26, Mic 4:11-13 8:31-32, Obad 1b 11:12, Obad 1b 12–21, Mic 2:1-5 15:1-12, Obad 19 15:59, Mic 5:2 19:15, Mic 5:2 24:9, Mic 6:3-5

Judges 4:4-16, Zeph bk 1 pref 6:40, Obad 20-21 9:1-5, Mic 7:5-7 9:8-15, Hag 2:19-20; Hab 3:17 9:15, Hab 3:17 9:23-24, Mic 7:5-7

11:29-40, Mic 6:6-7 14:5-9, Nahum 2:11-12 14:14, Nahum 2:11-12; 3:8-12 14:18, Mic 7:5-7 16:19, Mic 7:5-7 19:1-2, Mic 5:2

1 Samuel 1–2: Zeph bk 1 pref 2:5, Mic 5:3 2:6, Hab 3:10-13 2:10, Hab 3:4 2:12, Mic 4:8-9 4:3, Zeph 1:15-16 4:19-22, Mic 4:8-9 9:8, Mic 3:9-12 9:9, Obad 1a 10:1-8, Mic 6:3-5 10:26, Zeph 1:15-16 16:1, Hab 3:10-13 16:7, Hab 1:2-3

16:13, Hab 3:10-13 16:14, Mic 2:11-13 17:4-52, Mic 1:10-15 22:17-18, Hab 3:6 24:4, Hab 2:15-17

2 Samuel 2:4, Hab 3:10-13 5:3, Hab 3:10-13 5:5, Zeph1:12 7:2, Hab 3:10-13 15:12, Mic 7:5-7 17:1, Mic 7:5-7 22:12, Hag 1:6 24:1, Nahum 1:6a

1 Kings 1:34, Hab 3:10-13 2:36, Nahum 2:8-9 6:7, Hag 1:1c 6:9, Hag 1:1

10:1-10, Zeph 3:10-13 10:7, Hab 3:10-13 11:1-10, Mic 7:5-7 12:28, Mic 6:10-16 13:2, Zeph 3:1-7 13:11-19, Zeph 3:1-7 13:17-24, Nahum 2:11-12 13:19, Zeph 3:1-7 13:21-24, Zeph 3:1-7 13:28, Zeph 3:1-7 13:24, Zeph 3:1-7 14:1-3, Mic 3:9-12 14:2, Mic 3:9-12 16:28-33, Mic 6:10-16 17:1, Jon 3:4b 17:5, Mic 7:14-17; Hab 2:15-17 17:10, Obad 20-21 17:17-22, Jon pref 17:24, Jon pref 18:3-13, Hab 3:14-16 18:4, Obad 1a

18:13, Obad 1a 19:1-8, Jon 3:4b 19:4, Mic 7:14-17 19:9, Hab 2:15-17 19:10, Nahum 1:2a 19:14, Nahum 1:2a 19:15-16, Hab 3:10-13 19:15-18, Obad 1a 19:18, Mic 2:11-13 21:1-29, Hab 3:14-16 22:34-38, Hab 3:14-16

2 Kings 2:8, Hab 3:8-9a 2:11, Hab 3:8-9a 2:14, Hab 3:8-9a 2:23-24, Zeph 1:10 3:27, Mic 6:6-7 6:15, Hab 3:8-9a 6:17, Hab 3:8-9a 9:1-6, Hab 3:10-13

9:8, Hab 3:14-16 9:26, Hab 3:14-16 9:30-37, Hab 3:14-16 10:7, Hab 3:14-16 10:18-21, Zeph 1:4-6 12:19, Jon 1:9 14:21, Jon 1:9 14:23-25, Jon pref 16:22, Mic 7:5-7 17:26-28, Nahum 2:11-12 17:40-41, Zeph 1:4-6 18:10-11, Nahum pref; Zeph 1:1 18:17, Mic 1:10-15 18:23-25, Nahum 1:11 19:35, Nahum 1:11 19:37, Nahum 2:1-2 21:1-17, Zeph1:1 22:14, Zeph bk 1 pref; 1:10 23, Zeph 1:1 23:29, Hab 1:4 24–25, Zeph 1:2-3, 8-9

24:10, Hab 1:4 25:1, Hag 2:11-15, 19-20 25:4-7, Hab 2:15-17 25:6-7, Hab 2:15-17

1 Chronicles 1:8, Zeph1:1 3:17-19, Hag 1:1 3:19, Hag 1:1 11:4, Zeph 1:12 11:22, Nahum 2:11-12 12:20, Mic 1:1 16:22, Hab 3:10-13 18:21, Mic 4:1-7 21:1, Nahum 1:6a

2 Chronicles 2:16, Jon 1:3b 18:1, Mic 1:1 20:36-37, Jon 1:3a 30, Nahum 1:15

34, Zeph 1:1

Ezra 2:1, Nahum 1:8 2:2, Mic 4:10 3:7, Jon 1:3b 3:8, Zeph 2:5-7 4:21, Hag 2:19-20 4:24, Hag bk 1 pref 5:1-2, Hag bk 1 pref 7:6-7, Mic 2:1-5

Nehemiah 3:3, Zeph 1:10 12:47, Mic 4:10

Tobit 2:6, Zeph 1:15-16 14:3-4, Jon pref

Judith

7:22, Hag 1:6 12:17, Hag 1:6 12:20, Hag 1:6 13:9, Zeph pref 16:3, Mic 2:6-8

Esther 7:10, Zeph pref 8:10 Vulgate: Obad 17-18 14:11, Obad 15-16

1 Maccabees 2:26, Nahum 1:2a

Job 3:8, Jon 2:11 5:13, Mic 4:1-7 7:1, Jon 2:4b 9:2, Hab 1:13-14 14:5, Jon 3:5 19:12, Zeph 3:19-20

25:4, Hab 1:13-14 25:5, Nahum 1:6a 25:5-6, Jon 3:5 38:8-10, Hab 3:8-9a 38:11, Hab 3:8-9a 39:13-18, Mic 1:6-9 39:25, Nahum 3:1-4 40:3, Zeph 3:19-20 40:11, Nahum 2:1-2, 10; Hag 1:1 40:14, Hab 1:6-11 40:24, Hab 1:6-11

Psalms 1:2, Mic 2:1-5 1:6, Nahum 1:8; Zeph 3:1-7 4:1, Jon 2:2-3a 4:6, Nahum 2:10; Zeph 1:7 5:3, Zeph 3:8-9 5:6, Mic 3:9-12; Zeph 2:3-4 5:7, Mic 3:9-12 6:1, Mic 5:7-14

6:8, Mic 4:8-9 7:16, Mic 5:5b-6; Zeph 3:19-20; Obad 15-16 7:17, Mic 5:5b-6 8:1, Hab 3:4 8:2, Hab 2:9-11 8:7-8, Zeph 1:2-3 9:1, Zeph 1:1 9:14, Nahum 3:13-17 12:6, Hag 2:2-10; Obad 17-18 13:1, Hab 3:2d 14:2, Nahum 3:1-4 14:3, Nahum 3:1-4 16:10, Jon 2:3b, 7b 17:1, Hab 3:1 18:4-5, Mic 4:8-9 18:11, Hag 1:6 18:33, Hab 3:18-19 19:1, Hab 3:4 19:4, Mic 5:4; Hag 2:2-10, 12-14; Hab 3:4 20:7, Mic 1:10-15 22:1, Jon 4:7-8

22:6, Hab 2:9-11; Jon 4:7-8 22:12, Mic bk 2 pref 22:21, Hab 3:4 23:1, Mic 2:11-13 23:1-3, Mic 5:4; Zeph 3:10-13 23:5, Hag 1:6 24:1-2, Hab 3:8-9a 24:3, Nahum 3:7 24:7, Obad 1b 25:7, Hab 3:1 26:8, Jon 2:5b 27:1, Mic 7:8-13; Zeph 3:10-13 27:13, Hab 3:10-13 29:6, Hab 3:4 29:9, Hab 3:18-19 30:9, Mic 7:1-4a 31:5, Jon 2:8a; 4:2b-3 32:1, Hab 2:12-14 32:3, Hab 3:10-13 33:17, Hab 3:8-9a 34:1, Hab 1:2-3

34:7, Hab 1:13-14 34:16, Nahum 1:5; Hag 1:12 34:19, Nahum 3:1-4 36:5, Nahum 1:3b 36:6, Mic 3:1-4; 5:7-14; Jon 2:6a; 3:6-9 36:8, Hab 3:10-13 36:9, Hab 3:17 37:36, Nahum 1:8 38:1, Mic 7:18-20 38:4, Nahum 2:8-9; Zeph 2:3-4 38:8, Nahum 1:15; Zeph 1:10 39:5, Zeph 3:10-13 39:12, Zeph 1:17-18; Jon 1:9 40:2, Zeph 1:11a; Obad 2-4 40:8, Jon 1:14 41:3, Mic 7:8-13 42:6, Hab 3:10-13 42:7, Hab 3:10-13; Jon 2:6a 44:5, Hab 3:4 44:9, Zeph 3:19-20 44:17-18, Zeph 3:19-20

44:23, Hab 3:2d 45:7, Hab 3:10-13 45:16, Mic 5:3 46:4, Nahum 2:8-9; Mic 4:10; 5:7-14; Hab 3:8-9a, 9b; Jon 2:4a 48:7, Jon 1:3a 49:7, Jon 4:10-11 49:11, Nahum 1:14 49:12, Jon 4:10-11 49:20, Zeph 1:2-3 50:14, Jon 1:16 51:2-3, Mic 6:6-7 51:4, Mic 7:8-13 51:7, Mic 3:5-8 51:10-12, Hab 2:19-20 51:11, Zeph 3:1-7 51:12, Mic 3:5-8 51:13, Mic 3:5-8 51:17, Nahum 1:6b; 3:18-19; Zeph 1:10; 3:14-18; Jon 1:16 57:4, Nahum 3:1-4; Obad 10-11 57:7, Zeph 3:8-9 58:5, Nahum 3:1-4

63:1, Zeph 3:8-9 63:8, Mic 2:9-10 63:9-10, Jon 2:7a 64:3, Nahum 3:1-4 68:11, Mic 2:6-8; bk 2 pref; Hag 2:21-24; Hab 3:10-13 68:18, Nahum 2:3-7; Mic 2:1-5 68:20, Jon 4:5 68:22, Mic 7:14-17 68:31, Nahum 3:8-12; Zeph 1:1; 3:10-13 69:1, Jon 2:6a 69:2, Zeph 1:11a; Jon 2:4a 69:7, Obad 10-11 69:9, Nahum 1:2a 69:15, Jon 2:6a 69:26, Jon 2:4a 72:9, Zeph 1:1 73:2, Hab 1:2-3 73:5, Mic 5:7-14 73:8-9, Hab 2:12-14 73:9, Zeph 1:11a; Jon 1:1-2; Obad 2-4 73:11-13, Hab 1:2-3

73:22, Mic 6:6-7; Hab 3:8-9a 74:13, Hab 3:14-16 74:14, Hab 3:7 74:19, Zeph 2:12-15 75:3, Jon 2:7a 75:8, Hab 2:15-17 76:1, Jon 1:3a 76:2, Jon 2:4a 76:6, Hab 3:8-9a 77:3, Jon 2:8a 77:5, Jon 2:8a 77:6, Zeph 3:10-13 77:7-10, Zeph 3:10-13 77:16, Hab 3:10-13 77:18, Nahum 3:1-4 78:20, Jon 1:3b 78:47, Zeph 1:13-14 78:71, Hab 3:4 79:1, Mic 1:6-9 79:13, Mic 7:14-17 80:1, Hab 3:8-9a

80:5, Hag 1:11; 2:11-15; Hab 3:2c; Obad 7 80:8, Hab 3:17; Obad 5-6 80:10, Jon 4:6 80:11, Hab 3:8-9a 80:12-13, Mic 4:8-9 80:13, Hab 3:17 81:10, Mic 1:10-15 82:6, Mic 2:11-13; Zeph 1:2-3 85:8, Hab 2:1 85:10, Jon 3:6-9 86:1, Hab 3:1 87:1, Mic 2:9-10; Hab 3:17 88:4-5, Jon 2:3b 89:22, Mic 5:5a 89:31-34, Mic 5:1 89:32-33, Mic 6:3-5 89:38-39, Zeph 3:19-20; Jon 2:4a 90:1, Hab 3:1 91:7, Mic 6:6-7 91:10, Nahum 3:1-4 91:15, Jon 2:2-3a

92:10, Hab 3:4 94:11, Mic 4:1-7 102:7, Hab 2:9-11 103:3-4, Jon 2:7b 103:5, Mic 1:16 103:9, Nahum 1:8; Mic 4:10 104:6, Hag 1:6 104:15, Mic 2:11-13; 4:1-7; Hag 1:6; 2:11-15, 16-18; Hab 3:17 104:20-21, Nahum 2:11-12 104:21, Hab 1:15-17 104:25-26, Nahum 1:4a; Jon 1:3a 104:26, Jon 2:1a 104:29-30, Hab 3:8-9a 105:13, Jon 1:9 105:14-15, Hab 3:10-13 107:1, Mic 6:3-5 107:14, Mic 7:8-13 107:33-34, Zeph 2:12-15; Hab 3:9b 107:35-36, Zeph 2:12-15 107:43, Hab 2:18 109:7, Hab 2:15-17

109:18, Zeph 1:8-9 110:3, Mic 5:2 110:4, Zeph 2:12-15 110:7, Hab 2:15-17 114:3, Hab 3:8-9a 114:5, Hab 3:8-9a 115:6, Jon 3:6-9 116:12, Mic 6:6-7 116:13, Mic 6:6-7 116:15, Mic 6:6-7 118:20, Mic 2:11-13 119:11, Hag 1:6 119:104, Obad pref 119:105, Mic 7:8-13; Hag 1:5 119:133, Hag 1:1 120–34, Mic 5:5b-6 120:1, Jon 2:3b 120:2, Zeph 3:10-13 120:4, Hab 3:10-13 120:5, Zeph 1:17-18 121:1, Mic 2:9-10; Hab 3:6

122:7, Mic 1:10-15 124:4, Jon 2:6a 124:5, Hab 2:15-17 125:2, Hab 3:17 126:6, Mic 4:1-7 127:1, Nahum 2:3-7; Jon 1:1-2 127:4, Nahum 2:1-2, 10 128:3, Hab 3:17 130:1, Hab 3:8-9a 131:1, Zeph 1:1 132:11, Nahum 2:1-2; Mic 5:2 132:4-6, Nahum 3:18-19 133:3, Mic 5:7-14; Hag 1:10 137:4, Mic 2:9-10 137:7-9, Obad 15-16 139:10, Mic 6:6-7 140:3, Obad 10-11 141:5, Hag 1:11; 2:11-15 142:4, Nahum 2:8-9 143:2, Mic 6:6-7; Hab 1:13-14 144:9, Nahum 1:2b

144:12-13, Hab 1:2-3 145:8, Jon 2:9 145:14, Nahum 1:2b; Mic 2:1-5; 7:8-13 146:8, Nahum 1:2b 147:3, Nahum 1:2b 147:15, Hab 3:4 148:4, Nahum 1:12-13; 2:8-9 148:7-8, Hab 3:10-13

Proverbs 1:7, Mic 7:14-17 2:5, Nahum 3:13-17 3:3, Hab 2:2-4 3:28, Mic 6:8 5:22, Mic 6:3-5 6:15, Mic 5:7-14 6:17, Nahum 2:1-2 8:22, Mic 4:8-9 9:12, Mic 1:10-15 11:1, Mic 6:10-16 13:8, Zeph 1:17-18

13:25, Hag 1:6 14:4, Hab 3:17 15:22, Mic 6:8 16:18, Mic bk 1 pref 18:21, Zeph 2:12-15 19:25, Mic 6:9a; Zeph 3:1-7 21:1, Hab 3:4 21:9, Zeph 1:13-14 21:24, Zeph 1:12 22:38, Zeph 2:8-11 23:5, Zeph 1:2-3 24:27, Zeph 3:8-9 25:18, Obad 10-11 26:27, Mic 5:5b-6 27:16, Zeph 2:12-15 27:25-26, Hab 3:17 31:17, Jon 4:5

Ecclesiastes 1:2, Zeph 3:10-13; Jon 2:9 3:2, Mic 5:3

7:29, Mic 7:5-7 8:5, Mic 4:8-9 11:2, Mic 5:5b-6

Song of Songs 1:4, Zeph 1:1; 2:12-15 1:6, Hab 3:3a; Obad 20-21 1:8, Hab 3:8-9a 2:8, Nahum 1:15; Hab 3:6 2:9, Hab 3:18-19 4:3, Hag 2:19-20 4:9, Hab 3:10-13 4:16, Hab 3:3a 5:1, Mic 2:11-13 5:2, Mic 6:8 6:7, Hag 2:19-20 8:1, Hag 2:19-20 8:5, Zeph 2:12-15

Wisdom 1:13, Mic 5:7-14

2:12, Hab 3:14-16 6:7, Zeph 3:8-9 8:7, Nahum 3:1-4 11:20, Hab 1:13-14

Sirach 1:2-3, Hab 3:10-13 1:6, Obad 7 3:18, Zeph 2:3-4 6:7, Mic 7:5-7 8:6, Zeph 3:19-20 9:15, Mic 7:5-7 20:31, Mic 3:9-12 20:32, Zeph 2:3-4 27:28, Zeph 3:19-20 40:11, Hab 3:10-13 40:20, Mic 4:1-7 44:16, Mic 6:8

Isaiah 1:1, Mic 1:1

1:8, Hab 3:17; Jon 4:6 1:9, Mic 4:1-7; Hab 3:17 1:10, Mic 1:10-15; Zeph 2:8-11 1:11, Mic 6:6-7 1:13, Hab 2:2-4 1:15, Mic 2:11-13; Hag 1:1; Hab 2:12-14; Jon 1:14 1:16, Jon 2:10 1:21, Hab 2:12-14 2:1-4, Mic 4:1-7 2:3, Mic 1:1; 4:1-7 2:4, Mic 4:1-7 2:18-19, Hab 2:15-17 3:1-3, Mic 5:1 3:3, Hag 2:16-18 5:1-7, Hab 3:17 5:1, Mic 1:6-9, 10-15; Hag 2:11-15; Hab 3:4 5:2, Mic 4:8-9; Zeph 1:13-14 5:6, Nahum 1:3b 5:7, Mic 4:8-9 5:12, Hab 3:2a 5:18, Mic 6:3-5

6:1, Obad 1a 6:2, Hab 3:2a 6:3, Obad 17-18 6:5-7, Hab 3:10-13 6:6-7, Hab 3:2a; Obad pref 6:8, Hag 1:2; Obad pref 6:9, Mic 7:14-17 7:3, Nahum 2:8-9 7:4, Nahum 2:8-9 7:14, Mic 2:11-13 8:4, Mic 5:3 9:2, Mic 7:8-13 9:5, Zeph 1:8-9 9:6, Mic 4:1-7, 8-9; Hag 1:13; Obad 1c 10:13, Nahum 3:18-19; Zeph 2:12-15 10:14, Hab 3:14-16 11:1, Obad pref 11:8, Hab 3:18-19 13–22, Zeph 2:8-11 13:9, Nahum 1:7; Hab 3:14-16 14:12, Nahum 2:11-12; 3:18-19; Mic 1:10-15

14:13-14, Hab 1:12; 3:14-16 14:23, Hab 3:17 15:1-9, Zeph 2:8-11 17:1, Zeph 2:8-11 19:1, Nahum 3:8-12 19:22, Nahum 3:5-6 20:3-6, Jon 1:4 21:11, Obad 1b 22:22, Mic 1:10-15 23:1, Jon 1:3a 23:14, Jon 1:3a 26:1, Mic 2:9-10 26:17-18, Hab 3:10-13 27:1, Zeph 2:12-15; Hag 2:2-10 29:2, Mic 4:8-9 29:13, Mic 2:6-8: Jon 2:8b 29:14, Jon 3:6-9 30:6, Nahum 2:11-12 30:6-7, Hab 3:18-19 30:10, Obad 1a 30:26, Hab 3:10-13

32:3, Obad 1a 32:16, Hab 2:15-17 33:7, Obad 1a 33:15, Nahum 3:13-17; Obad 10-11 33:18, Mic 1:16 34:13, Hag 1:3-4 35:3, Nahum 2:10; Zeph 2:1-2; 3:14-18; Hag 2:2-10 36:12, Mic 1:10-15 36:13-20, Nahum 1:11 37:24, Jon 4:6 37:37-38, Nahum 1:14 40:6, Zeph 1:17-18 40:6-8, Zeph 2:1-2 40:9, Mic 2:6-8 40:10, Hag 1:6 40:11, Mic 4:1-7 41:8, Mic 3:9-12 42:3, Zeph 3:14-18 42:5, Mic 2:11-13 43:10, Zeph 3:8-9 43:26, Mic 6:1-2

45:1, Hab 3:10-13 45:2, Jon 2:7a 45:4, Hab 3:10-13 45:7, Jon 1:7 45:9, Hab bk 1 pref 49:2-3, Hab 3:10-13 49:6, Obad 1b 49:8, Mic 5:3; Hab 2:2-4 49:9, Nahum 1:12-13; Hag 1:1 50:3, Jon 3:6-9 50:5, Hab 3:2a 52:2, Nahum 2:1-2, 10 52:5, Mic 6:10-16 52:7, Mic 7:1-4a 53:5, Jon 1:1-2 54:1, Mic 5:3 54:11-12, Hag 2:16-18 56:7, Hab 2:15-17 57:16, Nahum 1:8 58:8-9, Zeph 1:10 58:9, Jon 2:2-3a

62:11, Hag 1:6 63:1-3, Obad 1b 63:1, Mic 1:10-15 63:3, Mic 1:10-15 65:24, Hab 2:2-4 66:8, Jon 3:6-9 66:24, Jon 3:6-9

Jeremiah 1:9-10, Zeph 1:13-14 1:14, Zeph 2:12-15 2:13, Nahum 2:8-9 2:18, Hab 2:15-17 2:21, Mic 4:8-9; Hag 2:11-15; Hab 3:17 2:30, Zeph 2:1-2; 3:1-7 3:22, Nahum 2:8-9 4:22, Mic 7:5-7 5:6, Nahum 2:11-12 6:16, Nahum 2:1-2 7:11, Hab 2:15-17 8:4, Mic 7:8-13

9:4, Mic 7:5-7 9:11, Hag 1:3-4 9:21, Nahum 3:13-17; Obad 10-11 10:22, Hag 1:3-4 12:1-2, Hab 1:13-14 12:3, Zeph 1:7 12:7, Jon 1:3a; 4:2b-3 13:23, Zeph 2:12-15 15:9, Mic 5:3 17:5, Mic 7:5-7 17:11, Hab 2:5-8 18:6, Hab bk 1 pref 18:7, Hab 3:8-9a 18:7-8, Zeph 2:12-15 23:23, Mic 2:9-10; Zeph 3:1-7 25:9, Zeph 1:7 25:11, Hag bk 1 pref 25:15-16, Obad 15-16 25:38, Zeph 1:7; 3:1-7 26:18, Mic 3:9-12 31:9, Hab 3:6

31:15, Mic 5:2 33:11, Nahum 1:2b 35:6, Hag 1:6 38:7-13, Zeph 1:1 38:22, Hab 2:5-8 39:1, Hag 2:11-15, 19-20 39:4-6, Hab 2:15-17 39:5-7, Hab 2:15-17 46-52, Zeph 2:8-11 46:20, Nahum 3:8-12 46:25-26, Nahum 3:8-12 48:1-20, Zeph 2:8-11 49:7, Obad 1b 49:9-10, Obad 5-6 49:14, Obad 1c 49:15-16, Obad 2-4 49:19, Obad 7 49:22, Obad 1b, 7 51:7, Jon 3:6-9; Obad 15-16 52:2-30, Hab 2:15-17 52:4, Hag 2:11-15, 19-20

Ezekiel 1:1, Hag 2:16-18; Obad 1a 1:3, Hag 1:1 1:4, Obad 1a 1:15, Nahum 3:1-4 1:18, Hab 3:3a 1:21, Nahum 3:1-4 3:17, Zeph 1:1 7:2, Zeph 1:7 8:7-16, Zeph 1:4-6 9:6, Mic 7:8-13 10:12, Hab 3:3a 11:19, Nahum 1:6a; Obad 2-4 13:18, Obad 14 16:3, Nahum 3:8-12; Zeph 1:11a 16:25, Nahum 3:5-6 16:32-38, Nahum 3:5-6 16:42, Nahum 1:2a 16:48-52, Hab 1:13-14 17, Zeph 2:12-15

17:3-6, Obad 2-4 17:12-21, Obad 17-18 18:13, Mic 7:5-7 18:20, Zeph 2:8-11 18:23-32, Mic 3:5-8 25–32, Zeph 2:8-11 28:1-19, Hab 3:10-13 28:16, Mic 4:1-7 29:2-3, Hab 1:12 29:3, Nahum 3:13-17 29:9, Hab 3:8-9a 29:19-20, Hab 1:6-11 33:11, Mic 3:5-8; 7:8-13, 18-20 34:1-4, Zeph 1:8-9 35:2, Obad 1b 35:7, Obad 1b 35:15, Obad 1b 36:20, Mic 6:10-16 36:26, Nahum 1:6a; Obad 2-4 37:15-17, Hab 2:2-4 40:26, Mic 5:5b-6

40:31, Mic 5:5b-6 44:31, Nahum 2:11-12

Daniel 1:3-7, Hab 1:4 2, Jon 1:7 2:31-45, Zeph 2:8-11 2:34, Mic 2:11-13; Hab 3:10-13 3:1, Hab 2:18 3:1-7, Hab 1:6-11, 15-17 3:14-23, Mic 5:7-14 3:19-23, Jon 2:2-3a 3:26-27, Mic 5:7-14 3:60, Nahum 1:12-13; 2:8-9 3:93, Hab 1:2-3 3:94, Jon 2:2-3a 4, Jon 1:7 4:24, Jon 3:6-9 4:28-33, Hab 1:6-11 4:29, Jon 3:6-9 4:33, Jon 3:6-9

5:3, Hab 1:4 5:31–6:28, Hag 1:1 6:23, Jon 2:2-3a 7:1-28, Zeph 2:8-11 7:7, Hab 3:4 7:13-14, Zeph 1:10 7:20, Hab 3:4 7:24, Hab 3:4 8:16, Hab 3:17 9:21, Hab 3:17 10:13, Hab 3:17 10:21, Hab 3:17 12:1, Hab 3:17 12:2, Nahum 2:10; Zeph 3:19-20 13, Zeph 3:1-7 13:28-41, Zeph 3:8-9 13:56, Nahum 3:8-12; Zeph 1:11a; 2:8-11 14:35-39, Hab bk 1 pref

Hosea 1:1, Mic 1:1

1:9, Hag 2:2-10 2:5, Mic 5:1 2:6-7, Mic 5:1; Zeph 3:1-7 2:7, Zeph 3:1-7 4:12, Hab 2:19-20 7:4, Nahum 2:3-7; Mic 5:7-14 7:8, Obad 7 9:7, Mic 7:5-7 11:9, Jon 4:5 12:7, Zeph 1:11a 13:14, Jon 2:1a 13:15, Jon 4:7-8 14:3, Jon 1:16 14:10, Nahum 3:7

Joel 2:10, Jon 3:6-9 3:15, Jon 3:6-9

Amos 1:1, Mic 1:1; Zeph 1:1

1:11, Obad 1b 3:6, Jon 1:7 3:7, Zeph 1:1 5:18, Mic 7:8-13 5:20, Mic 7:8-13 6:1, Mic 1:1 6:4, Hab 1:6-11 6:4-6, Nahum 3:13-17 8:10, Zeph 1:15-16 8:11, Hab 3:9b

Obadiah 2, Mic 5:5b-6; Obad 1a 6, Obad 7 7, Obad 8-9 8-9, Obad 10-11 10, Obad 12-13a 19, Obad 20-21

Jonah 1:1, Jon 1:7

1:1-2a, Nahum pref 1:3, Jon pref 1:5, Jon pref; 1:16 1:7, Jon 1:6 1:9, Jon 1:3a 1:15, Jon pref; 1:6 1:16, Jon 1:6 1:17, Hab 1:13-14; Jon pref 2:2-10, Jon 2:11 2:2, Jon 2:8b 2:3, Jon 2:5a 2:4, Jon 2:5a; 4:9 2:6, Jon 2:8b 2:7, Jon 2:3b 2:9, Jon 2:10 2:10, Jon pref 2:11, Jon 2:1a 3:4, Jon pref 3:5, Jon 1:3b 3:6-9, Zeph 2:12-15 4:1, Jon pref

4:2, Jon pref 4:3, Jon 4:7-8 4:6, Jon pref 4:9-11, Jon pref

Micah 1:1, Mic 7:1-4a 1:3, Hab 3:10-13 1:5, Mic 1:1 1:8-9, Mic 1:10-15 2:8, Mic 2:9-10 2:9, Nahum 3:13-17 3:9-10, Zeph 1:13-14 4:13, Mic 5:1 5:2, Mic 5:3; Obad 20-21 5:2-3, Mic 5:4 5:3a, Mic 5:5b-6 5:3-4, Mic 5:5b-6 5:4, Mic 5:5a 5:5, Mic 5:7-14 6:3, Mic 6:6-7

6:8, Mic 6:9a 6:9-10, Mic 7:5-7 7:1, Mic 7:5-7 7:2, Mic 7:5-7 7:3, Mic 7:5-7 7:4, Mic 7:5-7 7:8-10, Mic 4:10

Nahum 1:1, Nahum pref; 1:4a; Hab bk 1 pref 1:3, Nahum 1:2b 1:9, Nahum 1:10, 11, 12-13, 14 1:10, Nahum 1:11 1:11, Nahum 1:12-13 2:2, Nahum 2:3-7 2:8, Nahum 3:8-12 3:4, Nahum 3:5-6

Habakkuk 1:2, Hab bk 1 pref; 1:5, 12; 3:1, 18-19 1:3, Hab bk 1 pref

1:4, Hab bk 1 pref 1:5, Zeph 1:12; 3:1-7; Hab 1:6-11, 12; 2:1 1:6, Hab 1:12 1:7, Hab 1:12 1:8, Hab 1:12 1:9, Hab 1:12, 15-17 1:10, Hab 1:12 1:11, Hab 1:12 1:12, Hab 1:13-14; 2:1 1:13, Zeph 1:12; Hab 1:2-3; 2:1; 3:1 1:14, Hab 1:2-3, 15-17; 2:1, 2-4 1:15, Hab 2:1 1:16, Nahum 2:11-12; Mic 2:1-5 1:17, Hab 2:1 2:2, Hab 3:1 2:3, Hab 2:5-8; 3:2a 2:4, Hab 2:5-8; 3:1 2:6, Mic 2:1-5; Hab 2:15-17; 3:2a 2:9, Hab 2:15-17; 3:2a 2:12, Hab 2:15-17; 3:2a 2:15, Hab 3:2a; Obad 15-16

2:19, Hab 3:2a 3:2, Hab 3:1 3:3, Hab 3:1 3:7-9, Hab 3:1 3:9, Hab 3:10-13 3:13, Hab 3:14-16 3:16, Hab 3:17

Zephaniah 1:3, Zeph 1:4-6 1:4, Zeph 1:10 1:8, Zeph 1:10 1:10, Zeph 1:11a 1:12, Zeph 1:13-14, 17-18 2:4, Zeph 2:5-7, 8-11 2:5, Zeph 2:8-11 2:8, Zeph 2:12-15 2:11, Zeph 2:12-15 2:13–3:7, Jon pref 2:13, Zeph 3:1-7 3:7, Zeph 3:8-9

3:8, Zeph 3:14-18 3:9, Zeph 3:10-13, 14-18 3:10, Zeph 1:1; 2:12-15; 3:14-18 3:12-13, Zeph 3:14-18

Haggai 1:1, Hag 1:3-4, 14-2:1; 2:21-24; Obad pref 1:2, Hag 1:6, 14-2:1; 2:11-15 1:4, Hag 1:1, 6, 14-2:1; Hab 3:10-13 1:6, Hag 1:9 1:7, Hag 1:14–2:1 1:8, Hag 1:14–2:1 1:12, Hag 1:14–2:1 1:14, Hag 2:11-15 2:2, Hag 2:11-15 2:6, Nahum 1:3b 2:8, Hag 2:11-15; Obad 1c 2:11, Hag 2:16-18, 21-24 2:20, Hag 2:16-18

Zechariah

1:1, Hag bk 1 pref 1:7, Hag bk 1 pref 1:8, Hab 3:8-9a 1:9, Hab 2:1 1:12, Hag bk 1 pref 3:2, Hab 3:8-9a 3:9, Zeph 3:10-13 5:6-8, Mic 7:18-20 5:7-8, Nahum 2:8-9 6:1, Hab 3:10-13 6:6, Zeph 2:12-15 6:12, Zeph 2:12-15; Jon 4:5 9:1, Hab bk 1 pref 9:9, Zeph 3:14-18 9:9-10, Hag 2:21-24 10:8, Mic 6:10-16 11:2, Jon 4:6 12:1, Hab bk 1 pref 13:7, Jon 2:4a 14:10, Nahum 1:8

Malachi 1:1, Hab bk 1 pref 1:2-4, Obad 1b 1:4, Mic 1:10-15 2:7, Mic 3:9-12 2:10, Mic 7:5-7 4:2, Nahum 3:13-17; Mic 3:5-8; 4:1-7; 5:4; Zeph 3:8-9; Hab 3:4, 10-13; Jon 4:78, 10-11 4:5-6, Mic 5:3

NEW TESTAMENT

Matthew 1:12-13, Hag 1:1 1:21, Hab 3:18-19 1:23, Mic 5:3 2:5, Mic 5:2 2:6, Mic 5:2 2:16-17, Mic 5:2 2:17-18, Mic 2:1-5 2:18, Mic 4:8-9; 5:2

3:1, Mic 7:14-17 3:4, Nahum 2:1-2; Jon 4:6 3:9, Obad 2-4 3:10, Hab 3:17 3:12, Mic 6:8 3:16, Zeph 3:1-7; Jon pref; 1:1-2 3:16-17, Hab 3:5 4:1-2, Hab 3:5 4:2, Jon 3:4b 4:9, Nahum 3:18-19; Hab 1:6-11; 3:8-9a 4:16, Mic 7:8-13 4:19, Mic 4:1-7 4:21-22, Mic 4:1-7 4:24, Hab 3:17 4:25, Mic 4:1-7 5:1, Mic 1:3-5; Hab 3:17 5:5, Hab 3:10-13 5:8, Hab 3:10-13; Obad pref 5:9, Mic 4:1-7 5:13, Zeph 2:8-11 5:14, Mic 4:8-9; Hab 3:10-13; Obad 20-21

5:26, Mic 7:8-13 5:28, Obad 10-11 5:48, Mic 6:8 6:19, Hag 2:19-20 6:19-21, Mic 3:9-12 6:24, Zeph 1:4-6; 3:1-7 6:31-34, Mic 2:6-8 6:34, Jon 1:7 7:2, Mic 2:6-8 7:6, Nahum 3:8-12 7:7, Hag 1:1 7:8, Zeph 2:3-4 7:13, Nahum 2:3-7, 13; 3:13-17; Hab 1:6-11; 3:14-16 7:14, Zeph 1:15-16; Hab 1:6-11 7:19, Hab 3:17 7:22, Mic 2:6-8 7:23, Mic 4:8-9 7:24, Obad 2-4 7:24-27, Mic 1:10-15 8:12, Nahum 1:8; Mic 7:5-7 8:20, Nahum 3:1-4; Mic 2:1-5

8:22, Nahum 2:8-9 8:24-25, Jon 1:3b 8:26, Jon 1:12 8:29, Nahum 2:3-7 8:30, Jon 2:6a 9:9, Mic 4:1-7 9:36, Obad 20-21 9:37, Nahum 3:18-19; Mic 7:1-4a 10:6, Mic 2:11-13; Hab 2:2-4; Jon 1:3a, 1:3b 10:8, Mic 3:9-12 10:9, Mic 3:9-12 10:22, Hab 1:2-3 10:24, Mic 7:14-17 10:34, Mic 5:5b-6 10:35-36, Mic 7:5-7 11:7, Mic 7:14-17 11:25, Jon 2:10 11:28, Zeph 2:3-4 11:29, Mic bk 1 pref; 1:3-5; Zeph 2:3-4; Obad 19 11:29-30, Hab 3:10-13 11:30, Zeph 3:8-9

12:3-4, Zeph 2:8-11 12:24, Hab 3:5, 14-16 12:26, Mic 7:8-13 12:36, Zeph 1:12; 3:10-13 12:39-41, Jon pref; 1:3b; 2:1b 12:40, Jon pref; 2:1a, 1b, 2-3a, 4a 12:41, Jon pref 12:42, Hab 3:10-13 12:43, Mic 2:11-13 12:44, Hab 1:6-11 13:3-8, Nahum 1:10 13:5, Obad 14 13:15, Mic 7:14-17 13:20, Obad 14 13:22, Mic 6:3-5 13:25, Obad 2-4 13:30, Mic 6:8 13:42-50, Mic 7:5-7 13:43, Obad 2-4 13:45-46, Obad 20-21 13:47-50, Zeph 1:10

13:48, Zeph 1:2-3 14:20, Jon 4:10-11 14:29-31, Nahum 2:8-9 15:3, Mic 7:5-7 15:8, Mic 2:6-8 15:24, Mic 2:6-8; Hab 2:2-4; Jon 1:3b 15:26, Jon 1:3b; 3:1-2; 4:1-2a 16:6, Mic 7:5-7; Hab 2:9-11 16:7-11, Hab 2:9-11 16:11, Mic 7:5-7 16:12, Hab 2:9-11 16:16, Obad 2-4 16:18, Obad 20-21 16:19, Mic 1:10-15 16:27, Hag 1:6 17:1-3, Mic 4:1-7 17:19, Obad pref 17:26, Hab 1:15-17 18:6, Mic 3:9-12 18:10, Nahum 2:1-2; Hab 1:13-14 18:16, Zeph 3:8-9

18:32-33, Mic 3:1-4 19:12, Zeph 1:1 20:6, Mic 4:1-7 20:15, Nahum 1:2b 21:5-10, Zeph 3:14-18 21:9, Hab 2:9-11 21:12, Mic 7:18-20 21:12-13, Mic 3:9-12 21:13, Mic 5:1; Hab 2:15-17 21:15, Hab 2:9-11 21:16, Hab 2:9-11 21:19, Hab 3:17 21:21, Obad pref 21:33-39, Hab 3:17 21:33-42, Zeph 1:15-16 21:43, Zeph 1:8-9 22:14, Hag 2:2-10 22:20-21, Zeph 1:4-6 22:13, Mic 2:9-10; 7:5-7 22:14, Zeph 2:5-7 23:12, Zeph 2:3-4

23:34-37, Hab 2:12-14 23:35, Zeph 1:15-16 23:37, Zeph 1:15-16; Jon 1:16 23:38, Mic 1:3-5; 4:1-7; Hab 3:18-19 24:6-7, Mic 7:8-13 24:12, Nahum 1:4b; 3:1-4; Mic 3:9-12; 7:1-4a, 5-7; Zeph 1:4-6; 2:12-15; Hag 1:6; Hab 2:5-8; 3:18-19 24:12-13, Nahum 1:2a; Zeph 1:12 24:28, Obad 2-4 24:34-35, Zeph 1:17-18 24:35, Nahum 1:4a 24:24, Zeph 1:4-6 24:45, Nahum 3:7 24:51, Mic 7:5-7 25:14-30, Zeph 3:1-7 25:27, Obad pref 25:30, Mic 7:5-7 25:32-33, Mic 6:8 25:31, Mic 2:11-13 25:41, Zeph 1:10; 2:12-15; Hab 2:5-8; Jon 3:6-9 26:14, Zeph 1:15-16

26:29, Zeph 3:19-20; Obad 5-6 26:38, Mic 7:1-4a; Hab 2:19-20; 3:4; Jon 2:8a; 4:1-2a, 2b-3, 9 26:39, Hab 2:15-17; 3:4; Jon1:3a; 2:8a; 3:1-2 26:68, Mic 5:1 27:5, Nahum 2:11-12 27:15-23, Jon pref 27:21-22, Hab 1:4 27:24, Jon1:14 27:25, Zeph 1:10, 15-16; Hag 1:1; Hab 2:5-8, 12-14; Jon 1:14 27:38, Hab 3:2a 27:45, Hag 2:2-10; Jon 2:1b 27:51-52, Nahum 1:5; Hag 2:2-10 28:1-10, Zeph pref 28:19, Mic 5:7-14; Hag 1:14-2:1; 2:2-10 28:19-20, Hab 3:14-16; Jon 3:3-4a

Mark 1:10, Jon 1:1-2 1:13, Hab 3:5 3:18, Nahum 1:2a 3:22, Hab 3:5

3:27, Hab 3:14-16 4:3-8, Nahum 1:10 4:5, Obad 14 4:16, Obad 14 4:18-19, Mic 6:3-5 4:39, Hab 3:8-9a; Jon 1:12 5:10, Jon 2:6a 6:11, Nahum 2:10 6:43, Jon 4:10-11 7:7, Jon 2:9 7:27, Jon 4:1-2a 9:42, Nahum 2:8-9 9:44, Mic 4:1-7 9:46, Nahum 2:8-9 9:48, Jon 3:6-9 10:18, Jon 4:10-11 11:15, Mic 3:9-12 11:17, Mic 5:1; Hab 2:15-17 11:23, Obad pref 12:1-12, Mic 4:8-9 12:42-44, Obad pref

13:13, Nahum 2:1-2 13:22, Hab 2:5-8 13:37, Nahum 3:18-19 14:25, Mic 1:6-9 14:34, Hab 2:19-20; Jon 2:8a; 4:1-2a, 2b-3 14:37-42, Jon 1:12 14:38, Nahum 3:18-19 14:50, Jon 1:12 14:62, Nahum 1:3b 14:65, Mic 1:1 15:27, Hab 3:2a 15:33, Hag 2:2-10; Jon 2:1b 15:42, Jon 2:1b

Luke 1:17, Mic 5:3 1:35, Mic 7:5-7 1:41-43, Hag 1:13 1:41-55, Zeph bk 1 pref 1:79, Mic 7:8-13 2:11, Mic 2:11-13

2:14, Hab 3:4, 18-19 3:9, Hab 3:17 3:22, Jon 1:1-2 3:23, Hag 2:16-18; Jon 3:5 4:1-2, Hab 3:5 4:5-6, Hab 3:8-9a 4:25, Zeph 1:1 4:38-39, Nahum 3:1-4 6:19, Hab 1:6-11 6:21, Mic 2:6-8 6:25, Mic 7:5-7 6:40, Mic 7:14-17 8:5-8, Nahum 1:10 8:8, Mic 1:2 8:14, Mic 6:3-5 8:18, Hag 1:9; 2:16-18 8:31, Hab 3:10-13; Jon 2:6a 9:5, Nahum 2:1-2 9:17, Jon 4:10-11 9:43, Mic 2:11-13 9:58, Nahum 3:1-4; Mic 2:1-5; Hag 1:3-4

9:62, Mic 4:1-7; Obad pref 10:2, Nahum 3:18-19 10:18, Nahum 2:3-7, 11-12; Mic 1:10-15; 5:5b-6 10:19, Zeph 3:10-13; Hab 3:18-19 10:30, Mic 7:8-13 10:33-36, Mic 7:8-13 11:15, Hab 3:5 11:24, Hab 2:19-20 11:29-31, Jon 2:1b 11:30, Jon pref 11:32, Jon pref 12:16-21, Hag 1:6 12:18, Mic 2:1-5; Hag 1:6 12:20, Mic 2:1-5; Zeph 1:4-6, 17-18 12:35, Nahum 2:1-2; Mic 7:8-13 12:35-38, Mic 6:8 12:42, Hab 2:18 12:48, Mic 1:6-9 12:49, Hab 2:12-14; 3:2a 13:4, Mic 6:9a; Zeph 3:1-7 13:6-7, Mic 7:1-4a

13:7-9, Hab 3:17 13:10-16, Mic 4:8-9 13:11-13, Nahum 3:1-4 13:16, Mic 2:1-5 13:35, Mic 1:3-5; 4:1-7; Hab 3:10-13 14:12-14, Mic 2:9-10 15:7, Obad pref 15:15, Mic 4:1-7 15:16, Mic 7:1-4a 15:17, Mic 4:10 15:20, Obad pref 15:22, Jon 4:10-11; Obad pref 15:29, Nahum 1:2b 15:29-30, Jon 4:10-11 15:30, Obad pref 15:31-32, Jon 4:10-11 16:12, Hab 2:5-8 16:13, Zeph 1:4-6 16:19-22, Mic 7:5-7 16:25, Nahum 1:9 17:6, Obad pref

17:37, Obad 2-4 18:8, Nahum 1:4b; Mic 3:9-12; 7:1-4a; Zeph 1:4-6; 2:12-15; Hab 2:5-8 18:14, Mic bk 1 pref; Hab 1:13-14 19:41, Mic 7:1-4a; Jon 1:1-2, 5a; 4:1-2a, 9 19:42, Mic 2:6-8 19:45-46, Mic 3:9-12 19:46, Mic 5:1; Hab 2:15-17 20:36, Hag 1:13 21:20, Zeph 1:10, 17-18 22:3-5, Mic 7:5-7 22:28, Mic 7:5-7 22:45, Jon 1:5b 22:45-46, Jon 1:12 23:21, Jon 1:3a, 13; 3:1-2 23:33, Hab 3:2a 23:34, Jon 1:3a 23:39, Hab 2:9-11 23:44, Hag 2:2-10; Jon 2:1b 23:45, Nahum 1:5 23:46, Hab 2:19-20; 3:4; Jon 2:8a; 4:2b-3 23:54, Jon 2:1b

24:49, Nahum 2:8-9

John 1:1, Jon 2:5b 1:1-2, Mic 5:2 1:3, Mic 2:9-10; Jon 3:3-4a; 4:10-11 1:3-4, Hab 3:4 1:5, Nahum 1:8; Mic 7:8-13 1:11, Mic 2:11-13 1:14, Mic 2:11-13 1:26, Hag 2:2-10 1:29, Mic 7:18-20; Hag 2:21-24 1:32-33, Jon 1:1-2 2:14-16, Mic 3:9-12 2:16, Mic 3:9-12 2:19-21, Mic 1:2 3:19, Nahum 1:8 3:20, Zeph 1:15-16 3:30, Jon 4:6 3:31, Mic 1:2 3:32, Mic 1:2

3:33, Jon 4:5 4:14, Nahum 1:12-13; Hab 3:8-9a 4:23, Mic 7:14-17 4:35, Mic 7:1-4a 4:38, Mic 4:1-7 5:14, Mic 7:8-13 5:22, Mic 4:1-7; Zeph 2:3-4 5:43, Obad 17-18 5:46, Hab 3:17 6:13, Jon 4:10-11 6:27, Hag 2:21-24 6:32, Obad 20-21 6:39, Jon 2:10 6:41, Obad 20-21 6:44, Hag 1:1 6:51, Mic 4:8-9; 5:2 6:56, Hag 2:11-15 7:7, Mic 7:14-17 7:37, Hag 1:1; Jon 3:4b 7:38, Nahum 1:12-13; 3:8-12 8:12, Mic 4:8-9; Jon 4:10-11; Obad 20-21

8:23, Nahum 3:13-17 8:33, Mic 5:3 8:34, Mic 4:1-7 8:37, Mic 5:3 8:39, Mic 5:3; 6:3-5 8:44, Nahum 2:1-2; Mic 6:10-16; Zeph 3:10-13 8:56, Mic 5:3; Hag 2:21-24 9:5, Jon 4:10-11; Obad 20-21 9:22, Mic 3:9-12 9:39, Hab 3:9b 10:7, Mic 2:11-13 10:9, Mic 2:11-13 10:10, Mic 7:18-20 10:11, Mic 7:14-17 10:14, Obad 20-21 10:16, Mic 2:11-13; 7:14-17; Zeph 3:10-13; Hag 2:21-24; Hab 2:2-4 10:18, Hab 2:19-20 10:28, Jon 2:10 10:28-29, Hab 3:4 10:38, Jon 2:5b 11:31, Mic 7:1-4a

11:49-50, Jon1:7 12:14-15, Hab 1:6-11 12:24, Obad 17-18 12:28, Jon 2:5b 13:8-9, Nahum 2:1-2 13:30, Nahum 2:11-12 14:3, Hab 3:10-13; Jon 1:12; 2:5a 14:5, Mic 2:11-13 14:6, Nahum 1:3b; 2:1-2; Mic 4:1-7; Zeph 1:17-18; 3:10-13; Jon 1:1-2; 4:5 14:10, Mic 1:3-5; Hab 2:19-20; 3:10-13 14:10-11, Jon2:5b 14:12, Mic 7:14-17 14:23, Zeph 3:14-18; Hab 3:3a 14:27, Zeph 3:14-18 14:30, Nahum 1:6a 14:31, Mic 4:1-7 15:1, Mic 4:8-9; Hag 2:19-20; Hab 3:17 15:1-5, Mic 4:1-7 15:2, Nahum 2:1-2; Hab 3:17 15:6, Hab 3:17 15:15, Mic 7:5-7

16:28, Jon 2:5b 16:33, Mic 7:5-7 17:5, Hab 3:4; Jon 2:5b 17:6, Hab 3:2c 17:11-12, Mic 5:4 17:12, Jon 2:10 17:20-24, Jon 2:5a 17:24, Jon 1:12 18:14, Jon 1:7 18:22, Mic 1:1; 5:1 19:6, Mic 1:16; Zeph 3:10-13; Hab 2:5-8; 3:17; Jon 1:13 19:15, Hab 3:17; Jon 1:3a; 3:1-2 19:18, Hab 3:2a 20:22, Nahum 1:15 21:15-17, Mic 3:1-4

Acts 1:13, Nahumm1:2a 1:23-26, Jon 1:7 2:9-11, Mic 4:1-7 2:11, Zeph 3:8-9

2:13, Zeph 3:19-20; Hag 1:6 2:22-23, Mic 3:5-8 2:31, Jon 2:7b 2:36, Mic 3:5-8 2:38, Jon4:7-8 2:41, Mic 2:11-13; 4:1-7 3:6, Mic 3:9-12 3:19-23, Mic 6:8 4:4, Mic 4:1-7 5:41, Zeph 1:11b 6:2, Mic 2:9-10 6:15, Hag 1:13 7:55-56, Hab 3:6 7:56-59, Obad 1a 8:9-25, Mic 3:9-12 8:27-38, Zeph 1:1 9:35, Obad 19 13:35, Jon 2:7b 13:46, Jon 4:1-2a 17:28, Hab 2:19-20 20:30, Mic 7:5-7

21:20, Mic 4:1-7 22:3, Hab 2:2-4

Romans 1:1, Obad 1b 1:4, Hag 1:14-2:1 1:17, Hab 2:2-4 1:18, Hab 3:2d 1:32, Mic 7:1-4a 2:5, Nahum 1:3a; Mic 6:10-16; Zeph 3:1-7 2:13, Zeph 2:12-15; Hag 2:11-15 2:17-19, Mic 5:7-14 2:24, Mic 6:10-16 3:4, Mic 6:1-2; 7:8-13 3:23, Nahum 1:2b 4:11, Obad 1a 5:3-5, Zeph 1:11b 5:8, Mic 6:6-7 5:19, Hab 1:15-17 6:4, Mic 6:1-2 6:6, Nahum 1:15

6:12, Hab 3:8-9a 7:14, Hag 1:1 7:23, Hab 1:13-14 7:24, Nahum 3:7; Zeph 1:17-18; Jon 2:7b 8:1-17, Mic 5:5b-6 8:5, Obad 8-9 8:11, Zeph 1:2-3 8:12, Nahum 3:13-17 8:13, Mic 2:11-13 8:15, Jon 2:3b 8:20-21, Hab 3:10-13 8:22, Jon 1:12 8:35, Hab 2:18 8:37, Mic 5:5a 8:38-39, Mic 5:5a 9:3, Mic 2:11-13; Jon 1:1-2 9:3-5, Jon 4:1-2a 9:4, Mic 2:11-13 9:4-5, Jon 1:3a 9:5, Mic 2:11-13 9:20, Hab bk 1 pref

9:29, Mic 4:1-7 10:17, Mic 7:1-4a 10:18, Hag 2:2-10 11:5, Mic 2:11-13 11:12, Mic 5:3 11:17, Zeph 2:12-15; Hab 3:17 11:17-19, Mic 2:6-8 11:17-24, Jon 1:3a 11:22, Hab 3:17 11:25, Mic 2:6-8, 11-13; 5:3; Hab 3:17; Jon 1:3a; 4:1-2a 11:25-26, Mic 5:1, 3 11:26, Mic 2:6-8; 5:3 11:28, Jon 1:3a 11:32, Mic 2:11-13; Zeph 3:10-13 11:33, Mic 2:6-8; Zeph 3:10-13; Hag 1:6; Hab 1:2-3; 3:8-9a 12:1, Hag 1:14-2:1 12:13, Hab 2:2-4 12:19, Mic 7:5-7 13:12, Jon 4:10-11 13:13, Zeph 3:8-9 13:14, Mic 1:6-9; Zeph 1:8-9

14:2, Hag 2:11-15 15:12, Obad pref 15:25-26, Mic 3:9-12 16:18, Mic 3:1-4 16:20, Mic 5:5b-6; Zeph 3:8-9; Hab 3:10-13 16:26, Zeph 3:14-18

1 Corinthians 1:19, Jon 3:6-9 1:20, Mic 1:16 1:20-21, Hab 3:8-9a 1:25, Mic 2:11-13 1:26-28, Jon 3:6-9 1:30, Mic 7:8-13; Zeph 1:17-18; 2:3-4; 3:14-18; Hab 2:2-4; 3:4 2:6, Mic 7:14-17 2:8, Mic 4:11-13 2:13, Zeph 2:5-7, 8-11 3:2, Hag 2:11-15 3:10, Hag 2:16-18 3:11, Nahum 1:10 3:12, Nahum 1:2a; Hag 2:2-10, 16-18; Obad 17-18

3:12-14, Zeph 1:7 3:13, Zeph 2:3-4 3:14, Hag 1:6 3:15, Zeph 1:15-16 3:16, Hab 2:19-20 4:6, Hab 1:13-14 4:8, Obad 2-4 4:12, Mic 7:14-17 4:16, Mic 6:8 4:21, Mic 7:14-17 5:5, Mic 1:10-15; 4:10; 6:10-16; Zeph 1:8-9; Hag 1:2 5:7, Jon 2:10 5:8, Hag 1:1 6:15, Nahum 3:1-4 6:16, Nahum 3:5-6 6:17, Nahum 3:13-17; Hab 3:10-13 6:19, Zeph 1:8-9; Hag 2:16-18; Hab 2:19-20 7:25, Hab 1:2-3 7:31, Hag 2:21-24 9:9, Mic 3:9-12 9:13, Mic 3:9-12

9:19-21, Jon 4:9 9:27, Nahum 2:1-2 10:4, Jon 1:3b; Obad 20-21 10:13, Jon 2:4b 10:17, Mic 4:8-9 10:18, Mic 5:1 11:1, Mic 6:8 11:3, Mic 7:5-7; Hab 3:10-13, 14-16 11:9, Mic 7:5-7 12:4, Obad pref 12:27-31, Mic 2:6-8 12:31, Nahum 1:2a; Zeph 1:11a 13:1, Zeph 2:5-7 13:9, Mic 2:11-13; Hab 1:13-14 13:10, Hab 1:13-14 13:11, Obad pref 13:12, Nahum 3:13-17; Mic 2:1-5 14:1, Hab 2:2-4 14:30, Hab bk 1 pref 14:33, Hab bk 1 pref 15:3, Mic 6:6-7

15:9, Zeph 1:1 15:10, Obad pref 15:22, Hab 1:15-17 15:28, Hag 2:21-24; Obad 17-18 15:31, Zeph 3:19-20 15:33, Nahum 3:1-4 15:41, Nahum 2:10 15:42, Jon 2:7b 15:44, Jon 2:7b 15:49, Mic 1:3-5; 6:1-2; Hab 3:4 15:50, Zeph 1:17-18 15:52, Zeph 1:15-16 15:53, Jon 2:7b 16:3, Mic 3:9-12

2 Corinthians 2:11, Obad 7 3:2-3, Hab 2:2-4 3:6, Mic 4:11-13; Zeph 3:8-9; Jon pref; Obad 20-21 3:13, Mic 7:8-13 3:18, Nahum 2:10; Mic 6:3-5

4:10, Mic 2:9-10 4:14, Zeph 1:2-3 4:16, Mic 2:9-10 5:4, Zeph 1:17-18 5:16, Hab 3:4 5:19, Mic 7:18-20 5:21, Mic 4:8-9 6:2, Mic 5:3; 6:6-7; Hab 3:2c 6:15, Nahum 1:15 6:16, Mic 1:3-5 9:6, Hag 1:1 9:7, Mic 6:8 10:3, Zeph 1:2-3 10:4-5, Hab 1:6-11 10:5, Zeph 1:4-6; Hag 1:11; Hab 3:6; Obad 8-9, 20-21 11:2, Nahum 1:2a 11:14, Nahum 3:1-4; Obad 17-18 11:23-26, Mic 5:5a 11:30, Hab 1:2-3, 6-11 12:3-4, Jon 2:8a 12:11, Obad pref

12:21, Mic 2:1-5 13:1, Zeph 3:8-9 13:3, Mic 2:6-8; Zeph 2:5-7

Galatians 1:3, Mic 7:14-17 1:4, Mic 6:3-5 3:4, Hag 1:11; 2:16-18 4:6, Jon 2:3b 4:19, Mic 4:10 4:22-31, Jon 1:3b 4:26, Zeph 3:14-18; Jon 1:3b 4:27, Mic 5:3 5:16, Hab 2:19-20 5:17, Hab 3:8-9a 5:19-21, Mic 1:1; Obad 7 5:22, Mic 2:11-13; Hab 2:19-20 5:22-23, Mic 4:1-7 5:25, Mic 2:11-13 6:7-8, Mic 2:9-10 6:8, Hag 2:19-20

Ephesians 2:14, Mic 2:11-13 2:20, Mic 6:1-2 3:5, Hag 2:2-10 3:9, Hag 2:2-10 3:13, Hab 1:2-3 3:15, Nahum 2:10 4:3, Zeph 2:1-2 4:8, Nahum 2:3-7; Jon 2:6a 4:13, Hag 1:12; Jon 3:5; Obad pref 4:14, Mic 1:10-15; Zeph 2:5-7; Hab 3:8-9a; Jon 1:15 4:22, Nahum 1:15 4:24, Zeph 1:8-9 4:30, Zeph 3:1-7 5:2, Mic 6:3-5 5:8, Mic 2:1-5 5:14, Nahum 3:18-19; Mic 2:9-10; 6:1-2; Obad 1c 5:16, Mic 4:1-7 5:23, Mic 7:5-7 5:25, Mic 7:5-7

5:31-32, Jon 1:3b 5:33, Mic 7:5-7 6:1, Mic 1:1 6:11, Hab 3:10-13 6:11-13, Nahum 3:1-4 6:12, Nahum 1:6a 6:14, Nahum 2:1-2 6:16, Nahum 2:3-7; 3:13-17; Mic 6:10-16 6:19, Mic bk 2 pref

Philippians 1:21, Jon 1:3a 2:6-8, Hab 3:4 2:6-7, Jon 2:5a 2:7, Jon 3:1-2; Obad 1b 2:7-9, Mic 4:1-7 2:9, Hab 3:10-13 2:10, Nahum 2:10; Obad 17-18 2:10-11, Mic 7:8-13; Zeph 3:8-9 3:2, Mic 7:8-13, 14-17 3:2-5, Mic 5:1

3:8, Mic 2:11-13; Hab 2:9-11; 3:18-19 3:13, Hag 2:2-10; Hab 1:13-14; Obad pref 3:21, Jon 2:7b 4:7, Hag 2:2-10

Colossians 1:15, Hag 1:1; 2:21-24 1:18, Hag 1:1 1:20, Hab 3:4 1:22, Mic 2:9-10 2:8, Jon 3:6-9 2:18, Mic 7:5-7 3:1, Mic 1:3-5; 2:11-13; 6:1-2; 7:14-17; Zeph 2:8-11 3:5, Obad 1b 3:9, Nahum 1:15; Zeph 3:14-18 3:9-10, Zeph 2:8-11 3:10, Zeph 3:14-18 3:12, Zeph 1:8-9 3:16, Jon 2:3b 3:19, Mic 7:5-7

1 Thessalonians 2:9, Mic 3:9-12 2:16, Zeph 1:15-16 2:10, Mic 3:9-12 4:3, Mic 7:5-7 4:9, Hag 2:2-10 5:5, Obad 5-6 5:7, Hab 2:15-17

2 Thessalonians 2:4, Hab 2:5-8 2:8, Nahum 1:4a; Mic 5:7-14; Hab 2:5-8, 15-17

1 Timothy 1:20, Mic 6:10-16; Hab 1:6-11 2:5, Obad 1c 3:1, Zeph 3:1-7 3:2, Hag 2:11-15 3:15, Mic 3:9-12; Hag 2:2-10 3:19, Mic 4:1-7 4:2, Obad 5-6

5:18, Mic 3:9-12 6:4, Mic 7:5-7 6:11, Hab 2:2-4 6:20, Nahum 1:4a

2 Timothy 2:19, Nahum 1:7 2:20, Jon 4:10-11 3:1-4, Mic 7:5-7 3:1-5, Zeph 2:12-15 3:4, Mic 2:9-10; 7:5-7 4:2, Hab 3:8-9a

Titus 1:5-11, Hag 2:11-15 1:12-13, Zeph 2:5-7 1:16, Zeph 2:12-15 2:11, Hab 3:4 2:13, Mic 7:5-7

Hebrews

1:3, Hag 2:21-24; Hab 3:4 1:9, Zeph 3:19-20 1:14, Mic 6:1-2 2:9, Hab 3:4 2:11, Obad 17-18 2:14-15, Jon 2:11 3:2-6, Hag 2:2-10 4:12, Nahum 2:13; Mic 1:2; 5:5b-6; Hag 1:11; 2:21-24 4:15, Jon 2:4a, 4b 5:12-14, Mic 6:6-7 6:8, Hab 3:17 7:3, Hag 1:14-2:1 7:10, Nahum 2:1-2 7:14, Zeph 1:4-6 7:26-27, Jon 2:10 8:13, Nahum 1:15 9:1-5, Hag 1:3-4 9:28, Jon 4:10-11 10:4, Mic 6:6-7 10:29, Zeph 3:1-7; Jon 4:10-11 11:5, Mic 6:8

12:6, Nahum 1:2b 12:11, Mic 7:8-13; Zeph 1:12 12:12, Hag 2:2-10 12:18-22, Mic 2:11-13 12:22, Mic 4:8-9; 5:7-14 12:23, Nahum 3:13-17; Hag 2:2-10

James 1:3, Zeph 1:11b 1:22, Zeph 2:12-15 2:2, Zeph 1:4-6 2:14-17, Mic 6:8 4:7, Mic 1:1 4:10, Mic 1:10-15

1 Peter 1:19, Zeph 3:14-18 2:5, Hag 1:14–2:1; 2:2-10 2:13, Mic 7:5-7 2:24, Hab 3:10-13 3:18, Mic 6:6-7; Hab 3:10-13

4:6, Mic 1:10-15 5:6, Mic bk 1 pref 5:8, Mic 1:1; Hab 2:1 5:9, Nahum 2:11-12 5:13, Hag 2:2-10

2 Peter 2:4, Hab 2:5-8 2:19, Mic 7:5-7 3:9, Mic 3:5-8 3:10, Nahum 1:3b 3:13, Hag 2:21-24

1 John 1:1, Obad 1a 1:10, Jon 2:10 2:6, Mic 6:8 2:15, Zeph 3:1-7 2:17, Nahum 2:1-2 2:18, Mic 4:1-7; Hab 2:2-4, 5-8 2:20, Hab 3:10-13

2:26-27, Hab 3:10-13 3:16, Mic 6:3-5 4:18, Mic 7:14-17; Hag 1:13 5:6, Jon 4:5 5:19, Nahum 2:11-12; 3:18-19; Mic 2:1-5; 4:11-13; Hab 3:10-13; Jon 1:12

2 John 1, Hag 2:2-10

Revelation 1:16, Nahum 2:13 2:1-29, Mic 6:1-2 3:1-22, Mic 6:1-2 3:8, Nahum 2:3-7 4:4, Obad pref 4:6, Hab 3:3a 4:8, Hab 3:3a 4:11, Obad pref 5:6, Obad pref 5:8, Obad pref 5:13, Obad pref

6:1-2, Hab 3:8-9a 6:10, Mic 7:5-7 11:8, Zeph 2:8-11 13:7, Mic 2:6-8; 7:1-4a 14:2, Obad pref 14:20, Hab 2:12-14 15:2, Obad pref 16:6, Hab 2:12-14 17:6, Hab 2:12-14 18:24, Hab 2:12-14 19:11-14, Hab 3:14-16 20:1-6, Mic 4:1-7 20:2, Hab 3:5 20:10, Hab 2:5-8 20:12, Mic 6:8 20:13, Mic 1:6-9 21:1, Hag 2:21-24 22:13, Mic 4:8-9

PRAISE FOR ANCIENT CHRISTIAN TEXTS

“The announcement of InterVarsity’s series Ancient Christian Texts, to complement the highly successful Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, is good news, in the richest sense of that term. The burst of renewed interest in the way the fathers of the church read, preached and prayed the Scriptures is a blessing for the church and for scholars. The projected volumes of Ancient Christian Texts represent an excellent selection of patristic exegetical works, some of which will be available for the first time in English. This undertaking will be a great service to all who love the Bible.”

Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J., Professor of Theology, Fordham University; Past President, North American Patristics Society

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Series Editors

Thomas C. Oden, formerly the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at the Theological School, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, is the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. The author of numerous books, including a highly regarded three-volume systematic theology, he also serves as director of the Center for Early African Christianity.

Gerald L. Bray (PhD, University of Paris—Sorbonne) is director of research for The Latimer Trust, based in London, and a research professor at Samford University, teaching in the Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. He is the author of The Doctrine of God, Biblical Interpretation: Past and Present and Creeds, Councils and Christ. He is editor for the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture volumes on Romans, 1-2 Corinthians and James–Jude, as well as volume editor for We Believe in One God in the Ancient Christian Doctrine series. A priest of the Church of England, Bray has also edited the post-Reformation Anglican canons.

Volume Editor

Thomas P. Scheck (PhD, University of Iowa) is associate professor of theology at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida. He is the author of Origen and the History of Justification and Erasmus’s Life of Origen. He is also the translator in the Fathers of the Church series of Origen: Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (2 volumes) and St. Jerome: Commentary on Matthew. Recently Scheck published new translations of St. Jerome’s Commentaries on Isaiah and Ezekiel in the Ancient Christian Writers series.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN TEXTS

Ancient Christian Texts is a series of new translations, most of which are presented here in English for the first time. The series provides contemporary readers with the resources they need to study the key writings of the early church for themselves. The texts represented in the series are full-length commentaries or sermon series based on biblical books or extended scriptural passages. This series extends the ecumenical project begun with the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, promoting a vital link of communication between today’s varied Christian traditions and their common ancient ancestors in the faith. On this shared ground, we gather to listen to the pastoral and theological insights of the church’s leading theologians during its earliest centuries. Many readers of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture have wished to read the full-length works from which excerpts were selected. Several of those texts have not been available in English before or have existed only in cumbersome English in isolated libraries. Thomas C. Oden and the Institute for Classical Christian Studies have thus sought to make more of these texts available to the general reading public. The volumes, though not critical editions, provide notes where needed to acquaint general readers with the necessary background to understand what the ancient authors are saying. Preachers, pastors, students and teachers of Scripture will be refreshed and enriched here by the ancient wisdom of the church.

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MORE TITLES FROM INTERVARSITY PRESS

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©2016 by Thomas P. Scheck, Gerald L. Bray, Thomas C. Oden, Michael Glerup and the Institute for Classical Christian Studies (ICCS)

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InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.

The Hexapla image has been copied from H. B. Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, rev. R. R. Ottley (repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1989), 62-63.

Design: Cindy Kiple Images: Saints Peter and Paul by Carlo Crivelli at Accademia, Venice/Art

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ISBN 978-0-8308-9434-5 (digital) ISBN 978-0-8308-2916-3 (print)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jerome, Saint, -419 or 420, author. | Scheck, Thomas P., 1964- editor. Title: Commentaries on the twelve prophets / Jerome ; edited by Thomas P. Scheck. Description: Downers Grove : InterVarsity Press, 2016. | Series: Ancient Christian texts | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016007925 (print) | LCCN 2016014907 (ebook) | ISBN 9780830829163 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780830894345 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Minor Prophets--Commentaries. Classification: LCC BS1560 .J4713 2016 (print) | LCC BS1560 (ebook) | DDC 224/.907--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007925