Ezekiel 39:23

(Verse 17 and following) 'Therefore, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to every winged creature, to all the birds, and to all the beasts of the field or the countryside: Come together and hasten, gather from all around to my sacrifice that I have offered to you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the meat of the mighty or giants, and you shall drink the blood of the rulers of the land: of rams, lambs, goats, and of bulls, as well as of all the fatted ones.' And you shall eat the fat in abundance, and drink the blood to the full, of the offering that I have sacrificed for you. And you shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors, says the Lord God. And I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. And the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. And all the nations shall know that the house of Israel were taken captive because of their iniquities, because they had forsaken me and I had hidden my face from them and given them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and their transgressions, I dealt with them and hid my face from them. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel: and I will be zealous for my holy name. And they shall bear their confusion (or disgrace), and all their transgressions, whereby they have transgressed against me, when they dwelt confidently (or securely) in their own land, fearing no one. And I will bring them back from the peoples (or nations), and gather them out of the countries of their enemies (or from the regions of the nations), and I will be sanctified in them in the sight (or presence) of many nations. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, when I have caused them to be carried away among the nations (or when I have appeared to them in the Gentiles), and have gathered them together upon their own land, and have not left any one of them there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured out my spirit (or fury) upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.' This which we have translated according to the Hebrew, and I will gather them together upon their own land, and will not leave any one of them there, is not found in the LXX. And again, what is placed at the end according to the Hebrews for a blessing, because I have poured out my spirit, the Septuagint translated as fury, which pertains to anger, especially since in Hebrew it is written as Ruhi, which properly means my spirit, and by no means my fury. However, everything up to that point, where the construction of the temple follows, those whom we have mentioned above, the Jews, and our Judaizing brethren, refer to the ultimate time: that Gog and all his army may be fattened like the choicest sacrifices of birds and beasts, and that Israel may be restored to its former state, and no longer be conquered by the nations, but that God may pour out his spirit upon them, so that they may dwell in their land: not all nations, but specifically the house of Israel. But following the initiated tropology, we will say this, that the Lord summons all birds and all beasts to devour the leaders of heretics as the fattest victims. Birds and beasts, however, are called so either because of their swiftness in running everywhere or because of their fierceness and cruelty, to which adversaries are handed over to be destroyed in the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved and they may learn not to blaspheme (I Tim. I). However, they will eat a large and fattest victim; not elsewhere, but on the mountains of Israel, which we ought to understand as the prophets and apostles, and holy men. For in them the teachers of contrary doctrines fall, and they perish wounded by themselves, upon whom the Church is built: and to speak more truly, upon the mountain of mountains, about which Isaiah and Micah speak: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will show us his ways (Isa. II, 3; Mic. IV, 2). But those birds and those animals, swift and cruel, will eat flesh and drink blood, which cannot possess the kingdom of God: the flesh of the mighty, or giants, who rebelled against the knowledge of God, and the blood of princes, not of heaven, but of the earth, they will drink, who have savored all earthly things: the blood of rams, and lambs, and goats, or according to the Septuagint, the blood of rams, calves, and goats, to signify the three animals that are sacrificed in the offerings to God. For heretics imitate the gentleness of the Church, but their offering does not profit for the worship of God, but for the food of demons, which is their fattest host, and they are satisfied with fatness and drink the blood of deceivers to the point of drunkenness. But God sacrifices this victim through ecclesiastical men, so that the guests of the worst kind may be satisfied with the multitude of deceivers, and they may drink to the point of vomiting and drunkenness. When you see holy men, instructed in divine Scriptures, cut down the horses of heretics and charioteers, of whom it is written: He threw the horse and its rider into the sea (Exodus XV, 1), and cut down all rebels and giants with his sword, and shed the blood of all warriors of false-named knowledge, then know that the table of the Lord has been prepared, that he may put his glory in all nations that believe in his name, and that they may understand the judgment of the Church of his holy ones, which they have performed against their adversaries, and the strong hand with which they have struck them; and let the house of Israel know and understand that he is their Lord God, who spoke: I am your Lord God, from the day of the Lord's victory until eternity; and let them recall that the house of Israel was once captured by heretics and scattered throughout the entire world of perverse doctrines, because they had abandoned him who had hidden momentarily or turned his face away from them, and delivered them into the hands of heretics, and they fell, pierced by their swords, because of their impurities and iniquities; and this was the reason why he hid and turned his face away from them. But after presenting the arguments, according to what is written: There must be heresies so that those who are approved may become manifest (I Cor. XI, 19), the captivity of Israel, namely the Church, in which those who see God dwell: now it promises that it will restore the captivity of Jacob to the Church, who had supplanted the Jewish people, and was later supplanted by the tricks of the heretics: and it will have mercy on the whole house of Israel, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. And I will take up my zeal for my holy name, which was blasphemed among the nations because of heretics: so that once I have delivered them, they may be ashamed and confounded, for why have they forsaken the faith of the Church, and transgressed against me. But let them be confounded and ashamed very quickly, when they have dwelt in their land, the land of the meek, and the land of the saints, and have dwelt confidently, whether in peace, not fearing the snares of heretics. Then they will be brought back from the peoples, and will be gathered from the lands of their enemies into their own land. And the Lord will be sanctified in them in the sight of many nations, who themselves will also believe in the Lord. And the end of blessedness will be to know and recognize that he is their Lord God, because he has appeared to them among the nations, or has brought them over from the nations, and has gathered them onto his own land, the land of Judah, the land of confession, the land of gentleness, and the land of the living, and he will not even leave a trace of heretical wickedness. And he will no longer hide his face from them, nor turn away from them, because he has poured out the spirit of his grace, of which the prophet Joel also speaks: 'In the last days, I will pour out from my spirit upon all flesh' (Joel 2:28), and he will pour it out upon all the house of Israel. But if we read 'fury' according to the Septuagint, which is not found in the Hebrew, it should be understood that he will no longer hide his face from those on whom he had previously poured out his fury. Up to this point in the prophet Ezekiel, with God aiding and opening our mouth, we have spoken: not destroying the opinion of others, if anyone has written, or in the future, if they are to write, but asserting whatever is ours. But in the construction of the temple, and the order of the priests, and the division of the holy land, and the river flowing out of the temple, and the trees on both banks always green, and the fruit brought forth every month, and all the rest that is contained in the prophetic volume until the end, we frankly confess our ignorance, deeming it better to say nothing than to say too little.