Bede

In the third age of the world, God, testing Abraham’s obedience, commanded him to offer to him as a holocaust his one and only son, whom he loved. Abraham did not delay in doing what he was ordered, but a ram was immolated in place of his son. Nevertheless for his virtue of extraordinary obedience he was granted the inheritance of an everlasting blessing. Behold, [here] you have the third hydria, for when you hear that a greater obedience is repaid by a greater prize, you yourself [will] attempt to learn and to possess obedience. If in the immolation of his one and only son, whom he loved, you understand the passion of the one concerning whom the Father says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased” (in him, since his divinity remaining impassible, only his humanity suffered death and sorrow, it is as though a son was offered but a ram was slain); if you understand the blessing which was promised to Abraham about the nation’s coming to belief as a gift fulfilled in you—then he has truly made wine out of water for you, since he has opened to you the spiritual sense, by whose new fragrance you are intoxicated.

Now when Jacob, wishing to rest in a certain place, put a stone under his head, he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth with its top touching heaven. [He saw] also angels of God ascending and descending on it and the Lord resting on the ladder saying to him, “I am the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac.” And rising in the morning and rendering praise to the Lord with due trepidation, he took the stone and set it up as a mark, pouring oil on it.The Lord made mention of this place and most clearly bore witness in a figurative way concerning himself and his faithful ones. The ladder which he saw is the church, which has its birth from the earth but its “way of life in heaven,” And by it angels ascend and descend, when evangelists announce at one time to perfect hearers the preeminent hidden mysteries of [Christ’s] divinity and at another time announce to those still untaught the weaknesses of his humanity. Or they ascend when [in their teaching] they pass to heavenly things to be contemplated by the mind, and they descend when they educate their listeners as to how they ought to live on earth.

In that time when my soul is troubled, in the wrath of mercy you will remember. When my soul is troubled, he said, struck with worthy sorrow of satisfaction and repentance because of the fear of your wrath and judgment, which I dread to have incurred carelessly, I believe that I will more quickly obtain the mercy of the pardon desired from you: where the marvelous swiftness of divine pity should be considered. He said that he was troubled in soul only because of the wrath of God, and immediately added that he was turned to mercy from wrath. To which the Psalmist's saying is similar: I said: I will confess my injustices against myself to the Lord, and you forgave the impiety of my heart (Ps. 31:3). But such indulgence can be for the smallest faults. Otherwise, our offenses, the graver they are, the greater and longer repentance, weeping, and alms they require. Up to this point, the prophet briefly encompasses with what fear of mind he was struck, having heard and more carefully considered the event of the Lord's incarnation and passion. Then, more fully, he immediately describes what that hearing, what those works of the Lord were that he was so moved by. It follows:

In the midst of two animals you will be known. It can be understood as in the midst of two animals, in the midst of Moses and Elijah. For there he was known to the three disciples on the holy mountain because he was to die, telling them that he would suffer in Jerusalem. There, he was known because he would rise again and would become immortal, with his countenance made bright like the sun, and his garments shining like snow. There, he was known because he was the Son of God, with a voice from the Father in heaven saying to him: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him (Matthew 17:5). It can also, not unreasonably, be taken as in the midst of two thieves, among whom he was crucified and by dying was known to be a man. However, with the sun darkened, the earth shaken, and the other miracles narrated in the Gospel happening around the cross, he was known to be God. By interceding himself to the Father for his murderers, he was known to be most pious. By this same example, the prophet, who foresaw this in the spirit, was admonished not only to patiently bear the oppressions of the wicked but also to extend the grace of his kindness to those persecuting him.

Lord, I heard Your report and feared. The report of the Lord the Savior is what He heard from the Father, that He would come in the flesh, be born into the world, dwell among the weak as the Almighty, among sinners as the Just, among men as God, perform heavenly works, teach heavenly precepts, promise heavenly gifts, be tempted, scourged, mocked, killed, and by His death destroy our death; rising from the dead, ascend into the heavens, and having sent the Spirit from above, illuminate the world with the grace of truth. Of this report He Himself frequently made mention in the Gospel, saying: "But He that sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him" (John 8:26). And again: "But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you" (John 15:15). Concerning this, John the Baptist also says: "He that comes from heaven is above all, and what He has seen and heard, that He testifies" (John 3:31). Therefore, the prophet heard this report of the Lord in spirit, and feared because he complained of the oppressions of the righteous in the world, while even the Lord Himself, who makes the prosperous journey for us to salvation and life, met with death's end in the world. He feared because he lamented over the tribulations of the saints, who are not only to be delivered from tribulations by the Lord but also to be crowned eternally with the Lord.

His majesty covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. The dispensation of the Lord's incarnation having been described, he immediately added the mystery of the ascension by which the same humanity was to be glorified, according to the saying of the Psalmist: His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit reaches to the end thereof (Ps. 18:7). For his majesty covered the heavens, because he who was made a little lower than the angels through the incarnation, was crowned with glory and honor through the resurrection, and established above the works of the Father's hands through the ascension, and all things are placed under his feet (Ps. 8:6), and as the apostles preached, the earth was filled with his praise: this very thing being briefly but very clearly included at both the beginning and end of the same psalm, when it is said: O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! for your magnificence is elevated above the heavens (Ps. 8:2). But even before the passion and resurrection, when the Word made flesh dwelt among us, his majesty covered the heavens, because the assumed humanity, though still mortal, surpassed the heavenly powers. And the earth is full of his praise, with the same heavenly virtues truly knowing that he was the creator of the earth, as of all creation by divinity, who then dwelled on earth through humanity: from which, at his birth, they sang: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Lk. 2:14).

God will come from Lebanon and the Holy One from the dense and dark mountain. Lebanon is the highest mountain of Phoenicia, notable for its lofty, incorruptible, and aromatic trees, from which the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem was also made, as Scripture testifies; hence in the Scriptures, sometimes even the temple itself is designated by the name of Lebanon. Hence, for instance, Zechariah speaks about the coming of the Chaldean army against it: "Open, O Lebanon, your gates, and let fire consume your cedars" (Zech. XI, 1). Therefore, God comes from Lebanon, because the Lord appearing in the flesh sowed the first seeds of the Gospel in that very temple, and from there filled the entire world with the seed of His faith and truth. Hence, Isaiah says, "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah II, 3). He sprinkled there the first seeds of faith not only through the apostles, who, filled with the Holy Spirit after His passion and resurrection, laid the first foundations of the Church there by preaching, whose sound then went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Psalm XVIII, 5); but also through Himself, first in that very temple giving testimony of the faith to be had in Him, sitting in the midst of the doctors when He was of tender age, asking them questions as a mere boy, but answering those teaching as God of eternal majesty; where, being sought and found by His parents, He Himself indicated that He was God and God's Son by saying: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke II, 49). However, it should be noted that in the Hebrew truth this verse is as follows: "God will come from Teman," that is, from the South, which has an easy sense according to the letter, because Bethlehem, where the Lord was born, is situated to the south of Jerusalem. And when He was brought to Jerusalem by His parents on the fortieth day of His birth, that an offering might be made for Him according to the law, God indeed came from the South. And he says, "the Holy One from the dense and dark mountain." The Holy One, the same Mediator of God and men, who is plainly called God above, of whom Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mother said: "Therefore, the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke I, 35). The mountain from which the same Holy One is sung to come can be understood to mean the kingdom of the Jews, from which He took His fleshly origin. From which also Daniel saw the stone cut out without hands, that is, Christ begotten without the work of a man, who crushing the kingdoms of the world, would fill the whole world with the glory of His name (Dan. II, 45). This mountain is rightly called dense and dark; for it has many fruitful trees, that is, many holy men laden with the fruits of virtue, who both instruct our hunger with the sweetest taste of their doctrine, and with the shade of their intercession protect our frailty from being dried up by the heat of tribulations from the inner greenness of love. This fits figuratively with what the apostle Peter, certainly a distinguished tree of this mountain, not only refreshes the hungry and thirsty for righteousness with the fruit of doctrine but also saves the sick with the shadow of his body (Acts V, 15). These holy and sublime men can also be designated by the term "South," from whom God is said to come, on account of the fervent love with which they are usually enflamed in the Lord and the doctrine with which they enlighten men, from which South God came because He deigned to be incarnate from such men. From which South God comes daily, when, reading or hearing their words or examples, the love or knowledge of truth is more perfectly generated in our hearts.

Horns are in His hands. There the power of His glory was confirmed. He calls the transverse wood of the cross horns, which He held fixed by the hands, so that by overcoming all death in this manner of death, He might thus confirm the power of His glory in the hearts of the chosen, so that they are not retarded from His love by any terrors or blandishments; also promising them the glory of future incorruption, through which the last enemy, death, will be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26). Finally, on the holy mountain, with Peter, James, and John present, His splendor shone like light; and they were indeed delighted by the sight of this splendor, but nonetheless, it was proven how fragile and weak they still were at the time of His passion: but after He accepted the horns of the cross in His hands, there the power of His glory was confirmed: so that it could not be driven away from the hearts of the faithful by terrors, nor wounds, nor even death itself. The kingdoms of this world can be suggested in the horns, as is the custom of the prophets. (The sublimity of the human mind, whether good or reprobate, can be designated by the term horns). And horns are in the hands of Christ, because He Himself is the King of kings and the Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15). Horns are in His hands, to humble one, and exalt another, He breaks all the horns of sinners, which are foolishly exalted, and the horns of the just are exalted, namely desires devoted to God, by which they strive to overcome all contests of the impious and vices.

The word will go before his face, and it went out into the fields. Before the Lord came in the flesh, the words of the prophets preceded, bearing witness to his coming; and these same words went out into the fields when, as the apostles preached, they were spread throughout the whole world: not only in the prophetic writings did the word of preaching precede the Lord, but also in the apostles, when they evangelized the world about the now accomplished advent of Christ in the flesh, the word went before his face, because obviously the doctrine of truth first reaches the ears of those who are to be taught, and then the faith and understanding of the Word enlightens hearts and makes them worthy for God to inhabit; this is typologically designated in the Gospel, when the Lord himself sent disciples to preach in every city and place to which he himself was about to come: which we see done in the same order even to this day; for the Lord follows his preachers, because the word of the teacher must first be heard, and thus the light of truth is established in the heart of the listener, whence it is aptly added:

I have seen His ways of eternity beyond the labors. The ways are of the temporality of the Lord, by which He came into the world, so that He might appear to men for a time; but His ways of eternity, by which, leaving the world bodily, He returned to the Father, with whom He remained eternally, even while He conversed temporally in the world: indeed, He longed for these ways, when approaching His passion, He said to the Father: I have glorified You on the earth, I have finished the work which You gave Me to do (John 17:4). These are concerning the ways of assumed temporality, and immediately concerning the ways of eternity He added: And now, Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was (John 17:5). The prophet saw these ways of eternity beyond the labors, namely of the incarnation and passion, of which it was said above: God shall come from Lebanon, or from the South, and: Rays are in His hands, and other such things, which are found many in this same song. Of these labors the Apostle says: He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8); and immediately concerning the ways of eternity, which the Mediator of God and men deserved through these labors, he added: Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and under the earth; and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-10); and because through these same labors of His, and through these same ways of His eternity, when, having completed the labors of His passion, He returned to the Father, not only the people of the Jews but also of the nations were to come to eternal rest, aptly it is added: