Jerome

"The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri." LXX similarly. The word of the Lord, which was in the beginning with God the Father, and the Word was God, came to Hosea the son of Beeri, so that he too might make God known as a prophet, with the Savior saying: "If those to whom the word of God came are called gods, and the Scripture cannot be broken: 'Whom the Father has sanctified' and sent into the world, you say I blaspheme because I said, 'I am the Son of God' " (John 10:35-36). Just as God makes gods and stands in the assembly of gods, yet judges among the gods (Psalm 81); and since he himself is the true light that illuminates every person coming into this world (John 1), he speaks to the apostles: "You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), so too the Savior himself makes his prophet a savior. "Hosea," in our language, means "savior": a name that was also given to Joshua, the son of Nun (Numbers 14), before God changed his name. For he is not called "Ause," as is read wrongly in Greek and Latin texts, as it is completely incomprehensible; but "Hosea," that is, "savior," to which is added the Lord's name, so that "savior of the Lord" might be said. Therefore, this savior is the son of "Beeri," which means "my well," which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had dug, and the foreigners had always tried to fill with rubbish. (Gen. 16, 21, 26, 46). Between a well and a lake, that is, a cistern, the difference is that a well has constantly flowing water, and it springs from a living source. The cistern, which cools, possesses its external and adventitious waters. From this, God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah: "They have deserted me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, which cannot contain water" (Jeremiah II, 13). Concerning this fountain, the psalmist proclaims to God: "With you is the fountain of life, and in your light, we will see light" (Psalm XXXV, 10). From this, some think that "Beeri" means "my light"; but the correct translation is superior.


"In the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, Ezechias, kings of Judah; and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas, king of Israel." The Septuagint in the same way. Azarias, who is also called Uzziah, from the offspring of David, reigned over the two tribes which were called Judah in Jerusalem for fifty-two years, then his son Joatham succeeded him in the kingdom, who also reigned for sixteen years. After him, his son Achaz reigned for similarly sixteen years. After Achaz, his son Ezechias reigned for twenty-nine years, in whose sixth year the sixteen tribes which were called Israel were captured by Salmanasar, the king of the Chaldeans, and placed in the mountains of the Medes. Since it is clear, with Hosea, Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah and Micah prophesying, who were his contemporaries, that the kingdom of the ten tribes was limited, which from the first king Jeroboam to the last Hosea remained for two hundred and fifty years. But at that time, when Uzziah began to reign over Judah, Jeroboam, the great-grandson of Jehu, was reigning over Israel, to whom the Lord had promised that his offspring would reign up to the fourth generation, because he had struck down two wicked kings of Judah and Israel. We say this so that we may briefly show it to you, Hosea the prophet, both before the captivity of Israel and after its captivity, and that he foresaw the future and announced the coming of the light and rewove the past for the improvement of Judah; which we will try to approve in the very prophet according to history. Uzziah means "the strength of the Lord"; Jotham, "the completion and perfection of the Lord"; Ahaz, "virtue"; Hezekiah, "the Lord's empire." They ruled in the "Juda" people, whose name means "confession." Furthermore, in Israel, Jeroboam, who had made idols for himself and had been separated from God's people, reigned. Jeroboam means "chronology," that is, "temporality" or "delay." He loved the world and thought that by dwelling in it for a long time, he would have a life, delighted not in the future but the present, that was never going to be eternal.

The beginning of the speech of the Lord (in Greek "Domini" and in the Vulgate "Domino") is in Hosea. LXX: "The beginning of the word of the Lord to Hosea." As we said above, they are preferred to other prophets in the title, Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, and Ezechias, to whom they prophesied while ruling. Therefore, he now says that among all these, the Lord spoke first in Hosea, and later to the others. But to speak of the Lord in Hosea is one thing, and to speak to Hosea is another. In Hosea, Hosea himself does not speak, but through Hosea to others; but speaking to Hosea, it is meant to bring the discourse to him. Others do not want Hosea to have been the first of all the prophets, from the fact that it is said: "The beginning of the Lord's speaking in Hosea." But it is shown that these which follow, the Lord first spoke to Hosea.

"And the Lord said to Hosea: Go, take to thee a wife of fornications." LXX: "And the Lord said to Hosea: Go, take to thee a wife of fornication." The Hebrew word Zanunim does not mean "a harlot" or "fornication", as many believe, but rather means "many fornications". From which it is shown that the woman whom the prophet takes as wife has not committed fornication once, but many times, so that the more sordid she is, the more patient the prophet will be who has taken such a wife. And what is added is:

"And ((Vulg. "And make for yourself")) children of fornication: for the land which fornicated shall fornicate with the Lord." LXX: "And the children of fornication: for the land which fornicated shall fornicate with the Lord after." By common consent is understood: Take a wife of fornications for yourself, and take children of fornications for yourself. Both can be understood, that the former harlots receive as their sons those begotten of fornication, and he himself begets sons from a harlot, who are called sons of fornication, because they were begotten of a harlot. The prophet is not to be blamed, as we can see from the narrative, if he converts a harlot to chastity, but rather is to be praised for making good out of evil. For he who is good does not himself become defiled by joining with evil, but he who is evil is transformed into good if he follows the example of the good. From this we understand that the prophet did not lose his chastity by having sexual relations with a whore, but it was rather the harlot who gained chastity she did not have before. Especially since the blessed Hosea did not do this for the sake of lust or pleasure or by his own choice, but rather obeyed God's command, so that we may approve what we read in a carnal sense as having been done spiritually in God. He who received the Synagogue, that is, the people of the Jews serving fornication and lust. To which the Lord speaks through Ezekiel: 'And you, harlot, hear the word of the Lord: For her breasts were broken in Egypt' (Ezech. XXIII, 3); and she dallied in blood, and had been defiled even to the crown, so that there was no part of her body and limbs that did not have a stain of deformity. The Lord covered such a one with a mantle, and joined her to His embrace, giving her honey and oil and meal to eat, and clothed her in the most precious garments, put jewel ornaments on her neck, adorned her ears with gold and precious stones, also provided bracelets for her arms to use in good works. Nevertheless, despite the contempt for the generosity and kindness of the man, who forgot his previous wickedness, the lovers of Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Egyptians, who are of great flesh, followed him. We have spoken in the preface about the type of the Savior and the Church, that he took for himself a fornicating wife who had previously served idols. But if anyone, especially among the contentious gentiles, refuses to receive the figurative saying and mocks the prophet joined to a fornicator, let us oppose him with what Greece often praises and the schools of the philosophers sing. By what reasoning do they praise the highly educated man Xenocrates, who made the most luxurious young Polemon obey wisdom among female musicians and flute players and shameless women, and transformed the most disgraceful young man into the wisest of philosophers? Why should they raise Socrates to heaven, who led Phaedo, from whom Plato's book is named, from the brothel, serving the lust of many because of the cruelty and greed of his master, to the Academy? And whatever they may have replied concerning the teachers of philosophy, we refer to the defense of the Prophet. We have said these things against the pagans and those like them. However, let us briefly explain to our own, who still wish to accept the truth, from the fact that it is said: 'Because the land sinned, it will be fornicating with the Lord,' that not so much the prophet was joined to a harlot as the whole race of men turned away from the society of the Lord. It is also possible from that which is unadded, "all the earth," to now accept Judaea, or properly Samaria and Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which at the time when these things were said, had departed from the Lord.

"And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived and bare him a son. And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel." LXX: "And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezreel: for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Judah, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease." The prophets promised so many things about the coming of Christ and the calling of the Gentiles in the centuries that followed, that they may not neglect the present time, lest they seem to play with uncertain and future things and not to teach about those things which are pressing, even when the sermon is called for another purpose. Therefore, Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, who is taken as wife by Hosea, conceives by him and bears him a son named "Jezreel," which means "God sows," and Jehu, or, as the bad mistake has it, "Judah," overthrows the kingdom in vengeance for his blood. And referring to the calling of the nations, it should be attributed to the time under which he is remembered as having begotten a son. And lest I delay the reader's avidity with a long discourse, these two women, of whom one is called Homer and is a whore and bears three children, first Jezreel, the second a girl named Without Mercy, and the third a male who is also called "Not My People." And the other woman, who is hired for fifteen silver shekels, a homer of barley and half a homer of barley, and is called an adulteress, is referred to Israel and Judah, that is, to the ten tribes that were in Samaria under King Jeroboam, who was of Ephraim, and to Judah, who reigned in Jerusalem of the line of David. These are two women, who are said to have wings of a Zachariah hen, or a vulture, or a heron, and to go to the land of Sennaar, where Babylon was founded. These women are signified under the name of two sisters, Oola and Ooliba: they are represented by two rods, which Ezekiel joins into one rod. And because we write commentaries, not lengthy books, reserving proper explanations for each chapter in its proper place, let us now only discuss the present chapter. "Gomer" means "completed," that is, "consummated," and "perfect." Some believe it signifies "breastplates." There are those who suspect it means "measure," or "bitterness," who would say rightly, if it did not have the letter Gimel. "Debelaim" means "palaces," of which there is a great abundance in Palestine, and which the prophet Isaiah orders to be applied to the ulcer of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 38). But it is a mass of fat figs, which are shaped like sides, so that they remain uninjured for a long time, trampled and squeezed. Therefore, Israel, consummated in fornication and perfected as a daughter of pleasure, seems sweet and pleasant to those who enjoy her, and is received as a type of the Lord and Saviour's wife by Hosea; and from her is born the first son of God, that is, "Jezreel"; but it is also the metropolis of ten tribes, in which Naboth was killed ("Al." Nabutha), for whose blood Jehu was raised up, who destroyed the house of Ahab and Jezebel. But Jehu himself, the avenger of the blood of the righteous, entered by the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nabath, who made Israel fornicate and set up golden calves in Dan and in Bethel (III Kings 12), and his kingdom was said to be overthrown; of which Jeroboam's great-grandson, Hosea, began to prophesy: and when he died, his son Zacharias succeeded to the throne; whom Shallum, generated from another family, killed in the sixth month of his reign (IV Kings 15). For what reason it is now said: "Still a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrael," that is, the slaughter of my people, on the royal house of Jehu, who at that time ruled over Israel. It is not surprising if the house of Jehu is overturned when even the kingdom of the house of Israel, that is, the ten tribes, will be completely destroyed not many years after. From Zachariah, the son of Jeroboam, whose ancestor was Jehu, to the ninth year of Hosea, under whom the ten tribes were taken captive, forty-nine years are reckoned. And with the killing of Zachariah, who was the last of the line of Jehu, the kings of Assyria immediately captured Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, which were beyond Jordan; and then many cities of Samaria, and then all of Naphtali, and finally all the remaining tribes. In the Vulgate Edition, "Jehu" is read as "Judah": but this seems to me not the fault of the seventy interpreters, but the ignorance of the scribes who, not knowing the more familiar term "Jehu:", wrote "Judah." However, the type of God's seed and the revenge of His blood is related to the Lord's passion, because of which both the house of Judah and the kingdom of all Israel are said to be overthrown.

"And in that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel." LXX likewise. When I avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will destroy the kingdom of Israel, with the Assyrians prevailing, then in that day, and at that time, I will break all the power of the army of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel. Above we have said that Jezreel, which is now near Maximianopolis, was the metropolis of the kingdom of Samaria, near which are the widest fields, and the valley of vast emptiness, which extends for more than ten thousand paces. In this conflict undertaken, Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which on account of Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim, who caused the first schism among the people, were called Ephraim, was slain by the Assyrians. Sometimes, on account of Joseph, the father of Ephraim, it is called Joseph; sometimes, Samaria, which itself also was the metropolis of the ten tribes, which later was called Augusta by Augustus Caesar, that is, Σεβαστὴ, in which the bones of John the Baptist were buried. After the division therefore of the two and ten tribes, the ancient name of Israel remained in the ten tribes, owing to the great part of the multitude which followed Jeroboam. And on account of the tribe of Judah, which reigned in Jerusalem, the others that were called tribes, Judas. And at the same time the types explain the truth. For just as on account of the blood of Naboth, which was shed in Jezreel, the house of Ahab was destroyed, that Elijah's prophecy might be fulfilled: so on account of the blood of the true Jezreel, that is, of the seed of God, the kingdom of the Jews was destroyed. In all the prophets, but especially in Hosea, the ten tribes are referred to as heretics, whose multitude is greatest. However, the two tribes called Judah possess the person of the Church, which was under the rule of the Davidic dynasty (who "are ruling"). Therefore, the bow of the heretics, of which it is written, "The sons of Ephraim, being armed and shooting with the bow, turned back in the day of battle" (Ps. 77:9), will be broken in the valley of the seed of God, which is humbled and sensed earthly things.

"And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said to her: Call her name without mercy, for I will not add any more to show mercy to the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them. And I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and I will save them in the Lord their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battles, nor by horses, nor by horsemen." LXX: "And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said to her: Call her name, Without mercy: for I will now no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them. But I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and will save them by the Lord their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen." After the bow of Israel was broken and shattered in the valley of Jezreel, and the kingdom of the ten tribes was abandoned, so that they were led into captivity, no longer was Jezreel, that is, the seed of God, nor a son of the male sex born: but a daughter, that is, a fragile sex, subject to the contempt of the victors, and called Without mercy. Therefore she was taken captive, because she had no mercy of God. And the indignation of the Lord must be considered. So that it will never be said to the house of Israel to have mercy on them anymore, but to erase them from his eternal memory; since they serve until today the kings of Persia, and their captivity has never been released. But the house of Judah promises mercy, saying that they will be saved in the Lord their God or in Himself speaking; or the Father will save in the Son according to what is written: "The Lord rained from the Lord" (Gen. XIX, 24) For He saved them ("alt." also) when Israel was handed over to Assyrians, from the hand of Sennacherib, not with bow and sword and war and a multitude of horses, but with His strength, when He sent the Angel and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand from the Assyrian army in one night (IV Reg. XIX). According to the pattern, we say that those who are called the Seed of God, because of His blood, are without mercy, and have dared to say: "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt. 27:25), have been serving the Romans until now. But the house of Judah, namely those from the Jews who have confessed the Lord, have been saved not in the strength of an army, but in the preaching of the Gospel. We interpret this in Israel and Judah both according to history and according to pattern, and we refer them to the councils of heretics and to the Church of the Lord and Saviour, which, having been abandoned by them without mercy and losing the kingdom, has overcome by the power of their God.

"And she that was without mercy hath taken him away and conceived and brought forth a son. And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. " (The Septuagint likewise) And he who was called the seed of God, turned into a woman and, on account of the weakness of his strength and the offence against God, was led captive, not mentioned as having been weaned, but as having been weaned: for he had already lost his strength as a man. He who is weaned departs from his mother and does not feed on a parent’s milk, but is sustained by external nourishment. Thus Israel, having been cast out by the Lord, and surrounded by the narrowness of captivity, and sustained with impure foods in Babylon, is called not the people of God, and an eternal sentence of a foreign people is carried, so that it is said, “You are not my people,” and will be cast off forever. Which we can rightly understand in all the people of the Jews who, on account of the offense of the seed of God, were handed over to captivity, lost the kingdom and the province, and are called not the people of God; and also in the person of heretics. But if any contentious interpreter will not receive these things which we have said, but will understand that Gomer, the daughter of Deblaim, first bore male and female children, then male again, desiring the Scripture to sound what is read, let him answer how in Ezekiel he explains that where the Lord commands to bear the iniquities of the house of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, and to sleep forever for three hundred and ninety days on one side of the left, although in the LXX they are written as one hundred and ninety, and to sleep so as never to wake up or change sides unless, perhaps, he satisfies his hunger by opening his eyes a little to take the most sordid food of bread baked from wheat, barley, beans, lentils, and millet in human excrement. For the nature of things does not allow that anyone among men should always sleep hidden for three hundred and ninety days in one place. And he says again: 'You will bear the iniquities of the house of Judah, and you will sleep on your right side for forty days.' But these days are calculated ((or were calculated)) as years, during which Israel and Judah are held by a very long siege and captivity, so that, bound and immobilized, they cannot turn from one side to the other. If it cannot approve of these things and others like them which we read in Holy Scripture, but argues that they signify something else, then this harlot and other adulterous women, who were either joined to prophets or were saved by a prophet, indicate not a shameful union of lust but the sacraments of the future.

"And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that cannot be measured, nor numbered: and it shall be in the place where it shall be said unto them, Ye are not my people: there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel." We read of the rejection of the ten tribes, and of the unmeasurable Israel, no longer the people of God, subject to perpetual indignation. Now we learn how the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel are equally gathered together, and place themselves under one head or principality ("Al." beginning), and ascend from the earth, and in the place where previously it was said, "Not my people," they shall be called the sons of the living God, and this will happen because the day of Jezreel is great. To the doubting and wavering in various opinions, the statement of the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans occurs: "And if God, wishing to show his wrath and make his power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy he prepared for glory, whom he also called us, not only from among the Jews, but also from the Gentiles." As Hosea says, "I will call those not my people, my people, and those not beloved, beloved." And they will be called the sons of the living God in the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people." But Isaiah cries out for Israel: "If the number of the sons of Israel were like the sand of the sea, the remainder will be saved." Because the word is ending and shortening in righteousness, "for the Lord will shorten the word upon the earth, as Isaiah foretold" (Cap. I, 9): "Unless the Lord Sabaoth had kept us a seed, we would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah. What then shall we say: That the Gentiles who did not follow righteousness have attained righteousness?" But righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, following the law of righteousness, did not come to the law of righteousness" (Rom. IX, 22 seqq.). Therefore, the blessed Apostle, taking testimony from the prophet Hosea and expounding upon the calling of the Gentiles, and the faith of those from the Jews who wished to believe, cut away all difficulty of interpretation for us, affirming that it was completed in the times of Christ, that is, that twelve tribes would be chosen in Israel, that is, all the people of the Jews, and in Judah those who confess Jesus as Lord from among the Gentiles. But if someone alien to the faith of Christ, and not receiving the authority of the New Testament, but responding from the number of circumcision, should say that the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel sound twelve tribes and ten, about which we have often spoken, and in this giving their hand, we will show nothing of our faith being harmed. "But after the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, dispersed throughout the whole world, and the multitude of the people shall have overcome every account, then shall Israel, who is even now captive and before was said to be without mercy and not my people, with the two tribes, that is, Juda and Benjamin, of which a great part believed in Christ, have permission to come to an agreement, so that faith may unite those who were separated in body, and they may have one head and prince, of whom Ezechiel wrote: 'And one prince shall be in the midst of them, my servant David, and they shall rise from the dead,' that is, Juda and Israel, who were dead in unfaithfulness." (Ezechiel 34:24) And all these things will happen, because the day of the seed of God, which is called "Christ," is great. From this it is clear that the blood of Naboth ((or Nabutha)) preceded in Jezrael, so that the truth would be fulfilled in Christ. For in this, and not in that, the great day of Jezrael is, of which it is said: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice therein." (Psalm 118:24) The third interpretation that we have undertaken, is to be explained as referring to heretics for Israel, and to men of the Church for Judah, and means that, after the Lord shall have come in His glory to reign, those who were once called not His people shall be called the sons of the living God, when they shall have been united with the Jews, that is, with the Church of God, and shall have one Head, Christ, and shall have ascended from the earth, that is, from earthly senses and the humility of the letter, and shall have received the great day of the seed of God. For not having mercy", that is, "without pity", is reported in some copies as "not beloved". But the more true copies have "without mercy", especially because God makes a distinction between Israel, whom he does not have mercy on, and says "But I will have mercy on the house of Judah.

"Tell your brothers and sisters, my people, that they have attained mercy." LXX: "Say to your brother, my people, and to your sister, having obtained mercy." Because the day of Jezrael is great, on which Judas and Israel will have one prince, and it will not be said of Israel, "you are not my people," but on the contrary they will be called the children of the living God. Therefore, O men of the tribe of Judah, do not despair of the ten tribes' salvation, but daily provoke them to repentance by speech, prayer, vow and letters because they are your brothers and sisters: brothers because they are called "my people," sisters because they are called "having obtained mercy." Otherwise: You who believe in Christ, being both from the Jews and from the Gentiles, say to those who have been cut off and to the former people, "You are my people," because they are your brothers, and "having obtained mercy" because they are your sisters. "For when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, then all Israel shall be saved." (Romans 11:25). The same thing is prescribed to us, that we do not completely despair of heretics, but that we provoke them to penance: and we desire their salvation with the affection of brotherhood.

"Judge your mother, judge her, for she is not my wife and I am not her husband: let her remove her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts: lest perhaps I strip her naked, and make her as on the day of her birth." This is a message directed towards the Israelite people, that is, the ten tribes. Now begins the second chapter, and they are commanded to their sons, that is, the people, to judge against their mother, who bore them, who, becoming a harlot's wife, did not leave previous manners, and again committed fornication with her lovers. And observe the mercy of the husband. She has already been divorced, already rejected, already he has said to her: "This is not my wife, and I am not her husband:" yet he commands his sons, that they should not speak to the wife whom he dismissed, but to their mother who bore them. But let those who provoke to repentance speak, so as to remove fornication from their face, and their adultery from the midst of their breasts. She is a harlot, who lies with many. An adulteress is she who, deserting one man, joins herself to another. Both of these are a Synagogue, which if it remains in fornication and adultery, God will take away from her the clothes and ornaments He had given her. Of whom Ezekiel writes: "In the day when you were born, your navel was not cut, neither were you washed with water for your health; you did not rub yourself with salt, or wrap yourself in swaddling clothes. And when I passed by thee, I saw thee wallowing in thy blood (Ezek. 16:4-5)." And after a little while: "I clothed thee with broidered work and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck." These things were given to her by her exceedingly lavish husband when he found her in Egypt, lusting after idolatry and spreading her legs to all. And now he threatens, if she does not return to her husband, she will become without God and without a husband, just as she once was in Egypt. Let it suffice rarely to have warned us that what has been said agrees with both the Jews denying Christ, and the heretics abandoning the faith of the Lord: whose fornication is properly among the breasts, and is situated in the craft of idols and various doctrines in the heart, who will return on the day of their birth, so that if they do not do penance, they will be compared to the heathen.

And I will make it like a wilderness, and set it up like a desert land, and slay it with thirst" (Jeremiah 50:12). The Septuagint translates it as: "And I will make it as a desert, and I will set it up as a land without water, and I will kill it with thirst." If they do not want to turn to better things, I will do to them what I did in the wilderness, so that those led into captivity may fall in a foreign land, patiently enduring thirst for all good things, and unable to return to their homeland. Or certainly, let them hear in the Gospel: "Your house will be left desolate to you" (Matt. XXIII). And the Lord will not send him a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water; but a hunger to hear the word of the Lord (Amos. VIII). About whom Isaiah also speaks: "They shall be like a garden without water" (Isaiah I, 30). Heretics who are rejected by the Lord, if they do not return to their former home, suffer such scarcity of all things that even what they seem to possess falsely will be reduced to nothing.

"And I will not have pity on her sons, for they are the sons of fornication, because their mother has committed fornication: she is confounded that conceived them, because she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me bread, and water, and clothes, and oil, and drink." LXX: "And I will not have mercy on her sons, because they are the children of fornication. For their mother has committed fornication. She that conceived them is covered with shame, for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink." I will do more for the one to whom I spoke, not my wife, and I am not your husband, and I will make her like a wilderness, and make her like a barren land. "For when I brought her out of Egypt, I killed their parents and their children entered into the land of promise. But now the children of a harlot mother will perish with their mother the prostitute, since they are sons of fornication and are born of evil. Of them it is said in the Gospel: 'You brood of vipers' (Matthew 3:7). They have come to such shamelessness that they are being compared to the "face of a harlot," and they are disgraced. " (Jeremiah 3:3) Is it not a stubborn and harlot's boldness that one should boast in their own wrongdoing and say, "I will follow my lovers"; I will go to the idols that have provided me with food and clothing. All that is described by the prophetic work, the Jews have received spiritually from the Lord. And since they denied the Son of God, choosing instead Barabbas, a robber and inciter of sedition, and crucifying the Son of God (John 18). Therefore, even today demons follow and refer God's blessings to those who have lost their souls to their own cults. The heretics have bread and water, whose bread is sadness, and their water is muddy, which suffocates and kills the baptized. They also have wool from diseased sheep, and flax that remains black, and oil, of which the prophet says: "The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head" (Ps. CLX, 5), and the drink of the waters of Egypt, of which Jeremiah cries out: "What to you is the way of Egypt, that you would drink the water of Geon" (Jeremiah II, 18)? And he said: "Why do you want to drink water from the rivers of the Assyrians? We briefly went through everything, so that we can move on to the rest."

Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will fence it with a wall, and she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now. " The LXX: "Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop up her paths: and she shall not find her way. And she shall pursue her lovers, and shall not take them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now." The prostitute said: "I will follow after my lovers, who gave me abundance of all things. The Lord answered: "I will hedge thy way with thorns, or with stakes, that thou mayest not be able to go where thou desirest, and I will set a wall, or a rampart, and thou shalt not find the paths which thou hast trodden so often, that thou mayest apprehend those whom thou followedst with such great eagerness, so that, obliged by necessity of affairs thou mayest return to thy husband, and say that from the Gospel: 'How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I perish here with hunger. I will arise and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am not worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.'" From which we understand that the providence of God often happens to us as evils, so that we may not have those things which we desire, and oppressed with various calamities and miseries of this age, we may be compelled to return to the service of God. But let us understand that the lovers of Jerusalem and the Jewish people, according to the history of that time, include the Assyrians and Chaldeans and Egyptians and other nations, with whose idols they committed fornication, from whom in times of war, and from whom they vainly hoped for help in pressing evils. These lovers, according to spiritual understanding, follow heretics, from whom they are often deserted, and return to the bosom of Mother Church burdened with the weight of their misfortunes. For through all scourges and torments, Israel is taught.

And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal." LXX: "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver: but she turned these things which were made for her into silver and gold for Baal." She responded to her lovers, for she said: "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink, all of which she had received, and used in the service of idolatry. But it is bread and wine, which strengthens and makes the heart of man happy (Psalm 103), and oil that illuminates every person coming into this world (John 1), and silver of which we often say: "The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times" (Psalm 12: 6) . And gold of which we read: "Though ye have liad among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with the yellow gold." (Psalm 68: 13), is turned into idols, and made "Baal," which is interpreted as "higher and devouring:" while either thinking that they have more important doctrines than the Church, or are devoured in the knowledge of false opinion itself. But that which according to the letter Jerusalem has in abundance - gold and silver and all wealth - will be for the idols Baal demon of the Sidonians, or, as the better opinion holds, of the Babylonians, since he is called "Bel," as Ezekiel expounds more fully in his book, and as the chorus of the prophets bear witness.

"Therefore, I will return and take my grain in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will free my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace." LXX: "Therefore I will return and take my wheat in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will take away my garments, and my coverings, not to cover her nakedness." A heavier punishment is when, in the time of harvest and the expected vintage, the crops are taken and the wine, and in a sense the tried ones are taken from the hands. But if in the time of harvest and of the harvest moon, when the earth is fruitful with new crops after the passing of the past barrenness, there is a shortage of all things, what should we think of the remaining season of the year, when the old crops are preserved? And wool and flax, that is, clothing and linens, are released, giving no more coverings to a harlot: so that, by the help of God, she might be stripped; and so that she might depart from the protection of all angels from Him. Therefore, the apostle also says that the creature is freed from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. (Romans 8) Many received gold and silver for wisdom and eloquence, from which they made a seven-branched candlestick of pure gold, and a golden table of the proposition, and a mercy seat, and Cherubim shining with golden radiance, and silver columns, and the wheat of the word of God, and the wine of the joy of the Holy Spirit: also the vestments and linens with which the believers were clothed in Christ: all of which they turned into the worship of idols, composing various doctrines of errors, and deceiving others as they were deceived. Which God will take away all things, so that those who had not perceived the giver in abundance may perceive him in scarcity.

"And now I will reveal her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand: and I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times. And I will destroy her vines, and her fig-trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her." LXX: "And now I will reveal her uncleanness in the sight of her lovers; and no one shall take her out of my hand. And I will turn away all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her solemnities. And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me. And I will make her a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her." What follows: "The birds of the sky and the reptiles of the earth," must be marked with an obelus. Also, concerning the place that is called Jar in Hebrew, and from which comes the name of the city Cariath Jarim, which means "the city of the forests," the LXX translated it "testimony." The similarity of the letters Res and Daleth are false. For if the Res is read as Daleth, it is said "testimony," given that Jod letter does not precede. Therefore, having been freed from clothing and underwear, lest they should no longer cover the shame of the whore, all the foulness of Jerusalem, or the foolishness through which the foulness had been performed, will be revealed in the sight of her lovers, so that they may scorn openly that which they covertly desired. And when she is handed over to her lovers, the Assyrians or demons, to whom both she and the Assyrians serve, no one, he says, will be able to take her from my hand because of her proven demonic weakness, namely that they who had received all good things are not able to liberate those oppressed by evils. But being handed over to the servitude of Babylon, she will not be able to celebrate the three solemnities of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. She will not observe the new moons, that is, the kalends, nor the Sabbaths with joy, nor all the festivals which are comprehended in one name. The vineyard, fig, and abundance of all things will also be corrupted: understand joy in the vineyard, sweetness and pleasantness in the fig, which are taken away by the evils of the most difficult servitude: and they will be taken away for this reason, because they were not given to themselves by God as a spouse, but they were considered as a prostitute by their lovers for the payment of lust. Then it will by no means have fruiting trees, but all will turn into a wooded thicket. And because it had once taken a metaphor from the forests, it ends in the rest, calling enemies, from whom all things are being devoured, beasts. Unhappy Judea suffered this both in history and metaphor; all of its ugliness was revealed to the eyes of the gentiles, and no one was able to rescue it from the hands of God. All ceremonies ceased, festivity was turned to mourning: everything which it thought would be given to it by demons, it now recognizes was taken away on account of the offense to God. First, Assyrians and Chaldeans devoured it, then the Medes and Persians and Macedonians; at the end, the most savage beast, the Roman Empire, tore it to pieces, whose name is hushed in Daniel so that greater fear may be increased for those who are to be devoured. Refer what we have said about Judaea to the heretics, who promising doctrines and knowledge at first, are abandoned by God after leaving the Church, and all their shame is placed in front of those whom they had previously deceived, and given to beasts which the prophet avoids, saying: "Do not give the soul confessing to you to beasts" (Psalm 73, 19), and by their bites they are abandoned.

"And I will visit upon her the days of the Baals, wherein she burnt incense to them, and adorned herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers: and she forgot me, saith the Lord." LXX: "And I will take vengeance upon her during the days of the Baals, when she sacrificed to them and adorned herself with her earrings and necklaces. She went after her lovers, forgetting me," says the Lord. " Keep in mind a prostitute who is adorned with gold and gems, so that she may please her lovers, and whatever beauty she does not have by nature, she acquires through art. She had earrings, with which her ears had been adorned by the doctrine of God, and these pearls that hung from her neck, so that the bridegroom said to her as husband: 'Your neck is like a chain of gold' (Song of Solomon 1:9), before the feet of pigs, and gave holy things to dogs (Matthew 7). And what we read in Proverbs was fulfilled: 'As golden earrings and a necklace of fine gold: so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.' (Proverbs 25:12). But all this she did, that she might follow her lovers, and leave her husband. And such was the desire of pleasure and lust, that she lost all memory of her marital obligations, and forgot that she had been a wife. Therefore, on those very days on which she burned incense to the demons, she shall be visited with plagues, and shall be seized with punishments. Baal, in the singular number, and Baalim, in the plural, are names of the same idols in the masculine gender. Wherever in the end of a Hebrew word we read the syllable "im," it is plural in number and masculine in gender; but when we have "oth," it is plural in number and feminine in gender. Therefore, we understand Seraphim and Cherubim as being plural in number and masculine in gender. Sabaoth, which means "of armies," "of hosts," or "of powers," is plural in number and feminine in gender. Therefore, Baalim is also plural in number and masculine in gender, although some read the feminine gender, incorrectly, as "tai Baaleim" or "al Balim." But how the heretics deceive their lovers, and are composed in their eloquence and the structure of their words, so that they simulate lies as truth, abandon conjugal chastity, and inflame Baalim, that is, idols, which they have fashioned from their own hearts, we see every day. They do not care for rustic simplicity, which seeks not meretricious ornaments; but rather for the artful and elegant lie, so that they may please their lovers, the devils and demons.

"Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope." LXX: "Therefore, behold, I will seduce her, and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart." Because we have said "to open hope," and the Septuagint translated "to open his understanding," Symmachus interpreted it "into the door of hope," that is, "into the gateway of hope," Theodotion "to renew her patience," that is, "to open her expectation." After the disgrace of Jerusalem, or the whore of Judaea, was revealed in the eyes of her lovers, and the entire solemnity had ceased, whether drought or hail had corrupted the vineyard and fig tree, and reduced it to forests and barren trees devoured by beasts, and the Lord had inflicted torture and torment on her; for she had ignited incense for the demons of the Baals, and did not believe that she could rise from the ashes and embers anymore, then, that is, in the coming of His Son Christ, he will open up the hope of salvation and provide room for repentance, and he will speak kindly to her: for this is what "I will give her milk" means; so that, after the magnitude of punishments, he may assuage her earlier pains with the promise of prosperity. "And I will lead her," he said, "into solitude," that is, I will bring her out of hardships, just as I had led [the people] out of Egyptian slavery previously: "and I will speak to her heart" gentle words, consoling words, so that I may temper sadness with joy, according to the idiom of the Scriptures, by which words Sichem spoke to Dinah's heart (Gen. 34), and Joseph in Egypt to his sad and fearful brothers (Gen. 40), so that mourning may be changed into joy. Quod sequitur.

"And I will give him its vineyards, from the same place." Because He had previously spoken of flattery and the loneliness of those who left from Egypt, providing it as a similar example. In this example Moses and Aaron had stood as leaders of the Jews, who came from the same people. Now, He promises that he will give him the vineyards from the same place. The vineyard refers to Israel, which is attested by Scripture in both the Old Testament and the New: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel" (Isaiah 5:7) and "You brought a vine out of Egypt" (Psalm 80:8). And in the Gospel (Matt. XXI). The father of the family leased his vineyard and did not receive its fruits. And after his son was killed, he leased it to other vinedressers. Therefore, this prophetic saying promises that the leaders of this vineyard, going out from the nations and captives of the enemies or vices, themselves are of the race of Jews, that is, apostles: and the place of tumult and the valley of turmoil, for this is what "Achor" means, is changed into the gate of hope, or to open up hope and patience, which is why he endured punishments and torments, so that through them he could attain prosperity. But the valley called "Achor," in which Achan was killed for stealing those things which had been consecrated to God, is interpreted as "trouble" and "tumult": and some think that it means διαστροφὴ, that is, "perversity," Jesus himself interpreting when he spoke to Achan: "Because you have troubled us, the Lord shall trouble you in this day" (Joshua VII, 23). Hence that place was called Emec Achor, that is, "the valley of trouble." At the same time, we understand in this that at the beginning of the Promised Land near Jericho, when the people came out of the wilderness because of the Jordan, the sorrow was changed into joy with the first victory of the Israelites. There hope was opened where there had been despair: so that, with these punished who have sinned in Christ and committed sacrilege, they may be saved of those who have detested blasphemous Jews and killed them as much as they could. This circumcision and our Judaizers refer to the kingdom of a thousand years, which we see in the beginning to have been completed by the apostles, preachers and many thousands of believers from Israel, and which is fulfilled daily in those who want to believe. And what we said: "I will cherish her," and 70 translated: "I will seduce her," they refer to the time of the Antichrist: so that those who have not received the truth of Christ may receive his lie, and later, with Christ's coming, be saved.

"And he will sing there beside the days of his youth, and beside the days of his ascension from the land of Egypt." LXX: "And he shall be humbled according to the days of his infancy, and according to the days of his ascension from the land of Egypt." In the place where we have put "he will sing," and the LXX translated, "he shall be humbled," it is written in Hebrew "Anatha," which Symmachus interpreted as "he shall be afflicted," Theodotion "he shall answer," Aquila "he shall obey," that is, ὑπακούσει: we take more literally from the Hebrew, that is, "he shall sing;" so that because he had once placed the agitation and leading into the wilderness, and the vintners from the same place, and the valley of Achor, and the whole history of those leaving Egypt and going to the holy land in a brief sentence, now also he keeps the likeness of the story. Just as in that time, when they were leaving the land of Egypt and Pharaoh was submerged in the Red Sea, Mary grabbed a timbrel and, leading the others, rejoiced and said: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he is greatly glorified: horse and rider he has thrown into the sea" (Exodus 15:1): so now too, according to the days of her youth or adolescence, when she departed from the land of Egypt, let her sing and rejoice, and let her sing with the choirs of the Church about the kingdom of Christ and her salvation. And take notice that when we depart from Egypt, and pass over to better things, we are said to ascend: because Jerusalem is situated on hills, from which he who wished to descend to Jericho was wounded (Luke X). But to those who seek the aids of Egypt, that is, of this world, it is said: "Woe to them that go down into Egypt for help" (Isa. XXXI, 1). The translation of Aquila and Theodotion, one of whom put ὑπακούσει, that is, "he will hear," the other ἀποκριθήσεται, that is, "he will answer," makes it so that while some sing others answer. "But" he shall be "humbled" and "afflicted," which the LXX and Symmachus translated, does not fit the time of joy, unless perhaps it imitates Paul, who after being called an apostle, laments his ancient sins, and says that he is unworthy of the call of an apostle, because he persecuted the Church of God (I Cor. XV): so that humiliation and affliction in the conscience of past wounds, are not accepted in the pain of present evils.

And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, I will call my servant, and I will not call him any more Baalim: and I will take away the names of Baalim out of his mouth, and he shall no more remember their names." Similarly the LXX. Ninus, the son of Belus, is reported by all the Greek and Barbarian historians to have been the first who reigned over all Asia, and to have founded the city of Nineveh, called by the Hebrews Ninus, after his own name: his wife was Semiramis, of whom many and wonderful things are related; she built the walls of Babylon, as the famous poet testifies (Ovid. Metam. IV, 58), saying:

It is said that Semiramis once encircled the city with sea-fished brick.

He fought a great battle against Zoroaster, the king of the Bactrians, and achieved such glory that he referred to his father Bel as God, who is called Bel in Hebrew and in many prophets, especially in Daniel according to Theodotion, under the name of the idol of Babylon. The Sidonians and Phoenicians call him Baal ( ): for between the consonant letters Beth and Lamed, the vocal letter Ain is placed, which, according to the peculiarity of their language, is read now as "Beel," now as "Baal". Therefore even Dido, a Sidonian of royal birth, when she had received Aeneas as a guest, poured wine in this cup to Jupiter, "whom Belus and all from Belus's stock." We have learned the origin of a demon, or rather of a man consecrated into a demon: for all idols grew from the error of the dead. Let us hear the remainder: In the Hebrew and Syrian language, Baal is interpreted by "having," that is, "having." If we want to say, "having me," let us say Baali: and among both nations, they call their husbands their "Baali," that is, "my husband," which is understood as, "having me:" and it is the meaning, he who has me in marriage. The same language of the Hebrews is called "vir is": wherefore also the wife, who is taken from the man, is called in Genesis "Issa" (Gen. II, 1), as though from "vir": a woman.

Therefore, what the Lord says is this: with each word, he should be called "my husband" or "my spouse" both with Issi and Baali, however I hate the names of idols so much that even what can be said well, I do not want to be said on account of the ambiguity of the word, but to be called Issi more than Baali: lest, while speaking of one, he should remember the other, and while mentioning a husband [virum nominans], think of an idol. Forgive the obscurity which arises in three ways: either from the difficulty of the subject, or from the incompleteness of the teacher, or from the young age of the learner. For I should not make sport of the Hebrew prophet while delivering oratorical declamations, nor should I sing in the Asian style in stories and conclusions, but with your prayerful aid and incredible dedication to learning, I will reveal what is hidden. Finally, Aquila says, a diligent and curious interpreter: "He will call me his man, and he will not call me anymore having me," that is, Baal.