Jerome

(Verse 18 and following) And Babylon will be glorious among the kingdoms, renowned in the pride of the Chaldeans, just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will not be inhabited forever, nor will it be founded to generation and generation: nor will the Arabs pitch their tents there, nor will shepherds rest there: but beasts will rest there, and their houses will be filled with dragons: and ostriches will dwell there, and shaggy creatures will dance there; and owls will respond there in its houses: and sirens in the temples of pleasure. (Chapter XIV, Verse 1) The time is near for it to come, and its days will not be prolonged. LXX: And Babylon, which is called the glorious and famous city of the Chaldeans, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall not be inhabited forever, nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pass by it, nor the shepherds rest there, but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of howling creatures, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there, and the wild asses shall dwell there, and hedgehogs shall make their lodgings in their houses. He will come quickly and will not delay. The following should be noted with asterisks, because they are additions from Theodotion. Stirring up the city of confusion against the Medes, who do not consider gold as valuable, nor silver; who kill young children with arrows, and show no mercy to infants, and do not spare the eyes of their children. Once a renowned city that was proud of the Chaldeans, who are interpreted as demons, it will be overturned just as Sodom and Gomorrah were overturned; so that no trace of its former glory remains: but after the new heaven and the new earth, and the passing away of the figure of this world (I Cor. VII), the city of confusion will not be inhabited forever; and it will never regain the same state. For he will not set up there, once he has ceased to be in his former glory, his tents, which are called 'Arabs', meaning 'western' and 'evening'; so that he desires to dwell in the place he sees as deserted. However, 'Arabs' is taken in a positive sense in this context: that he always strives towards the end, and forgetting the past, extends himself towards the earlier times. Nor will shepherds rest there, who usually feed the gentle flock of the Lord in Jerusalem; but on the contrary, beasts will rest there, which the Psalmist detests, saying: 'Do not hand over the life of your confessor to the beasts' (Ps. 73, 19). For which Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion, have placed the Hebrew word Siim (). And their houses, that is, the houses of the Babylonians, will be filled with noise, that is, with sound and cries, according to the Septuagint and Theodotion; according to Aquila, with typhons, which we translate as dragons; according to Symmachus, with Oiim (), which word is contained in Hebrew. And ostriches will dwell there, a creature always desiring desolate places, about which more is written in Job: though it appears to have wings, it is not raised up higher from the earth; wherefore the Septuagint has interpreted it as sirens. However, those who are called Pilosoi in Hebrew (פִּלּוּש) were translated by Theodotion with erect and standing hairs. Symmachus and the Septuagint (LXX) translated it as demons. The Proonocentauri, whom only the LXX translated, imitating the fables of the Gentiles, who say that they were hippocentaurs, the three remaining translators put the Hebrew word יִם (Iim), which we translate as owls. But where the LXX said, 'Hedgehogs will make their dwellings in their houses,' and in Hebrew it is written תַּחֲנִים (Thannim), Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated it as sirens; signifying either some sort of animals or demons, according to the error of the Gentiles, sweetly singing and deceiving people who cannot pass by the shipwreck of this world with closed ears. Furthermore, the name onocentauri, composed of donkeys and centaurs, seems to me to signify those who in part possess something human; and again, they are drawn away from virtues and into the pleasures and filth of vices. Therefore, according to the tropology, it is said that at the end of the world, or the death of each person, all the glory and pride of the Chaldeans, and the confusion of the world, should depart from us; and thus everything should be overturned, just as God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah; and there shall no longer be a future state of this world, but it shall perish eternally. And let not the Arabs pitch their tents there, of which it is said in the sixty-seventh psalm: Scatter them that delight in war. (Psalm 68:30). Nor let the shepherds rest there, namely the angels who preside over the human race, and daily behold the face of the Father: but let the beasts and dragons rest there, and the ostriches, and the shaggy ones, and the screech owls, and the sirens, all of which beasts we understand in the likeness of angels or demons, and those to whom we are delivered for punishment. And in the houses of former pleasure, where there was joy and happiness, there will be the lamentation of howling and the mournful voice of sirens, which leads its listeners to death. But those who daily see Babylon being overthrown through holy men among those who believe in the Lord, will not be amazed that the time of judgment is imminent and the day of Babylon's destruction is not delayed; and comparing it to eternity, they will consider all length to be near. We have briefly spoken about the different species of animals, or rather monsters, in the previous book, according to a partly detailed history. It is also worth considering that after the ecclesiastical discourse and teaching of the Savior overturned the city of confusion, so that it is compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, it is not inhabited by holy men, nor do shepherds rest there, who were accustomed to feed Christ's flock. Instead, it is inhabited by beasts, and dragons, and ostriches, and hairy creatures leap about in it. For whatever the heretics speak in the synagogues of Satan, it is not the doctrine of the Lord, but the howling of demons and the hairy ones, whom Esau imitated. And the sirens rest in the temples of pleasure, who draw souls into the depths with sweet and deadly song, so that, raging in a shipwreck, they may be devoured by wolves and dogs. Therefore, the time of the ruin of the heretics is near and imminent every day, and their overthrow is not delayed.

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and will give them rest in their own land: and the stranger shall be joined with them, and shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall make them captives that had taken them, and shall rule over their oppressors. And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve: That thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and shalt say For a stranger, that is, a proselyte, they are interpreted as georas in the Septuagint, which in Hebrew is called Ger (). Hence I think also Moses' son, who was a stranger in the land, was named by his father, Gersham. (Exod. I). Therefore georas is a Hebrew word, declined according to Greek usage: although some unaware of the Hebrew language try to express a Greek etymology in it, from the fact that it has care for earthly things: for γῆ, he says, means earth, and ὤρα means care, that is, solicitude. Once again, Masal has translated the parable, which Aquila, Simmachus, and Theodotius have also translated. We have followed them and interpreted the lament as 70. However, the order is as follows: after Babylon has been deserted forever, so that it becomes a dwelling place for beasts, the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, namely the one who has overcome vices; and He will choose Israel, the one who sees God with his mind. And note the distinction of words: Jacob, who is still in struggle, will receive mercy; but Israel, who received his name after victory, is not fitted for mercy, but for rejection. He will also cause them to rest upon his land, of which the Savior speaks: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:4), and I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13). Also, the multitude of the Gentiles will be joined to the lords Jacob, who were chosen by the Apostles, and they will possess the remnants of the house of Israel and bring them to their place, so that they may dwell in their tabernacles; and the house of Israel shall possess them as servants and maidservants upon the land of the Lord. Indeed, it is advantageous for evil things to serve the good. Hence, it is said about Esau: 'You shall serve your brother.' And to Jacob: 'Your brother shall serve you.' (Genesis 27). And those who were previously deceived by sophisms will be received, and their exactors, who do all things for the sake of profit, will be reduced to servitude. But when Jacob and Israel rest from their labors, in which they had labored greatly against the world and heretics, and from their oppression and servitude, which they had previously served under malicious interpretations and false doctrines, then they will take up lamentation and parable against the king of Babylon, namely, the discourse of heretical error and confusion, and they will say the following. These Jews interpret that place in a carnal manner, because after they returned from Babylon, they will not be able to prove that it happened. For the Babylonians did not serve those who had previously captured them, nor did they possess the houses of the defeated Babylonians, nor did they have them as slaves or maidservants. Therefore, it remains that according to their fables, they think that this empire will become Roman: after they are conquered in the last times, the nations to which they were once slaves will serve them. But if those who follow the letter are deceived by false hope, who will allow them to be called Rome Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of the Roman empire?

(Verse 20) You will not have the fellowship of a putrid corpse nor be buried with them. For you have destroyed your land and killed your people. LXX: Just as a garment mixed with blood cannot be clean, neither will you be clean, for you have destroyed my land and killed my people. Because there is a significant difference between the Hebrew and LXX translations, let us discuss them separately. Like a putrid corpse, or as Aquila translated, trampled, you will not have the fellowship of burial, nor even with those whom you have killed. For you are the master, they were the disciples: and to whom more is entrusted, more is required from him. For you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people, namely those who were entrusted to you for governance. Therefore, dare to say to the Savior: All these things have been entrusted to me, and I will give them to you, if you prostrate yourself and worship me (Matt. IV, 9). However, the putrid carcass of the devil cannot doubt due to the magnitude of sins, as one who reads that sin is the foulest, with the sinner himself saying: My wounds have become rotten and have festered because of my foolishness (Psalm XXXVII, 6). On the contrary, the virtue of good odor is: from which also the love of spiritual brothers is compared to an ointment, which descended upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, and upon the edge of his garment (Psalm 132). And the bridegroom speaks to the bride: Your fragrance is sweet, and your face is lovely (Song of Songs 2:14). But how the body of the devil is spiritually trampled, the Apostle teaches us: God will quickly crush Satan under your feet (Romans 16:20). And the Lord said: I will wipe them out like the mud of the streets (Ps. XVII, 43). Because he lost the land entrusted to him, and he crushed the people committed to him, not reserving them alive for God, but preparing partners for his own tomb: therefore he will not be, nor will he be called forever the seed of the wicked. Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, this has the following meaning: O Lucifer, you who rose in the morning, when you had the works of virtue and light, you were the garment of God, and it could be said of you: clothed with light as with a garment (Ps. CIII, 2): because you have killed many with the sword, who have descended to the underworld, and you are defiled by their blood, you will not be called the garment of God, but a garment mixed with blood, not stained and polluted, so that you appear to have something clean, but completely drenched in blood. And this should be noted, that concerning the devil it is said: just as a garment mixed with blood will not be clean, so you will not be clean. Where therefore are those who grant repentance to the devil, and say that he can be cleansed? Let us not immediately embrace the heresy that asserts there are diverse natures; and that there is another which will never receive healing. For this garment is not unclean in itself, and thus was ordained by God, by which God Himself was once clothed; but because it is mixed with blood, and has polluted itself entirely with its own vice, and with added evils, it will not be clean. And therefore it will not be clean, because it has lost the earth of the Lord, killing His people, destroying the land of Judah and the land of confession, and also killing and destroying the saints. And therefore it will not remain forever. Hence it is said in the Gospel: Go into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). But just as the holy garment is of God, and the new garment, and is clothed in the robe of salvation and joy, saying: My soul shall rejoice in the Lord, for he has clothed me with the garment of salvation and has wrapped me with the robe of joy (Isaiah 61:10): so, on the other hand, the sinner, who bears the image of the old and earthly man, deserves to hear: Behold, all of you shall become like a worn-out garment, and the moth shall devour you (Isaiah 50:9). But whoever progresses in evil and does not desire to cleanse the old with newness, will be compared not to an old garment, but to the cloth of a menstruating woman, saying: We have erred, and we have all become unclean, like the cloth of a menstruating woman; all our righteousness is as the cloth of a menstruating woman.

(Verses 20-22.) Neither the Arabs will pitch their tents there, nor will shepherds rest there; instead, there will be beasts, their houses will be filled with dragons, and ostriches will dwell there, and hairy creatures will leap about. And owls will answer in her buildings, and sirens in the temples of pleasure. Babylon will be so devastated and deserted that it won't even be useful for pastures of cattle and flocks. For the Arabs and Saracens will not pitch their tents there, nor will shepherds rest after the footsteps of their weary flocks; but among the walls and narrow spaces of the old ruins, the Siim will dwell, which only the seventy translators have rendered as such; others, by the same word, which is written in Hebrew, want to be understood as types of demons or phantoms. And the houses will be filled, as we have said, with dragons: as the Eagle has transferred, with typhons, as Symmachus Ohim (), expressing the Hebrew word itself: but the LXX and Theodotion have interpreted them as shouts or sounds. And that which follows: The shaggy ones will dance there, or incubi, or satyrs, or certain wild men, whom some call Foolish Fruiterers, or understand them as types of demons. And for owls, all the LXX have transferred the Hebrew word itself Iim (), only Theodotion have rendered it as centaurs. The Thennim are called Sirens, which we interpret as either demons, or certain monsters, or certainly great dragons, which have crests and can fly. Through all these things, signs of desolation and wilderness are shown: that the destruction of a once powerful city is so great, that due to the multitude of demons and beasts, no shepherd, that is, a seeker of the deserted, dares to enter it. We learned from a certain Elamite brother, who, leaving those territories, now lives the life of a monk in Jerusalem, that the royal hunts in Babylon are, and all types of beasts are restrained only by the circumference of its walls.

(Verse 21, 22.) The seed of the wicked, prepare your sons for the slaughter of the sins of their fathers: they will not rise nor inherit the land, nor fill the face of the cities of the world. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy the name and remnants of Babylon, and its seed, and its offspring, says the Lord of hosts. LXX: The wicked seed, prepare your sons for the slaughter of the sin of your father: so that they will not rise and possess the land, and fill the land of cities. And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy their name and remnants and seed. For the evil seed, which the Septuagint translated, is written in Hebrew as Zera Mrim (), which others have interpreted as the seed of wicked men. Not that the seed itself is inherently evil: for God made all things good (Gen. I); but from those who are wicked by their own will, the seed has become evil, which is done by will, not by nature: Hence we read in Daniel: The seed of Canaan and not of Judah (Dan. XIII, 56). And of good sons it is said by the Apostle: In Christ Jesus through the Gospel I have begotten you (1 Cor. 4:15). And in the Gospel: To as many as received him, he gave them power to become the sons of God (John 1:12). For whoever commits sin is of the devil. Therefore, it is commanded to this seed, that is to say, his sons, to prepare for destruction all wicked thoughts and evil deeds, which are born from impious fathers, undoubtedly signifying contrary strengths. The worst sons are therefore slain in the wickedness of their fathers, so that they may not rise up anymore and possess the land which is to be possessed and filled by the saints, that the cities of the Lord may be built in it. And because there is no perfect victory for men: For unless the Lord keeps the city, those who guard it will watch in vain (Psalm 126:2): therefore the Lord himself will rise up against the sons of the worst, and he will destroy their name and remnants from their confusion, and every offspring and progeny, so that they may no longer sprout forth in the cities of the Lord. We read in the Gospel of John (VIII) that the devil is a liar from the beginning and that his father, that is, of lies, which many do not understand, they want the father of the devil to be the dragon who reigns in the sea, which the Hebrews call Leviathan. And they think that this agrees with the present passage according to the Septuagint interpreters, who have said: for the sins of your father: when clearly in Hebrew, it means not 'your father' but 'their fathers'.

(Verse 23.) And I will make her a possession of hedgehogs, and of swamps of water: I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts. LXX: And I will make Babylon a desert, says the Lord, so that hedgehogs will dwell in it, and it will be nothing. And I will make it a pit of mud, for destruction. When the Lord of hosts has destroyed the name of Babylon, and its remnants, and its offspring, he will not be satisfied with its destruction unless he gives it as a possession to hedgehogs, and swamps of water, and sweeps it away not lightly, and accidentally: but thoroughly, so that nothing of ancient filth remains in it. In the Acts of the Apostles, it is written (Acts 10 and 11) that in that linen cloth, which was let down from heaven by four corners, all kinds of quadrupeds, and reptiles, and birds were contained, which afterwards, the Apostle, in his discourse, says, 'God showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.' Therefore, the manners of men were represented in various animals, just as the Pharisees and Sadducees are called offspring of vipers on account of their wickedness, and Herod is called a fox on account of his deceit (Luke 3 and 13); and those who are given to luxury and inclined to pleasure are called horses, raging after women (Jeremiah 5): 'And do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding' (Psalm 32). On the contrary, the innocent are called doves and sheep. Therefore, according to the teaching of the Lord and Savior, who referred to the cares of this world and the seduction of riches as thorns, the hedgehog seems to me to be someone who rejoices in the uncertainty of riches (1 Timothy 6) and trusts in being armed not with the armor of God, but with the thorns and sins of this world. To whom it is rightly said from the Gospel: Foolish one, tonight your soul will be taken from you, and what you have prepared, whose will it be? (Luke 12:20). The inhabitants of Babylon have deserts of virtues, where there is no irrigated field that brings fruits of different seeds, but unproductive marshes, and muddy and dirty, in which animals that delight in mud crawl. Therefore, the most merciful Lord swept it vigorously, and as it were with a broom, he cleaned it completely, so that the seeds of Babylon may perish, and be inhabited by only hedgehogs. When we see someone submerged in the mud of wealth, and as the Seventy have translated, in the pit, that is, in a deep abyss, and surrounded as if by a muddy swamp, let us not hesitate to call him a hedgehog, an inhabitant of deserted Babylon.

(Verse 24, 25) The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, 'Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand: That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. Afterward his habitation will be desolate in Babylon, and marshes shall cover the land: so that no seed of hers and no abundance shall remain in Babylon. The oath of the Lord will be fulfilled, and as I have purposed, so it shall happen, that the Assyrian shall be broken in his land, and upon his mountains he shall be trodden under foot.' For indeed the reckless enemy not only hastens to occupy the land of God and lowly things, but also those who have advanced in the service of God, so that they may be compared to mountains and it may be said of them: Its foundations are on the holy mountains (Ps. 86:1). And note the property. On earth it is crushed: on the mountains of God it is trampled by the Lord himself. For when all the enemies have been placed under the feet of Christ, so that death may be destroyed at the last, then the holy ones will be freed from the heavy yoke of Assyria, with which they had been oppressed before, and the burden, or as the Septuagint translated it, κῦδος, that is, glory, will be removed from their shoulders, so that with the yoke of the Assyrians lifted, they may see rest, because it is good, and the land, because it is fertile, and they may submit their necks to the yoke of Christ for the purpose of laboring, and become men of the field. And Issachar, which means 'reward,' received his name from his virtues. And in the Prophet we read: 'There is a reward for those who serve the Lord' (Jeremiah 31:16); and in another place: 'Behold the Lord, and his reward is with him' (Isaiah 40:10), who will render to each one according to his works. And as for the Assyrians being crushed and trampled, which represents opposing forces, the Gospel teaches us: 'Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy' (Luke 10:19). And the words of the Apostles testify: God will crush Satan under your feet quickly (Rom. XVI, 20).

(Verse 26, 27.) This is the plan that he has devised for the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who can annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? For the whole earth has been interpreted as the entire world in the Septuagint, in the end of the oracle or vision against Babylon. What was hidden is revealed, that God has planned for the whole earth, that is, the world, and not just against the land of the Chaldeans and the king of Assyria and the Chaldeans: and his hand is stretched out or lifted up over all the nations, and not just over one nation, Babylon. From this it is shown that all the things that have been said pertain not specifically to one province, but generally to the whole world. And what is said, 'Who can weaken it, and who can turn it away?' should not be understood as difficult, as it is read, 'Who is wise and will understand these things?' (Psalm 106:43). And, 'Who do you think is the faithful and prudent steward?' (Luke 12:42), and similar things. But understood as impossible. For no one can thwart the plan of the Lord, nor can they turn away His outstretched or lofty hand from striking.

(Verse 28, etc.) In the year in which King Ahaz died, this burden occurred. Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, for the rod of your oppressor is broken. From the root of the snake will come forth a ruler, and his offspring will swallow up the flying creatures. The firstborn of the poor will be fed, and the needy will rest securely. I will cause the root to die by famine, and I will slay your remaining ones. According to the LXX: In the year in which King Ahaz died, this word was fulfilled: Do not rejoice, all you foreigners, for his yoke that oppressed you is broken. Indeed, from the seed of the serpent, offspring of asps will come forth, and from their offspring, winged serpents will come forth. And the poor will be fed by them, and poor men will rest in peace. But your seed will be killed by famine, and your remnants will be destroyed. After the death of Ahaz, which means κατάσχεσις, that is, possession or occupation, whom we read is the most impious king, this burden falls upon the Philistines, or word. For while he was living and reigning among sinners, neither the weight against foreigners nor the word of God could come to the Prophet. Indeed, I remember having said this before, when Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne. And in Exodus we read (Exodus 22) that after the death of the king of Egypt, the sons of Israel groaned because of their labors, and they cried out, and their cry rose up because of their labors, and the Lord heard their groaning. For if what was said was not mystical, they should have shouted all the more when he was reigning, when they were serving with mud and bricks. Therefore, it is commanded to the Philistines, whom they now call Palestinians, and always by the LXX called ἀλλόφυλοι, that is, foreigners; and it is said to them not to rejoice or be glad, because they have broken the rod or yoke of their oppressor (Heb. XII, 6). For whom the Lord loves, he chastises, and he punishes every son he receives. And as God instructs our children, when He visits our iniquities with a rod, and our sins with chastisements, so that He does not take away His mercy from us (Ps. 88). This is the rod about which it is written in another Psalm: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Ps. 23:4). This is the rod, and this yoke that the Savior wants to impose on the necks of all, so that having laid aside the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, they may carry the yoke of Christ. But if someone rejects and destroys it, immediately from the seed or root of the serpent, which is the winding serpent, little snakes and asps will come out, and from the asps flying serpents will come out, or those that devour birds. But when the yoke of God is rejected and the discipline of the Lord is destroyed, first the seed of the serpent takes root in our thoughts, secondly a little snake is born from the evil seed, which is the king of serpents, and it is said to kill men with its breath and sight: or the offspring of asps, of which it is said in the Psalms: The venom of asps is under their lips (Psalm 13:3, and 139:4), which are the various sins, and they burst forth from the wicked treasure of thoughts into evil deeds. And when they rule among alien men, who are strangers to God, immediately feathered serpents emerge; so that it is not enough for them to have thought and done evil things, unless they also seek the protection of evil works, and invent various heresies. I believe that these feathered serpents are those who exalt and rise up against the knowledge of God, and put their mouth in the heavens: or who swallow birds, that is, those who with their venomous mouth devour each one desiring to fly and rise to high places. And in the meantime, concerning the evils. Moreover, those who have not broken the rod and yoke of their oppressor, but have submitted their neck to the Lord, and are poor in spirit, will be nourished, and will say: The Lord feeds me, and nothing will be lacking for me (Ps. 122:1). And they will hear from the Lord: I will feed them in fertile pastures (Ezek. 34; John 10); and they will enter and leave, and will find pastures. And the poor will be nourished by Him who strikes them in order to correct them: and they will rest in peace, whether the shepherd is watchful, they will act confidently, and they will rest with Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16). But those who broke the yoke and the staff of their oppressor shall endure everlasting hunger, so that they may not be nourished by the word of God, but all their remnants shall perish, so that nothing may grow from the evil seed.

(Verse 31, 32.) O gate, howl; O city, cry out; Philisthea is completely destroyed. For smoke comes from the north, and there is no one who can escape its ranks. And what will be the response of the messengers of the nations, when it is declared that the Lord has founded Zion and the poor of his people will hope in it? Concerning the messengers, that is, the angels, whom Symmachus alone translated, all the kings have been interpreted, deceived by the ambiguity of the word, because except for one letter Aleph, which is added in the word for angels, both kings and angels are called by the same name among the Hebrews, that is, Malache (kings, angels). In the book 'The Hebrew Names', I found that the word 'Philisthiim' is interpreted as 'falling down by a cup'. Therefore, those who are intoxicated by the cup of Babylon and drink wine in which there is debauchery, and among other vices, because of drunkenness, they have not attained the kingdom of God, as it is written by the Apostle (Ephesians 5). To them it is commanded that their gate howls and the city cries out. I consider the gate to be the mouth of heretics, where they blaspheme; and the city to be the soul, which is the treasury of evil thoughts. She should wail and lament, because everything is prostrated, cast to the ground, and there is nothing of sane intelligence and of God's wisdom in her. Why does the gate wail? For what reason does the city cry out? Because all of Philistia is prostrated. And why is it prostrated, the following verse shows: Smoke comes from the North, and there is no one who can escape its army. This smoke is kindled by the burning darts of the devil, which are harmful to the eyes and contrary to the light, and it arises from the North, from which the pot is kindled in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:14), and from which evil is kindled upon all the inhabitants of the earth, who cannot say: I am a resident and a stranger, like all my forefathers (Psalm 119:19), but they dwell in the land. And in Proverbs it is read: Aquilo is a harsh wind (Prov. XXV, 23; Eccli. XLIII). However, by another name, it is called dexter, which, even though it is harsh and sinister in itself and does not want to receive the yoke of God with the hardest neck, is called dexter by those who regard the sweet as bitter and the bitter as sweet; those who regard darkness as light and light as darkness. And there is no one who can escape the smoke of this train; for no one is without sin, not even if his life were only one day long (Job. XXV). And when the Philistines fall and its smoke penetrates everything, so that no one can escape it, what will be said to the Angels, who oversee each nation, marveling and desiring to know why only Zion, placed in a watchtower and in high places, escaped the bitterness of this smoke? What, therefore, will be said to them? Surely what follows: Because the Lord has founded it, and He Himself is its foundation. And He has founded it upon the foundation of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, under which names Christ is understood, about whom the Apostle also says: For no one can lay another foundation, except the one that is laid, Jesus Christ (I Cor. III, 11). But whoever is foolish, and speaks foolishly, and understands his heart in vain, builds his house upon sand, which has no foundation. In this Zion, which is founded by the Lord, the poor or meek will hope, and his humble people, of whom it is said: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:4); and those who heard the Lord speaking: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matthew 11:29). Those who were humiliated before glory and heard the Apostle Peter saying: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation. As for the poor, they are the ones of whom we read above: The firstborn of the poor shall be fed, and the poor shall rest securely.

(Vers. 2.) A stranger will be joined to them, and will cleave to the house of Jacob, and the peoples will hold them, and will bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as servants and handmaids; and those who had taken them captive will be taken captive, and their oppressors will be subject to them. We infer that many from various nations have come to Jerusalem with the people of Judah, believing in the God of Israel and forsaking the idols of error. There is no doubt that they have been restored to the letters of the king and have received gifts and expenses for the Temple. In this alone intelligence seems to be confined, how Israel once possessed the land of the Lord as conquerors, and subjected their oppressors, and had them as slaves and maidservants. Unless, perhaps, we understand the whole synecdochically from a part: that they were of such great prosperity afterwards, that they even acquired families of slaves and maidservants from different nations around. This can also be understood in the times of Ahasuerus (Esther 9; Judith 13), when the hostile army was cut off from Israel with the slaying of Holofernes. Because I stick to letters, and in the manner of a serpent, I devour the earth, it is your will, since you wanted to hear only the historical interpretation.

[Daniel 4:4] "I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace." The narrative is clear indeed and requires but little interpretation. Because he displeased God, Nebuchadnezzar was turned into a madman and dwelt for seven years amongst the brute beasts and was fed upon the roots of herbs, Afterwards by the mercy of God he was restored to his throne, and praised and glorified the King of heaven, on the ground that all His works are truth and His ways are justice and He is able to abase those who walk in pride. But there are some who claim to understand by the figure of Nebuchadnezzar the hostile power which the Lord speaks of in the Gospel, saying: "I beheld Satan falling from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18). Likewise John in Revelation, in the passage where the dragon falls upon the earth drawing a third of the stars with him (Revelation 12:4). Likewise Isaiah: "How hath the morning star fallen, which used to rise early in the morning" (Isaiah 14:12). These authorities assert that it was absolutely impossible for a man who was reared in luxury to subsist on hay for seven years and to dwell among wild beasts for seven years without being at all mangled by them. Also they ask how the imperial authority could have been kept waiting for a mere madman, and how so mighty a kingdom could have gone without a king for so long a period. If, on the other hand, anyone had succeeded him on the throne, how foolish he would have to be thought to surrender an imperial authority which he had possessed for so long. Such a thing would be especially incredible since the historical records of the Chaldeans contain no such record, and since they recorded matters of far less import, it is impossible that they should have left things of major importance unmentioned. And so they pose all of these questions and offer as their own reply the proposition that since the episode does not stand up as genuine history, the figure of Nebuchadnezzar represents the devil. To this position we make not the slightest concession; otherwise everything we read in Scripture may appear to be imperfect representations and mere fables. For once men have lost their reason, who would not perceive them to lead their existence like brutish animals in the open fields and forest regions? And to pass over all other considerations, since Greek and Roman history offer episodes far more incredible, such as Scylla and the Chimaera, the Hydra and the Centaurs, and the birds and wild beasts and flowers and trees, the stars and the stones into which men are related to have been transformed, what is so remarkable about the execution of such a divine judgment as this for the manifestation of God's power and the humbling of the pride of kings? Nebuchadnezzar says, "'I was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace...'" or as Theodo-tion renders it "upon my throne." Now those who follow the interpretation we are opposing understand by the devil's home this world of ours. Concerning the world Satan himself in the Gospel says to the Savior: "All these things have been given over to me" (Luke 4:6). Likewise the Apostle says: "The world lieth in the Wicked One" (1 John 5:19).