Jerome

(Verse 5-7) Your day of reckoning has come, your visitation is here. Now there will be destruction: do not trust your friend, and do not rely on your leader. Guard the doors of your mouth against the one who lies in your bosom; for a son insults his father, and a daughter rises up against her mother; a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and enemies are those of a man's own household. But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for God, my savior; my God will hear me. LXX: Woe, woe, your vengeance has come, now there will be weeping for them: do not trust in friends, nor hope in leaders. Beware of those who lie with you, do not trust them, for a son brings shame to his father, and a daughter rises against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: a man's enemies are the members of his own household. But I will look to the Lord, I will wait for God my savior: my God will hear me. Except for the beginning of the chapter, both editions agree in the rest of the parts, and in the meantime, according to the historical context, it indicates the day of the siege of Samaria or Jerusalem, which had been eagerly awaited and feared, and its visitation, meaning captivity, saying: Your devastation has come: now there will be devastation for them, that is, for the inhabitants, or siege: Mabucha () indeed signifies more πολιορκίαν and φρούρησιν, that is, siege and custody, than devastation in Hebrew. Therefore, do not believe the words of prophets, nor lend your ear to the deceitful flattery of the divine; because if trust is rare among dear names and blood relations, how much more so in those who flatter you, lying for their own gain, and who command not what is useful for the sick, but what is delightful and pleasing! Do not trust a friend; for Achitophel rose up against David (2 Samuel 15), and true Achitophel Judas rose up against Christ (Matthew 26). And, do not trust in a leader, like the men of Shechem trusted in Abimelech (Judith 9). They made him king, and they were oppressed by him. Guard the gates of your mouth from the one who sleeps in your bosom (Ibid., 16): do not allow what Samson endured from Delilah (2 Kings 16). For a son brings shame to his father; notably Absalom to David: he defiled not only the kingdom, but also his father's concubines with incestuous relations. A daughter rises against her mother: although we may not find direct evidence in the Holy Scriptures, there are so many examples in everyday life that we should mourn their magnitude rather than seek them out. Nurus contra socrum suam: ut uxor Esau consurrexit contra Rebeccam (Gen. XXVI). Inimici hominis, viri domestici ejus. Hic exempla non quaero, cum plura sint, quam ut testimoniis indigeamus. Cum ergo haec ita se habeant, nolite credere, Samaria (( Al. Samariae)) et Jerusalem, pseudoprophetis. Ego autem, inquit propheta, ad Dominum aspiciam, exsultabo in Deum Salvatorem meum, sive Jesum meum, et audiet me Deus meus. The Seventy interpreters follow, who say, Woe, woe, thy revenges are come, that is, the punishments which are to be inflicted for sins. For the Lord saith, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord (Rom. XII, 19; Deut. XXXII, 35). And in another place: The days of thy retribution are come (Hosea IX, 7). For the Lord doth avenge the clamours of them that cry unto him day and night, saying: How long, O holy and true Lord, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth (Rev. VI, 10)? So the avengers have come, and now there will be their lamentation, that is, of the avengers, so that those who laughed before may mourn, and immediately departing from the world, they may endure the torments, which that once richly robed and abundant in delights man endures in Hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 16; Matthew 8, 13). But what follows, 'now there will be'; understand either at the end of each person's life, or at the consummation of all things, and on the day of judgment, when the avengers will come upon all people. Therefore, do not trust friends, because every friend deceives through deception, and one who is a friend because of something is not as much a friend to the one they pretend to love (for he is called a friend by love) as to the thing that they cherish. When asked what a friend was, someone responded: Another self. But if the example of the Pythagoreans is opposed to us, who pledged themselves as sureties to a tyrant, we say that this is not a general statement against all friends and affections of love, but was uttered by God not against all time, but specifically concerning that which the Apostle says: In the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-2), and so on. For then a brother will betray a brother, and a father his son, and children will rise against their parents and have them put to death (Matthew X, 35, 36). But even now faith is rare: what is said on the lips is different from what is in the heart: the poison of the soul is hidden by the honey of the tongue. Many are friends of the wealthy, but they depart from the poor as well those who appear to be their friends. Hence it is said: If you have a friend, possess him in times of temptation (Ecclesiasticus VI, 7). I read in a certain Controversy: A friend is sought for a long time, found with difficulty, and difficult to keep. Theophrastus wrote three volumes about friendship, extolling it above all other virtues, yet also declaring that it is rare among human affairs. There is also Cicero's book On Friendship, which he dedicated to Laelius: in which he states what is often said among our people: Let our friend be like old wine, and let us drink it with pleasure, the word themselves almost the same. Friendship either accepts or creates equals: where there is inequality and one person is superior and the other subservient, there is not so much friendship as flattery. And elsewhere we read: Let the same soul be a friend. And the lyric poet praying for a friend says: Preserve, he says, the half of my soul. Therefore, do not believe in friends, that is, in those men who seek profit in friendships. If you want to delight in true friendship, be a friend of God, like Moses who spoke to God as a friend to a friend. Be a friend, like the Apostles, to whom the Savior said: I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master desires; but I call you friends, because you have persevered with me in all my temptations. Friendship is delicate, which follows the successes and wealth of friends. Such people do not seem to me to be friends, but to love themselves. Let us consider more carefully the words of the Lord: But I call you friends, he says. And he gives the reasons why he calls them friends: Because you have persevered with me in temptation, and have not given up until now: but in all, he says, my temptations. Indeed, it sometimes happens that one who has persevered with us in one temptation is defeated by others and departs. Secondly, it is commanded: Do not hope in leaders, for cursed is the man who has hope in man (Jeremiah 17:5). In man there is vain hope, and true hope is in God. Therefore, Paul speaks: And from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things (Acts 20:30). And the Lord Himself through the prophet: The leaders of my people do not know me, the foolish sons are senseless and do not understand: they are wise to do evil, but they do not know how to do good (Jeremiah 4:22). Indeed, they were called leaders, he says, both my leaders and the leaders of my people. But because they did not know me and destroyed the meaning of the word by their actions, therefore the children are foolish and unintelligent: they have wisdom only to subjugate a simple flock to themselves and trample them under their feet; however, they do not know how to do good and govern the people. Do not believe in leaders (or judges), not in bishops, not in priests, not in deacons, not in any dignity of men. Nor do I mean that you should not be subject to such authorities in the Church: For whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death (Lev. XX, 9). And the Apostle teaches that we should obey the authorities in the Church; but it is one thing to honor leaders, another to place hope in leaders (I Pet. II). Let us honor the bishop, let us defer to the priest, let us rise for the deacon; and yet let us not place our hope in them: for the hope of man is in vain, and our certain hope is in the Lord (I Thess. IV). Third commandment: Guard against believing a woman who shares your bed. Hence the Apostle calls women vessels of weakness and orders that honor be shown to them by their husbands. For man was not created for woman, but woman for man (Ephesians 5). And he says, 'Wife, fear your husband' (1 Corinthians 11). To fear one's wife is to love one's husband with reverence. Men only to love; for love is the perfection of the saints. He says, 'Men, love your wives and do not be loved by them' (Ephesians 5:25); even though they may provoke anger and do things for which they deserve to endure bitterness. For this indeed signifies to be embittered: but you should not render them in return with bitterness. But also Solomon in Ecclesiastes: And he said, I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these. Perhaps, having learned from his own example, he does not trust women, through whom he had offended God. But also the sublime Poet (not another Homer, as Lucillus suspects about Ennius; but the first Homer among the Romans):

.. . . . . . . Varium et mutabile semper Femina. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plenae sunt historiae Graecae et Latinae, quanti viri ab uxoribus suis decepti sint eorumque vita sit prodita. De Scripturis autem et Dalilae, cujus supra fecimus mentionem, et alterius ante Dalilam testantur exempla, quae arcanum Samson septem dierum expressit lacrymis, et amore simulato, quod latebat, invenit. Unde Samson postea loquitur: Nisi domuissetis vitulam meam, non invenissetis propositionem meam (Jud. XIII, 19) . So far, it is commanded that we not trust easily in friends, leaders, and wives. And the reason given is not sufficient in response to the proposition; for it is said: Because a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and the enemies of a man are those of his own household. For what does it pertain to a friend, a leader, a wife, if a son and daughter and daughter-in-law rise against their father, mother, and mother-in-law? Therefore, it seems to me that it can be connected in this way with the previous statements: Do not trust in friends, leaders, and wives, who can be changed and can be for a time: since even a son and daughter, forgetting their upbringing and infancy, rise against the authors of their lives and bodies, and it is a crime to harm them, whom it is also a crime to injure with one's face. But this explanation does not at all apply to the daughter-in-law rising up against her mother-in-law, and to a man, to whom his domestic enemies are hostile. Terence in Hecyra:

What is this? All mothers-in-law hate their daughters-in-law: which, although it may be ambiguous, is nevertheless almost natural: that daughters-in-law hate their mothers-in-law, and mothers-in-law hate their daughters-in-law. This prophetic discourse describes the consummation and end of the world, and what kind of generation will precede the coming of the Antichrist. Now we must discuss according to the previous interpretation, in which we spoke about heretics: Listen, O three, and who adorned the city? Was it not the fire and the house of the wicked? And again, concerning the Church: Woe to me, for I have become like one who gathers straw in the harvest. And again: Woe to me, my soul: reverence ((Al. returning)) from the earth has perished; and among men there is no one who corrects. And furthermore: The prince demands, and the judge has spoken peaceful words, the desire of his soul. Hence, a double curse follows: Woe, woe, your vengeance has come: now there will be lamentation, and let us speak the scripture concerning heretics: Do not trust in friends, O simple people, and in wicked leaders who promise to be friends and leaders of heresy: for they seek not your salvation, but their own gain, and they trample the flock deceived by them underfoot: and be cautious not to believe anything of her who sleeps with you, whom I can only understand to be flesh, so that we may not easily believe the flattery of the flesh, lest the hardness of the soul and the manly steadfastness be softened by her allurements. For the son who is born of God, neglecting his Creator, blasphemes him by whom he was created, as the Scripture says: 'Did not one God create you? Did not one father create all of you?' (Malachi 2:10). And he despises the heavenly soul of Jerusalem, and he scorns the Church as a mother, and whoever scorns her will die by death. And the daughter-in-law rises against her mother-in-law, which seems difficult to understand figuratively; but whoever reads the Song of Songs and understands the bridegroom of the soul, the word of God, and believes in the Gospel, which we have recently translated according to the Hebrews (wherein, in the person of the Savior, it is said: 'My mother recently brought me forth, the Holy Spirit in one of my hairs') (Matthew 10). He will not hesitate to say that the word of God has its origin in the spirit and that the soul, which is the bride of the word, has the Holy Spirit as its mother-in-law, who is called Rua in the feminine gender by the Hebrews. Therefore, heretics, having previously believed in the Scriptures, which were written and published by the Holy Spirit, transfer themselves to new doctrines and the leaven of the Pharisees and the commandments of men. And while they despise the word of God, they do harm to their mother-in-law. And so that you do not doubt, consider the words of Gabriel to Mary: 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God' (Luke 1:35). After this, it follows: 'The enemies of man will be those of his own household.' According to our interpretation, it seems that every man's head is Christ, and Christ is the head of the Church (1 Corinthians 11:3): these are often his enemies, those who are thought to be in his house, that is, in the Church, and do not depart from the head, but go against their own head. They arrogantly promise knowledge of the Scriptures by their own judgement, without a teacher and the grace of the Lord, and they are ignorant and quarrel about questions, contentions, and battles of words. Truly, those who are truly in the house are enemies of the truth. However, we must know that in the Gospel the same words are used as we now read in the Prophet, but according to the context of that place, they have a different meaning. Whether they are taken from the Prophet or accepted by His own authority, it is for us to know, who has spoken both in the Prophets and in the Gospels. But there the Lord says: 'I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own household." (Matthew 10:35-36) Therefore, let us expound (if indeed we have been able to grasp the meaning of the Scriptures). The holy one understands that charity has grown cold, and that people in the end times will not be lovers of God, but lovers of themselves. They will believe in friends, leaders, wives, sons, daughters, and daughters-in-law, rising up against fathers, mothers, and mothers-in-law. Even the enemies within one's own household. He himself believes in the Lord, and all his contemplation is in his God. And although he may be oppressed by the tribulations and pressures of the world, having no confidence in anyone except the one who says, 'Do not be afraid, I have conquered the world' (John 16:36), he waits for his God and Savior, believing in him and always directing his eyes towards him, hoping to be heard whenever he calls upon him.

(Verse 8 onwards) Do not rejoice, my enemy, over me, for I have fallen: I will rise again. When I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light: I will bear the anger of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he judges my cause and executes judgment for me, and brings me into the light, and I will see his righteousness, and my enemy will behold it, and she will be covered with shame, who says to me: Where is your God? My eyes will see her; now she will be trampled as the mud of the streets. The day will come when your walls will be rebuilt. On that day the law will go forth afar off: on that day it will come even to you from Assyria, and even to fortified cities, and from fortified cities even to the river, and from the river even to the sea, and from the sea even to the mountain. And the land will be a desolation because of its inhabitants, and because of the fruit of their thoughts. LXX: Do not insult me, my enemy: for I have fallen, and I will rise again: if I walk in darkness, the Lord will enlighten me. I will bear the anger of the Lord, for I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light, and I will see His righteousness. My enemy will see this and be covered with shame, the one who said to me, 'Where is your God?' My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled down like mud in the streets. The day of your punishment has come, O Assyria; the time has come for your destruction. The Lord will abolish your power and authority. Your cities will be laid waste, from Tyre to the river, from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. The land and its inhabitants will be scattered because of their wickedness. It seems to me that in the literal sense, Jerusalem speaks against Babylon and the other nations that had insulted it: Do not rejoice in my downfall, for with the mercy of the Lord, I will rise again. After I have sat in captivity, He will bring me out of darkness, and He will be my light. I will endure the wrath of the Lord, for I know that I deserve what I have suffered, until I take vengeance upon the nations, and my judgment is fulfilled. I know that He will bring me into the light, and I will see His justice, and Babylon, my enemy, and the other nations around will be covered in shame, those who now mockingly say: Where is your God, O Lord? My eyes will see her, not long after time, but now and in the present trampled, as if the mud of the streets. Thus far Jerusalem, or rather the prophet speaking on behalf of the people: Now God is brought in responding to Jerusalem: O Jerusalem, the days have come for your walls to be rebuilt, which were destroyed by the Babylonian devastator. On that day a law will be established, or rather an ordinance and command, as interpreted by Symmachus and Theodotion, saying, ἐπιταγὴν καὶ πρόσταγμα; and the meaning is: You will no longer be subject to the rule of the Babylonians, on that day when your walls are rebuilt, people will come to you from Assyria and fortified cities: from the fortified cities, I say, as far as the Jordan, which the people crossed over before, and from the Red Sea, and from all the nations as far as the Dead Sea, which is near your land, and to Mount Zion, from the mountains of Persia and Media, where they were previously taken; and the land will be a remnant of the Chaldeans and those who laid you waste, because of their inhabitants and their wicked deeds. The Jews promise themselves this until today, and in that place where we exposed ourselves: On that day the law will be far-reaching, as it seems to us, and as their wiser ones argue, some frivolously lie and say: On that day, when the walls of Jerusalem were built by Christ, the holy Scriptures of the Law and the Prophets, which are now held by us, will be taken from our hands and given to the Jewish people. For what is said according to the Septuagint, 'a day of smoothing out the edge, your erasure,' is not understood to be in Jerusalem, as we have explained according to the Hebrew; but we understand it to be said even now to Babylon, for it too must be erased and trampled upon like an edge. And that legitimate day will repel, not the legitimate day of God, but the legitimate day that you, Babylon, commanded to be observed against the law of God. And your cities will come to an end, or to division, as the Assyrians fight against you (for Babylon was a city of the Chaldeans, not of the Assyrians). And your fortified cities will be divided by the hostile army, from Tyre to the Tigris River, which you encircle, and from the Great Sea to the Red Sea, which touches your regions as they travel from the side to India. And from mountain to mountain: from the mountains of Judea to the mountains of Media and Persia, all of Mesopotamia and the entire region that is now held by you in the middle, will be subjugated by the empire of the enemies. And the land will be in desolation because of the evil fruits of your studies. Where the Seventy were interpreted, let us know about Tyre, it is written in Hebrew, Masor, (): which word, if it is divided into the preposition Ma and the name Sor, is understood about Tyre; but if it is one word, it signifies a stronghold. Finally, they transferred everything, the territory, the enclosure, and the siege, not from Tyre, as the Septuagint says, but from the fortified city. This is in accordance with the Hebrew, and the prayers of the Israelites and the people of circumcision, as if a superfluous discourse had preceded. Now let us come to the spiritual understanding, and with the Holy Spirit himself as the interpreter, let us explore even the most difficult passages. It seems to me that every soul of Jerusalem, in which the temple of the Lord was built, and the vision of peace, and the knowledge of the Scriptures; and afterwards, having been overcome by sins, was led into captivity, and handed over to torments, speaks against Babylon, that is, the confusion of this world, and against the opposing strength that presides over this world: Do not insult me, my enemy, because I have fallen and will rise again: for the Lord raises the fallen (Ps. 144), and speaks through the prophet. Will he not rise again who falls? (Jer. VIII, 4). And: I do not desire the death of a sinner, but rather that he may be converted and live (Ezek. XXXIII, 11). But if you despise me because I suffer torments, learn from Ezekiel that punishments are inflicted first on the more holy, and it is said by the Lord: Begin with my saints (ibid., IX, 6). For even if I walk in darkness, the Lord is my light. For although the rulers of these dark spirits have deceived me, and I sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and my feet are stuck in dark mountains, nevertheless, while sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, a light has dawned, and the light shines in the darkness (Isaiah, IX, 2). And the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27:1) And I will speak to Him, and say: Your word is a lamp to my feet, O Lord, and a light to my paths. (Psalm 119:105) For He Himself commanded me, when the darkness of this world comes: Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning in your hands. (Luke 12:35) It follows: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him: until He justifies my cause, and executes judgment for me, and brings me out into the light, and I shall behold His justice. Every correction for the present time does not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, and afterwards it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, feeling that the soul has sinned and has the wounds of sins, and lives in dead flesh, and needs cauterization, it steadfastly says to the physician: Burn my flesh, cut the wounds, constrict all the harmful humors and discharge with a harsh hellebore potion. It was my fault to be wounded; let it be my pain to endure so many torments, so that afterwards I may receive healing. And the true physician shows the cause of the medicine to the one who is already safe and secure, and teaches that he has done rightly what he did. Finally, after torture and punishments, the soul is brought out from the outer darkness, and with the last coin restored, it says: I will see his justice, and I will speak: Your judgments are justified, O God. But if Christ has become for us from God wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1): he who says he sees the justice after the wrath of God, promises to himself the sight of Christ. And this, however, is only about penitents. However, it is much better to not have wounds and not need a doctor. Healing is not the happiness of the healed, but rather the consolation after pain. Therefore, someone who has been healed should be careful not to sin again, lest something worse happen to them again. We read in Leviticus (Lev. 13), if indeed we read with open eyes, that the covering prescribed in the Law does not exclude the view of the inner eye; in fact, leprosy is accustomed to develop in a vesicle and scar from a burn, and to change the color of the hair, and to add a new deformity to the previous disfigurement of the scar. For this reason, so that no one is secure about repentance, because after sin he can say: I will endure the wrath of God because I have sinned against Him, until he justifies my cause, let him sin and need a cautery, and when he is healed, let him be wounded again. But when the Lord brings us into the light, and we see His justice, then our enemy Babylon will see and be covered in confusion, those who previously spoke against us: Where is your God? thinking that Jerusalem cannot be healed after wounds. And our eyes will look upon her, and she will become trampled like the mud of the streets. And because the end of all punishments is the beginning of good things, and pain leads to healing, bricks will be made from her mud, and her destruction will become the formation of bricks. And on that day, the old errors will be cast aside, and the cities that were poorly fortified will come to an end, whether in unity or in division, and they will be separated from the Assyrians; and from Tyre, which means 'confinement', that is, narrowness, other strengths will arise, and there will be discord even among those who delight in the corruption of this world, and they will generate desires in people. And from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain, wars will arise against one another, so that bitterness may fight against bitterness, and a lofty pride may fight against another height, and then it will truly be fulfilled: 'Come, let us go down and confuse their languages, so that each one may not understand the voice of their neighbor' (Gen. XI, 7), for it is profitable indeed for the worst strengths not to have harmony among themselves. And when Satan is divided against Satan, then at last his entire kingdom will be destroyed. And what often happens in great armies, that after the tyrant is slain, his followers divide his kingdom among themselves, rise against each other, and there is civil war among them: this will also happen at the end of the world, when the walls of Jerusalem are built and Babylon falls, and the Assyrians and Tyrians from the river, and from the sea, and from the mountains, that is, all the demon nations will fight among themselves, and with their kingdom destroyed, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus will come, and every knee will bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. But so that you may know that the outcome of this rebellion is advantageous, the land of Babylon will be brought to ruin along with all its inhabitants, and the Babylonians will not bear fruit.

(Verse 14 and following) Feed your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, dwelling alone in the forest of Carmel. They will graze in Bashan and Gilead as in ancient times, as in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show (or have shown) them wonders. The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will lay their hands over their mouths; their ears will become deaf. They will lick the dust like serpents; they will tremble from their hiding places. They will fear our Lord God, and they will fear you. LXX: Feed your people with your staff, the sheep of your inheritance, who dwell alone in the woods. They will be fed on the mountains of Carmel, in Bashan and Gilead, as in days of old, as in the days when you led them out of the land of Egypt. I will show them wonders. The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths; their ears will be deaf. They will lick the dust like snakes, moving along the ground. They will be in distress in their own territories. They will fear and be afraid of our Lord God; they will fear you. This is what is said: Feed your people with your staff, God the Father speaks to the Son, that is, to our Lord Jesus Christ, that because he is a good shepherd, and he lays down his life for his sheep (John 10), he may feed his people with his staff, and the sheep of his inheritance. And lest we think that the same people are both the sheep, in another place we read: But we are your people, and the sheep of your pasture (Psalm 78:21). The people refers to those who are rational, but the sheep refers to those who are not yet using reason, being content only with simplicity, and they are called the heritage of God."] Both the people and the sheep need the shepherd's staff, of which the Apostle also speaks: 'What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?' (I Cor. IV, 21). I think it was for this reason, because the people of Israel were stiff-necked and always longed for Egyptian meat, that Moses used the staff not only against the Egyptians, whom he struck with ten plagues, but also against the people in the wilderness, with the legal staff, the striking staff, and by breaking all the earthen and fragile vessels. But the Apostles of the Lord Savior, who spoke wisdom among the perfect (I Cor. II), the staff was shaken out of their hands, because perfect love casts out fear (I John IV). But if anyone opposes us, how can it now be said to Christ, that is, to the good shepherd, who is certainly greater than the Apostles, and better, that he should use a staff, when it is a greater advancement not to have a staff, than to use a staff to correct peoples and sheep: we will respond to them according to what the Lord promises to his Apostles, that they will perform greater signs among the people than he himself has done (John XIV). And because the Lord was still speaking to the carnal Israel, and not yet to him who could fully understand the mysteries, therefore it was said about him that he would feed the people and his flock with a rod. However, the apostles had the rod taken from their hands, and the severity of the Law was tempered by the mercy of the Gospel. Furthermore, these people and these sheep are struck and fed with a rod because they had dwelt alone in the wilderness. Indeed, we can apply this to those who, separating themselves from the Church, engage in feasts and friendships with the heathens, as well as to those who, out of hatred for the human race, seek a solitary life, such as we read about Timon in Athens. Not because a solitary and prophetic life, like that of Elijah (1 Kings 17 and 19) and John (Matthew 3 and 11), should be condemned, but because if one despises others and exalts oneself, living in the wilderness of vices, the rod should be corrected. He who dwells alone, and does not dwell in the wilderness, is to be praised for his virtues; but he who is alone and does not do the works of justice, and enjoys only the pleasure of rest, and does not toil in the work and labor of Christ, nor seeks food with his own hands as the Apostle commands (I Cor. IV), and is lifted up in pride: he dwells in the wilderness and wanders among barren trees. However, because he is a good shepherd, his staff strikes in order to correct, and a better prophetic word promises, saying: They will graze on the Carmel and the Galaadite, according to the days of eternity, and according to the days of your departure from Egypt. Carmelus interpretatur scientia circumcisionis: Basanitis confusio, et Galaad transmigratio testimonii. Populus ergo Dei, et oves pascuae ejus, quae prius pascebantur absquegrege Domini, et extra Ecclesiam ejus, in saltu versabantur errorum, postea transferentur ad notitiam verae circumcisionis, et servient Deo in spiritu, et gloriabuntur in Domino, et non in carne confident, et erunt vera circumcisio, et non concisio. And when they have been nourished with spiritual circumcision, understanding their former sins, they will be confounded in their vices, and they will be ashamed, and they will be in the confusion that leads to life (Ecclesiastes 4), for there is another confusion that leads to death, in which Og, the king of Bashan, once dwelt, for Bashan means confusion: concerning which worst confusion, the Lord promises to deliver his people: The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring again from the depths of the sea (Psalm 68, 23). And when we know true circumcision, and are confounded concerning our sins, then we shall be in Galaad, which is interpreted as the transmigration of testimony, in the Church of Christ, to which the testimonies of the Law and the words of the Prophets have transcended, and this will happen to us according to the ancient days, according to the days when we went out of the land of Egypt, of which Moses says: Remember the days of eternity (Deut. XXXII, 7), not the days of this world, which are called evil, but eternal days. But he remembers the days of eternity, which does not look at the present, and rose with Christ, and sits with him in heavenly places, now assuming in mind that he has been liberated from the days of the present age. The divine word also promises that it will show to its people and to the sheep of its inheritance wonders: Then, it says, the nations will see and will be confounded in all their strength, because they had once devastated and prevailed against the people of God, and their confusion will have profit, when they understand their own evils. For they will place their hands upon their mouths, and evil deeds will take away from them all freedom of speech. In the same way that the hands of impious nations close their mouths, so will the hands of the righteous unlock their mouths, receiving the ability to speak with God from the good work of those who accept it. Their ears will also become deaf, for wickedness has not only blinded the sight of their eyes, but it has also made their ears deaf; for they refused to hear the voice of those who enchant, and the wise sorcerer. And according to Isaiah: They have heard heavily with their ears (Isa. XXXIII): although it is much less to hear heavily than to not hear at all, and to become deaf to the word of truth. After so many evils are spoken of them, it is said that they lick the ground like serpents, which drag the earth, walking in their belly, and eating the earth all the days of their life (Gen. III). And of the flesh, that is, doing earthly works, and dragging them with themselves until the day of vengeance and visitation of the Lord, not dust, not the small traces of the earth, but the whole ground. And when they have done this, and come before the judgement of God, and have been convicted and disturbed, they will be disturbed and convicted as long as the earth they have drawn upon remains in them, like serpents. But when that departs from them, they will be astonished and amazed, not in the Lord their God (for they have not yet deserved to be called the Lord their God), but in the Lord our God. And suddenly there is a turning towards Christ and it is said to him: And they will fear you. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 7). And these things will happen so that the nations may see and be confounded in all their strength of evil; and they will place their hand over their mouth, and their ears will be stopped, and they will lick the ground like serpents that drag the earth, so that they may be brought to a close and be troubled by the closure, and then, terrified, be astonished by the Lord God of the holy ones, and in the end, they themselves may also fear Him. This is according to the Septuagint (LXX). Furthermore, because our edition does not differ much from theirs, at least in the present context, we believe that what was said in their edition is also said in ours.

(Verse 18-20.) Who is God like you? You who take away iniquity and pass over the sin of the remnant of your inheritance. He will not continue to be angry, for he delights in showing mercy. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot and hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will be faithful to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you swore to our fathers long ago. LXX: Who is like you, O God? You who removes iniquities and surpasses injustices for those who remain as your heritage? He did not retain his anger as testimony because he desires mercies. He will return and have mercy on us, he will submerge our sins, and all our sins will be cast into the deep sea. He will give Jacob truth and Abraham mercy, as you swore to our fathers in the days of old. The wise prophet, seeing the multitude of nations disturbed in its conclusion, is amazed and afraid of God, and therefore the Lord rages in order to take away sins and grant salvation. He praises and marvels at the Lord, saying: Who is like you, O God, taking away iniquities and surpassing injustices (Exodus 12): just as the exterminator passed over the people of Israel in Egypt and did not destroy them (hence the name Passover, which means passing over), so you spare the nations, not counting their iniquities against them. Furthermore, what follows is this: Those who remain of his inheritance have not held his wrath as a testimony. This is the meaning: If he spared the nations that did not want to believe in his Law, and those who were left from the people are abandoned, he did not want to impute their injustices to them nor did he inflict his wrath as a testimony of just punishment. What will he do with his flock, which grazes in the middle of Carmel, and in Bashan, and in Gilead? For he is willing to show mercy, and he will have compassion on us, and he will carry our sins, and the iniquities that weigh upon us like a talent of lead, he himself will bear and plunge into the sea, and he will not allow them to be. He will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, in order to restore his people, who are like supplanters and novelties, and who are always in strife. In Christ, he will fulfill his promise, and he will grant mercy to the multitude of nations (for Abraham is called the father of many nations), just as he swore to our ancestors who were witnesses to our ancient faith, that he would save some from the whole multitude of humanity in truth and others in mercy. But when we have interpreted, he will no longer unleash his fury; 'ultra' Symmachus rendered as 'forever'; Theodotio as 'to the end'; Seventy-five edition as a testimony: 'for whom it is placed in the Hebrew Led' (); and both 'ultra' and 'forever' can be understood as testimony. I, too, will speak at the end of my work, by sealing the labor of my booklet with the invocation of the Lord: O God, who is like you? Take away the iniquity of your servant; pass over the sin of the rest of my soul, lest you unleash your fury upon me, nor chastise me in your anger: for you are merciful, and abundant in your mercies. Turn back, and have mercy on me: throw down my iniquities, and cast them into the depths of the sea: so that the saltiness and bitterness of vices may perish in the false region. Give the truth which you promised to your servant Jacob, and the mercy which you promised to your friend Abraham, and deliver my soul from the persecutors of your prophets, Ahab and Jezebel, as you swore to my fathers in ancient days, saying: As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but only that he may turn back and live (Ezek. 33:11). And elsewhere: Immediately when you turn and groan, you will be saved. Then my enemy will see, and she will be covered with confusion, who now says to me: Where is your Lord God (Ps. XLI, 4, 11)? I will see your vengeance in her, and it will be like the mud of the streets, and she will be trampled on, so that she may no longer build Egyptian cities with mud and straw.

(Chapter I—Verse 1.) God, zealous and avenging Lord. The voice of the prophet praising God for avenging the injury done to his people by the Assyrians. Or, in a deeper understanding, that he hears the groaning of his saints and will make his adversaries feel punishment at the end of the world. And that zeal is to be taken in a good way, as the Apostle Paul shows, saying: Be zealous for the greater gifts (I Cor. XII). Also in another place: For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy (II Cor. XI). And the Lord Himself says in the psalm: The zeal of your house has consumed me (Ps. 69). And Elias says: With zeal I have been zealous for the Lord God of hosts of Israel (3 Kings 19). We also read of the zeal of Phinees and of Mathathias (Numbers 25; 1 Maccabees 2). And Simon the apostle, called the Zealot by the evangelist Mark, whom Mark calls Simon the Canaanite (Acts 1; Mark 3). And the Lord is zealous for the salvation of those for whom He is zealous, so that He might save by His jealousy those whom His mercy could not save. And so, to Jerusalem, which, because of its excessive sins, did not deserve a visitation of zeal and fury, God spoke in Ezekiel: My zeal has turned away from you, and I will no longer be angry with you (Ezek. 16:42). Therefore, as long as the world was repenting, its consummation did not happen; but after the multiplication of iniquity, the love of many grew cold to the point that even the chosen ones of God are tested. Then the zealous Lord comes for vengeance; not because He is an enemy and avenger, as is said of the devil, but because His vengeance is hostile (or friendly) to them, and it consumes like fire, wood, hay, and straw, so that only pure gold and silver remain (Matt. 24).


The Lord avenges and has wrath: The Lord avenges against his enemies, and he is angry with his adversaries. According to both understandings, because the Lord loves whom he corrects (Prov. III), and he chastises every son whom he receives, therefore he is angry, so that he may remove what is adverse and hostile to himself, and to the enemies, and with contrary thoughts shattered, and with words lifted up, they may return to their former state. Finally, in the following statements he says: The Lord is patient, and his longsuffering is enduring. But because we have also set out to explain the story, let us understand the Assyrians as the enemies and adversaries of God, against whom he will be patient for a long time, but later he will arise as an avenger with fury and wrath.

(Vers. 2.) The Lord is patient and of great strength, and cleansing, He will not make the innocent. The more significant translation in Greek is: καὶ ἀθωῶν οὐκ ἀθωώσει ((Al. καὶ ἀθοῶν οὐκ ἀθοώσει)). And the meaning is: Indeed, the Lord has been patient with the wickedness of the Assyrians and has endured their injustices with the strength of His magnanimity, calling them to repentance. But because they have despised the goodness of God and, according to their unrepentant heart, have stored up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath (Rom. II), the one who was patient before will by no means allow them to depart unpunished, as though pure and innocent. Certainly, it is patient to endure all who are falling, and to raise up those who have been knocked down (Psalm 144): to heal the brokenhearted, and to bind up their wounds; and His great virtue is to reconcile enmity in the flesh, and to not make the innocent guilty; even when someone who excessively praises themselves has been reproved, because they have been saved not by their own merit, but by the mercy of God. For it is permitted to say: Behold, I have served you for so many years, and I have never transgressed your command (Luke 15:29); yet because the Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all his works (Psalm 145:9), and all have sinned, and lack the glory of God (Romans 3:23), those who are justified by him will hear it freely: Is your eye evil because I am good? (Matthew 20:15) And so it will happen that in the very act of accusing and forgiving, he will not allow any innocent to go unpunished.

(Verse 3) The Lord is in the storm and the whirlwind of his life, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. For the storm and the whirlwind, the Septuagint translated it as consummation and commotion: although in the place where we have positioned ourselves, it is written in Hebrew as Basupha (), which can also be understood as commotion. However, this signifies that at the end of the world everything will be moved, according to what is written in Haggai: 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.' (Haggai 2:7) And when all things are shaken (so that the ways of the Lord may be believed, as he says in the Gospel: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life.' (John 14:6); and in Mark: 'When the Son of Man comes with the clouds, as it is commanded in Isaiah' (Chapter 5), so that the rain may not fall on the vineyard, and to which the truth of God has come, as the Psalmist says: 'Your truth reaches to the clouds.' (Psalm 36:6)), then even the clouds themselves, namely the prophets and the souls of the saints, who were previously burdened by the connection of the flesh, will be elevated to the heights, becoming of a more refined substance, and brought down as a footstool of God, and will minister to angelic duties in various places. Indeed, the previous and ancient things that pertain to the head cannot be known. On the other hand, another cloud will receive in the opposite direction, which always disturbs the clear and bright light of the sun and the stars with its darkness, and which afterwards reduces the subject to the power of the Lord to dust and nothingness, and dissolves the earth in those things which are rich.

(Verse 4) Rebuking the sea, and drying it up, and leading all the rivers to the desert. It is described according to the power of God, who will avenge Israel's adversaries, showing that it is not difficult for Him to destroy the Assyrians, whose majesty even includes the ability to change the elements. Or certainly because we have already said that this is a prophecy about the end of the world, and you can simply understand this: When the consummation of the world comes and the heaven and earth pass away, the sea and rivers will also dry up. But to me, reading this in the Psalms: The great and wide sea, in which are creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts. There the ships pass through. This dragon which You have formed to play there (Psalm 104:25-26), seems worthy of the goodness and mercy of God to destroy all the bitterness and saltiness of the sea by its threat, and to humble the dragon reigning in the waters, and to dry up the abyss of malice in which small creepy things swim, innumerable whose worth is not to be numbered, for they are united with the dragon. Also leading rivers into the desert, it is draining all false knowledge of name, which, rising against God, it waters with the river of eloquence and the flow of words, and twisting whirlpools, it is carried with the amazement of spectators into the abyss. Look at Plato, behold Demosthenes, also Cicero, both philosopher and orator, and consider the leaders of the heretics, about whom there were Valentinus, Marcion, Bardesanes, Tatian, and you will not doubt about the rivers. But all of these things the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming, and he will lead to the deserts. And at the same time, observe that according to the title, which is inscribed: The Assumption of Nineveh: the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite, rightly and in a figurative sense, the world is understood to represent Nineveh, and the rivers of its eloquence will dry up in its culmination.

Basan and Carmel are sick, and the flower of Lebanon is withered. Metaphorically, by Basan and Carmel and Lebanon, a fertile region and mountains adorned, the devastation of Assyria is shown, because once powerful and flourishing and ruling over many nations, it will be laid waste by the wrath of the Lord. We can also understand this as referring to the end of the world, where the powerful and noble, who abound in great riches, will suddenly perish and it will be said to them: Fool, tonight is the time when your soul will be taken from you, and what you have prepared, whose will it be? (Luke 12:20). Furthermore, according to the interpretation of names, because Basan signifies confusion and ignominy, we affirm that at the consummation of the world, all things worthy of shame and disgrace will be weakened when the Lord comes. Not only will sins be brought to nothing, but even Carmel, which signifies the knowledge of circumcision, as well as those who seem rich and flourishing in good works, will tremble and be filled when Christ comes. And that which is said in the Gospel will be fulfilled: 'When the Son of man comes, will he find faith upon the earth?' (Luke 18:8). Indeed, as wickedness increases, the love of many will grow cold, and because of this, the wrath of God will come.

(Version 5.) The mountains were moved by him, and the hills were made desolate, and the earth trembled before him, and the world, and all that dwell therein. LXX: The mountains were moved by him, and the hills were shaken, and the earth was contracted before his face, the whole universe and all who dwell in it. It can also be understood simply that at the end of the world, when the Savior comes in his majesty, the mountains, hills, world, and earth will be moved. For if in His passion the sun fled, the rocks were split, and the earth trembled (Matt. XXVII, and Luke XXIII): much more in His glory will all things be troubled. But also, figuratively, the mountains and hills, the lofty and powerful ones, are understood to be those who will be cast down to the ground at the advent of the Lord, and removed from their throne will adhere to the pavement. For the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, in order to destroy their memory from the earth (Psalm XXXIII, 17). Then the earth will shake, and the world and universe will fear the face of the Lord: this is the greatest torment and punishment, that they will not dare to look upon his countenance.

(Verse 6) Who can stand before the face of His anger, and who can endure the fury of His wrath? LXX translation: Who can withstand the face of His anger, and who can resist in the fury of His wrath? Symmachus has interpreted it more clearly: Who can endure the wrath of His fury? Therefore, it is rare or nonexistent to find anyone who is not worthy of being seized by anger. And there will be no soul that does not tremble at the judgment of God, since even the stars are not clean in His sight (Job. XXV, 5). Moreover, the Hebrew word Jaccum, which both Aquila and the Septuagint translated, resists the transfer to that understanding which is mentioned in the second book of Kings and in the first book of Chronicles, concerning the wrath of God, in the masculine gender. There is no doubt that in that passage the wrath of God is understood as the devil and the wicked angels who are sent to punish those who are worthy of wrath. So it will be difficult to find at the end of the world someone who is blameless and pure who dares to say, 'Behold, the ruler of this world is coming, and he finds nothing in me' (John 14:30) and stands boldly against him. However, we must think this way against the Assyrians: when the Lord comes in storm and whirlwind, drying up the empire of Babylon, which is interpreted as the sea, and overthrowing all its kingdoms, which are understood as rivers, and reducing its power and abundance to nothing, which figuratively are called Bashan, Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon, and the mountains and hills, and shaking the breadth of the empire, which is called the entire world: then no power will be able to resist the angry God, punishing his people.


His indignation was poured out like fire, and the rocks were dissolved by Him. LXX: His wrath consumes the principalities, and the rocks are crushed by Him. For because we have poured out, Aquila translated it as συνεχωνεύθη, which means it was mixed together: Symmachus and Theodotion translated it as ἔσταξεν, which means it dripped. Therefore, whether the indignation of God was mixed together like fire, or His wrath dripped in the likeness of a fire, in order to break and dissolve the hard hearts of men, which are called rocks, the indignation of God is useful. It sustains our sins for a long time through our patience, and only rarely does it mix together fully, and yet it does not burst forth completely for punishment, but it drips lightly upon us with a small flame. But if the drop of His indignation consumes the principalities against whom our fight is, what would happen if the whole wrath of God were poured out upon us? May Jesus grant that the stony heart be taken away, and that in us the fleshly heart be changed, with hardness softened, so that it may be able to receive the commandments of the Lord which are written: For a sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit, a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise. (Psalm 50:19) And so that you may know that the words spoken indicate the mercy of God, not severity, learn from what follows.

(Verse 8.) And in the passing flood, he will bring about its destruction, and darkness will pursue his enemies. LXX: And in the passing flood, he will bring about its destruction: those who rise up against him and his enemies will be pursued by darkness. The Lord is patient and full of mercy, and he will not be angry forever, nor will he be indignant for eternity; but when wickedness increases upon the earth, and all flesh has corrupted its way, he will bring a flood that will pass over, not one that will remain forever. But the consummation, or end, will be made by its place, that is, the flood, just as it is said of the wicked: 'And I passed by, and his place was not found' (Psalm 37:36); and: 'The way of the wicked shall perish' (Psalm 1:6); so let the way of the flood perish after the wrath of the Lord, with only His mercy appearing. This can indeed be understood according to history, because when it has devastated Israel, and has flooded the land of promise like a flood, it will bring an end to captivity by restoring them to their former dwellings. On the contrary, the Assyrians, who led the people into captivity, will be pursued by darkness. What we have said about Israel and the Assyrians can be understood in relation to the end of the world, and concerning the saints and the persecutors, or contrary virtues, it is possible that God will have mercy on the saints after his wrath; but the persecutors and their enemies, who have chosen darkness and not light, the very darkness they have chosen will overtake them. For they will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8 and 22). The word 'Macoma', which we have interpreted, its parts of speech they divided into two parts, so that 'Ma' was translated as a preposition, that is, 'from'; 'Coma' was interpreted as 'rising'. Finally, Aquila said 'from those who rise'; Septuagint said 'rising'; Theodotus said 'rising to him'; the fifth edition said 'from those who rise to him'. Only Symmachus, agreeing with our interpretation, said: 'And when the flood passes, he will bring about the completion of his place.' Some of our people, rising up and enemies, interpret Marcion and all the ancient heretics, who argue against the Creator.

(Verse 9) What are you planning against the Lord? He himself will bring about the consummation: there will not arise a double tribulation. LXX: What are you planning against the Lord? He himself will bring about the consummation: he did not avenge twice on the same in tribulation. Symmachus more openly: They will not withstand the attack of a second distress: Theodotion, A second tribulation will not arise. However, he speaks according to the tropology against Marcion, about whom we have spoken above, and all the ancient heretics, who, inventing some unknown good God, say that he himself will bring about the consummation of the world, and they accuse the God of the Law as if he were cruel, because he punishes many and inflicts tortures for sins. What then, he says, do you propose against the Lord? He who created the world will also bring about its consummation. But if it seems cruel, strict, and bloody to you that he destroyed the human race in the flood, rained fire and sulfur upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 7), submerged the Egyptians in the waves (Exod. 14), and cast down the bodies of the Israelites in the desert (Num. 32), know that he has inflicted these punishments in the present so as not to punish eternally. Certainly, what the prophets say is either true or false. If what they seem to say about his severity is true, they themselves said: 'The Lord will not take vengeance twice on the same in tribulation.' But if what they say is false, and this statement is false: 'There will not be a double tribulation,' then his cruelty, which is described in the Law, is also false. And if it is true, as they cannot deny, with the prophet saying: 'The Lord will not take vengeance twice on the same in tribulation,' then those who have been punished will not be punished afterwards. But if they are punished afterwards, Scripture lies, which is unthinkable to say. Therefore, those who perished in the flood, the Sodomites, the Egyptians, and the Israelites in the wilderness received the punishment they deserved in their lives. Someone may ask here, if a faithful person caught in adultery is beheaded, what will happen to them afterwards? Either they will be punished, and this statement is false: 'The Lord will not punish twice for the same thing in affliction.' Or they will not be punished, and it is to be wished that adulterers, in the brief and quick pain of the present, frustrate their eternal torments. To this we will respond that God knows the measures of all things, as well as those of punishments, and that the judgment of the judge cannot be anticipated, nor can the power to exercise punishment on the sinner be taken away from him thereafter, and that great sin can be cleansed by great and lasting torments. If someone is unpunished, like the one in the Law who cursed the Israelites and gathered wood on the Sabbath (Leviticus 24): such people are not punished afterwards because their light fault has been compensated by immediate punishment. The Hebrews explained this passage as follows: What do you think, O Assyrians, plotting wickedness against the Lord, that he himself would destroy the people of Israel, that is, the twelve tribes, completely? There will not be a double trouble, that is, he will not deliver Judah and Israel to you, as he delivered the ten tribes and Samaria.

(Verse 10.) Because just as thorns embrace each other, so their feast will be consumed by those who drink together, like straw full of dryness. Septuagint: Because they will be reduced to thorns down to their foundations, and will be eaten like a rolling wheel surrounded, and like straw full of dryness. The three different types that the Lord placed in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13), except for the good soil, which produces a thirtieth, sixtieth, and a hundredth, seem to me the prophet to be replying, one which falls beside the road, and another that is among the rocks, and a third that is among the thorns: which indeed the Apostle also points out about those who do not build well on the foundation of Christ (1 Cor. 3), showing that some build with wood, hay, and straw. Therefore let us carry the wood to that which is now called: Because they will be reduced to thorns even to their foundations. But the hay refers to that which follows: And it will be consumed like the wrapping around a piece of meat. Moreover, the chaff is clearly referred to the chaff, of which it is now said: And it will be like chaff full of dryness. Therefore the Lord will not twice take vengeance on the same thing, because the malice that had arisen in the authors of heresy will be consumed even to its foundation and roots. But even if someone among them seemed to have a display of words, that is, empty leaves that only please the eye, like the volvola, which is called σμίλαξ in Greek, it will be devoured and consumed into nothingness. Volvola (also called Vulvula) is a plant similar to ivy, which is usually surrounded by vines and branches, and it creeps along. Whatever also seems to have the pomp of a harvest in them, but does not have ears and grains of wheat, like straw filled with dryness, will be handed over to the fire. This is according to the Septuagint. However, according to the Hebrew, the covenants and relationships of the heretics are like thorns embracing each other, and their feast and mysteries, because they also claim to have the Lord's table, are a covenant of thorns, a feast and drink of those who eat and drink together. For when the drunkards of the vineyard of Sodom blaspheme against the creator with their ravenous mouths, is it not a feast of the senses? Yet it will be consumed by its own authors, like straw full of dryness.

(Verse 11, 13) Thus says the Lord, if they are perfect, and so they will be many: thus also they will be trimmed and will pass through: I will affix you, and I will not afflict you anymore: and now I will break his rod from your back, and I will break your chains. LXX: Thus says the Lord who rules over many waters, and thus they will be divided, and your hearing will not be heard anymore, and now I will break his rod from you: and I will break his chains. The sense is clear according to the letter: Even though, he says, the Assyrians are strong, and their strength increases with the number of all the nations: thus they will also be trimmed by the devastating angel. For just as the number of hairs on our head does not resist being cut by a pair of scissors, so too the number of God's adversaries will be easily cut off and Assyria will pass through, or it will cease to exist, or, with its army destroyed, it will return to its homeland, leaving you unharmed. And again, the speech is directed towards Judah and Jerusalem: I have afflicted you, and I will not afflict you any longer, not because it promises perpetual security, but only for that time and from those enemies by whom you were then being besieged. Finally, He says: And now I will break his rod, that is, the Assyrian's, from your back, and I will snap your chains: either by metaphor, signifying his power, or certainly, the rod with which he was trying to strike, and the chains which he was preparing for captives: although it can also be understood as the siege of a closed multitude in place of chains. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, the meaning is very different. For it still seems to speak against those to whom he had said above: What do you intend against the Lord? And: From you will come the most wicked thoughts against the Lord, thinking contrary things. Thus says the Lord who reigns over many waters, or virtues, which are called waters above the heavens: and it is commanded to them to praise the Lord: or indeed to the intelligences and wisdom and teachings of God. For as rivers flow from the belly of the just, and abundant fountains for eternal life, through various and manifold sentiments, by which the word of the Lord commands (John VII): so the heresiarchs also have their waters, which they command, and which flowed forth from their first source. But what follows: And so they are divided, can be understood either of the celestial beings that serve God's virtues in the heavens, each of which has its own function and ministry, or of the manifold variety of wisdom. Not because he had said that God rules over many waters, he should be considered confused and disordered in the number of his senses, but because each idea has its own distinct meaning and separate subjects and suppositions. For what is said: Your hearing will no longer be heard, is an accusation against those who had planned things contrary to God, because with the false arguments and deceits by which the people of God were snared, their speech will no longer continue and will not be accepted by the people. But also this which is brought forth: And now I will break his rod from you, and I will tear apart your chains, is said against those to whom the threat is made, so that they may not be harmed by the devil and be subjected to him, by whose authority they had devised and fabricated such great things. Therefore, his authority will be crushed against them, and the chains by which the souls of sinners were bound will be broken by the word of God, with him saying to those who are in chains, 'Go out!'

(Verse 11) For from you will come forth a wicked thought, thinking against the Lord, pondering rebellion. LXX: From you will come forth the worst thought, thinking opposing thoughts against the Lord. Truly from heretics will come forth a hostile thought against the Lord. Do you not see the wickedness and rebellion against God, to say that Valentinus, like a miscarriage of erring wisdom, was the final creation of the Creator? Is not the thought of Basilides impurity against God, and the detestable name ἄβραξας, which is attributed to the Lord of creation? Furthermore, since we, the learned ones, want to follow the tradition of the Hebrews and also explain the history to our own, that is, the Christians, it must be said: There will not arise a double tribulation, that is, those who were not captured by the Assyrians will not be captured, just as the ten were captured. For while the Assyrians are still in the land of Judah and are embracing each other like thorns, rejoicing and delighting, they will be consumed by the angel, when one night 185,000 enemies were killed (2 Kings 19). Moreover, he gathered a large multitude of their army, comparing it to a drunken feast, and he said that the feast itself was not of roses, nor lilies, nor flowers, but rather resembled thorns entwined with one another, which are always handed over to the fire and are burned with gentle heat, like dry straw full of dryness. As for what follows: 'From you shall come out one who plots evil against the Lord' (Isaiah 36), they want it to be understood as referring to Rabshakeh, who, having come out from the Assyrians, blasphemed the Lord and tried to persuade the people to give themselves over to the Assyrians, not to God, but to serve idols.

(Verse 14) And the Lord will command against you, your name will no longer be sown: I will destroy the carved and cast images from the house of your God: I will make your grave, for you are dishonored. LXX: And the Lord will command against you, your name will no longer be sown: I will destroy the carved and cast images from the house of your God: I will make your grave, for you are swift; behold, on the mountains the feet of the messenger announcing peace. Therefore, I have placed more emphasis on the Septuagint interpreters, because the second περικοπὴ could not be separated from the first one. In what is said, 'because you have been dishonored,' the fifth edition puts 'because you have been insulted.' The Septuagint translates it as 'because you have been swift,' which is read as Chi Calloth in Hebrew. However, unless you refer it to the feet of the lower chapter, the meaning is ambiguous. Therefore, according to my custom, I will first explain the story and then discuss the meaning of the Vulgate edition. He will command, he says, against you, O Assyria, that what you are about to suffer comes not by chance and without any judge, but, with God proclaiming it, you will endure it. No harvest will be sown from your name any longer: for as soon as Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, he was killed by his own sons. Read Isaiah, and he was killed in the house of his own god which he had entered to worship. For this is what he says, I will destroy your god's house where you had entered to worship (Isa. XXXVII): you will be punished from where you hoped for help. Your tomb will be sculpted and crafted, so that wicked blood may be shed among the altars and cushions of idol worshipers. But join what follows with the Septuagint and earlier interpreters: 'It will not be sown, he says, from your name anymore.' By no means, O heretics, will the souls of the deceived accept the names from your teachings, which they had previously invoked upon their lands, as it is figuratively sung in the forty-eighth psalm. And this very cessation of planting, which used to kill the soul of the planter and then the one in whom he was planting, will be beneficial to you. So the doctrines of errors will die for you. But you, who previously seemed to live for yourself, will die to error, and having died to your own good, you will possess the idols which you worshipped as a tomb. And thus it will happen that from your heart, which was previously the temple of your pretended God, all errors will be removed. But these things will come to you, who once thought contrary to the Lord, when the word of God, which always ascends to the mountains, namely to exalted and lofty souls, comes quickly to you, and the waves of previous errors having been trampled upon, and having been brought into tranquility, it restores peace to you, the sense of faith and understanding. Forgive the lengthiness, for I am not able to summarize both the history and the tropology following either in a brief manner: especially since I am both tortured by the variety of interpretation and compelled to sometimes weave together the coherence of the Vulgate edition against my conscience.

(Verse 15.) Behold, upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger of good news and of the announcer of peace. Celebrate, O Judah, your festivals, and fulfill your vows, for Belial will no longer pass through you; everything has perished. I will postpone the discussion of the Septuagint translators for a little while, because even the chapters themselves have been confused by the variety of interpretations. And when I briefly explain the history, I will adapt their edition to my own style. In the book of Paralipomenon, it is written that when Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, they were unable to celebrate the Passover in the first month (2 Chronicles 32). However, after Sennacherib was defeated by the angel and news of his death spread, they celebrated the day of Passover with great joy in the second month. Therefore, do not be anxious, O Judah, who reigns in Jerusalem, for your enemy has been slain in the temple of his God. Behold, a messenger comes to you, running through the mountains and hills, and from a high tower far away, proclaiming the death of Sennacherib; his city has been delivered from his rule. Celebrate the feast, fulfill the vows for the death of the enemy, which you promised to God: the transgressor and apostate will no longer pass through you, for this is Belial, as it is interpreted. All has perished, that is, the army, the king, and the empire of the Assyrians have completely fallen. And this is indeed according to the literal meaning. Furthermore, according to the interpretation, it is said to the Church, it is said to the souls confessing the Lord, because the devil who used to plunder you and oppress you with a heavy yoke, perished in the idols and with the idols he had made: celebrate your festivities, and render your vows to God, singing with the angels incessantly: for Belial will no longer pass through you, of whom the Apostle also says, What partnership does Christ have with Belial (2 Corinthians VI, 15)? Because, with the destruction of Nineveh, everything was lost. If ever there is a severe persecution, like under Valerian, Decius, Maximian (or Maximus), and the Lord's vengeance appears against his adversaries, let us say to the Church: Celebrate, O Judah, your festivals, and fulfill your vows, etc.

LXX: Celebrate, O Judah, your festivities, fulfill your vows, for they will no longer oppose you to pass into old age: it is complete, it is accomplished: it ascends, blowing onto your face, delivering from tribulation. Once I said, by the variety of interpretation, the chapters themselves are defined differently, and I am not able to reconcile the sense of the chapters with the Hebrew interpretation. Therefore, what is now said is of this kind: O Ecclesiastic, because the name of your adversaries will no longer be sown, and their rod is broken; and the chains are scattered, and the one who announces peace to you has come, celebrate your festivities, not in wine and feasts, as the carnal Jews esteem, but in spiritual delights and the pleasure of a torrent. O Judah, fulfill your vows, for your enemies will no longer pass through to bring you to old age, that is, to make you bear the image of the old man. For what is old grows old, and what grows old is close to ruin. The world is fulfilled, the adversary is consumed: Christ comes to you, who first blew into your face when he fashioned you from clay, and after his resurrection also breathed into the faces of the apostles, saying, 'Receive the Holy Spirit' (John 20:22). He is the one who delivers you from tribulation. For the destruction of Nineveh, and as the world passes away, so too will tribulation pass.

Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2: He who scatters has ascended before your face, guarding the siege: consider the way, strengthen your loins, greatly fortify your strength. For just as the Lord has repaid the pride of Jacob, so He will repay the pride of Israel. Because the desolators have scattered them and spoiled their branches. I am compelled by necessity to turn my course between the rocks and the cliffs, with imminent shipwreck, so as to navigate between the history and allegory of my discourse, and to be cautious lest it suddenly collide. Indeed, according to the fables of the poets:

Scylla threatens on the right side, Charybdis on the left, unrelenting. If we flee the rocks, we plunge into the deep; if we avoid the swirling whirlpools, we are thrown onto the rocks. The Lord is my witness that in all I have said according to the Hebrew, I am not speaking in my own sense, which is an argument used against false prophets, but rather following the interpretation of the Hebrews, from whom I have learned a great deal over a considerable time, and I must simply indicate what I have learned to my own people. Certainly, it will be at the discretion of the reader, when he goes through both, to judge which one he should follow more. Now, the speech is turned to Nineveh (and hence the prophets are especially obscure because suddenly, while something else is being discussed, the person is changed to others) and it is said to her: Nebuchadnezzar, who will besiege you, is coming to you, who will devastate the fields in front of your mouth, pursue the farmers, plunder the countryside, and also keep you enclosed herself. Therefore, because war is imminent for you, behold, the joyful prophet now predicts: carefully consider and behold what may happen to you. Strengthen your loins, that is, prepare yourself: gather strength greatly, that is, gather an army: just as the Lord avenged Judah from the pride of Sennacherib, with his army being killed in Judah, and he himself being slain by his own sons: so will he avenge Israel, that is, the ten tribes that are possessed by Nineveh. For both the Assyrians devastated and destroyed both Judah and Israel, and under the metaphor of the vine, they corrupted the offspring of both (or 'of both trees').

LXX: Contemplate the way, hold your loins, strengthen yourself vigorously, because the Lord has turned away the disgrace of Jacob, as the disgrace of Israel: for those who shook them off have shaken themselves off, and their branches have been demolished. Three things are commanded to the Jews. First, that they contemplate the way, and diligently look at the path by which they will walk, according to what is written in Jeremiah: Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths, and see what the good way is; And walk in it (Jeremiah 6:16): so that when we stand in many ways, we may come to that way which says: I am the way (John 14:6). Then it is said to him, to hold his loins, that is, to mortify his body after the election of the way, and to subject himself to servitude, lest, preaching to others as a king and master, he himself be found reprobate (1 Corinthians IX). It is now too long to say how the virtue of the devil is chiefly in the loins, and how the promise is made to David: I will set the fruit of thy loin upon thy throne (Psalms CXXXI, 11). And that of the Apostle: For as yet Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham: For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedech met him (Hebrews VII, 10). And that John is girded with a leather belt (Matth. III), and that the disciples are commanded by the Savior: Let your loins be girded (Luke XII, 35). And the Apostle to the Ephesians: Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth (Ephes. VI, 14): for although exercise is very beneficial, and a life of self-control is superior to the mortification of the loins, yet nothing mortifies them so much as the knowledge of the truth. Hence it is said: Gird your loins with truth. For if the truth is Christ, he who believes with his whole mind in Christ has mortified his desires in Christ. Thirdly, it is commanded to be strengthened exceedingly: 'You have chosen,' he says, 'the way, you have held tight to your desire, take on virtue, so that you may be able to fight against your enemies.' And lest perhaps you doubt, a reason is given to you why you should hope: 'The Lord has turned away the disgrace of Jacob, just as he has turned away the disgrace of Israel,' which is ambiguous: either he has turned away the disgrace of Jacob himself, which he was inflicting on others, or he has turned away the disgrace which Jacob was enduring from others. But it seems to me better that the insult which Jacob used to do to others should be turned away from the Lord. For it is not of such great virtue to endure injury done by others, as it is of the grace of the Lord to be unable to do injury, being gentle, meek, and tranquil. It is asked, how injury is turned away from Jacob, just as it had been turned away from Israel. After Jacob wrestled with the angel, he deserved to receive the name Israel (Genesis XXXII), and because he saw God, he ceased to do injury. Just as Israel, the understanding or man who sees God, and always thinking about God, does not know how to do wrong, so every insolence and outrage is turned away from Jacob, that is, from the supplanter, from him who is still in the struggle and supplants enemies. But in order that we may know how wrong is taken in a bad sense, Solomon is witness, saying: Eyes full of contempt, a wicked tongue (Prov. 6). But how according to both interpretations wrong is turned away from Jacob, which was first turned away from Israel, the following passage makes clear: Because they shook them off, and demolished, or corrupted, their scourges. The angels, he says, of each one who daily behold the face of the Father (Matthew XV, 10), shook off whatever dust had adhered to Jacob and Israel. Hence also the feet of Peter are washed (John XIII). And through the prophet it is said: Shake off the dust, and arise, Jerusalem (Isaiah LII, 2). It is also commanded to the disciples by the Savior: Shake off the dust from your feet (Matthew X, 14). And in the Psalms it is written: Like arrows in the hand of a mighty one, so are the children of the shaken off (Psalm CXXVI, 4). Therefore, the mind is inclined towards insult, not only by Jacob, but also by Israel: because whatever was earthly in them and formed from the lower elements, this was shaken off and purified by the ministering angels, or rather by the guardians and teachers, who not only expelled them, but also scattered the vices which temporarily satisfy the senses and are like whips and branches devoid of fruit, as the Lord says: Every branch that abides in me and bears fruit, my Father cleanses, that it may bear more fruit; but what does not abide in me and does not bear fruit, my Father cuts off and throws into the fire (Matthew 15).