Jerome

(Verse 17 onwards) Now set your hearts from this day and above, before the stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord. When you approached a heap of twenty measures, and it became ten, and you entered the winepress to press out fifty jars, and it became twenty. I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the work of your hands, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: And now set your hearts from this day, and upward, before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord, when you were sent to the storehouse of barley twenty sata, and they became ten sata of barley. And I struck you with barrenness, and with mildew, and with hail, in all the works of your hands: and you returned not to me, saith the Lord. Although all the offerings that you presented to me on the altar were contaminated (since you did not build the temple, every gift is defiled); I now urge you, O people, to reflect on the past and consider what has been done, that is, everything from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of the second year of Darius. Embrace in your mind everything that has happened and why, and how much you have endured, so that when fortunate things happen to you in the future, you will know the reason why. Therefore, before you started building the temple and laying stone upon stone, when you approached the heap and thought you had twenty bushels, could you not have collected barely half? Or according to the Septuagint: When you poured twenty bushels of barley into a vessel called a cysele, and you thought that even though you were pouring barley, the food for the animals, you would still be secure with those twenty bushels, could you not later, having returned to the vessel, find barely ten bushels? When you approached the winepress, you saw grapes, and your eyes promised you fifty amphorae: I do not mean half, but you could hardly squeeze out twenty amphorae. And I did this by striking you with burning wind, and the corruption of the air, and the dying crops, and the empty husks of grain, and the clusters of vines, so that I might provoke you to come to my notice by the weight of evils: and still there was no one who would return to me. The Hebrew [prophet] includes in these words the entire content of this passage - from the statement: And now lay your hearts from this day and higher up, until the place where it is said: a vineyard and fig and pomegranate tree, and olive wood has not blossomed, from this day I will bless, thus he explains (or Alb.: he explains): Certainly now the foundations of the temple are laid; therefore, from this day on which you have laid the foundations (since in the past I punished you with sterility, and hunger, and hail, and drought, and there was no one among you who would turn to me through these plagues), lay your hearts in the future and henceforth, and see that all things flow to you in a prosperous course. But this will happen because you have begun to build my temple: not having confidence in the sole altar, you despise the building of my house. In short, we can say that it is in vain for some to offer gifts to God and think that God can be appeased by alms and offerings when they themselves have not built a temple for the Holy Spirit within themselves. For then alms and gifts offered on the altar are beneficial when someone has built the temple of God within themselves and after the building of the temple, they present gifts on the altar. Furthermore, according to the moral interpretation, it is also said to us who now believe in Jesus Christ, if, however, we believe and demonstrate the truth by the work of faith, that we should return in mind to that time when we were Gentiles, serving daily in vices, and we had not built a temple for God within us. But just as an architect and most skillful mason joins one stone to another, and fastens the lower to the upper with lime and gypsum: so too the architect (whom the apostle himself claims to be: 'As a wise architect, I have laid the foundation' - 1 Corinthians 3:10), and whom the Lord threatens to destroy the temple of Jerusalem) knows how to join works to works, and gradually build the temple of God. But the foundation of this temple is laid by Jesus, on whom everyone sees what he builds: one builds with gold, silver, precious stones; another with wood, hay, straw. And three good things are opposed by three contrary evils. These are the stones from which the Lord promises to rebuild Jerusalem: Behold, I will set your carbuncle stone, and your foundations sapphire, and I will set your battlements with jasper. I won't think according to Jewish fables and foolish imaginings that God will build Jerusalem with gold and precious stones, but with living stones. Stones that now roll on the ground, being in accordance with the nature of stones, either fiery like a carbuncle, or completely heavenly and brought to the throne of God, like a sapphire, or shining with innocence and the simplicity of good works, like a crystal. Therefore, it is said to us that we should consider what we have achieved before we built the temple of God within us. When you approached, he said, a heap of twenty bushels became ten: or according to the Septuagint: When you put twenty bushels of barley into the sieve, they became ten bushels of barley. For whatever virtues and good works we seemed to have before Christ, it was not wheat, but barley: and that barley, it did not give us a hundredfold fruits as we read about Isaac, but we could hardly find even half of our labor's worth from it, and it was said to us: Have you suffered so much in vain? But even when we entered the winepress and calculated fifty wine amphorae (a number which, when completed after seven weeks, includes the unity of divinity), and thought we had wine, which gladdens the heart of man, the sacred number thirty would be taken away from us (in which the Lord is baptized, and Ezekiel sees the vision at the beginning of his prophecy, and according to the Hebrew, priests approached the service of God), and twenty were left. Esau, who loves numbers, knowing that Jacob takes pleasure in this number, sends certain animals as a gift, twenty and twenty. Also, notice that Jacob himself, though holy (but at that time he was not with his father Isaac, that is, with laughter; nor with his mother Rebecca, that is, with patience; but he had neighboring Assyrians, and he lived in Mesopotamia, surrounded by rivers), served Laban for a cruel and greedy twenty-year period (Gen. XXXII). And it does not move anyone if we say that some, before the faith of Christ and the destruction of His temple, can receive the reward of their labor in part, since among unbelievers there is no fruit of good works. For he does not deposit twenty and find twenty, but when he has deposited twenty, he finds ten, that is, the reward for half of his labor. The Jews, and the Gentiles, and the philosophers of this age, and the others who boast of wisdom, in the present time of their conversation and labor, enjoy the fruit and glory of all their hope, and the reward of the future age is taken away. But this is done so that they do not completely despair and dismiss repentance; but that sometimes, when converted, they may set stone upon stone and build the temple of God. But if they remain in unbelief, they will lose the very thing that they seemed to have. For it follows: I struck you with a burning wind, and with mildew, and with hail, all the works of your hands. Whatever is struck by mildew and hail and a burning wind is reduced to dust and ashes, and nothing is found in it that pertains to usefulness and sustenance. All these things the Lord has done because no one has been found among them who would return to him. But if they return and build the temple of the Lord, from the day they start building, they will have what the prophecy foretold.

(Verse 19, 20.) Set your hearts from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day on which the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, set it on your hearts. Is the seed still in the barn? And yet the fig tree, the vine, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. From this day on I will bless you. LXX: Set your hearts from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day on which the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, set it in your hearts: If more shall be known upon the earth, and if yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive trees do not bear fruit? So I will bless you from this day. I have told you what you have endured before you began to build my temple: now I will explain what prosperous things will come to you, because you have begun to build my temple. Therefore, on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, when the foundations of the temple were laid, consider the abundance of things that will come. The ninth month is what we call November or December. For the Hebrews, Nisan is the first month, which is called the month of new things: at the time when they celebrate Passover, that is, at the beginning of spring, which often falls in March and sometimes begins in April. Therefore, if we understand Nisan to mean April, the ninth month according to the Hebrews will be December. Therefore, the tenth month (also known as December) is the time when seeds lie hidden in the earth and their future fertility cannot be predicted. Is the seed already in the bud, as is better expressed in Hebrew as 'in the pod', to signify the husk of grain? Have the vine, fig tree, pomegranate, and olive tree given forth their blossoms? So it is not to be understood from the flowers and fruits. Indeed not; for in the month of December, as we have said, there are no signs of future crops. Therefore, do not say that I deduce this by prudent reasoning and speculate about the future fertility of trees, herbs, and crops from the flowers; behold, there are no signs; and yet I tell you that because you have started building my temple, for the blessing of all crops' fertility. This is what we have said according to the Hebrew. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, there is a very different meaning, which we must first explain literally, so that later the order of tropology can be discussed. Set your hearts from this day on, from the day on which the temple was founded, to the future, and you will see that there will be such great harvests in the future, and that so much grain will be carried from all the fields, that the threshing floor will not know its own produce, or that there are not individual threshing floors, but that one threshing floor is joined to another due to the multitude, and the separation of threshing floors is not known on the earth. Moreover, both the vine and the fig tree, and the pomegranate tree, and the olive tree, which previously did not bear fruit due to your vices, because you had not yet begun to build the temple, they will be bent down with such an abundance of grapes and fruits, that the evident fertility may indicate a manifest blessing. However, the ninth month is not to be taken in a good way, and the fourth book of the Kingdoms, and the story of Jeremiah, in which Jerusalem is said to be besieged (2 Kings 25, and Jer. 30 and 32). However, since the foundations of the temple are laid at the end of the ninth month, we can understand that the building of the Lord's temple is not begun unless evil works are finished. Therefore, on the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the foundation of the temple is laid, in which there are twelve dodekas and three octads, and four hexads, as discussed more fully above. Therefore, anyone who dedicates themselves to the worship of God and despises the negligent patron (who, in the book of Ezra according to the Septuagint interpreters, prohibits the building of God's temple), does not know the measure of their crops and wages. Certainly, because of what is said: 'If anyone still sows in the spirit and reaps eternal life from the spirit' (Galatians VI), he will by no means treasure on earth, but all his works and the rewards of his works will be gathered in heaven. And the vineyard, that is, the word of God, of which the Father is the farmer in each one; and the fig tree, the sweetest gifts of the Holy Spirit; and the pomegranate, the teachings of the Church and the knowledge of the Scriptures, which are compared to the cheeks of the bride in the Song of Songs (Canticles VIII); and the olive trees will give refreshment and enlightenment to the heart of the one who begins to build the temple of God. But as for the vineyard, fig tree, and olive tree (I will delay discussing the pomegranate for now), they are related to the person of the Savior, and of God the Father, and of the Holy Spirit, as is more fully explained in the book of Judges (Chapter 9). There, the unfruitful trees go to appoint a king over themselves, and in order, they say to the vine, fig tree, and olive tree, that they should reign over them. But both the vine, fig tree, and olive tree refuse such a rule, and do not deem it worthy to reign over unfruitful trees. Then they come to the tree of their barrenness, that is, the thorny tree of brambles, and the bush woven with prickles and hooks, which holds onto whatever it touches and wounds what it holds on to, and delights in the blood of the wounded: moreover, it emits fire from itself and consumes the ruled trees. But we refer the bramble to the devil, and according to the nature of the branch, we shall interpret its nature. Furthermore, there will be a vineyard, a fig tree, and an olive tree, where the pomegranate tree will be, which tree, on account of the excessive multitude of its seeds, and a certain geometric composition of interwoven membranes, and indeed diverse dwellings, yet all enclosed in one bark, is always set forth in the Scriptures as a representation of the Church.

(Verse 21 onwards) And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying: Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: I will shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow chariots and their riders. Horses and their riders shall also fall, each by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts. In the LXX version, (the following words) were added: 'sea and dry land,' and it has 'less' (text): 'I will overthrow the strength of the kingdoms of the nations,' which is understood in a more complete sense from the reading of the LXX. Furthermore, it should be noted that on the same day, that is, on the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, without the month number being mentioned, because they were prophesying about the coming of Christ and his kingdom, the second discourse of our Lord is addressed not to Haggai as before, and not even to the prophet Haggai as in the fourth vision, but only to Haggai, that is, to the one celebrating the feasts of the Lord, because (Christ) is not said to be coming, but to be about to come and to be seen. And how did Abraham see the day of Christ, and rejoice (John 8); and John pointed out the Lamb of God with his finger (John 1): so also, seeing the kingdom of the Son of God, he would have in himself all the solemnities. In this place, there are different opinions among many: For some suspect that the first coming is spoken of; others, the second, when He is to come in His majesty. We accept both, because He reigned when He came, and will reign afterwards. However, if we want to learn about the end of the world, we will say what the apostle speaks of to the Corinthians: 'To destroy all principality, and power, and virtue, that God may be all in all' (I Cor. XV). And because it is mystical and pertains to the end of things, the prophet is commanded to speak only to Zorobabel, whom we have shown to have come in the type of Christ because of the assumption of the body from the seed of David. Therefore, these things are said to happen in the end, that the figure of this world passes away, and a new heaven and a new earth are created, and the Lord shakes the heaven and the earth, and destroys every principality, power, and virtue, and scatters the kings of the kingdoms, as it is written in Hebrew, and annihilates every opposing strength, so that even those who reigned before and the nations under their rule will benefit from the destruction of their kingdom, and with every eagerness for battle abolished, peace will follow; for this is what is said: And I will overthrow the chariots, or chariots, and their riders, and the horses will go up and their riders will go down. And so that you may know concerning the overthrow of the chariots and the falling horsemen, this is what we mean: See how it is said about Christ in Zechariah that He comes as a gentle king, riding upon a foal of a donkey, and He will destroy the chariots from Ephraim (Zechariah 9), and the horse from Jerusalem, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd, and both the Gentiles and the Jews may be held under the peaceful shepherd. But in order for these things that are perverse to be destroyed, each person will rise up against his brother with a sword (which I believe to be the sharpest expression of doctrine, cutting off every perverse thing), cutting off everything that is contrary. But the end of all these things is the best. For after the destruction of the suns, and the strengths of the rulers, and the chariots, and the horses, and the horsemen, on that day, says the Lord Almighty: I will take you, Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, my servant. However, servant is called because of the human body, for then the Son himself will be subject to him who subjected all things to himself, and in all things subject, he himself will be seen. But when this is fulfilled, God will place him as a seal in his hand: For God the Father has sealed him (John VI, 27): and this is the image of the invisible God, and the form of his substance: so that whoever believes in God, will be sealed as it were with a ring.


I beg you, reader, to forgive the speaker's rapid discourse, and not to demand the elegance of speech which I have lost through many years of studying the Hebrew language: although Alecto always considers me to have been an infant and mute. To whom shall I say: The Lord will give the word to the one who evangelizes, with much power (Ps. LXVII, 12).

The Jews say that Melchizedek was Shem, Noah’s son, and, counting up the total years of his lifetime, they demonstrate that he would have lived up to the time of Isaac; and they say that all the firstborn sons of Noah were priests before Aaron performed the priestly office. Also, by “king of Salem” is meant the king of Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem. And the blessed apostle writing to the Hebrews makes mention of Melchizedek as “without father or mother” and refers him to Christ and, through Christ, to the church of the Gentiles, for all the glory of the head is assigned to the members.… While he was uncircumcised, he blessed Abraham who had been circumcised; and in Abraham he blessed Levi; and through Levi he blessed Aaron from whom the priesthood afterwards descended. For this reason, he maintains, one should infer that the priesthood of the church, which is uncircumcised, blessed the priesthood of the synagogue, which is circumcised. And as to the Scripture which says, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” our mystery is foreshown in the word order; not at all, indeed, in the sacrifice of nonrational victims through Aaron’s agency, but when bread and wine, that is, the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, were offered in sacrifice.

The disciple of Christ must do more for the attainment of spiritual glory than the philosopher of the world, than the venal slave of flying rumors and the people’s whims. It is not enough for you to despise wealth unless you follow Christ as well. And only the one who follows Christ forsakes his sins and walks hand in hand with virtue. We know that Christ is wisdom. He is the treasure which in the Scriptures a man finds in his field. He is the peerless gem which is bought by selling many pearls. But if you love a captive woman, that is, worldly wisdom, and if no beauty but hers attracts you, make her bald and cut off her alluring hair, that is to say, her adornments and pare away her dead nails. Wash her with the soap of which the prophet speaks, and then take your ease with her and say, “Her left hand is under my head, and her right hand embraces me.” Then shall the captive bring to you many children; from a Moabitess she shall become an Israelite woman. Christ is that sanctification without which no one shall see the face of God. Christ is our redemption, for he is at once our redeemer and our ransom. Christ is everything, so that the one who has left everything for Christ may find one in place of everything and may be able to proclaim freely, “the Lord is my portion.”

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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