Chapter 3

Chapter Two

¹ I will stand upon my watch, and mount upon a rock, and look out to see what he will speak in me, and what I shall answer to my reproof. It is the custom of the saints, whenever they wish to learn something from God, to keep their own heart with all watchfulness from worldly cares, and to be stretched out toward God alone, and to ascend, as it were upon a certain rock, by lifting up their understanding from the things of earth. For God seeks lofty hearts, even as David also says: The mighty of the earth are greatly lifted up to God;[1] and again, The young of the vulture fly aloft. The prophet Habakkuk, then, being at a loss over the things said before, as in the person of those who inquire about such things, and being about to bring on the resolution of them, says that he will bring it on not out of human reasonings, but as from God. Therefore he says: I will stand upon my prophetic rank, and upon spiritual contemplation, keeping my mind unmixed with worldly cares and unstained; and I will stand upon a rock — the firm and immovable and lofty ascent toward God, upon which God set Moses also. For just as those who are about to keep watch see in this manner, going up to some lofty place, so, he says, in the same manner I too will look out to see what God will speak in me, concerning the things over which I was at a loss because of the Babylonians — how it is that they pay no penalties for their wickedness — so that I may know what I shall answer to those who wish to ask me such things, and to learn concerning the divine dispensations. For he called the question a “reproof.” And observe how he did not say, What he will speak outside of me, but, What he will speak in me, that he might show that God was not speaking to him from without, nor indeed to any other prophet, but from within, touching the understanding itself. So is God said to speak in the prophets. For human speech, first striking the ears from without, then passes also to the understanding; but the divine speech comes about within, and touches the ears of the mind. And by the “rock” you will understand faith. For he who believes that nothing which God does, he does without reason, that one alone stands unshaken, not being thrown into confusion by the unevenness of the things that come to pass.

² And the Lord answered me, and said: Write the vision, and that plainly, upon a tablet, that he who reads it may run; for the vision is yet for an appointed time, and it shall spring up at the end, and not in vain. The Lord commands the prophet to write the vision — that is, the revelation which he revealed to him, over which he appeared to be in great perplexity. And who this is — having veiled it a little — he will tell. For the time being, then, he bids him write this revelation, and not obscurely, after the prophetic and shadowed manner of speech, but plainly, so that it should be evident; and to write it not on paper, but upon a tablet — that is, upon a little panel of boxwood, that the writing might remain, and that not only those now living might come to know it, but also he who reads it afterward might “run” — that is, might seek out the end of the revelation, and when these things shall be fulfilled. For this vision is not accomplished now, but needs a season. And do not doubt over it, if you do not now see it coming to pass. For it shall by all means come to pass at the end, and shall not be in vain. For since God revealed it, who is Truth itself and is full, how shall it be false and empty?

³ If he should tarry, wait for him; for he that is coming will come, and will not delay. This is the revelation which God revealed mystically to the prophet; therefore he did not even point out by name who this is whom one must wait for, even if he should tarry and be slow. One might say, then, that he says this concerning God; for since Habakkuk had blamed God, as not bringing on the penalties close upon the sins, nor laying a swift sentence upon the Babylonians, he now brings on the resolution of the perplexity, and says: He whom you blame as being slow — God — will assuredly come, only in due season. If, then, he should tarry and be slow, wait. But some say that he says these things concerning Cyrus. For he will come against Babylon, and will humble her, and will set free those who are wronged — only not now. But how, having said “If he should tarry,” did he add “He will not delay”? The “He will tarry” is said in respect of faintheartedness; the “He will not delay,” in respect of patient endurance, as though saying this: If, out of smallness of soul, he should seem to you to be slow, wait, and patient endurance will persuade you not to reckon that he has delayed. For in truth faintheartedness, just as it makes bearable things unbearable, so it makes swift things seem slow; but greatness of soul, on the contrary, makes hard-to-bear things bearable, and slow things swift.

⁴ If he should draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But my just one shall live by faith.[2] He said above: Write the vision, that he who reads it may run — that is, may seek out the things of the vision, as one hoping that they will come to pass. Now, then, he says: If he should draw back — that one who reads, that is, should be in doubt and waver — he is not well-pleasing to me, nor does my soul take pleasure and find rest in him. And just as God is said to sleep and to awake, and to have hands and feet after the manner of men, so also is the phrase, “My soul.” For the soul of the Word of God, who for our sakes came upon earth and became man, takes no pleasure in the one who is faithless and draws back from naming him Son of God and true God; but he who confesses him without drawing back and without wavering, having become just by faith, shall have life, whether the life to come, or righteousness itself. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. For the law, being transgressed, works wrath, and put to death those who transgressed it; but faith, loosing sins by grace, justifies. Therefore it is also said, as some of the copies have it, “But my just one” — that is, He who has become just by my grace. And a “tablet” is every soul that is strong and smooth — that is, gentle — having nothing rough or reckless in it, receiving within itself the prophetic revelations concerning Christ, and guarding unfailingly the things concerning both his former coming and his second. Therefore, even when it sees righteousness ailing and unrighteousness prevailing, it is not vexed, but waits for the season — that is, the opportune time of the exact judgment and of the requital of what each has lived. And being just, it does not depart from righteousness, but accomplishes the present life out of its faith concerning the things to come, remaining unturned, and living in Christ, and rejoices in the hopes of the just judgment of God. Such, then, is the one who says: I saw the ungodly highly exalted and lifting himself up; and I passed by, and behold, he was not.[3] For in the present life perhaps he runs prosperously to the end. And yet this same one does not even allow this; for he says: Those who do evil shall soon be withered like grass. But at all events, in the age to come he shall by all means pay the penalty that is fitting. And he shall not be such, having fallen away from him who truly is; for according to Paul, we are God’s. So too elsewhere he says concerning God: Who calls the things that are not as though they were — that is, those outside of himself, and for this reason not being, he made them come to be within himself, and for this reason also to be.

⁵ But the arrogant and scornful man, the boaster, shall accomplish nothing at all. Having said before that he would come who was to loose the sorrowful things, and to rid the broken of all misery, he next makes mention of the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar, and says that, being full of all conceit and despising God, he shall accomplish nothing at all — that is, he shall not hold his good fortune unshaken to the end, even though he be puffed up in soul. And this we shall learn from Daniel: that even before Cyrus campaigned against him, he was cast out of the kingdom, falling into melancholy, and like one possessed went about the deserts, lodging out of doors, and exposed without help to the inclemencies of the air; so that even the appearance of his body was changed to something more beastly and savage. You have, then, the resolution of the things in perplexity, you who are at a loss over the accounts of Providence; for behold, you have seen the end of the ungodly man, who did such and such things.

⁶ Who enlarged his soul like Hades; and he is as death, never satisfied; and he will gather to himself all the nations, and will receive to himself all the peoples. The things the prophet said above, that he drew up the consummation with a hook, and that he will not spare to slay nations continually, God now seals, leading the wickedness of both the perceptible Babylonian and the spiritual one to something greater and more excessive. For the prophet likened this one’s manner and power to a dragnet and a casting-net and a hook; but God says that he is not satisfied, like Hades which takes the souls and is not filled, and death which receives the bodies and is not sated, and that, bringing all men under himself, he does not cease from his desire. But, properly speaking, the arrogant and scornful one is the father of pride, who, even if he put human nature to death through the sin in Adam, and enlarged his soul, having room not only against sinners but also against the righteous and against the very infants (for death reigned even over those who had sinned), yet shall accomplish nothing. For Christ, appearing on our behalf without sin, dissolved the sin in Adam. Therefore, having died unjustly and risen from the dead, inasmuch as it was not possible that the Author of life be held by death — through both idolatry and other wicked works he had brought all under himself; but Christ cleansed us from dead works, to serve the living and true God.

⁷ Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a proverb for a tale concerning him? The thoughtful, he says, shall make a “parable” — meaning a song and a “proverb,” that is, a popular saying, set forth in the mouths of all; so that, before every other tale, they tell concerning him. Or by “parable” he signifies this: that whenever certain people are about to make mention of someone as having fallen into misfortune, they will hold him up as a parable, saying, So-and-so came to misfortune, like the Babylonian.

⁸ And they shall say: Woe to him who multiplies to himself the things that are not his own (how long?) and heavily loads his collar. These things, he says, they shall sing, lamenting the Babylonian: Woe to him who lays his hands upon those who pay no heed to him, and makes his collar — that is, the weight of his rule — heavier for his subjects, by laying upon them heavy tributes and taxes. And in the midst he cried out: How long? — showing his insatiable and unsatisfied greed, and that he saw no end, and that these things shall not be for long, but shall cease before long. And he made his collar heavier also in that he was making the punishment from God heavier for himself, in the things wherein he ever advanced in wickedness. And the devil too gathers to himself the things that are not his own; for men, who are God’s and in no way belong to him, he makes subject to himself; but these were taken from him by the power of the Gospel of Christ. Whence he also fashions for himself a heavier collar of punishment, in that not even at the coming of Christ did he cease from his wickedness, although he was cut off from the most vital parts of his power.

⁹ For suddenly shall they rise up that bite him, and they that plot against you shall awake, and you shall be a spoil to them. He said above, How long? — as one complaining and bitterly aggrieved, meaning, How long will you do these things? Then, as though someone asked, How do you say this? he says: Because even against his will he shall cease from his unrighteousness. For as out of sleep there shall rise up suddenly and unexpectedly those who bite him, as with teeth, with the assaults of war, and devour and consume his military forces — the Persians and Medes and Elamites under Cyrus, namely; and as though coming to themselves out of drunkenness and stupor, and taking up a prudent and free reckoning, they shall no longer endure your great heaviness, but in every manner shall plot against you and plunder your kingdom. And against the devil too the apostles and martyrs rose up, who, teaching and confessing Christ with the mouth, bit his body — that is, those who think his thoughts. For as the faithful are the body of Christ, so the faithless are the body of the devil. And those who were formerly idolaters shall be plotters against him, tearing down his works. For they came to themselves, and saw the wood as wood, and the rest of the matter, what it was, which formerly they had served as men drunken. And he who turns away from sin also rises up; for one lying prone could not turn; and confessing, he bites the devil with the mouth by which he confesses. And having come to himself out of the stupor by which he was held fast under pleasure, he plots against him through fasting, sleeping on the ground, and prayer, and plunders him, and guides others toward salvation, both by the word and by the example of the holy man’s own self.

¹⁰ Because you have spoiled many nations, all the peoples that are left shall spoil you; because of the blood of men, and the impiety of the land, and the cities, and all that dwell therein. Many, he says, you have spoiled; nevertheless you shall be brought down by a few — by those left outside your tyranny, who you did not even expect would set upon you. So God-sent is the blow against you, that these men despised by you assuredly prevailed over you, since God was strengthening them. And you shall suffer these things because of the slaughters of men, and because of the impieties which you did, making all the land and every city desolate of their inhabitants. By Cyrus, then, the Babylonian — that is, his rule — suffered these things; but by the saints, Satan, who, having spoiled men through deceiving pleasure, was himself despoiled of them by Christ, who entered into his house — that is, the world, in which he had his strength — and plundered his vessels, which he used for all his working. And he was despoiled also through the apostles, who, being of the chosen remnant of the Israelites, set free all who were under the authority of Satan.

¹¹ Woe to him who covets an evil covetousness for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be sheltered from the hand of evils. He complains over the Babylonian as a covetous man. And you might say that he laments him too; for he is truly wretched, and worthy to be lamented, who reaches after more. As, then, this one too coveted an evil covetousness for his house — that is, for his rule and kingdom, so as to make it lofty and powerful, that he might experience no evil — or even made the royal house splendid and gilded, and built it high, securing it on every side, that it might be free from plots. And he said nest by a metaphor from the birds that make their own nests high, so that the young might not be easily taken by those who wish to plot against them. And it indicates also the lightness and loftiness of his mind. But there is also a good covetousness, when one wishes to have more in virtue, and when, having given little here, he is eager to receive more there.

¹² You have devised shame to your house. This loftiness, he says, which you procured for your house and your kingdom out of covetousness, shall turn out to your greater shame; for by however much you are more splendid, by so much the greater is your shame in falling from so great and so lofty a splendor. These things are said also to all the covetous. And let them hear them, and be profited. And it is said also concerning the apostate who coveted against God, and seized human nature under himself; who set on high his house and his nest — that is, sin; for in it he finds rest. And he is said to have a “nest” like a bird, on account of his rule and authority in the air, and his boastfulness and high-mindedness. But he devised shame for such a house of his. For when he had brought sin to its peak, and persuaded men to come to the very summit of wickedness, having driven the rest of mankind into every kind of sin, and the Israelites into filling up the measure of their fathers and slaying God, then he was put to shame.

¹³ You have brought many peoples to an utter end, and your soul has sinned. That is, You made an end, you destroyed with utter ruin (which he said above, He drew up the consummation with a hook), and you did not even cease from sinning, but still your soul sinned, going forward into greater covetousness. Or, that after making an end of many peoples, you fell sick with pride, raging against God himself, which is a sin of the soul. But the false teachers too covet an evil covetousness, drawing away the disciples from sound teaching after themselves, that they may make their own houses — and not God’s — that is, the so-called Churches, loftier and more glorious, by speaking swelling words; but they devise shame for them, since the Church, which is in truth the house of God, is shown to be the stronger, whenever such men also bring many peoples to an end, making them liable to the anathema, which is the bound and end of every heretic — separation, I mean, from God.

¹⁴ For a stone shall cry out of the wall, and a beetle out of the wood shall utter these things. It is the custom of Scripture to invest the inanimate and senseless and the irrational with voices, not as being able to speak, but as though through the things themselves they all but cry aloud. So, accordingly, Isaiah also says: Be ashamed, O Sidon, said the sea; and, The heavens declare the glory of God.[4] And what is more fitting to the matter at hand, the Lord said to the Jews when the greater part were praising him: Verily I say to you, if these should keep silent, the stones will cry out. He says, then, to the Babylonian: Not only those who partake of reason, but even the inanimate things, both the stones and the irrational creatures, the beetles, shall cry out against your madness and folly; and how, we shall tell. Nebuchadnezzar was tearing down and burning the houses and cities of Judea. Of necessity, then, the stones too fell down, and the timbers, which had little beetles — that is, wood-worms — in them from age, by which age was attested in both the cities and the houses. These things, then, demolished and burned with fire, the prophet says shall cry out against his cruelty. And it must be known that, in place of “beetle,” Symmachus set down “a binding of timbers.” Perhaps, then, the ancients called the interlacing of the timbers that hold up the roofs “beetles,” because, as it were, they bear up by many the roof that lies upon them. But also every stone torn down from the Jewish temple shall cry out the power of the Lord. And he who till then wallowed in the dung of sin, when he receives the wood of the cross, shall utter: But God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world; and, that Christ, if he was crucified through weakness of the flesh, yet lives by the power of God.

¹⁵ Woe to him who builds a city with blood, and prepares a city with unrighteousness; are not these things from the Lord Almighty? Truly worthy of lamentations and wailings is he who increases his own kingdom out of unjust slaughters — such as the Babylonian also was, building a city, namely Babylon, out of bloodshed and wars, or even every city under him — that is, making it loftier and richer; and “preparing” it, meaning, supposing to make it firm and unshaken, by heaping together unjust wealth and power. But these things are not from the Lord — that is, the Lord did not command these things, nor did he ordain them by law, nor are they pleasing to him. The devil built a city with blood, when he established the polity of idolatrous sacrifices; and he prepared a city with unrighteousness, when he persuaded men to live in covetousness, and simply in pleasure and luxury, which is unrighteousness, the better part in us being wronged by the worse.

¹⁶ And many sufficient peoples failed in the fire, and many nations grew faint of soul. He shows how the Babylonian built with blood and unrighteousness. For, he says, you burned many peoples, setting aflame their cities and their lands, and you made many nations grow faint of soul — that is, give up amid evils, and cast away their strength. Many nations failed in the fire, in which they burned and offered up whole burnt offerings of the sacrificial victims to the idols. But also in the fire of his wrath those held in the power of the most terrible Babylonian fail.

¹⁷ For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covering the seas. Some of the copies have “was filled,” and you will understand this in place of “shall be filled.” Since he said above, “Woe,” he now brings on the cause, and says: For this reason I said Woe, because the power of God shall be made known upon you. And the whole earth shall know the Lord, as judging justly. And just as much water covering the seas — that is, overflowing and overbrimming — is poured into every place, so the knowledge of the Lord shall be abundant, and shall be poured out upon all. So too David says: The Lord is known by executing judgments; in the works of his own hands the sinner is caught. For whenever the sinner is caught in these very things by which he does evil, then the Lord, executing judgments, becomes known to all. And he foretells also the knowledge of God that should come about through Christ over all the earth, even as the Lord himself said to the Father: I have manifested your name to men. For formerly he was known to the Hebrews alone, and not even to these as Father of a Son, or as one who brings forth the Spirit, but simply as God and Maker of all; but through Christ he was made known to all men as well, to the end of the earth, and in perfect glory, as the principle of a Son and of a Spirit. The seas of the nations, then — those that were bitter through unbelief — the potable water of the knowledge of God flooded over and covered, so that they were changed into it. And the Lord himself is also called a river of peace and a torrent, as in the saying: Behold, I incline toward them as a river of peace, and as a torrent flooding over with the glory of the nations.

¹⁸ Woe to him who gives his neighbor a turbid and troubled draught to drink, and makes him drunk, that he may look upon their caverns. Drink you also your fill of dishonor instead of glory. And again, bewailing the Babylonian: Since, he says, you gave the punishments to your neighbors to drink — that is, to all men fashioned of the same clay, or even to your own kinsmen and relatives — like some turbid draught from a spring that has suffered a disturbance, that is, that has been troubled together, and you made them drunk through chastisements, that they might point out to you the “caverns” — that is, the hidden places in which they had their treasures buried — and that you might look upon them; for this reason, drink you also yourself the draught of dishonor to your fill. For you shall not be dishonored thus lightly, but exceedingly; and the cause is that you are about to slip down from much glory into dishonor. And there is also a Hebrew tradition, that Nebuchadnezzar, leading away the rulers of the nations into his own land, and holding public drinking-feasts, brought these men in, and, making them drunk, made them dance. And as they reeled and fell, and, as was likely, the hidden members of the body were laid bare, he reveled over them, mocking. These the prophet called “caverns.” And the other interpreters have given, in place of “the caverns,” “the nakedness”: That, he says, he may look upon their nakedness. And the devil too gave men, who are his “neighbors” — inasmuch as they too are of a rational nature — a turbid and troubled draught to drink, muddling their mind, and overturning and confounding the knowledge of the good which by nature, as God, he had put in them, and making them drunk with pleasures, that their hearts, having become his caverns as of a robber, might have him for their overseer, looking upon and watching them, lest perhaps a good thought enter. But since Christ, the water of the knowledge of God, the torrent of delight, flooded over the earth, this robber was dishonored to the full; for he fell from all his power. No longer is idolatry anywhere, no longer are the passions made gods, as he says also in Isaiah: The Lord shall send dishonor upon your honor. And the heresiarchs too give those who draw near to them and become their disciples a turbid and troubled draught to drink, overturning the sound sense of the Scriptures, that they may look upon their “caverns” — that is, their synagogues. But their hearts too might be called “caverns,” not receiving the illumination of the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ, the Sun of righteousness; but also full of creeping things and beasts — of wicked and venomous thoughts.

¹⁹ And you, O heart, be shaken and quake. To the heart of the Babylonian he says: Many were shaken by you before. Now, then, you too, who never hoped to be shaken and to fall from your prosperity, but to stand unshaken forever, and for this reason are hardened — be shaken; that is, understand that your prosperity has changed, and, becoming aware of the things that have come upon you, be shaken and quake from your standing in boastfulness, suffering a certain trembling, and taking up grief, and a beginning of repentance. And that many who are in plenty suppose they will never be shaken, David bears witness, saying: But I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved; not considering that you, O Lord, had strengthened my comeliness and splendor, and had made it for the while to stand firm.[5] Not that I was worthy, but that you willed it. For, he says, O Lord, by your will you gave power to my beauty. But you turned away your face, and I became troubled. This trouble, then, he counsels the Babylonian to suffer. And blessed is he who, while being scourged by God, is troubled and shaken away from wickedness, and does not say, I shall play the man.

²⁰ The cup of the Lord’s right hand has come round upon you. For this reason, he says, I counsel you to quake and to be shaken, because the just punishment of God has come upon you. For this he names the cup of the divine right hand; and in many other places too punishment is called a “cup.” And he who drinks and is made drunk is shaken. And what is the “has come round”? It has encompassed you, so that you cannot escape it. Or, that just as in a banquet the cup goes round about the fellow-drinkers, so also the punishment from God first went round the other kingdoms, taking vengeance on them through you and making them drunk with calamities; but, passing round in a circle, it has now reached you; so that you are bound to drink this. For the right hand of the Lord offers this to you, and it is impossible to escape. For who shall turn back his uplifted hand?

²¹ And dishonor was gathered upon your glory. Just as, when you prospered, glory came together to you from every side — from wealth, and from manliness and understanding, and the multitude of your subjects and the like — so now dishonor shall be gathered to you, from cowardice, from senselessness, from having no subject, and simply from all such things; for the man of glory is dishonored by the very things by which he is glorified, when he falls from them. And since the Lord spent three days in the heart of the earth, abiding in Hades, to this “heart” he says: Quake and be shaken; perhaps even from the earthquake that took place when he breathed his last, when the tombs were also opened; and perhaps also as all the dominion of Hades was shaken, and the bronze gates were shattered; for he came to proclaim release to the captives. He adds, then: The cup of death has come round upon you, which the right hand of the Lord, Christ, drank; and for this reason, those also whom you had prevailed to swallow down, you vomited up. And in the glory you had in Christ over having mastered human nature, you have now become dishonored. For the last enemy was brought to nothing — wickedness, the glory of evil and its boast; according to the saying, Why do you boast in wickedness?[6] But whenever he is grieved at wickedness, and gathers himself together, then he reckons his former glory to be dishonor.

²² For the impiety of Lebanon shall cover you. Lebanon was a mountain of Phoenicia, rich in timber and fragrant; and Scripture likens to it Jerusalem, as the greatest and most lofty, and full of much fragrance from her holy men, as David also says: The cedars of Lebanon which you planted; there the sparrows will make their nests.[7] For each of the saints is like a cedar, in that he is raised on high; and he receives those who wish to be made disciples under him, and becomes a shelter to them. Since, then, the Babylonian burned Jerusalem together with the divine temple, the impiety, he says, committed against Lebanon — against Jerusalem, I mean — shall cover you.

²³ And the misery of wild beasts shall dismay you. By “wild beasts” he means those about Cyrus, as having much that is savage. The misery, then, which these shall bring upon you, shall dismay you — that is, shall make you lowly and cowardly and devoid of courage. But also there was much impiety in Lebanon of old, on account of the idolatry there; for the demon-possessed used to frequent the higher mountains, as there more easily consorting with the demons — on account of which the devil was covered, being given over to the abyss, and the beasts of the demons under him were brought into misery, scourged by the name of Christ.

²⁴ Because of the blood of men, and the impieties of the land and the city, and of all that dwell in it. Again he shows the justice of the punishment, and that he suffers these things not without reason or unjustly, but on account of the blood and the impieties which he did, making every land and city desolate of inhabitants. But these things will fit also the God-slayers, who were dishonored, and drank the cup of the Lord’s wrath, and were brought down into misery by wild beasts — the Roman armies, that is — on account of the blood of the prophets and of the disciples of the Lord. For they too committed impiety against Lebanon, the fragrant Church, which is also the land of God and a city.

²⁵ What profit is a graven image, that they have graven it? They have fashioned it a molten work, a false phantasm, that the maker has trusted in his own handiwork, to make dumb idols. The Babylonians, when Cyrus campaigned against them, turned to the idols and to sorceries. Therefore the prophet derides their senselessness, who burned the temple of the true God, but put their confidence in the idols, which were unable to deliver them from their enemies. And of the idols, those fashioned of metallic material — some were graven, and some molded and beaten; yet all were cast, even if the graven ones had a certain peculiarity. For these were full in themselves and solid, having within no hollows at all; but the molded ones were composite, and full within of foreign material — pitch, or wax, or clay. There were also stone graven images, and wooden ones both graven and composite. And there were some that the hands of painters shaped by means of colors. Having made mention, then, more particularly of the graven and molded ones, he next brought on a more general phrase: To make the idols dumb. For by the word “to make” he comprehended together all those produced in any way whatever and out of any material whatever. And perhaps the “fashioned” and the “handiwork” signify this; just as when we say, God made the earth, and again, His hands fashioned the dry land. And the sense is this: The maker has trusted in his handiwork, and for this reason they make the idols; the more they make, the more they suppose they will attain greater profit. And having said phantasm, he added false, because there is also a true phantasm — namely, when one calls back to himself again the things that appeared to him, such as they appeared. Or Scripture also knows “phantasm” as splendor. Since, then, there are many splendors that subsist, inasmuch as they belong to things that are real, but the splendor of the idols is unreal, of unreal things, for this reason he called it a false phantasm.

²⁶ Woe to him who says to the wood, Awake, arise; and to the stone, Be exalted; and it is a phantasm. He laments those who, in the calamities that beset them, do not flee for refuge to him who is able to save, but run to the wooden and stone idols, and beseech them, that as though slumbering they may be roused and exalted against the enemies, showing their own power to be lofty and unconquered. And observe how he did not say “a wooden idol” or “a stone one,” but “wood” or “stone,” for greater reproach. For even if it has the form, he says, of a man, yet it remains wood and stone; and the form which it bears is altogether a false phantasm, as he said before; for there was no need to say it twice over.

²⁷ And this is a plating of gold or silver. The saying appears unintelligible. For having said stone and wood, he added: And this is a plating of gold and silver. Are, then, the wood and the stone a plating of gold and silver? No, but understand it thus: the one set are wooden and stones; but this is a plating — meaning, but another is a plating of gold or silver.

²⁸ And there is no spirit in it. Meaning, there is no spirit in it at all — neither the natural, nor the sensitive, nor the rational.

²⁹ But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth stand in awe before his face. The idols, he says, are dumb and weak, and able to profit no one; but the Lord has as it were a temple, namely heaven, and dwells in it, as Holy of holies. And he dwells in the temple in Jerusalem, which he that trusted in the idols burned, for which also he shall pay the penalty. And if he dwells in the heavens, let all the earth stand in awe before his face — that is, before his oversight and his inspection of our works; and let no one despise, nor be boastful, looking to the things that befell the Babylonian. A temple of the Lord is also the body which he framed for himself from the holy Virgin, which temple he dwells in even now. Let all, then, who are minded of the things of earth stand in awe before his face — of the second coming, I mean — when he shall come to inspect our affairs more fearfully, not to set them right.