Chapter 13

Chapter Twelve

¹ But Ephraim, an evil spirit, pursued the burning heat all the day long; he multiplied empty and vain things. By “an evil spirit” he means the evil impulse and inclination which Ephraim had, by which he pursued and sought after the burning heat of afflictions and tribulations, forsaking my shadow and my shelter, and all but willingly running into calamities. How? By multiplying the vain altars of the idols. And the very worship of the idols is a burning heat, which destroyed all the fruits of Israel.[1]

² And he made a covenant with the Assyrians, and trafficked oil into Egypt. Not only, he says, did he multiply the vain idols, but, forsaking my help, he had recourse to men; and at one time he made friends with the Assyrians, at another he offered oil as a gift to the Egyptians, as though they had none. And Samaria is especially oil-bearing. Or else he is not speaking of such oil, nor that they themselves gave the Egyptians oil, but that, offering them gold, they were contriving to obtain mercy from them. “An evil spirit” are those of the Hebrews who still disbelieve, who also pursue the burning heat all their life long, being inflamed beyond the Law, unwilling to say: A spirit before our face is Christ the Lord, of whom we said: Under his shadow we shall live; and not even running to the water of baptism; for they have empty and vain hopes, that they will recover their homeland. For they made a covenant with the spiritual Assyrians, and gave up the mercy of God to the nations that are in error, who indeed have inherited such mercy. And the oil of the Holy Spirit, with which we were anointed when we were baptized, we obtained, it having passed over from the Hebrews to us. For theirs was the oil of anointing, being a type of the spiritual chrism. He too circles God about with falsehood who loves vanity and seeks a lie — that is, the false goods of the present life. And the same man, receiving the fiery darts of the devil, and walking in the flame which he kindled, pursues the burning heat, and ever runs to it by the things he does, being borne ever toward the burning heat of Gehenna. This man also makes friends with the high-minded powers of the demons, and carries over into the Egypt of this life the oil — that is, the joyful graces of the Holy Spirit, which he received when he was baptized — and betrays them to the Egyptians, so that thereafter he is no longer able to say, My old age shall be exalted in rich oil.

³ And the Lord has a controversy with Judah, to take vengeance for Jacob. Just as he reproached Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, as having multiplied vain things, so now he says that he enters into judgment with Judah, that is, the two tribes in Jerusalem. These were indeed descendants of Jacob; yet they did not imitate his virtue, but became a shame and an insult to him. He says, then: I will now avenge Jacob; for, having delivered them to their enemies, I will avenge the insult with which they insulted him.

⁴ According to his ways, and his practices. He tells how the vengeance will be: that it will be worthy of his ways — that is, of his works and practices, or of his habits. For often a man does something evil, yet not from an evil habit; but these both journeyed toward evil things, and made these their study and practice.

⁵ In the womb he supplanted his brother, and by his labors he prevailed against God; and he prevailed with an angel, and was strong. He sets forth in the midst the things concerning the patriarch Jacob, wishing to convict the lawlessness of his descendants, and he says that the former was chosen for God from the very womb, on account of the virtue that was surely to come. And he supplanted his brother, and through the whole night wrestled with God, that is, with the angel; and he was so strong as to wrestle with God, even though he numbed his thigh. And God wrestled with him, consoling his timidity. For since, being about to meet his brother, he feared him, God shows him that: Since you have prevailed with God, you shall be able to prevail with man also. And the prophet here calls the same one both God and angel, as Moses also does, that they might prefigure Christ, who is both the Angel of Great Counsel — that of the Father — and a mighty God. For he announced to us the counsel of the Father, which was, that through the blood of his Son the things in heaven and the things upon earth should be made at peace. And these things were types of things to come. For they showed that those of Jacob would set themselves against this angel and God; and some would numb the thigh, that is, would go lame in the faith, and would not make their approach to him; while others would confess, even as that very Jacob did, that I have seen God face to face, embodied, that is. And Esau was also called Edom, which is “red”; and the body is a brother of the soul. If any soul in the womb supplants the brother Esau — that is, is not subjected to the gluttony of the inflaming of the blood, but overcomes it — it will be entwined with God, and its thigh will be slackened, and the movement toward the passions of the lower belly will be stilled; and, purified through chastity, it will see God, and from being called Jacob, that is, “supplanter,” which is the practical man, it will be called Israel, that is, the contemplative, according to the saying, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁶ They wept and made supplication to me; in the house of On they found me; there it was spoken to them. This the other translators — Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion — have rendered as set down concerning Jacob: He wept and made supplication to him, and in Bethel he found him. For Jacob, fleeing the plot of Esau and running away to Laban his uncle, obtained at Bethel the divine revelation: Fear not, Jacob, for I am with you; and beseeching God, perhaps with weeping: If you will give me bread to eat, and a garment to put on, and bring me back in peace, the Lord shall be my God; and this stone, which I have set up, shall be a house of God; and of all that you give me I will surely render you a tenth. These things, then, the other translators making plain, say that in Bethel, which now holds the idol of On, Jacob wept, and found the one who had appeared and spoken to him: Fear not. But the Seventy, having said in the plural, They wept and made supplication, give us to understand that he says this concerning the people. For they, he says, both at all other times served the idol, and when they seemed to make use of repentance, they did not come into the temple set apart and weep there, but, standing before the idol, called upon my help. Yet I nevertheless, though thus insulted in that place, sent my prophet Amos, speaking to them my words. For in Bethel Amos prophesied, when the false priest of Bethel, Amaziah, said to him: Go into the land of Judah, and prophesy not in Bethel, for it is a king’s sanctuary; that is, this place is set apart to the idol, which he reckoned a king. But some say that God here makes mention of another history, this being traced back to Jacob. For when Simeon and Levi, his sons, slew the Shechemites, because their sister Dinah had been defiled by Hamor the Shechemite, then Jacob grieved, and was in great fear, lest he should be destroyed by the neighboring peoples on account of the Shechemites. Falling down, then, before God, he found him hearkening to him, and saying to him: Go up to Bethel, and dwell there; when Jacob also said to all his house: Put away the strange gods from your midst, and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel; and they did so. Therefore he said here in the plural, They wept and made supplication to me, that he might show all those about Jacob, who went up with him to Bethel, and made sacrifice to the Lord.

⁷ But the Lord God the Almighty shall be his memorial. If indeed the saying is admitted as said concerning Jacob, you will understand that the Lord set him in everlasting remembrances, and bestowed on him immortal renown. For as I live, says the Lord, those who glorify me I will glorify. But if as said concerning the people of the Hebrews, you will understand it thus: that he makes the discourse by way of exhortation, admonishing them that, since they have such a God, who holds all things and is able to do all things, who also strengthened their forefather Jacob, they ought always to remember him, and never to forget him. The “house of On” — that is, of the Unprofitable, or of sin — is this world; for in this world it is worked, but in the world to come it ceases. And nothing is so unprofitable as sin, but rather it is the author of countless harm. In this house, then, whoever weeps and makes supplication will find God, and it will be spoken to him, Your sins are forgiven you. But when this world is dissolved, there is no longer a time for such weeping, which is blessed and has consolation. Of the one who thus weeps, as has been said, God shall be the memorial. For having everlasting gladness, he has it from remembering God and delighting in him: For I remembered God, he says, and was glad. The “house of On” — that is, of the Unprofitable, as has been said — is also wealth, and the glory that is according to the world, at least among the many. He, then, who has used both wealth and glory according to God, having mercy on the poor and standing up for the helpless, this man finds God in the house of On, such as was Zacchaeus. Therefore it will also be spoken to this man what was spoken to that one: Today salvation has come to this house; and such a righteous man shall be for an everlasting memorial. Because he scattered, he gave to the poor; his righteousness abides unto the ages of ages.

⁸ And you shall turn back in God; keep mercy and judgment, and draw near to your God continually. Even if you are disobedient, he says, and disorderly, and fall very far short of the patriarch Jacob, to whom I bore witness of such great virtue — yet, being chastened by me, and delivered to captivity, you shall turn back to good obedience and good order. Then thereafter, as to one already being scourged and struck, God cries out: Keep mercy and judgment. For just as some master, scourging a disobedient servant, calls out to him as he scourges, Hearken to my commands; so here too God, scourging the people as not keeping mercy and judgment, cries out to them, Keep mercy and judgment — that is, Be compassionate to those who fall into calamities undeservedly (for such is mercy), and judge what is just. Then, leading them on toward the true knowledge of God, he says: Draw near to your God continually — that is, Wander not off into idolatry, but, together with doing what is needful, serve God also. For there is no profit in the supposed working of the virtues, if the knowledge of God is not present. And observe that, just as the Law said, You shall love the Lord your God, and your neighbor; so here too these two are brought in. And the prophet seems to speak also to those who for a time disbelieve in Christ, but afterward are to believe, saying: You too, the Israelite who now disbelieves, shall turn back in Christ, who is your God, not a mere man, as you supposed. But do not think that, if you turn back, you will thereafter be at ease, as one justified by faith; rather, work the virtues also, having mercy indeed, yet with judgment, so as to give to each according as he has need. Then, summing up for the hearer all virtue, he says: Draw near to your God continually. For sins set a division between us and God; but the virtues make us draw near, through likeness. And observe also the word “continually”; for one must not for even a brief moment nod off from the good. And let him who turns back from sin not suppose that he turns back by his own power, but in God; for it is God who works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And it will especially befit judges to keep judgment along with showing mercy. For many, supposedly pitying the poor, condemn the rich outright, even when they have justice standing with them. For this reason we are given the law not to pity a poor man in judgment. But since it is possible to show mercy and to judge justly, yet not according to God, but for the pleasing of men, he adds: Draw near to your God; turn not back toward men, but look to God, who will render the rewards.

⁹ Canaan — in his hand is a balance of injustice; he has loved to oppress. I indeed, he says, teach Ephraim these things, to keep mercy and judgment, and what follows; but he has become a Canaan, having emulated the greed and injustice of the Canaanites. So Ezekiel too says to Jerusalem: Your seed and your birth are of the land of Canaan; for of those whose ways he emulated, of these also he received the name. For David too said such a thing concerning the men of that time: False are the sons of men, with balances to do injustice.

¹⁰ Ephraim said: I have grown rich, I have found refreshment for myself. All his labors shall not be found for him, because of the injustices wherein he sinned. Having grown rich out of injustice, he says, and out of oppressing others, Ephraim hoped that he would have rest, and would find refreshment from the burning heat of every trial; but this shall not be. For all that he toiled at shall be vain. This David too says: Hope not in injustice, and long not after plunder. If riches flow in, set not your heart upon them. And those to whom the Lord said, If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham, were Canaan, holding a balance of injustice — they who asked for the robber Barabbas, but crucified Christ the benefactor; who, burning with envy toward him while he lived, supposed they would find refreshment by putting him to death. But they shall gain nothing, he says; for not only were they unable to stop him from being glorified, but also all their distinctions, in which they toiled, were obliterated by the Romans. So too one who grows rich out of injustice will say, I have grown rich, I have found refreshment for myself; but let such men hear, among the rest, this also: that they are children of Canaan, whom Noah cursed.

¹¹ But I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt; for I will settle you, and will make you to dwell in tents, as in the days of a feast. You, he says, hoped in your wealth that came from injustice; but I, just as I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and made you, as you journeyed through the wilderness, to dwell in tents, so now too I will remove you and make you to dwell in tents, just as in the days of the Feast of Tabernacles you were accustomed to dwell in tents. For God commanded the Feast of Tabernacles for this very reason, that, dwelling in tents, they might not be unmindful of their sojourn in the wilderness. So too those who became God-slayers are removed from country to country, and resemble those who dwell in tents. And whomever the Lord leads out as from the Egypt of sin, he teaches to regard this life as a tent and a sojourning. For then indeed it is possible to keep festival to the Lord, the feast that is according to the spirit.

¹² And I will speak to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and by the hands of the prophets I was likened. Justly, he says, do I remove you, because what I spoke through my prophets for your admonition you did not hear (for “I will speak” stands for “I spoke”); and I spoke not words only, but also multiplied visions — that is, prophecies shown forth through deeds; just as I commanded this very prophet at one time to take a harlot, and at another an adulteress, instructing them through the deeds which they saw. And he teaches also that he used various revelations, not displaying his own nature (for it is invisible), but, according to the need of each occasion, showing certain types and likenesses of the divine nature and energy. For in one way to Daniel, and in another to Ezekiel, and to Isaiah in another, and to Micah in yet another. But some take it thus: I indeed multiplied the prophetic visions; but your false prophets, imitating the deeds of my prophets, and likening themselves to them, spoke the things from their own heart. For Jeremiah, putting wooden collars about his neck, signified that the king would be enslaved; but the false prophet Hananiah, taking them, broke them, saying that Thus says the Lord:

¹³ Thus will I break the yoke of the king of Babylon. He accuses the people, then, that when he spoke to the prophets they did not hear, but obeyed the false prophets, who spoke likenesses of divine prophecy, not the truth. But since “I will speak to the prophets” is said as of something future, perhaps he speaks concerning the apostles and the prophets of their time, on whose account the Lord also says, I will send prophets and scribes and wise men. I will speak, then, he says, to such prophets — I who prefigured certain likenesses of my presence in the flesh, having shown them forth in manifold and many ways among the prophets under the Law. And since we also now behold through a mirror and in a riddle, fittingly all knowledge that comes to be here is a likeness, and every vision is not single and simple, but multiplied, figured forth through certain perceptible images. So too we name God a sun, and fire, and life, and the rest of such things.[2]

¹⁴ If Gilead is not, then false were the rulers sacrificing in Gilgal. I, he says, thus admonished you through the prophets; but you, going up to Gilead and Gilgal, together with your rulers, performed the false and vain things, sacrificing to the idols. And he makes mention of these two cities, as being given over to idols beyond the others, as he said above. Since, then, the king of the Assyrians, Phona, coming up, took first the city of Gilead, which is beyond the Jordan, he says: If indeed Gilead is not (for it was utterly destroyed), then it is plain that your rulers, going up to Gilgal and sacrificing, were false — that is, laboring in vain; for it is vanity to sacrifice to the idols, asking good things from them.

¹⁵ Their altars are as tortoises upon the dry ground of a field. Either because they made such altars, high and conspicuous, like tortoises — that is, the moundings which farmers make on account of the waters; for they call such things “tortoises.” Or because, just as the tortoise, being an amphibious animal, while it lives in the water often escapes its hunters, but on dry land is easily caught; so too the altars of the idols, built by you, will be easily taken by the enemies, and will be razed by them. Or, just as the mind of the righteous man is an altar beloved by God, so too that of the impious and sinful man resembles a tortoise, being covered by the thick shell of the body, and moving heavily under it; when indeed, having become wholly fleshly, and bearing no comeliness from the “according to the image,” but displaying the deformity that comes of vice, and wandering in the dry and barren course of the field of this world; and whenever you see a man becoming now one thing and now another, doubling between the two ways of life, they likened him both to the other amphibious animals and to the tortoise.

¹⁶ And Jacob withdrew into the plain of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and kept guard. Again he made mention of the wife of the patriarch Jacob, and he says that the former, persuaded by his mother, who urged him not to take a wife from the land of Canaan, withdrew into Syria to Laban; and he served him for a wife — that is, on account of a wife — and guarded himself from taking a Canaanite woman. Or because, for the sake of Rachel, he kept all that Laban enjoined upon him.

¹⁷ And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. On account of his virtue, he says, his descendants the Israelites also were loved by God, and he brought them up out of Egypt by a prophet, Moses, and preserved them through the same prophet in the wilderness; and this though many nations warred against them. Or they were preserved also through Joshua the son of Nun; for him too he calls a prophet. These things are a type of Christ. For, having set foot upon the earth, he betrothed the Church, and on her behalf served in flesh and in sufferings, and in the commandments of the Law, which he kept. And in him we were brought up out of the Egypt of sin, and are preserved; for he is the prophet of whom Moses said: The Lord will raise up for you a prophet. And everyone who has become worthy to be called Israel, and to see God, both serves for a wife, when he makes provision for the flesh, but not unto lust; and keeps guard in a wife, when he buffets the flesh and brings it into bondage; and he is brought up out of Egypt, this dark life, through a prophet — that is, through the word, which gives us assurance concerning things to come. For if one will not believe him who says that there will be another, more divine state after death, how shall he be brought up out of this world, whose pleasures are in hand?

¹⁸ Ephraim was filled with wrath, and provoked to anger. Jacob, he says, was so eager not to transgress his mother’s exhortation, and chose to serve in a way that brought reproach, that he might take a wife of a good lineage; but the people of Ephraim, born of him, did all that moved me to wrath and anger, setting up the golden heifers, and worshiping them.

¹⁹ And his blood shall be poured out upon him. He provoked me, he says; but he himself will be the cause of his own destruction; he will wipe upon himself all the deadly afflictions.

²⁰ And the Lord will repay him his reproach according to the word of Ephraim. By “reproach” God means the insult against himself, with which Jeroboam insulted him, saying to the people: Go not up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. This reproach, then, and this insult, done against God according to the word of Ephraim — that is, of Jeroboam — the Lord will repay him. Or because Ephraim shall be reproached and insulted according to his word — that is, in proportion and correspondingly to his impieties. To the Christ-slayers too was repaid the reproach with which they reproached Christ: Others he saved, and himself he cannot save. How was it repaid? According to the word which they spoke: His blood be upon us, and upon our children.