Chapter 3

Chapter Two

¹ Say to your brother, My people, and to your sister, Pitied; plead with your mother, plead. You, children of those who came back from Babylon — your forefathers — do also accuse your forefathers, who transgressed against me. Something of this kind is found in Isaiah also: And now, O house of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.[1]

² she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. A divorce, he says, came to be between me and this woman, who had received so many good things from me; and it was not I who gave the cause of the divorce, but she, for she withdrew; my wife before, but she withdrew from me. And these things might be said by those who shared fellowship with those who believed in Christ — who shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, that is, condemning those who did not believe out of the land of the Jews; she who was altogether the mother of those who are judged. And the more ancient generation too, when it came out of Egypt, did not yet have a law, nor had drawn from so many of God’s ordinances and sacrifices; wherefore the Lord is said not to be a husband. And whenever the sense-perception withdraws from the mind, and does not enjoy the world unto the glory of the Creator, it is condemned by the true offspring of the mind, those begotten by the mind and the sense-perception unto the knowledge of God. For instance I say: One man knows the creation, that it is good, and beholding it with mind marveled at the Maker; another saw it, and deified it, because he used sense-perception alone as a mother, withdrawn from the mind. Such a one is condemned by the former. One man saw the beauty of a body, and marveled at the Craftsman, how in clay and flesh he fashioned such splendor; another, seeing, was disposed toward the thing itself, because he followed the sense-perception, apart from the mind. Will not, then, that man be unto the condemnation of this one?[2]

³ And I will remove her harlotry from my presence, and her harlotry from between her breasts. He shows that, The divorce which I made with her, I made for her benefit, in order to free her from harlotry, that is, from idolatry; for indeed, having been removed to Babylon, she will no longer sacrifice to the golden heifers, to which she sacrificed before — from the time that that Jeroboam set them up — nor will my presence see her serving such abominations; but I will root out her harlotry from between her breasts, that is, of the heart, out of which come evil reasonings, envyings, murders, adulteries, fornications. Or he shows the shamelessness through the breasts, which they had, going with bared head to every evil. For she showed, it says, the breasts bare, and so plainly and unconcealed displayed her wickedness. Every chastisement of the Lord, then, even the seeming aversion, is unto our benefit, freeing us from evil, according to the saying: It is good for me that you humbled me, that I might learn your ordinances. Harlotry too was the voice of those who said, We have no king but Caesar, and who withdrew from him who is truly King, who also were lifted away from the presence of the Lord, given over to those very ones whom they chose to be kings. And perhaps the breasts are the law and the prophets, out of which is for the Hebrews the elementary milk of the letter. Their harlotry, then, was removed from between such breasts. For neither law nor prophets recognize them, nor nourish them. And who would not pray that the harlotry of the senseless sense-perception be removed and wiped out, so that it may not be made manifest to the face of God? Lamenting, the prophet says: You have set our iniquities before you; and again elsewhere, praying, Turn your face, he says, away from my sins. But moreover the harlotry of avarice is nourished through abundance of possessions; that of vainglory, through ruling in palaces and cities; and bodily harlotry, through gazing at beauties, and one through one means and another through another. These are to each passion breasts, and it is good for a man, when the evil is removed, not being nourished by the materials that nourish it.[3]

⁴ That I may strip her naked. I will strip her, he says, of my shelter, and will make her behave shamefully, overcome by her enemies; just as on the contrary, formerly sheltering her, and keeping her unconquered, I made her not only seemly, but most glorious.

⁵ And I will restore her, as in the day of her birth. That is, as she was in bondage to the Egyptians, so also she shall be in bondage to the Assyrians. And he calls the sojourn in Egypt the day of her birth, because there they were multiplied. For seventy-five souls having gone down, six hundred thousand became the men of war alone. The Father stripped also those who disbelieved Christ, taking away from them all the glory of the law, and restoring them as they were before they received the law. For they have neither temple, nor do they sacrifice, nor do they do any other of the things in the law. And whenever one, having put on Christ through baptism, is stripped of him through the pleasure of sense, God strips him of his own grace and of the adoption, and makes him to be characterized by the marks of fleshly and passionate birth, which is to live according to the flesh, and to walk according to man; for where there are strifes, and jealousies, and dissensions, there is the living after the flesh, and the walking according to man.

⁶ And I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a waterless land, and will kill her with thirst. I will make her, he says, a wilderness of my help, and the water of my providence I will not supply to her, but I will kill her — that is, I will give her over to death to her enemies, thirsting for help, and bereft of the alliance from me. A wilderness too has the Synagogue of the Hebrews become, deprived of every good; for the whole good, and goodness itself, was the Lord, whom they killed; and those who kill those who believe in him — holding fast the letter of the law, and not receiving the Spirit — are reasonably “land,” as lying below, and understanding all things in a bodily way; and “waterless,” as not having the Spirit, which was rendered to be the water. And the sinner is not made a wilderness, but as a wilderness, that he may not despair; and he is set as a waterless land for the same cause. For God, even if he knows the end of each, nevertheless does not appear to despair. He, then, who has made himself unfruitful, and who works those things which that rich man also worked, who begged Abraham to send Lazarus, and, having dipped the tip of his finger in water, to cool him, is as a wilderness and waterless land.[4]

⁷ And her children I will not pity, for they are children of harlotry. That is, having been begotten of idolatrous fathers, they emulated the loathsomeness of those men; for plainly he calls idolatry harlotry.

⁸ for their mother went a-whoring. Not simply did she go a-whoring, but went a-whoring excessively, having embraced idolatry and the worship of created things; for of the trees too, as many as were tallest and most shady, to these they burned incense.

⁹ She that bore them brought them to shame. That is, she practiced every shameful thing — she who brought her children to shame, making them shameless, both by begetting them, and by training them in evil.

¹⁰ Because she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread, and my water, and my garments, my wine, and my oil, and all things that belong to me. She supposed, he says, that from her lovers — that is, from the idols — she has all things needful and useful for her life, and not from me the true God; wherefore she made her children unworthy of my mercy. And the Hebrews of today also go after such lovers — demons, and teachers, who deceive them — supposing that they will receive the loaves of the showbread, and the water of sprinkling, and the priestly garments, and the wine, both that for libations and that given according to the law to the priestly tribe as firstfruit and tithe, and the oil of anointing, and all the rest, whatever she brought to the worship according to the law. And if injustice and covetousness are inventions of demons, let him who thinks to do well no otherwise than by multiplying his own living, except through injustice, see that he too goes after these, as giving him the loaves, and the garments, and all things that belong. And observe: he did not say, The good loaves likewise that come from wealth as mine, but in all cases my loaves; to use what one has in a God-pleasing way belongs to gratitude; but the other man supposes them to come from going after the demons. So too he in the Gospel who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God, said, My goods, and my barns; for in another way too such a one was most akin to corruptible things, who indeed strove to make even the incorruptible thing in him, the soul — because it was upon him — corruptible, having made it fleshly.[5]

¹¹ Therefore, behold, I hedge up her way with thorns, and I will wall up her ways, and she shall not find her path; and she shall pursue her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and shall not find them. And this punishment too is full of love for mankind; for it procures the renouncing of impiety. For, he says, I set thorns in her way — that is, I bring upon them many troublesome and stinging things, wars I mean, and captivity, and bondages, and famine; constrained by which they shall no longer be able to serve the golden heifers. For how should they, who were even deprived of their liberty, and had no leisure to do their accustomed things, even if they greatly wished? Rather they shall recognize also the weakness of the demons, when, calling upon them in their calamities, they shall be nothing benefited by them. And she shall say, I will go, and return to my former husband, when it was well with me; then, rather than now. Having wrestled with calamities, he says, and having known the weakness of the demons — who were formerly gods to her, and who then were not able to help her — she shall call to mind God, the true one, who by nature is Master, but calls himself a husband, because such is the affection of a wife toward her husband, and their disposition toward the master, and God wishes there to be in men such a relation toward him as a wife has toward her husband; which the Apostle too seems to say: He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit; and again, The two shall be one flesh; this mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Closed up too for the God-slaying Hebrews were the passages to the legal worship, already abolished. Thorns for them were the Romans who destroyed the temple; or perhaps also the cross of Christ, which they fixed up together with two others, having become their undoing. They pursue, then, their lovers — priests, and chief priests — and nowhere find them; for they are not at all. Wherefore many of the Synagogue also turn to Christ — whom you would call her husband, inasmuch as out of her he became man; and the former, inasmuch as even before becoming man he was, as God. The husband; then say, The former, that is, the pre-existent, the one before all, the one from the beginning. Yet moreover Christ was the former husband of the Synagogue of the Hebrews also; for he it was who led them through, the captain of the host of the Lord of powers, and the spiritual rock that followed. And the signs too were done in the power of God; and Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. But also everyone who, through being well-bodied and spreading himself out among sensible things, despises God, and serves the passions — when he is fixed upon thorns and the difficulties of life, whether falling ill, or coming to want, can no longer attend to the same things; but the ways to those passions are blocked up for him, even if he himself has a disposition toward them, and seeks them, and is not allowed to enjoy them, being pressed by hardships.[6]

¹² And she did not know that I gave her the grain, and the wine, and the oil, and multiplied silver for her; but she made silver and gold things for Baal. Again he takes up the matter, and accuses the ingratitude of the Israelites, who attributed the abundance of the good things supplied to them not to God, but to Baal — that is, the god of the Babylonians, whom the Greeks called Bel, saying he is the same as Zeus. Honoring this one, then, he says, they made golden and silver offerings to him. He gave, then, to the Hebrews both the libations, and the firstfruits, and the silver — that is, the oracles of the law, and of the prophets. Whenever, then, you see the Hebrews not using the things of Scripture well, nor having come to the knowledge of Christ, nor attributing to him the gold and the silver (the gold as indicative of the Godhead, the silver of the manhood, which he made splendid in himself, having scraped off all the rust of sin; or the gold, as having introduced a pure life, the silver, as splendid teaching, and doctrines, in which he abolished the law of commandments) — but expecting all things for the man of lawlessness who is to come and is awaited by them, and attributing these to him: these reckon to be those here accused. But also the Greeks, and those of the heresies, having received from God the mind as gold, and eloquence as silver, and having misused these to the harm of many souls, and having dedicated them — that is, having given them over to natural reasonings, and dialectical, and sophistical, and having hung our affairs upon nature, and upon the motion of the heavenly bodies — are like those here arraigned. And the rich man too, whenever he uses his wealth not for the relief of the needy, but rather for tyrannizing over them, or even for insults, dedicates the things of God to Baal.[7]

¹³ Therefore I will turn back, and take away my grain in its season, and my wine in its time, and will remove my garments and my linens, so as not to cover her shame. I will turn back, he says; that is, I will choose another road, that of hardness, and I will no longer count them worthy of my good things. But I will take also the grain, and the wine from them, and, what is more grievous, in season; that is, when the fruits become ripe and mellow, then I will deprive them of these, that they may be the more grieved. And by garments and linens perhaps he means these sensible things; for they went off captive, naked and unseemly. But perhaps he brought in also his shelter and help, having which they were most glorious, and prevailed over their enemies; but having the unseemliness from bondage, they cannot hold together. And he took away also from the Synagogue of the Jews, in the due season, and when the fullness of time was come, the firstfruits of the crops, and the tithes, which are signified through the grain and the wine. For then he was made flesh, when the fitting season was, when all evil was consummated, and no form of it any longer remained, but it even burst forth its own depravity. Then came the Physician, bringing the great remedy of his own incarnation to the disease. And if the mysteries of the Church too are accomplished from grain and wine — these being changed into the body and blood of Christ through the blessing — let the disbelieving Hebrews consider how in them the prophecy comes true. And well is it added, In its season, and, In its time. For now these mysteries have a time and a season, of being accomplished through grain and wine; but in the kingdom of the heavens, they shall be accomplished in some other manner, newer and more mystical. And being deprived of baptism, they are deprived also of the garments of Christ. For as many as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ. But also from the faithful in the Church who sin the grain and wine — that is, the communion of the mysteries — is taken away. And since this happens proportionally to the sins, therefore he said, In a time, and, In a season. For not for all sins simply, and the chance ones, has the deprivation of communion been laid down as a penalty, nor for all those condemned to it simply is the same time spread out; but for some it is extended, for others contracted. And such men are stripped both of grace and of help, which, so long as it is with us, makes us walk seemly, covering and sheltering our weakness; but lifted from us, and forsaking us, allows us to do the works of shame. And perhaps too from those who sin in the priesthood, and are deposed, God takes away his garments, and the linens, the priestly robe I mean; so that their unseemliness be not covered by these, who appear sinless through performing the sacred rites.[8]

¹⁴ And now I will uncover her uncleanness before her lovers. Either he says this, that Just as she forsook me, so also she will forsake those, having known their weakness, and will be shown faithless toward them also, according to the saying, How long will you go limping on both your hams? either to God, God, or to Baal, Baal; or, When I show her thus behaving shamefully, they will not be able to help her, as being powerless. And hear also what follows:

¹⁵ And none shall deliver them out of my hand. By “hand” he names the punishing power, of which the God-slayers too had experience, being given over to the Romans; and those who sin, and are given over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved — like the fornicator in Corinth — experience the hand of the Lord. For the power that brings them to a sober mind, by divine dispensation, or by the permission of God, you will call a hand. So Job too: The hand of the Lord, he says, is that which has touched me; and the blows brought upon him by the enemy, by divine permission, were said to be arrows of the Lord in his body.

¹⁶ And I will turn away all her mirth, her feasts, and her new moons, and the sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies. For being taken captive into Babylon, they had no occasion either otherwise to make merry, or to keep feast. For how shall we sing, he says, the song of the Lord in a foreign land? Since they served neither God purely, nor the idols, but were of two minds, he says that, given over to the Babylonians, they shall neither perform the feasts to God — that is, the sabbaths, and the new moons — nor the other solemn assemblies to Baal. One must know, however, that a solemn assembly and a feast are not the same. For it is possible to be a solemn assembly, and not upon a feast; but a feast without a solemn assembly, that is, without a gathering, cannot be. The term “solemn assembly,” then, is more general. These things the Christ-slayers now suffer; for it is not possible for the impious to rejoice. And where is for them the new moon, or sabbath according to the law? But also those who sin, owing to mourn and to be downcast, and to wash their bed with tears, are deprived of the spiritual gladness, which God bestows on the pious, which has in them a certain beginning and origin of light. …of spiritual baptism, nor sabbaths, that is, divine rests; for the conscience does not allow them to have good hopes concerning things to come.[9]

¹⁷ And I will destroy her vine, and her fig trees, all that she said: These are my hires, which my lovers gave me. She said, he says, that from the idols she has the things that contribute to life — this being a reward they gave her in return for the idolatrous worship and adoration. I will destroy these, then, since she attributes them to the idols. …not to me, but to her lovers.[10]

¹⁸ And I will set them for a testimony, and the beasts of the field shall devour them, and the birds of heaven, and the creeping things of the earth. These good things, being devoured by birds, and beasts, and creeping things, because of the desolation of men, will testify against them, that they were not worthy to praise him, nor to enjoy them. And for this cause some of them being put to death, and others taken captive, they left these to the beasts. Or by “beasts” he means the Babylonians, who ate the good things in the fields of the Israelites, because they were besieged, shut up and famishing in the cities. And the vine and the fig tree might be understood as the law and the prophets: the vine, as yielding the wine that gladdens the heart of man, I mean the joy according to the Gospel; and the fig tree, having astringency, because of the laboriousness of the commandment, yet has nonetheless something gladdening, because of the promises in the heavens. For the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us. And the law, understood spiritually, gladdens in itself with the grace and the polity of the Gospel; as a vine, then, are the law and the prophets; and a fig tree, because to the infant Israel they brought forth sweet fruits, the promise of the good things of the earth. For if, he says, you hear me, you shall eat the good things of the earth; and the rough things they had in leaves — transient, I mean, and easily-withering things; for he did not threaten them with Gehenna, outer darkness, or the falling away from heavenly good things, but captivity, and bondage, and temporary death, and all such punishments. These, then, both the vine and the fig tree, were taken away from Israel, and given to the nations, who were likened to the birds of heaven, because of the lightness and senselessness of their mind, and because they were arrayed under the ruler of the authority of the air; and to beasts and creeping things, because of the savagery of their manner. Yet these nations, having followed Christ — who was made for us wisdom from God — cast off their senselessness, and were re-taught to mind the things above, where Christ is; and learning from him that he is meek and lowly in heart, set right the bitterness of their ways. And that to the nations was given the vine of the law, the Lord too says in the Gospel: The vineyard shall be given to other husbandmen, to a nation bringing forth its fruits. A vine too is the Lord, who said: I am the vine; and a fig tree, as being sweetness, and all desire. So long, then, as we do not go a-whoring from God, we delight in the Lord; but when we sin, we either become birds of heaven through haughtiness, or beasts of the field — that is, cattle — through desire, or creeping things of the earth through wrath (for their wrath, it says, is according to the likeness of a serpent), and then we deliver the divine word in us over to these within ourselves, by which it is devoured.[11]

¹⁹ And I will avenge upon her the days of the Baalim, in which she burned incense to them, and put on her earrings, and her necklaces, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord. These things I will do to her, because of those days in which she sacrificed to the Baalim — that is, the idols of Baal — and kept their feasts, using adornment of every kind. Now earrings are the ornaments put in the ears; and necklaces are the things hung about from the ornament around the neck; for a “necklace” is the ornament about the neck. With such adornment, he says, she kept feast to the idols, but forgot me. Perhaps, then, the Hebrews of today wear such earrings and necklaces, receiving the false teachings of the Pharisees in their ears, which also, as descending upon their heart, might be called necklaces, through which they are persuaded that they will receive back the legal worship, and will be consecrated to idols — that is, to the fabrications of their own opinion, according to which they make an idol of the temple, and the other such things. And whenever you see one sacrificing the idolatrous sacrifices, and attending in mind to such words — a youth immature, or an old man — and giving ear to these, and letting them down upon his heart rather than the words concerning chastity and self-control, and keeping feast to the idols, I mean to the pleasures, which are not truly pleasures, but idols of pleasure, because they have the enjoyment temporary and lying, but the pain everlasting and true — say the prophetic words over him.[12]

²⁰ Therefore, behold, I will lead her astray, and will set her as a wilderness. I will prepare her — this you will understand, either that I will provide a place to dwell in, this when she flees, and this when she is taken captive, and is deprived of all good things; which, as was said above, I will make a wilderness; or that, Running well in evil, and being borne toward the idols, I will lead her astray — that is, I will remove her from such a road, which is a benefit; for he who is led astray from the evil road — that is, turned about — is altogether brought over to the good. And I will make her also a wilderness, that is, dry, and useless to the idols. Formerly she seemed pleasing to demons, and they dwelt in her as in a resting-place; but now I will make her a wilderness, having nothing of the things loved by those, and for this reason to be shunned by them. So too the unclean spirit in the Gospels, going through waterless places, finds no rest there. For the holy and God-loving souls are not places to the demons, not having the filth that is dear to those. God made to be led astray the Synagogue of the God-slayers, scattering it into all the lands, as formerly was the multitude of the nations, which was called barren, concerning which it is said: Rejoice, O barren that bears not; Many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that has the husband. And would that for everyone running well toward evil it might come to pass to be led astray from this road, that is, turned about, and from disorder to be set in order, that is, to take order, so that no longer in him should desire and wrath rule over reason, but rather that one over them; for this belongs to order; and to become a wilderness, and waterless, not having the flooding water concerning which David prays: Let not the tempest of water drown me; and, If the Lord had not been among us, then the water would have drowned us. And such water might be the trials and assaults of the Evil One, in which the souls that do not sober up and are not able to hold out are choked.[13]

²¹ And I will speak to her heart, and will give her her possessions from there. I will surely make her take perception both of my glory and power and of her own offenses; and to her, having turned back from there — namely from the captivity — I will give her possessions, that is, the land, which she possessed before, having cast out the Canaanites, the land which she inherited. And plainly here he promises also the grace through Christ, when God speaks to the heart of those formerly cast away, as he says also elsewhere: Giving my laws into their heart, and upon their hearts I will write them. And all shall be taught of God, having the Spirit of God, teaching them all things, and Christ dwelling in their hearts. And he gives them also their possessions — the adoption, the grace, the glory, the reigning together with him. And what is, From there? That is, from the speaking to their heart; for from this we have such possessions. And the possessions of everyone baptized in Christ are the forgiveness of sins, and the mansions above, which one acquires for himself, each through the road that leads to it; for as the mansions are many and various, so also are the roads. And these possessions the sinner unacquires, and is deprived of them, so long as the divine word is silent in him. But whenever, having touched the heart, he speaks in it, then are given to him these possessions from there, that is, from the heart; for the kingdom of the heavens is within us, and our heart either takes these away from us, or restores them.[14]

²² And the valley of Achor, to open her understanding. Joshua the son of Nun, warring against Jericho, proclaimed that none of the soldiers should acquire any spoil taken from it, as being accursed — that is, dedicated to God — but that to him who acquired it, the penalty should be death, as to one committing sacrilege. Achar, then, having stolen from the spoils, and been detected, all the people stoned, by command of Joshua, in the ravine, which from this was called the valley of Achor, that is, Achar. He says, then, here, that I will give them the valley of Achor; for, I will give, comes from the verb to give; so that, having considered what Achar suffered in it, they too may take understanding, their mind being opened to not transgressing, nor giving offense to the commands of God. And in another way: since on account of the theft of Achar the people were being defeated, but after his death, weeping and lamenting, they propitiated God, he says here too, that just as those ancients learned, through the punishment of Achar, how great an evil transgression is, so also these through captivity shall take perception of their own negligences. But also the Lord Jesus destroys in the ravine those who set at naught his commandments, and make the spoils of this world their own, and do not render the things of Caesar to Caesar, and the things of God to God. And a ravine and a valley is sin: a valley, as making lowly; and a ravine, as setting us apart from God; and Achor means perversion, since it is so interpreted. So Christ, when the Hebrews tempted him with a question, was entangled by them, but turned their questions about for them, asking in return things harder to solve, not that he might perplex them, but that he might open their understanding, and bring them into the knowledge of the truth. Thus, when they asked him, By what authority do you do these things? he asked in return: The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men? And sin is a perversion, fallen away from the natural rightness. For God made man upright, and man himself sought out reasonings. Whenever, then, there is in us sin making a valley, a downfall, it opens for us understanding, and the knowledge of divine things. For in the destroying, it says, of the sinners in you — that is, the reasonings — then you shall see, that is, you shall behold, the divine things.[15]

²³ And she shall be humbled there, according to the days of her infancy, and according to the days of her going up out of the land of Egypt. In the manner, he says, in which they served the Egyptians, and after going out of Egypt, going up toward Palestine, suffered hardship in the wilderness; so there, that is, serving among the Assyrians, they shall be humbled. For he calls “infancy” the sojourn in Egypt, both because there the people began their growth, and because they were not yet given a law, but were unrestrained; for to be given a law belongs already to men. And it is a benefit to the boastful Synagogue of the Hebrews to be humbled, and to be made subject to Christ; just as in the beginnings it obeyed Moses, calling them to the freedom out of Egypt; and after going out, going up again, they obeyed him as he gave the law, saying: All things, whatever God has said, we will do, and we will hear. And just as, going up out of Egypt, they passed through the sea, and so inherited the land; in the same manner those who now believe in Christ, passing through the baptism into his death, acquire such an inheritance. Let him too be humbled who has just now been born in Christ out of water and Spirit, and let him not be lifted up over the gift of the forgiveness of sins, but let him say: By grace we have been saved, and not of works in righteousness, which we did. And even if he go up out of the land of Egypt, and toil in the working of the virtues, and attain to be able to say, I labored more than they all, let him add: Yet not I, but the grace.

²⁴ And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, she shall call me My husband, and shall not call me any more Baalim; and I will remove the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their names. No longer, he says, will they put my appellation — that is, “God” — upon the idols, nor will they say that God is Baal; “in that day,” that is, in the day of the affliction and captivity, but they will recognize me as God, and bridegroom, betrothed to them of old; and henceforth they will not even remember the name of the Baalim — I mean, of the idols of Baal. And having said, I will remove the names of the Baalim, he shows that this was his own work. And how did he remove them? Through casting them into afflictions and tribulations. And when the Sun of righteousness, Christ, shone, and made a day of his presence on earth — that is, a season — all idolatry was removed both from the Jews and from the nations, and the knowledge of the true God is a citizen among all. But also in those who repent, when the light of the Word, shining, makes a day, all the idols, and the passionate fantasies of sins, are removed, and no longer is the belly deified, nor has covetousness, which is idolatry, together with the other passions and the desires, any place there.

²⁵ And I will make a covenant for them in that day, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of heaven, and the creeping things of the earth. Either he says this, that Just as, when I was angered at them, I gave over the fruits of the earth to the beasts, and to the birds and the creeping things, so, when I am reconciled to them — having as it were made a truce with them — those too shall cease from devouring the fruits; or, by “beasts and creeping things” meaning the enemies who formerly set upon them, he says, that I will prepare them to make peace with the Israelites, and to deal most gently with them. Wherefore he also adds:

²⁶ And bow, and sword, and war I will break upon the earth. That is, upon the earth of Judea; or the word foreshows also the things that came to pass later upon all the earth after the coming of Christ. And perceptibly, all having come under one rule, that of the Romans, the many wars ceased. But also with the gentiles God made the covenant for the Synagogue of the Hebrews, having made them one, and having made both one, and having become a chief cornerstone, that he might create the two into one new man, and having through the evangelic law introduced the peace, and having persuaded men to despise all things, even one’s own body, for the sake of which are the wars. For he who said, From him who takes your things, ask them not back, and such things, wished us to have peace, which he also left to us. Of this peace he too enjoys who has subjected the passions to reason. And when does it come to pass? When one, having mortified the members that are upon the earth, makes a covenant; and a covenant over the dead is firm.

²⁷ And I will make you dwell in hope. Not only will I free you from the difficulties of captivity, but I will also settle you in your homeland, and will put good hopes in you, persuading you from the present things to hope also concerning the things to come. And reckon these things to be said already also to the Church of Jews and nations, which even now he has settled in his house, having granted forgiveness of sins, and has given to hope also for the good things in heaven; and to this fits also what follows; and hear:[16]

²⁸ And I will betroth you to myself for ever. What is, To myself? Either, that Through myself; for it was no angel, no ambassador, but the Lord himself who saved us; for to the fathers he spoke in the prophets, but to us in a Son. Or, that the old Synagogue he betrothed to Moses — wherefore he said also to him: Your people has transgressed; but the one that believed in the incarnate coming of the Son he betrothed to himself, as Paul too witnesses: But I speak concerning Christ, and concerning the Church. But neither did he betroth that Synagogue for ever; for the worship of the law was temporary; but now he betroths to himself for ever those who believe. And the bridegroom Word might say also to the soul cleansed out of repentance, that I will make you dwell in hope, whenever, having separated her from the Church on account of sins — which is the house of the living God — he again, when she has turned back, makes her to dwell, having received her, and does not thrust her away according to the unclean haughtiness of Novatus. Then he gives her also the better hopes, that he will receive her also into the heavenly dwelling, when the bridegroom becomes to her eternal. For whatever, he says, you bind upon the earth, shall be bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose upon the earth, shall be loosed in heaven.

²⁹ And I will betroth you to myself in righteousness, and in judgment, and in mercy, and in compassions. In righteousness, inasmuch as, just as through a man came death, so also through a man comes the resurrection of the dead; for, having himself become man, he was the firstfruits of the resurrection; and in judgment, inasmuch as he condemned the ruler of the world, because, not having found sin in him, he put him to death. And mercy, and compassions he displayed toward all, whom he saved not from works, but according to his own mercy through the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

³⁰ And I will betroth you to myself in faith, and you shall know the Lord. Since it was necessary that we too who have received mercy be not altogether idle and contributing nothing, but that we ourselves also bring in something, he says, that I will betroth you in faith; for he who comes to God must believe. And out of faith comes the knowledge of God. For if you do not believe, he says, neither shall you understand. And see that not in sacrifices, nor in the legal worship, but in faith does the Lord betroth those whom he betroths; and let those cease who boast greatly in the law.

³¹ And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, I will hearken to the heaven, and the heaven shall hearken to the earth, and the earth shall hearken to the grain, and the wine, and the oil, and these shall hearken to Jezreel. After the foretelling concerning the heavenly good things, he promises them the bodily gifts also. For being earthly and grovelling, they were drawn more by these than by those. He promises, then, that I will hearken to the heaven; that is, I will assent to the heaven, and will give it leave, so as to rain — it having by nature the power to do this, but contracted because of my anger. For just as the heaven, having a kind of disgrace in not doing its accustomed things, put forward this very thing as a kind of suppliant’s plea, I will hearken to it, and will loose this disgrace. And the heaven shall hearken to the earth; instead of, It shall fulfill its desire, as it thirsts and needs rain, and, as it were through its dryness, cries out that the drought must be loosed. And the earth shall make a peace-offering toward the fruits, and shall let these forth abundantly, and the fruits, which were before hidden, and not made manifest, to Jezreel — that is, to the son begotten of the harlot, that is, to the people formerly idolatrous — shall hearken, and shall be made manifest to him who calls them forth. When, then, the vineyard of the Lord — that is, the Israelite people — brought forth thorns, then the Lord commanded the clouds, the angelic powers, and the prophets, not to rain upon them, whence they were left both irrational and unadmonished. But when they were entwined with the true vine, Christ, then by the inflowings of wisdom and knowledge through the angelic powers, and by the waterings of the prophetic oracles, he fattens them. For those truly have the prophets, and enjoy them, who receive the things prophesied among them. And they who were formerly upon the earth, and minded earthly things, have the grain and the wine — that is, the partaking of the mysteries — and the oil, with which they are anointed for the contests, and for the wrestling against the principalities and the authorities. And then they receive these, when they become Jezreel, and a seed of God, having been made sons of God, through the birth in the Spirit of baptism. And a soul, so long as it sins, no heavenly thought falls upon it, but having become earth, that is, having all but lost its flesh, it is dry; but whenever it is wedded to the Word, then it receives the inflowings from above, and bears as fruit grain — the solid and life-giving food; and wine — the divine gladness; and oil — the cheerfulness and meekness; and again, Receive him that is weak in the faith, in a spirit of meekness; whenever one is overtaken in a fault.

³² And I will sow her for myself upon the earth; and I will pity her that was not pitied; and I will say to my people, You are my people; and he shall say, You are the Lord my God. That is, I will make her my own tilled field, and will cast down in her the seeds of righteousness, and of the knowledge of God. And these things came to pass typically in the time of Zerubbabel, after the return from Babylon; but in truth, after the Incarnation. For then those who believed in him were truly called his people, and he their God, truly and purely, and as it were a fruitful land the Son sowed for himself the souls of those fit for faith, which, seeing them even now bearing fruit, like those of the Samaritans, he said to the disciples: Lift up your eyes, and behold the fields, that they are white unto harvest already; and again elsewhere, The harvest indeed is great, that is, those ready for the faith are many; but the workers few — the apostles, namely, who were to take them up for the teaching. And no one who has mammon for lord, and the belly for god, can say to the true Master, God, You are the Lord my God.