Chapter 4

Chapter Three

¹ And the Lord said to me yet again: Go, and love a woman who loves wicked men, and an adulteress, even as God loves the sons of Israel, while they look toward strange gods and love cakes with raisins. And I hired her to myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and a gomor of barley, and a nebel of wine; and I said to her: You shall sit for me many days; you shall not play the harlot, neither shall you be for another man, and I also will be for you. For the sons of Israel shall sit many days, with no king, and no ruler, no sacrifice, and no altar, neither priesthood, nor manifestations. The first woman, whom the prophet took, was a type of the generation that before the captivity had played the harlot into idolatry; but this second woman, whom he is now bidden to take to himself, is a type of those led into captivity. For just as she, having renounced her former lovers, chose to dwell with the prophet — yet the prophet did not consort with her — so also these, who were formerly an adulteress, in that they poured themselves out into idolatry and offered to the demons cakes, that is, loaves of fine flour with raisins (for such an offering too was dear to the demons, since those who brought it showed thereby that they held them to be the givers both of grain and of wine), shall, when they are carried off into the captivity, cease indeed from idolatry; yet neither shall they perform the divine rites, but shall sit idle, as being unable to sacrifice or to exercise the priesthood, because there are no altars; and the priesthood not being, neither shall there be the manifestations. And what this means, learn. To the high priest there was attached upon the breast a four-cornered woven cloth, a span in size, called the oracle, having twelve stones, through which the things to come were made plain to the high priest, certain divine signs coming to pass in them; whence this oracle was said to possess the manifestation and the truth. He says, then, that neither shall the manifestations be — that is, the divine signs through which the things to come were made plain. This, then, is the sense of the letter. But you will understand the former harlot to be a type of the Synagogue before Christ, which was also given to idolatry; and the one now taken, after Christ, who likewise is received by God on account of those who, by the election of grace, were in due season to believe — yet she is an adulteress, having given herself over to the Pharisees and Scribes, who teach for doctrines the commandments of men, and being wedded to things not perfected by the word of Christ. And the prophet hires her to himself for fifteen pieces of silver, that is, the five books of the Law and the ten commandments; for they are held under the letter, and are drawn along by it, so that they seem at least to acknowledge God, though wrongly. For he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father; and, You know neither me, he says, nor my Father. And the barley hints at the irrational nourishment which they feed upon, thinking nothing spiritual or worthy of reasonable souls. And the nebel of wine signifies their drunkenness and frenzy; for seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not understand, which is proper to those who are drunken. They sit, then, who do not believe in Christ, remaining unmoved in their unbelief, having neither a king perceptibly, nor a ruler, nor yet intelligibly; for there is in them no mind reigning or ruling, since they are not even sons of the free Sarah, who is interpreted “she that rules,” but are offspring of the bondwoman, who bears children unto bondage. Neither is there manifestation in them, nor truth; but, being truly blind, they sit in the darkness of falsehood, neither themselves understanding the truth, nor having wherewith to make it plain to others. For how could they, who slew the Word by crucifying him — him who said, I am the truth, and who made plain to us the things from the Father? For what I heard, he says, from my Father, these things I spoke to you. These are they who are here remembered, who also love the cakes with raisins, not receiving the loaves that seem to nourish the soul, apart from what is for favor and for pleasure. And altogether of this sort are the expositions of the teachers, having the sweetness of raisins and promising perceptible goods, which are altogether quick to wither. To this woman is like the man who seems to serve God for a wage and for the bestowal of perceptible goods — wealth being signified by the pieces of silver, whose number is fifteen, that you may learn that of such a man the whole body and soul and spirit has perception united and arrayed to itself, while the things needful for living, both moist and dry, are signified by the wine and the barley; or else it sets forth the proportion of such a life. Only, he who seems to serve for such a wage will quickly be transferred to another master, whenever the wage shall fail. So also David speaks concerning such a one: He will give you thanks, whenever you do well to him; that is, He will give you thanks, O Lord, whenever you give him good things; but as soon as these flow away, he will blaspheme you. Even so the enemy, hoping Job too to be some such man, begged him; wherefore he said: Does Job worship the Lord for nothing? Have you not fenced about the things within and the things without of him? And again, urging him on to blasphemy, he said: Speak some word against the Lord, and die. He who serves God for such goods, and not for the good itself, and loves cakes with raisins, not choosing the new and evangelical law, which seems even harsh because of the hardness of its discipline, but the baked and easily-digested and pleasant one. And since, according to the Proverbialist, he who is pleasant and free from pain shall end in want, with reason does this man too sit idle, performing nothing holy, nor being able to say: The hidden and secret things of your wisdom you have made plain to me.

² And after this the sons of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and they shall be amazed at the Lord, and at his good things, in the last of the days. The tribes were divided, as was said at the beginning, and there came to be two kingdoms: one, that of the ten tribes, which was called both Israel and Ephraim; the other, that of the two tribes, which for the most part was called Judah, though at times also Benjamin. And they continued so until they were carried captive into Babylon. But after their return thence, the twelve tribes, having taken perception of God and having sought him out, were united, and had one ruler, Zerubbabel, whom they also named David, because he was of the tribe of David, under whom they received the enjoyment of the God-given goods. And since after the fullness of the nations all Israel too shall be saved, the sons of Israel shall seek out, by believing, the king David, that is, Christ, the one mighty in hand (for this is what David is interpreted), who, having broken the gates of bronze, bound strong death, and snatched us as his spoils. Take these things, I pray you, as referring to the inner man. For perception is a harlot and an adulteress, looking toward strangers — that is, toward all things not proper to our nature, nor following after us. A stranger is wealth; for, it says, in his dying he shall not take all things with him. A stranger is glory; for his glory shall not go down with him. A stranger is luxury; for the other forms of it are temporary, and the things eaten and drunk, passing into the belly and into the privy, flow away. This perception the prophetic word, taking up its dwelling within, makes for a while to abstain from its wonted ways and to turn aside from evil, both by the fifteen pieces of silver — the oracles of the Law, I mean (for five are the books of the Law, given also to the imperfect and to those who live according to perception), and the dominical oracles, the perfect and perfecting (for the number ten is a perfect number) — and by the wine of a more austere conversion and of the remembrance of the eternal punishments, and by the gomor of barley, that is, of the finer and humbler discipline. Yet it teaches that such idleness is not praiseworthy; for one must, among those worthy to be called sons of Israel — that is, of the contemplative mind — be a king and a ruler, ordering what ought to be done; and a priest, slaughtering the passions of unreason and offering these to God: the temper, by being zealous on his behalf, like Phinehas and Elijah; and the desire, by desiring the things divine, such as was Daniel, the man of desires. For thus there will follow upon such a discipline both the manifestation from above and the illumination of the Spirit, so as to say with Paul: But to us God has revealed it through his Spirit. Only, the soul that for a while rests idle from evils shall afterward receive the king David, the one mighty in hand — that is, in the practical power — and shall be amazed at the Lord and at his good things. For in truth the soul stands outside its nature, whenever, made simple by God beyond all nature, it enjoys his good things alone, and is filled.