Chapter 6

Chapter Five

¹ Hear these things, you priests; and attend, O house of Israel; and give ear, O house of the king. Since, having gone before, he accused both the people and those false priests, and the royal tribe through Ephraim, now again he wakes them all up, as it were sleeping, and rouses them to hear. And since the priests are required to be more understanding than the rest, for these it is enough merely to say, Hear; but for the house of Israel — that is, the people — it is needful to attend. For if the common man does not greatly set his mind upon the things said, he will understand nothing of what is said. And to the house of the king — I mean the kings and those about them — he enjoins to give ear, which signifies something more than to hear.

² Because the judgment is against you, for you became a snare to the watch-post, and as a net stretched out upon Itabyrion, which those who hunt the prey have fixed. Against you all, he says, is the judgment — that is, This trial and reproof, which I now make. And what is the judgment? That to my prophets you all became a snare, and plot against them. For by “watch-post” he called the guard and order of the prophets. For they were as it were certain watchmen, announcing beforehand to the people the things coming upon them, as also to Ezekiel. And just as hunters set their nets upon Itabyrion (and this is a mountain of Galilee, high and thickly wooded, and therefore affording game of every kind to the hunters), so also you, setting your plots against the prophets, slaughter them. And it may be understood thus also, that You, the priests and kings and the leaders of the people, having been set by me upon a watch-post, and stationed in a high degree, so as to announce to the people what they ought to do, became rather a snare, accomplishing their destruction. For the priests were servants of idols, and the kings and the rulers magnificently and richly sacrificed to the abominations, by which the people were corrupted. These things will fit also the high priests, Pharisees, and Scribes who slew Christ, and king Herod; who became a snare to the watch-post — that is, to the lofty Christ, upon whom he that stands sees both more and better than the rest. Or did they not even attempt to ensnare him in words, and at last fix for him the snare of the cross, and spread out their manifold slanders and false witnessings like nets? And a teacher too, appointed to be such, and being in a high degree, if he have a blameworthy life or crooked doctrines, becomes a snare to those who look to him, standing upon the watch-post; and a net — not such as the disciples of Christ and the fishermen had, woven of wonders, but such as the demons, who ever hunt the soul’s prey, have fixed. Let us hear, we who destroy souls, whose net we are, and that it is not God’s, even though we stand upon the watch-post.

³ But I am your instructor; I knew Ephraim, and Israel I have not put away from me. Because now Ephraim has played the harlot, Israel is defiled. Since, he says, you have become such, I will bring upon you instruction, namely that of the captivity, and upon all the people, whom he signified by “Israel.” For I knew their works, in that I did not even put them away from me, so as to be far from them and not to behold them, but I am a God that draws near. But perhaps, since all instruction of the Lord comes from love, according to Solomon, the word “I knew” stands here for “I loved,” so that God says: I instruct them, because I loved Ephraim, and Israel I have not put away from me. For even if he play the harlot into idolatry, yet not even so have I thrust him away, but I am with him. And these things accord with what was said at the beginning to the prophet, when he was commanded to take the harlot. Who will not love such an overseer, instructing not in temper, but in love? These things are a lesson too for every ruler, not to chastise toward anger, but toward instruction and profit.

⁴ They gave not their counsels to turn back to their God; because a spirit of harlotry is in them. But the Lord they knew not. By these things their wickedness is shown to be voluntary and of their own will. For they gave not, he says, their reasonings at all to the true knowledge of God, because they received in themselves the spirit of harlotry, both the idolatrous and the bodily, and on this account they knew not the Lord. For what fellowship has light with darkness? How can one serve two masters? So also in souls it is not possible that almsgiving and love of wealth dwell together, or luxury and chastity, or temper and lowliness of mind, or truth and the pleasing of men.

⁵ And the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face. By “pride” he means the contempt of God, and the apostasy from him, which became more moderate when they were carried captive, than the arrogance which they had while they flourished in good things. Plainly, then, he says, they shall see what manner of thing is the fruit of impiety and of arrogance. For this is what “before his face” signifies. And the pride of Israel is in another sense idolatry; for to that very man, being reasonable, it is the greatest insult and disgrace to serve pieces of wood. Humbled too was the pride of the God-slayers against Christ. And since the face above all becomes the stamp and the token, the humbling looked to what was most recognizable to them — to the Law, I mean, and the circumcision. For the Law was their most peculiar stamp. For he made known, it says, his ordinances and his judgments to Israel; he did not so to every nation. And the circumcision was a seal to them and a mark. And to a soul that uses the divine goods insolently, humbling is profitable, especially if it come before its face — that is, if it discern the cause of the humbling, and, taking perception, recognize it.

⁶ And Israel and Ephraim shall be weak in their iniquities, and Judah too shall be weak with them. Both in the war, growing weak, they shall be defeated, and in the time of the captivity, they shall be as weak slaves. But the kingdom of Judah too shall be weak together with them. For the kings of Syria and the Babylonians took down many of their cities also, after the ten tribes in Samaria had been enslaved; wherefore afterward he made mention of Judah. And why shall both suffer these things? For their iniquities, both those by which they wronged one another, and those by which they wronged God, ascribing to others the honor that belongs to him by nature. He, then, who has not the Lord is weak; for David says, My strength and my song is the Lord; and Paul, I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me. For Christ is the power of God, and without him we can do nothing.

⁷ With sheep and calves they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall by no means find him; he has turned aside from them, because they forsook the Lord. When they are in dire straits, he says, they shall attempt by sacrifices to propitiate me, but they shall not find me; for I have turned aside from them; and the cause is that they themselves first forsook me. And why, when they sacrificed, did the Lord not appear to them? Either because they did not do it from the whole soul, but coldly and for the occasion; whereas the Law commands to love God from the whole heart, and from the whole soul, and from the whole mind; or because they went forth to the false gods as to the Lord, but the one who is truly Lord was not found by them — even as they called the idol too the living Lord. And mark the indication of two persons. For he has turned aside from them, he says — the Lord — because they forsook the Lord. And if the Spirit speaks these things in the prophet, behold the third person also. And observe that he has already brought to an end the legal sacrifices; for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. For by faith alone and by baptism is the Lord found, who forgives sins. But also to the soul that seeks the Lord with foolishness, which the sheep set forth, he is not found. For be, he says, wise as the serpents; and, Walk in wisdom. But neither is he found with bodily strength, which the race of oxen indicates. For the power of God is perfected in weakness; and, By so much as the outward man is corrupted, by so much is the inward renewed.

⁸ Because strange children were born to them, and now the blight shall devour them, and their portions. The Law forbade the taking of a foreign wife: Lest, it says, she turn away your son from me, and he go and serve other gods; which Solomon also suffered. But they took foreign wives, and begat children of them. Or by “strange children” he means those born of the Israelite women themselves. For these, he says, are not mine, nor were they dedicated to me, but to the idols. Strangers, therefore, they are. And by “blight” he means the harm that befalls from the dew of the air; or perhaps the Assyrian multitude, which, after the manner of a blight, both destroyed the men and laid waste and devoured their portions — that is, their inheritances. And with reason, having made mention of children, he made mention also of portions, all but saying this: since the children are strangers, with reason are they not worthy even of portions. And he said “now,” to signify that these things would be at no long distance. And the slayers of Christ too were strange children. For if you were children, he says, of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham; therefore the army of the Romans too was let loose upon them from above and from heaven, like the blight, and destroyed both them and their portions — that is, all the lands which Joshua the son of Nun apportioned to them; or even their priestly and high-priestly dignities. And whenever in the soul too there are born children estranged from God, and strangers to the covenants, to whom God might say, Strange children lied to me; and these are either godless doctrines or lawless deeds, then the blight devours the soul that is mother of such things — the disposition that comes to be in her from the ruler of the power of the air, who works in the sons of disobedience; and not her alone, but also her portions. For she is deprived of the mansions in the heavens, which she was to inherit, through each virtue toward each.

⁹ Sound the trumpet upon the hills, sacrifice upon the high places, proclaim in the house of On. Having said above that Now the blight shall devour, and having shown by the word “now” that the dread things would speedily be set upon them, he now mocks the weakness of the idols, saying: Since you sacrificed upon the hills and upon the high places in Bethel (which he named the house of On, that is, of the unprofitable; for what the Seventy called “On,” the other translators rendered “unprofitable.” And there was an idol of a heifer in Bethel) — call upon the help of the gods served in these places, and use the warlike trumpets and the war-cries from the high places, making your strongholds against the enemies the very places in which you sacrificed, and having with you the help of the gods that receive the sacrifices.

¹⁰ Benjamin was amazed, Ephraim became a desolation. By “Benjamin” he means the kingdom of the two tribes, which in many places he calls Judah; for at one time from Judah, at another from Benjamin, he names the whole by synecdoche. He says, then, that those in Jerusalem too were “beside themselves” — that is, were taken out of the midst, perished, as having themselves also acted impiously. For they too sacrificed to Astarte in the high places, and worshiped the sun, as Ezekiel says; whence some thought it was called the house of On — that is, of the sun.

¹¹ In the day of reproof, among your tribes, O Israel, I have shown faithful things. The things, he says, which I told them through the prophets, by the deeds I will show faithful to all the tribes, in the days in which I reprove their transgressions, chastening them; for “I have shown” stands for “I will show,” as “They pierced my hands and my feet” stands for “They will pierce.” And the Scripture uses the verbs thus, to show that to God nothing is future, but he anticipates all things by his foreknowledge and his predestination; and at the same time, to assure us that the things spoken will certainly come to pass. And just as it is impossible that the things already come to pass should not have come to pass, so it is impossible that these things too should not happen, which are spoken of as already come to pass. I showed faithful things also in the days of the cross and of the resurrection, having shaken the creation, and thereby reproving those men, but giving assurance of my own Godhead. Benjamin is interpreted “son of pain”; for Rachel, in bearing him, having travailed hard and being at the point of death, called him “Son of my pain”; but the father named him Benjamin. And every sinner is a son of pain: if he look toward repentance, being here in pain and mourning; but if he depart impenitent, being liable to the everlasting pains. And such a man, even when he sins, is said to be amazed, or beside himself; for sin is a being-out of what is according to nature, and otherwise comes from folly. Whence David too at one time says, from the person of folly, that his wounds stank against him, and at another, I said in my amazement: I am cast away from before your eyes. And when he repents, he stands utterly outside his wonted way. And if Ephraim is interpreted “increase,” let him that increases in wickedness see lest he become a desolation. When? When, in the days of reproof — that is, of the last judgment — he shall sit with his twelve disciples, who judge the twelve tribes of Israel, showing his Godhead faithful. For then they shall see whom they pierced, and shall know that he was no mere man.

¹² The rulers of Judah became as those who remove the boundaries; upon them I will pour out my onset like water. That is, They so transferred my laws, as those who remove the landmarks in the fields, by which the lot of each is recognized, and thus they carried over the honor owed to me unto the idols; or else he slanders them as covetous. Wherefore he says: So will I rush upon them, like a rushing water, and like some torrent roughened by many rains and snows, and borne along with an irresistible onset. The boundaries are removed also by those of the Hebrews who misinterpret the Law, and yet contend to hold it fast. For until John the keeping of it was bounded. Wherefore the wrath of God, poured out upon them like water, scattered them. And whenever a man, being a ruler of Judah, and having confessed and promised and determined to attend no more to the same things, removes such boundaries, and turns back, as a dog to his own vomit, the wrath of God is poured upon such a man all at once, even as the water of the Red Sea upon Pharaoh, who often lied, and was preserved according to his impenitent heart for the showing of the power of God; for God is not mocked.

¹³ Ephraim overpowered his adversary, and trampled judgment, because he began to walk after vanities. Having spoken concerning the rulers of Judah, that they removed boundaries, and having slandered them both as impious and as covetous, he brings the same charges against Ephraim too. For he slanders him as unjust, and as trampling judgment — that is, the right — out of mere power, and neither himself judging what is fitting, nor following others who judge. And the cause of this is his relation to the idols and his following after them. For vain are the idols, he says; whereas, if he reverenced me, he would keep my laws, in which the right is enacted. And these things might be understood otherwise: Judah, he says, did not once for all turn aside from the Law. For there were among them those who blamed the idolaters, and groaned over the lawless deeds, as Ezekiel testifies; but Ephraim, he says, won the most complete and evil victory; for he overpowered, as it were a kind of enemy, my Law, which he hated. And expounding it more plainly, he said this: He trampled judgment — that is, He took no thought of lawful righteousness, because he loved the idols. These things will fit also those who raged against Christ, who, having him for an adversary, as one who both spoke and did things contrary to them, overpowered him, trampling the judgment upon him — Pilate having judged to release him; for they followed their vain teachers. And if all things are vanity of vanities, as the Preacher said, the beginning of covetousness and injustice is to walk after the goods of the world, and to have them for a party-wall, not suffering one to see the things before and the things to come.

¹⁴ And I am as a tumult to Ephraim, and as a goad to the house of Judah. Since the kingdom of Ephraim perished first, both by the Syrians and the Babylonians, and that of Judah later: To Ephraim, he says, I will be a tumult, troubling him plainly, as when the war is already upon him; but to Judah I will be a goad. For seeing those perishing, he too was in no small anguish, and was smitten with the goads of cares, expecting that he himself would suffer the same things. And Christ too is neither a tumult nor a goad, but as a tumult and as a goad. For peace, he says, I proclaim, and I heal diseases. But they are goaded and troubled by envy, saying, Behold, the world is gone after him. And whenever, sinning, we run smoothly on and say, Peace and safety, or by our reasonings plead for the evil that is done, God, in his love for mankind caring for us, either troubles our smooth running in our wicked ways, or shakes our reasonings, casting in the goad of the remembrance of death and of the punishments after death.

¹⁵ And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his pain. From the very experience, he says, Ephraim learned his own weakness, and how his strength sickened, and Judah the multitude of his pains.

¹⁶ And Ephraim went to the Assyrians. For when Pul, king of the Assyrians, came up against the ten tribes, they came to him, and both by money and by embassy made him their ally.

¹⁷ And he sent ambassadors to king Jarim. When the Assyrians came up again (for they kept transgressing the treaties), they sent to the king of the Egyptians, whom he calls Jarim, not as being so named, but since Jarim signifies “avenger”; for they called upon him, as one who would avenge them. And that he speaks concerning the king of the Egyptians, he will show in what follows.[1]

¹⁸ And he could not deliver you, and the pain shall by no means cease from you. You called upon Egypt as an avenger; but he himself was proved weak, and from that time more pains came upon you, as upon men who had utterly despaired of salvation. And everyone who has offended God has one ally — to be reconciled to him; since all else is unprofitable to him, even though he spend himself in giving gifts to human helpers, even though he run beneath them; and the pain shall not cease from him: the one, in that he is in anguish over the things he suffers; and this too over the expenses which he poured out in vain. And you will aptly say that this was spoken also concerning the God-slayers, who called upon Julian as an avenger; and he was the same as the great mind of the Assyrians, that he might raise up their city again; but neither was he able to profit them, and the pain ceased not from them.

¹⁹ I am as a panther to Ephraim, and as a lion to Judah. By the panther he shows that the dread things will be set upon them swiftly and sharply; for swift and light is the panther. And by the lion, that they will be great and fearful; for such is the lion. So also the Romans were set upon the Jews swiftly (for it was a little while after the crucifixion) and fearfully; for they made all things vanish. And to the soul that increases in wickedness, the word becomes a panther, swiftly making spoil of her, according to that which is said, Call his name, Spoil-quickly. And this comes to pass whenever it pulls down the reasonings in us that advocate sin, and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God; but to Judah — that is, to him that makes confession — it becomes a lion by reason of his kingliness, now laying down laws for him, according to what is said by David, He shall lay down for him a law in the way that he has chosen; and, Lay down for me, O Lord, the way of your ordinances, and I will seek it out continually; or else as strengthening him, so that, having turned aside from evil, he may yet do good.

²⁰ And I will seize, and will go away as a panther. For being light, it seizes and flees.

²¹ And I will take, and there is none that delivers. But this is the lion, by reason of the strength of his claws, and his unwearied power.

²² And I will go and return to my place, until they be brought to nothing. Just as, he says, the wild beasts, after hunting something, return to their own dens, resting from the toil of the chase, so also I, he says, will go away by myself, keeping still, and not at the first making manifest my providence concerning you, as if I were at leisure, until you be brought to nothing. For God is present to the worthy, as he says also to Joshua the son of Nun, As I was with Moses, so will I be also with you; and, Behold, I am with you all the days; and, God is with us. But he is absent from the unworthy; as that, Why, O Lord, do you stand afar off? and, Come to help us; and the like. And, He that bound the strong one snatched us who were held under him. And no one was able to take us out of his holy and mighty hand; as he says also in the Gospel, that My sheep no one seizes out of my hand. And he took the first-fruits of our nature, and went up on high into his own place, where he was before, into the bosom of the Father; and immediately all the things of the legal polity vanished away. Have you not seen also in us oftentimes God snatching away the materials of our sins? A man having wealth, and being lifted up by it against the poorer, lost it; using strength and beauty ill, he sickened and withered; lifted up by honor to senselessness, he fell into dishonor. Having done thus, then, God goes and moves well, having before had no entrance into such a soul, and returns to his own place. And the place of God is the mind of the reasonable man, which, by being cleansed from the things that distract, becomes worthy of the divine reception, until the complete bringing-to-nothing of the human reasonings.