Chapter 2

Chapter One

¹ The word of the Lord, which came to Micah. He turns the hearer to attention, all but saying this: Do not suppose the word to be mine, but the word of the Lord of all. So that you must be sober, and listen more attentively. He is Lord, having authority, able to punish the despiser. And if the Lord is the Spirit, observe that he rouses us to hear spiritually the things about to be said. Do not remain, he says, in the letter, but receive what is to be said as a word of the Spirit, all things summed up into one Word, concerning whom Isaiah also said that The Lord will make a shortened word upon the earth. For if you believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. And since ‘Micah’ is interpreted ‘humbling’ or ‘one humbled,’ understand the Word of God to be indicated here—the one born of a woman, whose soul magnifies the Lord, because he looked upon the humiliation of his handmaid—both of her who says these very things, and simply of human nature; and because he put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the humble; and since[1]a broken and humbled heart God does not despise, and the Word of God comes to be in everyone who is humbled, giving him grace, and making him wise, and giving him understanding, and revealing to him the things which he hid from the wise and prudent. And if, through the active discipline, I have also humbled your body, buffeting it and bringing it into bondage, receive also the word of the contemplative discipline. For toward the man who is well-fed and lives in luxury, who though living is dead even while he lives, such a word could not come.

² The son of Morathi. The other translators of the Hebrew edition, by saying ‘the Morathite,’ give us to understand that Morathi, the father of the prophet, was not a man, but the place from which he set out.

³ In the days of Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Not in vain were the kings enumerated in whose reigns Micah prophesies, but because great wars occurred in their times. For indeed, in the reign of Jotham, Pekah son of Romelias, and Rezin king of Syria, marched against Jerusalem; then, when Jotham had died, Ahaz reigned, who, while the war still continued, having made the Assyrian his ally by means of money, brought down Rezin. And after this, when impious kings reigned in Samaria, the Assyrians came upon them and inflicted not a few evils on the ten tribes. He mentions Hezekiah also, on account of the miracle in the time of Sennacherib. Fittingly, then, did he make mention of these kings. For the things that would come to pass in their times, upon the ten tribes and upon the two, he foretells; and hear also what follows:

⁴ Concerning the things which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. For he beheld them, as in a vision; the things that were to be and to come to pass he not only knew, but even saw as though already present. Therefore, that they might not come to pass, for this reason the word of the Lord came to the prophet, and the prophet announces it to those who were going to suffer these things, if they did not amend. Know, however, that the greater part of what is said looks toward Jerusalem.

⁵ Hear, all you peoples. Since he prophesies concerning Jerusalem and Samaria, fittingly he calls not one people to the hearing, but peoples—those, I mean, of the two kingdoms. And since ‘to hear’ signifies two things in Scripture—both simply to give ear, and to obey—here he requires the peoples not simply to hear, but to obey and to attend to the things spoken. He adds, then:

⁶ And let the earth give heed, and all that are in it. The earth, that is, of Jerusalem and of Samaria. And making his discourse clearer, he said: All that are in it; for surely the element earth was not going to give heed. And perhaps someone will say that the discourse is brought by the prophet toward what is more fearful. For since the earth too will be destroyed, set ablaze by the enemies and its fruits laid waste, he calls it also to give heed. And it is a prophetic idiom to call the elements as witnesses: Hear, O heaven; and give ear, O earth, as Isaiah says; and this same prophet, in what follows, calls the mountains to judgment. The prophets do this, putting to shame those who are ensouled and rational. And so now too he exhorts the earth to give heed first, then those in it, showing that it was for their sake that he made mention of the earth at all, that, standing in awe of him, they might attend to the things to be said.

⁷ And let the Lord God be among you for a testimony, the Lord from his holy house. Let each of you reckon, he says, that it is not I, Micah, a man like yourselves, who testify these words to you; but the Lord himself bears witness to you from the holy house—that is, from the temple—making this attestation. So that you ought to give heed; for it is the Lord who speaks. He speaks from the house which you raised up, in which you were commanded to honor him, from which house he ever speaks to the prophets. And if you should understand the house to be heaven, this makes the discourse far more worthy of credence. For the one who speaks does not utter his voice from earth, but from on high, as the true God. And since the prophecy also contains certain great mysteries concerning Christ, for this reason he calls together not only those under the law, whom he names ‘peoples’ (because the proselytes too were ranked with the noble Jews), but also the whole earth, into which went out the sound of the apostolic preaching, that the whole earth might be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. And the only-begotten Lord and God became a testimony, inasmuch as he testified through the Gospel how one must be saved, and inasmuch as he witnessed before Pontius Pilate the good confession in his own times. And both these things are from the flesh, which is his holy house. For if he had not been made flesh, he would neither have preached the Gospel nor have suffered for us. But also, as many of the faithful in the Church as are chosen peoples—that is, who are under the kingdom of Christ—let them hear the things said; and as many as have become earth outright, let them attend to this attestation, which the Lord makes from his holy house—that is, the prophet. For the saints are houses of God.

⁸ Because, behold, the Lord goes forth from his place. The word ‘because’ take either as narrative, equivalent to ‘that,’ as though the prophet were saying: Hear, that the Lord goes forth; or take this very word as causal, as though he were saying this: Give heed, because it is no small thing that happens, nor such as to be despised, but the Lord goes forth from his place. Now properly, in the case of God, there is neither standing still nor motion; but by metaphor and figure these things are said of him; just as now too he calls ‘going forth’ the movement that comes out of long-suffering and stillness. For that toward which he was of old long-suffering, he says, now he has been moved against those who have offended him.

⁹ And he will mount upon the heights of the earth, and the mountains will be shaken beneath him. He will trample down, he says, those who are eminent, or even those who reign in Samaria and Jerusalem, and those who are lifted up in dignities and exalted like mountains; he will shake them away and remove them from the glory now belonging to them.

¹⁰ And the valleys will melt, like wax before the face of fire. By ‘valleys’ he names the lowly of the people, those who are subject to the lofty and to the rulers, as the valleys are to the mountains. And these too, he says, even if for the present they are hard and unyielding toward submitting to God, nevertheless will melt like wax under the wrath of the Lord, which burns them up after the manner of fire.

¹¹ And like water carried down in a descent. That is, they will go down to the depths in such a way as water borne down a slope; for by ‘descent’ he names a place that slopes downward. Or, because they will swiftly be resettled into the land of the Persians and Medes, after the manner of water carried down. The only-begotten Son also went forth from his place, the Father’s bosom, being seen upon the earth and dwelling among men; and he mounted upon the heights of the earth—of the legal polity, I mean—teaching us to pursue it in a lofty manner, and not lowly and earthly, attending to senseless sacrifices and circumcisions and the other things of that kind. The saying, You shall not swear falsely, is like a kind of earth lying below; but the saying, Do not swear at all, is a height of earth, and so are all other such sayings. He also shook the mountains on the day of the cross, on which he also removed the adverse powers from their authority against us. And those who are subject to these wicked mountains, like valleys, and who receive all the depravity flowing upon them from these—the Pharisees and Scribes—melted before the face of the fire of his divinity. For when he had risen as God, their counsels were brought to nothing, and flowed away like water. David too seems to say the same things concerning these: They shall be brought to nothing like water passing through; like wax that is melted, they shall be taken away. And understand that the Lord also goes forth from his place—that is, from his own height—and the earth and lowliness of human nature is exalted, and then he mounts upon its heights; for unless he too should condescend, and we be lifted up, his goodness remains unmingled, and his love for mankind incommunicable; and not finding heights of earth, he no longer mounts; for it is the lofty things that receive his mounting. Then indeed our mountains too are shaken—wealth and glory, which appear to us unstable and inconstant—when the divine glory is revealed, which is the truly stable and abiding. And they come then to be beneath the Lord, when we use them well, and according to the commandment of the Lord: wealth, for supplying the needy with what they need; and glory, for siding with the more lowly against the more powerful. And our valleys too—the dispositions that receive the confluence of the passions—melt, as though that fire of Gehenna were lying before our eyes.

¹² For the ungodliness of Jacob is all this, and for the sin of the house of Israel. He gives us hence to understand that the things he said concerning mountains and valleys were not about these inanimate things, but about men who were going to suffer certain dreadful things. For what was going to befall the ungodly in Samaria, or those sinning in Jerusalem, if the mountains were shaken and the valleys melted? By ‘Jacob,’ then, he calls the ten tribes in Samaria, which he also says were ungodly, as having departed from God to the idols; and by ‘Israel’ the two in Jerusalem, which he blames as having sinned, which is lighter. For the one who has departed entirely from God is ungodly; but the one who stumbles in the working of the divine commandments sins. For this reason, to those who were ungodly he assigns the natural and lower name, ‘Jacob’; but to those in Jerusalem the more spiritual and more honorable one; for having the divine temple, they had many godly men.

¹³ What is the ungodliness of the house of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? That is, the things done in Samaria, these were ungodliness, for they served idols; and the things practiced in Jerusalem, these were sin. For indeed they wronged and overreached the poorer sort, and did many such things—unless perhaps someone will say that he most emphatically declared the cities themselves to be, the one ungodliness, the other sin; so as to show that these had become ungodliness itself and sin itself.

¹⁴ And I will make Samaria like a watchman’s hut in a field. Those who guard the fruit-harvest, setting up some cheap huts and remaining in them, keep watch as long as the fruits are there; but after the season of the fruit, they leave these huts deserted. He threatens, then, that the divine angels who guard the people in Samaria will withdraw and leave it deserted, so that it will be broken down like a hut.

¹⁵ And for a planting of a vineyard, and I will pull down her stones into a chasm, and I will uncover the foundations of the earth. That is, just as those who are about to plant a vineyard cut up the suitable place with plows, turning it up and down, so too will Samaria suffer. For it will be dug down, and will have neither walls nor houses; nor even the altars of the idols and the precincts. But also her stones will be pulled down—that is, demolished into a chasm, namely a sufficient depth—so that the foundations too are uncovered, and it seems thereafter to be suitable for the planting of vines.

¹⁶ And all her carved images they will cut to pieces. Those whom they expected, he says, to be saviors for them, as gods, these the Babylonians will cut to pieces: some, as being of wood, for burning; others, as being of gold and silver, for an abundance of wealth.

¹⁷ And all her hires they will burn with fire; and all her idols I will make into an annihilation. Because she gathered from the hires of fornication, and from the hires of fornication she heaped them together. The temples, he says, and the altars, and the votive offerings which she dedicated to the idols as a kind of wage, as to benefactors and suppliers of all manner of goods—these the Babylonians will burn. For indeed she gathered and heaped together much wealth, beheld in votive offerings and treasures; that is, she collected and piled it up for the honor of idols, from such-like hires of their fornication—that is, of their idolatry. For giving costly hires to the demons, as to benefactors, as has been said, she gathered together many votive offerings. And it is likely that the harlots too, receiving wages for their licentiousness, offered firstfruits from these to the idol of the licentious demon, of Astarte, that is, of Aphrodite. Or you will understand ‘the hires’ in another way also: for their gold, he says, and their silver, and their wine, the enemies will burn—the things which the Israelites supposed were given to them as hires by the idols, on account of their idolatry. Then, as though deriding Israel, God says ironically that the wealth which she gathered she had from the idols, as it seemed, who gave it to her as the wage of fornication—that is, of idolatry—and from such wages she ‘heaped together’; that is, she became something firm and compacted and steadfast. The worship according to the law became like a watchman’s hut, accounted of some worth as long as the law had its season; but when that passed away, like the fruit-harvest (for this too is short-lived, and provides no solid nourishment), then it too was forsaken, when also her stones were pulled down—that is, the weightier matters of the law, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. And her foundations were uncovered—the Spirit, which until then lay in hiding; and it became truly a planting of a new vineyard, of the people from the nations, when the Pharisaic teaching was burned by the fire of the Spirit, which sat upon the apostles; for which teaching they were receiving hires from the people, out of which they gathered wealth and ‘heaped it together,’ perverting the ways of the Lord, the straight and simple ones, and advancing into disputations and convolutions of words. As a watchman’s hut is forsaken by the Lord, so too is a soul that does not keep the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and the rest which are enumerated by Paul, but cherishes the short-lived and transient fruit of this age, which resembles the fruit-harvest, producing swelling and inflation in those who take it to themselves. But perhaps this forsaking is profitable to her. For her stones are pulled down—which is the hardening of her heart—and her foundations are uncovered, when she confesses her reasonings, which are the foundations of deeds; and then she becomes a planting of a vineyard, receiving Christ, who said to his disciples: I am the vine, you are the branches. Such a soul, when it served the enemy, received hires from him—wealth, perhaps, and glory—as he fawned upon her through these, as though saying to her: All these things I will give you, if you fall down and worship me; all of which such a soul gives over to the fire of the Gospel, which the Lord came to cast upon the earth; for wherever the evangelical word enters, there wealth and glory are consumed.

¹⁸ For this cause she will lament, and mourn, and go barefoot and naked. Because, he says, she committed fornication away from me, and gave wages to the idols, the votive offerings; or because she supposed she had from them, as wages for her worship, both wealth and the other goods; for this cause she will fall into calamities, and lament, and mourn, and go barefoot and naked—which means, she will be led away into captivity. For such is the appearance of captives. So too Isaiah, intimating the captivity that was to come upon the people, said: He walked about Jerusalem naked and barefoot.

¹⁹ She will make a wailing, like that of dragons. He shows the magnitude of their affliction by these words. For they say that dragons, when they are struck, make painful hissings, and beat the ground with their tails.

²⁰ And mourning, like that of the daughters of the Sirens. The Greeks say that the Sirens are certain winged creatures of human form, knowing how to sing sweetly and bewitchingly; but the divinely inspired Scripture calls ‘sirens’ the more talkative of the little birds, those wont to be tuneful; or sometimes the halcyons themselves, which sing mournful songs. Since, then, those who mourn are wont to lament with some melody, for this reason he made mention of these melodious creatures.

²¹ Because her plague has prevailed, because it came as far as Judah, and reached as far as the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem. Here he signifies, on the one hand, the captivity brought upon Samaria by Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser, the kings of the Assyrians; for he names that a ‘plague’ which prevailed over her, because they were given over to utter destruction by Shalmaneser. And he signifies also the assault of Sennacherib, when he came upon Judea and seized some of the outlying cities, and reached even to the gates of Jerusalem; for he besieged it through Rabshakeh, who served as his lieutenant. And you can understand the ‘plague’ also as idolatry, which, beginning from Samaria, in the end devoured Jerusalem too. The Jews mourn and lament even now, but their mourning is full of the venom of the dragon. For not bearing to submit to Christians, they seek their ancient glory, and go barefoot. For they did not bind their feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, but destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; and they are naked, as not having put on Christ. And these things have come upon them because their plague has prevailed—the plague with which they were stricken in the matter of Christ, who worked miracles—which passed as far as Judas the traitor, and reached the gate of the people, the broad way, I mean, of life, walking which they bore a grudge against Christ, who said: Enter through the narrow gate; and this, though they inhabited Jerusalem, the city of the great King, in which righteousness was begotten. In her too there laments the wailing of dragons even the man who grieves with the grief of the world, mourning either over loss of money, or over desire of glory, or over some other such thing. This wailing belongs to demons, the intelligible dragons. This mourning is also that of the daughters of the Sirens—of souls most akin to the pleasures of life, which are the Sirens. Observe, however, that the Sirens have daughters, not sons; for nothing male is an offspring of pleasure. Such a man will go the last road of life, barefoot indeed, as not having willed to place beneath his feet the leathern life, and thereby to procure safety for his own steps (for one then guards the feet of the soul, when he will set the things of the flesh beneath them, so that, trodden under by them, they are made subject to them); and naked, as having no covering for the unseemliness of his works. I say something of this sort: Often a man who sins in one thing succeeds in another; and at the judgment, when the better deeds are weighed against the wicked, some help comes to him. But whenever someone departs thither without help, having received in his lifetime whatever good he had, he goes, with respect to that wealth, naked, having only the works of shame uncovered.

²² You from Gath, do not magnify yourselves; and you Enakim, do not build up out of a house a derision. Since he had bidden all the tribes of Israel to grieve, and foresaw that the foreigners would rejoice over their calamities, he turns his discourse toward them, and says: Do not be high-minded, you who inhabit Gath (this was the mother-city of the foreigners); nor lift up lofty laughter against the Israelites out of your house; that is, supposing that you dwell in safety and abide in your habitations, do not laugh at those being led captive and rising up from their homes. And ‘Enakim’ is not, as some supposed, some other city beside Gath; but he names the inhabitants of Gath ‘Enakim,’ as being descendants of Enak the giant.

²³ Scrape the earth for your derision. That is, Instead of derision, scrape the earth—at once as mourning together with those being led captive, and at the same time considering the calamities that will befall you yourselves as well. For you will not be left unstricken, but Sennacherib will lay hold of you also—which indeed came to pass. Some take it thus: Now you build up laughter out of a house—that is, out of seeing the house of Israel led captive; but do not so; rather, as you yourselves also are going to suffer the worse, scrape down, as a kind of earth, the laughter that will be against you, and bewail your own calamities.

²⁴ She who inhabits her cities well did not come out; she who inhabits Sennan, to lament a house adjoining her, will receive from you a plague of pain. Since, he says, Sennan supposed that she dwelt well and securely in her cities, which were fortified, and for this reason did not lament the house of Israel—you who adjoin her—she too will share in your calamities, and will herself also have a plague of pain from you; that is, such as are your plagues and pains. These things are also admonitions for you, against laughing at the falls of enemies, even as a certain wise man also said: If your enemy fall, do not rejoice over him, lest the Lord see, and it not suffice him.[2] And observe the sequence of the admonition: first he forbade laughing, then he showed that not grieving together is also liable to account. For he who himself dwells well and is in prosperity is condemned if he does not grieve together with those in calamities; but when he himself even brings on the calamities, or intensifies them, of what is he worthy? And he who fattens the body, which is the house of the soul, out of this house builds for himself derision and shame in the age to come. And perhaps he likens to the Enakim also the soldiers who crucified the Lord, as being themselves God-opposing giants; whom he bids not to be high-minded that they crucified him, nor to build up and increase derision out of the flesh of the Lord, which was the house of the Godhead. For they mocked him, putting a robe about him and placing a crown upon his head; but Sennan too, he says, which interpreted means ‘rock,’ might be understood as the hard and stony Synagogue of the Jews, which did not lament the house when it was being crucified, although it adjoined her—that is, was neighbor to her and kindred (for from her is Christ according to the flesh)—or held fast to her, and did all things on her behalf. For this reason she will receive a plague of pain from you, the Roman soldiers, when she will be destroyed by your armies.

²⁵ Who began pains for her who dwells in good things? Because evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem—a clatter of chariots and of horsemen. Some understood it thus: that, making his discourse toward Jerusalem, he says: Who began pains for her who dwelt in good things? That is, Who brought the pains upon Jerusalem, formerly flourishing and dwelling in peace and in many good things, save surely the Lord? Wherefore he also adds, that Evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem—that is, the things that work affliction, which are a clatter of warlike chariots and of soldiers, who are carried on them and ride. But some say that God speaks to those in Gath and the rest, as follows: You suppose that you yourselves remain unharmed through the strength of your own gods, but that those of Israel were handed over to their enemies through my weakness; but you suppose wrongly. For who began good things for Jerusalem, which dwelt in pains? Who freed her from Sennacherib? No other at all than I. And she dwelt in pains because I, the Lord, permitted the evils of the siege to come down upon her, so that I, having handed her over to pains, again began good things for her; but you, when you come to be in evils, will not have one to do good to you. Evils came down upon the gates of Jerusalem also from the Lord of glory, whom they crucified; and for this reason the Christ-slaying multitude dwelt in pains; but the Church began good things for her, and the Christ proclaimed in her. For as many as, having turned, confessed Christ, came to be in the good things of the Jerusalem above. The repentant soul too dwells in pains, which, when it is at the gates of Jerusalem—that is, at the beginning of the life according to God—has evils, that is, affliction and tribulation, coming down upon it from the Lord, who commands: Enter through the narrow gate and through many tribulations, which make you enter into the kingdom. But none other begins good things for her than he who said, the Lord: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted; and, Come, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And how does he begin good things? As having inaugurated for us the way into the heavens, and having said to the thief: Today you will be with me in paradise. And where he himself is, there too will his servant be.

²⁶ She who inhabits Lachish, she is the beginning of sin for the daughter of Zion, because in you were found the ungodlinesses of Israel. Since Sennacherib sacked Lachish, while prevailing nothing against Jerusalem, and Lachish perished first, he says: Justly did you undergo this utter destruction, you who inhabit Lachish, because the ungodlinesses of the ten tribes too were found in you, and you yourself also served idols—nay rather, you became for Jerusalem teacher and originator of this ungodliness.

²⁷ For this cause you will give those sent away as far as the inheritance of Gath, vain houses. Since, he says, O Lachish, you were ungodly, you too will give those sent away—that is, led captive and resettled out of all your borders as far as Gath—on account of the vain houses of the idols.

²⁸ In vain did they prove to the kings of Israel, until I bring the heirs to you. There is also another reading: ‘until they bring the heirs.’ He explains why he named the houses of the idols ‘vain,’ and says that: In vain did they prove to the kings in Samaria; for they were nothing profited by the idolatrous houses; just as neither will you yourself be profited by these houses which you honored, as did the Samaritans. Nevertheless these things will befall you, O Lachish, until I, having freed the captives, lead them back to you, and restore them to their ancestral inheritances. Or he calls the enemies ‘heirs,’ those who were going to inherit their land. He says, then, that the kings of Samaria had the idolatrous houses, until, by the things they did, they brought the enemies upon themselves. But some take it thus: Since those in Gath said that God, being weak, was not able to deliver the Israelites, the Lord shows them that it was not through his weakness, but through their own ungodliness, that they were handed over; and he makes Lachish an example, which, having been ungodly, was handed over to Sennacherib. The prophet, then, as though exulting over these, says to God, that: You will give those sent away, O Lord—that is, as captives—the vain houses, namely the inhabitants of Lachish and of Gath; for the captivity will lay hold of the inheritance too. For Scripture knows how to name the inhabitants and the families ‘houses,’ as is plain from elsewhere, as in the phrase: The house of Levi, and the house of Aaron; and from this very prophet, who says at the beginning: What is the ungodliness of the house of Jacob, and the sin of the house of Judah? Then the prophet, lamenting, says that for the kings of Israel in Samaria the things they served as idols proved in vain, and, as it seems, they were zealous to do all the things they did, until they brought the heirs—that is, the enemies, who inherited their land.

²⁹ She who inhabits Lachish: the inheritance will come as far as Odollam. This inheritance, he says, which the enemies are about to inherit among your possessions, will not halt as far as you, O inhabitant of Lachish, but will come even as far as Odollam, which lies at the farthest bounds of Judea; so that what is said is of this sort: From one end of Judea to the other end the captivity will come. Houses ‘sent away’ are the Jewish synagogues; for he sent them away, even as he also forsook them, who said: Behold, your house is left to you desolate; which houses proved, even if in vain, to the rulers of the Israelites, until the Lord brought the true heirs, the nations. And since Aquila put ‘the heir’ in the singular, he gives us to understand that the houses will be vain—both those of the idols and the synagogues; for these too are vain. For there is one house for the Lord, which they made a hyena’s den. They will be so, then, until the heir Christ comes, whom the wicked husbandmen, seeing, said: This is the heir; come, let us kill him. This one, then, having come, will dissolve both the houses of the idols and the Jewish synagogues; and if any, having become pure of God, and having had the Spirit of God dwelling in them, then outraged the Spirit of grace, and looked to vanities and false madnesses, raging after the false pleasures of the world, both became vain houses and will be ‘sent away,’ hearing: Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness; and, Go into the outer fire; when the Judge, who is also their co-heir, will bring the heirs nearer, saying to them: Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.

³⁰ The glory of the daughter of Zion: shave yourself and shear over your delicate children.[3] Not Lachish alone, he says, nor Odollam will suffer the dreadful things; but you too, O Zion, will have experience of them. Therefore shave yourself and be shorn, taking up a mournful appearance, for the sake of the children, which formerly lived in luxury, then were to be led away into captivity and affliction.

³¹ They were taken captive away from you. Just as the eagle, he says, at a certain season is stripped of all its feathers, and is not even able to hunt in this season, until its feathers are renewed for it again; so too you, stripped of my providence, will not be strong against the enemies, but will rather be easy prey for them. Or: Precisely you too, shave yourself, and shear off all your hair, just as the eagle casts off all its feathers, because your children were taken captive, whom you reared in all luxury, never having experienced anything grievous. And they say that the eagle grieves exceedingly also at the loss of its young.