Chapter 3

Chapter Two

¹ They became men who devise toils, and who work evils upon their beds, and at daybreak they accomplished them. Having told what they will suffer, he shows that they will suffer these things justly. For, he says, since the life of men is divided into these two — into night and day — by night they were planning their lawless deeds, and how they might bring toils and affliction upon someone; but by day they accomplished what they had planned, at early dawn, exhibiting no delay. And observe the phrase, “working evils upon their beds”; for instead of devising, he said working, at once to show that the thought is a work of the mind, wherefore we are also judged for it; and at the same time to make plain their effectiveness toward mischief; for their counsel, he says, was already a deed.

² Because they did not lift up their hands to God, and they coveted fields, and plundered orphans. They did not rise early toward God, so as to lift up their hands to him, as is the custom of the devout, but at daybreak they accomplished their evils. Or, that they did not seek good things from God, entreating him to become for them the provider of life’s necessities, but, being slaves to their own desires, they plundered the goods of orphans. Or they even plundered the orphans themselves — that is, they led them into slavery.

³ And they oppressed households. Not only did they harm orphans, as has been said, but they also oppressed households — that is, those of more honorable and more powerful fortune. Or because they took away the goods in the houses of the orphans, and the very houses as well.

⁴ And they seized the man and his house. They did both, he says, both plundering the man and leading him into slavery, like foreign foes, and his house as well — that is, all that was in his dwelling, and the house itself, and all who were in his house, enslaving them.

⁵ A man and his inheritance. The substance that lies in fields and possessions. The glory of the Synagogue of the Hebrews was the Law, which now, shaved off by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is no longer glorified because of the surpassing radiance of the glory of Christ; whose children — those living in luxury and dissipation, the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose God is their belly — were led captive by the Romans, because the things they had devised by night against the Lord, having seized him with swords and clubs, these they accomplished at daybreak, leading him away at dawn to Pilate. And they did these things because they devoured the houses of widows, and were corrupted in the rest of their life, and they hated the light; for their works were evil. And if hairs are a dead and lifeless thing, and “Zion” is interpreted “watchtower,” observe that he charges the watchtower of our mind to have nothing hairy in itself. For an eye could not keep watch, nor see clearly, while it has a hair in it. But whenever it is shaved, then it becomes most keen-sighted, like an eagle, which they say is the only one of living creatures that looks straight into the rays of the sun; and so too it judges its own young, whether they are spurious or genuine. For setting them face to face with the sun, whenever it sees one not looking straight into the rays, but blinking, it strikes it and casts it from the nest as spurious. And he urges us on to the shaving on account of the “delicate,” he says, “children.” But he has delicate children who is unable to say with David: Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways; but who is ranked among those who wear soft garments, and pursues the smooth and pleasant life. And he accomplishes his evils at daybreak who does not even think he is doing anything base, but parades his wickedness shamelessly and with bold license, who does not lift up his hands to God. For he works nothing divine and laid up on high; but coveting the good things of the world, which is a “field,” he corrupts others too, becoming a teacher of wickedness to those who are anyhow orphans, having fallen from the kinship of the heavenly Father. And he plunders the man — the soul — and his house — the body — destroying both, and depriving him of the indissoluble inheritance on high.

⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I devise evils against this tribe, from which you shall by no means lift up your necks, nor shall you walk upright, for the time is evil. They themselves, he says, devised evils against their neighbors; behold, I too devise evils against this tribe of Judah, just as also against the other ten; and these evils will be so heavy and burdensome as to bend down your hard and arrogant necks; and you shall by no means walk upright, but stooping, because the time is evil — that is, yours — that is, hard, bringing toils. So too in Solomon the saying, An evil distraction he has given to men, some read with the acute accent, even if others read it with the penultimate accent. Something similar David also foretold concerning the slayers of God: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back continually. For their iniquities were made heavy upon them, and they did not hear the Lord, who said: Come, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And affliction is good for the proud and stiff-necked man, who thinks he walks in uprightness. Concerning whom Solomon said: There are ways that seem right to a man, but their ends lead to the depth of Hades. For being bent down and humbled, such a one will say with David: It is good for me that you humbled me.

⁷ In that day a parable shall be taken up against you. That is, you shall be on everyone’s lips, and your evils shall be broadcast to all, one recounting them to another. Or, that you shall be an example to all, so that each says: May I not suffer as so-and-so suffered.

⁸ And a lamentation shall be lamented with melody. Strangers, he says, will hold you for a parable; but your own kinsmen will compose a lamentation with melody, and you yourselves over yourselves. And lamentations with melody are mournful and more pitiable.

⁹ Saying: With misery we have been made miserable. The word, making plain the excess of their weakness, doubled the name of misery. For not simply, he says, but with real misery have we been made miserable.

¹⁰ The portion of my people has been measured out with a line. Either he speaks in the person of those lamenting with melody and saying, “We have been made miserable,” and as it were adducing the cause of their misery; and this is, “That the inheritances of my people should be measured out”; or this is said in the person of God, that I indeed apportioned the land to them, but now it is measured out by neighbors and those dwelling round about. For finding the land deserted, they distributed it among themselves for farming. But also by those who took them captive it was measured out, as they laid tributes and taxes upon those who were left, and for this reason measured the land held by each of them.

¹¹ And there was none to hinder him from turning back. Neither Chemosh, he says, nor Bel, nor any other such god of yours, was able to hinder him — that is, the one measuring — from turning back from measuring. And this he says, mocking their gods. Or, that there was none to hinder my people, so that they should not go the road to captivity, but turn back from it.

¹² Your fields were divided up; therefore there shall be none to cast a measuring-line by lot. By strangers, he says, your fields were measured out and divided up; but for you, the people, there shall be no one to cast a measuring-line, so that a lot may be apportioned to you as well. This the boastful Jews also suffered. For they were firstborn, and the measured portion of God’s inheritance, and theirs were the promises and the fathers; but having outraged Christ as drunkards, they lost the inheritance among the sanctified. And henceforth the gentiles have become fellow citizens of the saints, and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. And David knows how to call plots and trials “lines” too, as in: The lines of sinners have entangled me; and, With lines they stretched out a snare for my feet. When, therefore, someone is plotted against by the tempter, and loses his divine portion, which, while he had it, he was able to say, You are my portion, O Lord; then the singleness of the divine portion in him is measured out and divided up into the manifold[1] and broad way of wickedness, and there is none to hinder him from turning back from such a way. But he casts a measuring-line by lot who makes the temptation brought upon him by the enemy an occasion for obtaining the inheritance in the heavens — such as was he who said: Being reviled, we bless; and, We take pleasure in weaknesses, in afflictions, and in all these things we are more than conquerors, through God who took pleasure in us. Which does not come to pass in us when our fields are divided up — that is, when our worldly deeds become portions for foxes, for the wicked demons.

¹³ In the assembly of the Lord weep not with tears. Having announced the grievous things, he brings in an exhortation that has much profit, and says that we ought not, when we assemble — that is, gathering into the temple of the Lord — to weep thus barely and superficially, and to acquit ourselves of mourning with tears alone, but to add also works of contrition and compunction.

¹⁴ Let them not weep over these things. That is, you ought not to weep over being led captive and having your land measured out, but because you provoked God; for that is worthy of tears. But the punishment for sins is worthy not of tears but of joy, because it is a relief from eternal punishment. So too Paul said: But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. For he will not put away reproaches who says: Thus has Jacob provoked the Spirit of the Lord, if these are his practices. The one who weeps barely, he says, and superficially, and circumscribes his confession with words alone, and says that “The house of Jacob” — that is, we — “have provoked the Lord,” will not put away the reproaches that are about to be brought upon him as he is led captive and otherwise afflicted, if indeed these are his practices, which were mentioned above, that “they plundered orphans,” and the rest. For then he will put away the reproaches, when he wipes out the practices. These things fit us too, who seem to confess but do not produce fruits worthy of repentance; or also those who weep, but over the failure of some perishable good, or over some unwished-for circumstance. These things are now proper to the Jews too, who weep, not on account of the abomination of slaying God, but on account of being driven and persecuted, and having no boldness against us, as also against the apostles. The prophet, then, forbids them this. For the Father, he says, who speaks and judges and declares that they provoked the Spirit of the Lord, when they said that Christ worked wonders not by him, but by Beelzebul, will not put away their reproaches, nor overlook both the things concerning the wonders and the other things which they reproached Christ with — if indeed up to now they hold such practices, and such a disposition against Christ, blaspheming him as a deceiver, and not heeding him as God.

¹⁵ Are not his words good and upright, and do they not walk with him? And formerly my people stood up in enmity against his peace. It must be read as a question down to “do they walk”; and what follows, in the manner of a character. For he says: My people speaks words of confession, and these words are upright, having nothing in their utterances that is crooked or blameworthy or in need of correction; but behold, through their works it appears that, like an enemy, he stands face to face against me. For this he makes plain by saying “formerly,” and he has deprived himself of peace, and handed himself over to wars and to the evils that come from wars.

¹⁶ They flayed off his skin, to take away hope, the crushing of war; therefore the leaders of my people shall be cast out from the houses of their luxury. Having accused the people as having opposed the divine laws through their works, even if they displayed a feigned intention, he now accuses the leaders, saying that the leaders became for them the cause of such a disposition; who, by persuading the people to commit idolatry, flayed off his skin — that is, my shelter, which sheltered him round about, as the skin shelters the flesh, against suffering easily — and took away from the people their hope in me, which was the crushing of war. For indeed he who hopes in idols deprives himself of hope in God, who crushes wars. For this reason, then, the leaders themselves too, the kings and priests, together with the rest of the people shall be cast out into captivity from their houses, which they built not simply thus, plainly and without elaboration, and for the need of dwelling, but lavishly, and for luxury and insolence.

¹⁷ Because of their evil practices they were thrust out. Let them not blame me, he says, that they were thrust out into Babylon — instead of “they shall be thrust out” — but their practices were such, when they themselves both practiced evils and persuaded the people to pursue the same. The words of the Christ-slaying people too were good and upright, when it said, For a good work we do not stone you, but because, being a man, you make yourself the Son of God; and again, According to our law he ought to die, because he said he was the Son of God. But these things they said to men; whereas before me, the God and Father, they appeared not as my avengers, but as enemies. Why? Because they stood up against their peace, who is Christ; and he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father. For this reason the leaders of my people, the many high priests, were cast out from my people, whom, being one house to me, they themselves made many, because of hiring out the office year by year. And in this, trafficking in the Law, they reveled at the people’s expense. And often someone, even feigning kind speech toward the brethren, has words good and upright, but is an enemy through his works, thinking nothing peaceable, but by the things he does standing over against his own peace, which he speaks with his neighbors, and flaying off the skin of the poor man, both by the other means, and by crushing him in his labors, and so squeezing him as to take away from him even the more cheering hope, which becomes the crushing of the war of despair and of blasphemy against Providence. For he who is afflicted and warred upon so as to blaspheme against Providence, when he is helped by the hope of good things, crushes this war. And what follows seems to contain punishment, and let this too edify the many, since God threatens that they shall fall out from the houses of luxury. But you will also understand by “leaders” and “rulers,” in a manner worthy of the Spirit, the souls which, appointed to rule, since they did not use their rule well, falling into temptations and afflictions, shall be cast out from the houses of luxury — that is, the bodies — with which they reveled. For the soul, while the body is doing well and reveling, is glued fast to it; but when it is afflicted, considering its corruption, it is ashamed to be together with such corruption. Wherefore it will say the words of the prophet too: Woe is me, that my sojourning has been prolonged; and the words of Paul, Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And whenever Satan, transforming himself into an angel of light, seems to counsel us good things, as also to Eve, he displays good and upright words; but if we look at the things ahead, and do not remain in the things present, we shall see him an enemy, in the very while he seems to be at peace with us. For he flays off the skin and the mortification which we received when buried together with Christ through baptism, and takes away from us our hope, who is Christ, the hope of glory, who crushed the war, abolishing the enmity in his flesh, and making peace for all things, things in heaven and things on earth. For this reason, then, our present leaders, the principalities and powers of darkness, shall be cast out from the upper mansions of the paradise of luxury, in which they reveled before their apostasy, into the outer darkness. And the saying, “Are not his words upright and good, and have they not walked,” and what follows, fits Judas too, who said: For this ointment could have been sold for much, and given to the poor; and, Is it I, Rabbi? — and who then stood over against the peace whose lord he, a man, was.

¹⁸ Draw near to the everlasting mountains; arise and go, for there is no rest for you. He says to the rulers: Since you were not willing to cherish my laws and to rest in your houses, go now to the land of the Babylonians, and draw near to their mountains, those of Ararat — which he calls everlasting, either because they were about to spend long times there, or because they were renowned from of old, on account of the ark coming to rest there. For in your ancestral land there is no longer any rest for you.

¹⁹ Because of uncleanness you were corrupted with corruption; you were hunted down, with none pursuing. He adduces the cause for which they will suffer these things, and says: Because of uncleanness — of idolatry, or simply of every sin, which makes unclean the one who pursues it — you were given over to this corruption of captivity and death, and of your own choice you brought the persecution upon yourselves, by doing the things that provoke me. Mountains too were those who taught the things of the Law, inasmuch as they were set on high, and upon the seat of Moses, but temporary mountains. To those, then, who seek such mountains the Spirit now says: Draw near to the teachers of the Gospel, who are everlasting mountains; for he who sent them to make disciples of all the nations promised to be with them until the consummation of the age; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Arise from sitting beside the shadow, and go, so as to understand something beyond the letter. For in the Law, he says, there is no rest for you. For it was a yoke which not even the fathers were able to bear, because by works of the Law no flesh is justified, but in Christ, who justifies by faith, and gives rest to the heavy laden. Where? By the water of rest, in which, being baptized, we lay aside the burden of sins. And since the fool is then corrupted in his practices, when he says, There is no God; fittingly the Jews too, having said that Christ is not God, and on this account having become unclean from his blood, were corrupted with corruption both of soul and, consequently, of body, when they hunted themselves down by rising in faction, as Josephus relates. Everlasting mountains are the angels too, to whom we are bidden to draw near, becoming, while they are fleshless, scant of flesh ourselves. Arise from sin, and go on toward doing something good as well; for sin is no rest for you. And perhaps, since the disciple of Christ has affliction in the world, and through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of the heavens, the word exhorts such a one to go, and ever to strain forward, advancing in the good; for he who walks the narrow way cannot rest. Everyone, then, who sins is corrupted; for he passes into non-being — into wickedness — away from God who is, and from virtue. But he is then corrupted with utter corruption, when he also has uncleanness, which is haughtiness. For unclean before the Lord is everyone who is high-hearted, whenever, doing the evil of sin, he still also boasts in it; whereas, if while doing the evil he comes to a sense of it, perhaps he is not corrupted with utter corruption, but more moderately. The word, then, teaches those who have fallen into the depth of evils, and despise them, that “Out of uncleanness and haughtiness you have undergone total corruption.” So that, if you wish to return from corruption and to live justified, tell your sins first, that you may be justified.

²⁰ A spirit has set up falsehood; it has dripped for you into wine and strong drink. The evil spirit, he says, which works in the false prophets, set up falsehood for you, the Israelite people, like a snare. Or, that it made falsehood firm and solid in you, and dripped into you the false prophecies into wine — that is, into the rank of wine; rejoicing in which, and receiving and accepting them gladly, you became drunk, and were carried away from what is fitting. And if no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, “Anathema to Jesus”; it is plain that for the Pharisees and Scribes, who say the Lord is a deceiver and demon-possessed and an adversary of God, an evil spirit set up the falsehood against him, and dripped this into them, so that they were drunk from it, and both said and did the things of madmen, both slandering him and crucifying him. And in us too the spirit of wickedness sets up the false fantasies of this life, which are otherwise without substance, and gives them a base and fixity, and drips into us the pleasure of them, like wine and strong drink, by which we are made unsteady and reel, falling now into one form of wickedness, now into another.

²¹ And it shall be that from the drop of this people Jacob shall be surely gathered together, with all. Awaiting, I will await the remnant of Israel; I will set their turning back upon the same place. Either this drop of falsehood, he says, which this my people received, will be the cause and occasion for all of being gathered into one captivity. For even those who seemed to be left behind and to escape, these too I will await unto the same rank of captivity, and I will set together their turning back — that is, their abandonment; for all who stumbled in like measure I will likewise turn away. And from the drop of Christ’s blood too, of which the people is the cause, who handed him over to the soldiers who pierced him, there shall be gathered together everyone of Israel who has believed, with all the nations, and I will await the remnant according to the election of grace; who are those at each several time turning back from among the Hebrews, and their turning back, from the shadow to the truth, shall come to be upon the same place with the gentiles, and there shall be one flock, one shepherd. Israel, then, was like milk — or rather, all men were; but the drops of the divine blood, becoming as it were rennet to this milk, gathered together the whole world. He who considers this drop, and reckons that God poured out his blood for our salvation, shall be gathered from his diffusion and dispersion about the world, and shall be Jacob, supplanting the passions through the practical life. Then, as he advances, God will await him, and rank him among those worthy to be named Israel, and to attain to the contemplative life, and will set their turning back, by which they turned away from the things here, upon the same place, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice.

²² Like sheep in affliction, like flocks in the midst of their fold, they shall leap out from among men. He all but sets before the eyes the things to come, and says that, just as sheep quietly lying in their fold, when affliction comes upon them from some quarter—as when a wolf runs in—leap up and flee, and so secure safety for themselves; so too the Israelites shall leap out from among men — that is, the Babylonians. For they will leap out to escape them.

²³ Go up through the breach before their face; they broke through and passed through the gate, and went out through it, and the king went out before their face. And the Lord shall lead them. He all but calls out to the Babylonian: Go up through the breach of the wall, which your soldiers broke through, away from their face — that is, the Israelites’; and having broken through, they passed on and went out, fearing no one; and their king — that is, of the Babylonians — went out before the face of the Jews, when they pleaded their case before Zedekiah. And these had God as their leader, handing the Jews over to them — that is, giving the Jews into their power. Or thus also: Since Zedekiah, seeing the city being taken, broke through the gate by the palace and fled, and many others did likewise; the prophet all but addresses Zedekiah: Go up through the breach, and flee. Then he says concerning the others too, that the rest also broke through before the face of the Babylonians — that is, the city being already taken, and the enemies having them in their hands. And here he also mocks them for their folly, who hoped to escape then; so foolish were they and truly drunk from the drop which he mentioned above. And their king Zedekiah too, he says, did the same thing out of the same folly, fleeing before the face of the Babylonians, whence indeed he was captured. And whence did they do these things? From divine wrath. For the Lord led them to do these things, betraying them to the enemies. So too he went before the slayers of the Lord, to do those things by which they handed themselves over to the Romans. And he hints that in the affliction under the Romans too, many of the Jews shall leap out indeed, and leap away from the men who deceive them, the teachers of the Law; and they shall rise up from their fold and from the rest in the Law. Then he calls out to every such one: Go up through the breach — that is, of the grace of the Gospel, which broke through the fence of the Law; think higher things, do not stand below. For the apostles passed through the narrow gate before the face of the Jews, being flayed by them, and imprisoned, and stoned, like Stephen; and slain by the sword, like James; and they passed through the door also, and entered where it conveys them, concerning which Christ said: I am the door; through me if anyone enters, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. And he, being their King and Lord, led them before their face, going before his own sheep as a shepherd. And all who live according to Christ, being persecuted, receive afflictions like sheep, not striving nor crying out, but they even flee from among men. For those whose citizenship is in the heavens, having become heavenly and gods, have nothing in common with these, to whom it is said: But you die like men. Such men, having broken through every fleshly tie, by the sword which the Lord came to cast upon the earth, thus go up the divine ascent, and pass through the narrow gate, and go out through it from this world, because their King too went out before their face, giving himself as an example; that as he suffered outside the gate of Jerusalem, so we too may do, and go out outside the gate of the world, bearing his reproach, which is the cross, our boast.