Chapter 7

Chapter Six

¹ Hear now what the Lord has said: Arise and plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O hills, the judgment of the Lord, and you ravines, the foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will dispute with Israel. Intending to show the Israelites’ ingratitude, he introduces a tribunal and entrusts the judgment to the mountains—not that they possess a soul or reason, but because the mountains and the ravines at one time received the corpses of Sennacherib’s army, struck down by an angel, and at another the countless slain of the Scythian host. These mountains and these valleys he makes witnesses both of his beneficence and of their ingratitude toward it. And in another sense: since they, though endowed with reason, fell sick with unreason, he brings the irrational things forward to their judgment. He says, then, Arise, and plead your case before the mountains—that is, before the mountains, so that the meaning is, “Plead your case with me before the mountains as judges.” Or: “The mountains themselves will accuse you in my stead; and if it is possible for you, make your defense, and undo the accusation.” And in yet another sense: since it was on hills and mountains that the Israelites performed their rites to the demons, “These very things,” he says, “accuse you; and if you have any defense, speak it.”

² My people, what have I done to you? Or in what have I grieved you? Or in what have I troubled you? Answer me. Tell me, he says, the cause of your enmity; show whether you have experienced anything grievous from me. Then, since he must be silent, having nothing to say, he presses on, saying:

³ Because I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam? Did I wrong you in this, he says, that I brought you up out of the land of Egypt? Then, lest they could say, “We were harmed, being led up out of such a fertile land, which furnished us onions, and garlic, and meat, which their fathers also longed for in the wilderness?”—he added, “Out of the house of bondage I redeemed you.” For even if the land was good and fertile, yet you were not among good things; for as regards you it was a house of bondage. And not this only, but I also gave you leaders, wondrous men who conducted you safely through every danger. Nor did I deprive even the women of my providence, but I deemed these also worthy of fitting care, setting Miriam over them, who shared in the prophetic Spirit.

⁴ My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab plotted against you, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him, from the Reeds as far as Galgal, that the righteousness of the Lord might be known. He still calls them his own people, so as both to show his own kindness and their ingratitude—that they rebel against one so kind—and at the same time to shame them, that they might at some point come to their senses and turn back to him; and further, to teach us also to be thus kind toward those who are ungrateful to us, and to claim them as our own even after they have been convicted of ingratitude. What, then, does he say to this ungrateful people? “If you have forgotten the deliverance out of Egypt, remember the affair of Balaam, and how Balak king of the Moabites summoned this diviner to curse Israel by certain sorceries, and by the incantations familiar to him to wither away its strength (for such was the cursing); but I turned the curses into blessings, not for the sake of your righteous deeds (for you were ungrateful even then), but that my righteousness and truth might be made manifest. For I had promised your forefather to give you the land of Palestine; and for this reason I preserved you, fulfilling the covenants made with him.” Or thus: “Remember my benefits, so that from this, when you are condemned, my righteousness may appear—that you so forsook him who had conferred such benefits upon you.” Similar to: That you may be justified in your words. And what is “From the Reeds as far as Galgal”? They are the boundaries of those places in which Balaam supposed himself to be working his curses, removing now to one hill, now to another; for he thought that the places were harming and hindering him, and on this account, being persuaded by the demons, he kept moving from one to another. So from the place that has the Reeds up to Galgal, he went around all the hills that lay between. The mountains are also the apostles, before whom the Synagogue is judged, because it did not receive them though they were of her own number; the hills are the prophets, as inferior to the apostles; the ravines are the churches capable of holding the multitude of the faithful, which are also foundations of the earth and securities, before whom the Lord Jesus is judged against the people—he who, having done nothing grievous to it, but being himself the one who of old set it free from the Egypt of the senses, and later from the Egypt understood spiritually (for it was for this very purpose that he was made flesh), and who of old annulled Balaam’s curses wrought by sorcery, and later showed all his malicious craft to be useless, was crucified by such a people. But if certain men appointed to rule are mountains in respect of the height of their office, and foundations of the earth, as supports of the people, yet imitate ravines, as being torn apart[1] through not having the bond of love, and as readily receiving the confluence of evil—he charges them through the prophetic word to arise and be judged against these, convicting them that they displayed nothing befitting the promise, and that too though they are a people of God and called Israel.

⁵ Wherewith shall I overtake the Lord? Shall I lay hold of God my Most High? The prophet, having framed the foregoing words as from the person of God to the Israelites, now brings on the person of one repenting, and as it were perceiving that he has sinned. The prophet does this skillfully, so as to show them how one ought to repent. He says, then: Wherewith shall I overtake the Lord? “He has flown away,” he says, “from me who have sinned. How, then, shall I pursue and overtake him? And having overtaken him, shall I lay hold of him?”—that is, shall I hold him firmly, so that he may not again fly away from me.

⁶ Shall I overtake him with whole burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Will the Lord accept with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of fat he-goats? Shall I give my firstborn for impiety, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? Are they sufficient, he says, to dissolve the weight of sins—a multitude of calves, or thousands of rams, or ten thousands of he-goats, that is, yearling kids? Or firstborn sons brought to God and consecrated, or even sacrificed? He says this, not because God admits these things (for he showed through Abraham that he does not accept them), but he sets it down hypothetically, by way of hyperbole, since the Son is more precious than all possessions.

⁷ It has been declared to you, O man, what is good. Or what does the Lord seek from you, but to do judgment and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God? The prophet answers the one in perplexity as to how he shall propitiate the Lord, that “You know, O man, what the good is; for this has been declared to you from God. Or what else, tell me, does the Lord seek from you, but to do judgment”—that is, what is just—“and to show mercy to your neighbor? And in addition to these, or even before these, not to go after other gods, but to acknowledge the true God?” For this the law says: You shall love the Lord your God, and your neighbor. And observe how the sacrifices of the law are taken away, while the spiritual sacrifice is brought in, as also in David, after casting away everything, both the calves and the he-goats, he says: Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High; and again, A heart broken and humbled God will not despise. He too does judgment who judges soul and flesh justly, giving to the one the mastery, while buffeting and enslaving the flesh. And the same man also does mercy, having mercy on himself here, that he may not be handed over there to the fire; for how shall God there spare the man who here did not spare himself? Such a one is also ready to walk with the Lord his God. Whither walk? Upward, where Christ is. For to depart and to be with Christ is better for him, and he is ever ready to journey forth, there where he shall always be with the Lord; for he is not held fast by the things here. And just as the thief, or the murderer, or anyone else doing evil, is not ready to go with the judge (how could he be, who contrives everything in order not to stand before him?), so too everyone who sins is not ready to walk with the Lord; for he hates the light, and dreads the Judge.

⁸ The voice of the Lord shall be proclaimed to the city, and he will save those who fear his name. And through these things he teaches us that the bringing of sacrifices will in no way profit the city that has stumbled; but if the name of the Lord, surely spoken aloud, shall be proclaimed and pronounced over it—as people also say that such-and-such a city belongs to John—then that city will be profited. For it seems that, because it does deeds worthy of the Lord, on this account it is called a city of the Lord. For he adds: And he will save those who fear his name—not those who are indifferent and despise deeds pleasing to God. Therefore the bare invocation of Christ will not profit even a Christian, as some suppose, so as to keep him from punishment, unless deeds be present.

⁹ … a house of the lawless one, storing up treasures of lawlessness, and with the insolence of injustice? God addresses every tribe of Israel and says: “Listen, every tribe: surely the fire of enemies setting it ablaze will not adorn a city, but will it not rather utterly destroy all its ornament, devouring it? And yet fire is bright and shines from afar; will it then adorn a city? No. But neither will a house of the lawless one, even if it be bright and conspicuous, be anything but a procurer of ruin both to itself and to the city in which it stands, if it stores up injustices”—that is, the gains amassed from unjust means—“with insolence,” which is, with arrogance and pride, and with the twisting and punishing of others. How, then, do you suppose that injustice adorns each city? The fire of envy, with which they were kindled against Christ, did not adorn the city of Jerusalem; nor did the house of the lawless Judas, who, storing up treasures of lawlessness (for having the money-box, he carried what was put into it, and pilfered), later acted insolently against his benefactor, unjustly selling his teacher for thirty pieces of silver. But neither does the fire of wrath or of desire adorn the city of each of us. For a wrathful man is unseemly, and he who desires wickedly is compared to the senseless beasts, and loses his own honor. But neither will a man who has become a house of the lawless one, of the author of lawlessness, adorn the city above, in which those who are disciples of Paul hold their citizenship, to whom it is said: You are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.

¹⁰ Shall the lawless man be justified in the balance, and deceitful weights in the bag, from which they have filled their wealth with impiety? “Shall he be justified”—instead of, “he shall not be justified.” For it is an idiom of Scripture to use such a connective for things confessedly forbidden, as of one weighed down in disposition. He says, then, that the lawless weigher-out shall not be justified by such a balance (for how, from that by which he is rather condemned?); but neither shall the deceitful weights be justified in the bag, that is, in the acquiring of wealth. For on this very account they shall rather be condemned, because from deceitful weights they acquired wealth full of impiety. And by “impiety” he perhaps here calls injustice by way of reproof, reproaching the unjust as being impious against God through the very things by which they wrong their brethren—God who takes upon himself all that we show toward our brethren; and perhaps also because the Israelites, growing rich and going whoring after luxury, fell away into idolatry, themselves too worshiping the passion-ridden gods of the Greeks, so that their sinning might be unaccountable—on this account he said that “they filled their wealth with impiety.” And the lawless Judas spoken of above shall not be justified, when God weighs out what is his, nor shall his deceitful weights—he who was deceitful, both as stealing from the money-box, and as eating together with the one being sold by him, and afterward even kissing the one he was betraying; from which, amassing wealth, he dishonored him, crucifying God. And each of us too has a balance and weights, by which he is appointed to assign to virtue and to vice each its own. If, then, one acts lawlessly and does not render to each its own, he shall not be justified. The Greeks too, having such deceitful weights, filled the wealth of their wisdom with impiety, serving the creature rather than the Creator, and exchanging the glory of God for the likeness of corruptible man, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things. Do you see unjust exchangers and weighers-out?

¹¹ And those dwelling in her have spoken unjust things. The construction is thus: The house of the lawless one will not adorn the city, in which are the aforesaid evils, and those dwelling in her practice every slander and every falsehood.

¹² And their tongue was exalted in their mouth. That is, their tongue took great license, so as to say whatever they wished, and to make the small great, and to clothe with bulk the things falsely spoken. Those dwelling in the city of Jerusalem spoke falsehoods against the Lord: If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have handed him over to you; and their tongue was exalted, when they cried out: Away with him, away with him, crucify him.

¹³ And I will begin to smite you, and I will utterly destroy you for your sins. Since, he says, she is unable of herself to discern what is needful, I will make a beginning of punishing you, and to such a degree as to hand you over to destruction—not in anger, but laying this bitter penalty upon you because of your many sins; for to sins so great there belongs no moderate blow, but utter destruction. But perhaps this signifies that God effects the destruction upon the sins, destroying these, not those who are being punished. For how could a man properly be said to be destroyed, whose soul is immortal, and whose body is kept in the hand of God, who will render it back again?

¹⁴ You shall eat, and you shall not be satisfied. I will bring upon you frequent and successive evils, so that you may be seen to be punished, because you were not chastened; just as one who is not satiated, and on this account keeps eating, appears as though he had not yet eaten. But some say that God is threatening her with famine through these words, so that, though eating, she is not satisfied, because of the scarcity of necessities. The Hebrews even now eat the things of the law, but are not filled; for they cannot perform anything as the law enjoins. But also the prodigal, who devoured the ancestral wealth of reason and gave himself over to unreason, eating the sweet and harsh fruits of sin, such as are the husks, is not filled.

¹⁵ And there shall be darkness within you, and you shall turn aside, and you shall not be saved. Darkness and a night of calamities shall overtake you; and you shall indeed strive to turn aside, that is, to flee them, yet you shall not be strong enough to be saved. There was darkness also among those who crucified the Sun of righteousness. For they closed their eyes so as not to see, and they knew not, neither did they understand; they walk in darkness; and on this account they turned aside from the true way of Christ, and they shall not be saved, neither in this life nor, much less, in the age to come. Moreover, darkness came over all the earth while the Lord was being crucified, in case they might understand; but they turned aside. And every sinner too, when the light of reason grows dark within him, then turns aside from the good.

¹⁶ And I will thrust you out within yourself. That is, I will stir up civil wars, so that you thrust yourself out within yourself; for the men of Israel, marching against Judah, and these again against them, kept thrusting one another out of the cities. And God is said to do these things by permission. And the slayers of the Lord, in their factions, thrust one another out of the towers and the porticoes and the temple, as Josephus relates. And the sinner is thrust out of the city above, within himself—that is, he himself supplying the occasions.

¹⁷ And you shall lay hold, and you shall not be saved; and as many as are saved shall be handed over to the sword. Warring against one another, he says, you, O Israel, shall perhaps lay hold of the cities of Judah, but again Judah shall lay hold of your cities, and shall destroy you. And even if some seem to escape the afflictions of the civil war, they shall be handed over to the sword to other enemies—Syrians perhaps, or Egyptians, or Babylonians.

¹⁸ You shall sow, and you shall not reap; you shall press the olive, and you shall not anoint yourself with oil; and you shall make wine, and you shall not drink wine. And when one, having harvested, gathers no fruit worth mentioning, it is the wrath of God; but when he does not even put a sickle to the fields, it is an excess of divine indignation; and when he presses the olive, and does not receive even so much oil from the pressing as to anoint himself at least[2]—but even if he makes wine, he makes it sour wine and useless for drinking; or perhaps he cultivates it serviceable, but it is suddenly snatched away either by natural death or by the enemy’s sword, so that he has no time even to enjoy it. The scribes of the Jews sowed the slander against the resurrection of Christ, but they did not reap faith; for, on the contrary, in the whole world his resurrection is believed. The law was an olive tree, begetting the spirit; but they, pressing the law wickedly and according to the letter, and not passing over to the spiritual sense, are not anointed with the oil of gladness, so that they too, having the chrism from the Holy Spirit, might become anointed ones. They made wine (for salvation came from the Jews, from whom is Christ according to the flesh—the spiritual wine that gladdens the heart of the man who is according to truth), but they do not receive this wine. And in another way they made wine, slaying the Lord, whose blood is wine, but they do not drink this mystical wine. And he who sows to the flesh, and from the flesh reaps corruption, reaps nothing; since he reaps the things that perish. And he grieves the Holy Spirit who, through shameful deeds contrary to the laws, presses it, the Apostle saying: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit; wherefore he will not attain the gladness of the Spirit either. He makes wine and does not drink wine who teaches others but does not teach himself.

¹⁹ And the lawful customs of the people shall be done away. The unlawful customs that you had, he says, both in other matters and in offering to the idols the fruits given by me, shall be done away. For how will you offer firstfruits to your gods, when so great a barrenness has gripped you? And he well said lawful customs of the people, that you may learn that he is not speaking about those things which he himself legislated, but about those which they laid upon themselves, each inventing something different.

²⁰ And you kept the ordinances of Zambri, and all the works of the house of Ahab. Behold, from this too it is made clear about what sort of customs he spoke above. “For you kept,” he says, “the ordinances of Zambri.” This man was the father of Ahab, who emulated Jeroboam son of Nabat in impiety. And by saying “house of Ahab,” he indicates Jezebel, whose works were: the setting aside of the divine law, and the slaughters of prophets, and injustices, and acts of greed. God says these things in order to show that they themselves became the causes of this their own ruin, having emulated the impiety of those mentioned. He adds, then:

²¹ And you walked in their counsels, that I might hand you over to destruction, and those who inhabit her to hissing; and you shall bear the reproaches of peoples. It was not for this that they kept the customs of Zambri—that I might hand them over to destruction; but the words “that” and “in order that” Scripture is accustomed to set down, as we have often said in many places, whenever something results from the sequence of what precedes. So, just as here, from their walking in the counsels of Zambri and of Jezebel, there resulted their being handed over by God to destruction. Or thus: “You emulated the impious before you, as though desiring and zealous that I should destroy you”—so do you rush headlong to your own ruin. By “hissing” he means either derision (for he adds: And you shall bear the reproaches of peoples, that is, you shall be reproached not by one or two, but by many peoples), or the astonishment that is wont to arise when one sees a house or a city fallen from great splendor. The works of the house of Ahab were kept by the teachers of the law in Christ’s day, who, just as Jezebel killed the righteous Naboth, so they killed the righteous Jesus, in order to gain the vineyard. For in order that they themselves might be named teachers of the people, who were a vineyard, being called by men, “Rabbi, Rabbi,” on this account they killed the heir; wherefore they were set in destruction, and are reproached by all peoples among whom they were scattered, being more dishonored than all.