Commentary on Zechariah 1 part 6/24

In the midst of the house—that is, in the governing part of the soul—the sickle lodges, much like the sword that cleaves through the midst of the judge of Israel who raged with adulterous lust against Susanna.

For in this passage too, that the man condemned for adultery is cloven through the midst signifies that his governing faculty is divided.

'And the angel that spoke in me came forth and said to me:

Lift up your eyes and behold this thing that goes forth.'

'This is the measure that goes forth.'

'This is their iniquity in all the earth.'

'And behold, a talent of lead was lifted up, and behold, one woman sat in the midst of the measure.'

'And he cast her into the midst of the measure, and cast the stone of lead into her mouth.'

It went forth, not remaining within, so as to show the lawlessness, and the measure, and the talent of the lead that was lifted up.

But what each of these things signifies, it is good to consider attentively.

The measure that is shown going forth, then, is the fullness of all vice and impiety;

which, not yet being present among the Amorites and the rest of the nations, did not chastise the aforesaid nations—they then undergo punishment when their sins are filled up, no species of wrongdoing being absent, according to what was said concerning certain ones:

'Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins.' In the same manner it was said also concerning those who were filled, against the most chaste Susanna, with adulterous lust:

'And the two elders came, full of lawless thought.' And concerning Elymas the magician, too, the Apostle said aptly, bringing forth his rebukes against him most stingingly:

'O you who are full of all guile and all villainy, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the straight ways of the Lord?' This interpretation is especially established from what the Saviour said to the Jews who declared:

'If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'

'Wherefore you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who killed the prophets;

fill up then, you also, the measure of your fathers.' For though they had murderously offended against the prophets in ten thousand ways, yet there was still lacking, for the filling up of the measure of their impieties, the outrage against Jesus who spoke these things, by which they clothed him with the cross;

for then, precisely then, the measure of their ungodliness was filled up, when together with those who had prophesied they condemned to death him who had been prophesied.

As, then, there is a measure of sins for those who deserve chastisement, so also there is a measure of good works and dispositions for those who have chosen the diligent life lived according to piety.

And this measure too is filled up whenever no righteous judgement and holiness is lacking.

With reference to these two ranks, the good and the wicked, the Saviour said:

'With what measure you measure, it shall be measured again to you.' For to those who have filled up the praiseworthy measure are meted out promises which man has not seen, nor heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him. But to those who have filled the blameworthy and accursed measure of the worst deeds and words and thoughts is meted out in return the punishment brought upon them according to their desert, so that the one goes forth into the outer darkness, and the other departs into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Consider whether the Saviour spoke with reference to both measures, or only to that of the righteous deeds:

'A good measure, shaken, pressed down, running over, shall they give into your bosom'—[meaning] your governing faculty.

Perhaps, however, it was said only concerning that of the diligent, since the Judge gives as recompense a hundredfold and more than what we ask and conceive; for it is not consistent that a measure be given to those all of whose iniquities the Knower of hearts, who understands the mind of all, does not observe—giving to such people a measure not shaken, not pressed down, not running over, but deficient and unfilled, so to speak, out of the mercy and goodness of him who examines the sons of men with his eyelids.

In the midst of the blameworthy measure a single woman was seen sitting, being none other than lawlessness itself and the adverse power that instigates her.

For the prophet himself said, pointing out this woman with his finger:

'This is the lawlessness of all the earth'—I mean, of humanity—which he also named injustice;

'For everyone,' he says, 'who does injustice also does lawlessness, and lawlessness is sin.' Consequently the one being initiated sees the talent of lead lifted up, and the woman, being lawlessness, lifted up and cast into the midst of the measure.

The woman that was seen was not simply in the measure, but in the midst of it—either because she has taken possession of the centre of all vice, ruling tyrannically.

And into her mouth is cast the talent of lead that was lifted up.

This is a word that is burdensome and downward-tending and deprived of brightness, standing in opposition to the word of him who has acquired virtue;

for 'the tongue of the righteous,' he says, 'is silver refined by fire.' For the word concerning right doctrine and practical virtue has much that is precious and bright; but not so the word in the mouth of lawlessness, seeing that it is heavy and downward-tending, especially because it is deceitful and full of craft.

Such also was the word of the magician Elymas, brought forth with all villainy and every guile.

One must not think it strange if the designation 'woman' is applied to a most base disposition and evil intent, and to the wicked power that produces such things.

For just as here lawlessness is called a woman, so in the divine Proverbs folly was named a woman.

The passage concerning this reads thus, being proclaimed from the person of the wise man to the hearer:

'Son, attend to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my words, that you may keep good understanding;

and I enjoin upon you the discernment of my lips.'

'For honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, who for a little while sweetens your throat;

but afterwards you shall find her more bitter than gall.' And a little further on:

'For the feet of folly lead down with death into Hades.' And concerning wantonness, in the very book of Proverbs, it is spoken of as of a woman, how she lies in wait when there is darkness and gloom by a corner, that she may deceive and injure the young man lacking sense.

For appearing in a harlot's guise, uttering glib words, he says, with which she wishes to beguile, accosting him with a shameless face, being fluttered and dissolute, that she may inflame the heart of the youth:

'A peace offering is with me today, I pay my vows; for this reason I came forth to meet you, longing for your face, and I have found you.' And after other things:

'Come, let us take our fill of love, come, let us delight ourselves with affection until dawn.' After such glib words, and those joined to them in sequence, the wise man says:

'She led him astray with much talk'—or with much wheedling, as some of the copies have it—'and with the snares of her lips she drove him aground.'

Nevertheless, even if the young man was led astray, yet again the teacher rouses him:

'Do not walk in the way with her.'

'Her house is the ways of Hades, leading down into the chambers of death;

for having wounded many she has cast them down, and innumerable are those whom she has slain.' And in the same manner that the vices are named women, so also are the virtues.

The wise man, then, says concerning wisdom:

'I became a lover of her beauty, and I brought her to live with me.' Concerning her, thus brought as it were in the manner of a wife, this proverbial oracle declares as follows:

'Wisdom bears prudence for a man.' To this man it is enjoined:

'Encompass her with a rampart, and she shall exalt you;

honour her, that she may embrace you.' To the diligent man who has begotten by virtue, the Holy Spirit directs its word, saying:

'Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house;

your sons like young olive plants round about your table.' And that these things are not prophesied concerning a mortal woman and her sons, the verse that follows makes clear:

'Behold, thus shall the man who fears the Lord be blessed.' For if one were to take such things in a human sense, many of the great saints, being most devout, did not obtain the blessing, since they did not dwell with women and begot no children at all.

For full assurance it suffices to adduce Elijah the great prophet and Elisha, who according to godliness was his spiritual son.

...to say concerning John the Baptist:

And there are yet others, more numerous, who have given themselves to celibacy, that they may be anxious for the things of the Lord.

It was virgin men, undefiled with a woman, whom John beheld in the Apocalypse.

For even though the matters concerning the virgins who make up the number one hundred forty-four thousand are led up to a higher sense, nevertheless, for the sake of a chaste and temperate manner of life, it does no harm to accept the saying also in its plain and ready sense.

In the book of catechesis entitled 'The Shepherd' there are recorded many things signified by means of women and virgins, of which some indicate virtues and blessings, and others vices and punishments, which the one who reads will receive from the book.

And I lifted up my eyes and saw;

and behold, two women coming forth, and a wind was in their wings;

and these had wings like the wings of a hoopoe;

and they took up the measure between the earth and heaven.

And I said to the angel who spoke within me:

Where are these women carrying off the measure? And he said to me:

To build for it a house in the land of Babylon and to prepare it, and they shall set it there upon its base.

And now, having lifted up the eyes of the inner man as in the preceding visions, he saw two women coming forth, furnished with wings, and there was a wind in their wings.

And their wings were like the wings of the creature called a hoopoe.

The women who came forth in this manner took up the measure that has been previously interpreted, in the midst of which was seated the woman called Lawlessness, and they took it up between the earth and heaven.

When these things had thus been beheld, I inquired of the angel who spoke within me:

Where are they carrying off the measure? And he said to me:

To build for it a house in the land of Babylon, and they shall set it there upon its base. We must consider carefully who the two women are.

See whether the two women may be the two vices—either the moral vice, which consists in the transgression of the divine commandments, or the false opinion concerning things that ought to be believed—and the evil powers that work them.

They were seen having wings filled with a spirit—that spirit concerning which the Apostle writes:

In which you also once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. And perhaps that which is in the aforementioned wings, being wicked, is akin to the unclean spirit which is cast out by Jesus from the man, which, having been cast out by Jesus, if on returning it finds unoccupied and swept the place from which it was cast out—having the worst kind of leisure and swept clean, all the good things it once held having been thrown away—it takes with itself seven other spirits more wicked than itself, enters and dwells there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

To establish that the wings of the women are blameworthy, they were compared and likened to the wings of the hoopoe.

And this creature is unclean, being a friend of the dead and of human excrement;

for it feeds among the tombs and makes for itself a nest out of human dung, so that, laying its eggs in that noisome nest, it may hatch them and breed young ones like itself.

It received this appellation from its watching over and looking upon human affairs.

The women make use of it, when it is prepared, for wicked practices—either those substances employed for [abortions] and destruction of offspring, or those that serve as spells for unchaste and amorous desire.

We must examine what this creature ought to be understood as, according to the higher sense, and see whether it is possible.

Either it signifies the devil, or the antichrist.

Nor should each one of the heterodox be excluded from this reckoning.

For the devil rejoices, and so does the God-opposing antichrist, and the word of the heretics, to feed about the tombs, which are the same as the sepulchres according to allegory—whitewashed on the outside, but within full of all incontinence and of like reasonings that separate one from God, because they are crooked.

For it is said in the all-virtuous Wisdom of Solomon:

Reasonings separate from God. In addition to fluttering about the tombs, the aforementioned creature, because it is unclean and delights in foul odors, constructs its nest out of human dung.

And what follows from this except that it too—I mean the hoopoe—and its young ones pass their life in uncleanness? Besides this, by watching over human affairs it received this name;

and by human affairs I mean the strifes and contentions and the blameworthy jealousies, concerning which the Apostle writes, reproving those who are entangled in them:

For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not carnal, and do you not walk according to the flesh? Those who are thus called carnal you may aptly say to be women who take up for wicked practices the aforementioned hoopoe—understood in the higher sense—when it has perhaps been cooked and eaten, so as to abort the things conceived from fear, that they may not be brought to completion, and to arouse love-charms that lead to licentiousness.

It is fitting for the one who has taken up wings like a dove's to hold himself apart from these women and their wings—wings by which he who flies comes to rest, finding the Sabbath-rest that remains for the people of God, [and] the understandings of the Holy Spirit who descended in the form of a dove upon the Jordan—wings which he alone possesses and every one who finds rest between the two covenants, called 'lots' according to the saying:

If you sleep between the lots, wings of a dove overlaid with silver. To be feathered according to these is blessed;

for they take up the one who possesses them into heaven and to the things above the world.

As for the two women feathered like the hoopoe, who lifted up on high the measure upon which Lawlessness sits between heaven and earth—for even the angels who sinned have had experience of it, and the earthly demons, and all the men who bear the image of the earthy one—the one who beholds the revelation, seeing the measure upon which Lawlessness is enthroned lifted up and carried off, says to the angel speaking within him:

Where are these women carrying off the measure? And the angel answering says:

To build for it a house in the land of Babylon, and they shall set it there upon its base. For what other place was fitting for the measure that holds Lawlessness than Confusion, so that it might be found ready for those who long after it? Therefore one must turn aside from and flee Babylon, because the measure was set there to be found ready by those who wish it.

The divine word therefore cries out as a herald to the one who wishes to be earnest:

Come out from Babylon, fleeing from the land of the Chaldeans. Fixing our attention on such a vision of the prophet, let us hate to have the wings of a hoopoe, and be feathered instead according to the Holy Spirit;

for thus it is most easy to cross over into the regions above the heavens.

And I turned and lifted up my eyes and saw;

and behold, four chariots coming forth from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze.

In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses, and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot dappled, ash-grey horses.

And I answered and said to the angel who spoke within me:

What are these, my Lord? And the angel who spoke within me answered and said:

These are the four winds of heaven; they go forth to stand before the Lord of all the earth;

that in which were the black horses went out to the land of the north, and the white went out after them, and the dappled went out to the land of the south, and the ash-grey went out and looked to go and to travel about the earth.

And he cried out and spoke to me, saying:

Behold, those going out to the land of the north have caused my wrath to rest in the land of the north.

The prophet, in order to receive yet another revelation, saw four chariots coming from between two bronze mountains.

The first chariot had red horses yoked to it, the second black, the third white, the fourth dappled ash-grey ones.

Having beheld the four chariots, and wishing to learn about them, he inquires of the angel speaking within him what the things seen are.

And he answers, saying that they are the four winds of heaven—that is to say, the four regions of the inhabited world.

The black horses were seen going forth from the land of the north, the white going forth behind them;

and from the south came the ash-grey and dappled ones.

It was said concerning all the horses, as far as I was able, when they were seen in the first vision following the man mounted upon a red horse;

therefore, being content with those remarks, we must contemplate the matters concerning the things now mentioned which were not present in the first vision.

Two bronze mountains were spoken of, from between which the chariots came forth.

And see whether by the bronze there is indicated the resounding manner of speech that has much loud echoing.

This the sophistical and heretical teachers make use of, becoming sounding brass and a clanging cymbal, because they are deprived of the divine love toward the [Lord]. Lawlessness, he says, [and he] says to the angel speaking within him:

Where are these women carrying off the measure? And the angel answering says:

To build for it a house in the land of Babylon, and they shall set it there upon its base. For what other place was fitting for the measure that holds Lawlessness than Confusion, so that it might be found ready for those who long after it? Therefore one must turn aside from and flee Babylon, because the measure was set there to be found ready by those who wish it.

The divine word therefore cries out as a herald to the one who wishes to be earnest:

Come out from Babylon, fleeing from the land of the Chaldeans. Fixing our attention on such a vision of the prophet, let us hate to have the wings of a hoopoe, and be feathered instead according to the Holy Spirit;

for thus it is most easy to cross over into the regions above the heavens.

And I turned and lifted up my eyes and saw;

and behold, four chariots coming forth from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze.

In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses, and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot dappled, ash-grey horses.

And I answered and said to the angel who was speaking within me:

What are these, my Lord? And the angel who was speaking within me answered and said:

These are the four winds of heaven; they go forth to stand before the Lord of all the earth.

That in which the black horses were, they went forth to the land of the north, and the white ones went forth behind them, and the dappled ones went forth to the land of the south, and the ash-grey ones went forth and looked about, seeking to go and range through the earth.

And he cried out and spoke to me, saying:

Behold, those going forth to the land of the north have set my wrath at rest in the land of the north.

The prophet, having turned to receive yet another revelation, saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains of bronze.

The first chariot had red horses yoked to it, the second black ones, the third white ones, the fourth dappled, ash-grey ones.

Having beheld the four chariots and wishing to learn about them, he inquires of the angel speaking within him what the things that had appeared were.

And he answers, saying that they are the four winds of heaven — that is, the four regions of the inhabited world.

Now the black ones were seen going forth from the land of the north, with the white ones going forth behind them;

and the ash-grey and dappled ones came from the south,

following in vision the man who had mounted upon the red horse;

wherefore, content with those matters, we must examine here the things now spoken which were not carried in the first vision.

Two bronze mountains are named, from between which the chariots went forth.

And consider whether by the bronze is signified the resounding manner of speech that has much of ringing echo in it.

This is what the sophistical and heretical teachers employ, becoming sounding brass and a clashing cymbal, because they are bereft of the divine love that is toward God.

The all-divine Apostle, foreseeing this, writes: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a clashing cymbal. And this material also signifies shamelessness, just as iron signifies that which is unsubdued and unbending — as God most reprovingly says to him who has cast off all shame, who has taken on the countenance of a harlot, who has behaved impudently toward all, and who does not submit himself to the good yoke of Jesus:

I know that you are hard,

and your forehead is of bronze, and the sinew of your neck is of iron. And two are said to be the bronze mountains, because of the twofold nature of the high things that are exalted against the knowledge of God.

For it is possible to hold false opinions both concerning practical virtue and concerning intellectual virtue, the latter being none other than the knowledge of the truth;

for those who belong to the heresies are impious concerning both kinds of virtue.

The black horses, being vessels of wrath, going forth from the north — from which evils are kindled upon those who dwell on the earth — the white horses were shown coming after them.

And these are the ministers of cheerful things, of things productive of gladness and of beneficial matters.

For since punishments are brought for the betterment of those handed over to them, these fittingly come afterward — that is, after them — weaving and proclaiming as good news the bright and light-filled things.

The soul that has had experience of these things, having come to a true awareness of them, most manifestly cries out to her who rejoices over the ruin of those who are harmed:

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, because I have fallen;

I shall rise again — that is, having repented.

For even though, having fallen, I was subjected to punishment by the wrath of God, yet nevertheless, having endured and nobly borne the wrath brought upon me, having come into a cheerful condition and a gladdening manner of life, I say:

I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He judges my cause;

and He will execute my judgment, and will bring me forth into the light; I shall behold His righteousness. For even if God is angered for the sake of betterment and benefit, He does not do this forever;

When the wrath of His anger has come, again I will heal. He who has been benefited by such providence gives thanks and says to Him who for a little while subjected him to affliction for the sake of salvation:

I will bless You, O Lord, because You were angry with me unto salvation;

You turned away Your face and had mercy on me. When the black horses had come from the land of the north, that they might set at rest the wrath of the Lord, the dappled and ash-grey ones were seen coming from the south;

that is, from that one concerning whom, in the Song of Songs, the bride says to her own bridegroom:

Come, O south wind — after the cold north wind and the harsh gale had been sent away by her.

And the words of the bride run thus:

Awake, O north wind, and come, O south;

blow through my garden, and let my spices flow. And the spices are good words and pious thoughts.

It was interpreted in what preceded who the dappled horses are, and why they are so named.

And all the horses stand before the Lord of all the earth, being ready to range through all the earth and to accomplish what the Lord of all the earth commands — or rather, of all creation.

The first book having been brought to a close with the visions that appeared to the prophet Zechariah, who beheld clearly, we must begin the second from the passage that follows, which runs thus:

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Take the things from the captivity, from the rulers, and from her useful men, and from those who have come to know her.

And you shall enter on that day into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, who has come from Babylon.

And you shall take silver and gold and make crowns, and shall set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

Just as it is not possible to speak or transmit scientific learning without possessing knowledge, so it is not possible to foreknow truly and according to God, or to prophesy a spiritual prophecy, without the word of God coming to the one who foreknows and prophesies.

For the word of the Lord, coming to such a one, gives eyes and enlightens him to behold the beauties and mysteries of the truth and of the wisdom of God.

And the word of God that comes to the prophet is no other than the Word of God Himself, who comes indeed to the holy men, and to angels and principalities and powers and thrones and dominions, while yet ever being with the Father who begot Him.

For concerning the Father it is said that the Word was with Him:

For this One, it says, was with God, being God the Word.

But He comes to be — and is not always — with the Spirit-bearing men, being even then with them whenever He comes to be.

For then, indeed then, those to whom He came and with whom He came to be shall also be gods, as the Saviour Himself says in the Gospel to those who were indignant because He called Himself the Son of God:

If He called those gods to whom the word of God came — whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, namely Me who say these things — do you say that He blasphemes, because I said:

And since those to whom the word of God has come are proved to be gods, it is fitting to regard and receive as the words of God the things which the most blessed prophets, borne along by God, proclaim.

We must consider what Zechariah, to whom the word of the Lord came, is commanded to say.

Take, it says, the things from the captivity, from the rulers and her useful men and those who by experience have come to know her.

And what are the things that must be taken from the captivity, given by the rulers and useful men and those who have come to know her, if not the sacred vessels which those who took them captive had taken from Jerusalem and from the temple in it?

For these too were carried away captive with the people of the Hebrews to Babylon by the tyrannical men who had power over her.

But he is commanded to take them not from any chance persons, but rather from the rulers who lawfully preside and from those useful to the captivity.

And these are they who were usefully and for benefit removed from their own homeland into a foreign land, not on account of sins which they themselves had by no means committed, but those of the impious people.

For just as in human warfare, physicians too are taken along with the military force in order to heal the wounded soldiers, so those wise men who were usefully taken captive, in order to help the people by way of exhortation and admonition, are called the useful men of the captivity — among whom are Daniel and Ezekiel, and Haggai and many others, men who spoke by divine inspiration.

Besides these, they were also those who had come to know what the end of the captivity is — namely, to come down into the land from which they had been taken captive — so as to sing a hymn of thanksgiving:

For when the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became like those who are comforted;