Commentary on the Twelve Prophets 1 part 1/19

Perhaps some will think that we are doing something superfluous and needless in venturing upon the interpretation of the prophets, seeing that certain others have already accomplished this labor;

but those who hold divine things in high esteem, and who have been accurately schooled in the sacred Scripture, will not only bear us no grudge, nor find fault with us as those quarrelsome men do, but will also, as is fitting, receive our work with favor and commend it, even if they find nothing of a lofty sort in these writings.

For with just judges even the mere readiness of purpose suffices to reap their commendation;

for so also our Savior and Lord, in the sacred Gospels, honored that widow of the two mites with praises, reckoning the commendation by the quality of her disposition, not by the quantity of the gift.

And in the Law, while He charged the wealthy to bring gold and silver and precious stones for the construction of the tabernacle, He did not deprive even those who lived in poverty of the blessing thence arising;

rather He commanded some to offer skins, and others hair;

and those women who lacked even these offered their strength and skill in place of them, spinning the hair and weaving it.

So too the evangelical proclamation was carried to all people not only by Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, and the whole choir of the apostles, nor only by Paul and Barnabas who were ordained after them, but also by Silas, and Titus, and Timothy, and Apollos, the disciples of those great men.

But the grace of teaching did not stop even with these; it also enlightened their successors, and those who came after them.

And even to this day, in the divine Churches, the fountain of the all-holy Spirit gushes forth, and distributes to men the gifts given by God.

Therefore we shall seem to those who employ a right and just verdict to be doing nothing unreasonable, if, like certain strands of hair, we offer the travails of our own understanding for the construction of the new tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.

And if someone should say that we are following the reflections of others, even so he will find that we are contributing the offering that lies within our power.

For just like those women who spun and wove the hair brought by others, and fashioned the curtains of the tabernacle, we too, gathering the things well said from here and there, will weave from them all a single work — God helping us, so to speak — making plain to our readers the meaning of the Twelve Prophets.

And it is likely that we too, using the divine word as a kind of lamp, will find an interpretation that holds fast to the truth.

For the grace of the divine bounty has not been quenched, but wells up and supplies the greatest gifts, not only to the worthy, but also to those who fall short of perfection.

We see also the visible sun sending forth its own rays not only to the most ancient of men, but also to those after them and to us who are late-born, and alike illuminating all the earth and sea.

Therefore much more does its Maker, who created it out of goodness alone, illuminate also the mind of those who choose in some such way to look up toward Him.

having called your prayers to our aid — the prayers of you who commanded us and roused us to this labor;

and having first briefly gone through the times in which each one prophesied, let us thus lay hold of the detailed interpretation.

Concerning the times in which each of the Twelve Prophets prophesied.

The Twelve Prophets do not have a single book because they flourished together with one another and lived in the same period;

for they made their prophecies of things to come at differing times.

And Hosea prophesied in the reign of Uzziah, and Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah, who reigned over Judea;

and Amos likewise in the days of Uzziah;

and moreover Joel too was contemporary with these;

but Micah began his prophecy immediately after the death of Uzziah, in the days of Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

And Jonah too belongs to this company; for even if the prophecy has passed over his time in silence, yet the book of Chronicles teaches this clearly.

But Nahum received the gift of prophecy after Jonah;

and the subject-matter of the prophecy teaches this clearly.

For Jonah, having proclaimed utter destruction to the Ninevites, prepared them to make use of the remedies of repentance;

wherefore they did not experience those grievous predictions.

But when, having relapsed into their former wickedness, they dared deeds worthy of the utmost punishment, Nahum thereafter prophesied their destruction.

And Obadiah, by the grievous things which he foretold to Idumea, is clearly seen to have begun his prophecy after these.

And Zephaniah teaches clearly that he obtained the divine revelation in the time of Josiah the king;

and about the same time also the admirable Jeremiah.

And Habakkuk was not long after these.

But Haggai, and Zechariah, and Malachi, after the lapse of many years;

after whom no other prophet is found among the Jews.

Therefore they have a single book not because they lived in the same period, but because they made their predictions in few words, and each of them, by reason of brevity, did not suffice for the construction of a single book; and so, quite reasonably, those of old who took care for divine things, gathering together the predictions of the Twelve Prophets, made them into one book.

And it is now time for us to lay hold of the detailed interpretation, after first teaching in summary the subject-matter of the prophecy of Hosea.

When the division of the people had taken place under Rehoboam the son of Solomon, Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned over the ten tribes.

From that point impiety, having gained an entrance, taught them to serve the idols of the neighboring nations;

and having driven them to the extreme of lawlessness, it stripped them of the divine providence.

And first Hazael the king of the Syrians made war upon them;

then Pul, who at that time held the scepter of the Assyrians, exacted the largest possible tribute;

having laid them waste, he slew some of the inhabitants and led others away as captives of the spear.

After him Shalmaneser, having succeeded to the kingdom, did the same things again to the cities that had been preserved unscathed; and dividing his army for the siege, he took Samaria with all its men, and removed what remained of the ten tribes into Assyria.

And the last king of the Assyrians, Sennacherib, having made war against Judea, took some of the cities; but when he attempted to besiege Jerusalem, he lost his army by a God-sent blow, and himself remained unharmed at that time, so that he might become a herald of the divine power;

but when he came to be in his palace, he received slaughter at the hands of those born from himself;

since he too, though he had come into being by God, had raged against his Maker.

So then the divinely-inspired Hosea, having received the prophetic gift, and having beheld these things from afar with spiritual eyes, is commanded to foretell them to the people, so that, fearing the predictions, they might flee the punishments and not experience the evils.

For not for this reason does the God of all threaten punishments, that He may bring them upon those whom He threatens;

but that, having struck them with fear, He may lead them to repentance, and, having freed them from the wickedness they venture, He may hold out salvation.

For if He wished to punish, He would not have threatened punishment;

but in threatening He makes plain that He desires to save and not to punish.

So then He sends the blessed Hosea both to foretell to the ten tribes the things that would befall them, and likewise to the two;

to proclaim beforehand the salvation that would come about in the time of Sennacherib, and to signify in advance the destruction that would be brought upon them by the Babylonians.

And he calls the two tribes 'Judah';

for the royal line had sprung not from the tribe of Benjamin, but from the tribe of Judah.

And moreover the royal residence was in Jerusalem;

and this city too was Judean.

And indeed in multitude and in power these surpassed not only the two, but also all the rest;

for this reason he designates the two by the name of the more powerful tribe.

And the ten he names 'Ephraim';

since Jeroboam, who was the first to reign over them, was of this tribe, and he established the royal residence in the city of Samaria, which likewise belonged to this tribe;

and these too excelled in multitude and in manliness.

So then, these matters having been thus clarified, we must now begin the detailed interpretation.

'The word of the Lord which came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, and Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel.' He has taught us clearly that he was ordained a prophet both to these and to those;

wherefore he made mention not only of the kings of Judah, but also of Jeroboam, who was the son of Joash, the grandson of Jehoahaz, and the descendant of Jehu — whom the divinely-inspired Elisha anointed at a divine nod, so that he might both avenge Naboth and punish the most abominable Jezebel.

Having thus indicated the time and the kings, under whose rule he was ordained a prophet, he adds:

He adds also the reason;

and he states the name of the harlot, and of what stock she was born, and the union that took place, and the fruit of that union, and the appellation given to the one born by Him who had also enjoined the marriage.

'Call his name Jezreel.' Now I greatly marvel at those who have dared to say that these are mere words empty of deeds, and that the God of all indeed gave the command, but the prophet did not carry it out; rather, that the words were uttered, while the deeds did not come to pass.

Many such things God has often commanded;

for He bade Isaiah loose the sackcloth from his loins, and run naked and unshod, and thus deliver his prophecy;

and He charged Jeremiah at one time to put wooden yokes about his neck, and at another iron ones;

and He commanded Ezekiel to lie upon his left side for a hundred and fifty days, and upon his right for forty, and to eat his bread over cakes of human dung, and to take the vessels of captivity, and to dig through the wall, and to draw the likeness of men fleeing, and thus to foretell the flight of Zedekiah.

And we shall find countless other such things in the divine Scripture, of which, if one were ignorant of the purpose, he would call them unworthy of prophetic virtue;

for the God of all, since, in addressing men who were sick with insensibility, He did not persuade them by mere words, sketched out things to come by means of certain deeds, drawing the hard-hearted to contemplation by the strangeness of what they saw.

For those who saw Isaiah running naked would surely have run to behold this strange thing, longing to learn the reason for such a course;

and those who beheld Ezekiel doing all those things would, as was natural, have asked the cause of what was being done.

So then in this way also the Lord of all prepares the blessed Hosea to take a licentious woman, so that through what was done He might both convict the people of their impiety and display His own long-suffering.

But if the God of all bore with the licentious and adulterous Synagogue, and the fountain of holiness was not defiled by that foul and abominable one, neither did the prophet receive a stain from that lewd woman;

for it was not as one enslaved to an evil desire, but as one fulfilling the commands given from God, that he endured that union.

But we must know that both good and evil are judged by their purpose;

for by this marriage is distinguished from adultery, and though the physical union has no difference at all, the difference is shown by the purpose and by the law, and according to these the one is judged lawful and the other unlawful.

One may find this to be the case when considering murder as well.

For the murderer kills, and the judge also puts to death;

but the one acts lawfully, the other unlawfully;

and the deed is the same, yet it differs in purpose.

And that we may learn this more clearly from the divine Scripture, let us consider thus.

Cain committed murder, but out of envy and using deceit;

Phinehas committed a killing, but out of zeal, contending for true religion and abhorring impiety;

and the deed is the same, but the purpose is diametrically opposite.

So too theft belongs among the things condemned by the law;

yet Jacob stole the blessing, and not only escaped condemnation, but is also praised throughout all generations.

The great Elijah fasted, and those who stoned Naboth also fasted;

but the one philosophized, while the others were concocting slander.

Saul had mercy on Agag, and was stripped of his kingship; for that mercy was unlawful;

Samuel slew Agag, and fulfilled the divine law.

And one may find countless other such instances not only in the divine Scripture, but also in the things that occur among us every day.

And so the admirable Hosea, not enslaved to desire but yielding to the divine promptings, took the harlot, and that union was more venerable than any marriage;

not only because it came about according to the divine prompting, but because it also displayed the figure of God, and how the Holy One who rests among the holy was becoming the bridegroom of the licentious multitude of the Israelites.

So then, when he had begotten a child, He commands him to name what was born Jezreel;

'the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.' And what He says means something of this kind:

Jezreel is the place in which Naboth endured that unjust slaughter;

and Jehu, who by the divine counsel became the avenger of this, to whom God promised, on account of what he had done against Jezebel, that his kingdom would endure to the fourth generation.

Since, then, his descendants forgot the divine benefaction and emulated the impiety of those who had reigned before them, God threatens that He will bring this kingdom also to an end, and will break the bow of Israel, that is, He will destroy their power in the valley of Jezreel;

and He made mention of this place not without reason, but to remind the king of that time of the divine benefaction, and to teach him that, just as He exacted justice from those who slaughtered Naboth by means of his forefather Jehu,

so also He will demand punishment of them for their ingratitude toward Him.

To these things He adds that yet another child was born, and received its appellation from the God of all.

For He commanded her, it says, to be called 'Not-pitied';

teaching by this that He would no longer count Israel worthy of His loving-kindness.

'But the sons of Judah,' He says, 'I will pity and save in the Lord their God, and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by war, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.' And by these words He plainly indicated what came to pass concerning Sennacherib;

for at that time the Assyrians were defeated, not by a battle-line being drawn up, but by angelic power a hundred and eighty-five thousand of them were destroyed.

To these He adds that, yet another child being born, God commanded it to be called 'Not-my-people,' and teaches the reason;

'Because the number of the sons of Israel was as the sand of the sea, which shall not be measured nor numbered.' But God does not delight in multitude;

rather, where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst of them.

Thus He honored Noah above all men together;

thus Abraham, thus Moses;

but their descendants, though surpassing in number, He calls 'Not His people' on account of their impiety.

But being loving toward mankind, He straightway revoked the sentence He had pronounced.

'For it shall be,' He says, 'that in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, there they shall be called sons of the living God.'

And this too received its fulfillment in the time of Zerubbabel.

And He called 'the day of Jezreel' the calamity brought upon Israel by the Assyrians in the valley of Jezreel.

For since, He says, I bring upon them a great punishment, I will count them worthy of a great salvation also, and having freed them from bondage, I will bring them back to their ancestral homeland.

Then He exhorts them, as those whose circumstances had undergone a change, to change their names also, and to call the 'Not-my-people,' 'My people,' and the 'Not-beloved,' 'Beloved.'

'For you,' He says, 'who have enjoyed salvation and returned from Babylon, become judges of your mother and of Me,' that is, of the forefathers who transgressed against Me, 'for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband.'

'A bill of divorce,' He says, 'came about, the cause of it having arisen from her.'

We find something of this kind spoken in Isaiah also;

'And now, O house of Judah, and you who dwell in Jerusalem, judge between Me and My vineyard;

because I waited for it to produce a grape-cluster, but it produced thorns.' And here too He says:

'I am not her husband.' And showing that this bill of divorce was not made for her ruin, He adds:

'It is good for me that You humbled me, that I might learn Your ordinances.' And chastening her, He promises to free her from fornication and adultery, not merely so, but to uproot this from the midst of her breasts.

And He indicates the heart, which lies beneath the breasts, out of which proceed evil thoughts, envyings, murders, adulteries, fornications, and things like these.

So then the discipline of God brings the greatest benefit, freeing those who are disciplined from fornication.

'That I may strip her naked, and restore her as in the day of her birth.' And He calls the sojourn in Egypt the 'day of her birth.'

'I will make her desolate,' He says, 'of My providence, and I will cause her to serve the Assyrians, as she served the Egyptians.'

'And I will make her like a waterless and desert land;

and I will destroy her with thirst.'

By the thirst he hints not only at the lack of water, but also at the deprivation of the divine care.

Nor will I deem even her children worthy of any sparing, He says, because, being begotten of impious parents, they imitated the abominable wickedness of their fathers.

For by 'fornication' here He calls the worship of idols.

And, more plainly rebuking her ingratitude, He shows her saying that it is fitting to follow after her lovers.

For from them, she says, I receive all the abundance of necessary things.

And since she was ignorant of the Giver of good things, He reasonably adds:

For He devises for her a cessation from impiety.

For having learned by experience of evils the weakness of the idols—for she called upon them for alliance at the time of the invasion, and did not obtain their help—

For she will seek them, He says, and shall by no means find them—she will call to mind the divine care, and will say:

I will go and return to my former husband, for it was better for me then than now.

And who would not be justly amazed at the divine love for mankind, that He who is God, and Maker, and Lord, calls Himself a husband, and not a master? For since the tender affection of a wife toward her husband is greater than that of slaves toward a master, wishing to instill this disposition in men, He addresses Himself as bridegroom and husband.

But nevertheless even these things do not move the ungrateful to gratitude.

She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, and the wine, and the oil;

I multiplied to her silver and gold;

but she made silver and golden things for Baal. And the gifts which she received from God, these she offered to those enemies of God.

And that they might not suppose the land to be afflicted with barrenness, He reasonably added, 'in its season'; that is, after it has ripened and become mature, in the time of harvest and of vintage.

He threatens also to take away even her clothing, so that she should lack even the necessary garments.

And her lovers, He says, seeing these things, will not be able to help her.

In addition to these things, He threatened through the prophetic tongue also to bring her festivals to an end, and to quench every occasion of gladness, and to destroy her fig trees and vines.

Since she said, He says, that she had received these things from the idols, and was ignorant of Me who became the Provider of them—

And I will set them, He says, for a testimony. For, He says, being made to vanish and destroyed by beasts and birds and creeping things, they will both accuse their impiety and bear witness to the chastisement brought upon them by Me.

Behold, I will lead her astray, and set her in a wilderness. That is, I will bring it about that she wanders and strays, becoming a captive, and I will render her destitute of all these good things;

yet nevertheless I will comfort her while she is in these painful circumstances.

For I will speak, He says, to her heart;

and I will give her her possessions from thence, and the valley of Achor to open up her understanding. And I found 'Achor' in the Syriac as 'Achar';

and this is he who under Joshua the son of Nun stole and transgressed against the devoted thing that had been placed under the ban, who also paid the penalty, when all the people stoned him.

But after his death, taking to heart how great is the harm that the transgression of the divine law inflicts, weeping and lamenting they propitiated God.

This, then, He indicated here also: that just as those at that time learned through the punishment of Achar how great an evil transgression is, so also these will gain, through the captivity, a perception of their own offenses.

And making this more plain, He added:

And she shall be humbled there according to the days of her infancy, and according to the days of her going up out of the land of Egypt.

And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, she shall call Me, 'My husband,' and shall no longer call Me 'Baalim.'

And I will take away the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and their names shall no more be remembered. For just as, He says, they served the Egyptians, so shall they serve the Assyrians;

for by her 'infancy' He calls her sojourn in Egypt.

But the servitude will turn out for their good, and will prove to be for them an occasion of godliness.

For in the captivity she will forget the worship of idols, and will name Me husband and dwelling-companion.

And I, beholding her repentance, [verse] 18.

And I will break the bow, and the sword, and war from the land. Then He promises them the eternal good things:

And I will settle them in hope. And concerning this hope the blessed Paul speaks:

But hope that is seen is not hope;

for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. And that he spoke concerning this hope, and no other, the words that follow bear witness.

And I will betroth you to Myself forever, and I will betroth you in righteousness, and in judgment, and in mercy, and in compassions. And that it was not the Synagogue of the Jews that He betrothed to Himself forever, but the Church gathered from Jews and from Gentiles, the events themselves bear witness.

For the one was cast off, but the other has been joined to the Bridegroom, awaiting the eternal good things;

and He betrothed her not only in righteousness and judgment, but also in mercy and compassions;

for using righteousness and judgment against the wicked tyrant, He displayed mercy and compassions toward those who had been compelled to serve him.

And since it was fitting that those who had obtained mercy should themselves also give something in return to Him who saved them, He reasonably added:

And I will betroth you to Myself in faith, and you shall know the Lord. For faith alone is required forthwith of those who come to Him;

for they are destitute of righteousness;

but they receive this through the regeneration of the laver, from God who saved them.

After the prediction of the eternal good things, He foretells to them also the bodily gifts;

for being earthly and grovelling on the ground, they clung to these rather than to those;

He promises, then, to supply rain from above, and to prepare the earth to bring forth good things.

I will hearken to the heaven, and the heaven shall hearken to the earth,

(22.) And the earth shall hearken to the grain, and to the wine, and to the oil, and these shall hearken to Jezreel. Then again He mingles in the spiritual things.

And I will sow her to Myself upon the earth. That is, I will render her a field of tillage for Myself, and will cast down the seeds of righteousness.

And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy, and I will say to those who were 'Not My people,'

'And You are my God.' These things came to pass in a figurative sense under Zerubbabel;

for then those who had believed in him were truly designated a faithful people, and He Himself was genuinely called the God of those who had believed in Him.

After these promises of good things, again God commands the prophet to be disposed toward an adulterous woman living in wickedness, that once more He might show forth by means of deeds an image of the divine tender love toward the unworthy.

For just as God loves, He says, the sons of Israel, yet they look to strange gods and love cakes with raisins. Such things those devoted to the idols were accustomed to prepare.

And immediately the prophet brought to completion what had been commanded, and tells both what reward he promised to the woman, and what covenants he made with her.

For I said to her, he says, to flee from all intercourse with a stranger, and to keep herself untouched for me.

And he indicates also the archetype of the image;

so you, being led away captive into a foreign land, shall enjoy neither royal nor priestly foresight;

for there being no altar, what liturgy shall take place? Nor indeed shall the things customarily made known and foreshown through the priests or prophets be revealed beforehand to those who, in the foreign land, wish to learn what ought to be done;

nor even will I openly display to them My care;

and this though I am warmly disposed toward them for the sake of their fathers.

For this reason the prophet did indeed dwell with the woman who lived in wickedness, as he was commanded, but abstained from marital intercourse;

since the God of all things neither wholly stripped the people of His own providence, nor made it manifest and evident to them.

since the high priest also received the disclosure and the truth through the oracle of judgment;

and through certain signs occurring therein he foretold the things to come.

Having thus foretold the grievous things, he mingles with them also the good.

Knowing clearly all these things before they came to pass, he declares them through the prophetic voice.

The phrase 'In the last of the days' stands for 'after the end of the seventy years of the captivity.'

Having thus announced the good things beforehand, he again makes his accusation concerning the evils that are being committed.

For you are, he says, destitute of truth and of loving-kindness, and deprived of the knowledge of God;

you plot against marriages, so that your whole land has become full of these defilements.

but also all the others, who like certain fish swim through the sea of this life.

For figuratively he called the powerful 'beasts and creeping things and birds,' while he named the poorer sort 'fish.'

When this comes to pass, he says, the land will be bereft both of judges and of those who are judged.