Commentary on the Twelve Prophets 1 part 15/19

at one time Assyrians and Babylonians;

at another time foreigners and Egyptians;

at another the Idumeans, and Moabites, and Ammonites;

he named 'four horns' those who came against them from the four divisions.

Over these He set invisible powers equal in number, rousing them against one another, so that by one another they might be made to pay the penalties for the things they dared.

But then again he transfers the narration to another contemplation, and says that he beheld a man carrying a geometer's measuring-cord;

then he asked him where he was going;

and that one said that he was going off to measure Jerusalem, so as to learn how great its length is, and its breadth.

And he adds these things also to the narrative: that that angel who sounded these words in him stood by;

and another angel, coming to him, enjoined him to run to the young man carrying the measure, and to say:

'Jerusalem shall be inhabited without walls, by reason of the multitude of men and cattle in the midst of her.'

'For besides these things, I too will be to her, through my grace, a wall unconquerable and insurmountable.'

For this He called 'a wall of fire.'

For just as it is impossible to leap over a very great fire,

so it is impossible for him who is guarded by the divine grace to be overcome.

'And not only will I furnish her with all security, but I will also render her renowned, so that her glory runs everywhere.'

the prophet saw both the guardianship of the angel who has charge, and the coursing of the other angels, and the measurements of the city, so that he himself might firmly receive the good promises concerning Jerusalem, and the people might accurately believe the things said, beholding not merely words offered, but deeds prefigured.

Immediately, then, having shown those things to the prophet, He commands him to cry out:

'Ho, ho, flee from the land of the north, says the Lord;

for from the four winds of heaven will I gather you, says the Lord.'

'Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.' 'Having these promises, be of good courage—not only you who have already returned, but also those who still dwell in Babylon by their own choosing (for though permitted to return, you delayed);

hasten to come to your fatherland, which I will before long lead back to its former prosperity.'

'After glory has He sent me against the nations that despoiled you;

for he that touches you is as one that touches the apple of his eye.'

It is not because He is clothed with a body, and is divided into members;

for the God of all is bodiless and uncircumscribed;

but He indicated the disposition He has after a human manner.

'Guard me, O Lord, as the apple of the eye.'

'For this reason,' He says, 'I will make all those who plundered and despoiled you subject to their own subjects;

and they shall suffer from those the very things which they inflicted upon you.'

and through these very events you shall learn the truth of the divine oracles.

Now these things happened to them figuratively;

but the truth of the prophecy received its more exact fulfillment in our own case.

And this he has shown more plainly through the inspired Isaiah, who cries aloud:

'Those whom you feared shall be in dread of you;'

'messengers shall be sent, entreating for peace, weeping bitterly;'

'for their ways shall be made desolate.' Thus did the demons cry out:

'Ah, what have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come to torment us before the time?' And again:

'I adjure you, do not torment me.' So too the pythoness at Philippi cried out:

'These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.' Thus even before the days of the triumphant martyrs, and down to this very day, they cry out, unwillingly heralding the victory of those saints, and convicting their own weakness.

These, then—those who of old had plundered us—He who was sent 'after the glory' delivered as a kind of spoil to those whom they had despoiled, so that our nature might recover the ancient glory which the forefather Adam, being deceived, had lost, and that we might know our Benefactor and the Savior of our souls, and the Father who sent Him out of His love for mankind.

But He was sent not as God, but as man;

for as God He is equal in honor to Him who begot Him.

'For I,' He says, 'am in the Father, and the Father in me.' And:

'The Father who abides in me, He does the works.' And:

'I and the Father are one.' And:

'He who has seen me has seen the Father.' But He is sent as man, fulfilling the dispensation on our behalf, not diminishing the divine nature.

'For being in the form of God, He counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God;'

'but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.' The Prophet, therefore, has shown us not only the duality of the persons, but also the equality of honor of the persons.

'For thus says the Lord Almighty:'

'After the glory He has sent me.' And, to show who it is that sent Him, he adds:

'And you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.' Therefore both He who sent is the Lord Almighty, and He who was sent is the Lord Almighty, and there is no difference of dignities.

But He was sent, as I said, in a human manner, not in a divine manner, fulfilling the dispensation on our behalf;

and even when sent, He had within Himself the Father who had sent Him:

'For my Father, who abides in me, He does the works.' To this the prophet consistently adds:

'Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord.'

'And many nations shall take refuge in the Lord in that day, and shall be to Him for a people, and they shall dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.' These words too fit us exactly, who have been called from among the nations and have obtained salvation, to whom He enjoins both to rejoice and to be glad, since we have as our indwelling the Lord of all.

One may also see even the sensible Jerusalem itself inhabited by the nations that have believed in the Lord.

And here likewise we were taught both the duality of the persons and the equality of honor of the persons.

'For behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord;'

'and you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.'

And the inspired Paul is a witness, crying out:

'It is evident that our Lord has sprung from Judah.' And, to show that He calls not only Jerusalem but the whole nature of mankind to salvation, he adds:

'To you shall all flesh come.' So too Isaiah:

'And all flesh shall see the salvation that is from our God.'

And He fittingly calls the holy prophets 'clouds,' since they utter nothing of their own, but as it were draw the prophetic rain from a certain sea, namely the grace of the Spirit.

He says that from these He rises and appears, since through them, having foretold His own manifestation and having set the fulfillment upon what He had proclaimed beforehand, He showed by the truth that the prophecy was divine.

Now if these things also fitted the Jews at the time of the return, as some have interpreted, I do not much object.

But that the prediction received its true and incontrovertible fulfillment after the incarnation of God our Savior, one may learn from the matter itself;

for from that time the countless nations, forsaking their former error, took refuge in the God of all, and became a divine people.

From that time the pious community gathered from the nations came to dwell in Jerusalem.

From that time all flesh both received the former coming of the Savior, and shudders before His second manifestation.

But it is time to return to the interpretation.

'And the Lord showed me Jesus the great priest standing before the face of the angel of the Lord, and the devil stood at his right hand to oppose him.'

'And the Lord said to the devil:'

'The Lord rebuke you, O devil, and the Lord rebuke you, He who has chosen Jerusalem.' And these things too are a type of what pertains to us.

For just as that Jesus, who was high priest and offered intercessions to God on behalf of the people, was violently opposed by the accursed and wicked devil,

so this same enemy again contended against Jesus the great high priest, after the order of Melchizedek, who takes away the sin of the world, wishing to trip Him up.

'Is not this like a brand plucked out of the fire?' For since they had but lately returned from captivity and still bore the marks of captivity—poverty and desolation—He fittingly calls them a brand.

Then the prophet relates again how the high priest was clothed with filthy and defiled garments;

and the angel who presided over the people enjoined the other angels standing by to strip him of that garment.

And teaching that he hints at something else through the garments, he added:

'Behold, I have taken away your iniquities from you.' For it was likely that he too, as a man, had certain transgressions.

But I think that, being a high priest, he appropriated to himself the transgression of the people, and offered his supplications as though he had sinned along with them;

and for this reason he receives, as his own forgiveness, the forgiveness of the people's transgression.

'But thus,' he says, 'being freed from the mourning garb, and having received words full of gladness, he receives back also the priestly robe.'

For He who had spoken and done those things enjoins those standing by both to clothe him with the full-length robe, and to place the mitre and the turban upon his head.

And when these things were done, the holy angel solemnly charges him, and says:

'Thus says the Lord Almighty:'

'If you walk in my ways, and if you keep my ordinances, then you shall also judge my house, and if you keep my court, then I will give you men to walk among these who stand here.' Having received the priestly dignity, conduct yourself according to the laws of the priesthood, keeping all that I have commanded to be done.

'For by doing these things, you also shall live in this honor, and you shall transmit the privilege even to your descendants, to those of your line who shall administer this people.'

'Hear now, O Jesus the great priest, you and your neighbors who sit before your face, for they are men of portent.' By 'men of portent' he does not mean, as some supposed, augurs and those who employ omens;

for He would not have addressed such words to such men, nor would Jesus himself, being pious, have welcomed such an assembly;

but He testifies to their knowledge and their zeal for the things of God.

For continuing as pious men, they carefully observed the wonders and signs given by the prophets, and awaited their fulfillment.

To these, then, and to Jesus, He speaks what follows:

He says that He has set this stone before the face of the priest, adorned with seven eyes.

But the eyes are not to be understood as eyes, nor is the number seven to be taken as a literal number.

For he called the working of the divine grace 'eyes;'

and he named them 'seven,' signifying by this its abundance and its greatness.

'The barren has borne seven,' not naming a fixed number, but indicating a multitude.

'Repay our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom'; that is, let them pay a manifold penalty for the wrongs they did us.

in the sense of, let them pay a manifold penalty for the wrongs they did us.

He names him a stone because of his firmness and unconquerable strength.

Instructed in these things, the blessed Paul too cries aloud:

'For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them;'

'and that rock was Christ.' And again:

'No one can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' Bearing this stone within himself, Zerubbabel — for from him, according to the flesh, the Saviour of the world sprang — is fittingly himself also named a stone, shining forth with graces of every kind.

Having thus shown the God-given grace of Zerubbabel, he foretells also the trophies of his glorious generalship:

'Behold, I dig a pit, says the Lord Almighty, and I will search out all the iniquity of that land in one day.' These things he foretold concerning Gog and Magog, upon whom in one day he brought utter destruction;

and he consigned them all together to death, which he figuratively called a pit.

'When this has come to pass,' he says, all who serve under Zerubbabel, having become victorious, will thereafter feast fearlessly beneath their vines and fig-trees, inviting one another to the banquet, no longer dreading the onslaught of enemies.

The prophet, hearing these things and being caught up in the contemplation of revelations so many and so great, was placed outside human affairs and, holding his mind in those things, resembled one deeply drowsy and held fast by sleep.

'He came,' he says, 'and roused me, as when a man is wakened out of his sleep.'

'What do you see?' And I said:

'I have looked, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, and its bowl upon it, and seven lamps upon it, and seven oil-pipes to the lamps that are upon it.'

'And two olive trees above it, one on the right of its bowl, and one on the left.' And all these too are riddles of other realities.

For now he showed a golden lampstand as a figure of the divine providence, which governs both the things of heaven and the things of earth;

and the seven lamps, equal in number to the seven days of the week, indicate the perpetual and unfailing character of the divine providence;

and the oil-pipes, which pour out the oil, signify the ungrudging bounty of God's loving-kindness towards mankind.

Thus through the bowl he hinted at the grace that illumines all things.

And by the two branches reaching up to the lamps, he signified Jesus and Zerubbabel — the one sprung from the priestly, the other from the royal tribe.

For since it seemed incredible and altogether implausible to those who reasoned by human calculations, that a few men, and poor, and who had scarcely and only lately escaped that long captivity, should accomplish such and so great deeds of valour, God confirmed to those to whom the promise was shown, teaching that the accomplishment belongs not to their own power but to His grace.

For when the prophet inquired of what realities the things shown were riddles, the divine angel said:

'This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying:'

the outcome, nor again, having succeeded, ascribe the victory to yourself;

for being aided by my grace, you shall raise up the trophy over those nations.

Then he turns his word to those very ones:

'Who are you, O great mountain before the face of Zerubbabel, to succeed?' For since he had named Zerubbabel himself a stone, he fittingly also calls those countless nations a mountain — those attempting both to hinder the building of the divine temple and to destroy the remnant of the people.

'But you shall accomplish nothing by devising these things.'

'For I will bring forth the stone of the inheritance, an equality of grace, its grace.' And what he means is this:

even if ten thousand times over you rage in becoming a hindrance to Zerubbabel, I will render your hopes empty;

for having filled him with all grace, and adorned him with perfect grace, and rendered him firm like a stone, I will bring it about that all of you are given over to destruction, so as to fill up and make equal what is lacking to human power by the grace from above.

'Know then, that the hands of Zerubbabel laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall complete it, and through them you shall learn from the events that, being ministered to by divine words, I have conveyed to you this prophecy.'

'I will kill, and I will make alive;'

'I will strike, and I too will heal.' For here too he shows this: that just as I brought Jerusalem to nought for long days, and decreed for her a desolation of seventy years,

so it is easy for me to lead her back to her former prosperity.

And those who see these things 'shall rejoice, and shall see the tin stone in the hand of Zerubbabel.' 'They shall know,' he says, by experience, that the God now despised by them will Himself, through Zerubbabel, accomplish the victory.

For he set 'tin' here to denote worthlessness.

For since the divine temple had been burnt, and the people led into slavery, and the city laid waste, and since all suspected that all these things had befallen them not on account of the people's transgression but on account of the weakness of the God they honoured, he named the divine help a 'tin stone' according to their supposition, teaching that this help — reckoned by the unbelievers to be something worthless and weak — would, through one man, Zerubbabel, display its own power.

'These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which look upon all the earth.' For the Overseer and Governor of all, both beholding all things and hearing all things, He Himself will shield Zerubbabel.

These things being thus spoken, the prophet asks about the olive trees flourishing on either side of the lampstand, and inquires about the two branches reaching as far as the lamps, and learns that they are the two sons of fatness, who stand by the Lord of all the earth.

He means Jesus the high priest and Zerubbabel the commander — the one flourishing from the royal, the other from the priestly line.

Having thus, by his manifold visions, confirmed the words concerning the kingship and the priesthood, and having foretold the completion of the building of the divine temple, he affrights his hearers with the threat of punishment, turning them away from vice and urging them towards virtue;

and he shows the prophet a very great scythe hovering aloft and borne through the air, ten cubits in breadth and twenty in length.

And he is taught that this is the curse that goes forth over the face of all the earth;

he called it a punishment, one that proceeds against the whole inhabited world, and is brought upon the workers of iniquity.

And through these things both the prophet and the people were taught that the God of all is the judge of all men, and will exact due penalties from all, bringing utter destruction not only upon those who are impious towards Him, but also upon those who wrong their neighbour.

For let no one suppose that this threat has been made against thieves and perjurers alone;

for He pronounced the verdict against all lawlessness.

For since the whole law and the prophets hang upon this word — namely, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself' — through perjury and theft He gathered together every kind of sin.

For the transgression of oaths is the chief point of impiety;

and such a person is destitute of divine love.

And theft manifests the wrong done to one's neighbour;

and no one who loves his neighbour will bring himself to wrong him;

these chief points, therefore, are comprehensive of the other laws, and fittingly He threatened that punishment against the transgressors.

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

'Lift up your eyes, and see what this is that goes forth.'

'This is the measure that goes forth.'

Thus also, when He foretold to Abraham that his seed would be a sojourner, He teaches also the reason:

'For the sins of the Amorites,' He says, 'are not yet filled up until now.' 'They have not yet,' He says, 'committed offences worthy of utter destruction;'

'therefore I will not now consent to give them over to slaughter, but I will await the full measure of their transgression.'

Thus also, having limited the life of those in Noah's day to a hundred and twenty years, when He saw sin increasing and overflowing, He did not await the appointed term, but shortened the set time, and in the hundredth year brought upon all the flood of waters.

'And behold, a talent of lead 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 talent of lead upon her mouth.' Now the divine word likens virtue to pearls;

'For the kingdom of heaven is like a man seeking fine pearls.' But the punishment of sin the sacred Scripture calls lead;

and this by nature is heavy, and most heavy also is the burden of sin.

'My iniquities,' he says, 'have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they have weighed heavily upon me.' Therefore the divinely-inspired Zechariah too sees sin appearing in the figure of a woman;

for the greater part of evils are born from sensual pleasure.

And he sees the punishment like some most heavy lead lying upon the mouth of lawlessness, according to the psalmody that says:

Every lawlessness shall stop up its own mouth.

And the fruit of sin is shame. So too the blessed Paul says:

Having been set free from sin, you became slaves to righteousness;

what fruit, then, did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? The prophet, therefore, was taught that God had loosed the people's sin and brought their punishment to an end.

At any rate, he beholds two winged women, borne along with a kind of rushing sound;

and their wings, he says, were like the wings of a hoopoe.

This bird is exceedingly swift, having but little flesh, yet wings larger than its flesh.

These women, then, he says, having taken up that measure, were carried through the midst of the air.

And I asked the divine angel where these women were conveying the measure;

and I was taught that they were departing into Babylon, so as not only to set it upon the city, but also to build a house for it, and to place it there upon its own base.

For not as I appointed for Jerusalem a fixed time for its desolation, and afterwards again deemed it worthy of sparing and pardon, so, he says, will I likewise impart my loving-kindness to Babylon;

but she shall receive perpetual punishment in return for her great impiety.

Having thus concluded this vision, he brings forward the account of another sight, and says that he beheld four chariots in number coming forth from between two bronze mountains; and that to the first chariot red horses were yoked, to the second black, to the third white, and to the fourth dappled and grizzled.

Then he says that he inquired, and learned from the angel, that these are the four winds of heaven, which go forth to stand before the Lord of all the earth.

By 'four winds' he calls the four quarters of the inhabited world;

for most people suppose the winds also to be equal in number to these.

The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those who fear him, and shall deliver them. And concerning the punishment he says in another psalm:

He sent upon them the wrath of his anger;

wrath and anger and affliction, a sending by evil angels. So too the inspired Zechariah sees the black horses driving toward the northern parts of the world, and by this he hints at the destruction of Babylon.

And the white horses went forth after them, not that they might bestow good things upon those, but that, while those were being punished, they might bring back the remnant of the captive Hebrews into Judaea.

And the red horses went forth toward the land of the south, threatening evils upon the nations that rose up against Jerusalem;

for by the red colour the passage hinted at the fierce and wrathful disposition.

And the dappled and the grizzled went forth, and sought and looked to go round about the earth;

Go and go round about the earth.

And they went round about the earth. By 'earth' here he means, not that of Israel, but the whole inhabited world.

He calls them dappled and grizzled, as dispensing all manner of things and punishing where it is needful, and doing good where it is fitting.

And he cried out, and called me, and spoke to me, saying:

After these visions, the prophet is commanded to take the gifts brought by the captives, yet not simply from all, but from the rulers, and from those useful to her, and from those who have come to acknowledge her.

For as many, he says, as took perception of their evils, and knew the cause of the captivity, and understood its usefulness, let them bring the gifts.

Then he mentions also names: Heldai, and Tobias, and Jedaiah.

He is commanded also to enter into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, who has now come from Babylon, and to take silver and gold, and to fashion a crown out of these, and to bind it about the head of Joshua the high priest, and to convey to him the divine words, and to say:

Thus says the Lord Almighty:

Behold a man, the Dayspring is his name, and from beneath him he shall spring up, and he shall build the house of the Lord.

And he himself shall receive virtue, and shall be seated, and shall rule upon his throne, and the priest shall be at his right hand, and a counsel of peace shall be between them both. And all these things he foretells concerning Zerubbabel, not as though he were not yet born, but as not yet having received the leadership.

He names him 'Dayspring,' since after the manner of light he rose upon those who at that time dwelt in Jerusalem, held fast by the untimeliness of evils and by moonless darkness.

This one, he says, shall complete the divine house, and shall be established upon the royal thrones, and shall deem the high priest worthy of all honour, and shall have such concord toward him that he shall never do anything apart from that man's judgment.

but also to those who endure he promises the crown that never grows old, whom he names as useful and as having acknowledged her.

And he who supplied the materials for the crown, Josiah the son of Zephaniah, who shall be deemed worthy of the renown that comes therefrom;

And for the favour of the son of Zephaniah. Then he speaks also concerning the divine regions.

And for a psalm in the house of the Lord.

(v. 15) And those who are far off from them shall come, and shall build in the house of the Lord;

and you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. For not only will you who are present do these things, but also those who dwell far from you will run together from every side, and will share with you in these good labours.

And it shall be, if hearing you hearken to the voice of the Lord your God. But these things, he says, shall be, and shall receive their fitting fulfillment, if you obey the divine words.

And the king sent to Bethel Sharezer and Arbeseer, and the men who were with him, to make propitiation to the Lord, saying to the priests who were in the house of the Lord Almighty, and to the prophets:

Has the sanctuary entered in here in the fifth month, or shall I fast as I have already done for so many years? Some have said that these were leaders of the Cuthites and of the other nations who had been resettled by Shalmaneser, whom afterwards men called Samaritans.

But whether of these, or of other nations (for the divine Scripture did not teach us), it is clear that, being of foreign race, they were leading a foreign people;

yet nevertheless, dwelling as neighbours, they received much benefit from the prophets and from the other godly men;

wherefore they sent forth sacrifices to God, and longed to learn from the priests and from the prophets whether the divine house had recovered its fitting adornment, or whether, he says, one must again make propitiation to God through fasting, which we have continued to do for the most part.

When they inquired these things, the God of all makes his discourse to the people;

and through these words he teaches those men also what ought to be done;

Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying: