Commentary on the Twelve Prophets 1 part 3/19

But let no one who has read the books of Kings suppose this to be contrary to what is recorded there;

for God did not send Ahijah the Shilonite to the people, but to Jeroboam;

wherefore they are worthy of no pardon, having taken upon themselves the appointing of the king.

Then, having accused them that, having received the silver and the gold from the God of all, they spent it on the fashioning of idols,

he offers them exhortation and counsel.

'Cast off thy calf, O Samaria.' And having placed in the midst the words:

'My wrath is kindled against them;'

'how long will they be unable to be cleansed in Israel?' he added:

'And this a craftsman made, and it is not a god;'

'for thy calf, O Samaria, was leading astray.' Most fittingly he mocked the weakness of the idols;

for they have need of matter in order to exist, and of craftsmanship.

And taking the matter from the earth, such as wood, or stone, or gold, or silver, or tin, and gathering the form from the craft, they deify the hand-wrought likenesses of living creatures.

And he continues with his reproofs.

'For they have sown things blighted by the wind,' he says, 'and their destruction shall await them;'

'a sheaf that has no strength to make meal;'

'and if it should even make it, strangers shall devour it.' For no fruit, he says, do you reap from the worship of the idols, but their sheaves resemble ears of grain blighted by the wind, which show their husks full on the outside, but have no grain within.

Such also is the nature of the idols;

for the visible form, whether of a man, or of a woman, or of a lion, or of some other living creature, it takes from the craft;

but it stands destitute of all strength and energy.

'For their destruction,' he says, 'shall await them, and strangers shall devour them;'

'now it has become among the nations as a useless vessel.'

'Because they have gone up to the Assyrians.' For having begged the help of the Assyrians, they shall be handed over to them into slavery, rendering no service to God, nor keeping the festivals appointed by the law.

For this cause he shall be handed over into slavery.

'Now I will receive them.' That is, in the land of the enemies.

'And they shall cease a little from anointing a king and a ruler.' Having wished to be ruled by another rather than by me, they shall come under the dominion of the Assyrians, no longer being able to appoint a king for themselves.

since through this she ran aground into the multitude of idolatrous altars, and thence reaped impiety, being ardently devoted to the lawless altars.

'I will write down for him a multitude, and his customary observances.' For of these altars the multitude, and of the laws devised for them, according to which they performed the idolatrous rites, I will make the record enrolled, as a reproof of their great impiety.

'They were reckoned as strange, beloved altars.' And of these, he says, the lawless altars, they made much account;

but the divine things, which it was fitting to deem worthy of all service, and to hold thrice-desirable and exceedingly lovely, they left uncared-for, as though belonging to some others.

But not as one in need of the sacrifices offered by them have I made this accusation.

'For if they should offer a sacrifice, and eat flesh, the Lord will not accept them.' Now the phrase 'and eat flesh' is not added without purpose;

for it was their custom, of the sacrifices not wholly consumed by fire, to offer at the altar the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver, and the fat that is upon them;

but the breast and the right shoulder they assigned to the priests;

and the rest of the victim they themselves consumed, as they wished.

'If they should offer a sacrifice, and eat flesh, the Lord will not accept them.' For God has no need of these things, but requires the disposition of the soul;

'For offer,' he says, 'to God a sacrifice of praise.' — 'Now he shall remember their iniquities, and shall visit their sins.' To these the words of the Apostle are similar:

'Not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance;'

'but according to thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works.' — 'And they returned to Egypt.' For they sought alliance from thence, and when the calamities overtook them, they fled thither.

'And among the Assyrians they shall eat unclean things.' But even unwillingly they shall be led away into the land of the Assyrians, and shall live a manner of life not according to the law.

'And Israel forgot him that made him, and they built temples, and Judah multiplied fenced cities;'

'and I will send forth fire upon his cities, and it shall devour their foundations.' And Judah, he says, shall learn, when his cities are set ablaze, not to trust in walls, but in me;

and Israel, not to build up temples for demons, but to fulfill the worship according to the law.

'Rejoice not, O Israel, neither be glad, as the peoples, for thou hast played the harlot away from the Lord thy God.' And it does not befit thee, he says, to rejoice like the other nations;

for they received no instruction through prophets;

but thou, continually reveling in these, didst reap no benefit thereby, but of the good things bestowed on thee by me thou didst offer the firstfruits to the demons.

For this he made plain, saying:

'Thou hast loved gifts upon every threshing-floor of grain.'

'(2) The threshing-floor and the winepress knew them not, and the wine deceived them.' For I will deprive you of the good things customarily bestowed by me.

'They dwelt not in the land of the Lord.' For they did not conduct their manner of life as in a land consecrated to God, but lived lawlessly.

'Ephraim dwelt in Egypt.'

He was zealous for the Egyptian way of life.

'And among the Assyrians they shall eat unclean things.' For since even in the land of promise they loved lawlessness, they shall live lawlessly in the land of the Assyrians.

'They poured out no wine to the Lord, and they were not pleasing to him.' They made light of the service of God, and this while deeming the idols worthy of much diligence.

'Their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourning; all that eat them shall be defiled.' For just as the bread offered to those who mourn wears out the mourners themselves because of the mourning, and is not pleasant to those who dine with them, because of the fellowship in the mourning;

But being compelled to partake, they suppose that from thence they contract a certain defilement.

In this way their sacrifices are filled with every abomination.

'Incense is an abomination to me.' And through Malachi the prophet:

'I have no pleasure in you, and I will not accept an offering from your hands.' Then he reminds them of the grievous things that would befall them in the captivity.

Next he teaches that they would flee into Egypt, and would move now to this city, now to that, and would spend their silver, offering gifts in vain to the king of the Egyptians.

'And they will find thorns in their dwellings.' That is, they will pluck no profitable fruit.

By these words he hinted at the harm of the flight into Egypt.

'I waited for it to produce a grape cluster, but it produced thorns'; that is, 'I plucked from thence no useful fruit, but on the contrary all evil ones.'

'The days of your recompense have come, and Israel shall be afflicted, like the prophet who is deranged, the man who is carried by the spirit.'

'Because of the multitude of your iniquities your madness has been multiplied.' When the fruits of your lawlessness overtake you — and these are near — you will be likened to a false prophet raving under the spirit that dwells in him, and carried about hither and thither.

So great a derangement of mind will seize you;

and this madness the multitude of your transgressions has wrought in you.

'Ephraim is a watchman with God, a prophet;'

'a crooked snare on all his ways.' It is fitting to recall what was said to Ezekiel.

For to him also God said:

'I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel.' And here he says to all the people, that 'I have appointed you as a kind of watchman and prophet of God to the nations round about, so that through my providence concerning you and through the polity according to your law, those nations too might receive the knowledge of me;'

'but you did quite the opposite;'

'for you became to them a crooked snare, increasing among them, through your impiety, the worship of idols.'

'For not only in the other cities did you set up altars and sacred precincts to idols, but even in the temple consecrated to me you erected the images of idols.'

'He has fixed madness in the house of his God;'

'but for these things,' he says, 'they shall very speedily pay the penalty.'

Then he reminds them of the virtue of their fathers, stirring them up to emulation.

'Like a grape cluster in the wilderness I found Israel, and like an early watchman on a fig tree I saw their fathers.'

'But they went in to Baal-peor, and became estranged unto shame, and the beloved became like the abominable.' For just as if someone in a desert land, utterly devoid of plants, should find a grape cluster and an early fig on a fig tree, he plucks it with great delight;

so I, when the men of old were living together in impiety, beholding the virtue of Abraham, plucked him, and made my covenant with him;

and thus also his son, and the one born from him.

But those descended from them, thus sprung, in no way emulated their virtue;

for though they had the memory of my benefits fresh before them — the liberty, the deliverance from bondage, the manifold plagues upon the Egyptians, the strange journey through the sea, and all the other things they enjoyed — they preferred the service of Baal-peor to the worship of me, reaping thence only shame;

wherefore those formerly beloved became abominable.

'Ephraim flew away like a bird.' So swiftly shall they be removed into a foreign land;

for they do not love the glory of virtue, but suppose great fecundity of offspring to be the greatest glory.

'For their glories,' he says, 'are from births, and from birth-pangs, and from conceptions.'

'Therefore also woe is to them, because I have forsaken them.' 'In vain,' he says, 'do you exalt yourselves over your fecundity;'

'for the enemy, coming upon you, will make you bereft of children, since you became bereft of my providence.'

'My flesh is from them, from Ephraim.' 'But nevertheless,' he says, 'you shall not suffer utter and complete ruin, until I take up the flesh that is from you.'

This the divinely inspired Paul teaches us more clearly, saying:

'For he does not take hold of angels, but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham.' And again:

'Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed;'

'he does not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.' And elsewhere:

'Of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all.' And countless such passages may be found in the divine Scripture.

'Since, then,' he says, 'my flesh, which I shall take up, is from them, I will not utterly forsake them, until I take this up, and choose out those who obey the calling.'

This too he cries aloud through Isaiah the prophet:

'As when a berry is found in the cluster, and they say:'

'Do not destroy it, for a blessing of the Lord is in it;'

'so will I do for the sake of the one who serves me.'

'But you who have forsaken the Lord I will deliver to the sword.' Having thus foretold the slaughter of their children, he shows the justice of the punishment;

'Ephraim has set his children for prey, and has led them out to slaughter.' He persists in offering them to the idols;

'therefore those already born I will deliver to slaughter;'

'and I will make the men childless, and render the women barren.'

For this he signified when he said:

'What will you give them? A womb that is childless, and dry breasts.' For since they used ill what was given them, I will put an end to their lawlessness by barrenness.

Then again, having made mention of Gilgal, and of the impiety performed there, and of the lawlessness of their rulers, he added:

'Ephraim has laboured, his roots are dried up;'

'it shall no longer bear fruit;'

'wherefore even if they beget children, I will slay the desired ones of their womb.'

'God will reject them, because they did not hearken to him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations.' By 'root' he named the kingdom, which Shalmaneser tore up by the roots, having laid Samaria waste;

after the siege, the ten tribes no longer had a king;

and the words, 'They shall be wanderers among the nations,' clearly indicate their dispersion.

'Israel is a vine with goodly branches, its fruit abundant.' From many prophets it received this appellation.

'You brought a vine out of Egypt.' And God through Jeremiah:

'But I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true.' And the Lord in the Gospels:

'A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen, and went abroad.' Here too, then, he calls Israel a vine with goodly branches, and its fruit abundant — not because of piety and other virtue, but on account of the multitude of its descendants.

And this he made plain, saying:

'According to the multitude of his fruits he multiplied his altars.' 'Having increased,' he says, 'and become many, everywhere they built altars to the idols.'

'According to the good things of his land he built pillars.' 'Making war upon my good gifts,' he says, 'they set up pillars to the idols.'

'They divided their hearts.' For neither did they keep their goodwill toward those idols, but continued worshipping now this idol, now that.

'But I will deliver even them to slaughter and to bondage, and will make these things vanish away.'

Then he teaches them what words it befits them to use in their repentance.

'We have no king, because we did not fear the Lord;'

'and the king, what will he do for us? Speaking words, false pretexts, he will make a covenant.' 'For we have obtained,' he says, 'no help from the king;'

And whereas we ought to have put our trust in God, who deems us worthy of every kind of providence, we have trusted instead in a man who utters nothing true, but forever fabricates pretexts, now making covenants with these, now with those.

But for this transgression, he says, you shall pay the penalty.

For my judgment shall spring up like couch-grass upon the fallow of the field. For just as couch-grass grows unhindered in untilled ground, where no spade troubles it and no plough cleaves it through,

so easily shall the punishment from me be brought upon you.

For the calf of the house of On the inhabitants of Samaria shall dwell as sojourners. They shall wait upon the idol, he says, seeking help from it.

His people mourned over it, and just as they provoked it to bitterness, they shall exult over its glory, because it has been carried away from them. For not only, he says, did they gain no succour from thence, but they even lament and bewail it, beholding it clothed with dishonour.

And having bound it, they carried it as a present to king Jareb by way of gift. For beholding its weakness, they melted it down and brought gifts to the king of the Egyptians, entreating him to become their helper;

but neither from thence shall they enjoy any help.

For Ephraim, he says, shall receive shame, he shall be ashamed in his own counsel. For his counsels are full of folly;

and whereas he ought to have come to God, he seeks the alliance of idols and men.

Then he teaches how the king of Samaria, like a twig carried off by a violent flood, shall be brought to nothing;

and how the altars of the idols, the promoters of Israel's impiety, shall be torn up from their foundations, so that the sites of the sacrificial places become full of thorns.

Then, wishing to indicate the magnitude of the calamities, he added:

Cover us. For such, he says, shall be the flood of evils in the onslaught of the enemies, that each man would choose rather to be plunged beneath the earth as it parts asunder, or beneath the mountains as they suddenly fall upon him, than to await the evils that would come at the enemies' hands.

These things they shall suffer, being called to account for their madness concerning the idols.

they were content to spend their time therein, and from that time they departed from my service;

but they shall no longer wait upon these.

For war has come upon the children of iniquity, to chasten them according to my desire;

and peoples shall be gathered together against them, when they are chastened for their two iniquities.

For this he also makes clear through Jeremiah:

they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have gone and made for themselves broken cisterns, which shall not be able to hold water. (11)

But I will come upon the beauty of her neck. Yet all the same, I will subdue her haughty neck.

And I will set a rider upon Ephraim. For I will mount him, and teach him to bear the yoke in an orderly manner.

Meanwhile I will pass over Judah in silence. For I will not surrender him to the Assyrians, but I will consume the might of Sennacherib, since Jacob strengthens him (for Judah as yet displays the virtue of Jacob).

wherefore he also enjoys my providence.

And through these words he hints at the virtue of Hezekiah, on account of which the whole people enjoyed the divine succour.

From here he again turns his discourse to exhortation.

For since, he says, Judah, displaying his ancestral virtue, prevails over his enemies, (12)

Sow for yourselves also unto righteousness, and reap the fruit of life. For it is for your own selves, and not for God, that what is sown is sown, and what is reaped is reaped.

Kindle for yourselves the light of knowledge. For it is fitting first to give heed to the other virtue, and then thus to venture upon the knowledge of divine things.

Let us come before his presence with confession. In the season of his long-suffering let us display our change for the better, that we may pluck the fruits of righteousness.

Why did you pass over impiety in silence, and gather in its fruit? You ought, he says, having acted impiously, to have healed your wounds with the remedies of repentance, and not to have kept silent, but to have confessed the evils you had wrought.

You have eaten lying fruit, because you have hoped in your chariots, in the multitude of your might. He calls vain hope 'lying food.'

For having put your confidence in the multitude and in the chariots, you received no benefit from these.

For destruction shall rise up among your people, and all your fortified places shall be brought to nothing; neither shall the multitude bring you any profit, nor the walls afford security.

As Salmana the prince was destroyed in the house of Arbeel, in the days of war they dashed the mother to pieces upon the children.

(15) Thus will I do to you, O house of Israel, because of your wickedness. Some say that these words were spoken concerning a certain prince of that time, who both did and suffered such things;

but I hold that these things were said concerning the prince of Midian, whom Gideon overpowered and slew;

for indeed the divine Scripture censures his cruelty.

Make their princes as Oreb, and Zeeb, and Zebah, and Salmana. He says therefore that: Just as Salmana endured utter destruction, because in the days of war he dashed the mother to pieces upon the children;

so also will I do to you, O house of Israel, because of your wickedness.

At dawn they were cast away. When they expected the help of the Egyptians, which would appear to them like a dawn as they passed their time in darkness, then it was that they were led off captive, prisoners of the spear.

As at dawn the king of Israel was cast away. By these words he hinted at the suddenness of the utter ruin;

the rising sun makes the day.

For I called them back out of Egypt, and set them free from that bitter bondage;

but they, becoming ungrateful toward me, chose the worship of idols;

and me, who had bound him fast, and delivered him from his disorderly rushing, and shown toward him a father's tender affection, and applied to him healing of every kind, he was unwilling to acknowledge;

and indeed I often delivered them from every kind of ruin at the hands of those who assailed them, held fast as by some bond by the love I bear toward them, for which I still care for them, and clothe them with these chastisements, doing as one who might strike an erring child upon the cheek.

But it suffices me even to cast a stern glance upon him, and utterly to consume him in every way.

For this he signified when he said:

I will look upon him, and I shall prevail against him.

(5) Ephraim dwelt in Egypt, and Assur himself was his king. For he shall not escape His dominion, even if a thousand times over he flee away into Egypt;

and the cause of his evils is that he was unwilling to turn back. For this reason, though he employs multitude and full armour, he shall display no manly deed;

but he shall reap the fruits of his evil counsels, and shall be carried far from his own land;

since I will hand over all his precious things to his adversaries, and will humble him continually.

Having smitten them with terror by these very words, he again employs the language of loving-kindness, contriving benefit for them by the variety of his discourse.

How shall I deal with you, Ephraim? How, he says, O Ephraim, shall I treat you? I will shield you, O Israel; how shall I deal with you? For I wish to fight in your defence;

but the impieties you have dared do not permit me;

wherefore I will make you as Admah, and as Zeboim. These were burned up together with Sodom and Gomorrah.

But not yet having brought forth the verdict against them, he dissolves the sentence by his loving-kindness.

My heart is turned within me;

my repentings are troubled together.

(9) I will not act according to the anger of my wrath;

I will not forsake Ephraim so as to blot him out. He imitates a father and mother who are shaken by their nature, and who are for the most part unable to turn away from their children.

He says these things, not as though now wishing this, now changing his purpose to that;

but he shapes his discourse into wrath and loving-kindness, into punishment and mercy, by the former striking terror, and by the latter urging them on.

As a father pities his sons, so the Lord pitied those who fear him. And through Isaiah God himself says:

Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have compassion on the offspring of her womb? But even if a woman should forget to do these things, yet I will not forget, said the Holy One. And here too, accordingly, he says:

My heart is turned within me, my repentings are troubled together.

I will not act according to the anger of my wrath, I will not forsake Ephraim so as to blot him out.

For I am a holy God, both manifesting myself among the things that concern you, and superior to all earthly things, and not, like men, constrained to dwell in a single place;

but present everywhere, and standing beside all things.

Enjoying, therefore, so great a loving-kindness. (verse 10)

'Walk after the Lord,' he says; following him continually, and doing all that is commanded.

'For he shall roar like a lion, and the children of the waters shall be amazed.' For just as the lion, when it roars, terrifies the living creatures that draw near and hear its roaring;

so, when the God of all is willing to come to your aid, cowardice shall seize your adversaries, who, after the manner of fish, cannot endure even a chance noise, but hide themselves in the waters.

For he called the fish 'children of the waters,' as having in the waters the sources of their life.

'They shall come as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of the Assyrians, and I will restore them to their own houses, saith the Lord.' For just as the other birds, and especially doves, making use of flight and flying about, easily return to their own nests;

so also he will readily bring you back, some from here and some from there, and will prepare you to recover your native land.

For when those from Babylon had returned, and were rebuilding Jerusalem according to the decree of Cyrus the Persian, those also who were living in Egypt took courage and returned.

'Ephraim hath compassed me about with falsehood, and the house of Israel and Judah with impiety.' I indeed, he says, deem them worthy of so great providential care;

but they requite me with the contrary, choosing the false and impious worship in preference to my service.

'Now God hath known them, and they shall be called a holy people of God.' But nevertheless, even though they are such, I will deem them worthy of my care, and will cause them to be reckoned a people consecrated to the God of all.

'But Ephraim is an evil spirit; he hath pursued the scorching wind all the day long.' And teaching what he calls 'the scorching wind,' he adds:

'He hath multiplied things empty and vain, and hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt.' By 'evil spirit' he designates the wicked purpose;

and by the zeal concerning the scorching wind he means the labour which is not only unfruitful but also harmful.

For while I, he says, employed such a disposition toward them, they, living in wickedness, set up high places and a multitude of idols;

for these things he has called 'empty and vain,' which, after the manner of a scorching wind, will destroy all their fruits.

And in addition to these things, having removed themselves also from my care, now they entreated the Assyrian to be their protector, and now they sought the aid of the Egyptians.

For this he calls 'the trafficking of oil.'

For he does not accuse the trafficking itself, but hints at one of two things:

either that they offered the oil as a kind of gift to the king of the Egyptians, or that, offering gold, they solicited mercy from him, beseeching him to become their helper.

'And the Lord hath a controversy with Judah, to punish Jacob according to his ways, and according to his practices will he recompense him.' But since these things are thus done by them, I will convene a tribunal;

and I will convict the transgression of Judah, and will bring forth a just verdict against him, because he did not emulate the virtue of his forefather, but by his impiety insulted his ancestor.

Then he brings into the midst the things concerning Jacob the patriarch, more clearly convicting the transgression of these men by the comparison with their ancestral virtue.

'In the womb he supplanted his brother, and in his labours he prevailed against God.'

'And he prevailed with the angel, and had power.' That man, he says, even at the very moment of the birth-pangs, laying hold of his brother's heel, came forth into the light, foreshowing what kind of man he would be, and that through the good deception he would obtain the blessing of the birthright.

And as time went on, having grown into a man, he so excelled in the labours of virtue that he even drew down the divine providence upon himself; and once, fearing the coming of Esau, and having entreated God, he not only enjoyed help from thence, but even seemed to wrestle with him who appeared by night, and to pluck victory, that he might cast out the fear from his mind, reasoning that he who seemed to prevail over God would not be overcome by men.

And he has called the same one both God and angel, since the blessed Moses too has applied both names.

For our Lord Jesus Christ is designated by Isaiah both 'Mighty God' and 'Angel of Great Counsel.'

'They wept, and made supplication unto me; in the house of On they found me, and there it was spoken unto them.' This the other interpreters also, both Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, have rendered as spoken concerning Jacob;