'Because your fathers forsook me, says the Lord—those who preside over you in the churches—and went after strange gods—whose god is the belly and avarice and luxury and glory in their confusion—and served them—for by whatever a man is overcome, of that he is also the slave—and worshipped them—for each one worships what he loves—and forsook me and did not keep my law.' It belongs to priests properly not only to teach but also to practise the law, so that they may teach the peoples subject to them and the flock entrusted to them by no means only by words, but by examples. And lest perhaps they say: 'The sentence is unjust, that the fathers eat a sour grape and the teeth of the sons are set on edge,' he adds:
'But you also have wrought worse than your fathers,' so that upon those who have sinned worse than their fathers just punishments may be inflicted. 'For behold, each one walks after the depravity of his own evil heart, so as not to hear me. And I will cast you out of this land into a land which neither you nor your fathers know, and there you shall serve strange gods day and night, who shall give you no rest.' Once forsaken by the Lord, they do the things which are not fitting, so as to go after the desires of their own evil heart, from which proceed the worst thoughts; and therefore they are separated from the Church, so as to go into a far land which neither they nor their fathers had known before they sinned, that there they may serve strange gods, which are not gods, but are so thought through the error of those who worship them.
But what he added, 'day and night,' shows the perpetual perseverance of sinners in wickedness, since both by day they serve their crimes and by night their lust. 'Who shall give you no rest,' he says; there is no doubt but that he signifies the false gods, concerning whom he said: 'And there you shall serve strange gods.' Whatever therefore we sin, whatever we do day and night and perpetrate of evil works, is the command of the demons, who never give us rest and always drive us on to add sins to offenses and to make a heap of transgressions. 'Therefore behold, the days come, says the Lord, and it shall no more be said: The Lord lives who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but:'
'The Lord lives who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands to which I had cast them out; and I will bring them back into their own land, which I gave to their fathers.' Manifestly the future restoration of the people of Israel is foretold, and the mercy after captivity, which according to the letter was in part fulfilled under Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest and Ezra, but according to spiritual understanding is described as to be fulfilled more truly and more perfectly in Christ. 'The time will come,' he says, 'when it shall by no means be said that the people was brought back from Egypt through Moses and Aaron, but brought back from the land of the north, when Cyrus king of the Persians released the captives.' 'And from all the lands,' he says;
which shall by no means be fulfilled in the time of Cyrus, but at the last end, as the Apostle says: 'After the fullness of the gentiles has come in, then all Israel shall be saved.' We can also say this concerning the persecutions which befell our people from the days of Nero—concerning whom the Apostle writes: 'And I was delivered from the mouth of the lion'—down to the times of Maximinus: how the Lord had mercy on his people and brought them back into their own land, doubtless into the Church, which he gave to their fathers, the apostles and apostolic men. 'Behold, I will send many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall fish for them;'
'and after this I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the caverns of the rocks; for my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from my face, and their iniquity was not concealed from my eyes. And I will first repay their iniquities double, and their sins, wherewith they defiled my land with the carcasses of their idols, and with their abominations filled my inheritance.' Various is the interpretation of this chapter. For the Jews assert that the Chaldeans are signified, who are described under the name of fishers, and afterward the Romans, who are compared to hunters and hunted the unhappy people from the mountains and hills and caverns of the rocks.
But the Lord says that he did this because he regarded their ways and repaid the iniquities wherewith they defiled the land by venerating idols, and polluted his inheritance with the abominations of idols. But our people more rightly and better suppose that the prophet prophesied these things concerning the future. For since he had said above, 'I will bring them back into their own land, which I gave to their fathers,' now he shows how they are to be brought back: that first he sends the apostles, to whom the Saviour said:
'Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men'; and afterward the hunters, whom we may take either as ecclesiastical men or as angels, who, after the time of the consummation has come, hunt all the saints from the mountains of lofty doctrines and from the hills of good works and from the caverns of the rocks. For not only is Christ a rock, but he also granted to the apostle of old that he should be called a rock, and those who rest in his understanding are rightly said to have been transferred from the rock. And he shows that either the apostles or those who are to be hunted afterward had had sins and received their iniquities double. For the servant who knows the will of his lord and does it not shall be beaten with many stripes.
And it is to be known that in the Hebrew 'first' is placed, and in the Septuagint edition it is omitted. But when he says, 'I will first repay their iniquities double, and their sins,' he intimates that, after they have received evils, they are also to receive good things. But these who are afterward to be transferred defiled the land of the Lord with the carcasses of their idols, and with their abominations filled his inheritance, that all the world might become subject to God and be preserved by no means through its own merit, but through his mercy. What we here placed from the Hebrew—'they are not hidden from my face'—is not found in the Septuagint. 'O Lord, my strength and my might and my refuge in the day of tribulation—or of evils!'
All strength of men without the power of God, which is Christ, is reckoned feeble and of no account; whence one must flee to God and say: 'O Lord, thou hast been made a refuge for us in generation and generation'; and in another place: 'He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven.' But the day of tribulation or of evils is to be understood as that of which the Apostle too speaks: 'That he might deliver us from the present evil age'; and: 'Redeeming the time, for the days are evil.' 'To thee the nations shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say: Truly our fathers possessed a lie, vanity, which profited them nothing.' The Septuagint: 'To thee the nations shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say:'
'How our fathers possessed false idols, and there is no profit in them!' After Israel had been cast out and transferred by the fishers and hunters, consequently the multitude of the nations is called to the faith and confesses that it, or its fathers, was engaged in its former error. But those who say, 'How our fathers possessed false idols, in which there is no profit!'—they confess that the things to which they pass over are true, and supported by every safeguard. 'Shall a man make gods for himself, and these are not gods?' This too the nations speak, who have come to the Saviour from the ends of the earth, denouncing the ignorance both of themselves and of their forefathers, whereby they had supposed that gods were made by man, whereas it is God's part to make men.
'Therefore behold, I will show them, at this turn, I will show them my hand and my power, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.' The hand of God, by which he wrought all things, and the power, of which the Apostle said, 'Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God,' is shown to the nations when the passion of the Son has been accomplished. And beautifully he said: 'I will show them at this turn'; 'I will show plainly, and not as before in shadow and in image and in the prophecy of things to come, so that, after they have known, they may know my name, and hear from the Son: Father, I have manifested thy name to men.'
'The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of adamant, engraved upon the breadth of their heart—or upon the breast of their heart—and upon the horns of their altars—or of their altar-slabs.' Concerning the nations which had been converted to the Lord, it was said above: 'Behold, I will show them at this turn, I will show them my hand and my power'; now he speaks concerning Israel, who has been cast off: 'The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of adamant,' and the rest. Why this was omitted by the Septuagint, I know not, unless perhaps they spared their own people, as it is manifest they did also in Isaiah: 'Cease therefore from the man whose breath is in his nostrils, for he has been reckoned as exalted;'
and there are many things of this kind, which, if I should wish to set them all forth, there would be need not of a book, but of books. The sins of the nations are blotted out, because, converted to the Lord from the ends of the earth, they have heard that word: 'Praise the Lord, all ye nations, praise him, all ye peoples, for his mercy is confirmed upon us, and the truth of the Lord abides forever'; and concerning whom he had said to Moses: 'Let me alone, that I may destroy this people, and I will make thee into a great nation.'
But the sin of Judah, indelible and, so to speak, by no reasoning to be abolished, is written with a pen of iron, with a point of adamant—which in Hebrew is called 'samir'—not that there is any nail called 'samir,' but that the adamantine stone, which received this name from the fact that it is untamed and unbreakable, has such brilliance and smoothness that it can be written upon without any hindrance with that pen of iron, so that the hard matter of iron may write on the harder adamantine tablet, and what is written may endure forever. For they themselves said: 'His blood be upon us and upon our children.'
Hence too it is engraved or carved upon the horns of their altars — or of their shrines — so that the works of sacrilege might endure in everlasting remembrance. But if this is so, where is that notion which the doting old woman fabricates, that a man can be without sin if he wishes, and that God's commandments are easy? 'When their sons remember their altars and their groves and their leafy trees upon the high mountains, sacrificing in the field, I will give thy strength and all thy treasures for a spoil, thy high places for the sins committed in all thy borders. And thou shalt be left alone, deprived of the inheritance which I gave thee, and I will make thee serve thy enemies in a land which thou knowest not, because ye have kindled a fire in my fury; it shall burn for ever.'
And these words are not found the same in the Septuagint, for the reason, I suppose, which we mentioned above, namely lest an eternal sentence should remain against them. 'Thou shalt be left,' he says, 'alone, deprived of the inheritance which I gave thee, and I will make thee serve thy enemies in a land which thou knowest not' — whether under the Babylonians or, as is truer, under the Romans. For they it was who kindled the fire and provoked the most merciful Lord to fury, and the fire of his fury shall burn for ever. I am ashamed of the contentiousness of our own people, who assail the Hebrew truth. The Jews read against themselves, and the Church knows not what makes for her. Wherefore let us, who are the sons of the apostles, remember the iniquities of the former people, and testify that they justly suffered these things.
Moreover the 'high places,' which in Hebrew are called 'bamoth,' can also be understood as directed against the heretics, who 'have set their mouth on high, and their tongue hath passed over the earth' — who have burst into such madness that they alone are left destitute of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and have lost the Lord's inheritance, that is, the former truth of the faith. Hence too an everlasting burning is prepared for them, and the servitude of the demons, who are their enemies and avengers. 'Thus saith the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusteth — or places his hope — in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.'
'For he shall be like the tamarisk in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall dwell in dryness in the wilderness, in a salt and uninhabitable land.' Here every man is cursed who trusteth in man. Now Paul of Samosata and Photinus, although they proclaim the Saviour to be holy and exalted above all virtues, nevertheless confess him to be merely a man; therefore they shall be cursed, having their hope in man. But if it be objected against us that we too believe in him who says, 'But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. Ye do the works of your father' — we shall answer with that word of the Apostle:
'Even though we once knew Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.' Finally the same Apostle writes at the beginning of his Epistle to the Galatians: 'Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me.' For if death has been swallowed up in victory, why should not the lowliness of the flesh, which was assumed for the sake of human salvation, have passed over into the majesty of the Godhead, so that he made both to be one, and so that we adore not the creature but the Creator, who is blessed for ever?
Cursed therefore is not only he who has his hope in man, but he who makes flesh his arm, that is, his own strength, and whatever he does reckons to be not of the Lord's mercy but of his own power. For whoever does this, his heart departs from the Lord, asserting that he can do what he cannot. 'And he shall be like the tamarisk' — which in Hebrew is called 'aroher,' or, as Symmachus translated it, an unfruitful tree in the wilderness — 'and he shall not see when good things come,' the good things which the multitude of the Gentiles is to behold, 'but shall dwell in dryness in the desert.'
This is said of the people of the Jews, who dwell in the desert and bear no fruit, and are in a salt land which produces no fruit, and in an uninhabitable land which has as its guest neither God nor the protection of angels nor the grace of the Holy Spirit nor the knowledge of teachers. 'Blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence — or hope; and he shall be like a tree which is transplanted — or fruitful — beside the waters, which sendeth out its roots toward moisture; and it shall not fear when the heat cometh, and its leaf shall be green — or its little branches leafy — and in the time — or year — of drought it shall not be anxious — or shall not fear — nor shall it ever cease to bear fruit.'
This may be understood of the Jews and of the heretics, who have their hope in the Name, namely in their Christ, whom they suppose to be coming not as the Son of God but as mere man. On the contrary, the churchman who trusts in the Lord hears that word: 'And know ye that the Lord himself is God.' He trusts in the Lord and shall be likened to that tree of which it is also sung in the first Psalm: 'And he shall be like a tree which is planted by the streams of waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not wither.' 'Beside the waters' means: the grace of the Holy Spirit, the diverse gifts. 'Which sendeth out its roots toward moisture' means: that it may receive abundance from the Lord.
But we can also say otherwise, that we have been transplanted from the Jewish dryness into the everlasting grace of baptism. 'And he shall not,' he says, 'fear when the heat cometh' — whether the time of persecution or the day of judgment —; 'and its leaf shall be green — or there shall be in it leafy little branches —, so that it may never fear dryness, but may sprout with the grace of all the virtues. And when the time or year of drought comes, it shall not be afraid, when the Lord in his anger commands the clouds that they rain not upon Israel. And what follows: 'nor shall it cease to bear fruit,' one may expound of that passage which is written in Mark,
namely how the Lord came to the fig tree and found no fruit on it, because it was not yet the season, and cursed it that it should bear no fruit for ever. For whoever trusts in the Lord, and the Lord is his confidence, even in the time of Jewish dryness shall not fear, but shall always bring forth fruit, believing in him who once died for us and dies no more, and who says, 'I am the life.' 'The heart of all is perverse and unsearchable; who shall know it? I the Lord search the heart and try the reins, who give to every man according to his way and according to the fruit of his devices.' The Septuagint: 'The heart is deep above all things, and it is man; who shall know him?' and the rest in like manner.
The Hebrew word 'enos' is written with four letters, 'aleph,' 'nun,' 'vau,' and 'sin'; if therefore it be read 'enos,' it means 'man'; but if 'anus,' it means 'unsearchable' or 'desperate,' inasmuch as no one is able to discover the heart of men. Symmachus, however, rendered this passage thus: 'The heart of all is unsearchable; but what man is he who can find it out?' And our people are wont, with good intention indeed but not according to knowledge, to use this passage against the Jews, to prove that the Lord and Saviour is man according to the dispensation of the assumed flesh, and that no one can know the mystery of his nativity, according to that which is written:
'Who shall declare his generation?' — save God alone, who searches out hidden things and renders to every man according to his works. But it is better that we take it simply, that no one knows the secrets of the thoughts save God alone; for he had said above, 'Cursed is the man who has his hope in man,' and, on the contrary, 'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.' Hence, lest we should think the judgment of men to be certain, he added that the hearts of almost all are perverse, the Psalmist saying, 'Cleanse me from my hidden faults, O Lord, and from those of others spare thy servant' — doubtless meaning thoughts — and in Genesis, 'But God, seeing that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of the heart was bent on evil at all times,' and again:
'For the sense and thought of the human heart is prone to evil from its youth.' By these we learn that God alone knows their thoughts. But if it be said of the Saviour, 'And Jesus, seeing their thoughts,' and no one can see thoughts save God alone, therefore Christ is God, who searches the hearts and tries the reins and shall render to every man according to his works. 'The partridge broods — or gathered — that which it did not lay' — and as the Septuagint translated it: 'The partridge cried, it gathered that which it did not bear' — 'it maketh riches, but not with judgment; in the midst of its days it shall leave them — or in the midst of its days they shall leave it — and in its latter end it shall be foolish.'
The writers of natural history, both of beasts and birds and of trees and herbs — whose chief authorities among the Greeks are Aristotle and Theophrastus, and among us Pliny the Elder — say that this is the nature of the partridge, that it steals the eggs of another partridge, that is, eggs not its own, and sits upon them and broods them; and when the young are grown, they fly away from it and forsake their alien parent. Of this kind are the rich who plunder what belongs to others, and, without any thought of God's judgment, make riches not with judgment, which in the midst of their days they leave behind, being snatched away by sudden death, when it is said to them: 'Thou fool, this night they shall require thy soul of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared?'
And nothing is more foolish than not to foresee the last things and to reckon brief things as perpetual. But others, both on account of the aforesaid history and on account of another — in which they say the partridge is most quarrelsome and unclean, so that it defiles its food — interpret the devil under its name, because he gathered to himself the riches of others, saying to the Lord, 'All these things will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me.' These riches, which had been wickedly gathered by him, shall forsake him, and through the apostles shall return to the Lord; and he who seemed to himself most prudent shall in the judgment of all be foolish. And where it is said by the Septuagint,
'The partridge cried,' this is to be referred to the person of the heretics, namely that this partridge, the devil, cried out through the leaders of the heretics and gathered that which it did not bear, and gathered to itself a multitude of the deceived, who shall afterward abandon him, and he shall be proved by the judgment of all to be most foolish. 'A throne of glory, of loftiness from the beginning, is the place of our sanctification, O Lord, the expectation of Israel; all they that forsake thee shall be confounded! They that depart shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the vein — or fountain — of living waters, the Lord.'
The partridge being forsaken because of its folly, the expectation of Israel — that is, of the people of God and of those who believe in the Lord — is he himself who made all things, whose throne is glorious and lofty from the beginning, and the place of the sanctification of all believers, so that the Lord is not confined to a place, but wherever he shall be, there the place is sanctified. On the contrary, those who forsake the Lord shall be confounded with perpetual confusion, and departing or turning aside from him shall be written in the earth, blotted out of the book of the living. For just as he who can say with the Apostle, 'But our citizenship is in heaven,' is written in the heavens, so he who forsakes the Lord or turns aside from him shall be written in the earth with those who mind earthly things.
And the reason is manifest why they are written in the earth: because they have forsaken the fountain of life, the Lord, or the fountain of living waters, the Lord, who speaks in the Gospel, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink! He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' But this he said of the Spirit, whom they that believed were to receive. 'Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for thou art my praise!' Many physicians in the Gospel had treated the woman with an issue of blood, who had spent all her substance upon them and yet could be cured by none save by him who is the true physician, and in whose wings is healing.
Hence now also the prophet, having suffered reproaches from the people and being frequently beset by snares, desires to be healed and saved by him whose praise is true and whose medicine is true. 'Behold, they themselves say to me: Where is the word of the Lord? let it come! But I have not been troubled, following thee as my shepherd — or I have not labored following thee — and I have not desired the day of man: thou knowest. That which went forth from my lips was right in thy sight — or is before thy face —. Be not thou a terror to me, my hope in the day of affliction — or become not a stranger to me, sparing me in the evil day!' Those who think that the things foretold shall not come to pass speak thus to the prophet: 'Where is the word of the Lord? let it come!' reckoning the delay of the sentence to be a disregard of it.
But to those who say these things he replies: 'I have not been troubled nor labored in following thee as my shepherd, or in walking after thy footsteps; nor was I content with this end, but I have not desired the day of man, neither a longer life nor any of the prosperous things of this world.' And he calls him as witness whom he also calls judge: 'Thou knowest.' There follows: 'That which went forth from my lips was right in thy sight,' so that he never lied, so that he never said anything contrary to the Lord's will. 'Be not thou,' he says, 'a terror to me, my hope in the day of affliction!' This is plain according to the Hebrew; but according to that which the Septuagint translated, saying, 'Become not to me a stranger, sparing me in the evil day,' the sense is: 'Spare me not in the present world,
which is evil; but render to me according to my sins, that I may have everlasting rest! For I know that it is written: Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' Now the evil day is either the whole world, or the day of judgment for those who are tormented on account of their sins. 'Let them be confounded that persecute me, and let me not be confounded! let them be dismayed, and let me not be dismayed! bring upon them the day of affliction, and with a double destruction destroy them!' The prophet imprecates against those who reproach him with the word of the Lord and say, 'Where is the word of the Lord? let it come,' that they may be confounded who persecute him, and may blush and return to salvation, so that they may be dismayed as liars, and not he who foretells the truth.
And when the day of vengeance comes, let him crush them with a double destruction, by famine and by sword. 'Thus saith the Lord unto me: Go and stand in the gate — or in the gates — of the children of the people, through which — or through whom — the kings of Judah enter and go out, in all the gates of Jerusalem, and thou shalt say unto them: Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings of Judah and all Judah — or Judaea — and all ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter in by these gates!' 'Because,'
he says, 'they scorn to hear thy words, nor do they come to thee to inquire what may be the sentence of God, do thou go to the most frequented place, whether of the gates of the temple or of the city, through which the kings and all the common people enter and go out, so that they may be compelled by necessity to hear, and that in season and out of season thou mayest preach the word of God, and no excuse may remain with them that they did it not because they did not hear.' 'Thus saith the Lord: Guard your souls, and bear no burdens on the sabbath day, nor bring them in through the gates of Jerusalem! And bring not burdens forth out of your houses on the sabbath day, and ye shall do no work at all, and hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers!'
'And they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but hardened their neck — and that which is not found in the Hebrew: above their fathers —, that they might not hear me nor receive instruction. And it shall come to pass,' he says, 'if ye hearken unto me, saith the Lord, that ye bring in no burdens through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, and if ye hallow the sabbath day, doing no work therein: then shall there enter through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall be inhabited for ever.'