For having entered into the temple of God, and having drawn near to the holy altar, he undertakes to offer sacrifice by himself and not through the priests,
"It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests." At this he, being vexed, stretched out his hand in wrath, that the priests might be seized by the guardsmen so that he might do them harm;
but immediately his hand became leprous, so that on the spot the tyrant was cast outside the temple, the sanctuary having been defiled insofar as, in his rashness and cruelty, he wished to appropriate to himself the act which belongs to no one else but only to the priests who attend upon the temple.
In addition to having failed to obtain that which he had wished to draw to himself, he was also hindered from the works of the kingdom by the unclean leprosy, his son who was to succeed to the rule thereafter carrying them out.
In the days of the earthquake that came from the confusion, a ravine came to be joined together to the mountains, in the days of Judah, when Uzziah was reigning.
"The words of Amos," he says, "which came to be from Tekoa, two years before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah" — the earthquake here spoken of being, according to a Jewish tradition that is current, the vision that appeared to Isaiah, concerning which it is thus written:
"It came to pass in the year in which Uzziah the king died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and Seraphim stood round about him, six wings to the one and six wings to the one," and after a little:
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the heaven and the earth are full of his glory." The heaven and the earth came to be full of the glory of God when Uzziah had died, after the transgression which he had committed.
For how was there not an upheaval of change for the better, when God was seen, so that heaven and earth might be filled with his glory, and there came about a removal of the iniquities of him who was pricked in heart at having seen the divine vision, and a remission of the sins of all the people? In the days of the death of Uzziah, who wished to cast down the divine laws into a pit, wishing to appropriate to himself the priestly ministry that did not belong to him, the division of the laws which he had innovated was healed and joined together, the priest again performing his own duties in the temple without hindrance, and the king tending to the governance of his subjects, no longer laying hold of the priestly functions, because the service of the priests was not entrusted to him.
The words set before us can signify the second and glorious coming of the Saviour, concerning which John in the Apocalypse spoke sublimely and in a manner befitting God, thus:
"Behold, he comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him." This understanding is suggested from what the Saviour said concerning himself:
"The tribes shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." For how shall he who is to come in kingly fashion not shine forth with great glory? And he comes also with great power, the holy ones coming with him — not men only but also angels.
For it is fitting that those who became his eyewitnesses and ministers, and the ministering spirits sent forth by him for service, should shine forth together with him, so that he too may be known as their king, and they as his powers, that is, his army.
In the day in which the Lord God shall come, there shall be no perceptible light, since the true and eternal light makes that day, according to what was foretold in Isaiah concerning the perfect illumination, which is thus:
"neither shall the rising of the moon give you light by night, but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory." It may also be said thus:
Since, then, in the age to come, allegorically called a day, the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, having been shown to be light illumining themselves, they pass their time in day, not needing the light from without.
'You are the light of the world' — living in a radiant condition, having light and day not from elsewhere but from itself; concerning which the choir of the saints sings out, saying:
'Let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us.' To this spiritual Jerusalem, which possesses great holiness, the prophet speaks, taken up by God and having the Holy Spirit:
'And kings shall walk by your light, and nations by your brightness.' For how should she not be radiant and enlightened, to whom these things are proclaimed — she who has become light by being enlightened, so as even to display a divine brightness? Consider whether it is possible in this manner also to apply oneself to the prophetic utterance set before us:
When the Lord Almighty has come with His saints, such shall be the condition of those being judged that they have no light, since each is ignorant of the things concerning himself, so that he has need of the One who enlightens the hidden things of darkness and makes manifest the counsels of the hearts, in order that, being made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, they may receive things worthy of what they have done through the body, whether good or evil.
And since agitation and turmoil shall come upon those being judged, as they are thrown into confusion and tossed by tempest, in one day there shall come cold and frost, as men faint away in expectation of the mournful and painful things that are to come, as the Gospel declares.
The day of the Lord, being without interval and not interrupted by any intervening night, shall be known to God, who is light having no darkness at all, so that on this account there is neither day nor night, but the day is eternal, since the sun no longer makes day, nor does the moon give light to the night, according to the prophet, as was recently said, the Lord being eternal light.
And even if at some point it should seem to certain persons that the day is reaching its end, toward evening there shall be light, since God illumines all things.
'Concerning that hour and that day no one knows, neither the angels nor the Son, but the Father only.' Many things concerning the evangelical passage have been examined in the commentaries on Matthew in the preceding treatment, which the lover of the beautiful will find upon reading; only this being said now, that 'knowing' and 'not being known' must be taken either as referring to one thing and another, or that the 'being known' and 'not being known' are in different senses.
'And in that day living water shall go forth from Jerusalem, half of it toward the former sea and half of it toward the latter sea, and it shall be so both in summer and in spring.'
For the living water going forth from the intelligible Jerusalem — the Church which beholds peace — is the spiritual law, or rather the knowledge of ecclesiastical understandings, which, going forth into the sea, sweetens it and makes it calm, driving out and overturning every storm.
'The whole earth was filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covers the sea.' For just as divine love — that from God toward those who suffer well, and that of the benefited toward the bountiful Giver — covers a multitude of sins, blotting them out but not guarding them, and shielding the things most wickedly accomplished, so the knowledge of God, being living water, covers the seas, changing them into sweetness and drinkableness.
Thus the living water going forth from Jerusalem into the former and the latter sea, having driven out all surge and mighty billow, saltness and bitterness, shall prepare fair weather and calm and drinkableness, so that they are no longer seas [...]
'The Lord has reigned, for He has established the world, which shall not be shaken.' And the world is then established so as to remain unshaken, when the former sea — which is the synagogue of the Jews — has been sweetened, and the latter — which is the calling of the nations.
Consider whether it is possible for the living water to be divided into the two covenants, the new and the old, this having come to pass when the water went outside Jerusalem.
It went forth from her at that time when the sound of the words of God reached into all the earth, and His utterances unto the ends of the world, so that everywhere incense is offered to God spiritually, and a pure sacrifice, since the Lord has been shown to be a great king among all the nations.
It was within, in Jerusalem, guarded — or rather shielded — under the shadow of the law and the oldness of the letter, while the winter still held sway; but when the spring succeeded, the things upon the earth blossoming and the turtledove sounding in the land, according to what is said in the Song of Songs: 'the fig tree has put forth its early figs, the vines are in blossom, the winter is past, the rain is gone, it has gone its way, the flowers have appeared in our land.'
Wherefore, spiritual spring having come, and the month of the new fruits being now at hand, we keep the feast of the Passing-over, called Pascha in the Hebrew tongue, in which Christ has been sacrificed, so that, being filled with His spiritual flesh and His sacred blood, we may keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; after which festival we shall also celebrate the feast of Weeks, called Pentecost, in which we shall reap perfect sheaves and fullest ears of grain, that which blossomed in the spring having come to fruition.
1:3743
Πε̣ρὶἀμφοτέρωντῶνκαιρῶνὑμνῶντὸνΘεὸνὁἅγιοςεἶπεν·
關於這兩個時節，那聖者頌讚神說：
Concerning both seasons the holy one said, hymning God:
of Your creation, of all this earth — I mean of humanity — reigning alone, when death, which reigned from Adam until Moses, has been dissolved, together with the devil who holds its power.
'He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' For as he who drinks of the water which Jesus gives shall have in himself a spring of living water, so rivers of living water shall flow out of the belly of the one who has drunk.
'from the gate of Benjamin unto the first gate, unto the gate of the corners and unto the tower of Hananel, unto the winepresses of the king they shall dwell in it, and there shall no longer be any curse of destruction, and Jerusalem shall dwell in confidence.'
When the aforesaid things have come to pass by the gift of God, then polytheism shall depart, only the One who has constituted all things being known and confessed.
For of old, there being an extreme difference between the latter and the former sea — the calling of the Jews and of the Greeks — (for these seas were rendered as such) — it was not confessed by all that God is one.
Therefore in the day in which the Only-begotten Son of God, who is awaited to come, shall come, every error and false opinion having been dissolved, the one and only true God shall be confessed, so that those who have attained the knowledge of the truth worship and serve Him alone, the handmade gods being no more, as the divine word declares:
'The gods who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from under heaven.' It has been said in the things previously set forth that the Lord shall utterly destroy from the earth all the trees, removing from it the unclean spirit, so that not even the demons are any longer reckoned as gods, concerning whom the theologian says — he to whom the unclear and hidden things of wisdom have been made manifest by the Master of all:
'All the gods of the nations are demons.' And not only, when these falsely-named gods have been done away by their being no longer supposed to be gods, shall the only God be known — those who were attached to the idols having turned to serve the living and true God — but also by its being piously contemplated that neither is the world God, nor any part of it, men no longer serving or reverencing the creation rather than the Creator, so that they no longer worship the sun and the moon or serve them.
'As is Your name, O God, so also is Your praise unto the ends of the earth.' In agreement with the psalmist, the prophet Habakkuk also says these things concerning the true God:
'Hallowed be Your name.' For in a certain manner the name of God is defiled, being blasphemed and profaned among the nations because of those who do not think and act in accordance with it; but it is then hallowed when the appellation of God is undefiledly displayed upon all who have been shown to be fair and good, God becoming all in all at the consummation of things.
The name of God is hallowed also at that time when it was no longer imposed upon carved images and demons and the creation, so that among all there is one name of God.
But hearing of one God, we [understand] the Trinity, so as to think that the signification concerns the Father, yet not [to the exclusion] of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
One Lord having been shown, and His name one, round about all the earth and unto the wilderness, the meaning took its beginning from Gabel, which is rendered 'unto a testimony' — that testimony concerning which the Saviour taught in the Gospel, saying:
'Search the Scriptures, for these are they which testify concerning Me.' In agreement, the apostle Paul also writes that the righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ is testified to by the law and the prophets, it being known from the divine testimony that God is one and His name is one, unto Rimmon, which is interpreted 'exalted' or 'lifted up on high.'
'Awake, O north, and come, O south.' Wherefore, in order that we may not say the same things repeatedly, being content with what was then said, we must proceed to what follows.
Ramah, it says, shall remain in its place, not being moved from one place to another, but being interpreted as 'a lifting up' or 'that which has been lifted on high.'
And where should she remain who, by reason of her surpassing height, is that which has been lifted on high, save in the lofty place, neither descending nor being moved?
For it is fitting and profitable that those who, after much progress, have attained to the end and to the perfection which accords with it, should remain in holiness.
The gate of Benjamin—which is rendered as 'unto the right hand' or 'son of days'—is the introduction into the divine mysteries and the doctrines of the straight way, through which enters he who does and thinks all things enlightenedly and rightly, being called a son of the right hand and of days.
Consider whether he who is a son of light is a son of days, concerning whom and those like him the Saviour said that the sons of this age are in their generation wiser than the sons of light, to whom it is written:
'Walk thus as children of light.' From the gate of the enlightened and of those at the right hand, which is first because it is an introduction, unto the gates of the corners.
in one sense as being praiseworthy, because they effect the union of walls, whose head, the chief cornerstone Christ, has been shown to be both foundation and end;
1:3789
θεὶςτὴνκ̣εφαλὴντῆςἘκκλησίαςὧδεχαράττει·
他既立定教會的元首，便如此記載：
and setting down the Head of the Church, he inscribes it thus:
'Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.' And Paul was able to call the Saviour the chief cornerstone, having taken it from above, from the prophecy of Isaiah, applying to himself the prophetic word spoken in the person of God:
'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, for her foundations, and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.' And Peter also, the disciple of Christ, in his epistle set down that the Lord, being a living stone, is the foundation and head of the sacred building, which is the Church.
But in another way one may speak of the corners as false, in which the hypocrites standing pray, glorying in love of vainglory, that they may seem to be pious.
For with her chattering she can ensnare no one else than this young man who is lacking in understanding, nor does she at all approach the one grown grey in wisdom and possessing an honourable old age, namely, the unstained life.
But since both blameworthy and praiseworthy corners were found in Scripture, let us give heed to their difference, that we may see which we ought to flee and which we ought not.
Those after the gate of Benjamin and first in honour are the gates of the corners, the entrances of the united and harmonious, which it is good to enter—for they are of righteousness—concerning which the command is given:
entering into them, I will make confession to the Lord'—the corners that are not good not being called corners absolutely, but this very thing, corners of broad streets—broad streets, not those in which wisdom exercises freedom of speech, but the... of the broad and spacious way that leads to destruction.
And the grace of circumcision is not that of the flesh accomplished according to the letter, but that of the heart wrought according to the life-giving Spirit.
'Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and reckon whether he has the means for its completion? lest, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, those who behold begin to mock him, saying:
For having purposed to build as a tower their own life, they brought it to completion, so as to have in it their refuge and secure dwelling, by reason of keeping watch for the enemies pressing on from afar.
For let not our mind be so impoverished as to suppose that the men bearing the Spirit spoke, through the supply of the Holy Spirit, concerning sensible winepresses and vats, but rather concerning conceptions loftily elevated.
'Bring me into the house of wine, set upon me love.' When the things suggested by the prophecy set before us are fulfilled, there shall be no more accursed thing, since Jerusalem henceforth dwells with the confidence that rests upon the King, having learned that it is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in man, and the proverbial saying that goes:
For this is said in two ways: at one time indicating from the word that which is forbidden by reason of an attendant defilement, and at another time that which is dedicated and consecrated to God.
1:3827
Καὶπερὶμὲντ̣οῦπροτέρουἐκληπτέοντὸγραφὲνοὕτως·
至於前者，那所寫的當如此領會：
And concerning the former, that which is written must be understood thus:
1:3828
ΕἴτιςοὐφιλεῖΚύριον, ἤτωἀνάθεμα, καὶτὸοὕτωςἔχον·
「若有人不愛主，這人可詛可咒」，以及這樣寫的：
'If any one loves not the Lord, let him be accursed,' and that which stands thus:
Therefore, whenever Jerusalem dwells with confidence, no one in her shall any longer be one to be accursed, nor any idol-shrine, the graven and molten images having been utterly destroyed from her.
their flesh shall waste away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall flow out from their sockets, and their tongue shall waste away in their mouth.'
And what are the things which he foretells to those who encircle the fair city of Jerusalem? 'Their flesh,' it says, 'shall waste away while they stand upon their feet,' either from great famine or from dread of the expected evils and hardships.
And to such a degree shall the wasting of their flesh come to pass, that their eyes shall flow out and come outside their sockets, and their tongue shall waste away in their mouth.
But this calamity has come to pass not so much upon those who encircled and sacked the sensible Jerusalem, as upon those who persecuted Christianity and the Church of Christ, which by way of anagogy is Jerusalem.
More completely and at greater length concerning such matters we have treated in our commentaries on Isaiah, to the reading of which we refer those who love what is good, by way of exhortation.
God smites those who encircled Jerusalem after the manner of enemies, that they may fall from the vilest standing in which they persisted, abiding in superstitious worship.
Concerning this contemplation, filled with the Holy Spirit, the justified Symeon, having received into his own arms the babe born of the ever-virgin Mary, pointing to it, says:
and carnal, that, rising up according to the holiness of God, they may be shown secure, being firmly established in faith and the rest of virtue, according to that which was written by the Apostle to those of the Church: