十二先知書註釋 第 1 章 第 9/19 段

Beholding this loving-kindness of God, the prophet is disheartened and grieved, as though his prediction were being refuted and shown to be false.

Then, praying to God and explaining the cause of his flight, [CHAPTER]

'for You are gracious and compassionate, longsuffering and abounding in mercy, and repenting of evils'—for this reason I made that flight; then, being delivered over to the storm and the sea-monster, I besought again to return to life;

but now, on the contrary, I entreat You;

for I am ashamed and cover my face, being called a liar by so many.

'Are you exceedingly grieved?' This Symmachus rendered more clearly:

'Are you justly grieved?' And the rest said:

'Are you rightly grieved?'—that is, 'Consider within yourself whether you have just grounds for your dejection.'

And here He bids him find, by reasoning, a solace for his dejection;

but at the end of the prophecy, He both reproves his ill-founded dejection, and shows the reasonableness of His own sentence.

'Now Jonah, having left the city, sat down opposite it, and made himself a booth, and sat under it, until he should see what would happen to the city.' This, though it happened first, the prophet has placed last.

Here he relates what took place in the interval: that after making his proclamation he went out of the city, and having pitched a tent he awaited the outcome of his prophecy.

And it is clear that this happened before his despondency; for after the appointed days had come to an end, seeing that the city had suffered nothing of what he had said, he offered up to God his prayer full of grief.

For after the end of the appointed days, seeing that the city had endured none of those things, he offered to God his prayer with sorrow.

Yet even for this again God contrives a consolation, and by means of a gourd that, as He willed, sprang up at once, and spread out, and put forth abundant foliage, working a shade He offers him refreshment of soul.

'The Lord God commanded a gourd' — he has set this down not to signify some divine voice here, but to teach that as soon as God willed, the plant was brought into being.

'God commanded the whale' — saying that this came to pass not by a divine voice, but by His will; for he calls the divine will a 'command.'

For he calls the divine purpose a command.

Thus the blessed Jonah received good cheer in place of grief.

But again God, at dawn, by means of a worm destroying the root of the gourd, caused it to be withered by the assault of the sun.

And when this had happened, and the sun's ray struck upon his head more fiercely than was usual —

'For God commanded a burning, scorching wind, and the sun smote upon the head of Jonah.' Once more the prophet fell back into faint-heartedness and into a greater anguish, and set himself preferring death to life.

But once again He who cares for sinners and provides for the righteous asked the prophet whether he was exceedingly grieved over the gourd;

and when he confessed that he did indeed feel this — so much so that for its sake he preferred death to life —

'I take you,' says God, 'as judge:

that you should grieve over a gourd, of which you have not become the cultivator (for you neither planted it nor watered it, but having come up at dawn, on the next day it became the prey of a worm and of the sun), while I should not unsparingly show pity toward so great a city, which received its being from Me, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of men who do not know their right hand from their left, and much cattle.'

Considering this, then, marvel at His loving-kindness, seeing that it is reasonable.

As for the phrase, 'They did not know their right hand or their left hand,' some have understood it of simplicity;

but to me it seems to hint at the multitude of the young children dwelling there;

and the aim of what is said guides us toward this interpretation.

For if it were not fitting, He says, to accept the repentance of the sinners, it would at least have been proper to take some pity upon so many myriads, in whom, because of their tender age, the knowledge of the right and left hand had not yet been implanted.

Besides these, the city also has cattle exceeding this number, which likewise owe no penalty for sins.

Just as, then, He added the cattle for this reason, so also He added the immature age;

so that neither from these nor from those is any punishment for sins justly exacted.

This, then, is the end of the prophecy.

Thus when the great Elijah had held back the rain, He Himself comes as a kind of ambassador to His servant, saying, 'Go and show yourself to Ahab, and I will give rain upon the face of the earth.' Enjoying, therefore, so great a gentleness, let us display a disposition befitting these benefactions, and let us conduct ourselves according to His divine laws, that we may reap the good and lovely fruits thereof, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often would I have gathered together your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!' For having granted the prophetic grace to men so many and so great, He set physicians over the grievous wounds of Israel.

One of these also was the blessed Micah, who made the same prophecy as those wondrous men Hosea, Joel, and Amos;

and he shares with them also in time, even if they preceded him by a little, having begun their prophecy in the reign of Uzziah;

for this one also, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, saw what he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem;

and in their time the blessed Hosea also prophesied.

The most divine Micah begins his prophecy thus:

'Hear, all you peoples, these words, and let the earth give heed, and all that dwell in it, and the Lord God shall be among you for a witness, the Lord from His holy house.' Since he spoke concerning Samaria and Jerusalem, that the words had come to him from the God of all, fittingly he gathers to hearing not a single people, but peoples.

'For behold, the Lord goes forth from His place, and shall come down, and shall tread upon the heights of the earth.'

'And the mountains shall be shaken beneath Him, and the valleys shall melt like wax before the fire, and like water rushing down a slope.' That the God of all is not confined to a place (for He is bodiless and uncircumscribed, upholding all things by the word of His power), we are taught by the divine Scripture.

But since He made His manifestation in Jerusalem, the temple is fittingly called His place.

For thus also through the great Moses He gives the law:

'You may not keep the Passover in any one of your cities, but only in the place which the Lord your God shall choose.' From this place, the prophet says, He goes forth, and treads upon the high places, and shakes the mountains by His presence, and melts the valleys like wax when fire draws near.

These things come to pass both according to the letter, when God so wills, and understood figuratively they hold the truth.

For by mountains being shaken He names those who are proud in power and fall into calamities;

and by valleys melting, the multitude of the subject people, who like valleys lying beneath mountains are placed under the authority of those in power;

and likewise by water, rushing headlong down the slope, He brings punishments upon those who deserve them.

'What is the impiety of the house of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?' For the one filled Samaria with idols;

while those dwelling in Jerusalem, though instructed in the divine law within the temple, continued to live together with transgression.

It must be noted that the house which above he named Israel, coming down he has called the house of Judah.

And the ten tribes he called the house of Jacob, using the natural name;

but the spiritual name, that of Israel, he applied to Judah, since, possessing the divine temple, they had many pious men.

'And I will make Samaria into an orchard-watchman's hut of the field, and into a planting-place of a vineyard, and I will pull down her stones into a chasm, and I will lay bare her foundations.' For she shall be given over to such desolation that her stones shall vanish and become utterly invisible;

and in place of market-places and streets and houses, that ground shall be taken up by rows of vines, so that the watchmen even pitch certain huts of the vineyards in it.

And the precincts of the idols shall be torn up from their foundations.

'And all her hire they shall burn with fire, and all her idols I will make into an utter ruin;

because from a harlot's hire she gathered them, and from the hire of harlotry she heaped them up.' For since, forsaking Me, she preferred the service of idols, and offering as a kind of hire to the idols she both built altars and precincts and brought a multitude of votive offerings, these too, together with her, I will hand over to the enemies;

and this He charges against her also through the prophet Ezekiel:

'For you became, He says, contrary to all the women like you, in that every harlot receives a hire, but you gave a hire to your lovers.' And it is likely that He also hints at the women who play the harlot, who, receiving the wages of their licentiousness, offered the firstfruits of it to the licentious demon.

'For this reason,' He says, 'she shall wail and lament;

she shall go barefoot and naked;

she shall make a lamentation like that of serpents, and mourning like that of the daughters of the Sirens.' And the excess of the mourning shall be produced by the excess of the anguish.

For those who enslaved the ten tribes led them away as captives of the spear;

and Sennacherib, having besieged Lachish and the other cities of Judea, laid them waste;

and having sent with Rabshakeh the greater part of his army up to the very gates of Jerusalem, he learned by experience that no one shall prevail against the will of God.

As for the phrase, 'She shall make lamentation like that of serpents, and mourning like that of the daughters of the Sirens,' he has spoken from the things bandied about in the myths, wishing to show the excess of the grief.

For since mourners are wont to lament with a kind of melody, and, like hissing serpents, to send up their breath from the burning heart, and to bring it forth and utter it with a kind of violence, he set down those aforesaid images.

And since he had foretold that grief would come upon all the tribes of Israel, and foresaw that the foreigners would rejoice over these people's misfortunes, he turns his word toward them, and says:

'You who are in Gath, do not exalt yourselves, and you Anakim, do not build up out of the house a laughing-stock;

sprinkle earth upon yourselves for your derision.' Do not be high-minded, exulting over the calamities of these, as though you yourselves remained unharmed;

but in place of the laughter which you have used against the Israelites, sprinkling earth upon yourselves, bewail your own calamities.

And the Anakim are not, as some have supposed, some other city besides Gath, but he names the inhabitants of Gath 'Anakim,' as being descendants of Anak the giant.

And this it is possible to learn from the divine Scripture in many places.

'Dwelling fairly. I will tear down her cities.'

For nothing shall profit you — neither the beauty of the buildings nor the security of the sites;

but your cities shall become desolate.

«She that dwelt in Aenan did not go forth; wail, O house that lies near her»;

«she shall receive from you a wound of grief.» Since she refused to share in your suffering and to be chastened by your correction, she shall now, against her will, share with you in the calamity;

for Aenan was one of the cities neighbouring upon them.

«Who began griefs for her that dwelt in good things?» From here he shifts the discourse to Jerusalem;

and the construction of the sayings is intertwined and exceedingly obscure.

One must therefore arrange it thus in order to find the meaning:

«that evils have come down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem.» And showing what these are, he has added:

«The noise of chariots and of horsemen.» This too he plainly taught us through the prophet Isaiah:

«the staff of my wrath is in their hands; I will send my anger against a lawless nation, and against my own people I will give command to make spoil and plunder.» So likewise here:

«Who began griefs for her that dwelt in good things? For there has come down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem the noise of chariots and of horsemen.» For I, he says, brought upon them these griefs in the midst of their enjoyment of every kind of good thing, by setting over them the multitude of their enemies.

And since Lachish was ravaged before Jerusalem (for Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem, but Sennacherib laid waste Lachish), he turns his discourse toward her:

«until I bring your heirs.» For this reason the enemies shall also take from you a multitude of captives;

for these it was that he called «those sent away».

«and as far as Geth your land shall become desolate»; since you followed the impiety of the senseless kings of Israel.

You shall come into this desolation, «until I bring your heirs», that is: until, having set free the captives who were led away, I bring them back again and restore to them their ancestral inheritance.

But some have interpreted «the heirs» as «the enemies», understanding the passage thus:

«He shall inhabit the vain houses» which came to nothing for the kings of Israel, «until» I bring to you «the heirs», that is to say, the enemies. But according to Aquila, who has put «the heir» in the singular, we find a deeper meaning:

«This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.» This one, when he came, delivered not Lachish alone, but the whole inhabited world, from the servitude to vain idols.

«She that dwells in Lachish, she shall come as an inheritance as far as Odollam.» This desolation, he says, shall not only hold you fast, but shall be extended even as far as Odollam, and shall lay hold of glorious Jerusalem.

For he addressed her as «daughter of Zion»;

and turning his discourse to her, he says:

«The glory of the daughter of Zion (verse 10): shave and shear yourself over your delicate children; enlarge your shaving like an eagle, because they have been led away captive from you.» Take up the garb of mourning, and remove the adornment of your hair, imitating the eagle, which is at its due season stripped of its feathers by the law of nature;

which at this season is not even able to hunt, nor is it fearsome to those to whom it was formerly fearsome.

In like manner you too, when stripped of my providence, shall be easy prey to your enemies, becoming bereft of all your inhabitants.

«For they became those who devised toils, and who wrought evils upon their beds, and together with the daybreak they accomplished them.» For not even the nights did they pass without transgression, but plotting their wickedness by night and sketching it out in their thoughts, by day they added the deeds to their designs.

And what these deeds are, and how many, he enumerates.

(verse 2) «And they coveted fields, and seized orphans, and oppressed households, and plundered a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.» And having gone through their transgressions, he foretells the punishment.

«Behold, I am devising evils against this tribe, from which you shall not lift up your necks, nor shall you walk upright suddenly, for it is an evil time.» For I will bend down your bold and arrogant necks, and by the greatness of the chastisement I will compel you to stoop to the ground;

for like the other tribes, I will also hand over this tribe to servitude, on account of the transgressions aforesaid.

«In that day a parable shall be taken up against you, and a lamentation shall be lamented in a strain of those who say:»

«With misery we have been made miserable.» From this one might more easily understand what was said before as well;

for what he called above «the mourning of the Sirens», this here he calls «a tuneful lamentation».

So that it is clear that there too he called the tuneful lamentation «the mourning of the Sirens», according to the fable in circulation.

When these evils, he says, are brought upon her, those who hear of your affairs shall not only lament you, but, using it as a kind of parable, shall relate your circumstances as a story to others.

«The portion of my people has been measured out with a measuring-line, and there was none to hinder him, to turn him back;»

«our fields have been divided up.»

«and I for my part have been cast out from there, and I have not the lot that was given me;»

«and the fields belonging to me are being parcelled out by others.»

Having thus announced the grievous things, he introduces an exhortation which holds a useful profit.

«In the congregation of the Lord (verses 6, 7), weep not with tears, neither let your eyes shed tears over these things;»

«for he shall not thrust away reproaches, who says:»

«The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord.»

«If these are his practices, are not his words good with him, and have they not walked uprightly?» You ought not, he says, to grieve over the punishment, but to lament the sin;

nor to confess the transgression in word only, but to show by deed the change of your conduct;

for God praises those words that are adorned by deeds.

«And before this my people rose up in hostility against his own peace.» For by doing things contrary to my laws, he deprived himself of peace.

«And the leaders of my people also shall be cast out from their houses of luxury; because of their wicked practices they have been driven out.» For along with the others, the kings too and the priests, being deprived of their former luxury, were compelled to dwell in a foreign land in the manner of slaves, paying the penalty for the offences they had committed.

(verses 10, 11) «Arise and depart, for this is not your resting place;»

«because of uncleanness you have been utterly corrupted with corruption.»

«You have been pursued, though none pursued.» For having given yourselves over to transgression, you chose wickedness of your own accord, and became easy prey to the enemies.

Go therefore to the mountains of those men, which God, having formed them there from the beginning, planted;

for you have been deprived of your dwelling here on account of your sin.

«For he set up a lying spirit, it dropped upon you like wine and strong drink.» For the spirit of deceit, speaking in the false prophets, instilled into you the false predictions, and wrought therefrom the intoxication.

«And it shall come to pass, from the drop of this people (verse 12) Jacob shall surely be gathered together;»

«together with all I will surely receive the remnant of Israel, I will set his return to the same place.» This deceit, he says, wrought among you by the demons through the false prophets, shall bring it about that you too, the ten tribes, are overtaken into captivity;

for thither I will lead them all, bringing upon you a common punishment;

and when it overtakes you, «Like sheep in affliction, like flocks in the midst of their fold, they shall leap away from among men.» For just as sheep sitting quietly, when they suddenly behold a wolf coming upon them, rise up with great fear;

so you, when you behold the enemies coming upon you, shall be filled with tumult and fear.

Then he foretells the things that happened under Zedekiah, which the blessed prophet Ezekiel also foretold, when he was commanded by God to take up vessels of captivity, and through those actions to announce beforehand the flight of that king.

«Go up through the breach before their face;»

«they broke through, and passed through the gate, and went out through it, and their king went out before their face.» For when he perceived the Chaldeans had come up, he dug through the wall of the city and fled with a few;

but being caught, he first beheld the slaughter of his children;

and being deprived of his eyes, he was led away in fetters.

«And the Lord shall lead them»: not defending them, but manifestly giving them up.

«Hear now, you rulers of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel;»

«is it not for you to know judgement? You who hate good things and seek evil things;»

«who tear their skins from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;»

«In the manner that they devoured the flesh of my people, and flayed their skins from off them, and crushed their bones, and cut them in pieces like flesh for a caldron, and like meat for a pot;»

«so shall they cry out to the Lord, and he shall not hearken to them;»

«and he shall turn away his face from them in that time, in return for which they did wickedly in their practices among them.» He directs the discourse to the rulers.

For those who had been entrusted with the office of judging trampled upon justice;

wherefore He addresses them in the form of a question, saying:

Was it not you who held the authority to judge, so as to punish those who transgress and to release the innocent who bear no guilt? How then, having been entrusted with upholding the laws, did you turn away from the doing of good works, yet warmly dispose yourselves toward what is wicked? And you practised such rapacity against the poor that you stripped them bare of all their possessions.

For this he indicated when he said:

Snatching their skins from off them, and their flesh from off their bones. Since therefore you have dared such things, even if you should ten thousand times ask for my alliance, you shall enjoy no succour whatsoever.

Having thus threatened the rulers, he transfers the discourse to the prophets.

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who bite with their teeth and proclaim peace over them, yet into whose mouth nothing was given;

they have sanctified war against him. Falsehoods, he says, do the prophets of deceit utter as oracles, and, as though with certain bites, by the flattery of their words they have ravaged the people, uttering things contrary to my prophets and promising them peace.

But while the words of those men bespoke peace, the events themselves reveal war.

And the authors of the evils that come from war are those who promised peace and became an obstacle to the people's repentance.

And the phrase, They have sanctified war against him, he uses in the sense of they set apart, that is, they procured.

And the seers of dreams shall be put to shame, and the diviners shall be laughed at, and all of them shall speak against them, because there shall be none to hearken to them. For when events appear contrary, and instead of the peace they harped upon warfare is beheld, those who prophesied falsehoods shall incur derision;

and those who exhorted men to trust in dreams shall walk with their faces covered;

and at midday they shall pass their time in darkness, and shall reckon the day as night, being stricken with fear of the things they behold;

and with many revilings shall those who were led astray by their divinations wash them down.

But I, says the prophet, was filled with strength in the Spirit of the Lord, and with judgment and with might, to declare to Jacob his impieties and to the house of Israel their sins. For I will not dare to do things like those of those transgressors;

but being energized by the grace of the Holy Spirit and filled with such power, with boldness I will convict the people of their impiety.

Having thus expressly promised to convict the transgressions daringly committed by them, he cries out openly:

Hear now these things, you leaders of the house of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all things that are upright;

with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquities. Having been entrusted, he says, with judging, you were unwilling to hold the scales of justice unswervingly;

but you made no account of what is just, and endeavoured to make the unjust appear just; and using this disposition of mind, you filled Jerusalem with unjust bloodshed;

the rulers practising bribery, and the priests giving their responses concerning the ordinances of the law for money, and not tolerating to perform the divine service without pay;

and the prophets, energized by the opposing spirits, offering their false divination for hire, and bringing forth deception together with gifts, and doing this they imagined that they had the divine alliance, saying:

Is not the Lord among us? No evils shall come upon you. Since therefore, living in every kind of lawlessness, you lean in vain upon the divine appellation, know that

and the areas within the walls, formerly cramped by their inhabitants, shall be newly ploughed like the fields outside the enclosures, and shall be sown, so that Jerusalem shall in no way differ from a watchman's booth in an orchard, which after the gathering of the fruits remains desolate, since he who formerly guarded it returns home.

These things reached their fulfilment also under Nebuchadnezzar, when, having taken the city, he led away its inhabitants captive together with the king;

but it is possible to see more exactly the fulfilment of the prophecy after the frenzy and madness of the Jews against our Saviour.

For up to the present time that much-vaunted temple, torn up from its foundations, has been given over to utter desolation, so that those who behold it are unaware what sort of place it was among the holy things of old.

So then, the divine grace, having through the prophetic tongue foretold these things concerning that temple, prophesies the renown of the Church that has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it shall come to pass in the last of the days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established upon the tops of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall hasten toward it.

And many nations shall go and shall say:

For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he shall judge among many peoples, and shall rebuke strong nations even to a distance. For unto the uttermost parts of the earth has the evangelical and divine preaching run its course, according to the prediction of the Lord borne in the sacred Gospels.

For this gospel, he said, shall be preached unto all the nations for a testimony to them. And to the holy apostles also he gave charge, saying:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. This is the evangelical law and the apostolic word, which, beginning from Jerusalem as from a certain fountain, has run through the whole inhabited world, bringing irrigation to those who approach with faith.

And it is possible to see the divine houses situated in the midst of cities and villages and fields and remote outposts, distinguished by magnitude and beauty, so as to be more conspicuous and more renowned than even the very highest of mountains.

And if one should wish to understand by 'hills and mountains' the shrines of the destroying demons that were formerly upon them, in this way too he will find the prophetic word adorned with truth;

for those things which have been torn up from their foundations are utterly gone.

But the Jews are unwilling to understand these things thus; rather, they say that these are a prediction of the return from Babylon;

and that those men, being foolish, should understand thus is nothing to marvel at;

for the error concerning this prophecy accords with the rest of their derangements;

but that some of the teachers of piety should have inserted the same interpretation into their own writings seems to me neither tolerable nor worthy of pardon.