And at the same time He shows this also: that unless the sword go before, which may cut away and purge the vices of the soul, peace and the promise do not follow. 'In that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem: a burning wind — or a wind of error — in the ways which are in the wilderness, the ways of the daughter of my people, not to winnow and not to purge. A full spirit shall come to me from these.' When the sword has reached even to the soul, and the threshing-floor has been finished, then the burning wind shall come from the wilderness — a wind that shall not purge it and winnow it, so that, the chaff being scattered here and there, the grain may be stored in the barns, but a spirit that shall come full, by no means to the people, but to me, so that my wheat may be dispersed.
'Wind' and 'spirit' are called by the same name among the Hebrews, 'ruha,' and according to the character of the passages we ought to understand it either as 'wind' or as 'spirit.' Others expound this passage in such a way that, after the threshing-floor has been purged, a saved remnant remains, whence also it is written: 'a spirit of fullness shall come to me,' as the evangelist says: 'Of His fullness we have all received, and we obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit.' But understand the burning wind, according to the historical sense, as Nebuchadnezzar, who consumes all things; according to the tropological sense, as the adversary power, which coming from the desert and from the solitude — where there is no lodging of God — strives to overthrow His Church. 'And now I — but let me speak my judgments with them.'
An Aposiopesis, according to that Virgilian phrase: 'Whom I — but it is better to compose the stirred-up waves.' And so, being about to speak of prosperous things, He holds Himself back and joins sad things to the sad; for these are the judgments which God once speaks with His people, that they may know that they justly endure the things they endure. 'Behold, He shall ascend as clouds, and His chariots as a tempest; His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us, for we are laid waste!' He beholds things to come as present, and describes the Babylonian army, the din of whose chariots and wheels is compared to a most savage tempest, and the swiftness of whose horses is joined to eagles.
And when the prophet had said this, and had, as it were, pointed out with his finger the enemies approaching, the people groans, and by no means feels these things as future, but as already done, saying: 'Woe unto us, for we are laid waste!' Refer this same thing to the Church, in that daily the army of the true Nebuchadnezzar assails us, and the chariot of Pharaoh and all his cavalry surpasses the onslaught of eagles. But if the churchman understand, believing that sentence: 'When being converted thou shalt groan, then shalt thou be saved,' he will say: 'Woe unto us, for we are laid waste!' 'Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved; how long shall harmful thoughts abide in thee?' To the people saying: 'Woe unto us, we are laid waste,' the prophet answers — nay rather, God through the prophet: 'Wash thy heart from wickedness.'
'O Jerusalem,' with that water of which Isaiah also speaks: 'Wash yourselves, be clean' — the water of saving baptism, the water of penance. But He speaks to the metropolis of the Jews, that by the city may be understood the peoples: 'How long shalt thou lie subject to iniquitous thoughts, which proceed from thy heart?' Now in the Holy Scriptures we ought to understand 'heart' for the soul and the mind. 'For the voice of one announcing from Dan, and making known an idol — or a grief — from Mount Ephraim.' The divine word now speaks according to the situation of the land of Judaea. For the tribe of Dan, near Mount Lebanon and the city which is now called Paneas, looks toward the north, whence Nebuchadnezzar is to come. But it describes the idol — either Bel, or grief, or iniquity — as coming from Mount Ephraim.
For after the tribe of Dan there succeeds the land of Ephraim, through which one comes to Jerusalem. 'Dan' is interpreted 'judgment,' 'Ephraim' 'fruitfulness.' Therefore the judgment of the Lord shall come upon the land that has offended the Lord, with all the abundance of punishment. 'Tell it to the nations: behold, it hath been heard in Jerusalem that keepers come from a far country; and they have raised their voice against the cities of Judah; they are become as keepers of fields against her round about, because she hath provoked me to anger, saith the Lord.' He wills that all the nations round about should know the sentence of God, and that Jerusalem, being scourged, should cause all to receive instruction.
'In a famous report,' He says, 'it is told in Jerusalem that adversaries come from a far country, and that the roar of a howling army rises against her: adversaries who so diligently besiege the city and shut in the town with fortifications, that you would think them to be not so much enemies as keepers of the fields and vineyards. But all this was done not by the strength of the enemies, but by the fault of Jerusalem, because she provoked God to anger.' For if the adverse powers have no power over swine, how much more over men — and over men who once belonged to the city of God! 'Thy ways and thy thoughts have done these things to thee; this thy wickedness, because it is bitter, hath touched thy heart.'
He makes an apostrophe to the city of Jerusalem, because her ways and thoughts, by which she sinned both in deed and in word, have caused all these things which have come upon her to come; and her wickedness, which of itself is bitter, has touched her heart and penetrated the innermost parts of the soul. Whatever therefore befalls us befalls us by our own fault, we who turn the sweet God into bitterness and compel Him, unwilling, to rage. 'My belly, my belly, I am pained; the senses of my heart are troubled. I will not be silent, for my soul hath heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle. Destruction upon destruction is called, and all the land is laid waste; suddenly my tents are laid waste, suddenly my curtains.'
Where we, following Symmachus, have put 'they are troubled,' and in the Hebrew is written 'homae,' the Septuagint and Theodotion put 'maimassei,' which word, up to the present, I do not know what it signifies. But Aquila put 'ochlazei,' which likewise sounds 'tumult.' Let this be said concerning the word, about which I know there is a great dispute among very many. But the voice of the prophet, and of God speaking through the prophet, is introduced, that He grieves over the affliction of His people, and that, after the manner of a man, His inward parts are torn — even as the Saviour also grieved over the death of Lazarus and wept over Jerusalem — lest He conceal His grief in silence;
and every blast of the trumpet and roar of her battles troubles His affection, while evils are heaped upon evils, and the whole land of the two tribes is laid waste. 'While I did not think it,' He says, 'my tents that once were, my curtains, were plundered by the raging Babylonian people, and my lodgings that once were fell as spoil to the enemies.' But God speaks this same thing when He beholds the tumults of sedition and discords in the Church, and the partridge crying out in His own conventicles, and the rest of God turned into wars. Whence there follows: 'How long shall I see them that flee, hear the sound of the trumpet?' — either those fleeing the king of Babylon, or those fleeing me and withdrawing from my service. 'For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are foolish children and senseless:'
'they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have not known.' The cause of the destruction, the desolation, the flight, the trumpet, is that the people has become foolish — not by nature, but by the bent of the will. And that very folly is proved from this, that they have not known God: and instead of wise children they have become foolish and senseless children. For what greater folly can there be than, when the ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib, for Israel not to know its Lord, and to despise as present Him whom it ever desired to see? And that which is added:
'they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have not known' — here wisdom is to be taken for wickedness, according to that saying that the children of this world are wiser than the children of light, and the steward of iniquity is related to have acted wisely in a certain thing, and the serpent in paradise is read to have been more prudent than all the beasts. That therefore is true wisdom which is joined to the fear of God; otherwise, where there are snares and evasion, it is to be called not wisdom, but craftiness and cunning. In place of what we have said, 'because my people is foolish, they have not known me,' the Septuagint translated: 'because the princes of my people have not known me,' so that the fault may be rather of the teachers than of the people of God that lacks knowledge. 'Rough thou the earth.'
'And behold, it was void and nothing; and the heavens, and there was no light in them. I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills were troubled. I looked, and there was no man, and the fowl of heaven was withdrawn. I beheld, and lo, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were destroyed before the face of the Lord and before the face of the wrath of His fury.' The prophet beholds in the spirit the things that are to come, that the people, hearing, may be terrified, and having done penance may by no means endure the things it dreads. The earth is void, its inhabitant being destroyed; the heavens have no light, the people not seeing by reason of the greatness of the terror. The very mountains and hills have their hiding-places unsafe, and by hyperbole seem to be admonished and troubled.
He looked and gazed about here and there, and not even a bird could be found; for even the mute elements perceive the wrath of God, and irrational living creatures are afraid. That this is true, the whole world now shows, in that, the multitude of men being slain, even the birds — which are wont to follow inhabitants — have departed and perished. Carmel itself too, which overhangs the great sea, planted with olives and dense with orchards and vineyards, shall come to such solitude that it shall have the desolation of a wilderness; all the cities too shall become deserted. And the cause of all these evils is this, that by the fault of the offending people the wrath of the Lord has been stirred up.
Whatever we have said according to the historical sense concerning Jerusalem and Judaea, let us refer to the Church of God, when she has offended God and has been laid waste either by vices or by persecution, so that where once was a choir of virtues and gladness, there a multitude of sins and sorrows may dwell. 'For thus saith the Lord: all the land shall be desolate; but yet I will not make a full end. The earth shall mourn, and the heavens above shall be sad, because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and it hath not repented me, neither am I turned away from it.' Mercy being mingled with the wrath of God, all the land is deserted, but there is not made a full end, that there may be those who understand His clemency.
The heaven too shall seem sad from above, and the earth itself shall mourn, because the Lord's sentence has reached even to the end, nor has it repented Him concerning those things which He has purposed and spoken. But 'the repentance of God' is spoken of when the foretold sentence is withdrawn and His raging wrath does not reach even to the end. He threatened through Jonah, and a multitude of tears and groans overcame the impending sword. 'At the voice of the horseman and of him that shooteth the arrow — or that bendeth the bow — every city fleeth — or every region —; they have entered rugged places and climbed the rocks — and that which follows: and they entered the woods, or the caves, was added by the Septuagint —; all the cities are forsaken, and no man dwelleth in them.'
The divine word describes the raging Babylonian army, in that from dread of it the whole people forsook the city and climbed up whatever was rugged, and yet could not turn aside the wrath of the Lord. But whatever, as we have said above, is understood in the history against Jerusalem, refer to the Church, when she has offended God and been delivered to adversaries either in a time of persecution or certainly by vices and sins. 'But thou, being laid waste, what wilt thou do?' For 'laid waste,' which in Hebrew is said 'sadud,' which Aquila alone interpreted, the others translated 'wretched' and 'pitiable' by her own fault, in that she has offended the merciful God. Finally there follows:
'Though thou clothe thyself with scarlet, and adorn thyself with an ornament of gold, and paint thine eyes with stibium, in vain shalt thou deck thyself: thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy soul.' Under the figure of an adulterous woman He speaks: 'When once thou hast offended God and hast forsaken, as it were, thy husband the Creator, in vain dost thou seek out ornaments; the demons, thy lovers, have despised thee, and they will seek by no means the defilement of thy shame, but the destruction of thy soul.' This same thing is to be understood spiritually against those who have lost their conjugal affections and the chastity of the true faith.
'If,' He says, 'thou clothe thyself with scarlet — thou take on the faith of the blood of Christ —, if thou adorn thyself with an ornament of gold — thou have meditation of spiritual understanding and insight — and paint thine eyes with stibium — thou have zeal for the mysteries and for knowing the secrets of God —, in vain shalt thou deck thyself. For these things thou hadst also prepared for thy lovers, and therefore the narrow bed cannot hold both, nor does God receive the ornaments with which thou didst before please thy lovers.' 'For I heard a voice as of a woman in travail, anguish — or groans — as of a woman bringing forth; the voice of the daughter of Zion dying and spreading out her hands: woe is me, for my soul hath fainted because of them that are slain!'
After the likeness of a woman in travail — that is, one bringing forth her first offspring — He describes the city of Jerusalem wailing and crying out. For as a woman bringing forth, not yet having experienced the pain of childbirth, faints away — endures anguish, can scarcely breathe, and collapses with hands outspread —, so also the daughter of Zion, when she shall have seen her children slain, breaks forth into these words and says: 'Woe is me, for my soul hath fainted because of them that are slain!' But two examples are compared in one little chapter: that of a woman in travail with children, and that of a woman mourning, so that whatever a woman suffers in her offspring or in the deaths of her children, Jerusalem may suffer in her peoples.
'Go about the ways of Jerusalem, and behold, and consider, and seek in her streets, whether ye can find a man that doeth judgment and seeketh faith, and I will be merciful unto her.' Great is the love of justice, in that God would by no means, according to Abraham's inquiry and God's response, deliver the city for the sake of ten just men — yet if Jerusalem, now on the very point of perishing, shall find one man who doeth judgment and seeketh faith — or, as Symmachus translated, truth — nevertheless God would have mercy on Jerusalem.
And because it might come to pass that some might be found among the people who feigned the worship of God and swore by the Lord, He forestalls this, showing that God by no means delights in vain words but in the truth of faith, and says: 'I do not love them because they swear by me and swear falsely, but those whose hearts and lips agree.' 'O Lord, thine eyes look upon faith; thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved; thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive instruction; they have hardened their faces above the rock, and would not return.' After the words of the Lord, by which He had commanded, saying: 'Go about the ways of Jerusalem,' and the rest, the prophet speaks to the Lord: 'O Lord, thine eyes look upon faith.'
which in Hebrew is called 'emuna' — not the works of the Jews, in which they exulted according to the ceremonies of the law, but the faith of Christians, through which by grace we have been saved. Now by this little chapter we learn that punishments are inflicted for this reason, that vices may be corrected. Finally He says: 'Thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved; thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive instruction.' For through all torments and scourges Jerusalem is amended; and above all these things they did not have even shame for their vices, but, hardening like a rock the shamelessness of their brow, they would not be turned to better things. 'But I said: perhaps they are poor and foolish — or they could not — being ignorant of the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. I will go therefore to the great ones and will speak to them:'
'for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.' Here He calls 'poor' and 'great ones' not by want and riches, but compares the people with the princes. And the sense is: 'Beholding the obstinacy of the unfaithful people and that, with hardened face, it would not receive instruction, I was reasoning this within myself: perhaps the ignoble common folk cannot know the doctrine of God, and therefore it is excusable, because through inexperience it is not able to know the commandments of God. I will therefore go to the priests and to those who are set over the people, and will speak to them; for they have known the will of the Lord and know the judgment of their God.' But He says this in the language of one doubting, according to that Gospel saying: 'I will send my son, perhaps they will reverence him.'
so that from the ambiguity of the sentence and the suspension of the words the free will of man may be shown. 'And behold, these together have the more broken the yoke, they have burst the bonds. Therefore a lion out of the wood hath struck them, a wolf at evening hath laid them waste, a leopard watching over their cities. Everyone that shall go out of them shall be taken, because their prevarications are multiplied, their apostasies are strengthened.' 'Those whom I thought to be masters have been found to be worse than the disciples, and the greater the authority among the rich, the greater the insolence of their sins.' For they broke the yoke of the law, as the Apostle says: 'Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But through the grace of the Lord Jesus we believe that we are saved, even as they also.' And they burst the bonds of the precepts of God — and not of the Pharisees, of whom it is said in the second Psalm: 'Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us.' Because therefore they did these things, 'a lion out of the wood hath struck them' — namely the Babylonian kingdom; 'a wolf at evening hath laid them waste' — signifying the Medes and Persians, in place of which in the vision of Daniel a 'bear' is set, in whose mouth were three rows; 'a leopard watching over their cities' — prefiguring the onslaught of Alexander and the swift incursion from the west even to India.
He calls it a 'leopard' on account of its variety, and because, with very many nations subject to it, it fought against the Medes and Persians. 'And there were,' he says, 'four heads in the beast, and power was given to it.' And because he prophesies not of the future, but weaves the history of the past or of things now on the very point of coming, therefore he is silent concerning the Roman empire, of which perhaps it is said: 'Everyone that shall go out of them shall be taken.' And he gives the causes why they suffered these things: 'because their prevarications are multiplied and they persevered in transgressions.' Whence it is said: 'and their apostasies are strengthened.' That which we set down at the beginning, that the Hebrew word 'sacad' sounds 'watching,' is shown in the present place;
for where we have said 'a leopard watching,' in the Hebrew is written 'nemer sacad.' According to the tropological sense: those who are thought great in the Church, because they break the yoke and burst the bonds, are therefore delivered up to the ignominy of passions, so that they do the things which are not fitting. 'Over what can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me and swear by those that are not gods. I filled them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house. They became to me as amorous horses and stallions; every one neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation?'
A catalogue of the sins of Jerusalem, while God says that He does not know by what occasion He can have mercy on her. 'Thy children,' He says, 'have forsaken me: by no means mine, but thine, because they swear by those that are not gods. I filled them to the full, and they committed adultery.' Let those hear this who, having received riches from the Lord, brood over them and serve luxury. 'They became amorous horses after women.' For 'stallions' in the Hebrew is written 'mosechim,' which all with one accord translated 'helkontes,' that is 'dragging,' so that the greatness of the genitals may be shown, according to that of Ezekiel: 'their flesh is as the flesh of asses.' This is what is written in another place: 'they are likened to the senseless beasts and are become like unto them.'
And at the same time he shows so great a madness of lust, that he calls it not an appetite of pleasure, but 'chremetismon,' that is 'neighing,' and keeps up the metaphor of horses raging to lust. 'When thou hast done these things,' He says, 'art thou not worthy of visitation?' And note that here 'visitation' is put for punishment and torments, according to that which is written: 'I will visit their iniquities with a rod.' 'And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation?' After she is bound by sins, she is by no means called the people of God, but a nation, from which the soul of God has withdrawn, according to that which is written: 'your new moons and sabbaths and feast-days my soul hateth.' But what in the Old Testament is said of affection,
in the New is written according to truth, the Saviour saying: 'I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it again.' 'Go up upon her walls — or ramparts — and destroy, but make not a full end! Take away her branches — or supports —, for they are not the Lord's! For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have grievously prevaricated against me, saith the Lord.' He commands the nations, of which He had said above: 'a lion out of the wood hath struck them, a wolf hath laid them waste, and a leopard over their cities,' that they should go up upon the walls of Jerusalem, or its ramparts, and destroy her, but make not a full end, so that a remnant may be saved and there may be one to announce among the nations the glory of God;
and He mingles clemency with severity. And that which He added: 'Take away her branches or supports,' He bids that all helps be taken away, which she lost by her own fault, in that the house of Israel and the house of Judah — signifying the ten tribes and the two — prevaricated against God. Let the Church hear this, that quickly are destroyed the walls and ramparts of those who have no hope in the Lord and prevaricate against Him; but yet a full end is not made, on account of the clemency of the Judge and not on account of the merits of the offenders. 'They have denied the Lord and said: it is not He — or these things are not so — nor shall evil come upon us; we shall not see sword and famine. The prophets have spoken into the wind, and answer — or word — was not in them. These things therefore shall befall them.'
'Because they have denied the Lord — or lied to the Lord — and said: it is not He, by whose judgment all things are done, but by chance all these things happened, nor shall those things come to pass which the voices of the prophets threaten us; we shall not see the sword nor endure the famine of a siege, and whatever the prophets have spoken, they have spoken into the wind, and all things have passed away as void, nor did they have an answer, that is an oracle, or the word of God was not in them.' Therefore they shall endure the things which the following discourse describes. Let the Church hear this, being negligent and refusing the providence of God, that it shall endure both sword and famine, unless it believe the things to come which are spoken. 'Thus saith the Lord God of hosts:'
'because ye have spoken this word, behold, I give my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them.' 'Ye have said: the prophets have spoken into the wind, and the things they threaten are not to come; therefore, O prophet, I give my words in thy mouth, which shall have the power of fire and shall turn this people into wood, so that by thy discourse and prophecy the unbelievers may be burned up.' Thus God is called a consuming fire, that He may consume in us, if upon the foundation of Christ we have built hay, wood, stubble. 'Behold, I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not know, nor understand what it saith. Its quiver is as an open sepulchre;'
'they are all mighty men. And it shall eat up thy harvests and thy bread, it shall devour thy sons and thy daughters, it shall eat up thy flock and thy herds, it shall eat up thy vine and thy fig-tree, and it shall wear down with the sword thy fortified cities, in which thou hast confidence. Nevertheless in those days, He saith, I will not make you a full end.' 'By no means after a long time, nor,
as ye falsely believe, shall the prophets speak to you into the wind; but even now I will bring upon you the nation of the Babylonians, which shall come from afar, a mighty nation' — in place of which in the Hebrew is written 'ethan' — 'an ancient nation' — over which Nimrod the giant once had dominion — 'whose tongue thou shalt not know, or' — as is written in the Hebrew — 'nor understand what it saith; for it is a solace of evils, if thou have as enemies those whom thou canst entreat and who understand thy prayers.' And that which follows: 'its quiver is as an open sepulchre,' which is not said in the Septuagint edition, signifies the Babylonian armament. Nor is there any doubt that the kingdom of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, and Persians was most skilled in shooting.
And at the same time he describes the devastation of the land of Judaea and the slaughter of many, the driving away of cattle, the overthrow of cities and walls, in that all things are captured by the enemy's sword, and yet in such great evils He does not destroy them utterly to extermination, but makes a remnant safe — either of those who were led into Babylon and dismissed to the cultivation of the fields of the land of Judaea, or of those who after the heat of persecution preserved the faith of the Lord either by flight or by confession. 'And if ye shall say: why hath the Lord our God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: as ye have forsaken me and served a strange god — or strange gods — in your own land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land not your own.' Great is the folly not to know why they have suffered,
when they have sinned so greatly; and there is a brief response to those who are in doubt: 'As ye have served a strange god — that is, Baal — or the strange gods of all the nations in the land of Judaea, so shall ye serve strange gods in a land not your own,' undoubtedly among the Babylonians and Chaldaea. 'For if a foreign religion delights you, what need is there to take up a distant error? Dwell with such as these' — the heretics are to be understood, of whom it is written: 'they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us' — in that the Lord casts out of the Church the heretics, who for a long time under His name venerated the images of their own lies, so that they may worship outside what they before venerated within, and the chaff may be separated from the wheat.