Amos 1

But the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah is said to belong to that time when Uzziah, who is called by another name Azariah, trying to claim for himself a priesthood not lawful for him, was struck with leprosy on his forehead; of this earthquake we also read at the beginning of Amos: The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. In short, after this wicked king died, at whose impiety the whole earth was shaken, Isaiah saw the great vision which he wove into his book.

The prophet Amos, who follows Joel and is the third of the twelve prophets, is not the same man whom we read of as the father of the prophet Isaiah. For that one is written with the first and last letters of his name, aleph and sade, and is interpreted strong and robust; this one, however, with ain and samech, and is interpreted a people torn away; the middle letters, mem and uau, are common to both. But among us, who do not have so great a difference of vowel letters, and of the letter s, which among the Hebrews is threefold, both these and other names seem to be the same, which among the Hebrews are distinguished by the diversity of their letters and by their own peculiarities. This prophet, then, whom we now have in hand, was from the town of Tekoa, which lies six miles toward the southern region from holy Bethlehem, which gave birth to the Savior of the world; and beyond it there is no village at all, not even rustic huts like ovens, which the Africans call mapalia. So great is the vastness of the desert, which stretches as far as the Red Sea and the borders of the Persians, the Ethiopians and the Indians. And because on the dry and sandy ground no crops whatever are produced, everything is full of shepherds, so that they may make up for the barrenness of the land by the multitude of their flocks. Of this number of shepherds was also the prophet Amos, unskilled in speech, but not in knowledge. For the same Holy Spirit who spoke through all the prophets was speaking in him. Hence we translate from the Hebrew.

The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel. But the Seventy, intending I know not what, translated: The words of Amos, which came to be in Accarim of Tekoa, which he saw on behalf of Jerusalem. And it should be known that this prophet prophesied, not on behalf of Jerusalem, which is not found at all in the Hebrew, but concerning Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which are called Israel and were in Samaria. And indeed Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated this likewise. The first, then, the prophet Hosea, speaks to the ten tribes, which are called Ephraim, Samaria, the house of Joseph and Israel. The second, Joel, utters his prophecy to Jerusalem and the two tribes, which are called Judah and Jerusalem and Jacob, making no mention at all of Israel. The third, Amos, preaches by no means to Jerusalem, which was ruled by the tribe of Judah, but to Israel in Samaria. This can be proved from his whole volume, and above all from what is written: Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos has rebelled against you in the midst of the house of Israel. And a little after, Amaziah said to Amos: You who see, go, flee into the land of Judah, and eat bread there; and there you shall prophesy, and in Bethel you shall not again prophesy any more, for it is the king's sanctuary and the house of the kingdom. To whom Amos answered: I was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but a shepherd stripping the berries of brambles; and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and said to me: Go, prophesy to my people Israel; not, surely, to Judah and Jerusalem, as is wrongly found among the Greeks and Latins, but to Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which, because of the multitude of the people, had kept the original name. But in the place where the Seventy translated in Accarim, Theodotion put the Hebrew word itself: in nocedim, which Aquila rendered ἐν ποιμνιοτρόφοις, that is, among the herdsmen, Symmachus and the Fifth edition ἐν τοῖς ποιμέσιν, that is, among the shepherds. And I think that here too, because of the likeness of the letters daleth and res, they were deceived, and read nocerim as though for nocedim, and from there put down the word Accarim, although the letter nun at the beginning of the name leaves no excuse for the error. But up to the present I have not read that Accarim is Hebrew. And those who interpret it barrenness, that is, στείρωσιν, express Ekron, the city of the Philistines, rather than Accarim, which is not read anywhere at all. The words, therefore, of Amos, who was from the town of Tekoa, of the number of the shepherds, since the region itself is also a pastoral one, are contained in this volume, which he saw concerning Israel, not with the eyes of the flesh but with the gaze of the mind; for the prophets were called seers; otherwise, according to the letter, words are not seen but heard. Hence the people also saw the voice of God, and Moses, keeping silent, spoke to the Lord when he said to him: Why do you cry to me? In the New Testament also we read: What we have seen and heard, what we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life. For the Word of God, which in itself is invisible, the apostles see and handle with their hands. Because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And he saw these words:

In the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. At the time when Sardanapalus reigned among the Assyrians and the cities of Cilicia, of whom the distinguished orator wrote: "Uglier, he says, in his vices than in his name"; and among the Latins Procas Silvius, whom Amulius succeeded in the kingdom after driving out his brother Numitor; and when Amulius had been killed, Romulus, having gathered a band of shepherds and robbers, founded the city of his own name. This, moreover, is Uzziah king of Judah, surnamed Azariah, who, having tried to claim for himself a priesthood not due to him, was struck with leprosy on his forehead, when not only the punishment of the man who had committed sacrilege but also the earthquake, which the Hebrews record happened at that time, showed the wrath of the Lord. Jeroboam, however, is not the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, but the son of Joash, son of Joathan, son of Jehu, the great-grandson of that same Jehu, under whom Hosea and Joel and Amos prophesied. Uzziah, then, is interpreted κράτος Κυρίου, that is, the dominion or strength of the Lord; Jeroboam, δικασμὸς λαοῦ, that is, the judging or the cause of the people, although some, reading it with the Greek letter chi, suppose it to mean the division of the people; Joash, Κυρίου χρόνισμα, that is, the delay of the Lord, or temporality. The words of Amos, therefore, at the time when the people of Israel had been torn away from the Lord and were serving golden calves, or had been torn away from the kingdom of the stock of David, sang out with a clear voice like a blaring trumpet, which is what Tekoa is interpreted. And they sang concerning Israel, which was once the most upright of God, that is, εὐθύτατος Θεοῦ. In the days of Uzziah king of Judah, in which, because of the temple and the holy of holies, the strength of the Lord remained, and ruled by its own dominion the people who confessed him. But the name of Jeroboam, who had been the cause of the division of the people, signifies that Israel remained for a long time in the error of idolatry before the universal captivity shook it; and this, in the two years, shows the twofold distress of the ten tribes and of the two, so that, if they were willing to repent, they might not feel the earthquake thereafter.

And he said: The Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice. And the beautiful places of the shepherds have mourned, and the top of Carmel has been dried up. LXX: And he said: The Lord has spoken out from Zion, and from Jerusalem he has given his voice; and the pastures of the shepherds have mourned, and the top of Carmel has withered. It is natural that all craftsmen speak in the examples of their own craft, and that each one should bring forward likenesses from the pursuit in which he has spent his life: for example, he who is a sailor and a helmsman compares his sadness to a storm, calls a loss a shipwreck, names his enemies contrary winds; and again he calls prosperity and gladness a most gentle breeze and favourable winds, calm seas and waters like plains. On the other side, whatever a soldier says sounds of shield, sword, breastplate, helmet, lance, bow and arrows, death, wound and victory. In the mouth of the philosophers Socrates and Plato, Xenophon and Theophrastus, Zeno and Aristotle, the Stoics and the Peripatetics are always turning up. The orators extol to the sky with praises Lysias and Hyperides, Pericles and Demosthenes, the Gracchi, the Catos, the Ciceros and the Hortensiuses. The poets, if they are epic, celebrate Homer and Vergil in frequent speech; if lyric, Pindar and Flaccus. Why have these things been said? Clearly so that we may show that the prophet Amos too, who was a shepherd from among shepherds, and a shepherd not in cultivated places planted with trees and vines, or at least among woods and green meadows, but in the broad vastness of the desert, in which the ferocity of lions and the slaughter of flocks are found, used in his discourses the terms of his own craft, so as to name the terrible and fearful voice of the Lord the roaring and growling of lions. Comparing the overthrow of the Israelite cities to the solitude of the shepherds and the dryness of the mountains, he says: The Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice. Will roar is said in Hebrew iesag. And it is fittingly said that he will roar from Zion and give his voice from Jerusalem, where the temple and the worship of God were, in order to teach that God dwells not in the cities of Israel, that is, in Bethel and in Dan, where the golden calves were, nor in the metropolis Samaria and in Jezreel, but in the true religion, which at that time was practised in Zion and Jerusalem. When he roars from Zion and gives his voice from Jerusalem — for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem —, all the beautiful things of the shepherds and of the kings of Israel have mourned, and the top of Carmel, which once abounded in rich pastures, has been dried up. Carmelus it is called in Greek and in Latin, but in Hebrew it is named Chermel; and there are two mountains which are called by this name. One, in which Nabal of Carmel, the husband of Abigail, lived, toward the southern region. The other near Ptolemais, which was formerly called Acco, overhanging the sea, on which the prophet Elijah, on bended knees, obtained the rains. If, then, he is speaking of the Chermel in which Nabal lived, it suits rather the flocks of the shepherds, because it is near the wilderness. But if of the one which is close to the shore, it pertains to the kings and to the pride of the kings of Israel, who, he says, when captivity is impending, are to be laid waste like deserted mountains. Another interpretation: when the Lord, from Zion and Jerusalem, from the watchtower of the Church, which, set upon a mountain, cannot be hidden, and in which there is the vision of peace, has given his voice through the Old and the New Testament and through the teachers of the Church, and has sounded as it were a clear trumpet, then all the beautiful things of the shepherds, that is, the doctrine of the heretics, which seemed composed in fine language, and the knowledge of circumcision — for this is what Chermel means —, by which they promise themselves the knowledge of the true circumcision, will mourn and be dried up, and the thousands of the peoples, who because of their simplicity are called flocks, will wither with sudden drought.

You must slay the allurements to vice while they are still only thoughts and dash the little ones of the daughter of Babylon against the stones where the serpent can leave no trail. Be wary and lay claim to the Lord's promise: "Let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." For elsewhere also the Scripture testifies, "I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." That is to say, God will not punish us at once for our thoughts and resolves but will send retribution upon their offspring or upon the evil deeds and habits of sin, which arise out of the offspring. As he says by the mouth of Amos, "For three transgressions of such and such a city and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof."

'Happy the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked.' [Psalm 1:1] In Genesis, we read how Adam was cursed: 'Cursed be the ground because of you;' but the first malediction pronounced against man is absolved and replaced with a benediction. The Old Law lays down, as it were, only one condition of blessedness; the Gospel, on the other hand, announces simultaneously eight beatitudes. 'Happy the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked.' Happy the man, not any man, but the man who has reached the perfection of the manhood of Christ: 'Who follows not the counsel of the wicked.'

Here, Scripture describes the three usual ways of committing sin: we entertain sinful thoughts; we commit sin in act; or we teach what is sinful. First, we entertain a sinful thought; then, after we have reflected upon it, we convert that thought into action. When we commit sin, moreover, we multiply sin by teaching others to do what we have done. 'Happy the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked' - who thinks no evil; 'nor has stood in the way of sinners' - who does no evil; 'nor sits in the company of the insolent' - who has not taught others to sin. He has not consorted with the scornful, 'nor has stood in the way of sinners.'

It is difficult for one not to sin. John the Evangelist says, in fact, that anyone who denies that he has sinned is a liar. [1 John 1:8] If, therefore, we all sin, what do the words mean, 'nor has stood in the way of sinners'? If we all sin, no one is happy, except, of course, the one who has not sinned. But we all sin, every last one of us, and so no one is blessed.

Consider, however, just what the Scripture says: 'nor has stood in the way of sinners.' Scripture did not say happy the man who has not sinned, but rather, happy the man who has not persevered in sin. 'Nor has stood in the way of sinners.' Yesterday I committed sin. I am not happy. If, however, I do not remain in the state of sin, but withdraw from sin, I become happy once more. 'Nor sits in the company of the insolent.' Why does it say 'sits' in this verse and 'has stood' in the preceding one? For this reason: just as he who has not stood - persisted - in sin is happy, so he who has not sat - persisted - in evil doctrine is happy. What does that mean? You see yourselves that the three determinants of beatitude consist in not thinking evil, in not persevering in sin, and in not teaching evil. This is really what the Prophet Amos says: 'For three crimes and for four, I will not revoke my word, says the Lord.' [Amos 1:3] Moreover, he says this same thing eight times. Now, this is what he actually is saying: you have entertained sin, I have pardoned you; you have done evil, I have forgiven you; you have not repented of your sins, I have excused you: did you also have to teach evil? What the Scripture implies is this: For three sins and for four, I shall not be angered against you, says the Lord. [Isaiah 57:16]

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn him back, because they threshed Gilead with iron carts. LXX: And the Lord said: For three impieties of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away from them, because they sawed with iron saws the women with child in Gilead. For the threshing sledges, which in Hebrew are called arsoth, and were translated by Theodotion iron wheels, which we have rendered iron carts, the Seventy translated iron saws. It is, moreover, a kind of cart which rolls on iron, toothed wheels underneath, so that, when the grain has been shaken out, it may crush the stubble on the threshing floors and break up the chaff into fodder for the beasts of burden, because of the scarcity of hay.

We have spoken briefly about the causes of the different translation; now let us pass on to the sense of what has been said. First the word of God is directed against Damascus, in which Hazael reigned, who, at the time when Amos was prophesying, was pressing hard upon Israel, that is, the ten tribes, so much so that, after Ahab king of Israel had been overcome at Ramoth-gilead, he slaughtered and crushed the whole region which was called Gilead, and which had fallen as an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh, like threshing sledges threshing grain on the threshing floors. This the prophet Elisha speaks of more fully in the volume of Kings, where we read it written: And he stood with him, and was troubled until his face was flushed; and the man of God wept. Hazael said to him: Why does my lord weep? And he answered: Because I know what evils you are going to do to the sons of Israel: you will set their fortified cities on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and you will dash the little ones, and you will rip up the women with child. And Hazael said: For what am I, your servant, a dog, that I should do this great thing? And Elisha said: The Lord has shown me that you will be king of Syria. But as for what follows in the prophet:

And what is said at the beginning: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn him back, and according to the Seventy: Shall I not turn away from him?, that is, from the people of Damascus, or Aram, that is, the Syrian, can have this sense according to the history: If he had persecuted my people once, or a second time, I would grant pardon; but now, since he has shown himself cruel a third and a fourth time, so that he crushed the captive multitude with iron carts, ought I not to chastise him with blows? Ought I not to turn the face of my clemency away from him? But according to tropology we can say this: the first sin is to have thought what is evil; the second, to have consented to perverse thoughts; the third, to have carried out in deed what you have resolved in your mind; the fourth, not to repent after the sin, and to be pleased with oneself in one's own offence. This all the heretics do, who not only think and do evil, but by their doctrine deceive all the simple, and, after the manner of the people of Damascus, which is interpreted drinking blood, drink the blood of those whom they have deceived. For sins of this kind, says the Lord, is it not right that I should chastise them with blows and turn my face away from them? So that those who do not see the truth of my dogmas may be overwhelmed with darkness by the turning away of my face. For they have crushed, or cut asunder, with iron carts the women with child of Gilead. These are the women with child of whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: Woe to those who are with child, and to those who give suck in those days. The women with child are the souls of believers, who at the beginning of faith can say: From fear of you, Lord, we have conceived and been in labour; and if they have not been cut up and pierced with iron by the carts and the iron and toothed wheels, of which the psalmist says: The sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, they can also say what follows: And we have brought forth; we have made the spirit of your salvation upon the earth. And consider at the same time that they cannot cut up men of mature age, but only those who are still in the womb, or who cannot take solid food and are still nourished with the milk of infancy. These women with child, moreover, are of Gilead, which is interpreted transfer or migration of the testimony. For they have migrated from the Church into heresy, and have transferred the testimonies of God which they had received before to foreign borders.

And I will send fire into the house of Hazael, and it will devour the houses of Ben-hadad. And I will break the bar of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitant from the plain of the idol. LXX: And I will send forth fire into the house of Hazael, and it will devour the foundations of the son of Ader. And I will break the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants from the plain of ὢν. He gives us to understand that Hazael, in the reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam, had already died in Syria, and that his son Ben-hadad had succeeded him in the kingdom, from whom afterwards all the kings of Aram, that is, of Syria and Damascus, held the name Ben-hadad. Hence he fittingly did not say: I will send fire into Hazael, but into the house of Hazael, that is, into his royal house, over which his son Ben-hadad presided at that time.

But the Lord will send fire into the house of Hazael, which they themselves call Hazael, that is, vision of God; a fire to consume the wood and stubble in them, and to devour the foundations of the son of Ader. For we ought to speak according to the Seventy as well, lest we seem to have set them out to no purpose: Ader is interpreted εὐπρέπεια, which we can call comeliness, because all the discourse of the heretics, being elegant and well composed and having the beauty of worldly eloquence, deceives its hearers the more easily.

Again, where in the Hebrew there is Benadad, and it is a single name, the Seventy translated the sons of Ader, deceived by the likeness of the letters res and daleth. In that place too where we said, from the house of pleasure, which in Hebrew is mebbeth eden, and all translated it likewise, the Seventy translated from the men of Charran, taking daleth, the middle letter of the name, for res, and, according to their custom, putting the Greek chi before ain, the first Hebrew letter. Cyrene also, which in Hebrew is called cira, they translated ἐπήκλητον, that is, called or named, because of the likeness of the word, since carae can be said for calling, and they understood the proper name as a common noun.

And I will break, he says, the bars of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitant from the plain of the idol: that is, all the strength of the Syrians, who, as with a kind of cart and with bars, kept off the onsets of their adversaries. But the plain of the idol, which in Hebrew is called auen, and which both the Seventy and Theodotion rendered ὢν, Symmachus and the Fifth edition translated iniquity; Aquila ἀνωφελοῦς, that is, useless, to show the vain help of idols, since the people of Damascus is taken captive when the Assyrian comes. For we read that Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, after killing Rezin king of Damascus, of whom Isaiah also speaks, carried away the whole people of Syria, which was called Aram, to Cyrene, and for this reason it is now said:

And him who holds the sceptre from the house of pleasure and luxury, and the people of Syria will be carried away to Cyrene, says the Lord. LXX: And I will cut down the tribe from the men of Charran, and the people of Syria, the named one, will be led captive, says the Lord. So that we understand: I will break and I will destroy; and the people of Syria, last of all, will be carried away into the borders of Egypt.

And by the bars of Damascus, as it were very strong and very firm bolts, let those be understood who are equipped with the art of dialectic and with the arguments of the philosophers. For example: he is called the door who conceived and brought forth a false dogma, like Arius in Alexandria; its bars and its very firm bolts are Euticius and Eunomius, who try to strengthen it with syllogisms and enthymemes, or rather with sophisms and pseudomena and sorites, which were wickedly invented by others. And when the bars of Damascus have been crushed and broken, he will also destroy the inhabitants from the plain of ὢν, which is interpreted labour or pain. For all the heretics have tried with excessive labour and with the pain of seeking to find some order and consistency for their heresy. And I will cut down the tribe from the men of Charran, which in our tongue is rendered holes. For they have no windows through which the light of truth may enter in to them, but certain holes and hidden passages through which harmful and unclean animals come in. And Aram will be led captive, a people lofty and exalted, which has been lifted up into pride and promises itself heavenly things, so that it may be taken captive for its own salvation and, according to the Hebrew, be carried away to Cyrene, where the calling of God is.

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn him back, because he carried away a complete captivity, to shut it up in Idumea. And I will send fire into the wall of Gaza, and it will devour its houses; and I will destroy the inhabitant from Azotus, and him who holds the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand upon Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines will perish, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away from them, because they led captive the captivity of Solomon, to shut it up in Idumea; and I will send forth fire upon the walls of Gaza, and it will devour its foundations, and I will destroy the inhabitants of Azotus, and the tribe will be taken away from Ashkelon, and I will bring my hand upon Ekron, and the remnant of the foreigners will perish, says the Lord. The Lord threatens in the law that he will requite the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation; not by an equality of judgment, so that some sin and others are punished, but by the greatness of his clemency, since he always awaits repentance; and what is committed in the first generation he does not rebuke and correct until the third and fourth generation has come. Something of this kind the apostle Paul also says to the Romans: Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works. What he says, then, is this: I waited a long time for them to repent, and for that reason I was unwilling to punish them when they sinned, so that at some time they might turn and receive healing. But because they do the same things a third and a fourth time, I am compelled to change my sentence and to correct the offenders with blows. Let us see, however, what the Philistines and their cities sinned, whom the Seventy always translated foreigners; for wherever in the Old Testament we read ἀλλοφύλους, that is, foreigners, we must take it not as a common name for all foreign nations, but properly as the Philistines, who are now called the people of Palestine. What did Gaza do to provoke the Lord to anger and vengeance? It carried away the complete captivity of the people of the Jews, and shut it up in Idumea, so as to sell to the Idumeans those whom it had taken from the Jews. For complete captivity the Seventy translated the captivity of Solomon, taking the Hebrew word salma, which means perfect and complete, for the name of Solomon. Accordingly Aquila translated ἀπηρτισμένην and ἀναπεπληρωμένην, Symmachus and Theodotion τελείαν, which signifies not Solomon but perfect and complete, so that none of the captives remained who was not handed over to the Idumeans.

According to tropology it seems that it should be explained by us thus: Gaza, which in Hebrew is called Aza, means strength or dominion; Solomon, peaceful; the Idumean, bloodthirsty and earthly; Azotus, that is, Esdod, fire of the breast, or of the paternal uncle, although some, wrongly reading dor for dod, think it means fire of generation; Ashkelon is interpreted murderous fire, or hung up and weighed; Ekron, στείρωσις, that is, barrenness, and ἐκρίζωσις, which is interpreted uprooting. Gaza, therefore, which promises itself the strength and dominion of its own knowledge, is accused of having shut up in Idumea captives from the household of Solomon. These I take to be the teachers of the Jews, and all who follow the letter that kills and will not receive the spirit that gives life, but want whatever they interpret and understand to be earthly, and do not hear, with the disciples, the Lord expounding parables and saying to them: Those who have ears to hear, let them hear, especially since the Apostle understands a plain history as referring to the two testaments: one upon Mount Sinai, which is Hagar, and is in slavery with her children; the other upon Jerusalem the free, which is our mother. He says, then, that he will send fire upon the walls of Gaza and upon all its arguments, with which it strives to surround and defend its lies. And when he has sent fire upon the walls, its houses, or foundations, will be devoured, whatever it could have that was firm and built by the art of dialectic. From Azotus also, which itself too belongs to the foreigners, he will take away the inhabitant, whose breasts, because he follows the letter, are full not of milk but of fire, and who falsely claims to have the fire of the paternal uncle, or whose whole generation is to be consigned to the fires. And he will take away the sceptre, or the tribe, from Ashkelon, where the murderous fire is. For just as the fire of the Lord will save those whose hearts it has penetrated, so that fire which fell from heaven like lightning, which kindles the arrows of the devil, will kill whomever it breathes upon. He will move his hand also upon Ekron, where there is barrenness and uprooting. For whoever does not receive the spiritual understanding will hear through Hosea: Give them, Lord. What will you give them? Give them a barren womb and dry breasts. And so as to take in everything at once in a single word, he says that he will destroy all the remnant of the Philistines, either the city of Gath, in which is the winepress of the devil, or all the remaining Philistines, who are called falling by the cup. For when they have become drunk, they will fall down and wallow in their own vomit.

Hence he says that he will send fire upon the walls and houses, or foundations, of Gaza, to devour and swallow up everything.

And because we read of five cities of the Philistines, which were struck with plagues on account of the wrong done to the ark, after Gaza he passes to Azotus, which is called Esdod, and again to Ashkelon, and with a terrible voice he threatens that he will destroy the inhabitants of Azotus, and him who holds the sceptre from Ashkelon, that is, the royal power, or the tribe of Ashkelon, so that no one may remain there, not even men of the last age, who support their trembling limbs with a guiding staff. And again he moves his hand to strike Ekron. And having enumerated four cities, he takes in the remaining cities of the Philistines in a single word: And the remnant of the Philistines will perish, by whom we must understand either the city of Gath, or all the villages which lie under the aforesaid cities.

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn him back, because they shut up a perfect captivity in Idumea; and they did not remember the covenant of brothers, and I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour its houses. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of Tyre and for four I will not turn away from her, because they shut up the captivity of Solomon in Idumea, and they did not remember the testament of brothers. And I will send forth fire upon the walls of Tyre, and it shall devour its foundations. The same three and four impieties or crimes which he had imputed to Damascus, to Gaza, and to Azotus, and to Ashkelon, and to Ekron, and to the remaining cities of the Philistines, he heaps upon Tyre as well, and he reproaches it for having shut up a consummate and perfect captivity in Idumea, concerning which we spoke above: And they did not remember the covenant of their brothers. We ask how the Tyrians are brothers of the Jews? He here calls brothers those who are friends and joined by close ties, because Hiram, the prince of Tyre, had friendship with David and Solomon, to such a degree that he, for the building of the temple and of the palace, brought cedar wood on rafts as far as Joppa; and they bestowed grain and oil on the Tyrians, and gave them twenty cities in Bashan as a gift; which he refused to accept, because they were full of grass.

Tyre means tribulation, or one who hems in; and every perverse doctrine strives to seize the truth, and to shut it up in earthly senses, and it did not remember the covenant of its brothers, that we ought to ascend from the letter to the spirit, from earthly things to heavenly ones; and that it is a precept for us to write out the sacred Scripture in our heart threefold. But God will send fire upon all the fortifications of Tyre, which will devour not only its walls but also its foundations. Concerning the captivity of Solomon, in place of which the Hebrew has consummate and perfect, we have spoken above.

Therefore he says that he will send fire upon its walls, and that it will devour its houses or foundations, which the prophet Ezekiel, in the vision of Tyre, records that Nebuchadnezzar king of the Chaldeans did, where he says: He will surround you with fortifications, and he will heap up a mound round about. And again: Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder stripped of hair, and wages were not paid to him, nor to his army, for Tyre, for the service with which he served me against her, because his army heaped up a mound for taking Tyre, which formerly was an island. And history relates that Alexander of Macedon also did this, so as to make out of the island a peninsula, which the Greeks call χεῤῥόνησον.

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Edom and for four I will not turn him back; because he pursued his brother with the sword, and violated his mercy, and held his fury beyond measure, and kept his indignation to the end; I will send fire into Teman, and it shall devour the houses of Bozrah. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of Idumea and for four I will not turn away from them, because he pursued his brother with the sword, and violated the womb upon the earth, and seized his horror for a testimony, and kept his onset for ever; and I will send forth fire into Teman, and it shall devour the foundations of its walls. Edom is the same as Esau, so called because of the cooking of the red lentil, for the food of which he lost his birthright. He is called by another name Seir, hairy and shaggy. Hence the mountains of the Idumeans are called the mountains of Seir, and from Edom, in the Greek language, it is called Idumea. He pursued his brother with the sword, namely the sons of Jacob, concerning which it is written more fully in the blessings of Isaac, with which he blesses first Jacob and afterwards Esau; so that the hatred of the brothers was preserved in their descendants, and the Idumean nation persecuted its brothers to such a degree that it did not even grant them passage into the holy land when they were coming out of Egypt; and not only did he pursue his brother with the sword, but he violated his mercy, or his womb, or, as Symmachus translated more plainly, his own bowels; so that he forgot his brotherhood, and hardened the bowels of mercy, and did not know that he was a brother, and despised the womb of Rebekah, who in one birth had brought forth twin infants. And what follows: And he held his fury beyond measure, and kept his indignation to the end, shows an ancient hatred, because they were never joined to one another in peace.

Whatever we have said about Esau and Jacob, let us refer to the Jews and the Christian people. For they, earthly and bloodthirsty, persecuted their brother Jacob, who supplanted them and took away their birthright, and they persecuted him with the sword, so that they confiscated the substance and possessions of the believers, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles; and they violated mercy and the rights of nature, and forgot their mother Rebekah, which means patience, who bore them together in Christ; and holding on to their ancient fury and wrath, to this day in their synagogues they blaspheme the Christian people under the name of Nazarenes, and provided only that they may kill us, they are willing to be burned with fire. But the Lord will send fire into Teman, into the deserted and dry places of Judea — which are by no means watered by the showers of the prophets —, and it will devour all their fortifications, or the foundations of its walls, so that, with every sense of the letter collapsing, the Church may be built up upon the foundations of Christ the Lord. In place of mercy the Seventy translated womb, and in place of fury, horror, and in place of indignation, onset, led by the ambiguity of the words, because rehem signifies both womb and mercy, aphpho both his fury and his horror; and ebrath is said both for indignation and for onset. Moreover armanoth, which we have translated houses, Aquila and Symmachus translated βάρεις, that is, houses, and Theodotion, inhabitants; the Seventy alone, both here and above, said foundations.

In all places the Scriptures call Esau cunning and crafty, and one who layeth up anger, and keepeth wrath, as it is said, "He keepeth his anger for ever, and he layeth up his wrath for ever and ever."

Hence he threatens punishment for their crimes, and says: I will send fire into Teman, which is a region of the Idumeans, and it lies toward the southern quarter, which is what Teman means; this province is called not only Teman but also Daron and Nageb, because it faces the east wind and the south wind and the south-west wind. And as for what he says: It shall devour the houses of Bozrah, it signifies, not another city, as some think, but Idumea, ὀχυρωμένην and fortified, according to that which we read in Isaiah: Who is this who comes from Edom, with garments dyed from Bozrah; this one beautiful in his robe, walking in the multitude of his strength?

The [false teachers] are also to be admonished to consider well, how sacred Scripture is set up as a kind of lantern for us in the night of this life. When the words are not rightly understood, darkness is the result. And obviously, their perverse mind would not hurry them into a false understanding unless they were first inflated with pride. For while they think themselves wiser than others, they scorn to follow others in matters which these understand better. What is more, in order that they may extort from the untutored crowd a reputation for knowledge, they make every endeavor to discredit what these rightly understand and to confirm their own perverse views. Therefore, it is well said by the prophet, "They have ripped up the women with child of Gilead to enlarge their border." Now Gilead is interpreted as meaning "a heap of testimony." Since the whole congregation of the church together serves by its confession of it, as a witness to the truth, the church is not ineptly expressed as Gilead, for it witnesses to all truth concerning God by the mouth of all the faithful. But souls are said to be with child when they conceive an understanding of the Word by divine love, so that when they come to full term, they will bring forth the understanding conceived by them in showing forth their deeds. Again, "to enlarge the border" is to extend one's own reputation. Thus "they ripped up the women with child of Gilead to extend their border"—that is to say, heretics by their perverse preaching slay the minds of the faithful who have already conceived some measure of the understanding of truth, and so they extend their reputation for knowledge. The hearts of little ones, already big with conception of the Word, they cleave with the sword of error, and thereby make a reputation, as it were, for their teaching. When, therefore, we endeavor to instruct these people not to entertain perverse views, we must first admonish them not to seek their own interests. For if the root of pride is cut away, the branches of false assertions become withered.

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of the sons of Ammon and for four I will not turn him back, because he ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead, to enlarge his border; and I will kindle fire on the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour its houses with howling in the day of battle, and with a whirlwind in the day of commotion; and Melchom shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of the sons of Ammon and for four I will not turn away from them, because he cut up the pregnant women of the Gileadites, that he might enlarge his borders; and I will kindle fire upon the walls of Rabbah, and it shall devour the foundations with shouting in the day of battle, and it shall be shaken in the day of its consummation; and the kings shall go into captivity, their priests and their princes together, says the Lord. The divine word rebukes the sons of Ammon, who were begotten of the stock of Lot, and dwell in Arabia, where Philadelphia now is, because under Saul, king of Judea, Nahash the Ammonite, their prince, laid waste Jabesh-gilead, and ripped up its pregnant women, that he might enlarge his borders and subject all Gilead to his rule.

Now between the cruelty of Damascus and that of the sons of Ammon there is this difference, that they crushed Gilead with iron carts, or the pregnant women of Gilead with iron saws; but these ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead, to enlarge their border. In the people of Damascus, who drink blood, are understood the heretics, who not only have broken the people of God away from the Church, but have also crushed them and ground them with iron teeth, of whom it is written: Who devour my people as a meal of bread? In the sons of Ammon, which means people of grief, or my people, we understand the schismatics, who do indeed separate a deceived multitude from the Church of God, and break off and divide untrained souls which have lately conceived the word of Christ; yet they do not do this with the cruelty with which the heretics slaughter all whom they have deceived, but, remaining in the same rule of faith, they desire to enlarge their borders and to send down to posterity a name of glory. Therefore the Lord threatens that he will set on fire the walls of Rabbah, that is, of the multitude, in the day of howling and of battle, of commotion and of whirlwind, and that their king, the author of the schism, will go captive, and that the princes will submit their necks to the yoke of the Church.

Hence he threatens that he will kindle fire on the walls of Rabbah, which was the metropolis of the Ammonites, so that its houses may be devoured amid the shouting and howling of the conquering army; in the day of commotion and of whirlwind, when, Nebuchadnezzar conquering, its captives will be led away, and the idol of the Ammonites, which is called Melchom, that is, their king, will be carried off to the Assyrians; and its princes, that is, its priests, will be led away together. Priests is not in the Hebrew, but princes. So the Seventy added priests, so that, if you wish to know who these princes are, you may hear: priests.