Amos 2

Now to prove that in the present place Moab is to be understood of the pride of the philosophers, of whom it is said: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the understanding I will reject, a few examples from the prophet must be unfolded: Amos says: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of Moab and for four I will not turn away from him, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes — for truly, whatever there is in the world of perverse doctrines, whatever pertains to earthly knowledge and is thought to be robust, this is overthrown by the dialectical art and, like a fire, dissolved into ashes and embers, so that what was thought to be strongest is proved to be worth nothing —; Isaiah too rebukes the pride of Moab, saying: We have heard the insolence of Moab, he is exceedingly insolent; I have taken away his pride; Jeremiah also, prophesying against all the nations, speaks specifically to Moab: Because you trusted in your fortifications, and a little after: You had confidence in your glory, and again: How do you say: We are strong?, and then: Near is the day of Moab, that it should come, and its malice is exceedingly swift, and more plainly: Say: How has the glorious staff been broken, the rod of magnificence?, and again: The horn of Moab is broken; and these things are said so that, under the name of Moab, the foolish pride of the world that lifts itself up to heaven may be crushed.

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Moab and for four I will not turn him back, because he burned the bones of the king of Idumea even to ashes. And I will send fire into Moab, and it shall devour the houses of Kerioth, and Moab shall die in the noise, in the blast of the trumpet, and I will destroy the judge from the midst of it, and I will slay all its princes with him, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of Moab and for four I will not turn away from them, because he burned the bones of the king of Idumea into ashes; and I will send forth fire into Moab, and it shall devour the foundations of its cities, and Moab shall die in weakness with shouting, and with the voice of the trumpet; and I will destroy the judge out of it, and I will slay all its princes, says the Lord. Not only the sons of Ammon, but Moab too was begotten of the seed of Lot, who was the son of Abraham's brother. And so that God may show himself to be the Lord of all, and that all souls belong to his dominion, who is their maker, he avenges the injury done even to the king of the Idumeans, or rather the crime which was committed against him by the Moabites, in that they burned his bones even to ashes, and did not end their savagery and rage even at his death. The Hebrews relate that the bones of the king of Idumea, who was already buried, and who had gone up with Joram king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah against Moab, were afterwards torn up and burned by the Moabites in revenge for their grief.

But just as one ought not to carry off the perfect captivity, or that of Solomon, and shut it up in Idumea, so as to make lowly and earthly men out of lofty and heavenly ones, which Gaza and Tyre are recorded to have done, so we ought not to burn the bones of the king of Idumea and dissolve them into ashes and embers. The Jews transfer the spiritual understanding into Idumean flesh, and the royal sense, which is engaged in the letter, and is most solid and most firm, they enervate and break down with certain genealogies and superfluous traditions, and reduce to dust; and not only do they do this, but all the heretics, who would have God, after the manner of a human likeness, sit on a high and lofty throne and set his feet upon the earth, so that, of course, they may not dangle; and have a nose with which to smell the odor of a good fragrance, eyes with which to see, hands through which to work, feet by which to walk, ears with which to hear, a mouth with which to speak, teeth with which to grind his food. Whoever reads that Judah went in to Tamar the harlot and begot two sons of her, if he follows the shamefulness of the letter and does not ascend to the beauty of the spiritual understanding, burns the bones of the king of Idumea. Whoever thinks that Hosea took a wife of fornication, and perceives nothing more in the saying than is contained in the simple words, burns the bones of the king of Idumea.

For this reason, therefore, they say, God declares that he will send fire into Moab, either the metropolis of the Moabites, from which the whole province was named, or the whole province, so that it might devour the houses of Kerioth, which is the name of a city; although the Seventy translated of its cities, that is, of Moab; and that it will perish in the noise and in the howling of the conquering army, of which the one is called in Hebrew saon, the other therua; and in the blast of the trumpet or horn, for this is what sophar signifies. And when Moab has perished, the counsel of its princes and judges will be vain, its cities and its leaders being overthrown alike.

And for that reason the Lord sends fire into Moab, which means from the father, because he was indeed born of God, but has abandoned him. And it will devour its cities, or towns, which is what Kerioth means. Hence also Kiriath-jearim is turned into our language as village of the forests. And Moab will die in no other way than in shouting, and noise, and howling, and the blast of the horn, so that they may be overwhelmed by the lofty senses which in the holy books are compared to the blasts of the horn. Then the divine word destroys both the judges and the princes, and all who preside over earthly works, and it commands the teachers of the Church: Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice, you who preach to Jerusalem.

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Judah, and for four I will not turn him back, because he has cast away the law of the Lord, and has not kept his commandments; for their idols have deceived them, after which their fathers had gone, and I will send fire into Judah and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of the sons of Judah, and for four I will not turn away from them, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his precepts; and they have been deceived in their vanities, which their fathers followed, and I will send forth fire into Judah, and it shall devour the foundations of Jerusalem. To the other cities and nations mentioned above, Damascus, Gaza and Azotus and Ashkelon and Ekron, and the remaining towns of the Philistines, to Tyre also and Idumea, and to the sons of Ammon and Moab, he does not reproach that they cast away the law of God and despised his commandments; for they did not have the written law, but the natural one. Hence he says that they violated their own bowels and the bowels of mercy, and crushed the pregnant women of Gilead with iron carts, and carried off the captivity of Solomon, or the perfect captivity, and shut it up in Idumea, and did not remember the covenant of their fathers, and pursued their brother with the sword; and that they burst forth into such, I will not say cruelty, but rage, that they burned the bones of the king of Idumea, and would not allow death to be the last of all evils. But Judah, in which, at the time when these things were being said, there were the religion of God and the temple and the ceremonies, and which had received the law, and the precepts, and the judgments, and the testimonies, and the commandments — on the difference among which there is a fuller discussion in the eighteenth (19th) psalm and in the hundred and eighteenth (119th) —, is rebuked and convicted by the Lord; and he is going to receive fitting punishments, because he cast away his law and did not keep his commandments. And because he cast these away and despised them, his idols deceived him in due order and course. For he could not have been deceived by idols before, unless he had rejected the law of the Lord and had not done his commandments. These are the idols after which their fathers went in Egypt, fashioning images of the Egyptian ox, and adoring Baal-peor, and worshipping Ashtaroth and the Baalim.

Whatever we have said about Judah is referred to the Church, in which there is the true confession, and the peace of the Lord, and the vision of truth. And in this it is reproved, that it has despised the law of God and has not done his commandments, and that each one, adoring his own vices and sins, has begun to have as God that by which he has been overcome, as the apostle Peter says: For by what one is overcome, of this he is also the slave. The miser worships gold, the glutton his belly, the lustful man his member and Baal-peor; the wanton woman, who, living in pleasures, is dead, adores venereal pleasures.

Hence the Lord threatens that he will send fire into Judah also, to devour the houses and the foundations of Jerusalem, not of that Jerusalem in which the vision of peace abides, but of those which have arisen in various cities under the name of Jerusalem.

Hence the Lord will send fire into Judah, and it will devour the most wicked houses and the vicious foundations, which have destroyed the glory of Jerusalem; and at the same time we learn that the Creator of all has care not only of Judah and Israel but of all the nations; and that, according to the Apostle, those who have sinned without the law perish without the law, and those who have committed offences under the law are judged by the law of the Lord.

Many, truly, are the shoes of the sinful soul, by which it is bound and cramped. For each man is cramped by the cords of his own sins. Accordingly, Abraham swears to the king of Sodom, "I will not take of all that is thine, from a thread to a shoe-latchet." On account of these being defiled and polluted on the earth, every kind of wrong and selfishness engrosses life. As the Lord reproves Israel by Amos, saying, "For three iniquities of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn him back; because they have given away the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, which tread upon the dust of the ground."

He does not leave him unpunished, but rather subjects to punishments Israel, that is, the tribes in Samaria. And that they themselves, sinning unguardedly, have all but consumed the tranquility owed by God to the weak, the turning away for three and four sins would show, which having suffered they must necessarily be subjected to terrible things, and be in every evil. Therefore, the divine David, fearing this thing, and knowing it to be a cause of destruction, implored, saying, "Do not turn Your face from me, and do not turn away in wrath from Your servant." For wrath always follows, and, as it were, accompanies the turnings away.

"They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals": They did not endure to speak rightly and justly, and to render for each of those being judged the justice that accords with the law. But if it happened that a man was righteous, sober and gentle, modest and unboastful; for such a one would be understood as both righteous and needy, or poor in spirit; being brought to judgment by one of the more powerful, this man is sold to his enemies, although the law clearly proclaimed, "You shall not take person in judgment;" and again, "You shall not slay the innocent and the just." For the one entrusted with judging is certainly established in the order of God, to whom alone judging is proper. "For there is one lawgiver and judge," according to the voice of the saint. Therefore, the one who falsifies the account of justice and shows partiality will certainly insult the divine dignity, and offends God who says, "Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion every one to his brother." He accuses them, therefore, of selling the just and the needy to their enemies, and of being accustomed to doing this for the sake of a few and most worthless gains, which would scarcely suffice for those who received them for the purchase of sandals.

Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four I will not turn him back, because he sold the righteous for silver and the poor for sandals, they who crush the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the humble; and a son and his father went in to the girl, to profane my holy name; and upon garments taken in pledge they reclined beside every altar, and they drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three impieties of Israel, and for four I will not turn away from them, because he sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for the sake of sandals, which tread upon the dust of the earth; and they struck the heads of the poor with the fist, and turned aside the way of the humble, and a son and his father went in to the same girl, to defile the name of their God; and binding their garments with cords, they made awnings beside the altar, and they drank wine from false accusations in the house of their God. He puts Israel, that is, the ten tribes, last for this reason: because, as we said before, almost everything that follows was written to it, so that the prophetic discourse might keep the order of the book within one continuous text. Their first crime, then, or impiety, enumerated in three offences or four, is that for money they sold a man, and a righteous man, who is the more admirable in this, that he was not overcome even by poverty so as to do anything unjust; and if indeed, compelled by the necessity of hunger, they had sold the poor righteous man for a price, there would be some excuse for the crime; but as it is, for the cheapest of things, sandals, with which they tread dust and dung, they sold the precious soul of a man.

But we, who have shown in Hosea that under the name of Israel, and of Samaria, and of Ephraim, and of the sons of Joseph — of which tribe was Jeroboam, who separated the people from the kingdom of David and from Jerusalem and from the temple of God — the heretics are signified, let us understand now too, after Judah and Jerusalem, which is interpreted as the Church, that the prophetic discourse is directed at the heretics, who sell a holy and righteous man, and a poor one too, for money. The poor and righteous man is the churchman who does not have knowledge of the Scriptures, but, content with simplicity, does the commandments that have been enjoined, of whom it is written: The poor man does not endure threatening. And to the Galatians: Only that we should be mindful of the poor. All these things the heretics do for riches, and for sandals, with which they tread the dust of the earth; for because they cannot stand with bare feet upon the holy ground — on which Moses stood, and Joshua the son of Nun; whence the apostles too are commanded to go with bare feet, so that they may have nothing of death and of skins, which are referred to the flesh —; therefore they strike the poor on the head. And the Savior commanded his disciples that if by chance, since they were still dwelling on the earth, anything mortal had clung to their works, they should shake the dust off their feet.

He might also have been betrayed by any stranger, did I not find that even here too he fulfilled a psalm: "He who did eat bread with me has lifted up his heel against me." And without a price might he have been betrayed. For what need of a traitor was there in the case of one who offered himself to the people openly and might quite as easily have been captured by force as taken by treachery? This might, no doubt, have been well enough for another Christ but would not have been suitable in one who was accomplishing prophecies. For it was written, "The righteous one did they sell for silver." The very amount and the destination of the money, which on Judas's remorse was recalled "from its first purpose of a fee" and appropriated to the purchase of a potter's field, as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew, were clearly foretold by Jeremiah: "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him who was valued, and gave them for the potter's field."

In these laws it is not written that a father and son ought not to have the same concubine, but, in the prophet, it is thought deserving of the most extreme condemnation, "A man and his father" it is said "will go in unto the same maid." And how many other forms of unclean lust have been found out in the devils' school, while divine scripture is silent about them, not choosing to befoul its dignity with the names of filthy things and condemning their uncleanness in general terms! As the apostle Paul says, "Fornication and all uncleanness ... let it not be once named among you as becometh saints," thus including the unspeakable doings of both males and females under the name of uncleanness. It follows that silence certainly does not give license to voluptuaries.

Because the example of the patriarch seemed injurious to many who indulged their flesh so far as to live with sisters in their life time. What ought to be my course? To quote the Scriptures, or to work out what they leave unsaid? In these laws it is not written that a father and son ought not to have the same concubine, but, in the prophet, it is thought deserving of the most extreme condemnation, "A man and his father" it is said "will go in unto the same maid." And how many other forms of unclean lust have been found out in the devils' school, while divine scripture is silent about them, not choosing to befoul its dignity with the names of filthy things and condemning their uncleanness in general terms! As the apostle Paul says, "Fornication and all uncleanness ... let it not be once named among you as becometh saints," thus including the unspeakable doings of both males and females under the name of uncleanness. It follows that silence certainly does not give license to voluptuaries.

These, according to the Seventy, strike the poor man on the head; according to the Hebrew, they crush the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth, and they are lifted up into such pride that they are unwilling to walk with the humble. And lest this misdeed be thought small, a son and his father went in to one girl, to violate the holy name of God. Whatever, therefore, is done shamefully is referred to an injury against God, who says: Through you my name is blasphemed among the nations. This is what the Apostle also writes to the Corinthians: It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the nations, so that someone has his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, so that he who has done this deed might be taken away from your midst. It often happens that a father defiles his son's wife, that is, a father-in-law his daughter-in-law; both of which are forbidden in the law: You shall not reveal the shame of your father, and you shall not uncover the shame of your daughter-in-law. And so the letter too has the greatest usefulness, if it is kept.

And the heretics strike the heads of the poor, although this is not read in the Hebrew, because they have turned aside the way of the humble. The way of the humble is that which says: I am the way, and the life, and the truth, which calls us to walk along it, and says: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. But all the chiefs of the heretics swell with pride, of whom the Apostle also speaks: Lest, being puffed up, he fall into the judgment of the devil; who says: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will set my nest, I will be like the Most High. Hence the proud heretics God resists, but to the humble churchmen he gives grace. The son and the father, too, went in to one girl, to violate and profane the holy name of God. That the people of the Jews is our father, we often read, as Paul says: For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And in another place: Ask your fathers, and they will declare to you, your elders, and they will tell you. And again: In place of your fathers sons have been born to you. Hence also, in the Church of the nations, it says: The sons of my mother have fought against me. We, therefore, are the sons, and the father is the people of the Jews. We sin and commit a crime when we go in with our parent to the observance of the sabbath, the injury of circumcision, the ceremonies of the abolished law; to whom the Apostle says: Behold, I Paul say to you, that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And again: Those who are justified in the law have fallen from grace. Whoever enters the Church in such a way as to keep the law within the Gospel, he goes in with his father to the girl, and commits debauchery, and violates the name of God. Hence those who say that it does the Jews no harm, after the coming of Christ, if they so believe in God as to keep the precepts of the law as well, defile father and son in one fornication.

They so multiplied their ill-gotten gains as to betray the rights of the needy for the basest profit (the meaning of the phrase "sandals trampling the dust of the earth," which was clear proof of their setting no store by justice, especially as they easily did so for base profit). "They pummeled the heads of the poor." Of the same people he says that they not only failed to vindicate their claim on justice but even belabored them without risk—hence his going on, "and strayed from the path of the lowly." Though their behavior was correct, they changed the verdict to a negative one, scorning them for their lowliness.

Cain was the first murderer. Afterwards a deluge engulfed the earth because of the exceeding wickedness of humanity. Fire came down from heaven upon the people of Sodom because of their corruption. Subsequently God elected Israel, but even Israel became perverse, and the chosen people were wounded. For while Moses stood on the mountain before God, the people worshiped a calf in the place of God. In the days of their lawgiver Moses, who said, "You shall not commit adultery," a man dared to enter a brothel and be wanton. After Moses, prophets were sent to heal Israel, but in their exercise of healing they deplored the fact that you could not overcome evil. One of them says, "The faithful are gone from the earth. Among men the upright are no more!" and again, "All alike have gone astray; they have become perverse; there is not one who does good, not even one." And again, "Cursing and theft, and adultery, and killing have overflowed" upon the land. "They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons." They engaged themselves in auguries and enchantments and divinations; and again, "They fastened their garments with cords and hung veils next to the altar."

And because every outrage, once it has passed the boundary of shame, adds crimes to crimes and always advances to worse things, the ten tribes even reclined upon garments taken in pledge beside every altar, which the Hebrews interpret thus: upon the garments of those who were unwilling to go to the idols, which they had extorted by force, they reclined, feasting in the idol's temple. But according to the Seventy, so great was their contempt for God that they stretched out with cords beside the altar their garments in which they sleep, or in which they commit fornication, and made παραπετάσματα, that is, coverings, so that no one could see them committing fornication in the temple; and, serving drunkenness and lust, they bought even the very wine that they drank, not from their own labor, but from false accusations; and they did this in the shrine of their god, so as to defile those whom they thought gods with shamefulness and debaucheries. So speak, and so expound, those who follow the simple history.

But also, binding their garments with cords, they make coverings beside the altar, holding out the faith of Christ as a screen. For as many as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ, and they set their garments, which they have bound with the cords of sins, before the eyes of those who look, so that their outrages may not be seen, and so that whoever looks at the altar may not suspect the debauchery. This all the heretics do, committing fornication under the Christian name, and spreading the testimonies of the Scriptures over their errors and lies as a screen. Hence the apostles too spread their garments on the foal of the ass, so that the Lord might sit more softly, and might mount the road paved from the law and the prophets. On the contrary, the heretics do not spread their garments beneath the footsteps of the Savior; but they bind them beside the altar and hold them out before their sins, so that they may drink the wine of false accusation, or of the condemned, who are condemned from the very fact that they have gone out of the Church. This is the wine of Sodom, of the fury of dragons and of asps; whoever drinks it cannot be healed. And they drink the wine, not in the house of God, where the temple is and Jerusalem, but in the house of their god, whom they have fashioned for themselves with artful speech.

Therefore, before God led us out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, he destroyed before our face the Amorite, who is called bitter, or λαλητὸς, that is, speaking, or famous and celebrated in frequent talk. Now this Amorite and king of the Amorites is called Sihon, an unfruitful and barren tree, not because it bears no fruit, but because it brings forth bad fruit, of which it is said: Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire. And of the false prophets we read: Who come in the clothing of sheep, and inwardly are ravening wolves; by their fruits you will know them, by their bad fruits, that is. Whether, then, it bears no fruit, or bears fruit but not good fruit, it is called an unfruitful tree. This Sihon, of whom it is written: Already the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, because he was an unfruitful tree, was cut down when the Lord struck him; his height is compared to the height of the cedars, of which we read: I saw the wicked man exalted on high and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. And he fittingly says that he passed by, because from him who passes over from the world, and can say: Passing over, I will see this great vision, the cedar is taken away, and the place of pride cannot be found. His strength too, like that of the oak, a tree most hard and most strong. From its name Philo, the most eloquent man of the Hebrews, thinks that Esau was called δρύινον, that is, oaken and made of hard oak, although Esau can also be understood as ποίημα, that is, a thing made, so as to be referred to evil works. Of this strong and sturdy one he speaks in the Gospel: When a strong man armed guards his court, the things he possesses are in peace; but if one stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he will take away all his armour, in which he trusted, and will distribute his spoils. And the Lord granted us that he should crush from above the fruits of this Amorite Sihon, whose name we said means an unfruitful tree, because they were bad, and take them away, lest anyone, thinking them good, should eat and perish.

But I destroyed the Amorite from before their face, whose height was the height of the cedars, and he was strong as an oak; and I crushed his fruit above, and his roots beneath. It is I who made you go up from the land of Egypt, and I led you out in the desert forty years, that you might possess the land of the Amorite; and I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men Nazirites. LXX: But I took away the Amorite from before their face, whose loftiness was as the height of the cedar, and he was strong as an oak; and I dried up his fruit above, and his roots below. I led you out of the land of Egypt, and led you around in the desert forty years, that you might possess the land of the Amorites; and I took of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for sanctification. You indeed sold the just man for silver and the poor man for sandals, striking his head, or crushing the heads of the poor in the dust, and you turned aside the way of the humble, so far that father and son went in to one girl and violated, or profaned, my holy name; and your garments, polluted by brothels and fornication, you bound with the chains of sins, so that you committed adultery in the holy place and, joining injustice to drunkenness, drank another's wine, and did this in the house of your God. But I, on the contrary, in return for your evils, which you paid back to me, bestowed good things on you: so that, as you were coming out of Egypt, I destroyed before your face Sihon king of the Amorites, who was as lofty and as strong as a cedar and an oak; and I crushed his fruit above, and his roots below. I led you out of Egypt, and through forty years I made you come to the holy land by a long circuit, that you might possess the land of the Amorite, of which we spoke above, which Moses divided to the sons of Reuben and Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh; and after such great benefits I added this as well, that I took prophets to myself from your sons, and from your young men, or chosen ones, made Nazirites, whom the Seventy translated as sanctified. Nor indeed, where the praises of God are spoken of, must the order of the history be kept; but it often happens that what was done first is told last, and what was done last is set at the beginning. This the seventy-seventh (78th) psalm and the hundred and fourth (105th), where the power of the signs, not their order, is described, will be able to teach us, and so will the titles of the psalms, of which let us set down only two examples, those of the third psalm and of the fifty-first (52nd), where what was done earlier is narrated last, and what we read as last is placed at the beginning. For in the volume of Kings we read that what concerns Doeg the Edomite, which is the title of the fifty-first (52nd) psalm, was written before Absalom rose against his father, which is noted at the head of the third psalm in its title. So too the Amorite was destroyed, or blotted out, last, which is now told first; and his making them go up from Egypt, and afterwards leading them out into the wilderness for forty years, we read was done at the beginning, things which are told last here, the order being changed.

His roots too he cut down and broke in pieces, so that nothing of the evil tree might sprout afterwards; and the Lord himself made us go out from the world and, through forty years, a number which always belongs to affliction and fasting, to mourning and sorrow, come through tribulations and straits to the holy land, that we might first possess the land of the Amorite, and the region that was once his might become our possession; and that afterwards he might raise up prophets from our sons, all the holy men who received the prophetic spirit, of whom we read more fully in the first epistle to the Corinthians; and that from our young men, or chosen ones, he might take Nazirites and sanctified ones, who, offering their souls to God in sacrifice, do not touch wine, which can make men drunk and overturn the state of the mind, so that they may have the hair of Samson, in whose head, because the head of a man is Christ, his strength and victory resided.

Is it not so, sons of Israel, says the Lord.

And you will give the Nazirites wine to drink, and you were commanding the prophets, saying: Do not prophesy. LXX: likewise. While I was bestowing such great benefits on you, so as to kill your adversaries and hand their land over to you, and to choose prophets and Nazirites from your sons and young men and consecrate them to my worship. Can you say that I did not do these things, and deny my clemency toward you, through which you live?

[This was the reason why] the Lord accused the Israelites more severely and showed that they deserved greater punishment, because they sinned after receiving the honors that he had bestowed on them. He said, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will visit upon you your iniquities," and again, "I took of your sons for prophets and of your young men for consecration." And before the time of the prophets, when he wanted to show that sins received a much heavier penalty when they were committed by the priests than when they were committed by ordinary people, he commanded as great a sacrifice to be offered for the priests as for all the people. This explicitly proves that the priest's wounds require greater help, indeed as much as those of all the people together. They would not have required greater help if they had not been more serious, and their seriousness is not increased by their own nature but by the extra weight of dignity belonging to the priest who dares to commit them.

Samson and Samuel drank neither wine nor strong drink, for they were children of promise and conceived in abstinence and fasting. Aaron and the other priests when about to enter the temple refrained from all intoxicating drink for fear they should die. From this we learn that they die who minister in the church without sobriety. And hence it is a reproach against Israel: "You gave my Nazirites wine to drink."

You who broke out into such madness that you made my Nazirites drunk with wine, though they are commanded by the law not to drink anything that can intoxicate, and charged the prophets not to prophesy in my name. This is what Amaziah the priest of Bethel also commanded the prophet Amos, whom we now have in hand; and Jeremiah was ordered by the king not to speak the words of the Lord to the people, to such a degree that the king even burned his discourses in the fire. From this passage Tatian, the chief of the Encratites, tries to build up his heresy, asserting that wine must not be drunk, since it is commanded in the law that the Nazirites should not drink wine, and now those who give the Nazirites wine to drink are accused by the prophet. If they follow the letter in all things, and thrust Jewish fables upon the churches of Christ, then they ought also to let their hair grow, and not eat grapes, dried or fresh, and not go in over a dead father and mother; and if perhaps they have done these things, and have been overcome either by human frailty or by necessity, let them shave their heads, and let all the days of their consecration and their toil be void. But if they do not do these things, and cannot, after the manner of Jewish innkeepers, mix water with wine, shadows with the truth, the constraint of the law with the grace of the Gospel, let them understand that drunkenness to be the one by which the vigour of the soul is made drunk and overwhelmed with worldly cares, and understand that it is those who charge the prophets, saying: Do not prophesy, who, overcome by envy, forbid learned men to bring forth the word of doctrine. And while the Lord says: Go and say to this people, they on the contrary command that you not speak in the name of the Lord, above all if he who teaches looks not to shameful gain, glory and boasting, but to the profit of those who read and hear.

He sometimes compares himself with deep condescension, on account of our infirmity, to objects without sense, as he says by the prophet, "Behold, I will shriek over you as a cart creaks when laden with hay." For since the life of the carnal is hay (as it is written, all flesh is hay), in that the Lord endures the life of the carnal he declares that he carries hay as a cart. And to creak under the weight of the hay is for him to bear with murmuring the burdens and iniquities of sinners. When therefore he applies to himself very unlike resemblances, we must carefully observe that some things of this kind are sometimes spoken of concerning God, on account of the effect of his doings, but sometimes to indicate the substance of his majesty.

But now let us return to our own. God threatens that he will roll a cart weighed down with hay or stubble beneath them, so that, since they have no grain to be stored up in barns, their hay and stubble may be burned up in the fire. This is the hay of which the prophet says: Let them become like the hay of the buildings, which withers before it is plucked up. And: All flesh is hay. And the stubble is that over whose burning the prophet laments so mournfully, saying: Woe is me. For I have become like one who gathers stubble in the harvest, and like grapes at the vintage, when there is no cluster to eat, the first-ripe. Woe is me. O soul, for the reverent man has perished from the earth, and there is none among men who does what is right: all are judged in blood, and the rest. This is the hay and stubble of which the Apostle also speaks: Wood, hay, stubble, each one's work will become manifest, because in the day of the Lord it will be revealed in fire.

And the cart that is rolled is the one of which we read in Isaiah: The land of Moab shall be trampled down, as a threshing floor is trampled with carts. And in another place: I will make you, he says, like the new wheels of a cart with the teeth of saws, and you shall crush the mountains and grind the hills to pieces, so that, after you have crushed the mountains and hills, flight may perish from the swift, as Paul says: Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all run indeed, but one receives the prize. And in another place: You were running well; who hindered you, so that you should not obey the truth? Hence, fearing for himself as well, he says: Not that I have already received, or am perfect; but I run, if I may lay hold of that in which I also have been laid hold of by Christ. All these things he did, lest flight perish from the swift; and for this reason, when he had now reached the finishing mark and received the prize of victory, he said in security: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; for the rest, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me on that day; and not to me only, but also to all who love his coming. If we flee with a quick step, sin will not be able to catch us; but if malice binds our feet, we shall speak with the prophet to God: Where shall I go from your spirit, and where shall I flee from your face? Of bad runners the Apostle speaks: It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

Behold, I will creak beneath you, as a cart loaded with hay creaks, and flight shall perish from the swift, and the mighty shall not hold his strength, and the strong shall not save his soul, and he who holds the bow shall not stand, and the swift of foot shall not be saved, and the rider of the horse shall not save his soul, and the strong of heart among the mighty shall flee naked in that day, says the Lord. LXX: Therefore behold, I will roll beneath you as a cart full of stubble is rolled, and flight shall perish from the runner, and the mighty shall not hold his might, and the fighter shall not save his soul, and the archer shall not endure, and the swift of foot shall not be able to be saved, and the horseman shall not save his soul, and his heart is found among the powerful, and he shall flee naked in that day, says the Lord. While I was bestowing benefits on you, and leading you out of the land of Egypt, and killing the Amorite before your face so that you might possess his land, and raising up prophets from your sons and Nazirites from your young men, you were making my Nazirites drunk with wine and saying to the prophets: Do not prophesy. Therefore, just as a cart weighed down with a load of stubble or hay howls far off with creaking and noise, so I, no longer bearing your sins, and handing them over to the fire like stubble, will cry out and say: Flight shall perish from the swift, whom the Hebrews understand as Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had earlier fled into Egypt. Here, however, let us take not the princes themselves but their houses and their offspring. And the mighty shall not hold his strength — the mighty one they interpret as Baasha, who was most ready for wars —, and the strong shall not save his soul — this one here they take to be Omri —, and he who holds the bow shall not stand, or endure, they think was said of Jehu the son of Nimshi, who struck Joram king of Israel with an arrow. And the swift of foot shall not be saved: they understand Menahem, who, hastening in vain, sent gifts to the king of the Assyrians. And the rider of the horse shall not save his soul: this one they interpret as Pekah the son of Remaliah, who, joined with Aram, that is, the Syrian, laid waste much of Judea under Ahaz its king. And the strong of heart, among the mighty, shall flee naked in that day, says the Lord. Hoshea alone, who was the last king of the ten tribes and tried to call the straying people back to the worship of God, will come out of the fire as if naked. And he calls him naked because under him the ten tribes were taken captive. This is what the Hebrews hold, and as it was handed down to us by them, so we have faithfully set it out for our own people.

swift: Jeroboam I. Other kings are described afterwards.

There follows: And the mighty shall not hold his strength; not that he is mighty, but that he boasts of being mighty. Or he is the one who trusts in his own strength and not in the mercy of God, according to what is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the prudent I will reject; not that true wisdom can perish and the understanding of the truth be rejected, but that the wisdom of those perishes who seem wise in their own eyes and trust in their own learning. The strong one too, or the fighter, who will not save his soul, is he who by no means possesses the armour of the Apostle: having a shield, but not of faith; girded about the loins, but not in truth; clothed with a breastplate, but not of righteousness; bearing a sword, but not of salvation. A fighter of this sort does not sanctify the battle, nor can he fight the wars of the Lord, since he struggles against the truth on behalf of falsehood. Such a fighter cannot say: Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for battle and my fingers for war. My mercy and my refuge.

The heretics too have archers, who, bending the bow in vain, will not be able to withstand the arrow of the Lord, who speaks through Isaiah: But I am like a chosen arrow in the quiver of the Lord. These are the archers of whom David also sings: Behold, sinners have bent the bow, they have made ready their arrows in the quiver, to shoot in the dark at the upright of heart. And the swift of foot, he says, shall not be saved: he who, because of the sharpness of his wit, runs about through the testimonies of the Scriptures and strives to crush the truth with the eloquence of orators or the sophisms of dialecticians; and in this he is tripped and falls, because he trusts not in the Lord but in his own feet. The rider of the horse, too, shall not save his soul, he who does not know what was said through the prophet: The horse is deceitful for salvation. And he does not know that it is written: All who mounted horses have slumbered. This man will not save his soul, but as he perishes he will hear: Some in chariots, and some on horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God. They were hindered and have fallen, but we have risen and stand upright.

And the strong also of heart among the mighty shall flee naked. This passage can be explained in two ways: either that he can escape for this reason, that he has stripped off the old man and the skin tunics of sins, and was weighed down by no burden; or, on the contrary, that because he is naked and has lost the garment of Christ, of which it is said in the Apostle too: Put on Christ Jesus, and in another place: If indeed, being clothed, we are not found naked, his strength will profit him nothing, but in the day of battle and contest he will flee from his pursuers and, unable to resist without the armour of the Apostle, will turn his back to the enemy.