Amos 3

The word might be understood as having come against all of Israel, no longer taking Judah and Ephraim in part, but with the whole race gathered as if into one; for every tribe of Israel was brought up from Egypt. Therefore, with none being left out, he commands them to hear the things from God. And what were these things? For there are countless, he says, cities and countries throughout the whole world under heaven, and those in them are beyond number, but you from Israel out of all I have made chosen, I made myself manifest through many wonders, I delivered you from bitter and unbearable slavery, I declared you enviable and thrice-blessed, I have instructed you by law for what is pleasing to me, I have fortified you with my assistance, and I have brought you into the land promised to the fathers. But since you alone, he says, out of all who have been deemed worthy of so conspicuous a grace have not ceased grieving and have offended in many ways, for this reason I will henceforth demand of you an account of your folly, I will no longer tolerate those who sin and have an unreproved inclination for this. Therefore, to despise God and to disregard the master's will is a cause of destruction for anyone henceforth who has known him, or has been known by him, in the manner of spiritual kinship.

Hear the word which the Lord has spoken concerning you, sons of Israel; concerning every kindred which I brought out of the land of Egypt, saying: Solely you have I known of all the kindreds of the earth; therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities. LXX: Hear this word which the Lord has spoken concerning you, house of Israel, and against every tribe which I brought out of the land of Egypt, saying. Nevertheless, you have I known of all the tribes of the earth; therefore I will take vengeance upon you for all your wickednesses. The prophetic word is directed to the sons of Israel, and who these sons of Israel are the following verse shows: Concerning every kindred, he says, which I brought out of the land of Egypt, which we must take to refer not only to the ten tribes but to all twelve, adding Judah and Benjamin. For he brought them all out of the land of Egypt, and he says: Solely — or, as Symmachus translated, Only —, you have I known of all the kindreds of the earth. And because I, who am the Creator of all, have known you alone, and have held you as my peculiar people, therefore upon you alone I will repay all your sins: For the mighty will suffer torments mightily; but he who is least is worthy of mercy. And in Ezekiel we read: Begin from my saints. And the judgment of God is said to have its beginning from his own house. Let this, meanwhile, have been said according to the history. Moreover, since hearing in the holy Scriptures is taken to mean not only that which we receive with the ears of the flesh, but also that of which the Lord says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear, and since for this reason all the people also saw the voice of God, the word of the Lord is properly addressed to those who see the Lord with their understanding, whom he brought out of the land of Egypt and out of the power of Pharaoh — so that they should by no means serve with mud and straw, building the cities of Egypt —; and whom he has known out of all the tribes of the earth, as the Apostle says: But now knowing God, or rather being known by him. And in another place: He who is ignorant will be ignored. The Lord, then, does not know all, but those who are worthy of his knowing them, as he says in the Gospel: Depart from me, workers of iniquity, I do not know you. For in that they are workers of iniquity, they are unknown to the Lord. Therefore, he says, because I have known you alone and have held you as mine, I will visit upon you all your iniquities. Whom the Lord loves, he reproves, and he chastises every son whom he receives. And he said well, I will visit, and not, I will strike, because the stroke of God is a visitation and a healing. And all your iniquities, he says, or your sins, I will visit, so that nothing may remain unstruck, and nothing fail to receive healing.

For this very cause God accuses the Israelites more vehemently, and shows that they were worthy of greater chastisement, because they sinned after so many honors had come to them from Him, saying in one place: "But you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your iniquities," and again, "and I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites;" and before the times of the prophets, wishing to show that sins receive sorer punishment by far when they occur in the case of the Priest than in the case of the laity, He enjoins as great a sacrifice to be offered for the Priest as for the whole people, and this amounts to a proof on his part, that the wounds of the Priesthood need more assistance—that is, as great as those of all the people together, and they would not have needed a greater, except they were worse; and they are not worse in their nature, but are aggravated through the dignity of the Priest, who dares to commit them.

And each of us thinks, since he has not been an idolater, since he has not been immoral—would that we were pure in such areas—that after he has been set free from this life, he will be saved. We do not see that "all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive either good or evil according to what he has done in the body." We do not hear what has been said: "You especially have I known out of all the tribes on the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all"—not just some and not others—"of your iniquities."

He therefore accuses them, because they claimed that the prophets from Him did not convey words from above and from God; but rather they thought that things were being uttered from their own opinion, and that they were speaking things different from what seemed good to the Lord of all. For this reason He says, O foolish and senseless ones, will any of you become friends and walk the same path of life, not having known yourselves, or rather one another; that is, unless they have seen one another to be of the same character and like-minded? "For every creature loves its like, and a man will cleave to his like." And if this is true, how could I have accepted the prophets, as it were, into friendship and love, being holy Myself, if they too had not become holy? How then do you persecute the saints, to whom I have entrusted My words, whom I have accepted as good, as it were walking the same road of My wills? For whatever I might wish, this is also their will. Therefore, to rebuke the prophets is nothing other than to direct the rebuke against Me.

There are some who think that the first example contains a teaching: that two cannot walk together unless they have first agreed with each other in him who made both one, and the middle wall of the partition destroyed, and fashioned the two into one new man; and he made peace between them, and joined them with the bond of love, so that, when two are together, they may ask of the Father and obtain whatever they have asked. These are the two rods which are joined to each other in Ezekiel, and the two peoples, of the circumcision and of the Gentiles, of which the Lord speaks to Elijah: I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bent the knee before Baal. And in another place God: I was found, he says, by those who did not seek me; I appeared to those who did not ask for me. But when the two have been brought together into one, they will cleave to the Lord, and one spirit will come to be: For he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit. These two, then, who agree with each other and walk together in the way of Christ, can fear the assault of none of their adversaries.

Will two walk together unless they have agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest unless he has prey? Will the lion's whelp give voice from his den unless he has seized something? Will a bird fall into the snare of the earth without a fowler? Will the snare be taken up from the earth before it has caught something? If the trumpet sounds in the city, will the people not be terrified? Will there be evil in the city which the Lord has not done, for the Lord God will not do a thing unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion will roar, who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, who will not prophesy? LXX: Will two walk together at all unless they have known each other? Will a lion bellow from his forest, having no prey? Will the lion's whelp give his voice from his den at all unless he has snatched something? Will a bird fall upon the earth without a fowler? Will a snare be set down upon the earth unless it has caught something? If the trumpet sounds in the city, will the people not fear? Will there be evil in a city which the Lord has not done, for the Lord God will not do anything unless he has revealed his instruction to his servants the prophets. The lion will bellow, and who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, and who will not prophesy? I have read in the commentaries of a certain man, who wished to win assent to a difficult thing, that to the eight crimes, or impieties and sins, first of Damascus, second of Gaza and the other cities of Palestine, third of Tyre, fourth of Idumea, that is, Edom, fifth of the sons of Ammon, sixth of Moab, seventh of Judah, that is, the two tribes, eighth, which is the last, of Israel, that is, the ten tribes, as many threats are now given in return, and that the first answers to the first, that is, Damascus, the second to the second, that is, Gaza, and the rest to the rest. Whether this is true, he who wrote it will know for himself. Another, however, thinks that six examples are set forth, of two walking together on the road, and of a lion roaring in the forest, and of a lion's whelp giving its voice when it has seized something, and of a bird caught by a fowler, and of a snare which is fixed in the ground to catch prey, and of a trumpet sounding in the city, and that to these examples a likeness is given in return: as the things above have a cause and do not happen unless that cause has gone before, so no evil befalls in a city which has not been done at the Lord's command.

Those who study the habits of wild beasts say that the lion, when it is in need of food, roams about powerfully through mountains and glens and forests, turning its eye this way and that, and seeking to catch something of the animals grazing in the woods. But when it sees something suitable for food, then it comes near and makes its attack, roaring terribly and harshly. Why then, He says, do you accuse God, because He makes the threat before the attack of terrible things? And why do you gnash your teeth at the prophets themselves, because they too have cried out against your impiety? For I am like a lion, He says, which is accustomed to roar before the hunt, all but threatening the attack beforehand, and the prophets are like cubs, imitating my custom. But just as for the animals in the mountains the hunter's shout beforehand is not entirely unprofitable, scaring them to flight before they happen to be caught, so also for sinners the threat and prediction before the terrible things is exceedingly useful, leading them to repentance and avoidance of what is impending. God, therefore, compares himself to a lion that does not leap upon and bring things from his wrath upon some, unless he first makes known the threat, so that by repenting they might be saved, receiving the prediction of the things that will be as a medicine for salvation before the onset of the terrible things.

But if they are separated by discord, at once the roaring lion will attack them, of whom the apostle Peter also says: Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour. This roaring lion does not move about in sown fields, not in vineyards, not in olive groves, nor among the fruit-bearing trees, which praise God, but where there are forests and untilled ground and wild beasts dwell. And not only will they lie open to the lion's bites, but the lion's whelp will seize them and lead them to his den, fleeing the light and making for the darkness. For everyone who sins loves the darkness and hates the light; of these we read in the psalm too: You have set darkness, and it became night; in it all the beasts of the forest will pass through. The lions' whelps roaring to seize their prey, and to seek their food from God. For the lion's whelp seeks not the prey which he already possesses, which is in his own power, but to snatch from the Church of Christ; of him it is written in Habakkuk: His foods are choice.

The discourse is now made by way of comparison. For fowlers most skillfully bring down the sparrows that have settled in the plants, and with snares, on the other hand, some crush what is caught. But the discourse now seems to signify through the sparrows those who are accustomed to think lofty things, the boastful in mind and arrogant in spirit, and not enduring to be brought down with the lowly; and through those caught in snares, the lovers of earthly things, and those who seek only carnal and fattening things. And God again compares himself to a fowler and a snare, bringing the proud down to the earth, and as it were crushing and hunting for punishment those who mind only the things on earth. But those from Israel were boastful, despising God and rejecting prophets and dishonoring the law; and they were no less also exceedingly greedy for the things in the world, and seeking only the things on earth, overcome by whose strange desires they did not accept the word of God, but opposed those who call to virtue.

The third punishment of those whom discord has separated is that they lose the wings by which they were formerly borne on high, and fall headlong from heaven to earth, and are held by the fowler, who is better called ἰξευτὴς, because with clinging birdlime he catches free birds which of their own will come down to earthly things. Of these it is written in Proverbs: Not unjustly are nets spread for birds. For just is the ruin of sinners, who, though they had the wings of a dove and ought to have flown through the air, were pressed down to earthly things by the weight of their sins, and through their own vice stuck fast to the birdlime. Of this we read in the Apostle: He who cleaves to a harlot becomes one body with her. The fourth punishment of those in discord is that they are caught in the snare, which is set not in heaven but on the earth; the saint glories in having escaped it, and says: Our soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the snare of the hunters; the snare is broken, and we are set free. This is the broken snare of which the Apostle speaks to believers: God will crush Satan under your feet swiftly. And again we read in David: Beside the path they have set a stumbling block for me. For they cannot deceive any of the simple among believers unless they put forward the name of Christ, so that, while we think we are finding Christ, we go on to the Antichrist.

But perhaps you say that the outcome of these matters grieves you not moderately. Will there then be an affliction in a city, perchance, which the Lord has not done? It is like as if one should say: Will there then be anyone among men able to afflict a city either with diseases or sieges or destructions of crops or even in some other such way? But if no one of men could do such things, and it lies rather in the authority and power of God, why are you angry with those who announce it beforehand? And yet it is necessary to repent, and by inclinations to this to appease him the one who is grieved and has the power to harm those who have sinned. Therefore, in these matters, we shall understand the 'evil' that comes from God in the cities not as wickedness—far from it!—but rather as an affliction, that is, the wrath and movement for whatever reason, which He might bring upon sinners, persuading them to turn back to what is more fitting. For it is written that, "With bit and bridle you shall restrain the jaws of those who do not draw near to you." For since He is good, and "wishes all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth," He somehow compels them by means of wrath toward what is better, and sometimes powerfully moves, with terrors and threats, those whom reason and the guidance of what is beneficial do not persuade.

The fifth punishment is that of those who have abandoned the peace which surpasses all understanding, and which the Lord, as he went to the Father, left to the apostles, saying: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you: that, though set in the city of the Lord, they are terrified by the sound of the trumpet. For whatever is said in the holy Scriptures is a threatening trumpet, piercing the ears of believers with a great voice. If we are righteous, we are summoned by the trumpet of Christ to blessedness; if sinners, we hear what torments we are going to suffer. But the evil which the Lord does in the city is not the contrary of virtue, but affliction and torment, of which we read: Sufficient to the day is its own evil, that is, tribulation and distress. And in the prophet we read: I am God, who made light and darkness, who make peace and create evils. For just as darkness is contrary to light and day, so war too is contrary to peace; it is not evil in itself, but seems to be evil to those who endure it. And that we may know that in the holy Scriptures evil is sometimes taken not as the contrary of virtue but as affliction, punishments and distress, let us take one more example, from Jonah: And God saw their works, that they had turned from their most wicked ways, and he repented over the evil which he had spoken of doing to them. The evil there is surely the overthrow of the Ninevites, which God had threatened through the prophet, and not the evil contrary to virtue, which belongs to sin, on account of which he was threatening torments to sinners.

I do not say these things in arrogance, but I have the prophet Amos standing at my side, crying and saying, "There is no evil in the city which the Lord has not done." Now evil is a many-faceted term. I wish that you shall learn the exact meaning of each expression, in order that on account of ambiguity you may not confound the nature of the things and fall into blasphemy. There is then evil, which is really evil; fornication, adultery, covetousness, and the countless dreadful things, which are worthy of the utmost reproach and punishment. Again there is evil, which rather is not evil but is called so, famine, pestilence, death, disease, and other of a similar nature. For these would not be evils. On this account I said they are called so only. Why then? Because, were they evils intended to become the sources of good to us, chastening our pride, goading our sloth and leading us on to zeal, making us more attentive.

It is, then, customary for sacred Scripture to speak of his permission as an action and deed, but even when it goes so far as to say that God "creates evil" and that "there is not evil in a city which the Lord has not done," it still does not show God to be the author of evil. On the contrary, since the word evil is ambiguous it has two meanings, for it sometimes means what is by nature evil, being the opposite of virtue and against God's will, while at other times it means what is evil and painful in relation to our sensibility, which is to say, tribulation and distress. Now while these last seem to be evil, because they cause pain, actually they are good because to such as understand them they are a source of conversion and salvation. It is these last that Scripture says are permitted by God. Moreover, one must know that we too cause them because involuntary evils spring from voluntary ones.

As it is impossible for two people to share a journey at the same time, he is saying, unless indicating to each other where and why they are traveling, or for a lion to roar if there is no prey, or for a bird to fall without a hunter, or for all the other things mentioned, so it is impossible for any punishment to be imposed without God willing it. He calls punishment "evil," note, by use of a general custom: we are accustomed to use "troubles" of diseases, chastisements, untimely deaths, famines, wars, and the like, not because they are troublesome by nature but because they are troublesome to human beings and the source of distress and grief.

But if there were no evils in the world, much good would be lost to man, as well in respect of knowledge, as also in respect of desire and love of good: for good is better known in contrast with evil; and while evil results come about, we more ardently desire good results: as sick men best know what a blessing health is.

There follows: The Lord God will not do a thing unless he has revealed his secret, or his correction, to his servants the prophets; not that God reveals to the prophets everything that he does in heaven or has already done before, but what he is going to do on earth. He revealed to Noah his servant that he was going to bring on the flood. He revealed to Abraham and Lot his servants that Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim were going to burn. He revealed to Joseph the interpretation of the dream of the seven years of famine in Egypt, and to the prophet Jonah the overthrow of Nineveh, so that those who heard of the punishments to come might either repent and avoid the torments, or, if they scorned them, be punished more justly. So now too the Lord reveals through Amos his servant and prophet what he is going to do to the ten tribes, so that, if they are turned to better things and abandon their idols, they may be freed from the danger that threatens. And note that God, merciful and kind, always foretells what is to come, so that he may not be forced to inflict punishments. And what the heretics slanderously charge against the Creator, as though he were severe and savage, cruel, and nothing but a judge, because there is no evil in a city which he does not do, this we refer to the greatness of his mercy, in that he does not inflict punishments unless he has foretold them beforehand. And he who foretells does not wish to punish sinners.

The Lord reveals to the prophets all things that are necessary for the instruction of the faithful; yet not all to every one, but some to one, and some to another. And although God revealed in general to the prophets what He was one day to do regarding the salvation of the human race, still the apostles knew some particulars of the same, which the prophets did not know. Thus we read (Ephesians 3:4-5): "As you reading, may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles." Among the prophets also, the later ones knew what the former did not know; according to Psalm 118:100: "I have had understanding above ancients," and Gregory says: "The knowledge of Divine things increased as time went on" (Hom. xvi in Ezech.).

"Lord, you have been our refuge." Therefore we have recourse to you. Our healing shall be from you, for our evil is from ourselves. Because we have abandoned you, you have abandoned us to ourselves. May we therefore be found in you, for in ourselves we had been lost. "Lord, you have been our refuge." Why, my brethren, should we doubt that the Lord will make us gentle if we submit ourselves to be tamed by him? You have tamed the lion, which you did not create. Will your Creator be unable to tame you? What is the source of your power to tame such savage beasts? Are you their equal in bodily strength? By what power then have you been able to tame such huge beasts? The so-called beasts of burden are wild by nature, for if untamed they could not be endured. But because you are not accustomed to see them except when handled by men and under the curb and control of men, you might think that they were born tame. At any rate, consider the savage beasts. The lion roars; who does not fear? And yet, whence your knowledge of the fact that you are more powerful? Not in bodily strength but in the inner reason of the mind. You are more powerful than a lion, because you have been made to the image of God. The image of God tames a wild beast. Is God unable to tame his own image?

National calamity is traced to national sin, specially to neglect of the poor.

"A lion will roar, and who will not be afraid? The Lord God has spoken, and who will not prophesy?" It is not the prophets, he says, who bring on the things that come from wrath; how could they? For they are also human in nature, just like you, but they have been honored by God by learning all the things that He might wish to fulfill, and to bring upon cities and lands either good things, perhaps, or things that are accustomed to cause pain. But perhaps you say to this: Let them learn, if you wish; let them be enriched by you with the knowledge of future events; let all the mysteries be made clear to them; but let them speak to no one, nor let them sound anything in the ears of those who reject them. What then is the reply to this from God? A lion will roar and who will not be afraid? For if, he says, when the lion roars, the most powerful of beasts, there would not be anyone so hard-hearted and arrogant as not to receive fear, how, when God, who is above all, speaks and commands them to announce what they learn, would they not fear the one who has commanded them? For they are not, like you, scornful and unyielding, holding in no account the things that seem good to the Lord of all.

The lion, he says, will roar, and who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, who will not prophesy? The word who is taken in this passage not for the impossible, but for the rare. For he will not fear, and he will not prophesy, who because of his hardness has scorned to hear the Lord. And the sense according to the history is this: If at the voice of the lion all things tremble and the whole nature of living creatures is terrified, shall we, when God commands us to speak and announce to the people the punishments to come, not prophesy? Shall we not speak? I know that a certain man has left it written in his commentaries that the roaring lion is to be understood as the devil, roaring at those who are going to perish, but that God, who speaks through the prophets, is to be referred to the Lord the Savior; so that, as they hear the lion's roaring in the bad sense and are taken captive unto death, so the saints may hear the Lord commanding in the good sense, and be saved.

Make it heard in the houses of Azotus, and in the houses of the land of Egypt; and say: Gather yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and see the many madnesses in the midst of her, those who suffer calumnies in her inner chambers; and they did not know how to do what is right, says the Lord, treasuring up iniquity and plunder in their houses. LXX: Announce to the regions among the Assyrians, and to the regions of the land of Egypt; and say: Gather yourselves upon the mountain of Samaria, and see many wonders in the midst of her, and the oppression in her; and she did not know what things are to come before her, says the Lord, who treasure up iniquity and misery in their regions. We said above that the prophet Amos prophesies especially, indeed in the great part of the volume, to the ten tribes, which are called Israel and Ephraim, and Samaria. And so now too he is commanded to announce to Azotus and to the land of Egypt the things that follow. In place of Azotus the Seventy, intending I know not what, put the Assyrians, although Azotus in the language of the Hebrews is called Esdod, and the Assyrians, Assur. For the houses too, which are called armanoth, they translated regions, which are called sadoth, and the words have nothing of likeness. Say, he says, that all the nations which are in the neighbourhood should gather and see the crimes of Israel, lest they think the judgment of God unjust. As if he were saying: First see what they do, and then approve my sentence. And he fittingly added: Upon the mountains of Samaria, whether of the city, which is now called Sebaste and was then called Samaria, or of the whole province, which is situated in mountainous country: And see the many madnesses in the midst of her, that in place of God they worship calves and sacrifice their sons, and, not content with this crime, they bring calumnies against the poor in their inner chambers, and do not know at all how to do what is right, treasuring up for themselves not gold and money, which are sometimes gained by labour, but iniquities and plunder in their houses; so that, because they abandoned the worship of God and worshipped idols, he delivers them, God does, to a reprobate mind, to do what is not fitting. And since, once and for all, according to the laws of tropology, Samaria is referred to the heretics, who falsely claim to be the guardians of the commandments of God, the divine word commands that they preach among the nations which have no knowledge of God, in whose teaching there is a burning fire, and tribulation and anguish, that they may consider the false Samaria, and go up to the mountains of her pride, and see the many madnesses in the midst of the city, while each one fashions what he wishes and worships his own fiction: as Marcion a God who is good and idle; as Valentinus thirty αἰῶνας (aeons) and a Christ last of all, whom he calls ἔκτρωμα, that is, an abortion; as Basilides, who calls the almighty God by the monstrous name ἀβράξας (Abraxas), and says that this same name, according to the Greek letters, and the number of the yearly course, is contained in the circle of the sun, whom the heathen, under the same number in other letters, call Μείθραν (Mithras). And the Iberian follies marvel at Balsamus and Barbelo. Are these not madnesses, and many madnesses, when each one fashions whatever has fallen into his mind? They also suffer calumny in her inner chambers, that is, all the simple among the believers are oppressed, while under the name of truth they worship a lie; and they do not know at all how to do what is right, because they have lost the path of truth, nor do they believe in him who says: I am the truth; and they treasure up for themselves the dogmas of iniquity, and they seize and shut up in their houses those whom they have been able to deceive by false error. But if it please us to read Assyrians — which, however, is not found in the Hebrew —, let us say that these are the ones of whom it is written: I will bring it upon the great mind, the prince of the Assyrians, who said: By my strength I will do it, and so on, so that the heretics are taken captive by the Assyrian and held in the land of Egypt, from which, coming now to the Church, they have been set free.

Therefore thus says the Lord God: The land shall be afflicted and surrounded, and your strength shall be pulled down from you, and your houses shall be plundered. LXX: Therefore thus says the Lord God: Tyre, and your land round about, shall be deserted, and he will pull down your strength from you, and your regions shall be plundered. In place of Tyre, which in the Hebrew is written with two letters, sade and res, and is called Sor, as Aquila and the Seventy likewise translated it, the Hebrew who instructed me in the holy Scriptures interpreted tribulation; nor do we reject his opinion, because Symmachus too, who is not accustomed to follow the κακοζηλίαν (affectation) of words but the order of the understanding, says siege and encircling of the land. In place of siege, which he calls πολιορκία, strength was put by Theodotion, who thought that what should be read was not Sar and Sor, which means tribulation or Tyre, but sur, which properly refers to a very hard rock, which in Greek is called ἀκρότομος, and which we in Latin can call flint. Let us speak, then, of each in turn. The LXX said: Tyre, and your land all around. And the sentence seemed to hang unfinished; so they added on their own: Shall be deserted; nor is it an error of the translators, where, because of the ambiguity of the word, both tribulation and Tyre can be said. And the sense is: Upon the mountains of Samaria my people has committed many madnesses, practising calumny, and utterly ignorant of what is right, and treasuring up for itself iniquity and plunder; therefore it shall be afflicted, or crushed, and their land shall be surrounded by the Assyrian army, and there shall be pulled down from you, he says, O Samaria, O ten tribes, O once my people, your strength; and there shall be plundered in your houses what you gathered by calumny from the tears of the wretched. The heretics too will either be afflicted in the day of judgment, and all their strength will be worn down, and what they had gained from plunder will be plundered, so that the peoples whom they had deceived may be set free; or certainly they will be afflicted daily by churchmen, and surrounded by the testimonies of the Scriptures, and there will be pulled down from them the strength of the syllogisms and the subtleties of words by which they had confirmed their dogma. And their houses will be plundered, so that those who had been carried off from the Church may return to the Church.

If, then, any hope of salvation is still left to you, if any slight remembrance of God, if any desire for future rewards, if any fear of the punishments reserved for the unrepentant come back quickly to sobriety; raise your eyes to the heavens; return to your senses; cease your wickedness; shake off the drunkenness that has drenched you; stand up against him who has overthrown you. Have the strength to rise up from the earth. Remember the good Shepherd, how he will pursue and deliver you. And if there are but "two legs, or the tip of an ear," leap back from him who has wounded you. Remember the compassion of God, how he heals with olive oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Recall the memory of what has been written, how he that falls rises again, and he that is turned away turns again, he that has been smitten is healed, he that is caught by wild beasts escapes, and he that confesses is not rejected. The Lord does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he return and live. Do not be contemptuous as one who has fallen into the depths of sins.

Thus says the Lord: As if a shepherd should rescue from the mouth of the lion two legs, or the tip of an ear, so shall the sons of Israel be rescued who dwell in Samaria in the region of the couch and on the pallet of Damascus. LXX: Thus says the Lord: As if a shepherd should tear away from the mouth of the lion two legs, or the tip of an ear, so shall the sons of Israel be torn away who dwell in Samaria over against the tribe and in Damascus. At the beginning of Amos, where we discussed those little verses: The Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will utter his voice; and the beautiful places of the shepherds mourned, and the top of Carmel was dried up, we said that he used the language of his own craft, so that, because as a herdsman of flocks he had known nothing more terrible than the lion, he compared the wrath of the Lord to lions. According to this sense, then, now too he takes an example from what he had often seen, and so he tells that the small remnant of the ten tribes is to be rescued from the hands of the Assyrians: as if a shepherd, when all the other limbs have been devoured, should snatch two legs or the tip of an ear from the lion's jaws; and, having set down the example for the comparison, so, he says, shall the sons of Israel be rescued, namely the ten tribes that dwell in Samaria, in the region of the couch and on the pallet of Damascus. This seems to me to be explained thus: We read in Isaiah that Rezin king of Aram, that is, of the Syrians, who reigned in Damascus, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, having made a league, came fighting against Judah; concerning whom the Lord commands Ahaz king of Judah and Jerusalem not to fear the two half-burnt firebrands, when, as a sign of full liberty, both the conception and the childbearing of a virgin are shown to him. The sons of Samaria, then, dwell in the region and quarter of the couch, resting on the help of the Syrians, and promising themselves victory on the pallet of Damascus, so that, as one who is weary is refreshed on a couch, so they might strengthen their broken forces by the help of a neighbouring nation. Hence also in the same Isaiah it is said, by a type of things to come, that a child is to be born who, before he knows how to call father and mother, will take the spoils of Samaria and the power of Damascus, which, that is, were fighting against Jerusalem with their forces joined. For the region of the couch and the pallet of Damascus the Seventy translated: Over against the tribe and in Damascus, so that according to tropology we may refer the tribe to Judah, and Damascus to the calling of the nations, out of whom one flock of the Lord has been made, whose sheep the savagery of lions often mangles, and from whose jaws scarcely two legs or the tip of an ear is carried off. In the leg is shown the way of teachings, in the ear the mysteries of the words. Hence also the apostles are commanded to walk with bare feet, without shoes and without any skin of a dead animal. And to believers it is said: He who has ears to hear, let him hear. In the Apocalypse of John too we read: He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And more plainly through the prophet: Put, he says, your words in the ears of your heart. This path both the heretics and their masters the demons hasten to obstruct and to interweave with nets, so that we may fall in the way which is Christ. But if there comes a churchman and man of God, and a Samson, which means sun, he kills the lion, and going down into the pit of hell, which cools the waters, in the time of snow, of storm and of winter, he strangles the lion, so that with secure foot and safe ears we may be able to follow the Lord and to hear his words.

God's other titles fall into two distinct groups. The first group belongs to his power, the second to his providential ordering of the world, a twofold providential ordering—involving, and not involving, incarnation. Clear cases of titles that belong to his power are "Almighty" and "King"—whether it be of "glory," "the ages," "of the forces," or "of the beloved" or the "rulers"16—"Lord Sabbaoth," which means "lord of the armies," "forces" or "masters." To his providential ordering belong "God"—be it "of salvation," "retribution," "peace," or "righteousness," or "of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" or all the spiritual "Israel," which has the vision of God. For since we are controlled by three conditions—fear of punishment, hope for salvation and glory too, and the practice of the virtues which results in these last—the name which mentions retribution deals with fear, the one which mentions salvation with hope, and that which refers to virtues disciplines us to practice them. The intention is that by, as it were, carrying God inside one, a person may have some success here and press on all the harder to perfection, toward that affinity with God which comes from the virtues.

Hear and testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord God of hosts, that in the day when I begin to visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will visit also upon the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and shall fall to the ground; and I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish; and many houses shall be scattered, says the Lord. LXX: Priests, hear: testify to the house of Jacob, says the Lord God Almighty, that in the day when I avenge the iniquities of Israel upon him, I will avenge also upon the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be undermined and shall fall upon the ground. I will confound and strike the winged house upon the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish; and many other houses shall be added, says the Lord. What is put at the beginning of the section according to the Seventy, priests, is not found in the Hebrew, but in place of this word is read ares, which Aquila interpreted as pallet; and I think that the Seventy put the Hebrew word itself, which some, not understanding it, read in place of ares as ἱερεῖς, that is, priests. Now the prophetic word commands that they first hear, and then testify in the house of Jacob, that is, among the ten tribes, what the Lord has said.

When I begin, he says, to visit the transgressions, or impieties, of the house of Israel, and to render to them what they deserve, and the time of captivity has come, then the altars of Bethel shall be destroyed, where the golden calves were, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, the altar which was split apart when Jeroboam too stretched out his hand, and they shall crash to the ground, broken, as the Assyrian lays waste.

When the Lord begins to visit the transgressions of Israel, which formerly beheld God with the mind, he will visit also upon the altars of Bethel, not the one altar which the Church has, but the very many altars of the heretics. For they have as many altars as schisms. He will cut off also the horns of the altar which in their pride they boast that they possess as the one altar. And their horns, that is, their arrogance, will fall to the ground; and he will strike the winter house, those heretics who toil in continence and fasts, in dry fasts and sleeping on the ground, among whom are Tatian and Mani; and the summer house, such as the Nicolaitans and the Eunomians, and the new followers of an old heresy, who for the gluttony of the belly admit every pleasure. And the houses of ivory will perish, which are put together with an artful tooth and the splendour of rhetorical polish. And many houses will be scattered, which are dispersed through the whole world. For when the one truth rises, many lies will be destroyed. For the winter house the Seventy translated οἶκον τὸν περίπτερον, which we have interpreted winged, because it has little doors over the windows, and as it were wings for keeping off the severity of the cold.

And I will strike, he says, the winter house with the summer house, which we can take simply according to the letter: that they were of such great wealth that they had double houses, winter ones and summer ones, of which some faced the north and others the south, so that according to the variety of the seasons they might secure a temperate measure of cold and heat and of the sky. We can call the winter house the kingdom of Israel, in which there was coldness of religion and of the worship of God, and various whirlwinds of the winds, and savage storm; and the summer house, Judah and Jerusalem, in which was the temple, and burnt offerings were offered morning and evening, and the warmth of religion flourished. And the houses of ivory, he says, shall perish, which can also stand according to the history. For we read that Ahab king of Israel abounded in such great luxuries that he made himself a house of ivory. For 'of ivory' we find in the Hebrew houses of tooth, that is, of elephant. Of these it is also written in the forty-fourth (45th) psalm: From the houses of ivory, out of which the daughters of kings have delighted you in your honour.