Amos 4

Hear this word, you fat cows, who are on the mountain of Samaria; who do calumny to the needy, and crush the poor, who say to your masters: Bring, and we will drink. The Lord God has sworn by his holy one that behold, days shall come upon you, and they shall lift you up on poles, and your remnants in boiling pots; and you shall go out through the openings, one against another, and you shall be cast into Armon, says the Lord. LXX: Hear this word, you cows of Basanitis, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor and trample the needy, who say to your masters: Give us, that we may drink. The Lord swears by his holy ones that behold, days shall come upon you, and they shall take you up in arms; and those who are with you, in pots, pestilent traders; and you shall be cast out naked, one facing another, and you shall be cast upon mount Remmam, says the Lord. In place of fat cows, the Seventy put of Basanitis; Aquila and Theodotion the Hebrew word itself, Basan; we, following the interpretation of Symmachus, who says αἱ Βόες εὔτροφοι, that is, fattened kine, have interpreted fat cows. Now he speaks to the princes of Israel and to all the nobles of the ten tribes, who gave themselves up to luxuries and plunder, that they should hear the word of God, and know that they are not ploughing oxen but fat cows from the herd, or such as are fed in the pastures of Bashan, which are places most fertile in grass; and by this he signifies that they were made ready not for agriculture but for sacrifice and for eating. You are fat cows on the mountain of Samaria, and you crush all the lowly, and you say to your masters, that is, to the shepherds, by whom we understand the kings: Give us and we will drink, that is, only give the command, and we will lay everything waste. But from the fact that he put: Give us and we will drink, and did not say: Give and we will eat, he signifies their drunkenness in wine and luxury, which overturn the state of the mind.

Now the word of the Lord which the cows of Bashan are commanded to hear is, according to the tropology we have begun, addressed to the heretics, who, serving the belly and gluttony, are rightly called very fat cows, or cows of ignominy; for this is what Bashan means, that is, αἰσχύνη; and if we wished to call it confusion, we should be interpreting Babylon rather than Bashan. These fat cows, or cows of ignominy and dry, for Bashan is understood in this sense too, are on the mountain of Samaria, to which it is also said in Hosea: Take away your calf, Samaria. And again in the same prophet: For your calf was a deceiver, Samaria; and they are on the mountain of Samaria for this reason, that they are always lifted up into pride and promise themselves lofty things. Samaria also means watch, not because they keep watch over the words of the Lord, but because they boast that they are the watchmen of his precepts. Who do calumny to the needy and crush the poor. By the needy and the poor understand the churchman, who, content with the simplicity of the truth, does not seek the furniture of the heretics, and the brilliance of eloquence, and the riches of arguments. These cows say to their masters: Bring and we will drink. Their masters we can call either the princes of perverse dogmas, such as Valentinus, and Marcion, and Arius, and Eunomius, or those who through many books strengthen what others have wickedly invented. To these the cows of Basanitis say: Bring us and we will drink. For unless those give, these have nothing to devour, or rather nothing to drink so as to be drunk. But that we may know that waters and cups signify teaching, the Lord speaks to the Samaritan woman: Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will not thirst for ever. Therefore whoever drinks of the waters of the Samaritan woman, that is, of the heretics, will always thirst and will not be able to cool the burning of a parched throat, as Isaiah cries aloud about this very thing: As one who is thirsty dreams that he drinks, and when he has risen he still thirsts, and his soul has hoped in vain; so shall all the nations be that fight against Jerusalem. For truly whoever drinks of the waters of the heretics, and fights against Jerusalem, the Church of God, drinks in his sleep, and his soul is mocked by empty images. And when he thinks himself satisfied, then he will have the beginning of thirst. Hence also it is said to the churchman: Drink waters from your own vessels, and your waters from the springs of the wells, and let them be for you alone.

And so the Lord swore by his holy one, whether by himself, or by the Son, or by the temple, or by everyone who is holy and is called the temple of God, that a day is to come not far off, nor after many ages, but already imminent: the day of captivity and distress, in which the cows are lifted up on poles, and their remnants in boiling pots, for which both in the Hebrew and in Aquila is written in cauldrons of little fish. For the poles too, which in Hebrew are called sannoth, Aquila interpreted shields, Symmachus and the LXX arms, Theodotion alone δόρατα; following him, we have interpreted poles or spears. This signifies that they are taken in battle, and carried and borne away by right of victory, while he nevertheless keeps the metaphor of the cows that he had begun, so that, as he had said that they were fat cows, he tells that their flesh is to be carried on poles or shields. And as a boiling cauldron wraps up small fish all together, so also the cows of Bashan are to be overwhelmed, without any order, by the miseries of captivity.

And the Lord your God swears by his holy one against the cows that are slaves to fattening and feasts, or he swears by his holy ones, that days shall come upon them, days of judgment and of punishments; so that, carrying them in their arms, they may put them, and those who are with them, into cauldrons, or carry them; and either the cows themselves are pestilent traders, or those who come to carry them; and they are cast out naked, seeing one another, and are cast upon mount Remmam, says the Lord God. For we must speak also according to the LXX, lest we seem to have set them out in vain. When the day of judgment and of vengeance comes against the heretics, then they will be carried away in arms, that is, with their own arms, with which they had fought against the Church, or, conquered by the armour of God and overcome by his fighters, they will be put into cauldrons, so that those who were formerly pestilent traders may be burnt and boiled through; for they traded to this end, that they might hand over to death those whom they had deceived. These are they of whom it is said: The sons of Eli, sons of pestilence, who sat in the chair of the pestilent. And when they have been boiled through and burnt, they will come out naked, having none of the things which they formerly presumed for themselves. And they will see their ignominy, and will be cast upon mount Remmam, which means loftiness, so that they may be crushed in their own pride. Some interpret Remmam as the vision of someone, that is, ὅρασίν τινὸς. For they were not able to see all things, but promised themselves the knowledge of some part, so that they are cast down in that which they believed they knew. According to the letter, we can understand that, when the days of captivity come upon the cows of Samaria, the enemies overcome them in battle and crush them with their arms, and drive them, overcome in the encounter, into fortified cities, which are compared to boiling pots; so that, as Jerusalem, holding its peoples shut in and besieged, is likened to a boiling pot full of flesh, so also the cities of Samaria are compared to boiling pots, which by famine and pestilence force the peoples shut in them to go out, and to go into captivity seeing one another, and to be transferred to Armon, the mountains of Armenia, which border on the Medes and the Persians.

And what follows: And you shall go out through the openings, one against another, can be explained thus: The way of captivity lies open to you, and when your cauldrons have been burnt out, you shall go out one against another; according to the idiom of the Hebrews, who, for what we say mutually or in turn, say woman and woman, that is, one against another. And you shall be cast, he says, into the places of Armenia which are called Armona. Finally Symmachus interpreted: And you shall be cast into Armenia, for which the Seventy translated mount Remmam, Aquila mount Armona, Theodotion mount Mona, the Fifth edition the lofty mount.

It is not enough to make a true solemnity of the heart. From this must follow good works. What value is there in partaking of his body and blood with our mouths if we oppose him with our wicked practices? And so Moses required that "unleavened bread with wild herbs" is to be eaten. One who eats bread without leaven does virtuous deeds without corrupting them with vainglory, and fulfills the precepts of mercy with no addition of sin, not perversely destroying what he properly accomplishes. In reproof of some who had mingled the leaven of sin with their good deeds, the Lord spoke by the voice of the prophet: "Come to Bethel and behave wickedly," and shortly after, "And make a sacrifice of praise of that which is unleavened." A person makes a sacrifice of praise of that which is unleavened when he makes ready a sacrifice for God of his misdeeds. Wild herbs are very bitter. The flesh of the lamb is to be eaten with wild herbs, so that when we receive our Redeemer's body we humble ourselves with weeping for our sins. Thus the bitterness of repentance purges our heart's stomach of all traces of a wicked life.

This we have said according to the Hebrew; let us pass on to the LXX translators, and discuss briefly what seems to us according to anagogy in each point; for the size of the books does not allow it, if we should wish to say both things in each edition. You entered into Bethel, that is, into the house of God, which is understood as the Church, and you acted impiously against the Lord, trampling on his precepts. And in Gilgal, which is interpreted revelation or wallowing-place, you multiplied impieties, claiming for yourselves the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, and while you are lifted up into pride, you have rolled down into the lowest depths of the mire. You also brought in your sacrifices in the morning, your tithes on the third day, transformed into an angel of light, and compressing the threefold understanding of the Scriptures — concerning which we have been commanded to write it threefold in our hearts — into the meaning of a single day. For we ought to understand holy Scripture first according to the letter, doing in ethics whatever is commanded; secondly according to allegory, that is, the spiritual understanding; thirdly according to the blessedness of things to come. But you, he says, despising the first and the second day, compose for yourselves certain spiritual fictions without a foundation, setting a roof on top of walls.

Come to Bethel, and act impiously; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; and bring your victims in the morning, your tithes on three days. And sacrifice praise from what is leavened, and call for voluntary offerings, and proclaim them. For so you have willed, sons of Israel, says the Lord God. Therefore I also have given you numbness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; and you have not returned to me, says the Lord. LXX: You entered into Bethel, and acted unjustly; in Gilgal you multiplied acting impiously, and you brought in your sacrifices in the morning, your tithes on the third day. And they read the law outside, and called upon confessions. Proclaim that the sons of Israel have loved these things, says the Lord God. And I will give you numbness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; and you have not returned to me, says the Lord. First let us lay the foundations of the history: O wretched Israel, captivity is already near you, already the Assyrian army is pressing upon you; do what you please, act impiously; commit fornication freely with idols, so that the more shameless you have been, the more just my sentence upon your torments may appear. Come, he says, into Bethel, in which you set up the golden calf, and act impiously against God. Come to Gilgal, the place of idolatry, of which I spoke through Hosea: All their wickedness is in Gilgal. And again in the same prophet: In vain were they sacrificing oxen in Gilgal. And when you have come to Gilgal: Multiply transgression. For whatever you do there is transgression against God, to whom you have preferred idols. And bring your victims in the morning, so that there may be no delay in crime. Your tithes on three days, or, as Symmachus translates, your tithes on the third day. The explanation of this passage seems to us to be this: in Leviticus it is commanded in the law that certain sacrifices are not to be kept over to the second day, and that others are not to remain to the third day, and that if they do remain they are unclean. The sense, therefore, is: Slaughter unclean victims every day, and offer defiled sacrifices, and sacrifice praise from what is leavened, which according to the precepts of Moses is not offered to God at all. For 'praise' Aquila translated εὐχαριστίαν, that is, thanksgiving, which in Hebrew is called thoda. And call, he says, for voluntary offerings, which the Hebrews call nadaboth, that is, spontaneous. A freewill sacrifice, moreover, belongs to rejoicing, and in Latin we can call it a banquet. And when you have done this, proclaim your impiety to all, so that you may be seen not only to have done it, but also to have taught others. These things I command, and I speak in the imperative mood, in order to satisfy your will, because so you have acted and so you have willed, sons of Israel, says the Lord God.

They had also mixed this leaven of sin into their good action, to whom the Lord spoke through the voice of the prophet in rebuke: "Come to Bethel and act impiously." And after a few words: "And sacrifice praise from what is leavened." For he offers praise from what is leavened who prepares a sacrifice to God from robbery.

Nor are the heretics, of whom and to whom this is said, content with this limit of impiety, but they read the law of God outside, withdrawing from the Church, and tried to join confessions and testimonies to each of their dogmas, which they feigned with a perverse heart; or they sacrificed from what is leavened, concerning which it is said in the Gospel: Beware of the leaven, that is, the teaching of the Pharisees. And they did these things not by error, but by design; not by a chance will, but with the fullest affection for their forebears.

Wherefore I too have given you numbness of teeth, as the LXX translated, whom we have followed in this place because of the simplicity of the word, or cleanness of teeth, as Aquila and Symmachus translated, so as to show by clean teeth the greatness of the famine. And I caused want of bread, not in one city, but in all your cities, nor in one place, but in all your places. And though I have done this, not punishing, but granting an occasion for repentance, not even so have you returned to me, says the Lord.

Hence the Lord threatens vengeance upon them: I will give, he says, you numbness of teeth, which in Greek is called γομφιασμός. For if anyone, according to Ezekiel, eats a sour grape, his teeth will be numbed; so that those who make ill use of the testimonies of the holy Scriptures, and eat them unripe and without their sweetness, lose the strength of their teeth, so that they cannot grind hard food and pass into the belly what would profit the whole body. This numbness of teeth and want of food I will give both in all your cities and in all your places, so that you may suffer a famine of the word of God, and of that bread which came down from heaven, and of which it is written in the psalms: Man ate the bread of angels. All of which I did, not out of cruelty and savagery, as the heretics slanderously claim, the ferocity of a stern judge, but that you might be converted to me, according to that which is written: In vain have I struck your sons; you have not received discipline.

If we cannot gather spiritual fruits through our own labor, it is just that we dispense with holy zeal and most fervent charity those which have been collected by others. Since the Lord threatens that, because of the sins of the people, "I will cause it to rain upon one city and cause it not to rain upon another city," we ought to strive with great care that we may not be that city upon which the rain of the Word of God either does not come at all or, at least, only late and rarely. Without any doubt, if the dew or rain of the Word of God is provided too late, the fruits of souls will be the same as earthly fruits which do not receive rain.

I also withheld the rain from you, when there were still three months left until the harvest. And I rained upon one city, and upon another city I did not rain. One part was rained upon, and the part upon which I did not rain withered. And two and three cities came to one city to drink water, and they were not satisfied; and you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: And I held back the rain from you three months before the vintage; and I will rain upon one city, and upon one city I will not rain. One part will be watered, and the part upon which I shall not rain will dry up. And two and three cities will gather into one city to drink water, and they will not be satisfied; and you have not returned to me, says the Lord. Not only did I give numbness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places, but I withheld the rain from you when there were still three months left until the harvest, the rain which is called the latter rain and is most necessary of all to the thirsty fields and ploughlands of Palestine, so that, when the grass was swelling toward the harvest and the wheat was bringing forth its ear, it withered from excessive drought. He means the spring season at the end of the month of April, from which three months remain until the wheat harvest: May, June, July. For 'harvest' the LXX, after their manner, translated 'vintage'; and if we accept this, it is altogether unusual and impossible throughout all the regions of the East. For we have never seen rains at the end of the month of June, or in the month of July, in these provinces, and above all in Judea. Indeed, in the books of Kings, rains were stirred up at Samuel's prayer in the days of summer and harvest as a great sign and portent. And it would have been superfluous now to threaten a drought in the month of July, in which he had never given rains. He withheld the rain, moreover, so that they should endure not only want of bread, but also the burning of thirst and a scarcity of drink. For in these places in which we now live, apart from small springs, all the waters are those of cisterns, and if the divine wrath holds back the rain, the danger of thirst is greater than that of famine, which Scripture records also happened in the days of the prophet Elijah for three years and six months. And lest they should perhaps think that this had befallen cities and peoples by the law of nature, and the course of the stars, and the changes of the seasons, he says that he rains upon one city and its fields, and holds back the rain from another, so that two and three cities go to another city, and yet are not satisfied with draughts of water. And though he has done these things, not as punishment, but as medicine, he rebukes those who persist in crime: and not even so did you return to me, says the Lord. The Lord also withholds, or holds back, the spiritual rains from the heretics, and all the dew of divine wisdom, and commands his clouds not to rain rain upon them three months before the harvest, or the vintage, so that they cannot attain to the fruit of the mystery of the Trinity. And just as this sun, which we see, completes its yearly course, until it returns to its former goal, in twelve months, each of which rolls on for thirty days; and the moon, which in Hebrew is called iare, in Greek μήνη, has in both languages given its name to the months from its own name, and is lit by the rays of the sun on the side on which it is near to it, receiving more or less light according to the variation of the times; so too the Church, adorned with the splendour of the true sun, fills up the number of the twelve apostles. Hence also the tribes in Israel are called twelve, and as a testimony of eternal memory twelve stones are taken from the bed of the Jordan, to be set up in the place of the second circumcision. The Lord, then, rains upon one city, the Church of the true confession, and upon another he does not rain, the one which is in the conventicles of the heretics. And while the one receives an everlasting rain, the other is dried up by a continual drought, so that those who thirst, compelled by want, may come to the city of the Lord, from which goes forth a most abundant fountain that waters the torrent of thorns. This is the fountain which says through Jeremiah: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold waters. This fountain, proceeding from one fountain, runs down in a threefold union; and for these fountains of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit the psalmist sighs after the manner of a thirsting stag, saying: As the stag longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. And when two and three cities have gone to the one city in which the waters of hope, faith and charity abound, they will not be satisfied, because they have come to seek the divine grace not by will, but by necessity.

I struck you with scorching wind and with mildew. The multitude of your gardens and of your vineyards, your olive groves and your fig groves, the caterpillar devoured, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I struck you with burning heat and with mildew. You multiplied your gardens, your vineyards, and your figs, and your olive groves the caterpillar devoured, and not even so were you converted to me, says the Lord. Not only did I do the former things in order to correct you, but whatever was left over from the drought I struck with scorching wind and with mildew. For 'scorching wind' Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated ἀνεμοφθορίαν; the Seventy πύρωσιν, which we can call burning. 'Mildew', moreover, all of them likewise translated ἴκτερον, except Theodotion, who alone translated ὠχρίασιν, which signifies pallor. And when, in defiance of the wrath of the Lord, they multiplied gardens and vineyards and fig groves and olive groves, the caterpillar consumed everything, of which more is said in Joel. And not even through blows and the weight of evils were they willing to come to the Lord. By this saying let the heretics be confounded, who interpret as cruelty the discipline and, so to speak, the medicine of the Creator. The Lord, moreover, strikes the heretics spiritually with that burning of which Paul the Apostle speaks: It is better, he says, to marry than to burn. And the prince of the apostles: Beloved, do not be as strangers in the burning which has come upon you for a trial. And with mildew, which, when the bile is spread abroad, changes the redness of the blood into pallor and allows nothing in the body to be sound, so much so that even the sweetest honey seems bitter. And those who once heard in the Church: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet, and themselves said: How sweet are your words to my throat, above honey to my mouth. Let them be called παραπικραίνοντες (embitterers), and let their waters and rains not drip sweetness, nor be from the land of promise, which we read is flowing with milk and honey, but let them be called mara, that is, bitterness. These have multiplied gardens for themselves, into which Naboth was willing to die rather than have his vineyard changed. He who, after all, is weak, let him eat herbs. And because the heretics, always swelling with pride and falling into the judgment of the devil, promise great things to themselves, and feign images of good things, in order to mix poisons with honey, they also boast that they have vineyards and olive groves and fig groves; but their vine is the vine of Sodom; their olive groves are not of good olives, but of wild olives, which the Apostle commands to be grafted onto the roots of good olives. Their fig groves too are such as to fill a basket with the worst figs, which Jeremiah testifies cannot be eaten for their bitterness. When the Lord comes to these, he curses them with an everlasting drought, so that they may never bear fruit, lest by the greenness of their leaves they deceive those who pass by. And so that we may understand that the gardens and vineyards and olive groves and fig groves of the heretics are to be taken in the bad sense, he added 'your' to each word, to show that they belong not to God, but to the heretics: Your gardens, your vineyards, your olive groves and your fig groves, all of which the caterpillar has laid waste, the last of all punishments; for it does not fly away like the locust, and, running here and there, leave things half-eaten, but stays on the crops that are to perish, and with slow movement and sluggish bites consumes everything. And though they suffered these things, not even so were they willing to return to the Lord.

I sent death upon you in the way of Egypt, I struck your young men with the sword, even to the captivity of your horses. And I made the stench of your camps rise into your nostrils, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I sent forth death upon you in the way of Egypt, and I killed your young men with the sword, together with the captivity of your horses. And I brought out your camps in fire in my wrath, and not even so did you return to me, says the Lord. Israel is instructed by every kind of scourge and torment; hence also, at the time when they were asking help from the Egyptians, death is sent upon them, and their young men are struck with the sword, and the horses which they had multiplied for themselves against the precept of God a savage captivity shuts in, so that the stench of the camps and the foulness of a dying army fill the nostrils of the living. And though he did these things too, in order to rebuke the offenders and amend the erring, not even so did they return to him, says the Lord. He sends death in the way of Egypt not only at that time, but daily, so that whoever has trodden the Egyptian path may, as he dies, hear the Apostle teaching: For in that I died, I died to sin; but in that I live, I live to God. And in another place: If we have died with Christ, we shall also live together with him. And again: I always carry about the mortification of Jesus in my body. And once more: But I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me. By this death the Lord wishes to give us life, so that, dying to sin, we may live to God. And we die to sin when we mortify our members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry and the rest. We read in Isaiah, at least according to the Seventy translators — otherwise the Hebrew has it differently —: I sent death upon Jacob, and it came upon Israel. Jacob is the name of the body being born; Israel, a name of blessing. For because he wrestled all night and conquered in the struggle, and at the rising of the morning star could say with the Apostle: The night is far spent, the day has drawn near, for this reason he received the name Israel, of one seeing God. Death, therefore, is first sent upon Jacob, so that we may mortify our members which are upon the earth, and through the mortification of the bodily members may come to the death of Israel, so that all the incitements of the passions in us may die. God strikes whatever is strong in evil and is lifted up in a perverse youth, lest it reach old age, and he hands the horses over to captivity, lest they slip down the precipices of hell; and he makes the stench of their camps rise into their nostrils, so that they may recognize their sins and perceive that they stink, and say with David: My scars have putrefied and are corrupted because of my folly. And though he did these things with the desire of one who heals, not even so did they return to him, says the Lord.

See how God, through His love of goodness, seeks repentance; and by means of the plan He pursues of threatening silently, shows His own love for man. "I will avert," He says, "My face from them, and show what shall happen to them." For where the face of the Lord looks, there is peace and rejoicing; but where it is averted, there is the introduction of evil.

In this he was probably suggesting to us the eventual sacking that happened in the time of Jeremiah by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, who took the whole of Judea, set fire even to Jerusalem itself and its neighboring cities and towns, pulled down the divine Temple, took captive the survivors from the fighting, and as a glorious conqueror went back home with the captives, who finally returned to Judea at the completion of the period of 70 years.

I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became like a brand snatched from the burning, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. LXX: I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became like a brand plucked out of the fire, and not even so were you converted to me, says the Lord. It is the last remedy, both for the ten tribes and for the heretics and for all sinners, that, after he has sent death in the way of Egypt, and struck their young men with the sword, and consumed their horses, and made the stench of their camps rise into their nostrils, and still they have not returned to him, he should overthrow them as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; and that, when they have been overthrown because of the likeness of their crimes to those of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the divine fire has burned up the worst buildings in them, they themselves should be delivered like a brand snatched from the burning. And just as Lot, when Sodom perished, was saved, losing his substance and a part of his body, which we understand to be his wife, so these, all losing the riches of Sodom, may escape naked, according to what we read in the Apostle: If anyone's work which he has built upon it remains, he will receive a reward; but if anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, yet he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. He, then, who is saved through fire is snatched like a brand from the burning. And to men of this kind, whom the Savior addressed in the Gospel, rebuking them: If you were sons of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham, John the Baptist says: Brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear, therefore, fruit worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham? Therefore both Israel and all the heretics, because they had the works of Sodom and Gomorrah, are overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah, so that they may be delivered like a brand snatched from the burning. And this is what we read in the prophet: Sodom shall be restored to its former state, so that he who by his own vice is among the Sodomites may, after the works of Sodom have burned up in him, be restored to his former state.

They [who refuse to repent] do not deserve to be saved by the Lord's visitation or to be healed by temporal afflictions. They are like those "who in despair have handed themselves over to lasciviousness in the working of every error, unto uncleanness." In their hardness of heart and with their frequent habit of sinning, they are beyond the purgation of this very brief age and the punishment of the present life. The divine Word reproves them too through the prophet: "I have destroyed you as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and you have become like a firebrand snatched from the fire, and not even thus have you returned to me, says the Lord."

And that there might not remain any doubt that he [God the Son] had been the guest of Abraham, it is written regarding the destruction of the Sodomites that "the Lord poured down on Sodom and Gomorrah fire and sulfur from the Lord out of heaven." In fact, the prophet also says in the person of God, "I destroyed you as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah." The Lord, therefore, destroyed Sodom; that is, God destroyed Sodom. In the destruction of the Sodomites, however, it was the Lord who rained fire from the Lord. This Lord was the God seen by Abraham. This God is Abraham's guest and was undoubtedly seen because he was touched. Now, since the Father, inasmuch as he is invisible, was assuredly not seen at that time, he who was seen and who was hospitably received and taken in was he who was willing to be seen and touched. This one then is the Son of God, "the Lord, who rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and sulfur from the Lord." But he is the Word of God, and the "Word" of God "was made flesh and dwelt among us." This one then is Christ. Therefore it was not the Father who was the guest of Abraham but Christ. Nor was it the Father who was seen but the Son; therefore it was Christ who was seen. Consequently Christ is both Lord and God, who could be seen by Abraham only because he was God, the Word, begotten of God the Father before Abraham even existed.

Since initial measures did not suffice, He proceeded to an overthrow similar to the Sodomites; this was the kind of thing, as he said, that was inflicted on them by divine wrath. Therefore prepare to call upon your God, O Israel: Since he did not benefit from being chastised, let him prepare himself for an encounter with God, accepting repentance and adopting a lifestyle calculated to appease Him.

I gave numbness to your teeth, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. I withheld the rain from you, and I rained upon one city, and upon another I did not rain, and two and three cities came to one to drink water, and they were not satisfied, and not even so did you return to me, says the Lord. I struck you with scorching wind, and with mildew your gardens and vineyards and olive groves and fig groves, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. I sent death upon you in the way of Egypt, and I struck your young men with the sword, and I made the stench of your camps rise into your nostrils, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. I overthrew you as the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became as a brand snatched from the burning, and you did not return to me, says the Lord. Therefore I will do these things to you, O Israel, so that you who have despised what is past may at least be corrected by what I am about to bring upon you. And when he has said, I will do these things to you, he is silent about what he is going to do, so that while Israel hangs uncertain over each kind of punishment — which are the more terrible for this reason, that men suspect them all —, he may repent, lest God bring on what he threatens. But after I have done to you what I solemnly declare I will do, prepare to call upon the Lord your God. Everyone, after all, who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Or: prepare to meet your God, so that you may receive with all eagerness the Lord who comes to you.

But if we read according to Symmachus and Aquila: These things I will do to you, Israel, afterwards, and when I have done these things to you, prepare to oppose your God Israel, it is to be understood thus: In order to correct you I did the things which the preceding discourse describes; and because you were unwilling to return to me, I will do to you the things that are contained in my secret counsel. You killed the servants whom I had sent to you; last of all I will send my Son; but you, according to your custom, by which you have always resisted the will of God, prepare yourself to contradict and oppose your God, according to that which is written: Behold, this one is set for the fall and for the rising again of many, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And he says this not to command what Israel ought to do, but to foretell what he will do of his own accord, as if rebuking and reproving him, so that, corrected, he may at least not do what has been foretold.

Therefore I will do these things to you, Israel; but after I have done these things to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel; for behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and announces to man his speech, who makes the morning mist, and treads upon the heights of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is his name. LXX: Therefore thus will I do to you, Israel; nevertheless, because I will do thus to you, prepare to call upon your God, Israel. For behold, he who establishes the thunder, and creates the spirit, and announces to men his Christ, making the morning and the mist, and ascending upon the heights of the earth, the Lord God Almighty is his name. Where we translated 'after', in the Hebrew is written eceb, and Aquila translated ὕστερον, that is, afterwards, and Theodotion 'at the last', and the Seventy 'nevertheless'; in the Hebrew it can be read thus: Therefore I will do these things to you, Israel, afterwards, that is, a long time after, and in the last ages, so that the verse begins again from another beginning: And since I am about to do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel. And again, in the place where the Seventy translated: Prepare to call upon your God, and we, following Theodotion, have put: Prepare to meet your God, Symmachus and the Fifth edition translated: Prepare to oppose your God, which in Hebrew is said hechin lacerath Eloiah. For 'mountains' also, which in Hebrew are called arim, the Seventy alone rendered βροντήν, that is, thunder. And why they said 'spirit' and we 'wind', which in Hebrew is called rua, the reason is plain: because by this word both wind and spirit are named. And as for what follows: Announcing to man his speech, while all translate it as we have rendered it, the Seventy alone translated: Announcing to men his Christ, deceived by the likeness and ambiguity of the word. For if we read 'his Christ', which in Hebrew is said Messio, it is written with these letters, mem, sin, iod, heth, and uau, which is what the LXX supposed. But if it is as in the Hebrew, according to Aquila τήν ὁμιλίαν αὐτοῦ, according to Symmachus τὸ φώνημα αὐτοῦ, according to Theodotion τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ, according to the Fifth edition τήν ἀδολεσχίαν αὐτοῦ, all of which they translate as meaning that it is 'his speech', it will be written with these letters, mem, he, which is read ma, that is, 'that' or 'what'. Then sin, iod, heth, which we read sia, that is, speech. And the O, which is written with the single letter uau, signifies αὐτοῦ, that is, 'his'; and all mixed together it is read masio, having, compared with the word above, one letter more, he, the second letter. We have spoken of the variety of interpretation, which will be tiresome to the careless and welcome to the studious; now let us pass on to the sense of what is written.

And thus even the good movement of the free-will, whereby anyone is prepared for receiving the gift of grace is an act of the free-will moved by God. And thus man is said to prepare himself, according to Proverbs 16:1: "It is the part of man to prepare the soul"; yet it is principally from God, Who moves the free-will. Hence it is said that man's will is prepared by God, and that man's steps are guided by God.

Nor does it escape my notice that heretics have been prone to object that the Holy Spirit appears to be a creature, because many of them use as an argument for establishing their impiety that passage of Amos, where he spoke of the blowing of the wind, as the words of the prophet made clear. For you read thus: "Behold, I am he that establishes the thunder and creates the wind and declare unto man his Christ, that make light and mist, and ascend upon high places, the Lord God Almighty is his name."

But if any one thinks that the word of the prophet is to be explained with reference to the Holy Spirit, because it is said, "declaring unto men his Christ," he will explain it more easily of the Lord's Sun of justice. For if it troubles you that he said Spirit, and therefore you think that this cannot well be explained of the mystery of the taking of human nature, read on in the Scriptures, and you will find that all agrees most excellently with Christ. Of [Christ] it is thoroughly fitting to think that he established the thunders by his coming, that is, the force and sound of the heavenly Scriptures, by the thunder, as it were, of which our minds are struck with astonishment, so that we learn to be afraid and pay respect to the heavenly oracles.

This is Amos the third in order, who also was privileged to tell of the coming of the Lord Christ and in these words: Lo! I am he that confirms the thunder and that creates the wind and that announces to men his Anointed.

When Christ came, the people of the old covenant denied him, but the devils confessed him. His forefather David was not ignorant of him when he said, "I will place a lamp for my anointed." Some have interpreted "lamp" as the splendor of prophecy; others have understood by the lamp the flesh he assumed of the Virgin, according to the words of the apostle: "But we carry this treasure in vessels of clay." The prophet was not ignorant of him when he said, "And declaring his Christ to men." Moses also knew him, and Isaiah and Jeremiah as well. None of the prophets was ignorant of him. Even the devils acknowledged him, for he rebuked them, and Scripture adds, "Because they knew that he was the Christ."

He it is who establishes the thunder, or makes firm the mountains, at whose voice the hinges of the heavens and the foundations of the earth are shaken. He it is who creates the spirit, which in this place we understand not as the Holy Spirit, as the heretics suppose, but as the wind, or the spirit of man, because no one knows what is in a man except the spirit which is in him; and the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspeakable groanings. Or certainly by 'spirit' we ought to understand the soul, according to that which is written: You will take away their spirit, and they will fail, and they will return to their dust. And: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, and saying this he breathed his last. And when he has created the spirit, he announces to men his own speech, or announces to man that man's speech, he who knows the secrets of the thoughts, and understands what the hidden mind ponders in silent thought, according to what we read in Jeremiah according to the Hebrew: The heart of all is perverse and unsearchable; who shall know it? I the Lord search the heart and test the reins. Which Scripture also attests in the hundred and thirty-eighth (139th) psalm: Your eyes saw my imperfect being. And the sense is: Before I was made, before I was shaped into limbs, while I was still contained in the seed, your eyes saw me. And Jeremiah hears from the Lord: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you, and I set you as a prophet among the nations. And the evangelist: But Jesus, seeing their thoughts. But if we read: Announcing to man his speech, it is to be taken according to what was said above, where he says: The Lord God will not do a thing unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets. And he who announces the thoughts of man and his speech, or his own, is the one who makes the dawn and the daybreak, and fills all things with clouds, and treads upon the heights of the lands, whose name is the Lord God Almighty. In place of this one reads in the Seventy: And announcing to men his Christ; on this pretext the heretics want the Holy Spirit to be created, from the order that follows: Creating the spirit, and announcing to men his Christ, so that the one is created and the other is announced among the peoples. To them we shall reply according to their own sense and the common edition: He who is the creator of all things, and establishes the thunder, or fashions the mountains, consequently brings the winds out of his treasuries, and, as the founder of the universe, promises his Son Christ to men. But after Christ has been announced, then the light of truth is opened to us, not to perfection, because now we see in part and know in part, and contemplate the things that are to come through a mirror and an image. Hence there follows: Making the morning and the mist, and ascending upon the heights of the earth. For the Lord is high in the high places, and he who is high does not dwell in low things; but the creator of the mountains ascends upon the mountains, in those who have their citizenship in the heavens, and, walking in the flesh, do not live according to the flesh but according to the spirit.