Amos 6

Now that Samaria is to be understood of the heresies is proved both in the prophet Hosea and in many other places, and especially by that testimony: Woe to those who despise Zion and who trust in the mountain of Samaria; they have gathered as a vintage the chiefs of the nations; for all heretics despise 'Sion' [Zion], which means 'watchtower' and is referred to the Church, and they trust in the mountain of Samaria, namely in the pride of perverse doctrines which they think sublime, and through these frauds of preaching they gather as a vintage and lay waste the chiefs of the nations, so that, by the marvel of their doctrines, they draw all the powerful among the Gentiles into heretical error.

Woe to you who are wealthy in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria; you nobles, heads of the peoples, entering with pomp the house of Israel. LXX: Woe to those who despise Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria; they have gathered the vintage of the firstfruits of the nations, and have gone in for themselves. To Zion, as we said above, and to the mountain of Samaria, that is, to the two tribes, which were called Judah, and to the ten, which were called by the name of Israel, the prophet's word is directed; and especially to those who in each people are nobles and princes, and give themselves to delights after the example of that rich man clothed in purple, who rejoiced in feasting and was lifted up into such pride that he did not deign to look at Lazarus, full of sores, before his door, and did not grant him even what was going to be wasted from his table. These are the heads of the peoples, who trust in riches, and are wealthy in Zion, and have confidence in the mountain of Samaria, and enter with pomp the house of Israel, so that the body shows the swelling of the mind, and they seem like the litters carried in processions. But according to the laws of tropology and the LXX translators, Zion is referred to the Church, of which we read it written: You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion. But the mountain of Samaria, on account of the pride and boasting in the keeping of God's commandments, is understood of the heretics, who despise the Church, because God chose the weak things of the world, to confound the strong, and the foolish things, to destroy the wisdom of the wise and reject the understanding of the prudent. These have gathered the vintage of the firstfruits of the nations, so that under the Christian name they might bring them into their own winepresses, where the grape is not trodden but ruined, where not new wine is pressed out but poison. And they have gone in for themselves. He said well, for themselves; for they did not go in in the Lord, but went in for themselves. Otherwise, as regards God they have rather gone out, while they withdraw from the Church. And what follows, house of Israel, according to the Seventy is to be read at the beginning of the following section; according to the Hebrews, at the end of this one, which we have expounded.

Jesus' miracle was performed in the district of Samaria, to which country also belonged one of the lepers. Samaria, however, had revolted from Israel, carrying with it the disaffected nine tribes, which having been alienated by the prophet Ahijah, Jeroboam settled in Samaria. Besides, the Samaritans were always pleased with the mountains and the wells of their ancestors. Thus, in the Gospel of John, the woman of Samaria, when conversing with the Lord at the well, says, "No doubt yours are greater," and again, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Accordingly, he who said "woe unto them that trust in the mountain of Samaria," promising now to restore that very region, purposely requests the men "to go and show themselves to the priests," because these were to be found only there where the temple was, submitting the Samaritan to the Jew, inasmuch as "salvation was of the Jews," whether to the Israelite or the Samaritan.

All that we have said according to the truth of the history, let us now transfer, according to the LXX translators, to the cloud of allegory. House of Israel, you who have withdrawn from me, who trust in the mountain of Samaria, who have gathered the vintage of the firstfruits of the nations, pass over and see, and go on to the very many walls, for this is what Hamath Rabba means; and from there go gently down into the winepress of those who fall while drinking: for this is what Gath and the Philistines signify. And contemplate everything, and especially the best kingdoms, or the best cities out of all the kingdoms; and consider whether their borders are more than yours. For if we wish to treat it in the mind and to examine the philosophy of all the nations, of the Egyptians, the Indians and the Persians, we shall find their borders narrower than the borders of the holy Scriptures: Into all indeed the earth their sound has gone out, and their words to the ends of the world.

Pass over to Calneh, and see, and go from there to Hamath the great, and go down to Gath of the Philistines, and to all the best kingdoms of these, whether their border is wider than your border. You who are set apart for the evil day, and draw near to the throne of iniquity, who sleep on beds of ivory, and wanton on your couches, who eat the lamb from the flock, and calves from the midst of the herd, who sing to the sound of the psaltery: Like David they thought they had instruments of song, drinking wine in bowls, and they are anointed with the best ointment, and they suffered nothing over the breaking of Joseph. LXX: House of Israel, pass over, all of you, and see, into Calneh, and pass on from there into Hamath Rabba, and go down into Gath of the foreigners, the best of all these kingdoms, whether their borders are larger than your borders, you who come to the evil day, who draw near and touch false sabbaths, who sleep on beds of ivory, and abound in delights on your couches, and eat kids from the flocks and suckling calves from the midst of the herds, who clap to the sound of the instruments; they thought them as things standing, and not as things fleeing; who drink strained wine, and are anointed with the first ointments, and suffered nothing over the breaking of Joseph. Pass over, all of you, to Calneh, which is now called Ctesiphon, and pass over, all of you. Who are these all? Surely those of whom he had spoken above: Nobles, heads of the peoples, and you who are wealthy in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria. You therefore, pass over into the city of Persia, and observe carefully, and from there go on to Hamath the great, which is now named Antioch. And he calls it great to distinguish it from the lesser Hamath, which is called Epiphania. Hence even to this day, for those going to Mesopotamia, the first stopping-place is called Emmas, a corrupted word indeed, but one keeping traces of the former name; its region is called Riblah, in which, in the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, the sons of Zedekiah king of Judea were killed, and his eyes were blinded. And go down, he says, to Gath of the Philistines. You who dwell on mount Zion and on the mountain of Samaria, go down to the Philistines, who live in the plains, and to all the best kingdoms of these, which lie under different cities, Gaza and Ashkelon, Azotus, Ekron and Gath, and see whether their border is wider than your border, whether you or they hold the larger provinces; you, I say, you of the people of Israel, who are set apart for the evil day, namely for the day of captivity, and draw near to the throne of iniquity, going to the unjust judge, the Babylonian king.

Those to whom he had said above: House of Israel, pass over, all of you, and see, from what sort of vices they are bidden to pass over to better things, the following words describe: Who come to the evil day, preparing for themselves by their own vice an evil day; not that any day is evil, but that each one prepares evil for himself, according to what we read in Ecclesiastes: Do not say, The former days were better for me than these, for you do not ask about this in wisdom; for it is foolish to lay it on the times, since it is in our power to make for ourselves either a good day or an evil one. These draw near to and touch false sabbaths. For just as there is what is called circumcision of the flesh and circumcision of the heart, and there are Jews openly and in secret, of whom the one kind is rejected and the other approved, so there are sabbaths of the Lord that are holy and rest upon truth, and others that are not holy and are false, which follow the idleness of the letter that kills.

And what follows, You who sleep upon beds of ivory, we can interpret thus: he who is an athlete of the Lord, and is trained for wrestling, and prepares himself against the adverse powers, sleeps on the bare ground, imitating Jacob; and he puts at his head the stone which the builders rejected, and which has become the head of the corner. But those who give themselves to delights and luxury, and do everything for the sake of the belly, sleep on beds made of the ivory of a dead animal, and cling to unclean bones; and because vices seem beautiful and delight with their present sheen, they rest on their couches and are weighed down by the heaviest sleep. These do not eat solid and athletic food, by which the strength of wrestlers is reinforced, but soft and tender food, and of the left-hand side, such as are kids from the flocks and fattened calves, very tender, indeed still fed on milk, for this is what μοσχάρια γαλαθηνὰ means.

Though you are about to suffer this, you now sleep on beds of ivory and wanton on soft couches, so as to couple lust with sleep. You eat not to drive away hunger and to sustain the human body, but for delights and luxury, so that whatever is tender and fat in the flocks and in the herds you make ready for your gullet; for you the lust of the genitals and of the throat, and a paunch seething with food, are not enough unless you soothe your ears with the songs of pipes and psaltery and lyre, so that what David did for the worship of God, devising the orders of the Levites and the varieties of instruments, you turn to pleasure and luxury.

Let us not be careless, dearly beloved, in dealing with matters concerning our salvation; recognizing instead the troubles that could come from that evil source, let us avoid the harm it produces. After all, we are warned against intemperance not only in the new dispensation by its greater attention to right thinking, its more frequent struggles and greater effort, its many rewards and ineffable consolations. Not even people living under the old law were permitted to indulge themselves in that way, even though they were sitting in the dark dependent upon tapers and were brought forward gradually into the light, like children being weaned off milk. Lest you think I am idly finding fault with intemperance in what I say, listen to what the prophet says: "Woe to those who fall on evil days in sleeping on beds of ivory, luxuriating on their couches, living on a diet of goats picked from the flocks and suckling calves from the herds, and drinking strained wines, anointed with precious unguents—like men treating this as a lasting city, and not seeking one to come." Do you see the heavy accusation the prophet levels against intemperance in charging the Jews with these faults of stupidity, sensuality and daily gluttony? I mean, note the accuracy of the words: after attacking their gluttony and their drinking to excess, he added, "like men treating this as a lasting city, and not seeking one to come," all but stating that their satisfaction got as far as lips and palate, and they went on to nothing better. Pleasure however, is brief and fleeting, whereas pain never lets up and has no end. The truth of this comes from experience, the true meaning of lasting realities—"like men treating this as a lasting city"—and fleeting things—"not seeking one to come"—that is, not lasting for a moment.

Since therefore the Jews, separating themselves from worldly things, devoted not themselves to spiritual things, to temperance, and gentleness, and hearing the divine word, but did the very opposite, feasting, drinking, indulging in excess and luxury; on this account it is, that the prophet condemns them. For he says, "Woe to them that come to an evil day," and, in continuation, "that make a Sabbath of lies." He shows by that which follows how their Sabbath became unprofitable. How then did they make it unprofitable? By their working wickedness, living in luxury, drinking, and doing numberless other base and vile acts. And that this charge is true, hear what follows; for he intimates that which I am affirming, by that which he immediately adds, saying: "That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; that drink refined wine, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments," (Amos vi. 4, 6.)

Thou didst receive the Sabbath that thou mightest purify thy soul from wickedness; but thou hast increased wickedness. For what can be worse than this effeminacy—this "sleeping upon beds of ivory?" The other sins, as drinking, covetousness, or prodigality, may be accompanied with some small amount of pleasure; but the sleeping on beds of ivory, what pleasure is there in it? Is more refreshing or sweeter sleep brought to us by the beauty of the couch? Nay, rather this beauty is more burdensome and more troublesome to us, if we reflect upon the matter. For whenever thou dost consider that while thou art sleeping on an ivory couch, another fellow-creature is not even able to enjoy the certainty of having bread to eat, will not conscience condemn thee and rise up to accuse this wrong?

They also clap with their hands to the voice and sound of the instruments, so that all their works look for pleasure, and they do nothing except what they provide for the belly and for lust. Nor let the prudent reader at once object to us this, and how it is written: Let the rivers clap with their hands, and: All nations, clap your hands, and: Shout for joy to God our helper. For there they are said to clap not to the sound of instruments, but to have one accord in the praise of God. After the voice of the instruments he added: They thought them as things standing, and not as things fleeing. For the things of the world and all bodies, according to Epicurus, flow and pass away moment by moment, and nothing stands firm in its own state, but all things either grow or decrease, and, in the manner of the waters of torrents, slide headlong. Hence we also read in secular literature: "But meanwhile time flies, flies beyond recall." And in another place: "Alas, Postumus, Postumus, the fleeting years slip by." For nothing is more fleeting than the world and the things of the world. While we hold them we lose them, and through infancy, boyhood, youth, and manhood, and the age that grows heavy, and ripe age, and the last years of old age, the seven stages into which Philo divides human life, we are changed, and we run, and unawares we arrive at the boundaries of death.

This most beautiful sense, in which it is said: They thought them as things standing, and not as things fleeing, is not found in the Hebrew, but in its place is written: Like David they thought they had instruments of song. Hence it seems to me to have been added by the translators, who in the description of luxury brought forth a maxim of this kind against vices and pleasures, so that they did not translate what was written, but added from their own what seemed good to them, or rather changed it.

Just as it is not proper to provide ourselves with worldly trappings like a silver vessel, or a curtain edged with purple, or a downy couch, or transparent draperies, so we act unfittingly in contriving menus that deviate in any important way from our usual diet. That we should run about searching for anything not demanded by real necessity but calculated to provide a wretched delight and ruinous vainglory is not only shameful and out of keeping with our avowed purpose; it also causes harm of no mean gravity when they who spend their lives in sensual gratification and measure happiness in terms of pleasure for the appetite see us also taken up with the same preoccupations that keep them enthralled. If, indeed, sensual pleasure is evil and to be avoided, we should on no occasion indulge in it, for nothing that is condemned can at any time be beneficial. They who live riotously and are anointed with the best ointments and drink filtered wine come under the denunciation of Scripture. Because she lives in pleasure, the widow is dead while she is living. The rich man is debarred from paradise because he lived in luxury upon earth. What then have we to do with costly appointments? Has a guest arrived? If he is a brother and follows a way of life aiming at the same objective as ours, he will recognize the fare we provide as properly his own. What he has left at home, he will find with us. Suppose he is weary from his journey. We then provide as much extra nourishment as is required to relieve his weariness.

And if I may speak of those who have undertaken the direction of souls, how many there are today who reveal their lack of the requisite qualities! Only with a feeling of pain can I speak of this subject at all -- how they melt down in the furnace of their covetousness the insults endured by Christ, the spittle, the scourging, the nails, the lance, the cross, his death itself, and squander them in the pursuit of shameful gain. The very price of the world's redemption is bundled into their purses; and only in this do they differ from Judas Iscariot, that he reckoned the total value of these things at a paltry sum of money, while they, with a more ravening greed, demand riches beyond counting. They display an insatiable passion for gains that they constantly fear to lose, and bewail after they have lost. In this love of money they find their rest, provided they are ever free from the anxiety of securing, or even further increasing, what they have acquired. Neither the peril of souls nor their salvation gives them any concern. They are certainly devoid of the maternal instinct. Grown fat, gross, bloated to excess on the heritage of the crucified Christ, "about the ruin of Joseph they do not care at all."

And you drink wine in bowls, not to sate thirst but to overwhelm the mind. And you are anointed, not with the purest oil to soothe the labours of the body, but with the most costly ointments. And while you abound in these delights, if you see any of the people perishing, you are moved by no pity over their slaughter, but you despise them as brute animals and as beasts perishing in their own gore. This same sense the prophet Ezekiel also sets down under the example of the shepherds: Who eat the milk of the sheep, and are clothed with the wool, and devour whatever is choicest, and do not heal the wounded, do not bind up the broken, do not seek the perishing.

And what follows, Who drink strained wine, can properly be referred to the heretics, who approve some Scriptures and reject others, wishing to drink strained wines, although in the holy Scriptures nothing is muddy and miry, but all is most pure, from the water above. These are anointed with the first ointments who, not having the perfumer's art, without any knowledge of the Scriptures, and of the traditions and teaching of the apostles, claim for themselves the dignity of the priesthood, and say that they are the anointed of the Lord, and contaminate the purest oil with the dregs of their own understanding. And while they do these things to the slaughter of those whom they have deceived, they are tormented by no grief, but rejoice in the deaths of others and take delight in the blood of the wretched.

There is nothing else to see happening everywhere in the world except disorder, unheralded war, unrestrained wrath and savagery exceeding all barbaric inhumanity, and there is no one suffering "by the collapse of Joseph." We bite and we devour one another, and then we have been destroyed by one another, providing pleasure to the enemies of piety.

Therefore now they shall migrate at the head of those who migrate, and the faction of the wanton shall be taken away. The Lord God has sworn by his soul; says the Lord God of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver up the city with its inhabitants. And if ten men remain in one house, they too shall die; and his kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn him, to carry the bones out of the house, and he shall say to the one who is in the inner rooms of the house: Is anyone still with you? And he will answer: It is the end; and he will say to him: Be silent, and do not remember the name of the Lord. LXX: Therefore now they shall be captives from the beginning of the mighty, and the neighing of horses shall be taken away from Ephraim; for the Lord has sworn by himself, says the Lord God of powers: For I will abominate all the insolence of Jacob, and I hate his regions, and I will take away the city with all its inhabitants. And it shall be, if ten men remain in one house, and they die; and his household shall take them up, and shall try to carry their bones out of the house; and they shall say to those who are over the house: Is anyone still with you? And he will say: By no means; and he will say: Be silent, do not name the name of the Lord. For the reasons above which the prophetic word describes — of those who sleep on beds of ivory, and wanton on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the herd, and sing to the sound of the psaltery, and drink in bowls, and are anointed with the best ointment, and moreover suffer nothing over the breaking of his people, which was begotten of the stock of Joseph — the Lord now threatens and says: Because they have done this and this, now they shall migrate at the head of those who migrate. And the sense is: The punishment is by no means put off into the future, nor is it prophesied of ages long after; what now presses upon them, what is now about to come, my word foretells: that they will go at the beginning of those who migrate, namely the princes and the powerful, to whom he had said above: Hear this word, you fat cows, who are on the mountain of Samaria. And again: Woe to you who are wealthy in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria; you nobles, heads of the peoples, entering with pomp the house of Israel. You who are first in riches will be the first to bear the yoke of captivity, according to what is written in Ezekiel: Begin from my sanctuary. Not from the saints, as most people think, but from the overthrow of the temple, which was holy. The mighty indeed shall suffer torments mightily, and from him to whom more is entrusted, more will be required. And there shall be taken away, he says, the faction of the wanton, who had one accord in seizing pleasures, and practised revels and shared feasts; these will be taken away together, so that those whose luxury was one may have one punishment. For this the LXX translated, the neighing of the horse shall be taken away from Ephraim, which is not found in the Hebrew, and will be discussed at length by us when we begin to weave the tropology.

We have drawn the slender lines of the history; now let us set our hand to the allegory. The princes of the heretics, who for the sake of their delights devoured my people and suffered nothing over the breaking of Joseph, will be the first to be led to punishment, and the neighing of the horse will be taken away from Ephraim, which in the holy Scriptures is taken in two ways: either for the pride and power of those who neigh, or for the greatness of lust. For pride and the conspiracy of the wicked, as there: Some in chariots, and some in horses, and: A horse is deceitful for safety. And the kings of Israel are commanded not to multiply horses for themselves. And in the book of Job the voice of the horse is compared to the blast of the trumpet. In Zechariah too we read, what is confirmed by the testimony of the Gospel and is referred to the presence of the Savior: Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you, just and a Savior, himself meek, and mounting upon a she-ass and the foal of a she-ass; and he will destroy the four-horse chariots from Ephraim, and the horses from Jerusalem. But for the greatness of lust and the unbridled desire for intercourse, as in Jeremiah, who, describing the luxurious and the adulterers, added: Each one neighed after his neighbour's wife. Such horses the coming of Christ and the wrath of God hamstring.

The Lord has sworn by himself, or, as we read in the Hebrew, by his soul, according to what is written in Isaiah: Your new moons and sabbaths and feast days my soul hates, not that God has a soul, but that he speaks with human affections. Nor is it surprising if he is said to have a soul, since he testifies that he has the other members too, which are lower than the soul, feet and hands and belly, and the other limbs. But if those who deny that Christ had a human soul, and say instead that in the human body God was in place of the soul, should raise this against us, let them hear that in Christ the substance of a soul is shown, just as the members of his body also had substance. But in God the Father, just as the other things that are spoken of are not members, but by their names a diversity of operations is indicated, so also the soul is not substantial, but an affection of the inner mind and the seat of thoughts, through which God indicates his will. Has sworn, therefore, the Lord, the God of hosts, that is, Sabaoth — for which the Seventy translated, of powers — that he detests the pride of Jacob and hates his houses. Here, following the preceding section, where it is written: And they suffered nothing over the breaking of Joseph, take Jacob either as the ten tribes, or certainly as the whole house of the twelve tribes. And he has sworn that he will deliver up the city with its inhabitants, either Samaria, or certainly Jerusalem, or both in common. This we can refer to the time of the Lord Savior, after whose coming and passion God detested all the pride, or the insult, of Jacob, with which they cried out that he was the son of a carpenter, and a Samaritan, and had a demon. For this reason Jerusalem with its inhabitants was delivered up to the Roman armies.

And the Lord swears by himself, since he has no one greater by whom to swear, that he detests all the insolences of the heretics and hates all their regions. For whatever they say is an insult, and worthy of the hatred of God. And he swears that he will take away the city and their meeting-places with those who dwell in them, namely both the people and the teachers, and that, even if ten men remain — men who, had they been in Sodom and Gomorrah, the fire would by no means have come down upon those cities — all will die that death which leads to Tartarus, of which Ezekiel writes: The soul that sins, it shall die.

And the wrath of God raged against them to such a degree that, even if ten men remain in one house, they too die, and a kinsman, or a neighbour, burns the corpses of the dead to carry the bones out of his house, because, for the crowds of the dying, whole bodies cannot be carried out. And when the one who has grown weary of carrying them away asks the one who is in the inner rooms of the house whether any remain whom he should hand over to him, and he answers: It is the end, I no longer have anyone to hand over to you for burial; then, before he can swear that he has none, the one who had asked, who was outside and had learned that there were none, commands him and says: Be silent, and do not remember the name of the Lord. He records this in order to show that not even when driven by the weight and necessity of evils are they willing to confess the name of the Lord, and that the name of God had come into such oblivion among Israel that Israel does not deign to hear his name even in a simple oath.

The passage involves deep obscurity from the viewpoint of commentary. It resembles the part in Genesis where there is mention of the treaty that Laban and Jacob made with each other about ownership of the offspring of the sheep, one man owning some, the other owning others. While that is obscure in its expression, the sense gains clarity in the course of comment. Now it is necessary to expound the sense of this passage as well, whose reference is not clearly expressed. His intention, in fact, is to cite a proof of the devastation affecting them in that it was very extreme. In many cases scarcely ten will be left from a large household of many members, the rest being done away with in various ways through the war.

Their bones are buried by their kinsmen and their household, of whom it is said: Let the dead bury their own dead. And he who is outside, and does not enter the house of the dead, but rather casts the dead out, commands the one who burns the dead, and dissolves them into ashes, and crushes their bones, to be silent and not to stain the most pure name of God with a dead mouth. For God says to the sinner: Why do you declare my justices, and take up my covenant through your mouth? Hence we too must take care that we do not, being dead, bury the dead, but rather that, living, we lead forth to life those who are dead. If we do not do this, we are commanded and told, Be silent, because we are judged unworthy of the name of God.

For behold, the Lord will command, and he will strike the greater house with ruins, and the lesser house with rents. Can horses run on rocks, or can there be ploughing with wild oxen? For you have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. You who rejoice in nothing, who say: Did we not by our own strength take horns for ourselves? For behold, I will raise up against you, house of Israel, says the Lord God of hosts, a nation; and they will crush you from the entrance of Hamath to the torrent of the desert. LXX: Therefore behold, the Lord will command, and he will strike the great house with ruins, and the small house with rents. Will horses give chase on rocks, will they keep silent toward the females? For you have turned judgment into fury, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness. You who rejoice over no good word, who says: Did we not have horns by our own strength? For behold, I will raise up against you, house of Israel, says the Lord God of powers, a nation; and they will crush you, so that you do not enter into Hamath, and as far as the torrent of the west. Because you have leapt into such madness that even in the time of death, with evils hanging over you, you were unwilling to name the name of the Lord, therefore the Lord will command, and he will strike the greater house with ruins, and the lesser house with rents. If he commands, how does he strike? If he strikes, how does he command? But in commanding and giving orders to his ministers, he himself is seen to strike. Just as, when the Father commands and the Son performs, he who commanded himself does it, and that little verse is fulfilled: He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. For all things indeed were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. And in Egypt the Lord testifies that he himself killed the firstborn, who are reported to have been slain by the destroyer. So too in the present place the Lord commands, and he himself, through his ministers, strikes the greater house with ruins, that is, the ten tribes, which were called Israel, and the lesser house with rents, the two tribes, which were ruled by the stock of the house of David. And note the particular character of each. Israel, because it had sinned more greatly, is struck with ruins and handed over to perpetual captivity. But the house of Judah, in which the temple was, and which had sinned in part, is held in a captivity of seventy years, and is not struck with ruins but with rents. For a house that is rent can be mended; ruins call not so much for restoration as for building anew.

Some, according to anagogy, think that the great house and the lesser house signify the Jewish people and the Church gathered from the Gentiles. For they are called great because of the fathers, and the law, and the prophets; we lesser, because we were without the covenant and the commandments of God, of whom we also read in the Song of Songs: My sister is little, and she has no breasts. This house, great and small, gathered into the one household of God, if it does not keep discipline and does not do the commandments of God, will be struck with ruins and rents. Whenever, therefore, the house of God, which is the Church, collapses and is torn, whether in persecutions or in heresies and schisms, it shows the hand of God striking; and if we wish to escape it, let us hear and follow the example of the comparison.

The ruins and rents of these two houses he compares to horses and wild oxen: the former cannot run on rocks; the latter are so untamed that they do not take the yoke on their necks, and, being forest cattle, because of their wildness they refuse to cleave the earth with the ploughshare. But you, though horses and wild oxen cannot change their nature, have changed the nature of God, so as to make the sweet one bitter and to turn the fruit of his righteousness into wormwood, which is a most bitter herb.

Horses cannot give chase on rocks. The rock is Christ, who granted to his apostles that they too should be called rocks: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Whoever is on these rocks, the adverse powers, which are called horses, of which we spoke above, will not be able to pursue him, their courses being hindered and they falling on every single rock. Let us come also to the other comparison, according to our custom, discussing the edition of the LXX translators, lest, if we cling wholly to the Hebrew, we should seem to have mocked the diligence of the reader, and, by keeping silent about the common edition, to have set it out to no purpose. Or will they keep silent, he says, among the females: there is no doubt that he means the horses, of which he had said above: Will horses give chase on rocks. These horses, that is, the opposing powers, which go mad for the females, do not dare to approach when they see a manly spirit strengthened by the might of God. But when they see an effeminate mind, enervated by ointments and luxuries and turned to womanish softness, at once they go mad, cannot hold themselves back, and are wild with lust. There follows: For you have turned judgment into fury. He turns judgment into fury who judges in anger; and though the Lord says: You shall not accept a person in judgment, and in another place: You shall not pity the poor man in judgment, and: For the judgment is God's, such a man comes down to judge with an angry mind; indeed, though he does not know the case nor understand the truth of the judgment, he decides beforehand what sentence he ought to pass; the fruit of righteousness too, which is most sweet, he turns into bitterness. What we have said of one virtue, let us understand also of the rest, prudence, fortitude, temperance: whoever is angry will not be able to gather their fruits, and when he does gather them, they will be bitter. Hence it is said in Isaiah: Woe to those who call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet. This is said by those who in judging consider not the cases but the persons, and turn the fruit of Christ's righteousness, which is most sweet, into bitterness. Whoever, therefore, in judging is led either by kinship or by friendship, or, on the other hand, by hostile hatred or by enmities, perverts the judgment of Christ, who is righteousness, and turns his fruit into bitterness.

Whence also we say that the holy men are just and that they are made pleasing to God after their sins not only through their merits but through the mercy of him to whom every creature is subject and stands in need of his mercy. Let heretics hear, who are lifted up by pride and say, "We have taken unto us horns by our own strength." Let them listen to what Moab heard said to him: "We have heard the pride of Moab, he is exceedingly proud. 'His haughtiness and his arrogance and his pride and the loftiness of his heart I know,' says the Lord, 'because his strength is not according to the loftiness thereof.' "

You who rejoice in nothing, either in idols and golden calves, which are nothing, as Esther says to the Lord: Do not hand over your sceptre to those who are not, or in nothingness and falsehood. You who think that by your own strength you took horns, and kings and power, with which to toss your enemies.

Those who do this rejoice in no good word, or in vain, as Symmachus translated, that is, ἀλόγως, and, lifted up in pride, they say: Did we not have horns by our own strength? Whereas, on the contrary, the just man glories in the Lord and says: In you we will toss our enemies with the horn. And in the same place: For I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me. Hence also in Exodus, according to the Hebrew and the edition of Aquila, we read: And Moses did not know that the appearance of his face was horned, he who could truly say: In you I toss my enemies with the horn. We read also in another place: And he will exalt the horn of his people, and: He has exalted the horn of his Christ, and of the horn of the altar, and of the clean and horned animals, which alone are offered to God, whose interpretation belongs not to this occasion.

Because, therefore, you have done these things, behold, I will raise up against you, O great house and lesser house, which are to be struck with ruins and rents; that is, O house of Israel and all the twelve tribes, the most savage nation of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, to crush and overthrow you from beginning to end, from head to tail; from the borders of your land which look toward the sun, to the torrent of the desert, or of the west, as the LXX translated, that is, from Hamath to Rhinocorura, between which and Pelusium the stream of the Nile, or the torrent coming from the wilderness, enters the sea. We said above that Hamath is Epiphania, which took its name from Antiochus, whose surname was Ἐπιφανὴς (Epiphanes). But those who think that the house of Israel here signifies the ten tribes will not be able to explain how it can be said in a threat against the ten tribes that they are to be crushed from Epiphania to the borders of Egypt, within which borders not the ten tribes only, but all twelve are enclosed, among which were also Judah and Benjamin.

Because of these great sins and the utmost pride, which speaks iniquity against God and sets its mouth on high, the Lord God Almighty says that he will raise up a most savage nation, to crush and grind them down, or rather to forbid them to enter into Hamath, and as far as the torrent of the west. Hamath means wall, or walled. They were therefore forbidden by this most savage nation, to which the punishments had been entrusted, to flee for refuge to the fortified city, which is the heavenly Jerusalem, lest they enter and be saved; after the manner of that section which we read in Genesis, where God placed the Cherubim and the flaming sword which turns to guard the way of the tree of life, so that he who had been cast out of paradise might by no means enter there unworthy. And what follows: As far as the torrent of the west, we shall interpret from the sixty-seventh (68th) psalm, in which it is written: Sing to the Lord, sing a psalm to his name; make a way for him who ascends above the sunset. The Lord is his name. For unless evil works have set in us, Christ will not ascend above us. And when they have set, and we have Christ as our charioteer, then, as we advance and go on to better things, it will be commanded us in the same psalm: Sing to God, sing psalms to the Lord, who ascends above the heaven of heaven toward the east. Hence also in the mysteries we first renounce him who is in the west, and who dies to us together with our sins, and so, turned toward the east, we enter into a covenant with the sun of righteousness and promise that we will serve him. For the torrent of the west, Symmachus translated a valley of the plain, Theodotion the torrent of Arabia, Aquila the torrent which is in the level ground. By these words it is shown that those who are shut out from the walled city can by no means be fortified against sins, nor do they reach the torrent of the plain and the level ground, or of the desert, which is called the torrent of pleasure, according to what we read: You will give them to drink from the torrent of your pleasure.