Ezekiel 14

And men, elders of Israel, came to me and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, these men have set uncleannesses in their hearts, and have set up the stumbling block of their iniquity against their face; shall I, being asked, answer them? Therefore speak to them, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: A man, a man of the house of Israel who sets his uncleannesses in his heart, and sets up the stumbling block of his iniquity against his face, and comes to the prophet inquiring of me through him, I the Lord will answer him according to the multitude of his uncleannesses, that the house of Israel may be caught in their heart, in which they have withdrawn from me in all their idols. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Turn and withdraw from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your defilements. For a man, a man of the house of Israel and of the proselytes, whoever is a stranger in Israel, if he is estranged from me and sets his idols in his heart, and sets up the stumbling block of his iniquity against his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of me through him, I the Lord will answer him by myself; and I will set my face upon that man, and I will make him an example and a proverb, and I will destroy him from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And the prophet, when he errs and speaks a word, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and I will blot him out from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity: as the iniquity of the one inquiring, so shall the iniquity of the prophet be, that the house of Israel may no longer stray from me, nor be polluted in all their transgressions, but may be to me for a people, and I may be to them for God, says the Lord of hosts. (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, these men have set their thoughts in their hearts, and have set the torment of their iniquities before their face; shall I, answering, answer them? Therefore speak to them and say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: A man, a man of the house of Israel who sets his thoughts in his heart, and sets the torment of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of him in me, I the Lord will answer him in those things by which his mind is held, so as to turn away the house of Israel according to their hearts, which have been estranged from me in their thoughts. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Turn and withdraw from your inventions and from all your impieties, and turn your faces. For a man, a man of the house of Israel and of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who is estranged from me and sets his thoughts in his heart, and sets the torment of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire of him in me, I the Lord will answer him in that by which he is held; and I will make my face firm upon that man, and I will make him a desert and an extermination, and I will take him away from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And the prophet, if he errs and speaks a word, I the Lord have made that prophet err, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and I will exterminate him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall receive their iniquity: according to the iniquity of the one inquiring, the iniquity of the prophet also shall likewise be, that the house of Israel may by no means stray from me, and that they may not be polluted any more in all their offenses, and they shall be to me for a people, and I will be to them for God, says Adonai the Lord.") After he had spoken to the prophets who prophesied out of their own heart and daubed the wall without tempering, and to the prophetesses who sewed cushions and put them under every elbow of the hand, and made veils, and covered the heads of every age — by which the teaching of perverse doctrines is shown —, there came to the prophet not all the old men, lest all should seem to err, but certain of the elders of Israel, and they sat before the prophet, meanwhile deferring in silence the reason for which they had come; and at once the word of God came to the prophet, indicating why they were present — for it is not in the nature of man, however holy, to know the secrets of the heart; hence it is said of the Savior alone: But Jesus, seeing their thoughts and why do you think evil things in your hearts —. And the sense is: 'Son of man, these men who sit before you have set their uncleannesses in their hearts — or thoughts, and, according to Symmachus and Theodotion, idols —, and they have set the stumbling block — that is, the ruin and torment — of their iniquity against their face, and so they have come to inquire after the word of the Lord. Ought I to answer men of this sort, who come to me with their former thoughts, not abandoning the crimes of their impiety even at this time, but believing in idols and deceitful divinations, and having the ruin and torment of iniquity against their face, while they despair of better things and are ready for punishment, and so desire to learn my words through you? Since, therefore, they have come to you with a perverse heart, you answer not in your own person — lest the authority of the one answering be slight —, but by my command, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God'.

No one among us thinks that tortures are inflicted by anyone other than ourselves.

When the interior person perseveres according to the image of the Creator, then a person is born, and twice is the person made a person according to the exterior and the interior kind.

Now the meaning of the whole passage, to comprehend a broad explanation in a brief discourse, is this: 'A man, a man not of the other nations — whose error can have pardon —, but of the house of Israel, who comes to the prophet to inquire with his former vices — of which we have spoken above —, I will answer him according to his heart and his uncleannesses, so that he may hear according to what he wishes and believes: for he who asks not in a spirit of learning but of testing does not deserve correction. For they have withdrawn from me and have followed idols; and this is a brief threat, so that they may withdraw from idols and perverse thoughts and turn to me, abandoning their former crimes'; for he who asks deceitfully does not deserve to hear the truth, but is to be caught by his own heart, just as the scribes and Pharisees, questioning the Lord, or rather testing him, hear: Why do you test me?, and again: Neither will I tell you by what power I do these things; but whoever is such a man and asks in this way, God sets his face upon him, or makes it firm, so that by the severity of his countenance the hardness of the brow may be softened and he may be for an example and a proverb, or for a solitude and a destruction, so that, when he has been destroyed out of the people of God, the rest may know that he himself is the Lord, who knows the secrets of the heart and understands the perversity of the mind, and considers not the words of those who speak but their hearts.

Those dissatisfied with any facet of your creation are unsound in mind, as I was when many things that you made displeased me. Because my soul did not dare to be dissatisfied with my God, it would not identify as yours whatever dissatisfied it. In this way it had strayed into a belief in two substances, and it got no rest but recounted the opinions of others. Recoiling from that error, it had made for itself a god inhabiting the boundless area of all space, and it had considered that god to be you, and had "set it in its heart" and had become again the shrine of its idol, deserving of your loathing. But after you stroked my ignorant head and closed my eyes so that they should not see vanity, I retired from myself a little, and my madness was lulled to sleep. I awoke in you and saw you infinite in a different way, and that vision was not with the eyes of the flesh.

And what is said a second time: A man, a man of the sons of Israel and of the strangers who are joined to them, shows, according to the Apostle, a twofold man in us: the outer and the inner — for many, having the bodily face of a man, take on the images of various beasts, whose destruction the prophet desires when he prays: Lord, in your city you will destroy their image; those of whom it is written: Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts of burden, and became like them, are not men who are men, but men who are beasts of burden; again, those who hear in the Gospel: Serpents, brood of vipers, who showed you to flee from the wrath to come?, are not men who are men, but men who are serpents as well; and those of whom it is written: Foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven nests, and of Herod: Tell this fox, are not men who are men, but men who are foxes —; but those who possess both words 'man', if they err, are corrected by punishments for this reason, that they may understand that he himself is the Lord. Moreover, what we have set down according to the Seventy: A man who is estranged from me and sets his thoughts in his heart, and the torment (or punishment) of his iniquity before his face, agrees with that testimony which is written in Isaiah: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled; for each one kindles for himself the blazing of flames and prepares punishments for himself, while he is unwilling to correct his errors by repentance, but remains in errors that deserve the burning of flames.

It is quite clear that God works in people's hearts to incline their wills to whatsoever way he wills: either to good in accordance with his mercy or to evil in accordance with their evil merits, and this, indeed, by his own judgments, sometimes manifest, sometimes hidden, but always just. You must keep this conviction firm and unshaken in your heart that in God there is no injustice. Accordingly, when you read the truth of the Scriptures and find that people are led astray by God or that their hearts are dulled and hardened by him, have no doubt that it was their previous evil merits that made them suffer their just penalties.

You must believe that there were evil merits in that person whom God permits to go astray and to become hardened. But for the person on whom he has mercy, you must acknowledge with an unswerving faith that this is a case of the grace of God who is not rendering evil for evil but good for evil.

Which of the two, patience or power, do you find in the words of Scripture? Whichever you choose, even if you admit both, you must surely see that the false speech of this prophet is both sin and punishment for sin. Will you also say that the words, "I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet," should be interpreted as though God deserted him that he might be deceived in return for past misdeeds and thus err? Say what you will, he was punished for sin in such a way that he sinned prophesying something false.

And what follows also seems to raise a question: The prophet, when he errs and speaks a word, I the Lord have deceived that prophet; let us not think that this is said of a true prophet, but of a false prophet, who is called a prophet συνωνυμῶς [by a shared name]. And it can be resolved from that passage of the Scriptures where Ahab king of Israel, going to battle, will not listen to Micaiah the prophet, but acquiesces in the counsels of the false prophets, and Micaiah says that he saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and that a spirit of error offered itself of its own accord to deceive the king; the devil too, in the book of Job, going around the earth, is said to stand in the sight of God and to receive power from the Lord, first over Job's substance, then over his body; and Balaam the soothsayer also is sent by the Lord to deceive Balak the son of Beor. All this, however, is said so that it may not be reckoned to the strength of the false prophets that the people is deceived and would rather hear a lie than lend its ear to the truth, but that it is of the wrath of God that a perverse and unbelieving people listens to false prophets rather than to prophets.

Then he stretches out his hand upon him — the prophet is understood — and he is blotted out from the midst of his people, so that he may bear his iniquity, because for like error the punishment too is alike, so that both he who asks and he who is asked may bear their iniquity, and the house of Israel, that of those who wish to hear the words of God, may by no means be mocked by perverse prophesyings, but may be the people of God, and may itself deserve to have the Lord as God. With what he said: I the Lord have deceived him, the words of Solomon agree, who, discoursing of God, says: And he will mock the mockers, and that testimony: If they walk perversely toward me, I too will walk against them in perverse fury.

I want to have them as my people and to be their God, attending to them with every care.

It is not easy for God to pardon idolaters.… Ezekiel also denounces this wrath of God on those who sin against God. He says, "And the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'son of man, when a land shall sin against me so as to transgress grievously, I will stretch forth my hand on it, and I will break the staff of the bread thereof; and I will send famine on it and destroy man and beast out of it. And if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, shall be in it, they will not deliver sons or daughters; themselves alone shall be saved.' "

And the hand is stretched out over the transgressing land so that the staff, or strength, of bread may be broken; and that hand, stretched out, threatens plagues, since he who stretches it out and lifts it up does not wish to strike sinners, but by its stretching out to terrify them and to preserve them once terrified.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, when a land sins against me so as to transgress, transgressing, I will stretch out my hand upon it, and I will break the staff of its bread, and I will send famine into it and kill from it man and beasts; and if these three men are in its midst, Noah and Daniel and Job, they by their righteousness shall deliver their own souls, says the Lord of hosts. But if I also bring most evil beasts upon the land to lay it waste, and it becomes impassable because there is no one passing through on account of the beasts, if these three men are in it, as I live, says the Lord, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone shall be delivered, and the land shall be made desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say to the sword: Pass through the land, and I kill from it man and beast, and these three men are in its midst, as I live, says the Lord God, they shall not deliver sons or daughters, but they alone shall be delivered. But if I also send pestilence upon that land, and pour out my indignation upon it in blood, to take away from it man and beast, and Noah and Daniel and Job are in its midst, as I live, says the Lord God, they shall not deliver son and daughter, but they by their righteousness shall deliver their own souls. For thus says the Lord God: But if I also send my four most evil judgments, sword and famine and evil beasts and pestilence, against Jerusalem, to kill from it man and cattle, yet there shall be left in it a deliverance of those who bring out sons and daughters: behold, they shall come out to you, and you shall see their way and their inventions, and you shall be consoled over the evil which I brought upon Jerusalem, in all that I have brought in upon it. And they shall console you, when you see their way and their inventions, and you shall know that not in vain have I done all that I did in it, says the Lord God. Four plagues are brought upon the 'transgressing' land — or, as the Seventy translated, the 'sinning' land —: famine, beasts, sword, pestilence; and if these are brought one at a time, piece by piece, upon individual regions, and these three men, Noah and Daniel and Job, whose righteousness is proclaimed by the voices of the Scriptures, pray for the sinning land, not only will they be unable to preserve it, but not even their own sons and daughters, if these have committed the works of the sinning land; they will be able to deliver themselves alone.

But upon our land too, to which it is said: You are earth, and into earth you shall go, and upon our Jerusalem, each and every one of the believers, if they despise the commandments of God and deserve to be called transgressors, famine will be brought: Not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God; the sword too will be brought, of which we read: They shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be the portions of foxes, and to Mary: A sword shall pierce through your own soul also; beasts too will be brought, to which the righteous man asks not to be handed over: Do not hand over to beasts the soul that confesses to you; and pestilence will be brought — for which the Seventy translated 'death' —, of which it is written: The death of sinners is very evil, and: The soul that sins, it shall die, and: So bitter is death. From all of which neither the teaching of spiritual parents — whom we understand to be teachers — nor princes will be able to deliver us, unless the sons give their assent and assist the parents' entreaties by their own efforts; for the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the iniquity of the wicked shall abide in him: Each shall die for his own sin, and shall be saved by his own righteousness; and in vain do the Jews say: Abraham is our father, since they do not have the works of Abraham; but if there is confidence in anyone, let us trust in the Lord alone: Cursed, for, is every man who puts his hope in man, however holy they may be, however much they may be prophets; we read: Do not trust in men, and again: It is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in princes, not in the princes of the world only but in the princes of the churches, who will deliver only their own souls, if they are righteous, but the sons and daughters whom they have begotten in the Church they will not be able to save, if these are negligent; and yet the Apostle says: If anyone's work is burned up, he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Do you think it is true that the word applies not to the inhabitants of the earth but to the earth itself?

Thanks to the churches which reach to the limits of the world, the entire earth cries out with joy toward the God of Israel, and it is capable of good acts in its borders.

Even though it is a punishment of the mother to be sent into exile, to be deprived of her children or at least to see her children bound for another province, in the same sort of way our mother the earth is chastised for her sins by God when people and beast are removed from her.

As the experts in medical art put it, in order to perform certain healings in the body, it is necessary to inflict not only a cut but also a burn.

Those who are not healed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he baptizes with fire, because they are not able to be purified by the purification of the Holy Spirit.

Nay, can we be better men than Daniel himself, concerning whom God, speaking to the prince of Tyre, says by the prophet Ezekiel, "Art thou wiser than Daniel?" who also is placed among the three righteous men to whom alone God saith that He would grant deliverance,—pointing, doubtless, in them to three representative righteous men,—declaring that he would deliver only Noah, Daniel, and Job, and that they should save along with themselves neither son nor daughter, but only their own souls.

Now, I suppose it is not easy to find in God's Scripture so weighty a testimony of holiness given of any man as that which is written of His three servants, Noah, Daniel, and Job, whom the Prophet Ezekiel describes as the only men able to be delivered from God's impending wrath. In these three men he no doubt prefigures three classes of mankind to be delivered: in Noah, as I suppose, are represented righteous leaders of nations, by reason of his government of the ark as a type of the Church; in Daniel, men who are righteous in continence; in Job, those who are righteous in wedlock;—to say nothing of any other view of the passage, which it is unnecessary now to consider. It is, at any rate, clear from this testimony of the prophet, and from other inspired statements, how eminent were these worthies in righteousness.

Ezekiel the prophet mystically distinguishes them from one another when he foretells that there are only three men who will be delivered when the time of plagues comes, namely: Noah, Daniel and Job. For surely in Noah, who steered the ark over the waves, he shows those who are set over the church; in Daniel, who was zealous to live continently in the royal court, he shows the continent or virgins; in Job, who while married exhibited a wonderful example of patience to all, he shows the life of the virtuous married people.

Who was more righteous than Noah, who, when the earth was replete with sins, was alone found righteous on the earth? Who more glorious than Daniel? Who stronger in firmness of faith for enduring martyrdom, happier in God's favors, who when he fought so often conquered and when he conquered survived? Who was more diligent in good works than Job, stronger in temptations, more patient in suffering, more submissive in fear, more true in faith? And yet God said that, if they should ask, he would not grant. When the prophet Ezekiel interceded for the sins of the people, God said, "Whatever land shall sin against me, so as to transgress grievously, I will stretch forth my hand on it, and will break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it and will destroy people and beast out of it. And if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, shall be in it, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered." Therefore, not all that is sought is in the prejudgment of the seeker but in the decision of the giver, and human opinion takes or assumes nothing to itself unless the divine pleasure also assents.

The work of the monastic life is poverty and trouble and separation.… Noah must be taken as representing the personification of self-denial, and Job as representing labors and Daniel as representing separation; if a person possess these three rules of conduct the Lord dwells in him.

Who will cry aloud, spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them: what Noah and Job and Daniel, who are reckoned together as men of prayer, will pray for us, that we may have a slight respite from warfare, and recover ourselves, and recognize one another for a while and no longer, instead of being a united Israel, be Judah and Israel, Rehoboam and Jeroboam, Jerusalem and Samaria, in turn delivered up because of our sins, and in turn lamented?

— It is asked, since Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, Moses too and the other patriarchs and prophets, were righteous, why mention is made of these alone; which is easily resolved: for Noah could not put off the flood impending over the world, because all the earth had polluted the ways of the Lord, but he had his sons preserved, who perhaps were of the same virtue, and also for the sake of a seedbed of the human race; Daniel too softened by no weeping the captivity impending over the people of the Jews; and Job as well, not on account of sins but for the sake of testing, delivered neither his house nor his sons. Others, however, say that because these three men alone beheld both prosperity and adversity and prosperity again, they are for that reason named together, and that this is secretly signified: that, just as they saw both good things and evil and again joyful things, so also the people of Israel, which had first enjoyed good things and afterward bore the yoke of captivity, if it does penance, returns to its former happiness. —

But if Noah and Daniel and Job, gathered together and placed in one place, cannot withdraw the sinning land, that is, those who dwell in the land, from the wrath of God, what is to be said of those who think that sinful sons can be delivered from the fires of Gehenna by the merit and virtues of their parents? Hence neither will a martyr father be able to deliver a transgressing son, nor will a mother of holy life give the rewards of chastity to an unchaste daughter; and on the contrary the vices of parents will not harm their children, but: The soul that sins, it shall die. Lot, dwelling in Sodom but a stranger both in spirit and in flesh, did not deliver his wife, who had looked back behind her, but only his daughters, who perhaps had not sinned; and Josiah, a holy man, not only did not save a sinful people by his virtues, but he himself also died in its sins. But if at times the Lord promises his mercy to their posterity on account of Abraham and David, it must be noted that he does not spare those who persevere in crimes, but those who do penance, so that the conduct of the sons assists the merits of the fathers.

That no one may despair of himself, though hitherto he have been careless, that he may set his hopes on nothing else, after God's mercy, but on his own virtue. For if these were nothing the better for such a kindred, though they were of the same house and lineage with Christ, until they gave proof of virtue; what favor can we possibly receive, when we plead righteous kinsmen and brethren, unless we be exceeding dutiful, and have lived in virtue? As the prophet too said, intimating the selfsame thing, "A brother redeemeth not, shall a man redeem?"… Yea, if it be Ezekiel who entreats, he will be told, "Though Noah stand forth, and Job, and Daniel, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters." Though the patriarch Abraham be supplicating for them that are most incurably diseased, and change not, God will leave him and go His way, that he may not receive his cry in their behalf.… For it is true, the prayers of the saints have the greatest power; on condition however of our repentance and amendment.

Considering then all these things, let us betake ourselves unto the preparation for our departure hence. For even if the common day of the consummation never overtake us, the end of each one is at the doors, whether he be old or young; and it is not possible for men after they have gone hence, either to buy oil any more, or to obtain pardon by prayers, though he that entreats be Abraham, or Noah, or Job, or Daniel. While then we have opportunity, let us store up for ourselves beforehand much confidence, let us gather oil in abundance, let us remove all into Heaven, that in the fitting time, and when we most need them, we may enjoy all: by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Abbot Moses said, Separation from material things, that is, voluntary poverty, and endurance with patience and understanding are the possessions of a monk.… Noah is the personification of voluntary poverty, Job the personification of endurance with patience, Daniel the personification of understanding. Accordingly, if the deeds of these three holy men are in any person, the Lord is with him, dwelling with him, receiving him and driving away from him every temptation and every tribulation that comes from the enemy.

Those who are of Abraham are not children of Abraham; although they are of his seed, they are not his children, because they are sinners. In the same way those whose actions resemble the wonder of Daniel are of Daniel, and those who imitate the patience of Job become Job.

Yes, if we do the will of Christ, we shall find rest, but if not, nothing will save us from eternal punishment, if we fail to heed his commands. Furthermore, the Scripture also says in Ezekiel, "Though Noah and Jacob and Daniel should rise, they shall not save their children in captivity." If even such upright men as these cannot save their children by their uprightness, what assurance have we that we shall enter God's kingdom if we fail to keep our baptism pure and undefiled? Or who will plead for us if we are not found to have holy and upright deeds?

It is a crime, unbearably conceited and enormously wicked, that anyone should think himself so good that he supposes the wicked can be saved through him.God, speaking of a certain land and a sinful people, said, "If these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, shall be in it, they shall deliver neither sons or daughters; but they only shall be delivered." I think that nobody would be so presumptuous as to dare to compare himself with such men. Though a person tries to please God in this world, it is the greatest kind of unrighteousness to boast of his own righteousness. Hope is therefore removed in that false opinion by which we believe that a countless multitude of the damned can be saved by the intercession in this world of a few good people.

There will be no one then, the text is saying, able to rescue from there a victim of his own indifference, whether brother or father or mother. Why do I say brother or father or mother? Not even the just themselves, who have good grounds for confidence, will be of any assistance to us then if we have now been guilty of indifference.… See the magnitude of the threat and the kind of just people he brought forward as examples. These men, you see, at a critical time proved a source of salvation even to others: Noah saved his wife and sons when that terrible deluge overwhelmed the world; Job likewise proved a source of salvation even to others; and Daniel rescued many from death when that awful barbarian in his quest for things beyond human nature wanted to do away with the Chaldeans, the magi and Gazarenes.… Rather, we should make this alone the object of attention: if we have virtuous forebears, to imitate their virtue; if the contrary is true and we come from disreputable forebears, not to think any handicap results from this but to fall to the labors virtue involves, no harm ensuing from this, to be sure.

And you deceive yourselves while you fancy that, because you are the seed of Abraham after the flesh, therefore you shall fully inherit the good things announced to be bestowed by God through Christ. For no one, not even of them, has anything to look for, but only those who in mind are assimilated to the faith of Abraham, and who have recognised all the mysteries: for I say, that some injunctions were laid on you in reference to the worship of God and practice of righteousness; but some injunctions and acts were likewise mentioned in reference to the mystery of Christ, on account of the hardness of your people's hearts. And that this is so, God makes known in Ezekiel, [when] He said concerning it: 'If Noah and Jacob and Daniel should beg either sons or daughters, the request would not be granted them.' And in Isaiah, of the very same matter He spake thus: 'The Lord God said, they shall both go forth and look on the members [of the bodies] of the men that have transgressed. For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a gazing-stock to all flesh.' So that it becomes you to eradicate this hope from your souls, and hasten to know in what way forgiveness of sins, and a hope of inheriting the promised good things, shall be yours. But there is no other [way] than this,-to become acquainted with this Christ, to be washed in the fountain spoken of by Isaiah for the remission of sins; and for the rest, to live sinless lives.

And besides, they beguile themselves and you, supposing that the everlasting kingdom will be assuredly given to those of the dispersion who are of Abraham after the flesh, although they be sinners, and faithless, and disobedient towards God, which the Scriptures have proved is not the case. For if so, Isaiah would never have said this: 'And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.' And Ezekiel: 'Even if Noah, and Jacob, and Daniel were to pray for sons or daughters, their request should not be granted.' But neither shall the father perish for the son, nor the son for the father; but every one for his own sin, and each shall be saved for his own righteousness.

'Since,' he says, 'these things are so, and the prayer of such great men does not save a sinning land from single plagues, thus says the Lord: Because Jerusalem has sinned abominably, I will bring four plagues upon it at once: the sword by which it is slaughtered by its enemies, and famine which it endures under siege, and beasts by which those who flee are devoured in deserts and forests, and pestilence, which always follows famine and want — for which the common edition translated 'death' —. And these things,' he says, 'I will bring upon it, so that neither men remain in it nor beasts; and yet, in my clemency, while the four plagues impend at once and lay everything waste, I will leave in it some who bring out their sons and daughters, and let them come here as captives — that is, to Babylon and to Chaldea —; and when you see them and have looked closely at their works, then you will understand that they were justly taken captive and that my sentence was just, and your captivity will have consolation, while you understand that I delivered them from sword and famine and beasts and pestilence for this reason: that from their perversity you may learn that Jerusalem was deservedly overthrown and the temple burned and the people led captive, except those whom sword, famine, beasts and pestilence consumed'. These things were said of that Jerusalem upon which, while Ezekiel was prophesying among the Chaldeans, captivity was drawing near.

All those who are sinners in the church, who have tasted the Word of God and have transgressed it, deserve prayers, but each one will be punished in accordance with his or her degree.