Ezekiel 20

And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth, on the tenth of the month, there came men of the elders of Israel to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me. Eleven months and five days after the previous vision, the word again comes to the prophet, after some of the elders of the house of Israel had come to inquire of the Lord and had sat before him. That it was the custom of the people of Israel to seek from the Lord through the prophets whatever they desired to know, many examples testify: Saul, looking for the asses, goes to Samuel and received advice from the servant boy to offer the prophet the fourth part of a shekel; when the son of Jeroboam fell ill, his wife is sent to Shiloh to the prophet Ahijah, bringing little gifts, loaves and cakes, grapes and a small jar of honey, to learn about her son's sickness; David too, a prophet, inquires of another prophet, Nathan, whether he ought to build a temple to the Lord; and Ahab asks whether he should go up to Ramoth-gilead or not; in Isaiah also and in the volume of Kings the things that were to come upon Sennacherib are announced. Nor is it surprising if in the Old Testament the prophets announce to individuals the things that are to come, since we read that Agabus prophesied the things that were to come upon Paul; for it is written in Deuteronomy: The nations which the Lord is about to destroy in your sight, these will listen to dreams and divinations; but to you the Lord your God has not granted it so: for it belongs to the nations to resort to Chaldeans, soothsayers, haruspices, diviners, lot-casters, the oracles of demons, by which their error is mocked. Hence now too the elders of Israel approach the prophet in order to inquire of the Lord through him, and yet they are silent about their question, while he who was to be questioned knew what they were asking, so that in this too there might be a miracle: to know why they had come and to answer the things that a silent speech held within their mind.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Have you come to inquire of me? As I live, I will not answer you, says the Lord God. To the saints and to those who ask fitting things a promise is given: 'While you are still speaking I will say: Behold, I am here'; but to sinners, such as the elders of Israel were, whose crimes the prophet describes in what follows, no answer is given, but a rebuke for their sins, and he adds an oath: As I live, so that the sentence of the one who refuses may be the firmer. What the Seventy said: If I answer you, Symmachus translated more plainly: I will not answer you.

If you judge them, if you judge, son of man. (LXX: "If I avenge them with vengeance, son of man.") 'They indeed came to inquire, wishing to learn the future concerning the things about which they are in doubt. But you, son of man, judge them, so that there may be no prophet's answer, but the sentence of one who judges, for the iniquities which they have committed, and they have followed the crimes of their fathers'; or certainly: If I avenge them with vengeance, so that the sense is: 'They are covered with such great iniquity that they are not worthy even of correction and reproof', according to what is said in the prophet: I will no longer visit your daughters and your daughters-in-law, when they have committed adultery. Hence sinners too, who have come into the depth of sin, are let go to do the desires of their heart.

Show them the abominations of their fathers. And you shall say to them. (LXX: "Testify to them the iniquities of their fathers, and you shall say to them.") If the sins of the fathers do not overflow onto the sons, how is it that the abominations and iniquities of the fathers are now set before the elders? For this reason, evidently: that they may be shown to act like their parents and, by a hereditary evil, to drag a very long rope of sins, so that they may dread the punishments of those whose vices they imitate.

Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand for the stock of the house of Jacob, and appeared to them in the land of Egypt, and lifted up my hand for them, saying: I am the Lord your God. On that day I lifted up my hand for them, to lead them out of the land of Egypt into the land which I had provided for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is excellent among all lands. (LXX: "Thus says the Lord God: From the day on which I chose the house of Israel, and became known to the seed of the house of Jacob, and was known to them in the land of Egypt, and took them up, saying: I am the Lord your God. On that day I took hold of them with my hand, saying, to lead them out of the land of Egypt into the land which I prepared for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, it is a honeycomb beyond all lands.") For what the Seventy said: It is a honeycomb beyond all lands, for which we translated: It is excellent among all lands, the first edition of Aquila put 'firm support', the second 'renowned', Symmachus 'region', Theodotion 'strength', namely because this land is the foundation of all lands, because in it are the religion of God and the temple and the ceremonies and the knowledge of God; and so far was the people of Israel, settled in Egypt, from knowing God, that Moses, sent to them: If they ask, he says, me: Who sent you?, what shall I say to them? Say, he says, to them: He who is, sent me. In Egypt, then, he became known to the people and to the seed of the house of Jacob, when he lifted up his hand for them against the Egyptians, and said: I am the Lord your God, and he chose them to lead them out of the land of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey; for they were not yet able to take solid food, but like little children and sucklings they needed the honey and milk of infancy. According to the letter, however, that the land of Judea is renowned and more fertile than all lands, no one will be able to doubt who has considered the whole land from Rhinocorura as far as Mount Taurus and the river Euphrates, and the power of its cities and the pleasantness of its regions, namely Palestine and Phoenicia, Arabia, Coele-Syria, Cilicia, and the other regions which the Lord promised to Israel if he had kept the precepts of God; and that he did not receive them was the fault of his unbelief. For even in Palestine itself and the province of Judea very many nations remained which were not driven out; for the guarantor is not to blame if the one to whom the promise is made has made himself unworthy of the pledge, especially since the one who promises sets out a choice: If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But if you are unwilling, the sword shall devour you. They are chosen, then, according to the present, and it does not follow that one who is chosen cannot be tempted or perish, since both Saul, chosen as king, and Judas, chosen as apostle, afterward fell by their own fault. The lifting up of the hand, or its stretching out, shows the posture of one who strikes: that he might strike the Egyptians for them and free the people of Israel from Egypt.

Is it not true that from the beginning and long before today you lived with countless transgressions of the law? Did not the prophet Ezekiel accuse you ten thousand times when he brought in the two harlots, Oholah and Oholibah, and said, "You built a brothel in Egypt, you passionately loved barbarians, and you worshiped strange gods."

And he said to them: Let each one cast away the offenses of his eyes, and do not be defiled with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (LXX: "And he said to them: Let each one cast away the abominations of his eyes, and let him not be defiled with the inventions of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.") For 'offenses', which in Hebrew are called 'seccuse', Symmachus translated 'nauseating things', the second edition of Aquila 'cuttings-off', so as to signify that bleariness must be cast away from the eyes, and a kind of nausea which not only hinders the sight but also produces vomiting in those who look at it; 'gelule' too is a Hebrew word, which the Seventy translated 'inventions', the first edition of Aquila 'defilements', the second, and Symmachus and Theodotion, 'idols', whom we too have followed for the present. He commanded them, as they were first going out of Egypt, to forget the idols which they had served for a long time; to cast them away from their eyes, so as not to hold them worthy even of a glance, and no longer to give consent to the things by which they had long been defiled. I, he says, am the Lord your God, not the portents of Egypt, not the fabrications of various monsters. But we too, when we go out of Egypt, are commanded to cast away the offenses of our eyes, namely so that we may not take delight in the things in which we formerly took delight in the world, lest we be defiled with the images of Egypt, that is, with the inventions of the philosophers and of the heretics, which are rightly called idols. Let us also turn our eyes away from the spectacles, or rather the offenses, of Egypt: of the arena, the circus, the theaters, and all the things that defile the purity of the soul and enter the mind through the senses; and what is written is fulfilled: Death will come in through your windows.

And they provoked me. (LXX: "And they withdrew from me.") Or, as Symmachus translated: They did not consent to me; and as soon as they are called, they withdraw from God, so that there is no interval between the calling and the withdrawal. And this is to be noted, that no one withdraws from God except one who was formerly with him; hence the dragon too in the book of Job is called ἀποστάτης, a transgressor and one who withdraws.

And they would not listen; each one did not cast away the abominations of his eyes, nor did they abandon the idols of Egypt. (LXX: "And they would not listen to me; they did not cast away the abominations of their eyes, and did not abandon the inventions of Egypt.") 'For this reason', he says, 'they provoked me and withdrew from me: because they would not listen, while man's free will is preserved, and they did all the things which I commanded in the law that they should not do, at once despairing of salvation and muttering against Moses, and distrusting the promises of God'. There follows:

And I said that I would pour out my indignation upon them, and fulfill my wrath on them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 'As soon as I commanded them to leave or cast away the offenses of their eyes and by no means to be defiled with the idols of Egypt, they provoked me and would not listen to what I said, but on the contrary did what I had commanded should not be done. Therefore I had decreed to pour out on them my fury and my indignation and to fulfill my wrath, which I had conceived in my mind, in the midst of Egypt, upon those who had not yet gone out of Egypt'. For there follows: I therefore cast them out of the land of Egypt and led them down into the desert, from which it is shown that they had not yet gone out of the land of Egypt when he wished to pour out his indignation and fulfill his wrath upon them and to strike them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

And I acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations in whose midst they were, and among whom I appeared to them, to lead them out of the land of Egypt. 'What I was thinking of doing on account of justice I did not do on account of the greatness of my clemency, lest my name be defiled and I should seem not to have been able to fulfill what I had promised to Israel. I spared my name, then, lest the nations among whom I became known to them in the land of Egypt should have occasion to blaspheme'. Up to this point the prophet describes what he promised them while they were settled in the land of Egypt, and how they at once gave offense, and what the Lord thought of doing against them and yet did not do; what follows he spoke to them after they had gone out of Egypt.

I therefore cast them out of the land of Egypt, and led them out into the desert. And I gave them my precepts, and showed them my judgments, which a man should do and live in them. Moreover I also gave them my sabbaths, that it might be a sign between me and them, and that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. And the house of Israel provoked me in the desert: they did not walk in my precepts, and they cast away my judgments, which, if a man does them, he shall live in them, and they violated my sabbaths exceedingly. I said therefore that I would pour out my fury upon them in the desert and consume them. And I acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations from which I cast them out in their sight. These things are said to those who were led out of Egypt into the desert, so that, freed from the vices of the Egyptians, they might more easily fulfill the precepts of God in the wilderness and do his judgments and keep the sabbaths, which were given as a sign between the one who gave them and those to whom they were given, as Scripture says: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command the children of Israel and you shall say to them: See that you keep my sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you; and keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you: whoever violates it shall surely die; everyone who does work on it, that soul shall be put to death from the midst of its people. So the sabbath and circumcision were given as a sign of the true sabbath and the true circumcision: that we may know that we must rest from earthly works in the perfect and true sabbath, and that we should circumcise not the foreskin but the heart. Hence, working for six days, we rest on the seventh day, so that day and night we may do nothing else than recognize that all that we live is owed to the Lord, and, as the week comes round again, consecrate ourselves wholly to his name, so that through the sanctification of the day we may remember the Lord who sanctifies us.

It is this truth that we shall realize perfectly when we shall be perfectly at rest and perfectly see that it is he who is God.

For indeed the Sabbath did at the first confer many and great benefits; for instance, it made them gentle towards those of their household, and humane; it taught them God's providence and the creation, as Ezekiel saith; it trained them by degrees to abstain from wickedness, and disposed them to regard the things of the Spirit.

These precepts and ordinances and the observance of the sabbath the Lord gave in the desert, so that doing them they might live in them, not that they should pass from them to greater things, as is promised in the Gospel; and these they violated, not once nor a little but exceedingly, so that the ἐπίτασις [intensification] of the violation might be shown. He said, therefore, and decreed in his mind, that he would pour out his fury upon them in the desert and consume them, when he spoke to Moses: Let me alone, and, angered with fury against them, I will destroy them; but he would not do it, sparing the Egyptians and the other nations, lest they be scandalized, and them as well, on whom he had mercy, awaiting the repentance of those who would turn back. And it is to be noted that, when he was speaking to them while they were settled in Egypt, after the offense: I acted, he says, for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations, but now he says: I acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations from which I cast them out in their sight; for then they were still in their midst, not yet having gone out, but now, after they have gone out, it is said: From which I cast them out in their sight.

I therefore lifted up my hand over them into the desert, not to bring them into the land which I gave them, flowing with milk and honey, the foremost of all lands; because they cast away my judgments, and did not walk in my precepts, and violated my sabbaths, for their heart went after idols. And my eye spared them, so that I did not kill them; nor did I consume them in the desert. (LXX: "And I lifted up my hand over them in the desert, so as not at all to bring them into the land which I gave them, a land flowing with milk and honey, it is a honeycomb beyond every land; because they rejected my ordinances, and did not walk in my precepts, and violated my sabbaths, and they walk after the thoughts of their hearts. And my eye spared them, so that I did not wipe them out; and I did not kill them to consumption in the desert.") 'I had indeed decreed to pour out all my fury upon them and to wipe them out and consume them, but I acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned among the nations — namely the Amalekites and the rest, which fought against them in the wilderness —, so that I would by no means bring them into the land which I promised them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the foremost of all lands — or a honeycomb —'. The cause of the punishment and of this sentence is: Because they cast away my judgments, and did not walk in my precepts, and violated the sabbaths; and the cause of that cause is this: that they did not do these things because their heart followed the idols of Egypt.

'But my eye', he says, 'spared them, so that I did not kill them and wipe them out: so that I did not consume them altogether'; in which it is asked how he spared those whose corpses lay in the wilderness and, except for Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, no one entered the land of promise. From this we understand that they live, and are not reserved for eternal punishments, nor blotted out of the book of the living, nor consumed before the face of the Lord; for if, because they were not brought into the land of promise, they must be believed to have perished, then Moses too perished, who only saw the land of promise and did not enter it, of whom the Lord speaks in the book of Joshua: Moses my servant is dead, and in Malachi: Remember the law of Moses my servant, and in Jeremiah God speaks of him as of his friend and most intimate: If Moses and Samuel should stand in my sight? Otherwise we must also believe that the prayers of Moses were heard, when, interceding for the people, he says: If you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if you will not, blot me too out of your book. And that the sentence of the Lord against sons and servants is not perdition but correction, let us hear the testimonies of the Scriptures: Son, do not be saddened at the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him: for whom the Lord loves he corrects, and he scourges every son whom he receives, and in another place: When he slew them, then they sought him, and in the song of Deuteronomy: I will kill and I will make alive. We can also say this according to the letter: that he did not wipe them out nor consume them along with their stock and offspring, but, when the fathers had been killed, he spared the sons, whom he brought into the land of promise.

But he said to their sons in the wilderness: In the precepts (or statutes) of your fathers do not walk, and neither with their idols nor keep their judgments (or be defiled by thoughts). I am the Lord your God: walk in my precepts, and keep my judgments and do them, and sanctify my sabbaths, that it may be a sign between me and you, and that it may be known (or that you may know) that I am the Lord your God. After the slaying of the fathers who fell in the wilderness, he gives precepts to the sons, in whose salvation he had mercy on the fathers: 'And the eye of the Lord', he says, 'spared them, so as not to kill them altogether and wipe them out, but to preserve the fathers in the sons'; and he testifies to them the same things that he also spoke to the fathers: that, after they have walked in his precepts and kept his judgments and observed the sanctification of the sabbath, which was given as a sign, they may then know that he is the Lord their God. By the precepts and statutes of the fathers and their judgments he signifies ingrained error, so that they may not imitate the sins of those whose torments they behold.

And the sons exasperated me; they did not walk in my precepts, and did not keep my judgments to do them, which, when a man has done them, he shall live in them, and they violated my sabbaths; and I threatened to pour out my fury upon them, and to fulfill my wrath on them in the desert. But I turned back my hand and acted for my name's sake, that it might not be profaned before the nations from which I cast them out in their eyes. 'But the sons too', he says, 'followed the crimes of their parents and did all that those had done; hence they too deserved a like sentence; but they were preserved by the same greatness of my mercy as their fathers too, and for the same reasons for which I also had mercy on the fathers, so that I, the one and the same Creator of both, might soften my wrath with a like patience'. We run through the plain things so as to pass on to the more obscure.

How could it be shown from the testimony of the prophets, already received among the Gentiles in the New Testament, that the promise which God made to Abraham has been fulfilled through the coming of Christ? — It is written in the prophet Isaiah: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7). But perhaps the Jews will say: The house of God, that is, the synagogue, is open to all. Nor do we object; yet in such a way that, as always, the circumcised join themselves to the Law. For their Law is that by which they were commanded, after the manner of Abraham, to be circumcised. Therefore, nothing new can seem to be signified by this example of the prophet; since anyone coming from any nation has never been forbidden from the beginning of Judaism to join himself to the Law. Nothing new spoken by the prophet can be thought, indeed it would be unessential, if the Gentiles have always been admitted to serve the God of Abraham and are never found to have been forbidden. And this is true, because those who submit themselves to the Law are never found not to have been received. If, therefore, these things are so, it seems needless that the prophet admonished about what, once handed down, has always been observed. And could anyone so dull be found as to say that the prophet spoke something unnecessary and empty? I do not know for whom it would be safe even to hear this and not oppose it. For since the Jewish people, on account of the sins which they committed against God, seeking help from idols, were often rebuked by the prophets but refused to enter upon the path of repentance so as to return to God, God, in reproach of them, indicated that He would open His house to all nations to pray, so that, the Jews being cast off, He would show that He would place others in their place. For if the nations have always been admitted to the Law, as was said above, how could the prophet say that this would happen in the future, unless he meant something different from what had been previously commanded? He could not speak of a thing which was done daily as though it were going to come. Therefore it is clear that this tends to the ruin of the Jews, to whom the prophet shows that, with them removed, others were to be called and were to receive the house of God’s grace, which had been promised to the Jews. What that promise is, the prophet Isaiah teaches, saying: “There shall come out of Zion one who shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and this shall be my covenant with them” (Isa. 59:20–21). Therefore this covenant is the removal of sins. This is the New Covenant, which was promised through Jeremiah, who says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will accomplish for the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I arranged for their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord” (Jer. 31:31–32). This is their transgression, when they made the image of a calf; then they corrupted His covenant. Therefore also the tablets on which the Law had been given were shattered under the mountain (Exod. 32:4, 19), because they deserved to receive more severe precepts. But because God is mild and merciful, He promised through the prophets that He would change the Law, so as to give another Covenant, which would differ from that which He had given before: that not only what was burdensome might be changed, but also those things which were given in figure, that is, the sabbath and circumcision; so that, since they had long been oppressed, being relieved in all things, they might give grateful thanks to God as petitioners. And because, persisting in their fathers’ transgression, they refused to turn their minds away from idols, He testifies that the nations, together with the remnant who kept the faith, will enjoy the Covenant which He had said would come: so that the faithless Jews might be tortured in a twofold way. For they were burdened for a time by the precepts, and in the future they will pay fitting penalties, because they were found faithful neither in the Old nor in the New Covenant. So He said that He would give a New Covenant, so that the Old, which had been given to the Fathers, would cease. And therefore, whoever serves God in this Covenant does not observe the sabbath, nor new moons, nor circumcision, nor distinctions of foods; but has only the fear of God in faith: because he will not be justified by the Law, but by faith, as the prophet Habakkuk says: “For the righteous shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4); so that he no longer uses many precepts to gain favor with God, but few. Isaiah again, speaking with the same meaning, says: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be saved. For the Lord shall accomplish and cut short His word in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short word upon the whole earth” (Isa. 10:22–23). For the remnant who will persevere in the faith of the promise, while the others do not believe, He shows the shortened word of the Law: this is the New Covenant which He promised. It would not otherwise be called a Covenant, unless in a similar way this too were confirmed by the witness of blood, just as the Old Covenant, so that both might have one and the same name: but in the Old, many precepts, in the New, however, few, as He promised. So that, since He had said that Abraham would be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4–5), in the same way the sons might be justified as the father had been justified: so that, once those things ceased which began after the faith of Abraham, those who receive the faith by which that same Abraham was justified might be sons of Abraham, as was said by the Lord. And this is neither strange nor unheard of, that men should be justified without care for the sabbath and circumcision and the rest of the commandments of this sort. For Enoch did not please God by this, that he might be translated; nor was Noah found righteous in the flood by observing this alone; nor was Abraham himself justified after he was circumcised: “Abraham,” it says, “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Heb. 11:5, 7, 8; Rom. 4:3). Then he was circumcised, so that there might be in him a sign that, though he was old, he believed that he would have a son. Therefore it is not circumcision that commends Abraham, but faith. And so, for those who believe, faith is sufficient for justification, that they may be sons of Abraham in faith, not in circumcision, because they have no need of circumcision. For what Abraham believed is not what is believed in their case. But the Jews were therefore ordered to be circumcised, so that they might have the sign of Abraham’s faith, not of their own faith, but so that they might be known as his sons according to the flesh. Yet if they believe, they will be his sons also in justification. For what advantage is it to be called the son of a powerful man if one is powerless, except that it is even more harmful? For it is a disgrace to be the son of a noble and glorious man without honor. Indeed, bodily circumcision is so far from being a merit that God says through the prophet Jeremiah that He will take vengeance on all the circumcised in foreskin, if they are not circumcised in heart (Jer. 4:4). Yet He is not angry with those who are circumcised in heart but uncircumcised in flesh, because no one has ever pleased God without the circumcision of the heart. Whoever, therefore, are circumcised in the flesh signify the lineage of Abraham according to the flesh; but those who are circumcised in heart signify the lineage of God according to faith, because, being circumcised from all worldly error, they confess God as their Father. What then does the circumcision of the flesh profit, if, when faith is lacking in the Jew, he cannot attain to the merit of Abraham? Or what harm is there in foreskin, when no one attains to his righteousness except the one who has followed the faith of Abraham? They therefore glory in the circumcision of the flesh in vain, since they see that it has no merit before God. And since, as has been shown, it is better to have faith than circumcision, the Gentiles are better than the Jews; for the Gentiles have faith, the Jews have circumcision. And whom do you think He recognizes more as sons of Abraham: those who are like him according to the flesh, or those who are like him in faith? But the faith of Abraham bears witness. And therefore he glories not in the flesh but in faith. For this reason he has received as sons those whom he sees to be imitators of his glory. For how can he call those sons from whom he sees a shrinking back from that by which he pleased God and was justified? He will therefore be able to judge them not as his sons, but as his enemies. For they appear to be envious of him, despising the faith through which he was glorified. Nor is it surprising if the Jews are found untrusting, not at all accepting the New Testament, when we know that they were not faithful even in the Old. They were always rebellious and disrespectful against God, and therefore they received such commandments by which their necks, which were unbending, might be pressed down. For they never wished to hope for good things from God, whose such great benefits and such wondrous powers they had come to know. Therefore it is that, among other things, the prophet Ezekiel says: “I lifted up my hand to them in the desert, that they should be scattered among the nations and dispersed in the lands, because they did not perform my ordinances and rejected my commandments.” And in what follows: “I gave them laws that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live in them” (Ezek. 20:23–25). He shows for what reason such great and so harsh commandments were given to them: because they proved ungrateful for such great benefits, and, justice dictating, they were to be pressed by more severe precepts. Therefore He called them “not good,” although they are just: because they did not lead them to justification, but to destruction; and although a punishment rightly inflicted, yet for the one who suffers it, it is not a good. After these things, however, because God is merciful, He promised that He would give the New Testament, in which the shortening of the Law would justify believers, just as Abraham was justified: so that, with new moons and the sabbath and circumcision and the other precepts ceasing, not those that belong to the natural law, that is, murder, adultery, and such things, they might be justified as Abraham was. For, with the faith of Abraham renewed, He willed that all things should cease, so that the time might be such as it was when Abraham believed. But perhaps the Jews say: “If those things that were given by Moses are said to cease through the shortening of the Law, was circumcision given by Moses so that it should cease? And therefore we have the sign of our father, because we are the sons of Abraham, a sign which, for the sake of the testimony of our lineage, ought not to cease.” Circumcision indeed had to be observed in its time, that is, before the New Testament which had been promised was given. But when, by the grace of God, the burdens of the Law were ordered to cease, what need is there of circumcision? Therefore a new Law was given, that is, a spiritual one, so that carnal things might cease, and those who received it might accept its sign: so that just as in the Old Testament they had the sign of Abraham, from whom the Old Testament began, so also in the New they might have the sign of the Savior, who is the institutor of the New Testament. For just as from Abraham they were called Hebrews, so from Christ they are called Christians. Whoever, therefore, are still called Hebrews have not received the New Testament which God promised, bringing to nothing the kindness and mercy of God: for He no longer wished His people to be designated by the name of a man, but agreed to establish them under the name of His Son. With what courage, then, do the Jews say that we do not use our Law but theirs, when David says, “I will give thanks to you among the nations” (Ps. 17:50), and again, “Rejoice, O nations, with his people”? And to the prophet Jeremiah the Lord says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you; and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). Judaism certainly has its own particular signs: for this people is signified either in Jacob, or in Samaria, or in Jerusalem, or in Judea, or in Israel. As for the nations, however, it is clear that He signifies them in a different way than He does the Jews. Therefore Jeremiah is our prophet. For although in all the Prophets God showed that the nations would share in His gift, yet to Jeremiah in particular He says that He has given him to us as a prophet. For he signified that the New Testament would come, which would profit the Gentiles more than the Jews, as now appears clearly. For since the preaching of the New Testament is spread over the whole earth, a faithful Jew is so rarely and with such difficulty found that all the Churches of the New Testament are called “of the nations,” as it was said in the prophet Hosea: “I will call that which is not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved” (Hosea 2:24; Rom. 9:25). Therefore, the Jews having been rejected, He calls the nations with the same mercy and grace with which He agreed to call Abraham. For Abraham did not come to know the Lord without being called. Therefore, He who agreed to call Abraham likewise agreed to call the nations. Why then do they say, “The Law is ours,” when it is clear that the gift of God is for all who are willing? Let this careless violation cease, since the grace of God is common to all. With what shame do they deny that our Christ was promised in the Law, when they see in Him all the signs which the Law foretold as to come? For both according to the promise made to Abraham all nations are justified by believing in Him (Gen. 22:18); and according to the prophet Isaiah He was born of a Virgin (Isa. 7:14) in Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah, as was promised, from the seed of David (Micah 5:2); and in accordance with what Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 31:31–32), He proclaimed the New Testament which God then promised would come; and after all the signs of power had been shown, He humbled Himself, according to the words of the Prophets; and having suffered all that had been foretold, He rose on the third day, as it is written in the prophet. And if they inquire about the time of the promise, as it is shown in the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9:24 ff.), they will find it fulfilled in the time when Christ was born and suffered: for from the first year of Darius, king of the Persians, down to the birth and passion of the Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem, which was carried out by Vespasian, chief of the Roman Empire, the seventy weeks were completed, which are four hundred and ninety years, a reckoning made clear through the kingdoms and the successors of the empire. Therefore also it is found calculated by Tertullian in the book which he wrote against the Jews; but, lest this should backfire to his disadvantage, although he calculated correctly, we have passed it over in silence. And who can doubt this number, when now about three hundred years are found in addition to that number? It is therefore shameless, after so many years have been added beyond the time of the coming of the Saviour, to say, “He has not come.” Under the Apostles, or at the time when the Lord was living among men, hatred opposing the truth could still hide itself; so that, although it saw all the signs of the Christ who had been promised in the Savior, it could say that it doubted about the time, to conceal its unbelief. But afterwards, when many years began to exceed the promised number, what shamelessness it is to deny that He has come, whose coming is known to have been fulfilled both by signs and by times! For when something is full and does not overflow, a combative person may say that it is not full; but overflow closes the mouth of the argumentative. So the Jews, in the time of the Saviour, could say, though deceitfully, that the calculation from the time of Darius to the Lord Christ was not correctly made, so that He might not be acknowledged as the one who had been promised. We are mistaken, they might say, in the years and in the months and in the days of the emperors, and we do not make an exact reckoning. But when the times have extended beyond the prescribed number of years of the promised Christ, no excuse can be put forward to deny that He who has come is the Christ, unless, which God forbid, the one who promised is said to have lied. For when the time of the promise has elapsed, and it is denied that the one who was promised has come, what else is charged against the promiser but falsehood? Yet that He who made the promise is truthful, all the signs teach which were foretold in Christ and are known to have been found in Christ. The Jews, however, while they are ashamed to change themselves, do not consider that there will be a judgment to come. For nothing is worse than for someone to deny that a thing is true when he understands that it is not a lie.

Again I lifted up my hand against them in the wilderness, to scatter them among the nations and winnow them into the lands, because they had not done my judgments, and had rejected my precepts, and had violated my sabbaths, and their eyes had been after the idols (or thoughts) of their fathers. Therefore I too gave them precepts not good, and judgments in which they shall not live; and I defiled them in their gifts, when they offered (or made pass over) everything that opens the womb, for their transgressions (for which the Seventy translated that I might destroy them. And what they passed over:), and they shall know that I am the Lord. Where in the Old Testament the Lord lifted up his hand against the sons of those who fell in the wilderness, wishing to scatter them among the nations, Scripture does not say, but from what he relates here we must believe that it happened; or else this signifies that, after they had entered the land of promise, at various times on account of many sins they were handed over to diverse nations and kings, and at that time the precepts of the Lord and the judgments, which were good by their nature and in which believers could live, were made not good for them, since in captivity they were by no means able to keep the precepts of the law and do what the divine word commanded; nor did he say: I gave them 'evil' precepts, but 'not good' — for it does not at once follow that what is not good is evil, as the Apostle too teaches: that it is good for a man not to touch a wife or a woman, but, because of incontinence, for each one to possess his own vessel in sanctification and chastity; and if he does this, it is neither good nor evil —; so God gave them, scattered among the nations, precepts not good — that is, he gave them up to their own thoughts and desires —, so that they did what is not fitting; and he defiled them in their gifts, like a priest separating the lepers from the people and declaring them to be defiled, while they offer to idols what they ought to offer to God; and they make everything that opens the womb, that is, the firstborn, pass through the fire to Baal, so that, after they have been abandoned by God and handed over to the worship of idols, they may then understand that he is the Lord whom by their own fault they roused to anger. Symmachus translated this passage more plainly, putting the future for the past: Therefore I too will give them precepts not good, and judgments on account of which they shall not live, and I will defile them on account of their gifts; because they consecrate and make pass over what opens the womb, that I may destroy them, and they may know that I am the Lord; and the sense is: 'Because I saw that the sons were equaling the crimes of their fathers and doing the same things for which those had offended God, I wished to divide them among the nations, and scatter them through the whole world, and give them precepts not good, and judgments in which they would not live, so as to defile them in their gifts, because they were consecrating all the firstborn to idols, and to destroy them forever, and that they might know that I am the Lord'. He shows that he did not give the precepts not good to those who were staying in the desert, but that to those whom he wished to scatter among the nations and make strangers throughout the whole world he had thought of giving what he did not give, so that there, by their own fault, they would make the good precepts of God not good, while they present to idols what God had commanded to be presented to himself.

Wherefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Still in this too your fathers blasphemed me, when they had spurned me with contempt, and I had brought them into the land over which I lifted up my hand to give it to them; they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they sacrificed their victims there, and there they gave the provocation of their offering, and there they set their odor of sweetness and poured out their libations. And I said to them: What is the high place to which you go in? And its name was called 'high place' to this day. (LXX: "Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and you shall say to them: Thus says Adonai the Lord: Even to this your fathers provoked me to anger in their transgressions by which they fell away against me, and I brought them into the land over which I lifted up my hand to hand it over to them; and they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and they sacrificed there to their gods and set the fury of their gifts, and set there the odor of their fragrance, and poured out there their libations. And I said to them: What is ἀβανὰ [abana, a transliteration], that you go in there? And they called its name ἀβανὰ to this present day.") 'I wished', he says, 'to scatter them among all the nations when they sinned in the wilderness and to give them precepts not good, so that they would sacrifice to idols what they ought to have offered to me, and consecrate to them all their firstborn through fire, so that I might kill them and wipe them out'. — When he says 'I wished', he shows that he did not do what he wished. And what follows: They shall know that I am the Lord, is not found in the Seventy; for it did not seem to them consistent that after the slaying they should know that he is the Lord —.

For a paedagogus, as the word is rendered in the Latin, is the teacher of a boy; and he cannot apply perfect precepts to an imperfect age, because it cannot bear them. Again, the God of the Law says by the Prophet, I gave them also statutes that were not good, that is, not perfect. But the same God has preserved more perfect things for the Gospel, as He says, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil the Law.

This Law, then, he says, works wrath; for these things were added by God when angry, so that they might be a burden upon the unbelief of the Jews. In matters so many, it is inevitable that something be omitted. Therefore the Apostle Peter says: “Why,” he asks, “do you put a yoke upon the neck of the brothers which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10). Finally, God says through the prophet Jeremiah: “I gave them statutes that were not good” (Ezek. 20:25). For after many offenses and temptings of God, and insults against Moses and detractions from God, these things were given for them to observe, so that their stiff neck might be pressed down, and wherever they turned, they would have the Law, so that there might be no refreshment for them.

WHY WERE CIRCUMCISION AND PRECEPTS GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE, WHICH PREVIOUSLY DID NOT EXIST AND NOW ARE NO LONGER HELD IN AUTHORITY? — Circumcision is a sign of Abraham’s faith, so that when this sign was seen in his sons, it might be known that they were his sons, who, believing God, had received this sign (Gen. 17:10–11). But the commandments about Sabbaths and things past were given as testimony, and about things to come which were to have a figure (Exod. 20:9–11). For the future Sabbath, in which He will grant rest in eternity, is foreshadowed by this Sabbath that was made in the completed week. The law of foods, however, was not given at the beginning of the Law, but when, under a leader, they were faithless and did not want to give faith to God’s words and promises, they received, because of the hardness of their heart, precepts that were not good, as the prophet Jeremiah says (Ezek. 20:25). This was done so that their neck might be pressed down, for their own improvement. For the whole creation ought not to have been subjected to proud and stubborn men. Later, however, when the mercy of God came, freedom to eat was restored. Therefore the apostle Peter says: Why do you put a yoke upon the neck of the brothers, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? (Acts 15:10).

But, why should I not say that the requirements of ancient ceremonies are not good because people are not justified by them; they are figures that foreshadow the grace, by which we are justified.… They are not bad, because they were precepts of divine origin, adapted to times and people, although in this estimate I am supported by the prophetic statement in which God said that he had given to that people "statutes that were not good." It happens that he did not say that they were bad but only that they were not good: that is, such that with them, people become good; without them, they do not. I would like your kind sincerity to inform me whether any oriental saint who comes to Rome and fasts on Saturday—except the eve of Easter—is acting deceitfully. If we say that is wrong, we shall condemn the Roman church and also many places near it and others somewhat further away, where the same custom continues to be observed.

[Israel] received statutes that were not good and commandments that were altogether evil whereby it should not live but should be punished through them.

And Ezekiel, in the person of God: "I led out", he says, "them", that is, the people of the Jews, "from the land of Egypt: and I led them into the desert: and I gave them my precepts, and showed them my justifications: which a man shall do, and live in them" (Ezek. 20:10). But concerning that law which works wrath, to which the Apostle too died, he adds afterward: "And I gave them precepts that were not good, and justifications in which they shall not live in them" (ibid., 25).

But let us not think that to live in them are the words of the Apostle, but of the prophet Ezekiel, who says: "And I led them out into the desert, and I gave them my precepts, and showed them my ordinances, which a man shall do, and shall live in them" (Ezek. 20:10, 11). And when he had said that those who had walked in the precepts and ordinances live, he added: "And I gave them precepts not good, and ordinances in which they should not live in them" (ibid., 25). How much care in the words! Where he said: "I gave them precepts and ordinances in which they should live in them", he did not add "good". But where he put "in which they should not live in them", he added: "And I gave them precepts not good, and ordinances in which they shall not live in them". But these things more fully in Ezekiel: now let us return to the order of the Epistle.

In another way, however, we shall affirm that the weak and needy elements are the traditions of the Jews and the base understanding according to the letter, which are statutes that are not good and precepts that are not good. For the spiritual understanding of the Law is strong and rich (Ezek. 20), so that either it ought not to be called an element at all, or it is indeed an element by comparison with the age to come and with the life in Christ Jesus, by which the angels and the heavenly powers now live. But compared with the Jewish sense, it should be called not so much an element, that is, a beginning, as perfection.

This too can be said: that before the offense they received only the Decalogue, but after the idolatry and blasphemy the manifold ceremonies of the law, so that they would rather offer to God the victims which they were offering to demons, and, by comparison with sacrilege, what was not good in itself would become lighter: by no means evil, because they were offered to God, and yet not good, because they had offended the author of good.

Whoever lives under the light of the grace of the gospel and overcomes evil not by resisting it but by bearing it and who does not hesitate of his own free will to give his other cheek to one who strikes his right cheek, who gives his cloak also to one who wants to raise a lawsuit against him for his coat, and who loves his enemies and prays for those who slander him, this man has broken the yoke of sin and burst its chains. For he is not living under the law, which does not destroy the seeds of sin.

They, it is well known, when they led not a life of toil but indulged in relaxation, not being able to bear prosperity, fell away into ungodliness. What then did God upon this? He laid upon them a multitude of laws with a view to restrain their licence. And to convince you that these laws contribute not to any virtue, but were given to them as a sort of curb, providing them with an occasion of perpetual labor; hear what saith the prophet concerning them; "I gave them statutes which were not good." What means, "not good?" Such as did not much contribute towards virtue. Wherefore he adds also, "and ordinances whereby they shall not live."

God finds fault with the commandments of the Old Testament, for he says, "I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life," because of their hardness of heart.

For as regards the former people, what good or perfect thing could be commanded to those who murmured and contradicted? Indeed, a little later they even turn to idols, and forgetful of the benefits and wonders of God they set up the head of a calf. For this reason, therefore, precepts are given to them, in which they may be tested. Hence it is that also through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says to them: "I gave you precepts and ordinances that were not good, in which you shall not live by them"; for being tested in the precepts of the Lord they are not found faithful.

We hold, then, that the law has a twofold sense—the one literal, the other spiritual—as has been shown by some before us. Of the first or literal sense it is said, not by us but by God, speaking in one of the prophets, that "the statutes are not good, and the judgments not good"; whereas, taken in a spiritual sense, the same prophet makes God say that "his statutes are good, and his judgments are good."

'But you, son of man, speak again to them, that is, to the elders of the house of Israel who came to inquire of you: Your fathers, from whose stock you are descended, blasphemed me in this too and held me for nothing: after I had brought them into the land, which they possessed by my strength, which I had given them to possess, they turned it to provoking me; for when they had seen every high hill and leafy tree, they sacrificed on the mountains and in the groves and in the woodlands, and sacrificed victims to idols, and poured out offerings; and when I saw this, I said to them: What is 'bama' — for this means 'high place' —, or why do you go into such a place, which you have chosen for yourselves on all the hills, so that to this day places of this kind are called 'bamoth' and the ancient error keeps its former name?'.

For 'bama', which we rendered as 'high place', an error has prevailed in the edition of the Seventy, so that ἀβανὰ is written, which means nothing in the Hebrew language; 'bama', if you divide its two syllables into two words, can mean 'in what', but that sense does not fit the present passage; but wherever it is written in the books of Kings and Chronicles: Still the people burned incense and sacrificed on the high place, 'bama' in the singular and 'bamoth' in the plural mean 'high places'.

Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: You are defiled in the way of your fathers, and you commit fornication after their stumbling-blocks, and in the offering of your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you are defiled with all your idols to this day; and shall I answer you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not answer you. 'You imitate the vices of your fathers and walk by the same ways, so that like offenses deserve a like punishment too; and you have advanced so far in crimes that you consecrate your sons to demons through fire, nor is it enough to have done this once, but even at present you do the same things; not that the elders in captivity do these things, but that those who were staying in Jerusalem and over whom captivity was hanging do not cease to do all these things. And when you are bound by such great outrages, do you seek', he says, 'my answer? As I live, says the Lord, and I swear by my own self, I will not answer you'. And what follows:

Nor shall the thought of your mind come to pass, of you who say: We will be like the nations and like the families of the earth, to worship wood and stones. As I live, says the Lord God, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with fury poured out I will reign over you, has this sense: 'Do not think that your thoughts, by which you blaspheme against me, can be fulfilled; for you say: We do not wish to be under the Lord nor to be called his people, but, as all the nations in the whole world are, and each people lives by its own will, so as to worship wood and stones and serve idols, we too will be one nation out of many'.

The first Passover is of the first people; the second Passover is ours. For we were "unclean in soul", we who "worshiped wood and stone" and "not knowing God served those who by nature were not gods". We also were those who "were journeying far", of whom the Apostle says that we were "strangers and sojourners from the covenants of God, having no hope and without God in this world".

To which God replies, and swears by himself, and says: 'I will not leave you nor despise you, as negligent masters are accustomed to despise runaway slaves, but I will drag you back to my rule, and with arm outstretched and striking I will reduce you to your former servitude and reign over you, so that, whether you will or not, you may have me as king, and may feel as an angry king him whose clemency you neglected'.

And I will lead you out from the peoples, and gather you from the lands in which you are scattered; with a mighty hand, and an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out I will reign over you. 'I will not suffer you', he says, 'to be among the nations nor to be held in eternal captivity, but I will lead you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands into which hostile necessity has scattered you here and there to be slaves; and I will do these things not to destroy you and wipe you out, but to be your king'. From this we understand that even what the heretics call the cruelty of the Creator sounds of clemency, since he is angry and rages and pours out all his fury for this purpose: to draw back to his kingdom those who had chosen the tyranny of demons, and that to be its slaves.

He commands us to be completely separated from idolatry and have no close dealing with it, because even the earthly serpent sucks people into its jaws at a distance with its breath.

And I will bring you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. As I contended in judgment against your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so will I judge you, says the Lord, and I will subject you to my scepter, and bring you into the bonds of the covenant. And I will pick out from you the transgressors and the ungodly, and I will lead them out of the land of their sojourning, and they shall not enter the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 'I will do', he says, 'to you who are in Babylon and now serve idols what I did to your fathers in Egypt: I will lead you out into the desert of the peoples and there enter into judgment with you face to face, as I contended in judgment against them when they went out of Egypt; and after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and enter into a covenant with you, and bring you into your land in the bonds of love, so that, bound by my love, you may by no means be able to depart from me.

Here is a clear witness that but few will come under God's staff and that this will be when the rest of Israel has fallen away from the promises. I have proved that the divine prophecies did not foretell good things to all the members of the Jewish race universally and indiscriminately whatever happened, to the evil and unholy and those who were the reverse, but to few of them and those easily numbered, in fact to those of them who believed in our Lord and Savior or those justified before his coming. I, therefore, consider that I have shown sufficiently that the divine promises were fulfilled not indiscriminately to all the Jews and that the oracles of the prophets are not more applicable to them than to those of the Gentiles who have received the Christ of God.

But the transgressors and the ungodly, who in hardness of heart persevere in evil works, I will pick out from you, not to possess them but to cast them away; and I will indeed lead them out of the land of their sojourning, so that, once led out, they may not enter the land of Israel but perish in diverse regions, and that, by the distinction of the good and the evil, you may know that I am the Lord who do all things with judgment'. The discourse hastens on to what remains, and we run briefly through each point, so as to offer readers only the sense.

And you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: Walk each of you after your idols, and serve them. But if in this too you do not listen to me, and pollute my holy name any more with your gifts and with your idols. (LXX: "And you, house of Israel, thus says Adonai the Lord: Let each one take away his inventions; and after this, if you listen to me, and do not pollute my holy name any more with your gifts and with your pursuits.") Symmachus translated this passage more plainly: Each of you, go and serve your idols, since you would not listen to me. But my holy name do not pollute any more through your gifts and images. But on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel shall serve me. Symmachus' translation has this meaning: 'Since you do not wish to serve me, go, serve idols and tread in the footsteps of your images; for you do not wish to listen to me: by no means sacrifice victims to me, nor burn incense, nor be called my people — for my worshipers will by no means serve me in groves and shrines and the places of idols, as you do, but on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel —'. The Seventy, for their part, unfold a sense of their own: 'Abandon your former thoughts, and take away the evil sins of your inventions; and if after this you listen to me and do not pollute my name with your gifts and images, then on my holy mountain you shall offer me victims and serve me, all the house of Israel'. Aquila, however, agreeing in part with Symmachus, disagrees in part: Go, he says, after your idols and serve them, since you are unworthy of my rule, nor does your worship delight me; but if in this too you by no means listen to me, but pollute my holy name, while you pretend to offer to me what you offer to idols, and do such blasphemy to my name that, being worshipers of idols, you say that you are mine, know this: that on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, there all the house of Israel shall serve me, not you who serve idols, but all the house of Israel which is afterward to believe.

Admittedly the divine, because it is without a body, is untouchable and entirely intact, because the divine is beyond every creature, both visible and intelligible, and in nature it is incorporeal, immaculate, untouchable and incomprehensible. Since the only-begotten Word of God, having taken a body from the holy virgin, and, as I already said over and over again, having made it his own, offered himself in an odor of sweetness to God the Father as a spotless sacrifice, in this way it is asserted that he endured on our behalf what happened to his flesh. Everything that happened to flesh would rightly be attributed to him, sin alone excepted, for it is his own body. Accordingly, since God the Word became man, he remained impassible as God, but, because he necessarily made the things of his flesh his own, it is asserted that he endured what is according to flesh, although he is without experience of suffering in so far as he is thought of as God.

On my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel shall serve me: all, I say, in the land in which they shall please me; and there I will require your firstfruits and the beginning of your tithes in all your sanctifications. In an odor of sweetness I will receive you, when I have led you out from the peoples and gathered you from the lands into which you were scattered, and I shall be sanctified in you in the eyes of the nations. And you shall know that I am the Lord. Of this mountain, on which all the house of Israel is to serve God, Isaiah and Micah sang with one voice: In the last days the mountain of the house shall be manifest on the summit of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and again Isaiah: Go up onto a high mountain, he says, you who proclaim to Zion; lift up and exalt your voice, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem. This mountain, Zion, we understand either as the Church, which means 'watchtower' and is set on the height of holy doctrines, or as the Lord Savior himself, in whom the firstfruits and the tithes and all worship are turned into an odor of sweetness, so that all the nations round about, seeing that the people of the Lord has been saved, may glorify God, and those who have been saved may know that he is the Lord.

Consider yourselves as having been transferred from prison to what we may call a place of safety. Darkness is there, but you are light; chains are there, but you are free before God. It breathes forth a foul smell, but you are an odor of sweetness.

When I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land for which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers. 'Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you', he says, 'into the land of Israel, for which I lifted up my hand to bring your fathers into it, which they lost by their own fault and which you have received back not so much by your own merit as by my clemency'.

And you shall remember your ways and all your crimes, with which you were defiled in them; and you shall be displeasing to yourselves in your own sight in all your wickednesses which you have done. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have done good to you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways nor according to your most wicked crimes, house of Israel, says the Lord God. We cannot remember our crimes and vices unless we have been brought into the land of Israel and, set there, say with the Apostle: I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. And you shall be displeasing, he says, to yourselves in your own sight in all your wickednesses which you have done (or, as Symmachus translated: And you shall seem little to yourselves because of all your wickednesses which you have wrought), so that, after they have been exalted, they may believe themselves to be lowly, because: The Lord gives grace to the humble, and in another place it is written: Before crushing the heart of a man is exalted, and before height it is humbled: for crushing follows pride, and exaltation follows humility.

We are thus taught by the words of the Lord himself: everything is granted to us by God, and that the whole of our salvation is to be ascribed not to the merit of our own works but to heavenly grace.

And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have done good to you: and we came to know the Lord Savior the more at that time when he did good to us and suffered for our sins and bore our iniquities and grieved for us, not for any merit of those who are saved but for his name's sake; otherwise our ways and most wicked crimes deserved not mercy but punishment. But whatever we have said of the people of Israel, which, freed from Egypt, committed many things in the wilderness and offended God, and afterward, brought into the land of promise, venerated idols and worshiped wood and stones, and afterward was preserved by the clemency of God, let us refer to those who have been freed from the Egypt of this world by the high hand of the Lord and, brought into the wilderness of vices, sighed again for Egypt and did the things for which they ought to have been punished, but nonetheless, through repentance, not by their own merit but by the clemency of the Lord, have been preserved.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against the way of the south, and drip toward the southwest, and prophesy to the forest of the southern field. And you shall say to the southern forest: Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and I will burn up in you all green wood and all dry wood; the flame of the kindling shall not be extinguished, and every face shall be burned in it from the south to the north: and all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it, and it shall not be extinguished. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God; they say of me: Does not this man speak in parables? (LXX: "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, make firm your face upon Theman, and look toward Darom, prophesy upon the forest, the leader Nageb. And you shall say to the forest Nageb: Hear the speech of the Lord: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour in you all green wood and all dry wood; the kindled flame shall not be extinguished, and every face shall burn in it from the midday to the north: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be extinguished. And I said: By no means, Lord, Lord; they say to me: Is not this which is spoken a parable?") What Set (or make firm) your face means, we have said more fully above; for there is need of firmness of countenance and hardness of brow, so that the prophet may speak fearlessly the things he is commanded, above all when sad things must be announced to the whole multitude of the people. Now what 'Theman' and 'Darom' and 'Nageb', and again 'Nageb', for which the Seventy translated ἀπηλιὼτην [Apeliotes, the east wind], signify in the Hebrew, our translation has expressed. And as for their saying 'leader Nageb', the Hebrew has it better, 'of the field' or 'of the southern region'; for what is written is not 'sare', as the Seventy supposed, a word that means 'leader' and 'prince', but 'sade', which properly signifies 'field' and 'region'; and the error grew up because of the likeness of the letters 'daleth' [d] and 'res' [r].

And beautifully, at the beginning: Drip, he says, toward the southwest, so that not the whole wrath of God may seem to be poured out, but a kind of drip and a part. But if there is such savagery in a drip, what must be reckoned of whole downpours, so that all flesh, which is to see the salvation of God, may know through the burning of the woods and through the flame that is extinguished by no one's help that he himself is the Lord?

Tropologically, however, Theman and Nageb and Darom can be understood as Egypt; for we read in Daniel that the south is frequently taken for Egypt; and Egypt refers to the straits of this world. Ezekiel therefore prophesies the evils that are to come upon the world, which he calls a forest, one that has no fruit-bearing trees but is a dwelling-place of beasts, of which it is also said in Psalm 28 (29): The voice of the Lord perfecting the stags, and he will uncover the thickets of the woods. These are the woods and forests that devoured more of Absalom's army in the battle than the sword killed. And in the forests the green wood is kindled first, and then the dry: those who live in evil, and those who are dead to righteousness. And what is said, And every face shall be burned in it from the south to the north, says this: from those who seemed to be fervent in spirit to those who, as iniquity increased and the love of many grew cold, have lost their former warmth, so that all flesh may perceive that the flame of the Lord is not extinguished.

The divine word, then, speaks through the μεταφορὰν [metaphor] of a forest against Jerusalem, which is a dwelling of beasts and of fierce men, saying that he will set it on fire and that all its wood will be burned up together; by no means does he call trees those that were lacking in fruit, but wood, as if made ready for burning. And first he burns in it the green wood, according to what we read in this same prophet: And begin from my holy ones, and afterward the dry, which could have nothing living in itself; that is, the saints and the sinners together, so that some by captivity may escape an evil death, while others are handed over to eternal punishments. And what he adds, From the south to the north, indicates this: from Jerusalem to Babylon, so that the whole road of those going into captivity may be filled with those falling by sword, famine and pestilence; for to those who are in Babylon, Jerusalem lies to the south, just as, conversely, the pot of Jeremiah, which signifies Jerusalem, is kindled from the face of the north, that is, of Babylon.

Understanding this, the prophet answered: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God (or, as the Seventy translated: By no means, Lord), and he adds: They say to me: Does not this man speak in parables? (or: Is this a parable which is spoken?), and the sense is: 'Speak more plainly; we do not understand what you are saying in a parable; open to us the meaning of God in plain speech'.

And the prophet prays that what the Lord has threatened may not come to pass, that is, that the forest may not be set on fire and all the wood burned up together, so that either they may still receive room for repentance, or the necessity of announcing sad things may not be laid upon him, especially since the people do not understand them and are provoked rather to madness by the obscurity of the sayings.