Ezekiel 29

In the tenth year (or, according to the Seventy, the twelfth), in the eleventh month (or, according to the Hebrew, the twelfth), on the first (or one) day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set (or make firm) your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and you shall prophesy concerning him, and concerning all Egypt you shall speak, and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God. After Sidon, which itself too is situated on the coast of Phoenicia, the word comes to the prophet in the tenth year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin, and in the twelfth month, and on one day of the month, that he should set his face, or make it firm, against Pharaoh king of Egypt and speak concerning all, or to all, Egypt; and that the province of Egypt, situated on the same coast on the other side of Judea, should be described, and the things that are to come upon it be prophesied. But if something must be said about the numbers: the place that one holds among ten days — whence also at the beginning of Genesis it is not said: There was evening and morning, day 'first', but 'one', so as to teach that the same day always comes round again — that same rank the tenth number will hold among ten decades, that is, the number one hundred, the tenth on which the lamb is taken up for the victim, to be sacrificed on the fourteenth day; and in this way, up to a thousand and ten thousand and a hundred thousand and beyond, the order of numbers proceeds by its decades; and after the tenth year the 'twelfth' month is set down, so that the perfect number of the twelve apostles and of the prophets — who are contained in one volume — may be shown; further, according to the Seventy, the 'tenth' month, which in Hebrew is called 'tebeth' and among the Egyptians 'tybi', and among the Romans is called 'Ianuarius' [January] because among them it is the door [ianua] of the year, holds the first place of winter's cold, all heat having been taken away; let it suffice to have said this about the numbers.

But this above all must be inquired: whether it is the same Pharaoh who is named in Exodus and in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and in many other places, and in the Song: To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you, my near one, or one and then another; and it seems to me that he is not one, but that among the Egyptians the royal dignity is indicated by this word, just as among the Romans their kings are called 'Caesars' and 'Augusti' — from the first, Gaius 'Caesar', and the second, his adopted son Octavian, who was afterwards named 'Augustus' —, and among the Syrians 'Antiochuses', among the Persians 'Arsacids', among the Philistines 'Abimelech', and, after Alexander, in Egypt 'Ptolemies' down to Cleopatra, at whose defeat at Actium Egypt was made a Roman province; therefore at present the word of the Lord is spoken against any one whatever of the kings of Egypt, who is interpreted as διασκεδάστης, namely 'slayer' and 'mangler' and 'one who cuts down and divides all things with the sword'. This, according to the mystical senses, is to be referred to that power to which Egypt is subject; for a man would never dare to say: The rivers are mine and I made them, nor would he be called a 'dragon', 'great and sitting in the midst of his rivers'; now Egypt is called 'mesraim' in Hebrew, and into our language it is rendered ἐκθλίβουσα, that is, 'straitening' and 'afflicting' those who are subject to it, and not allowing them to lift their eyes to heaven but — according to the Gospel and the example of that woman whom the devil had bent over for eighteen years — always plunging them down toward earthly things. Let us see, then, what the threat is against Pharaoh and all Egypt.

These things are said by μεταφορὰν [metaphor] as to the king of Egypt, because the province itself too was by no means hostile to Israel, but, while it promised great things, it separated them from the help of God; but according to ἀναγωγὴν [anagogy, the higher sense] we often read the 'dragon' as the opposing power — whence also Pharaoh is called διασκεδάστης, because he separates and disjoins from God, and 'Egypt', that is, μεσραὶμ, is rendered 'those who afflict' and 'those who distress', namely those whom it has been able to subjugate to itself. This dragon is the transgressor of whom Job speaks most fully, and in the Psalms it is written: You broke the heads of the dragon, you gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples —, and the dragon is called 'great' in comparison with lesser dragons — of which it is sung: You broke the heads of the dragons in the waters, and in another place: This sea, great and spacious, there are creeping things of which there is no number, small animals with great. There the ships will pass through, this dragon which you formed to mock it, of whom it is also said in another place: He is king of all that are in the waters, and the beginning of the Lord's fashioning, who was made to be mocked by his angels —; and he sits, or lies, in the midst of his rivers, not of one river but of many, which we take to be the various heresies, through which he flowed into the Egypt of this world and watered the souls of the seduced, not with rains coming from heaven but with muddy waters from the earth — which Jeremiah does not forbid to drink, saying: What have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you should drink the water 'Geon' — for which in the Hebrew 'Sior' is written, a word which is rendered 'muddy' and 'miry' waters — ?; but that we may understand what the rivers of the dragon of Egypt are, we shall be able to know from their opposites: the Lord speaks of his own rivers: He who believes in me, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly, and to the Samaritan woman: Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will not thirst forever, but there will become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life; these are the rivers coming from heaven, of which David sings: The rush of the river gladdens 'the city of God', which no doubt signifies 'the Church' —.

Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, great dragon who lie (or sit) in the midst of your rivers and say: The river is mine, and I made myself (or them). And I will put a bridle (or a snare) in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales (or wings), and I will draw you out of the midst of your rivers, and all your fish shall cling to your scales. And I will cast (or set down) you swiftly (or into the desert), and all the fish of your river upon the face of the earth (or of your field); falling, you shall not be gathered up nor brought together; to the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven I have given you to be devoured. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because you have become (or have been) a staff (or a reed rod) to the house of Israel, when they took hold (or it took hold) of you with their hand and you were broken, and you tore all their shoulder, and when they leaned upon you, you were shattered, and you loosened (or broke) all their reins. For the sake of brevity we mix both editions where they do not differ much from each other; otherwise, where there is great diversity, we set out both. Now he speaks against Pharaoh, the prince of Egypt, and, under his figure, addresses a great power to which Egypt was handed over to be ruled and which nonetheless grew proud against its Creator, claiming for itself dominion over the land and offering itself to the Egyptian peoples to be worshiped; and he speaks, in keeping with the situation of the province, as to a king: that he trusts in the flooding of the Nile and does not greatly desire rains from heaven, and thinks himself his own author, or boasts that the rivers, that is, the διωρυγάς [canals], and the streams of the Nile were made by himself: 'I will not,' he says, 'send an angel, but, O great dragon who lie and settle in the midst of your rivers, I myself will come to you to punish you; for you dared to say: The river Nile is mine and I am my own founder, or: I myself made the river by which all Egypt is watered. And when I come, I will put a bridle in your jaws, or bind with snares your mouth with which you spoke so grandly, and all your allies and leaders, whom they call fish, I will make cling to your wings or scales, so that, drawn out of the river, you may be cast out or set down: for you had lifted yourself up too high, in the desert; and you will fall upon the face of the field, or of your land, because Egypt is a province of plains, and your carcass will not be gathered up nor will you be brought together, that is: you will by no means be buried, but I will give you to the beasts and the birds of heaven to be devoured, so that, when they have seen these things accomplished in you by my judgment, the inhabitants of Egypt may know that I myself am the Lord; and these things will befall you because you deceived my people Israel with your help, so that they trusted not at all in God their creator but in you: you were to them a reed staff — according to Isaiah —, or a hollow rod and a most fragile reed, leaning on which they found their protection worthless, so that, as they rested their weight on you, you were broken and tore the shoulder and the hand by which you were held, and, while they felt secure in you, all their loins were shattered as they fell to the ground and received wounds instead of help'.

Let us consider, then, what the dragon's penalty is, or what his punishment. There follows: And I will put a bridle (or a snare) in your jaws — like which is that passage of Job: But you will bring the dragon with a hook and you will put a halter around his nostrils. He will trust that the Jordan may enter into his mouth; with his eye he will take it in. But he will pierce his nostrils, with a ring his lip —. Now the Lord puts a bridle in the jaws of this dragon and pierces his lips and binds them with the circle of a ring when, through churchmen who are learned in the holy Scriptures, he imposes silence on him and all the doctrines of perversity are dissolved; and he glues the fish of his rivers to his wings or scales — by which the heretics through pride hasten to the heights —, so that they too, joined with the dragon, may make one body with him; and they are coupled to him either in fellowship of error or in likeness of punishment, just as: He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit. Nor indeed does the Egyptian dragon have one river, but many rivers, with which he waters Egypt, low and cast down and having no mountains in it, nor the waters of Siloam, which go with silence, but 'muddy' and 'miry' ones; whence also the Lord draws him out of the midst of his rivers, so that he may by no means lie upon them nor sit in them, and all the fish cling to his scales — clinging over the whole body of the dragon, according to the quality of their vices, either to the head or to the belly or to the tail and the extremities — so that, when the dragon is drawn out, the fish too which cling to him may be drawn out together.

'And I will cast you,' he says, 'into the desert, so that you will by no means find any to deceive, or certainly I will set you down from the summit of your pride, and I will set you down swiftly' — according to that saying of the Apostle: But may the God of peace crush Satan under your feet swiftly —, so that, when the dragon is crushed and set down, the fish of his river too may be set down, and the author of crimes may fall, who formerly thought that he stood and ran about through the whole world; and let him fall upon the face of his own earth, to which he was cast headlong from heaven, so that he may by no means any longer be gathered in the churches of the heretics, nor be brought together or buried in those who believed him, once they have been freed from him, but may be given to be devoured by the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven: the beasts, of which it is written: Do not hand over the soul that confesses to you, and the birds of heaven, which eat the seed beside the way and are interpreted by the Savior to be devils — for not only the prince of wickedness but also his disciples are named devils, according to what is said of Judas: Did I not choose you twelve? and one of you is a devil —; and they are called birds of heaven because they promise themselves lofty things; so that, after the dragon with his fish has been set down and cast out, and handed over to be devoured by the beasts of the earth, which have nothing of gentleness in them, and by those who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, then the inhabitants of this world may understand that he himself is the Lord; and the whole cause of the punishments is that he promised help to the house of Israel in vain and was to it a rod or reed staff, hollow and empty, having nothing of fullness in it, because he could not say: But we have all received of his fullness, since Scripture has commanded: You shall not appear in the sight of the Lord your God empty (or hollow); and that we ought not to ask help from Egypt, Scripture testifies elsewhere too: Woe to those who go down into Egypt for help.

Of a reed staff of this kind Rabshakeh too vainly reproaches Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: Behold, trusting in this reed rod, and a broken one, upon Egypt; whoever leans on it, it goes into his hand: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt and all who trust in him; and he indeed was lying about a righteous king in recalling these things — he who is interpreted as 'much with a kiss': for he was drunk from the golden cup of Babylon, and therefore he was thrusting his own things upon the people, while it was confessing the Lord —; here, however, Pharaoh is reproached for having been to the house of Israel a rod or reed staff, promising them help that was vain and fragile and soon to be shattered. But that we may be able to know which is the reed staff on which the house of Israel ought not to trust, we shall be able to understand it from the contrary staff and rod of the Lord, of which it is said to the Lord: Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me; this rod Aaron also had, which devoured the Egyptian dragons, and when he struck the banks of the Nile and gnats were produced in all Egypt; Moses too, according to the Seventy: Stretched out this rod and lifted it to heaven, and the Lord brought the south wind upon the land all that day and all night, and in the morning the wind lifted and brought locusts upon all the land of Egypt; of this rod, I think, it is also written in the book of Numbers that it blossomed and budded into a nut or almond; this the Apostle had, saying: What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod?; and those who celebrated the Passover held staffs in their hands, without which, as they support the weakness of the human body, they could not eat the flesh of the lamb; this is the rod from the root of Jesse, upon which the seven spirits rested. But not such is Pharaoh, nor the staff of Egypt and the reed rod, which deceives those who take hold of it and tears their shoulders, that is, their strength; and whoever leans upon it, his loins are loosened, and he cannot stand nor, girded in the reins, celebrate the Passover; which befits those whose hearts and reins God searches.

Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and I will kill from you man and beast; and the land of Egypt shall be a desert (or destruction and solitude), and they shall know that I am the Lord. Because he said (or you said): the river is mine, and I made it (or the rivers are mine, and I made them); therefore behold, I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt into solitudes, laid waste by the sword (or destroyed) from the tower of Syene (or from Migdol and Syene) to the borders of Ethiopia. The foot of man shall not pass through it, nor shall the foot of beast walk in it, and it shall not be inhabited for forty years; and I will make the land of Egypt deserted in the midst of deserted lands, and its cities in the midst of overthrown cities: they shall be desolate for forty years, and I will scatter (or sow) the Egyptians among the nations, and I will winnow them into the lands. For thus says the Lord God: After the end of forty years I will gather Egypt (or the Egyptians) from the peoples (or from the nations) among whom they had been scattered, and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and I will settle them in the land of Pathros, in the land of their birth (or in the land from which they were taken); and they shall be to you for a kingdom (or a lowly principality). Among the other kingdoms it shall be the lowliest, and it shall no longer be lifted up over the nations, and I will diminish them so that they do not rule over the nations (or so that they are not many among the nations). Nor shall they any longer be to the house of Israel for confidence (or for hope), teaching iniquity, so that they flee and follow them (or they recall them to the memory of iniquity, so that they follow them), and they shall know that I am the Lord God. Join what follows to what precedes: 'Because you were a reed staff to the house of Israel, and were not only broken in its hand but — according to Isaiah — pierced its hand, and now you have torn its shoulder and were yourself shattered, and loosened the loins of those leaning on you, therefore I will bring upon you the sword of enemies, and I will lay waste beasts together with men, and the land of Egypt will be reduced to solitudes, and a second time the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. Nor will I be content with this end, but because he burst out into such great blasphemy as to say that the rivers and all the abundance of Egypt were his, therefore I will take away both him who had called himself creator and the rivers which he had boasted were created by himself, and I will reduce the land of Egypt to a very long solitude, laid waste by the sword from the tower of Syene to the borders of Ethiopia'. For 'tower', which in Hebrew is called 'magdal', the Seventy put the name of a place, so as to write 'magdolum' [Migdol]; and the tower of Syene remains to this day, a fortress subject to Roman rule, where the cataracts of the Nile are, and up to which place the Nile is navigable from our sea.

Now the cloud of allegory must be discussed, and with the same brevity we shall try to avoid the length of this explanation too. The word is to the dragon, who had said: The rivers are mine and I made them, that the Lord himself is bringing upon him the sword of which it is written in Isaiah: My sword has become drunk in heaven: now it will descend upon the earth, to destroy from him man and beast, whatever seems to have either reason or simplicity; and to destroy not absolutely, but as to the dragon, so that they may perish to the dragon and live to God; and that the land of Egypt may become destruction, according to the sense given above, in which it perishes to the dragon, and after destruction be reduced to solitude, ceasing to have the worst of guests; and then men and beasts and the destroyed land will know that he himself is the Lord — in that sense which is written in Psalm 77 (78): When he slew them, then they sought him: For everyone who seeks will find, and it is God's mercy that the abundance of this world should perish —, and that the streams of Egypt may be dried up, nay rather that their land may be in solitudes and be laid waste by the sentence of the Lord from the tower of 'Soene' [Syene], which means 'circle', so that it has nothing straight in it, up to the land of the Ethiopians, who are called lowly, so that, namely, all pride which had raised itself against the knowledge of God may be destroyed, and be humbled unto its own salvation.

He says, therefore, that all Egypt is to be ravaged up to the borders of Ethiopia, to which the farthest region of Egypt is joined, so that the foot of man does not pass through Egypt nor are beasts found in it, and it is not inhabited for forty years — for the Egyptians are spared, and, because they were once hosts to Israel, their sentence is shorter in time: Tyre kept its sabbaths for seventy years and so was restored to its former state; the captivity of Judea too and the overthrow of the temple completed seventy years, until Cyrus king of the Persians: For the mighty shall mightily suffer torments.

Nor may the foot of man, that is, anything rational, pass through Egypt, nor the foot of beast walk in it — so that it may not hold any of the simple, whom Pharaoh, letting the men go, wished to keep in Egypt, while Moses opposed him and wished to free the beasts too from the captivity of Egypt —. And it shall not, he says, be inhabited for forty years — which number is always one of affliction and punishment: whence Moses and Elijah and the Savior himself fasted forty days and nights, and for forty years the people was in the wilderness, so that afterwards, circumcised at Gilgal, it might be freed from the reproach and disgrace of Egypt; in the mystery of this number this same prophet too slept forty days on his right side for the tribe of Judah, and the people is announced as about to serve in Egypt four hundred years, which make forty decades or four ἑκατοντάδας [hundreds]; the rains of the flood too bring shipwreck on the world for forty days: for it was just that he who, through the four elements of the world, of which all things are said to consist, had offended God while he loved and cherished them, should be punished in that very number; and that Israel, which had sinned against the sabbath, should endure a punishment of seven decades, that is, of seventy years —; and the land of Egypt is made deserted, and its cities in the midst of the overthrown lands and cities, which were not built of stones but of brick and straw, so that Egypt, which had been badly joined together, may be scattered and winnowed into the lands, namely so that the grain may be separated from the straw; and, when the end of forty years is completed, there may be a restoration of Egypt, and its captivity be brought back and settled in the land of 'Phatures' [Pathros], which means 'trampled bread', where that bread which had said: I am the bread that came down from heaven, was trampled by heretical perversity; so that, when they have come to the Church, they may dwell in the trampled bread, and by no means be lifted up into pride, but be a lowly kingdom.

And when he says: I will make the land of Egypt deserted in the midst of deserted lands, he means the Philistines, the Edomites and the Moabites and all the other regions against which the prophet's oracle stands above —; then he will scatter or sow the Egyptians among the nations and winnow them into the lands, and, because The Lord is merciful and compassionate, patient and of many mercies, after forty years there is the restoration of Egypt, and the whole captivity will be brought back to its ancient soil and settled in the metropolis, which is called Pathros, where it arose and from which it set out, only on condition that, for its own good, it loses its ancient pride and is a lowly kingdom, indeed the lowliest of all nations, and is no longer lifted up against the nations nor has rule over them, but, reduced to fewness, by no means deceives the house of Israel by confidence in itself, nor teaches them iniquity, or recalls them to the memory of iniquity, in that, having forsaken the help of God, they sought the support of Egypt; and all these things will happen so that a third time the Egyptians may know that he himself is the Lord. These things we have touched on in brief discourse, laying the foundations of the history.

And so that, even when they have been restored to their former state, they may cast themselves down through humility because they lived in Egypt and built cities of brick, and among the many kingdoms of the Church may be lowly, and may know against whom they have sinned; and that Egypt may no longer be lifted up over the churches spread through the whole world, but be reduced to fewness, and few may remain in it among the nations, according to what is written: Give them, O Lord. What will you give them? Give them a barren womb and dry breasts, so that they may by no means rejoice and exalt themselves in the multitude of the deceived, but be reduced to a few: For many are called, few chosen. And may they no longer deceive the house of Israel, that is, the Church, nor promise them a vain hope and confidence, teaching iniquity, so that they flee the discipline of the Church and follow Egyptian pleasures. And these things will happen so that a third time the Egyptians may know that he himself is the Lord; which seems to me to be said for this reason: that the first knowledge of the Egyptians may be in the flesh, the second in the soul, the third in the spirit: first upon the earth, second when the life of this world is ended, third after the resurrection.

And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first and on one day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre; every head made bald and every shoulder rubbed bare, and wages were not paid to him, nor to his army, over Tyre for the service with which he served me against it. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the land of Egypt, and he will carry off its multitude, and plunder its booty, and seize its spoils, and it will be wages for his army, and for the work for which he served against it. I have given him the land of Egypt because they labored for me, says the Lord God. In that day a horn shall sprout for the house of Israel; and to you I will give an open mouth in their midst, and they shall know that I am the Lord. The question is asked how, after the tenth year of the preceding discourse, the twenty-seventh year is immediately set down, and in what follows the tenth and the twelfth, and in the final description of the temple the twenty-fifth; but the solution is easy: for since both the preceding prophecy and this one which is now spoken are woven together concerning Egypt, although it was made at different times, nevertheless, because it is prophesied concerning one province, they are joined to each other; which we also frequently read in Jeremiah, that the times are described in reversed order: for in certain places the deeds of Zedekiah are related first, and afterwards those of Jehoiakim, who was before him; in the Psalms, however, because it is lyric song, the order of history is not sought.

And lest we seem to pass anything over, according to the spiritual understanding we inquire where we have read this number, that is, the twenty-seventh: in the book of Genesis Scripture testifies that in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the waters of the flood were brought upon the face of the earth, and afterwards in the seventh month of the same year, which is near to the sabbath, and on the twenty-seventh day of the same seventh month, the waters of the flood ceased, and the ark of Noah rested upon the mountains of 'Ararat', which means 'of Armenia'; from which we understand that the number is a middle one and can be applied to either side: since in it both the wrath of God begins with the flood, and his clemency is shown in the seventh month on the same number of days; and because among the Hebrews the month, which among us is divided by the Kalends and Nones and Ides, is reckoned according to the course of the moon — whence also by the Greek word μήνη, that is, 'moon', it took its name from the month —, this has been said: that on the twenty-seventh day of the moon a little light remains, lest his wrath be entirely without mercy; but when the whole orb of the moon is filled, then both the Passover is celebrated and all the greatest solemnities. This we have set down briefly, so that we may know that in this number good and evil things are contained alike: good things for Nebuchadnezzar, whose labor is repaid with wages, evil things for the Egyptians, whose devastation is announced.

For in another prophecy too, which is seen to be against the Egyptians, the same Scripture weaves in: Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has made his army serve a great service against Tyre: every head made bald, and every shoulder rubbed bare, and no wage has been paid to him, nor to his army, for Tyre (Ezek 29). By this he signifies that a mound was heaped up over a long time by the army of Babylon, so that he tried beforehand to do what Alexander did afterwards, joining the island to the mainland (Quintus Curtius, book 4).

We read in the histories of the Assyrians that the besieged Tyrians, when they saw no hope of escape, embarked on ships and fled to Carthage, or to other islands of the Ionian and Aegean sea. Hence too it is said in Ezekiel: No wage has been paid to him, nor to his army, for Tyre (Ezek 29): because all the wealth of the city had been carried away, and all the nobles had left it empty.

Let us speak first, then, according to the letter. When Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Tyre and could not bring rams, engines and mantlets up to the walls — because it was surrounded by the sea —, he ordered the countless multitude of his army to carry stones and earth for a mound and, having filled up the sea in between, or rather the very narrow strait, he made the neighboring shore continuous with the island; when the Tyrians saw this now all but completed, and the foundations of the walls were being shaken by the battering of the rams, whatever precious things the nobility had in gold, silver, clothing and various furnishings, it put on ships and carried off to the islands, so that, when the city was taken, Nebuchadnezzar found nothing worthy of his labor; and because in this respect he had obeyed the will of God, some years after the captivity of Tyre Egypt is given to him; and Tyre was much more savage than Egypt: for the former attacked Jerusalem, the latter promised vain help — and it is one thing to deceive hope through weakness, another to fight against the people of God —. This, then, is what he says: 'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, in the siege of Tyre, made his army serve me, to fulfill my will: Every head made bald and every shoulder rubbed bare of those carrying baskets of earth and stones, by which shoulders are rubbed and the head is made bald; and yet neither he nor his army found anything worthy in Tyre. And since he served me in this and fulfilled my will against Tyre, therefore I will give him the land of Egypt'; which some say was fulfilled under Nebuchadnezzar, others under Cambyses son of Cyrus, who laid waste Egypt as far as Ethiopia, so that he killed Apis and destroyed all their images, for which reason they think he was turned to madness and was pierced through with his own dagger in a fall from his horse — Herodotus narrates this history most fully, where all Egypt too is described by districts and villages and forts, and the source of the Nile and the peoples of that nation and the measurement of the land in circuit up to the desert of Ethiopia, and the shores of the Great Sea, and the borders of Libya and Arabia are shown —.

Let these things have been said of the prophecy according to the letter, or rather according to the truth; but from the fact that Nebuchadnezzar received the wage of a good work, we understand that even in the case of the heathen, if they have done anything good, it is not passed over without reward by the judgment of God; whence also through Jeremiah Nebuchadnezzar is called the dove of God, because he served God's will against a sinful people. And I will bring, he says, my servant Nebuchadnezzar; from which it is clear that we are condemned by comparison with the Gentiles, if they do by natural law the things which we neglect even when written; of which the apostle Paul argues most fully to the Romans.

The cause of the Lord's anger against Egypt is this: that it deceived the people of God by its help, so that it would not hope in the Lord and would provoke him to wrath: 'In that day,' he says, 'on which Egypt has been taken, the horn of the house of Israel will sprout' — no doubt signifying the royal line; which some refer to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, who was born of the stock of David through Jeconiah, others to the last time, when they think that Elijah too will come; but we, understanding the horn of the Lord as concerning Christ, touch lightly on the present history —. 'And when,' he says, 'O prophet, this has first been fulfilled, then your mouth will be opened, and your prophecy will by no means hang on a doubtful promise but will be seen accomplished in deed, so that those who have heard may know that I am the Lord, for whom to have said is to have done'.