Ezekiel 36

We, therefore, say that the mountains of Israel are the prophets and apostles, who hear the word of God and whom the devil, the enemy, insulted, saying: 'Aha, the mountains once lofty — of which it is written: Mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people — have been given to me as a possession, when through the straits of persecution they were made desolate and trampled down round about, and made an inheritance for the rest of the nations, and blasphemed by all'.

But you, son of man, prophesy over the mountains of Israel, and you shall say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy has said of you: Aha, the everlasting heights (or solitudes) have been given to us as a possession; therefore prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God: Because you have been made desolate and trampled down round about (or Because you have been scattered by those who are round about you), and made an inheritance (or a possession) for the rest of the nations, and you have come up upon the lip of the tongue and become a reproach to the peoples (or nations); therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the torrents and the valleys and the deserts, to the ruined walls (or the things scattered) and the forsaken cities, which have been depopulated and derided (or trampled down) by the rest of the nations round about. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Since in the fire of my zeal I have spoken concerning the rest of the nations, and concerning all Edom, who have given my land to themselves as an inheritance with joy and with the whole heart and from the soul, and have cast it out in order to lay it waste (or with joy, despising souls, in order to overthrow them in devastation), therefore prophesy over the land of Israel, and you shall say to the mountains and the hills, to the ridges and the valleys: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I have spoken in my zeal and in my fury, because you have borne the confusion (or the reproaches) of the nations; therefore thus says the Lord God (or Adonai the Lord): I have lifted up (or I will lift up) my hand, so that the nations which are round about you shall themselves bear their confusion (or ignominy); but you, mountains of Israel, shall put forth your branches (or your grapes), and bear your fruit for my people Israel, for it is near that it should come. For behold, I am toward you, and I will turn to you (or I will look upon you), and you shall be plowed and shall receive seed; and I will multiply men upon you, and the whole house of Israel, and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruined places shall be restored (or what is deserted shall be built). And I will fill you with men and with beasts, and they shall be multiplied and shall increase; and I will make you to be inhabited as from the beginning, and I will endow you with greater goods than you had from the beginning, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I will bring (or I will beget) upon you men, my people Israel, and they shall possess thee by inheritance (or you), and thou shalt be (or you shall be) a possession for them, and thou shalt not add any more to be without them (or and you shall not add any more that they should make you without children). Thus says the Lord God: Because they have said of you (or to thee): Thou art a devourer of men, and one who strangles thy nation; therefore thou shalt no more eat men, and thou shalt no longer kill thy nation, says the Lord God. Nor will I any more cause the confusion (or ignominy) of the nations to be heard in thee (or in you), and the reproaches of the peoples thou shalt by no means bear (or you shall bear), and thou shalt no more lose thy nation (or thy nation shall no longer be without children), says the Lord God. Above, the prophet's face is set, or turned, against Mount Seir; here the son of man speaks to the mountains, or over the mountains, of Israel, which are commanded to hear the word of God; and, to put off the tropology for a little, this in brief is the sense of the whole prophecy to the mountains of Israel: 'Because the enemy, that is, Mount Seir, insulted you, and thought that he himself would possess you forever, and that the heights, once the Lord's and now deserted, had passed to him as an inheritance, and not only said so but also possessed you for some time, to such a degree that he spoke proudly against you and you were a reproach to all the nations, therefore thus says the Lord God, not only to Mount Seir, but also to its mountains and hills, torrents, valleys and deserts and wasted places and forsaken cities: that in the fire of his zeal he has spoken, against all the nations indeed, but especially against Edom, which with the other' he says 'nations held my land as a possession, and possessed it with joy, and possessed it with the whole heart, so as to cast the inhabitants out of it and lay the land waste.

These things we have said παραφραστικῶς [by way of paraphrase], in the Jewish manner: things which they expect in the reign of a thousand years, when they assert that the city of Jerusalem is to be built, and the temple which is described at the end of this volume, and the happiness of all things; and some of them think that these things were fulfilled under Zerubbabel — but how can what is said stand: And I will make you to be inhabited as from the beginning, and I will endow you with greater goods than you had from the beginning? For under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah few of the people were brought back, and they themselves, obeying the Medes and Persians and thereafter the Macedonians and Egyptians and Romans, served the kings of various nations up to Titus and Vespasian, and serve them to this day, so that what is said at the end of the prophecy cannot stand at all: And the reproach of the peoples thou shalt by no means bear, and thou shalt no more lose thy nation —; and since it would be a long matter to speak now, in a brief explanation, against the Jewish dogma and against a blessedness that serves the belly and gullet of the Jews, who desire all earthly things and say: Let us eat and drink — of whom the Apostle also speaks: Food is for the belly and the belly for foods; but God will destroy both it and them —, let us now pass to the spiritual understanding, according to which we also interpreted the last parts of Isaiah. For we do not, according to the Jewish fables which they call δευτερώσεις [deuteroses, secondary traditions], expect a jeweled and golden Jerusalem from heaven, nor are we going to suffer again the injury of circumcision, nor to offer victims of bulls and rams, nor shall we sleep in the idleness of the sabbath — which many of our own also promise, and especially the book of Tertullian entitled 'On the Hope of the Faithful' and the seventh volume of Lactantius' 'Institutes', and the frequent 'Expositions' of Victorinus, bishop of Poetovio, and recently our Severus in the dialogue to which he gave the name 'Gallus', and, to name the Greeks and join the first and the last, Irenaeus and Apollinaris —.

Therefore the Lord speaks to the mountains trampled down and made desolate, and not only to the mountains but also to those lower down, set at their several degrees in the land of Judea, that is, on the mountain of the Church — of which it is written: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden —, and to the hills and torrents, whose faith is increased by the winter of persecutions and the storm of affliction, to the valleys also, those who have been brought low in humility, and to the deserted churches, and to the ruined walls, and to the meeting places of the churches forsaken throughout the whole world — such was the persecution throughout the whole world under Diocletian and Maximian, through which the churches were proscribed and laid waste, when all the nations of the Gentiles and of the heretics round about derided the Church —: that he has spoken in the fire of the zeal of his fury; and particularly against Edom, which by earthly works wanted everyone to lay aside the image of the heavenly and bear the image of the earthly: for they gave the land of God to themselves as an inheritance, and with the whole heart and from the soul they persecuted the Church of the Lord, and cast it out of its seats, and laid it waste.

For hence it is that under the figure of the Idumaeans, who allowed themselves to be vanquished by their own prosperity, those who rejoice in the successes of this world are rebuked, when it is said, "They have given my land to themselves for an inheritance with joy, and with their whole heart and mind." In which words it is to be observed, that they are smitten with severe rebuke, not merely because they rejoice, but because they rejoice with their whole heart and mind.

Therefore speak,' he says, 'O prophet, over the land of Israel, and you shall say to the mountains and hills and ridges — for which the Seventy translated νάπας [glens], which we understand as 'places' that are 'wooded' —, and to the valleys: Thus says the Lord God: In my zeal and in my fury I will stand forth as the avenger of your reproach; and I will lift up my hand, so that the nations which are round about you may bear their ignominy and confusion; but you, O mountains of Israel, shall sprout according to your former state, and put forth shoots and branches — or, according to the Seventy, bear grapes —, with which my people Israel may be filled; and do not think that this will come after a long time: it is near, the time is at hand and will come.

But what did it profit the nations, what did it help the nations of heretics to have insulted the land of the Lord, when the Lord speaks to it, and has spoken in his zeal and in his fury to its mountains and hills and ridges, or wooded places, which were green with the loveliness of paradise, and to the hills, of which we spoke above, and lifts up his hand, on account of the reproach of the nations, against the adversaries who persecuted the Church, so that they bear their confusion and ignominy?: then, when the persecutors have been slain and peace has been restored to the Church, the mountains of Israel, namely the apostles and apostolic men, will make their trees sprout and stretch out their branches, and will bring grapes to be trodden in the winepress of the Lord, from which the new wine flows that inebriates the peoples of believers, and the wine is pressed out that gladdens the heart of man, so that all the fruit of the mountains, from which is made the bread descending from heaven, may be eaten by the people of God, Israel.

And lest perhaps we despair in persecutions, it is added: It is near — the time — that it should come — for coming indeed he will come and will not delay —; hence he promises his coming to the mountains and to those who have endured in tribulations, and promises that, after the heat of persecution, the land formerly stripped may be worked by the plowshare of Christ, and receive every seed of the virtues, from which men may be born and multiplied, and the whole house of Israel.

I will strengthen the people's hope, and I will make steadfast their expectation of good things to come, and they will return and enjoy those fruits that are produced by you.

And lest this seem difficult to you, I myself will come to you, and I who had withdrawn from you will turn to you, so that you may recover your former cultivation and all things may be filled with seed, so that there may be many men in you, and the cities which had formerly been destroyed may be inhabited. And not only will I multiply men, but the beasts too shall likewise be multiplied and shall increase; and I will make you to be inhabited as from the beginning, when, under the leadership of Moses, two and a half tribes received their possession beyond the Jordan, and, under Joshua the son of Nun, the other nine and a half tribes possessed the land of Judea; and I will endow you with goods much greater than you were from the beginning, before you experienced the various captivities; and when I have done this for you, then you will know that I am the Lord.

And when the cities, that is, the churches of believers, have been inhabited by the returning crowds, then not only the men who will be strong in the knowledge of the Scriptures, but also the beasts, all the simple among the believers, will be multiplied and grow up; and the churches will be inhabited as from the beginning, that is, before there was persecution, and will flourish with greater goods than they had from the beginning, crowned with the victories of the martyrs. And then they will know that he is the Lord who restores his people to its former state, so that it may possess the churches and itself be the inheritance of the churches, and no longer be without the children whom it had lost in persecution.

And you shall be filled,' he says, 'O land of Israel, with my people, who will hold you as an inheritance, and you shall be a possession for them, and you shall not add any more to be without sons.

Since then God blesses this people, and calls them Israel, and declares them to be His inheritance, how is it that you repent not of the deception you practise on yourselves, as if you alone were the Israel, and of execrating the people whom God has blessed? For when He speaks to Jerusalem and its environs, He thus added: 'And I will beget men upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall inherit you, and you shall be a possession for them; and you shall be no longer bereaved of them.'

But when your inhabitant has been multiplied, O mountains of Israel, then your enemies will by no means say against you that you devour men and that your possession is without children; but on the contrary you will multiply men, and your posterity will bring forth a most abundant offspring. Nor will you hear,' he says, 'any more, nor will you bear, the confusion of the nations; nor yet will you lose your nation so as ever to undergo captivity, since the Lord has spoken'.

Hence the prophet is commanded to speak to the land of the meek and the land of the living, or to the mountains of Israel, and to say: 'You shall no longer suffer the reproach of the persecutors, nor will they insult your slaughtered people as sheep for the slaughter; for when peace has been restored, all reproaches will cease, nor will you bear confusion and ignominy among the various nations round about, but you will have your nation and your people, because the truth of the promise has been confirmed, since the Lord has spoken'.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, the house of Israel have dwelt (or has dwelt) in their land, and they defiled it in their ways and in their pursuits (or idols); like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman their way has become before me. And I poured out my indignation (or my fury) upon them, for the blood which they shed upon the land; with their idols they defiled it. And I scattered them among the nations, and they were winnowed (or I winnowed them) into the lands (or into the regions); according to their ways and their devices (or sins) I judged them. And they went in to the nations to which they entered, and they defiled my holy name, when it was said of them: This is the people of the Lord, and they have gone out of his land. And I spared my holy name (or I spared them for the sake of my holy name), which the house of Israel had defiled among the nations to which they went in. Therefore you shall say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Not for your sake will I act, house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you defiled among the nations to which you entered; and I will sanctify my great name, which has been defiled among the nations, which you defiled in the midst of them, so that they may know that I am the Lord, says the Lord of hosts, when I shall have been sanctified in you before them. For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land; and I will pour out (or sprinkle) clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your defilements, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put in your midst (or I will give you), and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh; and my spirit I will put in your midst (or I will give you), and I will cause you to walk in my precepts (or in my justifications), and to keep my judgments and to work (or do) them. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be to me for a people and I will be to you for a God. And I will save you from all your defilements (or uncleannesses), and I will call the fruit and multiply it, and I will not lay (or give) famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you may no longer bear the reproach of famine among the nations. And you shall remember your most evil ways, and your pursuits that were not good, and your iniquities and your crimes shall displease you. Not for your sake will I act, says the Lord God; let it be known to you: be confounded and blush for your ways, house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God: On the day when I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, and caused the cities to be inhabited and restored the ruined places, and the deserted land shall have been tilled which once was desolate in the eyes of every traveler, they will say: That untilled land (or deserted) has become like a garden of pleasure, and the cities deserted and forsaken and undermined have sat fortified. And the nations which shall have been left round about you will know that I the Lord have built what was scattered and planted what was untilled; that I the Lord have spoken and have done it. Thus says the Lord God: Yet in this will the house of Israel find me (or I will be sought by the house of Israel), that I may do it for them: I will multiply them like a flock of men (or like sheep, men), like a holy flock (or like holy sheep), like the flock (or sheep) of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts: so shall the deserted cities also be full of flocks (or sheep) of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord. What is said is clear, and the whole sense concerning the mountains of Israel, which had formerly been deserted and were afterwards restored, is now set out more plainly; and God gives the reasons why he handed the people of Israel over to captivity, and on account of his clemency promises that he will lead them back into the land of Judea, and bestow far more than he had taken away — which some of the Jews refer to the times of Zerubbabel, when, as Cyrus king of the Persians relaxed their captivity, very many from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin were brought back into Judea; but others refer it to the reign of a thousand years, when under the Christ, who they think is yet to come, both the city of Jerusalem is to be built up and the temple to be built, of which we shall speak in the last part of this prophecy —. And meanwhile, to leave behind Jewish fables and endless genealogies, let us, according to our custom, briefly run through the περικοπὴν [section] of this chapter, and set out what seems right to us according to the ecclesiastical understanding.

The house of Israel, that is, the people of the Jews, once dwelt in its own land, that is, in the land of Judea, when it was led out of Egypt; but they defiled it in their ways and in their pursuits, or idols; and they became so polluted that they were compared to the uncleanness of a menstruous woman.

Whoever is of the house of Israel and sees the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, dwells in his own land, the Church, or in the lodging of the flesh which has been handed over to him by God; but if he defiles either land in his most evil ways and is compared to the uncleanness of a menstruous woman, God pours out his indignation upon him, for the blood, whether his own or that of those whom he has scandalized and has shed upon the land, and for the perverse thoughts with which he defiled it.

On which account God pours out his indignation upon them for the blood of the prophets and the righteous which they shed upon the land — as the Savior says in the Gospel: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who have been sent to you, and again: Amen, amen I say to you: the blood which has been shed shall be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel the righteous up to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, which they shed between the altar and the temple —; and not only did they shed blood, but they also defiled the land with their crimes; for which reason he scattered them, whether under the Babylonian captivity or under the Roman, when they truly shed the blood of Christ; and they were winnowed into the lands as chaff is winnowed, and judged according to their ways and their most evil inventions, so that among the nations too, to which they had been led captive, they defiled the holy name of God, because all the nations said in mockery: 'Behold, this is the people of God, which boasted that it properly knew the worship of God'.

Then he will be scattered among the nations so as to be made equal to the unbelieving nations, and he will be winnowed on the earth like chaff so as to be separated from the grain of the Church, and he will be judged according to his ways; and if not even so does he perceive his sin, but defiles his holy name, all among whom he dwells will say: 'Behold the people of God, behold one who went out of his land, or rather was cast out'.

All these sacraments may be possessed by the evil person; but to have charity and be an evil person is not possible. This therefore is the peculiar gift of the Spirit: he is the one and only fountain. To drink of it, God's Spirit calls you: God's Spirit calls you to drink of himself.

If we pursue virtue, let us seek before all to gain for ourselves the approval that comes from God alone, and let us take no account of human praise. If we are lax, we should be afraid and humble our thinking with the thought of that judgment that cannot be bribed. Let us tremble at the approach of that dread day and the thought that our actions provoke blasphemy against God.

'When I had seen this,' he says, 'not for their sake but for the sake of my holy name — for I am the Creator of all — I spared them; and I sanctified them and restored them to their former glory, so that upon those who believed and were converted from error I poured out the clean water of saving baptism, and cleansed them from their abominations and from all the errors with which they had been taken up; and I gave them a new heart, that they might believe in the Son of God, and a new spirit' — of which David speaks: Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit in my inward parts —.

Nay, He is doing and contriving all things, so that even for little He may crown thee; and He goes about seeking excuses, whereby thou mayest be delivered from hell. For this cause, though thou shouldest work but the eleventh hour of the day, He gives thy wages entire; and though thou afford no ground of salvation, He saith, "I do it for mine own sake, that my name be not profaned:" though thou shouldest sigh only, though thou shouldest only weep, all these things He quickly catches hold of, for an occasion of saving thee. Let us not therefore lift up ourselves, but let us declare ourselves unprofitable, that we may become profitable.

You brought into being the everlasting structure of the world by what you did. You, Lord, made the earth. You who are faithful in all generations, righteous in judgment, marvelous in strength and majesty, wise in creating, prudent in making creation endure, visibly good, kind to those who trust in you.

'But if they repent and I am sanctified in their midst, then the whole crowd of the nations will know that I will take them from the lands into which they had been scattered, and lead them back into the land of the Church; and I will pour out upon them not the waters of saving baptism but the waters of the teaching and the word of God, and I will cleanse them from all their defilements and from all the idols and errors which they have feigned in their heart.

The water ought to be first cleansed and sanctified by the bishop that it may be able to wash away in its baptism the sins of the one who is baptized.

Seek the Lord, O sinners, and be strengthened in your thoughts because of hope. And seek his face through repentance at all times. You will be sanctified by the holiness of his presence, and you will be purified of your iniquity.

And it must be considered that the new heart and the new spirit are given after the pouring out and sprinkling of the water; and when the new heart and the new spirit have been given, then all the hardness which is compared to stone will be taken away from the Jewish heart, and in place of the heart of stone there comes to be a heart of flesh, soft and tender, which can receive the spirit of God into itself and be inscribed with saving letters; then they will walk in the precepts of the Lord and keep his judgments.

He calls the pure water the water of rebirth, because we who have been baptized have received the forgiveness of our sins.

Free will is always present in us, but it is not always good. For it is either free of justice, while serving sin, and then it is evil; or it is free of sin, while serving justice, and then it is good. But the grace of God is always good and brings about a good will in a person who before was possessed of an evil will. It is by this grace, too, that this same good will, once it begins to exist, is expanded and made so strong that it is able to fulfill whatever of God's commandments it wishes, whenever it does so with a strong and perfect will.

God by his grace takes away the stony heart from unbelievers and forestalls merit in people of good will in such a way that their will is prepared by what goes before grace, but that grace is not given through some merit of human will.

John who had been exiled by the Emperor Marcion, said, 'One day we went into Syria to see Poemen for we wanted to ask him about hardness of heart. But he did not know Greek and we did not have an interpreter. When he saw we were embarrassed, he began to speak in Greek saying, 'The nature of water is soft, the nature of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above a stone letting water drip down, it wears away the stone. It is like that with the word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but if a man hears the word of God often, it will break open his heart to the fear of God.'

God gives a new heart so that we may walk in his justifications, which are about beginning a good will. He also gives it so that we may observe and do his judgments, which are about doing good works.

The image of Christ is formed in us through the Spirit of wisdom and the revelation of the knowledge of Him.

And I will give them,' he says, 'a new heart, which they had lost through sin, and I will renew a right spirit in their hearts, and I will take away the heart of stone, namely the unbelieving heart, and give a heart of flesh, soft and tender, which may receive the precepts of God, so that they walk in my precepts and do the judgments which they had formerly neglected.

The word of God is at the same time the seed and the water; and even though we have a heart like stone, it will be softened and split up by the water of the Spirit, so that it can bring forth holy fruit that is pleasing to God.

He means by these things a change of attitude. Your heart, he says, will incline to better things, no longer following your previous preference for what is worse. That "I will give" in no way damages free will, for by words and deeds and endless miracles, not only among them but in all races, so that they start to live piously; he persuades, he does not compel. And although he does not compel but persuades, he says that he has inclined their minds toward better things.

God promises that he will cause them to do those things that he commands to be done. Nor indeed does he here overlook the merits, but rather the evil deeds, of those to whom he shows that he will return good things for evil, by the very fact that he causes them to have good works from that point on, when he causes them to carry out the divine commands.

These things did not happen before the coming of the Lord Christ. Since they had three prophets after the return to Jerusalem, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, they were immediately deprived of the gift of prophecy. But after our God and Savior was made man and ascended into the heavens, and the Holy Spirit came on the holy apostles, through them grace was given not only to the Jews but also to all those from the peoples who came to faith. He calls a heart of stone one that is antagonistic and rebellious, and a heart of flesh, one that is compliant and obedient to what it is told, and is able to draw out the meaning of the divine writings … this is the mark of a spirit of grace, which assists our free will and ensures that what has been said proceeds in due course.

And they will dwell in the land of confession, which he had given to their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to all the saints and prophets, and they will be for a people of God and the Lord will be to them for a God, which is borne out at the present time.

And let them dwell in the land which I had given to their fathers, namely the masters and teachers, and let them again be the people of God, and let the Lord, whom they had formerly offended, become God to them.

And when they have been saved, the Lord will call the grain and multiply it — for unless indeed a grain of wheat falling into the earth has died, it remains alone —, and they will by no means suffer famine — not a famine of bread and a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God — the famine which he suffered who, setting out from his father, squandered all the substance he had received, when, compelled by the necessity of hunger, he fed on the pods of the swine.

Then they will be saved from all their defilements, and the grain from which the heavenly bread is made will be multiplied for them, and they will no longer suffer the famine of the word of God.

Then the fruit of the tree will be multiplied — that is, of wisdom, of which it is written: She is a tree of life to all who seek her — and the produce of the field — in the likeness of Jacob, whose smell was: Like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed —, and they will no longer bear the reproach of famine among the nations, which the unbelief of the Jews suffers even today; but, after they have attained blessedness, they will imitate the Apostle, who says: I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.

And the tree of wisdom will be multiplied in them, and the produce will be brought to fullness in their breast, nor will they any longer be a reproach among the nations.

That penitents may have their due it is enough for them to feel shame instead of all other punishment.

And they will remember their most evil ways and their pursuits that were not good, by which they had offended God, and their iniquities and their crimes, by which they had formerly gone astray, will displease them.

But, after God has had mercy on them, they will remember their most evil ways, and they will know where they have been, and they will be displeasing to themselves in their iniquities'; which the Lord says he does, not for their sake, but for the sake of his own clemency.

Now the Lord will bestow all these things, not for the sake of those who perished by their own error, but for the sake of his holy name; hence he challenges the house of Israel to be confounded and to blush for its former vices, and to understand its Creator.

Hence he also exhorts those who stray to be confounded and to blush for their ways, and to be restored to the cities of the Church, so that these may again be inhabited by them, and everything that had collapsed in them may be built up, and they may return to their former ceremonies, and the land once deserted, which had seemed desolate to the neighbors and strangers and to those passing through the conduct of this world, may return to its former state, and all may marvel and say: 'That untilled land, that deserted land in which all the virtues once perished, has now become like a garden of pleasure and the paradise of God'; and the cities once deserted, which did not have God as their guest and were forsaken by the Holy Spirit and undermined by unbelief, will be fortified by the faith of Christ, so that all round about may know that the Lord has built up the scattered souls, and planted in them and sown together the trees of all the virtues, and that he who promised by word has himself made it good in deed.

But after he has cleansed the people of believers from among the Jews from their iniquities, and caused the cities of the Church to be inhabited, and restored the ruined places which had fallen in the synagogues, and the land of confession has been tilled with the ceremonies of God, which once seemed desolate to all the saints who pass by the works of earthly conduct, then all will say: 'How is it that the land of Judea, which had once been untilled, now has the likeness of the paradise of God, and the cities of Judea, which had been deserted and forsaken and undermined by their own unbelief, are now raised up and fortified in the confession and the name of the Lord Savior?'; so that every creature, and the multitudes of angels that encircle the land of Israel, may know that the Lord has built the scattered cities and planted the untilled regions, and has fulfilled in deed what he promised through the prophets.

Nor will he be content with this gift of his liberality toward the people he has saved, but he will bestow far greater things: for he will be found by the house of Israel, he who had been sought for a long time and not found; and, after it has found him, he will multiply them like sheep, not sheep of brute animals but sheep of men — who are full of reason and confession —, like holy sheep and the flock of Jerusalem — in which properly is the worship of God and the vision of peace —, in her solemn feasts — when we eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and feed on the flesh of the Lamb and are given his blood to drink, and in the seven weeks and in the tabernacles of this age, of the Lord, of the Lord, celebrate the feasts —, so that the cities, once deserted, may become full of flocks of men, and by this means they may know that he is the Lord who has bestowed all things. Let it suffice to have said these things briefly according to the truth of the history, or rather according to the faith of the prophecy: how the people of Israel is restored to its unimpaired state, and the remnant of the people of the Jews, as the Apostle Paul teaches, is saved in the apostles and in all who from the Jews believed in the beginning and to this day return to the Church; now the sense of the tropology must be opened with the same brevity.

And again the prophetic word exhorts the penitent that, even when they have returned into the churches, they should always seek the Lord and find him, so that the flocks of the Lord may be multiplied by the crowds of those returning, not flocks of beasts and brute animals, but flocks of men who are full of faith and reason, holy flocks, flocks of the city of Jerusalem, in all the solemn feasts which they have received by the clemency of God, so that, after a multitude of such flocks has filled the cities of the Lord, then all may know that he is the Lord.