Ezekiel 4

"And you, son of man, take a brick for yourself, and place it before you, and draw upon it the city of Jerusalem."

In these words, indeed, what else is designated according to history but the siege and destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and what else is expressed but the affliction of a sinful people? It is called a provoking house.

From this we are instructed that when we know one thing is fulfilled according to history, and we recognize another thing according to history to be empty of reason, we should hold to both in the sacred word, so that we may believe the siege of Jerusalem, which was later accomplished according to the letter, to be prefigured in the words and deeds of the prophet, and yet through that same siege another siege, that is, an interior one, may be designated.

But first we must inquire why the prophet Ezekiel, whenever he beholds sublime things or whenever he is commanded to perform something mystical, is first called "son of man." For often he is lifted up to heavenly things, and his mind is fed on hidden and invisible realities. It is therefore necessary that among the hidden things which he penetrates, he be called "son of man," so that he may always recognize what he is and never be exalted because of those things to which he is led. For what does it mean to always say "son of man" to a prophet lifted up to spiritual things, except to make him mindful of his own weakness? So that, conscious of his frail condition, he ought not to be elevated in thought because of the greatness of his contemplation.

Because this same prophet, as we have already said above, holds the type of preachers or teachers, it is rightly said to him now: "Take for yourself a brick, and you shall place it before you." For every teacher, when he receives some earthly hearer for instruction in the heavenly word, takes up a brick. When he begins to speak to him about what the reward of the heavenly homeland is, what the vision of supernal peace is, he describes the city of Jerusalem on the brick. He places it before himself, because with attentive mind he considers the quality of the hearer, that is, he observes his progress or deficiency, and according to that person's understanding he moderates the words of his preaching, so that the city of Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace, may be described in the hearer's mind. Let it therefore be said: "Take for yourself a brick," namely the earthly heart of your neighbor. "And you shall place it before you," that is, so that you may guard his life and understanding with attentive mind. "And you shall describe upon it the city of Jerusalem," so that you may make known to him what the supernal joys are concerning the vision of peace. For it is as if Jerusalem has already been described on the brick when an earthly mind has begun to recognize what are the true joys of that inner peace, and to long to behold the glory of the heavenly homeland. It is as if the vision of peace is being described on earth when the mind, which had previously savored earthly things, is now raised up through love to contemplate the glory of the heavenly kingdom.

But as soon as the soul begins to love heavenly things, as soon as it gathers itself with complete attention toward the vision of inner peace, that ancient adversary who fell from heaven grows envious, and begins to lay more snares, and brings on sharper temptations than he was accustomed to, so that often he tempts the resisting soul as he had never tempted it before when he possessed it. Hence it is written: "Son, when you come to the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation." Hence also the demoniac who is healed by the Lord is torn apart by the departing demon, as it is written: "And crying out and greatly tearing him, it went out from him." For what does it mean that the ancient enemy, who had not torn apart the possessed man while he held him, tore him apart as he was leaving, except that often when he is expelled from the heart, he generates sharper temptations in it than he had previously stirred up when he possessed it in peace? Hence also the Israelites say to Moses and Aaron: "May the Lord see and judge, because you have made our odor stink before Pharaoh and his servants, and you have given him a sword to kill us." For in Moses and Aaron the law and the prophets are prefigured. And often the weak soul murmurs within itself as if against the sacred utterances, because after it has begun to hear and follow heavenly words, the adversity of the Egyptian king, that is, the temptation of the evil spirit, increases.

Some things, however, ought to be reproved strongly, so that when a fault is not recognized by the one who has committed it, he may be made aware of its gravity by verbal reproof, or when anyone glosses over an evil that he has perpetrated, he may be led by the harshness of his censure to entertain grave fears of its effects on him. For indeed it is the duty of a ruler to show by the voice of preaching the glory of our heavenly country, to disclose what great temptations of the old enemy are lurking in this life's journey, and to correct with zealous harshness such evils among those who are under his sway that should not be gently borne with, lest, in being too little incensed against such faults, he himself be held guilty of all faults.

And you, son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you shall set it before you, and you shall portray on it the city of Jerusalem. And you shall set in order a siege against it, and you shall build siege-works and heap up a mound, and you shall set camps against it and place battering rams round about. Just as we said before — Go in and be shut up in the midst of your house, and: Behold, bonds have been put upon you, and they will bind you, and you will not go out — that the prophet is a type of the coming siege of the city of Jerusalem, so now he is commanded to portray it on a brick by the geometric art, and the brick itself is to be placed in the prophet's sight, so that, after he has portrayed Jerusalem in the dust, he may draw the whole siege against it, sketching the siege-works and the heaped-up mounds and the ring of the besieging army and the battering rams round about, all the things by which cities are usually taken. Siege-works is the name for the works by which a city is shut in, so that none of the besieged can escape; heaped-up mounds, those by which the rampart and the ditches are filled; camps, the guard-posts of soldiers all around; battering rams, those by which the foundations of walls are shaken and the joining of the stones is loosened. This is said so that the approaching captivity of the city of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah may be signified, in whose eleventh year both the king and the city were taken. For 'brick', which in Greek is called πλίνθος, in the feminine gender, Symmachus translated more clearly πλινθίον, which we can call a 'little brick' and an 'abacus'; in its dust geometers are accustomed to draw γραμμάς, that is, 'lines' and 'radii'. From this some hold that it is not absurd to have knowledge of this discipline as well, recalling those examples: that Joshua son of Nun sent spies to describe the land, which is properly called geometry; and that the angel in Zechariah had a geometer's measuring line for measuring Jerusalem. And as for the prophet now being commanded to portray Jerusalem in the dust — which among them is properly called σκηνογραφία [scenography, drawing in perspective] —, we can also take the brick as a reproach to Israel, because it served Pharaoh in clay and brick; or as meaning that the city which they thought firm and impregnable is compared to a most fragile brick, which at the touch of water dissolves at once, so that she of whom it was said before: Is the hardest rock (or of the desert) the mountain of the daughter of Zion?, may be turned into a brick to be ruined by the Babylonian flood, according to what is written: Therefore the Lord will bring upon you waters many and strong, the king of the Assyrians.

"And you shall set the siege against it, and you shall build fortifications, and you shall heap up a mound, and you shall set camps against it, and place battering rams around it."

Therefore the teacher must vigilantly make known to the progressing soul what temptations follow it, so that it may be able to prepare itself cautiously against the snares of the malignant spirit. Hence it is well that now, after the city of Jerusalem has been described on the brick, it is said to the prophet: "And you shall set the siege against it, and you shall build fortifications, and you shall heap up a mound." For when the vision of peace is already being described, it is necessary that the wars of temptations be announced to it. For in order that it may be able to reach those eternal joys of peace, it must without doubt endure here many struggles of tribulations. Of which it is well said: "You shall set the siege against it." For the preacher sets a siege against the soul to be instructed when by forewarning he indicates in what ways vices oppose themselves to virtues, how lust strikes chastity, how anger disturbs the tranquility of the mind, how much foolish joy dissolves the vigor of the mind, how talkativeness destroys the fortification of the heart, how envy kills charity, how pride undermines the citadel of humility, how deceit, when it has corrupted truth in speech, corrupts it also in understanding, so that he who was unwilling to speak the truth that he understood no longer even understands what he might speak. Therefore the siege is set by the preacher when through the words of holy admonition it is shown which vices lie in wait against each and every virtue, and in what ways. And the preacher builds fortifications against the Jerusalem which he describes on the brick when he demonstrates how fortified all evils come against the mind, so that vices hide themselves under the appearance of virtues; so that, as we have often already said, immoderate anger may seek to appear as justice, and relaxation of discipline may wish to appear as gentleness, and stinginess may call itself frugality, and disordered pouring out of resources may call itself benevolence. For there are, as it were, fortifications built against the mind when vices grow up under the appearance of virtues and show themselves on high through an image, though they always lie low through their action.

"You shall also heap up a mound." For when the mind has begun to desire heavenly things, malignant spirits through their temptations heap up earthly thoughts all the more against it. Therefore the prophet heaps up a mound when the holy preacher announces to good minds how earthly desires are accustomed to creep in.

"And you shall set camps against it, and place battering rams round about." The teacher sets camps against the soul, as it were, when he points out the ambushes of malignant spirits gathered and united together against it, so that they may sometimes tempt not only from one vice, but from vices joined together at once.

For there are certain vices that are closely related to one another by a kind of kinship, such as dissipation of spirit, appetite for gluttony, and the uncleanness of lust, as well as excessive talking, deceit, and perjury. For from dissipation of spirit the mind is swept away to the gorging of the belly, and when the belly is distended with food, the flesh is drawn captive to lust through pride. And again from excessive talking deceit is generated, because it is very difficult for one who speaks much not also to lie; and often a lie is even covered by perjury, so that it may be concealed before human judgments. Pride also can in no way exist without envy and vainglory. For every proud person envies others the honor that he himself seeks. And when he has perhaps obtained it, he is raised up in the elation of temporal glory, and what he sees others were unable to attain, he rejoices through vainglory to possess above all others.

It should also be known that often certain vices do not come to the mind simultaneously, but are substituted one for another, so that one succeeds another in temptation. And one comes against the face, while another insinuates itself into temptation from the side, so that while one is being resisted, the mind, deceived, is captured by the other. For those very vices which we mentioned above often stealthily substitute themselves one for another, just as sometimes when we strive to conquer anger within ourselves, gentleness occupies the mind more than necessary, so that it fails to present the severity that ought to be shown to sinners. Often indeed, when incautious gentleness within us displeases us, zeal draws itself into fury and carries the captive soul beyond the limit of patience. Therefore, because vices come against the mind mixed together and united at once, rightly in the mouth of the preacher siege camps are set against the Jerusalem that has been described. And because sometimes individual vices strike the sense from here and there, battering rams are arranged in a circle. Therefore the preacher sets battering rams in a circle when he cautiously declares how softly lust strikes, how harshly impatience kills, how laboriously avarice inflames and destroys, how proudly pride extinguishes. Thus to place battering rams in a circle is to show by preaching which blades of the vices are accustomed to strike the soul from every side.

"And take to yourself an iron frying pan, and you shall place it as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and you shall set your face firmly against it, and it shall be under siege, and you shall surround it. It is a sign for the house of Israel."

Because iron is a strong metal, and food is fried in a frying pan, what is signified by the iron frying pan except the strong frying of spiritual zeal? For all spiritual zeal fries the soul of a teacher, because he is greatly tormented when he sees any weak persons abandoning eternal things and taking delight in temporal things. How well Paul had taken up the iron frying pan, when, tormented by zeal for souls, he said: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not burned?" His own heart, which he had set on fire with zeal for souls—what else had he made it but a frying pan, in which he burned with love of virtues against vices? For the fact that he was burned was the frying pan. For he was inflamed and he cooked, because he was set on fire with bitterness, yet from his afflicted thought he prepared the nourishment of virtues.

But what does it mean that the prophet places the same frying pan as an iron wall between himself and the city, except that the same strong zeal which is now exercised in the mind of the teacher will be a witness between him and the soul for which he is zealous against vices on the day of the final judgment? So that even if the one being taught refuses to listen, the teacher nevertheless, because of the zeal he displays, will not be held guilty for the negligence of his hearer. Therefore he places an iron wall between himself and the city, because at the time of vengeance the teacher is fortified from the danger of damnation by that very thing through which he now suffers the frying of his heart through zealous watchfulness. For there is no sacrifice to almighty God such as zeal for souls. Hence the Psalmist says: "Zeal for your house has consumed me." How much the frying of the heart that is driven by spiritual zeal pleases the almighty Lord God is clearly shown when fine flour is commanded to be offered in sacrifice through the law. Concerning which it is written: "It shall be fried in a pan with oil sprinkled on it, and the priest who has succeeded his father by right shall offer it hot as a most sweet odor to the Lord, and it shall be wholly burned upon the altar." For then fine flour is fried in a pan when the pure mind of the righteous person is burned through the ardor of holy zeal. It is commanded to be sprinkled with oil, that is, to be mixed with the brightness of mercy, which burns and shines in the sight of the almighty Lord. Therefore let the mind that is fried in a pan be sprinkled with oil, because the strictness of holy zeal must both burn and shine forth from the virtue of mercy. For it loves the very one whom it seems to pursue. Hence it is also commanded to be offered hot as a most sweet odor to the Lord, because if zeal does not have love, the fine flour that is offered from the frying pan has lost its heat. And it should be noted who is commanded to offer it, namely the priest who has succeeded his father by right. For that priest succeeds his father by right who demonstrates by his conduct that he is a son of the almighty Lord, and does not depart from his inner nobility by the ignobility of his works. It is commanded to be wholly burned upon the altar, so that it may become a holocaust. For we call a holocaust that which is entirely burned. Hence also in another translation in this place this same fine flour which is fried in the pan is commanded to become a holocaust. Moreover, this is the difference between a holocaust and a sacrifice: every holocaust is indeed a sacrifice, but not every sacrifice is a holocaust. For there are many good works that are done as sacrifices, but they are not holocausts, because they do not completely set the mind ablaze in spiritual love. For those who do the things that are of God in such a way that they nevertheless do not abandon certain things that are of the world, assuredly offer a sacrifice and not a holocaust. But those who abandon all things that are of the world and set their entire mind ablaze with the fire of divine love, these assuredly become both sacrifice and holocaust to the almighty Lord. Therefore the fine flour in the frying pan is the pure mind of the righteous person in the affliction of spiritual zeal; it is fried through concern for souls, and is reckoned to be not only a sacrifice but also a holocaust to the Lord. Let us therefore take up the iron frying pan, and let us place it as an iron wall between us and the city, that is, let us assume strong zeal, so that we may afterward find this strong fortification between us and the soul of our hearer. For we will find this iron wall then, if we now hold it firmly, namely by teaching, guarding, persuading, rebuking, soothing, terrifying, sometimes acting gently, but sometimes also more severely.

"And you shall set your face firmly against it, and it shall be under siege."

What does it mean to set one's face firmly against Jerusalem depicted on the brick, except that the teacher who announces to a soul the vision of heavenly peace should by no means show himself more lenient and merciful if he still sees that soul weakened in its actions? Hence it is written: "Do you have daughters? Guard their bodies, and do not show a cheerful face to them." For weak souls given over to worldly desire are sometimes better preserved through severity, so that a hardened face—that is, one guarded through severity and withdrawn from all hope of frivolous leniency—may terrify the inconstant soul and restrain it from the delight of vices through the force of strictness. When this is done by a teacher, it is always necessary that sweetness and humility be held in the heart, so that he may both love greatly and never rise up against the one whom he nevertheless refuses to reveal his love and humility to, for that person's own benefit.

"And you shall surround it."

The teacher surrounds the soul of his hearer when he proclaims that snares of temptations can be set against everything that is done in this life, so that while the mind becomes fearful everywhere, watchful everywhere, the more timid it is, the more vigilantly it may live.

"It is a sign for the house of Israel."

If we look to the history of the siege that took place according to the letter, what the prophet did is a sign for the house of Israel; if we look to the mystery that is daily enacted by a teacher concerning each individual soul, both what he did and what he announced by doing it is a sign for the house of Israel, because just as the house of Israel endured a siege bodily, so every soul that now begins to serve almighty God feels the besieging snares of malign spirits attacking it. If it truly desires to be rescued from them, it ought to know that it cannot be rescued by its own strength; but it must hope for the help of him who, even while we live in corruptible flesh, is able through the mystery of his redemption to strengthen us even over spirits that are without flesh—Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

And you, take for yourself an iron pan, and you shall set it as an iron wall between you and the city, and you shall set your face firmly toward it, and it shall be in siege, and you shall surround it: it is a sign to the house of Israel. What we said above, that both the prophet himself and the portrayal on the brick — surrounded by siege-works, mound and battering rams — go before as a sign of Jerusalem's coming siege, is now said more clearly, after many things in between: It is a sign to the house of Israel. The iron pan, which is set like a wall between the prophet and the city, shows the great wrath of God, which is worn down by no prayers and is not bent to mercy: for just as iron subdues all metals and nothing is harder than it, so the incredible crimes of Jerusalem by their own fault made God, who is gentle by nature, most hard. The pan is also said to be a wall set in the middle between the people and God, to show that the whole multitude is shortly to be fried and reduced to nothing. And the setting firm of the face against the city is a sign of severity, according to what we read written elsewhere: The face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth.

And you shall sleep on your left side, and you shall place the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it by the number of the days in which you sleep upon it, and you shall take up their iniquity. But I have given you the years of their iniquity by the number of days, three hundred and ninety days, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall sleep on your right side a second time, and you shall take up the iniquity of the house of Judah for forty days; a day for a year, a day, I say, for a year I have given you. We ask what the three hundred and ninety years are, which are reckoned in place of as many days, during which the prophet slept on his left side, bound and constrained so that he would not move onto his other side, showing the captivity and miseries of the ten tribes, that is, of Israel; and what the other forty years are, during which he lay on his right side for Judah and its iniquities, or, as Holy Scripture relates, slept.

— Just as, therefore, in Israel, that is, in the ten tribes, from Pekah king of Israel, under whom Shalmaneser laid waste much of the Israelite people, to the fortieth year of Ahasuerus, when the persecution of the whole Jewish people was eased, we reckon three hundred and ninety years, so from the first year of Jeconiah, when a great part of Jerusalem was carried over to Babylon, to the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, which was the thirtieth year of the temple's desolation, forty years are reckoned; under him the captivity of the Jews was relaxed and liberty given back to the people. — Some, joining the three hundred and ninety years of Israel and the forty of Judah, make four hundred and thirty years, and hold that they are fulfilled from the baptism of the Savior to the consummation of the world. Others, however, and above all the Jews, want the four hundred and thirty years, during which the people is set in tribulation and distress and under the yoke of captivity, to be reckoned from the second year of Vespasian, when Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and the temple overthrown; and that then the people will return to its former state, so that, as the sons of Israel were in Egypt four hundred and thirty years, so the last captivity too may be ended in the same number; and that it is written in Exodus: Now the dwelling of the sons of Israel, in which they dwelt in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years, and again: It came to pass after four hundred and thirty years, all the army of the Lord went out by night.

But if some contentious interpreter will not accept what we have said, but understands that the harlot named Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, bore the first and the third as males and the second, the middle one, as a female, wanting the Scripture to mean just what is read, let him answer how he explains that passage in Ezekiel where he is commanded by the Lord to bear the iniquities of the house of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, and for three hundred and ninety days to sleep continually on one side, the left, although in the LXX one hundred and ninety are written, and to sleep so that he never wakes nor changes his side, unless perhaps, sated with sleep, he opened his eyes a little to take the most filthy food of ash-baked bread, made of wheat and barley, and bean and lentil and millet, and baked on human dung. For the nature of things does not allow that any man should sleep always on one side for three hundred and ninety days. And again he says: You shall take up the iniquities of the house of Judah, and for forty days you shall sleep on the right side. These days, however, will be reckoned as years, during which Israel and Judah will be pressed down by siege and a very long captivity, so that, conquered and motionless, they cannot turn themselves from one side to the other. If he cannot prove that these things, and others like them which we read in the holy Scriptures, were done, but contends that they signify something else, then this harlot woman too, and the other woman, the adulteress, who were either joined to the prophet or kept by the prophet, indicate not a shameful union of lust but the mysteries of things to come.

Ezekiel was to lie down on his right side for 40 days and 150 on his left, to dig through a wall and flee, portraying in himself the captivity. Another time Ezekiel is to sharpen a sword to a point, shave his head with it and divide the hair four ways and assign a part here, a part there, without listing it all. The ruler of the universe ordered each of these things to be done so that by the strangeness of this spectacle he might gather those who would not be persuaded by speech or give an ear to prophecy and so dispose them to hear the divine oracles.… So, just as the God of the universe providentially ordered each one of these things to be done for the good of those who live carelessly, so he arranged this extraordinary novelty to draw everyone by its strangeness to the spectacle and make his counsel persuasive to those who come. For the novelty of the spectacle is a reliable guarantee of the instruction it can give, and whoever comes to the spectacle leaves instructed in divine matters.

— Concerning Israel this must be said: that under King Pekah son of Remaliah, who reigned in Israel twenty years, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came, and took Ijon, and Abel house of Maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, Hazor, and Gilead, the whole land of Naphtali; and he carried them over to the Assyrians. After him Hoshea son of Elah reigned in Israel nine years, and he was taken with all Samaria by Shalmaneser king of the Assyrians, and carried over to Halah and Habor, the rivers of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes. Now Hoshea was taken in the sixth year of King Hezekiah, as the holy history of Kings relates; and from him, if we reckon in order, we shall be able to find in this way for how many years Israel was in distress and pressed by the yoke of captivity. From the sixth year to the twenty-ninth year — for that many years Hezekiah reigned — twenty-four years are reckoned. Manasseh succeeded him and reigned fifty-five years. After him Amon reigned two years. After him Josiah, thirty-two years. Jehoiakim, who was also surnamed Eliakim, succeeded him, and reigned eleven years. After him Jehoiachin, surnamed Jeconiah, who was at once led into captivity; and in his place Zedekiah reigned eleven years, under whom Jerusalem was taken and the temple destroyed. So from the first captivity of Israel, which took place under King Pekah, to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in which the temple was laid waste, there are one hundred and sixty-four years. From the second, when Hoshea was taken and all Samaria overthrown, one hundred and thirty-five years. And there were seventy years of the temple's desolation, which, added to the first captivity, make two hundred and thirty-four years. For in the second year of Darius king of the Persians the temple was built by Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak, while Haggai and Zechariah prophesied; Darius reigned thirty-six years, and, one being taken away, his thirty-five years are added. After him Xerxes son of Darius reigned twenty years. After him Artabanus, seven months. And Xerxes, who was surnamed Μακρόχειρ [Long-hand], forty years. After him Xerxes, two months, and Sogdianus, seven months. Darius, surnamed Nothus, succeeded him, and reigned nineteen years. After him Artaxerxes, surnamed Memor, son of Darius and Parysatis, reigned forty years; he is called Ahasuerus by the Hebrews, and under him is related the history of Mordecai and Esther, when the whole people of the Jews, freed from the danger of death, recovered its former liberty. And from the second year of Darius to the last year of Ahasuerus there are one hundred and fifty-five years and four months, which, added to the two hundred and thirty-four years above, make three hundred and eighty-nine years and four months.

— And I greatly wonder why the common copies have 'one hundred and ninety years', and in some it is written 'one hundred and fifty', when plainly both the Hebrews and Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion hold 'three hundred and ninety years', and among the Seventy themselves — and yet they have not been corrupted by the fault of copyists — the same number is found. A most difficult question, and, not to speak proudly, one explained by no one, we believe we have expounded not so much by our own knowledge as by the grace of the Lord, that being fulfilled which he himself promised: Seek and you will find, ask and you will receive, knock and it will be opened to you. — But whoever wishes to reckon from the first captivity, which took place under Menahem son of Gadi king of Israel, who reigned in Samaria ten years, when Pul king of the Assyrians came into the land of Israel and received a thousand talents of silver, and after him the other two years of Pekah that he reigned in Israel, will find the three hundred and ninety years completed in the twenty-eighth year of King Ahasuerus, when the history of Esther is said to have taken place; and this is also more credible, for it was not when the reign of Ahasuerus was ended, but while he was still reigning, that Israel cast off the yoke of the heaviest servitude.

— The sleeping on the right side, that is, of the forty years, is easily reckoned. For after Eliakim, who was surnamed Jehoiakim, his son Jehoiachin, surnamed Jeconiah, reigned three months. While he was reigning, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded with siege-works. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were attacking it. And Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his prince and his eunuchs, and the king of Babylon received him in the eighth year of his reign. And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the royal house. And shortly after: And he carried over all Jerusalem and all the princes and all the mighty men of the army, ten thousand, into captivity, and every craftsman and smith; and nothing was left, except the poor of the people of the land. When he had been taken, with a countless multitude of the people and all the wealth of Jerusalem, Zedekiah reigned eleven years, under whom the city was taken and the temple destroyed; and its desolation lasted until the second year of Darius, for seventy years. Now in the thirtieth year of the temple's desolation, Cyrus reigned among the Persians, having overthrown Astyages king of the Medes; and he, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, sent back to Jerusalem about fifty thousand men of the tribe of Judah, and the vessels of the temple which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off, and the rest that the history of Ezra relates.

And toward the siege of Jerusalem you shall turn your face, and your arm shall be bared, and you shall prophesy against it. (LXX: "And in the shutting-in of Jerusalem you shall prepare your face, and you shall strengthen your arm, and you shall prophesy upon it.") There is need of a preparing of the face, and of the strength and firmness of an arm bared and stripped, so that the siege of the city may be shown not only by the voice but also by the gesture and bearing of the one prophesying.

Behold, I have surrounded you with bonds, and you shall not turn from your side to the other side, until you complete the days of your siege (or shutting-in). The left parts, because they had been without the temple and the knowledge of God in Samaria, are assigned to Israel; the right, to Judah, in which were the worship and religion of God; and it must be noted that on the one is the punishment of sinners, on the other the exercise of virtue. Nor does he turn from one side to the other, so that no respite from torments is indicated, until the complete conclusion of the aforesaid days is fulfilled. What a day is for the prophet, a year is for those who suffer; and the years Laban counted were to Jacob as a few days. Not only is there variety in punishments according to the difference of merits, but in the recompense of the good as well the lambs stand on the right and the goats on the left; hence also in another place it is written: The heart of the wise is in his right hand, but the heart of the fool in his left. The bonds of the Lord, by which we are bound unto salvation, are one thing; those of the devil, by which he had bound the woman in the Gospel for eighteen years, are another; hence also: Each one is bound fast by the cords of his own sins, cords which the Lord loosed through the type of Lazarus raised up, who had lain in the tomb bound with bands and wrappings.

And you, take for yourself wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet and vetch, and you shall put them in one vessel, and you shall make yourself loaves by the number of the days in which you sleep on your side: for three hundred and ninety days you shall eat it. And your food, which you eat, shall be by weight twenty staters a day; from time to time you shall eat it. And you shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a 'hin'; from time to time you shall drink it. And you shall eat it like a cake baked under the ashes, and you shall cover it with human dung before their eyes. For what we have translated 'vetch', for which in the Hebrew is said 'chasamim', the Seventy and Theodotion put ὄλυραν, which some think is 'oats' and others 'rye'; but the first edition of Aquila and Symmachus translated 'zeas' or 'zeias', which we call either 'far' [emmer] or, in the native speech of Italy and Pannonia, 'spica' [ear of grain] and 'spelta' [spelt]; to 'in a vessel' the Seventy also added 'of earthenware'.

It must also be noted that, according to the number of the days of the left side, three hundred and ninety loaves baked under the ashes are ordered to be made and eaten one each day, while about loaves for the forty days of the right side there is complete silence, so that Holy Scripture may signify in a hidden way that the punishment is not the same for a sinning people, provided it still has the knowledge of God, and for one that has wholly departed from the religion of the true God. We can also say this, according to the spiritual understanding: that the Jewish people, since its offense against God, eats to this day loaves baked under the ashes, mixed of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and oats, of which the one is the food of men, the other of beasts of burden: for in that they seem to believe in one God, they have something of wheat too; but in that they deny the Son, they feed on the barley of beasts of burden and on beans, by which the belly of those who eat them is puffed up and the mind is said to be weighed down, so much so that it is a food abhorred even by the Pythagoreans. For lentils Esau lost his birthright; millet is the food of rustics and countrymen and of fattened fowl; on oats, or vetch and olyra, brute animals are fed.

Now the prophet is commanded to show by deed the coming famine and want of the people of Israel: for just as in a scarcity of all things no one looks for varieties and delicacies of food, but for how the belly may be filled, so now the prophet puts wheat and barley, beans, lentils and millet and oats into one vessel, and makes three hundred and ninety loaves to eat one each day; and these loaves weigh twenty shekels each — that is, staters; and a shekel, that is, a stater, has four drachmas; and eight drachmas make a Latin ounce —, so that one loaf is said to weigh ten ounces, by which life is dragged out rather than sustained.

The scantiness of the food is increased by the scantiness of the water: for he is commanded to drink each day the sixth part of the Hebrew measure called 'hin' — now a 'hin' makes two Attic 'chois' [choes, an Attic liquid measure], which we can call two Italian 'sextarii', so that the 'hin' is the measure of the Jewish sextarius and of our military one, whose sixth part makes a third of an Italian sextarius —; and this food and drink, in the words of the renowned orator, gives no strength, but keeps off death. As for his saying: From time to time you shall eat (or drink) it, it means from evening to evening, although some wrongly think it is to be understood from year to year.

And the prophet Ezekiel also, when he was about to receive the revelation of the prophecy of the uprooting of the city and the overthrowing of the temple, did the word of God bring into severe tribulations to eat bread by weight, and to drink water by measure, and to sleep upon his side in affliction, and then he arrived at the vision of prophecy. And thus also thou canst shew that all the righteous men and Prophets, either by their own will, or by God's command unto them, endured always tribulations and labours.

And the loaves themselves are made like a barley loaf baked under the ashes; and he is told to cover them with human dung, not with those who are to eat them unaware — for in such a situation ignorance usually tempers miseries — but with them seeing, and before their eyes, so that one may endure the horror of the sight before the nausea of the taste.

And that it is written, according to the Seventy, that Elijah, fleeing Jezebel, found a ὀλυρίτην [made of olyra] loaf, 'baked under the ashes', is a sign of persecution and want; hence he is also fed by ravens, and, because he had found no food in Israel, he was fed with the nourishment of the nations, which were unclean. The Law itself too, which they read and do not understand, is a loaf baked under the ashes, and it is covered with human dung; for which reason Paul the Apostle too says that he counted the gains of the Law and the observance of the former ceremonies as dung, that he might gain Christ.

And the Lord said: Thus shall the sons of Israel eat their bread polluted among the nations to which I will cast them out. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold, my soul is not polluted, and what died of itself and what was torn by beasts I have not eaten from my infancy until now, and no unclean flesh has entered my mouth. And he said to me: Behold, I have given you the dung of oxen instead of human excrement, and you shall make your bread in it. That the prophets, according to Zechariah, are men of portent, who portend things to come by their deeds, and of whom God says: In the hands of the prophets I have been likened, we read very often in many places. Just as, therefore, Ezekiel eats bread in dung, so the sons of Israel too, or the whole people of the Jews, or, as others think, the ten tribes, will eat polluted bread among the nations; although the threat is not addressed to those who have already been cast out, but to those who were still to be cast out of the land of promise.

When the prophet had learned this, according to Aquila he expressed his abhorrence three times: 'Ah, ah, ah', but according to Symmachus and the Seventy he answered: Μηδαμῶς, which in Latin is said 'By no means', for which Theodotion translated: 'O Lord God'; lest we should think that he is contradicting the Lord's command, rather than giving reasons, or rather pleading, why he cannot do this; and in the end he obtains what he asked, and the severity of the sentence was tempered by a milder command. It is asked why Ezekiel refused easier things, while Hosea was at once joined to a harlot and did not object, or rather reply, that he had a chaste body and ought not to be stained by union with a prostitute, as the Apostle says: He who cleaves to a prostitute becomes one body with her; from this it is shown that it was a figure of the Synagogue or of the Church, not truly carried out according to the letter, as we discussed more fully when expounding that prophet himself. 'What died of itself' is the name for that which loses its life without the shedding of blood, and in which the soul dies; 'torn by beasts', for what in Greek is called θηριάλωτον.

I have recalled that the prophet Ezekiel too says something similar, when the Lord had commanded him to cook loaves for himself "in human dung". For he answered the Lord and said: "O Lord, never has my soul been defiled, and carrion or anything unclean has not entered into my mouth. But neither has yesterday's flesh entered into my mouth". Concerning which I often used to inquire within myself, what this exultation of the prophet might be, by which he brought forth before God as something great and said: "I have never eaten yesterday's flesh". But, as I see, taught from this and imbued with these mysteries, the prophet spoke thus to the Lord: I am not so cast down and degenerate a priest as to "feed on yesterday's", that is, on old "flesh". Hear these things, all you priests of the Lord, and understand more attentively what is said. The flesh which from the sacrifices is assigned to the priests is "the word of God" which they teach in the Church. For this, then, they are admonished by mystical figures, that when they begin to bring forth discourse to the people, they should not bring forth "yesterday's", should not speak forth old things which are according to the letter, but through the grace of God should always bring forth new things and always find spiritual things.

And that the dung of oxen is granted in place of human dung signifies lighter evils, since he is indeed commanded to eat bread baked in ox dung, but to be far from the uncleanness of human dung; and to this day this sentence is kept among the people of the Jews: they do not eat their bread in human dung — for they neither serve idols nor worship the various monstrous forms of demons — but in ox dung, since they do everything for the sake of the flesh and the belly and the good things of this earth, according to what is said: He who does them shall live in them. But we who despise earthly things not only trample on the foods of human dung and count earthly delights as nothing, but eat the bread which came down from heaven and enjoy that food of which the psalmist sings: Man ate the bread of angels, living not at all on Egyptian meats but on the fineness of manna.

And he said to me: Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and in anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in distress, so that, bread and water failing, each one may collapse upon his brother, and they may waste away in their iniquities. The Hebrew word 'mate' the first edition of Aquila translated 'staff', while the second, and Symmachus and Theodotion, translated στήριγμα, that is, 'support'.

It is written in Jeremiah that the little ones, that is, the common people of the Church, asked for bread, and there was none to break it for them; but Paul, who was a man and knew that Christ had broken the loaves of the Law and given them to the disciples to be distributed, speaks confidently. And those who need the milk of infancy and are not able to take solid food cannot eat the staff or strength of bread; and nothing so strengthens the mind of the one who eats as the bread of life, of which it is written: And bread strengthens the heart of man.

What he had shown by deed was to come, he also declares by word; and the whole sleeping on the left and the right side, and the bread baked under the ashes and mixed from a variety of six kinds, signifying the evils of the world, tends to this: to proclaim the want of food in Jerusalem and an incredible scarcity of water, so that each one collapses upon his brother, hoping from another for the help that he does not see to be in himself — for it is the nature of men that, when evils press and the weight of distress, they put their confidence in their neighbor rather than in themselves —, and they waste away in their iniquities, while they suffer all things for their iniquities. And I fear that this breaking of bread may be found in our Jerusalem too, in which the vision of peace is discerned: bread which the Lord breaks when he is angry and judges us unworthy of his bread; and would that we might at least deserve to receive it by weight and in anxiety, and that the tip of Lazarus's finger might moisten our tongue, parched with excessive dryness. But when the bread and water of the Church fail, a man will collapse against his brother, and everywhere there is discord, as we tear the tunic of Christ which not even the soldiers dared to tear at the passion of the Savior, and waste away in our iniquities, while we do not have the righteousness of God.