Ezekiel 47

Further, what says He? "And there was a river flowing on the right, and from it arose beautiful trees; and whosoever shall eat of them shall live for ever." This meaneth, that we indeed descend into the water full of sins and defilement, but come up, bearing fruit in our heart, having the fear [of God] and trust in Jesus in our spirit. "And whosoever shall eat of these shall live for ever," This meaneth: Whosoever, He declares, shall hear thee speaking, and believe, shall live for ever.

From the temple of the Lord, that is, from his bosom, the Savior came forth and sweetened the Dead Sea and the bitter waters.

When the world falls into sin, nothing but a flood of waters can cleanse it again.

And he turned me to the gate of the house, and behold, waters were going out beneath the threshold of the house toward the east; for the face of the house looked toward the east, and the waters were going down into the right side of the temple, to the south of the altar. And he led me out by the way of the gate of the north, and he turned me to the way outside, to the outer gate, the way that looked toward the east; and behold, waters overflowing from the right side. When the man who had a cord in his hand went out toward the east, he both measured a thousand cubits and led me across through the water up to the ankles (or he passed over in water, water of remission). And again he measured a thousand, and led me across through the water up to the knees (or and he passed over in water, water up to the thighs). And he measured a thousand, and led me across through the water up to the kidneys (or and he passed over the water up to the loins). And he measured a thousand, a torrent which I could not pass across, for the deep waters of the torrent had swelled, which could not be forded (for which the Seventy translated: And he measured a thousand, and he could not pass across, for the water was borne along like a headlong torrent which cannot be crossed). These waters which were going out beneath the threshold of the house, that is, of the temple, were not borne toward the north and toward the west but toward the east and on the right side of the temple, that is, toward the south, and that south not of just any place, but of the altar — from which it becomes clear that the waters are sacred and signify the teaching of our Savior, according to that which is written: Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and in another place: All things have been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covering the sea; of these waters the prophet Zechariah too prophesied, saying: On that day living water shall go out from Jerusalem, and the middle of it into the first sea, and the middle of it into the last sea; of these waters the Lord too spoke to the Samaritan woman: If you knew who it is who says to you: Give me to drink, you perhaps would have asked him, and he would have given you living water, and again: Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will not thirst forever, and in the temple he cried out and said: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his belly. But this he said of the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive; these are the waters of which the prophet spoke in the psalm: Beside the water of refreshment he has brought me up, and in Ezekiel: I will take you from the nations and from the lands, and I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your uncleannesses. For there appeared the springs of waters, and in Psalm 92 (93) it is sung: The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voices. From the voices of many waters, wonderful are the swellings of the sea; these are: The waters of Shiloah that go with silence, of which Isaiah speaks: You shall draw waters from the springs of the Savior, and the psalmist: Bless the Lord from the springs of Israel, and the same Isaiah of the Lord Savior: He, he says, shall dwell in a lofty cave of the strongest rock; bread shall be given him, and his water is faithful. For water has broken forth in the desert, and a valley in a thirsty land, and it is said to believers: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; you are mine. And if you pass through water, I am with you, and again: You who thirst, go to the water; and through Jeremiah God speaks: For my people has done evil things: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves cisterns, which cannot hold water. Just as, then, we read in a good sense the waters which go out from the threshold of the temple and are referred to the teaching of the Church, so there are bitter waters and most evil waters which the prophet Jeremiah forbids us to approach, saying: What have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you should drink of the waters of 'Geon'? — which in Hebrew is called 'Sior', that is, 'turbid' and 'muddy' —, of which God, angered over the heretics, speaks: Behold, I will feed them with distresses, and I will give them water of gall to drink; in which the Egyptian dragon reigns, who says: The rivers are mine, and I made them, who: Sees every high thing, and he himself is king of those who are in the waters; whence the man of the Church entreats the Lord and says: Save me, O Lord, for the waters have come in even to my soul. I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no substance; I have come into the depth of the sea, and the tempest has overwhelmed me, and again: May I be delivered from those who hate me and from the depth of the waters. Let not the tempest of water cast me down, nor the deep swallow me up; nor let the pit press its mouth upon me, and in another psalm: Unless the Lord had been among us, let Israel now say, unless the Lord had been among us, when men rose up against us, perhaps they would have swallowed us alive; when their fury was angered against us, perhaps the water would have swallowed us up, and the bride in the Song of Songs: Much water will not be able to quench love, and rivers will not overwhelm it; this is the water of which Hosea says: Gilead has despised me, the city that works vanities, troubling the water, and its strength pirate men; which water is called by another name 'merra', that is, 'bitterness' — into which the wood of the Cross is cast, and bitter things are turned into sweet —; consider the law of Moses, if it is understood according to the carnal sense of the Jews, how bitter it is — digging out: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth —: the fornication of Judah with Tamar, and Hosea joined to a harlot, Jeremiah's περίζωμα [loincloth], Moses' Ethiopian wife, the killing of the Egyptian, and a thousand other things which, if we understand them according to the letter that kills and not according to the spirit that gives life, are bitter and do not so much edify their reader as destroy him —. These waters, then, which go out from the temple of the Lord, proceed toward the east and go down into the right side of the temple, to the south of the altar, where the bridegroom feeds his guests and reclines.

Thoroughly instructed in sacrificial matters, after he learned that sacrifices have to be offered for sins in a figurative manner, the prophet was taught that two expiations of souls were made through water and spirit.

But what follows: And he led me out by the way of the gate of the north, and turned to the way outside, to the outer gate, the way that looked toward the east, secretly shows that we cannot come at once to the eastern gate unless we come to it by the way of the gate of the north, by a long circuit: for unless we overcome the coldest wind by the heat of faith and trample its regions — so that that apostolic saying may be fulfilled in us: But God will crush Satan under your feet swiftly —, we are not able to enter the gate through which the waters enter and are on the right side; and note that these waters, which go out through the gate of the east, flee the left-hand parts to such a degree that they are described as proceeding from the right of the altar toward the south.

In his final vision, Ezekiel was shown a stream that issued from the temple and flowed into the sea. He speaks of it in these words: “The angel led me a thousand cubits, and brought me through the water up to my ankles. He led me a thousand cubits, and brought me through the water up to my knees. He led me a thousand cubits, and brought me through the water up to my loins. He led me a thousand cubits, and I could not cross the stream, because its waters had risen; the stream could not be crossed” (Ezek. 47:3–5). By the stream we should understand divine Scripture, which flows out of the temple, that is, the Church, from the mouths of preachers. The angel signifies the Lord, while the prophet represents those who wish to study the divine Scriptures so that they may themselves advance in them and instruct others through their knowledge. The number one thousand often signifies the perfection of something. The first crossing refers to understanding the historical sense, the second to the moral sense, and the third to the spiritual sense.

Then the angel leads the prophet a thousand cubits when the Lord grants one of his faithful the desire to understand the Scriptures. He leads him through the water up to his ankles when he grants him understanding of the historical sense. For whoever wishes to investigate the moral and spiritual understanding of the divine Scriptures must first possess an understanding of their historical sense. Second, the angel leads the prophet a thousand cubits when the Lord kindles in his faithful servant a desire to grasp the moral sense. He leads him through the water up to his knees when he reveals to him the meaning of moral knowledge. Third, the angel leads the prophet a thousand cubits when, after moral understanding, the Lord inspires his faithful servant with a desire to unfold the meanings of spiritual understanding. He leads him through the water up to his loins when he opens to him the meaning of spiritual knowledge. Fourth, the angel leads the prophet a thousand cubits when, after understanding the Scriptures, the Lord raises his faithful servant to contemplate divine and heavenly mysteries. But he could not cross the stream, because no one can fathom the depth of divine and heavenly mysteries as they truly are. “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,” as the Apostle says; “but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor. 13:9–10). And again: “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12). Considering that he himself could not cross this stream, Paul said: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counsellor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33–36). And the prophet Isaiah says: “Eye has not seen, O God, beside you, what you have prepared for them that wait for you” (Isa. 64:4). Behold, the angel led the prophet to the appointed place, but did not lead him across, because almighty God brings his saints as far as contemplating the secret and hidden mysteries of his divinity, but does not lead them across; for human frailty cannot fully comprehend those unfathomable divine mysteries. And just as one who has smelled royal foods and tasted their sweetness beforehand desires them more than one who has neither seen nor smelled them nor learned by tasting what their sweetness is like, so the saints, who often taste through the grace of contemplation the sweetness of the heavenly homeland, burn each day with far greater love for it than those who, because of the sweetness of this world, do not perceive the sweetness of eternal life.

After these things, the intellect comes to behold that which in Ezekiel the Prophet is indicated by the apparition of the torrent, which depicts the figure of the three stages of soul that draw nigh to things divine, and beyond the third there is no passage. The beginning of all these things is a good purpose directed toward God, the manifold labours of stillness, and the straightforwardness that is born of prolonged separation from the world.

'But that man who had the cord in his hand, when he had led me through the gate of the north, outside, to the way that looked toward the east, and he himself too was in the same place, measured a thousand cubits of the same water'. And he led me across through the water up to the 'ankles' — which Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated ἀστραγάλους [anklebones] — (for which the Seventy translated: But he passed over in water, water of remission), which we can understand to signify the first sins of men, which are remitted to us as we enter the waters of the Lord, and they show the saving grace of baptism, and are the beginnings of progress; finally, they reach as far as the ankles, which are neighbors to the sole and the heel — which lies open to the bites of the snake, as the Lord says: You shall watch for his head, and he shall watch for your heel; and in the Psalter it is said of Judas the betrayer: He who ate my bread has magnified tripping-up against me (or the heel: for this is what the Greek πτέρνα means).

And after the thousand cubits which reach as far as the ankle: He measured another thousand cubits in the water and led me across up to the knees: since after the remission of sins and the beginnings of progress, when we strive to climb a little from earthly things to higher ones, we bend the knees to the Lord — as the Apostle says: That every knee should bend, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father —. Thirdly: He measured a thousand cubits, and led me, he says, across through the water up to the kidneys: for by these steps we come to the heights, which heights themselves, however, reach up to the loins and kidneys, so that all lust in us may be cut off, and we may possess the sanctification of the body without which no one will see God — whence also in this same prophet God is seen fiery from the feet up to the loins: for the works of the loins need fire and purgation, as the righteous man says: For my loins have been filled with illusions, through which the enemy mocks us both by day and in the phantasm of the nights; but from the loins up to the head and crown he shines with the brilliance of electrum, the most precious metal, so that he has in himself nothing of filth, nothing of baseness —.

Whence now fourthly it is said: And he measured a thousand, 'cubits' being understood, a torrent — which the Seventy did not translate —, which I could not pass across (much better than the Seventy, who said: which he could not pass across): for the prophet, and all human nature, cannot after the loins pass across the torrent of thoughts and the incitements of vices; but that man: Who was clothed in 'baddi' [linen], and the guide of the prophet, clearly passes across: Who did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth. And he gives the reasons why the prophet could not pass across the fourth thousand cubits: For, he says, the deep waters of the torrent had swelled, which cannot be forded — and how is it written, with the prophet glorying: Our soul has passed across the torrent? But it is easily resolved if we know that in place of this it is written in the Hebrew: The torrent has passed across my soul —. Of this torrent Isaiah too speaks: Behold, I incline upon them like a river of peace, and like an overflowing torrent glory, and in Psalm 35 (36) it is said of the saints: In the protection of your wings they will hope, they will be inebriated with the abundance of your house, and with the torrent of your delights you will give them drink; for with you is the fountain of life, and in Psalm 124 (125): Turn back, O Lord, our captivity, like a torrent in the south, and of the Savior: He will drink of the torrent on the way — for who of men can boast that he has a chaste heart?, or: Into whose mind has the death of concupiscence not entered through the windows of the eyes and, to say little, a tickling of the soul? For the world is set in the evil one, and: From childhood the heart of man is set on evil, so that from the very beginning of birth the human condition is not without sin for even a single day; whence David too confesses in the psalm: 'For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me, not by the iniquities of my mother or indeed my own, but in the iniquities of the human condition'; whence the Apostle too says: Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam —. That we say 'cubitos' [cubits] in the masculine gender and not, according to the rule of the grammarians, in the neuter 'cubita', I have also taught above: that we do this not from ignorance but from custom, for the sake also of the simple and unlearned, whose number in the congregation of the Church is the greater.

That man, who was Ezekiel's guide, admonishes the prophet to look more carefully and see, and to attend with the eyes of the mind to hidden mysteries; and he calls him 'son of man' either as a figure of the Lord Savior — for 'Hiezechiel' means 'strength' or 'dominion of God' —, or certainly as a reminder of human frailty — lest he forget his condition while great things are shown to him —; and having admonished him he leads him and turns him to the bank of the torrent so that, since he could not cross the middle depth, he might at least recognize the things that are on the banks.

And he said to me: Surely you have seen, son of man; and he led me out, and turned me to the bank of the torrent (or of the river). And when I had turned (or he had turned me), behold, on the bank of the torrent (or of the river) a great many trees (or very many trees) on either side; and he said to me: These waters, which go out to the mounds of sand of the east and go down to the plains of the desert (or this water which goes out into Galilee, which slopes toward the east, and goes down to Arabia), will enter the sea; and they will go out, and the waters will be healed: and every living soul (or of animals) that creeps (or of creeping things), wherever the torrent (or the river) comes, will live, and there will be very many fish after these waters have come there, and all things will be healed and will live to which the torrent (or the river) comes. And fishermen will stand over them from En-gedi to En-eglaim; there will be a drying of nets; very many kinds of its fish there will be, like the fish of the great sea, of exceeding multitude. But in the places that go out beyond the banks and are marshy they will not be healed, but will be given over to salt-pits. And over the torrent (or river) there will rise on its banks on either side every fruit tree (or fruit-bearing tree); its leaf will not fall from it (or nothing will grow old from it), and its fruit will not fail: each month it will bring forth early fruits (or all things will be renewed), because its waters will go out from the sanctuary, and its fruit will be for food, and its leaves for medicine (or and its ascent for health). I wished to set down the whole passage together, although it is lengthy, so as not to break in upon the sense of the reader, and so that the order of the reading, divided into parts, might not confuse the understanding of the hearer. And first it must be said that for 'torrent', which in Hebrew is called 'nehel' and in the Greek tongue is named χειμάρρος, the Seventy translated 'river'; next, that for 'Galilee', which in Hebrew is called 'galila', Aquila translated θινάς, which means 'mounds' 'of sand', Symmachus μεθόριον, which we can translate 'border-region'; for 'Arabia' too Symmachus translated 'uninhabitable', Aquila 'low places' or 'plains', Theodotion 'arabas' [a transliteration of the Hebrew word]. Let us say, then, what seems right to us in each point.

And when, he says, I had turned (or he had turned me, who was guide and admonisher), behold, on the bank of the torrent (or of the river) many trees (or a great many trees) exceedingly, on either side: this 'torrent', which on account of the abundance of its waters is borne along in the manner of a torrent and receives rains from heaven, of which we spoke in the preceding reading, is itself called by the Seventy 'river', because it has perpetual waters, not collected from rains here and there but abiding from a living and perpetual spring — of which river we read many things in the holy scriptures, but for the present a few things must be said, and first that: The rush of the river makes glad the city of God, and in another place: The river of God is filled with waters; you have prepared their food, for so is your preparation, and again in the plural: The rivers have lifted up, O Lord, the rivers have lifted up their voices. From the voices of many waters, wonderful are the swellings of the sea, and in Isaiah: I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in the pathless place, and in another place of the same it will appear more plainly that in Zion a river runs down, glorious in a thirsty land —; above this river there were very many trees on either side of the bank, so that, namely, the river ran enclosed between the two instruments, the old and the new; and the many trees, or the very many and exceedingly numerous trees, I take to be those which scripture records in paradise as abounding with various fruits.

And the guide who goes before, the teacher, teaches the prophet and says: These waters, which go out (or into Galilee of the nations according to the Seventy, or, as is more truly contained in the Hebrew:) to the mounds of sand of the east and go down to the plains of the desert (or to Arabia), will enter the sea (or to the outlets of the sea), and the waters will be healed; we said long ago that the waters signify either the grace of baptism or the teaching of the Gospel, which, if they go out from the threshold of the temple of the Lord and hold to the apostolic discipline, make the mounds of sand, previously sterile and unfruitful, to be fruit-bearing, and so water all the plains and deserts as to express among themselves too the mystery of the spring of Jericho — which Elisha healed with the evangelic and apostolic salt, to such a degree that where there had previously been sterility and death, there was fertility and life —; nor did they heal the deserts only, but they enter the eastern sea — namely the 'Dead' sea, in which nothing living could exist, and the 'most bitter' sea, which in Greek they call λίμνην ἀσφαλτῖτιν, that is, 'lake of bitumen' —; and in a wonderful manner the dead waters are healed by the waters of the Gospel — which, from the fact that they have nothing living in them, have obtained the name of death: for they did not know him who says: I am the life; and in truth, according to the letter, up to now nothing that breathes and can move about can be found in this sea because of its excessive bitterness: not even little snails and small worms and eels and the other kinds of animals or creeping things whose little bodies we can know better than their names; finally, if the Jordan, swollen by rains, flowing in there, has carried fish along, they die at once and float on the fat waters —.

Since, then, these waters have nothing of usefulness, as the plain account testifies, even if it should come about, as the foolish superstition of the Jews believes, according to the spiritual understanding, healed by the torrent of the Lord, they will have very many fish, and all things to which this torrent comes will live, so that fishermen stand over the banks from 'Engaddi' to 'Engallim' — of which the first means 'spring' or 'eye' 'of the kid', the next 'spring, or eye' 'of calves': En-eglaim is at the beginning of the Dead Sea, where the Jordan enters, and En-gedi where it ends and is consumed; and I think the Dead Sea is the one of which Zechariah speaks: On that day living water will go out from Jerusalem, and the middle of it into the first sea; Daniel too agrees with these words: I was seeing, and behold, the four winds of heaven were rushing into the great sea, and David: Wonderful, he says, are the upliftings of the sea, and in the person of the Savior in the psalm: I have come into the depth of the sea, and the tempest has overwhelmed me; the king of Egypt too, according to this same Ezekiel, is called a dragon who dwells in the sea and fans the rivers as with his horns, and again: This great and spacious sea; which, as long as it has not received into itself the water of the river or torrent, kills everything it has in itself: but the Lord — of whom it was said: He will strike: and he will heal after two days, and on the third day we shall rise and live in his sight — himself speaks in the same prophet Hosea: I bound Ephraim, I took him up in my arm, and they did not know that I healed them in the corruption of men — he who: Was wounded for our sins and made weak for our iniquities; the discipline of his peace is upon him, and by his bruise we have been healed —; he himself healed by his death this sea, which is most salty and dead from excessive bitterness, he who says through Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal those who are contrite of heart, whence through Jeremiah too he cries out: Turn back, you turning sons, and I will heal your contritions — for the people, impatient and not enduring to bear the pain of its wounds any longer, had said: The summer has passed, the harvest has gone by, and we are not saved, whence the Lord also answered it: Is there no resin in Gilead, or are there no physicians there? Why has the healing of my people not gone up? —, and Jeremiah himself cries aloud and says: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved; finally the angels — who were the guardians of the Jews at that time when the foolish multitude cried out and said: His blood be upon us and upon our children, and the veil of the temple was torn and all the mysteries of the Hebrews were laid open — answered the Lord who commanded them, and said: We have treated Babylon and she is not healed; let us leave her, namely the city of confusion and of vices — whence Josephus too relates in his History that, after the Lord was crucified and the veil of the temple was torn, or the lintel of the temple broke and fell, a voice of the heavenly powers was heard in the inner shrines of the temple: Let us pass over from these seats —. Let all this have been said not superfluously but necessarily, because the Dead Sea is said to have been healed when the river of the Lord flowed into it —.

He was baptized and came up who draws all things into his net. Out of the stream from which Simon caught fish came the fisher of men, and he took him. With the cross, which catches all robbers, he caught that robber up into life. The living by his death emptied hell; he unloosed it and let entire multitudes fly away from it.

Over this sea — from 'Engaddi', 'the eye and spring of the kid', which is always offered for sins, up to 'Engallim', 'the spring of calves', which are slaughtered to the Lord and imitate the calf that puts forth horns and hoofs, which are slaughtered at the altar in type of the Savior — there will be fishermen, to whom Jesus speaks: Come to me and I will make you fishermen, of whom Jeremiah too: Behold, I, he says, will send fishermen; and very many species, or rather kinds, of fish will be in the sea once dead, which fish Peter drew out on the right-hand side at the Lord's command, and they were one hundred and fifty-three, so that the nets were breaking because of their multitude — and those who have written on the natures of animals, and especially those who have published ἁλιευτικά [works on fishing] in the Latin as well as the Greek tongue — of whom Opianicus the Cilician is a most learned poet —, say that there are one hundred and fifty-three kinds of fish; all of which were caught by the apostles, and nothing remained uncaught, while both noble and ignoble, both rich and poor, and every kind of men is drawn out of the sea of this world to salvation —.

But what follows: On its shores and in the marshy places (or in those which go out from the shore) the waters will not be healed, secretly shows that whoever was not in Noah's ark perishes while the flood reigns, and that those whom this river has not touched do not receive healing: But they will be given, he says, to salt-pits, according to that which is written: When the pestilent man is scourged, the fool will be wiser — for the examples of the worse instruct the good —, or: They will be given to salt-pits, according to that which is written in the Gospel: Salt is good; but if the salt has become foolish, it is useful for nothing, so that they may lack crops and greenness forever — which a city too, sprinkled with salt after its ruin, demonstrates —.

The same prophet says in what follows that he saw trees on both banks of the stream, whose fruit was for food and whose leaves were for healing. The two banks signify the Two Testaments. Between them flows the great stream of Scripture, set forth by the holy Fathers. The trees represent the teachers of the Church, said to be planted on both banks, that is, in the teaching of the Old and New Testaments. Drawing waters of true knowledge, they produce both fruit and leaves: the fruit signifies good works, and the leaves, words of preaching. The fruit serves as food and the leaves as medicine, because a teacher gives the ailing soul the healing medicine of words only after first nourishing it with examples of good works.

But over the torrent (or the river) there will rise on its banks on either side every fruit tree (or, as all have translated with one voice, βρώσιμον, 'that which provides food and nourishment' and 'that which can be eaten'; and in the Hebrew tongue it is called 'machal'). And: (nothing, according to the Seventy, will grow old in it, but its produce will be renewed daily, or:) its leaf will not fall from it, and its fruit will not fail, according to that which is written in Psalm 1: And he will be like the tree that is planted beside the runnings of waters, which will give its fruit in its season; and its leaf will not fall. Each month, he says, it will bring forth early fruits (or, as is written in the Seventy: its fruit in its renewal will give early fruits), so that all the fruits of believers may be firstfruits and the single months may be assigned to the single apostles; and this will come about: Because its waters will go out from the sanctuary: lest we think that so great an abundance of produce belongs to the banks or the trees or the months, he gives the causes of the fertility and adds: Because its waters will go out from the sanctuary — So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy —. The primacy among all these trees is held by the tree of life, which is understood as wisdom, of which it is written: She is a tree of life to all who believe in her. That which is said: And its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for medicine, shows the mysteries of the divine books, of which the one pertains to the letter, the other to the spirit, so that we understand the simple words in the leaves, but in the fruits the hidden sense: for just as the knowledge of the scriptures leads to the kingdoms of heaven and offers us the bread who says: I am the bread who came down from heaven, so its leaves, which contain moral teaching, bestow health, so as to heal the wounds of those who sin. For 'leaves', which in Hebrew are called 'ale', the Seventy, on account of the likeness of the word and of the sound, translated 'ascent', which itself too can be explained thus: that, after the food of the fruits, we may climb by the admonitions of the words to heavenly things.

Thus says the Lord God. This is the boundary by which you shall possess the land in the twelve tribes of Israel, because Joseph has a double cord; and you shall possess it — each one equally as his brother — the land which I lifted up my hand to give to your fathers; and this land shall fall to you as a possession. In place of what we said: Because Joseph has a double cord, the Seventy translated: Increase of the cord — for 'Ioseph' means 'increase —, understanding a thing in place of a name and confusing the mind of the reader: for when the Levitical tribe had been subtracted and assigned to the sacrifices of the temple, there remained eleven tribes, of which Joseph was divided into two, Ephraim and Manasseh, who said to Joshua son of Nun: Why have you given me a possession of one lot and one cord, though I am of so great a multitude and the Lord has blessed me?, to whom Joshua answered: If you are a numerous people, go up into the forest and cut down spaces for yourself in the land of the Perizzite and of Rephaim, since the possession of mount Ephraim is narrow for you, and again: And Joshua said to the house of Ephraim and Manasseh: You are a numerous people and of great strength; you shall not have one lot, but you shall pass over to the mountain and cut down and clear for yourself spaces for dwelling; and you will be able to proceed further when you have overthrown the Canaanite, who you say has iron chariots and is very strong; I have said this for this reason, because scripture now records that Joseph, that is, Ephraim and Manasseh, has a double cord.

And the individual tribes receive equal spaces of land according to their multitude, by no means at the discretion of the one dividing but by lot, which rests in the power of the Lord. Finally Joshua himself too, who was the divider of the land, did not set apart his own land for himself, lest he should seem to have chosen the best, but received from the princes of all the tribes: Timnath-serah in mount Ephraim.

And this is the boundary of the land: toward the northern quarter, from the Great Sea, by the way of Ethalon, for those coming to Sadada, Hamath, Berotha, Sabarim, which is between the middle of Damascus and the border of Hamath, the court of Thicon, which is beside Hauran (or of Auranitis); and the boundary shall be from the sea up to 'the court of Enom' (or 'Aser-Enan'), the boundary of Damascus; and from north to north the boundary of Hamath, the northern quarter. Between the description of the holy land of the twelve tribes by Joshua son of Nun and the one which is now commanded to be made through Ezekiel there is this difference: that there the land is divided among the tribes by lot, here it is assigned by the discretion of the Lord who commands. In the book of Numbers, then, in which the whole land of promise is divided by four quarters in brief speech, this is the description from the north, that is, from the northern quarter: Moreover, on the northern side the boundaries will begin from the Great Sea, reaching as far as the Highest Mountain, from which you will come into Hamath, up to the borders of Sedada. And the borders will go as far as Zephrona and 'the village of Enan' (or 'Aser-Enan'). And the Hebrews say that the northern quarter begins from the Great Sea, which stretches along the shores of Palestine, of Phoenicia, and of the Syria which is called Coele, and of Cilicia, and extends through Egypt to Libya. But as to what he says: Reaching — the boundaries — as far as the Highest Mountain, the same Hebrews assert that it signifies either Mount Amanus or the Taurus — which seems truer to us —. From which, he says, you will come into 'Emath', which is now named 'Epiphania', its name having been changed by Antiochus, the cruelest of tyrants, for he had the surname Ἐπιφανής [Epiphanes, the Manifest]. Up to the borders, he says, of Sedada, which place is also set down in the present reading of Ezekiel. And the borders will go as far as Zephrona, which city they today call Zephyrium, a town of Cilicia. And what follows: And 'the village of Enan' (for which in the Hebrew is written 'Aser-Enon' or '-Enan'), the present passage also contains. And meanwhile let it suffice to have touched on it briefly according to the history and to have joined side by side the description both of Numbers and of Ezekiel, so that the prudent reader may understand in which points they record either the same or neighboring or different things; now, having interpreted the names of each, let us follow the ἀναγωγήν [anagogy, the higher sense], and let us set out, the Lord granting it, what seems right to us in each point. 'Ethalon' means 'cradle of grief'; 'Sedada', 'his side' — understand it from 'side', not from 'breadth'; 'Emath', 'fury', which in Greek is called χόλος; 'Berotha', 'wells'; 'Sabarim', 'circuit of mountains'; 'Damascus', 'blood of sackcloth' and 'of a kiss' or 'of a cup'; but the 'house' or 'court of Thicon' Symmachus translates 'the middle court', which goes on to the borders of 'Auran'; therefore 'Thicon' means 'middle'; 'Auran' — which the Seventy turned into the Greek tongue as 'Auranitis' —, 'wrath'; but 'Asar' '-Enon' — which is the boundary of Damascus — is called in our language 'court of the spring'. The northern quarter, then, begins from the Great Sea and goes by the way of 'Ethalon', which means 'cradle of grief'; through penitence it comes to 'Sadada', where there is a turning aside 'from the side': for we understand 'Emath', that is, the 'indignation' of God, impending over us, or, 'Emath' having been found to be 'truth', the 'wells' of 'Berotha' are opened to us, which the princes Abraham, Isaac and Jacob dug, and by a long 'circuit' we come to the 'mountains' of 'Sabarim', which are set between 'Damascus', that is, 'the blood of haircloth', and the border of 'Emath', that is, as we said above, 'of truth' — for just as through grief we turn aside impending evils and avoid them from the side, so after the blood and haircloth of a bloody life, before we come to the borders of Emath, we go around and come to the mountains of which it is written: Mountains round about it, and the Lord round about his people —, which place is called 'the court of Thicon', that is, 'the middle court', as Symmachus translated, beside the borders of 'Auran', which means 'wrath' — so that we may say with the prophet: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him —, and from the sea up to the borders of Damascus: in which the apostle Paul too, from Jewish fury and the shedding of the Church's blood, beheld the light through blindness and, having taken up the haircloth for his old persecution, preached the Gospel, so that he might come to the eternal 'court of the spring' and, once set in the north, might lay hold of the boundary of truth.

But the eastern quarter, from the midst of Hauran and from the midst of Damascus and from the midst of Gilead and from the midst of the land of Israel, the Jordan dividing, to the eastern sea; you shall measure the eastern quarter. For which in the book of Numbers I have found it written thus: Thence they shall measure the boundaries toward the eastern quarter from 'the village of Enan' (that is, 'Aser-Enon') as far as Sephama, and from Sephama the boundaries will go down to Rebla, opposite the spring; thence they will come toward the east to the sea of Chinnereth, and they will extend as far as the Jordan, and at the last they will be closed by the sea. Above he had said: And the boundary shall be from the sea up to Eser-Enon, the boundary of Damascus: from the end of the northern quarter, then, that is, from the court of Enan, the boundaries extend according to the book of Numbers as far as Sephama, which the Hebrews name Apamea, and from Apamea the boundaries will go down to Rebla, which is now called Antioch of Syria; and so that you may know that this Rebla signifies the city which is now the most renowned in Coele-Syria, there follows: Opposite the spring, which it is evident signifies Daphne, from which spring the aforesaid city enjoys most abundant waters — this place was planted by the military hand of Gnaeus Pompey, who first subjected Judea to Roman rule, and from him — following the fable of the poets — it received the name of Daphne, on account of the laurels and cypresses, trees which are very frequent in that very place too —. Thence, he says, the boundaries will come toward the eastern quarter to the sea of Chinnereth: as far as the lake of Tiberias; and it is called a sea although it has sweet waters, according to the idiom of the scriptures, which call gatherings of waters seas. And the boundaries, he says, will extend as far as the Jordan, and at the last will be closed by the sea: either by the Dead Sea or, as others think, by the tongue of the Red Sea, on whose shore Aila is situated, where a legion and garrison of the Romans is now stationed. Let this have been said according to the book of Numbers. But according to Ezekiel: from the midst of Hauran, which is a town of Damascus in the wilderness, and from the midst of Gilead, which, a mountain joined to the hills of Lebanon, fell into the lot of Reuben and Gad and of the half tribe of Manasseh, and is behind Phoenicia and Arabia — to which mountain Jacob came, having set out from Carrhae, and was overtaken by Laban; of which Jeremiah too speaks: Gilead, you are to me the beginning of Lebanon; which Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, took from the region of the Amorites —; and the end of this quarter: the river Jordan bounding it, and the eastern sea, which in this place they understand as the Dead Sea, not the tongue of the Red Sea. Let us speak according to tropology. After the boundaries of the north, by a long circuit through Ethalon and Sedada and Berotha, Sabarim too and Thicon and Auran and Damascus and the court of Enom, the eastern quarter reaches as far as Emath: from the midst of the 'wrath' of 'Auran', and from the midst of 'Damascus', namely of the 'blood' 'of penitence', and from the midst of 'Galaad', which means 'revelation' or 'mound of testimony': so that, after wrath and penitence, it may show the hope of salvation; and from the midst of the land of 'Israel', which contains the 'vision' 'of peace', it reaches to the most sweet streams of the Jordan, which, with the sea set far apart, attains the light of the east, so that it is ended by the 'river' 'Iordanis', which means 'stream of judgment', and by the boundary of the 'torrent'; but what is set down in the Seventy, 'phoeniconos', that is, 'of the palm grove', is not found in the Hebrew, for which we translated 'you shall measure': and the error is manifest, because for 'thamoddu' [you shall measure], deceived by the likeness of the letters 'daleth' and 'res' [d and r], they read 'thamorru' [palm].

But the southern quarter, the meridional, from Tamar up to the waters of contradiction (or to the waters of 'Mariboth' — for these mean 'contradiction' or διαδίκασμοι, that is, 'disputes' —) of Kadesh too, and the torrent up to the Great Sea; this is the southern quarter toward the south. For which in the book of Numbers it is written thus: It will begin from the wilderness of Sin, which is beside Edom, and will have as boundaries toward the east the sea. And they will go around the southern quarter by the Ascent of the Scorpion, so that they pass Senna and come into the south as far as Kadesh-barnea, whence the borders will go out to a village named Addar, and will extend as far as Asemona. And the boundary will go around from Asemona as far as the torrent of Egypt, and will be ended by the shore of the Great Sea. Which briefly signifies this — lest on the occasion of Ezekiel we seem to pass over to a very broad exposition of Numbers —: that the boundary goes around from the wilderness of Sin, which is beside Edom, and from the Red Sea, and, through the Ascent of the Scorpion and through Senna and Kadesh-barnea and the court of Addar and Asemona, reaches as far as the torrent of Egypt, which flows into the sea beside the city of Rhinocorura; but this boundary of the southern quarter, that is, the meridional, begins from Tamar — which is a city in the wilderness, which Solomon too built with wondrous works, and today it is named Palmyra, and in the Hebrew tongue it is called 'thamar', which in our language means 'palm' — up to the waters of contradiction of Kadesh, which beyond doubt is in the desert, and the torrent entering the Great Sea, this sea which stretches along the shores of Egypt and Palestine, and this is the southern quarter toward the south. After the quarter of the north, then, and of the east, when the sun of righteousness has risen for us, we receive the meridional quarter, when the whole light is poured upon us from above, and with Abraham we enter the banquet and are inebriated with wine — which makes glad the heart of man — with Joseph and his brothers; and this possession and these boundaries begin from 'Thamar', namely from the 'palm' and the victory over vices, up to the waters of contradiction: for virtues are always contradicted — whence the Jews too, disputing against Paul, assert that the preaching of the Gospel is contradicted in the whole world; and in the Gospel we read, as Simeon says: This one will be for the ruin and resurrection of many, and for a sign that will be contradicted —, but all contradiction is of 'holiness', which 'Cades' means — as the psalmist says: The Lord will shake the desert of Cades: which, namely, at first did not have the holiness of the Lord, but was shaken and moved, so as to receive God as its guest, who says: Upon whom will my spirit rest, if not upon the humble and quiet and the one who trembles at my words? —; after the desert of Cades, up to the Great Sea, in the south of the southern quarter, is the torrent of which we spoke above, which has rains not from the earth but from heaven, collected from the variety of diverse virtues.

And the quarter of the sea, the Great Sea, from the border straight on until you come to Hamath; this is the quarter of the sea. Of which the book of Numbers writes more plainly and more briefly: But the western quarter will begin from the Great Sea, and will be closed by that same end, that is, from sea to sea: namely from the torrent of Rhinocorura, which flows into the sea, up to that place which is opposite Hamath, the city of Syria, of which we spoke above. But the west, according to the laws of tropology, is always in the sea, always in the brine and the waves, where every day shipwrecks are stirred up, and the deaths of the wretched, and the loss of riches and merchandise; and yet, when we have broken all these things by patience, we come straight on to 'Emath', that is, to the 'truth' of the Lord, who, once persecutions are overcome, has promised us eternal rewards.

And you shall divide this land for yourselves by the tribes of Israel; and you shall cast it as an inheritance, for yourselves and for the strangers who have come to you, who will have begotten sons in your midst, and they shall be to you as natives among the sons of Israel: with you they shall divide the possession in the midst of the tribes of Israel; and in whatever tribe the stranger shall be, there you shall give him a possession, says the Lord God. Through this passage we learn — and the haughtiness of the Jews is struck down — that nothing is divided between Israel and the people of the Gentiles: for if the land is divided to strangers and foreigners together with those who are of the people of Israel, that is, the natives, no one doubts that the inheritance is the same for the people of the Gentiles and for the people of the Jews, if only they have been converted to the worship of the God of Israel — which properly possesses the name Christian —, the Jews having the letter of the law and we the spirit, they holding the parchments and we him who is written in the parchments; and with Moses the land is divided by lot, but here, as we said, it is assigned by the judgment of the Lord, and there is one possession for the stranger and for Israel, and in the individual tribes the inheritance is given, at the command of the Lord God.