Hosea 11

And we understand that the heretics pass away like the first light of dawn, and their king, the devil, or the heresiarch; whom in their infancy, — when they believed in the Church, and were little ones, and were reckoned under the name of Christ —, God loved; and he called them out of the tribulation and darkness of Egypt. And he called them through the apostles and the teachers of the Church. And when they had been called, he says, by my leaders, they withdrew from their face and worshipped Baal-peor, that is, they served their own vices and lust, and afterwards they sacrificed to the Baalim and to images which they had fashioned for themselves. For each of the heretics has his own gods, and whatever they have feigned they set up as a carved and a molten image.

That what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: Out of Egypt I have called my son. Let those who deny the truth of the Hebrew volumes answer where this is read in the LXX translators. And when they have not found it, we shall tell them that it is written in the prophet Hosea, as the copies too can prove which we have lately published. But we can also relieve this passage in another way, for the sake of the contentious, whose custom the apostle Paul denies that he or the Church of Christ has; and we bring forward a testimony from Numbers, where Balaam says: God has called him out of Egypt, his glory is like that of the unicorn.

And he sets out the benefits that God conferred upon him. While he was a boy, he says, and a little child, and was held captive in Egypt, I loved him so much that I sent my servant Moses, and called out of Egypt my son, of whom I said in another place: Israel is my firstborn son.

Where we have said: Out of Egypt I called my son, the Seventy translated: Out of Egypt I called his sons, which is not found in the Hebrew; and no one doubts that Matthew took his testimony from this place according to the Hebrew truth. Therefore let those who disparage our translation produce the scripture from which the evangelist took this testimony and interpreted it of the Lord Savior, when he was brought back from Egypt into the land of Israel. And when they cannot find it, let them stop wrinkling the forehead, knitting the brow, curling the nose and snapping their fingers. The emperor Julian, in the seventh volume of what he vomited forth against us, that is, against the Christians, slanders this place, and says that what was written of Israel the evangelist Matthew transferred to Christ in order to mock the simplicity of those of the Gentiles who had believed. To him we will answer briefly: first, that Matthew published his Gospel in Hebrew letters, which none could read except those who were of the Hebrews. Therefore he did not do it in order to mock the heathen. But if he wished to mock the Hebrews, he was either foolish or unskilled: foolish, if he invented an open lie; unskilled, if he did not understand of whom these things were said. The volume itself clears him of folly, since it is composed prudently and in order; unskilled we cannot call him, whom we know from other testimonies of the Scriptures to have had knowledge of the law. It remains for us to say that the things which go before τυπικῶς (typologically) in others are referred to Christ according to truth and fulfillment; which we know the Apostle did with the two mountains, Sinai and Zion, and with Sarah and Hagar. For it is not that Sinai is not a mountain and Zion is not; that Sarah did not exist and Hagar did not exist, because the apostle Paul referred these to the two covenants. So, therefore, this which is written: Israel was a little child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son, is indeed said of the people of Israel, which is called out of Egypt, which is loved, which at that time, after the error of idolatry, was called as an infant and a little child; but it is perfectly referred to Christ. For Isaac too was a type of Christ, in that he himself carried the wood of his coming death; and Jacob, in that he had as wives Leah, sore of eye, and Rachel, the beautiful. In Leah, who was the elder, we understand the blindness of the Synagogue, in Rachel the beauty of the Church; and yet those who were in part types of the Lord Savior are not to be believed to have done in his type all the things they are related to have done. For a type indicates a part; if it went before as a whole in the type, it would no longer be a type, but ought to be called the truth of history. These things we have said briefly, as is fitting in commentaries; now let us return to the rest.

Because Israel, symbolically called "son" since Egypt, had lost its sonship through having worshiped Baal and offered incense to idols, John gave them a name which suited them: race of vipers. Because these had lost that title of sonship, which had been poured over them through grace in the days of Moses, they received from John a name congruent with their deeds. After the Lord went down into the land of the Egyptians and had returned from there, the Evangelist said, "Now the true word spoken by the prophet is accomplished." He said, "I will call my son out of Egypt." He also said, "He will be called a Nazarene," because in Hebrew nezer means a "scepter," and the prophet calls him a "Nazarene" because he is the Son of the scepter.

I will address myself as is right to those who have come from Egypt. They have come here eagerly, having overcome ill will by zeal. They come from that Egypt which is enriched by the river who is Christ, raining out of the earth and like the sea in its season—if I too may follow in my small measure those who have so eloquently spoken of these matters. They too are enriched by Christ my Lord. He too was once fugitive in Egypt; the first, when he fled from Herod's massacre of the children, and now by the love of the fathers for their children, by Christ the new food of those who hunger after good, who offers the greatest alms of corn of which history speaks and men believe. He is the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world, that life which is indestructible and indissoluble. It is of him that I now seem to hear the Father saying, "Out of Egypt have I called my son."

Herod sought him after his birth. He was going to kill all the children in that place. And the prophet revealed this too, foretelling it long beforehand when he said, "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, mourning and much weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are not." The Scriptures also predicted that he would come to Egypt when they said, "Out of Egypt I called my son."

And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. [Hosea 11:1]

It is as a result of folly and a childish attitude that they suffer this punishment. I recalled them from Egypt and freed them from that harsh servitude, but they proved ungrateful to me and opted for the worship of the idols (referring to them as "Baals"). Though I was the one who taught them to walk, who cured them of their awkward gait, showed them paternal affection and applied all kinds of healing to them, they refused to acknowledge me, even though I protected them from manifold destruction at the hands of the invaders as if clutching them to me in love like a kind of bond. It is in love that even now I care for them and invest them in these chastisements, acting in the manner of someone striking a forward child on the cheek.

And because Israel is indeed spoken of in the singular but understood in the plural, as are people, Ephraim and Judah, since in the singular number there is a great number contained in this number, he recalls the old history: that he called them through Moses and Aaron, who called them to go out of Egypt; but they, called by them, withdrew from their face, turning their backs on him and showing the hardness of their mind by the gesture of their body. Nor was it enough for them to despise those who called them, unless they also sacrificed to Baal and burned incense to carved images, or idols. We read that they first worshipped Baal under Ahab king of Israel, who took as his wife Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon, and brought the Babylonian and Phoenician idol over into Samaria. Therefore he joins in one discourse sins distant in time: how first they were called out of Egypt and named sons, then in the wilderness withdrew from God, worshipping Baal-peor rather than God, and afterwards in the holy land served the Baalim and Ashtaroth and the other idols.

"Because I am kind and good, I bound the feet of Ephraim," that is, the whole Israel … although he was awkward. God himself declares why this is so: "I will take them in my arms." This image is from child raising. Those who take infants in their arms are those who bind their feet, bringing their feet together. For it is necessary, I think, that the thighs and knees of anyone who sits down should be drawn together. And in fact this is so. "I bound the feet" as, for instance, it was written about Abraham, who bound his son Isaac when he thought to bring him as a sacrifice to God. One must note that the Hebrew version and other versions do not have "I bound the feet" but rather "I became as one who nourishes Ephraim."

And I was like a foster-father to Ephraim, I carried them in my arms, and they did not know that I was healing them. With the cords of Adam I will draw them, with the bonds of love. And I will be to them as one who lifts the yoke upon their jaws, and I inclined toward him that he might eat. LXX: And I bound Ephraim together, I took him up upon my arm; and they did not know that I was healing them in the corruption of men; I stretched them out in the bonds of my love. And I will be to them as a man giving slaps upon his jaws; and I will look upon him, prevailing over him. The Hebrew and the edition of the Seventy translators differ greatly from each other. Let us try, therefore, to weave the history according to the Hebrews, and ἀναγωγὴν (anagogy) according to the LXX. He who had said above: Israel was a child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son, and afterwards added what wickedness he committed: They sacrificed to the Baalim and offered sacrifice to images, now relates with what love he loved Israel, according to what we read in Deuteronomy: The Lord your God carried you, as a man is wont to carry his little son, in all the way by which you walked, until you came to this place. And in another place: He spread out his wings and took him up, and carried him on his shoulders. I, he says, who was a father, became a foster-father, and I myself carried my little one in my arms, lest he be harmed in the wilderness; and lest he be terrified either by heat or by darkness, by day I was a cloud, by night a pillar of fire; so that those whom I had protected I might enlighten and heal with my light; and when they had sinned and made for themselves the head of a calf, I gave room for repentance, and they did not know that I was healing them, and closing over the wound of idolatry in the space of forty years, and restoring them to their former health.

Let us pass to the spiritual understanding, according to the Seventy translators only; lest, if we wish to expound both, according to the history and according to ἀναγωγὴν, we stretch out the size of the book. While they sacrificed to the Baalim which they had fashioned from their own heart, and, when I called, fled from my face, — for so it stands in the Seventy —, I, the most merciful Lord, bound the feet of Ephraim, that they might not flee farther from me; for this is what συνεπόδισα signifies. And I bound them with the testimonies of the Scriptures and the disputation of the teachers of the Church, so that he might hold them, bound through patience, in his arms, while they did not understand that the patience of God was the occasion of their salvation.

Otherwise: I loved them so much, and was so merciful a shepherd, that I myself carried the sick sheep on my shoulders; but they did not know that I was healing them by my passion, and that I, who am the lover of all men, was drawing them to believe with the bonds of love, according to what is written in the Gospel: No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And they thought my light yoke most heavy; and I inclined toward them, leaving the kingdoms of the heavens, so as to eat with them, having taken the form of a man; or I gave them my body to eat, I myself both the food and the guest at table.

And I healed them because of the cords and bonds of love with which I had bound Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to myself. For in place of Adam, Aquila and Symmachus and the Seventy and Theodotion translated all men, so as to say: with the cords of men I will draw them, with the bonds of love. And what follows, I will be to them as one who lifts the yoke, for which Symmachus translated: and they thought that I was putting a yoke upon their jaw, is taken in two ways: either I took from them the yoke of all the nations round about, or they thought my law a most heavy weight of a yoke. And I gave him manna as food in the desert, for him to eat; for this is what he says: and I inclined toward him that he might eat; for which Symmachus translated: and I inclined food toward him. Not that God inclined toward him, but that he made the food of manna incline toward him.

Hence, in the corruption of men, that is, of the teachers who had deceived them, I extended the warmth of faith to those contracted by the cold of faithlessness, and bound them, resisting as they were, with the bonds of my love. And because they did not run of their own accord, but were dragged along bound with ropes, I struck their jaws a little with slaps, not punishing but correcting and amending. A judge tears the flesh, tortures with cords, torments with scourges and fire. But he who is a father strikes his wanton son with the palm of the hand. And he finely did not say: I will be beating them with slaps, but: as a man striking the jaws with the hand. And God strikes his straying sons with the threat of punishments, with the reading of the Gospel and the testimonies of the prophets. And when he has so struck on the jaw as to knock the bread and doctrine of the heretics out of the polluted mouth, then he looks upon him, while the beaten son says to him: Look upon me and have mercy on me. And again: Look and hear me, O Lord my God. And when he has looked upon him, he will prevail, or it will profit them, that is, he will overcome the adversaries and make servants out of runaways. Or he will give true and sweet food to those who formerly devoured the lies and most bitter food of the heretics.

He will not return into the land of Egypt, and Assyria itself is his king, because they would not be converted. The sword has begun in his cities and will consume his chosen ones; and it will eat their heads, and my people will hang in suspense for my return. But a yoke will be laid upon them all together, which will not be taken away. LXX: Ephraim will dwell in Egypt, and Assyria itself is his king, because he would not be converted. And the sword has grown weak in his cities, and has rested in his hands, and they will eat of their own thoughts; and his people hangs from its sojourning, and God will be angry over his precious things, and will not exalt him. When he says: he will not return into the land of Egypt, he shows that he desires to return but cannot go. For Israel desired to return, begging for help from the Egyptians; but he was taken in possession by the Assyrian, who captured him and ruled over him by the right of the victor; and he suffered this because he would not be converted nor repent. Or at least let us say that he returned into the land of Egypt when in the holy land he worshipped the gods of the Egyptians; or it is to be taken in the sense in which it was said above: They called upon Egypt, they went away to the Assyrians.

According to the Seventy, Ephraim dwelt in Egypt, saying that he held the holy land and the Church of the Lord Savior; but by vices and sins and the perversity of his faith he always lingered in Egypt. Because, therefore, he dwelt in Egypt, the great mind, the Assyrian, will be his king; for he would not return to the Church, and, having lost power, that is, Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God, he has always lived in languor; and he was weak, subject to all the demons and passions; therefore the sword, that is, spiritual knowledge or the word of a churchman, laying waste and subduing, will always be at work in his cities, which he impiously built against God; and the sword itself will rest in his hands, so that, slain by another, he cannot slay another nor lift his hand against the adversary. Finally they will receive, and will devour, according to their own counsels.

And so the sword has begun in his cities, or will rush in, as Aquila translated, or will wound, as Symmachus rendered. And see how great is the weight of miseries: not that fields or possessions and the countryside are laid waste, but that the enemy enters the midst of the cities and consumes his chosen ones, or his arms, as Symmachus translated, which in Hebrew is called baddau. And when the sword has consumed the chosen and the princes, or the strength of the army, and has devoured either their heads or their counsels, so that they can find no protection at all, then the wretched common people, who would not return to me, will wait for my return to them. And they will repent late, while the enemies lay everything waste. And so, because great sins must be punished with great torments, he will lay upon those of the people who are left, — their king and princes having been cut down by the Assyrian sword, — the most heavy yoke of servitude, and he will lay it on them all together, which will not be taken away according to the letter, unless it is taken away spiritually in Christ.

But the unhappy people and the untaught crowd will sigh for their ancient homeland and will feel themselves to be captive, or will hang in suspense in their sojourning, not knowing what to do and ignorant where to turn. And God is angry over their precious things, namely the gold and silver which they had received from him, of which we have often spoken, and he will by no means set free him who has fallen by his own fault. This according to the LXX; and we will fit the same sense to the Hebrew as well.

The Impassible speaks as if it suffered passion, and that which contains in Itself the cause of its own and all other bliss talks as though it could be in want and yearning. ... "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I abandon thee, Israel? Mine heart is turned within me."

How shall I give you up, Ephraim, shall I protect you, Israel? How shall I give you up like Admah, set you as Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my repentance is troubled together. I will not execute the fury of my wrath, I will not turn to destroy Ephraim, because I am God and not man; the Holy One in your midst, and I will not enter the city. LXX: What shall I do to you, Ephraim, shall I protect you, Israel? What shall I do to you? I will set you as Admah and as Zeboiim; my heart is turned in him; my repentance is troubled together. I will not act according to the wrath of my fury. I will not abandon Ephraim to be destroyed, because I am God, and not man; holy in you, and I will not enter the city. In that place where we and the LXX translated: shall I protect you, Israel? in the Hebrew is written amaggenach, which Aquila translated ὅπλῳ κυκλώσω σε, that is: I will surround you with a shield. And while we thought this was to be understood in a good sense and signified protection, from the edition of Symmachus a contrary sense is set before us, for he says ἐκδώσω σε, that is: I will hand you over. From the translation of Theodotion too, not favorable but adverse things are shown: ἀφοπλίσω σε, which signifies: I will strip you, and take from you the ὅπλον, that is, the shield with which I had protected you before; and this sense better suits the Lord when he threatens. What he says, then, is this: since they would not be converted, and Assyria became their king, and the sword will devour cities and princes and people, and a yoke will be laid upon them which will not be taken away from them; and because the sentence seemed harsh, leaving them no room at all for repentance, now God speaks to Israel with a parent's affection: What shall I do to you, Ephraim? how shall I strip you of my help? What shall I do to you? By what art shall I correct you? With what remedy shall I be able to heal you? I will set you as Admah and Zeboiim, which are two of the five cities, as we read in Genesis: Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim and Bela, which is Zoar, and in the Syrian tongue it is called Zoara. I will therefore set you and turn you into a wilderness, and destroy you down to cinders and ashes, as I destroyed Admah and Zeboiim. And when he had pronounced a harsh, nay a cruel sentence, again he is overcome by mercy through a parent's affection, and softens the severity of the judgment with a father's tenderness. For he says: My heart is turned within me; my repentance is troubled together. As soon as I said that I would set Ephraim and Israel as Admah and Zeboiim, my bowels were moved.

But if we wish to read: How shall I give you up, Ephraim, shall I protect you, Israel? it is to be understood thus: What shall I do to you? Are you worthy of protection, you who have done such things? It must also be noted that where something is said against Judah, that is, the people of God, it is not Admah and Zeboiim that are set down, but Sodom and Gomorrah. For we read in Isaiah: Hear the law of God, you princes of Sodom; and: Give heed to the word of the Lord, you people of Gomorrah. In the Gospel too, of the city which has not received the apostles, when they shake off the dust of their feet, it is said that in the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city. And the prophetic word is directed to Jerusalem: Sodom has been justified by you. We are therefore given ground to suspect that Sodom and Gomorrah were the leaders in sin, and that Admah and Zeboiim followed their example; because the mighty will suffer torments mightily; and the servant who knows the will of his lord and does not do it will be beaten with many stripes. Hence churchmen too, if they are held fast by the same crimes as the heretics, will be subject not to the torments of Admah and Zeboiim, which are the lesser, but to those of Sodom and Gomorrah, which are said to be of greater crimes.

To the heretics also, and to the people deceived by them, the Lord says that unless they repent they will be set as Admah and Zeboiim, so as to have no hope of salvation. Again, as a most merciful father, he says that he changes his sentence and repents of having said such things, so as to call them too to conversion and to repentance. I will not act, he says, in my fury, I will not destroy Ephraim. As far, he says, as lies in me, as far as I desire, if he corrects his error by the truth, if he loves me more than the leaders of heresy; God, indeed, am I, and not man: I will stretch out my hand to the fallen, I will call the wandering to salvation. And because I am holy, for that reason I will not enter the city, that is, the conventicles and cities of the heretics. Those who go out of their cities I gladly receive; into their cities I will not enter.

In the same book, it is written, "I am God and not man, the holy one in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into the city," into the den, to be sure, of vices. He himself is the only one who does not enter into the city that Cain built in the name of his son, Enoch. All of this is chanted daily by the lips of the priests: ho monos anamartētos, which in our language is translated as qui solus est sine peccato.

I repented of destroying for ever my people of old; therefore I will not act according to the fury of my anger, nor will I be changed from my clemency so as to destroy Ephraim. For I do not strike in order to destroy for ever, but in order to amend. My cruelty is the occasion of repentance and of mercy. God, indeed, am I, and not man. Man punishes for this end, that he may destroy; God chastises for this end, that he may amend. The Holy One in your midst, and I will not enter the city, that is: I am not one of those who dwell in cities, who live by human laws, who think cruelty to be justice, for whom the highest law is the highest malice; but my law and my justice is to save those who have been corrected. We can also say otherwise: since Cain the parricide first built a city in the name of his son Enoch, the Lord does not enter a city of this kind, which was built by crime and blood and parricide.

This which he said, I will not enter the city, and what follows according to the LXX, I will walk after the Lord, some have interpreted so as to say that the people answered the Lord, and that the sense is: Because your heart is turned within you, and you have not dealt with us according to our sins, but imitate your own clemency, and do not punish our offenses, and promise that you, holy and merciful, will dwell in our midst, therefore I too will not enter the city of evil men, nor will I be of the number of sinners; but I will walk after the Lord our God. The Hebrews, however, explain it thus, in the person of God: I will not abandon you, I will not go to another nation; nor will I enter another city.

The philanthropy of God does not tolerate [abandonment]. "What can I do for you? Shall I view you as I did Sodom and destroy you like Gomorrah? My heart is upset." Here the love of God appears to imitate the passionate human being or, better yet, the affectionate mother. "My heart is upset, just as a woman would say about her child. My heart is upset just like the mother's." However, the previous metaphor was only partially adequate. "My heart is troubled in my regret"? God is troubled! Let no one ever think it! God forbid!

"My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim." God imitates a father and mother who are naturally worried and cannot turn away from their children for too long. He says that, however, not because he wills one thing now and then changes his mind. Rather, he expresses his thought in different ways, in anger and love, in threat and mercy, chastising and persuading.

They will walk after the Lord; he will roar like a lion, for he himself will roar; and the sons of the sea will tremble, and they will fly like birds out of Egypt, and like a dove from the land of the Assyrians; and I will settle them in their houses, says the Lord. LXX: I will walk after the Lord; as a lion he will roar, for he himself will roar; and the sons of the waters will tremble, and they will fly like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove from the land of the Assyrians; and I will settle them in their houses, says the Lord. When the Lord promises prosperous things, the people will be converted to him, and will walk after the Lord, because the Lord will roar like a lion. Of this the prophet Amos also makes mention: The Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will utter his voice. And he roars when he says: as Admah, I will set you as Zeboiim. And when he has roared, then the sons of the sea will tremble, or of the waters, as the LXX translated. For the word maim, which is written with three letters, mem, iod, mem, if it is read maim, means waters; if meiam, it is understood of the sea.

The Hebrews refer these things to the coming of Christ, whom they hope is yet to come. We show that they are already accomplished, because both from Egypt and from the Assyrians, that is, from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, they have come, and daily they come, who sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we can call sons of the sea, or of the waters, those who have been caught in the Lord's dragnet and drawn out of the sea of this world. And when they have been taken from death into life, they will be settled in their houses, which the Gospel calls barns, in which the chosen grain, separated from the chaff, is stored. It is said to be the nature of lions that when they growl and roar, all living creatures tremble, and, their step fixed, cannot move: so great is the terror, so great the dread. And so the Lord too, when he roars and thunders like a lion and utters his voice, all the birds and every winged creature will shudder, and they will go to their nests, that is, to their houses, in which the Lord will dwell with them. Let us also say it another way: when the true lion growls, the false lion, who according to the apostle Peter is our adversary, will at once fall silent, and every perverse dogma will be unable to open its mouth; and those who had before been taken captive by him, set free by the roar of the lion and its terrible threat, will follow the Lord their God. Then the sons of the sea, or of the waters, will fear, who had been begotten in the bitterness and in the salt waters of the heretics; and taking wings, they will fly like birds out of Egypt, and like a dove from the land of the Assyrians, and they will say: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest? So that those who had labored among the heretics may rest in the Church, and dwell in their houses, from which they had been led away by error. We know that Egypt, that is, Mesraim, is interpreted tribulation and distress; the Assyrians also, directing, or, as we judge better, rebuking. From these, therefore, the heretics will be set free when they begin to dwell in their houses and say to their evil parents: Your house will be left to you deserted.