Hosea 2

Say to your brothers: My People, and to your sister: Obtained Mercy. LXX: Say to your brother: My People, and to your sister: Obtained Mercy. Since great is the day of Jezreel, in which Judah and Israel had one prince, and it will by no means be said to Israel: Not My People; but on the contrary they will be called sons of the living God. Therefore, O men of the tribe of Judah, do not despair of the salvation of the ten tribes, but daily, by word and by prayer and by letters, call them to repentance, because he is called your brother and your sister: brother from the fact that he is called My People; sister from the fact that he is named Obtained Mercy. Otherwise: you who believe in Christ, and are as much from the Jews as from the Gentiles, say to the broken branches, and to the former people which was cast off: My People, because he is your brother; and Obtained Mercy, because she is your sister. For when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved. This same thing is commanded us, that we should not utterly despair of the heretics, but call them to repentance, and desire their salvation with the affection of kinship.

She has not preserved the genuineness of love toward me, but rather she denied the intimacy and underestimated the purity of spiritual communion with me. Nor was she willing to bring forth the fruits of my will.

Judge your mother, judge, since she is not my wife and I am not her husband; let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest perhaps I strip her naked and set her as on the day of her birth. LXX: Be judged with your mother, be judged, because she is not my wife and I am not her husband; and I will put away her fornication from my face, and her adulteries from between her breasts, so that I may strip her naked, and restore her as on the day of her birth. Up to this point the discourse has been directed to the people of Israel, that is, to the ten tribes. Now another section begins, and the sons, that is, the people, are commanded to enter into judgment against their mother, who bore them, who, made a wife from a harlot, did not abandon her former ways, and again played the harlot with her lovers. And see the clemency of the husband. She has already been repudiated, already cast off; he has already said to her: She is not my wife and I am not her husband; yet he commands the sons to speak, not at all to the wife of their father whom he has put away, but to their mother, who bore them. And let them speak calling her to repentance, so that she may put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts. A fornicatress is one who couples with many. An adulteress is one who, deserting one husband, is joined to another.

The Synagogue is both of these, and if she persists in fornication and adultery, God will take away from her the garments and ornaments which he had given. Of these Ezekiel writes: On the day when you were born, they did not bind your breasts, and you were not salted with salt: and I passed by you, and found you naked, and disfigured, and spattered with blood. And a little after: I clothed you with fine linen and delicate stuffs, and placed ornaments about you, and gave bracelets about your hands, a necklace about your neck. These things her most generous husband gave her then, when he found her in Egypt, defiled by the lust of idolatry and spreading her feet for all. And now he threatens that, if she will not return to her husband, she will be without God and husband, just as she had been before in Egypt. Lest we always stretch out our volumes with a threefold explanation, let it suffice to have pointed this out now and then: that what has been said fits both the Jews who deny Christ and the heretics who abandon the faith of the Lord, whose fornication is properly between the breasts; and it dwells in the heart, in the craft of idols and of various dogmas; they will return to the day of their birth, so that, if they do not repent, they will be compared to the heathen.

And I will make her like a wilderness, and set her like a pathless land, and kill her with thirst. LXX: And I will make her as a desert, and set her as a land without water, and slay her in thirst. If she will not be converted to better things, I will do to her what I did in the wilderness, so that, led into captivity, they may fall in a foreign land, suffering thirst for all good things, and be unable to return to their homeland. Or at least let them hear in the Gospel: Your house will be left to you desolate. And the Lord will send them not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water; but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. Of which Isaiah also speaks: They will be like a garden that has no water. The heretics who have been cast off by the Lord, if they do not return to their former home, will suffer such want of all things that even what they seem to have, though false, will be reduced to nothing.

And on her children I will have no mercy, since they are children of fornications, for their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them is confounded, for she said: I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and my waters, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. LXX: And on her children I will have no mercy, since they are children of fornication, for their mother has played the harlot. She who bore them is confounded; for she said: I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, and my garments and my linens, and my oil and all things that are necessary to me. This I will do besides to her to whom I said: not my wife, and I am not your husband, and I will make her like a wilderness, and make her like a pathless land. For when I led her out of Egypt, the parents were slain and their sons entered the land of promise. But now the children of the fornicating mother will perish with their harlot mother, since they are children of fornication, and evil ones begotten of evil ones. To them it is said in the Gospel: Brood of vipers, a brood which came to such shamelessness that it heard through Jeremiah: You have got the face of a harlot; you are shameless.

Who is that adulterous woman whom the prophet Hosea points out, who said, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and everything that befits me?" Let us grant that we may understand this also of the people of the Jews that went astray; yet whom else are the false Christians (such as are all heretics and schismatics) wont to imitate, except false Israelites?

They, therefore, who are wicked, evildoers, carnal, fleshly, devilish, think that they receive at the hands of their seducers what are the gifts of God alone, whether sacraments, or any spiritual workings about present salvation. But these men have not love towards God, but are busied about those by whose pride they are led astray, and are compared to the adulterous woman, whom the prophet introduces as saying, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and my oil, and everything that befits me." For thus arise heresies and schisms, when the fleshly people which is not founded on the love of God says, "I will go after my lovers," with whom, either by corruption of her faith, or by the puffing up of her pride, she shamefully commits adultery. But for the sake of those who, having undergone the difficulties, and straits, and barriers of the empty reasoning of those by whom they are led astray, afterwards feel the prickings of fear, and return to the way of peace, to seeking God in all sincerity,—for their sake He goes on to say, "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, but she shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now." Then, that they may not attribute to their seducers what they have that is sound, and derived from the doctrine of truth, by which they lead them astray to the falseness of their own dogmas and dissensions; that they may not think that what is sound in them belongs to them, he immediately added, "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her money; but she made vessels of gold and silver for Baal."

Is not this the mark of a hard brow and of a harlot's shamelessness, to glory in one's own crime and say: I will follow my lovers; I will go to the idols which have supplied me with what is necessary both for food and for clothing? All the things which the prophetic word describes the Jews received spiritually from the Lord. And because they denied the Son of God, choosing for themselves Barabbas, the author of robbery and sedition, and crucifying the Son of God, therefore to this day they follow demons, and ascribe the benefits of God to those who have destroyed the souls of their worshippers. The heretics have bread and waters: their bread is the bread of mourning, and their waters are muddy, waters which choke and kill the baptized. They have also wool from scabby sheep, and flax that remains in its blackness, and oil, of which the prophet says: Let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head, and the drink of the waters of Egypt, of which Jeremiah cries out: What have you to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Gihon? And: What have you to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the waters of the rivers? We run through all these things briefly, so as to pass on to the rest.

Concerning such people the Lord speaks to the prophet under the figure of Jerusalem, saying: Behold, I will hedge your way with thorns, and I will fence it with a wall, and she will not find her paths. And she will follow her lovers and will not overtake them; she will seek them and will not find them (Hosea 2:6). Our lovers are carnal desires; we follow our lovers when we labor in this, that we may become possessors of riches, so that we may have the means to satisfy carnal desires. We follow our lovers and do not overtake them when, with the mercy of God preventing us, we are not able to reach that which we uselessly desire.

For hence is that which the Lord says, under the character of every soul, to Judaea who is weak, and walking in evil ways; "Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will hedge it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths, and she shall follow after her lovers, and she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, and not finding them shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now." For the ways of the Elect are hedged up with thorns, when they find the pain of piercing in that which they desire in this world. He obstructs, as it were, by interposing a wall, the ways of those, whose desires the difficulty of attainment opposes. Their souls truly seek their lovers, and find them not, when by following malignant spirits, they do not gain hold of those pleasures of this world, which they desire. But it is well added that she says immediately in consequence of this very difficulty; "I will go and return to my former husband, for then it was better with me than now." For the Lord is the first husband, Who united to Himself the chaste soul, by means of the love of the Holy Spirit. And the mind of each one then longs for Him, when it finds manifold bitternesses, as thorns in those delights, which it desires in this world. For when the mind has begun to be stung by the adversities of the world which it loves, it then understands more fully, how much better it was for it with its former husband. Those then, whom an evil will perverts, adversity frequently corrects.

For there are some who understand the good things they ought to do, but cease from doing them; they see what they ought to do, but do not follow it out of desire. To these, as we said above, it often happens that the adversity of this world strikes them in their carnal desires; they try to grasp temporal glory and cannot; and while they propose to sail through the deep waters, as it were, toward the greater concerns of this age, they are always driven back by contrary winds to the shores of their own dejection. And when they see themselves broken in their desires, with the world opposing them, they are reminded what they owe to their Creator, so that they return to Him with shame, whom they had abandoned in their pride for love of the world.

For often some who wish to advance toward temporal glory either waste away in prolonged illness, or fall crushed by injuries, or are afflicted when struck by heavy losses, and in the sorrow of the world they see that they should have placed no confidence in its pleasures, and reproaching themselves for their own desires, they turn their hearts to God. Of these indeed the Lord says through the prophet: "Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will wall it in with a barrier, and she shall not find her paths; and she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; she shall seek them, and shall not find them, and she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then than now." The husband of every faithful soul is God, because she is joined to Him through faith. But that soul which had been joined to God follows after her lovers, when the mind which has already believed through faith still subjects itself in action to unclean spirits, seeks the glory of the world, feeds on carnal delight, and is nourished by exquisite pleasures. But often almighty God mercifully looks upon such a soul and mingles bitterness with her pleasures. Hence He says: "Behold, I will hedge up your ways with thorns." For our ways are hedged with thorns when in what we wrongly desire we find the pricks of pain. "And I will wall them in with a barrier, and she shall not find her paths." Our ways are walled in with a barrier when hard obstacles in this world resist our desires. And we cannot find our paths, because we are prevented from obtaining what we wrongly seek. "And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; she shall seek them, and shall not find them"; because the soul does not at all attain the fulfillment of her desires from the malign spirits to whom she had subjected herself in her desires. But what great benefit arises from this salutary adversity He adds when it follows: "And she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then than now." Therefore, after she finds her ways hedged with thorns, after she cannot overtake her lovers, she returns to the love of her first husband, because often after we cannot obtain what we want in this world, after we grow weary in earthly desires from their impossibility, then we bring God back to mind, then He who displeased us begins to please; and He whose precepts had been bitter to us suddenly becomes sweet in memory; and the sinful soul who had tried to be an adulteress, yet could not through open act, resolves to be a faithful wife. Those therefore who, broken by the adversities of this world, return to the love of God and are corrected from the desires of the present life—what are they, my brothers, but compelled to enter?

And also in Hosea, where it is said of Jerusalem committing fornication: Behold, I will close her ways with thorns, and I will block up her paths, and she will not find her track, and she will pursue her lovers, and will not overtake them, and she will seek them, and will not find them; and she will say: I will go and return to my former husband, for it was better with me then than now. Notice that unless the ways had been closed and the paths fenced off, and unless the Lord had destroyed her ways, the fornicating soul could never have said: I will go and return to my former husband.

But if, following the sense above, we wish to take Now the daughter shall be blocked with a blockade as said of the Church, let us bring forward that example from Hosea, in which the adulteress speaks: I will go after my lovers, who gave me my bread, and my water, and my garments, and my linens, my oil, and all things that profit me. And afterwards God, wishing to hinder her most wicked thought, does not let her fulfill what she desires, but blocks her ways, so that she may not overtake her lovers and commit fornication further. For he says: Therefore, behold, I will block her ways with stakes, and I will hedge up her ways, and she will not find her path; and she will pursue her lovers, and will not lay hold of them, and she will seek them, and will not find them, and she will say: I will go and return to my former husband, because it was well with me. Notice that the Lord's work has succeeded: for the adulteress, not finding her way and not able to go where she wished, returns, bound by necessity, to her former husband, and confesses that it is better for her in her former husband's house than it once had been with her lovers; and Israel is schooled by tribulations and blows.

Because of this, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will hedge it with a wall, and she will not find her paths, and she will follow her lovers and will not overtake them, and she will seek them and will not find them, and she will say: I will go and return to my first husband, for it was well with me then, more than now. LXX: Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with stakes, and I will block her ways; and she will not find her path. And she will pursue her lovers, and will not overtake them; and she will seek them and will not find them; and she will say: I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than it is now. The harlot had said: I will go after my lovers, who have supplied me with abundance of all things. The Lord answered: I will hedge up your way with thorns, or with stakes, so that you cannot go where you desire, and I will set a hedge-wall, or a wall, in the way, and you will not find your paths which you had often trodden with your foot, so that you may not overtake those whom you were following with such zeal, and, compelled by the need of things, you may return to your husband; and say that saying from the Gospel: How many hired servants in my father's house have bread in abundance, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired servants. From this we understand that by the providence of God evils often befall us, so that we may not have the things we desire, and, oppressed by the various calamities and miseries of this world, we may be compelled to return to the service of God. And by the lovers of Jerusalem and of the Jewish nation, according to the history of that time, let us understand the Assyrians and Chaldeans and Egyptians and the other nations, with whose idols she played the harlot, and from whom, in time of war and when evils pressed upon her, she hoped for help in vain. According to the spiritual understanding, the heretics follow these lovers, and, often deserted by them, return under the weight of their evils to the bosom of mother Church. For through all scourges and torments Israel is instructed.

Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed God's concern and providence toward us. He speaks of the image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardor to the worship of idols. She says, "I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink." The divine condescension replies, with a view to her salvation and not to her will, "Behold, I will hedge in her paths with thorns, and I will hedge her in with a wall, and she will not find her ways. And she will pursue her lovers and not lay hold of them, and she will seek them and not find them, and she will say, 'I will return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.' "

So, then, understand that your soul too has had many lovers, who delighted in her beauty, with whom she played the harlot. Concerning whom she also said: "I will go after my lovers, who give me my wine and my oil", and the rest. But now she has come to that time when she says: "I will return to my former husband, because it was better for me then than now". You have returned, then, to your former husband; without doubt you have given offense to your lovers, with whom you were committing adulteries. Unless, therefore, you now abide with your husband in whole faith, and are glued to him with your whole love, out of the many crimes which you have committed every movement of yours and glance of yours is suspect to him, and your very gait, if it be too careless. He can see nothing further in you that is wanton, nothing dissolute and prodigal. But when you turn your eyes even a little away from your husband, at once there must needs come a remembrance of former things. Therefore, that you may both blot out former things and that trust may be able to be had in you for the rest, you must not only do nothing unchaste, but not even think it.

And she did not know this, that I gave her grain and wine and oil, and multiplied silver for her, and gold, which they made into Baal. LXX: And she did not know that I gave her grain and wine and oil, and multiplied silver for her; but these she made into things of silver and gold for Baal. He is answering what came before, for she had said: I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, wool and flax, and my oil and my drink; all of which she had received so that she might turn them to the worship of God. But she, the bread that strengthens and the wine that gladdens the heart of man, and the oil that enlightens every man coming into this world, and the silver of which we have often said: The words of the Lord, chaste words, silver tested by fire, proved for the earth, purified sevenfold; and the gold of which we read: If you sleep in the midst of the lots, the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back in the greenness of gold, she turned into idols, and made Baal, which is interpreted 'higher' and 'devouring', while she either thinks that she has greater dogmas than those of the Church, or is devoured in the very knowledge of false opinion. But that, according to the letter, Jerusalem abounded in gold and silver and all riches, and made idols to Baal, the demon of the Sidonians, or, as some more rightly judge, the Babylonian one, from whom he is also called Bel, Ezekiel sets out more fully in his volume, and the whole choir of the prophets relates.

Therefore I will return and take my grain in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will set free my wool and my flax, which covered her disgrace. LXX: Therefore I will return and take away my wheat in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will take away my garments and my linens, so that they may not cover her disgrace. The punishment is heavier when, at the time of harvest and vintage, the hoped-for crops and the wine are taken away, and are, as it were, snatched out of the hands that already held them. But if at the time of the threshing floor and the vat and the winepress, when the earth makes up for past barrenness with new crops, there is a want of all things, what must we reckon of the rest of the year, when the old stores too are being saved? Now the wool and the flax, or the garments and the linens, are set free, so that they may no longer cover the harlot's disgrace; that is to say, so that she may be stripped of God's help, and the protection of all the angels may depart from her. Hence the Apostle too says that the creation is set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. Many have received the gold and silver of wisdom and eloquence, out of which they might make the lampstand of seven lamps of purest gold, and the golden table of the showbread, and the mercy seat and the cherubim gleaming with the splendor of gold, and the silver bases of the pillars, and the wheat of the word of God, and the wine, the joy of the Holy Spirit; and garments too and linens with which believers might be clothed in Christ; all of which they turned to the worship of idolatry, composing various dogmas of error, and, being deceived, they deceived others. All these things God takes away, so that those who did not perceive the giver from abundance may perceive him from want.

For an unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ, when still, as I said above, our soul was fornicating away from God and was with its lovers, the demons. But after she said: "I will return to my former husband" and came to Christ, who from the beginning "created her according to his own image", the adulterous spirit necessarily gave place when it saw the lawful husband. We have been received, then, by Christ, and our house has been "cleansed" from former sins and "adorned" with the ornaments of the sacraments of the faithful, which those who have been initiated know. But this house does not at once merit to have Christ as its inhabitant, unless its life and conduct be so holy, so pure and undefiled, that it may merit to be a "temple of God". For it must be no longer a house, but a temple, in which God may dwell. If, then, it neglect the grace received and entangle itself in worldly affairs, straightway that unclean spirit returns and claims for itself the empty house.

So then, once the garment and the linen have been set free, so that they might no longer cover the disgrace of the fornicating woman, all the shame of Jerusalem, or the folly through which she worked shame, will be uncovered in the sight of her lovers, so that those who desired her veiled may despise her exposed. And when she has been handed over to her lovers the Assyrians, or to the demons whom both she herself and the Assyrians serve, no one, he says, will be able to snatch her from my hand; for the weakness of the demons is proved in this, that those whom they had received abounding in all things they cannot free when they are crushed by evils.

These things, both according to the history and according to tropology, unhappy Judea has suffered: all her shame has been uncovered in the eyes of the Gentiles, and no one could rescue her from the hands of God. All the ceremonies have ceased, the festivity has been turned into mourning; all that she thought was given her by the demons, she now knows has been taken away because she offended God. First the Assyrians and the Chaldeans devoured her, the Medes and the Persians and the Macedonians; at the last the most savage beast tore her apart, the empire of the Romans, whose name is passed over in silence in Daniel, so that the dread of those who are to be devoured may be made greater. What we have said of Judea, refer to the heretics, who, promising doctrine and knowledge at first sight, having gone out from the Church, are deserted by God; and all their disgrace is set in the sight of their lovers, whom they had deceived before; and, handed over to the beasts which the prophet shuns when he says, Do not hand over to the beasts the soul that confesses you, they will be left to their bites.

And handed over to Babylonian slavery, she will by no means be able to celebrate the three solemnities of Passover and Pentecost and Tabernacles, nor to keep the joy of the new moon, that is, of the calends, nor of the sabbath, nor all the festivals, which he comprises under one name.

And now I will uncover her folly in the eyes of her lovers; and no one will rescue her from my hand and I will make all her joy cease, her solemnity, her new moon, her sabbath, and all her festal times; and I will spoil her vine and her fig tree, of which she said: These are my wages, which my lovers gave me; and I will make her into a forest, and the beast of the field will eat her. LXX: And now I will uncover her uncleanness in the sight of her lovers; and no one will rescue her from my hand; and I will turn away all her gladness, her solemnities and her new moons, and the sabbaths, and all her festivals; and I will destroy her vine, and her fig trees, of which she said: These are my wages which my lovers gave me; and I will make her a testimony, and the beasts of the field will eat her. What follows, The birds of the sky and the creeping things of the earth, must be marked beforehand with an obelus. For 'forest', too, which in Hebrew is called iar, whence Kiriath-jearim also is interpreted 'town of the woods', the LXX translated 'testimony', through the deceptive likeness of the letters res and daleth. For if daleth is read in place of res, it means 'testimony', provided only that the letter iod does not come before it.

The vine too and the fig tree and the abundance of all things will be spoiled: in the vine understand gladness, in the fig sweetness and pleasantness, which are taken away by the evils of a most grievous slavery; and they are taken away for this reason, that she judged them given to her not by God, as to a wife, but by her lovers, as to a harlot, for the wages of lust. Then she will by no means have fruit-bearing trees, but everything will be turned into forest. And since he had once taken the metaphor from the woods, he carries it through in the rest, so as to call the enemies, by whom all things are to be devoured, beasts.

And I will visit upon her the days of the Baalim, on which she burned incense and adorned herself with her earring and her necklace, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord. LXX: And I will avenge upon her the days of the Baalim, on which she sacrificed to them; and she put her earrings and necklaces about herself, and went after her lovers; but me she forgot, says the Lord. He keeps up the character of the harlot, who adorns herself with gold and gems to please her lovers, and whatever beauty she does not have by nature she procures by art. These earrings, with which her ears had been adorned by the teaching of God, and these pearls which hung precious from her neck, so that the bridegroom and husband said to her, Your neck is like necklaces, she cast before the feet of swine, and gave what is holy to the dogs. And what we read in Proverbs was fulfilled: Like a golden earring in a sow's nostrils, so is beauty to a most wicked woman. Now she did all these things so as to follow her lovers and leave her husband. And so great was her desire for pleasure and lust that she lost all memory of her marriage and forgot that she had been a wife. Therefore, on those very solemnities on which she burned frankincense to the demons, she will be visited with blows and chastised with punishments. Baal in the singular number, Baalim in the plural: the same idols are named in the masculine gender. For wherever we read the syllable im at the end of a Hebrew word, it is in the plural number, masculine gender; but where oth, plural number, feminine gender. Therefore we understand seraphim and cherubim as plural number, masculine gender; but Sabaoth, which is interpreted 'of armies', or 'of hosts', or 'of powers', as plural number, feminine gender. And so the Baalim too are of the masculine gender and plural number, although some wrongly read τῇ Βαὰλ (feminine article) and ταῖς Βααλεὶμ (feminine plural), in the feminine gender. But how the heretics deceive their lovers, and adorn themselves with charm of speech and the arrangement of words, so as to make falsehood look like truth, and abandon conjugal chastity, and burn incense to the Baalim, that is, to the idols which they have fashioned out of their own heart, we see daily. For they have no care for the simple rusticity that does not seek a harlot's ornaments, but for artful and elegant falsehood, so as to please their lovers, the devils and demons.

"Behold, I will mislead her" not from what is necessary and useful to life … but from the things that are shameful and harmful to the fulfillment of any enjoyment.… And as her ways are usefully hedged around with thorns so that she may not lay hold of her lovers, in the same manner she believes herself—now running downhill toward ruin and destruction—to be led astray by the mercy of God when she is brought to desire virtue. Having received the light of the knowledge of God in mind and heart, as I said, she is no longer able to find her old path.

Since she [Israel] is accessible like a well-watered land to the herds of demons, he [the Lord] promises to treat her as a wilderness.… He will display it to their desires as an austere, untrodden and waterless place, so that finding no resting place they will despise it and depart.

We who have Christ, the author of necessary things dwelling inside the heart, were at once enriched in every kind of virtue, and in the abundant and inalienable possession of the spiritual gifts.… He promises to speak in her heart. For the synagogue of the Judeans, exactly as the church from the nations, will be called to awareness by taking into mind the divine laws inscribed through the Spirit.

For this reason God says of Jerusalem too: Behold, I will lead her astray, and I will make her like a desert, and set her like a land without water, and I will speak to her heart; and I will give her possessions from there, and the valley of Achor to open understanding (Hos 2:14, 15). Let us consider the order of each thing: he leads her astray, and makes her deserted and without water, so that she may suffer thirst for the virtues. After she has said, My soul has thirsted for you, how many ways my flesh for you (Ps 62 [63]:2), then he will speak to her heart and console her as she mourns. And he will give her a possession from there, that is, from the repentance and sorrow which works salvation. And the humility of her troubled heart (for this is what the valley of Achor means) opens her understanding, so that she may not be ignorant of her Creator.

Therefore, behold, I will allure her; and I will lead her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart. And I will give her her vinedressers from the same place, and the valley of Achor to open up hope. LXX: Therefore, behold, I will lead her astray and will make her like a desert; and I will speak to her heart and give her her possessions from there, and the valley of Achor to open up her understanding. Where we said to open up hope, and the LXX rendered to open up her understanding, Symmachus interpreted εἰς θύραν ἐλπίδος, that is, into a door of hope, Theodotion διανοῖξαι τὴν ὑπομονὴν αὐτῆς, that is, to open up her patience, or her expectation. After the disgrace of Jerusalem, or of Judea the harlot, has been uncovered in the eyes of her lovers, and every solemnity has ceased, and drought or hail has spoiled the vineyard and the fig tree, and, reduced to woods and fruitless trees, she has been devoured by beasts, and the Lord has repaid her with tortures and torments, because she had burned frankincense to the demons, the Baalim, and she thinks that she can by no means rise again any more from the ashes and embers, then, that is, at the coming of Christ his Son, he will open the hope of salvation, and give room for repentance, and will caress her; for this is what I will allure her means; so as to soften her former pains, after the greatness of her punishments, by the promise of prosperity. And I will lead her, he says, into the wilderness, that is, I will lead her out of evils, just as I had earlier led her out of Egyptian slavery; and I will speak to her heart soft words, words of comfort, so as to temper sadness with joy, according to the idiom of the Scriptures, in which words Shechem too spoke to the heart of Dinah, and Joseph in Egypt to his brothers, who were sad and afraid, so that grief might be changed into joy.

These things the circumcision and our own Judaizers refer to the reign of a thousand years, things which we see fulfilled in the beginning through the apostles as vinedressers and the many thousands of believers from Israel, and being fulfilled daily in those who are willing to believe. And where we said, I will allure her, and the LXX interpreted, I will lead her astray, they refer it to the time of the Antichrist, so that those who did not receive the truth of Christ may receive that one's lie, and afterwards, when Christ comes, may be saved.

Speaking directly to the heart indicates the promulgation of the law, which shaped the hearts of the listener.

Whatever is necessary for life and understanding of God's knowledge in Christ, through whom and in whom we saw the Father, enriched in unfading hope—as I said, in glory, pride of adoption, of grace and of reigning together with Christ himself—these are the possessions of the saints; this is the heavenly wealth.

[Israel] will be humble and obedient just as in the beginning, when she was born to the knowledge of God through the law and gladly received the decree of the divine adoption. Accordingly, he calls the regeneration to the knowledge of God through the law the "days [of her youth]."

And what follows: And I will give her her vinedressers from the same place. He who had set forth beforehand the caressing and the wilderness in the likeness of the past history of those who went out of Egypt, in which Moses and Aaron arose as princes from the same nation of the Jews, now too promises that he will give her vinedressers from the same place. That the vineyard is understood as Israel, all the scripture of both the Old and the New Testament bears witness: The vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel. And: You transferred a vineyard out of Egypt. And in the Gospel: The householder let out his vineyard and did not receive the fruits. And when his son had been killed, at the last he let it out to other vinedressers. This, then, is what the prophetic word promises: that the princes of this vineyard, going out from the nations and from the captivity of enemies, or of vices, should be of the very race of the Jews, that is, the apostles; and that the place of tumult and valley of troubles — for this is what Achor is interpreted — should be changed into a door of hope, or to open up hope and patience, in that she has suffered punishments and torments for this reason, that through them she might come to prosperity. But that the valley of Achor, in which Achan was killed for the theft of the things that had been consecrated to God, is interpreted 'confusion' and 'tumult', and not, as some think, διαστροφὴ, that is, perversity, Joshua himself interprets when he speaks to Achan: Because you have troubled us, may the Lord trouble you on this day. Hence that place was called Emec Achor, that is, the valley of confusion. And at the same time we understand this too: that at the beginning of the holy land, near Jericho, when the people came out of the wilderness, beside the streams of the Jordan, in Israel's first victory, grief was changed into joy, and hope was opened there, where there had been despair. So that, once those have been punished who sinned against Christ and committed sacrilege, those of them may be saved who have detested the blaspheming Jews and, as far as was in their power, have slain them.

And she will sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up from the land of Egypt. LXX: And she will be humbled according to the days of her infancy and according to the days of the coming up from the land of Egypt. In the place where we put she will sing, and the LXX translated she will be humbled, in the Hebrew is written anatha, which Symmachus interpreted 'she will be afflicted', Theodotion 'she will answer', Aquila 'she will obey', that is, ὑπακούσει; we take it rather from the Hebrew κατὰ λέξιν (word for word), that is, 'she will lead the singing'; so that, since he had once set down the being tossed about and the leading out into the wilderness, and the vinedressers from the same place, and the valley of Achor, touching in brief speech on the whole history of those who went out of Egypt and journeyed to the holy land, he might even now keep the likeness of the history. So that, just as at that time, when they were going out of the land of Egypt, after Pharaoh had been drowned in the Red Sea, Miriam took up a timbrel and, leading the singing for the others, exulted and said: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously magnified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea, so now too, according to the days of her youth, or of her adolescence, when she went out of the land of Egypt, she may sing and rejoice, and sing together of the kingdom of Christ and her own salvation among the choirs of the Church. And notice that when we go out of Egypt and pass over to better things, we are said to go up, because Jerusalem is set in the mountains; and he who had wished to go down from it into Jericho was wounded. But to those who seek the help of Egypt, that is, of this world, it is said: Woe to those who go down into Egypt for help. The interpretation of Aquila and Theodotion, of whom the one put ὑπακούσει, that is, 'will hear', the other ἀποκριθήσεται, that is, 'will answer', is on our side, in that while some lead the singing, others answer, singing together. But she will be humbled and she will be afflicted, which the LXX and Symmachus translated, does not suit a time of gladness, unless perhaps she will imitate Paul, who, after he was called as an apostle, bewails his former sins and says that he is unworthy of the calling of an apostle, because he persecuted the Church of God; so that the humiliation and the affliction are to be taken as the awareness of a past wound, not as pain at present evils.

Just as those at that early time have learned through Achan's punishment how serious is the transgression of the law, in the same manner these will come to the realization of their own trespasses through the captivity.

And it will be on that day, says the Lord, she will call me My husband, and will no longer call me Baalim; and I will take away the names of the Baalim from her mouth, and she will no longer remember their name. LXX: likewise. That Ninus, the son of Belus, was the first to reign over all Asia, all histories, both Greek and barbarian, relate; he founded among the Assyrians the city of Ninus, named after himself, which the Hebrews call Nineveh. His wife Semiramis, of whom many marvelous things are told, built the walls of Babylon. Of her the famous poet bears witness, saying: "Where Semiramis is said once to have girded the city with walls of baked brick." He fought in a strong contest against the great Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians, and came to such glory that he enrolled his father Belus as a god; he is called Bel in Hebrew, and in many prophets, and above all in Daniel according to Theodotion, he is called by this name as the idol of Babylon. The Sidonians and Phoenicians call him Baal; for between the consonant letters beth and lamed the same vowel letter ain is placed, which, according to the peculiar character of that language, is read now Beel, now Baal. Hence Dido too, the Sidonian of royal race, when she had received Aeneas as a guest, pours a libation of wine to Jupiter from that bowl which Belus and all those descended from Belus were accustomed to use. We have learned the origin of the demon, or rather of a man consecrated into a demon; for all idols have grown out of the error concerning the dead. Let us hear the rest: in the Hebrew and Syrian tongue Baal is interpreted ἔχων, that is, 'having'. If we wish to say 'having me', let us say Baali; and among both nations wives call their husbands Baali, that is, 'my husband', which is understood as 'having me'; and the sense is: he who has me in marriage. In the same language of the Hebrews a man is called is, whence the wife too, who was taken from the man, is called Issa in Genesis, as virago, as it were, from vir, man.

What God says, then, is this: since with both words, that is, Issi and Baali, 'my husband', or 'my spouse', is named, I so hate the names of idols that even what can rightly be said I would by no means wish to be said, because of the ambiguity and the likeness of the word, but wish to be called Issi rather than Baali, lest while she says one thing she should remember another, and, naming her husband, think of an idol. Forgive the obscurity, which arises in three ways: either from the difficulty of the matters, or from the inexperience of the teacher, or from the excessive slowness of the learner. For in expounding a Hebrew prophet I ought not to play with little oratorical declamations, and to sing in narrations and epilogues in the Asiatic manner, but, with the help of your prayers and with an incredible zeal for learning, to open what is closed. Finally Aquila, a diligent and painstaking translator: She will call, he says, me My husband, and will no longer call me Having me, that is, Baal.

And I will strike a covenant for them in that day with the beast of the field, and with the bird of the sky, and with the creeping thing of the earth; and the bow, and the sword, and war I will crush out of the land; and I will make them sleep confidently. LXX: And I will arrange a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the flying things of the sky, and with the creeping things of the earth; and the bow, and the sword, and war I will crush out of the land; and I will make them dwell in hope. When all the names of the hostile religion have been taken away from the people that confesses the Lord, and she calls me, he says, My husband, and by no means Baali, that is, my idol, then I will strike a covenant and concord for them with the beasts of the field, and the birds of the sky, and the creeping things of the earth. Of this time Isaiah also speaks: The wolf will dwell with the lamb; and the leopard will lie down with the kid. The calf, and the lion, and the sheep will abide together, and a little child will drive them. The calf and the bear will feed, and their young will rest together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox, by no means desiring flesh and blood, but feeding on clean and simple foods. When it was revealed to Peter, that he might receive Cornelius from the nations, and he was commanded to eat all the beasts and to know that nothing is unclean which is received with thanksgiving, concerning which he afterwards hears: What God has cleansed, do not call common. Therefore at the coming of the Lord the Savior, after the triumphs of his resurrection and his ascent to the Father, the two walls were joined by the cornerstone, by him who made both one. And he called her who was called Without Mercy, Obtained Mercy; and him who was called Not My People, his own people; and when all things have been made peaceful, the bow and the sword will be crushed, and war. For the instruments of fighters will not be necessary when those who would fight are lacking. Israel will be joined to the nations, and that saying of Deuteronomy will be fulfilled: Rejoice, you nations, with his people. Known for in Judea is God, in Israel his name is great. And: His place has been made in peace, and his dwelling in Zion, that is, in the Church, in which he broke the powers, the bow, the shield, the sword and war; and when these have been broken and crushed, the believers will sleep confidently and will rest under one shepherd. Or: they will hope in those things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him.

For He hath come as a Physician, not as a Judge. Therefore in like manner as those of old took harlots for wives, even so God too espoused unto Himself the nature which had played the harlot: and this also prophets from the beginning declare to have taken place with respect to the Synagogue. But that spouse was ungrateful towards Him who had been an husband to her, whereas, the Church, when once delivered from the evils received from our fathers, continued to embrace the Bridegroom.

You have wisely thought it a subject of inquiry, whether there be any difference in God's love towards those who have believed from their childhood, and those who have believed in the course of their youth or more advanced age; for this also has not been past over nor left unnoticed in the sacred Scriptures. For it is not without meaning that the Lord our God says to the Prophet Joel, Lament to me for the spouse girded with sackcloth and for the husband of her youth, expressing his grief for the Synagogue, who, before, in her virginity, had been espoused to the Word of God, or, it may be, for a soul which had fallen from her good deeds, that by the heinousness of her sins she had incurred hatred, and through the defilement of impiety and the stains of unbelief had become miserable and despised, and far removed from the grace of that Spouse which had before been counted worthy to be told, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercies.

And I will betroth you to me for ever; and I will betroth you to me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and in compassions; and I will betroth you to me in faith, and you will know that I am the Lord. LXX: likewise. O how great is the clemency of God! The harlot who has played the harlot with many lovers, and for her crime was handed over to the beasts, after she returns to her husband, is by no means said to be reconciled to him, but to be betrothed. And see what difference there is between the union of God and that of men: a man, when he has taken a wife, makes a woman out of a virgin, that is, not a virgin; God, even when joined to harlots, changes them into virgins, according to that which is said to the adulteress through Jeremiah: You have not called upon me as lord, or father, or prince of your virginity. Hence the Apostle too speaks to the Corinthians who believed after fornication and the worship of idols: For I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. We ask why he repeated the word betrothal a third time. For first he says: I will betroth you to me for ever. Second: I will betroth you to me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and in compassions. And not content with this end, he adds a third as well: I will betroth you to me in faith, and you will know that I am the Lord. First he betrothed her in Abraham, or in Egypt, so that he might have an everlasting wife. Second on Mount Sinai, giving her in the betrothal gifts the justice and judgment of the law, and mercy joined to the law, so that when she sinned she would be handed over to captivity, and when she repented she would be called back to her homeland and obtain mercy. Of these betrothal gifts the psalmist sings in various places: Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. And: Mercy and truth have met each other, and justice and peace have kissed each other. These two cups we read of in the seventy-fourth (75th) psalm: A cup in the hand of the Lord, full of unmixed wine, mixed, and he has tilted it from this into that; from the cup of justice into the cup of mercy, and again from the cup of mercy into the cup of justice. If you mark iniquities, he says, O Lord, Lord, who will endure? For with you there is propitiation. This harlot, then, who first had been joined by the vow of the bridegroom in everlasting embraces, so that she should never withdraw from the marriage bond, because she withdrew and played the harlot in Egypt, is taken again through the lawful rites; and because she transgressed this, and the prophets, the friends, as it were, of the bridegroom, who had been sent to her, were killed, last of all came the Son of God, the Lord Jesus; and when he had been crucified and had risen from the dead, she is betrothed by no means in the justice of the law, but in faith and the grace of the Gospel, so that when she has known the Only-begotten, she may know the Father also. For he himself says to Philip: Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known me? Philip, he who has seen me has seen my Father also; how do you say: Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? Whoever has been betrothed in faith and has believed the Gospel will at once know that he himself is God, believing in him whom he had formerly denied.

The sixth degree of chastity is that he not be deluded by the alluring images of women even when asleep. For although we do not believe that this delusion is sinful, nonetheless it is an indication of a desire that is still deeply ingrained. It is evident that this delusion can occur in a number of ways. For each person is tempted, even while asleep, according to how he behaves and thinks while awake. Those who have known sexual intercourse are led astray in one way, those who have had no part in union with a woman in another way. The latter are usually disturbed by simpler and purer dreams, such that they can be cleansed more easily and with less effort. But the former are deceived by filthier and more explicit images until, gradually and according to the measure of chastity for which each is struggling, even the mind that has fallen asleep learns to hate what it used to find pleasurable, and, through the prophet, the Lord grants it what is promised to brave men as the highest reward for their labors: "I will destroy the bow and the sword and war from your land, and I will make you sleep securely."

A betrothed woman was chosen, so that Christ's church might already be symbolically indicated as bride, according to the words of the prophet Hosea: "I will make you my bride in justice and right; I will make you my bride in mercy and benevolence, and I will espouse you in fidelity." Thus John says, "He who has a bride is the bridegroom." And blessed Paul: "I have promised you to one bridegroom, to present you to Christ as a chaste virgin." She is truly a bride who regenerates the new infancy of Christ by a virginal birth.

And it will be in that day: I will hear, says the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they will hear the earth, and the earth will hear the wheat and the wine and the oil, and these will hear Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land, and I will have mercy on her who was Without Mercy; and I will say to Not My People: You are My People; and he will say: You are my God. LXX: And it will be in that day, says the Lord: I will hear the heaven, and the heaven will hear the earth, and the earth will hear the grain, the wine, and the oil, and these will hear Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself upon the land, and I will love her who was not loved; and I will say to Not My People: You are My People; and he will say: You are the Lord my God. In that day and at that time, when I have betrothed you to me in faith, and you have known that I am the Lord, I will hear the heavens, which tell the glory of God, and the heavens will hear the earth, so as to water it with heavenly rain; and the earth, from which truth has sprung, and into whose field the householder goes out to sow his seed, will hear the wheat and the wine and the oil, of which we spoke above; and all these will hear Jezreel, that is, the seed of God, so that it may be understood that the abundance and fertility of all things are granted on account of the seed of God, who is Christ, because the seed of God is sown in the earth, to bring forth manifold fruits, a hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold.

Concerning the hearing of heaven and earth, and of the grain, wine and oil, and of Jezreel, some hold this view: that after Christ has come, all things will run in their own order, and the whole creation will serve the advantage of men, as it was founded in the beginning. All these things the Jews and our Judaizers await bodily, after the Antichrist, at the end of the world.

And not only is the operation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit everywhere one but also there is one and the same will, calling, and giving of commands, which one may see in the great and saving mystery of the Church. For as the Father called the Gentiles to the Church, saying: "I will call her My people which was not My people, and her beloved who was not beloved;" and elsewhere: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations," so, too, the Lord Jesus said that Paul was chosen by Him to call forth and gather together the Church, as you find it said by the Lord Jesus to Ananias: "Go, for he is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name before all nations." As, then, God the Father called the Church, so, too, Christ called it, and so, too, the Spirit called it, saying: "Separate Me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them." "So," it is added, "having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them forth. And they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia." So Paul received the apostleship by the will not only of Christ, but also of the Holy Spirit, and hastened to gather together the Gentiles.

And the holy people inherited an eternal kingdom; the holy people who were chosen instead of the people. For "he provoked them to jealousy with a people that was not a people. And with a foolish people he angered them." For even if one has served the heathen, as soon as ever he draws near to the covenant of God, he is set free. The Gentiles are the new people chosen by God to replace the people of the old covenant as foretold by the prophet.

"You who were once not a people but now are the people of God, who did not seek after mercy but now have received mercy." By these verses he indicates clearly that he has written this letter to those who had come from the Gentiles to the faith, who were once separated from the way of life of the people of God but then through the grace of faith were joined to his people and obtained the mercy that they did not know how to hope for. He takes them, however, from the prophet Hosea, who predicted the calling of the Gentiles and said, "I shall call [those who were] not my people my people and [those who did] not receive mercy [a people] having received mercy. And it will be in the place where it was said, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called sons of the living God."

And that harlot who had been joined to God, and had borne three children, two males and one female, the first Jezreel, the second Without Mercy, the third Not My People, may see that because of the seed of God the names of things have been changed, and that in the faith of Christ she who was Without Mercy has obtained mercy, and he who was formerly called Not a People has been called the people of God. From this we perceive that everything that has been said can be referred both to the ten tribes, which are called Israel, and which under the name of the harlot bore three children, and to the whole race of the Jewish name.

Having then given to the question that answer which was furnished by facts, in order to give his discourse the advantage of other testimony in its favor, he introduces the prophets also making the same declarations aforetime. For Hosea, he says, of old put this in writing, as follows: "I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved." Here to prevent their saying, that you are deceiving us here with specious reasoning, he calls Hosea to witness, who crieth and saith, "I will call them My people, who were not My people." Who then are the not-people? Plainly, the Gentiles. And who the not-beloved? The same again. However, he says, that they shall become at once people, and beloved, and sons of God. "For even they shall be called," he says, "the children of the living God." But if they should assert that this was said of those of the Jews who believed, even then the argument stands. For if with those who after so many benefits were hard-hearted and estranged, and had lost their being as a people, so great a change was wrought, what is there to prevent even those who were not estranged after being taken to Him, but were originally aliens, from being called, and, provided they obey, from being counted worthy of the same blessings? Having then done with Hosea, he does not content himself with him only, but also brings Isaiah in after him, sounding in harmony with him.

Next the promise of God is said for those who hear; if they do what is "commanded: And you will be my people and I will be your God." Not everyone who says they are a people of God are "a people" of God. Hence, that people who were proclaimed to be a people of God heard, "You are not my people," in the passage, "Therefore you are not my people." And it has been said to that people you are "not my people." Elsewhere this people was called a "people," for "they have provoked me to jealousy with what is not God"—he speaks concerning the former—"they have provoked me with their idols. So I will provoke them to jealousy with those who are not a people, with a senseless nation I will provoke them."

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. [Hosea 2:23] Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.