Hosea 4

Hear the word of the Lord, sons of Israel, for the Lord has a judgment with the inhabitants of the earth. For there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God on the earth; cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery have flooded in; and blood has touched blood. LXX: Hear the word of the Lord, sons of Israel, for the Lord has a judgment against the inhabitants of the earth; for there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God upon the earth. Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery have been poured out upon the earth, and they have mingled blood with blood. From the beginning of the prophet up to this place, under the description of a harlot and of an adulteress, after whose most grievous punishments and very long abandonment there comes afterwards a restoration to the former, or to a better, state, the sins of the ten tribes, or of the two, and of all in common, are enumerated. Now the discourse turns again to Israel, that is, to the ten tribes, setting forth that it is not without cause that an angry God threatens and inflicts such grievous punishments; lest perhaps the sentence passed against those who had not sinned should seem to have been passed unjustly, not from the truth of judgment but from the power of God. Hear, says the prophet, the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel; for the Lord wishes to enter into judgment with his people and to set forth the causes of his indignation. There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God on the earth. For neither can truth be sustained without mercy, and mercy without truth makes men negligent; hence the one is mingled with the other, and whoever does not have these will consequently not have the knowledge of God either. But on the contrary, in place of truth there is lying, and in place of mercy cursing, murder, theft, adultery. He did not say "are", but, to show the abundance of the offenses, he added: have overflowed; and in place of the knowledge of God, which is not on the earth, blood has touched blood, or they have mingled blood with blood, so as to add sins to sins and heap new ones upon the old. And rightly are those who are inhabitants of the earth, and not sojourners, summoned to judgment, because from the face of the north evils blaze up upon the inhabitants of the earth. And in the Apocalypse of John woe, woe, woe is pronounced upon the inhabitants of the earth. But whoever can say with the prophet: I am a stranger with you, and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were; and passes through this world as a sojourner and a pilgrim, follows truth and mercy and the knowledge of God, so as not to be overwhelmed by the flood of cursing and of lying, of murder and of theft, and of adultery and of blood.

After Moses, prophets were sent to heal Israel. But in their exercise of healing they deplored the fact that they could not overcome evil, so that one of them says, "The faithful are gone from the earth, among men the upright are no more," and again, "All alike have gone astray; they have become perverse; there is not one who does good, not even one." And again, "Cursing, and theft, and adultery, and killing have overflowed" upon the land. "They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons." They engaged themselves in auguries and enchantments and divinations; and again, "they fastened their garments with cords and hung veils next to the altar."

Because of this the earth will mourn, and everyone who dwells in it will languish; with the beast of the field and with the bird of the sky; and even the fish of the sea will be gathered up. LXX: Therefore the earth will mourn and will be diminished with all who inhabit it: with the beasts of the field, with the serpents of the earth, and with the fowls of the sky, and the fish of the sea will fail. Because there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God upon the earth; but, over against these, cursing and lying, and murder and theft and adultery have flooded in, and blood has touched blood. Therefore the earth will mourn with its inhabitants, and will languish, so that it has no beasts of the field and birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea will fail. For when the captivity of the ten tribes has come, once the inhabitant has been taken away, the beasts too and the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea will fail, and even the mute elements will feel the wrath of the Lord. Whoever does not believe that this happened to the people of Israel, let him look at Illyricum, let him look at the Thracian provinces, Macedonia and the Pannonias, and all the land that stretches from the Propontis and the Bosphorus to the Julian Alps, and he will find it proved that, together with men, all the living creatures also fail which were formerly nourished by the Creator for the uses of men. But if we wish, as some think, to interpret the beasts as savage men, and the birds of the sky as those who are lifted up into pride and despise all human things, and the fish as those who are irrational, and so dull that they have no understanding at all, and do not see the free air and the sky; then this is the act of a Lord not so much angry as merciful, that the things which are evil should be taken away from the earth.

Nevertheless let no one judge, and let no man be reproved; for your people are like those who contradict the priest; and you will fall today, and the prophet too will fall with you. LXX: So that no one is either judged, or anyone reproved; but my people are like a priest who will be contradicted, and he will be weakened by day, and the prophet too will be weakened with you. According to the Seventy translators, this which we have set down, so that no one is either judged, or anyone reproved, must be fitted to the preceding section. But let us follow the Hebrews. The sons of Israel who dwelt in the land, having been summoned to the judgment of God to hear the causes of the Lord's indignation and to recognize the past sins for which they were to be handed over to their enemies, now, because they persevere in their crimes and despise God with a shameless brow, hear: There is no need for you to come to judgment, to be reproved for your outrages; for you are of such shamelessness that not even when convicted do you have shame and modesty; but you contradict me, as if, like a disciple against his master, the common rabble, which does not have the dignity of the priesthood, were contradicting the priest.

My people are like a priest who is compromised. He has fallen from his previous dignity and does not appear worthy for any reason, just as a priest who falls into controversy would be set aside and dishonored by everyone. "And he will be weak by day." To the greatest extent he will become weak because of the upcoming evils.

For us too, you see, once the night of this age is done, there will be a resurrection of the flesh for the kingdom; it's the model or sample of this that has already occurred in our head. That, indeed, is why the Lord wished to rise again at night; because, in the apostle's words, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shone in our hearts." So the Lord represented light shining out of darkness by being born at night and also by rising at night. Light out of darkness, in fact, is Christ out of the Jews, to whom it was said, "I have likened your mother to night." But in that nation, as it were in that night, the virgin Mary was not night but somehow or other a star of the night; which is why a star also signaled her childbearing, guiding a far distant night, that is the magi from the east, to worship the light. Thus in them too would be realized the command to "the light to shine out of darkness."

"Day continues according to your ordinance." For all these things are day: "and this is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" and "let us walk honestly as in the day." "For all things serve you." He said "all things of some," "all" which belong to this day "serve you." For the ungodly, of whom it is said, "I have compared thy mother unto the night," do not serve you.

One says that Israel will be weak not forever but for days. For it has been reserved for her a time of salvation and a return to faith.

And because you are such, therefore today you fall, that is, you are led into captivity, and you lose the kingdom of Israel. Now as for his saying: today, it either signifies the present time, or that you will be led into captivity not by fraud and ambush but in broad daylight; and so great will be your weakness that even the prophets, who used to prophesy a lie to you, will fall with you and experience captivity. Here we ought to understand by the prophets either the false prophets, or at least every prophetic grace. For as long as the ten tribes had not been taken captive, they had both the prophet Elijah and Elisha, and the other sons of the prophets, who prophesied in Samaria. Hence also the prophet Amos, who was of the tribe of Judah and of the little village of Tekoa, is compelled to return to his own country, so as not to prophesy in a foreign kingdom and in Samaria.

By night I have made your mother silent.

My people has fallen silent, because it had no knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I too will reject you, so that you may not serve as priest to me; and you have forgotten the law of your God, I too will forget your sons. LXX: I have likened your mother to the night, and my people has been likened to one not having knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I too will reject you, so that you may not serve as priest to me; you have forgotten the law of your God, and I too will forget your sons. He calls them mother and sons, not because the mother is one thing and the sons another; but just as the Lord, speaking to the people of the Jews, said: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I wished to gather your sons, as a hen gathered her chicks under her wings, and you would not? Not that Jerusalem was one thing and her people another; for he was not speaking to the rubble of the city and its timbers and stones apart from the people. So the multitude of the people and the whole crowd of the Hebrew nation to which he speaks is called mother; and the sons are either the individuals of the people, or those scattered through the towns and villages. In the night, then, and in the darkness of captivity and of grief and of pressing distress Israel is handed over, and its people falls silent in eternal silence; because it did not have knowledge of the law, nor did it keep the commandments of God, and it received back what it had done. For she herself rejected the law of God, and therefore lost the priesthood forever, worshiping the golden calves in Dan and Bethel; and because she forgot the law of God and gave herself over wholly as a slave to Egyptian idols, therefore the Lord too will forget her sons, handing them over to eternal captivity: For whoever does not know will not be known; and in the psalms we read: They did not know, nor did they understand; they walk in darkness. All the things that are said to the ten tribes we can refer to the heretics, who have left the kingdom of David and Jerusalem, that is, Christ and the Church; and therefore they are covered with eternal night, and do not have the knowledge of God, and are rejected by the Lord, so that they may not serve as priests to him, and he never remembers the sons whom they have begotten, because they have become alien sons to him.

Of the ones who first made use of false predictions to deceive you, most will also themselves become weak because of the calamity that holds them back. As if they were wrapped up in some kind of night darkness, they see the pursuit of deceit, which was useless for them.

Because the ecclesiastical hierarchy is founded upon Scripture, which is compared to the water of the sea, therefore sentence has been passed against those who do not possess this knowledge. In Hosea: "Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you, that you shall not minister to me as priest." He who knows nothing of governance is driven from the helm of the ship and from the rule of the city. If the foundations of the Church consist in the knowledge of sacred Scripture, therefore he who does not know sacred Scripture must be driven from ecclesiastical office and dignity. If a blind man wished to lead another, it would be the greatest folly. A helmsman is not to be chosen by lot or by friendship. And it should be known that knowledge is rejected when a man does not take care to learn it.

According to their multitude, so have they sinned against me; I will change their glory into disgrace, and they will eat the sins of my people, and will lift up their souls to their iniquities; and it will be, as the people, so the priest; and I will visit upon him his ways, and I will repay him his thoughts. LXX: According to their multitude, so have they sinned against me; I will turn their glory into disgrace; they will eat the sins of my people, and in their iniquities they will take their souls, and it will be, as the people, so also the priest; and I will avenge upon him his ways, and I will repay him his thoughts. As many men as Israel had, so many altars did it build to demons, in whose victims it sinned against me. Therefore their glory, in which they gloried for themselves and preferred idols to God, I will change into disgrace, so that both priests and peoples are taken captive.

Concerning the heretics the understanding is easy: that the more numerous they are, the more they sin against God and glory in their peoples; and therefore they deceive the unhappy, so as to eat the sins of the people, and through sweet words to devour the houses of widows. For when they see some people sinning, they say: God seeks nothing else but the truth of faith; if you guard it, he does not care what you do. For by saying these things they lift up their souls in their iniquities, so that they not only do not repent nor are humbled, but rejoice in their crimes and walk with neck held high. Hence both the people and the priest, both those who have been taught and those who taught, will be bound by an equal judgment.

They used to sacrifice goats for sin; for this reason the sacrifice was called sin. By offering a goat on the altar, the priests at the right time used to bring the intestines and the lard, and they ate the rest. This was ordered by the divine law. … "They eat the sins of my people" means they eat the offerings brought for sins.

But we must remember without ceasing what is written about certain ones: They shall eat the sins of my people. Why are they said to eat the sins of the people, unless because they encourage the sins of transgressors, lest they lose their temporal payments? But we also who live from the offerings of the faithful, which they offered for their sins, if we eat and remain silent, we without doubt eat their sins. Let us consider, therefore, what a crime it is before God to eat the price of sins and to do nothing against sins by preaching.

For indeed the priests eat the sins of my people, the priests of whom it is written: Who devour my people as a meal of bread. And they eat the sins of my people for this reason, that they consent to the crimes of those who offend; for when they have seen them sinning, they not only do not reprove them, but praise and extol them, and proclaim them blessed. Of these Isaiah too speaks: My people, those who call you blessed lead you astray, and trip up the paths of your feet. Of these the psalmist also cries out: For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the unjust man is blessed.

The text wants you to make a more daring assertion if your hearing will still follow. What is the "sacrifice" that is offered "for sin" and is "very holy" except "the only begotten Son of God," Jesus Christ my Lord? He alone is the "sacrifice for sins," and he is "a very holy offering." But since it added that "the priest who offers it will eat it," it seems to be hard to understand. For that which it says must be eaten seems to be referring to the sin, just as in another place the prophet says concerning the priests that "they will eat the sins of my people." This also shows that the priest ought to eat the sin of the one who is offering. We frequently show from holy Scripture that Christ is also the sacrifice that is offered for the sin of the world and the priest who brings the offering.

Seemingly he calls "ways" the walking in works and "counsels" the faults from outrageous thoughts. Then, he says, she [Israel] did not go rightly, having turned aside from the straight road. As if marching the footpath of all profanity, they devised the most shameful and absurd things, dishonoring the God of all while turning toward idolatry.

We seek no gain of souls, we attend daily to our own pursuits, we desire earthly things, we eagerly chase human glory with intent mind. And because by the very fact that we are placed over others, we have greater license to do whatever we wish, we turn the ministry of the blessing we received into an instrument of ambition; we abandon God's cause, we attend to earthly business; we receive a place of holiness, and we are entangled in earthly activities. What is written has surely been fulfilled in us: "And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest." For the priest does not differ from the people when by no merit of his own does he transcend the common conduct.

Hence the people and the priest alike will bear the sentence of an indignant God; because he will visit not only their works, which are called ways, in which they walk, but also the thoughts with which they deliberated in order to do such things. For not only the work, but also the thought of an evil work will pay the penalty.

When, he says, the avenging judgment begins to work, these measures of griefs that they [Israel] made in sins will be filled, so that they may experience in punishments what they have achieved in desires.

A remnant from Israel has been preserved. Since the judgment does not go entirely to the priest, he adds, "They eat, but they are not satisfied." This means either emigration and captivity for those leaders of Israel or, because of Christ, desolation of Judea by the hands of Romans.… For among those Israelites brought then by Shalmaneser and Tiglath-pileser III to Assyria and Media, very few could offer to the priests the things prescribed by the law.

"They kept the whoredom" means that they [Israel's leaders] got ready to preserve the error for those who were under their authority. Yet they should rather have removed and thrown it from their midst. For it is the vigilance of the teachers which should eagerly remove what hurts the people and turn down without delay what is hateful to God. By refusing to do this, they allow the works of error to stay somehow and to keep. Yet they confirm rather the contrary, when the minds of those who teach receive nothing but wine and drunkenness. For how will the disciples keep vigil, and how will they be able to point the eye of the understanding to God in nature and in truth, if the instructors and the teachers of useful things will still encourage them to err?

And they will eat and will not be satisfied; they have played the harlot and have not ceased, since they have forsaken the Lord in not observing; fornication and wine and drunkenness take away the heart. My people has inquired of its wood, and its staff has declared to it. For the spirit of fornications deceives them, and they have played the harlot away from their God. LXX: And they will eat and will not be filled; they have played the harlot and will not be set straight, because they have forsaken the Lord, so as not to observe; the heart of my people has taken up fornication and wine and drunkenness; they inquired by auguries, and by their rods they made announcement to it; for they have been led astray by a spirit of fornication and have played the harlot away from their God. Pleasure is insatiable, and the more of it is taken, the more hunger it creates in those who use it. On the contrary, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. As justice satisfies, so iniquity, having no substance, mocks with deceit those who eat empty things, and leaves the bellies of those who devour it empty. They have played the harlot and have not ceased. Their strength fails in fornication, and the desire to fornicate does not rest.

The ten tribes too played the harlot with the idols of Jeroboam son of Nebat; and they forsook their God, not keeping what he had commanded when he said: You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone, but this is to be read ἐμφατικῶς (emphatically): Fornication and wine and drunkenness take away the heart. For just as wine and drunkenness make him who has drunk no longer master of his mind, so fornication and pleasure pervert the sense and weaken the spirit, and make of a rational man a brute animal, so that he pursues eating-houses and brothels and the dens of lusts. And when the heart has thus been moved from its place, it thinks wood and stones are gods and worships the works of its own hands.

The heretics are never satisfied with their error, nor do they cease from the foulness of fornication, and daily, by not keeping the law and the holy Scriptures, they forsake the Lord, they rave and become drunk; and having lost the judgment of the mind, they worship idols which they have fashioned from their own heart, and are possessed by the spirit of fornication.

Anthony then asked, "Who are you who say such things to me? And at once he [the demonic voice] uttered a contemptible speech: 'I am a lover of fornication; I have undertaken to ensnare the young and to entice them to it, and I am called the spirit of fornication. How many I have deceived who wished to be chaste! How many who practiced self-restraint have I by my seductions persuaded to change! I am he on whose account the prophet reproaches the fallen, saying, "You have been deceived by the spirit of fornication," for through me they were tripped up. I am he who often troubled you but whom you as often overthrew.' "

The unclean spirit before had been in the synagogue and had led them into idolatry. Of him it is written, "The spirit of harlotry has led them astray." The spirit had gone out of a man and was roaming in the dry places in search of a resting place and could find none. He took with him seven other demons and returned to his former dwelling place. All these spirits were in the synagogue and could not bear the presence of the Savior. Indeed, "what harmony is there between Christ and Belial?" Christ and Belial could not abide in the same assembly. "Now in their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, 'What have we to do with you?' " Who is asking, "What have we to do with you?" He is only one, but he cries out the recognition of many. He is aware that in his own defeat, his devils have been vanquished with him.

Hence the prophet too, as if astonished and full of wonder, declares: My people, which was once called by my name, has inquired of wood and of rods; a kind of divination which the Greeks call ῥαβδομαντείαν (divination by rods). Hence we also read in Ezekiel that Nebuchadnezzar mixed his rods against Ammon and Jerusalem, and the rod came out against Jerusalem; and the cause of this madness is the spirit of fornication, which deceived them, so that they played the harlot away from their God. Now fornication signifies idolatry, according to what we read in Jeremiah: And they committed adultery with wood and stone, and I said: After they have played the harlot with all these, return to me; and she did not return with her whole heart, but in falsehood. And again: You have forsaken me and said: I will go upon every high hill, and I will pour myself out in my fornication under every leafy tree. And in the psalm it is said: You have destroyed all who play the harlot away from you. For the beginning of fornication is the invention of idols.

"It is written in the law: 'You shall not commit fornication.' " This is kept in a beneficial way according to the simple sound of the letter by the person who is still entangled in the passions of fleshly impurity. It is necessarily observed in spiritual fashion, however, by one who has already left behind this filthy behavior and impure disposition. This person also rejects not only all idolatrous ceremonies but also every superstition of the Gentiles and the observance of auguries and omens, and of all signs and days and times, and is certainly not engaged in the divination of particular words or names. [This] befouls the wholesomeness of our faith. Jerusalem is said to have been debauched by this fornication, having fornicated "on every high hill and under every green tree." And the Lord, rebuking [Jerusalem], says by the prophet: "Let the astrologers stand and save you, who gazed on the stars and counted the months, so that from them they might announce the things that are to happen to you." Concerning this fornication the Lord reproaches them elsewhere when he says, "The spirit of fornication has deceived them, and they went fornicating away from their God."

On the tops of the mountains they sacrificed, and on the hills they burned incense; under the oak and the poplar and the terebinth, because its shade was good. LXX: On the summit of the mountains they sacrificed, and on the hills they offered victims; under the oak and the poplar and the shady trees, because the shelter was good. In the law it is commanded that no sacrifice be made to the Lord except in the place which the Lord God shall choose; and that a grove and trees not be planted beside the altar, lest, namely, a promiscuous and pleasure-loving religion overturn the austerity of the one and true religion. On the contrary, Israel sacrificed on the mountains and burned incense on the hills, loving the high places of the earth because it had forsaken God on high, and seeking the shade it had lost the truth. This is what we read of the several kings: Nevertheless he did not take away the high places; the people still offered victims and sacrificed on the high places, which in Hebrew is called bama. The heretics promise themselves loftiness of dogmas, and they sacrifice under the oak and the poplar and the terebinth, unfruitful trees, which have not the fig and the vine under which the saint is said to rest. But at times they take up for themselves the terebinth, which according to Isaiah has no leaves, so that they may seem to imitate the example of Abraham.

It is a grave displeasure, after you have sinned, not to merit the wrath of the Lord. Israel had played the harlot away from the Lord his God and been led astray by a spirit of fornication; therefore his daughters and brides also play the harlot and are left in their crime without any punishment, so that what the sons and the wife had done to their true parent and husband, they may feel in their own children and wives, and from their own pain understand the pain of God, who is so angry that he does not strike the offenders at all. The Apostle too, writing to the Romans, testifies to this in mystical speech: For, saying that they were wise, they became fools; and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. And because they had played the harlot with idols, they are struck with such a sentence: For this reason God gave them up to the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, so that they dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie; and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. But that we may know that visitation is brought by God, as upon the wounded and the sick, for this purpose, that as by cautery and most bitter potions they may recover health and be free of diseases, let us hear God speaking through the prophet: I will visit their iniquities with the rod, and their sins with stripes; but my mercy I will not scatter from him. He, therefore, who is loved is corrected; he who is neglected is left to his sins. And so great was the number of fornicators in Israel that the vengeance was one that despaired of amendment. For what is more shameful than for men to be joined to the worship of harlots, and with the effeminate to offer the victims of their own lust? But what he adds: the people that does not understand will be beaten; for which the Seventy translated: And the people that understands clung to the harlot; this signifies that Israel is beaten in captivity and afflicted with various blows, so that through pain it may receive discipline. Concerning the heretics the understanding is easy: their daughters and brides play the harlot, that is, the souls which they have begotten in error and betrothed to their own dogmas. Men of this kind are unworthy of God's correction, since all their worship is fornication, and the shameful are mingled with the shameful; and therefore they will be beaten, so that at some time through blows they may understand what God they should seek. When you see a sinner abounding in riches, boasting of his power, rejoicing in health, delighting in his wife, surrounded by a crown of children, and that which is written being fulfilled: They are not in the labor of men, and with men they will not be scourged, say that in him the prophet's threat has been fulfilled: I will not visit upon your daughters when they have played the harlot and upon your brides when they have committed adultery.

And when these things occur, he says, I will remain calm, and I will not lay charges. Because of the misfortunes of the war and the troubles of the captivity, it seems right that all that will happen be predicted to the sinners. For they who once captured and overcame others will do with the captives as they like, making use of power without bridle and shamelessly attacking whomever they please, neither taking into account the law or considering what is likely or proper. But hardened and extremely wild in soul, they refuse to refrain from any kind of wretchedness. Therefore he clearly showed that the young children will be exposed to enemies because of the insult and shameless conduct of the fornicators.

Therefore your daughters will play the harlot, and your brides will be adulteresses.

I will not visit upon your daughters when they have played the harlot, and upon your brides when they have committed adultery; since they themselves consorted with harlots and sacrificed with the effeminate; and the people that does not understand will be beaten. LXX: Therefore your daughters will play the harlot and your brides will commit adultery, and I will not visit upon your daughters when they have played the harlot and upon your brides when they have committed adultery; because they themselves also mingled with harlots and offered victims with the initiated; and the people that understands clung to the harlot. The word cadesoth, which Aquila translated ἐνηλλαγμένων, Symmachus ἑταιρίδων, the Seventy τετελεσμένων, Theodotion κεχωρισμένων, we have rendered 'effeminate', so as to lay open the sense of the word to the ears of our own people. These are they who today at Rome, serving the mother not of the gods but of demons, are called Galli, because the Romans, in honor of Attis — whom the harlot goddess had made a eunuch —, made over men of this nation, cut off from lust, as her priests. And the men of the nation of the Gauls are unmanned for this reason: that those who had captured the city of Rome may be struck with this disgrace. Idolatry of this kind existed in Israel, the women especially worshipping Baal-peor for the size of his obscene member, whom we can call Priapus. Hence also King Asa took away the high places from the people, and priests of this kind, and deposed his mother from her august rule, as Scripture testifies, saying: And Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, as David his father, and he took away the effeminate from the land, and he purged all the filth of the idols which his fathers had made. Moreover he also removed Maacah his mother, so that she should not be chief in the rites of Priapus and in his grove which she had consecrated; and he overturned its cave, and broke the most foul image, and burned it in the brook Kidron. But the high places he did not take away; nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect before God all his days. But it must be known that in the present passage he calls cadesoth the harlots, ἱερείας, that is, priestesses, made over to Priapus. In other places, however, we read cadesim for men cut off from lust, as Isaiah says: And mockers will rule over them, for which in the Hebrew is written: And cadesim will rule over them, which we have rendered 'effeminate'. But Aquila, translating ἐνηλλαγμένους, that is, changed, wished to show this: that they had changed their nature and from men had become women. Symmachus called them ἐταιρίδας, properly harlots. The Seventy, τετελεσμένους, that is, consecrated and initiated, to show that they were worshippers of idols. Theodotion, κεχωρισμένους, that is, separated from the people, men who seemed to themselves to have something more than the common crowd. We have discussed the word briefly; now let us return to the sense of the section.

But do you wish to hear the terrible voice of an indignant God? Hear what he says through the prophet: when he had enumerated the many wicked things which the people had committed, he adds also these: "and for this reason" he says "I will not visit upon your daughters when they fornicate, nor upon your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery". This is the terrible thing, this the extremity: when we are no longer rebuked for our sins, when we are no longer corrected when we transgress. For then, when we have exceeded the measure of sinning, the "jealous God" turns his jealousy away from us, as he said above: "for my jealousy shall be taken away from you, and I will be angry over you no more". So much concerning that which was said: "a jealous God".

If you play the harlot, Israel, let Judah at least not sin; and do not go into Gilgal; and do not go up to Beth-aven, nor swear: The Lord lives; for like a wanton cow Israel has turned aside. Now the Lord feeds them like a lamb in a broad place. LXX: But you, Israel, do not be ignorant, and Judah, do not go into Gilgal, do not go up to the house of ὢν, and do not swear: The Lord lives; for like a cow stung by the gadfly Israel has gone mad. Now the Lord feeds them like a lamb in a spacious place. For 'house of ὢν', in certain copies, and especially in Theodotion, 'house of iniquity' is read, which Aquila and Symmachus translated 'house of ἀνωφελοῦς', that is, useless, which profits nothing and by another word is called an idol. Now it is Bethel, which formerly was called house of God; after the calves were set up in it, it was called Beth-aven, that is, house of uselessness and house of the idol, which we have expressed as it is read in the Hebrew. But it seems to me that the reason why both the people of Israel in the wilderness made for themselves the head of a calf to worship, and Jeroboam son of Nebat fashioned golden calves, was this: that what they had learned in Egypt, that ἄπιν (Apis) and μνεῦιν (Mnevis), who are worshipped under the figure of oxen, are gods, they might keep in their own superstition. Let us state the sense of the section: If once, O Israel, you have been deceived by error and have mingled yourself with harlots, so that whoever filled the hand, either his own or the king's, by offering and giving him gifts, became a priest of the high places; at least you, Judah, who possess Jerusalem, and have Levites according to the law, and perform the ceremonies of the temple, ought not to follow the examples of your former sister Oholah in fornication, and worship idols along with God. Do not go into Gilgal, of which we read in this same prophet: All their wickedness is in Gilgal; in which Saul was anointed king; in which the people, coming out of the desert, first encamped and were purified by the second circumcision. From that time the error of a contrary religion grew up in a celebrated place. And do not go up to Beth-aven, that is, the place which was once called Bethel, because after golden calves were set up there by Jeroboam son of Nebat, it is called not House of God but house of the idol. For which I wonder why the Seventy translated 'house of ὢν', unless perhaps, by a common error, in place of the letter iod in the middle, which is flanked on either side by the letters aleph and nun, they supposed uau, which differs only in size. Nor swear: The Lord lives. For I do not want mention of my name to be made by your mouth, which is polluted by the remembrance of idols.

Concerning the heretics the understanding is ready at hand, to whom, or of whom, it is said: If once you play the harlot, heretic, at least you, churchman, do not sin, nor go into Gilgal, the conventicles of the heretics, where the sins of all are revealed, and like swine they wallow in the mire. Nor think that you are going up to the proud and arrogant fictions of false dogmas. For there is not the house of God, but the house of the idol. Nor swear by the name of Christ, whose majesty you have polluted by mingling it with idols. For like a cow stung by the gadfly, the heretics have been struck by the burning arrows of the devil and have abandoned the knowledge of the law; therefore they will be pastured on the broad and spacious way that leads to death, and the patience of the Lord, the good shepherd, will nourish them for destruction.

For as a wanton cow, casting off the yoke of the law, so Israel, that is, the ten tribes, has turned aside from the service of the Lord. For 'wanton cow' the Seventy translated παροιστρῶσαν, one stung by the oestrus and the asilus, which is commonly called the tabanus. Of this Vergil also tells in the third book of the Georgics: "whose Roman name is asilus, the Greeks turned it oestrus, so calling it; fierce, sounding harshly; terrified by it, whole herds scatter through the woods; the air, shaken, rages with bellowing, and the woods and the bank of dry Tanagrus". Since, therefore, Israel has gone mad and, struck by the spirit of fornication, has raved with incredible fury, therefore not long afterward, but while I prophesy, while breath rules these limbs, the Lord feeds them like a lamb in a broad place. Because he had taken the metaphor from the wanton cow, or from the gadfly, he keeps it in what remains, so that he calls the captivity among the Assyrians, and the dispersion of the people of Israel in the very broad land of the Medes, the pasturing of a flock and of lambs, as in a very broad plain and in a spacious land.

But what is the source of this hardness? It comes from gluttony and drunkenness. Who says so? Moses himself. "Israel ate and was filled, and the darling grew fat and frisky." When brute animals feed from a full manger, they grow plump and become more obstinate and hard to hold in check; they endure neither the yoke, the reins, nor the hand of the charioteer. Just so, the Jewish people were driven by their drunkenness and plumpness to ultimate evil. They kicked about and failed to accept the yoke of Christ. And they failed to pull the plow of his teaching. Another prophet hinted at this when he said, "Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer." And still another called the Jews "an untamed calf."

In another place, the prophet heapeth contumely upon Israel who had slipped his shoulder from [under] the yoke of the divine commandments: "As an ox which hath escaped from the yoke, so have the children of Israel escaped, they and their kings and their nobles." Now Israel became rebels because there was no fear [in them]; and they trod under foot the commandments because they were not mindful of what was threatened; and they despised the law because they remembered not the penalty of Him that ordained it.

That which the Seventy set down: he has provoked the Canaanites, is not found in the Hebrew. Yet it can be interpreted thus, so that we say that Israel had such zeal in the worship of idols that he did not imitate the Canaanites, that is, the heathen, but provoked them to imitate his own error.

Ephraim is a partaker of idols; let him go; their banquet is set apart; in fornication they have played the harlot; his protectors loved to bring disgrace; the spirit has bound him in its wings; and they will be put to shame by their sacrifices. LXX: Ephraim, a partaker of idols, has set stumbling blocks for himself, he has provoked the Canaanites; playing the harlot they have played the harlot, they have loved disgrace from their roaring; you are a whirlwind of the spirit in its wings, and they will be put to shame by their altars. Ephraim, the tribe from which came Jeroboam son of Nebat, who first set up the golden calves in Bethel and Dan, is king of the ten tribes. O Judah, then, to whom I said above: If Israel plays the harlot, let Judah at least not sin, hear my counsel, do not spurn the words of the prophet: since Ephraim is once for all a friend and partaker of idols, let him go, lest you follow his impiety, whose worship and religion and food are set apart from your banquet. For they serve idols once for all, and sacrifice to demons, and play the harlot daily; and they love their fornication; indeed, its princes and protectors, that is, the kings, loved to bring disgrace upon the people, that is: by the vice of the princes the unhappy people took up the worship of idols, whose unclean spirit has bound Israel in its wings and does not allow him to fly about freely. They will therefore be put to shame in their sacrifices, and in their confusion they will take on the disgrace of the princes. Symmachus, for what we have translated: the spirit has bound him in its wings, rendered it into Greek in this way: as if someone were to bind the wind in the wings of the wind; that is, so as to assert that both the princes and the people, or rather both the demons and Israel, are joined together, the vain with the vain and the empty with the empty. For wind and spirit among the Hebrews are called by one word, rua.

This same thing can also be referred to the heretics, and it is said to Judah, that is, to the churchman: since Ephraim, which is interpreted καρποφόρος (fruit-bearing), promises himself a false richness of doctrine and fruitful dogmas, and is once for all a friend of demons, let him go and despise him, especially since their sacrifices are set apart from your sacrifices. For this is what he says: their banquet is set apart; they have played the harlot once for all, and their princes have deceived the unhappy people; and in place of the worship of God they have steeped them in the disgrace of idols, and the spirit of the devil has bound them in its wings, they who are carried about by every wind of doctrine and cannot remain with a steady foot in the Church. They truly will be put to shame in their sacrifices, because their bread is the bread of mourning. And what is said, he has provoked the Canaanites, can in the same sense be referred to the heretics as well: that most of the heretics have invented things so foul and unspeakable, and have such unclean sacrifices, that idolatry is inferior to them. Or at least, because Canaanite is interpreted merchant or μετάβολος, that is, one who transfers, all who make the house of the Father a house of trade, and seek gains from the peoples, and transfer the truth of the Church into a lie, are to be called Canaanites.

The words "I will not visit your daughters when they prostitute themselves," that is, when a woman is accused of being adulterous and there is no witness, "she will make," Scripture says, "her offering of barley flour and will not pour any oil or incense." And since she is in her sorrow, the appearance of her offering will be equally sad. "And the priest," Scripture says, "will take some water from a vase of clay, and will throw some dust of the soil into the water, and will place the woman before the Lord and will make her swear." If she is innocent, she will remain unscathed and will still be fertile and will conceive; otherwise she will be torn. But in the meantime God threatens, "I will ravage Jerusalem, and there will be no one of your establishments which you cared for," and so on, because everything in the temple will be bound and delivered. "A nation that does not understand has kissed the woman of whoredom," that is, these people, who are blind and do not realize who God is, who lives and abides among them, prefer to worship idols rather than God. They foolishly kiss the calves and give themselves over to the prostitution with demons.