Hosea 8

Let there be a trumpet in your throat, like an eagle over the house of the Lord; because they have transgressed my covenant and violated my law. They called upon me: My God, we know you, Israel. Israel has cast away the good; the enemy will pursue him. They have reigned, and not from me: they have been princes, and I did not know it. Of their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves, that they might perish. LXX: In their bosom like earth, like an eagle over the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my testament and acted impiously against my law. They called upon me: God, we know you; because Israel has turned away from good things. They pursued the enemy, they reigned for themselves and not through me; they have been princes, and they did not make it known to me; of their silver and their gold they have made idols for themselves, that they might utterly perish. What we have translated: let there be a trumpet in your throat, for which in the Hebrew is written alechcha sophar, Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated likewise. The Seventy alone said: in their bosom like earth, and what this means is uncertain. For some think that bosom is taken in two ways: both as the lower part of a garment, from the genitals to the feet; and as the colpus of the sea, that is, a gulf, for example of the Adriatic and the Ionian and the Propontis; and that the false teachers, who followed the blasphemy of Egypt, keep in their bosom all things that serve lust, and earthly things; or at least that in the harbor and refuge of their voyage they acquire no precious merchandise, but earthly things. But let us, following the Hebrew truth, weave on the sequence of the explanation we began. The prophet is commanded, and it is said to him: Let there be a trumpet in your throat, that is, raise your voice so that it is like a trumpet, that very many may hear, because very many have sinned. And when you have raised your voice, say this with a shout: like an eagle over the house of the Lord; and the sense is: Nebuchadnezzar will come with all his army so swiftly, so quickly, that he will imitate the flight of an eagle hastening to its prey; and he will come not to some other place but to Jerusalem, in which the temple of God stands, to destroy and overturn it. Of this eagle Ezekiel too speaks more fully: of great wings and feathers and talons, which has the course for entering into Lebanon, that is, into the temple of God, according to the prophet Zechariah, in whom it is written: Open your gates, Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars. But this, O prophet, which I say and command you: Let there be a trumpet in your throat, so that you may cry aloud and say, like an eagle over the house of the Lord, that the king of the Chaldeans is coming, I command for no other reason than that they have transgressed my covenant and abandoned my ceremonies.

The devil, who longs to set his nest above the stars of heaven, we very often read called an eagle: If you are exalted like an eagle, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. The eye too that mocks its father and despises the old age of its mother will be dug out by ravens, and the young of eagles will devour it; losing the clear light of its vision through the devil and the demons. Hence it is commanded in the law that we should not eat the eagle. This eagle, then, comes upon the conventicles of the heretics, which were once the house of the Lord; and it comes because they have transgressed his covenant and abandoned the law of God; and in vain they call upon him and say: You are my God, and we know you, we who are called Israel, seeing God, and are called by the Christian name. In vain, he says, they do these things, since they have set up kings for themselves, and acted against my will, and have as princes my adversaries, whom I do not know, because they do not deserve knowledge of me. Their silver too and their gold, and whatever they could possess by nature, words and thoughts, they turned into idols which they fashioned from their own heart; and they turned them, not in order to perish; but because they turned them, therefore they perished. For they did not do it with this purpose, that they might perish; but because they did it, therefore they perished.

Hence in the time of necessity and distress, when the captivity comes, they will call upon me and say: My God, we know you, Israel; we who are called Israel know you and acknowledge you, and we keep the ancient name of Jacob, who pleased you, so that we are called Israel.

To them the Lord replied: How are you called Israel, when Israel has cast away the good, that is, his Lord, from whom he was called Israel? Therefore, because Israel cast away the good, the enemy, that is, the Assyrian, will pursue him and seize him, who, having abandoned me as king, asked for a king for themselves, as the other nations also had, and acted against my will. Finally, Samuel for this reason sets before them the harsh commands of a king, and says that their sons and daughters will serve kings, so that they might return to the Lord, the most merciful king; but they became princes without the will of God. And this crime was not enough for them, unless they doubled the outrage with a greater impiety, turning into idols the silver and gold which they had received for riches and adornment. Therefore Saul became king not by the will of God, but by the error of the people. And because he did not have the root of piety, as soon as he began to reign he was inflamed with impiety. What he says: They have reigned, and not from me; they have been princes, and I did not know it, can also be taken of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and of the other princes who succeeded him in power. Nor, because God, angry with Solomon, willed his kingdom to be divided, did Israel therefore do well in accepting a king. For according to the precepts of the law it ought to have asked the Lord whether he wished this to be done. For of the Savior too it is said that the Son of man must indeed be betrayed, but woe to him through whom he is to be betrayed.

When Peter is speaking to the people concerning the bishop to be ordained in the place of Judas, it says, "Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, for the multitude was together." But we notice that the apostles observed this, not only in the ordination of bishops and of priests but also in the ordinations of deacons. Concerning this very thing, in their Acts, it is also written, "The Twelve called together the multitude of the disciples," it says, "and spoke to them."6This matter was carried on diligently and cautiously, with the whole people assembled so that no unworthy man should attain to the ministry of the altar or to the priestly rank. For the fact is that sometimes unworthy men are ordained, not according to the will of God but according to human presumption. These things that do not come from a legitimate and just ordination are displeasing to God. God himself makes this known through the prophet Hosea, saying, "They made themselves a king, but not by me."

But it can be reasonably asked, How it is said in this place that the Lord makes the hypocrite to reign, when by the Prophet He complains especially of this thing, saying, They have reigned, but not of Me: they have become princes, and I know them not? For, who that thinks rightly, can say that the Lord does that of which He knows nothing? But, because God's knowledge is approval, His ignorance is disapproval. Whence He says to some whom He rejects, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. And sometimes God's doing a thing, is His allowing in His anger that which He forbids to be done. Hence He asserted that He hardened the heart of the king of Egypt, because He, in truth, allowed it to be hardened. In a marvellous manner then does God make hypocrites to reign, and knows them not. He makes them, by suffering; He knows them not, by rejecting them. Whence it is necessary, with reference to every thing, which is desired in this life, that the Inner Will should be first enquired into. And when the ear of the heart is anxious to catch Its sound, let it know that It speaks, not in words, but in deeds. When then a post of authority is offered, it is necessary for a man first to question with himself, whether his conduct is suited to the place, whether his doings are at variance with the distinction it confers; lest, perchance, the just Ruler of all should, afterwards, not regard his prayers in tribulation, because He knows not his very entering on that high office, which is the source of all his tribulation.

Because He is exceedingly desirous, that we should always take refuge in Him, and in everything make our requests unto Him; and do nothing and speak nothing without Him. For men, when we trouble them repeatedly concerning our affairs, become slothful and evasive, and conduct themselves unpleasantly towards us; but with God it is quite the reverse. Not when we apply to him continually respecting our affairs, but when we fail to do so, then is he especially displeased. Hear at least what He reproves the Jews for, when He says, "Ye have taken counsel, but not of Me, and made treaties, but not by My Spirit." For this is the custom of those who love; they desire that all the concerns of their beloved should be accomplished by means of themselves; and that they should neither do anything, nor say anything, without them. On this account did God not only on that occasion, but again elsewhere, uttering a reproof, speak the same language. "They have reigned, but not by Me; they have ruled, and they made it not known to Me."

Not always is the prince of the people and judge of the Church given by the judgment of God, but according as our merits demand. If our deeds are evil and we "work evil in the sight of God", princes are given to us according to our heart; and this I will prove to you from the Scriptures. For hear what the Lord says: "They made themselves a king and not by me, and a prince and not by my counsel". And this seems to be said of that Saul, whom indeed the Lord himself had chosen and had commanded to be made king; but because he had been chosen not according to the will of God, but according to the merit of a sinful people, he denies that he was appointed with his will or counsel.

What he had said above: Of their silver and their gold they have made idols for themselves, that they might perish, he now explains more plainly: Your calf is cast off, Samaria, my fury is kindled against them; either against the calves, because they had made two; or against the inhabitants of Samaria, who worshiped them. Moreover, as for what we read in the Seventy: Cast off your calf, Samaria, he exhorts its inhabitants, not of one city but of all the ten tribes, which are called Samaria — for otherwise there were no calves in the city of Samaria, but in Dan and in Bethel — to cast off the calves against which God is angry; or ἀποτρίψεται, that is, let it rub them away; so that it may little by little rub away and cleanse those which it had worshiped for a long time. And when they do not listen, he turns to others, and speaks as though to a third person: how long will they be unable to be cleansed? What madness is this, he says, that, while I give room for repentance, they refuse to turn to health?

God casts off the calves of the heretics and of Samaria, who say that they keep the precepts of the law; which calves cling to the ground and work in the earth, not in the spirit, nor lift their eyes to heaven; and therefore the fury of the Lord is kindled against them, and he wonders what this great perversity is, that they will not abandon the idols which they have fashioned for themselves, and love heretical filth instead of the cleanness of the Church. These calves Israel, who pretends that he sees God, did not receive from the other nations; but he himself forged for himself out of the holy Scriptures the depravity of his understanding, and he is the craftsman of his own god, which will quickly perish and will imitate spiders' webs, which are broken at a light touch.

Your calf is cast off, Samaria. My fury is kindled against them. How long will they be unable to be cleansed? For it too is from Israel; a craftsman made it, and it is not God, for the calf of Samaria will become spiders' webs. LXX: Cast off your calf, Samaria; my fury is roused against them. How long will they be unable to be cleansed in Israel? And this a craftsman made, and it is not God, because your calf, Samaria, was leading astray. In the place where we have put spiders' webs, in the Hebrew is written sababim, with the letter iod as the penultimate; not, as some falsely think, sababum, that is, with uau, which the Seventy and Theodotion translated πλανῶν, that is, leading astray and deceiving; Aquila, wandering or turned about; Symmachus, inconstant or unstable, that is, ἀκαταστατῶν; the Fifth edition, ῥεμβεύων, roving and fluctuating. We have learned from a Hebrew that sababim properly denotes the threads of spiders flying through the air, which perish even while they are seen, and are dissolved into atoms and into nothing. And to these the calf of Samaria is rightly compared, which at that time the people worshiped because of the greatness of its value, since it was of gold.

And because he had said: Cast off your calf, Samaria, he explains who this calf is: for it too is from Israel; not from others, he says, from the nations, have you received the calf, as Baal and Ashtaroth from the Sidonians, as Chemosh from the Moabites and Moloch from the Ammonites; but you yourselves, and your king Jeroboam, made in Israel what you had learned in Egypt. Or what sort of god is that which is formed by the hand of a craftsman? Finally, as the threads of spiders dissolve into the wind, so the calf of Samaria will be reduced to nothing.

We acknowledge, therefore, and know that he is God, the Creator of all things. He is our Lord, because of his power; our author, because of his creation. "He spoke, and all things were made. He commanded, and all things came forth." Of him it is written, "You have made all things in wisdom." Moses says of him, "God is in heaven above and on earth below," and according to Isaiah, "He has measured the heavens with a span, the earth with the width of the fist"; he "looks upon the earth and makes it tremble." He "holds the orb of the earth and those who live on it as if they were locusts"; he "weighed the mountains on scales and the groves on a balance," by the exact precision of the divine plan. He laid out this weight of the earth's mass with precise equipoise, lest the huge ill-balanced mass should easily fall into ruin, if they were not balanced by providential weights. It is he who says through the prophet, "I am God, and there is none beside me." He says by means of the same prophet, "I will not give my majesty to another," so that he might exclude all heathens and heretics with their images, proving that he is God who is not made by the hand of an artificer. Nor is he some God whom heretical ingenuity has devised.

For it is infinite folly to labour painfully, and pant after the breath of applause, to apply one's self to the heavenly precepts with hard toil, but to aim at the reward of an earthly kind of recompense. For that I may so express myself, he that in return for the good that he practises looks for the applause of his fellowcreatures, is carrying an article of great worth to be sold at a mean price. From that whereby he might have earned the kingdom of heaven, he seeks the coin of passing talk. His practice goes for little, in that he spends a great deal, and gets back but very little. Whereunto then are hypocrites like but to luxuriant and untended vines, which put forth fruit from their fertility, but are never lifted from the earth by tending? All that the rich branches bud forth, stray beasts tread under foot, and the more fruitful they see it is, the more greedily they devour it, thus cast away and laid low, in that the works of hypocrites while they shew fair, come forth as if rich, but whilst they aim at human praises, it is as if they were left forsaken upon the ground. And the beasts of this world, i.e. the evil spirits, devour them, because they turn them to account to the end of perdition, and they seize upon them with greater avidity, in proportion as great things are more clearly known. Hence it is well said by the Prophet, The standing stalk, there is no bud in them, and they shall yield no meal; if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. For the stalk is without a bud, when the life lacks the merit of virtuous habits. The stalk yieldeth no meal, when he that thrives in this world understands nothing refined, and yields no fruit of good practice.

For they will sow the wind and reap the whirlwind; there is no standing stalk in it, the shoot will make no flour, and if it should make any, strangers will eat it. LXX: For they have sown things corrupted by the wind, and their overthrow will receive them; a sheaf without the strength to make flour, and if it should make any, strangers will eat it. He compares the calf of Samaria to spiders' webs; therefore he keeps the metaphor in what follows, so that what he had called spiders' webs he compares to wind and whirlwind, and to stalks that do not stand; and if they do stand, they have no flour; and if, he says, they should make flour, it will be devoured by others. And since the sense is common both to the heretics and to those in Samaria who fashioned idols, it must be discussed in common. These men sow the wind, or seeds corrupted by the wind, which have no pith, which the Greeks call ἐντεριώνην, and therefore, sowing empty things, they receive what is void and empty; nay rather, sowing in the flesh, they reap corruption from the flesh, and are carried about by every wind of doctrine. And when they have sown the wind, they reap whirlwinds and storms; and first of all, no stalk, that is, no straw, will come from these seeds, nor will they be able to have any appearance of a fruitful crop. But if it should rarely happen that they seem to have something like the Church's dogma, that very shoot and ear will make no flour. Into three measures of this flour the woman of the Gospel puts leaven, so that the spirit by which we perceive, and the soul by which we live, and the body by which we walk, may be brought together into one Holy Spirit, according to the Apostle: In him we live, move and are. But if it should rarely happen to the heretics that their sowing too makes flour, from this flour will be made a loaf baked under the ashes, which is not turned over, and which strangers will eat. Hence he now also says: And if it should make flour, strangers will eat it. But we ought to understand as strangers those of whom it is written: Strange sons have lied to me. And in the eighteenth (19th) psalm: From my hidden sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from strangers spare your servant. If they have not had dominion over the righteous man, then he will be unblemished and will be cleansed from the greatest sin.

For you pluck no fruit from the idol's service, but their bundles are like ears of wheat destroyed by the wind, which show full stalks from the outside but which internally have no grain. Such is the nature of idolatry, for on the one hand it can take the image of a man or a woman, or a lion or a different animal from art, but on the other hand it is deprived of any strength or energy.

O appalling hardness! O strange cruelty! You did not fear God, nor did you reverence others or feel shame before your friends. So you have suffered shipwreck of all things at once. You have stripped yourselves of every good thing at the same time. Therefore again I grieve for you, wretched man! You who were announcing your ardor for the kingdom have fallen from the kingdom. You who were inspiring all with a reverence for the doctrine did not have the fear of God before your eyes. You who were preaching holiness are now found to be polluted. You who glory in poverty are caught stealing money. You who through your guidance point out the punishment of God have drawn down chastisement upon yourselves. How shall I bewail you? How shall I grieve for you? The morning star, which rose early, has fallen and shattered upon the earth. The two ears of everyone who hears it will ring. How did the Nazirite who shone brighter than gold become darker than soot? And how did the worthy son of Zion instantly become like a polluted vessel?

Israel has been devoured; now he has become among the nations like an unclean vessel. The Seventy translated "useless" for "unclean"; the rest likewise. The unclean, or useless, vessel the Hebrews call a chamber pot, which we are accustomed to use for receiving and throwing away excrement. To this uncleanness he compares the idolaters and the heretics, who are mingled with the Gentiles while they do not keep the truth of God, and, having been made a vessel unto honor, have been turned into a vessel of dishonor. For what is more unclean than a demonic spirit and the dogmas of the heretics, which have mingled them with the pagans? Such was Jeconiah, enslaved to idols, of whom God speaks through Jeremiah: Jeconiah is dishonored, like a vessel of which there is no use. On the contrary Paul, who could say: Or do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me? is called a chosen vessel, of gold and of silver, because he had wisdom and eloquence, with which he preached the Gospel of Christ. And when he says: has been devoured, or swallowed up, it signifies that, mingled with idols and with the nations, he has lost the proper name of Israel and of Christian.

For they themselves have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself. Ephraim have given gifts to lovers; moreover they have hired the nations for pay; now I will gather them, and they will rest a little while from the burden of the king and of the princes. LXX: For they themselves have gone up to the Assyrians; Ephraim has sprouted within himself, they have loved gifts; therefore they will be handed over among the Gentiles; now I will receive them, and they will rest a little, that they may anoint kings and princes. Israel, he says, has been devoured, and has become like a useless, or unclean, vessel, of which no potsherd remains in which water could be drawn, or some small bit of fire. And because he has become an unclean vessel, therefore they have gone up to the Assyrians, imitating the solitary wild ass; not at all as sheep fed by the Lord, but wickedly abusing their freedom, and led away into captivity; and the prophet bewails them and says: Ephraim have given gifts to the Assyrians and have hired their lovers for pay; of whom Ezekiel writes: To all harlots payments are given, but you have given payments to your lovers, and the contrary has happened in you.

As for the heretics, we do not doubt that, going to the Assyrians according to the error of their mind, they think that they are ascending, not descending. Hence it is said to them through Isaiah: What has happened to you now, that you have all gone up onto empty roofs? The prince of these Assyrians is the great mind. Hence Ephraim has sprouted within himself, judging in his presumption that he has grown. Or he has become a solitary wild ass, so as to enter not the planted fields of the Church but the deserts of the devil. He has loved gifts in return for his error, promising himself rewards, or doing everything for the sake of shameful gain. Or at least he has given gifts and payments to his lovers, the demons, and when he has done this, he will be handed over to the Gentiles. For just as the nations worship bodily images, so these men think to be gods the idols which they have fashioned out of their own heart, and therefore they will be reckoned among the number of the nations.

And when they have given presents to the Gentiles, and have hired the nations for pay to help them, they will be gathered for battle, and, bound, will be led away together. And because they love to offer gifts to their adversaries, therefore for a little while they will obtain the favor of not paying tribute to the king and the princes, until they come to the Assyrians, where they will by no means pay taxes and tribute as free men, but will be reduced to the utmost slavery.

But if, he says, now and in the present age they repent, and I receive them, they will cease to set up over themselves the little king and his princes; so that we may understand the little king to be the devil, in distinction from the great king, who can have no fellowship with Belial, but, as soon as he has been received, drives the little king and his princes out of the heart of believers. According to the Hebrew, however, those who had before been scattered, and had hired the nations for pay, will be gathered into the Church of God, and will rest from the burden of the king, about whom the Apostle rebukes those cut off from the Church, saying: Without us you reign; and would that you did reign, and from the princes whom they have, set up in the synagogues of the devil.

For Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning; altars have become for him an offense. I will write for him my manifold laws, which have been reckoned as foreign; bring victims, bring; they will sacrifice flesh and eat it, and the Lord will not accept them. LXX: For Ephraim has multiplied altars, for sin, altars are beloved to him. I will write for them a multitude; his ordinances have been reckoned as foreign, beloved altars; for if they have sacrificed victims and eaten flesh, the Lord will not accept them. Led, he says, into captivity, they will rest for a little while from the burden of the king and the prince. And they will suffer this because Ephraim, their prince, has multiplied altars, not on which to sacrifice to the Lord, but on which to join sins to sins; and these altars, that is, places of sacrifice, will be turned for him into an offense, so that the more of them there are, the more his crimes are multiplied.

Now the Apostle teaches that there is one altar in the Church, and one faith, and one baptism; deserting this, the heretics have fashioned for themselves many altars, not for appeasing God, but for a multitude of offenses. Therefore they do not deserve to receive the law of God, since they had earlier despised those laws which they had received. And if they have said anything from the Scriptures, it is to be compared not with the divine words, but with the thoughts of the pagans. These men sacrifice many victims and eat their flesh, deserting the one victim of Christ; nor do they eat the flesh of him whose flesh is the food of believers. Whatever they do, feigning the order and rite of sacrifices, whether they give alms, or promise chastity, or feign humility and deceive all the simple with pretended blandishments, the Lord will accept nothing of sacrifices of this kind.

Then, as he had said above: What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Judah? as though hesitating and seeking with what remedy he might heal the sick man, and by what counsels he might draw the sinner back to salvation. I will write for them again, he says, the laws which I had given before through Moses. But what profit is there in writing still others, when he has despised those which he received before? Is it not contempt of God when, though I commanded that there should be one altar in Jerusalem, they fashioned idols on all the mountains and hills with which to provoke the Lord?

They also made altars for this reason, not to please me, but so that, when many victims had been sacrificed, they might eat their flesh, according to what the Lord says in the Gospel: Amen, amen, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. For they put all their zeal for victims into devouring the sacrifices, not into pleasing God through them; nor will the Lord accept those which they sacrificed not to him, but to their own belly and gullet.

Now he will remember their iniquity and will visit their sins; they will be turned back into Egypt.

And Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built shrines, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; and I will send fire upon his cities, and it will devour his dwellings. LXX: Now he will remember their iniquities, and will avenge their injustices; they have turned back into Egypt, and Israel has forgotten him who made him, and they have built shrines, and Judah has multiplied walled cities; and I will send forth fire upon his cities, and it will devour his foundations. Between ἀνομίαν, that is, iniquity, and sin there is this difference, that iniquities are before the law, sin is after the law; and for those who persist in their offenses, the Lord will remember their iniquity, which they had committed before the law; but their sins he will not remember, but will take vengeance on them. And he will both remember their old iniquities and visit their former sins for this reason, that they have gone back into Egypt, either asking for help or worshiping the same gods by which they had earlier been led astray, ἄπιν (Apis) and μνεῦιν (Mnevis).

But according to anagogy, those are called iniquities, that is, both ἀνομίαι and ἀδικίαι (injustices), which we committed before baptism and which have been forgiven us in baptism; but sins are those which we have done after baptism, of which it is also written in the psalm: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. All of these will be imputed to the heretics, so that both the old iniquities and the new sins are brought back upon them. For those who had gone out of Egypt through the confession of Christ have gone back into Egypt through faithlessness.

What we read according to the LXX translators, ÷ and in Assyria they ate unclean things :, is not found in the Hebrew, and therefore it must be marked beforehand with an obelus. We can, however, say that the Israelites, longing for Egypt, were taken captive by the Assyrians and there ate unclean things, according to Ezekiel, who describes them as having eaten food offered to idols in Chaldea, food so polluted with the filth of idols that it is compared to human dung. The heretics too, whose princes are the Assyrians — of whom we have often spoken — eat unclean things among them, while they are defiled by their filth.

For Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built shrines on the high places, consecrating whole hills and mountains, and shady trees, to Baal and Ashtaroth and other idols. Judah too, understanding that Israel had departed from the love of God and that their sins had been visited, was not converted to the Lord, but trusted in the fortification of his cities, which the Lord says he will destroy, devouring them down to his foundations. His: there is no doubt that it signifies Judah; although some read their foundations, that is, of the cities, in place of his.

Israel has forgotten his Maker, and, having despised the Creator, has fashioned another god for himself. Judah too, that is, the churchman, in evil works, or in a perverse interpretation of the holy Scriptures, has built himself fortified cities, not with the help of God, but with skillful falsehood; and the Lord says that he will set them on fire with the fire of his spirit, and will devour his βάρεις, that is, great houses built in the manner of towers, and will overturn the foundations badly laid, so that they may not be able to set up sacrilegious shrines against God. Some take the cities fortified by Judah in a good sense, and they try to temper what seemed contrary to this sense, I will send fire upon his cities, and it will devour his dwellings, in such a way that, after what is perfect has come, what is in part is destroyed.