Isaiah 13

The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos saw. The Hebrew word MESSA (משא) can be understood either as burden or as weight. And wherever it is placed at the head, the things that are said are full of threats. Hence I wonder that the Seventy translators chose to put vision in so grim a matter; but of this elsewhere. Now let us carry through what we have begun. Babylon was the metropolis of the Chaldeans, whose king Nebuchadnezzar, having overcome all the nations as far as Ethiopia, laid waste Judea too among the rest, and in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah took Jerusalem after a long siege; and he led Zedekiah himself captive to Antioch, which was then called Riblah, and there, after his sons had been killed before their father's eyes, he ordered Zedekiah's eyes to be put out, and sent him, blinded, into a cage, and dragged him to Babylon like a wild beast; so was fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, which sang: You shall enter Babylon, and you shall not see it (Jer 34; 39; 52). For the consolation of the people of the Jews, therefore, the ruin of Babylon is foretold: that just as Nineveh, the metropolis of the Assyrians, whose kings Pul and Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser and Sennacherib had captured the ten tribes, was overthrown when the Chaldean laid it waste, so this city too, which had grown proud against God, should be overthrown by the onslaught of the Medes and Persians.

The burden or vision against Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos saw. He saw, not with the eyes of the flesh but with those of the mind, how great and heavy a weight was to be laid upon Babylon. And since Babylon, which in Hebrew is called BABEL (בבל), means confusion, because there the speech of those building the tower was confounded, spiritually this world is understood, which is set in wickedness and confounds not only the tongues but also the works and the minds of each person. The king of this Babylon is the true Nebuchadnezzar, who grows proud against the Lord and says in his heart: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will set my throne; I will sit on the mountain of the Covenant, on the sides of the North; I will ascend above the height of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. He it is who showed the Lord all the kingdoms of the world and said to him: All these have been delivered to me, and I will give them to you, if you will fall down and worship me (Matt 4:9). Accordingly, in what follows the threat is in no way against Babylon, but against the whole world. The Lord Sabaoth commanded a most warlike nation to come from a distant land, from the height of heaven, to destroy the whole world. And again: Behold, the day comes of incurable fury and wrath, to make the whole world a desert and to destroy sinners out of it. And then: I will command evils for the whole world, and for the ungodly their sins. From these it is proved that everything said against Babylon pertains to the confusion and destruction of this world.

The burden of Babylon. Here he threatens against the Babylonians, who had captured the two tribes. And this is divided into two parts: in the first, he threatens the destruction of the enemy, in the second, he promises, from this, the comfort of the Jews: her time is near at hand (ch. 14). The first of these is divided into two. First, the title of the threat is set out, and the rebuke: the burden, that is, oppressing misery: if this people, or the prophet, or the priest shall ask you, saying: what is the burden of the Lord? You shall say to them: you are the burden (Jer 23:33). Second, the threat itself is set out: upon the dark mountain (Isa 13:2). And this is divided into three parts: in the first, he sets out the calling together of a ravaging army, namely, the Medes and Persians under Cyrus and Darius, who captured Babylon, as it says in Daniel 5:30–31; in the second, he shows the affliction of the punishment: howl (Isa 13:6); in the third, the subsequent desolation of Babylon: and they shall be (Isa 13:14). Concerning the first, he sets out three things. First, he calls together the army; second, he describes the coming of those who are called, where it says, the noise of a multitude (Isa 13:4); third, the command to those who come is decreed: the Lord of hosts (Isa 13:4).

By a mountain is designated the apostate angel, as is said to preachers concerning the ancient enemy under the character of the king of Babylon, Lift ye up a banner upon the gloomy mountain. For holy preachers lift up a banner above the gloomy mountain, when they exalt the virtue of the cross against the pride of Satan, which is frequently concealed under the mist of hypocrisy.

Upon a misty mountain lift up a signal, raise the voice, lift up the hand. The misty, or dark, mountain, which in Hebrew is called NESPHE (נשפה), understand as Babylon, on account of its pride. These are the dark mountains, bearing gloom and mist before them, of which Jeremiah says: Give glory to the Lord your God, before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains (Jer 13:16). And a command is given either to the angels or to any ministers whatever, that at God's bidding, and with the hand of the messengers raised, the captivity coming upon Babylon should be proclaimed.

Upon a misty mountain, or a level one, lift up a sign. It is commanded to the Apostles, and to apostolic men and teachers of the Churches, that when they are about to fight against Babylon they should raise the sign of the Lord's cross, not in a low place and in sunken valleys, but on a misty or level mountain. Of these, the one signifies the hidden mysteries of the Church, to see which, and to hear the voice of God, Moses entered into the darkness and the mist. For God made darkness his hiding place, and cloud and mist round about him (Ps 17 [18]). The other teaches that we ought so to climb to the heights of the Church's doctrines as to be humbled, according to the Apostle Paul, and to say: I who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God (1 Cor 15:9). He too raised the sign upon a level mountain when, with the humility implanted in him, he said: For I judged myself to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And this sign, in the passages above as well, was raised by him who arose from the root of Jesse among the nations, to gather the lost of Israel.

Exalt the voice, lift up the hand. For which the Seventy translated: Comfort with the hand. He exalts his voice who speaks of lofty things and despises present things as brief and transitory. He who hears from the same Isaiah: Go up upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice in strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lifts up his hand, he who can say with David: The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice (Ps 140 [141]:2); and who in every place lifts up holy hands, so that he not only lifts up his hands but also comforts with his hand: so that he does not say to the poor man, Come tomorrow and receive; but rather comforts his poverty and need with present mercy.

And let the leaders enter the gates. LXX: Open, you princes. The leaders of the Church enter the gates of the mysteries of God and know the mysteries of the Scriptures, having the key of knowledge, so as to open them to the peoples entrusted to them. Hence it is commanded that the teachers should open and the disciples should enter.

And let the leaders enter the gates: I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my mighty ones in my wrath, exulting in my glory. The princes and giants of the Seventy translators Eusebius interprets as angelic powers and the worst demons, who were sent to overthrow Babylon. But we, following the order of the history, say that they are the Medes. Of them Scripture testifies more openly in what follows, saying: Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who will not seek silver, nor want gold. Nor is it surprising if he calls the Medes sanctified for the overthrow of Babylon, since through Jeremiah he called Nebuchadnezzar himself his servant and his dove, because in destroying transgressing Jerusalem he was serving His command. Further, when he says: My mighty ones, and those exulting in my glory, he shows that it was not by their own strength but by the wrath of God that they overthrew the power of so lofty a kingdom.

Concerning the first of these, he does two things. First, he sets out the calling together; and he calls them together to attack and besiege: lift up a sign, that is, a banner, upon the mountain, of Babylon, dark, because of the smoke from the fire, when it had been burned. Or, upon the mountain, next to the city, dark, hidden by the clouds or its appearance made dark because of its height. He calls them to cry out: exalt the voice, that the enemy should assemble. To join in battle: lift up the hand, to fight. To capture: and let the rulers go into the gates: upon the walls of Babylon set up the standard (Jer 51:12).

Note on the words, upon the dark mountain (Isa 13:2), that darkness is manifold: first, that of ignorance: how has the Lord covered with obscurity the daughter of Zion in his wrath (Lam 2:1); second, of guilt: darkness was under his feet (Ps 18:9); third, of present punishment: how is the gold become dim, the finest color is changed (Lam 4:1); fourth, of future misery: bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness (Matt 22:13), and Luke 16:26: between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot.

I have commanded my sanctified ones. For which the LXX: I will command, and I will lead them. For he himself sanctifies his ministers, so that both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified may all be of one. He who in another place also says to believers: Be holy, because I also am holy, himself commands and will lead his princes, so that they may do what has been commanded (Lev 19:2).

And I have called my mighty ones in my wrath, exulting in my glory. LXX: Giants come to fulfill my fury, rejoicing together and doing outrage. According to the Hebrew, what is said clings to what precedes: that he who had given command to his sanctified ones himself called his mighty ones, exulting in his glory. But according to the Seventy, the giants who come to fulfill the fury of the Lord, rejoicing and glad at another's injury, are to be taken as the left-hand and hostile powers, of which we also read in the psalms: He sent upon them the fury of his wrath, fury and wrath and tribulation, a sending by evil angels (Ps 77 [78]:49). Of these is also the destroyer in Egypt, who does not dare to enter the doorposts smeared with the blood of the lamb (Exod 12), and that spirit who went out and stood in the sight of the Lord and said: I will deceive Ahab. And the Lord said to him: You will deceive him and you will prevail; go forth and do so (1 Kgs 22:21, 22). Hence in the same volume of Kings Micaiah said: I saw the Lord of Israel sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven stood about him on the right and on the left (ibid., 19). The right-hand powers are those of the angels who are sent for good things; the left-hand, those of the angels to whom we are handed over for punishment. Hence the Apostle too says: Whom I have delivered, he says, to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme (1 Tim 1:20). Now the name of the giants, for which in the Hebrew GEBORIM (גברים), that is, of the mighty, is set down, the Seventy and Theodotion turned into the likeness of the fables of the Gentiles, just as they also name the Sirens and the Titans and Arcturus, the Hyades and Orion, which among the Hebrews are called by other names. But if the giants are rebels against God, and all heresies, being contrary to the truth, rebel against God, all heretics are giants, who rejoice in their error and glory most of all when they have done outrage to the Church.

Second, he sets out the condition of those who are called as to their suitableness on account of charge of office: my sanctified ones, as if to say: those whom I have sanctified to carry out this office; and as to power: strong; and as to cheerfulness: them that rejoice: the Lord has sanctified those he has called (Zeph 1:7).

The voice of a multitude on the mountains, as of crowded peoples; the voice of the sound of kings of nations gathered together. This passage is taken in three ways. First, that when the sign has been raised on the level mountain, the multitude of the nations comes, itself also set upon the mountains, and it is divided into two, namely into peoples and into kings, into disciples and teachers, of whom the Savior spoke in the Gospel: Many will come from the East and from the West, and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 8:11). And it is called one voice, and harmonious, for this reason: that the Apostle's saying may be proved: That you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you, but that you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment (1 Cor 1:10). Secondly, the pride of the heretics is described, who, believing themselves to be on the mountains, are lifted up against the knowledge of God, and speak iniquity on high, and set their mouth against heaven; they too have peoples, they have kings, who devour the deceived people. The third interpretation is this: since he had said above, giants come to fulfill my fury, rejoicing together and doing outrage, he describes the arrogance of the giants themselves, and their agreement, in the evil sense, in punishing those who have been handed over to them.

The sound of a multitude on the mountains, as of many peoples: the sound of the din of the kings of nations gathered together. The Lord of hosts has given command to the army of war, to those coming from a land far off, from the summit of heaven. The Lord and the vessels of his fury, to destroy the whole earth. The onslaught of the Medes and Persians is described: that, having gathered many auxiliaries with them, with their Lord going before the army, they come to lay Babylon waste, to destroy the whole earth; not that they laid waste the whole world, but the whole land of Babylon and of the Chaldeans. For it is an idiom of Holy Scripture that by the whole earth it signifies the whole of that province about which it is speaking; and some, not understanding this, drag the passage to the overthrow of all lands.

The Lord of hosts has commanded the army of war, coming from a far land, from the height of heaven: the Lord and the vessels of his fury, to destroy the whole earth. LXX: The Lord Sabaoth commanded a most warlike nation to come from a distant land, from the highest ÷ foundation ⁚ of heaven, the Lord and his warriors, to destroy the whole world. Foundation is to be marked beforehand with an obelus. In the volume of Kings and of Chronicles we read (2 Sam 24; 1 Chr 21) that the wrath of God was kindled against Israel when David numbered the people and offended the Lord. In the Psalms too it is written: O Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chasten me in your wrath, and other things like these, for which I have read in the Commentaries of a certain writer [he means Basil] that the wrath of God can be understood as a hostile power to which we are handed over for punishment, of which it is also sung in the eighth psalm: That you may destroy the enemy and the avenger (Ps 8:3). Those who come from a far land and from the height of heaven can be called warriors, namely also the ministering angels, who are to be sent at the consummation of the world to make bundles of the tares and, separated from the wheat, to prepare them for everlasting burning (Matt 13). The whole earth, too, is destroyed when earthly works are overthrown. There are also other warriors of the Lord, equipped with the armor of the Apostle, who daily in the Church, which is understood as the οἰκουμένη, that is, the world and the inhabited land, destroy and slay those who are lifted up against the knowledge of God.

The voice of a multitude. Here he describes the coming of those who are called, and first, as to the lowly: the voice of a multitude; second, as to the great, the voice of the sound of kings: their voice shall roar like the sea (Jer 50:42); below: the tumult of crowds shall come (Isa 17:12). The Lord of hosts. Here he decrees the command. And first, he sets out the divine command: the Lord has given charge.

Second, divine help to fulfill the command: from the end of heaven, as though to help; and the instruments of his wrath, that is, all kinds of arms.

Howl, for the day of the Lord is near: like a devastation it will come from the Lord. An apostrophe is made to the people of the Chaldeans, that they should make the coming evils resound with their weeping, and not doubt the ruin of their city, since the Lord is coming as its devastator.

Howl, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like devastation from the Lord. Therefore all hands will be loosened, and every heart of man will melt and be crushed. Since the warriors of the Lord are to come to destroy the whole earth, howl and do penance, you for whom punishment is coming. For the day of the Lord is near, either of the consummation of the whole world and of the judgment, or of each one's departure from life. For there comes from the Lord a plundering, which we have called devastation in order to keep the metaphor, since he had spoken first of warriors. When the day of judgment or of falling asleep has come, all hands will be loosened, to which it is said in another place: Be strengthened, you loosened hands. And the hands will be loosened because no work worthy of the righteousness of God will be found: And no living person will be justified in his sight (Ps 142 [143]:2). Hence the Prophet says in the psalms: If you mark iniquities, O Lord, who will endure (Ps 129 [130]:3)? Every heart too, or soul of man, will melt, and will tremble at the consciousness of its sin. This is the fearful and terrible day of which Zephaniah also speaks: Fear before the face of the Lord, for the day of the Lord is near (Zeph 1:14). And again: Near is the great day of the Lord: near, and very swift. And Amos: Woe, he says, to those who desire the day of the Lord: why would you have the day of the Lord, which is darkness and not light (Amos 5:18)?

Howl. Here he describes the affliction of the punishment. And concerning this he sets out three things: first, the fear of those to be punished; second, the affliction: behold, the day (Isa 13:9); third, the ferocity of the punishers, behold I will stir up (Isa 13:17). And their fear is expressed, first, as to the groaning of the mouth: howl: howl, woe, woe to the day: for the day is near, yea the day of the Lord is near: a cloudy day, it shall be the time of groaning (Ezek 30:2–3).

Therefore all hands will be loosened, and every heart of man will waste away and be crushed. Gripings and pains will seize them: they will be in pain like a woman in labor: each will be astounded at his neighbor: their countenances are scorched faces. This needs no exposition; but it is briefly indicated that so great a weight of evils will press upon them that the hand of Babylon's fighting men will be loosened, and the heart will languish with fear, and pain will wring their bowels after the manner of women in labor, and each will seek the help of another, carrying about a face sallow with pallor; for it is natural that, when evils are imminent, we think others wiser than ourselves.

Second, as to the abatement of work: therefore shall all hands be faint: the king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands are grown feeble (Jer 50:43).

The day of the Lord comes suddenly, it says, and in an unexpected way like the pains of childbirth, which forestall all one's efforts to hide them.

And what has been added according to the Seventy: the envoys will be troubled, and pains will seize them: we can interpret as those envoys whom the citizens had sent against him who had set out into a far country to seek a kingdom for himself (Luke 19:27). Hence he himself says in the Gospel: But those enemies who did not want me to reign over them, bring here and slay before me.

Twistings and pains will seize them; they will be in pain like a woman in labor; each one will be astonished at his neighbor; their faces are burnt countenances. When the warriors of the Lord have come from a distant land, and all hands have been loosened, and the heart is fearful and crushed, then strophomata, which we have translated as twistings of the belly, and pains will seize them, like the pains of women in labor. By this it is shown that they are tortured by their own conscience, and have their faces burnt with that fire which they had kindled for themselves: because they cannot say: The light of your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord (Ps 4:7); and: We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image (2 Cor 3:18). Each one will be astonished at his neighbor, seeing him in the same torments by which he himself is tormented.

Third, as to the disturbance of the heart, which is disturbed in three ways. According to its inner state, either as to cheerfulness: and every heart of man shall melt; or as to magnanimity: and shall be broken, as though divided into little pieces; or as to security, by the distress of fear: gripings: there were pains as of a woman in labor (Ps 48:8). Second, it is troubled as to lack of help: every one shall be amazed at his neighbor, as though, because of their amazement, they cannot bring help. As to the outward sign: their countenances shall be as faces burnt, because of the pallor of fear; or literally, because they were killed with such a death: their face is now made blacker than coals (Lam 4:8); the faces of them all are as the blackness of a kettle (Nah 2:10).

Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel and full of indignation, and of wrath and of fury, to make the land a wilderness, and to crush its sinners out of it. He calls the day cruel, not by its own desert, but by that of the people. For he is not cruel who cuts the throats of the cruel; but he seems cruel to those who suffer. For even the robber hanging on the gibbet thinks the judge cruel. And at the same time the desolation and devastation of the Babylonian land is announced, and the cause of the devastation is set forth: that all these things come about because of its inhabitants.

Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel and full of indignation, and of wrath and fury, to make the land a wilderness and to crush its sinners out of it. For land the Seventy translated τὴν οἰκουμένην, that is, the world; for cruel, incurable. For when the day either of judgment or of death has come, that will be fulfilled which is read in the sixth psalm: But in hell who will confess to you (Ps 6:6)? For that is not a time of penance, but of punishments. And in another place it is said: How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you! Therefore the great mercy of God is hidden from those who are still set in fear and do not have the perfect love of God, so that, while they hear of the day of the Lord as cruel and incurable and full of indignation and fury, they may cease to sin. The world, or the land, will also be made a wilderness, and the sinners will be crushed out of it, the land which before was weighed down by the burden of sinners, so that, crimes having been blotted out and destroyed, righteousness alone may dwell and reign on the earth.

But the day of retribution for all sins is that of which all the prophets write, and above all Isaiah cries aloud: Behold, the incurable day of the Lord is coming, of fury and of wrath, to make the whole world a desert, and to destroy the sinners out of it. This day is rightly called incurable, because when the day of judgment has come there will be no place for repentance; and compared with eternity it is near and not far off.

Concerning that day, hear the prophets, saying, "The day of the Lord is incurable, full of anger and wrath." For there will be none to stand by, none to rescue, nowhere the face of Christ, so mild and calm. But as those who work in the mines are delivered over to certain cruel men, and see none of their friends, but those only that are set over them; so will it be then also: or rather not so, but even far more grievous. For here it is possible to go unto the king, and entreat, and free the condemned person: but there, no longer; for He permits it not, but they continue in the scorching torment, and in so great anguish, as it is not possible for words to tell.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn (24, 29—30ᵃ). Since we consider that greater themes here come under discussion than lie within the grasp of human understanding — even of those who have advanced in wisdom far beyond others — let us come and examine the passage: first inquiring into those things which can readily be admitted for an exposition of the Gospel text, as though the Lord Himself were prophesying in it; and afterward we shall look for what the truth of these words may be according to those who judge that there is something deeper and more subtle in the words, keeping to the sequence of the moral traditions in these matters as well, in the same manner as above.

Someone, then, will say: just as when great fires begin to be kindled a darkness seems to be raised up out of the abundant smoke, so at the consummation of the world, by the fire which is to be set alight, even the "great lights" shall be darkened, so that, the sun being darkened, and in consequence of the darkening of the sun, the moon too, hindered by the sun from receiving light, is not permitted even to give its own light. And thus of necessity a great darkness must first take hold of the nature of the world. And so, when the light of the stars has thus withered away, the remaining body of them, having become grosser, since it cannot be borne aloft as at first when it was lifted up carried by the light itself, will fall from heaven. And when these things happen, it follows that the rational powers of the heavens, suffering amazement, undergo a certain commotion and are troubled, being, that is, removed from their former functions. So he who understands these things to be thus will add that the sign of the Son of man, in whom "the things that were in the heavens and the things that were on earth" were made heavenly, shall then appear: namely, the power which the Son of man wrought when He was hung upon the tree; and in heaven above all shall His sign shine forth. And men out of all the tribes, who formerly did not believe in the Christianity that was proclaimed but even spoke evil of it, then, recognizing it through that sign made manifest, shall mourn and lament because of their ignorance and their sins, in that they did not receive the word of the Lord.

But another will judge otherwise concerning these words, holding that (as these words themselves show) the destruction of the world will not come about by fire, but by its own failing. And he will make use of such an illustration: that just as, when the light of a lamp fails, the light is little by little diminished, so, when the nourishment of the heavenly lights fails, the sun shall be darkened, no longer having the breaths that come to it from them coming upon it. And when the greater light suffers this, all the more will the moon too be unable to display that fiery splendor which appears according to its own phases. When, therefore, these things befall the sun, the light of the stars too will fail, so that what has remained in them, being as it were earthy, falls from heaven, and, these things happening, all the powers of the heavens shall be moved. For just as, in the dispensation of the cross, "when the sun failed, darkness came over all the earth", so also, when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, the light of the sun and of the moon shall fail, and yet more that of the stars, as though consumed by the great power of that sign; and when it appears, the tribes that shall then have remained on the earth shall mourn.

For these things he will use the illustration of the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in this manner: "For behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of wrath and fury, to make the circle of the earth a desert and to destroy sinners out of it. For the stars of heaven and Orion and all the ornaments of heaven shall not give their light, and the sun shall be darkened in the east, and the moon shall not give her brightness. And I will command evils upon the circle of the earth, and their sins upon the ungodly." Likewise also such things from Joel: "Before His face the earth shall be confounded and the heaven shall be moved, the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall not give their light. And the Lord shall utter His voice before the face of His power, for exceeding strong is His camp, since mighty are the works of His words." Likewise: "And I will give portents in the heaven above, and on the earth blood and fire and vapor; the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and illustrious day of the Lord comes."

And many things like these you will find in the Scriptures, if you are willing to look at nothing else in the Gospel passages beyond the plain words. For according to this too, that it says, then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, as though needing no interpretation, you will receive from the prophet Zechariah such words as these: "And it shall be in that day that I will seek to take away all the nations that shall come against Jerusalem, and I will pour out upon the house of David and upon all the inhabitants in Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of compassion; and they shall look upon me because they danced, and they shall mourn over themselves with a mourning as over a beloved one, and they shall grieve with grief as over a firstborn. In that day the mourning shall be magnified over Jerusalem like the mourning of a pomegranate cut down in the plain, and the land shall mourn by tribes: the tribe of the house of David apart and their women apart, the tribe of the house of Nathan apart and their women apart, the tribe of the house of Levi apart and their women apart, the tribe of the house of Shimei apart and their women apart, all the tribes that are left remaining apart and their women apart." It will seem, then, to some that one ought to carry the interpretation this far and to examine nothing beyond the text.

Behold, the day. Here he describes the punishment of the afflicted. And concerning this, he sets out three things: first, the magnitude of the punishment: full of indignation, as to the removal of mercy; and of wrath, as to the delight of punishment; according to the Philosopher: the angry are saddened, but rejoice in punishing; and fury, as to impetuous vengeance, for fury is wrath inflamed as Gregory says, below: his wrath burns, and is heavy to bear (Isa 30:27).

For the stars of heaven and their splendor will not spread out their light: the sun has been darkened in its rising, and the moon will not shine with its light. The Hebrew word CHISILE (כסילי) the Seventy translated as ὠρίωνα. The Hebrew whom I used as my teacher interpreted it as Arcturus. We, following Symmachus, have used the general word star. And the sense is this: when the cruel day of the Lord has come and his fury has laid all things waste, through the greatness of their fear everything grows dark for mortals, and the sun itself and the moon and the glowing stars seem to deny their brightness. Hence also heaven is clothed in sackcloth, namely because darkness covers all things, and, under the pressure of evils, men perceive nothing else but what the mind compels them to see.

For the stars of heaven and their splendor will not spread forth their light; the sun is darkened in its rising, and the moon will not shine with its light. LXX: For the stars of heaven and Orion, and all the adornment of heaven, will not give their light: and they will be darkened when the sun rises, and the moon will not give its light. Where we have translated their splendor, that is, beyond doubt, of the stars, Aquila and Theodotion set down the very Hebrew word CHISILEEM (כסיליהם): for which the Seventy translated Orion, adding of their own and all the adornment of heaven, which is to be marked beforehand with an obelus. Now the fables of the Gentiles say that Orion has twenty-two stars, of which four are of the third magnitude, nine of the fourth, and again another nine of the fifth, and by others they are called Bootes. We read also in Job of the Hyades, and Vesper, and Arcturus, and the treasuries, or the inner parts of the South (Job 9:9), of which we must speak in their own place. Nor ought we to think that among the Hebrews these stars are called by these names which the Greek and Latin tongues sound forth, but that they have names of their own. For just as God called the light, day; and the firmament, heaven; and the dry land, earth; and the gatherings of the waters, seas (Gen 1); so too he called the several stars by their own names, whose proper meaning our language does not express. It is written of God in another place: Who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by names. When therefore the day of the Lord has come to make the whole world a wilderness and to remove the sinners utterly from it (Ps 146 [147]:4), then, in comparison with the divine majesty, the stars of heaven and all their splendor will withdraw their light. Nor is it surprising to say this of the lesser stars, since even the sun is darkened in its rising, and the moon does not have its accustomed splendor. But what the Seventy translated, that the stars and Orion and all the adornment of heaven are darkened when the sun rises, has nothing of a sign or of a wonder; for this happens at all times, that when the sun has risen the stars that are in the heaven do not appear. Nor is it surprising that he said this of the sun, since even when the moon is full and shining the whole night most of the stars do not shine. And that there are stars in the heaven even by day is proved by an eclipse of the sun: when it has been obscured by the shadow of the earth, as the philosophers argue, and by the disk of the moon set in its way, the stars are seen more clearly in the heaven.

It is also expressed in the removal of comfort: for the stars of heaven, and their brightness shall not display their light, either literally as how they are reckoned, for all things seem dark to the afflicted; or the stars, the princes; the sun in his rising, the king; the moon, the queen: the sun became black as sackcloth of hair (Rev 6:12).

You have opened "the eyes of our hearts" so that we realize you alone are "highest among the highest, and ever remain holy among the holy." "You humble the pride of the arrogant, overrule the plans of the nations, raise up the humble and humble the haughty. You make rich and make poor; you slay and bring to life; you alone are the guardian of spirits and the God of all flesh." You see into the depths: you look upon humankind's deeds; you aid those in danger and "save those in despair." You are the Creator of every spirit and watch over them. You multiply the nations on the earth, and from out of them all you have chosen those who love you through Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Through him you have trained us, made us saints and honored us.

And I will visit evils upon the world, and against the wicked their iniquity: and I will make the pride of the unbelievers cease, and will humble the arrogance of the mighty. From this place and from the one above, where it is written that the sun is darkened in its rising, and the moon is filled with gloom, and the stars withdraw their brightness, and the iniquity of the whole world is visited, some think that what is foretold is not the ruin of Babylon but the consummation of the world; whereas, surely, in keeping with what precedes, by the world as well, which in Hebrew is called THEBEL (תבל), and in Greek οἰκουμένη, Babylon is to be understood. For οἰκουμένη in our language means inhabited; and Babylon is called inhabited because of the vast multitude of its people: so that where there had formerly been a countless throng of peoples, there should be desolation and a dwelling of beasts.

And I will visit upon the evils of the world, and against the ungodly their iniquities. When God visits and strikes, he strikes for this purpose, that he may amend. Accordingly, when he is vehemently angry with those who do not do penance: I will not visit, he says, upon your daughters when they have committed fornication, nor upon your daughters-in-law when they have committed adultery (Hos 4:14). On the contrary, of those who are to believe in Christ it is said (Ps 88 [89]:33): I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with scourges: but my mercy I will not take away from them.

And I will make the pride of the unbelievers to rest, and I will humble the arrogance of the mighty. LXX: And I will destroy the insolence of the wicked, and I will humble the insolence of the proud. The Hebrew word GAON (גאון), which plainly sounds arrogance and pride, Theodotion and the Seventy always translated insolence, expressing the sense rather than the word, because every proud man is ready for insolence. Therefore the Lord visits upon the evils of the world, and against the ungodly their iniquities, for this reason: that he may curb the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet 5). And in Proverbs we read: Before ruin the heart of a man is lifted up, and before glory it is humbled (Prov 16:18). Ruin always follows pride, and glory humility: For he who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14). We read in another place: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the prudent I will reject (1 Cor 1:19). Not that true wisdom and true prudence are destroyed by the Lord, but the knowledge falsely so called: those who treasure up for themselves a lying tongue, and fail searching with searching, and find nothing, speaking iniquity on high and setting their mouth against heaven. Hence the pride of heretics is properly called insolence against the truth.

Second, he sets out equity, ordaining the punishment for the fault which they committed against themselves: I will visit, I will avenge, the evils of the world, that is, of Babylon, for it was in that monarchy, or because of the multitude of those assembling from all over; and, as to the fault which they also committed against their subjects, through the oppression of the wicked: and against the wicked; or the voiding of covenants: infidels; through the vexation of the better: arrogancy, by which they presumed to subjugate everyone, above: because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud (Isa 2:12).

That price is most precious. On account of this Isaiah says: "A man shall be more precious than gold, and a human being than pure gold of Ophir." This he says of Christ, who made us precious.

A man will be more precious than gold, and a human being than pure fine gold. The cause is plain why God visits the οἰκουμένην, that is, the evils of Babylon: so that, deserted by its inhabitants, it may be reduced to a wilderness. Now, everything that is rare is called precious; just as above, too, according to the history, we read that because of the scarcity of men seven women take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and be clothed with our own garments; only let your name be called upon us; take away our reproach (Isa 4:1). And in the volume of Samuel it is contained: The word of the Lord was precious in those days (1 Sam 3:1), that is, rare. Note that in the Hebrew PHAZ (פז) is written for gold in general, and OPHIR (אופיר) for fine gold.

A man will be more precious than gold, and a human being than pure fine gold. LXX: And those who have been left will be more honored than refined gold, and a man will be more honorable than the stone of Sophir. At the consummation of the world, when the world has been reduced to a wilderness, and the sun darkened in its rising, and the moon has not given its splendor, such signs and portents will be wrought by the Antichrist that, as iniquity increases, the love of many will grow cold, so as to deceive, if it be possible, even the elect of God (Matt 24). Then a man will be more precious than gold, which in Hebrew is called PHAZ (פז), and Aquila translated κιῤῥὸν, which is of the finest and blood-red color; and a human being than the purest fine gold, which in Hebrew is called OPHIR (אופיר), and Aquila translated σπήλωμα ὀφεὶρ, which the Seventy, intending I know not what, translated stone of Sophir. Now it is a place of India in which the best gold is produced; as we read in Genesis of the river Phison: This is it which encircles the whole land of Evila, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is the best: and there is the carbuncle and the green stone (Gen 2:11). And more precious is understood as meaning rarer. For everything that is rare is precious, as we also read in the volume of Samuel: And the word of the Lord was precious in Israel (1 Sam 3:1).

Third, he sets out the moderation of the punishment. And he sets out four things: first, the small number of defenders: more precious, that is, more rare: the word of God was precious (1 Sam 3:1), and a man, who can defend by power, yea a man, who can defend by counsel, the finest of gold, that is, red gold, which is the best, above: they that remain of the trees of his forest shall be so few, that they shall easily be numbered (Isa 10:19).

Upon this I will trouble heaven, and the earth will be moved from its place, because of the indignation of the Lord of hosts, and because of the day of the wrath of his fury. Either take it in the sense in which we expounded above concerning the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the world; or ὑπερβολικῶς, that because of the indignation of God both heaven is sad and the earth is moved, and all the elements too acknowledge the wrath of the Creator.

Upon this I will shake the heaven, and the earth will be moved from its place. LXX: For the heaven will rage, and the earth will be moved from its foundations. When a man has become more precious than gold, and a human being than pure fine gold, and that has been fulfilled which is written: Do you think, when the Son of Man comes, he will find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)? then both the heavens and the earth will be moved. For heaven and earth will pass away, not by their own will and by their own choice, as many suppose, believing them to be living beings; but because of the indignation of the Lord of hosts, and because of the day of his fury, who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble. Hence what is said in the Seventy, for the heaven will rage, is to be taken μετωνυμικῶς of those who dwell in heaven, just as if we were to say: the whole city cried out, and the entire town went out to meet the judge. And of the foundations of the earth we read in Proverbs too: God by wisdom founded the earth (Prov 3:19). And the Lord says to Job: Where were you when I was founding the earth (Job 38:4)? Not that the earth has foundations laid down as a mass in the deep; but the will and power of God, by which all things are held together, is to be called its foundations. For he himself founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers, and he himself hung it upon nothing (Ps 23 [24]; Job 26).

Second, the commotion of the elements: for this I will trouble the heaven: and the earth shall be moved, as to the literal sense, there could have been a storm in the air and an earthquake in the earth; or this is hyperbole for the magnitude of their evils: I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them (Jer 4:23).

In this way the word [Scripture] clearly shows the few who will be saved in the day of the ruin of those who are evil. Therefore, one cannot expect that all those who are uncircumcised and all of the Jewish nation, without exception, will receive the promises of God.

And it will be like a little doe fleeing, and like a sheep, and there will be none to gather them. He means the Babylonian and Chaldean people: that at the irruption of the Medes and Persians it will flee as fearfully as a little doe and a sheep at the roaring of a lion and the howling of a wolf; and it has no defender or prince whose command it may follow.

Each will turn to his own people, and every one will flee to his own land. After Babylon has been taken and the enemy army has entered through its gates, all the auxiliaries and the troops of the various nations by which the city had formerly been defended will go back to their own provinces.

And it will be like a fleeing fawn, and like a flock of sheep, and there will be none to gather them: they will turn each to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. Everyone who is found will be slain, and everyone who comes upon them will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be ravished. When heaven and earth have been shaken, the devil, the crooked serpent, will flee, or every doctrine contrary to the truth, which is divided into teachers and disciples: the former of whom, because of their ὀξυδέρκειαν, are called in the Greek tongue Dorcades, that is, roe-deer; the followers are like brute animals, and wandering hither and thither they have none to direct them: for they have lost him of whom it is written: The steps of a man are directed by the Lord (Prov 20:24). And these, freed from their most evil teachers, will turn to their own people, and each will flee to his own land, from which they sprang: but whoever is found will be slain, or have his throat cut. And this happens not only at the consummation of the world, but to this very day in the Church: when the teachers have been overcome, the deceived flock returns to its people and to its own land; and in that it is found, it is slain, so that it ceases to be heretical, and whoever comes upon them will fall by the spiritual sword.

Third, as to the dispersion of those who flee, citizens and warriors as much as captives, a doe, a swift animal: deliver yourself as a doe from the hand (Prov 6:5); my flocks were scattered upon the face of the earth (Ezek 34:6).

Everyone who is found will be slain: and everyone who comes upon them will fall by the sword. He who has not fled will be struck down by the blade; and he who has chosen either to resist or to come back will be of so little use to the captured city that he too will shed his own blood.

Fourth, as to the oppression of those who remain, which occurred in three things: in the killing of men: every one that shall be found, as to citizens, every one that shall come to their aid, as to foreigners, infants, as to children: with you I will break in pieces the old man and the child (Jer 51:22).

Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes: their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be violated. This is what David prophesies in the spirit: Wretched daughter of Babylon, blessed is he who will repay you your recompense, which you have paid out to us. Blessed is he who will take and dash your little ones against the rock (Ps 136 [137]:8). So great will be the devastation of the city and the savagery of the victors that not even innocent age will be spared, that all the wealth of the houses will be plundered, and the chastity of wives will be violated before their husbands' eyes.

Then their infants and little ones, who have not yet come to the full age of error, they will dash in pieces before the eyes of the teachers, and will plunder their houses and ravish their wives, depraved wisdom and perverse doctrine. Hence for fathers of this sort, whose little ones are to be slain, we ought to pray and say: Give them, O Lord. What will you give them? A barren womb and dry breasts (Hos 9:14). For they have travailed with iniquity, they have conceived sorrow, and they have brought forth unrighteousness.

Second, in the pillaging of goods: their houses shall be pillaged: our inheritance is turned to aliens: our houses to strangers (Lam 5:2); third, as to the violation of women: their wives shall be ravished: they humiliated the women in Zion (Lam 5:11).

Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who will not seek silver, nor want gold. What lay hidden has been made plain: that the mighty ones and the giants are by no means to be understood as angels and demons, but as the nation of the Medes, whose prince Darius was the first to destroy the empire of the Babylonians, having slain Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the son of Evil-merodach (Dan 5). And he describes the savagery of the Medes and Persians as so great that, in their ardor to shed blood, they despise gold and silver and count the riches offered to them as mud.

[Daniel 5:30-31] "On that same night Belshazzar, King of the Chaldeans, was slain, and Darius the Mede succeeded to his kingdom at the age of sixty-two." Josephus writes in his tenth book of the Jewish Antiquities that when Babylon had been laid under siege by the Medes and Persians, that is, by Darius and Cyrus, Belshazzar, King of Babylon, fell into such forgetfulness of his own situation as to put on his celebrated banquet and drink from the vessels of the Temple, and even while he was besieged he found leisure for banqueting. From this circumstance the historical account could arise, that he was captured and slaughtered on the same night, while everyone was either terrified by fear of the vision and its interpretation, or else taken up with festivity and drunken banqueting. As for the fact that while Cyrus, King of the Persians, was the victor, and Darius was only King of the Medes, it was Darius who was recorded to have succeeded to the throne of Babylon, this was an arrangement occasioned by factors of age, family relationship, and the territory ruled over. By this I mean that Darius was sixty-two years old, and that, according to what we read, the kingdom of the Medes was more sizable than that of the Persians, and being Cyrus's uncle, he naturally had a prior claim, and ought to have been accounted as successor to the rule of Babylon. Therefore also in a vision of Isaiah which was recited against Babylon, after many other matters too lengthy to mention, an account is given of these things which are to take place: "Behold I Myself will rouse up against them the Medes, a people who do not seek after silver nor desire gold, but who slay the very children with their arrows and have no compassion upon women who suckle their young" (Isaiah 13:17-18). And Jeremiah says: "Sanctify nations against her, even the kings of Media, and the governors thereof and all the magistrates thereof and all the land under the power thereof" (Jeremiah 51:28). Then follow the words: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor during the time of its treading; yet a little while, and the time of its harvesting will come" (Jeremiah 51:33). And in testimony of the fact that Babylon was captured during a banquet, Isaiah clearly exhorts her to battle when he writes: "Babylon, my beloved, has become a strange spectacle unto me: set thou the table and behold in the mirrors those who eat and drink; rise up, ye princes, and snatch up your shields!" (Isaiah 21:4-5).

Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not seek silver nor desire gold: but with arrows they kill the little ones, and on the sucklings of the womb they will have no pity, and their eye will not spare their sons. We find in Genesis (Gen 10) that Madai was the founder of the nation of the Medes, which means measure, or from the mighty one, or from the strong one. Therefore against the Babylonians, who are confused in mind, ministers of strength are stirred up by the mighty and strong God to punish, that they may render to each according to his works. For with the measure with which they have measured, it will be measured back to them. They will return into their bosom a measure shaken down and pressed together and full and running over (Matt 7, and Luke 6). They will receive neither silver nor gold, that is, neither beauty of eloquence nor sharpness of wit, in which they formerly applauded themselves; but they will afflict with punishments those handed over to them; and they will have no pity on the little ones and the sucklings of the womb, so that they may rather show pity. And would that we too might be stirred up by the Lord, and that this power might be given to us, that we should desire neither the silver nor the gold of worldly eloquence and wisdom, but should kill the sons of the heretics, and of all who have been deceived, with spiritual arrows, that is, with the testimonies of the Scriptures: and that those who are nourished with the milk of error may be slaughtered without any mercy, so that they may perish by a merciful cruelty, and that we may have pity on no infancy, and may be worthy of that beatitude: Blessed is he who will take hold of his little ones and dash them against the rock!

Behold I will stir up the Medes against them. Here he describes the ferocity of the enemy, which is not appeased by tribute: who shall not seek silver.

But with arrows they will kill the little ones, and they will have no pity on the sucklings of the womb, and their eye will not spare the sons. The little ones will be killed, whose wounds will be no smaller than their bodies; and the wombs of pregnant women will be cut open, and the infants dashed out, and the cruel victor will kill the sons pressed to the breasts.

Nor softened by mercy: but with their arrows they shall kill the children, neither on powerless men: the sucklings, nor on little children: their sons: behold, I will bring upon her, and she shall be utterly destroyed (Jer 51:64).

And Babylon, that glorious one among kingdoms, renowned in the pride of the Chaldeans, will be as when the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: it will not be inhabited unto the end, and it will not be founded unto generation and generation. We have heard of the Medes, we have heard of Babylon, we have heard of her who is renowned in the pride of the Chaldeans: and we refuse to understand what was, and seek to hear what was not. And we say this, not because we condemn the tropological understanding, but because the spiritual interpretation ought to follow the order of the history; and many, ignorant of this, wander about in the Scriptures in a frenzied error. To this present day, then, the prophecy concerning Babylon is being fulfilled: and just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, so this city too, once overthrown, will not be inhabited forever. For in its place they made Seleucia and Ctesiphon the renowned cities of the Persians.

And Babylon, that glorious one among kingdoms, renowned in the pride of the Chaldeans, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will not be inhabited to the end, and it will not be founded unto generation and generation: nor will the Arab pitch his tents there, nor will shepherds rest there: but wild beasts will rest there, and their houses will be filled with dragons: and ostriches will dwell there, and hairy ones will dance there; and owls will answer there in its dwellings, and sirens in the shrines of pleasure. Its time is near to come, and its days will not be prolonged. LXX: And Babylon, which is called renowned, the glorious one of the king of the Chaldeans, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; it will not be inhabited forever, nor will anyone enter it for many generations; nor will Arabs pass through it, nor will shepherds rest in it; but wild beasts will rest there, and the houses will be filled with noise, and sirens will lie down there, and demons will dance there, and onocentaurs will dwell there; and hedgehogs will make their dens in their houses. It will come quickly and will not delay. What follows: And its days will not be drawn out, ⁚ is to be marked with asterisks, because it was added from Theodotion. When the Medes have been stirred up against the city of confusion, who count neither gold nor silver among good things, who kill the little ones with arrows and have no pity on the sucklings of the womb, and whose eye does not spare their sons, the city once renowned, which was in the pride of the Chaldeans, who mean as demons, will be overthrown just as Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown, so that no trace of its former dwelling remains in it: but after there has been a new heaven and a new earth, and the form of this world has passed away (1 Cor 7), the city of confusion will not be inhabited forever, and will by no means recover the same state. For after it has ceased to be in its former glory, the Arab, who means western and of the evening, will not pitch his tents there, so as to desire to dwell in that which he has seen to be deserted. Now the Arab in the present passage is taken in the good sense, because he always strains toward the end and, forgetting what lies behind, stretches himself out to what lies before. Nor will the shepherds rest there, who are accustomed to feed the most gentle flock of the Lord in Jerusalem; but on the contrary, wild beasts will rest there, which the Psalmist detests, saying: Do not deliver to the beasts the soul that confesses to you (Ps 73 [74]:19). For these Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, SIIM (ציים). And their houses, that is, those of the Babylonians, will be filled, according to the Seventy and Theodotion, ἤχου, that is, with noise and clamors; according to Aquila, with typhoons, which we have turned into dragons; according to Symmachus, with OIIM (אחים), the word contained in the Hebrew. And ostriches will dwell there, an animal that always seeks out solitudes, of which more is written in Job: which, though it seems to have wings, yet is not lifted high above the earth: for which the Seventy translated σειρῆνας, that is, sirens. The hairy ones, who in Hebrew are called SIRIM (שעירים), Theodotion translated as with hair erect and standing up; Symmachus and the Seventy translated demons. For the onocentaurs too, which the Seventy alone translated, imitating the fables of the Gentiles, who say that there were hippocentaurs, the three other translators set down the Hebrew word itself, IIM (איים), which we have turned into owls. And where the Seventy said, hedgehogs will make their dens in their houses, and in the Hebrew THANNIM (תנים) is set down, Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion translated sirens, signifying either some kind of beasts, or demons who, according to the error of the Gentiles, sing sweetly and deceive men who cannot pass through the shipwreck of this world with stopped ears. Moreover the name onocentaur, compounded of asses and centaurs, seems to me to signify those who in part have some human understanding, and again are drawn away into vices by pleasures and the mire of baseness. It is said, therefore, according to tropology, that at the end of the world, or of each one's death, all the glory and pride of the Chaldeans and the confusion of the world will depart from us; and that all things will be overthrown as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; and that the state of this world will be no more, but will perish forever. Nor will the Arab pitch his tents there, of whom it is said in the sixty-seventh psalm: Make a way for him who rides upon the setting of the sun; the Lord is his name (Ps 67 [68]:5). Nor will the shepherds rest there, namely the angels who preside over the human race and daily see the face of the Father: but wild beasts and dragons and ostriches and hairy ones and owls and sirens will rest there, all of which beasts we understand figuratively as angels, or demons, and those to whom we are handed over for punishment. And in the houses once of pleasure, where there was gladness and joy, there will be the wailing of owls and the lamentable voice of the sirens, which leads its hearers to death. That the time of judgment is imminent, and that the day of the consummation of Babylon is not prolonged, he will by no means wonder who sees Babylon daily overthrown through holy men in those who believe in the Lord, and who sees that every length of time, compared with eternity, is near. Of the kinds of beasts, or rather of monsters, we have spoken briefly, because in the former book they were in part touched upon according to the history. This too is to be considered: that after the Church's preaching and the teaching of the Savior have overthrown the city of confusion, so that it is compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, it is not inhabited by holy men, nor do the shepherds rest in it who were accustomed to feed the flock of Christ: but on the contrary, wild beasts and dragons and ostriches rest there, and hairy ones dance in it. For whatever the heretics say in the synagogues of Satan is not the teaching of the Lord, but the howling of demons and of hairy ones, whom Esau imitated. And sirens will rest in the shrines of pleasure, who with sweet and deadly song draw souls down into the deep, so that, as the shipwreck rages, they may be devoured by wolves and dogs. Near, therefore, and pressing daily is the time of the ruin of the heretics, and their overthrow is not deferred.

And that Babylon. Here he describes Babylon's subsequent desolation. And first, the destruction of the city: turned, that is, overturned, as Sodom, about which Revelation 18:10 says: alas! Alas! That great city, Babylon, that mighty city: for in one hour is your judgment come.

Nor will the Arab pitch his tents there; nor will shepherds rest there: but beasts will be there, their houses will be filled with dragons, and ostriches will dwell there, and hairy ones will dance there. And owls will answer in its buildings, and Sirens in the shrines of pleasure. Babylon will be so devastated and deserted that it will not be useful even for the pasturing of herds and flocks. For the Arab and the Saracen will not pitch their tents there, nor will shepherds, weary with toil after the tracks of their flocks, rest there; but among the broken walls and the narrow places of the ancient ruins SIIM (ציים) will dwell: which the Seventy alone translated as beasts; the others kept the very name that is written among the Hebrews, wishing kinds of demons or phantoms to be understood. And their houses, he says, will be filled, as we have said, with dragons; as Aquila translated, with typhoons; as Symmachus, OHIM (אחים), expressing the Hebrew word itself; but the Seventy and Theodotion interpreted it as cries or sounds. And as for what follows: Hairy ones will dance there, they understand either incubi, or satyrs, or certain wild men of the woods, whom some call the fig-tree Fauns, or kinds of demons. For owls, too, all kept the Hebrew word itself, IIM (איים); the Seventy alone translated onocentaurs. And the Sirens are called THENNIM (תנים), which we shall interpret either as demons, or as certain monsters, or at any rate as great dragons, which are crested and fly. By all these things the signs of devastation and solitude are shown: that the depopulation of the once most mighty city is so great that, because of the multitude of demons and beasts, none of the shepherds, that is, of those who seek out the desert, dares to enter it. We have learned from a certain brother, an Elamite, who came out of those regions and now lives the life of the monks at Jerusalem, that there are royal hunting grounds in Babylon, and that beasts of every kind are kept enclosed merely by the circuit of its walls.

Second, as to its perpetual solitude: it shall no more be inhabited: him that bends his bow shall not live there, and him that is armed with a coat of mail shall not go up (Jer 51:3). Third, as to the horror of its solitude, which is shown by the flight of shepherds: neither shall the Arabian pitch his tents there, who do not have fixed houses, but wander through the desert, nor shall shepherds of sheep.

Wherefore I entreat, let us kill the serpent, let us shut up the wild beasts, let us stifle them, let us slay them, and these wicked thoughts let us give over to the sword of the Spirit, lest the prophet threaten us also with such things as he threatened Judea, that "The wild asses shall dance there, and porcupines, and serpents." For there are, there are even men worse than wild asses, living as it were in the wilderness, and kicking; yea the more part of the youth amongst us is like this. For indeed having wild lusts they thus leap, they kick, going about unbridled, and spend their diligence on no becoming object. And the fathers are to blame, who while they constrain the horsebreakers to discipline their horses with much attention, and suffer not the youth of the colt to go on long untamed, but put upon it both a rein, and all the rest, from the beginning; but their own young ones they overlook, going about for a long season unbridled, and without temperance; disgracing themselves, by fornications, and gamings, and continuings in the wicked theatres.

As to the inhabitation of beasts and the dead: but wild beasts shall rest there, who love solitude. Dragons, who, according to some, are large winged serpents, according to others, are large fish with wet scales, and according to others, are cubit long serpents that eat other serpents and, because of this, poison with the breath of their mouths. Ostriches, animals which have wings but do not fly, indeed, they walk on their feet: the wing of the ostrich is like the wings of the heron (Job 39:13). The hairy ones, that is, hairy animals, like foxes, wolves, and suchlike; or wild men, hairy and shaggy, who are said by some to not be true men, but to have the shape of a man, or of a demon assuming a body in such a shape: frequenting such deserted dwellings, they go about through the night and disturb men in various ways. Owls, birds the size of a raven, spattered with spots, so called because they have a voice like the howling of wolves. Sirens, according to some, crested and winged serpents, or fish of the sea that have the likeness of a woman, or birds that sing sweetly; in the temples of pleasure, that is, places where they would luxuriate, below: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches, and demons and monsters and the hairy ones shall meet (Isa 34:13–14).

Its time is near to come, and its days will not be prolonged. He says that the time is at hand when it is to be taken by its enemies. For after the captivity of Jerusalem, with no long time in between, it too was laid waste by the Medes and Persians.