Micah 1

Let us first consider what Micah signifies in Latin. It means 'Who is from God' or as we find elsewhere 'who is this man,' the son of the Morasthite, that is, the heir? Now, who is this heir, but the Son of God, Who says, All things are given unto Me of My Father; and Who, being Himself the Heir, would have us His co-heirs. And well may we say 'Who is that man?' not one of the people, but chosen to receive the grace of God, in whom the Holy Spirit speaks, who began to prophesy in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah. By which order is signified the course of the vision, for the progress is from the times of evil kings to that of a good king.

Micah, on whom I now desire to dictate commentaries, is third in the order of the twelve prophets according to the Seventy translators, sixth according to the Hebrew truth; and he follows the prophet Jonah, who succeeds Obadiah, and so it comes about that Amos is third, and Joel second after Hosea, who is first among all. Therefore, placed as it were in the heart of the volume, he must contain deep mysteries; and the word of God, which always descends to the prophets, descends to Micah as well, which means humility; to Micah of Moresheth, which to this day is a rather small village near Eleutheropolis, a city of Palestine. Moresheth, moreover, in our language means heir. Beautifully, therefore, humility, which is even the foremost among the virtues, is born of the hope of the Lord's inheritance. But humility not of the kind that comes from the consciousness of sins, but that which is placed among the virtues, according to which it is said: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation, and: He who humbles himself shall be exalted, and: Before destruction the heart of a man is lifted up, and before glory it is humbled. Hence the Lord too: Learn, he says, from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. Just as, therefore, among us names of good wish, and as it were for an omen of virtue, are given, for example: Victor, Castus, Pius, Probus, and among the Greeks one is called σώφρων (temperate) and εὐσεβὴς (pious), and common nouns are turned into proper names, so among the Hebrews Micah too, and Obadiah and Zechariah and the others like them, are given to children by their parents from the name of a virtue.

The word of the Lord which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Or according to the Seventy: Concerning the things which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. The word of the Lord, then, came to Micah after Hosea, Amos and Isaiah, who prophesied under Uzziah. From this we understand that Micah did not prophesy in the times of Uzziah, but in those of his son Jotham, after whom Ahaz reigned, Hezekiah succeeding to the rule of his father Ahaz, under whom the ten tribes were led into captivity by the Assyrians. As far, therefore, as concerns the history, according to the order of the captivity — because first Samaria, the metropolis of Israel, was taken, afterwards Jerusalem, the city of Judah —, the title of the prophecy is set down first concerning Samaria, second concerning Jerusalem. But as far as concerns the mystical understandings, since Samaria is always taken for heresies and Jerusalem for the Church, we say that the word of the Lord comes to Jerusalem and to the coheir of Christ, concerning perverse doctrines, and concerning the Church, if perhaps she has committed any sins, and that it weaves together the order of the whole volume. That Samaria, moreover, and the ten tribes, which were cut off from the stock of David under King Jeroboam, are taken in the person of the heretics, the whole of Scripture indeed bears witness, but above all the prophet Hosea, and this very book, which calls the heretics impious and the churchmen sinners. For it immediately follows: What is the impiety of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? This, at least, according to the Seventy translators. How it is read in the Hebrew, however, we shall add a little later. But this too, that the heretics always trust in the supposed loftiness of their doctrines and despise the simplicity of the Church, is said in another place: Woe to those who despise Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Moreover, Samaria fashioned for herself golden calves out of her own understanding, which had beauty indeed on the surface, but did not have the vital spirit, and she fashioned them in the house of God, which is the meaning of Bethel. For the people of Israel could not accept gods except those that were fashioned out of the Scriptures and in the house of God. But although they call their conventicles Bethel, yet after the fashioning of the idols it ceased to be Bethel, and is called Beth-aven, which means the house of the idol, for which the Seventy translated the house of Ὡν (On). So much for the title; now let us come to the opening of the prophecy, and, while the Lernaean beast rages, let us invoke the coming of the Holy Spirit. You, O Paula and Eustochium, pour out prayers to the Lord the Savior, that envy may not harm me, but that my mind, free, may think only of what it strives to explain, and may not feel the slaps of insults, which the Lord despised in his passion.

Hear, all you peoples, and let the earth attend, and its fullness, and let the Lord God be a witness to you, the Lord from his holy temple. LXX: Hear, all you peoples, and let the earth listen, and all who are in it, and let the Lord God be for a testimony to you: the Lord from his holy house. Since according to the history the sense is plain, I leave the understanding of it to the prudence of the reader. According to tropology, however, he calls together the peoples to hear, that is, the churches of the whole world, and the earth to listen, because the earthly doctrines of the heretics have been built up in it. That heresies, moreover, are numbered among the works of the flesh, which is always referred to the earth, the Apostle does not pass over in silence in writing to the Galatians, and the Lord in the Gospel shows to the prudent hearer: He who is of the earth speaks of the earth. And to distinguish them, he says again of the churchmen: But he who comes from heaven is above all, and: What he has seen and heard, to this he bears witness. If, however, what he says, Hear, you peoples, because of that saying of the Lord, He who has ears to hear, let him hear, sounds something more than what is brought in afterwards, Let the earth attend, we shall apply to the Church: Hear, all you peoples. But to the heretics, who have taken up an earthly doctrine: Let the earth attend, and all who are in it, so that, if these hear and those attend, they may not suffer the things which the word of the Lord afterwards threatens. And let the Lord be for a testimony to them, or, as it is read in the Hebrew, for a witness, or, as Symmachus more plainly translated it, testifying, and testifying from nowhere else than from his own house, which is the Church, or surely in the Son, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is truly the temple of God the Father, and from whose mouth the Father speaks, piercing the inward parts and the marrow of those who are willing to attend and to hear.

and the place of the Lord is every one in whom he finds lodging, or certainly the Son is the place of the Father, just as the Father too is the place of the Son, as the Lord Savior says: I in the Father, and the Father in me; Micah too signifies this same thing: Behold, the Lord will go forth from his place, and will come down upon the high places of the earth; and the mountains will be shaken beneath him, and the valleys will melt like wax before the fire, and like water that is carried down a steep place: for when the Lord Savior came down and set out from the Father, the high places of the earth and the mountains were shaken, and the lower parts of the valleys were melted;

Tropologically, however, the Lord will go forth from his place, by which we can understand either the Son or all the saints. For the Son himself says: I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and of the saints: I will dwell and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. From these, then, he will go forth, not that he abandons them; for the word of the Lord also went forth from the apostles to those who heard, and yet it did not leave them; and places of this kind, that is, those which deserve to have God as their guest, rising as it were with Christ and sitting with him in the heavenly places, are set on high. Hence too he is said to come down to those who cannot hear his teaching on the mountain. And when he has come down, he will not go up upon the lowly and upon those who are placed below, but upon those who are called the high places of the earth, and who, understanding the majesty of the Lord as he comes, will be shaken. And although they are mountains, yet they will tremble at the presence of such a charioteer or rider. But the valleys, that is, souls set into χοϊκοῖς (earthy) bodies and not rising with the heavenly man, will not be able to bear his presence, but whatever is hard in them will be dissolved, and so they will flow, as if waters had no level ground and were borne headlong into the depth.

For behold, the Lord will go forth from his place, and he will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains will be consumed beneath him, and the valleys will be split like wax before the fire, like waters that run down headlong; for the crime of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? LXX: For behold, the Lord will go forth from his place, and will come down, and will go up upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains will be shaken beneath him, and the valleys will melt like wax before the fire, and like water flowing down a slope; because of the impiety of Jacob are all these things, and because of the sin of the house of Israel. What is the impiety of the house of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? O Samaria and Jerusalem, hear, and diligently attend to the Lord testifying to you from his temple and foretelling whatever he is going to do. Behold, the Lord will go forth from his place. For he who is meek and kind, and whose nature is clemency, is compelled for your sake to take on the character of cruelty, which he does not have. And he will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. The descent of God, and the running down of his majesty to lower things, is to tread the earth and to crush all the powerful. The mountains, he says, will be consumed, or will melt, and the valleys beneath him, by which we are to understand princes and peoples. And just as wax does not endure the nearness of fire, and waters are borne headlong in a downward course, so all the pride of the impious, when the Lord comes, will be dissolved and will flow away. All this, moreover, will happen because of the crimes of the ten tribes, which he calls Jacob and Israel, and because of the transgression of Judah, since among the ten tribes Samaria was the metropolis, and in the kingdom of Judah Jerusalem fashioned the idols of the high places; this according to the letter.

It can also be understood thus: that because of the impieties of Samaria and the crimes of the Jews the Lord went forth from what was once his place, and said to the Jews: Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate. And he came down from the heavens, and went up upon the high places of the earth, that is, upon those who, believing out of the lowliness of the Gentiles, deserved to be lofty. And the mountains were shaken, the doctrines of the philosophers and lofty kingdoms, and those who remained lowly were consumed and crushed by the coming of the Savior; and as the Church grew and the mountains rose on high, the idols fell down into the depth. The Lord, therefore, went forth from his place, and the Church was built from the Gentiles, so that the mountains might be moved beneath his feet and the depths of the valleys dissolved, because Jacob acted impiously, and Israel sinned, and all the tribes denied the Lord.

Now let us also consider Jesus' statement, "I have proceeded and come from God." It seems useful to me to juxtapose to these words the following words from Micah: "Hear my words, you people, and let the earth and all who are in it pay attention; and the Lord shall be among you for a witness, the Lord from his holy house. Therefore behold, the Lord proceeds from his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains will be shaken under him, and the valleys will be dissolved like wax, before fire and like water tumbling down in a waterfall." Now consider whether the statement, "I have proceeded from God," is equivalent to the statement, "The Lord proceeds from his place," since, when the Son is in the Father, being in the form of God before he empties himself, God is his place, as it were.… Unless you understand that the Son is in the Father in a different way than he was before he proceeded from God, it will seem contradictory that he has both proceeded from God, and, after he has proceeded from God, is still in God.

"I have come down," he says, "that I may see." When responses are conveyed to Abraham, God is not said to come down, but to stand over him, as we expounded above: "three men stood," it says, "over him." But now, because the cause of sinners is being dealt with, God is said to come down. See that you do not perceive an ascent and descent of place. For frequently this is found in the divine letters, as in the prophet Micah: "behold," he says, "the Lord has gone out from his holy place and has come down and will tread upon the high places of the earth." God therefore is said to come down, when he deigns to have care of human frailty. Which is to be understood more especially of our Lord and Savior, who "did not deem it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." He came down therefore. "For no one else has ascended into heaven, except him who came down from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven." For the Lord came down not only to care for, but also to bear, the things which are ours. "For he took the form of a servant," and although he himself is of invisible nature, as being equal to the Father, yet he took a visible appearance, "and was found in appearance as a man."

On another occasion when he was sitting by himself some place reading the book of the twelve prophets, he came to the prophet Micah. An angel of the Lord appeared to him and asked him about this verse from Micah: "Like water coming down from its source." He said to him, "What do you think it means?" While he was still puzzling over it, trying to understand, the angel answered, "Theodore, why do you not perceive its meaning? Is it not obvious that it is the water of the river coming down from paradise?" As soon as the angel had said this, he ceased to see him.

The Lord, therefore, will come, terrible for teaching, that is, for moving the mountains and for dissolving the lowness of the valleys, because Jacob committed impiety, and Israel sin. But the impiety of Jacob is the conventicles of the heretics, which are called Samaria. And the sin of Judah, that is, of him who confesses the Lord, is nothing other than Jerusalem, in which many crimes are found. That the house of Judah, moreover, is referred to Christ, whose Church it is, we have both often said, and let us set down this for the present: Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hands shall be upon the back of your enemies.

And I will make Samaria like a heap of stones in the field when a vineyard is planted, and I will pull down her stones into the valley, and I will lay bare her foundations, and all her carved images shall be cut to pieces, and all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste; for they were gathered from the wages of a harlot, and to the wages of a harlot they shall return. For this I will lament and howl, I will go stripped and naked, I will make a lamentation like that of the dragons, and a mourning like that of the ostriches, for her wound is desperate, for it has come even to Judah, and has touched the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. LXX: And I will make Samaria a watch-hut for fruit in the field, and a planting of a vineyard; and I will pull down her stones into the abyss, and I will lay bare her foundations, and all her carved images shall fall to pieces, and all her wages they shall burn with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the wages of fornication she gathered, and from the wages of fornication she destroyed. Because of this she shall lament and mourn, she shall go barefoot and naked, she shall make a lamentation like that of the dragons, and a mourning like that of the daughters of the Sirens; for her wound has prevailed, for it has come even to Judah, and has touched even to the gate of my people, even into Jerusalem. According to the order of the sins comes the order of the punishments. Samaria sinned first, and fashioned idols, and worshipped calves in place of the Lord; let her therefore also be the first to perish. I will destroy her when the Assyrians come, and I will make her like a heap of stones when a vineyard is planted, so that she is reduced to mounds. And I will pull down her stones into the valley. For she was situated in the mountains, where Sebaste now is, in which the bones of Saint John the Baptist are also laid to rest. And I will lay bare her foundations. For so great will the ruin be, and so great the overthrow of the city, that not only will the walls and buildings fall, but the foundations too will be laid bare down to the last stone.

But since we have once understood Samaria as the church of the heretics, which, separated from God, has become a conventicle of the people, the Lord himself threatens that he will make her a watch-hut for fruit, a field and a planting of a vineyard. For it is much better that a useless city be overthrown, and the stones with which it had been built be pulled down headlong, and that it be prepared for an orchard and a planting of vineyards, than that it remain in a most wicked building. For when her foundations have been destroyed and laid bare, — those by which she seemed to conceal her mysteries and to have firm doctrines on which she stood; and when all the idols which seemed to have outward show, and a beauty composed by artful speech, have been cut to pieces by the ministers of God, that is, by churchmen —, then in the place of the most wicked building the various fruits of the Church will spring up, and not only will they spring up, but they will also be guarded, and the vine of Sorek will be planted, from which may come the wine which the Lord promised that he would drink in the kingdom of the Father. And not only will her foundations, which before were pressed down by earth, be opened and brought out into the open, and the idols which she had fashioned for herself be cut to pieces, but the glory too and the riches which she seemed to have from her fornication and her error will be consumed by my fire, of which I said in the Gospel: I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it may burn, and they will be burned up and reduced to nothing, because they were not acquired from the truth of doctrines, but from the fornication of the soul, and were collected from error here and there. For the heretics do not have riches coming from a paternal inheritance, but every day they find something to worship, and fashion idols for themselves with an artful hand and a curious mind.

And all her carved images, and all the riches that various kings had brought together into her, will be cut to pieces and burned with fire and reduced to nothing. For the wealth and the manifold furnishings, which had been gathered, as was thought, from the fornication of idols, will be carried off to another harlot, that is, to Nineveh, so that, just as in their own land they committed fornication with the idols which they made, so they may go to another land of idols and of fornication, that is, to the Assyrians. Thus far concerning Samaria.

Because of this, when their field has been turned into a watch-hut for fruit and prepared for vineyards, and the stones with which the city had been built have been pulled down into the depth, and their foundations have been laid bare, and all the carved images cut to pieces and burned, and the wages which they promised themselves with vain hope, and whatever they seemed to worship as God, reduced to nothing, because they had procured every reward for themselves from the fornication of the soul, then, understanding their former error and returning to themselves, they will lament over the things at which they used to laugh, and they will mourn over the things in which, committing fornication, they formerly in some way rejoiced. And they will put off from their feet whatever deadly thing they had, and they will be barefoot, because the ground on which they are to stand is a holy place, and they will cast away all the garments of their fornication; and they will be naked, so that they may be clothed with the garment of Christ, and they will make a lamentation like that of the dragons. For the dragons too will one day lament, when they see the greatest dragon captured and hanging on the fisherman's hook, and the sea made desolate. And they will mourn like the daughters of the Sirens, for the songs of the heretics are sweet, and deceive the peoples with a pleasant voice. Nor can anyone pass by their songs unless he has stopped his ear and escaped as if deaf.

And since the same wound is to reach Jerusalem — for she too sinned with a like error, forsaking her God and fashioning idols —, for that reason the prophet makes as it were a προσωποποιίαν (personification) of God, and under his own person brings in the feeling of one who laments, and says: For this I will lament and howl, I will go stripped and naked; for I have lost the ten tribes, and I will make a lamentation like that of the dragons, and a mourning like that of the ostriches. For just as dragons resound with a terrible hissing, according to the accounts of those who have written on natural things, at the time when they are overcome by elephants, and as ostriches are forgetful of their eggs and, as though they had not given birth, leave their young in the sand to be trampled by the feet of beasts, of which it is written more fully in Job, so I too shall go about without children, stripped and naked. And I will do this because her wound is desperate, that is, Samaria's. And the same sin, or rather the same punishment of sin, which had overthrown Samaria, will come even to Judah and even to the gate of my city Jerusalem. For as Samaria was overthrown by the Assyrians, so Judah and Jerusalem will be overthrown by the Chaldeans.

And this Samaria of such a kind will lament and mourn for this reason: because, wounded by the arrow of the Lord and receiving the wound of the word, she will recognize her error. And not only did she herself sin, but she also wished to bring her iniquity and her error into the gates of Judah. Hence it is said of her: It has come even to Judah, and has touched even to the gates of my people, even to Jerusalem. She touched the gates, he says, by which we understand the ears. But she could not enter the middle of the city; for if she had entered, she would have made Jerusalem a Samaria. Whenever we see some in the Church scandalized at the discourses of the heretics, and asking how to answer their questions, and yet not withdrawing from the Church, let us say: Samaria, or the wound of Samaria, has come even to the confessing people, even to the ears of the people of God, and even to the ears of Jerusalem. For what is said, it has touched even to the gates of my people, is to be understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ (in common), so that this is understood as well: it has touched even to the gates of Jerusalem. Thus far against Samaria and against Jerusalem; let us look also at the rest that follows.

In Gath do not announce it, do not weep with tears; in the house of dust sprinkle yourselves with dust; pass over for yourselves, dwelling of Shaphir, confounded with shame; she who dwells in Zaanan has not gone out. The house of Ezel will receive mourning from you, the house that stood by itself, for she who dwells in Maroth has grown weak unto good; for evil has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem. The tumult of the chariot of astonishment for the one dwelling in Lachish is the beginning of sin for the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the crimes of Israel. Therefore he will give emissaries upon the inheritance of Gath; the house of lying, for a deception to the kings of Israel. Still I will bring an heir to you who dwell in Mareshah; the glory of Israel will come as far as Adullam. LXX: You who are in Gath, do not be magnified; you who are in Bachim, do not build out of a house of mockeries; sprinkle earth on your derision, you who inhabit its cities well; the inhabitress of Zaanan has not gone out. Mourn for the house next to her; she will receive from you a blow of pain, who began unto good, she who dwells in pains? For evils have come down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem. The sound of chariots and horsemen, the dwelling of Lachish, is the chief of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the iniquities of Israel. Therefore he will give emissaries as far as the inheritance of Gath; vain houses, they were in vain to the kings of Israel, until I bring heirs to you, you who dwell in Lachish; the inheritance will come as far as Adullam. The Hebrew disagrees greatly with the translation of the LXX, and both my translation and theirs are wrapped in such great difficulties that, if ever we have needed the Spirit of God, and indeed in expounding his holy Scriptures we always need his coming, now most of all we long for him to be present, and to unfold what he spoke in the prophets, so that what he himself deigns to promise elsewhere may be understood of us too: Open your mouth, and I will fill it. Gath, as the history of Kingdoms also testifies, is one of the five cities of Philistia, near the border of Judea, and for those going from Eleutheropolis to Gaza it is even now a very large village; from there too came that Goliath of Gath whom David killed in battle. Since, therefore, the prophet, or rather the Lord through the prophet, had said: I will mourn and howl, I will go despoiled and naked; I will make a lamentation like that of dragons, and mourning like that of ostriches, for the wound of Samaria is desperate and incurable, and it has come even to Judah and has touched the gate of my people, Jerusalem, for this reason I still command with the voice of one weeping: Do not announce it in Gath, lest the enemies hear and rejoice; do not weep with tears, that is, let not even your grief burst out into sobs; hide your weeping, lest your adversaries exult; let your faces have no tears, though your breast have grief; do not go outside, but in the house of dust sprinkle yourselves with the crumbling ash of the ruins.

Gath means winepress; those, therefore, who are in Gath, that is, in the winepress, thinking that they have gathered the vintage of the fruit of life and trodden the cluster from the vine of Sorek, are lifted up into pride, not knowing that the cluster of the land of Judea is not found in the territories of the Philistines. Do not, he says, be lifted up, you who are in the winepresses. For your vine is of the vine of Sodom, and your shoot of Gomorrah, and your grape is of bitterness, and you have a cluster of gall, and the fury of dragons is your wine, the incurable fury of asps. For even if you should bear fruit — since your vintage is not only of Sodom and Gomorrah, but also of Egypt and the other hostile nations —, the Lord will give your fruit to the blight, and your labors to the locust, and will kill your vineyards with hail, and your mulberry trees with frost. Let not the likeness of wine deceive you, and do not call the bitter sweet; taste your wine more carefully, and you will find, in place of the wine of Sorek, the fury of dragons and the venom of asps. Therefore do not be proud, but rather humble yourselves under the mighty hand of the Lord, and pass over to that winepress of which he who comes up from Edom, and ruddy from Bozrah, speaks in Isaiah the prophet: I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is no man with me. Again, since there are others too of foreign race, for the province of the Philistines has many regions and cities, who through evil works and thoughts contrary to God say: We have been destroyed, but let us return and build up what has been destroyed. Hence they are also called the borders of impiety, and the people with whom the Lord is angry. To them it is said: You who are in Bachim, do not build from a house of mockeries. Bachim in our language signifies mourning and weeping. In short, except for the Seventy, all translated κλαυθμὸν, that is, weeping. You, therefore, who are engaged in works and opinions of this kind, which are worthy of weeping, do not renew a most wicked building; and do not suppose your own understanding to be God's edifice, nor build upon sand, lest, when the storm comes and your house falls, the empty labor offer laughter to those who see it. Rather, understanding that your building is worthy of derision, sprinkle your heads with its ruins and dust, and repent, because you wished without counsel to build a house that would fall.

Pass over for yourselves, dwelling of Shaphir, which in the Syriac and Hebrew language means beautiful. For Samaria is shown even now, situated in the most beautiful and most fertile place of Judea. It is said to her, therefore: O you who dwell in a most fertile region, since you are confounded with shame, so pass over, so be led away into captivity, that because of the greatness of your evils not even your neighbor the Philistine may hear your voice. Moreover, what follows: She who dwells in Zaanan has not gone out, which means going out, or as Symmachus renders: The abundant dwelling has not gone out, is said of the same Samaria, which is at the very doors of the Assyrian captivity, and as soon as she is moved from her borders, enters hostile land. For the abundant dwelling is to be taken in the sense of what we have already said above, the beautiful dwelling. She, therefore, who dwelt in the going out, or in abundance, did not go out of her own will, but was led by force to the Assyrians. Hence the neighboring house, at the side, which is what Ezel means, namely the kingdom of Judah, will receive mourning from you, she who now for the time being, Samaria having been captured, stood firm and had God as her defender.

There follows: She who dwells well in her cities has not gone out, dwelling in Zaanan. This seems to me to have this meaning: You who are proud in Gath and in Bachim, in vain do you try to build a house worthy of laughter; sprinkle yourselves with dust and repent, because you wished to press out a detestable wine and to construct a building contrary to God. But the Church of Christ, which dwells well, and, possessing churches in the whole world, is joined by the unity of the Spirit, and has the cities of the law, of the prophets and of the Gospel, and of the apostles, has not gone out of her borders, that is, out of the holy Scriptures, but keeps the possession she entered upon, because she dwells in Zaanan, which Symmachus, as we said above, rendered abundance; for she has the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, with whom are all spiritual graces and abundance of virtues. Hence it is said to her: Let peace be in your strength, and abundance in your towers. But you who dwell beside Zaanan, that is, beside the abundant Church, O you heretics, O contrary doctrines, mourn for yourselves, because you have built yourselves a house for derision, and have pressed the winepress into pride, and have built your house not in the Scriptures but in the neighborhood of the Scriptures, a house now worthy not of laughter but of mourning and tears. Hence it is also added: mourn for the house which is beside her, that is, beside Zaanan. But what is added, She will receive from you a blow of pain, is said to the same heretics who are commanded to mourn for the house neighboring the Church, because the enemy and avenger, the devil, to whom they are to be handed over for punishment, himself inflicts blows on them, and for their most wicked building wrings out of them the pain of the blows. These are inflicted for this reason, that, perceiving the sins they had committed, they may repent, and the dwelling of pains may be for them an occasion of good things. Or else the pain of the Church is indicated, because she mourns her one-time sons, and she herself is the cause of the heretics' salvation, if they are willing to return to their grieving mother.

And she received mourning, and was struck with fear and weakened in her good, she who dwells in Maroth, that is, in bitternesses; or as Symmachus renders: The dwelling provoking to bitterness, that is, ἡ κατοικία ἡ παραπικραίνουσα, which in Hebrew is called iosebeth maroth, on account of the captivity of the neighboring tribes, because evil came down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem; for the Assyrian, after laying waste Samaria, came also to Jerusalem, at the time when Rabshakeh was sent, hurling insults, about whom both the fourth book of Kingdoms (2 Kings) and Isaiah write more fully. There it is said that the Assyrian king sent from Lachish to Jerusalem, and afterwards, Lachish having been taken, passed on to attack Libnah.

Moreover, as to what is brought in, For evils have come down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem, the Marcionites and the Manichaeans too use this text, on the ground that the God of the law is the author of evils. Let us say that evils came down from the Lord in the way that the Savior also speaks in the Gospel: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven. For as there Lucifer, who rose in the morning, fell from heaven and was crushed upon the earth, he who used to send to the nations, so also these evils, which fell from the Lord and came to the gates of Jerusalem, were not evils before they fell, but because they fell headlong from the Lord, for that reason they became evils. And that we may know the snares of the evils: They came, he says, to the gates of Jerusalem, which, because they are strong and adamantine, are shut by the apostles, to whom the keys of Jerusalem have been entrusted; before them the enemies roam about, and whomever they see going out, they kill. If anyone, therefore, is of Jerusalem, which dwells well in her cities, he does not go out, since he dwells in abundance; but he remains always within, and does not go out of her gates, for whoever goes out of them is killed; and he is killed by those who lift themselves up in Gath, and dwell in Bachim, and build a house for derision. In short, the evils which came down from the Lord to the gates of Jerusalem have only the din of chariots and the tumult of horses, and a confused sound before the doors of Jerusalem, so that with the lance of their mouth they may kill whomever they see wandering.

Therefore, O Lachish, city given over to idols, the chariot and cavalry of the Assyrians will come to you too, because in you also were found the crimes of Israel, and you were the beginning of idolatry in Judah; for through you, as through a gate, the impiety of the ten tribes migrated into Jerusalem.

After this it is written: You who dwell in Lachish: she is the chief of sin for the daughter of Zion. Lachish is interpreted πορεία ἐστὶν, that is, walking. And so these too, who went up in their chariots, and had horsemen, and only din and empty sound, to whom she who dwells well in her cities said, These in chariots and these on horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God; because they moved their feet, and were carried about by every wind of false doctrine, and wished to go out from the Church, which is interpreted watchtower, that is, Zion, were the chiefs of sin for the daughter of Zion. And in her, that is, in Lachish, were found the impieties of Israel, which separated the people of God from its former kingdom. She, then, who dwells in Lachish, that is, in a most evil walking, with a step ever wavering, is the chief of sin for the daughter of Zion; and the impiety of Israel is in those who always move their feet and are said to dwell in Lachish.

Emissaries too will be given as far as the inheritance of Gath: Gath most wicked, and a winepress of poisons, which is built against the house of God, where there are vain houses, which were built for derision. And these vain houses were made in vain for the kings of Israel: as far as the history is concerned, for those kings whose sins are written in the books of Kingdoms and of Chronicles; but as far as anagogy is concerned, for the chiefs of the heretics and the leaders of perverse doctrines; for to them the houses are vain and built in vain. And they last only so long, until the heirs who are to be brought in by the Lord hold them.

And not only upon Lachish will the tumult and the chariots come, but also upon Gath, the chief city of Philistia, of which I had said above: In Gath do not announce it; for the Assyrian will send his brigands, whom he calls emissaries, and will possess the house of idolatry and the city of lying, which was a stumbling to the kings of Israel. As for what follows: Still I will bring an heir to you who dwell in Mareshah, he has alluded beautifully to the name; for since Mareshah means inheritance, he called the coming of the enemies into her heirs; and Mareshah, that is, the inheritance, will come as far as Adullam, a city of Judah, which Adullam is glorious among the cities of Israel. In short, Symmachus too translated thus: Ἔτι κληρονόμον ἄξω καί σοι κατοικία Μαρέσα, ἕως Ὀδολλὰμ ἥξει τῆς δόξης Ισραὴλ, that is: Still I will bring an heir to you too, dwelling of Mareshah; as far as Adullam will come of the glory of Israel; that is, you who are glorious among the cities of Israel. And where gloriae is said, let it be the genitive case of the singular number, huius gloriae, of this glory, and not the nominative plural, hae gloriae, these glories. Or certainly let us understand it thus: The captivity of Israel which came to Lachish, and Gath, and Mareshah, will come as far as Adullam too. And of the glory of Israel should be read more pointedly, so that κατὰ ἀντίφρασιν (by antiphrasis) ignominy or devastation is meant. Moreover, as to our having interpreted above the city of the prophet, Moresheth, as inheritance, let the reader know that in the same little verse which we set down, Therefore he will give emissaries upon the inheritance of Gath, in the Hebrew, maraseth Geth is written for the inheritance of Gath. Thus far, according to the Hebrew, as best we could and as it seemed to us, certainly as we heard it from the Hebrews, we have steered our little boat as though among rocks and very sharp crags; whether it has entered port or still tosses on the open sea, it will be for the reader's prudence to judge. Now, by your prayers, let us go on to other waves, and, with shipwreck of the exposition threatening on this side and on that, let us escape if we can.

After this there follows: You who dwell in Lachish, the inheritance will come as far as Adullam. Adullam means testimony of the draught, or of their drawing, which in Greek is expressed more significantly, μαρτυρία ἀντλήσεως αὐτῶν. We read in Proverbs: If you are evil, you alone will draw up evils. She, therefore, who dwells in Lachish, that is, on a most evil road, will come to the testimony of her own draining, which she will drain and drink down according to the measure of her works. Or certainly it should be punctuated so that what is said, you who dwell in Lachish, is referred to what precedes, and the order and sense is: I will bring heirs to you from the Church, you who dwell in Lachish, because you too will be of the inheritance of the Lord, when you have drained and received what you deserve. At the end of this section I beseech the reader not to take necessity for choice, nor to judge a lengthy exposition to be verbosity, and to marvel rather that in places so rough I find anything at all, than that I leave out none of the things that have to be said.

What happened to her we know was said through the prophet concerning Judea: Enlarge your baldness like the eagle. For the baldness of a man usually occurs only on the head, but the baldness of an eagle occurs over the whole body, because when it has grown very old, its feathers and plumes fall from all its limbs. Therefore she enlarges her baldness like an eagle, because she has lost her feathers, she who has lost her people. The feathers of her wings also fell, with which she was accustomed to fly to prey, because all her powerful men have perished, through whom she seized the things of others.

Make yourself bald and be shorn over the sons of your delights; enlarge your baldness like the eagle, for they have been led captive from you. LXX: Glory of the daughter of Israel, make yourself bald and be shorn over your delicate sons; enlarge your baldness like the eagle, for they have been led captive from you. What was said by the Seventy, glory of the daughter of Israel, with their addition of the daughter, the Hebrews read at the end of the preceding section. But since you wished it so, and we have once undertaken it, the necessity lies upon us of interpreting the Scriptures as they are read in the Church, and nonetheless of not omitting the Hebrew truth. It is said, then, to Israel, for the present according to the letter, so that we take either the ten tribes in Samaria, or all Israel in common, that, since the people has been led captive and all Judea laid waste by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, they should take up mourning and weep for their sons. And as the eagle, which is the queen of birds, at a certain time loses its feathers and remains featherless, so let Israel too lay aside all its glory, with which it had formerly been surrounded, and mourn its sons, made subject to the power of enemies. That the eagle is accustomed to lose its plumage at a certain time is written both in the Psalter, Your old age will be renewed like the eagle's, and by the Comic poet in the Heautontimorumenos: She seemed, he says, truly, as the saying goes, an eagle's old age. But if we wish to take this same thing also of the present time of the Jewish overthrow, we shall see that all the grace with which they once flourished before God has completely departed from them. For where is the prophet? Where is the teacher of the law? Where the protection of angels? Where the victory hoped for by the few against the many? Jerusalem has been made bald and has lost all the hair of her former glory, and her sons, who cried out against the Lord, Crucify, crucify him, have been led into captivity. I have read in someone's commentaries that what is said, Make yourself bald and be shorn over the sons of your delights, can be taken of the human condition, so that the speech of God is directed to Adam, or to the heavenly Jerusalem: O human soul, O city once mother of the saints, you who were formerly in paradise and enjoyed the delights of diverse trees, and had most beautiful hair, now, because you have been cast down from the heights and led away into Babylon, and have come into the place of captivity, and have lost your hair, shave yourself and put on the garb of a penitent; and you who formerly flew like an eagle on high, mourn your sons, mourn your offspring, which has been led captive out of you.