Micah 6

Hear what the Lord says: Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O mountains, the judgment of the Lord, and you strong foundations of the earth, for the judgment of the Lord will be decided with his people, and with Israel: LXX. Hear what the Lord has spoken: Arise, be judged before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O mountains, the judgment of the Lord, and you valleys, foundations of the earth, for the judgment of the Lord is against his people, and with Israel it will be judged. For 'strong foundations of the earth', which the LXX rendered 'and valleys, foundations of the earth', Symmachus and Theodotion translated 'and ancient foundations of the earth'; but the Fifth Edition set down the Hebrew itself, ethanim, foundations of the earth. The first utterance, then, is the prophet's: Hear what the Lord says. Then God speaks to the prophet: Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Again the prophet, as he had been commanded, speaks to the mountains, and not only to the mountains but also to the strong foundations of the earth, and says: Hear, O mountains, the judgment of the Lord, and you strong foundations of the earth. And he gives the reason why he urges them to hear: because the judgment of the Lord will be decided with his people, and with Israel. For the mountains to which the prophet speaks, and for the strong foundations of the earth, the LXX translated hills and valleys, understanding, as it seems to me, that the people had done nothing worthy of the hearing of mountains, but only of hills, which are lower than the loftiness of the mountains, or of valleys sunk into the depths. Arise, he says, contend in judgment before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. He is commanded to arise who either sits, or lies, or sleeps, or is dead, according to what the Apostle says: Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. Arise from the dead, so that you may walk in newness of life, so that, leaving the earth, you may strive toward higher things. And contend in judgment against the mountains, by which I think nothing else is signified than the angels, to whom the care of human affairs has been entrusted, the Song in Deuteronomy agreeing on this very point: When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the earth according to the number of the angels of God. These are ministering spirits, sent for service on account of those who are to possess the inheritance of salvation. And contend in judgment, so that, whether the mountains or the hills are found not to have cared for the peoples worthily, either it may be seen to be my fault, since I set such ones over them, or the blame may be taken from the people and referred to the princes. Let us read the Apocalypse of John the apostle, in which the angels of the churches are praised and accused for the virtues and vices of those over whom they are said to preside. For just as sometimes it is the bishop's fault, sometimes the people's, and often the teacher is answerable for the sin, often the pupil, and now it is the father's failing, now the son's, according as they are taught well or badly, so in the judgment of God the charge will be referred either to the angels, if they have not done all that belonged to their office, or to the people, if, while the angels did everything, they themselves scorned to hear. There are some who interpret the mountains and hills and strong foundations of the earth as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the patriarchs, before whom, as hearers called together to the judgment, the case of the people of Israel is to be argued. Others think the mountains, hills and valleys are angels, as we said above, who either serve God in the heavenly places, or preside over men upon this earth, or, being set in the underworld, are called the foundations of those who through their own fault became earthly; of these foundations of the earth we find it written elsewhere too: A fire is kindled from my fury, it will burn down to the underworld below; it will devour the earth and its foundations. The strong and ancient foundations of the earth — on account of which the earth has not passed away until now, and, hanging over the void, stands balanced — are the merits of the just, of whom the Apostle speaks: Built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets. Just as, then, the apostles and the prophets and the whole choir of martyrs are the strong foundations of the earth, so, according to the LXX, the valleys and precipices, which in Greek are more expressively called φάραγγες, are the foundations of those who have received the image of the χοϊκοῦ (of the earthy one). The judgment of the Lord, therefore, will be decided with his people, and with Israel. He who, as God, could inflict punishments for the crimes of a sinful people does not wish to appear powerful, but just, and he summons the sinners to judgment, according to that prophetic word: Come, and let us judge, says the Lord; even now he presses the people of Israel, in the presence of the angels and of all creation, to answer if it has anything to answer, so that God may be justified in his words and may prevail when he is judged.

The third interruption of the Prophet is that, as he is stationed among people who exercise wickedness, he desires to be separated from their contamination. Many think that this refers to the Lord Jesus, because it is His alone not to fear judgment, since He conquers when He is judged. For He has a judgment from an unjust man, into which Christ willingly enters, as you have written: My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I saddened you? Moreover, when the father gives all judgment to him, not as if to an infirm person, but as if to a son, because he himself can undergo judgment? If they think that the judgment of the Father must be undergone by the Son, then the Father surely does not judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the son; so that everyone may honor the son just as they honor the father. The father honors the son, and do you judge? We have said this so that no one would consider us as placing the person of the Prophet in the place of the Lord due to fear of questioning, when the holy David, foreseeing by the spirit that the Jews would rise up against the passion of the Lord, does not fear the judgment of his faith: he even demands that his cause be distinguished from the nation of persecutors; so that he would not be entangled with the descendants of his wicked generation and the heirs of his posterity, the lineage of the whole Jewish race.

"For the Lord will judge his people, and he will [give] comfort among his servants." The reason for the previous praise is stated: "For the Lord will judge his people," that is, the Jewish people, to whom he revealed great miracles and assigned his prophets so that the people would not sin. He also sent to them his own Son, so that their accursed hardness could finally be melted. But because they persisted with accursed obstinacy, he will certainly judge them, because they were unwilling to be his, though he had chosen them from all nations as his possession. To them he says, "Hear, O people, and I will speak," and elsewhere, "My people, what have I done to you?" So he will judge them. But hear what follows as it concerns the faithful: "He will again have compassion upon us." He means when he will render their promised rewards to those on earth afflicted with harsh contempt on account of his name. Scripture says of them, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted," and in another place are the words "He that believes in me is not judged but will pass from death to life. But he that does not believe is already judged."

Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened? "O my people, what have I done to you, or in what way have I injured you, or wherein have I wearied you?" This language indeed is more fit from me to you who insult me. It is a sad thing that we watch for opportunities against each other and having destroyed our fellowship of spirit by diversities of opinion have become almost more inhuman and savage to one another than even the barbarians who are now engaged in war against us, banded together against us by the Trinity whom we have separated. We are not foreigners making forays and raids upon foreigners or nations of a different language, which is some little consolation in the calamity. But we are making war upon one another, and almost upon those of the same household. Or if you will, we the members of the same body are consuming and being consumed by one another. Nor is this, bad as it is, the extent of our calamity, for we even regard our diminution as a gain. But since we are in such a condition and regulate our faith by the times, let us compare the times with one another; you your emperor, and I my sovereigns; you Ahab and I Josiah.

God, therefore, speaks to the people of Israel, and summons them to judgment, and grants them leave to dispute against him. My people, what have I done to you that I ought not to have done? Or how have I grieved you? although this is not found in the Hebrew. But a father grieves the son he has scourged, and the shepherd visits the iniquities of the sheep with the rod. In what have I been troublesome to you? Or, as is written more expressively in the Hebrew, with what toil have I oppressed you? Or will you interpret my benefits as an insult, and, longing for the melons and the meats of Egypt, will you grieve that you were brought out of the land of Egypt and freed from the house of bondage by my help, because I gave you as leaders Moses my friend, and Aaron my priest, and Miriam my prophetess?

But we who long to contemplate the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, and truly have Abraham as our father, let us hear God, when we have sinned, disputing against us and reproving us by the greatness of his benefits. For we once served Pharaoh, and made mud and bricks for the Egyptian people, and he redeemed us who gave himself as a redemption for all, so that we who had been redeemed by the Lord, whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemies and whom he gathered from the regions, might say: For his mercy is forever. He also sent before our face Moses, the spiritual law, and Aaron, the great priest, not bearing the typical ephod and the truth, but having on his forehead the seal of holiness which God the Father sealed. And he sent Miriam, the prophecy of the prophets; and not only did he grant us this, but he also freed us from the hands of the enemies.

You see the Lord is teaching you a lesson, challenging you to goodness by his own example, teaching you even when he reproves. When accusing the Jews, for instance, he says, "O my people, what have I done to you? Or wherein have I grieved you? Or wherein have I offended you? Answer me. Is it because I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and delivered you out of the house of bondage?" adding, "And I sent before your face Moses, Aaron and Miriam. O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised." You were indeed oppressed, an exile in foreign lands, laden with heavy burdens.

For the torrent of cords, or of thorns, Symmachus rendered the valley of thorns. Now there is a place near Livias, beyond the Dead Sea, six miles distant from Livias, where Israel once committed fornication with the Midianites. This place the prophet Micah mentions in the person of God, saying: My people, remember, I pray, what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam son of Beor answered, from Settim to Gilgal. For which there too the Seventy translated ἀπὸ τῶν σχοίνων, that is, from the cords to Gilgal.

My people, what have I done to you, and in what have I been troublesome to you, answer me, for I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of servants I freed you, and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember, I pray, what Balak king of Moab devised against you, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him, from Shittim to Gilgal, that you might know the justices of the Lord. LXX: My people, what have I done to you, or how have I grieved you, or in what have I been troublesome to you? Answer me: for I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I redeemed you, and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised against you, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him, from Schoenis to Gilgal, that the justice of the Lord might be known. For justices or justice Symmachus rendered mercies, and where the LXX has Schoenis, all rendered the Hebrew itself, Settim. Now it is a place in which Balak king of the Moabites gathered an army against Israel, ὁμώνυμος (of the same name) with the trees which even today grow throughout the desert of Mount Sinai. For where in the LXX the ark of the covenant, or the altar and the tabernacle, and the other things which are reported to have been made of incorruptible wood are mentioned, in the Hebrew Settim wood is set down, which has the likeness of the tree that we commonly call the white thorn. Hence I think that the LXX too rendered σχῖνον, that is, the mastic tree, but that gradually, through the error of copyists, it came about that σχοῖνοι, that is, ropes, was read instead of σχίνοις, that is, mastic trees.

But if this seems little to you, remember that time when Balak king of Moab hired Balaam the diviner for a fee against you, and see how, against his own will, the soothsayer, wishing to curse you, blessed you; from Shittim to Gilgal, surveying with his eyes the whole army of Israel and changing places, as if I could not go with him as he went and pass over with him as he passed over; and this I did so that my mercies and justices might be known to you, for I love you so much that, while I am cursed daily by the mouth of blasphemers, I did not allow you to be cursed by the enemy. The Hebrews expound this passage, in which it is said: From Shittim to Gilgal, that you might know the justices of the Lord, thus: From the time when you committed fornication in Midian until the time when Saul was anointed king at Gilgal, recall to memory what evils you have done, and how great the good things I have done for you, and you will know my mercy toward you. Let this be what God spoke to carnal Israel according to the history.

For let us remember what he devised against us who wished to devour us and lick up our congregation: the true Balak, the devil. For Balak is interpreted ἐκλείχων, that is, licking up, king of the paternal water; since Moab, according to another etymology, is called paternal water. When, therefore, Balak was lying in wait for us, and lying in wait through his vain people, which is what Balaam is interpreted, God did not allow us to lie under his curses, but on the contrary there blessed us, compelled by the truth of the thing itself, the vain people of the nations, born of him who is in the skin — for Beor is interpreted in the skin — ever given over to the flesh and to the works of death; and the vain people, sprung from him who is wholly in the skin, answered on our behalf, always changing places, or standing upon thorns, or upon cords, so that we may follow the error of the common edition too. Now thorns, according to the Savior's words, are the cares of this world, and riches, and pleasures, in which the vain people is. And that it stands in ropes, namely in the bonds of sins — for with the ropes of his own sins each one is bound — Isaiah also is witness, saying: Woe to those who drag out their sins like a long rope, and iniquities like the strap of a heifer's yoke. If, then, it stands, it stands only on thorns and on ropes; but if it wishes to go around, it has no steady step, but, always wavering and tottering, it comes as far as Gilgal, which is interpreted κυλισμὸς, that is, rolling, or a wallowing-place. Whenever we see some rising up against us, and thirsting for our blood with greedy jaws, and, by an unforeseen dispensation of God, those who had come against us coming over to our side, let us say: Balaam came from the cords as far as Gilgal, that the justice of God may be known.

For what is asked of you, O man? Only that you fear God: seek for him, walk after him, follow in his ways. "With what shall I win over the Lord? Shall I win him over with burnt offerings?" The Lord is not reconciled, nor are sins redeemed, with tens of thousands of young goats or thousands of rams or with the fruits of unholiness, but the grace of the Lord is won with a good life.

Is everyone who is turning from sin to faith, turning from sinful practices (as if they were his mother) to life? I shall call in evidence one of the twelve prophets, who says, "Am I to make an offering of my firstborn son for my impiety? Should I offer the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul?" Can the mother buy her way to God by giving up her firstborn? This must not be taken as an attack on the words "increase in numbers." Micah is naming, by using the word impiety, the first impulses after birth, which do not help us to knowledge of God. If anyone misuses this as a basis for saying that that birth is evil, he should also use it as a basis for saying that it is good, in that in it we come to know the truth. "Come back to a sober and upright life and stop sinning." But the sinner knows nothing of God. "We are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against spiritual beings, potent in temptation, the rulers of this dark world," so there is forbearance. This is why Paul says, "I bruise my own body and treat it as a slave, because every athlete goes into total training." By "total training" we understand not that he abstains from absolutely everything but that he shows self-control in those things he has taken a deliberate decision to use. "They do it to win a crown which dies, we for one which never dies," if we win the contest. No effort, no crown!

What worthy thing shall I offer to the Lord? Shall I bend the knee to God most high? Shall I offer him burnt offerings, and yearling calves? Can the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fat he-goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my crime, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? LXX: With what shall I lay hold of the Lord? Shall I receive my God most high? Shall I lay hold of him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Will the Lord accept, with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of fat he-goats? If I give my firstborn for impiety: the fruits of my womb for the sin of my soul. God had summoned the people to judgment; the people, knowing its sin, does not wish to contend, but to entreat, and yet even in its very prayers it has no confidence. For there is nothing worthy that can be offered to God for sin, and no humility can wash out the stains of offenses, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and of calves, and burnt offerings full of marrow, and the gore of rams and of fat he-goats, to wash away the filth of the soul. Shall I, he says, give my firstborn for my crime, as the king of Moab is described as having done? Or the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul, as Jephthah did, offering his daughter for the rashness of a vow? We, therefore, who are of the people of God, knowing that there shall not be justified in the sight of him anyone living, and saying: I have become a beast before you, repenting for our sins, hesitate and say: With what shall I lay hold of the Lord? Shall I receive my Lord most high? How shall I be able to hold him as he flees? With how great purity shall I be able to prepare a lodging for the Trinity? Or shall I lay hold of him with burnt offerings, so as to offer my whole self to him as a burnt offering, or with yearling calves, so that, leaving milk and coming to solid food, I may be made worthy of the acceptable year of the Lord? If I offer a thousand rams, if ten thousand he-goats, and, understanding them spiritually, display in myself all the victims of Leviticus, and a thousand fall at my side, and ten thousand at my left, yet I shall be able to give nothing worthy with which to lay hold of God or receive him. If I give my firstborn for impiety, and the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul, I shall indeed give whatever is first in me, but for my sin and impiety I shall offer nothing worthy to God. Hence David also prays and says: Wash me more and more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my iniquities, and my offense is ever against me. For the sin of the soul blood alone is worthily offered, and the blood that is worthily offered is not that of calves, not of rams, not of he-goats, but one's own, as the prophet says and asks: What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me? And afterwards answers: I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Yet even this very blood we do not give, but give back. And what is there alike? When the Just One has died for sinners, the Son of God for men, shall we, sinners and men, die for the confession of his name?

"You have been told, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy and to be prepared to walk with your Lord?" Accordingly, the gospel says to you, "Arise, let us go from here," while the law says to you, "You shall walk after the Lord your God." You have learned the method of your flight from here—why do you delay?

You ask what you should offer: offer yourself. For what else does the Lord seek of you but you? Because of all earthly creatures he has made nothing better than you, he seeks yourself from yourself, because you have lost yourself.

Here is a priest who serves at every hour with great fear while walking humbly with the Lord his God in accordance with the word of the prophet. Meanwhile another priest is hardly capable of having that much fear even when he is about to die and enter into the last judgment before his Lord. But the full expression of the priesthood is comprised of the combination of the teaching of truth with good works. This is in accord with blessed Luke's comment that in writing his Gospel he had composed a treatise concerning all the things that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

A brother asked a hermit, 'Tell me something good that I may do it and live by it.' The hermit said, 'God alone knows what is good. But I have heard that one of the hermits asked the great Nesteros, who was a friend of Antony, 'What good work shall I do?' and he replied, 'Surely all works please God equally? Scripture says, Abraham was hospitable and God was with him; Elijah loved quiet and God was with him; David was humble and God was with him.' So whatever you find you are drawn to in following God's will, do it and let your heart be at peace.'

A hermit was asked by a brother, 'How do I find God? With fasts, or labour, or vigils, or works of mercy?' He replied, 'You will find Him in all those, and also in discretion. I tell you many have been very stern with their bodies, but have gained nothing by it because they did it without discretion. Even if our mouths stink from fasting, and we have learnt all the Scriptures, and memorized the whole Psalter, we may still lack what God wants, humility and love.'

I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: surely to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God. LXX: It has been declared to you, man, what is good, or what the Lord requires of you, except that you do judgment, and love mercy, and be ready to walk with your God. Since you are in doubt, O people of Israel — or rather the whole human race, for I am by no means speaking to the people of the Jews, but my speech will run out generally to every man — how you can appease God for your sins, if you do not even have victims by which your impiety may be compensated, I will answer you what God requires; indeed, I have already shown it before in the law. For it is written in Deuteronomy: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, except that you fear the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and love him; and serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his justifications, whatever I shall command you today, that it may be well with you? The Lord requires of us, and, counting our salvation necessary, asks to receive what profits the giver: that we do judgment, that is, that we do nothing without reason and counsel, so that the mind first judges what it is going to do and afterwards completes it in deed; that we love mercy, and are merciful not as if compelled or out of necessity, since God loves a cheerful giver. Nor let us say: Go today, and come back tomorrow, and I will give to you. And when we have done judgment and loved mercy, what reward shall we receive? We shall walk with the Lord God, as Enoch, according to the faith of the Hebrew scrolls, walked with God, and pleased him, and he was not found, because God translated him. For you said: With what shall I attain to the Lord, or with what shall I lay hold of him? I promise you more: do judgment, and love mercy, and you will walk with your God. Or certainly, to walk with God is not a reward but a precept. For just as we are commanded to do judgment and to love mercy, so it is enjoined that we be prepared to walk with the Lord our God; we ought to sleep at no hour, to be secure at no time, but always to expect the householder's coming and to dread the day of judgment, and in the night of this world to say: I sleep, and my heart keeps watch. The word esne, which the LXX translated 'to be ready', and we 'to walk carefully', Theodotion expressed more significantly: καὶ ἀσφαλίζου τοῦ πορεύεσθαι μετὰ Ἐλωαὶχ, that is: And take careful heed that you walk with your God, or, as the Fifth Edition translated: καὶ φροντίζειν, namely to act carefully, and to have this care, that you walk with your God. For he who says that he believes in Christ ought so to walk as he also walked. And the apostle Paul: Be imitators of me, he says, as I am of Christ.

"But God,"[adulterers and fornicators say,] "is good and most kind." He is "merciful, compassionate and rich in mercy," which "he prefers to every sacrifice." "He desires not so much the death as the repentance of the sinner." He is "the Savior of all people, and especially of the faithful." Therefore the children of God must also be "merciful" and "peacemakers," "forgiving each other as Christ also forgave us," "not judging, lest we be judged." For to "his master a man stands or falls; who are you to judge the servant of another?" "Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Yet many such things as these are only said, not done, merely bandied about, unmanning rather than strengthening discipline, flattering God and pandering to themselves.

Forget about burnt offerings, countless sacrifices and oblations of firstborn, he is saying. If you are concerned to appease the divinity, practice what God ordered you in the beginning through Moses. What in fact is that? To deliver fair judgment and decision in all cases where you have to choose better from worse, to continue giving evidence of all possible love and fellow-feeling to your neighbor, and be ready to put into practice what is pleasing to God in every way. He means, in short, "You will love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul, and you will love your neighbor as yourself," as was said of old through Moses. Do this, he is saying, as something preferable to sacrifices in God's eyes.

The voice of the Lord cries to the city, and there will be salvation for those who fear your name. LXX: The voice of the Lord will cry to the city, and he will save those who fear his name. In the Hebrew this is the beginning of the next section, but with the Seventy translators it is the end of the preceding one; and it has this sense: Your God asks nothing else of you, O man, except that you do judgment, and love mercy, and be ready to walk with your God. For the voice of the Lord is heard in his city, the Church, and resounds daily in the holy Scriptures, so that not only those who love mercy, but also those who are lower and still fear the name of the Lord, may be saved by his teaching and clemency. But if it is the beginning of the following section, let us refer it, according to the history, as said to Samaria, the metropolis of the ten tribes, which was captured while Micah was prophesying, and let us say: The Lord rebukes Samaria and threatens her with the blows that are to come, so that the people of Judah, or those who fear the name of the Lord, hearing that others suffer punishments, may themselves be seized with fear and obtain salvation. For when the pestilent man is scourged, not only the wise man but even the fool will become more prudent. And you will refer this very thing to sinners in general and to the just, so that the torment of some may become an example to the rest. This indeed the Lord also explains in the Gospel concerning those on whom the tower in Siloam had fallen: that they were not the only sinners in the whole people, but that their punishment was meant to provoke the rest to repentance.

Let us therefore return to the beginning of the section. And, discussing it first according to the letter, let us, with the help of your prayers, strive to attain the spiritual sense. Hear, ten tribes of Samaria, what the Lord solemnly declares to you: Still there is fire, that is, iniquity, in the house of the ungodly Omri, and the treasures of ungodliness persist in the royal house. Do you wish to hear, one by one, the evils of which your city is full? Learn: a scant measure that provokes the wrath of God, a deceitful balance and differing weights, and men who sell their wares by one weight and buy by another. And if indeed the poor were doing this, their want could have defended the crime by necessity. But as it is, her rich men are full not so much of riches as of iniquity, because all riches, while they despoil others, are begotten by iniquity. Lying follows the amassing of riches, and the hand accustomed to storing up treasures possesses a deceitful tongue. Truth begets poverty, lying begets riches.

Thus far we have set out what seemed right to us according to the Hebrew; now, returning to the translation of the LXX translators, let us discuss each point as best we can. The Samaritan tribe, which cut itself off from the people of God, is called to hear. And it is told: In vain you fashion idols, you put together golden calves with a craftsman's hand, and in imitation of Jerusalem you wish to build another metropolis; for who will be able to adorn the city? Can fire, which is kindled by the flaming darts of the devil, and the house of the wicked man, which according to its hardness and impenitent heart treasures up for itself wrath on the day of wrath, and of the revelation of the just judgment of God? And injury increases iniquity, so that it not only plunders from the house of God, which is the Church, but also lays waste what belongs to others with pride and haughtiness. Can he be justified who, without balance and weight, fraudulently gathers his riches from the testimonies of the Scriptures, riches which are treasures of iniquity? For although the Lord commands: There shall not be in your bag a great weight and a lesser, these men, for the sake of shameful gain, always respect persons in judgment, and in the same case judge rich and poor now one way, now another, not according to the matter but according to the difference of their means; and the inhabitants of their city, which they think they are adorning with depraved doctrines and perverse teaching, speak lies, and set their mouth on high, and despise the simplicity of the people of the Church.

Hence the most merciful God does not strike them all at once, but strives little by little to admonish them through blows, saying: And I will begin to strike you with ruin on account of your sins; and the sense is: O city which the heretics wish to build, I will strike you so that you perish, not unto abolition, but in so far as you are a sinner.

When your princes were doing this, I did not wish to overthrow you at once, but little by little I began to strike you and to warn you with various blows. I sent famine upon you, I sent thirst, I sent diseases, and devastation by the enemy round about; the crop did not bring forth grain, the pressed olive did not yield oil, barren vintages denied the wine. Against the iniquities, and the deceitful measures, and the fraudulent weights, I brought these punishments.

There follows: You shall eat, and not be satisfied. For they read and do not understand; and feeding on the words of the Scriptures, they suffer a want of truth. And I will cast out, he says, you; and you shall lay hold, and shall not save; and whoever shall be saved shall be handed over to the sword. I will abandon you, he says, to your own judgment; and after you have sought many things and found nothing, understanding your error, you will see that you cannot be saved by all your doctrines. But whoever think themselves satisfied, and have not been cast out from themselves, nor have grasped the truth, will be handed over to the sword, and will be instructed by punishments.

You shall sow, therefore, O tribe, and O most wicked city, which the heretics build with fire, and iniquity, and insults, and a deceitful balance, and a fraudulent bag; you shall sow, and not reap; you shall press the olive, and not be anointed with oil; and the grapes, and not drink wine. Indeed it profits you, once your error is recognized, that you may not have disciples, that you may not anoint your head with the oil of sinners, that you may not make drunk with the wine of Sodom those who drink it.

Hear, O tribes, and who will approve it?

Still there is fire in the house of the ungodly, treasures of ungodliness, and a scant measure full of wrath. Shall I justify an ungodly balance and the deceitful weights of the bag? By which her rich men were filled with iniquity, and those who dwell in her spoke lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. And I therefore have begun to strike you with ruin for your sins. You shall eat and not be satisfied, and your humiliation is in the midst of you; and you shall lay hold and shall not save; and those whom you save I will give to the sword. You shall sow and not reap, you shall tread the olive and not be anointed with oil, and the must, and not drink wine. And you have kept the precepts of Omri and every work of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their wills, that I might give you up to ruin, and those who dwell in her to hissing, and you shall bear the reproach of my people. LXX: Hear, O tribe, and who will adorn the city? Is it fire, and the house of the wicked man treasuring up wicked treasures, and iniquities with injury? Shall the wicked man be justified in the balance, and deceitful weights in the bag, from which they have filled up the riches of their ungodliness, and those who dwell in her have spoken wicked things, and their tongue is exalted in their mouth. And I have tormented you with ruin on account of your sins; you shall eat, and not be satisfied; and I will cast you out into yourself, and you shall lay hold, and shall not save; and whoever shall be saved shall be handed over to the sword; you shall sow and not reap; you shall press the olive and not be anointed with oil; and the grape, and not drink wine; and the statutes of my people shall be scattered, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I might hand you over to ruin, and its inhabitants to hissing, and you shall receive the reproaches of the peoples. In this section the LXX disagree greatly with the Hebrew truth, and most of all at the beginning: Hear, O tribe, and who will adorn the city? And the statutes of my people shall be scattered. In place of which we have put, for the sake of the coherence of the discourse: And you have kept the precepts of Omri, although in the Hebrew too it is written: And the precepts of Omri have been kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab. For if Ammi had been written in the Hebrew, the LXX would rightly have translated it 'of my people'; but as it is, since Amri is written, with the letter res added, it denotes not the name of the people but the father of Ahab, of whom the history of Kings relates, and no one is in doubt that it is an error. In short, after the father's name the son is placed, and it is said: And all the works of the house of Ahab.

But because you kept all the ceremonies of idolatry which Omri, the ungodly king, had established, and observed every work of the house of Ahab and Jezebel in place of my law, I was driven by your crime to give you and your inhabitants up to hissing, and that you should bear the reproach of my people, while, taken captive by the Assyrians, you are conquered as if you were the people of God, and on your account my name is blasphemed among the nations. It should be noted in the present passage that where we read: And you shall bear the reproach of my people, or, as the LXX translated: You shall receive the reproaches of the peoples, Ammi is written in the Hebrew for 'of my people'. If, then, Ammi means 'of my people', no one doubts that above, for Amri, 'my people' was wrongly translated.

And the statutes of my people, or of Omri, shall be destroyed, and all the works of the house of Ahab, of those who stood forth as patriarchs and princes in the heresies. These we can refer either to the contrary powers or to the heresiarchs, such as were Marcion and Basilides, and recently Arius and Eunomius. And you walked in their wills, namely those of Omri and Ahab. And he says well, in their wills. For the teaching of wicked masters is not the teaching of God, but the inventions of their heart. And I will hand you over to ruin, so that you perish in so far as you are heretical. And your inhabitants to hissing, either so that you may follow the hissing of the good shepherd, according to Zechariah, who says: I will hiss for them and gather them, because I have redeemed them. Or surely to the hissing of the dragon, that is, to the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved, and that, being corrected, they may learn not to blaspheme. And they will suffer all this so that they may understand their error, that they have borne the reproaches and sins of all nations and of many peoples. I know that some have referred to the Church what we have interpreted of the heresies. But how the name of Omri and Ahab, princes of Samaria, can be referred to Jerusalem and Judah, under whose names the Church is interpreted, I do not well understand.