Zechariah 1

Already at the very end of autumn our brother, your son the monk Sisinnius, delivered to me a letter from your Grace; on reading it I rejoiced that you are safe and well, and mindful of me and of all the brothers who serve the Lord in the holy places, in whose relief you make friends for yourself of the unrighteous mammon and prepare eternal tabernacles, so that you can say with David: How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of powers; my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. For if the sparrow has found a house for itself, and the turtledove a nest for itself where it may lay its young, why should you, who are a high priest of the Lord, and tread the winepresses at the end of the world so as to give to thirsting peoples the wine of the blood of Christ, not freely cry out and say: My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God; blessed are those who dwell in your house. Having heard that you, in the valley of tears, in the place which God has set for the contest so as to give a crown to those who conquer, are arranging ascents in your heart, and going from strength to strength, and imitating the poverty of the Lord, that with him you may become rich, and that he may lay his head upon you, and day by day be received, visited, fed and clothed; and that above all you are fervent in the reading of the holy Scriptures. And since I desired to offer you some little gift of my poor talent, and the exposition I had begun on the twelve prophets was coming to its close, I was unwilling to abandon the work I had undertaken, but what I would have dictated even without you I have consecrated above all to your name; and I am glad that the most obscure book of the prophet Zechariah, and the longest among the twelve, is to be expounded at a time when, because of the haste of him who is to return, the interpretation suffers no delay; but, willing or unwilling, I am compelled to dictate, at least in hours gained and stolen by night, what I am to send you. Origen wrote two volumes on this prophet, reaching from the beginning to the third part of the book. Hippolytus also published commentaries, and Didymus, at my request, dictated five books of exposition, which, with three others on Hosea, he also προσεφώνησεν (dedicated) to me; but their whole ἐξήγησις (exposition) was allegorical, and they barely touched a few points of the history. Therefore, desiring to imitate that householder who brings forth from his treasure things new and old, and the bride of the Song of Songs, who says: New with old, my kinsman, I have kept for you, I have mingled the tropology of our writers with the history of the Hebrews, so as to build upon the rock and not upon the sand, and to lay a firm foundation, which Paul the architect wrote that he had laid. It will be for your kindness to look up, not to our learning, which is either none or small, but to the will that leans toward you, so that you may spur us on to the rest and urge us to run in the long field of the Scriptures. But if there are any to whom I previously promised an interpretation both of these and of other books, let them pardon my incredible love for you, and let them consider whatever I have written to you as written to themselves: For love is kind, love is not envious, it does not seek its own. But now it is time that, setting down the words of Zechariah, we spread the sails of interpretation to the Holy Spirit.

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying. LXX: In the eighth month of the second year under Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying. That in the second year of Darius son of Hystaspes the seventieth year of the desolation of the temple, which had been foretold by Jeremiah, was completed, Zechariah himself is witness, saying: O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which you are angry? Behold, this is the seventieth year; and no one doubts that Cyrus, king of the Persians, who destroyed the empire of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign sent back from Babylon into Judea about fifty thousand captives; he also returned the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off, and ordered the temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and he appointed as leaders of the people that returned Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. So when Cyrus, who reigned thirty years among the Persians, had been killed among the Massagetae by Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, his son Cambyses succeeded to the kingdom; and when he had completed eight years, he had as successors two brothers, magi; and when these had been killed by the people, Darius son of Hystaspes was made king of the Persians by the decision of the seven families. In the second year of his reign the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai, and to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. On Haggai we have already spoken; on the title of Zechariah a few things must be said. Since he is the son of Berechiah, the question is asked why he is called the son of Iddo. Nor is it doubted, according to the book of Chronicles, that he is that Iddo who was sent to Jeroboam son of Nebat, under whom the altar was torn down and the king's hand withered, and at his prayers was restored again. Therefore from the first year of King Cyrus to the second year of Darius son of Hystaspes forty years are reckoned, in which only the altar had been built and the foundations of the temple laid, since the neighboring nations round about were hindering the work, and so was Cambyses, king of the Persians, who had sent letters on this matter to the governors of Syria Κοίλης (Hollow), and of Phoenicia and Samaria. Ezra wrote the history of this more fully. But Haggai began to prophesy in the sixth month, on the first day of that month; Zechariah, for his part, in the same year indeed, but not in the same month, for two months later, in the eighth month of the year, he poured out his prophecy. Hence, rightly, according to the order of the twelve prophets, the former is placed tenth and the latter eleventh. And it is a mark of great confidence, nay rather of hope and faith in God, that what had been left undone for so long a time, whether through the king's prohibition or the nations', they should begin to do at the stirring of two men. These things, according to the history, we have set down first in our usual manner. Now we must discuss them briefly according to ἀναγωγὴν (anagogy). The eighth month among the Hebrews, which among them is called Marcheshvan, among the Egyptians Athir, and among us November, is the beginning of winter; in it, the heat of summer being spent, all the earth is stripped of its green, and the bodies of mortals are contracted, and there is no solemnity from the Law. For it is written that three times in the year every male must appear before the Lord our God. The first festival is that of unleavened bread, the Phase, which among us is called Pascha in Greek and Latin speech. The second is that of Pentecost, after seven weeks, in which the loaves of proposition are first offered from the new crops. The third, in the seventh month, is that of trumpets, of propitiation and of tabernacles, that is, σκηνοπηγίας, whose last day is called the day of departure and of the end. So the people, placed in captivity and still under the king of the Persians, with the temple not yet built and the ramparts and walls of the city not yet raised, sees prophecy not in a time of gladness, but after gladness. And yet it had the remembrance of the Lord, and because of the remembrance, blessing, and on account of the blessing, testimony. For this reason Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, is sent to it. Zechariah is interpreted remembrance of the Lord; Berechiah, blessing of the Lord; Iddo, his testimony. Let us see, then, what the word of the Lord, which was in the beginning with God the Father, spoke to the people in the prophet Zechariah.

The Lord was angry with your fathers in anger, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, says the Lord of hosts; be not like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried, saying. LXX: The Lord was angry with your fathers with great wrath, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Turn to me, says the Lord of powers, and I will turn to you, says the Lord of powers; and do not become like your fathers, whom the prophets who were before rebuked, saying. The wrath of the Lord does not signify a disturbance in him who is angry, but the deserts and sins of those against whom the wrath of God rages; for the rest, the Lord never takes vengeance in anger, but rebukes in order to amend. Hence the prophet also prays in the psalms: O Lord, do not reprove me in your fury, nor rebuke me in your wrath, and in another place we read: Rebuke us, O Lord, yet not in your fury, but in mercy. So the Lord was angry with the fathers of those who are now being rebuked, not, as the Seventy translators have it, with great wrath, but simply with wrath. For if he had been angry with great wrath, he would never have called the captives to repentance through Daniel and Ezekiel.

Free will and God's grace are simultaneously commended. When God says, "Turn to me, and I will turn to you," one of these clauses—that which invites our return to God—evidently belongs to our will; while the other, which promises his return to us, belongs to his grace. Here, possibly, the Pelagians think they have justification for their opinion, which they so prominently advance, that God's grace is given according to our merits. In the east, indeed, that is to say, in the province of Palestine, in which is the city of Jerusalem, Pelagius, when examined in person by the bishop, did not venture to affirm this. For it happened that among the objections which were brought up against him, this in particular was objected, that he maintained that the grace of God is given according to our merits, an opinion which was so diverse from Catholic doctrine and so hostile to the grace of Christ that unless he had anathemized it, as laid to his charge, he himself must have been anathemized on its account. He pronounced, indeed, the required anathema upon the dogm;a, but how insincerely his later books plainly show; for in them he maintains absolutely no other opinion than that the grace of God is given according to our merits. Such passages do they collect out of the Scriptures—like the one which I just now quoted, "Turn to me, and I will turn to you"—as if it were owing to the merits of our turning to God that his grace were given us, wherein he himself even turns to us. Now the persons who hold this opinion fail to observe that unless our turning to God were itself God's gift, it would not be said to him in prayer, "Turn us again, O God of hosts," and, "You, O God, will turn and quicken us," and again, "Turn us, O God of our salvation"—with other passages of similar import, too numerous to mention here. For with respect to our coming to Christ, what else does it mean than our being turned to him by believing? And yet he says, "No man can come to me, except it were given to him of my Father."

If we are entirely devoted to God and humbly implore his mercy, through the mercy of God we may deserve to be healed of all our infirmities, rescued from all our sins, set free from the frequent flooding of waters. We ought to believe for certain, dearest brothers, that if our sins cease, the divine mercy will immediately remove the punishments that were due to us. Thus he himself has deigned to promise through the prophet when he said, "Return to me, and I will return to you," and again, "If you groan and return to me, then you shall be saved." Therefore let us turn to a better life while the remedies are still in our power. By our good deeds let us summon to mercy the kind and merciful Lord whom we provoked by our sins. According to his usual practice, he will then deign to keep adversities from us and in his clemency to grant us good fortune.

And although he was angry with them, it is to you that the Lord of hosts speaks, for which Sabaoth is set down in the Hebrew, which the Seventy sometimes translated 'Almighty', sometimes 'of powers'. And he says: Turn to me, and I will turn to you, according to what we read: Draw near to the Lord, and he will draw near to you. To which this is the contrary: You have withdrawn from me, and I have withdrawn from you. Now he commands those who have returned from Babylon to return to the Lord, so that the Lord too may return to them, lest the sons begin to suffer what their fathers once suffered, to whom the prophets of that time likewise spoke. It is to be noted that in a few short verses and brief sentences, in Haggai and Zechariah, says the Lord of hosts is always added, so that they may know that it is God who commands, both against the command of the king and against the enemies raging round about; and that by this confidence they may be roused to the building of the temple.

Indeed, God is good to everyone, but he shows his patient endurance especially to those who sin. And if you want to hear a paradoxical statement—paradoxical because it is not customary, but true for the great piety it reveals—listen. God always seems to be severe to the righteous but good to sinners and quick to clemency. He restores the one who sinned and fell and tells him, "Shall not he who falls arise; or he that turns away, shall he not turn back again?" And "Why did that stupid daughter of Judah turn away with a shameless revolting?" And again, "Return to me, and I will return to you." Elsewhere he assures with an oath the salvation from repentance by much clemency. " 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'I do not desire the death of a sinner, but that he should turn from his way and live.' " To the righteous he says, "If a man achieves every righteousness and truth and later turns from his way and sins, I will not remember his righteousness, but he will die in his sin." O such strictness toward the righteous! O such abundant forgiveness toward the sinner! He finds so many different means, without himself changing, to keep the righteous in check and forgive the sinner, by usefully dividing his rich goodness.

But not all who see are equally enlightened by Christ, but each is enlightened according to that measure by which he is able to receive the force of the light. And just as the eyes of our body are not equally enlightened by the sun, but the higher one ascends into lofty places and beholds its rising by the gazing of a more elevated watchtower, so much the more will he receive both of its splendor and its heat; so also our mind, the more loftily and highly it approaches Christ and presents itself nearer to the splendor of his light, so much the more magnificently and clearly will it be irradiated by his light, as he himself also says through the prophet: "Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you, says the Lord." And again he says: "I am a God drawing near, and not a God from afar."

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn from your evil ways, and from your most wicked thoughts; and they did not hear, nor did they attend to me, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Turn from your most wicked ways, and from your evil devices, and they did not attend so as to hear me, says the Lord. The sentence hangs on what precedes, and what follows must be fitted to what came before. For Zechariah is not speaking to the people, but is showing what the former prophets said to their fathers, to whom they cried, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn from your evil ways and from your most wicked thoughts. This is what Isaiah cried, this Hosea and Joel, Amos and Jeremiah: that they should forsake their evil ways and abandon their most wicked thoughts, by which they were sinning both in deed and in mind; and nevertheless they did not hear the Lord warning them through the prophets, nor did they attend, not at all to the prophets who were speaking to them, but to me, says the Lord: for in them it was I who was speaking and being despised. Hence the Lord also says in the Gospel: He who receives you, he says, receives me.

Your fathers, where are they, and the prophets? Will they live forever? But my words and my ordinances, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? And they turned and said: As the Lord of hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and according to our devices, he has done to us. LXX: Your fathers, where are they, and the prophets? Will they live forever? But receive my words and my ordinances, which I command in my spirit to my servants the prophets, who overtook your fathers. And they answered and said: As the Lord Almighty was prepared to do to us according to our ways and according to our devices, so he has done to us. Where, he says, are your fathers, who did not hear me nor attend to me? Where are your prophets? For it is to be understood Ἀπὸ κοινοῦ (from the shared word): Your fathers, where are they, and your prophets, where are they? that is, the false prophets; for he would never say of the holy prophets: Will they live forever? So, when both those who sinned and refused to return to me, and those who deceived the sinners with false promises, have been taken away by death, my words, which I spoke through my prophets, remain forever; they overtook your fathers and showed that what I said was true. And your fathers, proving upon themselves by the outcome of events the prophecies of my prophets, turned to repentance and said: As the Lord of hosts foretold that he would do to us, according to our works and sins he has repaid us. Let us read Daniel confessing to the Lord, in his own person and in that of the people, that they had refused to hear him, and that whatever they had suffered had befallen them justly.

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying. LXX: On the twenty-fourth, in the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year under Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying. Some put the twelfth month in place of the eleventh, and, interpreting the twenty-fourth day of that month by arithmetical reckonings, suppose it to be a square, firm and stable number, wishing the things that are written to be certain and stable. But let us say that in the same second year of King Darius, in the third month after the first vision, that is, in the eleventh after the eighth, which among the Hebrews is called Shebat, the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah. That the second number is unclean, and pertains to the union of the flesh, and to the things of the world and of matter, we have often taught. Now the eleventh month, which is called Shebat, and in our language is rendered 'rod', sounds of severity and rebuke, according to that saying of the Apostle: What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod? And of the psalmist, who says: Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me. And it falls in the very bitter season of winter, and is called mechir by the Egyptians, περίτϊος by the Macedonians, and February by the Romans. The twenty-fourth day of the month, too, signifies a conspicuous shadow of night, as the moon wanes into darkness and the blind and continual dread of night increases. Hence, fittingly, those who were still in captivity, and for the greater part of them were in exile among the Medes and Chaldeans and Assyrians, in the second year, and in the most severe cold of the eleventh month, and on the twenty-fourth day of that month, see for the Jewish people the things that follow.

[Daniel 7:5] "And behold another beast like a bear stood up on one side; and there were three rows in his mouth and in his teeth; and they said to him: 'Arise up and devour flesh in abundance.'" The second beast resembling a bear is the same as that of which we read in the vision of the statue (2:32): "His chest and arms were of silver." In the former case the comparison was based on the hardness of the metal, in this case on the ferocity of the bear. For the Persian kingdom followed a rigorous and frugal manner of life after the manner of the Spartans, and that too to such an extent that they used to use salt and nasturtium-cress in their relish. Let us consult the record of the childhood of Cyrus the Great (i.e., "The Education or Training" of Cyrus). And as for the fact that the bear is said to have "stood up on one side," the Hebrews interpret it by saying that the Persians never perpetrated any cruelty against Israel. Hence they are described in the Prophecy of Zechariah also as white horses (Zechariah 1:7-11). But as for the three rows or ranks that were in his mouth and between his teeth, one authority has interpreted this to mean that allusion was made to the fact that the Persian kingdom was divided up among three princes, just as we read in the sections dealing with Belshazzar and with Darius that there were three princes who were in charge of the one hundred and twenty satraps. But other commentators affirm that these were three kings of the Persians who were subsequent to Cyrus, and yet they fail to mention them by name. But we know that after Cyrus's reign of thirty years his son Cambyses ruled among the Persians, and his brothers the magi, and then Darius, in the second year of whose reign the rebuilding of the Temple was commenced at Jerusalem. The fifth king was Xerxes, the son of Darius; the sixth was Artabanus; the seventh, Artaxerxes who was surnamed Makrokheir, that is Longimanus ("Long-handed"); the eighth, Xerxes; the ninth, Sogdianus; the tenth, Darius surnamed Nothos ("Bastard"); the eleventh, the Artaxerxes called Mnemon, that is, "The Rememberer"; the twelfth, the other Artaxerxes, who himself received the surname of Ochus; the thirteenth, Arses, the son of Ochus; and the fourteenth, Darius the son of Arsamus, who was conquered by Alexander, the king of the Macedonians. How then can we say that these were three kings of the Persians? Of course we could select some who were especially cruel, but we cannot ascertain them on the basis of the historical accounts. Therefore the three rows in the mouth of the Persian kingdom and between its teeth we must take to be the three kingdoms of the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians, all of which were reduced to a single realm. And as for the information, "And thus they spake to him: 'Devour flesh in abundance,'" this refers to the time when in the reign of the Ahasuerus whom the Septuagint calls Artaxerxes, the order was given, at the suggestion of Haman the Agagite, that all the Jews be slaughtered on a single day (Esther 3:13). And very properly, instead of saying, "He was devouring them" the account specifies, "Thus they spake unto him..." This shows that the matter was only attempted, and was by no means ever carried out.

I saw by night, and behold, a man mounting a red horse, and he was standing among the myrtle groves that were in the deep, and behind him horses red, dappled and white. And I said: What are these, my lord? And the angel who was speaking in me said to me: I will show you what these are. And the man who was standing among the myrtle groves answered and said: These are they whom the Lord has sent to walk through the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord, who was standing among the myrtle groves, and said: We have walked through the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and at rest. And the angel of the Lord answered and said: O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which you are angry? This is the seventieth year. And the Lord answered the angel who was speaking in me good words, words of consolation. LXX: I saw in the night, and behold, a man mounting a red horse, and he was standing between two shady mountains, and behind him horses red, and dappled, and white. And I said: What are these, lord? And the angel who was speaking in me said to me: I will show you what these are. And the man who was standing between the mountains answered and said to me: These are they whom the Lord has sent to go round the earth. And they answered the angel of the Lord, who was standing between the mountains, and said: We have gone round all the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and at rest. And the angel of the Lord answered and said: O Lord Almighty, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which you are angry? This is the seventieth year. And the Lord answered the angel who was speaking in me good words and consoling speeches. Let us first discuss the history: I saw, he says, by night, not by day, like Moses, who saw God face to face, and Isaiah, who said: I saw the Lord upon a throne high and lifted up, before the people was led into captivity, before Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed; but now, with the people still set in the evils of servitude, he discerns in darkness the things he sees on their behalf. And behold, a man mounting a red horse. This the Hebrews think is the angel Michael, who is the avenger of the iniquities and sins of Israel. And as to his having stood among the myrtle groves that were in the deep, they want the myrtles to be understood as the prophets and saints who were living in the midst of the captive people and were in the deep; and the man, that is, Michael, was followed by horses red and dappled and white, the order, as they suppose, being changed, so that the white signify the Medes and Persians, because under them the captivity was released and the temple restored; the dappled, the Macedonians, some of whom were friends, others persecutors — the last vision of Daniel speaks most fully on this —; and the red, the kingdom of the Romans, bloody and murderous, which slew the people and overthrew the temple. Others, however, keeping the order as it is written, interpret the man who mounted the red horse, and the red, dappled and white horses, as four kingdoms. The first and second, the bloody ones, are the Assyrians and Chaldeans, the first of whom led the ten tribes captive under Shalmaneser, the second Judah and Benjamin, when the city of Jerusalem had been burned and the temple overthrown. The third and fourth, the dappled and white, they think signify the Medes and Persians, some of whom were merciful, like Cyrus, and Darius son of Hystaspes, and Ahasuerus, whom the Greeks call Artaxerxes, under whom the story of Esther is fulfilled, and others cruel, like Cambyses and the rest.

But the teachers of the churches understand the night in which the vision is seen as the obscurity of a mystical vision. For God made darkness his hiding place. And according to the Seventy translators it is said of him: The abyss like a garment is his clothing. Now the man who was mounting the red horse is the Lord and Savior, who, taking it up for the dispensation of our flesh, hears in Isaiah: Why are your garments red? He who is now shown as red to the captive people is described in the Apocalypse of John as sitting in white garments and on a white horse. And as to his being said to stand between two shady mountains — although 'two' is not found in the Hebrew — they take them as the New and the Old Testament, which is said to be covered with very dense foliage, and grove, and shady woods, because it is wrapped in many obscurities. And the myrtle groves that were in the deep, among which he is described as standing, they understand as the angelic powers, which ministered to him even when he was set in the flesh. Or else, removing what is not written, 'two', we can take the mountains absolutely and without number as very many saints, and the apostles and apostolic men, who are recorded as having traveled through the whole world, red, and dappled, and white; of whom some are crowned with martyrdom and are called red; others, for their works and teaching and the variety of their signs, are named dappled; others have received the rewards of virginity and of uncorrupted doctrines, and of the pure heart, which sees God.

It is quite clear that all the things shown to the prophet were tokens of certain realities, just as Joseph saw sheaves, sun, moon and stars, each of which carried a clue to some coming event, and the Pharaoh saw ears of corn and oxen, some fat and some skinny, and by these as well other events were signified from what was shown. In exactly the same way the prophet also sees these things by divine revelation, and each of the things shown him contained some sign or indication of a reality. Likewise blessed Peter also saw a cloth let down from heaven, full of various living creatures clean and unclean, and the vision contained a clue to some other things.

It is clear that those who were seen are invisible powers, "sent for service," according to the divine apostle, "for the sake of those who are due to inherit salvation." Their natures are not seen, however, being incorporeal: he who is Lord of them and of everyone else renders them discernible according to need in each case. The divine Scripture clearly teaches us this, giving a glimpse of their different forms: Daniel saw them in one fashion, Ezekiel in another fashion, and Isaiah and Micah in different forms. Not that they have many forms, being naturally incorporeal and spiritual: the Lord of all when need arises gives them a form for discernment. This he did also in the case of Zechariah: he reveals to him the angel who is a leader of the people; St. Michael was this angel.

Likewise, who will tell with what bodies angels appear to people, in such fashion as not to be visible but to be tangible? And again how, not through tangible corporeality but by spiritual power, angels produce certain visions, not to the eyes of the body but to those of the spirit or the mind, or can utter speech, not of the ear from without, but within the soul of humans, being themselves placed there, as is written in the book of the prophets: "And the angel that spoke in me said to me" (for what the prophet says is not "that spoke to me," but "in me").… They appear also in sleep and speak through dreams (for we read in the Gospel: "Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying"). These methods of communication tend to show that the angels have intangible bodies, and make it a very difficult question how the patriarchs could wash the feet of angels, and how Jacob could wrestle with an angel in contact so unmistakable. Asking these questions and answering them with such guesses as we can is not a useless exercise for the mind, if the discussion is kept within bounds and if those who take part avoid the error of thinking they know what they do not know. For what need is there of affirming or denying or making nice distinctions about these and similar matters, when ignorance of them imputes no blame?

I will hear what the Lord God speaks within me. The prophet prays on behalf of the people, and he who speaks within himself while God speaks, and he says, I will hear what the Lord God speaks within me. You see that God speaks not in the ears but in the heart; just as Zechariah too says: "And the angel who spoke within me said to me." There the angel is understood to be our Lord, who announces the will of the Father, who in Isaiah is called the "angel of great counsel." I will hear what the Lord God speaks within me: I will incline the ear of my heart, that I may hear what the Lord God speaks within me.

So when the prophet saw a man mounting a red horse, and behind him red, dappled and white horses, and did not know what he had seen, and desired to know the meaning of his vision, and said: What are these, my lord? the angel who was speaking in him promises that he will tell; and while he keeps silent, the man who was standing among the myrtle groves relates it. These are the kingdoms which the Lord commanded to walk through the earth and to subject it to their power.

Then the prophet questions the same man and angel who was standing among the myrtle groves, and says: What are these, my lord? And the angel who was speaking in him, namely the prophetic sense, promises that he will show what he sees. And when he has promised, it is not he himself who answered, but another who was standing among the myrtle groves, and he says: These are they whom the Lord has sent to walk through the earth. For the apostles were sent by the Lord to fill the whole world with the preaching of the Gospel; and after they had fulfilled the work, they returned to the angel of great counsel who was standing among them (they who said with the Apostle: We are the good odor of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing) and among the peoples of both callings. And they said to him: We have walked through the earth, we have fulfilled the work enjoined on us, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and at rest, which before was deserted by God; now it is his dwelling, it rests from wars, from the battles of the vices and from sins, because it has received the inheritance of the Lord as he returned to the Father and said: My peace I give you, my peace I leave you.

In short, the angels who presided over the kingdoms and nations come not to another, but to the man himself and angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle groves, and say: We have walked through the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and at rest. And the sense is: All the kingdoms under us are safe and pacified, and are not oppressed by any distress.

"And the devil came with them." What are you saying? "With the angels?" He who rebelled, who dishonored himself? Do not worry, my dear; this is an image, a figure. It is like another passage in the [First] Book of Kings, where it is said, "And there came forth an evil spirit, and the Lord said, 'Who will deceive Ahab?' " And the spirit responded: "I will deceive him," and he indicates it in such a way. The Scripture often takes on an anthropomorphic character.… The angels came, according to the text, and the devil came with them having compassed the earth and walked around in the subcelestial regions. What do we understand by that? That the earth is filled with demons and angels, and that both are under the power of God; and that the angels present themselves before God, from whom they receive orders; and that the devil can do nothing to please himself, if he has not received permission for it from above. For if he has totally rejected the bridle and is no longer in service to God, he is not in the least held back by fear as by a bit which restrains him from using his own power. But note this: whereas the angels present themselves as servants who render an account to him of their doings, as one can see in Zechariah, the devil has nothing to say to him. Consequently the expression "he came with them" means nothing else but that he too is dependent on God.… What does the expression therefore signify? It signifies that he is with them in the world. In the same way as deceitful people and good people are mixed, so are the angels and the demons.

[Daniel 5:2] "Being now drunken, he therefore gave order that the golden and silver vessels be brought in which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken away from the temple which was in Jerusalem, in order that the king might drink from them..." The Hebrews hand down some such story as this: that up until the seventieth year, on which Jeremiah had said (Jeremiah 25:11) that the captivity of the Jewish people would be released (a matter of which Zechariah also speaks [Zechariah 1:12] in the first part of his book), Belshazzar had esteemed God's promise to be of none effect; therefore he turned the failure of the promise into an occasion of joy and arranged a great banquet, scoffing somewhat at the expectation of the Jews and at the vessels of the Temple of God. Punishment, however, immediately ensued. And as to the fact that the author calls Nebuchadnezzar the father of Belshazzar, he does not make any mistake in the eyes of those who are acquainted with the Holy Scripture's manner of speaking, for in the Scripture all progenitors and ancestors are called fathers. This factor also should be borne in mind, that he was not sober when he did these things, but rather when he was intoxicated and forgetful of the punishment which had come upon his progenitor, Nebuchadnezzar.

From this answer the angel who interceded for Israel, taking the occasion to pray for the people, also says to the Lord: Since the whole world is quiet and at peace, why, O Lord, will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, especially since, according to your promises, the time of the captivity has been fulfilled?

And as to the plea, full of mercy, that, with the seventieth year at hand, God should have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, they refer it to this understanding: that until true peace comes, and the sabbath rest, and the number of seven decades, that is, the seventieth year, is fulfilled, neither does Jerusalem, which is interpreted vision of peace and is the Church, receive full liberty, nor do the cities of Judah, the souls that confess the Lord.

And the Lord answered the angel who was speaking in the prophet good words, words of consolation: good concerning the promise of things to come, consoling concerning the need of things present. These things we have given according to the letter, lest we should seem to hide from our own people what we have learned from teachers of a foreign tongue.

In short, the Lord answered good words and words of consolation, which now we see in part and prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, may the things that are in part be done away, and, set free from the Babylon of this world, may we cry out: When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became as those consoled.

And the angel who spoke in me said to me: Cry out, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy, and with great anger I am angry with the wealthy nations; for I was angry a little, but they helped toward evil. Therefore thus says the Lord: I will return to Jerusalem in mercies, and my house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts; and the plumb line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. LXX: And the angel who spoke in me said to me: Cry out, saying: Thus says the Lord Almighty: I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy, and with great anger I am angry with the nations that have been set on top, because I indeed was angry a little, but they have set themselves on top unto evils. Therefore thus says the Lord: I will turn to Jerusalem in mercy, and my house shall be restored in it, says the Lord Almighty; and the measure shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. These are still good words, words of consolation, which the prophet is now commanded to cry out: that the Lord has been jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy. But he who is jealous shows that he loves her for whom he is jealous, by no means saying through Jeremiah: As a woman despises her husband, so the house of Israel has despised me. To her the Lord used to speak through Ezekiel: Being angry, I will no longer be angry with you, and my jealousy has departed from you.

Jerusalem and Zion, the vision of peace and the watchtower, which looks not on the wars of this world, nor on things lowly and earthly, but on peace and concord and the heights of heaven, can be understood as the Church. Angry with her because of vices and sins and charity growing colder every day, the Lord will hand her over to persecutions, so that, as in a smelting furnace, pure gold and silver may appear. But the adversaries to whom she has been handed over, striving to blot her out, fill Jerusalem with the blood of the slain from gate to gate.

He, then, who was jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, which are, moreover, one and the same city, is now angry with the wealthy nations, which he named above as the red, white and speckled horses: because he himself handed them over to be chastened, but they raged against those handed over; he wished them corrected as a son by a tutor, they tried to kill and punish them as an enemy. Like this is that passage in Isaiah: I gave them into your hands, but you showed them no mercy. On the old man you made the yoke very heavy, and you said: I shall be mistress forever. Now jealousy is taken ἀνθρωποπάθως (in human fashion), in the same way as anger. By this passage the heretics who disparage the Old Testament are refuted, since God, when he is angry, desires not to destroy those with whom he is angry, but to amend them.

Because, therefore, he says, I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy, which the adversaries have pressed down more than I wished, therefore thus says the Lord: I will return to Jerusalem not in one mercy but in many mercies, and my house, that is, the temple, shall be built in it under Zerubbabel and Joshua son of Jehozadak; and the plumb line of the masons shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.

Hence the Lord, promising peace and mercy, says that he will build her again, and that the plumb line, or the cord, is to be stretched out in her according to the measures and ranks of each one. What the cord is, is shown in the following passage, where the prophet says: I lifted up my eyes and saw: and behold, a man, and in his hand a measurers' cord. And the temple of the Lord which the adversaries destroyed can also be understood as the venerable body of the Lord, of which he himself said: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Destroyed in the passion, it was raised in the resurrection, and it was the seedbed and the beginning of all temples, of which the Apostle too speaks: You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Cry out yet, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet my cities shall overflow with good things; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. LXX: And the angel who spoke in me said to me: Cry out yet, saying: Thus says the Lord Almighty: Yet the cities shall be poured out in good things, and the Lord shall yet have mercy on Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. The angel who had said to the prophet above: Cry out; thus says the Lord of hosts, now too urges him to cry out, not with the straining of the voice but of the mind; and this is what he commands him to cry out: Yet my cities shall overflow with good things; those which you now see laid waste by the Babylonian fire shall again abound in all things, and with present good things the Lord shall console their past misery, and shall choose Jerusalem, which a little before he had cast off. But if we refer it to the Church, to which he promises true and everlasting good things, those good things must be believed to be the ones of which we read it written: May you see the good things of Jerusalem, and in another place: If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land, and that saying: You shall trust in the Lord, and he shall lift you up above the good things of the earth. These a wise man, to whom the Lord had revealed the uncertain and hidden things of his wisdom, promises himself in the hope of things to come, and says: I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. With these good things, now that peace has been restored after the fires of the most savage persecution which the churches of the Lord endured both from the Gentiles and from the Arian heretics, we see the churches of the Lord overflow, and Zion consoled, and Jerusalem chosen, which he had formerly cast away. This very thing we can also understand both of the temple of the Lord and of each one of the believers. Some refer the consoled Zion and the chosen Jerusalem, and the other things that are proclaimed in this manner by all the prophets, to the heavenly Jerusalem, which, destroyed through a fall, is to be built up through virtues. All of which we shall more rightly interpret of the Church.