Zechariah 10

Let us not, therefore, know God by halves or make his lovingkindness an excuse for our indolence; for this, his thunders, for this, his lightnings—that his goodness may not be held in despite. He who causes the sun to rise also strikes people with blindness. He who sends the rain also causes the rain of fire. By the one he manifests his goodness; by the other, his severity. For the one let us love him, for the other let us fear, that it may not be said also to us, "Or despise you the riches of his goodness and patience and longsuffering? Know you not that the mercy of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath."

Ask of the Lord rain in the late season, and the Lord will make snows and will give them showers of rain, to each one grass in the field. For the idols have spoken what is useless, and the diviners have seen a lie, and the dreamers have spoken in vain, they comforted vainly; therefore they have been led away like a flock, they shall be afflicted, because they have no shepherd. LXX: Ask rain of the Lord in due season, early and late. The Lord has made phantasies, and he will give them winter rain, to each one grass in the field, for those who spoke have spoken troubles; and the diviners false visions, and they have spoken false dreams, they comforted vainly; therefore they have been dried up like sheep, and they have been afflicted because there was none to heal. This happiness which was promised for the time of the Maccabees, when the holy stones were lifted up over the land and the Israelite state grew greater, so much that the peoples again fed on the grain of the law, and your virgins were made drunk with the wine of the Holy Spirit, is promised in part. But since it is now the last time of the prophets, and the world is declining toward its end, and all the things that have been foretold await their fulfilment, ask of the Lord that he give you the late rain, that the Christ who has been promised may come and grant you dews and snows, for which azizim is written in the Hebrew. And I do not know what the LXX meant in translating phantasies, unless perhaps they wished to describe the greatness of the grace and the wonder of the gifts by the name of phantasy. So the Lord, who is to make the snows and is to water the dryness of the whole earth with the rains of the Gospel preaching, will himself give showers to those who believe, and all things will be filled with abundance, so that, after the nations have believed in Christ, they may understand that the things they worshipped before are vain.

But according to the spiritual understanding we can say that the Lord exhorts those who believe in Christ to ask for the late rain at the consummation of the world, when the fullness of grace is to be given, and grass will grow up for each one in his own field, so that they may be able to say: The Lord rules me, and I shall lack nothing; in a place of pasture, there he has set me, beside the waters of refreshment he has brought me up.

Or else Israel itself, which was once deceived and held fast by the errors of idolatry, may understand that it worshipped idols in vain, and listened to the lies of diviners, and acquiesced in dreams, which Scripture commands us not to believe. And for this reason they were led like a flock into captivity, and afflicted, without God as their shepherd, because they did not have knowledge of the law. This whole place is obscure and doubtful, and the reader ought to pardon us if, in things that are ambiguous, we too walk with a hesitant step.

For all the idols, and the diviners and the dreamers, have spoken in vain, and comforted vainly. These things he says of the heretics, who under the Christian name understand neither what they are saying nor what they are affirming, and who give heed to erring spirits and to teachers of demons who speak lies in hypocrisy, and have their conscience seared, so that, being by no means believers, they are led away by the consolations of those who promise vain things; and for this reason they have been handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, and led away into the captivity of the king of Babylon, and they shall be afflicted, because they do not have Christ as their shepherd, whom they promise themselves under a false name.

Observe, you who are our beloved sons, how merciful yet righteous the Lord our God is, how gracious and kind to humankind. And yet most certainly "he will not acquit the guilty," though he welcomes returning sinners and revives them, leaving no room for suspicion to such as wish to judge sternly and to reject offenders entirely, and to refuse to grant them exhortations which might bring them to repentance. In contradiction to such, God by Isaiah says to the bishops, "Comfort you, comfort you my people, you priests; speak comfortably to Jerusalem." It therefore behooves you, upon hearing those words of his, to encourage those who have offended, and lead them to repentance, and afford them hope, and not vainly to suppose that you shall be partakers of their offenses on account of such your love to them. Receive the penitent with alacrity and rejoice over them, and with mercy and bowels of compassion judge the sinners. For if a person was walking by the side of a river and ready to stumble, and you should push him and thrust him into the river instead of offering him your hand for his assistance, you would be guilty of the murder of your brother.… You ought rather to lend your helping hand as he was ready to fall, lest he perish without remedy, that both the people may take warning and the offender may not utterly perish. It is your duty, O bishop, neither to overlook the sins of the people nor to reject those who are penitent, that you may not unskillfully destroy the Lord's flock or dishonor his new name which is stamped upon his people, and you yourself be reproached as those ancient pastors were, of whom God speaks thus to Jeremiah: "Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have polluted my heritage." And in another passage, "My anger is waxed hot against the shepherds, and against the lambs shall I have indignation."

My fury is angered against the shepherds, and I will visit upon the he-goats; for the Lord of hosts has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and has made them like the horse of his glory in war. From him the corner, from him the peg, from him the bow of battle, from him shall go forth every exactor together; and they shall be like mighty men treading down the mire of the streets in battle, and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them. LXX: My fury is stirred up against the shepherds, and I will visit upon the lambs; and the Lord God Almighty will visit his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his comely horse in battle; and from him he looked, and from him he set, and from him the bow in fury, there shall go forth everyone who goes forth together, and they shall be like warriors treading down the mire of the streets in battle, and they shall be made ready, because the Lord is with them. In this place too the Jews have a twofold exposition. For some think that all of it is to be fulfilled at the coming of the Christ; others, that it has already been fulfilled under the Maccabees. And this is their explanation of the things the Lord promises: the Lord was angered against the shepherds, both the princes and the priests, and he visited upon the he-goats, that is, the people, according to that which is written: My people has become a lost flock, the shepherds have cast them out, so that the disciples were punished for the fault of their masters; not by the injustice of a judge who repays the sins of the fathers upon the sons, but because, when those men sinned, the people applauded along with them. And then indeed the Lord visited his he-goats, or his fattest lambs, and, according to the Seventy, caused them to be dried up with drought. But afterwards the Lord Almighty visited his flock, the house of Judah; for he raised up Judas Maccabeus, and the others descended from him, against the generals of Antiochus, and made them like the horse of his glory in battle, that is, those who were begotten of his stock; for they oppressed the Macedonians for a long time.

Our writers, however, refer these things to the times of persecution, because for the fault of the priests the people too is often handed over to its adversaries; and yet the Lord Almighty afterwards visits his flock, the house of Judah, which confesses God both in word and in mind, and makes them like the horse of his glory in war, of which the saints say: Mount upon your horses, and your riding is salvation.

He himself will also be the bow of the Lord's fury, of which he says: I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and again: My arrows shall consume them. Of this bow, and of these arrows, we read in Psalm 7: He has bent his bow and made it ready, and on it he has made ready the instruments of death; he has made his arrows for the burning.

And what follows: From him the corner, from him the peg, from him the bow of battle, from him shall go forth every exactor together, they understand μεταφορικῶς (metaphorically), so that they interpret the corner as the royal power, because it holds the walls together. And from him, he says, the peg, that is, the priesthood. Read Isaiah, in whom Eliakim is fastened in the temple of God like a peg. From him the bow of battle: men strong for war; from him also every exactor together, which in the Hebrew is written noges, and Aquila translated εἰσπράσσων (exactor), so that not only were there strong and good men, but others among them were unworthy of their lineage. For Judas Maccabeus, and all who were princes among the people from his line, were both the corner, because they held the people together with royal power, and the peg, for they themselves were priests, and the bow of battle, because they proved most valiant men, so that they not only marshalled the army and the battle line, but were the first to leap forward into battle. Concerning what follows: From him shall go forth every exactor together, for which the LXX translated: From him shall go forth everyone who leads out together, we can also say this: there will be no rank in the army that is not arranged at his discretion. And they shall be most valiant men, treading down the Macedonians like the mire of the streets in battle; and they shall be most valiant, and shall fight, because the Lord is with them.

And they shall tread down, he says, their adversaries, crowned in martyrdom, and they shall say: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? While the wicked drew near against me to eat my flesh, my enemies who trouble me, they themselves were weakened and fell. Though camps should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear; though battle should rise up against me, in this will I hope. Then shall that saying be fulfilled: One of you shall pursue a thousand, and two shall put many thousands to flight.

This can be explained according to tropology thus. When the Lord Almighty visits his flock, the house of Judah, then the riders on horses shall be confounded, of whom it is written: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously magnified; horse and rider he has cast into the sea. Of whom it is also sung in the voice of the psalmist: At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, they who mounted horses have slumbered. And the choir of the saints redoubles it: Some in chariots, and some on horses, but we will call upon the name of our God; they have been bound and have fallen, but we have risen and stand upright. In this cavalry the king of Egypt trusted; and, hurled headlong into the sea, he sank like lead into the depths, and learned by his own example that what is written is true: A horse is a deceitful thing for safety. These chariots and four-horse teams we interpreted above as the four passions, which, unless they are governed by the reins of a good charioteer, are carried over the precipice. But there is another charioteer, of whom Elisha speaks: Father, father, the chariot of Israel and its charioteer.

And the riders on horses shall be confounded.

And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph; and I will bring them back, because I will have mercy on them; and they shall be as they were when I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them. And they shall be like the mighty men of Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as from wine; and their sons shall see and shall rejoice; and their heart shall exult in the Lord. LXX: And the riders on horses shall be confounded, and I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will make them dwell, because I have loved them. And they shall be as when I had not cast them away, for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them; and they shall be like the warriors of Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as in wine, and their sons shall see and shall rejoice, and their heart shall be glad in the Lord. These things too, in keeping with the sense above, they expound in two ways, so that either they say they have already been accomplished under the Maccabees, or they relate that they are to be accomplished under the Christ in the last age. And the sense is: when Judas has been made like a comely horse in battle, and has trodden down his adversaries like mire, and, with the Lord fighting beside him, has overcome, then all the cavalry of Greece will fall, and the house of Judah and the house of Israel — for he calls it the house of Joseph, that is, of the ten tribes — will be saved alike; and I will bring them back from the captivity in which they had been, and they shall be as they were at that time when I had not cast them off; for I am the Lord their God, who will hear them when they pray. And Ephraim, who are now held captive, shall afterwards be set free, and shall come to such joy that you would think them drenched with wine. Their sons also shall behold the triumphs of their fathers, and shall rejoice in the Lord, by whose gift they obtained the victory. Let us look for the history: when did Judah and Israel fight together against the Greeks, or at what time did Ephraim return from the Assyrian captivity, when, according to Ezekiel, the two staffs, that is, Judah and Ephraim, were joined to each other and coupled into one rod?

Then God says that he strengthens the house of Judah and the house of Joseph, so that those who were divided while Jeroboam reigned may be united while Christ rules, and there may be one shepherd and one flock. For both Judah and Joseph, under different names, are brought together into the one understanding of the Savior, because Joseph lavished grain on the peoples hungering in Egypt, and the Lord satisfied the hunger of the world with his presence. And he will bring them back, and will have mercy on them, and so they shall be one, as they were before he cast them off. Take all these things of the persecutions, when, all hope being lost, the Lord heard his servants.

And they shall be like the mighty men of Ephraim, who, at first weak and infirm, shall afterwards be mighty and worthy of their name. For Ephraim is interpreted fruitfulness. And their heart shall rejoice when they have drunk the wine that was pressed from the vine of Sorek. Their sons also, to whom the apostle Paul speaks: My little sons, with whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you. And Peter, the prince of the apostles: As sons, he says, of obedience, not conformed according to your former manner of life. And in the psalm we read: Come, sons, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. These sons, therefore, shall exult and rejoice, and their heart shall be glad in the Lord.

According to ἀναγωγὴν (anagogy), the Lord signals and whistles to those who had before been captives to sins, and speaks to them: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and you shall find rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. For my yoke is sweet, and my burden is light. What is more merciful than this signal and whistle, by which the scattered people is gathered? And they are gathered because the Lord has redeemed them, not with corruptible silver and gold, from their vain manner of life, but with the precious blood, as of a spotless lamb, the Lord Jesus. Hence he speaks in the psalm: My exultation, deliver me from those who surround me, and again: You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. And he will multiply them as they had been multiplied before, so that what was promised to Abraham might be fulfilled: I will multiply him and I will bless him, and he shall be blessed, so that he may become the father of many nations. But we ought not to take as sons of Abraham those to whom the Lord says: If you were sons of Abraham, you would do the works of your father, but those of whom the Apostle says: As many as are of faith, they are the sons of Abraham. Of this multiplication Isaiah too testifies in mystical speech, saying: He who is little shall become thousands, and he who is small, a great nation. But let us not take the multiplication and blessing of children carnally: otherwise Elijah and Elisha and Jeremiah and John the Baptist, than whom there was none greater among those born of women, lacked this blessing; rather, let us take it of that blessing by which multitudes of the nations are called to the faith.

I will whistle for them, and I will gather them, because I have redeemed them, and I will multiply them as they had been multiplied before. And I will sow them among the peoples, and from afar they shall remember me, and they shall live with their sons, and shall return. And I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, and from the Assyrians I will gather them, and I will lead them to the land of Gilead and of Lebanon, and room shall not be found for them. LXX: I will signal to them, and I will receive them, because I will redeem them, and they shall be multiplied as they were very many, and I will sow them among the peoples, and from afar they shall remember me. They shall nourish their sons and shall turn back, and I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, and from the Assyrians I will receive them, and into Galaaditis and into Lebanon I will bring them, and none of them shall be lacking. As the sign of their gathering, whether under the Macedonians or at the consummation of the world, as we said before, they shall have my whistle, he says, so that by my whistle I may gather them and show myself to be the shepherd. For I have redeemed them and freed them from captivity with an outstretched arm; and I will multiply them, I who had multiplied them before, so that the dispersion among the peoples may be seen to be not a division but the work of sowing, and, with the harvest of children and grandchildren multiplied, they may live with their sons; and they may return not only from the land of Egypt, but also from the Assyrians, and come back from both parts of the world to Judea, and to the land of Gilead and of Lebanon, which the ten tribes, called the house of Joseph and Ephraim, had possessed before; and so great shall be the number of those brought back that the land will not hold the multitude.

In short, there follows: I will sow them among the peoples, and from afar they shall remember me. They who heard the word of the Lord were sown among the peoples: Go, teach all nations, and in another place: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and I have appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain forever. And when the apostles have been sown among the peoples, the nations and peoples set far off shall remember me, that prophetic word agreeing with this saying: All the ends of the earth shall remember and shall turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship in his sight. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he shall rule over the nations. And what is said: From afar they shall remember me, is like this: You who are far off, remember the Lord, and let Jerusalem come up upon your heart. The whole multitude of the nations was far off, but it remembered God, because we are all begotten of one parent. And when, the apostles having been sown among all the nations, the nations set far off have remembered God, they shall live with their sons, so that those who before were dead through unbelief may begin to live by faith. These are the sons whom Paul nourished in the gospel, writing to the Corinthians: I gave you milk to drink. And Peter writes to the faithful in the dispersion, who had been reborn: Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of the living and abiding God, like newborn little children, that they might long for the rational milk and grow by it to salvation. To these sons John the evangelist too was writing: Little sons, keep yourselves from idols.

And I will bring them back, he says, from the land of Egypt, and from the Assyrians I will gather them. From the land of Egypt, in which King Pharaoh ruled, who once said boastfully: The rivers are mine, and I made them. And from the land of Asshur, which the king of Assyria held, the great mind, who himself also said: Above the stars of heaven I will set my throne, and I will be like the Most High. And when the Lord has gathered the nations from the darkness of Egypt, and from the tribulation of the world, and from the power of the Assyrian, who is interpreted 'reproving and convicting', for he is the enemy and the avenger, he will lead them into the land of Gilead and of Lebanon. Gilead, turned into our language, is 'the testimony of migration', when we pass over from carnal things to spiritual, come from the part to the whole, leave earthly things behind and migrate to the heavenly. And Lebanon is interpreted λευκασμὸς, that is, whitening. So we are led out of the darkness of Egypt so that, after we have passed over and migrated out of the world, we may be made white in the Lord, and it may be said of us: Who is this who comes up made white? Others, following an ambiguity of the Greek tongue, by which both the mountain of Phoenicia and frankincense are called Libanus, here interpret Lebanon as frankincense, and think that God is signified by the frankincense, so that, after we have passed over from earth to heaven, the Savior's prayer may be fulfilled in us: Father, grant them that they may be one in us, as I and you are one. Hence the bride too says to the bridegroom in the Song: The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. And when he has led us into the land of Gilead and of Lebanon, room shall not be found for us, so that we shall in no way be confined by the narrow bounds of the earth, but shall enjoy the breadth of the heavens.

For the rest, we who are reckoned by the name of Christ leave behind the letter that kills and follow the spirit that gives life, or rather, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we look not for the Bosporus, and the drying of the sea once more, and the dry streams of the Jordan, which are like fables, but for the worthy mercy of God toward his servants, by which, as he goes before and opens the way for us, we pass through the strait of the sea, or the narrow sea, which for sinners is very broad: For broad and spacious is the way that leads to death, strait and narrow the way that leads to life. Of this sea we also read in the psalms: They who go down to the sea in ships, doing business in many waters, they have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. Into this sea of the world, in which the number of the saints is hemmed in and set in tribulation, the apostles went down, and first of all the Lord, that he might free us from the bitter waves. Into this sea is cast the dragnet of the gospel, which is woven of the testimonies of the Scriptures, so that it may draw out into the free air many fish overwhelmed by the whirlpools of this world, that they may be able to sing praises to God. These are they who have gone down to the sea, and in the ships of the churches do many works, and behold the wonders of God in the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge, and in the Holy Spirit, who searches even the deep things of God; to whom the Lord says: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. Of these fishers, who go down to the sea and are in ships, Isaiah too prophesies: They shall fly in the ships of foreigners, and together they shall plunder the sea. For in the churches gathered from the number of the nations the apostles flew through the whole world, to plunder the sea and to carry off the spoils of the dragon who reigned in the sea, and of whom it is written: This sea, great and spacious in its arms; there are creeping things without number, small creatures with great. There the ships shall pass through; this dragon whom you formed to mock him. The sea is broad and spacious for the small and great living creatures that dwell with the dragon, and whose number is beyond count. But they who are upon the sea, and fly upon the sea itself in ships, shall hear, together with the Savior: You rule the power of the sea; you calm the motion of its waves.

And he shall pass through the strait of the sea, and shall strike the waves in the sea; and all the depths of the river shall be confounded, and the pride of Asshur shall be humbled, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart. I will strengthen them in the Lord, and in his name they shall walk, says the Lord. LXX: And they shall pass through in the narrow sea, and they shall strike the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the rivers shall be dried up; and all the injury of the Assyrians shall be taken away, and the scepter of Egypt shall be removed. And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in his name they shall glory, says the Lord. The Hebrews relate that the captive people of the Jews was carried off by the Assyrians and Chaldeans not only to the Medes and Persians, but also to the Bosporus and the northern region, and that afterwards they were in part called back, as the mercy of God turned them to himself, and that this is what is now said: They shall pass through in the narrow sea: the narrows of the Propontis, which divide Chalcedon and what was once Byzantium by a short strait. And the Lord, he says, going before his people, shall strike the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the rivers shall be confounded, as was done of old when the Jordan was dried up and the people crossed the Red Sea in the desert. And when it has been freed from the depth of captivity, from the bitterness of evils, Asshur shall be humbled, and the dominion of Egypt shall depart from them. And they shall be strengthened in the Lord, and in his name they shall walk in the land of Israel, says the Lord. These things, as they were handed down to us by the Hebrews, we have set out for the men of our own tongue, referring the trustworthiness of what is said to those by whom it was said.

And when they have passed through the strait of the sea, and have trodden its waves under their foot, all the depths of the river shall be confounded, of which it is written: He who turns the sea into dry land; they shall pass through the river on foot; so that the pride, or the injury, of Asshur may be humbled, and the dominion of Egypt may depart from the saints and believers, and those who have been freed may be strengthened in the Lord and say: My strength and my praise is the Lord, and again: I will love you, O Lord, my strength, and with Jeremiah: My strength and my help and my refuge, O Lord my God.

Hence the Apostle too, in whom Christ was speaking, said: I can do all things in him who strengthens me; and not only shall they be strengthened in the Lord, but they shall also glory in him and say: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world, and: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord, and in another place: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this: to understand and know the Lord, and to do mercy and judgment in the midst of the earth. But since in the Hebrew it is written: And in his name they shall walk, it is to be understood thus: that Christians walk in the name of Christ, and a new name is written on their pebbles, and under the dignity of so great a name they walk with the Lord, as Enoch walked, and pleased God, and was translated.