Zechariah 14

Behold, the days of the Lord shall come, and your spoils shall be divided in the midst of you. And I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses shall be laid waste, and the women shall be violated, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the rest of the people shall not be taken away from the city. LXX: Behold, the days of the Lord come, and your spoils shall be divided in you, and I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem, to make war; and the city shall be taken, and the houses shall be plundered and the women shall be defiled, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity; but the rest of my people shall not perish from the city. The days which the Lord threatens shall come, so that the spoils of Jerusalem are divided in the midst of it, and the other things that the prophetic word includes, are those of which we also read in Isaiah: The day of the Lord shall come, incurable, of fury and of wrath, to lay the whole world waste, and to take away the sinners from it. But how great will the distress be, that its spoils are divided in the midst of it? It often happens that what has been plundered in a city by a sudden assault is divided outside, in the field or in the wilderness, lest perhaps an enemy come upon them. But here so great a weight of evils will press down that what has been plundered is divided in the middle of the city, so secure is the victory.

And we can see this with our own eyes. For though many have afflicted the word of Christ and are even now contending with it, yet it is lifted above them and become stronger than them all. Yes, truly, the hand of Christ is raised against all that afflicted him, and all his enemies who from time to time rise up against his church are said to be "utterly destroyed." The fulfillment of this also agrees with the passages quoted on the destruction of the whole Jewish race, which came on them after the coming of Christ. For Zechariah writes this prophecy after the return from Babylon, foretelling the final siege of the people by the Romans, through which the whole Jewish race was to become subject to their enemies. He says that only the remnant of the people shall be saved, exactly describing the apostles of our Savior.

And not only shall Jerusalem be taken, when all the nations have been roused against it in battle, but also the houses of those who dwell in Jerusalem shall be laid waste, and the women shall be violated, to the grief of their masters and husbands, who will be able to prevent neither the pillaging of their houses nor the rape of their wives by the enemy, according to what we read elsewhere: Those who are gathered in the midst of you shall fall by the sword, and they shall dash your sons to pieces in your sight, and they shall plunder your houses, and they shall have your wives; nothing crueller and nothing more wretched than this can be found, that from fear of their own death they dare to defend neither the safety of their sons nor the chastity of their wives. Amos the prophet too says this very thing, threatening Amaziah the impious priest: Your wife shall play the harlot in the city, and your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and your ground shall be measured with a line. And all these things shall befall the people of the Jews: For the nations raged, and the peoples meditated vain things. The kings of the earth stood by and the princes came together as one against the Lord and against his Christ. And he laughed at them and derided them, and troubled them in his fury, so much so that the Apostle too, seeing that the years which had been given them for repentance were now completed, and that those who killed the Lord and persecuted the prophets and the apostles nevertheless persisted in denial, said: Wrath has come upon them to the end. Josephus, who wrote the Jewish history, relates most fully that they endured all these things, and things much greater than we read in the prophets; so too Cornelius Tacitus, who set down in thirty volumes the lives of the Caesars after Augustus up to the death of Domitian. But how half of the city was taken and the rest of the people remained in the city is proved both at that time and at others: the northern and lower part of the city was taken, but the mountain of the temple, and Zion, on which the citadel was, remained intact. The Jews say that these things are to be fulfilled under Gog, others that they were in part accomplished in the times of the Macedonians and the Egyptians and of various nations. We, leaving the variety of the times to the judgment of the Lord, let us explain what is written.

And the Lord shall go forth, and shall fight against those nations, as he fought on the day of conflict. And his feet shall stand on that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem to the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split from the middle of itself to the east and to the west, with a very great chasm. LXX: And the Lord shall go forth, and shall fight against those nations, as on the day of engagement, and on the day of battle. And his feet shall stand on that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem on the eastern side. And the Mount of Olives shall be split, half of it to the east, and half of it to the sea, with an exceedingly great abyss. That God goes forth, and fights against the nations, and that his feet stand upon the Mount of Olives, and the other things that are said ἀνθρωποπάθως (in human fashion) in the holy scriptures and are contained there in a fleshly way, we ought to take in a manner worthy of God. Otherwise, since the Apostle says: Who is the image of the invisible God, and again: To the King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, God, and it is written in the Gospel: No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known, and again: Not that anyone has seen God, except him who is from the Father; just as we take his wrath and repentance and soul and hands, and feet and belly, and eyes and the other members of the body according to the variety of the occasions and of the senses of interpretation, so too what is written, The Lord shall go forth, and shall fight, is to be taken according to what we read in Habakkuk: You went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your Christ, and in Micah: For behold, the Lord shall go forth from his place, and shall come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be consumed beneath him, and the valleys shall be split, and in Isaiah too: The Lord of powers shall go forth and crush the war, and shall stir up zeal and shall cry out over his enemies with strength. God therefore goes forth from his place when he is compelled to break off his quiet and gentleness and clemency for the correction of those who sin; though he is sweet by nature, by our fault he παραπικραίνεται, that is, is made bitter, not to himself, but to those who suffer, to whom the torments are bitter. He who elsewhere says through the prophet: I am God, and I do not change, and to whom it is said: But you are the same, and you endure, and in the epistle of James: With whom there is no change, now goes forth and fights as on the day of conflict, when he drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea and fought for the people of Israel.

But it might happen that he should sit upon a foal; give us rather a sign where the king who enters will stand. Give us a sign not far from the city, that it may not be unknown to us; give us a sign nearby and clearly visible, that being in the city we may behold the place. Again the prophet answers, saying, "That day his feet shall rest upon the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem to the east." Is it possible for anyone standing within the city not to behold the place?

And his feet shall stand for those on whom he has had mercy, and shall by no means be moved in such a way that it could again be said of him: And the Lord shall sound the trumpet, and shall walk in the threat of his wrath. Nor shall he walk when the sun is already declining and the darkness is near, after midday, as we read that he did over Adam. And when he has stood, he will not stand in a valley and in low places but on a mountain, one that has no fruitless trees and barren forest, but where olive groves grow, by which the eternal light is fed, and infirmities are loosed, and rest is given to the weary. And this Mount of Olives, on which the feet of the Lord stand, is opposite Jerusalem and to the east, whence the sun of justice rises, and it is planted with those olive trees of which it is said: Your sons like young olive plants, round about your table. Half of it shall be split toward the east, the half in which are the trees planted from the nations, one of which says: But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped. And the other half shall be split toward the west and the sea, with a very great chasm: this is the people of the circumcision, to whom God speaks through the prophet: Why has my beloved done abomination in my house? Shall vows and holy flesh take away your wickedness from you, or will you escape by these? This beloved did abomination in the house of God, so that she crucified the Son of God and heard: The Lord called your name a shady olive tree and a wooded beauty; and your branches became useless, which were broken off from the good root, so that we might be grafted in their place. And note the mysteries of the scriptures, how the half that slopes toward the west, and is beaten by salt and bitter waves, is said to be not simply in the sea, but in the sheer abyss of the sea, an exceedingly great one, of which Micah too speaks: I will drag down its stones into the valley — Jerusalem's, no doubt —, and I will lay bare its foundations. These things we have said, as in very difficult and very obscure places, according to the slenderness of our powers. But the Jews, following the letter that kills, try to show that God stands upon the Mount of Olivet, and that the mountain itself is divided into two parts, so that the cleft has its beginning in one part toward the east, and the other part stretches its end toward the west, and in the middle, very steep, one part is divided toward the north, the other toward the south.

Let us speak παραφραστικῶς (by paraphrase), so that what is written may become clear: When the Mount of Olivet has been broken open by a great abyss, so that one part of the abyss faces east, the other west, suddenly in that very abyss, sheer and lofty on either side, another abyss will break open, one toward the north, another toward the south, and the chasm will become four-cornered, so that the abyss stretches in four directions, to the four quarters of east and west, of north and south. And you shall flee, he says, to the valley that is between the temple and Zion. For these two mountains, of the temple and of Zion, are called the mountains of God; because that valley of the Mount of Olivet, which is girded on this side and that by sheer mountains, will draw its abyss as far as the mountain of the temple, which is holy. But the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah is said to belong to that time when Uzziah, who is called by another name Azariah, trying to claim for himself a priesthood not lawful for him, was struck with leprosy on his forehead; of this earthquake we also read at the beginning of Amos: The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. In short, after this wicked king died, at whose impiety the whole earth was shaken, Isaiah saw the great vision which he wove into his book. Let us pass to the spiritual understanding. After the Mount of Olives has been separated toward the east and the west by the calling of the nations and the casting off of the Jews, there will again be another cleft, of north and south. The north will be joined to the west, the south to the eastern quarter; on the left will stand the circumcision, on the right the Christian people. Of these two winds the Church speaks: Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, so that, as the north wind, a most cold wind, which is interpreted as the devil, withdraws, the south wind, a warm wind, may come; seeking him, the bride says: Where do you pasture, where do you lie down, at noon? Of him Habakkuk too speaks mystically: God will come from Teman; for which it is written in the Hebrew: God from the south, that is, from the fullest light. Of this light the psalmist elsewhere cries out: You give light wonderfully from the everlasting mountains. But when the division of the two peoples in the whole world has become so great that some are separated toward the east and the south, that is, to the right, others toward the north and the west, that is to say, to the left, then whoever is holy will flee to the valley of the mountains of God, of which we spoke above, of the temple and of Zion, that is to say, the two testaments, for that abyss which had formerly belonged to each mountain will stretch as far as Asael, that is, as far as the house of God, which is near to paradise, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the holy mountain on which the temple is set. And as at that time when, under King Uzziah the leper, a most violent earthquake terrified the hearts of mortals and scattered them, terrified, this way and that. So the separation of the two peoples, and again the fellowship of believers in one faith, will rest between the two mountains in a peaceful seat, for the old and the new instrument will both be joined to each other. But what is said, As far as Asael, that is, as far as the nearest, means this: that the two instruments, of the law and of the Gospel, are indeed joined to each other, but joined in such a way that they are neighbors rather than one; for we have let go many things of the old law, and have taken up many of the new grace. And when this has been accomplished in this manner, then, he says, the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him. But if, for what we have said, you shall flee, we wish to follow what the other translators translated, The valley of their mountains shall be stopped up, or shall be filled, we shall say this: that the coming of the Lord and Savior, when the two peoples have been separated from each other, stops up and fills that abyss which divided the two peoples, so that they may walk toward each other on a level road.

Yet learn that the Son knows the day of judgment. We read in Zechariah: "And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him. In that day there shall not be light but cold and frost, and it shall be one day, and that day is known to the Lord." This day, then, was known unto the Lord, who shall come with his saints to enlighten us by his second advent. But let us continue the point that we have commenced concerning the Spirit: "He shall glorify me." So then the Spirit glorifies the Son, as the Father also glorifies him, but the Son of God also glorifies the Spirit, as we said. He then is not weak who is the cause of the mutual glory through the unity of the eternal light, nor is he inferior to the Spirit, of whom this is true that he is glorified by the Spirit.

Christ, then, was crucified for us; he was judged in the night, when it was cold, and therefore a fire of coal was laid. He was crucified in the third hour, and "from the sixth hour there was darkness until the ninth hour," but from the ninth hour there was light again. Are these details written down? Let us inquire. Zechariah says, "And it shall come to pass in that day, and there shall be no light but cold and frost through one day (the cold on account of which Peter warmed himself), and that day shall be known to the Lord." (What? Did he not know the other days? There are many days, but "this is the day [of the Lord's patience] the Lord has made.")6 "And that day shall be known to the Lord, and not day nor night." What dark saying does the prophet utter? That day is neither day nor night. What then shall we call it? The gospel interprets it, telling of the event. It was not day, for the sun did not shine without interruption from rising to setting, but from the sixth hour to the ninth there was darkness. The darkness was interposed, but God called the darkness night. Therefore it was neither all light, so as to be called day, nor all darkness, so as to be called night; but after the ninth hour the sun shone forth. This also the prophet foretells; for after saying "not day nor night," he adds, "And in the time of the evening there shall be light." Do you see the truth of the events foretold?

And the middle of the mountain shall be divided toward the north, and its middle toward the south.

And you shall flee to the valley of their mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall be joined as far as the nearest; and you shall flee as you fled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him. LXX: And half of the mountain shall lean toward the north and half of it toward the south. And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up, and the valley of the mountains shall be joined as far as Asael; and it shall be filled as it was filled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and the Lord my God shall be present, and all the saints with him. For what we have said, you shall flee, the LXX and the other translators translated ἐμφραχθήσεται, that is, shall be stopped up, or shall be filled. And for what we have put: For the valley of the mountains shall be joined as far as the nearest, for nearest the LXX translated Asael, Aquila put the Hebrew word itself, asel, with a short e (ἀζὲλ), Theodotion with a long one (ἀζὴλ); Symmachus alone interpreted it as nearest, and we too have followed him.

And it shall be on that day, there shall be no light, but cold and frost. And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night, and at evening time there shall be light. LXX: On that day there shall be no light, but there shall be cold and frost on one day, and that day shall be known to the Lord; and not day nor night, and toward evening there shall be light. Plainly the second coming of the Savior is foretold, of which John too speaks in his Apocalypse: Behold, he shall come with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and those who pierced him. And the Lord declares in the Gospel that the Son of man will come on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. He will come with the clouds, that is, with the angels, who are ministering spirits and are sent to various offices, and with the prophets and apostles, of whom it is written: Your truth reaches to the clouds. And when the day of his coming has been fulfilled, there shall be no light, but cold and frost, since the charity of all has grown cold, and, because of the multitude of evils that are to come upon them, all grow chill and lose the warmth of their former faith.

And in another place: "And I was reckoned with the transgressors." Then there was darkness for three hours, from the sixth to the ninth, and again light in the evening; as it is written: "It shall not be day or night, and at the evening there shall be light." All [these] things, when those malefactors saw that they were crucified with him, the one of them reproached him as though he was weak and unable to deliver himself. But the other rebuked the ignorance of his fellow, and turning to the Lord, as being enlightened by him, and acknowledging who he was that suffered, he prayed that he would remember him in his kingdom hereafter. He then presently granted him the forgiveness of his former sins and brought him into paradise to enjoy the mystical good things. He also cried about the ninth hour, and said to his Father, "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?" And a little afterward, when he had cried with a loud voice, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and had added, "into your hands I commit my spirit," he gave up his spirit and was buried before sunset in a new sepulcher. But when the first day of the week dawned, he arose from the dead and fulfilled those things that before his passion he foretold to us, saying, "The Son of man must continue in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." And when he was risen from the dead, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, then to Cleopas in the way, and after that to us his disciples, who had fled away for fear of the Jews but privately were very inquisitive about him. But these things are also written in the Gospels.

But after their cold and frost has gripped all sinners, there will be one day, and a perpetual one; light and darkness, day and night, by no means succeeding one another, but the Lord himself will be the light of all; of whom Isaiah says more fully: You shall have no sun, he says, for the light of the day, nor shall the rising of the moon give you light by night, but the Lord shall be your eternal light, and your God your glory. He also cries out to Jerusalem in another place: Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem; for your light has come upon you, and the glory of your God has risen upon you. For behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth over the nations, but over you the Lord shall appear, and the glory of your God has risen upon you. And kings shall walk in your light, and the nations in your splendor. If gloom and darkness shall cover the earth over the nations, how in turn shall the nations walk in the splendor of the Lord? But those nations will be in darkness which the cold and frost have gripped; and those will walk in the light of the Lord which have followed the kings, the apostles and prophets, of whom it is written: The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. In short, at evening time, that is, the time of the darkness and sorrow of all sinners, there will be light for the saints, and one eternal day; and if it shall be known to the Lord — for he will not be able to be ignorant of the day he has created —, we must consider how he says in the Gospel that neither the angels nor the Son know that day, but the Father alone.

On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. After this, from Jerusalem the law of salvation will come. Indeed, as the Lord says, salvation is from the Jews, and it will spread among the neighbor nations. Two seas are proposed as a symbol of the nations: the eastern sea, which Scripture calls Sea of Salt, and the western sea, which is the Great Sea. Again, in a different manner, the prophet calls the eastern sea the people living in the region of light; while by the western sea he indicates the people of Judea, who would not be deprived of the light of the gospel, if they did not want to be. In fact, even though these people are signified through the image of the sunset and the night, nevertheless the living waters of the divine precepts of Christ would not be prevented from constantly flowing to irrigate their hearts, if only they wanted them to come back to their heart. And it shall continue in summer as in winter, as in the ancient times. That is, in the same order and with the same happiness they will flow to the nations who believe as they flowed to our ancestors.

And it shall be on that day, living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, and half of them to the last sea; in summer and in winter they shall be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. LXX: On that day living water shall go forth from Jerusalem, half of it to the first sea, and half of it to the last sea; in summer and in spring it shall be so. And the Lord shall be for a king over all the earth. At that time — for this is what is meant by the day which is known to the Lord alone, in which light and darkness shall not succeed one another, but there shall be perpetual light, according to what we read in the Apocalypse: And the city shall have no need of the light of the sun, since the Lord God Almighty shall be its light, living waters shall go forth from Jerusalem, about which we argued above when we set out the testimony of Ezekiel; half of them shall go to the eastern sea, which the books of the Greeks call λίμνην ἀσφαλτῖτιν (the Asphalt Lake), and which is commonly called the Dead Sea, because nothing can live in its waters. And half to the last sea, which leads to Egypt and forms the shores of Palestine. In summer, he says, and in winter it shall be so, that these waters which shall go out from Jerusalem shall neither be bound by the frost of winter nor dried up by the excessive heat of summer; although for winter the Seventy translated springtime, which does not fit as a contrast to summer. And when the life-giving waters have entered both seas and have softened the bitter waters with their sweet stream, then the Lord shall be king over all the earth. The water which goes out from Jerusalem, that is, from the Church, signifies the teaching of the Savior: For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, according to what is written elsewhere: All things are filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covering the sea. Half of these waters shall go to the eastern sea, the people of the circumcision, which was chosen in the apostles and through the apostles; and half of them to the last sea, so that from the east and the west they may come who shall recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Or at any rate let us understand by the eastern sea and the last sea the Old and the New Instrument, which, unless it has been sweetened by the stream of the Savior and by his spiritual understanding, is most bitter, since the letter kills and the spirit gives life. And in what follows: In summer and in winter they shall be, 'the living waters which go out from Jerusalem' is understood, so that both in peace and in persecutions these living waters do not cease to flow. Or else, since the LXX translated: In summer and in spring it shall be so, let us say this, that at that time there will be no winter, but spring and perpetual summer, when the voice of the turtledove shall be heard in our land, and the fig trees shall bring forth their green figs, and the vines shall flower, and the winter shall pass, and the rain shall withdraw and go its way. At that time spring will be necessary for this reason, that flowers shall appear in our land so that we may celebrate the Pasch and Pentecost, in which we may pass from earthly things to heavenly ones and offer all our fruits to God. For at the Phase is the end of winter and the beginning of spring, at Pentecost the beginning of summer, when we offer to God the labors of our hands and their fruit. Of this perpetual summer and spring the just man speaks to the Lord: You made the dawn and the sun; summer and spring you fashioned. Then the Lord shall be king over all the earth, when we shall say: The Lord has reigned, let the earth rejoice, and again: Say among the nations that the Lord has reigned. For he has set right the world, which shall not be moved. And that the living water has rightly been explained by us as the teaching of the Savior, he will know who has drunk it, and who has heard the Savior preaching: If anyone drinks of the water that I shall give him, there shall be in him a fountain of water living and springing up into eternal life, and again: He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. For just as he who has drunk of his teaching shall have a living fountain in himself, so he who has believed in him, according to what is contained in the words of the scriptures, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Many refer the living waters to baptism, which are to be lavished on the thirsty in spring and in summer, that is, at the Pasch and at Pentecost, when what is written shall be fulfilled: Wash yourselves, be clean.

It is clear that this passage refers to the glorious time of the Maccabees when, after the idolatry that Antiochus had introduced had been rejected, all of Judea embraced the cult of the one God. At the same time, the things which you see here to be foreshadowed were fulfilled and perfected by Christ. Therefore the prophet calls summer the very happy time of the manifestation of Christ to the whole world, because Nisan aptly represents the end of the winter month and the beginning of the fruitful summer. On the other hand, he calls winter the night, which constantly oppresses the devil, after the birth of Christ. Again the words "as it was in the ancient times" appear to be suitable to the day, which brought salvation to Moses and the children of Israel. Indeed, it opened a splendid summer for them, whom it carried safe and uninjured through the sea, while it generated a sorrowful winter to the Egyptians by submerging and suffocating their army. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one. What I said to refer to the time of the Maccabees and the dominion of the Jews was brought to its completion all over the world, when, after the promulgation of the gospel of Christ, the whole world believed in him and recognized that he is God and the true king.

But let us interpret the heavenly Jerusalem as the Church, which, walking in the flesh, does not live according to the flesh, and whose citizenship is in heaven. For after the Lord Jesus has become king over all the earth, of whom the Holy Spirit speaks to the Father through the prophet: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your justice to the king's son, then there shall be one Lord, of whom it is written: Know that the Lord himself is God. And his name one, every perverse religion having been trampled down, according to what the prophet sings: O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth, and again: You have magnified your holy name above all, and elsewhere: As your name, O God, so also your praise over all the earth; of which Habakkuk too speaks: The earth is full of his praise. Of the glory of this name God himself speaks: Without me you shall not know God, and besides my name, which has been magnified above all.

On that day the Lord shall be one, and his name one.

And all the land shall be turned back as far as the desert, from the hill of Rimmon to the south of Jerusalem; and it shall be exalted, and shall dwell in its place, from the gate of Benjamin as far as the place of the former gate, as far as the gate of the corners, and from the tower of Ananeel as far as the king's winepresses. And they shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more anathema, but Jerusalem shall sit secure. LXX: On that day the Lord shall be one, and his name one, going round all the land and the desert from Geba as far as Rimmon to the south of Jerusalem. But Rama shall remain in place, from the gate of Benjamin, as far as the first gate, as far as the gate of the corners, and as far as the tower of Anamael, as far as the king's winepresses they shall dwell in it; and there shall be no more anathema, and Jerusalem shall dwell confident. The building of the city of Jerusalem, and the going forth of waters from the midst of it, to flow down to both seas, the Jews and Judaizing Christians promise themselves in the last time, when circumcision is to be practised again, and victims sacrificed, and all the precepts of the law kept, so that it is not Jews who become Christians, but Christians who become Jews. On that day, they say, when Christ shall sit in a Jerusalem of gold and jewels to reign, there shall be no idols nor diverse worship of divinity, but the Lord shall be one, and all the land shall be turned back as far as the wilderness, that is, to its ancient state. And he sets down the names of the places, from which place to which place Jerusalem is to be built: from the hill of Rimmon, for that is what Geba means, where there is a pomegranate tree, as far as the southern quarter of Jerusalem. And as for what follows: But Rama shall remain in its place, Aquila and the rest translated it better, who put: it shall be exalted. For Rama means exaltation, according to that saying of the prophet and the Gospel: A voice was heard in Rama, that is, it sounded on high. Jerusalem therefore shall be exalted, and shall be built in its former place, from the gate of Benjamin as far as the gate which is called of the corners, and from the tower of Ananeel, not Anamael as the Greeks and Latins wrongly read, as far as the king's winepresses, which is written in Hebrew ammelech. And they shall dwell, he says, in it, that is, in Jerusalem, and there shall be no more anathema, that is to say no fear of hostile attack, no dread, but Jerusalem shall sit, or shall be inhabited, resting in eternal peace. These things the Jews dream according to the letter, and our χιλιασταὶ (chiliasts), who long to hear again: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and in return for the continence of this life and a brief fast promise themselves bulbs, and sows' wombs, and birds of the Phasis, and the francolin, by no means the Ionian but the Jewish one; of whom the Lord can truly say: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh. For the flesh fights against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And let them not set the Apocalypse of John against us, which itself too must be expounded spiritually.

Then all the land in which the Jews dwelt shall be turned back as far as the desert, that is, as far as the people of the Gentiles, which was formerly deserted and had no knowledge of the law; from Geba as far as Rimmon, that is, from the hill as far as the height, because from the earth and from the desert we rise to the hills, and from the hills to the mountains. Hence too the bridegroom in the Song of Songs leaps over the hills, which are lower, and springs upon the high mountains, of which it is written: The high mountains are for the harts. But if we wish to take Rimmon as pomegranate, for among the Hebrews it is interpreted both ways, let us say this, that the boundaries of the Church begin from the hills, so that the whole ecclesiastical order may be built up, of which we spoke above when we interpreted the mourning for the only-begotten and the mourning like that of Hadadrimmon. Nor is the Church content with this boundary, but it shall reach as far as the south, in the fullest light, on which we commented some time ago, and so we are silent about it now, lest by inculcating the same things too often we become tiresome to the reader. And the Church shall be exalted, which began from the hills and reaches to the south; and it shall dwell in its place, of which it is written: In a place of pasture, there he has set me. From the gate of Benjamin, which is interpreted son of the right hand and not son of days, as some wrongly suppose. For it is one thing if it ends in the letter nun, another if in mem. And it shall reach as far as the place of the eastern and former gate, as far as the gate of the corners. We begin from virtue, for that is what the right hand signifies, and we reach as far as the former gate, so that through it we may enter the others; and at once the gate of the corners meets us, where the cornerstone is: Which the builders rejected, and it has become the head of the corner. This cornerstone joins both walls and brings the two peoples into one, of which God also speaks through Isaiah: Behold, I will lay in Zion a cornerstone, chosen and precious, in its foundations; and he who believes in it shall not be confounded. This cornerstone willed that other cornerstones too should be built up upon it, so that the apostle Paul could freely say: Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. These stones the heretics do not imitate, who do everything for the sake of glory and gain, and pray at the corners of the streets, leaving the straight path. For every corner breaks a straight line; and therefore the harlot in Proverbs, however we may wish to take her, whose feet do not rest at home, but she either wanders out of doors or lies in wait at every corner of the streets, when she has seen a foolish young man — for she does not invite one whom she has perceived to be prudent and mature with age, of whom it is written: A man's grey hairs are his wisdom —, at once seizes him, and kisses and flatters him, and leads him to the brothel, and invites him to intercourse. Let us therefore leave the feigned corners, and pass over to the firm and strong corners of Christ; and when we have reached them, at once the tower of Ananeel meets us, which is interpreted most pleasing of God. For what is more pleasing than the tower of Solomon? Of which it is said to the bride: Your neck is like the tower of David, which is built in Thalphioth; a thousand shields hang upon it, all the darts of the mighty. This tower the Lord in the Gospel wishes to be built, once the expenses have first been reckoned and the costs counted; and of it it is said to Jerusalem: Let peace be in your strength, and abundance in your towers; of it also the holy man speaks to God: You have led me, for you have become my hope; a tower of strength from the face of the enemy. From the tower of Ananeel we come to the king's winepresses, for which three psalms also have their title, and the Lord says in Isaiah: I have trodden the winepress alone, so that our vintage may abound in them, and we may press out the clusters, and tread the new wine reddening in the blood of Christ, so that we may drink the wine which gladdens the heart of man, and which the bride desires, speaking to the bridegroom's companions: Bring me into the wine cellar, set charity upon me.

If winepresses of this kind have made us drunk, we shall dwell in Jerusalem, in which there shall be no more anathema, that is to say curse and abomination. Hence the Apostle also says: If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be anathema. And in another place: No one speaking in the Spirit of God says anathema to Jesus. And for the salvation of his brothers he longs to be anathema, wishing to imitate his Lord, who, though he himself was not a curse, was made a curse for us. And when every anathema has been taken away, Jerusalem shall dwell secure and confident, expressing in itself that saying: He who trusts in the Lord is blessed, and: It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man; of which security and confidence the prophet Jeremiah makes mention: Blessed shall be the man who trusts in the Lord.

And this shall be the plague with which the Lord shall strike all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem. The flesh of each one shall waste away as he stands upon his feet, and his eyes shall waste away in their sockets, and their tongue shall waste away in their mouth. LXX: And this shall be the ruin with which the Lord shall strike all the peoples who have made war against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall waste away as they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall flow out of their sockets, and their tongue shall waste away in their mouth. What the nations that shall fight against the city of the Lord are to suffer, the present scripture testifies. They shall stand, he says, upon their feet, and their flesh shall waste away and flow off, and their eyes shall rot and fall out of their sockets; the boastful tongue, which used to blaspheme the people of God, shall be dissolved into corruption and rot within the rampart of the teeth. That the Romans who overthrew Jerusalem did not suffer these things is plain to all, unless perhaps the Jews will assert that those nations shall suffer them which are to fight against the golden and jewelled Jerusalem. But we shall say that all the persecutors who afflicted the Church of the Lord, to say nothing of the torments to come, have received even in the present age what they did. Let us read the ecclesiastical histories, what Valerian, what Decius, what Diocletian, what Maximian, what Maximin, the most savage of all, and lately Julian suffered, and then we shall prove by the facts that the truth of the prophecy was fulfilled even according to the letter: that their flesh rotted, and their eyes wasted away, and their tongue was dissolved into stench and corruption. Moreover, if the heretics think that the cruelty of God is shown by this saying, let them hear that all these things happen so that, as evils fail, good things may grow up in their place. For whoever stands in the Lord and with the Lord, his carnal parts shall flow away so that spiritual ones may arise, and the eyes which saw ill shall fall out of their sockets so that others may be put in their place, which can receive the Lord, with the prophet who says: To you I have lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens. And the blaspheming tongue shall rot for this reason, that another tongue may be born, which may glorify God and be able to say: My tongue shall meditate on your justice, your praise all the day. Hence Simeon too, taking the infant in his arms and foretelling things to come, says: Behold, this one is set for the ruin and the resurrection of many, so that evil things may fall and the best things be raised up. Hence the Lord too: For judgment, he says, I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. The people of the Gentiles did not see, and after faith in Christ began to behold the light of the truth, which speaks through the prophet: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and to the blind that they may see, and be enlightened with wisdom, of which it is written: A man's wisdom enlightens his face, and in the psalms we read: The Lord enlightens the blind, or makes them wise. For that is rather what σοφοῖ signifies. The Jews saw, and because they would not receive the light, they were covered with eternal blindness.

On that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of a neighbor, and the hand of the one will be fastened to the hand of the other. After peace was restored to the Jews, their Greek enemies and those Jews who had abandoned the religion of their fathers fell into a great distress and panic. And therefore it happened that, as is the habit of those who are confounded, they took each other's hand and were not able to let their hold go because of their fear.

On that day there shall be a great tumult from the Lord among them, and a man shall seize the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall be locked upon the hand of his neighbor. But Judah too shall fight against Jerusalem, and the riches of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver, and garments in great abundance. LXX: And it shall be on that day, a great stupor from the Lord upon them, and each one shall seize the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall cling to the hand of his neighbor. And Judah shall be made ready in Jerusalem, and shall gather the strength of all the peoples round about, gold, silver, and garments exceedingly many. When these wonders have been accomplished, so that the flesh of the enemies flows away, their eyes waste, and the tongue rots in the mouth of the blasphemers, then there shall be a great tumult, or stupor, among them; for this is what ἔκστασις signifies, which the LXX translated: And each one shall seize the hand of his neighbor, and hand shall be joined with the hand of another, for dread and the weight of the evils that shall come upon them. Judah also shall fight against the mother city, of whom we spoke above as well, and, victory having been granted by the Lord, the riches of all the nations that made war against Jerusalem shall be gathered together, gold and silver, and a multitude of garments, which are the most precious of possessions. These things unhappy Judea promises herself, hoping to receive gold, she who valued the Lord at thirty pieces of silver. But let us, following the order we have begun, refer all these things to the blessedness of the Church: that all who are in it marvel at the subjection of their enemies and at their own happiness, and each one seizes the hand of his neighbor, so that they join right hands and are bound together by mutual faith and kinship. And as for what we read in the Hebrew: And Judah shall fight against Jerusalem, for which the LXX translated: And Judah shall be made ready in Jerusalem, let us take it both ways: that Judah, who once confessed the name of the Lord and, under compulsion in the persecutions, persecuted the people of Christ, may himself also be turned to joy. Or at any rate Judah, every one who confesses and is faithful, does not fight against Jerusalem, but makes himself ready in Jerusalem to fight against the adversaries. And this Judah shall gather the riches of all the nations round about, gold, silver and garments exceedingly many. We have often said that gold and silver are to be understood of sense and of speech; hence we ought to take the garments likewise, with which the Church of Christ is adorned, of which it is written: The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety. Clothed with these garments the throng of believers rejoices and says: I will exult in the Lord, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the tunic of gladness. For the Lord had said to her: I clothed with both τριχάπτοις (fine-spun stuffs) and fine linen. By τριχάπτοις let us understand fine garments, which are so beautiful and delicate that they seem to resemble hairs. These garments the Church gathers, so as to have the wherewithal to clothe her people, to whom it was commanded by the true Preacher: At all times let your garments be white.

And so shall be the ruin of the horse, and of the mule and of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in those camps, like this ruin. LXX: And this shall be the ruin of the horses and of the mules and of the camels and of the asses, and of all the beasts that shall be in those camps, according to this ruin. These things too the Jews contend are to be fulfilled carnally under their ἠλειμμένῳ (anointed one). Great indeed is the strength of the Lord, that in the camps of the enemies the horses and mules, camels and asses, and all their beasts should fall, just as the men had fallen. A great triumph, a glorious victory, that brute animals should be overcome with God fighting! Let us say, therefore, according to the tropology we have begun, that all the evil things which formerly fought against the Church fall for this reason, that good things may suddenly rise up. In short, he who had formerly been a horse, neighing after his neighbor's wife, and was carried away, unrestrained, to lust and lay in the foulness of pleasures, when he has begun to follow chastity, it shall be said to him: Arise, let us go hence, and: Arise, come, my neighbor, and in the Apostle: Arise, you who sleep, and rise up from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you. And when the horses that had fallen before have risen, and have offered the Lord soft backs to sit on, they shall say to him: Mount upon your horses, and your riding is salvation. In accordance with this sense let us take the mules, which are sterile and do not beget offspring, but frolic in pleasure, of whom the psalmist makes mention: Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding. As, then, those who are prone to lust are called horses, so we shall rightly call mules those who are virgins in the flesh, not in the spirit, who make themselves eunuchs not for the sake of the kingdom of heaven but for the sake of men's pleasure. When, therefore, these mules and these eunuchs have been turned to begetting offspring and have produced spiritual sons, they shall hear through Isaiah: And let not the eunuch say: I am a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths and choose what I have willed and hold fast my covenant: I will give them in my house and within my wall a named place, and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not fail. Such mules and she-mules the kings of Israel had, and above all David, who is referred to Christ. If we have understood who are the horses and mules that fall and rise again, let us pass on to the camels, an animal that chews the cud and does not divide the hoof, and let us say that the camels are all the sinners of the earth, who are weighed down by the heavy load of their sins, and seem to themselves to read the holy scriptures, but do not divide the hoof, chewing over the divine sayings and neglecting the things that are written. But more rightly can the people of the Jews be called a camel, which itself also meditates on the law of God, and chews it over and turns it in its breast, but does not divide the hoof so as to believe in the Father and in the Son; and it is unclean in this, that it by no means separates the letter from the spirit, the shadow from the truth, and it carries the burdens of the law and hears through the prophet: Woe, sinful nation, a people full of offences. Of a camel of this kind, which chews the cud and does not divide the hoof, it is said in Proverbs too, as though to a son: He who leaves off keeping his father's discipline shall meditate on evil sayings. After the camel let us pass on to the ass, which once was carried along unbridled, and was unclean, and had many masters, and slipped over precipices, so that, having fallen, it might suddenly rise again and carry the Lord and Savior, and enter holy Jerusalem, and the throng of little ones who believed might receive him in triumph. This ass the Savior is said to have tied to the vine and the vineyard, of which it is written in the psalms: You brought a vine out of Egypt; you cast out the nations, and planted it. To which the vinedresser himself speaks: I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true. All the beasts and living creatures too, which the prophet includes under one name, are to be interpreted according to the nature of each, and this befits the Son of God more than the things which the people of the Jews presume in their foolish prophesying.

And all who are left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. LXX: And it shall be, whoever are left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up every year to worship the king, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. All, he says, who are left of the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up every year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. These things too the Jews, with empty hope, promise will come to pass in the kingdom of a thousand years. The origin of this solemnity is as follows. When the people of Israel had gone out of Egypt through the vast, terrible and wide wilderness, in which there was no house, farmstead, town or cave, they made themselves tabernacles and tents — which are now called papiliones from their likeness to a little bird —, in which they might stay with their wives and children, and take their food, and avoid the heat of the sun by day and by night the damp and the cold and the harm of the dew; and it was commanded that in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the solemnity of tabernacles should be held: And when your son, he says, asks you tomorrow, saying: What do these tabernacles mean? You shall answer him: For a long time we sojourned in Egypt, out of which the Lord led us into the wilderness, and therefore we set up tabernacles, so that we may remember the benefits of God at all times, now that we have begun to dwell in cities. He commanded also that they make the tabernacles of the most beautiful wood, which the Jews call citron, and of the branches of palms and the boughs of the thickest tree, and of the willow, and of the poplar. We have laid the foundations of the history, so that from these we may pass to spiritual things. As long as we are advancing and in the race and the contest, we dwell in tabernacles, striving with our whole mind for this, that from tabernacles we may pass to a firm and stable dwelling, that is, the house of God. Hence the holy man also says in the psalm: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged, and: I am a stranger and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were. This is the speech of one who is in Egypt and still set in the world. But he who goes out of Egypt, which in Hebrew is called mesraim and is interpreted tribulation, and enters the wilderness of the vices, takes up his journey and says in the psalm: I will pass over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, as far as the house of God. For it is a wonderful thing to refuse to dwell with the Egyptians, and, Pharaoh having been drowned, to long to enter the land of promise. Hence he also says elsewhere: How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of powers. My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord, and a little after: Blessed are all who dwell in your house; for ever and ever they shall praise you. The voice, for, of exultation and salvation is in the tabernacles of the just. And in Proverbs we find it written: The houses of the just remain, and the tabernacles of those who act rightly shall stand. Of the houses he promises that they remain, of the tabernacles that they shall stand. The holy man also says in another place: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and see the delight of the Lord, and visit his temple. He who dwells in tabernacles of this kind, and hastens to go from the tabernacles to the courts, and from the courts to the house, and from the house to the temple of the Lord, ought to celebrate the solemnity of tabernacles with the most beautiful wood of wisdom, of which it is said in Proverbs: It is a tree of life to all who draw near to it, and to those who lean upon it, as upon the Lord of firmness. And with the branches of palms, in which the sign of victory and the reward of virtue are contained; and with the boughs of the thickest tree, which the Jews understand as the myrtle, because of the mortification of vices and lusts. Hence myrrh too is offered as a gift to the Lord and Savior by the magi. And with the branches, he says, of the willow and of the poplar, which some call one tree; and the very name of the wood, which in Greek is called ἀγνὸς, indicates chastity. Physicians, and those who have written on the natures of trees and herbs, say that if anyone drinks the flower of the willow, or of the poplar, mixed with water, all heat in him grows cold, and the vein of lust is dried up, and he can no longer beget children. Whoever has been sheltered by the branches of such trees, let him keep the solemnity of tabernacles, passing through the sixth month, which is referred to the world, and keeping in the seventh a spiritual sabbath, on the fifteenth day of that same month, when the moon of the night is at its fullest, and all its darkness is dispelled by clear light. These things we have said briefly, having long had in view the size of the books, so that we may pass on to what remains.

And it shall be that whoever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain. LXX: And it shall be that whoever of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, these also shall be added to those. Where the Seventy translated, and these also shall be added to those, in the Hebrew is written ulo alehem eie gesem, which Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion have likewise interpreted: And upon them there shall be no rain. The Church of the Lord Jesus is called the heavenly Jerusalem, of which the Apostle writes: But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all, and: You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. And this Jerusalem is not set in low places, but on a lofty mountain, of which the Savior speaks: A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Hence whoever is to worship the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem must climb up to the mountain heights. But whoever is of the families and tribes of the earth, and for that reason cannot worship the Lord, upon him there shall be no early and late rain, nor shall his land be watered by the rains of heaven. Or else, as the Seventy translated: Whoever of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they shall be reckoned with those who fought against Jerusalem, and whose flesh shall waste away, and whose eyes shall melt away, and whose tongue shall rot.

And if the families of Egypt do not go up and do not come, neither shall it be upon them; but there shall be the ruin with which the Lord will strike all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the solemnity of tabernacles. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and this the sin of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of tabernacles. LXX: But if the tribe of Egypt does not go up, nor come there, upon them also shall be the ruin with which the Lord will strike all the nations that did not go up to keep the solemnity of the scenopegia. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and the sin of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the solemnity of the scenopegia. Whoever is an Egyptian, or of the other nations, as long as he remains an Egyptian and a heathen, will not go up into Jerusalem; and because he cannot go up, nor lift his step to the heights, therefore upon him there shall be no rain of the Lord's blessing.

And this shall be the greatest sin for the Egyptian, the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Syrian, the Moabite and the Ammonite, if they are unwilling to go out from their lands and go up to Jerusalem, so that through the tabernacles they may pass into Jerusalem and find an eternal house, and cease to be men of other nations, and become Israelites in whom there is no guile. All these things, which we touch on in brief speech, the Jews and our judaizers, or rather not ours, since they are judaizers, hope will come to pass bodily, promising themselves, of course, both circumcision and marriages in the reign of a thousand years, so that the curse which is written may not be fulfilled in them: Cursed is the barren woman who does not bear seed in Israel, and: Blessed is he who has seed in Zion and household members in Jerusalem. If this is true, all the virgins whom the kingdom of a thousand years finds will lie under the curse and perpetual barrenness, or else they will marry so as to escape the curse.

On that day there shall be inscribed on the bit of the horse, "Holy to the Lord." Not war or wrath but holiness and peace. Isaiah certainly prophesied this when he said, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Both prophets expected the advent of Christ. In a mystical sense, by the horse the prophet signifies any servant of Christ and understands the bit as the divine law, by which the hearts of the faithful are directed, so that they may not rush down into vice. The bit holds the horse in check and obliges it to obey the horseman, that is, mystically, the Lord.

On that day what is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord; and the cauldrons in the house of the Lord shall be like bowls before the altar. And every cauldron in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be sanctified to the Lord of hosts. LXX: On that day what is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty; and the cauldrons that are in the house of the Lord shall be like bowls before the house of the altar. And every cauldron in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy to the Lord Almighty. The Hebrew word mesuloth Aquila and Theodotion interpreted as βυθὸν, that is, depth; Symmachus as περίπατον σύσκιον, that is, a shady walk. The Seventy alone translated χάλινον, that is, bridle, and we too have followed them in this place, so as not to seem to bring something new into a well-known question. When I asked a Hebrew what it meant, he told me that we ought not to read mesuloth but mesaloth, which means the trappings of horses and warlike adornment, and that apart from this place the word is found in no volume whatever of the holy scriptures; that a bridle, moreover, is called resen in the Hebrew tongue, and not mesuloth, which the LXX translated; and that the sense is: At the time of the perpetual solemnity and of the kingdom of Jerusalem, when all things are pacified and tranquil, there will be no need at all of cavalry, which is the strongest kind of fighting force, but all the adornment and beauty of the trappings is to be devoted to the worship of the Lord. So they may say. Let us refer the depth of the horses and their σύσκιον walk, shady or dark, to mystical knowledge, which David too, like a most excellent horse, boasted that he had, saying: The uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom you have made manifest to me. And the Apostle: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How inscrutable are his judgments, and untraceable his ways. From this depth the prophet cried to the Lord, and he heard him. In these depths and darkness God set his hiding place; into this darkness and these divine mysteries Moses entered in the thick cloud of Mount Sinai, that he might see God; of them David too spoke in another psalm: The judgments of the Lord are a great abyss. These secrets and these mysteries are holy to the Lord, which John the evangelist knew, who dared to say what perhaps the angels did not know: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And for that reason he is loved by the Lord, because he possessed a most excellent depth; and he had reclined upon the breast of Jesus, whence he had also drawn wisdom. But if we wish to take the bridle, as the LXX translated, as the word of God, let us understand by the bridle him who reins in from vices horses raging with lust, and mules barren and wanton, and restrains them, and does not allow them to rush headlong; of whom it is said: Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding. With bridle and bit you will bind fast the jaws of those who do not draw near to you. Of this bridle James also speaks: We put bridles into the mouths of horses, and we turn about their whole body, so, that is, that they may walk on a straight road and be able to offer the Lord backs gentle for sitting. Such a bridle and such a word, wrought with a variety of gold and silver, prepares wild horses for the Savior to sit upon, and makes them holy and properly consecrated to his worship. I have heard from someone a thing said with pious intent indeed, but ridiculous: that the nails of the Lord's cross, out of which Constantine Augustus made a bridle for his horse, are called the holy thing of the Lord. Whether this is to be taken so, I leave to the reader's prudence.

Let us pass on to the cauldrons, which are to be in the house of the Lord like the bowls of the altar. For every cauldron in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be sanctified to the Lord Almighty. Let them love bronze cauldrons who loved the pots of Egypt and the meat, and the melons and the garlic, and the onions and the cucumbers. Let us turn the Jewish cauldrons, in which the flesh of the victims was cooked, into bowls of spices before the altar of the Lord, of which the bride says to the bridegroom: My kinsman has gone down into my garden, to the bowls of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies. The garden and paradise into which the bridegroom goes down to the bride is the reading of the holy scriptures, from which he plucks lilies and violets and roses and various spices, to fill the bowls of believing souls and to pour out libations to the Lord from them. When cauldrons of this kind have been turned into bowls of the Lord and can say: We are the good fragrance of Christ, and, instead of the rankness of meats, have begun to bear the various flowers of the virtues, then they will be in Jerusalem and in Judah sanctified to the Lord Almighty; of which we have said quite often that Jerusalem expresses vision of peace, and Judah one who confesses.

And the cooking pots in the house of the Lord shall be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar; and every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the sacrifice. In that veneration the holy service of the house of the Lord will come, so that the common cooking pots may be revered by any foreigner, notwithstanding the fact that you Jews used to revere the bowls in front of the altar inside the closure of the house of the Lord. And not only will there be this honor for the cooking pots of the house of the Lord and of Jerusalem, but any cooking pot in the sanctuary as well as in the holy city and in the whole Jerusalem will be sanctified to the Lord, so that both the Jews and Gentiles will revere it as a thing consecrated to the Lord. The mystical meaning of this prophecy predicts two things: the honor to be given to the law of salvation proceeding from Judea and the conversion of the Jews and the Gentiles, whom the baptism of Christ received as cooking pots of flesh and turned into bowls full of perfumes.

And all these shall come sacrificing, and taking from them, and they shall cook in them; and there shall no longer be a merchant in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day. LXX: And all who sacrifice shall come and shall take from them, and they shall cook in them; and there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty on that day. In place of Canaanite, Aquila translated merchant, and we too have followed him in this place. When the cauldrons have been turned into bowls, all the nations round about, or those who are left of all the nations, will come sacrificing, and will take the cauldrons and cook in them the flesh of the victims, so that they may not eat the flesh of the lamb raw, but, all the juice of the meat having been boiled away, what has been prepared by fire may remain for eating. What the bowls before the altar of the Lord are, into which the Israelite cauldrons are turned, we have both said above and shall now say in part. In the Song of Songs the bride praises her bridegroom: His cheeks are like bowls of spices. By the cheeks is understood speech, which, uttered by the Lord, brings forth various ointments; and so great will be the fragrance of its good odor that the Lord makes himself a scourge woven from the testimonies of the scriptures, and casts out of the temple those who sell and buy, and says to them: It is written, My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations; but you have made it a house of trade. Some fit to this place what is written in Daniel, although it is not read in the Hebrew: Seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, and what is said by the prophet Hosea of Ephraim: Ephraim is a partaker of idols; he has set stumbling blocks for himself, he has provoked the Canaanites; committing fornication, they have committed fornication; and they would have every fornicator called a Canaanite and a foreigner, who, they assert, must be removed from the house of God.