Zechariah 9

The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of Damascus his rest, for the eye of man is the Lord's, and of all the tribes of Israel. LXX: The taking up of the word of the Lord in the land of Sedrach and of Damascus his sacrifice, for the Lord looks upon men, and all the tribes of Israel. This whole vision, or weight and burden of the word of the Lord, as Aquila translated it, pertains to the calling of the nations and the building of the Church. And the order of the words is: The taking up of the word of the Lord, sharp toward sinners, soft toward the just. For Hadrach, a name compounded of two whole words, sounds this: ad meaning sharp, rach soft and tender, and not, as it is wrongly read by some, Sedrach. Some refer Hadrach to the people of the Jews, Damascus to the calling of the nations. Hence the people, or the taking up of the word of the Lord, comes about in the land of Hadrach, over which the Lord exercised both his severity and his clemency: severity toward those who would not believe, clemency toward those who returned with the apostles; but Damascus is properly the rest of the Lord, according to what is written in Isaiah: And his rest shall be honor. For before the child knew how to choose good or evil and to call father and mother, he received the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria. Hence Damascus too is rendered in our language drinking blood, or blood of sackcloth, so that the first interpretation signifies a bloodthirsty people, the second repentance joined to its cruelty. And what follows: For the eye of man is the Lord's and of all the tribes of Israel, they expound thus: For this reason the temple of God is to be built from both peoples, that is, both from the land of Hadrach and from Damascus his rest, because whoever looks to God and hopes in him, both from the nations and from all the tribes of Israel, is the Lord's; or, according to the LXX, because the Lord looks equally upon all men, and upon all the tribes of Israel. Let us also say it another way: In the land of Hadrach is the burden of the word of the Lord, and a most heavy weight. But in Damascus are his victims and sacrifice, for the Lord looks upon both the faith of the nations and the faithlessness of the circumcision without any respect of persons, and is equally the God of all, laying the heavy weight of his sentence upon some, and resting in the seat of others. The Jews say that all these things are to be fulfilled at the coming of the Christ, whom they promise themselves in the last time, so that both the land of Hadrach and Damascus, and Hamath and Tyre, and Sidon and Ashkelon and Gaza, Ekron also and Ashdod and the Philistines, shall bow their necks to a most mighty king and serve him as he dwells in Jerusalem, and that no one shall dare to raise a hand against Israel, all around being at peace. All of which we show to have been accomplished spiritually at the coming of the Lord and in his Churches.

Hamath also on its borders, and Tyre and Sidon, for they have taken to themselves exceeding wisdom. And Tyre built her fortification, and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the mud of the streets. Behold, the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea, and she shall be devoured by fire. LXX: And Hamath on its borders, Tyre and Sidon, since they were exceedingly wise, and Tyre built her fortification, and gathered silver like dust, and gold like the mud of the roads. Therefore the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea, and she shall be burned up in fire. Hamath, which is interpreted χόλος, that is, wrath, is the same city that received the name Epiphania from Antiochus Ἐπιφανεῖ (Epiphanes), and is now a city of Coele Syria. This one, therefore, and Tyre and Sidon shall be within the borders of Damascus, or within the borders of the land of Hadrach, so as to believe in the Lord and Savior, to whom it was said by the Father: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. The daughters of this Tyre, that is, the souls that believe in Christ, shall bring gifts to the king, that what is written may be fulfilled: The daughters of Tyre shall worship him with gifts. And when the city of God, the Church, has been built, of which the psalmist sings: Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God, at once the rest will follow: Behold the foreigners, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians, these were born there. Of the foreigners it is said in two psalms: Foreigners serve me, or are subject. Of the Ethiopians we read in the prophet Zephaniah: From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring gifts to me, and in the psalm: Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands first to God. And of Tyre the Gospel speaks: Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida; for if the mighty works that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, perhaps they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. From the borders of Tyre and Sidon that Canaanite woman, the Syrophoenician, whose daughter was badly afflicted by a demon, came to meet the Lord and Savior; and she dedicated the first fruits of the faith of the Tyrians and Sidonians, so that those who had not believed in the time of Christ, because they had not yet seen the signs and mighty works, should afterwards see them through the apostles and believe, and should share in that blessedness which the Lord promises, saying: More blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.

But Tyre and Sidon — of which the one is interpreted συνοχὴ, that is, distress, the other θήρευμα, that is, hunting —, took to themselves wisdom to such a degree that, with its sophisms and the nets of dialectic and the webs of the sophists, which Scripture calls fortifications, Tyre put riddles to Solomon, that is, to the peaceful king; and gathered its silver, namely the brilliance of eloquence, and its gold, the cunning of its thoughts, like the dust and mud that lie in the streets and roads, so as to possess the kingdom of idolatry that it had fortified. But against these fortifications the Apostle speaks: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God for the destruction of fortifications, destroying reasonings and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And under the figure of Nineveh, which is interpreted adorned, or beautiful, for nothing is more adorned than the world, the word of God is directed through the prophet against the men of the world: And you shall be made drunk, and shall be despised, and you shall seek help from the enemy; all your fortifications are like a fig tree with its early figs: if they are shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.

And so the Lord shall possess both Tyre and Sidon, when he has first struck their strength in the most salt and most bitter sea of this world; and, lest anything of their former wisdom remain in them, that is, of the swollen folly through which they procured for themselves feeble fortifications, and silver and gold like mud, he will smelt them with fire and cleanse them to purity; of which the Savior speaks in the Gospel: I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it were kindled, according to what is written in Mark: Everyone shall be salted with fire.

Many, I know, respect the Jews and think that their present way of life is a venerable one. This is why I hasten to uproot and tear out this deadly opinion. I said that the synagogue is no better than a theater, and I bring forward a prophet as my witness. Surely the Jews are not more deserving of belief than their prophets. "You had a harlot's brow; you became shameless before all." Where a harlot has set herself up, that place is a brothel and a theater; it also is a den of robbers and a lodging for wild beasts. Jeremiah said, "Your house has become for me the den of a hyena." He does not simply say "of a wild beast" but "of a filthy wild beast," and again, "I have abandoned my house, I have cast off my inheritance." But when God forsakes a place, that place becomes the dwelling of demons.

Ashkelon shall see and fear, and Gaza, and shall grieve exceedingly; and Ekron, because her hope is confounded, and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And the separator shall sit in Ashdod, and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines. And I will take away his blood from his mouth and his abominations from between his teeth, and he too shall be left to our God, and he shall be as a leader in Judah, and Ekron as the Jebusite. And I will surround my house with those who fight as soldiers for me, going and returning, and the exactor shall no more pass over them, for now I have seen with my eyes. LXX: Ashkelon shall see and fear, and Gaza, and shall grieve exceedingly; and Ekron, because she is confounded in her hope, and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And foreigners shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will destroy the insolence of the foreigners, and I will take away their blood from their mouth, and their abominations from between their teeth, and these too shall remain to our God, and they shall be as a χιλίαρχος, that is, tribune, in Judah, and Ekron as the Jebusite; and I will set up a height in my house, so that no one may pass through, or return, and no driver-off and towering one shall come upon them any more, for now I have seen with my eyes. Ashkelon is interpreted ignoble fire, or weighed; Gaza, strong, or rule; Ekron, barren, or uprooted; Ashdod, which in Hebrew is called Esdod, generating fire, or fire of the paternal uncle, or fire of the breast; Jebusite sounds trodden down. We have set out the etymologies of the names in order to run briefly through the sense. Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron, seeing that Hamath was within the borders of Damascus, and that Tyre and Sidon, after they were struck round about, and all their hay, wood and stubble burned up in the conflagration, were possessed by the Lord; they too, terrified by fear and grief and confusion, began to hope for better things. In short, Ashkelon, in which there was before the ignoble fire of the devil, and which had come to the full measure and weight of sins, trembled with dread because she ceased to have inhabitants. And Gaza grieved exceedingly, doing penance for her former crimes, she who had once been strong and hard, untamable, and had promised herself the rule over all, because her king and princes, the contrary word and the power of the enemy, had lost their rule. Ekron too, barren because without the law and the knowledge of God she had no sons, was uprooted, so that she might hear that prophetic word: Rejoice, barren one who do not bear; break forth and cry, you who are not in labor, for many more are the sons of the desolate than of her who has a husband.

And when Ashkelon, Gaza and Ekron have been terrified, and have grieved because they either had no inhabitants, or lost their king, or their former hope was frustrated, foreigners shall sit in Ashdod, where the fire generates which the Lord sent upon the earth and desires to be kindled. For he baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire, where there is the cousin and the paternal uncle, ἀδελφὶδος καὶ πατράδελφος, whom the bride desires in the Song of Songs; where there is the fire of the breast and of the most bounteous bosom, of which we read in the same Song: He shall abide between my breasts, and in the Apostle: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food. Where according to the LXX we said: And foreigners shall dwell in Ashdod, in the Hebrew is read, the mamzer shall dwell, or shall sit, in Ashdod, for which we have put: And the separator shall sit in Ashdod. Understand the separator to be the Lord, who separates the wheat from the chaff, and the good fish from the bad fish, and distinguishes silver and gold from filth and dross. And when he has done this, he promises the rest also: I will destroy the insolence, or the pride of the Philistines, for whom the LXX translated foreigners. The Philistines are interpreted in our language falling by the cup, because they drank from the cup of Babylon and, being drunk, fell down. These therefore in the time of the calling of the nations and the coming of Christ shall not have pride, but shall follow the humble and meek Jesus.

And he shall take away from their mouth the blood, words of blasphemy, and the abominations, the worship of idols and the eating of things sacrificed to idols, from between their teeth, so that, after these have been taken away, the Philistines themselves, that is, the foreigners, may be left to the Lord, and may be a leader in Judah, that is, among the people that confesses the Lord, so that the former people which was at the head may be turned into the tail, and the last, which was at the tail, may pass to the head; and that Ekron, once barren and for that reason uprooted, may be as Jebus, that is, as Jerusalem. For this city is called by three names, Jebus, Salem and Jerusalem.

And I will surround, he says, my house, that is, the Church, with those who fight as soldiers for me, that is, with those who serve me in various mysteries, and at my command run hither and thither, going and coming back. Or: I will surround my house with the protection of the angels, of whom it is also written in another place: The angel of the Lord shall send round about those who fear him, and shall deliver them, so that there may be no one who goes and returns, that is, who plots ambushes against my people. Nor shall the exactor pass over it any more, of whom Isaiah says: The exactor has ceased, or else ἐξελαύνων, that is, one who leads out of doors, and drags the bound into captivity, for with his eyes, which we can understand as the prophets and all the saints, the Lord saw the calling of the nations and the security of the Church.

Without Benjamin, the patriarchs went forth; without Paul, the apostles. Neither of them came first, but being summoned by the first, they made greater profit from the arrival of those who came before. There is, he says, grain in Egypt, that is, where there is greater hunger, there is greater plenty. There is much grain in Egypt. Finally, even God the Father says: Out of Egypt I have called my Son. From this seed comes that abundance. For there could not have been a harvest unless the Egyptians had sown the seed beforehand. Therefore, there is grain that no one believed existed before. The patriarchs trade in this grain. And indeed, they brought silver, but the good Joseph gave grain and returned the silver. For Christ is not bought with money, but with grace. Your price is faith. These divine mysteries are bought. However, that unclean donkey carried this grain in the law, but now it is clean in grace.

Now since many historical facts have already been mentioned, let us briefly relate some of the allegorical ones at the end. If you see opposing power attacking God's people, you will realize who it is that is sitting upon the ass. If you further consider how people are destroyed by demons, you will understand what the ass is. Indeed, in the Gospel you will recognize Jesus sending his disciples to an ass which was tied and its colt, so that the disciples might loose and bring her for the Lord himself to sit upon her. Perhaps this ass, that is, the church, first carried Balaam and now Christ. She had been loosed by the disciples and released from the bonds that tied for this very purpose, that the Son of God might sit upon her and with her enter the holy and heavenly city of Jerusalem. Then was fulfilled the Scripture which says, "Rejoice, O daughter of Zion, exclaim, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, meek and riding on a beast of burden," that is, an ass (doubtless he is speaking of believers among the Jews) "or young colt" (these apparently are those of the Gentiles who believe in Christ our Lord).

At another time, he speaks of us under the figure of a colt. He means by [the colt] that we are unyoked to evil, unsubdued by wickedness, unaffected, high-spirited only with him our Father. We are colts, not stallions, "who whinny lustfully for their neighbor's wife, beasts of burden unrestrained in their lust." Rather, we are free and newly born, joyous in our faith, holding fast to the course of truth, swift in seeking salvation, spurning and trampling upon worldliness. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you, the just and the Savior, and he is poor and riding upon an ass and upon a young colt." He is not satisfied to say "colt"; he adds "young" to emphasize humankind's rejuvenation in Christ and its unending, eternal youth and simplicity. Our divine Tamer trains such young colts as we little ones. Although the passage speaks of a young ass, it too is a colt.

Rejoice greatly O daughter of Sion, shout O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass—even a young colt. This passage he uttered with reference to Zerubabel, in a strain of hyperbole as regards him, for it had properly its accomplishment in the Lord Christ, whom Zerubabel as it were, personified.

A spiritual disciple of this sort truly receiving the Spirit of God, who was from the beginning, in all the dispensations of God, present with mankind, and announced things future, revealed things present, and narrated things past-[such a man] does indeed "judge all men, but is himself judged by no man." For he judges the Gentiles, "who serve the creature more than the Creator," and with a reprobate mind spend all their labour on vanity. And he also judges the Jews, who do not accept of the word of liberty, nor are willing to go forth free, although they have a Deliverer present [with them]; but they pretend, at a time unsuitable [for such conduct], to serve, [with observances] beyond [those required by] the law, God who stands in need of nothing, and do not recognise the advent of Christ, which He accomplished for the salvation of men, nor are willing to understand that all the prophets announced His two advents: the one, indeed, in which He became a man subject to stripes, and knowing what it is to bear infirmity, and sat upon the foal of an ass, and was a stone rejected by the builders, and was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and by the stretching forth of His hands destroyed Amalek; while He gathered from the ends of the earth into His Father's fold the children who were scattered abroad, and remembered His own dead ones who had formerly fallen asleep, and came down to them that He might deliver them: but the second in which He will come on the clouds, bringing on the day which burns as a furnace, and smiting the earth with the word of His mouth, and slaying the impious with the breath of His lips, and having a fan in His hands, and cleansing His floor, and gathering the wheat indeed into His barn, but burning the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Moreover, since the prophet Zechariah exhorts Zion and Jerusalem to a similar gladness, and Matthew says that this very prophecy was fulfilled in the first coming of Christ, we are compelled by necessity, or rather led by the very order of truth, to hope for what is said in Zephaniah not as future but as done. For it is written in Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you, just and a savior, himself humble and mounted upon a beast of burden and a new colt.

Exult greatly, daughter of Zion; shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king will come to you, just and a savior, himself poor and riding upon a she-ass, and upon a colt, the foal of a she-ass. And I will destroy the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war shall be scattered, and he shall speak peace to the nations, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth. LXX: Rejoice exceedingly, daughter of Zion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, your king will come to you, just and saving, himself meek and riding upon a beast of burden and a new colt; and he will destroy the chariots from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and he will destroy the bows of the fighters and the multitude, and peace from the nations, and he shall rule over the waters as far as the sea, and the rivers, the outlets of the earth. The evangelists write that this prophecy was fulfilled when the Lord entered Jerusalem, sitting upon a she-ass and the foal of a she-ass, and a crowd of children with branches of palms came to meet him, crying: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest; and when the Pharisees rebuked him for not checking the shouting children, he answered: Have you not read: Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings you have perfected praise? Zion therefore exults and Jerusalem shouts for joy, one and the same city — for Zion is the citadel of Jerusalem —, because her king comes to her, who was promised by the oracles of all the prophets. Just, and himself the Savior, that is, Jesus, as the angel interpreted it, speaking to the virgin: And he shall be called Jesus, because he himself shall save his people from their sins. Poor also, or, as the LXX translated, meek, he who, though he was rich, became poor for our sakes; and he says in the Gospel: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. And riding upon a she-ass, a beast of burden, or upon a new colt, that is, upon both peoples, of the circumcision and of the foreskin, of which the former had borne the most heavy yoke of the law; as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: Neither we nor our fathers were able to bear the heavy yoke of the law. Hence Paul also writes to the Galatians, who wished to be circumcised: Stand fast, and do not be held again by the yoke of slavery. But the new colt, the multitude of the Gentiles, having no bridle of the law, nor guided by anyone, but always dashed down and broken among the precipices and in the abysses of idolatry, learned by the Lord's sitting upon it to walk and to enter upon the right way.

Now this was done that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, who says: Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your king comes to you, meek, sitting upon an ass and a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. This is written in the prophet Zechariah, of whom it will be spoken more fully in its own place, if span of life is granted. For now we must touch briefly on this: that according to the letter, in the short stretch of the journey, he did not rest sitting upon both animals. For either he sat on the ass and the colt was without a rider, or, if he made use of the colt for sitting (which is more fitting), the ass was led along free. Therefore, since the history involves either impossibility or unseemliness, we are carried over to higher things, so that this ass, which was a beast of burden and tamed and had drawn the yoke of the law, may be understood as the synagogue, and the foal of the ass, frisky and free, as the people of the Gentiles, upon whom Jesus sat, his two disciples having been sent to them, one to the circumcision and the other to the Gentiles.

On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. [Zechariah 9:9] These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.

But how, after not walking openly in Jewry, and retiring into the wilderness, doth He again enter openly? Having quenched their anger by retiring, He cometh to them when they were stilled. Moreover, the multitude which went before and which followed after was sufficient to cast them into an agony; for no sign so much attracted the people as that of Lazarus. And another Evangelist saith, that they strewed their garments under His feet, and that "the whole city was moved"; with so great honor did He enter. And this He did, figuring one prophecy and fulfilling another; and the same act was the beginning of the one and the end of the other. For the, "Rejoice, for thy King cometh unto thee meek," belonged to Him as fulfilling a prophecy, but the sitting upon an ass was the act of one prefiguring a future event, that He was about to have the impure race of the Gentiles subject to Him. ... But what meaneth, "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion"? Because all their kings had for the most part been an unjust and covetous kind of men, and had given them over to their enemies, and had perverted the people, and made them subject to their foes; "Be of good courage," It saith, "this is not such an one, but meek and gentle"; as is shown by the ass, for He entered not with an army in His train, but having an ass alone.

"And that expression, 'binding his foal to the vine, and the ass's foal to the vine tendril,' was a declaring beforehand both of the works wrought by Him at His first advent, and also of that belief in Him which the nations would repose. For they were like an unharnessed foal, which was not bearing a yoke on its neck, until this Christ came, and sent His disciples to instruct them; and they bore the yoke of His word, and yielded the neck to endure all [hardships], for the sake of the good things promised by Himself, and expected by them. And truly our Lord Jesus Christ, when He intended to go into Jerusalem, requested His disciples to bring Him a certain ass, along with its foal, which was bound in an entrance of a village called Bethphage; and having seated Himself on it, He entered into Jerusalem. And as this was done by Him in the manner in which it was prophesied in precise terms that it would be done by the Christ, and as the fulfilment was recognised, it became a clear proof that He was the Christ. And though all this happened and is proved from Scripture, you are still hard-hearted. Nay, it was prophesied by Zechariah, one of the twelve [prophets], that such would take place, in the following words: 'Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; shout, and declare, daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King shall come to thee, righteous, bringing salvation, meek, and lowly, riding on an ass, and the foal of an ass.' Now, that the Spirit of prophecy, as well as the patriarch Jacob, mentioned both an ass and its foal, which would be used by Him; and, further, that He, as I previously said, requested His disciples to bring both beasts; [this fact] was a prediction that you of the synagogue, along with the Gentiles, would believe in Him. For as the unharnessed colt was a symbol of the Gentiles even so the harnessed ass was a symbol of your nation. For you possess the law which was imposed [upon you] by the prophets."

And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. [Zechariah 9:9] And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

Everywhere the cause of the unbelief of the Jews was this: that they did not understand Jesus as the "Christ of God", because they always gave their mind to the corporeal histories, unwilling to believe anything spiritual in them. For example, we introduce for the sake of illustration what is prophesied and said in Zechariah, that as it were "upon an ass and a colt He would enter into Jerusalem and would destroy the chariots out of Ephraim and the horse out of Jerusalem". If anyone wishes to understand this of Christ according to the history of the letter, it does not fit; for Christ is nowhere expounded to have destroyed out of Ephraim corporeal and perceptible chariots, nor a corporeal horse from a corporeal Jerusalem. But if you see among the heretics the assemblies of falsehood itself coupled together as by a certain yoke and in evil concord among themselves, which the word of truth is wont to destroy, you will see how Christ, the Word of God, destroys the spiritual chariots out of the spiritual Ephraim; for Ephraim is always set as a figure of the heresies, which have separated themselves from the Church of Christ, just as Ephraim from the tribe of Judah. For just as the divine word spiritually "cast into the sea" the horse and rider of the Egyptians, that is, the impious man together with the devil as his rider and yoke-fellow, so also it destroyed the horse from Jerusalem — whoever is subject to the devil as his rider and not to Christ, as are those horses acceptable to Christ, of whom Habakkuk says: "because you will mount upon your horses, and your cavalry is salvation", that is, upon the apostles and the other saints in whom Christ dwells. Therefore we say: "these in chariots" (pointing to Ephraim) "and these on horses" (pointing to the adversaries of Jerusalem), "but we shall be magnified in the name of our God. They are bound and have fallen, but we have risen and are set upright".

For peace and tranquillity of the soul is above all glory of any house; for peace passeth all understanding. This is that peace above all peace which shall be granted after the third shaking of the heaven, the sea, the earth and the dry land, when He shall destroy all Principalities and Powers. For heaven and earth shall pass away, and all the fashion of this world; and every man shall rise up against his brother with the sword, that is, with the word piercing the marrow of the soul, that whatever opposes itself, the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem may be cut off, as Zechariah says. And thus there will be peace over all, the passions of the body offering no resistance, and the unbelieving mind no obstacle, that Christ may be all in all, offering in subjection to the Father the hearts of all men.

And I will destroy, he says, the chariot from Ephraim. It is still spoken in the person of God the Father, that the four-horse chariot, or the chariot, should perish from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem. And meanwhile according to the letter he says this: There shall be no battles, all things having been set at peace by the coming and birth of Christ. Moreover, according to a higher understanding, Ephraim, which is interpreted καρποφορία, that is, fruitfulness and abundance of crops, is referred to the multitude of heresies; of which it is written in Psalm 77 (78): The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting the bow, turned back in the day of battle. Of these chariots and cars we read: Some in chariots and some on horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God; they are bound and have fallen, but we have risen and are set upright. The horse that is destroyed from Jerusalem is the one of which we read: A horse is a deceitful thing for safety. And in Jeremiah those who gave themselves up to luxury and lust hear: They have become to me horses mad after females; each one neighed after his neighbor's wife. Hence they are called back to repentance, as the psalmist says: Do not become like the horse and the mule, in which there is no understanding. And when God has destroyed the chariots from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, those who have been set free from such horses and chariots shall be transferred into the service of the Lord, and shall become Cherubim, and of them it shall be said: The chariot of God is ten thousandfold, thousands of those who rejoice, and: To my cavalry among the chariots of Pharaoh I have likened you, my nearest one, and: You shall mount your horses, and your riding is salvation. The bow of war shall be scattered, so that the fiery darts may not be shot that could strike the hearts of the pleasure-loving. And he shall speak peace to the nations, of which it is written: He shall be the expectation of the nations, and again: In him the nations shall hope, and: His power from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the world. This is not to be weakened by allegory, but to be believed as truly fulfilled, according to what we read: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. In Psalm 71 (72) also it is said, under the person of Solomon and of the true peaceful one: And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Be glad, therefore, O Jerusalem, since of such a kind is a king appointed for you by God, and he has come to you, capable of saving his own on account of the divine influence accruing to him and justly inflicting total punishment on the adversaries. While he is riding a lowly animal for the reason that he has just arrived back from captivity, he assumes great power through divine grace, and so from Ephraim and from Jerusalem he will remove all the chariots of the adversaries, every war horse and every battle bow—that is to say, he will drive off all enemies so that there will be no longer any adversary against the country of Judah. He will also wipe out a great multitude of the adversaries and completely deprive them of peace, crushed and destroyed in a war waged by him.

It was fitting that the herald of his resurrection is reported to have been sitting, so that by sitting he might prefigure him who, having triumphed over the author of death, would ascend to his seat in the everlasting kingdom. Concerning this he said a little later, as he appeared to his disciples, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me"; and the evangelist Mark says, "The Lord, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at God's right hand." [The angel] was sitting upon the stone with which the tomb was closed, but which had been rolled away, to teach that [Christ] had cast down and triumphed over the closed places of the lower world by his power, so that he might lift up to the light and the rest of paradise all of his own whom he found there, according to the prophet's [statement], "You also because of the blood of your covenant, have led your prisoners back from the pit, in which there is no water."

But who will deliver us from these plagues? Certainly there is one alone who came to deliver us, namely Christ, who made ten condescensions against the ten plagues. The first was down to our flesh. The second was down to our mortality. The third, to our neediness, for he suffered hunger, thirst, and cold. The fourth was to our poverty, for "he was made destitute," having no place to which he might turn. The fifth, to our temptation, when he permitted himself to be tempted; and in this he bore our weakness. The Apostle: "We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one tempted in all things." The sixth, to the weariness of body and our toil. The seventh, to our anxiety; whence: "Jesus began to be fearful and distressed and said: My soul is sorrowful even unto death." The eighth was to the cross, and this was wondrous. The ninth was to death. The tenth was to the prison of hell.

These are the ten condescensions by which God condescended to man. But why did he descend to the prison of hell? Certainly, so that in the blood of the covenant he might lead the captives out of prison, those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Christ, through the blood of the new covenant, freed us and led us from death to life, and from darkness to light.

The sun was darkened because of the Sun of justice. The rocks were rent because of "the spiritual rock." Tombs were opened, and the dead arose, because of him who was "free among the dead." He "sent forth his prisoners out of the pit, wherein there is no water." Do not be ashamed, then, of the Crucified, but say with confidence, "He bears our sins and carries our sorrows, and by his bruises we are healed." Let us not be ungrateful to our Benefactor. Again, "For the wickedness of my people was he led to death; and I shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death." And Paul says clearly "that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures."

You also, by the blood of your testament, have sent forth your prisoners from the pit in which there is no water; turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope; today also, announcing, I will render double to you. LXX: And you, by the blood of the testament, have sent forth your prisoners from the pit that has no water; you shall sit in the stronghold, prisoners of the congregation, and for one day of your sojourning I will render double to you. After the word of the prophet, or rather God the Father Almighty himself, had announced to Zion and Jerusalem that their king was coming to them, meek and mounted upon a she-ass, a beast of burden, and upon the foal of an ass, and that his power would be from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth, he makes an apostrophe to Christ himself, of whom the prophecy speaks, and says: You also, by the blood of your testament, or covenant, have sent forth your prisoners from the pit in which there is no water. This is understood as follows: By the blood of your passion you have, in your clemency, set free those who were held bound in the prison of hell, in which there is no mercy. In short, after the Lord rose again, those who were held by the bonds of Adam's sins, or, as some would have it, of ingrained error, and of death, rose with him and appeared in the holy city. Of this blood of the testament he himself also spoke to the disciples, pointing to his future passion: Take and drink of this, all of you; for this is the cup of the new testament in my blood. In prefiguration of this pit which has no waters, Joseph was sent into one by his brothers, and Daniel and Jeremiah by the Chaldeans and by the people of the Jews. Benaiah too, in the time of snow and cold, went down into a pit to kill a lion there. Jeremiah, however, is plunged not into the water of the pit but into the mud and mire of the pit, which could suffocate a thirsty man rather than refresh him. Hence it is also written in the psalm: I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no substance. In this pit of hell there abode also that rich man once clothed in purple, whose boastful tongue was burned by the fires of punishment, and who was so far from having any refreshment of waters that he begged for the refreshment of the tip of the poor man's finger dipped in water.

With this proviso, however, that they interpret the earlier testimony otherwise than we have explained it, and say: O Christ, whom we hope will come, and who are to reign in all the ends of the earth, by the blood of your testament, in which, according to Ezekiel, you found Jerusalem spattered with her own blood, and by which you entered into a covenant with Abraham in the dividing of the calf and the ram and the goat, you have released your people Israel from the captivity and the furnace of the Chaldeans, in whom there was no mercy. Therefore you too, O Israelites, who were prisoners and hoped in the Lord, return to most strongly fortified Jerusalem, for today you have the Lord promising you that for the brief injury of captivity you shall receive all things doubled, as we read that Job also received them.

Since it was fitting for Christ to die in order to deliver us from death, so it was fitting for Him to descend into hell in order to deliver us also from going down into hell. Hence it is written (Hosea 13:14): "O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite." Secondly, because it was fitting when the devil was overthrown by the Passion that Christ should deliver the captives detained in hell, according to Zechariah 9:11: "Thou also by the blood of Thy Testament hast sent forth Thy prisoners out of the pit."

"You have led me down, because you have been made my hope: a tower of strength from the face of the enemy." My heart is vexed, says that unity from the ends of the earth, and I toil in the midst of temptations and offenses. The heathen are envious, because they have been conquered. The heretics lie in wait, hidden in the cloak of the Christian name. Within the church itself the wheat suffers violence from the chaff. In the midst of all these things when my heart is vexed, I will cry from the ends of the earth. But there forsakes me not the same that has exalted me upon the rock, in order to lead me down even unto himself, because even if I labor, while the devil through so many places and times and occasions lies in wait against me, he is to me a tower of strength, to whom I shall have fled for refuge. Not only I shall escape the weapons of the enemy, but even against him securely I shall myself hurl whatever darts I shall please. For Christ himself is the tower. He has been made for us a tower from the face of the enemy, who is also the rock upon which the church has been built. Are you taking heed that you not be smitten by the devil? Flee to the tower. The devil's darts will never follow you to that tower. There you will stand protected and fixed. But in what manner shall you flee to the tower? Let not a person, set perhaps in temptation, seek that tower in body, and when he shall not have found it, be wearied or faint in temptation. The tower is before you. Call Christ to mind, and go into the tower.

And again the word is directed to those very ones who were prisoners and who were to be set free by the mercy of Christ: Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. And the sense is: You who are now prisoners and are held in a harsh and terrible hell, you who hope for the loosing of your bonds at the coming of Christ, turn to the stronghold, or, you shall sit in the stronghold, of which it is written: The fear of the Lord is the bulwark of the holy one, so that you may say: Be to me a God, a protector, and a fortified place, that you may save me; and so that the prophet may also say of you: Behold, a strong city, and our salvation shall set a wall and an outer wall. But this stronghold, to which God exhorts the prisoners of hope, or the hoping prisoners of the Church, we ought to take as nothing other than the dwelling of paradise, into which the thief was the first to enter with the Lord; and for this reason they are called forth to the stronghold through Zechariah, because already then, and from that time, the Lord was promising that for a brief tribulation they would receive eternal rewards. Or, as is read in the LXX: For one day of your sojourning, I will render double to you. For in comparison with eternity, all that we suffer in the world must be called one day, a day not of dwelling but of sojourning, because we are strangers and sojourners, as all our fathers were. For what is at present momentary and light in our tribulation works in us, beyond measure, in sublimity, a weight of eternal glory, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at those that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but those that are not seen are eternal.

For I have stretched Judah for myself, as a bow I have filled Ephraim; and I will raise up your sons, O Zion, over your sons, O Greece, and I will set you as the sword of the mighty. LXX: For I have bent you, O Judah, for myself, as a bow I have filled Ephraim; and I will raise up your sons, O Zion, over the sons of the Greeks, and I will handle you as the sword of a warrior. The Jews refer this to the times of the Maccabees, who conquered the Macedonians and, after a space of three and a half years, cleansed the temple that had been defiled by idolatry. And what follows: As a bow I have filled Ephraim, they think signifies those who had come, under Hezekiah, from the ten tribes that are called Israel, over whom Josiah too is recorded to have reigned.

According to tropology this place can be explained thus: Judah is stretched as a bow when the Lord and Savior is sent by the Father into this world, he who is himself both the bow and the archer and the arrow. The bow, as in the present place. The archer, as in Psalm 44 (45): Your arrows are sharp, most mighty; and when someone has been wounded by them, he says: I am wounded with love. And the arrow is he himself who speaks through Isaiah: He has set me as a chosen arrow, and in his quiver he has hidden me. The chosen arrow is the Word of God; the quiver in which the arrow is hidden is the dispensation of the flesh he assumed. With this Ephraim is filled, so that, when he has been armed and made ready for war, he too, together with the nations, may be wounded by the arrows of the Lord; Ephraim, from whose tribe Jeroboam first split the people, whom the prophet Hosea shows more fully to be taken in the person of heretics; and what we said above: The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting the bow, turned back in the day of battle. For when the Lord raises up the sons of Zion, that is, the sons of the Church, both the masters of contrary doctrines and every assertion of the philosophers and the arguments of the Gentiles will be destroyed, because the Lord himself is the sword of the mighty, of whom it is said: Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty. In your comeliness and your beauty, set forth, proceed prosperously and reign, because of truth and meekness and justice; and your right hand shall lead you wonderfully. With this sword the Ethiopians are wounded, of whom it is written: And you, O Ethiopians, shall be wounded by my sword; and after they have been wounded by the sword of Christ, they will lay aside their dark color and, exulting, will say: The splendor of the Lord our God shall be upon us; which David too promises himself after his repentance: You shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. This is the sword of which the Apostle writes: The word of God is living and effective, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching even to the division of soul and spirit.

And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and his javelin shall go forth like lightning; and the Lord God shall sound the trumpet, and shall go in the whirlwind of the south. The Lord of hosts shall protect them. LXX: And the Lord God shall appear over them; and his arrow shall go forth like lightning; and the Lord God Almighty shall sound with the trumpet, and shall go in the commotion of his terror. The Lord Almighty shall protect them. This place too they refer to the times of the Maccabees: that when these fought against Antiochus and conquered, the fight and the victory were the Lord's, who went forth mighty to battle, and his power appeared like lightning, and, when the adversaries had been conquered and scattered as by a whirlwind, he protected the people of the Jews. We, however, shall refer everything to the understanding of the Savior, of whom it was said above: I have stretched Judah for myself as a bow. When he has been stretched, and the heretics and the Gentiles have been slain by the sons of Zion, the glory of the Lord will appear, and his javelin will go forth like lightning; of which lightning we read in Habakkuk too: In the light of your arrows they shall go, in the splendor of your flashing spear. This lightning and splendor is called by another name the trumpet and its blast, so that, when the holy cry has sounded, he who before had deaf ears may say: The instruction of the Lord has opened my ears, and has given me an ear to hear. And what follows: And he shall go in the whirlwind of the south, or, he shall go in the commotion of his threatening. He threatens and says that he will inflict punishments for this reason, that he may have mercy on those who repent. In short, he adds and says: The Lord Almighty shall protect them, those whom he had first terrified by his threatening. Let us read the history of the Ninevites.

Let us speak also according to anagogy, or rather let us explain a prophecy wrapped in many obscurities. The sons of Zion, protected by their Lord, will devour their adversaries, whom we understand as the sons of Greece. And they will subdue them with sling stones, with the threatenings of the Scriptures, making their adversaries subject and humble; for nothing strikes so hard as an example from the holy Scriptures, and a testimony sent forth by the whirl of the mouth. But what is said in the LXX: And they shall drink their blood like wine, we do not read so in the Hebrew, but: Drinking they shall be made drunk as with wine, so that they may hear that word of the Song of Songs: Drink, friends, and be drunk. And so their drunkenness will please like the sacrifice of the altar, and like the horns, or corners, of the altar.

And they shall devour and subdue with sling stones, and drinking they shall be made drunk as with wine, and they shall be filled like bowls, and like the horns of the altar.

And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people, because holy stones shall be lifted up over his land. LXX: And they shall consume them, and overwhelm them with sling stones, and they shall drink their blood like wine, and they shall fill the altar like bowls. And the Lord shall save them in that day as sheep, his people, because holy stones shall roll upon his land. For what we have rendered shall be lifted up, and what is written in the Hebrew as methnosasoth, can be interpreted as wandering, or fleeing. When the sons of Zion have been protected, and the Lord has sounded the trumpet and gone in the whirlwind against their adversaries, so great will be the ruin of the Greeks that they will be crushed, I will not say by swords, but by the casting of stones and the whirling of slings, so that they will be a prey and a meal for their enemies. Then, drinking, they shall be made drunk as with wine. It is not those who have been slain who will be drunk with their own blood, but those who have conquered will fight with desperation, as though drunk, and will please the Lord like the horns of the altar and its libation. For this is what is understood by the bowls, with which libations are poured out upon the altar. The Lord will also save them as sheep and the flock of his people; for they will not fight against the Macedonians as an armed army, trained in the art of war, but will come like a flock ready for death, and, with the Lord's help, will overcome. And the holy stones that have been oppressed — and he calls them stones because of the hardness of their tribulations and their fortitude of mind — will be lifted up from their lowliness, and will be glorious in his land. Otherwise: his holy stones, of priestly stock, fleeing in different directions, will, by his gift, obtain the victory.

This we have said in a general way: but let us speak also in particular of the inner man. The wheel stands upon the earth with only some small trace of contact, and it not only stands, but as it were runs on: it does not stand still, but touches and passes by: finally, when it is rolled, it always mounts up to higher things. So too the holy man, because he is in the body, has the necessity of thinking some things about earthly matters; and when he has come to food and clothing and the rest of such things, having food and clothing, with these he is content, touching the earth, and he hastens to higher things. In him who runs and hastens to higher things, in him is your word. We read also in the prophet: "Holy stones are rolled upon the earth." See what he said: Holy stones are rolled upon the earth. For because they are wheels, therefore they are rolled upon the earth and hasten to higher things. Do you wish to know of more wheels? We read: "And a wheel within a wheel"; we read in Ezekiel: "The wheels cling one to another." The two wheels are the new and the old testament. This wheel clings to that, and that to this. Yet see what is said in Ezekiel: "And wherever," it says, "the spirit was leading, thither the wheels also followed." This is said also in Ecclesiastes, at the consummation of the world: "And the wheel," it says, "shall be rolled over the cistern." There are many things that might be said about wheels: but the discourse hastens on to the rest.

The Lord will also save them as the flock of his people, because holy stones shall roll upon his land, stones that will be so light and so striving upward that they will not wait for the hands of the builders, but will themselves hasten to be laid upon the foundation of Christ and to be held together by the cornerstone; of whom the apostle Peter also speaks: As living stones be built up into a spiritual house, and a holy priesthood, offering spiritual victims, pleasing to God. These are the stones that will cry out if the people of the Jews keep silent, and they will roll upon the earth as long as they are in the body, because the earthly habitation weighs down the mind that is anxious about many things; and, set in the flesh, the holy man says: Who will give me wings like a dove? As far as lies in him, he strives and rolls and is raised toward the heights, but he is held back by the frailty of the flesh. And the earth upon which the stones roll is that of which we read: Sing to the Lord, all the earth, and: Let all the earth worship you, and sing psalms to you.

Now concerning the several sorts of food, the Lord says to you, "You shall eat the good things of the earth," and "All sorts of flesh shall you eat, as the green herb," but "You shall pour out the blood." For "not those things that go into the mouth, but those that come out of it, defile a man." "I mean blasphemies, evil speaking, and if there be any other thing like that. But "do you eat the fat of the land with righteousness." For "if anything be pleasant, it is his; and if there be anything good, it is his: wheat for the young men, and wine to cheer the maids." For "who shall eat or who shall drink without him?" Wise Ezra does also admonish you and says, "Go your way, and eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and do not be sorrowful."

For what is his goodness, and what is his beauty, but the grain of the elect, and wine that makes virgins spring forth? LXX: For if there is anything best of his, and if anything good from him, grain for young men and wine of good odor for virgins. Therefore, they say, the Maccabees, fleeing hither and thither, will overcome with the Lord's help, so that, when the Macedonians have been cast out of the land of Israel, the temple may be cleansed, the precepts of the law may be kept, and the learning of the Scriptures may again make virgins spring forth, that is, peoples believing in one God, who before had been defiled by the worship of idolatry. By the grain of the elect, that is, baurim, they would have us understand not young men, as the Seventy translated, but chosen and learned men, who are found worthy to eat the grain, that is, the law of God. For wine, which in Hebrew is called thiros, Aquila translated οἰνίαν (vintage), which itself also can be referred to the abundance of the vintage. So the Jews think. But we understand the grain of the elect, or of the young men, and the wine that makes virgins spring forth, or the wine of good odor for virgins, as the Lord and Savior, who says in the Gospel: Unless a grain of wheat falling into the earth dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears greater fruit. From this wheat is made that bread which came down from heaven and which strengthens the heart of man. This bread is eaten by those who are strong in Christ, and to whom John the Evangelist speaks: I write to you, young men, because the word of God abides in you, and you are strong, and you have conquered the evil one. He who is the grain of the elect, or of the young men, is himself also the wine that gladdens the heart of man, and it is drunk by those virgins who are holy both in body and in spirit, so that, made drunk and rejoicing, they may follow the Church; and that it may be said of them: Virgins shall be brought to the king after her, her companions shall be brought to you; they shall be brought with gladness and exultation. For how shall they not have gladness, who, made drunk by the cup of the Savior, are begotten into virgins, and dare to say: Bring me into the little chamber of wine, strengthen me with ointments? This wine is of good odor, whence it is said in the same song: You shall give me to drink of the perfumer's wine, of the streams of your pomegranates. With this wine are made drunk those who follow the Lamb of God wherever he goes, clothed in white garments; because they have not defiled themselves with women, for they remained virgins.