Zephaniah 1

Before I take up Zephaniah, who is ninth in the order of the twelve prophets, it seems I must answer those who think I deserve to be laughed at because, passing over men, I write above all to you, O Paula and Eustochium. If they knew that Huldah prophesied while men were silent, and that Deborah, a judge and a prophetess alike, overcame the enemies of Israel while Barak was afraid; and that Judith and Esther, in a type of the Church, both slew the adversaries and delivered Israel, which was about to perish, from its peril; they would never crook their hand into a stork behind my back. I say nothing of Anna and Elizabeth and the other holy women, whose little fires, like those of the stars, the bright light of Mary hides. I will come to pagan women, so that they may see that even among the philosophers of the world it is the differences of minds, not of bodies, that are wont to be considered. Plato introduces Aspasia disputing; Sappho is written of together with Pindar and Alcaeus; Themista philosophizes among the wisest men of Greece; Cornelia of the Gracchi, that is, your own, the whole crowd of the city of Rome admires; Carneades, the most eloquent of philosophers, the sharpest of rhetoricians, who had been accustomed to rouse applause among men of consular rank and in the Academy, did not blush to dispute on philosophy in a private house with a matron listening. Why should I mention the daughter of Cato, the wife of Brutus, whose virtue makes us not marvel so greatly at the constancy of her father and her husband? History, Greek as well as Latin, is full of the virtues of women, and of such as would demand whole books. For me, since another work presses upon me, let it be enough to have said at the end of the prologue that the Lord, when he rose again, appeared first to women, and that they were the apostles of the apostles, so that men might blush not to seek the one whom the frailer sex had already found.

The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. LXX likewise. The Hebrews hand down that whenever the father or grandfather of any prophet is set in the title, they too were prophets. Hence Amos also, one of the twelve prophets, who had said: I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but a herdsman of goats, plucking sycamore fruit, does not have his father's name in the title. If this is true, Zephaniah the prophet, whom we are now attempting to expound, was begotten by a prophetic custom, so to speak, and of a glorious stock of ancestors; for he had as father Cushi, as grandfather Gedaliah, as great-grandfather Amariah, as great-great-grandfather Hezekiah, and he himself, like the last charioteer, completed such a four-horse team. Some have translated the name of Zephaniah as 'watchtower', others as 'the secret of the Lord'. So whether it is interpreted 'watchtower' or 'the hidden thing of the Lord', both suit the prophet. For it is said also to Ezekiel: Son of man, I have set you as a watchman for the house of Israel, and in another place: The Lord will not do anything unless he has revealed his teaching to his servants the prophets, and the title of Psalm 9 is rendered 'for the hidden things of the son'. This prophet, then, who was on the watchtower and set on the heights, and knew the mysteries of the Lord, was the son of Cushi — which is interpreted 'humility', or 'my Ethiopian', of which we shall treat later —; he had also as grandfather Gedaliah, who is called 'the greatness of the Lord', and as great-grandfather Amariah, who is himself also rendered 'the word of the Lord', and as great-great-grandfather Hezekiah, which sounds 'the strength of the Lord'. So from the strength of the Lord was born the word of the Lord, and from the word of the Lord was born the greatness of the Lord, and from the greatness of the Lord was born humility, so that when someone has arrived at the perfect, he may say: I am not worthy to be called an apostle, and that in the psalms: Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up. Up to this point, running as if on a downward slope and over level ground, we have stumbled on the fact that Cushi is also interpreted 'my Ethiopian'. For after such great virtues, how could the name of an Ethiopian sound in praise? And indeed, if Scripture had said Cush, that is, 'Ethiopian', the question would seem insoluble; for Cush was born of Ham. But in that it says Cushi, that is, 'my Ethiopian', a mystery seems to sound; namely, that he who was once an Ethiopian, turned to repentance — according to what is said: Ethiopia will stretch out her hand first to God, and in another place: Before him the Ethiopians will fall down —, may say with the bride in the Song of Songs: I am black and beautiful, daughter of Jerusalem. We read also in Jeremiah that Ebed-melech the Ethiopian eunuch pleased God; and in the Acts of the Apostles that the Ethiopian eunuch of Queen Candace had such zeal for the Scriptures and the law of God that he read in his carriage, and came to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in his temple. Hence such faith is crowned with a worthy reward, and Philip the evangelist is sent to him, and at once he is taught, believes, is baptized and is saved. And he is not set down only as a eunuch, but with the addition of man: a eunuch, a man, an Ethiopian. For because he was a eunuch of Christ, and had made himself a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, for that reason he had not lost the name of man. Rightly also does Zephaniah, as the son of Cushi, that is, of the Ethiopian, write in the following parts of the book about the repentance of the Ethiopians: Across the rivers, he says, of Ethiopia, from there they will bring victims to me. This much on the genealogy of Zephaniah, who prophesied in the days of Josiah. Now just as those who were enlightened by Elijah are called the days of Elijah, so too are they called the days of Josiah, who had lifted himself up to the Lord, since Josiah is interpreted 'the elevation of the Lord'; and he was a just man, and the history of Kingdoms and of Chronicles also writes of his praises. And he had as father Amon, as grandfather Manasseh. We read that Manasseh, after many crimes and after the captivity in Babylon, repented, and, turned to better things, obtained the mercy of the Lord. Hence he called his son ἐπώνυμον (named after it) of his faith, by which he had believed God, that is, Amon; for Amon is interpreted 'faith'. And at the same time consider that by no means, as above, are the kings of the ten tribes, that is, the kings of Israel, set down, but only the kings of Judah. For the ten tribes had already been led away into captivity by the Assyrians under King Hezekiah, the father of Manasseh. This much in the preface and in the title, on Zephaniah's lineage and time. Now let us see what the prophecy itself also contains.

But if we wish to understand something deeper as well — because of what is said by the Seventy: Let it fail with failing from the face of the earth —, and to take failing in a good sense, according to that saying: And failing, Abraham died in a good old age, an old man and full of days, and was gathered to his people; and from what Scripture relates of Isaac and Jacob, we shall see how they fail with failing from the face of the earth, and that they fulfil this precept: Who, having their conversation in heaven, and in the flesh not warring according to the flesh, because they know that those who live in the flesh cannot please God, do everything, as far as in them lies, that they may not be in the flesh but in the spirit; and withdrawing from the earth they say: He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ. But if anyone should set against our taking Let it fail with failing from the face of the earth in a good sense that which is written of Ishmael: These are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty-seven, and failing he died, and was gathered to his kind, we shall answer him, first, that Ishmael himself too was a son of Abraham, and received gifts and portions from his father, according to his measure; then, that it is written absolutely: Failing he died, and there is not added what is written of Abraham: In a good old age, an old man and full of days, and was gathered to his people. Or of Isaac: And the days of Isaac which he lived were a hundred and eighty-five years, and failing Isaac died, and was gathered to his kind, an old man and full of days. And also of Jacob: And Jacob ceased charging his sons, and lifting his feet upon the bed he failed, and was gathered to his people. From this we understand that it is one thing merely to fail, and another, along with failing, to have many virtues together.

Gathering I will gather all things from the face of the earth, says the Lord, gathering man and beast, gathering the bird of the heaven and the fish of the sea; and there will be ruins of the ungodly, and I will destroy men from the face of the earth, says the Lord. LXX: Let it fail with failing from the face of the earth, says the Lord; let man fail and the cattle; let the birds of the heaven fail, and the fish of the sea; and the ungodly will be weakened, and I will remove the wicked from the face of the earth, says the Lord. What we have set down in the Seventy, And the ungodly will be weakened, was added from the translation of Theodotion; in its place Symmachus translated: And stumbling blocks with the ungodly, so that 'will be gathered' or 'will fail' is understood; and the Fifth Edition: And weakness with the ungodly will fail. We ought therefore, following our custom, first to weave the history, and afterwards to discuss the loftier things. For no one doubts that the last reign of the two tribes, which were called Judah and Benjamin, was under Josiah. For after he was killed, his sons who reigned afterwards, and his grandsons, are to be thought not so much to have reigned as to have been held in mockery by the king of Egypt and by the Chaldeans, and tormented by various captivities and deaths. Since, then, the people could excuse themselves by their bad kings and say: We wish to serve God, but we are prevented by the kings, a just king is given; and while he was zealous with the zeal of the Lord, and the people nonetheless persevered in the worship of idols, a just cause of wrath is brought forward by the Lord, and there is prophecy of the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the captivity of Judah, and the victory of Nebuchadnezzar. And the Lord says through the prophet: Never again will I grant repentance, but I will consume everything from the face of the earth; neither man nor beast nor bird nor the fish of the sea will remain. For even the brute animals feel the wrath of the Lord; and that, when cities are laid waste and men killed, there comes about a desolation and scarcity of beasts too, and of birds and fish, Illyricum is witness, Thrace is witness, witness is the soil on which I was born, where, apart from the sky and the earth and the growing brambles and the thickets of the woods, all things have perished. And this, says the prophet, will happen because the multitude of the ungodly was too great. So the ungodly will fall and men will be destroyed, and there will be a desolation upon the face of the earth. But we can also take this very thing of the consummation of the world: that men and cattle and birds and the fish of the sea and all things will fail, and the ungodly will be weakened, and iniquity will be removed from the face of the earth.

And what it had first said in general, Let it fail with failing from the face of the earth, divine Scripture afterwards divided into parts: let man fail, and the cattle, let the birds of the heaven fail, and the fish of the sea. There are four things which are commanded to fail: first man, the rational being, then three which are subject to man, the cattle, and the birds, and the fish, which I think are set down also in Psalm 8: Moreover also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven and the fish of the sea, which pass through the paths of the sea. But what it had first said: all sheep and oxen, it separated as the chief of the cattle, and did not wish to number them with the cattle that remained. So let man fail, let the cattle fail, let the birds of the heaven fail, let the fish fail; and it did not say: let the wild beasts fail, let the creeping things of the earth fail. For these ought not to fail but to perish; but let those things fail which can receive correction. Just as the ways of women had failed Sarah, and Abraham is commanded to listen to whatever Sarah should enjoin. One fails as a man if he despises human things, and no longer dies as a man, and hears: I have said, you are gods. Another fails as cattle who, climbing to higher things, is not accused by the prophetic word: Man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless cattle, and was made like them. He fails like a bird of the heaven who makes himself the wings of an eagle, and returns rich to the house of his teacher, forsaking all poverty. He fails like a fish of the sea who, caught in the nets of the Lord, is separated along with the good fish. When these things have been accomplished according to the Lord's precept, the ungodly will be weakened, not having as much strength as before. But the wicked will also be removed — he did not say 'will be killed', but 'will be removed' —, so that, converted to better things, carried over from ungodliness and iniquity to godliness and justice, they may begin to be what they had not been before. These things according to tropology. For we ought to set down the interpretation of our elders as well. It will now be in the reader's judgment whether he wishes what has been said to sound severity or clemency.

And I will stretch out my hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal, and the names of the temple-keepers with the priests, and those who worship the host of heaven upon the roofs, and worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Milcom; and those who turn away from behind the Lord, and who have not sought the Lord nor searched for him. LXX: And I will stretch out my hand over Judah, and over all who dwell in Jerusalem; and I will remove from this place the names of Baalim, and the names of the priests with the priests, and those who worship the host of heaven upon the roofs, and those who swear by the Lord, and swear by their king, and those who turn aside from the Lord, and who do not seek the Lord, and who do not hold fast the Lord. After the ruin of the ungodly and the removal of the wicked from the face of the earth, it is said consequently against Judah and against Jerusalem in the person of the Lord: And I will stretch out my hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. For the stretching out of the hand shows the gesture of one who strikes. And I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal. Not that, according to the LXX, the names of Baalim are to be utterly rooted out, but that, according to the Hebrew, he threatens to remove his worshippers from the people, the few who had remained in Judah and Jerusalem from the slaughter by the enemies. The names also of the temple-keepers with the priests, because Judah and Benjamin had come to such impiety that in the temple of the Lord — according to what Ezekiel writes, and the fourth book of Kingdoms (2 Kings) shows — they set up a statue of Baal, which the Lord calls the image of jealousy, and in the same sanctuary they venerated the idols and the Lord alike. Hence, pointedly, he called the priests of the idols not priests but τεμενίτας, that is, temple-keepers or fanatics, which in Hebrew is called acchumarim.

Both the temple-keepers, then, and those once priests of God, and those who on the housetops worshipped the host of heaven, the sun and the moon and the rest of the stars; and those who swore by the name of the Lord and by the name of the idol of the Ammonites, Milcom — which was turned by the LXX into 'king' —, the Lord will remove from the place of Jerusalem, or will destroy; for it is understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ (in common). And I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal, and I will destroy the names of the temple-keepers with the priests, and I will destroy those who worship the host of heaven upon the roofs, and I will destroy those who worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Milcom, and I will destroy those who turn away, or turn aside, from behind the Lord, and who do not seek him, or do not hold him fast. Now Israel turn away behind the Lord, who, abandoning his worship, swear by Milcom, and worship the host of heaven, and venerate Baal, the idol of the Sidonians. Up to this point the sense of the history has been expounded; let us see the anagogy as well. Because of the Lord, who arose from the tribe of Judah, and because of Jerusalem, in which Judah reigned, that is, the Lord and Savior, let us say that when iniquity has been multiplied, and the love of many has grown cold, and at the Lord's coming faith appears rare on the earth, so much that even the elect of God are tempted, then the Lord stretches out his hand for the punishment of sinners over Judah, who seems to himself to confess the name of the Lord, and over Jerusalem, the Church, which has obtained its name from peace, and removes from the Church the names of Baalim, which is interpreted 'in the higher places'. The Lord will remove the names of vainglory and of false admiration which have their place in the Church, in which, according to James, the one who has a gold ring is venerated, and the poor man is despised, when at the arrival of a judge and a senator, and generally of all the rich, the whole people rises up, and to the holy poor man not even a place to stand is granted among the throngs of the powerful and the concessions they grant; and also the names of the priests with the priests, who vainly applaud themselves in the name of bishop and in the dignity of the presbyterate, and not in their work. Hence, pointedly, he does not say 'and the works of the priests with the priests', but 'the names', those who only display the false names of dignities and destroy their own names by evil works; and those who worship the host of heaven upon the roofs, who are lifted up against the knowledge of God, and, promising themselves a feigned knowledge, refer everything that happens in the world to the risings and settings of the stars, and follow the errors of the astrologers; and those who worship the Lord and Milcom, who think they can serve the world and the Lord alike and satisfy two masters, God and mammon; who, as soldiers of Christ, entangle themselves in worldly business, and offer the same image to God and to Caesar, and, though they say they are priests of Christ, consecrate their sons to Milcom, that is, to their king. For rightly do they have a man as king who have lost the Lord as king; and those who through evil works turn aside from the Lord and do not seek him, they hold fast their sins while he flees from them. And if anyone wishes, according to the interpretation of the names Judah and Jerusalem, to understand this very thing of each one's soul, he will not err: that the Lord removes all the things we have mentioned either at the consummation of the world or at the departure of each person, when they will hear: Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you. And he stretches out his hand over him who does not confess the Lord, and over him who boasts that he has the mind of peace, to remove and destroy from such a Jerusalem all pride, and false worship of God, and the errors of various doctrines, and servitude to God and the world alike, and, through daily sins, aversion from the Lord and neglect of God.

Be silent before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared a victim, he has sanctified his called ones. LXX: Fear before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared his sacrifice, he has sanctified his called ones. Where the LXX translated fear, and we have set down be silent, in the Hebrew there is an interjection of one commanding silence, which the comic poets also often use; but silence is also enjoined absolutely on all, because the day of the Lord is to come. And by the day of the Lord let us understand the day of captivity and of vengeance on the sinful people, and the victim of the overthrow of Jerusalem, and the sanctification of those whom he has dedicated to slaughter, according to what is said in Jeremiah: Sanctify them for the day of their slaughter. And the sense is: The captivity foretold long ago is coming against the ungodly people; it is already near. For the prophecy is woven under King Josiah; once he has been killed, fear before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared his sacrifice, he has sanctified his called ones. Utter devastation is coming, of which it is said in Ezekiel too: The end, he says, has come; the end has come, and so on. This sacrifice pleases me; these victims I have sanctified for myself. And what he says, He has sanctified his called ones, can be taken also of the Babylonians, whom, for vengeance on the people, he even calls his servants, as they avenge the wrong done to him. I have called, he says, Nebuchadnezzar my servant. And in the same volume he calls him not only servant but also dove: From the face of the sword of the dove. Moreover, according to tropology, since the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to destroy the memory of them from the earth, and the day of judgment is near — because in comparison with eternity the whole time of this world is short —, or the departure of each person; let all fear and be silent, lest the face of the Lord — of which the holy one says: The light of your countenance is sealed upon us, O Lord — consume the hay, the stubble and the wood of sins. For the Lord has prepared his victim, the whole mystery of Leviticus, when through fire and the shedding of blood and the true offering those who are to be saved will be saved, and the called will be sanctified. Some of our writers understand the day of the Lord and his victim and the sanctification of the called of the coming of the Savior, when the Lamb was sacrificed, and in his blood the apostles were sanctified, and the rest who were called through them.

And it will be on the day of the Lord's victim, I will visit upon the princes, and upon the king's sons, and upon all who are clothed in foreign apparel. And I will visit everyone who arrogantly enters upon the threshold on that day, who fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit. LXX: And it will be on the day of the Lord's victim, and I will take vengeance upon the princes, and upon the house of the king, and upon all who are clothed in alien garments; and I will take vengeance openly upon all who are in the porches on that day, who fill the house of the Lord their God with ungodliness and deceit. On the day of the Jewish captivity, when the whole people is to be sacrificed, the Lord will visit both upon the princes, who drank strong drink in the morning, and upon the king's sons, either all of the royal stock or certainly, properly, the sons of Josiah, whom we read were either killed or captured; and upon all who are clothed in foreign apparel, that is, who instead of the worship of God venerated idols.

But since we have once begun to expound tropologically as well: The Lord will visit, at the coming and passion of the Savior, that is, on the day of the victim of his Son, upon the high priests and priests of the Jewish people and upon the royal house. For up to that time the kings of Judah from the stock of David continued, according to the prophecy of Jacob: A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is laid up, and he will be the expectation of the nations. For after the Lord's victim the kingdom was taken from the Jews. And upon all, he says, who are clothed in alien garments, who have withdrawn from the protection and clothing of God and are covered with their own error. And I will take vengeance openly upon all who are in the porches, that is, who have gone out from the temple of God; and though they ought to have been within, because of their sins they have gone outside and withdrawn from the Church of God, filling his temple with ungodliness and deceit. Let this be understood of the first coming of the Savior. But since we have once expounded it of the consummation of the world and the day of judgment, which all interpret as the day of the Lord, we ought to know that at that time the Lord will visit upon the princes and upon the shepherds, who eat the milk of the sheep and, shearing the wool, have no care for the breaking of the flock; and upon the king's sons, who boast that they are Christians and glory that they are sons of Christ the king; and upon all who are clothed in alien garments. The garment of the king's sons and the clothing of the princes is Christ, whom we receive in baptism, according to that saying: Put on Christ Jesus, and: Put on bowels of mercy, of kindness, of humility, of meekness, of patience, and so on. In these we are commanded to be clothed with the new, heavenly man, according to our Creator, and to cast off the clothing of the old man with his works. Though, then, we ought to be clothed with such garments, instead of mercy we are clothed with cruelty, instead of patience with impatience, instead of justice with iniquity. And to say it once for all, instead of virtues with vices; that is, instead of Christ with the Antichrist. Hence it is said of a man of this kind: And he was clothed with cursing as with a garment. The Lord will also avenge most openly at his coming even upon those who, though they ought to have been in the Church with good works, have cast themselves out because of their most wicked way of life; and, handed over to Satan, they abide in the porches, or rather not even in the porches but before the porches, which is said more expressively in Greek, ἐπὶ τὰ πρόπυλα. And he will avenge upon all who fill the Church with various iniquities and sins, and with ungodliness and lying, and mingle blood with blood. But if we wish to take this very thing of the souls of individuals, let us understand by the princes and the house of the king the λογισμοὺς, that is, the thoughts and senses, and the soul itself, which ought to be the lodging of the king; and according to the exposition above let us also refer the alien clothing, and all that follows, to each one of the believers who, though they ought to have been clothed with Christ and always to abide within, have covered themselves with the various garments of sins, and, gone out from the Church, that is, from the congregation of the saints, have filled the temple of their body, instead of with virtues, with iniquity and deceit.

And upon all who arrogantly enter upon the threshold on that day, that is, against the proud, who with a certain disdain and haughtiness of rank ascend the steps of the temple and the threshold of the sanctuary. Moreover, where we translated: Who arrogantly enter upon the threshold, it can be understood according to the Hebrew as 'who leap over the threshold'; and this is to be taken historically: I will avenge upon those who, according to the first book of Kingdoms (1 Samuel), do not tread on the threshold of the idols, serving superstitions, who have filled the house of the Lord their God not only with the worship of idols but with iniquity and crime and every lie, so that to the error of religion there might be joined also iniquity toward subjects and lying toward neighbours.

And it will be on that day, says the Lord, the sound of a cry from the Fish Gate, and wailing from the Second, and a great crushing from the hills. LXX: And it will be on that day, says the Lord, the sound of a cry from the gate of those who pierce, and wailing from the Second, and a great crushing from the hills. On the day of the Lord's victim, when he stretches out his hand over Judah and over all who dwell in Jerusalem, and a hostile army has besieged it, there will be the sound of a cry from the Fish Gate and wailing from the Second, and a great crushing from the hills. They called the Fish Gate the one which leads to Diospolis and Joppa, and of all the roads of Jerusalem it was the nearest to the sea; of it Ezra too relates: But the Fish Gate the sons of Hassenaah built; they covered it, and set up its doors and locks and bars. And what he says, And wailing from the Second, signifies the gate of the second wall in the same region, of which it is written also in the book of Kingdoms: And Hilkiah the priest went, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the garments, and she dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second. And by the great crushing from the hills he speaks of Mount Zion and the higher part of the city, because when the heights and the citadel of the city have been taken, the descent to the lower parts is easier. But if we wish to take that day with which the Lord threatens, as above, as the day of judgment, at that time when the Ancient of days is to sit, and the books are to be opened, and the consciences of each are to be laid bare, then the sound of a cry will be fulfilled from the gate of those who pierce. For the first gate will be that of the eyes, when our sins will be displayed to us before our eyes, and all the pomp and image of our old crimes and vices and luxury will be brought out into the open. Then that will be true which is written: Behold the man and his works before his face. His conscience, then, will torment him, and after he has cried out, pierced to the heart, from the first gate, that of the eyes, he will wail also from the second, which we can understand as the ears. For it is through these senses above all, by which the vices had slipped in, that their punishment will be felt, when we discern what we have done and, hearing the discourse of the learned one and the whole order of our sins, we are driven to wailing, and whatever had been lofty in us is crushed, and was unknown to us because of blindness and deaf ears. Or certainly when lofty words and instruction coming from on high will crush and break us, and this will be fulfilled in deed: I roared from the groaning of my heart, so that there may be in us a sacrifice to God, a troubled spirit; in us, who are men and have not committed sins so great as to be compared to mountains, the hills are crushed. But in the devil and his angels the heights of the mountains will be crushed. Many think that what we have referred, according to the history, to the times of the Babylonians is to be understood of the first coming of the Savior, when, because of their excessive sins and the clamour of the people crying out: His blood be upon us, and upon our children, Jerusalem was surrounded by an army, and by two bears, namely Vespasian and Titus, the crowd of mocking boys was consumed. This understanding indeed suits our faith better, but in such a way that we know it can also agree with the earlier history, or certainly that the earlier captivity is a type of the second and complete overthrow of Jerusalem. This too must be noticed — since adagim in the Hebrew plainly sounds not 'the gate of those who pierce' but 'the Fish Gate' —: allegorically, the Fish Gate is in Jerusalem, through which are brought in the good fish that have been separated from the bad, and those who have remained outside will mourn as the rest go in. Or certainly at the end of the world and at the consummation those will mourn from the first gate, the Fish Gate, who have not kept their baptism; those will mourn from the second who have not done worthy repentance for their sins. And there will be a great crushing upon the hills, who were not even bowed down for their sins so as to submit their necks and bewail their crimes. For through these two gates, of baptism and of repentance, there is either entry or return into Jerusalem, that is, into the Church of God.

Wail, inhabitants of the Mortar; all the people of Canaan has fallen silent. LXX: Lament, you who inhabit the one cut to pieces, for all the people of Canaan has been made like. The Mortar, which in Hebrew is called machtes, and which was rendered by Aquila εὶς τὸν ὅλμον (into the mortar), must be read with its first syllable not short, lest we think it means σφαῖραν (a ball), but long, so that we may know it is said of the mortar in which grain is pounded, a hollow vessel, suited also to the use of physicians, in which, properly speaking, ptisans are usually crushed. Someone may say that he has understood what the Mortar means, but wishes to know why it has been taken up in the present place. Because there was once a description of the captured city, and it is said: A voice of crying from the Fish Gate, and wailing from the Second, and a great crushing from the hills; now the same order of description is kept, and the wailing is spoken of those who dwell in the valley of Siloam. And Scripture has beautifully not said, you who inhabit the valley, you who inhabit the hovel, but you who inhabit the Mortar, namely because, just as grain is pounded when the pestle strikes from above, so the army, rushing out from the Fish Gate, and from the Second Gate, and from the hills, will run down upon you. Now he has called the people of the Jews the people of Canaan, according to what we read in Daniel: Seed of Canaan and not of Judah; and to Jerusalem: Your father an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite; and in another place: Canaan, in your hand, a balance of iniquity. But if we wish to weave a tropology according to both translations, those are rightly roused to wailing and lamentation who dwell in the uttermost lees of sins, and, sunk in the depths of their crimes, say: I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no, he says, substance. Hence it is also added: You who inhabit the one cut to pieces, that is, the soul wounded by many iniquities, or the Church, which is torn by schisms and heresies, and at each wound laments her slain sons. But when he says: Has fallen silent, or has been made like, all the people of Canaan, he signifies that their blasphemy will cease on the day of judgment, and that the mouth which they set on high, and the tongue reaching all the way down to the earth, will fall silent in eternal silence. And because Jerusalem has sinned a sin, and has therefore been turned into commotion, the people is called Canaan, which means commotion. For it cannot say: He has set my feet upon a rock, but, uncertain and wavering, it is always in motion. Hence also Noah, a holy man, after he awoke from sleep, gave Canaan a name out of a curse, saying: Cursed be Canaan the boy; a servant he will be to his brothers. Not only are sinners likened to Canaan, however, but according to the quality and diversity of the sin, one is likened to Pharaoh, another to Nimrod the giant. And on the contrary, through good works and virtues, since the paths of the virtues too are diverse, one takes up the spirit of Abraham, another that of Moses, another that of Elijah; for which reason it is said by the Apostle: Be zealous for the better gifts. But he who is perfect, yet according to that perfection which the human condition can receive, is marked with the likeness of God.

All who were wrapped in silver have perished. LXX: All who are lifted up by silver have perished. Those, he says, who trusted in riches and had such great wealth that they reckoned themselves as it were wrapped and fenced about by their riches, or certainly, according to the LXX, those who were lifted up into pride and despised the poor, were laid waste when wrath came. And consider at the same time that he did not say: They will perish who are lifted up by silver, but that already now, before the day of punishment comes upon them, in the very fact that they are proud, and always think about their treasures and guard them, they have perished and collapsed. Whoever has understood this, I think, will not much desire riches, in which those who are lifted up will not perish, but have perished. Nor indeed should it be thought that only those have perished who are lifted up by silver, but according to this definition he too will perish who boasts in the nobility of his birth. He will perish who is puffed up by dignities; he will perish who glories in the strength of his body; he will perish who, softened by a womanish languor, grows his hair, plucks out his hairs, polishes his skin, and adorns himself at the mirror, which is properly the passion and madness of women. But if anyone wishes to be lifted up and to be proud with a holy pride, let him be lifted up with the apostles, when he has been found worthy to suffer insult for the name of Jesus Christ; let him glory with the Apostle, who exulted in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, patience hope, and hope does not confound.

The Lord Jesus went into Jerusalem, into the temple. And when he had looked around upon all things, then, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. The Lord went into Jerusalem and into the temple. He went in, and, having entered, what does he do? He looks about at everything. In the temple of the Jews he was looking for a place to rest his head and found none. "He had looked around upon all things." Why did it say, "He had looked around upon all that was there"? He was looking for the priests; he wanted to be with them, but he could not find them. He always had regard for priests. So he surveyed all that was about him, almost as though he were searching with a lantern; so says the prophet Zephaniah: "I will explore Jerusalem with lamps." In this same way, the Lord too looked around at everything with the light of a lamp. He was searching in the temple, but he did not find what he wanted. When it was already evening, he was still exploring everything; he was looking around upon all things. Even though his search was unfruitful, nevertheless, as long as there was light, he remained in the temple; but when evening had come, when the shades of ignorance had darkened the temple of the Jews, when it was the evening hour, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. The Savior searched; the apostles searched; in the temple they found nothing, so they left it.

And it will be at that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will visit upon the men settled on their lees, who say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil. LXX: And it will be on that day, I will search Jerusalem with a lamp, and I will take vengeance upon the men who despise their charges, and say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil. At the time and on the day of the captivity of Jerusalem, whether by the Babylonians or by the Romans — because she forsook the law of the Lord, and acted impiously against the Lord her Creator —, the Lord will search out with a lamp all the hidden places of Jerusalem, and will let no one escape unpunished. Let us read the histories of Josephus, and there we shall find it written that princes and kings and powerful men and priests, who had hidden themselves in them for fear of death, were dragged out of sewers too, and caves, and grottoes, and tombs. And I will visit, he says, upon those who trust in their bodies and in their strength, which he disparagingly (διασυρτικῶς) calls lees, or else their sins, in which they were deeply settled; who, doing away with providence, said that God is the author neither of good nor of evil, that is, that he would render neither good things to the good nor evil things to the evil, but that all things were governed by the will of fortune and borne along by uncertain chance. But at the consummation of the world, since that is understood as the day of the Lord itself, the Lord will search Jerusalem, that is, his Church, with a lamp; and he will take vengeance upon the men who are despisers, who would not keep their charges, that is, who despised the commandments of the Lord, and moreover, saying that they sinned with reason, blasphemed in their hearts, that it was of no profit to do good, nor of any harm to do evil, because God would render neither the reward of good works nor the punishment of evil ones. And rightly Jerusalem, that is, the Church — which was formerly called Jebus, which means trodden down —, was called Jebus when she was being trodden down by the nations and was the plaything of demons, and after the peace of the Lord began to dwell in her, and his place was made in peace, she obtained the name Jerusalem. Since, therefore, in the last time, as we have often said already, charity will grow cold because iniquity is multiplied, and the light of the sun will withdraw from Jerusalem, and there will be such great desolation that even the elect of God will scarcely be saved, then the Lord will search out all the vices in Jerusalem with the lamp of his word and reason, and will bring them out into the open, and judgment and vengeance will be passed even for an idle word, not upon sinners — for even sin could merit pardon —, but upon despisers, of whom it is said in Habakkuk: Behold, you despisers, and look, and in another place: Why do you not look upon the despisers?, and then: But he who is arrogant, and a despiser, a proud man, and so on. Vengeance will fall upon these, who did not keep the Lord's charges, and say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, and he will not do evil; not that God does evil, but that punishment seems evil to him who suffers it. Otherwise the physician's scalpel too will be evil, because it cuts open wounds and amputates putrid flesh; and a father will be evil when he beats his son to correct him from his vices, and a teacher evil when he rebukes his pupil to instruct him: For all discipline for the present seems to be not of joy, but of sorrow; but afterwards it will yield the peaceful fruit to those who have been trained by it.

With reference to that day the prophet Amos says, "Woe to them that desire the Day of the Lord. To what end is this Day of the Lord for you? The day itself is darkness and not light." The prophet Zephaniah says the same thing: "The voice of the Day of the Lord is grim and bitter." That is why the penitent now introduced before us earnestly supplicates in the ordered divisions of his prayer that he may not be convicted for his deeds on that day of judgment. What is more beneficial and farsighted for the person who could have no hope in his own deserts because of the sins which he has committed than to decide to pray to God's fatherly love while in this world, where there is opportunity for repentance?

The lust of possessions and money are not to be sought for. In Solomon, in Ecclesiastes: "He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver." Also in Proverbs: "He who holds back the corn is cursed among the people; but blessing is on the head of him that communicates it." Also in Isaiah: "Woe to them who join house to house, and lay field to field, that they may take away something from their neighbor. Will you dwell alone upon the earth?" Also, in Zephaniah: "They shall build houses, and shall not dwell in them; and they shall appoint vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them, because the Day of the Lord is near." Also in the Gospel according to Luke: "For what does it profit a man to make a gain of the whole world, but that he should lose himself?"

According to tropology, however, when the time of judgment comes, or of each one's death and departure from the world, then all their strength will be for plunder, so that what was strong for evil, and was lifted up against the Lord, may be made weak and broken and turned to something better. Just as, if someone plunders the strength of a robber and a pirate and a thief, and renders them weak, their weakness profits them; for with their limbs disabled, which they formerly did not use well, they will cease from evil work. As for what follows: And their house for a desert, there are many in the Church building Zion in blood and Jerusalem in iniquity, whom it profits that such houses be destroyed. Let us read Leviticus, where a leprous house is ordered to be destroyed. And because the leprosy is lasting and spreads, its stones and timbers and all its dust are ordered to be thrown outside the city into an unclean place. And in the beginning of Jeremiah too something of the kind is written: Behold, I have put my words into your mouth; behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to root up and to undermine, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant. A very bad building is destroyed so that afterwards a good building may be put up; a wicked planting is rooted up so that a planting may be set in its place. Hence we also read in Solomon: It is better to dwell under the open sky than in the plaster of strife with iniquity, and in a new house. As a good God, therefore, he destroys the houses of those who were settled on their lees, and had said in their heart: The Lord will not do good and he will not do evil; and he does not allow them to dwell in leprous and unclean houses, nor does he let them drink wine from the vineyards which they had planted. For if they had planted a vineyard of Sorek, and a chosen vineyard, wholly true, they would have drunk their wine, and would have been inebriated with the patriarch Noah, and with Joseph at noon; but because they said: The Lord will not do good and he will not do evil, and: Their vine was of the vine of Sodom, and their shoot of Gomorrah. Their grape is a grape of gall, and theirs is a cluster of bitterness; the fury of dragons is their wine, and the incurable fury of asps, therefore they have planted vineyards and will not drink their wine. And it is said mystically of Sodom and Gomorrah that all their planting perished. For if they had remained in what they had begun, so as to be like the paradise of God, and had not ended in evil, so as to be like the land of Egypt, their planting would surely have remained. Something of the kind is sounded also by that verse concerning the Egyptians in the psalms: He killed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with frost. For as a most merciful God he killed and overturned every Egyptian planting, and the shrubs which, rooted in Egypt, bear blood-red fruits, so that those who planted badly may not drink, and may not eat fruit from them.

And their strength will be for plunder, and their house for a desert. And they will build houses, and will not inhabit them, and they will plant vineyards, and will not drink their wine. Close is the great day of the Lord; it is close, and exceedingly swift. LXX: And their strength will be for pillage, and their houses will be scattered. And they will build houses, and will not dwell in them, and they will plant vineyards, and will not drink their wine, for close is the great day of the Lord; close and exceedingly swift. It is plain that in both captivities their whole army was cut down, and their houses torn down, and their fields and vineyards laid waste, and that the patience of God no longer put them off. But while they were saying to the prophets, this will be for a time, and for many days, the great day of the Lord came upon them, exceedingly swift.

Near is the great day of the Lord and exceedingly swift, which no one can withstand; and it is near either because of eternity, since nothing is long to it, or because of the greatness of the punishment, since to one who suffers it, the torment that is to be inflicted never seems far off. Or else it is near, as we said above, when we depart from the world, and each one's death has brought about the consummation of the world; and not only near, but also exceedingly swift, so that the swiftness of its coming may be shown in what is added, exceedingly.

But if, as above, we refer the day of the Lord to the consummation of the world, or to the end of each one's life, the interpretation will be plain: that the voice of the day of the Lord is bitter, and full of constraint and of wrath, and that the strong man is afflicted there, since even those who are holy are saved indeed, but yet so as through fire.

The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter; there the strong man will be afflicted.

That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and whirlwind, a day of trumpet and clangor against the fortified cities and against the lofty corners. LXX: The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter and harsh; it has been set, strong. A day of wrath is that day, a day of tribulation and constraint, a day of misery and destruction, a day of darkness and whirlwind, a day of cloud and gloom, a day of trumpet and shouting against the fortified cities and against the lofty corners. In keeping with what precedes, take it either of the Babylonian captivity or of the last one, which they suffered at the hands of the Romans, over which the Lord also wept for Jerusalem, saying: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you, and so on. For truly vengeance was exacted from the blood of Abel the just to the blood of Zechariah, whom they killed between the temple and the altar, and at the last for the Son of God; saying: His blood be upon us and upon our children, they experienced a bitter day, because they had provoked the Lord to bitterness; a day appointed by the Lord, on which not just any weak men, but the strongest men will be pressed down, and wrath will come upon them to the end. For they had often endured the wrath of the Lord before as well, but that wrath had not been one of consummation and of the end. What need is there now to describe how great the calamities were that they endured in both captivities, and how those who spurned the light of the Lord passed their lives in darkness and gloom, and those who would not hear the trumpets of the solemn days heard the shouting of men at war? As for the fortified cities and the lofty corners of Judea, which have been torn down to the very ground, I think it is a matter for the judgment of the eyes rather than of the ears, especially for us who are now in this province: we may see, we may test what is written. In what were once great cities we scarcely discern small traces of ruins. Of Shiloh, where the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant of the Lord were, scarcely the foundations of the altar are shown. Gibeah, that city of Saul, has been torn down to its foundations. Ramah and Beth-horon and the other noble cities built by Solomon are pointed out as small hamlets. Let us read Josephus and the prophecy of Zephaniah, and we shall see the history of the latter; and this is to be said not only of the captivity, but to the present day the faithless tenants, after the killing of the servants and at the last of the Son of God, are forbidden to enter Jerusalem except to lament; and to be permitted to weep over the ruin of their city, they pay a price, so that those who once bought the blood of Christ buy their own tears, and not even their weeping is free to them. You may see, on the day on which Jerusalem was captured and destroyed by the Romans, a mournful people coming, decrepit little women and old men covered with rags and years flocking together, showing in their bodies and in their dress the wrath of the Lord. A crowd of wretches gathers, and while the gibbet of the Lord gleams, and his ἀναστάσει (the Resurrection: the Church of the Anastasis in Jerusalem) shines, and the standard of the cross blazes from the Mount of Olives as well, you may see the wretched people lamenting the ruins of their temple, and yet not deserving pity; the tears are still on their cheeks, their arms are livid, and their hair dishevelled, and the soldier demands a fee so that they may be allowed to weep longer; and does anyone, seeing these things, doubt about the day of tribulation and distress, about the day of calamity and misery, about the day of darkness and gloom, about the day of cloud and whirlwind, about the day of trumpet and clangor? For they have trumpets even in their mourning, and, according to the prophecy, the voice of solemnity is turned into lamentation. They wail over the ashes of the sanctuary, and over the destroyed altar, and over the once fortified cities, and over the lofty corners of the temple, from which they once cast down James the brother of the Lord. Let this be said about the captivity of the Jews.

But since these are light as perceived by the sense, which are said in Moses to have come into existence on the fourth day, they are not the true light because they enlighten the things on the earth. The Savior, on the other hand, is the light of the spiritual world because he shines on those who are rational and intellectual, that their mind may see its proper visions. Now I mean he is the light of those rational souls which are in the sensible world, of which the Savior teaches us that he is the Maker, being, perhaps its directing and principal part, and, so to speak, the sun of the great Day of the Lord.

But let them hear how the prophet Zephaniah holds out over them the power of divine rebuke, saying, Behold the day of the Lord cometh, great and horrible, the day of wrath, that day; a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of cloud and whirlwind, a day of trumpet and clangour, upon all fenced cities, and upon all lofty corners. For what is expressed by fenced cities but minds suspected, and surrounded ever with a fallacious defence; minds which, as often as their fault is attacked, suffer not the darts of truth to reach them? And what is signified by lofty corners (a wall being always double in corners) but insincere hearts; which, while they shun the simplicity of truth, are in a manner doubled back upon themselves in the crookedness of duplicity, and, what is worse, from their very fault of insincerity lift themselves in their thoughts with the pride of prudence? Therefore the day of the Lord comes full of vengeance and rebuke upon fenced cities and upon lofty corners, because the wrath of the last judgment both destroys human hearts that have been closed by defences against the truth, and unfolds such as have been folded up in duplicities. For then the fenced cities fall, because souls which God has not penetrated will be damned. Then the lofty corners tumble, because hearts which erect themselves in the prudence of insincerity are prostrated by the sentence of righteousness.

That day is a day of tribulation, and distress, and calamity, and misery, on which they will say: Woe to us, for we have become wretched. A day of darkness: For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, and it must be that darkness overtakes him who hates the light.

It will be a day of cloud and whirlwind; for the tempest of the Lord will come upon him, and the clangor of the trumpet which the Apostle signifies, saying: At the last trumpet. For it will be a day of trumpet and clangor against the fortified cities, which they had built for themselves with Cain in the multitude of their sins. And against the lofty corners: perverse works, turning aside from the right way of the Lord. Hence the Pharisees, ὑποκρίται (hypocrites), are also rebuked by the Savior, because they worship at the corners of the streets. For the way that is straight and tends toward paradise is narrow, and strait is the way which leads to life. But the way that is broken, having corners, and crooked, is broad and spacious, the way which leads to death. And at the same time, amid the words of the Lord's severity, discern his clemency: that the day is bitter, and a day of wrath, and a day of tribulation, and a day of trumpet and clangor, for this reason, that the badly fortified cities and the perverse corners may be destroyed.

But at the consummation, whether of the world or of each one, all men will be afflicted who remained men and died as men. And they will walk like the blind, because they have lost the light of the virtues, and they will have no place for repentance; and they will suffer these things because they have sinned against the Lord. For if the Lord is justice, truth, holiness, and the other virtues, whoever has acted unjustly, and has lied, and has pursued harlots and vices, has sinned against the Lord. But what follows: And their blood will be poured out like soil, and their bodies like the dung of oxen, seems absurd, that we should say that in the resurrection of the dead, and at the consummation of the world and the judgment, blood is poured out and bodies lie like dung. Therefore what is said to Noah: And the blood of your souls I will require at the hand of all the beasts, and at the hand of man, and at the hand of his brother I will require the soul of man; whoever sheds the blood of man, for his blood shall his blood be poured out, is both ridiculous to believe of the resurrection and cannot hold in this life. For how many have shed blood, and their own blood has not been poured out? And others have killed a man by poison, or by hanging, and yet, though the man is dead, has blood been poured out? How then is the Lord going to pour out their blood in retaliation, when he who killed did not pour out blood? The blood of a man, therefore, must be understood as τὸ ζωτικὸν αἶτος, that is, the vital principle, by which he is quickened and sustained and lives; and whoever has poured this out, whether by a stumbling block or by perversity of doctrine, will have it poured out from him on the day of judgment, that is, he will be forced to lose what he seemed to himself to have as his vital principle. In keeping with blood of this kind, flesh too is understood, of which Isaiah also says: All flesh is grass, and the Lord in Genesis: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh, and the Apostle, of both: Flesh and blood will not be able to possess the kingdom of God, nor will corruption inherit the incorruption of God.

And I will afflict men, and they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood will be poured out like soil, and their bodies like dung; but even their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord; in the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, for he will make a consummation with haste for all who inhabit the earth. LXX: And I will afflict men, and they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord, and he will pour out their blood like dust, and their flesh like the dung of oxen, and their silver and their gold will not be able to rescue them on the day of the wrath of the Lord; and in the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be consumed, for he will make a consummation and haste upon all who inhabit the earth. It is not difficult to say, according to the former sense, that Jerusalem suffered these things, which she endured because of the cross of the Lord; for the visitation of the Lord departed from her, and all the men in the whole of Judea were afflicted, and because of the greatness of the oppression they walked like the blind, not knowing what to do. And they suffered these things because they had sinned against the Lord, that is, against the Son of God. For because they shed the blood of the prophets and the blood of Christ, their blood was poured out like soil throughout the whole region, and their bodies remained unburied, like dung upon the face of the earth. Their rich men too, who had gathered silver and gold by excessive iniquity, could not be delivered by their wealth from the day of the wrath of the Lord; for the fire of the Lord's zeal, kindled against them, devoured the whole province. Nor was the time in between long, for forty-two years after the Lord's cross Jerusalem was surrounded by an army, and her consummation was made with haste, and not hers alone, but that of all the inhabitants of the land of Judea.

On the day of consummation, therefore, whether general or particular, all the blood that has been poured out will cry to the Lord and will appear in the midst, and the works of blood and the earthly works will lie like dust and dung, and silver and gold will not be able to deliver the rich from the day of wrath, while he who dies hears: Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Not that we deny that gold and silver deliver the rich from death — For the ransom of a man's soul is his own riches —, but that they cannot deliver them at that time when they leave their riches behind of necessity. For the whole earth and all things that are earthly will be devoured by the zeal of the Lord. And when he says, by zeal, understand the Lord as still loving. For if he did not love the human soul, he would never be jealous over it, and, like a husband, take vengeance on the sin of his wife; for if he did not love her, he would not even be angry at her adultery. And the Lord will do this with haste for all who inhabit the earth, for those who have given themselves wholly to the earth, and were not strangers and sojourners, like the just man who speaks: I am a stranger on the earth, and a sojourner like all my fathers. And again elsewhere, not wishing to dwell any longer in the tabernacle of the flesh, he bears witness with a tearful voice, saying: Woe is me, that my sojourning has been prolonged. And indeed we who are in the tabernacle of this body groan, complaining: Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?

I am weary and vexed at enumerating the multitude of ornaments, and I am compelled to wonder how those who bear such a burden are not worried to death. O foolish trouble! O silly craze for display! They squander meretriciously wealth on what is disgraceful and in their love for ostentation disfigure God's gifts, emulating the art of the evil one. The rich man hoarding up in his barns and saying to himself, "You have many goods laid up for many years; eat, drink be merry," the Lord in the Gospels plainly called "fool." "For this night they shall take your soul; whose then shall those things which you have prepared be?" Apelles, the painter, seeing one of his pupils painting a figure loaded with gold color to represent Helen, said to him, "Boy, being incapable of painting her beautiful, you have made her rich." Such Helens are the ladies of the present day, not truly beautiful but richly got up. To these the Spirit prophesies by Zephaniah: "And their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the Day of the Lord's anger." But for those women who have been trained under Christ, it is suitable to adorn themselves not with gold but with the Word, through whom alone the gold comes to light.