Книга девятая

Consistency required, daughter of Eustochius, that the prophecy about Tire and the prince of Tire be placed in one volume and connected both by place and by prophecy, not to be divided through the order of the books. But since the content [of this prophecy] is too extensive and exceeds the limits of stretching [the volume], we have postponed the interpretation until the ninth book, which, through the prayers of you and all the saints, we hope to bring to the end and also explain what is written in Ezekiel against Pharaoh and all of Egypt. Also from here, due to the vastness, we must separate [a part] for the tenth book, so that the same volume of volumes is maintained and so that the division of labor into parts gives rest to the dictator, the writer, and the reader. Eze.XXVIII:1-10. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! say to the prince of Tyre: Thus says the Lord God: since your heart was lifted up and you said: “I am God and sat down on the seat of God in the heart of the sea,” while you are a man, and not God, and put your heart on a par with the heart of God: then are you wiser than Daniel? No secret is hidden from you. Through your wisdom and understanding you gained strength for yourself and collected gold and silver into your treasuries. By your great wisdom and trade you have increased your strength and your heart has been lifted up as a result of your strength. Therefore, this is what the Lord (God) says: because your heart is exalted, like the heart of God, behold, I will bring foreigners against you, the mightiest of nations, and they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and disfigure your beauty. They will kill you and betray you, and you will die the death of the slain in the heart of the sea. Will you speak before your murderers, saying, “I am God”? then, as in the hand of your murderers, you are a man and not God. You will die the death of the uncircumcised in the hand of foreigners, for I have spoken, says the Lord God. LXX: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: since your heart was lifted up and you said: “I am God, I dwelt in the habitation of God, in the heart of the sea,” but you are a man, and not God, and you put your heart on a par with the heart of God: are you wiser than Daniel? The wise did not teach you their wisdom: did you, through your education or through your wisdom, build up your strength and gather gold and silver into your treasuries, or did you increase your strength through your great education and your trade turnover? Because of your strength, your heart has been lifted up. Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Because you have set your heart on a par with the heart of God, behold, I will bring foreign destroyers from among the nations against you, and they will draw their swords against you, against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will destroy your beauty to the point of destruction, and they will bring you down, and they will dispose of you, and you will die the death of those slain in the heart of the sea. Will you speak before your murderers, saying, “I am God”? But you are a man, and not God before the crowd of those who defeat you. You will die the death of the uncircumcised in the hands of foreigners, for I have spoken, says Adonai the Lord.” Wherever the Lord, Lord, stands according to Seventy twice, the first name constitutes a tetragram (יחוח); it refers specifically to God and is called ineffable; the second is common (‘ל), which is often found among people. How first the riches are described, then the destruction and lamentation of the city of Tire under the image of a ship; Thus, the prophetic speech first addresses the prince of Tyre, due to the fact that he, arrogantly proud, did not use the wealth that he had for good, then weeping and lamentation are described that from such great blessings he came to such misadventures. Therefore, first we must say about the first. In Isaiah (Isaiah 14) it is written regarding the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar that he equated himself with the power of God and was so proudly exalted that he dared to say: I will ascend above the stars of heaven and I will be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:13–14). And being dethroned from the throne, he deserved to hear: how is the morning star fallen, rising in the morning (Is. 14:12)? Also about Pharaoh [it is written] by this same prophet: My rivers are and I have made them (Ezek. 29:9), and about the prince of Tyre, that with an arrogant heart he arrogantly said: I am God and sat in the seat of God or dwelt in the abode of God, while he is a man, and not God. Although this apparently exceeds the strength of human frailty and constitutes the words not so much of people as of maddening demons, we must understand this hyperbole in the sense that they were so arrogant and did not know the limits for themselves that, being proud of the temporary happiness and power of the kingdom, and considering present blessings to be eternal, they did not realize that they were people and arrogated to themselves eternal power. But under the image of princes, kings, individual cities or regions, opposing forces are depicted, about which the Apostle Paul writes: our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, and against the powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). And in another place: we say wisdom in those who are perfect: but wisdom is not of this world, nor of the princes of this world that cease (1 Cor. 2:6). And again, speaking about wisdom, he says: even if none of the princes of this age understood, even if they understood, they crucified the Lord of glory (ibid., 1 Cor. 2:8). Also in the prophecy of Daniel it is clearly read about the prince of the Israeli people Michael, and about the Greek prince and the Persian prince (Dan. 10). And Moses writes more clearly in the songs of Deuteronomy: when you have divided the languages ​​above, as if the sons of Adam were scattered, set the boundaries of the languages ​​according to the number of the angels of God, or, as it is better in Hebrew: according to the number of the sons of Israel. And his people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, already his inheritance Israel (Deut. 32:8–9). And since we know that the best kings - David, and Solomon and Josiah, and the patriarchs and prophets - served as a prototype of the Lord Savior; then let us not be surprised that the worst kings, on the contrary, were prototypes of the apostate kings. So, in relation to both meanings, we will explain what is written regarding both arrogant kings and apostate princes. [He] says: although you are in the middle of the sea, within the narrow confines of an island, I will say more: although you are a man and clothed with a mortal human body; however, you, having become exalted as a result of the arrogance of your heart, imagined yourself to dwell on the throne of God, in heaven. And since at the same time you boast of wisdom, and the people of your kingdom competed in riddles with Solomon; then are you wiser than Daniel, who, by the grace of God, defeated all the magicians and fortune-tellers and is now wiser than everyone in Babylon? Or this is how it should be understood: even if you were wiser than Daniel, who, by all accounts, is wiser than everyone else, and wanted to equal the power of God in wealth and power; however, you will be taken by enemies and, after the destruction of the city, you will be covered with many wounds and will no longer say “I am God,” but, taught by destruction, you will recognize yourself as a man, and not as God. If we wish to call the same power as the prince of Tyre, to which the city or country itself was betrayed by God, then we can accept this testimony: Az rekh: Gods of nature and sons of all the Most High. But you, like men, are dying and like one you are falling from princes (Ps. 81:7). For they have been given the provinces to govern, like judges by the emperor. They, forgetting that their honorable position depended on the will of another, as Heraclian (or Heradian) recently was in Africa, rebelled with a tyrannical thought against the king and their ruler, so that, scattered throughout the world, under the guise of idolatry, they would appropriate for themselves the names of gods and, due to pompousness and arrogance, fall into the court and snares of the devil. The Savior spoke about this in the Gospel: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven (Luke 10:18). Eze.XXVIII:11–19. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! lift up a lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: you are the seal of likeness, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty: you dwelt in the sweetness of God’s paradise. Every precious stone covered you: sardonic, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, onyx, and beryl, sapphire, carbuncle and emerald. Gold is the lining of your ornament and your borders (foramina) were prepared on the day of your creation. You are an outstretched and overshadowing cherub, and I have placed you on the holy mountain of God. You walked among fiery stones; You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. Because of your extensive trade, your inner being was filled with unrighteousness, and you sinned, and I drove you out of the mountain of God and destroyed you, O cherub overshadowing from among the fiery stones. And your heart was lifted up because of your glory; you have destroyed wisdom from your beauty, I have cast you to the ground, in the face of kings I have given you up to disgrace. With the multitude of your iniquities and your unrighteous trade you have desecrated your sanctuary. Therefore I will bring forth a fire from among you that will consume you, and I will turn you into ashes on the earth in the sight of all who see you. All who saw you among the nations will be amazed at you. You are lost, and you will never be lost forever. LXX: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! lift up a lament for the prince of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: you are a seal of likeness, full of wisdom and a crown of beauty: you abided in the sweetness of God’s paradise. You were covered with every precious stone: sardine and topaz, and emerald, and carbuncle, and sapphire and jasper, and silver and gold, and hyacinth (ligurio) and agate, and amethyst, peridot, and beryl, and onyx and gold, you filled your treasuries and your granaries; from the day of your creation they were prepared together with the cherubim, who was anointed by God and dwelt in the tabernacle. I have placed you on the holy mountain of God; you were among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your days, from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. From your extensive trade you filled your storehouses (cellaria) with unrighteousness, and you sinned and were struck by the mountain of God, and the overshadowing cherub brought you out from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud because of your beauty, your wisdom perished along with your beauty. Because of the multitude of your sins, I cast you to the ground; in front of the kings I gave you up to disgrace. With the multitude of your sins and your unrighteous trade, you have desecrated your shrines. And I will make fire in your midst; he will devour you; and I will turn you into ashes on the earth in the sight of all who see you, and all who knew you among the nations will mourn for you. You have been destroyed, and you will no longer exist forever. Since we have said who the king of Tyre is and how he fell through pride, we will get acquainted with his complaints about his former glory. First he is reminded of what he was, so that he mourns the loss of what he had. You, he says, are a seal of likeness, just as the Evangelist John speaks about the Savior: For God is the Father of the banner (John 6:27), and about people: He has set a seal, that there is a true God (John 3:33). And in the Psalms: the light of Your countenance shines upon us, O Lord (Ps. 4:7). And in another place: beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not revealed that we shall be; We know that when He appears, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2). Therefore, in relation to God it is said: who will be like You (Ps. 34:10)? For there is another likeness and another equality. Therefore, the grossest heresy is that which in Christ recognizes only the likeness of the Father and rejects nature (naturam). We recognize in the Son not only similarity, but equality. For this is why the Jews persecuted Him, because He not only violated the Sabbath, but also made Himself equal to God (John 5:18). And where there is equality, there is one and the same nature and being (natura, substantia). The Apostle also speaks about likeness: my children, with whom I am again sick, until Christ is imagined in you (Gal. 4:19), that is, so that you accept His likeness, which you have lost through your fault. And since in the Latin copies instead of seal (signaculo) there is unsealing (resignaculum), for literally the one who translated in relation to the LXX (ἀποσφρα’γισμα) used in the translation 60 put unsealing (κακοζη’λως) due to incorrect imitation; then some explain it this way: the king of Tyre unsealed and lost the seal of God and the image, imprinted as if on very soft wax, so that instead of a seal he made an unsealing and did not have the image and likeness of God, in which the first man was created, as God says: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). And it should be noted that the Image was only then, and the likeness is obtained at the baptism of Christ. Therefore, to the one to whom it was said: you are the seal of likeness, is added: full of wisdom, perfect in beauty or a crown of beauty. For where there is the likeness of God, there is fullness of wisdom, and perfect beauty, or, as it were, a crown adorned with various flowers and composed of virtues, which a diligent [man] increases through his zeal, diligently developing a natural gift, and a careless one reduces according to what is said in Proverbs under the image of a beautiful, but not well-behaved woman: as if he was careful in the nostrils of a pig, so is a woman more wicked. babble (Prov. 11:22). It follows: you were in the sweetness of God's paradise, instead of which in Hebrew there is eden, as the story of Genesis tells. Eden (eden) means sweetness. And it is excellent, for the sake of distinction, to call the paradise of God, in order to show that there is also an opposite paradise, not of God, among those who replace truth with lies (Rom. 1:18) and boast that they have paradise. With these words, he shows that this is not written about a person, but about an opposing force that once dwelt in the paradise of God, although the Jews believe that here, through a rhetorical figure (τρο’πον), called a hyperbole (ὑπερβολη’), a prophecy about the king of Tyre, Hiram, is set forth. But to whomever it is said: you were in the sweetness of God's paradise, he is given to know what he had and what he lost. Then, as for what is connected with being in paradise: every precious stone covered you or surrounded you and adorned you, sardolicus, topaz and jasper, chrysolite and onyx, and beryl, sapphire and carbuncle, and emerald, or twelve stones, as they are described in the LXX in a different order and under other names, then it should be noted that the king of Tyre was not surrounded and covered with every precious stone and, as Symmachus translated, we bind and tighten, but every stone that the prince of Tyre had was precious. There are also many precious stones that Scripture does not name in this place: chalcedon, sardonyx, chrysoprase, hyacinth, also crystal and very valuable pearls. But Aquilla, and Symmachus, and Theodotion, and the LXX interpreters differ significantly from each other regarding not only the order, but also the number and names [of the stones]. Also in the Apocalypse of John, which speaks of the building of Jerusalem from living stones, the same stones, with a slight change in order at the end, are placed in its foundations, so that its gates are described as being built of transparent crystal (Rev. 21:21). Also on the chest of the high priest, in four rows on the breastplate (rationali), the same stones are described (Ex. 28:12), and on his shoulders there are two onyx stones, on which the names of the twelve patriarchs were written. The true High Priest, about whom it is written: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 109:4), wears them on his chest, wears them on his shoulders, so that with twelve stones he indicates the number of the apostles, and with two, the sacraments of both covenants. One of them, the Evangelist John, reclined on His chest in order to draw the waters of wisdom and be able to say: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word. This one has been from time immemorial to God (John 1:1–2). They serve as living stones from which the Church is built and about which the Apostle Peter writes: if you believed, for the Lord is good. It comes to Him, I live as stones, I am humbled by man, but chosen by God, honorable, and we ourselves, like living stones, are built into a spiritual church, holy holiness, offering spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Scripture says to Zane (Isa. 28:16): Behold, I lay in Zion a cornerstone, chosen, honorable, and whoever believes in it will not be put to shame (1 Pet. 2:3–6). Concerning this, the chosen vessel unanimously says: having been built upon the foundation of an apostle and a prophet, I am the chief cornerstone of Jesus Christ himself, your Lord, in whom every creature grows into the holy church of God (Eph. 2:20–21). These are the stones about which we read elsewhere: “the holy stones roll on the earth like wheels” (Zechariah 9:16), barely touching the earth, and, rolling, they hasten to heaven. Scripture also says about them: Behold, I am preparing your stone, and sapphire for your foundation. And I will lay your jaspis, and your gates of crystal stone, and your fence of chosen stones. And all your sons are taught by God, and your children are in many worlds. And you will be rewarded with righteousness (Isa. 54:11–14). We expressed our opinion about this in the interpretation of the same prophet. The twentieth psalm sings about this kind of stones: Lord, in Your power the king will rejoice, and he rejoiced greatly in Your salvation. You gave him the desire of his heart, and you took away the desire of his mouth. As if you had preceded him with a blessed blessing, you have placed on his head a crown of honorable stone (Ps. 20:1-4). These are the pearls of the prophets and apostles, which, compared to Christ (Matt. 13:46), are all sold in the Gospel, so that one can buy the pearl of great price and the stone about which Zechariah writes (Zech. 4) that he has seven eyes, that is, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Read Isaiah. And the Apostle Paul relied on the foundation of the Church, to build on it, gold, silver and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12). But now is not the time to talk about the colors, properties and actions of each of them; this requires a special volume, since a mutual comparison of all the stones and the order of the stones in Ezekiel, and in Exodus, and in the Apocalypse, and in Isaiah would raise many questions in both the reader and the author. The holy man Bishop Epiphanius personally gave me a special book about them. And in the XXXVII book of Natural History by Pliny Secundus, after various information about all kinds of objects, he talks about precious and simple stones. We must refer the careful reader to become acquainted with them. Further, in the translation of Symmachus it is written that this prince of Tyre was, as it were, decorated with a necklace of stones. Therefore he speaks of a gold rim (tumpanum) on which the stones were fixed. Therefore, in Hebrew it follows: gold - the lining of your jewelry and your rims (foramina) were prepared on the day of your creation. Instead, LXX put: you filled your treasuries and storerooms with gold, attributing this to the feeling and mind, since his thought opened in divine mysteries and collected for himself spiritual riches, regarding which the Lord commanded: hide for yourself a treasure in heaven, where neither the worm nor the aphid smears and where the tatie is not broken into or stolen. Wherever your treasure is, so is your heart (Matthew 6:20–21). This is the treasure about which He also says in the Gospel: like the kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure in a village, which a man found in secret, and for his joy he goes, and sells everything he has, and buys that village (Matthew 13:44); and the storehouses or granaries are those about which it is written elsewhere: blessed are your barns and your remains (Deut. 28:5). After this, the Hebrew says: you are the outstretched and overshadowing cherub, which means: the ark and the atonement, or according to LXX, in the sense that he, together with the cherub, was anointed and created. From this it is clear that this cannot refer to a person, the prince of the city of Tire, but to a power that was once holy and most excellent, which was set up to rule the city of Tire. And I placed (you), he says, on the holy mountain of God, pointing, without a doubt, to paradise, to which, as the Apostle Paul says about himself, he was caught up after the third heaven (2 Cor. 13). Cherub (cherub) is masculine, singular, and in the plural it is said cherubim - cherubs, which mean a multitude of knowledge; God rests and sits on them and uses this chariot, as the prophet says to Him: He sat on the cherubim, appearing (Ps. 79:2), and in another place: mount the cherubim, and fly, fly on the wing of the wind (Ps. 17:11). This same cherub, or created together with the cherub, stretched out and overshadowing the shrines, was placed on the holy mountain of God, about which we often spoke. And the Apostle Paul says, if anyone accepts the epistle to the Hebrews: come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and many angels (Heb. 12:22). Or by the holy mountain of God we should understand (as we said) paradise. He also walked among the fiery stones, about which it is written: “Thou shalt make angels His spirits, and His servants a fiery flame” (Ps. 103:4). And not only God, who is called a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24), consumes hay, wood and straw, but also the angels, who are called fiery stones and blazing spirits. Therefore, the Lord says: fire has come to burn on the earth, and whatever I want, even if it is already on fire (Luke 12:49). The following: you were perfect in your ways from the day of your creation (instead of which LXX they put: you were blameless in your days from the day of your creation), until iniquity was found in you, shows that God created every creation good and it had perfect virtue, and therefore the prince of Tyre was blameless, so that subsequent depravity was a consequence not of nature, but of the will. Until iniquity was found in you. God found that [iniquity] that was kept imprisoned in the treasuries of your heart as a result of anger and abuse of the power that you had received. Also, because of his extensive trade, his bowels, or treasuries, were filled with iniquity. For, seeking much and not being satisfied with either acquired knowledge or power, the one who ruled filled the storehouses and the entrails of his heart, so that, having become full and fat, he began to be stubborn against his Creator. For Jacob was satisfied and was satisfied, and his beloved was rejected: fat, thick, wide, and forsake God who created him (Deut. 32:15). And from the heart come evil thoughts (Matthew 15:19), because of which God says: you sinned and I drove you out of the mountain of God, or: you were struck by the mountain of God, and reading about this should arouse fear in us. For if the outstretched and overshadowing cherub, placed on the holy mountain of God and among the fiery stones, perfect and immaculate, as a result of extensive trade, filled his insides with iniquity and sinned, and was expelled from the mountain of God, that is, from the paradise abode, or struck by the mountain of God, under which, obviously, Christ, or settled and dwelt on the mountain of God, was struck by himself and tormented remorse due to evil, recognizing ourselves as unworthy of living on the mountain: then what should we think about ourselves? Therefore it is said to him: And I destroyed you, O cherub who overshadows among the fiery stones, so that you would not remain among the fiery stones, but perish. I brought you, who were a cherub, or the cherub who overshadowed you, from the midst of the fiery stones, according to what is written about Adam: I took out the cherub of Adam and brought him (or the cherub) straight into the sweet paradise (Gen. 3:24). And he indicates the reasons why he was brought out or expelled from the midst of the fiery stones: for your heart was proud of your beauty, since you consider God to be yours. Therefore, the apostle says that he received a thorn in the flesh, the angel of Satan, who depressed him, so that he would not become exalted in the importance of revelations and would not fall into the judgment of the devil (2 Cor. 12:7). And therefore, he says, your wisdom perished along with your beauty, or you destroyed your wisdom because of your beauty, so that, wanting to be greater than what you were created, and to have greater understanding than what you received from God, you lost what you had, and instead of beauty and wisdom, ugliness and stupidity befell you; Therefore, you, who formerly dwelt on the mountain of God, were cast down to the earth. Isaiah also writes about this: like the day when the morning rises (Isaiah 14:12). And the Savior in the Gospel says: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven (Luke 10:18). Jeremiah says the same thing in relation to Jerusalem: Has the Lord darkened the daughter of Zion in His wrath, casting down the glory of Israel from heaven to earth (Pl. 2:1)? But you are cast down before all kings, so that everyone, as a result of your example, will be afraid - either before the good kings, whose heart is in the hand of God (Proverbs 21:01), or before the evil ones, whose kingdoms the devil showed the Savior (Matthew 4:8) and who came to meet the king of Babylon, saying to him: you are taken captive, like us, and are numbered with us. Therefore, he desecrated his shrine, which he had when he lived on the mountain and was among the fiery stones. It follows: I will bring forth a fire among you that will consume you. This fire was kindled in the heart of the king of Tyre by the one who has arrows of fire and about whom it is written: all who commit adultery are like the furnace of their hearts (Hos. 7:4, 6). Isaiah also speaks about this fire: walk with the light of your fire and with the flame that you have kindled (Isaiah 50:11), so that when it comes out, it devours the one who possesses it, according to what is written in the same Isaiah: “devoured the substance like hay” (Isaiah 5:24). On that day the mountains, hills and forests will disappear, and it will devour from soul to body. This fire, called alien, Nadab and Abihu brought to the altar of the Lord and were burned by divine fire (Lev. 10:1). Therefore, Moses says: this is what the Lord said, saying: in those who draw near to Me I will be sanctified (Lev. 10:3). But God's sanctification serves as punishment for sinners. Then it says: and I will turn you into ashes on the earth, so that everything you have built will be destroyed by the fire of your remorse. Although you should have remained quiet on the Sabbath and not done servile work, yet you gathered wood on the Sabbath so that the fire would have something to devour in your chest. He will also destroy all evil deeds, turning them into ashes, so that the destructive fire will completely go out and everyone will see and be amazed at the death and destruction of the king of Tyre, not for many centuries, but one, or perhaps forever, so that what is written will be fulfilled; “I will not spare you or have mercy” (Ezek. 7:9). The Jews, along with their other fabrications and genealogies and endless investigations, usually explain these words as spoken against the Tyrian king Hiram, although very many years passed from Solomon to Ezekiel, which people at that time obviously could not live, and they pronounce them as if the prophet was ironically saying to him: are you not the seal of the likeness of God, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, are you not adorned? you are all stones, are you not a cherub, or were you not created together with the cherub, although, on the contrary, you have sinned and must turn to dust? And to their fable they add a miracle, saying, contrary to Scripture or without the authority of Scripture, that Hiram lived a thousand years. But how strained such an interpretation is is clear to the prudent reader even without our judgment. Eze.XXVIII:20–26. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! turn (or establish) your face towards Sidon and prophesy about it, and you will say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Sidon, and I will be glorified in you (or among you), and they will know that I am the Lord, and when I execute judgment in it (or in you) and show My holiness in you (or in it). And I will send upon him (or on you) a pestilence and bloodshed on his (or your) streets: and those killed (or wounded) by the sword (or swords) from all sides will fall among him, and they will know that I am the Lord. And there will be no further temptation for the house of Israel to cause grief and thorns that cause pain from all the neighbors who attack it (or annoy it): and they will know that I am the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the nations (or Gentiles) among whom they are scattered, I will show My holiness in them before the eyes of the Gentiles. And they will live in their land, which I gave to My servant Jacob, and they will live in it peacefully (or with hope), and they will build houses, and plant vineyards, and they will live with confidence (or with hope), when I bring judgment on all their adversaries (or troublemakers) around them, and they will know that I am the Lord their God. The following is then according to the LXX: The God of their fathers is not in the Hebrew. Following Tire, divine speech turns to Sidon, for both these cities are in the same country. And in the Gospel, along with Tire, Sidon is also called: if there were powers in Tire and Sidon that were in you (Matthew 11:21). Therefore, the Canaanite woman, whose daughter was tormented by a demon, having left the borders of Tire and Sidon, received what she asked for (Matthew 15:28). The divine speech predicts that he himself will be taken by the Babylonians and will learn from the severity of the disasters that He is the Lord, when He will execute judgment on him and reveal His holiness in him, and will destroy him with famine, pestilence and the sword, so that he will fall in his streets, and will not serve as a temptation for the people of God in the future, and will not often attack them. And when this is accomplished, the people of Israel, scattered among the nations, will return to their land, and He will reveal His holiness in them - not in a bad sense, as in Sidon, but in a good sense, since He will have mercy on them, and they will live in the land that He gave to their father Jacob, and they will live serenely and trust in the Lord, and they will build houses and plant vineyards, when He has fulfilled His promises, and then they will know that He is Lord, whose promises are sure. Many date this back to the time of Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah, when the people of Israel returned and lived in the land of Judah. Others hope that this will be fulfilled in the last time and during the millennium. Then, in relation to spiritual interpretation, the meaning, in our opinion, is this. The Sidonians mean fishers, about whom it is written in the Psalms: our soul is like a bird, get rid of the snare of those who catch (Ps. 129:7), and in Proverbs: “the eye of a harlot is the snare of a sinner” (Prov. 23). There are also, in a good sense, the opposite of these fishers, about whom Jeremiah writes: Behold, I will send fishermen and fishers, who will catch you on every hill and mountain (Jer. 16:16), whom the Lord sends to fish, and from fishermen makes them fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). Therefore, the villages of Peter and Andrew are called by this name, for Bethsaida in our language means the house of fishers. Thus, the word of God is directed against these worst fishers, and the prophet is commanded to turn or fix his face on Sidon, and not to be carried away by every wind of doctrine, but to stand in the truth, to destroy their fishers. But how does the Lord threaten Sidon? Behold, I myself will come against you when I destroy you, and all who live will know that I am the Lord, when I will reward what you have deserved and send pestilence and bloodshed into your streets. And it is rightly said about the streets of Sidon, for broad and broad is the way that leads to death (Matthew 7:13). And those who stood in evil will fall on all sides, killed by the sword - with the sword that the Lord came to send to earth to separate what was poorly united and so that those who remain will know that He is the Lord. And when they are gone, there will no longer be the temptation to grief and the thorn of pain that stings and afflicts the people of God. All this is said regarding the opposing forces in the sense that they will be destroyed in the last time and there will be eternal security when the Lord gathers the house of Israel - those who see God with their minds - and He will be sanctified in them, and what is written will be fulfilled: Be holy, for I am holy (Lev. 19:2). And they will live in their land, about which we read elsewhere: I believe to see the good of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. 27:13). He gave it to Jacob, who defeated his elder brother and was honored to receive his primacy. And they will live in it safely or with hope, and they will build houses, and plant vineyards, and they will live with great hope, according to what is read in Isaiah: who is milked from milk, who is cut off from the breast of sorrow for sorrow, hope for hope (Is. 28:9). They will build the kind of houses that according to the gospel are built by those who set their foundations not on sand, but on rock (Matthew 7:26). It is written about them; Unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it labor in vain (Ps. 127:1), and in Exodus according to LXX: for the women I feared God, having built for themselves dwellings (Ex. 1:21) and much of the same kind. When will the Lord bring judgment on those who attack or harass Israel on all sides; then every creation will know that He is the Lord, whose judgments are true, all are righteous (Ps. 19:10). Eze.XXIX:1–3. In the tenth (or according to LXX: in the twelfth) year, in the tenth (or in Hebrew: in the twelfth) 61 months, on the first (or one) day of the month the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! turn (or set) your face against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and you will prophesy about him and speak about all Egypt, and you will say: thus says the Lord God. Following Sidon, which was also on the Phoenician coast, in the tenth year of the captivity of King Jehoiakim and in the twelfth month and on one day of the month, a word was spoken to the prophet, so that he would turn or set his face on Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and speak about him and about all Egypt or to all Egypt - for on the other side of Judea on the same shore is the country of Egypt - and predicted what would happen to him. If we should say something about numbers, then [we will say]: what place does one day occupy between ten, as a result of which even at the beginning of Genesis it is not said: there was evening and there was morning, the first day, but one (Gen. 1:5), to indicate the constant return of the same day: the same order between ten decades, that is, the number ten will have a hundredfold, since the Lamb will land for the sacrifice to be slain, on the fourteenth day, and thus the order of numbers through their decades goes up to a thousand, and ten thousand, and a hundred thousand and beyond. After the tenth year, the twelfth month was placed to indicate the perfect number of the twelve apostles and prophets (which are contained in one book). Further, according to LXX, the tenth month, called in Hebrew tebeth, among the Egyptians τυβι’, among the Romans called January (januarius), as it serves as the beginning of 62 years, takes, after the cessation of the heat, first place in winter cold. This will suffice to say about the numbers. But this should be examined in particular: is the same Pharaoh mentioned in Exodus, and in Isaiah, and in Jeremiah, and in Ezekiel, and in many other places, and in the Song of Songs: I likened my horse in Pharaoh’s chariots to you, my neighbor (Song. 1:8), or different? It seems to me that this is not one, but that among the Egyptians this name denotes royal dignity, just as among the Romans their kings are called Caesars and Augusti from the first Julius Caesar and from the second Octavian, adopted by him, who later received the name Augustus, and among the Assyrians as Antiochians, among the Persians as Arsacids, among the Philistines as Abimelechs, and in Egypt after Alexander Ptolemies to Cleopatra, after her victory at Actium, Egypt became a Roman province. So, now the word of God is spoken against every king of Egypt, meaning διασκεδαστη’ς, that is, the destroyer and tormentor and the one who kills and divides everything with the sword. In relation to the mysterious meaning, this should refer to the power to which Egypt was subjected. For man would never dare to say, “The rivers are mine, and I made them,” and would not be called the great dragon, and sitting among his rivers. Egypt is called Mesraim in Hebrew and is translated in our language: ὲχθλι’βουσα, that is, oppressing and oppressing those who are subject to it, and not allowing them to raise their eyes to heaven, but according to the Gospel and following the example of that woman who was crippled by the devil for eighteen years, always lowering them to the ground (Luke 13:16). So let's see what the threat is against Pharaoh and all of Egypt. Eze.XXIX:3–7. Here I am upon you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon, who lies (or sits) among his rivers and says: “My river and I created myself (or them).” And I will put a bridle (or noose) on your jaws, and I will stick the fish of the rivers to your scales (or to your feathers), and I will pull you out of the midst of your rivers, and all your fish will stick to your scales. And I will throw (or overthrow) soon (or into the desert) you and all the fish from your river; you will fall to the surface of the earth (or your plain). And you will not be cleaned and tidied up; I gave you to be devoured by the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air. And all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the Lord; because you were a staff (or a rod of reed) for the house of Israel, when they took hold (or he took hold) of you with their hand, and you broke and pierced their whole shoulder, and when they leaned on you, you weakened and made weak (or crushed) all their loins. For the sake of brevity, we combine both editions, where they differ little from each other. But where there is a great difference, we offer both. He speaks against Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, and under his image he speaks to the great power to which Egypt was handed over to rule and which, nevertheless, became proud against its Creator, arrogating to itself dominion over the earth and giving itself to the worship of the peoples of Egypt. And he says, in accordance with the situation of the country, as to the king, that he relies on the flood of the Nile and does not particularly desire rain from the sky, and considers himself or the river, that is, the δυωρυχα’ς branches of the Nile, to be the culprit and boasts that he created the branches of the Nile. He says, “I will not send an angel, the great dragon who lies and sits in the middle of your rivers, but I myself will come to punish you.” For you dared to say: my river is the Nile and I created myself, or: I myself created the river that irrigates all of Egypt. And when I come, I will put a bridle on your jaws or a noose around your lips, with which you have spoken arrogantly, and all your accomplices and leaders, whom I call fish, I will cleave to your scales or feathers, so that when you are pulled out of the river, you will be cast out or overthrown. For you have become too proud in the wilderness. And you will fall on the surface of the plain or your land, because Egypt is a level country. And your corpse will not be taken away and you will not be cleaned up, that is, you will never be buried, but I will give you to the beasts and birds of the air to be eaten, so that the inhabitants of Egypt, seeing the execution of these My judgments on you, will know that I am the Lord. This will happen to you because you deceived my people Israel with your help, so that they would not rely on God their Creator, but on you. You were to them a staff of reeds according to Isaiah (Isa. 36:6) or with an empty rod and a very brittle stem, leaning on which they sought protection in vain, so that when they bowed to you, you broke and pierced the shoulder and arm with which they were holding on to you, and when they thought themselves safe because of you, all their loins weakened, so that they fell to the ground and received wounds instead of help. This is said metaphorically, as if to the king of Egypt, because the country itself was not hostile towards the house of Israel, but, promising many things, removed them from God’s help. And that the dragon in a mysterious sense means an opposing force, we often read about this. Therefore, Pharaoh is called διασκεδαστη’ς, for he separates and removes from God, and Egypt, that is, Mesraim, is translated: oppressors and oppressors, precisely those whom he could enslave for himself. This dragon is the opponent about whom Job speaks in great detail (Job 40; and 41). And in the Psalms it is written: You crushed the head of the dragon, you gave him slaughter to the Ethiopian people (Ps. 73:14). The dragon is called great in comparison with the smaller ones, about whom the psalm says: You have erased the heads of dragons in the water (ibid., Ps. 73:13). And in another place: this sea is great and spacious; there are reptiles, there are countless of them, small animals with great ones; there the ships sail, this dragon, you created him, curse him (Ps. 103:25-26). It is said about him in another place: “he is the king of all who are in the waters, and the beginning of the creation of the Lord, created to mock his angels” (Job 41). He sits or lies in the middle of his rivers, not just one, but many. By these we mean various heresies, through which he penetrated into the Egypt of this century and watered the deceived souls with rains, not coming from heaven, but from the earth, and with muddy waters, which Jeremiah does not forbid drinking, saying: what is the way of Egypt to you, if you drink the water of Geon (Jer. 2:18)? Instead, the Hebrew says sior, which translates as muddy and dirty waters. And in order to understand what kind of rivers the Egyptian dragon is, we can know this from the opposite. The Lord speaks of His rivers: believe in Me, the rivers from His belly will flow out living waters (Jn. 7:38), and to the Samaritan woman: whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst, but there will be in him a fountain of water flowing into an eternal belly (John 4:14). These are the rivers coming down from heaven about which David sings: the river's aspirations make glad the city of God (Ps. 45:5), no doubt pointing to the Church. Let us consider what the punishment and torment of the dragon consists of. It follows: And I will put a bridle or a noose around your jaws. Likewise this [saying] of Job: draw out the dragon with a hook, and place the bridle about his nostrils. He hopes that the Jordan will enter into his mouth and take him into his eye. A ring will be put into his nostrils and his mouth (Job 40:18–21). The Lord puts a bridle on the jaws of this dragon and pierces his mouth and seals it with a ring when, through the men of the Church, instructed in the Holy Scriptures, he imposes silence on him and when all perverse teachings are destroyed. And he cleaves fish from his rivers to his scales and feathers, through which the heretics arrogantly strive for height, so that they, having been defeated along with the dragon, would form one body with him and be united with him either through complicity in error, or through the similarity of punishment, just as he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). And the dragon of Egypt has not one river, but many rivers with which he irrigates the low and sloping Egypt, which does not contain any mountains and [has] the waters not of Siloam, flowing quietly (Isa. 8:6), but muddy and dirty (Is. 8:7). Therefore, the Lord pulls him out of the middle of his rivers, so that he does not lie in them and does not sit on them, and so that all the fish stick to his scales, in accordance with the quality of the vices, throughout the entire body of the dragon, sticking either to the head, or to the belly, or to the tail and extremities, so that when the dragon is pulled out, the fish that stuck to it will also be pulled out. And I will throw you, he says, into the desert, so that you do not find anyone to deceive. Or I will cast you down from the height of your pride, and I will quickly cast you down, in accordance with this [word] of the apostle: May the God of peace quickly crush Satan under your feet (Rom. 16:20), so that, after the destruction and overthrow of the dragon, the fish will also be cast out of his river and the author of crimes will fall, who previously considered himself standing and circulating throughout the whole world. He will fall to the surface of his earth, to which he was cast out of heaven, so that he will no longer be gathered in the assemblies (eslesiis) of heretics and will not be taken away, that is, buried among those who believed him, when they are freed from him, but will be given to be devoured by the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air - the beasts about which it is written: Do not betray to the beasts the soul that confesses to You (Ps. 73:19), and the birds of the air, which eat what is sown along the way and, according to the interpretation of the Savior, mean devils (Matthew 13:4). For not only the prince of evil, but also his disciples are called devils, in accordance with what is said about Judas: Did I not choose twelve of you, and one of you is the devil (John 6:70)? They are called birds of heaven because they promise themselves high things, and when the dragon, along with his fish, will be cast down and thrown and given to be devoured by the beasts of the earth, who have no meekness at all, and those who are carried away by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14); then all who live in this world will know that He is Lord. The whole reason for the punishments is that he promised in vain to help the house of Israel and served for them with a rod or a staff of reeds, empty and idle, and not possessing fullness, because he could not say: from His fulfillment we will all receive (John 1:16), while the Scripture commanded: Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God empty or empty (Ex. 23:15). And that we should not seek help from Egypt, Scripture testifies to this in other places: woe to those who go down to Egypt for help (Is. 1:1). Because of this kind of reed rod, Rapsaks unjustly reproaches Hezekiah, the king of Judah, saying: Behold, you trust in this broken reed rod, in Egypt, and if a man leans on it, he will enter into his hand; This is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and all who trust in him (Isa. 36:6). In saying this regarding the righteous king, he was lying, who in translation means: “many by the cup.” For he was drunk from the golden cup of Babylon, and therefore he offered his own to the people who confessed the Lord. Here Pharaoh is blamed for being for the house of Israel a rod or a staff of reeds, empty or brittle, promising help that was soon to be crushed. And in order for us to be able to know what kind of rod of reed this is, on which the house of Israel should not rely, we can understand this from the contrast with the staff and rod of the Lord, about which it is said to the Lord: Thy rod and Thy club, they comfort me (Ps. 22:4). And Aaron had this rod, which swallowed up the dragons of Egypt, and when he struck the dams of the Nile with it, midges appeared throughout Egypt (Ex. 7 and 8:17). Moses also stretched out, according to LXX, this rod and raised it to the sky, and the Lord brought a south wind, [which lasted] all that day and all night, and in the morning the wind lifted and brought locusts over the whole land of Egypt. I believe that this rod is also written about in the book of Numbers (Num. 17), that it blossomed and brought forth nuts or almonds. The apostle also had it when he said: what do you want, shall I come to you with a club (1 Cor. 4:21)? And those who celebrated the Passover had staffs in their hands, without which they could not eat the flesh of the lamb without supporting the weak human body. This is the rod from the root of Jesse, on which the seven spirits rested (Isa. 11:2). But such was not Pharaoh, nor the staff of Egypt, nor the staff of reeds, which deceived those who held on to it, and wounded their shoulders, that is, their strength. And whoever leans on him will have his loins weakened and will not be able to stand and celebrate Passover with his loins girded. This applies to those whose hearts and wombs are tested by God (Ps. 7:10). Eze.XXIX:8–16. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword against you and will destroy man and beast from you. And the land of Egypt will be a desert (or destruction) and a steppe, and they will know that I am the Lord, for he (or you) said: my river, and he created it (or my rivers, and I created them). Therefore, behold, I am against you and your rivers, and will turn the land of Egypt into a desert, devastated (or ruined) by the sword from the tower of Siena (or from Magdala and Siena) to the very border of Ethiopia. The foot of man shall not pass over it, nor the foot of beast shall walk upon it, neither shall they dwell upon it for forty years. And I will make the land of Egypt a wasteland among the desolate lands, and its cities among the ruined cities shall be desolate for forty years. And I will scatter (or scatter) the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. For thus says the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt (or the Egyptians) from the nations among which they were scattered. And I will restore the captivity of Egypt, and I will settle them in the land of Fatura, in the land of their origin (or in the land from which they were taken). And there will be a humble kingdom (or power), the most humble among other kingdoms. And it will no longer be exalted over the nations, and I will make them low, so that they do not rule over the nations (or so that they are not more numerous among the nations). And they will not be a hope (or hope) for the house of Israel, teaching iniquity, so that they will flee and follow them (or: to bring their iniquity to remembrance, so that they will follow them), and they will know that I am the Lord. Connect the subsequent one with the previous one. Since you were a rod of reed for the house of Israel and not only broke in his hand, but according to Isaiah (Is. 36:6) you pierced his hand, and now you have pierced his shoulder, and you yourself are weakened, and you have made the loins of those leaning on you relaxed; then I will bring the sword of the enemy upon you and, together with the people, I will destroy the cattle, and the land of Egypt will turn into a desert, and the Egyptians will know a second time that I am the Lord. And I will not be satisfied with this end; but since he reached such blasphemy that he called the rivers and all the fertility of Egypt his own; then I will destroy both the one who called himself the Creator and the rivers about which he boasted that they were created by him, and I will turn the land of Egypt into a very vast desert and devastated by the sword, from the tower of Siena to the very borders of Ethiopia. Instead of the tower, called in Hebrew magdal, LXX put the name of the area, writing Μαγδαλο’ν. The Tower of Siena exists to this day, it is a fortress subject to the Romans, where the rapids of the Nile are located and to which point the Nile, starting from our sea, is navigable. So, all Egypt, He says, will be desolate to the very borders of Ethiopia, to which the outermost country of Egypt is added, so that no human foot will pass through it, no cattle will be found in it, and it will be uninhabited for forty years. For the Egyptians are shown mercy, and since they once showed hospitality to Israel, their condemnation is more short-lived. Tire remained in Sabbath rest for seventy years and after that returned to its former state. Also, the captivity of Judea and the destruction of the church until Cyrus, king of Persia, lasted seventy years. For there will be greater torment than ever (Wis.6:6). In the words: it made the land of Egypt a desert among the desolate lands, it indicates the Palestinians, Edomites, and Moabites and all other countries regarding which the prophet’s prophecy was stated above. Then He will scatter or scatter the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. But since the Lord is good and merciful, long-suffering and abundant in mercy, then after forty years Egypt will be restored, and all the captivity will return to their former land and settle in the main city, called Fatur (Phatures), where it originated and from where it came out; only in such a way that for his own benefit he will lose his former pride and become a humble kingdom, the most humble of nations, so that he will no longer exalt himself over the nations and have power over them, but, having been humbled, he will not deceive the house of Israel with hope for himself and teach them iniquity or bring to their memory the iniquity that they, having abandoned the help of God, sought support from Egypt. And all this will be accomplished so that the Egyptians will know for the third time that He is Lord. We have outlined all this briefly on historical grounds. Now the cloud of allegory must be clarified, and with the same brevity we will try to avoid length in this interpretation. The dragon, who said: “My rivers, and I created them,” is told that the Lord himself will bring a sword on him, about which Isaiah says: “My sword is written in heaven: behold, he will come down on the earth to destroy people and cattle on it (Isa. 34:5) - everything that apparently has reason or simplicity, and will destroy not unconditionally, but for the dragon, so that they perish for the dragon and live for God and so that the land of Egypt is death in the above sense, in that she will die for the dragon and after death will turn into a desert, ceasing to have her most cruel enemy. And then people, and livestock, and the lost land will know that He is the Lord, in the sense in which it is written in the seventy-seventh psalm: when I have killed, then I will seek Him (Ps. 77:34). For everyone who seeks finds (Matthew 7:8). But this serves as proof of the mercy of God that the abundance of this world perishes and the rivers of Egypt dry up, or their land becomes deserts and, according to the Lord's decree, is devastated from the tower of Siena, meaning circle - for he will not have anything direct with himself - to the land of the Ethiopians, meaning the humble - because all pride that rises up against the mind of God will be overthrown and humbled for your salvation. And neither the foot of man, that is, anything rational, will pass through Egypt, nor the foot of cattle will walk, so that he will not have any of the simpletons whom Pharaoh, having released the people, wanted to keep in Egypt, while Moses did not agree to this and also wanted the release of the cattle from Egyptian captivity. And they will not, he says, dwell in it for forty years, which number always means sorrow and punishment. Therefore, Moses, Elijah and the Savior himself fasted for forty days and nights, and for forty years the people were in the desert, so that later, having been circumcised in Gilgal, they would get rid of the shame and dishonor of Egypt. In accordance with the mysterious meaning of this number, this same prophet slept on his right side behind the tribe of Judah for forty years, and the people are foreshadowed that he will be in slavery in Egypt for four hundred years (Gen. 15:13), which is forty decades or four ἑκατοντα’δας (hundreds). Also, the rains of the flood flooded the earth for forty days. For justice demanded that he who offends God through the four elements of the world, from which, as they say, everything is composed when He loves and supports it, should be punished through this very number, and Israel, who sinned regarding the Sabbath, was punished for seven decades, that is, seventy years. And the land of Egypt became desolate and its cities [found themselves] among the ruined lands and cities built not of stones, but of brick and straw, so that Egypt, which was poorly knitted, would be scattered, and so that it would be scattered throughout the lands, precisely so that the wheat would be separated from the straw, and at the end of forty years Egypt would be restored and its captives would return and settle in the land of Fatura, meaning trampled bread, where that bread is, who said: I am the bread that came down from heaven (John 6:51), was trampled underfoot by heretical nothingness, so that when they came to the Church, they would live on the bread trampled underfoot and would not be arrogant, but would be a humble kingdom. And having returned to their former state, they will be humbled through humility, since they lived in Egypt and built brick cities, and will be humble among the many kingdoms of the Church, and will know against whom they sinned, and Egypt will not be exalted above the churches spread throughout the world, but will be diminished and a few will remain in it according to what is written: Grant to them, Lord. What do you give them? Give them a barren womb and dry breasts (Hosea 9:14), so that they do not rejoice and become proud because of the multitude of those who are deceived, but are humbled: for many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16). And they will not go ahead to deceive the house of Israel, that is, the Church, and promise them vain hope and confidence, teaching them iniquity, so that they avoid church teaching and follow the desires of Egypt. Yet this will happen so that the Egyptians will know for the third time that He is Lord. This, it seems to me, is said because the first knowledge of the Egyptians will be through the flesh, the second through the soul, the third through the spirit - first on earth, the second time - after the final conversion of this world, the third time - after the resurrection. Eze.XXIX:17–21. And in the twenty-seventh year, in the first [month] and on one day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, forced his army to serve a great service against Tire: every head was bald and every shoulder was exposed, and neither he nor his army was given any reward from Tire for the service that he served against it. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will carry away its wealth, and plunder its spoils and spoil his spoils, and [this] will be the reward of his army, and for the work through which he served Me against her, I have given him the land of Egypt, so that they labored for me, says the Lord God. In that day the horn of the house of Israel will grow, and I will open your mouth among them, and they will know that I am the Lord. The question arises: how is it that after the tenth year of the preceding speech there is immediately the twenty-seventh year, and then the tenth and twelfth, and at the end of the description of the church the twenty-fifth? But the solution is not difficult. For since both the previous prophecy regarding Egypt and the one that is now being spoken are in mutual connection, although they were at different times, they are connected to one another, as if they were prophesied regarding one country. We often read the same thing in Jeremiah, that times are described in reverse order. For in some [places] the deeds of Zedekiah are first set forth, and then of Jehoiakim, who was before him. In the Psalms one cannot look for historical order, because this is a lyrical work. So, let's say first in relation to the literal meaning. When Nebuchadnezzar made an attack on Tire and could not place rams, engines and siege weapons in front of the walls, because it was surrounded by the sea; then he ordered countless troops to stack stones and make embankments and, having filled the middle of the sea, or rather a very narrow strait, connected the nearby shore with the island. When the Tyrians saw that this was about to end, and when the foundations of the walls began to shake from the impact of the battering guns, the nobles put everything they had on ships and sent it to the islands - gold, silver, clothes and various utensils, so that, having taken the city, Nebuchadnezzar did not find anything that would be worth his labor. But since in this case he obeyed the will of God, then a few years after the capture of Tyre, Egypt was given to him. But Tire is much more cruel than Egypt. For he was attacking Jerusalem, but this one promised help in vain. For it is not the same thing to deceive the weak with hope and to fight against the people of God. Therefore, He says that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, during the attack on Tyre, forced his army to serve Me in order to fulfill My will; every head became bald and every shoulder was exposed among those who carried baskets of earth and stones, from which their shoulders were scratched and their heads became bald, and, however, neither he himself nor his army found anything worthy in Tire. And since through this he served Me and fulfilled My will against Tyre, then I will give him the land of Egypt for this. Some say that this was fulfilled under Nebuchadnezzar, others - under the son of Cyrus, Cambyses, who devastated Egypt as far as Ethiopia, so that he killed Apis and destroyed all their idols. Therefore it is believed that he fell into madness as a result of falling from his horse and was pierced by his own sword. Herodotus sets out this story in great detail, where he describes the whole of Egypt with its districts and fortifications and villages, and the origin of the Nile and the ancestors of this people, and the extent of the land from all sides to the Ethiopian desert and the shores of the Great Sea, and indicates the border areas of Libya and Arabia. The reason for the Lord’s wrath against Egypt is that he deceived the people of God with his help, so that they did not trust in God, and angered Him. On that day, he says, on which Egypt is taken, the horn of the house of Israel will grow, without a doubt, pointing to the royal family. Some attribute this to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealthiel, who came through Jehoiachin from the line of David, others to the last time, when Elijah is believed to come. But we, meaning Christ under the horn of the Lord, follow actual history. And when, he says, this first thing is fulfilled, then, prophet, your mouth will be opened, and your prediction will not depend on an uncertain promise, but will be visible as being fulfilled in practice, so that all who hear will know that I am the Lord, whose word is the same as fulfillment. This is said in reference to the literal or true meaning of the prophecy. But from the fact that Nebuchadnezzar received a reward for a good deed, we see that the pagans, if they do something good, are not left without reward by the judgment of God. Therefore, Jeremiah calls Nebuchadnezzar the dove of God, since he, [acting] against the sinful people, served the will of God. Behold, I will send, he says, Nebuchadnezzar my servant (Jer. 25:9). From here it is clear that we are condemned by comparison with the pagans if they act according to the natural law, which, even written, we neglect. The Apostle Paul discusses this in great detail [in his letter] to the Romans. And so that it does not seem that we are omitting anything in application to the spiritual meaning, we ask: where do we read about this number, that is, the twenty-seventh? In the book of Genesis (Genesis 7:6,11) Scripture testifies that in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the waters of the flood came upon the surface of the earth, and subsequently, in the seventh month of the same year, close to Saturday, and on the twenty-seventh day of the same seventh month, the waters of the flood ceased, and Noah’s ark rested on the mountains. Ararat, meaning Armenia. From here we see that this number is average and has a mutual meaning, since on this [date] both the wrath of God begins, [expressed] in the flood, and His mercy is manifested on the same number of days in the seventh Month. And since the month of the Jews, determined among you by the Kalends, Ions and Ides, is calculated according to the course of the moon, as a result of which the Greek word μη’ν, that is, moon, received its name from the month, then through the twenty-seventh day of the month it is expressed that a few light remained, so that His anger would not be completely without mercy. When the full circle of the moon ends, Easter and all the main holidays are celebrated. We have briefly outlined this in order to know that this number contains equally good and bad: good for Nebuchadnezzar, who is given a reward for his work, bad for the Egyptians, to whom devastation is foreshadowed. Ezek.XXX:1–19. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God: mourn, alas, alas, day! For the day is near, and the day of the Lord is coming, the day of the clouds, the time of nations will be. And the sword will come upon Egypt and there will be terror in Ethiopia, when Egypt will fall, slain, and its wealth will be taken away and its foundations will be destroyed. Ethiopia and Libya, and the Lidians, and all the rest of the people, and Hub and the children of the land of the covenant, together with them, will fall by the sword. Thus says the Lord God: And those who support Egypt will fall, and the pride of her power will be overthrown, from the tower of Siena (or Sena) they will fall by the sword in it, says the Lord of hosts. And they will be desolate among the desert lands, and his cities will be among the desolate cities. And they will know that I am the Lord when I send fire on Egypt and all their helpers will be destroyed. On that day messengers will go out from Me in ships (trieribus) to destroy the presumption of Ethiopia, and they will have terror in the day of Egypt, for it will surely come. Thus says the Lord God. And I will put an end to the multitude of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon: he and his people with him, the bravest of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. And they will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with slain. And I will make the river beds dry and give the land into the hand of the most evil [people], and by the hand of foreigners I will devastate the land and everything that fills it: I, the Lord, have spoken [this]. Thus says the Lord God: I will destroy the graven images and destroy the idols from Memphis, and there will be no more leader in the land of Egypt, and I will bring terror to the land of Egypt. And I will devastate the land of Fatura, and I will send fire upon Taphnis, and I will bring judgment upon Alexandria, and I will pour out my wrath upon Pelusium, the fortress of Egypt, and I will destroy the multitude of Alexandria, and I will send fire upon Egypt. Pelusius will suffer like one in labor, and Alexandria will be devastated and Memphis will be in daily distress. The youths of Iliopol and Bubast (or Bugast) will fall by the sword, and they will be taken into captivity. And the day will darken in Taphnis when I will break the scepters of Egypt there and the pride of his power will cease in him: a cloud will cover him, and his daughters will be carried away into captivity. And I will execute judgments in Egypt, and they will know that I am the Lord. LXX: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord Adonai: O day! For the day is near, and the way of the Lord is near: the day of the clouds, thou shalt be the end of the nations. And the sword will come against the Egyptians, and there will be turmoil in Ethiopia. And those who are slain in Egypt shall fall, and their multitude shall be taken away, and their foundations shall fall. The Persians, and the Cretans, and the Lydians, and the Libyans, and all the mixed ones, and of the sons of my covenant shall fall by the sword. Thus says the Lord Adonai. And the pillars of Egypt will fall, and you will be overthrown by the reproach of its forces from Magdala to Syene; they will fall in it by the sword, says the Lord Adonai. And it will be desolate among the desert countries, and its cities will be among the cities that are desolate, and they will know that I am the Lord, when I send fire on Egypt and all those who help it are destroyed. On that day messengers will go out from Me, hastening to destroy the hope of Ethiopia, and there will be turmoil among them on the day of Egypt, for behold, he is coming. Thus says the Lord God. And I will destroy many Egyptians by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon—himself and his people with him, the destroyers who were sent from among the nations to destroy the land. And everyone will draw their swords against Egypt, and the land will be filled with the slain. And I will make their rivers desolate, and I will deliver the land into the hand of the most evil [people], and I will destroy the land and everything that fills it by the hands of foreigners: I, the Lord, have spoken [this]. For thus says the Lord God: I will destroy the abominations, and destroy the nobles from Memphis and the princes from the land of Egypt, and they will be no more. And I will cause terror in the land of Egypt, and I will destroy the land of Fatura, and I will send fire to Taphnis, and I will take vengeance in Diospolis, and I will pour out My wrath on Sain, the fortress of Egypt, and I will destroy the multitude of Memphis. And I will send fire on Egypt, and Sais will be overwhelmed with confusion, and there will be a rupture in Diospolis and the waters will overflow. The youths of Heliopolis and Bubast will fall by the sword, and the women will be carried away into captivity, and the day will darken in Taphnis when I will break the scepters of Egypt there, and the reproach of his strength will perish there, and a cloud will cover him, and his daughters will be taken away, and I will execute judgments in Egypt, and they will know that I am the Lord. After the twenty-seventh year of the captivity of King Jehoiakim, he returns to the present time, when he began to prophesy against Egypt, that is, to the tenth year and tenth month, on the eleventh day of the month, and says that he was commanded by the Lord to speak to all nations and together with everyone to Egypt in particular. So what is he saying? Weep: alas, alas the day! For the day is near and the day of the Lord is approaching, not shining with a clear sun, but covered with clouds and bringing the storm of Babylon. And when the sword begins to devastate Egypt, there will be horror in Ethiopia, neighboring Egypt, so that the sword of Babylon does not reach them. For in Egypt they will fall slain, and they will take away its wealth, and everything will be destroyed to the ground, so that if there is anyone in Egypt from Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and in general from various nations and from Hub, - which Symmachus translated: Arabia, - and from the sons of the land of the covenant, that is, from the people of Judah, he will fall with them by the sword. Instead of these nations LXX put: the Persians, and the Cretans, and the Lydians, and the Libyans, and all the mixed ones, and the sons of My covenant shall fall with him by the sword. And so that we know that all these nations were the helpers of Egypt, the following words indicate this: and the supporters of Egypt or the supports of Egypt, that is, the allies, will fall, and all the pride of power or the reproach of its power will be overthrown and cast down from the tower of Siena, which we said is located on the extreme borders of Egypt, or from Magdala to Siena, as translated LXX. All the cities of Egypt will be devastated, so that they will know the Lord, when the fire of the Chaldeans devastates everything, and all his helpers will be crushed and the messengers will reach, according to Aquila and Theodotion, Siim, that Symmachus translated the hurrying ones, we translated the ships 63 - for this we learned from the Jews - so that all the arrogance of Ethiopia would be crushed and that, after the devastation neighboring country, fear gripped the closest one. And so that we may know what kind of sword it is that devastated and brought terror to Ethiopia, it follows more clearly: and I will put an end to the multitude of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who will not only come, but will come accompanied by many nations, so that all Egypt will be filled with the blood of the slain, and so great will be the wrath of God that the river beds will dry up, that is, διὡρυχες of the Nile to the very soil, and by the hand of destroyers or the most evil people everything that fills Egypt will be devastated. For My words cannot remain unfulfilled, and anger will have the consequence that the Egyptian idols will be destroyed and the idols of Memphis, which until now has served as the main place of Egyptian superstition, or the nobles and princes from Memphis and from the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Such fear has taken possession of Egypt because the entire land of Fatura is perishing and fire is devastating Tafnis or, as the LXX translated, Tanis. And I will carry out judgments, he says, in Alexandria, which is so called at the present time. Her former name is No, which Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translated as it is in Hebrew. Instead, LXX for some reason put Diospolis - this is a small city in Egypt. We put Alexandria instead of But, as a preliminary (per anticipationem), which in Greek is called προ’ληψις, just as Virgil says: and he arrived at the shores of Lavinsky 64, not because they were called Lavinian at the time when Aeneas arrived in Latium, but so that the reader could more clearly imagine this area, which was later called Lavinian. And I will pour out, he says, My wrath on Sain, which we translated by Pelusius and which is called the fortress of Egypt because it has a completely reliable harbor and that maritime trade is carried out there on a very large scale. That’s why the poet 65 calls lentils Pelusian, not because there are especially many of this kind of vegetable born there, but because they are most often delivered here from Thebaid and all of Egypt along the Nile River. And I will destroy, he says, the populace of Alexandria, which is again called No in Hebrew, instead of which the LXX translated not Diospolis, as above, but Memphis. And to show that at that time it was already a populous city, he says: I will destroy the multitude of No, and I will send fire to Egypt, that is, the king of Babylon, which, like fire, will devastate everything. Like a woman in labor, Sain, that is, Pelusius, will suffer, or will be disturbed by confusion, and in Alexandria, that is, in No, there will be a rupture, and the waters will overflow, instead of which LXX again translated Diospolis. The Egyptians, due to the flooding of the Nile, usually build high embankments along the banks of the Nile. If, due to the negligence of the guards or too much water, they break through, then the water does not irrigate the adjacent fields, but floods them and devastates them. Through this it is made known that Egypt will be occupied by the Chaldean army, as it is usually covered and destroyed by the flooding and excessively increasing waters of the Nile. Instead of flooding and the intrusion of water and the breaking of embankments, in the Hebrew it is stated: and there will be daily crowding in Memphis, since in the place where the Nile is divided, and where the church of Apis is located and the answers of the oracles are given, there will be daily crowding. Also, the youths of Iliopolis, called in Hebrew He (or Aven), and another city, Bubast, will fall by the sword, so that the cities themselves, or their inhabitants or their women, will be taken into captivity, and this sex will be insulted. In Taphnis, the royal city, the scepters of Egypt, that is, the entire royal family, will be crushed. And when his power, after the destruction of the princes, ceases, then the day will darken, and everything will be filled with darkness and gloom, so that the city itself will be covered with a cloud of sorrow and weeping, and its daughters, that is, the other cities, will be taken into captivity, so that after I carry out judgments in Egypt and show myself to everyone as a judge, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. We laid out these initial principles as if for children, so that through letters, syllables, names and combinations of words they could reach the reading of a prose or poetic work. Now let’s get down to the allegorical meaning, and let’s briefly present a very vast sea of ​​reasoning, as if in a picture. The Word of the Lord came to the prophet, which was always in the Father, and calls him not by his name, but by the son of man. This [name] in the Holy Scriptures is always taken in a positive direction only in the singular, as in the same prophet, and in Daniel, and in the Gospel. But in the plural it is read in the opposite sense, as in the following saying: the sons of mankind, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue is like a sharp sword (Ps. 56:5). And again: sons of humanity, how long will the hearts be heavy (Ps. 4:3)? For when the lion roars, who will not fear? The Lord is the God of the verb, and who will not prophesy ( Amos 3:8 )? Weep, he says, alas, alas, day! For the day is near and drawing near, says the Lord, the day of the clouds, the time or the end of nations. There is a twofold death - either in general for everyone when the end comes, or in particular for everyone when the day of death comes. It is called close because, in comparison with eternity, all time is short. Therefore Jacob, having said that he is one hundred and thirty years old, says: My days are small and evil (Gen. 47:9). And the psalmist, speaking about the frailty of the entire human race, says: our days pass away like shadows (Ps. 143:4). Taking this into account, we should neither boast of strength, nor strive for wealth, nor rejoice in happiness, knowing that everything will soon be taken [from us]. And it is beautifully spoken about the day of the Lord, because all worldly life will be destroyed, and, after the destruction of error, one truth will appear, and about the day of clouds and darkness, for none of those who are fearless and doubtful of [God’s] determination awaits the Judge without trembling. And there will be a time or the end of the nations, not just the Egyptian people, but all of them, so that it will be clear that the prophecy is spoken regarding all nations. It follows further: a sword will come to Egypt, a turning flaming sword, the Word of God, separating the good from the evil and destroying the most evil with its fire, [will come] to the Egypt of this age, so that there will be horror in Ethiopia, [among those] who live beyond Egypt, in the night of error and darkness, and whose blackness changes with difficulty or does not change into whiteness at all. And those who stood wickedly in wickedness will fall in Egypt. And the multitude of Egypt will be destroyed. For “broad and broad is the way that leads to death” (Matthew 7:13). And its foundations will be destroyed, so that nothing remains in Egypt from its former solidity, but so that, after the worst foundations are abandoned, the foundation of Christ will be laid for the building of the Church on it. For every garden that the heavenly Father does not plant will be uprooted (Matthew 15:13). Therefore, Jeremiah is commanded to destroy what was built in order to build something better (Jer. 1). The Ethiopians, Libyans and Lydians will also perish in Egypt, or, according to the Seventy, the Persians, Cretans, and Lydians, and the Libyans and Hub, that is, the Arabians, and all the rest of the people whom the LXX translated: hybrids and mixed. Under all of them, depending on the difference in vices and the interpretation of the names set forth by us in the vision of Tire, we can understand different peoples. Therefore, the apostle says: you are pagans in the flesh, verbose uncircumcision (Eph. 2:11). For he would never have said: the Gentiles are in the flesh, if there were not others in the spirit, as in another place: you see Israel in the flesh (1 Cor. 10:18). Therefore, we especially need to take care that our hearts do not return again to Egypt, from which we once came, and do not find ourselves among other nations and do not die by the sword, about which it is further said: the youths of Iliopolis and Bubast will fall by the sword, especially since it is added: and the sons of the land of the covenant or: the sons of my covenant together will be slain with the sword, about which it is written: woe to those who go down into Egypt for help, who trust in horses and chariots (Isa. 31:1). If people from other nations are killed in Egypt, then how much more the sons of the land of the covenant and covenant of God, who, despising the bread of angels, remembered the melons, and onions, and garlic and cucumbers of Egypt (Numbers 11:5). Then the Egyptian supports and supports that supported him in wickedness will fall - dialectical subtleties and philosophical twists. The reproachful and proud power of those who all speak with arrogance and value church simplicity will also be overthrown. For they will fall in it, starting from the tower of Siena, which is located on the extreme borders of Egypt and adjacent to Ethiopia and Blemmyae, where the Nile is not navigable, and the waterfalls roar and everything is impassable and filled with snakes and poisonous animals. If Magdal (as we said above) means majesty, and Syene means rotation, then it is obvious that Egyptian wealth and reproachful strength and majesty, that is, boasting and exaltation of power, will perish before the Egyptian rotation, where nothing is stable, but [everything] randomly rotates and slides and is subject to destruction. Then the cities will be desolate, and the land will be desolate, and there will be no congregation left having anything solid, so that from the end of things they will know that He is the Lord, when He sends fire on Egypt, which, according to the will of the Lord, will burn, so that the hay, wood and straw, from which the building is built on the foundation of Christ, will be burned, and so that all the helpers of perverted doctrines will be destroyed. From this it follows that false knowledge and those about whom it is written: scatter the tongues of those who want to curse (Ps. 67:31), are called allies and helpers of Egypt. On that day, he says, the messengers about whom it is written in the Gospel will go out from the presence of God: their angels will see the face of My heavenly Father (Matthew 18:10). And in the parable of the sowing, the reapers - angels, that is, messengers, are sent to collect all temptations and cast them into the fiery furnace, where there is weeping of eyes and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42). And they will hasten to fulfill the command of God in order to remove with fear or crush the arrogance of Ethiopia - those who have reached the extreme degree of evil, so that when Egypt is destroyed, Ethiopia will be crushed and so that she will be horrified by the fact that the day of the Lord is [the day of] torment and punishment, through which the darkness of sins will be driven out and the light of virtues will remain. And I will put an end, he says, to the multitude of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Egypt, to whom they were given for punishment, for he is an enemy and a punisher, who received the multitude of Egypt as a reward for serving [God] during the attack on Tyre, so that those who have always been in it will cease to be numerous in Egypt. If anyone objects: how does Deuteronomy say the following: with seventy souls your fathers went down into Egypt; Now you have become like the stars of heaven in multitude (Deut. 10:22): then this is easily resolved. For here is an example of a multitude not of the earth, but of the heavenly, which shines with virtues and is full of light. The strongest of the nations are brought against this multitude of Egypt to destroy the land, in whose place the destroyers translated LXX. I don’t know how this applies to those who are guided by the Lord, except in accordance with this example: the message of fierce angels (Ps. 77:49). They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain or slain, so that they will know that they are slain and slain and that Egypt is so destroyed that it has come to nothingness, so that all the rivers of eloquence with which the errors of Egypt, the reeds and reeds were filled, will dry up, and they will be delivered into the hand of the most evil [people] who will torment them, and everything that fills Egypt that has grown in evil will be destroyed by God by the hand of foreigners. For it is not the good angels, but the evil ones, who are appointed for torment. This is necessary so that they will know that the Lord said [this]. This is often used to let those who hear know that these are not the words of a prophet, but of the Lord, whose commands cannot remain unfulfilled. Further follows: and I will destroy the graven images or abominations. LXX translated: And I will destroy the idols or nobles from Memphis, and there will be no leader or princes in the land of Egypt. For it is the nature of the most good Lord to destroy evil fabrications, so that no likeness remains in Egypt posing as an image of the truth. The nobles from Memphis will also perish, meaning from the mouth with which all idols were invented, so that, after the heads and teachers of the idols were killed, there would be no prince in Egypt and so that all Egypt would be filled with horror and destruction. About its cities it is said: and I will destroy the land of Fatura and send fire to Taphnis or Tanis and carry out judgments in No, which LXX translated: Diospolis, and I will pour out My wrath on Sain, the fortress of Egypt. Fatur means trampling of bread, Tafnis is a low commandment, Diospolis, instead of which in Hebrew there is But - peace, Sain - temptation. These names indicate various gatherings of heretics and all lies, which trample and despise the bread of the church, and follow low commandments that do not lead to heaven, and indulge in pleasures and are in peace, which was, as we read in the Gospel (Luke 16:19), the rich man dressed in purple, and serve the tempters, one of whom asked the Lord to receive the power to tempt Job. The Lord will destroy and burn all this, and pour out His wrath on it and scatter the strength of Egypt, so that, reduced to insignificance, they do not disturb the people of God and force them to hope for their help, so that, leaving the truth, they seek lies and are struck through their defense, just as they are [struck] by a rod of reeds. After this it says: and I will destroy or destroy the multitude of Memphis, instead of which in Hebrew there is But, which the same LXX above translated Diospolis and which means peace. For there are many who seek rest and who wish to lie on beds of ivory and eat young lambs. Or in relation to the LXX, who translated Memphis, there are many who say to others: leave, and I will remove the speck from your mind (Matt. 7:4), while in theirs they have logs. And fire is sent to Egypt, which with its flame will destroy much talk and pleasure. And those who tempt will suffer, and in Diospolis, instead of which in Hebrew there is again But, there will be a rupture so that all the waters will spill and the evil gathering will perish and be scattered in different directions. Or, in relation to the Hebrew [text], there will be daily crowds in Memphis, since they will have to give an account for every idle word, so that they understand that not one of their words will escape the judgment of the Lord. Also the youths of Iliopolis and Bubast will fall by the sword. Iliopolis in Hebrew is called On, which means sorrow. Bubast in the Egyptian language [means] experience of the mouth. All those who could not endure the sorrows of the world, but followed the pleasures of Diospolis, and hoped for the speed of the tongue or in debates against other teachings had experiences of victory, will fall by the sword of the word of God: and those who, due to weakness of mind, are called not youths, but women, will be taken into captivity. Or the cities themselves, because of grief and boastful lips, will be taken into captivity. And in Tafnis, he says, the day will darken. Tafnis means: those who yield to the lips, it is implied: the devil, to whom they yield, they will lose the light of truth, and will change day into night and will know that the scepters of Egypt and all power in Tafnis are broken, so that there will be no reproachful power or pride in his power, and the rays of the Sun of righteousness will be obscured by a cloud, and not women, but daughters will be taken into captivity, and the Lord will accomplish not one court, but many courts in Egypt. For just as the Father has various abodes for the good, so in Egypt there will be various judgments for punishment, so that, after the fulfillment of all this, the Egyptians will know that He is the Lord, whose judgments are true and justified (Ps. 18:10). Eze.XXX:20–26. And in the eleventh year, in the first (month), on the seventh [day] of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man! I have broken the muscle of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and now it is not bound, so that it may be healthy again and be wrapped in bandages and entwined (ut sarciretur) with linen (or so that a plaster is applied) and, having received strength, be able to hold a sword. Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and I will weaken his strong but broken arm (or strong and well-positioned muscles), and I will throw the sword out of his hand, and I will scatter (or scatter) Egypt among the nations and scatter them over the lands. And I will strengthen the muscles of the king of Babylon, and I will put a sword in his hand, and I will crush the muscles of Pharaoh, and the slain will groan before him (or, as it says in LXX: and they will bring the sword on Egypt, and plunder its spoils and plunder the spoils of it. It follows): And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall, and they will know that I am the Lord, when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he spreads it over the land of Egypt, and I will scatter Egypt among the nations and scatter it throughout the lands, and they will know that I am the Lord. We return again to the order of prophecy; for after the twenty-seventh year now stands the eleventh. This question arose above. For although the word of God against Tire was in the eleventh year, which is placed in front, however, he further speaks to Pharaoh in the tenth year, and then puts the twenty-seventh, as we said, and now the eleventh. Leaving aside the rest concerning the order of the psalms, we ask: why does the third psalm stand before those psalms in which David changed his face before Abimelech (Ps. 33:1), and the fiftieth [psalm] of repentance, the inscription of which says that he went in to Bethsheba the wife of Uriah, although these psalms must precede the third, in which it is noted that he fled from his son Absalom? But regarding the Psalms, the answer is easy: this is a lyrical work, and from this kind of work a historical order is not required, but a poetic depiction (carmina) of individual events. Regarding historical narration, it should be said that what was said about one subject at different times should not be separated in presentation, but presented in one place. So, for example, what was said at different times regarding Egypt should be known through a continuous order of reading. Nevertheless, after what we have said, the question remains: why in the same place was the word of the Lord first to Pharaoh in the eleventh year, and after that in the twenty-seventh year, and then in the tenth year, while in order it should, of course, be noted before each of the prophecies first the tenth year, then the eleventh and in third place the twenty-seventh? To this we can respond with the following [saying]: O the depth of the wealth, wisdom and mind of God! For you have not tried His judgment, nor searched His ways (Rom. 11:33). And in another place: who will explore the abyss and wisdom (Sir. 1:3)? But we can also say that historical order is not observed in prophecies, although not in all, but in some places, because they do not narrate the past, but foretell the future in accordance with the will of the Holy Spirit. In history, such as the five books of Moses, and Jesus, and the book of Judges, also Ruth and Esther, Samuel and Kings (Malachim), the book of Chronicles and Ezra, as well as the book of Nehemiah connected with it, the reverse order is not found. This will suffice to say about the order of the years. Now let's look at the meaning of the prophecy against Pharaoh or about Pharaoh. [God] says that He has broken the muscle, and that it is not wrapped, and not bound, and not bound with bandages, and not a plaster put on it, according to what is written: there is no plaster to apply, lower than oil, lower than obligation (Isa. 1:6). If this had been done, then she, having gained strength, would no doubt be able to hold the sword and go to war. Therefore, the good and merciful God again weakens his arm or arms, so that the sword completely falls out of his hand and so that Egypt is scattered among the nations and scattered throughout the lands. By muscle you understand strength and strength in accordance with the words of Scripture: break the muscle of the sinner and the evil one (Ps. 9:36). It is crushed by our opponents when, although they pursue us, they cannot destroy us. And for the sake of the salvation of God’s servants, the king of Babylon often rises up, so that the strong are destroyed by the stronger, and so that the evil are betrayed to the more evil through God, who strengthens the muscles of the most evil, so that the one who is saved will know that He is the Lord; the knowledge that He is Lord is the beginning of virtue. In contrast to this, we can say: the sons of Eli are the sons of destruction, ignorant of God (1 Sam. 2:12). And on the good side, it is written about the kings who did what was right in the face of God that they knew the Lord. What is said in LXX: and I will crush his strong and located muscles, which in Greek is expressed through τεταγμε’να, is distorted due to the error of the scribes. For they translated not τεταγμε’να, but τεταμε’να, that is, not located, but extended. Instead, other translators, as is their custom, put high . From ἀποσφραγίζω, meaning to seal and unseal. In Hebrew it stands: in the tenth [year], on the twelfth [day] of the month. Sn. lower sense on ch. XXX. The actual door (janua). Actually three-oared ships (trieres). You might be interested in: