Глава 16

Ezek.16:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, bear witness to Jerusalem her iniquities. The exposure of sins is beneficial and serves the benefit; it instills feeling in those suffering from insensibility and encourages them to remember their own sins. It is sad and extremely painful to suffer from an illness, but it is much more painful not to even know about your illness. It is not without reason that often doctors who have reached such a state that they do not want to feel their suffering try to explain the full severity of their illness, so that, having felt this, they will stop providing abundant food to the disease with a disorderly life, but will begin to follow the laws of medical art. This is what the God of all always does with those who indulge in lawlessness and remain insensible. For through the mouth of David he says to the sinner: “I will reprove you, and bring your sins before you” (Psalm 49:21); and through the mouth of Jeremiah to Jerusalem: “O leader, because you have transgressed against the Lord your God” (Jer. 3:13); and again: “See your ways in the place of many graves, and see what you have done” (Jer. 2:23). You can find thousands of other similar places. Therefore, he commands the Prophet Ezekiel to do this. For he says: “Testify to Jerusalem her iniquity,” that is, show her ulcers, point out her scabs, so that she does not consider punishment a matter of cruelty, but having learned that this section is done for healing, she brought thanks to the doctor. Then He Himself describes the offenses in detail. Ezek.16:3. And this speech says Adonai the Lord (the aggravation of this everywhere makes the truth of dominion known) to the daughters of Jerusalem: Your root and your being are from the land of the Canaanites: your father is an Amorite, and your mother is a Hittite. The Jews thought highly of their kinship with Abraham, which is why he said to the Lord in the Holy Gospel: “We are the seed of Abraham, and have no one to work with” (John 8:33). The blessed Baptist John also puts down this arrogance, saying: “You brood of vipers, who told you to flee from the wrath to come? Create fruit worthy of repentance. And don’t start talking to yourself; Father Imam Abraham: Amen, I say to you, that God is able from this stone to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:7-9). Therefore, just as this godly man likened the Jews, who had become bestial and lived viciously, to poisonous beasts, so here the Lord God, through the mouth of the Prophet, calls the root of Jerusalem Canaanite, the father an Amorite, and the mother a Hittite - in a word, its origin is foreign. For those who were jealous of wickedness, from those, of course, they also borrowed kinship, in morals entering into unity with this family. This was enough for the extreme humiliation of the Jews, due not only to the then lawlessness of the peoples mentioned, but also to the disgrace of their origin. For Canaan was subject to a curse, and was condemned to slavery by its ancestor Noah. You are a descendant of this Canaan, says God, and you have no kinship with Noah and Shem, for you rejected their piety, lost your very kinship with them, and completely deprived yourself of that nobility. Thus, having reproached them with the wickedness of Canaan, he depicts in detail both their iniquities and His good deeds. Ezek.16:4. And your birth, on the same day you were born, without cutting off your navel, says God, that is, you still eat Egyptian food. He calls the “birth” of Jerusalem the exodus from Egypt. And doctors say that for the embryo in the mother’s womb, the “navel” serves as a kind of root and through it the embryo feeds and grows. Therefore, since midwives usually cut off the protruding part of a baby’s navel, God allegorically, in a figurative sense, says: “without cutting off your navel,” that is, to this day you still extract the food of wickedness from the mother’s womb, that is, from Egypt. and without washing you with water to save you, And this image of speech is also taken from babies, who upon birth are washed, wiped and cleansed of their mother’s blood. And you, God says to Jerusalem, have not been cleansed of this, but even to this day you still bear the signs of the uncleanness of your mother’s womb. Not salted with salt, hanging below in swaddling clothes. You did not accept the salt of the teaching and the swaddling clothes offered to you in the law, which are imposed on infants so that the members that at the time of birth have somehow lost their straightness are corrected and take on the proper form. Ezek.16:5. And My eye will not have mercy on you, to do to you one of all these, to suffer for you: and you were rejected on the face of the field by the rebellion of your soul, on the same day you were born. Soon, says God, as soon as you were born and freed from Egypt, and betrothed by Me to the righteousness of the law, you turned aside, loving obstinate corruption. “Field” called what was right here. In Egypt, says God, I did not give you any law: neither the salt of the commandments, nor the circumcision of the navel, nor the correction of the members with swaddling clothes, but after your release from there I honored you with all kinds of providence for you. Therefore he adds: Ezek.16:6. And I passed through you, and I saw you mixed with blood: and I said: You will live from the blood. And I spoke to you, your belly is in your blood. Ezek.16:7. Multiply freely, just like the vegetation of the village, let you Seeing that you are defiled by the blood of idolatry and love sacrificial blood, I allowed you to make sacrifices, but not to idols, but to Me. For God expressed this when he said: “Be in your blood, multiply” freely, that is, not contrary to the law, but lawfully, making sacrifices, not to demons, but to God. For by doing this, you will become like a flowering field and be adorned with fruits of every kind. and you multiplied and became great, and you entered into these cities of cities: My blessing, says God, was followed by the very work. I said: “I gave you the vegetation of the countryside,” and you, having received the blessing, acquired both multitude and greatness, became glorious and eminent, and had great cities under your rule. Thus, having generally shown both the origin and growth of Jerusalem, he again depicts its growth in detail. your breasts have grown, and your hair has become brighter, All this is said in a figurative sense, borrowing a figure of speech from children, and thereby showing great goodwill; “breasts” is what the prudence of rational power calls, because breasts cover the heart, and “hair” is an adornment provided by perfection. you were naked and without beauty, says God, because she has not yet received the veil of the law. Ezek.16:8. And I passed through you, and saw you: and behold, your time is like the time of those who soar: and I brushed my wings on you, and covered your cold, and swore to you: and the Lord Adonai came into covenant with you, and you were with me. For seeing that you are already able to enter into communication with Me through the law, like some kind of wings, I spread over you the teaching of saving commandments and covered the nakedness of iniquity, and the acceptance into cohabitation was followed by the added painting. For, says God, “I have entered into a covenant with you.” since an oath promise had to be attached to the painting, I did not refuse to do this either, but although one word was enough to certify the promise, I added an oath to the word. And whoever wants to know this is not difficult to read in the writings of the law, for in the song of blessed Moses he will find that the God of all says: “I will lift up My hand into heaven, and I will swear by My right hand, and I will live forever” (Deut. 32:40). “And you were for Me,” says God, that is, you were united with Me, and the marriage was completed. Ezek.16:9. And I washed you with water, and rinsed you with your blood, and anointed you with oil, Ezek.16:10. and he clothed thee in stripes, and shod thee in scarlet: and they girded thee with fine linen, and put the trihapton upon thee. He listed His benefits in detail, for he says: first, having “washed you with the water” of the teachings, He established for you cleansing and sprinkling; then “he anointed with oil,” and after this he lists the distinctive signs of the priesthood, because the priests were anointed with holy oil, they also dressed in fine linen and scarlet clothing, but also implies the bodily and spiritual wealth that the people themselves had, taking advantage of God’s care for them. “And I will put trihapton on you.” And this is the braiding of hair that wives place on their heads. Therefore, God allegorically meant the splendor that he tried to give them with all possible care; it also implies, as I think, a tabernacle built from “hair cloth” (Exod. 26:7), in which sacrifices for sin and “sacrifices of perfection” (Exodus 29:34) were made, and there were divine revelations from the purification, when God talked with the bishop. Ezek.16:11. And I will decorate your utensils, and put a bracelet on your hand, and a dime on your neck, Ezek.16:12. and I have placed beads on your nostrils, and rings on your ears, and a crown of praise on your head: All this should be understood in a figurative sense: “wrists” placed on the hands signify active virtue; a necklace placed on the neck - the yoke of the law, "useryaz" threaded into the nostrils - aversion from vice through the commandments, which served as a bridle, and the image of speech was taken from oxen, in which an iron ring is threaded into the nostrils, and through it they are forced to go here or there. And that God compared their insolence to the stubbornness of oxen, the Prophet Hosea is a witness to this, who speaks on behalf of God: “Like a young woman who was goaded fiercely” by Ephraim (Hosea 4:16). God calls good teaching by earrings worn in the ears, which, due to obedience, adorns the listening ears, and by a crown placed on the head - praise acquired for piety, observance of the law and all good deeds. Ezek.16:13. And you were adorned with gold and silver: and your garments were fine linen, and trihapta, and mottled, And this can be understood in the same way, but we must add to what has been said that not only spiritual benefits are meant by this, but also bodily prosperity is meant, because, having come out of Egypt, they used the silver and gold utensils of the Egyptians and robbed the Egyptians, taking from them the proper reward for violent labor, and also turned everything into their booty the wealth of the peoples inhabiting Palestine. Therefore, in addition to spiritual benefits, it indicates an abundance of bodily benefits. Why does he add: semidal, and honey, and yala oil, that is, she enjoyed all earthly blessings. and you were very good, fulfilling the law, she had the beauty of keeping the law. and you set yourself up for the kingdom. She grew so much that she became feared by all neighboring peoples and was awarded royal honors. For this he gave to be understood in what is added. Ezek.16:14. And your name went out into the nations in your kindness, She became famous and notorious everywhere. Then he will tell the reason for this. Because of the complete blindness in beauty that they inflicted on you, says Adonai the Lord. I was the author of this splendor of yours, having provided you with special commandments and laws. Ezek.16:15. You trusted in your kindness, This is the beginning of disasters - putting aside trust in God and glorying in one’s own successes. and thou hast committed fornication in thy name, and thou hast poured out thy fornication upon every one that passeth by, unto him thou wast, and thou shalt not be. Having become eminent and dreaming highly of yourself, you abandoned Me and crawled into extreme indecency, accepting not one or two lovers, but everyone who wanted to pass by you, and with everyone you entered into lawless communication, for God expressed this by saying: “to this you were, and will not be,” that is, you had connections with others, not belonging to them in the least, because at the beginning you dedicated yourself Me. “Fornication” here refers to idolatry, and “every passing thing” refers to the various machinations of demons. Ezek.16:16. And you took from your garments, and made for yourself idols, and you committed adultery with them, and if you did not understand, this will not be and will not be done. Strange and extraordinary are your undertakings in idolatry; Not only were you jealous of what others had bad, but you yourself invented something new, making images of idols out of clothes and calling them gods, despite the fact that I forbade you by law from all such things. Ezek.16:17. And you took the vessels of your praise from My silver, and from My gold, from which I gave you: and you made for yourself images of men, and you committed harlotry in them. Having received silver and gold from Me, you make gods out of My gifts, and you preferred them to My service, but you called the “images” “masculine”, because in a figurative sense you called idolatry fornication. Ezek.16:18–19. And you took your speckled robe and blankets on her, and you put my oil and my incense before them, and my bread that I gave you, filled you with seven dals and oil and honey, and you laid it before them in the stench of fragrance. All the blessings that she received from Me, she brought as a gift to these adulterous demons, sometimes decorating and beautifying them, and from others making sacrifices and libations to them. Ezek.16:19–20. And it came to pass, says the Lord Adonai, that thou tookst thy sons, and thy daughters, which thou hadst given birth to, and thou shalt sacrificed them for their consumption. Has food spoiled you a little? This is followed by a reproof, expressed with ridicule: “Have you committed little fornication with food?” From which it is clear, and, moreover, very clear, that serving idols here is called fornication. Ezek.16:21. And you slain your children, and you gave them, and you sacrificed them to them. Ezek.16:22. This is greater than all your fornication and abominations: . Truly, the most vile and criminal thing is the unjust killing of children, which these frantic ones committed, as they assumed, to prevent and deliver themselves from disasters. and you did not remember the days of your infancy, when you were naked and ugly, and mixed with your blood, and you lived. I didn’t bring myself to think about what happened before, how naked, devoid of any care for you, stained with the blood of an idol, I took you, washed you, and made you enjoy life and all care for you. Ezek.16:23. And be it according to all your iniquities, woe to you, says the Lord Adonai. You will reap crying and lamentation as the fruit of this ingratitude of yours. Then he describes the wickedness of Jerusalem in even more detail. Ezek.16:24–25. And you created for yourself a church of harlotry, and created for yourself the foundations on all the hundred squares. And at the beginning of every journey you created your fornication, and corrupted your kindness, and laid out your shins for everyone who passed by. Anyone can learn this more clearly from the history of the judges and from the book of kingdoms, because everywhere - both in dwellings and in marketplaces, they set up idols, and filled their houses with their wickedness, and in the very church of God they built altars to destructive demons, they erected statues and images of demons. The Lord accuses of this here too, calling the churches of idols “churches of fornication”, while denouncing the excessiveness of such fornication, he presents Jerusalem as a harlot, indiscriminately offering herself to anyone who wants to communicate with her, because the roads, streets, and marketplaces are filled with idols, and the beauty of piety is desecrated, and he allows everyone passing by to have such access. lewdness, sometimes Egyptian, sometimes Assyrian and Chaldean gods. And making this known, God added: And you have multiplied your fornication, Ezek.16:26. and your prostitute neighbors have committed fornication with the sons of Egypt, and many times you have committed fornication in order to anger Me. “Stupid”, again in a figurative sense, he called those who were excessively devoted to idolatry, for the Egyptians worshiped goats, and oxen, and sheep, and dogs, and monkeys, and crocodiles, and ibises, and hawks. Ezek.16:27. And behold, I will stretch out My hand against you, and I will cast aside your laws, and I will give you over to the souls of those who hate you, to the daughters of foreigners, who turn you away from your path, to whom you have dishonored. I will move My hand, says God, to punish you, I will expose you from the lordship of the law, I will turn you into a laughing stock for your enemies, I will make neighboring cities punish you, who did not compete with you in the excess of wickedness. Ezek.16:28–29. And you committed fornication with the sons of Asser, and you were filled with such things: and you committed fornication and were not satisfied, and you increased your fornication to the land of the Canaanites, the Chaldeans, and below you were satisfied with these. Each nation, says God, served its own idols, but you, who worshiped the gods of all nations and loved serving idols everywhere, have not yet felt satiation in wickedness. Ezek.16:30. How will I cleanse your heart, says the Lord Adonai, when you have always done all these works of a provocative harlot wife? What punishment worthy of this wickedness will I impose on you, says God, what kind of medicine will I use to cleanse your stinking scabs? You have ventured into the affairs of a wife who no longer has shame on her brow, who shamelessly and openly indulges in lewdness. And thou hast committed fornication with thy daughters. Your iniquity, says God, is three times greater than the iniquity of the cities under your control; You should teach others piety, but you have become an example of all wickedness. Ezek.16:31. When thou didst keep thy whoredom at the beginning of every journey, and thou didst create thy provisions upon all the haystacks, and thou wast not like a harlot collecting rent. It was not the extreme need for necessities that brought you to this indecency, because, taking advantage of all the benefits, enjoying My gifts, you brought what I gave as a gift to idols; which is why she became like a wife who married her husband and sacrifices her beauty to adulterers, squandering what belongs to her husband and giving it to lovers. Ezek.16:32–33. A woman who commits adultery with other men's husbands from her husband is like you; she takes rent from her husband, and gives rent to all who commit adultery with her: And setting out the same thing at even greater length, in order to more clearly expose the inconsistency, he continues: Every harlot is given wages, You gave hire to all your zealots and burdened them so that they could come to you from everywhere in your fornication. No one has ever received anything good from destructive demons, but those who intend to serve them, bringing them gifts sent by God, bring their dominion upon themselves. For he made this clear by saying: “And she burdened them, so that they would come to you from everywhere in your fornication.” By what you brought to them as a gift, you encouraged them to hastily flock to you and constantly be with you. Ezekiel 16:34. And it was in you contrary to the custom of a woman in your fornication, and in committing fornication with you, instead of giving you rent, and the rent was not given to you, and it was in you contrary. By communicating with many lovers, you have become like lewd wives who give themselves to everyone, but in that you yourself give, and do not take payment from them, you again act contrary to them; why in this type of obscenity have you surpassed both those who were before you and those who will come after you? Having thus discovered the iniquity of Jerusalem, he gives it a name according to its deeds, and continues: Ezek.16:35. For this reason, hear, O harlot, the word of the Lord. Ezek.16:36. This saith the Lord Adonai: Thou hast poured out thy copper, and thy shame shall be revealed in thy fornication to thy zealots: and in all the thoughts of thy iniquities, and in the blood of thy children which thou hast given them. A bad coin, in which there is an admixture of other substances, is called half-copper (ὑποχάλκον). Therefore, God says: since you have not mixed some small amount of iniquity with My laws, but have added so much copper that the gold is no longer visible, and all your coin seems completely copper, then I will finally deprive you of My providence for you and fill you with shame, punishing you for all kinds of iniquities, especially for the unrighteous killing of children whom you sacrificed to murderous demons. Ezek.16:37. For this reason, I will gather all your lusts, with them you mixed, and you loved all of them, and you hated all of them: and I will gather for you from everywhere I will punish you through your very lovers; You competed dishonestly with the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Canaanites, and Egyptians; I will use them as weapons against you, imposing on you a worthy punishment; I will add to your lovers those you hate, so that both will see your great iniquity. and I will reveal your wickedness to them, and they will see all your shame. Ezekiel 16:38. And I will avenge thee with vengeance on the fornicators and the shedding of blood, and I will put thee to death in the blood of wrath and zeal. You will bear the punishment imposed on murderers and adulterous wives; You imitated them lawlessly, and you will suffer the same punishment as them. Ezek.16:39. And I will deliver you into their hands, and they will dig up your fornication, that is, demonic churches, and destroy your foundation. By this God meant the divine church, because the service performed in it was their foundation, confirmation and support. And they will strip you of your garments, and take away the vessels of your praise, and leave you naked and without cold. Sim depicted their plunder and enslavement. Ezek.16:40. And they will bring nations against you, and stone you, and cut you off with their swords. Ezek.16:41. And they will burn your houses with fire, and they will take vengeance on you before many women. This was fulfilled during the captivity; God portrayed this allegorically, as about an adulterous wife who is stoned, killed and burned. Why, continuing the allegory, he added: “and they will take vengeance on you before many women.” He does not call wives wives, but refers to cities allegorically, because he brings the city of Jerusalem in the likeness of a wife to the judgment seat. Then he makes clear the benefits of punishment. And I will turn you from fornication, and do not let anyone hire you. When you are deprived of prosperity and are delivered into captivity, then there will be nothing left to give you this poor wage, but poverty will become useful to you. Ezek.16:42. And I will send My wrath upon you, and My zeal will be taken away from You: I will rest, and I will not care for anyone. And he spoke this again in a figurative sense, as about a husband who is jealous of his wife in adultery, for he says: by resorting to punishment, I will stop your lewdness and free myself from caring about you; your lovers will no longer move Me to jealousy. I will impose this punishment on you. Ezek.16:43. Thou hast not remembered the days of thy infancy and has grieved Me in all these: and behold, I have given thy ways upon thy head, says the Lord Adonai: You brought the burden of these disasters upon yourself, says God, not wanting to think about where and what you became from, how from a poor, small, ignorant person I made you glorious and famous. and thus you have created wickedness against all without your laws. You still cannot endure what your sins deserve; in comparison with wickedness, the punishment is small. Ezek.16:44. This is the essence of the tree that speaks to you in the parable, saying: like a mother and a daughter. The proverb that everyone repeats applies to you: a daughter is like her mother. Above, God named the Hittite woman the mother of Jerusalem. Ezek.16:45. Thou art thy mother's daughter, who has cast away her husband and her children: and the sister of thy sisters, who have cast away their husbands and their children: This shows that He is not only the God of the Jews, but also of the pagan peoples, for He was called in ancient times their God, before they fell into the disease of idolatry, which is why He said about them that they rejected their husband and children, denying God, and began to sacrifice their children to demons. Then he expresses himself more clearly. your mother is a Hittite, and your father is an Amorite. Ezek.16:46. Your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, and she who lives at your right hand: and your youngest sister, who lives at your right hand, Sodom and her daughters. He calls Samaria the eldest sister, and he named it not according to time, but according to the teaching of wickedness, for Sodom is older in time. But Jerusalem was first jealous of Samaria’s undertakings, and then spread lawlessness further and further, so that it became like the cities of Sodom. He called Sodom his younger sister, because Jerusalem later loved kinship with it, for God called kinship fellowship in wickedness. It is said: “on the right hand and on the left” in accordance with the location, because in Jerusalem, if someone turns his face towards the east, Sodom will be on the right, as lying to the south, and on the left is Samaria, as lying to the north. He refers to the cities and villages under their control as daughters of Samaria and Sodom. And wanting to show the excess of wickedness, he added: Ezek.16:47. And you walked lower in their paths, you created less in their iniquities, and you surpassed them in all your ways. You have increased their crafty undertakings with your imaginations, and in danger they will triumph over them in wickedness. Ezek.16:48. As I live, says the Lord Adonai, “Even as this thy sister and her daughters created Sodom, even as thou hast created thy daughters also. Then it shows the difference. Ezek.16:49. Moreover, this is the iniquity of Sodom, the pride, in the abundance of bread and in the abundance of your voluptuousness, even to her daughters: this was given to her, and to her daughters: neither did I give a hand to the poor and the beggar. Ezek.16:50. And I magnified myself, and committed iniquity before Me: and I rejected what I saw. Fed up with the abundance of goods, they fell into pride and arrogance, and, enjoying all the pleasures, they despised those living in poverty, and from this they fell into extreme indecency and suffered punishment worthy of their wicked deeds. Ezek.16:51. Samaria has not sinned half your sins: and you have multiplied your iniquities more than these, and you have justified your sisters in all your sins, in all your iniquities that you have committed. This comparison is made not by the quality of sin alone, but also by the care that was given to Jerusalem. For, if Samaria sinned and ventured into thousands of iniquities, then she was far from the divine church, and had at least a small excuse for the fact that she depended on another king, and could not do what was established by the law in the divine church; and Sodom had neither a prophet nor a legislator, but used only the teaching of the natural law, and you, having the law, and priests, and prophets, and the divine church, and legal service, indulged in their wickedness. Therefore you make them worthy of apology. Ezek.16:52. And you accept your greater torment, in which you have corrupted your sisters in your sins, with them you have committed iniquity more than those, and you have justified them more than you: He did not just say: “and she justified them,” but: “more than you,” for, imitating them in lawlessness, you do not have their justification, like one who received the law and the prophets to help you; Because of the excess of your wickedness, they want to find an excuse for themselves. Therefore, accept punishment for your undertakings, for which you became harmful to them. and thou shalt be ashamed, and accept thy dishonor, never having thy sisters acquitted thee. Whoever, being in honor, does not understand this, having been subjected to dishonor, comes to the consciousness of his former honor. Therefore, Jerusalem, not knowing the honor bestowed upon it by God, as a result of the siege and captivity, came to know its God, which is why, taught by the blessed David, it cries out: “The coldness of my face covered me, from the voice of reproach and slander, from the presence of the enemy and the one driving out” (Ps. 43:16, 17). Ezek.16:53. And I will reverse their conversions, the conversion of Sodom and her daughters, and the conversion of Samaria and her daughters, It is necessary to know the peculiarities in the expression of Scripture, otherwise it is impossible to understand its purpose. Therefore, in addition to many others, it also has the peculiarity that it speaks of the past as of the future, and of the future as of the past. So here the past expresses itself as the future. Sodom and the cities belonging to it turned away from me, as well as Samaria with the cities under its control, but I also turned away from them, says God, and punished them for what they sinned. and I will direct your message among them. . Ezek.16:54. For thou shalt suffer thy torment, and thou shalt be dishonest towards all that thou hast done in My wrath. You will also suffer the same as they did, says God, and you will bear punishment for everything you have sinned against Me. Ezek.16:55. And your sister Sodom and her daughters will be raised up, as you were from the beginning: and you and your daughters will be raised up, as you were from the beginning. Here he called restoration not a better, but a worse state. For about Sodom, a feature of expression that is often found in Scripture is again used, and the meaning of what was said is this: just as Sodom, a glorious and populous city, I transformed into its former form and made it completely uninhabited, as it was before its construction, so from you, having taken away all your splendor, I will make you return to your former form. Ezek.16:56–57. And your sister Sodom was not heard in your mouth in the days of your pride, before the revelation of your evils, for now you are a reproach to the daughters of the Syrians, and to all those who are around you, and to the daughters of foreigners who conquer you around. If you had not known, says the Prophet, about the punishment of the cities of Sodom, if their final destruction had not been in your mouth, as now rumors about your siege are in the cities of Syria and Palestine, would you have done more evil? Their example did not help you, but knowing what they dared to do and what the calamities that befell them, you nevertheless continued to indulge in iniquities. Therefore: Ezek.16:58–59. I bore your wickedness and your iniquity, says the Lord. This says Adonai the Lord: And I will do in you, as you have done, as you despised the oath of breaking My covenant. The law contained an oath that persecuted those who violated it, and commanded the six tribes to pronounce it, standing on Mount Ebal, and to all the people, as if subscribing to this oath of the law and agreeing to it, they would add: Amen (Deut. 27:13-26). So, says God, since she was not afraid even of an oath, but fearlessly broke My covenant, then gather the handles of these shifts. Then he promises punishment and benefits. Ezek.16:60. And I will remember My covenant that was with you in the days of your infancy, and I will establish My covenant with you forever. Although you trampled on the agreements concluded with Me, this will not convince Me to leave you completely; on the contrary, having disciplined you with punishment and taught you gratitude, I will remember those agreements that I made with you in ancient times, when I was still in infancy; This is what he calls his time in the desert. “And I will establish My covenant an everlasting covenant,” not a covenant of law, but a covenant of grace, not a covenant through Moses, but a covenant through the apostles. For that one was temporary, but this one is eternal. He promises to do this through the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah. For he says: “And I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant which their father commanded in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring me out of the land of Egypt, because they did not abide in my covenant, and I rejected them” (Jer. 31:31, 32). But I bequeath to them “a new covenant: I have given My laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33). The same covenant promises here too. Ezek.16:61. And thou shalt change thy ways, and thou shalt be dishonest, and thy sisters, eldest and thy youngest, shall ever have sex with them, Because of the punishment, having come to the consciousness of your own ways, and looking at the disgrace that surrounds you, you will recognize your Master, but you will see that these sisters of yours share the same covenant with you, or better yet, that you yourself accept it along with them. and I will give it to you for building up, and not from your covenant. For it is not they through you, but you who will benefit from them, and it is not the covenant by which you live now that will produce this fellowship, but the eternal covenant that will be given later. By Sodom and Samaria the Prophet makes it clear to all pagans and together with Jews the future piety and faith in one God established by this new covenant. Ezek.16:62. And I will establish My covenant with you, and hang it, for I am the Lord. For the Gospel was preached first to the Jews, and then to all nations. And it will also be preached by the great Elijah before the end of the world. So, says God, I will do everything with your benefit in mind. And from this you will know what you have done for Me, and what benefits I have given you. Therefore God added: Ezek.16:63. For you will remember and be humbled, and no one will be able to open your mouth from the face of your dishonor, when I will be merciful to you in all things that you have done, says the Lord Adonai. The three youths in the cave expressed themselves in these words, for, appropriating the iniquities of the people, they said, praying: “And now we cannot open our mouths, the cold and reproach of Thy servant and those who honor Thee” (Dan. 3:31). And the godly Daniel, also praying in captivity, cried out: “It is true for you, Lord, and for us, as this day, is ashamed of our face, and our king, and our prince, and our father” (Dan. 9: 7, 8), and showing the reason for this, not without reason added: “those who have sinned against you.” So this prophecy came to fulfillment, because He who inspires the prophets is not deceitful. Therefore, we, testing ourselves, and making a strict examination of our behavior, and comparing God’s blessings with our sins, should express ourselves in the same words in our prayers, and, being ashamed of the sins we have committed, avoid deeds that bring shame, and illuminate the soul with the remembrance of God. For in this way we will be able to place ourselves far from the snares of sin, and persistently stand before God and enjoy the grace of Christ Jesus our Lord. With Him be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever! Amen.