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Having finished the first book on Isaiah, dictated as best I could, and not as I wanted, in quick speech, with concern more for the meaning of the Scriptures than for the expressions of beautiful speech, I will now move on to the second book and, as much strength and will as I have, devoted to the Lord, I will bring it to the One who said through the prophet: I have multiplied the visions and have become like the prophets in the hands (Hos. 12:10). Therefore, I beg you, Virgin of Christ Eustochia, while I am arguing in the exposition of the Scriptures, to raise your hands to the Lord together with Moses, so that, having come out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, I may defeat Amalek, which means devouring and licking, and be able to say with you: Blessed is the Lord my God, train my hands to fight, my fingers to fight ( Ps. 143:1). Chapter III. Art. 1. For behold, the Lord of hosts will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the strong and mighty: all the reinforcement of bread and all the reinforcement of water. Hitherto, they believe, they are talking about judgment; and what follows is about the future captivity, which some attribute to the Babylonians, others to the Romans. But it is better, as we said above, to attribute everything to the suffering of the Lord. For after His death, all graces and gifts were taken away from the Jews, according to what is written in the Gospel: “the law and the prophets until John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:13). The connection is as follows: since you did not want to rest on the man whose breath was in his nostrils, who was recognized as high; but, on the contrary, they shed the blood of the righteous, and conceived evil counsel, saying: “Let us bind the righteous, since he is of no use to us” (Wis. 2:12); therefore you will eat the fruit of your plans. After the suffering of the Lord, the Jews have nothing strong, nothing strong, but everything is unsteady and weak. And no one can say to them: I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13), our Lord. And since according to the LXX we read: strong and powerful, then we can refer to the strong: until we achieve everything in a perfect man, according to the age of the fulfillment of Christ (Eph. 4:13), and to the strong words: I wish to present you all as pure virgins to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). Reinforcement with bread and refreshment with water is taken for all food and drink. We read that Moses was on Mount Sinai, and for forty days he did not eat bread or drink water (Ex. 34). In a similar way, you need to understand what is said to Adam: “By the sweat of your brow, take away your bread until you return to the land from which you were taken” (Gen. 3:19), as well as what is said by the Savior: “Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Thus, the reinforcement of bread will be taken away from them - the One who says: I am the bread of life, which came down from heaven (John 6:51), and the reinforcement of water, about which the same Lord said: everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again: but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst for ever: but the water that I will give him will be a source in him. water flowing into the eternal belly (John 4:13, 14). We also read about this kind of bread in Proverbs: open your eyes and be filled with bread (Proverbs 20:13). The Jews have bread, but not strengthening; they also have water, but not strong. For they read the Scriptures, but do not understand; they hold the scrolls, and they destroyed Christ, about whom it is written in the scrolls (1 Cor. 3). They, like babies, feed on milk and not solid food, and since they have lost their strength and are weak, they subsequently eat vegetables; Athletes have solid food, which supports human life and provides strength to the living. Another prophet also testifies about such bread and water that they will be taken away from the Jews, saying: These days are coming, says the Lord, and I will send a famine on the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord (Amos 8:11). Art. 2. A strong man and a warrior, a judge and a prophet, a fortuneteller and an elder. Instead of strong, which is found only in Hebrew, Seventy was translated into two together: giant and strong, believing that giant is the same as strong. Strong was mentioned above. About the giant in a good way, that is, about the Lord Savior, we read in the eighteenth psalm: “he rejoiced like a giant to run his way: from the end of the sky his departure and his procession to the end thereof (Ps. 19:6, 7). If we read about the giant Nimrod, who was a hunter before the Lord (Gen. 10), and about the giants (Gen. 6), because of whom the flood came to the earth, then they should be understood in the opposite direction. We understand the warlike husband, in the historical sense, to mean that they were taken into captivity and to this day are in slavery and have not freed themselves from the yoke of slavery. But they do not even have their own judges and are subordinate to Roman judges, so that even the leaders who apparently exist among the people are judged by Roman leaders. But even then it must be said that they do not have any fighter in the law who has to judge, but everything is empty, shaky and full of stupidity. As for the prophet, there is no doubt that he ceased with them. The question is: how do we translate from the Hebrew the soothsayer (hariolum), which all the soothsayers (divinum) translated, with the exception of the Seventy, who translated the soothsayer instead? This should be answered by the fact that fortune-tellers often predict the future, as we read about the soothsayer Balaam and about the soothsayer of the cities of Palestine, Gaza and Ascalon, Get and Ekron, and Ashdod, giving advice on how to release the ark of the Lord (1 Samuel 6). And the meaning is this: both true and false will be equally taken away from the Jews. That the elder, or, according to the LXX translation, elder (presbyterus), was taken away from the Jews, this is understandable for one who knows that elders in the sacred Scriptures are chosen according to merit and wisdom, and not according to age. For even among the Jews the elders did not cease, whom we often see reaching a ripe old age. And at the beginning (of the book) of Daniel, according to Theodotion 7, we read about two elders who grew old in evil days (Dan. 13). Moses is also commanded to choose elders whom he knows to be elders (Ex. 18). And the Apostle Paul writes in great detail to Timothy about what kind of elder should be elected (1 Tim. 5). Therefore, Proverbs says: glory to the old who are gray (Prov. 20:29). What kind of gray hair is this? Undoubtedly there is wisdom, about which it is written: gray hair is the wisdom of man (Wis. 4:8). And although we read that people from Adam to Abraham lived nine hundred years and more (Gen. 24), no one else had previously been called an elder, that is, an old man, except Abraham, who turns out to have lived a much smaller number of years. Therefore, John, after the children and youth, writes to the elders, saying: “I wrote to you, fathers, because you knew Him who existed from the beginning” (1 John 2:13). And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, lost his kingdom because he did not want to listen to the elders (1 Kings 12). Art. 3. Chief of fifty. Synecdochically, the part signifies the whole. Just as those who are in command of a hundred soldiers are called centurions, and those who are in command of a thousand are called captains of thousands, whom we call tribunes because they are in charge of a tribe: so in the army of Israel those who stood at the head of fifty soldiers were called pentecostals. That’s why we call those in charge of ten people “foremen.” And it is not surprising if all military rank disappeared from the Jews, when they do not have the opportunity to fight with a sword and carry weapons. But since the fiftieth number always refers to repentance, and the chief of repentance and the head of those saved through repentance is Christ, let us briefly reveal the secrets of this number. In Genesis we read that when Abraham interceded with the Lord, starting with fifty righteous people, God said that the city would be saved if fifty righteous people were found in it. And seven weeks, according to the book of Numbers, that is, Pentecost, constitute a most solemn festival. Also, the jubilee, that is, the year of liberation, made up of seven weeks of years, that is, of forty-nine years, in which trumpets sound and everyone returns to their former possessions, contains this sacrament. Therefore, David also writes a psalm of repentance on the fiftieth. In the same book of Numbers we read that from the spoils and profits, the priests and the Levites who guard the doors of the tabernacle receive the fiftieth head of both people and cattle. The same understanding applies to the Gospel parable (Luke 7), which speaks of two debtors, one of whom owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Therefore, the apostle to the Ephesians, to whom he revealed all the secrets, wants to stay until Pentecost, until they completely turn to the Lord, saying: “For a great and wide door is opened for me, but there are many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:9). And the devil imitates the army of Israel, regarding which Jethro gave advice to his son-in-law Moses, so that he would install tribunitians and pentecostals over the people (Ex. 18). Therefore the wicked king (2 Kings. 1) sends two Pentecostals with their subordinate soldiers to take Elijah; but they were destroyed by divine fire, and the third of them, turning to prayer and learning the secrets of repentance, is saved. Therefore, the Jews, not wanting to recognize the Lord as perfect and the ruler of fifty, say to Him: the Imasha was not fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham (John 8:57)? But He, knowing that He is the Leader not only of the repentant, but also of the righteous, answered: before even Abraham did not exist, I am (ibid., v. 58). And that the Lord is the ruler of fifty, we can understand this from one holiday about which He says: The Lord is the Sabbath son of man (Matthew 12:8). If it is Saturday, then it is the new moon; if Easter, then anniversary; if jubilee, then tabernacles; if tabernacles, then also Pentecost, which refers to the fiftieth number. And a respectable-looking and advisor. Instead of two, that is, a respectable-looking man and an adviser, LXX translated one: the husband of a wondrous adviser. Among other mercies, the Lord will take away this one from the Jews, so that they will not have any adviser, but will do everything without advice. And the famous saying of the Greek poet 8 is worthy of praise and surprise: “First of all, happy is he who is wise in himself, then he who listens to the wise.” And whoever lacks both is useless both for himself and for everyone. Therefore, in our books we read: let those who make peace with you be many, but your advisers are one from thousands (Sir. 6:6). And again: “Do everything with advice, and the wisdom of a wondrous adviser will give you.” And Senate resolutions are called consultative (consulta), and Roman rulers were once called consuls (councillors), either from council (consulendo) to citizens or from governing everything through council (consilio). And in the church we have our own senate, a meeting of elders. So, when Judea, by the way, lost its elders, how could it have a council, which is the property of the elders? And a wise builder. Instead, Aquila translated the wisest artist to show that they once had many artists, which was also that Bezalel, the son of Uriah, the son of Ur from the tribe of Judah, whom God filled with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge, so that in every work he would be the most perfect craftsman, not only in gold and silver work, but also in copper and others listed by Moses, who built the tabernacle of God (Ex. 18). Thus, when they lost their builders, all the grace of creation was transferred to the church. Therefore, the Apostle Paul says: For a wise architect laid the foundation (1 Cor. 3:10). And Jeremiah was a builder who not only uprooted, and undermined, and destroyed, but also created (Jer. 1). Therefore, the same apostle says: “we are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9). Also, our Lord is called the builder of walls (Eph. 2), and in the Gospel he who created everything is called the son of tekton (Matthew 13). We also read in the book of Kings that King Solomon sent and took Hiram the Tyrian, the son of a widowed woman, who was from the tribe of Naphtali, and had as his father a Tyrian, a coppersmith; and he came to the king, and did all the work for King Solomon. It contains an image of the creation of the Church, born not only from the tribe of Judah, but also from Naphtali, and from the father of Tyria, whose mother was a widow, because she lost her first husband (1 Kings 7), and many more children from the abandoned one than from the one who had a husband (Isa. 54:1). But in the book of Chronicles we read about the valley of artists: “Saraiah begat Joab, the father of the valley of artists, because there were artists there” (1 Chronicles 4:14). They are called dwellers in the valley because their knowledge did not make them arrogant, but they followed the humble and meek Jesus, and could say with the apostle: for I am an apostle, who is not worthy to be called an apostle (1 Cor. 15:9), and in another place: in part we understand, and in part we prophesy, and now we see as with a mirror in fortune telling. (1 Cor. 13:9). And skilled in the mysterious word. Instead, LXX translated the intelligent listener, Theodotion: a skillful speaker, Aquila: a skillful whisperer, Symmachus: skillful in the mysterious word, which we also followed in this place. First, it must be said according to LXX that among other spiritual gifts in the Church, an intelligent listener is also necessary. “For to one is given prophecy, to another discerning of spirits” (1 Cor. 12:10). Therefore, priestly degrees were established among the Jewish people, so that they could distinguish between prophets and false prophets, that is, they would understand who speaks from the Spirit of God and who speaks from the contrary. We must read about this in Jeremiah (Jer. 14). Skilled in the mysterious word, or a whisperer and, as Theodotion believed, a conspirator, it seems to me, is a man learned and experienced both in the law and the prophets, and in the Gospel and the apostles, who with his teaching can heal and bring to a rational state, any emotional disturbance, when the fornicator receives chastity, and the wasteful - moderation and who was once avaricious gives alms. Search all the Jewish synagogues, and you will not find a single teacher who would instill the sacred and teach, despising wealth, to follow poverty. David spoke about this kind of conspirators against snakes and asps, that is, against sinners who have abandoned the truth of God, in the psalm: The sinner was alienated from lies, she went astray from the womb, and spoke a lie. Their rage is in the likeness of a serpent, like a deaf asp that stops its ears, so that it does not hear the voice of those who are rich, the most skilled in spells (Ps. 57:4-6). The entire speech of the Apostle against snakes and asps is a conspiracy, which sinners and heretics do not listen to, because they stop their ears so as not to listen to the truth. Art. 4. And I will give the youths to be their leaders. If from the person of the prophet it is said: for behold, the Lord of hosts will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the mighty and the mighty: all the reinforcement of bread and all the reinforcement of water, and so on: then how now does the same prophet say: I will give young men to be their rulers, and effeminate women will rule over them? So, according to the custom of the prophets, while the prophet is speaking, suddenly God speaks through the prophet on His behalf and says: I will give the youths to be their leaders; for having taken away what I previously gave them and in anger deprived them of all this as good, now, on the contrary, I will give them evil. I have taken away the elder, and the Pentecostal, and the wondrous counselor, and the wise builder, and the intelligent listener, etc., and instead of them I will give them youths as leaders. For having lost such an old man as was pointed out in the previous speech, and of whom Abraham was the first called an old man, they rightly receive young men as leaders. We read about them in Ecclesiastes: woe to you, your city, in which your king is young, and your princes eat early. Blessed are you, O earth, whose king is your son of the free (Eccl. 10:16, 17). Such was the young king Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who followed the advice of the young (1 Kings 12), a young man not because he was young in age, but in wisdom; on the contrary, it is narrated that he accepted the kingdom after having more than forty years. And, on the contrary, Solomon was twelve years old when he assumed power, but since he had wisdom, that is why he is not called young. For he had a great heart and vast wisdom, like the sand on the shores of the sea. Therefore, the Apostle writes to Timothy: Let no one care about your youth (Tim. 4:12), for even someone young in years is old in maturity. And Daniel, according to Theodotion, before the judgment was called a youth (Dan. 13), and after God aroused the spirit in him and he carried out judgment on the elders, he received the dignity of eldership. Likewise, to Jeremiah, who said to the Lord who sent him: “Who are you, Master, Lord? Behold, I do not know how to speak, since I am young” (Jer. 1:6), the Lord answered: “Do not say: since I am young, for before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of your mother’s womb, I sanctified you and appointed you as a prophet among the nations.” Therefore, I think, the apostle also commands young widows (1 Tim. 5) that they marry and be mothers of a family and raise their children, since many have gone astray after Satan, and falling into luxury in opposition to Christ, they want to marry, subject to condemnation, because they have rejected their former faith. A widow is not provided with church support if she is not sixty years old and if she does not have maturity of morals and age. Anyone can think that this also includes the fact that the Apostle (1 Tim. 3) forbids a convert to be a bishop, since he is an infant in the faith, so that he may become proud and not fall into condemnation with the devil. The condemnation of the devil is nothing more than pride, as a result of which he fell from heaven. Therefore, the Savior says: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven (Luke 10:18). And the effeminate will rule over them. Instead, in Hebrew it is written thalulim that Seventy and Theodotion translated the mockers, Aquila ἐναλλάκταϛ, changing and alternately committing lewdness, about which we read about the Levite’s concubine in Hawaii in the book of Judges (chap. 19). Let us think about the patriarchs of Judah 9 and the young men or boys, and the effeminate and drowning in pleasures, and we will see that the prophecy has been fulfilled. We can also call the teachers of the people of Israel mockers, who devour the people of God like food, who misinterpret the Holy Scriptures and laugh at the foolishness of the disciples. Art. 5. And the people shall fall, man against man, and every man against his neighbor: the youth shall rise against the elder, and the humble against the noble. When the leaders are young men and those who mock the Lord, such as the prophetic speech describes, then no respect will be observed either in relation to dignity, or to age, or to knowledge; but the youths will rise up against the elders, and the humble against the noble, and they will fall one another. And this apostolic message will be fulfilled: if you bite one another, you will be destroyed from one another (Gal. 5:15). This, writes Josephus 10, happened to the people of Judah under Titus, the son of Vespasian, when, during the conquest by the Romans, the rebels in Jerusalem were divided into three parties: some occupied the fortress and church, others the lower part of the city, and others the upper. Art. 6. For the man took hold of his brother, a member of his father's family: you have clothes, be our leader, and these ruins (be) under your hand. Instead of ruins, Symmachus and Theodotion transferred weakness. Seventy: food. This means a small number of people and especially a lack of everything, so that he who has food and clothing is considered strong, rich and glorious. And what he says in Hebrew: these ruins (may they be) under your hand, then it has the following meaning: let our poverty and misfortune be strengthened and protected by your help. And then you need to take into account that everyone chooses special bosses for themselves, and that when choosing bosses, a division occurs, when some consider some and others consider others worthy of leadership. And they do not say to them: your property and wealth and income will be able to support us; but this weakness or my food will be corrected and will depend on your will. Art. 7. And he will answer on that day, saying: I am not a doctor, and in my house there is no bread or clothing; do not make me the leader of the people. Instead of the doctor, Symmachus and LXX were transferred to the chief, Theodotion ἑπιδεσμεύων - dressing wounds and taking care of health; in the Hebrew the word answer is no, but it is added from Seventy. For in Hebrew it is added to what is written above: on that day he will say: I am not a doctor, and so on. And the one who is elected as the boss will say. Just as the people want to have as their leader the one whom they consider richer in comparison with themselves, so the elected one, having in mind his poverty and weakness, declares that he is unworthy of the honor given to him, that he cannot correct his shortcomings, that is, heal the weak, give food to the hungry, clothe the naked, barely being able to support himself. So, let us not immediately agree with the verdict of the crowd, but, having been elected to the leadership, we will know our limits and humble ourselves under the strong hand of God; because God, opposing the proud, gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). How many, not having bread and clothing, although they themselves are hungry and naked, and do not have spiritual food and have not kept the clothing of Christ intact, yet promise others both food and clothing and, being full of wounds, boast that they are doctors, and do not observe the Mosaic: “Take another to send him” (Ex. 4:13), and another commandment: do not seek, so that you will be a judge when You cannot take away unrighteousness (Sir. 7:6). Jesus alone heals all illnesses and infirmities, about whom it is written: heal the brokenhearted and oblige their contrition (Ps. 147:3). Art. 8–9. For Jerusalem was destroyed and Judah fell; because their tongue and their devices are against the Lord, to arouse the gaze of His majesty. The expression on their faces convicted them, and like the Sodomites, they proclaimed their sin and did not hide it. This is said by a prophet, and not by someone chosen to be a leader, as most people think, and he says that because no one wants to rule over a sinful people, because Judah and Jerusalem, and the city and region of Judea, or the tribe of Judah, equally fell. And he points out the reasons for their wickedness, that they blasphemed the Lord and said: take, take, crucify Him, not the imams of the king except Caesar (John 19:15, 16) and the most merciful Lord with the madness of their tongue caused bitterness. The expression on their faces convicted them, that is, they received for their sins, or, as LXX translated, the shame of their faces was against them, that is, they always had their misdeeds before their eyes. And how the Sodomites, who sinned with all unbridledness and had no shame in their crime, said to Lot: “Bring out the men outside, so that we may lie with them” (Gen. 19:5); So these too, shouting publicly, proclaimed their sin and had no restraint in blasphemy. For the second board after shipwreck and consolation in disasters is the concealment of one’s wickedness. That is why they are called leaders of Sodom, because they had the sins of Sodom. Art. 10–11. Woe to their soul; because evil was repaid to them. Tell the Righteous that it is good, since they have tasted the fruit of their imaginations. Woe to the wicked for his evil: for the reward of his hands will be his. According to the Jewish and other interpreters, this has the following meaning: woe to them, since they received for their crimes; Therefore, you who hear or read the book of the prophet, praise the justice of God, because He has done well that the wicked have tasted the labor of their hands. And woe to the wicked people for their evil; for he received what he deserved: he who betrayed his Prince to Roman power is himself subject to Roman slavery. According to the Seventy interpreters, who said: Woe to their souls, because they have conceived an evil plan against themselves, saying: Let us bind the Just One, since He is of no use to us, and thus they will eat the fruits of their deeds, it is clearly said about the suffering of Christ that they entered into an evil plan not so much against the Righteous One, as against themselves and their own souls, and now they are eating the fruits of their deeds. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap, and each one will bear his own burden (Gal. 6:5, 8). Art. 12. My people were robbed by their oppressors and women began to rule over them. Instead of women, as Symmachus alone translated, and who in Hebrew are called nasim, Aquila and LXX translated ἀπαιτούντας which means extortionists, Theodotion δανειστάς, that is, usurers. Prophetic speech speaks against the scribes and Pharisees, who, for the sake of shameful profit, in order to receive tithes and firstfruits, denied the Son of God. And he does not call them mentors, scribes and teachers, but coercers, who put piety in profit and devour not only widows, according to the apostle (Luke 20), but also the whole people, and accusing them of luxury and shameful life, not only calls them coercors, to show them extorting money from the coerced, but women, since for the sake of lust they do everything and are devoted to vicious pleasures. So, let us also be careful not to be extortionists from the people, and so that, according to the wicked Porphyry, our senate will not be matrons and women ruling in the churches, so that the favor of women produces judgment on the priestly rank. Art. 13. My people! Those who call you blessed themselves deceive you and scatter or confuse the path of your paths. He called the scribes and Pharisees coercors, not teachers, and above all mockers, who, for the sake of gifts that blind the eyes of even the wise, not only did not reprove sinners, but because of wealth and benefits, extolled them with praise, calling them blessed, and pillars of the house of God, and other things that flatterers usually say. So, he is a church teacher who evokes tears and not laughter, who denounces sinners, who does not call anyone blessed, no one happy, and does not warn the decision of his judge, as the Holy Scripture says: “Do not call any person blessed before death” and as we read in another place: “Whoever praises a friend in the morning with a loud voice is in no way different from one who slanderes” (Proverbs 27:14). Therefore, neglecting the judgments of people, let us neither be proud of their praises nor be upset by their censures; but let us follow the straight path and paths that have been trodden by the holy prophets, and we will listen to the prophet Jeremiah, who says: stand on the path and see, and ask about the eternal paths of the Lord, which is the good way, and walk in it (Jer. 6:16). If we ever wander and, like people, follow the wrong path, then we will look forward to what the Lord promised through Ezekiel: “I will give them another way and another heart” (Ezek. 36). The forced ones spoiled and confused the path of the Lord, so that, having the key of knowledge, they themselves would not enter, and not allow the people to enter, but would make them lose the path of that truth, which says in the Gospel: I am the way, and the life, and the truth (John 14:6). Art. 13–14. The Lord stands for judgment, and stands for judgment on the nations. The Lord will come to judgment with the elders of His people and with their princes. The people, deceived due to simplicity and inexperience, are also called the people of God and are judged in order to be saved. And the Lord does not sit in the position of a judge, as we read in Daniel: “thrones are set and books are open” (Dan. 7:9); but it stands for judgment, and it stands to judge the people, wanting those whose path is corrupted to stand. Against the princes and elders of His people (or with the princes and elders) He comes to judgment not in order to judge, but in order to also be judged, giving him a place of defense if they can have something to answer, according to what is said in the fiftieth psalm: “so that You may be justified in Your words, and overcome when You are judged” (Ps. 50:6). We also read something similar in the prophet Micah (chapter 6), which we explained in our place. Thus, the present passage is understood against the Pharisees and scribes 11 . Between the elders and princes in the ancient people there was, I think, the same relationship as now between presbyters and bishops. For you have laid waste my vineyard; what was stolen from the poor is in your house. Why do you ruin My people, and soften the faces of the poor or exhaust them and, as LXX translated, confuse them. Сохраняет обычай пророков неожиданно переменять лица; ибо выше сам Господь сказал: народ Мой! Those who call you blessed themselves deceive you, and then the prophet says: The Lord stands for judgment: the Lord will come to judgment. Thus, after the prophet, the Lord himself, who came for judgment with the elders of His people and the princes of them, speaks to them and denounces those who sin: why do you lay waste my vineyard, about which it is written: you brought grapes from Egypt (Ps. 79:9), and the same prophet: for the house of Israel has grapes of the Lord of hosts (Is. 5:6). Even in the Gospel, the Lord gave this vineyard to the crafty workers, who killed the son of the housekeeper who was sent to them (Matthew 21). Похищенное у бедного, говорит (находится) в домах ваших. Or simply understand the poor as one in need of alms, or as the poor in spirit, about whom it is written: blessed is he who considers the poor and needy (Ps. 40:2). And the Apostle Paul says: let us remember the poor (Gal. 2:10). And what follows next: why do you ruin my people and soften or embarrass the faces of the poor? This is obviously said to the princes of Judah. But this can also apply to our princes, if they oppress the people subordinate to them and publicly reprove and embarrass the poor who sin, but do not dare to even say a word in front of the rich who sin more. And what was stolen from the poor is in their homes when they fill their treasuries and use church property for pleasure, and public alms given to help the poor are either kept for themselves or distributed to relatives, and they use other people’s needs to enrich themselves and their own. Art. 15. And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion were proud and walked with their necks stretched out, and walked with winking eyes, and applauded, and walked and stepped with their feet with measured steps. Above, as a prophet, the Lord denounced both the people and the princes; Now the prophetic speech turns to women, about whom he previously said: and women began to rule over them, so that they would not be considered strangers to their crimes, for the sake of whose pleasure and luxury the extortionists devastated the vineyard of the Lord, and stole from the poor (located) in their houses, and ruined His people and confused the faces of the poor. Some consider them to actually be women of Judah, others believe that they are metaphorically speaking about the cities of Judah, which are called the daughters of Zion, namely about smaller cities, villages and suburbs. Therefore, in the book of Jesus, the names of cities are listed by individual tribes (Joshua ch. 15), and then villages and fortifications are indicated, which are called daughters. Others believe that in an allegorical sense, women are souls who, if they walk with their necks stretched out and indulge in pride and follow not the firmness of men, but the lack of character of women, are exposed by prophetic speech and lose all the ornaments of virtues, which are described under moon-shaped ornaments and chains, and necklaces and wrists, bandages and parting pins and other things of this kind. This evidence must also be used against the women of the church, who walk with their necks stretched out and speak with winking eyes and strike with both hands and feet, and in order to perform at a measured pace, do not follow the guidance of nature, but hire actors as teachers. Art. 16. The Lord will make the crown of the daughters of Zion bald and expose their hair, and instead of adornment there will be shame. And this will happen to us, whose sins are hidden, when what is written is fulfilled: there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed (Luke 8:17). For while we are covered with hair and the clothing of ignorance, and while people consider us to be whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23), then we, inside full of the bones of the dead, seem to have something beautiful; when what was hidden is revealed, then all the hair decoration is removed and an ugly bald spot is revealed in front of everyone. Art. 17. On that day the Lord will take away the ornament of the shoes. What day? The Jews believe it was the day of the Babylonian captivity. We more fairly assert that this was when they were captured by the Romans and lost all the ornaments of their clothes, precious stones, and gold, and necklaces and various utensils. Or a metaphorical comparison with women says that all the decoration of cities has been destroyed. Understand the decoration of cities in squares and porticoes, in the forum and in places of gymnastic exercises and in public walls. If we attribute this to the state of souls, then we will remember that we read about the shod feet of those who ate the meat of the lamb and celebrated the Passover, as well as about the clothes and shoes that did not wear out when wandering in the desert. What kind of shoes are these? The one about whom the apostle writes to the Ephesians: having shoes on the nose in preparation of the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15). There are shoes for the soul that is about to perish, when women walk with their necks stretched out and drag their clothes with their feet, and instead of the cleanliness characteristic of matrons, they sweep up dirt from the ground. Art. 18–21. And moons, and chains, and necklaces, and wrists, and bandages, and parted pins, and garters, and neck chains, and bottles for perfume, and earrings, and rings, and precious stones hanging on the forehead. Describes women's jewelry and through them the decoration of cities or, in an allegorical sense, the decoration of various virtues. Women have pendants hanging in the likeness of the moon, which we attribute to the decorations of the Church, illuminated by the Sun of Truth; also chains, which, hanging down to the chest, indicate the mind and the seat of the mind in the heart; and necklaces, denoting in one word all jewelry; and beautifully made wrists, such as Rebekah received at her betrothal (Gen. 24), and bandages, and head ornaments, and parting pins 12, so that we can have judgment about everything, and garters that decorate our steps, so that we hear: “Let not your foot stumble” (Ps. 90:12), and: “Thou shalt save my feet from falling” (Ps. 55); and neck chains, which are woven from gold and silver wires, that is, from the meaning and sayings of the Scriptures; and vessels for spirits, that we may be a aroma of Christ (2 Cor. 2:15), and earrings 13, so that we listen not to the judgment of blood, but to the words of the Lord, who says: if you have ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:15); and rings with which we are sealed to serve the Lord, whom God the Father sealed. Therefore it is said to the prince of Tire: you are the seal of likeness (Ezek. 28:12); and the prodigal son, along with his outer clothing, received a ring and boots (Luke 15). And precious stones hanging on the forehead, with which our faces are decorated, about which decoration of the head we read in the psalm: like ointment on the head, coming down on the bridge, the bridge of Aaron (Ps. 133:2). Although all this was translated by the LXX interpreters, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion in various ways, we have presented it as best we could in connection with the Hebrew or our own translation, and do not want to dwell any longer on the particulars, so that the explanation does not seem petty and so as not to bore the prudent reader. Art. 22. And changes, and raincoats and sheets. Instead of sheets, LXX was translated: transparent Laconian, wanting to designate the thinnest clothes that covered the bodies of the Lacedaemonians, who were very prone to war and distinguished by a very harsh life, although neither the Hebrew text nor any other translator has the word Laconian. Changes and cloaks, which Symmachus more expressively translated ἀναβόλαια, are decorations of women's clothing that cover the shoulders and chest. Changes, in an allegorical sense, are those about which it is said: they will go from strength to strength (Ps. 83:8), and the sheets, so that we, having washed ourselves in the Lord, enjoy the joys according to it, written in the Psalms: give me a stream of Your sweetness to drink (Ps. 35:9). But the daughters of Zion lost all this because they walked with their necks stretched out and their eyes winking, expressing pride, considering what they had to be a matter of their own strength, and not of the grace of the Lord. Art. 23. And hairpins, and mirrors, and thin bedspreads (sindones), and ribbons, and summer clothes (theristra). Women have pins to hold their hairstyles in place so that the hair does not fall apart or separate into individual hairs. They also have mirrors in which they look at their faces and add decorations if they see that something is missing. They also have thin coverings, which are called amictoria 14, and ribbons with which the hair is tied and which are called ταινίας. They also have summer clothes, which we can call palia, which is what Rebecca was covered with. Women are still covered with them in Arabia and Mesopotamia; in Hebrew they are called ardadim because they protect the body of women, that is, during summer and heat. So, the daughters of Zion, due to their pride, are deprived of the pins with which the foundation of all the commandments was fastened; deprived of all the mirrors, which in Exodus the women who were at the door of the tabernacle brought to build the laver of the Lord (Ex. 38), about which the Apostle Paul said: we now see with a mirror in divination (1 Cor. 13:12); deprived of thin veils and ribbons, which covered the shoulders and restrained the spirit, leaning here and there, and summer clothes, with which, like the safest shadow, they covered themselves from passionate emotions. We say this so that it does not seem that we are completely avoiding the allegorical meaning of this passage. However, it is very difficult to dwell on particulars and try to provide a detailed explanation. Art. 24. And instead of incense there will be a stench, and instead of a belt there will be a rope. That sins stink, the repentant says about this: my wounds stink and rot from the face of my madness (Ps. 37:6). The apostle commands to gird your loins with a belt, saying: therefore gird your loins with truth (Eph. 6:14). And about the sinner we read: everyone is held captive by their sins (Proverbs 5:22). So, instead of the fragrance of virtues, the daughters of Zion will have the stench of sins, and instead of the belt of truth, they will gird themselves with ropes of lies, which were worn on their heads by those who, in sackcloth and dirty clothes, begged the king of Syria for life. And instead of a chest bandage, a hair shirt. Instead of the chest bandage, as Symmachus translated, the Seventy translated: the lower garment (tunicam) μεοσπορφύραν, that is, bordered with purple, which Aquila translated the girdle of joy. Theodotion put the most Hebrew word phthigil (wide robe), which denotes a type of female adornment. The bandage covers the chest and takes the same place among women as the ephod (rationale) among the high priests. Jeremiah also spoke about this breast bandage in a mysterious speech: if a bride can forget her adornment and a maiden her breast bandage, I will also forget about you, says the Lord (Jeremiah 2:32). The virgin, as the apostle wants to present us to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2), until she is corrupted in Egypt and her breasts, bound with a breast band, fall off, is united with the groom, and although she gives birth to sons of virtues every day, she does not cease to be a virgin. If she ever bends the knees of everyone who passes by and follows her lovers, and, according to the prophecy of Hosea, the Lord protects her path and blocks her paths, then she will turn to her former husband and hear: “Take off the clothes of sorrow and put on the clothes of your glory” (Hos. 2). Art. 25. And your fairest men shall fall by the sword, and your brave men in war. Instead of the most beautiful husbands, LXX translated: and your most beautiful son, whom you love, will fall by the sword. If we understand this in relation to the state of the soul, which after virtues begins to sin, then by its most beautiful son we can understand good deeds that perish from the enemy’s sword, that even the strong perish in the struggle, because the truth of the righteous will not deliver him, on the same day he will be deceived (Jer. 33:12). If we follow the historical meaning, then from these words we learn that the prophet is not talking about women whose husbands died in the war, but about the cities of Judah, which he called the daughters of Zion and whose warriors fell in battle. Then the next verse speaks of the same Zion. Art. 26. And its gates will mourn and mourn, and the city itself will sit desolate on the earth. We see this to this day. The metaphorical explanation is easy - that whoever gave place to the devil and did not keep his heart in every way, his gates are sad, and in the absence of the groom he is constantly in sadness and, falling from on high, sits in the dust of the earth. Ch. IV. Art. 1. And seven women will take hold of one man on that day, saying: We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing, only let us be called by your name, take away our shame. When the most beautiful of the inhabitants of Jerusalem fall by the sword and the strong perish in battle, and its gates mourn and are saddened and it itself, due to the excessive small number of inhabitants, is empty, then, after the killing of the soldiers, seven women will lay hold of one man, desiring to have seed in Zion and relatives in Jerusalem, saying that they have food and clothing, if only they would not appear unmarried and would not be subject to that curse, which is written: “Cursed is she who is barren and who does not bear seed in Israel.” Zechariah also expresses this thought: in these days there are ten men from all the tribes of the pagans, and they are taken for the robe of a man of Judea, saying: Let us go with you, knowing that we have heard, for God is with you (Zechariah 8:23). Because of the Sabbath and the ten commandments of the law, the number seven and ten are especially close to the Jews, and therefore they often use it, although due to the reciprocity of the Hebrew word, since the Jews translate the word saba either seven, then many, or oath, and in this place it can mean not seven, but many. This is in the literal sense. In relation to the coming of the Lord Savior, seven women, that is, the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, about which the same prophet will speak below: a rod will come out of the root of Jesse, and a flower will arise from its root, and the spirit of God will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of vision and piety, and the spirit of the fear of God will fill Him (Is. 11: 1, 2, 3), they will lay hold of Jesus, whom they have desired for a long time, because they could not find anyone else in whom to rest eternally. Therefore, John the Baptist says in the Gospel: and he who sent me, said to me: on Him you will see the Spirit (Holy) descending and remaining on Him, He is (John 1:33). And in Zechariah we read on one stone seven eyes, and on one golden candlestick seven lamps and seven cups of oil, and two olives on one side and the other of the lamp, established on a solid root (Zech. 3 and 4). And that the grace of the Holy Spirit possesses everything, this does not need explanation; but since it has always suffered reproach among people, since not one of them lives as the gifts of the Holy Spirit required, therefore they want the name of Jesus to be given to them, so that what was not accomplished in the law will be fulfilled in the Gospel. Art. 2–3. In that day the branch of the Lord will be in splendor and glory, and will be a high fruit of the land and a delight to those who are saved from Israel. And it shall come to pass that everyone who remains in Zion and survives in Jerusalem will be called a saint, even everyone who is written in the book of life in Jerusalem. When the daughters of Zion, because of pride, lose all adornment, and its gates mourn and weep, and it itself, desolate, falls into decay, and all its warriors perish in battle, to the point that there is barely one man for many women: then the branch of the Christian name will increase, and the earth will give its fruit (Ps. 66:7, 84:13), and it will be an object of delight for those who escaped from Israel, about whom it was said above: If the Lord of hosts had not left us seeds, as Sodom would have been, and as Gomorrah would have been like (Isa. 1:9). And note that not all Israel will be saved, but the remnant of the people of Zion, and those who survive in Jerusalem: everyone who is written in the book of life in Jerusalem, to whom the Lord also said: Rejoice, for your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). He means the apostles and those who believed through the apostles. Art. 4. When the Lord will wash away the filthiness of the daughters of Zion and cleanse the blood of Jerusalem from among her with the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. Then the remnant of Israel will be saved when, in the baptism established by the Savior, their sins will be forgiven and the blood that the erring people called upon themselves will be washed away from them: His blood be on us and on our children (Matthew 27:25). Therefore, we read above: when you stretch out your hands, I will not hear you: for your hands are full of blood (Isa. 1:15), and then, calling them to repentance, he adds: wash yourself, you will be clean (Isa. 1:16). And then, that He will wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion with the spirit of judgment, and He will cleanse the blood of Jerusalem with the spirit of burning. For the light is washed away, and the heavier is burned out. John the Baptist spoke about this spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning in the Gospel: I baptize you with water; But the one who comes for me, you will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11). From this we learn that man imparts only water, and God imparts the Holy Spirit, by which both defilements are washed and mortal sins are cleansed. Art. 5. And the Lord will make over every place of Mount Zion, and where He is called, a cloud during the day, and smoke and the shine of blazing fire during the night. For in Christ there is a new creation (Gal. 6:15), about which we read in another place: the ancient creature of old, behold, was all new (2 Cor. 5:17). Instead, the LXX translated: and he will come, and every place on Mount Zion and everything around it will be covered by a cloud during the day, and the light of a blazing fire during the night. Who will come, if not the One about whom it is written: the Deliverer will come from Zion (Is. 59:20, according to LXX), and about whom another prophet says: a little while, a little, and the one who comes will come and will not tarry (Habak. 2:3). When He comes, the people will be restored to their former well-being, which they once had in the desert, when the Lord preceded them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, so that neither in happy nor in unfortunate circumstances they would ever be thrown into confusion, which is why the psalm says: in the days the sun will not burn you, the moon will not burn you in the night (Ps. 121:6). Smoke in this place does not mean delusion and ignorance, but glory, as, according to some, it means what we will read from this very prophet (below chapter 6, v. 4): and the house was filled with smoke. And Joel says about the grace of the Holy Spirit that descended on the apostles: I will pour out my spirit, and they will prophesy (Joel 2), and I will perform wonders in the heavens and mountains, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and incense smoke (Acts 2:19). This, I think, is what it means in the Psalms: touch the mountains, and they will smoke (Ps. 103:32). Art. 6. There is a cover over all glory. And the tabernacle will be a shade during the day from the heat, and a safety and refuge from the whirlwind and the rain. The Jews attribute this place to the time of the coming of the Antichrist, which, in their opinion, is indicated through a whirlwind and bad weather, when the Lord will protect them from the most powerful enemy. We will attribute all this to the first coming of Christ, about which we read in the Psalms: He covered me in the mystery of His habitation, He lifted me up on a rock (Ps. 27:5), on a rock on which the church founded will not be shaken by any storm, will not be destroyed by any whirlwind or winds. Many of the Jews understand this and everything with which it is connected in relation to the Babylonian captivity and the return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. Ch. V. Art. 1. Now I will sing to my beloved the song of my brother about his vineyard. The prophet sings to the people of Israel a lamentable song composed by the One about whom it is written in the Gospel: seeing the city (no doubt Jerusalem), weeping over it, saying: If only you had known to your humility, that the days would come upon you, and your enemies would lay prisons for you, and they would circumvent you, and you and your children would be defeated (Luke 19:41, 42, 43 and 44), and again: your fellow children were delighted to gather kokosh, just as their chicks gather under the krill, and you did not desire! Behold, your house is left to you empty (Matthew 23:37, 38), which is similar to what is now said in this song: I will leave My grapes (Isa. 5:6). And that Christ is called beloved and beloved, which Aquila translated πατράδελφον - son of an uncle or cousin, this is taught to us by the inscription of the forty-fourth psalm: the song of the beloved (Ps. 45:1), and the voice of God the Father in the Gospel: This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased (Matt. 3:17). And in the sixty-seventh psalm we read: The Lord will give the word to those who bring good news with much power. The king of powers is beloved (Ps. 67:12, 13). So this Beloved has composed a lamentable song about His vineyard, which I will sing to my beloved and pitiful people. Or, at least, this is how it should be understood: I will sing to the almighty God the Father the song of Christ, who is my brother, that is, who came from the same people with me. And that the people of Israel are called the vineyard of God, we read this at the end of this song: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is His praiseworthy branch” (Is. 5:7), and in the seventy-ninth psalm (verse 9): You brought grapes from Egypt, you drove out tongues, and you planted... And in the Gospel, in almost the same words with which the prophet now speaks, the Lord sets out a parable: a certain man was a housekeeper who planted grapes, and made a stronghold for him and a grindstone in him, and created a pillar, and was a laborer, and so on. (Matthew 21:33). And in Jeremiah we read: I planted fruitful grapes for you, all true: how did you turn into sorrow, strange grapes (Jer. 2:21)? So, as we said, Jerusalem is mourned, and its destruction is glorified in a prophetic word. But for the Church and the people who were once pagans, another song was published, about which we read in the Psalms: sing to the Lord, all the earth, proclaim His salvation day by day. Proclaim His glory among the nations, His wonders among all people (Ps. 95:1, 2, 3), and again: sing a new song to the Lord, for the Lord has done a wondrous thing. The Lord has spoken His salvation; He has revealed His truth before tongues (Ps. 97:1, 12). My beloved had a vineyard on the horn of the son of oil. This is how Theodotion and Aquila translated it in accordance with the Hebrew text, but Symmachus, as was his custom, translated it more clearly: My beloved had a vineyard on a horn, in the midst of olive trees. But LXX translated more a thought than a word: My beloved had a vineyard on a horn, in a fat or fertile place. And indeed, there is nothing richer than the Promised Land, if you mean not some mountainous and desert places, but its entire space from the stream of Egypt to the great river Euphrates to the east and north to Mount Taurus and Cape Zephyr in Cilicia, which juts out into the sea. We often read about the horn that it means kingdom and power, as it is in the Gospel: raise up the horn of salvation for us in the house of your servant David (Luke 1:69), and: because of you we will tear our enemies' horns (Ps. 43:6). And in Zechariah the four horns mean the four most powerful kingdoms (Zech. 1). The Jews explain this passage as follows: the vineyard was planted by Christ on the horn, that is, in a strong and high place, which is called the son of oil, either because it needs the mercy of God and is supported by His help, or because it communicated the clear light of the knowledge of God to all nations. Verse 2. And He fenced it, and cleared it of stones, and planted the Sorek vine in it, and built a tower in the midst of it, and built a winepress in it. Through the metaphor, as we said before, of a vineyard, the people of Judah are described, which He protected with the help of angels and cleansed them from stones, or from idols, or from everything that could interfere with the worship of God. And Sorek planted a vine in it, which Symmachus alone translated as chosen, conveying, as it seems to me, not the word, but the meaning contained in the word. For the Jews say that Sorek is a kind of the best vine, which bears fruit abundantly and constantly. Finally, some translate Sorek with the word καλλίκαρπος, which we can translate: most beautiful with fruits. And he built a tower in the midst of it, that is, a church in the midst of the city, and built a wine press in it, which, according to some, signifies an altar. For just as all kinds of grapes are brought to the winepress and crushed underfoot so that wine can be squeezed out of them, so the altar takes upon itself the offerings of the whole people and devours the slain victims, in accordance with what we read about Benjamin, in whose tribe there was a church and an altar: Benjamin is a predatory wolf, it eats early, and gives food in the evening (Gen. 49:27). Everything that is said about the vineyard can be applied to such a state of the human soul, when it, having been planted by God for good, brought not good grapes, but wild grapes, and after that was given over to the beasts to be trampled under foot, and did not accept the divine rain of teachings, because it neglected the previous gifts. And I expected him to bring good grapes, but he brought wild grapes. Instead of the wild grape berries we translated, in Hebrew it is written: busim, which Aquila translated σαπρίας, that is, the most unprofitable fruits, Symmachus - ἀτελῆ, that is, imperfect, LXX and Theodotion - thorns with which the Jews crowned the Lord. For when He expected that, during the grape harvest, they would bring good grapes to the winepress, for which the eighth and eighty-third psalms have inscriptions, they, immersed in the cares and vices of this age, which in the Gospel (Mark 4:12, 19) means thorns, brought thorns of blasphemies. But I think that it is better to understand by busim wild grapes rather than thorns, so that the similarity with the begun metaphor is preserved. Therefore, the Savior says in the Gospel: food is taken from thorns, or from figs (Matthew 7:16). Art. 3–4. Now therefore, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard: what more should I have done to My vineyard and did not do to it? Was it that I expected him to bring good grapes, but he brought wild berries? I did, He says, everything that I had to do, I planted a vineyard in a very fertile place, surrounded it with a fence, cleared it of stones, and tied its branches to stakes and sticks; and the vine itself was not just one of many, but chosen and bearing very beautiful fruit. I built a very strong tower to store the fruits in, and from it to observe the animals that damage the fruits. I set up a winepress so that the grape berries would be crushed in the same place and the wine would be poured out. Therefore, since I have done what I had to do, let the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah answer Me, or rather, let them judge between Me and My vineyard: what remains that I should have done, and did not do? And since they are silent, He Himself answers: Was I perhaps mistaken in the fact that for My labor I expected that it would bring good grapes, and not wild grapes, which an uncultivated and abandoned vineyard usually brings? Nathan the prophet, sent to David, says something similar to this (2 Samuel 12), and asks him through a parable, so that, judging another, he would pronounce judgment on himself. Thus, this people too is asked, as it were, about the vineyard so that they answer against themselves. The Savior cites this passage more fully in the Gospel (Matthew 21), and asks the scribes and Pharisees what is omitted here. For Isaiah says nothing about vinedressers, and does not show what they have to endure; but we are talking only about the vineyard: there, since the vineyard is different and the winegrowers are different, he says about the people and teachers that He will destroy the wicked and give the grapes to another worker (Matthew 21:41), meaning the apostles and those who are to be the successors of the apostles. But there is no, as many people think, an identity in what He says: did I expect that he would bring good grapes, but he brought wild grapes? For above (v. 2) He speaks silently before Himself, but here (v. 4) He asks others what He thought. Art. 5, 6. And now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the fence thereof, and it will be spoiled; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled under foot. And I will leave it desolate; it will not be pruned or dug up, but thorns and thistles will grow up on it. I, He says, invited you above, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of the tribe of Judah, so that you would judge between Me and My vineyard, and asked you to say what I should have done that I would not have done. And since you, according to the Gospel parable, do not want to answer what I ask, then instead of you I will answer Myself, declaring what I intend to do. Since I have done to My vineyard everything that I had to do, and instead of good grapes it brought wild grapes, I will take away from him everything that I have given. I will deprive him of the help of angels, about whom it is written in the Psalms: the angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him and deliver them (Ps. 33:8), and he will be plundered by his enemies. I will destroy its walls, and it will be enslaved by a hostile people, and it will be desolate and will not be circumcised forever, and will not be dug up, so that it will be turned into thorns, and thistles will grow on it. This is said under the metaphor of a vineyard about the defenselessness of Jerusalem and Judea, which, in the opinion of many of the Jews, happened under the Babylonians. That this was partly accomplished then, we cannot deny; but since it follows further: I will command the clouds so that they do not rain on him (Is. 5:6), then this cannot be understood in relation to the designated captivity. For Jeremiah prophesied among the people already after the capture of the city, and it is said about Ezekiel, Daniel and the three youths that they either prophesied or performed wondrous signs even during the captivity; and Haggai and Zechariah, to console the enslaved people, predicted the future even later. God's help is taken away from those unworthy of it, so that they, having not known God through good deeds, would come to know Him through punishment. Or they are threatened with something terrible and cruel so that they, by turning to repentance, avoid the threatening torment. The Hebrew word saith is all similarly translated thorns. So if, according to Aquila and Theodotion and LXX, the word saith in the present place refers to thorns, then let them answer how they translated busim above not as wild grapes, but as thorns? And I will command the clouds that they should not rain on him. These are the clouds that the Lord brings forth from the ends of the earth, about which we read in the psalm: Your truth reaches to the clouds (Ps. 35:6). These clouds, since under Elijah everyone was idolaters, did not shed rain on the land of Israel for three years and six months (1 Kings 18). In truth, we can understand this regarding not only the prophets, but also the apostles, for the Jews, after the suffering of the Lord, had neither prophets nor apostles, not so that instead of good grapes they would bring thorns, but so that, as a result of their barrenness and drought, they would entreat Him who can give rains of virtues. Therefore, in the book of Leviticus He says to them: I will make your heaven like iron, and your land like copper (Lev. 26:19). And in Deuteronomy: the sky above your head will be copper, and the earth under you will be iron (Deut. 28:23) and again: may the Lord rain down the dust of your land, and dust from heaven will descend on you, until it will crush you, and until it will destroy you (Deut. 28:24). For the earth, which receives the rain that falls upon it many times, and produces not grain, but thorns and thistles, is unprofitable and is close to a curse, the end of which is burning (Heb. 6:7 and 8). Art. 7. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His delightful branch, that is, God, or, as the LXX translated, the most beloved new planting. Israel and Judah differ from each other in that the entire nation was formerly called Israel, and then, during the reign of David over the tribe of Judah and Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, over two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, those who were in Samaria, that is, the ten tribes, began to be called Israel, and those over whom the tribe of David reigned were called Judah. And since bulls were honored by Israel in Dan and Bethel, Samaria was taken by the Assyrians first, and Judah was taken by the Chaldeans to Babylon after a long time, because he sinned less. Therefore, in Ezekiel, for the cleansing of the sins of both people, for Israel on the left side, according to Seventy, one hundred and ninety days are prescribed, or, as it is more correct in Hebrew, three hundred and ninety, and for Judah - forty days (Ezek. 4, according to LXX and in Hebrew). I say this in order to compare it with Israel, that is, with the ten tribes, to show Judah worthy of love and beloved, who at the time when Isaiah spoke to the people had priests and Levites, and maintained faith in God. And beautifully Israel, that is, the whole people, is called a house, and Judah, who, after the separation of the ten tribes, then multiplied, is called a delightful new planting. It is also worthy of note that what was said before metaphorically or in parables, according to prophetic custom, is later stated more clearly: that the vineyard and the new planting are Israel and Judah. And I expected him to create judgment, but here is lawlessness, and righteousness, but here is a cry, or, as the LXX translated, I expected him to create justice, but he created lawlessness, and not righteousness, but a cry. We wish to put into Latin ears what we have learned from the Jews. Their judgment is called mesphat, and lawlessness, or ruin, as Aquila translated, is mesphaa, and also: truth in Hebrew is sadaca, and cry is saaca. So, having added or changed one letter, He took advantage of the similarity of words so much that instead of mesphat he put mesphaa, and instead of sadaca - saaca, and produced, in accordance with the properties of the Hebrew language, an elegant play and consonance of words. God expected the people of Judah to create justice, that is, good grapes, but he created iniquity, that is, wild grapes, and expected righteousness, that he would accept the generous Giver of great gifts sent by the Father, and he raised the cry with which he cried out against the Lord, and shouted, saying: take him, take him, crucify him (John 19:15). Therefore, the Apostle Paul writes: let all anger, and crying, and blasphemy be taken away from you with all malice (Eph. 4:31). Or, since they shed the blood of the Righteous One, the blood of the Lord’s suffering cries out to the Lord. Therefore, instead of truth, they gave a cry, in accordance with what we read in the book of Genesis: the voice of the blood (Abel) of your brother cries to Me (Gen. 4:10). Art. 8. Woe to you who join house to house and add field to field, even to the limit of space. Will you alone dwell on earth? Instead of what we said: even to the limit of space, LXX translated: to take away from one’s neighbor, Symmachus and Theodotion: until there is enough or there is no space, so that, even with a lack of land, covetousness is not satisfied. This, I think, is said in general against all those who are not satisfied with anything, and in particular against the vineyard of the Lord, which instead of good grapes brought wild grapes, that is, instead of judgment - lawlessness, and instead of righteousness - outcry. For what madness is it, when we need houses and fields for protection from rain and for sowing grain, to want to have something that you could not occupy, that you would not be able to cultivate, and make what is necessary for someone else the object of your pleasure? Some think that this is said figuratively against the heretics, who, coming out of the east, come to the field of Shinar (Gen. 11:2), which means breaking of teeth, and they build a city of confusion and a tower of pride, and hear under other words: Hear this, the elders of the house of Jacob and those left behind to the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and corrupt all righteousness, building up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wickedness (Mic. 3:9, 10). They add houses to houses, that is, dogmas to dogmas. It is said about them through Micah: “Do not build in a house of derision” (Mic. 1:10), so that on the foundation of Christ, which the Apostle Paul laid, and on which they were to build gold, silver and precious stones, they do not, on the contrary, create wood, hay, stubble, the end of which is burning (1 Cor. 3:9-15). The Savior speaks about such houses in the Gospel: everyone hear these words of mine, and without doing them, you will become like the deformed man who built his church on a dog. And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds blew, and they polluted that church, and fell: and great was its destruction (Matthew 7:26, 27). The heretics are still trying to add something new to the ancient and replace the latter with the newest, until neither human meaning nor words are enough. Art. 9. This Lord of hosts is in my ears: many houses will be empty, great and beautiful, without an inhabitant. Instead of what we translated from the Hebrew: these things are in my ears, the Lord of hosts, that is, the words that the Lord said are still heard in my ears, LXX translated: these things are heard in the ears of the Lord of hosts. This does not mean that the prophet heard the words of the Lord, but that what the prophet intends to say is heard in the ears of the Lord, although it would be more consistent to understand that the prophet heard what the Lord said. The Lord said that the greatest and most beautiful houses, after the captivity, would be empty, due to the lack of inhabitants. Art. 10. For ten plots of vineyards will yield one vessel of wine, and thirty modii of sown grain will yield three modii. Instead of what some translated LXX: a vessel of wine, all others translated: baht, which in Hebrew is called beth, and instead of thirty modii, which we put instead of a kor, called omer in Hebrew, LXX translated: six artavas, which is an Egyptian measure and contains twenty modii. Therefore, during the extreme crop failure that follows the captivity, ten plots of vineyards will yield a bath, that is, three amphorae, and thirty modii of seed, that is, a kor, will yield an ephi, which LXX translated by three measures, that is, three modii. A baht is used in relation to liquid substances, and an ephi, or epha, of the same measure, is used in relation to dry substances, as we read, according to the Hebrew text, in Ezekiel: let you have the right ephi and the right baht. The ephi and the baht will be equal and of the same measure, so that the baht will contain a tenth of a kor, and an ephi a tenth of a kor: according to the measure of the kor, let their measurement be equal (Ezek. 45:10, 11). We ask, in a mysterious sense, how great and beautiful will the houses of heretics be, who, when the time of judgment comes, will not have a single inhabitant? For all pomp and artificiality of words and dialectical proofs will be imputed to nothing. So, just as we, according to the Apostle Paul, are not only the building of God, but also the field (1 Cor. 3:9), imitating which the heretics are undermined and uprooted by Jeremiah (Jer. 18:7): then they in ten plots in the vineyards, or where ten pairs of oxen work, will receive one baht, and from thirty modii of the sown grain they will receive an ephi, so that from the decimal number, which in The Holy Scriptures are mysterious and perfect, and from the number thirty, in which Ezekiel prophesied (Ezekiel 1:1) and in which the Lord was baptized (Luke 3:22–23), they will descend to ephi, which, in comparison with the plural number, is nothing more than one. And that the building and the field have a spiritual meaning, the Apostle Paul teaches this in another place, testifying that believers are rooted and founded in love (Eph. 3:17). Therefore, Ecclesiastes not only built houses for himself, but also planted vineyards, and planted gardens and orchards, and planted all kinds of fruit trees, and built reservoirs to irrigate the trees (Eccl. 2:4-6). But heretics, having only the likeness and shadow of virtues, and not the truth itself, offer the foliage of words, without the fruit of deeds. The Lord says about their trees: every garden that My heavenly Father does not plant will be uprooted (Matthew 15:13). For their grapes are from the vines of Sodom, and their rods are from Gomorrah: their clusters, their grapes of gall, their grapes of sorrow. The wrath of serpents is their wine, and the wrath of asps is incurable (Deut. 32:32, 33). Art. 11–12. Woe to you who rise early in the morning in order to seek intoxication, and drink even until evening, to inflame yourself with wine. The harp and the lyre, the tambourine and the pipes, and the wine at your feasts; but you do not look at the working of the Lord, and do not think about the work of His hands. Instead of intoxication translated by Aquila and Symmachus, LXX put the very Hebrew word sicera, which means any drink that can intoxicate and darken the mind. He denounces, following the beginning of the explanation, the workers of the vineyard, who, in view of the approaching sterility and the imminent fire, when the thorns and thistles should be burned, indulged in luxury and pleasure not only in food and drink, but also in amusing the ears, and in various types of musical art. By doing this, they do not pay attention to the action of the Lord, and do not think about what is about to happen. Let us use this testimony against church leaders who get up early in the morning in order to look for strong drink and drink even until evening, about whom it is said in another place: woe to you, your city, in which your king is young, and your princes eat early (Eccl. 10:16). They, busy with amusements, do not know the Creator from among the creatures, and do not think about the works of His hands, about which we read: by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their power (Ps. 32:6). Intoxication, according to the highest understanding, can be called any passion of the soul, arising from the wine of the rage of serpents and from the incurable poison of asps (Deut. 32:33), which some drink from youth to old age, that is, from morning to evening. Others get up from the feast at the third, sixth, or ninth, and eleventh hour (Matthew 20:1-7), and it is said to them: be sober from drinking wine (Joel 1:5). On this wine and on such grapes and vineyards the Lord will rain brimstone and fire from the Lord (Gen. 19:24), and everyone who drinks from their wine is set on fire and burned. He demands the harp and psaltery 15, the inventor of which is Jubal, who came from the tribe of Cain (Gen. 4:17-21), and does not hear the Lord saying to Aaron: Do not drink wine or strong drink, you and your sons with you, whenever you enter the tabernacle of the meeting, or those who come to you at the altar (Lev. 10:8). The king of Babylon had these harps, and lyres, and timbrels, and pipes, at the sound of which the peoples of all tribes fell to the ground and worshiped the golden image (Dan. 3:7). And that by morning in the Scriptures is meant the first time of human wisdom, when we leave adolescence and come to a rational life, many testimonies can teach us this, of which a few can be cited as examples: the messengers of the prophets of the morning (Jer. 44:4); and: in the morning hear my voice: in the morning I will appear and you will see me (Ps. 5:4); and: the night makes my spirit hardened (Isa. 26:9); and: God, my God, I come to You in the morning (Ps. 62:1); and: in the morning I smote all the sinners of the earth, who consumed from the city of the Lord all those who practice iniquity (Ps. 100:8); and in another place: evening will be mourning, and joy will come in the morning (Ps. 29:6), and other similar things. We get up in the morning, when we leave behind the vices of our youth and can say: do not remember the sin of my youth and my ignorance (Ps. 24:7). And when the Sun of righteousness rises for us, the darkness flees and we immediately put to death all thoughts that attract us to sins, and from the city of our mind we destroy those sinners about whom the Savior says: from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy (Matthew 15:19), and so on. But very unhappy are those who, being busy from morning to evening with drunkenness, gluttony and various pleasures, do not understand the actions of the Lord in themselves, and do not think about why they were created. Art. 13 Therefore My people were led into captivity because they had no knowledge, and their nobles perished with hunger, and their rabble fainted with thirst. Both Greek and Latin historians say that this literally happened to the people of Judea under the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus. This is truly what they endure even now in a spiritual sense, feeling not the hunger of bread, nor the thirst of water, but the hunger of hearing the word of the Lord (Amos 3:7). Therefore, the Psalms also say about them: they will return in the evening, and will hunger like a dog, and will go through the city (Ps. 59:15). And that every word of teaching is called bread and water, this is what the Gospel teaches: man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4); and: whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst (John 4:14), and the psalm says: raise me more calmly on the water (Ps. 23:2). Therefore, the Lord did not want to let go of those who were hungry in the wilderness, lest they weaken and fall and die of hunger (Matthew 15:32). And about the righteous man it is said: he was the youngest, for he had grown old, and had not seen the righteous man, and was left below his seed asking for bread (Ps. 37:25). Some want to interpret the words: my people were taken into captivity because they did not have knowledge, and their nobles perished from hunger, and their mob was exhausted from thirst, in general in relation to those in the underworld, and to Gehenna, in which everyone who does not have the knowledge of God will be punished. Art. 14–15. Therefore hell has enlarged its soul and opened its mouth without any limit, and its mighty men, and its people, and its high and glorious ones, will descend into it. And a man will bow down, a man will humble himself, and the eyes of those who look on high will droop. Those who rose early in the morning to look for strong drink and remained intoxicated until the evening, and, being busy with pleasures and amusements, did not want to look at the work of the Lord and did not contemplate the works of His hands, were led into captivity because they did not have the knowledge of the Son of God (Eph. 4:13), since He Himself says to them: You neither know Me nor My Father (John 8:19), and during the very captivity died from hunger and were exhausted from thirst. Therefore, hell and death enlarged their souls and opened their mouths, and without any number or satiety they swallowed up those who were tormented forever, so that the rulers and the people, and the high and glorious lands of Judea descended into it, and all pride was humbled, and the eyes of those who looked on high were drooped, realizing that they were mortal and that everything that the Lord had announced through the prophets had actually been fulfilled. It is said about hell that it has a soul, not because, according to the delusion of some, it is an animate being, but because in ordinary human words to express the property of insensible objects, that it is not satisfied and is never filled with a multitude of dead - just as it is said that death is in the hand of the tongue (Prov. 18:21), and as Almighty God says that His soul hates the Jewish Sabbaths and the new moon ( Isa. 1:14). What we said about the people of Judah, in a transferred sense, can be attributed to those who, being busy with secular amusements, and not paying attention to the works of God, are led into captivity by sin, and do not have the knowledge of God, and therefore, perish from hunger and thirst for good deeds and virtues, and will be carried away to Gehenna, and there, being given over to eternal torment, they will see that power and pride are replaced by disaster and humiliation. Art. 16. And the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will be hallowed in righteousness. When the people are taken into captivity for not having the knowledge of God, and perish from hunger and are tormented by thirst, and when hell expands its soul, and the strong, and the high, and the glorious descend into the underworld, and man bows down, and the man humbles himself, and everyone receives what they deserve: then the Lord will be exalted in judgment, whose judgment previously seemed unjust, and the holy God will be sanctified by all in righteousness, in fulfillment of what was said in Gospels: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name (Matthew 6:9), and: Righteous Father, peace thou knowest not (John 17:25). Therefore, we must be careful not to warn the judgment of God, whose judgments are great and unspeakable, and about whom the apostle says: His judgment is not tried, and His ways are not searched (Rom. 11:33), until He illuminates what is hidden in darkness, and reveals the thoughts of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5). The One who says in the Gospel: Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1). In accordance with this saying, the Apostle Paul teaches: who art thou, a judge of a strange servant; stands for his Lord, or falls. It will become: for God is strong to establish it (Rom. 14:4). Art. 17. And the lambs will graze near their flock, and the abandoned, turned into an abundance of fruits, the strangers will eat. Instead of lambs grazing next to their flock, which is taken in a good direction, LXX, (I don’t know what they wanted), they translated: the spoiled ones will graze like oxen, instead of lambs meaning oxen, and instead of strangers, putting lambs again. When the Lord is exalted in judgment, and the Holy One is sanctified in His righteousness, so that the evil doers of evil perish, and so that the exalted cedar is cut down by the ax of the Lord: then those who are from among the lambs, and not from the goats, will graze in the pastures of the church and will say: The Lord feeds me, and will deprive me of nothing (Ps. 23:1), and what was abandoned by the Jews, turned the heathen people will eat in abundance. This is in a figurative sense. But in order to maintain historical order, in other words, the same thing is said that we read above: strangers are devouring your country before you, and it has been deserted from strangers (Isa. 1:7). For in Judea dwells a multitude of pagans gathered from all over the globe, and after the expulsion of the former nations, the blinding of the house of Israel was carried out partly so that the full number of the pagans entered (Rom. 11:25). And wonderfully, according to the LXX they are called plundered and ruined and taken captive like oxen, about which the Lord says: the fat youths have gained possession of Me (Ps. 21:13), so that lambs take the place of the oxen. Art. 18–19. Woe to you, who draw iniquity with ropes of vanity, and sin like the snakes of a chariot; saying: Let Him make haste, and let His work come quickly, so that we may see, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, and we know it. Instead of the belt of the chariot, LXX was translated: the belt of the youth's yoke, or cow's yoke. But we more often read that sins are called bonds. From such places there is this: everyone is held captive by their sins (Proverbs 5:22). And the Lord, denouncing the criminal people, who added sins to sins, made a scourge of their ropes, showing them how they made the house of God a den of thieves, and turned the house of prayer into a house of trade (Matthew 21:12, 13; John 2:15, 16). And one of those reclining at the Lord’s supper, who does not have a wedding garment, being bound hand and foot, is thrown out into the outer darkness (Matthew 22:11–13). And the Lord came to say to those who were in chains: come out (Is. 49:9), and to those who were in darkness: open yourself (ibid.). For He looses the prisoners, and enlightens the blind (Ps. 145:7, 8), whom Jeremiah calls the prisoners of the earth (Lam. 3:34). He does not grieve for those who began and soon stopped sinning, for there is no righteous man on earth who will do good and not sin (Eccl. 7:21); but about those who have been dragging on sins for a long time. Therefore, in Numbers (chap. 19) we read that the red-haired youth, whose ashes are the cleansing of the people, was slain as a sacrifice and brought to the altar of the Lord in no other way, as if she had not done field work, and had not worn a yoke, and had not been bound by the bonds of the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. And this same prophet has the daughters of Zion, instead of a belt of truth (Eph. 6:14), girded with a rope (Is. 3:23). And Ahithophel and Judas (of whom one betrayed David, and the other the Lord), dragging out their sins for a long time, hanged themselves, thinking that remorse ends with real death, and that there is nothing after death. As for the so-called ropes of vanity according to the Hebrew text and all other translators, this means that sin easily attaches itself to those who create it, and this attachment is as vain and easy as attaching the threads of a spider’s web, but when we want to free ourselves from it, we find ourselves bound by the strongest bonds. The chariot, filled and loaded with sins, is very easily understood by those who remember what is written in Zechariah - that wickedness sits on the talent of lead (Zechariah 5), and that the Egyptians, burdened with a great burden of sins, sank like lead into the Red Sea (Exodus 15:10). And in another place the sinner says: my iniquity has exceeded my head, like a heavy burden has weighed down on me (Ps. 37:5). This is said to the leaders of the Jews, who are above all convicted of covetousness and luxury, because they, having been called to repentance by the Lord and then by His apostles, still persist in blasphemy, and every day three times in all the synagogues, they anathematize under the name Nazarene (Nazarenorum) the name Christian. The meaning is this: Woe to you who think that there will not be a day of judgment, or that the captivity predicted by the prophetic word will not follow; saying to the prophet: “How long will you threaten us with the wrath of God? We want to know him, let him come soon.” They say this ironically, because they think that he will not come, but is falsely predicted by the prophet. Art. 20. Woe to you who call evil good and good evil, who call darkness light and light darkness, who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter. Calling good, light and sweet by opposite names is as criminal as calling evil, darkness and bitter by names of virtues. This is against those who do not consider it a sin if they humiliate good, and do not think that it is criminal if they praise evil. The Jews count good as evil, and light as darkness, and sweet as bitter, who took Barabbas, guilty of murder and rebellion, and crucified Jesus (Luke 23:24, 25), who came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24) to save the lost (Matt. 18:11). By Barabbas we can understand the devil, who, although there is night and darkness, takes the form of an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). Therefore the apostle says: some fellowship of righteousness with iniquity; or some communication between light and darkness; What kind of agreement does Christ have with Belial (2 Cor. 6:14, 15)? And a candle should not be taken and placed under a vessel, or under a bed, but on a candlestick, so that it gives light to everyone (Matthew 5:15). And a tree that bears bad fruit should not be called by the name of a good tree (Matthew 12:33). Therefore, in the book of Genesis, in mysterious speech it is narrated that God divided between light and darkness (Gen. 1:4), which in the beginning hovered over the abyss (v. 2). And that the Savior is called good, He Himself speaks about this in the Gospel: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11); He also says that He is the light: I am the light of the world (John 8:12), and being daily filled with heavenly bread, we say: taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps. 33:9). On the contrary, when we say: deliver us from the evil one (Matthew 6:13), and: the whole world lies in evil (1 John 5:19), then we want to get rid of the wiles of the devil; and that it is designated by the names of darkness and bitterness, we very often read about this. However, even then we can say that all teachings that are contrary to the truth are bitter, and that only the truth is sweet. Therefore, we must be careful not to follow lies instead of truth, and darkness instead of light. For there are many paths that seem straight to people, but their ends go to the depths of hell (Proverbs 16:25). There is also a just person who perishes in his righteousness (Eccl. 7:16), to whom it is said: do not be truthful (v. 17). As a result, Israel promises that she will walk in the royal way and will not turn aside to the right or to the left (Deut. 5:32, 33). I will also say what I think: hardly anyone can be free from this curse, when we often flatter the evil because of their strength, and despise the good because of their poverty. Therefore, Aquila translated more clearly: Woe to the one who says to the evil: you are good, and to the good: you are evil. What Solomon said in Proverbs also agrees with this meaning: he who judges the righteous by the unjust, and the unjust by the righteous, is unclean and abominable to the Lord (Prov. 17:8:37), but holding on to human traditions (Mark 7:8) and women's fables (1 Tim. 4:7), they have made good evil and evil good. Art. 21. Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes and prudent in your own eyes. Woe, he says, to you who seem wise to yourselves, who follow the mind not of God, but of man, and, not accepting God’s power and God’s wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24), consider yourself wise. The difference between wisdom and reason, according to the Stoics, is that wisdom is knowledge of things Divine and human, and reason is only of mortals. In connection with the previous, this is said against the scribes and Pharisees, who, having the key of understanding, do not themselves come to Christ, and do not allow others to come (Luke 11:52). Art. 22. Woe to you who are strong in drinking wine and brave men in dissolving strong drink, that is, intoxication. About those to whom he said above: woe to you who rise early in the morning to seek drunkenness and drink even until evening in order to get hot with wine (Is. 5:11), and now he says that they are strong in drinking wine and brave men in dissolving strong drink. By the power of the Lord, those intoxicated with the wine of the serpent and the incurable poison of asps were convicted (Deut. 32:33). And being themselves drunk, they intoxicated the people, so that they, drunk to the point of equal frenzy with them, would cry out against the Lord (Matthew 27:20–25; Luke 23:23). In an allegorical sense, we have already explained before that the priests, intending to enter the tabernacle of God, should not drink wine or strong drink (Lev. 10:9). To this we now add that the Nazirites, who dedicated themselves to the Lord, were ordered not to drink wine or strong drink, and instead not to eat grapes, even dried grapes, or wine vinegar (Num. 6:3). And in Proverbs it is prescribed: those who are strong in anger should not drink wine, and when they are drunk they will not forget wisdom (Prov. 31:4, 5). Between wine and strong drink, we understand in a mysterious sense, in my opinion, the difference that wine is a simple, ordinary passion, for example, lust, stinginess, gluttony and envy; and strong drink, that is, intoxication, contains in itself all the vicious passions, which in Latin we can more correctly call the word perturbationes (excitements), because they upset the strength of the mind and produce something that those intoxicated with them do not know what they are doing. Therefore, leaders should be most free from vices, and especially from anger, which is very close to rage, so that they do not harm their subordinates the more, the more they have power. The strong drink is dissolved by one who, being full of intoxication, in order to deceive people, takes on the appearance of having some shadow and semblance of virtues. Art. 23. Those who justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. And this type of vices is characteristic of the vineyard, which, instead of good grapes, brought wild grapes, and when the Lord expected him to do justice, he created iniquity, justifying the wicked for the gifts and paying attention not to works, but to gifts that blind even the eyes of the wise (Deut. 16:19). Therefore, we must beware of becoming drunk with wine, in which there is fornication (Eph. 5:18), so that the legs of our shame are not exposed (Gen. 9:21-23), we must beware of servility to the wicked because of their gifts, and despising the righteousness of the just because of his poverty. And the epistle of James enjoins that we should not be judges of unrighteousness, honoring the ungodly rich and despising the holy poor (James 2:2–4). Art. 24. For as the tongue of fire devours, and the heat of the flame burns up the stubble, so their root shall be as ashes, and their offspring shall arise as dust. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel. Since they, for the above-mentioned reasons of pride, drunkenness and covetousness, instead of good grapes, brought thistles, and hay, firewood, straw, and thorns that had been burned (1 Cor. 3:12); then the root of their depravity will turn to ashes, and all the color and beauty of wealth and body will be likened to dust. For they not only did this, but along these steps they reached the point of blasphemy, so that they did not accept the law of the Lord and blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel, about whom we read above: the law will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isa. 2:3). The root can be understood in evil thoughts, and the fruit and offspring in evil deeds and words, so that what is hidden in the root is revealed in the offspring, which will both be consumed by fire from the Lord (Num. 11:3). Therefore, the apostle speaks of the root of the bitterness of vices, sending up shoots upward (Heb. 12:15). Art. 25 Therefore the wrath of the Lord was furious against His people, and He stretched out His hand against them and smote them, and the mountains shook, and their dead bodies were like dung in the midst of the streets. For all this, His wrath was not turned away, and His hand was still stretched out. Because they rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, which He promised to give through Jeremiah, saying: These days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that their fathers commanded, on the day that I took them by the hand, that I brought them out of the land of Egypt (Jer. 31:31, 32), and they blasphemed the Word of the Holy One. of Israel, saying: Thou art a Samaritan, and a demon (John 8:42), and: Is not this the son of Tekton (Matthew 13:55): for this the wrath of the Lord was furious against His people, the wrath which was first enraged against the rulers and the mighty, who were wise in their own eyes and justified the wicked for gifts, and who devoured them, just as tongues of fire and the heat of the flame destroy straw, so that the strong may endure and suffer great torment. And He stretches out His hand against those whom He calls His people (Isa. 1:3), because they were His inheritance and already His inheritance (Deut. 32:9). He stretches out his hand to defeat, and His anger is enraged, about which we read in another place: Lord, do not rebuke me with Your wrath, nor punish me with Your wrath (Ps. 6:2), and Jeremiah says: Punish us, Lord, both in judgment, and not in rage (Jer. 10:24). It is said that the Lord is angry, not because He is subject to human passions, but because we who sin would not fear the Lord if we did not hear that He is angry. Therefore, the apostle writes that the kindness and long-suffering of God call us to repentance, and we, through our stubbornness and unrepentant heart, store up wrath for ourselves on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom. 2:4, 5). What is the hand that extends or rises against a sinful people, Job speaks about this more clearly: the hand of the Lord that touched me is (Job 19:21). Therefore, the devil, knowing the strong hand and arm of the Lord, which is open to all nations (1 Kings 8:41), says to the Lord: send your hand, and touch everyone that he has, if he does not bless you (Job 1:11). And that the future is spoken of as the past, then in this he follows the prophetic custom, according to which what is predicted in the future seems so undoubted that it is considered past, therefore in the Psalms it is sung: you gave gall to My food, and you gave Me drink for My thirst (Ps. 68:22), and again: you divided My garments for yourself, and cast lots for My clothing ( Ps. 21:19). And as for what follows: and he struck him, that is, his people, and the mountains shook, then some consider mountains to be the opposing forces, or those spirits who serve God and to whom sinners are given over for punishment. We think that it is said hyperbolically that from the greatness of the coming disasters, even the mountains would tremble and all the streets of the cities would be filled with the corpses of the dead. No one doubts that this happened to the Jews after the suffering of the Lord, under Vespasian and Hadrian. And when this was done, His wrath was not turned away, but His hand was still stretched out, or high, which indicates the sign of one who is angry and smiting. And in all this it should be noted that he condemns them not for idolatry, nor for other sins with which they offended God, but because they rejected the law of the Gospel and blasphemed the Word of the Lord. Art. 26–30. And the nations will raise a standard from afar, and they will whistle for him from the ends of the earth, and behold, he will come hastily and quickly. And he will have neither one who is weary nor one who is weary; He will not slumber, nor fall asleep, nor will the belt of his loins be loosened, nor the thong of his sandals be broken. His arrows are sharpened, and all his bows are drawn; the hooves of his horses are like flint, and his wheels are like the swiftness of a storm. His roar is like the roar of a lion: he will roar like skimneys and gnash, and he will grab the prey and clasp it, and there will be no one to snatch it. And he will cry out against him in that day like the sound of the sea; We will then look at the earth, and behold the darkness of sorrow, and the light is eclipsed by its darkness. The Jews think that in this place it is predicted about the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar, because by the will of God he was brought against Judea and Jerusalem, and destroyed the church. We, following the connection of speech and connecting what follows with the previous, say that the banner was raised among the distant nations, and the Lord whistled or attracted them from the ends of the earth, because the Jews rejected the law of the Gospel and blasphemed the Holy Word. For if it were about the Babylonians, then, according to the prophetic custom, he would have said: “I will call the one from the north,” because the Assyrians and Chaldeans in relation to Judea are on the northern side, or at least he would have described the Babylonians and Assyrians more clearly. Now with the saying: a banner will be raised by the peoples from afar, and whistled to him from the ends of the earth, he designates the peoples who are far away and living on the ends of the earth, without a doubt, the Romans and all the peoples of Italy, Gaul and Spain, which under Vespasian and Hadrian were subject to the Roman Empire. Therefore, Italy, because Hesperus (the evening star) sets there, was once called Hesperia (the evening country). And when this came, the people were so amazed, and all the mountains of Judea were so embarrassed, as Theodotion and Symmachus translated, or shocked, as Aquila was translated, or saddened, as LXX translated, that from the attack of the enemies all the streets were filled with the corpses of the dead. Therefore, the Divine speech depicts the speed of the arriving army, which came not according to its own, but according to the Lord’s will, or better, attracted and caused by His whistle; says that it was not exhausted and not tired from such a journey, and did not, out of desire for prey, give sleep to its eyes and that its shoes did not wear out: it depicts many archers, detachments of cavalry, the swiftness of light and four-horse chariots; says that the army, like a lion, came not so much for battle as for plunder and extermination, and the cries of the victorious army are compared to the sound of sea waves. From this we should pay attention to what the sound of the sea means in the Scriptures, wherever it is mentioned in them. So, since the Roman army will come and seize the spoil, and there will be no one to snatch it; then the prophet, out of compassion, joins the people and says: let us look at the earth, and behold the darkness of sorrow. For we do not dare to look at heaven, whose Inhabitant we have offended, and our light, which we have always had in God, has been eclipsed by the darkness of sorrows. I read in someone's interpretations that the words: raise a banner among the nations from afar, and the whistle will whistle for it from the ends of the earth, should be understood in relation to the calling of the pagans, because when the banner of the Cross was raised, and the burdens of sins were laid down, they soon came and believed. But I don’t know how what follows can be consistent with this meaning. In other editions, the story of Susanna, as not found in the Hebrew text, is usually placed at the end of the book. See Hesiod "On Works and Days" Art. 290. Of course, the patriarchs after the destruction of Jerusalem. Actually: interpreters of Jewish traditions. Discriminalia - pins used to separate the hair on the head. Inaures (earrings) comes from auris - ear and is akin to audire - listen. Scarves covering the chest and neck. A musical stringed instrument, called nebel by the Jews. You might be interested in: