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Am.1:1. The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Teku, which he saw 2 concerning Israel. For some reason LXX was translated as follows: The words of Amos, which were in Akkarim of Teku, which he saw regarding Jerusalem. You need to know that this prophet prophesied not regarding Jerusalem, which is not at all in the Jewish text, but regarding Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which are called Israel and who lived in Samaria. Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion also translated. Thus the first prophet, Hosea, speaks to the ten tribes, which are called Ephraim, Samaria, the house of Joseph and Israel. The second, Joel, prophesies to Jerusalem and two tribes called Judah, Jerusalem and Jacob, without mentioning Israel at all. The third, Amos, addresses the prophecy not to Jerusalem, which was ruled by the tribe of Judah, but to Israel, who lived in Samaria. This can be confirmed both by his entire book, and especially by the following words: Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos has caused a disturbance against you among the house of Israel (Am7:10). And a little further Amaziah says to Amos: seer! go and escape into the land of Judah; eat bread there and prophesy there. And in Bethel prophesy no more; for it is the king's sanctuary and the king's house. Amos answered him: I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I am a shepherd of sheep, picking blackberries. And the Lord took me when I was walking after the sheep, and said to me: go, prophesy to my people Israel (ibid., Am7:12-14), - not at all to Judah and Jerusalem, as is read incorrectly by the Greeks and Latins, but to Israel, that is, to the ten tribes, which, due to the large number of inhabitants, received the ancient name of Israel. In the same place where the LXX was translated in Akkarim, Theodotion put the very Hebrew word in Nocidim, which Aquila translated έν ποιμνιοτρόβοις, that is, in the shepherd [countries]; Symmachus and the fifth edition έν τοις ποιμέσιν, that is, among the shepherds. I believe that here LXX, deceived by the similarity of the letters Dalet and Resh, as if instead of nocedim there was nocerim, they put the word Askarim, although the letter nun, standing at the beginning of the word, makes this mistake unpardonable. But until now I have not read anywhere that there is a Hebrew word Ascarim. Those who translate this through στείρωσιν, that is, sterility, attribute it not so much to Ekkarim as to the Philistine city of Ekron, which is not read anywhere. So, this book contains the words of Amos, who was from the city of Tekuah and from among the shepherds, because this whole country is shepherds, [words] that he saw regarding Israel not with bodily eyes, but in mental contemplation, because the prophets were called seers; in the literal sense of the word they do not see, but hear. Therefore, the people saw the voice of God, and Moses, keeping silence, spoke to the Lord, who said to him: Why are you crying to Me (Exodus 14:15)? Also in the New Testament we read; with our eyes we have seen and heard, and our hands have touched the words of the living creatures (1 John 1:1). For the Word of God, which is invisible in itself, was seen by the apostles and touched with their own hands; and the Word became flesh and dwelt in us (John 1:14). He saw the following words. In the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Then Sardanapalus reigned in Assyria and in the cities of Cilicia, about whom the famous orator says that “he is more vile in vices than in name,” and among the Latins Proca Silvius, whose successor Amulius became, expelling his brother Numitor. After killing him, Romulus, gathering a crowd of shepherds and robbers, founded a city and named it after himself 3 . Uzziah, the king of Judah, also called Azariah, is the one who attempted to usurp the priesthood that did not belong to him and was struck with leprosy on his forehead (2 Chronicles 26:20), when the wrath of the Lord manifested itself not only in the punishment of the one who was the blasphemer, but also in the earthquake, which the Jews speak of as having happened at that time. As for Jeroboam, this is not the son of Nebat, who drew the Israelites into sin (1 Kings 12:2), but the son of Joash, the son of Jotham (according to others Joahaz and Joahan), the son of Jehu, the great-grandson of that Jehu, under whom Hosea, Joel and Amos prophesied. Uzziah means κράτος Κυρίου, that is, the power or strength of the Lord; Jeroboam - σικασμός λαου, that is, the judgment or work of the people, although some, reading this Greek word with the letter hi, believe that it means the division of the people; Joash - Κυρίου χρόνισμα, that is, delaying or slowing down the Lord. So, the words of Amos at the time when the people of Israel were cut off from the Lord and served the golden calves, or when they were cut off from the kingdom of the tribe of David, sounded loudly like a loud trumpet, which is the meaning of the word Tekuah. They sounded in relation to Israel, which was once the most right before God, that is, ευθύτατος Θεου. This was in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, in whom, for the sake of the temple and the holy of holies, the power of the Lord abided, and who governed the people who confessed [God]. The name of Jeroboam, who was the author of the division of the people, indicates that Israel remained in the error of idolatry for a long time before everything was struck by captivity, and two years indicates a double disaster - ten and two tribes, so that they would not have been subjected to an earthquake if they had wanted to repent. This, beloved Pammachius, by the meaning of his name, as if foreshadowing the future and pointing to a full art struggle with the devil and opposing forces 4, I have outlined in detail in the form of an introduction (quasi argumentum et ϋπθεσιν) to the prophet Amos, and I briefly remind you that I promised interpretation of this prophet, as well as of Hosea and Zechariah, to other holy men, and especially your holy and memorable mother Paul, when she was alive. There will be no great error regarding the faithfulness of the promise if I fulfill for my son what I promised my mother. But it’s time to offer the words of the prophet himself and express his opinion regarding each place. Am.1:2. And he said: The Lord will roar 5 from Zion, and will give His voice from Jerusalem. And the beautiful pastures (speciosa) of the shepherds wept, and the peak of Carmel withered. LXX: And he said: The Lord spoke from Zion, and gave His voice from Jerusalem. And the pastures of the shepherds wept, and the peak of Carmel withered away. Naturally, all artisans in their speeches use examples from their profession, and each borrows comparisons from those occupations in which he spent his life; so, for example, the sailor and the helmsman compare their sadness with a storm, they call failure a shipwreck, they call their enemies contrary winds, while success and joy are called a quiet, favorable wind and a calm surface of the sea, like a plain. In turn, in the words of the soldier one constantly hears shield, sword, armor, helmet, spear, bow, arrow, death, wound and victory. Philosophers constantly speak of Socrates and Plato, Xenophon and Theophrastus, Zeno and Aristotle, the Stoics and Peripatetics, orators extol Lysias and Hyperides, Pericles and Demosthenes, the Gracchi, Cato, Tully and Hortensian to the skies. Epic poets often praise Homer and Virgil, and lyric poets Pindar and Flaccus 6 . Why did I say this? In order to show that the prophet Amos, who was also a shepherd from among the shepherds, and, moreover, a shepherd not in places cultivated and planted with trees and vines, and not even in forests and green meadows, but in a vast, vast desert, in which wild lions rule and destroy livestock, uses words characteristic of his position, so that he calls the terrible and terrible voice of the Lord a roar or the roar of lions and, comparing the destruction of the cities of Israel with the shepherd desert and withered mountains, he says: The Lord will roar from Zion and give His voice from Jerusalem. In Hebrew it will thunder (rugiet) is called jesaq. And it is wonderful [it is said] that He will roar from Zion and give His voice from Jerusalem, where there was a church and the service of God was performed, to show that God does not dwell in the cities of Israel, Bethel and Dan, where there were golden calves, and not in the main cities of Samaria and Israel, but in Zion and Jerusalem, where the true religion was observed at that time. When He roars from Zion and gives His voice from Jerusalem, for out of Zion the law goes out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3), then all the beautiful pastures (speciosa) of the shepherds and kings of Israel will mourn, and the top of Carmel, which formerly abounded in beautiful pastures, will dry up. Carmel is called that in Greek and Latin, and in Hebrew it is called Chermel, and there are two mountains that bear this name. One Carmel, on which Nabal, the husband of Abigail, was, is located to the south, and the other, on which the prophet Elijah knelt and asked for rain (1 Kings 18:42), is located near Ptolemais, formerly called Ako (Acho), and rises above the sea. Thus, if the Carmel where Nabal dwelt is spoken of here, it is more applicable to the flocks of shepherds, because it is near the desert; and if about the one that is located near the seashore, then this refers to the kings and [in particular] to the arrogance of the kings of Israel, about whom it is said that through the upcoming captivity they will be ruined and will be like desert mountains. Otherwise: when the Lord from Zion and Jerusalem, from the watchtower of the Church, which is on the mountain and cannot hide, and in which the vision of the world abides, will give His voice through the Old and New Testaments (Instrumentum) and through the teachers of the Church and, as it were, will sound on a ringing trumpet; then everything that was beautiful among the shepherds, that is, the teaching of the heretics, which seemed beautifully expounded, and the knowledge of circumcision (for this is what the word Chermel means), as a result of which they reassure themselves with the knowledge of true circumcision, will mourn and dry up, and thousands of people, due to the simplicity of being called flocks, will undergo, due to a sudden drought, withering away. Am.1:3. Thus says the Lord: For three, the crimes of Damascus and for four, I will not turn him away 7 because they threshed Gilead with iron carts. LXX: And the Lord said: For the three iniquities of Damascus and for the four I will not turn away from them (or from him), because they sawed with iron saws the pregnant women in Gilead. Instead of threshing machines, which in Hebrew are called absoth and which Theodotion moved through iron wheels, and we through iron carts, LXX transferred them with iron saws. This is a kind of cart that is set in motion by means of iron gears located under it, in order to knock out the grains, break the stems on the currents and crush the straw for food for livestock when the hay harvest fails. Then, where in the Hebrew text there is one word Benhadad, LXX translated the son of Ader, being misled by the similarity of the letters resh and dalet. Also, where we said from the house of pleasure, which in Hebrew is called mebbeth eden and that everything was translated in the same way, LXX was translated from the men of Haran, taking the letter Dalet among the word for resh and placing the Greek chi (χ) before the first Hebrew letter ayin. Also, instead of Cyrene, which in Hebrew is called Sira, they translated έπίκλητον, that is, called or named, due to the similarity of the word, because carae (or care, siru) can mean calling, and they took their own word as a common noun. We have spoken of the reasons for the different translation; Now let's move on to explaining what [the prophet] said. First of all, the word of God is directed against Damascus, where Hazael reigned, who at the time when Amos prophesied, grievously oppressed Israel, that is, the ten tribes, so that after the victory over Ahab, king of Israel, in Ramoth-gilead, he oppressed and tormented the entire country called Gilead and inherited half the tribe of Manasseh, like threshing grain on the threshing floors. The prophet Elisha speaks about this in more detail in the book of Kings, where we read the following words: “And he stood before him, and was moved to such an extent that confusion was visible on his face, and the man of God began to cry. Hazael said to him: Why is my master crying? And he answered: Because I know what evil you will do to the children of Israel: you will set their fortified cities on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and you will beat little children, and you will cut up pregnant [women]. And Hazael said: Is your servant a dog that could do such a great thing? And Elisha said, “The Lord has shown me in you the king of Syria” (2 Kings 8:11–13). The following are the words of the prophet: Am.1:4–5. And I will send fire upon the house of Hazael, and it will devour the house of Benhadad. And I will break down the gate of Damascus, and destroy the inhabitants from the field of the idol. LXX: And I will send fire upon the house of Hazael, and it will devour the foundations of the son of Ader. And I will break down the gates of Damascus, and destroy the inhabitants from the field of Ων. This shows that during the reign of Uzziah and Jeroboam in Syria, Hazael was no longer alive and that his son, Ben-hadad, took the throne, from whom subsequently all the kings of Aram, that is, Syria and Damascus, bore the name of Ben-hadad. Therefore, he quite rightly said: I will send fire not against Hazael, but against the house of Hazael, that is, against his royal house, which at that time was headed by his son Benhadad. And I will destroy, he says, the gates of Damascus, and I will destroy the inhabitants from the field of the idol, that is, [I will crush] all the strength (or multitude) of the Syrians, who, with the help of a certain kind of carts and gates, repelled the attacks of the enemies. The field of the idol, which in Hebrew is called aven, LXX and Theodotion translated through Ων, Symmachus and the fifth edition translated through lawlessness, Aquila through ανωφελούς, that is, useless, to indicate the futility of the help of idols, because with the invasion of the Assyrians the inhabitants of Damascus will be taken captive. For we read that Tiglathpelassar, king of Assyria, having killed Rezin, king of Damascus, about whom Isaiah speaks, resettled all the inhabitants of Syria, which was called Aram, to Cyrene (2 Kings 16:9). which explains what has been said now. Am.1:5. He who holds the scepter (we must mean: I will crush or destroy) from the house of pleasure, and the people of Syria will be transported to Cyrene, says the Lord. LXX: And I will destroy the tribe of the men of Haran, and the people called Syrians will be carried away into captivity, says the Lord, that is, the Syrian people will be taken to the farthest borders of Egypt. As for the words at the beginning (Am1:3): for the three crimes of Damascus and for the four I will not turn away (or will I not turn away) him and according to LXX: I will not turn away (or will I not turn away) from him, and precisely from the people of Damascus or Aramaic, that is, Syrian, then they, in relation to the literal method of interpretation, can have the following meaning: if he had persecuted My people once or twice, then I would have spared him; but since he showed his cruelty for the third and fourth time, so that he crushed the captured people with iron carts, should I not now strike him as punishment for this with disasters? Shouldn't I turn My blissful gaze away from him? With regard to the allegorical meaning, we can say the following. The first sin is thinking about evil. The second is in the approval of evil thoughts. The third is to carry out in practice what is decided in thought. The fourth occurs when, after committing a sin, they do not repent and are satisfied with their sin. All this is done by heretics, who not only think and do evil, but with their teachings deceive all the simple-minded and, like the Damascenes, meaning drinkers of blood, drink the blood of those deceived by them. The Lord says about sinners of this kind: don’t they deserve that I punish them through disasters and turn My face away from them, and so that those who do not see the truth of My teachings should be plunged, through the aversion of My face, into darkness. For they crushed or cut into pieces the pregnant women in Gilead with iron carts. These are the pregnant women about whom the Lord says in the Gospel: woe to those who are in the womb and to those who milk in these days (Luke 21:23). Pregnant are those souls of believers who, having begun to believe, can say: for Thy fear, O Lord, in the womb they gave birth and gave birth (Isaiah 26:17), and if they are not cut off and crushed by carts and iron cogwheels, about which the psalmist says: sons of mankind, the teeth of their weapons and arrows (Ps56:5), then they can also say the following words: and I gave birth to the spirit of Your salvation, and I made Him upon the earth (Isaiah 26:18). At the same time, attention should be paid to the fact that they cannot excise people of full age, but those who are still in the womb, or those who cannot take solid food and still feed on milk characteristic of infancy. These pregnant women belong to Gilead, which means the transfer or migration of testimony, because they passed from the Church into heresy, and transferred the testimonies of God, which they had previously received, to foreign lands. But the Lord will send fire to the house of Hazael, which they themselves call Hazael, that is, the vision of God, - [He will send] fire that will destroy the wood and stubble in them, and will devour the foundations of the son of Ader. For we must also take into account the translation of LXX, so that it does not seem that we cited it in vain. Ader (Ader) means ευπρεπεία, that is, beauty, because all the speeches of heretics are distinguished by harmonious presentation and grace, characteristic of secular eloquence, in order to more easily seduce listeners. By the locks of Damascus or by strong and durable locks are meant those that are built through dialectical art and philosophical arguments. So, for example, the door is called the one who conceived and gave birth to false teachings, like Arius in Alexandria, and the gates and strong bars of this door were Eutyches and Eunomius, who tried to strengthen the false teachings invented by others through syllogisms and enthymemes, or rather through sophisms and deceptive conclusions (preudomenis) and sorites. And when the gates of Damascus are crushed and destroyed, I will also destroy the inhabitants from the field of Ων, which means labor or pain. For all heretics, through extreme labor and torment, try to find some kind of connection and consistency in their heresy. And I will destroy the tribe of the men of Haran, which in our language means holes. For they do not have windows through which the light of truth could penetrate to them, but some holes and secret passages through which harmful and unclean animals enter. And Aram, a high, arrogant and arrogant people, and reassuring themselves of the possession of heavenly [goods], will be led into captivity to be captured for their salvation, and, according to the Hebrew text, they will be transferred to Cyrene, the place of the calling of God. Am.1:6–8. Thus says the Lord: for the three crimes of Gaza and for the four I will not turn him (or them) away, because he (or they) deported the complete captivity to imprison him in Edom, 8 and I will send fire against the wall of Gaza and devour its buildings. And I will destroy the inhabitant of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon, and I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the rest of the Philistines will perish, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For the three iniquities of Gaza and for the four I will not turn away from them, because they carried away the captivity of Solomon to imprison him in Edom, and I will send fire on the walls of Gaza and devour its foundations. And I will destroy the inhabitants of Ashdod, and the tribe of Ashkelon will be destroyed, and I will lift up My hand against Ekron, and the rest of the foreigners will perish, says the Lord. The Lord threatens in the law to repay the sins of parents to children up to the third and fourth generation, and this is not due to the equal meaning of the definition [of God for all], so that some would sin and others would be punished, but because of great goodness, because He always expects repentance, and only in the third and fourth generation does He correct and punish for sins committed in the first generation. The Apostle Paul says something similar to the Romans: or are you careless about the riches of His goodness and meekness and long-suffering, not knowing how the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Because of your cruelty and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will reward everyone according to his deeds (Rom 2:4-6). Thus, these words have the following meaning: I waited a long time for them to repent, and did not want to punish those who sinned so that they would finally turn and receive healing. But since they do the same thing the third and fourth time, I am forced to change my mind and punish them for their sins. Let us now see what the sins of the Philistines and their cities were, which in the LXX translation are always called foreigners, because everywhere in the Old Testament where άλλοφυλους is read, that is, foreigners, we should understand not the general name of all foreign peoples, but the Philistines themselves, who are now called Palestinians. What did Gaza do that caused God’s wrath and punishment? She resettled the complete captivity of the Jewish people and imprisoned them in Idumea, selling to the Edomites those of the Jews who were taken captive by her. Instead of the perfect captivity, the LXX translated the captivity of Solomon, taking the Hebrew word salma, meaning perfect or complete, to be the name of Solomon. Aquila also translated άπηρτισμένην and άναπεπληρωμένην; Symmachus and Theodotion τελείαν, which does not mean Solomon, but perfect or complete, so that there was not one of the captives left who was not handed over to the Edomites. Therefore He says that He will send fire into the walls and buildings or foundations of Gaza, which will devour and consume everything. Since we read about the five cities of Palestine, which were punished for the insult inflicted on the ark (1 Samuel 5), then after Gaza [the Lord] goes to Ashdod, called Esdod, and then to Ascalon, and in terrible words threatens to destroy the inhabitants of Ashdod and the one holding the scepter, that is, the royal power, in Ashkelon or the tribe of Ashkelon, so that no one will remain there, not even people of advanced age, supporting their trembling limbs with the help of a staff. Then, again He raises His hand to strike Ekron. And having enumerated the four cities, He embraces the other cities of the Philistines with the words: and the rest of the Philistines will perish, by which we must understand either the city of Gath, or all the villages that are dependent on the above-mentioned cities. In relation to the allegorical meaning, this, I believe, should be explained as follows: Gaza, called in Hebrew Aza, means strength or power; Solomon - peaceful; Edomite - bloody and earthly; Azoth, that is, Esdod, is the fire of the father or paternal uncle, although some, incorrectly reading dor instead of dod, understand it in the sense of the fire of the family; Askalon means murderous fire or suspended and suspended fire; Akkaron – στειρωσις, that is, sterility, and έκρίζωσις (or έκρίσωσις), which means eradication. Thus Gaza, arrogating to itself the power of its knowledge and power, is accused of having imprisoned captives from the family of Solomon in Idumea. In my opinion, these are the teachers of the Jews and all those who follow the letter that kills and do not want to accept the life-giving spirit, but everything that they explain and think about, they recognize as earthly and do not listen, together with the apostles, to the Lord, who explains parables and says: if you have ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15), especially since the apostle relates what is clearly historical in nature to two covenants: one means Mount Sinai, which is Hagar and is in bondage along with her children, and the other means free Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all (Gal4:24-26). Thus it is said that He will send fire on the walls of Gaza and on all its arguments in which it tries to clothe its false fabrications and defend. And when He sends fire to the walls, its buildings or foundations will be consumed, everything that it could firmly build with the help of the art of dialectics. He will also destroy the inhabitants of Azoth, who also belong to foreigners; since he follows the letter, his breasts are filled not with milk, but with fire, and since he falsely divulges that he has the fire of his uncle, then his entire family will be consigned to the fire. And the Lord will destroy the scepter or the tribe of Ascalon, where the murderous fire reigns. For just as the fire of the Lord will save those into whose hearts it penetrates, so that fire that falls from the sky like lightning and kindles the arrows of the devil will destroy all those whom it touches. He will also raise His hand against Ekron, where barrenness and uprooting reign. For whoever does not accept the spiritual meaning will hear the words of Hosea: Give to them, Lord. What do you give them? Give them a barren womb and dry breasts (Hosea 9:14). Finally, summarizing everything in one word, He says that He will destroy all the remnants of the Philistines, either the city of Gath, in which the devil's winepress is located, or all the other Philistines, whose name means those who fall from the cup; because when they are drunk, they will fall and wallow in vomit. Am.1:9–10. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn him away: because they entered into complete captivity 9 in Idumea and did not remember the alliance with their brothers. And I will send fire into the wall of Tyre, and it will devour its buildings. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away from him; because they made Solomon captive in Idumea and did not remember the covenant of the brothers. And I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre, and it will devour its foundations. The same three and four iniquities or crimes of which Gaza, Ashdod, Ascalon, Ekron and other Philistine cities were accused are also attributed to Tire, and he is reproached for having entered into complete and complete captivity in Idumea, as we said above. And they did not remember the alliance with their brothers. The question arises: why are the Tyrians called brothers of the Jews? Friends and persons in close relations are here called brothers; because Hiram, the prince of Tire, was in such friendship with David and Solomon that he brought cedar trees to Joppa in rafts to build a church and palace, and these gave bread and oil to the Tyrians and gave him (or them) twenty cities in Bashan, but he did not want to accept them because they were full of grass (1 Kings 5 ​​and 1 Kings 9:11; 2 Chron 2). Thus [the Lord] says that He will send fire into its walls, which will devour the buildings or its foundations. The prophet Ezekiel, in a vision of Tire, mentions the fulfillment of this by Nebuchadnezzar, saying: “he will surround you with fortifications and make a mound around you” (Ezekiel 26:8), and again: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, enslave your strength with great work on Tyre, every head of the bald and every naked man, and there will be no reward for him or his strength against Tyre, for the work that is the work of Me. nan (Eze 29:18), because his army made a rampart to take Tire, which was formerly an island. As history says, Alexander the Great did the same, turning the island into a peninsula, which the Greeks call χερρονηεον (or Χερσόνησον). Tire means attack or oppressive, and every perverse teaching strives to take possession of the truth and imprison it within the limits of earthly understanding. He did not remember the union with his brothers - that we must ascend from the letter to the spirit, from the earthly to the heavenly, and that we are commanded in three ways to write the Holy Scriptures in our hearts. God will send fire to all the fortifications of Tyre, which will devour not only the walls, but also its fortifications. We said above (Amos 1:6) about the captivity of Solomon, instead of which in Hebrew there is complete and perfect. Am.1:11–12. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not turn him away, because he pursued his brother with the sword, violated mercy towards him, restrained his wrath, kept his anger to the end. I will send fire to Feman and devour the buildings of Bosrah. LXX: Thus spoke Melchom: For the three iniquities of Idumea and for the four I will not turn away from them, because they pursued their brother with the sword, they insulted the womb on the earth, and he kept his horror as a testimony, and they cut up the pregnant women in Gilead to enlarge their borders. And I will kindle a fire on the walls of Rabbah, and it will devour the foundations amidst the cry on the day of battle, and it will tremble on the day of its death. And the kings will go into captivity, their priests and their princes, their princes along with him, says the Lord. The Word of God denounces the sons of Ammon, who came from the descendants of Lot and lived in that part of Arabia where Philadelphia is now, for the fact that during the reign of the Jewish king Saul, Nahash the Ammonite, their king, devastated Jabez-Gilead and cut up the pregnant women in it in order to expand their borders and subjugate all of Gileadit to his power (1 Samuel 11). Therefore, He threatens to set fire to the walls of Rabbah, which was the main city of the Ammonites, so that its buildings will be devoured with the noise and cry of the victorious army, on the day of shock and whirlwind, when the conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar, will lead away her captives, when their idol, which is called Melchom, that is, their king, will be carried away to Assyria, and when they will be taken away with him its princes, that is, its priests. In Hebrew there is no word for priests, but only for princes. Thus, LXX added the word priests, so that anyone who wants to know who these princes are would know that they were priests. But the difference between the cruelty of Damascus and the sons of Ammon is that the former tore apart Gilead with iron carts or the pregnant women of Gilead with iron saws, and the latter cut up the pregnant women in Gilead to expand their borders. By the Damascenes who drink blood, we mean the heretics who not only tore the people of God away from the church, but also crushed and crushed them with iron teeth, about whom it is written: My people are devoured into food of bread (Ps53:5). By the sons of Ammon, which means the people of sorrow or my people, we understand schismatics who separate the people they have deceived from the Church of God and by whom inexperienced souls who have recently accepted the word of Christ are rejected and divided. However, they do not do this with the cruelty with which heretics kill all those who are deceived, but, remaining in the same rule of faith, they wish to expand their borders and gain glory in posterity. Thus, the Lord threatens that He will set fire to the walls of Rabbah, that is, the multitude, on the day of shouting and fighting, shock and whirlwind, their king, the author of division, will send into captivity and the princes will submit to the yoke of the church. Amos 2:1–3. Thus says the Lord: For Moab’s three transgressions and four I will not turn him away, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom, turning them to ashes. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it will devour the buildings of Kerioth, and Moab will die in the midst of the noise, at the sound of the trumpet. And I will destroy the judge from among him, and I will kill all his princes along with him, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: for three iniquities of Moab and for four I will not turn away from them (or from him); because he burned the bones of the king of Edom, turning them into ashes. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it will devour the foundations of its cities, and Moab will die from weakness at the noise and at the sound of the trumpet; And I will destroy the judge from among him, and I will kill all his princes along with him, says the Lord. Not only the sons of Ammon, but also the sons of Moab came from the tribe of Lot, who was the son of Abraham's brother. To show that God is the Lord of all [people] and that all souls are subject to His power as their Creator, He also punishes the insult inflicted on the king of Edom, or rather, the crime committed against him by the Moabites, who burned his bones, turning them into ashes, and did not abandon their cruelty and fury even after his death. The Jews report that the bones of the king of Edom, who went with Joram, king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, against Moab, were subsequently dug up by the Moabites, when he was already buried, and burned in revenge for the grief caused to them. Therefore, they say, God announces that He will send fire to Moab, that is, either to the capital of the Moabites, from which the whole country received its name, or to their whole country, and it will devour the buildings of Karioth, which means the name of the city, although the LXX translated: its cities, that is, Moab, and they will perish with the noise and hum of the victorious army, which in Hebrew is called saon and therua, and with the sounds of the trumpet or horns, for it means sophar. And when Moab perishes, the council of princes and judges will be in vain, because along with the cities their leaders will be destroyed. But just as one should not resettle all the captives or the captivity of Solomon and imprison them in Idumea, turning them from the high and heavenly to the low and earthly, which Gaza and Tire did, as is said [above]; So we must not burn the bones of the king of Edom and turn them into dust and ashes. The Jews turn the spiritual understanding into Edomite flesh, and the royal meaning, contained in the letter and full of firmness and strength, is weakened, belittled and reduced to dust through certain genealogies and empty traditions. And not only they do this, but also all the heretics who claim that God, like people, sits on a high and exalted throne, with his feet on the ground, so that they do not hang, of course, and has a nose to smell the fragrance, eyes to see, hands to act with them, legs to walk, ears to hear, lips to speak, teeth to crush food with them. Whoever, reading that Judah went in to the harlot Tamar and gave birth to two sons from her (Gen. 38), follows the obscene literal meaning, and does not rise to the beauty of spiritual understanding, burns the bones of the king of Edom. Whoever thinks that Hosea took a harlot wife (Hos1) and does not find any other meaning in these words than what is directly expressed by them, he also burns the bones of the king of Edom. Therefore, the Lord will send fire to Moab, whose name means from the father, because although he was born of God, he forsook Him. And he will devour the cities or villages thereof, which means Karioth; Therefore, we translate Kariathiarim into our language with the words: city of forests. And Moab will die in no other way than with shouts, noise, hum and the sounds of a trumpet, and will be struck through an exalted understanding, which in the sacred books is compared to the sounds of a trumpet. Then the word of God will destroy judges and princes and all those in charge of earthly affairs, and will give a command to the teachers of the church: go up to the high mountain, preach the gospel to Zion, lift up your voice, preach the gospel to Jerusalem (Isaiah 40:9). Am.2:4–5. Thus says the Lord: For Judah’s three transgressions and four I will not turn him away: because he rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep His commandments; for their idols, after which their fathers walked, have corrupted them, and I will send fire upon Judah, and it will devour the buildings of Jerusalem. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For the three iniquities of Judah and for the four I will not turn away from them, because they rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep His commandments, and were led astray by their vanities, which their fathers followed, and I will send fire on Judah and devour the foundations of Jerusalem. Other, above-mentioned cities and peoples. Damascus, Azoth, Ascalon, Gaza, Ekron and other Palestinian cities, also Tire, Idumea and the sons of Ammon and Moab are not reproached for rejecting the law of God and despising His commandments, because they had not a written law, but a natural one. Therefore it is said that they insulted their own womb and the womb of mercy, crushed the pregnant women in Gilead with iron carts, carried away the captivity of Solomon or the perfect one, and imprisoned them in Idumea, did not remember the covenant of their fathers and pursued their brother with the sword and reached such - I do not say: cruelty, but rage, that they burned the bones of the king of Edomite and did not allow death to be the end of all evils. But Judas, among whom at that time there was faith in God, the church and sacred rites and who received the law, commandments, judgments, testimonies and commands (the difference of which is described in detail in the eighteenth and one hundred and tenth psalms), is reproached and convicted by the Lord, and will receive the deserved punishment for rejecting His law and not keeping His commandments. Since he rejected and despised them, his idols led him astray from the proper path. For he could not have been seduced by idols earlier than after he rejected the law of the Lord and ceased to fulfill His commandments. These are the idols that their fathers followed in Egypt, making an image of an Egyptian bull, and worshiping Beelphegor, and serving Astarte and Baal (Astaroth et Baalim). Therefore, the Lord also threatens Judas that he will send fire on him, which will devour the buildings and foundations of Jerusalem - not the one in which the vision of the world resides, but those who have risen in various cities under the name of Jerusalem. All that we have said about Judas applies to the church in which there is a true confession, and the peace of the Lord, and a vision of the truth. Thus, she is also convicted because she despised the law of God and ceased to fulfill His commandments, and everyone who bows to his own vices and sins began to have with God that by which he was overcome, in accordance with the words of the Apostle Peter: by whom one is overcome, to this he also works (2 Pet 2:19). The miser serves gold, the glutton serves the belly, the sensualist serves lust and Beelphegor, the dissolute woman who, living among pleasures, is dead, worships voluptuousness. Therefore, the Lord will send fire to Judah, and it will devour the buildings of evil and the foundations of vice that have lost the glory of Jerusalem. At the same time, we also learn that the Creator of all things has care not only for Judah and Israel, but also for all nations, and that, according to the apostle, those who, without having the law, sinned will perish without the law, and those who committed sins under the law will be condemned according to the law of the Lord (Rom 2:12). Amos 2:6–8. Thus says the Lord: For Israel's three transgressions and for four I will not turn him away, because he sold the righteous for silver and the poor for sandals; they break the heads of the poor on the dust of the earth and turn away from the path of the humble, and his son and father went in to [one] woman to dishonor my holy name, and they reclined on clothes taken as a pledge at every altar, and they drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three iniquities and for four I will not turn away from them; because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for shoes, with which they trample the dust of the earth, and they struck the heads of the poor with their fists, and turned away from the path of the humble, and his son and his father went in to the same woman to dishonor the name of their God, and tied their clothes with ropes, made curtains (umbracula) at the altar, and drank wine [obtained] by slander in the house of God yours. In order for the presentation of the prophetic words in the book to have a logical connection and consistency, Israel, that is, the ten tribes, is given the last place, because, as we have already said, almost everything that follows applies to it. So, their first crime or lawlessness, repeated three or four times, was that they sold a person for money, and precisely a right person, who is all the more worthy of surprise because even poverty did not force him to commit any lawlessness. If they, forced by hunger, had sold the poor righteous man for money, there might have been some excuse for the crime; but they sold a precious human soul for the most insignificant thing, for shoes with which they trample dust and dung. They, according to the LXX, beat the poor on the head, and according to the Hebrew text: they smash the heads of the poor on the dust of the earth, and are so arrogant and arrogant that they do not want to walk with people. Since this crime may seem unimportant, his son and father went to the same woman to dishonor the holy name of God. Thus, every shameless act serves as an insult to God, who says: My name is blasphemed among the nations by you (Rom 2:24). The apostle writes about this to the Corinthians: there is no sense of fornication in you, as is not common among the nations, as if someone had a desire to have a wife. And you will become proud, and no more than a poster, so that he who has done this deed may be removed from among you (1 Cor 5:1-2). It often happens that a father disgraces his son's wife, a father-in-law his daughter-in-law, which is forbidden by law: you shall not reveal the shame of your father, and you shall not reveal the shame of your daughter-in-law (Lev 18:7, 15). Thus, the execution of the letter brings very great benefits. And, since every dishonest act, going beyond the boundaries of modesty, multiplies crimes with crimes and constantly leads to greater and greater deterioration; then the ten tribes also reclined on the garments taken as a pledge at every altar. The Jews explain this as follows: during feasts in the church, they reclined on clothes that they forcibly took from those who did not want to go to idols. According to LXX, there was such great contempt for God that they hung their clothes on ropes at the altar, in which they sleep or commit fornication, and set up παραπετάσματα, that is, curtains, so that no one could see those committing fornication in the church, and, indulging in drunkenness and debauchery, even the wine that they drank was not acquired by their own labor, but through slander, and this they did in the church of their god, in order to disgrace those whom they considered gods with their abominations and fornications. This is how those who follow the simple historical meaning say and explain it this way. But we, having pointed out [in the interpretation] to Hosea that by the name of Israel, Samaria, Ephraim and the sons of Joseph (from whose tribe came Jeroboam, who separated the people from the kingdom of David, Jerusalem and the church of God), are meant heretics, also now, after Judah and Jerusalem, meaning the church, we must understand prophetic speech in relation to heretics who sell a holy and righteous man, but poor, for money. A poor and righteous man is that member of the church who does not have knowledge of the Scriptures, but, content with simplicity, fulfills the commandments and commandments, and about whom it is written: the poor do not suffer reproach (Proverbs 13:8) and [in the letter] to the Galatians: let us remember the poor (Gal2:10). All heretics do this for the sake of wealth and shoes, with which they trample the dust of the earth, because they cannot stand barefoot on the holy ground (on which Moses and Joshua the son of Nun stood [Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15], as a result of which the apostles are commanded to walk barefoot [Luke 10:4], so that they do not have anything mortal and leather, which indicates the flesh), and therefore they beat the poor on the ground. head And the Savior commands the disciples to shake off the dust from their feet if anything mortal joins their deeds, because they were still on earth (Matthew 10:14; Mark 6:11). Heretics beat the poor on the head (although this is not in the Hebrew text) because they have strayed from the path of the humble. This is the path of the humble, which says: I am the way, the life and the truth (John 14:6), and which calls us to walk along it with the words: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). Yet heresiarchs are arrogant and proud, and the apostle says about them: let him not become proud and fall into the judgment of the devil (1 Tim 3:6), who says: I will ascend to heaven, I will set my nest above the stars of heaven, I will be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:13-14). Therefore, God resists proud heretics, but gives grace to humble members of the church (James 4:6). Also, a son and a father went in to one woman to dishonor and insult the holy name of God. We have often read that our father is the people of the Jews, as Paul says: I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, for our fathers were all under the cloud, and all walked through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor 10:1-2), and in another place: ask your fathers, and your elders will tell you, and tell you ( Deuteronomy 32:7), and sons were born to you instead of your fathers (Ps44:17). Therefore, the church [which originated] from the pagans says: the sons of my mother fought against me (Song 1:5). Therefore, we are sons, and the Jewish people are the father. We sin and commit a crime when, together with our father, in order to keep the Sabbath, we accept offensive circumcision and the rites of the abolished law, and to such Paul says: Behold, Paul, I say to you, that if you are circumcised, Christ profits you nothing (Gal5:2), and again: “those who justify themselves by the law have fallen from grace” (ibid., Gal5:4). Thus, whoever enters the church to keep the law [of Moses] along with the Gospel, he, together with his father, enters into a woman, commits fornication and dishonors the name of the Lord. Therefore, those who claim that there is no harm for the Jews to believe in the Lord after the coming of the Lord, while at the same time keeping the commandments of the law, defile father and son through the same fornication. They also tie their clothes with ropes and make curtains around the altar, covering with them the faith of Christ. For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal3:27); and they, having bound their garments with ropes of sins, display them before the eyes of those who see, so that their abominations will not be visible, and so that those who look at the altar will not notice their fornication. Therefore, the apostles covered the colt with their clothes (Matthew 21:7), so that it would be softer for the Lord to sit and so that He would tread on the path covered by the law and the prophets. Heretics, on the contrary, do not spread their clothes under the feet of the Savior, but bind them at the altar in order to cover their sins with them and to drink wine [obtained] by slander, or [wine] of the condemned, who are condemned because they left the church. This is the wine of Sodom, the fury of dragons and asps, such that the drinker cannot receive healing. They drink wine not in the house of God, in which this temple and Jerusalem are, but in the house of their god, whom they created for themselves by the art of speech. Amos 2:9–11. But I destroyed before them the Amorite, whose height was as the height of cedars, and who was strong as an oak, and I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below. I brought you out of the land of Egypt and led you in the wilderness for forty years, so that I could give you possession of the land of the Amorites, and I chose from your sons to be prophets and from your young men to be Nazirites. LXX: And I destroyed before them the Amorite, whose height was as the height of a cedar, and who was strong as an oak, and I dried up his fruit above and his roots below. I brought you out of the land of Egypt and led you in the wilderness for forty years, so that I might take possession of the land of the Amorites, and I chose from your sons to be prophets and from your young men for sanctification. You sold the just for silver and the poor for shoes, striking him on the head or smashing the heads of the poor into the dust, and turned away from the path of the humble, so that father and son went in to the same woman and dishonored or insulted My holy name, and their clothes, defiled in fornication and fornication, were bound with bonds of sins, so that in a holy place they committed fornication and, combining injustice with drunkenness, drinking other people's wine, and this they did in the house of your god. But I, on the contrary, for the evil you caused Me, repaid you with good, so that when you left Egypt, I destroyed before you Seon, king of the Amorites, who was as tall and strong as the cedar and the oak, and destroyed his fruit above and his roots below. I brought you out of Egypt, and after a long wandering of forty years I brought it to the holy land, so that you could take possession of the land of the Amorites, which we spoke about above and which Moses divided between the sons of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, and to these blessings I also added that from your sons I chose prophets for myself and from your young men or chosen ones I made Nazarites, whom the LXX translated the word sanctified . Where the glory of God is spoken of, historical order must not be observed, and it often happens that what happened before is said at the end, and what happened after is said at the beginning. Proof of this for us can be the seventy-seventh and one hundred and fourth psalms, in which miracles are described not in order, but according to their meaning ( rotentia ), and the inscriptions of the psalms, of which we will give only two examples: from the third and fifty-first psalms, in which what happened later is stated first, and what is stated later refers to what happened earlier. For in the book of Kings (1 Kings 21:7 and 1 Kings 22:9) we read earlier about Doik the Edomite, which serves as the content of the inscription of the fifty-first psalm, rather than about the rebellion of Absalom against his father (2 Kings 15), which is mentioned in the inscription of the third psalm. Thus, the extermination or destruction of the Amorites, which happened later, is now spoken of at the beginning, and the exodus from Egypt and the forty-year wandering in the desert, which, as we read, happened earlier, is spoken of here later, contrary to the [chronological] order. Therefore, before bringing us out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, God destroyed before you the Amorite, whose name means bitter or λαλητός, that is, one who speaks or one about whom they talk a lot and often. This Amorite or king of the Amorites is called Seon, a tree that does not bear fruit or is barren, not because it does not bear fruit, but because it bears bad fruit, about which it is said: every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 7:19). And about false prophets we read: they come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves; by their fruit you will know them (Matthew 7:15-16), that is, by their bad fruit. Thus, a tree is called barren because it either does not bear fruit, or it bears fruit, but not good fruit. This is the Seon about which it is written: the ax is already lying at the root of the tree (Luke 3:9); because it was a barren tree, pruned and cut down by the Lord and in height compared with the height of the cedars, about which we read: I saw the wicked exalted and towering like the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and behold, I did not seek him, and his place was not found (Ps. 36:35-36). And the mimoidoh speaks quite rightly, because before those who pass by this century and who can say: having passed by I will see this great vision (Exodus 3:3), the cedar disappears, and it will not be possible to find a place of arrogance. He was also as strong as oak, the hardest and strongest tree. Therefore, Philo, the most eloquent of the Jews, believes that Esau received from him the name δρύινον, that is, oak, although the name Esau can also mean ποίημα, that is, doing, precisely in relation to bad deeds. The Lord speaks about this strong and strong man in the Gospel: when a strong man, armed, guards his court, the essence of his possessions is in peace; When he finds him stronger and overcomes him, he takes up all his weapons at a higher price, and distributes his gain (Luke 11:21-22). And the Lord gave us the gift to crush above and destroy the fruits of this Amorite Seon, which means, as we said, a barren tree, because they were bad, and this so that no one would eat them, considering them good, and would not die. He also cut down its roots and destroyed them, so that there would subsequently be no branches from the bad tree. The Lord Himself brought us out of this age, and for forty years, which number always means grief, fasting, sadness and sorrow, through disasters and misadventures, brought us to the holy land, so that we would first receive possession of the land of the Amorites, and so that the country that once belonged to him would become our property, and subsequently, to choose prophets from among our sons, all holy men who received the prophetic spirit, and about whom we read in more detail in the letter to Corinthians (1 Corinthians 14), and that from among our young men or chosen ones we should choose Nazirites and sanctified ones, who, sacrificing their souls to God, do not touch wine, which can intoxicate and pervert the mind, in order to receive the hair of Sampson, on whose head rested strength and victory (Judges 16:17), because the head of man is Christ. Amos 2:11–12 Is this not so, O children of Israel? says the Lord. But you gave wine to the Nazarenes and commanded the prophets, saying: Do not prophesy. LXX was [translated] in the same way. Since I showed you so many benefits that I destroyed your opponents, and gave their land to you, and from your sons and young men I chose prophets and Nazarenes and dedicated them to serving Me; then can you really say that I did not do this and denied you My goodness, thanks to which you live? You reached such a frenzy that you made My Nazirites drunk with wine, who were commanded by law not to drink anything that could intoxicate (Numbers 6), and the prophets were ordered not to prophesy in My name. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, ordered this to Amos the prophet, whom we now have in our hands; and Jeremiah was ordered by the king not to speak the words of the Lord to the people, so that his speeches were burned with fire. Tatian, the leader of the Encratites, tries to build his heresy on this point, arguing that one should not drink wine, because it is commanded by law that Nazarenes should not drink wine, and now the prophet accuses those who give wine to Nazarenes. Therefore, those who follow the letter in everything and bring Jewish fables into the churches of Christ must grow their hair, and not eat dried and green grapes, and not approach their dead father and mother; and if, due to human weakness or necessity, they do this, then they must shave their heads, and all the days of their dedication and labor will be lost. But if they do not do this and cannot, according to the custom of the Jewish shinkars, mix water with wine, shadow with truth, the obligation of the law with the grace of the gospel, then by this intoxication they must understand intoxication with worldly worries, which crush the strength of the spirit, and by commanding and saying to the prophets: do not prophesy, [meaning] those who prevent learned people from speaking the words of truth, and while the Lord says: go, and The rulers of this people (Isaiah 6:9), on the contrary, they order not to speak in the name of the Lord, especially if the teacher is guided not by shameful self-interest, love of glory and vanity, but by the benefit of the readers and listeners. Am.2:13–16. Behold, I will make a creaking noise under you, like a cart loaded with hay creaking; and the swift will not run, and the mighty will not retain his strength, and the mighty will not save his life (animam), and he who shoots a bow will not stand, and the fleet-footed will not escape, and he who sits on a horse will not save his life (animam), and the strong in spirit (robustus corde) among the brave will flee naked on that day, says the Lord. LXX: Therefore, behold, I will make a rotation under you, as a cart filled with straw rotates, and the walker will not have [the strength] to run, and the strong will not retain his strength, and the warrior will not save his life (animam), and the archer will not survive, and the fleet-footed will not have the opportunity to escape, and the horseman will not save his life (animam), and the one who, by the strength of his spirit, was among the strong, will run away naked into that day, says the Lord. While I was showing you good deeds, and brought you out of the land of Egypt, and destroyed the Amorite before you, so that you might possess his land, and chose prophets from among your sons and Nazarites from your young men, you gave my Nazarites wine to drink and said to the prophets, “Do not prophesy.” Therefore, like a cart loaded with straw or hay, and making creaking and noise over a large space, I, no longer bearing your sins and handing over [you] like straw to be burned, will cry out and say: the swift will not have the strength to flee, by which the Jews mean Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who first fled to Egypt (1 Kings 11:40). But we must understand here not the princes themselves, but their families and their descendants. And the strong will not retain his strength; By strong they mean Baasa (Basau), who was very warlike (1 Kings 15). And the strong man will not save his life: here they mean Omri (Amri or Omri). And he who shoots an arrow will not stand or will not endure: it is believed that this is said regarding Jehu the son of Namsi, who struck Joram king of Israel with an arrow (2 Kings 9:24). And the fleet-footed will not be saved: they mean Menahem (Manahen), who hastened in vain to send gifts to the king of Assyria (2 Kings 15:19). And he who sits on a horse will not save his life: by him they mean Pekah, the son of Romelin, who, uniting with Aram, that is, with Syria, devastated most of Judea under King Ahaz (2 Kings 16:5). And the strong in spirit among the brave will flee naked on that day, says the Lord. Only Hosea, who was the last king of the ten tribes and who tried to return the wandering people to serving God (2 Kings 18), will walk away from the fire, as if naked. He is called naked because during his time ten tribes were taken captive. This is what the Jews think, and just as they conveyed it to us, in the same form we have accurately presented it to our people. Now let's return to our [interpretation]. God threatens that a cart (or, as it were, a cart), loaded with hay or straw, will rotate under them, so that their hay and straw, as having no wheat collected in the granaries, will be burned with fire. This is the hay about which the prophet says: let them be like grass on here, even before the rapture from above (Ps128:6), and: all flesh is hay (Is40:6). As for the straw, this is the one, the burning of which the prophet bitterly mourns, saying: I have no mercy! For though I am like one who gathers sludge in the harvest, and like a fool who embraces grapes, I do not eat the first-born grape. I'm so angry, my soul! for the pious perished from the earth, and there is no corrector among men; everyone hides in roofs (Mic. 7:1–2). These are the hay and straw about which the apostle speaks: wood, hay, reeds: every work will be revealed (1 Cor 3:12-13), for on the day of the Lord it will be revealed in fire. By the rotating cart we mean the one about which we read in Isaiah: Moabitis will be trampled, as they trample the current with chariots (Is. 25:10), and in another place he says: I will make you like the wheels of a new chariot with the edges of a saw, and I will crush the mountains and thin out the hills (ibid., Is. 41:15), and after the mountains and hills have been crushed, the nimble will not have the strength to run, as Paul says: Do you not know that they all go to disgrace, but only one receives honor (1 Cor. 9:24)? and in another place: now it is good: who forbids you not to repent of the truth (Gal5:7)? Therefore, fearing for himself, he says: I have not already attained or am accomplished, but I persecute, even if I comprehend, the same which was comprehended by Christ (Phil. 3:12). He did all this so that the nimble would not lose the strength to run. Therefore, having already achieved his goal and received the reward for victory, he calmly said: I fought the good fight, I died, I kept the faith. Otherwise the crown of righteousness will be kept for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will reward me in the day, not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing (2 Tim 4:7-8). If we run quickly, sin will be powerless to catch us; and if evil binds our feet, then we, together with the prophet, will say to the Lord: where will I go from Your spirit and how will I flee from Your presence (Ps139:7)? Therefore, about those who run ill, the apostle says: [victory depends] neither on the one who wants, nor on the one who is present, but on God who has mercy (Rom. 9:16). Further it follows: and the strong will not retain his strength - not because he is strong, but because he boasts of his strength, or [here we are talking about the one] who trusts in his own strength, and not in the mercy of God, just as it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and I will reject the understanding of the prudent (1 Cor 1:19), not in the sense that true wisdom can perish and the understanding of the truth can be rejected, but in the fact that it will perish the wisdom of those who consider themselves wise and trust in their own learning. Likewise, a mighty man or a warrior who will not save his life is one who does not have the whole armor of the apostle, having a shield but not the [shield] of faith, having girded his loins but not the truth, having put on the armor but not the [armor of] righteousness, taking the sword but not the [sword of] salvation (Eph 6:14-17). A warrior of this kind is not preparing for a holy war and cannot fight the battle of the Lord, fighting for a lie against the truth. Such a warrior cannot say: Blessed is the Lord my God, teach my hands to fight and my fingers to fight, my mercy and my refuge (Ps 144:1-2). Heretics also have archers who, drawing their bow in vain, cannot resist the arrow of the Lord, who speaks through Isaiah: “I am like the chosen arrow in the quiver of the Lord” (Isaiah 49:2). These are the arrows about which David says: “Behold, sinners have made a mess of their bow, having prepared arrows in the flesh for the upright in heart to shoot in the darkness” (Ps. 10:2). And the fleet-footed one, says [the prophet], will not be saved, that is, whoever, as a result of his cunning, runs from one testimony of Scripture to another and through oratorical eloquence and dialectical sophisms tries to destroy the truth, he will become entangled in this and will fall, because he trusts not in God, but in his own feet. Likewise, he who sits on a horse will not save his life - he who does not pay attention to what is said by the prophet: a lie is a horse for salvation (Ps32:17), and he who does not know what is written: those who sit on horses slumber (Ps75:7). He will not save his life, but will perish and hear [the words]: these on chariots and these on horses, but in the name of the Lord our God we will call. They fell asleep and fell, but we rose and recovered (Ps. 19:8-9). Likewise, the strong in spirit among the brave will flee naked. This passage can be explained in two ways: either because he could escape because he had put off the old man and the skins of sins and was not burdened with any burden, or because he was naked and had lost the robe of Christ, about which the apostle says: put on Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14), and in another place: if he has put on the Nazis, he will not be found (2 Cor. 5:3), then His strength will not bring him any benefit, and on the day of battle and warfare he will run away from his pursuers and, being powerless without the full apostolic armor to resist the enemies, will take flight before them. Am.3:1–2. Hear the word that the Lord spoke against you, O children of Israel, against all the tribes that I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying: You alone have I recognized among all the tribes of the land; therefore I will visit you for all your iniquities. LXX: Hear this word which the Lord has spoken against you, O house of Israel, and against all the tribes which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, You alone have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will repay you for all your sins (malitias). The prophetic speech addresses the children of Israel, and who these sons of Israel are, this is shown by the following verse: for all, he says, the tribe that I brought out of the land of Egypt, which we must attribute not only to the ten tribes, but also to all twelve, with the addition of Judah and Benjamin. For He brought them all out of the land of Egypt, and says: only, or, as Symmachus translated, I recognized you alone from all the tribes of the earth. Since I, the Creator of all, recognized you alone, and took you for My own people, then I will repay you alone for all your sins. For greater torment will be greater than the greatest, but the little one is worthy of mercy (Wis 6:6). And in Ezekiel we read: begin with my sanctified ones (Ezekiel 9:6). It is also said that God's judgment will begin at His house (1 Peter 4:17). We have said this so far in relation to historical interpretation. But, since by listening in the Holy Scriptures is meant not only that which is accomplished through the ears of the body, but also that which the Lord speaks of, if you have ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:8), as a result of which all people hear the voice of God in vain (Exodus 20:18); then the word of the Lord addresses itself to those who see God with their minds, whom He delivered from the land of Egypt and from the power of Pharaoh (so that they would not be enslaved to clay and straw, building the cities of Egypt), and whom He recognized from all the tribes of the earth, as the apostle says: now having known God, rather than having been known by God (Gal4:9), and in another place: “he who does not know will not be recognized” ( 1Cor14). Thus, God does not recognize everyone, but those who are worthy of it, as He says in the Gospel: Depart from Me, all workers of unrighteousness; we do not know you (Luke 13:27). Since they are workers of iniquity, God does not recognize them. Therefore He says: since I recognized some of you and accepted you as my own, I will visit you for all your iniquities. For the Lord loves him, punishes him, and beats every son whom he accepts (Hebrews 12:6). And he said beautifully: I will visit, and not punish, because God’s punishment is visiting and healing. And for all, he says, your iniquities or sins, I will visit you, so that nothing remains unpunished and so that everything receives healing. Am.3:3–8. Will two people go together without agreeing with each other? Will a lion roar in the forest when there is no prey before him? Will the lion cub raise his voice from his den when he has not caught anything? Will a bird get caught in a snare on the ground if there is no bird catcher? Will the noose rise from the ground when nothing has hit it? Is there a trumpet blowing in the city, and the people would not be afraid? Is there any evil in the city that God would not allow (non fecit)? For the Lord God will do nothing without revealing His secret to His servants, the prophets. The lion will begin to roar: who will not be afraid? The Lord God has spoken, and who will not prophesy? LXX: Will two people go completely together without knowing themselves? Will a lion roar in his oak grove, having no prey before him? Will the lion cub raise his voice from his den when he has not caught anything? Will the bird fall to the ground if there is no bird catcher? Will the loop fall to the ground when nothing is caught in it? Is there a trumpet blowing in the city, and the people would not be afraid? Is there evil in the city that God would not allow? For the Lord God will not do anything without communicating it in revelation to His servants, the prophets. The lion will begin to roar, and who will not be afraid? The Lord God has spoken, and who will not prophesy? I read the interpretation of one [author] who is trying to convince what is difficult to admit, [namely]: that the eight crimes or iniquities and sins, the first - Damascus, the second - Gaza and other cities of Palestine, the third - Tyre, the fourth - Edomitea, that is, Edom, the fifth - the sons of Ammon, the sixth - Moab, the seventh - Judah, that is, the two tribes, the eighth and last - Israel, then There are ten tribes, now the same number of threats are opposed, and the first corresponds to the first [culprit], that is, Damascus, the second to the second, that is, Gaza, and the others to the rest. Whether this interpretation is correct, let the author himself know. Another believes that there are six examples here: two [people] walking together along a path, and a lion roaring in the forest, and a lion cub giving its voice when it has caught something, and a bird caught by a bird-catcher, and a noose fixed on the ground for catching prey, and a trumpet blowing in a city, and that the comparison expressed by these examples serves to show that as the above has a cause and does not happen unless it precedes, so no evil occurs in the city without the permission of the Lord. There are also those who believe that the first example teaches us that two cannot walk together unless they first agree with each other regarding the one who made one of both and destroyed the barrier that stood in the middle and created one new man from the two (Eph 2), and reconciled them and united them with bonds of love, so that when two are together, they will ask the Father and receive everything they ask. These are two branches united with one another, according to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 19), and two nations, from the circumcision and the Gentiles, about whom God says to Elijah: I left for myself seven thousand men who did not bow the knee to Baal (Rom 11:4; 3 Kings 19:18). those who ask about Me (Isaiah 65:1). When the two become one, they will unite with the Lord and there will be one spirit. For cleave unto the Lord, there is one Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Therefore, if two people agree with each other and walk together along the path of Christ, then they cannot be afraid of the attack of any of the opponents. But if, as a result of disagreements, they are separated, then they are immediately attacked by a roaring lion, about which the Apostle Peter says: your adversary is the devil, like a roaring lion walks around, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). This roaring lion does not live in sown fields, not in vineyards, not in olive orchards, not among fruitful trees praising God, but where there are forests and uncultivated land, and where animals live. And not only will they be bitten by a lion, but a lion cub will also catch them and take them to their lair, avoiding the light and rushing in the darkness. For every sinner hates the light and loves the darkness (John 3:20), about which we read in the psalm: You put darkness, and there was night, and in it all the wild beasts of the forest will pass through; For the lion cub is not looking for the prey that he has and which is in his power, but that which he could steal from the Church of Christ, about which it is written in Habakkuk: his chosen foods (Hab1:16). The third punishment applies to those who are divided due to disagreement, so that they lose the wings with which they formerly rose high, and fall from the sky to the ground, and fall into the hands of the bird-catcher, who is better called ίξευτής, 11 because they stick to the glue, and he catches the free birds that fall to the ground of their own free will. It is written about them in Proverbs: it is not without righteousness that the deeps of birds stretch out (Proverbs 1:17). For just is the fall of sinners who, having dove wings to fly through the air, are drawn to the earth by the weight of sins, and through their own fault stick to glue. We read about this from the Apostle: be joined to the filthy person, and he has one body with her (1 Cor 6:16). The fourth punishment applies to people who live in disagreement, so that they are caught with a noose, which is placed not in heaven, but on earth, and from which whoever is saved is glorified as a saint and says: Our soul, like a bird, is delivered from the snare of those who catch: the snare is broken, and we are delivered (Ps. 123:7). This is the broken net about which the apostle speaks to believers: May God quickly crush Satan under your feet (Rom. 16:20). We also read in David: I have put temptations in the path (Ps. 139:6). For they can seduce all the simple-minded among the believers in no other way than by making visible the name of Christ, so that we, considering ourselves to have found Christ, go to the Antichrist. The fifth punishment applies to those who have abandoned the peace that passes all understanding (Phil 4:7) and which the Lord, going to the Father, left with the apostles, saying: My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you (John 14:27), so that those who are in the city of the Lord will fear the sound of the trumpet. For all that is said in the Holy Scriptures is called a threatening trumpet, and its loud sounds pierce the ears of believers. If we are righteous, then by the trumpet of Christ we are called to bliss, and if we sin, then it announces to us the torment that we will undergo. The evil that the Lord allows in the city is not the opposite of good (virtuti), but means grief and suffering, and about it we read: its evil prevails over the day (Matthew 6:34), that is, sorrow and trouble. And from the prophet we read: I am God, who made light and darkness, create peace and builder of evil (Isaiah 45:6, 7). For just as darkness is opposed to light and day, so is war opposed to peace, which is not evil in itself, but appears to be evil to those who are subjected to it. To make sure that in the Holy Scriptures evil is not always understood in the sense opposite to good, but also means sorrow, punishment and disasters, we are given another example from the book of Jonah: and God saw their deeds, as if they had turned from their evil ways, and God repented of the evil that He had said to do to them (Jonah 3:10). Here the destruction of Nineveh, which God threatened through the prophet, is evil, but it is not the opposite of good - it refers to sin, for which [God] threatened sinners with punishment. It follows: The Lord God will not do anything without revealing His secrets or His punishment to His servants, the prophets. This means that God will reveal to the prophets not everything that He does in heaven or that He has already done before, but what He will do on earth. He revealed to His servant Noah that he would bring a flood (Gen. 6). He revealed to His servants Abraham and Lot that He would burn Sodom, Gomorrah, Adam and Seb (Gen. 18:17). He revealed to Joseph the meaning of the dream about the seven-year famine in Egypt (Gen41) and to the prophet Jonah the destruction of Nineveh (Jon3), so that those who hear about the upcoming punishments could repent and avoid punishment, or be more justly punished due to their neglect. So now the Lord reveals through His servant and prophet Amos what He will do with the ten tribes, so that they, having corrected themselves and leaving idols, can get rid of the threatening danger. And note that the good and merciful God always foretells the future, so as not to be forced to punish. While heretics slander the Creator as a stern, unforgiving, cruel and such a judge that there is no evil in the city that He did not do, we, on the contrary, attribute it to great mercy that He does not determine any punishment without announcing it in advance. And whoever proclaims in advance does not want to punish those who sin. The lion, he says, will begin to roar, and who will not be afraid? The Lord God said: Who will not prophesy? In this place the word who is taken to mean not impossible, but rare. For he will not be afraid and he will not prophesy, who, due to his coarseness, does not want to listen to the Lord. The historical meaning of this is as follows: if at the voice of a lion everything trembles and all living beings are seized with fear; then shall we not prophesy and speak when God commands us to speak and announce to the people about the coming punishments? One interpreter, as I know, wrote that by the roaring lion one should mean the devil and that he roars at those who must perish, and by God speaking through the prophets one should mean the Lord the Savior, so that just as those, on the bad side, listen to the roaring of the lion and are caught to be put to death, so the saints, on the good side, listen to the commandments of the Lord and are saved. Amos 3:9-10 Proclaim in the palaces of Ashdod and in the palaces of the land of Egypt and say: Gather yourselves to the mountains of Samaria and look at the many follies in her and at those who are subject to wiles in her inner chambers. They did not know how to do justice, says the Lord, and they accumulated lawlessness and robbery in their homes. LXX Proclaim to the countries of the Assyrians and in the countries of the land of Egypt and say: gather together on the mountain of Samaria and see many wonderful things in its midst and the oppression in it; she did not know what would happen before her (or in her), says the Lord; they accumulated lawlessness and disaster in their countries. We said above that the prophet Amos, in particular, prophesies for the ten tribes, which are called Israel, Ephraim and Samaria, and that most of the book refers to them. Also now he is commanded to proclaim to Azoth and the land of Egypt what follows. The Seventy for some reason replaced Azoth with the Assyrians, although Azoth in Hebrew is called Esdod, and the Assyrians Assur. Instead of palaces, which are called armanoth, they translated countries, which are called sadoth, although there is no similarity between these words. Tell, he says, all the surrounding nations to gather and look at the crimes of Israel, so that they do not think that God’s judgment is unjust. He seems to be saying: first look at what they are doing, and then you will approve of My determination. And He added beautifully: to the mountains of Samaria, - or the city, which is now called Sebastia, and at that time was called Samaria, or the entire country, which is located in a mountainous area. And look at the numerous follies among her: instead of God, they serve bulls and sacrifice their children to them and, not content with this crime, plot intrigues for the poor in their inner chambers and do not at all know how to act justly, accumulating not gold and money, which are sometimes acquired by labor, but lawlessness and robbery in their homes, and since they, leaving the service of God, worshiped idols, God gives them over to a corrupt mind (Rom 1:28), so that they do what they should not do. Since, in an allegorical sense, Samaria means heretics who falsely present themselves as keepers of the commandments of God; then the word of God commands to proclaim to the nations who do not have the knowledge of God and in whose teaching there is a burning fire, disaster and sorrow, so that they pay attention to the false Samaria and, having ascended the mountains of its arrogance, look at the numerous follies in the midst of the city, where everyone invents what he wants and worships what he has invented; Thus, Marcion [invented] a good and idle god; Valentine thirty aeons (αΐωνχς) and the last of them, Christ, whom he calls έχτρώμα, that is, who appeared prematurely (aboritivum); thus Basilides, who calls the omnipotent God by the strange name Άβράξας, says that according to the meaning of the Greek letters and the number of days of the year contained in the circular revolution of the sun, this is the same God whom the pagans call by the name of Mithras (Μειθρας), expressing the same number, but with different letters 12. They also bow to the Spanish absurdities regarding Balsam and Barbel 13. Isn’t this madness, and isn’t it numerous madnesses, when everyone invents whatever comes into their mind? Also, all the simple-minded among the believers are subjected to intrigues in its inner chambers or oppressed, under the name of truth they serve a lie and are not at all able to act justly, because they have lost the path of truth, do not believe in the one who says: I am the truth (John 14:6), accumulate among themselves the teachings of lawlessness, kidnap and imprison in their homes those whom they could deceive through lies and deceit. If you want to read Assyrians 14 (which, however, is not in the Hebrew text), then we can say that these are those about whom it is written: “I will cause the prince of Assyria to become arrogant, who said: I will act with my own strength,” and so on, so that the heretics would be taken captive by the Assyrians and kept in the land of Egypt, from which they had already been delivered upon their transition to the Church. Am.3:11. Therefore thus says the Lord God: the earth will be attacked (tribulabitur) and surrounded [by enemies], and your power will be overthrown and your palaces will be plundered. LXX: Therefore thus says the Lord God: Tire and your surrounding land will be desolate; [the enemy] will overthrow your strength, and your countries will be plundered. Instead of Tyre, which in Hebrew is written with two letters Tsade and Resh and is called Sor, which both Aquilla and LXX translated in the same way, the Jew, who was my teacher regarding the Holy Scriptures, translated the attack, and we did not reject his opinion, because Symmachus, who usually follows not the χαχοζηλίαν, order of thoughts, says: siege and taxation of the land. Instead of siege, which he calls πολιτορχια, Theodotion put force (fortitudo), believing that it should be read not sаr and sor, which means attack or Tire, but sur, which actually means strong stone, which in Greek is called άχρότομος and which we in Latin we can call it silicem (flint). Let us now consider each point separately. LXX said: Tire and the surrounding land is yours. Since the thought did not seem clear, they added on their own: it will be empty. The translators cannot be blamed for an error, because the word, due to its ambiguity, can be translated both through attack and through Tyr. The meaning is this: on the mountains of Samaria, My people committed numerous follies, plotting intrigues, not knowing justice at all, and accumulating lawlessness and robberies. Therefore, he will be attacked or crushed, and their land will be surrounded by the Assyrian army, and your strength will be overthrown, he says, from you, Samaria, the ten tribes that were once My people, and what you have collected through the intrigues and tears of the poor will be plundered from your houses. Also the heretics will be attacked in the day of judgment, and all their strength will be weakened, and what they have acquired through robbery will be plundered, so that the nations they have deceived will be delivered, or perhaps they will be daily attacked by the members of the Church and surrounded by the testimony of the Scriptures, and the power of their syllogisms and artifices with which they have supported their doctrine will be destroyed. And their palaces will be plundered, so that those who were stolen from the Church will return to the Church again. Am.3:12. Thus says the Lord: As a shepherd plucks out of a lion's mouth two legs or the edge of an ear, so the children of Israel who dwell in Samaria in the corner (plaga) of the bed and in Damascus in the bed will be plucked out. LXX: Thus says the Lord: As a shepherd plucks out of a lion’s mouth two legs or the edge of an ear, so the children of Israel who live in Samaria opposite the tribe and in Damascus will be plucked out. At the beginning of Amos, explaining the words: The Lord will thunder (rugiet) from Zion and give His voice from Jerusalem, and the beautiful pastures of the shepherds mourned, and the top of Carmel was withered (Am1: 2), we said that he used expressions characteristic of his occupation, and since the shepherd does not know anything more terrible than a lion, he compares the wrath of the Lord with lions. Likewise, now he takes an example from what he has often seen, and says that the small remnants of the ten tribes will be plucked out of the hands of the Assyrians in the same way, as a shepherd tears out two legs or the edge of an ear from the mouth of a lion who has devoured all the members [of the sheep]. Having presented an example for comparison, he says that in the same way the children of Israel will be plucked out, that is, the ten tribes who lived in Samaria in the corner of the bed and on the bed of Damascus. This, in my opinion, should be explained this way: we read in Isaiah (Isaiah 7:5-6) that Racine, king of Aram, that is, Syrian, who reigned in Damascus, and Pekah, son of Romelin, king of Israel, having entered into an alliance with each other, went to war against Judea. Regarding them, the Lord commands Ahaz, the king of Judah and Jerusalem, not to be afraid of these two half-burnt brands, pointing out to him, as a sign of complete liberation, that the Virgin will conceive and give birth. Thus, the sons of Samaria live in the country and the corner of the bed, resting on the help of the Syrians and reassuring themselves of victory on the bed of Damascus, so that just as one who is tired strengthens himself in bed, so they strengthened their weakened strength with the help of the neighboring people. Therefore, the same Isaiah says, as an image (per typum) of the future, that a child will be born who, before he can name his father and mother, will receive the spoils of Samaria and the strength of Damascus (Isaiah 8:4), that is, those who fought with united forces against Jerusalem. Instead of the corner of the bed and bed of Damascus, LXX was translated: against the tribe and in Damascus, so that in a figurative sense we mean by the tribe of Judah, and by Damascus the called pagans; from them one flock of the Lord was formed, the sheep of which are often torn to pieces by fierce lions, and from their mouths two legs or the edge of an ear are barely torn out. The shin points to the path of teachings, and the ear to the mysterious meaning of words. Therefore, the apostles are commanded to walk barefoot, without shoes and without anything made from the skin of a dead animal (Matthew 10:10). And believers are told: if you have ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:8). Also in the Apocalypse of John we read: having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev. 2:7), and the prophet says more clearly: “receive your words into the ears of our hearts.” Both heretics and their teachers, demons, try to block this path and entangle it with nets, so that we fall on the path that is Christ. But a church member, a man of God, Sampson, meaning sun, comes and kills the lion; Having descended into the pit of hell, which refreshes the waters during snow, storm and rain, he strangles the lion so that we can follow the Lord with a firm foot and listen to His words with attentive ears. Am.3:13–15. Hear and bear witness in the house of Jacob, says the Lord God of hosts. For in the day when I begin to visit Israel for their transgressions, I will also visit them for the altars at Bethel, and the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. And I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory will perish, and many houses will perish, says the Lord. LXX: Hear, priests: bear witness to the house of Jacob, says the Lord God Almighty. For in the day that I will avenge Israel for their iniquities, I will also avenge the altars at Bethel, and the horns of the altar will be dug up and fallen to the ground. I will strike and destroy the house of battlements (pinnatam) and the summer house, and the houses of ivory will perish, and many other houses will be added to them, says the Lord. The word priests that we put at the beginning of this passage in the LXX translation is not in the Hebrew text, but instead it reads ares, which Aquila translated through the bed; I believe that the LXX put this Hebrew word; but some, not understanding it, read ιερεις instead of ares, that is, priests. Prophetic speech commands first to listen and then to testify to the house of Jacob, that is, the ten tribes, what the Lord said. When I begin, he says, to visit the house of Israel for their crimes or wickedness and give them what they deserve, and when the time of captivity comes, then the altars at Bethel, where the golden calves were, will be destroyed, and the horns of the altar will be cut off, which also fell apart at the time when Jeroboam stretched out his hand (1 Kings 13:4), and will fall to the ground, being destroyed by devastation from the side. Assyrians And I will strike, he says, the winter house together with the summer house, which we can simply understand in a literal sense: they were so rich that they had two kinds of houses, winter and summer, of which some were facing north, and others to the south, in order, depending on the difference in time, to protect themselves from cold and heat and changes in weather. We can call the winter home the kingdom of Israel, in which there was cold regarding religion and serving God, all sorts of strong winds and severe storms, and the summer home - Judah and Jerusalem, where there was a church and sacrifices were made morning and evening and the warmth of religion prevailed. And the ivory houses will perish, he says. This can also be taken literally, for we read that Ahab, king of Israel, was so lavish that he built himself a house of ivory (1 Kings 22:39). Instead of houses made of ivory in the Hebrew text it is made of teeth, that is, ivory. It is written about them in the forty-fourth psalm: from the houses of elephants, of which the daughter of kings made you glad in your honor (Ps44:9). When the Lord begins to visit Israel, who previously saw God with their minds, for their crimes, he will also visit them for the altars in Bethel - not just the altar that is in the church, but very many altars of heretics. For they have as many altars as there are schisms. He will also cut off the horns of the altar, the only one they have, as they arrogantly boast. And their horns, that is, their arrogance, will fall to the ground. And He will strike the winter house, that is, those heretics who exhaust themselves by abstinence, fasting, dry eating and lying on the ground, and among whom are Tatian and Manichaeus, and the summer house, such as the Nicolantians and Eunomians and the new followers of the old heresy, who indulge in every pleasure to satisfy the belly. And the ivory houses, built with the brilliance and grace of rhetorical art, will perish. And many buildings scattered throughout the universe will disappear. For when the one truth arises, the numerous lies will be destroyed. Instead of the winter house, LXX translated οικοѵ τον περίπτερον, which we translated through the crenellated house, because it has small doors (ostiola) at the windows, similar to battlements and serving to protect against extreme cold. The name Pammachia (Παμμαχός), according to the explanation of the blessed one. Jerome, means a person experienced in every art of fighting. Rugiet, - actually: growl, roar. Or: I will not spare him, I will not deliver him from the punishments that I threatened. Or: he resettled all the captives, imprisoning them in Idumea. This word comes from ίξος (viscum); this is the name of the mistletoe plant and the bird glue made from it, which is used for catching birds; in a figurative sense it means temptation, seduction. Sn. Letter from the blessed Jerome to Theodora the widow and the prince. Against Vigilance (Russian translation, part 2, pp. 280–281 and part 4, p. 300). You might be interested in: