Глава 10

Hos.10:1–2. The grapes are good for Israel, their fruit is abundant, multiply the treasuries according to the abundance of its fruits, reward the churches according to the blessings of its land. Having divided their hearts, they will now perish: he himself will dig up their treasures, their idols will be crushed. Having said that Ephraim has damaged roots and that he will be barren and generally become like a wanderer, and his children will be exterminated by the cruelty of the Assyrians, he considers it necessary to show what he was like before, that he was fertile when he wisely adhered to life according to the law. Indeed, when it appeared to the neighboring peoples as if it were some good and beneficial grapes, it naturally aroused surprise, and blessed David speaks about it in one place in the book of psalms, (addressing) the Savior of all God: “Thou hast brought grapes from Egypt: thou hast driven out the tongues, and planted them, and: thou hast made a way before him: spread out thy rods unto the sea, and even unto the rivers.” its branches" (Ps. 79:9-12), for it was planted, according to the word of the prophet, "in a rose 175, in a fat place" (Is. 5:1). However, he did not give birth to berries, but brought thorns: he showed (of course, in relation to God) untruth, as if competing with the many blessings given to him and equal to them, “multiply the churches and reward the churches,” and the richer he became in blessings from above, the more inclined he was to desecration, worshiping demons, erecting altars and, as it were, dividing his heart in the error of polytheism. But this, he says, will not continue. Why? “He himself will dig up their churches, their idols will be crushed,” that is, they will be broken and overthrown. The word “himself” can properly be attributed to God, who rules over all, or to the person of the Babylonian, who has already been mentioned many times before, because what happened to the cities of Samaria was that the Babylonians together burned churches and plundered statues. Therefore, for what we receive from God, we should, rejoicing, give thanks, not be carried away by what He does not want, stumbling from the fullness of happiness, but on the contrary, seek and try to accomplish, and with all diligence, deeds of virtue, not being entertained by worldly passions and not bending your neck to Satan, because what Christ said is true: “No one can work for two masters” (Matthew 6:24). If we are divided into parts, then we will be “parts of the fox,” according to the word of the psalmist (Ps. 62:11). Hos.10:3–4. In the same way they now say: There is no king in us, because we do not fear the Lord: what will the king do to us? Verb words of apology are false, bequeath a covenant. Not only, he says, will their altars be destroyed and their idols crushed, but he adds that they too will repent and mourn their follies; they will realize late and finally that they made a mistake in their calculations and were deceived by the false speeches of their rulers. Indeed, those who possessed the royal throne claimed that golden heifers and support from other idols were enough to help them, even if they did not have the divine law, even if they did not carry out the decrees of Moses. However, experience showed that they were lying: it turned out that those who had bequeathed to them from ancient times and foolishly said such things fell into the hands of enemies. That is why, they say, “there is no king in us, because we do not fear the Lord”; behold, they say, there is no one who would defend or repel the invasions of the Babylonians, but everyone became weak, the leaders weakened and fell: the reason for both their and our powerlessness is that they did not fear the Lord. So, what, he says, is the use of rulers? - Of course, there was nothing from them except false speeches and empty “covenants”, or promises, because the Divine Scripture usually calls promises “covenants”. Therefore, it is prudent and worthy of all praise to rely on God, and not to be carried away by the speeches of deceivers to the point of insulting God; on the contrary, to carefully avoid anger before it comes and not indulge in late sorrow after the test, finally reaching the point of useless belated prudence. Hos.10:4–5. The judgment will vegetate like a troskot on the village of the village of Onov's house 176. Troskot 177 grows in fields, especially unplowed and abandoned ones, and fills, and very quickly, adjacent and neighboring land, because it spreads in breadth and besides this, it is difficult to cope with it for anyone who would like to delay its continuous movement beyond adjacent boundaries. So, he says, “judgment (of course, from God) like a troskot in a village will vegetate on the calf of Onov’s house,” - it’s the same as if he said: a decree of destruction and a punishing wave will follow from Me and will overtake “like a troskot” the calf or the idols of the church located in Bethel. This precisely means “the house of On,” because other translators also put: “the bull of the house of Bethel” 178 . Seventy instead of: “the house of Bethel” they say: “the house of On.” In the previous one, I already indicated the reason for this, but it doesn’t hurt to remind you: The Egyptians, composing fables, said that Apis is the child of the moon and the grandson of the sun, and according to them, the sun, and the heifer that Jeroboam made, was an imitation of Apis of Egypt. “So,” he says, “like a troscot,” capturing and overpowering everything around him, judgment will come from Me on the calf of the house of On or Bethel, because the Divine is always omnipotent, and nothing can resist His beckons: “His high hand,” according to what is written, “who can turn away?” (Isa.14:27) Hos.10:5. Those who live in Samaria will prosper because his people mourned over him; and because they have angered him, they will rejoice over his glory. He has already clearly announced the judgment that will befall the calf and, like troskot, can spread wherever God wants. Now it hints at an incident that needs to be mentioned, because only in this way, and not otherwise, will we understand the prophecy. It was the custom of all idolaters, in difficult times and during the attack of enemies, if they needed money, to touch the very offerings stored in the churches! So in the Kingdoms it is written that when the king of Syria was besieging the cities of Samaria, Manaim, who then reigned over Israel, no longer having the opportunity to fight him with his own forces, sent to Phul, king of Assyria, and persuaded him with gifts to help him and remove the Syrian, which happened: he took Damascus by force, and killed Ader himself. And so they say that when a huge amount of gold was needed, Manaim’s affairs reached such a need that he took one of the golden heifers and sent her along with the ambassadors. And Israel grieved, seeing how they sent away the one whom he considered to be God: however, consoling himself with empty speculations, he believed that he would be held in greater esteem, and the Babylonian would place him in more brilliant churches, and besides, he hoped that more people would worship him, namely, the countless nations of the Persians and Medes, no matter how many there are. So Manaim sent the heifer as if it were all golden. Ful took it and broke it: because they have a different deity and they do not recognize the heifer. Then, they say, it turned out not to be gold, but copper and covered with gold. Therefore, they say, the Assyrian mocked Ephraim, that is, Manaim, the king from the tribe of Ephraim, and also shamed the rashness of the Israelites. Now, having presented the history or narrative of Jewish tradition, it is necessary to turn to the text. The words are unclear: “those who live in Samaria will abound.” “They will regenerate” instead of “they will migrate” or “they will be resettled” who are now in Samaria, meaning bulls or heifers, because, as I said, they were sent to the Babylonians. And “his people wept for them.” Who "him"! - Isn’t it clear that She, that is, Anisa? But, he says, as much as they seemed to upset and irritate him, sending him to others, they will just as much rejoice in his glory, namely: they will think that he will even become famous much more if more nations worship him. However, their hopes were deceived: it was defeated and served as an object of laughter for the Babylonians. Thus their idol was crushed, but according to the word of the prophet himself (Hos. 10:2). They angered the calf not so much that he actually became angry (for how can this insensible substance experience?), but so that the quality of his actions would anger him, if he were truly God and could consciously perceive what happened. Hos.10:5–6. For they departed from him 179 , and having bound him to Assyria 180 brought him as a gift to King Jaarim: Ephraim will accept as a gift 181 , and Israel will be put to shame in his council 182 . Prophetic speech interprets itself to us: what he said in darkness, he tries to explain. “The calf departed from Israel, and when he bound it (the speech is mocking), he took it as a gift to King Jaarim,” that is, to the defender, because he was called to help and, as it were, to protect Samaria, which was perishing from the Syrians. However, Phul will accept a calf from Ephraim in the form of tribute 183 (he calls the king of Israel Ephraim). Be that as it may, he says, Israel will be put to shame in its plans, because, as I said, it has retreated from the omnipotent God, preferred to worship calves, has become ridiculous and has noticeably fallen into an old woman’s, empty and useless vanity. Therefore, the prophet, or better yet, God, is right when through the mouth of the saints he speaks of those who serve the work of their hands: “You see 184 that their heart is ashes, and they are deceived” (Is. 44:20). This speech can also be applied to those who distort the right dogmas of the church: just as the crushed heifer exposed the idle talk of Israel, so their dogmas, crushed by trials and broken by the power of truth, will serve to shame and reproach for those who formed them and impiously conceived them and very foolishly adopted them in their minds and hearts. Hos.10:7–8. Samaria rejected his king like self-righteousness on the face of water, and 185 the towers of On will burst forth, the sins of Israel, thorns and thistles will arise on their churches. Again, this can easily prove the inconstancy, and at the same time the unseemly behavior of the Israelites or the inhabitants of Samaria in relation to those whom they consider to be gods. And it is not at all surprising: those who wickedly insulted the one, true and nature of God with betrayals and deviation towards everything shameful, how can they be sincere in relation to many false gods made of stone and wood? Therefore, he says, the Samaritans rejected the calf - in their opinion, both god and king - rejected like a dry stem, which, having fallen into the rapids of the waters, is carried along by their current. And that the churches would disappear along with their idols, the altars would be destroyed and turn into thorny places, when their entire country would be devastated—how could there be any doubt about that? He calls the altars “the sins of Israel,” and quite rightly, because they were wickedly erected in remembrance of their disrespect for God. “He” again calls Apis, or the heifers in Bethel and Dan, in whose honor the altars are. So, what God does not affirm will certainly be destroyed: this, I believe, explains what was wisely said by another prophet: “These will build, and I will destroy” (Mal. 1:4). Hos.10:8. And they say... to the mountains 186, cover us, and with a hill, fall on us. Not only in two cities - I mean Dan and Bethel - were idols honored: there were golden heifers, but on the mountains and hills there were idols of neighboring peoples: Baal, Beelphegor, Ashtoreth, Chemosh. This shows that not only will the altars of She, that is, Apis, or the heifers be destroyed, but in any case the churches on the mountains and hills will also fall, and they will reach a state of such grief and despair that they would rather agree to find themselves under the very mountains and hills than to see alive what they had to undergo, and against their will. It should be noted that Christ himself, announcing to the Jews about the calamities ahead for them for their insolence towards Him, used the same words: then, he says, you will say “to the mountains: cover us, and with the hill: fall on us” 187 (Luke 23:30). Indeed, although death is bitter, sometimes it is made desirable for many by the onset of extreme evils and excessive actions: therefore, to the same mountains on which idolatry and offenses of wickedness against God were boldly committed, it is unlikely, he says, that they will not say: “fall on us,” forestall the cruelty of the sword of Babylon, as well as the inglorious and unbearable misfortune of being taken into captivity. Hos.10:9–10. Far from the hills, Israel has sinned: there is a stasha: the army will not overtake them on the hill: against the children of unrighteousness,... punish them 188, and people will gather against her, never to be punished for their two iniquities. The retreat that took place on the mountains and hills is an ancient, he says, misconceptions regarding heifers. Thus, Jeroboam introduced heifers when the ten tribes, having overthrown the yoke of Rehoboam’s reign, occupied Samaria: they began to perform superstitious service on the mountains and hills, while still in Jerusalem, when Solomon, yielding and pleasing his foreign wives, erected altars and churches to their deities there. So, from the time when hills and idols were invented on them, and idolatry, from that time on Israel stumbled. This can serve as a visible revelation of divine mercy, which for a long time left the wicked without punishment, on the contrary, endured and expected, as one must assume, the repentance of the erring. But they turned out to be more inflexible and were guilty of even worse vices: they added the invention of heifers to the heights. When they made sacrifices to demons on the mountains and hills and observed reverence towards the vain, they probably believed, or, better yet, were firmly convinced that they would remain in unshakable prosperity, would be stronger than their opponents and invincible to their enemies. This kind of weakness is characteristic of those who are mistaken. Then, when they, after the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, went to Egypt, the prophet Jeremiah advised them to stop making sacrifices to idols, so that they would have some mercy from God who was able to save: but they claimed that they fell into disasters for the reason that they stopped fulfilling the laws and were guilty of neglecting the honor of vain (gods). It is in vain (about this) like this: “And all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense with another god answered Jeremiah, and all the women of the great council, and all the people who sat in the land of Egypt, in the land of Pafurste, saying: the word that you spoke to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen... 189 As we create every word that comes out of our mouth, burn incense to the Queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we, and our fathers, and our kings and our princes, did in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem: and we were filled with bread, and it was good for us, and we saw no evil. And when the Queen of Heaven burned incense... 190, we all became impoverished... 191 and died with the sword and hunger” (Jer. 44:15-18). - So: he accuses the Israelites of idle talk and vain hope and says regarding the hills: “there is stasha”, that is, as they say, or at least think to themselves, they, serving the statues there, had lasting happiness and enjoyed inalienable benefits, and also, as they think, everything that usually causes sorrow will not “befall them on the hill”, if only they pay tribute to the statues. But, to say, they were deceived, they made a mistake in their calculations: war came upon them, “children of unrighteousness,” and, having experienced it, they will learn how bitter licentiousness is. Who are those through whom what is necessary for their admonition will be accomplished? - The greatest gathering of enemies, because it means: “people will gather against each other, and the disasters of war will certainly come, and they will never be punished for their two iniquities.” What kind of untruths he showed more clearly when he said through the mouth of Jeremiah: “The heavens were terrified at this, and greatly trembled, says the Lord, for my people 192 committed two evils: they forsaken the fountain of living waters, and dug up for themselves treasures of brokenness, which could not hold water” (Jer. 2:12-13). Os.10:11. Ephraim is a young woman who has learned to love debate: if I seek kindness, I will step on Ephraim, and I will keep silent about Judas. He likens Ephraim to a calf, fierce and very wild, unable to restrain his impulse, no matter where it is accidentally directed, not allowing taming, on the contrary, always striving to gain the upper hand and willfully follow unbridled impulses. But although he is such, he will still have to yield, even against his will: he will be tamed by the pressure of misfortunes when God places a yoke on him and, one might say, abolishes “his goodness,” that is, the most unbridled part in Israel. These were their kings who encouraged the people under their control to retreat. Therefore, they will be overthrown because God weighs heavily on them. This, I think, means: “I will attack Ephraim. I will keep silent about Judas,” he skillfully says instead: I will lightly lay pressure on Judas, without subjecting him to punishment, without causing the disasters of anger, on the contrary, quietly strengthening and helping (him). For what reason? - Ephraim, or the ten tribes, as I said earlier, completely deviated from the fact that they considered it their duty to carry out works of error: and the two tribes of Jerusalem, - I mean Judah and Benjamin, - were often under the authority of just and pious kings, destroying the institutions of idolatry, who urged to live decently and according to the law: such was Amaziah, the son of Joash, a pious and righteous man, equal in the image of Hezekiah, worthy of respect on a par with the previous one, a zealot and lover of God. That is why ten tribes were taken into captivity: when the Babylonian began the war against Jerusalem, he did not cause the slightest harm, on the contrary: he went to his land as a fugitive and in fear, because in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians fell by the hand of an angel (2 Kings 19:35). Therefore, if God is unforgettable and tolerates our weaknesses, then we will not be negligent and will not allow ourselves to be convicted of indifference to the duty of doing what is pleasing and amiable to Him. Os.10:11. He will be strengthened 193 Jacob. I said that the Assyrian, having gathered the forces under his control for war, devastated all of Samaria, burned its cities and churches and after that besieged Jerusalem: however, thanks to the help of God, he did not take it, because in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand were killed by an angel. This, as I think, is now foreshadowed by saying: “Jacob will be strengthened for him.” Who wants “him”? Is it not clear that Rapsaka, who intended to besiege (Jerusalem)? And Jacob calls the descendants of Jacob, I mean Judah and Benjamin: if anyone wants, this word can be applied to all of Israel. Further: the purpose of prophecy seems to be to bring to our memory an ancient event, because God (in this case) was most likely fulfilling a promise to the divine Jacob. So, when He, as a man, fought with him at night on the other side of the stream of Jacob 194, then at dawn and at the dawn of day, God, wanting to leave, said: “Let me go, for the dawn has come”; and he said that he would not let him go if He did not bless him, and then he heard: “For now you have become strong with God, and you will be strong with men” (Gen. 32:26, ​​28). In all likelihood, the prophetic word indicates this to us in the present case, stating very clearly: “Jacob will be strengthened for him.” Notice the accuracy of the promise: it does not say: “Jacob will overcome the Assyrians,” but “he will be strengthened,” because he will be strengthened in God, and not by himself. Os.10:12. Sow to yourselves righteousness, gather into the fruit of your life 195: enlighten yourself with the light of knowledge, seek the Lord 196, until the harvest of righteousness will come to you. There can always be a two-fold method of admonition: either we teach them to hurry up, and as soon as possible, turn to an honest life, pointing out the punishment that awaits the careless, - or, by announcing the honors prepared for the well-behaved, we make those brought up more inclined to strive for a better and more lawful life. Now the God of all things is doing something similar: He threatened the erring with wars, disasters, being taken to foreigners, the burning of cities, the cruelty of warriors, however, He does not limit the words of admonition to this, but again and in a different way edifies them: He commands them, leaving what is worthless and causing them every misfortune, to choose what can most benefit them - (commands) like farmers to sow “in truth and to gather into the fruit of life”, because, as blessed Paul writes, “even if a man sows, he will also reap” (Gal.6:7), and “he who sows evil will reap evil” (Proverbs 22:8), according to what is written, and the worker of righteousness will be full of salvation and life, glorious and worthy of competition, and will gather wine that makes glad “the heart of man” (Ps. 103:15). In addition, those who want to be well-meaning must instill in their minds and hearts the light of true knowledge, which those who worship “the creature rather than the Creator” do not have (Rom. 1:25). And what is the most convenient way to sow “in truth”, gather “into the fruit of the belly” and receive the brilliant “light of knowledge”. He himself shows, adding: “Seek the Lord, until the lives of righteousness will come to you.” We must seek God not in a spatial sense (this is absurd, because the Divinity is not spatial), but as if in the disposition of the soul and in the inclinations of the mind, directed towards what is pleasing to Him, and consistent with a right conscience, pure and not deserving of reproach in anything: because when we find Him in this way, we will be enriched by the acquisition of other goods. Or is Christ wrong when he says: “Without me you can do nothing”? (John 15:5) - I think that this is in all respects certain for those who have learned to think right, because our acquisition of every good thing happens with God, through God and from God. It can be said, and with full morality, that the words: “sow to yourselves in righteousness” and those that follow refer not only to the servants of idols, but also to those who deviate from the right faith, listen to “spiritual” flattering, in demonic hypocrisy, and are seared by “their own conscience” (1 Tim. 4:1-2). They, as the wisest Paul writes, sow, trying to do what concerns knowledge and curiosity, but not for works of righteousness, but for unrighteousness and ungodliness, “having deceitful and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13), “striking the weak conscience” of the brethren for whom Christ died (1 Cor. 8:12, 11). That’s why they collect not “for the fruit of the belly,” but for punishment and judgment. Accordingly, Christ said: “Whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble who believe in me, let him not eat, and let the millstone of the village come down on his neck, and drown in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). So, let them love the truth: that is, the light of knowledge: this is how God is found: from here the fruits of righteousness will come to the “belly” for them, and wine will be gathered - not physical, but mental and spiritual, which gladdens the heart and mind. Hos.10:13–14. How much wickedness is there in silence, and how much untruth is it? The fruit is deceitful, because you trusted in your weapons 197 in the abundance of your strength. And destruction will arise among your people, and all your walls will perish. Again he accuses that, as a result of the attraction to vice, they decided to remain in peace when this was not at all necessary, and they were very unreasonably silent, when it was natural for God to be much offended: when, he says, it was necessary, driving out with all his might the wickedness towards Me, to forbid those who advise the shameful, and, by doing so, to achieve every good, they were silent, accepted the customs of error: they had no counteracting to the innovators, there was no one who would contradict them with the prescriptions of the law, bring to mind the words of God, for it is written: “You shall not have any gods other than me” (Exodus 20:3), and also: “You shall not make for yourself an idol” (Exodus 20:4). But they had no speech about this: they were silent, honoring wickedness, that is, apostasy. Therefore, they gathered the fruit of the untruth associated with this, ate the “false fruit,” that is, they had an unsteady and useless hope, because the true fruit, which can save and help, is the love of God and the deeds of truth, and it is natural to consider the fruit of wickedness as a false fruit, which always leads to a disastrous end. He immediately explains what kind of lying fruit that appeared to them from wickedness, adding: “For you trusted in your weapons, in the abundance of your strength, and destruction will arise among your people, and all your fences will perish.” You, he says, indulged in wickedness a lot, serving wood and stones and insulting the only, by nature, true God: then, when war was predicted and had already entered the very doors, you did not seek help from Me, but you trusted in your own strength and many weapons and believed that you would overcome the enemy force, because for this you had enough mercy and the help of false gods. This will be false fruit for you: destruction will overtake the people, and every glorious and fortified city will be destroyed, because what God does not provide will always and in any case fall. The same can be said from us, or rather from God, to those who willingly listen to godless heretics and imagine that they are studying something that contributes to life and understanding. They “keep silent against wickedness” because they patiently listen to those who speak evil, although they would be obliged to give them the strongest rebuff. Therefore, they will taste their own plan and reap the fruits of unrighteousness, namely: they will taste “(the fruit) is false,” accepting false and worthless knowledge, learning what is corrupt and what tends to distort the beauty of the truth. And that all their power will fall, overthrown by God, and that they will go into destruction and destruction, who can doubt this? Hos.10:14–15. As... the prince of Salman 198 from the house of Jeroboaml 199, in the days of war, the mother was broken about her children 200: thus will I do 201 to you, the house of Israel, on behalf of the unrighteousness of your evil. In the book of Judges it is written that the Israelites once deviated from the trail of the Baals and thereby offended God, and were delivered into the hands of Midian for seven whole years (Judges 6ff.). They were subjected to such cruel oppression by the victors that they began to live in the rocks, barely escaped by hiding in them, and sought protection in the inaccessibility of the place, because they did not dare to fight at all. And it happened that those caught by the Midianites were mercilessly killed, and together with the unfortunate mothers, they also killed the children without any mercy. Their (Midianite) leaders were Oreb, Zib, Zebei 202 and Salman 203. The disasters continued until God, having mercy on the suffering Israelites, raised up Gideon, whom his father and the inhabitants called Jerubbaal for the following reason: at the command of God from the mouth of an angel, he secretly at night destroyed the “altar of Baal” and cut down its “oak grove”: when the inhabitants of the town, getting up at dawn to do the usual, came to the church, they saw Baal overthrown, the grove with him was cut down and, already knowing Gideon’s love for God, they found him guilty of this matter: then they came to his father and said: give up your son, we will kill him, because he crushed Baal; to this he said: Shall you avenge Baal? “If he is God, then let him avenge himself on the one who crushed him.” Therefore, Gideon was nicknamed Jerubbaal, which means: let Baal avenge himself. So, he says, just as Shalman, the leader of the people of Midian, defeated the “mother and children” from the house of Gideon, or Jerubbaal, in exactly the same way, fiercely, inhumanly and without any regret, the leader of the Assyrians will wage war against you and will beat the mother along with the children. This will happen because of your depravity, because God of all, as a righteous Judge, does not punish in vain, but if the sins of those who offend Him exceed all measure, then He sends punishment accordingly. If we are afraid of anger, then it is best to be afraid of sinning and, as it were, to arouse indignation the divine and most loving nature, which, one might say, is forced to this by an excess of sins. – It should be noted that some of the previous interpreters say that it was not the Midianite prince Salaman who broke the “mother of the children” from the house of Jerubbaal, or Israel (for the whole is named after the rulers), but on the contrary, Gideon in the house of Salaman broke the “mother of the children.” But, I think, what is more correct and more likely to be confirmed from the point of view of justice is not this (opinion), but another (stated above): just as at the time when the Israelites turned away to the Baals, their children were killed along with their mothers at the hand of foreigners, so now, when Ephraim turned to idolatry, they will also be killed by the hand of barbarians, i.e. Assyrians, together with their parents and born. Therefore, I believe that the speech will more preserve the plausibility and similarity between the ancient model and the latest events, if this is how the meaning of what is proposed is interpreted. Os.11:1. The next morning the king of Israel was rejected, rejected. Again, other interpreters and the Jewish list clearly say: “turned away like the morning,” 204 ​​showing by this that Israel fell away from communion with God as if in a very short time or quickly and without delay. The time of morning is very short: with the flickering of the day light appears and produces morning, but as soon as the sun rises and sheds its first ray, it ceases and disappears. Thus, they, like the morning, that is: in a small, brief and very limited time, together with their superiors, were rejected. We can understand this way, but we can also understand in another way. Namely: when God does not yet send punishments for human sins, or makes the period of long-suffering longer, then it is not in the least indecent to liken Him to those sleeping at night, and even the blessed prophets proclaimed to us in various ways, pointing out the same thing. So, the wisest Jeremiah says: “Will you eat like a sleeping man, or like a man who cannot save?” ( Jer. 14:9 ) The God-speaking hymnist either says: “Arise, write down the Lord, rise, and do not deny it to the end” ( Ps. 43:24 ), and then, seeing (Him) risen to help someone, he says: “ Arise as the Lord sleeps” ( Ps. 77:65 ). So, in the morning, it seems, he calls the time of being awake over them (because in the morning we rise from sleep): therefore, when God will watch over them and, so to speak, will awaken to observe what they are doing, then they will be abandoned and rejected, although due to the greatest longsuffering in the past time He was as if sleeping for them. Together with the people, he says, the king will also be rejected, because the kingdom of Ephraim will soon disappear. Indeed, as I said, when they returned to Judah after the period of captivity, they were all under one king, just as at the beginning, before the time of captivity, because kings from the tribe of Judah reigned over Israel who lived in Jerusalem. Ἐν κίρατι on the top, on the hill, on the mountain. In glory: at the calf of Onov’s house, whereby these words are separated from the previous ones (by a dot) and are placed in connection with the subsequent ones: those living in Samaria abound. Ἡ ἄγρωστις: “a kind of grass like a reed, which from each knee shoots a stem up and a root down, and these stems and shoots again become seedlings of other grass, and thus in a short time, if it is not completely dug up with roots, they make entire fields look like thorns.” Bl. Jerome in interpretation on Ave. Hosea. Τοῦ μόσχου τοῦ οἴκου Βεθήλ. It is unknown which translators are meant here. Wed. Field ad h. l. In glory: Ephraim will be accepted as a gift. In glory: about your advice. St. Cyril distinguishes here between ξένια - gift and δόμα - houses. In glory: they will erupt (and not). Usually it’s the other way around: to the mountains: fall on us: and with a hill: cover us. In glory: against the children of untruth. I will come to punish them, according to my desire, according to the Greek reading of some lists: ἠλθεν παιδευσαι αὐτοὺς κατά τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν μου. In glory: we will not listen to you. In glory: and pour out libations. In glory: the bread is running low. At St. Kirill: οτι δύο καὶ πονηρὰ κτλ. In glory: to myself. We translate: to him based on the subsequent explanation. St. Cyril. Εις καρπὸν ζωῆς; in slav.: fruit of the belly. In glory: until the time is over, seek the Lord, according to many Greek lists: cf. Decree Apostle book II, ch. 5. In the edition of the works of St. Cyril, according to the Vatican list, it reads: ἐν τοῖς ἁμαρτήμασί σου; but from further interpretation it is clear that St. Cyril read: ἐν ἅρμασί σου. In the text: Σαλμανάκ, by mistake instead of: Σαλμανά, as is repeatedly read in the interpretation. The error is explained by the proximity of the preposition ἑκ (Σαλμανὰ ἐκ τοῦ, etc.), probably repeated by the scribe. In glory: Salaman. Ἰεροβαάλ. Slav.: Jeroboamla. Ἠδάφισε, slav.: broken ἠδάφισαν, as read in almost all codes. The first half of the section in the Slavic Bible has the following form: just as Prince Salaman (died) from the house of Jeroboaml, during the days of war the mother broke up her children, etc. Ως ὀρθος απερρίφησαν instead of the usual: ορθρου ἀπεῤῥίφησαν: Heb. כשחד (in many lists, see Kennicott and De-Rossi) ως ὄρθρος: current Masoretic בשחד ὄρθρου. You might be interested in: