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Os.1:1. The word of the Lord came to Hoshea the son of Beiriyah, in the days of Uzziah, and Jotham, and Ahaz, and Ezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. So blessed Hosea prophesied in the days of Uzziah, and Jotham, and Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. And the time of prophecy, of course, continues to this day. It is necessary, I think, to talk in detail about each of them, so that we have the opportunity to imagine, as I said before, what these kings were like, whether they were kind and well-disposed towards God, or deviated in the opposite direction, and what happened both to those who lived in Samaria and to those who lived in Jerusalem. Thus we learn very easily what was the purpose of the prophecy (of Hosea). So the last named was Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, who was before Azariah, or (otherwise called) Uzziah. You need to know that this is another Jeroboam, different from the first, who was during the time of King Rehoboam, the son of Solomon; however, in morals he was identical with him and in wickedness similar to him. It is written about him like this: “in the year of Amessiah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, the king of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, was fourty and one year over Israel in Samaria. And do what is evil before the Lord: turn not away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin” (2 Kings 14:23-24). You see what a zealot he was for the morals of that Jeroboam, walking as if on the same path with him and as if following in the footsteps of his wickedness. What does the Holy Father say next? Scripture? “In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amesiah king of Judah began to reign, 7 who was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem: and the name of his mother was Jeheliah from Jerusalem. And do what is right in the sight of the Lord, as his father Amessia did in all things. Either way, don’t ruin the tall ones: the people are still the priest, and the kadyakha is on the tall ones. And the Lord touched the king, and he was leprous until the day of his death” (2 Kings 15:1-5). Although Uzziah was pious and God-loving, he was not entirely; for he, it is said, did not destroy the high places, and those who were mistaken burned incense on them and made sacrifices to the demons. Then Azariah or Uzziah, carried away by strange thoughts, imagined that it befits the royal office to perform the sacred rites established by God and perform divine services. So, disregarding the laws of Moses, he personally performed the sacrifice. When he began to serve, which was by no means befitting him, I say, sacred; Then, he says, “the Lord touched him and he became a leper until the day of his death.” And the leper, according to the law, was unclean and those affected by this disease were expelled from the camp, as God once said about this to the high priest Moses: “Command the children of Israel, and let them drive out from the army every leper, and every one who sheds seed, and every one who is unclean in soul” (Numbers 5:2). Thus, the one who dared to commit an illegal act was punished with illness, and the king, who stole sacred dignity, was condemned by God to dishonor. since the prophecy applies not only to Judah, that is, to those who lived in Jerusalem, but also concerns Israel, that is, the ten tribes that lived in Samaria; then it is necessary for us to say about those who reigned over it (Israel) in the days of Azariah or Uzziah, and about what disasters they had to undergo, excessively indulged in the vice of unclean idolatry. So already in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Uzziah or Azariah, another Azariah 9 the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel for six months. since he also walked in the way of his father and “do evil before the eyes of the Lord”; then he was killed by some of his household and thus died. After some time, in the thirty-eighth year of the 10th reign of Uzziah, a new king was installed over Israel, Sellum; He reigned for a “month of days” and was soon put to death by Manaim, the son of Gadi 11, from Tirzah 12. The Holy Scriptures drew attention to the fact that both of them were sons and descendants of Jehu, who killed Ahab with his sons and Jezebel, and to whom God made a promise, saying: “the sons of the fourth will sit on the throne” (2 Kings 15:12). So, having killed Shallum, Manaim reigned over Israel. “And do,” he says, “what is evil in the sight of the Lord, ... do not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin” (2 Kings 15:18). While this same Manaim reigned and continued to anger his God with his strong attachment to idolatry, Phua the 13th king of Assyria attacked Samaria. Unable to repel him with weapons, Manaim, with the help of a lot of money, persuades him to leave the country and end the war. When Manahem died in the fifty-second year of the reign of Uzziah, 14 Jotham was anointed king over Judah and in Jerusalem, after the death of his father, 15 about whom it is written: “And do what is right in the eyes of the Lord; his father Azariah did all that was right in the eyes of the Lord. Do not destroy the high ones, but still the people of the priest and the viper of the high ones” (2 Kings 15:34–35); Pakiah 16, the son of Manaim, reigned over Israel and “reigned for two years, and did evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 15:23–24). “And Phekei the son of Romelin, his tristat 17, rose up against him and killed him in Samaria near the king’s house... and reign in his stead over Israel, and do evil in the sight of the Lord, and do not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin” (2 Kings 15:25, 28). During his reign, Tiglabanazar 18, the king of Assyria, came, who, having taken possession of all Samaria, resettled Israel to the country of Assyria. Pekah also died after Hoshea the son of Elah plotted against him, and he reigned in his stead in the twentieth year of the reign of Jotham the son of Azariah. But “in those days the Lord began to send against Judah Raason 19 the king of Sirsk, and Pekah the son of Romelin” (2 Kings 15:37). Here the narrative (2 Kings) goes back, for Pekah, as we have said, died during the indignation and conspiracy formed against him by Hoshea the son of Elah. But what happened in his time, Scripture places among the narration of later events 20: “in those days,” he says, “the Lord began to send Raason king of Sirsk and Pekea son of Romelin against Judah.” Phekaeus, the son of Romelin, launched a war against his neighbors the Jerusalemites. But when he met strong and insurmountable resistance from them, he convinced Raason, the king of Syria, to be his ally and assistant and go together to the siege of Jerusalem. During the war that broke out in this way, Jotham, the son of Azariah, died: and Ahaz his son received the kingdom, a very wicked man and an idolater, to such an extent carried away by idolatrous error that he led his own son through the fire and was inclined to everything indecent, burning incense on the high places and under every shady tree, according to what is written (2 Kings 16:3-4). So, the frightened Ahaz, having collected all the wealth found in the house of the Lord, sends to Tiglabanser, king of Assyria, and thereby persuades him to give him help. So, the Assyrian arms himself against the kingdom of Raason and takes Damascus, which is the main city of Syria, and kills Raason. After this, Ahaz sets out from Jerusalem to Damascus to see the Assyrian. Having seen an altar in the idol church, which had some new and unusual structure, he came into great delight from it, took the image of it and sent it to Uriah, the priest of Jerusalem, with an order to make one similar to this. Having placed it in the house of the Lord and, as if dishonoring the altar that was built by Moses according to the will of God, he commanded that the sacred rites established by law be performed on it. In addition, he made other innovations in the church, arbitrarily, imprudently and contrary to the will of God. But already in his time, during the life of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, attacked Israel, and, having devastated Samaria, resettled the Israelites to the mountains and rivers of the Medes, and killed Hosea himself. For what reason? According to that, he says that not only did he not send him tribute 21, which was a sign of submission; but he also called upon the tyrant of Egypt to come to his aid. Then, after the death of Ahaz, his son Hezekiah reigned over Judah in Jerusalem. He was a pious man and especially concerned about justice, so in this respect he had an incomparable advantage over others. “Destroy that high one, ... and the oak groves,” he says, “uproot: ... and the Lord be with it” (2 Kings 18:4, 7). During his reign, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah, and, besieging them, took them without difficulty. Then Rapsaks attacks Jerusalem itself and, opening his unbridled lips against God, utters well-known blasphemous words. Then in the Assyrian camp one hundred and eighty-five thousand (soldiers) perished in one night, struck by the hand of an Angel. In the present case, this is not said without benefit, because the prophetic word is skillfully applied to every event: it either denounces the inhabitants of Samaria, then threatens the inhabitants of Jerusalem with an enemy attack, foreshadows captivity, arouses fear, promises help, calls for conversion. Not a single word or expression was omitted from the prophecy that was necessary for the benefit of those who were mistaken at that time. It says: Os.1:2. The beginning of the word of the Lord in Hosea 22: And the Lord spoke to Hosea. God begins to reveal 23 secrets in the prophet, as the same thing is clearly said through another prophet: “I will stand on my watch, and I will mount the stone, and I will see what the Lord God says in me” (Hab. 2:1); for the God of all things gives revelation to the saints, imparting to their minds the knowledge of the future. So blessed David says: “I will hear what he says in me (ἐν ἐμοὶ) 24 The Lord God: as he speaks peace among his people” (Ps. 84:9). In exactly the same way, the blessed Prophet Zechariah expresses himself in similar words, saying: “and the angel spoke in me” (Zechariah 1:9); for the holy prophets usually call the word of God an angel, as proclaiming to them and clearly revealing the will of God and the Father. The prophet Isaiah will also testify to this, saying: “For they will give away all the clothes they have collected to flattery 25 with reconciliation, and they will be burned with fire. For as a child we were born, ... and his name was called “great is the counsel of the angel” (Is. 9:5-6). And that the revelation to the saints was inaccessible to the bodily organs and was not communicated in language and words, as is the case with us, Paul confirms this, saying: “Seek the temptation of Christ speaking in me” (2 Cor. 13:3). So, the expression that the word of God was “in Hosea,” in my opinion, can indicate nothing else to the listeners than that the revelation was “in Hosea,” and that the knowledge of the future shone upon him like a light that enlightens not the bodily eyes, but the mind and heart. And the fact that another time he says: “and the Lord spoke to Hosea,” this leads us to the following thoughts. What was commanded to him did not generally apply to all those who read (his prophecy), and it was not intended that everyone who wished should ever fulfill this command; on the contrary, this was said exclusively to Hosea. And in fact: as much as the commandment is universally binding and useful: “This is what the Lord says: Do not learn by the way of tongues, and do not be afraid of the signs of heaven” (Jer. 10:2), so the command “to drink the wife of wickedness and the child of wickedness” (Hos. 1, 2) cannot be considered good and useful. The first can be usefully applied to everyone, but the second could be spoken by God exclusively to the prophet alone. The expression: “and speech to Hosea”, I think, is the same as if he said: this word does not refer to everyone in general, but to Hosea alone; since what was once commanded to one for the purposes of housebuilding should not have served as a reason for a shameful and voluptuous life for many. So, what did God say to blessed Hosea? Hos.1:2–3. Go, get yourself a wife of fornication, [and give birth to] children of fornication: because the earth has committed fornication from the Lord. And Gomer went and sang to Devil's daughter, and conceived and bore him a son. No arguments will convince us to reject Scripture, to condemn this story as useless, to recognize the event itself as indecent and, following the example of some, to think that nothing of the kind actually happened, that Gomer was not taken for marriage or for marital cohabitation, when the Holy Scripture says that there was a conception and even a birth, mentions the name of the child, names the father of a dissolute woman and, moreover, even the very name of this woman. But since those who decide to agree with the truth of events must admit that all this happened exactly like that; then, having examined the foundations of those who are accustomed to laugh at everything, let us finally add a story about the economy of salvation. So we meet with the reasoning of a not unknown man who wants to explain everything related to this place. He immoderately condemned history and those who say that this is exactly what happened in reality, and directly asserted that lovers of abstinence, fearing nothing at all, should boldly say regarding this very chapter: “writing ... kills” (2 Cor. 3:6). In absentia, as if attacking Scripture and as if rushing headlong, he adds the following reasoning. The Divine Moses, he says, once commanded Israel, freed from Egyptian slavery, to enter the holy land promised to the fathers in ancient times, that is, the land of promise. And the prophet Jeremiah heard God, who clearly said: “Before I created you in the womb, I knew you, and before I brought you out of the womb, I sanctified you and made you a prophet among the tongues” (Jer. 1:5). Therefore, says (the above-mentioned interpreter), are those unworthy of surprise who renounce such a venerable and wonderful service and hesitate to accept it? One says: “I pray to you, Lord, choose another mighty one after him” (Ex. 4:13); the other tried to beg God, referring to his youth. Likewise, the prophet Ezekiel, says, having received the command to make bread for himself from the dung of human feces, expressed considerable dissatisfaction with this and therefore heard: “Behold, I gave you beef bloodworms instead of human bloodworms, and make bread for yourself in them” (Ezekiel 4:15). And the divine Peter, when the canvas descended from heaven, in which there were all kinds of four-legged and livestock, heard the following words of God: “Rising up, Peter, kill and eat” (Acts 10:13): but he, he says, refused this, saying this: “For the Lord has never eaten anything that is foul or unclean” (Acts 10:14), and it did not enter my mouth. no unclean meat. Hosea, having heard that he needs to unite with a shameful and prodigal woman, leading a shameful life, does not refuse this and does not allow himself to delay, does not resort to a plea to free him from this; but as if one of the most voluptuous people with the greatest readiness and without delay almost rushes to this matter, carried away, apparently, by lust for the harlot. Then, taking his reasoning to the point of indecency, he added something more terrible to all this. Under the pretext of justifying the prophet, he again repeats that the prophet would have refused for a very long time if he had known that God commanded him to enter into a carnal relationship (with a harlot). But what was done (by the prophet) was something spiritual and was done as a result of great love for God; then the prophet, as if willingly, begins to fulfill God’s command. Otherwise, he says, the God of abstinence would in no way have wanted something like this to happen - for such a husband to be defiled by such a shameful and unclean cohabitation with a woman, and, moreover, a dissolute and prodigal one. Then turning the historical event into a spiritual meaning, he said that Gomer is the image of a soul that has loved a shameful and obscene life, and the prophet serves as an image of the highest and heavenly, that is, the Word that is from God the Father. Connecting spiritually with our souls, It sows in them the seeds of a virtuous life. These are the proofs he invented to convince him of the truth of his reasoning. I was quite surprised, firstly, that, neglecting the truth of his thoughts, he dared to say that writing kills; secondly, that he refers to the contradiction of the highest commands on the part of Moses and those whom we just mentioned. But he unfairly keeps silent about the fact that those who dared to resist the divine verbs were not free from guilt. Thus, the Lord denounced Moses, the founder of the Old Testament worship, because he renounced and was slow to accept the fulfillment of God’s commandment and referred to his tongue-tiedness as weak in faith, saying: “Who gave a mouth to man? and who made the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Isn't the Lord God? And now go, and I will open your mouth” (Ex. 4:11–12). When, even after this, Moses still shied away and hesitated, “the Lord became angry,” it is said, “with Moses, and said: Is not Aaron your brother sitting down? “He will speak in your stead” (Exodus 4:14). And again, when Jeremiah with thoughtless haste said: “For I am a child, and I do not know how to speak,” God answered him, saying: “Do not say, because I am a child, for you will go to everyone to whom I will send you, and I will command you to speak everything” (Jer. 1:6-7). So, it is by no means safe to say or even just to think that the Higher Will sinned against the proper understanding (of things) by calling a young man to prophecy. In the same way, the divine Peter, when the linen came down from heaven, heard: “Rising, Peter, slaughter and eat” (Acts 10:13). But when he, as a Jew, exclaimed: “Nevertheless, Lord: for no one has eaten foul or unclean food” (Acts 10:14); He immediately received a reproach for this and, as one who dared to resist the divine intentions, he clearly heard: “Even though God has cleansed it, you must not defile it” (Acts 10:15). So, although the God of all wanted to rebuke them meekly and was not overly angry with them, as they did not directly oppose him; but for all that, their renunciation was not entirely free of guilt. I think that those who receive heavenly commands should, without any hesitation, consider them correct and impeccable, and try to fulfill what they command, even if our souls do not really like it. I will give examples. The God of all things commanded Saul to kill Agag as a man who had committed iniquity against the Israelites. But Saul considered it best to take care of him and showed mercy to the one who was condemned by divine authority. “And this greatly offends God.” He cared about the life of the person condemned to death, as if entering into an argument (with God) and in fact saying that God had decreed a wrong verdict regarding him. Therefore, blessed Samuel was greatly saddened by this and, together with God, expressed indignation - and he himself slaughtered Agag, declaring his guilt: “Just as your weapon has become deprived of children,” he says, “so will your mother be deprived of children in wives” (1 Samuel 15:33). He foretells to Saul that he will lose his kingdom and will be subject to severe punishment for disobedience. And if we need to add other historical evidence to this, then in the third book of Kings it is written that Ader, 26 a military leader or king of Syria, once fought against the Israelites. since Ahab, who was the king of Israel, was quite alarmed by this and was afraid of the invasion, expecting that in a short time he and his entire army would be taken captive; then God, through the prophet, announced that He would hand over the enemy to him. But when Ahab took him, he showed him mercy, contrary to the will of God. What does Holy Scripture say after this? “And one man from the sons of the prophets spoke to his neighbor according to the word of the Lord: Beat me today. And the man did not want to beat him. And he said to him: Because you have not listened to the voice of the Lord, behold, you will depart from Me, and a lion will smite you. And you left him, and the lion found him and smote him. And you found another man and said: Beat me now, and beat his man, and strike him in pieces. And the prophet went and stood before the king of Israel on the way and covered his eyes with a veil.” Having then said a few words when Achaab returned, he added: “Thus says the Lord: For thou hast delivered the destructive man out of thy hand, and thy life shall be in place of his life, and thy people in place of his people” (1 Kings 20:35-38, 42). Do you hear how the one who refused to beat the prophet died in a pitiful way, becoming the prey of a terrible beast? Isn’t it true that not daring to beat the saint and prophet was the fruit of fear of God? However, according to the word of the Lord, disobedience turned out to be an unforgivable crime. Ahaav foolishly spared Ader, although God commanded that he be destroyed, and he himself was betrayed instead of his soul. So, we need to do without hesitation or slowness what pleases God, but doing something else instead, or even thinking about something else, entails the accusation of pride; for such people seem to think of reproaching God for sometimes making incorrect definitions. So, to those who slander history and make reckless accusations against it, we answer: does it seem indecent to you that a prophet became the partner of a dissolute woman? So what? Is it more decent that some are killed by holy prophets? Didn't Samuel Agag and Elijah kill the prophets of Baal, although there were a lot of them? Why, tell me, did the prophet Isaiah take off his sackcloth from his loins and walk naked and shoeless around Jerusalem? (Isa.20:2) Couldn’t anyone express reproach to a person in such a way as one who violates decency, and who is frenzied and has lost his mind? Is it possible to doubt this, if it is considered worthy of praise that we do everything in a decent manner? But you will say that they did so then in obedience to divine commands. What, tell me, should we think about blessed Hosea? Is it on his own impulse that he comes to a harlot wife and makes her his partner for such shameful behavior, or did God command him so? I am all the more surprised at someone who wants to laugh at what is written about him and dares to accuse history of indecency. And indeed: whoever denies the event because of its indecency and resolutely asserts that the prophet did not communicate with a prodigal wife, but that the divine Word sometimes enters into communication with unclean souls, has not thought properly about what nonsense he is falling into, for he apparently wants the prophet to be purer than the Most Holy God. Really, tell me, can anyone argue that it doesn’t matter whether a prophet communicates with an evil woman, or whether the Word of God enters into communication with an unclean soul? I think that there is nothing in between. So, either the latter must be rejected along with the first for the sake of indecency, or it must be assumed that human concepts and aspirations must submit to the will of God. I also consider it useful to offer something from the Gospel Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus Christ reclined with publicans and sinners, but the unkind Pharisees accused him for this and openly approached the holy disciples, saying: “Why does your teacher eat and drink with sinners?” (Matthew 9:11) What does Christ say to this? “They do not require a doctor to be healthy, but those who are sick” (Matthew 9:12). So, God, out of His immeasurable love for mankind, sends Him to those who are defiled and have not yet been cleansed from sin, which no one can doubt. And even more so, one should not consider the story of blessed Hosea obscene, since from it it is clearly clear to us how the divine Word can enter into spiritual communication with us, although we are still unclean and defiled by sins. So, the God of all said to blessed Hosea: “Go, get for yourself the wife of fornication and the child of fornication.” He takes Gomer, doing this not for the sake of sensuality, but fulfilling the work of obedience and service and being the servant of the Archetype, about whom we must of course say that He expressed the spiritual, as far as possible, in the physical and earthly. Finally, no one in the world, I think, will condemn the prophet’s intention; for the desire to marry and enter into marital intercourse with a woman 27 and to love children, God-inspired Scripture nowhere prohibits, on the contrary, everywhere it protects it from censure and blasphemy: “marriage is honorable ... and the bed is not filthy” (Heb. 13:4), according to the word of blessed Paul. Those who desired it had every opportunity to be righteous and lead a virtuous and pious life, although they prayed for the birth of children. Blessed Abraham led such a life, and his descendants became pleasing to God. So tell me, what's shameful about this? Or how can one blame the prophet's consent to marry, when God commanded that something spiritual and necessary be depicted in bodily and sensory phenomena for the benefit of the readers? I, without fearing anything, can say that the prophet also saved Gomer; for he persuaded a woman so shameful and public to cleave to a single husband - and she who had previously offended nature itself (because she did not do this to give birth to children, but sold her beauty with the voluptuousness of everyone who came to her, was a snare of death, a door and a path leading down to the deepest and final darkness), persuaded her to abstain from such despicable pleasures and activities and made her an honorable mother of children. And not caring too much about one’s own benefits, but on the contrary, thinking more about what is useful and necessary for the salvation of another is a holy and worthy of wonder. So, shall we not bestow all praise on the blessed prophet Isaiah when he, taking off his clothes, untying his sandals and not attaching any importance to decency, walked naked in order to clearly show the Israelites the image of their future captivity and finally prepare them to turn to God? Tell me, and did not the wise Paul clearly tell us: “I prayed that I myself should be excommunicated from Christ according to my brethren, my relatives in the flesh?” (Rom.9:3) Doesn’t he say that “to all, that he might save everyone,... that he was a Jew, as a Jew,... as a lawless man, not one who is lawless to God, but a lawyer unto Christ, that he might save the lawless” (1 Cor.9:20-22). And why am I talking about this, leaving something even more important? The very only-begotten Word of God, in order to save the human race, “not by the admiration of being equal with God, did not in itself diminish, but took on the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of humanity and being found in the likeness of man” (Phil. 2:6-8), “enduring the cross, being careless about its shame” (Heb. 12:2). Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that, without going much beyond the bounds of decency, the prophet saved Gomer and returned the dead woman to a good life. And that God commanded him to marry a prodigal woman in order to achieve a useful and necessary goal, he immediately confirmed this, claiming that it was for such a purpose that he gave this command: “before,” he says, “the earth will commit fornication from the Lord. And Gomer went and sang, the daughter of Devilaiml, and conceived and bore him a son” (Hos. 1:2-3). God speaks to the prophet not about the future wandering of the earth, but about what has already happened; for there were heifers in Dan and Bethel, and the churches of Baal were built, and the idolatry of Israel was practiced throughout the whole country of the Samaritans. The inspired Scripture, or rather, those who interpreted it for us, do not make any distinction regarding time, as can be seen from the fact that Isaiah introduces the face of Christ himself saying: “I have given my shoulders to the wounds and my hinds to the blows” (Is. 50:6). And the prophet himself says about him: “Like a sheep that is led to the slaughter, and like a lamb that is silent before its shearers, so it does not open its mouth. In his humility his judgment will be taken away” (Is. 53:7-8). He sees how the prophetic word about what was to happen in the future speaks to us as if it had already happened. Therefore, the words: “the earth commits fornication” should be understood in the sense: “the earth commits fornication.” Fornicated in what way? - “From the Lord”, that is, rejecting the obedience that everyone should show to God, as it is written: “to follow the footsteps of the Lord” (Hos. 11:10), that is, you must invariably follow the laws given from above by God. So, she went astray “from the Lord”, ceasing to obey Him. She became an apostate and unclean and, giving herself over to idolatry, angered the Master. The Prophet Hosea entered into a marriage alliance with Gomer for the very reason that the earth had strayed from the Lord, for, as I said, this event can be understood as an image of a mysterious object. Then Gomer gave birth. Hos.1:4–5. And the Lord said to him, Call his name Israel: it is yet a short time, and I will avenge the blood of Israel on the house of Judah, and will give a kingdom to the house of Israel: and it shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the fortune of Israel. Here the prophetic word gives rise to a double thought in us. Some indicate a different reading of this passage, so for accuracy it is now necessary to pay attention to this, since there will be no small benefit if we pay attention to both readings. So, our edition, that is, the LXX translation reads like this: “And I will avenge the blood of Israel on the house of Judah.” But in another it reads: “And I will avenge the blood of Israel on the house of Jehu” 28 . And if we understand this place in this way, then it is necessary to make a historical explanation. It was like this. In Israel there was a king, Achaab, who had a wife, Jezebel. When he strongly desired to acquire the vineyard of Naboth, and the latter opposed this, saying: “It will not be for me from the Lord my God” to give my father’s vineyard to you (1 Kings 21:3), then Naboth was killed, becoming a victim of Jezebel’s cruelty. After killing him, Achaab took possession of Naboth's vineyard. On top of this, he was overly partial to demonic service. Finally, the God of all was indignant and commanded the prophet Elisha to anoint Jehu king over Israel. By sending his disciple, the prophet fulfilled the divine command (2 Kings 9:1–10). Then Jehu, anointed as king, leaves Samaria and carries out the wrath of God against those who insulted Him. Having killed Achaab, he abandoned him in Naboth's vineyard. Then Jezebel and the seventy sons of Achaab, who were in all Samaria, put to death. He also added Baal here; he burned his statues, destroyed his churches and slaughtered his very priests. For all this, God approves of him and proclaims to him, saying: “your sons until the fourth generation will sit on your throne” (2 Kings 10:30). But having become glorified in this way, Jehu nevertheless angered God himself, for he did not destroy the heifers and was himself exposed to reproof for walking wickedly in the sins of Jeroboam. Then the first son of Jehu, Jehoahaz, was a man devoted to idolatry and worshiping heifers. But in his time, the Scripture says, “the Lord was angry with wrath against Israel, and they were given into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ader the son of Hazael” (2 Kings 13:3). The second to reign was the son of Jehoahaz, Joash; and this was a wicked man. The third was Jeroboam, during whose reign the prophecy of Hosea begins. The fourth was Azariah 29, the son of Jeroboam and also an idolater. Sellum killed him. So, although Jehu was anointed in order to avenge the blood of Naboth, who was from Israel (and this was the city of Samaria) and so that, having destroyed the idolatry of Israel, he would finally persuade him to turn to God, but he himself became a worshiper of heifers and his descendants were no less wicked. “I will avenge,” he says, “the blood of Israel on the house” of Jehu. Just as He took vengeance on the house of Achaab through the kingdom of Jehu, so He will take vengeance on the house of Jehu; In the days of his sons, Hazael the king of Syria and Ader fought, they defeated Israel and devastated many cities of Samaria. - So, the prophet gives birth to a child, who is given the name Israel, because God, as it were, reminds him of the sin committed against Naboth. And in fact: when a righteous and pious man was killed, could the Defender of the righteous remain deceased? Therefore, he proclaims that he will break the bow of “Israel in Israel’s fortune”; for, as I have said, the tribes of Israel were overcome by Hazael and Ader. This is the meaning of the historical events indicated here. But let us try to explain the meaning according to another reading (of this verse), giving spiritual meaning to what God said. The Jewish synagogue is noble for the sake of its ancestors. The closest descendants of the divine Abraham served the living and true God, were zealots of righteousness, adorned with all virtues, distinguished by true nobility, were unshakable in faith and experienced in justice of all kinds. When, driven by hunger, they came into contact with the Egyptians and lived there for a long time; then their descendants became different both in morals and in beliefs, and finally began to imitate the customs of the natives and completely neglect piety, in which they were experienced and which their ancestors carried out excellently in life. They worshiped “the creature more than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25) “and... by the work of their hands” (Mic. 5:13), according to what is written. They have reached such a vile and vile life that it seems there is not a single form of vice left to which they have not indulged. It seems to me that the same thing happened to them that happens to an intelligent and noble woman if she leaves her usual way of life and does not pay attention to the decency of her behavior, but decides to appear in the form and clothes of a harlot. Just as the latter voluntarily fulfills the pleasure of everyone, without any obstacle, so the human soul, having abandoned all care for piety, neglected the love of God and surrendered to Satan, satisfies the lusts of evil spirits. So the synagogue of the Jews committed adultery spiritually in Egypt, for, as I said, it was ready to serve the lusts of demons, easily drawn to everything that gave them pleasure. But God looked upon and had mercy on such a humiliated woman and wanted to make her chaste again. And the All-Holy and Pure One made the unclean one, as it were, his concubine, even made the child the mother and honored her with love for the sake of the Firstborn born from her, that is, Israel, which means: “seed of God” 30 . So look, Hosea became the image and type of such wise works of God's economy. He, the holy prophet, enters into marriage with “Gomer” - a prodigal woman. She bore him Israel. So God, through the wise Moses, called the Jewish synagogue to unity and spiritual communion with Himself for the sake of the Firstborn who would come from it, that is, Christ. Who truly is the seed of God; for the Son was born of the Father, although he became flesh. But since the explanation of the spiritual meaning can be clear and thorough only after the presentation of historical events, now we will again recall them. So the prophetic word clearly announced to us that Israel is a city. But since he expressively indicates that Naboth was from the city of Israel, then this same Naboth may be an image of the economy of salvation in Christ, for Naboth means: “he who is to come” 31 . And the Holy Scriptures often designate Emmanuel by this name. So it was said to the blessed prophet Habakkuk: it is not yet long, “he who comes will come and will not tarry” (Hab. 2:3). Nowhere did David sing: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Ps. 118:26). Even the divine Baptist himself sent some of his disciples to our Lord Jesus Christ and asked Him, saying: “Are you the one who is coming, or someone else?” (Matthew 11:8; Luke 1:19) And that he (Naboth) was the image of Christ, we will clearly see from what is written about him. Ahab strongly desired to take possession of his vineyard and turn such a beautiful place into a vegetable garden. Naboth was indignant at this and resolutely stated that he would never give up his father’s vineyard: “let me not,” he says, “give me” my father’s vineyard to you (1 Kings 21:3). When the God-hating and nasty Jezebel, the persecutor of the prophets and the evil-doer against the righteous, found out about this, through skillful deceptions, she forced the righteous to be killed. And having arranged his murder, she ordered her partner, I say, Achaav, to take possession of the vineyard. God was rightly indignant at this and proclaimed that He would avenge the blood of Israel. Therefore Achaab was killed by Jehu, as we have already said before; The evil Jezebel suffered the same fate. Now let us apply to Christ what happened of old in the type. The prophet Isaiah says: “the grapes of the beloved became in a rose, in a fat place... and the grapes of the Lord of hosts, the house of Israel and... the man of Judah,” a new beloved garden (Is. 5: 1, 7). But the leaders of Israel, of whom King Ahab was the image, desired to take possession of His vineyard, not so that it would be an excellent heritage, that is, a vineyard, but so that, having been desolated, it would become a vegetable garden, that is, it would turn into something incomparably worse; for the difference between a vegetable garden and a vineyard is very great. And something even greater is revealed here, namely: the Jewish people, being under the leadership of Christ, should not have become like the most lush and fruitful vine branches? But living according to the morals and customs of the Pharisees and learning the teachings and commandments of men, they were in no way different from the basest vegetables, which very quickly fall off and dry up. So the leaders of the Jews strongly desired to have the vineyard of Christ as their own and to turn it into a vegetable garden, but they did not persuade Him to give them the vineyard of the Father. What then did the God-hating Jezebel, that is, a herd crowd subject to its leaders, or the synagogue, do? Sympathizing with the malice and deceit of her leaders, she persecutes the righteous and holy Naboth, that is, “the One who is Coming,” and arranged for Him to be killed. The slandered Emmanuel is killed. And how unbearable this deed was in the eyes of God is clear from what was said to the prophet Hosea: “It is yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Israel on the house of Judah: and I will give rest (abolish) the kingdom to the house of Israel.” So, as I said, the blood of Christ was exacted from all Israel. Since at the time when the prophecy was made, they were called differently: Judah - those who remained in Jerusalem, and Israel - those who lived in Samaria; then, in order to clearly indicate all of Israel, he had to say that he would avenge the blood of Israel, “on the house of Judah and abolish the kingdom of the house of Israel.” But the divine Jacob also predicted this, saying: “The prince from Judah and the leader from his feet will not fail, until the hope of the tongues, which was set aside for him, will come” (Gen. 49:10); for when Immanuel shone among us, it was then that the kingdom of Israel was destroyed. And indeed, at the time of the birth of Christ, the country of Judea was ruled by Herod, the son of Aktipater, the Ascalonian 32. He also proclaims that “in that day,” that is, at that time, the very bow of Israel will be crushed, for “the bow of the mighty is exhausted,” according to what is written (1 Sam. 2:4), although they imagined that they would defeat Emmanuel, and “the enemy’s weapons will be exhausted to the end” (Ps. 9:7) and the strength of their muscles is destroyed, for they did not defeat the Invincible. But as if preparing for the depth of spiritual contemplation, he immediately turns to historical events, saying: “I will break the bow of Israel in the fortune of Israel”; for there Hazael king of Syria defeated Israel who came against him. since, I think, one should not shy away from necessary and spiritual contemplation; then I affirm that there is no obstacle to understand by the valley of Israel (that is, the seed of God or Christ) the tomb in Vertograd, in which suffering was followed by resurrection and He defeated all kinds of insolence of the Jews. By the resurrection their evil, God-hating and bloody plans were destroyed. They thought that they could kill the Son in order to make His vineyard their own; but laid in the tomb, He came to life again, rendering their evil intentions ineffective and, as it were, crushing their bows by the fact that He could no longer undergo any suffering. And he himself expels them from the vineyard, as hated by God and evil killers of the Lord, and gives the vineyard to other farmers, good, well-meaning and very hardworking, according to the Gospel parable (Matthew 21:38-41). Hos.1:6–7. And he conceived again, and gave birth to a daughter. And [the Lord] said to him: Call her name, she has not had mercy: I will not show mercy to the house of Israel, but by resisting I will resist them. But I will have mercy on the sons of Judah, and I will save them in the Lord God: and I will not save them with a bow 33,... nor with battle 34, nor with horsemen, nor with horsemen. After the birth of Israel, the Prophet gave birth to a girl from Gomer, whom God commanded to give the name: “without mercy.” He immediately adds motivation to this name and clearly indicates the reason, saying that Israel will no longer be awarded any mercy, but God will, as it were, rebel against them and will be their most terrible enemy. He greatly opposes their welfare, so that they fall into extreme distress and are exposed to truly intolerable misfortunes; for when God rebels against people, those who suffer cannot receive help from anywhere. “If a man shuts it, who will open it?” - says (Job.12 cf. Is.22:22); So the prophet says: “Who can turn away a high hand?” (Is.14:27), or who will protect the condemned by heavenly judgment? Everything obeys divine beckons and what he decides to do is fulfilled without hindrance and without fail, because the creature cooperates with Him and obeys the determinations of its Master. Thus He punishes the Egyptians by turning water into blood and ashes into scree, sending down terrible hail, spreading darkness for three days and bringing upon them all other punishments. So the name of the girl: “unmerciful” turns out to be necessary and useful so that those who once angered God with their polytheistic delusion, being curious and learning about the reason for such a name, would be inclined towards better and more decent thoughts and deeds and, finally, would prudently decide to turn away the wrath of God from themselves, at least by their subsequent actions, and to gain all kinds of meekness and mercy from the God who had angered them. It seems that here the prophetic word again points us to the captivity of Israel by Tiglaphelaser and also Shalmaneser by the Assyrian kings, who, having devastated the cities of Samaria, resettled Israel from Samaria to the borders of the Persians and Medes. But they would not have been subjected to such terrible misfortunes if God had wanted to help them, and not the other way around, that is, if he had not armed himself against them and had not risen up as their enemy. This is exactly what He said clearly: “By resisting, I will resist them.” He promised to have mercy on the sons of Judah and save them, but not by military force (this is indicated by the words: neither chariots nor horses), which happened during the siege of Jerusalem by Senacherib, when Rapsaks blasphemed the divine glory, saying that God was not able to save Jerusalem and those living in it, and as proof of the captivity undoubtedly awaiting them, he cited the fact that the Samaritan gods were not able to deliver their worshipers. But Judah, that is, the two tribes belonging to Jerusalem, were miraculously saved; for “an angel of the Lord came down,” he says, “and killed from the army of Assyria in one night one hundred eighty and five thousand” (2 Kings 19:35). Those saved in this way sang a song and narrated how a great deed had been accomplished for them, saying: “These are on chariots and these on horses, but we will call in the name of the Lord our God: these fell and fell, but we rose and were restored” (Ps. 19:8-9). But let us say this in a historical sense 35. Let us now move on to other thoughts, that is, again to reflections about Christ himself. After the birth of Israel, that is, the seed of God (so that you understand Immanuel, for whose blood God promised to avenge), Gomer, that is, the synagogue of Judea who fell into fornication, gives birth to a daughter or a crowd that should be called: “without mercy,” since it participated in the murder of Israel, that is, Christ. Therefore, rightly, she finds her enemy and adversary in God, and soon suffered terrible disasters, being devastated by 36 Roman troops and subjected to a famous war, during which women even ate their own children, or, as the prophet Jeremiah says: “rutse, merciful wives cooked their children” (Pl. 4:10); since hunger forced them to ignore the laws of human nature and neglect the irresistible power of parental love. All this happened to the wicked. But he also promises to have mercy on the sons of Judah, that is, those who, after learning and rebirth from the Holy Spirit, became sons of Christ, who came from the tribe of Judah. And in fact: if through the gospel some are born in Christ as holy apostles, then how much more through Christ Himself? About them he says: “Behold I and the children whom God has given me to eat” (Heb. 2 cf. Is. 8:19). Therefore, they are saved in Christ the Lord and God of all, not by earthly and carnal weapons (2 Cor. 10:4), but by the power of Him who saves and breaks principalities and thrones and with His cross triumphs over the hordes of opponents and overthrows the evil forces and gives to those who love Him “power to tread on the serpent, and on the scorpion, and on all the power of the enemy” ( Luke 10:19). The people of Judah, rebellious, unbridled, and having killed the Lord, very well he compares them to a woman, I say, without mercy; for woman can obviously be recognized as the image and symbol of an unmanly and powerless soul. These are all those who did not accept the teachings of Christ and did not want to follow His divine and holy commandments. So the prophet Hosea says: “Turn Israel to the Lord your God, for thou hast fainted in thy iniquities” (Hos. 14:2). And again he says about the Savior’s commandments: “For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but the wicked will fail in them” (Hos. 14:10). The same Hosea about the murderers of Israel, that is, Christ, says: “And the reproach of Israel 37 will be humbled before him” (Hos. 7:10) and “Israel and Ephraim will faint in their iniquities” (Hos. 5 cf. Hos. 14:2). Hos.1:8–9. And milk the woman who had not had mercy: and she conceived again, and gave birth to a son. And [Lord] said, call his name: you are not my people, you are not my people, and I am not... yours 38. Then, and not much later, a new child is born to Gomer, to whom God commands to give the name: “not my people.” And immediately the reason for such a command is again indicated: “You are not my people,” he says, “and I am not yours.” And from here, finally, one can see that these historical events took place to expose those who had sinned and for the firm correction of those who were inclined to arrogance and who had fallen into error, and were images of events that had to happen in their time among the Israelites, when the Only Begotten had already become man and suffered an honorable cross for us. If, before explaining the spiritual meaning, it is necessary to tell historical events, then we will say that after Israel was resettled from Samaria to the borders of the Persians and Medes by Tiglaphelaser and Shalmaneser, the kings of Assyria, the surviving remains of those subjected to disaster completely ceased to be called the people of God, since all their aspirations were directed towards apostasy from God - and they did not at all abandon their attachment to disgusting service demons. As for the true meaning and significance (of these events) in relation to Christ, then understand them in a different way. After this villainous crowd, which was justly not pardoned (for it killed the Lord), - immediately, we say, after those former or existing (to this day) sons of the synagogue that had already gone astray, obviously ceased to be and be called the people of God. True, the Roman war did not destroy the entire Jewish people (although a very large and even countless number of them perished), however, those of them who were saved and escaped the snares of death were scattered to all the winds, according to what is written, and settled in the countries of the pagans, no longer being called, as I said, the people of God. Grace (of God) passed to those who believed from the pagans, with whom the remnant of Israel was mingled, that is, those saved by faith in Christ; for not a small number of them believed. And since Israel rejected communication with God, the God of all Himself abandoned him, which he clearly indicated, not only saying: “you are not my people, but also adding to this: and I am not yours.” But about us, justified in Christ and sanctified by the Spirit and having received fellowship with Him, through the mouth of the prophet he says: “And I will be unto them as God, and these shall be “to me as sons and daughters,” saith the Lord Almighty” 39 . (2 Cor.6:18) And Christ says to the Jews: “I am with you for a short time” (John 7:33), then: “Behold, your house is left to you” (Matthew 23:38; Luke 13:35) 40. And about those who believed among the pagans he says: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they will come after me. And I will give them eternal life” (John 10:27–28). Os.1:10. And the 41st number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor counted. Blessed Isaiah explains the same thing to us in a different way. “And if,” he says, “the people of Israel are like the sand of the sea, their remains will be saved: for the Lord will perfect the word and cut it with righteousness, as the word is cut in all the world” (Is. 10:22-23). Perhaps it should be understood in this way, but it can also be understood in another way, namely this way: Israel is great and innumerable, and even if it were equal to the sand of the sea, its significance with God is not great after it began to be ungodly, and yet even the righteous and pious are rewarded with love and special care from Him. He also looks at Him alone, “meek and silent, and trembling in His words” (Is. 66:2). And he is not content with caring only for the good and meek, those who fear Him and sincerely serve Him, but cares for the benefit of others and even delivers those who anger Him from the punishment that sometimes threatened them. As proof of this, you can take what was said about the Sodomites, when Almighty God promised to free them from fiery punishment if only five righteous people were found among them. Then Lot was saved along with his wife and children. And what am I saying about the five righteous and good ones, when He, threatening Jerusalem with wrath, says: “Walk ye the ways of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and seek in its hills: if ye find a man who exercises judgment, and seeketh faith, and will be merciful to them, 43 saith the Lord” (Jer. 5:1)? You see how He does not abandon even one righteous person, and does not despise one who prays for an entire city 44 . And the innumerable people, as I said, have no significance with Him if they turn out to be unclean, prone to evil and unbridledly devoted to demonic charms. Os.1:10. And it will be... in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, these there 45 will be called the sons of the living God. Along with severe anger, the cessation of sorrow is also announced, and, as for the words of the prophecy, the end of disasters is not far off, that is, in the presentation of the prophecy, after the speech about the wrath of God and rejection, there is talk about God’s mercy and the cessation of troubles. That Israel will one day be rejected was clearly foretold in the words just spoken to us. And that he will not completely perish and not be completely destroyed, but that the time will come for them to be restored to their previous state and return to love for God, obviously through faith in Christ - and He also confirmed this; for those who were to listen to the prophetic speeches should have a clear knowledge of the sacrament and not remain ignorant of the ways of the divine economy. So, “it will be,” he says, “in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, but these will be called the sons of the living God.” Let us try to explain exactly what He wants to say with the expression: “on the spot.” The Israelites once became captives and were resettled in Assyrian land. There they wept and lamented about the law, which the blessed David clearly showed us, saying: “on the rivers of Babylon, there, weeping and weeping, we never remembered Zion” (Ps. 136:1); again he said: “How can we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:4) But by the mercy of God, having returned to Jerusalem, they, as before, were and were called the people of God and, being in prosperity, freely performed divine services and made sacrifices according to the law; for it was impossible to fulfill the decrees of the law in any other place, but in Jerusalem alone and in the church. Concerning this, the Law of Moses gives a clear instruction: “Take heed to yourself, lest you offer your burnt offerings in every place, if you see only in one place the Lord your God chooses, there you shall call his name, there you shall offer your burnt offerings (Deut. 12:13, 5). So, having left the land of foreigners and once returned to Jerusalem, they again began to do what was legalized by Moses and were called the people of God. After the cross 46 of the Savior and after the former siege and devastation of their (city), they and their families scattered throughout the cities and countries of the pagans. So, how will they one day become the people of God? Will they really return to Jerusalem again and be gathered in the church? Or will this happen in those places where everyone will live? What does the Prophet say? “In the place where it was spoken to them, not my people, these will be called the sons of the living God.” True, they ceased to be the people of God and scattered throughout pagan countries, which, as everyone knows, continues to this day. But in the last times of the age, when “the fulfillment of tongues shall come” (Rom. 11:25), then the rejected Israel himself will be accepted among the sons of God, no matter where anyone happens to live. For this there is no need to return to Jerusalem and look for another stone church, because they (Israel) will honor God not according to ancient customs, not by sacrifices, I say, of oxen and the slaughter of sheep, but the expression of their worship will be faith 47 in Christ, and His commandments, and sanctification in the Spirit, and through holy baptism regeneration, imparting the glory of sonship to the saints themselves, called for this purpose from the Lord. Os.1:11. And the sons of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together, and they will establish one power for themselves, and they will come out of the land, for the great day of Israel. And this, as we will see, was fulfilled both historically and spiritually. The inhabitants of Samaria, that is, Israel, as well as the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, Judah and Benjamin, as prisoners of war, were within the borders of the Persians and Medes. When Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, having captured Babylon and gained power over the Persians, released Israel and Judah and ordered them to go home with their sacred vessels, then they came to Jerusalem and finally began to live, no longer separating from each other, as they had been before the captivity, and each did not have their own special kings. All unanimously belonged to one Jerusalem, having at that time Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, who was from the tribe of Judah, as their leader, and Jesus the son of Jozedek as their great high priest. Then they restored the divine church and began to take care of the arrangement of their homes. Therefore, “the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together,” he says, “and they will establish one power for themselves and come out of the land,” so that you understand the land of foreigners, to which they were taken by foreigners. But the expression: “for the great day of Israel” does not correspond to the historical narrative, 48 and therefore there 49 it says, Israel will be called the people of God, although for their great wickedness they were called “not people,” as we have already talked about this before. Then “the sons of Judah themselves will be gathered together,” that is, finally all the multitude of Jews that will appear in the last times. And everyone will be under one authority, that is, under the authority of Christ. This is what God foretold of all through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, speaking about Christ: “And I will raise up for them one shepherd, and I will shepherd my servant David... and he will be their shepherd” (Ezek. 34:23). David calls Christ, who was born according to the flesh from the seed of David. So, after many pagans have already been called, Israel will finally be brought in and everyone will be under one authority. And “they will come forth,” he says, “from the earth.” These words, I think, indicate to right-thinking people either that those who have completely submitted to the yoke of the Savior will in every possible way move away from earthly thoughts and conquer carnal desires (and that such are all those who have submitted to the yoke of Christ, blessed David will also attest to this, saying: “For the powers of God of the earth have been greatly exalted” (Ps. 46:10) and also Paul: “who They are Christ’s flesh, crucified with passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24), or that they will receive the resurrection from the dead, for Christ once said: Amen, I say to you, “He who believes in Me, even if he dies, he will live” (John 11:25). the advantage of those who believed in Christ, the Savior himself showed us this, saying: “The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy: I came, and they had life, and they had more” (John 10:10). So everyone will be resurrected, both the evil and the good, but not everyone has this “more.” Those who are not Christ's, due to the fact that they will be convicted of the sin of unbelief, will ultimately have a life much worse than death; for they will be judged for their crimes and for their unbelief. And those who are His essence and have received spiritual communion with God, people of a good lifestyle, in addition to the general resurrection and return to life, will certainly have the following after this, that is, gifts, honors, crowns, rewards, glory. Paul will testify to this, saying: “I tell you this mystery: for we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we will be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52). So, “they will come forth,” he says, “from the earth,” that is, they themselves will live the life of saints, as “great is the day of Israel.” And indeed, great is the day of Christ, on which He will raise all the dead, and come down from heaven, and sit on the throne of His glory, and “will reward everyone according to his deeds” (Matthew 16:27). If anyone would like to understand by day the time of the (first) coming, when Christ granted remission of sins to the Greeks and Jews and to all who sinned against Him, then he will not deviate from the truth. So David announces the time of the coming of our Savior, saying: “This is the day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 117:24). So in LXX, in Heb. Huld, and Sir. But St. Kirill, instead of ὑιός, reads: ὅς – which. In glory and in LXX, as in all: in the summer of the thirty-eighth. In glory and in the authoritative text LXX, as in other texts, the son of Jeroboam is called Zechariah - but in the Alexandrian list LXX reads here and in 14, 29: Αζαρίας. In glory and in LXX, as in all: in the summer of thirty-nine. At St. Cyril: Γαζῆ, in LXX Γαδδί and Γεδδί or Γεδδεί, Heb. גָּדִּי or גָּדִי. Slav. son of Gaddiin. At St. Kirill: ἐκ Θερσίν, in LXX: ἐκ Θερσίλά, Θαρσιλὰ, Θερσά, slav. from Fersila, Russian: Tirz, Heb.: מִתּרְצהָ Φουά – and in some lists LXX, in others Φαλώχ, Φούλ, Φαλώς cf. 1 Chronicles 5:26, – Heb. פּוּל. Russian Full, Slav. Fula. In LXX and in Heb. in the fiftieth year (2 Kings 15:12), and in Slavic and in all texts; and in the fifty-second period Pekah reigned (2 Kings 15:27). Ἰωάθαμ -same as in LXX, but in Alex. list Ἰωάθαν, Heb. יותָם At St. Cyrus. Φακέας, in LXX Φακεσίας, and Φακείας (in the Alex. list), Heb. פְּקַחְיָה τριστάτης - the first dignitary after the Tsar. Θεγλάβαλασάρ, in LXX: Θαλγαθφελλασάρ, Slav. Felgaffellasar, Heb. תִּגְלַת פִּלְאֶםֶר ῾Ραασών, in LXX, a Slav. Raasson, Heb. and Russian Retzin. those. not in chronological order, but as an introductory indication of what preceded among the narrative of what was later. Μαναά Hebrew מִנְחָה left untranslated by the LXX, which is translated by Slavic: gift, 2 Kings 8:9, tribute, 2 Kings 17:4, sacrifice, Nehemiah 13:5. ἐν Ὠσηέ, in Alex. sp. πρός Ὠσηέ, Slav. to Hosea. בֶּן־הֲדַד in Heb. Vulg. Arab. and Russian (Benadat) is the proper name of three Syrian kings (1 Kings 15:19, 20:1; 2 Kings 13:3). But LXX, Huld. Sire. and Slav. the first half of the name is transferred to the common noun - son and, in addition, LXX interpreters read ר instead of the final ד, which is where it came from: ὑιὸς Ἀδέρ Slav. son of Aderov. St. Cyril Alex. follows the LXX translation, omitting ὑιός. The first reading follows: LXX. Italian Arab. Slav. August. The second is found in Heb. Sire. Huld. Vulg. Russian, also in Theodoret and Jerome, who, like St. Kirill, draws attention to this discrepancy. Heb. יׅזְרְעֵאל from זָרַע – sow and אֵל – God in St. Cyril: σπορὰ θεοῦ – actually: sowing or generation, generation (son) of God. For the location of Israel, see Onomasticon Evsebii edit. Larsowi et Porthey, Berolini, 1862 pag. 230. Ὁ ἐρχόμενος. The Hebrew name נָבות Holy Father is derived from the verb בּוא. In addition, the ancients found the following interpretations of this name: conspicuus (probably from נָבָה or נַָבט, reading ט instead of ת), sessio (from נָוָה, reading ו vm. ב). exclusio (from נוּא), ἐρχόμενος, as in St. Cyril, – ἀπό πνεύματος ἐρχόμενος, superveniens (from נָבָא or בּוא), even θυγατέρες (erroneously reading בָּנות; the Greek and Latin spelling of the name is as follows: Ναβουθαί (LXX), Naboth (Vulg.). Nabaoth, Ναβουθέ (Migne, Patr. Ser. lat. prima, coll. 821–822, 1193–1194, 1237–1238). Josephus reads Νάβουθος other readings: Ναβουθᾶς, Antt. VII, 13.8 edit. The new ones interpret: fruits (from נוּב - Gesenius), or: prophecy, loquela, prophetia (נְבוּאָה - Vulgate Sixtus V, 1826). The Jewish tradition that Herod was an Ascalonian (Ascalon and Gaza are Philistine coastal cities) is already known to St. Justin (Conversation with Trif. ch. 52) and Julius Africanus (Evs. Ts.I. 1, 6), who calls Herod the son of a slave who served at the church of Apollo and came from Ascalon (ἱεροδὄυλος). According to the testimony of Herod's court historian Nicholas of Damascus (Ios. Antiq. XIV, 1.3), Antipater was a descendant of one of the first Jews who returned from Babylon to Judea under Zerubbabel. But Joseph explains this false testimony of Nicholas by flattery towards Herod and the desire of the historian-diplomat to reconcile the Jews with Herod. According to the reliable testimony of Joseph himself, Aptipater was an Edomite by birth, and not a slave, but one of the most noble people in terms of wealth, position and origin (Antiq. XIV, 1. 3; Bell. jud. 1, 6. 2). To reconcile the ancient patristic evidence with the testimony of Joseph, it must be taken into account that the concept “Edomite” has a very broad meaning and that the name “Ascalonian” does not necessarily indicate nationality. In explanation of the ancient patristic evidence, it can be pointed out that Antipater’s father was in the closest friendship with the “Arabs, Ghazians and Ascalonians” (Antiq. ibid.). At St. Kirill omitted: not with a sword. At St. Cyril, as in Alexander. list, added: οὔτε ἐν ἄρμασιν – nor by chariots. That is, what has been said must relate to the historical explanation of the prophecy. Instead of ταῖς Ρωμαίων δυνάμεσιν ἐκπεπορθημένων (str.) it should read: ἐκπεπορθημένη. Reproach (ὕβρις) actually means arrogance, insolence. In Slav.: Your God. But the word God is not found either in the LXX or in the Hebrew. The quotation represents a loose connection of 2 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Samuel 7 and Jer. 31:9, 1. It comes closest to 2 Cor. 6:18, where St. The Apostle connects the prophecy of Jer.31:9, 1 and 2 Samuel 7:14. The Holy Father omits the word: “let”, according to some Matthew 23 and almost all ancient readings of Luke 13:35. In LXX and St. Cyril stands: καὶ ἤν – and be – past prophetic, meaning future, as in Hebrew. αὐτοῖς - so with St. Cyril and LXX, also in Khald. and Arab. But in Heb., Sir. and Vulg. is singular, as in Slav. him (to him). Since God’s promise of mercy applies not only to the righteous, if even one of them were found in Jerusalem, but to the whole of Jerusalem (all its inhabitants), then to avoid double-think in the Slavic text it should be either the beginning of the verse read like this: habituate the ways of Jerusalem (as in the Greek LXX there is a noun), or the pronoun refers to the meaning of what is not in the glory. text to the noun Jerusalem. Russian: I would spare Jerusalem. The Greek ἀυτοῖς is explained by the fact that interpreters take the word Ἰερουσαλήμ in the collective meaning of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Of course, Abraham prayed for Sodom (Gen. 18). St. does not have tamo (ἐκεῖ). Cyril, as in some ancient lists. But when explaining verse 11 of St. the father seems to be reading this word (Migne, t. LXXI, col. 56. V.). Literally: the image of their worship will be faith... i.e. express faith... About the Jews of the time of Zerubbabel, and therefore should be understood in a spiritual and educational sense. See note. to the 10th verse, to the word tamo of the Slavic text. You might be interested in: