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I know, Eustochia, I often said, that the apostles and evangelists, citing evidence from the Old Testament, everywhere used to use either their own words or those of the Seventy Interpreters, if there is no difference between the Hebrew text and the Seventy. If the meaning is different in the Hebrew, different in the ancient edition, then they followed the Hebrew text rather than the Seventy Interpreters. Therefore, as we have shown, they translated from the Hebrew many things which the Seventy do not have; So let our envious people show some evidence taken from the Seventy, which is not found in the Jewish books, and the dispute will be over. We said this because the present chapter, although the meaning is the same, differs in words. The fifth after the tenth book of Isaiah begins with its explanation. Chapter LIV. Art. 1. Praise, O barren one, who does not give birth: Sing praise and sing, O one who was not tormented in childbirth: for a single woman has many more children than she who had a husband, says the Lord. LXX: Rejoice, O barren woman, who does not give birth: break away and shout, O woman who is not in labor; for the single woman has many more children than the one who has a husband. For the Lord has spoken. Symmachus translated this passage as follows: Elevated, barren, who has not given birth. Rejoice in delight, and laugh, you who were not tormented in childbirth: for the one who is absent-minded has many children, more than the one who was with her husband. From him, except for a few words, Theodotion and Aquila do not differ. After the birth, and the order of life and virtues, the suffering on the cross, and the glory of the resurrection of the Savior, when He, having laid down His soul, saw the long-lasting seed, and by His knowledge, being Himself a righteous man, justified very many, and divided the spoils of the mighty, and interceded for the criminals, giving room for repentance, the prophet proceeds to the calling of the pagans, and in a detailed speech describes who has faith in Him. This is precisely the place that the Apostle Paul refers to, under the name of Sarah and Esaab, to the Church (Gal. 4:22-31), because the former people from Mount Sinai and Hagar are in slavery with their children; the one who follows is free, about whom Isaiah speaks: rejoice, you who are barren, who do not give birth; break away and cry, you who are not in pain, for there are many more empty children than those who have husbands; and immediately [the apostle] adds: we, brethren, have made promises to Isaac as a child. But just as then a spiritual persecutor was born in the flesh, so it is now. But what does Scripture say? Marry the slave and her son, so as not to inherit the rank of a slave with the son of a free woman. We, brethren, are not children of bondage, but are free: with the freedom by which Christ freed us (Gal. 4:27–31; 5:1). So, if the chosen vessel, taking from Isaiah the testimony that is now in our hands, referred it to the children of the promise and to the Church, gathered from the Gentiles, or from both peoples, which among the Jews was lonely and abandoned, which did not have God for a husband, and did not receive either the law or the prophets: then by our very reason we are prompted to follow in the footsteps of the predecessor, and to call the one mentioned above lonely (Isa. 35) we read: rejoice, lonely one, and so on. About her and Jeremiah it is written from the person of God: she who gave birth to seven was idle, her soul was poor, the sun set for her while it was still midday (Jer. 15:9). And in the book of Samuel: you have given birth to seven barren children, and many children are faint (1 Sam. 2:5), and in the Psalms: when a mother brings barren children into the house, she rejoices over her children (Ps. 113:9). The synagogue is called the one that gave birth to seven children, because of the mystery of the sevenfold number of the Sabbath, which was obligatory for the former people. Instead of seven, we can mean many, due to the ambiguity of the Hebrew word, which means both the Sabbath and many. This is more fully stated in the book of Jewish Questions, which we wrote and in Genesis. So, this is the one who, while she had God, the divine word, as her husband, and was tied to the law, she bore God many children: when she received a letter of divorce, and did not want to answer the husband who called, she heard: you are your mother’s daughter, who rejected her husband (Ezek. 16:45); and again: you did not call on Me as the Lord, and as the father and director of your virginity (Jer. 3:4); therefore, this same prophet mourns her: like the harlot, the faithful city, Zion is full of judgment; In him righteousness rested, but now in him are murderers (Isa. 1:21). But it should also be noted that when he says: a single woman has many children, more than one who has a husband, then the synagogue is not completely eliminated from birth, but a multitude of pagans is preferred to it. For she too, in the person of the apostles and through the apostles, gave birth to the first people of the Jews. Therefore, the two foremost of the apostles divided among themselves the communities of believers in Christ: from the slaughtered and from the pagans, so that from both people they could build Jerusalem, which had previously been empty and poor. And the fact that the Hebrew text put neighing instead of joy means great joy, like a horse neighing in victory. Job writes about this in more detail (Job 39). This place and the text that follows is attributed by the Jews and our Judaizers to Jerusalem, about which they say that it will be restored during the thousand-year reign, and there is the same one that previously had a husband, but then ceased to have one, that which will have much more children after divorce than previously had from her husband, while, obviously, a comparison is made of two women: one who had a husband and one who was divorced, and who was always single and without a husband. We should not be surprised at the Jews, whose eyes and ears are closed, if they do not see the clear truth. But I don’t know what to say about Christians who shake hands with the Jews, desiring earthly thousand-year pleasures, although the Apostle says: the essence is allegorical (Gal. 4:24), and relates this to the two covenants, old and new, Sarah and Hagar. Art. 2–3. Enlarge the place of your tent, and stretch out the skins of your tents; have no mercy: make your ropes long, and strengthen your stakes. For you will penetrate to the right and to the left, and your seed will inherit the nations and inhabit desolate cities. LXX: Enlarge the place of your tent, and fasten the skins of your coverings: have no mercy. Stretch your ropes and strengthen your stakes. Expand also on the right and left sides: and your seed will rule over the nations, and you will inhabit desolate cities. To whom he said: Praise, O barren woman, who beareth no child, break the bonds by which she was formerly bound, and cry out in confession of the Lord, O woman who had no children, the same is now commanded, in the likeness of the tabernacle of Moses, which he once had in the wilderness (Exodus ch. 36), to enlarge her tent, and stretch out the skins, and make the ropes longer, and to drive deep and strengthen the stakes, from which every tent is formed, so that did not collapse from the winds. It must penetrate to the right and to the left, and not be cramped like the Jewish tabernacle, which had a circumference of one hundred cubits in length and fifty cubits in width (Exod. 27), and not be limited to the small space of the church, which was sixty cubits in length and twenty in width (1 Kings 6:2), but do not cease to seize the place to the right and to the left. And so that we do not think that this, in accordance with the vain pursuit of the Jews, is said about Zion, which must be restored by the Lord to its ancient state, it brings out more clearly what was hidden: and your seed will inherit the nations. We read about him in the Gospel: he goes out and sows (Matthew 13:3); and again: did you not sow good seed in your village (Matthew 13:27)? This seed will cause the deserted cities to be inhabited, so that pagan churches will appear throughout the entire universe. Or, at least, the seed of the apostles and the remnant of the Jewish people should be called the seed. This same prophet says about him: had it not been that the Lord of hosts had left us seeds like Sodom, for they would have become, and like Gomorrah they would have become like Gomorrah (Is. 1:9). And the Apostle says: the remains became (Rom. 11:5). This [is said] about the size of the churches, which, instead of one place - Judea, and, moreover, a very narrow one, spread their boundaries throughout the entire globe. Let's move on to spiritual understanding. Whoever is in a tent, although he does not have a firm and permanent residence, always changes places, and hastens further, saying in the psalm: I will go to the place of the wondrous dwelling (Ps. 41:5), forgetting the past and reaching out to the future, until he reaches the honor of the highest calling (Phil. 3:13, 14). About this village we read in another place: since Thy village is beloved, O Lord of hosts: my soul desires and ends in the courts of the Lord (Ps. 84:2, 3). And then he adds: blessed are those who dwell in Your house: forever and ever they will praise You (V. 5). For the end of settlements is the possession of an eternal house, which does not change its foundations and is not transferred from one place to another. For those who are planted in the house of the Lord first flourished in His courts (Ps. 92:14), so that they may drink from the flowers to fruit, and can say: I am like the olive tree that is fruitful in the house of God (Ps. 51:10). As a result of this, the holy man, hastening to pass through the villages and wanting to see the house of God, says that he has one desire, to never leave the house of God; I have asked one thing of the Lord, this I will require: that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Ps. 26:4). So the tent must be spread, and the curtains and skins must be stretched, and the ropes of numerous and varied sermons must be stretched out longer, and the stakes must be strengthened with reason on the right and left sides, so that the seed of the word, that is, the teaching of God, can take possession of the nations, and make populated the cities that he who received the double mina (Luke 19). The right and left sides in the Holy Scriptures are accepted in a good way when we understand them both in spirit and in letter through the weapon of righteousness in the right and left hand (2 Cor. 6:7), so that the lower understanding of life follows the instruction and examples of the elders, and the spiritual and the high carry you from the present to the future. This is what the Lord said to the questioning Pharisees: Give honor to Caesar and to the Gods of God (Matt. 22:21): so that we may submit to the authorities of this age, who do not unjustly hold the sword to punish those who have acted badly (Rom. 13), which is meant by the left hand: but we should give thanks to the God of God, so that we will not fear anyone else except Him who has power over both soul and body (Matthew 10), which is meant by the right hand. Finally, about the wisdom of God, with which nothing precious can be compared (Proverbs 8:11), it is said that in her right hand she has longevity and many years of life, and in her hand she has wealth and glory (Proverbs 3:16), so that by wealth we mean that which currently consists of knowledge and good deeds, and by glory - that which one who glorifies God with his deeds receives from the pagans, and longitude and very many years of life mean eternal life, which, neglecting the present, rushes towards the future. Art. 4–5. Do not be afraid, because you will not be ashamed, and you will not blush: for you will not be ashamed, because you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will no longer remember the shame of your widowhood. For He who created you will rule over you, the Lord of hosts is His name: and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, will be called God of the whole earth. LXX: Do not be afraid that you were ashamed: and do not be ashamed that you were reproached: for you will forget eternal shame, and you will not remember the shame of your widowhood: for the Lord who created you, the Lord of Hosts, is His name: and he who delivered you, the God of Israel, will be called [Lord] of all the earth. The question arises: if the Church, gathered from the pagans, is told: rejoice, O barren one, who does not give birth; and: a single woman has many children, more than she who has a husband, which, therefore, did not have a husband and then gave birth to many children, and the one who had previously had a husband turned into barrenness: then how is it now said to the one who did not have a husband: you will no longer remember your widowhood, and you will forget the shame of your youth. The Jews want to conclude from this that everything that is said is said to Jerusalem, which, abandoned by God, must again be restored by Him. They will be easily refuted if they are filled with what is said on behalf of God in Zechariah: I will take for Myself two rods, one I called goodness, and the other I called parekoh, and I will feed the sheep (Zech. 11:7). We spoke about this in detail in our place, and now it will be said in part by us. The two rods are two nations, pagans and Jews. Of these [the rods], he first named the people of the pagans, who had received the natural law written in their hearts, about which Paul speaks with great power, writing to the Romans (Rom. 2); there is nothing more beautiful than this rod, for all creation is equally called to honor its Creator. The second, that is, the [rod] of the Jewish people, is called a snake: after the insult from the pagans, it is called a part of the Lord and a snake of His inheritance - Israel (Deut. 32:9). As a result of this, after Israel was called in the person of Abraham, the Lord says: I will accept My good rod, and will cast it away, to destroy My covenant, which I commanded to all people (Zech. 11:10). So, at the coming of Christ, it is said to the rod that was rejected: do not be afraid, and do not blush, and do not cover your face with shame. For you will no longer be ashamed as you were before, and you will not remember the shame of your youth, and you will not remember your widowhood, during which you were abandoned by God: because your Creator Himself will rule over you - [the Creator], whose name is the Almighty, who reigns not over only the Jewish people, but over the entire globe. Finally it follows: He who created you himself redeemed you with his blood: and he will be called the God of the whole earth, that is, all who dwell on the earth. From this it is clearly clear that this is not said to Jerusalem, which has never dominated the entire universe: but to the Church of Christ, whose inheritance is the possession of the world. Art. 6–8. For as a woman abandoned and grieving in spirit, the Lord has called you, and a spouse rejected from youth, your God has spoken. For a short moment I left you: but with great mercies I will gather you. In a moment of indignation I hid My face from you for a short time: but with everlasting mercy I had mercy on you, said the Lord your Redeemer. LXX: The Lord did not call you as a deserted and cowardly wife, nor as a wife hated from youth, said your God. I left you for a short time, but with great mercy I will have mercy on you. In a little wrath I turned away My face from you: but with everlasting mercy I will have mercy on you, said the Lord who delivered you. Here the friends of the Jews value little the meaning, saying that the wife abandoned and the spouse rejected from youth, whom the Lord left for a moment and for a short time, is Jerusalem. He [the Lord], hiding His face for a short time, will receive him with eternal mercies, and will transform the past sorrow into joy. This is according to the Hebrew text. According to the Seventy, he says that she, not as a deserted and cowardly wife, was called by the Lord, and not as a spouse who was hated from her youth; but that He left her for a short time and turned His face away from her in order to have mercy on her forever. So, if the Jews and our Judaizers say that Israel was abandoned for a short time, so that at the coming of Christ God would have mercy on them; and time is explained as small in comparison with the whole of eternity: then why are we not allowed to call the time during which the pagans were abandoned small: so that they, who were God’s in their youth, but rejected in middle age, would later receive eternal mercy in old age? - especially since during the temporary calling of Israel the pagans were never rejected; but the door of return was always opened for them through the proselytes, so that, just as through their calling [the Jews] we seem rejected for a short time, so through their eternal rejection we would be granted a return to God. We called the rejection eternal if they do not repent. Also, the Apostle Paul says: “God has brought all under sin, that he might have mercy on all” (Gal. 3:22). What we have explained in relation to the Church, gathered from two nations, and the Jews understand in relation to Jerusalem: those who follow only a figurative meaning and in very difficult places through a digression consisting of free reasoning, avoiding the questions that arise, refer to the sinner soul, which rejected by God not out of hatred, but out of economy, so that she, having been oppressed by the severity of disasters, would return to her former husband, and, having squandered her property, would not despair of their father’s mercy (Luke 15). Is yours evil, for I am good (Matthew 20:15)? Art. 9–10. This is for Me, as in the days of Noah, to whom I swore that I would never again bring the waters of Noah upon the earth: so I swore that I would not be angry with you, nor would I rebuke you. For the mountains will move, and the hills will be shaken: but My mercy will not depart from you, and My covenant of peace will not be removed, said the Lord who has mercy on you. LXX: This is to Me from the water that was with Noah: just as I swore to him at that time not to be angry with the earth any more because of you, and to rebuke you not to remove the mountains, and not to remove your hills: so My mercy will not fail, and the covenant of My peace will not be taken away, said the Lord who is merciful to you. In order for the assembly of saints to believe in the eternal mercy of the Lord, and that for this reason we were left for a moment and a short time, so that they were united by an eternal covenant in a friendly union with God, he gives examples of the ancestors, saying: how at the time when the whole universe sinned, after the whole earth had turned away from the path of the Lord, a flood was brought, and according to all the authors of sins, all sins were destroyed, and the human race was preserved in the face of one person - Noah, to whom I swore that I would no longer bring a flood to the earth and My promise has been fulfilled until now, and will never become invalid (Gen. ch. 8 and 9): so I swear to My Church, which I redeemed for Myself with My blood, that I will no longer be angry with those who have had mercy on Me, and My mercy will not change to any severe reproach. For the mountains and hills will sooner be shaken than My determination will change. Accordingly, in the Gospel he says: heaven and earth pass by, but My words will not pass by (Matthew 24:35). My mercy, he says, consists in this, that the covenant of peace, which has reconciled the world to Me, should be preserved not according to the merit of those to whom it was given, but according to My mercy. According to the Seventy, the meaning is confused, and everything is so mixed up that about labor you can understand what is being said: not because I do not know what the most intelligent man did in this department, but because it does not satisfy my spirit. For he also understands the flood in an allegorical sense, which the Saviors explain in the meaning of baptism, collecting very many examples, similar to the following: the Lord is inhabited by the flood (Ps. 28:10), and also: the Lord is good to those who endure Him in the day of sorrow: and knowing those who fear Him, in the flood of the way he creates the end (Nahum. 1:7); that is: He blotted out all sins in baptism, as He says in another place: I am, I am the one who blots out your iniquities (Isa. 43:25). For ecu turned aside, but was not key (Ps. 13:3). There was no one who did mercy and truth: and there was no knowledge of God on earth. The curse, and lies, and murder, and adultery, and theft took possession of everything, and mixed blood with blood (Hos. 4:1, 2). Therefore he speaks through the Prophet: I am fierce! for the pious perished from the earth. There is no corrector in men; they hide in My blood. Everyone embitters his neighbor with bitterness, and prepares his own hands for evil (Mic. 7:2), and so on. This also includes this: “no one is clean from filth, even if his life on earth lasted even one day” (Job 13). Therefore, the flood was made by the Lord, who, according to the Apostle Peter, was put to death in the flesh, but revived in the spirit, and preached to the spirits who were in prison (1 Peter .. 3), when, in the days of Noah, the long-suffering of God was expected, which brought the flood to the wicked. In this image, water also cleanses us, not through washing away the impurity of the flesh, but through asking God of conscience for good (1 Peter 3:21). By the mountains and hills that do not move, but which were shaken during such a flood, we mean holy men who accepted the eternal covenant, who were shaken during the ancient flood and left their immobility. He calls mountains both demons and opposing forces, who saw the daughters of men that they were good, and, wounded by the arrow of love, took wives for themselves from all those whom they chose (Gen. 6), and have lost their former power, and they will not remain after this flood. This was said by the one whose interpretation I leave to the reader. Art. 11–13. Poor thing, tossed by the storm, inconsolable! Behold, I will put your stones in order, and I will make your foundation of sapphires, and I will make your visors of jasper, and your gates of carved stones, and all your fences of precious stones: I will make all your sons taught of the Lord, and your sons will have great peace, and you will be established in righteousness. LXX: Humble and wavering, inconsolable! Behold, I will prepare for you the ruby, your stone, and your foundations of sapphire; And I will make your fences of jasper, and your gates of crystal stones, and your walls of chosen stones, and I will make all your sons disciples of God, and your sons will have great peace, and it will be built on righteousness. Where we said: I will put your stones in order, there it is written in Hebrew: baphphuch, which everyone except the Seventy translated in the same way: I will lay your stones on antimony, like a dressed woman painting her eyes with antimony, to make one understand the beauty of the city. And where we, following the Seventy, said jasper, there in Hebrew it is written chodchod, which only Symmachus translated χαλκηδόνιον (Chalcedon). Also, instead of the crystal, instead of which the Jews read ecda, Symmachus and Theodotion put: carvings, that is, γλυφῆς, Akila τρυπανισμοῦ (borings): this word means drilled and carved precious stones. We talked about the differences in translation: let's move on to the meaning. Even now He speaks to the church, which was formerly humiliated and poor, which had neither the law, nor the prophets, nor the Word of God, and which was shaken by the storm or was unstable, subjected to many storms of the world and barked among various idolatrous errors, having no comforter and having spent its entire fortune in vain on doctors - [tells it] that He Himself will come, He Himself will descend and will build on earth the heavenly Jerusalem, which in In the Revelation, Johan is called the bride and wife of the Lamb, who has a light like a precious stone, like jasper and crystal, and a great wall, and twelve gates inscribed with the names of the tribes of Israel, of which three were from the east and three from the north, and three from the south, and three from the west; and the steppe rested on twelve foundations, which were all built of ashma stone and each foundation of the walls had special stones - the first jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedon, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardolith, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh hyacinth, the twelfth amethyst. Reading this, we exclaimed and said: O the depth of the wisdom and understanding of God! for His judgment has not been tried and His ways have not been explored. Who understands the mind of the Lord, or who is His counselor (Rom. 11:33–34)? And eitze: who is wise, and understands this, and understands, and this message (Hos. 14:10)? Let them answer those who love the deadly letter and prepare for a thousand years exquisite dishes for gluttony and intemperance, whose belly is God, and the glory is in their shame (Phil. 3), who, after the glorious second coming of the Savior, expect marriage, and children a century old, and the unrighteousness of circumcision, and the blood of sacrifices and the eternal Sabbath, and who speak perversely to Israel: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will reign. This is that heavenly Jerusalem, to which it is now said: Behold, I will lay your stones in order, or by Seventy: behold, I am preparing (or will prepare) the ruby, your stone, so that the whole city may be full of rubies, and have foundations of porphyry, and battlements of walls of jasper or chalcedon, and gates of crystalline or carved, and a perimeter wall of precious stones, and so that all its sons may have as teachers not men, but God, and be called disciples God, and so that among them there may be eternal peace and the creation of righteousness. From this it is clear that in the success of truth, which serves as the name of virtue, we must seek other virtues for the building of the Church, and not follow Jewish fables. Let them [the Jews] explain what we read in the Proverbs of Wisdom; The most precious stones are precious (Proverbs 3:15). For if Christ is God's power and God's wisdom (1 Cor. 1), then it is foolish to compare Christ with stones deprived of feeling. And again we read about the judgments of God: the destinies of the Lord are true, justified together, more desirable than gold and many stones are worth (Ps. 18:10, 11) From here it is clear that that stone is compared with other stones, about which the same prophet speaks above on behalf of God: Behold, I will lay for the foundation of Zion a cornerstone, a chosen stone, of great value, and he who believes in it will not be put to shame (Isa. 28:16). This stone was rejected by those who built it, that is, the scribes and Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews, which became the head of the corner (Ps. 117; Matt. 21). Discussing about him, the Apostle Peter says: “Therefore He is a treasure to us who believe, the cornerstone, the precious and chosen stone, but to those who do not believe He is a stone of stumbling and a stone of offense” (1 Peter 2). He also says to the high priests in the Acts of the Apostles: “He is a chosen stone, precious, which is despised and rejected by you (Acts 4), which became the head of the corner and supports two nations: the pagan and Israel, which built a city, the artist and creator of which is God; about Him the Apostle writes to the Corinthians: God’s building is natural and: for the architect is wise, the foundation lay down, and he edifies; let each one take heed how he edifies. For no one can lay the foundations of anything other than Jesus Christ who lies down (1 Cor. 3:9-11). Whether anyone builds on this foundation with gold and precious stones, wood, hay, straw: everyone’s work will be revealed. About this foundation and in another epistle he says: on the foundation that was once an apostle and a prophet, which is the chief cornerstone of Jesus Christ himself (Eph. 2:20), and again: you also, like living stone, are built into a spiritual church, a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5). It is mysteriously said about these stones: stones are holy lying on the ground (Zech. 9:16), from which the Lord builds a Church on you, who said in the Gospel: on this stone I will build my Church (Matthew 16:18). He who is worthy to enter this city joyfully says to the Lord: “Even as we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God is the foundation and forever” (Ps. 47:9). About the Creator of this city it is said in another place: This will build My city and bring back the captivity of My people (Is. 45:13). Now is not the time to talk about the nature of the twelve simple and precious stones, although very many both Greeks and Latins have written about this. Of these, I will name only two: a man of sacred and venerable memory, Bishop Epiphanius, who left us a book entitled πεpιλίθων [on stones] as a testimony of intelligence and learning, and Pliny Secundus, who was an orator among the Latins and also a philosopher, who, in his most beautiful work - Natural History, filled the last, thirty-seventh book with discussions about ordinary and precious stones. These twelve stones are described in order in Exodus and Ezekiel, and namely ἐν τῷ λογείῳ [on the breastplate] of the high priest and on the crown and diadem of the prince of Tyre. Let's first talk about the Exodus: four rows of stones were inserted (Exodus 28). The first row had sardolicus, topaz, and emerald stones. Second row: ruby, sapphire and jasper. Third row: amber (ligirium), agate, amethyst. Fourth row: chrysolite, beryl, onyx, which were set in gold, and on which were written the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. It should be noted that the second row is also given in the Scripture under consideration: ruby, sapphire and jasper. For we do not yet possess the perfect and have not reached the first [or fatherland], because we now see through a glass, fortune-telling. Then, in Ezekiel we find it written like this: you are the seal of likeness and the crown of kindness; in the sweetness of God's paradise there was ecu; he adorned the ecu with all kinds of precious stones, sardium and topaz and emerald, and anphrax, and sapphire and jaspis, and silver, and gold and ligirium, and achatus, and amephistus, and chrysolyphus, and virillium, and onychos, and gold filled the ecu with your treasures and your granaries. You were created ecu from him, you were created among the cherubim in My holy mountain, you were ecu among the stones of fire, you were blameless in your days, from that day you were created ecu, until unrighteousness was found in you (Ezek. 28:12-15). For who is so reckless and insane as to think that the prince of Tyre, who was placed in the paradise of God, no matter who they thought him to be, and was created among the cherubim and was among the fiery stones (by which we must undoubtedly mean angels and heavenly powers), was the one who was adorned with earthly stones and had a likeness and a seal? So, now is not the time to talk about the nature of all stones and each one in particular; for it is not always necessary to talk about everything. Now we will only talk about ruby, sapphire and jasper. The ruby, which is prepared or placed in order, means, as it seems to me, the fiery word of teaching, which, after removing the darkness of error, enlightens the hearts of believers. This is the [stone] that one of the seraphim took with tongs to cleanse the mouth of Isaiah (Isaiah 6), and which, according to God’s testimony, will be born in the land of Evilath, where there is very good gold, anphrax and a green stone (Gen. 2:12). Further, the sapphire on which the foundations rest has a resemblance to the sky and to the air above us; he is such that one can say about him with Socrates this from Aristophanes: ἀεροβατῶ καὶ περιφρονῶ τὸν ἥλιον, which we can translate into Latin like this: scando aerem solemque despicio (I exalt into the air and looking at the sun) or with the Apostle Paul: our life is from heaven (Phil. 3:20). Also, the scripture of Ezekiel (1:26) mentions that the place on which the throne of God is located has the likeness of sapphire, and the glory of the Lord appears in this color, bearing the image of the most heavenly. But she also took away the city of the Lord, that is, the battlements of the walls are established on the pillars, being able to destroy and expose all exaltation that rebels against the knowledge of God (1 Cor. 10), and to subdue lies to the truth. So, this is very strong in word debate and is established on the evidence of the scriptures, it serves as the visor of the Church. There are many genera of jasper; for one, found in the springs of the river Thermodont, resembles emeralds and is called grammatias; it is believed to remove all kinds of ghosts. The other is greener than the sea, and seems to be covered with flowers; he will be born, as they say, in Phrygia, in Mount Ida and in its deepest caves. The third is found in Iberia and Girvania; and near the Caspian Sea and especially near Lake Nevzia. There is also a type of jasper, similar [in color] to snow and the foam of sea waves with a slightly translucent admixture of blood. We said this so that in the visors of the Church we can recognize all the spiritual gifts, the one who has them removes vain fear and can say with his bride: my brother is white and black (Song. P. 5:10). The gates of this city are made of crystalline stone, on which various carvings are made and nothing is purer than it. For when, as a result of severe cold in the Alps and the inaccessibility of caves to the sun, water, as they say, condenses into crystal, then by touch it becomes stone, but by sight it is water. Through him it is made clear that those who are at the doors of the Church should not be stained with any filth, but have a completely pure faith and say as a prophet: I have understood from Your commandments (Ps. 119:4) and heed it: the blessedness of the pure in heart: for they will see God (Matthew 5:8). The walls of the city or fence and πεpίβολος (fence) are built from chosen stones, by which we can mean other stones, and all her sons are taught [by God] or disciples of God, which is the testimony the Lord uses in the Gospel of John, saying: No one can come to Me, except My Father, who has sent Me, will draw him. Everyone who hears and speaks from the Father will come to Me; and a little later: it is written in the prophets: and they will be taught by God (John 6:44, 45). He also says through Jeremiah: I will write My laws in their minds and on their hearts. And every man shall not teach his neighbor and his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they will know Me from the least of them even to their greatest: for I will be merciful to their iniquities and will not remember their sins (Jer. 31:33, 34). The teaching of God's disciples has great peace given to them by the Lord; the building of a very beautiful city is accomplished by righteousness, so that He would be the God of more than one nation, throughout the whole world, calling in His faith slaves and free, Greeks and barbarians, rich and poor, noble and humble, husbands and wives, children and elders, and everything that in the world seems to be contrary. We have gone beyond the limits of brevity, useful in everything that should be discussed, seeking not on earth, like the Jews and our half-Jews, but in heaven, the city of God, which cannot hide on the mountain - Christ. Art. 14. Be far from oppression, for you will not be afraid, and from fear, for it will not come near you. LXX: Flee from the wicked, and you will not be afraid, and trembling will not come near you. The order is wonderful. He consoled the poor and humble woman, promising her spiritual gifts. Now he teaches what she should do if she does not want to be afraid of attacks from her opponents. The meaning is this: if you do not want to be afraid of your enemies, then do what I say: be far from oppression or from lawlessness, because all lawlessness and theft comes from oppression, and you will not be afraid, and fear and trembling will not come near to you, so that you will not fear people, but God, and you will say to Myself: “I trembled and was afraid” (Deut. 9:19) and with one of Job’s friends: “You have shaken me with horror and trembling, and shaken my bones greenly” (Job 4:14), and with the prophet: “My presence has caused trembling in my bones” and “to whom does the Lord look, if not to the humble, and meek, and trembling at His words” (Isa. 66). There is, then, another fear - (the fear of) the wicked, about which it is written; “Trembling seized the wicked” (Ps. 47). Art. 15. Now a neighbor will come, who was not with Me; who was once your stranger will join you. LXX: Behold, the foreigners (proselyti) will come to you through Me, and will be your inhabitants, and will run to you. The Jews think that this is also said in Jerusalem, in the sense that many of the pagans will be proselytes and will accept the law and rites of Moses. But we, in accordance with the explanation that has begun, refer this too to the Church, which through the apostles gathered from both peoples, which has no spot or wrinkle, which is free and is the mother of all believers (Eph. 5; Gal. 4). To gather these proselytes and strangers, the Lord sent His disciples, saying: teach all languages ​​(Matthew 28:19), so that they would resort to the gospel and accept the new law, so that those who were once inhabitants of idolatry would become inhabitants of the Church. The Psalms say about them: The Lord makes wise the blind, or as it is read in the Latin codes: “The Lord enlightens the blind,” the Lord loves strangers (Ps. 145:8, 9), so that the blind, having received the light of truth, and the foolish, having learned wisdom, would move to the Church and be loved by the Lord and listen to the words of the prophet: the river is not mine people: you are my people (Hos. 2:23), upon whose entry into the church of God, jealousy seized the unlearned people. Art. 16–17. Behold, I created the blacksmith, fanning the coals of the fire and making tools for his work, and I created the destroyer for destruction. Every weapon formed against you will be unsuccessful, and every tongue that opposes you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is with Me, says the Lord. LXX: Behold, I created you, not like a blacksmith fanning coals into a fire and making a tool for work. But I did not create you in order to destroy you to the point of destruction: every weapon formed against you will be unsuccessful, and every voice [that] will rise up against you in judgment: if you overcome them, and you will accuse them of it ⁑ This is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord, and you will be righteous with Me, says the Lord. Let us first say this in relation to the Hebrew text. If you want not to be afraid and for fear to be far from you: then do what was said in the previous speech; for through Me you will have strangers. I created a blacksmith who fanned the coals of the fire, that is, the devil, the author of all evil, not by necessity of nature, but by free decision. He kindles and prepares weapons against you, such as Shem and Elymas the wise men were, who opposed the apostles Peter and Paul (Acts 13). I created the destroyer of those who would believe, not to be the cause of their destruction, but so that an adversary would be created for the struggle and so that there would be destruction for the vanquished and a reason for rewards for the victors. And everything made by the blacksmith against you will not succeed, but will be subject to punishment both in the present life and in the future. And what previously seemed hidden, this is stated more clearly in what follows: and you will condemn every tongue that opposes you, destroying the wisdom of the wise and rejecting the understanding of the prudent. And all the heresiarchs, and Jewish teachers and worldly philosophers, whom that blacksmith incited, you will condemn at your trial. In a similar way, both the unbelievers and the Ninevites were condemned by the Queen of Sheba, and vice versa, Sodom will be justified in comparison with the worst Jerusalem (Matthew 12). For this it is added what these rewards are, so that the debate is considered empty and ends in real death. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, that is, the kingdoms of heaven, and eternal life, and the reward for labors, which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). If they love, then therefore they also serve [God], who have no other Lord than God. And this is the justification of those who are with God, that present sorrow will be rewarded with future joy. Then, according to the Seventy, the meaning, as it seems to me, is this: I, your Creator, did not create you in the same way as the devil, the worst smith, inflates with an unclean spirit the instruments of iniquity and prepares them for destruction, which should call that such instruments do not have a prosperous path, but are crushed in the midst of the path. And what these weapons are, this is explained in the following speech: and every voice that rises up against you in judgment, you will defeat them all. The instruments of lawlessness have a voice, which voice rebels against the Church when heretics set their lips on high and their tongue reaches the ground. The next thing is then: and you will blame them on it, we celebrated in front with dinner, which, apparently, was added not so much by the Seventy as by thin scribes. When the Church conquers every tongue that rises up against her, then for those who serve the Lord and obey Him, the inheritance will be eternal gain. Jeremiah speaks about him in other words: mm reward of your work (Jer. 31:16). And the inhabitants of the Church will be righteous with the Lord. For everyone who practices righteousness is born of God. To such the Lord says: Ye shall be holy, for I am holy (Lev. 20:26). Chapter LV. Art. 1. 2. All who are thirsty, go to the waters and those who have no money (vulg. silver), hurry, buy and eat: go, buy wine and milk without silver and without any payment. Why do you weigh out money not for the grain and your labor for the lack of satisfaction? LXX: Those who are thirsty, come to the water, and those who have no money, go and buy, and eat, and come and buy wine and fat without money and without payment. Why do you buy with money [not bread] and with your labor unsatisfaction? The Hebrew word oi, about which I said above (chapter 29) in the prophecy against Ariel, that it is ambiguous and means either an interjection of calling or grief, placed here at the beginning of the chapter, is read with the meaning not of sorrow, but of calling. So, having said that every weapon made against the Church will be crushed and every voice and tongue armed against the knowledge of God will be defeated, he calls on believers in the river of God, which is filled with waters and the stream of which makes glad the city of God, to drink water from the springs of the Savior, who speaks to the Samaritan woman: if you knew the gift of God and who is, say to you: give me something to drink, you would have asked him and would give you water. The water that I will give him, there will be in him a fountain of water flowing into an everlasting belly (John 4:10, 14). Regarding these waters, He cried out in the church: if anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him, rivers from his belly will flow out living waters (John 7:37-38), meaning the Holy Spirit, which believers were to receive and about which the prophet proclaimed in a mysterious speech: My soul thirsts for the living God (Ps. 42:3), and again: with you is the fountain of life (Ps. 35:10). He said about Himself: He forsaken me, the source of living waters, and dug up for myself ruinous treasures that could not contain water (Irem. 2:13). These waters flow from the clouds, to which the truth of God has reached, as it is written: and let the clouds sprinkle righteousness (Isa. 45:8). And it is commanded to those who are thirsty not to drink the muddy waters of Sior and the sighing depths of Assyria, but to come to the waters of Siloam, flowing quietly, and not to be afraid of the poverty of words, if they do not have silver, to listen to the Apostle who says: by the grace of the Holy Spirit comes salvation (Eph. 2:8), and to the Lord [who said] to the disciples: eat tuna, tuna give (Matthew 10:8). And amazingly they buy water without money, and do not drink it, but eat it. For He Himself is both water and bread, who came down from heaven (John 6). Consequently, what is read in some lists: buy and drink, was changed by inexperienced scribes who thought that it would be more consistent if water was drunk rather than eaten. Money or silver can also be very bad, which Scripture rejects, saying: silver is given with flattery, as if it is impoverished (Prov. 26:23), and in other places: your silver is rejected (Jer. 6:30). And there is silver, which is compared with the words of God: the words of the Lord are pure; So, despising that silver and money, with which we cannot buy the waters of the Lord, let us go to the one who, holding the cup of the sacrament, said to the disciples: Take and drink, this is My blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28). He dissolved this wine with wisdom in His cup, calling all the feeble-minded of the world and those who do not have worldly wisdom to drink, and that we should buy not only wine, but also milk, which signifies the innocence of infants, which custom and image is still preserved in the Western Church, to give wine and milk to those reborn in Christ. Paul also spoke about this milk: “You gave milk to drink, not meat” (1 Cor. 3:2), and Peter: “Like newborn babies, you love the milk of words” (1 Peter 2:2). Therefore, Moses, attributing wine and milk to the suffering of Christ, testifies with a mysterious speech: “his eyes are full of pleasure from the wine and his teeth are white from the milk” (Gen. 49:12). Instead of milk LXX, in the present place they translated fat, which Saint David speaks of in the psalm: for from fatness and ointment may my soul be filled (Ps. 63:6), and in another place: to drink them from the fatness of wheat and from the stone of honey to satisfy them (Ps. 80:17). These fats mean nothing other than the mystical flesh to which the Lord called the disciples, saying: unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you will not have life in you (John 6:53). That is why He was betrayed in Gethsemane, which means a fat or fat valley. And at the same time he reproaches those who follow worldly wisdom, and the perverse and hypocritical teachings of the heretics, and the traditions of the Pharisees, and every false knowledge that rebels against God, and with great payment and constant labor weigh out money for that teaching in which there is no bread, and are weary because of food from which there is no satisfaction. This makes it clear that one must follow that wisdom, which consists not of the leaves and color of words, but of the core and fruits of thoughts, which does not fly past the ear, and elevates the spirit. To learn it, for this we do not go overseas and do not need great expenses, but the word is nearby - in our mouths and in your hearts. Art. 2–3. Hear, you who hear Me, and eat what is good, and your fat soul will enjoy it. Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, and your soul will live. And I will give you everlasting counsel, faithful to the mercy of David. LXX: Listen to Me, and eat good things, and your soul will enjoy good things. Listen with your ears and follow My ways: and listen to Me, and your soul will live in good things. And I will establish an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful holy one of David. Lest anyone think that listening to the word of God is carnal and not spiritual, they are promised not carnal but spiritual benefits. For if you listen to Me, you will destroy the good land (Isa. 1:19) or the good, said the one who says: I am the good shepherd (John 10:11). And your soul will enjoy good things even in fatness. Therefore, for the benefits promised to the soul, we must recognize not wealth, not carnal health, and not worldly differences, which even philosophers call indifferent, that is, neither good nor evil and changing, depending on the properties of those who use them, but those to which God calls us: turn away from evil and do good (Ps. 36:27). If honesty and virtues are called the blessings of the soul, then by evil we must understand not poverty, not bodily weakness, and not ignorance, but all the vices that truly serve as evil. As a result of this, Abraham also had blessings not because he was rich, but because he used his wealth for good (Gen. 13). Also, Lazarus, who later rested in his bosom, suffered evil, not because he experienced the torment of illness along with poverty, but through what was considered evil in the world, he achieved true blessings. Therefore, this rich man, dressed in purple, received his good in his life, which was good for the one who considered it good, but about Lazarus, on the contrary, it is not said; “received his evil in his life,” and: “received his evil in his life,” which seemed evil not to the one who endured it, but to others (Luke 16). An example of both was given to us by blessed Job, who was not overcome by either the good or the evil of the world, but carried everything with equal firmness (Job 2). Therefore, Solomon prays to God: do not give me wealth and poverty. Make me needy and self-satisfied, so that I will not be satisfied with the bed and the river: who can see me? or when I become poor I steal, and I swear by the name of God (Prov. 30:8–9). If he begs to have neither wealth nor poverty, but only what is necessary for food, about which the apostle says: having food and clothing, we will be satisfied with these (1 Tim. 6:8), then it is obvious that wealth and poverty, health and weakness, pleasure and pain do not constitute either good or evil, but depending on the difference in those who experience it, they are both good and evil. Therefore, the Lord does not promise the soul, according to the Chiliasts (χιλιαστάς), a rich fortune, and attractive dishes, and bodily fatness, and pheasants, and stuffed turtle doves, sweet drinks, whole wine, beautiful wives, masses of children, but those pleasures in which He mysteriously calls us saying: Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will grant you the petitions of your heart (Ps. 36:4), and in another place: I believe to see the good of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. 26:13), and in another psalm: bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me, His holy name, who fulfills your desires for good (Ps. 103:1, 5). Finally He adds: Listen, and your soul will live. The promise of all good things is eternal life. If you are willing to listen and your soul lives forever, then I will give you an everlasting covenant, faithful to the mercy of David. The same psalmist sang about them: I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will proclaim Your truth to generation and generation (Ps. 89:1). And so that we know what these mercies are, he shows [this] in the following words: I swore one oath on My holy one, seeking David I will lie: His seed will endure forever, and his throne is like the sun before Me and like the moon, perfect forever and a faithful witness in heaven (Ibid. vv. 36-38). He is called faithful because he fulfilled his promise. Instead, the LXX translated: the holy and faithful of David, which can be understood in the sense of solid and strong, like this: all His commandments are faithful, established for the ages of ages (Ps. 110:8), and in another place: God is faithful, and there is no unrighteousness in Him (Deut. 32:4). And the Apostle Paul says: if we do not believe, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13), and in another place, writing to Timothy: the word is faithful and worthy of all acceptance (1 Tim. 1:15). This covenant, promised by the Lord, will not be short and one-time, like that which was with the Jewish people, but will remain forever, so that the true David may come and so that in the Gospel what was promised from the face of God will be fulfilled: I found David my servant by anointing him with holy mercy (Ps. 89:21), whose hand he laid on the sea and on the rivers his right hand. According to Ezekiel, many centuries after the death of David, he calls him His servant and shepherd, saying: I will raise up for you one shepherd, My servant David (Ezek. 34:23). Art. 4–5. Behold, I have given Him as a witness to the nations, a leader and guide to the nations. Behold, you will call a people whom you did not know, and the nations who did not know you will hasten to you for the sake of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for He [or who] has glorified you. LXX: Behold, I have made you a witness to the nations, a prince and a guide to the nations; the nations that knew you will call upon you, and the nations that did not know you will flee to you for the sake of the Lord your God, the holy One of Israel, who has glorified you. He first called the Jewish people in faith so that they would incline their ears and accept the everlasting covenant, which the Lord promised to David and Abraham and his seed, saying: The nations will be blessed in your seed (Gen. 22:18). Explaining this, the Apostle Paul says: He does not speak to the seed, but to the seed who is Christ (Gal. 3:16). And since He called that, as a result of their unbelief, the pagan nations would believe, He goes on to the pagans and says that He sent His Son as a witness or testimony to all nations, so that He would proclaim His commandments and commandments to the nations, saying about Himself: this gospel will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony with every tongue (Matthew 24:14). Therefore, He tames the arrogant Pilate with these words: For this I was born, that I may bear witness to the truth (John 18:37). About Him, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy: there is one mediator for God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself redemption for all, a testimony of His times, in whom I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (1 Tim. 2:5–7). So, everything that is said [here] must refer to the one who, like a sheep, was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before the shearers did not open his mouth, about whom it is said above: we saw Him, and had no form or kindness (Isa. 33:2) and: This is our sins that we bear and suffer for us (Ibid., v. 4). Those who did not know Him before ran or hurried to Him, saying: God is our refuge and strength (Ps. 45:1), and also: Lord, we have been a refuge for generations and generations (Ps. 89:1). We read about their faith above: those who have not heard about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand (Isa. 52:15). He is the witness of all that the Father promised and revealed to the world, whose mystery Paul, expounding in a short speech to the Ephesians, says: “The God of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of glory" (Eph. 1). Of Him even now it is written: for the sake of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, who glorified you, and with the glory that He had before the world was. Of which the prophet also testifies: “The glory of God will appear" (Isa. 40), which is the radiance of glory and the image of His hypostasis (Heb. 1), when every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord in the glory of the Father (Phil. 2), who answered the Son asking for the glory which He formerly had: I have both glorified and glorified. (John 12:28). The Apostle John also says about Him: we have seen His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten from the Father, filled with grace and truth (John 1:14). So, when he speaks of Him who in the beginning was with God as God the Word, he is called the Father of glory, but when he speaks of Him who says in the Gospel: Why do you seek to kill Me, the man who spoke the truth to you (Jn. 8:40), then the God of our Lord Jesus Christ is called upon - but in the sense that one is different from the other, but in the fact that one and the same Son of God speaks accordingly, either to His Divine glory, or to our nature, which He was pleased to accept. Art. 6–7. Seek the Lord when He can be found, call upon Him when He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and let the wicked man leave his thoughts, and let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He forgives much. LXX: Seek the Lord, and when you find Him, call upon Him. And when he approaches you, let the wicked leave his ways and the wicked man his thoughts, and let him turn to the Lord and receive mercy, for He will forgive many of your sins. So, since, as we have already said before, you did not want to accept the eternal covenant and the faithful mercies of David, which, when you did not want to accept, the mass of the pagans accepted, then I, the prophet, remind you, my compatriots, and confirm with testimonies: bring repentance while there is time. Turn to Him who now speaks through the prophets, who will hereafter speak in person. Seek Him while you can find Him, while you are in the body, while there is room for repentance, and seek not through place, but through faith. And how they seek God, this is discussed in more detail elsewhere: philosophize about the Lord in charity, and in simplicity of heart seek Him, as He is found not by those who tempt Him, but He is not found by those who do not believe Him (Wis. Sol. 1:1-2). Therefore, we, knowing what is said about sinners: “those who stray far from You will perish,” must say to the Lord: where will I go from Your spirit and how will I flee from Your presence? Even if I ascend to heaven, You are mamo ecu; even if I go down to hell, tamo ecu (Ps. 139:7-8), and call on Him when He is close, so that He does not retreat far as a result of our sins and vices. For He draws near to those who approach Him and with joy meets His son returning with Him after a long time. Therefore, the saint sings in the psalm: It is good for me to cleave to God (Ps. 72:28). And Moses alone approached the Lord (Ex. 22). And through Jeremiah God says: God draw near, I am, and not God from afar (Jeremiah 23:23), drawing near to those who draw near to Me through faith, and moving away from those who fly away from Me through unbelief. Therefore, it is said to believers: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). And so that we do not think that this can be sufficient, he immediately adds: resist the devil, and flee from you (Ibid., v. 7), about which above [Peter] said: the adversary is the devil, like a lion, walking around roaring, seeking someone to devour. Resist him in the firmament by faith (1 Peter 5:8–9). And it is not enough to seek the Lord and, while there is time for repentance, to find and call on Him while He is near, if the wicked one leaves his former ways and his former thoughts, through which he strayed from God. For then we will turn to the Lord, who will have mercy on us, and to the all-good Father, who is abundantly merciful and easily forgives when we leave our former thoughts and ways, so that we may subsequently be worthy to hear: blessed are those whose iniquities are abandoned and whose sins are covered up (Ps. 31:1). Art. 8–9. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted from the earth, so are My ways exalted from your ways, and My thoughts from your thoughts. LXX: For My thoughts are not like your thoughts, and My ways are not like your ways, says the Lord. But as far as heaven is from earth, so far is My way from your ways and your thoughts from My thought. So that you do not consider what I promise difficult, and so that it does not seem incredible to you that the wicked and the lawless, or the Jewish people, or all of the pagans who did not know God, can be saved: take into account the fact that My and your decisions differ in many ways, and that as much as [My] nature [is] different from yours, so is the will. For many thoughts are in the heart of a man, but the counsel of the Lord endures forever (Proverbs 19:21). You, as people, often, repenting of what you promised, destroy the previous decision through a new decision. For the Lord destroys the councils of tongues, and sweeps aside the thoughts of men and sweeps aside the counsels of princes; the thoughts of His heart from generation to generation (Ps. 33:10), and everything that He has decided cannot change. Do you want to call out the difference between My decision and yours? As far as heaven is from the earth, and as the dwelling of angels is different, and that of people, so far are My thoughts from your decisions. For it is said about My thoughts: His judgment is not tried, and His ways are not tried (Rom. 11:33). Further about yours: having thought about advice, they will not be able to draw it up (Ps. 20:12), and in another place: even if you take counsel, it will be ruined, and the word that you speak will not abide in you (Is. 8:10). The clear needs no explanation; therefore it is summarized rather than explained. Art. 10–11. And just as rain and snow come down from heaven and never return there (Vulg. does not return), but water the earth and irrigate it and make it capable of giving birth and gives seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats: so is My word that comes out of My mouth: it will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I pleased, and it will prosper in that for which I sent it. LXX: likewise, if rain or snow comes down from heaven and does not return until it has watered the earth, and [it] bears fruit and vegetates and gives seed to the sower and bread to eat: so it will be with My food that goes out of My mouth: it will not return until it has done what was pleasing to Me, and I will make good its ways and My commandments. What is said [here] is also dependent on what preceded it; The meaning here is generally the following: the pagan people will not be unbelievers, because after so many crimes the wicked will suddenly be saved. For My thoughts are not the same as the thoughts of people, and as far as the heavens are from the earth, so far are My thoughts from the thoughts of people. For I am most kind and forgive much. Do you want to have another likeness? Just as rain descends into snow from the sky and never returns there, waters the earth and irrigates it and produces various seeds, so that bread is born from the abundant fields for the benefit of people: so the word of My promise, which I once promised and which came out of My mouth, will not remain unfulfilled, but will be fulfilled in all things. In an allegorical sense, this can be understood in two ways, for the word of the Lord is the one about whom it is written: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word (John 1:1). He will not return to Him empty, without having accomplished the will of the Father, without fulfilling all that for which He was incarnate, and without reconciling the world with God. It is called coming from the mouth, and from the womb and womb, so that God has these members, and therefore, so that through the words that are characteristic of us we can know the nature of the Lord. Or it should be said that the word of the Gospel teaching and those rains that fall on the good earth, the spiritual clouds to which the truth of God has reached, are called rain. Moses promises this downpour and these rains in the songs of Deuteronomy: Let the earth hear the words of My mouth; Let My message fall like rain, and let My words come down like dew (Deut. 32:1-2), so that those who sow in tears may reap with joy (Ps. 125), and those who sow in righteousness and in the Spirit reap the fruit of eternal life and receive the bread of the gospel teaching, about which it is written in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes: open your eyes and be satisfied. bread (Prov. 20:13), and again: put your bread on the face of water, for in many days you will find it (Eccl. 11:1). For one should not think that those who eat are commanded that they should open their eyes to eat the bread that feeds their bodies, and thus be satisfied with the bread that, according to Habakkuk, the poor eat in secret (Habab. 3). But God calls in the bread of doctrine, which we cannot eat unless we open the eyes of our hearts. Paul often writes about him to those who feed on the words of faith and truth (2 Cor.). And the teacher is commanded that he should cast out the bread of his teaching upon every water and pour out the spiritual gift to everyone, and that he should know that if he fulfills what is commanded, he will receive a reward in the last time. And it will seem quite unfair that the one who gives alms gains friends for himself with unrighteous wealth, so that they will accept him into the eternal abodes (Luke 16), and that the one who distributes spiritual food and gives food to his fellow servants in his time does not find them after many centuries, which Ecclesiastes calls many days (Eccl. 11:1). Art. 12–13. For you will go out with joy and be led away in peace. The mountains and mountains will sing your praises and all the trees will applaud. Instead of thorns, spruce [or cypress] will spring up, and instead of nettles, myrtle will grow. And the Lord will be revealed as an everlasting sign, which will be destroyed. LXX: You will go out with joy and you will be led away with joy. The mountains and hills will jump, waiting for you with joy, and all the trees of the field will splash their branches. And instead of στοιβή (that is, a very bad shrub) a cypress will sprout and instead of a nettle (coniza) a myrtle will sprout. And the Lord will be for a name and for an everlasting sign, and will not fail. My Word, He says, will not return in vain, but when it has fulfilled everything that was pleasing to Me, and has accomplished My will on earth, then it will come to Me, and what is written will be fulfilled: The Lord said to My Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I will make Your enemies Your footstool (Ps. 109:1). For you will come out of the blood of idolatry with joy and will be led away in peace to hear from the apostle; Grace and peace to you (Rom. 1:7). Or you will be led away with joy, so that after the shadow of the law you will learn the truth of the gospel. For mountains and hills, by which we can understand angels and souls of saints, called, in accordance with the difference in virtues, mountains and hills, will rejoice over those who repent and express spiritual joy in jubilation [jumping]. This is what the Lord says in the Gospel: “The angels in heaven will rejoice over one sinner who brings repentance” (Luke 15). Likewise, all the trees will be splashed with hands or branches that are planted by streams of water and that will yield their fruit in their season, and their leaf will not fall off (Ps. 1). One of these trees said in the psalm: I am like an olive tree that is fruitful in the house of God (Ps. 51:10). Let us ask those who follow only a simple historical meaning and eat the boiled flesh of a lamb: do trees splash their branches and make a knock with their hands, and in what sense should we understand what is said about the roars: the rivers will splash with their hands (Ps. 97:8)? Not only will the mountains and hills jump and sing, and all the trees from the field blessed by God will splash their branches and make a knock with their hands, but also οτοιβή and κονύζη or thorns and nettles will turn into fir, and myrtle into cypress. Στοιβή, according to Symmachus and the Seventy, in Hebrew it is written nesus, which Aquila and Theodotion translated through κονύζη. Κονύζη is a very bad and bitter herb that has a very bad smell. And where LXX translated κονύζη, which in Hebrew is called sarphod, Symmachus translated nettle. Whatever the actual meaning of these names, it must be said that bad turns into good and virtues arise from vices, that is, instead of lawlessness, truth, instead of reckless courage, courage, instead of wastefulness, abstinence, instead of recklessness, prudence. Let's take the examples of our ancestors: Matthew and Zacchaeus and the publicans were thorns, and οτοιβή, and useless stumps and κονύζη, which had a very bitter taste and a disgusting smell and said: “My wounds have become stinking and rotten because of my foolishness” (Ps. 37:6). Having suddenly turned into apostles, they became cypress, spruce and myrtle, which have a wonderful smell and are necessary for various products. Also Paul, the persecutor of the church, when he heard from the Lord: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? You are cruel against the goads (Acts. 9:4–8), was a nettle with needles of persecution. But when he began to preach the gospel in the whole world and could say: The fragrance of Christ is (2 Cor. 2:15), then he is rightly called cypress and myrtle. Harlots and tax collectors go ahead of the Pharisees into the kingdom of God and the thief from the cross goes to heaven (Matthew 21). Therefore, what is said in the Gospel: a good tree cannot produce evil fruit (Matthew 7:18) does not refer to the property of nature, as the heretics claim, but to the decision of the will. As a result of this, it is added: either make a good tree and its good fruit (Matthew 12:33). From this it is clear that everyone, of his own free will, makes his soul a good or bad tree, the fruits of which are different. It follows: And the Lord will be for a name and for an everlasting sign that will not fail. To those who change from bad to good, the Lord will be an eternal name and sign, so that by His name they will be called Christians and be sealed with the mark of His cross. Simeon spoke about this sign, holding the Child in his arms: This one is destined for the fall and for the rising of many, and can be reconciled as a sign (Luke. 2:34), about which it is written above: the Lord will give you a sign (Isa. 7:14), and the saint sings in the psalm: do the Lord with me a sign for good (Ps. 86:17). And He himself, who serves as a sign, says: “When you see the sign of the Son of man” (Matthew 24:30), which will not cease and will not undergo change from any end, but from the present conversion will pass into the future (time). Chapter LVI. Art. 1. Thus says the Lord: maintain judgment and do righteousness, for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. The seventy translated mercy instead of truth, but everything else was the same. Having finished the prophecy about the pagans who, at the coming of the Word of God, will turn from thorns and nettles to cypress and myrtle, Isaiah tells the listeners of that time to do everything that is right, and to prepare for the coming of the Savior, because He is the truth and mercy of God. For if the thoughts of the saints are judgments and if we must have feelings skillfully accustomed to distinguish between good and evil (Heb. 5), then why should we not at all times preserve the truth, so that we do not look with contempt on the face of the poor in judgment, so that we do not fear the power of the rich, but judge the great as well as the small, knowing that judgment, according to Moses, is the work of the Lord, who judges those who judge (Deut. 1), according to what is also in The psalm reads: God is in the assembly of gods, but in the midst the gods judge (Ps. 82:1). To what is now said: keep judgment and do righteousness, like this: blessed are those who keep judgment and do righteousness at all times (Ps. 105:3), so that what is righteous may be done in accordance with righteousness. However, the word truth, as it seems to me, has a general meaning, because whoever has accomplished one truth is said to have fulfilled all of them, which mutually follow one another and are interconnected, so that whoever had one has everything, and whoever did not have one does not have all. The fourteenth psalm says something similar: walk blameless and do righteousness (Ps. 14:2). And in another place it is written: You who dwell on the earth will learn righteousness (Isa. 26:9). And that the Savior, who became righteousness and holiness and redemption for us (1 Cor. 1), is the mercy of God, the words of the saints testify to this: God sent His mercy and His truth (Ps. 87:4). Art. 2. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who will keep this, keeping the Sabbath so as not to defile it, guarding his hands so as not to do any evil. LXX: Blessed is the man who does this and the man who keeps this and keeps the Sabbath so that they do not defile it, guards his hands so as not to commit iniquity. Who can say with the Apostle Paul: when a child was born, like a child he said, like a child he was wise, like a child he was wise; When he was a husband, he rejected the child (1 Cor. 13:11); he follows this blessedness, forgetting the past and striving for the future, until he achieves the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, to the extent of the age of the fulfillment of Christ, so that this psalm can be applied to him: blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked (Ps. 1:1). Thus, this husband and son of the inner man, which is very often spoken of in the book of Leviticus: man, man (Lev. 17:8), blessed in that he first does and then will hold on to this, that is, the judgment, righteousness and salvation of the Lord, which is near and which must be revealed to all nations, so that we only fulfill what is commanded, and hold it with our hands clasped, and keep the Sabbath, so as not to defile it. And what kind of Sabbath this is, which he commanded to be observed, is shown by the following: guarding your hands so as not to do any evil. For it is useless to sit on the Sabbath or sleep and thirst for feasts. But he who does good must be at rest from evil and must constantly have the Sabbath, that is, rest from lawlessness and do only what relates to the salvation of the soul and does not incline to any slavish act. For whoever commits sin is the slave of sin (John 8:34). We are called to freedom, which freedom Christ gave us (Gal. 5), so that we do not worry about food, which is destroyed, but, clinging to God, we can say with the prophet: it is good for me to cleave to God (Ps. 72:28). Let us form one spirit with Him and preserve the established Sabbaths, so as not to belong to those six days on which the world was created, to which the apostles did not belong, to whom the Lord said: If you were quick of the world, the world would love its own: because you are not of the world, for this reason the world hates you (John 15:19). Art. 3. And let not the son of the stranger, who joins himself to the Lord, say, “The Lord will separate me from his people by separation,” and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” LXX: Let not the foreigner who has joined the Lord say, “Do you think that the Lord separates me from His people,” and let not the eunuch say that I am a dry tree. Those who do not deeply understand this passage refer what is said [here] to proselytes from the pagans and according to the truths to the eunuchs, since strangers are not removed from the salvation of God if they accept the law of God and they are circumcised, and the eunuchs, like that [eunuch] of the queen of Candace (Acts 8), who even during the journey could not remain in idleness and, looking for an interpreter for what he was reading, found Christ, whom he was looking for. This is said, they say, against the Jews, who boast of the nobility of the family and say that they are the children of Abraham, and consider blessed those who have seed in Zion and members of the family in Jerusalem. We believe that now those who are called in faith to the gospel theme, which we above understood by thorns and nettles and by κονόζη and οτοιβή, turned into spruce, cypress and myrtle, - that they should not despair if they join the Lord, and should not consider themselves separated from the people of God. For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3). There is no Jew and Gentile, circumcision and uncircumcision, which is commanded in the songs of Deuteronomy: rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people (Deut. 82:43), that is, God, who gave preference to the Jewish people. They will come from the east and the west and will rest in Abraham's bosom. This is what John the Baptist said: and do not begin to say: father of the imams of Abraham; I tell you that God is able from this stone to raise up a child for Abraham (Matthew 3:9). And just as there is no difference between proselytes, but men and women are equally called to salvation: so by the eunuchs who castrated themselves for the sake of the kingdoms of heaven, both sexes are understood, who put to death their members on earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, they will again achieve everything into a perfect man, and they will say with the apostle: we have not one in the flesh; flesh of Christ, but now we do not understand anyone (2 Cop. 5:16). Therefore, eunuchs should not be understood as those, describing whom the passionate poet says: Also unfortunate young men who were castrated with a knife but those about whom the Lord speaks in the Gospel: those who have corrupted the kingdom for themselves for the sake of the heavenly (Matthew 19:12). Such were the apostles, to whom, when they were surprised and because of the difficulty of this, they said: who then can be saved? The Savior answered: he who is able to contain, let him contain (Ibid., v. 25 and 12). Therefore, the apostle testifies about this kind of eunuchs, that is, virgins, that they do not have the commandment of the Lord, but gives advice as one who has received mercy from the Lord, desiring that everyone should be like him: for the time has ceased to exist, so that those who have wives will not have the same skin (1 Cor. 7:29). For he who is called free from slavery and marriage is truly a slave of Christ. Art. 4–5. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: If they will keep My Sabbaths and choose what pleases Me and keep My covenant; then I will give them in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than for sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, which will not be cut off LXX: Thus say the Lord to the eunuchs: Those who will keep My Sabbaths and choose what is pleasing to Me and keep My covenant, to them will I give in My house and within My wall a distinguished place, better than for sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, and it will not fail. He points to two: proselytes and eunuchs. First he talks about eunuchs and gives them rules of life, and promises rewards in the future. And then he moves on to the proselytes, promising them the same. So, he says to the eunuchs, who said in despair: “Behold, I am a dry tree,” so that they do not consider themselves subject to the curse that is pronounced against the barren: “Cursed is the barren one who does not produce seed in Israel.” If, he says, they will keep My Sabbaths and choose from My commandments what is pleasing to Me, and not what I have permitted due to the weakness of those who listen, and with all fidelity they will adhere to My covenant or covenant, then I will give them in My house, and in My church, and within the very strong walls of My city, a place and a name better than for sons and daughters, which will not be destroyed by any oblivion. What kind of eunuchs are these, we said above - that these are those who are busy with what pertains to God, to whom the wisdom inscribed with the name of Solomon says: blessed is the unfruitful one who has not been defiled, even though she has not known the bed of sin, she will have fruit in visiting souls: and the eunuch, who has not committed iniquity in the hand, will lower the evil thoughts of the Lord: For faith will be given to him the chosen grace, and the lots in the church of the Lord will be acceptable (Wis. 3:13-14). This barren one is impregnated by virginity; this eunuch makes an effort in relation to the kingdom of heaven and by force delights it. He is the keeper of the Sabbath, so that he never commits the affairs of married life. He chooses what is pleasing to the Lord in order to represent more than what is commanded, paying attention not to the condescension of His Apostle, but to [his] desire. He adheres to the eternal covenant of the Lord, not to temporarily [only] practice prayer and [then] return again to the same thing, but to know that he will be received into the house of the Lord, which His church serves, and will receive the best place. For the Father has many mansions (John 14). And he will be a eunuch and will fulfill everything that is written, he will have the best place within His walls, that is, he will become the tower of the Lord and will stand on the priestly level and instead of carnal children will have many spiritual children. Such a eunuch, as church histories relate, was the evangelist John, who reclined on the chest of Jesus (John 13), who, during the slow procession of Peter, rising on the wings of virginity, hastened to the Lord (John 20), who, plunging into the secrets of the divine birth, dared to say what all centuries have not known: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word. This one has been from time immemorial to God (John 1:1–2). So, let all the twists of the Jews be removed and let them stop giving themselves up to ridicule, opening the kingdoms of heaven to castrati, while chastity does not consist in the weakness of the body, but in the disposition of the spirit. Art. 6–7. And the sons of the stranger, who join themselves to the Lord to honor Him, and love His name, to be His servants: everyone who keeps the Sabbath from desecration and holds or holds fast to My covenant, I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them glad in My house of prayer. LXX: And to the foreigners who have joined themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love His name, to be His servants: and the handmaids and all who keep My Sabbath, I will bring them into the mountain of defilement and those who hold My covenant, I will bring them into My holy mountain and make them glad in My house of prayer. After the eunuchs, he moves on to the foreigners whom he previously pointed out, and also promises them rewards if they serve Him and move from slavery to the love of His name, to be His servants, as was the Apostle Paul, who wrote at the beginning of his epistles: Paul the servant of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:1), and Moses, the servant of God (Heb. ch. 3). We marked the addition of the Seventy and the slaves in front with an obel. For it cannot be that in spiritual gifts there should be any difference of sex, since in Christ Jesus there is no male and female, but in Him we are all one (John 17). We spoke above about the Sabbath and the everlasting covenant. So, whoever does this, God will bring him to His holy mountain and will bring joy to him in His house of prayer. The holy mountain is either the teachings of truth and the confession of the Trinity, or the din of the Lord, to whom in the last time (but to the same Isaiah and Micah the prophet) very many nations will flow (Isa. 2; Mic. 4). The house of prayer is a church, which is spread throughout the world, and not the temple of Jerusalem, which is limited to the very narrow borders of the land of Judea. Art. 7–9 Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable to Me on My altar; For my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, says the Lord God, who gathers the scattered of Israel: I will again gather to him those who are gathered from him. All the beasts of the field, come eat, all the beasts of the forest. LXX: Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar; For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, said the Lord, who gathereth the scattered of Israel: for I will gather a congregation unto him. All the animals are wild, come and eat, all the animals of the forest. Regarding the difference between sacrifices and burnt offerings, we learn in great detail in the book of Leviticus. Burnt offerings are those that are burned whole on the altar. Purification and thanksgiving sacrifices (victimae et hostiae) - those of which part is offered on the altar, part is given to the clergy. Consequently, one should not think that sacrifices in the image of the Jews are required from foreigners and eunuchs. But we must know that burnt offerings are offered by those eunuchs who completely devote themselves to God, and sacrifices by those foreigners who [only] practice prayer for a while, about whom God says: the sacrifice of praise will glorify [or have glorified] Me (Ps. 49:23), and in another place: devour the sacrifice of praise to God (Ibid., v. 13). The Lord speaks about these sacrifices and burnt offerings through Hosea: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, the taking away of God, rather than burnt offerings (Hos. 6:6), which are offered on the altar of the Lord. John testifies to this [altar] in Revelation that he saw it in heaven and that under it were the souls of the martyrs (Apoc. 6). One of the seraphim took coal from it with tongs and brought it to Isaiah’s lips to cleanse them (Isaiah 6:6). This is that altar and that tabernacle, to the image of which everything that was built [but the testimony] of the book of Exodus refers (chap. 38), through which spiritual sacrifices were offered to God. Also above, about bodily sacrifices and burnt offerings, the same [or through the same, i.e. the prophet] God testifies: that I am the multitude of your sacrifices! says the Lord. I am filled with burnt offerings of rams and the blood of lambs, and I do not want the blood of young men and goats (Isa. 1:11). For My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations—not just for the nation of Judah, and not in one place, Jerusalem and city, but throughout the whole world, and not oxen, nor goats, nor rams, nor prayer. The Lord used this testimony when He spoke against those who, under the name of the Holy Spirit, sold gifts of doves in the church and sat on seats of corruption and had tables of money changers (Matthew 21; John 2), doing everything for the sake of shameful profit, not knowing what is written: tuna you will eat, tuna you will give (Matthew 10:8). The fulfillment of this was promised by the Lord, who gathers the scattered Israel, in whom the Apostle Peter writes his epistle. About them the evangelist says: “This is not what I said from myself,” but the bishop prophesied that year, that Jesus wanted to die for people, and not only for people, but also to gather the scattered children of God into one (John 11:51-52), and so that what is written may be fulfilled: a host of people will pass around you: for this reason, look up on high (Ps. 7:8). After the gathering of the remnants of Israel by the apostles and after the return into one fold of those who were previously scattered, all the beasts are called to come and devour Israel, that is, those who did not want to believe, about whom the apostle [speaks]: “for the end will come upon them” (Phil. 3), and the Lord in the Gospel: when will you see Jerusalem; then understand that desolation is drawing near (Luke 21:20). Or it should be said that they were given over to be devoured by those beasts whom the prophet turns away from himself, saying: Do not deliver over to the beasts the soul that confesses to You (Ps. 73:19). In a figurative sense, [this is said] about those beasts that devoured a certain portion of the Lord, and above we read (chapter 9) about Syria from the east and the Greeks from the west, who devour Israel with their mouths full. And in Jeremiah: Israel, the erring sheep, has slain the lions: the first to devour him was the king of Assyria, but the last one, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gnawed his bones (Jer. 50:17). It can also be said that, together with the people of Israel, the pagans, who were previously predatory, are called in faith, so that, leaving the forests that destroyed very many of Absalom’s army, they come to the church and eat heavenly bread and be satisfied with the flesh of the Lamb. Art. 10–12. His guardians are all blind, they all did not know: they are mute, unable to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams. And (how) the most shameless ns did not know satiation; The shepherds themselves did not know the meaning: everyone deviated on their own path, each to his own selfishness, from the first to the last. Come (they say), let’s take wine and get drunk, and it will be the same today as tomorrow, and much more. LXX: Look how everyone has become blind, everyone has not known, dumb dogs (who) cannot bark, dreaming of a bed, loving to sleep. And dogs with a shameless (or shameless) soul did not know (or do not know) satiety. And they are evil, not knowing the meaning: everyone followed their own paths. Everyone together from the first. Come and let’s take wine and get drunk, and tomorrow will be the same, and much more ⁑ That all the animals of the forest come and eat those gathered or that the place of the Jews is taken by crowds of pagans, their guards, that is, the scribes and Pharisees, are guilty of this, he says, for all of them, being blind, did not recognize the Lord Savior and did not want to see the light that had appeared. The Lord said to them: buoys and blinds, what is more, gold, or an altar sanctifying gold (Matthew 23:17)? and again: the leaders are blind, watching out for mosquitoes, but devouring the nobles (Ibid. v. 24), and: if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit (Matthew 15:14). And that teachers are called guardians, we read this above; for in the place where according to LXX it is read: “the voice of your guards is exalted” (Is. 52:8), in Hebrew it is written: the voice of your guards (speculatorum). Among them was Ezekiel, to whom God says: Son of man, I have given you a guard to the house of Israel (Ezekiel 3:7). But these guardians were not blind. Because of this, they were called seers. Those whom the prophet now speaks of are called not only blind guardians, but also dumb dogs who cannot bark. For those who were supposed to guard the flock of the Lord and drive away the wolves and bark for the Lord love dreams and delight in demonic visions. The meaning is this: they cannot speak the truth, but they [tell] all kinds of lies. And these are not limited to those who slept guarding the flock of the Lord, and could not bark and loved the bed, which indicates bodily pleasure, but [these] shameless souls did not know satiety, never being satisfied with their own delusion. They devour the people of the Lord as bread, and the houses of widows, and serve gluttony and lust. For they cannot say: the commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes (Ps. 18:9), and they do not know what is written: the wisdom of a man will enlighten his face (Eccl. 8:1). They are also dogs that are dumb against enemies, about whom it is written: Thou shalt not give the holy dog ​​(Matthew 7:6), and sleeping dogs that do not know what is commanded; “Do not let your eyes sleep and your eyelids slumber” (Ps. 131), and again: watch, for you do not know at what hour the Lord will come (Matthew 24:42). And therefore, giving place to the devil, they serve as extremely shameless dogs who are never satisfied. For they vomit up what they eat and return to their vomit (Prov. 26:11). The Apostle Peter says about them: a true parable happened to them: a dog returned to its vomit, and a pig washed itself in a pot (2 Peter 2:22). And that guardians and dogs are also shepherds, this is shown by the following words: the shepherds themselves did not harm the meaning. For the Hebrew word roim [or roem], which is written with four letters: resh, ayin, iod and mem, if read roim, then means shepherds, and if rain, then the worst. We said this in order to show the reasons for the different interpretations. For everyone sought their own, and not God’s, and did not walk in the way of the Lord (Phil. 2), about which it is written: ask which is the good way, and walk in it (Jer. 6:16), but in accordance with what is read in the book of Judges: there was no king in Isrtts, every man who was rightly seen before his eyes, do (Judg. 17:6), and followed his own errors. The next one: each for his own gain, from the first to the last. Come, let’s take wine and get drunk, and it will be both today and tomorrow, and much more is not found in the Seventy Interpreters, but as an addition from the Hebrew, it is marked in front with explanatory asterisks. Therefore, none of the church interpreters examined these verses, but they step, as it were, over a hole that opened in the middle and go around it. He says that having turned away from the ways of the Lord, they followed their own paths; Therefore, [everyone] is consumed by greed, from first to last, from princes to the common people, so that, having begun to oppress their fellow servants and eat and drink with those who are drunk, they say: “Let’s take some wine and get drunk.” Let us drink and drink, and in the morning we will die (1 Cor. 15:52). And there will be a kick today, as well as tomorrow, and much more. This is also what he said above: they did not know saturation. And they are not first satisfied with past pleasures, but prepare pleasures in the future, much more than they enjoyed before. If this is said about the princes of the Jews, for whose sake the people of the Lord were devoured by wild beasts, then we must avoid worse examples and not get drunk on wine in which there is fornication, and not indulge in pleasures, and, being dumb in regard to speech, should not be predatory towards our opponents 57, but rather follow the ways of God than ours, and heed the instruction of Scripture: philosophize in the Lord for goodness. (Wis. Sol. 1:1), and also: intelligence is good for all who do it (Proverbs 1:7). And if we were dogs, then we should not be discouraged in salvation, hearing the words of the Canaanite woman saying to the Lord: she, Lord: and she also eats from the grains that fall from the table of their masters (Matthew 15:27). As a result of this, having received pardon, she hears from the Lord: O woman, great is your faith: be it as you wish (Ibid., v. 28). For she could say with the prophet: the path of your commandments is right (Ps. 119:32), I also: guide me on the right path (Ps. 27:11). Chapter LVII. Art. 1–2. The righteous perished [vulg. perishes] and no one thinks in his heart and men of mercy gather together, but there is no one who understands, for the righteous is taken from the presence of evil. Let peace come: let him who walks rest in his bed [vulg. walked] his straight path. LXX: Look how the righteous perished, and no one takes it to heart, and righteous men land on the ground and no one pays attention. For out of the presence of iniquity the righteous was taken: his burial shall be in peace: taken out of the midst. Because of the guardians of the blind and the dogs of the dumb, who, together with the shepherds, do not know understanding and are not satisfied with present pleasures, but are always preparing for the future, the righteous man perished, about whom Pilate’s wife says: “And the same for you and that Just One (Matthew 27:19), who, having washed his hands, said: I am innocent of the blood of this Just One (Ibid., v. 24). At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the word perish, about which heretics often make evasions, meaning destruction and destruction forever, is applied to Christ, whose destruction means the greatness of persecution, and not the end of existence. And no one, he says, thinks in his heart or takes it to his heart. For it cannot be that the blind and dumb, who see vain things and love dreams and do not know understanding and wisdom, should think about God. What follows next: the men of mercy or the righteous, gather and land, points to the apostles, who are destroyed by the wicked and gathered by the Lord. And he indicates the reasons why the righteous was destroyed or taken, saying: for the righteous was taken from the presence of evil, so as not to see the misfortunes of the world. Or, because of the malice of people, whose sins He Himself bore, He ascended as a conqueror to the Father. The meaning of what is said in the Hebrew text: let peace come and let him rest on his bed: let him walk in his straight path, although it is clear, the order of words in which they stand according to the peculiarities of their language seems confusing to the las. And what he says means the following: let the peace of the Righteous One come, which, ascending to the Father, He left to the apostles, saying: My peace I give to you, My peace I leave with you (John 14:27). And when the peace of Christ comes, which surpasses all understanding, then his apostles will rest on their beds and their death will be their rest. This shows that the martyrs do not die, but conquer and rest in an eternal home. And he himself, to whom the world belongs and whose apostles rest on their doges, walks his straight path, directly ascending, like a conqueror, to the Father. Then everything that is read in the Seventy: the righteous was taken from the face of evil, his burial will be in peace, taken from the environment, refers to Christ without the admixture of the person of the apostles, whose burial was in peace and was taken from the environment. For His flesh did not see corruption and did not remain in the tomb, since He remained free among the dead, according to the words of the angel to the woman: “Who are you looking for? Jesus? He is not here; come, see the place where the Lord lies” (Matthew 28:5–6). The Jews think that either all this and everything else that follows applies generally to all the righteous whose blood Manasseh shed and filled Jerusalem from gate to gate, or perhaps Isaiah prophesies about his death, which was to be sawn with a wooden saw according to their most reliable tradition. Therefore, very many of ours refer to the suffering of Isaiah in what is said about the suffering of the saints in the Epistle to the Hebrews: the trouble was (Heb. 11:37). By Ambros. manuscripts: and being dumb in relation to speech, they should not be predatory in relation to speech. You might be interested in: