Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Under the figure of an adulteress, the origin, education, and adultery (that is, idolatry) of Jerusalem — meaning the Synagogue — is described, along with her sisters, namely Sodom and Samaria; her repudiation, and again her reconciliation with God her husband, through God's calling and grace, and the Synagogue's repentance. First, therefore, the Prophet describes God's benefits toward the Synagogue: that He gathered her when she was afflicted, naked, and wretched in Egypt, honored her, took her as His wife, and endowed her with every ornament. Second, at verse 15, he describes her adulteries: that she abused all these ornaments of God for the worship of idols, and that she set up brothels — that is, altars and idols — everywhere at every street corner, and there worshipped the gods of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and other nations. Third, at verse 35, he threatens her with punishments: stoning, as an adulteress; the sword, as a murderess; fire, as an arsonist, because she burned her sons to the idol Moloch. Fourth, at verse 46, he teaches that she surpassed her sisters in impiety — namely, Sodom and Samaria. Finally, at verse 53, he promises that He will bring her back with her sisters from captivity, both Babylonian and, more importantly, diabolical, through Christ. This chapter therefore presents a living type and pattern of the sinful and penitent soul.
Tropologically, therefore, by merely changing the name, you may fittingly apply this entire chapter to the soul: whether faithful, when it falls from faith into heresy or unbelief; or sinful, when it falls from the state of grace into the state of sin; or religious, when it returns from the religious life to the secular, having abandoned God its spouse, and falls away. With a similar figure of an adulterous bride, Jeremiah depicts the idolatry and sins of Jerusalem in chapter II.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 16:1-63
1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2. Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations: 3. and you shall say: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your root and your origin are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. 4. And when you were born, on the day of your birth, your navel cord was not cut, and you were not washed with water for your health, nor salted with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. 5. No eye took pity on you, to do any one of these things for you out of compassion for you; but you were cast out upon the face of the earth in the contempt of your life, on the day you were born. 6. But passing by you, I saw you trampled in your blood, and I said to you when you were in your blood: Live; I said, I say, to you: In your blood, live. 7. I made you multiply like the growth of the field; and you multiplied and grew great, and you advanced and arrived at womanly maturity: your breasts swelled, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and full of shame. 8. And I passed by you and saw you; and behold, it was your time, the time of lovers; and I spread My garment over you and covered your shame. And I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you (says the Lord God), and you became Mine. 9. And I washed you with water and cleansed your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. 10. And I clothed you in embroidered garments and shod you with fine leather; and I girded you with linen and clothed you in silk. 11. And I adorned you with ornaments, and put bracelets on your hands and a chain about your neck. 12. And I put a ring upon your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a crown of beauty upon your head. 13. And you were adorned with gold and silver, and you were clothed in linen, embroidered cloth, and many colors; you ate fine flour, honey, and oil, and you became exceedingly beautiful, and you advanced to royal dignity. 14. And your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for you were perfect in My comeliness which I had bestowed upon you, says the Lord God. 15. And ha-
ving confidence in your beauty, you played the harlot because of your renown; and you lavished your harlotries on every passer-by, to become his. 16. And taking from your garments, you made for yourself high places sewn together on this side and that, and played the harlot upon them — such as has not been done, nor shall be. 17. And you took your beautiful vessels of My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and you made for yourself male images, and committed fornication with them. 18. And you took your garments of many colors and covered them; and My oil and My incense you set before them. 19. And My bread, which I gave you — fine flour and oil and honey, with which I nourished you — you set before them as a sweet fragrance; and so it was done, says the Lord God. 20. And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to Me, and sacrificed them to be devoured. Was your harlotry a small matter? 21. You slaughtered My children and gave them up, consecrating them to idols. 22. And after all your abominations and harlotries, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and full of shame, trampled in your blood. 23. And it came to pass after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! says the Lord God), 24. that you built yourself a brothel, and made yourself a place of prostitution in every square. 25. At every street corner you built a sign of your prostitution, and made your beauty abominable, and spread your feet to every passer-by, and multiplied your fornications. 26. And you committed fornication with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors of great flesh, and multiplied your fornication to provoke Me. 27. Behold, I will stretch out My hand against you, and will take away your allowance, and will deliver you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your wicked way. 28. And you played the harlot with the sons of the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied; and after you played the harlot, even so you were not sated. 29. And you multiplied your fornication in the land of Canaan with the Chaldeans; and even so you were not sated. 30. How shall I cleanse your heart, says the Lord God, when you do all these things, the work of a brazen harlot? 31. Because you built your brothel at the head of every street, and made your high place in every square — yet you were not even like a harlot who increases her price out of disdain, 32. but like an adulterous wife, who brings in strangers instead of her husband. 33. Gifts are given to all harlots; but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, and bribed them to come to you from every side to commit fornication with you. 34. And you were the opposite of other women in your fornications: no one solicited you to play the harlot; and whereas you gave payment and no payment was given to you — in this you were the contrary. 35. Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord. 36. Thus says the Lord God: Because your money was poured out, and your shame was uncovered in your fornications with your lovers, and with the idols of your abominations, in the blood of your children whom you gave to them — 37. Behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you mingled, and all whom you loved, together with all whom you hated; and I will gather them against you from every side, and I will uncover your shame before them, and they shall see all your nakedness. 38. And I will judge you with the judgments of adulteresses and of those who shed blood; and I will deliver you to the blood of fury and jealousy. 39. And I will give you into their hands, and they shall destroy your brothel and demolish your place of prostitution; and they shall strip you of your garments and take away your beautiful vessels; and they shall leave you naked and full of shame. 40. And they shall bring a multitude against you, and they shall stone you with stones, and slay you with their swords. 41. And they shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women; and you shall cease from harlotry, and shall give payment no more. 42. And My indignation shall rest upon you, and My jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet and will be angry no more. 43. Because you did not remember the days of your youth, and provoked Me in all these things; therefore I also have turned your ways upon your own head, says the Lord God, and I have not acted according to your wickedness in all your abominations. 44. Behold, everyone who speaks a common proverb shall apply it to you, saying: As the mother, so also her daughter. 45. You are the daughter of your mother, who cast off her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who cast off their husbands and their children; your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. 46. And your sister
the greater, was Samaria — she and her daughters, who dwell at your left hand; and your sister younger than you, who dwells at your right hand, was Sodom and her daughters. 47. Yet you did not walk in their ways, nor act according to their abominations; that was too little — you acted more corruptly than they in all your ways. 48. As I live, says the Lord God, Sodom your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49. Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom your sister: pride, fullness of bread and abundance, and idleness of herself and her daughters; and they did not extend their hand to the poor and needy. 50. And they were haughty and committed abominations before Me; and I took them away, as you saw. 51. And Samaria did not commit half your sins; but you surpassed them in your wickedness, and made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you committed. 52. Therefore bear your own shame, you who have surpassed your sisters in your sins, acting more wickedly than they; they are more righteous than you. Therefore be ashamed and bear your disgrace, you who made your sisters appear righteous. 53. And I will restore them — the restoration of Sodom and her daughters, and the restoration of Samaria and her daughters; and I will restore your captivity in their midst, 54. that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you did in consoling them. 55. And your sister Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state; and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state; and you and your daughters shall return to your former state. 56. Sodom your sister was not even mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride, 57. before your wickedness was uncovered — as at this time you are the reproach of the daughters of Syria and of all the daughters of the Philistines round about you, who despise you on every side. 58. You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says the Lord God. 59. For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, who despised the oath in breaking the covenant. 60. Yet I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant. 61. And you shall remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your sisters — both your elder and your younger — and I will give them to you as daughters, but not on account of your covenant. 62. And I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, 63. that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord God.
Verse 2: "Make known to Jerusalem"
2. "Make known to Jerusalem" — by letters. For Ezekiel was in Babylon.
Verse 3: "Your root"
3. "Your root." The Chaldean and the Rabbis translate this as "your dwellings," as if מכרתיך (mecorotaiich) were written for מגורתיך (megurotaiich), by exchanging the letter kaph for gimel; and they give the sense: You live as though you had always dwelt among the Canaanites. But the Septuagint and our translator more correctly render it "your root"; and Leo the Hebrew renders it "your veins": for מכרה (mecora) signifies excision. Now the Hebrews call excision "generation and origin," from which the Jews were excised — that is, begotten. Hence he explains by adding: "And your generation." He alludes to Isaiah 51: "Look to the rock (that is, Abraham, as follows) from which you were hewn."
"Your generation" (your race, your origin) "is from the land of Canaan" — that is, from Egypt, says St. Jerome, whose founder was Mizraim, brother of Canaan, son of Ham. Secondly and better: "Your generation from the land of Canaan" seems to be said not on account of similarity of race, but of morals. Hence he explains by adding:
"Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite" — meaning: Although you are by nature the daughter of Abraham and Sarah, O Jerusalem, yet by imitation and association you appear to be the daughter of the Amorites and Hittites, because you emulate their customs. So St. Augustine, Tractate 42 on John, volume IX, explaining the text "You are of your father the devil": "Because," he says, "the Amorites and Hittites (or Hethites — for the Hebrew letter chet is sometimes pronounced as 'h' and sometimes as 'ch') were impious; and the Jews imitated their impieties. They found for themselves parents, not from whom they were born, but whose customs they followed, and thereby were equally condemned. Hence," says St. Jerome, "his father is called an Amorite, which in Hebrew means λαλούμενος (laloumenos), that is, 'celebrated by much speech' (for ער, amar, means 'to speak'); and your mother a Hittite, that is, ἐξιστῶσα (existosa) — she who either is herself mad or drives others to madness. For everyone who commits sin is born of the devil. Hence throughout the whole world the name of this ancient father is famous, turning many to madness. And Jerusalem is commanded to forsake her ancient father, and it is said to her: 'Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty.'"
So Dido, raging, taunts the departing Aeneas, in the Aeneid, book IV: "No goddess was your mother, nor was Dardanus the founder of your race, treacherous one — but the rugged Caucasus begot you from its hard rocks, and Hyrcanian tigresses gave you suck."
The Prophet speaks of the state of the people both present and past, when they were first chosen and raised up by God into a Synagogue, meaning: Not only now, but also formerly, before I chose you, O Jews, as My people, My Church, and My bride, and as it were took you in marriage — namely, when you were living in Egypt — you were so barbarous and ill-mannered that you appeared to have been born and raised among the Amorites and Hittites. That this is the meaning is clear from what he adds: "On the day of your birth, your navel cord was not cut, and you were not washed with water." For this belongs to barbarous nations. So Maldonatus.
Among the seven Canaanite nations he names the Amorites, because they were distinguished by their stature and strength; and the Hittites, because the women of this people were infamous for their shamelessness and immodesty, as is evident from verse 45 and Genesis 27:46.
"When you were born." Chrysostom, in Homily 33 on Matthew, in the unfinished work: "The birth of Israel," he says, "was the calling of Abraham; its youth, when Jacob with his family descended into Egypt; its manhood, in the time of the kings; its old age, from the Babylonian captivity to Christ." Secondly, St. Jerome and Polychronius say: The birth of Israel was the exodus from Egypt; for then the old Church or Synagogue was as it were born, when the law was given to it on Sinai. Thirdly, and best, Prado says the birth of Israel was after the death of Joseph. For then Israel multiplied in Egypt, so as to begin to be not merely the family of Israel, but a people; yet it was like a child cast out and exposed to the tyranny of Pharaoh — a child, I say, neglected, whose navel cord was not cut, who was neither washed, nor salted, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes, as follows. So the Chaldean.
"Your navel cord was not cut." The Septuagint renders this: "You did not bind"; or, as St. Jerome says, "they did not bind your breasts." For it was customary to bind the breasts of infant girls, so they would not begin to swell, in order to preserve their virginal beauty. But our translator renders the Hebrew literally: "Your navel cord was not cut." For it is customary to cut the fleshy tube hanging from the navel of newborns like a sausage, through which physicians say the embryo in the womb adheres to its mother, draws nourishment from her, and is fed and grows — namely, through it the embryo sucks blood (not to the stomach, because the blood has already been concocted by the mother), but to the liver, and from there it is distributed throughout the whole body of the embryo, which is nourished by it. Hear Plutarch, book V of On the Opinions of Philosophers, chapter 16: "It is not," he says, as Democritus and Epicurus thought, "that the fetus in the womb is nourished through the mouth, so that as soon as it is born, the mouth is brought to the breast; for in the womb too there are certain teats and little mouths through which it is fed. Nor," as Alcmaeon thought, "is it nourished through the whole body, which, like a sponge, absorbs what is suitable for nourishment; but, as the Stoics rightly perceived, through the navel. Therefore, immediately after birth, it is tied by the midwives, and the infant's mouth is opened, so that it may think of another nourishment." The navel in the womb is therefore like the mouth of the fetus, through which it sucks nourishment from the maternal blood through the veins; but when the fetus is born, the navel cord is cut, since it has no further use, as the infant must use its mouth to suck.
Symbolically, the cutting of the navel cord signifies the tossings and perils of human life, like a ship with its anchor cut. For man and human life are like a ship (Wisdom 5:10; Proverbs 30:19), by which, having left the womb of the mother and cast off from port, we journey toward the harbor of death and immortality. The navel cord is like an anchor by which the fetus in the mother's womb, as on land, secures and sustains itself; once it is cut, the child alone is exposed to all the waves of this life, is tossed and driven about. So Democritus, and following him Plutarch in his book On the Love of Offspring.
The Prophet therefore seems to say: From the maternal womb, that is from Egypt, you still drew the nourishment of impiety, say Theodoret and Polychronius, and the filth of idolatry and paganism, and especially lust. Hence some add and say: Just as in men the origin of seed is in the loins, so in women it is in the navel. So St. Jerome here, and Origen in Homily 6, and St. Gregory on Job 40:11. But although this may seem to some to hold true for animals, such as the elephant (I say "seem," for Pineda rightly denies this, and many others passim) in the passage cited from Job, it does not hold for human beings. For as natural philosophers and physicians teach, the navel has no use except for nourishing and sustaining the fetus in the womb from the mother, and is in no way an instrument of generation in a woman any more than in a man; but in both woman and man, the origin of seed is in the loins (for there are the seminal vessels, in which seed is formed from spirituous blood, which they draw from the vena cava, which descends from the liver to the loins and kidneys), which are connected to the womb. Hence "uterine diseases are accompanied by distension of the loins," says Galen, book II of On Seed, chapter 1.
Most simply, therefore, explain it thus: When you were first born in Egypt, having no law and no guide, you lived your life in the shameful filth of Egypt; you were uncultured and unformed, and equally sordid; you lived the life and manners of the Egyptians, and, as Theodoret says, "as though the navel cord had not yet been cut from the land of your birth, you still received the nourishment of Egyptian impiety from the maternal womb." For the infant is nourished and grows through the navel cord. Hence symbolically St. Gregory, in Moralia XXXII, chapter 11: "To cut the navel cord on the day of birth," he says, "is, at the time of conversion,
to cut away the luxury of the flesh; but Judea retained the uncut foreskin, because it did not cut off the flow of licentiousness." For the navel is a symbol of lust, not in itself, but because it is near the belly and the genitals. So Pineda on Job 40:11.
"And you were not washed with water for your health." Rightly so, for the Hebrew משעי (misci) signifies health, from the root ישע (iascha), that is, "he saved." The bodies of the newly born are customarily washed: first, so that the filth of the womb may be cleansed — hence Prado thinks that "health" here and elsewhere means cleanliness; and R. Manahen translates: "You were not washed for cleanliness," adding that the Hebrew משעי (misci) means cleanliness in Arabic. "The bloodied bodies of infants," says St. Jerome, "are customarily washed as soon as they are delivered from the womb"; and he adds that Christ alluded to this when, instituting baptism, He said: "Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit." Hear Plutarch, in his book On the Love of Offspring: "Nothing," he says, "is so imperfect, helpless, naked, unformed, and foul as a human being at birth, etc., stained with blood, filled with corruption, more like something killed than something born — no one can touch, lift, kiss, or embrace it with affection unless they have the love implanted by nature." Secondly, so that the limbs which were contracted in the womb may be extended and shaped by warm water. Thirdly, so that the flesh may be rendered smooth and soft, say the Rabbis. Hence R. David translates: "You were not washed for smoothness"; R. Manahen: "You were not washed for delicacy." But the flesh of an infant, being extremely soft, needs firmness rather than greater softness. Fourthly, "for health," as follows — that is, for soundness and well-being, lest from the filth of the womb they contract rot, stench, and disease. Add that the Egyptians and Mexicans immerse newborns in cold water, and thus their offspring become more robust; and for this reason some physicians recommend that infants be washed with wine. Fifthly, some who are skilled in Hebrew aptly translate it "for appearance"; for this is what the Hebrew משעי (misci) means, from the root שעה (scau), that is, "he looked upon, gazed at with delight" — meaning: You were not washed so as to be freed from your deformity and become beautiful and pleasing to look upon, so that your mother and nurses would caress you, embrace and kiss you. Hence some translate: "You were not washed for embraces, for tender kisses."
Symbolically, it signifies that the Jews did not wash away the sins of their past life with tears. Allegorically, Theodoret explains it thus: "You were not washed" — namely, in baptism — "for health," that is, for immortal life. "For there are many washings," says St. Jerome, "which the pagans in their mysteries, and heretics promise; they all wash, but they do not wash for salvation."
5a. "Nor salted with salt." The bodies of newborns are salted so they may become firmer and more compact, says St. Jerome, and dried of all the impurity of the womb, and so that the wound of the cut navel cord may be tightened, closed, and healed by salt. Hear also Galen, book I of On the Preservation of Health, chapter 7: For health it is useful "that first, by lightly sprinkling salt, the skin of the infant be made denser and firmer than the parts within. For in the womb it was equally soft with the rest, since no harder external body struck against it there, nor did any cold air reach it." So the ancients; but today soft midwives abstain from salt as being caustic.
Symbolically, it signifies that the Hebrews were deprived of the salt of wisdom, which by the fear of punishments restrains the lusts of the flesh and preserves from the corruption of sin: "For salt is like the balsam of nature," as Anselm Boetius, physician of Emperor Rudolf II, rightly says in book II of On Stones, chapter 302. For nature has mixed salt into nearly all compounds, to season them, bind them, and preserve them from corruption. Thus, literally, they used to salt infants so that they would not quickly rot from the inborn seed of death and corruption. Hence Homer calls salt "divine," and Plato asserted that salt is most dear and familiar to divine things. Investigating the reason for this saying, Plutarch in his Table-Talk, decade 5, teaches that salt has this divine quality: that it keeps decay and corruption from bodies deprived of life, and does not allow them to perish entirely, as if long resisting death and, as far as possible, performing the function of the soul. Now nothing is more divine than the soul. Its office is to protect and hold together living things, and not to allow the frame to collapse; likewise, salt, following the example of the soul, preserves the harmony of bodies tending toward decay and maintains the friendship among their members. Furthermore, salt is a necessary seasoning of food. Therefore Pliny, book 31, chapter 7: "By Hercules," he says, "human life cannot be sustained without salt; so necessary an element is it that it has passed over to the pleasures of the mind as well. For witticisms are thus called 'salt,' and all the charm and highest merriment of life." And hence "insipid speech," which has no charm; and "insulsus" (unsalted) — a man of inelegant manners. And chapter 9: "They say that nothing is more useful to the body than salt and sun." Hence also that line of Catullus: "There is not a grain of salt in so great a body."
Hence salt is given to the newly baptized, as a symbol of Christian wisdom, which consists in the mortification of vices; for thus salt mortifies living flesh by drawing out and consuming the blood and all superfluous moisture. From this comes the surname of the Burgundians, so that they are called "Borgoignon salé," that is, "salted Burgundian." The origin of this is that the Burgundians were the first among the Gauls to receive baptism and the Christian faith, and in it were sprinkled with salt according to custom. Therefore at that time they were jokingly called "salted" or "salt-seasoned" by their still-pagan neighbors — a surname that has since stuck to them.
"Nor wrapped in swaddling clothes" — that is, in bands which bind, shape, and straighten the body. "Hence the bodies of the barbarians are straighter than Roman bodies; for up to the second and third year they are always wrapped in swaddling clothes," says St. Jerome.
These swaddling bands signify the garments of virtue and charity, which most of the Jews lacked; or the doctrine of the law, which made Israel upright. So Theodoret.
Verse 5: "No eye took pity on you"
5. "No eye took pity on you" — that is, as Vatablus translates from the Hebrew: No human eye had compassion on you, to look upon you with eyes of pity, and to perform for you, newly born, so filthily cast away and abandoned, any necessary act of kindness. "But you were cast out upon the face of the earth" — just as exposed infants are customarily cast out. Secondly and properly, as infants at birth are expelled and thrown upon the ground. Hence the Romans invented the goddess Levana, as one who would lift up children already born from the earth. But this is the office "of the nurse of all, the grace of God": "Let Him therefore lift up from the earth, and let Him be called Levana," says St. Augustine, book IV of The City of God, chapter 11. The meaning is: When you lay cast away, naked and abandoned, I, like Levana, lifted you up, washed you, cared for you, raised you, adopted you, etc. "In the contempt of your life" — that is, of your soul, meaning: You were cast out to die. So Maldonatus. Again, "of your soul," that is, of your person, or of your body, which is the receptacle of the soul — this being a metonymy. So often in Leviticus: "unclean upon a soul" means one made unclean by contact with a dead body. Meaning: Just as when poured forth from the mother's womb, you were covered with afterbirth and filth, and were abominable, unwashed, unsalted, naked — so you lay in the middle of the field, exposed to the injuries of the sky and to wild beasts, and rejected by men. So Prado. Indeed, as the scholiasts and the Chaldean say, this happened when Pharaoh ordered the males of the Hebrews to be drowned and killed. For then their mothers cast them out into the field or into the reeds, as happened to Moses. Likewise, when Pharaoh banished them and, as it were, cast them out to make bricks from the mud and straw of Egypt, Exodus 1.
Verse 6: "Passing by"
6. "Passing by" — like a king who goes hunting and comes upon an exposed girl in a field. He alludes to Moses, who as an infant was exposed in the reeds and was rescued and raised by the passing daughter of Pharaoh. For in a similar manner God freed the rest of the Hebrew infants from death, and their parents from slavery. "I saw you trampled in your blood" — namely, the blood that comes forth from the womb with the fetus and the afterbirth; that is, I saw you entirely sordid, barbarous, uncultured, wretched — lacking faith, law, grace, salvation, and all the gifts of God; and mystically, stained with blood, that is, with original sin, which you had drawn like blood from the mother's womb. So Maldonatus. Hence R. David says "in blood" means immersed in the mud from which you were forced to make bricks; for mud is reddish and of a blood-like color.
"And I said, etc.: In your blood, live." That is, I willed, I decreed efficaciously — that is, I commanded and brought it about (for God's speaking is doing) — that in such great misery and filth you should live and not perish, indeed grow and multiply, as follows; and receive more of My benefits: namely, the law, the tabernacle, the promised land, etc. Note: God says "Live" twice, to signify that He first commanded that the Israelites, although oppressed by Pharaoh in Egypt, should nevertheless grow and multiply; and secondly, that they should go forth from there and live in the promised land under Moses' leadership. Again: "Live" — that is, although you were not yet purified and cleansed, I still allowed you to live; or, as Maldonatus says: "Live" — that is, I caused you to live in the midst of calamities, so that you would not be crushed by the Egyptians, but would live, grow up, and multiply "to ten thousand," as the Hebrew has it — that is, immeasurably. And thus I was to you and your infants like a midwife, and I made the midwives beneficent toward them against Pharaoh's command. Behold the love of God acting as midwife to the infants of the Hebrews! What then, and how great, is His love, since He Himself for the sake of little ones became a little one, and took upon Himself the filth of our infancy? Otherwise the Chaldean: "In the blood," he says, "of circumcision I will have mercy on you, and in the blood of the Passover I will redeem you."
Verse 7: "You entered"
7. "You entered" (you advanced, you grew to the age of puberty so as to be marriageable — an age that requires) "womanly adornment" — so as to prepare herself and adorn herself for her bridegroom. In Hebrew it reads: You entered and arrived at the ornament of ornaments; so Theodotion — that is, at every kind of adornment, such as a noble maiden typically has when she is now of marriageable age: bracelets, chains, earrings, necklaces, etc. Such was Israel when, having come forth from the slavery of Egypt through Moses, through the pillar, through the law, through the tabernacle, and through other miracles and gifts of God, it was being prepared to be betrothed to God on Sinai. The Septuagint, reading ז instead of ד — that is, reading ערי ערים (are arim) instead of עדי עדיים (adi adaiim) — translates: You entered into the cities of cities, that is, into the very many and very great cities of Canaan which I gave you under Joshua's leadership.
"Your breasts swelled." That is, you reached the years of puberty and became marriageable; for then the breasts grow. "And you were" (when you were at that age which is most accustomed to being adorned) "naked and full of shame." First, as a slave and captive you scarcely had mean garments with which to cover your nakedness and shame. So R. David. Secondly, as Theodoret says, you had not received the covering of the law. Thirdly, you were not protected by God's help. So St. Jerome. Fourthly, in Egypt you worshipped the idols of the Egyptians, says the scholiast.
Verse 8: "And behold, it was your time, the time of lovers"
8. "And behold, it was your time, the time of lovers." In Hebrew דודים (dodim), that is, as Theodotion renders, ωρατων (oraton), "of breasts" — namely, swelling breasts; Symmachus, φιλίας (philias), that is, "of affection"; Aquila, the time of σωμαλίας (somalias), that is, "of union" — namely, betrothal and marriage; Pagninus, "the time of loves"; the Septuagint, "the time of those departing" — that is, as the scholiast explains from Theodoret, the time for you to leave the ranks of virgins and pass into the order of married women. That is, you were at the age to be joined to a husband; and no one wished to marry you because you were naked, sordid, and wretched; but I clothed you and took you as My wife — when through Moses I called you, loved you, joined you to Me by a covenant, led you forth, and protected you. "I spread My garment over you." In Hebrew kenaphi, that is, "My wing" — that is, I spread the hem of My garment over you; this means, I betrothed you to Myself as a wife. For among the Hebrews, a husband spreading the hem of his garment over a woman signi-
The Hebrew רקמה (ricma or recama) — whence the Italian ricamo, ricamare, and ricamato. Indeed, such was the variegated garment of the priests, in which, says the Wise Man in chapter 18:24, the whole world was depicted — which was, as it were, the dowry of the wife. For God handed over all things to her in service, according to Psalm 8:8: "You have subjected all things under his feet: sheep and all oxen, and moreover the cattle of the field." So the Chaldean. Through these garments, therefore, as well as through the anointing, is signified the priesthood and pontificate conferred by God upon the Synagogue.
"I covered your shame" — that is, the nakedness mentioned in verse 7; I covered it with garments and with the spoils of the Egyptians. Likewise, by giving the law, My help, and My divine protection. "And I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you." God entered into this nuptial covenant with Israel, so poor and wretched, in Exodus 24; and He confirmed it there with an oath, as it were execratory — not with words, but with deeds. For the division of the victims by which the covenant was ratified signified the same thing; for it was as if He said: So may God cut asunder whichever party violates the covenant. See what was said there.
"You became Mine" — namely, My bride and wife, say St. Jerome and Theodoret, and as it were My possession, so that you are and are called Mine, and receive My name, and are called the Synagogue of God, the bride of God, the people of God, the Israel of God. Tropologically, the faithful soul is the bride of God, of whom the Apostle says: "I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:2). See what was said there.
Verse 9: "I washed you with water"
9. "I washed you with water." First, meaning: I wiped away the filth of your poverty and birth, and made you honorable, rich, and beautiful. So Maldonatus. Secondly, "I washed you" — that is, in the Red Sea as in a baptismal bath I baptized you, while I led you through it, and drowned the Egyptians in the same, 1 Corinthians 10:1. Thirdly, as Origen, Theodoret, and Apollinaris say, with the water of doctrine, and, as Vatablus says, of My grace, I washed away your blood-stains — that is, your crimes. Fourthly, Prado, meaning: By the baptisms and lustrations prescribed by the law, I removed your legal impurities, and, as Theodoret says, through circumcision I cleansed your blood — that is, your sins. He alludes to Exodus 19:10, where before entering into the covenant with God, the people were commanded to wash their garments, so as to cleanse and prepare themselves for the law and the covenant with God. This sense seems most genuinely intended.
"I anointed you." Note: new brides, grooms, and wedding guests were accustomed to be washed, then anointed, and finally clothed in precious garments, as is evident from Esther 2:12; Ruth 3:3; Judith 10:3. "I therefore anointed you" — that is, I refreshed you from your labors, say Polychronius and Prado. Secondly and better: "I anointed you" — that is, I created and consecrated Aaron and his descendants (and in them the whole people) as My priests through anointing. For this was the greatest dignity of the people: that they were a holy nation and a royal priesthood, Exodus 19:6. Mystically, Origen says: "The anointing is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in grace and in the knowledge of truth." Allegorically, it is the anointing of chrism, by which we are confirmed in the sacrament of Confirmation.
Verse 10: "I clothed you in many-colored garments"
10. "I clothed you in many-colored garments" — that is, embroidered and variegated in Phrygian needlework. For this is what
Tropologically, the many-colored garment is the variegation of all the virtues. For with this, as with a garment, we are on all sides girded, adorned, and protected. Especially the outer garment is modesty, gravity, courtesy, and every outward arrangement of words, manners, and gestures toward propriety and piety. The inner garment is justice, which is the sum of all virtues, rightly composing and conforming the mind according to God and God's law.
Note: The Hebrew ricma, which our translator here renders as "many-colored," he elsewhere renders as "embroidered"; elsewhere, "checkered"; elsewhere, "variegated"; elsewhere, "feathered"; elsewhere, and properly, "Phrygian work" or "needle-painted." Because from one kind of variegated garment, others are understood: Attalic, Babylonic, Alexandrine, checkered — concerning which Pliny, book 8, chapter 48, says: "I understand that kings used bordered robes; embroidered garments existed already in Homer's time, whence triumphal robes were born. The Phrygians invented the art of needlework, and hence they were called phrygiones. King Attalus in the same Asia invented the weaving of gold into fabric, whence the name Attalic. Babylon was especially famous for weaving diverse colors into pictures, and gave its name to them. Alexandria introduced the weaving with very many threads, which is called polymita; Gaul, the division into checks." So far Pliny. I have seen in Audenarde in Belgium how the images of men, trees, animals, and all things are woven into tapestries with multi-colored threads with the utmost artistry — in which craft they excel not only the Belgians, but nearly all other nations. Furthermore, needlework has two kinds: one is feathered work, in which the lines of the fabric are covered with various pictures in multi-colored silk threads, as we see in finer cushions. The other is Phrygian work, when segments of gold are attached by needle to golden or silken fabric. See what was said on Exodus, chapter 26:1, and Prado, who treats these matters at length here.
"I shod you with fine leather" — namely with shoes of hyacinth-colored leather, or violet-colored, as the Septuagint translates — that is, of a violet (for ια in Greek means violet) and heavenly color. For the Hebrew תחש (tachas), that is, badger, is an animal similar to a fox, of violet color, concerning which see Exodus 23:5. From the hide of this animal, therefore, God made shoes for His bride the Synagogue. He alludes to the violet skins with which the tabernacle was covered — that is, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, Exodus 26:14 (for these are called tachas in Hebrew) — which, because it was square, or rather rectangular, had the shape of a shoe, and, like shoes, was made of, or covered with, skins.
It is therefore signified here that God gave the Synagogue the tabernacle or temple, beautifully variegated with scarlet, purple, linen, and hyacinth, and all its ornamentation, vessels, and furnishings — namely, the altar both of incense and of holocausts, the laver or bronze sea, the table of showbread, the lampstand, the mercy-seat, the ark, the Cherubim, etc.
Symbolically, the shoe is a sign: first, of freedom and dominion — for slaves, like captives, walked barefoot, Exodus 12:11. Hence David, about to subjugate Edom, says in Psalm 59:10: "Over Edom I will cast my shoe." Therefore: Secondly, the shoe is a sign of possession and ownership; unshoing, conversely, of yielding one's right, Deuteronomy 25:7; Ruth 4:7. Thirdly, it is a sign of joy — just as, conversely, removing one's shoes, laying aside one's crown, and shaving one's hair were signs of mourning. Here is relevant Alciati's emblem, in which he teaches that the violet color is a symbol of one who is content with his lot. For he says: "Let everyone content with his lot wear violet." Fourthly, in warfare the shoe is a sign of steadfastness, confidence, and an intrepid spirit; for one who is barefoot walks timidly, lest he strike his foot. So the bride Israel, hitherto unshod like a captive, is now made free and shod, and with a violet-colored shoe, to signify: first, that her manner of life and hope are heavenly — "For violet is of an airy and most vivid color, so that one may be caught up to meet the Lord and hasten to heavenly things," say St. Jerome and St. Gregory, book 30 of the Moralia, chapter 10. Also, that she is protected by God in heaven, so that she may walk and preach more perfectly, says St. Jerome. Thirdly, violet is the garment of kings, Sirach 40:4. It therefore signifies a royal and exalted spirit, which, fixed on heaven, tramples and despises all earthly things — hence the moon is under the feet of the Church and of the Saints, Revelation 12:1. For these reasons, in the early Church the newly baptized were given, along with a white garment, white shoes as well, which they wore for seven days — to which Paul alludes in Ephesians 6:15, saying: "Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." So Rupert, book 7, chapter 1. See Joseph Visconti, On the Rites of Baptism, book 5, chapter 18.
Here is relevant the ancient riddle which Virgil proposes in Eclogue 3: "Tell in what lands flowers are born inscribed with the names of kings." That is, tell where hyacinths grow. For the flower of the hyacinth, as Pliny testifies (book 21, chapter 11), Pausanias (book 1), and others passim, naturally bears two letters inscribed upon it, A and I, formed by certain veins, says Pliny, or mottled markings, as Dalecampius calls them, running in such a way as to form these letters on the flower. These letters A and I are the initials of the name Ajax, the famous king of the Greeks and destroyer of Troy, of whom Homer sings throughout the Iliad. Hence the Poets imagined that Ajax, once dead, was transformed into the hyacinth flower, as Ovid describes in Metamorphoses XIII. The hyacinth therefore bears the name and emblem of kings; hence it was also a royal garment, just like scarlet or purple. Therefore Cardinals use it equally with scarlet; for they are the royal priesthood and priestly royalty of Christ, so that, just as Christ Himself in His passion and on the cross donned the purple and purpled both Himself and the Church with His blood, so they too, for Christ and the Church, and for His faith and glory, should stand like pillars unto death, and for it, if need be, shed their blood and undergo martyrdom.
So did the first Cardinals act — not in name (for the title of Cardinals began to be given to the principal parish clergy of the city of Rome — that is, the priests and deacons — around the time of Sylvester, under whom the peace of the Church began. Hence in the Roman Council under Sylvester, chapter 7, Cardinal Deacons are found mentioned; and St. Gregory recalls them in book 5, epistle 14 to Fortunatus, and book 11, epistle 34 to John. Then in the year of the Lord 769, at the Roman Council under Pope Stephen IV, it was decreed that no one should be made Pope unless he had first been a Cardinal; and thus Anastasius the Librarian reports that Eugene II was created Pope from Cardinal of S. Sabina in the year 824). So, I say, the first Cardinals acted — not in name, but in reality, reddened with their own blood: St. Lawrence, St. Cyriacus, St. Largus, St. Smaragdus, and very many others — indeed almost all of them during the first three hundred years after Christ, during which all the Popes with their Cardinals — that is, their chief priests and deacons — were purpled with martyrdom. Of whom the Church therefore rightly sings:
"For reddened with flowing blood, they are richly adorned with radiant laurels." Let the Cardinals therefore set these men before themselves for imitation. And that they may do so, and that by perpetually gazing upon their habit they may be reminded of this constancy, charity, and martyrdom: Paul II was the first — he who was made Pope in the year 1464, and whose secretary was Platina — to assign them the red or purple vestment; and before him, Innocent IV, in the year 1245, having created twelve Cardinals, was the first to assign them the purple hat, so that they, together with him, would stand firm even to blood and death against the Emperor Frederick, the enemy of the Church, and set their heads before him like a wall. So Martin of Poland, Platina, Onuphrius, and others in their Lives of these Pontiffs.
With this violet-colored shoe, as well as the hat and scarlet vestment, Cardinal Reginald Pole was nobly adorned above others. With his mind fixed on heaven and God, he not only despised and scorned all wealth and honors, but also all terrors, sorrows, and death itself, and thus generously endured a long martyrdom, as it were perpetual —
he endured. For when Henry VIII, King of England, having made his schism and being guilty in his own conscience, feared the Pope, and feared Pole — as a Cardinal and one sprung from the royal blood of England — lest he should one day make his way into England, as Henry feared, the king set continual ambushes for him everywhere. Therefore, when Pole was sent by Paul III as legate to Francis, King of France, and the king warned him that if he wished to be safe, he should depart immediately — in that great danger, when all the roads were filled with armed soldiers and brigands and with Englishmen themselves — he never slackened in his constancy and gravity. Indeed, when all his companions were so terrified that none dared to carry the cross before him (as is the custom with papal legates), he himself took the cross in his hands and carried it upright, until his servants, shamed, took it back. Then when he had escaped into Belgium, but the impious king did not cease from his plots and had put a price of fifty thousand gold pieces on his head, and no greater danger to his life could exist, he always remained the same, persisting in the same serenity of countenance and mind, relying on God alone. Who indeed did not fail him: for the Bishop and Cardinal Groisbeeck of Liege invited him, and received him most graciously. When Pole heard the enormous and scarcely credible promises which the Englishman was offering the Belgians if they would hand Pole over to him, he marveled at the man's madness and said: "He had long since been weary of this life, and desired death and the passage to a better life; and therefore, since Henry was striving with such great expense and effort to help fulfill this very desire of his, he was doing nothing other than what one does who tries to strip the very clothes from someone who wishes to go to sleep." O words worthy of a Cardinal — words, I say, not of a man, but of an angel! What he uttered with his mouth, he fulfilled in deed: for he did not depart from Belgium, where a thousand traps were laid for him by the neighboring English, until he was recalled by the Pope — declaring that he was in the Pope's power, and would do everything at his nod. So Sanders and others in their History of England.
"I girded you with linen" — I girded you as with a belt of the softest and whitest linen fabric. This belt signifies chastity, fidelity, conjugal love, and a pure heart, so that the bride, the Synagogue, should love none but God her spouse. He alludes both to the curtains and veils of linen surrounding the tabernacle, and to the linen sash with which the priests girded their tunic, Exodus 28:39. For this signified that the priest, and through him the whole people, was bound to God, as is evident from Jeremiah 13:11 — although it is not necessary to apply all these details individually. For all this adornment signifies in general only that Israel was adorned by God with every gift and grace. Prado thinks that בוץ (buts), that is, the linen of the ancients, was cotton, which is very white and very soft. Pliny, however, seems to distinguish linen from cotton, book 19, chapter 1. Hence our Delrio, on Genesis 41:42: "Linen," he says, "is not the product of a worm, but of the earth or of a plant" — such as that from Bengal, which Hugo Linschoten mentions in his voyage, which seems to be the linen of Pliny and the Indian muslin of Q. Curtius. For us in Europe, nothing is more similar to linen than the fabrics of Cambrai. However that may be, it is well established among all that linen was not silk, but the whitest, finest, and most excellent flax. So Ulysses Aldrovandus teaches from Julius Pollux, Pliny, and Pausanias, in book 1 of On Insects, or Bloodless Creatures, chapter 77. See what was said on Exodus 25:4.
"And I clothed you in silk." The Septuagint renders τριχάπτω (trichaptō) — that is, a garment of such fineness, having such fine warp and weft, says St. Jerome, that it seems to have the thinness of hairs and threads; for the Greeks call hairs τρίχας (trichas). So St. Jerome and Origen. In Hebrew it is משי (mesi), that is, "drawn out" — namely, silk thread, which is drawn as it were from the inward parts of silkworms, and once wound by them into a ball, is immersed in boiling water, loosened, and pulled apart into threads by handling. For the root משה (masa) means "to draw." Hence Moses, because he was drawn out of the water, is called Mose in Hebrew. The same is called in Hebrew שרק (serec) from its color — that is, of a golden-yellow color; hence the red, dappled horses in Zechariah 1:8 are called שרוקים (serukim) in Hebrew, that is, golden-yellow. And in Isaiah 5:1, it is called the vineyard of sorec, that is, golden; such as Cretan wine, commonly called Malvasia. For thus also linen, as spun by silkworms, is golden. From the Hebrew serec the Latin word sericum (silk) is derived — not from the fact that it was found among the Seres (though more recent authors claim this), the peoples of Scythia or India. Therefore silk is the same as bombycine fabric, and the Seres are the same as silkworms, says Isidore, book 19 of the Origins.
Therefore, what Procopius in book 1 of the Persian War and Zonaras report — that the seeds of silkworms producing silk were brought from India to Constantinople by certain monks in the time of the Emperor Justinian — does not deny that silk fabrics were brought to Asia and Europe before that, as is evident here and from Aristotle, book 1 of On the Nature of Animals. Hence Delrio, on Genesis 41:42, notes that these three should be properly distinguished: linen (byssus), silk (sericum), and bombycine. Linen is what I have described. Silk was made from the leaves of the smaller palm. The ancients thought it was made by combing out the down; but more recent authors refute this and say the leaves are plucked, cleaned, and drawn into the finest threads, as Edward Lopez describes in his description of Africa. Bombycine fabrics are what we (and many ancients, as I have already said from Isidore) call silk — from the silkworm, by which those threads are spun. The Prophet therefore signifies by "fine garments" and by serec the outermost veil, silken and fine, let down from the head almost to the feet, with which virgins covered themselves entirely, as did harlots who pretended to be virgins; married women, however, veiled everything except their face with it. Hebrew women wore such a veil, as Italian women do today. This is the theristrum (summer veil) which Tamar put on in Genesis 38:14, and the pallium (mantle) of Rebecca in Genesis 24:65. This veil, or head-covering, is a sign of
the subjection of the bride — namely, that she is subject to her husband, 1 Corinthians 11:7 — and when she veils her face, it is a sign of chaste modesty and bashfulness. It therefore signifies the submission of the Synagogue under God, which was for her not so much a burden as an honor and ornament — namely, that through it she had God as her lord and protector, as her covering.
Verse 11: "I adorned you with ornaments"
11. "I adorned you with ornaments" — bracelets, a chain, earrings, as follows. This signifies the victories, trophies, and spoils which Israel, under God's leadership, brought back from her enemies, says Apollinaris. But you may understand any ornaments by these. For it only signifies that the Synagogue, as a bride, was adorned and beautified by God in every way — especially that from being rude and uncultured, she was made civilized, refined, and illustrious through the law which she received from God on Sinai. So Maldonatus. The Chaldean, however, and the Greek Fathers apply each word to individual benefits of God.
"I gave bracelets." Bracelets on the hands, or rather next to the hands on the arms (for by hands and arms he means them), signify mutual agreement, contract, and fidelity — as a sign of which they were given to Rebecca, Genesis 24:22. These ornaments were passed down to posterity, to invite the younger generation to imitate the virtues of their ancestors. Hence in Suetonius, in Caligula, chapter 15, you read that Caligula took away the ancient family insignia from the most noble: from Torquatus his chain, from Cincinnatus his curl, from Pompey the surname "Great." Furthermore, bracelets were ornaments of the arms and hands for both men and women. Hear Festus: "The golden bracelets which military men wear as gifts from Emperors are thought to be so named because the ancients called the shoulders together with the arms 'armi'; hence weapons (arma) and bracelets (armillae), hanging from these, received their name." Tropologically, bracelets signify that nothing unbecoming should be done; rather, the hands — that is, the works — ought to be seemly. So Origen. Secondly, they signify the power of the Holy Spirit, who stirs us to action and puts His hand to the work. So Theodoret and Origen, who says: "When God has given me the occasion for good works, He places bracelets on my hands."
"A chain." The Septuagint renders κάθεμα (kathema), that is, a necklace of various gems, descending from the neck to the breast of women. The chain, says Origen, signifies freedom in honorableness, and the understanding of truth. Theodoret and the Chaldean, however, take the chain as the yoke of the law, according to Proverbs 1:8: "Hear, my son, the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother, that grace may be added to your head, and a chain to your neck."
Verse 12: "A ring upon your nose"
12. "A ring upon your nose." The Hebrew says: "upon your nostrils." Hence Vatablus translates: "A ring in your nostrils, such as Indians wear." This was therefore a jewel in the nostrils, or rather, as St. Jerome says, hanging from the forehead down to the nose, which Isaiah in chapter 3, verse 21, calls "gems hanging from the forehead" — hence Symmachus here translates ἐμπρόσθιον (emprosthion, "frontal ornament"). From this it is clear that Jewish women wore this jewel on the forehead above the nostrils. It is called an earring (inauris) because it was similar to the one that hung from the ear, says St. Jerome. The Chaldean takes this ring as the ark of the covenant, which went before the camp of the Hebrews in the desert.
Tropologically, the ring upon the mouth signifies silence and prayer. The ring about the nose, says Origen, is the most fragrant knowledge of mysteries; or, as Theodoret, the law restraining vices — for thus bulls are restrained and led about by a ring in their nostrils. Maldonatus interprets otherwise: he thinks that the ring "upon the mouth" is the same as a ring in the ears — that is, an earring properly so called — taking "mouth" (os) to mean the ears, because they are above the mouth. And so the same thing is repeated here in different words.
"Earrings in your ears." These rings are earrings, by which Origen understands obedience to the king, and Theodoret understands doctrine and the hearing of the word of God, which wounds and pierces the ears as with an awl, because it is contrary to the flesh.
"And a crown of beauty upon your head" — that is, a crown such as was customarily given to a bride; but a royal one, as for a queen, meaning: I gave you a kingdom and kings. So the Church is the kingdom of Christ, or rather the queen of Christ the King. The Chaldean translates: "And the cloud of My glory overshadowed you, and the Angel sent from My presence led at your head." For this cloud, overshadowing the camp of the Hebrews in the desert, was like a crown of a heavenly and divine kingdom. Hence in ancient times a crown was placed on the head of Christians at baptism, to signify that through Christ they became mystical kings and priests, according to 1 Peter 2:9: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood," etc. — on which see more in that place.
Furthermore, that not only kings and queens but also brides and grooms were customarily crowned is evident from Song of Songs 4:8: "Come from Lebanon, my bride, etc., come, you shall be crowned"; and chapter 3, verse 11: "See, daughters of Zion, King Solomon in the diadem with which his mother crowned him on the day of his betrothal." Isaiah 61:10: "Like a bridegroom adorned with a crown." Thus even now we see brides crowned with garlands — whether of gems or of roses, if they are common folk. Tropologically, the crown is victory over vices, and the reward of heavenly glory. See what was said on Isaiah 61:3 and chapter 62, verse 3.
Verse 13: "And you were adorned with gold and silver"
13. "And you were adorned with gold and silver" (meaning: You were adorned, I say, with the golden and silver ornaments just enumerated); "and you were clothed in linen, embroidered cloth, and many colors" — those just mentioned, meaning: I gave you gold and an abundance of riches. The Chaldean: "I placed My tabernacle in your midst, adorned with gold, silver, linen curtains, etc." Tropologically, the soul is adorned with gold — that is, charity — and silver — that is, wisdom and eloquence — of which Revelation 3:18 says: "I counsel you to buy gold refined by fire."
"You ate fine flour, honey, and oil." That is, I gave you not acorns, not onions, which formerly when
you were a rustic you ate in Egypt; but delicacies — namely, an abundance of the finest produce in Canaan, and in the desert manna, which was like fine flour with honey and oil — so as to be a hendiadys: "fine flour and honey" means honeyed fine flour, namely manna. So the Chaldean. Allegorically, this signifies the body of Christ in the Eucharist: nourishing like fine flour, delighting like honey, making vigorous and strong like athletes for combat as does oil. Therefore, with this same scheme of ornaments that Ezekiel uses here, St. Agnes describes the spiritual adornment of her soul, as recorded by St. Ambrose in Sermon 99:
When, she says, the son of the Prefect of the city of Rome, like a suitor, pressed upon the young woman the most precious ornaments, she nobly replied: "Depart from me, you fuel of sin, nourishment of crime, food of death! Depart from me, for I have already been won by another lover, who has offered me far better ornaments than you, and has given me the pledge-ring of His faith — far nobler than you in both birth and dignity. He has adorned me with a priceless bracelet. He has encircled my right hand and my neck with precious stones. He has placed in my ears priceless pearls, and has surrounded me with blooming and sparkling gems. He has placed a sign upon my face, and I will admit no lover besides Him. He has clothed me with a robe woven of gold, and adorned me with immense necklaces. He has shown me incomparable treasures, which He has promised He will give me if I persevere in faithfulness to Him." And further: "Already I have received honey and milk (in baptism) from His mouth; already I have been bound by His chaste embraces; already His body has been united to my body (in the Eucharist), and His blood has adorned my cheeks. His mother is a virgin; His father knows no woman; angels serve Him; the sun and moon marvel at His beauty; at His fragrance the dead revive, etc. To Him alone I keep faith; to Him I commit myself with entire devotion. When I love Him, I am chaste; when I touch Him, I am pure; when I receive Him, I am a virgin."
"And you advanced to royal dignity" — you were elevated, O Jerusalem, to be the seat and capital of a kingdom. So the Chaldean. The Hebrew root צלח (tsalach) means to prosper, to grow successfully, to advance. Morally, let those who rise from a humble and lowly condition to a lofty one learn from this to remember their former state, so that they do not grow insolent, but keep themselves in modesty and be grateful to God. For otherwise, as the Poet says: "Nothing is more harsh than a low man when he rises to the heights." Therefore Agathocles, who from a potter was made king of Sicily, always dined from earthenware vessels, to remember that he had been a potter. And piously, Placilla, wife of Theodosius, who had been made Emperor from being a soldier, often sang to him: "You must always remember, my husband, who you once were, and who you now are. Thus continually embracing this in your mind, you will not show yourself ungrateful toward your patron; but you will govern the empire you have received justly and lawfully; and by duly
administering it, you will worship with august reverence Him who bestowed it upon you." So Theodoret, book 5 of the History, chapter 18.
Verse 14: "On account of your beauty"
14. "On account of your beauty." The Septuagint renders: "on account of your beauty" — namely, all that has been described. He calls "beauty" the polity and the well-ordered and organized administration of the republic, which stirred the Queen of Sheba to come to Solomon, 3 Kings 10:1.
Verse 15: "Having confidence in your beauty"
15. "Having confidence in your beauty" — and from confidence, security and boldness, meaning: From the beauty, riches, and prosperity that I gave you, you became secure and bold. So St. Jerome. Or rather, as Apollinaris says: "Having confidence" means having pride, meaning: Proud of your beauty, you despised Me and committed fornication with the idols of the nations "in your name" — on account of your fame, by which all nations celebrated you as fortunate, wealthy, and beautiful; or "in your name" — that is, as though you were free and your own mistress, not betrothed to Me — thus openly and with all you committed fornication, not in the manner of an adulteress. For adulteresses commit adultery with few, secretly and timidly. So Prado: "Pride dwells in the beautiful, and arrogance follows beauty," says Ovid, in Fasti I.
The Wise Man, moreover, in Proverbs 31, depicting the strong and illustrious woman, having said in verse 25: "Strength and beauty are her clothing," then in verse 30 declares where these qualities truly reside — namely, in the fear of God — saying: "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is vain; the woman who fears the Lord shall be praised." Learn here how dangerous is the beauty of the body, by which many men and women are puffed up, along with all the pomp and glory of the world. "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is vain," says the Wise Man. "Beauty," says St. Augustine, "is a gift of God, but through our abuse it becomes an evil." Indeed Socrates says: "Beauty is a tyranny of short duration"; and as Theophrastus says, "it is a silent deception." Euripides in the Helena: "Beauty," he says, "is an unhappy thing." Proclus the Platonist, in his book On the Soul: "Souls," he says, "which through perverse upbringing fall from the heavenly gift, stumbling upon beautiful images, and through ignorance of true beauty, admire and dote upon bodily forms." And the Poet: "There is a great conflict between beauty and chastity." Excellently indeed, Petrarch, in book 1 of On the Remedies of Both Fortunes: "He calls beauty a veil upon the eyes, a snare for the feet, birdlime for the soul, so that one cannot easily discern the true, nor perceive virtue, nor soar upward in mind." And shortly after he says it is "a domestic enemy, a robber of peace, material for labor, fuel for lust." Therefore St. Jerome rightly says: "The love of bodily beauty is the oblivion of reason." Hence morally, St. Jerome says: "It is a great peril not to trust in God, but in one's own beauty —
and the more exalted anyone is, the more he must fear lest he fall and commit fornication in his own name. For the adversarial powers despise ordinary food and desire exotic nourishment. The devil does not wish to deceive just anyone; he hastens to overthrow King Saul, who was chosen by the Lord, and Judas the apostle. Let us therefore not trust in our own beauty, nor think the Lord's generosity to be our own virtue."
"You lavished your harlotries on every passer-by" — like a harlot who prostitutes herself to every passer-by. For thus you prostituted yourself to the Ammonites, Edomites, and other nations passing through you, worshipping their gods; or "you exposed" — and as the Hebrew says, "you poured out" — that is, you taught your idolatry to all nations. "To become his" — namely, his concubine. In Hebrew: "to whom belonged" — namely, your desire, whom you desired; or "to whom belonged" — namely, the desire for you, who desired you — meaning: You were captivated by love for all the idols that you desired, and by whom in turn, and by whose worshippers, you were desired to do this. So Vatablus, R. David, and others. The Chaldean interprets otherwise. For reading לו (lo, "to him") with vav as ולא (lo, "not") with aleph, he translates: "which shall not be done" — that is, which ought not to have been done.
Verse 16: "You made"
16. "You made" (that is, you adorned, as explained in verse 18 — for the high places were not properly made from garments) "for yourself high places" (namely, as the Septuagint says, idols; or rather, shrines and altars of idols), "sewn together on this side and that" — because you spread over them your multicolored garments, as with variously sewn coverlets, and adorned them like brothels or couches on which you would commit fornication with your lovers — namely, your idols. So the scholiast. For this is what he adds: "And you committed fornication upon them." "Such as has not been done" — meaning: It has never been seen that harlots would offer their own clothing to adorn their brothels. You, therefore, who did this, are more shameless and more impudent than all harlots.
Verse 17: "Your beautiful vessels"
17. "Your beautiful vessels." That is, the instruments of your beauty. He thus calls the earrings, chains, bracelets, and other ornaments of women, from which they fashioned or adorned idols. Again, these vessels can be understood not as personal possessions but as those of the temple, which Ahaz plundered and from which he made idols and high places, as is evident from 2 Chronicles 28:24. So St. Jerome. "You committed fornication with them" — that is, with them, by worshipping them.
Verse 18: "My oil"
18. "My oil" — which I gave you, or which I prescribed that you pour into My lamps; or "oil" — that is, ointment, with which I commanded the garments and sacred vessels to be anointed (Exodus 30:23) — you gave to idols.
Verse 19: "You set before them as a sweet fragrance"
19. "You set before them as a sweet fragrance" — namely, by burning and offering oil, honey, and fine flour as an offering most pleasing and of the sweetest fragrance to the idol. For the Gentiles used to sacrifice honey, and therefore God forbade the Jews to include it in their sacrifices, as I showed on Leviticus 2:11. He alludes to an ancient marriage custom. For at weddings and the wedding feast, the bride and guests were customarily given fine flour — that is, a honeyed cake — to signify that the marriage would be sweet and pleasant. They called this wedding cake sesamon, because it was made from sesame (that is, Indian grain), honey, and oil. Thus the bridegroom, inviting the bride, says: "I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk; eat, friends, and drink" (Song of Songs 5:1). Where the Septuagint translates: "I ate my bread with my honey." So Pineda, book 5 of On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 4.
Verse 19 and 20: "And so it was done, says the Lord God. And you took"
19 and 20. "And so it was done, says the Lord God. And you took." This is a Hebraism, meaning: And moreover "you took your sons" to burn them to idols — which is far more horrible. Secondly and more plainly, R. David and Maldonatus explain: Thus it was indeed done; thus the matter stands, as I have said. Hence the Chaldean translates: Were not all these things done? — namely, concerning your children, whom you bore to Me as your husband. For I begot them from you; I gave them to you, so that they might worship Me.
Verse 21: "To be devoured"
21. "To be devoured" — so that fire might devour the bodies of your children, for the sake and worship of idols. So Vatablus.
Verse 22: "And after all your abominations and fornications, you did not...
22. "And after all your abominations and fornications, you did not remember the days of your youth" — and consequently neither your former wretchedness, nor My mercy toward you, by which I took you, unworthy as you were, as My bride. Note morally: Among all the evils and wounds that we received in Adam's sin, and that we carry with us from original sin, one of the greatest, or indeed the greatest, is forgetfulness — both of God and of ourselves. This is the immense wretchedness of man, and the cause of all evil — from which man in Hebrew is called אנוש (enos), that is, "forgetful." Of this the Psalmist says, Psalm 8:5: "What is man (in Hebrew, enos), that You are mindful of him?" — meaning: Who is this dull and forgetful being, that You, O Lord, deign to be mindful of him? Or: Who is this wretched, desperate creature, condemned to death, consigned to oblivion, unworthy of memory, that You remember him? And Psalm 49:22: "Understand this, you who forget God." For this forgetfulness destroys the memory of past wretchedness and sins; consequently, man grows proud and insolent over God's present gifts, as though they were his own; and therefore he is cast off by God and allowed to rush into every crime. This is what St. Peter says in his second epistle, chapter 1, verse 9: "For he who lacks these things (faith, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly love — which he discussed in verse 5) is blind, groping with his hand, having received forgetfulness (forgetting) the cleansing of his former sins." Hence concerning the elders in the story of Susanna pu-
It is said to those tempted to lewdness, Daniel 13:9: "They perverted their judgment, and turned away their eyes, that they might not see heaven (God the ruler of heaven), nor remember just judgments." For if they had considered that God would be the avenger of their crime, if they had foreseen God's judgments about to be executed upon them through Daniel, they would surely have restrained their intemperance out of fear of these. For this reason, so earnestly and so frequently Moses, about to die, impresses upon the Hebrews: "Take heed, and beware lest at any time you forget the Lord your God: lest after you have eaten and are filled, etc., your heart be lifted up, and you remember not the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: and was your leader in the wilderness, etc., and fed you with manna, etc. But remember the Lord your God, that He Himself has given you strength. But if, forgetting the Lord your God, you follow strange gods, etc., behold I now foretell to you that you shall utterly perish" (Deut. 8:11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19; and 6:12; and 4:9, 23, 31; and 9:7). And he was a true prophet: for in Deut. 32:18, he reproaches them: "You have forsaken the God who begot you, and you have forgotten the Lord your creator." Whence he threatens them with all the punishments and curses of God in verse 22: "A fire, He says, is kindled in My fury, and shall burn even to the lowest hell. I will heap evils upon them, and will spend My arrows among them." Thus, in Judges 3:7, the reason why the Hebrews were delivered to the Philistines and Canaanites is assigned as this: "And they did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they forgot their God." Thus in 1 Kings 12, Samuel says of the same: "They forgot the Lord their God, and He delivered them into the hand of Sisera." Thus it is said in Job 8:13: "The paths of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish." So the Psalmist, Psalm 9:18: "Let sinners be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God." And Psalm 77:11: "They forgot His benefits, and His wonders that He showed them," namely the Hebrews through Moses, Joshua, David, etc. Wherefore, Psalm 102:2: "Bless, he says, the Lord, O my soul: and never forget all His rewards. Who forgives all your iniquities: who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from destruction: who crowns you with mercy and compassion." And Psalms 103, 104, 105 and 106 continually sing: "Bless the Lord, O my soul. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good: for His mercy endures forever," etc. Finally, all the Prophets reproach sinners for nothing else than forgetfulness of God.
Verse 25: A Sign of Prostitution
25. A SIGN OF PROSTITUTION — that is, a brothel, a house of ill fame, namely the high place just mentioned. Morally: "He builds a brothel for himself, who sins with the bold license of an impudent face, according to that which is written: The sinner, when he comes to the depth of iniquity, holds in contempt," says St. Jerome.
YOU MADE YOUR BEAUTY ABOMINABLE. — Just as prostitutes, who from the excessive and prolonged practice of lust become most hideous, says Maldonatus.
Verse 26: Of Great Flesh
26. OF GREAT FLESH — of fat bodies full of juice, and consequently lustful. Such, says Origen, are the demons, who delight in lust and carnal sins. Properly, he calls "great flesh" the large members, which signify the lustful man, about which he says in chapter 23:20: "Whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys." See Canon 55. Not that the Egyptians had these members larger than other men; but that they were more devoted to idolatry (for this is called fornication by the Prophets) than other nations. It is a metaphor.
(1) Rightly Theodoretus: "By a figure of speech he called 'great in flesh' those who were excessively devoted to the worship of idols, who adored he-goats, and oxen, and sheep, and dogs and apes, and crocodiles, and ibises, and hawks."
"Whence symbolically the saint, says St. Jerome, is called 'of small flesh,' because in him the flesh diminishes daily, and is attenuated by virtues, so that it is no longer called flesh, but spirit, and speaks in the psalm: My soul has thirsted for You, O God, how greatly has my flesh [thirsted] for You! or (as some copies have) how has my flesh been consumed? Of this flesh it is written: All flesh is grass, and all its glory is as the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and its flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord endures forever. And the Apostle: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God. And in Genesis God speaks: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh. And to believers it is said: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God: but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit."
Verse 27: I Will Take Away your Justification
27. I WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR JUSTIFICATION — that is, the ceremonies of the law, the worship of the temple and sacred rites; because you profaned them, as I said in verses 17 and following. So St. Jerome. Secondly, our Prado: "I will take away your justification," that is, as some read, your right, that is, the liberty and governance by which you administer justice to your people, I will take from you, and I will make you subject to the Philistines, and you shall seek from them the rights which you violated as God's right. Hence the Septuagint translates: I will take away your ordinances. Hence also follows: "And I will deliver you to the desires of those who hate you." But "justification" never means liberty or power of governing. Thirdly, R. David and Vatablus translate: I will take away from you your allowance, that is, your provisions, with which I fed you daily, namely the fine flour, honey and oil, which I gave you, as I said in verse 9. Hence the Chaldean also translates: I will take away your good. Fourthly, others translate: I will take away from you your decree, or your statute, by which
Verse 24: A Brothel
24. A BROTHEL — that is, high places and temples of idols you built at the corners and on the streets of all the public squares of Jerusalem, as is clear from 4 Kings 16:21. So Polychronius. On account of these things, becoming inflamed and implacable, He thundered shortly before: "Woe, woe to you." For the doubled "woe" signifies the mind of the Bridegroom thoroughly offended, and preparing for His bride, namely Jerusalem, a double destruction: the present one through the Chaldeans and the eternal one in hell through the demons.
namely I had established and promised, that I would never forsake you. Fifthly, Maldonatus: I will take away, he says, from you your justification, that is, My favor, by which, while I attend to you, you appear to be just; and I will punish you, so that it may appear that you are unjust. This meaning is quite fitting. Sixthly and best of all, [I will take away] your justification, that is, your sanctification, that is, your holy things. For this is the Hebrew חקך chuckech, as if to say: I adorned you, as My holy bride, with gold, silver, fine linen and all good things, and by these I, as it were, sanctified, endowed and bound you to Myself, verses 10 and following; but you consecrated and dedicated the same to your idols; and so you did not so much sanctify as profane and pollute them, verses 17 and following. Therefore I will take away these very sacred goods, indeed I will reclaim them as Mine from you, and I will give them to your enemies, so that they may plunder all your gold, all your crops and riches; because they are holier and better than you. The preceding and following context demands this meaning. For He clearly threatens this punishment for their idolatry in verse 39, saying: "They shall strip you of your garments, and shall take away the vessels of your beauty: and they shall leave you naked and full of disgrace." For this is what the wicked fear most: for they do not care about God's favor, rites and ceremonies being taken from them, since they themselves have already voluntarily taken them away from themselves, indeed driven them out from themselves and transferred them to their idols.
Morally: Note that God calls the riches and goods which He bestows on us "holy"; because He gives them so that by them we may be sanctified, and may worship God in holiness, spending them piously for the needs of the temple, of Religious, of the poor, of children to be raised in the fear of God, etc.
I WILL DELIVER YOU TO THE DESIRES OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE PHILISTINES WHO HATE YOU. — "To the desires" (literally "to the souls"), that is, to the wishes, that the daughters of Palestine, that is, the towns, or rather the citizens of Palestine, may abuse you at their pleasure: he calls them daughters rather than sons, for propriety's sake, since he has thus far presented the people of Jerusalem as a young girl betrothed to God, as if to say: I will hand you over to the will and lust of the Palestinians, so that they may plunder you, capture you, slay you. For there was an old and perpetual hatred between the Philistines or Palestinians and the Jews.
THEY ARE ASHAMED. — Septuagint: They turn aside from your way. They dare not accompany you as an infamous harlot through the streets; they are ashamed of you, even though they themselves are shameless; because they are more righteous than you, as he says in verse 52.
Verse 28: With the Sons
28. WITH THE SONS (that is, among the sons) OF THE ASSYRIANS.
(1) Grotius conjectures that the gods of the Assyrians were worshipped by the Israelites at the time when Ahaz called on Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria for help, 4 Kings 16:7; 2 Chronicles 28:19: For, he says, most often they imitated the worship of those whose friendship they sought.
Verse 29: In the Land of Canaan
29. IN THE LAND OF CANAAN — into which I transferred you from Egypt and in which you dwell. Otherwise Prado: "In the land of Canaan," he says, that is, of merchants, who carry on trade with the Chaldeans. Thus Proverbs 31:24 says: "She delivered a girdle to the Canaanite," that is, to the merchant. Yet differently again Maldonatus, as if to say: Even unto the land of Canaan, that is, imitating also its idolatry. WITH THE CHALDEANS. — In Hebrew כשדימה Casdima, that is, even unto Chaldea, namely by sending thither messengers who would report on the worship with which their gods should be honored. So Vatablus and Maldonatus.
Verse 30: In What
30. IN WHAT (by what thing, by what lye) SHALL I CLEANSE (and, as the Hebrew has, shall I circumcise — for one should read אמלה amola, that is, "I shall circumcise," from the root amol, that is, "he circumcised") YOUR HEART? — Septuagint: What shall I do to your heart? According to Hosea 6:4: "What shall I do with you, Ephraim? What shall I do with you, Judah?" And Isaiah 5:4: "What is there that I ought to do more for My vineyard, that I have not done?" Chaldean: How strong is the wickedness of your heart! Vatablus: O powerless your heart! Prado: How depraved, infirm and corrupt is your heart! For they read amula instead of amola, from the root אכלה amal, that is, "he was infirm." Hence אמלת amlat is called infirm, corrupt, putrid.
Verse 31: A Brothel
31. A BROTHEL — In Hebrew גב gab, that is, a high place, namely a temple and idol. See verses 24 and 25. NOR WERE YOU MADE LIKE A HARLOT RAISING HER PRICE WITH DISDAIN — as if to say: A harlot who knows she is sought for her beauty disdains her lovers and small profits, so that greater ones may be offered; but you sold your beauty at the cheapest price, indeed you offered yourself freely to anyone, to the great contempt of both Me and yourself; as does an adulteress who, not for the sake of pay but of insatiable lust, prostitutes herself to others besides her husband. Indeed, you bribed your lovers with payment, as Ahaz did when he sent many talents of gold to the king of the Assyrians, when he introduced his idols into the temple, 4 Kings 16.
Tropologically, the soul, when it sins, like a harlot prostitutes itself to pleasures, and exhausts and offers to the demon all its spirits, powers and strengths, which it has from God. So Origen. See the story of the prodigal son, Luke 15.
Verse 34: After You There Shall be no Fornication
34. AFTER YOU THERE SHALL BE NO FORNICATION — namely, anything similar, that a harlot should hire lovers with payment, as you do. So the Chaldean.
(2) "But you gave payment to all your lovers," etc. For the Israelites received nothing good from either the Egyptians, or the Assyrians, or the Chaldeans, but on the contrary were compelled to buy their favor with great payments. (Cocceius.) See 4 Kings 16:8; Isaiah 7:10; 30:5, 6.
Verse 36: Your Bronze Has Been Poured Out
36. YOUR BRONZE HAS BEEN POURED OUT — that is, you prodigally poured out your money on your lovers, namely on your gods and your idols. So St. Jerome. Thus among the Romans, as Festus testifies, a soldier was called "deprived of pay" (ære dirutus) whose stipend had not been given to him as a disgrace, and who had squandered it: because the money was diverted into the treasury, not into the soldier's purse.
Thus Cicero wittily attacks Verres in speech 7: "The camp, he says, of the gambler of Placentia will be remembered: in which, though he was a regular, nevertheless he was deprived of his pay," as if to say: Although Verres was not a deserter but a regular at the gambling-camps, nevertheless he was deprived of his pay, that is, he lost and squandered his wages, with gambling consuming everything. Thus in the camps of Venus and the demon, Jerusalem, and every sinner, is stripped of their wealth. Otherwise the Chaldean, R. David, Vatablus and Maldonatus translate: Your bottom has been exposed, that is, the lowest part of the belly, namely your private parts have been publicly revealed. For they translate the Hebrew נחשת nechuschetsch as "what is beneath the bronze," that is, the bottom; for the bottom of vessels is usually made of bronze, so they last longer. Prado also translates and explains differently: Silver, he says, is a sign of purity, bronze of filth, because it easily contracts rust, as if to say: Your filth has been poured out, that is, as follows, your fornications have been poured out. Hence Pagninus also translates: Your turpitude has been poured out; Brixianus: Your uncleanness has been poured out.
Finally, fittingly through bronze, which is hard and strong, strength and fortitude can be understood, as if to say: By fornicating continually, with your seed you have squandered all your strength and fortitude. For physicians and experience itself teach that by the immoderate use of sexual intercourse, strength is exhausted and a man is weakened and brought to death. Various causes are given for this: the first is that the seed is full of spirit, especially vital spirit, as Hippocrates teaches in his book On the Nature of the Fetus, chapter 3; whence it follows that those who indulge in sexual pleasure are not very vital: for by the emission of seed, the vital spirit is likewise emitted and dissipated, as Galen says, Book I On Seed, chapter 16. Moreover Galen, Book I On Natural Faculties, chapters 5 and 6, teaches that in the seed there is a threefold spirit: there is, he says, in it "a vital spirit for the generation of the heart, a natural spirit for the generation of the liver, and an animal spirit for the generation of the brain." He adds the manner: "When, therefore, the wind enters into the depth of the sperm, by the action of the three spirits in the middle a certain vesicle is born; above it, near it, another vesicle, and at the side next to the lower one, another: from the first vesicle the heart itself is formed; from the second, placed above, the brain; from the third, the liver." Since therefore this threefold spirit is emitted in the use of sexual intercourse, it is necessary that strength and life be worn away. The second cause is that in sexual intercourse the best and strongest substance is excreted. Hear Hippocrates, Book I On Generation: "The seed of a man comes from all the moisture that exists in the body, so that what is strongest is separated out. The proof of this, that the strongest is separated, is this: that from the use of sexual intercourse, though so small a quantity is emitted, we are rendered weak." And Galen, Book I On Seed, chapter 16: "Wherefore it is not surprising that those who use immoderate coitus are made weaker, since from the whole body both the purest of each (namely moisture and spirit) are removed." Galen adds a third cause in the same place, saying: "With the addition moreover of pleasure, which by itself alone is sufficient to dissolve vital firmness, so much so that it is established that some have died from excessive pleasure and delight." Hence those who engage in sexual intercourse are, as it were, carried outside themselves and become stupefied: whence
Diogenes called sexual intercourse a brief epilepsy; and Alexander the Great used to say that from this one thing alone he recognized himself to be a man, and his own weakness. The fourth cause is that in excessive intercourse, when all the seed has been poured out, finally blood itself is poured out. This is deduced from Galen in the passage cited, chapter 12, where he expressly affirms that the arteries and veins produce seed from blood. Avicenna teaches the same, Book III, fen. 20, treatise I, chapter 1: Seed, he says, "is blood more digested and more refined." Other physicians and natural philosophers teach the same, such as Aristotle, in his book On the Length and Shortness of Life, where he confirms the same with examples. For the mule, he says, lives longer than the horse and donkey from which it was born, because it scarcely generates (whence the same Aristotle, Book VI History of Animals, chapter 24, says there was at Athens a mule eighty years old), and females live longer than males, if the males are lustful (for otherwise the male lives longer, because he is warmer), just as for this reason male sparrows live a shorter time than females. For, as the same teaches in Book IX History of Animals, chapter 7, male sparrows, because they are extremely lustful, are not thought to complete a year of life, whereas it is certain that females live longer.
AND UPON YOUR IDOLS — that is, as Vatablus says, in two ways your disgrace and turpitude has been revealed, or you have been caught as a harlot: first, because you worshipped abominable idols; secondly, because with your idols you sacrificed the blood of your children.
Verse 37: I Will Gather All your Lovers
37. I WILL GATHER ALL YOUR LOVERS — as if to say: Through your own lovers I will avenge Myself upon you; namely, I will cause the Chaldeans, whose friendship, and thence whose idols you worshipped, to gather neighboring nations, both those friendly and those hostile to you, and besiege you. So Theodoretus.
I WILL UNCOVER YOUR DISGRACE. — In Hebrew, your nakedness, that is, your private parts, so that with those things by which you sinned, you may be punished and disgraced. He means the deprivation of help and assistance, says Vatablus, or rather the public infamy, by which on account of her crimes Jerusalem, like a harlot, was to be violated and ravaged, and therefore to be mocked and derided by hostile nations, just as an infamous harlot is mocked when she is publicly exposed to shame in the stocks.
Verse 38: I Will Judge You with the Judgments of Adulteresses and of Those who...
38. I WILL JUDGE YOU WITH THE JUDGMENTS OF ADULTERESSES AND OF THOSE WHO SHED BLOOD — that is, I will punish you with the penalty both of stoning, as an adulteress, and of the sword, as a murderess, verse 40. For you killed your infants by burning and sacrificing them to Moloch. I WILL GIVE YOU OVER TO BLOOD (that is, to slaughter) OF FURY AND JEALOUSY — that is, to a savage slaughter, such as furious and jealous husbands inflict, when they are wont to kill wives caught in adultery. In Hebrew: I will make you into blood, that is, entirely bloodied, pierced with wounds and everywhere stained with gore, so that you appear to be nothing but blood.
Verse 39: They Shall Destroy your Brothel
39. THEY SHALL DESTROY YOUR BROTHEL — as if to say: The Chaldeans will destroy your high places and shrines. See verse 24. THEY SHALL TAKE AWAY THE VESSELS OF YOUR BEAUTY — namely the gold and silver vessels, and all your riches and treasures, by which you now appear to be beautiful.
Verse 40: They Shall Bring Upon You a Multitude
40. THEY SHALL BRING UPON YOU A MULTITUDE — they shall deliver you, as an adulteress, according to the law, to the multitude to be stoned.
AND THEY (THE CHALDEANS) SHALL STONE YOU — hurling stones by catapults at your walls, to batter and overthrow them: likewise into your city, to smash houses and kill people in the streets.
Verse 41: And They Shall Burn your Houses
41. AND THEY SHALL BURN YOUR HOUSES. — This was the other punishment for adulteresses, say the Hebrews, namely fire, with which they would burn them; although scarcely an example of it exists, except in Tamar, Genesis 38:24. See what is said there. THEY SHALL EXECUTE JUDGMENTS UPON YOU — a just vengeance. He calls them judgments in the plural, because it signifies many plagues. IN THE SIGHT OF MANY WOMEN. — By women he means nations and peoples; because Jerusalem herself is introduced here as a harlot woman, as if to say: Other women, that is, nations, will see your punishment, so that they may beware of being adulteresses, that is, idolaters. So Vatablus.
Verse 42: My Jealousy Shall be Taken Away
42. MY JEALOUSY SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY. — When I shall see you slaughtered and given to the flames, My indignation shall cease, and the jealousy that gnawed at My heart, both because you will no longer prefer your lovers to Me, says Theodoretus, and because I will sate My indignation by punishing you. NOR SHALL I BE ANGRY ANY MORE — against this generation and age, that is, because I will destroy it. Yet to the following generation, as to another and a new age, I will show mercy, and if it sins I will be angry. "From this we perceive," says St. Jerome, "that it is a great offense to be of no concern to God, but to be abandoned to one's crimes and sins." And Origen, expounding the same passage in Homily 8 on Exodus: "See," he says, "the mercy, the piety and the patience of the good God: when He wishes to show mercy, He says He is indignant and angry, as through Jeremiah chapter 6 He says: With sorrow and scourging you shall be chastised, O Jerusalem, lest My soul depart from you. If you understand this, it is the voice of a merciful God: where He is angry and jealous, where He applies pains and blows: for He scourges every son whom He receives, Hebrews 12. Do you want to hear the terrible voice of an angry God? Hear what He says through Hosea chapter 4: When He had enumerated the many abominations Jerusalem had committed, He adds: I will not visit upon your daughters when they commit fornication, nor upon your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery." So Origen. In this same sense St. Augustine interprets Psalm 98: "O Lord our God, You heard them; O God, You were merciful to them, and avenging all their inventions," or, as others read, "their affections." "Even in punishing," says Augustine, "You were merciful." But much more elegantly, in Sermon 37 On the Words of the Lord: "It is a mark of great mercy," he says, "not to leave wickedness unpunished; and lest He be compelled at the last to condemn to hell, He now deigns to chastise with the scourge. Do you want to know how great a punishment it is to have no punishment! Ask David, who says in Psalm 9: The sinner has provoked the Lord. Why?
What did you see? I saw a sinner flourishing with impunity, and I exclaimed: The sinner has provoked the Lord. Why did you say this? See what follows. According to the greatness of his wrath he will not seek. The reason He does not investigate is precisely because He is greatly angry; by sparing He strikes, but He strikes justly." Hence in Isaiah chapter 26, as a mark of great punishment it is said: "Let us have pity on the wicked, and he will not learn justice." This is what Psalm 80:12 says: "My people did not hear My voice, Israel did not attend to Me. And I let them go according to the desires of their heart, they shall walk in their own inventions." And Romans chapter 1: "God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not fitting."
On the contrary, to be punished here by God is to be regarded as a singular benefit of divine clemency. For by this reasoning the Lord consoles Jerusalem, in Isaiah 40: "Be comforted, be comforted, My people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her, for her wickedness is accomplished, her iniquity is forgiven: she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins." In which passage, to receive double for sins, or, as the Septuagint has it: To receive double her sins; means to be afflicted with many punishments for sins, as many hold. For this reason the royal prophet asks: "Prove me, O Lord, and try me," Psalm 15; and in another place: "I am ready for scourges," Psalm 37. Hear St. Gregory, Book VII of the Morals, chapter 7: "Because holy men consider that the wound of their corruption cannot be without putrefaction, they willingly prepare themselves under the hand of the physician for incisions, so that with the wound opened the poison of sin may come out. The same Job signified this more clearly, adding: And let this be my consolation, that afflicting me with sorrow He spare not. For the elect, when they know they have committed unlawful things, and yet searching find that they have suffered no adversity for them, waste away in the terror of immense dread, lest grace has abandoned them forever, whom no retribution for their evil chastises in the present life; and therefore they desire to be struck by paternal correction, and consider the pain of the wound to be a medicine of salvation. Rightly therefore Job says: Let this be my consolation, that afflicting me with sorrow He spare not; as if he more openly said: He who here spares some in order to strike them forever, let Him strike me here, so that by not sparing in time He may spare for eternity." So far Gregory.
Verse 43: I Have Laid your Ways
43. I HAVE LAID YOUR WAYS (that is, your crimes) ON YOUR HEAD — so that they may fall back upon your head and you may pay for your wickedness with your head. AND I HAVE NOT ACTED ACCORDING TO YOUR CRIMES — as if to say: I punished you too little for your impiety; you deserved more. So the Septuagint and St. Jerome. But the Chaldean and the Hebrews, reading עשית asita, that is, "you have done," instead of עשיתי asiti, that is, "I have done," translate: You did not make reflection (that is, mental consideration, so as to see your turpitude and dangerous state) upon all your abominations, that is, you did not think to withdraw from your idols, you did not think to change your mind-
your sin was not a little less than the wickedness of Sodom and Samaria, but in almost all things greater, as follows. Pagninus translates somewhat differently from the Hebrew: Nor have you acted according to their crimes, as if this were a small and trifling thing; nay rather, you have committed things more wicked than they.
to return to a better life. Hence follows: "As the mother, so also her daughter," as if to say: As the parents of the Jews were, so also are the children: for they persist in the ancient impiety and idolatry of their fathers.
Verse 44: Behold, Everyone who Speaks a Common Proverb Shall Apply it to You
44. BEHOLD, EVERYONE WHO SPEAKS A COMMON PROVERB SHALL APPLY IT TO YOU (in Hebrew: Every proverb-maker shall make a proverb, that is, he shall speak this taunt about you as a proverb): AS THE MOTHER, SO ALSO HER DAUGHTER — that is, just as your mother the Hittite, verse 45, and the Canaanite was devastated for her crimes: so also you, her daughter, have been devastated. So Vatablus, Theodoretus, Polychronius. And so the Prophet explains himself in the following verse. Otherwise the Chaldean and the Hebrews, as I have already said.
Verse 45: You Are your Mother's Daughter, who Cast Away her Husband and her...
45. YOU ARE YOUR MOTHER'S DAUGHTER, WHO CAST AWAY HER HUSBAND AND HER CHILDREN — as if to say: You are the imitator of your mother, that is, the land of Canaan, which by its own crimes drove out of Canaan through Joshua and the Hebrews her husband, that is, her kings, and her children, that is, her inhabitants. So Polychronius. Secondly and better, as if to say: Just as the Canaanites and Hittites cast away their husband, that is, God, by worshipping idols, and consecrated their children to idols; so also you, as their daughter, that is, their imitator, have done the same. So Theodoretus. Thirdly, others say: Your mother the Hittite, a shameless harlot, used to cast away her husband and children and commit lewdness with others: so you, O Jerusalem, have cast Me away, and commit lewdness with idols. Tropologically, the Jews and all the wicked cast away the Prophets, who were their spiritual fathers, and righteous men, who were their children.
AND SISTER OF YOUR SISTERS — as if to say: You are like your sisters; you are not a whit better or purer than they. He calls the sisters of Jerusalem the neighboring cities, namely Samaria and Sodom.
Verse 46: Your Elder Sister, Samaria
46. YOUR ELDER SISTER, SAMARIA — because just as Jerusalem was the metropolis of the kingdom of Judah, so Samaria was of the kingdom of Israel, or the ten tribes. Hence he calls her the elder, because in Judah there were only two tribes. SHE AND HER DAUGHTERS — "daughters," that is, the towns subject to Samaria. For among the Hebrews and Greeks, capital cities are called mothers; and conversely, other cities and villages subject to them are called daughters.
BUT YOUR YOUNGER SISTER, ETC., SODOM. — That is, Gilgal beyond the Jordan, where two and a half tribes dwelt. For these are rightly called sisters of the Jews, that is, brothers and kinsmen. So the Scholiast and Polychronius. But it is better to take Sodom properly. For she is called sister of Jerusalem, not by kinship, but by impiety; and younger, not by age, but by the number of cities and citizens. She dwells there, not as a survivor, but lies and remains in the lake, where she displays the ruins of her former glory, indeed exhibits a mirror of hell to the Jews and to sinners.
Verse 47: Nor Have You Done a Little Less According to their Crimes
47. NOR HAVE YOU DONE A LITTLE LESS ACCORDING TO THEIR CRIMES. — Thus the Roman edition distinguishes, as if to say: Your sin-
48. AS I LIVE — I testify, and I swear by My life.
Verse 49: Behold, This Was the Iniquity of Sodom
49. BEHOLD, THIS WAS THE INIQUITY OF SODOM — namely the first and origin of the rest, namely of monstrous lusts: in Sodom there was: First, PRIDE; Second, FULLNESS OF BREAD — that is, of food and delicacies, that is, feasting and carousing; Third, ABUNDANCE of all things, luxury and pleasures; Fourth, IDLENESS. It is asked: Why did Aegisthus become an adulterer? The reason is ready at hand: he was idle. Truly Ennius in his Iphigenia: He who knows not how to use leisure has more trouble Than when there is business in business.
St. Justin says admirably in Against Trypho: "Jesus, he says, the son of Joseph the carpenter, used to make ploughs and yokes while He lived among men, so that through these figures He might teach justice, and in very deed the avoidance of idleness." It was a common teaching of the Fathers: "Let the devil always find you busy," as is clear from the Lives of the Fathers. Fifthly, lack of mercy, namely that they did not extend a hand to the needy and the poor.
The Syriac translates otherwise, referring these words to what precedes, namely thus: This is the iniquity of Sodom your proud and glorious sister, who was satisfied with bread, and sat (dwelt) in quiet (security, idleness, peaceful, secure, idle); and the Antiochene Arabic: As I live, says the Lord, neither Sodom nor her daughters did as you and your daughters have done; and also your beautiful sister, who was satisfied with bread, and sat, she and her daughters, in quiet.
Note: the same is said here as what St. John says in his first epistle, chapter 2:16: "All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life," namely, pride, pleasures, riches are the origin of all evils in the world, and they make the world a son and heir of Sodom. So St. Jerome. So Pythagoras, as Laertius testifies, said that into cities come first pleasures; second, satiety; third, violence; fourth, destruction.
Levinus Lemnius and other physicians report that, just as these three things cause and preserve the health of both body and mind, namely exercise, sobriety and chastity, so these three things produce sickness of both body and mind, namely sloth, fullness or repletion, and lust. Hence they themselves
give these three rules of health: "Exercise the body with labor: eat short of fullness, and do not pour yourself out in lust." Golden is the maxim of Hippocrates, in the sixth book of the Epidemics. These two things safeguard health: "Not to be sated with food, and to be diligent in labors." Furthermore, physicians agree that nothing cures flatulence, indigestion, phlegm, etc., which are the cause and source of very many diseases, better than fasting, inasmuch as it digests and consumes all these things.
Now first here is pride, because this is the center from which the lines go out to the circumference of all iniquity. Hence St. Ambrose: "Pride," he says, "made demons out of angels." And Isidore: "Pride is the origin of all crimes, and the ruin of all virtues;" and therefore the ruin of salvation. For, as St. Augustine says: "The homeland is on high, but the way is lowly." Pride therefore is here placed as the Sodomite sin, and indeed the first: for God casts down the proud, by allowing them to fall into monstrous and shameful lusts, as I showed in Romans 1:27.
The second is fullness. For a belly that is full and heated with wine foams over into unspeakable lusts. Rightly Seneca, epistle 61: "Let us count, he says, those who obey their belly among brute animals, not among men." To overthrow this, Plato wrote to the relatives of Dion: "That in no way should anyone in a day eat to fullness." Gluttony therefore made and destroyed Sodom: for gluttony is the pile of wood by which lust is kindled: "Not the fires of Etna," so St. Jerome to Furia, "not the Vulcanian land, not Vesuvius and Olympus burn with such heats as the youthful marrow filled with wine and inflamed by feasting." And Euripides: "To the sated one Venus is present." And Athenaeus, Book IV from Aristophanes, calls "wine" "the milk of the Cyprian goddess," that is, of Venus, because it nourishes lust. Finally, "without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus grows cold."
The third is abundance of things, and thence luxury. Of which the Apostle said, 1 Timothy 6: "The root of all evils is greed," in Greek φιλαργυρία (love of money). There is an old proverb in Stobaeus: "Satiety begets ferocity; wealth lifts up minds." And Homer: "Plenty begets pride," and thence lusts.
The fourth is idleness, of which Proverbs 1 says: "The prosperity of the wicked shall destroy them." For which others translate: The peace, or quiet, of fools shall overthrow them. And the Poet: If you remove idleness, Cupid's bows have perished, And his torches lie despised and without light. Hear St. Jerome: "Pride," he says, "fullness of bread, abundance of all things, idleness and pleasures are the Sodomite sin, and because of this follows the forgetfulness of God, which considers present goods to be everlasting, and that one will never lack necessities. Wherefore also in the law, Deuteronomy 8, it is commanded: Take heed lest eating and drinking, and being filled, having built excellent houses, and having sheep and oxen, silver and gold, you forget the Lord your God. And in another place, Deuteronomy 32, it is written of Israel: He ate and drank, and was filled, and grew fat, and kicked, the beloved one. Knowing this, the wisest of all, Solomon, in Proverbs chapter 30, prays: Grant me necessities and what suffices, lest being filled I become a liar and say: Who sees me? Or being made poor, I steal and perjure the name of my God."
"By idleness, says St. Augustine, Rome perished, after Carthage was destroyed." Rightly the Wise Man, and from him Chrysostom: "Idleness has taught every malice." When Cleomenes was asked, as Plutarch relates, why the Lacedaemonians, though they often conquered the Argives, did not destroy them, he said: "We do not wish to, so that we may have those who exercise our young men. For they themselves are their whetstone, which may sharpen their virtue, lest they be enervated by idleness and dissolve into vices and softness." See what I said about idleness at 2 Thessalonians 3:10.
The fifth is lack of mercy: this too was a cause of Sodomite lust. For those who are cruel to their neighbor are also cruel to nature, violating its generation; and those who are cruel to the sustenance and life of their neighbor are likewise cruel to his body, so as to shamefully abuse it through shameful lusts. Thus the Sodomites, because they were cruel to guests and strangers, therefore assailed the angels clothed in bodies, who turned aside as strangers into Sodom to Lot, for nefarious intercourse, Genesis 19:5. For lack of mercy and cruelty cause that whoever is afflicted with them does not regard the chastity, nor the reputation, nor the body, nor the life of his neighbor, especially a foreigner or stranger; but abuses all of them cruelly, as if they were slaves, for his own lust, and squanders and wastes them, as if they were worthless and of no value. Thus the cruel Amnon made nothing of the chastity or reputation of his sister Tamar, but abused her as a cheap harlot, 2 Kings 13:13 and following. Thus today the savagery and barbarity of the Turks causes them to compel the boys and slaves of Christians to this wickedness with impunity and shamelessness, and even to use violence. Let those Christians now see who by alms and gifts procure and, as it were, buy the use of the bodies of the faithful and the poor for their obscenity, how barbarous and cruel they are toward them, like the Turks: for they give food to the body in order to devour its honor, reputation and chastity; they nourish the flesh in order to kill the soul. Do you thus for cheap food, for a cheap coin, weigh, buy, and destroy incomparable treasures, namely a Christian body, a conscience, chastity, a soul created in the image of God and redeemed by the blood of Christ? Do you thus for a penny destroy its glory and felicity, and purchase and summon for it everlasting fires? O cruel alms, O unmerciful mercy, O wicked and satanic price!
Verse 50: And They Were Lifted up
50. AND THEY WERE LIFTED UP — into arrogance and pride. THEY COMMITTED ABOMINATIONS BEFORE ME — publicly, in the very eyes of the sun, despising God. AS YOU SAW. — So the Roman edition, that is, as you have heard and see in effect, namely in the sulphurous Asphalt Lake, how great was the iniquity of Sodom, seeing that for its crimes it was turned into so loathsome a lake. See what is said on Genesis 19:25. Now the Hebrew has: As I saw, that is, when, or after I saw, I removed them.
Verse 51: You Justified
51. YOU JUSTIFIED — you showed that Sodom and Samaria are more righteous than you, that is, less impious, so that compared with you they appear righteous. For just as the light of the sun obscures the light of the stars, so great holiness obscures lesser holiness, and great iniquity obscures lesser iniquity, so that it seems not to exist. See Origen. Theodoretus notes that Jerusalem sinned more than Sodom, not in the substance of sin, but in its quality. For she had the law, priests, Prophets, knowledge of God, worship and the temple, all of which she profaned with idols and sins; hence she sinned more grievously. This is what Christ says, Matthew 11:23-24: "And you, Capernaum, shall you be exalted up to heaven? You shall go down even unto hell; because if in Sodom the mighty works had been done that have been done in you, perhaps they would have remained unto this day. But I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." And Jeremiah, Lamentations 4:6: "And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is made greater than the sin of Sodom." See what is said there.
Verse 52: Bear your Confusion
52. BEAR YOUR CONFUSION. — Septuagint: Endure your torment. YOU WHO HAVE SURPASSED YOUR SISTERS. — In Hebrew: you who have judged, that is, condemned, your sisters, as if to say: When by sinning you competed with your sisters, you condemned them, that is, you surpassed and defeated them: so that if the devil, or some wicked person had sat as judge in a trial, to judge which of you would win in impiety, and which would be more notable and distinguished in shamelessness; and you had litigated with your sisters before him in this case; he would have decided the case in your favor, and decided against your sisters, and condemned them. For this would have been his verdict: Jerusalem in sinning has surpassed her sisters; and therefore in this contest the first prize of sin and impiety is due to her. ACTING MORE WICKEDLY THAN THEY — more than they. For this is what the Hebrew comparative מן min signifies.
Verse 53: And I Will Bring Back, Restoring Them, the Restoration of Sodom,...
53. AND I WILL BRING BACK, RESTORING THEM, THE RESTORATION OF SODOM, ETC., AND THE RESTORATION OF SAMARIA, ETC. — That is, I will bring you back, O Jerusalem, from captivity, so that with Sodom and Samaria you may return to your homeland. Note first: Conversion, return, captivity mean the same thing, namely captives returning. Secondly, although the Roman edition reads "by restoration," yet more clearly the Septuagint translates "restoration"; and Aquila and Symmachus translate "captivity." "I will bring back" therefore "the restoration" is the same as "I will bring back the captivity," that is, the captives, "restoring them," namely your sisters, that is, Sodom and Samaria,
that is, the captives from Sodom and from Samaria I will restore to themselves and to their homeland. One may ask, when and how will God bring back the Sodomites, since all were consumed by heavenly fire? First, instead of "I will bring back," Theodoretus reads "I turned away," that is, Sodom turned away from Me, and I in turn turned away from her, and punished her with destruction. But since the Latin texts everywhere read "I will bring back," hence Emmanuel Sa and some others take these words ironically, or read them as a question. But this too conflicts with what follows.
Secondly, the Jews, says St. Jerome, among their other fables, imagine that at the coming of their Christ, that is, of the Antichrist, and in the thousand years of his reign, Sodom is to be restored to its former state, so as to be like the paradise of God; and that then equally Samaria would recover her former happiness. Thirdly, St. Jerome from Origen: Sodom, he says, represents the Gentiles; Samaria, heretics; Jerusalem, faithful sinners, who all at the first coming of Christ, as Origen holds, or, as St. Jerome says, not from his own but from others' opinion, at the second coming will be raised to great grace and glory. But this is mystical, and smacks of the error of Origen, who from Plato believed that after a certain cycle of years, there would be a revolution and restoration of all things: namely, that even the damned would be restored to themselves and saved.
Fourthly, Lyra and Vatablus: The Sodomites, they say, are the Ammonites and Moabites, because they descended from Lot, who dwelt in Sodom. These together with the Samaritans and Jews will be converted to Christ.
Fifthly, Polychronius, the Scholiast and Prado understand by Sodom the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, with the half tribe of Manasseh, dwelling beyond the Jordan in Gilead (not in Gilgal, as the Scholiast has) and Bashan. For this most fertile region, like Sodom given over to luxury, idleness and vices, was the first, before the other seven tribes, to be led captive into Assyria by Tiglath-Pileser. But Samaria, not Sodom, encompasses these tribes: for among the Prophets Samaria signifies the kingdom of Israel, that is, not seven, but ten tribes. Moreover, just as Samaria and Jerusalem are understood literally here, so also Sodom, as is clear from what he said in verse 49: "Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom."
I say therefore that by Sodom is here understood the whole Pentapolis, and from the Pentapolis the city of Segor survived the burning of Sodom, with its villages and hamlets, on account of the prayers of Lot. Moreover, under Sodom are understood the neighboring Moabites and Ammonites. For they were born from the Sodomite incest of the daughters of Lot with their father in Sodom, that is, in Segor, as Lyra and Vatablus noted. These therefore by origin and birth were Sodomites. All of these Nebuchadnezzar carried away into Babylonian captivity. Here therefore the Prophet, as is his custom, adding joyful things to sad ones, foretells their liberation and return. Jeremiah foretold the same about them in chapter 48:47 and chapter 49:6. To the
literally the Prophet is speaking of the return, both of these nations and of the Jews, from Babylon. For many from Samaria, that is, from the ten tribes, mingled with the Jews, that is, the two tribes, returned from there under Cyrus. But under this return he more truly and chiefly intends to signify the return of the Jews and the Gentiles from the servitude of sin and the demon to the freedom of the grace of Christ, and of the Church, and of the kingdom of heaven. For this is our homeland, more blessed and more fruitful than Jerusalem, Sodom and Samaria: and thus we return to "our antiquity," as the Prophet says here, that is, to our former state of justice and happiness.
Note here: By Jerusalem the Prophet means the Jews; by Samaria the Samaritans, who were midway between the Jews and the Gentiles; by Sodom the Gentiles who lived impiously, like the Sodomites. For he uses one most impious city of the Gentiles for all: just as Christ, Matthew 11:21-23, used Sodom, Tyre and Sidon for the same; and Isaiah used Bozrah and Edom for the same, chapter 34:6; likewise Egypt, chapter 19:21. The Prophet therefore signifies that first Sodom, that is, the Gentiles; and Samaria, that is, the Samaritans, will be freed from the captivity of sin and come to the Church, before Jerusalem, that is, the Jews: for these will come after those. So Maldonatus.
AND I WILL BRING BACK YOUR RETURN (that is, your captivity, as I already said) IN THE MIDST OF THEM — that is, together with them: as if I appear to free them not for your sake, but you for their sake. So Maldonatus.
Verse 54: That You May Bear your Disgrace, Etc., Consoling Them
54. THAT YOU MAY BEAR YOUR DISGRACE, ETC., CONSOLING THEM. — "The disgrace" by which you were wretched in captivity, from which you are now returning, and thus you console Samaria and Sodom in their own disgrace; because it is a consolation to the guilty to have a companion, or one even worse, in punishment. So Vatablus. Secondly and more properly, in the conversion to Christ, the Jews came in the midst of the Gentiles, that is, among the nations on equal terms, indeed on a lower and subordinate one. For since Christ was sent for the salvation of all nations and of the whole world, hence consequently He was also sent for the salvation of the Jews. The Jews envied the Gentiles for this, and therefore turned away from Christ and were rejected, though a few were converted. This was the confusion of the Jews, and the consolation and salvation of the Gentiles. This is what Christ says, Matthew 8:11: "And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven: but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness." So Prado and Maldonatus.
Verse 55: And your Sister Sodom
55. AND YOUR SISTER SODOM. — This signifies that the Gentiles are to be converted to Christ first, and afterwards, at the end of the world, the Jews, when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, Romans 11:26. You may say: Christ, Matthew 15:24, says to the Canaanite woman: "I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel." I respond. The meaning is, as if to say: I was sent to show My bodily presence to the Jews alone, as those to whom the Messiah was promised, and consequently the grace of My Gospel and My miracles, which I here call bread; whence also by St. Paul, Romans 15:8, Christ is called the minister of circumcision, that is, of the circumcised, that is, teacher and preacher of the Jews. So St. Hilary on the cited passage of Matthew, and St. Augustine, Tractate 31 on John. Christ therefore was personally sent to the Jews, so that through them, namely through the Apostles, He might convert the rest of the nations and the whole world. Therefore the conversion of all nations was the universal, primary and adequate end of Christ's mission, among which the Jews are included, and then each particular nation.
TO THEIR ANTIQUITY — to their former freedom, and to their possession both earthly, and more especially spiritual, namely of the Church, in which from of old, in Adam and Noah, we were all enrolled as citizens, indeed as heirs and children.
Verse 56 and 57: But Sodom your Sister Was not Heard in your Mouth, in the Day of your...
56 and 57. BUT SODOM YOUR SISTER WAS NOT HEARD IN YOUR MOUTH, IN THE DAY OF YOUR PRIDE, BEFORE YOUR WICKEDNESS WAS REVEALED; AS AT THIS TIME FOR THE REPROACH OF THE DAUGHTERS OF SYRIA, ETC., OF THE PHILISTINES, ETC. — as if to say: When, O proud Jerusalem, you sinned against Me, you did not remember, nor did you make any mention of the sins and punishments of Sodom, so as to recall yourself from similar crimes by fear of a similar punishment. So St. Jerome and Maldonatus. Secondly and more forcefully, as if to say: "In the day of pride," that is, in the time of your happiness and wealth, when you grew proud with My gifts, you did not deign even to name sinful Sodom, as though you were righteous and happy in My temple: but now you see her justified before you, when your wickedness is revealed at this time, so that you are a reproach and contempt to the Syrians and Philistines, who are your neighbors. So Prado. By a similar parable of the Pharisee who despised the publican, Christ presents the contempt of the Jews who despised the Gentiles, Luke 18:10 and following.
Verse 57: Who Surround You on Every Side
57. WHO SURROUND YOU ON EVERY SIDE. — From the Hebrew you may translate with Vatablus: Who despised you, or plundered you on every side.
Verse 58: Your Wickedness and your Disgrace You Have Borne
58. YOUR WICKEDNESS AND YOUR DISGRACE YOU HAVE BORNE. — Septuagint: You have borne the punishment of your arrogance and impieties, so that you who disdained even to name Sodom and the nations, are now placed behind them in the grace and kingdom of Christ.
Verse 59: And I Will Do to You
59. AND I WILL DO TO YOU — I will punish you through the Chaldeans; just as you despised the oath, that is, the curse which I threatened against transgressors of the law, Deuteronomy 27. And so you nullified the covenant made with Me, as if to say: You were not turned from violation of the law by the fear of punishments; now therefore endure them.
Verse 60: And I Will Remember my Covenant with You in the Days of your Youth;...
60. AND I WILL REMEMBER MY COVENANT WITH YOU IN THE DAYS OF YOUR YOUTH; AND I WILL ESTABLISH FOR YOU AN EVERLASTING COVENANT — as if to say: Yet I, O Synagogue, though despised by you, will not abandon you; but I will remember My covenant made with Abraham, namely that from his seed Christ, your Savior and the Savior of the nations, was to be born — a covenant made, I say, when you were still
a young girl, indeed still in the loins of Abraham; or rather of the covenant, namely the one made with Moses at Sinai (for then you were like a young girl, as he said in verse 4); "I will remember," so as to receive you back, and make with you another new covenant, both through Zerubbabel, and more especially through Christ, and that an everlasting one, Jeremiah 31:31. For the covenant under Zerubbabel was not everlasting, except hyperbolically, that is, long-lasting.
Maldonatus takes it differently, as if to say: "I will remember My covenant," that is, I will punish you according to My covenant. For in the covenant not only rewards were promised, but also threats of punishments against transgressors, Leviticus 26, as if to say: Because you did not remember My covenant, I will remember it. For I will keep it by exacting the punishments threatened therein: but when I have punished you, I will take away that covenant, and give you another everlasting covenant, which is the Gospel.
Verse 61: And You Will Remember your Ways, and Will be Confounded: When You...
61. AND YOU WILL REMEMBER YOUR WAYS, AND WILL BE CONFOUNDED: WHEN YOU SHALL RECEIVE YOUR SISTERS, THOSE GREATER THAN YOU WITH YOUR LESSER ONES — as if to say: When I raise you to the grace and kingdom of Christ, you will blush at your past life and sins, Acts 2:17; you will marvel at My goodness, by which I will lead to you your elder sister Samaria and your younger sister Sodom, that is, all the neighboring nations, so that you may receive them into the Church and your kingdom, as daughters. For the Church of Christ began at Jerusalem; whence the Church of Jerusalem is the mother of all the faithful. Hence Isaiah 60:4, addressing the Church under the name of Jerusalem: "Your children," he says, "shall come from afar," as if to say: Then you will no longer proudly claim justice for yourself, nor despise your sisters, that is, other nations; but with the utmost reverence you will honor My judgments, and bound to Me with the utmost gratitude, you will embrace all nations as sisters, and love them as daughters.
NOT ACCORDING TO YOUR COVENANT — the one made with Moses and with you at Sinai (which made you servants and governed you by fear of death), which you violated; but according to My covenant, which I of old promised to Abraham, and now through Christ will fulfill, which is the covenant that makes and adopts you as a son, and governs you by the spirit of charity and filial fear, namely the new covenant and Testament, which is the law of grace, indeed the grace of Christ.
Verse 63: And You Shall no More Open your Mouth
63. AND YOU SHALL NO MORE OPEN YOUR MOUTH — as if to say: You will no longer dare to complain, indeed not even to open your mouth or mutter, when you see your own unworthiness, and My clemency and beneficence toward you, by which I shall, as it were, contend with your impiety, and conquer and overwhelm it. For I will send to you and yours My only-begotten Christ, who will go as light to the blind, life to the dead, way to the wandering, truth to the false and deceitful, salvation to the sick, strength to the fragile, redemption to captives, justice to the unjust, a fountain of living water to the parched, prince of peace to the discordant, bread of life to those laboring with hunger, God to sinners, and He will make them holy, satisfied, harmonious, just, free, healthy, strong, truthful, full of life, vigorous and radiant. The Apostle treats this argument in his epistle to the Romans, especially chapter 3, where he teaches that neither the Jews nor the Gentiles ought to glory in their own justice, but to be confounded for their sins; and to praise and give thanks to God, who freely bestowed grace, justice and salvation on the unworthy through Christ.