Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Chronological Harmony of the Twelve Prophets
That is, a chronological table, recording by years of the world and of Christ the oracles of the twelve Minor Prophets, conformable and subordinate to the one which I prefixed as probable to both the Pentateuch and the Major Prophets. I know that various authors record these things differently, and all with probability; but with the addition or subtraction of the few years by which one chronology differs from another, this table will serve any calculation and chronology.
In the Year of the World 3136, before Christ 814, which was the year 1479 after the flood, 1187 after the birth of Abraham, and 682 after the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, Uzziah (or Azariah) began to reign as king in Jerusalem and Judah, and reigned for 52 years. Under him Hosea, Jonah, Amos, and Isaiah prophesied. And so Hosea, who was the first of all the Prophets, began to prophesy at the beginning of the reign of Uzziah. For Isaiah, who followed him, began to prophesy around year 17 of Uzziah, as Eusebius states in the Chronicle, which was the year 797 before Christ. Jonah, however, began before year 14 of Uzziah, as I shall shortly show.
Furthermore, under King Uzziah the Olympiads began. For the 40th year of Uzziah, which was 774 before Christ, was the first year of the first Olympiad. Before the Olympiads, however, everything among the Gentile writers and historians is uncertain. For with the Olympiads began historical reliability among them. Hear Eusebius in the Chronicle at Olympiad 1: "From this time the Greek history of dates is believed to be true; for before this, as it seemed to each person, they put forward various opinions." Hence Varro, as cited by Censorinus in On the Birthday, chapter 21, posits a twofold order of the ages: the former from the flood to the first Olympiad, which he calls mythikon, that is, fabulous; the latter historikon, that is, historical. Our Prophets therefore preceded all Gentile history and wisdom, and Rome itself. For Rome was founded in the 23rd year after the beginning of the Olympiads, as chronologists everywhere teach.
Therefore Hosea, at the beginning of the reign of Uzziah, by God's command married a woman of fornication, and from her begot two sons and one daughter. He named the first Jezreel; the second, a daughter, Lo-Ruhamah, that is, "Without Mercy"; the third, Lo-Ammi, that is, "Not My People"—so that by deeds as much as by words he might portend that the blood of Jezreel would soon be avenged upon the house of Jehu, and that Israel, for its fornication with idols and other crimes, would be most grievously punished without mercy, and together with the golden calf it worshipped in Dan and Bethel would be carried off to Assyria. After Uzziah, Hosea continued to prophesy under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, as he himself says in chapter 1:1; but what precisely he prophesied under this or that king, we do not know, because he, like the other Minor Prophets, does not record his oracles individually by the years of the kings, as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and occasionally Isaiah do. Furthermore, under these kings Hosea predicted that Christ, having conquered death and hell, would rise on the third day; that the Synagogue of the Jews would be repudiated by God as an adulteress; that the Church from among the Gentiles would be betrothed to Christ through faith forever; and finally, that the Synagogue would be for many days without king and law, without priesthood and sacrifice, awaiting the Messiah, to whom it will be converted at the end of the world.
Shortly after Hosea, Jonah prophesied against Nineveh, namely while Uzziah was reigning in Judah and Jeroboam in Israel, as is clear from 2 Kings 14:25. Therefore it is necessary that Jonah prophesied in the first 14 years of Uzziah's reign, for only during those years did Jeroboam reign together with Uzziah. For he departed from life and the kingdom in the 14th year of Uzziah, as is gathered from 2 Kings 15:1 combined with 14:23. At the same time in Latium, Procas Sylvius, the grandfather of Romulus, was reigning, and in Assyria, Sardanapalus—who appears to have been the king of Nineveh converted to repentance by Jonah. Jonah therefore preceded Amos by a few years, for Amos began in year 25 of Uzziah, as I shall now explain.
In the Year of the World 3161, before Christ 789, which was the 25th year of King Uzziah, Amos began to prophesy. For he began "two years before the earthquake" (as he himself says in chapter 1:1), which occurred in the 27th year of Uzziah. He prophesies God's vengeance against Damascus, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah, and especially against Israel—that is, the ten tribes—threatening them with destruction by the Assyrians on account of idolatry and other sins. Furthermore, he prophesies darkness from an eclipse of the sun at midday throughout the whole world during the Passion of Christ, and that through Him the collapsed tabernacle of David will be restored. Moreover, in Bethel he preaches the captivity and destruction of Israel. For this he is accused of rebellion by Amaziah, the priest of the idols, and finally, pierced through the temples with a spike, he dies a martyr.
Shortly after Amos, Obadiah began to prophesy, predicting destruction for the Edomites at the hands of the Chaldeans, because they had been perpetual enemies of the Jews.
In the Year of the World 3188, before Christ 762, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, began to reign in Judah, under whom Micah began to prophesy, as he himself says in chapter 1:1. He predicted at first the destruction of Samaria and Israel by the Assyrians.
In the Year of the World 3198, before Christ 751, which was the 11th year of Jotham's reign, Rome was founded by Romulus, who reigned there for 29 years. Hence St. Augustine skillfully and aptly notes in City of God 18.27 that these Prophets began to prophesy at about—
—the beginnings of the city of Rome, because their oracles were written for the Romans and for the Gentiles who would embrace the faith of Christ. Hear him: "For Hezekiah, king of Judah, reigned until that time, and so during those times, these fountains of prophecy, as it were, burst forth together, when the kingdom of the Assyrians ended and that of the Romans began—so that, just as in the first age of the Assyrian kingdom Abraham appeared, to whom the clearest promises of the blessing of all nations would be made in his seed, so at the beginning of the Western Babylon, during whose rule Christ was to come (in whom those promised oracles of the Prophets would be fulfilled), the Prophets might be released as testimony of so great a future event—not only speaking but also writing. For although Prophets had almost never been lacking to the people of Israel from the time kings began there, they were for the use of Israel alone, not of the Gentiles. But when that more manifestly prophetic Scripture was being composed which would one day benefit the Gentiles, it was fitting that it begin when that city was being founded which would rule over the Gentiles."
In the Year of the World 3220, before Christ 730, Hezekiah began to reign in Judah. Around his 7th or 8th year, when Samaria had already been overthrown by the Assyrians and Israel had been carried off to Assyria in the 6th year of Hezekiah—so that Jerusalem and Judah alone remained untouched—Micah (chapter 3:12) predicts that Jerusalem will be destroyed by the Chaldeans: "Zion," he says, "shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones, and the mountain of the temple shall become the high places of a forest." See Jeremiah 26:18.
At the same time Nahum prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, because the Ninevites, after the preaching of Jonah, had relapsed into their former crimes, as I shall discuss in the Introduction to Nahum.
In the Year of the World 3230, before Christ 720, Hezekiah was in the 10th year of his reign. Around this year Micah issued that famous oracle, chapter 5:2, about Christ being born in Bethlehem, as I shall show there.
In the Year of the World 3234, before Christ 716, Hezekiah was in the 14th year of his reign. Around this year Micah brought forth that prophecy, chapter 4:1, about the Church to be established in Zion by Christ, as I shall demonstrate there.
In the Year of the World 3249, before Christ 701, the impious king Manasseh began to reign in Jerusalem and Judah. Under him it is probable that Joel prophesied, because he prophesies destruction for Judah alone (as if Israel had already been devastated in the 6th year of Hezekiah) on account of idolatry and the killing of Prophets—which happened in the time and by the command of Manasseh. However, St. Jerome, Eusebius, and very many others consider Joel to have prophesied much earlier, namely shortly after Hosea, under King Uzziah. Joel predicts that devastation is imminent for Judah through noxious beasts and Chaldean enemies, whom he depicts under the guise of locusts, caterpillars, and cankerworms; and therefore he exhorts all, especially the priests, to lamentation, fasting, and prayer; and to those who convert he promises great prosperity—that a Teacher of justice will be given, the Spirit—
Kings of Judah succeeding one another continuously, under whom the Prophets prophesied:
Uzziah (or Azariah) reigned 52 years
Jotham: 16
Ahaz: 16
Hezekiah: 29
Amon: 2
Josiah: 31
Jehoahaz: 3 months
Jehoiakim: 11 years
From the end of Jehoiakim's 11th year—that is, from his death and the deportation of his son Jehoiachin to Babylon—begin the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, about which Jeremiah speaks in chapter 25:11. Hence from this point Ezekiel begins and records the years of his prophecy throughout his entire work, as I noted there.
Jehoiachin: 3 months
Zedekiah: 11 years
In the 11th year of Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah, in the 18th year of his reign.
After the destruction of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar reigned 26 years.
In total he reigned 44 years.
His son Evil-Merodach (or Belshazzar) succeeded him and reigned 34 years.
Darius the Mede and Cyrus killed Belshazzar when Babylon was captured.
Therefore after Belshazzar, Darius the Mede reigned in Babylon for 1 year.
After Darius, Cyrus, now sole Monarch, reigned 3 years.
In the 3rd year of Cyrus, the prophecies of Daniel end—he who was the last of all four Major Prophets to prophesy.
Cambyses succeeded Cyrus, reigning 8 years.
After the Magi (who reigned for a few months) succeeded Cambyses, Darius Hystaspis, who reigned 36 years.
Xerxes, son of Darius, succeeded and reigned 20 years.
Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, surnamed Longimanus ("Long-handed") because one hand was longer than the other, succeeded and reigned 40 years.
That is, a chronological table, recording by the years of the world and of Christ the oracles of the twelve minor Prophets, conformable and subordinate to the one which I prefixed as probable to both the Pentateuch and the major Prophets. I know that various authors record these things variously, and all with probability: but with a few years added or subtracted, by which one chronology differs from another, this table will serve any computation and chronology.
In the Year of the World 3136, before Christ 814, which was the year 1479 from the Flood, 1187 from the birth of Abraham, 682 from the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, Uzziah or Azariah began to reign as king in Jerusalem and Judah, and reigned for 52 years, under whom Hosea, Jonah, Amos and Isaiah prophesied. And so Hosea, who was the first of all the Prophets, began to prophesy at the beginning of the reign of Uzziah. For Isaiah, who followed him, began to prophesy around the 17th year of Uzziah, as Eusebius has it in the Chronicle, which was the year 797 before Christ. Jonah indeed began before the 14th year of Uzziah, as I shall presently show.
Moreover, under King Uzziah the Olympiads began. For the 40th year of Uzziah, which was 774 before Christ, was the first year of Olympiad 1. But before the Olympiads, everything among the Gentile writers and historians is uncertain. For from the Olympiads, historical credibility began among them. Hear Eusebius in the Chronicle at Olympiad 1: 'From this time the Greek history of dates is believed to be true: for before this, as each person saw fit, they put forth diverse opinions.' Hence Varro in Censorinus, On the Birthday, chapter 21, posits a twofold order of ages: the former from the Flood to the first Olympiad, and he calls it mythikon, that is, fabulous; the latter historikon, that is, historical. Our Prophets therefore preceded all the history and wisdom of the Gentiles, as well as Rome. For Rome was founded in the 23rd year after the Olympiads began, as chronologists everywhere teach.
Hosea therefore, at the beginning of the reign of Uzziah, by God's command married a harlot wife, and from her begot two sons and one daughter; the first he named Jezreel; the second, a daughter, Lo-Ruhamah, that is, Without mercy; the third, Lo-Ammi, that is, Not my people; so that by deeds as well as words he might portend that the blood of Jezreel would soon be avenged upon the house of Jehu; and that Israel for its forni-
cation with idols, and other crimes would be most grievously punished without mercy; and that together with the golden calf which they worshipped in Dan and Bethel, they would be transferred to Assyria. After Uzziah, Hosea continued to prophesy under Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, as he himself says in chapter I, 1; but what precisely he prophesied under this or that king we do not know: because he, like the other minor Prophets, did not record his oracles year by year under specific kings, as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and occasionally Isaiah do. Furthermore, under these kings Hosea predicted that Christ, having conquered death and hell, would rise on the third day; that the Synagogue of the Jews, as an adulteress, would be repudiated by God; but that the Church from the Gentiles would be betrothed to Christ through faith forever; and finally that the Synagogue would for many days be without king and law, without priesthood and sacrifice, awaiting the Messiah, to whom it would be converted at the end of the world.
Shortly after Hosea, Jonah prophesied against Nineveh, namely when Uzziah was reigning in Judah and Jeroboam in Israel, as is clear from IV Kings XIV, 25. Wherefore Jonah must have prophesied in the first 14 years of the reign of Uzziah: for only during those years did Jeroboam reign together with Uzziah. For he departed from life and his kingdom in the 14th year of Uzziah, as is gathered from IV Kings XV, 1, joined with chapter XIV, 23. At the same time in Latium, Procas Silvius, grandfather of Romulus, was reigning, and in Assyria Sardanapalus, who appears to have been the king of Nineveh converted to repentance by Jonah. Jonah therefore preceded Amos by a few years, for Amos began in the 25th year of Uzziah, as I shall now say.
In the Year of the World 3161, before Christ 789, which was the 25th year of King Uzziah, Amos began to prophesy. For he began 'two years before the earthquake' (as he himself says in chapter I, 1) which occurred in the 27th year of Uzziah. He prophesies God's vengeance against Damascus, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah and especially against Israel, that is, the ten tribes, against whom he threatens destruction by the Assyrians on account of idolatry and other crimes. Moreover, he prophesies the darkness from a solar eclipse at midday over the whole world during the passion of Christ; and that through Him the fallen tabernacle of David would be restored. Furthermore, at Bethel he preaches the captivity and destruction of Israel. On this account he is accused of rebellion by Amaziah, the priest of the idols, and finally, pierced through the temples with a spike, he dies a martyr.
Shortly after Amos, Obadiah began to prophesy, who predicts destruction for the Edomites by the Chaldeans, because they were perpetual enemies of the Jews.
In the Year of the World 3188, before Christ 762, Jotham, son of Uzziah, began to reign in Judah, under whom Micah began to prophesy, as he himself says in chapter I, 1. He predicted at the outset the destruction of Samaria and Israel by the Assyrians.
In the Year of the World 3198, before Christ 751, which was the 11th year of Jotham's reign, Rome was founded by Romulus, who reigned in it for 29 years. Wherefore St. Augustine shrewdly and aptly notes, in Book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XVII, that these Prophets began to prophesy at the
the beginnings of the city of Rome, because their oracles were being written for the Romans and the Gentiles who would embrace the faith of Christ. Hear him: 'For Hezekiah king of Judah reigned until that time, and so during those times, these prophets burst forth together like fountains of prophecy, when the kingdom of the Assyrians declined and that of the Romans began; so that just as at the first period of the Assyrian kingdom Abraham appeared, to whom the most manifest promises were made of the blessing of all nations in his seed; so at the beginning of the Western Babylon, during whose rule Christ was to come, in whom those promised oracles of the Prophets would be fulfilled, not only those who spoke but also those who wrote in testimony of so great a future event were released. For since Prophets had almost never been lacking to the people of Israel from the time kings began among them, they had served only for their use, not for the Gentiles. But when that more manifestly prophetic Scripture was being composed which would one day benefit the Gentiles, then it was fitting for it to begin when that city was being founded which would rule over the Gentiles.'
In the Year of the World 3220, before Christ 730, Hezekiah began to reign in Judah; around his 7th or 8th year, when Samaria had already been overthrown by the Assyrians, and Israel had been carried away into Assyria in the 6th year of Hezekiah, so that only Jerusalem and Judah remained untouched, Micah, in chapter III, 12, predicts that Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Chaldeans: 'Zion,' he says, 'shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones, and the mountain of the temple shall become the high places of a forest.' See Jeremiah XXVI, 18.
Around the same time Nahum prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, because the Ninevites after the preaching of Jonah had relapsed into their former crimes, as I shall say in the Proem to Nahum.
In the Year of the World 3230, before Christ 720, Hezekiah was in the 10th year of his reign: around this year Micah issued that illustrious oracle, chapter V, 2, concerning Christ to be born in Bethlehem, as I shall show there.
In the Year of the World 3234, before Christ 716, Hezekiah was in the 14th year of his reign; around this year Micah brought forth that prophecy, chapter IV, 1, concerning the Church to be established in Zion by Christ, as I shall demonstrate there.
In the Year of the World 3249, before Christ 701, the impious King Manasseh began to reign in Jerusalem and Judah, under whom it is probable that Joel prophesied: because he prophesies destruction for Judah alone (as if Israel had already been devastated in the 6th year of Hezekiah) on account of idolatry, and on account of the Prophets slain by them, which was done in the time and by the command of Manasseh. St. Jerome, however, Eusebius and very many others think that Joel prophesied much earlier, namely shortly after Hosea, under King Uzziah. Furthermore, Joel predicts that devastation was impending for Judah through noxious beasts and the Chaldean enemy, whom he depicts under the appearance of locusts, caterpillars and palmerworms; and therefore he exhorts all, and especially the priests, to lamentation, fasting and prayer; and to those who convert he promises great prosperity, that a Teacher of justice would be given, the Spirit
Holy would be poured out upon believers, that those who invoke the Lord would be saved. Finally, he foretells the day of judgment, and graphically describes its horror and the preceding prodigies; he also indicates the place, namely that it would be carried out in the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Under Manasseh, Habakkuk also prophesied, who likewise foretells to Manasseh and to all Judah an extreme calamity by the Chaldeans on account of impiety.
In the Year of the World 3306, before Christ 644, Josiah began to reign in Judah: under whom Zephaniah prophesied, as is clear from chapter I, 1, as well as Jeremiah: whom Ezekiel and Daniel followed, who prophesied under Jehoiakim, son of Josiah. Wherefore these prophesy God's vengeance against Judah alone, since Israel had already been devastated under Hezekiah: 'I will search,' says God through Zephaniah, chapter I, 12, 'Jerusalem with lamps;' and in the type of the destruction of Jerusalem, as well as of Nineveh, he graphically depicts the destruction of the world, and the terrible day of judgment.
The nine Prophets already reviewed prophesied before the destruction of Jerusalem and before the Babylonian captivity: for this occurred under Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, sons of Josiah. The remaining three who follow, namely Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, prophesied after the Babylonian captivity and after the return of the Jews from Babylon, which occurred in the first year of the monarchy of Cyrus. Wherefore,
In the Year of the World 3433, before Christ 517, which was the 2nd year of Darius Hystaspes, and the 27th year of Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king of the Romans, says St. Jerome, Haggai began to prophesy, and to exhort the Jews to rebuild the temple burned by the Chaldeans. Aroused by the oracles of Haggai, Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor, together with the people, begin the construction of the temple, to whom Haggai promises both an abundance of crops and that the glory of this temple would be greater than that of the former temple of Solomon: for Christ would be born from Zerubbabel and would adorn this temple with His presence, His preaching and His miracles.
In the same year, but two months after Haggai (namely in the 8th month, for Haggai began in the 6th) Zechariah began to prophesy, the assistant of Haggai, urging the people to set aside their private interests and houses and attend to the construction of the temple. Hence he saw a man measuring the city, chapter II, 1, and Joshua the priest of the temple, chapter III, and the lampstand of the temple, chapter IV.
In the Year of the World 3434, before Christ 516, which was the 3rd year of the reign of Darius Hystaspes, Zechariah, in chapter V, saw an amphora in which sat a woman named Wickedness being carried through the air to Babylon. And in chapter VI, he saw four chariots, representing the four empires and monarchies succeeding one another in order, and after them Christ and the kingdom of Christ: 'Behold,' he says, 'a man, the Orient is his name.'
In the Year of the World 3435, before Christ 515, which was the 4th year of Darius Hystaspes, Zechariah, as he himself affirms in chapter VII, 1, being asked whether the former fasts of the captivity, now that it was ended, should still be observed, replies that they should be changed into splendid festivities, and exhorts the Jews to continue courageously in the construction of the temple. Hence in chapter IX, he warns them not to fear the Philistines, since these would be subjugated to them by God, and again promising Christ: 'Behold,' he says, 'your King will come to you, just and a savior: He Himself poor, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.'
In the Year of the World 3437, before Christ 513, which was the 6th year of Darius Hystaspes, the construction of the temple was completed; at its dedication Haggai and Zechariah sang the alleluia. So say Epiphanius and Dorotheus in their Lives. Wherefore Zechariah, in the following years, prophesies what he narrates in chapter X and thereafter, namely that the city and temple would enjoy the greatest happiness through the Maccabee pontiffs, leaders and champions of the people, and especially through Christ who would dwell there, and would offer Himself as a victim for mankind to God, and therefore would be sold by Judas to the Jews for 30 pieces of silver; He would be struck as a shepherd, and the sheep would be scattered: finally, with His hands pierced, He would be affixed to the cross. 'What are these wounds,' he says, 'in the midst of your hands? And he will say: With these I was wounded in the house of those who loved me,' Zechariah XIII, 6. Wherefore he predicts and promises that through Christ the spirit of grace and the fountain of baptism would be poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and that all nations would flock to Christ and the Church.
In the Year of the World 3467, before Christ 483, which was the 36th and last year of Darius Hystaspes, the Hebrews in Seder Olam relate that Haggai and Zechariah died, and St. Epiphanius and Dorotheus indicate the same in their Lives.
In the Year of the World 3487, before Christ 463, Artaxerxes Longimanus, son of Xerxes, began to reign in Persia, around whose 5th or 6th year Malachi prophesies, the last of all the Prophets, against the vices of the priests and the people, especially because they had married foreign wives contrary to the law. For in the following year, namely the 7th of Artaxerxes, Ezra came to Jerusalem and persuaded all to divorce them. Moreover, Malachi predicts that the sacrifices of the Jews would be repudiated by God, and in their place the clean oblation of the Eucharist would be established by Christ, which would be offered and sacrificed everywhere among the nations throughout the whole world: finally that Christ would come to the temple as the angel of the Testament, and that His precursor would be a lesser angel, namely John the Baptist: and that Elijah would come before the second advent of Christ, who would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.
From what has been said, it is clear that these twelve Prophets prophesied in turn and successively over 300 years; for that many years elapsed from Uzziah king of Judah to Artaxerxes Longimanus.
From Hosea
Chapter I, 2. 'Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotries, and beget children of harlotries.' Literally, God commands the Prophet to marry a harlot, and from her to beget children who, from their infamous mother, would be called children of harlotries, that is, children of a harlot and prostitute: and this in order to represent the idolatry of Israel. For Hosea represents God, the harlot wife represents the Synagogue, the children represent the Israelites. Hence explaining, he adds: 'Because the land will commit fornication departing from the Lord,' as if to say: Because the inhabitants of the land, namely the Israelites, will apostatize from God and worship idols as their lovers.
Verses 3 and 4. 'And she bore him a son. And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu.' Jezreel, that is, the seed of God, represents Israel, who was the people of God. Hosea is therefore commanded by God to call his firstborn Jezreel, so that through him he might represent the slaughter of the descendants of Jehu, kings of Israel, as if to say: I will cut off the descendants of Jehu on account of idolatry, and because they persecuted Jezreel, that is, the pious Israelites who worshipped the true God, just as I cut off the line of Ahab in Jezreel on account of idolatry, and because he killed the pious Naboth in Jezreel. Hence he adds: 'And I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.'
Verse 6. 'And she bore a daughter. And He (the Lord) said to him: Call her name, Without mercy.' He adds the reason, namely that by her name she might represent, 'because I will no longer have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them.'
Verses 8 and 9. 'And she conceived, and bore a son. And He said: Call his name, Not my people,' so that this son by his name might continually throw in Israel's face, 'because you are not my people, and I will not be yours.'
Chapter III, 1, 2 and 3. 'Love a woman beloved by a friend and an adulteress, as the Lord loves the children of Israel. And I purchased,' that is, I hired for a price, 'her. And I said to her: You shall wait for me many days; you shall not commit fornication, and you shall not be with a man; but I also will wait for you.' What this symbol signifies, he explains by adding: 'Because for many days the children of Israel shall sit without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an altar, and without an ephod, and without teraphim; and after this they shall return and seek the Lord, etc., in the last days.'
Chapter VI, 3. 'His going forth is prepared as the dawn, and He will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.' He rightly denotes the advent of Christ, and His grace and Gospel, by the symbol of the dawn; for just as this, after a long night, is the beginning and cause of light and day and every good, so also is Christ: and by the symbol of the early rain, which waters the sowing; and the latter rain, which fattens and ripens the harvest; for in a like manner Christ produces in us both the seed of grace, and the harvest of good works, and of eternal glory.
Chapter IX, 9. 'They have sinned deeply as in the days of Gibeah,' as if to say: Just as the Gibeonites sinned most grievously, by an enormous outrage killing the wife of the Levite, and defending that crime by an insane war against all the other tribes, whereby they were consequently slaughtered to utter destruction, Judges XIX and XX; so now the Israelites sin most grievously by spiritual outrage, that is, idolatry: because they most obstinately retain and defend it, and therefore they will be cut off by the Assyrians.
Verse 13. 'Ephraim was Tyre founded in beauty,' as if to say: Israel when it worshipped God was most beautiful, most wealthy and most powerful, just as Tyre, which is situated on a rock and surrounded by the sea, is most beautiful, most wealthy and unconquerable, and is crowned as a queen by the settlers and riches of all nations. But now since it has abandoned God, it will be devastated and destroyed like Sodom.
Chapter X, 1. 'Israel is a luxuriant vine, fruit is equal to it,' as if to say: Israel is a vine luxuriant with foliage and pouring itself entirely into leaves; hence it produces similar offspring, namely empty leaves, not solid fruits, as if to say: Israel abounds in foliage but is emptied of fruit: because it pursues external wealth and things, but neglects the internal fruit of piety and worship of God in the mind: its fruit therefore is of the belly, not of the mind; of the flesh, not of the spirit, namely riches, crops, luxury, and thence the consequent impiety and idolatry.
Verse 11. 'Ephraim is a heifer trained to love threshing.' He says the same by the metaphor of a heifer that he previously said by the metaphor of the vine, as if to say: Ephraim loves threshing, that is, crops and riches, and therefore loves the labor of threshing, that is, of worshipping idols: because through them he thinks he obtains these crops. Hence she has become fat and sleek: but I will tame her fat and thick neck, and I will cause the Assyrians to mount upon it, and to bridle and govern him, as a horseman bridles and governs a horse. This is what he says: 'I will mount upon Ephraim.'
Chapter XI, 3 and 4. 'I was like a nursemaid to Ephraim, I carried them in my arms: and they did not know that I cared for them. With the cords of Adam I will draw them, with the bonds of charity.' The cords of Adam are the love and
kindness, by which men are usually attracted and drawn to return love: for the enticement and magnet of love is love.
Chapter XIII, 3. 'Therefore (because, namely, they worshipped golden calves, and provoked Me, God, to anger, I will cut them off by the Assyrians: whence then) they shall be as a morning cloud, and as the morning dew that passes away, as dust carried off by a whirlwind from the threshing floor, and as smoke from a chimney,' that is, from a furnace, which is quickly scattered into the air and vanishes: for in like manner they will be dispersed in captivity.
Verses 7 and 8. 'And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard on the way to Assyria (for by the Assyrians they will be led as by leopards into Assyria). I will meet them as a bear robbed of her cubs, and I will tear open their innermost parts.' For lions and wild beasts are accustomed to rend and tear their prey to the very heart, and to devour that with the liver first, as if to say: In like manner I will afflict the heart, that is, the mind, and the liver, that is, the appetite and desire of the Israelites, with the most sorrowful thoughts, anxieties, depressions, terrors, and griefs, and will as it were tear them apart.
Verse 14. 'I will be your death, O death: I will be your sting, O hell.' Christ dying was the death of death, because by dying He killed death: and He bit hell, when after death He descended there, and led the fathers out of it, and broke the powers of hell and the demons.
Chapter XIV, 6 and 7. 'I will be as the dew, Israel shall bud forth as the lily, and his root shall burst forth as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree, and his fragrance as Lebanon.' He compares the fruitfulness, grace and happiness of Israel, that is, of the faithful and the just, first, to dew and watering; second, to the lily; third, to the cedar, pine and other trees of Lebanon, tall, broad and fragrant; fourth, to the fat and fertile olive. He adds fifth: 'Those sitting in his shade shall return;' sixth: 'They shall live on wheat;' seventh: 'They shall bud forth as a vine;' eighth: 'His memory shall be as the wine of Lebanon,' as if to say: The Israelites, that is, the faithful and true Christians, shall abound in every spiritual nourishment of God's word and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist; and therefore they shall flourish and grow in all virtues, good works and merits.
From Joel
Chapter I, 5. 'What the caterpillar left, the locust ate, and what the locust left, the palmerworm ate, and what the palmerworm left, the rust consumed,' as if to say: One calamity succeeds another, the following one receiving the preceding in an unbroken series: the Assyrians with continual incursions plunder and devastate the land of Israel. For he speaks of the Assyrians figuratively, as of locusts and palmerworms devouring the fields and vineyards, saying: 'For a nation has come up upon my land, strong and innumerable: its teeth are as the teeth of a lion, and its molars as those of a lion's cub. It has laid my vineyard waste, and stripped the bark from my fig tree.'
Chapter II, 25. 'I will restore to you the years which the locust, the palmerworm, and the rust, and the caterpillar have eaten: my great army, which I sent among you,' as if to say: The former calamity and devastation I will repair and compensate with new peace and abundance.
Verse 28. 'I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.' This was fulfilled at Pentecost, Acts II.
Verse 30. 'And I will show wonders in heaven and on earth, blood, and fire, and a vapor of smoke,' at the end of the world; 'before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes,' namely the day of judgment.
Chapter III, 2. 'I will gather all nations, and lead them into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will contend with them there.' For in the valley of Jehoshaphat, which is near Jerusalem, the judgment shall take place, and above it Christ the Judge shall sit upon a glorious cloud.
Verse 13. 'Put in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the winepress is full.' The harvest is the consummation of the age: for then the angels will reap men as with a sickle, and will crush the impious as in a winepress, 'in the valley of destruction,' that is, in the gehenna of hell.
Verse 18. 'In that day the mountains shall drip sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, and through all the streams of Judah waters shall run, and a fountain from the house of the Lord shall go forth, and shall water the torrent of thorns,' in Hebrew, the torrent of Shittim. Shittim wood was incorruptible: hence the ark and the tabernacle were made from it; thus it signifies the Church Triumphant and the Blessed, as if to say: In heaven all things shall be full of sweetness, delight and joy, and through the most blessed streams, that is, the choirs of those praising God, the waters of pleasures shall flow; and the fountain, that is, the light of glory and the beatific vision, shall go forth from the throne of God, watering and blessing all the elect.
From Amos
Chapter III, 3. 'Shall two walk together, unless they have agreed?' As if to say: So I will not walk with Israel, because he has not agreed with Me, but with idols.
Verse 4. 'Shall a lion roar in the forest, unless he has a prey? Shall a young lion cry out from his den, unless he has caught something?' As if to say: So God will not cease to roar against Israel, until He seizes and tears him as prey through the Assyrians.
Verse 5. 'Shall a bird fall into a snare upon the earth without a fowler? Shall a snare be taken from the earth before it has caught something?' As if to say: So God will not take away the snare of the Assyrians, which He has spread as a fowler for Israel, until He catches and strangles Israel with it.
Verse 6. 'If the trumpet sounds in the city, shall the people not tremble?' So when God sounds the trumpet through Amos, and proclaims battle and calamity, Israel should rightly tremble. Hence explaining and applying all these hieroglyphics he adds: 'Shall there be evil in the city, which the Lord has not done? For the Lord does not
do a thing, unless He has revealed His secret to His servants the Prophets. The lion shall roar, who shall not fear? The Lord God has spoken, who shall not prophesy?'
Verse 12. 'As if a shepherd should rescue from the mouth of a lion two legs, or the tip of an ear: so shall the children of Israel be rescued who dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in a couch of Damascus,' as if to say: Just as a shepherd snatches two legs from a lion that has devoured a sheep, so few Israelites shall escape the hands of the Assyrians, and those of a wretched and useless sort, namely the poor and the sick, wasted by leanness and disease, who lie in the corner, that is, the side and angle, of a bed, whether in Samaria or in Damascus.
Chapter IV, 13. 'He who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man His word, who makes the morning mist, and treads upon the heights of the earth: the Lord God of hosts is His name.' This is a vivid portrayal of the power and magnificence of God.
Chapter V, 5. 'Bethel shall be useless.' In Hebrew, Bethel shall become Aven, as if to say: The house of the mighty God shall become a house of vanity, sorrow and the devil.
Verse 19. 'As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: and he should enter a house, and lean his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him,' as if to say: The Samaritans will fall from one peril into another, from one enemy into another, for example, from Pul to Tiglath-Pileser, from him to Shalmaneser.
Chapter VII, 1. 'Behold, the maker of locusts at the beginning of the shooting up of the latter rain, and behold, the latter rain after the king's mowing.' The locusts are the Assyrians, the maker is God, the latter rain is Jeroboam, the king's mowing is the devastation of Israel by Ben-Hadad, as if to say: After the devastation inflicted on Israel by Ben-Hadad, the affairs of Israel began to flourish again under King Jeroboam: but behold, soon God sent Pul and the Assyrians, who like locusts would devour them.
Verse 4. 'And behold, the Lord God called for judgment by fire: and it devoured the great deep, and consumed a portion,' as if to say: After Pul, who having received a thousand talents from Menahem king of Israel departed without further action, God by His just judgment sent against Israel 'fire,' that is, Shalmaneser, who invading with a fiery ardor and force, devoured 'the great deep,' that is, a great multitude of the people, namely the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, dwelling beyond the Jordan in a low place as if in an abyss: 'And he consumed a portion' of Israel, a chosen part, namely the tribes of Naphtali, Asher and Zebulun, dwelling on the near side of the Jordan.
Verses 7 and 8. 'And behold, the Lord standing upon a wall plastered (coated with lime, that is, elegant and firm) and in His hand a mason's trowel. And the Lord said to me: What do you see, Amos? And I said: A mason's trowel. And the Lord said: Behold, I will set a trowel in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again plaster over them.' The trowel is the care and providence by which God plastered the wall of Israel with lime, that is, made it handsome, as well as strong and unconquerable by enemies, as long as Israel was faithful to God
and cleaved to Him faithfully. But now since he has unfaithfully turned aside to the golden calves, God lays down the trowel, that is, His care for him, and allows him to be invaded by the Assyrians, and to rush to destruction.
Chapter VIII, 1 and 2. 'Behold, a hook for gathering fruit. And He said: What do you see, Amos? And I said: A hook for gathering fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end has come upon my people Israel,' as if to say: Just as fruits are plucked from a tree with a hook, so through the Assyrians I will pluck the Israelites and carry them into captivity. So says St. Jerome. Mystically, the fruits are men, whom the hook, that is, death, plucks; now this one, now that one, until it gathers all.
Verse 8. 'It shall rise up wholly as a river, and shall be cast out, and shall flow down as the river of Egypt,' as if to say: Just as the Nile overflowing fills all Egypt, and washes and sweeps it along into the sea into which it flows; so the Assyrians shall cover the land of Israel, and shall gather all its wealth and inhabitants into a mass, and carry them away with them into Assyria.
Chapter IX, 1. 'I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and He said (to the angel): Strike the hinge, and let the lintels be shaken.' Here God commands the angel that, by wrenching the hinge, he should overthrow the temple, on account of the avarice and crimes of the people.
Verses 11, 12, etc. 'In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David which has fallen, etc. That they may possess the remnants of Edom, and all the nations, etc., and the mountains shall drip sweetness, and all the hills shall be cultivated,' as if to say: I will restore the fallen kingdom of David through Christ, and I will cause Him through faith to possess Edom and all nations, with such an abundance and happiness of spiritual gifts that the mountains and hills shall seem to pour forth wine and honey. See Acts chapter XV, verse 16.
From Obadiah
Verse 18. 'The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble,' as if to say: The Jews and Israelites shall subdue the Edomites, as fire subdues stubble. Hence explaining he adds: 'And they shall kindle among them, and devour them.'
From Jonah
Chapter II, 1. 'And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.' 'So shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights,' Matthew XII, 40. After three days the fish 'vomited Jonah onto dry land,' verse 11. So Christ after three days rose again from the dead, alive and glorious.
Chapter IV, 6. 'And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonah, to be a shade over his head, etc., and Jonah was glad. And God prepared a worm, and it struck the ivy, and it withered, etc. And the sun beat upon the head of Jonah,' etc. Tropologically, God teaches that all human affairs and hopes are the shadow of an ivy, which the worm of adversity suddenly gnaws away, and then men are exposed to the
sun of anguish and tribulation strikes those lying exposed. He who is wise, therefore, should place his hopes and his affairs not in any creature, but in the Creator. He will provide a perpetual shade, He will be a constant and sure protector.
From Micah
Chapter IV, 1 and 2. 'And it shall be in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills: and peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall hasten, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for from Zion shall the law go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' This is a hieroglyphic of the Church, which Christ began in Zion. For this is the city set on a mountain, which all nations behold from afar, and to it they flock, that they may learn the law of God and of Christ, and according to it enter upon a Christian and holy life in peace, concord and the joy of the Holy Spirit. Hence he adds: 'And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into hoes: nation shall not lift sword against nation, and they shall learn war no more. And every man shall sit under his vine, and under his fig tree, and there shall be none to terrify them, etc.: and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion, from this time now and forever.'
Verse 8. 'And you, O tower of the flock, shrouded in mist (in Hebrew ophel, which was the highest tower near the temple, and therefore appeared dark to those looking at it), daughter of Zion, to you it shall come: and the first dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.' As if to say: You, O Zion, who with the towers of Ophel, of the flock, and other lofty ones are exalted, shrouded and fortified, you shall be happy and blessed. For to you first Christ shall come, He shall reign in you first, His first power and dominion shall be communicated to you by Him, namely the ancient and ancestral kingdom of David, who reigned in Zion and Jerusalem; He as his son and heir shall take it up, and restore it, and make it most strong, not temporal but spiritual, and shall assign it to you. For the Church which began in Zion, as the queen of King Christ, rules over all Christians dispersed throughout the whole world. Hence he adds in verse 13: 'Arise and thresh (your unfaithful enemies, and subdue them to yourself), daughter of Zion: for I will make your horn iron, and your hooves I will make bronze, and you shall crush many peoples, and you shall devote (in Hebrew hacharamti, that is, you shall consecrate as things accursed) their spoils to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth.'
Chapter V, 2. 'And you Bethlehem (situated in the region of) Ephrathah (that is, fruitful and fertile), you are little among the thousands of Judah: from you shall go forth to Me (Christ) who shall be ruler in Israel: and His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.' The twofold going forth of Christ is a symbol of Christ's twofold nativity. The former was in heaven, eternal, in which Christ was begotten by the Father alone, and was without beginning. The latter is tem-
poral, in which Christ was born in Bethlehem from the Virgin Mother of God, and was without beginning.
From Habakkuk
Chapter III, 4. 'Horns are in His hands,' as if to say: 'His hands,' that is, the power, operation and vengeance of God, are horned, that is, strong, sharp and penetrating. Mystically, the horns are the corners and nails in the hands of the crucified Christ. For 'there is hidden (His divinity and) His strength.' Hence as if in triumph, 'before His face death shall go, and the devil shall go forth before His feet, etc. The hills (that is, the kings and princes) of the world have bowed down from the paths of His eternity.' For in whatever place Christ's eternity and eternal Majesty, going about the world and evangelizing through the Apostles, set His foot, it subjugated that place and its princes to Himself and to His faith and worship.
From Zephaniah
Chapter III, 1. 'Woe to the provoking and redeemed city, the dove.' The dove is a symbol of foolishness: because when its young are taken from the nest, it nevertheless returns to it, as if to say: Woe to Jerusalem, which is foolish and senseless as a dove: for although it has been redeemed and freed by Me from Egypt, and often at other times, yet it forgets Me, goes after idols, and so provokes Me to anger.
Verse 8. 'In the fire of My zeal all the earth shall be devoured.' This fire of zeal appeared at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit sat upon the Apostles in tongues, through whom He consumed and devoured all the land of the Gentiles and of paganism. 'For then I will restore to the peoples a chosen lip, that all may call upon the name of the Lord, and serve Him with one shoulder.' The chosen lip is the faithful and Christian tongue, with which all nations converted by the Apostles call upon the name of the Lord, and serve Him with one shoulder, that is, unanimously, with the utmost concord and charity. Hence concerning them he adds:
Verse 17. 'The Lord your God in your midst is mighty, He Himself will save: He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will be silent in His love,' that is, in His love for you He will silently and joyfully rest, 'He will exult over you with praise,' praising your faith, constancy, patience, martyrdom, etc.
Verse 18. 'The triflers, who had departed from the law, I will gather.' He calls triflers the frivolous, fickle and worthless Jews, who had departed from the law, whom Christ gathered and united into Zion, that is, into His Church.
From Haggai
Chapter II, 7 and 8. 'Yet one little while, and I will move the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will move all nations, and the Desired of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory.' The Desired One is the Messiah, who was the glory of the second temple, when He adorned it with His presence, His teaching and His miracles. Heaven and earth were moved, when they produced stupendous prodigies at His birth and death, by which they, as it were, cried out that they were amazed at this self-emptying and condescension of their Creator, and provoked men to similar amazement, gratitude, love and praise of God. Hence explaining he adds: 'Great shall be the glory of this last house,' that is, of the temple of Zerubbabel, 'more than the first,' namely the temple of Solomon.
Verse 24. 'In that day, says the Lord of hosts: I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, My servant, says the Lord: and I will make you as a signet ring, because I have chosen you.' A signet ring, that is, a seal or signing ring, because this seals and guards all things, and gives authority to royal letters and edicts: hence it is at the king's hand, and is placed on his finger: thus it is a symbol of love, faithfulness, authority, honor, and excellence, which God conferred on Zerubbabel, when He caused Christ to be born from his line, whom He appointed as His Legate, King, Teacher, Prophet, Pontiff, Redeemer in the world, to promulgate and actually confer the evangelical law, the salvation and reconciliation decreed by God, upon all who believe in Him: 'For the Father, God, has sealed Him,' John VI, 27.
From Zechariah
Chapter I, 8. 'Behold, a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees which were in the deep place (in a valley, for example, on the bank of the Euphrates, near which Babylon lies): and after him red, dappled, and white horses.' This man was St. Michael, guardian of the Synagogue: he sits upon a red horse, as an avenger, about to shed the blood of the enemies of God's people: he stands among the myrtle trees, that is, among the Prophets and pious Jews, who had been plunged into the depths of captivity and afflictions in Babylon. Red horses and riders follow him, that is, the angels presiding over the nations which had persecuted the Jews: and white, that is, the angels presiding over nations well-disposed to the Jews: and dappled, that is, the angels presiding over nations of varying disposition, so that now they were friendly to the Jews, now hostile. All these, having surveyed the regions committed to them, say that all nations dwell in peace. Wherefore Michael prays that the same may be granted to the Jews: 'How long,' he says, 'will You not have mercy on Jerusalem? This is already the seventieth year' of the desolation of the city and the temple.
Verses 18, 20 and 21. 'Behold, four horns, etc. And the Lord showed me four craftsmen, etc. These are the horns which scattered Judah, every man, and none of them lifted his head: and these came to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up a horn against the land of Judah.' The four horns are the four nations dwelling at the four regions of the world, which harassed the Jews, namely to the east the Ammonites, to the west the Phil-
istines, to the south the Edomites, to the north the Assyrians and Chaldeans. Furthermore, the four craftsmen are the four guardian angels of the faithful, who struck these nations and their terrors, and having struck them, overthrew them.
Chapter II, 5. 'I will be to it (Jerusalem, and even more to the Church), says the Lord, a wall of fire round about.' As if to say: Like a wall of fire I will encircle and protect the Church, so that no enemy may invade it: just as the Cherub with a flaming sword guards paradise, Genesis III. Hence he adds: 'And in glory I will be in the midst of it,' as if to say: Inwardly I will be a consolation and glory to the citizens: but outwardly to enemies, like a wall of fire I will be a terror and a devastation.
Verse 8. 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: After the glory He sent Me to the nations.' This is the voice of Christ, as if to say: Formerly I, the Son of God, showed My glory in Jerusalem and to the Jews: now I am sent by the Father into the flesh, that I may show greater glory in the Church and among the Christian nations. 'For he who touches you, touches the pupil of My eye.'
Chapter III, 3. 'And Joshua the high priest, son of Jozadak, was clothed in filthy garments: and he stood before the face of the angel. Who answered and said to those who stood before him (the lesser angels), saying: Take away the filthy garments from him. And he said to him: Behold, I have taken away your iniquity from you, and I have clothed you with a change of garments,' as if to say: I have taken away your sins from you, and I restore to you the pontificate, and therefore instead of filthy garments I give you back the pontifical robe, so that henceforth you may restore My temple and worship, and exercise the pontificate therein. Allegorically, Joshua son of Jozadak represents Jesus Christ, made filthy by spitting and blows in His passion on account of our sins, but rising on the third day, and clothed with the robe of glory.
Verse 8. 'Hear, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who dwell before you, for they are men of portent,' in Hebrew, men of wonder, as if to say: You, O Joshua, Zechariah, Haggai, etc., are Prophets, and by both words and deeds you portend Christ, and His Church. Hence he adds: 'For behold, I will bring My servant the Orient,' in Hebrew tsemach, that is, the branch rising from the Virgin and the root of Jesse, namely Christ.
Verse 9. 'For behold, the stone which I have laid before Joshua: upon one stone there are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the engraving thereof, says the Lord.' This cornerstone and foundation stone of the temple, that is, of the Church, is Christ. His seven eyes are the seven chief angels, protectors of the Church: the engravings are the wounds and stigmata cut into Christ in His passion, through which He took away the iniquity of the earth, as follows.
Chapter IV, 2 and 3. 'And I looked, and behold, a lampstand all of gold: and its lamp upon its top, and seven lights thereof upon it; and seven channels for the lights which were upon its top. And two olive trees above,' that is, beside, 'it: one at the right of the lamp, and one at its left.' The lampstand represents the most luminous providence of God, by which it was to come about that the material lampstand, that is, the temple, would soon be rebuilt by the Jews. The lamp is the divinity itself and the divine mind that sees all things. The seven lights burning like eyes are the seven chief angels, ministers and executors of divine providence, especially in this construction of the temple. For so the angel explains them in verse 10, saying: 'These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which run throughout the whole earth.' The seven channels, that is, hollow tubes like pipes and conduits, through which oil was derived and flowed from the lamp into the seven lights, each resting on its own tube, signify the various means, modes and influences of divine providence, which He communicates to His seven angelic ministers, that they may carry them out. The two olive trees are Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor, who stand beside the lampstand representing God and God's providence, to carry it out, and to rebuild the temple, and to restore the Church as well as the commonwealth of the Jews. For so the angel explains in the last verse saying: 'These are the two sons of oil, who stand before the Lord of the whole earth.'
Allegorically, the lampstand is the Church, the lamp is Christ, the oil is the blood, merits and grace of Christ. For Christ pours these through the seven Sacraments, as through channels, into the seven lights, that is, into all the faithful and all the Churches. The two olive trees are Saints Peter and Paul, who attend upon Christ as chief officers in founding and adorning the Church. Likewise Elijah and Enoch at the end of the world, who will convert the Jews and all nations to Christ; and so they will put the consummation and crown upon the Church, both militant and triumphant.
Verse 7. 'Who are you, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Be made plain,' as if to say: Who are you, O powerful and proud Sanballat, to resist Zerubbabel in the building of the temple? Be leveled, bring down your power and pride. For you will not prevail to hinder Zerubbabel, who relies on God, from completing the temple. Mystically: Who are you, O powerful and proud Satan, to resist the son of Zerubbabel, that is, Christ and the Christians, in raising up and propagating the Church? Be leveled: for they will trample you, and, despite your opposition, will bring the building of the Church to completion.
'And he shall bring forth the headstone,' which shall stand out at the pinnacle. Literally, Zerubbabel shall place the crown upon the temple and complete it. 'And he shall equal grace to its grace,' as if to say: Zerubbabel shall cause the grace of the temple's completion to be commensurate with the grace of its beginning, and to correspond as it were equally. Hence explaining he adds: 'The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall finish it.'
Verse 10. 'For who has despised the day of small things?' He calls those days small, in which the small and humble foundations of the temple were being laid by the poor Jews, which nevertheless did not seem able to be brought to completion, much less to equal the magnificence of the former temple built by Solomon.
'And they shall rejoice, and shall see the tin stone in the hand of Zerubbabel,' as if to say: They shall soon see Zerubbabel measuring and completing the construction of the temple with a plumb line, and then they shall rejoice as on a great and wonderful day. For the tin stone is that which holds the plumb line taut, so that the structure may be measured and rise straight and level.
Chapter V, 2. 'I see a flying scroll: its length is twenty cubits, and its breadth ten cubits.' This scroll contained the thefts, perjuries and crimes of the wicked, as well as the punishments due and threatening each one according to the measure of their crimes: hence it flies and swoops in every direction upon thieves, perjurers, etc., especially those who were sacrilegiously converting to their own use the resources given by Darius and others for the building of the temple. Wherefore it was seen going forth from the temple, or flying around it: hence in its dimensions it was equal to it. For the tabernacle of Moses, which was like a temple, was twenty cubits long and ten wide; this scroll was equally long and wide. So Zechariah explains when he adds: 'This is the curse which goes forth over the face of the whole land: for every thief, as it is written there, shall be judged; and everyone who swears, shall likewise be judged from this.'
Verses 6, 7, 8, etc. 'This is the amphora going forth. And he said: This is their eye in all the land. And behold, a talent of lead was carried, and behold, a woman sitting in the midst of the amphora. And he said: This is wickedness. And he cast her into the midst of the amphora, and threw the mass of lead into its mouth. And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold, two women going forth, and the wind was in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a kite; and they lifted up the amphora between earth and heaven. And I said to the angel who spoke to me: Where are they carrying the amphora? And he said to me: That a house may be built for it in the land of Shinar, and it may be established, and set there upon its own base.' The amphora is the measure of sins, which when filled, God punishes and avenges. The eye of all the wicked looks toward it: because the wicked look at nothing but their pleasures and crimes, and so they gradually fill it up, and when it is filled, it is covered over with a talent of lead; by which is signified the heavy vengeance and sentence of God, which equalizes and encloses wickedness within the amphora, that is, the measure of punishments equal to the offenses, so that it cannot escape. The wickedness is idolatry and other crimes. The two women are Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan, who like winged kites, most swiftly and rapaciously transferred the wickedness with its amphora, namely the wicked Jews who had already filled up the measure of their crimes, to Babylon, so that there, as in its own seat and kingdom, wickedness might dwell, both as to guilt and as to punishment. See what is said on Zechariah, chapter V.
Chapter VI, 1. 'And behold, four chariots going forth from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of bronze.' The four chariots are the four monarchies, of which one continuously succeeded another: these came forth from the two mountains, that is, from the loftiness and hidden depth of divine counsel and providence, whose two parts are, as it were, two mountains, namely wisdom and power, or predestination and execution, each strong and effectual as bronze, so that no one was able or can resist them.
Verses 2 and 3. 'In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses, and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot dappled and strong horses.' The red horses signify the first monarchy of the Chaldeans, who were clad in red garments, that is, purple and scarlet; for they were red, that is, cruel and bloodthirsty, especially toward the Jews. The black signify the second monarchy of the Persians: blackness represents the fear and horror which they struck into the Jews under Cambyses, and under Ahasuerus the husband of Esther through the plots of Haman. The white signify the Greeks, who went about in white garments, says Cyril, and who were clement and kind to the Jews. The dappled signify the Romans, whose government was varied, now monarchical, now aristocratic, now democratic.
Verse 6. 'The black horses went forth into the land of the North,' as if to say: The Persians attacked and devastated impious Babylon. Hence concerning them he adds, verse 8: 'Those who go forth into the land of the North, have caused My spirit (the Septuagint says, My fury) to rest in the land of the North,' namely in Babylon, which is to the north of Judea.
'And the white went forth after them.' Because Alexander and the Greeks succeeded the Persians, and routed them along with their king Darius near Babylon. 'And the dappled went forth to the land of the South,' as if to say: Augustus and the Romans invaded Egypt, which lies to the south of Judea, and having defeated Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium (who was the last queen of Egypt from the Greeks, namely the Ptolemies), subjugated it, and in this way, having completely extinguished the Greeks, transferred their monarchy to themselves.
Verse 11. 'You shall take gold and silver, and make two crowns,' one pontifical, the other princely; 'and place them on the head of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest,' to signify that henceforth the high priests would be the leaders and princes of the Jews: and even more, that allegorically Joshua son of Jozadak, that is, of the justice of God, represents that Jesus Christ would be the supreme Pontiff of the world, as well as its King. Hence concerning Him he adds: 'Behold a man, the Orient (in Chaldean, the Messiah) is His name: and under Him there shall arise,' a multitude of the faithful and saints. 'And He shall build the temple,' that is, the Church both militant and triumphant, 'to the Lord: and He shall bear the glory,' etc., rising gloriously, and ascending in triumph into
heaven, and there sitting at the right hand of the Father, as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Chapter VIII, 3. 'And I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the sanctified mountain.' Jerusalem is a type of the Church, which is the pillar and ground of truth, and the mountain of holiness, both of doctrine and of the divine life. Hence he adds:
Verse 7. 'Behold, I will save My people from the land of the East, and from the land of the setting sun.' This is what Christ says to the Jews about the nations: 'Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,' Matthew VIII, 11. Hence Zechariah also adds, verse 23: 'Ten men, that is, many, from all the languages of the nations shall take hold, and shall seize the hem of a Jewish man (that is, one who confesses God, and believes in Christ and preaches Him, namely an Apostle, or apostolic man) saying: We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.'
Verse 19. 'The fast of the fourth (month), and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah for joy, and gladness, and for splendid solemnities.' These were symbols of the fasting of the four seasons (Ember Days), which the Church practices, as St. Leo teaches. See what is said on Zechariah VIII, 19.
Chapter XI, 12 and 13. 'And I said to them: If it is good in your eyes, bring me my wages; and if not, be still. And they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the statuary, the handsome price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver: and I cast them into the house of the Lord, to the statuary.' Zechariah by this symbolic action of his, through a vision presented and formed in his mind by God, as it seems, represented the selling of Christ, by which Judas sold Him for thirty pieces of silver; which he therefore calls by irony a handsome, that is, a vile and infamous price. Hence at God's command he cast it into the temple, so that with it the statuary, that is, the potter, might buy a field for the burial of strangers, Matthew XXVII, 3.
Chapter XIII, 4. 'In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the washing of the sinner and of the unclean woman.' This fountain is Christ pierced on the cross with lance and nails, from whom sprang forth Baptism, the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, and all grace: by which the sinner is washed, and the unclean woman, that is, the female sinner. For sin is a menstrual flow, that is, the filth and poison of the soul. Hence explaining this fountain he adds:
Verse 6. 'And it shall be said to Him: What are these wounds in the midst of Your hands? And He shall say: With these I was wounded in the house of those (namely in Judea and Jerusalem) who loved Me,' as if to say: These wounds were inflicted upon Me by My fellow citizens and kinsmen, namely the Jews, who were a people that worshipped and loved God, and consequently Me. For I am God, and the Son of God.
Verse 7. 'Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man who cleaves to Me, says the Lord of hosts.' This is the voice of God the Father, by which He signifies that by His decree Christ must be killed, as if to say: I command you, O sword, O blade (under which understand nails, lance, scourges, and all the instru-
ments of death, understand by synecdoche), that you may strike and kill Christ, who is the man who cleaves to Me, and the shepherd whom I gave to My faithful, so that they may be redeemed by His death. 'Strike therefore the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.'
Chapter XIV, 4. 'And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem to the east: and the Mount of Olives shall be split through the middle from east to west by a very great precipice; and half shall be separated to the north, and half to the south.' This is a symbol of Christ ascending into heaven from the Mount of Olives, and from there sending the Apostles to the four regions of the world. Anagogically, when Christ sits there for judgment, the entire mountain shall be split open, to swallow up the wicked, as well as the Antichrist, and send them to hell.
Verses 6 and 7. 'And it shall be in that day: There shall be no light, but cold and frost. And it shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day, nor night, and at the time of evening there shall be light.' Literally, this day was the time of the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, in which for the afflicted Jews the day seemed not to be day, but night. But at evening, that is, at the end of the persecution, light succeeded, that is, joy and consolation, through the victories of Judas and the Maccabees. Anagogically, the day of judgment, which is known to God alone, will be so terrible that at that time the sun shall be darkened, and the stars shall fall from heaven: but at evening, that is, at its end, the light of blessedness and eternal glory shall succeed for the Saints.
Verse 8. 'And it shall be in that day: Living waters shall go forth from Jerusalem: half of them to the Eastern sea, and half of them to the Western sea: in summer and in winter they shall be.' He alludes to the springs of Gihon, which were to the west; and Kedron, and others which to the east encircled and adorned Jerusalem. By these he means the Maccabees, who by their battles and victories, like springs of living water, brought consolation, joy, and abundance of things to the Jews. Parabolically, the Apostles are signified, who going forth from Jerusalem into the whole world, poured forth the waters of grace and of the Gospel teaching. Anagogically, the joys of the Blessed are signified, flowing as if from a fountain from the vision of God. Hence alluding to this, St. John, Apocalypse XXII, 1, in his description of the heavenly Jerusalem: 'And he showed me,' he says, 'a river of water, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God, and of the Lamb,' etc.
Verse 16. 'And all who remain from all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.' This was fulfilled in a small measure by the Maccabees, who compelled the Edomites, Philistines and other neighboring nations to adopt the Jewish sacred rites and celebrate their feasts. It was fully fulfilled by the Apostles, who converted all nations and led them to celebrate the Christian feasts, foreshadowed by the Jewish ones; and especially to mystically observe the feast of tabernacles, namely to dwell in this world as pilgrims, as in a tent; and with faith, hope and charity to continually strive toward the heavenly homeland.
Verse 20. 'In that day, that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord,' as if to say: The Maccabees shall consecrate the trappings of horses and other spoils of enemies to God, as the author of their victory. The same shall be done with their spoils and riches by princes, kings and emperors converted to Christ: of whom the first was Constantine, who literally placed the holy nail with which Christ was crucified upon the bridle of his horse, both to show his faith and piety toward Christ, and so that, fortified by its help in battles, he might win victory.
'And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar,' as if to say: On account of the victories of the Maccabees, many shall flock to sacrifice to God: hence they shall bring very many pots for cooking the flesh of victims, which they shall then leave in the temple and consecrate to God: thus there shall be as many sanctified pots as there are bowls; and the pots shall as it were pass over into the splendor and sanctity of the bowls. Mystically, the pots are the hearts of the faithful, in which by the fire of charity whatever is carnal is refined, so that they become holy like the incense which is in the bowls, continually exhaling the fragrance of prayer and praise to God. Hence of St. Magdalene the Church sings:
From a pot a bowl is made,
Transferred into a vessel of glory,
From a vessel of disgrace.
As if to say: Previously she was a pot of concupiscence, then she became a bowl of continence and penance.
From Malachi
Chapter I, 11. 'For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, great is My name among the nations: and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation.' In Hebrew mincha, that is, a grain offering, namely of flour and bread, Leviticus II, which was a type of the Eucharist, which is here literally signified, and it is predicted that in the new law it would be not only a sacrament, but also a sacrifice.
Chapter III, 1. 'Behold, I send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before My face. And presently the lord whom you seek shall come to his temple, and the angel of the covenant whom you desire.' Here Malachi foretells two angels, one common and prior, who would be the precursor of the latter. This is St. John the Baptist, who was an angel, that is, an envoy, of Christ; and this before His face, that is, in His presence: because he showed Christ present to the people, and pointed Him out with his finger. The other angel of the covenant, namely Christ, who was an angel, that is, an envoy, of the Father to establish a new covenant, that is, a pact between God and men. He, after John's preaching, and especially after his imprisonment, came to the temple, and there preached and performed miracles, by which He pro-
ved Himself to be the angel of the covenant, namely the Messiah. Hence concerning Him it follows: 'Behold He comes, says the Lord of hosts. And who shall be able to think of the day of His coming? And who shall stand to see Him?' As if to say: Behold, I Malachi from afar in the spirit see Him coming. And who can comprehend, indeed who can weigh, ponder and penetrate, as the dignity deserves, the condescension, the charity, the power, the wisdom, the majesty, the glory of His coming in the flesh? Who indeed can stand before such majesty? Who can gaze at such light with unflinching eyes? Who among impure men can stand unharmed before such purity, indeed before a fire that refines and purifies?
Verse 2. 'For He is like a refining fire and like fullers' herb,' as if to say: Christ like fire will refine, and like the soapwort herb with which fullers cleanse cloth, He will purify from all sin and uncleanness His faithful, especially the priests.
Verse 3. 'And He shall sit refining and cleansing silver, and He shall purge the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold and as silver, and they shall offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice,' as if to say: Christ like a goldsmith shall refine His priests with divine fire, so that they may shine like silver and gleam like gold, and thus offer just and holy sacrifices to God. For the Aaronic priests were earthly, but the Christian ones are of silver and gold.
Enigmas from Hosea
Chapter I, 10 and 11. 'And it shall be in the place where it shall be said (was said) to them: You are not My people; it shall be said to them: Sons of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together. And they shall appoint for themselves one head, and shall go up from the land.' This is an enigma of the calling of the Jews and the Gentiles to faith and salvation through Christ. For these were previously not the people of God, but through faith in Christ they became the people of God, and children of God, and true Israelites, when namely they set over themselves one head, Christ, and with Him began to ascend in mind and manner of life from earth to heaven.
'For great is the day of Jezreel,' as if to say: Most celebrated and most happy shall be that day, on which Jezreel, that is, the seed and children of God previously scattered, shall be gathered through Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, into one Church, now militant, hereafter to triumph in heaven.
Chapter II, 15. 'I will give the valley of Achor (that is, of trouble) as an opening of hope,' as if to say: Trouble and despair shall be the occasion and beginning of hope: where all seemed lost and hopeless, there shall shine forth the hope of salvation. For God is wont to be most present in tight and extreme difficulties, and to open a way for His people to escape.
Verses 21 and 22. 'I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth. And the earth shall hear the wheat, and the wine, and the oil: and these shall hear Jezreel,' as if to say: I will give the heavens rain, which they silently seek, so that they may communicate it to the earth, which being fertilized by it will produce wheat, wine and oil, to nourish Jezreel, that is, the people of God: for Jezreel seeks wheat, etc., the wheat seeks fertile earth, the fertile earth seeks rain from heaven. God satisfies the prayers of all these, when He causes the heaven to rain upon the earth, and from it to produce crops, to nourish Jezreel.
Chapter V, 1. 'You have become a snare to the watchpost, and a net spread upon Tabor.' He calls the watchpost the people to be watched over, or committed to the watching and keeping of the priests and leaders, as if to say: It was your duty to watch, to forewarn, and so to avert dangers from the people: but instead of a watchpost you have become a snare to them, because by word and example you have entangled and ensnared them with idols, and thus into
Israel has thrown off the yoke of God and the law: it wants to be free, and to live for itself as it pleases, like a wild and solitary donkey. You have driven them to ruin and destruction: just as hunters catch and ensnare wild beasts and birds on Mount Tabor.
Chapter IX, 8. 'The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: the Prophet has become a snare of ruin,' as if to say: The Prophet who should have been the watchman of the people, and should have dwelt with God, and spoken from His mouth, has become a snare of ruin to the people: because with his false oracles and doctrines he led the people to destruction and ruin.
Verse 14. 'Give them, O Lord. What will You give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts,' as if to say: Inflict upon the Israelites a rare and sharp punishment, namely barrenness and childlessness, so that either they may not conceive children, or if they conceive, they may be unable to nurse and raise them, and this because they were proud of their children, and sacrilegiously abused them by sacrificing them to Moloch.
Verse 7. 'The month shall devour them;' Aquila translates neomenia, that is, the new moon, namely a new king, a new empire, which under the moon, with the moon, and like the moon change and are renewed.
Chapter VI, 3. 'He will revive us after two days, on the third day He will raise us up.' Literally, the first day is that of the Assyrian captivity; the second, of the Babylonian; the third, of redemption and liberty through Cyrus, and much more through Christ. Allegorically, the first day was that of the passion of Christ, the second of His burial, the third of His resurrection, on which Christ raised up Himself, and us in Himself, from death to life. Tropologically, as if to say: God quickly revives the penitent with His grace; and quickly consoles and frees the one who is patient in tribulation.
Verse 5. 'Therefore I have hewn them by the Prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth,' as if to say: The Jews were hard as marble: therefore I strove to hew and chisel them through the Prophets, constantly hammering and striking them, now threatening, now cajoling, to such an extent that I wearied and almost killed the Prophets with so many oracles, words and sermons; but in vain: for I blunted my chisels, and nearly killed my Prophets; but they remain marble, and refuse to be carved and chiseled.
Chapter VII, 8. 'Ephraim has become a cake baked under ashes, that is not turned over,' that is not flipped, and therefore is burned by the fire, as if to say: Israel, like a cake baked under ashes, remains in its ashes and filth of idolatry, and does not turn away from them to return to God through repentance: wherefore it will gradually be burned and consumed by Assyrian fire. Hence he adds: 'Strangers have devoured his strength,' that is, the Assyrians have plundered and devoured his crops and riches: 'and he did not know it,' he himself did not notice that he was being consumed and heading toward ruin.
Chapter VII, 7. 'They shall sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind,' as if to say: Just as he who sows the wind reaps a whirlwind, which is caused by wind cast and confined upon the earth: so those who sow idolatry, pride and other crimes will reap a whirlwind of calamities and afflictions, whose cause is idolatry, pride, etc. Hence explaining the same by a related proverb he adds: 'The stalk standing has no grain in it, the bud will not yield flour,' as if to say: Just as from wind that is sown there cannot grow a standing stalk, nor a sprout growing into grain that might make flour: so also from idolatry and pride nothing good can be born that might feed and sustain the worker; but rather every evil, which may torment and afflict him, and harass him with a thousand troubles and cares.
Verse 8. 'Israel has become among the nations as an unclean vessel,' namely a chamber pot, into which the Assyrians and other nations throw their filth: so says St. Jerome.
Verse 9. 'Israel is a wild donkey alone by itself,' as if to say:
From Joel
Chapter II, 20. 'Him who is from the North I will drive far from you.' Namely Nebuchadnezzar and Holofernes, who come from the northern region, that is, Chaldea and Assyria, I will turn away from Israel. Mystically, I will turn the devil away from the faithful. For he is the cold north wind, who by his coldness dries up all good things, and induces sloth and torpor in pious works.
From Amos
Chapter I, 3. 'For three crimes of Damascus, and for four I will not turn him back: because they have threshed Gilead with iron sledges,' as if to say: On account of three, that is, many, crimes of Damascus, but especially on account of the fourth, because namely it cruelly raged against the Israelites, namely the Gileadites, threshing them like wheat, I will not spare it; but I will rage against it in equal measure, and punish it severely.
Chapter VI, 13. 'Can horses run upon rocks, or can one plow with buffaloes, since you have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood?' As if to say: Horses and buffaloes follow the guidance of nature: hence they do nothing repugnant to nature, for example, that horses should run on rocks, or that untamed buffaloes should be mastered by the yoke and plow. But you, O Israelites, invert the natures of things; because you do things repugnant to nature: for you turn justice into injustice, virtue into vice, sweetness into bitterness.
Chapter IX, 6. 'He who builds His ascent in heaven,' that is, His throne, to which the saints ascend from earth; 'and His bundle upon the earth.' He calls the bundle the binding together of the three elements, air, water and earth. Mystically, God's bundle is the Church, bound and tied together by the faith, law and charity of God: the Church, I say, both mixed and militant, and elect and triumphant.
From Micah
Chapter I, 7. 'Because they were gathered from the hire of a harlot, and unto the hire of a harlot they shall return,' as if to say: Because Samaria gathered its wealth from idolatry (for this is spiritual harlotry), hence the same shall devolve to idolaters, namely to the plundering Assyrians.
Verse 15. 'I will yet bring an heir to you, O you who dwell in Mareshah.' It is sarcasm: for he calls the Assyrians heirs, who will devastate and inherit Mareshah and the other cities of Judea. Hence he adds: 'The glory of Israel shall come even to Adullam,' as if to say: The glory of Israel, driven out, as it were, by the Assyrians who will capture its cities, shall flee as far as Adullam, which is on the borders of Judea, and there shall fall and be extinguished, when the Assyrian captures Adullam. Therefore you, O Samaria, and you, O Judea, 'make yourself bald and shave (as a sign of extreme mourning) for the children of your delights (the Septuagint says, for your pampered children) enlarge your baldness like the eagle,' which growing old is depleted of feathers and made bald over its whole body: 'for they have been led away captive from you.'
Chapter VI, 10. 'Are there yet in the house of the wicked the treasures of iniquity, and a short measure full of wrath,' as if to say: Still the fire of covetousness, so often suppressed and extinguished by us Prophets, as if smothered, revives, burns anew and grows, namely the treasures acquired by iniquity, and the use of measures which are less than just, but full of the wrath of God: because what they lack in weight, God will supply and fill with His vengeance and the burden of punishment.
Enigmas FROM NAHUM, ZEPHANIAH AND ZECHARIAH.
From Nahum
Chapter I, 10. 'For as thorns embrace one another; so their banquet (that is, the assembly of banqueters, or the banqueters) drinking together: they shall be consumed as stubble full of dryness.' As if to say: The feasting and carousing Assyrians, who at their symposia, like a crown woven and intertwined from thorns, join themselves to one another in a circle while they crown their tables and wines; these, I say, by the angel and by the Medes, shall be burned and consumed as the driest stubble.
Chapter III, 16. 'You have multiplied your merchandising more than the stars of heaven; the palmerworm has spread and flown away,' as if to say: Just as the palmerworm when the sun warms it spreads its wings and flies away; so your merchandise and wealth, O Nineveh, which rival the stars in number, when the Chaldean pursues you, shall fly away from you to him.
Verse 17. 'Your guardians are like locusts, and your little ones like young locusts, which settle on the hedges in the day of cold; the sun has risen, and they have flown away,' as if to say: Just as locusts both great and small, numbed by nocturnal cold, when aroused and warmed by the rays of the sun fly away; so your leaders and soldiers, O Nineveh, who guarded you, when the Chaldean comes will flee.
From Zephaniah
Chapter I, 7. 'The Lord has prepared a victim, He has sanctified those He has called.' The victim, to be sacrificed for sin to divine vengeance, is impious Jerusalem. The priests who are to sacrifice it are the Chaldeans, whom God called and 'sanctified' for this purpose, that is, He authorized, designated, and as it were consecrated them as ministers and executors of His justice and His sentence.
Verse 12. 'I will search Jerusalem with lamps,' as if to say: I will search out the Jews hiding in caves, through the Chaldeans, who will track them down everywhere, to kill or capture them. Hence he adds: 'And I will visit (by punishing) the men who are settled on their lees,' namely in their sins, as if to say: Just as wine that continually rests on its lees becomes warm, flat and tasteless; and therefore is drawn off by the wine merchant, and transferred into another vessel; so the Jews, dwelling in Judea in idleness and abundance, become wanton and luxurious, they rot and stink; wherefore I will transfer them from there to Babylon.
Verses 15 and 16. 'A day of wrath, that day, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and whirlwind, a day of trumpet and clamor.' This day literally is the day of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. Allegorically it is the day of death and the day of judgment. Hence concerning it he adds: 'In the fire of His zeal all the earth shall be devoured, because He shall make a speedy end of all the inhabitants of the earth.' For God the judge and avenger, as one zealous, driven by the zeal of His justice, honor and love, to avenge the injuries inflicted upon Him, will severely punish the Jews and the faithful who, like brides beloved by Him, having spurned Him, have committed adultery with creatures.
From Zechariah
Chapter X, 4. 'Out of him (Judah) the cornerstone, out of him the peg, out of him the battle bow, out of him every exactor shall go forth together.' These are four enigmas of the prince, namely the Maccabees, and mystically the Apostles. For a prince, first, is the cornerstone of the republic, inasmuch as he binds, holds together and strengthens all its sides; second, he is like a peg, because from him the fortunes, affairs and hopes of all subjects hang, as from a peg; third, he is like a bow, striking down and routing the enemies of the republic; fourth, he is an exactor, that is, a conqueror who imposes laws, rights and tributes upon the conquered.
Chapter XI, 1. 'Open your gates, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars,' as if to say: Open, O Jerusalem, your gates to Titus and the Romans, who will burn your cedar houses. For Lebanon is an enigma of Jerusalem and the temple, both because they were constructed from the cedars and pines of Lebanon; and because as Lebanon abounded in trees, so Jerusalem abounded in peoples.
Verse 2. 'Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar has fallen.' Howl, you common people, for the great ones have fallen, who protected you; when they fall, therefore, you too shall fall. Hence explaining he adds: 'For the mighty have been devastated.'
Verse 7. 'And I took for myself two staffs, one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bonds: and I fed the flock.' Two pastoral staffs, or the twofold
staff signifies the twofold governance of God. For first He ruled by a covenant of love, with a scepter as it were of beauty, through promises and benefits, and gave them benevolent and beneficent princes and pontiffs; such as were before Zechariah: Moses, Joshua, David, etc., and after him the Maccabees, and above all Christ. But because the Jews kicked against these, He broke the scepter of beauty and took up the scepter of bonds, with which He began to rule them by terrors, threats, chains and scourges, especially after Christ, and finally utterly rejected them, and delivered them to be devastated by Titus and the Romans, as Zechariah teaches in what follows.
Verse 15. 'And the Lord said to me: Take to yourself yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd,' that is, of a wicked one, who neglects the flock, indeed plunders it, to feed and enrich himself alone. His instruments, that is, his tools, are a knife or cleaver for slaughtering the sheep: a club for breaking their legs; a noose for strangling them; a harp, which he may play while neglecting the sheep, to amuse himself. Hence he adds:
Verse 17. 'O shepherd and idol, who abandons the flock,' as if to say: You, O foolish and wicked shepherd, are not a shepherd, but a shadow and idol of a shepherd. You have the name and the staff, but the care and watchfulness of a shepherd you do not have. Such were Jason and Menelaus in the time of the Maccabees, and Annas, Caiaphas and the scribes in the time of Christ. Such will be the Antichrist at the end of the world, who will want to be worshipped as an idol and a god.
Chapter XII, 2. 'Behold, I will make Jerusalem a lintel of drunkenness to all the peoples round about.' He alludes to the profanation of the temple made under Antiochus, to such an extent that they gave themselves over to feasting and fornication in it, as is clear from II Maccabees VI. Wherefore the temple was no longer a temple, but a tavern, a house of debauchery and a house of drunkenness, so that upon its lintel, in place of an inscription, a cup, as the sign of a drinking house,
and drunkenness could have been displayed, and was perhaps actually displayed, as if to say: By a gross and monstrous mockery they had made of the house of God a house of drunkenness; I will cause all the drunkards to stumble into it, and to be slaughtered by the Maccabees, and to be drunk no longer with wine, but with their own blood; I will offer them the cup of trembling, of stupor and of sleep (for all these things the Hebrew raal signifies), so that lulled to sleep by it they may sleep an eternal sleep.
Verse 3. 'I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden for all peoples; all who shall lift it shall be torn by gashing.' He alludes to the Gentile wrestling arena, which the impious Jason introduced into Jerusalem, in which they competed with the discus, that is, a mass of lead or stone, to see who could lift it higher and throw it farther, by which the hands of the lifters were often lacerated, indeed the lifters themselves were sometimes crushed, as if to say: The Greeks strive to hurl the Jews, like a discus and a burden-stone, from Judea to Greece; but I will cause them to be butchered and crushed by the same through the Maccabees.
From Malachi
Chapter IV, 2. 'The Sun of justice shall rise upon you who fear My name, and healing in His wings; and you shall go forth, and shall leap as calves of the herd.' He alludes to the enigma of the phoenix; for these are its wings. For the phoenix is a solar bird, because it is a symbol of the sun, as if to say: Christ risen from death shall rise upon you, O righteous ones, like a phoenix, that is, like a sun of justice rising after its setting, who with His rays, like outstretched wings, shining upon you, will raise you from death, and endow you with the glory of blessedness, with the gift of agility, so that vigorous, joyful and fervent, you may leap forth, as calves leap that are well-fed and fattened.
Chapter IV, 1. 'Behold, the day shall come, kindled as a furnace: and all the proud, and all who do wickedness shall be stubble: and the coming day shall set them on fire, says the Lord of hosts, which shall leave them neither root nor branch.' This day is the day of judgment, 'kindled' with fire, both of the conflagration of the world, and of hell, and of the sharp examination and divine judgment, in which the wicked with all their glory, riches, pleasures and pomp shall be utterly cut off, and shall burn as stubble, of which no root remains, nor shoot; yet so that they themselves shall always endure unharmed in the fire, for continual and eternal punishment.
Verses 5 and 6. 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers: lest I come and strike the earth with anathema.' Hence it is clear that Elijah the Tishbite, as the Septuagint has it, will come with Enoch before the day of judgment, to convert the Jews. Elijah therefore will bring back the heart, that is, the mind, faith and devotion of the fathers toward the coming Christ, and will impress it upon the children, so that the heart, that is, the mind, faith and devotion of the children toward Christ now present, may imitate and follow the heart, that is, the mind, faith and hope of the fathers; lest Christ, coming for judgment, destroy the inhabitants of the earth, attached to earthly goods, with anathema, that is, complete destruction and extermination; but may save and bless those who believe in Him.
Adages. From Hosea
Chapter II, 6. 'I will hedge up your way with thorns,' that is, I will prevent you from running to your lovers, namely to your idols.
Verse 9. 'I will take back My wool and My linen.' I will take away from you your woolen and linen garments, which you abuse for the worship of idols. It signifies that creatures serve impiety unwillingly, and therefore are as it were held captive by the impious, because they were created and destined for this end, that they might serve the pious in the worship of God. From this captivity God frees them, when He takes them from the impious, and transfers them to pious persons or uses.
Verse 13. 'I will visit upon her the days of the Baals.' I will punish her for the worship of Baal.
Verse 14. 'I will allure her, and lead her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart.' I will entice her away from her lovers, and I will deal alone with her alone, and will speak lovingly to her.
Verse 19. 'I will betroth you to Me forever; and I will betroth you to Me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and compassion.' I will take you again as My bride with the greatest mercy, and likewise with justice, by which I will protect you, and I will overthrow your enemies.
Chapter III, 1. 'They love the husks of grapes.' The sinner, having abandoned the fat and full grape, that is, the true and highest good, loves the husks, that is, the empty skins of dried grapes, namely painted and feigned goods, false pleasures, false honors, false riches, false joys.
Chapter IV, 2. 'Blood has touched blood.' Slaughters are added to slaughters, sins are heaped upon sins.
Verse 11. 'Fornication and wine and drunkenness take away the heart,' that is, they take away reason, judgment, the mind, the spirit, and they derange and befool a person.
Verse 13. 'If you commit fornication, Israel, let not Judah at least offend,' O you who have God's temple, and are as it were dedicated and intimate to God. 'For Israel has turned aside like a wanton heifer.' Let Israel be wanton like a heifer, but let Judah stand firm in God's law like a lion.
Chapter V, 3. 'I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me,' as if to say: I am the knower of hearts, and therefore I see the Israelites' innermost thoughts, desires and inclinations toward fornication and idolatry. Hence it follows: 'For now Ephraim has committed fornication, Israel is defiled: for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them.'
Verse 5. 'The arrogance of Israel shall answer in his face,' as if to say: The arrogant pride of Israel and contempt of God shall be laid low and punished by a public disaster; and this humiliation and punishment will reveal his crimes; and to him asking: Why am I punished so? it will answer to his face not with words, but with deeds and reality: Because you were so arrogant, as if to say: The punishment will answer the guilt; the punishment will expose the guilt and demonstrate it to the whole world. Hence it follows: 'And Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity.'
Verse 12. 'I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like rottenness (in Hebrew, a woodworm) to the house of Judah,' as if to say: As a moth with its soft and slow, but certain bite corrodes a garment, and a woodworm corrodes wood; so I will corrode and consume the Israelites and the Jews.
Verse 14. 'I am like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion's cub to the house of Judah,' as if to say: I will tear the Israelites apart like a lioness, and the Jews like a young lion.
Chapter VI, 6. 'I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than holocausts,' as if to say: I require internal piety, not external; actions, not ceremonies; sacrifices of the mind, not of the flesh; of the heart, not of the mouth.
Chapter VII, 4. 'All the adulterers are like an oven heated by the baker.' Just as the lust of committing adultery grows by committing it, and is more and more inflamed: so the lust of worshipping idols among the Israelites, by their very worship, grew more and was kindled like an oven heated by the baker; so that they seemed to rage and be mad for their idols.
Verse 11. 'Ephraim has become like a silly dove, having no understanding.' Just as a foolish dove allows its young to be taken from it, and returns to the same nest; and again, for the sake of food, gives itself into nets, and allows itself to be caught: so the foolish Israelites implore the help of the gods and the Assyrians, by whom they see themselves being gradually despoiled and devastated, and driven to destruction.
Verse 16. 'They have become like a treacherous bow.' Jehu and the Israelites, having overthrown Baal, seemed to direct their efforts toward establishing the worship of God, but behold, they sprang back to worshipping the calves of Jeroboam.
Chapter VIII, 4. 'They have reigned, but not from Me: they became princes, and I did not know,' as if to say: The kings of Israel made a schism from the house of David, and reigned in Israel not by My authority, but by the people rioting and revolting from Rehoboam. For I established one kingdom, namely Judah, not Israel; I am the author of one Synagogue and kingdom, not of two; for I hate division and schism, especially when it tends toward idolatry.
Chapter IX, 4. 'Their sacrifices shall be like the bread of mourners,' as if to say: The idolatrous Israelites, dwelling in captivity, offer and eat victims that are unclean and illegitimate, as well as mournful and funereal, like a funeral banquet.
Verse 10. 'They became abominable, like the things (the idols, and the harlots of Baal-Peor, that is, of the most obscene Priapus) which they loved.'
Chapter X, 12. 'Sow for yourselves in justice (in Hebrew, justice, that is, pious, just and holy works), and reap (that is, you shall surely reap) in the mouth of mercy.' In Hebrew, according to the mouth of mercy, namely of God. The mouth is a symbol of capacity and vastness, as if to say: You shall receive from God a most ample reward, grace and mercy, as great namely as befits the mouth, that is, the vastness of God's mercy.
'Break up therefore your fallow ground,' as if to say: Prepare your heart, having uprooted the thorns and tares of vices, as fallow ground, that is, as a new field for God, so that in it He may sow the abundant seeds of His grace and mercy.
Verse 13. 'You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity,' as if to say: Up to now you have plowed and sown the seeds and works of impiety, and therefore you have reaped the punishments owed to iniquity: 'And you have eaten the fruit of lying,' as if to say: You have eaten few and meager crops, and therefore lying and deceptive ones; because the hope of a great harvest, which they gave in the sprouting, they did not deliver at harvest time.
Chapter XI, 9. 'I am God and not man,' as if to say: Man is ruled by anger, I moderate and govern anger; man when offended breathes vengeance, I breathe mercy; the thoughts of man are natural, earthly and low; Mine are supernatural, heavenly and transcending all angelic understanding; man is inconstant and changeable, I am constant and unchangeable.
Verse 12. 'Ephraim has surrounded Me with denial, but Judah went down as a witness with God, and is faithful with the saints,' as if to say: When Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, denied the worship of God and worshipped golden calves, then Judah, that is, the two tribes, faithfully adhered to God, with the holy priests and other faithful, and as it were went down with God; for God, having been as it were despoiled of part of His kingdom and Church by Ephraim, seemed to descend and be diminished; yet in this descent and humiliation, Judah was His faithful companion and follower. Judah therefore proved his steadfast faith and friendship to God in this persecution and tribulation. For commonly what the Poet says holds true:
As long as you are fortunate, you will count many friends:
If times grow cloudy, you will be alone.
Enigmas From Malachi, Adages From Hosea
The staff signifies God's twofold governance. For first He ruled the Jews with love, with the staff as it were of beauty, through promises and benefits, and He gave them benevolent and beneficent princes and pontiffs; such as were before Zechariah: Moses, Joshua, David, etc., and after him the Maccabees, and above all Christ. But because the Jews rebelled against these things, He broke the staff of beauty and took up the staff of cords, by which He began to govern them with terrors, threats, bonds and scourges, especially after Christ, and at length He utterly cast them off and handed them over to be devastated by Titus and the Romans, as Zechariah teaches in what follows.
Verse 15. "And the Lord said to me: Take to yourself again the instruments of a foolish shepherd," that is, of a wicked one, who neglects the flock, nay plunders it, so as to feed and enrich himself alone. His instruments, that is tools, are a sword or knife for slaughtering the sheep; a staff for breaking their legs; a noose for strangling them; a harp which, with the sheep neglected, he plays for his own amusement. Whence he adds:
Verse 17. "O shepherd and idol, who abandons the flock," that is to say: You, O foolish and wicked shepherd, are not a shepherd but a shadow and idol of a shepherd. You have the name and the staff, but you do not have the care and vigilance of a shepherd. Such were Jason and Menelaus in the time of the Maccabees, and Annas, Caiaphas and the scribes in the time of Christ. Such will be the Antichrist at the end of the world, who will want to be worshipped as an idol and a god.
Chapter 12, 2. "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a lintel of drunkenness to all the peoples round about." He alludes to the profanation of the temple done under Antiochus, to such a degree that they gave themselves to banqueting and fornication in it, as is clear from 2 Maccabees 6. Therefore the temple was no longer a temple, but a tavern, a cookshop and a house of debauchery, so that on its lintel, in place of a title, a goblet could be displayed, as the sign of carousing and drunkenness, and perhaps actually was so displayed, that is to say: The Greeks and certain Jews from among those who had made God's house a house of debauchery; I will make all drunkards dash against it, and be slain by the Maccabees, and now be made drunk not with wine but with their own blood; I will serve them the cup of trembling, stupor and slumber (for the Hebrew raal signifies all these things), so that, lulled to sleep by it, they may sleep an eternal sleep.
Verse 3. "I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden for all peoples; all who lift it will be torn to pieces." He alludes to the Greek gymnasium which the impious Jason introduced in Jerusalem, in which they competed with the discus, that is, a mass of lead or stone, to see who could lift it higher and throw it farther — by which the hands of the lifters were often lacerated, indeed the lifters themselves were sometimes crushed — that is to say: The Greeks strive to hurl the Jews, as a discus and stone of burden, from Judea into Greece; but I will cause them to be butchered and crushed by the same through the Maccabees.
Chapter 4, 2. "But unto you who fear My name shall the Sun of justice arise, and healing in His wings; and you shall go forth and leap like calves of the herd." He alludes to the riddle of the phoenix; for these are its wings. For the phoenix is a solar bird, since it is a symbol of the sun, that is to say: Christ, risen from the dead, shall arise for you, O just ones, like a phoenix, that is, like a sun of justice rising after its setting, who with His rays, like outstretched wings, shall shine upon you, and shall raise you from death, and shall endow you with the glory of beatitude and the gift of agility, so that vigorous, joyful and fervent you may leap forth, just as well-fed and fattened calves leap.
Adages. From Hosea
Chapter 2, 6. "I will hedge up your way with thorns," that is, I will prevent you from running to your paramours, namely to idols.
Verse 9. "I will take back My wool and My linen." I will take away from you the woolen and linen garments which you misuse for the worship of idols. This signifies that creatures serve impiety unwillingly, and are therefore, as it were, held captive by the impious, since they were created and destined for this purpose: to serve the pious in the worship of God. From this captivity God frees them when He takes them away from the impious and transfers them to pious persons or uses.
Verse 13. "I will visit upon her the days of the Baals." I will punish her for the worship of Baal.
Verse 14. "I will allure her, and lead her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart." I will draw her away from her paramours, and I will deal with her alone, and caress her.
Verse 19. "I will espouse you to Myself forever, and I will espouse you to Myself in justice and judgment, and in mercy and compassion." I will take you to Myself as a bride with supreme mercy, equity and justice, by which I will protect you and strike down your enemies.
Chapter 3, 1. "They love the husks of grapes." The sinner, having left the fat and full grape, that is, the true and supreme good, loves the husks, that is the empty skins of dried grapes — namely painted and false goods, false delights, false honors, false riches, false joys.
Chapter 4, 2. "Blood has touched blood." Slaughters are added to slaughters, sins are heaped upon sins.
Adages From Hosea
Verse 11. "Fornication and wine and drunkenness take away the heart," that is, reason, judgment, mind — they derange and infatuate the spirit and the man.
Verse 13. "Though you play the harlot, O Israel, let not Judah at least offend," since it possesses God's temple and is, as it were, dedicated and intimate to God. "For Israel has turned aside like a wanton heifer." Let Israel be wanton like a heifer; let Judah stand firm in God's law like a lion.
Chapter 5, 3. "I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me," that is to say: I am the knower of hearts, and therefore I see the inmost thoughts, desires and inclinations of the Israelites toward fornication and idolatry. Whence it follows: "For now Ephraim has played the harlot, Israel is defiled: for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them."
Verse 5. "The arrogance of Israel shall answer to his face," that is to say: The arrogant pride of Israel and contempt of God will be laid low and punished by a public disaster; and this humiliation and punishment will reveal his crimes; and to him asking: Why am I so punished? — it will answer to his face, not with voice, but in deed and reality: Because you were so arrogant, that is to say: The punishment will answer the fault; the punishment will expose the fault and demonstrate it to the whole world. Whence it follows: "And Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity."
Verse 12. "I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like rottenness (in Hebrew, a woodworm) to the house of Judah," that is to say: Just as the moth with its soft and slow but sure bite eats away a garment, and the woodworm eats wood, so I will gnaw away and consume the Israelites and Jews.
Verse 14. "I am like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion's cub to the house of Judah," that is to say: I will tear apart the Israelites like a lioness, and the Jews like a young lion.
Chapter 6, 6. "I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than holocausts," that is to say: I require internal piety, not external; deeds, not ceremonies; victims of the mind, not of the flesh; of the heart, not of the mouth.
Chapter 7, 4. "They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker." Just as the lust for adultery grows by committing adultery and is more and more kindled, so the lust for worshipping idols among the Israelites grew all the more by their very worship, and was kindled like an oven which the baker fires up — so that they seemed to rage and be mad over their idols.
Verse 11. "Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without understanding." Just as a foolish dove allows her young to be taken and returns to the same nest; again, for the sake of food gives herself into the nets and allows herself to be caught — so the foolish Israelites implore the help of the gods and the Assyrians, by whom they see themselves being gradually despoiled and devastated and driven to ruin.
Verse 16. "They have become like a deceitful bow." Jehu and the Israelites seemed, after overthrowing Baal, about to direct their efforts toward establishing the worship of God; but behold, they sprang back to worshipping the calves of Jeroboam.
Chapter 8, 4. "They have reigned, but not by Me: they have been made princes, and I knew it not," that is to say: The kings of Israel made a schism from the house of David, and reigned in Israel not by My authority, but by the people revolting and defecting from Rehoboam. For I established one kingdom, namely Judah, not Israel; I am the author of one Synagogue and kingdom, not of two; for I hate division and schism, especially when it tends toward idolatry.
Chapter 9, 4. "Their sacrifices shall be like the bread of mourners," that is to say: The idolatrous Israelites, dwelling in captivity, offer and eat unclean and unlawful victims, equally mournful and funereal, like a funeral feast.
Verse 10. "They became abominable, like those things (the idols and harlots of Baal-peor, that is, of the most obscene Priapus) which they loved."
Chapter 10, 12. "Sow for yourselves in justice (in Hebrew: justice, that is, pious, just and holy works), and reap (that is, you will certainly reap) according to the mouth of mercy." In Hebrew: according to the mouth of mercy, namely of God. The mouth is a symbol of capacity and amplitude, that is to say: You will receive from God a most ample reward, grace and mercy — as great, namely, as befits the mouth, that is, the amplitude of God's mercy.
"Therefore break up for yourselves fallow ground," that is to say: Your heart, with the thorns and weeds of vices rooted out, prepare for God as fallow ground, that is, as a new field, so that He Himself may sow in it the abundant seeds of His grace and mercy.
Verse 13. "You have ploughed impiety, you have reaped iniquity," that is to say: Hitherto you have ploughed and sown the seeds and works of impiety, and therefore you have reaped the punishments due to iniquity: "And you have eaten the fruit of lying," that is to say: You have eaten few and meager fruits, and therefore deceitful and false ones; because the hope of a great harvest, which they promised in the sprouting, they did not deliver at harvest time.
Chapter 11, 9. "I am God and not man," that is to say: Man is ruled by anger — I moderate and govern anger; man when offended breathes vengeance — I breathe mercy; the thoughts of man are natural, earthly and lowly — Mine are supernatural, heavenly and transcending all understanding of the angels; man is inconstant and changeable — I am constant and unchangeable.
Verse 12. "Ephraim has surrounded Me with denial, but Judah as a witness went down with God, and is faithful with the saints," that is to say: When Ephraim, that is the ten tribes, denied the worship of God and worshipped the golden calves, then Judah, that is the two tribes, faithfully adhered to God, with the holy priests and other faithful ones, and as it were went down with God; for God, despoiled as it were of part of His kingdom and Church by Ephraim, seemed to go down and be diminished; yet in this descent and humiliation, Judah was a faithful companion and follower. Judah therefore proved his faith and friendship to be steadfast toward God in this persecution and tribulation. For commonly that saying of the Poet comes true:
As long as you are fortunate, you will count many friends;
If the times become cloudy, you will be alone.
Adages From Joel and Amos
Chapter 12, 1. "Ephraim feeds on the wind and follows the burning heat," that is to say: Israel does a futile thing, just as if someone wished to pasture and herd the winds like sheep; nay, a harmful thing, as if someone were to pursue the scorching heat — for he will not catch it, nor harm it, but rather will be harmed and burned by it. For he worships vain and noxious idols, and places his hopes in them; on account of which he will be devastated and consumed.
Verse 7. "Canaan — in his hand is a deceitful balance," that is to say: Israel is no longer Israel, but Canaan, that is, a fraudulent merchant; for in his hand is a deceitful balance; because through dishonest weights and measures he deceives buyers and sellers, and chases after unjust profits.
Verse 11. "If in Gilead there is an idol, then in vain were they in Gilgal sacrificing oxen," that is to say: If the Gileadites, that is the Israelites, have discovered their gods to be an "idol," that is a vain and harmful thing, and therefore have been cut down along with them and have come to nothing — then in vain do the Jews worship the same in Gilgal: for they likewise will find them to be an idol, that is, a vain and harmful thing, and will be cut off and perish along with it.
Chapter 13, 9. "Your destruction, O Israel: only in Me is your help," that is to say: Ascribe your ruin to yourself and your own crimes, not to Me and My harshness; for I alone can help you, and I desire to do so, if you are willing to repent and return to Me. Your ruin therefore comes from you, but from Me comes nothing but help.
Verse 11. "I will give you a king in My fury, and take him away in My wrath," that is to say: There is no reason to hope for help from your kings, Jeroboam and his descendants; because just as I gave them to you in anger, so also in anger I will take them away, and hand you over together with them to the Assyrians. God did this in the case of Hoshea, the last king of Israel.
Chapter 14, 3. "Say to Him (to the God whom you offended): Take away all iniquity, receive the good," that is: grant pardon, grace and every good, which You may again receive from us through thanksgiving. Whence he adds: "And we will render the calves of our lips," that is, praise and hymns expressed by our lips. The Prophet prescribes to penitent Israel a formula of confession and supplication.
Verse 10. "Who is wise, and shall understand these things? who is prudent, and shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them," that is to say: Only the wise, that is, the faithful and just, will understand the ways and laws of the Lord, and walk in them rightly toward heaven; the rest, namely the faithless and impious, are foolish: because they do not know the ways of God in practice, nor walk in them, but stumble in them and fall headlong into crimes, and then into punishments, namely into hell.
Chapter 1, 15. "Alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is near," namely the day of the destruction of Samaria, and typologically of the whole world, that is to say: The final catastrophe is at hand for city and world, "and it shall come like devastation from the Almighty." Whence he says of the same in chapter 2, 1: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on My holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord comes; for the day of darkness and of gloom is near, the day of clouds and whirlwinds; like dawn spread over the mountains, a people numerous and strong," that is to say: Just as at earliest dawn the sun spreads and scatters its rays over the mountains and reaches them first, so the Assyrians flew in with the utmost speed and seized the mountains of Israel before the Israelites knew and sensed their approach.
Chapter 2, 3. "Before his face a devouring fire, and behind him a burning flame; the land before him is like a garden of delight, and behind him a desolate wilderness, nor is there any that can escape him," that is to say: The army of the Assyrians will so devastate everything, as if it bore before it a fire consuming all things, and exhaled it behind it, so as to reduce the land, which before was flourishing like a paradise, into a solitude and desolation.
Hence Verse 10. "At his presence the earth trembled, the heavens were moved: the sun and moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining." These things will properly come to pass at the end of the world; but in an improper sense they came to pass at the destruction of Israel; for to the Israelites, stricken with terror, the heavens and earth seemed to be overturned, shaken and darkened. This is a hypallage.
Chapter 5, 7. "You who turn judgment into wormwood." You who render unjust, bitter and harsh sentences against the poor and innocent, and thus those whom you ought to help and console, you embitter and consume with grief.
Verse 9. "Who smiles destruction upon the strong." Who, playing and as it were smiling, sends plagues upon the strong, by which He lays them waste and tramples them.
Verse 11. "Because you plundered the poor, and took from him the choicest spoil, you shall build houses of hewn stone and shall not dwell in them; you shall plant most pleasant vineyards and shall not drink their wine."
Verse 13. "The prudent man in that time (of destruction, considering the just judgment and vengeance of God) will keep silence, because it is an evil time."
Verse 23. "Take away from Me the noise of your songs, and I will not hear the canticles of your harp." Because God seeks songs of the heart, not of the mouth; lamentation of the mind, not of the voice.
Verse 24. "And judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent," that is to say: God's just vengeance will overwhelm you, like a torrent flooding far and wide, which sweeps everything along with it and carries it away.
Chapter 6, 1, 4 and 5. "Woe to you who are wealthy in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria! Nobles, heads of the peoples, entering pompously the house of Israel. You who sleep on beds of ivory and are wanton in your couches. You who eat lambs from the flock. You who sing to the sound of the psaltery. Drinking wine in bowls, etc., and they felt nothing for the affliction of Joseph (their people). Therefore now they shall go into captivity at the head of those that go into exile (into Assyrian captivity), and the faction of the revelers shall be taken away. The Lord God has sworn by His own soul," etc.
Verse 8. "Therefore I will lament and howl: I will go stripped and naked; I will make a lamentation like dragons, and mourning like ostriches," that is to say: I will mourn the destruction of Samaria most pitifully and inconsolably.
Verse 10. "In the house of Dust (in Hebrew, in Aphrah) sprinkle yourselves with dust," that is to say: Aphrah, a city of Samaria, is rightly called Aphrah, that is, Dust; because it is to be reduced to dust by the Assyrians. In it therefore, as in a house of dust, sprinkle yourselves with dust, O Samaritans, and mourn its destruction and your own.
Chapter 2, 13. "He shall go up who opens the way before them: they shall divide and pass through the gate, and shall enter by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord at their head," that is to say: Christ will go before and open the way for His faithful into the Church, both militant and triumphant.
Chapter 3, 6. "Therefore night shall be to you instead of vision, and darkness to you instead of divination: and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be darkened over them," that is to say: Because you, O false prophets, have prophesied not light, that is truth, but night and darkness, that is lies — predicting peace, that is, prosperity for the impious — therefore I will punish you and cause your visions, that is your prophecies, to turn to night: both of falsehood, so that all may see they were darkness, that is, errors and fabrications; and of calamity and destruction. For I will reduce you to such straits that the sun will seem to you, terrified and stunned, to set, and the day to be darkened at midday.
Verse 8. "But truly I am full of the strength of the spirit of the Lord, of judgment and of power, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin." For a teacher and preacher three things are necessary: first, fortitude, that is, freedom and constancy in teaching and reproving sins and powerful sinners; second, judgment, that is, truth, equity and discretion; third, power, that is, effectiveness in speaking.
Verse 10. "You who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity," that is to say: You who build magnificent houses in Jerusalem from unjust taxes, gifts, usury, contracts, frauds, robberies and oppressions of the poor. Whence, explaining, he adds: "Her princes judged for bribes," etc.
Verse 12. "Therefore, on your account (because of your robberies and crimes), Zion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a heap of stones, and the mountain of the temple as the high places of the forests," that is to say: I will demolish Zion and your houses in it; because you build them from the plunder and blood of the poor. For a city is punished on account of its citizens; and the temple is destined for fire on account of impious and sacrilegious inhabitants. For it is better that it be given to fire than to crime; to destruction than to sacrilege; to the Chaldean enemy than to the idolatrous and murderous Jew.
Adages From Obadiah, Jonah and Micah
Chapter 6, 3 and 4. "O My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I been a burden to you? Answer Me. Because I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage I delivered you: and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam?" that is to say: Is this the wrong that you charge to Me — namely, the benefit by which I redeemed you from the prison of Egypt, and from a slave made you a free man? This is sarcasm.
Verse 8. "I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: namely, to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God." Just as a guilty man walks with the judge as a humble and anxious petitioner, from whom he begs pardon and life; and just as attentive servants walk with their masters, from whom they hope for sustenance and every good thing.
Verse 14. "Your humiliation is in the midst of you." Within you resides both the fault and the punishment of your affliction.
Chapter 7, 1. "Woe is me, for I have become like one who gathers in autumn the clusters of the vintage! There is no cluster to eat," that is to say: Alas for me, for I, Micah, have cultivated the vineyard of Judah by my preaching; but I have wasted my effort: I barely converted one or two. To the devil and to idols go the many large clusters; to God and to me, a few small berries. For many are called, but few are chosen.
Verse 4. "The best among them is like a briar; and the most upright, like a thorn from the hedge," that is to say: The best among the Jews is harmful and prickly, and stings and wounds like a briar and thorns; consider then what the rest are like, what the worst are like.
Verse 5. "From her who sleeps in your bosom, guard the doors of your mouth," that is to say: Do not reveal your secrets to your wife; for she will betray you, being unfaithful and talkative: "For a man's enemies are those of his own household."
Verses 8 and 9. "Do not rejoice, my enemy (O rival Edom), over me (Jerusalem, devastated by the Chaldeans); for though I have fallen, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light. I will bear the wrath of the Lord (the captivity of 70 years in Babylon), because I have sinned against Him, until He judge my cause: He will bring me forth into the light (into freedom through Cyrus, and more fully through Christ), I shall see His justice," that is, His just vengeance upon the Chaldeans and other tyrants of the faithful.
Verses 18 and 19. "Who is a God like You, who takes away iniquity, and passes over the sin of the remnant of Your inheritance? He will turn again and have mercy on us: He will put down our iniquities, and will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give the truth to Jacob, the mercy to Abraham, which You swore to our fathers from the days of old," that is to say: You, O Lord God, will truly and faithfully bestow freedom through Cyrus and more fully through Christ, upon Jacob, that is the descendants of Jacob, or the Jews — which You mercifully promised of old and swore to Abraham and the other Patriarchs that You would give to their posterity.
Chapter 1, 9. "There shall not rise a double affliction," that is, as the Septuagint has it: He will not take vengeance twice for the same thing in tribulation, that is to say: God does not punish the same crime twice; so say St. Cyril and Theophylact.
Verse 15. "Behold upon the mountains the feet (the steps, the coming: for feet are the symbol and cause of this) of him who brings good tidings and announces peace: celebrate, O Judah, your festivals, and fulfill your vows: for Belial shall no more pass through you; he has utterly perished." Belial here in the literal sense is Sennacherib; allegorically, the devil; tropologically, sin; anagogically, death, which will be destroyed in the resurrection, and once removed, the Blessed in heaven will celebrate a perpetual feast and jubilee.
Chapter 2, 11. "Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding ground of the lion's cubs?" Where is Nineveh, which was the den of lions, that is, of tyrants, who plundered all nations and distributed their spoils and riches among their cubs, that is, their children and nobles? That is to say: It has been overthrown and plundered by the Chaldeans, just as it itself overthrew and plundered others.
Chapter 3, 1. "Woe to the city of blood, all full of lies and violence! Plunder shall not depart from you," that is to say: Woe to the city of Nineveh, which is wholly bloodthirsty, deceitful, full of robberies and plunder! For just as it has preyed upon and torn apart other nations, so likewise it itself will be torn apart and will become prey for the Chaldeans.
Verse 4. "Because of the multitude of the fornications of the comely and beautiful harlot, who has sorceries, who sold nations through her fornications and families through her sorceries," that is to say: Nineveh will be destroyed on account of its idolatries, superstitions and sorceries, with which it infected and imbued all the nations subject to it.
Verse 8. "Are you better than Alexandria of the peoples, which dwells among the rivers? Waters are round about it: whose riches are the sea: waters are its walls: Ethiopia is its strength," that is to say: Do not trust in your strength and riches, O Nineveh: for Alexandria, which is stronger and wealthier than you, being situated near the sea and surrounded by waters, will not be able to protect itself by them, but will be taken by the Chaldean: therefore likewise you too will be taken by him.
Chapter 1, 6 and 8. "Behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, who march over the breadth of the earth, etc. Their horses are swifter than leopards, and faster than evening wolves, etc. They shall fly like an eagle hastening to devour." In the leopard is noted the savagery of the Chaldeans; in the wolf, their voracity; in the eagle, their rapacity; in all, their speed.
Verses 13 and 14. "Why do You look upon the unjust dealers, and are silent when the wicked devours one more just than himself? And You make men like the fishes of the sea, and like creeping things that have no ruler?" that is to say: Why do You permit, O Lord, Nebuchadnezzar to rage like a whale with impunity, and tyrannically to crush and swallow us like little fish? Why do You allow us to be unjustly trampled and crushed by him like worms?
Adages From Nahum and Habakkuk
Verse 16. "Therefore he will sacrifice to his net, and offer incense to his seine: because by them his portion is made fat, and his food is choice." He calls the arms, forces and camps of Nebuchadnezzar a seine and a net, with which, as if with nets, he ensnared and caught nations like fish, that is to say: He ascribes his victories to himself and his own strength, not to God. Hence he regards them as a divinity; therefore he wished to be worshipped and adored as a god, in the golden statue which he erected (Daniel chapter 3).
Chapter 2, 1. "I will stand upon my watch, and fix my foot upon the rampart, and I will look to see what will be said to me," that is to say: I, disputing and arguing with God as to why He allows the impious Chaldeans to devastate God's people — in order to defend my thesis as if it were a fortification, I will stand alert on guard, so that I may catch God's arguments and, if I can, repel and refute them with other arguments.
Verses 2 and 3. "And the Lord answered me, etc. It shall appear at the end, and shall not lie: if it make any delay, wait for it, for it shall surely come, and shall not be late: but the just man shall live in his faith," that is to say: At length God will punish the Chaldeans and free the Jews from Babylon, namely after 70 years; therefore if there is a delay, wait for it, because it will certainly come, and that soon. Do not therefore in this delay be impatient, unbelieving and distrustful of these promises of God; but in faith and hope in them, bear your captivity and hardships nobly, and live with good cheer.
Verse 6. "Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own! How long, and loads himself against himself with thick clay?" that is to say: O wretched Nebuchadnezzar, why do you seize the wealth of others? For what are these things but thick clay, with which you stuff and weigh yourself down?
Verse 11. "For the stone shall cry out of the wall," that is to say: The stones, timbers and beams which you plundered, or bought with the proceeds of plunder, to build your proud palaces, will cry out publicly to all your avarice and robbery, and that therefore you are justly punished by God, devastated and destroyed.
Verse 18. "What does the graven image profit, that its maker has carved it, the molten image and the teacher of lies?" that is to say: Why do you trust in the idol of your Bel? For it is not a divinity, but a false image of divinity, which the craftsman fashioned: "But the Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him."
Chapter 3, 16. "Let rottenness enter into my bones, and let it swarm under me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation, that I may go up to our people who are girded," that is to say: Let all hardships, all diseases, all afflictions come upon me, so that on that terrible day of the destruction of Babylon, I may escape the common catastrophe of the Chaldeans and go up to the people girded for the journey, and with them return safely to Judea. Allegorically: so that on the day of the world's destruction and the day of judgment, I may be secure and ascend to the people of the elect, already girded for the journey to heaven.
Verses 18 and 19. "But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus," that is, my deliverer and savior, both from Babylon and mystically from sin and hell: "God the Lord is my strength, and He will make my feet like the feet of deer, and upon my high places He will lead me as conqueror," into Jerusalem both earthly and heavenly, "singing in psalms."
Chapter 2, 9. "Moab shall be like Sodom, and the children of Ammon like Gomorrah — a dryness of thorns, and heaps of salt, and a desert even forever." This is a periphrasis for utter devastation and desolation, by which the once flourishing regions of Moab and Ammon were to be turned by the Chaldeans into thornfields and heaps of salt like Sodom. He gives the reason in verse 10: "This shall befall them for their pride; because they blasphemed and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord" — in Hebrew, they magnified, namely their mouth and tongue, mocking the Jews when they were being devastated by the Chaldeans, and blaspheming and saying that their God could not protect them against the Chaldeans. Wherefore "terrible" — in Hebrew, terrifying — "shall the Lord be over them, and He shall consume all the gods of the earth, and they shall adore Him every man from his own place, all the islands of the nations." This was fulfilled through the Gospel of Christ and the preaching of the Apostles.
Verses 13, 15, etc. "He shall make the beautiful (Nineveh) a desolation, etc. This is the glorious city that dwelt in confidence, that said in her heart: I am, and there is no other besides me: how is she become a desert, a lair of beasts?" that is to say: Nineveh, that famous, proud and glorious city, mistress of the world, will be devastated by the Chaldeans, so that henceforth not men but beasts and wild animals will dwell in it.
Chapter 1, 6. "You have sown much and brought in little; you have eaten and have not had enough; you have drunk and have not been filled with drink; you have covered yourselves and have not been warmed; and he who earned wages put them into a bag with holes." He gives the reason in verse 9: "Because My house is desolate, and you hasten each one to his own house," that is to say: Because you preferred your own houses and comforts to God, and therefore neglected the construction of the temple, so that it remained desolate — hence God punishes you with barrenness and want, so that your fields, granaries, vineyards and cellars are dry, desolate and wretched, and neither satisfy nor refresh you. Whence, in verse 11: "I called, He says, a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains and upon the wheat, and upon the wine," etc.
Chapter 1, 12. "And the angel of the Lord answered and said: O Lord of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry? This is now the seventieth year." These 70 years are of the desolation, that is, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, which begin in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar and end in the 2nd year of Darius Hystaspis, when the angel said these things — and therefore they are different from the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity. For the latter end in the 1st year of Cyrus, and begin in the 11th year of Jehoiakim, or, as others say, in his 3rd year.
Chapter 2, 6. "O, O, flee from the land of the North," namely from Babylon, which is a confusion of errors and vices, and therefore will soon again be taken and devastated by Darius Hystaspis. Tropologically: flee from the world, which is full of pomps, vanities, errors, lusts, troubles and dangers.
Chapter 3, 2. "Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" that is to say: Joshua the son of Josedech, returning from captivity, is like a brand, charred and sooty, snatched from the furnace of Babylon — that is, wretched, filthy and poor. Why then do you, O Satan, oppose him, so as to utterly consume and destroy him, lest as high priest he restore My temple and worship?
Verse 10. "In that day, etc., every man shall call his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree," that is to say: In the time of Christ and the Gospel, there will be supreme peace, joy and sharing, so that the faithful will have goods in common among themselves and live together, both bodily, and even more spiritually in the Eucharist, life, teaching and grace of Christ. For He Himself is our vine and fig tree.
Chapter 7, 13. "And it came to pass, as He (God) spoke and they did not hear: so they shall cry, and I will not hear," that is to say: By the law of retaliation I will repay like for like: they refused to hear Me when I called; in turn, I likewise will not hear them when they call upon Me in their need.
Chapter 9, 1. "The eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is the Lord's," that is to say: God is the "eye" — both actively, seeing all nations as well as the tribes of Israel and providing for them; and passively, as something seen, that is to say: God is the object of the eye; God is the one upon whom all men fix their eye, hoping from Him for help and every good. Thus the Egyptians depicted God and the divine power, that is, providence, as an eye resting upon a staff. The staff signifies the scepter, namely dominion and royal power; the eye signifies the vigilance and providence of God.
Verse 9. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your king shall come to you, the just one and savior: He Himself poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." The king is Christ, who on Palm Sunday, as a king who would certainly vanquish demons, sins and death, entered Jerusalem in triumph, riding an ass (Matthew 21:5).
Verse 11. "You also, by the blood of Your covenant, have sent forth Your prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water," that is to say: You, O Christ, by the merit and price of Your blood, by which You sealed the new covenant between God and men, freed the Fathers detained in limbo, so that they might rise with You and ascend into heaven.
Adages From Zephaniah, Haggai and Zechariah
Verse 13. "And I will raise up your sons, O Zion, over your sons, O Greece, and I will make you like the sword of the mighty. And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and His dart shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord God shall sound the trumpet, and shall go in the whirlwind of the south," that is to say: The Apostles, sprung from Zion, that is from Judea, will be like a mighty sword, a bow, flashing darts, sling-stones, trumpets and whirlwinds of God, by which He will strike down the Greeks, that is all nations, with the clamor and powerful force of the Gospel, and subject them to Himself. Whence he adds of the same:
Verse 16. "For holy stones shall be lifted up over his land," that is to say: The Apostles will be like holy stones, raised and set up as a monument and trophy of victory, won over the whole world; so that whoever sees them or hears them named may reflect and marvel at such great grace and power, by which a few men brought the whole world under Christ's dominion.
Verse 17. "For what is his good, and what is his beautiful, but the grain of the elect, and the wine that makes virgins flourish?" that is to say: The Apostles and their followers will be of such great virtue and will accomplish such great things, not by their own strength but by the help of God, who will communicate to them every good and beautiful thing of His own, namely the Holy Eucharist, which will nourish and strengthen them like grain; and will render them like youths — agile, chosen and strong; and like heavenly wine, will make them virgins, heavenly and angelic.
Chapter 10, 3. "He made them like His glorious horse." "Them," namely the warlike and victorious Maccabees. Mystically, the Apostles. Thus the glorious horse of Christ was St. Paul; whence he adds concerning them in verse 5: "And they shall be as mighty men, treading down the mire of the streets in battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them." And verse 12: "I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk in His name."
Chapter 12, 6. "In that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a furnace of fire among wood, and like a torch of fire in hay: and they shall devour to the right and to the left all the peoples round about," that is to say: I will make the Maccabees like furnaces and torches, who shall set alight all the nations round about and subject them to themselves. Allegorically: I will give the Apostles, who like fire will inflame the whole world with the love of God.
Verse 8. "And he who shall offend among them in that day" — so that he may rise again stronger — "shall be like David: and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord in their sight," that is to say: The Jews who out of fear of Antiochus apostatized from the faith, seeing the victories of the Maccabees, will take heart again and rise up stronger, like David after his fall. Furthermore, the leaders and descendants of David will be mighty like the angels of God. This was true of the Maccabees, more truly of the Apostles and Christians.
Verse 10. "I will pour out upon, etc. Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayers, and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced." This is a prophecy of Christ on the cross, pierced with thorns, nails and a lance, upon whom the pious Jews gazed with the deepest grief and compassion, praying God to avert and avenge so unworthy a death of His Son and the Messiah.
Verse 11. "In that day there shall be a great lamentation in Jerusalem, like the lamentation of Adadremmon in the plain of Megiddo," that is to say: With great mourning they shall mourn the death of Christ; just as once they mourned the slaying of Josiah, who was killed at Megiddo, near the city of Adadremmon, so called from the abundance of pomegranates.
Chapter 7, 14 and 15. "I am no prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, but I am a herdsman, plucking sycamores. And the Lord took me when I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me: Go, prophesy to My people Israel." Thus God chooses the foolish and lowly things of the world and fills them with His spirit, to confound the noble and the wise.
Chapter 8, 11. "And I will send a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord," that is to say: I will reduce Israel in the siege of Samaria to such straits that it will search everywhere for the prophets, whom before it despised, to inquire of them for an oracle about the future outcome of the siege — whether and how it can escape the hand of the Assyrians.
Chapter 9, 7. "Are you not to Me as the children of the Ethiopians, O children of Israel?" Because just as the Ethiopians are dark in color, so you are dark in morals — deformed, hardened and unchangeable.
Verses 3 and 4. "You say (O Edom) in your heart: Who shall drag me down (from the rock in which I dwell secure) to the earth? Though you be exalted as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will drag you down, says the Lord."
Chapter 2, 9. "They who guard vanities in vain forsake their own mercy," that is to say: Those who worship idols, and those who pursue their pleasures forbidden by God, forsake God, from whom they ought to expect all mercy and every good.
Chapter 3, 4. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed."
Chapter 1, 5. "What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?" that is to say: Samaria, as the capital, which ought to have been the guide of faith and religion for the ten tribes, has become their guide to idolatry — just as Jerusalem has for Judah, that is, the two tribes.
Verse 12. "And it came to pass as He spoke, and they did not hear: so shall they cry, and I will not hear."
Chapter 6, 12. "For behold the Lord will command, and will strike the greater house (the ten tribes) with ruins (with full and perpetual destruction), and the lesser house with breaches," that is, He will rend and tear the two tribes; but will not destroy them — nay rather, after 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, He will restore them to Himself and to their homeland.
Adages From Zechariah
Chapter 1, 12. "And the angel of the Lord answered and said: O Lord of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry? This is now the seventieth year." These 70 years are of the desolation, that is, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, which begin in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar and end in the 2nd year of Darius Hystaspis, when the angel said these things — and therefore they are different from the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity. For the latter end in the 1st year of Cyrus, and begin in the 11th year of Jehoiakim, or, as others say, in his 3rd year.
Chapter 2, 6. "O, O, flee from the land of the North," namely from Babylon, which is a confusion of errors and vices, and therefore will soon again be taken and devastated by Darius Hystaspis. Tropologically: flee from the world, which is full of pomps, vanities, errors, lusts, troubles and dangers.
Chapter 3, 2. "Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" that is to say: Joshua the son of Josedech, returning from captivity, is like a brand, charred and sooty, snatched from the furnace of Babylon — that is, wretched, filthy and poor. Why then do you, O Satan, oppose him, so as to utterly consume and destroy him, lest as high priest he restore My temple and worship?
Verse 10. "In that day, etc., every man shall call his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree," that is to say: In the time of Christ and the Gospel, there will be supreme peace, joy and sharing, so that the faithful will have goods in common among themselves and live together, both bodily, and even more spiritually in the Eucharist, life, teaching and grace of Christ. For He Himself is our vine and fig tree.
Chapter 7, 13. "And it came to pass, as He (God) spoke and they did not hear: so they shall cry, and I will not hear," that is to say: By the law of retaliation I will repay like for like: they refused to hear Me when I called; in turn, I likewise will not hear them when they call upon Me in their need.
Chapter 9, 1. "The eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is the Lord's," that is to say: God is the "eye" — both actively, seeing all nations as well as the tribes of Israel and providing for them; and passively, as something seen, that is to say: God is the object of the eye; God is the one upon whom all men fix their eye, hoping from Him for help and every good. Thus the Egyptians depicted God and the divine power, that is, providence, as an eye resting upon a staff. The staff signifies the scepter, namely dominion and royal power; the eye signifies the vigilance and providence of God.
Verse 9. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your king shall come to you, the just one and savior: He Himself poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." The king is Christ, who on Palm Sunday, as a king who would certainly vanquish demons, sins and death, entered Jerusalem in triumph, riding an ass (Matthew 21:5).
Verse 11. "You also, by the blood of Your covenant, have sent forth Your prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water," that is to say: You, O Christ, by the merit and price of Your blood, by which You sealed the new covenant between God and men, freed the Fathers detained in limbo, so that they might rise with You and ascend into heaven.
Verse 13. "And I will raise up your sons, O Zion, over your sons, O Greece, and I will make you like the sword of the mighty. And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and His dart shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord God shall sound the trumpet, and shall go in the whirlwind of the south," that is to say: The Apostles, sprung from Zion, that is from Judea, will be like a mighty sword, a bow, flashing darts, sling-stones, trumpets and whirlwinds of God, by which He will strike down the Greeks, that is all nations, with the clamor and powerful force of the Gospel, and subject them to Himself. Whence he adds of the same:
Verse 16. "For holy stones shall be lifted up over his land," that is to say: The Apostles will be like holy stones, raised and set up as a monument and trophy of victory, won over the whole world; so that whoever sees them or hears them named may reflect and marvel at such great grace and power, by which a few men brought the whole world under Christ's dominion.
Verse 17. "For what is his good, and what is his beautiful, but the grain of the elect, and the wine that makes virgins flourish?" that is to say: The Apostles and their followers will be of such great virtue and will accomplish such great things, not by their own strength but by the help of God, who will communicate to them every good and beautiful thing of His own, namely the Holy Eucharist, which will nourish and strengthen them like grain; and will render them like youths — agile, chosen and strong; and like heavenly wine, will make them virgins, heavenly and angelic.
Chapter 10, 3. "He made them like His glorious horse." "Them," namely the warlike and victorious Maccabees. Mystically, the Apostles. Thus the glorious horse of Christ was St. Paul; whence he adds concerning them in verse 5: "And they shall be as mighty men, treading down the mire of the streets in battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them." And verse 12: "I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk in His name."
Chapter 12, 6. "In that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a furnace of fire among wood, and like a torch of fire in hay: and they shall devour to the right and to the left all the peoples round about," that is to say: I will make the Maccabees like furnaces and torches, who shall set alight all the nations round about and subject them to themselves. Allegorically: I will give the Apostles, who like fire will inflame the whole world with the love of God.
Verse 8. "And he who shall offend among them in that day" — so that he may rise again stronger — "shall be like David: and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord in their sight," that is to say: The Jews who out of fear of Antiochus apostatized from the faith, seeing the victories of the Maccabees, will take heart again and rise up stronger, like David after his fall. Furthermore, the leaders and descendants of David will be mighty like the angels of God. This was true of the Maccabees, more truly of the Apostles and Christians.
Verse 10. "I will pour out upon, etc. Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayers, and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced." This is a prophecy of Christ on the cross, pierced with thorns, nails and a lance, upon whom the pious Jews gazed with the deepest grief and compassion, praying God to avert and avenge so unworthy a death of His Son and the Messiah.
Verse 11. "In that day there shall be a great lamentation in Jerusalem, like the lamentation of Adadremmon in the plain of Megiddo," that is to say: With great mourning they shall mourn the death of Christ; just as once they mourned the slaying of Josiah, who was killed at Megiddo, near the city of Adadremmon, so called from the abundance of pomegranates.
Adages From Malachi
Chapter 1, 3. "I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated." Because, namely, I brought the descendants of Jacob back from Babylon to their homeland, but left the Edomites in captivity. Whence, explaining, he adds: "I have laid his mountains waste, and his inheritance to the dragons of the desert." And verse 4: "They shall build, and I will destroy, and they shall be called the borders of wickedness, and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever." Allegorically: Jacob, that is, the saints and the elect, I have loved and chosen for eternal life; Esau, that is, the impious and the reprobate, I have hated and condemned to hell. See the comments on Romans 9:13.
Verse 6. "A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a Father, where is My honor; and if I am the Lord, where is My fear?"
Verse 14. "Cursed is the deceitful man who has a male in his flock, and making a vow sacrifices a feeble thing to the Lord: for I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and My name is dreadful among the nations." For to the supreme and most excellent God, the highest and best things must be given, especially those promised to Him by vow.
Chapter 2, 7. "The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts." Angel, that is, a messenger and envoy, as Vatablus translates it — whom, namely, God sends to men, to announce His will and law to them.
Chapter 3, 6. "I am the Lord, and I change not." I am immutable, and therefore I do not revoke My decrees, promises and threats.
Verses 14 and 15. "You have said: He labors in vain who serves God; and what profit is it that we have kept His commandments, and that we have walked sorrowfully before the Lord of hosts? Now therefore we call the proud happy: for they who work wickedness are built up." This is the voice of the impious, denying the deity and providence of God, because they see the pious cast down in this world, and the impious exalted. To these the Prophet responds: "And the Lord attended and heard" these words of the impious attacking the providence of God, and of the pious defending it: "And a book of remembrance," that is, of memorial, "was written before those who fear the Lord and meditate on His name," that is to say: God in His memory and mind, as if in a book, has recorded the words and deeds of all men, and on the day of judgment He will read them and decree for each one a reward or punishment according to merit — a reward, namely, for those who fear and constantly meditate on the Lord. For "these shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day that I make," that is, shall make, namely judgment, "My special possession," that is, a peculiar people, specially chosen, beloved and exalted by Me; whom I will bless and glorify with all My goods, "and I will spare," that is, I will have mercy on, I will be indulgent and generous toward "them, as a man spares his son who serves him." Therefore on the day of judgment, "you shall see what the difference is between the just and the wicked, and between him who serves God and him who serves Him not."