Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Hosea is commanded to bring an adulteress into his house, and to agree with her that she should sit there celibate for a long time, neither committing fornication nor returning to her husband, and through this he represents that Israel will for a long time be without God, without idols, without law, without a king, without teraphim; but in the last days will return to the Lord.
Vulgate Text: Hosea 3:1-5
1. And the Lord said to me: Go again, and love a woman beloved of a friend and an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the children of Israel, and they look to foreign gods, and love the grape-skins of grapes. 2. And I purchased her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and a cor of barley, and a half cor of barley. 3. 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: 4. because the children of Israel shall sit many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an altar, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. 5. And after these things the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and His goodness in the last days.
Verse 1: GO AGAIN
1. GO AGAIN — here Hosea is commanded to love and hire with a price, and to bring into his house an adulteress: because the former harlot Gomer did not fully represent Israel's adulteries, that is, its idolatries committed with the gods of the nations as if with adulterers, having spurned the true friend, namely God.
One may ask, against whom is this sign assumed, or whom does this adulteress represent? St. Jerome and Lyranus think she represents the twelve tribes. Others think she signifies only two, namely Judah and Benjamin, so that, just as Ezekiel in chapter 23 denoted all the idolatrous Hebrews through two harlot sisters — namely, the ten tribes through Oholah, the two through Oholibah — so here Hosea, through Gomer the harlot in chapter 1, would signify the ten tribes, and through the adulteress in this chapter would signify the two tribes, who followed and imitated the ten in the worship of idols. So say Haymo, Rupert, Albert, Hugh, Vatablus, Ribera, and Sanchez.
But better, the Chaldean, Theodoret, Theophylact, and Castro think that the same people are indicated here who were indicated in chapter 1: namely Israel, or the ten tribes. For He threatens them, on account of their idolatry, with complete destruction and desolation, so that they will be without king, without law, without God, without a commonwealth, etc., which we see came to pass after the destruction of Samaria accomplished in the sixth year of King Hezekiah: whereas on the other hand the two tribes returning from Babylon had leaders, law, and a commonwealth, until the destruction by Titus, which they suffered not on account of idolatry, but on account of having killed Christ, and which they still endure.
LOVE A WOMAN BELOVED OF A FRIEND. — So also the Chaldean, St. Jerome, and others generally: for they read in the Hebrew, רע rea, that is, "of a friend." But the Septuagint, reading with different vowel points רע ra, that is, "evil," translate: "Love a woman loving evil things," namely adulteries: and so read Theodoret and Theophylact, being Greeks who accordingly follow the Greek version of the Septuagint, but the meaning comes to the same thing.
One may ask, who is this woman? Is she Gomer whom Hosea married in chapter 1, or some other? First, Rufinus, Ribera, and some others think she was Gomer: who, they say, after her marriage to Hosea and the three children born from him, had mixed herself with adulterers: hence Hosea was thinking of divorcing her. But God commands her to be received back, loved, and retained, with the marriage renewed and restored through a new contract with her; so that by this act he might represent the Synagogue, espoused to God, although committing adultery, as being loved by God, and that He loves her even after the adulteries of idolatry, and retains her as His bride. The reason is that Hosea could not take as wife another adulteress who was the wife of another man: for this would have been a new adultery: therefore she would have had to be sent back to her former and true husband (for she was his wife), not taken by Hosea.
Second, the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Hugh, Isidore, Paulus a Palatio, Castro, Emmanuel, and others think this woman was not Gomer, but another (as the words of the text suggest, especially the words "again" and "I purchased," that is, I bought: therefore she had not previously been bought or acquired) who, having left her husband, had become an adulteress, whom Hosea is commanded to call away from her crime, and to buy not as a wife, but as a handmaid, and to keep her chaste at home, so that she would be joined neither to a husband nor to an adulterer; until after a long time she would be called back to her husband, and return to his favor and his bed. Hear St. Jerome: "The Prophet loves an adulteress, and yet is not joined to her in marriage, nor united in fornication, but only loves the sinner." For this is what Hosea's words mean, verse 7: "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."
Then, explaining this and applying it to the aim prophetically represented through her, he adds: "Because the children of Israel shall sit many days without a king, etc., and after these things they shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God."
A third opinion, which Theophylact, Rupert (who holds that this was Gomer's sister), Vatablus, Sanchez, and others follow, takes a middle position, namely that this woman was different from Gomer, and was bought by Hosea as a bride and wife, not as a handmaid. For this is what the phrase "love a woman" means, as if to say: Take her as a wife and love her as a wife. Again, the phrase "you shall wait for me, but I also will wait for you" makes it clear that she was betrothed by Hosea so that she might become his wife; but Hosea abstained from the consummation of the marriage and conjugal union for a long time, after which he was united to her, in order to represent that in the same way the Synagogue would for a long time be without king, law, and God, and after that time was completed, would return to the embraces of God. For Hosea seems here to bear the role of God, the woman that of the Synagogue, and the marriage and union that of religion and the worship of God. Therefore this was Hosea's wife, just as the Synagogue was the wife of God. From this it follows that her former husband, under whom she had committed adultery, had already died, or certainly that the marriage with him had been severed and dissolved through a bill of divorce given to her by her husband on account of her adulteries, so that, now free, she could marry Hosea the prophet.
These opinions are all probable, but the second is more probable, because of our version, which translates "beloved of a friend," that is, of a husband; for it follows: "Just as the Lord loves the children of Israel," as if to say: Just as this woman, although much loved by her husband, nevertheless commits adultery, so the children of Israel, although much loved by God, nevertheless join themselves to idols. Therefore "friend" here cannot be taken to mean an adulterer, but a husband: for such was God with respect to the Synagogue. Hence it follows that this woman had a friend, that is, a living husband, and therefore could not be sought by Hosea as a wife, but only as a handmaid, or rather that Hosea loved this lost and fugitive woman out of charity, as a neighbor, and gave her a price and lodging so that she would cease committing adultery. So say the authors cited, and specifically they take this "friend" to mean a husband, not an adulterer: the Chaldean, Lyranus, Isidore, Paulus a Palatio, Arias, Guadalupe, Vatablus, and many others; although St. Jerome, Theodoret, and Theophylact, following the Septuagint, understand it as an adulterer. And thus rea, that is, friend or companion, means a husband, Jeremiah 3:20: "As if a woman despises her lover," in Hebrew rea, that is, friend, namely husband. Therefore this friend bears the type of God, not of Hosea, who is merely this woman's employer.
Furthermore, the Chaldean, Isidore, and Vatablus think that these things happened to Hosea not in reality, but only in the spirit through an imaginary vision. Better, Theodoret, Castro, and others think they were actually done and carried out by him. See what was said at chapter 1, 1.
AND AN ADULTERESS. — The Complutensian and Royal Septuagint read καὶ μοιχαλίδα, that is, "and adulteresses," but corruptly; for one should read with the Vatican Codex, Sanchez, Jerome, and Theophylact, καὶ μοιχαλίδα, that is, "and an adulteress." This is clear from the Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and others. See here the tender heart of God, by which He loves and pursues sinners who have turned away from Him.
Morally, St. Augustine, Homily 38, among the 50, says: "Tear your heart away from the love of the creature, so that you may cling to the Creator, because if you love those things which He made, you are an adulterer, and you seek wrath, because the friendship of this world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore wishes to be a friend of this world is made an enemy of God. A soul that abandons the Creator and loves the creature is an adulteress. For nothing is more chaste, nothing more delightful than His love. O soul, that you may be worthy of His embraces, leave these things and cling to Him freely! For hence the Psalmist said, Psalm 72: It is good for me to cling to God, and therefore he prefaced the preceding verse saying: You have destroyed all who fornicate away from You."
AND THEY LOVE THE GRAPE-SKINS OF GRAPES. — For "grape-skins," the Hebrew has אשישי ashishe, which the Chaldean, Lyranus, Marinus, Forster, R. David, and from him Vatablus and Pagninus translate as "jars" or "flagons of grapes," as though the gluttony and drunkenness of idolaters is noted here. For idolaters used to feast and drink at their sacrifices and more solemn festivals, indeed to distribute a fixed measure of wine and food to those present, as David also did when he transferred the ark to Zion, 2 Samuel 6:19. Hence the Septuagint also translate πέμματα, that is, delicacies, cakes made from fine flour, and pastries that are offered to idols, says St. Jerome and Theophylact.
But better, St. Jerome, Vatablus, and others translate it as "grape-skins." For Aquila also translates παλαιά, that is, "old things"; and Symmachus ἀκάρπους, that is, "fruitless," or dried and barren husks of grapes; for grape-skins are the husks or peels of grapes which remain in the winepress after the grapes and wine have flowed out. Hence in Hebrew they are called אשישים ashishim, as if to say "bottoms" or "foundations," which settle to the bottom of the winepress; from the root אשש ashash, that is, "he founded." So Columella, Book 12, chapter 3 (where he calls them dried grape-skins), and Varro, Book 3 of On Agriculture, 11, and Cato, chapter 10, and Pliny, Book 17, chapter 22. They are also called "lora, because the washed grape berries are given as wine to workers in winter," says Varro, Book 1, chapter 54. And Pliny, Book 14, chapter 10: "They cannot rightly be called wines, which the Greeks call deuterias, and Cato and we call lora, made from grape-skins soaked in water; but nevertheless they are numbered among working wines."
Hear also Hugh: "Grape-skins, he says, are the peels; a bunch contains many clusters, clusters many grapes, a berry is a seed, the juice is the liquid." The Prophet therefore signifies here that idolaters offered these grape-skins to their idols, say Theodoret and Theophylact, or rather he stings them with bitter sarcasm, because, having left pure and excellent wine at home, they would go to the idols and idol-feasts, where, because of the crowd of strangers, each person was given lora made from grape-skins diluted with water, not wine.
Hence tropologically, grape-skins and empty grape husks signify vain and futile things, in which there is no juice, no marrow, no good — such were the idols and idol-offerings, and other things that the Israelites loved, having abandoned God; for all the pleasure of sin is empty, tasteless, and dry, not solid, not satisfying. Hence Hugh says: "Grape-skins, he says, are the demons, who were created in the great richness of the Holy Spirit, but dried up through pride, were cast out of heaven. For God in them, says St. Augustine, was at the same time both bestowing grace and establishing their nature;" but, grace having been poured out through sin, their nature remained empty, like a grape-skin.
So, O sinner, when you pursue honors and dignities, wines and pleasures, you are pursuing grape-skins, empty husks, and chasing things swollen with mere air or wind. You used to feed in the house of God on the bread of heaven, the bread of angels; now, a vagabond and fugitive, like the prodigal son you seek the husks of swine. For what husks are in wheat, grape-skins are in grapes. Is it so, O fool, that you trust the world, which serves you husks instead of wheat, lora instead of wine? Your silver has turned to dross, your wine is mixed with water — indeed it is mere water, and putrid at that. Why not return to the Father, to your God? He invites you to His table, richly furnished with wine and delicacies, and cries out: "Come, eat My bread, and drink the wine I have mixed for you," Proverbs chapter 9, 5. "I am the living bread who came down from heaven: If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever," John chapter 6, 51. "For what is His goodness and what is His beauty, but the grain of the elect and the wine that makes virgins flourish?" Zechariah chapter 9, 17. "Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, beloved ones," Song of Songs 5, 1. Why not come, why not hasten? So that you may feel and say with the bride: "The king has brought me into his storerooms: we will exult and rejoice in you."
Beautifully says St. Bernard in his Sentences: "The wine of grace, he says, is that which flows from the cluster of Cyprus, that is, from the generosity of the Creator: and this is the new wine with which the sons of the bridegroom are inebriated, which is also poured into new wineskins." And again: "There is a threefold wine in the cup of God: red in the patience of the saints, which gladdens Isaac in his infirmity; white in the reward of the just, with which Noah is inebriated; black and sour in the condemnation of the wicked, which Jesus tastes but does not wish to drink." And from this wine, says the same author in his treatise On Loving God, comes "that sober inebriation, gorging with truth, not with wine; not drenched with wine, but burning with God." And Sermon 18 on the Song of Songs: "By praying one drinks wine that gladdens the heart of man, the wine of the spirit that inebriates and pours in forgetfulness of carnal pleasures."
Verse 2: AND I PURCHASED HER.
2. AND I PURCHASED HER. — That is, I hired, I acquired her. So the Septuagint, Chaldean, St. Jerome, Hugh, Lyranus, Vatablus, Arias, and others generally. Hence the Syriac translates, "I bought her"; the Arabic, "I hired her." Note: The Hebrew כרה karah properly means to dig, to cut out, to excavate; hence by metalepsis it means to acquire or to buy. For in ancient times each person would dig out caves for himself for habitation and for burial, and much more vineyards, fields, wells, and cisterns, which are especially needed in Mesopotamia and nearby places (where the patriarchs of Israel lived) because of the dryness and heat of the land, and hence so many and great quarrels between the shepherds of Isaac and the shepherds of Abimelech over these wells, Genesis 26:17, 20, 22, so much so that even now travelers there yearn for and divert to the common wells, just as in Europe they yearn for inns, as the eyewitness R. Fr. Marietus reported to me. Therefore, by digging wells for themselves they used to acquire them, as is clear from Genesis 1, 5, and elsewhere. Hence "to dig" means to buy, to acquire, as in Deuteronomy 2:6, instead of "you shall draw water that you have bought," the Hebrew has, "you shall dig water from them with silver," that is, "you shall buy it with silver, and draw it once bought."
St. Jerome, Haymo, and Lyranus add that Hosea uses this word "to dig" because he alludes to the grape-skins already mentioned; for Israel was like a vineyard that is customarily dug. Hence in chapter 2, 43, he said: "I will give her vinedressers from it." Wherefore Leo Castrius says: I dug and cultivated the vineyard, spending fifteen pieces of silver on the diggers. Second, Forster says: Karah means to dig and to cut, and from that to buy: because buyers and sellers, by striking each other's right hands, as it were cut them, and by this cutting and dividing of hands they stipulate that the sale of both parties has been made, and signify that the purchase is ratified. Third, Arias says: I dug her, that is, I bought her as a perpetual servant; for such a servant's ears used to be pierced through, according to the law of Exodus chapter 21, 6; Deuteronomy chapter 15, 16.
Hence note: Although Rufinus and Ribera, cited a little earlier, think that this woman was bought by Hosea as a wife — for among the ancients, including the Hebrews, bridegrooms and husbands used to buy their brides and wives, both from their parents and from the women themselves, giving them gifts according to the dignity of each; and brides in turn, by giving a dowry, would buy their husbands for themselves. Thus David bought Michal with a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, Jacob bought Rachel with seven years' service, Genesis 29:18. Zipporah bought Moses with the blood of her son, whom she circumcised, Exodus 4:25; see what was said there. The same custom existed among the Romans, as is clear from Cicero's oration for Murena, and Gellius, Book 18, 6, and among the Greeks: hence in Iliad 9, Agamemnon offers his daughter to Achilles without ἕδνα, that is, gifts which bridegrooms customarily give to brides. Hence they are called by Ovid "nuptial gifts," by others "betrothal gifts." So therefore Hosea here seems to have bought a wife. Nevertheless it is more true that he did not buy her as a spouse, but hired her as a handmaid, for the purpose of abstaining from adulterers and adulteries.
Hence the Septuagint translates: ἐμισθωσάμην αὐτήν, that is, "I hired her for a wage and a price"; for μισθός means "a wage." So say St. Jerome, Albert, Hugh, and the others cited above.
FOR FIFTEEN PIECES OF SILVER — namely, shekels. Now a shekel weighed four Attic drachmas, that is, half an ounce, namely 4 Spanish reales, or four Italian julios, as I said at Exodus 30:13. Therefore a silver shekel was a Brabantine florin, and 15 shekels were 15 Brabantine florins.
A COR OF BARLEY. — A cor, in Hebrew חמר chomer (different from עמר or gomor, which was a measure of daily food, Exodus 16:16), was a measure containing 30 modii. So say St. Jerome and Epiphanius in his book On Measures, who says that a cor contains 30 modii and is a camel's load. Paulus a Palatio adds that a cor or chomer is a donkey's load, that is, what a strong donkey can carry, and hence it is called chomer from חמור chamor, that is, "donkey." "The most ancient food, says Pliny, Book 18, chapter 7, is barley, as appears from the Athenian custom; and from the nickname of gladiators, who are called 'Barley-men.'"
AND A HALF COR OF BARLEY. — In Hebrew לתך שעורים lethech seorim, which it is surprising that the Septuagint translates as νέϐελ οἴνου, that is, "a flagon of wine": for seorim means barley, not wine. And the other translators rendered lethech as half a cor, that is, fifteen modii of barley. So say St. Jerome, Epiphanius, and others.
Furthermore, this wife was bought with a half cor of barley; because in ancient times marriages were contracted by confarreation, when with certain words before witnesses in a solemn sacrifice, in which a cake of spelt was used, they came into the hand, says Ulpian: which Dionysius testifies was instituted by Romulus; for that confarreation signified a sharing of life; hence diffarreatio in Festus is the dissolution of a marriage contracted by confarreation. So Ulpian, law 9 of the Institutes; Pliny, Book 18, chapter 3, and from them Pineda, Book 5 of On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 2.
One may ask, what do these things signify? First, the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Hugh, Lyranus, and others think that the fifteen pieces of silver signify the fifteenth day of the first month Nisan, that is, the Passover, on which the Hebrews redeemed their firstborn by the blood of the paschal lamb from the death that the angel inflicted by striking the firstborn of the Egyptians, and therefore afterwards they were commanded to redeem the same with five shekels. The cor and a half, that is, 45 modii, signify the 43 days in which they traveled from Egypt to Mount Sinai, where they received the law, in which God decreed that the firstfruits of barley be offered to Him on the second day of Passover, says the Chaldean. But even if there may be an allusion to this, nevertheless these things had long since passed; here, however, it is a prophecy about the future, so the question is what they portend for the future.
Second, Arias thinks that the fifteen pieces of silver signify the fifteen Prophets, both major and minor, who preached to Israel and led them to repentance: the cor, or chomer, he says, means a heap; seorim is barley, also a whirlwind and tempest; the 45 modii are the 45 punishments which God threatened against the Jews, Leviticus 26, if they should violate the law, and the Prophet here signifies that the Jews will undergo these. Others offer other interpretations, but irrelevant ones, which you may see, if you wish, in Christophorus a Castro.
It seems simpler to say that this price was fixed for this woman's yearly sustenance; for to this end the Romans designated their 48 modii, which amount to the Hebrews' 45 modii, that is, a cor and a half. Hence Terence in the Phormio teaches that slaves received four modii per month for sustenance: now multiply four by twelve (for there are that many months in a year) and you will have 48 modii, which was the measure of a year's sustenance at Rome. Furthermore, barley and barley bread was the food of slaves, handmaids, and the poor; among the Hebrews, also of adulteresses; hence a woman accused of adultery, says St. Jerome, is ordered to take a gomor of barley flour, Numbers 11:5. Through all these things, therefore, the Prophet signifies that God gave earthly goods to the Israelites destined for servitude on account of their sins, and as it were to earthly beasts of burden (for barley is their fodder); but with toil and only a little — namely, only as much as sufficed for sustenance; for such is a cor and a half of barley for a year's food, and fifteen shekels for clothing and other necessities; and this for the purpose that they would not be compelled to follow the nations and their idols as they formerly used to do; but that they would know they had not been entirely abandoned by God, and would rather recognize His care, nourishment, and goodness toward them, and in hope of greater gifts would return to God, which will happen in the last days, as is said in verse 5. This is what the Apostle says, Romans 11: "God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew": but He waits until at the end "all Israel shall be saved." So say Ribera, Castro, and others.
For the moral interpretation of this price, see St. Jerome here, and St. Ambrose, Book 4, Epistle 39, and Book 8, Epistle 77.
Verse 3: And I said.
3. And I said. — The Prophet hired the adulteress for the price of fifteen pieces of silver and a cor and a half of barley; now he sets before her the terms and conditions of the contract which he requires of her.
The first condition is: "Many days (namely, a full year; for the Hebrews call this ימים yamim, that is, days, because a year is the sum and revolution of all days: and he had given her the price for a year's sustenance, as I have already said) you shall wait for me," in Hebrew, "you shall sit for me, or with me," as if to say: For a year you shall dwell and sit with me, and not wander about through the houses and lodgings of your lovers. So say Theodoret, Theophylact, Pagninus, and others. Hence Isidore and Vatablus explain it as if to say: For many days you shall sit in mourning as a widow. Hosea here represents not God, but Shalmaneser, who held the Israelites captive in Assyria as in a lodging. Our translator renders it "you shall wait for me," because he looks to the thing signified: for she sat in the Prophet's house for the purpose of waiting for the time when she would be reconciled by him and led back to her husband. So say St. Jerome, Haymo, and others.
that is, days, because a year is the sum and revolution of all days: and he had given her the price for a year's sustenance, as I have already said) you shall wait for me," in Hebrew, "you shall sit for me, or with me," as if to say: For a year you shall dwell and sit with me, and not wander about through the houses and lodgings of your lovers. So say Theodoret, Theophylact, Pagninus, and others. Hence Isidore and Vatablus explain it as if to say: For many days you shall sit in mourning as a widow. Hosea here represents not God, but Shalmaneser, who held the Israelites captive in Assyria as in a lodging. Our translator renders it "you shall wait for me," because he looks to the thing signified: for she sat in the Prophet's house for the purpose of waiting for the time when she would be reconciled by him and led back to her husband. So say St. Jerome, Haymo, and others.
The second condition is, "you shall not commit fornication"; for this was the principal aim of the Prophet, namely to call her away from fornication. Here note his remarkable charity and zeal for souls. Thus St. Ephrem celebrates the zeal and skill of the hermit Abramius (in his Life), who, when his niece Mary had fallen into fornication and was then publicly plying the harlot's trade in a lodging house, upon learning of it pursued her, and with great labor and equal ingenuity led her away from there, and brought her back to the desert to her former holiness of life and perpetual penance. Thus our holy Father Ignatius at Rome had the monastery of St. Martha built, so that women who had been drawn away from shameful gain and wished to change their lives for the better might be received there, and he himself, being General, would lead them there. And when it was objected to him that the effort was wasted on them, because they would easily return to their vomit: "By no means, said Ignatius, but if by all the cares and labors of my life I could bring it about that even one of these women would be willing to spend even one night free from sin, I would strain every nerve, so that for even so brief a time God and our Lord would not be offended, even if I knew she would immediately return to her old ways." So says Ribadeneira, Book 3 of his Life, chapter 9. Clearly he perceived how great an evil, how great an offense and injury to God is one mortal sin, one act of fornication, and that therefore every zealot for God ought to strain and spend all the powers of body and soul to avert it.
The third condition is: "And you shall not be with a man," that is, you shall marry no man, nor be joined to one, and consequently you shall not return to your husband (for he neglects and spurns you because of your adulteries), nor be joined to him; much less to me, who am merely your guardian, host, and employer.
The fourth condition is: "And I will wait for you"; in Hebrew, "and I toward you," that is, I will look toward you and come: so that in due time, namely after a year, I may lead you out of this lodging in my house, and bring you back to your husband. Our translator renders it "I will wait," because he looks to the thing signified, as if to say: I will wait for you to repent and be converted, and then I will restore you to your husband. So say the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Haymo, Hugh, and Lyranus. Ribera says differently: I will wait, he says, for you so that I may be joined to you, and again beget children from you. For he thinks this was Gomer, Hosea's wife, from whom he abstained for a time at God's command, and commanded her to sit quietly at home and not commit fornication; but to wait for him and his bed, to which he was going to call her back again, in order to represent that God, who had already as it were abandoned the Synagogue of the Jews, having meanwhile given a frugal sustenance of temporal goods, was waiting for her until the end of the world, so that then He would again be betrothed to her and beget children from her. Vatablus, Pagninus, and Arias also translate differently; for they render: You shall not be with a man, nor shall I come to you, that is, to be joined to you. Hosea explains the meaning and cause of these conditions, and applies them to Israel when he adds:
Verse 4: Because many days the children of Israel shall sit (desolate and dispersed, and therefore mournin...
4. Because many days the children of Israel shall sit (desolate and dispersed, and therefore mourning, afflicted, and wretched) WITHOUT A KING, etc. — First, the Rabbis, Rufinus, Albert, and Hugh take this to refer to the Babylonian captivity of the two tribes, up to their release through Cyrus. But it is objected that in that captivity these tribes had a high priest, namely Jozadak, likewise a law and judges, as is clear from Daniel 15:5, and even a king, Jehoiachin, and princes Zerubbabel and Shealtiel, moreover an altar, as is clear from Baruch 1:10, and priests and prophets, such as Daniel, Ezekiel, etc., and they worshipped God — all of which, however, are here predicted as lacking to them. Again, Zerubbabel or Shealtiel cannot be called King David. So say St. Jerome, Cyril, Rupert, and St. Augustine, Book 18 of The City of God, chapter 28.
Second, R. David thinks these things came to pass at the time of the Maccabees and Herod: for then the Jews were subjugated by Antiochus Epiphanes and his successors, who profaned the sacred things of the Jews and sold the pontificate; and although the Maccabees were then leaders, they were not legitimate, because they came from the tribe of Levi, not Judah, to whom God gave the scepter, Genesis 49:10. But he is wrong; for then under the Maccabees religion, virtue, and the valor of the Jews flourished most of all, and they were legitimate leaders, having been chosen by the whole people. Nor does the passage of Genesis 49:10 stand in the way, as I showed there.
Third, St. Jerome, Cyril, Haymo, Hugh, Lyranus, Paulus a Palatio, Vatablus, Ribera, Sanchez, and others generally, and St. Augustine, Book 18 of The City of God, chapter 28, think the Jews suffer these things now, that is, after Christ, and will suffer them until the end of the world. For now they lack a king, a priesthood, an altar, etc. But the Jews suffer this because of their having killed Christ, not because of idolatry; which, however, the Prophet asserts here. Again, up to this point the Prophet has been speaking about the Israelites, that is, the ten tribes, not about the two, namely the Jews: for he said he would have mercy on the Jews, chapter 1, 7; I admit however that by analogy these things can be extended to them. Hence
Fourth, I say with Theodoret, Theophylact, the Chaldean, and Castro, that the Prophet continues to speak about the Israelites, that is, the ten tribes, and to predict their destruction and a desolation lasting until the end of the world. For having been carried off into Assyria, they never returned from there, except very few mixed with the Jews; but scattered and unrecognized, they wander even now throughout the whole world: hence they lack a king, law, a commonwealth, a priesthood, etc., and serve as lowly, poor, and wretched subjects of other nations and rulers, just as that woman (who was a type of these people) sat with Hosea desolate, as a widow, lacking a husband and every other divine and human help, having only the meager sustenance that Hosea gave her. This is what the prophet Azariah likewise predicted for them, 2 Chronicles 15:3: "Many days shall pass in Israel without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without the law," as if to say: After Samaria was destroyed by the Assyrians in the sixth year of Hezekiah king of Judah, the Israelites will be captives and fugitives, and will lack both the commonwealth and the Church, both a king and a high priest, both a court and a temple, both civil law and sacred law.
WITHOUT AN ALTAR. — In Hebrew it is מצבה matsebah, that is, a pillar or standing stone. Hence Leo the Hebrew, Isidore, Arias, Pagninus, and others translate it as "without idols." But our translator better renders it "without an altar," for so the Septuagint translates it; for an altar directly and correlatively corresponds to the sacrifice which preceded. Hence also the Chaldean translates: "Nor shall there be a high place in Samaria," namely an altar. For matsebah signifies everything that is set up, established, and made firm — which is primarily an altar — from the root יצב yatsab, that is, "he stood," and in the hiphil הציב hitsib, that is, "he set up, erected, made firm."
WITHOUT AN EPHOD. — The ephod, or shoulder-garment, was the primary vestment of the high priests, as I said at Exodus 28:6. Hence it signifies that the pontificate and priesthood are to be taken away from Israel, as has long since been done. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Theophylact, Hugh, and Lyranus; hence the Septuagint translates "without a priesthood." But because in the phrases "without a sacrifice" and "without an altar" it has been sufficiently signified that the priesthood too is to be taken away, for the priesthood cannot exist without an altar and sacrifice; hence more precisely and better we shall take "ephod" to mean oracles and prophecy, which were given through the Urim and Thummim placed in the ephod, as I said at Exodus 28:30; it signifies therefore that the Prophets and high priests are to be taken away from Israel, who by the Urim and Thummim gave oracles and, when consulted, answered about the future. So say St. Cyril, Theodoret, and Theophylact.
WITHOUT TERAPHIM. — One may ask, what are teraphim? First, the Jews think they were sacred images, of which the ten tribes were to be deprived in the Assyrian captivity; hence Aben-Ezra and other Rabbis conclude from this passage that sacred images were not forbidden to the Jews, but only profane and idolatrous ones. Let Luther and the heretics therefore be silent, who claim that the teraphim were sacred images similar to the images of Catholics, and hence that they are forbidden, because elsewhere Scripture everywhere forbids and condemns teraphim. Let these fabulists read Bellarmine, Book 2 On the Saints.
Second, Arias and Cajetan on Judges 17, and Oleaster on Genesis 31:19, think they were images that astrologers fashioned at a certain configuration of the stars, so that from them speaking and giving answers they might learn the future. Hence R. Eliezer in his Chapters, chapter 36: "Why, he says, are they called teraphim?" and he answers: "They would bring a firstborn man and slaughter him, and cut off his head, and season it with salt and spices, and inscribe upon a plate the name of a certain unclean spirit. Then they would place that name under its tongue, and set it in a wall, and before it they would light lamps, and they would worship it, and it would speak to them." And Aben-Ezra on Genesis 31: The teraphim, he says, were images of men, for receiving the influence of the higher powers and of the heavens. So also Lyranus on Judges 17.
Third, other Rabbis think they were certain bronze instruments for distinguishing the parts of the hours, that is, clocks, sundials, astrolabes.
Fourth, Monceius, Book 1 On the Golden Calf, chapters 16 and 20, thinks the teraphim were Cherubim, others say Seraphim. Hence Cedrenus, relating the history of Judges 17, has Seraphim in place of Teraphim. For the Chaldeans speak thus; for instead of the letter s, they put t, as instead of shalos, that is three, they say thelath; instead of shesh, that is six, they say shet; instead of meshalim, that is proverbs, they say methalim; instead of matsekah, that is a molten image, matheka; instead of sha'ar, that is a door, they say therah, with metathesis, whence the Greek θύρα and the German Thür, says Serarius on Judges 17, Question 5. Hence also St. Jerome says: The teraphim are the Cherubim and Seraphim, or other things that were commanded to be made as ornaments of the temple; for all these are signified by synecdoche in their part, namely in the teraphim, that is, Cherubim and Seraphim. So also Haymo, Albert, Hugh, and Dionysius.
Fifth, Christophorus a Castro, Sanchez, and Leo Castrius think the teraphim were the Urim and Thummim, which were two stones, or two small images, as Christophorus a Castro thinks, in the Rational of the high priest, giving oracles and responses to those consulting them. They prove this because the Septuagint and Aquila translate them as "illuminations" or "manifestations"; and they translate Urim and Thummim the same way, Exodus 28:30. But this, being as novel as it is, seems hardly plausible, especially because it would have been very dangerous among the Jews if they had seen images, or heard them speaking and prophesying. For they were most inclined to the adoration of images and to idolatry.
Wherefore I say first, "teraphim" means images or likenesses. This is clear because our translator renders it so, 1 Samuel 19:16, in the statue that his wife Michal substituted for the fugitive David, where the Septuagint translates κενοτάφια, that is, statues representing a dead man, but empty and vain, since the actual body of the man is not present but absent. Second, because Aquila translates μορφώματα, that is, figures or images: the Chaldean צלמניא tsalmenaia, that is, likenesses and images.
I say second, hence consequently teraphim, just like images, are taken to mean idols, because ancient images, especially among the Jews, were scarcely made except for gods and idols. This is clear because our translator and others, at Genesis 31:19; Judges 17:5; Ezekiel 21:21, and elsewhere throughout, translate teraphim as idols.
These are called teraphim, either from the root רפה rapha, that is, "to let down," as Marinus and Forster maintain, because idolaters would let themselves down and humble themselves before them in worshiping them; or from the Chaldean תרף theraph, that is, "to rot, to reproach, and to cover with disgrace." Hence the Chaldeans call a temple of an idol beth hatturpha, that is, "house of shame," and perhaps from this came the Latin word turpis ("shameful") and turpitudo ("shamefulness"), says Serarius in the passage cited. Teraphim therefore means the same as shameful, disgraceful, unclean, rotten, and worthy of putrefaction: for such is an idol, which is therefore called in Hebrew "dung" and "filth"; or rather teraphim were named from Seraphim and Cherubim, about which more shortly.
Furthermore, that teraphim here, as elsewhere, means idols, is inferred from the fact that by the phrase "without teraphim" he explains what he said about the woman in verse 3: "You shall not commit fornication, and you shall not be with a man," as if to say: I want you, O woman, to live alone in my house, so that you are joined neither to adulterers nor to your husband; to represent that the Israelites after their destruction will in like manner sit without sacrifices and an altar — so as not to worship the true God, as their husband — and without teraphim — so as not to worship foreign gods, as adulterers; it signifies therefore that the Israelites will for a long time worship neither the true God nor teraphim, that is, idols.
I say third, teraphim means idols, both insofar as they were gods and insofar as they gave oracles and answered those consulting them about future events. This is clear because in Ezekiel 21:21, of the king of Babylon it is said: "He consulted idols (in Hebrew, teraphim), he examined the entrails"; and Zechariah 10:2: "Because the teraphim have spoken what is useless, and the diviners have seen what is false"; hence also the Chaldean translates: "There will be no one to give an answer"; the same is clear from Judges chapter 17:5, and chapter 18:20, concerning the teraphim of Micah. Second, because the Septuagint for teraphim translates δῆλον, that is, "manifestation"; and Aquila φωτισμόν, that is, "illumination" — that is, prophecy and oracle: finally the Rabbis say: "Teraphim are images that foretell the future."
The teraphim, therefore, were images and idols which idolaters kept in their homes, invoked, and consulted in all difficulties and doubts, as their household gods (Lares) and Penates. Thus Rachel stole the teraphim, that is, the idols and household gods, of her father, Genesis 31:19. Thus Micah had teraphim as his Penates, Judges 17:5. And so it is signified here that Israel in captivity will lack teraphim, that is, their ancestral gods, their Lares and Penates, namely the golden calves and the Baalim which they worshiped in Samaria; for although mixed among the nations they may have worshiped the nations' idols, these were not their teraphim, that is, their ancestral gods, their own household Lares and Penates which they had worshiped in Samaria. So say the Hebrews, Lyranus, Vatablus, Pagninus, Isidore, Arias, Serarius in the passage cited, and others.
In a similar way the Gentiles worshiped their Lares, so much so that even after the destruction of their home and city, fleeing, they would carry them abroad with them, just as Aeneas, when Troy was destroyed, carried with him his ancestral idols, as his household gods, which Virgil tacitly mocking says: "Carrying Ilium to Italy and the conquered Penates."
Hence the Gentiles relate that when a citadel was being built at Troy in honor of Pallas, and a temple was being built for her at its summit, the Palladium fell from heaven — that is, a wooden image of Pallas that moved its eyes and the spear it carried in its hand, as Servius writes. This Palladium chose a place for itself in that temple, and soon an oracle was given by Apollo that Troy would be destroyed if this Palladium were carried out of the city. Wherefore Diomedes and Ulysses secretly, having killed the guards, carried it away; and shortly after Troy was captured by the Greeks. So say Ovid, Fasti Book 5, and Virgil, Aeneid Book 2: "They ventured, he says, to tear from the sacred temple the fateful Palladium, etc."
For the Palladium was the Penates of Troy. And St. Augustine in his book The City of God mocks these gods and guardians of cities, who have eyes and do not see, feet and do not walk, hands and cannot help. "Such, he says, were the rulers and guardians of the Capitol, who, since they could not defend themselves, how much less were they able to protect the city?" Of these Plautus says: "I am the household Lar of this family, whence you saw me coming out." Hence the place or chapel where the teraphim, that is, the Lares and household gods, were kept and worshiped was called a Lararium. Lampridius writes that the Emperor Alexander Severus used to perform divine worship in the morning in his Lararium before the images of gods, among which he had Abraham and Christ, and in a second Lararium he had an image of Virgil and Cicero.
The same were called Penates, "either from a name derived from penus (for penus is everything on which humans feed), or from the fact that they dwell deeply within, from which they are also called penetrales by the poets," says Cicero in Book 2 of On the Nature of the Gods. And Macrobius, Book 3 of the Saturnalia, chapter 4: "They said the Penates are those through whom we breathe deeply, through whom we have a body, through whom we possess the reason of the soul." Hence Plautus in the Mercator: "I will go seek other Penates gods for myself, another Lar." And Terence in the Phormio: "But I will turn aside home to greet my Penates gods."
Hence again one may suspect that the teraphim had their origin from the Cherubim and Seraphim, as I said above. For when the nations saw that the Jews pursued with such great veneration the Cherubim and Seraphim, both after the construction of the ark and the Cherubim by Moses, and before it. (For before it, Genesis chapter 31, Rachel is said to have stolen the teraphim, that is, the idols of her father, and from the beginning of the world the Cherubim had been placed as guardians of paradise; finally, from the tradition of Adam, Noah, and Abraham, their sons and grandsons before Moses knew and venerated angels, seraphim, and cherubim); from this the Gentiles suspected that these were their divinities and tutelary gods; hence they likewise seem to have called their own Lares and Penates by a somewhat changed and corrupted name (as usually happens when words are transferred from the original language into a foreign one) — instead of seraphim and cherubim they called them theraphim, especially the Chaldeans, who are fond of the letter t and change s into t, as I said at the beginning. Hence also the teraphim are frequently joined with the ephod, as in this passage, and Judges 17:5, and chapter 18:4, 17, and 20; for it is established that the ephod was a priestly garment of the Jews.
Verse 5: AND THEY SHALL SEEK (the Israelites, or ten tribes, afflicted by so many centuri
5. AND THEY SHALL SEEK (the Israelites, or ten tribes, afflicted by so many centuries of desolation and abandonment, repentant and coming to their senses) THE LORD THEIR GOD, AND DAVID THEIR KING. — "David," that is, the Messiah, or Christ the son of David, and His successor in His kingdom (not temporal, but the spiritual kingdom of the Church). So say the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Hugh, Vatablus, Isidore, Arias, and others generally. Thus Christ is called David, Ezekiel chapter 34:23: "I will raise up over them My servant David"; Jeremiah chapter 30:9: "They shall serve David their king, whom I will raise up for them." And elsewhere, as St. Augustine teaches, Volume 4, in the book On the Eight Questions of Dulcitius, Question 5 and the last, and at length Galatinus, Book 3, chapter 23; for the names of parents among the Hebrews are often taken patronymically for their sons and descendants.
AND THEY SHALL FEAR THE LORD AND HIS GOODNESS. — Fear in Scripture, when attributed to God and divine things, signifies the highest veneration and reverence, as if to say: With the highest reverence they shall follow and worship the Lord. The Septuagint translates: They shall be amazed at the Lord and at His goods. Furthermore, "toward the Lord," that is, upon hearing the name of the Lord, as if to say: Struck and astonished by the mere hearing of the divine name, they shall revere Him. "Goodness" here signifies God's generosity and beneficence toward the Israelites, which God demonstrates to the faithful through innumerable graces, gifts, and benefits, and makes most manifest, so that the faithful, seeing these things, are carried away into admiration and amazement at such a generous and beneficent God, as if to say: The Israelites will venerate the goodness and magnificence of God with wonderful devotion and reverence; because they will see such magnificent gifts and benefits bestowed upon them by Him, although they had been rebels for so many centuries, according to the promises made to Abraham and the patriarchs.
Hence first, in particular, St. Jerome, Albert, and Hugh take "goodness" to mean Jesus Christ, whom as His only-begotten Son (and consequently all gifts through Him and with Him) God the Father gave to us. Second, Haymo, Albert, and Arias take "goodness" to mean the Holy Spirit; for He is the first and uncreated goodness and gift of the Father and the Son, who, embracing within Himself all created gifts, pours them out abundantly upon us. Third, others take "goodness" to mean the Eucharist; for in this, God the Father and Christ the Lord daily show us and communicate to us the highest goodness, riches, and graces, according to that passage of Zechariah chapter 9, verse 17: "What is His goodness, and what is His beauty, but the grain of the elect, and the wine that makes virgins flourish?"
IN THE LAST DAYS — at the end of the world, when at the coming of the Antichrist, especially after he is slain, the Israelites and Jews who had adhered to him while he was living and reigning, partly mindful of the sermons and miracles of Elijah and Enoch, partly by the exhortation of other preachers, will be converted to Christ, as I said at Apocalypse chapter 11; for then all Israel shall be saved, Romans chapter 11:25. So say St. Jerome, Haymo, Albert, Hugh, Lyranus, and others generally. Second, Isidore and Castro think these things were fulfilled in the incarnation, and the first coming and preaching of Christ, namely in an initial way, for then a few from Israel began to be converted. Others err who think these things were accomplished in the release of the Jews from Babylon by Cyrus.