Cornelius a Lapide

Osee IV

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

He reviews the causes of God's wrath and vengeance against Israel: cursing, lying, murder, theft, adultery, etc., the origin of all of which was that there was no knowledge of God in the land. Again in verse 8, he assigns as the cause of all these things the ignorance and malice of the priests, who by flattering the sins of the people encouraged them so that they might receive sacrificial offerings from them. Third, in verse 19, he charges Israel with wantonness and lust, and therefore threatens them with shameful destruction and captivity.

Vulgate Text: Hosea 4:1-19

1. Hear the word of the Lord, children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land: for there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. 2. Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood has touched blood. 3. Therefore the land shall mourn, and everyone who dwells in it shall languish, along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky: even the fish of the sea shall be gathered up. 4. Yet let no one judge; and let no man be rebuked: for your people are like those who contradict the priest. 5. And you shall fall today, and the prophet also shall fall with you: by night I have silenced your mother. 6. My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you, that you shall not minister to Me as priest: and because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 7. According to their multitude, so they sinned against Me: I will change their glory into shame. 8. They shall eat the sins of My people, and shall lift up their souls to their iniquity. 9. And it shall be like people, like priest: and I will visit upon him his ways, and I will repay him his thoughts. 10. And they shall eat, and shall not be satisfied: they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord by not keeping His law. 11. Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart. 12. My people have consulted their wood, and their staff has announced to them: for the spirit of fornication has deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God. 13. They sacrificed upon the tops of mountains, and burned incense upon the hills: under the oak, and the poplar, and the turpentine tree, because its shade was pleasant: therefore your daughters shall commit fornication, and your brides shall be adulteresses. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit fornication, and upon your brides when they commit adultery: because they themselves consorted with harlots, and sacrificed with the effeminate, and the people that did not understand was beaten. 15. If you commit fornication, O Israel, let not Judah at least offend: and do not enter into Gilgal, and do not go up into Beth-aven, nor swear: As the Lord lives. 16. For like a wanton heifer Israel has turned aside: now the Lord will feed them like a lamb in a wide place. 17. Ephraim is a partaker of idols, let him alone. 18. Their banquet is set apart, they have committed fornication upon fornication, his protectors have loved to bring shame. 19. The wind has bound him up in its wings, and they shall be confounded by their sacrifices.

Verse 1: Hear the word of the Lord, children of Israel. — From this it is clear that the...

1. Hear the word of the Lord, children of Israel. — From this it is clear that the Prophet is still addressing the ten tribes. So the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Hugo, Vatablus, and others; for these are called Israel and Ephraim in verse 17, although some, like Haymo and Arias, take this as referring to the two tribes, because verse 15 names Judah; but he does this in passing, by a sudden digression, or rather by comparison and contrast with Israel, that is, with the ten tribes. Others finally, like Ribera, take this as referring to both Israel and Judah, that is, to the twelve tribes, which is not improbable; although the first interpretation I mentioned is more probable and more proper and connected.

For the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. — "Controversy," that is, accusation and expostulation; whence the Chaldean translates it as "dispute," meaning: God has reason to accuse in judgment, and justly expostulate with the inhabitants of Samaria. So Vatablus and others. For there is no truth, — that is, faithfulness or fidelity to promises and agreements, meaning: The Israelites do not keep faith, but are deceitful and fraudulent; for they deceive and defraud their neighbors. So interpreters generally. Only Albert, followed by Denis, takes truth as the truth of morals and life, whereby a life is called true, that is, right, just, and conformed to its rule, namely right reason. There is no mercy, — meaning: There is no one who shows compassion and by compassion helps the needy and afflicted. So Haymo, Hugo, Vatablus, Arias, and St. Cyprian in his letter to Demetrian, where he also adds: "You complain of barrenness or famine, as if drought caused greater famine than greed, as if the more blazing heat of want did not grow from cornered grain surpluses and heaped-up prices. You complain that heaven is shut up from rain, when granaries are thus shut up on earth. You complain that less is being produced, as if what has been produced were given to the needy. You charge plague and pestilence, when by the plague itself and pestilence the crimes of individuals are detected or increased, since no mercy is shown to the sick, and avarice and plunder lurk around the dead; the same people timid about the duty of piety, but bold for impious gain, fleeing the funerals of the dying and seizing the spoils of the dead; so that it appears that the wretched in their sickness are perhaps even abandoned to this end, lest while being cared for they might escape." Thus indeed today also lack of mercy is often the cause of private and public miseries.

And there is no knowledge of God in the land. — "And," that is, "because" (for this is what the Hebrew vav signifies), meaning: The lack of knowledge of God, as a practical light, is the cause why mercy and truth, or faithfulness, are lacking. Moreover, understand the knowledge of God not as speculative, but as practical, by which we recognize, esteem, and reverence God's divine power, providence, justice, vengeance, etc., and therefore this knowledge of God is joined with fear, love, worship, and obedience of Him. For this is the knowledge, wisdom, and prudence that Scripture everywhere commends, especially in Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, and other wisdom books, meaning: There is no one who knows God practically, that is, who grasps and esteems His majesty and providence as is fitting, who fears, worships, and reveres Him; so that thinking of His providence by which He punishes the wicked and rewards the pious, one strives to please Him, and therefore devotes oneself to pious works and abstains from impious ones, about which St. John says in his first epistle, chapter 2:4: "He who says he knows God and does not keep His commandments is a liar;" whence the Chaldean translates: There is no one who walks in the fear of the Lord. So also St. Cyril and St. Cyprian in his book to Demetrian. For what deters men from sin and impels them to good is the fear and reverence of the Divinity; if you remove this, men will give free rein to their lusts with impunity and rush into every crime. This is what the Psalmist laments in Psalm 13: "The fool has said in his heart: There is no God," for this reason "they are corrupt and have become abominable." Conversely, St. Augustine, Sermon 112 On the Seasons: "Nothing is better than the knowledge of God," he says, "because nothing is more blessed, and it is true blessedness itself. Whence also the Savior says to the Father: And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." And shortly after: "For blessed life is the knowledge of divinity; knowledge of divinity is the power of good work; the power of good work is the fruit of eternal blessedness. He who wishes always to be with God must frequently pray and read. For when we pray, we speak with God; when we read, God speaks with us." He wrote the same in the book On the Happy Life, in which he teaches throughout that the happy life is nothing other than the perfect knowledge of God. St. Bernard, in the treatise On the Interior House, at the end: "To know God," he says, "is the fullness of knowledge; the fullness of this knowledge is the fullness of glory, the consummation of grace, the perpetuity of life. But of this knowledge

the fullness, there is need rather of intimate compunction than of profound investigation; of sighs rather than arguments; of tears rather than maxims; of prayer rather than reading; of contemplative recollection rather than earthly occupation." The same author, in his book On Conscience, teaches that many seek knowledge but few seek conscience, since true knowledge consists in a pure and holy conscience before God.

Verse 2: Cursing and lying. — The Chaldean translates: The inhabitants of this land have...

2. Cursing and lying. — The Chaldean translates: The inhabitants of this land have perished, they lie, etc., they commit adultery, they break through (namely the hedge of God's commandments), and blood touches blood; slaughter follows upon slaughter. So also Vatablus. Others translate and explain: They assail their neighbors with curses, calumnies, insults, and imprecations. So Theophylactus, Haymo, Lyranus, and Hugo. Both meanings are signified by the Hebrew word אלה ala, but the first more so; for it shows that there is no truth in the land from the contrary, because in it ala reigns, that is, execratory perjury, as the Septuagint translates, meaning: They curse and say: May I perish, may the earth swallow me up, if this is not true, or if I do not do this, and they lie and break faith: and therefore they are perjurers.

Have overflowed. — The Chaldean and Vatablus: they burst forth like a flood, which breaking through and disrupting all levees and hedges by its force, fills and floods the fields with water. For this is what the Hebrew word ברץ purats means; for in a similar manner the Israelites by their very many and very great crimes were breaking through all the laws and commandments of God, and were filling everything with thefts, frauds, adulteries, murders, etc.

And blood has touched blood. — The Septuagint: They mingle bloods with bloods. For so the Vatican Codex reads. In Hebrew the literal meaning is: Bloods have touched against bloods. "Against bloods" means "bloods;" for verbs of touching among the Hebrews are construed with beth, that is, "in" or "against." For they say "to strike in the hand" for "to strike the hand;" "to kill in the soul," that is, "to kill the soul." Blood in Scripture signifies, first, murder, by metonymy, whereby the object is put for the act; that is, blood for the shedding of blood, and thence it is extended by catachresis to any violence, fraud, and injury inflicted on one's neighbor; for this paves the way to murder and is, as it were, its beginning; whence it is prohibited by the fifth commandment of the Decalogue: "You shall not kill." Second, it signifies all contamination, pollution, and uncleanness; for shed blood contaminates, pollutes, stains, and defiles everything. Third, by synecdoche it signifies any crime whatsoever; for since the greatest crime against one's neighbor is murder, hence from it as the more notorious the denomination is taken, so that any other crime is by parity or similarity called blood. In all these senses it is understood here.

First, therefore, Vatablus explains: Blood has touched blood; that is, slaughter was continuous upon slaughter, or slaughter touched slaughter, meaning: There are continuous slaughters in Samaria; they kill one another everywhere with mutual wounds. Thus among the ancient Latins those who wounded each other were said to "give alternate blood." Whence Seneca in the Thyestes: What madness drives you To give alternate blood And seize the scepter through crime? Whence the Syriac translates: They have mingled blood with blood; the Arabic: They have poured blood upon blood. In Hebrew the emphasis is greater. For it has in the plural: Bloods have touched bloods, meaning: So great is the shedding of blood that it does not drip by drops, but runs like a stream and torrent, and flows together with blood shed elsewhere, forming as it were a lake of blood and fields dripping with blood. Hence a "man of blood" is called a murderer and robber, as David is called by Shimei, 2 Kings chapter 16:7.

Second, Rupert takes blood as the mixing of seed and blood (for seed is the finest and fully concocted blood) among blood relatives, meaning: Blood relatives mingle their blood, that is, their seed, with one another; they commit incest with and pollute one another. Third, most fully, the Chaldean, St. Cyril, St. Jerome, Haymo, and Hugo take bloods as sins, meaning: They add sins to sins, they heap crimes upon crimes. Hear St. Gregory, homily 11 on Ezekiel: "Blood touches blood when sin is added to sin; so that before God's eyes the soul is made bloody by accumulated iniquities. The Apostle Paul says: That they may fill up their sins always. To John also it is said through the angel: He who harms, let him harm still; and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still," meaning: Houses, streets, marketplaces, temples, walls, and fields overflow and flood with sins.

One may ask, why is blood a symbol of sin? I answer first, because the shedding of blood, namely murder, is considered among men to be the gravest sin. Second, because blood is the seat and instrument of concupiscence, which is the cause of sin. For blood supplies material for lust as well as for anger and pride, and kindles and inflames them. Hence blood is a symbol of carnal sense and desire, as I taught from Theodoret on Leviticus chapter 17:11. Third, because blood was for the Jews by law unclean and abominable, and it was not lawful to eat it, and this in hatred and detestation of murder, Leviticus chapter 17:10. Again, the blood of menstruating women was most unclean both naturally and by law, Leviticus chapter 15:19 and following. Such is sin, which is a menstrual and most foul poison of the soul. Fourth, because sin kills the soul and, as it were, pours out its blood and life.

Allegorically, Theophylactus and from him Leo Castro (who presents this sense as if literal): The Jews

to the blood of the Prophets they added the blood of Christ, the Apostles, and the Martyrs, killing them just as they killed the Prophets, as Christ charges them, Matthew chapter 23:34. Again, says Castro, they crucified Christ between two robbers, so that He might be believed to be a robber. Thus they mingled the blood of Christ with the blood of robbers.

Verse 3: Therefore the land shall mourn. — Here He threatens the punishment due to so...

3. Therefore the land shall mourn. — Here He threatens the punishment due to so many and such great crimes. He says therefore "shall mourn," that is, as the Chaldean puts it, the land shall be laid waste and desolated, so that it may be said to mourn metaphorically; just as, conversely, meadows are said to laugh when they bloom with shoots, flowers, and fruits. So Lyranus, Arias, and Vatablus. Second, "shall mourn," metonymically, because once laid waste it will bring mourning upon its inhabitants. So Haymo and Hugo. Therefore he adds the effect of this mourning of the land, saying: And everyone shall languish, — that is, shall grow weak, shall be consumed by famine, shall waste away and die. So the Chaldean. It is metonymy; for the antecedent is put for the consequent, namely weakness for death.

Everyone who dwells in it, along with the beasts of the field, and along with the birds of the sky, — meaning: When the land is desolated, not only men but also beasts and birds, and even fish shall die, both because all these things live from the fruits of the land — therefore when these are removed they perish; and because through all these things God punishes sinful man, who is their master. And the fish of the sea shall be gathered, — that is, shall fail and die. So the Septuagint and the Chaldean.

One may ask, why is the failure and death of animals called a gathering? I answer first, because animals, even wild ones such as lions, stags, wolves, and boars scattered through fields and forests, when they sense the danger of death, are accustomed by natural instinct to gather into one body, so that joined together they may more strongly resist the danger. Second, because when fish are about to migrate to another place due to the corruption of the water, of the air, or for some other cause (such as spawning, or when a pregnant whale, feeling the burden of its belly, agitates itself and the whole sea, and consequently all the fish), they are accustomed to gather into one body and thus set out together; whence fishermen, who anticipate this, are accustomed to catch them then; as every year at the appointed time we see the fishing of herring, mullet, and salmon take place. Third, Ribera and others explain: "They shall be gathered," namely to the multitude and assembly of the dead, that is, they shall waste away and die. For hence comes that well-worn phrase: "To be placed or gathered to one's fathers," that is, to die. It is metalepsis, or metonymy: for the consequent is put for the antecedent, namely the descent into the tomb and limbo, instead of the preceding death. Fourth and genuinely, because the Hebrew עסף asaph signifies to gather, to collect, to take away. For thus fruits are said to be gathered or collected when they are plucked away. Thus fish are gathered into a net when they are taken away by fishing. Whence Lucilius: You rush here and collect everything secretly. To gather or collect, therefore, is the same as to take away.

Moreover, this death or disappearance of fish in the desolation of the land occurs partly naturally: for drought and the scorching of the land dries up the torrents and streams that nourished the fish; and partly, and more importantly, by the just judgment of God, who punishes wicked men who abuse the land and water, beasts and fish, with the failure and desolation of everything. This is what Isaiah threatens the Egyptians with, chapter 19:5: "The water shall dry up from the sea, and the river shall be desolated and dried up; and the rivers shall fail, and the fishermen shall mourn." Thus we read in histories, and we have seen in this century, that cities in France, Scotland, and Holland once rich in fishing and fish, after they admitted heresy, were punished by God the Avenger with sterility and poverty, the fish dying off or migrating elsewhere. Platina reports that under Pope Victor III, on account of the sins of that age, fish failed both in the sea and in the rivers. St. Bernard writes in the Life of St. Malachy that the same happened in Ireland, but was corrected by the prayers of St. Malachy. Conversely, Christ once and again brought a great abundance of fish into the nets of St. Peter, as the prince of the faithful, Luke chapter 5, verse 6, and John chapter 21, verse 6. Theodoret takes the birds as the rich, who prey upon the fish, that is, the poor, and consume them; but this is mystical, not literal.

(1) "When the captivity of the ten tribes came and the inhabitant was removed," says St. Jerome, "the beasts also and the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea failed, and even the mute elements felt the wrath of the Lord. He who does not believe this happened to the people of Israel, let him behold Illyricum, let him behold Thrace, Macedonia, and Pannonia, and all the land that stretches from the Propontis and Bosphorus to the Julian Alps, and he will prove that along with men all living creatures also failed, which were previously nourished by the Creator for the use of men."

Verse 4: Yet let no one judge (that is, let no one expostulate, as Vatablus translates,...

4. Yet let no one judge (that is, let no one expostulate, as Vatablus translates, let no one rebuke), and let no man be reproved, — meaning: Let no one rebuke and reprove the people of this region; for he will do so in vain, since they clamor against and contradict anyone who admonishes them. So St. Jerome, Lyranus, and Vatablus. He speaks as if despairing of their amendment, and at the same time signifies that they are utterly unworthy of admonition and correction, says Rupert. Hear St. Jerome: "The children of Israel had been summoned to the judgment of God, so that they might hear the causes of the Lord's indignation and recognize their past sins, on account of which they would be delivered to enemies. Now because they persist in crime and with shameless face despise God, they hear: It is not necessary for you to come to judgment, to be convicted of your crimes; because you are of such impudence that not even when convicted do you have shame and modesty; but you contradict Me, as if a pupil contradicted his teacher, or a common crowd contradicted a priest."

For your people are like those who contradict the priest. — Vatablus: like those who quarrel with a priest, meaning: The Israelites contradict Me and the Prophets, just as a wicked and shameless populace contradicts a priest and quarrels with him. So St. Jerome. Allegorically, the Jews contradicted Christ, who is the High Priest, saying: We have no king but Caesar, says Leo Castro. Second, the word "like" can be taken as a mark not of similitude but of truth, as it is in John chapter 1:14, meaning: Your people is clamorous and quarrelsome, as befits one who quarrels and wrangles with his own priests. Therefore Arias explains it thus, meaning: There is no one who reproves the people. For the priests whose duty it is to reprove them are equally wicked. Hence if they rebuke the people, the people kicks back and hurls crime against crime, singing back at them: Woe to you! said the kettle to the black pot.

Verse 5: And you shall fall today, — that is, shortly, meaning: Even now ruin and the...

5. And you shall fall today, — that is, shortly, meaning: Even now ruin and the calamity of Assyrian captivity are imminent for you, O Israel; for you, I say, and your false prophets, who falsely flattered you as if you would never be destroyed. So the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Theodoret, Lyranus, and Isidore. Others translate "today" as "by day," and punctuating what follows differently, translate thus: You shall fall therefore by day, that is, openly, in broad daylight, not through darkness and ambush, and the prophet shall fall with you by night, that is, in his calamity and slaughter, as well as in his ignorance, imprudence, and lack of counsel. So the Chaldean, Vatablus, Pagninus, Isidore, and Arias; whence follows: By night I have silenced (with shame and confusion) your mother, — namely the Synagogue, or Samaria, meaning: I shall punish her clamorous contradiction with silence, so that she will neither dare nor be able to excuse herself, or even to speak: "There is no greater cause for weeping than to be unable to weep," whether from fear of a tyrant who forbids weeping, or because of the gravity of the evil, which induces stupor in the eyes and mind: "Since it is most wretched to weep, how unhappy am I, who am not even permitted this!" says Seneca, book I, Controversies 1. He calls "night" the time of calamity and destruction, namely of the captivity, slaughter, and spoliation of Samaria, perhaps also because it was captured by the Assyrians at night. Whence in Hebrew it is: by night, and I silenced, or restrained your mother, meaning: When it is night, then she shall be silent. Again, the Hebrew דמיתי damiti can be translated with Vatablus, Pagninus, and others as "I have cut down," meaning: By night I have cut down your mother. Third, it can be translated with the Septuagint: I have made your mother like the night, meaning: She shall be so overwhelmed with disasters that the day shall seem to be night, and she herself shall seem to resemble the dark and dreadful night.

Verse 6: My people have been silenced. — Vatablus: has been reduced to silence or cut...

6. My people have been silenced. — Vatablus: has been reduced to silence or cut down, my people, because they had no knowledge of God, about which see verse 1. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you, that you shall not minister to Me as priest. — He calls "knowledge" the study and cognition of God and the divine law, not only speculative but practical, as I said at verse 1. Whence the Chaldean translates: Because you have rejected the fear of God, I will reject you, etc. Note first: He addresses the Synagogue, or the people of Israel; whence He speaks of it, now in the masculine gender, now in the feminine, saying: "You have forgotten the law of your God," meaning: I will reject you, O Israel, so that none of your children or of your assembly shall be a priest to Me. Yet He especially addresses the priests themselves, as is clear from what follows. For in verse 8 He says: "They shall eat the sins of My people," namely the priests; so the Chaldean and Arias. Now He means the priesthood not the false and idolatrous one instituted by Jeroboam, as Albert maintains — for that was dedicated not "to Me," that is, to God, but to the golden calves — but the true and divine one. The sense therefore is, meaning: Because you, O Israel, and especially you, O priests scattered throughout Israel, so that you might teach them God's worship and fear, have rejected the study of My law; hence by the law and punishment of retaliation I will deal with you; namely because you have so neglected My law that you have neither read it nor even possessed the books of the law, I in turn will take away from you the law itself, knowledge, the priesthood, and all worship and religion of Me, so that you may be reduced as it were to atheism and paganism. For upon the priesthood depends the faith, worship, and religion of the whole people. When it is removed, therefore, it is necessary that these likewise be removed and perish. Great, then, is the punishment that God here threatens Israel, negligent in His worship: the removal of the priesthood. Let the common-

wealths that are heretical now see how much injury they inflict — not only on the priests and on Christ, but also on themselves — by exterminating the priests and the Christian priesthood; for by this very act they take away from themselves the faith of God, the Church of God, the worship of God, and true religion. Finally, the Arabic translates: Because you are the one who loved the world and its consolation, and I will reject you, that you may not minister to Me as priest. Let priests note this, lest they entangle themselves in worldly affairs, as the Apostle admonishes, if they wish to serve and enjoy God. Again, from this saying of Hosea, the Seventh General Council proves that the unlearned, who lack knowledge of Sacred Scripture, must be barred from the episcopate, as is found in Distinction 38, chapter Omnes.

Verse 7: According to their multitude, so they sinned against Me. ("Their," namely,...

7. According to their multitude, so they sinned against Me. ("Their," namely, "children's," as preceded, meaning: I multiplied the Israelites like the stars of heaven, but the more numerous they were, the more and more gravely they sinned; so that however many children I gave to Israel, I seem to have begotten for Myself that many enemies; for he educates them in hatred and envy of My love and worship.) Therefore I will change their glory into shame, — meaning: I will take away their children from them (for these are the glory of parents, especially under the old law), which will be very shameful and disgraceful for them. So St. Cyril, Theodoret, and Theophylactus. Second, St. Jerome explains, meaning: "As many men as Israel had, it built that many altars to demons, in whose sacrifices it sinned against Me. Therefore I will change their glory, in which they gloried in themselves when they preferred idols to God, into shame; so that both priests and people may be captured. For the priests eat the sins of My people, because when they see the people sinning, they not only do not reprove them, but praise them and extol them and declare them blessed." Third, the Chaldean refers glory to wealth and revenue; for he translates: As I multiplied their revenue, so they multiplied sins against Me. Thus we often see not only laypeople but also priests grow insolent and luxurious from their wealth, according to that passage of Deuteronomy chapter 32:15: "The beloved grew fat and kicked back." Whence St. Ambrose aptly says: "Riches took their name from vices," because riches are the fuel of vices.

Verse 8: They shall eat the sins of My people. — "They shall eat," that is, they are...

8. They shall eat the sins of My people. — "They shall eat," that is, they are accustomed to eat; for the future tense among the Hebrews often signifies a custom or habitual action. Sin in Scripture is taken in three ways: first, for sin properly so called; second, metonymically for the punishment of sin; third, for the sacrificial offering for sin: as when the Apostle says, 2 Corinthians chapter 5:21: "Him who knew no sin, He made sin for us," that is, a sacrificial offering for sin. Three senses are therefore offered here. The first, meaning: The priests shall eat, that is, shall pay the penalties of the people's sins, of which they were the cause by their dissimulation; I will therefore cause that the sins they ate, and of which they were the cause, they will vomit up with their entrails, says Christopher Castro. Whence Theodoret also explains it thus, meaning: "They shall reap what they sowed, and shall harvest the fruit of their own sins." But with this explanation what follows does not properly cohere: "And they shall lift up their souls to their iniquity."

The second sense, meaning: The priests eat the sins, that is, the sacrificial offerings for sin offered by the people, and in them they feast and banquet. Whence St. Bernard, Sermon 77 on the Song of Songs: "They shall eat the sins of My people," he says, "meaning: They exact the price of sins, and do not devote the due solicitude to sinners. Whom will you show me among the number of prelates who watches more to empty the purses of his subjects than to root out their vices!" Whence Prosper, book II On the Contemplative Life, chapter 10, teaches from this passage that those who wish to be enriched from the goods of the Church sin gravely: "Of clerics," he says, "the Holy Spirit says: They eat the sins of My people; but just as those who have nothing of their own receive not sins but the food they seem to need, so those who possess receive not the food they have in abundance, but the sins of others."

The third: "They eat the sins of the people," who by their prayers and sacrifices abolish and consume them. So Rufinus and others. But this is a praise of the priest, not a reproach, which is what is discussed here. I say therefore, the sense is, meaning: The priests "shall eat the sins of My people," not by consuming them through prayers and offerings, as was fitting (for this is what their office and the offerings of the faithful demand and require), but by praising them, dissimulating them, and taking them upon themselves and their own conscience and head. For by acting thus they were as it were drinking in and absorbing the sins of the people, and were the cause that those sins were multiplied, and this in order that they might receive and eat the many "sins," that is, the sacrificial offerings for sin from the people. For they would say, flattering and extenuating the sins of the people: That is no sin, or a light one; God knows we are fragile and weak: knowing this He tolerates such people and sympathizes with them; therefore do not be anxious, I take that sin upon myself, I will make satisfaction to God for you, and, as Theophylactus says, "let the condemnation be upon us," just as the Jews said to Pilate: "His blood be upon us and upon our children." So St. Jerome, Haymo, Rupert, Hugo, Lyranus, Ribera, and others. And St. Gregory, homily 17 on the Gospels: "Why," he says, "is the word used that they eat the sins of the people, except because they foster the sins of offenders, lest they lose their temporal stipends?"

And Arias says: "They desire there to be a great abundance of sins, which may supply them with their reward and profit." In the same way in Japan the priests, whom they themselves call Bonzes, eat the sins of the people, promising impunity for all crimes to anyone, provided they give generous offerings and alms; they give written guarantees of their promise, which the dying carry with them to the tomb, as if they were to present them to God the judge and avenger; so the Japanese letters report. First, therefore, by this phrase the Prophet signifies, and accordingly takes sin in a double sense: namely properly, and metaphorically, for the sacrificial offering for sin: for the priests offered this and partly ate it according to the law of Leviticus chapter 7:7; he therefore alludes to this, meaning: These priests by law eat sins, that is, the sacrificial offerings for sin offered by the people; and because they are greedy and gluttonous, they crave these offerings and sacrifices, and therefore by extenuating and flattering the very sins of the people, they swallow and gulp them down, and as holy Job says, they drink iniquity like water. Thus that English flatterer swallowed the sins of King Henry VIII, who when the king wished to marry Anne Boleyn, who was thought to be the king's daughter by a concubine, and asked how great a sin it would be to know both mother and daughter, answered: As much as if one were to devour a chick with its mother, that is, with the hen, as Sanders reports in book I of On the English Schism. This sense is required by what follows:

And they shall lift up their souls to their iniquity. — The Hebrew words literally and precisely read thus: The sins of My people the priests shall eat, and to their (that is, the priests', or their own) iniquity they will lift up, or carry the soul of it, namely of the people, in which because there are many, hence our translator renders it in the plural, "their," namely of the peoples, meaning: The priests, rejecting God and the knowledge of God, feast on the sacrifices and offerings of the people, indulge their appetite and belly; and they invite, encourage, and induce the souls of the people by word and example to imitate these and similar iniquities of theirs. Whence he adds: "And it shall be like people, like priest," meaning: The priest, who should have preceded the people in virtue, is equal to them, indeed surpasses them, in crime. Hence second, Rabbi David, Vatablus, and Arias explain it thus, meaning: They crave and eagerly await the iniquities of the people, or that the people should sin against the law, so that from them they may receive sacrificial offerings for the expiation of those sins, on which they may feast: they therefore crave the sins of the people, as if they wholly depended on and lived from them; for "to lift up the soul" in Hebrew means to raise the soul in hope, to hope, to crave, as is clear from Ezekiel chapter 24:25 and elsewhere. Third, Haymo: "They lift them up," he says, "saying: Because you are the people of God, descended from the race of Abraham, on account of his friendship God will spare you if you sin against Him." And Ribera explains it thus, meaning: The priests encourage the common people to sin more, by conniving at their sins, flattering them, and fawning upon them.

Fourth, others explain "lift up" as "unburden," meaning: The priests, by flattery, lift up, relieve, and unburden souls burdened with sins; so St. Jerome, Haymo, Rupert, Hugo, Lyranus, and others. Fifth, for "they shall lift up" the Septuagint translates "they shall receive," meaning: The priests receive, that is, offer God their own souls for the iniquities of the people, devoting themselves to the wrath of God for the people. So Cyril. But the first sense is most genuine, and then the second and third. Moreover, Cyril beautifully teaches that priests ought by praying and living holily to offer themselves as a sacrifice to God for the sins of the people: "For such a one," he says, "can restore the people who has incurred the offense of God and violated the law of God to their former state of grace."

Verse 9: And it shall be like people, like priest. — The Hebrew: And it shall be (or it...

9. And it shall be like people, like priest. — The Hebrew: And it shall be (or it is) like the people, like the priest. It is a Hebraism. For the Hebrews express a similitude by placing the mark of similitude, namely the word "like," before both things compared, or similar things, which the Latin translator aptly rendered in Latin idiom by placing "like" before one and "so" before the other, which corresponds to the word "like" and is the return of the similitude. The sense is, meaning: The people is and shall be similar to the priest, and the priest to the people; as the people, so the priest, and vice versa. For this is required not only by the very reciprocity of the mark of similitude, as Martin Martinez maintains in book VIII of the Hypotyposes chapter 8, but also by the very nature of similitude; for what is similar is similar to its similar, and vice versa, for "similar" is a relative of equality. Whether therefore you say: Like the people, like the priest, or you say: The people is like the priest; you say the same thing and mean the same; similar, I say, in guilt. Whence Vatablus translates: Hence it comes about that the people is such as the priest; and consequently they shall be similar in punishment. For this judgment he infers

both from what immediately preceded, namely: "They shall eat the sins of My people (the priests), and shall lift up their souls to their iniquity;" by which words the priests are equated, indeed preferred, to the people in guilt; and from what he said shortly before: "I will change their glory into shame," meaning: There shall be no difference between priests and commoners, for all shall be captives without distinction; and on that account all shall be afflicted with shame and disgrace: "For enemies are not accustomed to make distinction between the eminent and the great," says Procopius on Isaiah chapter 24:2. Whence also follows: "And I will visit upon him his ways." For the priests were the honor and glory of Israel, as being consecrated to God and mediators between God and the people. They ought therefore to have maintained this glory of theirs by excelling the people both in knowledge of the law and in holiness and the worship of God. But because they did neither, but were equal to the people in ignorance as well as in wickedness, indeed surpassed them; hence they were equal, indeed surpassed them, in punishment and shame. So St. Jerome, Haymo, and Hugo. In a similar way one may say of undisciplined clerics and religious: As the layman, so the cleric; as the secular, so the religious. Remove the habit, and you will not distinguish one from the other; because the tongue, speech, actions, life, and morals of both are the same.

St. Gregory ably presses this passage, homily 17 on the Gospels, and Part II of the Pastoral Rule, chapter 7. Truly St. Chrysostom says: "Priests are many, priests are few: not every priest is holy, but every holy person is a priest;" namely a mystical one, who offers to God mystical sacrifices of praise, prayer, and holy works. Hear also Gilbert the Abbot in the appendix to the sermons of St. Bernard on the Song of Songs, Sermon 13: "The priest has become like the people, so that the people may more freely become like the priest. Monks conform themselves to the world with zeal, and those who are in the world quite cleverly and all too truly defend their error by our example. Pastors, peoples, seculars, and religious mutually either form or foster one another in vices by their examples; storehouses are full of such things, belching from this one into that one the pestilent spirit of either shameful or lukewarm conduct. Alas! With what eager mouth of the heart we draw in this corrupt spirit and drink in the corrupting air! Good Jesus, when will it be — if indeed it ever will be — that as our faith is whole, so also our morals may be uncorrupted."

And I will visit upon him his ways, — meaning: I will punish his actions and sins. For "ways" in Scripture are called actions, manner of living, tenor of life, conduct; for through these the mind proceeds, just as the body does through roads. And I will repay him his thoughts. — The Hebrew מעללו maalalav signifies pursuits, machinations, devices, works. These therefore are called here "thoughts," namely the very machinations of crimes; God repays these to the sinner when He punishes and afflicts him on account of them in equal measure.

Verse 10: And they shall eat, and shall not be satisfied. — The poor in spirit, who...

10. And they shall eat, and shall not be satisfied. — The poor in spirit, who hunger and thirst for justice, shall be satisfied, and are therefore proclaimed blessed by Christ, Matthew chapter 5:6. But these greedy priests and gluttons, who eat the sins of the people and crave them with insatiable greed, shall by the just judgment of God be reduced to such famine in the Assyrian captivity that they cannot satisfy and fill it. So Theophylactus and Arias, who adds: "Those who hunt for sacrificial offerings shall themselves be turned into victims," to be despoiled and slaughtered by the Assyrians. Second, Ribera and Arias, meaning: Although they immerse themselves in gluttony, belly, and crimes, they shall never fulfill their desire. For, as St. Jerome says and Haymo after him: "Pleasure is insatiable, and the more it is taken, the more hunger it creates in those who indulge in it. On the contrary, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. Just as justice satisfies, so iniquity, having no substance, deceives those who eat it with vain fraud, and leaves the stomachs of those who devour it empty." More remotely Theodoret: They shall eat, he says, punishments and torments, but shall never be satisfied with them, that is, they shall never end, because one will continually succeed another.

They have committed fornication, and have not ceased. — The Chaldean, Vatablus, Pagninus, Arias, and Isidore take these words as referring to bodily fornication, about which follows: "Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart;" whence they translate: They shall commit fornication and shall not multiply; the Syriac, they have not been multiplied, that is, they shall not increase, they shall not be augmented with children, meaning: They seek children, and therefore couple themselves not only with wives but also with harlots; but God will punish them with sterility, so that they do not beget children; just as shortly before He punished the same people, because they were gluttons, with famine, so that they cannot satisfy it. For a fitting and just punishment of fornicators is childlessness and sterility, so that those who do not wish to beget children through marriage instituted by God for offspring, wanting to beget them through harlots, may not be able to, or if they do beget them, they may be depraved and wretched, and short-lived, as today's experience often teaches. This is what is said in Wisdom chapter 4:3: "Spurious shoots," in Greek μοσχεύματα, that is, sprouts and new grafts, "shall not put down deep roots;" which, explaining clearly in chapter 3, it says: "The children of adulterers shall be in incompleteness," that is, they shall be incomplete and shall not reach full age. "And the seed from an unlawful bed shall be exterminated."

Second and better, St. Jerome, Theodoret, Cyril, Theophylactus, Haymo, Hugo, and Lyranus take these words as referring to mystical fornication, that is, to idolatry: for the Prophet continually treats of this here, and immediately, giving the reason for this statement of his, adds: "Because they have forsaken the Lord." The sense therefore is, meaning: They shall eat and not be satisfied, because they have committed fornication with idols and have not ceased, nor were they satisfied with their fornication; but with insatiable lust they continued to fornicate, that is, to practice idolatry. "Strength," says St. Jerome, "fails in fornication, and the desire for fornication does not rest;" whence for "they have not ceased," the Hebrew is לא יפרצו lo ipprotsu, that is, they have not been separated, namely from their fornication and their paramours, that is, the idols; but they have been continually joined to them; for the root פרץ parats means to divide. Hence the place where God, fighting for David, divided and dispersed the Philistines, was called Baal Pharasim, that is, having division, meaning: The plain of divisions, or the field of breaking and rupture, David saying: "The Lord has divided my enemies before me, as waters are divided," 2 Kings chapter 5:20. Both senses are true and genuine. For fornication here and in what follows is taken both properly for harlotry and mystically for idolatry. The reason is that the former was not only an image and symbol of the latter, but also its companion and attendant, indeed even its instrument. For they worshipped idols, especially Beelphegor, or Priapus, with fornication and every obscenity, even unspeakable Sodomitic acts with effeminates, as will be clear from verse 14.

Because they have forsaken the Lord by not keeping, — namely His law and commandments. So St. Jerome, Hugo, Albert, Lyranus, and others. The Hebrew reads: Because they have abandoned the Lord with respect to keeping, that is, because they have abandoned keeping the Lord, or the watch of the Lord. The "watch of the Lord" in Hebrew is what the laws, especially the ceremonial laws of the Lord, are called. These are called "watch" by metonymy, because they must be supremely observed and kept, so that whoever keeps them seems to keep God Himself who established them, and who is worshipped and honored through them. Whence the Chaldean translates: Because they abandoned the worship of the Lord and did not keep it; and Vatablus: Because they abandoned the Lord so as not to observe Him (that is, His commands). Just as courtiers and bodyguards, such as the Swiss Guard, with the utmost care continually guard their prince and everything that pertains to him, and do nothing else their whole life; so it is fitting for us, especially priests, to guard the worship and sacred rites of God. Thus in Wisdom chapter 6:19 it is said: "Care for discipline is love, and love is the keeping of its laws; and the keeping of its laws is the consummation of incorruption." He alludes to the Levites, who are said to keep watch in the tabernacle and to keep the watches of the Lord, that is, the tabernacle, the vessels, and the rites of the Lord, Leviticus chapter 8:33; Numbers 1:53; chapter 3:32, 36, 38; chapter 8:26; chapter 18:4, 5, 8, and elsewhere.

Therefore Cyril and Theophylactus less correctly explain it as if it meant: They abandoned the Lord in order to keep their evil ways, drunkenness, fornication, etc. Rupert, on the other hand: They did not guard themselves, he says, against serving sins.

Verse 11: Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart. — "Fornication,"...

11. Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart. — "Fornication," both bodily — for it is joined with wine and drunkenness — and the spiritual fornication that usually follows from it, that is, infidelity and idolatry, takes away the heart, that is, the mind, reason, judgment, and spirit, and drives a person mad and makes them senseless. So Theodoret, Theophylactus, and others. And this both because fornication itself is foul and insane, and contrary to right reason; and because bodily fornication subjects a man to a harlot, who is driven by insane desires; while spiritual fornication subjects a man to an idol and a demon, who is his sworn enemy; and because it exhausts and destroys his wealth, reputation, health, and conscience. Thus Delilah the Philistine woman snatched away the heart, strength, and life of Samson. Thus the seven hundred concubines of Solomon drove the wisest king mad, and dragged him to worship their idols and destroyed him, 3 Kings chapter 11:1. Moreover, to the fornicator and senseless sinner the fear of God, of judgment, and of hell restores the heart; for God by fear knocks at the heart and rouses it to spiritual life. For as the Wise Man says, Sirach 21:7: "He who fears the Lord shall be converted in his heart." But the just and noble, who are sleeping or thoughtless, God rouses through love and benefits; as He roused the heart of David, 2 Kings 7:27, when He said: "You have revealed to Your servant's ear, saying: I will build you a house: therefore your servant has found his heart to pray this prayer to You."

Morally, learn here how brutish is lust, which beyond other vices snatches away the heart and mind from a person, even a wise one and a prince. Therefore Diogenes, according to Laertius, book VI, used to say that "harlots are the queens of kings;" because they drove kings mad, and obtained from them whatever they pleased, and therefore exercised over kings themselves as it were a kingdom, indeed a tyranny; for kings do not always obtain from the people what they demand, but nothing is denied to harlots. The same Diogenes said that harlots were similar to honey-wine mixed with lethal poisons, because they brought pleasure at first, but perpetual pain followed.

Therefore Demosthenes at Corinth, requesting bodily favors from the famous courtesan Lais, when she stipulated ten thousand drachmas for a single night, deterred by the magnitude of the price, changed his mind saying: "I do not buy repentance at so great a cost," signifying that madness and repentance are the companions of dishonest pleasure. Xerxes, angry at the Babylonians because they had revolted from him, after he had brought them back under his power, forbade them to bear arms; but ordered them to play the psaltery and flute, to keep harlots, and to run taverns, so that, unmanned and made senseless by pleasures, they would not again attempt revolt. Plutarch is the witness, in his Apophthegms of Kings.

Demetrius of Phalerum, when he saw a luxurious young man, said: "Behold a square statue having a train, a belly, genitals, and a beard." So Brussonius, book III, chapter 33. These things the pagans said; what shall Christians now say, upon whom greater purity and holiness is enjoined by Christ, and to whom the baseness of lust, its harm, and the vengeance of eternal fire are more fully known?

Excellently Solomon, taught by his own experience and danger (for perhaps he was damned on this account, since his salvation is doubtful), says: "Wine and women cause the wise to apostatize;" for, as the Poet says: Night and love and wine counsel nothing moderate: The one lacks shame, Bacchus and love lack fear. Excellently St. Ambrose, book IV on Luke, chapter 4: "Nor would I say the fever of love is less than that of heat. And so the one inflames the soul, the other the body. For our fever is avarice, our fever is lust, because desires are on fire;" and shortly after: "Yet the fever of the soul is more vehement than that of the body, and therefore for the pleasure of the soul the health of the body is generally despised, nor does one abstain from dangers." He offers an illustrious example: "When Theotimus suffered from a serious ailment of the eyes, and loved his wife, and was forbidden by the physician from conjugal relations, being unable to bear his desire, and carried away by the impulse of lust, he said: Farewell, dear light." In the heat of desire, therefore, knowing he would lose his eyes, he preferred to lose them rather than abstain from lust. Did not lust snatch away his heart and mind?

had it not? Indeed it had, and he felt it when his lust subsided and he lost his eyes; for then, lamenting his error and blindness — but too late — he was able neither to retain the pleasure of lust nor to recover his lost eyes. Fittingly also, those three heroes, bodyguards of King Darius, when they asked and debated among themselves what was the strongest thing, the first of them answered: "Wine is strong; another: The king is stronger; the third, Zerubbabel: Women are stronger: but above all things truth conquers," 3 Esdras 3:10. Women, therefore, are Sirens, who by their beauty and song ensnared, maddened, and destroyed the companions of Ulysses. Do you want a remedy? The only one is in flight. "Flee fornication," says the Apostle; flee the sight and voice of women. An illustrious example on this subject is found in the Life of St. Martinian in Surius, who, gravely and frequently tempted by women, became a fugitive throughout the whole world to escape them, and this was his constant goad: "Flee, Martinian."

Finally, fornication snatches away from a person his heart, that is, his mind and brain: because in the very act of it a man seems to be beside himself, to boil and rage like an epileptic. Whence some philosophers said that the act of intercourse is mere epilepsy; especially because if it is practiced frequently, it actually brings this on, as I have seen from experience, and physical reasoning clearly demonstrates this. Therefore Alexander the Great, although he heard from flatterers that he was the son of Jupiter, was nevertheless compelled to confess himself a man: "From the use of Venus and from sleep," he said, "I am manifestly convinced that I am a man." So Plutarch in his Life.

Wine and ("and" is taken for "that is": so Emmanuel) drunkenness take away the heart. — The Septuagint punctuates and translates these differently, namely: The heart of my people has received fornication, wine, and drunkenness; but others generally punctuate and translate as our translator does. In Hebrew the literal meaning is: Fornication, wine, and must or (as Vatablus translates, intoxicating drink) capture, or seize, or snatch away the heart. The Hebrew תירש tirose, that is, must or newly pressed wine, alludes to the root ירש iarase, that is, possessed and occupied; because, being thick, turbid, bubbling, and fuming, it immediately occupies and possesses the heart, that is, the citadel of the mind, and makes a person drunk and senseless. He notes that the origin of idolatry and all evil was feasting and drinking bouts: for these snatch away the mind and the judgment of right reason, and at the same time inflame lust, and thus plunge a person into fornication and other crimes, and finally into infidelity and idolatry; for their god is their belly. That this is so is clear from the first propagation of humans after the flood. For when wine was discovered by Noah, it immediately snatched away the heart of himself and much more of his descendants, and robbed them of their mind, to such a degree that almost all turned aside to vices, indeed to idolatry. For Noah, dying, groaning and shuddering, saw almost the whole world, that is, all his descendants, impious and idolatrous, as I said on Genesis 9, at the end of the chapter. Hence some have noted that the wine discovered by Noah was so eagerly and quickly seized and adopted by all, that its very name passed into all languages, and remained the same as before among all peoples, though now divided in their tongues. For wine in Hebrew is called יין iain, or ien: hence Janus (namely Noah) the inventor of wine: hence Greek οἶνος; hence Latin vinum; French vin; Italian, Slavonic, and Spanish vino; German, English, and Flemish wiin, and so on for other peoples and languages.

Moreover, how wine and delights snatch away the heart, not only the Prophets but also the philosophers of the nations have taught. Antisthenes, when someone was praising delights, said: "May it fall to the children of enemies to live in delights," detesting as a thing maddening and pestilential those delights that most people embrace as the highest good. So Laertius, book VI On the Lives of the Philosophers, chapter 1. Diogenes, according to Laertius in the same book, expressed indignation at those who offered gifts to the gods for good health, and in the very sacrifice destroyed themselves by overwhelming themselves with every pleasure. The same man said that those who squandered their fortunes on cooks, spendthrifts, harlots, and flatterers through luxury were similar to trees growing on precipices, whose fruit no man would taste, but which would be eaten by crows and vultures: meaning that those who serve gluttony and the belly are not human beings.

Socrates, according to Laertius, book II, chapter 5, used to say that it was shameful if anyone by his own free will serving pleasures made himself such as no one would want to have as slaves for his household. And that for such people there was no remaining hope of salvation, unless others prayed to the gods on their behalf that they might obtain good masters, when it was entirely decided that they must serve: indicating that no one serves a more disgraceful and miserable servitude than those who serve pleasures with both soul and body. He also admonished that pleasures must be passed by no differently than the Sirens, with ears stopped like Ulysses, for one who hastens to behold Ithaca, that is, virtue as his homeland.

Plato, when he saw the Agrigentines building at great expense and dining in the same manner, said: "The Agrigentines build as if they will live forever, and eat as if they are about to die." So Aelian, book XII. Arcesilaus the Scythian, when someone asked why it was that many defected from other sects to the Epicureans, but none defected from the Epicureans to others, replied: "Because from men Galli are made, but from Galli men never." He called them Galli, the castrated priests of Cybele, as if to say: We are more inclined to pleasure than to virtue, yet virtue makes men out of women, while pleasure makes women out of men. So Laertius, book IV, chapter 6. Blessed Thomas More gave the same reply to someone asking why so many defected to the pleasure-seeking heresy of Luther.

Cato the Elder refused to grant his familiarity to a certain drunkard and glutton who sought it, and gave this reason: "Because," he said, "I cannot live with a man who feels more keenly and more subtly with his palate than with his heart." So Brussonius, book III, chapter 7. The emperor Tiberius Caesar said to Attilius Buta, a man of praetorian rank, when reduced to poverty through extravagance he was lamenting it: "You have woken up too late." Indeed those given to drunkenness and luxury sleep rather than live; for "the life of mortals is wakefulness." So Seneca in his Letters.

When Scipio Aemilianus was declared Censor, hearing that a young man had given a cake made of honey in the form of the city, called it Carthage, and set it out for the guests to plunder, he deprived him of his horse. When asked why, he said: "Because he plundered Carthage before I did." By this remark he condemned the soldier as slothful and senseless, who, devoted to gluttony, waged war with cakes made of honey rather than against combative enemies. So Brussonius, book III, chapter 1.

But hear what belongs properly to wine and drunkenness. Pythagoras used to say that "drunkenness is the rehearsal of madness." So Maximus, Sermon 30. Leontichidas the Spartan, asked why the Spartans drank so little, replied: "Lest others make decisions for us," meaning: He whose sound judgment has been taken away by wine cannot deliberate prudently on affairs. So Plutarch in the Laconic Apophthegms. When Astyages asked Cyrus why he had not drunk wine, he replied: "Because I was afraid there might be poisons mixed in the bowl. For when at the birthday feast you entertained a friend, I clearly learned that he had poured poison for you all." "And how," he said, "O son, did you know this?" "Because," he answered, "I saw that you were masters neither of your body nor of your mind." So Xenophon in the Cyropedia.

Androelides, a wise man, said to Alexander the Great, who was given to wine: "When you are about to drink wine, O king, remember that you are drinking the blood of the earth: hemlock is poison to man, and wine is hemlock." So Brussonius, book I, chapter 19. Of Bonosus, a very heavy drinker who later became Emperor, Aurelian said: "He was born not to live, but to drink." So Vopiscus in his Life of Aurelian. The same Bonosus hanged himself; and when someone asked who it was that was hanging, another replied that it was not a man but a wine jug. Aeschines said: "Bronze is the mirror of form (for in ancient times mirrors were made of polished bronze), but wine is the mirror of the soul:" for nothing is so hidden in the heart that a drunkard will not blurt it out. So Maximus, Sermon 30.

"Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness is tumultuous." Proverbs 20:1. "Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has strife? Who has pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has bloodshot eyes? Is it not those who linger over wine and study to drain cups? Do not gaze at wine when it turns golden, when its color sparkles in the glass; it enters smoothly, but in the end it bites like a serpent and spreads its poison like a basilisk." Proverbs 23:29. "Do not give wine to kings, O Lemuel, do not give wine to kings: for there is no secret where drunkenness reigns." Proverbs 31:4.

St. Basil and Ambrose say that drunkenness is voluntary madness. St. Bernard goes further, in the book On the Way of Living Well, chapter 25: "Many," he says, "have been captured by demons through wine, nor is drunkenness anything other than a most manifest demon." And shortly before: "Drunkenness weakens the body: drunkenness begets disturbance of the mind: it increases the frenzy of the heart; it so alienates the mind that a person does not know himself."

A certain Egyptian monk, asked why he continually subtracted pleasures from himself, replied: "I subtract them from myself so that I may cut off the cause and occasion of anger. For I know that it always wages war from pleasures, and disturbs my mind, and drives away knowledge itself." So Nicephorus, book XI of the History, chapter 43.

Verse 12: My people have consulted their wood. — He proves that fornication and...

12. My people have consulted their wood. — He proves that fornication and drunkenness take away the heart, from the fact that they lead people to idolatry, so that they consult wooden idols — deaf, blind, mute, and vain — as their gods, and inquire about future events. Or rather the sense is, meaning: So greatly has the excess and lust of both fornication and idolatry maddened them, that they demand oracles from sticks and staffs.

One may ask, what is this wood? First, the Chaldean, Rupert, and Lyranus answer that it is a wooden idol; second, Isidore says it is the false prophets whom the people consulted: these are metaphorically called wood, because the common people leaned upon them as upon a stick and staff; third, better, St. Jerome, Haymo, Hugo, and Vatablus understand by wood here the divining rod: for by it, as by an instrument, they practiced divination. Whence the Septuagint translates: They consulted by their symbols; for these staffs were symbols of superstition and divination. Hence he also adds: "And his staff (when consulted) answered him."

Note: The ancient Chaldeans, and the Hebrews who followed them, used rhabdomancy and belomancy, that is, divination by rods and arrows. Thus Nebuchadnezzar, doubting whether he should attack Jerusalem or Philadelphia, took two arrows, on one of which he inscribed the name of Jerusalem, on the other the name of Philadelphia; then he mixed them by lot and drew one out, and when he saw inscribed the name of Jerusalem, he concluded that city must be conquered first, Ezekiel chapter 21:21. See what I said there. Again they would shoot an arrow into the air and observe where it fell; whether forward or backward; whether to the right or to the left, and from this they would conjecture which way they should proceed. So Theophylactus. Third, Moses the son of Samson, in his explanation of negative commandment 52, mentions a rite of this kind: They would strip the bark from a wooden staff on one

side, then threw it into the air; if at the first throw the stripped upper part appeared, and at the second throw the part still covered with bark, they augured a prosperous outcome; but if on the contrary the covered part appeared first, an unfortunate one; if at both throws the same side — whether stripped or covered — was uppermost, they promised themselves a mixed outcome; and these practices are what Hosea here notes and censures. See Rhodiginus, book IV, chapter 29, and Delrio, book IV of Disquisitions on Magic, chapter 2, Question VI, section 1, near the end, and section III, near the beginning.

For the spirit of fornication has deceived them. — Some understand by this spirit the sting of the flesh, namely the vehement inclination and impulse to fornicate. Cassian approaches this view, Conferences VII, chapter 32, where from Abbot Serenus he teaches that the spirit of fornication is a demon inciting to fornication: for although demons are incorporeal, and each of them tempts men to any vice, yet so that there may be some order among them, and that they may attack men more orderly, and therefore more powerfully and effectively, they themselves have distributed operations and vices among themselves; so that some preside over this vice and tempt to it, others to that, and still others to another, and hence in Scripture they seem to be called spirits of anger, of pride, of gluttony, of lust, etc. Thus the Moabite women deceived the Hebrews, first inducing them to fornicate with them, then to worship their idol Beelphegor, and thus brought upon them the wrath and plague of God, Numbers 25.

Second, the "spirit of fornication" is the ardor and impulse of the soul, inciting it to idolatry; so Theodoret, Theophylactus, Arias, and others. Driven by this spirit as by a goad, the mad Israelites rushed to worship idols, as a fornicator rushes to harlots; as is clear from the Prophets, who everywhere inveigh against and thunder at this ardor. Whence follows: "And they have committed fornication against their God," meaning: By fornicating, that is, by practicing idolatry, they deserted God and the worship of God. Both senses suit this passage, as I said at verse 10; but the Holy Spirit intends the latter more.

Verse 13: They sacrificed upon the tops of the mountains. — These "tops" are what are...

13. They sacrificed upon the tops of the mountains. — These "tops" are what are called "high places" from their lofty position, throughout the books of Kings. And upon the hills they burned incense, — that is, aromatic smoke, fumigation. For the Greek θυμιάω means to fumigate, to burn incense, and this is what the Hebrew קטר katar signifies: therefore the thymiama here is not only that compound made of stacte, onyx, galbanum, and frankincense, which God commanded to be burned on the altar of incense, Exodus 30:34; but also frankincense, amber, and any incense that gives off aromatic smoke.

Because its shade was pleasant (agreeable, delightful). — Virgil says the same about the white poplar tree (for this is what the Hebrew libne signifies: for there are also black poplars), in Eclogue 9: Here the white poplar overhangs the grotto, And pliant vines weave their shady cover. Therefore your daughters shall commit fornication, — meaning: As punishment for your fornication, both bodily and spiritual, namely idolatry, God will permit your daughters to commit fornication bodily, both with their lovers and with your enemies, namely the Assyrians; who will abuse them when they lead them away captive, and He will neither prevent nor punish them: so it will come about that they fornicate more and more, and afflict you with greater pain and shame, and wound your spirits. So Theodoret, Haymo, Albert, and Hugo.

Second, the Chaldean, Vatablus, and Pagninus translate in the present tense: therefore your daughters commit fornication, meaning: Because you commit fornication, hence by your example your daughters and brides also commit fornication, especially because they are away from your houses and eyes, and dwell at the high places in wooded and pleasant spots, which entice to crime, so that just as you break faith with God, so by God's just judgment your brides also break the faith given to you. For the law of retaliation applies: Let faith be broken for him who breaks faith. For "brides" the Hebrew is כלות callot, which can be translated with the Chaldean, Theophylactus, and Vatablus as daughters-in-law, that is, the wives of your sons, meaning: These shall break the faith given to your sons by committing fornication with adulterers; just as you broke the faith given to God by fornicating with idols: and thus they will afflict and destroy with shame and grief both you and your sons, their husbands.

Verse 14: I will not punish (that is, I will abandon, neglect, permit to sin with...

14. I will not punish (that is, I will abandon, neglect, permit to sin with impunity: so St. Jerome, Theodoret, Hugo, Lyranus; or, as Isidore and Vatablus say, meaning: I will not punish your daughters and brides as severely as you when they commit adultery). He adds the reason: Because they themselves consorted with harlots. — There is an enallage of person: for out of indignation, as if turning His face away from them, He changes the second person to the third, saying: "They themselves," that is, you yourselves, meaning: Because you, leaving behind your daughters and wives, go to harlots and fornicate with them; hence your wives, provoked by your example and abandoned by you, in similar manner and with equal right will go after lovers and adulterers, leaving you behind, and will fornicate with them. The Hebrew reads: Because they themselves separated themselves with harlots, that is, separately, having left behind their daughters and wives, they consorted

(1) See Ezekiel 21, annotation to verse 21.

and committed fornication: although Marinus in his Lexicon derives the Hebrew יפרדו iippuredu, that is, they shall be separated, from פרד pered, that is, mule (which is so called because it is separated in generation), meaning: They shall beget mules, that is, illegitimate children; or, meaning: Like mules they abuse marriage, not for the sake of begetting children, but solely for the purpose of satisfying lust. Moreover, these harlots were priestesses of Beelphegor, that is, of Priapus, and they worshipped him by their prostitution, says St. Jerome, Cyril, and Theodoret, about whom see 3 Kings 15:12, or worshippers of Venus, as Albert maintains, who sitting at her temple prostituted themselves to those who came, as I said on Baruch 6:42.

Morally, learn here that children and wives imitate their parents and husbands in crime, and that God avenges the sins of the latter through the sins and shame of their children and wives. Thus He avenged the adultery of David through the crime of Absalom, who violated the wives of his father David, 2 Kings 12:14. Excellently Juvenal, Satire 14: And what follows the younger generation through the vice of the elders, And the stains and wrinkles that disfigure fair things, Which the parents themselves show and hand on to their children, If ruinous dice please the old man, his bulla-wearing heir also plays, And rattles the same weapons in a little dice-box. So nature commands. And with the effeminate. — These were men or male prostitutes, such as pathic boys, priests of Priapus, who by their effeminacy and passive Sodomitic intercourse, serving the Sodomites, made themselves as it were women from men, and are therefore called effeminate. Whence Aquila translates ἐνηλλαγμένους, that is, changed, namely from the male function to the female; the Septuagint, τετελεσμένους, that is, consecrated, namely to Priapus or Venus; Theodotion, κεχωρισμένους, that is, separated from the common people, as priests of Priapus. So Cyril, who says: They were men, but changed into women by effeminacy, who with womanly

shrieking and using cymbals, and carrying torches, ran about. So also Theodoret, Rupert, Haymo, Hugo, Lyranus, and others, who also add another reason why they are called effeminate; because, they say, many of them were castrated and became eunuchs, so that they were capable only of passive intercourse, as women, not active. Moreover, that these male prostitutes were consecrated to Beelphegor, that is, Priapus, in Israel and Judah is clear from 3 Kings 14:24 and 4 Kings 23:7. But hear St. Jerome: "We have translated 'effeminate.' These are those whom today at Rome, serving the mother not of gods but of demons, they call Galli, because the Romans had the men of this Gallic nation, castrated out of lust, consecrated as priests in honor of Attis (whom a harlot had made a eunuch); and the reason men of the Gallic nation are made effeminate is so that those who had captured the city of Rome might be struck with this ignominy. This kind of idolatry existed in Israel, with women especially worshipping Beelphegor, because of the magnitude of his obscene member, whom we may call Priapus."

Second however, one may no less aptly translate as harlots instead of effeminate. For this is what the Hebrew קדשות kedesçot properly signifies, which is feminine; for men and males are called in the masculine קדשים kedesçim (yet these too can be called kedesçot in the feminine by catachresis, because they were effeminate, as I have just said). St. Jerome supports this: "It should be known," he says, "that in the present passage kadescot calls them harlots, that is, priestesses consecrated to Priapus." But Ribera rightly suspects there is a scribal error in St. Jerome's manuscript, and that it should read "priests consecrated to Priapus," lest he contradict himself: for shortly before he called them "men." They were therefore of the male sex, but harlots and women through the abuse of lust and nature. Symmachus also supports this, who called them ἑταίρας, that is, companions, girlfriends, mistresses, properly harlots. So also Theophylactus: "He calls the initiated of this kind sacred mystics, judged worthy of the secret rites among them, as more perfect: who though they seemed to be males were females, using cymbals and going about the crossroads with womanish howlings, performing the rites of Beelphegor." And the Chaldean who translates: They feast and drink with harlots. Note here: For the Hebrews kedesça is more than זונה zona: for zona signifies any harlot, but kedesça a notorious, public one, as if already bound and consecrated to a brothel: for she is called kedesça, that is, holy, by antiphrasis, because she is most foul and vile, and infamous and notorious for her filth. Again, kedesça, that is, holy, was what a harlot consecrated to Priapus or Venus as a priestess was called — and such these were.

And (that is, therefore, namely because of the crimes just reviewed) the people that does not understand shall be beaten. — When namely it is finally punished by Me, cut off, and led into captivity, namely into Assyria. So St. Jerome. The Zurich translation renders: And the people, who did not wish to understand, shall be tossed about by various evils; Vatablus: The people that does not understand shall perish, or fall, meaning: "A people ignorant of God is accustomed to fall. Or it shall be struck with stupor when it feels such great scourges of God, who, although He is merciful, is nevertheless also just in punishing sins," and compensates for the slowness of punishment with its severity. The Hebrew לבט labat properly signifies to stumble, to offend, to fall, to be beaten; Rabbi David translates, shall be perverted; Rabbi Joseph, shall limp; the Targum, shall be captured; Rabbi Solomon, shall labor, shall be wearied; Pagninus, shall hurry, shall be uncertain and doubtful, not knowing where to turn.

Verse 15: If you commit fornication, O Israel, let not Judah at least offend. — He turns...

15. If you commit fornication, O Israel, let not Judah at least offend. — He turns his speech from Israel to Judah, and admonishes him that, mindful of the temple and kingdom of God (for in Judah God reigned through the descendants of David, and there He had His house and temple), he should not imitate Israel in fornicating and by his fornication honoring and worshipping Beelphegor and other gods, that is, demons.

And do not enter into Gilgal. — Gilgal was both a place and a famous city, fifty stadia from the Jordan, ten stadia from Jericho: holy and illustrious for the miracles and religion of the fathers. For first, after crossing the Jordan, the children of Israel pitched camp there for a long time, and there the first public circumcision of the nation was performed. For there Joshua circumcised all the males of the Hebrews who had been born during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, and there for the first time in Canaan they celebrated the Passover: whence at Gilgal the Hebrews entered, as it were, into possession of the promised land. For when the manna ceased, there for the first time they ate of the produce of the land. Hence the place received its name and was called Gilgal, Joshua 5:9, where we read: "And the Lord said to Joshua (after the circumcision was completed): Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you," because today I have transferred you from the life and customs of the uncircumcised Egyptians, through circumcision, into My holy law and people; and therefore "the name of that place was called Gilgal." For Gilgal, or Gilgal, or Galgal, or as St. Jerome calls it, Golgol, in Hebrew means the same as removal and taking away; namely of the foreskin, and consequently of the reproach and paganism of the Egyptians: for the root גלל galal means to roll away, to remove, to take away: hence with the letter gimel doubled, ghilghal, or galgal, means the same as rolling away, removal, taking away.

Second, at Gilgal Joshua received the omen of victory and possession of Canaan; for seeing an angel with a drawn sword, he went to him and said: "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?" and heard from him: "Neither, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord, and now I have come" to subdue Canaan for you: "Remove your sandals from your feet; for the place where you stand is holy," Joshua 5:13.

Third, at Gilgal Joshua placed the twelve stones that he had taken from the middle of the Jordan riverbed, so that they might be there as a perpetual memorial of the miraculous crossing, by which the twelve tribes had crossed through the Jordan dry-shod into Canaan, Joshua 4:20. Whence St. Jerome in the Epitaph of St. Paula says these stones were seen there by St. Paula. These twelve stones represent the twelve tribes and patriarchs; and consequently the twelve Apostles, as twelve rocks and foundations of the Church, Apocalypse 21:14. So Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter 13.

Fourth, at Gilgal for many years the tabernacle of God stood, with the ark and the mercy seat; whence Samuel judged the people there, and there he anointed Saul as king a second time, 1 Kings 10:8. There also he killed Agag the king of Amalek, 1 Kings chapter 15:33. Fifth, Elijah and Elisha frequently stayed at Gilgal, and there they prophesied and performed miracles, 4 Kings 2:1 and 4:38.

For this reason the idolaters set up their idols at Gilgal from the very beginning, since it was such a holy and famous place. For in the time of Ehud, who was the third judge of Israel after Joshua, there were idols at Gilgal, as is clear

Note here that the devil is the ape of God, and therefore wishes to be worshipped where God was worshipped, both to exclude God from his possession and to make his own honor and veneration more celebrated. For this reason the Antichrist will establish his royal seat in Jerusalem, as I showed in Apocalypse 11:8; and there he will sit in the temple and be worshipped as God, both to be regarded as the true king of Zion, that is, the Messiah, the successor of David and Solomon, and to profane the once-holy city, and to establish his own temple in place of God's, and to overthrow all the monuments of the passion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, whose enemy he will be, and Antichrist. Thus experience establishes that the devil especially plots against monasteries of both men and women, to introduce into them some sorcerer, or wanton, turbulent person, etc., who may either disturb or infect all the rest, so that where God was most worshipped, he himself may be worshipped, and thus as it were expel God from His own temple and take vengeance upon Him.

In Beth-aven. — Beth-aven was a city of Judea, but obscure, situated near Bethel, about which see Joshua 7:2, and Castro thinks the Prophet is speaking of it here. But St. Cyril, St. Jerome, Theophylactus, Theodoret, Haymo, Lyranus, and others generally think that Bethel itself is called Beth-aven; both because it was near to it; and because Bethel was most famous, first for holiness and piety, then for idols and idolatry. For Jeroboam placed golden calves in Dan and Bethel, as at the two borders of the kingdom, and there he personally sacrificed to these calves. Note: Bethel was formerly called Luz, because of the abundance of nuts and almonds (for these are called in Hebrew לוז luz); but by the patriarch Jacob, who there saw God leaning on the ladder and angels ascending and descending by the ladder, it was called Bethel, that is, House of God, Genesis 28:19. The same is called by the Prophets, by antiphrasis, Beth-aven, that is, house of iniquity, as Theodotion translates, or house of nothing, as Symmachus and Aquila translate. The Septuagint, reading by crasis און on instead of און aven, translates house of sorrow, or house of the idol, because in it was the temple in which the golden calves of Jeroboam were worshipped. That this is so is clear from Amos 5:5, where the Prophet uses almost the same words as Hosea has here, and says: "Do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal, etc., because Gilgal shall be led captive, and Bethel shall be useless," in Hebrew aven; Bethel, therefore, is Beth-aven. He warns, therefore, Judah, that is, the two tribes, not to visit the neighboring idols placed at Gilgal and Bethel. I say neighboring, because Gilgal and Bethel were in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, as is clear from Joshua 18:12 and 22; and therefore he names these rather than Dan or Samaria. And he says: "Do not go up into Beth-aven," because Bethel was situated on a high place. So Vatablus.

Tropologically, Bethel becomes Beth-aven when a kingdom, a people, or a city — such as England, Scotland, Denmark — defects from the faith and worship of God to heresy; when churches are converted into stables, monasteries into armories, hospitals into taverns and dens of vice — to which applies that saying of Jeremiah and Christ: "My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves," Matthew 21:13. Again, a holy soul becomes Beth-aven when it falls from the grace of God through sin; for then it passes from the kingdom and dominion of God into the right and power of the devil.

Note that the Prophet here and henceforth to the end of the chapter is especially speaking to the two tribes; for he turns his discourse to them in verse 15, saying: "If you commit fornication, O Israel, let not Judah at least offend."

Nor swear: As the Lord lives, — meaning: Do not swear by the life of the idol that is at Gilgal or at Bethel, attributing to it the name Lord, in Hebrew Jehovah, which is an incommunicable name and proper to the true God. For an oath is an act of worship: for by swearing by someone, they testified that he is infallible, the first and uncreated truth; and consequently that he is a divinity and God: for when swearing they called him as witness to their assertion, saying, for example, As the Lord lives, that I have done or will do this or that, as if they were saying: I swear by God and the life of God that I have done or will do this or that. Just as, therefore, shortly before He forbade the worship of the idol, so here He forbids the oath by the idol: for this is a protestation and invocation of the divine power and of the true God. So Theodoret, Albert, Hugo, Lyranus, and others.

Others explain, meaning: I, God and Lord, or your Jehovah, do not wish you to swear any longer by Me and My life, since you are idolaters; I do not wish that with the mouth you have polluted by the invocation of idols, you should swear, name, and invoke, and thus pollute My holy name. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theophylactus, Haymo, Isidore, Vatablus, and others. But this explanation does not properly cohere with what preceded: "Do not enter into Gilgal, and do not go up into Beth-aven;" for to this he connects: "Nor swear: As the Lord lives" — for these three prohibitions are spoken with the same construction, tenor, and connection, as is clear from the Hebrew. They therefore have the same aim: namely, that they should not worship idols at Gilgal and Beth-aven, nor swear by them. Otherwise what would be the connection of saying: Do not worship idols at Gilgal and Beth-aven, and do not swear by My name? The contrary would rather need to be said, in this way: Do not worship or swear by the idols that are at Gilgal, but rather worship Me and swear by My name.

Verse 16: For like a wanton heifer Israel has turned aside. — He sets before Judah the...

16. For like a wanton heifer Israel has turned aside. — He sets before Judah the petulance and wantonness of Israel, as a foul and shameful thing, provoking the indignation of God and the ruin of the nation; so that Judah may grow wise from another's madness and danger, and avoid it, meaning: Let Israel, lacking brains, be wanton like a heifer; but you, O Judah, stand firm in the law of God, like a lion: for I have compared you to one, Genesis 49:10. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Theophylactus, Haymo, and others. In the Hebrew there is an elegant play on words: Like a heifer, שררה שרר sarera sarar, Israel, meaning: Like a rebellious heifer, Israel has rebelled against God. So Vatablus. For surera signifies a heifer that is agitated by wantonness or heat, and therefore, untamed and rebellious, shakes off every yoke and runs wildly here and there.

Therefore the Septuagint translates: Like a heifer stung by a gadfly Israel went mad; by a gadfly, that is, a goad, as St. Jerome teaches from Virgil; for thus Virgil sings, book III of the Georgics: Around the groves of Silarus, and green with holm oaks, Flying in great numbers over Alburnus, there is one whose name Is Gadfly in Roman tongue, Oestros the Greeks have called it; Fierce, harsh-sounding; at whose noise the whole herd, Terrified, scatters through the woods. The gadfly signifies the frenzy of the Hebrews, by whose insane impulse they were carried and rushed to the worship of idols. Our translator more generally, properly, and adequately renders it "wanton;" for heifers are wanton not only from the goad, but also from pasture, love, and other causes. Whence the Chaldean translates: Like an ox that is fattened and kicks, so Israel rebels because of the abundance of goods, according to Deuteronomy 32:15: The beloved grew fat and kicked, etc. But our translator better renders it "heifer" than "ox," both because the Hebrew פרה para signifies a cow, not an ox; and because the females of almost all animals are more wanton, petulant, and delirious than males, as Aristotle teaches in the book On Physiognomy, and from him Augustine Niphus, who adduces physical reasons for this: "More mischievous," says Aristotle, "are the females than the males, and more forward, and less defensive;" again: "Males are of a stronger and more just nature; but females are more timid and more unjust by nature." Yet because females have less brain, judgment, spirit, and strength, hence nature compensating for this from elsewhere, they have more passion, emotion, forwardness, and shamelessness: for with these nature supplies what is lacking.

Finally, the Prophet compares Israel to a heifer, not to a dog or an ass. First, because it worshipped heifers, namely golden calves; it is called a heifer rather than a calf, for greater confusion, because in this manner by a wondrous mode of fornication it was subjected by the calves, before which it visibly prostrated itself in adoration; but invisibly prostituted its soul to the bull, that is, to the demon. Second, because its god was its belly, and, as David says: "Their iniquity came forth as if from fat." Third, because its wantonness was to be changed into slaughter, its jubilation into lowing and lamentation. So Rufinus, Rupert, and from them Delrio, adage 977. Finally, because it frolicked and was wanton, like the cows and calves it worshipped.

Now the Lord will feed them like a lamb in a wide place, — that is, in a broad and spacious place, meaning: Just as a lamb that is being fattened is allowed to graze most freely in the richest pastures, so that once fattened it may immediately be slaughtered; so God allows Israel to abound in goods and be wanton, so that it may become prey to the Assyrians, and be despoiled and slaughtered by them. So St. Jerome, Vatablus, and Lyranus.

Second, others say, meaning: Israel shall go captive into Assyria, where it shall not be wanton like a heifer; but shall be led wherever the enemies wish, and driven at the command of the Assyrians like a meek lamb. So Haymo, Hugo, and Castro. Or just as a meek lamb everywhere seeks its mother's udders, so Israel, tamed and made meek in captivity, shall seek Me and My sustenance. So Theodoret and Theophylactus.

Tropologically, St. Jerome takes Israel as the heretic and Judah as the faithful churchman: "If once you commit fornication, O heretic; at least you, O churchman, do not offend; and do not enter Gilgal, the assemblies of heretics, where all sins are revealed, and like pigs they wallow in the mire (for Gilgal alludes to גלה gala, that is, he revealed, and to גלל galal, that is, he rolled, he wallowed), do not think yourself to be ascending to the proud and arrogant fictions of false doctrines. For there is not there the house of God, but the house of an idol. For just as a heifer stung by a gadfly, so the heretics have been struck by the burning arrows of the devil, and have abandoned the knowledge of the law: therefore they shall be fed in the broad and spacious way that leads to death, and the patience of the Lord and good shepherd shall nourish them for destruction." The same, changing the name of heretic, you may apply to the ambitious, the luxurious, the greedy, and to any sinner.

Verse 17: Ephraim is a partaker of idols, let him alone, — meaning: O Judah, let Ephraim...

17. Ephraim is a partaker of idols, let him alone, — meaning: O Judah, let Ephraim alone, that is, Israel, namely the ten tribes, who are partakers of the worship and table of idols; for they eat idol-offerings, namely the meats and foods sacrificed to idols: do not therefore imitate him, do not participate with him in idols and idol-offerings. So St. Jerome, Theophylactus, Hugo, Lyranus, and others. Less correctly Rupert and Vatablus think these are the words of God to the Prophet, meaning: You will waste your effort if you invite Ephraim to repentance; therefore let him alone with his desires and idols. For the gravest punishment is to be abandoned by God and handed over to oneself and one's own lusts.

Verse 18: Their banquet is set apart. — He gives Judah reasons why he ought to avoid the...

18. Their banquet is set apart. — He gives Judah reasons why he ought to avoid the commerce and society of Israel. The first is this, meaning: Because their worship, religion, and banquet is separated and different from yours, O Judah: for you abstain from foods forbidden by the law of Leviticus 11; they eat them without scruple; you partake of the peace offerings sacrificed to God; they partake of and eat idol-offerings.

So St. Jerome, Albert, and Hugo; you keep yourself chaste after meals; they, stuffed with feasting, burn with lusts. This is what follows: "They have committed fornication upon fornication." For "their banquet is set apart," the Hebrew is סר סבאם sar sobeam, that is, their drinking or carousing, that is, their banquet has departed. For the Hebrews call it miste, that is, a drinking together, as also the Greeks call it symposion, from a sharing of drink, which the Latins from a sharing of food and nourishment call convivium (banquet). It is a metaphor from sour wines. For "to recede" is elegantly used by the Hebrews of wine when it turns into flat wine. Whence the Greeks call such wine ἐξεστηκός, Cicero calls it vinum fugiens (fleeing wine), the Flemish call it afgaenden wiin. The Chaldean, Rabbi David, Vatablus, Pagninus, and other more recent interpreters translate: Their drink has gone bad or stinks, meaning: Their wine was formerly wine of Cos, that is, colorful, fragrant, flavorful; but now through their crimes it has departed from its color, fragrance, and flavor; and has become colorless, putrid, and sour, meaning: Their joy has been turned into sorrow, their pleasures into mourning, their feasts into wormwood.

It is remarkable that the Septuagint translates: He provoked the Canaanites: which St. Jerome explains thus, meaning: "Israel had such zeal in the worship of idols that it did not imitate the Canaanites, that is, the pagans, but provoked them to imitate its own error." Finally, Isidore translates: Their drunkenness and debauchery has departed, as if the Israelites are here tacitly reproached for gorging themselves to the point of surfeit and vomiting.

His protectors have loved shame. — The second reason by which the Prophet urges Judah to withdraw from Israel; because, he says, "the protectors," that is, the gods they worship, or, as the Chaldean, Hebrew, Pagninus, and Vatablus render, its princes, who sanction idolatry, fornication, and drunkenness, and induce it to these by word and example, bring upon themselves nothing but shame and reproach. And so by "shame" understand the shameful and disgraceful idolatry, with St. Jerome, Haymo, Hugo, and Lyranus, as well as gluttony and fornication, with Arias and the Chaldean, who translate: They have loved fornication, so that shame might come upon their princes.

Our translator reads הבו habo, that is, to bring; but with other vowel points they read הבו habu, that is, bring, give. Whence they translate: They love — give to shame — his shields, that is, his protectors who defend him like shields, meaning: The protectors and princes of Israel love gifts and say: Give, give us presents, which is disgraceful both for them and for the people. So Vatablus, Pagninus, Isidore, and the Rabbis. Or, as Arias says, give, namely wines and delicacies, meaning: They continually demand wines and delicacies, like Epicureans, which is the height of shame. But this version is more obscure and adds and supplies some things to the text; ours, however, is clearer, plainer, and more adequate, and therefore truer and more genuine.

Verse 19: The wind has bound him up in its wings. — The Septuagint: A whirlwind shall...

19. The wind has bound him up in its wings. — The Septuagint: A whirlwind shall hiss in his wings, meaning: The whirlwind of divine indignation and vengeance shall, as it were with its wings, bind up Israel, or the Synagogue, and carry it off into Assyrian captivity; and there most swiftly scatter it to all corners of the world, just as a whirlwind is accustomed to twist, toss, and scatter chaff. Or, meaning: Wherever the wind blows, it shall carry with it the bound Israel; therefore he shall most swiftly fly away from here, as if driven by the swiftest and most rapid wind. For wings are attributed to winds by metaphor, because of their speed; whence they are also depicted as winged, just as angels are, says Isidore, book VII of the Etymologies, chapter 5. Hence Ovid, Metamorphoses I: He unleashes the South Wind, and the South Wind flies forth on dripping wings. Thus rainwaters are said not only to be enclosed in clouds, but also to be bound, Job 26:8, so that they cannot move and travel except together with the clouds; for clouds are the vehicle of rain. So Pineda in that passage. Whence the Syriac translates: The spirit shall be bound in their wings; the Antiochene Arabic: A bent (twisted) spirit comes in his wings; the Alexandrian Arabic: Winds blew from his wings. It is a poetic description of the captivity. So Rufinus, Theodoret, Theophylactus. For "bound" the Hebrew is צרר tsarar, that is, bound, constricted, twisted, tightened, afflicted, troubled. Cyril and Theophylactus for אותה ota, that is, her, with other vowel points read אתה atta, that is, you; whence they translate: You are a whirlwind in his wings, as if the Prophet were speaking to God and saying that He Himself is the whirlwind that will carry Israel away; or, as Cyril says, meaning: You, Judah, have been to Israel like a whirlwind in the wings of a bird: for when Israel saw you, who have the temple, already sluggish and supine, and bound in the same sins, it apostatized more and more quickly.

On the other hand, St. Jerome, Haymo, Albert, Hugo, and Lyranus understand by this spirit the devil, meaning: It is the devil who drives Israel to idolatry and other crimes; so much so that he seems to have bound its mind and will and fastened them to idols. Thus the demon binds the sinner to a mistress, to wine, to ambition, and thus drives and drags the bound person, like a slave, wherever he wishes, just as he drags witches and sorceresses both in body and spirit wherever he pleases. Second, Leo the Hebrew translates: He bound the wind in his wings; which Vatablus explains, meaning: The wind held that congregation (for this is what the Hebrew אותה ota, which is feminine, signifies) of Israelites bound in its wings, and thus will transfer them elsewhere, namely into Assyrian captivity; for he calls "wings" the edges and folds of garments, as if Israel had the wind or whirlwind bound in them, which thus winged most swiftly transfers it into Assyria. Whence Symmachus also translates: He bound the wind in the wings of the wind; which St. Jerome explains: "The spirit of the devil," he says, "has bound them in his wings, who are carried about by every wind of doctrine and cannot remain with a firm foot in the Church."

This second sense coincides with the first: for whether you say that Israel was snatched away into Assyria

by the whirlwind of God's wrath, or by the wings of his own whirlwind, it comes to the same thing; for the whirlwind of Israel is none other than the whirlwind of God's wrath, which His wrath implanted and impressed upon it, to carry it away into Assyria; just as the force of one throwing a stone and the force of the thrown stone are the same. For the thrower imprints his force upon the thrown stone, so that it may cast it where he wishes: this force therefore belongs as much to the man throwing, as the efficient cause, as to the stone thrown, as the receiving and passive cause. Finally, the Hebrew אותה ota, that is, her, some refer to the shame, meaning: The whirlwind of God's wrath has bound the shame in the wings of Israel, so that it cannot shake it off; whence he adds: "They shall be confounded by their sacrifices," that is, because of the sacrifices they offered to idols.

Tropologically, learn here that sins create a whirlwind that shamefully scatters sinners and finally hurls them into hell. Therefore Zechariah, chapter 5:7, saw a woman, whose name was Wickedness, sitting in a barrel, being carried by two women having the wings of a kite and wind in their wings, away to Babylon, which is a symbol of hell. See what I said about the cords and chains of sins at Isaiah 5:18.