Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He promises the afflicted Christ the Redeemer, who will give them life on the third day, and who will arise like the dawn and like the early and the late rain. Then, in verse 4, He returns to His own times, and accuses the hardness of Ephraim, because although He wished to hew them through the Prophets, they rejected all His axes: likewise their lack of mercy, since God desires mercy, not sacrifice. Finally, in verse 8, He inveighs against the Gileadites, who used to kill worshippers of God going to Jerusalem on the road.
Vulgate Text: Hosea 6:1-11
1. In their tribulation they will rise early to me: come, and let us return to the Lord, 2. for He has seized us, and He will heal us: He will strike, and He will cure us. 3. He will revive us after two days; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the dawn, and He will come to us like the early rain, and like the late rain upon the earth. 4. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your mercy is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that passes away early. 5. Therefore I have hewn them by the Prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and your judgments shall go forth like light. 6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God, more than burnt offerings. 7. But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant: there they have dealt treacherously against me. 8. Gilead is a city of those who work idols, undermined with blood. 9. And like the jaws of robbers, the company of priests murder in the way those who pass from Shechem: for they have committed wickedness. 10. In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: there are the fornications of Ephraim; Israel is defiled. 11. But also, O Judah, set a harvest for yourself, when I shall bring back the captivity of my people.
Verse 1: In their tribulation they will rise early to me. — These words belong to the...
1. In their tribulation they will rise early to me. — These words belong to the end of chapter five, whence the Hebrews, the Chaldee and Pagninus refer them there, and begin chapter six from the words: 'Come, and let us return to the Lord.' But Vatablus begins chapter six from the last verse of chapter 5, as I said there. But it all amounts to the same thing, and indicates that the beginning of this chapter is connected with the end of the preceding chapter, in this manner and sense: I will return to my place, says the Lord, until the Israelites, afflicted and wasting away in tribulation, acknowledge their guilt, and seek my face. For when they are in tribulation, they will rise early to me. Hence it is clear that by tribulation here is understood both that which the Israelites suffered in the Assyrian captivity, and that which the Jews suffered in the Babylonian captivity. So St. Jerome, Theodoret and Theophylact; for He threatened both against both in the preceding chapter, verse 5, saying: 'Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity, Judah also shall fall with them;' and verse 12: 'I will be like a moth to Ephraim, and like rottenness to the house of Judah.' Whence both Israel and Judah, seeking a remedy, 'went to the avenging king, and he,' says the Prophet, 'shall not be able to heal you;' therefore, despairing of human help from these, in your tribulation you will run back to me your God, as is said here.
Arias interprets otherwise, understanding by tribulation the captivity of the Jews which they suffered under Titus and the Romans. But no mention of this was made in the preceding chapter: nor in that captivity were the Jews sincerely converted to the Lord, nor did God give them life on the third day: rather He cut them off and destroyed them with total annihilation.
'Early,' — that is, quickly, promptly, hastily seeking from me that I free them from tribulation; namely, this symbolic 'morning' was when, after the night of captivity had passed and its seventy years decreed by God had been fulfilled, the Jews, stirred to hope by Daniel, Ezra, and other Prophets, yearning for the approaching liberation under Cyrus, humbly asked God for it and obtained it: for the morning and dawn for the captive Jews was the hope of approaching liberation, soon to be granted through Cyrus once the 70 years were completed.
Mystically, St. Jerome says: 'Early,' he says, that is, when the light of penance has risen for them through the face of faith. Allegorically, Lyra says: 'Early,' that is, in the preaching of John the Baptist, who like the morning star and dawn preceded Christ the sun of justice, exhorting men to penance, so that through it he might prepare them for Christ's grace and justice. Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter 43, applies this to the pious women who, grieving over the death of Christ, came early to the tomb to anoint Him; whence they merited to be the first to see Him rising, and He wonderfully consoled them. But this sense is accommodative.
'Come' (understand: saying, and exhorting one another), 'and let us return to the Lord, for He has seized us.' — In Hebrew taraph, that is, He has snatched or carried us off, as if to say: It was not Shalmaneser, not Nebuchadnezzar, but God the avenger who, on account of our crimes, through Shalmaneser and Nebuchadnezzar snatched us in chains off to Assyria and Babylon: whence He alone can free us, and heal this wound, as He promised to heal, and therefore He will soon heal in reality. He looks back to what he said in the preceding chapter, verse 14: 'I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, I will seize and go away; I will carry off, and there is none who can rescue;' and verse 13: 'He (the avenging king, namely the Assyrian) will not be able to heal you, nor will he be able to loose from you'
the chain. 14. For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, I will seize and go away; I will carry off, and there is none who can rescue;'
HE WILL STRIKE, AND HE WILL CURE US. — In Hebrew יחבשנו iachbescenu, that is, He will bind us up, namely He will bandage our wounds with strips of cloth, and thus cure us. Whence the Septuagint translates μοτώσει: for μοτά, says St. Jerome, are the lint bandages that are inserted into wounds to eat away the putrid flesh and draw out the pus; and it is the art of physicians to heal great wounds over a long time, and to restore health through pain. The Lord therefore strikes us and cures us; because whom He loves He corrects, and He not only cures, but also gives life after two days. So also the Introduction attributed to Galen, where μοτός is said to be fourfold: στριπτός, that is, twisted; ξιστός, that is, scraped, because it was formed from scraped linen material; τιλτός, that is, plucked, from the plucking and pulling of material; βλωχνιωτός, because it was made from lamp-wick. The translator of the Royal Bibles renders the action as: He will disturb us; because a surgeon, in order to cure a wound and remove pus, must cleanse it with a swab, disturb it and scrape it; so that he may then insert the healing μοτόν, or lint.
Elegantly St. Augustine says on Psalm 50: "That, he says, is the voice of the Lord: I will strike, and I will heal. He strikes the rottenness of the crime, He heals the pain of the wound. Physicians do this: they cut, they strike, and they heal; they arm themselves to wound, they carry the knife, and they come to cure."
Morally, learn here that tribulation is the weapon of God, by which God calls back to Himself and to salvation those who flee from Him and rush toward ruin. For those pierced by this weapon, prostrated and humbled, lay aside their pride, acknowledge their guilt, and repenting beg pardon from God; who soon spares the suppliant and embraces them with maternal arms. This is what the Psalmist says: "Your arrows are fastened in me, and You have laid Your hand heavy upon me," Psalm 37:3. So St. Augustine, in his sermon 2 on Psalm 21, teaches that God is a physician who cures our vices by tribulation as by medicine: "Placed under treatment, he says, you are burned, you are cut, you cry out: the physician does not listen to your wish, but to your health." And in Book I On the Words of the Lord, sermon 18: "Drink, he says, the bitter cup; for you brought it on yourself. Those commandments of Mine that were given to the healthy, so sweet, so light, were despised: you have begun to suffer, you cannot be healed unless you drink the bitter cup of temptations, tribulations, distresses, and passions. Drink that you may live. And lest the sick man respond: I cannot, I cannot bear it, I will not drink — the physician drank first while healthy, so that the sick man would not hesitate to drink. For what is bitter in such a cup that He has not drunk? If insults, He heard them first when He cast out demons: He casts out demons by Beelzebub. If pains are bitter, He was bound, and scourged, and crucified. If death is bitter, He also died. If the weakness dreads the kind of death, nothing at that time was more ignominious than the death of the cross."
The same, sermon 3 On the Maccabees: "The whole world is the furnace of the goldsmith. There the just man is like gold, the wicked like chaff. There tribulation is like fire, there God is like the goldsmith. The pious man praises God, the gold gleams; the wicked man blasphemes God, the chaff smokes; the one is purified, the other is destroyed by the same fire; God is praised in both." The same on Psalm 11: "One suffers tribulations: he is taught to love better things through the bitterness of lesser things, lest the traveler journeying to his homeland love the inn as his own house." The same, in the book On True Innocence: "When the Lord permits or causes us to be afflicted by some tribulation, even then He is merciful: for exercising faith and deferring help, He does not deny aid, but arouses desire." The same, letter 87: "Prosperity is the gift of a consoling God, adversity is the gift of an admonishing God."
St. Gregory, in the Moralia: "Tribulation, he says, opens the ear of the heart, which the prosperity of this world often closes." St. Chrysostom, homily 4 On Repentance, calls tribulation a plow: "With it, therefore, he says, let us break open our hearts, so that if any deceitful weed and wicked thought is in us, we may tear it out by the root, and present our soil pure for the seeds of piety." The same, homily 4 On the Rich Man and the Poor Man: "Without trial, he says, no crown; without contests, no prizes; without races, no honors; without tribulation, no remission; without winter, no summer. And this can be observed not only in men, but also in seeds. For in these there must be much rain, much collision of clouds, much frost, if a green ear of grain is to spring up. When therefore winter descends upon souls, let us also sow in this winter, so that we may reap in summer." This was the meaning, this the practice of all the Saints: of Sarah, Tobit 3:21: "Every one who worships You holds this for certain: that his life, if it is under trial, will be crowned; and if it is in tribulation, will be delivered;"
Job 5:17: "Blessed is the man who is corrected by God: therefore do not reject the rebuke of the Lord: for He wounds, and He heals: He strikes, and His hands will cure;" of the Psalmist, Psalm 15:4: "Their infirmities were multiplied, afterwards they hastened;" of Solomon, Proverbs 3:11: "My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord: nor lose heart when you are corrected by Him: for whom the Lord loves, He corrects: and as a father He delights in his son;" of Jeremiah, 31:18: "You have chastised me, and I have been instructed like an untamed young bull;" of Jonah, 2:8: "When my soul was in anguish within me, I remembered the Lord;" of Daniel, 11:35: "And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be refined, and chosen, and made white;" of Zechariah, 13:9: "I will burn them as silver is burned, and I will try them as gold is tried;" of Malachi, 3:2: "For He is like a refining fire, and like fullers' herb: and He shall sit refining and purifying silver, and He shall purge the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold and as silver."
Moreover, when Philo with other Jews was accused before Gaius Caligula by Apion, because he did not render divine honors to Caesar, and was expelled from the court, he replied to his Jewish companions:
"We must be of good courage, we with whom Gaius is angry; for it is necessary that divine help be present where human help ceases." So Eusebius, Book II of the History, chapter 5. Finally St. Bernard in the Sentences: "Tribulation, he says, brings three things: exercise, lest the virtue of love grow cold in the lukewarmness of idleness; testing, so that the strength of our constancy may become known to men as an example; reward, so that according to the measure of tribulation, one may receive an immense weight of glory." He then adds the same number of remedies: "Against adversity, he says, three things must be opposed: the struggles and distresses of the elect, which those who live piously endure; the afflictions and troubles of the Redeemer, which the most cruel rulers inflicted upon Him; the disposition of governing justice, whose depth, like the top of Joseph's staff, we must not scrutinize, but adore."
Verse 3: HE WILL GIVE US LIFE AFTER TWO DAYS
3. HE WILL GIVE US LIFE AFTER TWO DAYS. — First, the Hebrews explain it thus, that is: after two, that is, a few, days, God will free us from Babylon, where we live as captives, afflicted, and as if dead, and, as Ezekiel says in chapter 37, like dry bones in a grave; therefore, freeing us from this civil death, namely captivity, "He will give us life," so that we seem to ourselves to rise to freedom, as if to a new life. For just as slavery, prison, and sorrow are a kind of civil and moral death; so freedom, light, and joy are moral and civil life: "for life is not merely living, but being vigorous and well," says the Poet. But this applies only to the Jews, not to the Israelites: for these were never freed from Assyria. But the Prophet spoke and speaks of both. Add that all Catholics refer these words to Christ. I acknowledge, however, that there is an allusion here to the liberation of the Jews from Babylon by Cyrus, and that it is touched upon in passing and allusively. For he speaks to the Israelites, whose first day was the time of the Assyrian captivity, and to the Jews, whose second equally miserable day was the Babylonian captivity: after which succeeded the third day, joyful and auspicious, of redemption and liberation, which Cyrus began and Christ completed.
Second, therefore, all the orthodox Fathers and Interpreters teach that the coming of Christ the Redeemer is predicted here to the Jews and Israelites. For Ezra, Zerubbabel, Haggai, Zechariah, Joshua the son of Josedech, and other priests and Prophets repeatedly urged this upon them as they suffered in captivity. The meaning, therefore, is: Hold on, O Hebrews, a little while; hope, call upon God: for after two days, that is, after a short time, He Himself will free you — begun through Cyrus, but fully and perfectly through Christ (for the Prophets tend to rise from Cyrus to Christ, and suddenly, as it were, fly upward, as I said on Isaiah 65:8), who has been promised to Abraham and to us for so many ages as Savior and Redeemer. For He will free us from sin, death, and hell, and restore us to grace, life, and heaven; and so He will give us life with a holy, heavenly, and divine life. Thus two days are taken as few and brief, Numbers 9:22:
"But if for two days (that is, a short time) or one month, or a longer time, [the pillar of cloud] had been over the tabernacle." So also chapter 11:49; Isaiah 17:6, and elsewhere. Therefore the time of 591 years (for so many there were from the Babylonian captivity to the birth of Christ) is called here two days: because to God (and to the Prophets raised up in the light of God), in view of His eternity and in view of the eternal and heavenly salvation to be brought through Christ, "a thousand years are as yesterday which has passed," as the Psalmist says, Psalm 89:4. Hence with the same perspective and meaning, Haggai says of Christ, 2:7: "Yet a little while, etc., and the desired of all nations shall come." So Cyril, Arias, Vatablus, a Castro, and others. And so the time of the birth and first coming of Christ, namely the time of grace, of the New Testament and of Christianity, is called here the third day — both because it was soon to arrive; and because it was to bring full life, joy, light, and the fullness (for this is what the number three signifies) of all goods; and because after the first day of the law of nature, and the second day of the Mosaic law, it was to follow immediately as, so to speak, the third; and properly, after the first day of the Assyrian captivity and the second of the Babylonian captivity, this day of liberation was, as it were, the third, as I said a little earlier; and because Hosea here alludes to the third day on which Christ rose from the dead. Whence I say:
Third, the Prophet here clearly looks to the resurrection of Christ, which took place on the third day from His passion, and he signifies and prophesies it here. For the liberation and redemption of the Israelites and the Jews, as well as ours, accomplished through Christ, was completed and fully perfected in His resurrection: for this was its goal and crown. In it, therefore, Christ fully gave us life — both because in it He fully redeemed and sanctified us, and because it is the cause of our resurrection, both exemplary and efficient: whence in it Christ, as it were, gave us life together with Himself, and raised us up to a blessed and immortal life. Whence the Arabic Antiochene translates: He will heal us after two days, and on the third we shall rise, and we shall remain (dwell) in His sight, before Him; and the Arabic Alexandrian: He it is who will heal us, and will free us after two days, and on the third we shall stand alive before Him. This is what the Apostle says, Romans 4:25: "Who was delivered up for our offenses, and rose again for our justification." And Ephesians 2:5: "When we were dead in sins, He brought us to life together with Christ (by whose grace you are saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." For from the resurrection of Christ we have so certain a faith and hope of our own resurrection, as if we had already in fact risen with Him; see what was said there. So the Fathers everywhere understand this passage, and from this place prove the resurrection of Christ and ours — St. Jerome, Theodoret, Haymo, Hugo, Lyranus, Emmanuel, Mariana, and others here; Origen, homily 5 on
Exodus; Tertullian, book Against Marcion, chapter 43; Cyprian, book II Against the Jews, chapter 25; Lactantius, book IV, 19; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 14; Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, 28; Rufinus in the Exposition of the Creed; Gregory, homily 20 on Ezekiel; Nyssen, the book On the Knowledge of God — who think these words are said in the person of the Saints who rose with Christ in Jerusalem and appeared to many there, Matt. 27:53. The same was taught by the ancient Hebrews as cited by Galatinus, book VIII, chapter 22. And Rabbi Moses in Bereshith Rabba, that is, in Genesis the Great, explaining that passage of Genesis 22: "But on the third day, lifting up his eyes, he saw the place from afar," says: "There are many trinities of days in Holy Scripture, one of which is the resurrection of the Messiah." Whence that passage of 1 Corinthians 15:4: "And that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures." Anselm there, and Dorotheus, in the Life of Hosea, explain it of this Scripture of Hosea; for nowhere else is the third day prescribed for the resurrection of Christ. Isidore of Pelusium is added, who in book II, letter 112, reads it thus: "Then death will mourn, overcome by a stronger death. He will heal us after two days: on the third we shall rise again, and live with Him;" and he explains it of the resurrection of Christ, in which He overcame and routed both His own death and ours.
Now these three days are assigned as follows by Origen in the passage already cited, St. Augustine in sermon 90 On the Seasons, and others: they count the first day as that on which Christ suffered and was crucified; the second, on which He was buried and descended into hell; the third, on which He rose. Otherwise Ribera: The first day, he says, was the fourteenth of the moon, on which, after the celebration of the Passover and the institution of the Eucharist, Christ was captured praying in the garden and began to suffer. The second is the fifteenth of the moon, namely the day of preparation, on which He suffered and was killed. The third is the sixteenth of the moon, on which He rose. But then the Sabbath would be the sixteenth of the moon; for this succeeds the fifteenth, or the day of preparation; whereas it is certain that Christ rose not on the Sabbath, but on the Lord's Day. See the Interpreters on Matthew 12:40.
Now Christ rose precisely on the third day for various reasons. The first is that Jonah, in chapter 2, was in the belly of the whale for three days, and by this fact portended that Christ would be in the tomb for three days and would rise on the third day, just as he himself came forth alive from the belly of the whale on the third day. Christ gives this reason in Matthew 12:40. The second, because Christ Himself had predicted it, John 2:19: "Destroy, He said, this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The third, because if His flesh had remained longer in the tomb, it would have been corrupted. But this was not fitting, according to Psalm 15:10: "Nor will You give Your Holy One to see corruption." The fourth, lest it seem that someone else had risen. The fifth, because Christ by dying destroyed death; therefore it was fitting that He not be held long in death, but soon rise gloriously as its conqueror and triumphant master. The sixth, because the life of Christ as man was divine, and the noblest of all created things: therefore it was fitting that it be immediately restored after the accomplishment of our redemption and satisfaction, especially since the divinity always, even in death, remained united to both the body and the soul of Christ. For what He once assumed, He never relinquished.
Hear St. Leo, sermon 1 On the Resurrection: "Lest a long period of sorrow torment the troubled hearts of the disciples, He shortened the announced delay of three days with such wondrous speed that, while the last part of the first day and the first part of the third ran together into the whole second day, some space of time was lost, yet nothing was lost from the number of days." And shortly after: "So swift was the vivification of the incorrupt flesh that the likeness of sleep was greater there than that of death. Since the Divinity, which did not withdraw from either substance of the assumed humanity, what It had divided by power, It joined again by power." The moral reason was to teach that the cross and death of the faithful would be brief, and as it were a mere three days in comparison with blessed eternity. Therefore He, as it were, encourages them to embrace the cross and death, because from it, as from sleep, they would soon rise again with Him to eternal life.
Mystically, various authors variously enumerate these three days. First, St. Augustine, sermon 90 On the Seasons: "Not incongruously, he says, we can call the three days the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because the Father is a day, and the Son is a day, and the Holy Spirit is a day, and these three are one day." The Father gave us life by creating and giving nature; the Son, by redeeming and giving His blood; the Holy Spirit, by sanctifying and giving grace and justice. Second, Fulgentius as cited by Albert, counts the first day as that on which the Son was begotten from eternity by God the Father; the second, on which in time He was born as man from the Virgin; the third, on which He rose from the tomb. Third, others say: The first day is that of the birth of Christ; the second, of His passion; the third, of His resurrection. Fourth, Lyranus and Rabbi Solomon take the three days as three temples and their periods: The first day, he says, was the time of the temple of Solomon, which was followed by the night of the Babylonian captivity; the second, of the temple of Zerubbabel, which was followed by the night of the destruction by Titus and the Romans; the third, of the temple of Christ, that is, of the Church that will last forever.
Tropologically St. Bernard says: The three days signify a threefold life: the first, of nature and guilt, namely of original sin; the second, of grace; the third, of glory. For in sermon 72 on the Song of Songs, explaining that passage of Canticle 2: "My beloved is mine, and I am his, who feeds among the lilies, until the day breaks and the shadows decline," he says at the end: "Since therefore two days precede in us — one breathing for the life of the body, the other breathing again in the grace of sanctification — and a third remains in the glory of the resurrection: it is certainly clear that what preceded in the Head will one day be fulfilled in the body — a great mystery of piety indeed, and the testimony of the Prophet, who says: He will give us life after two days, on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight."
And more fully, in sermon 2 for the Vigil of the Nativity: "There are, he says, three days of which we read: He will give us life after two days, on the third day He will raise us up: one under Adam, the second in Christ, the third with Christ. Whence it is also added there: We shall know and we shall follow on to know the Lord. And here it is said: Tomorrow you shall go out, and the Lord will be with you. For this is said to those who have halved their days, in which the day on which they were born perishes — which is the day of Adam, the day of sin, which Jeremiah also cursed: Cursed be the day on which I was born; for we are all born on that day. Would that that day might perish in all of us, that day of mist and darkness, that day of shadows and storm, which Adam made for us!" Then, treating of the second day of the grace of Christ: "Behold, he says, there has dawned upon us the day of new redemption, of ancient restoration, of eternal happiness. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it; because tomorrow we shall go out. Out of what, if not from the chamber of this world, from the prison of this body, from the fetters of necessity, curiosity, vanity, pleasure? For what has our spirit to do with earthly things, etc. Spend this day in Christ, that you may walk as He Himself walked."
Then explaining the third day he says: "O Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear; tomorrow you shall go out, that is, as soon as the soul has departed from the body, all affections, all desires, by which it was meanwhile scattered and bound throughout the whole world, shall be dissolved, and it shall go forth from this birdlime, and the Lord will be with you," etc. The same again, sermon 5 among the shorter sermons: "He will give us life, he says, after two days, namely of knowledge and conversion; on the third day He will raise us up by the voice of the Incarnate Word through His first resurrection; and we shall live in His sight, quickened through His passion, more brightly enlightened through the knowledge of His miracles, and we shall follow on to know the Lord, instructed through the conversion wrought by His teaching."
Anagogically, St. Jerome, whom Albert, Hugo, and Clarius follow, thinks that three comings of Christ are noted here: the first "in humility," when He was born as man; the second "in glory," when He rose again; the third "in the character of judge;" and so the third day will be the day of judgment and universal resurrection, on which the Saints will rise to eternal life and glory. Whence the Chaldean translates: He will grant us life in the days of consolation that are to come, and on the day of the resurrection of the dead He will raise us up, and we shall live with Him.
ON THE THIRD DAY HE WILL RAISE US UP. — He explains what he said, "after two days;" for this is the same as "on the third day." Whence Lactantius in the passage already cited: "He will give us life, he says, after two days, on the third day." So also Tertullian, Theodoret, Clarius, Arias, and a Castro here, and St. Gregory and Origen cited above. What this third day is, I have already said. For "He will raise up" the Hebrew is יקימנו iekimenu; which the Hebrews and the Chaldean translate: He will make [us] stand, He will support, He will sustain us. But others everywhere translate: He will raise us up; for there follows, "and we shall live;" and what preceded was, "He will give us life." Therefore the subject here is the raising to life, not the sustaining in life.
AND WE SHALL LIVE IN HIS SIGHT. — First, Theodoret, Theophylact, and Rupert explain it thus: "We shall live," namely with the life of glory and blessedness, especially when after the general resurrection we shall rise in a glorified body; for then we shall not only see God with the eyes of the mind face to face, but also Christ with the eyes of the body. But since there follows: "We shall know, and we shall follow on to know the Lord," hence we shall better understand these words of the life of grace, that is: We shall live in His (God's and Christ's) grace and in the care He has for us, indeed in His sight; for we shall see Him face to face, and in turn shall be seen by Him, and therefore we shall always strive to please Him as He looks upon us, and we shall follow Him and His laws and teaching in holy conduct, so that day by day we may know Him more and more, love Him, worship Him, until we attain Him and see Him face to face in heaven. So St. Jerome, Albert, Hugo, Lyranus, Arias, Vatablus, Ribera, and a Castro.
Where note: The phrase "in His sight" can be explained in three ways. First, that is: Living, we shall see Him face to face, says Vatablus — namely Christ born in the flesh. Second, that is: We shall live so holily that we shall always be mindful that we are in His presence and before His eyes, and therefore we shall strive to please and obey Him in all things; as Enoch, Noah, and other holy and perfect men are said to have walked with the Lord, Genesis 5:22, and 6:9. See what was said there. Third, that is: We shall live secure and happy in His sight, knowing that He constantly watches over us, cares for us, governs and protects us — He who previously, when we were living in sins, had turned His eyes and mind and care away from us; for the phrase "in His sight" is opposed to what he said in chapter 5, last verse: "I will return to my place until they perish and seek My face;" or, as Jeremiah says, 7:15: "I will cast you away from My face, as I cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim;"
for just as God cast Cain from His face, Genesis 4:14, and casts all the wicked from His face, so on the other hand He constantly keeps the pious in His eyes and mind. Therefore David, seeking this for himself and his people, prayed in Psalm 122:2: "As the eyes of a handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes to the Lord our God, until" He in turn graciously turns His eyes to us and "has mercy on us." For just as the sun illuminates, warms, gives life to, gladdens, and makes fruitful whatever it looks upon with its light, as with an eye, so too does God, who is the uncreated and immeasurable Sun. Hence again the Psalmist prays everywhere saying: "Look upon me and have mercy on me;" for by looking upon us You show mercy and do good: "Do not turn Your face from me; do not cast me from Your face; show me Your face; Your face, O Lord, I will seek." Likewise: "Make Your face to shine upon Your servant," Psalm 30:17. "May the Lord make His countenance shine upon us," Psalm 66:2. "Make Your face to shine upon Your servant," Psalm 118:135, that is: Show me a bright, that is serene, joyful, cheerful, kind, friendly, and beneficent face and countenance — not a dark, stern, sad, angry, threatening one.
Fourth, "we shall live," that is, we shall be lively, healthy, vigorous, spirited, strong, glorious. For life embraces all these things, as the mother and root of all: for as Martial says, book IX, epigram 69: Life is not merely living, but being well. And Seneca: It has the nature of death, a life that is dragged out in slow groaning. Hence the glory of the Blessed is called eternal life.
HIS GOING FORTH IS PREPARED AS THE DAWN, — that is: The birth and rising of Christ, by which He will go forth from heaven to earth by being born and dwelling among us, has been prepared by God like the dawn; because, like the dawn, He will dispel the darkness of ignorance and sin, and will illuminate the Israelites and all people with the light of His teaching and holy life. This is what the Apostle says, Romans 13: "The night is past, and the day is at hand." For "is prepared" the Hebrew is נכון nachon, that is, firmly and most certainly prepared, and confirmed by the fixed decree of God — namely, in God's predestination, the coming of Christ. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rupert, Hugo, Lyranus, and Vatablus.
Anagogically, Isidore takes these words of the glory of the resurrection, by which Christ began to shine upon the whole world like the dawn and to exercise His power and strength, according to Psalm 109:3: "With You is the principality in the day of Your power in the splendors of the saints," that is: You shall be prince, O Christ, on the day — not of humility and the cross, but on the day of power, that is, of Your might and kingdom, with the most holy and most sacred splendor, glory, and majesty, which will appear in Your divine resurrection, ascension, session at the right hand of the Father, sending of the Holy Spirit, and conversion of all the nations.
Note: The rising of Christ, both divine and human, is rightly compared to the dawn. First, because, just as the dawn is the first light of day, so the first work of God the Father was the eternal generation of the Son; therefore by the dawn is signified His antiquity and eternity, according to Psalm 109:3: "From the womb before the daystar I begot You;" in like manner the first work of our redemption was His human generation, or incarnation. Whence St. Augustine and Justin Against Trypho explain that passage, "From the womb before the daystar I begot You," as follows: Because, they say, from the womb of the Virgin alone, without the seed of a man, before the rising of the morning star, after midnight, Christ was begotten and born. Tertullian adds, book V Against Marcion, chapter 9: As stars appear at dawn, so at the dawn in which Christ was born, a new star appeared more brightly, indicating to them the rising of Christ as, so to speak, of the dawn.
Second, just as the dawn covers the sun and, as it were, brings it forth; so the flesh of Christ being born covered His divinity, and brought it to us with itself, and, as it were, gave it birth. Third, just as the dawn is a faint light that grows until midday; so too Christ as an infant grew in age, wisdom, and grace before God and men, even to the cross. Fourth, just as at dawn the dew is produced from the air, which waters, invigorates, and makes fruitful the herbs and plants; so too Christ came forth from heaven through the Virgin by the work of the Holy Spirit, who, watering with His grace the souls dead in sin, gives them life, and makes them fruitful in good works and merits.
Whence for "from the womb before the daystar I begot You," the Hebrew, Symmachus, Aquila, and the Fifth Edition have: From the dawn is the dew of Your youth to You; others translate: From the dawn I begot You as dew. So Isaiah compares the generation of Christ to dew, 45:8, saying: "Drop down dew, you heavens, from above." See what was said there. Again, the dew of youth among the Hebrews is the same as the flower and beauty of youth. Dew therefore, first, designates the sweetness, cheerfulness, and gentleness of Christ; second, His heavenly generation from the Virgin, just as dew is born from the dawn by heavenly power, says Rabbi Hadar-an: whence from the Hebrew it can be translated: From the womb of the dawn is the dew of Your youth; third, the abundance of graces, which was poured out upon Christ like dew. Hence the Chaldean translates: The mercies of God will be ready for You like dew; Your offspring will dwell in confidence.
Whence from this passage Vatablus and Suárez, Part III, vol. I, disputation 18, section 3, prove that the fullness of grace was infused into the soul of Christ in the womb, namely at the first instant of His conception. Thus therefore Christ, begotten as dew, was the son of the dawn — that is, of the eternal Father as God, and of the Virgin Mother as man. Hence Trismegistus drew his saying: "Since God had the power of both male and female, He brought forth the Word;" and from the same source Lactantius, book IV, chapter 13, teaches that God is δίγονος and δίγονος, and therefore it was necessary that the Son be born twice — in the first spiritual birth ineffably, in the second carnal birth without corruption.
Moreover, by the dew it is signified that the Son is consubstantial with both Father and Mother: for dew is of the same substance as the matter from which it is formed. So Molina, Part I, Question 27, article 1, disputation 2. Finally our Maldonatus (whom Cajetan and the Chaldean version already cited favor), commenting on Psalm 109, explains it thus: From the womb, that is from baptism, to You, O Christ, shall be born the dew of childhood, that is a multitude of children, or the dew of adolescence and youth, that is a multitude of adolescents and young men — namely of the faithful and Christians: for dew is produced in abundance and, as it were, covers the whole earth: for it is like
the finest rain, or drops, which fall most frequently and abundantly. Again, the dew signifies the abundant grace given to these faithful children of Christ. The meaning, therefore, is: Your generation, progeny, and posterity, O Christ, will not be carnal, but spiritual, and abundant both in number and in grace, like dew.
Fifth, just as the light of dawn is most longed for, most welcome, and most delightful to men who are wearied by the blind darkness of a long night; so too to men sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, the rising of Christ was most desired and most auspicious. For hence comes what Job says, 11:17: "When you think yourself consumed, you shall rise as the morning star." And St. Peter calls Christ and the Gospel of Christ the morning star, 2 Peter 1:19: "Until the day dawns, and the morning star rises in your hearts."
AND HE WILL COME TO US AS THE EARLY RAIN, AND AS THE LATTER RAIN TO THE EARTH. — The early or timely rain in Palestine is that which falls in autumn after the seeds have been sown in the earth, so that they may take root in the soil and begin to germinate; the latter rain is that which falls in spring, to fatten, enrich, and ripen the crop. The former is called timely because it is the rain of the sowing season; the latter is called late because it is the rain of the harvest. For in Syria it hardly rains all summer, but the days are fair and clear. So St. Jerome and Vatablus. The Prophets compare Christ to both rains, because He came as desired as they, and made fruitful and gave life to the earth, that is, to the souls of men.
Verse 4: What shall I do with you, Ephraim? — "He shows the affection of a parent toward...
4. What shall I do with you, Ephraim? — "He shows the affection of a parent toward lost children," says St. Jerome, according to Isaiah 5: "What more was there that I ought to have done for my vineyard, that I did not do for it?" and Micah 6: "My people, what have I done to you?" The Prophet returns here to his own times and the incorrigible ways of the Hebrews of his age, on account of which they were destined by God for destruction, as he says in what follows. Here therefore he shows that they themselves are the cause of their own ruin, not God, who grieves over it and has tried in every way to avert it, constantly knocking at their hard and rebellious hearts through the Prophets — now with threats, now with promises, now with scourges — so that on His part He has employed everything that could heal them and lead them to the salvation of both soul and body. Therefore Dionysius the Carthusian says morally: "These can be the words of the most merciful God to Christian sinners, who accumulate temporal goods and confess only with their lips, or are entangled in other vices, whom God ceaselessly invites to repentance, as if compassionating their damnation. Of whom the Apostle says that He wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Hence also St. Peter, 2 Peter 3, says: The Lord acts patiently on your account, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to repentance. With this Isaiah 30 agrees: Therefore, he says, the Lord waits to have mercy on you. Therefore let us not despise the riches of His goodness and longsuffering. Christ, the lover of souls, would rather be crucified again than allow anyone (as far as it depends on Him) to be condemned." This will in God, therefore, is sincere, serious, and, as far as it depends on Him, efficacious; therefore it is a will not merely of sign, as some would have it, but of good pleasure; for otherwise God would act fictitiously and deceptively when He invites sinners to Himself with such great sorrow and affection, if He had this only on His lips and in words, not in His mind and heart — which to think is impious; of which more in chapter 11:9.
YOUR MERCY. — The Hebrew חסד chesed signifies piety and mercy, and consequently holiness; for mercy is the sign and cause of this. Whence chasidim are called merciful and pious men. The meaning is: What shall I do with you, O Hebrews? For you are obstinate in your sins, and you do not admit My pious counsels and inspirations into your minds; for although sometimes some thought and feeling of piety and mercy toward your needy and wretched neighbors touches you, nevertheless it, like the morning cloud and dew, which immediately vanishes at the rising and heat of the sun, quickly passes away and disappears, that is: Your piety and mercy is inconstant, unstable, and evanescent. So the Chaldean, Rupert, Lyranus, Vatablus, and Arias.
Second, others here take it as the mercy of God, not of the Jews, that is: I, God, would desire to have mercy on you, O Jews, and that constantly and continually, but you by your wickedness drive away this will and mercy of Mine, just as the wind suddenly scatters the clouds, and the rising sun suddenly absorbs the dew. So St. Jerome, Theophylact, Hugo, and Ribera. The former sense is more favored by what follows: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice."
Verse 5: FOR THIS REASON I HAVE HEWN THEM BY THE PROPHETS
5. FOR THIS REASON I HAVE HEWN THEM BY THE PROPHETS. — For "I have hewn" the Hebrew is חצבתי chatsabti, that is, I have cut out, cut down, slain — a term applied to wood and stone when they are cut to be hewn and squared; whence the Septuagint translates: Therefore I have cut down (the Syriac: I have torn apart; the Arabic: I have reaped) your Prophets, which St. Jerome, Haymo, Rupert, and Hugo explain of the false prophets, that is: I have slain the false prophets, who were leading you away from Me and from true piety to impiety and superstition, so that those who had been the cause of error by promising prosperity, once slain, might become an occasion of salvation, says St. Jerome. Thus God through Elijah slew 450 prophets of Baal, 3 Kings 18.
Leo Castrius, however, along with Theophylact, takes it of the true Prophets, and explains it thus: I have slain them, that is, I exposed My Prophets to certain slaughter and death, when I commanded them to reprove your impiety continually; for I knew that for this reason they would be killed by you. Or, as Vatablus and a Castro say: I have worn out My Prophets and, as it were, killed them; for I wearied them with constant goads, to the point that I brought them, as it were, to death — by constantly driving and pressing them, so that they would continually admonish and press you, now with threats, now with promises.
But, since the Hebrew has "by the Prophets," as our Vulgate translates, along with the Chaldean and others; hence the better and clearer sense will be if we refer this hewing to the people. Whence St. Jerome, whom Haymo, Albert, and Hugo follow, explains it thus: "I have hewn you by the Prophets (that is, through the Prophets), and threatened you with terrible words; I have brought out the knife, the fire, and the cautery, so that you, who despised Me when I was merciful, might fear Me when I am offended." He explains and proves what he said: "What shall I do with you, Ephraim?" For your piety and mercy are most frivolous, your impiety most solid and hard, like marble and diamond; therefore I have tried to break it and hew it down through the Prophets, but in vain; for while I strive to carve these marbles, harder than flint, I have blunted my axes and chisels — namely my ministers and Prophets; for "I have slain them by the words of My mouth," that is: I have wearied and worn them out with continual oracles, admonitions, and commands; for these cost them dearly; for they often had to expose and pour forth along with their preaching all their goods and their very lives: but the marbles have hardened, they refuse to be carved; we have accomplished nothing with so much labor, such great expenditure — men who are the very creatures of God refuse to be formed to the image of God.
Similar is the complaint and passionate appeal of God through Jeremiah, 6:27: "I have set you as a strong assayer among my people, etc., brass and iron; they are all corrupt. The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the smelter has smelted in vain: for their wickedness has not been consumed. Call them rejected silver, because the Lord has cast them away." See what was said there. So Jerome Prado on Ezekiel 24:12, Emmanuel, Mariana, and others.
I have slain them by the words of My mouth. — St. Jerome refers this, like the preceding, to the Jews, that is: "I have slain the negligent by the words of My mouth, so that I might punish sinners by the terror of words before captivity was imminent," that is: I slew them not in fact but by words and threats. More aptly and effectively, others refer "I have hewn" to the Jews, but "I have slain" to the Prophets. So Lyranus, Arias, a Castro, and the Prado already cited. The meaning is what I gave a little earlier.
AND YOUR JUDGMENTS SHALL GO FORTH AS THE LIGHT, — that is: I have hewn and slain you to this end, that "judgments," that is, your acts of justice, might rise and shine like the light. For just as the sun shines through its rays, so the judgments and laws of God shine forth through works, says a Castro. Second, Vatablus says: Your affairs have turned out favorably and prosperously for you. For just as darkness signifies misfortune, so light signifies prosperity and good fortune, that is: On account of the Prophets by whom I hewn you, I heaped My blessings upon you. But "judgments" does not mean blessings. Third, therefore, most aptly: "And," that is, therefore, "your judgments," that is, your condemnation will be seen, as it were, in clear light, and will appear to all to be just, and your crime to be inexcusable, being obstinate after so many of God's admonitions, hewings, and scourgings. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Hugo, Lyranus, Arias, and others.
Verse 6: FOR I DESIRED MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE
6. FOR I DESIRED MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. — St. Jerome here, and St. Chrysostom, Hilary, and Euthymius, on Matthew 9:13, take mercy not of men but of God, as if He said: It is more pleasing to Me to have mercy on you than to receive sacrifices from you; I delight more in your conversion and salvation than in victims. Christ supports this in Matthew 12:7. For when the Pharisees were criticizing the Apostles for plucking ears of grain on the Sabbath to relieve their hunger, Christ cast these words of Hosea at them saying: "But if you knew what this means: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, you would never have condemned the innocent," that is: If you knew how great is the mercy of God, you would likewise know that it is more pleasing to Him, for relieving the hunger of the poor, to pluck grain on the Sabbath, than to observe the Sabbath in such rigid idleness from work, while My followers suffer such great hunger.
But thus understood, these words do not properly cohere with what precedes, where He threatened them with judgments, that is, condemnation; nor with what follows: "and the knowledge of God more than holocausts." For this knowledge belongs to men; therefore mercy does too. Moreover, it is not fitting to compare the mercy of God with the sacrifices of men. Better, therefore, we shall take these words of mercy, that is, of almsgiving and kindness from men toward their needy and wretched neighbors. So the Chaldean, Theodoret, Theophylact, Haymo, Albert, Lyranus, Arias, Vatablus, and Augustine, City of God X; St. Cyprian, book III Against the Jews, 5, and others; indeed Christ Himself in Matthew 12:7.
For His meaning is: I have permitted My hungry disciples to pluck grain on the Sabbath, because I have compassion on them and desire that they relieve their hunger. For I know that mercy is more pleasing to God than Sabbath rest, indeed than sacrifice: learn this therefore from Me, and put on and practice with Me this mercy toward My hungry disciples, so that you may not accuse them for violating the Sabbath, but excuse them for relieving their hunger, and have compassion on them.
Note first: The word "for" gives the reason for what preceded, especially what he said in verse 4, where he accused their mercy — by which alone they could expiate their sins and appease God — of being unstable and deceptive, because they soon relapsed into their customary mercilessness and cruelty (for idolatry is cruel, as is heresy), that is: I commended mercy to you and condemned mercilessness, because the former is most pleasing to God, the latter hateful and most displeasing; for God prefers and gives priority to mercy over sacrifice. For the Jews were, just as they were merciless toward their neighbors, so generous and inclined toward external sacrifices and offerings, as if all piety and reconciliation with God consisted in these, thinking that if they performed them, everything would be secure for them and God would overlook their crimes — an error which God here removes from them, asserting the contrary, namely: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." And Christ, Matthew 23:23: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who tithe mint, and dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: judgment, and mercy, and faith!"
Note second: From the fact that he says "not sacrifice," some have thought that the ancient sacrifices did not please God, indeed were hateful to Him. But this is an error: for they were instituted and prescribed by Him throughout Leviticus, and were acts of religion and worship of God. Therefore "not sacrifice" means the same as "more than sacrifice," as the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and others translate. For since the Hebrews lack the comparative, they express it by negation of what is lesser. And so what the Hebrews say — I desire mercy (that is, I love, I wish, I cherish, I choose; for this is the Hebrew חפץ chaphats), not sacrifice — the Latins say: I prefer mercy to sacrifice, or I choose mercy first, I prefer it, I give it priority over sacrifice. Whence St. Augustine, City of God X, chapter 5: "Where it is written, he says: I desire mercy more than sacrifice, nothing else should be understood than that sacrifice (the mystical sacrifice of mercy) is preferred to sacrifice (properly so called)."
You may ask: How does mercy truly excel sacrifice? I respond and say first: The act of sacrifice, insofar as it proceeds from religion and internal devotion, is better and nobler than the act of mercy. This is clear, because the former has God as its object, the latter man; the former is an act of religion and worship; the latter of mercy, which is a moral virtue: but religion excels all moral virtues, for it is the worship of God Himself. So St. Thomas, II-II, Question 81, article 6.
I say second: Mercy nevertheless excels external sacrifice, because that sacrifice in the old law did not please God in itself, that is, by the work performed, but only from the devotion of those offering it: mercy, however, pleases God in itself. And this is what the Prophet intends here; for the merciless Jews placed the summit of holiness, piety, and the appeasement of God in these external sacrifices, as if the slaughter of sheep and oxen pleased and appeased God in itself. This God here reproves through Hosea, as through Isaiah 1:11: "What is the multitude of your victims to Me? etc., cease to act perversely, etc., relieve the oppressed." And Jeremiah 7:21: "Add your holocausts to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them, etc., concerning the matter of holocausts and sacrifices." And Psalm 49:13: "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" And Psalm 50:18: "For if You had desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; You will not be delighted with holocausts." Similarly it is said in 1 Kings 15:22: "Obedience is better than sacrifices." And Psalm 50:19: "A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit." In the same way, therefore, it could truly be said: I desire charity, humility, obedience, internal repentance — not sacrifice, that is, I prefer them to external sacrifice.
Again, although sacrifice is nobler by reason of its object, which is the honor of God, nevertheless by reason of necessity mercy is often nobler, and therefore to be preferred, to the point that it would then be wrong to sacrifice — for example, when a sick person must be tended. Thus Christ reproved the sons who said to their needy parents, Corban, that is, it is better to offer that gift to God than to give it to you, O father, Matthew 15:6. So St. Augustine condemns parents who give their goods to a monastery while they have needy children, and he used to refuse such offerings, as Possidius reports in his Life, chapter 34. Third, because mercy is often commanded by charity and includes it; and it is agreed that acts of charity are nobler than acts of religion. Where note that by sacrifice here is understood all external worship, such as the observance of the Sabbath, Matthew 12:7; by mercy, all works of charity and internal piety; for this is what the Hebrew חסד chesed signifies, and this is clear from what he adds: "And the knowledge of God more than holocausts." Whence Pineda, book VIII On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 1, explains it thus: "Mercy," that is, a heart well disposed toward Me, "I desire, not sacrifice." Fourth, mercy excels sacrifice if the mercy is directed to the worship of God and is commanded by the virtue of religion; for then there are two acts — one elicited by mercy, the other commanded by religion — and these two excel the single act of religion and sacrifice.
Morally, learn here how great is the excellence of mercy, and how pleasing it is to God, who prefers it to His own sacrifices. The reason is that it is a divine virtue, proper to God; for the supreme good is supremely merciful and beneficent. Hence the Psalmist says: "His tender mercies are over all His works;" and the Church prays: "O God, whose property it is always to have mercy and to spare." God therefore prefers what is conferred on man through mercy to what is offered to Him through sacrifice — both because He has no need of them, and no honor or glory accrues to Him from them; and because He seeks more the advantage of man than His own, which is the mark of pure love, and which is more glorious and supremely magnanimous, plainly royal and divine.
Hence Blessed Nazianzen, in the oration On the Care of the Poor: "Be, he says, a god to the afflicted." And St. Cyprian, treatise On the Lord's Prayer: "When, he says, one has mercy on the poor, he lends to God; and he who gives to the least, gives to God, spiritually offering to God a sacrifice of sweet fragrance." Nor indeed, says the same in the treatise On Work and Almsgiving, "will he be able to deserve the mercy of the Lord who has not been merciful himself." Whence he teaches further on that in hunger mercy must be preferred to food, by the example of the widow who first made bread for Elijah, then for herself and her children, 3 Kings 17: "When the children are hungry, he says, another is fed first; nor in poverty and hunger is food thought of before mercy."
St. Chrysostom, homily 36 to the People: "Mercy, he says, is a greater grace than raising the dead." The same, homily 51 on Matthew, teaches that it is of greater worth to practice mercy than to build magnificent temples: "for this temple (a living one, namely of the poor) is far more excellent than that (material) one;" and homily 23: "Mercy, he says, is a certain liberal art, having its workshop in heaven, and possessing not man but God as its master. It builds for us a dwelling in heaven, and prepares eternal tabernacles."
St. Augustine, in the book On Almsgiving: "These, he says, are the most pleasing sacrifices: mercy, humility, confession, peace, and charity." The same, City of God IX, chapter 5: "Cicero, he says, spoke in praise of Caesar, saying: Of all your virtues, none is more admirable nor more pleasing than mercy." The same, sermon 34 On the Resurrection of the Lord: "See, he says, whether God does not give you a great reward for mercy. If you forgive a man in what a man has injured you as man, God also will forgive you in what you as man have offended God." The same, treatise On Avarice and Luxury: "I, says the Lord, have received, I will repay. I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat, etc. I received earth, I will give heaven; I received temporal things, I will restore eternal ones; I received bread, I will give bread — but heavenly and eternal; I received lodging, I will give a home; I was visited when sick, I will give health; I was visited in prison, I will give freedom," etc. The same, sermon 203 On the Seasons: "There are, he says, many kinds of compassion, and when we practice them we are helped so that our sins may be forgiven; but none is greater than that by which we forgive from the heart what each person has sinned." The author of the sermon To the Brothers in the Desert, sermon 5: "Mercy alone, he says, leads man to God, mercy alone leads God to man, mercy alone, humbling God, exalts us."
Therefore King Josaphat, as reported in Damascene, History 36, having left his kingdom and heading for the anchoretic life, bidding farewell to Barachias, whom he had appointed as his successor in the kingdom, gave him this as his first precept — not his own, but Christ's: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy;" and again: "Be merciful, as your heavenly Father also is merciful. For this precept, he said, is most especially required of those who are placed in supreme authority, that they may imitate Him from whom they received their power. Moreover, in this matter one will most imitate God if one holds nothing more important or more venerable than mercy. To this is added the fact that nothing equally attracts subjects to goodwill as the grace of kindness shown to the needy."
St. John, who from his mercy was called the Almoner (Eleemon, that is, merciful, or Almsgiver), helped all who were wretched, and in the evening would weep if no afflicted person had sought his help that day. Hence he was enriched by God with goods both temporal and spiritual. Now the origin of this virtue of his he himself narrates to others as recorded by Leontius: "When, he says, I was fifteen years old and living in Cyprus, one night a certain maiden of extraordinary beauty appeared to me in a dream, splendidly dressed and crowned with an olive wreath on her head. When she had stood near me and struck me with her fist, she woke me, terrified, from my sleep. I asked her who she was, and where she came from, and how she had dared to approach me while I was sleeping. But she, with a smiling and joyful face, looking at me cheerfully and gently, said: I am the first among the daughters of the great King. If you make me your friend, I shall be able to make you familiar with Him; for no one has greater confidence with Him than I, since I persuaded Him to descend from heaven to earth and take on human flesh. When I had come to myself and turned over in my mind what I had seen, I judged her to be Mercy. Immediately therefore, rising, I went alone to the church; and I met a poor man who was naked and greatly afflicted by the cold. Having stripped off my own garment, I handed it to him, saying to myself: Let us see whether what I saw is true and not a deception; and before I had reached the church, a certain man dressed in white approached me, gave me a hundred gold coins, and immediately vanished. Then I understood that the vision was not a fantasy, but a real vision."
Whence he thereafter so poured himself out in works of mercy that in them he was an example and a marvel to the world. He used to say that whenever he gave something away, he soon received double, indeed a hundredfold, from God. Hence these were his maxims: "It is not right for us to take care of anything else before Christ. Go therefore through the city and list my lords one by one." And when his attendants asked whom he called his lords: "Those whom you, he said, are accustomed to call paupers and beggars — these I call my lords and helpers. For they alone can bring me help, so that I may not be cast out from the kingdom of Christ." "If for us who are men it is fully permitted to approach God without any intercessor, and to ask Him about whatever we wish; how shall we not also have opened our doors to our fellow servants without any impediment? And not lent a kind ear to anyone who is in need?" For we know that with whatever measure we have measured, the same will be measured back to us.
Sophronius, seeing him sad one day, asked the reason and heard: "Today wretched John has received no reward from anyone, nor has he been able to offer even the smallest atonement to Christ for his many and great sins." How is this less than that saying of the Emperor Titus: "Today we have not reigned, because we have bestowed a benefit on no one?" "Christ commands that something be given to everyone who asks; but if you say you belong to someone else who commands you to examine the life and status of beggars, know that neither Christ nor humble John has need of prying servants." "If what is given were ours, and had been brought by us into the world, perhaps some pardon should be granted to one who used it sparingly. But if all things that exist are God's, His command must absolutely be observed in the things that are His." "If fear from unbelief comes upon you, lest perhaps the multitude of expenses exceed the ecclesiastical revenues, I will not for a moment endure to be a partner in your little faith. For I am persuaded that even if the whole world were to come to Alexandria at once, in need of charity, it would in no way diminish these treasures of God."
All these things Leontius narrates in his Life. Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter 115, narrates that the monk Eleemon was so merciful to all that he even sold his books and immediately distributed their price to the poor. When asked why he did this, he said: "How can I convince my master that I have accurately learned his art, unless I have used that very thing to practice the art rightly?"
And in the following chapter he commends Bisarion for the same virtue, because he would clothe a naked poor man with his own garment, himself remaining naked; indeed he even sold the Gospel to help a poor man, saying: "So that we may have confidence there, out of obedience I sold the very word that always said to me: Sell what you have, and give to the poor."
And in chapter 118, he celebrates Melania the Roman for having been beneficent to the whole world; and Olympias, the granddaughter of the prefect Ablavius, in chapter 145, for distributing all her possessions to the poor.
Finally, to omit other things, a living and burning mirror of mercy, as well as its spur, is Christ the Lord, who through the bowels of His mercy visited us, rising from on high, to relieve our miseries, which were very many and most grievous. Therefore He poured out all of this mercy upon us — both in the incarnation, and in His life, and on the cross — so that Isaiah truly said of Him, 53:4: "Truly He bore our infirmities, and He carried our sorrows." Do you want, then, a living image of mercy? Look upon Christ on the cross, where He is all misery, because He is all our mercy. And not only on the cross, but also after death through all the ages — indeed for eternity He pours out His whole self in mercy upon His own: "For being born He gave Himself as companion; dining with us, as food; dying, as ransom; reigning, He gives Himself as reward." For by being born He cured the miseries of our birth and life, by taking them upon Himself; by dying He cured the miseries of our sins, by making satisfaction for them; by dining with us and giving Himself in the Eucharist to be eaten, He cures the infirmities and passions of each soul, feeding it with heavenly nourishment; by reigning He cures the misery of death and mortality, giving a body conformed to His own — that is, immortal and glorious. Indeed, whoever clearly sees the infinite miseries of his soul as well as his body, and sees them being cured at every moment by Christ through new and infinite acts of compassion, cannot but admire them, emulate them, and be transformed into them, so as to sing perpetually with the Psalmist: "The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever."
AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD MORE THAN HOLOCAUSTS. — Understand practical knowledge of God, namely knowledge joined with internal reverence for God, piety, charity, mercy. For he opposes internal piety to external piety, namely to holocausts. Whence it follows that the Hebrew חסד chesed here denotes and embraces not only mercy, but all acts of true and internal piety, as I said above. For chesed properly signifies piety both toward God and toward men — namely, a devout and favorable disposition, kindness, beneficence, grace, charity, benevolence, gratitude, holiness or goodness. For from it comes חסיד chasid, that is, pious, upright, good and holy; and chasida is the name for the stork, a bird dutiful toward its parents, and therefore a symbol of piety. So a Castro here, and Marinus, Forster, Pagninus, and others in their Lexicons. Thus in Jonah 2:9 it is said: "Those who observe vanities (idols) in vain, forsake their mercy (in Hebrew חסדם chasdam, that is, their piety toward God, and consequently toward men);" where chesed properly signifies the fear and worship of God.
Verse 7: BUT THEY, LIKE ADAM (the first parent in paradise, violating the covenant with...
7. BUT THEY, LIKE ADAM (the first parent in paradise, violating the covenant with God and its condition and law against eating the forbidden fruit) HAVE TRANSGRESSED THE COVENANT, — that is: They imitate their parent, namely the first transgressor of the law and covenant of God; and therefore, just as he was expelled from paradise, so they too will be expelled from their land, which is like a paradise, namely Judea. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Rupert, Hugo, and Lyranus.
Clarius adds: Just as Adam, not pressed by hunger, not incited by concupiscence, but by his own mere willfulness ate the forbidden fruit: so these sin from mere wantonness.
Second, the Septuagint took the word Adam as a common noun, not a proper name, meaning "man;" whence they translate: But they are like a man transgressing a covenant or pact. So also Vatablus and Clarius; but these two, along with Theodoret, translate in the genitive: But they have transgressed My covenant as that of a man, that is, as a pact struck with a man, meaning: They valued the covenant entered into with Me no more than if they had entered into one with a man; whence out of fickleness they soon rescinded and violated it.
THERE THEY HAVE DEALT TREACHEROUSLY AGAINST ME. — The word "there" can be explained in four ways. First, "there," namely in Adam, that is: From the time that Adam sinned, they began to deal treacherously against Me; and so they remarkably imitated this transgression of Adam, indeed continued it. Second, "there," namely in paradise, that is: In their own land, namely in Judea, which was pleasant and fertile like the earthly paradise in which I had graciously placed them, as Adam in paradise — "there," I say, in this paradise of theirs, they abused My kindness and, growing wanton, kicked against Me. So St. Jerome, the Chaldean, and Vatablus. Third, "there," namely in their sacrifice and holocaust, which they offer either to idols with idolatry, or to Me with an impious mind and a guilty conscience. Fourth and genuinely, "there," namely in the transgression by which they transgressed My covenant: like Adam, "they dealt treacherously against Me," because they entered into this covenant with Me, not with an angel, not with a man.
Verse 8: GILEAD, A CITY OF THOSE WHO WORK (that is, fabricate, adorn, and worship)...
8. GILEAD, A CITY OF THOSE WHO WORK (that is, fabricate, adorn, and worship) IDOLS. — Gilead was a famous mountain of the Holy Land, so called from the covenant made between Laban and Jacob, Genesis 31:48, which fell to the lot of the tribes of Reuben and Gad. Hence the city built upon it was likewise called Gilead; and from its height, Ramah, from which Jephthah came, Judges 11:1, and Ramoth Gilead, where Jehu was anointed king, 4 Kings 9:1. This was a city of refuge, as is clear from Joshua 21:36, and 1 Chronicles 6:78; and therefore there was a multitude of priests in it. For this reason, because of the city's fame, the idolaters established there the seat of idolatry and built a temple and altars to idols, as the Prophet here signifies and censures, that is: Gilead, a priestly and holy city, has become the metropolis of idolatry and wickedness, to such an extent that it seems wholly composed and constructed for it. So St. Jerome.
The Chaldean translates: Gilead, a city of those who commit violence. For the Hebrew און aven means iniquity, and consequently violence, as well as idolatry. For both are notable forms of wickedness.
SUPPLANTED BY BLOOD, — that is: Gilead will be supplanted, captured, and devastated on account of the blood of the pious who worship God, which she as an idolatress copiously and unjustly shed. There is emphasis in the word "supplanted," that is: She herself supplanted and by deceit and ambush overthrew the worshippers of God; hence she herself will in like manner be supplanted, deceived, and cast down to ruin. Whence in Hebrew it is "supplanted by blood;" and Ribera contends that the Latin should be read thus here. And so it happened in fact that Gilead, which was first in crime, was likewise first in disaster and destruction. For because she was near to the Syrians, she was the first to be conquered by the Assyrians in the time of Pekah, 4 Kings 15:29. So St. Jerome, Haymo, Hugo, Ribera, and others.
Hence second, instead of "supplanted by blood," Leo the Hebrew translates: oppressed by blood; the Hebrews and Pagninus: defiled by blood; the Chaldean: deceitfully shedding blood; Lyranus: a lurker for blood. That is: Gilead was so devoted to ambushes and the slaughter of the pious and innocent that she seems, as it were, supplanted, oppressed, and submerged by their blood; she swam in the blood of others, blood that was innocent — now she will swim in her own innocent blood.
Third, the Septuagint, reading מים maim instead of middam, translate: disturbing waters, that is, sound doctrine, as idolaters and heretics do, says Theodoret.
Allegorically Gilead, that is, the mound of testimony, is Jerusalem polluted by the blood of the Prophets, of Christ, and of the Apostles, and of His other witnesses, whom she with her scribes and priests killed and buried, as Christ charges them, Matthew 23:29. So Leo Castrius literally, I allegorically.
AND LIKE THE JAWS OF ROBBERS, — that is: The Gileadites have jaws gaping for prey like robbers, indeed like wolves; for they thirst for the blood and slaughter of the innocent. So of a voracious hungry man Silius says, book III: He stretches wide his jaws in monstrous gape. The translator reads in the Hebrew חכי chicke, that is, jaws; others read with different pointing הכי chacke, that is, to wait for, to long for; whence they translate: Like robbers who lie in wait for a man, to kill or rob him — who, that is, gape for plunder. So Rabbi David, Pagninus, Vatablus, and others. With a different case and syntax but the same returning sense, the Chaldean translates: As a man watches for bandits, so they and their priests have banded together, that is: The worshippers of God, going to the temple in Jerusalem, so feared and guarded against the Gileadites and their priests, as a traveler fears and guards against bandits.
Otherwise Haymo and Albert; for by "jaws" they metaphorically understand the narrow entrances of valleys or hills, in which robbers are accustomed to hide and ambush travelers, and suddenly attack them unawares. For thus are called the jaws of the earth, the jaws of a harbor, the jaws of a cliff, the jaws of Orcus, of which Virgil says, Aeneid VI: Before the very entrance and in the first jaws of Orcus. Thus a few Greeks in number awaited Xerxes with his innumerable forces at the pass of Thermopylae, and there they cut him down.
So therefore the sense is: The Gileadites occupied the passes of the mountains, in order to capture, rob, and kill those going to Jerusalem. Whence Symmachus translates: Your jaws are like those of a man lying in ambush.
But the Hebrew chicke signifies the jaws of a man, not of the earth; for from the root חכה chaka, that is, to wait, to pant, to gape, is derived the noun חך chec, that is, palate, throat, jaws, because they gape for food; for they are, as it were, the mouth of the stomach — namely the inner part of the gullet where it narrows and extends into the stomach, which part the Greeks and Latins call the larynx, or pharynx. Whence Pliny says of it, book XI, 36: "The upper part of the gullet, he says, is called the jaws; the lower end, the stomach." For these jaws of the body more aptly signify the insatiable greed for slaughter and blood than those of mountains and valleys. Thus Caesar, in Lucan, compares Pompey to a tiger which, accustomed to the blood of wild beasts, always thirsts for it: So, Pompey, you are accustomed to lick the Sullan sword, Your thirst endures; no blood once received in the mouth Allows the polluted jaws to grow tame.
Furthermore, the Septuagint, reading כחכי kochachi with different vowel points instead of חכי kechicke, translate: Your strength is like that of a pirate, that is: With the greatest force and might you attack those passing through to Jerusalem, as pirates do; for כח coach is power, strength, and might.
A PARTNER OF PRIESTS (namely Gilead, having the jaws of robbers, was a partner and associate of the priests who on the road killed) THOSE GOING FROM SHECHEM, — that is: The Gileadites were the associates of the priests of Bethel, namely of the idols and golden calves, who slaughtered the worshippers of God going from Shechem to Jerusalem at Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, in order to worship God in the temple according to the law — either by their own hand, or through assassins they dispatched. So St. Jerome.
The Hebrew now has word for word: As robbers who lie in wait for a man, so a conspiracy of priests on the road that goes to Shechem — they slaughter, namely, travelers. For "conspiracy" Vatablus translates "congregation;" Pagninus, "college;" others, "association." The atrocity and audacity of the crime is noted here. For when many conspire in such a thing, there is nothing they will not accomplish; for impiety armed with so many hands and so many counsels breaks through and levels everything.
THOSE GOING FROM SHECHEM. — In Hebrew שכמה schema, that is, to Shechem; for this is what the ה locale signifies. So Vatablus and Arias. But I say the ה here is not locative, but the termination of the proper name. For this city was called Shechem, or with the added ה, Sichima. Whence the Septuagint and Symmachus translate: they killed the Shechemites. Our Vulgate, however, because mention is made here of the road to Jerusalem, rightly understanding the preposition מן min, that is, "from," translates: those going from Shechem. For these idolaters did not kill those going to Shechem, but those going from Shechem to Jerusalem. For Shechem is a city named after the prince Shechem, who violated Dinah the daughter of Jacob, Genesis 34:2; in the time of Christ it was called Sychar, which Christ converted through the Samaritan woman, John 4:5; later it was called Neapolis, today Nablus.
Those err who think that Christ alluded to these ambushes in Luke 10, in the parable of the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among robbers. For Jericho was to the east of Jerusalem, but Shechem to the north. Therefore there was no road that would go from Jerusalem through Shechem to Jericho. He names Shechem above other cities, both because from Samaria, which was the capital of the ten tribes, the direct road to Jerusalem went through Shechem; and because Shechem was famous for its religious significance — for Abraham and Jacob dwelt there, and his well is shown there to this day; Joseph too was buried there, Joshua 24:32.
Furthermore, Shechem was near the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, on which Moses proclaimed the law, and blessings upon those who kept it, and curses upon those who transgressed it, Deuteronomy 27:4. Hence many Shechemites persevered in the worship of God, while others turned aside to the calves of Jeroboam. Hence also pilgrims visiting the holy places visited (as they still visit) Shechem and Jerusalem, just as Christians in Italy visit Loreto and Rome. And finally, because near Shechem were Dan and Bethel, where Jeroboam set up the golden calves. There, therefore, was the seat of idolatry, and consequently there the persecution thrived against the pious and faithful going to Jerusalem, whom they intercepted on the road and cruelly punished.
Furthermore, the Chaldean, Aquila, Theodotion, Vatablus, Clarius, and Pagninus take the word Sichem not as a proper noun but as a common noun meaning "shoulder." Whence they translate: A band or conspiracy of priests on the road murders with one shoulder, that is, with unanimous agreement, with equal zeal and effort. For thus thieves and soldiers, when they conspire to plunder a house or city, carry on, as it were, one shoulder ladders, beams, and other instruments by which they scale towers or break down doors for invasion and plunder. Aquila translates in the accusative: The company of priests on the road used to slay, that is, cut off, the shoulders of travelers going to Jerusalem.
FOR THEY HAVE WROUGHT WICKEDNESS, — that is: The Gileadites lay in ambush for the worshippers of God and kill them, because they have devoted themselves entirely to crimes. For "wickedness" the Hebrew is זמה zimma, that is, an abomination, an outrage, a horror — namely, a dreadful and execrable crime.
Learn here morally how great a crime it is to impede works of piety, and to hold back those who are striving toward salvation and the worship of God — for example, toward the state of perfection. Whence St. Jerome, applying these words to heretics: "Let us say, he says, that the heretics (you might say libertines, or else so-called Catholics, who are mockers and scorners of pious works) block the road, lest from Shechem, that is from good works, we proceed to Jerusalem, that is to the Church. These are like the jaws of robbers, and they kill those who desire to proceed along the road of this world to the truth. Shechem is interpreted as 'work,' that is, of the shoulders: by shoulders we understand work, and all false priests hide the way and kill men by evil works, lest they reach Jerusalem. That 'shoulder' signifies 'work,' the following shows — Jeremiah 32, according to the Septuagint: Apply your heart to your shoulder, that is, turn what you understand into works. And of Issachar we read, Genesis 49, that he bowed his shoulder to labor and became a man of the soil."
Therefore St. Chrysostom, book III Against the Defamers of Monastic Life, sets forth this as the ninth and highest degree of malice: the first degree of malice and impiety, he says, is to neglect the beasts and cattle of enemies when they stray or fall; the second and greater, not to help enemies themselves when they are in any need; the third, to scorn unknown neighbors; the fourth, to despise family members; the fifth, to neglect not only the bodies but also the perishing souls of brothers; the sixth, to neglect one's own children when they are perishing; the seventh, not even to find others who will care for them; the eighth, furthermore, to prevent those who would willingly help them; the ninth, not only to bar them from salvation, but even to attack their salvation aggressively. This is what the Apostle so diligently warns and commands, 1 Thessalonians 5:19: "Do not extinguish the Spirit." See what was said there, and especially the remarkable example on this subject of Praetextata, which St. Jerome reports in letter 7 to Laeta.
Verse 10: IN THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL (namely in the kingdom of the ten tribes) I HAVE SEEN A...
10. IN THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL (namely in the kingdom of the ten tribes) I HAVE SEEN A HORRIBLE THING (namely) THE FORNICATIONS OF EPHRAIM, — that is, the idols and golden calves which Jeroboam introduced, a king who came from Ephraim, whom the tribe of Ephraim followed as its citizen and king, and soon all Israel — this is what is meant by: "Israel is defiled." For "horrible thing" the Hebrew is שעריריה scharerira, the same as שערורה searura, but by augmentation signifying something greater and more extreme, as Marinus notes in his Lexicon. Vatablus translates: pollutions, defilements; Pagninus and Marinus: foulness, filthiness; our Vulgate, in Jeremiah 5:30: wonders: "Astonishment, he says, and wonders have been done in the land;" but here he properly translates "horrible," that which causes hair to stand on end, and makes the hairs and locks of those who hear of it rise from horror: for שער sear means hair, and from it the seirim are called hairy and shaggy satyrs. Such is idolatry, especially when it is common to a whole nation once devoted and consecrated to God, which followed one man, namely Jeroboam, forsaking and scorning God, the Lord of all.
Verse 11: BUT JUDAH ALSO
11. BUT JUDAH ALSO. — These words must be connected with the preceding in this manner: "Israel is defiled, but Judah also." So the Hebrew, the Chaldean, and the Septuagint. For Judah followed the idols of Israel.
SET A HARVEST FOR YOURSELF. — "Set," namely, O Israel, or rather you, O Judah, that is: O Judah, you too will be captured, just like Israel, because you have imitated its crimes: nor will you, as you suppose, set and store your harvest, because the Chaldean enemy will devastate it; for he will reap what you have sown: nevertheless you will set and store a harvest for yourself, which from the fallen ears of grain will spring up of its own accord and abundantly over the many years of your captivity, when I bring you back from captivity through Cyrus, that is: Do not set it now, because enemies will not allow it; but then you will set it: for you will return from captivity, not Israel, which will remain in it forever. For Hosea speaks concisely and embraces much in a few words, as I said in the Preface. So Hugo, Dionysius, Ribera, and Lyranus, who briefly and clearly explains: Leave your harvest for the time when I shall turn your captivity, and do not involve yourself in it now; for then you will gather your harvest, even though you are now led away captive.
With a similar figure Virgil, in the character of the Mantuan shepherd, driven from his lands by a veteran soldier, says in Eclogue 1: After some time, seeing my kingdom, shall I marvel at the ears of grain? Shall the godless soldier have these well-tilled fields? Shall the barbarian have these crops? See to what discord has brought Wretched citizens! See for whom we sowed our fields!
Second, Haymo and Hugo by "harvest" understand children, that is: Set a harvest, that is, beget children, whom the Chaldean enemy may reap, that is, capture or kill. But what follows does not agree with or cohere with this interpretation: "When I shall bring back the captivity of my people." For although Rufinus explains it thus: You too, O Judah, will be reaped when the captivity of my people Israel will be turned upon you, so that you likewise are captured; yet this does not correspond to the Hebrew idiom, by which "to turn the captivity" means to free from captivity, not to lead into captivity.
Third, Arias refers these words to the times of Christ, that is: Judea will be reaped by Titus and the Romans, when I free the captivity of the human race from the power of the devil through Christ. This is allegorical. Moreover, "to set a harvest" means to reap, not to be reaped: for it is the act of the one who harvests, not of the one who is harvested; whence the Septuagint translates θρύγα, that is, a vintage.
More recent scholars translate otherwise, and therefore explain it differently: for instead of "set" they read שת schat in the past tense, that is, "he has set;" whence they translate: Judah also has set, or sets, a harvest, or a planting. Which some first explain thus: O Judah, by your continual crimes you are preparing for yourself a reaping, that is, destruction, when the captivity of my people was to be reversed, that is, while I am thinking about overturning your captivity.
Whence Theodoret and Theophylact, following the Septuagint, read: But Judah also has let go his harvest, namely his crops and riches, because he followed the idols of Israel, and therefore was despoiled and destroyed by the Chaldeans.
Second, Clarius translates and explains it thus: Also, O Judah, Ephraim has set a seedling for you, or against you. For he planted groves for you and taught you idolatry, by which deed he brought it about that I would not convert you, but that you, cast off by Me, would go away into captivity.
Third, Vatablus thinks that the deed of Jeroboam is noted here, by which he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah, 4 Kings 14:25 and 28, that is: Ephraim, that is, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king in Ephraim, set for you, O Judah, a planting in Damascus and Hamath; for he restored these cities to you and planted Jewish inhabitants in them at the time when he turned the captivity of the people — namely when he threw off and shook off the yoke of the king of Syria from his people, that is, from Israel: and yet,
you, O Judah, when you had received so great a benefit from God, were ungrateful to Him, you scorned Him, and adopted for yourself the gods of the nations.
WHEN I SHALL BRING BACK (until I bring back: for in Hebrew it is בשוב beshube, that is, in or at the restoration of the captivity) THE CAPTIVITY OF MY PEOPLE, — that is, your captivity, O Judah. This is a Hebraism: for the Hebrews often address the person they are speaking to in the third person, as the Germans also do when out of respect they say: May the Lord say or do this, meaning: may you, O Lord, say or do this.