Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He describes the day of judgment, the punishment of the reprobate, and the glory of the elect. First, therefore, he teaches that Christ will judge the Tyrians, Sidonians and other nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat, nations which afflicted the Jews and the faithful, and lived impiously. Secondly, verse 15, Christ sends angels with sickles to reap all nations and bring them into the valley of destruction, where, with Christ angry and roaring against them, the sun, moon and stars will be darkened, and the heavens and earth will be shaken. Thirdly, verse 17, he teaches that the heavenly Jerusalem will then be holy, happy and glorious forever: The mountains, he says, shall drip sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, etc. So generally the Interpreters.
Therefore Mariana, at the end of the chapter, less correctly suspects that this chapter literally describes the destruction of the camp of Sennacherib wrought by the angel, 4 Kings 19:35; that this took place near Jerusalem in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and that under this type the destruction of the wicked on the day of judgment is depicted. I confess, however, that there is an allusion here to the destruction of Sennacherib, and that it is allusively touched upon.
Vulgate Text: Joel 3:1-21
1. For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem: 2. I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will contend with them there concerning My people and My inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have divided My land. 3. And they have cast lots over My people: and they have placed a boy in a brothel, and sold a girl for wine to drink. 4. But what have you to do with Me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the territory of the Philistines? Will you take vengeance against Me? And if you take vengeance against Me, swiftly and speedily I will return the recompense upon your own head. 5. For you have taken My silver and My gold: and My desirable and most beautiful things you have brought into your temples. 6. And the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem you have sold to the sons of the Greeks, to remove them far from their borders. 7. Behold, I will raise them up from the place where you sold them: and I will turn your recompense upon your own head. 8. And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a distant nation, because the Lord has spoken. 9. Proclaim this among the nations, sanctify a war, rouse the mighty; let all the warriors approach and come up. 10. Beat your plowshares into swords and your hoes into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong. 11. Break forth and come, all you nations from round about, and gather yourselves: there the Lord will cause your mighty ones to fall. 12. Let them arise, and come up
Hence throughout the Psalms, the Psalmist invokes God, and commands that He be invoked in affliction. For God Himself promises, Jeremiah 33:3: "Call upon Me, and I will hear you."
BECAUSE IN MOUNT ZION AND IN JERUSALEM THERE SHALL BE SALVATION. — By "Zion" and "Jerusalem" he understands the Church, which Christ first established in Zion and Jerusalem, meaning: Those who have followed the faith and piety of the Church, which Christ taught in Judea and Jerusalem, shall be saved. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rupert, Lyra, Arias, and others. He alludes to Isaiah 4:3: "And it shall be: Everyone who is left in Zion, and who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, everyone who is written in the book of life in Jerusalem." See what is said there. Whence Joel adds: "As the Lord has said," namely both to me here, and to Isaiah in chapter 4 and chapter 2:2, and to other Prophets.
AND AMONG THE REMNANT. — Repeat, "there shall be salvation," meaning: On the day of judgment only those will be saved who in Zion, that is in the Church, have invoked God and worshipped Him holily; likewise the remnant, that is the remains of the Jews, who at the end of the world, called and chosen by God, will be joined to Christ and the Church, and so will be saved, as the Apostle teaches in Romans 11:26. Secondly, Castro explains it thus: Those who in earlier ages invoked God and died in Christ's grace, these will be saved on the day of judgment; furthermore the remnant, that is, those who in the persecution of the Antichrist, while others fell, stood strong in the faith and profession of Christ, and thus survived so great a slaughter and ruin of the faithful.
Note: For 'the remnant,' the Hebrew has basseridim, which some Rabbis, as St. Jerome attests, think to be the name of a place, namely a mountain or city, meaning: Those who fled to Zion, to Jerusalem, or to Seridim will escape the disaster of that day. The Seventy read basscurim, that is, 'evangelized,' whom the Lord called, as the Roman manuscripts read; although Theodoret reads 'evangelizing' or 'announcing' actively, and St. Jerome reads 'evangelizing' or 'announcing' in the singular, which he explains thus: "The Lord called these remnants, or evangelized those whom He called: for so the Seventy translated." For all who are to be saved are either evangelizing or evangelized; and no one is saved except through the Gospel of Christ. For this "is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes," as the Apostle says in Romans 1:16.
32. AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED — meaning: On the day of judgment, from its terror, and from the horrible sentence upon so many defendants and those to be damned, there shall be freed and shall escape (for this is what the Hebrew 'palat' signifies), and there shall be saved, the true worshippers of God, namely those who in this life have worshipped God with a pure heart, in true faith, hope, and charity, have invoked, proclaimed, and celebrated Him.
For all these things are signified by the word 'to call' or 'to invoke the name of God' among the Hebrews, namely every form of both internal and external worship of God, and the public profession of true faith and religion in His Church. For the Church is called in Hebrew 'miqra,' from 'qara,' that is, 'he called'; in Greek 'ekklesia,' from 'ekkalein,' that is, from calling and invoking, because she was called by God to His sincere and public worship and invocation. Whence he adds of her: "Because in Mount Zion," etc. Moreover, the name of the Lord is the Lord Himself, whom we invoke through His name. Furthermore, it is Christ Himself, who is the name, that is the notion and definition, of the Father, says St. Cyril, Book 11 on John, chapter 20.
Symbolically, the name of God is His power, glory, might, and every perfection. Hence Psalm 8:2 says: "O Lord our Lord, how admirable is Your name," that is, Your wisdom, power, clemency, etc., "in all the earth!" And the Blessed Virgin sings: "He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name"; for in the incarnation of the Word all of God's holiness, power, and perfection shone forth.
Morally, learn here how pleasing to God is the invocation of Himself, and how He assists those who invoke Him and brings them help and salvation. The reason is that the one who invokes God confesses his own misery and powerlessness, but acknowledges God's glory and omnipotence, from which he hopes for and begs assistance. God therefore considers it an honor to Himself that someone takes refuge in Him in tribulation, and prefers to use His help rather than that of another, according to Psalm 49: "Call upon Me in the day of tribulation: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me"; because whoever invokes God places his faith and hope in Him, and as it were makes Him his God. Hence Martial, Book 8, epigram 24, teaches that gods are not so much made by idol-makers as by worshippers who invoke them.
For this reason, nighttime vigils and prayers were formerly prescribed, because it was believed that Christ would come for judgment at midnight, according to Matthew 25:6: "At midnight a cry was made: behold the bridegroom comes, go out to meet him," says St. Jerome and Hilary in that place, and Lactantius, Book 7, chapter 19. See what was said at Apocalypse 6, at the end. Wherefore St. Bernard, in his last letter, sets down this rule for a holy life: "Strive to live in such a way as you desire to be found at the last judgment."
Christ seriously forewarned, Luke 21:36: "Watch at all times, praying, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come (on the day of judgment), and to stand before the Son of Man."
13. Put in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the winepress is full, the vats overflow: because their wickedness is multiplied. 14. Peoples, peoples in the valley of destruction; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction. 15. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their brightness. 16. And the Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall be moved: and the Lord is the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. 17. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain, and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through her no more. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, and waters shall go through all the streams of Judah: and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns. 19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desert of destruction: because they have dealt unjustly against the children of Judah, and have shed innocent blood in their land. 20. And Judea shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. 21. And I will cleanse their blood which I had not cleansed: and the Lord shall dwell in Zion.
Verse 1: 1. FOR BEHOLD IN THOSE DAYS. — On the day of the last judgment, of which he spoke in the end of the preceding chapter:...
1. FOR BEHOLD IN THOSE DAYS. — On the day of the last judgment, of which he spoke in the end of the preceding chapter: "When I shall bring back the captivity of Judah," not the Babylonian captivity, but one far more bitter, and only foreshadowed by it, namely the captivity of sin and blindness, by which the Jews are held captive and blinded under the yoke of the Mosaic Law, which they most obstinately retain; which will happen at the end of the world, meaning: After I shall convert the Jews at the end of the world from Judaism to Christianity, and lead them from Jewish servitude to the liberty of the Gospel, to the lot, I say, and the glory of the children of God, "I will gather all nations" for the last judgment. So St. Jerome, Rupert, and others to be cited shortly.
Verse 2: 2. AND I WILL BRING THEM DOWN INTO THE VALLEY OF JOSAPHAT. — One may ask, first, when and where did this take place?...
2. AND I WILL BRING THEM DOWN INTO THE VALLEY OF JOSAPHAT. — One may ask, first, when and where did this take place? First, some Rabbis think that this signifies the victory which Josaphat, king of Judah, won over the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, when they slaughtered each other by mutual carnage; and that this was in the valley of Josaphat, that is, of divine judgment and vengeance, which Josaphat requested in 2 Chronicles 20:12, saying: "Will You not judge them?" But this valley was far distant from Jerusalem, and was in Asasonthamar, which is Engedi, as is said there in verse 3. And although in verse 26 that valley is called the valley of "Blessing," it is nowhere called the valley of Josaphat by historians or geographers. Moreover, this victory long preceded the times of Joel, who here prophesies of a future time against the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Egyptians, not against the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites. Furthermore, under Josaphat there was no captivity of Judah; indeed Judah was then dominant over its enemies and fearsome. By the same arguments others are refuted who understand this of the defeat of Sennacherib, when the angel struck down 185,000 in his camp, 4 Kings 19. I confess, however, that there is an allusion here to this valley and the victory of Josaphat, meaning: The impious will be judged and condemned by Christ and His Saints in the valley of Josaphat, just as the Moabites were slain by Josaphat in his valley, which was the antitype of this one. Whence also in the valley of Josaphat, otherwise most pleasant, there was Tophet and Gehenna, where they burned children to the idol Moloch: which was therefore a living image of hell and of the damned, who are tortured by eternal fire, to which they will be condemned by Christ in that same valley. So Sanchez.
Second, Cyril and Theodoret refer this to the times of Ezra and Nehemiah: for then the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity. But at that time no hostile nations were slain by the Jews in the valley of Josaphat. Moreover, modern Jews err completely who take this as referring to the Roman captivity and disaster, by which they were devastated by Titus and Vespasian, as if their liberation and deliverance were promised here, with the Romans, Gog, and Magog being slain in the valley of Josaphat. For this was not a captivity but the destruction of the nation, and it will last until the end of the world, as Daniel predicted in chapter 9:26. Hence they have suffered it now for 1,600 years, and no hope of restoration has dawned, or ever dawned, upon them. Moreover, no mention is made here of the Romans, but of Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt.
Third, some Christians refer these things to the times of the persecutors of the Church, namely Nero, Decius, Diocletian, etc., from whom Christ freed them through Constantine. But we nowhere read that all nations were then gathered into the valley of Josaphat and slain there.
Fourth, therefore, it is certain that these things pertain to the day of judgment; for he dealt with it at the end of the preceding chapter, to which the Prophet immediately appends this, saying: "For behold in those days and in that time," namely the time just designated by me, that is, of the last judgment. For then God will gather absolutely all nations, and will judge them in the valley of Josaphat: for never otherwise did God gather all nations dispersed throughout the whole world. So St. Jerome, Rupert, Remigius, Haymo, Lyra, Vatablus, Clarius, Ribera, Castro, and others generally; indeed also the ancient Hebrews, whom St. Jerome cites, and Galatinus, Book 12, chapter 1.
One may ask, second, what and where is the valley of Josaphat, into which all people will be gathered, and to which Christ the judge will descend from heaven, to carry out the judgment of all there?
Some think that the name Josaphat here is not a proper name but an appellative, signifying the judgment of the Lord; and therefore it does not designate a specific place or valley, but indefinitely signifies the place of judgment, wherever that may be. Hence in verse 14 this valley is called the valley of "destruction," because in it God will cut down the nations: so the Chaldean, for he translates: I will gather all nations in the valley of the division of judgment. And St. Jerome here, and in letter 142 to Damasus, says the nations are to be gathered in the valley of the judgment of the Lord, that is, in the deep judgment of the Lord: for the Greek 'kataxo' means the same as 'I will lead down.' Haymo and Albert follow St. Jerome. Others think the valley of Josaphat is a definite valley, but as yet unnamed and unknown, which from the event, namely from the judgment of Christ to be performed in it, shall be named the valley of Josaphat, that is, of God's judgment: for Josaphat means the same as 'iie saphat,' that is, 'there shall be judgment,' namely in such a place as God knows and has decreed. So the place where the Antichrist shall sit is called, that is, shall be called, Apadno, that is, the royal palace, Daniel 11:45. So the place where kings shall be slain toward the end of the world, Apocalypse 16:16, is called, that is, is said to be called, Armageddon, that is, the anathema of destruction, or complete destruction. So the place where Gog shall be slain, Ezekiel 39:11, is named, that is, is foretold to be named, Polyandrium, or the valley of the multitude of Gog. So Rupert, Arias, and Clarius.
But it is better and more genuine, with the Syriac, both Arabic versions, and others, to take the name Josaphat here as a proper name. For the valley of Josaphat is situated between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, through which the torrent of Cedron flows: "Where there was a garden, in which the traitor Judas betrayed the Savior," says St. Jerome, on Jeremiah 30. So the Venerable Bede, Brocard, Salignac, Adrichomius, and others in the Description of the Holy Land: "The valley of Josaphat, says Adrichomius, which is also called the valley of Cedron and the valley of the mountains, is a wide and deep valley, situated between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, surrounding the whole city from the east, which the torrent of Cedron passing through excellently fertilizes with its waters. In this valley the pious and religious kings of Judah — Asa, Hezekiah, and Josiah — burned the idols of the temple, and cast their ashes into the torrent of Cedron. This valley was the common cemetery of the whole city, where the common people and the lowly were buried: for it was the custom among the Jews to be buried outside the city: and there the Turks are now buried. In this same valley too, on that day fearful to all mortals, all people from everywhere shall be gathered for the last judgment, to receive from Christ the judge the rewards due to each according to their merits." Hence it is also called the valley of destruction, because there the wicked shall be separated from the good.
At the time when the Christians possessed Palestine, there was here a certain Abbey, in which Lady Melisende, queen of Jerusalem, was buried. In the valley of Josaphat, then, was the village of Gethsemane, and the garden in which Christ, praying and sweating blood, was betrayed by Judas and seized by the Jews; and in the same place the Blessed Virgin Mary was buried, as Adrichomius notes. Moreover, this valley received its name from King Josaphat, because he himself adorned it with a distinguished monument and structure, for example a triumphal arch after the victory over the Ammonites and Edomites; or because a mausoleum was erected there for him, marked by a beautiful pyramid, as Bede and Salignac report: for although Josaphat was buried in Zion, as is said in 2 Chronicles 21:1, nevertheless a mausoleum could have been erected for him in this valley, to which perhaps his bones were transferred.
This opinion is proven first by the fact that the Seventy, our Translator, and others retain the Hebrew name Josaphat as a proper name. And indeed those who know Hebrew recognize from its very composition and ending that Josaphat is a proper name, just like Josiah, John, Joshua, etc. Second, because in this valley of Josaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah burned idolaters and idols, as a type of Christ who would judge the unfaithful and impious in the same place, and would thrust them into the fire of Gehenna. Third, because in the same valley was the cemetery of Jerusalem: therefore it is fitting that the inhabitants of Jerusalem should rise there, that is, the faithful citizens of the Church, to be judged by Christ. Again, in the valley of Josaphat was Gehenna, where they burned infants to the idol Moloch: therefore it is fitting that they should there be condemned by Christ to the Gehenna of eternal fire.
St. Thomas adds, on Isaiah 30:33, that the Hebrews believe that there are the jaws of hell, or certain vents of infernal fire, such as some think exist in Etna, the Vulcanian forge, Vesuvius, Hekla, and similar mountains that vomit flames. They offer as evidence that two palm trees there constantly smoke, as Etna smokes. But the credibility of this matter rests with themselves: for among Latin authors I have read nothing of the sort.
Fourth, because that the valley of Josaphat is near Jerusalem is clear from the fact that Joel adds in verse 16: "The Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem." This is confirmed because Jerusalem is considered to be the center of the earth, in which God, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 73:12, wrought salvation through the passion, death, and ascension of Christ: therefore it is fitting that the Saints should there share in the fruit of His blood and passion, and in the glory of His ascension. Fifth, because Christ lived, taught, and worked miracles in Jerusalem, was judged and killed there; and on the Mount of Olives, which overlooks this valley, He showed His glory and majesty ascending into heaven, and there the angels foretold that He would return for judgment, Acts 1:11, saying: "This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall come in the same way as you have seen Him going into heaven." Therefore it is fitting and appropriate that in the same place He should judge the unbelieving and disobedient, who refused to believe and obey, despite His great charity, redemption, teaching, and miracles, by which He proved that His teaching was heavenly, and that He was the Messiah and Savior sent by God.
For it is just that Christ should show the majesty of His glory where He endured the greatest ignominy; and that He should judge where He was judged, and take vengeance on His persecutors, and on all others who refused to make use of His blood. So St. Hilary, Canon 25 on Matthew: "With the angels assembling, he shows the future gathering in the place of the passion; and worthily will the coming in glory be awaited there, where He wrought for us the glory of eternity through the passion of bodily humility." So also Remigius, Lyra, Vatablus, Emmanuel, Mariana here, St. Thomas and Albert on Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Soto, Paludanus, and generally other Scholastics in Book IV, disputation 47 or 48, and specifically Suarez, Part III, Question 57, article 6, disputation 52, section 3.
Moreover, Christ the judge will not descend into the valley of Josaphat itself: for thus He could not be seen by the many millions of people to be judged, but rather into the air above and near this valley and the Mount of Olives. For He will sit on a bright and glorious cloud. The Virgin Mother, who was buried in this valley and rose again, will sit beside Him, together with the Apostles and apostolic men. In the valley itself and the places near it, the people to be judged will stand, with angels surrounding them: but the elect and blessed will be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, as the Apostle says in 2 Thessalonians 4:16.
AND I WILL PLEAD WITH THEM THERE. — In Hebrew: And I will judge, that is, I will contend in judgment with them, as the Syriac translates; the Arabic: And I will judge them there for My people. He alludes by wordplay in the word 'nispatti,' that is, 'I shall be judged,' meaning 'I will plead,' to the name Josaphat, which in Hebrew signifies the judgment of the Lord, meaning: In the valley of Josaphat, that is, of the Lord's judgment, I Christ, as God and judge, will contend in judgment with all nations, and will convict and condemn all the unfaithful and impious of their crime, namely that they either did not believe My redemption, or neglected and despised it. And among other arguments I will bring forward this: Behold, rising from death from this Mount of Olives, I publicly ascended into heaven before the Apostles and very many disciples, to show that I had come from heaven, and had been sent from there by the Eternal Father, and had delivered to you His heavenly law and teaching, and confirmed it by true miracles: and therefore, having completed the office of My mission and redemption, I was recalled by the Father and returned thither, and consequently My life was innocent and heavenly, and I did not deserve the death of the cross for My own sins, but willingly embraced it for yours.
Why then did you not believe Me? Why did you not accept My redemption and salvation? Why did you not obey My law? You truly have no reason that you can plead for your unbelief and disobedience; you are without excuse: your own mind and reason convict you; your own judgment judges and condemns you; your own sentence, your own conscience proclaims you guilty and ungrateful, deserving death and Gehenna; but it proclaims Me to be just, merciful, and kind.
Christ, therefore, sitting above the valley of Josaphat on His judicial throne, will plead, and in anger and roaring will say to the impious standing fearful in the valley: Behold, in this very place I labored for you and suffered terrible things; behold, here in Gethsemane I sweated water and blood for you, was betrayed and seized, bound like a criminal and dragged through the Cedron into the city; behold, near this valley in the house of Caiaphas, and then in the house of Pilate, I was judged and condemned to death for you, scourged, crowned with thorns, struck with blows, mocked, and spat upon; behold, here I was led around the whole city, bearing the cross, and finally on Mount Calvary I was crucified for you; behold, here stripped naked between heaven and earth, with hands and feet and whole body stretched out, I offered Myself as a victim to God the Father for you.
You are a witness, Pilate; you are a witness, Annas; you are a witness, Caiaphas; you are a witness, Judas; you are witnesses, chief priests; you are witnesses, Jews, who in this very place cried out against Me with contentious voices: "He is guilty of death: let Him be crucified, let Him be crucified." You remember, Pilate, that as one accused I stood before your tribunal here, and received the sentence of death from you; though you knew Me to be innocent, and said: "I am innocent of the blood of this just man." You remember, Caiaphas; you remember, chief priests, that when adjured by you in council: "Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," I answered: "You have said it; nevertheless I say to you: Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Yet you did not believe Me, but mocked Me, and condemned and crucified Me as a blasphemer.
Behold now the day which I foretold and threatened you: behold now my lot has been exchanged with yours: you sat as judges, I stood as the accused; now you are the accused, I the judge. Now you see that I am the one I said, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord and Judge of the world: how dare you have laid your wicked hands upon Me, how dare you have sacrilegiously blasphemed and killed the Son of God? Behold the hands you pierced, the feet you perforated: behold the sacred wounds that you impressed upon My body. These judge you, these cry out against you, these condemn you. Go therefore, sacrilegious ones; go, deicides, with Lucifer into eternal fire. And you, O unbelievers, O Turks, O wicked Christians, you knew these things, or could and should have known them; and yet you neglected them, you despised My labors, My sweat, My sorrows: you considered the blood of the covenant to be polluted: you preferred to follow your own lusts rather than Me, and My teaching and law: you preferred momentary pleasures, riches, and honors to the eternal salvation I promised, and you despised Me when I threatened the fires of Gehenna. Behold now you see the One you despised: now you perceive that My threats were not empty but true; My promises not vain but certain: now you perceive that your mistresses, riches, and dignities were empty and deceitful: now you perceive that you were foolish and senseless in your love of them: now you groan and weep, now you beat your breasts; but too late and in vain.
Go therefore, O wicked ones; go, ungrateful; go, unbelieving; go, senseless; go, accursed, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels from the foundation of the world.
But you, O Apostles, who saw Me condemned, scourged, crucified, and killed in this place, and yet believed in Me and followed Me even to death and the cross; you likewise, O Religious men and Apostolic men, who embraced My poverty, humility, contempt of the world, and the cross; and who propagated My faith, teaching, and religion throughout the whole world; and you finally, O faithful, who believed in Me as your Redeemer, hoped in Me, loved Me, and worshipped Me; who obeyed My law in all things, who led a Christian life worthy of Me; who lived soberly, piously, and justly in this world, awaiting the blessed hope, and this My coming in the glory of the great God: Come, O beloved and chosen ones, come, O blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom of heaven prepared for you before all ages, from all eternity. And those shall go into eternal fire, but the just into eternal life. Blessed is the one who constantly thinks upon, foresees, and provides for these things.
A similar reproach of Christ the Judge against the impious is found in St. Augustine, sermon 67 On the Seasons, which is On the Day of Judgment.
This is what St. Pelagia the penitent contemplated, who, converted from the vanity of the world by Blessed Nonnus, Bishop of Heliopolis, devoted herself to perpetual penance, and chose this place for it. For she erected a hut on the Mount of Olives, from which she looked down into the valley of Josaphat, so as to keep constantly before her eyes the image of Christ suffering and of the Judge to come. So her Life records under October 8, and Adrichomius in the Description of the Holy Land.
To this same valley Blessed Xavier also cited the governor of Malacca, who, overcome by the desire for gold, was hindering his journey to China, and consequently the conversion of the Chinese: "I," he said, "shall never hereafter see him, nor he me in this life, unless when before that Supreme Judge in the valley of Josaphat I shall accuse him that, blinded by the most wicked and base cupidity, he hindered so great a harvest of souls." So Tursellinus in his Life, Book 5, chapter 7. To the same valley God here cites us by the oracle of Joel, and will actually cite us through the Archangel, when he with the sound of the trumpet shall call all from their graves to the tribunal of Christ.
Movingly, St. Cyril, in his oration On the Departure of the Soul, which our Raderus quotes at length in the Garden of the Saints, page 186: "I fear death," he says, "because it is bitter to me. I fear Gehenna, because it is eternal. I fear Tartarus (by which he means the Gehenna of cold and ice, by which many believe the damned are tormented in hell equally as by fire, moved by that passage of Job 24:19: 'From the waters of snow let him pass to excessive heat.' So Philip the priest, St. Thomas, Titelmann, Stunica, and others at that place), because it has no warmth. I fear the venomous worm, because it is eternal. I fear the angels appointed over the judgment, because they are merciless. I fear, when I think of that day's terrible and incorruptible council, the horrible tribunal, the uncorrupted judgment. I fear the river of fire flowing before that tribunal, and the most violent flame like a torrent, and the sharp swords. I fear the most severe punishments. I fear the torment that has no end. I fear that dreadful darkness. I fear the deep shadows. I fear the unbreakable chains, the gnashing of teeth, the inconsolable weeping. I fear the unavoidable proofs. For that Judge needs no accusations, no witnesses, no demonstrations, no proofs, but whatever we have done, said, or determined, He brings before the eyes of the guilty.
Then there is no one present to rescue from the punishments — no father, no mother, no son, no daughter, no friend, no defender, no giving of money, no abundance of riches, no pride of power: indeed all these things pass into dust like ashes, and the accused alone endures the sentence of acquittal or condemnation based on his own deeds." And further: "Where then is the boasting of this world? Where the vain glory? Where the pomp? Where the kings, where the finery? Where the money? Where the nobility, where the pleasure? Where the manly strength of the body? Where the false and useless beauty of women? Where then the elegance of garments? Where those who drink wine with timbrels and harps? Where the theaters? Where the hunts?" And after some things: "It is bitter to be in fire, and to cry out, and not be helped. The impassable jaws, the immense whirlpool, where one enclosed and detained can neither escape nor flee: the insurmountable wall of custody, the merciless guards, the dark prison, the dreadful Ethiopians, the unbreakable bonds, the unshakable chains, the dire and fierce ministers of that flame, those heavy whips employed for punishment, the strong and unbroken claws, the hard sinews, the turbid pitch and torrent, the stinking sulfur, those fiery chambers: the unquenchable pyre, the putrid and venomous worm: the inexorable council, the judge unconquered by favor, the inexcusable defense: the stricken faces of the great, the decayed nobles, the beggared kings, the ignorant sages, the foolish orators, the demented rich: the unheard flattery of false writers; the manifest cunning of the malicious, the transparent craftiness of deceivers: woe to the wicked! They are profane, criminal, and impure in the sight of God! Woe to the obstinate, the contentious, and the turbulent! Woe to the perjurers! Woe to the gluttons, whose god is their belly!"
CONCERNING MY PEOPLE AND MY INHERITANCE ISRAEL. — He calls His faithful and saints His people, or Israel. For the people of Israel was the type of these, once chosen by God, faithful and holy; and in the place of those who apostatized from God and Christ, these were substituted and adopted, as the Apostle teaches in Romans 9:8; for as he likewise says in Galatians 6:16: "Whoever shall follow this rule (of Christ and the Gospel which I preach), peace upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." The word 'and' signifies 'that is,' meaning: "Peace" be "upon them," that is, upon the Israelites: because they are true Israelites, not by flesh, but by faith and spirit: for they follow the faith and virtue of Israel, Isaac, and Abraham. Their dispersion, therefore, that is, their persecutions and exiles, God here says He will avenge.
The sense, therefore, is: In the valley of Josaphat I will plead with the unfaithful and impious, who afflicted My people Israel, that is, My faithful ones, and the pious and true worshippers of God, and I will condemn them and punish them with eternal death.
AND THEY HAVE DIVIDED MY LAND (the land of My people, and therefore Mine, having cast him out, among themselves). — He continues in the type and allegory of the devastation and destruction of Judea by the Chaldeans, but by this he understands the plundering and injustices inflicted upon the faithful. For thus the Turks invaded, occupied, and divided the estates and provinces of Christians: thus the English even now confiscate the goods of the orthodox, and exhaust them by fines, as formerly Nero, Decius, Diocletian, etc. did, to whom what follows rightly applies.
Verse 3: 3. AND THEY HAVE CAST LOTS OVER MY PEOPLE — distributing by lot both the people themselves and their goods, just as the...
3. AND THEY HAVE CAST LOTS OVER MY PEOPLE — distributing by lot both the people themselves and their goods, just as the soldiers at Christ's crucifixion divided His garments among themselves by lot while He watched: which was a great insult and affliction. He alludes to the lot that Haman cast over the Jews concerning the day and month in which he planned to slaughter them, Esther 3:7. He accuses the multitude of nations "of three things, says Hugh of St. Victor: of avarice, of lust, of gluttony. Of avarice, because they cast lots over the Lord's people. Of lust, because they prostituted a boy. Of gluttony, because they sold a girl for wine."
Tropologically: "The demons divide the Lord's land, that is, the faithful soul, with vices; and over the people of virtues, they cast the lot of sins. Then they prostitute the boy, that is, the purity of the mind, to illicit desires. Then they sell the girl, that is, the innocence of the heart, for wine, that is, for temporal joy and earthly pleasure." So far Hugh.
AND THEY HAVE SET A BOY IN A BROTHEL — meaning: They placed the boys of My people in a brothel, so that by exposing their bodies to pederasts for unnatural and abominable lust, they might make profit and gain; so too they sold girls partly for lust, partly for servitude, so that from the price of them they might buy wine, and satisfy their gluttony. Hence the Hebrew literally has: They gave a boy for a prostitute, or in exchange for a prostitute, which St. Jerome usually translates and calls a brothel. Hence in his Commentary here he says: "They placed a boy in a brothel," that is, they prostituted a boy to pimps as a male prostitute, "so as to compel him to change his masculine nature," as Jason did, 2 Maccabees 4:9. So also Theodoret, Rupert, Hugh, and Vatablus. Wherefore both Arabic versions translate: They exchanged boys for the wages of prostitutes, that is, by substituting boys for hire in place of prostitutes, from whom they might obtain the shameful wage usually given to prostitutes.
The Syriac, however, translates: They gave boys as the wage of adulteresses, so that they might serve them as servants. Our Translator rightly renders it "in a brothel." For 'prostibulum' in Latin signifies not only a brothel, but also a prostitute. Hear Plautus in the Pot of Gold: "A fine and modest prostitute of the people indeed." The same word was used in the feminine form 'prostibula.' Hear Festus: "'Alicariæ' was the name given to prostitutes who were accustomed to frequent the fields before the mills of grain-dealers for the sake of gain; just as those who sat before stalls were called 'prostibula.'"
Second, the Seventy translate: They gave a boy to prostitutes, namely as the price of their bodies prostituted to them, meaning: They valued the boys of the Jews so cheaply that they gave them in place of a price to prostitutes for the use of their bodies, or as the wage of prostitution. So the Chaldean, Lyra, Pagninus, Clarius, Arias, and Castro. The Hebrew 'bazzona,' that is, 'for a prostitute,' supports this meaning, just as he says next about the girls, that they were sold 'beiain,' that is, 'for wine'; for in both cases it is the beth of price.
Third, Jerome Prado on Ezekiel 16:15: "They placed a boy in a brothel," that is, he says, in an inn for food offered for sale, to be sold to guests, to be bought and procured, meaning: They gave a captive Jewish boy as the price for food, just as they gave a Jewish girl as the price for wine. For the Hebrew 'zona,' that is 'brothel,' properly signifies an inn, which offers for sale food, or merchandise, or its services, or even the body, and then is called a prostitute. But the Latin 'prostibulum' never signifies an inn, nor food offered for sale. The first meaning, therefore, is the genuine one, and our Latin Version requires it; then the second, which fits the Hebrew text very well. Here the Prophet enumerates a few, but enormous crimes against innocent boys and girls, to be judged and punished on the day of judgment, and by synecdoche implies all other crimes under these. So Lyra.
Verse 4: 4. BUT WHAT HAVE YOU TO DO WITH ME, O TYRE AND SIDON, AND ALL THE COAST OF THE PHILISTINES? — The phrase "What have you...
4. BUT WHAT HAVE YOU TO DO WITH ME, O TYRE AND SIDON, AND ALL THE COAST OF THE PHILISTINES? — The phrase "What have you to do with Me?" is one of aversion, indignation, rejection, reprobation, and condemnation, because they presumed to wage wars against God Himself, and to exercise hatreds and enmities, while they persecuted the people of God. For, as St. Jerome says: "He who persecutes the people of God persecutes God Himself, whose the people are." Hence Christ said to Saul: "Why do you persecute Me? I am Jesus, whom you persecute," Acts 9:4.
Now Haymo, Rupert, Arias, Vatablus, and Ribera consider that Tyre, Sidon, and the Philistines are here taken literally but metaphorically, for any and all impious persons: and conversely, that the Jews signify all the pious and saints. For Tyre in Hebrew means the same as 'constriction,' and the Tyrians the same as 'constrictors, oppressors, afflicters'; the Sidonians, the same as 'hunters,' namely unto death; the Philistines, the same as 'sprinklers with ashes,' that is, 'bringers of mourning,' as St. Jerome notes.
Others, and better, take these things literally; for just as Joel, from the many crimes to be judged on the day of judgment, enumerated only a few by way of example shortly before, implying all the rest by synecdoche; so here too from all the nations then to be judged he produces by way of example a few that were more notable among the Jews for their reputation, proximity, and wickedness, and leaves the rest to be understood partly by synecdoche, partly by metaphor. For the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Philistines were fierce and almost perpetual enemies of the people of God, namely the Jews, and often raged cruelly against them by plundering, killing, and selling them to the Greeks, that is, to Asian nations. Hence the Prophets thunder against them with one voice, and threaten them with destruction by the Chaldeans, as Isaiah in chapter 14:29 and the whole of chapter 23, Jeremiah in the whole of chapter 27, Ezekiel in the whole of chapters 27 and 28. For the same reason Joel here threatens the same peoples with the same temporal destruction by the Chaldeans (but touching on it only in passing), and much more with the eternal one on the day of judgment, namely condemnation and Gehenna. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Lyra, Ribera, and others. Joel therefore mixes the literal with the allegorical: because he speaks in a mixed fashion about the enemies of the Jews of his own time, and about the enemies of the faithful and saints of every age.
So Isaiah, in chapter 14, mixes the fall of Belshazzar with the fall of Lucifer; and Ezekiel, in chapter 28, mixes the fall of the king of Tyre with the fall of the Cherub. See Canons 4 and 52 on the Major Prophets.
Wherefore some less correctly refer these things to the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Philistines who afflicted the Jews at the time of Titus and the Romans; others to those who persecuted Christians and the nascent Church of Christ in Judea: especially since we do not read that the Tyrians, but the Jews themselves, persecuted Christ and Christians.
This is the first and, as it were, fundamental meaning, but beneath it the Prophet intends another more principal one: namely, through these crimes of the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Philistines, and their punishment, he signifies similar crimes both of the Turks and Saracens against Christians, and of any impious persons who persecute the pious, whom God on the day of judgment, when He will raise His faithful and pious from death to life, and vindicate them in the glorious liberty of the children of God, will punish and sell to the Sabeans, that is, will hand them over to be tormented by demons. For the Sabeans were similar to these in character and name. For Sabeans through the letter shin signifies 'captivity' in Hebrew, as the Seventy translate here, and 'capturers,' such as the demons are. Hence the Alexandrian Arabic version also translates: They shall sell them into captivity, captivity (captives to be led away) to a remote nation. So Rupert, Clarius, Arias, Vatablus, Ribera, and Castro.
Again, Sabeans through the letter sin in Hebrew signifies 'feasters,' 'the satiated,' from the root 'saba,' that is, 'he was satiated'; or 'drinkers' and 'drunkards,' from the root 'saab,' that is, 'he drank,' as a metathesis. For the demons will tear apart the impious in Gehenna, and will feed on their flesh, blood, and punishments, and will, as it were, become intoxicated. For the Prophet speaks of the last judgment in the preceding verses, as well as in what follows: hence symbolically, by the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Philistines, three — that is, all classes of the impious — are signified here. For Tyre, proud and towering in the sea like a fortress, signifies the proud; Sidon, devoted to commerce and hunting for riches, signifies the avaricious; the Philistines, that is, 'the falling,' signify the carnal, who like pigs will fall into the belly and into lust, and wallow in the mire of gluttony and sensuality. For, as St. John says in his first letter, chapter 2:16: "All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes (avarice, or the desire for gold and silver), and the pride of life." These, God and His Saints will judge and condemn on the day of judgment, according to Psalm 149: "The saints shall exult in glory, etc.; two-edged swords in their hands to execute vengeance upon the nations, rebukes among the peoples; to bind their kings in chains, and their nobles in fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment that is written: this is the glory of all His saints."
AND ALL THE COAST OF THE PHILISTINES. — So also the Zurich version and others generally, meaning: And all the borders and all the regions of the Philistines. But the Seventy retained the Hebrew 'gelilot' as if it were a proper name, and translate: And all Galilee of the foreigners, that is, of the Philistines. This is strange: for there was no Galilee in Philistia; hence in the Hebrew it is not 'of foreigners' but 'of the Philistines.' Hear St. Jerome: "In place of Galilee, in the Hebrew is written 'gelilot,' which Aquila translates as 'borders,' Symmachus as 'boundaries': but 'thinas,' that is, 'mound of sand,' let us refer to the shores of Philistia, not to a Galilee of the Philistines, which does not exist at all." Wherefore I believe the Seventy, who knew this, wished to retain the Hebrew name 'gelilot,' so that Galilee is here a common name, not a proper one, meaning borders, boundaries. So Andreas Masius on Joshua 13:2.
The meaning, therefore, is literally: What have you to do with Me, O Tyrians, Sidonians, and Philistines, who have been fierce and constant enemies of My people (the Jews), and consequently of Me Myself, who am the guardian and God of this My people? Do you wish to take vengeance on Me, because I have often struck you down through the Jews, by the very fact that, since you cannot harm Me, you oppress My people, and plunder their gold and riches, and despoil My temple to adorn the shrines of Baal and your idols, and sell the Jews as slaves to the Greeks, that is, to the Gentiles, as Nicanor did, 2 Maccabees 8:14? But go on — behold, I in turn will avenge Myself, and repay these injuries to My people, and render you the like: for I will raise up and free My people from your hand, and make them rule over you, and in turn sell your sons to the Sabeans, who are most notorious plunderers, as is clear from Job 1:15: for although Scripture does not narrate elsewhere that this actually happened, here it predicts it as future, so there is no doubt it came to pass: for many things predicted by the Prophets we do not read as having happened, yet we do not doubt they did happen. For we believe their oracles were true, and therefore fulfilled in fact. See Canon 41 on the Major Prophets.
8. To the Sabeans. — So also Aquila and Symmachus, although the Seventy translate 'into captivity,' for 'scebi' in Hebrew is 'captivity.' The Sabeans, however, are either Ethiopians or Arabs of Arabia Felix, of whom the Poet says: "A hundred altars glow with Sabean incense." For there are two Sabas, one in Ethiopia, the other in Arabia: both far distant from Judea, as Father Pineda learnedly teaches, Book 5 On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 6, numbers 3 and 4; hence Prester John, Emperor of the Abyssinians, glorifies himself with this title: "Lord of Sabaim (that is, of both Sabas, and of both peoples of Sabeans) and successor of the Queen of Sheba," who came with gifts to Solomon, 3 Kings 10. Furthermore, "the Jews," says St. Jerome, "promise themselves, or rather dream, that in the last time they will be gathered by the Lord and brought back to Jerusalem. And not content with this happiness, they assert that God Himself will hand the sons and daughters of the Romans into their hands, so that the Jews may sell them not to the Persians, Ethiopians, and other neighboring nations, but to the Sabeans, the most remote nation: because the Lord has spoken, and will avenge the injury done to His people. So they say, and our Judaizers (Chiliasts) who promise themselves a thousand-year kingdom in Judea, and a golden Jerusalem and sacrificial blood, and sons and grandsons and incredible delights, and gates adorned with a variety of gems (of which Apocalypse 21 speaks): But we say that the Lord raised up after His coming, and daily raises up, and will continue to raise up, those whom various error had led away from their borders; and beautifully He says: I will raise up, that is, those lying down and falling, so that those who lay in heresy may stand in the Church, returning to heretics what they did, so as to deliver their sons and daughters, whom they had trained in mystical and carnal doctrines, into the hands of the sons of Judah, that is, into the hands of those who became leaders of the Churches, so that, converted to better things, they may begin to be subject to ecclesiastical dogmas."
This is tropological: for literally Joel speaks of the impious, whom God will consign to eternal servitude and prison on the day of judgment.
Verse 9: 9. PROCLAIM THIS AMONG THE NATIONS (announce these things with the voice of a herald among the nations): SANCTIFY...
9. PROCLAIM THIS AMONG THE NATIONS (announce these things with the voice of a herald among the nations): SANCTIFY (Zurich version: declare; Chaldean: prepare) WAR. — It is a catachresis: for since coming festivals were customarily 'sanctified' among the Jews, that is, announced and proclaimed by the voice of a herald, so that the people would prepare themselves holily for them as sacred events, hence 'to sanctify' means the same as 'to announce' and 'to proclaim.' See what was said at Jeremiah 6:4; hence Theodoret: "Sanctify war," that is, he says, "arouse the warriors and set them apart for war: for since one who is holy separates himself from sins, hence everything that is set apart for some purpose, he calls 'sanctifying.'"
Tropologically, Hugh of St. Victor says: "To sanctify war is to bestow holiness upon war: is not war sanctified where virtue triumphs and vice is slain?"
Note that these things are said ironically, meaning: Defend yourselves, O Tyrians, and whatever other nations, as much as you can; but you will not escape My judgment, My hand, My vengeance, which I will exercise upon you both through the Chaldeans, and more especially through Christ and the angels on the day of judgment. So St. Jerome, Lyra, Clarius, and Vatablus. Arias adds that all the impious, as if summoned by a war trumpet, will rush into war against Christ and the Saints, and will hasten to the valley of Josaphat, and so, like madmen, will rush to their own destruction, which Christ will inflict upon them there. But this is hardly likely: for all will die before the judgment, and they will hear the trumpet of the Archangel: "Arise, O dead, come to the judgment"; they will therefore know they are summoned to judgment, not to war. Even less likely is the opinion of Rupert and Hugh, that these words are addressed to preachers, declaring war on sins and sinners; or to holy men, to prepare arms against the impious and avenge themselves on them. For it is clear from what follows that these things are said ironically to the impious at the end of the world. Hence it continues: LET THEM COME UP — let them advance to battle, deploy their battle lines, display their weapons and strength.
Verse 10: 10. BEAT YOUR PLOUGHSHARES INTO SWORDS (This phrase signifies the eagerness for war, as well as extreme necessity, so...
10. BEAT YOUR PLOUGHSHARES INTO SWORDS (This phrase signifies the eagerness for war, as well as extreme necessity, so great that it is necessary to forge swords from ploughshares, with which to fight for one's life, even by the weak and infirm. For this is what he adds): LET THE WEAK SAY: I AM STRONG — meaning: Let the weak man in such great need shake off his weakness and rouse strength and arms: for it concerns his and everyone else's life and salvation.
Conversely, Isaiah, chapter 2:4, signifying the supreme peace to be brought to the world by the birth of Christ, says: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles." With a similar phrase Virgil expresses the time of war, in Georgics 1: And the curved sickles are bent into the rigid sword.
And Ovid, Fasti Book 1: The hoes ceased, and the mattocks were turned into javelins; and a helmet was made from the weight of the rake. And Martial, Book 14, epigram 34, whose title is: A Sickle from a Sword: The sure sickle of the leader forged me for peaceful uses. Now I am the farmer's, before I was the soldier's.
So Tertullian teaches, Against the Gnostics, chapter 13, that St. Paul turned the sword of persecution into the ploughshare of the Gospel, when from a wolf he became a lamb: "Paul the Apostle," he says, "from being a persecutor, who first shed the blood of the Church, afterwards exchanging the sword for the pen, and converting the blade into a ploughshare: Benjamin a ravenous wolf, then himself also bringing food."
Tropologically, Hugh of St. Victor says: "What are ploughshares, but mortified members? What is it to beat ploughshares into swords, but to frequently expose mortified members to death for the care of faith and for the power of the word? Mattocks are the various compunctions of the mind; spears are severe threats. What is it to beat mattocks into spears, but from various compunction of the mind to conceive the ardor of faith, the power of the word, the force of judgments? The sword is a manly resolve for the present; the spear, a salutary threat for the future." Hence it follows:
Verse 11: 11. THERE THE LORD WILL CAUSE YOUR MIGHTY ONES TO FALL — meaning: However armed you may be, O nations, however strong...
11. THERE THE LORD WILL CAUSE YOUR MIGHTY ONES TO FALL — meaning: However armed you may be, O nations, however strong and warlike, nevertheless in the valley of Josaphat you will be slain by the Lord, you will fall, and be cast down into Tartarus. He says "your mighty ones" in the singular ('tuos'), not in the plural ('vestros'), because he speaks collectively to the whole people of the nations, as if to one. For all these enemies of God and impious persons are considered one assembly of the reprobate, one people of the damned. So frequently elsewhere Scripture speaks of the same people now in the plural, looking at the individuals who are many, now in the singular, looking at the people who are one.
For 'will cause to fall,' the Hebrew has 'hanchat,' that is, 'he caused to descend,' meaning 'he will cause to descend': for prophetically the past tense is taken for the future. Hence the Zurich version has: There the Lord will lay low your heroes. So also the Chaldean and Pagninus. Again, 'hanchat' can be taken as an imperative. Hence Vatablus translates and explains: Cause to descend, O Lord, Your mighty ones, namely to fight against the nations for Your Church; or: You will cause Your mighty angels to descend from heaven, according to Judges 5:20: "From the heavens they fought against them."
The Seventy understand these words differently; for they translate: Let the warrior be gentle, meaning: Grant, O Lord, that Your warriors may descend from their ferocity, lay aside their anger and wrath, and be gentle, so as to temper vengeance with clemency: perhaps also, instead of 'hanchat,' they read 'hanne,' that is, 'humble,' 'make humble and meek.'
Note: Joel and the Prophets speak of the day of judgment as if of the day of battle, on which Christ will fight and crush the reprobate as His enemies, trampling them as in a winepress, and cutting them down in the valley of destruction. The same battle of Christ is described in Apocalypse 19:11; Wisdom 5:18; Isaiah 66:15 and 24.
Verse 12: 12. LET THEM ARISE AND LET THE NATIONS COME UP INTO THE VALLEY OF JOSAPHAT. — These are the words of Christ summoning...
12. LET THEM ARISE AND LET THE NATIONS COME UP INTO THE VALLEY OF JOSAPHAT. — These are the words of Christ summoning and citing all nations to His tribunal, meaning: Let the nations, wherever dead and buried, rise from death and from the grave, and proceed to the valley of Josaphat: "For there I will sit to judge all nations." So St. Jerome, Rupert, Remigius, Lyra, Hugh, Vatablus, and others. He says "let them come up": first, because for the Hebrews 'to ascend' is the same as 'to go, to proceed'; second, because Jerusalem is situated on high ground, so that those coming from elsewhere must climb to it; otherwise, from Jerusalem itself one descends, not ascends, into the valley of Josaphat; third, because the tribunals of judges are usually in a high and conspicuous place, so that those going there must climb; thus the tribunal of Christ will be in an elevated place above the valley of Josaphat, so that nations going to it are rightly said to ascend; fourth, 'to ascend' for the Hebrews is a military and legal term. Soldiers are said to 'ascend' to battle when they march against the enemy and engage with him; for 'to ascend' signifies to undertake an arduous matter, for which one must raise one's spirits and arouse and sharpen one's strength: and such is a battle, whether military or judicial, namely one in which the accused disputes and, as it were, fights with witnesses and the judge for himself and his life.
Verse 13: 13. PUT IN THE SICKLES. — Christ speaks here to the Apostles and others who will sit with Him as judges on the day of...
13. PUT IN THE SICKLES. — Christ speaks here to the Apostles and others who will sit with Him as judges on the day of judgment, to condemn the impious. So St. Jerome and Remigius; or rather to the angels, who will reap human beings at the end of the world, and then raise them again, and lead them to the tribunal of Christ, and thrust those condemned by Him into Tartarus, meaning: You, O angels, reap all living people, that they may die: "for the harvest is ripe," that is, mature, meaning: because the number of the elect and of all human beings has been completed, and the ages of the world appointed by God have now run their course; and therefore God has decreed to put an end to them. So Rupert, Haymo, Lyra, and Vatablus. Properly, however, the 'ripeness' of the impious signifies the time of their life after a prosperous course, when it has been spent in every pleasure and vice up to a mature age: for then there is ripeness both of age and of iniquity, as of a harvest that demands the hand and sickle of the reaper, to be stored in Tartarus as in a barn. Christ alluded to this in Matthew 13:39: "The harvest," He says, "is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels." And shortly after, verse 41: "The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all scandals and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire."
St. John also alluded to this in Apocalypse 14:15, where he saw three angels with sickles reaping the harvest and gathering the grapes of the earth. There Father Alcazar holds that the first angel, who says at verse 15: "Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe," is literally Joel, who here says the same thing as that angel of John; the second, who at verse 17 gathers the grapes of the earth, is Moses, who is the type of wisdom; the third at verse 18, who admonishes the second to gather the grapes, is Elijah, who is the type of zeal: for this reaping and grape-gathering of the earth will be a work of supreme divine wisdom as well as zeal.
Furthermore, Alcazar adds that Joel, like John, joins the vintage to the harvest in this sense, meaning: You, O reapers, that is, evangelical preachers, strenuously devote yourselves to preaching to gather God's harvest; for you who labor and sweat will not lack an abundance and plenty of wine to refresh and console you. For when you devote yourselves entirely to the Lord's harvest, the Lord in turn will take charge of the vintage, indeed will at once convert your harvest into a mature vineyard, and from it will press the most delicate new wine. For nothing so refreshes preachers, no wine is tastier, than a copious harvest and the fruits of their own preaching. For when they see so many being converted, becoming so holy, and even becoming martyrs, they drink the sweetest wine of consolation. But this sense is not the literal one, as is clear, but rather opposed and contrary to the literal, which is about the damnation of the reprobate; and consequently it is not even a mystical sense. For a mystical sense must be founded on the literal, and correspond to it appropriately and equally, so as to appear naturally inserted in it and, as it were, innate to it.
COME AND GO DOWN, FOR THE WINEPRESS IS FULL — of grape clusters and grapes: into it, therefore, you, O angels, descend, to press and tread these grapes, as the Seventy have it. This winepress, or wine-vat full of grapes, that is, of impious persons to be pressed and trampled, will be Gehenna, or hell. Hence the Chaldean translates: Trample the slain. Note the metaphor: for to tread the winepress in Scripture signifies to take vengeance and to exact severe punishment from the guilty; because just as wine is pressed from the winepress, so blood, soul, and life are squeezed out by vengeance and punishment. So Lamentations 1:15 says: "The Lord has trodden the winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah." And Isaiah 63:3: "I have trodden the winepress alone, etc., I trampled them in My fury, and I trod them in My wrath." And Apocalypse 19:15: "He (Christ) shall rule them (the unfaithful and impious nations) with a rod of iron: and He treads the winepress of the wine of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty." See what is said there.
14. PEOPLES, PEOPLES (that is, very many peoples shall be) IN THE VALLEY OF DESTRUCTION — that is, of Josaphat, where the impious will be cut down, that is, destroyed, according to Psalm 128: "The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners." So St. Jerome, meaning: O how many peoples, how many crowds, O how many nations will be cut down in the valley of Josaphat! So Vatablus. Hence the Seventy translate: Sounds were heard in the valley of judgment. For the Hebrew 'hamonim' signifies tumults and the noise of crowds and of a great people. Hence the Syriac translates: The murmur (roar) of the cry in the depths of the assemblies (in the valley of the congregation of the people); the Arabic: Here is the tumult of disasters, whose onslaught is in the valley of Josaphat.
Note: The Hebrew 'charuts' can, first, be translated as 'of destruction.' So Aquila, Symmachus, the Quinta edition, and our Translator render it. Second, 'charuts' can be translated as 'of tribulation, threshing,' or 'of the threshing-sledge,' that is, an iron-plated and toothed sledge, like a saw for sawing, by which grains are, as it were, sawn out of the ears, threshed, and separated from the chaff. Hence the Zurich version translates: Crowds, crowds will gather in the valley of threshing; others, in the valley of sawing; the Chaldean, in the valley of the division of judgment; others, in the valley of cutting, that is, of separation, in which the good will be separated from the wicked, wheat from chaff, lambs from goats. So Remigius and Lyra.
Where note: This passive threshing of the impious fittingly corresponds to the active threshing of the same, by which they had in this life threshed the pious and just. For it is just that the unjust tribulation which they inflicted on others, they themselves should feel and undergo. Again, this threshing-sledge fittingly corresponds to the winepress mentioned above. For then all the happiness of the impious, and the moisture of their former prosperity, is to be shaken out and pressed out, says Father Pineda on Job 24:24.
Third, Vatablus says: The valley is called 'charuts,' that is, of cutting or of decision, that is, of a definite, determined, and concise judgment. Hence the Seventy and Theodotion translate it 'dikes,' that is, of a case and of judgment. Again, the valley of 'cutting,' that is, of curtailment and abbreviation, as the Syriac here and our Translator in Isaiah 10:23 render it, is the valley in which the curtailed, short, brief, and small number of the Blessed shall be gathered. Where note: There is a beautiful antithesis between the immense multitude of all nations and the cutting or abbreviation: for when the impious, whose number is infinite, have been cut off, removed, and rejected, God will gather a certain brief sum and number of the just and elect, according to Isaiah 10:23: "The Lord God of hosts shall make a consummation and an abbreviation in the midst of all the earth"; just as in threshing, when the chaff is rejected, few grains of wheat remain.
Fourth, the valley of 'charuts' can be translated as the valley of excision, consumption, destruction, namely of the impious. Fifth, 'charuts' signifies gold that has been cut, or refined, or rather separated, distinguished, and set apart, that is, most thoroughly purified, which they call 'obrizon' (refined gold). Just as in Rome the Vatican is called the Golden Hill, because St. Peter the prince of the Apostles was crucified there, so the valley of Josaphat can be called the Golden Valley: both because for the saints and elect it will be golden and most happy, just as for the reprobate it will be iron and most unhappy; and because when the filth of sinners has been refined in the judgment, pure gold will remain, says St. Jerome from Hebrew sources; and because in the judgment, Christ's justice and the charity and glory of the Saints will shine like gold.
Sixth, 'charuts,' that is, 'cut' or 'precise,' is used of a sharp, attentive, keen, and energetic man. The valley of 'charuts' can therefore be translated: first, as the valley that is sharp or rough, namely for the reprobate, just as near Louvain there is 'Asper collis' (Steep Hill), so called from the formerly steep and precipitous ascent, on which a miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin is venerated, who is hence called 'Our Lady of Steep Hill.' Second, the valley of the anxious and worried, where the impious will say to the mountains: "Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us." Third, the valley of the keen, strong, and vigorous, where the holy Apostles, virgins, and martyrs, who bravely labored and fought for virtue even unto death, will be crowned by Christ the Judge. So Father Pineda in his Solomon, prefatory Book 4, chapter 18.
Where note: The Hebrews do not have compound verbs, but express them through a simple form, for example 'charats' signifies 'to cut' with all its compounds, namely 'to cut down, to cut out, to cut off, to cut under,' etc. Hence so great a variety of meanings from the Hebrew, and such a multiplicity of translations, which provides preachers with an abundance of merited concepts and subjects, as is evident here in 'charuts.'
Verse 15: 15. THE SUN AND THE MOON ARE DARKENED — on the day of judgment, so calamitous and horrible; for he is not speaking here...
15. THE SUN AND THE MOON ARE DARKENED — on the day of judgment, so calamitous and horrible; for he is not speaking here of the signs preceding the judgment (for he dealt with those in chapter 2:30), but of the judgment itself, when all will be driven into the valley of Josaphat. Note the hyperbolic hypallage frequent in the Prophets, by which they say the sun, moon, and stars will be darkened, when they wish to signify the magnitude and atrocity of affliction, fear, and horror, meaning: That day (of judgment) will be of such great calamity that to people astonished and dismayed by it, and terrified at the face of the angry Judge, the sun, moon, and stars will seem to fail and be darkened. For to the sorrowful and fearful everything appears sad, gloomy, and dark. A similar phrase is found in Isaiah 13:10, Amos 8:9, and elsewhere. See Canon 32 on Isaiah. So St. Jerome, Remigius, and Rupert.
Some add that in reality on the day of judgment the sun, moon, and stars will be darkened, to conform themselves to their creator and judge, and to take on and share His wrath and indignation, because they shone upon and served the impious in their crimes, and therefore they are ashamed, and as if fearing for themselves, hide from the face of the angry Judge. So St. Jerome. Or because the brightness of Christ and of the other blessed bodies will be so great that by their splendor they will eclipse the light of the sun and stars. So Remigius and Lyra.
Others, according to Origen, treatise 30 on Matthew, think the sun and stars will be darkened by smoke issuing from the fire of the world's conflagration. Others think it will be from lack of nourishment; for they hold that, just as a lamp is fed by oil, so too the sun and stars are fed by vapor or some similar substance, and when this fails, they are extinguished; but natural philosophers refute this.
Symbolically, Origen says in the same place: "Just as in the dispensation of the cross (while Christ hung on the cross), when the sun failed, darkness fell over the whole earth, so when the sign (cross) of the Son of Man appears in heaven on the day of judgment, the light of the sun, moon, and stars will fail, as if consumed by the great power of that sign."
Allegorically, Haymo says: The sun is Christ, the moon the Blessed Virgin, the stars the Saints, who withdraw their light, that is, the serenity and favor of their countenance, from the reprobate. Conversely, Origen in the place cited says: The sun of this world is the devil, the moon is the church of the wicked, the stars are false prophets and heretics — they will fall from heaven like stars, that is, they will fall from their dignity and rank on the day of judgment, when they receive the sentence of damnation from Christ.
Tropologically, Hugh of St. Victor says: "The sun is the philosophy of the world; the moon is secular power; the stars are the other subordinate powers. The sun and moon, therefore, are darkened in Josaphat, that is, in the humility of judgment: because from the moment the wise of this world and the powerful of this age approached the brightness of faith, they immediately recognized the darkness of their own error. And the stars withdrew their brightness: because when they saw the disciples of Christ seize contempt for the world for the sake of faith, and feel self-abasement and the agony of martyrdom; when they saw them shining with signs, adorned with wonders, glorious with miracles, they were at once converted from their pride, cast down from earthly dignity, following the humility of Christ, and submitted their necks to faith."
Verse 16: 16. THE LORD SHALL ROAR FROM ZION. — Christ the Judge, terrible to the impious, as the lion of the tribe of Judah,...
16. THE LORD SHALL ROAR FROM ZION. — Christ the Judge, terrible to the impious, as the lion of the tribe of Judah, Apocalypse 5:5, shall roar from Zion, as a lion roars when from his lookout he surveys and spots the enemy, meaning: Christ the Judge, sitting in the air above the valley of Josaphat, as above Zion and Jerusalem (for these are nearby and contiguous), breathing wrath and fire against the impious like a lion, will pronounce and hurl the thunderbolt, that is, the sentence of eternal damnation, with a horrible voice and, as it were, a roar against them, so that by this voice the heavens and earth will seem to be shaken and to tremble, just as the whole house trembles at the roar of a lion. This is a hyperbole. So Lyra.
Mystically, Rupert says: From Zion and from Jerusalem, that is, he says, from the midst of the blessed angels and men, by whom He will be surrounded on the day of judgment, Christ will roar against the impious. Less correctly, Arias translates: For Zion and for Jerusalem, that is, to vindicate His Church and His elect, Christ will roar against the wicked who afflicted them.
AND THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH SHALL BE MOVED. — Some think that the heavens and the earth and the whole world, as if disturbed and indignant at the passion of their Creator, were shaken and torn from their center at the cross and death of Christ, and will be shaken and torn in like manner when Christ the Judge shall sit in the valley of Josaphat. For the creation of the whole world will fight against the senseless, Wisdom 5:21.
The former they prove from Matthew 27:51, where it says that, while Christ hung on the cross, not only were the rocks split and the tombs opened, but the earth (indeed the whole earth, that is, the globe of the earth itself) was moved. For the earth by its movement, and as if by feeling, signified that Christ who was suffering was God, and that He was shaking the earth, and that the earth was, as it were, indignant at human beings for so great a crime committed against their Lord, and rose up as an avenger against them.
Mystically, it signified the new earth and new world of the faithful, to be established by Christ. Moreover, by this death of Christ, the earthly and stony hearts of human beings would be moved to repentance. Both they prove from Job 9:6: "Who shakes the earth from its place, and its pillars tremble." So Didymus holds in the Greek Catena on Job 1:9, and Philip the priest agrees there, and Hugh of St. Victor here, who says: "The voice of Christ will be so lofty and terrible that the hinges of the heavens and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken."
Second, the earth will be moved because it will open and swallow up the reprobate, and send them into Tartarus; and heaven too will be moved because it will receive the Blessed into its bosom, and, as it were, applaud them. So Lyra.
Third, "the heavens will be moved," that is, the inhabitants of heaven, namely the Blessed, to exulting and rejoicing, when they hear from Christ the Judge: "Come, blessed of My Father"; "and the earth," that is, the earthly reprobate and children of earth, to beating their breasts, tearing their hair, and wringing their hands and arms, when they hear from the same One roaring: "Go, accursed, into eternal fire." So Remigius and Haymo.
AND THE LORD IS THE HOPE OF HIS PEOPLE — meaning: On that day (of judgment), while Christ roars, the heavens and earth will tremble; but His people, the true Israel, not carnal but spiritual, that is, the faithful and saints, will stand secure and confident; for they will trust in their God, and from Him they will hope for salvation, glory, and an eternal kingdom; they will hope, and will obtain: for God will be their "hope," that is, the fulfillment of their hope, filling and completing their hope. He will likewise be their "strength," strengthening their minds and bodies, and making them immortal, eternal, and glorious. This is what the Wise Man says in chapter 5:1: "Then the just shall stand with great constancy against those who oppressed them."
Verse 17: 17. AND YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, DWELLING IN ZION. — Here God promises Zion and Jerusalem great and...
17. AND YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, DWELLING IN ZION. — Here God promises Zion and Jerusalem great and manifold goods, which the carnal Jews expect in carnal form at the coming of their Messiah. The Judaizing Chiliasts agree, who from this passage and from Apocalypse 20:4 supposed that after the resurrection and day of judgment, the saints would live here on earth, namely in Jerusalem, with Christ in all the pleasures of the flesh and in every earthly happiness for a thousand years, after which they would be taken up to heaven to eternal glory, as I said at Apocalypse 20.
But that the subject here is the spiritual Zion, not the carnal, that is, the Church and the elect of God, not the Synagogue and the Jews, and its spiritual goods, not carnal ones, is clear first from the fact that these things will happen at the end of the world, when Christ will judge all nations of all ages in the valley of Josaphat, as he said in verses 1, 2, 12. Hence in verse 13, he commands sickles to be sent out, by which all nations are to be reaped. Wherefore, as he says, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their brightness, and the heavens and earth shall be moved. All of which signify that these things will happen at the end, with the shaking and transformation of the whole world. In vain, therefore, do the Jews expect these things in this world and in this life.
Second, because Daniel, chapter 9:26, predicted that the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Titus and the Romans would be perpetual and would last until the end of the world; therefore these things do not pertain to the restoration of the earthly Zion and Jerusalem.
Third, because it is certain that many things here cannot, except most absurdly, be taken literally and carnally, as they sound, but must be taken mystically. Such are the words in verse 18: "The mountains shall drip with sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, and waters shall go through all the streams of Judah, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns," etc.
Fourth, because in verse 20 he says: "Judea shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation"; therefore he speaks of the heavenly Judea and Jerusalem, not the earthly: for the former will be eternal, while the latter is temporal.
The second opinion is that of St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupert, Hugh, and Vatablus, who refer all these things to the end of the chapter to the primitive Church, and to the charisms of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, of which he said in chapter 2:28: "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." "The mountains," therefore, says Vatablus, "are the Apostles and their successors; the new wine is the word of God and evangelical teaching; likewise the milk; but wine is given to the strong, milk to the little ones, meaning: The Apostles will constantly teach the Gospel. The channels and streams are the particular churches; the living water is the word of God; the fountain of living water is the abundance of evangelical preaching and the inexhaustible doctrine of the Gospel, by which the souls of the faithful are irrigated; the house of God is the Church. It will go forth through the works of preachers. The torrent is the Church; 'settim' is a chosen kind of cedar, which, like the cedar, knows no corruption: so the faithful will live with eternal life. Egypt and Edom are all nations that did not receive Christ, which will be empty of those graces; Judah and Jerusalem, the Church militant, in which the faithful are men of Judah who truly confess God, meaning: Although the Church is oppressed by many, nevertheless it will remain unconquered. And I will cleanse, by the font of baptism or by the blood of Christ, the blood of the elect, which I had not cleansed before the passion of Christ."
But although these things were accomplished in an initial way, and continue to be accomplished in the Church Militant, nevertheless they will be accomplished fully and perfectly in the Church Triumphant; for it is of this that the Prophet properly speaks.
For all these things will follow from and be connected with the day of judgment, which will take place in the valley of Josaphat, of which he has been treating throughout the chapter up to now. He therefore appends in fitting order, to the judgment and damnation of the impious, the glory of the pious and elect, which they will receive from Christ the Judge on that day, and describes its abundance and magnificence through various metaphors. The same is further confirmed by the fact that St. John, alluding to, indeed citing and interpreting Joel, describes the heavenly Jerusalem in nearly the same words in chapter 21, as will be evident from the parallels of both, which I shall now combine. So Remigius, Haymo, Rupert, Hugh, Lyra, Ribera, Castro, and others explain.
Concerning this heavenly Jerusalem, therefore, or the triumphant assembly of the Blessed, Joel says first that its citizens, namely the Blessed, will know, that is, will feel, see, and taste, that God dwells in it and in them themselves through grace and glory, and that He shows and communicates to them there His riches, happiness, and magnificence, and so makes them blessed and fills them with ineffable joy. This is what St. John, alluding to this very passage, says in as many, indeed more words about the same thing, Apocalypse 21:3: "Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them. And they shall be His people, and God Himself with them shall be their God."
Second, that it is a holy mountain, because it is most sublime, abounding in all good things and delights, and all the "streams of Judah," that is, all the powers, all the strengths, all the senses, all the mouths, all the tongues of the Saints confessing and praising God (for this is what Judah means in Hebrew) will flow, namely with perennial waters of praise, thanksgiving, and jubilation, as well as of pleasures and all good things. To this corresponds what St. John says, Apocalypse 21:10: "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain."
Third, that it is a holy Jerusalem; which St. John says in the same place: "And he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God." It is called Jerusalem, that is, 'the vision of peace'; because in the vision of God the Blessed will enjoy the highest, most ample, and eternal peace, namely the abundance of all good things; for this is what 'peace' signifies for the Hebrews. It is called holy, because in the heavenly Church there is no spot or wrinkle, as the Apostle says in Ephesians 5:27; but complete purity, complete integrity, perfect holiness. Hence he adds of it: "And strangers shall pass through her no more." He alludes to foreigners, namely the Tyrians, Sidonians, Philistines, Chaldeans, Romans, who profaned and devastated Jerusalem, meaning: In like manner, pagans, Saracens, heretics, and the impious polluted, harassed, and afflicted the Church Militant; but when she has been translated to heaven and is triumphant, they will no longer pollute or afflict her. Parallel to this is what St. John says, Apocalypse 21:27: "There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that commits abomination."
Tropologically, Hugh of St. Victor says: "Jerusalem, that is, the Church, is holy in its Sacraments, in its precepts, in its judgments, in its counsels, in its promises. For its Sacraments are without dregs, its precepts without burden, its judgments without quarrel, its counsels without jealousy, its promises without the deceit of falsehood, without the jealousy of envy, without the quarrel of controversy, without the burden of compulsion, without the dregs of concupiscence. Therefore she is holy, whose intellect is contemplative, whose affection is heavenly, whose sense is spiritual, whose action is angelic."
Fourth, that in it "the mountains shall drip with sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, and waters shall go through all the streams of Judah, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns." To this corresponds what John says, Apocalypse 22:1: "And he showed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb; and on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
Fifth: "And Judea shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation." Equivalent to this is what St. John says in chapter 21:16: "The city lies foursquare"; and verse 18: "And the structure of its wall was of jasper stone"; and chapter 22:5: "There shall be night no more, etc., for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever."
Verse 18: 18. THE MOUNTAINS SHALL DRIP WITH SWEETNESS — meaning: Then on those heavenly mountains, namely in the heavenly Zion,...
18. THE MOUNTAINS SHALL DRIP WITH SWEETNESS — meaning: Then on those heavenly mountains, namely in the heavenly Zion, which is situated and founded on the mountains of the empyrean heaven, and of the eternity and divinity of the Most Holy Trinity, that promise so often made and celebrated, of the holy land flowing with milk and honey, shall be fulfilled; that is, then the life of the Blessed in heaven will be most delightful, as will its happiness and holiness, which St. John expresses, Apocalypse 21:10: "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain."
Symbolically, Castro understands by the mountains the three divine Persons, who tower above all creatures and the whole world, as divine mountains. For from them every kind of sweetness will flow into that land of the living, with which all the Blessed will be intoxicated, and the hills of the blessed spirits will flow with the most pure milk of angelic knowledge and purity, and through all the streams, that is, through the other blessed human beings, will flow waters of joys, because all will abound in the possession and enjoyment of God. This is what the Psalmist says in Psalm 35:9: "They shall be inebriated by the abundance of Your house, and You shall give them to drink from the torrent (not a cup, not a goblet, but a torrent) of Your pleasure." 'Torrent,' says St. Augustine there, signifies both the force and the abundance of pleasure: "For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we shall see light."
Tropologically, Hugh of St. Victor says: "The mountains are the heights of contemplation, the hills are works of innocence, the streams are exercises of penance; sweetness is perfect love, milk is holy devotion, water is devout compunction; in that day, therefore, that is, in that felicity of union, the bride through the joy of contemplation receives the sweetness of perfect love;
from which descending and returning to herself, she overflows with the milk of devotion; whence, tormenting herself out of love for heavenly things, she is plunged into the waters of compunction, and emerging thence she is exercised in harsh penance. After this she is drawn to works of innocence, and finally flies up to the heights of contemplation, saying: What do I have in heaven, and what have I desired upon the earth besides You?"
AND A FOUNTAIN SHALL COME FORTH FROM THE HOUSE OF THE LORD (from the throne of God). — This fountain, or, as St. John calls it, Apocalypse 22:1, the river proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, is the outpouring of good things which God pours forth and sheds upon the Blessed through His beatific vision, as I said at Apocalypse 22.
AND SHALL WATER THE TORRENT OF THORNS. — Note first: which God will preserve in its pleasantness, delights, and beauty forever; because perpetually, like a perennial fountain, He will pour into it and into its inhabitants, namely into the souls and bodies of the Blessed, a perpetual freshness of all grace and glory, so that they may become 'settim,' that is, immortal and incorruptible, and blooming white like thorns, like a river irrigating and fertilizing paradise, which brought it perpetual freshness and most delightful fruits, Genesis 2:6. So Rupert, Lyra, Ribera, Emmanuel, and others. See what was said at Apocalypse 22:1 and 2.
For 'torrent,' the Hebrew has 'nachal,' which signifies a narrow valley, and hence the torrent that usually runs through it. Hence 'torrent' here is taken metonymically for such a valley, and Symmachus translates it as 'valley'; but the Translator preferred to render it 'torrent' rather than 'valley,' to persist in the metaphor of a fountain and to show its exuberance. For, as St. Bernard says in Meditations, chapter 4, "In the torrent of that pleasure, the overflowing satisfaction will desire nothing more, so great will be the happiness. For there will be the fullness of happiness, surpassing glory, and superabundant joy."
Second, for 'of thorns,' the Hebrew and Chaldean has 'Settim,' and Lyra and Vatablus retain this as if a proper name in the Latin version, as do the Syriac and both Arabic versions; but Theodotion, Symmachus, and our Translator translate it as 'of thorns'; the Seventy, as 'of ropes'; Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 40 on Holy Baptism, as 'of rushes.' Hear St. Jerome: "The Seventy translated 'the torrent of ropes,' that is, 'schoinion' (cords), which signifies either a rope, or according to the Egyptians, a measure of a certain distance. For on the Nile they are accustomed to pull ships with ropes, having fixed distances which they call 'funiculi' (measured lengths), so that fresh necks of those pulling may succeed to the labor of the weary." The torrent of ropes, therefore, is the hereditary torrent, which they measure out with cords and divide among heirs, namely the citizens of heaven.
Moreover, Settim is a place beyond the Dead Sea in Moab, six miles from the city of Livias, where the children of Israel committed fornication and worshipped Beelphegor, and were therefore struck down by God, Numbers 25:1. There the trees growing were called 'settim' after the place, and these 'settim' woods were incorruptible, and, as the Seventy translate, Exodus 25:5, 'asepta' (non-decaying). Hence the Hebrews consider them to be the finest kind of cedar. For they were the lightest, strongest, most solid, most beautiful, and such great trees that the widest planks were cut from them, says St. Jerome. Wherefore the Ark of the Covenant, the tabernacle and its vessels were made from them, as I said at Exodus 25:5. Our Translator here and in Isaiah 41:19 translates 'settim' as 'thorn,' not because it is a thorn, but because it is similar to the white thorn in color and leaves. Therefore it is less likely what Lyra thinks, that Settim is Kittim, that is, Greece, from which Alexander the Great is said to have set out, 1 Maccabees 1:1; for Settim is written with samech, Kittim with kaph, and it is very far from Jerusalem.
Nor does the view please which Arias writes from R. Saadia, that the torrent of Settim is a torrent that flows into the Jordan near the city of Settim. For no geographer mentions this torrent or city.
From what has been said it is clear that all these things are to be taken not carnally, as they sound, but mystically; for there never was, nor will there be, a fountain that goes forth from Jerusalem and, after crossing so great an extent of land, pours itself out into the plains of Moab, where the torrent and valley of Settim is. The valley of Settim, therefore, just like the ark and tabernacle made from shittim wood, signifies the place of the Blessed in the empyrean heaven.
Allegorically, St. Jerome, in the Apology to Pammachius, for the book Against Jovinian, at the end: "Christ," he says, "the virgin, the mother of our virgin, perpetual virgin, mother and virgin, etc. An enclosed garden, a sealed fountain, from which fountain that river flows, according to Joel, which waters the torrent of ropes, or of thorns; the ropes of sins, by which we were formerly bound; the thorns, which choke the seed of the householder." The Blessed Virgin, therefore, is the fountain, from which flowed the river, that is, Christ, watering the torrent of ropes and thorns, that is, of our sins and vices.
Hence mystically, Gregory Nazianzen at the cited place, by this fountain understands baptism; St. Jerome here understands the grace of the Holy Spirit, which, flowing from God, uproots the thorns of vices from the earth of the heart, and in their place grafts virtues like fruitful trees, so that, as St. Jerome says, our thorns "and vices and sins, which bore no fruit of justice, may be changed into the Lord's new fields, and our dryness may be watered with most abundant waters, and instead of thorns and briars we may bring forth the manifold flowers of virtues, and in that place where formerly Israel committed fornication and was initiated into Beelphegor (the god of obscenity), lilies of chastity, and roses of modesty and virginity may abound." So also Remigius, Hugh, Arias.
Hence Hugh of St. Victor says: The torrent of thorns is the onslaught, fervor, and cruelty of the nations. Moreover, the fountain going forth from the house watered the torrent of thorns when, through the Apostles and their successors, the evangelical teaching converted the gentile people from their cruelty, initiated them in the faith, and brought them to the grace of baptism.
One may ask why Settim signifies the place of the Blessed. I answer, first, because Settim was the last encampment of the Hebrews in the desert, Numbers 33:49, where Settim is called Abelsatim, from which the Hebrews next entered the promised land. Hence Joshua sent scouts from Settim into it, chapter 2:1. Just as the promised land was a type of heaven, so too was Settim, which was close to it.
Second, because at Settim, as is evident from Numbers 25:1, Israel was blessed by God through Balaam, with magnificent and many blessings, which are recorded in Numbers 23 and 24, which was a type of the Saints being similarly blessed by God in heaven with every heavenly blessing.
Third, because Balaam, Numbers 24:5, among the other blessings which, inspired by God, he invokes upon Israel, brings this one: "How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, and your tabernacles, O Israel! Like wooded valleys, like gardens beside rivers, like tabernacles which the Lord has pitched, like cedars beside the waters. Water shall flow from his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters." Which things most fittingly apply to the mystical Israel and Settim, that is, to the elect and to heaven, and Joel seems to allude to this when he says: "Through all the streams of Judah waters shall flow, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns," in Hebrew 'settim.'
St. Gregentius, Archbishop of Taphar, in his Disputation with Herban the Jew, volume 14 of the Library of the Holy Fathers, reads: The torrent of rushes; and by this fountain he understands "that inexpressible joy and inexplicable gladness, and the enjoyment and sweet fragrance of the Holy Spirit, which flows from the all-powerful God Himself ineffably and perennially, and will water the hosts of the saints, and will fill their hearts with that tremendous and incomparable sweetness." These are compared to rushes; because just as rushes, being dry and spongy, thirst for and drink copious water, so the Saints thirst for and drink the ocean of divine pleasure, according to the words: "You shall give them to drink from the torrent of Your pleasure."
Fourth, the incorruptible shittim wood signifies the impassible bodies of the Blessed. Again, just as the ark and tabernacle were constructed from shittim planks, so the heavenly Church will be composed of the saints and elect of God: for the ark, existing in the Holy of Holies, having above it the propitiatory as the throne of God, and on either side the Cherubim, bore the type of the heavenly Church.
Fifth, at Settim, Phinehas by his zeal, killing the fornicators, appeased God, expiated the crime of the people, and turned the curse and plague sent by God upon them into a blessing, Numbers 25:7. So the zeal of Christ, by which He abolished sin and expiated His own people from it, will in the heavenly Settim convert the thorns of mortality, and the curse of labors and sorrows inflicted by God on Adam and his posterity (Genesis 3:18), into a blessing of joys and all good things.
Sixth, at Settim Balaam said and prophesied of Israel: "A star shall rise out of Jacob." The star is Christ, who, although He was born and came forth bodily from the descendants of Jacob, or the Israelites, in Bethlehem, will nevertheless rise spiritually and gloriously from them, indeed for all of them after the resurrection, like the sun in heaven, illuminating and blessing all true Israelites: for the proper place of stars is heaven, not earth.
Finally, near Settim, namely at Kadesh, Moses drew a fountain of waters from the rock, flowing through the desert, perhaps through Settim, Numbers 20:11. Again, Numbers 21:17, God gave Moses and the Hebrews a well of waters, to which they sang: "Let the well rise up, the well which the princes dug, and the leaders of the multitude prepared, in the giver of the law, and with their staffs." Joel seems to allude to these places and waters here in these streams of Judah, and the fountain of God watering Settim, especially because the Chaldean and others think that the rock of Moses and its fountain of waters accompanied the Hebrews through Settim and other places of the desert, and that the Apostle meant this in 1 Corinthians 10:4, when he says: "They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them." See what was said at Numbers 21:19. For in like manner, that fountain of living waters will everywhere accompany the Blessed in the empyrean heaven.
Verse 19: 19. EGYPT SHALL BE A DESOLATION, AND EDOM A DESERT OF DESTRUCTION. — He names Egypt because she was the inventor and...
19. EGYPT SHALL BE A DESOLATION, AND EDOM A DESERT OF DESTRUCTION. — He names Egypt because she was the inventor and teacher of superstition and idolatry, and therefore hostile to the Jews both in spirit and harmful by her example and proximity, as she enticed them to worship her Apis: for Jeroboam represented this god with the golden calves that he set up in Dan and Bethel, and proposed to the people as divinities to be worshipped. He names Edom because she was perpetually the rival and enemy of the people of God, namely the Jews. Hence Edom or Idumea in Hebrew means the same as 'earthly' and 'bloody'; Misraim, that is, Egypt, means the same as 'constraining, oppressing, afflicting,' says St. Jerome; but under these he understands by synecdoche the foreign nations that are idolatrous, unfaithful, and impious, meaning: The Egyptians, Edomites, and other nations similar to them in impiety will be destroyed, and their regions, polluted by so many sins, will be desolated, and they themselves will go to Tartarus on the day of judgment, while the Jews, that is, the faithful who confess and praise God, will be saved and will go to the heavenly Zion.
Verse 20: 20. JUDEA SHALL BE INHABITED FOREVER. — It is clear that this cannot be understood of the earthly Judea, as the Jews...
20. JUDEA SHALL BE INHABITED FOREVER. — It is clear that this cannot be understood of the earthly Judea, as the Jews suppose. For this too will have its end at the end of the world, and because Sacred Scripture promises the Jews, equally as other nations, after this life and after the resurrection at the end of the world, an eternal and glorious kingdom in heaven. Therefore it is necessary to understand these words of the heavenly Judea and Jerusalem, as he showed at length in verse 17. The empyrean heaven, therefore, is called Judea, that is, the confession and praise of God, because in it the Saints constantly praise God and will praise Him forever; and, as Tobias says in chapter 13:22: "Through her streets Alleluia will be sung." And the Psalmist, Psalm 83:5: "Blessed are those who dwell in Your house, O Lord: they shall praise You forever and ever." For this is their leisurely occupation, and their occupied leisure.
The same heaven, or rather a part and city of heaven, in which the Blessed will dwell together as citizens, enjoying God and Christ, is called Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace, that is, the possession of all good things, and of all eternity, indeed of God Himself and the Most Holy Trinity; for this will be the eternal lot and inheritance of the Saints. For there God will be all in all, according to the words of the Wise Man: To behold You is the end, the beginning, the ruler, the guide, the path, and the same terminus.
Tropologically, Hugh of St. Victor says: "Judea and Jerusalem shall be inhabited forever; Judea means 'confession,' Jerusalem is called 'the vision of peace.' For the devout and perfect mind, either descending to self-knowledge, confesses its sins to God through the humility of compunction; or ascending to the knowledge of God, is raised through the grace of contemplation to the vision of peace; and then in the voice of exultation and confession the sound of feasting is made in her: the faithful soul never abandons Judea, because either she confesses her sins with compunction, or gives thanks devoutly for the gifts of grace, or when raised on high, pours forth a hymn upon receiving rewards."
Verse 21: 21. AND I WILL CLEANSE THEIR BLOOD WHICH (the Complutensian edition incorrectly reads 'quos' [whom] instead of 'quem'...
21. AND I WILL CLEANSE THEIR BLOOD WHICH (the Complutensian edition incorrectly reads 'quos' [whom] instead of 'quem' [which]) I HAD NOT CLEANSED. — The Rabbis, such as R. Abraham and R. Kimchi, translate and explain the Hebrew thus: "and I will cleanse," that is, I will strip the Egyptians of their wealth and give it to the Jews at the coming of the Messiah; but "their blood (unjustly shed by them in Judea) I will not cleanse," meaning: I will not forgive them the massacres and slaughters inflicted upon the Jews, but will punish them with death for them. But this translation and explanation is disjointed and forced. For 'their blood' belongs to 'I will cleanse,' which precedes, not to 'I will not cleanse,' which follows. Therefore the relative 'asher,' that is, 'which,' must be supplied in the Hebrew as is customary, and it should be translated with our Translator: And I will cleanse their blood (namely of the Jews and Jerusalemites, of whom he had just been speaking, that is, of My faithful and elect), which I had not cleansed.
Now this can be explained in three ways. First, meaning: The blood, that is, murders and all other crimes (for blood is their symbol in Scripture), which before the passion of Christ and before the coming of the Holy Spirit I had not cleansed, I will cleanse when He comes at Pentecost: for the purifications and ceremonies of the Old Testament cleansed only the body, and did not purify the conscience, Hebrews 9:9. So St. Jerome and Arias, who think Joel returns to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of which he spoke in chapter 2:28; or Haymo, meaning: The sins which the elect committed in this life and did not fully amend, I will purge in death or after death in Purgatory, so that, cleansed, they may enter heaven. Or, as Ribera says, meaning: I will take away the sins and the penalty of the blood of Christ and the Apostles from the Jews, which they once called down upon themselves, saying: "His blood be upon us and upon our children"; for before the day of judgment the Jews will be converted to Christ.
Second and better, Lyra and Dionysius: "I will cleanse," that is, I will declare clean the blood of My servants, which was shed by the Egyptians and Edomites and other tyrants as if impure, and condemned and guilty, which I had not previously declared clean. For the Hebrew 'nicka' signifies to cleanse, to declare innocent, to absolve and exempt. Hence Marinus in his Lexicon translates this passage: I will absolve the blood which I had not absolved; the Syriac and both Arabic versions: I will avenge their blood, and will not spare; for he who does not absolve the guilty does not spare him, if he is a judge, as is the case here.
Third and most genuinely, meaning: On the day of judgment "I will cleanse," that is, I will avenge the blood of My faithful unjustly shed by the Egyptians and other impious people, which I had not previously avenged; which done, "the Lord," Christ, "will dwell," and will gloriously reign with His faithful forever in the heavenly "Zion." Hence the Chaldean, the Seventy, the Syriac, and both Arabic versions translate 'I will cleanse' as 'I will avenge.' For this vengeance is what the souls of the Saints seek, saying: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood?" Apocalypse 6:10. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Hugh, and Castro. For he clearly refers to the blood of which he said shortly before: "Because they have dealt unjustly (the Egyptians and Edomites) against the children of Judah, and have shed innocent blood in their land."
And do not be surprised that 'to cleanse blood' means 'to avenge blood.' For in the idiom of Scripture, the earth that receives innocent and unjustly shed blood is thereby considered polluted and made unclean, from which pollution and uncleanness it is cleansed and expiated when the murderers who shed it are punished and punished by the judge and avenger, as is clear from Psalm 105:38: "The land was defiled with blood." Jeremiah 2:34: "On your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor," meaning: You are unclean because of the blood shed; therefore I will cleanse you through vengeance. So Solomon says to Benaiah, 3 Kings 2:31: "You shall remove the innocent blood that was shed by Joab from me and from the house of my father; you shall remove it by avenging his murders, by which he killed Abner and Amasa, and by killing him in like manner." Ezekiel 7:23: "The land is full of the judgment," that is, the guilt, "of blood." Isaiah 26:21: "For behold the Lord shall come out of His place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more," to which passage Joel seems to allude here: for he says the same thing.
For this reason God commanded the Jews that, when the body of a murdered person was found, the magistrate of the neighboring city should offer a heifer for the expiation of the land, Deuteronomy 21:3. See what is said there. Most clearly, however, Ezekiel, chapter 24:6: "Woe," he says, "to the city of blood! etc. For her blood is in the midst of her; she poured it out upon the smooth rock, etc.: That I might bring upon her My indignation, and take vengeance: I set her blood upon the smooth rock, that it should not be covered." Explaining this at verse 13: "Your uncleanness," he says, "is execrable, because I wished to cleanse you, and you were not cleansed from your filth; nor will you be cleansed until I have caused My indignation to rest upon you," that is, until I execute My vengeance upon you. The vengeance of blood and crimes, therefore, is their cleansing and purging.
You will object: In this sense it is the earth rather than the blood of the innocent shed upon the earth that is cleansed. I answer that both are cleansed. For just as the earth that receives unjustly shed blood is considered polluted, so likewise the blood itself is considered violated, stained, and polluted by this unjust and impious shedding of it: both because violence was done to it, and injury and harm inflicted; and because it incurred a stain of name and reputation among people, for it was condemned and shed as if guilty and criminal, and so people regarded it. Now by vengeance both stains are removed: for the injury is repaired by retaliation, and the infamy is removed by the vengeance by which its innocence is declared, precisely by the fact that God justly avenges it. For by this vengeance God declares that those who shed it were guilty, and consequently that the blood itself was innocent and unjustly shed by them.
Let princes and judges note this, namely that when they punish murderers and the guilty, they cleanse the blood of the innocent that cries out to heaven for vengeance, and at the same time purify their land polluted by it, and avert its divine vengeance from their own heads and households. Moreover, they thereby, as it were, pay due rites to the slain innocents as to their departed spirits, and offer a most acceptable and pleasing victim to divine justice and vengeance. Finally, they imitate, indeed anticipate, the strict judgment of Christ, by which He will punish absolutely all the guilty in the valley of Josaphat. Furthermore, let them consider that they cleanse not only blood already shed, but also blood yet to be shed; for when they punish murderers, they terrify evildoers, and curb their audacity, anger, and quarrels, and thus prevent many murders of many people. For, as the Apostle says: "The magistrate does not bear the sword without cause; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath upon him who does evil," Romans 13:4.
Let them remember the divine oracle threatened against King Ahab: "Because you have let go out of your hand a man worthy of death (Benhadad king of Syria, murderer and enemy of Israel), your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people," 3 Kings 20:42. Indeed, as Seneca says: "The impunity of offenses makes people bolder for evil"; and as Cicero says, On Duties Book 3: "The impunity of sinning is the greatest enticement"; for by tolerating an old injury, you invite a new one. Wherefore Socrates, according to Plato, Laws Book 2, asserts that "cities are best governed when the unjust pay penalties." Solon said the same, as Cicero reports, to Brutus; Theophrastus, according to Stobaeus, chapter 41, when asked what preserves human life, answered: "Beneficence, honor, and punishment." Lycurgus, according to Cicero at the cited place, holds that Sparta and all republics stand by punishment and reward. Indeed Democritus believed in only two gods, punishment and beneficence, says Pliny, Book 2, chapter 17. More modestly, Pope Pius IV had as his emblem a laurel and a rod, with this motto: "Punishment and reward." Finally, the Wise Man in chapter 14:7: "Blessed," he says, "is the wood through which justice is done."