Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
On account of the three and four crimes of Moab, verse 1, and of Judah, verse 4, and of Israel, verse 6, He threatens destruction and ruin, and thereafter continues to reproach Israel for ingratitude, because although he received Canaan as a gift from God after the Canaanites were expelled, and in addition received Prophets and Nazirites, he nevertheless ungratefully abused these against God and God's command. Hence, threatening, He adds at verse 13: Behold, I will groan beneath you, etc.
Vulgate Text: Amos 2:1-16
1. Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four, I will not turn him back: because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ite. 2. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it will devour the houses of Kerioth: and Moab will die in tumult, in the clangor of the trumpet: 3. and I will cut off the judge from his midst, and will slay all his princes with him, says the Lord. 4. Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Judah, and for four, I will not turn him back: because he has rejected the law of the Lord, and has not kept His commandments: for their idols have deceived them, after which their fathers had gone. 5. And I will send fire upon Judah, and it will devour the houses of Jerusalem. 6. Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not turn him back: because he sold the just man for silver, and the poor man for sandals. 7. They crush the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the humble: and a son and his father go to the same girl, to profane My holy name. 8. And upon garments taken in pledge they recline beside every altar: and the wine of the condemned they drink in the house of their god. 9. Yet I destroyed the Amorite before their face: whose height was like the height of cedars, and he was strong as an oak: and I crushed his fruit above, and his roots beneath. 10. I am the one who made you come up from the land of Egypt, and led you through the desert for forty years, that you might possess the land of the Amorite. 11. And I raised up prophets from among your sons, and Nazirites from among your young men: is this not so, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? 12. And you gave the Nazirites wine to drink: and you commanded the prophets, saying: Do not prophesy. 13. Behold, I will groan beneath you, as a cart groans that is laden with hay. 14. And flight will perish from the swift, and the strong will not maintain his strength, and the mighty will not save his life. 15. And he who holds the bow will not stand, and the swift of foot will not be saved, and the rider of the horse will not save his life. 16. And the stout of heart among the mighty will flee naked on that day, says the Lord.
Verse 1: 1. For three crimes of Moab.
1. For three crimes of Moab. — In chapter 1, he accused the four crimes of four nations, and threatened them with deserved punishment; now in this chapter he appends three other nations, namely Moab, Israel,
and Judah; and to each of these individually, using the same pattern, he charges an equal number of crimes, and threatens a similar punishment.
BECAUSE HE (Moab) BURNED THE BONES OF THE KING OF EDOM. — R. David, Clarius, and Arias consider this king to have been the son of the king of Edom, who was captured by Mesha, king of Moab, in the conflict at the time when Mesha was fighting against Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and against the king of Edom and the king of Israel; whom Mesha, finally besieged by these three kings and driven to extremes, slew out of rage and desperation, and offered to his gods, and burned him like a purificatory victim and expiatory offering together with his bones, reducing him to ashes in the sight of his father who was besieging the city. This done, the father, namely the king of Edom, indignant at the king of Israel for having stirred him up to this war in which his son was slaughtered and burned before his eyes, broke the alliance and returned home; and they consider this to be signified by those words in IV Kings chapter III, 27: "And taking his firstborn son, who was to reign in his place, he offered him as a holocaust upon the wall," where 'his son' they explain as the son of the king of Edom, since the Hebrew vav, which is the mark of the pronominal suffix, can mean both 'him' and 'his own.' However, the Septuagint, the Chaldean, the Hebrews, St. Jerome, Rufinus, Rupert, Lyranus, Abulensis, Burgensis, Cajetan, Vatablus, Pagninus, and indeed Philo of Byblos, the ancient Phoenician historian, cited by Eusebius in Book IV of Preparation for the Gospel, and Josephus in Book IX of Antiquities, chapter III, report that the king of Moab, in IV Kings chapter III, sacrificed his own son, that is his own, not someone else's, namely not the king of Edom's. Why he did this, Abulensis presents various reasons at IV Kings chapter III, and Pererius in volume III on Genesis chapter XXII, number 98. Better, then, the Hebrews, St. Jerome, Rufinus, Remigius, Albert, Hugo, Lyranus, and Pererius at the place already cited, Ribera and a Castro, consider this to have been the very king of Edom himself, who together with Jehoshaphat and Joram fought against the Moabites, and by besieging them drove them to such desperation that the king of Moab sacrificed his own son to his gods, to implore and obtain their aid in such dire need. Wherefore the Moabites burned with such hatred against the king of Edom that they later dug up his bones after he was dead and buried, burned them, and reduced them to ashes. Some add that the Moabites made lime from these ashes and plastered their houses with it, to attest their enduring hatred against the king of Edom. Hence the Chaldean translates: Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom and plastered his house with them as with lime. And the Hebrew word lassid can be rendered as either 'into lime' or 'into ashes.' Hence the Syriac also translates: Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime, or to ashes. At what precise time and year the Moabites did this, Holy Scripture does not narrate, nor does Josephus; it suffices from this passage of Amos to establish that it happened, and that in the time of Amos the matter was known to all and famous; for there were frequent wars between the king of Moab and Edom, on account of their proximity and shared borders; and in one of these the victor Moab inflicted this injury and ignominy upon the king of Edom.
Furthermore, God here threatens to punish the hatred of the Moabites and the cruelty exercised against the bones of the king of Edom, to show that He is not only the God, Creator, Provider, and Avenger of the Jews, but also of other nations, so that He may be recognized, feared, and worshipped as such by all. Moreover, it is inhuman and deeply disgraceful to exhume the dead and insult their ashes, both because the honor of the tomb is the last rite of nature which the piety of the living has decreed for the deceased among nearly all nations; and because this is to fight with the dead, and to kill them again, as it were; and because injury is done to the soul when its body is dishonored. Hence the pagans consecrated tombs, and often inscribed them: 'To the departed spirits.' Hence Cambyses was most ill-spoken of among all, as Herodotus testifies in Book III, who dug up the corpse of Amasis, king of Egypt, already dead, and ordered it to be beaten with whips, plucked, and pricked with goads. The cruel Sulla scattered the exhumed bones of Gaius Marius; and lest the same be done to him by the law of retaliation, he ordered himself to be cremated after death. The Romans followed the same practice for the same reason, as Pliny teaches in Book VII, chapter LIV. Indeed, even the Scythians, despising everything else, when Darius reproached them for cowardice or indolence because they declined battle, replied that he would learn the spirit and strength of the Scythians when he came to their parents' tombs; for they would fight to the death for them. So Valerius, Book V, chapter IV. For this reason God threatens the impious Jeroboam and other idolatrous kings of Israel, as an extreme punishment, that their bones, dug from their tombs, would be cast to the dogs, Jeremiah chapter VIII, 1, and Baruch chapter II, 24.
Hence learn morally how great a crime it is to tear apart the reputation of the dead; for reputation is worth more than bones; dogs tear bones, detractors tear reputation; therefore they are canine, and more cruel than dogs. So Sanchez.
Verse 2: 2. I WILL SEND FIRE UPON MOAB — through Nebuchadnezzar, who as the scourge of all nations in the...
2. I WILL SEND FIRE UPON MOAB — through Nebuchadnezzar, who as the scourge of all nations in the hand of God, in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem struck and devastated both the Moabites and the Ammonites, as Josephus testifies in Book X of Antiquities, chapter XI.
AND IT WILL DEVOUR THE HOUSES OF KERIOTH. — Some take Kerioth not as a proper name, but as a common noun, and translate it as 'cities'; for kiria in the singular means a city, and from this carioth in the plural means cities. Hence the Septuagint translates: He will destroy the foundations of its cities; so also the Chaldean. Better, our Translator, the Tigurina, and others take Kerioth as the proper name of a city and the metropolis of Moab. For so Jeremiah takes it in chapter XLVIII, 21. Perhaps this city was called Kerioth from its size, because it encompassed several cities within itself, just as Prague, Krakow, Liege, and Paris contain three or even more cities within themselves.
AND MOAB WILL DIE IN TUMULT. — The Tigurina has 'in uproar,' meaning: In the terrifying din of the storming of the city of Kerioth and the other Moabite cities, the Moabites will be slain and will die. So Vatablus. Hence explaining further, he adds: In the clangor of the trumpet, meaning: With trumpets blaring, arms resounding, and enemies shouting, the Moabites will be cut down in great terror and horror.
Verse 4: 4. For three crimes of Judah.
4. For three crimes of Judah. — From the nations he passes to Judah (that is, to the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin), who imitated the idolatry and crimes of the nations, indeed surpassed them, and therefore threatens it with destruction through the same Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans.
Tropologically St. Jerome says: "The greedy man worships gold, the glutton his belly, the lustful man his harlot and Beelphegor; the wanton woman, who while living in luxury is dead, worships venereal pleasures." These are the idols of Judah, that is, of the faithful and of Christians.
Verse 6: 6. For three crimes of Israel.
6. For three crimes of Israel. — From Judah he passes to Israel, that is, to the remaining ten tribes, whose capital was Samaria, and he likewise accuses and punishes them for three, that is many, crimes and for four, that is the fourth, which is cruelty and oppression of the poor, namely "because he sold the just man for silver and the poor man."
R. Samuel Marochianus, in his treatise On the Coming of the Messiah, chapter VI, and from him Galatinus, Book IV, chapter XXIV, and Arianus Finus, Book VI of the Scourge of the Jews, chapter XLVII, consider the fourth crime to have been their selling Christ, who was just par excellence and by antonomasia, for thirty pieces of silver: the first crime, they say, was that they sold Joseph, Genesis XXXVII, 28, for which they were punished with Egyptian captivity; the second, that they despised David, and in him Christ, saying: "We have no part in David," and worshipped golden calves, for which they were punished with Assyrian captivity; the third, that they sacrificed their sons to Moloch and to idols, and killed the Prophets who rebuked them, for which they were punished with Babylonian captivity; the fourth, that they sold and killed Christ, for which they were utterly destroyed and laid waste with an ever-enduring desolation by Titus and the Romans. But the objection stands that Christ was sold and killed not by Israel (which had already been carried off to Assyria), but by Judah: wherefore this crime ought rather to have been ascribed to Judah than to Israel. Add that in the time of Christ neither the Jews nor the Israelites worshipped idols, which the Prophet here rebukes in Judah at verse 4. Literally, therefore, he is speaking of any just and poor person unjustly sold and oppressed by the Israelites; but because among these Christ excelled, whom the Prophets have as their aim, hence the Prophet's gaze seems to be directed ultimately toward Christ as well.
For first the Prophets censure the crimes of their own age, then under those they censure the similar crimes of posterity, especially those to be committed in the time of Christ against Christ Himself: for the Prophets wrote these oracles for all times. Hence also among the seven crimes of the nations, Amos places this one last, as if it were the greatest: for such indeed is the selling and killing of Christ; especially because we do not read that the Israelites, at any time other than Christ's, sold the just and poor man truly and properly.
Moreover, this was the crime of Israel as much as of Judah, because after Samaria was devastated by the Assyrians, the Israelites who survived the disaster fled to Jerusalem, and mingling with Judah coalesced into one nation. For from ancient times, namely from the patriarch Jacob, Israel and Judah, that is the ten tribes and the two, were like brothers; wherefore the crimes here ascribed to Israel also pertain to Judah. For the fourth crime of Damascus and the other nations here assigned is cruelty; therefore the same seems to be assignable to Judah as well; and since in the oracle against Judah, verse 4, it is not found, it must be borrowed from this verse concerning the burden of Israel. This will appear more clearly in chapter III, 1, where St. Jerome and others generally understand by 'sons of Israel' both the two and the ten tribes: yet Amos ascribes it to Israel rather than to Judah, because he himself was directly and properly sent by God to Israel, not to Judah, and prophesied in Samaria and Bethel, not in Judea and Jerusalem; hence in what follows he continues to prophesy against Israel. Therefore he places the burden of Israel last, and aggravates it, so as to prophesy against it in a continuous series.
The meaning therefore is this: The fourth and gravest crime of Israel is: "That he sold the just man for silver," that is, the just innocence, cause, and substance of the just, namely of the poor, so as to adjudge it in court to the rich for money and bribes received from those who unjustly invaded them and their goods, and demanded from the judge that these be given to them. This selling of the just, therefore, in the time of Amos, was not of the just persons themselves, as Remigius supposed; for we nowhere read that they did this, but of their estates and property, whereby by gifts offered to the judge they perverted justice and bought from him an unjust sentence, by which he adjudged to them the goods of the poor. So the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Albert, Lyranus, Clarius, Arias, Vatablus, Ribera, and a Castro. But properly this fourth crime of Judah and Israel is: "That he sold," that is, would sell, "for silver," namely for thirty pieces of silver, "the just one," namely Christ, who is just par excellence and by antonomasia, because He is the Holy of Holies. For to Christ alone properly do each of these words apply, and to no other; and toward Christ, as toward their aim and object of love, the Prophets are accustomed to fly suddenly at the slightest occasion and resemblance. There is therefore here a double sense, and it is
literal, or rather the former about any just persons in the time of Amos is literal, the latter about Christ is allegorical. Finally, the Arabic translates: Because they set themselves against truth for silver and garments, meaning: Because they sold truth and justice for silver and sandals, that is, for the vilest price.
AND THE POOR MAN FOR SANDALS. — In Hebrew this is the dual form nahalahim, that is, for two sandals, or for a pair of shoes. Wrongly R. Solomon, and from him Lyranus, translates it as 'for enclosures,' meaning: The rich man forced the hedge by which the poor man enclosed his field to be pulled down, in order to invade his field and join it to his own neighboring one. For the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and others generally translate nahalahim as 'sandals.' Remigius takes it literally, and considers that the Israelites sold the poor as slaves to neighboring nations, or even to other Israelites, and for the vilest price, namely for a pair of sandals. This crime is rightly called kidnapping, by which a free man is seized and sold into slavery; which is therefore punished by death under divine law, Exodus XXI, 16: "He who steals a man and sells him, if convicted of the offense, shall surely die." Under civil law, namely the Flavian law, it is punished with beatings and blows, from which the accused is called a kidnapper, and the crime kidnapping. But I have already refuted this, and it is not plausible that a free man would have been sold by them for such a vile price, namely two sandals.
Better, then, others consider the poor man here to be said to have been 'sold' because his right, cause, and substance were sold. For so we commonly say a man is sold, when in court or outside of court his status or rights are sold. So St. Jerome, Clarius, Vatablus, Arias, and the others cited just above. Note the proverbial expression, 'for sandals,' that is, for a trifling and vile price. So even now it is commonly said: I value him no more than my sandals; I esteem him as much as old shoes; I would give my shoes for that. So St. Jerome. Thus Christ was sold by the Jews for a vile price, namely thirty pieces of silver, which amount to the same number of Brabantine florins, according to some; or, according to others, half that amount, namely fifteen Brabantine florins; a Brabantine florin contains four julii: therefore fifteen florins make sixty julii, that is, five gold pieces. Is this not a vile price at which the Lord of all was assessed and sold? Less correctly Theodoret explains it thus, meaning: Judges, advocates, and procurators so afflicted the poor who were pressing their case, that when they had nothing to pay them as fees, with sordid avarice and tyranny they stripped the sandals from their feet and seized them. And Clarius explains it meaning: The rich man, invading the field of the poor, forced him to renounce his right by removing his sandal, according to the custom of the Israelites, which is narrated in Ruth IV, 7. Finally, the Arabic translates: They made the poor man worth sandals, that is, they valued him cheaply, rated him no more than old shoes, as the common saying goes.
Verse 7: 7. THEY CRUSH UPON THE DUST OF THE EARTH THE HEADS OF THE POOR — meaning: They bring down the poor...
7. THEY CRUSH UPON THE DUST OF THE EARTH THE HEADS OF THE POOR — meaning: They bring down the poor in court, so that they lose their case; and even outside of court they cast them down and trample them, just as a slave or a beast is trampled that is thrown into the dust, and there has its head and hair filled with mud and dirt, so that it appears wholly covered in dust. So St. Jerome. Note the arrogance and cruelty of the rich toward the poor. For, as P. Pineda rightly observes, Book VI of On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XX, number 14, among the most insolent wealthy men of Israel it was not unusual to bring down poor men encountered in their path for sport, to oppress them with a planted foot, and all but suffocate them and wring the life out of them. Hence the Septuagint translates: They trampled upon the dust of the earth, and struck the beggar on the head with their fists; Vatablus and the Tigurina: They panted over the dust of the earth upon the head of the lowly, meaning: They desire to oppress the poor, whom they gladly see thrown to the ground and covered with mud. The Chaldean: Who despise as the dust of the earth the head of beggars; others: Who swallow as the dust of the earth the head of the poor; for the Hebrew sçaaph means to breathe, draw in, pant, desire, gape after, swallow. So Pagninus, Marinus, Forster, and others in their Lexicons.
AND THEY TURN ASIDE THE WAY OF THE HUMBLE — meaning: "The way," that is, the right, the matter, and the cause of the poor in court they subvert through bribes, and transfer the case and victory to the rich man who offers bribes. So Theodoret, Vatablus, and Arias. Hence the Chaldean translates: And they pervert the right of the obscure. Second, more generally, meaning: "The way," that is, the plans, undertakings, and efforts of the poor they subvert, and force them to abandon their enterprise, and by their power and wickedness block every access and avenue of good for them. Third, more simply and in closer connection with what precedes: "The way of the humble," that is, the humble and poor wayfarers — by hypallage — they "turn aside," that is, they cast them down, prostrate them on the ground, and trample them. For this aptly corresponds to the first hemistich, where he said: "Who crush upon the dust of the earth the heads of the poor." For the Hebrews are accustomed, especially in rhythmic and poetic passages, to say in the second hemistich the same or nearly the same thing that they said in the first. Similar is Job XXIV, 3: "They turned aside the way of the poor, and oppressed together the meek of the earth." On which see P. Pineda, who gives ten expositions of that passage as well as this one.
Differently St. Jerome explains it, meaning: "They are so puffed up with pride that they refuse to walk or deal with the humble;" and Lyranus, meaning: When they meet a poor man on the road, out of arrogance they force him to yield to them and turn off the road. Mystically, Albert explains, meaning: They plunder the goods of the poor, and thus compel them either through impatience or through need to turn aside from the way of virtue and justice to theft and other crimes, in order to procure sustenance for themselves. The first sense is the literal and genuine one: for 'way' in Scripture often signifies a matter, business, right, and cause.
Let judges and advocates who oppress the poor take note of this, since they are bound by oath to protect them, indeed by duty to plead their cause for free. Let them hear the thunderbolt of God, Deuteronomy XXVII, 19: "Cursed is he who perverts the judgment of the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. And all the people shall say: Amen." Rightly St. Ambrose says in a sermon: "Justly it is said to the advocate: Return what you received, for you acted against the truth, you aided iniquity, you deceived the judge, you oppressed a just cause, you won by falsehood." Cassiodorus on Psalm LXXIII: "These," he says, "are buffoons at banquets, harpies in exactions, foxes in deception, bulls in arrogance, minotaurs in devouring. These are men at whose nostrils, if the breath of any rusty purse blows, you will immediately see the eyes of Argus, the hands of Briareus, the claws of Sphinxes, the perjuries of Laomedon, the cunning of Ulysses, the deceptions of Sinon, the faithfulness of Polymnestor, and the piety of the lazy Lion employed." And Alanus, in his book On the Complaint of Nature: "If anyone is armed with money, as with silver breastplates, he despises the torrent of Ciceronian oratory, the lightning of Hectorean attack, the strength of Herculean valor, and the shape-shifting cunning of Ulysses. For the hunger for possession has become so inflamed that the subtlety of dialectic is mute, the refinement of rhetoric languishes, where the multitude of coins makes the closing argument. Money conquers, money reigns, money commands all things." These remarks concern quarrelsome, avaricious, and unjust pettifogging lawyers: for true advocates are guardians of the law, patrons of the poor, and new Ivos.
AND A SON AND HIS FATHER GO TO THE SAME GIRL (the same one, as the Septuagint has it. He denounces the incest of the Israelites, namely that a son abused his mother-in-law, that is his father's wife, or rather a father abused his daughter-in-law, that is his son's wife, as St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugo, and Lyranus say, or certainly that both had the same girl and harlot as a concubine: and so they) PROFANED THE HOLY NAME OF GOD — exposing it to the infamy and mockery of the pagans who said: See how filthy and obscene the Israelites are; how filthy then must their faith and religion be: and what kind of God is theirs, who tolerates such things and does not punish them! The Israelites by their incest gave cause for this blasphemy.
Verse 8: 8. AND UPON GARMENTS TAKEN IN PLEDGE THEY RECLINED BESIDE EVERY ALTAR.
8. AND UPON GARMENTS TAKEN IN PLEDGE THEY RECLINED BESIDE EVERY ALTAR. — The Israelites, when about to dine or feast, did not sit at the table, but reclined beside it, that is, they lay on couches, which were therefore called dining couches. So Christ reclined on a couch in the house of Simon the Leper, when from behind Magdalene washed His feet with her tears. He censures them, therefore, because when sacrificing victims to the golden calves in Dan and Bethel, and then feasting beside the altar, they reclined on couches and garments which they had extorted by force from the poor, especially from those unwilling to eat these calves, as pledges for debts; or because by selling these garments they used the price to prepare the sacrifice and the feast; hence when reclining for the feast, they were considered to be reclining on the pledged garments of the poor and feasting upon them; even though God had commanded that the pledge be returned to the poor man before nightfall, Deuteronomy XXIV, 12. So the Hebrews, and from them St. Jerome, Lyranus, and Vatablus. They sinned therefore in two ways: first, because they seized these garments from the poor; second, because they used them to worship idols. So Sanchez.
Differently the Septuagint, who understand by 'reclining' sexual intercourse: Their garments, they say, binding them with cords, they made curtains adhering to the altar, so that no one would see them lying together and fornicating there in the idol-temple. For in this manner they worshipped Beelphegor by fornicating beside his idol and altar, as is clear from Numbers XXV, 1. So St. Jerome and Theodoret explain the Septuagint. Hence the Syriac and Arabic translate: They tied their garments with cords, and made processions before my temple, and drank wine with revelry in the house of their gods.
Finally, Clarius considers that by sleeping in these garments taken as a pledge, they sought oracles, just as the Greeks, sleeping on the skin of a ram sacrificed to Jupiter, sought his response, as Herodotus testifies in Book VIII. Such were the lectisternia of the pagans in the temple of Serapis, Aesculapius, Podalirius, and others, by lying upon which they sought dreams, about which see P. Delrio, Disquisitions on Magic, Book IV, chapter III, Question VI. To this may be added the explanation of Martin de Roa, Book II of Singularities, chapter IX, who takes the pledged garments to be sacred garments, by which they devoted and consecrated themselves to their gods. These garments, he says, were those which, as a pledge of devotion or initiation, were consecrated to the gods; or which the initiated and devoted themselves wore as an insignia of that deity to whom they had dedicated themselves. Thus Cicero says in Philippic XIV: "Mars himself is accustomed to claim from the battle-line the bravest as his pledge," that is, to claim them as his own, as devoted and owed to him. And Suetonius in Claudius, chapter X: "The first of the Caesars," he says, "to secure the loyalty of the soldier even with a reward," that is, binding him to himself as with a pledge. And Seneca, Book III On Benefits, chapter IV: "No one failed to say that the memory would live in his soul, no one failed to profess himself devoted and dedicated, and if he found any humbler word by which to pledge himself," that is, which would signify him as consecrated or devoted to that person. In a similar way these garments were pledged to their gods, and through them they pledged and devoted themselves to their gods.
However, Roa adds that pledges here rather signify judicial pledges, which are called by jurists those into the possession of which one is sent by a judge: or those which by some legal right have been adjudicated and attributed to someone, even if unjustly, as was happening here. Therefore a pledged garment is nothing other than a garment of the condemned,
just as 'wine of the condemned' also is, about which follows. AND THE WINE OF THE CONDEMNED (those whom by false accusation and violence they had condemned to spoliation or to death. Hence the Septuagint translates: They drank wine from false accusations; the Chaldean: They drank wine of robbery, namely pressed from the oppression and trampling of the poor) THEY DRANK IN THE HOUSE OF THEIR GOD — meaning: The poor, especially worshippers of the true God, sacrificing not in Dan and Bethel but in Jerusalem, they condemned through false accusations and false witnesses, and fined them of their goods, from which they set up banquets and got drunk in their idol-temples, as if by this idolatry, false accusation, robbery, and drunkenness they would honor their gods and offend the true God of the Jews.
So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Lyranus, and Vatablus. Somewhat differently P. Prado on Ezekiel XXIII, 31: They drank, he says, the wine of the condemned, that is, generous, delicate, precious wine, such as is usually offered to the condemned by friends and family, so that they may more courageously endure their torments and the final agony of death; as if only gluttony and drunkenness were being reproached here. But the former sense is simpler, fuller, and more forceful. A similar crime he reproaches the wicked with in Job chapter XXIV, 6: "They reap," he says, "a field not their own, and gather the vintage of him whom they have oppressed by violence," as Ahab did in the field of Naboth, III Kings XXI. Furthermore, Servius teaches that it was formerly customary to sacrifice to the gods from the goods of the condemned, on that passage of Aeneid IV: At the same time she proclaims honor to the temples of the gods. "They are said to be 'proclaimed,'" he says, "because the poverty of the ancestors sacrificed from a collection, or certainly from the goods of the condemned; whence also 'punishments' are so called." And St. Isidore, Book VI, from Festus: "Supplications," he says, "which are punishments made from the goods of those who suffer." Hence also a 'sacred' man, 'sacred' goods, and 'sacred' taken in the sense of accursed, because sacred things were made from the goods of the accursed. Hear again Isidore, and from him Martin de Roa, Book II of Singularities, chapter IX: "Punishment properly is not said of one who is punished in any manner whatsoever, but of one who is so condemned that his goods are consecrated and turned over to the public. For 'punishments' were called 'offerings,' and punishment is said of him from whose condemnation something is given to God: hence also 'to supplicate.'" The wine of the condemned, therefore, is that which was procured from the fine and punishment of the condemned; from which the ancients were accustomed to sacrifice to the gods, and consequently also to feast after the sacrifice was completed.
Verse 9: 9. Yet I destroyed the Amorite — meaning: I, with Joshua as leader, expelled the Amorites from...
9. Yet I destroyed the Amorite — meaning: I, with Joshua as leader, expelled the Amorites from Canaan, and the other six nations that inhabited it, and gave it to you, O Israelites: is this then how you repay Me? He recounts the benefits conferred upon them, in order to more sharply censure their ingratitude and apostasy. He names the Amorites above the rest because they surpassed the other Canaanites both in stature and strength, and in savagery and wickedness: hence they were called Amorites in Hebrew, that is 'speakers,' or 'famous ones celebrated in frequent discourse,' says St. Jerome. Hence he adds: Whose height was the height of cedars — meaning: The Amorites were tall and lofty like a cedar, meaning: They were giants. This is hyperbole; and by a Hebraism the pronoun 'his' is redundant. Similar is that verse of Virgil: Young men equal to their native firs and mountains.
AND HE WAS STRONG (the Amorite people) AS AN OAK. — Concerning which Seneca says in Hercules Oetaeus: It groans, threatening, from the many blows struck upon it, And breaks the wedges, the dislodged steel rebounds; The iron suffers the wound, and flees the trunk. Likewise Lucan in Book I compares Pompey to an oak: for this is a symbol of strength, says Pierius in Hieroglyphics 51. So also Philo, says St. Jerome, calls Esau dryinon, that is 'oaken, robust,' as if hewn from an oak: indeed Festus thinks 'robur' (strength) is named from 'robur' (oak). The sense therefore is, says Rufinus, meaning: "The forest of nations, mighty for a long age, thus threatening with its lofty summits and resting upon its deep roots, like a diligent surveyor of the camp, I cut down for destruction, lest they should feel even the slightest impediments to their dwelling. Whatever strength there was, therefore, I uprooted completely."
AND I CRUSHED HIS FRUIT ABOVE, AND HIS ROOTS BENEATH — meaning: I utterly overthrew this people, like a cedar whose branches above and roots below are cut away. For he persists in the metaphor and simile of the cedar. Furthermore, by branches and roots can be understood sons and fathers. For God, wishing to root out so impious a nation and stock entirely, had commanded Moses and Joshua to kill all the Canaanites, even boys and infants, and thus to abolish all their seed, Deuteronomy VII, 2; Joshua VI, 21; Wisdom XII, 11, where the Canaanites are called "accursed seed." So Theodoret, Remigius, and Arias.
Verse 11: 11. AND I RAISED UP PROPHETS FROM AMONG YOUR SONS — meaning: I filled your sons with the spirit of...
11. AND I RAISED UP PROPHETS FROM AMONG YOUR SONS — meaning: I filled your sons with the spirit of prophecy and made them Prophets, and by that means I elevated and honored both your sons and you through your sons. AND NAZIRITES FROM AMONG YOUR YOUNG MEN. — Repeat 'I raised up.' The Nazirites were like the religious of the Old Law, who, in order to devote themselves better to God, abstained from wine by vow and wore their hair unshorn, and were therefore called Nazirites, that is, separated from the world and dedicated to God. Hence St. Nazianzen, in his oration in praise of St. Basil, calls our religious Nazirites. See what was said on Numbers VI. Note here that the Nazirite state, that is the state of Religious life, and the vocation to it, and life in it, is the work of God, which can be undertaken only with God as its author, and retained only with His help. Moreover, that the same is a great gift of God by which God honors families and blesses them, when He takes their sons into Himself, as it were into His own family, and makes them courtiers of His heavenly court, so that parents rightly ought not to hinder and overthrow this gift of God in their children, unless they wish to be ungrateful to God and to resist Him; but rather should congratulate themselves on it, give thanks to God, urge their children toward it, and offer them, indeed return them, to God their Creator, as St. Basil teaches in the Asceticon, St. Chrysostom in Book III Against the Detractors of Monastic Life, St. Ambrose in Book I On Virgins, and St. Bernard in Epistle 111. See P. Platus, Book III On the Good of the Religious State, chapter XXXV, and Book II, chapters XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, and XIX.
Verse 12: 12. AND YOU GAVE THEM WINE TO DRINK.
12. AND YOU GAVE THEM WINE TO DRINK. — So read all Latin, Greek, and Hebrew codices in the past tense. Hence in the Roman editions a typographical error seems to have crept in: 'You will give to drink' and 'you will command,' in the future tense. For he censures their past crimes, namely that they offered wine to the Nazirites against their vow and profession, and commanded the Prophets sent by God to prophesy, saying: "Do not prophesy," and thus were not only ungrateful to the Nazirites and Prophets, and to God Himself who gave them, but even fought against them in a hostile manner. For this reason, angered at them, He threatens them with terrible vengeance and destruction. Let those take note of this who invite and solicit Clerics and Religious to violate their vows and institutes. Let them hear the thunderbolt of God that follows: "Behold, I will groan," etc.
From this passage, says St. Jerome, "Tatian, the leader of the Encratites, strives to establish his heresy, asserting that wine is not to be drunk; since it was also commanded by the law that Nazirites not drink wine; and now those who offer wine to the Nazirites are accused by the Prophet." The same heresy was revived six years ago by a certain fanatic in Holland, teaching that Christians must abstain from wine and meat, because one who eats these cannot keep chastity: but being expelled by wine-merchants and butchers, and flogged by the magistrate and driven into exile, he paid the penalty for his madness.
13. Behold, I will groan beneath (some codices wrongly read 'upon': for in Hebrew it is tachat, that is 'beneath'; and in Greek hypokatō, that is 'below') you. — For 'I will groan' the Hebrew is meic, which first the Chaldean translates actively: Behold, I bring upon you anguish, and he will afflict you with anguish, in your place, as a cart laden with sheaves is pressed with anguish; namely, when the loose sheaves of hay or grain are compressed and tightened by the driver, so that the cart may hold many, and thus bear its full load. But the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin codices read 'beneath you,' not 'upon you,' as I said. Second, therefore, others translate thus: I cause compression or constriction beneath you, that is, I will constrict and distress you on every side, below and above, as a driver packs and compresses sheaves in a cart, both the lower and the upper ones, meaning: I will multiply and pack anguish upon you from every direction, as grain crops are compressed and packed in a cart, especially the ones at the bottom, which are below, so that room is made for others and more can be thrown upon them. Hence Emmanuel and Mariana, from the Chaldean, explain it thus: I will groan, that is, I will press you with siege, as a cart is pressed and constricted when full of sheaves. Hence also the Arabic Alexandrian translates: I will leave you like a rolling cart. Third and best, our Translator renders it, with whom the Tigurina agrees, which reads thus: Behold, burdened excessively, I am pressed and groan beneath you, just as a cart laden with sheaves presses and groans; explaining which Vatablus says: God complains about the Israelites, because they burden Him with their sins and crimes: hence it follows that God also will lead them into straits from which they cannot extricate themselves. And R. Abraham: There is no strength to bear you; but I groan under the burden, according to that passage of Isaiah, chapter I, 14: "I am weary of bearing." And chapter XLIII, 24: "You have made Me serve with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities."
Most aptly St. Jerome says: "Therefore, just as a cart, weighed down by a load of stubble or hay, wails aloud with creaking and noise, so I, no longer bearing your sins, and as if threshing stubble with fire, will cry out and say: Flight will perish from the swift," etc. Hence the Syriac translates: Behold, I am distressed (compressed) beneath you, as a cart full of ears of grain is compressed (anguished). And the Arabic Antiochene: I will turn aside from being your judge, in the way that a cart full of reeds rolls.
The word 'I will groan,' therefore, signifies three things. First, that God, as if weighed down by the mass of the Israelites' sins, groans beneath them; hence He says "beneath you." Second, that He is indignant and groans, and threatens all curses along with destruction upon the impious; for the groaning is that which follows: "Flight will perish from the swift," etc. Third, "I will groan," that is, I will cause you to groan, I will press and afflict you so that you groan. For the Hebrew meic is of the hiphil conjugation, and therefore plainly active. Hence the Chaldean and others translate: I will constrict you, namely through Shalmaneser and the Assyrians, who will besiege and devastate Samaria. Wherefore Ribera rightly explains it thus: "I will groan beneath you," that is, in your land I will cause a great groaning to be heard, a most distressing sound to your ears; namely, the shouting of the conquering and exulting enemies, and the wailing of your citizens falling, wounded, and taken captive. Therefore 'I will groan' is not so much the voice of God groaning under a burden, as of God indignant, avenging, and punishing. For a groan in God is not a sign of a broken or weak spirit, but of one hostile, exerting Himself, and rousing Himself to strike. For one groans differently who carries a heavier burden than his strength can bear; differently the gladiator or woodcutter, who then groan when they exert themselves for firmness and effort: the former to strike the enemy, the latter to fell the oak with his axe. But in God both are to be seen:
both the groan and the creaking from disgust, and the sigh from offense, by which the Lord rouses Himself to deliver the longed-for blow, says Sanchez. Again, 'I will groan' signifies that God is here compared to a cart, not so much insofar as He Himself presses and tramples the enemies like a laden cart, as Aben-Ezra, Lyranus, and Palacius suppose, but insofar as, like a cart laden with hay, which from the lightness of the hay is tossed now to this side, now to that, and is shaken, rumbles, and creaks. Where note that the din of enemies, of arms, of battles, and of warlike devastation is rightly compared to the creaking of a cart, which laden with something light, namely hay or stubble, creaks more than if it were loaded with stones: for stones press, compress, and weigh down more, and therefore firmly bear down the cart and impede its jolting and creaking; hay does the opposite in every respect. At the same time, aptly the pleasures of sinners are rightly compared to light and worthless things, namely hay and stubble, which immediately wither, dry up, are carried off by the wind, and are consumed by fire: for in the same manner pleasures pass away, wither, and are burned by the fire of Gehenna. Again, for 'hay' the Hebrew is amir, that is 'sheaf,' that is sheaves, by which the multitude of sins is signified: "This is the hay," says St. Jerome, "about which the Prophet speaks, Psalm CXXVIII: Let them be as the grass upon the housetops,
which withered before it was plucked up. And: All flesh is grass; and that stubble is the one over whose burning the prophet Micah, chapter VII, laments tearfully saying: Woe to me! because I have become like one who gathers stubble in the harvest, etc. This is the hay and stubble about which the Apostle also speaks, I Corinthians III: Wood, hay, stubble — each one's work will be made manifest; for on the day of the Lord it will be revealed by fire." Wherefore some, according to Vatablus, translate thus: Behold, I will cause you to groan beneath you, that is, in your places, or I will cause you to creak, namely under the burden of tribulations. For meic means to press, constrict, and weigh down something with so many burdens and anguish that the thing pressed and oppressed groans and creaks beneath them like an overloaded cart. And 'beneath you' or 'under you' in Hebrew is the same as 'in your place,' as is clear from Exodus XVI, 29, Habakkuk III, 16, and elsewhere. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugo, Lyranus, and others. The Septuagint agrees, translating: Behold, I roll (anguish and tribulations) beneath you (in your place) as a cart full of stubble is rolled; so that you cannot flee or escape them. Hence he adds: "And flight will perish from the swift," etc. So Theodoret. And St. Jerome: "God threatens to roll Himself beneath them like a cart, weighed down with hay or stubble, so that because they have no wheat to store in granaries, their hay and stubble may be consumed by fire." In a similar way Ovid spoke of "creaking carts," Book III of Tristia, elegy 12, and Virgil in Aeneid Book VIII: And in the caverns creak The bars of steel.
And Georgics IV: Bees buzzing within the belly and bursting forth from the broken ribs. And Aeneid Book I: The hinge creaked on the bronze doors.
Morally St. Gregory, Book XXXII of Morals, chapter VI: "Behold, I will groan beneath you, as a cart groans that is laden with hay; because since hay is the life of carnal people, as it is written: All flesh is grass, in that the Lord endures the life of the carnal, He testifies that He carries hay in the manner of a cart. For Him to groan beneath the burden of hay is to tolerate the weights and iniquities of sinners with complaint." Rufinus adds: God complains, he says, because He had long endured the sinning people, that He was burdened like a cart, but one to which the load of worthless material had fallen, meaning: "If a laden cart had some faculty of discernment, it would undoubtedly creak more indignantly if it carried cheap things than if it carried precious ones: so also our God declares that He experiences a greater burden in tolerating their sins, in whom He can find nothing of precious pursuits, but who have all gone after cheap hay, which is easily consumed by fire." And Rupert says: "He uses the simile of hay, because a cart of hay proceeds more slowly, and therefore is more quickly overtaken by a pursuer, and most swiftly consumed by fire."
Allegorically, Christ will groan against the reprobate on the day of judgment, saying: "Go, accursed ones, into eternal fire;" and there, like iron in fire with a perpetual bellows blast kindled, creaking, He will cause them to creak; for, as St. Matthew says in VIII, 12, "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Verse 14: 14. And flight will perish from the swift.
14. And flight will perish from the swift. — These words can be taken in two ways. First, as depending on the verb 'I will groan,' which preceded, as if the groaning, voice, and roar of God against the impious Israelites were this: "Flight will perish (let it perish) from the swift." Second, as not depending on the verb 'I will groan,' but being the fruit and effect of this groaning of God, meaning: When God groans against Israel, He will involve all in a common disaster, from which therefore the swift will not be able to deliver himself by his speed, nor the strong soldier by his military strength or agility, etc., so as to protect and save his life. That this happened to Israel and Samaria, when Shalmaneser devastated it, is clear from IV Kings XVII and XVIII, and II Paralipomenon V. Moreover, St. Jerome (and from him Remigius, Albert, and Hugo) writes that the Rabbis apply each of these statements to individual kings of Israel, from the first Jeroboam to the last Hoshea, in this manner: "Flight will perish from the swift — by whom the Hebrews understand Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had previously fled to Egypt," with Solomon pursuing him, III Kings XI. "And the strong will not maintain his strength — they interpret this as Baasha, who was most eager for war. And the mighty will not save his life — they understand this as Omri. And the holder of the bow will not stand, or sustain — they think this was said of Jehu son of Nimshi, who struck Joram king of Israel with an arrow. And the swift of foot will not be saved — they understand this as Menahem, who in vain hastening, sent gifts to the king of Assyria. And the rider of the horse will not save his life — they interpret this as Pekah son of Remaliah, who, joined with Aram, that is Syria, under king Ahaz, devastated much of Judea. And the stout of heart will flee naked on that day: only Hoshea, who was the last king of the ten tribes, and tried to recall the straying people to the worship of God, comes out as if naked from the fire; but he calls him 'naked' because under him the ten tribes were captured." So the Hebrews according to St. Jerome.
But the former of these events were already past: here however the future and final disaster of Israel is threatened, and its destruction, which began with Pul in the time of Menahem, and was completed by Shalmaneser in the time of Hoshea, IV Kings XV, 19, and IV Kings XVIII, 9.
Verse 15: 15. THE HOLDER OF THE BOW WILL NOT STAND — meaning: The archers of the Israelites, who fight by...
15. THE HOLDER OF THE BOW WILL NOT STAND — meaning: The archers of the Israelites, who fight by shooting arrows from a distance, will not stand firm against their adversaries, namely the Assyrians. So Vatablus.
Verse 16: 16. THE STOUT OF HEART AMONG THE MIGHTY WILL FLEE NAKED.
16. THE STOUT OF HEART AMONG THE MIGHTY WILL FLEE NAKED. — The Tigurina: He who is magnanimous among heroes will flee naked on that day, namely having thrown away his shield and sword, unarmed, meaning: Men strong both in body and spirit will not withstand the attack of the Assyrians, but will lose heart, and throwing away their weapons, will turn their backs and flee. Hence the Septuagint translates: The mighty will not find his heart among the powers; St. Jerome reads: Among the mighty he will flee naked. Literally it concerns the Israelites fleeing the Assyrians, as is clear from the preceding. Wherefore less correctly Isidore of Pelusium, Book I, Epistle 53, considers that this literally concerns the passion of Christ, and understands by 'the naked one' the young man who, "covered with a linen cloth to his bare skin, escaped the cruelty of the Lord's executioners, leaving the cloth behind." Mystically he considers that religious men are signified here, who strip themselves of earthly things, so that, light and freed from the dregs of mortals, they may fly as if on added wings to that life which is removed from destruction.