Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He predicts and laments the extreme and perpetual devastation of Samaria, to be brought about by the terrible God who makes Arcturus and Orion, and laughs at devastation upon the strong, on account of its crimes, especially on account of the plundering and oppression of the poor. Then, at verse 14, He exhorts it to repentance. For at verse 21, He declares that He does not care about its sacrifices and external ceremonies, but rather detests them.
Vulgate Text: Amos 5:1-27
1. Hear this word, which I raise over you as a lamentation: The house of Israel has fallen, and shall not rise again. 2. The virgin Israel is cast down upon her own land; there is none to raise her up. 3. For thus says the Lord God: The city from which a thousand went forth, there shall be left in it a hundred; and from which a hundred went forth, there shall be left in it ten in the house of Israel. 4. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek Me, and you shall live. 5. And do not seek Bethel, and do not enter Galgala, and do not cross over to Bersabee: for Galgala shall be led into captivity, and Bethel shall be useless. 6. Seek the Lord, and live: lest perhaps the house of Joseph be burned like fire, and it devour, and there be none to extinguish Bethel. 7. You who turn judgment into wormwood, and abandon justice in the land. 8. He who makes Arcturus and Orion, and turns darkness into morning, and changes day into night: who calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: the Lord is His name. 9. He who smiles at devastation upon the strong, and brings destruction upon the mighty. 10. They hated him who reproved in the gate, and abominated him who spoke uprightly. 11. Therefore, because you plundered the poor, and took choice spoil from him: you shall build houses of hewn stone, and shall not dwell in them; you shall plant most lovely vineyards, and shall not drink their wine. 12. For I know your many crimes, and your grievous sins: enemies of the just, taking bribes, and oppressing the poor in the gate. 13. Therefore the prudent man in that time shall keep silence, because it is an evil time. 14. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and the Lord God of hosts shall be with you, as you have said. 15. Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: if perhaps the Lord God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. 16. Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the ruler: In all the streets there shall be lamentation; and in all that are outside they shall say: Woe, woe! And they shall call the farmer to mourning, and to lamentation those who know how to mourn. 17. And in all vineyards there shall be lamentation: because I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord. 18. Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. 19. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him, and he should enter his house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him. 20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and gloom, and not brightness in it? 21. I hate and reject your festivities: and I will not receive the odor of your assemblies. 22. And if you offer Me holocausts and your gifts, I will not receive them: and I will not regard the vows of your fatlings. 23. Take away from Me the tumult of your songs: and I will not hear the canticles of your lyre. 24. And judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent. 25. Did you offer Me victims and sacrifice in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel? 26. And you carried the tabernacle of your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. 27. And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says the Lord, the God of hosts is His name.
Verse 1: 1. HEAR THIS WORD, WHICH I RAISE OVER YOU (the Chaldean and Septuagint render: I take up against...
1. HEAR THIS WORD, WHICH I RAISE OVER YOU (the Chaldean and Septuagint render: I take up against you) AS A LAMENTATION. — It is an apposition, meaning: Hear the word, that is, the lamentation and dirge, or mournful song which I compose and bewail concerning your impending destruction, O citizens of Samaria. Whence the Zurich Bible clearly translates: Hear this discourse, O house of Israel, which I take up concerning you, namely a mournful song; others: Hear the word which I raise over you as a lamentation and dirge. The Prophet therefore, foreseeing the calamity of his people, commiserating and groaning, utters this mournful song, by which he publicly bewails the miserable fate of Samaria now imminent. A similar song and lamentation over Tyre, and its king and citizens destroyed, Ezekiel sings in chapter 27:2, and over Egypt and Pharaoh overthrown, in chapter 32:2, and over Babylon and Belshazzar laid waste by Cyrus, Isaiah in chapter 14:4, and over the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah in the Lamentations. Now this mournful song, and as it were epitaph of Samaria, is that which the Prophet immediately adds, saying: 'The house of Israel has fallen,' etc.
THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL HAS FALLEN. — So also the Septuagint, St. Jerome in his Commentary, Remigius, Lyranus, and others. For although the Hebrew בית beth, that is 'house,' is masculine, while נפלה naphela, that is 'has fallen,' is feminine, nevertheless in reality and meaning there is agreement: for by beth, that is 'house of Israel,' he means עדה eda, that is the synagogue and congregation of the people, which is of the feminine gender, and correctly agrees with the feminine naphela, that is 'has fallen.' For here he compares the house, that is the people of Israel, to a woman, namely a virgin afflicted and cast down; therefore the Masoretes and the Chaldean, punctuating the Hebrew differently, namely placing a half-stop after 'house of Israel,' read it thus: Hear this word, which I raise over you, a lamentation of the house of Israel: She has fallen, and shall not rise again, the virgin Israel. But however you may punctuate and read it, the meaning comes to the same thing.
HAS FALLEN — that is, Samaria and its kingdom will fall, prostrated in its own land by the Assyrians, so that it shall never rise again and flourish anew. For the ten tribes, to whom this kingdom belonged, having been carried away into Assyria, never returned from there.
1. Woe to you who are wealthy in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria: nobles, heads of the peoples, entering pompously the house of Israel! 2. Pass over to Calneh, and see, and go from there to Hamath the great: and go down to Gath of the Philistines, and to all the best of these kingdoms: whether their territory is wider than your territory. 3. You who are set apart for the evil day: and approach the throne of iniquity. 4. You who sleep in beds of ivory, and are wanton in your couches: who eat the lamb from the flock, and calves from the midst of the herd. 5. You who sing to the sound of the psaltery: like David they thought they had vessels of song. 6. Drinking wine in bowls, and anointed with the finest ointment: and they felt nothing over the affliction of Joseph. 7. Wherefore now they shall go at the head of those who go into captivity: and the faction of the revelers shall be taken away. 8. The Lord God has sworn by His own soul, says the Lord God of hosts: I detest the pride of Jacob, and I hate his houses, and I will deliver up the city with its inhabitants. 9. And if there remain ten men in one house, even they shall die. 10. And his kinsman shall take him up, and shall burn him, to carry the bones out of the house: and he shall say to him who is in the inner chambers of the house: Is there yet anyone with you? 11. And he shall answer: It is finished. And he shall say to him: Be silent, and do not remember the name of the Lord. 12. For behold the Lord will command, and He will strike the greater house with ruins, and the lesser house with breaches. 13. Can horses run upon rocks, or can one plow with buffaloes, since you have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood? 14. You who rejoice in nothing: who say: Have we not taken to ourselves horns by our own strength? 15. For behold I will raise up against you, O house of Israel, says the Lord God of hosts, a nation: and it shall crush you from the entrance of Hamath even to the torrent of the desert.
1. WOE TO YOU WHO ARE WEALTHY IN ZION! — Hence Arias thinks the Prophet here turns his discourse from Israel to Judah: for the latter was an inhabitant of Zion and Jerusalem. Whence he translates thus: Woe to the wealthy in Zion, and (that is, just as) to those trusting in the mountain of Samaria! meaning: The same woe threatens the people of Zion as I have thus far directed against the people of Samaria. For the word 'and,' when
Or certainly they derived the Hebrew hasschaanannim from the root אין ain, and by crasis en, that is 'not, nothing,' so that the letter shin is not radical but servile, meaning the same as אשר ascer, that is 'who,' as if hasschaanannim means 'those who annihilate,' that is, those who make nothing of, who do not esteem and make nothing of their neighbors and
How many today are Heliogabali, how many are hunters of spider webs, who pursue nothing other than wealth and honors, that is, spider webs!
Verse 2: 2. THE VIRGIN ISRAEL.
2. THE VIRGIN ISRAEL. — The Hebrews are accustomed to call cities and kingdoms "virgins" on account of their beauty, wealth, and glory. Hence Jerusalem is called "the virgin daughter of Zion," and of Babylon Isaiah says in chapter 47:1: "Come down, sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon." So Egypt is called "virgin" and "daughter," Jeremiah chapter 46:11. The virgin Israel, therefore, is Samaria, and its kingdom, beautiful and rich, which, deflowered and devastated by the Assyrians, was like a royal virgin once adorned, now despoiled, violated, cast down, and trampled upon. Second, it is called "virgin" because untouched by the yoke of the enemy: for never before had Samaria been subjugated by the Assyrians or other nations; but its kingdom and commonwealth flourished free and inviolate, like a virgin. So say Ruffinus, Clarius, and Arias.
St. Jerome and Theodoret add that Samaria was once a virgin, that is, pure in the worship of God, when in the persons of its forefathers it worshipped the true God. But this must be understood of the ancient fathers who preceded the schism by which the kingdom of Israel was divided and set up. For with the schism, and therefore with the kingdom of Israel, began its impiety and the idolatry of the golden calves which Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, erected.
SHE IS CAST DOWN UPON HER OWN LAND. — In Hebrew nittesça, which the Zurich Bible translates: She is afflicted upon her own land; Vatablus: She shall be left in her own land; Pagninus and others properly: She is dismissed in her own land, meaning: The virgin Israel has fallen, and been struck down by so powerful a blow from the Assyrians, not in any ordinary way, but all the way to the ground, so that she lies prone on the earth with her whole body, utterly afflicted; she has been cast down as if hopeless, abandoned and forsaken by all, without any help or hope of rising: because neither can she herself, being shattered and broken, raise herself up; nor can the king of Egypt, says Theodoret, or anyone else: so great is her disaster, so worn down, with limbs dislocated and shattered, that no one can restore her; just as an earthen pot dashed against a rock shatters and breaks apart, so that it cannot be made whole again by any potter. Whence it follows:
THERE IS NONE TO RAISE HER UP. — He alludes to physicians, who when they see someone fallen from a tower and broken in all his limbs, so that he cannot be cured and restored to himself, abandon and leave him as hopeless and lying on the ground. Physically he alludes to a virgin, who if she has fallen and lost her virginity through lust, cannot be raised up to recover the honor of virginity. Whence St. Jerome says to Eustochium, On the Guarding of Virginity: "Take care, I beseech you, lest God should ever say of you: The virgin Israel has fallen, and there is none to raise her up. I will speak boldly. Although God can do all things, He cannot raise up a virgin after her fall: He is indeed able to free her from punishment, but He does not wish to crown a corrupted one." Again the Septuagint augments the calamity and moves compassion, meaning: She is cast down and afflicted on the land, not
on alien and hostile land, which would be less surprising and pitiable; but in her own, which she uniquely loved, and by which in turn she was loved and nourished as by a mother and nurse: just as it is a pitiable thing if a daughter is killed in the bosom of her mother.
Verse 3: 3. THE CITY FROM WHICH A THOUSAND WENT FORTH, THERE SHALL BE LEFT IN IT A HUNDRED — meaning: The...
3. THE CITY FROM WHICH A THOUSAND WENT FORTH, THERE SHALL BE LEFT IN IT A HUNDRED — meaning: The Israelites will be afflicted with so many disasters by the Assyrians, both during the three-year siege of Samaria, 4 Kings chapter 18:10, and before and after it, that by the sword, famine, and plague nearly all of them will be consumed, so that a thousand will be reduced to a hundred, and a hundred to ten, and thus from so great a number of Israelites, scarcely one in ten will survive such a great slaughter. So say Remigius, Hugo, Arias, and others. Isaiah threatens the same to Judah, in chapter 6:11: "And I said, he says: How long, O Lord? And He said: Until the cities are made desolate without inhabitant, and the houses without a man, etc. And still in it there shall be a tithing, and it shall return," that is, it shall again be given over to plundering and exposure, as St. Jerome explains in that place.
Tropologically, from Origen, homily 8 on Joshua, Ribera says: The city, he says, is the soul of each person, which is built by the Lord from living stones, that is from various virtues, from which each holy person by fighting casts out sinners, that is evil thoughts and desires: and against them sanctifies warfare, that is, having mortified them by holy hatred of self, he makes himself holy in body and spirit so as to deserve to come into the presence of the living God, and to be crowned by Christ with the palm of victory as the reward of virtue. Formerly from this fervent soul, which clung to God, a thousand went forth, that is, works of all the virtues, like valiant soldiers about to fight against the devil and vices: but afterwards, when it is captured by desire for earthly things and relaxes this fervor, it produces only a hundred, a number ten times less; and if formerly it sent out a hundred, only ten remain in it: because this relaxation and decline of the soul diminishes the works not of one particular virtue but of all, and in every way makes them more imperfect, and this gradually more and more, until finally it ceases from them entirely, and is wholly oppressed and possessed by the devil and vices, and so goes to utter ruin and destruction.
IN THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL — He calls 'house' the family, that is, the commonwealth and synagogue of Israel, in which there were many cities, towns, and villages.
Verse 4: 4. FOR THUS SAYS THE LORD, etc.: SEEK ME, AND YOU SHALL LIVE.
4. FOR THUS SAYS THE LORD, etc.: SEEK ME, AND YOU SHALL LIVE. — 'For' is used in place of 'therefore,' meaning: What has just been said will happen to the house of Israel on account of idolatry: therefore do penance, abandon your idols, and seek the Lord. For the Hebrew כי ki, that is 'for,' is used in place of 'therefore,' 'wherefore,' or 'indeed': for ki among the Hebrews is often merely the beginning and introduction of a speech. For after threats, God here invites Israel to repentance, so that, terrified by the threats, it may come to its senses. Vatablus renders it somewhat differently; for in place of 'for,' he translates: for thus the Lord said (seek Me), wishing namely to call them back from idolatry, on account of which many evils were going to befall them, unless they repented and sought the Lord.
Verse 5: 5. DO NOT SEEK BETHEL — to worship the golden calves which Jeroboam set up in Bethel. AND DO NOT...
5. DO NOT SEEK BETHEL — to worship the golden calves which Jeroboam set up in Bethel. AND DO NOT CROSS OVER TO BERSABEE. — "Bersabee" was the last city of the Holy Land, and its boundary to the south, just as Dan was its boundary to the north (whence it is said of the whole holy land: "From Dan to Bersabee"); it was so called from the oath and covenant which Abraham made there beside the well with Abimelech, giving him seven lambs: for שבע beer in Hebrew means 'well'; שבע saba with sin means 'oath,' with shin means 'seven.' "Bersabee" therefore means the same as 'well of the oath,' or 'well of seven,' namely of lambs. See the commentary on Genesis 21:31.
This city belonged to the tribe of Simeon, but because the portion of Simeon was small, and was contained within the portion of the tribe of Judah, hence Joshua, chapter 15:28, places Bersabee among the cities of Judah. Here Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dwelt for a long time: whence it is also called the town of Isaac. In St. Jerome's time it was a large village, and there was a Roman garrison in it, and it was called the health-giving village: now it is called Gibellina. So says Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land. Moreover, in Bersabee idols had been set up, just as in Bethel and Galgala, as is clear from 4 Kings chapter 23:8. Whence the Prophet here commands them not to cross over there, namely to worship idols. For because Abraham had established a place of prayer to God in Bersabee, in which he had invoked Him, Genesis chapter 21:33, hence his descendants set up an altar in the same place, but not to God — rather to their own idols. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Hugo, Lyranus, and others. Only Arias explains it differently, meaning: Do not worship idols in Bethel and Galgala: and so it will come about that you will not be led into captivity, nor will you cross through Bersabee into Assyria. But if so, he would rather have said: And you shall not cross over to Dan. For through Dan, being to the north, one traveled to Assyria; through Bersabee, being to the south, one traveled to Egypt.
FOR GALGALA SHALL BE LED INTO CAPTIVITY. — "Galgala" was a city of two tribes, namely of the portion of Judah; but it was near the ten tribes, and was destroyed along with them. In Hebrew there is an elegant wordplay: Galgul galo iigale, that is, 'rolling it shall be rolled away,' or 'the wheel shall be turned by turning,' or 'the migration shall migrate by migrating'; for Galgal is derived from גלל galal, that is 'rolled, rolled away, migrated.' Whence the Zurich Bible translates: Galgal in transmigrating shall transmigrate; Pagninus: Gilgal in migrating shall migrate. AND BETHEL SHALL BE USELESS. — The Septuagint and the Syriac: Bethel shall be as if it were not; the Hebrew: Bethel shall be in Aven, meaning: Bethel shall become Bethaven, that is, the house of the strong shall become the house of vanity, of emptiness (empty and void, as the Arabic translates) and of nothingness, or the house of God shall become the house of iniquity, and of grief and mourning. Tropologically, through sin the soul which was Bethel, that is the house and temple of God, becomes Bethaven, that is the house of crimes and of the devil. Again, the house of heaven becomes the house of hell, so that in it there burns in
the pleasure of sin brings eternal gall and most bitter pains to the sinner. Hence Moses says, Deuteronomy chapter 32:32: "Their grape is the grape of gall, and the clusters most bitter. The wine of dragons is their wine, and the incurable venom of asps." And St. Peter says to Simon Magus, Acts chapter 8:23: "I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity."
Relevant here is the exposition of Arias, who by 'judgment' understands the law of God. For this is called 'judgment' in Psalm 118 and often elsewhere, because according to it one must judge what is good and what is evil, meaning: You abominate the law of God, which is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, Psalm 18:11, on account of your depraved desires and habits; because you consider it as bitter as wormwood, and as such you depict and decry it before others, and thus lead them away from it to your own crimes.
Third, the Septuagint refers these words to God; for they translate thus: Seek the Lord, and live, etc., who makes judgment on high, and has established justice on the earth, meaning: Seek God, fearing His just and rigorous judgment, as that of a most fierce avenger. And the Arabic: The Lord making judgments in the highest places, and He it is who has founded justice on the earth, and works all things, and prepares them.
AND YOU ABANDON JUSTICE IN THE LAND. — 'Justice' is the same as 'judgment,' about which I have already spoken: for the Hebrews explain the first hemistich by the second. St. Jerome, Lyranus, and Ribera understand it differently. For by 'justice' they understand God, who is essential and uncreated justice, meaning: You worship unjust and vile idols; but you abandon, indeed you despise and trample upon justice itself, lying as it were upon the ground, that is, the most just and almighty God, as the one 'who makes Arcturus and Orion,' etc.; whence also the Chaldean translates: They have ceased to fear from the face of the Lord, who makes Arcturus, etc. But the former meaning, as it is simpler and more common, so also is it more genuine.
Verse 6: 6. SEEK THE LORD, AND LIVE — that is, and you shall live, or so that you may live.
6. SEEK THE LORD, AND LIVE — that is, and you shall live, or so that you may live. So Vatablus and Pagninus. LEST PERHAPS THE HOUSE OF JOSEPH BE BURNED (that is, blaze and be consumed) LIKE FIRE, AND IT DEVOUR (the neighboring areas), AND THERE BE NONE TO EXTINGUISH BETHEL — that is, the fire sent by God upon Bethel, as is clear from the Hebrew and the Greek. Pagninus and Vatablus translate: Lest perhaps it break through like fire the house of Joseph: 'break through,' says Vatablus, that is, burst through and destroy. For fire breaks through and consumes even the strongest things. By 'Joseph' he understands Ephraim, who was the son of Joseph; and by 'Ephraim' he understands the ten tribes: because Jeroboam, their first king and founder of the kingdom, was from the tribe of Ephraim. So say St. Jerome, Remigius, Albertus, Hugo, and Vatablus. Israel therefore is now called Ephraim, now Joseph, now Jacob, now Samaria.
Verse 7: 7. YOU WHO TURN JUDGMENT INTO WORMWOOD.
7. YOU WHO TURN JUDGMENT INTO WORMWOOD. — These words connect with the beginning of the preceding verse, meaning: Seek the Lord, you, O Israelites, who having turned away from Him, turn judgment and its sweetness and pleasantness into the bitterness of wormwood. So says Rupertus. Vatablus connects it differently; for he joins these words with the verb 'it will devour,' meaning: This fire will devour you who turn judgment into wormwood. Now 'judgment': first, take it in its proper sense. For the Prophets often blame Israel for perverting judgment by awarding the case to the guilty, being their friends, or the rich, or those who gave bribes; and condemning the innocent, because they were poor or enemies; for whom therefore the equity and consolation which they sought from judgment was turned into the bitterness of injustice and condemnation, which was harsh and bitter to them like wormwood. So say Rupertus, Hugo, and Lyranus. Whence Amos adds by way of explanation: 'And you abandon justice in the land'; the Zurich Bible: You afflict justice in the land; Vatablus: You allow it to lie on the ground.
Second, St. Jerome takes 'judgment' generally for justice and holiness, that is, for the duty and obligation of virtue which each person ought to render to God and neighbor. So the Psalmist often says in Psalm 118 that he has done judgment, that is, what is right, due, and pleasing to God, meaning: You who turn virtue into vice, a just and holy life into the bitterness of sin, and as it were give God wormwood to drink. Hence sins in Scripture are called bitternesses, because they embitter, exasperate, offend, and provoke God to anger. So says Hosea, chapter 12:14: "Ephraim has provoked Me to anger with his bitternesses." Again, sin by catachresis is called gall, poison, wormwood: first, because it stings, wounds, and kills the soul; second, because he who sins, as it were gives God gall to drink; third, because a little honey and
for eternity. The sinful soul sees and feels this at the hour of death, when the riches, honors, and pleasures, by which it was lured to offend God, will be turned for it into nausea, disgrace, misery, and eternal torment.
and you shall be cut off by the Assyrian enemy: for God will send fire upon the house of Joseph, as I said in verse 6; for He it is who makes Arcturus, Orion, heaven and earth, and all things that are in them and come to pass. ARCTURUS. — So the Hebrew כימר kima is translated as Arcturus by the Septuagint, Job chapter 9:9, by Pagninus, Vatablus, and Arias here. Second, Symmachus and Theodotion translate it as the Pleiades, or Vergiliæ, which are seven stars in the tail of Aries, or rather in Taurus; and so our translator renders it, Job chapter 38:31. Third, the Zurich Bible translates it as Cynosura, that is, the Little Bear. Fourth, the Arabic and others translate it as the Suculæ, which are in the head of Taurus, and are called by the Greeks Hyades from ὑειν, that is 'to rain,' because they stir up rains. Others translate it differently: for Hebrew names of trees, animals, and stars signify multiple natures and species of them.
Now Arcturus is the Little Bear, namely the seven stars which are situated near the Arctic Pole, and therefore the axis of heaven revolves around them, and they always appear to us and never set, says Albertus. More accurately, Arcturus is a great star in the constellation of Bootes, or the herdsman, behind the tail of the Great Bear, and hence it is called Arcturus, as if 'Bear's tail': for ἄρκτος means 'bear,' and οὐρά means 'tail.' Arcturus rises on the 5th of September, says Columella, book 2, chapter 4, and by its rising, as well as its setting, it stirs up great hailstorms and tempests, says Pliny, book 2, chapter 39. Whence Virgil, Aeneid 1: Whence come rain and fires, Arcturus and the rainy Hyades and the twin Triones. And Horace, book 3 of the Odes: The star Arcturus, gleaming with rays of illustrious name. And Cicero, book 2 of On the Nature of the Gods, says it is situated below the breast of Bootes, who is also called Arctophylax, that is 'guardian of the bear,' because it follows the bear as if a guardian. Whence Cicero in the same place: Arctophylax, who is commonly said to be Bootes, Because he drives before him the Bear joined as if to a pole. And Ovid, Fasti 3: Whether he is Arctophylax, or that sluggish Bootes.
The position of all these is clearly visible to one inspecting an astronomical globe: on it Arcturus is depicted as a bright star between the thighs of Bootes, or Arctophylax, who follows the Great Bear, or the Wagon, as the common people call it, because its seven stars display the form of a wagon or chariot. Now Arcturus is fierce and violent in stirring up storms. Whence Plautus in the Rudens: I am Arcturus, the fiercest sign of all: I am violent when rising, more violent when setting. Wherefore Pliny recognizes in Arcturus a power greater than ordinary, and as it were divine, in stirring up tempests, book 18, chapter 28. And this is what the Prophet here implies saying: God is "He who makes Arcturus," that is, who has imparted to it so great a power of hurling storms, hail, and lightning, as we daily see and experience. For God made, that is, created Arcturus long ago, namely from the beginning of the world: wherefore when the Prophet here says "making Arcturus" in the present tense, he does not seem to be speaking of its past creation.
AND ORION. — So also the Syriac and others generally. The Arabic, however, translates it as the Twins. Orion is a southern constellation before Taurus, consisting of 28 stars, and it is depicted on the astronomical globe as a man with his foot resting on the Hare, between the Hyades and Sirius, or the Greater Dog. It is called in Greek Orion, from ὀρίνειν, that is 'to disturb,' because with its rising winter likewise arises, and because when rising it disturbs the air and earth with storms and tempests. Hence in Hebrew it is called כסל kesil, that is 'inconstant,' because it is inconstant in its twinkling, and brings about inconstancy of the weather, that is, of fair weather and storms: it rises in the ninth month, namely November, which is hence called hasleu in Hebrew. For in November there is great inconstancy and inclemency of the sky, which kesil, that is Orion, signifies and brings about. Whence Virgil, Aeneid 1: When suddenly stormy Orion rose up with the waves.
Hence the Poets fabled that Orion or Urion was the son of Neptune, and so named from the urine of Jupiter. Plautus calls it Jugula, because it is like the sword of armed men, terrible with the brilliance of its stars (whence our translator, at Isaiah chapter 13:10, translates the Hebrew kesil as 'splendor'). Therefore by Ovid, in book 4 of the Fasti, Orion is called 'the sword-bearer.' If it shines brightly, it denotes fair weather; if it is obscured, a storm. Wherefore Horace, book 1 of the Odes: "The Notus," he says, "is the swift companion of setting Orion." He calls it 'setting' because it is placed in the descending part of the sky, that is, in the west: and he makes the South Wind its companion, because Orion brings tempest and winds with it.
Under Arcturus and Orion, by synecdoche, understand all the remaining stars and heavenly bodies. Whence Symmachus translates 'Orion' as 'the stars'; Theodotion as 'the evening,' which draws all the stars after it, so that the same thing is said here as in Psalm 146:4: "Who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by their names." Wherefore the Septuagint here translates: Making and fashioning all things.
You may ask, why does the Prophet name these two constellations above the others? St. Jerome answers, first, because these two are more celebrated and better known to us; second, because hailstorms, tempests, etc., come from fearsome constellations, such as Arcturus, Orion, and the Kids, says Pliny book 18, chapter 28. These constellations, therefore, which cause tempests, are symbols of God's wrath: and it is wrath and vengeance that God here threatens to the Israelites: so say Ribera and Pineda on Job, chapter 9:9 — which reasoning indeed fits this passage very well; third, because Orion is the chief southern constellation, and Arcturus the chief northern one: under these two, therefore, he comprehends all things, namely both southern and northern.
Some add that these two constellations help to produce spring flowers and fruits. Whence Job 38:31, for what we read as: Can you bind the shining Pleiades (Hebrew: kima), or can you scatter the circle of Arcturus (Hebrew: kesil)? Pagninus translates thus: Can you bind with your hands the delicate fruits of the Pleiades, or cause the late fruits of Orion to open? And the Zurich Bible: Can you restrain the delights of the Pleiades, or open the contractions of Orion?
Fourth, Christophorus a Castro says: It seems, he says, that by these two chief constellations of summer and winter, the four seasons of the year can be signified: for spring is joined to summer, and autumn to winter, meaning: He who makes the four seasons of the year; just as He immediately adds: "Who makes night and winter." For He who so easily changes the seasons by the rising of the stars, can equally easily rescue from dangers, and change hostile fortunes into happy and favorable ones, and avert the impending captivity.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, book 9 of the Moralia, chapter 6, says: "Arcturus," he says, "always revolves, and is never submerged; so too the Church endures the persecutions of the wicked without ceasing, yet it perseveres without failing until the end of the world. Arcturus, while it revolves, is raised up: because the holy Church is more powerfully refreshed in truth when it is more ardently wearied for the truth. What are designated after Arcturus by the Orions, if not the martyrs? From the Orions, therefore, winter grew fierce, because as the constancy of the saints shone forth, the cold mind of the unfaithful stirred itself up to the tempest of persecution. Therefore the sky produced Orions when the holy Church sent forth martyrs. And while they dared to speak right things to the unlearned, they bore every burden from the adversity of the cold." He then adds: After the Orions follow the Hyades, that is, the doctors, who after the martyrs watered the Church with the rain of their teaching: for after the three centuries of the martyrs, under Constantine began the fourth century of the doctors.
WHO TURNS DARKNESS INTO MORNING — meaning: He who turns the darkness of night into morning and the light of dawn, by which He turns night into day, and in turn changes day into night. Whence Pagninus translates: He it is who turns the shadow of death into morning, and makes the day grow dark into night; the Zurich Bible: Who converts the darkness of death, that is, deadly darkness, into the morning light, and darkens the day with night. Note: The darkness of night is called in Hebrew צלמות tsalmavet, that is, the shadow of death, that is, the greatest and densest, and equally horrible, like the shadow of death, in tombs and in hell. The Syriac: He turns the shadows of death into morning, that is, the most sorrowful shadows and the densest darkness.
Moreover, this shadow and darkness symbolically denote great dangers, says Theodoret, disasters and afflictions, meaning: God changes consolation into desolation, laughter into mourning, prosperity into adversity, security into fears, applause into lamentation, and vice versa, desolation into consolation,
etc., as it pleases Him, and as men deserve or fail to deserve. Thus Abbot Chæremon, in Cassian, Conference 12, chapter 12, explains this passage of Amos concerning the marvelous change of hearts which God, powerful and equally merciful, effects by His grace. "Who," he says, "would not plainly marvel at the works of God, and proclaim with his whole heart: Because I have known that the Lord is great; when he has seen himself or another changed from a most rapacious person into a generous one, from a prodigal into a continent one, from a proud person into a humble one, from a delicate and tender person into a dirty and rough one, even voluntarily enjoying the poverty and straitness of present things? These are the wonders which God has placed upon the earth, which the Prophet, considering them, calls all peoples to admire, saying: Come and see the works of God, what wonders He has placed upon the earth, taking away wars to the ends of the earth: He shall break the bow, and shall break the weapons, and shall burn the shields with fire. For what greater wonder can there be than that in the briefest moment the most rapacious tax collectors become apostles, and the most cruel persecutors are made the most patient preachers of the Gospel, so that they propagated even by the shedding of their blood the faith which they had persecuted? These are the works of God which the Son declares that He works daily together with the Father, saying: My Father works until now, and I work, John 5. Of these works blessed David sings in the spirit: Blessed, he says, be the Lord God of Israel, who alone does great wonders, Psalm 71. Of these also Amos the prophet says: Who makes, he says, all things, and converts them, and transforms the shadow of death into morning. This indeed is the change of the right hand of the Most High."
Again, Cassian, Conference 15, chapter 18, prefers these changes of minds to miracles, saying: "And truly it is a greater miracle to uproot from one's own flesh the fuel of lust than to cast out unclean spirits from the bodies of others. And it is a more magnificent sign to restrain by the virtue of patience the fierce movements of anger than to command the powers of the air: and it is a greater thing to have excluded from one's own heart the most consuming diseases of sadness than to have expelled the illnesses and bodily fevers of another. Finally, in many ways it is a more illustrious virtue and a loftier achievement to cure the infirmities of one's own soul than those of another's body." He gives the reason: "For the more sublime this is than the flesh, the more excellent is its salvation; and the more precious and excellent its substance, the more grievous and pernicious is also its ruin." Let those who labor in converting souls take note of this: let them know that they perform as many miracles as they convert souls, indeed as many vices as they uproot; and these are not bodily and transitory, but spiritual and destined to remain for all eternity in the heavens as a perpetual trophy.
WHO CALLS THE WATERS OF THE SEA (meaning: He who by the heat of the sun calls forth and raises up into the air vapors from the waters of the sea, and resolves them into rain; and thus) POURS THEM (the waters) UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH: THE LORD IS HIS NAME
HIS. — For 'Lord' in Hebrew is Jehova, that is, 'He who is,' or יש is, 'He who is being itself,' both His own formal being, and the causal being of all things, that is, He who is the fullness, totality, and embrace of being, essence, and existence; He who is the Ocean of being, and the immense sea of existing. Sanchez suspects that Amos, being a rustic, is alluding to the rustic opinion, though false, which holds that the rainbow drinks and draws up waters from the sea, concerning which see Rhodiginus, book 22, chapter 29.
Tropologically: "St. Paul," says St. Jerome, "like a violent whirlwind, and a fierce tempest, and the flood of the swelling sea, persecuted and strove to oppress the Church of God. But called by the Lord, he was poured out over the face of the whole earth, so that he preached the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, etc., so that he would reach even to the Spains, and would run from the Red Sea, indeed from Ocean to Ocean, imitating his Lord and the sun, of which we read: From the highest heaven is His going forth, and His circuit even to the highest of it; so that the earth would fail before his zeal for preaching would."
Verse 9: 9. WHO SMILES AT DEVASTATION UPON THE STRONG.
9. WHO SMILES AT DEVASTATION UPON THE STRONG. — In Hebrew it is מבליג mablig, which first the Septuagint translate: He who divides destruction upon strength, that is, who hurls various destructions, as if divided and cut apart, at the strong and powerful, to overthrow them; and who, as Theodoret explains, easily strengthens the weak and weakens and shatters the strong; second, the Chaldean, Vatablus, and Arias: Who strengthens the weak and makes them prevail over the strong and mighty; third, Lyranus: Who despises the devastation wrought by the strong, and brings about the destruction, that is, the slaughter of the people, and their deportation from a powerful kingdom; fourth, Pagninus: Who strengthens the destroyer against the powerful people; fifth, the Zurich Bible: Who hurls the destroyer upon the strong; sixth, the Arabic: Exalting the humble over the strong, and the weak over him who magnifies himself; and the Syriac: Who sets the lowly (despised) over the strong, and raises the humble over the lofty (the exalted). All these interpretations tend to the same point, namely they signify that God is the one who gives strength and victory to whom He wills, and often strengthens the weak so that they may prevail over the strong.
So tropologically St. Jerome says: "The strength of the body is the weakness of the soul; and again, the strength of the soul is the weakness of the body." Our translator, in nearly the same sense but more vigorously and more properly, with Aquila translates: "Who smiles," that is, by smiling He threatens and sends devastation. For the magnitude of anger is sometimes shown by smiling, or rather is dissimulated by heroes through laughter, as is clear from this passage of Virgil, Aeneid 10: Smiling at him, Mezentius, with mingled wrath: Now die.
Thus God smiles at all human power opposed to Him, that is, by smiling He looks down upon it, mocks it, and overthrows it. By His laughter, therefore, He shows that it is less than His anger, and unworthy that He should be indignant and wrathful at it: just as a lion does not deign to bestow its wrath on dogs, wolves, and bears; but if they resist it, it tears them apart as if playing and laughing. So God, playing upon the globe of the earth, mocks the pride of petty men, and smiling He slays the impious, when through weak and feeble men and vile things He crushes them, as He crushed Pharaoh through frogs, locusts, gnats, and flies. This is the sport, this the laughter of almighty God. Hence a Castro explains it thus: "Who smiles," etc., that is, who is accustomed as if through laughter to stimulate each weak person against the most powerful, so that he may devastate him. And Mariana says: God, he says, "smiles," that is, He seems to play in our misfortunes. And Emmanuel: "He smiles," that is, laughing or mocking He easily sends "devastation." So of the ostrich Job says, chapter 39:18: "She scorns the horse and its rider." And of Leviathan, chapter 41:20: "He regards the hammer as straw, and will laugh at the brandishing of the spear." And the Psalmist says of God, Psalm 2:4: "He who dwells in the heavens shall laugh at them." And Psalm 36:13: "But the Lord shall laugh at him." And Proverbs chapter 1:26: "I also will laugh at your destruction." And beautifully the Wise Man, chapter 12:25, after saying that the impious Canaanites lived impiously and foolishly like senseless children, adds: "Therefore you gave judgment against them in mockery, as against senseless children," meaning: With childish and ridiculous punishments (namely through wasps and hornets) you punished them as children, yet severely and sharply: where in the Greek there is a beautiful paronomasia between μαίζω and ἐμπαίζω, meaning: You ridiculed the ridiculous; you played with and chastised children in a childish manner. This is what Claudian says in his poem against Eutropius: "The father smiled cruelly." So a cat
Moreover, that the Hebrew מבליג mablig means 'who smiles' is clear from Aquila, who translates μειδιῶν, that is 'smiling'; and from St. Jerome, when he says: "Properly it is called pudizua, which we can call a 'smile,' when someone is angry, and with lips slightly opened pretends to smile, in order to show the magnitude of his anger." The same in his commentary on Jeremiah chapter 8:18; the Hebrew, he says: מבליגיתי "mabligiti is passiana, which we can interpret as the gaping of a mouth contracted with pain, having a resemblance of laughter, such as is a dog's laugh and the sardonic laugh." Now who does not see that Aquila and St. Jerome are more to be believed than modern, unlearned, and unbelieving Rabbis?
smiles at the mouse it has caught, that is, smiling it devours it: for before it devours it, it gesticulates and plays with it as if laughing. Such is the sardonic laugh, the horse's laugh, the dog's laugh: for horses and dogs when they snarl and prepare to bite, bare their teeth as if laughing. So Jupiter, says Hesiod, angry at Prometheus because he had stolen fire from heaven and brought it down to earth, laughed a somewhat bitter laugh. Dioscorides, book 6, records among poisons a plant, which is called ranunculus in Latin and βατράχιον in Greek, and from the region in which it grows more abundantly is called Sardoa or Sardonia; if drunk or eaten, it deprives one of his mind, and with the lips contracted presents the appearance of laughter. And hence the proverb about the Sardonic laugh. Strabo, book 11 of the Geography, writes that in Cambysene, which borders the river Alazonius, there is born a certain kind of spider that forces some to die laughing, and others weeping, from longing for their loved ones. Furthermore, Aristotle, book 3 of the Parts of Animals, says that even when the midriff is pierced by a blow in battles, it has sometimes produced laughter, and this happens because of the heat that the wound generates. Now indeed: "To laugh at an enemy is the sweetest laughter," says Sophocles in the tragedy entitled Ajax the Scourge-Bearer. Thus not only God but also the just man rejoices when he sees the punishment of sinners.
Verse 10: 10. THEY HATED HIM WHO REPROVED (the Prophet) IN THE GATE.
10. THEY HATED HIM WHO REPROVED (the Prophet) IN THE GATE. — For the Prophets preached in the public streets, and especially in the gates, both because of the concourse of people, and because in the gates sat the unjust judges, procurators, and advocates, who perverted judgments and the cases of the poor, whom Amos and the other Prophets rebuked. For the Jews held their tribunals and judgments in the gates, because both foreigners and natives, both settlers and citizens could freely and easily come and assemble there. So Moses decreed, Deuteronomy chapter 21:19: "They shall lead," he says, "the accused to the elders of the city and to the gate of judgment." So Jeremiah prophesied and preached in the gates, chapter 17:17, and Ezra, book 2, chapter 8:2. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Lyranus, Vatablus, and others generally. In the gates, therefore, there was as it were a forum, both a civil one for goods on sale, and a judicial one for forensic cases. Whence the Zurich Bible translates, 'in the forum.' Hear St. Gregory, Moralia 21, chapter 15: "It was the custom among the ancients that the elders should sit at the gate, to decide by judicial examination the quarrels of those in dispute; so that those who were at discord might not enter the city in which they ought to live in concord. Whence also the Prophet says: Establish judgment in the gate." Wherefore he adds that 'the gate' is sometimes taken for the judgment that was exercised in the gate, as when Job says: "When I saw myself superior in the gate" — in the gate, that is, in judgment.
AND THEY ABOMINATED HIM WHO SPOKE UPRIGHTLY. — "Uprightly," that is, a perfect and holy discourse, as the Septuagint and Symmachus translate, and 'spotless,' as Theodotion translates; the Zurich Bible: him who spoke with integrity. It is a periphrasis for the Prophet.
Verse 11: 11. YOU PLUNDERED THE POOR.
11. YOU PLUNDERED THE POOR. — The Septuagint: You struck the poor with the fist; others, you despised, confounded, and put to shame; Pagninus, you burdened the poor; properly the Zurich Bible, you trampled the lowly, namely so that you might plunder and despoil them. For the Hebrew בושס boses can be derived from the root בוש bos, that is, to confuse, to put to shame; and from the root בוס bos with samech, that is, to despise, to tread upon, to trample, to defile, to pollute, to plunder. Moreover bos is close to and alludes to בז baz, that is, to despoil, to plunder, to rob. AND CHOICE SPOIL — the Septuagint, choice gifts, meaning: Judges and other powerful men extorted from the poor gifts, not ordinary, but choice and precious. Clarius, Pagninus, Vatablus, Arias, and R. David translate: And a load of grain you took from him, that is, by force or fraud you extorted it; by 'load' understand what a horse or a man, namely a porter, can carry. For the Hebrew בר bar signifies both 'choice' and 'grain.' Hence he adds the just and fitting punishment for this, saying:
YOU SHALL BUILD HOUSES OF HEWN STONE, AND SHALL NOT DWELL IN THEM: YOU SHALL PLANT MOST LOVELY VINEYARDS, AND SHALL NOT DRINK THEIR WINE. — For it is a just retribution that he who has seized what belongs to another should lose his own. It is fair that he who acquires houses and vineyards by plunder should not possess them, should not enjoy them, should not have the use and taste of them, as we see often happens to plunderers and the unjust by the just judgment of God.
Verse 12: 12. FOR I KNOW YOUR MANY CRIMES, AND YOUR GRIEVOUS SINS.
12. FOR I KNOW YOUR MANY CRIMES, AND YOUR GRIEVOUS SINS. — "Grievous," that is, grave, great, cruel, so much so that they overcome, bind, and as it were overwhelm My clemency, and wrest from its hand just retribution and punishment. ENEMIES OF THE JUST (that is, of the just; supply 'you are': the Zurich Bible, constraining; Vatablus, afflicting the just) TAKING BRIBES (so that you might acquit the guilty defendant for bribes, and condemn the innocent person who could not give them. For 'bribe,' the Septuagint, Symmachus, and Theodotion translate ἀλλάγματα, that is 'exchanges.' Moreover, ἄλλαγμα according to the idiom of Scripture means 'price,' says St. Jerome.) AND OPPRESSING THE POOR (the Septuagint, turning aside; Symmachus, oppressing) IN THE GATE — that is, in the judgment which took place in the gates.
Verse 13: 13. THEREFORE THE PRUDENT MAN IN THAT TIME SHALL KEEP SILENCE, BECAUSE IT IS AN EVIL TIME.
13. THEREFORE THE PRUDENT MAN IN THAT TIME SHALL KEEP SILENCE, BECAUSE IT IS AN EVIL TIME. — The Zurich Bible: Therefore the prudent man is forced to be silent in this time; since it is dangerous, meaning: Because of the injustice of the judges and the folly of the men of this time who hate the truth, both the oppressed themselves keep silent and bear in silence their injuries and robberies, lest if they cry out or complain they be more grievously afflicted, says Arias; and also the Prophets: for their threats and warnings are mocked, and the admonition would not lead to amendment, but to an increase of robbery and sin. So say Remigius, Albertus, Lyranus, and Vatablus. So the Venerable Bede, book 3 of the History of the English, chapter 19, narrates that St. Furseus was caught up to the tribunal of Christ, accused by demons, among other things saying: "It is written: Unless you announce to the wicked man his wickedness, I will require his blood
at your hand. This man did not duly announce repentance to those sinning'; but the holy angel responded for him: 'Concerning this time it is written: The prudent man in that time shall be silent, because it is a most evil time; for when the hearers despise the word, the tongue even of the teacher is hindered, when he sees that the preaching once heard is despised.' Bede adds: 'In every contradiction of the demons, the battle was exceedingly fierce, until, with the Lord as judge, His angels triumphing, the adversaries being crushed and defeated, the holy man was surrounded with immense brightness, while the choirs of holy angels sang: No labor should seem hard, no time long, by which the glory of eternity is acquired.'"
Second, and more aptly, St. Jerome and Theodoret, meaning: Therefore, namely on account of so many robberies and crimes which I have just recounted, the prudent man in that time of the Assyrian captivity, seeing the Israelites so horribly punished by God, will not complain, because it is an evil time, in which namely God has decreed to strike and destroy the impious; but he will be silent, approving and praising the just judgment of God and the punishment of the impious; for this is what it is about, as is clear from the preceding. For otherwise Amos and the other Prophets were not silent, but sharply rebuked the wicked, and threatened them with every dire thing; although the wicked despised and mocked it.
Third, John Alba, in his Selecta, chapter 23, explains it in a new way: In that time the prudent man shall be silent, meaning: The wise men and princes of the people will be reduced to silence and struck dumb, and under the weight of evils will keep profound silence. So it is said in 1 Kings chapter 2:9: "The impious shall be silent in darkness," that is, they shall be struck dumb by their miseries. And of Tyre about to be overthrown, Ezekiel says, chapter 27:32: "Who is like Tyre, which has been silenced?" that is, which shall be silenced. And Wisdom chapter 10:21: "Wisdom opened the mouth of the mute." He calls the afflicted Hebrews mute, and silent because of their Egyptian servitude: for intense pain takes away speech. God opened their mouths when He removed the pain: and He made them rejoice by freeing them from Egypt; for then they burst forth into hymns and praises of God, and sang: "Let us sing to the Lord; for He is gloriously magnified: the horse and its rider He has cast into the sea," Exodus chapter 15.
Verse 14. AS YOU HAVE SAID — namely among yourselves, that is, as you have desired. For they desired nothing other than that God should remain with them in the land which He had given them: for as long as He remained, they too would remain: when He departed, they too would depart into captivity. So say Lyranus and Clarius. Second, meaning: Fulfill what you have promised, namely that you would seek good and not evil, so that the Lord may be with you: do what you have said, and let your deeds agree with your words, so that you may convert your evil habits into good ones, by which you may reconcile God to yourselves. So says Theodoret. The first meaning is simpler, the second is fuller.
Verse 15. ESTABLISH JUDGMENT IN THE GATE — namely just judgment, that is, just judges, who will not accept bribes, but will protect the poor and the innocent. IF PERHAPS THE LORD MAY HAVE MERCY ON THE REMNANT OF JOSEPH — that is, on the kingdom of Israel, whose founder was Jeroboam, sprung from Ephraim the son of Joseph.
Verse 16: 16. IN ALL THE STREETS THERE SHALL BE LAMENTATION, AND IN ALL THAT ARE OUTSIDE (that is, in all the...
16. IN ALL THE STREETS THERE SHALL BE LAMENTATION, AND IN ALL THAT ARE OUTSIDE (that is, in all the lanes, as Vatablus and Arias translate, in villages and hamlets) THEY SHALL SAY: WOE, WOE! — In Hebrew הו־הו ho ho, that is 'alas, alas!' which is the exclamation of one groaning and lamenting the slaughter of Samaria. So says St. Jerome. THEY SHALL CALL THE FARMER TO MOURNING, AND TO LAMENTATION THOSE WHO KNOW HOW TO MOURN — namely professional mourners, both male and female, or hired mourning women, who were called to the funeral of the dead, to bewail him with their voice, and gesture, and the sound of the flute, concerning whom I spoke at Jeremiah chapter 9:11, meaning: So great will be the disaster that all will mourn, both city-dwellers and country-folk: the latter naturally in the rustic manner, the former by the art and custom of city life.
Verse 17: 17. BECAUSE I WILL PASS THROUGH THE MIDST OF YOU — like lightning in an instant pervading,...
17. BECAUSE I WILL PASS THROUGH THE MIDST OF YOU — like lightning in an instant pervading, striking, and overthrowing all things. Whence Aquila translates ἀνώϊστον, as if a swift calamity incapable of cure, says St. Jerome.
Verse 18: 18. WOE TO THOSE WHO DESIRE THE DAY OF THE LORD! — St.
18. WOE TO THOSE WHO DESIRE THE DAY OF THE LORD! — St. Jerome, Rupertus, and Hugo understand these words as referring to the Jews as well as the Israelites: Arias refers them to the Jews alone. For in the next chapter, verse 1, he names Zion, which was the city and citadel of the Jews, and here, verse 22, he deals with victims offered to the true God: and these were offered in Judea, not in Israel. The meaning therefore is, says St. Jerome, meaning: The brazen Jews and Samaritans say: Let the day predicted by the Prophets come, let the threatened captivity come, provided that what is promised through the Prophets, namely the time of restoration as well, may follow. For there is not so much evil in the injury of captivity as there is good in the things which the Lord promises after the captivity. To which the Prophet responds that they are deceived and awaiting false things; for after the 70 years of captivity, more grievous disasters would befall them. For when you have escaped the yoke of the Chaldeans, he says, you will fall upon a bear, that is, Cyrus and Darius, and having been delivered from these you will encounter a serpent, that is, Alexander the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes. But the discourse thus far has been addressed to the Israelites alone, and these are called, in verse 15, the remnant of Joseph: they also had their altars dedicated to the true God, which Ahab and Jezebel destroyed, as Elijah laments in 3 Kings chapter 19:10. He therefore speaks to the Israelites, who mocked the threats of captivity and destruction which the Prophets were pressing upon them, saying: "Command and command again; wait and wait again," Isaiah chapter 28:10. The meaning therefore is, meaning: You, O Israelites, mock our oracles, and mockingly say: Where is the day of the Lord? Where is the day of vengeance and destruction which the Prophets shout and threaten us with until they are hoarse? Let it come, let it come. For our ears have long since grown calloused to this day and this voice: for that day is always held up to us, and never comes. Therefore we despise these threats as empty; we do not believe that day will come, nor do we fear it. And if it does come, it will not be so terrible, and it will pass as it came; nor will God abandon His people, but shortly after will restore and rebuild them, as you, O Prophets, promise. To which the Prophet responds that the day of the Lord will be terrible, and will be a day of cloud, gloom, and darkness, that is, full of miseries, sadness, and afflictions, and will bring every misfortune and bitterness. So say Theodoret, Lyranus, and Vatablus.
Verse 19: 19. AS IF A MAN SHOULD FLEE FROM THE FACE OF A LION.
19. AS IF A MAN SHOULD FLEE FROM THE FACE OF A LION. — The meaning is: That day will bring danger from danger, disaster from disaster, just as if someone fleeing a lion should fall upon a bear, and fleeing the bear should enter a house, and there be bitten by a serpent, meaning: On that day everything everywhere will be full of dangers and slaughter: neither outside nor at home will anyone be safe: for outside lions and bears prowl, and at home in the ruined walls and crevices serpents lurk. Again, a greater peril and evil will follow a lesser one, just as a bear is fiercer than a lion: for a lion spares those who beg for mercy and the dead, but a bear spares no one, and even attacks and tears apart corpses.
A Castro adds that by the lion is to be understood Tiglath-pileser, whom a more fierce bear succeeded, namely Shalmaneser, ranging abroad and ravaging the fields of Samaria: the bear was followed by a more harmful serpent, that is, the same Shalmaneser overthrowing Samaria and cutting off the kingdom of Israel.
Allegorically, Rupertus refers these things to the twofold coming of Christ: The lion, he says, is Christ rising like the lion of the tribe of Judah, from whose face the Jews fled: but they will fall upon the same one as upon a bear, when He comes a second time as judge of the world, when the Jews will try to protect and hide themselves in walls and ruins, that is, in the Law of Moses long since crumbling and abolished: but there the serpent will seize them, that is, the Antichrist, the most cruel of all tyrants, of whom Jacob said, Genesis chapter 49:17: "Let Dan be a serpent in the way, a horned serpent in the path." For so Jeremiah says of God in Lamentations chapter 3:10: "He has become to me a bear lying in wait, a lion in secret places."
Tropologically, St. Jerome says: The devil, he says, is the lion, the bear, the serpent: namely the lion in this life, the bear in death, the serpent in hell: for there he bites and tortures the damned like an asp. Again, Clarius says: Woe, he says, to those who desire the day of the Lord, that is, the day of death, in order to escape the evils of the present life! For they will fall upon a bear, that is, the terrible judgment of Christ, and upon a serpent, that is, hell, where from one demon and torturer they will continually fall upon another and another.
Finally, you may rightly apply these words to Epicureans, politicians, and atheists, who take pleasure here below, and indulge their belly and lust, and therefore try to persuade themselves that the soul of man is mortal, and will perish in death along with the body. For these do not fear death, but being sated and stuffed, they wish for it, so that they may rest in it. But in death they will fall upon a bear and a serpent, that is, upon demons, who will show them that the soul is immortal, as they seize it for eternal torments. There they will recognize their stupidity, when the demons will hurl at them the testimony of the soul itself, and will say: If you were unwilling to believe Sacred Scripture, the Church, the consensus of the holy Fathers and wise men, who all with one voice believe and teach that the soul is immortal, you ought at least to have believed your own soul, which testifies that it is free, rational, created in the image of God, and that God will be its judge and avenger, especially of those who have spent their entire life in pleasures and crimes. Where? If not in another life, and that an eternal one. Your conscience cried this out, ceaselessly cried it out to you. You wanted to block its cry with your deafness, and you could not extinguish it: there always clung to you a scruple, always a doubt, always a fear. What if the soul is immortal? What will happen to me after this life? What punishments shall I pay for my crimes? Fool, in so great a doubt, on which you knew your eternity depended — and that either most blessed or most miserable — why did you not choose the safer, the more secure part? If you doubt whether a road is beset by robbers, you take another, even if longer and more difficult. Why did you not do the same at this blind crossroads of the soul? This dilemma (by which recently a certain politician was convicted and converted on his deathbed) should have taught you wisdom and prudence: Either there is a divine power and an avenging God after this life, or there is not. If there is not, yet if I believe it, it will not harm me, but rather benefit me: for it will lead me to an honest life worthy of a man; if there is, and I do not believe it, indeed deny it, what wrath from Him, what torments must I expect from Him on account of this faithlessness and blasphemy? Therefore I would rather believe and confess it, since believing it cannot harm me; but not believing it could bring upon me the most grievous tortures. Again, either there are rewards for the good and punishments for the wicked, as reason itself dictates, after this life, or there are not. If there are not, yet to believe, hope, and fear them will not harm me, but rather benefit me unto every virtue: if there are, and I not believing them have lived disgracefully and wickedly, certainly I shall be consigned to these eternal punishments; therefore it is far better and more prudent to believe them than not to believe. See Tertullian, On the Testimony of the Soul.
Verse 20: 20. SHALL NOT THE DAY OF THE LORD BE DARKNESS, AND NOT LIGHT? — Darkness is a symbol of adversity,...
20. SHALL NOT THE DAY OF THE LORD BE DARKNESS, AND NOT LIGHT? — Darkness is a symbol of adversity, calamity, and sorrow: light of prosperity, happiness, and joy, meaning: Why do you despise, indeed mockingly provoke and desire the day of the Lord's vengeance? Do you not know that that day will be dark for you, that is, most grievous and sorrowful, in which you will be stripped of your goods, liberty, and life? In which the sun of this light and of all consolation and good will set for you, and one perpetual night must be slept by you, in which there will be no brightness, but the shadow of death and eternal gloom, grief, and desolation.
Verse 21: 21. I HATE AND REJECT YOUR FESTIVITIES.
21. I HATE AND REJECT YOUR FESTIVITIES. — It is a prolepsis. For He anticipates a tacit objection, meaning: You, trusting in the temple and its sacrifices, say and repeat: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is among us. God will not allow His temple to be overthrown by enemies, nor the people who worship Him with so many victims to be captured and slaughtered by them. To which God responds: In vain do you boast of these things, in vain do you trust in them. For I hate your sacrifices and festivals; by their smell and odor as they are burned, as well as by your incense and perfumes, I am not appeased, but rather offended: because they are offered to Me by My enemies, impious and wicked men, according to that saying of Isaiah, chapter 1:13: "Incense is an abomination to Me; My soul hates your new moons and your solemnities: they are become troublesome to Me, I am weary of bearing them." For those sacrifices had value and pleased God only from the work of the one performing them (ex opere operantis), not from the work performed (ex opere operato), as the sacrifice of the new law pleases. See what was said there.
Verse 22: 22. AND THE VOWS.
22. AND THE VOWS. — The Septuagint translate, 'and salutations,' namely sacrifices, that is, peace offerings, which were offered for the peace and welfare of a household or people, either voluntarily or by vow; whence our translator renders: "The vows of your fatlings." This is the meaning of the Hebrew מריאכם meriechem: but the Septuagint, reading with different vowel points מראכם marechem, translate 'offerings of your appearance,' that is, of your showing or presence, meaning: The sacrifices which you present to offer, appearing before God in the temple, I will not regard.
Verse 23: 23. TAKE AWAY FROM ME THE TUMULT (the Septuagint, the sound; St.
23. TAKE AWAY FROM ME THE TUMULT (the Septuagint, the sound; St. Justin Against Trypho, the multitude) OF YOUR SONGS. — The Jews sang the psalms of David and canticles in the temple in praise of God; but God here scorns them, and calls them the tumult of songs: first, because they sang the same to idols; second, because they did not proceed from internal devotion, but from custom and vanity; third, because they were of impious men: so says St. Jerome; fourth, because they sang tumultuously with discordant and confused voices, or howled. Whence the Syriac translates: Take from me the voice of your jubilation. I WILL NOT HEAR THE CANTICLES OF YOUR LYRE. — The Septuagint: I will not hear the psalm of your instruments. For they sang the psalms and canticles partly with the voice, partly with musical instruments, namely the lyre, psaltery, organ, etc. The dull Jews thought that they could cover their follies by playing the lyre, that they could soothe the ears of an angry God with sweet harmony and as it were enchant Him, as deer and serpents are enchanted. Hence the Egyptians signified a man deceived by flattery by a deer with a piper, says Horus, Hieroglyphics 2:87. For by this harmony the deer is captured, and easily falls into the hands of the hunters. In a similar way the pleasure-loving Circe enchanted the companions of Ulysses, and turned them into pigs and beasts, as the poets tell: but Ulysses closed his ears to them, and therefore could not be enchanted. But they were wrong: for God is captured by the songs of the heart, not of the mouth.
Let Christian choirmasters and singers take heed here that in psalmody they do not, through haste, rush through the verses, clip them, mix them up with the other choir and confuse them, lest they hear from God: "Take away from Me the tumult of your songs." Let them likewise take heed that they do not place the entire devotion of singing in a melodious voice, in the subtlety of modulation, in the agility of diminishing tones, etc., while like birds they warble to tickle the ears of the curious, to draw them to themselves and distract them from prayer; lest they hear from God: "I will not hear the canticles of your lyre." For which the Arabic translates: Do not make for Me distinctions (variety, turns, and ornaments) in the voices of your praises. Wherefore let them learn that saying of the Apostle: "I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind." And that saying of St. Augustine and St. Athanasius, whom St. Augustine cites in book 10 of the Confessions, chapter 32: "It seems safer to me, he says, what I recall being often told about Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, who had the reader of the psalm make it sound with so slight an inflection of the voice that he was closer to one pronouncing than to one singing." And shortly after: "I am moved not by the singing, but by the things that are sung; when they are sung with a clear voice and most fitting modulation, I recognize the great usefulness of this practice, so that through the delights of the ears, the weaker mind may rise to the feeling of piety. Yet when it happens to me that the singing moves me more than the thing that is sung, I confess that I sin punishably, and then I would rather not hear the singer." The same, on Psalm 42, at the beginning: "We ought to have His (Christ's) voice in all the psalms, whether singing, or groaning, or rejoicing in hope, or sighing in reality, as most familiar and well-known to us, as our own." The same, on Psalm 119: "How many, he says, make sound with the voice, yet are mute in heart! And how many are silent with their lips, yet cry out with feeling! For God's ears are directed to the heart of man: as bodily ears are directed to the mouth of man, so the heart of man is directed to the ears of God. Many with closed mouths are heard, and many in great clamors are not heard. We ought to pray with our feelings and say: My soul has long been a sojourner; with those who hated peace I was peaceable." This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm 46:2 and 7: "Shout unto God with the voice of exultation. Sing praises to our God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing praises wisely"; St. Augustine reads: "Sing praises with understanding." Which St. Bernard explains, sermon 7 on the Song of Songs: "Attend, he says, to your princes (the angels) when you stand for prayer or psalmody, and stand with reverence and discipline; and glory in the fact that your angels daily see the face of the Father. Let us share the office of those whose fellowship we share. Let us say to them: Sing praises to our God, sing praises, and let us hear them responding in turn: Sing praises to our King, sing praises. Singing praise then in common with the singers of heaven, as fellow citizens of the saints and members of God's household, sing praises wisely. Food in the mouth, a psalm in the heart gives savor, etc. Honey is in the comb, devotion is in the letter; otherwise the letter kills, if you swallow it without the seasoning of the spirit. But if with the Apostle you sing with the spirit, and sing also with the mind, you too will know the truth of that saying which Jesus spoke: The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." The same author, On the Way of Living Well, to his sister, chapter 52: "This, he says, ponder in your mind, what you sing with your voice. Let your mind be in harmony with your voice; do not think one thing while you sing another." And shortly after: "The chanting of the psalms signifies the perpetual praise of God in eternal joys, as it is written: Blessed are they who dwell in Your house, O Lord, they shall praise You forever and ever. Whoever faithfully and with attentive mind chants the psalms is in a certain way associated with the angels of God. How? Because man praises according to his capacity on earth Him whom the angels without ceasing adore and glorify in the heavens." And further on: "The sacrifice of praise shall honor Me, He says, and there is the way by which I shall show him the salvation of God. As if He were saying more plainly: In the psalms is the way of praise, by which you can arrive at eternal praise."
Verse 24: 24. AND JUDGMENT SHALL BE REVEALED AS WATER.
24. AND JUDGMENT SHALL BE REVEALED AS WATER. — 'And,' that is 'therefore,' namely on account of your crimes just recounted, and your impious sacrifices and songs, judgment shall be revealed and flow forth from God, that is, the punishment which He will send upon you without warning, just as water is revealed and flows from a spring that was closed and stopped up, if it is opened, and much more from a torrent in a valley confined by embankments, if it rises and overflows: for then it overwhelms and buries the meadows and fields.
For 'shall be revealed,' in Hebrew it is יגל iigal: which, if derived from the root גלה gala, as a niphal future by apocopation, iigal for יגלה iigale, then it means 'shall be revealed': but if you derive it from the root גלל galal, and by crasis גל gal, then it means 'shall roll, engulf, overwhelm.' Whence the Septuagint translate: Judgment shall roll like water, and justice like an impassable torrent; Pagninus: Judgment shall roll itself like water, etc.; Rabbi David: The judgment of My vengeance shall flow and roll upon you like a mass of flooding waters, meaning: My wrath and vengeance, like a torrent overflowing with furious force, shall engulf, overwhelm, and carry you away. Second, the Zurich Bible, Arias, and Vatablus translate with the optative mood, and take the conjunction 'and' adversatively for 'but.' Whence they translate thus: But let judgment flow, or roll itself, like water, and justice like a mighty torrent, meaning: Correct your unjust judgments and oppressions of the poor, which I rebuked a little before in verse 7, and no longer indulge in them: but on the contrary, cultivate judgment and justice by protecting the poor and innocent: and if you do this, you will reconcile Me to yourselves, and will escape the threats I have directed against you. But the former meaning is required by our translation, the Septuagint, and the Chaldean:
Verse 25: 25. DID YOU OFFER ME VICTIMS AND SACRIFICE IN THE DESERT FOR FORTY YEARS? — During which you...
25. DID YOU OFFER ME VICTIMS AND SACRIFICE IN THE DESERT FOR FORTY YEARS? — During which you wandered in the desert, meaning: No. You may ask, how is this true? St. Jerome, Albertus, Rupertus, Hugo here, and St. Chrysostom and Bede on Acts 7, respond that the Jews in the first year in which at the Passover, that is in March, they went out of Egypt, worshipped the golden calf in the 4th month, that is on the 24th day of June: and from that time did not sacrifice to the true God of their own accord, but only when compelled by God and Moses. But against this is the fact that shortly after they repented of the worship of the calf and were reconciled with God; whence God entered into a covenant with them, and commanded the tabernacle to be dedicated to Him in the 2nd year after the departure from Egypt, in the 1st month, at which dedication the Hebrews voluntarily offered many victims to God, as is clear from Exodus chapter 40, Leviticus chapters 9 and 10, Numbers chapter 7. Second, therefore, others respond better that the Hebrews after this dedication of the tabernacle, and the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests, never or rarely offered solemn sacrifice to God in the desert, just as in the same desert they were not circumcised, as is clear from Joshua chapter 5:7: because they were in continual migration, and were not certain of staying at any station for even one day; because as soon as the column of cloud resting on the tabernacle was moved by the angel, they had to break camp and march: whence from chapter 10 of Leviticus onward, in all the rest of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we nowhere read that they offered sacrifice. So say Lyranus, Vatablus, Arias, and others. Add that the Hebrews in the desert were inclined to murmuring, and frequently rebelled against God and Moses, and returned to the idols which they had recently worshipped in Egypt.
Note: Forty years are mentioned here, although there were only 38 and some months. For in the 2nd year after the departure from Egypt the tabernacle was erected, and in it they offered victims; but from then on none, or rarely: therefore these two years must be subtracted from the forty. For Scripture is accustomed to record round numbers, even if something is lacking or in excess. So the seventy disciples of Christ are so called, although there were 72. So in Judges chapter 9:5, Abimelech is said to have killed seventy brothers, sons of Gideon, although there were only sixty-nine; for one, namely Jotham, escaped by flight.
Verse 26: 26. AND YOU CARRIED THE TABERNACLE OF YOUR MOLOCH (god, as some manuscripts read).
26. AND YOU CARRIED THE TABERNACLE OF YOUR MOLOCH (god, as some manuscripts read). — The Hebrew נשאתם nesatem, that is, you lifted up, erected, bore upon your shoulders. St. Stephen in Acts 7 reads, 'you took up.' For 'tabernacle' in Hebrew is סוכות succot, which the Chaldean and Vatablus think is the name of an idol; whence they translate: You carried Succot your king; Arias, however, from Rabbi Jonah: You carried, or you endured the hearing of your king. Theodotion translates, 'the vision.' But succot is an unknown name, and is not found elsewhere. Therefore for succot, with a different vowel point, one should read סכות succot, that is, 'tabernacles': So the Septuagint, Symmachus, our translator, the Zurich Bible, and Aquila, who translates σκηνάς, that is, 'shelters.' Indeed St. Stephen in Acts 7:43 reads 'tabernacle.' Finally, for 'Moloch' in Hebrew is מלככם malkekem, that is, 'of your king' or 'to your king,' as Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Zurich Bible translate, namely Moloch. For Moloch was the same as Melchom, as Aquila translates here, and Melech, that is, the supreme king of men and gods, namely Jupiter, or the god of the Ammonites. Who Moloch was, I have explained at Leviticus 18:21.
You may ask, when did the Israelites carry the tabernacle of Moloch and worship him? Lyranus, Vatablus, Arias, and a Castro take this prophetically as referring to the future: 'You carried,' they say, that is, 'you will carry,' meaning: I will transfer you beyond Damascus into Assyria, and there the Assyrians will compel you as captives to carry Moloch on your shoulders, and your other idols, as a mockery, because those vain gods were unable to protect you from the disaster of the Assyrians. Or 'you carried,' that is, 'you will carry and suffer' the punishment of destruction and captivity, on account of the tabernacle and idol of Moloch which you erected. But this meaning is forced: for both the Hebrew and the Septuagint, the Chaldean and all others translate 'you carried' in the past tense; for 'you carried' refers to the 40 years in the desert which preceded, meaning: For forty years in the desert you sacrificed, not to Me, but to Moloch and idols.
So St. Stephen explains in Acts 7:41: "And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, etc. But God turned and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven (the stars), as it is written in the book of the Prophets (in Amos at this place): Did you offer victims and sacrifices to Me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel? And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch." Where the conjunction 'and' is adversative and is taken for 'but,' meaning: Not My tabernacle and worship did you take up, but Moloch's. Others, like Lyranus, think the Hebrews worshipped Moloch not in the desert, but in the holy land, as Solomon did in 3 Kings 11:5. But that this does not fit this passage is clear from the same reasons already given. Therefore others generally, such as St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Rupertus, and others, think the Hebrews worshipped Moloch in the desert; Oecumenius, on Acts 7, thinks they worshipped Moloch at the time when Moses was dealing with God on Mount Sinai: for then they fashioned the golden calf, Exodus 32. But because this happened shortly after the departure from Egypt, when they had not yet reached the borders of the Ammonites, whose god and idol was Moloch, hence it seems more truly, as Ribera says, that they did this in Numbers 25:1, when fornicating with the daughters of Moab they worshipped Baal-peor. For Josephus, book 4 of the Antiquities, chapter 6, says they then worshipped not one but many gods: and the Ammonites were neighbors and kindred of the Moabites: wherefore the latter received from the former the idol and worship of Moloch. Nor could Moses prevent this, just as he was unable to prevent the worship of Baal-peor when the people were in a frenzy, and the princes of the people consented to them, indeed led them in the crime, as is recorded in Numbers 25:4. Therefore, although Moses did not write this in the Pentateuch, nevertheless that it actually happened is clear from Amos and from Stephen, who received this either from the tradition of their ancestors or by divine revelation.
The meaning therefore is, as if saying: From the very beginning of the synagogue, you, O Israelites, worshipped idols in the desert, and from then on you never entirely withdrew from their worship. Therefore I, God, detest your sacrifices, even those offered to Me: because you equate and worship Me together with Moloch and idols. Wherefore I will cut you off, as I threatened in verse 1, and will lead you through Damascus into Assyria. Note the word 'you carried'; for the Jews, after the manner of the nations, in solemn procession carried their god Moloch about with them in a tabernacle, for the sake of religion and protection, as the companion and leader of their journey; just as through the desert they carried the ark and the propitiatory, on which God sat as on a throne. That the nations likewise took their tutelary gods with them on their journeys, Servius teaches in his commentary on Aeneid 6: Wandering gods, and the troubled divinities of Troy. So Rachel, having stolen the idols of her father, took them with her into Canaan, Genesis 31:34. But Jacob says of God: "He was the companion of my journey," Genesis chapter 35:3.
AND THE IMAGE OF YOUR IDOLS. — For 'image,' in Hebrew it is כיון kiun, which Aquila, Symmachus, and the Chaldean retained in their translations. Indeed also the Syriac: You carried, he says, the tabernacle of Malchum, and Keuon, the likeness (image, statue, idol) of yours, the star which you made for yourselves as a god; Rabbi David, Pagninus, and Vatablus translate it as 'a cake,' which they offered to their idols; Theodotion translates σκιασμόν, that is 'obscurity'; our translator rightly translates 'image,' or a statue skillfully fashioned, fitted together, and erected for worship. For the root כון kon means to prepare, fashion, make firm, erect; the Septuagint translate: The star of your god Rempham, or rather, as the Roman manuscripts read, Rephan. St. Stephen follows the Septuagint, Acts 7.
You may ask, whence did the Septuagint get the name Rephan, which is not in the Hebrew, nor in any other translator? Theodoret, Ribera, and a Castro think they added the name Rephan on their own, to express the name of the idol. But I say the Septuagint translated the Hebrew Kiun as Rephan. For St. Jerome expressly states this. "For what in the Septuagint is read as Ῥαιφάν," he says, "Aquila and Symmachus, translating the actual Hebrew word, put Kiun." And this is clear; for corresponding to the Hebrew Kiun, there is no other word in the Septuagint that answers to it except Rephan. Here note that the Septuagint and, following them, St. Stephen read the Hebrew words in reversed order, and transposed some of them. For they read thus: Cocab elohechem Kiun tsalmechem ascer ascitim, that is, 'the star of your god Kiun' (for which they translate Rephan) 'the figures of them which you made.' But in the Hebrew it reads: Kiun tsalmechem cocab elohechem ascer ascitim, that is, 'Kiun' (which our translator renders 'the image') 'of your figures or idols, the star of your gods, which you made.' But by what reasoning did the Septuagint translate Rephan for Kiun?
Christophorus a Castro responds first that they did this because the idol and star which was called Kiun in Hebrew was called in Greek ῥαφανά or ῥαφαίν, that is 'I live purely and chastely,' because it shone purely; or from ῥαφή, that is 'suture,' because this star was placed on the skull of the idol, at the part where it has a suture and join: or it is called ῥαφαν from ῥάμφος, that is 'beak' or 'mouth,' because this star was placed in the mouth of the idol. But against this is the fact that Repha or Rempham does not seem to be a Greek word, but Hebrew, or Arabic, or Persian. For St. Stephen, speaking to the Hebrews in Hebrew, not in Greek, in Acts 7, calls it Rephan, or rather signifies that they themselves called and invoked it as Rephan. For he says: "The star of your god Rephan," meaning: You call your god Rephan. But they spoke in Hebrew, not in Greek, nor had they yet had any communication with the Greeks.
Second, therefore, more plausibly, some scholars skilled in Hebrew respond that Kiun is the same as Rephan: for the Septuagint, instead of כיון Kiun, read with different vowel points כון Keuan: and then by the change of one similar letter for another, namely כ for ר, instead of Keuan read Rephan: or certainly this happened through the error of copyists and scribes, who wrote r for k. So says the author of the Hebrew Thesaurus, Drusius, and Forster in his Lexicon; and some similar scholars, though heterodox in faith. This conjecture is supported by the fact that similarly, in Nahum 1:6, for the same letter כ the Septuagint read ר, namely for כאש kaes, that is 'like fire,' with a different vowel point they read ros, that is 'head, prince'; whence they translate ἡγεῖσθαι, that is 'principate.' So for Achan they read Achar, for Abimelech they read Achimelech, for Casdin they read Chaldei, where they change the letter s to t, just as the Latins, for Ὀδυσσεύς, translate and say Ulysses. So elsewhere there are frequent similar transpositions of letters. So in this place, for Rephan, the Alexandrian Arabic translates Buchan, 'the idol which you made for yourselves.' But against this view stands the fact that all Hebrew manuscripts have Kiun, not Rephan; conversely, all Greek and Latin manuscripts of Acts 7 consistently have Rephan, not Keuan or Kiun. Therefore it is not plausible that only the Septuagint read Rephan for Keuan in one Hebrew manuscript; or that scribes wrote Rephan for Keuan in the Septuagint, especially since the whole Church in the Vulgate edition of Acts 7 consistently reads Rephan, as though this were the true and genuine reading. Additionally, in the Hebrew text of Amos at this place, it is not Keuan but Kiun, as St. Jerome, Aquila, Symmachus, and others generally read; and Kiun is far distant from Rephan.
I say therefore with Leo Castrius, Apologetics book 6, that Kiun and Keuan are the same as Rephan, because this idol was originally named and worshipped by the Ishmaelites and Persians (as the interpreters generally acknowledge, and the Rabbis hand down), and in their language was called Kiuan or Keuan; which word the Hebrews, not understanding it as a foreign term, by a slight change of one letter, called in their own language Rephan, that is 'giant': in the same way the Syrians call God 'the giant of the ages,' because He, like a giant, encompasses and embraces all the spaces of the world and of time with His immensity and eternity: or certainly Rephan, that is 'healer,' meaning: This is He who heals and saves us. Whence from the same Hebrew root the angel Raphael is named, meaning 'medicine' or 'healing of God.' Some manuscripts read Rompha instead of Rephan, which in Hebrew is said רומף rumpe, and means the same as 'loftiness of the mouth.' Perhaps this idol had a great and lofty mouth, as most ancient idols that gave oracles had. For I have seen such in the Vatican, and such is the famous one which is seen near the Church of St. Mary in the Greek School, or in Cosmedin, in Rome, and is commonly called the Bocca della Verita, that is, the mouth or oracle of truth.
Moreover, although the common people of the Hebrews translated the foreign name Keuan and called it in Hebrew Rephan, Rempham, and Rompha, the more learned Hebrews nevertheless retained the original name as to its letters, and by a slight change of vowel points, called it in the Hebrew language Kiun: for so Amos has it here, as do Aquila and Symmachus. For Kiun is derived from the root כון kun, which means 'he prepared, fitted, was upright, directed, verified, certified, confirmed, perfected, decreed.' Whence Kiun means the same as 'prepared, fitted, erected, perfect, giving true, certain, and firm oracles and decrees.'
You may ask secondly, who was this Rephan? Giraldus in his Syntagma, in the book On Hercules, thinks Rephan means 'giant,' from the Hebrew Rapha, who was the father of the giants. Whence in Hebrew the giants are called Rephaim: Rephan therefore is the name of Hercules; who was also called by the Gentiles by the Hebrew word Kon or Konen, that is 'the stander' or 'the upright, the lofty,' so that Hercules was called Kon or Kiun, and Rapha, just as Jupiter was called 'the Stander.' Second, more recent Hebrew scholars think it is Saturn: because it is called Kiuan by the Arabs and Persians, which seems to be the same as Keuan and Rephan. Third, Ribera thinks it was Jupiter, who had a star on his head. Fourth, others want it to be Mars. Fifth, more plausibly, St. Jerome, Remigius, Albertus, Bede, Lyranus, and others think it is the star Venus, which in the morning preceding the sun is called Lucifer (the Morning Star), and in the evening following the sun is called Hesperus (the Evening Star). This is proved from the fact that this star was formerly worshipped as the queen of heaven by the Syrians, as St. Jerome testifies in the Life of St. Hilarion, and the Saracens still worship it; indeed Giraldus, Syntagma book 13, from Aelian and others teaches that Venus Urania, that is the celestial Venus, who does not seem to be other than Lucifer, was worshipped by the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Assyrians.
the splendor and brilliance of the Morning Star enticed them, which Ovid thus depicts: Behold, wakeful Dawn has opened from the bright east Her crimson gates, and her halls full of roses; The stars flee, whose battalions Lucifer gathers, And he departs last from his station in the sky.
Moreover, the Morning Star seems to have been called Kiun, or Keuan, from the root כוה cava, that is, 'to burn, to scorch,' because it has the appearance of fire. Whence the Poet says: Hesperus, what more pleasing fire shines in the sky. Whence for Keuan the Arabic translates Bacham, which is the name of a tree with red bark, such as the wood commonly called Brazil-wood, as if they had fashioned an idol from it. For the red color is burning and fiery, and therefore represents the heat of the star Venus. Or it is called Kiun, from the root כון, that is, 'to direct, to prepare,' because following the sun in the evening, but preceding it in the morning, it as it were directs it and prepares its way. Therefore it seems that the Hebrews wandering in the desert worshipped the Morning Star as a guide for their journey, like the pillar of fire and cloud: because the Morning Star is the leader of the dawn, the sun, and the day: for it brings the sun. Theodotion, and from him Oecumenius, on Acts 7, translates Keuan or Rephan as 'obscurity,' meaning: You, O Hebrews, seek light from this star the Morning Star, as from your god and idol, which is not light, but dark and nocturnal, and obscurity itself; and therefore it cannot precede you with its light to show you the way, but it darkens and blinds you, and leads you into trackless and pathless places. Moreover, it is likely that these idolaters fashioned the Morning Star as a tall and shining man, and affixed to his forehead or the top of his head the star of Lucifer; just as the Romans painted a star on the top of the head of the statue of Julius Caesar, as Suetonius testifies in his Life, chapter 88, and Pliny, book 2, chapter 25. Whence Horace, book 1, ode 12: The Julian star shines among all, As the moon among lesser fires. And Virgil, Eclogue 9: Behold, the star of Dionaean Caesar has come forth, The star at which the crops would rejoice in their fruits.
Hence it is clear that Rephan or Remphan was different from Moloch: for the Morning Star, or the planet Venus, was different from Moloch: both therefore were gods of the Gentiles and the Hebrews, as is said here. Therefore some less correctly think, such as Bede, Lyranus, and the Gloss, that Remphan was a star affixed to the forehead or the top of the head of Moloch. Not implausibly, however, Sanchez here and on Acts 7, thinks that Moloch is the Sun, and Remphan the Morning Star. Hence, he says, the star of the Morning Star was placed on the forehead of Moloch; because the Morning Star precedes the rising sun; for the sun is Moloch, that is, the king of the stars. Hence also when the Jews consecrated their children to Moloch, they passed them through fire, because they thought the nature of the sun was fiery.
Wherefore the kings of Persia, thinking the sun was God, assumed for themselves the name or image of the sun, as if they were terrestrial gods of a sort. So Sapor, as Ammianus Marcellinus records in book 7, wrote to the Emperor Constantius: "Sapor, King of kings, sharer with the stars and brother of the Sun and Moon, sends greetings to his brother Constantius." For this same reason they also had fire carried before them, which the star of the Morning Star resembles. So Quintus Curtius, book 3, and Rhodiginus, book 8, chapter 2, record that in the camps of the Persian kings, above the king's tabernacle, the image of the sun enclosed in a crystal globe was displayed prominently for all to see, and fire shone before it: because the Persians and Chaldeans worshipped the sun, hence they also worshipped fire as God, since it is the living image of the sun. So says Sanchez.
Tropologically, the proud worship Rephan, that is, the Morning Star — those who strive to excel and to display their own light, that is their learning and wisdom; who pursue honors and prelacies that will soon perish. For these followers of Lucifer will become followers of Hesperus; from rising they will go to setting, from the highest to the lowest, from light to darkness, as does the star called Lucifer; and from heaven to hell, as happened to Lucifer the proud angel. Hence the Morning Star is a symbol of varying fortune and lot, and of inconstancy as well as calamity, as I said on Isaiah 14:12, at those words: "How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning?" Therefore every honor and glory of the world is a falling star; for it shines briefly like the Morning Star, but soon sets like Hesperus, and that with an eternal setting, lasting for all ages.
Truly St. Augustine says on Psalm 89: "Our days are like a spider's web: The spider, he says, weaves all day, and the labor is great, but the result is nothing; so also is human life: we seek possessions, we desire riches, we beget children, we are raised to kingdoms, and we do all things; and we do not understand that we are weaving the web of a spider," and meanwhile we forget the eternal happiness for which we were created and called. So the Emperor Heliogabalus, says Lampridius in his Life, ordered that thousands of pounds of spider webs be brought to him, with a reward offered, and is said to have collected ten thousand pounds, saying that from this one could judge how great Rome was.
How many today are Heliogabali, how many are hunters of spider webs, who pursue nothing other than riches and honors, that is, spider webs!
Verse 27: 27. AND I WILL CAUSE YOU TO MIGRATE BEYOND DAMASCUS — into Assyria: for there the ten tribes were...
27. AND I WILL CAUSE YOU TO MIGRATE BEYOND DAMASCUS — into Assyria: for there the ten tribes were led away from Samaria by the Assyrians, as is clear from 4 Kings 17:6. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Hugo, Arias, and others.
You may object: How is it that St. Stephen, in Acts 7:43, citing this passage, says: "And I will transfer you beyond Babylon"? For Babylon is one thing, and Damascus another. Oecumenius and Cajetan respond in that place that Damascus here is taken not for the city, but for the region and territory of Damascus, which extended as far as Babylon. But this does not seem true; because around Babylon in every direction the Babylonian monarchs held wide dominion, not the Damascenes. Again, St. Stephen does not say: I will transfer you to Babylon, but beyond Babylon; and the Damascenes never held dominion beyond Babylon. I therefore respond that St. Stephen cites Amos not as to the words, but as to the sense and the reality. For in fact the ten tribes, having been led away beyond Damascus to Babylon, were also led beyond Babylon into Media, Persia, and other regions, and were scattered. For Shalmaneser "carried Israel away to the Assyrians, and placed them in Hala and in Habor, by the river Gozan, in the cities of the Medes," 4 Kings 17:6. Whence Tobias, chapter 1:16, visited his fellow tribesmen held captive in Rages, a city of the Medes. Josephus teaches the same, book 9 of the Antiquities, final chapter, and book 11, chapter 5. So say St. Jerome, Bede, Rupertus, Ribera, a Castro, and others. Moreover, St. Stephen said this on his own, not from the Septuagint; for the Septuagint here have as our translator does: Beyond Damascus, not beyond Babylon.
God reproaches the nobles, who from the plunder of the poor reveled in their beds, drank wine in bowls, etc., and felt nothing over the affliction of Joseph (the people). Wherefore, at verse 8, He swears by His own soul that He will utterly destroy and slay them.
27. AND I WILL CAUSE YOU TO MIGRATE BEYOND DAMASCUS — into Assyria: for the ten tribes were led there by the Assyrians from Samaria, as is clear from IV Kings XVII, 6. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Hugo, Arias, and others.
You will ask: How does St. Stephen, Acts VII, 43, citing this passage, say: "And I will transfer you beyond Babylon"? For Babylon is one thing, Damascus another. Oecumenius and Cajetan respond there that Damascus is taken here not for the city, but for the region and territory of Damascus, which extended as far as Babylon. But this does not seem true, because around Babylon on all sides the Babylonian monarchs ruled widely, not the Damascenes. Again, St. Stephen does not say: I will transfer you to Babylon, but beyond Babylon; but the Damascenes never ruled beyond Babylon. I respond therefore that St. Stephen cites Amos not as to the words, but as to the meaning and the reality. For in fact the ten tribes were led away beyond Damascus into Babylon, and even beyond Babylon into Media, Persia, and other regions, where they were transported and dispersed. For Shalmaneser "carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor, by the river Gozan, in the cities of the Medes," IV Kings XVII, 6. Hence Tobias, ch. I, 16, visited his fellow tribesmen held captive in Rages, a city of the Medes. Josephus teaches the same, Antiquities IX, last chapter, and XI, ch. V. So St. Jerome, Bede, Rupert, Ribera, a Castro, and others. Furthermore, St. Stephen said this on his own, not from the Septuagint; for the Septuagint here has as our Vulgate does: Beyond Damascus, not beyond Babylon.