Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Amos sees a hook for fruit, to signify that, just as fruits are plucked from a tree with a hook, so the Israelites would be plucked by the Assyrians and carried off to Assyria. He gives the reason, in verse 4, that they had oppressed the poor and sold them grain too dearly and fraudulently, using deceitful measures. Hence, in verse 9, he predicts that their destruction will be so terrible that the sun will be darkened, and all will put on sackcloth and shave their heads in baldness. Finally, in verse 11, he threatens them with extreme famine, both bodily and spiritual.
Vulgate Text: Amos 8:1-14
1. Thus the Lord God showed me: and behold, a hook for fruit. 2. And He said: What do you see, Amos? And I said: A hook for fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end has come upon My people Israel: I will no longer pass them by. 3. And the hinges of the temple shall creak on that day, says the Lord God: many shall die, in every place silence shall be cast. 4. Hear this, you who crush the poor and bring the needy of the land to ruin, 5. saying: When will the new moon be over, that we may sell our wares; and the sabbath, that we may open our grain: that we may diminish the measure, and increase the shekel, and set up deceitful scales, 6. that we may possess the needy for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, and sell the refuse of the grain? 7. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: If I ever forget all their works to the end. 8. Shall not the land tremble over this, and every inhabitant mourn: and it shall rise like a river in its entirety, and shall be cast out and flow away like the river of Egypt? 9. And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord God: the sun shall set at midday, and I will darken the earth on a day of light: 10. and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring sackcloth upon every back, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day. 11. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord: and I will send a famine upon the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. 12. And they shall be moved from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. 13. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men shall faint from thirst. 14. Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: As your god lives, O Dan, and as the way of Beersheba lives: they shall fall, and shall not rise again.
Verse 1: 1. THUS THE LORD SHOWED ME — that is, After so many visions and threats, God added this one of the...
1. THUS THE LORD SHOWED ME — that is, After so many visions and threats, God added this one of the fruit hook as well, so that by so many warnings, like repeated blows, He might soften and bend the hard hearts of the Hebrews. So concerning Pharaoh and the Egyptians, whom God, when they were hardened, drowned in the Red Sea, the Psalmist says in Psalm XVII, 15: "He multiplied His lightnings, and threw them into confusion."
Behold, a hook for fruit. — In Hebrew כלוב קיץ kelub kaits, which the Chaldean, the Rabbis, Pagninus, and the Zurich version translate as a basket or hamper of summer, that is, of summer fruits, which ripen in summer and are gathered when ripe. The Syriac: behold, a sign of the end; for it reads קץ kets, that is, end. The Arabic translates: instruments of hunting, and then arrow of hunting, or of capture.
Our Translator renders it better as "a hook for fruit." First, because the discussion here concerns an instrument by which fruits are attracted and captured: and this is a hook, not a basket; for by the hook are signified the spears and weapons of the Assyrians. Second, because the Hebrew kelub signifies a hunting and attracting instrument: for it is derived from כלב keleb, that is, dog, because just as a dog hunts and catches a hare and other wild animals, so the kelub hunts and catches fruits: for both are long, slender, and with a sharp beak and jaw. Third, because the Septuagint translates it as vas, that is, an instrument of the fowler. And Jeremiah, chapter V, 27, both the Septuagint and our Translator render it as a trap, by which birds are deceived and caught. Fourth, because a fruit hook in many places includes and encompasses a basket, but not conversely does a basket encompass a hook. For the "hook" for "fruit" is a curved instrument, namely a rod bent and hooked on one side, attached or suspended from a basket, by which gardeners pull down branches so they may pluck fruits and throw them into the basket; or by which they suspend the basket from branches, so that fruits picked from them may be placed into it. Amos therefore saw a hook, and a basket attached to it, for gathering fruits. By fruits understand also figs, pears, cherries, and plums; for all fruits, especially those with a softer skin, are called poma. Indeed Pliny, book XV, chapter XXII, even includes nuts under the category of fruit.
Symbolically, this hook signifies God's wrath and vengeance, by which God was hastening the time of captivity for the people of Israel, and as it were drawing it near, so that the Israelites, like fruits, might be plucked from their region and seized by the Assyrians; whose weapons of war, therefore, by which they reduced the Israelites to their power, are also rightly understood by the hook. Hence, explaining the hook, he adds: "The end has come upon Israel." So St. Jerome: "The meaning, he says, is: Just as branches of trees are pulled down with a hook to pluck the fruits, so I have drawn near the time of captivity. Hence the Hebrew kelub by metathesis alludes to כבל kebel, that is, a fetter or iron chain, with which the captive Israelites were to be bound. For ripe fruits in summer are a symbol of opportune captivity and timely punishment, as if to say: The Israelite tree now bears ripe fruit, namely the worst figs (such as Jeremiah saw concerning Judah, chapter XXIV, 1); it remains therefore that they be gathered and crushed. So in Revelation chapter XIV, 15, one angel says to another: "Thrust in your sickle, for the harvest of the earth is ripe," that is, because the mature and opportune time for punishing the impious is at hand, since they have already filled up the measure of their sins. This is what Ezekiel says in chapter VII, 6: "The end has come, it has awakened against you," that is, it has arisen at the mature and opportune time: just as summer fruits are ripe in summer, so your destruction has ripened, so the end is upon you: for you will gather the fruit of the tree you planted, and reap the harvest you sowed.
The hook alludes to the hook by which in ancient times the bound were dragged, or even the condemned were struck, and enemies defeated and captured in battle. Hence Juvenal, concerning Sejanus condemned to death by the emperor Tiberius, Satire X, says: "Sejanus is dragged along, struck with the hook." And Cicero, Philippics I: "The hook was driven into that fugitive who had usurped the name of Gaius Marius." The same author, in the defense of Gaius Rabirius: "Neither our achievements, nor the life we have lived, nor our honors will protect us from the lash, from the hook, and finally from the terrors of the cross." And Horace, book I of the Odes, ode 35, to Fortune: "Cruel necessity always goes before you, / Carrying in her bronze hand beam-nails and wedges, / Nor is the stern hook absent, nor the liquid lead." Lampridius writes in his Life of Commodus that upon his death the people cried out: "Let him who killed the Senate and plundered the temples be dragged with the hook." And Suetonius writes in his Life of Vitellius that after his death he was dragged by a hook into the Tiber: this was the utmost disgrace. Moreover, the bodies of the condemned, as well as of martyrs, were hung on hooks, as we read in the Acts of St. Sebastian, that his body was found hanging from a hook in a sewer. Furthermore, martyrs were torn with hooks just as with claws, as we read in the Acts of Saints Plato and Pontian, martyrs. See Gallonius, On the Torments of Martyrs. The hook therefore signifies that the Israelites, as if captives and condemned, were to be dragged by hooks by the Assyrians either to death or into captivity.
Second, with a hook one usually gathers the few remaining fruits that are left on the tree on the higher branches after the shaking: the hook therefore signifies here that the Israelites, remaining after various defeats and slaughters by the Syrians and Assyrians, were at last to be devastated by the final and complete destruction of their city and nation — even those who dwelt in high, fortified, hidden, remote, and inaccessible places — by Shalmaneser in the sixth year of Hezekiah. So Lyranus, Emmanuel, Mariana, and others. Hence the Chaldean translates: Behold, a vessel full of the last fruits of summer, as if to say: Just as when the grapes and the last fruits of the field or vineyard have been gathered, the field or vineyard is abandoned, and the fruits gathered in a vessel are carried home; so Samaria will be laid waste, and all its citizens will be carried off to Assyria. The Septuagint signifies the same thing, but with a different metaphor, namely that of a cage, or net and fowler: for they translate, behold, a vessel, that is, an instrument of the fowler — namely a net, cage, or sticks smeared with birdlime, so that birds may become entangled in it. The fowler is Shalmaneser, the net is his camps and weapons, with which he ensnared, captured, and carried off the Israelites. Hear Theodoret: "This vision, he says, signifies the swift and speedy capture of Israel; for just as birds are easily caught with birdlime, so the people will be seized by the Assyrians."
Tropologically, Rupert says: The hook is avarice; the branches and fruits are the rich and their wealth; for a fruit is a light thing, and especially delights children; but to men, and especially to those of sound judgment, it is of the least account. So indeed the goods of this present age are trifling, and they excessively delight those who are children in understanding; but to the wise who savor heavenly things, they are contemptible. Hence the first man committed the crime of desire by which he perished, not through gold, nor through silver, but through a mere little fruit.
Rupert adds: Just as a gardener with a hook, gradually and without noise, twists the branch he wants with repeated motion until he plucks the fruits; so the greedy man, the thief, and the fraudulent person has a thousand arts for catching and drawing things in, by which he entangles and hooks the wealth of others so secretly and deceitfully that they do not feel their losses until they are impoverished and groan too late, according to that passage in Psalm X, 9: "He lurks in hiding, like a lion in his den. He lurks to seize the poor: to seize the poor as he draws him in. In his net he will humble him, he will crouch down, and fall when he has dominated the poor."
Mystically, Ribera says: The hook is death, which draws the branches and fruits, that is, all of man's gifts, virtues, and vices, however hidden, so that they may be plucked by God, and each placed in its proper place. More precisely, Fernandez, in vision XXIII, says: Death, with various hooks, that is, with various kinds of diseases and accidents, draws the branches, on which there are many fruits, that is, families, in which there are many members, and those robust and strong, who seem most remote from death.
For human life is rightly compared to fruits. First, because, just as fruits quickly burst into buds, grow, ripen, and are plucked: so too do human beings. Second, just as among fruits some fall of their own accord when ripe, others when unripe, some rot on the tree, some appear red; but if you open them, you will find them full of worms and eaten away: some are plucked by hand, others knocked down with a stick and by force: so among men, some die a natural death in the prime of life; others in youth, others in decrepit old age, others appear rosy on the outside like roses, but inside teem with filth and disease; some die in bed, others in war, in battle, etc., by a violent death. Hence St. Job says in chapter IX, 26: "My days have passed like ships carrying fruit;" for these ships are driven more swiftly than others, lest the fruits that quickly rot be spoiled before they reach the port where they are to be sold. So our life passes most swiftly.
Third, Varro in book I of On Agriculture, chapter XXXV, thinks that fruit (pomum) was so called because it needs drink: "Fruits, he says, which are grafted in dry conditions should have water added every evening: from which, because they need drink, they may have been called poma." So the life of men not only needs drink, but also abounds in it, and delights in it greatly.
Fourth, the peach (literally, "Persian fruit") in Persia is said to have the power of poison due to the cold, and for this reason was transmitted to Italy to harm the inhabitants; but having changed its soil, it changed its nature, and was found to be wholesome, as Columella says: "Fruits which barbarous Persia had sent, as the story goes, armed with their native poisons: But now, with the small risk of death removed, they offer ambrosial juices, forgetful of harming." So the pleasure of human life in itself, and in its native soil as it were, is poisonous: but if it changes its soil and is transplanted into the field of virtue, it puts off vice, and instead of death brings life and salvation.
Fifth, the round fruit bears the likeness of the world, which is round; and of human life, which revolves and always returns in a circle. Hence in the year of Our Lord 1013, when the Emperor Henry, recently created, entered Rome, Pope Benedict with the Clergy and Senate went out to meet him and offered him the insignia of empire: it was a golden orb, distinguished all around with the most precious gems, with a golden cross rising above it, so that while looking at it, he might reflect that he ought to rule the world in such a way as to subject it to the standard of Christ's cross. The Emperor received the orb, and handling it, said: "It is fitting for no one to see and possess this orb better than those who, having trampled underfoot the fruits of the world, follow the cross of Christ;" and therefore he immediately sent it to the monastery of Cluny in Gaul. So Glaber, and Baronius at the year of Christ 1013. Likewise in the Golden Bull of Charles IV, chapter XXII, it is handed down and decreed that in the solemn procession, after the emperor has been created, the Duke of Saxony shall carry the sword before him, the Margrave of Brandenburg the scepter, and the Count Palatine the orb: the orb, because it is spherical, represents the world. Hence the Chronicle of Hirsau relates that at the inauguration of the Count of Holland, a golden globe was placed in the hand of the inaugurated emperor with these words, which the Count Palatine of the Rhine utters: "Receive this spherical globe, so that you may subject all nations to the Roman Empire, and be worthy to be called glorious Augustus." Let the Emperor therefore place himself and his heart in the hand of God, so that God may carry and rule the world along with him: and at the same time let him remember that the empire of the world is small and slight like a fruit and a globe, if compared with the heavenly kingdom. Therefore let him aspire to that, and strive to transfer himself and all his people there. Wisely St. Francis Xavier, in book II, epistle 5, gives this most salutary counsel to John III, King of Portugal (and in his person to other princes and prelates), that every day for a quarter of an hour, meditating on that divine saying: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but suffers the loss of his soul?" he should seek from God its true understanding, joined with an interior sense of the soul; and at the same time he should wish that the conclusion of all his prayers be: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world," etc., because, he says, nearer than he thinks, the hour is at hand when the King of kings and Lord of lords will summon him to render an account, thundering: "Give an account of your stewardship." He was a true prophet: for shortly afterwards the king departed this life.
Sixth, poison is often administered to a man by means of a fruit, or death is inflicted in another way. Cardan relates a remarkable example of this in On the Variety of Things, book XII, chapter LVI: When, he says, Kenneth, king of the Scots, had killed Eruthlinthus the son of Fenella, and also Malcolm Druff the king and kinsman of Fenella; she ordered a statue to be fashioned with marvelous art,
in whose hand was a golden apple studded with gems; whoever touched it was immediately struck down by many darts springing forth from the apple: with this she killed the unsuspecting king, having invited him to the town of Fettercairn. So the pleasure of this life is a charming but fatal apple, which dazzles and lures with a certain vain brightness the eyes of those whom it is about to deceive and destroy: "Do not trust the horse, Trojans." So Nicolas Caussin, book XI of Historical Parables, chapter V. Again, if you offer a boy an apple and at the same time a gold coin, the boy will choose the apple over the gold; because he is captivated by the appearance of the apple and does not know the value of gold. Are not therefore the old who are twice children, who prefer pleasure to virtue, that is, bad things to good, earthly to heavenly, perishable to eternal, false to true? Truly this enticing fruit is rightly called an "apple" (malum, also meaning "evil"). For this reason in Martial, book XIII, the pine nuts thus address the traveler: "We are the fruit of Cybele; depart far from here, traveler, / lest our falling ruin crush your wretched head."
St. Bernard says beautifully in his treatise On the Steps of Humility: "The serpent offers Eve the apple, and steals away paradise. You drink the poison, about to perish, and about to give birth to those who will perish. Salvation perishes, but childbearing does not cease. We are born, we die, and therefore we are born to die, because we first die in order to be born. Therefore a heavy yoke lies upon all your children unto this day."
Seventh, there is yet another analogy between fruit and man, worthy of reflection and compassion. You see a tree blossoming and adorned, indeed loaded, with flowers; observe that out of any fifty flowers, scarcely one will develop into a ripe fruit; for before they bud, most are either blown off by the wind, or dried up by heat, or gnawed by worms, or withered by lack of moisture and fall off: and of those that do bud, most likewise, before they ripen into fruits, will fall to the ground from similar accidents. So exactly, out of fifty infants who are born, scarcely one reaches manhood; but some die in infancy, others in childhood, others in adolescence. Who would not mourn, who would not groan over this miserable lot of mankind? That philosopher wisely said: "The shortness of life forbids us to entertain long hopes, or to aspire to them."
Eighth, among trees "the weakest is the apple tree, and especially the sweet variety," says Pliny in book XVII, chapter XXIV, who also adds: "Sometimes even the fruits themselves become sick by themselves without the tree, if at the necessary times rains, or warmth, or breezes have been lacking, or on the contrary have been excessive: for they either fall off or deteriorate." The same author, book XVII, chapter II: "If, he says, rains immediately follow after they have bloomed, the fruits perish entirely, so much so that almond and pear trees, even if the weather has been entirely cloudy or there has been a south wind, lose their crop." In the same way, what among animals is weaker than man? who is suffocated by a cold, that is, a little drop of water, burned by heat, drinks in plague from infected air, who suffers from very many, indeed innumerable, and often new diseases unknown to physicians. In the eye of man alone, Galen numbers and names a hundred diseases in the book entitled Introduction, or The Physician, in the chapter On Ailments of the Eyes. Truly St. Job, having experienced these things, describes man in chapter XIV, 1: "Man, he says, born of woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries; who comes forth like a flower and is crushed, and flees like a shadow, and never remains in the same state." The blossom of the apple tree, as soon as it has bloomed, turns yellow; if you peel or cut the apple before you bring it to your mouth, it immediately stains the knife with its dark color, loses its vigor, and begins to wither: so too a young man with his flourishing age and rosy face soon fades, grows pale, and grows old. "As grapes in the desert I found Israel, as the first fruits of the fig tree on its top I saw their fathers," says God in Hosea IX, 10.
Is not therefore the assembly of men a hook and basket of fruits? Every day from some tree or from everywhere fruits are gathered, until all are placed in the basket: every day some people depart from this life and are transferred to the assembly of the dead, until all, one by one gradually but in a brief span of time, are transferred to the same place. Therefore Cesare Ripa in his Iconography depicts death with a sickle and a fruit hook, from this passage of Amos: because just as with a sickle it cuts down everything, so with a hook it plucks everything, like a fruit-gatherer and fruit-plucker. Now, young people: flourish, rejoice, exult, and say: We fruits are swimming now; tomorrow we shall sink; tomorrow we shall die.
Considering these things, Cicero, though a pagan, wisely judges that the mind should be called away from every passing and earthly pleasure and fixed upon what is stable and heavenly: "If you will look on high, he says in the Dream of Scipio, and contemplate this abode and eternal home, do not give yourself over to the talk of the crowd, nor place the hope of your affairs in human rewards: virtue itself must draw you by its own allurements to true honor. What is called your life is death." The same, Academic Questions IV: "Thinking of higher and heavenly things, let us despise these things of ours as small and insignificant." Tusculan Disputations I: "Compare our longest lifetime with eternity, and it will be found very brief; then shall we be blessed, when, having left our bodies, we are free from desires and rivalries." And in Cato the Elder: "We depart from life itself as from an inn, not as from a home; for nature has given us a lodging place for a stay, not for dwelling. Who is there, however young, who is sure he will live until evening? Good gods, what is long in the life of man? Nothing even seems lasting to me in which there is some end. For when that arrives, then what has passed has flowed away; only what you have achieved by virtue and right deeds remains. Hours pass, and days, and months, and years, and past time never returns, nor can what follows be known."
Again, Tusculan Disputations I: "There are two ways, as Socrates says, and a twofold course for souls departing from the body. For those who have contaminated themselves with human vices and given themselves over entirely to lusts, for them there is a certain path excluded from the council of the Gods: but those who have kept themselves pure and chaste, and who have had the least contact with their bodies, and in their human bodies have imitated the life of the Gods — for these the return to those from whom they came lies open and easy." What then shall a Christian say, what shall he do?
Verse 2: 2. THE END HAS COME UPON MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.
2. THE END HAS COME UPON MY PEOPLE ISRAEL. — "The end," that is, the destruction decreed and determined by Me for Israel. In the Hebrew there is a beautiful wordplay between קיץ kaits, that is, summer fruits, and קץ kets, that is, end. For the root is קוץ kots, which means to be pricked, distressed, afflicted: hence קוץ kots signifies a piercing thorn; and קיץ kaits signifies summer, in which the sun pierces, burns, and ripens fruits, as if to say: This hook of kaits, that is, of summer fruits, will burn you, O Israel, like the summer sun; and will pierce you like kots, that is, a thorn; and finally will bring you kets, that is, end and destruction. Therefore הקיץ hekits, that is, it has awakened and ripened your wicked kaits, that is, summer fruit; and your kots, that is, thorn, and your kets, that is, end, as Ezekiel says in chapter VII, 6.
I WILL NO LONGER PASS HIM BY — that is, overlook his sins, pass by him as guilty and leave him unpunished, as one passes by when, seeing crimes and criminals, he goes past and pretends not to see, as if to say: So great are the crimes of Israel that I can no longer wink at them, I can no longer be silent and spare them; but they, by their enormity and multitude, as if by a constant and powerful cry, compel Me to avenge them. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rupert, and others.
Verse 3: 3. THE HINGES OF THE TEMPLE SHALL CREAK ON THAT DAY.
3. THE HINGES OF THE TEMPLE SHALL CREAK ON THAT DAY. — So also the Zurich version and Pagninus translate, that is, The hinges of the temple shall creak when the enemy violently breaks through its doors to plunder and devastate it. Again, they shall creak from the crackling of the burning doorposts when the temple is set on fire by the enemy. So Theodoret. The Arabic: The altars of the temple shall fall on that day; because the Israelites had defiled the temple with idols and crimes. Therefore its hinges shall creak when the battering ram strikes them, or hostile hammers break or wrench them off; and when through them columns of enemies burst into the temple. Sanchez also interprets it differently: The sign of war in ancient times, he says, was to strike the doors of the temple, according to that passage in Aeneid VII: "Twin are the gates of war, with the dread of Mars. / When the fixed resolution of the fathers for battle is seated, etc., / The consul himself with emblems opens the creaking threshold."
But this was a Roman custom, not a Hebrew one. Add that the subject here is the destruction of the city and temple, not a signal for war. Translated literally from the Hebrew: The songs of the temple shall wail, that is, the songs of the temple shall be turned into wailing; the Syriac: The praises (songs, fame, and glory) of the temple shall fall. Second, Lyranus translates: The hinges of the palace shall creak, namely of the king and the nobles, when the enemy breaks into their palaces. Third, the Chaldean translates: In place of songs, the hymns of the palace shall wail, or of the palaces, in which festive songs and musical instruments used to resound; and Vatablus: The songs of the palace shall wail. By songs he understands joy, as if to say: The songs of princes and the powerful shall be turned into wailing and grief. Our Translator with the Septuagint and others already cited translates better as "the hinges of the temple:" because the Hebrew היכל hechal properly signifies an august and powerful temple or basilica, from the root יכל iachol, that is, he was able, he prevailed, as if to say: A powerful basilica, surpassing all others by its magnificence. Fourth, the Septuagint translates: The paneled ceilings of the temple shall wail, as if to say: So great will be the cry of the enemy and of those slain by them in the temple, that the whole temple will be filled with wailing, and the paneled ceilings themselves, reverberating the cries of the wailers like an echo, will seem to wail. So also St. Jerome explains our version and reconciles it with the Septuagint: "The hinges of the temple, he says, or the paneled ceilings, shall creak. This must be understood comprehensively (ὁλοσχερῶς), that so heavy a weight of evils will press upon them that even the hinges of the doors and the lofty paneled ceilings will wail, and feel an incredible devastation."
Hence it is clear that, although the Hebrew שירות sciroth elsewhere generally means songs, here however it means hinges and paneled ceilings (for so the Septuagint and St. Jerome, who were most skilled in the Hebrew language, translate it), perhaps by onomatopoeia: for the word sciroth reproduces and expresses the sound of creaking hinges, which is as it were their song. Add that from the root שור sçur, which means to aim directly, to extend, to sing, and many other things, is derived the noun שור scor, that is, wall, and a building from which one looks out, or which projects and extends outward; hence sciroth are called paneled ceilings, which extend above throughout the whole temple, and which overlook the entire temple.
You may ask, of which temple does Amos speak here? Of the temple of God in Jerusalem, or of the temple of idols in Bethel? St. Jerome, Theodoret, and Rupert understand it of the temple in Jerusalem. Others, and more plainly, understand it of the one that was in Bethel dedicated to the golden calves. For Amos lived in Bethel and prophesied against the golden calves, as is clear from chapter VII, verse 13; hence here in verse 2 he threatens its speedy end, which indeed came to pass, since Jerusalem was destroyed much later. Just as therefore the Jews called their temple in Jerusalem hechal, that is, basilica; so their rivals the Samaritans likewise called their shrine in Bethel hechal. That this is so is clear from verse 7: "The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob." For Jacob is the name of the ten tribes, not the two. And from verse 14: "Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: As your god lives, O Dan." Hence it is clear that these words are spoken against the Samaritans, and their gods placed at the borders of the kingdom, namely in Dan and Bethel. So Ruffinus, Lyranus, Clarius, Arias, and a Castro.
MANY SHALL DIE. — In Hebrew: The corpse shall be multiplied, that is, there will be many corpses, many will be killed; in every place he will cast "hush," that is, silence, as if to say: Many will die, and once the inhabitants have been captured or killed, in every place silence will be cast, says St. Jerome, that is, I will bring about the utmost desolation, and reduce everything that was full of people to a wasteland. It is a metalepsis: for silence is put in place of slaughter and desolation; for from killing and slaughter follows desolation, from desolation solitude, from solitude silence. Hence the Septuagint translates: In every place I will cast silence. So now St. Jerome says: "Throughout the whole world the silence of the Jews has spread: wherever they are, they mutter rather than speak;" though oppressed, they dare not murmur or open their mouths.
Second, Lyranus translates and explains it in the opposite sense, namely by taking beth, that is, "in," for min, that is, "from," and translates thus: From every place silence shall be cast out; because in every place there will be a cry, both of the enemies killing and of the inhabitants being killed. Third, Vatablus translates thus: The corpse shall be multiplied in every place; he who casts (says) "hush," that is, The undertaker who has the care of casting corpses into the tomb, acknowledging God's just vengeance in so great a slaughter of the Israelites, will say to his companion: Be silent, do not complain about the Lord God that He gives us so many funerals: for we justly suffer these things on account of our idolatry and sins. But here many things must be supplied which are not in the text. Fourth, the Zurich version translates: Many corpses (the enemy) will lay low in every place, and that in silence. Fifth, Arias, punctuating these words differently and referring them to Amaziah the priest of idols, translates and explains thus: So many will be the corpses that in every place they will be cast unburied; but you, O Amaziah, since you do not believe these my oracles and threats, be silent and silently await the outcome: for you will see all these things fulfilled, and then too late you will believe, even against your will. But the first sense is the plain and genuine one.
In a similar way, the region of the shadow of death, that is, the state and place of the dead, in which there is the utmost desolation and horror, is called the land of the silent, and in Hebrew duma, that is, silence. For, as Ovid says in Fasti V: "Soon they also called the spirits of the dead 'the silent ones.'" And Virgil, Aeneid VI: "O gods who hold dominion over souls, and you silent shades, / And Chaos, and Phlegethon, places widely silent in the night." And below: "The judge Minos shakes the urn, he of the silent ones / Calls the council, and examines their lives and crimes."
Morally, learn here that the noise and tumult of the Israelites is fittingly punished by its opposite — solitude and silence. For just as the axiom and practice of physicians in diseases is that opposites are cured by opposites, so also God the judge cures contrary crimes with contrary punishments: namely, pride with humiliation, gluttony with famine, lust with diseases and pains, sloth with labors and toil, tumult with desolation. For since the Israelites with great noise, pomp, crowds, and tumult celebrated the feasts of idols, namely of the golden calves, and with the same invaded and laid waste the goods of the poor, as is said in verses 4 and 5; hence likewise God fittingly punishes them with the despoiling, slaughter, and devastation of all their things. In a similar way among Christians, God punishes with plundering and desolation cities and provinces in which there was great luxury of goods and people, and a great crowd of merchandise, usuries, and frauds. By equal reasoning and right, monasteries and orders in which, once silence had been cast aside, dissoluteness, gossip, detraction, murmuring, envy, etc. flourished, He punishes with silence, allowing them to be devastated by heretics, burned, and reduced to solitude. Examples are found in Gaul, Germany, Belgium, and England, in which last country alone under Henry VIII, as Sander attests, "Ten thousand temples one year destroyed." In the other provinces we likewise see very many monasteries utterly destroyed, and in some cases the cause was public and known to all, namely the casting aside of silence and religious discipline, and the licentious, more-than-worldly life of the monks.
Therefore let God say to such: Because you have cast away discipline and silence, I will come to the aid of silence, which suffers violence from you, and restore it in every place — indeed I will cast it, reducing everything to ashes and silent fields.
Verse 5: 5. WHEN WILL THE NEW MOON BE OVER (so the Roman, Hebrew, and Septuagint read.
5. WHEN WILL THE NEW MOON BE OVER (so the Roman, Hebrew, and Septuagint read. Therefore Remigius, Rupert, Hugo, and Lyranus wrongly read "harvest"): AND WE WILL SELL OUR WARES (Septuagint: and we will trade), AND (when will it be over, so the Syriac) THE SABBATH, AND WE WILL OPEN THE GRAIN. — The Syriac reads: granaries. Month and sabbath can be taken in three ways: first, synecdochically, for any time in general. For the Hebrews measured and divided all time by months and sabbaths. Second, more specifically, the month, in Hebrew chodes, was called the neomenia, that is, the first day of each month; and the sabbath was properly the seventh day of the week. Third, most specifically, the sacred month was the seventh month, namely September, during which after the harvest had been gathered they observed almost the entire month as sacred and festive, as I said on Leviticus chapter XXIII, 3 and following; and therefore the same month was a sabbath, not of days but of months, because it was the seventh month, and that a festive one.
According to the first meaning of month and sabbath, the first sense of this passage will be: Every month and sabbath, that is, at every time when you, O greedy grain dealers, see that grain is of a low price, you hide it away, so that this time may pass, and after the time of abundance a time of scarcity may follow, when you may sell it at a higher price. So a Castro and Vatablus.
According to the second meaning, the second sense will be: You are so eager for gain that you grieve at the arrival of the feast of the new moon and the sabbath, and wish them to pass quickly, so that once they are over you may immediately return to your trading and profits, and sell grain at a high price as is your custom. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Ruffinus, Remigius, Lyranus, and Ribera. Note here the desires of greedy merchants, who dream of nothing but goods, trade, and profits, and for whom therefore every divine service is long, so that even a half-hour Mass is often too lengthy for them. Sanchez adds: The greedy merchants, he says, eagerly awaited the Kalends, that is, the first day of the month; because then they would lend money at interest and demand usurious payments, as is evident from Plutarch's book On Not Lending at Interest, and from Horace, book I, Satire III; hence then they would sell the pledges or seize the goods of debtors who could not pay the interest. Here is also cited the interpretation of the Chaldean and Paul of Burgos, who by month understand not just any month, but the intercalary one, which was added by the Hebrews every third year as a thirteenth to the other twelve months of the year, in order to equalize their lunar year with the solar, as I said on Exodus chapter XII, 2, that is: When that longer third year has passed, after which, because of the added month, grain usually runs short sooner and is sold at a higher price, we will sell it dearly. Again, the Chaldean, Burgos, Albert, and Arias take sabbath not of days, nor of months, but of years, namely the seventh year of remission, which was entirely sacred and a sabbath, that is, festive, as if to say: When the seventh year has passed in which sowing is not permitted, whence a grain shortage will follow, then we will sell it dearly; as though the Prophet said this when the seventh and sabbatical year was imminent or present, censuring the abuses of the greedy who exploited it for their base profits.
According to the third meaning, the third sense will be: When the time of harvest has passed, during which grain is usually cheaper due to its abundance; and likewise the seventh month, during which the Jews take holiday and freely consume their produce — in the eighth month and the following months, when grain begins to run short, we will sell it at a high price at our pleasure. This sense is also offered by Remigius, Albert, Rupert, Lyranus, and Hugo. Favoring this interpretation is the Hebrew article he added to the word chodes, which signifies a specific month, and one more distinguished than the rest, which can indeed be none other than the seventh month. Again, the nature of the matter supports it: for after the seventh month grain was more expensive, and this was so ordinarily every year. For the Prophet does not seem to be speaking of the seventh year, or a similar extraordinary and rarer occurrence. Finally, one could think that by month here is meant the month of harvest, in which they reaped the new crops, namely May or June; and by sabbath the feast of Pentecost, at which from the harvest they offered the first loaves to God as firstfruits. For the sabbath among the Hebrews was fivefold: first, of days, namely the seventh day of the week; second, of weeks, namely seven weeks counted from Passover, which make forty-nine days, and after these the following fiftieth day was Pentecost; third, of months, namely the seventh month, about which I have already spoken; fourth, of years, namely the seventh year of remission, which was therefore called sabbatical and was festive; fifth, of weeks of years: for seven weeks, or seven-year periods, make forty-nine years, after which the following fiftieth year was the jubilee, and entirely a sabbath, that is, a feast. But since immediately after the harvest and Pentecost there was an abundance of grain, and therefore it was of a low price, hence these greedy merchants seem to be referring to a different time here, namely after the seventh month, when grain began to run short and its price began to rise.
AND WE WILL OPEN THE GRAIN — we will open the granaries that were closed during the time of plenty, so that during the time of scarcity we may bring out our grain and sell it dearly at our pleasure. Moreover, how hateful this is to God, He Himself teaches in this passage, when He presently threatens many and severe punishments against such people. Let princes and magistrates imitate God by catching and punishing these monopolists — like mice who scrape up, or rather gnaw away, grain and bring about public famine.
So did Blessed Charles, Count of Flanders: for when Lambert of Straten, brother of Bertolf the provost of St. Donatian's, had redeemed the tithes for many years and had full granaries, and when the price of grain was rising he refused to share with the needy, Blessed Charles ordered his granaries to be broken open and a great quantity of grain to be measured out to the poor free of charge. For this reason the monopolists sacrilegiously inflicted a violent death upon him as he prayed in the church, and he himself, as the defender of justice and the public grain supply, bore away the palm of martyrdom as the deserved reward for bravely fulfilling his duty. So his Life, recently published by the Belgians, relates, and Aemilius book V. The celebrated and holy memory of this deed still endures at Bruges in Flanders, where the place in which the Count was killed was once shown to me.
Procopius relates, in book III, that John, prefect of the praetorium under Belisarius, during the Vandal war, had the ships' bread, lest it become lighter in weight from being twice-baked, baked still raw at the furnace of a public bath, so that nothing would be lost in weight: but scarcely had they reached Methone when the loaves began to fall apart, and distributed by the bushel to the soldiers they caused the gravest diseases. Thus the avarice of one man afflicted and nearly destroyed the whole army.
To these misers Horace ingeniously applies the fable of Tantalus, in book I of the Satires, Satire I, who "Sleeps upon his sacks piled from every side, / Gaping over them, and is compelled to spare them as if they were sacred objects, / Or to enjoy them as if they were painted pictures."
Moreover, God by His just judgment punishes the greedy with scarcity, and causes the grain which they greedily hoard to be gnawed away by mice, or sunk by storm or shipwreck, or plundered by enemies, or to perish by some other accident.
Memorable is what we read in the Life of Paulinus, that in imitation of and love for Christ he gave away his most ample wealth to the poor, and from being the richest became the poorest. When one day a poor man asked him for alms, he told Blessed Therasia, once his wife, now his sister (for he was living with her in continence), to give it to him. Therasia replied that she had nothing but a single loaf of bread. Paulinus nevertheless ordered it to be given; but Therasia, fearing she would have nothing to set before Paulinus at dinner, did not give the bread but kept it. "In the meantime, says Gregory of Tours, in the book On the Glory of Confessors, chapter CVI, certain people arrived saying they had been sent by their masters to bring him supplies of grain and wine; but that they had been delayed because a storm had carried off one of their ships loaded with grain. Then the man of God, turning to his wife, said: Understand that you stole one loaf from that poor man, and therefore this ship was sunk."
On the other hand, when the same Paulinus, now bishop of Nola, was so generous that after he had given away all his produce to the poor and had finally given himself into slavery to redeem the son of a widow, shortly afterwards by God's providence he was recognized by the king of the Vandals and was sent back to Nola together with all his fellow citizens and ships loaded with grain: "and so it came about that he who had given only himself into servitude returned with many from servitude to freedom, imitating Him who took the form of a servant so that we might not be servants of sin. Following in His footsteps, Paulinus for a time voluntarily became a servant alone, so that afterwards he might be free with many," says St. Gregory, book III of the Dialogues, chapter I.
Similar is what Leontius relates in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver, about a certain wealthy merchant whose produce and goods were lost in a shipwreck, and who, when he told St. John about this misfortune in lamentation, heard from him: "Know that this happened to you for no other reason than that this ship was not justly or honestly acquired by you." He therefore ordered one of the ships of the Church to be given to him, loaded with twenty thousand measures of grain: and sailing most prosperously with it, the merchant landed in Britain, which was then suffering from famine, where by selling the grain at a moderate price, while providing for the need of the Britons, he himself was enriched. This is what the Wise Man says in Proverbs chapter XI, 24: "Some distribute their own goods and become richer: others seize what is not their own and are always in want. The soul that blesses shall be made fat, and he who gives drink shall himself also drink. He who hides grain shall be cursed among the peoples: but a blessing shall be upon the head of those who sell." And St. Paul, II Corinthians IX, 6: "He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly: and he who sows in blessings (beneficently, generously, abundantly) shall also reap from blessings." See what was said there.
Therefore St. Ambrose, severely and sharply rebuking monopolists, in book III of On Duties, chapter VI, says: "Why do you turn nature's generosity, which gives abundant crops, to fraud? Why do you begrudge mankind the public produce? Why do you diminish the abundance for the peoples? Why do you cultivate scarcity? Why do you cause the poor to wish for barrenness? For when they do not feel the benefits of fertility, because you are driving up the price and hoarding the grain, they would rather nothing grew at all than have you profiteer from public famine." And shortly after: "Shall I call this robbery, or usury? They are seized as times of robbery, in which a harsh plotter creeps into the vitals of men. Your gain is the public's loss. The holy Joseph opened granaries to all; he did not close them. Rightly does Solomon say (Proverbs chapter XI): He who holds back grain shall leave it to strangers, not to heirs, because the profit of avarice does not reach the rights of successors. What is not legitimately acquired is scattered, as if by winds, to strangers who seize it."
THAT WE MAY DIMINISH THE MEASURE AND INCREASE THE SHEKEL. — For "measure" the Hebrew has epha, which was the common and customary measure, under which by synecdoche he includes all others. Now the epha was the tenth part of a cor: a cor contained 30 Italian modii: therefore the epha contained three Italian modii, and six Spanish ones (for the Italian modius is double the Spanish one). Hence the Hebrew epha was the same as the Attic medimnus, according to Josephus, book X of the Antiquities, chapter XII. Again, the satum was the third part of an epha, namely one Italian modius. See what I said about measures at the end of the Pentateuch. He notes not only the avarice by which they sold at the highest prices, but also the deceit and fraud of the merchants, by which in selling they diminished the measure, that is, they measured out to buyers what they were selling with a measure that was unjustly smaller; conversely, they increased the shekel by setting up deceitful scales, as follows — namely, the pan in which the shekel was to be placed (so that it would appear to be of just weight), which buyers paid for the goods purchased, was made heavier and lower; so that a shekel otherwise of just weight, weighed on these deceitful scales, would appear lighter than it should be, and consequently the buyers would have to add some drachmas of silver or gold. So Clarius, Ribera, Arias, and a Castro. For in ancient times all money, especially when it was unworked and not stamped, was always weighed, and counted by weight, and had a greater or lesser value according to its greater or lesser weight, as is clear from Genesis chapter XXIII, 16, Jeremiah chapter XXXII, 9, and Isaiah chapter LV, 2.
Second, St. Jerome and Vatablus take shekel not as a coin but as a weight. For shekel in Hebrew means the same as weight, as if to say: "Let us increase the shekel," that is, when we buy goods, let us weigh them with an unjustly larger shekel, that is, weight; but when we sell the same goods to others, let us weigh them with an unjustly smaller weight. Hence Vatablus translates: Let us diminish the measure, and increase the weight, and set up a deceitful balance; and he gives this sense: "Let us sell our grain with a measure that is unjustly smaller, and by subverting it, let us set up a deceitful balance," as if to say: "In those things which are customarily sold by measure, such as by the bushel, we will use a measure that is unjustly smaller: but in those things which we will receive, we will use an unjustly greater weight."
Third, Remigius and Lyranus explain it thus: "Let us increase the shekel," that is, let us increase the price of grain, as if to say: Let us conspire for a price unjustly higher, so that none of us sells below it for less, so that all buyers are forced to purchase our goods at that unjust price set by us — which vice is called monopoly, about which see Father Lessius, On Justice and Law, book II, chapter XXI On Buying, doubt 21.
Fourth, Mariana explains it thus, as if to say: After selling the grain and receiving the money, let us increase the shekel, that is, the value of the shekel, so that the value of the money and our wealth may increase.
Note: Shekel in Hebrew means the same as weight, from the root שקל scakal, that is, he weighed, he balanced. So in Greek the shekel is called στατήρ from σταθμός, that is, a balance, weight, scale. For the shekel was the common, ordinary, and customary coin, weighing four drachmas, or a half-ounce, with which they weighed not only money but also metals, and indeed any objects. Therefore a shekel was worth four julii, or four Spanish reales: for a julius, like a real, weighs a drachma of silver. There was also a bronze and a gold shekel, of the same weight but of greater or lesser value according to the material. See what I said about the shekel on Exodus chapter XXX, 13.
Verse 6: 6. THAT WE MAY POSSESS THE NEEDY FOR SILVER (that is, with silver, at the price of silver.
6. THAT WE MAY POSSESS THE NEEDY FOR SILVER (that is, with silver, at the price of silver. For the Hebrew beth, that is, "in," is a sign of price) AND THE POOR FOR A PAIR OF SANDALS — that is, So that by these arts and frauds of ours we may reduce the poor to extreme destitution, by which they are forced to sell themselves to us as slaves, and so we may possess them so that they serve us like beasts of burden, and that for a small price — indeed, for a pair of sandals.
AND WE WILL SELL THE REFUSE OF THE GRAIN — Instead of pure grain. Note here the various arts and deceits of greedy merchants, by which they strip others and enrich themselves. The first is that they sell their goods at the highest prices. The second, that they diminish the measures. The third, that they increase the shekel, that is, the weight. The fourth, that they use deceitful scales. The fifth, that they force the poor to sell not only their possessions but even themselves for a pair of sandals. The sixth, that they sell grain mixed with chaff, darnel, oats, sand, etc., as pure grain. Hence the Arabic translates: We will sell the sweepings of the vessels, that is, what is gathered up and collected when the threshing floor is swept clean after the grain has been removed. Hence the wrath of God, aroused, thunders against them, and He says:
Verse 7: 7. THE LORD HAS SWORN BY THE PRIDE OF JACOB — that is, against the pride of Israel, by which they...
7. THE LORD HAS SWORN BY THE PRIDE OF JACOB — that is, against the pride of Israel, by which they proudly domineer over the poor and plunder them. So the Septuagint, St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Hugo, Lyranus, and others. In Hebrew, for "pride" is גאון ghuon, that is, magnificence, loftiness, arrogance. Hence the Chaldean translates: The Lord has sworn who gave greatness to Jacob; Pagninus: The Lord has sworn by His loftiness known in Jacob; Arias and the Zurich version: The Lord has sworn by the excellence of Jacob himself, as if to say: He swore by the temple, which was the glory, eminence, magnificence, and as it were the pride of Jacob. So Isaiah says in chapter LX, 15: "I will make you a pride," that is, a magnificence and glory, "of the ages." So Vatablus and Prado on Ezekiel chapter VII, 24, explaining the words: "And I will make the pride of the powerful to cease:" The temple, he says, he calls the pride of the powerful, that is, a most powerful, most proud, most magnificent, and most lofty citadel. The first translation and sense of our Interpreter, as it is more congruent with the Hebrew, is also more forceful.
IF I EVER FORGET. — The word "if" is a mark of one swearing, and a sign of an execratory oath among the Hebrews, as if to say: God swore, saying: I swear by Myself and by My truth, that I will not forget these works and crimes of Israel, but will punish them severely — so much so that if I forget them, let Me not be held truthful, let Me not be held God. The word "if" in an oath is taken either improperly for "not," or properly if you understand an implied curse, for example this one: Let Me not be held God. For the Hebrews by euphemism, both for the sake of avoiding horror and for good omen, suppress this and leave it to be understood.
TO THE END — forever.
Verse 8: 8. SHALL NOT THE LAND TREMBLE OVER THIS — namely, with devastation, so that it may be plundered and...
8. SHALL NOT THE LAND TREMBLE OVER THIS — namely, with devastation, so that it may be plundered and laid waste? Hence the Chaldean translates: the land shall be desolated. Second, in Hebrew it is תרגז tirgaz, that is, it shall tremble, as the Zurich version translates; Pagninus: it shall move itself, as if to say: So great are the crimes of Israel, and so great the disasters threatening them on their account, that rightly this land, hearing, bearing, and feeling them, as though struck with terror and astonishment, should tremble, and all the inhabitants should beat their breasts and wail. It is a prosopopoeia: for to heighten the emotion he attributes to the insensible earth a sense, indignation, horror, and trembling. For all creatures with a natural sense perceive the voice and command of their Creator, and much more His offense and wrath.
AND IT SHALL RISE LIKE A RIVER IN ITS ENTIRETY, AND FLOW AWAY LIKE THE RIVER OF EGYPT. — Some, like a Castro, by "river" understand the torrent of the desert which separates Judea from the desert and from Egypt, about which I spoke in chapter VI, 15,
as if to say: Just as this torrent flows into the sea and no longer appears, its waters absorbed by the sea; so the Israelites will be absorbed by the Assyrians, and carried off and dispersed by them so that they no longer appear. So a Castro, who also cites St. Jerome and others for this interpretation; but in St. Jerome I did not find the same; and that torrent of the desert is a torrent and is called such, not a river. Add that the river of Egypt is none other than the Nile, or a branch of the Nile; hence the Septuagint translates "river" instead of "rivus" as: the river of Egypt.
Better therefore Clarius, Arias, Vatablus, and others generally understand the Nile by "river": for it is called shortly after the river of Egypt, especially because the Nile divides itself into seven branches, through which it flows into the sea by as many mouths. He aptly adduces the Nile rather than other rivers, because the Nile, flooding every year and overflowing, silts up and makes Egypt fertile (for it does not rain in Egypt, but the swelling Nile takes the place of rain). Hence the harvest of Egypt is said to be in the Nile, as in its cause, according to that passage in Isaiah chapter XXIII, 3: "In many waters was the seed of the Nile, the harvest of the river was its produce: and it became the commerce of nations." Add that the Israelite merchants bought grain from Egypt; for Egypt was so fertile that it was the granary of the Romans, indeed of the whole East, as if to say: Because you, O Israelites, hide away the Nile grain bought cheaply in Egypt in order to sell it dearly, and moreover sell it mixed with spoiled refuse and with unjust measures fraudulently, for this reason I will bring the army of the Assyrians, which like the Nile with its abundance will flood Israel, and will overthrow it with its grain and wealth, and transfer it to Assyria. He alludes therefore to the rising, that is, the increase of the Nile swelling and overflowing, which then immediately subsides and recedes, and is partly absorbed by the earth, partly flows back into its channel and from there into the sea, as if to say: In the same way, when the Assyrian army ascends into the land of Israel, you likewise will ascend, and will be gathered by them into a great crowd, and gathered together in troops you will be driven out to Assyria; and there you will be dispersed and absorbed, so that dispersed among a most numerous nation, you will scarcely appear to exist. Hence the Chaldean translates: A king with his mighty army will rush upon it like the waters of a river, and will wash away all of it and drive out its inhabitants like the river of Egypt. Others translate actively: And (the Assyrian) crossed over like a river the whole of it (the land of Israel), and it shall be pressed down as by the river of Egypt, as if to say: Just as the land of Egypt is overwhelmed by the Nile, so the land of Israel will be overwhelmed and oppressed by the Assyrians. Again, just as the overflowing Nile sweeps away the whole of Egypt, so the Assyrians will sweep away all the crops and wealth of Israel.
Second, Vatablus translates: And the whole of it (the land of Israel) shall rise like a river, and shall be driven (from its place) and absorbed like the river of Egypt; and he explains it thus, as if to say: The entire land of Israel will be covered with waters and turned entirely as it were into a stream: by water and stream he signifies all the disasters and calamities by which it was to be overwhelmed as by waters from the wrath and vengeance of God.
Third, Clarius explains it thus, as if to say: Just as the Nile casts up whatever floats upon it, so the land of Israel will cast up the Israelites from itself and hurl them into Assyria. Note "it shall rise" — namely not the inhabitant, but the land: for the Hebrew עלתה aletha, being feminine, refers to the land. Therefore the land of Israel shall rise, be cast out, and flow away: the land, that is, the inhabitants, the crops, and the wealth of the land shall rise, that is, they shall be piled into a heap, to be carried off by the Assyrians, their enemies and plunderers.
Hence consequently "in its entirety" — supply not the inhabitant but the river, as if to say: Just as the river in its entirety, that is, the whole of it, gathered in Egypt, rises and surges to a height; so likewise the whole heap of Israelites to be carried off by the Assyrians will be immense and will rise to a great sum. Now in the Hebrew it reads כלה culla, that is, all of it, namely the land of Israel, shall rise; but our Translator with different vowel points reads כלל cala, that is, complete, perfect, entire, namely the river shall rise. The Septuagint also read it this way, for they translate: And the consummation shall rise like a river, and shall descend like the river of Egypt: consummation, that is, the whole and complete multitude as well as the substance of Israel. St. Jerome adapts this mystically, or rather by accommodation, to the elect and the reprobate: "So that he who has done penance, he says, may ascend with the rising river; but he who perseveres in his sins may descend like the river of Egypt, and entering the sea may be absorbed: and through this he shows the pride of Jacob, against which the Lord swears that it shall be devoured with eternal punishments."
Finally, for "shall flow away" the Hebrew is נשקע niskang, that is, let it be plunged into the deep, let it be swallowed up, let it go into the abyss. Where note, instead of נשקעה one should read נשקערה, as the Masoretes teach should be read; the letter ain was therefore suppressed either through a scribal error or deliberately by the Prophet himself, to suggest a total submersion, says Marinus in his Lexicon. For the root is שקע with ain, that is, to be plunged, submerged, drawn to the depths; not שקה with he, that is, to be irrigated, given drink: for then it would have to be said נשקתה nisketa in the feminine gender, because ארץ erets, that is, land, is a feminine noun. Israel therefore will go into the abyss just like Babylon, of which Jeremiah says in chapter LI, 63, and from him St. John in Revelation chapter XVIII, 21: "And a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying: With this violence shall Babylon that great city be thrown down, and shall be found no more."
Finally, the Syriac translates at this point: Its end shall rise like a river, and shall push back (overwhelm), and shall descend like the river of Egypt; the Alexandrian Arabic: It shall rise like a river and descend like the Nile of Egypt; the Antiochene Arabic: And its end shall come like a river, and it shall flow away and be cast out like the river of Egypt.
Verse 9: 9. THE SUN SHALL SET AT MIDDAY — not that the sun will truly set and be hidden from the Israelites;...
9. THE SUN SHALL SET AT MIDDAY — not that the sun will truly set and be hidden from the Israelites; but that to those struck with excessive fear and grief it will seem to set and be hidden. For fear and grief bring a darkness over the eyes as well as the mind, so that those who mourn seem to themselves at midday to be enveloped in darkness, unable to see the light of the sun. For this is what he explains when he adds: "And I will darken the earth on a day of light." So St. Jerome, Theodoret, and St. Chrysostom, Homily 2 to the People, where he asserts that the same thing happened to the Antiochenes in his time, because they, terrified and anxious on account of having violated the image of the Emperor Theodosius, expected from his wrath every hour the noose, the gibbet, and the fire.
Second, symbolically: "The sun shall set at midday," that is, in the midst of Israel's greatest prosperity and happiness, the greatest calamity and captivity will befall them — so that it is a parabolic catachresis: for the sun and light are the cause and symbol of joy and prosperity, just as darkness is of calamity and sadness. So Remigius, Rupert, Hugo, Lyranus, and St. Gregory, book V of the Moralia, chapter I. Again, the sun, that is, the mind and reason, sets for the angry man and the sinner: because the darkness of anger and disturbances occupies his soul, so that, as if placed in blind night, he does not see what he ought to do. So Cassian, book VIII of the Institutes of the Renunciants, chapter IX.
Allegorically, St. Jerome, Ruffinus, Rupert here, and Eusebius in book X of the Demonstration, chapter VI, expound these words of the setting and eclipse of the sun, which was done by miracle during the Passion of Christ, when the sun went as if in mourning garb and grieved over the death of its Creator; also St. Augustine, in the book of Questions from Both Testaments, Question XIII; St. Cyril, Catechesis 13; Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter XLII; St. Cyprian, book II To Quirinus, chapter XXIII; Isidore, book On the Passion of the Lord, chapter XLV.
Verse 10: 10. AND I WILL BRING SACKCLOTH UPON EVERY BACK, etc.
10. AND I WILL BRING SACKCLOTH UPON EVERY BACK, etc. — I will cause all the Israelites to put on sackcloth, and to shave their heads and make them bald: for sackcloth and baldness among the Jews were signs of mourning and the deepest grief, as is clear from Jeremiah chapter VI, 26.
AND I WILL MAKE IT LIKE THE MOURNING FOR AN ONLY SON — that is, I will afflict the land of Israel most grievously, and thus cause it to mourn most bitterly; for when an only son dies, his parents, and especially his mother, mourn inconsolably.
AND ITS END (I will make) LIKE A BITTER DAY — that is, I will cause the last and final things of Israel to be most mournful and most bitter. Tropologically, let the sinner think of this while he is indulging in pleasure, namely that God at the hour of death will convert all his delights into pains and anguish. Truly Pythagoras said: "Of all evils the greatest is pleasure, by which, as by a nail and pin, the soul is fastened."
Verse 11: 11. I WILL SEND A FAMINE UPON THE LAND: NOT A FAMINE OF BREAD, NOR A THIRST FOR WATER, BUT OF...
11. I WILL SEND A FAMINE UPON THE LAND: NOT A FAMINE OF BREAD, NOR A THIRST FOR WATER, BUT OF HEARING THE WORD OF THE LORD — that is, I will cause the Israelites during the siege and assault upon Samaria to be so afflicted, distressed, and destitute of mind and counsel, that they will seek throughout the whole world for Prophets, whom they now despise, in order to inquire of them and hear both oracles about the outcome of the siege and counsel for escaping it — namely, whether, when, and how they are to be delivered.
Tropologically, St. Basil, in the Homily in Praise of Fasting, at the end, citing these words of Amos — Not a famine of bread, but a famine of hearing the word of God — adds: "Which the just judge sent for this reason: that He perceived their minds were wasting away from a scarcity of true doctrines, while the outer man was growing fat beyond measure and becoming obese." For God often punishes the rich and gluttons with hunger and want of spiritual food, so that those who grow fat in body may waste away and die in spirit; just as conversely He enriches and fattens the poor and the abstinent with His teaching and grace. Again, from this St. Gregory teaches in book XXX of the Moralia, chapter XXXV: "Often, he says, the word is granted to the teacher for the sake of the listener's grace, and often on account of the listener's fault the power of speech is taken from the teacher," as from Ezekiel, to whom God says in chapter III, verse 26: "I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, and you shall be mute, etc., because they are a rebellious house."
Verse 12: 12. AND THEY SHALL BE MOVED FROM SEA TO SEA, etc.
12. AND THEY SHALL BE MOVED FROM SEA TO SEA, etc. — that is, Shaken by the calamity already described, and by hunger, that is, by the desire to hear oracles, the Israelites will either send envoys to every corner of the earth, from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea, to search for some prophet who may announce these things to them; for it shall befall them according to that passage in Psalm LXXIII, 9: "We do not see our signs, there is no longer a Prophet, and he will know us no more." So the Chaldean, Lyranus, and others.
Second, St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugo, and Arias extend these words, in either a literal or allegorical sense, to the extreme desolation of the Jews, which they still suffer on account of the slain Christ and will suffer until the end of the world. For although Amos directly prophesies against the ten tribes, he indirectly and concomitantly prophesies also against the two, namely against Judah and Benjamin. For just as Judah was similar to his brother Israel in crime, so also in devastation. The destruction of the latter was therefore a type and prelude of the former.
Hear St. Jerome adapting this whole passage to Christ and the Jews: "We can understand this passage also in the light of the Lord's Passion, when the sun at the sixth hour withdrew its rays and did not dare to look upon its Lord hanging on the cross: when, with darkness filling all things, their festivals and songs, with Vespasian and Titus conquering, were changed into weeping and mourning: when the tears
all things were filled with tears, and repentance, and sackcloth; and the heads which formerly, adorned with the flowing hair of Nazirites, nourished their locks for the Lord, had baldness. Then the firstborn son of God, the people Israel, who had laid hands on the only-begotten and true Son of God, was given over to eternal mourning. Now therefore, while those who had rejected the Sun of Justice have darkness, we who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death have seen a great light, and all their festivity has been transferred to the mysteries of the Church." And shortly after: "They slept on the lap of the harlot Synagogue, and shaved by the devil as their barber, they lost the strength of their head, losing along with their strength their eyes," like Samson. And further on: "The law was taken from them, and the Prophets were silenced with eternal silence: they wander from sea to sea, and from the British Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, that is, from the West to the South, and from the North to the East — as pilgrims and wanderers throughout the whole world they cannot find the word of God." And then, explaining the famine of the word of God: "To whom, he says, we declare that this predicted famine is of spiritual understanding, in which Christ is discerned, the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord are found. They go around the world and seek the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it; because they denied the Word of the Lord, which was made in the hands of all the Prophets, which in the beginning was with the Father, which was made flesh and dwelt among us."
Verse 13: 13. ON THAT DAY THE BEAUTIFUL VIRGINS AND THE YOUNG MEN SHALL FAINT FROM THIRST — that is, Not only...
13. ON THAT DAY THE BEAUTIFUL VIRGINS AND THE YOUNG MEN SHALL FAINT FROM THIRST — that is, Not only spiritual but also bodily famine and thirst will come upon them: for from this the unmarried maidens as well as the young men will waste away, so that, with them destroyed, there is no hope of posterity, but the whole nation as it were perishes. Hence the Chaldean translates: At that time the congregation of Israel shall suffer a fainting spell. So Theodoret, Albert, Lyranus, and Clarius.
Mystically St. Jerome says: "The virgins will fail, he says, because they will not find the word of the Lord. From which we understand that when doctrine is lacking in the Church, chastity perishes, purity dies, virtues depart; because they had not eaten the word of the Lord, which whoever eats, nourished by its food, will hear through Solomon: 'The just man eating satisfies his soul, but the souls of the wicked shall hunger,'" Proverbs chapter XIII.
Verse 14: 14. THOSE WHO SWEAR BY THE SIN OF SAMARIA, that is, Therefore the virgins, the young men, and all...
14. THOSE WHO SWEAR BY THE SIN OF SAMARIA, that is, Therefore the virgins, the young men, and all the Israelites will be punished with famine, thirst, and death, because they worship, honor, and swear by the golden calf which Jeroboam erected and set up in Dan as the god of Samaria, and they oppose and prefer it to the Word of God. AND AS THE WAY OF BEERSHEBA LIVES. — Note that the Israelites not only swore by their calves erected in Beersheba, but also by the road by which one traveled to them in Beersheba, as if this road were holy from the holy idol, as if to say: They will be punished who swear by the life of the road that leads to Beersheba — not that this road was alive, but they understand the life either metaphorically or metonymically. Metaphorically, as if to say: May the road to Beersheba live, that is, may it flourish, be trodden, and be continually frequented. For thus, conversely, roads are said to be dead, or to mourn, when they lie neglected and deserted, according to that passage in Lamentations chapter I, 4: "The roads of Zion mourn, because there are none who come to the solemn feast." Metonymically, as if to say: May our golden calf god live, to whom the road leading to Beersheba conducts: may the calf live, for the sake of worshipping which we undertake so long a journey, going from our homes to the borders of Israel — for Beersheba was situated there. So Albert and Lyranus. They swore by this road because along it there were many shrines and altars erected to idols (because the patriarch Abraham had dwelt in those places for a long time), which pilgrims would visit. This is clear from IV Kings chapter XXIII, 8, where Josiah is said to have defiled "the high places where the priests sacrificed, from Gibeah to Beersheba."
Vatablus adds that what is signified here is the zeal of the idolaters, who placed holiness in the length of a journey, and therefore made pilgrimages from one end of Judea to the other, namely from Dan to Beersheba, as if to say: The pilgrimage which begins from Beersheba and ends in Dan lives and thrives. For in Dan and Beersheba, as it were at the two borders of his kingdom, Jeroboam set up golden calves as tutelary gods of Israel. The Arabic translates: They swear by the indulgence of Samaria, and they say that God is your god and Beersheba. See here the insane zeal for idolatry, by which they not only pray for the idol or the temple, but also for the road — indeed, they swear by it as by a divinity.
THEY SHALL FALL (because of this idolatry), AND SHALL NOT RISE AGAIN — that is, They shall fall completely and irreparably, and perish. And so it happened: for the ten tribes, after Samaria was destroyed, were carried off to Assyria and never returned from there.