Cornelius a Lapide

Sophonias I

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

God foretells the destruction of Jerusalem on account of the sins of its inhabitants, through the Chaldeans, who are likened to holy priests sacrificing the impious Jews as a victim to His justice and vengeance. Hence, in verse 10, He describes the cry and wailing of the Jews: for, He says, I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men settled on their dregs. Finally, in verse 14, representing the bitterness of that day, He says that this day will be a day of calamity and misery, and also of the wrath and zeal of God, from which no one will be able to redeem himself with gold or silver.

Vulgate Text: Zephaniah 1:1-18

1. The word of the Lord, which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. 2. Gathering I will gather all things from the face of the earth, says the Lord: 3. gathering man and beast, gathering the birds of heaven and the fish of the sea: and the ruins of the wicked shall be: and I will destroy men from the face of the earth, says the Lord. 4. And I will stretch out My hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will destroy from this place the remnants of Baal, and the names of the temple wardens together with the priests; 5. and those who worship upon the rooftops the host of heaven, and who worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Milcom. 6. And those who turn away from following the Lord, and who have not sought the Lord, nor inquired after Him. 7. Be silent before the face of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice: He has sanctified His invited guests. 8. And it shall be: on the day of the Lord's sacrifice, I will punish the princes, and the sons of the king, and all who are clothed in foreign garments: 9. and I will punish everyone who arrogantly crosses the threshold on that day: who fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit. 10. And it shall be on that day, says the Lord, a voice of crying from the fish gate, and a wailing from the second quarter, and a great destruction from the hills. 11. Howl, you inhabitants of the Mortar: all the people of Canaan have fallen silent, all who were wrapped in silver have perished. 12. And it shall be at that time: I will search Jerusalem with lamps: and I will punish the men settled on their dregs; who say in their hearts: The Lord will do neither good nor evil. 13. And their strength shall be plundered, and their houses a wasteland: and they shall build houses and not dwell in them: and they shall plant vineyards and not drink their wine. 14. The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and exceedingly swift: the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the mighty man shall cry out there. 15. That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and anguish, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and whirlwind, 16. a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high corners. 17. And I will afflict men, and they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their bodies like dung. 18. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord's wrath: in the fire of His zeal the whole land shall be devoured, for He will make a speedy end of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Verse 1

1. To Zephaniah the son of Cushi. -- "The Hebrews relate," says St. Jerome, "that whenever the father or grandfather of any Prophet is named in the title, they too were Prophets. Hence Amos, one of the twelve Prophets, who had said: I am not a Prophet, nor the son of a Prophet, but a herdsman plucking sycamores, does not have his father's name in the title. If this is true, Zephaniah was born of the glorious stock of his ancestors." Then, explaining the names of each symbolically: "Zephaniah," he says, "who was set on a watchtower and in high places, and knew the sublime things of the Lord, was the son of Cushi, which is interpreted as 'humility.' He also had a grandfather Gedaliah, which means 'greatness of the Lord,' and a great-grandfather Amariah, which also translates as 'word of the Lord,' and a great-great-grandfather Hezekiah, which means 'strength of the Lord.' From the strength of the Lord, therefore, was born the word of the Lord, and from the word of the Lord was born the greatness of the Lord, and from greatness was born humility (for wise and holy men, the more they are enlightened by God and raised to the heights, the more they recognize that God is everything and they are nothing, and therefore the more they humble and abase themselves before Him) so that, when one has reached perfection, he says: I am not worthy to be called an apostle. And that verse in the Psalms: Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up." This Hebrew tradition is followed by Albert, Haymo, Remigius, Lyranus, Hugh, Vatablus, Dionysius, and others generally, because at that time the propagation of religion went hand in hand with the propagation of the family line, says St. Augustine, and Albert after him. But whether this tradition is true and certain in all respects, I have discussed in the Prooemium. It suffices here to say that these fathers and grandfathers of Zephaniah were distinguished and illustrious, however that may have come about, and are therefore named here. So says Vatablus.

Hezekiah. -- The Rabbis think this was Hezekiah king of Judah, so that Zephaniah would be his great-great-grandson. But Ribera, a Castro, and others contest this, for Zephaniah would not have kept silent about this, since he derives authority for himself from his lineage. Add to this that Scripture, 2 Kings 20:21, and Josephus, Antiquities X.3, assign no other son to King Hezekiah than Manasseh.

Verse 2

2. Gathering I will gather all things from the face of the earth -- that is to say, I will certainly and completely heap up and gather into captivity and destruction, handing over to the Chaldeans all the inhabitants and all the possessions of this land, namely Judea. For He speaks of the slaughter and captivity of Judah, not of other nations; "all things," therefore, namely men, cattle, birds, and fish of the sea, as He explains by adding what follows. Hence the Zurich Bible translates: By consuming I will consume all things; Vatablus: By destroying I will destroy; the Complutensian: Consuming I will consume; others properly: I will gather in order to destroy, I will assemble in order to make them perish. Therefore the Septuagint translates: By failing, man and beasts shall fail. Note here: failure, death, and destruction are called "gathering" in Scripture. Our author Pineda gives the reason in his commentary on Job 34:14, no. 5: Because, he says, since all life of living things is derived from God, what is united and collected in that most simple life of God appears to be divided and dispersed into many living things when it goes forth to creatures. Conversely, when life is taken away from living things, that which was divided and dispersed among living things seems to be reunited and gathered back into its principle, and that participated life seems to be recalled to the first life and fountain of living. Hence "to gather" is the same as "to destroy" or "to perish," because when life is taken from living things and they perish, that very life seems to be gathered and collected again in God, so that "the spirit returns to God who gave it," Ecclesiastes 12:7. Furthermore, all things and living creatures, except man, when they perish, are gathered and return to their abyss of nothingness, from which God by creating them brought them forth for a time.

Verse 3

3. The birds of heaven and the fish. -- Because, as St. Jerome says, "that when cities are laid waste and men are killed, a desolation and scarcity of beasts also occurs, and of birds and fish, Illyricum is a witness, Thrace is a witness, the land where I was born is a witness, where apart from the sky and the earth and the growing brambles and thick forests, everything has perished." Sanchez adds that those things are said to perish of which there is no use, meaning: For you, O Jews, captive in Babylon, the birds and fish of Judea will perish, because you will no longer be able to catch them by fowling or fishing.

Symbolically, Albert understands by "men" the citizens, by "cattle" the country folk, by "birds" the princes and the arrogant, by "fish" those addicted to gluttony and lust; for fish are prolific in seed and offspring.

And the ruins of the wicked shall be. -- For "ruins" the Hebrew is מכשלות (machscheloth), meaning ruins, falls, stumbling blocks, scandals. By these: first, the Chaldean actively understands idolatry and the crimes by which the Jews, having fallen, gave scandal to other nations. Hence he translates: I will consume the bird of the heavens and the fish of the sea, because the stumbling block of the wicked has been multiplied. Hence also Vatablus translates: stumbling blocks shall find the wicked, that is, the wicked idolaters will pay the most grievous penalties for their impiety. Others: I will gather up the scandals, that is the idols, of the wicked, and transport them together with the wicked to Babylon. Second, others take these words passively. Hence our Vulgate translates: the ruins of the wicked shall be; and the Septuagint: the wicked shall be enfeebled; others: the wicked shall fall.

Verse 4

4. I will destroy -- utterly. For in Hebrew it is הכרתי (hichratti), that is, I will cut off. The Septuagint: I will take away. The Chaldean: I will blot out. Pagninus: I will cut down men from the surface of the earth.

I will destroy the remnants of Baal. -- That is, the remnants of the temples, altars, idols, priests, worshippers, and worship of Baal.

The names of the temple wardens together with the priests -- that is, I will destroy the temple wardens and priests of Baal so thoroughly that henceforth they will not even be named, nor will any memory, name, or fame of them remain. As the poet says: Do not look to the smoke and empty names of the Catos.

Second, "the names of the temple wardens" are the wardens themselves, named by their name, so that it is metonymy.

The temple warden (ædituus) is the minister of the temple of Baal, so called not as one who burns incense, as some would have it, but as the guardian of the sacred building -- that is, one who takes care of it, says Festus. For "ædituor" is the same as "I protect the building" (ædem tueor). The same person was also called "Æditimus," as if "innermost of the building" (ædis intimus), says Festus, although Cicero in the Topics thinks that in finitimus, legitimus, and æditimus, the ending "-timus" has no more significance than "tullius" in "meditullium" -- that both are merely extensions of the name. See Gellius, Book XII, chapter 10. Lucretius in Book VI calls these "Ædituentes," as if "protecting the building" (ædem tuentes). So now at Rome each temple has its own wardens, whose duty it is to guard the temple and its furnishings, vestments, and vessels, to clean and adorn them, to provide victims, wine, ministers, and other things necessary for sacrifice, to receive pilgrims, to display the relics and memorials of martyrs, etc.

In Hebrew they are called כמרים (kemarim), meaning, as it were, "kindlers of fire and incense," thurifiers, from the root כמר (kamar), meaning "he kindled, burned, blazed." Their duty, therefore, seems to have been to burn incense and to serve as deacons assisting the priest who slaughtered the victims. Hence in 2 Kings 23:5 it says: "He destroyed (Josiah) the kemarim whom the kings of Judah had appointed to sacrifice" -- in Hebrew לקטר (lecatter), that is, to burn incense or offer frankincense -- "on the high places." Others, like Vatablus and Mariana, hold that they were called kemarim as if "burnt ones," that is, dark, from their dark and somber clothing. Hence Pagninus translates: Those who wear black garments. For the priests of the Hebrews wore white: they sacrificed clothed in a linen tunic, Exodus 28:40, just as the Egyptians, who were therefore called "linen-clad," as I noted on Jeremiah 13. Similarly, Tertullian teaches in his book On the Cloak that in the rites of the Eleusinian goddess the priests were clothed in white. So Sanchez. Others say it was because they were enclosed like monks in monasteries. So Marinus in his Lexicon, who thinks kemarim is a Chaldean word. Others derive it from the stigmata that they bore branded on their face and body. Others from the ardor of devotion with which they were inflamed in performing their sacred rites. But the first explanation I gave seems more likely. Similar to these among the pagans at Rome were the Vestal Virgins, and more so in Cappadocia the Magi, called Pyrethi, from pyre, that is fire, because they preserved and maintained the sacred fire, lest it ever be extinguished, with certain prayers and ceremonies, as Strabo teaches in Book XV.

Therefore the kemarim seem to have been imitators and rivals of the temple wardens whom God had commanded to keep and maintain the sacred fire day and night, by which the victims were to be burned, Leviticus 6:12; by which fire likewise every day, both morning and evening, incense was to be kindled and offered to God, Exodus 30:7. Thus the duty of the kemarim was, first, to keep the sacred fire perpetually burning and to feed it. Hence they are called again by the Prophets, mockingly, kemarim, that is "burnt ones," sooty and dark, as if to say: charcoal-burners, who, blackened by fire and coals, have the color and appearance of Ethiopians or demons. Second, to burn incense to idols, as is clear from 2 Kings 23:5. Third, to assist the priests in the sacrifices. Hence they are distinguished and separated from the priests here, as their ministers and deacons. For he says: "And the names of the temple wardens together with the priests" -- certainly not of God, but of Baal, say Remigius, Albert, Ribera, and others; although St. Jerome and his followers understand "priests" here as the true priests of the true God, but only those who worshipped idols along with God, whom Ezekiel attacks in chapter 8:3ff., and about whom 2 Kings 17:31, 33 speaks. I admit, however, that some of these kemarim were priests, for the Septuagint translates the word that way here. Add that to burn incense, which was the office of the kemarim, is a form of sacrificing. For the first sacrifice of the ancients was the offering and burning of incense. Hence incense was burned to the true God twice daily on the altar of incense, as a kind of sacrifice; moreover in every animal sacrifice -- of a sheep, goat, or ox -- the Hebrews by God's command placed and burned incense, and by this signified that the victim was being given and sacrificed to God, as is clear from Leviticus 2:4. These kemarim among the Gentiles, therefore, seem to have been what among Christians, especially Romans, the temple wardens are -- those who take care of the temple, altars, and sacred things, among whom some are priests, others clerics, presided over by canons whose head is the dean, provost, or bishop. The duties of the kemarim, therefore, were to guard the temple, open and close it, clean it, adorn it, teach visitors the ceremonies and worship of Baal or their idol and god, receive offerings, prepare feast days, organize choirs of singers and dances of dancers, indeed to lead in the manner of frenzied Bacchants. Hence St. Jerome translates kemarim as "fanatics," as if driven by enthusiasm and inspired by the spirit of a demon. Hence Hosea 10:5 says: And his kemarim who rejoiced over it, as the Hebrew reads. For the word כמר (kamar), from which kemarim derives, alludes to חמר (chamar), which means to be agitated like a drunkard and madman, or like turbid, mixed, and muddy wine, and hence to rave and be mad.

Verse 5

5. And those who worship upon the rooftops -- which in Judea and Syria are still flat, like platforms in the open air, on which the inhabitants walk, eat lunch and dinner, and even in summer sleep at night, as serious men and eyewitnesses at Rome have told me. The star-worshipping Jews would therefore climb onto these roofs so that from them they could freely and openly contemplate and worship the "host of heaven" -- that is, the sun, moon, Venus, and other stars and planets. Because these are many and are arranged like an army, and by their motion proceed in a fixed place and order like a battle line drawn up, they are called the host of heaven, whose king is the sun, whose queen is the moon, whose standard-bearer is Venus, or the morning star. Hence the Jews say to Jeremiah (who was a contemporary and age-mate of Zephaniah), chapter 44:25: "Let us perform our vows which we have vowed, that we may sacrifice to the queen of heaven (that is, the moon) and pour out libations to her." And chapter 7:18: "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven." To whom He Himself declares in chapter 10:2: "Do not fear the signs of heaven, which the nations fear" -- meaning: Do not worship the stars of heaven, which the nations worship. For to fear in Scripture means to worship, revere, and adore. See my notes on those passages. So among the Gentiles there were many worshippers of heaven and the sun, who thought that the heavens, the sun, and the stars, because of their beauty, loftiness, greatness, influence, order, and splendor, were living beings and divinities. Detesting these, Job says in chapter 31:26: "If I have looked at the sun when it shone, and the moon walking in brightness, and my heart rejoiced in secret, and I kissed (that is, I worshipped them by kissing) my hand with my mouth -- which is a very great iniquity and a denial of the Most High God." And the Wise Man in chapter 13:2-3: "They supposed the sun and moon, the rulers of the world, to be gods. If, delighted by their beauty, they thought them gods, let them know how much more beautiful is the Lord of these; for the author of beauty made all these things."

And they worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Milcom. -- They swear both by Milcom and by the true God, because they worship and adore both as divinities. For an oath is an act of supreme worship: when we swear by someone, by that very act we confess and attest that he is the first and uncreated truth (for this alone is infallible), and therefore that he is God.

He censures the Jews for worshipping together with the true God the gods of the neighboring nations, namely Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. So say Theodoret, Remigius, Albert, Hugh, and Lyranus. Note that "in the Lord," insofar as it refers to "swear," is the same as "by the Lord"; but insofar as it refers to "worship," it is the same as "the Lord" (accusative). For the Hebrews construct verbs of contact, whether bodily or spiritual (such as worship), with beth, that is "in," so that "to believe in God" is "to believe God" or "to believe in God"; "to call upon in the name of the Lord" is "to call upon the name of the Lord," etc. In Hebrew it reads: they swear by Milcom, that is, their king; so the Septuagint, Zurich Bible, Vatablus, and Pagninus -- that is, they swear by their idol, which they regard as their god and king, and therefore call it Melech, Moloch, Milcom, Malcam -- that is, their king. For all these are one and the same. Therefore Arias incorrectly explains it thus: those who, to flatter their king, swear equally by him and by God. For to swear by the king is lawful; for he who swears by the king swears by God, who made him king, as Christ teaches in a similar case in Matthew 23:20. So Joseph swears by the life of Pharaoh, Genesis 42:15, and the woman of Tekoa by the life of David, 2 Samuel 14:19.

Verse 6

6. Those who turn away from following the Lord -- that is, those who do not wish to follow the Lord's back (that is, the Lord), but turn their back to Him, that is, they withdraw from Him as they shun and despise Him. So the Septuagint. Hence the Chaldean: Those who turn backward from the worship of the Lord. Pagninus: Those who go back so as not to follow the Lord. The Zurich Bible: Those who have been drawn away from the Lord.

Who have not sought the Lord, nor inquired after Him. -- Morally, those who seek and investigate God are: first, unbelievers and the ignorant, who inquire who and what God is; second, sinners, who through sin have lost God and the grace of God: these by repenting seek Him again, asking that He return to them and into their favor; third, the needy and afflicted, who ask God for help -- namely light, counsel, aid, strength, and direction. Hence Vatablus translates: Nor do they implore the help of the Lord, nor consult Him. So also the Chaldean. The Psalmist wisely admonishes: "Seek the Lord," he says, "and be strengthened: seek His face always."

Verse 7

7. Be silent before the Lord. -- That is, as the Septuagint has it, εὐλαβεῖσθε -- silently fear and revere the Lord. It is a metalepsis, or catachresis: for silence is a sign of reverence, fear, admiration, and stupor, and therefore stands for these here. So Theodoret. See the notes on Habakkuk chapter 2, last verse. Hence both the Syriac and Arabic translate: Fear from before the Lord. Albert and Hugh explain it differently: Be struck dumb before the avenging God, for the day of the Lord is at hand, on which He will cut you off and destroy you. And Clarius: Be silent, that is, wait in silence, and soon you will see the wrath and devastation of the Lord. And the Chaldean: Perish, he says, utterly, all you impious, from before the Lord -- as if to be silent means the same as to perish and die. For the dead are silent: hence the place of the dead in Hebrew is called דומה (duma), that is, silence.

For the day of the Lord is near. -- The Arabic version: For the day of judgment is already near -- that is, the day of the Lord's justice and vengeance to be exercised against the Jews through the Chaldeans. Thus the day of judgment is called "the day of the Lord"; the remaining days are the days of men, on which they do as they please -- just as the days of the week are the days of the pupils, but the sabbath is the day of the schoolmaster, on which he exacts from the pupils the work of the whole week, rewards the diligent, and punishes and whips the negligent or unruly.

For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice: He has sanctified His invited guests. -- It is a sustained metaphor, or allegory: for He calls the slaughter of the Jews, inasmuch as they are impious, a sacrifice -- and a public and solemn one at that -- in which the Jews are the victims to be slaughtered. The day of sacrifice is the day of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The priests are the Chaldeans, who offer this victim to God and divine justice. Hence they are said to be "called" and "sanctified" by God, because God summoned them from Chaldea and enrolled and consecrated them as His soldiers, indeed His ministers and priests, when He chose and designated them as the butchers of the Jews, to offer and slay them as a holy victim of His divine vengeance. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Haymo, Lyranus, and others generally, except that the Chaldean, Vatablus, and Clarius understand by the "invited" not priests but guests at a banquet -- namely birds and beasts -- whom God summons to this solemn feast, to devour the corpses of the Jews slain by the Chaldeans. Hence the Arabic Antiochene translates: the Lord has prepared victims and made known to those who are of His banquet. More clearly the Arabic Alexandrian: the Lord has prepared the slaughter (that is, victims slaughtered for a banquet) and sanctified the invited. And the Syriac: the Lord has prepared a victim, or a banquet, and has invited His guests. He alludes to the vow of חרם (cherem), or anathema, by which a thing, whether holy or impious, was to be wholly slaughtered and consecrated to God through death, whether civil or natural, about which I have said more on the last chapter of Leviticus, verse 28, and Romans 9:9.

Morally, learn here how hateful injustice and crimes are to God, and conversely how dear, how much His concern, His honor, and His delight are justice and the punishment of crimes -- indeed as much as a solemn sacrifice or holocaust, which is offered to Him as the supreme Lord of all things and is received by Him as a sweet fragrance. So much so that He calls kings and tyrants, even though unfaithful and impious, who carry out this vengeance, His soldiers, His sanctified ones, His priests. Hence through Jeremiah, chapter 6:4, He commands and declares to them: "Sanctify war against her (against Jerusalem)." And in Isaiah 13:3, concerning Cyrus and the Persians who were to devastate impious Babylon, He says: "I have commanded My sanctified ones, and have called My mighty ones in My wrath." Moreover in Jeremiah 48:10, He commands and enjoins this vengeance upon the impious Moabites through the Chaldeans under threat of a curse: "Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully." What work is this? Hear: "Cursed is he who holds back his sword from blood." Conversely, the Wise Man in chapter 14:7 says: "Blessed is the wood through which justice is done."

Verse 8

8. On the day of the Lord's sacrifice (the destruction of Jerusalem, when it will be the victim, to be slaughtered by the Chaldeans for the Lord) I will punish the princes, and the sons of the king -- of Zedekiah. For Nebuchadnezzar, having taken Jerusalem, "slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; and also killed all the princes of Judah," as is stated in 2 Kings 25:7. So say Lyranus, Arias, Vatablus, and others. Differently St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, and their followers, who by "the sons of the king" understand the sons of Josiah, of whom Jehoahaz was led into captivity by Pharaoh, Jehoiakim was killed by the Chaldeans, Zedekiah was blinded, and Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon. But he calls the day of the sacrifice the day of destruction, on which there was no other king of Jerusalem than Zedekiah, whose sons Nebuchadnezzar slaughtered like victims. But of the sons of Josiah, he made none a victim -- that is, he killed none. For Jehoiakim was killed not by him but by the brigands or marauders of the Chaldeans.

And all who are clothed in foreign garments. -- First, some understand by this the garment that idolaters used in the worship of idols. Hence the Jews, by putting on this garment, by their very dress professed themselves worshippers of idols, just as one who puts on a yellow cap at Rome professes himself a Jew, and one who wears a turban, a Turk. Hence the Chaldean translates: Those who make a clamor for the worship of idols. Second, some Hebrews think that the bodyguards and servants of princes and nobles are censured here, for they usually wear clothing varied and different from the common people, bearing the insignia of their prince. Third, Theodoret explains foreign clothing as taken from foreigners by theft or plunder, as if he censures here the thefts and robberies of the Jews, by which they stripped guests and foreigners of their garments and clothed themselves in them. Fourth, others take foreign clothing to be that of the opposite sex -- for instance, if a man wears women's clothing or a woman men's -- which is against decency, modesty, and chastity, and is therefore forbidden by God in Deuteronomy 22:5, and by the Council of Gangra under penalty of anathema, as is found in distinction 30, chapter Si qua mulier. Fifth, properly and genuinely, he calls foreign the garment that was not Jewish but Gentile -- such as Egyptian, Philistine, Ammonite, Tyrian, etc. He therefore censures here the ambition, fickleness, and curiosity of the Jews, in that they adopted new, foreign, and Gentile dress, and along with the clothing put on the customs and idolatry of the Gentiles. So St. Jerome. Ezekiel censures nearly the same thing in chapter 23, verses 12 and 15, and the author of 2 Maccabees chapter 4:13.

Morally, let Christians learn here how much God hates novelty and luxury in clothing, and how He punishes and avenges it; for it savors of softness, pride, fickleness, inconstancy, and lack of judgment. Hence to such people one may rightly say what Stilpo said to Crates: δοκεῖς μοι χρείαν ἔχειν ἱματίου καινοῦ -- you seem to me to need a new cloak, or a cloak and a mind; for καινοῦ taken together means "new," but separated into καὶ νοῦ means "and a mind." So Laertius, Book II, chapter 12. Quintus Curtius in his last book, and Plutarch in his Life of Alexander, blame him for changing his dress after conquering the Persians and putting on Persian clothing. Strato -- or as others say, Plato -- said to Aristippus: "To you alone it is given to wear both a military cloak and rags." The cloak (chlamys) is the garment of satraps, rags the garment of beggars; for he danced in purple at the court of Dionysius, and at other times wore a cheap mantle. So Laertius, Book II, chapter 8; hence Horace: "Every color suited Aristippus." So today there are chameleons who conform themselves to all nations, places, and sects, both in dress and in faith and morals; but while they desire to match each one's color, they become discolored and deformed in the eyes of all. They are embroiderers who paint both morals and colors, of whom Prudentius writes in the Hamartigenia:

Art is added, so that threads saturated with twice-boiled herbs may mock various forms with patterned warp.

And Martial:

The needle of Babylon has been surpassed by the Egyptian comb.

Diogenes said to someone who boasted of walking about dressed in a lion's skin: "Will you not stop disgracing the vestments of virtue?" -- judging it unworthy that a soft man should claim for himself the garb of Hercules. So Laertius, Book VI. The same Diogenes, seeing a young man adorning himself too carefully, said: "If for men, ἀτυχεῖς -- you are wasting your time; if for women, ἀδικεῖς -- you act unjustly." For a male adorns himself for other males in vain, since there cannot be marriage between them; and he acts unjustly if by his allurements he ensnares a woman. The same philosopher called a certain rich but uneducated man who was splendidly dressed χρυσόμηλον -- a sheep clothed in a golden fleece. Demonax said to someone showing off his purple garment: "Listen, a sheep used to wear this before, and it was still a sheep" -- meaning that the man was as stupid as a sheep, even though he wore purple. King Artaxerxes had given Teribazus his own garment with the condition that he should not wear it; but he put it on anyway, and even adorned it with the gifts he had received from the king, giving them to women. Then the king, bursting into laughter, said: "I grant you the right and power to wear the gold as a woman would, and the royal garment as a madman would." Augustus Caesar, seeing many wearing Greek cloaks at a public assembly, said indignantly: "Behold the Romans, lords of the world, and the toga-clad nation!" He was pained that the Romans were changing their dress and adopting the Greek cloak. His saying was: Distinguished and soft clothing is the banner of pride and the nest of luxury. So Suetonius in his Life. Claudian censured foreign clothing in Rufinus, and the Franks in Charles the Bald. The once most steadfast Germans began to change their clothes along with their faith. "Shameful," says the poet, "is the Belgian color on a Roman face."

If these things are unbecoming for laypeople, they are much more so for clerics and religious, in whom St. Bernard sharply censures the luxury of clothing, in Sermon 23 on the Song of Songs, and in the Apology to Abbot William.

Tropologically, the foreign garment is heresy, which innovators put on -- "those who have departed from the protection and clothing of God and are covered with their own error," says St. Jerome. Mystically the same: "The garment," he says, "of the sons of the king and the clothing of princes is Christ," which we put on in baptism, according to Ephesians 4:24: "Put on the new man, who was created according to God in justice and holiness of truth." And Colossians 3:12: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, modesty, patience." We therefore put on the foreign garment of the devil when instead of mercy we put on cruelty, instead of kindness harshness, instead of humility pride, instead of modesty arrogance, instead of patience impatience. Hence again the Apostle admonishes in Romans 13:14: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ;" for he who scorns virtues and takes up vices puts on Antichrist instead of Christ. In particular, the foreign garment is hypocrisy. "For what is more foreign than sheep's clothing on ravenous wolves? What is more foreign than for one who is inwardly full of iniquity to appear outwardly just to men?" says Rupert.

Verse 9

9. Who arrogantly crosses the threshold. -- The Hebrews say: who leaps over the threshold -- that is, who enters with such pride and arrogance that he seems to go skipping and bounding, especially when ascending the steps of the temple, which Amos censures saying in chapter 6:1: "Woe to you who are wealthy in Zion, entering the house of Israel pompously!" See the notes there. He censures the arrogance of princes, nobles, and the wealthy in their entrance, even into the temple, especially since in the temple all should humble themselves before God and profess humility in dress, gait, and prayer. For those who go to the temple do so to humbly invoke God and to ask for His help and grace; therefore it is unworthy to show arrogance where pardon for faults and help in need are humbly begged from God.

He furthermore censures the pride of priests and pontiffs, who with broadened phylacteries walked arrogantly in the temple as if they were its commanders and governors. Hence the Septuagint translates: I will take vengeance on everyone conspicuously in the vestibules. For the priests lived in their own court, next to the temple, as if in its vestibule. So Christ chastises the same men, but out of respect for the priesthood under another name, that of the Scribes and Pharisees, for their haughtiness and pride, Matthew 23:5. This is the meaning given by St. Jerome, Haymo, Albert, Hugh, and others, who secondly also explain it as though the Prophet rebukes the superstition of the Jews adopted from the Philistines, who after their idol Dagon was mutilated on the threshold of the temple, thereafter did not dare to tread on it out of reverence, but leaped over it, 1 Samuel 5:8; hence the Chaldean translates: I will punish all who walk in the customs of the Philistines. But we read that only the Ashdodites did this, whose god was Dagon, from whom the Jews, as from enemies, recoiled; hence we nowhere find that they worshipped Dagon. And indeed if they had done so, the Prophet certainly would not have kept silent about it here. For it is a small, indeed no fault at all, to leap over the threshold of the temple out of reverence, because one considers oneself unworthy to tread upon the threshold of the house of God; but it is a far greater fault to do so in honor of Dagon or another idol, and thus to venerate and worship it.

Third, the Chaldean, Arias, Pagninus, the Zurich Bible, and Vatablus translate from the Hebrew thus: I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold on that day, who fill the house of their masters with plunder -- as if he censures here the Jews, especially the followers or servants of princes and the powerful, for theft, in that they leap over the threshold, both of their neighbors, to steal their goods, and of their masters, to hide their stolen goods there, be safe, and divide the spoil with them. But both the Septuagint and our Vulgate translate "of the Lord their God" instead of "of their masters." He therefore censures the princes not only for arrogance but also for injustice -- that is, for robbery, usury, and fraud -- and for impudently and almost sacrilegiously consecrating these to God. He also accuses the priests of accepting the same, indeed of extorting them, and of plundering and stripping the poor of their goods under the guise of religion, as though those things should be offered to God, deceitfully and impiously, by persuading, for example, their children: If your needy parents ask anything of you, say that it is corban, that is, a gift dedicated to God and the priests, as Christ reproaches them in Matthew 15:6, and Matthew 23:14: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you devour the houses of widows, making long prayers" -- meaning: Woe to you, Scribes, who drain the purses of widows by selling them your long prayers under a pretense of holiness! For in Greek it reads, προφάσει μακρᾷ προσευχόμενοι, that is, on the occasion of a long prayer, or under the pretext that they pray much for them. So St. Chrysostom on that passage.

Verse 10

10. A voice of crying from the fish gate -- namely, will be heard: because, as Ribera and Villalpando (Part I, On the Adornment of the City, Book II, chapter 13) teach, the Chaldeans seem first to have burst into the city of Jerusalem through the fish gate, and to have killed or captured all the inhabitants, just as a fisherman is accustomed to prey upon all the fish of the sea without restraint. Hence Habakkuk in chapter 1:14 says: "And You will make men (the Jews) like the fish of the sea," to be caught by the fisherman Nebuchadnezzar. And verse 15: "He brought up everything with his hook, he dragged it in his net." This gate was called the Fish Gate because it faced the sea, and through it fish were imported. Hear from Adrichomius, drawing on St. Jerome, Saligniaco, and Brocardus: The Fish Gate, he says, was situated near the tower of David, between Mount Zion and the lower city, in the valley of Millo facing west. It was called the Fish Gate because through it fish were brought daily into the city from Joppa and other coastal places (and especially from the Sea of Galilee, which lay on the opposite side, says Villalpando, Part I, Book III, chapter 9). This gate was also inscribed with other names: the gate of David and the gate of the Merchants -- of David because it was near the tower of David, and of the Merchants because through it various merchandise was brought from Bethlehem, Hebron, Gaza, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Western pilgrims used to enter the city through this gate. So also Villalpando, Part I, Book III, chapter 9. However, he disagrees with Adrichomius in thinking the Fish Gate was not on the west of Jerusalem, as Adrichomius holds, but on the north, because, he says, the Chaldeans had their camp to the north, and burst into the city through the Fish Gate, and immediately occupied the Second Gate, which was in the second wall and is called by Jeremiah the Middle Gate. This reasoning is sound if it is true that the Chaldeans entered the city through the Fish Gate and into the Second Gate, as Zephaniah here implies. He therefore thinks the Fish Gate was to the north of the city, between the gate of Ephraim and the tower of Hananeel, near Bezetha; and that the Chaldeans entered through it because they coveted the riches of the temple, which was nearby. However, St. Jerome agrees with Adrichomius, and 2 Chronicles 33:14 supports this, where it says: "He built a wall outside the city of David, to the west of Gihon, in the valley, from the entrance of the Fish Gate to Ophel." And to Villalpando's argument one could reply that the Chaldeans broke into Jerusalem by both routes: namely, by breaching the northern wall they penetrated into the Second Quarter, and by breaking through the western Fish Gate they burst into the valley of Millo and into the lower city, which was called the daughter of Zion. For this gate was near both, and opened access to both; hence Zephaniah indicates that there will be wailing in both places, both at the Fish Gate and in the Second Quarter.

And a wailing from the second quarter. -- The Second Gate was so called because it was in the second wall. For Jerusalem, to the north near the temple, was divided into three districts, each of which had its own wall extending lengthwise. The first wall was adjacent to Zion. The second was the middle one, notable for its very splendid gates and divided into fourteen towers, which King Hezekiah repaired and made stronger and higher, 2 Chronicles 32:5. The third was the outermost, which King Agrippa did not first build, as Ribera holds, but fortified at public expense when it was already built, making it broader and higher. This was entirely solid, 25 cubits high, and had ninety strong and lofty square towers. So Josephus, War VI.6 and Antiquities XIX.7. There was therefore wailing at the Second or Middle Gate, because the Chaldean leaders, having broken through the third and outermost wall, burst into the second and seized its gate, which was called the Second or Middle Gate, and occupied it, as Jeremiah narrates in chapter 39:3.

The Hebrews, Pagninus, Vatablus, Arias, and Clarius add that in the Second Quarter there was an academy; hence the prophetess Huldah lived there, 2 Kings 22:14. Therefore for משנה (misne), that is, "second," they translate "academy": a great wailing, they say, from the academy. For academics, accustomed not to swords but to pens, are more than others terrified and panic-stricken by the fear of war, and cry out when the enemy attacks -- indeed the quiet and silent Muses do not go well with fierce Mars and the clamor of trumpets, drums, and muskets. For the outermost wall of Jerusalem contained the third district of the city, in which artisans, merchants, and the common people lived. The second wall contained the second district, in which, as the safer and more tranquil area, nobles, scholars, teachers, Rechabites, and similar people lived. The third and innermost wall contained the citadel of Zion and the temple, and the lower city beneath them, which was therefore called the daughter of Zion. See these things vividly depicted in the description and map of Jerusalem that Adrichomius presents after page 144. Read also our Villalpando in The Adornment of the City, Part I, Book II, chapter 3, and Book III, chapter 9.

And a great destruction from the hills -- namely of Zion and the temple and similar places, to which, as being more fortified, the Jews fled from the second and outermost district when the city was taken by the Chaldeans, but were there caught by the pursuing Chaldeans, crushed, and slaughtered. So say St. Jerome and Theodoret.

Tropologically, at the hour of death and on the day of judgment there will be lamentation, on account of the sins we committed through the gates, that is, the eyes and ears, and on the hills, that is, in our reason, mind, and will. For death climbs through the windows, Jeremiah 9:21. See the notes there. Thus the Fish Gate is the gate of the eyes, about which Song of Songs 7:4 says: "Your eyes are like the pools of Heshbon, which are at the gate of the daughter of the multitude." For the eyes, because of their watery and crystalline humor, seem to be pools and fish gates, through which the images of transient things and pleasures swimming in the sea of this world creep like fish into the soul and infect it and make it like themselves.

Hear St. Jerome: "The first gate will be that of the eyes, through which our sins will be displayed before our eyes, and all the pomp and image of our ancient crimes, vices, and lustful pleasures will be brought into the open. The conscience will therefore torment him, and after he has cried out in compunction from the first gate of the eyes, he will also wail from the Second, which we can understand as the ears. For through these senses especially, through which vices had crept in, the punishment will be felt, when we see what we have done, and hearing the account and whole sequence of our sins, we will be driven to wailing, and whatever was lofty in us will be crushed, whatever through blindness and deaf ears was hidden in us." Second, the same author a little later: "Or certainly," he says, "at the end of the world and at the consummation, those who did not preserve their baptism will mourn from the first Fish Gate. Those who did not perform worthy penance for their sins will mourn from the Second. And there will be great destruction upon the hills -- those who were not bowed down for their sins, so as to submit their neck and bewail their crimes. For through these two gates of Baptism and Penance there is either entrance into or return to Jerusalem, that is, the Church of God."

Verse 11

11. Howl, you inhabitants of the Mortar. -- Of the Mortar, that is, the mortar in which we pound pepper, ginger, and spices; or, if larger, rice and grain. Hear St. Jerome: "The mortar, which in Hebrew is called מכתש (machtes), and was translated by Aquila as τοῦ ὕλμου, should be read with a long first syllable (not as a ball for playing, lest we think of σφαῖρας), but with a long vowel, so that we understand the mortar in which grain is pounded: a concave vessel suitable for the use of physicians, in which barley-gruel is properly beaten." Hence the mortar (pila) is so called from pinso (I pound), because in it they pounded and beat dried grain with a pestle, as Cato says in chapter 14 of his book On Agriculture. Now the Mortar here is the proper name of a city or place. Hence Pagninus retained the Hebrew Machtes as a proper name of the place.

You may ask: what place or city is this? First, Rabbi Solomon thinks that "the Mortar" refers to the city of Tiberias, because it is situated in a hollow valley; the Fish Gate is Ptolemais, which borders the fish-rich sea; Misne, which our Vulgate translates as "the Second," is Luz, a city near Jerusalem; and the hills are Sepphoris. But he makes this up in his usual way, without proving it. Certainly the reference cannot be to Tiberias, since it had long been devastated by Shalmaneser along with all of Galilee and Samaria, in the 6th year of Hezekiah king of Judah, who was the great-great-grandfather of Josiah, under whom Zephaniah prophesies, as he himself says in verse 1.

Second, Lyranus more aptly understands by "the Mortar" Jerusalem itself. For this entire prophecy is directed against Judah and Jerusalem, which it threatens with destruction by the Chaldeans. Now Jerusalem is called a mortar because it was in the center of Judea, its hub, to whose market and fairs the Jews flocked from all directions. With a similar metaphor Ezekiel in chapter 24:2 calls Jerusalem a pot in which meat -- that is, the Jews -- is cooked. Hence Syriac dictionaries also explain Machtes or Machtose as Jerusalem, from the root chtase, which means to disturb, agitate, vex, or also to attack and wage war -- all of which apply to Jerusalem. But since in verse 4 the Prophet expressly named Jerusalem, why would he here obscurely call it a mortar? Add that immediately before he named specific places in Jerusalem -- the Fish Gate, the Second Quarter, and the hills -- therefore machtes, or the Mortar, was also a specific location in the same city. Hence

Third, by "the Mortar" one may understand the lower city of Jerusalem, which, situated in a hollow valley, was like a mortar compared to Zion and the other hills. For this city was near the Fish Gate and the Second Quarter. It is called a mortar, both because of the low-lying position already mentioned, and because in it there was a market of spice-dealers, bakers, cooks, etc., who pound spices, grain, meat, and herbs in a mortar. So say Arias, Vatablus, and Clarius.

Fourth, by "the Mortar" one may understand the ravine of Millo, which was also called the Tyropoeon. For as Josephus teaches in War VI.6, Jerusalem was built upon two hills facing each other with opposing fronts, separated by an intervening valley into which densely packed houses descended. And further on: The valley called the Tyropoeon, by which, as I said, the hill of the upper city is divided from the lower, extends as far as Siloam; for so we used to call the spring that is sweet and abundant. This valley is called the Mortar here, both because of its depth and because in it the Jews were to be pounded. St. Jerome calls it the valley of Siloam; the Chaldean calls it the valley or torrent of Kidron, because it ran as far as Siloam and Kidron through the Water Gate. The meaning, therefore, is: "Just as grain is pounded in a mortar by the pestle striking from above, so from the Fish Gate and from the Second Gate and from the hills the army will rush down upon you and pound and crush you," says St. Jerome, and after him Remigius, Ribera, Emmanuel, and Mariana.

Fifth, Adrichomius in his description of Jerusalem thinks that machtes, or the Mortar, is properly the valley of Kidron. The Kidron is a torrent between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, which runs lengthwise through the valley of Jehoshaphat. The valley of Jehoshaphat is therefore the valley of Kidron, which in its further part, where the torrent of Kidron flows past the spring and pool of Siloam, is called the valley of Siloam. Hear Adrichomius: The valley of Kidron, he says, wide, deep, and dark (hence also called Kidron, from the root קדר [cadar], meaning black, dark, obscure, gloomy), which went around the temple like a ditch; and because it was arranged in the likeness of a mortar, it was called in Hebrew Machtes, and in Latin Pila (Mortar). It was of such great depth that the eyes of those looking down from the roof of the temple to its bottom grew dim, not without dizziness. In this valley merchants and traders of every kind lived. Into this valley, when James the brother of the Lord, the first bishop of Jerusalem, proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God in the pinnacle of the temple before all the people on the very feast of Passover, he was thrown down by order of Ananus the Sadducee high priest, and with his legs broken was also stoned from above by the Scribes and Pharisees, and finally struck in the skull with a fuller's club and died. So far Adrichomius. This opinion is plausible, and St. Jerome supports it, calling the mortar the valley of Siloam; and the Chaldean, who translates mortar as "the torrent of Kidron." But against it there seems to be the objection that the torrent of Kidron and the valley of Siloam were outside the city, while the mortar, along with the Fish Gate and the Second Quarter, seem to have been within Jerusalem.

Therefore the fourth opinion reviewed a little earlier seems more probable, as it reconciles all the interpretations. In addition, the Fish Gate, through which the Chaldeans burst into the city, is placed by Adrichomius directly at the entrance of the valley of Millo or the Tyropoeon, so that the Prophet rightly says there was immense wailing at that place, as it was the spot where the Chaldeans first unleashed their fury. For this valley was very wide and densely populated, since Solomon had leveled it and adorned it with buildings, which Hezekiah restored when they had collapsed, as is clear from 1 Kings 9:15 and 2 Chronicles 32:5.

Moreover, by this one part of the city the Prophet signifies the wailing and lamentation of the whole city. For all of Jerusalem, as Lyranus said, just as it was a mortar that pounded and killed the Prophets, so equally it was a mortar in which the Chaldeans pounded and killed these impious citizens and prophet-slayers; just as the same city was afterwards a mortar that pounded Christ and the Apostles, and therefore became a mortar in which Titus and the Romans pounded and killed those same Christ-slayers, as Christ foretold to it in Luke 19:41ff. Hence the Septuagint translates: Mourn, you who inhabit the hewn-down place. For the Hebrew machtes signifies both a mortar and the jawbone with teeth, because just as in a mortar spices are ground and chopped, so by teeth food is chopped and ground. Machtes therefore is generally a vessel or instrument by which chopping or pounding is done, such as a mortar and a jaw. Hence the Jews in Jerusalem were as if pounded in a mortar, and in the same city as if by a jawbone -- that is, by the swords and weapons of the Chaldeans -- they were chopped and mangled.

Symbolically, let Constantinople howl, let Buda howl, let Trebizond howl, let every city captured by the Turk or by a heretical prince howl -- in which, as in a mortar, he pounds the Catholics.

Tropologically, the mortar is tribulation, in which God pounds sinners to extract from them groans and tears of repentance; but in many cases the saying of the Wise Man is true, Proverbs 27:22: "Even if you pound a fool in a mortar, his foolishness will not be taken from him." But the just and the martyrs in such a mortar say what Anaxarchus, pounded in a mortar, said to the tyrant: "Pound, pound! You pound the bag (the body); you do not pound Anaxarchus," as Philo relates in his book That Every Good Man Is Free. And Ovid in his Ibis:

Or may you be ground in a deep mortar like Anaxarchus, and may your bones sound in place of the usual grain.

Anagogically, the mortar is the cauldron of Vulcan, namely hell, in which the devils pound the reprobate with as many pestles as the illicit pleasures they experienced or committed in this life; and especially the pestles are the stings of conscience, which, crying out against and reproaching the damned, perpetually pounds and torments him, saying: Why, wretch, did you throw yourself into this mortar? Why for a brief pleasure did you bring upon yourself so many pestles of pain and anguish? It will be pounded forever, but never pounded through; you too will be pounded and crushed to the bones, to the very soul; but no blow will pound it out, but will keep it alive and immortal forever, for eternal poundings and torments. As a symbol of this, the poets imagine the heart of Prometheus, bound to a rock on Mount Caucasus, perpetually pounded and gnawed by an eagle, but never consumed or pounded away -- and this as punishment for his theft, by which he stole fire from heaven and brought it down to earth, as Ovid tells in Metamorphoses I. But why are they so horribly pounded in this mortar? Because in this life they were a mortar of gluttony, belly, lust, and greed, in which the flesh, the world, and the devil heaped up, compressed, pounded, and ground their delicacies, their feasts, their spices, their wines, their filth, and their riches -- because they lived slothfully, allowing themselves to be trampled and pounded by temptations, passions, and vices. For such is a mortar that sluggishly allows itself to be continually pounded. Hence Timon the misanthrope called Cleanthes, on account of his slowness of wit, δῖμον ἄτολμον -- a blunt pestle, a sluggish mortar. Hence the proverb: "Blunter, barer, balder than a pestle" -- for the bottom of the pestle is so blunt and smooth that it seems to resemble a bald man's skull. The mortar, therefore, denotes the sluggishness of the wicked in resisting sin and doing good, which has cast them into the mortar and cauldron of Vulcan.

All the people of Canaan have fallen silent. -- In Hebrew כי (ki) is added, meaning "because," as though the reason is here given why the inhabitants of the Mortar will howl -- namely, because all the people of Canaan have fallen silent. Canaan means a merchant, one who is occupied with buying and selling goods, as the inhabitants of Canaan, the Canaanites, used to do. Hence Hosea 12:7: "Canaan, in his hand is a deceitful balance." See the notes there. Indeed the Chaldean by Canaan understands the Canaanites, meaning: Howl, citizens of Jerusalem, because the Canaanites and other merchants will cease to bring spices, grain, and other wares to your market, to your mortar. Secondly and better, "because" here, as often elsewhere, is not causal but enclitic, and is added merely for emphasis. Therefore by Canaan understand not the Canaanites but the Jews. For they are called by the Prophets Canaanites, not Hebrews or children of Abraham, because they imitated not the ways of Abraham but of Ham, Canaan, and their descendants. For one is called the son of whoever he imitates and resembles. Hence Daniel 13:56: "Offspring of Canaan, and not of Judah." And Ezekiel 16:3: "Your root and your birth are from the land of Canaan: your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite." Hence also Christ says to the Jews: "You are of your father the devil," John 8:44. Hence the Chaldean translates: The people has perished whose works are like the works of the people of the land of Canaan. So say St. Jerome, Theodoret, Haymo, and Lyranus. Moreover, in the word "has fallen silent" (conticuit) there is an emphasis. For "has fallen silent" means has been utterly cut off and has perished, as the Chaldean translates, so that no voice, groan, or whisper is heard in it; because all have been either captured or killed by the Chaldeans; or if any remain, they are so stricken, afflicted, and stunned that from the intensity of pain and from shock their voice fails them, and they cannot utter any sound, or even open their mouths.

All who were wrapped in silver have perished -- that is, the merchants and the greedy, who handle nothing but gold and silver, and the wealthy who are surrounded and enclosed on every side by riches, and who trust and pride themselves in them, as though they were invincible against the Chaldeans. So says St. Jerome. Hence the Septuagint translates: those exalted by silver. Secondly, "wrapped in silver" means that they gave their heart and all their affection to silver, and attached and wrapped themselves in it so thoroughly, says Ribera, that they seem not so much to possess and rule silver as to be possessed and ruled by silver. Hence others translate: bearers of silver; others: burdened with silver. For silver is the idol that the miser worships, consults, pursues by fair means and foul, to which he obeys in all things and hands himself over as a slave. Hence he is driven by it to usury, fraud, deceit, and every crime. For this reason avarice is called by the Apostle the service of idols, in Greek idolatry, Ephesians 5:5. It was said of Aristotle, when he was trying to investigate too curiously the sevenfold daily ebb and flow of the Euripus and was swallowed by it: "Aristotle does not have the Euripus, but the Euripus has Aristotle." The same may be said more truly of the miser: The miser does not have the Euripus of money, but it has and possesses the miser. Cicero truly says, in the fifth oration against Verres: "Nothing is so sacred that it cannot be violated, nothing so fortified that it cannot be conquered by money." And Cato in Gellius: "Thieves of private property spend their life in chains and shackles; but public thieves live in gold and purple." Finally, the greedy are wrapped in silver because they have their heart in money, not in heaven. A literal example of this is found in the Life of St. Anthony of Padua. For when he was delivering the funeral oration at the obsequies of a certain rich miser, he said: Christ says, "Where your treasure is, there is your heart also." Thus this rich man has his heart in his treasure, and left it there. Go to his house, and you will find it in his gold. They went, and found his heart in his gold, as the holy man had affirmed. Many similar examples are found in the lives of the Saints. Delrio adds in adage 1003: Just as infants who delight in worthless things like nuts are wrapped in swaddling bands, so the rich who delight in worthless red and white earth -- that is, gold and silver -- wrap themselves in it: "enwrapped in this same wrapping, they become so bloated," says Rupert, "that it is exceedingly difficult for them to enter the kingdom of God," according to that saying of Christ: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," Mark 10:25.

Mystically, St. Gregory in Morals XVIII.11 writes: "Because," he says, "some desire to possess the words of God not inwardly through practice but outwardly through display, therefore the Prophet says: All who were wrapped in silver have perished. These indeed are those who do not fill themselves with the word of God by interior nourishment but clothe themselves with it by outward show." So literally, clerics and religious who outwardly display the appearance of piety, if inwardly they have a heart wrapped in silver, fall from their station and perish. For this reason we have seen and continue to see many Churches, monasteries, and Orders fall from the pristine splendor of holiness, and therefore either perish, or lie in contempt, or be overthrown by heretics and unbelievers. A wise man truly said: "The mother gave birth to a daughter, but the daughter strangled the mother" -- namely, "the daughter of ample endowment strangled the mother of devout religion."

Verse 12

12. I will search Jerusalem with lamps -- that is: I will cause the Chaldeans, after capturing Jerusalem, to search all its corners and hiding places thoroughly, lest any of the Jews escape their hands by hiding. Similarly the Romans under Titus searched for the Jews in the sewers, caves, and tombs, and dragged them out to their death, as Josephus relates in War VII, chapters 17, 26, and 30, and in War III, chapter 14. There he narrates that he himself was extracted from them, or rather came out voluntarily, and surrendered to Vespasian, who promised him his life and freedom. It is a proverbial expression. For we bring a lamp when we wish to search for something thoroughly and see it clearly. Hence that old saying which Plutarch cites in his Precepts on Marriage: "When the lamp is taken away, there is no difference among women" -- meaning that most are immodest, or easily become so, if they are given the opportunity of darkness and secrecy, where they may sin without a witness. Moreover, Diogenes, holding up a lamp in broad daylight, when asked what he was doing, replied: "I am looking for a man," as Laertius relates in his Life. Seneca, in his book On the Happy Life, indicates that the same thing used to be done in superstitious rites, whenever the wrath of a deity was announced: "When an old man clad in linen, carrying a laurel branch and holding out a lamp at midday, cries out that some god is angry, you all come running and listen."

Allegorically, this will be more truly fulfilled on the day of judgment, when God will search the secrets of places and minds, and will reveal the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of hearts, 1 Corinthians 4; for then He will require an account from everyone even for the smallest idle word and for the subtlest thoughts, says St. Jerome. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 55 on the Song of Songs, explaining that verse from Song of Songs 2: My beloved is like a gazelle, which has sharp sight: "Fear," he says, "the scrutiny of the Judge, fear the eyes of the gazelle, fear Him who says through the Prophet: And it shall be on that day, I will search Jerusalem with lamps. He has sharp sight; He leaves nothing unsearched. His eye will search the reins and hearts, and the very thought of man will confess to Him. What is safe in Babylon, if in Jerusalem the search remains? For I think that in this passage the Prophet by the name Jerusalem designated those who in this world lead a religious life, imitating as far as they can the manners of that heavenly Jerusalem by an honorable and orderly way of life; and not like those who are from Babylon, who lay waste their lives in the confusion of vices and crimes. For the sins of those are manifest, preceding them to judgment, and they do not need searching but punishment. But my sins (for I seem to be a monk and a citizen of Jerusalem) are certainly hidden, shadowed by the name and habit of a monk; and therefore it will be necessary for them to be investigated by a subtle examination, and as if by lamps brought near, to be brought into the light, according to that Psalm 74: When I shall have taken the proper time, I will judge justly (that is, the ways of the just). It is greatly to be feared, when it comes to this, that under so subtle an examination many of our righteous acts (as they are thought to be) may appear to be sins." He adds the remedy: "There is one thing, however: if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. I will take care to correct my faults with better acts, to wash them away with tears, to punish them with fasts and other labors of holy discipline, etc. I will search my ways and my pursuits, so that He who is going to search Jerusalem with lamps may find nothing unsearched in me, nothing unexamined. For He will not judge the same thing twice. Who will grant me so thoroughly to pursue and track down all my offenses that in nothing need I fear the eyes of the gazelle, in nothing need I blush at the light of the lamps? And now I see, but I do not see. There is an Eye present to which all things are open, though that Eye itself is not open to us. The time will come when I shall know, even as I am known."

You may ask: what are the lamps of God with which He will search all people and all things on the day of judgment? I answer: The uncreated lamp of God is His very mind, intellect, insight, and knowledge, by which He penetrates and sees through all things most clearly. For, as the Apostle says, "the word of God is living and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword, etc., a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature invisible in His sight; all things are naked and open to His eyes," Hebrews 4:12. Hence the Egyptians depicted God hieroglyphically as an eye resting upon a scepter -- the eye signifying His vision, knowledge, and providence, the scepter His power, kingdom, vengeance, and chastisement. "For God," says Pliny in Book II, chapter 7, "is entirely sensation, entirely sight, entirely hearing, entirely soul, entirely mind, entirely Himself." And as Tertullian says in his book On the Trinity: "God is entirely an eye." Hence Sirach 23:27: "His eye sees all things." And verse 28: "The eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, observing all the ways of men, and the depths of the abyss, and looking into the hearts of men in their hidden parts." Therefore consider, O sinner, that you cannot escape this Eye, even if you hide yourself in a chamber, in caves, in caverns; for everywhere this Eye sees you. If you know and consider this, how do you dare to sin in the sight of this divine and avenging Eye, and to provoke Him?

The created lamps of God are various. The first are the angels and demons, who as spiritual beings are luminous and ever-watchful, penetrating, searching, and seeing through all things, of whom the Psalmist speaks in Psalm 103, and the Apostle in Hebrews 1:7: "Who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire." These on the day of judgment will accuse the sinner, and will reveal and lay open all his crimes, even the most hidden and the most minute, before the tribunal of Christ.

The second lamp of God is each person's reason and conscience, about which Psalm 4:7 says: "The light of Your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us." And Matthew 6:22: "The lamp of your body is your eye." This preserves the guilt in memory and will recognize and confess it before the Judge and the whole world. It will say to the sinner himself: I warned you, I cried out to you: Do not commit this crime; God sees you, God will punish you. But you refused to hear me; while I protested, you brazenly and shamelessly committed these and those specific crimes in the sight of God. You know it, I testify to it -- you cannot deny it.

The third lamp is the law and word of God, about which the Psalmist says in Psalm 118:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths." And the Wise Man in Proverbs 6:23: "The commandment is a lamp, and the law is light." And 2 Peter 1:19: "Attending as to a lamp shining in a dark place." For the law of God will reveal the iniquities of men, which they committed contrary and opposed to this law, and will show how unjustly and impiously, and how alien and abhorrent to reason and law, they were. Hear St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, octonary 18, on the words Your word is fiery: "Describe to yourself in three ways," he says, "the fiery word of God: either because it cleanses, or because it kindles, or because it illuminates those who hear it. Therefore the Lord says: I searched Jerusalem with a lamp. But He found in it no one who would be cleansed, or kindled, or illuminated; therefore He left it in darkness."

The fourth lamp is the sun, moon, and stars, which shone for the sinner while he sinned and held the torch for him; for these will testify to the crime they witnessed and for which they provided light. Hence Isaiah says of them in chapter 24:23: "The moon shall blush and the sun shall be confounded, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of His elders." And Joel 2:31: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood."

The fifth lamp is the life of Christ and of the saints. Hence Christ says of John the Baptist: "He was a lamp burning and shining," John 5:35. And Philippians 2:15: "Among whom you shine like luminaries in the world." And of Elijah and Enoch St. John says: "These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing in the sight of the Lord of the earth," Revelation 11:4. There are therefore as many lamps of God as there are saints -- indeed, as many as the virtues and examples of the saints; these will expose and convict the wickedness of sinners. Therefore Christ the Judge will say to every reprobate: Behold, I gave you these examples of the pious as torches for you to follow; but you preferred to follow darkness and the works of darkness rather than the light. See how your works, how your life is deformed compared to the life of St. Paul, St. Francis, St. Dominic, etc. If you should reply: Lord, I could not preserve chastity, because by nature and habit I was too inclined to lust, the Judge will argue: You lie. For St. Augustine, who was most inclined to lust, conquered it through My grace; Mary Magdalene conquered it, Pelagia conquered it, innumerable others conquered it. Therefore you too could have conquered your inclination through the same grace, which I either offered you or prepared for you, and which I would have actually given you if you had humbly and earnestly asked for it and had strenuously cooperated with it. Who would not tremble at this searching of God?

Anagogically, the lamp of the heavenly Jerusalem is the most splendid and most glorious humanity of Christ, which will not only search it so that nothing defiled may enter it, but will also irradiate, gladden, and bless it with wondrous and eternal splendors. Of this Revelation 21:23 says: "The city has no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb."

And I will punish the men settled (that is, completely immersed, stuck fast, and -- as the Hebrew has it, קופאים [kopheim] -- congealed or frozen) on their dregs (that is, in their sordid and foul pleasures, namely luxuries and riches). -- Hence the Chaldean translates: I will take notice of the men who enjoy their riches in the greatest tranquility. It is a metaphor from harsh wine sitting on its sediment, which, as long as it remains undisturbed in it, retains its harshness and defect; hence, to remove it and make the wine smoother, wine-sellers usually remove it from the lees and transfer it to another vessel. So God transferred the Jews from Jerusalem, where they were awash in leisure and wealth, to Babylon, in order to correct their corrupt morals. Zephaniah alludes to his contemporary Jeremiah, chapter 48:11, where he says of Moab: "Moab has been fruitful from his youth, and has rested on his dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile; therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is unchanged." See the notes there. Thus a change of place and office often tears men away from their indulgences, habits, and attachments.

Therefore it has been wisely introduced in religious orders that religious are periodically transferred from one monastery or college to another, from one province to another, so that they may remember that here they have no abiding city, but are strangers and pilgrims, and citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, and may fix their mind and love upon Him.

Who say in their hearts: The Lord will do neither good nor evil -- that is: who think and suppose that God has no providence over good and evil, so as to punish the latter and reward the former; but that all things happen by chance or fate. It is Fortune, they say, or Fate that governs everything, that brings good things to some and bad to others. This is the voice of politicians and atheists: for those who remain perpetually stuck in the dregs of their sins eventually become atheists. For the love of pleasures and the habit of sinning, which they are unwilling to give up, drives and blinds them into saying: There is no providence -- so that they may sin more freely with the fear of God removed, and enjoy their lovers or indulgences, according to Psalm 13:1: "The fool has said in his heart: There is no God."

Verse 13

13. And their strength shall be plundered. -- For "strength" the Hebrew is חיל (chel), which means power, forces, wealth, and army. Hence the Chaldean translates: Their riches shall be for spoil. Pagninus: Their substance shall be for plundering. The Zurich Bible: Their wealth shall be plundered. And it follows: and their houses (shall be) a wasteland. The Chaldean: their houses for prey. Pagninus: their houses for desolation. The Zurich Bible: their houses shall be devastated. For the rich place all their strength in houses and wealth, according to Proverbs 18:11: "The substance of the rich man is the city of his strength, and like a strong wall surrounding him." However, St. Jerome, Remigius, and Haymo understand "strength" as meaning army. Hear St. Jerome: "On the day of death and judgment, all their strength will be plundered, so that what was wrongly powerful and raised up against the Lord may be turned for the better, weak and broken. Just as if someone should plunder the strength of a robber, a pirate, and a thief, and render them powerless -- their weakness benefits them, for the weakened limbs, which they previously used badly, will cease from evil work."

Verse 14

14. The great day of the Lord is near -- that is, the day of vengeance and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity.

Allegorically, St. Jerome, Remigius, and Vatablus aptly, indeed the Church in the Office of the Dead, apply all these things to the day of judgment. See the notes on Joel chapter 2. Near, says St. Jerome, is the day of death and judgment, "either because of eternity, for nothing is long to it; or because of the greatness of the punishment, for to the one who suffers, the punishment that is to come never seems far off; or because, when we have departed from the world, and the death of each one has brought about for him the consummation of the world, it will not only be near, but exceedingly swift."

The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter -- because on that day there will be clamor, noise, tumult, and lamentation, both of the Chaldeans killing and of the Jews either killed or taken captive -- bitter and horrifying.

Allegorically, St. Jerome continually felt the sound of the last trumpet ringing in his ears: "Whether," he says, "I drink, or eat, or sleep, that trumpet always sounds in my ears: Arise, you dead, come to judgment." The wise are those who continually hear and ponder this voice.

The mighty man shall cry out there. -- The Chaldean: there the powerful shall be killed. Pagninus: the strong man cries out there. The Zurich Bible: there the strong man shall shamefully wail. Others, changing the punctuation, explain it thus: The voice of the day of the Lord is near; there the strong shall cry out bitterly -- that is, there will be heard the fierce and horrible voice of the Chaldeans assaulting Jerusalem and slaughtering its citizens; and allegorically, of the angels sounding the trumpet and bringing destruction and an end to the world on the day of judgment.

Verse 15

15. A day of wrath... -- Literally he speaks of the day of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; allegorically, of the day of judgment. The Septuagint: That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and necessity, a day of misery and perdition, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and mist, a day of trumpet and clamor. The Chaldean: A day of affliction and anguish, a day of tumult and upheaval, a day of darkness and gloom, a cloudy and obscure day, a day of trumpet and jubilation. Pagninus: That day is a day of wrath, a day of anguish and affliction, a day of tumult and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and gloom, a day of trumpet and alarm. These exaggerations signify and represent the bitterness, horror, and atrocity of that day. The Zurich Bible: That day is a day of burning anger, a day of distress and constriction, a day of desolation and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and mist, a day of trumpet and battle cry. See the notes on Joel 2:2. Let the one who meditates and the preacher ruminate upon each of these epithets of that day, weigh them, ponder them, and press them home, for example:

First, the days of this life are days of grace; but that day of the future life and judgment will be a day of wrath, because on it God will pour out all at once, in a single torrent, all the wrath He has collected over the six thousand years during which sinners continually offended and provoked Him in this world. Second, that day will be a day of tribulation, because God will drive the threshing-sledge of all afflictions over the wicked, and will say: "As much as she glorified herself and lived in delights, so much give her torment and mourning," Revelation 18:7. Third, it will be a day of anguish, because the reprobate will be pressed from every side. For if they look upward, they will see the angry Judge breathing forth fumes. If downward, they will see the flames of hell prepared for them. If backward, they will see the pleasures that have slipped away now deserting and tormenting them. If forward, they will see an interminable eternity, and a most wretched one. If to the sides, they will see the angels abandoning them and the demons attacking them. If within, they will see their conscience accusing and scourging them. Fourth, it will be a day of calamity -- that is, most calamitous -- so much so that they will say to the mountains: "Cover us!" and to the hills: "Fall upon us!" Hosea 10:8; Revelation 6:16. For from every direction punishments will rush upon them like enemies.

Fifth, it will be a day of necessity, as the Septuagint translates, because they will undergo a necessary and unavoidable sentence and condemnation, from which neither men, nor angels, nor the Blessed Virgin will wish or be able to free them. Sixth, it will be a day of perdition, because they will lose their reputation, life, joy, soul, and every good thing forever. Seventh, it will be a day of tumult, as the Chaldean translates, because in so great and nearly infinite a number of the damned, in a crowd packed and crushed together both in the valley of Jehoshaphat and in hell, there will be a horrible din, clamor, and wailing; horrible insults, curses, and blasphemies, by which the damned will curse their companions, parents, demons, angels, and God; for they will snarl at each other like dogs from the utmost pain and despair. Eighth, it will be a day of darkness, because they will go into the outer darkness, where they will never see the sun, moon, or any light. Ninth, it will be a day of whirlwind, because as if out of their minds they will be driven in a whirl, and the shrieking fire like a tornado will spin them around and snatch them into the abyss. Tenth, it will be a day of the trumpet and battle-alarm, as Pagninus translates -- that is, of battle, by which God will overthrow and destroy them. Again it will be a day of the trumpet, because at the trumpet's proclamation they will be led forth before the whole world to the place of punishment, to be tortured in hell.

Eleventh, it will be a day of desolation and devastation, as Pagninus and the Zurich Bible translate, because they will be deprived of all consolation and joy and will be filled with every sorrow and sadness. Twelfth, it will be a day of jubilation, as the Chaldean translates, because the saints will rejoice and applaud the justice and vengeance of God, and will triumph over the damned themselves and celebrate a victory over them as over vanquished enemies.

15. A day of cloud and whirlwind. -- First literally: for God fights against the impious, and especially on the day of judgment He will fight, hurling and launching against them clouds, whirlwinds, lightning bolts, thunder, storms, and hail. For these are counted as soldiers in the camp of God, Psalm 10:7; Wisdom 5:22. So fighting for Theodosius against the tyrant Eugenius, He sent winds against him:

The hurled weapons He turned back upon their authors, and with a whirlwind repelled the spears, says Claudian.

Second symbolically: for cloud, tempest, and whirlwind are the symbol and image of a horrible battle, conflict, slaughter, punishment, and vengeance, thundering down from on high from God and raining upon the impious and hailing upon them. So Homer in Iliad IV depicts the Greek battle lines rushing upon the Trojans like storms:

As a shepherd often sees from the high top of a cliff a cloud over the sea, Gathered by the blast of the west wind, and darkness thickening the storm-clouds to pitch, threatening a savage tempest.

And Virgil, imitating Homer as usual, in Aeneid XII:

As when a storm-cloud, with a star broken loose, Goes across the middle of the sea -- alas! the hearts of wretched farmers shudder from afar with foreboding; It will bring ruin to trees and destruction to crops, and will devastate everything far and wide. Before it the winds fly, carrying their sound to the shores. So the Rhaetian leader drives his column against the opposing enemies.

And again he describes Aeneas in the midst of battle as if in a whirlwind:

As when storm-clouds pour down with unleashed hail, Every plowman flees from the fields, etc. So Aeneas, overwhelmed on every side by missiles, Weathers the cloud of war until it thunders past.

Verse 16

16. Against the high corners. -- The Chaldean: against the elevated hills. The Zurich Bible: against the lofty towers; for these are usually built at the corners of palaces -- meaning: the Chaldeans will very quickly scale, seize, and devastate the tallest towers. So say Theodoret, Lyranus, Arias, and Vatablus.

Verse 17

17. They shall walk like the blind -- from fear, anguish, horror, and stupor. For fear and anxiety seem to snatch light, mind, and eyes from the timid, anxious, and perplexed, so that they do not know where to flee -- meaning: the Jews will be so stunned that they will seem to grope and walk like blind men, especially because He will take from them their counselors and wise men, who are the mind and eyes of the city and its citizens, as Isaiah foretold in chapter 3:3.

Their blood shall be poured out like dust. -- The Zurich Bible: like dust -- that is, despised and worthless, trampled underfoot by everyone.

Their bodies. -- The corpses of the Jews will be cast out unburied like dung -- that is, they will be buried with the burial of a donkey, as Jeremiah threatened King Jehoiakim around this same time in chapter 22:19.

Verse 18

18. Their gold will not be able to deliver them -- because the savage Chaldeans will seek the lives of the Jews, not their gold.

In the fire of His (the Lord's) zeal all the land shall be devoured -- namely of Judea, for that is what he is discussing. He calls the fire of zeal the wrath of vengeance, or avenging wrath. For wrath is called fire because in anger, with the blood boiling, we seethe and burn, so that we seem to vomit flames from our eyes, mouth, and nostrils. Hence the saying: "He breathes out fires or wrath from his nostrils." Hence the Arabic Antiochene translates: in the fire of His fervor. The Arabic Alexandrian: in the flame of His fire. Again, vengeance is called zeal because in God it is born from immense love. For He alludes to the zeal of husbands who, because they love their wives ardently, therefore if they commit adultery and betray their faith and love, punish them most severely and often kill them. So God, because He loved His people ardently -- that is, the Jews, as His brides -- when they betrayed their faith and committed adultery with idols, with love turned to indignation, punished, devastated, and consumed them most severely, even to consummation -- that is, fully, utterly, and completely. So says St. Jerome. He speaks literally, as I said, of the day of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and similarly of the day of its destruction by Titus and the Romans, about which St. Jerome says: "To this day you may see the Jews forbidden to enter Jerusalem except to weep; and so that they may be permitted to mourn the ruin of their city, they pay a price -- so that those who once bought the blood of Christ now buy their own tears. On the day when Jerusalem was captured and destroyed by the Romans, you may see a mournful people coming, decrepit old women and old men covered with rags and years gathering, demonstrating the wrath of the Lord in their bodies and their clothing. A crowd of wretches assembles, and while the gibbet of the Lord gleams and the banner of His Resurrection shines forth, and from the Mount of Olives too the standard of the cross blazes, the wretched people mourn the ruins of their temple -- and yet are not pitiable, etc. -- and does anyone doubt, seeing these things, about the day of tribulation and anguish?"