Or, the first day is the course of the sixth age; the second, the rest of souls: but the third, the resurrection of bodies, which is in the eighth; Hosea 6: "He will revive us after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up." 71. Morally, thus, so that the first day is of compunction; the second, of confession; the third, of satisfaction: Exodus 5: "The Lord God of the Hebrews has called us: we shall go a journey of three days into the wilderness." — Or, the first day is good thought, the second is good speech, and the third is good action: Jonah 3 according to the Septuagint translation: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."
Or, the three days are the threefold vow of religion, namely of chastity, obedience, and poverty; Genesis 40: "Three days remain, after which Pharaoh will remember your service and will restore you to your former rank." 72. Anagogically, thus, so that the first day is purgation: the second, illumination, and the third, perfection: above, chapter 2: "It came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple."
Or, so that the first day is the contemplation of God in his vestige, the second is of God in the image or in the mirror, the third, in himself: Numbers 10: "The ark of the Lord went before them for three days, providing a place for the camp."
Or, the first day is the contemplation of the subcelestial hierarchy: the second, of the celestial, and the third, of the supercelestial. In the first is the casting out of demons; in the second is the perfection of health, but in the third, the consummation of all good: and concerning this three-day period, Joshua 2: "The scouts came to the mountains and remained there for three days." This ark is Christ, who in each of these hierarchies is the highest hierarch and our leader, so that we may come to the land of promise pledged to us. In figure of which he says that he walks for three days, because he makes us through this threefold hierarchy always ascend upward, unless perchance we descend to actions. In figure of which it is said in Genesis 28 that Jacob saw "the Angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder"; no one saw them standing still. By which is signified that one must always make progress in the good. For this is to draw near to the heavenly Jerusalem, to which we draw near not by steps of the body, but by the affections of the heart and mind.
73. (Verse 34.). Jerusalem, Jerusalem, etc. After he manifested the sublimity of the divine disposition in the redemption of the human race, here secondly he manifests it in the reprobation of the rebellious people. And first he indicates the rebellion, then the hardening, and thirdly the abandonment.
First, therefore, with regard to the rebellion of that people, he says: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the Prophets and stones those who are sent to you , Here the container is taken for the contained: Acts 7: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit." "Which of the Prophets did your fathers not persecute?" Whence 4 Kings 21: "Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until Jerusalem was filled to the brim." And they did this because they hated the truth, according to that passage of Amos 5: "They hated the one who reproves at the gate, and they abominated the one who speaks perfectly." And this was because they did not wish to be reproved; "for he who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light." On account of which it is said in Ezekiel 2: "Son of man, I send you to apostate nations, who have departed from me: the fathers have transgressed my covenant, and the sons are stiff-necked and of untamable heart, to whom I send you." And the stoning itself signifies this.
74. Second, with regard to the hardening of that people, he adds: How often I wished to gather your children, as a bird her brood under her wings, and you were unwilling! In which their excessive hardening appears, because it refused to be softened by so great a kindness.
But Christ compared himself to a bird insofar as a bird has a manifold property with regard to the superabundance of tender love. He is compared to a hen in his manner of life, because a hen by her tender care and vigilance is moved toward her chicks and gathers them and defends them with her wings against the rapacity of the kite. So also Christ did, as long as he was in the flesh; therefore Matthew 23: "How often I wished to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling!" He is compared to the pelican in his passion, because the pelican is said to mourn her slain chicks for three days and afterward to pour forth her own blood with her beak, and thus to restore them to life. In this way Christ wept three times for the salvation of the human race: first over Lazarus, John 11; second over Jerusalem, below in chapter 19; third on the cross, Hebrews 5. And afterward he poured forth his own blood, by which he also gave us life: whence the Psalm: "I am become like a pelican of the wilderness."
Third, he is compared to an eagle in the resurrection and ascension, which rouses its young so that they may strive upward and gaze upon the sun and fly to the heights. And so that they may be able to do this, they lick its blood: whence Job 39: "Will the eagle be raised up at your command and make its nest in the heights," etc., up to that place: "Its young lick the blood." This bird, moreover, although it is harsh toward strangers, is nevertheless greatly attentive to the care of its offspring; on account of which Christ, our Redeemer, is rightly likened to it. Whence Deuteronomy 32: "He led him forth and taught him and guarded him as the pupil of his eye. As an eagle provoking its young to fly and hovering over them, he spread his wings and took him up and carried him on his shoulders." To refuse this kindness is the mark of the utmost hardness of heart and faithlessness; on account of which Isaiah 1: "Woe to the sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, a wicked seed, criminal children! They have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are alienated backward."
75. (Verse 35.). Third, as regards the abandonment of that nation, he adds: Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate: Isaiah 1: "Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire." "And the daughter of Zion shall be left as a shelter in a vineyard and as a hut in a cucumber garden and as a city that is laid waste."
And since, just as abandonment is joined to hardness of heart, so visitation is joined to devotion, therefore he adds: But I say to you: You shall not see me until it comes to pass that you say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: Psalm: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord; the Lord is God, and he has shone upon us." This, however, can be referred to the vision of faith, by which no one sees unless he believes him to be true man and true God: John 9: "The Lord said to the man born blind: Do you believe in the Son of God? He answered and said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him: You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you. And he said: I believe, Lord; and falling down he worshipped him."
It can also be referred to the vision of direct sight, to which no one attains unless he blesses with life and tongue: Isaiah 26: "Let the wicked be taken away, lest he see the glory of God," according to another translation; but according to ours it says: "In the land of the saints he has done wicked things and shall not see the glory of the Lord."
76. And note that, according to the exposition of the Gloss, he speaks here of the vision at the judgment, because after the vision of Christ in humility nothing is expected except the vision in majesty, and this will be twofold: of the Divinity and of the humanity: of the Divinity, and this will belong entirely to the good, because it will have the greatest joy conjoined to it: Job thirty-three: "He shall see his face in jubilation, and he shall restore to man his justice"; and Isaiah thirty-three: "They shall see the King in his beauty," etc. The other is the vision of the humanity, and this will be common to all. For all will see with certainty the power and dominion of Christ; Apocalypse one: "Behold, he shall come with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also who pierced him." The Lord therefore means to say that that Jewish people will not see Christ unto their salvation unless they are converted to the faith and to his praise; which is at last expected in the final time after the fullness of the Gentiles; whence Romans eleven: "Blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should enter in, and so all Israel should be saved"; and Romans nine: "Isaiah cries out for Israel: If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." And in this the depth of the divine dispensation manifestly appears, on account of which the Apostle exclaims in Romans eleven: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!"