(Verse 18.) In every face there is confusion, and in every head there is baldness. The reddening of the face is a sign of shame, and the conscience of sins shines forth on the face. The hope of salvation is when shame follows sin. Therefore it was said to her who gloried in her sins with a hard heart: Your face has become like that of a prostitute, you do not know how to blush (Jer. 3:3). Baldness of the head is also a sign of sorrow, when we lose the beauty of our hair and the comeliness of our youth. And it is said about Jerusalem: For the adornment of your head, you will have baldness, because of your works (Isaiah 3:17). And another prophet says: All heads, he says, will be shaved in every place, and every beard will be cut off (Jeremiah 48:37). Also, Micah to the same Jerusalem: Shave, he says, and shear over the sons of your delights, spread your baldness like an eagle (Micah 1:16). And it is commanded to make baldness over the dead. But the holy ones, that is, the Nazarites, and those who deserved to obtain priesthood of the Lord, do not shave their heads (Num. VI). For they do not perform deeds of death, nor are they unclean, because they are Nazarites, that is, holy ones of the Lord. But if someone dies near them, all the previous days will not be considered as their sanctification. Samuel, the holy one of God, possessed the eternal ornament of the head: and he heard this from the Song of Songs: Your hair is black like a raven (Cant. V, 11). Furthermore, Samson, because he lost his hair, lost his strength (Judg. XVI): and as his hair gradually grew back, his former strength returned, so that he killed many more in his death than in his life. However, although Elisha had a bald head, because he was a servant of the Lord, he enjoyed the locks of his head. Hence, little children, because they were little and had not yet reached manhood, mocked his baldness and said, 'Go up, baldhead! Go up, baldhead!' (2 Kings II, 23), and they were torn by the bites of wild beasts, whose leaps and woods are their dwelling place.
7:19
(Verse 19.) Their silver will be thrown away in the streets, and their gold will be like garbage. Septuagint: Their silver will be thrown away in the streets, and their gold will be despised. In the midst of flight and captivity, they will throw away their riches and the weight of gold and silver on the streets, only seeking to save their own lives, so that they are not burdened by what was once luxury. Otherwise, according to the anagoge, all the silver of the captives and fugitives from Jerusalem will be thrown away in the streets, on the wide and spacious road that leads to death, because they have abandoned the narrow path of salvation. But all gold will be considered worthless, even esteemed as dung and filth. For one cannot have purity who is outside the Church of the Lord.
Their silver and gold will not be able to save them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. And this is not found in the Septuagint. Without a doubt, during times of siege and famine, it does not free those hungry for gold and silver, and their teeth are blunted like the hardest stone. Finally, it follows:
They will not satisfy their souls, and their bellies will not be filled. In the presence of evil, we have learned that many rich people, depleted by poverty, have had the end of beggars, among silk, gems, and weights of gold and silver. But the silver and gold of those who are outside the Church cannot free the souls of the possessors on the day of the Lord's wrath; instead, it shows that they will have eternal hunger and be tormented with an empty stomach. This testimony confirms it, saying: The redemption of a man's soul is his own wealth (Prov. XIII, 8). Our true riches are those which Christ's truth has taught us (Luke 16), who commanded us to make for ourselves friends with unrighteous wealth, who will receive us into eternal dwellings.
Because a scandal of iniquity has occurred among them. Therefore, he says, the possessors of gold and silver will not be satisfied, nor will their stomachs be filled, because this very gold and silver has become a scandal of their crimes. But it signifies idols, which are made of gold and silver, condemn their own creators. For this reason, the Seventy translated it: because the torments of their iniquities were such that they would be tormented in their own iniquity and understand that they have turned the gifts of God into blasphemy.
7:20
(Verse 20) And they put the ornament of their necklaces upon their pride, and they made images of their abominations and idols from it. LXX: The chosen ones of the world have put it upon their pride, and they have made images of their abominations and stumbling blocks from it. Which I, he says, had given as an ornament to those who possessed and to the wealthy, they have turned into pride, so that they could use them to free their own souls through alms and good works, and from them they had material for arrogance. Finally, they made idols out of gold and silver, and turned my gifts into images of demons. Moreover, what the Seventy said is applicable to their pride in bringing gold and silver: nothing is considered more precious in the world. And what follows, we know is found in Theodotion. The meaning is easily understood according to the allegory, that heretics have used gold and silver, the senses and the words of Scripture that have been chosen as the world's treasures, and which have been given to us as ornaments, as fuel and material for pride, and they have made images of various doctrines and abominations and stumbling blocks from them, so that by means of these they could worship and adore God, but instead they offend God.
7:21
(Verse 21) Therefore I gave them over to uncleanness: and I will give them into the hands of foreigners to plunder them, and to the wicked of the earth as prey, and they will defile it. LXX: Therefore I gave them over to uncleanness: and I will give them into the hands of foreigners to plunder them, and to the pestilential ones of the earth as prey, and they will pollute it. Because they made for themselves images of their abominations and idols from the gold and silver and ornaments of their necklaces, which I had given them, therefore I gave them into uncleanness and into excrement. For which Symmachus interpreted, expressing disgust, wanting to cleanse the filth of the idols. And he said, 'I will deliver these into the hands of the enemy, so that they may plunder everything, and not only defile them, but also demonstrate that they, which previously seemed most sacred, are contaminated.' We too are delivered into the hands of our enemies and strangers to God when we make our ornaments into images of demons, and all our glory is possessed by the impious or the plagues of the earth, so that they may subject us to their power.
7:22
(Verse 22) And I will turn my face away from them: and they will violate my sanctuary: and emissaries will enter it (as the Septuagint rashly translated, or as Symmachus and Theodotio, bursting in, and pestilential), and they will defile it. For, he says, because of the previous abominations of the people, I will turn my face away from them and I will not judge them worthy in my eyes: then they will violate my sanctuary, which signifies the Holy of Holies, for which the Septuagint translated visitation (to demonstrate the presence of God in holy places) and the impious and pestilent ones of the earth will burst in: which, except for the priests and the high priest alone, no one else dared to enter. What we know, both from the Babylonians, and from King Antiochus and Gnaeus Pompeius, and finally from what happened under Vespasian and Titus, when the temple was captured and destroyed, and all the things that the following prophet's speech encompasses. God also turns His face away from our evil deeds: and because His face is turned away, the secret of God is violated, so that the pestilential may enter for the priests and saints of God, and contaminate everything: so that the place that should have been holy becomes a place of uncleanness, according to the Gospel saying: 'My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer: but you have made it a den of thieves' (Matthew 21:13).
7:23
(Verse 23.) Make a conclusion, for the land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of wickedness. LXX: And I will bring disturbance, for the land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of iniquities. The Hebrew word Arethich () is interpreted by Aquila as conclusion, and by Symmachus and Theodotion as καθήλωσιν, meaning crucifixion. For this reason, the Septuagint uses φυρμὸν, which we translate as disturbance. Therefore, O prophet, conclude my wrath upon the land of Judah and upon the city of Jerusalem in a brief speech, so that just as the land is full of bloodshed, for all are judged in bloodshed, shedding innocent blood: which the Scripture also records that the Jews did in the person of Naboth: thus their own blood is shed, and the city full of wickedness is demonstrated. For the city of Jerusalem, from gate to gate, is filled with the blood of the prophets, even under Manasseh (1 Kings 21). And there will come for them a conclusion, and disturbance and affliction, so that none of those who are facing imminent miseries can escape.
7:24
(Verse 24) And I will bring the wicked from the nations, and they will possess their houses. And these are not found in the Septuagint. For the priests and prophets, I will bring the wicked Babylonians from all nations, that they may possess your houses and subject you to servitude. But even our houses, that is, our souls (for we are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us - 1 Corinthians VI), the wicked demons will possess, if our land is filled with bloodshed and our habitation is full of iniquity.
And I will make the haughtiness of the mighty to cease, and their sanctuaries shall be possessed. I will turn away their roaring, and their holy places shall be defiled. All pride offends God. Therefore, the worst of the nations shall possess the houses of the mighty and the proud, and they shall occupy their sanctuaries, for a profane place of holiness enters, and its uncleanness contaminates it. But significantly, because the sanctuaries of God were polluted and his secret violated, he did not say, 'They shall possess my sanctuaries,' but 'their sanctuaries,' for they have departed from me after their contamination.
Distress is imminent. LXX: Propitiation will come. According to the higher order, they have been correctly interpreted as Eagle and Theodotius, the distress is imminent; and Symmachus, mourning. But the seventy, in the midst of all sorrows, have set down the word of joy: so that the soul of the grieving may be sustained, and may hope for better things amidst adversity, and a propitious Lord; of whom it is written: The Lord raises up those who are crushed (Ps. 145:8). But we, according to the earlier opinion of Symmachus, have combined it with the later, that we may say:
7:25
(Verse 25.) With impending distress, they will seek peace, and it will not be. This cannot possibly be reconciled with the Septuagint. For if propitiation comes, how will they seek peace and not find it? But he who has heard from the apostles will seek peace and not find it, for he has not kept it in his mind, nor has he made it rest, but driven away by wicked deeds, he cannot find it. Indeed, peace is that which surpasses all understanding, and which the victorious Savior, ascending to the Father, left to the apostles.
7:26
(Verse 26.) Disturbance will come upon disturbance, and hearing upon hearing. LXX: Woe upon woe will be, and message upon message. Just as it is said to the saints: Rejoice, again I say rejoice (Philippians IV, 2); and concerning them it is written: They will go from strength to strength (Psalm LXXXIII, 8), so that present good things may abound with future good things: likewise, for those upon whom distress comes, and who sought peace but did not find it, disturbance will come upon disturbance, or woe upon woe, as it is also written in the Apocalypse: woe has gone away, and woe will come quickly (Apocalypse IX, 12). And news will come upon news, and message upon message; according to the blessed Job: While one was still speaking, another messenger came (Job 1:16), increasing evils with evils, and describing the noise and tumult of approaching Babylonians.
And they will seek a vision from the Prophet: and the law will perish from the Priest, and counsel from the elders. Specifically, each individual seeks specific things. The prophet seeks the prophecy of the future. The interpretation of the law is the duty of the priest. The prudent counsel is sought by those of mature age; according to what is written: In the counsel of the saints (or the just) and the assembly, are the great works of the Lord (Ps. CX, 1, 2). However, these things were not only sought by the prophets, priests, and elders when the Babylonian army came against Jerusalem, but they are sought daily in the churches. But if they have lost sight, law, and counsel, in vain do they boast of having prophets, priests, and elders.
7:27
(Verse 27) The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed in sorrow, or, according to the Septuagint, in death: those who desired something, what we have expressed in the Hebrew language, the king will mourn, they have completely remained silent about it. However, the Holy Scripture commemorates that Zedekiah mourned, and all the princes of the people of Judah were consumed with sorrow. But, although this may seem blasphemous at first glance, we can say that the king mourning for our vices and sins is Christ, who speaks in the Psalms: What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to corruption? (Ps. 29:10) And when he approached Jerusalem, he wept over it saying: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (Matthew 23:37)! Even the leaders can be apostles, whether they mourn sinners in a good way or, on the contrary, those to whom it is said: Hear the word of the Lord, leaders of Sodom (Isaiah 1:11). And he will be clothed, according to the Septuagint, in destruction, who does not have the armor of God, nor is he clothed in Christ. For all who have been baptized in Christ, have clothed themselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27).