Three Books of Commentaries on the Prophet Hosea, addressed to Pammachius, by Saint Jerome of Stridon, Priest
Latin Text from public domain Migne Editors, Patrologiae Cursus Completus.
Translated into English using ChatGPT.
Table of Contents
Book One: Prologue
"If, in the explanations of all the prophets, we need the coming of the Holy Spirit, so that, by His inspiration, those things written might be unfolded by the revelation of the same Spirit, and we read of a book marked with signs in the book of Isaiah and in the Apocalypse (Isaiah 29; Apocalypse 5), which the scribes and Pharisees, who pride themselves on their knowledge of the laws, cannot read because it is sealed, and no one could discover it except for the lion of the tribe of Judah, whom God the Father marked, and who alone could reveal its mysteries, how much more must the Lord be prayed for in the explanation of Hosea the prophet and with Peter we say: ‘Explain this parable to us.’" (Matthew 13:16) Especially since the author himself attests to the obscurity of the volume at the end: "Who is wise and will understand these things, prudent, and will know them?"(Hosea XIV, 10)? We ought to accept this not as impossible, but as difficult, according to that of the Gospel: "Who thinkest thou is a faithful servant and wise, whom his Lord hath appointed over his family?"(Matt. XXIV, 65)? For who would not be immediately scandalized at the beginning of the book, and say: Hosea, the first of all the prophets, is commanded to take a prostitute as a wife, and he does not contradict? He doesn't even pretend not to want it, so as not to seem to be doing something shameful against his will; but he carries out the command gladly, as if he had wished for it, as if he regretted having been idle for a long time in terms of chastity: when we read that holy men have refused more honorable things without sin, at the command of the Lord. Moses is sent to Pharaoh and is appointed leader of the Israelite people, and yet he responds not with weakness, but with humility: "Provide someone else whom you will send" (Exod. IV, 13). Jeremiah says he is a boy so that Jerusalem will not accuse him of sinning" (Jeremiah 1). "Ezekiel is commanded to make bread from a mixture of all kinds of grain and to bake it in human feces, but he says, 'No, Lord, because nothing unclean has ever entered my mouth'" (Ezekiel 4:14). "And when Hosea heard from the Lord, 'Take a harlot for a wife' (Hosea 1:2), he did not wrinkle his forehead, he did not give testimony of sorrow with pallor, he did not show modesty by changing the blush of his cheeks, but he went on to the brothel and led the prostitute to his bed. And she is not initiated in matronly modesty; but she approves herself as luxurious and a granddaughter. For he who adheres to a prostitute becomes one body with her. (1 Corinthians VI.) Therefore, hearing this, what can we respond but that prophetic saying: 'Who is wise and will understand these things, prudent and will know them?' (Hosea XIV, 10.) And so we must say with David: 'Reveal my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law' (Psalm CXVIII, 18); so that the king may lead us into his chamber (Song of Solomon I) and that the veil that was placed before the eyes of Moses in reading the old Testament (Exodus XXXIV) may be removed from us (2nd Corinthians III). For as soon as the Lord spoke: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, and saying this he breathed out" (Luke 23:46), the veil of the temple was torn, and all secrets of the Jews were revealed. And the fountain that came forth from the house of David ((Alias Lord)) entered into the sea of solitude; and the true Elisha divided barren and deadly waters of his wisdom with salt, making them life-giving (4 Kings 4); and the bitter sea of the Law, interpreted as "bitterness," was sweetened with the wood of the gallows (Exodus 15). For we understand who Judah the patriarch, chosen to be king, is, nor do we marvel why a holy man entered unto Tamar as if to a prostitute (Gen. XXXVIII); why Samson, who is interpreted as "sun," loved Delilah, who is translated as "poor;" and because of her, he mocked and killed thousands of his adversaries (Judg. XVI); why Salmon, a just man, fathered [Boaz] with Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho, who covered herself with the wing of his cloak while lying at his feet, and the head of [the book of] the Gospel [came] away (Ruth. I, II, III). What is the reason that although David had so many wives, he made no other successor of his reign except him who was born of Bathsheba, so that not only harlots, but even adulterous women, may seem pleasing to God. Therefore, even in this prophetic passage, we read that Hosea is joined to a harlot at first and then to an adulteress, and the Lord says to him: "Go again, love a woman beloved of her friend and an adulteress", or a lover of evil, "who has become a harlot". This is the harlot and adulteress woman who washed the feet of the Lord in her tears, dried them with her hair, and honored her confession with perfumes; and while the disciples, and in particular the traitor, were indignant that it had not been sold and the price distributed to the poor, the Lord replied: "Why do you trouble the woman? She has wrought a good work upon me. For the poor you have always with you, but me you have not always." (Matth. XXVI, 10, 11). And lest we think it insignificant, that which he had done, and that the spikenard, that is, the most faithful unguent, is to be given to something other than the church, it gives us an opportunity for understanding and great faith, and promises great rewards, saying: "Amen, amen, I say to you, wherever this Gospel shall have been preached in the whole world, what she has done shall also be told in memory of her." This is the harlot of whom the Lord speaks to the Jews: "Amen I say to you, that the prostitutes and the publicans shall go into the kingdom of God before you" (Matthew 21:31). For you refused to welcome the Son of the fatherly household and the Lord of the vineyard, who planted it. This harlot hid my two brave spies, one of whom I had sent for their circumcision, the other for the gentiles. She concealed them with great kindness, raised them to her roof, and covered them with flaxen straw (Joshua 2). But when the city was conquered and she was baptized, she changed her color and was turned from darkness to light. And it is not surprising that in the image of the Lord Savior, and of the Church gathered from sinners, we remember these things, since he himself says by the Prophet in the same matter: "I will speak to the prophets; it is I who multiplied visions, and I was likened to the prophets" (Hosea 12:10), so that whatever the prophets are commanded to do, may be referred back to my own likeness. Whose wife is Ethiopian, against whom Aaron and Miriam, serving the fleshly priesthood of the Jews and serving the prophecy of the letter, murmur and offend God (Num. 12): which says in Canticle of Canticles: "I am black" "and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem" (Cant. 1:4). Otherwise, if we strive to make all that is prescribed for reasons to be done in truth, as a similitude, therefore Jeremiah, girded with a loincloth, in a woman's garment, among countless nations and Assyrians and Chaldeans, the most hostile peoples of the Jews, went to the Euphrates to hide his loincloth there, and after many days returned and found it had rotted and was of no use to anyone. (Jeremiah 13). How could he have gone out and traveled so far, besieged by circuits of fortifications, ditches, ramparts, and castles around Jerusalem? One who wished to exit to his own village in Anathoth located at the third milestone from the city, when captured at the gate is brought back to the authorities, beaten like a traitor and sent to prison. If that was done by mistake, since it couldn't happen: therefore, this too is a mistake, because if it happens, it is most shameful. But you will answer, with God ordering it, nothing is shameful: and we say, God commands nothing except what is honest, and by commanding the dishonorable, He makes those things honorable which are dishonorable. But since we know that God wills nothing except what is honorable, he has commanded what is honorable. I have said this more extensively in the beginning so that I might first solve the very difficult issue and, progressing by the help of God from the obstacle at the end itself, run down to safety. Moreover, I am not unaware, very dear Pammachus, that it has been passed over by many ecclesiastics; and those who have attempted to explain it, I have found among the Greeks, Apollinaris of Laodicea, who, when he left short commentaries on this and on some other Prophets in his youth, touching on the meaning rather than explaining it, was afterwards requested to write more fully on Hosea; and this book has come into our hands; but even he cannot guide his reader to a perfect understanding by excessive brevity. Origen wrote a little book concerning why in Hosea he is called Ephraim, wanting to show that whatever is said against him refers to the person of heretics. And I also read a headless and incomplete volume, which lacks both a beginning and an end. Pierius also read a very long treatise which he delivered extemporaneously and in eloquent speech on the beginning of this prophet during the vigil of Christ's passion on Sunday. And Eusebius of Caesarea, in the eighteenth book of the Ecclesiastical History, discusses certain things about the Prophet Hosea. Wherefore, about twenty-two years ago, when I was in Alexandria at the request of your holy and venerable mother-in-law, or rather mother, Paula (this is the name of the body, but it is a different matter in spirit – she who was always burning with love for the monasteries and for the Scriptures), I saw Didymus and heard him often. He was the most learned man of his time. I asked him to do what Origen had not done: write commentaries on Hosea. Upon my request, he dictated three books to me and also five on Zachariah. For even in his works Origen listed only two volumes on the same theme, barely discussing a third part from the beginning of the book until the vision of the quadriga. I mention this so that you may know whom I have had as precursors in this Prophet's field. But to speak simply and not arrogantly (as some of my friends always told me), I confess to your prudence that I have not followed them in all respects. I acted more like a judge of their work than a mere interpreter, and I said what I deemed right in each case, and what I learned from the Hebrew experts with difficulty. Among whom he is already a rare bird, while all are devoted to pleasures and money, and they carry more concern for the belly than the mind, and they consider themselves learned if in the physician's shops they detract from the labors of all. But now it is time that, setting forth the words of the prophets which have been written, we should discuss them.
Book Two: Prologue
He who often sails suffers a storm at some point; he who travels the road frequently either withstands the attack of robbers or at least fears it, and in every art both glory and detraction arise from both favourable and adverse winds, while either friends extol one more than deservedly or enemies detract from one more than justly: and you will rarely find one who is not swayed towards one side or the other by favour or hatred, but who is led by even-handed judgement. I see this happening to me as I toil in explaining the Scriptures. For some indeed, they consider small things as contemptible and despise anything that we say, contracted into a trivial notion; some, out of hatred of our name, consider not the things themselves, but the people; others approve of the silence of others more than our hard work. There are some who boldly assert that we are doing what we have undertaken, that no Latin before us has dared to attempt. Some believe they are eloquent and learned if they pull down another's work, and judge not what they are capable of themselves, but what they think we cannot do. But you, Pammachus, who have instructed us in this, it is necessary for you to be a supporter of your own rule ('empire') and of our Amafionios and Rabirios of our time, who make good things from the Greeks into bad things in Latin; and the most eloquent people themselves transfer idioms, so that with the Evangelical foot you may crush the Hydra and the Scorpion and cauterize them, you may wear out sandals, and by deaf ears you may pass the Scylla-dogs and the deadly songs of the Sirens: so that we may be equally able to hear and understand what the Prophet Hosea prophesies, concerning whose interpretation we are dictating the book. And though I am glad to have your support, and to be the first among the cities of the earth in nobility and religion, and to count myself your defender, yet I would rather attain to that which Titus Livius writes of Cato, that by praising he profited no one, and by vituperating he injured none, both of which things they did with the highest abilities. The persons intended are Marcus Cicero and Gaius Caesar, of whom the above-mentioned writer wrote the praises and censures. For while we live and are contained in a fragile vessel, the studies of friends appear to be of help, and the reproaches of rivals to be harmful. But after the earth, returned to its own earth, has hidden us who write and those who judge us in the pale death that will come, and another generation has come, and the forest has grown green, with the first fallen leaves replenished, then genius is judged alone, without the dignity of names; and no one who reads knows whose it is, but what it is that he is reading, whether he be bishop or layman, emperor or lord, soldier or servant, whether it be purple and silk or the coarsest cloth: it will be judged not according to the distinction of the good but by the merit of its works.
Book Three: Prologue
I do not ignore, Pammachus, that the work of the twelve Prophets (or the little work), certainly interpreted into Latin, is very difficult to forge, and which can accuse our rashness more than reveal knowledge. But because we can't refuse you, rather command you to encourage you, and with the strength of those who offered, two poor women's brass surpassed the wealth of many in the treasury of God (Luke XXI): whatever we can do, we first pay God, then to you, who are of God; and we always remember his verse: "Pollio himself creates new songs." And as I am pleased to have you as an open advocate for the rights of friendship, I am afraid of your silent judgement of your learning; and I fear more for you to praise than for your adversaries to detract. For in their case, jealousy undermines credibility, and they should be called not so much judges as accusers. However, you, who promise judgment not based on persons but on things you love, though even love can be deceived, and that saying of Theophrastus is beautiful, which Cicero translated more according to sense than to word, that "love is blind about the beloved". Nevertheless, I ask that you lean more in that direction, not out of hatred, but out of love. We dictate the third book concerning the prophet Hosea, and we have arrived as far as the cows of Bethaven. As we unfold the sails of interpretation, you ought to say that prophetic phrase: "Come from the four winds, O Spirit of Heaven." Then with swift course we shall pass over the various reefs of those lying in wait, and bear the Lord's merchandise, saved from the storm on every hand, into the safest harbors.
1:1
"The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri." LXX similarly. The word of the Lord, which was in the beginning with God the Father, and the Word was God, came to Hosea the son of Beeri, so that he too might make God known as a prophet, with the Savior saying: "If those to whom the word of God came are called gods, and the Scripture cannot be broken: 'Whom the Father has sanctified' and sent into the world, you say I blaspheme because I said, 'I am the Son of God' " (John 10:35-36). Just as God makes gods and stands in the assembly of gods, yet judges among the gods (Psalm 81); and since he himself is the true light that illuminates every person coming into this world (John 1), he speaks to the apostles: "You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), so too the Savior himself makes his prophet a savior. "Hosea," in our language, means "savior": a name that was also given to Joshua, the son of Nun (Numbers 14), before God changed his name. For he is not called "Ause," as is read wrongly in Greek and Latin texts, as it is completely incomprehensible; but "Hosea," that is, "savior," to which is added the Lord's name, so that "savior of the Lord" might be said. Therefore, this savior is the son of "Beeri," which means "my well," which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had dug, and the foreigners had always tried to fill with rubbish. (Gen. 16, 21, 26, 46). Between a well and a lake, that is, a cistern, the difference is that a well has constantly flowing water, and it springs from a living source. The cistern, which cools, possesses its external and adventitious waters. From this, God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah: "They have deserted me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, which cannot contain water" (Jeremiah II, 13). Concerning this fountain, the psalmist proclaims to God: "With you is the fountain of life, and in your light, we will see light" (Psalm XXXV, 10). From this, some think that "Beeri" means "my light"; but the correct translation is superior.
"In the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, Ezechias, kings of Judah; and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas, king of Israel." The Septuagint in the same way. Azarias, who is also called Uzziah, from the offspring of David, reigned over the two tribes which were called Judah in Jerusalem for fifty-two years, then his son Joatham succeeded him in the kingdom, who also reigned for sixteen years. After him, his son Achaz reigned for similarly sixteen years. After Achaz, his son Ezechias reigned for twenty-nine years, in whose sixth year the sixteen tribes which were called Israel were captured by Salmanasar, the king of the Chaldeans, and placed in the mountains of the Medes. Since it is clear, with Hosea, Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah and Micah prophesying, who were his contemporaries, that the kingdom of the ten tribes was limited, which from the first king Jeroboam to the last Hosea remained for two hundred and fifty years. But at that time, when Uzziah began to reign over Judah, Jeroboam, the great-grandson of Jehu, was reigning over Israel, to whom the Lord had promised that his offspring would reign up to the fourth generation, because he had struck down two wicked kings of Judah and Israel. We say this so that we may briefly show it to you, Hosea the prophet, both before the captivity of Israel and after its captivity, and that he foresaw the future and announced the coming of the light and rewove the past for the improvement of Judah; which we will try to approve in the very prophet according to history. Uzziah means "the strength of the Lord"; Jotham, "the completion and perfection of the Lord"; Ahaz, "virtue"; Hezekiah, "the Lord's empire." They ruled in the "Juda" people, whose name means "confession." Furthermore, in Israel, Jeroboam, who had made idols for himself and had been separated from God's people, reigned. Jeroboam means "chronology," that is, "temporality" or "delay." He loved the world and thought that by dwelling in it for a long time, he would have a life, delighted not in the future but the present, that was never going to be eternal.
1:2
The beginning of the speech of the Lord (in Greek "Domini" and in the Vulgate "Domino") is in Hosea. LXX: "The beginning of the word of the Lord to Hosea." As we said above, they are preferred to other prophets in the title, Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, and Ezechias, to whom they prophesied while ruling. Therefore, he now says that among all these, the Lord spoke first in Hosea, and later to the others. But to speak of the Lord in Hosea is one thing, and to speak to Hosea is another. In Hosea, Hosea himself does not speak, but through Hosea to others; but speaking to Hosea, it is meant to bring the discourse to him. Others do not want Hosea to have been the first of all the prophets, from the fact that it is said: "The beginning of the Lord's speaking in Hosea." But it is shown that these which follow, the Lord first spoke to Hosea.
"And the Lord said to Hosea: Go, take to thee a wife of fornications." LXX: "And the Lord said to Hosea: Go, take to thee a wife of fornication." The Hebrew word Zanunim does not mean "a harlot" or "fornication", as many believe, but rather means "many fornications". From which it is shown that the woman whom the prophet takes as wife has not committed fornication once, but many times, so that the more sordid she is, the more patient the prophet will be who has taken such a wife. And what is added is:
"And ((Vulg. "And make for yourself")) children of fornication: for the land which fornicated shall fornicate with the Lord." LXX: "And the children of fornication: for the land which fornicated shall fornicate with the Lord after." By common consent is understood: Take a wife of fornications for yourself, and take children of fornications for yourself. Both can be understood, that the former harlots receive as their sons those begotten of fornication, and he himself begets sons from a harlot, who are called sons of fornication, because they were begotten of a harlot. The prophet is not to be blamed, as we can see from the narrative, if he converts a harlot to chastity, but rather is to be praised for making good out of evil. For he who is good does not himself become defiled by joining with evil, but he who is evil is transformed into good if he follows the example of the good. From this we understand that the prophet did not lose his chastity by having sexual relations with a whore, but it was rather the harlot who gained chastity she did not have before. Especially since the blessed Hosea did not do this for the sake of lust or pleasure or by his own choice, but rather obeyed God's command, so that we may approve what we read in a carnal sense as having been done spiritually in God. He who received the Synagogue, that is, the people of the Jews serving fornication and lust. To which the Lord speaks through Ezekiel: 'And you, harlot, hear the word of the Lord: For her breasts were broken in Egypt' (Ezech. XXIII, 3); and she dallied in blood, and had been defiled even to the crown, so that there was no part of her body and limbs that did not have a stain of deformity. The Lord covered such a one with a mantle, and joined her to His embrace, giving her honey and oil and meal to eat, and clothed her in the most precious garments, put jewel ornaments on her neck, adorned her ears with gold and precious stones, also provided bracelets for her arms to use in good works. Nevertheless, despite the contempt for the generosity and kindness of the man, who forgot his previous wickedness, the lovers of Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Egyptians, who are of great flesh, followed him. We have spoken in the preface about the type of the Savior and the Church, that he took for himself a fornicating wife who had previously served idols. But if anyone, especially among the contentious gentiles, refuses to receive the figurative saying and mocks the prophet joined to a fornicator, let us oppose him with what Greece often praises and the schools of the philosophers sing. By what reasoning do they praise the highly educated man Xenocrates, who made the most luxurious young Polemon obey wisdom among female musicians and flute players and shameless women, and transformed the most disgraceful young man into the wisest of philosophers? Why should they raise Socrates to heaven, who led Phaedo, from whom Plato's book is named, from the brothel, serving the lust of many because of the cruelty and greed of his master, to the Academy? And whatever they may have replied concerning the teachers of philosophy, we refer to the defense of the Prophet. We have said these things against the pagans and those like them. However, let us briefly explain to our own, who still wish to accept the truth, from the fact that it is said: 'Because the land sinned, it will be fornicating with the Lord,' that not so much the prophet was joined to a harlot as the whole race of men turned away from the society of the Lord. It is also possible from that which is unadded, "all the earth," to now accept Judaea, or properly Samaria and Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which at the time when these things were said, had departed from the Lord.
1:3-4
"And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived and bare him a son. And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel." LXX: "And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezreel: for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Judah, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease." The prophets promised so many things about the coming of Christ and the calling of the Gentiles in the centuries that followed, that they may not neglect the present time, lest they seem to play with uncertain and future things and not to teach about those things which are pressing, even when the sermon is called for another purpose. Therefore, Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, who is taken as wife by Hosea, conceives by him and bears him a son named "Jezreel," which means "God sows," and Jehu, or, as the bad mistake has it, "Judah," overthrows the kingdom in vengeance for his blood. And referring to the calling of the nations, it should be attributed to the time under which he is remembered as having begotten a son. And lest I delay the reader's avidity with a long discourse, these two women, of whom one is called Homer and is a whore and bears three children, first Jezreel, the second a girl named Without Mercy, and the third a male who is also called "Not My People." And the other woman, who is hired for fifteen silver shekels, a homer of barley and half a homer of barley, and is called an adulteress, is referred to Israel and Judah, that is, to the ten tribes that were in Samaria under King Jeroboam, who was of Ephraim, and to Judah, who reigned in Jerusalem of the line of David. These are two women, who are said to have wings of a Zachariah hen, or a vulture, or a heron, and to go to the land of Sennaar, where Babylon was founded. These women are signified under the name of two sisters, Oola and Ooliba: they are represented by two rods, which Ezekiel joins into one rod. And because we write commentaries, not lengthy books, reserving proper explanations for each chapter in its proper place, let us now only discuss the present chapter. "Gomer" means "completed," that is, "consummated," and "perfect." Some believe it signifies "breastplates." There are those who suspect it means "measure," or "bitterness," who would say rightly, if it did not have the letter Gimel. "Debelaim" means "palaces," of which there is a great abundance in Palestine, and which the prophet Isaiah orders to be applied to the ulcer of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 38). But it is a mass of fat figs, which are shaped like sides, so that they remain uninjured for a long time, trampled and squeezed. Therefore, Israel, consummated in fornication and perfected as a daughter of pleasure, seems sweet and pleasant to those who enjoy her, and is received as a type of the Lord and Saviour's wife by Hosea; and from her is born the first son of God, that is, "Jezreel"; but it is also the metropolis of ten tribes, in which Naboth was killed ("Al." Nabutha), for whose blood Jehu was raised up, who destroyed the house of Ahab and Jezebel. But Jehu himself, the avenger of the blood of the righteous, entered by the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nabath, who made Israel fornicate and set up golden calves in Dan and in Bethel (III Kings 12), and his kingdom was said to be overthrown; of which Jeroboam's great-grandson, Hosea, began to prophesy: and when he died, his son Zacharias succeeded to the throne; whom Shallum, generated from another family, killed in the sixth month of his reign (IV Kings 15). For what reason it is now said: "Still a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrael," that is, the slaughter of my people, on the royal house of Jehu, who at that time ruled over Israel. It is not surprising if the house of Jehu is overturned when even the kingdom of the house of Israel, that is, the ten tribes, will be completely destroyed not many years after. From Zachariah, the son of Jeroboam, whose ancestor was Jehu, to the ninth year of Hosea, under whom the ten tribes were taken captive, forty-nine years are reckoned. And with the killing of Zachariah, who was the last of the line of Jehu, the kings of Assyria immediately captured Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, which were beyond Jordan; and then many cities of Samaria, and then all of Naphtali, and finally all the remaining tribes. In the Vulgate Edition, "Jehu" is read as "Judah": but this seems to me not the fault of the seventy interpreters, but the ignorance of the scribes who, not knowing the more familiar term "Jehu:", wrote "Judah." However, the type of God's seed and the revenge of His blood is related to the Lord's passion, because of which both the house of Judah and the kingdom of all Israel are said to be overthrown.
1:5
"And in that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel." LXX likewise. When I avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will destroy the kingdom of Israel, with the Assyrians prevailing, then in that day, and at that time, I will break all the power of the army of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel. Above we have said that Jezreel, which is now near Maximianopolis, was the metropolis of the kingdom of Samaria, near which are the widest fields, and the valley of vast emptiness, which extends for more than ten thousand paces. In this conflict undertaken, Israel, that is, the ten tribes, which on account of Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim, who caused the first schism among the people, were called Ephraim, was slain by the Assyrians. Sometimes, on account of Joseph, the father of Ephraim, it is called Joseph; sometimes, Samaria, which itself also was the metropolis of the ten tribes, which later was called Augusta by Augustus Caesar, that is, Σεβαστὴ, in which the bones of John the Baptist were buried. After the division therefore of the two and ten tribes, the ancient name of Israel remained in the ten tribes, owing to the great part of the multitude which followed Jeroboam. And on account of the tribe of Judah, which reigned in Jerusalem, the others that were called tribes, Judas. And at the same time the types explain the truth. For just as on account of the blood of Naboth, which was shed in Jezreel, the house of Ahab was destroyed, that Elijah's prophecy might be fulfilled: so on account of the blood of the true Jezreel, that is, of the seed of God, the kingdom of the Jews was destroyed. In all the prophets, but especially in Hosea, the ten tribes are referred to as heretics, whose multitude is greatest. However, the two tribes called Judah possess the person of the Church, which was under the rule of the Davidic dynasty (who "are ruling"). Therefore, the bow of the heretics, of which it is written, "The sons of Ephraim, being armed and shooting with the bow, turned back in the day of battle" (Ps. 77:9), will be broken in the valley of the seed of God, which is humbled and sensed earthly things.
1:6-7
"And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said to her: Call her name without mercy, for I will not add any more to show mercy to the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them. And I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and I will save them in the Lord their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battles, nor by horses, nor by horsemen." LXX: "And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said to her: Call her name, Without mercy: for I will now no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them. But I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and will save them by the Lord their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen." After the bow of Israel was broken and shattered in the valley of Jezreel, and the kingdom of the ten tribes was abandoned, so that they were led into captivity, no longer was Jezreel, that is, the seed of God, nor a son of the male sex born: but a daughter, that is, a fragile sex, subject to the contempt of the victors, and called Without mercy. Therefore she was taken captive, because she had no mercy of God. And the indignation of the Lord must be considered. So that it will never be said to the house of Israel to have mercy on them anymore, but to erase them from his eternal memory; since they serve until today the kings of Persia, and their captivity has never been released. But the house of Judah promises mercy, saying that they will be saved in the Lord their God or in Himself speaking; or the Father will save in the Son according to what is written: "The Lord rained from the Lord" (Gen. XIX, 24) For He saved them ("alt." also) when Israel was handed over to Assyrians, from the hand of Sennacherib, not with bow and sword and war and a multitude of horses, but with His strength, when He sent the Angel and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand from the Assyrian army in one night (IV Reg. XIX). According to the pattern, we say that those who are called the Seed of God, because of His blood, are without mercy, and have dared to say: "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matt. 27:25), have been serving the Romans until now. But the house of Judah, namely those from the Jews who have confessed the Lord, have been saved not in the strength of an army, but in the preaching of the Gospel. We interpret this in Israel and Judah both according to history and according to pattern, and we refer them to the councils of heretics and to the Church of the Lord and Saviour, which, having been abandoned by them without mercy and losing the kingdom, has overcome by the power of their God.
1:8-9
"And she that was without mercy hath taken him away and conceived and brought forth a son. And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. " (The Septuagint likewise) And he who was called the seed of God, turned into a woman and, on account of the weakness of his strength and the offence against God, was led captive, not mentioned as having been weaned, but as having been weaned: for he had already lost his strength as a man. He who is weaned departs from his mother and does not feed on a parent’s milk, but is sustained by external nourishment. Thus Israel, having been cast out by the Lord, and surrounded by the narrowness of captivity, and sustained with impure foods in Babylon, is called not the people of God, and an eternal sentence of a foreign people is carried, so that it is said, “You are not my people,” and will be cast off forever. Which we can rightly understand in all the people of the Jews who, on account of the offense of the seed of God, were handed over to captivity, lost the kingdom and the province, and are called not the people of God; and also in the person of heretics. But if any contentious interpreter will not receive these things which we have said, but will understand that Gomer, the daughter of Deblaim, first bore male and female children, then male again, desiring the Scripture to sound what is read, let him answer how in Ezekiel he explains that where the Lord commands to bear the iniquities of the house of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, and to sleep forever for three hundred and ninety days on one side of the left, although in the LXX they are written as one hundred and ninety, and to sleep so as never to wake up or change sides unless, perhaps, he satisfies his hunger by opening his eyes a little to take the most sordid food of bread baked from wheat, barley, beans, lentils, and millet in human excrement. For the nature of things does not allow that anyone among men should always sleep hidden for three hundred and ninety days in one place. And he says again: 'You will bear the iniquities of the house of Judah, and you will sleep on your right side for forty days.' But these days are calculated ((or were calculated)) as years, during which Israel and Judah are held by a very long siege and captivity, so that, bound and immobilized, they cannot turn from one side to the other. If it cannot approve of these things and others like them which we read in Holy Scripture, but argues that they signify something else, then this harlot and other adulterous women, who were either joined to prophets or were saved by a prophet, indicate not a shameful union of lust but the sacraments of the future.