1:10
"And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that cannot be measured, nor numbered: and it shall be in the place where it shall be said unto them, Ye are not my people: there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel." We read of the rejection of the ten tribes, and of the unmeasurable Israel, no longer the people of God, subject to perpetual indignation. Now we learn how the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel are equally gathered together, and place themselves under one head or principality ("Al." beginning), and ascend from the earth, and in the place where previously it was said, "Not my people," they shall be called the sons of the living God, and this will happen because the day of Jezreel is great. To the doubting and wavering in various opinions, the statement of the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans occurs: "And if God, wishing to show his wrath and make his power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory in the vessels of mercy he prepared for glory, whom he also called us, not only from among the Jews, but also from the Gentiles." As Hosea says, "I will call those not my people, my people, and those not beloved, beloved." And they will be called the sons of the living God in the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people." But Isaiah cries out for Israel: "If the number of the sons of Israel were like the sand of the sea, the remainder will be saved." Because the word is ending and shortening in righteousness, "for the Lord will shorten the word upon the earth, as Isaiah foretold" (Cap. I, 9): "Unless the Lord Sabaoth had kept us a seed, we would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah. What then shall we say: That the Gentiles who did not follow righteousness have attained righteousness?" But righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, following the law of righteousness, did not come to the law of righteousness" (Rom. IX, 22 seqq.). Therefore, the blessed Apostle, taking testimony from the prophet Hosea and expounding upon the calling of the Gentiles, and the faith of those from the Jews who wished to believe, cut away all difficulty of interpretation for us, affirming that it was completed in the times of Christ, that is, that twelve tribes would be chosen in Israel, that is, all the people of the Jews, and in Judah those who confess Jesus as Lord from among the Gentiles. But if someone alien to the faith of Christ, and not receiving the authority of the New Testament, but responding from the number of circumcision, should say that the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel sound twelve tribes and ten, about which we have often spoken, and in this giving their hand, we will show nothing of our faith being harmed. "But after the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, dispersed throughout the whole world, and the multitude of the people shall have overcome every account, then shall Israel, who is even now captive and before was said to be without mercy and not my people, with the two tribes, that is, Juda and Benjamin, of which a great part believed in Christ, have permission to come to an agreement, so that faith may unite those who were separated in body, and they may have one head and prince, of whom Ezechiel wrote: 'And one prince shall be in the midst of them, my servant David, and they shall rise from the dead,' that is, Juda and Israel, who were dead in unfaithfulness." (Ezechiel 34:24) And all these things will happen, because the day of the seed of God, which is called "Christ," is great. From this it is clear that the blood of Naboth ((or Nabutha)) preceded in Jezrael, so that the truth would be fulfilled in Christ. For in this, and not in that, the great day of Jezrael is, of which it is said: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice therein." (Psalm 118:24) The third interpretation that we have undertaken, is to be explained as referring to heretics for Israel, and to men of the Church for Judah, and means that, after the Lord shall have come in His glory to reign, those who were once called not His people shall be called the sons of the living God, when they shall have been united with the Jews, that is, with the Church of God, and shall have one Head, Christ, and shall have ascended from the earth, that is, from earthly senses and the humility of the letter, and shall have received the great day of the seed of God. For not having mercy", that is, "without pity", is reported in some copies as "not beloved". But the more true copies have "without mercy", especially because God makes a distinction between Israel, whom he does not have mercy on, and says "But I will have mercy on the house of Judah.
2:1
"Tell your brothers and sisters, my people, that they have attained mercy." LXX: "Say to your brother, my people, and to your sister, having obtained mercy." Because the day of Jezrael is great, on which Judas and Israel will have one prince, and it will not be said of Israel, "you are not my people," but on the contrary they will be called the children of the living God. Therefore, O men of the tribe of Judah, do not despair of the ten tribes' salvation, but daily provoke them to repentance by speech, prayer, vow and letters because they are your brothers and sisters: brothers because they are called "my people," sisters because they are called "having obtained mercy." Otherwise: You who believe in Christ, being both from the Jews and from the Gentiles, say to those who have been cut off and to the former people, "You are my people," because they are your brothers, and "having obtained mercy" because they are your sisters. "For when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, then all Israel shall be saved." (Romans 11:25). The same thing is prescribed to us, that we do not completely despair of heretics, but that we provoke them to penance: and we desire their salvation with the affection of brotherhood.
2:2-3
"Judge your mother, judge her, for she is not my wife and I am not her husband: let her remove her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts: lest perhaps I strip her naked, and make her as on the day of her birth." This is a message directed towards the Israelite people, that is, the ten tribes. Now begins the second chapter, and they are commanded to their sons, that is, the people, to judge against their mother, who bore them, who, becoming a harlot's wife, did not leave previous manners, and again committed fornication with her lovers. And observe the mercy of the husband. She has already been divorced, already rejected, already he has said to her: "This is not my wife, and I am not her husband:" yet he commands his sons, that they should not speak to the wife whom he dismissed, but to their mother who bore them. But let those who provoke to repentance speak, so as to remove fornication from their face, and their adultery from the midst of their breasts. She is a harlot, who lies with many. An adulteress is she who, deserting one man, joins herself to another. Both of these are a Synagogue, which if it remains in fornication and adultery, God will take away from her the clothes and ornaments He had given her. Of whom Ezekiel writes: "In the day when you were born, your navel was not cut, neither were you washed with water for your health; you did not rub yourself with salt, or wrap yourself in swaddling clothes. And when I passed by thee, I saw thee wallowing in thy blood (Ezek. 16:4-5)." And after a little while: "I clothed thee with broidered work and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck." These things were given to her by her exceedingly lavish husband when he found her in Egypt, lusting after idolatry and spreading her legs to all. And now he threatens, if she does not return to her husband, she will become without God and without a husband, just as she once was in Egypt. Let it suffice rarely to have warned us that what has been said agrees with both the Jews denying Christ, and the heretics abandoning the faith of the Lord: whose fornication is properly among the breasts, and is situated in the craft of idols and various doctrines in the heart, who will return on the day of their birth, so that if they do not do penance, they will be compared to the heathen.
And I will make it like a wilderness, and set it up like a desert land, and slay it with thirst" (Jeremiah 50:12). The Septuagint translates it as: "And I will make it as a desert, and I will set it up as a land without water, and I will kill it with thirst." If they do not want to turn to better things, I will do to them what I did in the wilderness, so that those led into captivity may fall in a foreign land, patiently enduring thirst for all good things, and unable to return to their homeland. Or certainly, let them hear in the Gospel: "Your house will be left desolate to you" (Matt. XXIII). And the Lord will not send him a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water; but a hunger to hear the word of the Lord (Amos. VIII). About whom Isaiah also speaks: "They shall be like a garden without water" (Isaiah I, 30). Heretics who are rejected by the Lord, if they do not return to their former home, suffer such scarcity of all things that even what they seem to possess falsely will be reduced to nothing.
2:4-5
"And I will not have pity on her sons, for they are the sons of fornication, because their mother has committed fornication: she is confounded that conceived them, because she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me bread, and water, and clothes, and oil, and drink." LXX: "And I will not have mercy on her sons, because they are the children of fornication. For their mother has committed fornication. She that conceived them is covered with shame, for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink." I will do more for the one to whom I spoke, not my wife, and I am not your husband, and I will make her like a wilderness, and make her like a barren land. "For when I brought her out of Egypt, I killed their parents and their children entered into the land of promise. But now the children of a harlot mother will perish with their mother the prostitute, since they are sons of fornication and are born of evil. Of them it is said in the Gospel: 'You brood of vipers' (Matthew 3:7). They have come to such shamelessness that they are being compared to the "face of a harlot," and they are disgraced. " (Jeremiah 3:3) Is it not a stubborn and harlot's boldness that one should boast in their own wrongdoing and say, "I will follow my lovers"; I will go to the idols that have provided me with food and clothing. All that is described by the prophetic work, the Jews have received spiritually from the Lord. And since they denied the Son of God, choosing instead Barabbas, a robber and inciter of sedition, and crucifying the Son of God (John 18). Therefore, even today demons follow and refer God's blessings to those who have lost their souls to their own cults. The heretics have bread and water, whose bread is sadness, and their water is muddy, which suffocates and kills the baptized. They also have wool from diseased sheep, and flax that remains black, and oil, of which the prophet says: "The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head" (Ps. CLX, 5), and the drink of the waters of Egypt, of which Jeremiah cries out: "What to you is the way of Egypt, that you would drink the water of Geon" (Jeremiah II, 18)? And he said: "Why do you want to drink water from the rivers of the Assyrians? We briefly went through everything, so that we can move on to the rest."
2:6-7
Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will fence it with a wall, and she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now. " The LXX: "Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop up her paths: and she shall not find her way. And she shall pursue her lovers, and shall not take them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now." The prostitute said: "I will follow after my lovers, who gave me abundance of all things. The Lord answered: "I will hedge thy way with thorns, or with stakes, that thou mayest not be able to go where thou desirest, and I will set a wall, or a rampart, and thou shalt not find the paths which thou hast trodden so often, that thou mayest apprehend those whom thou followedst with such great eagerness, so that, obliged by necessity of affairs thou mayest return to thy husband, and say that from the Gospel: 'How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I perish here with hunger. I will arise and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am not worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.'" From which we understand that the providence of God often happens to us as evils, so that we may not have those things which we desire, and oppressed with various calamities and miseries of this age, we may be compelled to return to the service of God. But let us understand that the lovers of Jerusalem and the Jewish people, according to the history of that time, include the Assyrians and Chaldeans and Egyptians and other nations, with whose idols they committed fornication, from whom in times of war, and from whom they vainly hoped for help in pressing evils. These lovers, according to spiritual understanding, follow heretics, from whom they are often deserted, and return to the bosom of Mother Church burdened with the weight of their misfortunes. For through all scourges and torments, Israel is taught.
2:8
And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal." LXX: "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver: but she turned these things which were made for her into silver and gold for Baal." She responded to her lovers, for she said: "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink, all of which she had received, and used in the service of idolatry. But it is bread and wine, which strengthens and makes the heart of man happy (Psalm 103), and oil that illuminates every person coming into this world (John 1), and silver of which we often say: "The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times" (Psalm 12: 6) . And gold of which we read: "Though ye have liad among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with the yellow gold." (Psalm 68: 13), is turned into idols, and made "Baal," which is interpreted as "higher and devouring:" while either thinking that they have more important doctrines than the Church, or are devoured in the knowledge of false opinion itself. But that which according to the letter Jerusalem has in abundance - gold and silver and all wealth - will be for the idols Baal demon of the Sidonians, or, as the better opinion holds, of the Babylonians, since he is called "Bel," as Ezekiel expounds more fully in his book, and as the chorus of the prophets bear witness.
2:9
"Therefore, I will return and take my grain in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will free my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace." LXX: "Therefore I will return and take my wheat in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will take away my garments, and my coverings, not to cover her nakedness." A heavier punishment is when, in the time of harvest and the expected vintage, the crops are taken and the wine, and in a sense the tried ones are taken from the hands. But if in the time of harvest and of the harvest moon, when the earth is fruitful with new crops after the passing of the past barrenness, there is a shortage of all things, what should we think of the remaining season of the year, when the old crops are preserved? And wool and flax, that is, clothing and linens, are released, giving no more coverings to a harlot: so that, by the help of God, she might be stripped; and so that she might depart from the protection of all angels from Him. Therefore, the apostle also says that the creature is freed from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. (Romans 8) Many received gold and silver for wisdom and eloquence, from which they made a seven-branched candlestick of pure gold, and a golden table of the proposition, and a mercy seat, and Cherubim shining with golden radiance, and silver columns, and the wheat of the word of God, and the wine of the joy of the Holy Spirit: also the vestments and linens with which the believers were clothed in Christ: all of which they turned into the worship of idols, composing various doctrines of errors, and deceiving others as they were deceived. Which God will take away all things, so that those who had not perceived the giver in abundance may perceive him in scarcity.
2:10-12
"And now I will reveal her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand: and I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times. And I will destroy her vines, and her fig-trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her." LXX: "And now I will reveal her uncleanness in the sight of her lovers; and no one shall take her out of my hand. And I will turn away all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her solemnities. And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me. And I will make her a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her." What follows: "The birds of the sky and the reptiles of the earth," must be marked with an obelus. Also, concerning the place that is called Jar in Hebrew, and from which comes the name of the city Cariath Jarim, which means "the city of the forests," the LXX translated it "testimony." The similarity of the letters Res and Daleth are false. For if the Res is read as Daleth, it is said "testimony," given that Jod letter does not precede. Therefore, having been freed from clothing and underwear, lest they should no longer cover the shame of the whore, all the foulness of Jerusalem, or the foolishness through which the foulness had been performed, will be revealed in the sight of her lovers, so that they may scorn openly that which they covertly desired. And when she is handed over to her lovers, the Assyrians or demons, to whom both she and the Assyrians serve, no one, he says, will be able to take her from my hand because of her proven demonic weakness, namely that they who had received all good things are not able to liberate those oppressed by evils. But being handed over to the servitude of Babylon, she will not be able to celebrate the three solemnities of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. She will not observe the new moons, that is, the kalends, nor the Sabbaths with joy, nor all the festivals which are comprehended in one name. The vineyard, fig, and abundance of all things will also be corrupted: understand joy in the vineyard, sweetness and pleasantness in the fig, which are taken away by the evils of the most difficult servitude: and they will be taken away for this reason, because they were not given to themselves by God as a spouse, but they were considered as a prostitute by their lovers for the payment of lust. Then it will by no means have fruiting trees, but all will turn into a wooded thicket. And because it had once taken a metaphor from the forests, it ends in the rest, calling enemies, from whom all things are being devoured, beasts. Unhappy Judea suffered this both in history and metaphor; all of its ugliness was revealed to the eyes of the gentiles, and no one was able to rescue it from the hands of God. All ceremonies ceased, festivity was turned to mourning: everything which it thought would be given to it by demons, it now recognizes was taken away on account of the offense to God. First, Assyrians and Chaldeans devoured it, then the Medes and Persians and Macedonians; at the end, the most savage beast, the Roman Empire, tore it to pieces, whose name is hushed in Daniel so that greater fear may be increased for those who are to be devoured. Refer what we have said about Judaea to the heretics, who promising doctrines and knowledge at first, are abandoned by God after leaving the Church, and all their shame is placed in front of those whom they had previously deceived, and given to beasts which the prophet avoids, saying: "Do not give the soul confessing to you to beasts" (Psalm 73, 19), and by their bites they are abandoned.
2:13
"And I will visit upon her the days of the Baals, wherein she burnt incense to them, and adorned herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers: and she forgot me, saith the Lord." LXX: "And I will take vengeance upon her during the days of the Baals, when she sacrificed to them and adorned herself with her earrings and necklaces. She went after her lovers, forgetting me," says the Lord. " Keep in mind a prostitute who is adorned with gold and gems, so that she may please her lovers, and whatever beauty she does not have by nature, she acquires through art. She had earrings, with which her ears had been adorned by the doctrine of God, and these pearls that hung from her neck, so that the bridegroom said to her as husband: 'Your neck is like a chain of gold' (Song of Solomon 1:9), before the feet of pigs, and gave holy things to dogs (Matthew 7). And what we read in Proverbs was fulfilled: 'As golden earrings and a necklace of fine gold: so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.' (Proverbs 25:12). But all this she did, that she might follow her lovers, and leave her husband. And such was the desire of pleasure and lust, that she lost all memory of her marital obligations, and forgot that she had been a wife. Therefore, on those very days on which she burned incense to the demons, she shall be visited with plagues, and shall be seized with punishments. Baal, in the singular number, and Baalim, in the plural, are names of the same idols in the masculine gender. Wherever in the end of a Hebrew word we read the syllable "im," it is plural in number and masculine in gender; but when we have "oth," it is plural in number and feminine in gender. Therefore, we understand Seraphim and Cherubim as being plural in number and masculine in gender. Sabaoth, which means "of armies," "of hosts," or "of powers," is plural in number and feminine in gender. Therefore, Baalim is also plural in number and masculine in gender, although some read the feminine gender, incorrectly, as "tai Baaleim" or "al Balim." But how the heretics deceive their lovers, and are composed in their eloquence and the structure of their words, so that they simulate lies as truth, abandon conjugal chastity, and inflame Baalim, that is, idols, which they have fashioned from their own hearts, we see every day. They do not care for rustic simplicity, which seeks not meretricious ornaments; but rather for the artful and elegant lie, so that they may please their lovers, the devils and demons.
2:14
"Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope." LXX: "Therefore, behold, I will seduce her, and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart." Because we have said "to open hope," and the Septuagint translated "to open his understanding," Symmachus interpreted it "into the door of hope," that is, "into the gateway of hope," Theodotion "to renew her patience," that is, "to open her expectation." After the disgrace of Jerusalem, or the whore of Judaea, was revealed in the eyes of her lovers, and the entire solemnity had ceased, whether drought or hail had corrupted the vineyard and fig tree, and reduced it to forests and barren trees devoured by beasts, and the Lord had inflicted torture and torment on her; for she had ignited incense for the demons of the Baals, and did not believe that she could rise from the ashes and embers anymore, then, that is, in the coming of His Son Christ, he will open up the hope of salvation and provide room for repentance, and he will speak kindly to her: for this is what "I will give her milk" means; so that, after the magnitude of punishments, he may assuage her earlier pains with the promise of prosperity. "And I will lead her," he said, "into solitude," that is, I will bring her out of hardships, just as I had led [the people] out of Egyptian slavery previously: "and I will speak to her heart" gentle words, consoling words, so that I may temper sadness with joy, according to the idiom of the Scriptures, by which words Sichem spoke to Dinah's heart (Gen. 34), and Joseph in Egypt to his sad and fearful brothers (Gen. 40), so that mourning may be changed into joy. Quod sequitur.
2:15
"And I will give him its vineyards, from the same place." Because He had previously spoken of flattery and the loneliness of those who left from Egypt, providing it as a similar example. In this example Moses and Aaron had stood as leaders of the Jews, who came from the same people. Now, He promises that he will give him the vineyards from the same place. The vineyard refers to Israel, which is attested by Scripture in both the Old Testament and the New: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel" (Isaiah 5:7) and "You brought a vine out of Egypt" (Psalm 80:8). And in the Gospel (Matt. XXI). The father of the family leased his vineyard and did not receive its fruits. And after his son was killed, he leased it to other vinedressers. Therefore, this prophetic saying promises that the leaders of this vineyard, going out from the nations and captives of the enemies or vices, themselves are of the race of Jews, that is, apostles: and the place of tumult and the valley of turmoil, for this is what "Achor" means, is changed into the gate of hope, or to open up hope and patience, which is why he endured punishments and torments, so that through them he could attain prosperity. But the valley called "Achor," in which Achan was killed for stealing those things which had been consecrated to God, is interpreted as "trouble" and "tumult": and some think that it means διαστροφὴ, that is, "perversity," Jesus himself interpreting when he spoke to Achan: "Because you have troubled us, the Lord shall trouble you in this day" (Joshua VII, 23). Hence that place was called Emec Achor, that is, "the valley of trouble." At the same time, we understand in this that at the beginning of the Promised Land near Jericho, when the people came out of the wilderness because of the Jordan, the sorrow was changed into joy with the first victory of the Israelites. There hope was opened where there had been despair: so that, with these punished who have sinned in Christ and committed sacrilege, they may be saved of those who have detested blasphemous Jews and killed them as much as they could. This circumcision and our Judaizers refer to the kingdom of a thousand years, which we see in the beginning to have been completed by the apostles, preachers and many thousands of believers from Israel, and which is fulfilled daily in those who want to believe. And what we said: "I will cherish her," and 70 translated: "I will seduce her," they refer to the time of the Antichrist: so that those who have not received the truth of Christ may receive his lie, and later, with Christ's coming, be saved.
"And he will sing there beside the days of his youth, and beside the days of his ascension from the land of Egypt." LXX: "And he shall be humbled according to the days of his infancy, and according to the days of his ascension from the land of Egypt." In the place where we have put "he will sing," and the LXX translated, "he shall be humbled," it is written in Hebrew "Anatha," which Symmachus interpreted as "he shall be afflicted," Theodotion "he shall answer," Aquila "he shall obey," that is, ὑπακούσει: we take more literally from the Hebrew, that is, "he shall sing;" so that because he had once placed the agitation and leading into the wilderness, and the vintners from the same place, and the valley of Achor, and the whole history of those leaving Egypt and going to the holy land in a brief sentence, now also he keeps the likeness of the story. Just as in that time, when they were leaving the land of Egypt and Pharaoh was submerged in the Red Sea, Mary grabbed a timbrel and, leading the others, rejoiced and said: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he is greatly glorified: horse and rider he has thrown into the sea" (Exodus 15:1): so now too, according to the days of her youth or adolescence, when she departed from the land of Egypt, let her sing and rejoice, and let her sing with the choirs of the Church about the kingdom of Christ and her salvation. And take notice that when we depart from Egypt, and pass over to better things, we are said to ascend: because Jerusalem is situated on hills, from which he who wished to descend to Jericho was wounded (Luke X). But to those who seek the aids of Egypt, that is, of this world, it is said: "Woe to them that go down into Egypt for help" (Isa. XXXI, 1). The translation of Aquila and Theodotion, one of whom put ὑπακούσει, that is, "he will hear," the other ἀποκριθήσεται, that is, "he will answer," makes it so that while some sing others answer. "But" he shall be "humbled" and "afflicted," which the LXX and Symmachus translated, does not fit the time of joy, unless perhaps it imitates Paul, who after being called an apostle, laments his ancient sins, and says that he is unworthy of the call of an apostle, because he persecuted the Church of God (I Cor. XV): so that humiliation and affliction in the conscience of past wounds, are not accepted in the pain of present evils.
2:16-17