"At night, I made your mother be silent, my people have become silent, because they have no knowledge: for you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you, and you will not serve as a priest to me; and you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your sons." LXX: "I have compared thy mother to the night, and my people to have no knowledge. Since thou hast refused knowledge, I will also refuse thee, that thou shalt not be a priest to me. Thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, and I will forget thy children." Not because there are other mothers and other sons, does she call herself mother and sons; but just as the Lord spoke to the Jewish people and said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest those sent to thee, how often I have desired to gather thy children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and thou didst not want it." (Matthew 23, 5). Not as another Jerusalem, and another people thereof: for it did not speak without the people to the building of the city and the wood and the stones. Thus the mother is called the crowd of the people and every multitude of the Hebrew nation, to whom it speaks: but the sons, either single or dispersed through the towns and villages of the people. Therefore in the night and darkness of captivity, mourning and pressing distress, Israel is surrendered and its people remain silent in eternal silence; because it did not have knowledge of the law, nor did it keep the commandments of God, and received what it had done. For she herself has rejected God's law, and thus she has lost the priesthood forever, and worships the golden calves in Dan and Bethel; and because she has forgotten God's law, and entirely enslaved herself to Egyptian idols, therefore the Lord will also forget her children, delivering them to eternal captivity: "For he who is ignorant, let him be ignorant." (I Cor. XIV), and in the Psalms we read: "They did not know, nor did they understand, they walked in darkness." (Ps. LXXXI, 5). We can refer everything that is said about the ten tribes to the heretics who have left the kingdom of David and Jerusalem, that is, Christ and the Church: and therefore they are covered with eternal night, they do not have the knowledge of God, and they are rejected by the Lord so that they may not perform the priesthood to him, and they never remember the children they have generated, because they have become aliens to him.
4:7-9
"According to their abundance, so they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame, they will eat the sins of my people, and lift up their souls to their iniquity, and it shall be as the people, so the priest, and I will visit upon him his ways, and render to him his thoughts." LXX: "According to their abundance, so they sinned against me, I will turn their glory into shame": they will eat the sins of my people, and receive them in their iniquities"; "others their souls, and it will be as the people, so also the priest, and I will take vengeance on him for his ways, and render to him his thoughts." Israel had as many altars built for demons as they had men, in whose sacrifices they sinned against me. Therefore, I will exchange their glory, in which they boasted to themselves and preferred to God, into ignominy, so that both the priests and the people may be captured. For indeed, the priests eat the sins of my people, concerning whom it is written: "Those who devour my people, like bread" (Ps 13:8). And therefore they eat the sins of my people, consenting to the crimes of wrongdoers since, when they witness them sinning, not only do they not rebuke them, but they praise and exalt them and call them blessed. About whom Isaiah speaks: "My people, who call you blessed, deceive you, and they "supplant" the paths of your feet" (Isa. III, 12). Concerning them, the Psalmist cries out: "For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the unjust is blessed" (Ps. IX, 24). Hence, both the people and the priest will equally endure the sentence of God's indignation; for not only will He visit the works that they call "ways," in which they walk, but also the thoughts which they have entertained to do such things. For not only the work, but also the contemplation of evil deeds will pay the penalty. It is easy to understand about heretics, that the more there are, the more they sin against God and glory in the people; and so they deceive the unfortunate, so that they may eat the sins of the people, and by sweet words devour the houses of widows (Luke XX). For when they see some sinning, they say: God seeks nothing else but the truth of faith, which if you keep, he does not care what you do. For by saying these things, they lift up their souls in their iniquities, so that they not only do not repent or humble themselves, but rejoice in their wicked deeds and walk with heads held high. Therefore both the people and the priest, the learned and the teachers of the law, will be equally punished.
4:10-12
"And they shall eat, and not be satisfied: and they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not keeping him: fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart. My people hath consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God." "And they shall eat, and not be filled:" "they have committed fornication, and shall not be directed: because they have forsaken the Lord, to keep not his law: fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart of my people. They consulted their wood, and their staff answered them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them" "and they have committed fornication against their God." Insatiable pleasure is created, and the more one is captured by it, the more hunger it creates. On the contrary, blessed are the hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will be satisfied. As justice satisfies, so too does iniquity, having no substance, delude those who consume it deceitfully and leave the stomachs of the devourers empty. They have committed fornication and have not ceased. Their strength fails in fornication, and the desire to fornicate does not rest. They committed fornication with the idols of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and left their Lord God, not keeping what he had commanded, saying: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve" (Deuteronomy 6:13), but it should be read emphatically: Fornication and wine and drunkenness take away the heart. For just as wine and drunkenness make him who drinks thereof incapable of his own mind, so does fornication and pleasure pervert the senses and weaken the spirit; and it turns a rational man into a brute animal, so that he pursues brothels, dens of vice, and places of debauchery. And when his heart is stirred out of its place, he holds wood and stones as gods, and worships the works of his own hands. Hence the prophet, as if amazed and bewildered, speaks: “My people who were once called by my name have asked counsel of a wooden idol, and have sought intuition from rods, which the Greeks call divination by rods." Therefore in Ezekiel we read that Nebuchadnezzar mixed his rods against Ammon and Jerusalem, and a rod went forth against Jerusalem (Ezek. 25): and the cause of this madness of fornication is the spirit that deceived them, so that they might fornicate against their God. But he calls fornication idolatry, according to what we read in Jeremiah: "And they committed adultery with wood and stone, and I said, After they have committed adultery with all these things, return to me, but she did not return with all her heart, but with lies." And again: "You have left me and said, I will go on every high hill, and under every green tree I will spread myself in my fornication" (Jer. 3:5, 6). And in the Psalm it is said: 'You have destroyed all who commit fornication away from you' (Ps. 72:27). For the beginning of fornication is the invention of idols. Heretics are never satisfied with their own error, and do not cease from the disgracefulness of fornication. They do not keep the holy Law and Scriptures, abandon the Lord, become insane and inebriated, and, with the judgment of their mind destroyed, worship idols which they themselves have fashioned from their hearts and are possessed by the spirit of fornication.
4:13
"On the tops of the mountains, they sacrificed, and on the hills, they burned incense under an oak and a poplar and a terebinth because its shade was good." According to the Law, it is commanded that one should not offer sacrifice to the Lord anywhere other than the place that the Lord God chooses. Trees are not to be planted near the altar so that a passive and indulgent religion does not overthrow the austerity of the one true religion. On the contrary, Israel was sacrificing on the mountains and burning incense on the hills, loving the high places of the earth, for they had forsaken the Most High God and sought shadows, having lost the truth. This is what we read about each king: "But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places" (3 Kings 22:44), which in Hebrew is called Bama. Heretics promise themselves the sublimity of their doctrines and sacrifice under oak, poplar and terebinth, under barren trees, having neither fig nor vine, under which the Saint is said to rest. However, they sometimes assume a terebinth for themselves, which, according to Isaiah, has no leaves, so that they may seem to imitate the example of Abraham. (Isaiah VI)
4:14
"Therefore, your daughters will prostitute themselves, and your daughters-in-law will commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they fornicate or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because they themselves consorted with prostitutes and offered sacrifices with effeminate men, and the people who do not understand will be punished." LXX: "Therefore your daughters will prostitute themselves, and your brides will commit adultery; I will not punish them for prostitution nor for adultery, because they went to prostitutes and arranged pagan temple rites with sacred prostitutes; a senseless people they are." The word Cadesoth, which was translated by Aquila ἐνηλλαγμένων, by Symmachus ἑταιρίδων, by the Seventy τετελεσμένων, by Theodotion κεχωρισμένων, we translate as "effeminate" in order to convey the meaning of the word to our ears. These are they who serve today in Rome, not the gods but the demons, who are called Gauls, because the Romans castrated men of this tribe for the honor of Atys (whom the goddess harlot had made a eunuch) and appointed them to be priests. Therefore, the men of the Gaulish race are effeminate, so that those who captured the city of Rome are struck by this ignominy. There was such idolatry in Israel, mostly by women, who worshiped Beelphegor for the obscenity of his magnitude, whom we can call Priapus. Therefore, Asa the king took away the lofty ones of the people and such priests and deposed his mother from her august throne, as is testified in the scripture, saying: "And Asa did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, as did David his father, and took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. And also Maacha his mother, he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Cedron. But the high places were not taken away: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with the Lord all his days." (III Kings 15, 11 seqq.) It must be known however, that at present in Kadesh, "prostitutes," are called "sacerdotes" or "priests" of Priapus. In other places, we read of Ca’desim, men who, driven by lust have been castrated, of whom Isaiah says, "And the mockers shall rule over them," for which in Hebrew it is written, "And the eunuchs shall rule over them," which we translate to mean "effeminate" people. But Aquila, giving an interpretation, that is to say, "those who have been changed," wanted to show that their nature had changed, and that men had been made women. Symmachus properly called them "prostitutes." The Septuagint called them "consecrated and initiated" to show themselves as idol worshipers. Theodotion called them "separated from the people" who seemed to have something more than the common people. We have briefly discussed the words, now let us return to the meaning of the chapter. It is a great offense to not merit the anger of the Lord after you have sinned. Israel had fornicated with their God, and were seduced by a spirit of fornication: therefore their daughters and brides fornicate, and are left unpunished in their sin, so that they may feel what their sons and wives did to their true parents and husbands, and understand the pain of God from their own pain, who is so angry that he does not strike these sinners. For the Apostle also testifies in mystical language, writing to the Romans: "For saying they were wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. Therefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." And in order that we may know that the visitation of God is inflicted upon us when we are wounded and weak, in order that by means of the cauterization of bitter potions we may be cured of sickness – let us listen to the Lord speaking through the prophet: "I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes; but my mercy will I not take from him" (Ps. 88:33-34). Therefore, he who is loved is corrected; he who is neglected is left to his own sins. And so great was the number of fornicators in Israel that vengeance ceased, despairing of amendment. For what is more shameful than to be joined to the worship of harlots and to offer sacrifices of their lust with effeminate men? And what the phrase, "A people that doth not understand shall be beaten," which in the Septuagint is translated: "And a people not understanding adhered to the harlot," means is that such a people shall be scourged in captivity and shall be visited with various plagues in order that, by means of pain, it may receive discipline. The easy understanding about heretics is that their children will fornicate and their spouses, namely, the souls which they have begotten in error and married to their doctrines. Such persons are unworthy of correction by God, for their every form of worship is fornication and they mingle foul deeds with foul doctrines. Therefore, they shall be beaten so that they may finally understand what God they seek. When you see a sinner abound in riches, boast in power, rejoice in health, delight in his spouse, be surrounded by a garland of children, and fulfill that which is written: "They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men" (Ps. 73:5), say that the Prophet's threat has been accomplished in him: "I will not visit upon your daughters when they commit fornication, nor upon your spouses when they shall commit adultery."
4:15-16
"If you fornicate, Israel, let not at least Judah sin, and do not enter into Gilgal, and do not ascend into Bethaven, neither shall you swear, by the living Lord, for as an wanton heifer, Israel has sinned. Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place." LXX: "But you, Israel, do not ignore, and Judah, do not enter into Galgala, nor ascend into the house [ὢν] and do not swear, the Lord lives: for as a refuge-killed cow, Israel went insane. Now the Lord will feed them like a lamb in a spacious place." "For home" [ὢν] being read in some copies, and most particularly in Theodotion as "house of iniquity," which Aquila and Symmachus interpreted as ἀνωφελοῦς ["house of the profitless,"] that is, "useless" which is of no benefit, and is designated by another word "idol". But Bethel was formerly called the "House of God," but after the calves were placed in it, it was called "Bethaven," that is, "useless house" and "house of idols," which we have expressed as we read it in Hebrew. But it seems to me that both the people of Israel and Jeroboam the son of Nebat made a golden calf to be worshipped in the wilderness, and fashioned golden calves as they had learned in Egypt, where the bulls are worshipped as gods in their superstition. Let us discuss the meaning of the chapter: Sisemel, O Israel, you have been deceived by error and have mixed with prostitutes, so that whoever fulfills the act of offering and giving gifts to the king or himself, would become a priest of the high places. At least you, Judah, who possess Jerusalem and have Levites from the law and perform temple ceremonies, should not imitate the examples of your former sister Oolla in fornication and worship idols with her. Do not enter Galgala, about which we read in this same prophet: 'All their wickedness is in Galgala' (Hosea 9:15), where Saul was anointed king, where the people, coming out of the wilderness, camped for the first time, and were purified by a second circumcision. From that time on, in this notorious place, error of an opposing religion crept in. And do not go up to Bethaven, that is, what was once called Bethel, because after golden calves were placed there by Jeroboam son of Nabath, it is not called the House of God but the house of an idol. For which reason, I wonder why the Septuagint interpreted it as "unless I make a mistake, the middle Jod letter which is surrounded on both sides by Aleph and Nun letters was believed to be Vau based solely on its size." "You shall not make a false oath by my name," says the Lord. For I do not want my name to be mentioned on your lips, which is tainted by the memory of idols. For just as a cow that is wanton and throws off her yoke, so too Israel, that is, the ten tribes, turned away from the service of the Lord. For the wanton cow, the Seventy translated παροιστρῶσαν, which stung by desire and struck by the asylum, which they commonly call "tabanus". About which Virgil also reports in the third book of the Georgics.
...The name of the asylum is Roman: the Greeks called it "oestrum," a harsh and bitter name that drives all the herds to flee in terror from the woods. The sky roars and trembles with their cries, and the banks of the dry Tanagra shake. And so because Israel had become insane and, struck by the spirit of fornication, went mad with unbelievable fury, not much longer afterwards, but while the prophet's body was still possessed by the spirit, the Lord said: "I will feed them as a lamb in a spacious place." He kept the metaphor of a cow in heat, in the same way that he had used it before, calling the captivity in Assyria and the dispersion of Israel into the widest land of the Medes, the pasture of a wide field and of flocks of sheep and lambs. A predisposition is present against heretics, concerning whom or about whom it is said: If you fornicate once, heretic, at least, do not offend, church-goer, and do not enter into Galgala, the meetings of heretics, where the sins of everyone are exposed, and are rolled in the mud like pigs. Do not assume that you rise up to the proud and arrogant fictions of false teachings. For there is not the house of God, but the house of an idol. And do not swear by the name of Christ, whose majesty you have defiled by mingling it with idols. For just as a slaughtered cow falls in the asylum, so the heretics are struck by the burning arrows of the devil and abandon knowledge of the Law. Therefore, they will graze in the broad and spacious way that leads to death, and the patience of the Lord and the care of the good Shepherd will nourish them unto their own destruction.
4:17-19
"Partaker of their idols is Ephraim, leave him; he is separated from their congregation: they have committed fornication in their fornication; they loved to bring disgrace upon their protectors, his spirit is bound up in their wings, and they shall be confounded because of their sacrifices." LXX: "Ephraim, a participant in idols, has placed scandals for himself, he has provoked the Canaanites, they have committed fornication, they have loved disgrace from his roar; a whirlwind of spirit will whistle in his wings, and they will be confounded from their altars." Ephraim, of whose tribe Jeroboam son of Nabath, who first set up golden calves in Bethel and Dan, is king of ten tribes. Therefore, O Judah, whom I mentioned above, if Israel commits fornication, let at least Judah not sin. Listen to my advice, do not disregard the words of the prophets; for Ephraim once was a friend and partner with idols. Leave him, do not follow his impiety, for his worship and religion and food are separated from your fellowship. They serve idols once, sacrificed to devils, fornicating every day, and loving their fornication. Indeed, its leaders and protectors, that is, the kings, took pleasure in bringing dishonor to the people, that is, in the vice of the princes. The unhappy people received the worship of idols, whose unclean spirits bound Israel in their wings and do not allow it to fly freely. Therefore they shall be confounded in their sacrifices, and they shall receive disgrace for their confusion. Symmachus, because we have interpreted it as "he bound his spirit on his wings," translates it into Greek in this way, as if one binds the wind in the wings of the wind, so that both the princes and the people, indeed both demons and Israel, may assert that they are vainly coupled with vanities. For wind and spirit are called "Rua" in one word in Hebrew. That which the Seventy translated ("Al." placed) as "provoked the Canaanites," is not found in Hebrew, but it can be thus interpreted, that we say only that Israel had such zeal for the worship of idols, that it did not imitate the Canaanites, that is, the heathen; but it provoked them to emulate its own error. This same thing can also be referred to heretics, and it is said to Judah, that is, to an ecclesiastical man, because Israel, who is interpreted as bearing fruit, promises himself a false richness of doctrine, and fruitful teachings, and once was a friend of demons, dismiss him and despise him: especially since their sacrifices are separated from your own sacrifices. For this is what is said: their gathering has been separated, they committed fornication once, and their leaders have deceived the unhappy people; and for the worship of God they have imbued them with the disgrace of idols, and devilish spirits have bound them on their wings, who are carried around by every wind of doctrine; and they cannot remain firm on the solid foundation of the Church. Those who truly are confounded in their sacrifices, because their bread is the bread of sorrow. And what is said, "He provoked the Canaanites," can be referred to heretics in the same sense, that most heretics have invented such abominations and filthy things, and have impure sacrifices, so that idolatry is inferior. Or certainly because "Cananaean" means "trader," or μετάβολος, that is, "translator," all those who make the Father's house a house of trade (John 2), and seek profits from the people, and transfer the truth of the Church into falsehood, are to be called Canaanites.
5:1-2
"Hear these things, O priests, and attend, O house of Israel, and O house of the king, give ear; for judgment is for you. For you have become a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor, and victims on high have been turned aside into the depths." LXX: "Listen to these things, priests, and attend, House of Israel, and House of the King, perceive with your ears, for judgment belongs to you, since you have become a snare for speculation, and like a net spread out over Italy, those who capture it have established a hunt." The priests of the ten tribes are called to judgment, and the kings, not because the priests are from the tribe of Levi, but because the priests are called by the people. So even the priests of Baal, and four hundred and fifty prophets whom Elijah slew (1 Kings 18), and later Jehu the son of Namshi (2 Kings 9:10), in the presence of Jonadab the son of Rechab, were called priests. But even Israel, that is the people, is called to judgment, and none is excused, so that both priests and people and kings, who had led the people and appointed priests, hear together what they did and why they are handed over to enemies. I have appointed you as spies," he said, "and as leaders among the people, and have placed you on the high pinnacle of dignity, so that you might guide the wandering people. But you have become a trap, and are to be called not so much spies and leaders as hunters. For you have spread your net over Mount Tabor, which the Seventy translated as Itabyrium, having the custom of using Greek speech to decline Hebrew names, just as Edom, that is, Esau, and Seir are always interpreted as Idumea. But Mount Tabor is in Galilee, located in a plain, round and lofty, and finished equally on every side. About this mountain, we also read in the Psalms: "Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name". (Psalm 88:13). This mountain was translated as "Itabyrium" by the Seventy translators [of the Septuagint], as in Jeremiah. Birds are often caught in traps set upon this mountain. "And ye have cast off my fear, and have not kept my covenant. I also will cast off you for ever." (Jeremiah 34:15-16). The kings and priests have prohibited the people from going to the Temple of Jerusalem; therefore, they are said to have turned down sacrifices into the depths. According to the trope, the people are accused not to consider themselves strangers to crime, if they are induced by kings and priests, whom we understand as leaders of heretics. The leaders themselves are also accused of having taken the people like a trap and, with spies placed in the Church, led them astray. And on the lofty and most beautiful mountain "Tabor", which is interpreted as "coming light", they set traps, so that they could draw every deceiving person into the abyss, and offer them as sacrifices to demons, and steer them into the pit, lest they ever come to their senses, or sigh for the house of God, the Church. Some think that Thabor means a lake, that is, a cistern, and is suitable for the immediate meaning, that the heretics dug a lake and fell into the pit which they made. (Ps. LVI).
5:3-4
"And I am skilled in all of them, and I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me: for now Ephraim has committed fornication, Israel is contaminated: they will not give their thoughts, to turn again to their God, for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord." LXX: "For I am your master: I have known Ephraim, and Israel has not departed from me; for now Ephraim has fornicated, Israel is defiled. They have not given their thoughts to turn back to the Lord their God, for the spirit of fornication is in them and they have not known the Lord." O priests and kings, who deceived my people; and you, the people, who have been deceived, have sinned so gravely that you have not only killed victims, but also sent them down to the depths of hell: do not think that the magnitude of your crimes has caused you to be completely separated from me. I am your teacher, indeed a scholar, who desires to improve, not punish; and to save, not destroy. "I know Ephraim," he says, "that is, Jeroboam, from whom the people were persuaded; and all the kings who followed him in both rank and wickedness, and Israel was not hidden from me, that is, the people of ten tribes, because Israel was contaminated by a fornicating king. At first the king began to fornicate from the worship of God, desiring to worship golden calves, and the people wanting to follow him, they fulfilled equal impiety with equal zeal." (III Kings 12) Finally, they shall not return to the Lord because they found what they wanted, and the spirit of fornication, which according to the apostle, works in the sons of diffidence, possesses their captive hearts, and therefore under that ruler, they did not know, no, they forgot their Creator. (Ephesians 2). Therefore, the leaders of perverse teachings and the people of the Lord do not ignore: not because they are worthy of His knowledge, but because nothing of what they do in secret is hidden from Him, of whom some were deceived and others fell. And they will not give their thoughts to repentance, who always advance in destruction. For the spirit of fornication, by which they have committed fornication in the Church and have departed from true marriage, is in their midst: therefore they have not known the Lord.
5:5
"And the pride of Israel shall answer in his face: and Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity: Juda shall also fall with them." LXX: "And the injury of Israel will be humbled before him: and Israel and Ephraim will be weakened in their iniquities, and Judah will also be weakened with them." The word "Gaon" is interpreted by Septuagint and Symmachus as "injury," by Aquila and Theodotion as "pride." Therefore, whatever Israel did, whether acting arrogantly against the Lord or worshipping idols to injure the Creator, will be answered in its face so that it may not go unpunished, but rather its humiliation will be humbled, and both people and kings will fall or weaken in their injustice, so that those who were strong in wickedness are forced to return to the Lord in weakness. And this will not only happen to Israel and Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes and their kings, so that they will be led into captivity; but Judah also, that is, the two tribes which ruled in Jerusalem, will follow the footsteps of the captives, that as they imitated the crime, they may imitate the punishment. Heretics have the mother of their iniquity in their pride, while they boast that they always know more, and rage against the Church. But their pride will weaken, and the people and teachers will equally fall: even Judah, who appears to be in the house of God, and in the Church, dwells not in mind but in body: and he has the same opinion in error with heretics; he is useless in promising the ecclesiastical name, because he also must be punished with the heretics. We rush towards what is clear, so that we may linger in the more obscure.
5:6-7
"In their flocks and herds they will go to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. They have transgressed against the Lord, for they have produced illegitimate children. Now the month and its parts will devour them." LXX: "When they go with sheep and calves seeking the Lord, but shall not find him, he hath withdrawn himself from them. Because they have forsaken the Lord, and have brought up strange children, their rust shall devour them and their portions." Not only Israel and Ephraim will go with flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but also Judah, of whom it is written above: "Judah will also fall with them," all having this struggle, that they may try to appease with sacrifices those whom they have offended with their transgressions; and they will not find whom they seek, because he also departed from those who were departing. Especially when elsewhere he says, "Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?" And again, "I will not accept a bull from your house, nor goats from your flocks" (Ps. 49:13 and 9). And in Isaiah: "I do not want the sacrifices of rams or the fat of lambs or the blood of goats and bulls" (Isaiah 1:11). For they have transgressed against the Lord; because fornicating with idols, they did not beget children to God, but to demons. Some think that this signifies what is said in Ezra much later (1 Esdras 10) when they took foreign wives, creating children with them, and later were compelled to repudiate them. But it is better to accept foreign children who were generated in idolatrous error or whom they consecrated to idols by leading them through fire. Because, therefore, they did this, shortly afterwards, not after infinite periods of years, and as I used to predict before, far from the future; but now and in the present, the Assyrian and Chaldean will come and devour them with their parts, that is, with the possessions that they received in the division of the land according to the measure of the rope. Because we said "he will devour them," the Seventy translated "rust" for "them"; yet indeed rust, that is, ἐρυσίβη, in Hebrew is called Hasil, as they also said in the Prophet Joel: "The remnants of a worm will eat rust," which is to say, Hasil. But the month is called Hodes; finally Aquila translated "neomenias," that is, "Kalendas"; Symmachus and Theodotion translated "month"; and the sense is, the enemy will come each month and devastate all things. We read the Books of Kings and Chronicles, and we find that under King Pekah, who reigned over ten tribes, Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria, came and took a great part of the people of Samaria to the Assyrians, at which time, according to the Greeks, it was the second year of the first Olympiad; and among the Latins (not yet founded Rome) Amulius was ruling in the twentieth year, whom later Romulus drove out of the kingdom. Heretics suspect that God is pleased with the multitude of sacrifices; and ecclesiastics, that by giving alms, they redeem sins, in which they remain: whereas every sacrifice except past sins, not present ones; thus, they do not find the Lord, Who removes Himself from such things, and retreats far away. These have truly ($"Al." however$) acted deceitfully against God, and have begotten children for the devil, not for Christ: therefore their works are cursed at all times, and all things that they do, the rusty color of blood lays waste, because they are closely related to blood and killing. But the rusty color is said in a proper sense to come down in the night dew, and to stain the lactating grains of wheat with the color of vermilion or red lead, and suitably in accordance with conversion, it devastates the clergy of heretics, of whom it is said, "Their clergy shall not " "profit them" (Jeremiah XII, 13, according to the LXX).
5:8-9
Blow the horn in Gabaa, trumpet in Rama: howl at Bethaven after your back, O Benjamin: Ephraim shall be in desolation in the day of rebuke, among the tribes of Israel have I made known the truth." LXX: "Blow the trumpet on the hills, sound on the high places," "proclaim it in the house." ὢν: "Benjamin's mind has failed, Ephraim has become desolate in the days of reproof, in the tribes of Israel I have shown faithfulness." Ephraim and Israel and Judah shall each month, or the rust with its parts, devour. Therefore, I command you who listen that you do not sound a trumpet with a lofty voice, but a clear one: for there is a need for a clear hearing, so that all who are around may hear. "Blow the trumpet in Gabaa," which the Septuagint translated the etymology into "hills": and "sound the trumpet in Rama," which means "high": and these two are in the tribe of Benjamin, cities close to each other, that is, Gabaa, where Saul was born; and Rama, which is near Gabaa, situated on the seventh stone from Jerusalem; and which the king of Israel tried to occupy, to close the exit and entrance of the tribe of Judah. In Gabaa and in Rama, therefore, a clear trumpet and tuba resound, whose trumpet is pastoral, and the horn is made curved; whence it is properly called a Hebraic Sophar, and a κερατίγνυμι in Greek. But the tuba is made of bronze or silver, with which they rattled in wars and ceremonies. Above Bethaven, which was once called Bethel, and is in the tribe of Ephraim, where there was a golden calf, there is a need for not a clangor and sound, but a wailing: because there is a nearby captivity. And he said beautifully that Bethaven is located behind Benjamin, for where the tribe of Benjamin finishes, not far in the tribe of Ephraim, this city was founded. Therefore, I say and command: Blow the trumpet in Gabaa, and the horn in Rama, and howl in Bethaven, because the regal house of Ephraim, or Ephraim himself, that is the empire of Israel, will now be in desolation; and the neighboring captivity approaches. On the day of correction and supplication of the ten tribes of Israel, I showed my faithful words that I threatened through the prophets, so that I might prove, by action, what I had announced by word. Certain people who were near Bethaven according to the Seventy who said the house was the "city of the sun," were interpreted as saying that Christ, the sun of righteousness, was the city, and they wanted his Church to be that city. But this displeases me, for the house of an idol, which Aquila interpreted as "useless house," cannot be referred to the Church by means of tropology. But let us say this, that the heretics who promise themselves lofty knowledge in Gabaa and Rama, are ordered to howl ((or "jubilate")) in the house of an idol; and they should not be before the face of Benjamin, who is interpreted as "son of the right hand," but rather behind him, where he does not have eyes. For all the boasting of Ephraim, which means "abundance," he will soon be in desolation, and when the day of judgment and time of correction comes, I will show that my words are not in vain. Because we translated "Benjamin at your back," the Seventy translated it as "Benjamin's mind was moved," always adapting Benjamin, a man of the church, to excess of mind. Hence in the sixty-seventh psalm it is said: "There Benjamin, the youth, is in excess of mind." And in Jacob's blessings, in the person of Benjamin, from whom Paul the Apostle was descended, we read: "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil." (Gen. XLIX, 27). For he who persecuted the Church in the beginning, later on throughout the whole world, bestowed nourishment upon those who believed in the Gospel. From this it happened that Saul, who was from the tribe of Benjamin, raving with madness, prophesied among the choir of prophets all day long until evening (1 Kings 10).
5:10