(Verse 20) To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: Truly, our fathers have possessed a lie, vanity that has not profited them. Septuagint: To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and say: How have our fathers possessed false idols, and there is no profit in them? After Israel was expelled and carried away by fishermen and hunters, a multitude of nations is subsequently called to faith and confesses that their fathers were involved in prior error. But those who say, 'How did our fathers possess false idols, in which there is no utility?' confess that the things they pass by are true, and supported by every defense.
Does a man make gods for himself when they are not gods themselves? And this is what the nations, who came to the Savior from the ends of the earth, speak, or rather are called, as they expose both their own ignorance and that of their ancestors, because they thought that gods were made by man, when it is actually men who make gods.
16:21
(Verse 21.) Therefore behold, I will show them in turn this: I will show them my hand and my power, and they will know that my name is the Lord. The hand of God by which he has accomplished all things, and the power, of which the Apostle said: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), is revealed to the Gentiles, through the completion of the Son's passion. And beautifully he said: I will show them in turn this: but I will show them openly, and not as before, in shadow and in image, and in the prophecy of future things, so that after they have known, they may know my name, and hear from the Son: Father, I have manifested your name to men (John 17).
17:1
(Chapter 17, Verse 1) The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with an adamantium nail, upon the width (or height) of their hearts (or in the depth of their hearts), and upon the horns of their altars (or thrones). Concerning the nations that have turned to the Lord, it has been said: Behold, I will show them in turn, I will show them my hand and my power. Now, speaking of Israel who is rejected: The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with an adamantium nail, and so on. Why the Septuagint has been omitted, I do not know; unless perhaps they spared their own people: just as it is clear in Isaiah that they did so: Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed? (Isaiah 2:22); and many similar things, which if I wanted to arrange them all, it would not be a book, but books. Because his mercy is confirmed upon us, and the truth of the Lord remains forever (Psalm 116, 1, 2). And concerning those whom he said to Moses: Let me alone, that I may destroy this people, and make you into a great nation (Exodus 32, 10). But the sin of the Jews is indelible, and, so to speak, cannot be abolished by any means; it is written with an iron stylus on an adamant nail, which in Hebrew is called Samir (); not that there is any nail that is called Samir; but that the adamant stone (which has received this name because it is untamable and unbreakable) has such brilliance and lightness that it can be written on without any impediment with an iron stylus: so that the hard material of iron may write on the harder adamant tablet, and what is written may endure forever. For they themselves said: 'His blood be upon us and upon our children' (Matthew 27). Therefore, it has been written or engraved on the horns of their altars or shrines, so that sacrilegious works may be remembered forever. But if this is the case, where is that which an old woman madly fabricates, that a person can be without sin if they wish, and that God's commandments are easy?
17:2-3
(Verse 2, 3.) When their sons remember their altars, and the groves of trees and leafy branches on the high mountains, sacrificing in the field, I will give your strength and all your treasures to plunder. Your lofty places will be destroyed because of your sins in all your borders. And you will be left alone in the inheritance that I gave you, and I will make your enemies serve you in a land that you do not know, because you kindled the fire in my anger, and it will burn forever. And these are not found in the Septuagint, for the same reason (as I believe) that we have mentioned above, namely, lest the eternal sentence should remain against them. 'You shall be left,' He says, 'alone from your inheritance, which I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, either under the Babylonians or, as is more accurate, under the Romans. For they themselves have kindled the fire and provoked the most merciful Lord to anger, whose fire of fury will burn forever.' I am ashamed of our argument, which disputes the truth of the Hebrews. The Jews read against themselves, and the Church does not know what is in their favor. Thus, we, who are the sons of the Apostles, remember the injustices of the previous people and testify that they suffered justly. However, the high places, which are called Bamoth in Hebrew, can also be understood as a reference to the heretics who have exalted themselves, and their language has spread throughout the land. Those who have burst forth into such great madness, that they have remained alone without the grace of the Holy Spirit, and have lost the inheritance of the Lord, namely the prior truth of faith. Hence, eternal fire is prepared for them, and the servitude of demons, who are enemies and avengers.
17:5-6
(Verses 5, 6.) Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts (or has hope) in man, and relies on flesh for his strength, and turns his heart away from the Lord. He will be like a shrub in the desert, and will not see when good comes; but he will live in dryness in the desert, in a land of salt and uninhabitable. If every man is cursed who trusts in man, then Paul of Samosata and Photinus, although they proclaim the Savior as holy and surpassing all virtues, still confess him as a man; therefore, they will be cursed for having hope in man. But if it is opposed to us, that we also believe in him who says: Now you seek to kill me, a man who has spoken the truth to you, which I have heard from God, Abraham did not do this: you do the works of your father. (John 8:40) We will respond with that of the Apostles: And if we have known Christ according to the flesh at some time, but now we no longer know him. Finally, the same Apostle writes in the beginning of his letter to the Galatians: Paul, an Apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and who are with me all the brethren. (Galatians 1:1-2). For if death was swallowed up in victory (Hosea 13), why did not the lowliness of the flesh, which was assumed for the salvation of mankind, pass into the majesty of divinity, so that it might make both one; and we do not worship the creature, but the Creator, who is blessed forever? Therefore, he is cursed, not only who has hope in man, but who puts his trust in the flesh, that is, his own strength, and whatever he accomplishes, considers it to be not of the mercy of the Lord, but of his own power. For whoever does this, departs from the heart of the Lord, asserting that he can do what he cannot. And he will be like myrtle, which in Hebrew is called Aroer, or as Symmachus interpreted, a fruitless tree in the desert. And he will not see the good things that the multitude of nations will see when they come, but he will dwell in dryness in the desert. This is said of the people of Judah who dwell in the desert, do not bear fruit, and live in a land of salt, which produces no fruit, and is uninhabitable, having no guest of God, nor the protection of angels, nor the grace of the Holy Spirit, nor the knowledge of teachers.
17:7-8
(Vers. 7, 8.) Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord will be his hope (or confidence): and he will be like a tree, which is transplanted (or fruitful) over the waters, which sends its roots to the moisture, and will not fear when heat comes: and its leaves will be green (or its branches flourishing), and in the time of drought it will not be anxious (or will not fear) nor will it ever cease to bear fruit. Let this be said about the Jews and heretics, who have hope in man, namely in their Christ, whom they think to be not the Son of God, but a pure man who is to come. On the other hand, the man of the Church, who has confidence in the Lord, hears this: 'And know that the Lord himself is God' (Psalm 99:3). He has confidence in the Lord, and he will be compared to that tree, about which it is also sung in the first psalm: 'And he will be like a tree, planted near the streams of water, which will bear its fruit in due season, and its leaves will not wither.' But over the waters, the grace of the Holy Spirit, various gifts. He sends his roots to the moisture: so that he may receive abundance from the Lord. But we can also say in another way, that we have been translated from Jewish dryness into the eternal grace of baptism. And he will not fear, he says, when the heat comes, or the time of persecution, or the day of judgment: And its leaf will be green, or there will be leafy branches in it: so that he may never fear dryness, but may bring forth the grace of all virtues. And when the time, or year, of dryness comes, it will not be afraid, when the Lord, angry, commands the clouds not to rain upon Israel (Isaiah 5). And what follows: it will not cease to bear fruit, that place which is written in Mark, when the Lord comes to the fig tree, and does not find fruit in it, because it was not yet the time, and curses it, so that it does not bear fruit forever, can explain (Mark 11). For whoever trusts in the Lord, the Lord is his confidence, even in times of drought he will not fear; but he will always bring forth fruit, believing in him who once died for us and will never die again (Romans VI), and he says: I am the life (John XIV, 6).
17:9-10
(Verse 9, 10.) The heart of all is perverse and inscrutable, who can understand it? I am the Lord, searching the heart and testing the kidneys, who gives to each according to their ways and according to the fruit of their inventions. LXX: The heart is deep above all, and man is, who can know him? and so on. The Hebrew word Enos is written with four letters, Aleph and Nun and Vau and Sin. Therefore, if Enos is read, it means 'man', but if Anus, it is inscrutable or desperate, because no human heart can find it. But Symmachus interpreted this passage as follows: Inscrutable is the heart of all: but who is the man that can find it? Some of ours, indeed, with good intentions, but not according to knowledge, use this passage against the Jews, because He is called Lord and Savior, according to the dispensation of the assumed flesh, and no one can know the mystery of His birth, according to what is written: Who shall declare His generation? (Isaiah 53:8) Unless God alone who searches the depths and renders to each according to his works. However, it is better that we simply accept that no one knows the secrets of our thoughts except God alone. For as it was said above: Cursed is the man who has hope in man. And conversely: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. Hence, in order for us not to think that the judgment of men is certain, it was introduced that the hearts of almost all are perverse, as the Psalmist says: Cleanse me from my hidden faults, and spare your servant from the faults of others (Psal. 19:13): undoubtedly referring to thoughts. And in Genesis: But God, seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that every thought and intent of the heart was inclined towards evil at all times (Gen. 6:5). And again: For the sense and thought of the human heart are prone to evil from their youth (Gen. 8:21). From this we learn that only God knows our thoughts. But if it is said of the Savior: But Jesus, seeing their thoughts (Luke 9:17); and no one can see their thoughts except God alone; therefore Christ is God, who searches the hearts, and tests the kidneys; and rewards each one according to their works (Ps. 7).
17:11
(Verse 11.) The partridge hatches (or gathers) what it did not lay. (And as the Septuagint translated: The partridge cried out, it gathered what it did not lay.) It acquired its riches not with justice. In the middle of its days, it will leave them (or in the middle of its days, they will leave it) and in its last days, it will be foolish. Writers of natural history, both of animals and birds, as well as of trees and plants (of whom the Greek leaders are, Aristotle and Theophrastus, and among us, Pliny the Second), say that this is the nature of the partridge, to steal the eggs of another partridge, that is, to steal from another, and to incubate and care for them: and when the offspring grow up, to fly away from them, and leave behind their adoptive parent. Such are the wealthy who plunder others, and without the consideration of God's judgment, amass riches without judgment, which they leave behind in the midst of time, taken away by sudden death, when it is said to them: Fool, this night they will demand your soul from you, what you have prepared, whose will it be? And nothing is more foolish than not to foresee the last things, and to consider the fleeting as eternal. Others, however, interpret the partridge to be the most aggressive and unclean bird both because of the earlier historical account and because of another reason they state, in that it contaminates the defeated, and they interpret the devil under its name, because it has gathered riches for itself, saying to the Lord: All these things I will give to You, if You fall down and worship me (Matthew 4:9). Those riches that were gathered poorly by him will be abandoned, and they will be converted (or rather, restored) to the Lord through the Apostles; and the one who seemed to be the most prudent to himself will be considered foolish by the judgment of all. And what is said by the LXX: The partridge cried out, is to be referred to the person of the heretics, that this partridge, the devil, cried out through the leaders of the heretics, and gathered what it did not bear, and gathered a multitude of those it deceived, which it will later dismiss; and it will be proven most foolish by the judgment of all.
17:12-13
(Verse 12, 13.) The throne of glory on high from the beginning, the place of our sanctification. The expectation of Israel, O Lord, all those who forsake you shall be put to shame, those who turn away shall be written (or described) on the earth; for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain (or source) of living waters. Declare them because of their foolishness, the expectation of Israel, that is, the people of God and believers in the Lord, He is the one who made all things; whose throne is glorious and exalted from the beginning, and the place of sanctification for all believers, so that the Lord is not in a place, but that wherever He is, that place may be sanctified. On the other hand, those who forsake the Lord will be confounded with everlasting confusion, and those who depart from Him or turn away from Him will be written on the ground, deleted from the book of the living. Just as it is written of those who dwell in heaven that our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3), so those who forsake the Lord or turn away from Him will be written on the earth with those who have earthly desires. And the reason is clear why they are written on the earth: because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of life, or the Lord, the fountain of living waters, as spoken in the Gospel: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink; whoever believes in me, as Scripture says, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But He said this about the Spirit, whom believers in Him were going to receive (John 7:37, 38).
17:14
(Verse 14) Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. In the Gospel (Matthew 9), many physicians had cured the woman with the issue of blood, who had lost all her substance on them, yet she could not be healed by anyone except by Him who is the true physician, and whose healing is in His wings. Therefore, even now, the Prophet, having suffered reproaches from the people and being constantly surrounded by snares, desires to be healed and saved by Him whose true praise and true medicine He is.
17:15-17
(Verse 15 onwards) Look, they say to me: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. But I am not troubled, following you as a shepherd (or not laboring, following you), and I have not desired the day of man: you know. What has come out of my lips has been right in your sight (or before your face). Do not be a source of fear to me, you are my hope in the day of affliction (or do not become a stranger to me, sparing me on the worst day). Those who do not believe in the future, speak to the Prophet: Where is the word of the Lord? Let us come: considering the dissimulation of judgment, thinking of delay. But to those, he says, speaking these things, I am not troubled, nor have I labored following you as a shepherd, either entering your footsteps. Nor was I satisfied with this end, but I did not desire the day of man, either a longer life, or the prosperous things of this age. And he calls himself a witness, whom he also calls a judge: You know. He continues: What has come forth from my lips, was right in your sight; that he has never lied, and never spoke against the will of the Lord. Be not to me, he says, a source of fear, my hope in the day of affliction. Which is clear according to the Hebrew. But according to what the Seventy translated, saying: Do not become a stranger to me, sparing me in the day of evil, the meaning is: Do not spare me in the present age, which is evil; but repay me according to my sins, so that I may have eternal rest. For I know it is written: Whom the Lord loves, he chastises; and he scourges every son whom he receives (Hebrews XII, 6). But this day is evil, either the entire age, or the day of judgment, for those who suffer because of their sins.
17:18
(Verse 18.) Let those who pursue me be put to shame, while I am not put to shame. Let them fear, while I do not fear. Bring upon them the day of affliction, and crush them with double contrition. The Prophet curses against them, who reproach him with the word of the Lord, and say: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come, that those who pursue him may be put to shame and may be ashamed and may return to salvation, so that they may fear the liars and not the one who predicts the truth. And when the day of vengeance comes, it will crush them with a twofold affliction, hunger and sword.
17:19-20