Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind 1 To your mouth — a horn! Like an eagle over the house of the LORD, because they have crossed my covenant and transgressed against my instruction.
Jerome · AD 420 "Let the trumpet be in your throat, like an eagle over the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and violated my law." LXX: "In their bosom they are like the earth, like an eagle over the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and acted wickedly against my law." This which we have interpreted as "let the trumpet be in your throat…
2 To me they cry out, “My God, we know you — Israel!”
Jerome · AD 420 "They will call upon me, (or 'They called upon me') my God, we have known you, Israel." LXX: "They called upon me (or 'They will call upon me'), God, we have known you." At the time of necessity and distress, when captivity will come, they will call upon me and say: "My God, we know you, Israel;" we who are called Israel, we know and recognize you, and we keep the ancient name…
3 Israel has cast off good; an enemy will pursue him.
Jerome · AD 420 "Israel has rejected the good, the enemy will pursue him." LXX: "because Israel has rejected the good; they persecuted the enemy." To which the Lord responds: "How can you be called Israel, when Israel has rejected the good, that is, the Lord God, whom Israel was named after?
4 They have made kings, but not from me; they have made officials, and I did not know. Of their silver and their gold they made themselves idols, so that it may be cut off.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 Not always is the prince of the people and judge of the Church given by the judgment of God, but according as our merits demand. If our deeds are evil and we "work evil in the sight of God", princes are given to us according to our heart; and this I will prove to you from the Scriptures.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Because He is exceedingly desirous, that we should always take refuge in Him, and in everything make our requests unto Him; and do nothing and speak nothing without Him. For men, when we trouble them repeatedly concerning our affairs, become slothful and evasive, and conduct themselves unpleasantly towards us; but with God it is quite the reverse.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 But it can be reasonably asked, How it is said in this place that the Lord makes the hypocrite to reign, when by the Prophet He complains especially of this thing, saying, They have reigned, but not of Me: they have become princes, and I know them not? For, who that thinks rightly, can say that the Lord does that of which He knows nothing?
5 Your calf has been cast off, Samaria; my anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
Jerome · AD 420 Your calf has been cast away, Samaria. My fury is against them: how long will they be incapable of purity? Because he is also from Israel: the craftsman made it, and it is not a god: for the calf of Samaria shall become spider's webs." LXX: "Cast away your calf, Samaria: my wrath is kindled against them: how long will they be incapable of purity in Israel?
6 For it is from Israel — a craftsman made it, and it is not God; for the calf of Samaria will become splinters.
Novatian · AD 258 We acknowledge, therefore, and know that he is God, the Creator of all things. He is our Lord, because of his power; our author, because of his creation. "He spoke, and all things were made.
7 For they sow the wind and reap the storm. It has no standing grain; the sprout will make no flour. If it should make any, strangers will swallow it.
Jerome · AD 420 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: standing stalk, there is no grain in it, it shall not make flour: and if it should make any, strangers would devour it. " LXX: "Because they have sown corruption, they shall reap a fall: a handful of corn hath not the beauty of ear; they shall yield no flour; and if it should yield, strangers shall devour it.
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 For you pluck no fruit from the idol's service, but their bundles are like ears of wheat destroyed by the wind, which show full stalks from the outside but which internally have no grain.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 For it is infinite folly to labour painfully, and pant after the breath of applause, to apply one's self to the heavenly precepts with hard toil, but to aim at the reward of an earthly kind of recompense.
8 Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a vessel in which there is no delight.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 O appalling hardness! O strange cruelty! You did not fear God, nor did you reverence others or feel shame before your friends. So you have suffered shipwreck of all things at once. You have stripped yourselves of every good thing at the same time. Therefore again I grieve for you, wretched man! You who were announcing your ardor for the kingdom have fallen from the kingdom.
Jerome · AD 420 "Israel has been devoured, now he has become like an unclean vessel among the nations." The Septuagint translated "unclean" as "useless," the rest likewise. The Hebrews call the unclean vessel, or useless, a chamber pot, which we usually use to receive and discard feces.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria — a wild donkey alone by himself; Ephraim has hired lovers.
Jerome · AD 420 "For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers, yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them together, and they shall rest a little from the burden of the king and the princes." LXX: "Because they went up to the Assyrians, Ephraim has flourished within himself: they have loved gifts, therefore they…
10 Also, though they hire among the nations, now I will gather them; and they will begin to writhe a little under the burden of a king of officials.
11 For Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning; altars have become his for sinning.
Jerome · AD 420 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars to sin, altars have been made for him to sin on. He said, led into captivity, they'll cease for a short while from the burden of the king and prince.
12 I write for him the multitudes of my instruction; like a stranger they are reckoned.
Jerome · AD 420 I will write to him many of my laws, which are regarded as alien: they will offer sacrifices, they will slaughter meats and eat, and the Lord will not receive them." LXX: "I will write to them a multitude: their rightful altars have been regarded as foreign. Because if they sacrifice and eat meat, the Lord will not accept them:" which I had previously given through Moses.
13 The sacrifices of my gifts they sacrifice — flesh, and they eat. The LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and attend to their sins; they will return to Egypt.
Jerome · AD 420 "Now their iniquities will be remembered, and their sins will be punished: they themselves will be turned into Egypt, and Israel, their maker, has forgotten them, and has built shrines, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities, and I will send a fire into its cities, and it will devour their houses." LXX: "Now their iniquities will be remembered, and their injustices will be a…
14 And Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; and I will send fire on his cities, and it will devour her citadels.