3

he called him; for he says, "Israel is my firstborn son." But nevertheless, nothing persuaded them to adopt a grateful mind. Therefore, comparing them with brute beasts, he shows them to be more brutish than these; 3for he says, "An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master's manger; but Israel did not know me, and my people did not understand." For these, though deprived of reason and mind, know their feeder, and partaking of his care are gratefully disposed toward the provider of it; and the ox knows the ox-driver and yields to his voice, and the donkey runs to its usual manger; but these, though drawing from a spring of good things, were unwilling to recognize the provider of these streams. So also through Jeremiah he compares them to birds and shows them to be more brutish than these; for he says, "The turtledove and the grasshopper and the swallow knew the times of their coming, but my people did not know the judgments of the Lord." And I marvel at the goodness of the man-loving master; for he calls them not simply "people" but with the pronoun. And while the ungrateful people do not say, "my God," the man-loving God says, "my people." And what follows shows his unspeakable mercy; for he weaves laments for those who were unwilling to be saved; and laments belong to those who love, not to those who hate. 4Woe, sinful nation, a people full of lawlessness, an evil seed, lawless sons; you have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel. Symmachus translated this more clearly: "They abandoned the Lord, they reviled the Holy One." For not only did they abandon their maker and offer the worship of God to idols, but they also reviled him who became man and worked out the salvation of all people, mocking him and calling him now a deceiver and one possessed by a demon, now a Samaritan, and now jesting, they said: "Aha, |97 a| you who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross." And he calls them an evil seed not to insult their ancestors, but to convict them of their own wickedness. Thus also John the Baptist called them a brood of vipers, and the Lord an evil and adulterous generation. For they did not preserve the nobility of their ancestors. Then he imitates someone angry at another, speaking now to him and now to himself, and adds: They are estranged and gone backward. That is: having left me, they went over to my adversaries. For this he says elsewhere also: "They have turned to me their back, and not their face." 5Why should you be struck any more, you who add lawlessness? The whole head is in pain, and the whole heart in grief; 6from the feet to the head there is no soundness in him. He calls the kings and rulers the head, and the priests and teachers the heart. For what the heart is to the body, this the priests and teachers are to the people; and what the head is to the body, this the kings and rulers are to their subjects. He therefore laments their insensibility; for what punishment, he says, shall I yet bring? I have brought many of all kinds, and you have remained incurably sick; for the disease surrounds all the members, both head and heart and feet; for which reason I despair of salvation. For there is neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering sore, there is no way to apply a plaster, nor oil, nor bandages. But Symmachus has put this more clearly: "There is nothing sound in him, but wound and bruise and the blow of a strike, neither bound up nor softened with oil." The excess of wounds, he says, overcomes the strength of medicines. And since he asked, "Why should you be struck any more, you who add lawlessness?" he fittingly enumerates the kinds of punishment: 7Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your country, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, overthrown by foreign peoples. I have brought you the list of these evils, and you are not willing to learn their cause. And these things happened to them both when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonians, marched against them; but the final destruction for them after the

3

προσηγόρευσεν· «Υἱὸς» γάρ φησι «πρωτότοκός μου Ἰσραήλ.» Ἀλλ' ὅμως οὐδὲν αὐτοὺς ἔπεισε λαβεῖν εὐγνώμονα γνώμην. ∆ιὸ δὴ καὶ τοῖς ἀλόγοις συγκρίνων αὐτοὺς ἀποφαίνει τούτων ἀλογωτέρους· 3Ἔγνω γάρ φησι βοῦς τὸν κτησά μενον καὶ ὄνος τὴν φάτνην τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ· Ἰσραὴλ δέ με οὐκ ἔγνω, καὶ ὁ λαός με οὐ συνῆκεν. Λόγου γὰρ ἐστερη μένα ταῦτα καὶ νοῦ τὸν τροφέα γινώσκει καὶ τῆς ἐπιμελείας μεταλαγχάνοντα εὐγνωμόνως περὶ τὸν ταύτης διάκειται χορηγόν, καὶ οἶδε μὲν τὸν βοηλάτην ὁ βοῦς, εἴκει δὲ τῇ τούτου φωνῇ, τρέχει δὲ εἰς τὴν συνήθη φάτνην ὁ ὄνος· οὗτοι δὲ πηγὴν ἀγαθῶν ἐξαντλοῦντες οὐκ ἠθέλησαν ἐπιγνῶναι τῶνδε τῶν ναμάτων τὸν χορηγόν. Οὕτω καὶ διὰ Ἱερεμίου πτηνοῖς αὐτοὺς συγκρίνει καὶ τούτων ἀλογωτέρους ἀποφαίνει· «Τρυγὼν» γάρ φησι «καὶ τέττιξ καὶ χελιδὼν ἔγνωςαν καιροὺς εἰσόδου αὐτῶν, ὁ δὲ λαός μου οὐκ ἔγνω τὰ κρίματα κυρίου.» Ἐγὼ δὲ θαυμάζω τοῦ φιλανθρώπου δεσπότου τὴν ἀγαθότητα · οὐ γὰρ ἁπλῶς λαὸν ἀλλὰ μετὰ τῆς ἀντωνυμίας καλεῖ. Καὶ ὁ μὲν ἀχάριστος λαὸς οὐ λέγει· ὁ θεός μου, ὁ δὲ φιλ άνθρωπος θεὸς λέγει· ὁ λαός μου. Καὶ τὰ ἐπαγόμενα δὲ τὸν ἄρρητον αὐτοῦ δείκνυσιν ἔλεον· θρήνους γὰρ ὑφαίνει τοῖς σωθῆναι μὴ βουληθεῖσιν· τῶν δὲ φιλούντων ἀλλ' οὐ τῶν μισούντων οἱ θρῆνοι. 4Οὐαὶ ἔθνος ἁμαρτωλόν, λαὸς πλήρης ἀνομίας ὤν, σπέρμα πονηρόν, υἱοὶ ἄνομοι· ἐγκατελίπετε τὸν κύριον καὶ παρωρ γίσατε τὸν ἅγιον τοῦ Ἰσραήλ. Τοῦτο δὲ σαφέστερον ὁ Σύμμαχος ἡρμήνευσεν· «Κατέλιπον τὸν κύριον, διέσυρον τὸν ἅγιον.» Οὐ γὰρ μόνον καταλιπόντες τὸν ποιητὴν τοῖς εἰδώλοις τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ θεραπείαν προσήνεγκαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐνανθρωπήςαντα καὶ τὴν πάντων ἀνθρώπων πραγματευόμενον σωτηρίαν διέσυρον ἐπιτωθάζοντες καὶ ποτὲ μὲν πλάνον καὶ δαιμονῶντα ποτὲ δὲ Σαμαρίτην καλοῦντες, ποτὲ δὲ κωμῳδοῦντες ἔλεγον· «Οὐὰ |97 a| ὁ καταλύων τὸν ναὸν καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγείρων αὐτόν, κατάβηθι ἀπὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ.» Σπέρμα δὲ αὐτοὺς πονηρὸν ὀνομάζει οὐ τοὺς προγόνους ὑβρίζων, ἀλλὰ τὴν τούτων πονηρίαν ἐλέγχων. Οὕτω καὶ ὁ βαπτιστὴς Ἰωάννης γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν αὐτοὺς ἀπεκάλει, ὁ δὲ κύριος γενεὰν πονηρὰν καὶ μοιχαλίδα. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐφύλαξαν τὴν τῶν προγόνων εὐγένειαν. Εἶτα μιμεῖταί τινα κατά τινος χαλεπαίνοντα καὶ ποτὲ μὲν πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ποτὲ δὲ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν διαλεγόμενον καὶ ἐπάγει· Ἀπηλλοτριώθησαν εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω. Τουτέστιν· ἐμὲ καταλιπόντες πρὸς τοὺς ἐναντίους ἐχώρησαν. Τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ φησιν· «Ἔδωκαν ἐπ' ἐμὲ νῶτα καὶ οὐ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν.» 5Τί ἔτι πληγῆτε προστιθέντες ἀνομίαν; Πᾶσα κεφαλὴ εἰς πόνον καὶ πᾶσα καρδία εἰς λύπην· 6ἀπὸ ποδῶν ἕως κεφαλῆς οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτῷ ὁλοκληρία. Κεφαλὴν καλεῖ τοὺς βασιλέας καὶ ἄρχοντας, καρδίαν δὲ τοὺς ἱερέας καὶ διδα σκάλους. Ὅπερ γάρ ἐστι σώματι καρδία, τοῦτο ἱερεῖς καὶ διδάσκαλοι τῷ λαῷ· καὶ ὅπερ ἐστὶ κεφαλὴ σώματι, τοῦτο βασιλεῖς καὶ ἄρχοντες τοῖς ὑπηκόοις. Ὀλοφύρεται τοίνυν αὐτῶν τὴν ἀναλγησίαν· ποίαν γὰρ ἔτι φησὶν ἐπαγάγω τιμωρίαν; Πολλὰς ἐπήγαγον καὶ παντοδαπάς, καὶ μεμενή κατε νοσοῦντες ἀνίατα· τὴν γὰρ νόσον ὅλα τὰ μέλη περί κειται, καὶ κεφαλὴ καὶ καρδία καὶ πόδες· οὗ δὴ χάριν ἀπαγορεύω τὴν σωτηρίαν. Οὔτε γὰρ τραῦμα οὔτε μώλωψ οὔτε πληγὴ φλεγμαίνουσα, οὐκ ἔστι μάλαγμα ἐπιθεῖναι οὔτε ἔλαιον οὔτε καταδέσμους. Σαφέστερον δὲ ταῦτα ὁ Σύμμαχος τέθεικεν· «Οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτῷ ὑγιές, ἀλλὰ τραῦμα καὶ μώλωψ καὶ πληγὴ κρούματος οὔτε σφιγγομένη οὔτε ἁπαλυνομένη ἐλαίῳ.» Νικᾷ φησι τὴν τῶν φαρμάκων ἰσχὺν ἡ τῶν τραυμάτων ὑπερβολή. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ ἤρετο· Τί ἔτι πληγῆτε προστιθέντες ἀνομίας; εἰκότως καταλέγει τὰ εἴδη τῆς τιμωρίας· 7Ἡ γῆ ὑμῶν ἔρημος, αἱ πόλεις ὑμῶν πυρίκαυστοι· τὴν χώραν ὑμῶν ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν ἀλλότριοι κατεσθίουσιν αὐτήν, καὶ ἠρήμωται κατεστραμμένη ὑπὸ λαῶν ἀλλοτρίων. Τούτων ὑμῖν τῶν κακῶν ἐπήγαγον τὸν κατάλογον, καὶ καταμαθεῖν τὴν τούτων αἰτίαν οὐ βούλεσθε. Ταῦτα δὲ συνέβη μὲν αὐτοῖς καὶ ἡνίκα Ναβουχοδονόσορ αὐτοῖς ὁ τῶν Βαβυλωνίων ἐπεστράτευσε βασιλεύς· τὸν ἔσχατον δὲ αὐτοῖς ὄλεθρον μετὰ τὸν