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to discipline them, so that at least in this way, wasting away from the famine, they might reach the Creator with prayer, so that the famine might become an occasion for piety for them. But the famine, he says, is able to discipline them in nothing; for thus being constrained from all sides they will go to the creator of all. What then of Elijah? As the Lord lives, he says, if there shall be rain, except by my mouth. The word of the prophet went forth, and immediately the air was changed, the heaven became bronze, not having changed its nature, but having its operation bridled; immediately the elements were transformed. The word of the prophet fell, like a fever, into the loins of the earth, and everything immediately dried up, everything was laid waste, everything vanished; they immediately saw grasses drying up, and plants, and trees fruitful and unfruitful, those in the plains, those by the sea; everything at once drying up, every living age disappearing, the lamentation of children and the weeping of mothers, and great despair. One word of the prophet went forth, and behold how much it wrought. Therefore everything was dying, the wild beasts, the cattle, the children, the men, the living creatures, all the birds; it was a universal shipwreck, and the calamity seized the whole earth at once; no one was saved, but all were dying from the drought, the plants dried up, springs, rivers, lakes, and simply everything perished. A universal shipwreck possessed the whole world, not by water, but by drought; the heaven was bound, and was held back from then on, and changed all of nature. Therefore everything died by a divinely sent wrath and was destroyed; but Elijah cared for no one; for he was intoxicated with zeal.

Therefore every untimely age was perishing. What are you doing, Elijah? let it be, the you 50.730 ng men have sinned; why are the children disciplined? let it be, the men have sinned, why do the cattle die with them? are you clothed with such pitilessness? you care for no one among men; you have no wife, no child; you despise those who are perishing. What then did God say to him? Go, he says, to the brook Cherith, and I will command ravens to feed you there. Again I would gladly ask the Jew, bringing him into our midst, to show him that the law overturned the things of the law, and that it in itself had neither stability nor uprightness; for it was not truth, but a shadow; those things a shadow, these things truth; those things a type, these things the reality. The Elijah whom you revere, whom you expect to come, about whom you have much to say, and whom you call a prophet, how was this man fed by a raven? For the raven according to the law is unclean, and thus the law declared the raven to be unclean. And how then was the prophet fed by the unclean raven? For if the law called the raven unclean, surely he who was fed by the raven would be unclean. But this was not so, away with the thought, may it not be! but Elijah was fed by a raven, considering nothing created by the Lord to be unclean. Then from there, since time had passed, and the brook had now dried up, He raises up the prophet for nourishment. Go, he says, to Zarephath of Sidon, and I will command a widow woman to feed you there; and God did this according to a certain dispensation. For since Elijah did not know what was happening (for he was sitting in one place, he did not see the universal calamity, how everything had dried up, how the lakes, how the rivers, how the plants, how the trees, how the unripe, how the ripe, how the fruitful, how the unfruitful, how those by the springs, those by the lakes of water, the capture of the birds, of the cattle, of all the others, the death of the children, the wailings of the mothers, that universal calamity), God raises him up, and makes him travel over an endless land from there to Sidon, so that at least in this way Elijah, having seen what was happening, might ask his Master to give rain. Therefore He sends him on that long journey for this reason, not as though God were unable to feed him there, but as wishing to show Elijah the calamity, so that he might ask him for rain. For He was able to do it Himself without this, but He did not wish to slight His own servant, of the

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παιδεῦσαι, ἵνα κἂν οὕτω τῷ λιμῷ τηκόμενοι ἐπὶ τὸν ∆ημιουργὸν τῇ εὐχῇ φθάσωσιν, ἵνα ὁ λιμὸς ὑπόθεσις αὐτοῖς γένηται εὐσεβείας. Ἀλλ' οὐ δὲν δύναται αὐτοὺς, φησὶ, παιδεῦσαι ὁ λιμός· οὕτω γὰρ πανταχόθεν στενούμενοι ἐπὶ τὸν πάντων κτίστην χωρήσουσι. Τί οὖν Ἠλίας; Ζῇ, φησὶ, Κύριος, εἰ ἔσται ὑετὸς, εἰ μὴ διὰ στόματός μου. Ἐξῆλθεν ὁ λόγος τοῦ προφήτου, καὶ εὐθέως ὁ ἀὴρ μετεβλήθη, ὁ οὐρανὸς χαλκὸς ἐγένετο, οὐ τὴν φύσιν μεταβαλὼν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν χαλινωθείς· εὐθὺς τὰ στοιχεῖα μετεσχηματίζετο. Ἐνέπεσεν ὁ λόγος τοῦ προφήτου, καθάπερ πυρετὸς, εἰς τὰς λαγόνας τῆς γῆς, καὶ πάν τα εὐθὺς ἐξηραίνετο, πάντα ἐρημοῦτο, πάντα ἐξηφα νίζετο· ἔβλεπον εὐθέως βοτάνας ξηραινομένας, καὶ φυτὰ, καὶ δένδρα κάρπιμα καὶ ἄκαρπα, τὰ ἐν πε δίοις, τὰ παρὰ θάλασσαν· πάντα ἀθρόως ξηραινό μενα, πᾶσαν ἔμψυχον ἡλικίαν ἀφανιζομένην, ὀδυρμὸν παιδίων καὶ κλαυθμὸν μητέρων, καὶ ἀπογνωσίαν πολ λήν. Εἷς λόγος τοῦ προφήτου ἐξῆλθε, καὶ βλέπε πόσα εἰργάσατο. Πάντα τοίνυν ἀπέθνησκον, τὰ θηρία, τὰ κτήνη, τὰ παιδία, οἱ ἄνθρωποι, τὰ ζῶα, τὰ πε τεινὰ ἅπαντα· οἰκουμενικὸν ναυάγιον ἦν, καὶ ἡ συμ φορὰ πᾶσαν ὁμοῦ κατέλαβε τὴν γῆν· οὐδεὶς ἀνεσώζε το, ἀλλὰ πάντες ἀπὸ τῆς ἀβροχίας ἀπέθνησκον, τὰ φυτὰ ἐξηραίνετο, πηγαὶ, ποταμοὶ, λίμναι, καὶ πάντα ἁπλῶς ἀπώλοντο. Οἰκουμενικὸν ναυάγιον κατεῖχε πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην, οὐ δι' ὕδατος, ἀλλὰ δι' ἀβροχίας· ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐδέδετο, καὶ λοιπὸν ἐπείχετο, καὶ τὴν φύσιν ὅλην μετέβαλλε. Πάντα οὖν ἀπέθανε θεηλάτῳ ὀργῇ καὶ ἀπώλετο· οὐκ ἔμελε δὲ τῷ Ἠλίᾳ περὶ οὐ δενός· ἐμέθυε γὰρ τῷ ζήλῳ.

Πᾶσα οὖν ἄωρος ἡλικία ἐτελεύτα. Τί ποιεῖς, Ἠλία; ἔστω, οἱ νεα 50.730 νίσκοι ἥμαρτον· τί τὰ παιδία παιδεύονται; ἔστω, οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἥμαρτον, τί τὰ κτήνη συναποθνήσκουσι; τοσαύτην ἀσπλαγχνίαν περιβέβλησαι; οὐδενός σοι μέλει περὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων· οὐ γυναῖκα ἔχεις, οὐ παιδίον· καταφρονεῖς τῶν ἀπολλυμένων. Τί οὖν ὁ Θεὸς πρὸς αὐτόν; Ἄπελθε, φησὶν, ἐπὶ τῷ ποταμῷ Χοῤῥὰθ, καὶ ἐντελοῦμαι κόραξι τοῦ διατρέφειν σε ἐκεῖ. Πάλιν ἂν ἡδέως ἐροίμην τὸν Ἰουδαῖον εἰς μέ σον ἀγαγὼν, ἵνα δείξω αὐτῷ ὅτι ὁ νόμος τὰ τοῦ νό μου ἀνέτρεπε, καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς ἑαυτὸν οὔτε τὸ στάσιμον, οὔτε τὸ ὄρθιον εἶχεν· οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀλήθεια, ἀλλὰ σκιά· ἐκεῖνα σκιὰ, ταῦτα ἀλήθεια· ἐκεῖνα τύπος, ταῦτα πράγματα. Ὃν σέβῃ Ἠλίαν, ὃν προσδοκᾷς ἔρχεσθαι, περὶ οὗ πολὺν ἔχεις τὸν λόγον, καὶ προφήτην αὐτὸν καλεῖς, οὗτος πῶς ὑπὸ κόρακος ἐτρέφετο; ὁ γὰρ κόραξ κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἀκάθαρτος, καὶ οὕτως ὁ νόμος διηγόρευσεν ἀκάθαρτον εἶναι τὸν κόρακα. Καὶ πῶς οὖν ὁ προφήτης ἐτρέφετο ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀκαθάρτου κόρα κος; εἰ γὰρ ὁ νόμος ἀκάθαρτον τὸν κόρακα ἔλεγε, πάντως ὁ ἐκ τοῦ κόρακος τρεφόμενος ἀκάθαρτος ἂν εἴη. Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἦν, ἄπαγε, μὴ γένοιτο! ἀλλ' ὁ Ἠλίας ὑπὸ κόρακος ἐτρέφετο, οὐδὲν ἀκάθαρτον τῶν ὑπὸ Κυρίου κτισθέντων νομίζων. Εἶτα ἐκεῖθεν, ἐπει δὴ χρόνος διῆλθε, καὶ λοιπὸν ὁ ποταμὸς ἐξηράνθη, ἐγείρει τὸν προφήτην εἰς τροφήν. Ἄπελθε, φησὶν, εἰς Σαρεφθὰ τῆς Σιδωνίας, καὶ ἐντελοῦμαι γυ ναικὶ χήρᾳ τοῦ διατρέφειν σε ἐκεῖ· τοῦτο δὲ κατά τινα οἰκονομίαν ὁ Θεὸς ἐποίει. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ οὐκ ᾔδει Ἠλίας τὰ γινόμενα (ἐν ἑνὶ γὰρ τόπῳ ἐκαθέζετο, οὐκ ἔβλεπε τὴν οἰκουμενικὴν συμφορὰν, πῶς πάντα ἐξη ράνθη, πῶς αἱ λίμναι, πῶς οἱ ποταμοὶ, πῶς τὰ φυτὰ, πῶς τὰ δένδρα, πῶς τὰ ἄωρα, πῶς τὰ ὥριμα, πῶς τὰ ἔγκαρπα, πῶς τὰ ἄκαρπα, πῶς τὰ παρὰ πηγαῖς, τὰ παρὰ λίμναις τῶν ὑδάτων, τὴν ἅλωσιν τῶν πτηνῶν, τῶν κτηνῶν, τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων, τῶν παιδίων τὸν θάνατον, τῶν μητέρων τοὺς ὀλολυ γμοὺς, τὴν οἰκουμενικὴν ἐκείνην συμφοράν), ἐγεί ρει αὐτὸν ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ποιεῖ αὐτὸν ἄπειρον γῆν ὁδεῦ σαι ἐκεῖθεν ἕως Σιδῶνος, ἵνα κἂν οὕτως ἰδὼν Ἠλίας τὰ γινόμενα, ἀξιώσῃ τὸν ∆εσπότην αὐτοῦ δοῦναι ὑετόν. Πέμπει οὖν αὐτὸν διὰ τοῦτο τὴν μακρὰν ὁδὸν ἐκείνην, οὐχ ὡς μὴ δυνάμενος αὐτὸν ἐκεῖ τρέφειν ὁ Θεὸς, ἀλλ' ὡς θέλων ἐπιδεῖξαι τῷ Ἠλίᾳ τὴν συμφορὰν, ἵνα ἀξιώσῃ αὐτὸν περὶ βροχῆς. Ἠδύνατο μὲν γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸς χωρὶς τούτου, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἠθέλησεν ὑβρίζειν τὸν ἴδιον οἰκέτην, τῶν