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of a full field which the Lord has blessed. Clearly the smell was not perceptible to the senses. For what smell can be compared to the smell of a field? But perhaps it was such as the Apostle had when he said: We are the aroma of Christ to God in every place. And I think that each virtue has its own fragrance, which is the complement of the virtues. And on the contrary, vices are malodorous, according to the one who said: My wounds have become foul and festered. It is fitting for the Lord to bless the field of virtues which is fragrant to him. And she said to him: Behold, Esau your brother threatens to kill you; now therefore, my son, listen to my voice, and arise, flee to Mesopotamia. We learn from these things that we must flee those who plot against us, and escape persecutions, even if we should be deemed worthy of visions like Jacob. One might be comforted seeing the things that followed Jacob as he fled from Esau; for he was deemed worthy of visions, and became the father of twelve tribes; and returning from the flight because of the persecution, he becomes Israel instead of Jacob. You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. The daughters of Canaan are wicked, not in the sight of Esau, but in the sight of Isaac his father. And when the Lord God saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb. He opens a womb for the birth of saints; and according to the spiritual law, he opens the womb of a soul, that she who is to be his mother may give birth to the Word of God. Of the same. For she who was older in time first bore to God the synagogue and multitude of the Jews. And Laban said to him: If I have found favor in your sight, I would have used divination; for God has blessed me on account of your coming. There is no divination in Jacob; but Laban says, I would have used divination, as one alien to the disposition of Jacob, from which he was not completely alien, adding to 'I have used divination,' the words, 'For God has blessed me on account of your coming.' 12.125 And Jacob took for himself a fresh rod of styrax, and of walnut, and of plane-tree. The three rods symbolically are either the three powers of the soul: the rational, the spirited, and the appetitive; or the three contemplations: of bodies, of incorporeal things, of the Holy Trinity; or generally, the practical life through the walnut, the contemplative through the styrax, and through the plane-tree he signified this world and the contemplation of it. The peeling of the green part of this signifies its renunciation; and of the practical life, the green part is sensuality; of contemplation, it is being occupied with bodies; and test the green part of the other two interpretations. And the Lord said to Jacob: Return to the land of your father, and to your kindred; and I will be with you. When Jacob was fruitful, and became rich while being outside his own kindred, then the Lord said to him: Return to the land of your father. Something of this sort must be understood as being said by the Lord, when we are at our departure, about to go to our fathers. And he gives a prize to the one who returns to the land of his father, and to his kindred. And I think that the Lord was with him in dreams. But your father has deceived me, and has changed my wages of the ten lambs. Aquila says 'ten numbers'; Symmachus 'ten times in number.' Therefore, as the Hebrew says, Laban violated the agreements with Jacob ten times, because the offspring born in Jacob's name were very numerous, and he was envious of him; which the two versions have shown; And you have cheated me of my wages by ten ewe-lambs; but there is no mention at all of lambs, which he had agreed to give me; it nowhere appears that he had agreed; but from what he himself says, it is clear. For just as it does not present Lamech as killing, but as being sought for, so that from the explanation the deed also becomes clear; so also here. Often, therefore, Scripture has made clear through someone explaining things which it did not explain in the course of the action. Your sheep and your goats have not been barren; I have not eaten the rams of your flocks. The confidence of a good shepherd is shown in these words, which are to be emulated. Therefore let the things in the... bear spiritual fruits

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ἀγροῦ πλήρους ὃν εὐλόγησε Κύριος. Σαφῶς οὐκ αἰσθητὴ ἦν ἡ ὀσμή. Ποία γὰρ ἂν ὀσμὴ δύναται εἶναι ὀσμῇ ἀγροῦ παραβαλλομένη; ἀλλὰ μήποτε τοιαύτη ἦν αὕτη, ὁποίαν ὁ Ἀπόστολος ἔχων ἔφασκε· Χριστοῦ εὐωδία ἐσμὲν τῷ Θεῷ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ. Ἐγὼ δὲ ἡγοῦμαι καὶ ἑκάστην ἀρετὴν ἰδίαν ἔχειν εὐωδίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶ συμπληρωτικὴ τῶν ἀρετῶν. Καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου δὲ αἱ κακίαι δυσώδεις εἰσὶ κατὰ τὸν εἰπόντα· Προσώζεσαν καὶ ἐσάπησαν οἱ μώλωπές μου. Πρέπει δὲ τῷ Κυρίῳ τὸν αὐτῷ εὐώδη τῶν ἀρε τῶν ἀγρὸν εὐλογεῖν. Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Ἰδοὺ Ἠσαῦ ὁ ἀδελφός σου ἀπειλεῖ σοι τοῦ ἀποκτεῖναί σε· νῦν οὖν, τέκνον, ἄκουσόν μου τῆς φωνῆς, καὶ ἀναστὰς ἀπόδραθι εἰς τὴν Μεσοποταμίαν. Μανθάνομεν ἀπὸ τού των, ὅτι δεῖ ἀποδιδράσκειν τοὺς ἐπιβουλεύοντας, καὶ διωγμοὺς φεύγειν, εἰ καὶ ὀπτασιῶν καταξιωθῶμεν ὡς ὁ Ἰακώβ. Παρακληθείη δ' ἄν τις ἰδὼν τὰ παρα κολουθήσαντα τῷ Ἰακὼβ φεύγοντι ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἠσαῦ· ὀπτασιῶν τε γὰρ ἠξιώθη, καὶ πατὴρ γεγένηται δώ δεκα φυλῶν· καὶ ἐπανερχόμενος ἀπὸ τῆς διὰ τὸν διω γμὸν φυγῆς, γίνεται ἀντὶ Ἰακὼβ Ἰσραήλ. Οὐ λήψῃ γυναῖκα ἐκ τῶν θυγατέρων Χαναάν. Αἱ θυγατέρες Χαναὰν πονηραί εἰσιν, οὐκ ἐναντίον Ἠσαῦ, ἀλλ' ἐναντίον Ἰσαὰκ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ. Ἰδὼν δὲ Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς, ὅτι μισεῖται Λεία, ἤνοιξε τὴν μήτραν αὐτῆς. Ἀνοίγει μήτραν ἐπὶ ἁγίων γεννήσει· κατὰ δὲ τὸν πνευματικὸν νόμον ψυ χῆς ἀνοίγει μήτραν, ἵνα γεννήσῃ Θεοῦ Λόγον ἡ ἐσο μένη αὐτοῦ μήτηρ. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Πρώτη γὰρ ἐτέκνωσε τῷ Θεῷ τὴν Ἰουδαίων συναγωγὴν καὶ πληθὺν ἡ ἐν χρόνῳ πρε σβυτέρα. Εἶπε δὲ αὐτῷ Λάβαν· Εἰ εὗρον χάριν ἐναντίον σου, οἰωνισάμην ἄν· εὐλόγησε γάρ με ὁ Θεὸς ἐπὶ τῇ σῇ εἰσόδῳ. Οὐκ ἔστι μὲν οἰωνισμὸς ἐν Ἰα κώβ· ὁ δὲ Λάβαν φησὶν, οἰωνισάμην ἂν, ὡς ἀλλό τριος τῆς τοῦ Ἰακὼβ προαιρέσεως, ἧς οὐ τέλεον ἀλ λότριος ἦν, προστιθεὶς τῷ, οἰωνισάμην, καὶ τὸ, Εὐ λόγησε γάρ με ὁ Θεὸς ἐπὶ τῇ σῇ εἰσόδῳ. 12.125 Ἔλαβε δὲ ἑαυτῷ Ἰακὼβ ῥάβδον στυρακίνην χλωρὰν, καὶ καρυΐνην, καὶ πλατάνου. Αἱ τρεῖς ῥάβδοι συμβολικῶς ἤτοι αἱ τρεῖς δυνάμεις τῆς ψυχῆς εἰσι, τὸ λογικὸν, τὸ θυμικὸν, τὸ ἐπιθυμητι κόν· ἤτοι αἱ τρεῖς θεωρίαι τῶν σωμάτων, τῶν ἀσωμά των, τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος· ἤτοι γενικῶς ἡ πρακτικὴ διὰ τῆς καρυΐνης, ἡ θεωρητικὴ διὰ τῆς στυρακίνης, διὰ δὲ τῆς πλατάνου τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον καὶ τὴν θεω ρίαν αὐτοῦ ᾐνίξατο. Τὸ περισύρειν τὸ χλωρὸν τούτου, τὴν ἀποταξίαν αὐτοῦ σημαίνει· καὶ τῆς μὲν πρακτι κῆς τὸ χλωρόν ἐστι τὸ ἡδυπαθές· τῆς δὲ θεωρίας, τὸ περὶ τὰ σώματα ἀσχολεῖσθαι· τὸ δὲ χλωρὸν τῶν δύο ἄλλων ἐκδοχῶν βασάνιζε. Εἶπε δὲ Κύριος πρὸς Ἰακώβ· Ἀποστρέφου εἰς τὴν γῆν τοῦ πατρός σου, καὶ εἰς τὴν γενεάν σου· καὶ ἔσομαι μετὰ σοῦ. Ὅτε ἐκαρποφόρησεν Ἰα- κὼβ, καὶ ἐπλούτησεν ἔξω τῆς γενεᾶς αὐτοῦ τυγχά νων, τότε εἶπεν αὐτῷ Κύριος· Ἀποστρέφου εἰς τὴν γῆν τοῦ πατρός σου. Τοιοῦτον δέ τι νοητέον ὑπὸ Κυρίου λέγεσθαι, ὅτε πρὸς τῇ ἐξόδῳ γενώμεθα ἀπε λευσόμενοι πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν. Καὶ ἆθλον δὲ δίδωσι τῷ ἀποστρέφοντι εἰς τὴν γῆν τοῦ πατρὸς αὐ τοῦ, καὶ εἰς τὴν γενεὰν αὐτοῦ. Οἶμαι δὲ, ὅτι ἐν ὕπνοις παρῆν αὐτῷ ὁ Κύριος. Ὁ δὲ πατὴρ ὑμῶν παρεκρούσατό με, καὶ ἤλ λαξε τὸν μισθόν μου τῶν δέκα ἀμνῶν. Ἀκύλας δέκα ἀριθμοὺς εἴρηκε· Σύμμαχος δεκάκις ἀρι θμῷ. Ἔλεγεν οὖν, ὥς φησιν ὁ Ἑβραῖος, ∆εκάκις ἠθέτησεν τὰς συνθήκας πρὸς τὸν Ἰακὼβ ὁ Λάβαν, διὰ τὸ τὰ γεννώμενα ἐπ' ὀνόματι τοῦ Ἰακὼβ πλεῖστα ὅσα ὑπάρχειν, κἀκεῖνον ἐποφθαλμιᾷν αὐτόν· ὅπερ ἐδήλωσαν αἱ δύο ἐκδόσεις· Καὶ παρηλογίσω τὸν μισθόν μου δέκα ἀμνάδας· ἀμνῶν δὲ ὅλως οὐκ ἔχει μνήμην, οὓς συνέθετό μοι δοῦναι· οὐδαμοῦ φαίνεται, ὅτι συνέθετο· ἀλλ' ἀφ' ὧν αὐτὸς λέγει, φανερόν ἐστιν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἀποκτείνοντα τὸν Λάμεχ οὐκ εἰσάγει, ἐκζητούμενον δὲ, ὡς ἀπὸ τῆς ἐξηγή σεως εἶναι φανερὸν καὶ τὸ γενόμενον· οὕτω καὶ ἐνταῦθα. Πολλάκις οὖν ἡ Γραφὴ, ἃ ἐν τῷ πράτ τεσθαι οὐκ ἐξηγήσατο, διά τινος ἐξηγουμένου ἐδή λωσεν. Τὰ πρόβατά σου καὶ αἱ αἶγές σου οὐκ ἠτεκνώ θησαν· κριοὺς τῶν προβάτων σου οὐ κατέφαγον. Καλοῦ ποιμένος παῤῥησία ἐμφαίνεται ταῖς φω ναῖς ταύταις, ἃς ζηλωτέον. Γεννάτωσαν οὖν καρ ποὺς πνευματικοὺς τὰ ἐν τοῖς