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And why He forsook him, as if making an apology on behalf of God, he sets forth the reasons, adding: that their land was filled, as from the beginning, with divinations and the rest, by which he shows that not without reason did the light of the Lord, which shone upon all the nations, forsake them. These things, then, are according to the interpretation of the Seventy, according to whom the phrase: He forsook his people and what follows are connected to the second [verse]: and let us walk in the light of the Lord. The prophet, having exhorted the people and said: Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord, stops at this point, going through what follows no longer addressing the people, but speaking to the Lord Himself. Instead of: For he forsook his people, Aquila rendered it, because you have left your people, the house of Jacob, and Symmachus: you have cast off. Then he presents signs of the people being forsaken, saying, just as in the old days certain foreigners, "Amorites and Hivites and Jebusites," did all sorts of terrible things while inhabiting the place, in whose time their land was filled with "divinations and soothsaying" and every kind of idolatry, where the land of the house of Jacob will be filled with foreign inhabitants and foreign children will be born to them and the land, which was formerly called God's, will be filled with military men, whom he alludes to through the multitude of horses and chariots. And he says their land will be filled with those occupied with gold and silver, and in addition to these he says it will be filled with the abominations of the works of their hands; of whom, if not of the foreign inhabitants, who also worshipped what their fingers made? All these things signify foreign and idolatrous nations who are about to inhabit Jerusalem itself and the land of Judea. These things were indeed fulfilled after the coming of our Savior, and after the evangelical word "which enlightened all the nations." Since they did not obey the prophet who called them, saying: Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord, the Jews were handed over to the power of the Romans, at which things the prophet, grieving in his soul, cries out to the Lord himself, saying: You have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob. Then he presents proofs, by which it is shown that the people were forsaken and abandoned by the Lord, and that their land was given over to foreign nations, whose impieties he enumerates and says to the Lord Himself, crying out again: And do not forgive them; for instead of: And I will not forgive them, Aquila translated it and do not take them up, but Symmachus: and do not forgive them. This would not make sense to have been said about the Jews; for the prophet would not have cursed his own people, but according to the meaning that has been given. He brought these things upon those who had been spoken of, who made war on Jerusalem and filled it with military power and every kind of idolatry. 1.28 I believe that the foregoing has also been fulfilled in a single way at the time of the Roman attack against the Jewish nation, during which, as the land was being ravaged, they fled from the face of the enemy to the rocks and hid in caves because of the wrath of God that was upon them. And then the haughty were humbled, but also those who previously boasted in their wealth were then exposed as being nothing when the day of the Lord overtook them, I mean of Christ's vengeance, in which the day of the Lord came not only upon haughty and lofty men, but also upon the beauties of the land, as the enemy ravaged and destroyed everything, so as to throw down towers and demolish walls and cut down all high things. And if some also engaged in maritime commerce, the enemies took their ships as well; from every side, then, they humbled and plundered the Jewish nation, since they did not render themselves obedient to the prophet who exhorted them and said: "Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord." The prophet foretells these things, testifying of "the coming"

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τί δὲ αὐτὸν ἀνῆκεν ὥσπερ ἀπολογούμενος ὑπὲρ τοῦ θεοῦ τὰς αἰτίας τίθησιν ἐπιφέρων· ὅτι ἐνεπλήσθη ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν ὡς τὸ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς κληδονισμῶν καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, δι' ὧν παρίστησιν, ὅτι μὴ ἀλόγως αὐτοὺς ἀνῆκεν τὸ φῶς τοῦ κυρίου τὸ ἐπιλάμψαν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν κατὰ τὴν τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα ἑρμηνείαν, καθ' οὓς τό· ἀνῆκεν τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ ἑπόμενα συνῆπται τῷ δευτέρῳ· καὶ πορευθῶμεν τῷ φωτὶ κυρίου. Παραινέσας ὁ προφήτης τῷ λαῷ καὶ εἰπών· δεῦτε καὶ πορευθῶμεν τῷ φωτὶ κυρίου μέχρι τούτου ἵσταται τὰ ἑξῆς ἐπιλεγόμενα οὐκέτι πρὸς τὸν λαὸν διεξερχόμενος, ἀλλ' αὐτῷ λέγων τῷ κυρίῳ. ἀντὶ τοῦ· ἀνῆκεν γὰρ τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ, ὁ Ἀκύλας ὅτι εἴασας λαόν σου οἶκον Ἰακὼβ ἐξέδωκεν, ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος· ἀπέρριψας. εἶθ' ἑξῆς σημεῖα τοῦ ἀνεῖσθαι τὸν λαὸν παρίστησι λέγων, ὥσπερ τὸ παλαιὸν ἀλλόφυλοί τινες «Ἀμορραῖοι καὶ Εὐαῖοι καὶ Ἰεβουσαῖοι» τὰ πάνδεινα ἔπραττον οἰκοῦντες τὸν τόπον, καθ' οὓς «κληδόνων καὶ μαντειῶν» καὶ πάσης εἰδωλολατρίας ἐπεπλήρωτο αὐτῶν ἡ χώρα, οὗ ἡ χώρα τοῦ οἴκου Ἰακὼβ ἀλλοφύλων οἰκητόρων πληρωθήσεται καὶ τέκνα ἀλλόφυλα γενήσεται αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐμπλησθήσεται ἡ χώρα ἡ πάλαι τοῦ θεοῦ χρηματίζουσα στρατιωτικῶν ἀνδρῶν, οὓς αἰνίττεται διὰ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν ἵππων καὶ τῶν ἁρμάτων. ἔτι δὲ τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν πληρωθήσεσθαί φησι τῶν περὶ χρυσὸν καὶ ἄργυρον ἀσχολούμενον, ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις πλησθήσεσθαί φησι βδελυγμάτων τῶν ἔργων τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν· τίνων δὲ αὐτῶν, ἀλλ' ἢ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων οἰκητόρων, οἳ καὶ προσεκύνησαν οἷς ἐποίησαν οἱ δάκτυλοι αὐτῶν; ταῦτα πάντα σημαντικὰ τυγχάνει ἀλλοφύλων ἐθνῶν καὶ εἰδωλολατρῶν μελλόντων οἰκεῖν αὐτὴν τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ καὶ τὴν Ἰουδαίαν χώραν. ἃ δὴ ἐπληροῦτο μετὰ τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν παρουσίαν, καὶ μετὰ τὸν λόγον τὸν εὐαγγελικὸν «τὸν φωτίσαντα πάντα τὰ ἔθνη». ἐπειδὴ μὴ ὑπήκουσαν τοῦ κεκληκότος αὐτοὺς προφήτου εἰρηκότος· ∆εῦτε καὶ πορευθῶμεν τῷ φωτὶ κυρίου, παραδοθέντων Ἰουδαίων τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἐξουσίᾳ, ἐφ' οἷς ἀλγῶν τὴν ψυχὴν ὁ προφήτης ἀναφωνεῖ πρὸς αὐτὸν λέγων τὸν κύριον· ἀνῆκες τὸν λαόν σου τὸν οἶκον τοῦ Ἰακώβ. εἶτα παρίστησι τεκμήρια, δι' ὧν δείκνυται ἀνεθεὶς ὁ λαὸς καὶ ἐγκαταλειφθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου ἐκτὸς τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν ἀλλογενέσιν ἔθνεσιν ἐκδεδόσθαι, ὧν τὰς ἀσεβείας καταριθμησάμενος λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν πάλιν ἀναφωνῶν τὸν κύριον· καὶ μὴ ἀφῇς αὐτοῖς· ἀντὶ γὰρ τοῦ· καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀνήσω αὐτούς, ὁ μὲν Ἀκύλας καὶ μὴ ἄρῃς αὐτοῖς ἡρμήνευσεν, ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος· καὶ μὴ ἀφῇς αὐτοῖς. ὅπερ οὐκ ἂν ἔχοι λόγον περὶ Ἰουδαίων εἰρῆσθαι· οὐ γὰρ ἂν ὁ προφήτης κατηύξατο τοῦ ἰδίου λαοῦ, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν ἀποδοθεῖσαν διάνοιαν. ταῦτα περὶ τῶν εἰρημένων τῶν τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ πολεμησάντων καὶ πληρωσάντων στρατιωτικῆς δυνάμεως καὶ πάσης εἰδωλολατρίας ἐπήγαγεν. 1.28 Ἡγοῦμαι καὶ τὰ προκείμενα πεπληρῶσθαι καθ' ἕνα τε τρόπον ἐπὶ τῆς Ῥωμαίων κατὰ τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους ἐφόδου, καθ' ἣν δῃουμένης τῆς χώρας φεύγοντες ἀπὸ προσώπου τῶν πολεμίων εἰς τὰς πέτρας ἐν τοῖς σπηλαίοις ἀποκρύπτονται διὰ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ αὐτοῖς ἐπικειμένην ὀργήν. τότε δὲ καὶ οἱ ὑπερήφανοι ἐταπεινοῦντο, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ πλούτῳ γαυριῶντες πρότερον τότε μηθὲν ὄντες ἠλέγχοντο καταλαβούσης αὐτοὺς τῆς τοῦ κυρίου ἡμέρας, λέγω δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς ἐκδικήσεως, ἐν ᾧ οὐ μόνον τοὺς ὑπερηφάνους καὶ ἐπηρμένους ἄνδρας ἡ τοῦ κυρίου μετήρχετο ἡμέρα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ τῆς χώρας κάλλη τῶν πολεμίων τὰ πάντα δῃούντων καὶ ἀφανιζόντων ὡς καὶ πύργους καταβαλεῖν καὶ τείχη καθαιρεῖν καὶ τὰ ὑψηλὰ πάντα συγκόπτειν. εἰ δὲ καὶ πραγματείαις ἐχρῶντο ταῖς διὰ θαλάσσης τινὲς καὶ τούτων τὰς ναῦς ἀπελάμβανον οἱ πολέμιοι, πανταχόθεν γοῦν τότε ἐταπείνουν καὶ διήρπαζον τὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος, ἐπεὶ μὴ τῷ προφήτῃ παρακαλοῦντι καὶ λέγοντι· «δεῦτε καὶ πορευθῶμεν τῷ φωτὶ κυρίου», παρέσχον ἑαυτοὺς πειθηνίους. προλέγει δὲ ταῦτα ὁ προφήτης μαρτυρόμενος «τὴν μέλλουσαν»