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signifying a punishing ener gy. He who establishes the earth upon its security. But Aquila and Symmachus, *On its foundation*. What security, O prophet, where so much water lies beneath and a vast sea bears it upon its back? For elsewhere, indicating this, he said: *To him who established the earth upon the waters*. For since the foundation was not secure, but exceedingly unstable, the one who made it placed the security in it. And what is this security? The power of the one who fashioned it. For in his hand are the ends of the earth. And he calls man 'earth'. This one, therefore, he founds on the security of faith, who will not be moved for ever and ever, that is, in the age to come. He will not be moved for ever and ever. For having established it upon itself, he has given it immovability; and it remains in this manner, for as long as he himself wishes. Thus also he says elsewhere: *Hanging the earth upon nothing*. The deep, as a garment, is his covering. He has put 'His' instead of 'its' for thus both Aquila and Theodotion have interpreted: *You have clothed it with the deep as with a garment*. And holy Scripture calls the moist substance 'the deep'. Thus also at the beginning of creation, the blessed Moses said: *But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the deep*. Since, therefore, the earth is surrounded on all sides by water, and the great and unnavigable seas are its boundaries, while other navigable ones cut through its middle, he reasonably said that the deep lies upon the earth like a garment. And otherwise you will find 'the deep' used for incomprehensibility, in the phrase, *Your judgments, Lord, are a great deep*. For since his judgments are unsearchable, it is not possible to find comprehension of them; wherefore they are compared not 55.648 simply to a deep, but to a great one. And so incomprehensibility, called the deep, covers God, whose judgments are a great deep, like a cloak. Upon the mountains the waters will stand. At your rebuke they will flee, at the voice of your thunder they will be afraid. Mountains ascend, and plains descend to the place which you have founded for them. Through all things he teaches the providence of God presiding over creation. For because of this, the sea, imitating the peaks of the mountains, will not inundate the mainland with its waves, but just as we have been terrified by the thunder, so it feared the established boundary. And the phrase, *Upon the mountains the waters will stand* instead of, 'it stands like a mountain'; and the phrase, *Mountains ascend* instead of, 'like mountains'. I think he means the clouds above the peak of the mountains. For in these places the clouds especially linger, so that the inhabited world is not constantly darkened; Which, whenever you wish, he says, all take their own place, and are dispersed, and become a fine linen. And otherwise, he calls the prophets 'mountains' because of the height of their contemplation. In them waters stand, by which those who thirst for the water of teaching are given to drink. Of what rebuke? That against the Jews. For another prophet shows this; for he says, *And I will give them not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord*. For when God is angry, the waters of the prophets become scarce, since they do not possess the supply from themselves. And call the voice of thunder that of the Gospel, which the waters of the prophets do not flee, but fear because of the superiority of the knowledge in them. You have set a boundary, which it will not pass over, nor will they return to cover the earth.

γʹ. The sea is shamed by the sand, and raging up to that point, as by a bridle, being hindered by the divine boundary, is checked again and goes back. Or this: for the prophets do not report all of their revelations; but only those things which it is commanded to reveal to them, lest by their multitude they cover the earth, that is, the man who is unable to contain it; and Paul testifies, saying: *I heard unspeakable things*

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κολαστικὴν σημαίνων ἐνέρ γειαν. Ὁ θεμελιῶν τὴν γῆν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀσφάλειαν αὐ τῆς. Ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας καὶ Σύμμαχος, Ἐπὶ τῆς ἕδρας αὐτῆς. Ποίαν ἀσφάλειαν, ὦ προφῆτα, ὅπου τοσοῦτον ὕδωρ ὑπόκειται καὶ πέλαγος ἀχανὲς τὸ φέρον ὑπὲρ τῶν νώτων αὐτήν; Καὶ γὰρ ἀλλαχοῦ τοῦτο δηλῶν ἔλεγε· Τῷ στε ρεώσαντι τὴν γῆν ἐπὶ τῶν ὑδάτων. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁ θεμέλιος οὐκ ἀσφαλὴς, ἀλλὰ σφόδρα σαθρὸς ἦν, ἐν αὐτῇ τὴν ἀσφάλειαν ἔθηκεν ὁ ποιήσας. Τίς δὲ αὕτη ἡ ἀσφά λεια; Ἡ δύναμις τοῦ ἐργασαμένου. Ἐν γὰρ τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ τὰ πέρατα τῆς γῆς. Γῆν δὲ καλεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Τοῦτον τοίνυν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀσφάλειαν θεμελιοῖ τῆς πίστεως, ὅστις οὐ κλιθήσεται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος, δηλαδὴ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι. Οὐ κλιθήσεται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος. Αὐτὴν γὰρ ἐφ' ἑαυτὴν ἑδράσας δέδωκεν αὐτῇ τὸ ἀκίνη τον· καὶ τοῦτον διαμένει τὸν τρόπον, ἐφ' ὅσον ἂν αὐτὸς ἐθελήσῃ. Οὕτω καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ φησι· Κρεμῶν τὴν γῆν ἐπ' οὐδενός. Ἄβυσσος, ὡς ἱμάτιον, τὸ περιβό λαιον αὐτοῦ. Τὸ Αὐτοῦ ἀντὶ τοῦ αὐτῆς τέθεικεν οὕτω γὰρ καὶ ὁ Ἀκύλας καὶ ὁ Θεοδοτίων ἡρμήνευσαν· Ἄβυσσον ὡσεὶ ἔνδυμα περιέβαλες αὐτήν. Ἄβυσσον δὲ κα λεῖ ἡ θεία Γραφὴ τὴν ὑγρὰν οὐσίαν. Οὕτω καὶ ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς κτίσεως ὁ μακάριος ἔφη Μωϋσῆς· Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀό ρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος, καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τῆς ἀβύσσου. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ἡ γῆ πανταχόθεν ὕδατι περι έχεται, καὶ τὰ μεγάλα μὲν καὶ ἄπλωτα πελάγη ταύτης ἐστὶ τέρματα, μέσην δὲ αὐτὴν διατέμνει ἕτερα πλεόμενα, εἰκότως ἔφη τὴν ἄβυσσον καθάπερ ἱμάτιον ἐπικεῖσθαι τῇ γῇ. Καὶ ἄλλως δὲ τὴν ἄβυσσον ἐπὶ ἀκαταληψίας εὑ ρήσεις κειμένην, ἐν τῷ, Τὰ κρίματά σου, Κύριε, ἄβυσ σος πολλή. Ἀνεξερευνήτων γὰρ ὄντων τῶν κριμάτων αὐτοῦ, οὐκ ἔστι κατάληψιν αὐτῶν εὑρεῖν· διὸ καὶ οὐχ 55.648 ἁπλῶς ἀβύσσῳ, ἀλλὰ πολλῇ παραβάλλονται. Καὶ τὸν Θεὸν οὖν, οὗ πολλὴ ἄβυσσος τὰ κρίματά ἐστι, περιβολαίου δίκην καλύπτει ἀκαταληψία, ἄβυσσος ὀνομαζομένη. Ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρέων στήσεται ὕδατα. Ἀπὸ ἐπιτιμήσεώς σοι φεύξονται, ἀπὸ φωνῆς βροντῆς σου δειλιάσουσιν Ἀναβαίνουσιν ὄρη, καὶ καταβαίνουσι πεδία εἰς τόπον ὃν ἐθεμελίωσας αὐτοῖς. ∆ιὰ πάντων διδάσκει τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν προμήθειαν ἐφεστῶσαν τῇ κτίσει. Τούτου χάριν γὰρ τὰς τῶν ὀρῶν κορυφὰς ἡ θάλαττα μιμουμένη, τοῖς κύμα σιν οὐκ ἐπικλύσει τὴν ἤπειρον, ἀλλὰ καθάπερ ἡμεῖς τὴν βροντὴν κατεπτήχαμεν, οὕτως ἐκείνη τὸν κείμενον δέ διεν ὅρον. Τὸ δὲ, Ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρέων στήσεται ὕδατα ἀντὶ τοῦ, ὡς ὄρος ἕστηκε· τὸ δὲ, Ἀναβαίνουσιν ὄρη ἀντὶ τοῦ, ὡς ὄρη. Νεφέλας οἶμαι δηλοῦν αὐτὸν τὰς ὑπὲρ τῆς κορυφῆς τῶν ὀρέων. Τούτοις γὰρ τοῖς χωρίοις μάλιστα ἐμφιλοχωροῦσιν αἱ νεφέλαι, ὥστε μὴ τὰ οἰκούμενα σκο τίζεσθαι συνεχῶς· Αἳ, ὅταν βουληθῇς, φησὶ, πᾶσαι τὸ οἰκεῖον ἀπολαμβάνουσι χῶρον, καὶ διαλύονται, καὶ ὀθόνη γίνονται. Καὶ ἄλλως δὲ ὄρη τοὺς προφήτας διὰ τὸ ὕψος τῆς θεωρίας καλεῖ. Ἐν αὐτοῖς ὕδατα ἵστανται, οἷς οἱ διψῶντες τὸ ὕδωρ τῆς διδασκαλίας ποτίζονται. Ποίας δὲ ἐπιτιμήσεως; Τῆς κατὰ τῶν Ἰουδαίων. Τοῦτο γὰρ προ φήτης ἕτερος δείκνυσι· φησὶ γὰρ, Καὶ δώσω αὐτοῖς οὐ λιμὸν ἄρτου, οὐδὲ δίψαν ὕδατος, ἀλλὰ λιμὸν τοῦ ἀκοῦσαι λόγον Κυρίου. Ὅταν γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς ὀργισθῇ σπανίζεται τὰ τῶν προφητῶν ὕδατα, ἐπειδήπερ οὐκ ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν τὴν χορηγίαν κέκτηνται. Φωνὴν δὲ βροντῆς λέγε τὴν τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου, ἣν οὐκ ἀποφεύγει, ἀλλὰ δειλιᾷ τὰ τῶν προφητῶν ὕδατα διὰ τὸ ὑπερέχον τῆς ἐν αὐτοῖς γνώ σεως. Ὅριον ἔθου, ὃ οὐ παρελεύσεται, οὐδὲ ἐπιστρέ ψουσι καλύψαι τὴν γῆν.

γʹ. Αἰσχύνεται τὴν ψάμμον ἡ θάλασσα, καὶ μέχρις ἐκεί νης λυττῶσα, καθάπερ χαλινῷ, τῷ ὅρῳ τῷ θείῳ κωλυο μένη, ἀναχαιτίζεται πάλιν καὶ εἰς τοὐπίσω χωρεῖ. Ἢ τοῦτο· οὐδὲ γὰρ πάσας αὐτῶν τὰς ἀποκαλύψεις οἱ προ φῆται ἀπαγγέλλουσι· μόνα δὲ ἅπερ αὐτοῖς ἀποκαλύψαι προστάττεται, ἵνα μὴ τῷ πλήθει καλύψωσι τὴν γῆν, τουτέστι, τὸν ἄνθρωπον χωρῆσαι μὴ δυνάμενον· καὶ μαρτυρεῖ Παῦλος λέγων· Ἤκουσα ἄῤῥητα