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in our sins; but now as God—for we men, when we repent, need his goodness, but when we persist in sins, his severity—God is both good and severe, and he speaks to us through the prophets and says: "Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me?" —understand Israel for me as that people— "she has gone up on every high mountain and under every shady tree." If you see the Pharisee going up to the temple boastfully and not beating his breast nor caring for his own evils, but saying: "I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector; I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess," you will see that he has gone up "on every high mountain" reprehensibly and loving haughtiness and "according to boastfulness and according to pride." And he who has gone up "on every high hill" has also been "under every tree," not fruitful, but "of a grove"; for a tree of a grove is one thing, a fruit-bearing tree is another; when they plant trees in groves, they do not plant fruit-bearing ones, not a fig tree nor a vine, but only fruitless trees for the sake of pleasure. Such you will find are the words of the heterodox and the beauties of their persuasiveness, not converting their hearers. When, therefore, someone gives himself over to such words, he has gone "under every tree of the grove"; he has not said "every tree" and been silent, nor again did he add: "every fruitful tree," but he has said "under every tree of the grove." For this reason you will understand why the lawgiver says: "You shall not plant any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall not make a grove"; for you also have the name of the grove forbidden. 4.5 "And she fornicated there. And I said after she committed all these fornications: return to me; and she did not return, and faithless Judah saw her faithlessness." We too have been reviled, I mean we who sin and do not keep the covenants of God, not seeing that they, being well-born, being from Abraham, having received the promise, have destroyed the covenant. It is necessary therefore for us to consider that, <if> they have fallen from the blessings and the promises and being from the fathers availed them nothing, how much more will we, when we sin, be abandoned. "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham," the Savior says to them, and again John: "Do not begin to say within yourselves, that we have Abraham as our father; for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones"; alluding to us as stones, who have a "stony heart" and are hardened toward the truth, and truly the mighty God raised up children to Abraham from the stones, if we "remain in childbearing" and keep "the spirit of adoption." Therefore "faithless Judah saw her faithlessness," that of the house of Israel, she who did not keep the covenants with God, "and saw that on account of all the things for which" she "was forsaken"—for we, Judah, see all these things, <if> we read the scripture—"that on account of all the things for which the house of Israel was forsaken, in which she committed adultery, God sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce." And it is necessary for us to be instructed by what he did to them, judging them according to their sins, abandoning and delivering them to captivity and delivering them to slaughter and delivering them to their enemies; it is necessary from these things for us to turn and for each of us to consider that "if God did not spare the natural branches, how much more will he not spare us," if he so cast out those from the fathers who became sinners, what will we who are called from the gentiles suffer, we who have considered none of these things, having been called so that that people might be made jealous seeing the slave honored, seeing the base-born who has come over. If they have already suffered such things, how much more, if we sin, will we be abandoned? "In which the house of Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce into the

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ἁμαρτίαις ἡμῶν· νῦν δὲ ὡς θεός-χρῄζομεν γὰρ οἱ ἄνθρωποι μετανοοῦντες τῆς χρηστότητος αὐτοῦ, ἐμμένοντες δὲ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις τῆς ἀποτομίας-καὶ χρηστός ἐστι καὶ ἀπότομος ὁ θεός, καὶ λαλεῖ ἡμῖν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν καὶ λέγει· «Εἶδες ἃ ἐποίησάν μοι ἡ κατοικία τοῦ Ἰσ ραήλ», -τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τὸν λαόν μοι νόει ἐκεῖνον, - «ἐπορεύθη ἐπὶ πᾶν ὄρος ὑψηλὸν καὶ ὑποκάτω παντὸς ξύλου κατασκίου». Ἐὰν ἴδῃς τὸν Φαρισαῖον εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν ἀναβαί νοντα ἀλαζονικῶς καὶ μὴ τύπτοντα ἑαυτοῦ τὸ στῆθος μηδὲ κηδόμενον τῶν ἰδίων κακῶν, ἀλλὰ λέγοντα· «Εὐχαριστῶ σοι ὅτι οὐκ εἰμὶ ὡς οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἅρπαγες, ἄδικοι, μοιχοί, ἢ καὶ ὡς οὗτος ὁ τελώνης· νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ σαββάτου, ἀποδεκατῶ τὰ ὑπάρχοντά μου», ὄψει ὅτι ἀναβέβηκεν «ἐπὶ πᾶν ὄρος ὑψηλὸν» ψεκτῶς καὶ ἀγαπήσας μεγαλοφροσύνην καὶ «κατὰ τὴν ἀλαζονείαν καὶ κατὰ τὴν ὑπερηφανίαν». Ὃς δὲ ἀναβέβηκε καὶ «ἐπὶ πάντα βουνὸν ὑψηλὸν» καὶ γέγονεν «ὑποκάτω παν τὸς ξύλου» οὐ καρπίμου, ἀλλ' «ἀλσώδους»· ἄλλο γὰρ τὸ ἀλσῶδες ξύλον, ἄλλο τὸ καρποφόρον· εἰς ἄλση ὅταν φυτεύωσι ξύλα, φυτεύουσιν οὐ τὰ καρποφόρα, οὐ συκῆν οὐδὲ ἄμπελον, ἀλλὰ μόνον τέρψεως χάριν ἄκαρπα ξύλα. Τοιούτους εὑρήσεις τοὺς λόγους τῶν ἑτεροδόξων καὶ τὰ κάλλη τῶν πιθανοτήτων αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐπιστρεφόντων τοὺς ἀκούοντας. Ὅταν οὖν τοῖς τοιούτοις λόγοις τις ἑαυτὸν ἐπιδῷ, πεπόρευται «ὑποκάτω παντὸς ξύλου ἀλσώδους»· οὐκ εἴρηκε «παντὸς ξύλου» καὶ σεσιώπηκεν, οὐδὲ πάλιν προσέθηκε· παντὸς ξύλου τοῦ καρπίμου, ἀλλ' εἴρηκεν «ὑποκάτω παντὸς ξύλου ἀλσώδους». ∆ιὰ τοῦτο νοήσεις τί δήποτε ὁ νομοθέτης λέγει· «Οὐ φυτεύσεις πᾶν ξύλον παρὰ τὸ θυσιαστήριον κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου, καὶ οὐ ποιήσεις ἄλσος»· ἔχεις γὰρ καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ ἄλσους ἀπηγορευ μένον. 4.5 «Καὶ ἐπόρνευσεν ἐκεῖ. Καὶ εἶπα μετὰ τὸ πορνεῦσαι αὐτὴν ταῦτα πάντα· πρός με ἀνάστρεψον· καὶ οὐκ ἀνέσ τρεψεν, καὶ εἶδεν τὴν ἀσυνθεσίαν αὐτῆς ἡ ἀσύνθετος Ἰού δα.» Λελοιδορήμεθα καὶ ἡμεῖς, λέγω οἱ ἁμαρτάνοντες καὶ μὴ τηροῦντες τὰς συνθήκας τοῦ θεοῦ μηδὲ βλέποντες ὅτι ἀπολωλέκασιν ἐκεῖνοι τὴν διαθήκην εὐγενεῖς ὄντες, ἐξ Ἀβραὰμ ὄντες, ἐπαγγελίαν λαβόντες. ∆έον οὖν ἡμᾶς λογίζεσθαι ὅτι, <εἰ> ἐκπεπτώκασιν ἐκεῖνοι τῶν εὐλογιῶν καὶ τῶν ἐπαγγελιῶν καὶ οὐδὲν ὤνησεν αὐτοὺς τὸ εἶναι ἀπὸ τῶν πατέρων, πόσῳ πλέον ἡμεῖς ἁμαρτάνοντες ἐγκαταλειφθη σόμεθα. «Εἰ ἦτε τέκνα τοῦ Ἀβραάμ, τὰ ἔργα τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ ἂν ἐποιεῖτε» λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ σωτήρ, καὶ πάλιν ὁ Ἰωάν νης· «Μὴ ἄρξησθε λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, ὅτι πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν Ἀβραάμ· λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι δύναται ὁ θεὸς ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ»· λίθους αἰνισ σόμενος ἡμᾶς τοὺς «λιθίνην» ἔχοντας «τὴν καρδίαν» καὶ ἐσκληρυμμένους πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ ἀληθῶς ὁ δυνατὸς θεὸς ἤγειρε τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἀπὸ τῶν λίθων, ἐὰν «μείνωμεν ἐν τῇ τεκνογονίᾳ» καὶ τηρήσωμεν «τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς υἱοθεσίας». «Εἶδεν» οὖν «τὴν ἀσυνθεσίαν αὐτῆς» τῆς κατοικίας τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ «ἡ ἀσύνθετος Ἰούδα», ἡ μὴ τηρήσασα τὰς συνθήκας τὰς πρὸς τὸν θεόν, «καὶ εἶδεν διότι περὶ πάντων, ὧν κατελείφθη» ἐκείνη-ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα ἡμεῖς βλέπο μεν ὁ Ἰούδας, <ἐὰν> ἀναγινώσκωμεν τὴν γραφήν-»ὅτι περὶ πάντων ὧν κατελείφθη ἡ κατοικία τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, ἐν οἷς ἐμοιχᾶτο ἐξαπέστειλεν αὐτὴν ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτῇ βιβλίον ἀποστασίου». Καὶ δέον ἡμᾶς παιδευθῆναι ἐξ ὧν ἐκείνοις ἐποίησε κρίνας αὐτοὺς κατὰ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα, ἐγκα ταλιπὼν καὶ παραδοὺς εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ παραδοὺς εἰς φόνον καὶ παραδοὺς τοῖς πολεμίοις· δέον ἐκ τούτων ἡμᾶς ἐπιστρέψαι καὶ ἕκαστον ἡμῶν λογίσασθαι ὅτι «εἰ ὁ θεὸς τῶν κατὰ φύσιν κλάδων οὐκ ἐφείσατο, πόσῳ πλέον ἡμῶν οὐ φείσεται», εἰ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν πατέρων οὕτως ἐξέωσε γενομένους ἁμαρτωλούς, τί ἡμεῖς οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν κλη θέντες πεισόμεθα, ἡμεῖς οὐδὲν τούτων ἐλογισάμεθα, κλη θέντες ἵνα παραζηλώσῃ ἐκεῖνος ὁ λαὸς ὁρῶν τὸν δοῦλον τετιμημένον, βλέπων τὸν ἀγενῆ προσεληλυθότα. Εἰ ἤδη τοσαῦτα ἐκεῖνοι πεπόνθασι, πόσῳ πλέον, ἐὰν ἁμαρτάνω μεν, ἡμεῖς ἐγκαταλειφθησόμεθα; «Ἐν οἷς ἐμοιχᾶτο ἡ κατοικία τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, ἐξαπέστειλα αὐτὴν καὶ ἔδωκα αὐτῇ βιβλίον ἀποστασίου εἰς τὰς