Selecta in Ezechielem

 of Jesus the Savior God having gone forth. If then they might hear, or be terrified. Similar to this doubtful expression is the one in Jeremiah: Perha

 of Israel. But neither are they slow of speech for their tongue, that is, their speech, does not have weight and a certain elegance but they are lig

 He sat in their midst. But when he is about to see the glory of the Lord, he rises up and goes out into the plain, with only the breadth of the plain

 the iniquities of the house of Israel. And who took up the iniquities of the sons of Israel, being two in number, both that against God and that again

 But it is not proper for God to effect these things. For thus also the teacher of the Hebrews explained the passage: I will honor those who honor me,

 those who have emulated the mere practical are said to be glens but those who are humbler in soul than all are called ravines. And your precincts sha

 someone might say, the temple-keepers under 13.789 the priests and the house of Israel those from the 12 tribes and those who fear the Lord are fore

 to him, so that he became worthy even of being laid up in the Holy of Holies in the tent of testimony. That there is a vision for all the multitude. F

 his observance. And when they are not capable of giving counsel, nor do they preside to consider what is necessary for the common good, it must be sai

 written for the evil ones, and to have transferred the sacred weekly cycle from the holy things to the idols, so that they might receive a kind of sta

 Theodotion have placed alongside, preserving, as I think, the Hebrew word for I do not think that among the Greeks the word 'kasto' means to have a w

 the houses are built. The meaning of the present text is this: These men, he says, say, seeing the city newly built after the previous captivity, that

 he answers them through the prophet, as they are in need of repentance, saying: Repent and turn away, and so forth. Land, which if it sins. It is the

 they will enter, it is said. These bring out sons and daughters. This must be read as a question: If Noah and Daniel and Job will not suffice for thos

 Incense. Incense and oil is the prayer sent up to God from the mind with knowledge, in which God delights. And you spread your legs to everyone passin

 is of the vine, so also we, if we follow as the natural impulses draw us in our earliest years, are eating unripe grapes. Of the same. The unripe grap

 by his most wicked doctrines laying waste the land and those who dwell in it. These lions, therefore, are a symbol of the kings of Jerusalem in a tang

 to those before us I mean those outside the flesh. For besides having its own historical account, such as that which occurred among us men, it also h

 The Egyptians must be punished from the first to the last. All who inhabit Egypt, or rather, who are, will be punished in it.

by his most wicked doctrines laying waste the land and those who dwell in it. These lions, therefore, are a symbol of the kings of Jerusalem in a tangible sense; the first having been handed over to Egypt; the second, as being more impious, to Babylon. It also has a spiritual interpretation for those who are able to contemplate it. Such things also suffer the impious heretics, who do not keep the word, but trample upon it; some being handed over here to the spiritual Egyptians, others either here or after the exodus to the spiritual Nebuchadnezzar. CHAP. 20. And I gave them statutes that were not good. And what were these but the killing letter of the law, and the covenant of death engraved in letters on stones, and the ministry of condemnation? Both, therefore, are commanded by the same voice, both the letter and the spirit; but the commandments according to the letter must not be done; but those according to the spirit must be done. That such a thing is blameless, and profanes some of the commandments, we learn not only from the Apostle of the New Testament, but it is also clear from those before the coming of the Savior, from the fact that the priests in the temple profaning the Sabbath were guiltless, and that a man could be circumcised on the Sabbath; one law being broken, and another being kept; and from the fact that David and those with him had eaten of the loaves of presentation, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but only for the priests; and from the fact that a likeness was made both in the tent of testimony and in the temple of the cherubim; and that by Moses a likeness of a bronze serpent was constructed. CHAP. 22. Behold, the house of Israel has become to me all mixed together. The Lord sits in the midst of Jerusalem smelting those mixed with silver and tin, and bronze and lead, and he blames those having cheap matter about themselves, and says: They have become mixed silver. For when we introduce vile things from our wickedness to the good creation of God, we have introduced lead and bronze, and tin; evil practice and doctrines of impiety, and sympathy for the body. For because of these things there is need of the fire. CHAP. 28. You have bound on every precious stone. The high priest had twelve stones on his shoulders, adorning him for his high priestly service to God. These stones the virtuous man builds 13.821 upon the unshakable foundation, which the fire is not strong enough to burn up; and he builds them upon his own shoulders, that is, by his own labors. And among these, he who possesses them has upon his breast the precious stone of manifestation and truth. And the twelve stones are the words of the sons of Israel, in which stones you will contemplate the spiritual trees of paradise; and the tree of life, which he who has acquired it will have his head anointed with the sanctification of the Lord. Of such holy stones were composed the gates of Jerusalem, and all of Jerusalem; all of which the ruler of Tyre once wore, not by his own labors, but by grace, as the word of Jerusalem, and as a priest of God. But from all these he has fallen, saying in his heart: I am a god; I have dwelt in the dwelling of God in the heart of the sea. The heart of the sea is the deep reasonings of the deep things, the inmost of the inmost; from which heart he who was lifted up on this account, having fallen, was cast down into the tangible sea itself. And this also they suffer, the men who are lifted up on account of their own labors. You are a seal of likeness. Truth is a seal and a crown of beauty. He who is in it will be made in it; and those who receive the truth become in it. Because of the multitude of your sins I have cast you to the earth. From the heavens was cast he who was cast to the earth; whose example and shadow those serving in the tent served. Set your face. The divine Scripture, narrating the things that have happened among us humans, instructs us in the things concerning us, and guides him who follows from the things concerning us, and leads him up, and reveals the spiritual from the tangible things. And from the things that happened among us, it shows to the spirit the things that happened in

βεστάτοις αὐτοῦ δόγμασιν ἐρημούντων τὴν γῆν καὶ τοὺς οἰκοῦντας αὐτήν. Σύμβολον οὖν εἰσιν οὗτοι οἱ λέοντες τῶν τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ βασιλέων κατὰ τὸ αἰ σθητόν· τοῦ μὲν πρώτου παραδοθέντος εἰς Αἴγυπτον· τοῦ δὲ δευτέρου, ὡς ἀσεβεστέρου, εἰς Βαβυλῶνα. Ἔχει δὲ καὶ τὴν ἀναγωγὴν τοῖς δυναμένοις θεωρῆσαι. Τοιαῦτα δὲ πάσχουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσεβεῖς αἱρετικοὶ, οἱ μὴ φυλάσσοντες τὸν λόγον, ἀλλὰ καταπατοῦντες· οἱ μὲν παραδιδόμενοι ἐνταῦθα τοῖς νοητοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις, οἱ δὲ ἢ ἐνταῦθα ἢ μετὰ τὴν ἔξοδον τῷ νοητῷ Ναβουχο δονόσορ. ΚΕΦ. Κʹ. Καὶ ἔδωκα αὐτοῖς προστάγματα οὐ καλά. Τίνα δὲ ἦν ταῦτα ἢ τὸ ἀποκτεῖνον γράμμα τοῦ νόμου, καὶ ἡ διαθήκη τοῦ θανάτου ἐν γράμμασιν ἐντετυπωμένη λιθίνοις, καὶ ἡ διακονία τῆς κατακρίσεως; Ἀμφό τερα οὖν διὰ τῆς αὐτῆς προστάσσεται φωνῆς, τό τε γράμμα καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα· ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν κατὰ τὸ γράμμα προστάγματα οὐ δεῖ ποιεῖν· τὰ δὲ κατὰ τὸ πνεῦμα, ποιητέον. Ὅτι τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτον ἀνέγκλητόν ἐστι, καὶ βεβηλοῖ τινα τῶν προσταγμάτων, μανθάνομεν οὐ μόνον ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου τῆς καινῆς ∆ιαθήκης, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν πρὸ τῆς παρουσίας τοῦ Σωτῆρος δῆλον, ἐκ τοῦ τοὺς μὲν ἱερεῖς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ τὸν Σάββα τον βεβηλοῦντας ἀναιτίους εἶναι, καὶ ἐν Σαββάτῳ πε ριτέμνεσθαι ἄνθρωπον· ἑνὸς μὲν λυομένου νόμου, ἑνὸς δὲ τηρουμένου· καὶ ἐκ τοῦ τόν τε ∆αυῒδ καὶ τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ βεβρωκέναι ἀπὸ τῶν ἄρτων τῆς προθέσεως, οὓς οὐκ ἐξῆν αὐτῷ φαγεῖν, οὐδὲ τοῖς μετ' αὐτοῦ, εἰ μὴ τοῖς ἱερεῦσι μόνοις· καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίωμα γεγονέ ναι ἔν τε τῇ σκηνῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου καὶ ἐν τῷ ναῷ τῶν χερουβίμ· καὶ ὑπὸ Μωϋσέως ὁμοίωμα κατεσκευά σθαι ὄφεως χαλκοῦ. ΚΕΦ. ΚΒʹ. Ἰδοὺ γεγόνασί μοι οἶκος Ἰσραὴλ ἀναμεμιγμένοι πάντες. Κάθηται Κύριος ἐν μέσῳ τῆς Ἱερου σαλὴμ χωνεύων τοὺς ἀναμεμιγμένους ἀργυρίῳ καὶ κασσιτέρῳ, καὶ χαλκῷ καὶ μολίβδῳ, καὶ αἰτιᾶται τοὺς ἔχοντας ὕλην εὐτελῆ περὶ ἑαυτοὺς, καὶ λέγει· Ἀρ γύριον ἀναμεμιγμένον ἐγενήθησαν. Ὅταν γὰρ τῇ κτίσει τοῦ Θεοῦ τῇ καλῇ ἐπεισηγάγομεν ἐκ τῆς κα κίας ἡμῶν τὰ φαῦλα, μόλιβδον ἐπεισηγάγομεν καὶ χαλκὸν, καὶ κασσίτερον· τὴν κακὴν πρᾶξιν καὶ δό γματα ἀθείας, καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὸ σῶμα συμπάθειαν. ∆ιὰ ταῦτα γὰρ χρεία τοῦ πυρός. ΚΕΦ. ΚΗʹ. Πάντα λίθον χρηστὸν ἐνδέδεσαι. ∆ώδεκα λίθους εἶχεν ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς κοσμοῦντας αὐτὸν τοῦ ἀρχιερᾶσθαι τῷ Θεῷ. Τούτους τοὺς λίθους ἐποικοδο 13.821 μεῖ ὁ ἐνάρετος ἐπὶ τὸν ἀσάλευτον θεμέλιον, οὓς τὸ πῦρ κατακαῦσαι οὐκ ἰσχύει· ἐποικοδομεῖ δὲ τοῖς ἰδίοις ὤμοις, τουτέστι πόνοις ἰδίοις. Μέσον δὲ τούτων ὁ κεκτημένος ταῦτα ἔχει ἐπὶ τοῦ στήθους τὸν τῆς δη λώσεως καὶ τὸν ἀληθείας λίθον τίμιον. Καὶ οἱ μὲν δώδεκα λίθοι λόγοι εἰσὶ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ, ἐν οἷς λίθοις θεωρήσεις τὰ νοητὰ ξύλα τοῦ παραδείσου· καὶ τὸ μὲν ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, ὃ ὁ κτησάμενος τυρωθήσεται τὴν κεφαλὴν τῷ ἁγιάσματι Κυρίου. Ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων ἁγίων λίθων συνεστήκεισαν αἱ πύλαι τῆς Ἱερουσα λὴμ, καὶ πᾶσα ἡ Ἱερουσαλήμ· οὓς πάντας ἐνδεδύκει ὁ ἄρχων Τύρου ποτὲ, οὐ πόνοις ἰδίοις, ἀλλὰ χάριτι, ὡς ὁ λόγος Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ ὡς ἱερεὺς τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἀλλ' ἐκ τούτων ἁπάντων πέπτωκεν, εἰπὼν ἐν καρ δίᾳ· Ὅτι Θεός εἰμι· κατοικίας Θεοῦ κατῴκηκα ἐν καρδίᾳ θαλάσσης. Καρδία ἐστὶ θαλάσσης οἱ βαθεῖς λόγοι τῶν βαθέων, τὰ ἐσώτατα τῶν ἐσωτάτων· ἐξ ἧς καρδίας καταπεσὼν ὁ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἐπαρθεὶς κατε βλήθη εἰς αὐτὴν τὴν θάλασσαν τὴν αἰσθητήν. Καὶ τοῦτο δὲ πάσχουσι καὶ οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἰδίοις πόνοις ἐπαιρόμενοι. Σὺ ἀποσφράγισμα ὁμοιώσεως. Ἀλήθεια σφρα γίς ἐστι καὶ στέφανος κάλλους. Ὁ ἐν ταύτῃ ὢν ποιω θήσεται ἐν αὐτῇ· καὶ οἱ δεχόμενοι τὴν ἀλήθειαν γί νονται ἐν αὐτῇ. ∆ιὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν σου ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἔῤῥιψά σε. Ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐῤῥίφη ὁ ῥιφεὶς ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν· ὧν τῷ ὑποδείγματι καὶ τῇ σκιᾷ ἐλάτρευον οἱ ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ λατρεύοντες. Στήρισον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου. Ἡ θεία Γραφὴ, τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους γενόμενα ἱστοροῦσα, παι δεύει ἡμᾶς ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς, καὶ ὁδηγεῖ δὲ τὸν ἀκο λουθοῦντα ἐκ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἀνάγει, καὶ ὑπο δείκνυσιν ἐκ τῶν αἰσθητῶν τὰ νοητά. Καὶ ἐκ τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν γενομένων ὑποδείκνυσι τῷ πνεύματι τὰ γενόμενα ἐν