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of a more fragrant incense, which is the soul of the one offering. Behold, I am bringing weakness upon this people. Lest the sicknesses among them should seem to be a natural consequence, the paradox shows the disease is sent by God, which is a state of pestilence; and he frightened them with words of the threat from above. They did not yield. He sent the prophet grieving, and they did not perceive; so he frightens them in another way, and brings on disease, in order that he might remove the greater evil, war. Behold, a people comes from the north. Then also the one from the north perhaps. he speaks about those from the north, that he does not pity, perhaps they will have mercy, nor will they yield to anyone else. For when God makes war, men do not even know human passions. For just as it is impossible to tame wild beasts, he says, so also he makes warlike those who are able to be bent by nature. But perhaps someone might say, And why did he not destroy them himself, but brought up others against them? Because we also do this to those whom we wish to strike, so that they may have reproach for their terrible deeds; no less perhaps, for it does not grieve equally, to suffer these things from others, as when we set a servant upon a free child. He is reckless, and will not have mercy. Do you see how he shows them armed, merciless? We heard the report about them, they were paralyzed. These things as from the prophet, and of those against them; for he also caused voices to be brought forth prophetically. Do not go out into the field. Here he speaks of the siege. See how he brings on the terrible things little by little, and gently. Daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth. For what reason? Because of the evils that are coming. Then he again brings on the causes of their wickedness; which he always does, at once defending himself, and at the same time making his word trustworthy. I have given you as a tester among tested peoples. He speaks of the excess of their wickedness, that not even the siege made them better. Behold, he says, I permit you to test them at a time when even if they were very insensitive, they would have become very much 64.832 better. For there is no one, no one, who out of fear, even if he is very harsh, is not softened. God speaks to the prophet, refuting their evil, so that he might not seem to pronounce judgment on them unjustly. All are disobedient, walking crookedly, bronze and iron. He compared them to bronze and iron, showing their strength, and persistence towards sin; and their ways are crooked, abandoning the rule of straightness. For the Lord is straight, and his ways are straight. What is it, 'like bronze and iron'? It shows their stubbornness, the unchanging nature of their evil; for also elsewhere, as when he says: 'Your forehead is bronze'; not perhaps the wickedness in the flowing of the bronze, because it has twisted ways, being melted just as that is, and in fire and in a furnace it proceeds crookedly. So also these in their punishments do not forget their own perversion. Like bronze and iron they are all corrupt. For as those things, he says, are consumed over time by rust, so these have utterly corrupted their mind of piety over time. The bellows have failed from the fire. The lead has failed, in vain the silversmith refines silver. The Hebrew has 'purifies', instead of 'refines silver'. And he signified their wickedness by an example. For he says that lead is a purifier of silver, and when it is cast upon it, it overshadows the solid mass, perhaps, to prepare it into silver; this, then, is so that what is mixed of foreign material is sent away; that every device against them was spent, and they neither listened to the prophets, nor were they made temperate by plagues, nor have they become better by anything else. Their wicked deeds have not been melted away. He persisted in the metaphor. For as silver, he says, having much bronze, even if it should have lead mixed in ten thousand times, remains impure, not being unmixed with bronze, so also these did not depart from their wickedness. Rejected silver. That is, not accepting correction. Counterfeit, not lawfully stamped, not among the

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θυμιάματος εὐωδεστέρας, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ προσφέροντος ψυχή. Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ δίδωμι ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον ἀσθένειαν. Μὴ τῆς φυσικῆς ἀκολουθίας τὰ ἀῤῥωστήματα παρ' αὐτοῖς εἶναι δόξῃ, τὸ παράδοξον δείκνυσι θεήλατον οὖσαν τὴν νόσον, ὅπερ ἐστὶ λοιμικῆς καταστάσεως· καὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν ἀπειλῆς ἐφόβησε ῥήμασιν. Οὐκ εἶξαν. Ἀπέστειλε τὸν προφήτην ἀλγοῦντα, καὶ οὐκ ᾔσθοντο· φοβεῖ λοιπὸν ἑτέρως, καὶ ἐπάγει νόσον, ἵνα τὸ μεῖζον ἀνέλῃ κακὸν, τὸν πόλεμον. Ἰδοὺ λαὸς ἔρχεται ἀπὸ βοῤῥᾶ. Εἶτα καὶ τὸν ἀπὸ βοῤῥᾶ ἴσ. περὶ τῶν ἀπὸ βοῤῥᾶ διαλέγεται, ὅτι οὐκ ἐλεεῖ ἴσ. ἐλεήσουσιν, οὐδὲ ἄλλῳ τινὶ εἴξουσιν. Ὅταν γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς πολεμῇ, οὐδὲ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα πάθη ἴσασιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ θηρία ἀδύνατον ἡμερῶσαι, φησὶν, οὕτω καὶ τοὺς δυναμένους οἴκοθεν ἐπικαμφθῆναι, ἐκπολεμοῖ. Ἀλλ' ἴσως εἴποι τις ἂν, Καὶ τί δήποτε οὐχὶ αὐτὸς αὐτοὺς ἀνεῖλεν, ἀλλ' ἑτέρους ἐπανήγαγεν; Ὅτι καὶ ἡμεῖς τοῦτο ποιοῦμεν ἐφ' ὧν βουλόμεθα πλήττειν, ἵν' ἔχωσιν ὄνειδος ἐπὶ τῶν δεινῶν· οὐχ ἧττον ἴσ. οὐ γὰρ ἴσον λυπεῖ, τὸ παρ' ἑτέρων ταῦτα παθεῖν, ὥσπερ ὅταν οἰκέτην ἐπαφίωμεν ἐλευθέρῳ παιδί. Ἰταμός ἐστι, καὶ οὐκ ἐλεήσει. Ὁρᾷς πῶς δείκνυσιν ὡπλισμένους, ἀνηλεεῖς; Ἠκούσαμεν τὴν ἀκοὴν αὐτῶν, παρελύθησαν. Ταῦτα ὡς παρὰ τοῦ προφήτου, καὶ τῶν κατ' αὐτῶν· καὶ γὰρ καὶ φωνὰς ἐποίει φέρεσθαι προφητικῶς. Μὴ ἐκπορεύεσθε εἰς ἀγρόν. Τὴν πολιορκίαν ἐνταῦθά φησιν. Ὅρα πῶς κατὰ μικρὸν ἐπάγει τὰ δεινὰ, καὶ ἠρέμα. Θύγατερ λαοῦ μου, περίζωσαι σάκκον. Τίνος ἕνεκεν; διὰ τὰ ἐπερχόμενα κακά. Εἶτα καὶ τὰς αἰτίας ἐπάγει πάλιν τῆς πονηρίας· ὅπερ ἀεὶ ποιεῖ, ἅμα μὲν ἀπολογούμενος, ἅμα δὲ ἀξιόπιστον ποιῶν τὸν λόγον. ∆οκιμαστὴν δέδωκά σε ἐν λαοῖς δεδοκιμασμένοις. Τὴν ὑπερβολὴν λέγει τῆς πονηρίας, ὅτι μηδὲ ἡ πολιορκία ἐποίει βελτίους αὐτούς. Ἰδοὺ, φησὶν, ἐπιτρέπω σοι δοκιμάσαι αὐτοὺς ἐν καιρῷ, ἐν ᾧ καὶ εἰ σφόδρα ἦσαν ἀναίσθητοι, σφόδρα ἂν ἐγένοντο βελ 64.832 τίους. Οὐδεὶς γὰρ, οὐδείς ἐστιν, ὅστις ὑπὸ τοῦ φόβου, κἂν σφόδρα ᾖ τραχὺς, οὐ μαλάσσεται. Τῷ προφήτῃ λέγει ὁ Θεὸς ἐλέγχων αὐτῶν τὴν κακίαν, ὡς ἂν μὴ δοκοίη ἀδίκως αὐτῶν καταποφαίνεσθαι. Πάντες ἀνήκοοι πορευόμενοι σκολιῶς, χαλκὸς καὶ σίδηρος. Χαλκῷ καὶ σιδήρῳ τούτους ἀπείκασε, τὸ ἰσχυρὸν αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐπίμονον πρὸς ἁμαρτίαν δηλῶν· σκολιαὶ δὲ αὐτῶν αἱ πορεῖαι, τὸν τῆς εὐθύτητος ἀπολείπουσαι κανόνα. Εὐθὺς γὰρ ὁ Κύριος, καὶ εὐθεῖαι αἱ ὁδοὶ αὐτοῦ. Τί ἐστιν, ὡς χαλκὸς καὶ σίδηρος; τὸ στάσιμον αὐτῶν δηλοῖ, τὸ ἀμετάβλητον τῆς κακίας· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ ὥσπερ ὅταν λέγῃ· Τὸ μέτωπόν σου χαλκοῦν· μὴ τὴν ἴσ. τὴν ἐν τῇ ῥύσει τοῦ χαλκοῦ πονηρίαν, ὅτι διεστραμμένας ἔχει τὰς ὁδοὺς, τηκόμενος καθάπερ ἐκεῖνος, καὶ ἐν πυρὶ καὶ χωνευτηρίῳ σκολιῶς βαδίζει. Οὕτω καὶ οὗτοι ἐν ταῖς τιμωρίαις, οὐκ ἐπιλανθάνονται τῆς οἰκείας διατροπῆς. Ὡς χαλκὸς καὶ σίδηρος πάντες διεφθαρμένοι εἰσίν. Ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνα, φησὶ, τῷ χρόνῳ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἰοῦ ἀναλίσκεται, οὕτως οὗτοι παντελῶς τὴν γνώμην τῆς εὐσεβείας διεφθάρησαν τῷ χρόνῳ. Ἐξέλιπε φυσητὴρ ἀπὸ πυρός. Ἐξέλιπεν ὁ μόλιβδος, εἰς κενὸν ἀργυροκόπος ἀργυροκοπεῖ. Ὁ Ἑβραῖος, καθαίρει, ἔχει, ἀντὶ τοῦ, ἀργυροκοπεῖ. Παραδείγματι δὲ τὴν πονηρίαν αὐτῶν ἐσήμανε. Φησὶ γὰρ τὸν μόλιβδον καθαρτικὸν εἶναι τοῦ ἀργύρου, καὶ ἐπιβαλλόμενον αὐτὸν τὸν στερὸν παρασκιάζειν ἴσ. εἰς τὸν ἄργυρον παρασκευάζειν· τὸ μεμιγμένον τῆς ἀλλοτρίας ὕλης ἀποπέμπεσθαι τοῦτο τοίνυν· ὅτι πᾶσα ἐπίνοια κατ' αὐτῶν ἀνηλώθη, καὶ οὔτε προφητῶν ἤκουσαν, οὔτε ὑπὸ πληγῶν ἐσωφρονίσθησαν, οὔτε ὑπὸ ἄλλου τινὸς ἀμείνους γεγόνασιν. Πονηρίας αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐτάκησαν. Ἐπέμεινε τῇ μεταφορᾷ. Ὡς γὰρ ὁ ἄργυρος, φησὶ, πολὺν ἔχων χαλκὸν, κἂν μυριάκις σχοίη ἐπιμεμιγμένον τὸν μόλιβδον, μένει ἀκάθαρτος οὐκ ἀμιγὴς ὢν χαλκοῦ, οὕτω καὶ οὗτοι τῆς πονηρίας οὐκ ἐξέστησαν. Ἀργύριον ἀποδεδοκιμασμένον. Τουτέστι μὴ δεχόμενον διόρθωσιν. Παράσημον οὐ νομίμως χαραγὲν, οὐκ ἐν τοῖς