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he said to them: "Do not fear the passage of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you." Some of them take the present saying as a prophecy that mentions their poverty and need, hinting at it by saying: "Butter and honey will everyone eat who is left upon the land." For the one left upon the land was this people with Gedaliah, whom, due to a lack of food from grain, he foretells will be nourished with milk and butter from very few cattle, with the entire country having been turned into wasteland and thorn because of the desolation of men. After the captivity into Babylon and the return from there, the Jews of God came to be in extreme poverty; with the prophets having failed them after these things, and with nothing worthy of mention having happened among them after the writing of Ezra, but also with the kingdom itself having been dissolved, no one from the house of David ruled among them anymore, nor did anyone "rich in God" shine among them. But even if there should be, one says, a rational man among them worthy of the name of man, even this one would rarely find among them one heifer or two sheep, because the whole land of his soul has been laid waste, who, the man indicated, will have nothing more to acquire from the said cattle than the infant food of milk and butter and honey, so that the man left among them enjoys these things; and again, in these circumstances, who would the one left to them be, but perhaps one rare man, saved from the destruction of the many and having kept his rational character, who himself also, if ever he was a disciple in the Jewish teaching, might acquire one or a second acquaintance like some heifer of oxen and two sheep, tame and clean animals. Nevertheless, he will rarely find even these, because all the rest will become wolves or dogs or wild beasts or venomous reptiles. Therefore this man left among them, having rarely found one heifer or two sheep, will raise these, and will receive fruit from them that is not solid nor suitable for the food of perfect men, but something milky and appropriate for infants, because they are not able to provide better than these things due to their infancy of mind. And he rarely raised the heifer and the two sheep because of the desolation that had seized the souls of their multitude, which the word represents by saying: "because all the land will be wasteland and thorn," and again: "where there are a thousand vines, they will become wasteland and thorn." These things indeed they have suffered on account of the invisible enemies who have besieged their soul, concerning whom it is said next: "with arrow and with bow they will enter there, because all the land will be wasteland and thorn." And not only will all their land be wasteland and thorn, but also every mountain formerly plowed, on which there was no expectation of fear because of the height and elevation of its region. It too will be wasteland, so that from the wasteland and thorn it produces no necessary fruit for men to eat, but useless matter suitable for the pasture of sheep and the treading of oxen. 1.48 The word, having completed what will happen in the days enumerated, about which it was said: "but God will bring upon you and upon your people and upon the house of your father days which have not yet come," takes up again the thought concerning the birth of Emmanuel, concerning whom he exhorted the house of David to call upon the name of Emmanuel instead of an incantation, being confident and believing that through him they would be saved from the "two kings" who threatened them, and he takes it up again necessarily, since indeed he taught that Emmanuel would have a strange birth, foreign to mortal nature; for he would be born not of man and woman, but of an incorruptible "young woman" and of an unwed "virgin," most necessarily in these matters the Lord himself, no longer to Ahaz nor to the house of Judah, but to the prophet alone the

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εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· Μὴ φοβεῖσθε πάροδον Χαλδαίων. καθίσατε ἐν τῇ γῇ καὶ δουλεύσατε τῷ βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος, καὶ καλῶς ἔσται ὑμῖν». τούτων αὐτῶν οἱ μὲν τὸν παρόντα λόγον κατὰ πρόγνωσιν μνήμην ποιεῖσθαι τὸ πτωχὸν καὶ τὸ ἐνδεὲς αὐτῶν αἰνιττόμενον ἐν τῷ λέγειν· βούτυρον καὶ μέλι φάγεται πᾶς ὁ καταλειφθεὶς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· ὁ γὰρ καταλειφθεὶς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς οὗτος ἦν ὁ μετὰ τοῦ Γοδολίου λαός, ὃν δι' ἀπορίαν τῆς ἀπὸ σίτου τροφῆς ἐκ βραχυτάτων θρεμμάτων γάλακτι καὶ βουτύρῳ τραφήσεσθαι προαγορεύει τῆς χώρας ἁπάσης εἰς χέρσον καὶ ἄκανθαν δι' ἀνδρῶν ἐρημίαν μεταβληθείσης. μετὰ τὴν εἰς Βαβυλῶνα αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ τὴν ἐκεῖθεν ἐπάνοδον ἐν ἐσχάτῃ γεγόνασιν πτωχείᾳ θεοῦ Ἰουδαῖοι· ἐκλελοιπότων μὲν αὐτοῖς μετὰ ταῦτα τῶν προφητῶν, μηδενὸς δὲ μνήμης ἀξίου παρ' αὐτοῖς γενομένου μετὰ τὴν τοῦ Ἐζρὰ γραφήν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτῆς καταλυθείσης, οὐκέτ' οὐδεὶς τοῦ οἴκου ∆αυὶδ παρ' αὐτοῖς ἦρξεν, οὐδέ τις «ἐν θεῷ πλουτῶν» ἐν αὐτοῖς διέλαμψεν. ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ γένοιτό φησί τις ἐν αὐτοῖς λογικὸς ἀνὴρ ἀνθρώπου ἄξιος προσηγορίας, καὶ οὗτος σπανίως εὕροι ἂν ἐν αὐτοῖς μίαν δάμαλιν ἢ δύο πρόβατα τῷ πᾶσαν αὐτῷ ἠρημῶσθαι τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν χώραν, ὃς οὐδὲν πλέον ἕξει ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων θρεμμάτων ὁ δηλωθεὶς ἄνθρωπος κτήσασθαι ἢ τὴν νηπιώδη τροφὴν γάλα καὶ βούτυρον καὶ μέλι ὡς ταῦτα καρποῦσθαι τὸν περιλειφθέντα ἐν αὐτοῖς ἄνθρωπον· πάλιν δὲ καὶ ἐν τούτοις ὁ περιλειφθεὶς αὐτοῖς τίς ἂν εἴη, ἀλλ' εἷς που σπάνιος καὶ ἐκ τῆς τῶν πολλῶν ἀπωλείας διασωθεὶς καὶ τὸν λογικὸν φυλάξας χαρακτῆρα, ὃς καὶ αὐτὸς διὰ τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς διδασκαλίας εἴποτε μαθητεύσας ἐν αὐτῇ ἕνα ἢ δεύτερον κτήσοιτο γνώριμον ὥσπερ τινὰ δάμαλιν βοῶν καὶ δύο πρόβατα, ἥμερα μὲν καὶ καθαρὰ ζῷα. πλὴν ὅμως καὶ ταῦτα σπανίως εὑρήσει τῷ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἅπαντας λύκους ἢ κύνας ἢ θῆρας ἀγρίους ἢ ἑρπετὰ ἰοβόλα γενήσεσθαι. διὸ μίαν που δάμαλιν ἢ δύο πρόβατα σπανίως εὑρὼν οὗτος ὁ ἐν αὐτοῖς περιλειφθεὶς ἄνθρωπος ταῦτα θρέψει, καρπόν τε ἐξ αὐτῶν λήψεται οὐ στερεὸν οὐδὲ πρὸς ἀνδρῶν ἐντελῶν τροφὴν ἐπιτήδειον, γαλακτώδη δέ τινα καὶ νηπίοις κατάλληλον τῷ μὴ δύνασθαι αὐτοὺς παρέχειν τούτων κρείττους διὰ νηπιότητα φρενῶν. σπανίως δέ που τὴν δάμαλιν καὶ τὰ δύο πρόβατα καὶ οὗτος ἔτρεφεν διὰ τὴν καταλαβοῦσαν τὰς ψυχὰς τοῦ πλήθους αὐτῶν ἐρημίαν, ἣν ὁ λόγος παρίστη φάσκων· ὅτι χέρσος καὶ ἄκανθα ἔσται πᾶσα ἡ γῆ, καὶ πάλιν· οὗ ἐὰν ὦσιν χίλιοι ἄμπελοι εἰς χέρσον ἔσονται καὶ εἰς ἄκανθαν. ἃ δὴ πεπόνθασιν διὰ τοὺς πεπολιορκηκότας αὐτῶν τὴν ψυχὴν ἀοράτους πολεμίους, περὶ ὧν ἑξῆς λέλεκται· μετὰ βέλους καὶ τοξεύματος εἰσελεύσονται ἐκεῖ, ὅτι χέρσος καὶ ἄκανθα ἔσται πᾶσα ἡ γῆ. οὐ μόνον δὲ πᾶσα ἡ γῆ αὐτῶν χέρσος ἔσται καὶ ἄκανθα, ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶν ὄρος τὸ πάλαι ἀροτριώμενον, ἐν ᾧ οὐκ ἦν προσδοκῆσαι φόβον διὰ τὸ ὑψηλὸν καὶ μετέωρον τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ χώρας. καὶ αὐτὸ ἔσται χέρσος ὡς ἀπὸ τῆς χέρσου καὶ ἀκάνθης μηδένα μὲν προφέρειν ἀναγκαῖον ἀνθρώποις εἰς βρῶσιν καρπόν, ἄχρηστον δὲ ὕλην εἰς βόσκημα προβάτου καὶ καταπάτημα βοὸς ἐπιτηδείαν. 1.48 Συντελέσας ὁ λόγος τὰ γενησόμενα ἐν ταῖς καταλεχθείσαις ἡμέραις, περὶ ὧν ἐλέγετο· «ἀλλὰ ἐπάξει ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν σου καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρός σου ἡμέρας, αἳ οὔπω ἥκασιν», ἐπαναλαμβάνει τὴν διάνοιαν τὴν περὶ τῆς γενέσεως τοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ, περὶ οὗ τῷ οἴκῳ ∆αυὶδ παρεκελεύετο ἀντὶ ἐπῳδῆς τὸ τοῦ Ἐμμανουὴλ ἐπικαλεῖσθαι ὄνομα, θαρσοῦντας καὶ πιστεύοντας δι' αὐτοῦ σωθήσεσθαι ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπικειμένων αὐτοῖς «δύο βασιλέων», ἐπαναλαμβάνει δὲ ἀναγκαίως, ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἐδίδαξεν τὸν Ἐμμανουὴλ ξένην τινὰ καὶ ἀλλοτρίαν τῆς θνητῆς φύσεως ἕξειν γένεσιν· μὴ ἐξ ἀνδρὸς γὰρ καὶ γυναικός, ἀλλ' ἐξ ἀδιαφθόρου «νεάνιδος» καὶ ἐξ ἀπειρογάμου «παρθένου» τεχθήσεσθαι, σφόδρα ἀναγκαίως ἐν τούτοις αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος, οὐκέτι τῷ Ἄχαζ οὐδὲ τῷ οἴκῳ Ἰούδα, ἀλλ' αὐτῷ μόνῳ τῷ προφήτῃ τὸ