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they have dug down, and I am left alone, and they seek my life, to take it? But what says the divine response? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So therefore also in the present time a remnant according to the election of grace has come to be». 2.3.47 For through these words the apostle clearly shows that, upon the falling away of the whole nation of the Jews, he himself and those like him, the apostles and evangelists of our Savior, and all those from among the Jews who even now have believed in Christ, are the seed named by the prophet according to the saying, 'unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed.' And that this is the remnant of the whole, indicated in the other prophecies, which he says was preserved 'according to the election of grace.' 2.3.48 Concerning which remnant, come, let us set forth again the words from the prophets, so that it might be shown through many proofs that God did not promise that the coming of Christ would be salutary indiscriminately to the entire Jewish nation, but to a few and very rare ones, to those who have believed in our Savior and Lord, just as indeed the event has followed in accordance with the predictions. 36. 2.3.49 From Isaiah. «Your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your country, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, overthrown by strange peoples. The daughter of Zion shall be left as a booth in a vineyard and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become as Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah». 2.3.50 Beginning his own book, the great and wonderful prophet teaches that the entire subject of the prophecy contains a 'vision against Judea and against Jerusalem' and a contemplation, then he refutes the entire nation of the Jews, first saying: «The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel did not know me, and the people did not understand me». 2.3.51 Then, lamenting the entire nation, he adds: «Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins, an evil seed, lawless sons». 2.3.52 Having used these reproofs against them at the beginning of the book, and having taught beforehand the causes of the prophecy that was about to be brought against them, he next begins, saying: «your land is desolate», although it was not desolate during the times he was prophesying, «your cities are burned with fire», though this had not yet happened. Nor were strangers then devouring their country, and yet he says, «your country, strangers devour it in your presence», and what follows. 2.3.53 If, therefore, you should turn to the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ and the times from then until now, you would find all the things said fulfilled. For «the daughter of Zion»—and this was the worship carried out on the mountain called Zion—has been abandoned since the coming of our Savior Jesus «as a booth in a vineyard and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers», and if anything is more desolate than these; and «strangers devour their country in their presence», at one time exacting tribute and taxes from them, at another time making the ancient land of the Jews their own possession; but also the beautiful temple of their metropolis has been ruined, «overthrown by strange peoples», and their «cities» have become «burned with fire», and Jerusalem has truly become a «besieged city». 2.3.54 But since, while these things were happening to them, the choir of the apostles and those from the Hebrews who believed in Christ were preserved from among them like a fruitful seed, and having gone throughout the whole world and to every race of men, they filled every city and place and country with their own Israelite seed, so that from them the ears of corn, that is, the churches established in the name of our Savior, might grow, the divine prophet rightly adds to the things previously declared against

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κατέσκαψαν, κἀγὼ ὑπελείφθην μόνος, καὶ ζητοῦσι τὴν ψυχήν μου, τοῦ λαβεῖν αὐτήν; ἀλλὰ τί λέγει ὁ χρηματισμός; κατέλιπον ἐμαυτῷ ἑπτακισχιλίους ἄνδρας, οἵτινες οὐκ ἔκαμψαν γόνυ τῇ Βάαλ. οὕτως οὖν καὶ ἐν τῷ νῦν καιρῷ λεῖμμα κατὰ ἐκλογὴν χάριτος γέγονεν». 2.3.47 ∆ιὰ τούτων γὰρ ὁ ἀπόστολος σαφῶς ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ παντὸς Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους ἀποπτώσει ἑαυτὸν καὶ τοὺς αὐτῷ παραπλησίους ἀποστόλους τε καὶ εὐαγγελιστὰς τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν πάντας τε τοὺς ἔτι καὶ νῦν ἐξ Ἰουδαίων εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν πιστεύσαντας τὸ σπέρμα εἶναι διασαφεῖ τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ προφήτου ὠνομασμένον κατὰ τὸ «εἰ μὴ κύριος Σαβαὼθ ἐγκατέλιπεν ἡμῖν σπέρμα». τοῦτο δὲ εἶναι καὶ τὸ ἐν ταῖς λοιπαῖς προφητείαις δηλούμενον ὑπόλειμμα τοῦ παντός, ὅπερ φησὶν «κατ' ἐκλογὴν χάριτος» πεφυλάχθαι. 2.3.48 περὶ οὗ ὑπολείμματος φέρε πάλιν τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν προφητῶν ἐξαπλώσωμεν, ὡς ἂν παρασταίη διὰ πλειόνων, ὅτι μὴ ἀδιακρίτως παντὶ τῷ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνει τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρουσίαν σωτήριον ἔσεσθαι ὑπέσχετο ὁ θεὸς ἀλλ' ὀλίγοις καὶ κομιδῆ σπανίοις, τοῖς εἰς τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν πεπιστευκόσιν, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ τὸ ἔργον ἀκολούθως ταῖς προρρήσεσιν ἐπηκολούθησεν. λϛʹ. 2.3.49 Ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἡσαΐου. «Ἡ γῆ ὑμῶν ἔρημος, αἱ πόλεις ὑμῶνπυρίκαυστοι· τὴν χώραν ὑμῶν ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν ἀλλότριοι κατεσθίουσιν αὐτήν, καὶ ἠρήμωται κατεστραμμένη ὑπὸ λαῶν ἀλλοτρίων. ἐγκαταλειφθήσεται ἡ θυγάτηρ Σιὼν ὡς σκηνὴ ἐν ἀμπελῶνι καὶ ὡς ὀπωροφυλάκιον ἐν σικυηράτῳ, ὡς πόλις πολιορκουμένη. καὶ εἰ μὴ κύριος Σαβαὼθ ἐγκατέλιπεν ἡμῖν σπέρμα, ὡς Σόδομα ἂν ἐγενήθημεν καὶ ὡς Γόμορρα ἂν ὡμοιώθημεν». 2.3.50 Ἀρχόμενος ὁ μέγας καὶ θαυμάσιος προφήτης τῆς οἰκείας βίβλου τὴν πᾶσαν τῆς προφητείας ὑπόθεσιν «κατὰ τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ κατὰ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ ὅρασιν» καὶ θεωρίαν περιέχειν διδάσκει, ἔπειτα τὸ πᾶν Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος ἀπελέγχει, πρῶτα μὲν λέγων· «ἔγνω βοῦς τὸν κτησάμενον καὶ ὄνος τὴν φάτνην τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ· Ἰσραὴλ δέ με οὐκ ἔγνω, καὶ ὁ λαός με οὐ συνῆκεν». 2.3.51 εἶτα τὸ πᾶν ἔθνος ταλανίζων ἐπιφέρει· «οὐαὶ ἔθνος ἁμαρτωλόν, λαὸς πλήρης ἁμαρτιῶν, σπέρμα πονηρόν, υἱοὶ ἄνομοι». 2.3.52 τούτοις ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς βίβλου κατ' αὐτῶν χρησάμενος τοῖς ἐλέγχοις, καὶ προδιδάξας τὰς αἰτίας τῆς μελλούσης ἐπιφέρεσθαι κατ' αὐτῶν προρρήσεως, ἑξῆς ἀπάρχεται φάσκων· «ἡ γῆ ὑμῶν ἔρημος», μὴ οὔσης ἐρήμου καθ' οὓς προεφήτευε χρόνους, «αἱ πόλεις ὑμῶν πυρίκαυστοι», μηδὲ τούτου πω γεγενημένου. ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν τότε ἤσθιον ἀλλότριοι, καὶ ὅμως φησὶν «τὴν χώραν ὑμῶν ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν ἀλλότριοι κατεσθίουσιν αὐτήν», καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. 2.3.53 εἰ οὖν ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μετέλθοις παρουσίαν καὶ τοὺς ἐξ ἐκείνου καὶ εἰς δεῦρο χρόνους, πάντα ἂν εὕροις τὰ εἰρημένα πληρούμενα. «ἥ τε γὰρ θυγάτηρ Σιών» αὕτη δὲ ἦν ἡ ἐπὶ ὄρους τοῦ καλουμένου Σιὼν ἐπιτελουμένη θρησκεία ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰησοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν παρουσίας ἐγκαταλέλειπται «ὡς σκηνὴ ἐν ἀμπελῶνι καὶ ὡς ὀπωροφυλάκιον ἐν σικυηράτῳ», καὶ εἴ τι τούτων ἐρημότερον· «τήν τε χώραν αὐτῶν ἀλλότριοι ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν κατεσθίουσι», τοτὲ μὲν δασμοὺς καὶ φόρους αὐτοὺς εἰσπραττόμενοι, τοτὲ δὲ ἴδιον ἑαυτῶν κτῆμα τὴν πάλαι τῶν Ἰουδαίων γῆν πεποιημένοι· ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἱερὸν τὸ εὐπρεπὲς τῆς μητροπόλεως αὐτῶν ἠρείπωται «κατεστραμμένον ὑπὸ λαῶν ἀλλοτρίων», «αἵ τε πόλεις» αὐτῶν «πυρίκαυστοι» γεγόνασι, καὶ γέγονεν Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἀληθῶς «πόλις πολιορκουμένη». 2.3.54 Ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ τούτων περὶ αὐτοὺς συμβεβηκότων ὁ τῶν ἀποστόλων χορὸς οἵ τε ἐξ Ἑβραίων εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν πεπιστευκότες γονίμου δίκην σπέρματος ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐκείνων διεφυλάχθησαν, καθ' ὅλης τε τῆς οἰκουμένης καὶ εἰς πᾶν γένος ἀνθρώπων διελθόντες πᾶσαν πόλιν καὶ τόπον καὶ χώραν τοῦ οἰκείου καὶ Ἰσραηλιτικοῦ σπόρου κατέπλησαν, ὥστε ἐξ αὐτῶν στάχυς τὰς ἐπ' ὀνόματος τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ὑποστάσας ἐκκλησίας φῦναι, εἰκότως ὁ θεῖος προφήτης ἐπιλέγει ταῖς προαποφανθείσαις κατ'