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of you in the burial ground, and know what you have done;" and countless other such things can be found. So here too he exhorts the prophet Ezekiel to do this: "For testify," he says, "to Jerusalem her iniquities." "Show," he says, "the wounds, point out her sores, so that she may not consider the punishment an amputation, but having learned that the incision is medicinal, she may give thanks to the physician." Then he himself recounts the offenses in detail. 3. And you shall say: Thus says Adonai the Lord to Jerusalem. Everywhere the doubling teaches the truth of the lordship. "Your root and your birth are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite." The Jews were greatly proud of their kinship with Abraham; for which reason they also said to the Lord in the holy Gospels: "We are the seed of Abraham, 81.932 and we have never been enslaved to anyone." This arrogance the blessed John the Baptist also refutes, saying: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves: We have Abraham as our father; for amen I say to you: God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham." Just as, therefore, this divine man likened them, being beastly and living in wickedness, to venomous beasts, so here too the Lord God through the prophet calls their root Canaanite, their father an Amorite, and their mother a Hittite, and in short their origin foreign; for of those whose impiety they emulated, they rightly received the kinship, being assigned to this race by their manner of life. It was indeed quite sufficient to strike them, not only because of the then-current lawlessness of these very nations, but also because of their ancient ignoble birth. For Canaan was subjected to curses, and was condemned to slavery by the forefather Noah. "Of this one," he says, "you are a descendant, and you have no kinship with Abraham and Shem; for of those whose piety you have denied, you have lost even the kinship itself, and you have been utterly stripped of that noble birth." Thus having struck them with the ignoble birth of Canaan, he recounts in detail both their lawlessness and his own beneficence. 4. Your navel, he says, was not cut. That is, you still draw Egyptian nourishment. He calls "her birth" the exodus from Egypt. Students of medicine say that the embryo in the womb has the navel as a kind of root, and through it is nourished and grows; since, therefore, midwives are accustomed to cut the projecting part of the infant's navel, he says tropically, by way of metaphor: "Your navel was not circumcised;" instead of, "Even today you draw from your mother's womb, that is, from Egypt, the nourishment of impiety." "And you were not washed in water for salvation." And this perhaps is by metaphor from infants, who after birth are washed, and cleansed, and freed from the maternal blood. You, therefore, he says, were not freed from these things, but even today you bear the marks of your mother's womb. "Neither were you salted with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes." You did not receive, he says, the salts of teaching, nor the swaddling clothes offered to you through the law, which are applied to infants, 81.933 so that, if any of the limbs should be turned from the straight in the birth pangs, it may be straightened, and may take on its proper form. 5. Nor did my eye spare you to do for you one of all these things, to have any pity on you; and you were cast out upon the face of the field in the crookedness of your soul, on the day you were born. For immediately, he says, and at once having been born, and having been delivered from Egypt, and having been taught the fairness of the law by me, you went astray, always loving the crooked and distorted things. For "field" here signifies fairness. But I, he says, in Egypt brought you no law, nor the salts of the commandments, nor the circumcision of the navel, nor the setting of the limbs by swaddling clothes; but after the deliverance from there, I deemed you worthy of every kind of care. Wherefore he adds: 6, 7. And

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σου ἐν τῷ πολυανδρίῳ, καὶ γνῶθι τί ἐποίησας·" καὶ μυρία δὲ ἄλλα τοιαῦτα ἔστιν εὑρεῖν. Τοῦτο τοίνυν κἀνταῦθα τῷ προφήτῃ Ἰεζεκιὴλ ποιῆσαι παρακελεύεται· "∆ιαμάρτυραι γὰρ, φησὶ, τῇ Ἱερουσαλὴμ τὰς ἀνομίας αὐτῆς." ∆εῖξον, φησὶ, τὰ τραύματα, ὑπόδειξον αὐτῆς τᾲ ἕλκη, ἵνα μὴ ἀποτομίαν νομίσῃ τὴν τιμωρίαν, ἀλλὰ μαθοῦσα ἰατρικὴν τὴν τομὴν, χάριν ὁμολογήσῃ τῷ ἰατρῷ. Εἶτα κατὰ μέρος αὐτὸς διηγεῖται τὰ πλημ μελήματα. γʹ. Καὶ ἐρεῖς· Τάδε λέγει Ἀδωναῒ Κύριος τῇ Ἱερουσαλήμ. Πανταχοῦ ὁ διπλασιασμὸς τὸ ἀληθὲς διδάσκει τῆς δεσποτείας. "Ἡ ῥίζα σου καὶ ἡ γένεσίς σου ἐκ γῆς Χαναάν· ὁ πατήρ σου Ἀμοῤ ῥαῖος, καὶ ἡ μήτηρ σου Χετταία." Μέγα ἐφρόνουν Ἰου δαῖοι ἐπὶ τῇ συγγενείᾳ τοῦ Ἀβραάμ· διὸ καὶ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς Εὐαγγελίοις ἔλεγον· "Σπέρμα Ἀβραάμ 81.932 ἐσμεν, καὶ οὐδενὶ δεδουλεύκαμεν πώποτε." Ταύτην τὴν ἀλαζονείαν καὶ ὁ μακάριος Ἰωάννης ὁ Βαπτι στὴς καταλύει, λέγων· "Γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν φυγεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς; Ποιήσατε οὖν καρποὺς ἀξίους τῆς μετανοίας, καὶ μὴ δόξητε λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς· Πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν Ἀβραάμ· ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω ὑμῖν· ∆ύναται ὁ Θεὸς ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων ἐγεῖραι τέκνα τῷ Ἀβραάμ." Ὥσπερ τοίνυν ὁ θεσπέσιος οὗτος ἀνὴρ, θηριώδεις ὄντας αὐτοὺς καὶ πονηρίᾳ συζῶντας, τοῖς ἰοβόλοις θηρίοις ἀπείκασεν, οὕτω κἀνταῦθα ὁ ∆εσπότης Θεὸς διὰ τοῦ προφήτου Χαναναίαν αὐτῶν τὴν ῥίζαν καλεῖ, τὸν δὲ πατέρα Ἀμοῤῥαῖον, καὶ τὴν μητέρα Χετταίαν, καὶ ἁπαξ απλῶς τὴν γένεσιν ἀλλόφυλον· ὧν γὰρ ἐζήλωσαν τὴν ἀσέβειαν, τούτων εἰκότως ἐδέξαντο τὴν συγγένειαν, ἀπὸ τοῦ τρόπου τῷ γένει τούτῳ συγκληρωθέντες. Ἱκανὸν δὲ ἦν λίαν αὐτοὺς πλῆξαι, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὴν τηνικαῦτα παρανομίαν τούτων αὐτῶν τῶν ἐθνῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὴν ἄνωθεν δυσγένειαν. Ἀραῖς γὰρ ὁ Χαναὰν ὑπεβλήθη, καὶ δουλείαν ὑπὸ τοῦ προπάτορος Νῶε κατεδικάσθη. Τούτου, φησὶν, ὑπάρχεις ἀπόγο νος, καὶ οὐδεμίαν ἔχεις πρὸς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ τὸν Σὴμ συγγένειαν· ὧν γὰρ ἠρνήθης τὴν εὐσέβειαν, τού των ἀπώλεσας καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν συγγένειαν, καὶ τῆς εὐγενείας ἐκείνης παντελῶς ἐγυμνώθης. Οὕτω πλή ξας αὐτοὺς τῇ τοῦ Χαναὰν δυσγενείᾳ, κατὰ μέρος καὶ τὴν αὐτῶν παρανομίαν, καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν διηγεῖται εὐεργεσίαν. δʹ. Οὐκ ἐτμήθη, φησὶν, ὁ ὀμφαλός σου. Τουτέστιν, Ἔτι τὴν Αἰγυπτιακὴν ἕλκεις τροφήν. "Γέννησιν δὲ αὐτῆς" καλεῖ τὴν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἔξοδον. Φασὶ δὲ ἰατρῶν παῖδες τὸ ἔμβρυον ἐν τῇ μήτρᾳ οἷόν τινα ῥίζαν ἔχειν τὸν ὀμφαλὸν, καὶ δι' ἐκείνου τρέ φεσθαί τε καὶ αὐξάνεσθαι· ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν αἱ μαῖαι κόπτειν εἰώθασι τοῦ βρέφους τὸ προκύπτον τοῦ ὀμ φαλοῦ, τροπικῶς ἐκ μεταφορᾶς φησιν· "Ὁ ὀμφαλός σου οὐ περιετμήθη·" ἀντὶ τοῦ, Ἔτι καὶ σήμερον ἕλ κεις ἀπὸ τῆς μητρῴας μήτρας, τουτέστι τῆς Αἰγύ πτου, τὴν τῆς ἀσεβείας τροφήν. "Καὶ ἐν ὕδατι οὐκ ἐλούσθης εἰς σωτηρίαν." Καὶ τοῦτο ἴσως, ἐκ μεταφορᾶς τῶν βρεφῶν, τῶν μετὰ τὸν τόκον λουο μένων, καὶ ἀποῤῥυπτομένων, καὶ τοῦ μητρῴου αἵ ματος ἀπαλλαττομένων. Σὺ οὖν, φησὶ, τούτων οὐκ ἀπηλλάγης, ἀλλ' ἔτι καὶ σήμερον φέρεις τῆς μη τρῴας νηδύος τὰ σημεῖα. "Οὐδὲ ἁλὶ ἡλίσθης, καὶ σπαργάνοις οὐκ ἐσπαργανώθης." Οὐκ ἐδέξω, φησὶ, τῆς διδασκαλίας τοὺς ἅλας, οὐ τὰ προσενε χθέντα σοι διὰ τοῦ νόμου σπάργανα, ἃ τοῖς βρέφεσι 81.933 προσφέρεται, ἵνα, εἴ τι ἂν τῶν μελῶν ἐν ταῖς ὠδῖσι τοῦ εὐθέος παρατραπῇ, διευθύνηται, καὶ τὸ προσ ῆκον ἀπολαμβάνῃ σχῆμα. εʹ. Οὐδὲ ἐφείσατο ἐπὶ σοὶ ὁ ὀφθαλμός μου τοῦ ποιῆσαί σοι ἓν ἐκ πάντων τούτων, τοῦ παθεῖν τι ἐπὶ σοί· καὶ ἀπεῤῥίφης ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ πεδίου τῇ σκολιότητι τῆς ψυχῆς σου, ἐν ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ ἐτέχθης. Εὐθὺς γὰρ, φησὶ, καὶ παραχρῆμα τεχθεῖσα, καὶ τῆς Αἰγύπτου ἀπαλλαγεῖσα, καὶ τὴν ἰσότητα τοῦ νόμου παιδευθεῖσα παρ' ἐμοῦ, παρετράπης, τὰ σκολιὰ καὶ διεστραμμένα ἀεὶ ἀγαπήσασα. Πεδίον γὰρ ἐνταῦθα τὴν ἰσότητα προηγόρευσεν. Ἐγὼ δὲ, φησὶν, ἐν μὲν τῇ Αἰγύπτῳ, οὐδένα σοι προσ ήνεγκα νόμον, οὐδὲ τῶν ἐντολῶν τοὺς ἅλας, οὐδὲ τὴν τοῦ ὀμφαλοῦ περιτομὴν, οὐδὲ τὴν διὰ τῶν σπαργά νων διάρθρωσιν τῶν μελῶν· μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκεῖθεν ἀπαλλαγὴν, παντοδαπῆς σε ἐπιμελείας ἠξίωσα. ∆ιὸ ἐπάγει· ʹ, ζʹ. Καὶ