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he teaches that if we have money, we should pray to God with the care of the poor; but if we choose the life of poverty, not to have the soul empty of good things, but having the wealth of virtue. LIV What is the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits, and what is the feast of the ingathering at the year's end? He calls the feast of the firstfruits Pentecost; and the feast of the ingathering at the year's end, the Feast of Tabernacles. And teaching this, he added: "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God", that is, at the feast of Passover and at Pentecost and at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Passover commemorates the exodus from Egypt and the freedom that was granted; and Pentecost, the entry into the promised land. For there, when they sowed, they offered the firstfruits of the produce. For in the desert they ate the unsown and unplowed bread. 137 And the Feast of Tabernacles depicts the life in the desert. For living in tents, they passed forty years. He exhorted them to come together to the divine temple on these feasts; so that they might both be reminded of the divine gifts, and be joined together in harmony and friendship; and being lovers of feasts, they might not revel in the precincts of demons but, in the temple of the one who made and provides good things, they might enjoy the festive banquet. LV What is: "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven"? They offered unleavened bread at the altar; and it forbids offering leavened bread; teaching intelligible things through sensible ones. For since unleavened bread is made on the spot; but leavened bread has something of the old leaven; the law forbids mixing anything of the Egyptian teaching with divine things. Thus also the Lord said to the holy disciples: "Beware of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees". LVI How is "You shall not boil a lamb in its mother's milk" to be understood? I have often said that through all things it teaches them love for humanity. Some then say that the law forbids eating that which is newly born; and some, not to boil it with its mother's milk; for in a way it also boils the mother. And it also forbids offering to God at the same time a mother and that which was born from 138 her. And he also commanded them, when they had found a brood of sparrows, not to catch the mother along with the young; for this is to wipe out the race of birds. LVII How is "I will fulfill the number of your days" to be understood? He means the life appointed for men; that is, I will prepare you to reach a long old age. LVIII What is, "I will send the hornets before you"? As he sent frogs and gnats and dog-flies to the Egyptians, so to the Canaanites and the other nations he sent the hornets. And this shows the surpassing power of God; that even through small creatures, he both helps his own, and brings destruction upon his adversaries. This he also says through the blessed David: "If Israel had walked in my ways, I would have humbled their enemies with nothing"; that is, I would have destroyed those who warred against them very easily and readily. LIX How, having promised to give them the land up to the river Euphrates, did God not fulfill the promise? Through Jeremiah the prophet, God has made this clearer: "At last," he says, "I will speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, 139 to build and to plant; and it shall be, if that nation turn and do evil, I will not bring upon it all the good things that I have spoken," and what follows. God therefore brought them into the land which he had promised. But since they were not willing to keep the divine law, he did not hand over all of it to them, but allowed some to war against them continually, so that being warred against they might ask for divine assistance. And the history of the judges teaches this in particular. David the king, however, subdued these also. For the foreigners also paid tribute; and Syria of Damascus, and Syria of Zobah. And Solomon too, as long as he was pious,

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διδάσκει εἰ μὲν χρήματα ἔχοιμεν, μετὰ τῆς τῶν πενήτων θεραπείας προσεύχεσθαι τῷ Θεῷ· εἰ δὲ τὸν ἀκτήμονα προαιρούμεθα βίον, μὴ κενὴν ἔχειν τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὴν ψυχήν, ἀλλ' ἔχουσαν τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς ἀρετῆς. LIV Ποία ἐστὶν ἑορτὴ ἡ τοῦ θερισμοῦ τῶν πρωτογενημάτων, καὶ ποία ἑορτὴ τῆς συντελείας ἐπ' ἐξόδῳ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ; Ἑορτὴν τῶν πρωτογενημάτων τὴν Πεντηκοστὴν καλεῖ· ἑορτὴν δὲ συντε λείας ἐπ' ἐξόδῳ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ, τὴν τῆς Σκηνοπηγίας. καὶ τοῦτο διδάσκων ἐπήγαγε· " τρεῖς καιροὺς τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ὀφθήσεται πᾶν ἀρσενικόν σου ἐνώπιον Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου ", τουτέστι τῇ ἑορτῇ τοῦ Πάσχα καὶ τῇ Πεντηκοστῇ καὶ τῇ Σκη νοπηγίᾳ. ἀναμιμνήσκει δὲ τὸ μὲν Πάσχα, τῆς ἐξόδου τῆς ἐξ Αἰγύπτου καὶ τῆς παρασχεθείσης ἐλευθερίας· ἡ δὲ Πεντηκοστὴ τῆς εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας εἰσόδου. ἐκεῖ γὰρ σπείροντες τὰς ἀπαρχὰς τῶν γενημάτων προσέφερον. ἐν γὰρ τῇ ἐρήμῳ τὸν ἄσπορον καὶ ἀνήροτον ἤσθιον ἄρτον. 137 ἡ δὲ Σκηνοπηγία τὴν ἐν ἐρήμῳ διαγωγὴν ὑπογράφει. ἐν σκηναῖς γὰρ οἰκοῦντες τεσσαράκοντα διετέλεσαν ἔτη. ἐν ταύταις ταῖς ἑορταῖς συν τρέχειν εἰς τὸν θεῖον νεὼ παρεγγύησεν· ἵνα καὶ τῶν θείων ἀναμιμνήσ κωνται δωρεῶν, καὶ εἰς ὁμόνοιαν καὶ φιλίαν συνάπτωνται· καὶ φιλεορ τασταὶ ὄντες, μὴ περὶ τὰ τεμένη τῶν δαιμόνων τρυφῶσιν ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ ναῷ τοῦ πεποιηκότος καὶ τὰ ἀγαθὰ χορηγοῦντος, τῆς ἑορταστικῆς ἀπο λαύωσιν εὐωχίας. LV Τί ἐστιν· " οὐ θύσεις ἐπὶ ζύμῃ αἷμα θυσιάσματός μου "; Ἀζύμους ἄρτους τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ προσέφερον· ζυμίτας δὲ ἀπαγορεύει προσφέρειν· διὰ τῶν αἰσθητῶν διδάσκων τὰ νοητά. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁ ἄζυμος ἄρτος αὐτοσχέδιός ἐστιν· ὁ δὲ ζυμίτης ἔχει τι τῆς ζύμης τῆς παλαιᾶς· ἀπαγορεύει ὁ νόμος μηδὲν τοῖς θείοις τῆς αἰγυπτιακῆς ἀναμιγνύναι δι δασκαλίας. οὕτω καὶ ὁ Κύριος τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἔλεγε μαθηταῖς· " προσέ χετε ἀπὸ τῆς ζύμης τῶν γραμματέων καὶ φαρι σαίων ". LVI Πῶς νοητέον τὸ " οὐχ ἑψήσεις ἄρνα ἐν γάλακτι μητρὸς αὐτοῦ "; Πολλάκις ἔφην, ὅτι διὰ πάντων αὐτοὺς φιλανθρωπίαν διδάσκει. τινὲς οὖν φασιν ἀπαγορεύειν τὸν νόμον τὸ εὐθυγενὲς ἐσθίειν· τινὲς δὲ τῷ μητρῴῳ γάλακτι μὴ συνεψεῖν· τρόπον γάρ τινα καὶ τὴν μητέρα συνεψεῖ. ἀπαγο ρεύει δὲ καὶ τῷ Θεῷ προσφέρειν κατὰ ταὐτὸν μητέρα καὶ τὸ τεχθὲν ἐξ 138 αὐτῆς. καὶ αὐτοῖς δὲ παρεκελεύσατο στρουθῶν εὑρηκόσι νεοττίαν μὴ συνθηρεύειν τοῖς νεοττοῖς τὴν μητέρα· τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν ἐξαλεῖψαι τῶν ὀρνέων τὸ γένος. LVII Πῶς νοητέον, " τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἡμέρων σου ἀναπλη ρώσω "; Τὴν ὡρισμένην φησὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ζωήν· τουτέστιν εἰς γῆρας μακρὸν ἐλθεῖν σε παρασκευάσω. LVIII Τί ἐστιν, " ἀποστελῶ τὰς σφηκίας προτέρας σου "; Ὣς τοῖς αἰγυπτίοις βατράχους καὶ σκνῖπας καὶ κυνόμυιαν ἔπεμψεν, οὕτω τοῖς χαναναίοις καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἔθνεσι τὰς σφηκίας. τοῦτο δὲ δηλοῖ τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν δύναμιν τοῦ Θεοῦ· ὅτι καὶ διὰ τῶν σμικρῶν ζῳυφίων, καὶ τοῖς οἰκείοις ἐπικουρεῖ, καὶ τοῖς ἐναντίοις ἐπάγει τὸν ὄλεθρον. τοῦτο καὶ διὰ τοῦ μακαρίου λέγει ∆αβίδ· " Ἰσραὴλ ταῖς ὁδοῖς μου εἰ ἐπορεύθη, ἐν τῷ μηδενὶ ἂν τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτῶν ἐταπείνωσα "· ἀντὶ τοῦ, εὐπετῶς ἂν μάλα καὶ ῥᾳδίως τοὺς πολε μοῦντας αὐτοὺς ἐξωλόθρευσα. LIX Πῶς ἐπαγγειλάμενος ὁ Θεὸς μέχρι τοῦ Ἐυφράτου ποταμοῦ παραδώσειν αὐτοῖς τὴν γῆν, οὐκ ἐπλήρωσε τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν; ∆ιὰ Ἱερεμίου τοῦ προφήτου τοῦτο σαφέστερον πεποίηκεν ὁ Θεός· " πέρας, γάρ φησι, λαλήσω ἐπὶ ἔθνος καὶ βασιλείαν, 139 τοῦ οἰκοδομεῖν καὶ καταφυτεύειν· καὶ ἔσται, ἐὰν στραφὲν τὸ ἔθνος ἐκεῖνο ποιήσῃ πονηρά, οὐ μὴ ἐπαγάγω ἐπ' αὐτῷ πάντα τὰ ἀγαθὰ ὅσα ἐλά λησα ", καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. εἰσήγαγε τοίνυν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ἣν ἐπηγγεί λατο γῆν. ἐπειδὴ δὲ φυλάξαι τὸν θεῖον οὐκ ἠβουλήθησαν νόμον, οὐ πᾶσαν αὐτοῖς παρέδωκεν, ἀλλ' εἴασέ τινας διηνεκῶς αὐτοῖς πολεμοῦντας, ἵνα πολεμούμενοι τὴν θείαν αἰτῶσι βοήθειαν. καὶ τοῦτο διαφερόντως ἡ τῶν κριτῶν ἱστορία διδάσκει. ∆αβὶδ μέντοι τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ τούτους ὑπέταξε. καὶ γὰρ οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι φόρους ἐδίδοσαν· καὶ Συρία ∆αμασκοῦ, καὶ Συρία Σουβᾶ. καὶ Σολομῶν δέ, ἕως ηὐσέβει,