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they ruled, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, Zedekiah. 3, 4. And one of her whelps leaped up; he became a lion, and he learned to seize prey, he devoured men. And the nations heard of him, and he was taken in his own corruption, and they brought him with a muzzle to the land of Egypt. He speaks of Jehoahaz, who, having succeeded his father Josiah, became impious toward the Divine and lawless toward his subjects; but Pharaoh Necho, the king of the Egyptians, took him captive and brought him in fetters into Egypt, and there he paid the penalty for his lawlessness; and this he signified by saying, "He was taken in his own corruption." Then he adds: 5-7. And she saw that she was cast off, and her hope was lost, and she took another of her whelps; she appointed him a lion. And he went about among the lions; he became a lion, and learned to seize prey, and he devoured men. And he fed in his boldness, and laid their cities waste, and he destroyed the land and its fullness by the sound of his roaring. Through these words he has indicated Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim; for he makes his discourse about those who became captives, and who met the end of their life in a foreign land; therefore he omitted the mention of Jehoiakim at present; for he received his slaughter in Jerusalem. In brief, then, he recounted the lawlessness of Jeconiah, who, having reigned for three months and a few days, filled the city with unjust murders. That he is hinting not at Jehoiakim but at Jeconiah through these things, the following words testify. For he says: 8, 9. And nations from the surrounding countries set upon him, and they spread their nets over him, and he was taken in their corruption. And they put him in a muzzle, and in a cage, 81.984 and brought him to the king of Babylon, and brought him into a prison, so that his voice should no longer be heard upon the mountains of Israel. But Jehoiakim was not led away captive, but was slain in Jerusalem; whereas Jeconiah suffered all the things mentioned before; and fittingly, as in the case of a lion, he called the attack of the army "nets," and the bonds placed upon him "a muzzle and a cage;" for since he called him a lion figuratively, he consequently also names the things that happened to him figuratively; for both nets and a cage are fitting for a lion; having thus narrated these things, he turns again to another kind of parable and says: 10, 11. Your mother is a vine, like a pomegranate flower planted by water; her fruit and her shoot came from much water. And there was in her a strong rod for the tribe of rulers, and it was exalted in its stature in the midst of the branches, and it saw its stature in the multitude of its shoots. Your mother, he says, is like a vine, and a pomegranate tree planted by a bank of water, and because of the irrigation from there, it is luxuriant and adorned with flowers and gushing with much fruit. But it is fitting to note that he did not call the fruit good. And through the water he indicated the manifold gifts of God, and he called the kingdom itself a "rod of strength." For the rod is for discipline. And he added "for the tribe of rulers," since it did not rule over all Israel, but over the ruling tribe of Judah. And "it saw its stature in the multitude of its shoots" indicates the arrogance that came to it from its prosperity. Whence he adds: 12. And it was broken off in wrath, it was thrown to the ground, and a scorching wind dried up her choice fruit; the rods of her strength were avenged and laid waste; fire dried it up, fire consumed it. All things figuratively and parabolically, as in the case of the vine and the pomegranate tree; and he called the assault of the enemies a "scorching wind," and the punishment that befell them from the divine wrath, "fire." And he said that the rods of strength were dried up, because the kingdom was extinguished. Then again he teaches the evils that would happen after the captivity of Zedekiah. 13. And now they have planted it in the wilderness, in a waterless and thirsty land. After the burning of the city and of the divine temple, of those in

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ἡγήσαντο, Ἰωάχαζ, Ἰωακεὶμ, Ἰεχονίας, Σεδεκίας. γʹ, δʹ. Καὶ ἀπεπήδησεν εἷς τῶν σκύμνων αὐ τῆς· λέων ἐγένετο, καὶ ἔμαθεν ἁρπάζειν ἁρπά γματα, ἀνθρώπους ἔφαγεν. Καὶ ἤκουσε περὶ αὐτοῦ ἔθνη, καὶ συνελήφθη ἐν τῇ διαφθορᾷ αὑ τοῦ, καὶ ἤγαγον αὐτὸν ἐν κημῷ εἰς γῆν Αἰγύ πτου. Τὸν Ἰωάχαζ λέγει, ὃς Ἰωσίαν τὸν πατέρα διαδεξάμενος, καὶ περὶ τὸ Θεῖον ἐγένετο δυσσεβὴς, καὶ περὶ τοὺς ὑπηκόους παράνομος· ἀλλὰ τοῦτον Φαραὼ Νεχαὼ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ὁ βασιλεὺς δορυάλωτον λαβὼν, πεπεδημένον εἰσήγαγεν εἰς τὴν Αἴγυπτον, καὶ ἐκεῖ τῆς παρανομίας τὰς δίκας ἐξέτισε· καὶ τοῦτο ἐσήμανεν εἰρηκὼς, "Συνελήφθη ἐν τῇ διαφθορᾷ αὑτοῦ." Εἶτα ἐπάγει· εʹ-ζʹ. Καὶ εἶδεν ὅτι ἀπῶσται ἀπ' αὐτῆς, καὶ ἀπώλετο ἡ ὑπόστασις αὐτῆς, καὶ ἔλαβεν ἄλλον ἐκ τῶν σκύμνων αὑτῆς· λέοντα ἔταξεν αὐτόν. Καὶ ἀνεστρέφετο ἐν μέσῳ λεόντων· λέων ἐγένετο, καὶ ἔμαθεν ἁρπάζειν ἁρπάγματα, καὶ ἀνθρώπους ἔφαγε. Καὶ ἐνέμετο ἐν τῷ θράσει αὑτοῦ, καὶ τὰς πόλεις αὐτῶν ἐξερήμωσε, καὶ ἠφάνισε γῆν καὶ τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτῆς ἀπὸ φωνῆς ὠρυώματος αὑτοῦ. Τὸν Ἰεχονίαν διὰ τούτων παρεδήλωκε, τὸν τοῦ Ἰωακεὶμ υἱόν· περὶ γὰρ τῶν γενομένων αἰχμαλώ των, καὶ ἐν τῇ ξένῃ δεξαμένων τοῦ βίου τὸ πέρας, ποιεῖται τὸν λόγον· διὸ τοῦ Ἰωακεὶμ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόν τος τὴν μνήμην κατέλιπεν· ἐν τῇ γὰρ Ἱερουσαλὴμ οὗτος ἐδέξατο τὴν σφαγήν. Ἐν συντόμῳ τοίνυν διεξῆλθε τὴν τοῦ Ἰεχονίου παρανομίαν, ὃς τρεῖς μῆνας πρὸς ὀλίγαις βασιλεύσας ἡμέραις, φόνων ἀδίκων τὴν πόλιν ἐπλήρωσεν. Ὅτι δὲ οὐ τὸν Ἰωακεὶμ, ἀλλὰ τὸν Ἰεχονίαν διὰ τούτων αἰνίττεται, τὰἐπαγόμενα μαρτυρεῖ. Φησὶ γάρ· ηʹ, θʹ. Καὶ ἐπέθετο ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἔθνη κυκλόθεν ἐκ τῶν χωρῶν, καὶ ἐξεπέτασαν ἐπ' αὐτὸν δί κτυα αὑτῶν, καὶ ἐν τῇ διαφθορᾷ αὐτῶν συν ελήφθη. Καὶ ἔθεντο αὐτὸν ἐν κημῷ, καὶ ἐν γαλεά 81.984 γρᾳ, καὶ ἤγαγον αὐτὸν πρὸς τὸν βασιλέα Βα βυλῶνος, καὶ εἰσήγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς φυλακὴν, ὅπως μὴ ἀκουσθῇ ἡ φωνὴ αὐτοῦ μηκέτι ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη τοῦ Ἰσραήλ. Ὁ δὲ Ἰωακεὶμ οὐκ αἰχμάλωτοςἀπήχθη, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἀνῃρέθη· ὁ δὲ Ἰεχονίας τὰ προειρημένα πέπονθεν ἅπαντα· εἰκότως δὲ ὡς ἐπὶ λέοντος τὴν μὲν τῆς στρατείας προσβολὴν ὠνόμασε δίκτυα, κημὸν δὲ καὶ γαλεάγραν τὰ περι τεθέντα αὐτῷ δεσμά· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τροπικῶς αὐτὸν ἐκάλεσε λέοντα, ἀκολούθως καὶ τὰ συμβάντα αὐτῷ τροπικῶς ὀνομάζει· τῷ γὰρ λέοντι καὶ τὰ δίκτυα καὶ ἡ γαλεάγρα ἁρμόττει· οὕτω ταῦτα διηγησάμενος ἐφ' ἕτερον εἶδος πάλιν μεταβαίνει παραβολῆς καί φησιν· ιʹ, ιαʹ. Ἡ μήτηρ σου ἄμπελος, ὡς ἄνθος ῥοιᾶς ἐν ὕδατι πεφυτευμένης· ὁ καρπὸς αὐ τῆς, καὶ ὁ βλαστὸς αὐτῆς ἐγένετο ἐξ ὕδατος πολλοῦ. Καὶ ἐγένετο ῥάβδος ἰσχύος ἐπὶ φυλὴν ἡγουμένων, καὶ ὑψώθη ἐν τῷ μεγέθει αὑτῆς ἐν μέσῳ στελεχῶν, καὶ εἶδε τὸ μέγεθος αὑτῆς ἐν πλήθει κλημάτων αὑτῆς. Ἀμπέλῳ, φησὶν, ἔοικεν ἡ μήτηρ σου, καὶ ῥοιᾷ πεφυτευμένῃ παρ' ὄχθην ὕδατος, καὶ διὰ τὴν ἐκεῖθεν ἀρδείαν τεθηλυίᾳ τε καὶ ἄνθεσι κεκοσμημένῃ καὶ πολὺν βρυούσῃ καρπόν. Προσήκει δὲ ἐπισημήνασθαι, ὅτι οὐ καλὸν τὸν καρπὸν προσηγόρευσε. ∆ιὰ δὲ τοῦ ὕδατος τὰς παντοδαπὰς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐδήλωσε δωρεὰς, "ῥάβδον δὲ ἰσχύος" αὐτὴν τὴν βασιλείαν ἐκάλεσε. Παιδευτικὴ γὰρ ἡ ῥάβδος. Τὸ δὲ "ἐπὶ φυλὴν ἡγουμένων" προστέθεικεν, ἐπειδὴ οὐ παντὸς ἡγήσατο τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ, ἀλλὰ τῆς ἡγεμονικῆς τοῦ Ἰούδα φυλῆς. Τὸ δὲ "Εἶδε τὸ μέ γεθος αὑτῆς ἐν πλήθει κλημάτων αὑτῆς," τὴν ἐκ τῆς εὐημερίας αὐτῇ προσγενομένην ἀλαζονείαν δηλοῖ. Ὅθεν ἐπάγει· ιβʹ. Καὶ κατεκλάσθη ἐν θυμῷ, ἐπὶ γῆν ἐῤῥίφη, καὶ ἄνεμος καύσων ἐξήρανε τὰ ἐκλεκτὰ αὐτῆς· ἐξεδικήθησαν, καὶ ἐξερημώθησαν αἱ ῥάβδοι τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτῆς· πῦρ ἐξήρανεν αὐτὴν, πῦρ ἀνάλωσεν αὐτήν. Τροπικῶς ἅπαντα καὶ παραβολι κῶς, ὡς ἐπὶ ἀμπέλου καὶ ῥοιᾶς· ἄνεμον δὲ καύ σωνα τὴν τῶν πολεμίων ἐκάλεσεν ἔφοδον, πῦρ δὲ, τὴν ἐκ τῆς θείας ὀργῆς καταλαβοῦσαν αὐτοὺς τιμω ρίαν. Ἔφη δὲ ξηρανθῆναι τὰς ῥάβδους τῆς ἰσχύος, διὰ τὸ σβεσθῆναι τὴν βασιλείαν. Εἶτα πάλιν διδάσκει τὰ μετὰ τὴν τοῦ Σεδεκίου αἰχμαλωσίαν συμβησόμενα κακά. ιγʹ. Καὶ νῦν πεφυτεύκασιν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ ἐρή μῳ, ἐν γῇ ἀνύδρῳ καὶ διψώσῃ. Μετὰ τὸν ἐμπρη σμὸν τῆς πόλεως καὶ τοῦ θείου νεὼ, τῶν ἐν