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in truth, the one who is girded according to God. Such was Peter, stretching out his hands and being girded for the war for Christ by those who were summoning him to the testimony for the truth even unto death. The saint, therefore, is girded with power; for ‘God’ (it says) ‘is the one who girds me with power’; but he who has lost this girdle is girded with the bond of his own sins, because ‘Each one is held fast by the ropes of his own sins.’ Of which the scourge made of cords was a symbol, driving out from the temple those who profaned the holy things, the Lord showing that for each one the scourges are the personal entanglements of their sins, and one is flogged with the cords of sins that are entwined around him. And instead of the golden adornment of the head, you will have baldness on account of your works. Just as, in their excessive curiosity regarding things of smell, seeking what is contrary to nature, they also fell away from what is according to nature (for not enduring to breathe plain air, but staining it with perfumes and incense, later they breathed not even clean air, but air mixed with dust); so too, since they did not abide by the natural adornment of hair (which is given to women as a covering), but, braiding their hair with certain trinkets, they adorned themselves gaudily, they were also deprived of their natural adornment, and they became a most unseemly sight in the loss of their hair, which is a proper and related adornment put around women by nature itself. For if it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, how much more shameful to have baldness? (bringing deformity for the benefit of those who arranged their beauty badly). And instead of the tunic with a purple stripe, you shall gird yourself with sackcloth. And for the benefit of those who adorn themselves, the Lord in his economy commands this change to happen. Because the purple garment is an occasion for luxury and arrogance; but sackcloth is a provision for contrition and humility. And he who is clothed in purple hesitates to fall to the earth and worship God, out of regard for his adornment, lest the bloom of his garment be ruined; but he who is clothed in sackcloth considers every place suitable for himself for worship. 3.132 And your most beautiful son whom you loved, will fall by the sword. For those who are destined to be raised with wicked characters, it is far more profitable to depart before their prime than to be filled further with the evil upbringing of their parents. You had a son, therefore, either most beautiful in body, or appearing so to a mother’s eyes. He will die in his very prime and in the flower of his age. And the worsening of the evil, not an automatic death, nor one from nature, but violently from an enemy’s hand, wounded by a sword. And your strong men will fall by the sword. And having suffered these things, you will not even have the power to defend yourself; for it is a consolation in evils to avenge those who have been slain and to repay those who have caused grief with equal measure. But for you, not even this will be possible; for all those of fighting age will perish in war, so that the useless age-group is left behind, which, being helpless, is easy to suffer all things that the enemies might decide. And the repositories of your adornment will be humbled and will mourn. Repositories of gold and silver and of costly clothing and of heavy stones, as long as they hold the treasures, are deemed worthy of much diligence and care, laid away in secure houses, in high places, with bolts and keys and seals and guards and all things devised for security and protection; but when they are shown to be empty of the treasures, they are overlooked, neglected and cast aside. May these things also profit us, that souls, which have received the gift of the divine word, have become storehouses of precious things, worthy of being laid up in the divine treasuries; but when they are shown to be empty of the divine adornments, they will be humbled, cast away, condemned for uselessness. For this reason, ‘Jeconiah has become useless,’ (it says) ‘like a vessel for which there is no use.’ So that therefore

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ἀληθείᾳ, ὁ κατὰ Θεὸν ζωννύμε νος. Ὁποῖος ἦν ὁ Πέτρος, ἐκτείνων τὰς χεῖρας καὶ ζωννύμε νος εἰς τὸν ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ πόλεμον ὑπὸ τῶν εἰς τὸ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀληθείας αὐτὸν μαρτύριον μέχρι θανάτου προκαλουμένων. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἅγιος περιζώννυται δύναμιν· Ὁ Θεὸς γὰρ (φησὶν)ὁ περιζωννύων με δύναμιν· ὁ δὲ ἀπολέσας τὴν ζώνην ταύτην, τῷ δεσμῷ τῶν ἰδίων ἁμαρτιῶν ζώννυται, διότι Σειραῖς τῶν ἰδίων ἁμαρτιῶν ἕκαστος σφίγγεται. Ὧν σύμβολον ἦν τὸ ἐκ σχοινίων φραγέλλιον, ἐξελαῦνον τοῦ ἱεροῦ τοὺς βεβηλοῦντας τὰ ἅγια, δεικνύντος τοῦ Κυρίου, ὅτι ἑκάστῳ μάστιγες αἱ οἰκεῖαι πλοκαὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν γίνονται, καὶ μαστίζεται σχοι νίοις ἁμαρτιῶν τοῖς περιπλεκομένοις αὐτῷ. Ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ κόσμου τῆς κεφαλῆς τοῦ χρυσίου, φαλάκρωμα ἕξεις διὰ τὰ ἔργα σου. Ὥσπερ, ἐπὶ τῆς κατὰ τὰ ὀσφραντὰ περιεργίας τὰ παρὰ φύσιν ἐπιζητοῦσαι, καὶ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν ἐξέπιπτον (οὐκ ἀνεχόμεναι γὰρ ἀναπνεῖν ψιλὸν ἀέρα, ἀλλὰ μύροις αὐτὸν καταχρωννῦσαι καὶ θυμιάμασιν, ὕστερον οὐδὲ καθαρὸν ἀέρα, ἀλλὰ κονιορτῷ τοῦτον ἀναμεμιγμένον ἀνέπνεον) οὕτως, ἐπειδὴ τῷ ἐκ τῆς φύσεως κόσμῳ τῶν τριχῶν (ὃς ἀντὶ περιβολαίου δέδοται ταῖς γυναιξὶν) οὐκ ἐπέμενον, ἀλλὰ, ἐμπλοκίοις τισὶ τὰς τρίχας συγκαταπλέκουσαι, φορτικῶς ἑαυτὰς ἐκαλλώπιζον, καὶ τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν κόσμου ἀπεστερή θησαν, καὶ ἐγένοντο ἀωρότατον θέαμα ἐν τῇ ἀποβολῇ τῶν τριχῶν, ὃς οἰκεῖος καὶ συγγενὴς κόσμος παρ' αὐτῆς τῆς φύσεως ταῖς γυναιξὶ περιβέβληται. Εἰ γὰρ αἰσχρὸν γυναικὶ τὸ κείρασθαι ἢ ξυρᾶσθαι, πόσῳ δήπου αἴσχιον φαλάκρωμα ἔχειν; (ἐπὶ συμφέροντι τὴν δυσμορφίαν ἐπάγον ταῖς κακῶς τὴν ὥραν διαθεμέναις). Ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ χιτῶνος τοῦ μεσοπορφύρου, περιζώσῃ σάκκον. Καὶ τοῦτο ἐπὶ συμφέροντι τῶν ὡραϊζομένων οἰκονομῶν ὁ Κύριος τὴν μεταβολὴν ταύτην γενέσθαι προστάσσει. ∆ιότι ἡ μὲν πορφυρὶς ἁβρότητος καὶ ἀλαζονείας ἐστὶν ἀφορμή· ὁ δὲ σάκκος συντριμμοῦ καὶ ταπεινώσεώς ἐστιν ἐφόδιον. Καὶ ὁ μὲν τὴν ἁλουργίδα περικείμενος, πεσεῖν εἰς γῆν καὶ προσκυνεῖν τὸν Θεὸν κατοκνεῖ, φειδοῖ τοῦ κόσμου, μὴ τῆς ἐσθῆτος τὸ ἄνθος διαλυμήνηται· ὁ δὲ τὸν σάκκον περικείμε νος, πάντα τόπον ἐπιτήδειον ἑαυτῷ εἰς προσκύνησιν τίθεται. 3.132 Καὶ ὁ υἱός σου ὁ κάλλιστος ὃν ἠγάπησας, μα χαίρᾳ πεσεῖται. Τοῖς ἐν ἤθεσι μοχθηροῖς μέλλουσιν ἀνατρέφεσθαι, λυ σιτελέστερον πολλῷ προαπελθεῖν τῆς ἀκμῆς, ἢ ἐπὶ πλέον τῆς πονηρᾶς τῶν γονέων ἀγωγῆς ἀναπίμπλασθαι. Υἱὸν οὖν ἔσχες, ἤτοι τῷ σώματι κάλλιστον, ἢ τοῖς μητρικοῖς ὀφ θαλμοῖς τοιοῦτον φαινόμενον. Οὗτος ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἀκμῇ καὶ τῷ ἄνθει τῆς ἡλικίας τεθνήξεται. Καὶ ἡ ἐπίτασις τοῦ κα κοῦ, οὐ τὸν αὐτόματον, οὐδὲ τὸν ἐκ τῆς φύσεως θάνατον, ἀλλὰ βιαίως ἐκ πολεμίας χειρὸς, τραυματίας μαχαίρᾳ. Καὶ οἱ ἰσχύοντες ὑμῶν μαχαίρᾳ πεσοῦνται. Καὶ ταῦτα παθοῦσα, οὐδὲ τὴν πρὸς τὸ ἀμύνασθαι δύναμιν ἕξει· παραμυθία γὰρ ἐν κακοῖς τὸ ἐπαμῦναι τοῖς ἀνῃρημένοις καὶ τοῖς ἴσοις ἀντιπεριβάλλειν τοὺς λελυπηκότας. Σοὶ δὲ οὐδὲ τοῦτο ὑπάρξει· οἱ γὰρ ἐν ἡλικίᾳ πάντες τελευτήσουσιν ἐν πολέμῳ, ὥστε τὴν ἄχρηστον ἡλικίαν περιλειφθῆναι, ἣ διὰ τὸ ἀβοή θητος εἶναι, εὔκολός ἐστι πάντα παθεῖν, ἅπερ ἂν δοκῇ τοῖς πολεμίοις. Καὶ ταπεινωθήσονται καὶ πενθήσουσιν αἱ θῆκαι τοῦ κόσ μου ὑμῶν. Χρυσίου καὶ ἀργυρίου θῆκαι καὶ ἐσθῆτος πο λυτελοῦς καὶ λίθων βαρυτίμων, ἕως μὲν ἂν ἔχῃ τὰ κει μήλια, πολλῆς ἀξιοῦται σπουδῆς καὶ ἐπιμελείας, ἐν οἴκοις ὀχυροῖς ἀποκείμενα, ἐπὶ ὑψηλῶν τόπων, καὶ μοχλοὶ καὶ κλεῖς καὶ σφραγῖδες καὶ φύλακες καὶ πάντα τὰ πρὸς ἀσφάλειαν καὶ φυλακὴν ἐπινοούμενα· ἐπειδὰν δὲ κενὰ τῶν κειμηλίων ἀποδειχθῇ, ἠμελημένα καὶ παραῤῥιπτούμενα παρ ορᾶται. Ταῦτα καὶ ἡμᾶς ὠφελείτω, ὅτι ψυχαὶ, αἱ δε ξάμεναι τοῦ θείου λόγου τὴν δωρεὰν, ἀποθῆκαι γεγόνασι τῶν τιμίων, τοῦ ἐν τοῖς θείοις θησαυροῖς ἀποκεῖσθαι ἄξιαι· ἐπειδὰν δὲ κεναὶ τῶν θείων κόσμων ἀποδειχθῶσι, ταπει νωθήσονται ἀποῤῥιφεῖσαι, ἀχρηστίαν καταγνωσθεῖσαι. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο Ἠχρειώθη (φησὶν) Ἰεχονίας, ὡς σκεῦος, οὗ οὐκ ἔστι χρεία. Ἵνα οὖν