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For the wicked demons, living with evil, conveyed to Nebuchadnezzar through divinations the things from the prophets, but to the Jews through the false prophets they proclaimed the opposite, promising them peace and the flight of their enemies; so that, disobeying God, and contradicting, and being stripped of their customary providence, they might be handed over by justice to their enemies, and their oracles might be shown to be true. Thus, having commanded the sword to be put to the necks of those who had lived lawlessly and illegally, as their end and conclusion had arrived, he exhorts, saying: 30. Return to your sheath, do not rest in this place, where you were made, in your own land I will judge you. But you, he says, O Babylonians, whom I call a sword, having done these things which I commanded, not here, but in your own land will I exact the penalty for impiety. 31. And I will pour out my anger upon you, in the fire of my anger I will breathe upon you. Through these things he showed the ease of the divine power. For just as, he says, it is easy to breathe upon, so it is easy and very simple to hand you over to every kind of punishment. And I will hand you over into the hands of barbaric men, who devise destruction. (32.) In fire you will be food; your blood will be in the midst of your land; there will be no remembrance of you, for I the Lord have spoken. Through these things he hinted at the revolt of the Medes and Persians against Babylon, who, besieging the walls, brought every kind of engine, and at night during a feast, having gotten inside the city, they both seized the whole city, and burned most of it, and filled all the houses and streets with blood. 81.1021

CHAPTER 22, 1-3. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Will you judge the city of

bloods? And will you show her all her iniquities? and you shall say, Thus says the Lord Adonai. He turned the word again to Jerusalem, and he commands the prophet, like a judge, to convict the things lawlessly dared by her; and he calls her a city of bloods, as having wrought many unjust slaughters; for which reason he again uses the same names, and cries out, saying: O city that sheds blood in the midst of her, so that her time may come, and that makes images against herself, to defile herself. You, he says, draw calamities upon yourself, O city, both using evil reasonings, and bringing these into action, and being mad through these, and being filled with unjust blood; and he called the calamity "time." 4. In your bloods which you shed, you have transgressed, and in your images which you made you have been defiled, and you have brought near your days, and you have brought the time of your years. For increasing lawlessness shortens the appointed time measured out according to divine long-suffering; this can be seen to have happened also in the case of Noah; for having given an appointed time of one hundred and twenty years to the people then for repentance, seeing that impiety was increasing, he shortened the appointed time, and in the one hundredth year he brought on the punishment through the flood; this he also hinted at here, saying: "And you have brought near your days, and you have brought the time of your years." Then he recounts the fruits of lawlessness. For this reason I have given you as a reproach to the nations, and as a mockery to all the lands (5.) those that are near you, and those that are far from you. For this reason, he says, I will make you an object of gloating, and a laughingstock to all the city neighbors and surrounding lands, and not only that but also to those dwelling far away. "And they will mock you, and cry out against you, 'Unclean is the renowned one, and great in her iniquities.'" For delighting in your evils, they will call you unclean and lawless, and notorious in wickedness. Then the kinds of wickedness are enumerated. 2. Behold the leaders of the house of Israel, each one towards his relatives

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πονηρίᾳ γὰρ συζῶντες οἱ ἀλιτήριοι δαίμονες, τῷ μὲν Ναβουχοδονόσορ διὰ τῶν μαντειῶν τὰ παρὰ τῶν προφητῶν διεπόρθμευον, τοῖς δὲ Ἰουδαίοις διὰ τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν τἀναντία προηγόρευον, εἰρήνην αὐ τοῖς ὑπισχνούμενοι, καὶ τῶν πολεμίων φυγήν· ἵν' ἀ πειθοῦντες τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ ἀντιλέγοντες, καὶ γυμνοὶ τῆς συνήθους προμηθείας γενόμενοι, παραδοθῶσιν ὑπὸ τῆς δίκης τοῖς πολεμίοις, καὶ ἀληθεῖς ἀποφαν θῶσιν αὐτῶν οἱ χρησμοί. Οὕτως ἐντειλάμενος τῇ ῥομφαίᾳ τοῖς τραχήλοις ἐπιτεθῆναι τῶν ἀνόμως καὶ παρανόμως βεβιωκότων, ὡς τοῦ πέρατος αὐτῶν καὶ τοῦ τέλους ἐφθακότος, παρακελεύεται λέγων· λʹ. Ἀπόστρεφε εἰς τὸν κολεόν σου, μὴ κα ταλύσῃς ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τούτῳ, ᾧ γεγένησαι, ἐν τῇ γῇ τῇ ἰδίᾳ σου κρινῶ σε. Ὑμᾶς δὲ, φησὶν, ὦ Βαβυλώνιοι, οὓς ῥομφαίαν ὀνομάζω, ταῦτα πεποιη κότας, ἃ παρηγγύησα, οὐκ ἐνταῦθα, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ οἰ κείᾳ γῇ δίκας ἀπαιτήσω τῆς ἀσεβείας. λαʹ. Καὶ ἐκχεῶ ἐπὶ σὲ τὴν ὀργήν μου, ἐν πυρὶ ὀργῆς μου ἐμφυσήσω ἐπὶ σέ. Τὸ εὔκολον τῆς θείας δυνάμεως διὰ τούτων ἐδήλωσε. Ὥσπερ γὰρ, φησὶ, τὸ ἐμφυσῆσαι ῥᾴδιον, οὕτως εὐπετὲς καὶ λίαν εὐμα ρὲς, παραδοῦναί σε παντοδαπῇ τιμωρίᾳ. Καὶ παραδώσω σε εἰς χεῖρας ἀνδρῶν βαρβά ρων τεκταινόντων διαφθοράν. (λβʹ.) Ἐν πυρὶ ἔσῃ κατάβρωμα· τὸ αἷμά σου ἔσται ἐν μέσῳ τῆς γῆς σου· οὐ μὴ γένηταί σου μνεία, διότι ἐγὼ Κύριος λελάληκα. Τὴν Μήδων καὶ Περσῶν ἐπανάστασιν κατὰ τῆς Βαβυλῶνος διὰ τούτων ᾐνίξατο, οἳ πᾶν εἶδος μηχανημάτων τοῖς περιβόλοις πολιορκοῦντες προσήνεγκαν, καὶ νύκτωρ ἐν ἑορτῇ εἴσω τοῦ ἄστεως γεγονότες, ἅπασαν μὲν ἐχειρώσαντο τὴν πόλιν, ἐν έπρησαν δὲ τὸ πλεῖστον, αἱμάτων δὲ καὶ τὰς οἰκίας καὶ τὰς ἀγυιὰς ἁπάσας ἐπλήρωσαν. 81.1021

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΚΒʹ αʹ-γ. Καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρὸς μὲ, λέ γων· Εἰ κρίνεις τὴν πόλιν τῶν

αἱμάτων; Καὶ παραδείξεις αὐτῇ πάσας τὰς ἀνομίας αὐτῆς; καὶ ἐρεῖς, Τάδε λέγει Ἀδωναῒ Κύριος. Μετήγαγε πάλιν τὸν λόγον ἐπὶ τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, καὶ τῷ προφήτῃ παρακελεύεται κριτοῦ δίκην διελέγξαι τὰ παρανόμως ὑπ' αὐτῆς τολμώμενα· καλεῖ δὲ αὐτὴν πόλιν αἱμάτων, ὡς πολλὰς ἀδίκως ἐργασαμένην σφα γάς· οὗ χάριν πάλιν τὰς αὐτὰς ὀνομάζει προσηγο ρίας, καὶ βοᾷ λέγων· Ὦ πόλις ἐκχέουσα αἷμα ἐν μέσῳ αὑτῆς, τοῦ ἐλθεῖν καιρὸν αὐτῆς, καὶ ποιοῦσα ἐνθυμήματα καθ' ἑαυτῆς, τοῦ μιαίνειν ἑαυτήν. Σὺ, φησὶν, ἐφέλκῃ τὰς συμφορὰς, ὦ πόλις, λογισμοῖς τε πονηροῖς κεχρημένη, καὶ τούτους εἰς ἔργον ἄγου σα, καὶ διὰ τούτων μαινομένη, καὶ αἱμάτων ἀδίκων πληρουμένη· καιρὸν δὲ τὴν συμφορὰν ὠνόμασεν. δʹ. Ἐν τοῖς αἵμασί σου οἷς ἐξέχεας, παρα πέπτωκας, καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐνθυμήμασί σου οἷς πεποίηκας ἐμιαίνου, καὶ προσήγγισας τὰς ἡμέρας σου, καὶ ἤγαγες καιρὸν ἐτῶν σου. Τὴν γὰρ κατὰ θείαν μακροθυμίαν ἐπιμετρουμένην προθεσμίαν συν τέμνει πλείων ἡ ἀνομία γιγνομένη· τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Νῶε γεγενημένον ἔστιν ἰδεῖν· εἴκοσι γὰρ καὶ ἑκατὸν ἐτῶν δεδωκὼς προθεσμίαν τοῖς τηνικάδε ἀν θρώποις εἰς μεταμέλειαν, θεασάμενος αὐξανομένην τὴν ἀσέβειαν, συνέτεμε τὴν προθεσμίαν, καὶ ἐν τῷ ἑκατοστῷ ἔτει τὴν διὰ τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ τιμωρίαν ἐπήγαγε· τοῦτο καὶ ἐνταῦθα ᾐνίξατο εἰπών· "Καὶ προσήγγισας τὰς ἡμέρας σου, καὶ ἤγαγες καιρὸν ἐτῶν σου." Εἶτα διηγεῖται τοὺς τῆς παρανομίας καρπούς. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο δέδωκά σε εἰς ὀνειδισμὸν τοῖς ἔθνεσι, καὶ εἰς ἐμπαιγμὸν πάσαις ταῖς χώραις (εʹ.) ταῖς ἐγγιζούσαις ἐπὶ σὲ, καὶ ταῖς μακρὰν ἀπ εχούσαις ἀπὸ σοῦ. Τούτου χάριν σε, φησὶν, ἐπίχαρ τον ποιήσω, καὶ καταγέλαστον πᾶσι τοῖς ἀστυ γείτοσι καὶ πλησιοχώροις, οὐ μὴν δὲ ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς πόῤῥω οἰκοῦσι. "Καὶ ἐμπαίξονταί σοι, καὶ βοή σουσιν ἐπὶ σὲ, ἀκάθαρτος ἡ ὀνομαστὴ, καὶ πολλὴ ἐν ταῖς ἀνομίαις σου." Ἐφηδόμενοι γὰρ τοῖς σοῖς κα κοῖς, ἀκάθαρτόν σε καὶ παράνομον, καὶ ἐν πονηρίᾳ ἐπίσημον ὀνομάσουσιν. Εἶτα τῆς κακίας ἀπαριθμεῖ ται τὰ εἴδη. ʹ. Ἰδοὺ οἱ ἀφηγούμενοι οἴκου Ἰσραὴλ, ἕκαστος πρὸς τοὺς συγγενεῖς αὑτοῦ