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he caused the ten tribes to revolt, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin. For this reason also he now received a double appellation. And it appears from the fourth book of Kings, that Israel sinned more, which is why it was also taken captive sooner. And in Ezekiel ninety-three days are numbered for the sins of Israel, but forty for Judah. For this reason here also the thorn-bearing vineyard becomes the house of Israel; but the man of Judah, no longer a vineyard, but a new plant, not uncultivated, but beloved. And who is the man who arose from Judah, flourishing in life and truly being beloved, is not difficult to see for one who knows how to contemplate such things. I waited for him to do judgment, but he did iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry. Since, according to Solomon, The thoughts of the righteous are judgments, we are required to do all things with judgment, and nothing without judgment. However, lawless things follow a life without judgment and unexamined. For he who does not follow right reason, nor judges what should and should not be done, according to the rule given from the law, commits iniquity, and is not a worker of righteousness, but a cause of outcry and tumult and confusion. Because tranquility follows for those being judged by just judgments, who receive what is decreed with stability; but for the unjust, there is an outcry and a rebellious tumult, as they are indignant at the injustice. And concerning this cry the Apostle also advises, saying: Let all outcry and tumult be put away from you, with all malice. But there is also a good cry, which the Lord cried out while standing in the temple; which David also used, saying: With my voice I cried out to the Lord. And it is no wonder that the same name is applied to opposite things, and signifies now the turbulent and agitated, and now the loud-voiced and magnificent nature of the heavenly doctrines. However, in the present passage, the cry is akin to that which ascended from Sodom and Gomorrah. 5.150 Woe to those who join house to house and bring field near field, so that they might take something from their neighbor. Will you dwell alone upon the earth? For these things were heard in the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. For if many houses are built, they shall be for a desert; great and beautiful, and there shall be no one dwelling in them. For where ten yoke of oxen work, it will produce one jar; and he who sows six artabas, will produce three measures. Now those are deemed wretched who, because of their desire for more, cut off the possessions of their neighbors, being content neither with their own possessions in the fields, nor with their own dwellings; but displacing their neighbors in the cultivated land, and enclosing the dwellings of their neighbors, being constrained by their own greed and not enduring to remain within their own boundaries; but abusing this seemingly reasonable pretext for their measureless avarice, by the pretense that their neighbors' properties are adjacent and connected. To whom the word responded most refutably, saying: Will you dwell alone upon the earth? For if it is just that the neighbor who cultivates the adjoining land be deprived of it, clearly, when he is cast out, another neighbor will appear to you again; and your greedy heart suggests that you say the same thing to him again, showing it to be reasonable to make the neighboring lands your own. And when he too, stripped of his own possessions, departs, and the third man's land becomes part of your property, again there is another neighbor, other efforts, to drive him away from his property, and to make the fourth neighbor's property your own. What then will be the limit for you of the desire for more? For a greedy heart is like a fire, which proceeds through the burning material, destroying what is behind and advancing to what is next. Indeed, just as the lack of fuel becomes the extinguishment of a conflagration, so also that alone stops the greedy heart and the insatiable eye: to have no one bordering one's possessions. Therefore the word, healing the passion from afar, as if chanting a spell to the avaricious soul, says these things: Will you not

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ἀπέστησε τὰς δέκα φυλὰς, υἱὸς Νάβατ, ὃς ἐξήμαρτε τὸν Ἰσραήλ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ νῦν διπλῆς ἔτυχε τῆς προσηγορίας. Φαίνεται δὲ ἐκ τῆς τετάρτης τῶν Βασιλειῶν, πλεῖον ἁμαρτὼν ὁ Ἰσραὴλ, διὸ καὶ τάχιον ᾐχμαλωτίσθη. Καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἰεζεκιὴλ ἐννενή κοντα μὲν καὶ τρεῖς ἡμέραι ἐπὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἀριθμοῦνται, τεσσαράκοντα δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἰούδα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἐνταῦθα ὁ μὲν ἀκανθοφόρος ἀμπελὼν οἶκος τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ γίνεται· ὁ δὲ τοῦ Ἰούδα ἄνθρωπος, οὐκέτι ἀμπελών· ἀλλὰ νεόφυτον, οὐ κεχερσωμένον, ἀλλ' ἠγαπημένον. Τίς δὲ ὁ ἐξ Ἰούδα ἀνατείλας ἄνθρωπος, ἀκμάζων τῇ ζωῇ καὶ ἀληθινῶς ὑπάρχων ἀγαπητὸς, οὐ χαλεπὸν ἰδεῖν τῷ ἐπισταμένῳ τὰ τοιαῦτα θεωρεῖν. Ἔμεινα ἵνα ποιήσῃ κρίσιν, ἐποίησε δὲ ἀνομίαν· καὶ οὐ δικαιοσύνην, ἀλλὰ κραυγήν. Ἐπείπερ, κατὰ τὸν Σο λομῶντα, Λογισμοὶ δικαίων κρίματα, ἀπαιτούμεθα πάν τα κρίσει ποιεῖν, καὶ μηδὲν ἀκρίτως. Ἕπεται μέντοι τῇ ἀκρίτῳ καὶ ἀνεξετάστῳ ζωῇ τὰ ἄνομα. Ὁ γὰρ μὴ ἑπό μενος τῷ ὀρθῷ λόγῳ, μηδὲ κρίνων τὸ πρακτέον καὶ μὴ, κατὰ τὸν δεδομένον ἐκ τοῦ νόμου κανόνα, ἀνομίαν ποιεῖ, καὶ οὐ δικαιοσύνης ἐστὶν ἐργάτης, ἀλλὰ κραυγῆς καὶ θορύ βου καὶ συγχύσεως αἴτιος. ∆ιότι τοῖς μὲν δικαίοις κρί μασιν ἡ ἡσυχία τῶν κρινομένων ἀκολουθεῖ, εὐσταθῶς κατα δεχομένων τὰ ὁριζόμενα· τοῖς δὲ ἀδίκοις κραυγὴ καὶ θό ρυβος στασιαστικὸς, ἀγανακτούντων ἐπὶ τῇ ἀδικίᾳ. Περὶ δὲ τῆς κραυγῆς ταύτης καὶ ὁ Ἀπόστολος παραινεῖ, λέγων· Πᾶσα κραυγὴ καὶ θόρυβος ἀρθήτω ἀφ' ὑμῶν, σὺν πάσῃ κακίᾳ. Ἔστι δέ τις καὶ κραυγὴ ἀστεία, ἣν ὁ Κύριος ἑστὼς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ ἔκραξεν· ᾗ καὶ ∆αβὶδ ἐκέχρητο, λέγων· Φωνῇ μου πρὸς Κύριον ἐκέκραξα. Καὶ οὐδὲν θαυμαστὸν, τὸ αὐτὸ ὄνομα ἐπὶ τῶν ἐναντίων τετάχθαι, καὶ σημαίνειν νῦν μὲν τὸ ταραχῶδες καὶ σεσοβημένον, νῦν δὲ τὸ μεγαλόφωνον καὶ μεγαλοφυὲς τῶν οὐρανίων δογμάτων. Ἐπὶ μέντοι τῆς πα ρούσης λέξεως, ἡ κραυγὴ συγγενής ἐστι τῇ ἀπὸ Σοδόμων καὶ Γομόῤῥας ἀναβαινούσῃ. 5.150 Οὐαὶ οἱ συνάπτοντες οἰκίαν πρὸς οἰκίαν καὶ ἀγρὸν ἐγγίζοντες, ἵνα τὸν πλησίον ἀφέλωνταί τι. Μὴ οἰκήσετε μόνοι ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς; Ἠκούσθη γὰρ εἰς τὰ ὦτα Κυρίου Σα βαὼθ ταῦτα. Ἐὰν γὰρ γένωνται οἰκίαι πολλαὶ, εἰς ἔρημον ἔσονται· μεγάλαι καὶ καλαὶ, καὶ οὐκ ἔσονται οἱ ἐνοικοῦντες ἐν αὐταῖς. Οὗ γὰρ ἐργῶνται δέκα ζεύγη βοῶν, ποιήσει κε ράμιον ἕν· καὶ ὁ σπείρων ἀρτάβας ἓξ, ποιήσει μέτρα τρία. Ταλανίζονται νῦν οἱ διὰ τὴν τοῦ πλείονος ἐπιθυμίαν τὰ τῶν πλησίον παρατεμνόμενοι, καὶ μήτε ἐν ἀγροῖς ταῖς οἰκείαις ἀρκούμενοι κτήσεσι, μήτε ἐν ταῖς οἰκήσεσιν ἀρκούμενοι τοῖς ἑαυτῶν· ἀλλὰ παρορίζοντες μὲν τοὺς πέλας ἐν τῇ γεωργουμένῃ, προσπεριβαλλόμενοι δὲ τὰ τῶν γειτόνων οἰ κήματα, ὑπὸ τῆς οἰκείας πλεονεξίας στενοχωρούμενοι καὶ μένειν ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις ὅροις οὐκ ἀνεχόμενοι· ἀλλ' εὐλόγῳ δὴ ταύτῃ κατακεχρημένοι προφάσει πρὸς τὴν ἄμετρον φιλοκτημοσύνην, τῷ δοκεῖν προσεχῆ καὶ συνημμένα εἶναι τὰ τῶν γειτόνων. Πρὸς οὓς ἐλεγκτικώτατα ὁ λόγος ἀπήντησεν, εἰπών· Μὴ οἰκήσετε μόνοι ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς; Εἰ γὰρ ὅτι γείτων ὁ τὴν ἐχομένην γῆν γεωργῶν ἀφαιρεθῆναι δίκαιος, δηλο νότι, τούτου ἐκβληθέντος, ἕτερός σοι πάλιν γείτων ἀνα φανήσεται· καὶ τὸ αὐτό σοι πάλιν καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον λέ γειν ἡ πλεονεκτικὴ καρδία ὑποβάλλει, εὔλογον ὑποδει κνύουσα εἶναι σεαυτοῦ ποιήσασθαι τὰ πλησιόχωρα. Ὅταν δὲ κἀκεῖνος γυμνωθεὶς ἀπέλθῃ τῶν ἰδίων, καὶ γένηται μέρος τῆς σῆς κτήσεως ἡ τοῦ τρίτου χώρα, πάλιν ἄλλος γείτων, ἄλλαι σπουδαὶ, ἀποδιῶξαι μὲν τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ἐκεῖνον, ἑαυ τοῦ δὲ ποιήσασθαι τὰ τοῦ τετάρτου γείτονος. Τίς οὖν ἔσται σοι ὅρος τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τοῦ πλείονος; Πυρὶ γὰρ ἔοικεν ἡ πλεονεκτικὴ καρδία, διὰ τῆς καιομένης ὕλης πορευομένῳ καὶ τὰ μὲν φθείροντι, τὰ δὲ ἐπερχομένῳ. Ἤπου καθάπερ τοῦ ἐμπρησμοῦ σβέσις γίνεται ἡ ἀπορία τῆς ὕλης, οὕτω καὶ τὴν πλεονεκτικὴν καρδίαν καὶ τὸν ἀπλήρωτον ὀφθαλμὸν ἐκεῖνο ἵστησι μόνον, τὸ μηδένα ἔχειν τὸν συνοριζόμενον τοῖς κτήμασι. Πόῤῥωθεν οὖν ἰώμενος ὁ λόγος τὸ πάθος, οἱονεὶ ἐπᾴδων τῇ φιλοκτήμονι ψυχῇ, ταῦτά φησι· Μὴ