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you also kindled this flame of fire; for you had much poison of sins, which, when laid bare at the present time, will be filled with shame. "Because you were defiled, and were not cleansed from your uncleanness, and you shall no longer be cleansed, until I have fulfilled my wrath in you." For since you were not willing to heal your wounds through repentance, you shall not receive forgiveness, nor shall you enjoy cleansing, until you pay the penalty for your transgressions; then he shows the truthfulness of the things spoken by the quality of the person. 14. I the Lord have spoken. And the irrefutable 81.1056 nature of the things to come: "And it shall come, and I will do it; I will not hold back, I will not spare, nor will I be entreated." For I will not let some go and hand others over, but I will deliver all to the threatened evils. And he indicates also the justice of the punishment. "According to your ways, and according to your thoughts I will judge you, says the Lord Adonai." And the same thing more broadly: "Therefore, behold, I will judge you according to your thoughts, and according to your blood I will judge you, O unclean one, O renowned one, and great in provoking to anger." You have become, he says, notorious for evil; and the cause of your transgression is following evil reasonings; and he has indicated this by saying: "According to your thoughts and according to your blood I will judge you." For first we reason, whether good or evil, and then we bring forth the deed according to our reasonings. From this point he transfers the prophecy to another form, and says: 15-17. The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, behold, I am taking from you the desires of your eyes; you shall not mourn, nor shall you weep, nor shall tears come to you. Groan silently, a groan of blood is a grief of the loins. The desires, or thoughts of the eyes, for thus some of the copies have it, he calls his wedded wife, upon whose death, the prophet is commanded neither to shed tears nor to lament, but to groan in silence, and this though the grief is about his loins. For through the loins he signified the desire for childbearing; for thus also the divine Apostle, speaking of Levi, said: "For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him and blessed him." Therefore we are also commanded to gird our loins, so that we may both check and restrain the impulses of desire. Wishing, therefore, to show the excess of the suffering, he fittingly said: A groan of blood is a grief of the loins;" that is, the groan and grief of death is about the loins. But nevertheless, even though the calamity was so great, he exhorts him not to mourn: "For you shall not make a human mourning." Then he also teaches the manner: "Your hair shall be bound upon you, and your sandals on your feet, and you shall not be comforted by their lips, and you shall not eat the bread of men." Do nothing, he says, of what mourners are accustomed to do: neither shave your head, nor walk barefoot, nor enjoy any 81.1057 consolation from so-called funeral feasts. And the prophet seems also to be a Nazirite; "For, he says, your hair shall be bound upon you." And above he was commanded to drink not wine, but water; both of which are peculiar to the Nazirites. 18. And I spoke to the people in the morning, in the way that he had commanded me; and my wife died in the evening, and I did in the morning as I was commanded. And the prophet fulfills a certain type of the God of all things. For since the Israelite people were joined to the Master in the rank of a bride, and were about to be thus given over to enslavement and slaughter, and the divine temple was to be burned, he gives the prophet as a certain type of the things to come, and when his wife suddenly died, he enjoins him neither to mourn, nor to weep, nor to assume a mourning appearance, nor to enjoy a table of consolation, but to groan in silence, showing that he himself would not deem those joined to him worthy of any philanthropy, but would nevertheless bring punishment upon them against his will; "For he does not desire the death of the sinner, as much as that he should turn and live." For which reason he also exhorts the prophet to groan in silence;

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ταύτην καὶ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐξῆψας τὴν φλόγα· πολὺν γὰρ ἔσχες ἁμαρτημάτων ἰὸν, ὃς ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος γυμνωθεὶς αἰσχύνης ἀναπλησθήσεται. "Ἀνθ' ὧν ἐμιαίνου σὺ, καὶ οὐκ ἐκαθάρθης ἀπὸ ἀκαθαρσίας σου, καὶ οὐ μὴ καθαρθῇς οὐκ ἔτι, ἕως οὗ ἐμπλήσω τὸν θυμόν μου ἐν σοί." Μὴ βουληθεὶς γὰρ διὰ μετανοίας ἀκέσα σθαί σου τὰ τραύματα, οὐ μὴ τύχῃς συγγνώμης, οὐδὲ μὴ καθάρσεως ἀπολαύσῃς, ἕως ἂν δῷς δίκας, ὑπὲρ ὧν παρηνόμησας· εἶτα τὸ ἀψευδὲς τῶν εἰρη μένων δείκνυσι τῇ τοῦ προσώπου ποιότητι. ιδʹ. Ἐγὼ Κύριος λελάληκα. Καὶ τὸ ἀναντίῤῥη 81.1056 τον τῶν ἐσομένων· "Καὶ ἥξει, καὶ ποιήσω· οὐ δια στελῶ, οὐ φείσομαι, καὶ οὐ μὴ παρακληθῶ." Οὐ γὰρ τοὺς μὲν ἐάσω, τοὺς δὲ παραδώσω, ἀλλὰ πάντας τοῖς ἠπειλημένοις ἐκδώσω κακοῖς. Ὑποδεί κνυσι δὲ καὶ τὸ δίκαιον τῆς τιμωρίας. "Κατὰ τὰς ὁδούς σου, καὶ κατὰ τὰ ἐνθυμήματά σου κρινῶ σε, λέγει Ἀδωναῒ Κύριος." Καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πλατύτε ρον· "∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ κρινῶ σε κατὰ τὰ ἐν θυμήματά σου, καὶ κατὰ τὰ αἵματά σου κρινῶ σε, ἡ ἀκάθαρτος, ἡ ὀνομαστὴ, καὶ πολλὴ τοῦ παραπι κραίνειν." Ἐπίσημος, φησὶν, ἐπὶ κακίᾳ γεγένησαι· αἴτιον δέ σοι τῆς παρανομίας, τὸ τοῖς πονηροῖς ἀκο λουθεῖν λογισμοῖς· καὶ τοῦτο παρεδήλωσεν εἰρηκώς· "Κατὰ τὰ ἐνθυμήματά σου, καὶ κατὰ τὰ αἵματά σου κρινῶ σε." Πρότερον γὰρ λογιζόμενοι, εἴτε ἀγαθὰ, εἴτε κακὰ, καὶ τότε τὸ ἔργον τοῖς λογισμοῖς ἐπιφέρομεν. Ἐντεῦθεν ἐφ' ἕτερον εἶδος μεταφέρει τὴν προφητείαν, καί φησιν· ιεʹ-ιζʹ. Ἐγένετο λόγος Κυρίου πρὸς μὲ, λέγων· Υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ λαμβάνω ἐκ σοῦ τὰ ἐπι θυμήματα τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν σου· οὐ μὴ κόψῃ, οὐδὲ μὴ κλαύσῃς, οὐδ' οὐ μὴ ἔλθῃ σοι δάκρυα. Στέναξαι σιγῶν, στεναγμὸς αἵματος πένθος ὀσφύος ἐστίν. Ἐπιθυμήματα, ἢ ἐνθυμήματα ὀφθαλμῶν, οὕτω γὰρ ἔνια τῶν ἀντιγράφων ἔχει, τὴν ὁμόζυγα καλεῖ γυναῖκα, ἧς ἀποθανούσης, ὁ προφήτης κελεύεται, μήτε δακρύσαι, μήτε ὀδύρε σθαι, ἀλλὰ στένειν σιγῇ, καὶ ταῦτα περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν τοῦ πένθους ὄντος. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τῆς ὀσφύος τὴν τῆς παιδοποιΐας ἐπιθυμίαν ἐδήλωσεν· οὕτω γὰρ καὶ ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος περὶ τοῦ Λευῒ τὸν λόγον ποιούμε νος ἔφη· "Ἔτι γὰρ ἐν τῇ ὀσφύϊ τοῦ πατρὸς ἦν, ὅτε συνήντηκεν αὐτῷ Μελχισεδὲκ, καὶ ηὐλόγησεν αὐτόν." ∆ιὸ καὶ ζωννύναι τὰς ὀσφύας κελευό μεθα, ἵνα τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἀναστέλλωμέν τε καὶ ἀνα χαιτίζωμεν τὰς ὁρμάς. ∆εῖξαι τοίνυν τὴν τοῦ πάθους ὑπερβολὴν βουλόμενος, εἰκότως ἔφη· Στεναγμὸς αἵματος πένθος ὀσφύος ἐστί·" τουτέστι, τοῦ θα νάτου ὁ στεναγμὸς καὶ τὸ πένθος περὶ τὴν ὀσφύν ἐστιν. Ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ τοιαύτης οὔσης συμφορᾶς παρακελεύεται αὐτῷ μὴ θρηνεῖν· "Ἀνθρώπινον γὰρ πένθος οὐ ποιήσῃ." Εἶτα καὶ τὸν τρόπον διδά σκει· "Ἔσται τὸ τρίχωμά σου συμπεπλεγμένον ἐπὶ σὲ, καὶ τὰ ὑποδήματά σου ἐν τοῖς ποσί σου, καὶ οὐ μὴ παρακληθῇς ἐν τοῖς χείλεσιν αὐτῶν, καὶ ἄρτον ἀνδρῶν οὐ φαγῇ." Μηδὲν, φησὶν, ὧν εἰώ θασιν οἱ πενθοῦντες ποιεῖν ἀνάσχῃ ποιῆσαι, μήτε τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀποκείρασθαι, μήτε ἀνυπόδετος βαδίσαι, μήτε δι' αὐτῶν καλουμένων περιδείπνων παραψυχῆς 81.1057 τινος ἀπολαῦσαι. Ἔοικε δὲ ὁ προφήτης καὶ Ναζι ραῖος εἶναι· "Ἔσται γὰρ, φησὶ, τὸ τρίχωμά σου συμπεπλεγμένον ἐπὶ σέ." Καὶ ἄνω δὲ οὐκ οἶνον, ἀλλ' ὕδωρ πίνειν προσετάχθη· ἀμφότερα δὲ τῶν Ναζιραίων ἴδια. ιηʹ. Καὶ ἐλάλησα πρὸς τὸν λαὸν τὸ πρωῒ, ὃν τρόπον ἐνετείλατό μοι· καὶ ἀπέθανεν ἡ γυνή μου ἑσπέρας, καὶ ἐποίησα τὸ πρωῒ ὃν τρόπον ἐπετάγη μοι. Τύπον δέ τινα τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν ὅλων ὁ προφήτης πληροῖ. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁ Ἰσραηλίτης λαὸς ἐν τάξει νύμφης τῷ ∆εσπότῃ συνῆπτο, ἔμελλε δὲ οὕτως παραδίδοσθαι ἀνδραποδισμῷ καὶ σφαγῇ, καὶ ὁ θεῖος νεὼς ἐμπίπρασθαι, τύπον τινὰ τῶν ἐσομένων δίδωσι τὸν προφήτην, καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς ἐξαπιναίως θανούσης, παρεγγυᾷ μήτε θρηνῆσαι, μήτε δακρύ σαι, μὴ πένθιμον σχῆμα λαβεῖν, μὴ παραμυθητικῆς ἀπολαῦσαι τραπέζης, ἀλλὰ σιγῇ στενάξαι, δεικνὺς, ὡς αὐτὸς οὐδεμιᾶς τοὺς αὐτῷ συνημμένους ἀξιώσει φιλανθρωπίας, παρὰ γνώμην δὲ ὅμως αὐτοῖς ἐπάξει τιμωρίαν· "Οὐ γὰρ βούλεται τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ, ὡς τὸ ἐπιστρέψαι αὐτὸν, καὶ ζῇν." Οὗ χάριν καὶ τῷ προφήτῃ σιγῇ στένειν παρακελεύεται·