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so that they accordingly seem like a man who is at once drunk and vomiting from the abundance of his excessive drunkenness. It is possible to infer the excess of this drunkenness from their not even practicing idolatry in the same way as other men, but falling even to the point of making idols of irrational animals. Wherefore it has been said: as a man who is drunk and vomiting at the same time wanders, or according to the other interpreters: as a man who is drunk wanders in his vomiting. And it is possible to understand in another way one who is drunk and vomiting at the same time: for to join both together, so as to both vomit and drink, and while drinking to get drunk, and again to vomit, and again while vomiting to be thirsty. With such drunkenness the aforementioned rulers of Tanis and Memphis led astray the souls of the Egyptians, for whom the Lord himself mixed a spirit of error; for being wicked demons and opposing powers, they thought things contrary to God and attempted to fight against God. Therefore they were given over to error, as God judged them worthy of their wickedness to be given over to error. And they poured out their own evil upon the Egyptians like some deadly poison, and they led Egypt astray, as a man who is drunk and vomiting at the same time wanders; but also for their sakes the Lord visited Egypt, so that, causing them to become sober from their error, he might scatter far from them the deceivers. Wherefore he adds: And there will no longer be for the Egyptians a work which will make a head and a tail, a beginning and an end; for the things formerly accomplished among them will be ineffective and inoperative for them, so that no work among them has either a beginning or an end, the Lord having worked this also as a good thing. For of old among the Egyptians the works of polytheistic error had a beginning and an end and a certain supposed consistency. But in the aforementioned times of the Lord's presence among them, he says there will no longer be among them such a work that is full and whole and complete; but if one should ever be found, it will be headless and without a beginning, incomplete and inconclusive. Which indeed it is possible to observe in fact, since their idolatry has not entirely ceased. But it is of such a kind as to have neither a head nor a reason sufficient to reach an end. 1.76 In the appointed times of the Lord's arrival in Egypt, he prophesies that the Egyptians will no longer have a manly spirit, but like women they will live their life in trembling and in fear because of the hand of God raised against them. But what other hand of the Lord could be understood besides what is called his right hand, than the Roman power that subjugated the Egyptians and made them subject on account of the Lord's presence? For thus also the devil is recorded as having once said to God concerning Job: "But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has; surely he will bless you to your face." The power, therefore, that served the will of God in overcoming the rule of the Egyptians was this very one, which has been called the hand of the Roman army. But how the Egyptians, like women, serve the Romans with fear and anguish, there is no need to say. But also the land of the Jews has become a terror to the Egyptians who have accepted the presence of the Lord; and you would not be wrong to call the divine scripture the land of the Jews, which those who have come to know the Lord, because of their extreme reverence and faith, approach "with fear and trembling" and reverence, no longer blaspheming it as before, but honoring and revering it on account of the Lord who is proclaimed in it. Therefore everyone who names it to them inspires in them the fear of God; "but the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." And at the same time, in which these things are prophesied to happen, the word says that five cities will be established in Egypt, speaking not the Egyptian language but the Canaanite, and swearing, not by the ancestral gods, which they formerly used to believe in, but in the name of the Lord of Sabaoth, the God known among the Jews. This was he who "upon

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ὡς κατ' αὐτὸ ἐοικέναι αὐτοὺς ἀνδρὶ μεθύοντι ἅμα καὶ ἐμοῦντι ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης μέθης. τεκμαίρεσθαι δέ ἐστι ταύτης τῆς μέθης τὴν ὑπερβολὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ μηδὲ ὁμοίως τοῖς λοιποῖς ἀνθρώποις εἰδωλολατρῆσαι αὐτούς, ἐκπεσεῖν δὲ καὶ μέχρι τῆς τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων ἂν εἰδωλοποιήσεως. διὸ λέλεκται· ὡς πλανᾶται ὁ μεθύων καὶ ὁ ἐμῶν ἅμα, ἢ κατὰ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἑρμηνευτάς· ὡς πλανᾶται ὁ μεθύων ἐν τῷ ἐμεῖν αὐτόν. ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλως νοῆσαι τὸν κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ μεθύοντα καὶ ἐμοῦντα· τὸ γὰρ ἅμα συνάψαι ἑκάτερα, ὥστε καὶ ἐμεῖν καὶ πίνειν καὶ πίνοντα μεθύειν καὶ πάλιν ἐμεῖν καὶ αὖθις ἐμοῦντα διψῆν. τοιαύτῃ τινὶ μέθῃ τὰς τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἀπεπλάνησαν ψυχὰς οἱ δηλωθέντες ἄρχοντες Τάνεως καὶ Μέμφεως, οἷς αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος πνεῦμα πλανήσεως ἐκέρασε· δαίμονες γὰρ ὄντες πονηροὶ καὶ δυνάμεις ἀντικείμεναι, ἐναντία τῷ θεῷ ἐφρόνουν καὶ θεομαχεῖν ἐπειρῶντο. διὸ παρεδόθησαν πλάνῃ τοῦ θεοῦ κρίναντος ἐπαξίως τῆς πονηρίας αὐτῶν πλάνῃ παραδοῦναι αὐτούς. οἱ δὲ τὴν σφῶν κακίαν ἐπὶ τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους ὥσπερ τινὰ ἰὸν θανατηφόρον ἐξέχεαν, καὶ ἐπλάνησαν τὴν Αἴγυπτον, ὡς πλανᾶται ὁ μεθύων καὶ ὁ ἐμῶν ἅμα· ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων αὐτῶν χάριν ἐπεδήμει ὁ κύριος τῇ Αἰγύπτῳ, ἵνα αὐτοὺς τῆς πλάνης ἀνανῆψαι ποιήσας μακρὰν αὐτῶν ἀποσκεδάσῃ τοὺς πλάνους. διὸ ἐπιλέγει· καὶ οὐκέτι ἔσται τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις ἔργον, ὃ ποιήσει κεφαλὴν καὶ οὐράν, ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος· ἄπρακτα γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἔσται καὶ ἀνενέργητα τὰ πάλαι παρ' αὐτοῖς συντελούμενα, ὡς μηδὲν ἔργον ἐν αὐτοῖς μήτ' ἀρχὴν ἔχειν, μήτε τέλος τοῦ κυρίου καὶ τοῦτο ὡς ἀγαθοῦ ἐργασαμένου. πάλαι μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῇ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις τῆς πολυθέου πλάνης ἔργα ἀρχὴν ἔχοντα ἦν καὶ τέλος καί τινα νομιζομένην ἀκολουθίαν. κατὰ δὲ τοὺς δηλουμένους χρόνους τῆς τοῦ κυρίου εἰς αὐτοὺς παρουσίας οὐκέτ' ἔσεσθαί φησιν ἔργον παρ' αὐτοῖς τοιοῦτον πλῆρες καὶ ὁλόκληρον καὶ τέλειον· ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ εὑρεθείη ποτέ, ἀκέφαλον ἔσται καὶ ἄναρχον, ἀτελές τε καὶ ἀσυμπέραστον. ὃ δὴ καὶ ἔστιν ἔργῳ παραλαβεῖν, ἐπεὶ μὴ ἐκλέλοιπεν αὐτῶν παντελῶς ἡ εἰδωλολατρία. τοιαύτη δέ ἐστιν ὡς μήτε κεφαλὴν ἔχειν μήτε λόγον εἰς τέλος ἱκανούμενον. 1.76 Κατὰ τοὺς ἀποδοθέντας χρόνους τῆς ἀφίξεως τοῦ κυρίου τῆς εἰς Αἴγυπτον οὐκέτ' ἔσεσθαι φρόνημα τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις ἀνδρικόν, γυναικῶν δὲ δίκην ἐν τρόμῳ καὶ ἐν φόβῳ διάξειν αὐτοὺς τὸν βίον διὰ τὴν ἐπαναστᾶσαν αὐτοῖς χεῖρα τοῦ θεοῦ θεσπίζει. χεὶρ δὲ κυρίου τίς ἂν νοηθείη ἑτέρα οὖσα παρὰ τὴν λεγομένην δεξιὰν αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ' ἢ ἡ Ῥωμαϊκὴ δύναμις ἡ καθυποτάξασα τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους καὶ ὑποχειρίους ποιησαμένη διὰ τὴν τοῦ κυρίου παρουσίαν; οὕτω γάρ ποτε καὶ ὁ διάβολος πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀναγέγραπται εἰρηκὼς περὶ τοῦ Ἰώβ· «ἀλλὰ ἀπόστειλον τὴν χεῖρά σου καὶ ἅψαι πάντων, ὧν ἔχει· εἰ μὴν εἰς πρόσωπόν σου εὐλογήσει σε». ἡ τοίνυν διακονησαμένη τῷ βουλήματι τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς τὸ χειρώσασθαι τὴν Αἰγυπτίων ἀρχὴν δύναμις αὐτὴ δὲ ἦν, ἣ τοῦ Ῥωμαϊκοῦ στρατοῦ χεὶρ ὠνόμασται. ὅπως δὲ γυναικῶν δίκην μετὰ φόβου καὶ ἀγωνίας Ῥωμαίοις δουλεύουσιν Αἰγύπτιοι, οὐδὲν δεῖ λέγειν. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ χώρα τῶν Ἰουδαίων γέγονε τοῖς τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ κυρίου παραδεδεγμένοις Αἰγυπτίοις εἰς φόβητρον· χώραν δὲ Ἰουδαίων οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοις τὴν θείαν εἰπὼν γραφήν, ἣν δι' ὑπερβολὴν εὐλαβείας καὶ πίστεως οἱ τὸν κύριον ἐπεγνωκότες «μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου» καὶ εὐλαβείας προσίενται, οὐκέθ' ὡς τὸ πρὶν βλασφημοῦντες αὐτήν, ἀλλὰ τιμῶντες καὶ σέβοντες διὰ τὸν ἐν αὐτῇ κηρυττόμενον κύριον. διὸ πᾶς ὁ ὀνομάζων αὐτὴν αὐτοῖς φόβον θεοῦ ἐμποιεῖ αὐτοῖς· «ἀρχὴ δὲ σοφίας φόβος κυρίου». Κατὰ δὲ τὸν αὐτὸν χρόνον, καθ' ὃν ταῦτ' ἔσεσθαι προφητεύεται, πέντε πόλεις ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ συστήσεσθαί φησιν ὁ λόγος, οὐ τῇ Αἰγυπτίων γλώττῃ ἀλλὰ τῇ Χανανίτιδι χρωμένας καὶ ὀμνυούσας, οὐ τοὺς πατρῴους θεούς, οὓς ἐνόμιζον πάλαι πρότερον, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι κυρίου σαβαὼθ τοῦ παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις γνωριζομένου θεοῦ. οὗτος δὲ ἦν ὁ «ἐπὶ