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of the heterodox; "The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting with the bow, how they turned back in the day of battle," having grown weak and having been overthrown, obviously their defenses having been shattered? For it is said: "Let their sword enter into their own heart, and let their bows be broken." 3.188 The bows being broken are the ruling faculties of the combatants, from which wicked words are sent, in the manner of sharpened arrows, about which the divine word says: "Their tongue is a wounding arrow, the words of their mouth are deceitful." For the words of those who profess the falsely-called knowledge are full of deadly poison, putting to death those who accept them. 3.189 But not such are the javelins of the mighty Savior, about which it is said in the forty-fourth Psalm to the blessed and best archer: "Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty one," which create divine love in those who are struck by them, so that the divine bride, having a blessed love, says: "I am wounded by love." 3.190 And see the paradox: the same Savior is bow and archer and arrow. For in the prophetic saying at hand, it is said to him by God: "I have bent you, Judah, for myself as a bow"; but in the Psalm, those who hymn him say: "Your arrows are sharpened, O mighty one"; and he himself says about himself in Isaiah: "He has made me as a chosen arrow, in his quiver he has hidden me." For how is he not a chosen arrow who makes chosen those who are wounded, hidden in the quiver which he had from the flesh of Mary. 3.191 When this divine bow was bent, from which are drawn and released the arrows that strike with divine love, Ephraim is filled, being overthrown and shown to be weak, according to what was recently said from the Psalm: "The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting with the bow, how they turned back in the day of battle," when God, who bestows great things, raised up "the children of Zion against the children of the Greeks"? 3.192 And by these things, the offspring of the Greeks are signified, those who champion the falsely-called knowledge and all who possess impiety, by which they send impious words like deadly arrows against those who have not taken up "the shield of faith." The children of Zion happen to be, being raised up by their reigning God, those who champion the truth. 3.193 And who is Zion, the mother of the children raised up by God, but she who was clarified a little earlier, whose daughter is commanded to rejoice exceedingly and intensely at the shining forth of the strong and saving king. 3.194 "God wields Judah like the sword of a warrior," working salvation in both ways: insofar as he was bent as a bow, wounding unto a blessed love, and insofar as, being the best general, he wields a sword, being a warrior, to slay those arrayed against him. And it is also written about this in the forty-fourth Psalm: "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, in your comeliness and your beauty, for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness, and your right hand will guide you wondrously." For how does the right hand not guide wondrously the mighty one who has girded it upon his thigh, paradoxically striking those who are struck? 3.195 At any rate, one can hear him saying to those being overcome by his divine power: "You, Ethiopians, are the wounded of my sword." For having been wounded by the one saying these things, casting off the life of Ethiopians, they will take up immortality, so as to say in thanksgiving: "Let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us," since the cause of all good things washed us, we were shown to be bright and white, according to the one who says with boldness: "You will wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow." 3.196 And from where have they become Ethiopians, those who are wounded for their own good so that they might be put to death to impiety, if not from the devil who begot them, when they wished to do his desires? For it is said

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τῶν ἑτεροδόξων· «Υἱοὶ Ἐφράιμ ἐντείνοντες καὶ βάλλοντες τόξῳ, πῶς ἐστράφησαν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ πολέμου», ἀσθενήσαντες καὶ ἀνατραπέντες, δηλονότι συντριβέντων τῶν ἀμυντηρίων; Εἴρηται γάρ· «Ἡ ῥομφαία αὐτῶν εἰσέλθοι εἰς τὴν καρδίαν αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰ τόξα αὐτῶν συντριβείησαν.» 3.188 Συντριβόμενα τόξα τὰ ἡγεμονικὰ τῶν μαχίμων ἐστίν, ἀφ' ὧν λόγοι πονηροὶ πέμπονται, ἠκονημένων βελῶν δίκην περὶ ὧν ὁ θεῖός φησιν λόγος· «Βολὶς τιτρώσκουσα ἡ γλῶσσα αὐτῶν, δόλια τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ στόματος αὐτῶν.» ∆ηλητηρίου γὰρ ἰοῦ πλήρης εἰσὶν οἱ λόγοι τῶν τὴν ψευδώνυμον γνῶσιν ἐπαγγελλομένων, θανατούντων τοὺς παραδεχομένους αὐτούς. 3.189 Οὐ τοιαῦτα δὲ τὰ ἀκόντια τοῦ δυνατοῦ Σωτῆρος, περὶ ὧν ἐν τεσσερακοστῷ καὶ τετάρτῳ Ψαλμῷ λέγεται πρὸς τὸν μακάριον καὶ ἄριστον τοξότην· «Τὰ βέλη σου ἠκονημένα, δυνατέ», ἅπερ ἔρωτα θεῖον ἐμποιεῖ τοῖς βαλλομένοις ὑπ' αὐτῶν, ὡς τὴν θείαν νύμφην μακάριον ἔρωτα σχοῦσαν λέγειν· «Τετρωμένη ἀγάπης εἰμί.» 3.190 Καὶ ὅρα τὸ παράδοξον· ὁ αὐτὸς Σωτὴρ τόξον καὶ τοξότης καὶ βέλος ὑπάρχει. Ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῷ προκειμένῳ προφητικῷ ῥητῷ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ λέγεται· «Ἐνέτεινά σε, Ἰούδα, ἐμαυτῷ τόξον»· ἐν δὲ τῷ Ψαλμῷ οἱ ὑμνοῦντες αὐτὸν λέγουσιν· «Τὰ βέλη σου ἠκονημένα, δυνατέ»· αὐτὸς δὲ περὶ ἑαυτοῦ φησιν ἐν Ἠσαΐᾳ· «Ἔθηκέν με ὡς βέλος ἐκλεκτόν, ἐν τῇ φαρέτρᾳ αὐτοῦ ἔκρυψέν με.» Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἐκλεκτὸν βέλος ὁ κατασκευάζων ἐκλεκτοὺς τοὺς τιτρωσκομένους, κρυπτόμενον ἐν τῇ φαρέτρᾳ ᾗ ἔσχεν ἐκ τῆς Μαρίας σαρκί. 3.191 Ἐνταθέντος τούτου τοῦ θείου τόξου, ἀφ' οὗ ἐντείνεται καὶ ἀπολύεται τὰ πλήττοντα εἰς θεῖον ἔρωτα βέλη, ἐμπίπλαται ὁ Ἐφράιμ, ἀνατρεπόμενος καὶ ἀσθενὴς ἀποδεικνύμενος, κατὰ τὸ λεχθὲν ὑπόγυον ἀπὸ τοῦ Ψαλμοῦ· «Υἱοὶ Ἐφράιμ ἐντείνοντες καὶ βάλλοντες τόξον, πῶς ἀπεστράφησαν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ πολέμου», ἐπεγείραντος τοῦ μεγάλα χαριζομένου Θεοῦ «τὰ τῆς Σιὼν τέκνα ἐπὶ τὰ τέκνα τῶν Ἑλλήνων»; 3.192 Ἑλλήνων δὲ γενήματα ἐν τούτοις σημαίνονται οἱ πρεσβεύοντες τὴν ψευδώνυμον γνῶσιν καὶ πάντες οἱ τὴν ἀσέβειαν ἔχοντες, καθ' ἣν τοὺς δυσσεβεῖς λόγους ὀλεθρίων βελῶν δίκην πέμπουσιν κατὰ τῶν μὴ ἀνειληφότων «τὸν τῆς πίστεως θυρεόν». Τέκνα Σιὼν τυγχάνουσιν, ἐπεγειρόμενα ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλεύοντος αὐτῶν Θεοῦ, οἱ πρεσβεύοντες τὴν ἀλήθειαν. 3.193 Τίς δ' ἡ Σιών, ἡ μήτηρ τῶν ἐπεγειρομένων ὑπὸ Θεοῦ τέκνων, ἢ ἡ μικρῷ πρότερον σαφηνισθεῖσα, ἧς ἡ θυγάτηρ προστάττεται χαίρειν σφοδρῶς καὶ συντόνως ἐπὶ τῇ ἐπιλάμψει τοῦ ἰσχυροῦ καὶ σῴζοντος βασιλέως. 3.194 «Ψηλαφᾷ ὁ Θεὸς τὸν Ἰούδαν οἷα ῥομφαίαν μαχητοῦ», ἀμφοτέρως σωτηρίαν ἐνεργῶν· καθὸ μὲν τόξον ἐνετάθη εἰς μακάριον τιτρώσκων ἔρωτα, καθὸ δὲ στρατηγὸς ἄριστος ὑπάρχων ψηλαφᾷ ῥομφαίαν, μαχητὴς ὤν, ἐπὶ τῷ σφάττειν τοὺς ἀντιπαρατεταγμένους. Γέγραπται καὶ περὶ τούτου ἐν τετάρτῳ καὶ τεσσερακοστῷ Ψαλμῷ· «Περίζωσαι τὴν ῥομφαίαν σου ἐπὶ τὸν μηρόν σου, δυνατέ, τῇ ὡραιότητί σου καὶ τῷ κάλλει σου, ἕνεκεν ἀληθείας καὶ πραΰτητος καὶ δικαιοσύνης, καὶ ὁδηγήσει σε θαυμαστῶς ἡ δεξιά σου.» Πῶς γὰρ οὐχ ὁδηγεῖ θαυμαστῶς ἡ δεξιὰ τὸν περιζωσάμενον ἐπὶ τὸν μηρὸν αὐτοῦ δυνατόν, παραδόξως πλήττοντα τοὺς πληττομένους; 3.195 Αὐτοῦ γοῦν ἔστιν ἀκοῦσαι λέγοντος τοῖς προκαταλαμβανομένοις πρὸς τῆς θείας δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ· «Ὑμεῖς, Αἰθίοπες, τραυματίαι ῥομφαίας μού ἐστε.» Τραυματισθέντες γὰρ ὑπὸ τοῦ ταῦτα λέγοντος, ἀποβαλόντες τὴν Αἰθιόπων ζωήν, ἀθανασίαν ἀναλήμψονται, ὡς χαριστηρίως εἰπεῖν· «Ἔσται ἡ λαμπρότης Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἐφ' ἡμᾶς», ἐπείπερ πλύναντος ἡμᾶς τοῦ αἰτίου πάντων ἀγαθῶν, λαμπροὶ καὶ λευκοὶ ἀπεδείχθημεν, κατὰ τὸν μετὰ παρρησίας λέγοντα· «Πλυνεῖς με καὶ ὑπὲρ χιόνα λευκανθήσομαι.» 3.196 Πόθεν δὲ Αἰθίοπες γεγένηνται οἱ πρὸς ἀγαθοῦ τραυματιζόμενοι ἵνα νεκρωθῶσιν τῇ ἀσεβείᾳ, ἢ ἐκ τοῦ διαβόλου γεννήσαντος αὐτοὺς θελήσαντας τὰς ἐπιθυμίας αὐτοῦ ποιεῖν; Εἴρηται γὰρ