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they attempted as if God were not watching, with good reason he declares them wretched, saying next: Woe to those who make a plan deeply, and not through the Lord, which Symmachus interpreted, saying: Woe to those who are deep so as to hide their plan from the Lord, whose works were done in darkness, and they said: Who sees us, and who knows us in our perversity? Then he adds: Will you not be reckoned as the potter’s clay? For if all men are like a potter’s clay because of our earthen body, how does it not follow to understand that it is not possible for the thing made by him to escape the notice of the maker, of what sort of workmanship it is? And who is able, or who will dare to say, that God did not form him, and if the clay subject to the potter would never say these things about him, it is clear how foolish are all those who devise a deep plan within their soul and suppose that God is ignorant of the works done by them in darkness. But for these reasons he says yet a little, and Lebanon, being in the land of a foreign nation, will be transferred to the land of the Jews; where is Mount Carmel, which in the Hebrew tongue is named Chermel. And for Lebanon there will be a change for the better, but for Carmel itself there will be a later alteration; for that which was once full of cultivated plants and good fruits will be reckoned as a forest. For Carmel, which is called Chermel, will be like a forest of unfruitful and wild trees. But Lebanon of the foreigners, being transferred, will become such as Carmel formerly was. And through these things the Word hints at Lebanon as the people from the Gentiles, and Carmel as the nation of the Jews, like a forest of wild and unfruitful trees, and Lebanon, which formerly resembled a forest, the people from the Gentiles, as the people of the Jews once was, filled with good trees and all sorts of plants and fruits. Then, when this change comes to pass, in that day, that is, at the same time, those who were formerly deaf will hear the words of the book, of what book but this very book in hand, about which it was said above: “and these words will be to you as the words of the sealed book.” But to the one who was once Carmel but changed into a forest, “the words of the book” of prophecy “will be sealed,” but to those who were formerly blind and reckoned in the forest of Lebanon, having been changed to what is cultivated and fruitful, the words of the divine writings will become audible. And those who were formerly in darkness and in mist, so as neither to see nor to understand nor to perceive because they had blind eyes, these, having been deemed worthy of a marvelous change, will become beholders of the mysteries laid up in the divine writings. Wherefore it is said: The eyes of the blind will see, and those who were formerly poor because of a lack of every good thing will rejoice; for they will be filled with gladness from the Lord, even those for whom there was no hope of salvation before. For who ever conceived that those who from their fathers were idolaters, being atheists and impious and strangers to the knowledge of God, would come to such a hope? Nevertheless, he says, even the despondent among men will be filled with gladness. And all these will enjoy these things, since the lawless and impious ruler who formerly held power and tyrannized over them, I mean the devil himself, has failed and perished, being driven far away, the arrogant one who formerly enslaved them, but also those under him who acted impiously in iniquities were utterly destroyed, that is, the evil demons, who make men sin in word. Wherefore it is said somewhere: “and they hated him who reproves in the gates and they abhorred a holy word.” And these same ones were vainly turning aside the just one; for turning aside from the just word and the just Christ of God, they shook him off, having nothing to accuse him of, doing this vainly and unjustly. For they ensnared the prophets who reproved them to their face and turned them from their sins

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ἐνεχείρουν ὡς μὴ ἐφορῶντος τοῦ θεοῦ, εἰκότως αὐτοὺς ταλανίζει φάσκων ἑξῆς· οὐαὶ οἱ βαθέως βουλὴν ποιοῦντες καὶ οὐ διὰ κυρίου, ὅπερ ὁ Σύμμαχος ἡρμήνευσεν εἰπών· οὐαὶ οἱ βαθεῖς ὥστε κρύψαι κύριον βουλήν, ὧν ἐγένετο ἐν σκότῳ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν, καὶ εἶπαν Τίς ὁρᾷ ἡμᾶς, τίς δὲ οἶδεν ἡμᾶς κατὰ τὴν ἐκστροφὴν ἡμῶν; Εἶτ' ἐπιλέγει· οὐχ ὡς ὁ πηλὸς τοῦ κεραμέως λογισθήσεσθε; εἰ γὰρ πάντες ἄνθρωποι πηλῷ κεραμέως ἐοίκαμεν διὰ τὸ πήλινον ἡμῶν σῶμα, πῶς οὐχ ἕπεται νοεῖν, ὅτι μὴ δυνατὸν λαθεῖν τὸν ποιητήν, ὁποίας ἐργασίας ὑπάρχει τὸ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ πεποιημένον; τίς δὲ δύναται ἢ τίς τολμήσει φάναι, ὅτι μὴ ὁ θεὸς αὐτὸν ἔπλασεν, εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἂν εἴποι ταῦτά ποτε περὶ τοῦ κεραμέως ὁ ὑποκείμενος αὐτῷ πηλός, δῆλον ὡς μάταιοι πάντες οἱ ἔνδον ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτῶν βουλὴν βαθεῖαν διανοούμενοι καὶ τὸν θεὸν οἰόμενοι ἀγνοεῖν τὰ ἐν σκότῳ πραττόμενα αὐτοῖς ἔργα. Πλὴν ἀλλὰ τούτων ἕνεκεν ἔτι φησὶ μικρόν, καὶ ὁ Λίβανος ἀλλόφυλος ἐθνῶν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ τυγχάνων μετατεθήσεται ἐπὶ τὴν Ἰουδαίων χώραν· ἔνθα ἐστὶ τὸ ὄρος τὸ Καρμήλιον, ὅπερ Ἑβραϊκῇ φωνῇ Χερμὲλ ὠνόμασται. καὶ ἔσται τοῦ μὲν Λιβάνου ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβολή, αὐτοῦ δὲ τοῦ Καρμήλου ὑστέρα τις ἔσται ἀλλοίωσις· ὡς δρυμὸς γὰρ λογισθήσεται ὁ πάλαι φυτῶν ἡμέρων καὶ καρπῶν ἀγαθῶν πλήρης. ἔσται γὰρ ὁ Κάρμηλος ὁ λεγόμενος Χερμὲλ ὅμοιος δρυμῷ ξύλων ἀκάρπων καὶ ἀγρίων. ὁ δὲ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων Λίβανος μετατεθεὶς γενήσεται, ὁποῖος ἦν τὸ παλαιὸν ὁ Κάρμηλος. διὰ τούτων δὲ ὁ λόγος αἰνίττεται Λίβανον μὲν τὸν ἐξ ἐθνῶν λαόν, Κάρμηλον δὲ τὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος, οἷόν τινα δρυμὸν ξύλων ἀγρίων καὶ ἀκάρπων, τὸν δὲ πάλαι δρυμῷ ἐοικότα Λίβανον τὸν ἐξ ἐθνῶν λαὸν ὁποῖος ἦν ποτε ὁ Ἰουδαίων λαὸς πεπληρωμένος δένδρων ἀγαθῶν καὶ παντοίων φυτῶν τε καὶ καρπῶν. Τότε δέ, ἐπειδὰν ἡ μεταβολὴ αὕτη γένηται, ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, δηλαδὴ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν καιρόν, οἱ πάλαι κωφοὶ ἀκούσονται λόγους τῆς βίβλου, ποίας ἢ ταύτης αὐτῆς τῆς μετὰ χεῖρας βίβλου, περὶ ἧς ἀνωτέρω ἐλέγετο· «καὶ ἔσται ὑμῖν τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα ὡς οἱ λόγοι τοῦ βιβλίου τοῦ ἐσφραγισμένου». ἀλλὰ τῷ μέν ποτε Καρμήλῳ μεταβληθέντι δὲ εἰς δρυμὸν «ἔσονται οἱ λόγοι τοῦ βιβλίου» τῆς προφητείας «ἐσφραγισμένοι», τοῖς δὲ πάλαι τυφλοῖς καὶ ἐν τῷ δρυμῷ τοῦ Λιβάνου λελογισμένοις, μεταβληθεῖσιν ἐπὶ τὸ ἥμερον καὶ καρποφόρον ἀκουστοὶ γενήσονται οἱ λόγοι τῶν θείων γραμμάτων. καὶ οἱ πάλαι δὲ ὄντες ἐν τῷ σκότῳ καὶ ἐν τῇ ὁμίχλῃ, ὡς μήτε βλέπειν μήτε συνιέναι μήτε νοεῖν διὰ τὸ τυφλοὺς ἔχειν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, οὗτοι παραδόξου μεταβολῆς ἀξιωθέντες θεωροὶ γενήσονται τῶν ἐναποκειμένων ἐν τοῖς θείοις γράμμασι μυστηρίων. διὸ λέλεκται· ὀφθαλμοὶ τυφλῶν ὄψονται, καὶ ἀγαλλιάσονται δὲ οἱ πάλαι πτωχεύοντες δι' ἔνδειαν παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ· πλησθήσονται γὰρ εὐφροσύνης τῆς παρὰ τῷ κυρίῳ, καὶ οἷς οὐδεμία παρῆν ἐλπὶς σωτηρίας πρότερον. τίς γὰρ καὶ διενοήθη πώποτε τοὺς ἐκ πατέρων εἰδωλολάτρας ἀθέους ὄντας καὶ ἀσεβεῖς καὶ ἀλλοτρίους ὄντας τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς τοιαύτην ἥξειν ἐλπίδα; ὅμως δ' οὖν καὶ οἱ ἀπηλπισμένοι φησὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐμπλησθήσονται εὐφροσύνης. Καὶ τούτων ἀπολαύσουσιν οὗτοι πάντες, ἐπειδὴ ὁ πάλαι κρατῶν καὶ αὐτῶν τυραννῶν ἄνομός τις καὶ ἀσεβὴς ἄρχων, λέγω δὲ αὐτὸς ὁ διάβολος, ἐξέλιπε καὶ ἀπώλετό γε μακρὰν διωχθείς, ὁ πάλαι καταδουλωσάμενος αὐτοὺς ὑπερήφανος, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ὑπὸ τούτῳ ἀσεβοῦντες ἐπὶ ἀδικίαις ἐξωλοθρεύθησαν, δηλαδὴ οἱ πονηροὶ δαίμονες, οἱ ποιοῦντες ἁμαρτεῖν ἀνθρώπους ἐν λόγῳ. διὸ εἴρηταί που· «καὶ ἐμίσουν ἐν πύλαις ἐλέγχοντα καὶ λόγον ὅσιον ἐβδελύξαντο». οἱ δὲ αὐτοὶ ματαίως ἦσαν ἐκκλίνοντες τὸν δίκαιον· τὸν γὰρ δίκαιον λόγον καὶ τὸν δίκαιον τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλίνοντες ἀπεσείοντο οὐδὲν ἔχοντες ἐγκαλεῖν, ματαίως δὲ καὶ ἀδίκως τοῦτο πράττοντες. τοὺς γὰρ προφήτας εἰς πρόσωπον αὐτοὺς ἐλέγχοντας καὶ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐπιστρέφοντας ἐπαγίδευον