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my soul into the hands of her enemies.” 4.187 For before the abandonment and the handing over, the one about whom these things are said was a house and an inheritance and a beloved soul of the one who said later on account of their impiety toward him: “Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” 4.188 And it is well that not the doors but the vestibules will be placed; for the security is not completely shaken, but that which is according to the shadow and the letter, being the entrance of the external things of the law, which are called “ordinances of the flesh imposed until the time of reformation.” 4.189 But since the grievous things that were threatened touched also the perceptible Judea and its metropolis—for it was demolished so that no longer was a stone left upon a stone—the surrounding peoples of foreign nations, not being permitted to enter to tread upon the sacred ground, trample upon it, as if stepping with unwashed feet on a bare and common stone that is trampled. 4.190 Jeremiah, foreseeing this sorrowful thing with a far-seeing prophetic gaze, lamenting and bewailing the city that had fallen into so great a misfortune, cried out mournfully: “How the city that was full of peoples sits alone, she who was full among the nations has been reckoned as a widow!” 4.191 That these things would happen to Jerusalem, the Savior, drawing near to her, said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you, even you, had known the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For your enemies will come upon you and will enclose you, and surround you with a rampart,” so that being forsaken she would be razed to the ground, with all the enemy nations being round about you, so that you would be seen as desolate; “For when,” He says, “you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation has come near.” 4.192 And these things have been experienced by her, by the Lord-slayers, when the Romans prevailed over them and destroyed their cities and enslaved them, having been turned over to the law of captivity, or rather, torn away from her who nourished them, so that they no longer have their own land or country, wandering everywhere on earth. 4.193 Concerning the wrath that thus came to its end upon Judea and those who dwell in it, their own historian of the sufferings wrote a multivolume work of them and of their places, so that one can see without doubt fulfilled what the Savior said and what Zechariah prophetically declared, beginning from: “I am making Jerusalem a shaking threshold.” 4.194 When its vestibules were set to be shaken and a siege contained it, all the foreign nations, setting foot upon it as on an unclean stone, trample it contemptuously, no longer coming as to a sanctuary and holy ground, unguardedly and not with the proper purifications and preliminary sanctifications. Therefore, mocking, they mock her as a ruin, with all then treading upon her so as “to plow her as a field.” 4.195 In addition to the literal meaning, let the spiritual meaning also be spoken: all the heretics, through the evil things they think and do, “build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquities.” For how do they not build Zion with blood, causing scandal and shedding the blood of those whom they deceive? Therefore they also build Jerusalem with iniquities. That those who are deceived are wronged by the deceivers, the scripture of the divine Proverbs most clearly declares concerning such things, speaking thus: “They shall be filled with their own impiety; for because they wronged the innocent, they shall be slain, and examination shall destroy the impious.” 4.196 Of the worst city that was built, the Word of God makes its vestibules shaken, so that they may be overthrown by strong refutations, so as to be trampled by the surrounding peoples who trample the falsely named Jerusalem as a stone shown to be defiled, so that those who have known its unholiness and uncleanness mock at its falsely named knowledge, revering the truth and the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. 4.197 And since not a few mock, but all the nations, to the point of contempt

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ψυχήν μου εἰς χεῖρας ἐχθρῶν αὐτῆς.» 4.187 Πρὸ γὰρ τῆς καταλείψεώς τε καὶ παραδόσεως, οἶκος καὶ κληρονομία καὶ ψυχὴ ἠγαπημένη ὑπῆρχεν ἡ περὶ ἧς λέγεται ταῦτα τοῦ εἰρηκότος ὕστερον διὰ τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν ἀσέβειαν· «Ἰδοὺ ἀφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν ἔρημος.» 4.188 Εὖ δὲ μὴ τὰς θύρας ἀλλὰ τὰ πρόπυλα τεθήσεσθαι· οὐ γὰρ ὅλη ἐξ ὅλων ἡ ἀσφάλεια κεκλόνηται, ἀλλ' ἡ κατὰ τὴν σκιὰν καὶ τὸ γράμμα, εἴσοδος οὖσα τῶν ἐξωτερικῶν τοῦ νόμου, ἃ εἴρηται «δικαιώματα σαρκὸς μέχρι καιροῦ διορθώσεως ἐπικείμενα». 4.189 Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὰ ἀπειληθέντα ἀνιαρὰ ἥψατο καὶ τῆς αἰσθητῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ μητροπόλεως αὐτῆς, -καθῃρέθη γὰρ ὡς μηκέτι λίθον λίθῳ ἐπικεῖσθαι, -οἱ πέριξ λαοὶ τῶν ἀλλογενῶν ἐθνῶν, οὐκ ἐπιτρεπόμενοι εἰσελθεῖν ἐπὶ τῷ τὸ ἱερὸν ἔδαφος πατῆσαι, καταπατοῦσιν αὐτήν, ὡς καταπατούμενον ψιλὸν καὶ κοινὸν λίθον ποσὶν ἀνίπτοις ἐπιβαίνοντες. 4.190 Τοῦτο τὸ σκυθρωπὸν μακρῷ βλέμματι προφητικῷ προθεασάμενος ὁ Ἰερεμίας, θρηνῶν καὶ ὀλοφυρόμενος τὴν τοσαύτῃ κακοπραγίᾳ ὑποπεσοῦσαν πόλιν, γοερῶς ἀνεφθέγξατο· «Πῶς ἐκάθισεν μόνη ἡ πόλις ἡ πεπληθυμμένη λαῶν, εἰς χήραν ἐλογίσθη ἡ πεπληθυμμένη ἐν ἔθνεσιν;» 4.191 Ταῦτα συμβήσεσθαι τῇ Ἰερουσαλήμ, ἐγγίσας αὐτῇ ὁ Σωτὴρ εἶπεν· «Ἰερουσαλήμ, Ἰερουσαλήμ, εἰ ἔγνως καὶ σὺ τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην· νῦν δὲ ἐκρύβη ἀπὸ ὀφθαλμῶν σου· ἐπελευσόμενοι γὰρ ἐχθροί σου συνέξουσίν σε, χάρακά σοι περιβαλόντες», ὡς ἐγκαταλειφθεῖσαν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἐδαφισθῆναι, κύκλῳ σου γεναμένων πάντων τῶν πολεμίων ἐθνῶν, ὡς ἔρημόν σε ὀφθῆναι· «Ὅταν γάρ, φησίν, ἴδητε τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ κυκλουμένην ὑπὸ στρατοπέδων, γιγνώσκετε ὅτι ἤγγισεν ἡ ἐρήμωσις αὐτῆς.» 4.192 Ὑπῆρκται δὲ ταῦτα αὐτῇ πείρᾳ τοῖς κυριοκτόνοις, ὅτε Ῥωμαῖοι ἐκράτησαν αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς πόλεις αὐτῶν καθεῖλον καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐξηνδραπόδισαν, ἀποστραφέντας νόμῳ αἰχμαλωσίας, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀποσπασθέντας τῆς θρεψαμένης, ὡς μηκέτι γῆν ἢ χώραν ἰδίαν ἔχειν, πανταχόσε γῆς ἀλωμένους. 4.193 Περὶ τῆς οὕτω φθασάσης ὀργῆς εἰς τέλος τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ καὶ τοῖς οἰκοῦσιν αὐτήν, συγγραφεὺς αὐτῶν τῶν παθόντων ἴδιος πολύβιβλον σύνταξιν ἀνέγραψεν αὐτῶν τε καὶ τῶν τόπων αὐτῶν, ὡς ὁρᾶν ἀνενδοιάστως πεπληρωμένα τά τε εἶπεν ὁ Σωτὴρ καὶ ὁ Ζαχαρίας προφητικῶς ἀπεφθέγξατο ἀρχόμενα ἀπὸ τοῦ· «Τίθημι τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ ὡς πρόθυρα σαλευόμενα.» 4.194 Τεθέντων τῶν προθύρων αὐτῆς εἰς τὸ κλονεῖσθαι περιοχῆς τε συσχούσης αὐτήν, πάντα τὰ ἀλλόφυλα ἔθνη ἐπιβάντα οἷα λίθον ἀκάθαρτον καταπατοῦσιν καταφρονητικῶς, οὐκ ἐρχόμενοι ἔτι ὡς ἐπὶ τέμενος καὶ ἔδαφος ἱερόν, ἀφυλάκτως καὶ οὐ μετὰ τῶν προσηκόντων καθαρσίων καὶ προαγνειῶν. ∆ιὸ ἐμπαίζοντες ἐμπαίζουσιν αὐτῇ οἷα ἐρειπίῳ, πάντων λοιπὸν ἐπιβαινόντων ἐπὶ τῷ «ὡς ἀγρὸν ἀροτριᾶν». 4.195 Πρὸς τῷ ῥητῷ, ῥηθείη καὶ τὰ πρὸς διάνοιαν· πάντες οἱ αἱρετικοὶ δι' ὧν φρονοῦσιν κακῶς καὶ πράττουσι «οἰκοδομοῦσιν Σιὼν ἐν αἵμασιν καὶ Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἐν ἀδικίαις». Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἐν αἵμασ̣ιν οἰκοδομοῦσι τὴν Σιὼν σκανδαλίζοντες καὶ τὸ αἷμα ἐκχέοντες ὧν ἀπατῶσιν; ∆ιὸ καὶ ἐν ἀδικίαις οἰκοδομοῦσι τὴν Ἰερουσαλήμ. Ὅτι δὲ ἀδικοῦνται ὑπὸ τῶν φενάκων οἱ φενακιζόμενοι, σαφέστατα περὶ τῶν τοιούτων διαγορεύει ἡ τῶν θείων Παροιμιῶν γραφή, ὥδε λέγουσα· «Τῆς ἀσεβείας ἑαυτῶν πληθήσονται· ἀνθ' ὧν γὰρ ἠδίκουν νηπίους, φονευθήσονται, καὶ ἐξετασμὸς ἀσεβεῖς ὀλεῖ.» 4.196 Τῆς οἰκοδομηθείσης χειρίστης πόλεως τίθησιν ὁ Θεοῦ λόγος τὰ πρόθυρα σαλευόμενα, ἵνα ἰσχυροῖς ἐλέγχοις ἀνατραπῶσιν, ὡς καταπατεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν κύκλῳ λαῶν καταπατούντων τὴν ψευδώνυμον Ἰερουσαλὴμ οἷα λίθον μιαρὸν ἀποδειχθέντα, ὡς ἐμπαίζοντας ἐμπαίζειν τῇ ψευδωνύμῳ γνώσει τοὺς τὸ ἄναγνον καὶ ἀκάθαρτον αὐτῆς ἐγνωκότας, πρεσβεύοντας τὴν ἀλήθειαν καὶ τὰ τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν μυστήρια. 4.197 Καὶ ἐπεὶ μὴ ὀλίγοι ἐμπαίζοντες ἐμπαίζουσιν, ἀλλὰ τὰ ἔθνη πάντα, τῇ εἰς εὐτέλειαν