139

to urge those in difficult labor and to exert force and to cry out. But the "be delighted" is for the multiplicity of children granted contrary to hope. The "break forth" seems somehow contrary to the "be delighted," yet both nevertheless happened; for she has given birth contrary to hope; for such are the birth pangs of the all-holy Spirit. Because many are <the> children of the desolate one rather than of her who has a husband. The church of the gentiles was once desolate; wherefore also it was said to her in the preceding texts: "Rejoice, thirsty desert," and again: "The desert shall be as Carmel," and again: "Because water has broken forth in the desert, and a ravine in a thirsty land." But the multitude of the Jews had the husband. But the prophet Ezekiel teaches more clearly the things concerning this marriage; for through him the God of all, speaking to the former people as to a wife, said: "And I saw you polluted in your blood and I said to you: In your blood is life, be multiplied. And you were naked and unseemly, and I spread my wings over you and covered your unseemliness and I saw you, and behold, your time and the time of them that are brought to rest, and I entered into my covenant with you, and you became mine" and you bore me sons and daughters. And through all the prophets the God of all teaches us this, that using surpassing love for humanity he calls himself not only master and father ........... but also husband and bridegroom. This prophecy, however, |169 a| teaches that the children of the desolate one are many times more than those of her who has a husband. For the Lord said: 2Enlarge the place of your tent, and the curtains of your courts fix, do not spare, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes; 3still to the right and to the left spread out, and your seed will inherit nations, and you will inhabit desolate cities. God commanded Moses to prepare skins and curtains, when he bade him make the tabernacle. He mentioned these names, therefore, at present, showing that he himself made both those things and these. And he urges the barren one to fill the inhabited world with houses of prayer, and to the left and to the right, that is, to the south and to the north, to do this. And one would not err in calling the holy prophets and apostles and martyrs stakes; for these, hidden in the earth just like stakes, hold fast the tent of the church, having been fitted to this teaching as by certain cords. These are also called foundations. <For thus the blessed Paul said: "Built upon the foundation> of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone." And the seed of the church inherited the nations; for her nurslings received the spiritual leadership of the nations and rebuilt with the doctrines of piety the cities that had been corrupted by impiety. 4Fear not because you were put to shame, nor be confounded because you were reproached. The Jews of old reproached the nations for their impiety as Peninnah did Hannah for her childlessness. Therefore the prophetic word promises her release from reproach. For he adds: Because you will forget your everlasting shame and the reproach of your widowhood you will no longer remember. And he teaches the cause of these things more clearly; 5Because the Lord who makes you is the <Lord> of Sabaoth, this is his name, and he who delivered you, the God of Israel himself, will be called so over all the earth. For we who have hoped and believed in him call him both God of Israel and God of Abraham and we implore to become of their portion. This one, he says, the God of Israel, will be your bridegroom and will end the reproaches of widowhood and childlessness; 6Has not the Lord called you as a woman forsaken and fainthearted, as a woman hated from her youth? This must be read as a question. Were you not like, he says, a woman cast out for certain transgressions and continually grieving and hated from the beginning and from of old? And according to this meaning the Others also have interpreted; for Aquila and Theodotion said thus: "Because as a woman forsaken and in grief

139

παρακελεύεσθαι ταῖς δυστοκούσαις καὶ βιάζεσθαι καὶ βοᾶν. Τὸ δὲ τέρπου ἐπὶ τῆς παρ' ἐλπίδα δωρηθείσης πολυπαιδίας. Ἐναντίον δέ πως εἶναι δοκεῖ τὸ ῥῆξον τῷ τέρπου, ἀμφότερα δὲ ὅμως συνέβη· καὶ γὰρ παρ' ἐλπίδα γεγέννηκεν· τοιαῦται γὰρ τοῦ παναγίου πνεύματος αἱ ὠδῖνες. Ὅτι πολλὰ <τὰ> τέκνα τῆς ἐρήμου μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς ἐχούσης τὸν ἄνδρα. Ἔρημος ἦν πάλαι ἡ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐκκλησία· διὸ καὶ ἐν τοῖς πρόσθεν αὐτῇ ἐλέγετο· «Εὐφράνθητι ἔρημος διψῶσα», καὶ πάλιν· «Ἔσται ἡ ἔρημος ὡς ὁ Χερμέλ», καὶ αὖθις· «Ὅτι ἐρράγη ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ὕδωρ καὶ φάραγξ ἐν γῇ διψώσῃ.» Τὸν δὲ ἄνδρα εἶχεν ἡ Ἰουδαίων πληθύς. Σαφέστερον δὲ τὰ περὶ τοῦδε τοῦ γάμου διδάσκει ὁ προφήτης Ἰεζεκιήλ· δι' ἐκ είνου γὰρ ὁ τῶν ὅλων θεὸς πρὸς τὸν πρότερον λαὸν ὡς πρὸς γυναῖκα διαλεγόμενος ἔφη· «Καὶ εἶδόν σε πεφυρμένην ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου καὶ εἶπά σοι· Ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου ζωή, πληθύνου. Καὶ ἦσθα γυμνὴ καὶ ἀσχημονοῦσα, καὶ περιέβαλα τὰς πτέρυγάς μου ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ συνεκάλυψα τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην σου καὶ εἶδόν σε, καὶ ἰδοὺ καιρός σου καὶ καιρὸς καταλυόντων, καὶ εἰσῆλθον πρὸς σὲ ἐν διαθήκῃ μου, καὶ ἐγένου μοι» καὶ ἐγέννησάς μοι υἱοὺς καὶ θυγατέρας. Καὶ διὰ πάντων δὲ τῶν προφητῶν τοῦτο ἡμᾶς διδά σκει ὁ τῶν ὅλων θεός, ὡς ὑπερβαλλούσῃ φιλανθρωπίᾳ χρώμενος οὐ μόνον δεσπότην ἑαυτὸν καὶ πατέρα ........... ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄνδρα καὶ νυμφίον ἑαυτὸν ἀποκαλεῖ. Αὕτη μέντοι ἡ προφητεία |169 a| δι δάσκει ὡς τῆς ἐρήμου τὰ τέκνα πολλαπλάσια τῆς ἐχούσης τὸν ἄνδρα. Εἶπε γὰρ κύριος· 2Πλάτυνον τὸν τόπον τῆς σκηνῆς σου καὶ τὰς δέρρεις τῶν αὐλαιῶν σου πῆξον, μὴ φείσῃ, μάκρυνον τὰ σχοινίσματά σου καὶ τοὺς πασσάλους κατίσχυ σον· 3ἔτι εἰς τὰ δεξιὰ καὶ εἰς τὰ ἀριστερὰ ἐκπέτασον, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα σου ἔθνη κληρονομήσει, καὶ πόλεις ἠρημωμένας κατοικιεῖς. ∆έρρεις καὶ αὐλαίας τῷ Μωυσῇ προσέταξεν ὁ θεὸς κατασκευάσαι, ἡνίκα αὐτῷ ποιῆσαι παρεκελεύσατο τὴν σκηνήν. Τούτων τοίνυν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐμνήσθη δεικνὺς ὡς αὐτὸς κἀκεῖνα καὶ ταῦτα πεποίηκεν. Παρακελεύεται δὲ τῇ στείρᾳ τῶν εὐκτηρίων οἴκων τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐμπλῆσαι καὶ εἰς τὰ ἀριστερὰ καὶ εἰς τὰ δεξιά, τουτέστιν εἰς τὰ νότια καὶ εἰς τὰ βόρεια, τοῦτο δρᾶσαι. Πασσάλους δὲ οὐκ ἄν τις ἁμάρτοι τοὺς ἁγίους προφήτας καὶ ἀποστόλους καὶ μάρτυρας ὀνομάζων· οὗτοι γὰρ ἐν τῇ γῇ κεκρυμμένοι καθάπερ οἱ πάσσαλοι κατέχουσι τὴν τῆς ἐκκλησίας σκηνὴν οἷόν τισι σχοινίοις τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ ταύτῃ προσηρμοσμένοι. Οὗτοι καὶ θεμέλιοι <προσαγορεύονται. Οὕτω γὰρ ὁ μακάριος ἔφη Παῦλος· «Ἐποικοδομηθέντες ἐπὶ τῷ θεμελίῳ> τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ προφητῶν, ὄντος ἀκρογωνιαίου αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.» Ἐκληρονόμησε δὲ τὰ ἔθνη τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὸ σπέρμα· οἱ γὰρ ταύτης τρόφιμοι τὴν πνευματικὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν ἡγεμονίαν ἐδέξαντο καὶ τὰς ὑπὸ τῆς ἀσεβείας διαφθαρείσας πόλεις τοῖς τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀνῳκοδόμησαν δόγμασιν. 4Μὴ φοβοῦ ὅτι κατῃσχύνθης, μηδὲ ἐντραπῇς ὅτι ὠνειδίσθης. Ὠνείδιζον Ἰουδαῖοι πάλαι τοῖς ἔθνεσι τὴν ἀσέβειαν ὡς ἡ Φενάννα τῇ Ἄννῃ τὴν ἀτεκνίαν. Ὑπισχνεῖται τοίνυν ὁ προφητικὸς λόγος αὐτῇ τὴν τοῦ ὀνείδους ἀπαλλαγήν. Ἐπάγει γάρ· Ὅτι αἰσχύνην αἰώνιον ἐπιλήσῃ καὶ ὄνειδος τῆς χηρείας σου οὐ μὴ μνησθήσῃ ἔτι. Καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν τούτων διδάσκει σαφέστερον· 5Ὅτι κύριος ὁ ποιῶν σε <κύριος> Σαβαὼθ ὄνομα αὐτῷ, καὶ ὁ ῥυσάμενός σε αὐτὸς θεὸς Ἰσραὴλ πάσῃ τῇ γῇ κληθήσεται. Τοῦτον γὰρ ἡμεῖς οἱ εἰς αὐτὸν ἠλπικότες καὶ πεπιστευκότες καὶ θεὸν Ἰσραὴλ καὶ θεὸν Ἀβραὰμ ὀνομάζομ εν καὶ τῆς ἐκείνων γενέσθαι μερίδος ἀντιβολοῦμεν. Οὗτός φησιν ὁ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ θεὸς ἔσται σου νυμ φίος καὶ τῆς χηρείας καὶ τῆς ἀτεκνίας τὰ ὀνείδη παύσει· 6Οὐχ ὡς γυναῖκα ἐγκαταλελειμμένην καὶ ὀλιγόψυχον κέκληκέ σε ὁ κύριος, ὡς γυναῖκα ἐκ νεότητος μεμισημένην; Τοῦτο κατ' ἐρώτησιν ἀναγνωστέον. Οὐκ ἐῴκεις φησὶ γυναικὶ διά τινας παρανομίας ἐκβεβλημένῃ καὶ διηνεκῶς ὀδυνωμένῃ καὶ ἄνωθεν καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς μεμισημένῃ; Κατὰ ταύτην δὲ τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ οἱ Λοιποὶ ἡρμήνευσαν· ὁ μὲν γὰρ Ἀκύλας καὶ ὁ Θεοδοτίων οὕτως ἔφασαν· «Ὅτι ὡς γυναῖκα ἐγκατα λελειμμένην καὶ κατώδυνον