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in the book of the law, to do them." But it is impossible for them, being in diaspora among the gentiles, to perform by all means the things of the law and the worship prescribed to one place, as Moses commanded in the word of the Lord. What then do you say to these things, O Jews? And what is the cause of so many and so great evils that have befallen you? Have you indeed understood that because you have offended not a fellow servant but God, you have rightly suffered these things and you suffer things unpardonable? For Isaiah says concerning you, from the person of God, "I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have rejected me. And what more shall I do for my vineyard, that I have not done for it? Because I waited for it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns. And I waited for it to produce judgment, but it produced lawlessness, and not righteousness but a cry." And what thorns does he mean, and what lawlessness and cry? Or is it not clear, those with which you lawlessly crowned him at his passion, crying out "Away, away, crucify 1.384 him." As also in Jeremiah, "My inheritance has become to me like a lion in a thicket. She has raised her voice against me, and therefore I have hated her." And Solomon says, "Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and behold the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding." He calls the synagogue of the Jews his mother according to the flesh; for he says, "My flesh is from them." And the day of his wedding is that on which he espoused the church from the Gentiles. But that foolish synagogue, placing a crown of thorns on his head, mocking him, said, "Hail, King of the Jews." To whom Isaiah, turning more reproachfully, said, "In what have you luxuriated? And against whom have you let loose your tongue, children of destruction and lawless seed?" Wherefore the Lord himself, through Hosea the prophet, said complainingly, "Woe to them, for they have departed from me. They are wretched, because they have acted impiously against me and devised wicked things against me. And for this reason Israel was swallowed up and came to nothing, and because it is like a useless vessel among the nations." And through Jeremiah again he says, "Your apostasy will chastise you, and your wickedness will convict you, and you will know that it is a bitter thing for you to have forsaken me." But the divine David, as if enraged against you, curses, saying to the insulted Lord, "Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their back forever. Pour out your wrath upon them, and let the fury of your wrath 1.385 overtake them. Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not enter into your righteousness. Let them be blotted out from the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. Scatter them in your power, and cast them down, O Lord my defender. And let them be caught in their pride in the wrath of consummation, and let them be no more. And they will know that God is Lord of Jacob and of the ends of the earth." On account of which things, being justly scattered, they will surely recognize that the Christ is God of their father Jacob. Thus indeed the seer Moses, denouncing you as abominable and foolish and ungrateful, said, "Blameworthy children, a crooked and perverse generation, do you repay the Lord thus? This is a foolish and unwise people. Is not this he, your father, who acquired you and made you and formed you?" And from this, God rightly says, "I said, I will scatter them, I will make their memory cease from among men." And yet the renowned Jeremiah, making it very clear who this is who has suffered these things at your hands, says, "The spirit before your face, Christ the Lord, was captured in your corruptions, of whom we said, in his shadow among the nations." Such things, then, Solomon also again, from the person of you who fight against God, clearly foretells, saying, "Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is useless to us and opposes our works and reproaches us with sins against the law and professes to have knowledge of God and calls himself a child of the Lord.

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ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τοῦ νόμου, τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτά." ἀδύνατον δέ ἐστιν ἐν διασπορᾷ μεταξὺ ἔθνους ὄντας πάντως ἐπιτελεῖν αὐτοὺς τὰ τοῦ νόμου καὶ τὴν λατρείαν ἐν ἑνὶ τόπῳ περιγεγραμμένην, ὡς ἐν λόγῳ κυρίου Μωϋσῆς διετάξατο. Τί οὖν πρὸς ταῦτα φατέ, ὦ Ἰουδαῖοι; καὶ τί τὸ αἴτιον τῶν τοσούτων καὶ τηλικούτων ὑμᾶς κατειληφότων κακῶν; ἆρά γε συνήκατε ὅτι οὐκ εἰς ὁμόδουλον ἀλλ' εἰς θεὸν προσκεκρουκότες εἰκότως ταῦτα πεπόνθατε καὶ ἀσύγγνωστα πάσχετε; Ἠσαΐας γὰρ περὶ ὑμῶν ἐκ προσώπου θεοῦ φησίν "υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα, αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν. καὶ τί ποιήσω τῷ ἀμπελῶνί μου, καὶ οὐκ ἐποίησα αὐτῷ; διότι ἔμεινα ἵνα ποιήσῃ σταφυλήν, ἐποίησε δὲ ἀκάνθας. καὶ ἔμεινα ἵνα ποιήσῃ κρίσιν, ἐποίησε δὲ ἀνομίαν, καὶ οὐ δικαιοσύνην ἀλλὰ κραυγήν." ποίας δὲ ἀκάνθας λέγει καὶ ποίαν ἀνομίαν καὶ κραυγήν; ἢ δηλονότι, αἷσπερ ἐστεφανώσατε αὐτὸν ἀνόμως ἐπὶ τοῦ πάθους, κράζοντες "ἆρον, ἆρον, σταύρω 1.384 σον αὐτόν." ὡς καὶ ἐπὶ Ἱερεμίου "ἐγένετο ἡ κληρονομία μου ἐμοὶ ὡς λέων ἐν δρυμῷ. ἔδωκεν ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὴν φωνὴν αὐτῆς, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐμίσησα αὐτήν." καὶ Σολομῶν λέγει "ἐξέλθετε, θυ γατέρες Σιών, καὶ ἴδετε ἐν τῷ στεφάνῳ ᾧ ἐστεφάνωσεν αὐτὸν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ νυμφεύσεως αὐτοῦ." μητέρα μὲν αὐτοῦ κατὰ σάρκα λέγει τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων συναγωγήν· "σάρξ μου" γάρ φησιν "ἐξ αὐτῶν." ἡμέρα δὲ νυμφεύσεως αὐτοῦ, καθ' ἣν τὴν ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐνυμφεύσατο ἐκκλησίαν. ἡ δὲ ματαιόφρων ἐκείνη συνα γωγὴ στέφανον ἐξ ἀκανθῶν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ θεῖσα ἐμπαί ζουσα αὐτῷ ἔλεγε "χαῖρε ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων." πρὸς οὓς ἀποτεινόμενος Ἠσαΐας ἐπιπληκτικώτερον ἔφη "ἐν τίνι ἐνετρυφή σατε; καὶ ἐπὶ τίνι ἐχαλάσατε τὴν γλῶτταν ὑμῶν, τέκνα ἀπωλείας καὶ σπέρμα ἄνομον;" ὅθεν αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος δι' Ὠσηὲ τοῦ προφή του σχετλιαστικῶς εἶπεν "οὐαὶ αὐτοῖς, ὅτι ἀπεπήδησαν ἀπ' ἐμοῦ. δείλαιοί εἰσιν, ὅτι ἠσέβησαν εἰς ἐμὲ καὶ πονηρὰ εἰς ἐμὲ ἐλογίσαντο. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο κατεπόθη Ἰσραὴλ καὶ εἰς οὐθὲν ἐγένετο, καὶ ὅτι ὥσπερ σκεῦος ἄχρηστον ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν." καὶ διὰ Ἱερεμίου πά λιν φησί "παιδεύσει σε ἡ ἀποστασία σου, καὶ ἡ κακία σου ἐλέγξει σε, καὶ γνώσῃ ὅτι πικρόν σοι τὸ καταλιπεῖν σε ἐμέ." ὁ δέ γε θεῖος ∆αβίδ, ὥσπερ διαπριόμενος καθ' ὑμῶν, ἐπαρᾶται πρὸς τὸν παροινηθέντα κύριον λέγων "σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐ τῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν, καὶ τὸν νῶτον αὐτῶν διὰ παντὸς σύγκαμψον. ἔκχεον ἐπ' αὐτοὺς τὴν ὀργήν σου, καὶ ὁ θυμὸς τῆς ὀργῆς σου 1.385 καταλάβῃ αὐτούς. πρόσθες ἀνομίαν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀνομίαν αὐτῶν, καὶ μὴ εἰσελθέτωσαν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ σου. ἐξαλειφθήτωσαν ἐκ βίβλου ζώντων, καὶ μετὰ δικαίων μὴ γραφήτωσαν. διασκόρπισον αὐ τοὺς ἐν τῇ δυνάμει σου, καὶ κατάβαλε αὐτοὺς ὁ ὑπερασπιστής μου κύριε. καὶ συλληφθήτωσαν ἐν τῇ ὑπερηφανίᾳ αὐτῶν ἐν ὀργῇ συντελείας, καὶ οὐ μὴ ὑπάρξωσι. καὶ γνώσονται ὅτι ὁ θεὸς δεσπόζει τοῦ Ἰακὼβ καὶ τῶν περάτων τῆς γῆς." ἐφ' οἷς δήπουθεν διασπαρέντες ἐνδίκως ἐπιγνώσονται πάντως ὅτι θεός ἐστιν ὁ Χρι στὸς τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῶν Ἰακώβ. οὕτω γὲ μὴν καὶ ὁ θεόπτης Μωϋσῆς στηλιτεύων ὑμᾶς ὡς βδελυροὺς καὶ ἄφρονας καὶ ἀγνώμο νας ἔφη "τέκνα μωμητά, γενεὰ σκολιὰ καὶ διεστραμμένη, ταῦτα κυρίῳ ἀνταποδίδοτε; οὗτος λαὸς μωρὸς καὶ οὐχὶ σοφός. οὐκ αὐτὸς οὗτός σου πατὴρ ἐκτήσατό σε καὶ ἐποίησέ σε καὶ ἔπλασέ σε;" κἀντεῦθεν εἰκότως φησὶν ὁ θεός "εἶπον, διασπερῶ αὐτούς, παύσω δὴ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων τὸ μνημόσυνον αὐτῶν." καὶ μέντοι καὶ ὁ κλει νὸς Ἱερεμίας μάλα σαφηνίζων τίς οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ταῦτα πεπονθὼς ὑφ' ὑμῶν, λέγει "πνεῦμα πρὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν Χριστὸς κύριος συνελήφθη ἐν ταῖς διαφοραῖς ὑμῶν, οὗ εἴπομεν, ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι." τοιαῦτα γοῦν καὶ ὁ Σολομῶν αὖθις ἐκ προσώπου ὑμῶν τῶν θεομάχων διαρρήδην προαγορεύει, φάσκων "ἐνεδρεύσωμεν τὸν δίκαιον, ὅτι δύσχρηστος ἡμῖν ἐστὶ καὶ ἐναν τιοῦται τοῖς ἔργοις ἡμῶν καὶ ὀνειδίζει ἡμᾶς ἁμαρτίας νόμῳ καὶ ἐπαγγέλλεται γνῶσιν ἔχειν θεοῦ καὶ παῖδα κυρίου ἑαυτὸν ὀνομάζει.