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he promises to rest and dwell in the formerly desolate place. Wherefore it was also said in the prophecy above: 'Yet a little while, and Lebanon shall be turned like Mount Carmel.' And next was brought in the conversion of the unbelieving nations to God through the words: 'And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity,' and what follows. So therefore here too he adds things similar to those, saying that judgment and righteousness will rest in the formerly desolate place, that there will be in it works of righteousness, but he also says that in this desolate place there will be those who trust forever; and his people will dwell in a city of peace. For in place of that great and proud city that was cast down, he proclaims that another city will be established for God, the universal church from one end of the earth to the other and the godly polity in it. But according to Symmachus: And my people, he says, will be established in a house of peace, with Israel no longer mentioned here, nor Jacob, but the God who has dwelt in the new city of peace, in which he says his people will dwell, trusting and resting with wealth. And the Apostle signifies the wealth of the church, saying: 'I thank my God through Jesus Christ, that in every thing you are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge.' Then, since in what was said above he indicated that the 'wrath' of God would come upon the impious at the time of judgment, saying: 'with indignation and wrath and a flame of devouring fire he will strike violently and like hail coming down with violence', it is fitting that he now adds concerning those who are blessed hereafter: but if the hail should come down, it will not come upon you, but even those who dwell in the thickets, he says, will be trusting as those in the plain. Do you see how he sketches out good hopes for the untamed and fruitless plants of the thicket, so that such souls are no longer in thickets, but in a plain and level and cultivated land, so as to be confident and trust in their own fruitfulness? Having prophesied these things, the word next and consequently blesses those who cultivated this desolate place. Wherefore he says: blessed are they that sow upon all water, where the ox and the ass tread. And through these words he blesses the apostles of our Savior and the first preachers of the gospel who preached to both Jews and Greeks and cast their seed upon every person, 'the Jew first and also the Greek.' For the people of the circumcision are called an ox, as it were a clean animal on account of the fathers, but the idolatrous people are called an ass, as it were unclean from their fathers. Since, therefore, the apostles of our Savior cast the seed of the gospel 'first to the Jews, then to the Greeks', it is fittingly said: blessed is he who sows upon all water, where the ox and the ass tread. And by 'water' here he alluded to the divinely-inspired scripture being trodden by the Jews and by the people from the nations. But I, says the prophet, consider you blessed, but I see others calling you wretched and miserable, I mean your persecutors. Wherefore I say concerning them: Woe to those who make you miserable, and woe to them truly, because no one makes you miserable, and he who rejects you thinks he is rejecting men, but 'he does not reject you', but 'the one who sent' you. And akin to these things are the words which the Savior spoke to his disciples: 'He that rejects you rejects me; and he that rejects me rejects him that sent me'. For since there are two orders, as one might say, during the times of persecutions, those who do and those who suffer, blessed would be the one who suffers, but does not do; but wretched is the one who does, but does not suffer. And woe will be to them also in another way, since those who reject will be captured and handed over to the one who takes those who become outcasts from God, who, having taken their souls, will so destroy them that the following is said next: and as a moth

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ἀναπαύσεσθαι καὶ κατοικήσειν ἐπαγγέλλεται ἐν τῇ πάλαι ἐρήμῳ. διὸ καὶ τῆς ἀνωτέρω προφητείας ἐλέγετο· «ἔτι μικρὸν καὶ μετατεθήσεται ὁ Λίβανος ὡς τὸ ὄρος τὸ Χερμέλ». καὶ ἑξῆς ἐπεφέρετο ἡ τῶν ἀπίστων ἐθνῶν εἰς τὸν θεὸν ἐπιστροφὴ διὰ τοῦ· «καὶ ἀκούσονται ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ κωφοὶ λόγους βιβλίου, καὶ οἱ ἐν τῇ ὁμίχλῃ ὀφθαλμοὶ τυφλῶν ὄψονται» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. οὕτως οὖν καὶ ἐνταῦθα τὰ ὅμοια ἐκείνοις ἐπάγει φάσκων ἐν τῇ πάλαι ἐρήμῳ ἀναπαύσεσθαι κρίμα καὶ δικαιοσύνην, ἔσεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ ἔργα δικαιοσύνης, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἔσονταί φησιν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ταύτῃ πεποιθότες ἕως τοῦ αἰῶνος· καὶ οἰκήσει ὁ λαὸς αὐτοῦ ἐν πόλει εἰρήνης. ἀντὶ γὰρ τῆς καθαιρεθείσης πόλεως τῆς μεγάλης ἐκείνης καὶ γαυριώσης ἑτέραν τῷ θεῷ συστήσεσθαι πόλιν, τὴν ἀπὸ περάτων ἕως περάτων καθολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ τὸ ἐν αὐτῇ θεοσεβὲς πολίτευμα θεσπίζει. κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον· καὶ ἑδρασθήσεταί φησιν ὁ λαός μου ἐν οἰκίᾳ εἰρήνης, οὐκέτι τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἐνταῦθα οὐδὲ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ μνημονευομένου, ἀλλὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ κατοικήσαντος ἐν τῇ καινῇ πόλει τῆς εἰρήνης, ἐν ᾗ κατοικήσειν τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ φησι πεποιθὼς καὶ ἀναπαύεσθαι μετὰ πλούτου. τὸν δὲ τῆς ἐκκλησίας πλοῦτον σημαίνει λέγων ὁ Ἀπόστολος· «Εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ μου διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὅτι ἐν παντὶ ἐπλουτίσθητε ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐν παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ πάσῃ γνώσει». Εἶτα ἐπειδὴ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω τὴν «ὀργὴν» τοῦ θεοῦ τοῖς ἀσεβέσιν ἐπελεύσεσθαι κατὰ τὸν τῆς κρίσεως καιρὸν ἐδήλου φάσκων· «μετὰ θυμοῦ καὶ ὀργῆς καὶ φλογὸς πυρὸς κατεσθιούσης κεραυνώσει βιαίως καὶ ὡς χάλαζα συγκαταφερομένη βίᾳ», εἰκότως ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἐπιφέρει περὶ τῶν μετὰ χεῖρας μακαριζομένων τό· ἡ δὲ χάλαζα ἐὰν καταβῇ, οὐκ ἐφ' ὑμᾶς ἥξει, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ἐνοικοῦντες ἐν τοῖς δρυμοῖς ἔσονταί φησι πεποιθότες ὡς ἐν τῇ πεδινῇ. ὁρᾷς ὅπως τοῖς ἀνημέροις καὶ ἀκάρποις φυτοῖς τοῦ δρυμοῦ ἐλπίδας ὑπογράφει ἀγαθὰς ὡς μηκέτι εἶναι τὰς τοιάσδε ψυχὰς ἐν δρυμοῖς, ἀλλ' ἐν πεδιάδι καὶ ὁμαλῇ καὶ γεωργουμένῃ χώρᾳ ὥστε θαρρεῖν καὶ πεποιθέναι ἐπὶ τῇ ἑαυτῶν καρποφορίᾳ. Ταῦτα θεσπίσας ὁ λόγος ἑξῆς καὶ ἀκολούθως μακαρίζει τοὺς τὴν ἐρημίαν ταύτην γεωργήσαντας. διὸ λέγει· μακάριοι οἱ σπείροντες ἐπὶ πᾶν ὕδωρ, οὗ βοῦς καὶ ὄνος πατεῖ. μακαρίζει δὲ διὰ τούτων τοὺς ἀποστόλους τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν καὶ τοὺς πρώτους κήρυκας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τοὺς καὶ Ἰουδαίοις καὶ Ἕλλησι κηρύξαντας καὶ τὸν σπόρον αὐτῶν καταβαλλομένους ἐπὶ πάντα ἄνθρωπον «Ἰουδαῖόν τε πρῶτον καὶ Ἕλληνα». βοῦς μὲν γὰρ διὰ τοὺς πατέρας ὡσανεὶ καθαρὸν ζῷον ὁ ἐκ περιτομῆς λαὸς ὠνόμασται, ὄνος δὲ ὡσανεὶ ἀκάθαρτος ἐκ πατέρων ὁ εἰδωλολατρῶν λαός. ἐπεὶ τοίνυν «Ἰουδαίοις πρώτοις, ἔπειτα Ἕλλησιν» τὸν εὐαγγελικὸν κατεβάλλοντο σπόρον οἱ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἀπόστολοι, εἰκότως εἴρηται· μακάριος ὁ σπείρων ἐπὶ πᾶν ὕδωρ, οὗ βοῦς καὶ ὄνος πατεῖ. ὕδωρ δὲ ἐνταῦθα ᾐνίξατο τὴν θεόπνευστον γραφὴν ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων καὶ τοῦ ἐξ ἐθνῶν λαοῦ πατουμένην. Ἀλλ' ἐγὼ μέν φησιν ὁ προφήτης μακαρίους ὑμᾶς ἡγοῦμαι, ὁρῶ δὲ ἑτέρους ταλανίζοντας ὑμᾶς καὶ ταλαιπώρους ἀποκαλοῦντας, λέγω δὲ τοὺς διώκτας ὑμῶν. διὸ περὶ αὐτῶν φημι· Οὐαὶ τοῖς ταλαιπωροῦσιν ὑμᾶς, καὶ οὐαὶ αὐτοῖς ἀληθῶς, ὅτι ὑμᾶς οὐδεὶς ποιεῖ ταλαιπώρους, καὶ ὁ ἀθετῶν ὑμᾶς νομίζει μὲν ἀνθρώπους ἀθετεῖν, ἀλλ' «ὑμᾶς οὐκ ἀθετεῖ», ἀλλὰ «τὸν ἀποστείλαντα» ὑμᾶς. τούτοις δὲ ἀδελφὰ τυγχάνει τὰ δι' ὧν ὁ σωτὴρ τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μαθηταῖς ἔλεγεν· «ὁ ὑμᾶς ἀθετῶν ἐμὲ ἀθετεῖ, καὶ ὁ ἐμὲ ἀθετῶν ἀθετεῖ τὸν ἀποστείλαντά με». δύο γὰρ ὄντων ταγμάτων, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις κατὰ τοὺς καιροὺς τῶν διωγμῶν, τῶν μὲν δρώντων, τῶν δὲ πασχόντων, μακάριος ἂν εἴη ὁ πάσχων, ἀλλὰ μὴ δρῶν· ἄθλιος δὲ ὁ δρῶν, ἀλλὰ μὴ πάσχων. οὐαὶ δὲ τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἔσται καὶ ἄλλως, ἐπειδὴ ἁλώσονται οἱ ἀθετοῦντες καὶ παραδοθήσονται τῷ παραλαμβάνοντι τοὺς ἀποβλήτους τοῦ θεοῦ γινομένους, ὃς παραλαβὼν τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν οὕτως διαφθείρῃ ὡς ἑξῆς ἐπιλέγεσθαι τό· καὶ ὡς σὴς