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to the incorrupt virgin week, seven by seven being brought into the ark. And since those who bear the image of the man of dust are a dyad, their quality fails and is destroyed, so that the third, approved race "of those who bear the image of the man of heaven" might be revealed. 5.19 The wise person will apply each word of the proposed text to each of the interpretations. 5.20 It is possible to understand the third as being left over on that very day on which these things that have been proclaimed beforehand will come to pass.

5.21 Zach. XIV, 1-2: Behold, the days of the Lord are coming, and will be divided

your spoils in you. And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to war, and the city will be captured, and the houses will be plundered, and the women will be defiled, and half of the city will go into captivity, but the remnant of my people will not be utterly destroyed from the city. 5.22 He speaks of the days of the Lord as those in which painful and chastising things are brought upon the guilty, and it is possible to attest this understanding from many sources. For instance, in Isaiah the time of punishments is called the day of God thus: "The day of the Lord comes, incurable, with wrath and anger, to make the whole world desolate and to destroy the sinners from it." 5.23 Since, therefore, he proclaims that terrible things will happen to those against whom God is indignant because of the impiety that has taken hold of them and their other sins, he reasonably says that there will be days of the Lord in which there will be the most pitiable misfortune for Jerusalem and for her citizens. For what is so pitiable and grievous as the spoils which the attacking enemies took being divided in her midst because of the great weakness that existed? This does not always happen; for there are times when those who have plundered, having carried the booty far from the city, or rather from the country, divide it, fearing lest, while dividing it in the city, they might be hindered by the captives having recovered their breath. 5.24 When the word said: "Behold, the days of the Lord are coming, and your spoils will be divided in your midst," the Lord immediately says that he will gather all the nations against them to war, just as a day of battle occurs, with the gathered nations campaigning for the purpose of warring against Jerusalem. For to her it is announced that her spoils will be divided within her, and furthermore that the houses of the inhabitants will be plundered, and their women will be defiled. 5.25 For in the same way that it is painful and exceedingly grievous for the victors to be divided in the sight of the citizens, especially when it is not only the common and public treasures but also those of each individual, their houses being plundered, but rather, most grievous and burdensome of all these things is for the women to be shamefully defiled, while their husbands watch, unable to prevent the lawless act, great weakness having taken hold, so that even half of the city itself is dragged away outside its own town, with those guarded by the right hand of God suffering nothing of the sort. These are they who make up the third part, which was said to be saved after the two parts were destroyed and failed. 5.26 The divine word also threatens such a most cruel plunder in Isaiah; the prophetic text runs thus: "Those who are gathered together," banded together among themselves, "will fall by the sword; and they will dash your children before your eyes, and they will plunder your houses, and will have your wives." 5.27 The extremity of the women suffering violence in front of their cohabiting husbands by tyrannical enemies is shown also from what was said to the wicked priest Amaziah by the sharp-seeing prophet Amos: "Your wife will be a prostitute in the city, and your land will be measured out by a line." Both of the threatened things are grievous and cause pain to the husbands who see their wives within the city and not

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ἀδιαφθόρῳ παρθένῳ ἑβδομάδι ἑπτὰ ἑπτὰ εἰσαγομένων εἰς τὴν κιβωτόν. Καὶ ἐπεὶ οἱ τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ χοϊκοῦ φοροῦντες δυάς εἰσιν, ἐκλείπει καὶ ὀλοθρεύεται ἡ τούτων ποιότης, ἵνα τὸ τρίτον ἀναδειχθῇ δόκιμον «τῶν φορούντων τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἐπουρανίου» γένος. 5.19 Ἑκάστῃ τῶν ἀποδόσεων ἐφαρμόσει ὁ σοφὸς ἑκάστην λέξιν τοῦ προκειμένου. 5.20 ∆υνατὸν ἐκλαβεῖν τὸ τρίτον ὑπολείπεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐν ᾗ ταῦτα τὰ προαναφωνηθέντα γενήσεται.

5.21 Zach. XIV, 1-2: Ἰδοὺ ἡμέραι ἔρχονται τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ διαμερισθήσεται

τὰ σκῦλά σου ἐν σοί. Καὶ ἐπισυνάξω πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐπὶ Ἰερουσαλὴμ εἰς πόλεμον, καὶ ἁλώσεται ἡ πόλις, καὶ διαρπαγήσονται αἱ οἰκίαι, καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες μολυνθήσονται, καὶ ἐξελεύσεται τὸ ἥμισυ τῆς πόλεως ἐν αἰχμαλωσίᾳ, οἱ δὲ κατάλοιποι τοῦ λαοῦ μου οὐ μὴ ἐξο̣λεθρευθῶσιν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως. 5.22 Ἡμέρας τοῦ Κυρίου λέγει καθ' ἃς ἐπιφέρεται τοῖς ὑπαιτίοις τὰ ἐπίπονα καὶ κολαστικά, καὶ ἔστιν ἐκ πλειόνων μαρτύρασθαι τῇ νοήσει. Καὶ ἐν Ἠσαΐᾳ γοῦν ὁ τῶν τιμωριῶν καιρὸς Θεοῦ ἡμέρα κέκληται οὕτως· «Ἡμέρα Κυρίου ἀνίατος ἔρχεται θυμοῦ καὶ ὀργῆς θεῖναι τὴν οἰκουμένην ὅλην ἔρημον καὶ τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς ἀπολέσαι ἐξ αὐτῆς.» 5.23 Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν φοβερὰ ἀπαγγέλλει ἔσεσθαι τοῖς καθ' ὧν ἀγανακτεῖ Θεὸς διὰ κρατήσασαν αὐτῶν ἀσέβειαν καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἁμαρτίας, εἰκότως φησὶν ἡμέρας ἔσεσθαι τοῦ Κυρίου ἐν αἷς οἰκτίστη ἔσται κακοπραγία τῇ τε Ἰερουσαλὴμ καὶ τοῖς πολίταις αὐτῆς. Τί γὰρ οὕτως οἴκτιστον καὶ ἀνιαρὸν ὡς τὰ σκῦλα ἃ ἔλαβον οἱ ἐπελθόντες πολεμίοι διαμερίζεσθαι ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῆς διὰ πολλὴν ὑπάρξασαν ἀσθένειαν; Οὐκ ἀεὶ δὲ συμβαίνει τοῦτο· ἔστιν γὰρ ὃτε οἱ σκυλεύσαντες μακρὰν τῆς πόλεως, μᾶλλον δὲ τῆς χώρας, τὰ λάφυρα ἀπαγαγόντες μερίζονται, δεδιότες μὴ διαιρούμενοι αὐτὰ ἐν τῇ πόλει κωλυθῶσιν ὑπ' ἀναπνευσάντων τῶν ἑαλωκότων. 5.24 Τοῦ λόγου φήσαντος· «Ἰδοὺ ἡμέραι ἔρχονται τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ διαμερισθήσονται τὰ σκῦλά σου ἐν μέσῳ σου», ὁ Κύριος εὐθέως λέγει συνάξειν ἐπ' αὐτοὺς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη εἰς πόλεμον, καθὼς ἡμέρα γίνεται παρατάξεως, στρατευομένων τῶν συναγομένων ἐθνῶν πρὸς τὸ ἐκπολεμηθῆναι τὴν Ἰερουσαλήμ. Πρὸς γὰρ αὐτὴν ἀπαγγέλλεται τὸ διαμερισθῆναι τὰ σκῦλα αὐτῆς ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ ἔτι τὰς οἰκίας τῶν οἰκητόρων προνομευθήσεσθαι, καὶ μολυνθήσεσθαι τὰς γυναῖκας αὐτῶν. 5.25 Ὅνπερ γὰρ τρόπον ἐπώδυνον καὶ σφόδρα ἀνιαρόν ἐστιν τὸ ἐπ' ὄψεσιν τῶν πολιτῶν μερίζε̣σθαι τοὺς κρατήσα̣ντας, μάλιστα ὅτε μὴ μόνα τὰ κοινὰ καὶ δημόσια κειμήλια ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἑκάστου, προνομευομένων τῶν οἰκιῶν αὐτῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ τούτων ἁπάντων λυπηρόν τε καὶ ἐπαχθὲς ὑπα´̣ρχει τὸ μολύνεσθαι αἰσχρῶς τὰς γυ̣ναῖκας, ὁρώντων τῶν συμβιούντων κωλύειν τὸ ἀθ̣έμιτον μὴ δυναμε´̣νων, ἀσθενείας πολλῆς κρατησάσης, ὡς καὶ τὸ ἥμισυ τῆς πόλεω̣ς αὐτῆς ἀποσπασθῆναι ἔξω τοῦ ἰδίου ἄστεως, οὐδὲν τοιοῦτον πεισομένων τῶν ὑπὸ τῆς δεξιᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ φρουρουμένων. Οὗτοι δέ εἰσιν οἱ συμπληροῦντες τὸ τρίτον, εἰρημένον σῴζεσθαι μετὰ τὸ ἐξολεθρευθῆναι τὰ δύο μέρη καὶ ἐκλεῖψαι. 5.26 Τοιαύτην τινὰ ὠμοτάτην προνομὴν καὶ ἐν Ἠσαΐᾳ ἀπειλεῖ ὁ θεῖος λόγος· ἔχει δ' οὕτως ἡ προφητικὴ λέξις· «Οἵτινες συνηγμένοι εἰσίν», συνεστραμμένοι πρὸς ἑαυτούς, «μαχαίρᾳ πεσοῦνται· καὶ τὰ τέκνα ὑμῶν ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν ῥήξουσιν, καὶ τὰς οἰκίας ὑμῶν προνομεύσουσιν, καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας ὑμῶν ἕξουσιν.» 5.27 ∆είκνυται ἡ ὑπερβολὴ τοῦ τὰς γυναῖκας ἐπίπροσθεν τῶν συνοικούντων ἀνδρῶν βίαν πάσχειν ὑπὸ τυραννούντων πολεμίων καὶ ἐκ τοῦ λεχθέντος πρὸς τὸν φαῦλον ἱερέα Ἀμεσσίαν ὑπὸ τοῦ ὀξὺ καθορῶντος προφήτου Ἀμώς· «Ἡ γυνή σου ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐκπορνεύσει, καὶ ἡ γῆ σου σχοινίῳ καταμετρηθήσεται.» Ἀμφότερα δὲ τὰ ἠπειλημένα ἀνιαρὰ καὶ ὀδύνην ἐμποιοῦντα τοῖς συμβιοῦσιν ὁρῶσιν τὰς συνοίκους ἔνδον ἐν τῇ πόλει καὶ μὴ