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breaking their teeth, which they did not use rightly, and crushing their molars, by which they harmed many; and finally delivering them over to nothingness and scorn and reproach; when they also flow away like running and not standing waters, having brought such an end upon themselves. He will bend his bow until they grow weak. Like melting wax they shall be destroyed; 23.528 fire fell upon them, and they did not see the sun. Before your thorns understand the bramble, as though living, as though in wrath He will swallow you up. Since these things are rendered obscurely by the Seventy, Symmachus has given the meaning somewhat more clearly, having interpreted it in this way: Let him who bends his bow be troubled like things that are shattered, as a dissolved afterbirth, may the abortion of a woman dissent, so that they may not see the sun. Before your thorns grow up to become a bramble, while still alive like a green shoot a whirlwind will carry it off. The sense of the preceding would be as follows. Since the purpose is to describe what the ends of sinners will be, learn, O sons of men, that these things also, in addition to what has been said before, await them. For it was said before this, that God will break their teeth in their mouth, and the Lord will crush the molars of the lions, and, they will be brought to nothing like water that flows away. In addition to these things, therefore, they will also suffer the following: he who long ago bent his own bow, shooting and slaying others as if with his own words as arrows, he at the time of judgment will be troubled, and his arrows, with which he shot and slew many, will be shattered and disappear. Then just as an afterbirth which has come from a woman, partakes of no life, but being dissolved, it is discordant; or just as an abortion which died in the afterbirth, having come forth from her who carried it in the womb, partakes of no sensation so as to enjoy light and sun; so will be the impious and sinners who have been indicated by what has been said before. For their body, being dissolved like an afterbirth, will be given over to corruption, having no hope of the resurrection with the saints; but their soul, contained in the body as in an afterbirth, will be likened to the abortion of a woman, enjoying neither life, nor light, nor the rays of the sun, but will go from darkness to darkness; and it will neither be taken up into the land of the living, nor will it please the Lord in the light of the living; nor indeed will it say: Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you; but deprived of all these things, it will be given over to darkness. The Savior, mentioning this, said: Bind his feet and hands, cast him into the outer darkness; there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. And this, then, will be the end of the impious. But their fruit and their deeds, no different from thorns, before they bear fruit and come to the perfection of evil, while still in their beginnings, the wrath from God that will seize them will dry up. Which indeed the word signifies, saying: Before your thorns grow up to become a bramble, while still alive, like a green shoot a whirlwind will carry it off. Since, therefore, we have moderately grasped the meaning of Symmachus's interpretation, it is time to proceed also to that of the Seventy, and from the comparison that has been made, to comprehend their 23.529 meaning as well. It says therefore: He will bend his bow until they grow weak. The one, indeed, who is about to break their teeth in their mouth, and the Lord who is about to crush the molars of the lions, He himself will bend his own bow against them to such an extent, shooting and punishing them, until they grow weak. But those who are shot with the fiery arrow will be dissolved like wax melting by fire; Wherefore it is said: Like melting wax they shall be destroyed, fire fell. For just as when fire has fallen, melted wax vanishes, in the same way also those indicated, by the wrath that will seize them

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συντρίβων αὐτῶν τοὺς ὀδόντας, οἷς οὐ δεόντως ἐχρήσαντο, καὶ συνθλῶν τὰς μύλας αὐτῶν, δι' ὧν πολλοῖς ἐλυμήναντο· καὶ τέλος εἰς ἐξουδένωσιν αὐτοὺς παραδιδοὺς καὶ χλεύην καὶ ὄνειδος· ὅτε καὶ δίκην τῶν ῥευστῶν καὶ οὐχ ἑστώτων ὑδάτων ἀποῤῥέουσιν, αὐτοὶ ἑαυτοῖς τὸ τοιοῦτον προξενήσαντες τέλος. Ἐντενεῖ τὸ τόξον αὐτοῦ ἕως οὗ ἀσθενήσουσιν. Ὡσεὶ κηρὸς τακεὶς ἀνταναιρεθήσονται· ἔπεσε 23.528 πῦρ ἐπ' αὐτοὺς, καὶ οὐκ εἶδον τὸν ἥλιον. Πρὸ τοῦ συνιέναι τὰς ἀκάνθας ὑμῶν τὴν ῥάμνον, ὡσεὶ ζῶντας, ὡσεὶ ἐν ὀργῇ καταπίεται ὑμᾶς. Ἀσαφῶς τούτων παρὰ τοῖς Ἑβδομήκοντα φερομένων, μετρίως πως τὴν διάνοιαν σαφέστερον ἀποδέδωκεν ὁ Σύμμαχος, τοῦτον ἑρμηνεύσας τὸν τρόπον· Ὁ τείνων τὸ τόξον αὑτοῦ θορυβηθήτω ὡς τὰ θρυπτόμενα, ὡς περιχωρίον διαλυθὲν, διαφωνείη ἔκτρωμα γυναικὸς, ἵνα μὴ ἴδωσιν ἥλιον. Πρὶν ἢ αὐξήσωσιν αἱ ἄκανθαι ὑμῶν, ὥστε γενέσθαι ῥάμνος, ἔτι ζῶντα ὡς ὁλόξηρον λαίλαψ ἀρεῖ. Εἴη δ' ἂν ὁ νοῦς τῶν προκειμένων τοιοῦτος. Ἐπειδὴ τὰ τέλη τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν ὁποῖα ἔσται διαγράφειν πρόκειται, καὶ ταῦτα πρὸς τοῖς προλεχθεῖσι περιμένειν αὐτοὺς, ὦ υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, μανθάνετε. Ἐλέγετο δὴ πρὸ τούτου, ὅτι Ὁ Θεὸς συντρίψει τοὺς ὀδόντας αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰς μύλας τῶν λεόντων συνθλάσει Κύριος, καὶ, ἐξουδενωθήσονται ὡς ὕδωρ διαπορευόμενον. Πρὸς τούτοις οὖν καὶ τάδε πείσονται· ὁ πάλαι πρότερον τὸ ἑαυτοῦ τόξον ἐντείνων, βάλλων τε καὶ ἀναιρῶν ἑτέρους ὥσπερ βέλεσι τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ λόγοις, οὗτος ἐν τῷ τῆς κρίσεως καιρῷ θορυβηθήσεται, καὶ τὰ βέλη αὐτοῦ δι' ὧν ἠκόντιζε καὶ ἀνῄρει πολλοὺς, θρυπτόμενα ἀφανισθήσεται. Εἶθ' ὥσπερ χωρίον προχωρῆσαν ἀπὸ γυναικὸς, οὐδεμιᾶς μετέχει ζωῆς, διαλυθὲν δὲ διαφωνεῖ· ἢ ὥσπερ τὸ ἐν τῷ χωρίῳ ἐναποθανὸν ἔκτρωμα, προελθὸν τῆς κατὰ γαστρὸς αὐτὸ φερούσης, οὐδεμιᾶς μετέχει αἰσθήσεως εἰς τὸ ἀπολαῦσαι φωτὸς καὶ ἡλίου· οὕτως οἱ ἀσεβεῖς καὶ ἁμαρτωλοὶ οἱ διὰ τῶν προλεχθέντων δηλωθέντες ἔσονται. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ σῶμα αὐτοῖς διαλυθὲν ὁμοίως χωρίῳ, φθορᾷ παραδοθήσεται, ἐλπίδα τῆς μετὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἀναστάσεως οὐχ ἕξον· ἡ δὲ ἐν τῷ σώματι ὥσπερ ἐν χωρίῳ συνειλημένη αὐτῶν ψυχὴ ἐκτρώματι γυναικὸς ὁμοιωθήσεται, μήτε ζωῆς, μήτε φωτὸς, μήτε ἡλίου αὐγῶν ἀπολαύουσα, ἀπὸ σκότους δὲ ἐπὶ σκότος χωρήσει· καὶ οὔτε ἐν χώρᾳ ζώντων ἀναληφθήσεται, οὔτε εὐαρεστήσει τῷ Κυρίῳ ἐν φωτὶ ζώντων· οὐδὲ μὴν ἐρεῖ· Ἐπίστρεψον, ἡ ψυχή μου, εἰς τὴν ἀνάπαυσίν σου, ὅτι Κύριος εὐηργέτησέ σε· στερηθεῖσα δὲ τούτων ἁπάντων, σκότῳ παραδοθήσεται. Οὗ μνημονεύσας ὁ Σωτὴρ, ἔλεγε· ∆ήσαντες αὐτοῦ πόδας καὶ χεῖρας, ἐκβάλετε αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον· ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων. Καὶ τοῦτο μὲν ἔσται τῶν ἀσεβῶν τὸ τέλος. Τὸν δὲ καρπὸν αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς πράξεις, ἀκανθῶν οὐδὲν διαφέροντας, πρὶν τελεσφορῆσαι καὶ εἰς τελείωσιν κακίας ἐλθεῖν, ἔτι ἐν ἀρχαῖς οὔσας ξηρανεῖ ἡ καταληψομένη αὐτοὺς ἐκ Θεοῦ ὀργή. Ὃ δὴ σημαίνει ὁ λόγος φάσκων· Πρὶν ἢ αὐξήσωσιν αἱ ἄκανθαι ὑμῶν, ὥστε γενέσθαι ῥάμνον, ἔτι ζῶντα, ὡς ὁλόξηρον λαίλαψ ἀρεῖ. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν τῆς τοῦ Συμμάχου ἑρμηνείας μετρίως πως τὸν νοῦν κατειλήφαμεν, ὥρα καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα παρελθεῖν, ἔκ τε τῆς λεχθείσης παραθέσεως καὶ τὴν παρ' αὐ 23.529 τοῖς διάνοιαν συνιδεῖν. Φησὶν οὖν· Ἐντενεῖ τὸ τόξον αὐτοῦ ἕως ἀσθενήσουσιν. Ὁ δὴ μέλλων συντρίβειν τοὺς ὀδόντας αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰς μύλας τῶν λεόντων συνθλᾷν Κύριος, αὐτὸς τὸ ἑαυτοῦ τόξον ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον κατ' αὐτῶν ἐντενεῖ βάλλων αὐτοὺς καὶ τιμωρούμενος, ἕως ἀσθενήσωσιν. Οἱ δὲ βαλλόμενοι τῷ πεπυρωμένῳ βέλει, κηροῦ δίκην ὑπὸ πυρὸς τηκομένου διαλυθήσονται· ∆ιὸ λέλεκται· Ὡσεὶ κηρὸς τακεὶς ἀνταναιρεθήσονται, ἔπεσε πῦρ. Ὥσπερ γὰρ πεσόντος πυρὸς διαλυθεὶς κηρὸς ἀφανίζεται, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ οἱ δηλωθέντες ὑπὸ τῆς καταληψομένης αὐτοὺς ὀργῆς