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the exceeding poverty of the people of the circumcision, not having plenty of natural food from grain, nor plowing the land and sowing and reaping, nor possessing flocks of sheep nor herds of cattle, but having two sheep and one heifer ..., providing himself their milk. Or otherwise, interpreting figuratively, one might say that he who was left upon the earth signifies the choir of the apostles and evangelists from the circumcision who believed in our Savior and Lord, each of whom became "a remnant according to the election of grace," and for this reason was named "he who was left upon the earth," is said to raise "a heifer of cattle and two sheep," three orders in each church, one of the leaders, and two of the subordinates, the people of the church of Christ being divided into two orders, both that of the faithful and that of those not yet deemed worthy of the "rebirth through the washing," to whom also the divine apostle says, "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food"; and those already established in a more perfect state he fittingly calls "a heifer of cattle," being the offspring of more perfect cattle, such as the apostle himself was, speaking about himself and those who labored similarly to him: "Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Or does He say this entirely for our sake?" 7.1.76 And it might also be the entire order of those presiding over the church, entrusted with plowing and cultivating the souls of men, named "a heifer of cattle," being the offspring of the apostolic ways and teachings, who are said to advance to such a degree of virtue, that from their great fruitfulness they produce so much fertile and rational milk for the introductory teachings, that even countless others are nourished from them. 7.1.77 But concerning these things, which are to happen to those left upon the earth, he proclaims beforehand that something else will happen "in that day," that is, clearly, in the time of the coming of Emmanuel. What is this? "Every place," he says, of the people of the circumcision, "where there were a thousand vines for a thousand shekels, will become a wasteland and thorns; for 'with arrow and bow they shall enter there,' clearly, the enemies, "because all the land will be a wasteland and thorns." 7.1.78 And behold how many things, in the day of Emmanuel, I mean at the time of the rising of the rational light that shone upon all men through our Savior, the word prophesies would happen to the nation of the Jews; indeed, the unclean and warlike powers that formerly were at work among the nations, both in Egypt and in the land of the Assyrians, when the Lord has whistled and as it were spurred them on and commanded them, he says they will come upon their land, because it has become worthy of such things. 7.1.79 And he says that the aforesaid powers will "rest" in the "valleys" and in the "caves of the rocks, and in the caverns and in every chasm of theirs," spiritually, in their souls and in the senses of the body, in their thoughts and in their fractured minds, but according to the literal text, throughout their whole land, which who would not marvel at, seeing with his own eyes their enemies having seized every place of Judea, and the foreign and idolatrous men resting in all their cities and lands? And the word says that it will not only inflict these things upon them, but with the "razor" of the "king of the Assyrians," as we have understood him, "their head and the hair of their feet and the beard," that is, all the adornment that formerly surrounded them, it "will shave." 7.1.80 And in this same day and at the same time, it threatens that they will be brought into extreme poverty of the wealth that is according to God, so as not to have an abundance of rational bread, nor of solid and spiritual food, but to be content to be fed with milk, with the infantile and introductory word, and in addition to this, that their vines will become a wasteland. 7.1.81 For since, as the same prophet says, their husbandman and master "waited" for the vineyard "to produce grapes," "but it produced thorns,"

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πτωχείαν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τοῦ ἐκ περιτομῆς λαοῦ, μὴ εὐποροῦντος μὲν τῆς ἀπὸ σίτου κατὰ φύσιν τροφῆς, μηδὲ γῆν ἀροῦντος καὶ σπείροντος καὶ θερίζοντος, μηδὲ ποίμνας προβάτων μηδὲ βοῶν ἀγέλας κεκτημένου, ἔχεσθαι δὲ δύο προβάτων καὶ δαμάλεως μιᾶς ..., τὸ τούτων γάλα ποριζομένου. ἢ ἄλλως τροπολογῶν τὸν μὲν καταλειφθέντα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς αἰνίττεσθαι φαίη ἂν τὸν τῶν ἐκ περιτομῆς εἰς τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν πεπιστευκότων ἀποστόλων τε καὶ εὐαγγελιστῶν χορόν, ὧν ἕκαστος «λεῖμμα κατ' ἐκλογὴν χάριτος» γεγονώς, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο «ὁ καταλειφθεὶς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς» ὠνομασμένος, θρέψειν λέγεται «δάμαλιν βοῶν καὶ δύο πρόβατα», τρία καθ' ἑκάστην ἐκκλησίαν τάγματα, ἓν μὲν τὸ τῶν ἡγουμένων, δύο δὲ τὰ τῶν ὑποβεβηκότων, τοῦ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ λαοῦ εἰς δύο τάγματα διῃρημένου, εἴς τε τὸ τῶν πιστῶν καὶ τῶν μηδέπω τῆς «διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας» ἠξιωμένων, οἷς καί φησιν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος «γάλα ὑμᾶς ἐπότισα, οὐ βρῶμα»· τοὺς δὲ ἐν ἤδη τελειοτέρᾳ καθεστῶτος ἕξει «δάμαλιν βοῶν» εἰκότως ἀποκαλεῖ, γεννήματα τελειοτέρων βοῶν τυγχάνοντας, οἷος αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ ἀπόστολος, περὶ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τῶν παραπλησίως αὐτῷ καμνόντων λέγων· «μὴ τῶν βοῶν μέλει τῷ θεῷ; ἢ δι' ἡμᾶς πάντως λέγει;» 7.1.76 εἴη δ' ἂν καὶ πᾶν τὸ τάγμα τῶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας προεστώτων, ἀροῦν τε καὶ γεωργεῖν τὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ψυχὰς ἐγκεχειρισμένων, «δάμαλις» ὠνομασμένη «βοῶν», γεννήματα τυγχάνουσα τῶν ἀποστολικῶν τρόπων τε καὶ μαθημάτων, οἳ καὶ εἰς τοσοῦτον ἀρετῆς ἐπιδώσειν λέγονται, ὡς ἐκ πολυγονίας τοσοῦτον προβάλλεσθαι γόνιμον καὶ λογικὸν ταῖς εἰσαγωγικαῖς διδασκαλίαις γάλα, ὡς καὶ ἑτέρους μυρίους τρέφεσθαι ἐξ αὐτῶν. 7.1.77 Τούτων δὲ πέρι, τῶν καταλειφθέντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς γενησομένων, ἕτερόν τι συμβήσεσθαι «ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ», δῆλον δ' ὅτι ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τῆς τοῦ Ἐμμανουὴλ παρουσίας, προαναφωνεῖ. τί δὲ τοῦτο; «πᾶς τόπος», φησίν, τοῦ ἐκ περιτομῆς λαοῦ, ἐφ' ὃν ἦσαν χίλιαι ἄμπελοι χιλίων σίκλων, εἰς χέρσον ἔσονται καὶ εἰς ἄκανθαν· μετὰ» γὰρ «βέλους καὶ τοξεύματος εἰσελεύσονται ἐκεῖ» δῆλον δ' ὅτι οἱ πολέμιοι, «ὅτι χέρσος καὶ ἄκανθα ἔσται πᾶσα ἡ γῆ». 7.1.78 καὶ θέα γε ὅσα ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ, λέγω δὲ ἐν τῷ τῆς ἀνατολῆς καιρῷ τοῦ λογικοῦ φωτὸς τοῦ διὰ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἐπιλάμψαντος, περὶ τὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος ἔσεσθαι ὁ λόγος θεσπίζει· δυνάμεις γε ἀκαθάρτους καὶ πολεμικὰς τὰς πάλαι ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐνεργούσας, ἔν τε Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ τῇ χώρᾳ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων, τοῦ κυρίου συρίσαντος καὶ ὡσπερεὶ παρορμήσαντος καὶ παρακελευσαμένου αὐταῖς, τῇ χώρᾳ φησὶν αὐτῶν ἐπελεύσεσθαι, διὰ τὸ τοιούτων ἀξίαν γεγονέναι. 7.1.79 καὶ «ἀναπαύσεσθαι» τὰς εἰρημένας δυνάμεις φησὶν ἐν «φάραγξι» καὶ ἐν «τρώγλαις πετρῶν εἴς τε τὰ σπήλαια καὶ εἰς πᾶσαν ῥαγάδα αὐτῶν», κατὰ μὲν διάνοιαν ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς αὐτῶν καὶ ἐν ταῖς τοῦ σώματος αἰσθήσεσιν τοῖς τε λογισμοῖς καὶ ταῖς διερρωγυίαις αὐτῶν διανοίαις, κατὰ δὲ τὴν πρόχειρον λέξιν καθ' ὅλης αὐτῶν τῆς χώρας, ὃ καὶ τίς οὐκ ἂν ἀποθαυμάσειεν, ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁρῶν τοὺς πολεμίους αὐτῶν πάντα τόπον τῆς Ἰουδαίας ἀπειληφότας, καὶ τούς γε ἀλλοφύλους καὶ εἰδωλολάτρας ἀνθρώπους ἐν πάσαις αὐτῶν πόλεσίν τε καὶ χώραις ἀναπεπαυμένους; οὐ ταῦτα δὲ ἄρα μόνα διαθήσειν φησὶν αὐτοὺς ὁ λόγος, ἀλλὰ «ξυρῷ» τοῦ νενοημένου ἡμῖν «βασιλέως Ἀσσυρίων» «τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς τρίχας τῶν ποδῶν καὶ τὸν πώγωνα», πάντα δηλαδὴ τὸν πάλαι περικείμενον αὐτοῖς κόσμον, «ξυρήσειν». 7.1.80 Κατὰ δὲ τὴν αὐτὴν ταύτην ἡμέραν καὶ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν χρόνον ἀπειλεῖ ἐν ἐσχάτῃ πενίᾳ τοῦ κατὰ θεὸν πλούτου καταστήσεσθαι αὐτούς, ὡς μὴ ἄρτων λογικῶν εὐπορεῖν, μήτε στερεᾶς καὶ πνευματικῆς τροφῆς, ἀγαπᾶν δὲ γάλακτι τρέφεσθαι, τῷ νηπιώδει καὶ εἰσαγωγικῷ λόγῳ, ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις καὶ τὰς ἀμπέλους αὐτῶν εἰς χέρσον ἔσεσθαι. 7.1.81 ἐπειδὴ γάρ, ὡς ὁ αὐτὸς προφήτης φησίν, «ἔμεινεν» ὁ γεωργὸς ἅμα καὶ δεσπότης αὐτῶν «τοῦ ποιῆσαι σταφυλὴν» τὸν ἀμπελῶνα, «ὁ δὲ ἐποίησεν ἀκάνθας»,