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to be changed "for the pasture of sheep and the treading of cattle," so that it "being plowed shall be plowed" and fear will not come upon it there. 7.1.90 Through which I think is clearly signified the birth of our Savior from a virgin, and the things after this, both together and at once, that happened to the Jews and to the other nations; for the prophecy presents the change of each of the two orders to the opposite, that of the Jewish nation from better to worse, and that of the church from the Gentiles from its former desolation to fruitfulness according to God, which things, prophesied to be fulfilled at one and the same time of the appearance of Emmanuel, in accordance with the prophecies are shown to have reached their fulfillment at no other time than after the coming of our Savior, both through the things manifestly spoken concerning the Jews and through the church from the Gentiles. 7.1.91 For if after the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ himself, the rule of the Damascenes and of the Jews had not ceased, and if the land is not seen with our own eyes to have been abandoned by them and inhabited by foreign and idolatrous nations, and if in addition to these things, the whole formerly most venerable land of their holy sanctuary itself has not become "waste and thorn," and if idolatrous, unclean men, their enemies, coming "with arrow and bow," spurred on by the Lord himself, have not come from a foreign land and rested in their country, having made every place and all their cities their own, and conversely, if all the nations that have believed in him, having been changed from the waste and thorn of their former lack of cultivation through the teaching of our Savior, have not received pious and spiritual fruitfulness according to God, and in addition to this, if seeing Christ with their eyes they did not believe, and hearing him teach they did not obey, and if the rest of the prophecy is not shown to have most clearly reached its fulfillment from the times of Jesus our Savior, he would not be the one prophesied. 7.1.92 But if, as they say, it is clear even to a blind man that the results of the words were fulfilled at no other time than from the times of his appearance, why then should one be in doubt about his birth from a virgin, and not rather, with sound reasoning, from the things still seen now also be convinced of the beginning of the events? And what could the things still seen now be other than the unbelief of the Jews in him, being clearly fulfilled according to the oracle that says, "Hearing you will hear and will not understand, and seeing you will see and will not perceive; 7.1.93 for the heart of this people has grown dull," and the siege of Jerusalem, and the complete desolation of their former sanctuary, and the settlement of foreign nations in their land, enslaving them with goads, that is with harsh commands—for the examples of the flies and the bees signified this—and above all the change of the nations from their former desolation to cultivation according to God? 7.1.94 Seeing these things, then, with one's eyes, who would not be astonished in wonder? And who would not confess the prophecy to be truly divine, hearing that from above, a full thousand years before, these things were laid down in books and studied, yet brought to fulfillment at no other time than after the coming of our Savior? If, then, the prophecy is wonderful, and the outcome of the prophecy is still more wonderful and beyond all reason, why indeed do you disbelieve, if also the first coming of the one prophesied has obtained a foundation of birth that is paradoxical and beyond all human nature, when indeed the clear sight of the other wonders, being no less, compels one to accept also the testimony of the other things done by him concerning his birth? But next to these, after the "for the pasture of sheep and the treading of cattle," a second prophecy is joined, related to the

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μεταβαλεῖσθαι «εἰς βόσκημα προβάτου καὶ καταπάτημα βοός», ὥστε αὐτὸ «ἀροτριώμενον ἀροτριαθήσεσθαι» καὶ μὴ ἐπελεύσεσθαι ἐκεῖ φόβον. 7.1.90 δι' ὧν σαφῶς ἡγοῦμαι σημαίνεσθαι τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐκ παρθένου γένεσιν, καὶ τὰ μετὰ ταύτην ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀθρόως Ἰουδαίοις τε καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς ἔθνεσιν συμβεβηκότα· τὴν γοῦν ἑκατέρων τῶν ταγμάτων εἰς τοὐναντίον μεταβολὴν ἡ προφητεία παρίστησιν, τοῦ μὲν Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν κρειττόνων ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον, τῆς δὲ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐκκλησίας τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς πάλαι ἐρημίας ἐπὶ τὴν κατὰ θεὸν καρποφορίαν, ἅπερ, καθ' ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν καιρὸν τῆς τοῦ Ἐμμανουὴλ ἐπιφανείας ἐπιτελεσθήσεσθαι προφητευθέντα, ταῖς προρρήσεσιν ἀκολούθως οὐκ ἄλλοτε ἢ μετὰ τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν παρουσίαν τέλος εἰληφότα δείκνυται, διά τε τῶν ἐμφανῶς εἰρημένων κατὰ Ἰουδαίους πραγμάτων καὶ διὰ τῆς ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐκκλησίας. 7.1.91 εἰ μὲν γὰρ μετὰ τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν, αὐτοῦ δὴ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, μὴ πέπαυτο βασιλευομένη ἡ τῶν ∆αμασκηνῶν ἀρχὴ καὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, καὶ εἰ μὴ ἐν ὄψεσιν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς μὴ θεωρεῖται καταλελειμμένη ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἡ γῆ καὶ ὑπὸ ἐθνῶν ἀλλοφύλων καὶ εἰδωλολατρῶν κατοικουμένη, καὶ πρὸς τούτοις εἰ μὴ γέγονεν «εἰς χέρσον καὶ ἄκανθαν» πᾶσα ἡ πάλαι σεμνοτάτη αὐτοῦ δὴ τοῦ ἱεροῦ αὐτῶν ἁγιάσματος χώρα, καὶ εἰ μὴ εἰδωλολάτραι ἀκάθαρτοι ἄνδρες οἵ τε πολέμιοι αὐτῶν «μετὰ βέλους καὶ τοξεύματος» ἐπελθόντες, ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γε τοῦ κυρίου παρορμηθέντες, ἐκ τῆς ἀλλοδαπῆς ἐληλύθασιν ἀνεπαύσαντό τε ἐν ταῖς χώραις αὐτῶν, πάντα τόπον καὶ πάσας τὰς πόλεις αὐτῶν ἰδιοποιησάμενοι, καὶ ἔμπαλιν, εἰ μὴ ἀπὸ χέρσου καὶ ἀκάνθης τῆς πρὶν ἀγεωργίας διὰ τῆς τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν διδασκαλίας μεταβαλόντα πάντα τὰ εἰς αὐτὸν πεπιστευκότα ἔθνη τὴν εὐσεβῆ καὶ κατὰ θεὸν λογικὴν ἀπείληφεν καρποφορίαν, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις, εἰ μὴ ὀφθαλμοῖς τὸν Χριστὸν ἰδόντες οὐκ ἐπίστευσαν, καὶ διδάσκοντος ἀκούσαντες εἰ μὴ παρήκουσαν, καὶ εἰ μὴ τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς προφητείας ἐναργέστατα τέλους τυχόντα ἀπὸ τῶν χρόνων Ἰησοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν δείκνυται, οὐκ ἂν εἴη αὐτὸς ὁ προφητευόμενος. 7.1.92 εἰ δὲ καὶ τυφλῷ, φασί, δῆλα, τὰ τῶν λόγων ἀποτελέσματα οὐκ ἄλλοτε ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν χρόνων τῆς ἐπιφανείας αὐτοῦ πεπληρωμένα, τί χρὴ λοιπὸν καὶ περὶ τῆς ἐκ παρθένου γενέσεως αὐτοῦ ἀμφιβόλως ἔχειν, οὐχὶ δὲ εὐγνώμονι λογισμῷ ἀπὸ τῶν εἰσέτι νῦν ὁρωμένων καὶ τὴν καταρχὴν τῶν πραγμάτων πιστοῦσθαι; ὁρώμενα δὲ εἰσέτι νῦν τίνα ἂν εἴη ἀλλ' ἢ ἡ Ἰουδαίων εἰς αὐτὸν ἀπιστία, ἐναργῶς κατὰ τὸν χρησμὸν πληρουμένη τὸν φάσκοντα «ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε, καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε· 7.1.93 ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου», καὶ ἡ πολιορκία τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ, καὶ τοῦ πάλαι αὐτῶν ἁγιάσματος ἡ παντελὴς ἐρήμωσις, τῶν τε ἀλλοφύλων ἐθνῶν ἐπὶ τῆς χώρας αὐτῶν κατοίκησις μετὰ κέντρων αὐτοὺς τοῦτ' ἔστι μετὰ σκληρῶν ἐπιταγμάτων καταδουλουμένων τοῦτο γὰρ ἐδήλου τῶν μυιῶν καὶ τῶν μελιττῶν τὰ παραδείγματα, καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἡ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἀπὸ τῆς προτέρας ἐρημίας εἰς τὴν κατὰ θεὸν γεωργίαν μεταβολή; 7.1.94 ταῦτα δὴ οὖν ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁρώμενα τίς οὐκ ἂν ἐκπλαγείη θαυμάσας; τίς δ' οὐ θείαν ὡς ἀληθῶς ὁμολογήσειεν ἂν τὴν πρόρρησιν, ἀκούων ἄνωθεν πρὸ χιλίων ὅλων ἐτῶν ἐν βίβλοις ἀποκείμενα ταῦτα καὶ μελετώμενα, οὐ μὴν ἄλλοτε εἰς τέλος ἀχθέντα ἢ μετὰ τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν παρουσίαν; εἰ δὴ οὖν θαυμάσιος ἡ πρόρρησις, καὶ ἔτι θαυμασιωτέρα καὶ ὑπὲρ πάντα λόγον ἡ τῆς προρρήσεως ἔκβασις, τί δὴ ἀπιστεῖς, εἰ καὶ ἡ πρώτη τοῦ προφητευομένου πάροδος παράδοξον καὶ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἀνθρώπου φύσιν τὴν τῆς γενέσεως καταβολὴν εἴληχεν, ὁπότε καὶ ἡ τῶν λοιπῶν θαυμάτων ἐναργὴς ὄψις, οὐχ ἥττων οὖσα, ἐπὶ τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ βιάζεται καὶ τὴν τῶν ἄλλων τῶν κατ' αὐτὸν πραχθέντων ἀποδέχεσθαι μαρτυρίαν; Ἀλλὰ γὰρ τούτοις ἑξῆς, μετὰ τὸ «εἰς βόσκημα προβάτου καὶ καταπάτημα βοός», συνῆπται δευτέρα τις πρόρρησις συγγενὴς τῇ