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Having mentioned these things, the discourse next adds more generally concerning all the things deified everywhere: "Their carved images became wild beasts and cattle." And it is possible to observe these things throughout all of Egypt, where they are accustomed to worship every kind of wild beast and cattle as gods. But according to Symmachus: "Their idols became given over to animals, since indeed they were cast aside and reduced to complete desolation." After these things it is said: "You carry them bound up as a burden for one who is weary," but according to Symmachus: "and to your beasts of burden, loads to be carried to the point of exhaustion." They were weighed down, they were overbalanced together, they were not able to save the burden. And these things in our time were fulfilled to the letter in their very deeds, and in meaning too a heavy and unbearable and diabolical burden of idolatrous error lay of old on the souls of men. Therefore it has been said: "Just as someone might place a burden on one who is starving and no longer has strength but is exhausted from lack of food, so the demonic burdens are most heavy for those enslaved by their error, who are dissolute and unable to be saved from the war that has seized their souls, in which, like captives, having been bound with diabolical collars and chains, they were led away." Wherefore it says: "Who will not be able to be saved from war, but they themselves were led away captive." Teaching these things to the nation of the Jews to turn them away from the idolatry that possessed them, the discourse next addresses them in person, saying: "Hear me, O house of Jacob and all the remnant of Israel," but he neither calls them Jacob nor names them Israel, but only the house of Jacob on account of the kinship according to the flesh, and a remnant, as if a surplus and dregs of Israel. Then he reproaches them for the study and learning from a tender age of the divine readings, which indeed, learning from childhood and into old age, "they studied in vain," so that because of this it was said: "and the peoples studied vain things." And the greatest proof that they had made their study of the divine scriptures "empty and vain" is that they were still then practicing idolatry and were in need of prophetic words for the refutation and turning away of their error. But even if you, he says, are such, I, being God, will be the same to myself and I will not cease to show zeal to save you. 2.31 Furthermore, these things also are addressed to the people of the circumcision, whom he no longer called "his servant" nor "chosen and beloved Israel"; for these additions through the preceding words indicated the chosen among them. So he says to them: You indeed, O these people, being taught the divine oracles from childhood and from the very womb, so to speak, and growing old in them, have reaped no benefit from them for your soul; but I, even after so many of your failings, still bearing with you even now, I call you to repentance, since you happen to be my creation. For I made you, wherefore I also endure you; and I promise also to grant forgiveness for your sins, if you will change. Wherefore I say: "And I will bear you and again I will take you up and I will save you." And such are the things of my exhortation, but you, consider into what acts of fighting against God and impiety you have fallen, having dared to liken me to things that are not and to hold my divinity in no account. And you have made me of equal honor with lifeless matter, which you have fashioned; gathering gold and silver from contributions and fashioning them into idols by human hands, which you are not ashamed to worship, though they are able neither to walk nor to move, but are carried on shoulders and are pushed by others, and are able neither to hear nor to save themselves. You have considered me to be like these things, O you who are maimed in your souls. But looking up a little, consider into what a depth of impiety you have run aground; and having remembered these very things, repent and return with right reasoning to the thought of my divinity, and consider from

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τούτων μνημονεύσας ὁ λόγος ἑξῆς καθολικώτερον περὶ πάντων τῶν ἁπανταχοῦ θεοποιουμένων ἐπιφέρει· ἐγένετο τὰ γλυπτὰ αὐτῶν εἰς θηρία καὶ κτήνη. καὶ ταῦτα δέ ἐστι καθ' ὅλης συνιδεῖν τῆς Αἰγύπτου, ἔνθα πᾶν θηρίων καὶ κτηνῶν γένος σέβειν ὡς θεοὺς εἰώθασι. κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον· ἐγένετο τὰ εἴδωλα αὐτῶν ζῴοις ἔκδοτα, ἅτε δὴ ἀπορριφέντα καὶ εἰς παντελῆ καταστάντα ἐρημίαν. τούτοις ἑξῆς εἴρηται· αἴρετε αὐτὰ καταδεδεμένα ὡς φορτίον κοπιῶντι, κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον· καὶ κτήνεσιν βαστάγμασιν ὑμῶν γόμοι ἄρσεως εἰς ἔκλυσιν. ἐβαρήθησαν, ὑπερεταλάντησαν ὁμοῦ, οὐκ ἐδυνήθησαν ἐπισῶσαι τὸν βασταγμόν. ταῦτα δὲ καὶ αὐτοῖς ἔργοις καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐπληροῦτο πρὸς λέξιν, καὶ κατὰ διάνοιαν δὲ βαρὺ καὶ δυσβάστακτον καὶ διαβολικὸν φορτίον ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ψυχαῖς τῆς εἰδωλολάτρου πλάνης ἐπέκειτο πάλαι. διὸ λέλεκται· ὥσπερ πεινῶντι καὶ μηκέτι ἔχοντι ἰσχὺν ἀλλ' ἐκλελυμένῳ ἀπὸ ἀτροφίας ἐπιθείη τις φορτίον, οὕτω βαρύτατα εἶναι τὰ δαιμονικὰ βάρη τοῖς δεδουλωμένοις αὐτῶν τῇ πλάνῃ ἀσώτοις τισὶ καὶ μὴ οἵοις τε σωθῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ καταλαβόντος αὐτῶν τὰς ψυχὰς πολέμου, ἐν ᾧ δίκην αἰχμαλώτων κλοιοῖς καὶ δεσμοῖς διαβολικοῖς περιβληθέντες ἀπήχθησαν. διό φησιν· οἳ οὐ δυνήσονται σωθῆναι ἀπὸ πολέμου, αὐτοὶ δὲ αἰχμάλωτοι ἤχθησαν. Ταῦτα τὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος διδάσκων ὁ λόγος εἰς ἀποτροπὴν τῆς συνεχούσης αὐτοὺς εἰδωλολατρίας εἰς αὐτῶν πρόσωπον ἑξῆς προσφωνεῖ λέγων· Ἀκούσατέ μου, οἶκος τοῦ Ἰακὼβ καὶ πᾶν τὸ κατάλοιπον τοῦ Ἰσραήλ,ἀλλ' οὔτε Ἰακὼβ αὐτοὺς καλεῖ οὔτε Ἰσραὴλ ὀνομάζει, οἶκον δὲ αὐτὸν μόνον τοῦ Ἰακὼβ διὰ τὴν κατὰ σάρκα οἰκειότητα καὶ κατάλοιπον ὡσανεὶ περίττευμα καὶ τρύγα τοῦ Ἰσραήλ. εἶτ' ὀνειδίζει αὐτοὺς τὴν ἐξ ἁπαλῶν ὀνύχων μελέτησιν καὶ ἐκμάθησιν τῶν θείων ἀναγνωσμάτων, ἃ δὴ μανθάνοντες ἐκ παιδίου καὶ εἰς γῆρας «εἰς κενὸν ἐμελέτησαν», ὡς διὰ τοῦτ' εἰρῆσθαι τό· «καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά». δεῖγμα δὲ μέγιστον τοῦ «εἰς κενὸν καὶ μάταιον» τὴν τῶν θείων γραφῶν μελέτην αὐτοὺς πεποιῆσθαι τὸ εἰσέτι τότε εἰδωλολατρεῖν καὶ δεῖσθαι λόγων προφητικῶν εἰς ἔλεγχον καὶ ἀποτροπὴν τῆς πλάνης. ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ ὑμεῖς φησι τοιοῦτοι, ἐγὼ θεὸς ὢν ὁ αὐτὸς ἐμαυτῷ ἔσομαι καὶ οὐ παύσομαι εἰσφερόμενος σπουδὴν πρὸς τὸ σῶσαι ὑμᾶς. 2.31 Ἔτι καὶ ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν ἐκ περιτομῆς λαὸν ἀποτείνεται, ὃν οὐκέτι «παῖδα αὐτοῦ» ἐκάλει οὐδὲ «ἐκλεκτὸν καὶ ἀγαπητὸν Ἰσραήλ»· αὗται γὰρ αἱ προσθῆκαι διὰ τῶν ἀνωτέρων τὴν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐκλογὴν ἐδήλουν. φησὶν οὖν πρὸς αὐτούς· Ὑμεῖς μέν, ὦ οὗτοι ἐκ παίδων καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς κοιλίας ὡς εἰπεῖν τὰ θεῖα λόγια παιδευόμενοι καὶ καταγηρῶντες ἐν αὐτοῖς, οὐδὲν πρὸς ψυχῆς ὠφέλειαν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐκαρπώσασθε· ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ μετὰ τοσαύτας ὑμῶν ἀποπτώσεις ἔτι καὶ νῦν ἀνεχόμενος εἰς μετάνοιαν ὑμᾶς προσκαλοῦμαι, ἐπειδήπερ ἐμὸν τυγχάνετε ὄντες ποίημα. ἐγὼ γὰρ ἐποίησα, διὸ κἀγὼ ἀνέχομαι· ἐπαγγέλλομαι δὲ καὶ συγχώρησιν ποιήσασθαι τῶν ἡμαρτημένων ὑμῖν, εἰ μεταβαλεῖσθε. διό φημι· καὶ ἐγὼ ἀνήσω καὶ πάλιν ἀναλήψομαι ὑμᾶς καὶ σώσω. Καὶ τὰ μὲν τῆς ἐμῆς προτροπῆς τοιαῦτα, ὑμεῖς δὲ λογίσασθε εἰς ποίας ἐκπεπτώκατε θεομαχίας καὶ δυσσεβείας τολμήσαντες ὁμοιῶσαί με τοῖς μὴ οὖσι καὶ ἐν οὐδενὶ λόγῳ θέσθαι τὴν ἐμὴν θεότητα. ἰσότιμον δέ με ἔθεσθε τῇ ἀψύχῳ ὕλῃ, ἣν ἐπλάσασθε· χρυσίον καὶ ἀργύριον ἐκ συμβολῆς συνάγοντες καὶ διὰ χειρῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἀνειδωλοποιήσαντες, οἷς δὲ προσκυνεῖν οὐκ αἰσχύνεσθε μήτε βαδίζειν μήτε κινεῖσθαι δυνατοῖς οὖσιν, ἀλλ' ἐπ' ὤμων φερομένοις καὶ ὑφ' ἑτέρων ὠθουμένοις καὶ μήτε ἀκούειν μήτε αὐτοὺς σῴζειν δυνατοῖς. τούτοις ὅμοιον κἀμὲ εἶναι ἐλογίσασθε, ὦ τὰς ψυχὰς πεπηρωμένοι. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ βραχύ τι διαβλέψαντες ἐννοήσατε εἰς οἷον ἀσεβείας βυθὸν ἐξωκείλατε· τούτων δὲ αὐτῶν μνησθέντες μετανοήσατε καὶ ἐπιστρέψατε ὀρθοῖς λογισμοῖς εἰς ἔννοιαν τῆς ἐμῆς θεότητος, ἐννοήθητέ τε παρ'