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Spare not, he says, and do not confine yourself to these measures, but stretch out, lengthen, and be strong; still more, spread out to the right and to the left. And you will understand the length and the breadth and the greatness of this new tent, which not a man pitched, but the Lord, considering how large by its measures was the one constructed by Moses, and how large was Jerusalem, which had the temple "of sixty cubits in length and twenty in breadth." So that if the temple, established in one city of Palestine, was worthy of admiration, how much more the multitudes and the sizes and the beauties of the churches of God raised up in every place. And that these things are prophesied to the church of the Gentiles, the oracle clearly shows by adding what follows: and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and you shall populate desolate cities. And the seed of the church of God would be the evangelical word, concerning which it is said: "The sower went out to sow," and: "Did you not sow good seed in your field?" And this very seed also established desolate cities. And according to Symmachus it is said: and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and they shall inhabit vanished cities. And the succession of the apostles and disciples of our Savior can also be the seed of the church, through whom the pious state was established in the churches formerly vanished and desolate of God. Next to these things, he adds: Fear not, because you were shamed; nor be confounded, because you were reproached. For when she was barren and not giving birth nor in labor, and did not have a husband, she was reproachful and full of shame; but now he says to her: Even if you formerly did things worthy of shame and reproach, yet now be of good courage, for you shall forget your everlasting shame, and you shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood. And here he calls widowhood the deprivation of the bridegroom word, which you will not remember, he says, because the Lord of hosts is he who makes you; for the things of your constitution have not come from men nor through man, but through the Lord himself. Therefore the Savior himself also promises, saying: "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." This very one, therefore, who makes you, is the Lord of hosts himself, who was both formerly the God of Israel and is now known to all the earth. Therefore, according to Symmachus it is said: He shall be called the God of all the earth. And continuing with the promises to the desolate one, the word adds: Not as a woman forsaken and fainthearted has the Lord called you, nor as a woman hated from her youth, said your God, but according to Symmachus: For as a woman in sorrow and forsaken in spirit has the Lord called you, and a wife of youth when she is cast off, said God: For a little while I forsook you, and with great mercies I will gather you; in a moment of wrath I hid my face from you for a little while, and with everlasting mercy I have had compassion on you. Then he adds that just as in the time of Noah I swore that I would no longer destroy those upon the earth with a flood, so now also concerning you I assure my own people by an oath that I will no longer be angry with you; for the mountains shall be shaken and the hills shall be troubled, but my mercy shall not depart from you, nor shall the covenant of my peace be shaken, said the Lord who has compassion on you; for sooner shall the mountains be moved from their own foundations and the hills be troubled than my mercy be removed. And these things the word promises to the pious polity, which formerly was among the Jews, but having fallen away from them, has passed over to the church "from the Gentiles." And he promises it a covenant of peace, saying: nor shall the covenant of my peace be moved. Then he reminds what sort of pious polity formerly existed among the Jews and what sort of change for the better it will obtain. Therefore he says: Humbled and unsettled; for among the Jews there was in fact a humble, corporeal worship in the circumcision of the body and in sacrifices of animals and in the

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φείσῃ φησὶ τούτου μηδὲ στενοχωρήσῃς σεαυτὴν τοῖς μέτροις, ἀλλ' ἐκτείνασα μάκρυνον καὶ κατίσχυσον, ἔτι μᾶλλον εἰς τὰ δεξιὰ καὶ εἰς τὰ ἀριστερὰ ἐκπέτασον. νοήσεις δὲ τὸ μῆκος καὶ τὸ πλάτος καὶ τὸ μέγεθος τῆς νέας ταύτης σκηνῆς, ἣν ἔπηξεν οὐκ ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ' ὁ κύριος ἐπὶ νοῦν βαλών, ὅση μὲν ὑπῆρχε τοῖς μέτροις ἡ ὑπὸ Μωϋσέως κατασκευασθεῖσα, ὅση δὲ ἦν ἡ Ἰερουσαλὴμ τὸν νεὼν ἔχουσα «μήκους πηχῶν ἑξήκοντα καὶ πλάτους εἴκοσι». ὥσθ' εἴπερ ἦν θαύματος ἄξιος ὅ τε νεὼς ἐν μιᾷ πόλει τῆς Παλαιστίνης ἱδρυμένος, πόσῳ μᾶλλον τὰ πλήθη καὶ τὰ μεγέθη καὶ τὰ κάλλη τῶν κατὰ πάντα τόπον ἀνεγηγερμένων ἐκκλησιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ. καὶ ὅτι ταῦτα τῇ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐκκλησίᾳ θεσπίζεται, παρίστησι σαφῶς τὸ λόγιον ἐπιφέρων ἑξῆς· καὶ τὸ σπέρμα σου ἔθνη κληρονομήσει, καὶ πόλεις ἠρημωμένας κατοικιεῖς. σπέρμα δὲ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τοῦ θεοῦ εἴη ἂν ὁ εὐαγγελικὸς λόγος, περὶ οὗ εἴρηται· «ἐξῆλθεν ὁ σπείρων τοῦ σπεῖραι», καί· «οὐχὶ καλὸν σπέρμα ἔσπειρας ἐν τῷ σῷ ἀγρῷ»; τὸ δ' αὐτὸ τοῦτο σπέρμα καὶ πόλεις ἠρημωμένας συνεστήσατο. κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον εἴρηται· τὸ δὲ σπέρμα σου ἔθνη κληρονομήσει, καὶ πόλεις ἠφανισμένας κατοικιοῦσι. δύναται δὲ σπέρμα εἶναι τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ ἡ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ μαθητῶν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν διαδοχή, δι' ὧν ἡ θεοσεβὴς πολιτεία ἐν ταῖς πάλαι ἠφανισμέναις καὶ θεοῦ ἐρήμοις ἐκκλησίαις συνέστη. Τούτοις ἑξῆς ἐπιλέγει· μὴ φοβοῦ ὅτι κατῃσχύνθης, μηδὲ ἐντραπῇς ὅτι ὠνειδίσθης. ὅτε μὲν γὰρ ἦν στεῖρα καὶ οὐ τίκτουσα οὐδὲ ὠδίνουσα μηδὲ τὸν ἄνδρα ἔχουσα, ἐπονείδιστος ἦν καὶ αἰσχύνης ἔμπλεως· ἀλλὰ νῦν φησι πρὸς αὐτήν· Εἰ καὶ πάλαι ποτὲ αἰσχύνης καὶ ὀνείδους ἔπραττες ἄξια, ἀλλὰ νῦν θάρσει, ὅτι αἰσχύνην αἰώνιον ἐπιλήσῃ καὶ ὄνειδος τῆς χηρείας σου οὐ μὴ μνησθήσῃ. χηρείαν δὲ ἀποκαλεῖ ἐνταῦθα τὴν στέρησιν τοῦ νυμφίου λόγου, ἧς οὐ μνησθήσῃ φησὶν ὅτι κύριος τῶν δυνάμεών ἐστιν ὁ ποιῶν σε· οὐ γὰρ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων οὐδὲ δι' ἀνθρώπου τὰ τῆς συστάσεως γέγονεν, ἀλλὰ δι' αὐτοῦ τοῦ κυρίου. διὸ καὶ ὁ σωτὴρ αὐτὸς ἐπαγγέλλεται λέγων· «ἐπὶ τὴν πέτραν οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι ᾅδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς». αὐτὸς οὖν οὗτος ὁ ποιῶν σε, κύριος τῶν δυνάμεων αὐτός ἐστιν, ὁ καὶ πάλαι ὢν θεὸς Ἰσραὴλ καὶ νῦν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ γινωσκόμενος. διὸ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον εἴρηται· θεὸς πάσης τῆς γῆς κληθήσεται. Ἐπιμένων δὲ ὁ λόγος ταῖς πρὸς τὴν ἔρημον ἐπαγγελίαις ἐπιφέρει· οὐχ ὡς γυναῖκα καταλελειμμένην καὶ ὀλιγόψυχον κέκληκέ σε κύριος οὐδ' ὡς γυναῖκα ἐκ νεότητος μεμισημένην, εἶπεν ὁ θεός σου, κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον· ὡς γὰρ γυναῖκα καὶ κατώδυνον καὶ ἐγκαταλελειμμένην πνεύματι ἐκάλεσέ σε κύριος καὶ γυναῖκα νεότητος ὅταν ἀπωσθῇ, εἶπεν ὁ θεός· ἐν τάχει σμικρῷ ἐγκατέλιπόν σε καὶ ἐν οἰκτιρμοῖς μεγάλοις ἀθροίσω σε, ἐν ὀξυσμῷ ὀργῆς ἔκρυψα τὸ πρόσωπόν μου πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀπὸ σοῦ καὶ ἐν ἐλέει αἰωνίῳ ᾠκτείρησά σε. Εἶτ' ἐπιλέγει, ὅτι ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ Νῶε ἐπωμοσάμην μηκέτι κατακλυσμῷ τοὺς ἐπὶ γῆς ἀπολέσειν, οὕτως καὶ νῦν ἐπὶ σοὶ ὅρκῳ τὸν ἐμαυτοῦ λαὸν πιστοῦμαι μηκέτι σοὶ θυμωθήσεσθαι· τὰ γὰρ ὄρη σαλευθήσονται καὶ οἱ βουνοὶ ταραχθήσονται, τὸ δὲ ἔλεός μου ἀπὸ σοῦ οὐκ ἀποστραφήσεται οὐδὲ ἡ διαθήκη τῆς εἰρήνης μου ἀνακλιθήσεται, εἶπεν ὁ οἰκτείρων σε κύριος· θᾶττον γὰρ τὰ ὄρη μεταστήσονται τῶν οἰκείων ἑδρασμάτων καὶ οἱ βουνοὶ ταραχθήσονται ἢ τὸ ἐμὸν ἔλεος ἀποκινηθήσεται. καὶ ταῦτα δὲ τῷ θεοσεβεῖ πολιτεύματι ἐπαγγέλλεται ὁ λόγος, ὃ πάλαι μὲν ἦν παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις, διαπεσὸν δὲ παρ' αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ τὴν «ἐξ ἐθνῶν» ἐκκλησίαν μεταβέβηκε. καὶ διαθήκην δὲ εἰρήνης ὑπισχνεῖται αὐτῇ φάσκων· οὐδὲ ἡ διαθήκη τῆς εἰρήνης μου οὐ μὴ μεταστῇ. Εἶθ' ὑπομιμνῄσκει ὁποία τις ἦν τὸ πρότερον παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις ἡ θεοσεβὴς πολιτεία καὶ οἵας τεύξεται τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβολῆς. διό φησι· ταπεινὴ καὶ ἀκατάστατος· ἦν γὰρ παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις τῷ ὄντι ταπεινὴ σωματικὴ θρησκεία ἐν σώματος περιτομῇ καὶ ἐν θυσίαις ζῴων καὶ τοῖς