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of them: "dreaming of a bed, loving to slumber." They, then, were such, "dreaming" of "beds" and "loving to slumber," but she who is accused through the preceding words as rejoicing in these very things hears: You loved those who slept with you and you multiplied your harlotry with them and you made many those far from you; for many men dedicated to God fled Jerusalem because of the godless deeds committed in her. Therefore it has been said: And you made many those far from you, but you also sent, he says, ambassadors beyond your borders, or according to Symmachus: and you multiplied your ointments, you sent your hostages afar. All these things he personifies as if to a harlot beautifying herself and doing everything for the pleasure of those who approach her. Therefore on account of these things, he says: You were brought low even to Hades, in your many journeys you grew weary; for you did not travel one "royal road," but many and wandering ones. For this reason you grew weary and not even so did you stop nor did you say, "I will cease being strong," but as if strong and youthful you did things worse than these, persisting in your own absurdities. Whence you neither returned nor besought me, or according to Aquila: You did not supplicate, so as to obtain forgiveness. But you remained from of old fearless and irreverent; and if you ever seemed to be pious, making promises, even then you were false to the promise, but not even before this, he says, did you remember me nor take me into your thought nor into your heart; rightly, therefore, I too will overlook you for these things and will leave you desolate; for not even yet do you take up the fear of God. Therefore, learn what awaits you, and what are these things: the avenging wrath of God will overtake you for all that you have dared, at which time your evils will be exposed, and at the time of the wrath coming upon you, no one will stand by you, nor will your supposed gods hearken to your voice. But instead of: let them deliver you in your affliction, Symmachus has: let your synagogues, he says, deliver you, the word teaching nakedly and clearly that their synagogues will profit them nothing. Then he adds: For a wind shall take all these, and a tempest shall carry them away. But those who hold fast to me will possess the land and will inherit my holy mountain. And they will say, "Clear the ways from before him and remove the stumbling blocks from the way of my people;" All those accused, he says, a wind shall take and a tempest shall carry away. And such an end will befall those who were accused on the aforesaid charges; but those who "have chosen the good part," that is, me, God, and those who genuinely and purely hold fast, the reward from me will succeed; for they will possess the land promised to them and will inherit my holy mountain. And they will already be teachers of others, exhorting them to make smooth the ways of the people by making teachings for the people pure and level, "having nothing crooked or twisted." And "land" and "holy mountain" might be said, with respect to the ancients, to be Jerusalem and Mount Zion, and the country of Judea; but with respect to the true word, the "holy mountain" which often and through the preceding words signified "the heavenly Jerusalem," and "land," the life about the heavenly realms and the entire heavenly place, where those who hold fast to God will receive their worthy inheritance. And according to Symmachus: But he who has spoken freely in me, he says, will inherit my holy mountain. And he will say, "Make a way, prepare a road, lift up stumbling blocks from the way of my people;" for he who has succeeded with God will not only take thought for his own salvation, but will also make himself useful to the people of God, commanding to make smooth for them the way of piety and to remove the seeming stumbling blocks of the divine readings through their clearer interpretation. 2.46 To

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αὐτῶν· «ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι κοίτην, φιλοῦντες νυστάξαι». ἐκεῖνοι μὲν οὖν ἦσαν τοιοῦτοι «ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι» «κοίτας» καὶ «φιλοῦντες νυστάξαι», ἡ δὲ διαβαλλομένη διὰ τῶν προκειμένων ὡς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐκείνοις χαίρουσα ἀκούει· ἠγάπησας τοὺς κοιμωμένους μετὰ σοῦ καὶ ἐπλήθυνας τὴν πορνείαν σου μετ' αὐτῶν καὶ πολλοὺς ἐποίησας τοὺς μακρὰν ἀπὸ σοῦ· πολλοὶ γὰρ ἔφυγον τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ οἱ τῷ θεῷ ἀνακείμενοι ἄνδρες διὰ τὰς ἐν αὐτῇ συντελουμένας ἀθέους πράξεις. διὸ λέλεκται· καὶ πολλοὺς ἐποίησας τοὺς μακρὰν ἀπὸ σοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπέστειλάς φησι πρέσβεις ὑπὲρ τὰ ὅριά σου, ἢ κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον· καὶ ἐπλήθυνας τὰ μυρέψιά σου, ἀπέστειλας ὅμηρά σου ἕως μακράν. ταῦτα πάντα προσωποποιεῖ ὡς πρὸς ἑταίραν καλλωπιζομένην καὶ πάντα πράττουσαν ἐφ' ἡδονῇ τῶν προσιόντων αὐτῇ. διὸ τούτων ἕνεκά φησιν· ἐταπεινώθης ἕως ᾅδου, ταῖς πολυοδίαις σου ἐκοπίασας· οὐ γὰρ μίαν ὥδευες «τὴν βασιλικὴν ὁδόν», ἀλλὰ πολλὰς καὶ πεπλανημένας. διόπερ ἐκοπίασας καὶ οὐδ' οὕτως ἔστης οὐδὲ εἶπας Παύσωμαι ἐνισχύουσα, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἰσχύουσα καὶ νεανιευομένη χείρονα τούτων ἔπραξας ἐπιμένουσα ταῖς οἰκείαις ἀτοπίαις. ὅθεν οὐδὲ ἐπέστρεψας οὐδὲ κατεδεήθης μου, ἢ κατὰ τὸν Ἀκύλαν· οὐκ ἐλιτάνευσας, ὥστε τυχεῖν ἀφέσεως. ∆ιέμενες δὲ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἄφοβος καὶ ἀνευλαβής· εἰ δὲ καί ποτε ἔδοξας θεοσεβεῖν, ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι καὶ τότε τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν ἐψεύσω, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ πρὸ τούτου φησὶν ἐμνήσθης μου οὐδὲ ἔλαβές με εἰς τὴν διάνοιάν σου οὐδὲ εἰς τὴν καρδίαν σου· εἰκότως οὖν κἀγώ σε παρόψομαι διὰ ταῦτα καὶ καταλείψω σε ἔρημον· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἔτι καὶ νῦν φόβον ἀναλαμβάνεις θεοῦ. ∆ιὸ μάνθανε τὰ περιμένοντά σε τίνα δὲ ἔστι ταῦτα· θεοῦ καταλήψεταί σε ὀργὴ ἔκδικος πάντων τῶν τετολμημένων σοι, καθ' ὃν καιρὸν ἐλεγχθήσεταί σου τὰ κακά, κατὰ δὲ τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἐπελευσομένης σοι ὀργῆς οὐδείς σοι παραστήσεται, οὐδὲ τῆς φωνῆς σου ἐπακούσονται οἱ νομιζόμενοί σου θεοί. ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ· ἐξελέσθωσάν σε ἐν τῇ θλίψει σου, ὁ Σύμμαχος· ἐξελέσθωσάν σέ φησιν αἱ συναγωγαί σου, γυμνῶς καὶ σαφῶς διδάσκοντος τοῦ λόγου, ὡς οὐδὲν ὠφελήσουσιν αὐτοὺς αἱ συναγωγαὶ αὐτῶν. εἶτ' ἐπιλέγει· τούτους γὰρ πάντας λήψεται ἄνεμος καὶ ἀποίσει καταιγίς. οἱ δὲ ἀντεχόμενοί μου κτήσονται γῆν καὶ κληρονομήσουσι τὸ ὄρος τὸ ἅγιόν μου. καὶ ἐροῦσι Καθαρίσατε ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ ὁδοὺς καὶ ἄρατε σκῶλα ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ τοῦ λαοῦ μου· πάντας μὲν οὖν τοὺς κατηγορηθέντας φησὶ λήψεται ἄνεμος καὶ ἀποίσει καταιγίς. καὶ τοιοῦτο τέλος λήψεται τοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖς εἰρημένοις διαβληθέντας· τοὺς δὲ «τὴν καλὴν ἐκλεξαμένους μερίδα», ἐμὲ δηλαδὴ τὸν θεόν, καὶ τοὺς γνησίως καὶ καθαρῶς ἀντεχομένους ἡ παρ' ἐμοῦ ἀμοιβὴ διαδέξεται· κτήσονται γὰρ τὴν ἐπηγγελμένην αὐτοῖς γῆν καὶ τὸ ὄρος τὸ ἅγιόν μου κληρονομήσουσιν. ἤδη δὲ καὶ ἑτέρων ἔσονται διδάσκαλοι παραινοῦντες αὐτοῖς ἐξομαλίζειν τὰς ὁδοὺς τοῦ λαοῦ διὰ τοῦ καθαρὰς ποιεῖσθαι καὶ λείας πρὸς τὸν λαὸν διδασκαλίας «μηδὲν ἐχούσας σκολιὸν μηδὲ στραγγαλιῶδες». γῆ δὲ καὶ ὄρος ἅγιον ὡς μὲν πρὸς τοὺς πάλαι λέγοιτο ἂν Ἰερουσαλὴμ καὶ τὸ Σιὼν ὄρος, ἥ τε τῆς Ἰουδαίας χώρα ὡς δὲ πρὸς τὸν ἀληθῆ λόγον ὄρος ἅγιον, ὃ πολλάκις καὶ διὰ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν ἐδήλου «τὴν ἐπουράνιον Ἰερουσαλήμ», γῆν δὲ τὴν ἀμφὶ τὰ οὐράνια διατριβὴν καὶ πάντα τὸν ἐπουράνιον χῶρον, ἔνθα τὸν ἐπάξιον κλῆρον ἀπολήψονται οἱ ἀντεχόμενοι τοῦ θεοῦ. κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον· ὁ δὲ παρρησιάσας φησὶν ἐν ἐμοὶ κληρονομήσει τὸ ὄρος τὸ ἅγιόν μου. καὶ ἐρεῖ Ὁδοποιήσατε, σχολάσατε ὁδόν, ἐπάρατε προσκόμματα ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ τοῦ λαοῦ μου· οὐ γὰρ μόνης τῆς αὐτοῦ σωτηρίας πρόνοιαν ποιήσεται ὁ παρὰ τῷ θεῷ κατορθώσας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ χρήσιμον ἑαυτὸν παρέξει προστάττων ἐξομαλίζειν αὐτῷ τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς θεοσεβείας καὶ τὰ δοκοῦντα προσκόμματα τῶν θείων ἀναγνωσμάτων περιαιρεῖν διὰ τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ σαφέστερον αὐτῶν ἑρμηνείας. 2.46 Πρὸς