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Be enlightened, O Jerusalem. For your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." But they did not receive the true light, but willingly became blind and guides of the blind, as the Savior says. For they did not obey him when he said: "While you have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness overtake you." But the phrase, they will go about like a bear and a dove together; not some like the one, and others like the other; but the same people like both. For their groanings are not for repentance on account of the blood they shed, but they weep for the earthly Jerusalem. Rightly they were compared to a wild beast. And as it is said again in other places, they have become like a bear robbed of her cubs. For they say that bears bear the loss of their cubs terribly, and with lamentation wander about in a rage, leaping upon those they encounter. They were called a bear, then, because they themselves ate men, murderously slaying the prophets. Or 'robbed of her cubs,' because of their greater savagery, and because of the loss of their own children. But doves send forth a mournful sound most continuously, as these people have become, lamenting their own city. For it is said, that 'they will be on the mountains like cooing doves.' And it must be understood thus: They will go about in savagery of mind joined with lack of understanding. For a certain prophet says: "And Ephraim was a silly dove, without a heart." For there is not in them the understanding and meekness from Christ. Concerning whom Jeremiah says: "Every man has become brutish, bereft of knowledge." 2608 And again: "What wisdom is in them, seeing they have rejected the word of the Lord?" or like a bear and a dove: that is, bold against the weaker, and cowardly toward the stronger. But Symmachus and Theodotion rendered it: Like a dove we will coo a cooing. And Aquila: Like doves we will utter a sound. For even now they attempt to study the Scriptures, and to learn them, chanting them with a bare voice, so as to differ in nothing from a thoughtless dove giving an inarticulate sound. And this saying, and what follows, the others have rendered from the person of the accused people. Symmachus, at least, adds: Therefore judgment was far from us, and justice will not overtake us. 'Let us wait for light, and behold, darkness,' and what follows. And the Seventy also attributed what followed to the person of the people: We waited for judgment, and there is no salvation. As if the prophet were teaching them to confess their own sins to God, and to accuse themselves unto repentance. But some say that whenever the prophets mention the rejection of the people after their impiety toward Christ, they also usefully mention the recall in the last days which is in Christ through faith, for which reason he now also introduced the person of those repenting: We waited for judgment, and it is not, saying 'judgment' is that which was given to the gentiles through faith, which they awaited but did not receive. And the cause, they say, is, For our iniquity is great. For we did not receive the one who erases sins through faith, who said to them: "Amen I say to you, that if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins." And making clear the things dared against Christ, they say: We have acted impiously, and we have lied. But Symmachus: We have known, he says, to do wrong and to lie against the Lord. But Aquila, to deny in the Lord, representing their denial; But we also departed, they say, from behind our God, we spoke slander. You see how he nowhere accuses them of idolatry, but of slanders, and false words, and such things. Sometimes slandering the divine signs they said: "By Beelzebul, the prince of the demons, he casts out demons." And belching forth from their heart false and unjust things, they called him a Samaritan and one who has a demon, a glutton and a winebibber, and they said he stirs up the crowds. Therefore they say: We turned judgment back. For it did not, he says, leave us, but we left it, as if turning our backs on it. But the voices are of those seeking to be pitied by Christ, and continually confessing their denial of the truth, and their own false reasonings. 2609 But the word to himself the

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φωτίζου, Ἱερουσαλήμ. Ἥκει γάρ σου τὸ φῶς, καὶ ἡ δόξα Κυρίου ἐπὶ σὲ ἀνατέταλκεν." Ἀλλ' οὐ προσεδέξαντο τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν, ἑκόντες δὲ γεγόνασι τυφλοὶ καὶ τυφλῶν ὁδηγοὶ, καθά φησιν ὁ Σωτήρ. Οὐ γὰρ ὑπήκουσαν λέγοντι· "Ὡς τὸ φῶς ἔχετε, περιπατεῖτε ἐν τῷ φωτὶ, ἵνα μὴ σκοτία ὑμᾶς καταλάβῃ." Τὸ δὲ, πορεύσονται ὡς ἄρκτος ἅμα καὶ περιστερά· οὐχ οἱ μὲν κατὰ ταύτην, οἱ δὲ κατ' ἐκείνην· οἱ αὐτοὶ δὲ κατ' ἄμφω. Οἱ γὰρ στεναγμοὶ αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐπὶ μετανοίᾳ ὧν ἐξέχεαν αἱμάτων εἵνεκα, τὴν αἰσθητὴν δὲ κλαίοντες Ἱερουσαλήμ. Εἰκότως θηρίῳ ἀγρίῳ παρεβλήθησαν. Καὶ ὡς εἴρηται πάλιν ἐν ἄλλοις, γεγόνασιν ὡς ἄρκτος ἀτεκνουμένη. Φασὶ γὰρ τὰς ἄρκτους δεινῶς φέρειν τὴν τῶν σκύμνων ἀποβολὴν, καὶ σὺν ὀδυρμῷ μαινομένας περινοστεῖν ἐπιπηδώσας τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσιν. Ἄρκτος μὲν οὖν ὠνομάσθησαν, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀνθρώπους ἔφαγον, μιαιφονοῦντες τοὺς προφήτας. Ἢ τεκνωμένη δὲ, διὰ τὸ ἀγριώτερον, καὶ διὰ τὴν τῶν αὐτῶν ἀπώλειαν τέκνων. Αἱ δὲ περιστεραὶ γοερὰν ἀφιᾶσι φωνὴν συνεχέστατα, ὁποῖοι γεγόνασιν οὗτοι τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀποδυρόμενοι πόλιν. Εἴρηται γὰρ, ὅτι ἔσονται ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρέων ὡς περιστεραὶ μελετητικαί. Νοητέον δὲ καὶ οὕτως· Πορεύσονται ἐν ἀγριότητι νοῦ συνεζευγμένης ἀσυνεσίας. Φησὶ γάρ τις προφήτης· "Καὶ ἦν Ἐφραῒμ περιστερὰ ἄνους, οὐκ ἔχουσα καρδίαν." Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡ παρὰ Χριστοῦ σύνεσις καὶ πραότης. Περὶ ὧν Ἱερεμίας φησίν· "Ἐμωράνθη πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ἀπὸ γνώσεως." 2608 Καὶ πάλιν· "Σοφία τίς ἐστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς, ὅτι τὸν λόγον Κυρίου ἀπεδοκίμασαν;" ἢ ὡς ἄρκτος καὶ περιστερά· τοῦτ' ἔστι θρασεῖς κατὰ τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων, καὶ δειλοὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἰσχυροτέρους. Σύμμαχος δὲ καὶ Θεοδοτίων ἐξέδωκαν· Ὡς περιστερὰ μελέτῃ μελετήσομεν. Ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας· Ὡς περιστεραὶφθογγῇ φθεγξόμεθα. Εἰσέτι γὰρ καὶ νῦν πειρῶνται μελετᾷν τὰς Γραφὰς, καὶ ἐκμανθάνειν, ψιλῇ φωνῇ περιᾴδοντες, ὡς μηδὲν διαφέρειν ἀλογίστου περιστερᾶς ἄναρθρον ἀποδιδούσης φωνήν. Καὶ τοῦτο δὲ τὸ ῥητὸν, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ κατηγορουμένου λαοῦ ἐξέδωκαν οἱ λοιποί. Ἐπιφέρει γοῦν Σύμμαχος· ∆ιὰ τοῦτο μακρὰν ἐγένετο κρίσις ἀφ' ἡμῶν, καὶ οὐ καταλήψεται ἡμᾶς δικαιοσύνη. Προσδοκήσωμεν εἰς φῶς, καὶ ἰδοὺ σκότος, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Καὶ οἱ Ἑβδομήκοντα δὲ τὰ ἐπαγόμενα τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ λαοῦ περιέθηκαν· Ἀνεμείναμεν κρίσιν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι σωτηρία. Ὡς ἂν τοῦ προφήτου διδάσκοντος αὐτοὺς ἐξομολογεῖσθαι τῷ Θεῷ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἁμαρτίας, καὶ κατηγορεῖν ἑαυτῶν ἐπὶ μετανοίᾳ. Τινὲς δέ φασιν, ὡς ἐπειδὰν οἱ προφῆται μνησθῶσι τῆς ἀποβολῆς τοῦ λαοῦ τῆς μετὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ἀσέβειαν, μέμνηνται χρησίμως καὶ τῆς ἐπ' ἐσχάτων ἀνακλήσεως τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ διὰ πίστεως, διὸ καὶ νῦν μετανοούντων εἰσήγαγε πρόσωπον· Ἀνεμείναμεν κρίσιν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν, κρίσιν λεγόντων τὴν διὰ πίστεως δοθεῖσαν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, ἣν προσδοκήσαντες οὐκ ἔσχον. Τὸ δὲ αἴτιον, Πολλὴ γὰρ ἡμῶν ἡ ἀνομία, φασίν. Οὐ γὰρ ἐδεξάμεθα τὸν διὰ πίστεως ἐξαλείφοντα ἁμαρτίας, ὃς αὐτοῖς ἔλεγεν· "Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ πιστεύσητε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν ἀποθανεῖσθε." Καὶ τὰ κατὰ Χριστοῦ τολμηθέντα δηλοῦντες, φασίν· Ἠσεβήσαμεν, καὶ ἐψευσάμεθα. Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος· Ἔγνωμεν, φησὶν, ἀδικεῖν καὶ ψεύδεσθαι κατὰ Κυρίου. Οἱ δὲ Ἀκύλας ἀρνήσασθαι ἐν Κυρίῳ, τὴν ἄρνησιν αὐτῶν παριστάς· Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπέστημεν, φασὶν, ὄπισθεν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν, ἐλαλήσαμεν συκοφαντίαν. Ὁρᾷς ὡς οὐδαμοῦ αὐτῶν εἰδωλολατρείαν κατηγορεῖ, ἀλλὰ συκοφαντίας, καὶ λόγους ψευδεῖς, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα. Ποτὲ μὲν τὰς θεοσημείας διαβάλλοντες ἔλεγον· "Ἐν Βεελζεβοὺλ ἄρχοντι τῶν δαιμονίων ἐκβάλλει τὰ δαιμόνια." Ἀπὸ καρδίας τε αὐτῶν ἐρευγόμενοι ψευδῆ τε καὶ ἄδικα, Σαμαρείτην καὶ δαιμονῶντα, φάγον καὶ οἰνοπότην ἐκάλουν, ἀνασείειν τε τοὺς ὄχλους ἔφασκον. ∆ιό φασιν· Ἀπεστήσαμεν ὀπίσω τὴν κρίσιν. Οὐ γὰρ αὐτὴ, φησὶν, ἡμᾶς κατέλιπεν, ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς αὐτὴν, οἱονεὶ νῶτα δόντες αὐτῇ. Αἱ δὲ φωναὶ ζητούντων εἰσὶν ἐλεηθῆναι παρὰ Χριστοῦ, καὶ συνεχῶς ὁμολογούντων τῆς ἀληθείας τὴν ἄρνησιν, καὶ τοὺς ψευδεῖς ἑαυτῶν λο 2609 γισμούς. Τὸν δὲ λόγον εἰς ἑαυτὸν ὁ