262

makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. And through these things he commands those who are able to pray for all the people not to be silent nor to be quiet, but not even to give quiet to God himself, but with cries and unrestrained shouts to arouse him, until he brings to fulfillment the things that have been promised. And while these are crying out and not allowing the Lord to delay, he who promised and said: 'While you are still speaking, I will say, Behold, I am here,' deems them worthy of a response. Therefore he adds next: The Lord swore by his glory and by the strength of his arm, Surely I will no longer give your grain and your food to your enemies, and surely strangers will no longer drink your wine, for which you have toiled. For formerly these things used to happen, whenever they offered their own fruit as food to the enemies of God, by doing and performing such things that their own actions became food for demons; but now the Lord swears by an oath to those who will be deemed worthy of the new age and who will obtain the promised things, that he will no longer give their fruits to enemies, but that they themselves will enjoy them; for it is right for those who live a virtuous life and pass their days in piety to enjoy their own fruits according to what is said: 'You shall eat the labors of your fruits,' and they shall eat, he says, and drink in my holy courts. And these would be 'the many mansions in my Father's house,' and since he mentioned courts, or according to the other interpreters, halls, he consequently also mentions the sanctuary. Therefore he adds next: Go through, go through my gates and prepare the way for my people and cast out the stones from the way. And through these things he allows us to understand 'the heavenly city of God' and its gates and the courts inside the city; all of which indeed, in the promised age, will be opened to the worthy and it will be said: Go through, go through my gates. Then, so that no hindrance nor obstacle nor any envy nor malice nor pretext nor demon nor evil spirit nor opposing power may prevent my people from entering into the kingdom of heaven, these things will be said to certain angelic powers. Then he adds next: Raise up a standard for the nations. For behold, the Lord has made it heard to the end of the earth; for let no one think, he says, that these things were said concerning the Jewish people, since he commands that the sign be raised for all the nations and proclaims the good news of the aforementioned things to all who are to the end of the earth. Then he clearly teaches the daughter of Zion, the church, to expect her savior, saying: Say to the daughter of Zion: And he called the new church of God the daughter of Zion, she who has received the new name, being the daughter of the former pious commonwealth among the Jews, to whom he also speaks, saying: Behold, your savior has come to you, having his own reward. But observe how these very things were also declared through the things before, in which it was said: 'Behold, the Lord comes with strength, behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him,' but now: Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your savior has come to you, having with him his reward, and his work before his face; Formerly, therefore, at his first coming, this same one was a savior, through what he did and suffered on behalf of the human race, procuring salvation from God for those who believe in him, by which also he was named 'Jesus' according to the testimony of the angel. For presenting his second arrival, the discourse introduces him as a judge and a rewarder. And he will call him a holy people, redeemed by the Lord. But instead of: and he will call him, it is said among the other interpreters: and they will call them, that is, those who will be saved. These therefore will be called a holy people, redeemed by the Lord, but you, the city of God, to whom such great things have been said, will be called a city sought out and not forsaken.

262

θῇ τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ αἴνεσιν ἐν τῇ γῇ. προστάττει δὲ διὰ τούτων τοῖς ὑπερεύχεσθαι δυναμένοις τοῦ παντὸς λαοῦ μὴ ἀποσιωπᾶν μηδὲ ἡσυχάζειν, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ αὐτῷ ἡσυχίαν διδόναι τῷ θεῷ, βοαῖς δὲ καὶ κραυγαῖς ἀσχέτοις διεγείρειν αὐτόν, ἔστ' ἂν ἐπὶ πέρας ἀγάγοι τὰ ἐπηγγελμένα. Τούτων δὲ βοώντων καὶ μὴ συγχωρούντων τῷ κυρίῳ ἀναβάλλεσθαι ὁ ἐπαγγειλάμενος καὶ εἰπών· «ἔτι λαλοῦντός σου ἐρῶ Ἰδοὺ πάρειμι», ἀποκρίσεως αὐτοὺς καταξιοῖ. διὸ ἐπιλέγει ἑξῆς· ὤμοσε κύριος κατὰ τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ καὶ κατὰ τῆς ἰσχύος τοῦ βραχίονος αὐτοῦ Εἰ ἔτι δώσω τὸν σῖτόν σου καὶ τὰ βρώματά σου τοῖς ἐχθροῖς σου, καὶ εἰ ἔτι πίονται υἱοὶ ἀλλότριοι τὸν οἶνόν σου, ἐφ' ᾧ ἐμόχθησας. πάλαι μὲν γὰρ ταῦτα ἐγίνετο, ὁπηνίκα τὸν ἑαυτῶν καρπὸν βρῶμα παρεῖχον τοῖς ἐχθροῖς τοῦ θεοῦ τοιαῦτα πράττοντες καὶ ἐνεργοῦντες ὡς δαιμόνων γίνεσθαι τροφὴν τὰς αὐτῶν πράξεις· νυνὶ δὲ τοῖς τοῦ νέου αἰῶνος καταξιωθησομένοις καὶ τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων τευξομένοις ὅρκῳ ὄμνυσιν ὁ κύριος μηκέτι δώσειν ἐχθροῖς τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῶν, ἀλλ' αὐτοὺς αὐτῶν ἀπολαύσειν· κατορθοῦντας γὰρ τὸν κατ' ἀρετὴν βίον καὶ θεοσεβῶς διάγοντας δίκαιον τῶν οἰκείων ἀπολαύσειν καρπῶν κατὰ τὸ λεγόμενον· «τοὺς πόνους τῶν καρπῶν σου φάγεσαι», φάγονται δέ φησι καὶ πίονται ἐν ταῖς ἐπαύλεσι ταῖς ἁγίαις μου. εἶεν δ' ἂν αὗται «αἱ πολλαὶ μοναὶ αἱ παρὰ τῷ πατρί», καὶ ἐπειδήπερ ἐμνημόνευσεν ἐπαύλεων, ἢ κατὰ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἑρμηνευτὰς αὐλῶν, ἀκολούθως καὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ μνημονεύει. ∆ιὸ ἐπιλέγει ἑξῆς· πορεύεσθε πορεύεσθε διὰ τῶν πυλῶν μου καὶ ὁδοποιήσατε τῷ λαῷ μου καὶ τοὺς λίθους ἐκ τῆς ὁδοῦ διαρρίψατε. νοεῖν δὲ ἡμῖν παρέχει διὰ τούτων «τὴν ἐπουράνιον τοῦ θεοῦ πόλιν» καὶ τὰς αὐτῆς πύλας καὶ τὰς εἴσω τῆς πόλεως αὐλάς· ἃ δὴ πάντα κατὰ τὸν ἐπηγγελμένον αἰῶνα ἀναπετασθήσεται τοῖς ἀξίοις καὶ λεχθήσεται· πορεύεσθε πορεύεσθε διὰ τῶν πυλῶν μου. εἶθ' ὅπως μηδὲν κώλυμα μηδ' ἐμπόδιον μηδέ τις φθόνος μηδὲ βάσκανος μὴ πρόφασίς τε μὴ δαίμων μὴ πνεῦμα πονηρὸν μὴ δύναμις ἀντικειμένη διακωλυέτω τὸν λαὸν τὸν ἐμὸν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν εἰσιέναι, ταῦτα δὲ πρός τινας ἀγγελικὰς λεχθήσεται δυνάμεις. εἶθ' ἑξῆς ἐπιλέγει· ἄρατε σύσσημον εἰς τὰ ἔθνη. ἰδοὺ γὰρ κύριος ἐποίησεν ἀκουστὸν ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς· μὴ γὰρ νομιζέτω τις φησὶ περὶ τοῦ Ἰουδαίων λαοῦ ταῦτ' εἰρῆσθαι, ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἰς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τὸ σημεῖον αἴρεσθαι προστάττει καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς εὐαγγελίζεται τὰ προλεχθέντα. εἶτα τὴν θυγατέρα Σιὼν σαφῶς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὸν σωτῆρα ἑαυτῆς προσδοκᾶν διδάσκει λέγων· Εἴπατε τῇ θυγατρὶ Σιών· θυγατέρα δὲ Σιὼν ὠνόμασε τὴν νέαν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν τὸ καινὸν ὄνομα ἀπειληφυῖαν θυγατέρα οὖσαν τοῦ προτέρου παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις θεοσεβοῦς πολιτεύματος, ᾗ καὶ προσφωνεῖ λέγων· Ἰδοὺ ὁ σωτήρ σοι παραγέγονεν ἔχων τὸν ἑαυτοῦ μισθόν. τήρει δ' ὅπως αὐτὰ ταῦτα καὶ διὰ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν ἐδηλοῦτο, ἐν οἷς ἐλέγετο· «ἰδοὺ κύριος μετὰ ἰσχύος ἔρχεται, ἰδοὺ ὁ μισθὸς αὐτοῦ μετ' αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ ἐναντίον αὐτοῦ», νῦν δέ· Εἴπατε τῇ θυγατρὶ Σιών Ἰδοὺ ὁ σωτήρ σοι παραγέγονεν ἔχων μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ τὸν μισθὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ πρὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ· πάλαι μὲν οὖν κατὰ τὴν πρώτην αὐτοῦ παρουσίαν ὁ αὐτὸς οὗτος ἦν σωτήρ, δι' ὧν ἔπραξε καὶ πέπονθεν ὑπὲρ τοῦ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένους τὴν παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ σωτηρίαν τοῖς εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύουσι προξενῶν, παρ' ᾧ καὶ «Ἰησοῦς ὠνομάσθη» κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀγγέλου μαρτυρίαν. τὴν γὰρ δευτέραν ἄφιξιν αὐτοῦ παριστὰς ὁ λόγος κριτὴν αὐτὸν εἰσάγει καὶ μισθαποδότην. Καὶ καλέσει αὐτὸν λαὸν ἅγιον λελυτρωμένον ὑπὸ κυρίου. ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ· καὶ καλέσει αὐτόν, καὶ καλέσουσιν αὐτούς, τοὺς σωθησομένους δηλαδή, παρὰ τοῖς λοιποῖς ἑρμηνευταῖς εἴρηται. οὗτοι μὲν οὖν κληθήσονται λαὸς ἅγιος λελυτρωμένος ὑπὸ κυρίου, σὺ δὲ ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ πόλις, πρὸς ἣν τὰ τοσαῦτα λέλεκται, κληθήσῃ ἐπιζητουμένη πόλις καὶ οὐκ ἐγκαταλελειμμένη.