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soul (for such the bird is said to be), bewailing and lamenting the wickedness among men, also found refuge in the altars established throughout the whole world through the teaching of your Christ; where, as in nests and roosts, she will place the newborn and infant of her children, having found a safe and secure dwelling for her young; so that your altars are a house for the sparrow, and a nest for the turtledove. For these birds, I mean the sparrow and the turtledove, long ago, before the establishment of the altars everywhere on earth, had no refuge; but wandered for a long time, during which it was driven and persecuted by the hunters. Therefore indeed he said, the one driven like a sparrow: In the Lord I have put my trust, how will you say to my soul, "Flee to the mountains like a sparrow?" And having been delivered from the hand of enemies, they too confessed saying: Our soul has been delivered as a sparrow from the snare of the fowlers. Therefore the unseen and invisible hunters, plotting against the souls that pursue the heavenly and sublime life, setting nets and snares, prepared all kinds of traps to plot against them. And these things were represented by the preceding psalm, in which it was said: "For behold, your enemies have made a noise, and those who hate you have lifted up their head. They have devised a cunning plan against your people, they have consulted against your holy ones." During these times of persecutions, in which the enemies of God, warring against his people, pursued them, the people of God, fleeing here and there like sparrows, having later been deemed worthy of peace, found the tabernacles of God, and his courts, and the altars a refuge and rest for themselves. And you might say that the agile and those who have undertaken the solitary life are the sparrow, but those who have made provision for child-rearing and the other management of a household are the turtledove, which he says ought to offer to God their own young and dedicate them, as in a nest, in his altars. My king and my God, blessed are all who dwell in your house, for ever and ever they will praise you. Selah. Why are your tabernacles dear and beloved to me, and for what reason does my soul faint for them, but also my heart and my flesh, in what did they rejoice? Because indeed the sparrow has found for itself a house and the turtledove a nest, your altars, O Lord of hosts; at which altars those who do not spend a short time, but dwell continually, and abide constantly, are thrice-blessed. And having said this, he set aside all the ordinances of Moses. For he did not say the circumcised are blessed, nor those who keep the Sabbath, nor those who observe the sacrifices of Moses and the remaining commandments of the bodily law, nor the descendants of Abraham, nor Israel, 23.1009 nor the nation of the Jews, but simply all who dwell in the house of God. For what could be truly more blessed than to proclaim God as his king, and the Lord of hosts, and to dwell in his house continually, from which is supplied the immortality of God and eternal life? At any rate, the word represents this, saying: For ever and ever they will praise you who dwell in your house. For how else could someone praise God for ever and ever unless he himself also lives forever, possessing an eternal and immortal life? Blessed is the man whose help is from you, he has set ascents in his heart, in the valley of weeping, in the place which he appointed. Having completed the connection and the sequence of thought, he has used a change of speech after the Selah. Therefore, having above, in the plural, called blessed those who dwell in the house of God, here he blesses a certain one by way of exception. And who is this if not the one in the

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ψυχὴ (τοιοῦτον γὰρ εἶναι λέγεται τὸ ὄρνεον), ἀποκλᾳομένη καὶ θρηνοῦσα τὴν ἐν ἀνθρώποις κακίαν, εὗρε καταφυγὴν καὶ αὐτὴ τὰ καθ' ὅλης τῆς οἰκουμένης ἱδρυθέντα διὰ τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ σου διδασκαλίας θυσιαστήρια· ἔνθα ὥσπερ ἐν καλιαῖς καὶ νεοττίαις τὰ ἀρτιγενῆ καὶ νεογνὰ τῶν αὐτῆς τέκνων ἀποθήσεται, ἀσφαλῆ καὶ ἀνεπιβούλευτον εὑροῦσα τοῖς ἑαυτῆς νεοττοῖς μονήν· ὥστε εἶναι τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου στρουθίῳ μὲν οἰκίαν, καλιὰν δὲ τρυγόνι. Ταῦτα γὰρ τὰ ὄρνεα, τὸ στρουθίον λέγω καὶ ἡ τρυγὼν, πάλαι μὲν, πρὸ τοῦ συστῆναι τὰ πανταχοῦ γῆς θυσιαστήρια, οὐκ εἶχε καταφυγήν· ἐπλανᾶτο δὲ μακροῖς χρόνοις, ἐν οἷς ἠλαύνετο καὶ ἐδιώκετο πρὸς τῶν θηρευτῶν. ∆ιὸ δὴ ἔλεγον ὁ δίκην στρουθίου ἐλαυνόμενος· Ἐπὶ τῷ Κυρίῳ πέποιθα, πῶς ἐρεῖτε τῇ ψυχῇ μου, μεταναστεύου ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη ὡς στρουθίον; Καὶ ῥυσθέντες γε ἐκ χειρὸς ἐχθρῶν, ὡμολόγουν λέγοντες καὶ αὐτοί· Ἡ ψυχὴ ἡμῶν ὡς στρουθίον ἐῤῥύσθη ἐκ τῆς παγίδος τῶν θηρευόντων. Ἀφανεῖς οὖν καὶ ἀόρατοι οἱ θηρευταὶ ταῖς τὸν οὐράνιον καὶ μετάρσιον βίον μεταδιωκούσαις ψυχαῖς ἐπιβουλεύοντες, δίκτυα καὶ παγίδας ἱστῶντες, θήρατρά τε παντοῖα κατεσκεύαζον εἰς ἐπιβουλὴν αὐτῶν. Καὶ ταῦτά γε παρίστατο διὰ τοῦ προηγουμένου ψαλμοῦ, ἐν ᾧ εἴρητο· Ὅτι ἰδοὺ οἱ ἐχθροί σου ἤχησαν, καὶ οἱ μισοῦντές σε ᾖραν κεφαλήν. Ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν σου κατεπανουργεύσαντο γνώμην, ἐβουλεύσαντο κατὰ τῶν ὁσίων σου. Κατὰ τούτους τῶν διωγμῶν καιροὺς, καθ' οὓς οἱ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ πολεμοῦντες ἤλαυνον, οἱ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι δίκην στρουθίων ὧδε κἀκεῖσε περιφεύγοντες, ὕστερόν ποτε εἰρήνης καταξιωθέντες, εὗρον τὰ σκηνώματα τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τὰς αὐλὰς αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὰ θυσιαστήρια καταφυγὴν ἑαυτοῖς καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν. Εἴποις δ' ἂν τοὺς μὲν εὐζώνους καὶ τὸν μονήρη βίον ἐπανῃρημένους εἶναι στρουθίον, τοὺς δὲ παιδοποιίας καὶ τῆς ἄλλης οἰκονομίας πρόνοιαν πεποιημένους, τὴν τρυγόνα, ἣν τῷ Θεῷ φησι προσφέρειν δεῖν τοὺς ἑαυτοὺς νεοττοὺς καὶ ἀνατιθέναι αὐτοὺς, ὡς ἐν καλιᾷ ἐν τοῖς θυσιαστηρίοις αὐτοῦ. Ὁ βασιλεύς μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου, μακάριοι πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου, εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων αἰνέσουσί σε. ∆ιάψαλμα. ∆ιὰ τί προσφιλῆ μοι τυγχάνει καὶ ἀγαπητὰ τὰ σκηνώματά σου, καὶ τίνος ἕνεκα ἐκλείπει ἡ ψυχή μου περὶ αὐτὰ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ καρδία μου καὶ ἡ σάρξ μου ἐπὶ τίνι ἠγαλλιάσατο; Ἐπειδήπερ εὗρεν ἑαυτῷ στρουθίον οἰκίαν καὶ τρυγὼν νοσσιὰν, τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου, Κύριε τῶν δυνάμεων· παρ' οἷς θυσιαστηρίοις οἱ μὴ πρὸς βραχὺ διατρίβοντες, ἀλλ' εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς κατοικοῦντες, καὶ παραμόνως ἐμμένοντες, τρισμακάριοι τυγχάνουσι. Τοῦτο δ' εἰπὼν, πάντα τὰ παρὰ Μωϋσεῖ νόμιμα περιέγραψεν. Οὐ γὰρ μακαρίους εἶπε τοὺς ἐμπεριτόμους, οὐδὲ τοὺς τὰ Σάββατα φυλάττοντας, οὐδὲ τοὺς τὰς παρὰ Μωϋσεῖ θυσίας καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς τοῦ σωματικοῦ νόμου ἐντολὰς ἐπιτηροῦντας, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοὺς ἀπογόνους Ἀβραὰμ, οὐδὲ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ, 23.1009 οὐδὲ τὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος, ἀλλ' ἁπαξαπλῶς ἅπαντας τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Τί γὰρ ἂν γένοιτο ἀληθῶς μακαριώτερον τοῦ βασιλέα μὲν τὸν Θεὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὸν Κύριον τῶν δυνάμεων ἐπιγράφεσθαι, οἰκεῖν δὲ τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ διηνεκῶς, ἐξ οὗ πορίζεται ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀθανασία καὶ ἡ αἰώνιος ζωή; Τοῦτο γοῦν παρίστησιν ὁ λόγος φάσκων· Εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων αἰνέσουσί σε οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου. Πῶς δ' ἂν ἄλλως δύναιτό τις εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων τὸν Θεὸν αἰνεῖν ἢ διαιωνίζων καὶ αὐτὸς, ἀΐδιόν τε καὶ ἀθάνατον κεκτημένος ζωήν; Μακάριος ἀνὴρ οὗ ἐστιν ἀντίληψις αὐτοῦ παρὰ σοῦ, ἀναβάσεις ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ διέθετο, εἰς τὴν κοιλάδα τοῦ κλαυθμῶνος, εἰς τὸν τόπον ὃν ἔθετο. Πληρώσας τὸν εἱρμὸν καὶ τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τῆς διανοίας, μεταβολῇ κέχρηται τοῦ λόγου ἀπὸ διαψάλματος. ∆ιόπερ ἀνωτέρω πληθυντικῶς μακαρίους τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰπὼν, ἐνταῦθα ἕνα τινὰ μακαρίζει κατὰ ἐξαίρετον. Τίνα δὲ τοῦτον ἢ τὸν ἐν τῇ