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these things are said to the people of the circumcision, having such a meaning: Having once already before in the desert heard the voice of God, you provoked him, hardening your hearts in the time of Moses; but since the same Word of God is about to speak to men a second time, having appeared in this life, and to teach among you the mysteries of the New Testament, see that you do not again harden yourselves as you hardened them before, nor again provoke him, if you should hear his voice again, nor imitate your fathers in this, so that you do not deprive yourselves of the true sabbath-rest and of his rest, which rest the Word of God himself will bring, having received his own kingdom, and resting in it, and receiving all those who accept him into the same rest, and providing his holy and true Sabbath to those worthy of the rest that is with him and in his presence. In the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted me, they tested me and saw my works. For forty years I was grieved with that generation; and I said: They always go astray in their heart. And they have not known my ways, so I swore in my wrath, that they shall not enter into my rest. How the fathers tempted God in the desert—not only the fathers of the ancient Jews, as one might suppose, but also of those today who hear the voice of God but are hardened—is found in Moses, and it is often said in the 77th and 94th psalm, and in the 105th; which things you will find by searching for yourself. Since, therefore, for these reasons God swore that those who provoked him would not enter his rest, which the word briefly set forth, we too must take thought and be careful not to fall into the same things. For the same things will befall us, if we, hearing the voice of God still even now calling us on this very day, harden our hearts; for the wrath of God will also seize us and we will fall away from the rest that is with him and in his presence. And what sort of wrath it is, the Apostle shows, saying: But according to your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And what is his rest 23.1217 but the life with him after the departure from the present life, in which we shall rest in his kingdom, delivered from all conduct involving action, and attending only to the contemplation of divine and heavenly things? when pain and sorrow and sighing will flee away; but idleness and release from evils, and leisure and rest and the true Sabbath will succeed for us; in which true Sabbath the Word of God himself will also rest; regarding the sensible world, addressing the things in it to the Jewish people, and exhorting them, if they should be deemed worthy a second time, as at first in the desert, to hear the voice of the Word of God, which was about to speak to them again according to his incarnation, not to be zealous for their fathers, nor again to provoke God as before. And in exhorting such things, he seems to me to foretell and to hint at their future unbelief in Christ, since he was not ignorant of what was to come; he therefore adds next in the person of God and says: And I said: They always go astray in their heart; and again: As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. For if the divine mouth is true, it both brought forth a decree and declared that they always go astray, and by an oath it confirmed that they would not enter into his rest; clearly it prophesied what was to come. Whence they appear to have gone astray in their heart, just as at first in the time of Moses, so also a second time in the time of the Lord, and for this reason to have been deprived of the promise. Therefore, consequently, after the present psalm, the next calls all the nations to the promise of God, as if the former

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τὸν ἐκ περιτομῆς λαὸν ταῦτα λέγεται, τοιαύτην ἔχοντα διάνοιαν· Ἅπαξ ποτὲ ἤδη πρότερον ἐπὶ τῆς ἐρήμου τῆς φωνῆς ἀκούσαντες τοῦ Θεοῦ, παρεπικράνατε αὐτὸν σκληρύναντες ἑαυτῶν τὰς καρδίας ἐπὶ Μωϋσέως· ἀλλ' ἐπειδήπερ ὁ αὐτὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος μέλλει δεύτερον ἀνθρώποις λαλεῖν ἐπιφανεὶς τῷ βίῳ, καὶ παρ' ὑμῖν αὐτοῖς διδάσκειν τὰ τῆς Καινῆς ∆ιαθήκης μυστήρια, ὁρᾶτε μὴ πάλιν σκληρύνητε ἑαυτοὺς ὡς τὸ πρὶν ἐσκληρύνατε, μηδὲ αὖθις αὐτὸν παραπικράνητε, ἐὰν αὖθις τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ ἀκούσητε, μηδὲ τοὺς πατέρας ὑμῶν κατὰ τοῦτο μιμήσησθε, ὅπως μὴ στερήσητε αὑτοὺς τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ σαββατισμοῦ καὶ τῆς καταπαύσεως αὐτοῦ, ἣν καταπαύσει αὐτὸς ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, τὴν οἰκείαν ἀπολαβὼν βασιλείαν, καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ ἀναπαυσόμενος, πάντας τε τοὺς παραδεχομένους αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν ἀνάπαυλαν ὑποδεξόμενος, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον καὶ τὸ ἀληθὲς αὐτοῦ Σάββατον παρέξων τοῖς ἀξίοις τῆς παρ' αὐτῷ καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ ἀναπαύσεως. Κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ πειρασμοῦ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, οὗ ἐπείρασάν με οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν, ἐδοκίμασάν με καὶ εἶδον τὰ ἔργα μου. Τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη προσώχθισα τῇ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ· καὶ εἶπα· Ἀεὶ πλανῶνται τῇ καρδίᾳ. Αὐτοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὰς ὁδούς μου, ὡς ὤμοσα ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ μου, εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου. Ὅπως ἐπείρασαν τὸν Θεὸν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ οἱ πατέρες οὐχὶ τῶν πάλαι Ἰουδαίων μόνον, ὡς ἂν ὑπολάβοι τις, ἀλλὰ τῶν καὶ σήμερον ἀκουόντων μὲν τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ, σκληρυνομένων δὲ, κεῖται παρὰ Μωϋσεῖ, καὶ ἐν οʹ δὲ καὶ ζʹ ψαλμῷ πολλάκις εἴρηται, καὶ ἐν ρεʹ· ἅπερ καθ' ἑαυτὸν ἐπιζητήσας εὑρήσεις. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν διὰ ταῦτα ὤμοσεν ὁ Θεὸς μὴ εἰσελεύσεσθαι τοὺς παραπικράναντας εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ, ἣν ὁ λόγος διὰ βραχέων παρέστησε, προνοητέον καὶ ἡμῖν καὶ μεριμνητέον μὴ τοῖς ὁμοίοις περιπεσεῖν. Τὰ αὐτὰ γὰρ καὶ ἡμᾶς διαδέξεται, εἰ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ φωνῆς εἰς ἔτι καὶ νῦν κατὰ τὴν σήμερον ἡμέραν ἀνακαλουμένης ἡμᾶς ἀκούοντες σκληρύνωμεν τὰς ἑαυτῶν καρδίας· διαλήψεται γὰρ καὶ ἡμᾶς ὀργὴ Θεοῦ καὶ ἀποπεσούμεθα τῆς παρ' αὐτῷ καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ ἀναπαύσεως. Ὁποία δέ ἐστιν ἡ ὀργὴ, παρίστησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος λέγων· Κατὰ δὲ τὴν σκληρότητά σου, καὶ ἀμετανόητον καρδίαν, θησαυρίζεις σεαυτῷ ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως δικαιοκρισίας τοῦ Θεοῦ. Τίς δὲ καὶ ἡ κατάπαυσις αὐτοῦ 23.1217 ἀλλ' ἡ μετὰ τὴν ἔξοδον τοῦ παρόντος βίου σὺν αὐτῷ διατριβὴ, καθ' ἣν ἀναπαυσόμεθα ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ βασιλείᾳ, πάσης τῆς διὰ πράξεως ἀγωγῆς ἀπηλλαγμένοι, μόνῃ δὲ τῇ τῶν θείων καὶ ἐπουρανίων θέᾳ προσανέχοντες; ὅτε ἀποδράσεται μὲν ὀδύνη καὶ λύπη καὶ στεναγμός· ἀργία δὲ καὶ ἀπαλλαγὴ κακῶν, σχολή τε καὶ ἀνάπαυλα καὶ τὸ ἀληθινὸν Σάββατον ἡμᾶς διαδέξεται· ἐν ᾧ Σαββάτῳ ἀληθινῷ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος ἀναπαύσεται· τὸ μὲν περὶ τὸν αἰσθητὸν κόσμον, τῷ Ἰουδαίων λαῷ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ προσφωνῶν, καὶ παρακαλῶν αὐτοὺς, εἰ δεύτερον καταξιωθεῖεν, ὡς τὸ πρῶτον ἐπὶ τῆς ἐρήμου, ἀκοῦσαι τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου φωνῆς, ἥτις ἤμελλεν αὐτοῖς πάλιν κατὰ τὴν ἐνανθρώπησιν αὐτοῦ λαλεῖν, μὴ τοὺς πατέρας αὐτῶν ζηλῶσαι, μηδ' αὖθις τὸν Θεὸν παραπικράναι ὡς καὶ πρότερον. Τοιαῦτα δὲ παρακαλῶν, προλέγειν μοι δοκεῖ καὶ προαινίττεσθαι τὴν ἐσομένην αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν ἀπιστίαν, ἅτε τὸ μέλλον μὴ ἀγνοῶν· ἐπάγει δ' οὖν ἑξῆς ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ φησίν· Καὶ εἶπα· Ἀεὶ πλανῶνται τῇ καρδίᾳ· καὶ πάλιν· Ὡς ὤμοσα ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ μου, εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου. Εἰ γὰρ ἀψευδὲς τυγχάνει τὸ θεῖον στόμα, ὅρον τε ἐξήνεγκεν καὶ ἀπεφήνατο, ὅτι ἀεὶ πλανῶνται, ὅρκῳ τε ἐβεβαίωσε τὸ μὴ εἰσελθεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ· σαφῶς τὸ μέλλον ἐθέσπισεν. Ὅθεν φαίνονται ὥσπερ τὸ πρῶτον ἐπὶ Μωϋσέως, οὕτω καὶ τὸ δεύτερον ἐπὶ τοῦ Κυρίου πλανηθέντες τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῆς ἐπαγγελίας στερηθέντες. ∆ιόπερ ἀκολούθως μετὰ τὸν παρόντα ψαλμὸν ὁ ἑξῆς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη εἰς τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καλεῖ, ὡς ἂν τοῦ προτέρου