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every precious stone, and Parian stones in abundance." QUESTION 29. What is, "Behold, this is written in the book of the song?" I have often said that there were many prophetic books; and this, God willing, we will show more accurately when we interpret the book of Chronicles. QUESTION 30. How is this to be understood, "Rejoicing and praising before God for seven days, and for fourteen days, and on the eighth day he sent the people away? He called the people together at the feast of Tabernacles. They celebrated, therefore, for fourteen days: seven for the dedication, and seven for the Tabernacles. He calls, then, the day after the last seven the eighth. And after the end of the feast, 80.697 the Lord God again proposes to Solomon these things, working out salvation. For lest, being freed from care, he should incline to indolence, He necessarily reminded him of the laws, and promised to confirm the promise made to his father, and threatened destruction to those who transgress the laws, and to leave the sanctified temple desolate on their account; "For if," He says, "you and your children turn away from me, and do not keep my commandments which Moses gave before you, and you go and serve other gods and worship them, I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and this house which I have consecrated to my name, I will cast out of my sight; and Jerusalem shall be for a destruction, and a byword among all peoples; and this house which is high, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss;" and what follows, which shows the reason for the hissing. "For upon inquiring," He says, "why Israel has suffered these things, they will learn that it is because they forsook the Lord God, who freed them from the bondage of the Egyptians and gave them this land." QUESTION 31. What is Ezion-geber? As Josephus said, the city now called Berenice; and this is a coastal city of the Ethiopians near Egypt. QUESTION 32. What is Ophir? It is a certain region of India, which the geographers call the golden land. QUESTION 33. What nation is Sheba? Ethiopian. They say that they lie from there by the Indian sea. And they call them Homerites. They are opposite the Axumites; and the sea is between them and those. Over these reigned that wonderful woman whose zeal the Lord Christ praised in the holy Gospels. For having heard the famed reports concerning the wisdom of Solomon, she completed a journey of very many days, and considered the labor a gain, and preferred this to the sustenance in palaces, and through Solomon she praised the Giver of wisdom. "For," she said, "may the Lord your God be blessed, 80.700 who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel, to establish it forever; and He made you king over them, to execute judgment in righteousness, and in His judgments." And I was reminded of the apostolic teaching, which marveled at those who were justified without the law: "For when," it says, "the Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves." For she too, being a foreigner, and having neither received the divine law, nor enjoyed prophetic cultivation, was content with the law of nature, and marveled at righteousness, and praised righteous judgment, and through the one who received the gift of wisdom, she hymned the great Giver. QUESTION 34. What difference does the nebel have from the kithara? Each of them has ten strings. But they say that the nebel is played with the fingers, but the kithara is struck with a plectrum. QUESTION 35. What does it call unhewn wood? I think that which is smooth, and straight, and free from knots. But Josephus has said it is pine, hardly resembling the pine among us. For he has said that it is whiter, and smoother, and denser than fig wood. QUESTION 30. What city is Tharshish? Here it named a certain country of India. But those who interpreted Ezekiel, Carthage which presides over the land of Libya

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πάντα λίθον τίμιον, καὶ λίθους Παρίους εἰς πλῆθος." ΕΡΩΤ. ΚΘʹ. Τί ἐστιν, "Ἰδοὺ αὕτη γέγραπται ἐπὶ βιβλίου τῆς ᾠδῆς;" Πολλάκις ἔφην, ὅτι πολλὰ ἦν βιβλία προφητικά· καὶ τοῦτο, σὺν Θεῷ φάναι, δηλώσομεν ἀκριβέστερον ἑρμηνεύσοντες τῶν Παραλειπομένων τὴν βίβλον. ΕΡΩΤ. Λʹ. Πῶς νοητέον, "Εὐφραινόμενος καὶ αἰνῶν ἐν ώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας, καὶ τεσσαρεσ καίδεκα ἡμέρας, καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ὀγδόῃ ἐξαπέστειλε τὸν λαόν; Ἐν τῇ τῆς Σκηνοπηγίας ἑορτῇ συνεκάλεσε τὸν λαόν. Ἐπανηγύρησαν οὖν τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα ἡμέρας· ἑπτὰ μὲν τῶν ἐγκαινίων· ἑπτὰ δὲ τῆς σκηνοπη γίας. Ὀγδόην τοίνυν καλεῖ, τὴν μετὰ τὰς ἑπτὰ τὰς τελευταίας ἡμέραν. Μετὰ δὲ τὸ τέλος τῆς ἑορτῆς, 80.697 ὑποτίθεται πάλιν ὁ ∆εσπότης Θεὸς τῷ Σολομῶντι, ταυτὶ τὴν σωτηρίαν πραγματευόμενος. Ἵνα γὰρ μὴ τῆς φροντίδος ἀπαλλαγεὶς εἰς ῥᾳθυμίαν ἀπο κλίνῃ, καὶ τῶν νόμων αὐτὸν ἀναγκαίως ἀνέμνησε, καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα γεγενημένην ἐπαγγελίαν ἐμπεδώσειν ὑπέσχετο, καὶ ὄλεθρον ἠπείλησε παρα βᾶσι τοὺς νόμους, καὶ τὸν ἁγιασθέντα νεὼν ἔρημον δι' αὐτοὺς καταλείψειν· "Ἐὰν γὰρ, φησὶν, ἀποστραφέν τες ἀποστραφῆτε ὑμεῖς, καὶ τὰ τέκνα ὑμῶν, ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, καὶ τὰ προστάγματά μου, ἃ ἔδωκε Μωσῆς ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν, μὴ φυλάξητε, καὶ πορευθῆτε καὶ δουλεύσητε θεοῖς ἑτέροις, καὶ προσκυνήσητε αὐτοῖς· καὶ ἐξαρῶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἧς ἔδωκα αὐτοῖς, καὶ τὸν οἶκον τοῦτον, ὃν ἡγίασα τῷ ὀνόματί μου, ἀποῤῥίψω ἐκ προσώπου μου· καὶ ἔσται Ἱερουσαλὴμ εἰς ἀφα νισμὸν, καὶ εἰς λάλημα εἰς πάντας τοὺς λαούς· καὶ ὁ οἶκος οὗτος ὁ ὑψηλὸς, πᾶς πορευόμενος δι' αὐ τοῦ ἐκστήσεται καὶ συριεῖ·" καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, ἃ δηλοῖ τὴν αἰτίαν τοῦ συριγμοῦ. "Πυνθανόμενοι γὰρ, φησὶ, τί δήποτε ταῦτα πέπονθεν Ἰσραὴλ, μαθήσονται ὡς διὰ τὸ καταλιπεῖν αὐτοὺς τὸν Κύριον τὸν Θεὸν, ὃς τῶν Αἰγυπτίων αὐτοὺς ἐλευθερώσας δουλείας, ταύτην αὐτοῖς τὴν γῆν ἐδωρήσατο." ΕΡΩΤ. ΛΑʹ. Ποία ἐστὶν ἡ Γασίων γαβέρ; Ὡς Ἰώσηπος ἔφη, ἡ νῦν καλουμένη Βερονί κη· ἔστι δὲ αὕτη παράλιος πόλις Αἰθιόπων τῶν πρὸς Αἰγύπτῳ. ΕΡΩΤ. ΛΒʹ. Σοφερὰ ποία ἐστίν; Χώρα τις ἔστι τῆς Ἰνδίας, ἣν οἱ γεωγράφοι χρυ σῆν ὀνομάζουσι γῆν. ΕΡΩΤ. ΛΓʹ. Σαβᾶ ποῖόν ἐστιν ἔθνος; Αἰθιοπικόν. Ἐντεῦθεν δὲ αὐτοὺς κεῖσθαί φασι τῆς θαλάσσης τῆς Ἰνδικῆς. Ὀνομάζουσι δὲ αὐτοὺς Ὁμηρίτας. Κατάντικρυ δέ εἰσι τῶν Αὐξουμιτῶν· μέση δὲ τούτων κἀκείνων ἡ θάλασσα. Τούτων ἐβασίλευ σεν ἡ θαυμασία ἐκείνη γυνὴ ἧς ἐπῄνεσε τὴν σπουδὴν ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς Εὐαγγελίοις ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστός. Ἀκούσασα γὰρ τὰ περὶ τῆς τοῦ Σολομῶντος σοφίας θρυλλούμενα, ὁδὸν παμπόλλων ἐξήνυσεν ἡμερῶν, καὶ κέρδος τὸν πόνον ὑπέλαβε, καὶ τοῦτον τῆς ἐν βασιλείοις τροφῆς προτετίμηκε, καὶ διὰ τοῦ Σολομῶντος τὸν τῆς σοφίας ἀνύμνησε χορηγόν. "Γένοιτο γὰρ, ἔφη, Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου εὐλογημένος, 80.700 ὃς ἠθέλησεν ἐν σοὶ δοῦναί σε ἐπὶ θρόνον Ἰσραὴλ, τοῦ στῆσαι αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα· καὶ ἔθετό σε βασι λέα ἐπ' αὐτοὺς, τοῦ ποιεῖν κρίμα ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, καὶ ἐν κρίμασιν αὐτοῦ." Ἐγὼ δὲ τῆς ἀποστολικῆς ἀνεμνήσθην διδασκαλίας, ἣ τοὺς δίχα νόμου δικαιω θέντας ἐθαύμασεν· "Ὅταν γὰρ, φησὶν, ἔθνη τὰ μὴ νόμον ἔχοντα φύσει τὰ τοῦ νόμου ποιῇ, οὗτοι νόμον μὴ ἔχοντες ἑαυτοῖς εἰσι νόμος." Καὶ αὕτη γὰρ ἀλλό φυλος οὖσα, καὶ μήτε νόμον δεξαμένη θεῖον, μήτε προφητικῆς ἀπολαύσασα γεωργίας, ἠρκέσθη τῷ τῆς φύσεως νόμῳ, καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἐθαύμασε, καὶ τὴν δικαίαν κρίσιν εὐφήμισε, καὶ διὰ τοῦ δεξαμένου τῆς σοφίας τὸ δῶρον, τὸν μεγαλόδωρον ὕμνησεν. ΕΡΩΤ. Λ∆ʹ. Τίνα διαφορὰν ἡ ναύλα πρὸς τὴν κινύραν ἔχει; Ἀνὰ δέκα μὲν φθόγγους καὶ αὕτη κἀκείνη ἔχει. Φασὶ δὲ τὴν μὲν ναύλαν δακτύλοις, τὴν δὲ κινύραν ἀνακρούεσθαι πλήκτρῳ. ΕΡΩΤ. ΛΕʹ. Ξύλα ἀπελέκητα ποῖα καλεῖ; Οἶμαι ὅτι τὰ λεῖα, καὶ ὀρθὰ, καὶ ὄζων ἀπηλλαγμέ να. Ὁ δὲ Ἰώσηπος πεύκινα αὐτὰ εἴρηκεν, ἥκιστα τοῖς παρ' ἡμῖν ἐοικότα πευκίνοις. Τοῦ συκίνου γὰρ ξύλου καὶ λευκότερα εἶναι, καὶ λειότερα, καὶ στρυφνότερα εἴρηκε. ΕΡΩΤ. Λʹ. Ποία πόλις ἐστὶν ἡ Θαρσεῖς; Ἐνταῦθα Ἰνδικήν τινα χώραν ὠνόμασεν. Οἱ δὲ τὸν Ἐζεκιὴλ ἑρμηνεύσαντες, τὴν Καρχηδόνα τῆς γῆς Λιβύης προκαθημένην