The Israelites are reproved for their oppressing the poor, for their idolatry, and their incorrigibleness.
The tenne tribes are particularly charged for oppressing the poore, 2. therfore threatned with calamities: 6. blamed for their obstinacie: 12. neuertheles al are admonished to expect Christ.
1Hear this word, ye fat kine that are in the mountains of Samaria: you that oppress the needy, and crush the poor: that say to your masters: Bring, and we will drink.Udite questa parola, voi grasse vacche del monte di Samaria, voi che opprimete i deboli, e straziate i poveri, voi, che dite a' vostri padroni: Portate, e beremo.HEARE this word ye fatte kine, which are in the mountaines of Samaria: which doe calumnie to the needie, and breake the poore: which say to your lords: Bring, and we wil drinke.Audite verbum hoc, vaccæ pingues, / quæ estis in monte Samariæ, / quæ calumniam facitis egenis / et confringitis pauperes; / quæ dicitis dominis vestris: Afferte, et bibemus. 2The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the days shall come upon you, when they shall lift you up on pikes, and what shall remain of you in boiling pots.Il Signore ha giurato per la sua santità, ecco che viene il tempo per voi, in cui v'infilzeranno nelle aste, e il resto sarà messo nelle bollenti caldaie.Our Lord God hath sworne by his holie, that loe the dayes shal come vpon you, and they shal lift you vp on poles, and your remnant in pottes boyling hotte.Juravit Dominus Deus in sancto suo, / quia ecce dies venient super vos, / et levabunt vos in contis, / et reliquias vestras in ollis ferventibus. 3And you shall go out at the breaches one over against the other, and you shall be cast forth into Armon, saith the Lord.E per le brecce uscirete l'una da una parte, l'altra dall'altra, e sarete gettate nel paese di Armon, dice il Signore.And by the breaches you shal goe out one against an other, & you shal be cast forth into Armon, saith our Lord.Et per aperturas exibitis altera contra alteram, / et projiciemini in Armon, / dicit Dominus. 4Come ye to Bethel, and do wickedly: to Galgal, and multiply transgressions: and bring in the morning your victims, your tithes in three days.Andate a Bethel a fare delle empietà: a Galgala a moltiplicare le prevaricazioni: conducetevi al mattino le vostre vittime, e le vostre decime nei tre giorni.Come ye to Bethel, and doe impiousely: to Galgal, and multiplie preuarication: and offer in the morning your victimes, three dayes your tithes.Venite ad Bethel, et impie agite; / ad Galgalam, et multiplicate prævaricationem: / et afferte mane victimas vestras, / tribus diebus decimas vestras. 5And offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven: and call free offerings, and proclaim it: for so you would do, O children of Israel, saith the Lord God.E offerite sagrifizio di laude col fermentato, e annunziate, e fate note le obblazioni volontarie, dacché così a voi piace, o figliuoli d'Israele, dice il Signore Dio.And sacrifice ye prayse of the leauened: and cal voluntarie oblations, and proclaime it: for so would you ô children of Israel, sayth our Lord God.Et sacrificate de fermentato laudem, / et vocate voluntarias oblationes, et annuntiate; / sic enim voluistis, filii Israël, / dicit Dominus Deus.
6Whereupon I also have given you dulness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet you have not returned to me, saith the Lord.Per la qual cosa ho io fatto sì, che si allegassero a voi i denti in tutte le vostre città: e che il pane mancasse in tutto il vostro paese: ma voi però non siete tornati a me, dice il Signore.Wherupon I also haue geuen you dulnes of the teeth in al your cities, and lacke of bread in al your places: and you haue nor returned to me, sayth our Lord.Unde et ego dedi vobis stuporem dentium in cunctis urbibus vestris, / et indigentiam panum in omnibus locis vestris; / et non estis reversi ad me, / dicit Dominus. 7I also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon: and the piece whereupon I rained not, withered.Io pure impedii, che non venisse a voi la pioggia, quando tre mesi ancor rimanevano sino alla mietitura: e feci piovere in una città, e in un'altra non feci piovere: una parte fu rinfrescata, e un'altra parte patì l'asciuttore, perch'io non le diedi la pioggia.I also haue stayed the rayne from you, when there remayned yet three monethes vnto haruest: and I rayned vpon one citie, and vpon an other citie I rayned not: one part was rayned vpon; and the part whereupon I rayned not, withered.Ego quoque prohibui a vobis imbrem, / cum adhuc tres menses superessent usque ad messem: / et plui super unam civitatem, / et super alteram civitatem non plui; / pars una compluta est, / et pars super quam non plui, aruit. 8And two and three cities went to one city to drink water, and were not filled: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.E due, e tre città concorsero ad una per aver acqua da bere, e non si dissetarono; ma voi non tornaste a me, dice il Signore.And two and three cities came to one citie to drinke water, & were not filled: & you returned not to me, saith our Lord.Et venerunt duæ et tres civitates ad unam civitatem / ut biberent aquam, et non sunt satiatæ; / et non redistis ad me, / dicit Dominus. 9I struck you with a burning wind, and with mildew, the palmerworm hath eaten up your many gardens, and your vineyards: your olive groves, and fig groves: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.Vi afflissi co' venti secchi, e colle ruggini. I molti vostri giardini, e le vostre vigne, e i vostri uliveti, e i luoghi piantati di fichi furon divorati dall'eruca; ma voi non tornaste a me, dice il Signore.I stroke you with a burning winde, & with blasting, the multitude of your gardens, and al your vineyards: your oliue groues, & figgroues the eruke hath eaten: and you returned not to me, sayth our Lord.Percussi vos in vento urente, et in aurugine: / multitudinem hortorum vestrorum et vinearum vestrarum, / oliveta vestra et ficeta vestra comedit eruca: / et non redistis ad me, / dicit Dominus.
10I sent death upon you in the way of Egypt, I slew your young men with the sword, even to the captivity of your horses: and I made the stench of your camp to come up into your nostrils: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.Mandai la morte sopra di voi nel la strada d'Egitto, feci perire di spada la vostra gioventù, e gli stessi vostri cavalli furono presi: feci giungere al vostro odorato il fetore della putredine del vostro campo, e voi non tornaste a me, dice il Signore.I sent death vpon you in the way of Aegypt, I stroke your yongmen with the sword, euen to the captiuitie of your horses: and I made the putrefaction of your campe to come vp into your nostherels: and you returned not to me, sayth our Lord.Misi in vos mortem in via Ægypti; / percussi in gladio juvenes vestros, / usque ad captivitatem equorum vestrorum, / et ascendere feci putredinem castrorum vestrorum in nares vestras: / et non redistis ad me, / dicit Dominus. 11I destroyed some of you, as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord.Io vi ho messi a terra, come Dio messe a terra Sodoma, e Gomorra, e siete rimasi come un tizzone levato dal fuoco ardente, e voi non tornaste a me, dice il Signore.I subuerted you, as God subuerted Sodom and Gomorth, and you were made as a fyrebrand hastely caught from the burning: and you returned not to me, sayth our Lord.Subverti vos sicut subvertit Deus Sodomam et Gomorrham, / et facti estis quasi torris raptus ab incendio: / et non redistis ad me, / dicit Dominus. 12Therefore I will do these things to thee, O Israel: and after I shall have done these things to thee, be prepared to meet thy God, O Israel.Queste cose adunque farò io a te, o Israele; ma quando le avrò fatte a te, preparati, o Israele, per andar in contro al tuo Dio:Wherfore these thinges wil I doe to thee Israel: but after I shal doe these thinges to thee, be prepared to meete thy God ô Israel.Quapropter hæc faciam tibi, Israël: / postquam autem hæc fecero tibi, / præparare in occursum Dei tui, Israël. 13For behold he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind, and declareth his word to man, he that maketh the morning mist, and walketh upon the high places of the earth: the Lord the God of hosts is his name.Perocché eccoti colui, che forma i monti, e crea i venti, il quale annunzia agli uomini la sua parola, egli, che produce la nebbia del mattino, e cammina sopra i luoghi più alti della terra; il suo nome egli è, il Signore Dio degli eserciti.Because loe he that formeth the mountaines and createth the wind, and declareth his word to man, maketh the morning mist, and walketh vpon the high places of the earth: our Lord the God of host is his name.Quia ecce formans montes, / et creans ventum, / et annuntians homini eloquium suum, / faciens matutinam nebulam, / et gradiens super excelsa terræ: / Dominus Deus exercituum nomen ejus.
4:1
Worthington
Fat kine. He means the great ones that lived in plenty and wealth, (Challoner) and without restraint, (Isaias 15:5., and Jeremias 46:20.; Calmet) having no compassion for the poor. (Worthington)
Theodoret
The women who had too great an ascendency over their husbands, like Jezabel, may also be meant. (Theodoret; Grotius)
In many parts of the East the women affect being fat.
4:2
Holiness. He has none but himself to swear by, Hebrews 6:13. His word is infallible; but he condescends to use an oath to make a deeper impression on man.
Pikes; spits, or large shields. Hebrew also, "They will lead you away with hooks, (in the nose, Isaias 37:29.) and your children with fish-hooks," or pots. You shall be treated like victims, being either roasted or boiled. No part shall be left.
4:3
Calmet
Breaches of the city. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "naked." Hebrew, "apart." (Haydock)
Calmet
The victors shall divide you among them. (Calmet)
Menochius
Armon, a foreign country; some understand it of Armenia, (Challoner) and this is the general opinion. (Menochius)
Septuagint, "on Mount Remmon." Theodotion, "Mona." Israel was removed into Armenia, "the mountain of Menni," Jeremias 51:27.
4:4
Calmet
Galgal. Thither the people went of their own accord, as to a place of devotion, Osee 4:15. Amos ironically tells them to proceed, as Christ addressed the Jews, Matthew 23:32. (Calmet)
Worthington
After many admonitions have proved fruitless, God suffers infidels to act as they please. (Worthington)
Haydock
This is the most dreadful of his judgments. (Haydock)
Morning, with haste.
Calmet
Three days. This also may denote the false exactitude of the Israelites to perform what God did not require, while they neglected the most essential duties, like the Pharisees. It may also imply the giving tithes every third year, (Deuteronomy 14:28.) or presenting themselves at the three great festivals, Exodus 23:14. The schismatics observed parts of the law, and had a devotion of their own choice. (Calmet)
4:5
With. Hebrew mechamets, (Haydock) also "without leaven." It was expressly forbidden, (Leviticus 2:11.) though not in the first fruits, Leviticus 23:17.
Haydock
It, to beg that God would remember you, Numbers 10:10. Hence the Pharisees did so when they gave alms, (Matthew 6:2.; Calmet) but out of ostentation. (Haydock)
Haydock
Septuagint, "And they read the law of their own invention, (Theodoret) or of God, out of the land, (which the Jews were not to do; St. Chrysostom, or. 3. c. Jud. Const. Apost. 6:24.) and proclaimed praise or confession." (Haydock)
These interpreters read inaccurately, (Calmet) krau méuts thure, etc., yet S. Jerome explains their words of heretics reading the Scriptures out of the true Church, and misapplying them.
4:6
Calmet
Dulness, (stuporem) as when the teeth have bitten at a stone (Haydock) and are edged, Jeremias 31:29. Septuagint, "gnashing." Hebrew, "cleanness," through want of food. Eliseus foretold a famine under Achab, 4 Kings 8:1. That of Joel (i.) seems to have happened later than this. (Calmet)
Worthington
God sent these afflictions for their amendment. (Worthington)
4:7
Calmet
Months. The latter rain falls in April. See Deuteronomy 11:14. (Calmet)
St. Jerome
Harvest. Septuagint have as usual, "vintage." But this is less accurate, as it never rains in the preceding summer months. (St. Jerome)
4:9
Haydock
Wind. Protestants, "blasting." (Haydock)
Haydock
"Pestilential air," (Septuagint, Symmachus, etc.) which destroys the corn (Calmet) and men. (Haydock)
4:10
Egypt, as I published the Egyptians, (Calmet) or the Hebrews, when they came thence, and wished to return. (Chaldean; St. Cyril)
Horses. I have deprived you of them, (Haydock) under Achab and Joachaz, 4 Kings vi. and xiii.
Calmet
Nostrils. Hazael slew many subjects of Jehu, 4 Kings 10:32. (Calmet)
Haydock
The stench of their carcasses and of the locusts caused death or the plague. (Haydock)
4:11
Calmet
Burning. This comparison shews the condition of Israel. Hardly any escaped, Zacharias 3:2., and 1 Corinthians 3:15. (Calmet)
4:12
These. He mentions not what, to keep them in greater suspense and dread; (St. Jerome) or he will put in execution what he had threatened before, ver. 2.
St. Jerome
Meet. Septuagint, "beseech." Aquila, "oppose," or to receive the Messias. (St. Jerome)
Calmet
Prepare by repentance to find mercy. (Calmet)
Worthington
After long captivity, Christ will save some. (Worthington)
4:13
Theodotion
Wind. Septuagint, "the Spirit, and announcing to man his Christ," (Haydock) or Cyrus. (Theodotion)
Calmet
But this version has read improperly. (Calmet)
St. Jerome
Some hence brought an argument against the divinity of the Holy Spirit. (St. Jerome)
Mist. Septuagint, "the morning and the cloud," spreading light or darkness over man.
Calmet
Earth, on the wings of the wind, Psalm 17:11. (Calmet)
4:1
Fat kine.... He means the great ones that lived in plenty and wealth.
4:3
Armon.... A foreign country; some understand it of Armenia.
4:1
Rich hardharted people, vvho being vvelthie haue no compassion of the poore.
4:3
places of Armenia.
4:4
After manie admonitions geuen in vaine God suffereth the idolaters to do al the vvickednes they list.
4:6
Al these afflictions God sent to the children of Israel for their good, but they murmured & vvere stil obstinate.
4:9
Concordance Agge. 2.
4:12
After long captiuitie Christ vvil offer himself to the Iewes, and such as receiue him, he vvil saue.
4:1
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 53.8
… For who can adequately speak of the three transgressions and the four of Damascus, of Gaza, of Tyre, of Idumæa, of Moab, of the children of Ammon, and in the seventh and eighth place of Judah and of Israel? He speaks to the fat kine that are in the mountain of Samaria,
4:5
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 4.4
… Surely because the Gospel teaches a holy and secret song, which sinners and adulterers sing to the Evil One. For they insult the commandments, accomplishing the will of the spirits of evil, and cast holy things to dogs, and pearls before swine, in the same manner as those of whom the prophet says with indignation, “They read the law without;”
4:7
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 An Address to Demetrianus 6
… One piece shall be rained upon, and the piece whereon I send no rain shall be withered. And two and three cities shall be gathered into one city to drink water, and shall not be satisfied; and ye are not converted unto me, saith the Lord.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.10
… I began with the flocks and the cattle and the sheep, the fifth plague, and, sparing as yet the rational creatures, I struck the animals. You made light of the stroke, and treated me with less reason and attention than the beasts who were struck. I withheld from you the rain; one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered,
4:11
Novatian † AD 258 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity 18
… “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven.” For thus also said the prophet in the person of God: “I have overthrown you, as the Lord overturned Sodom and Gomorrha.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 6.11
… men, who are thus reproved by the holy word of the prophet: “I destroyed some of you, as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet you returned not to Me, saith the Lord,”
4:12
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 18.28
… “Prepare thee, that thou mayst invoke thy God, O Israel; for lo, I am binding the thunder, and creating the spirit, and announcing to men their Christ.”
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 2.21
… the word created being here used instead of ordained or constituted. Certainly the apostle expressly called the rulers and governors among men creature, when he said, “Submit yourselves to every human creature for the Lord’s sake; whether to the king as supreme, or to governors as those sent by him.” The prophet also
4:13
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 3.6
… Since, then, Christ was announced by the Creator, “who formeth the lightning, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man His Christ,” as the prophet Joel says,
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Hermogenes 32
… Of darkness, indeed, the Lord Himself by Isaiah says, “I formed the light, and I created darkness.” Of the wind also Amos says, “He that strengtheneth the thunder , and createth the wind, and declareth His Christ unto men;”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 28
… If, again, the Father is Christ, He must be some other Being who “strengtheneth the thunder, and createth the wind, and declareth unto men His Christ.”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Hexæmeron 3.4
… A mathematical body is a body which exists only in the three dimensions, breadth, depth, and height. A firm body, on the contrary, adds resistance to the dimensions. It is the custom of Scripture to call firmament all that is strong and unyielding. It even uses the word to denote the condensation of the air: He, it says, who strengthens the thunder.
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.15
… which lamp some have interpreted to be the brightness of Prophecy , others the flesh which He took upon Him from the Virgin, according to the Apostle’s word, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels . The Prophet was not ignorant of Him, when He said, and announceth unto men His Christ
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 30
… and not only so but it refers also to the government and preservation of the things which He has made; as is shewn by the passage which says that He maketh His Angels Spirits, and that the earth is founded upon its steadfastness (though once for all these things were fixed and made) and that the thunder is made firm and the wind created.
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Faith 1
But since they bring forward as a proof, according to their ideas, of the created nature of the Holy Spirit, that utterance of the prophet, which says, “He that stablisheth the thunder and createth the spirit, and declareth unto man His Christ,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 2.6
… For you read thus: “Behold, I am He that establish the thunders, and create the wind [spirit], and declare unto man his Christ, that make light and mist, and ascend upon high places, the Lord God Almighty is His Name.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 1 Timothy 15
… Make thy soul beautiful. I said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, and every fruitful tree.” ( Gen. i. 11 .) Do thou also say, Let this earth bring forth its proper fruit, and what thou willest to produce will be produced. “I make the summer and the cloud. I create the lightning and the wind.” (
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 2.21
… but the Spirit existed, and had being previously: but he was sent at what time the apostles were gathered together, when like thunder “There came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind; and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.” And thus they declared unto all men the Christ of God, in accordance with that prophecy which says,
4:1
are sewn on; precious ones (such as golden and jeweled effigies on chasubles) by the rich for ornament and splendor; rough and vile ones by the poor out of necessity. For the poor sew patches on torn coverings, beds and garments, namely pieces of cloth, so that they may mend the rupture, especially at the corners: for there they are more easily broken on account of friction with the wall and other things. Therefore a patch of a poor man's bed is a corner of the poor man's bed, mended by sewing on, and, as St. Francis is accustomed to say, patched. For the poor have beds that are not whole, but patched together with patches both larger and smaller like patchwork quilts. Wherefore to sleep in a patch of a bed is the same as to sleep in a patchwork quilt, or rather in a patched piece and side of a patchwork quilt, so that on the other side of the bed another sleeps, or several. The sense therefore is, as if to say: In the destruction of Samaria only the poor and wretched shall be saved, who sleep together in patchwork quilts on account of poverty. AND IN DAMASCUS ON A BED. — Just as he calls Samaria a bed, so he calls Damascus a bed: because the Israelites vexed by the Assyrians, wretched and afflicted, fled to Damascus, and there as if sick men in a bed rested securely, and refreshed themselves. Damascus therefore was to them afflicted, weary and sick as it were a bed; thus St. Jerome, Rupert, Remigius, Hugh and others. "As one who is weary is refreshed in a little bed, so they would strengthen their broken strength by the aid of the neighboring nation (Damascus)," says St. Jerome. Incorrectly the moderns, such as R. David, Pagninus and others, take the Hebrew דמשק dammescee, that is Damascus, not as a proper noun, but as an appellative, as if composed of ד de, and מסק mescec: but mescec signifies the shin or leg. Whence they translate, in the leg, that is in the foot or side of the bed; or, as Arias, in a mobile and movable bed, so that by its agitation sleep might be brought to the sick man, as mothers shake the cradles of infants, so that by this motion they themselves conceive sleep. Whence he himself explains, as if to say: The Assyrians will spare only those who, lying in beds from grave and prolonged infirmity, are unable to move themselves and turn from one side to another, but like children must be moved and turned by others. Incorrectly, I say: for in Hebrew it is not mescec, but dammescee, which signifies nothing other than Damascus, as the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Our version and others translate it. Add that ד de is not an article in Hebrew, nor is it accustomed to be prefixed to nouns. Tropologically, the bed of the avaricious man is mammon, the bed of the proud man is honor, the bed of the glutton is a sumptuous table, the bed of the lustful man is chambers and impurity, the bed of the slothful man is torpor and sleep. For "as a door turneth upon its hinges, so doth the slothful man upon his bed," Proverbs, chapter xxvi, 14. These beds have various corners and soft coverings, which each one fashions, seeks and adapts for himself. from Israel, namely those who have fled to Jerusalem to the wings of God and King Hezekiah, or to Damascus to the wings of the Syrians. Third, Vatablus, as if to say: Few shall escape the Assyrian calamity, namely only those who have hidden themselves in a corner behind the bed: or the sick, who lying in beds shall move the Assyrians by their sickness, so that they spare them, as if to say: The Assyrians will spare only the wretched, who shall be so poor that two or three shall be forced to rest on a bed, or not so much on a bed as on a part and corner of a bed. Fourth, the Septuagint for in a patch of a bed and Damascus on a bed, translate, against a tribe and in Damascus, "so that according to the tropological sense we may refer the tribe (for the Hebrew מטה mitta means bed; but if you read it with another pointing מטה matte, it signifies a rod and tribe) to Judah, and Damascus to the calling of the Gentiles, of whom one flock has been made of the Lord: whose sheep the ferocity of lions often tears, from whose jaws scarcely two legs, or the tip of an ear is carried off," says St. Jerome. Fifth, probably Father Prado in Ezekiel, chapter xxiv, 40, understands these things concerning table beds, as if to say: Those who dwell (rest) "in Samaria in a patch of a bed," that is, those who have the first places of reclining on beds and couches among the guests. For in Hebrew for patch it is in the corner of the bed, that is in the head, in the primary place. Concerning whom again he says in chapter vi, 4: "You that sleep upon beds of ivory, and are wanton upon your couches." Of all these explanations, the third seems most genuinely correct, both because the word plague, or corner of the bed, and the word pallet, signify these things pertain to the poor and the sick. For these lie upon pallets and in corners; and because these are rightly compared with the two legs and the tip of the ear snatched from the lion; otherwise indeed the likeness of the Prophet will not hold together, and its force and nerve, unless you adapt these two legs and the tip of the ear to it. The sense therefore of this whole verse is this: Just as a shepherd snatches from a lion devouring a sheep or calf, and preserves two legs, that is in the bed of Damascene work and craft, or in a bed spread with Damascene coverings. Or the tip of the ear, from that one now sated with flesh, as being bony and tasteless neglected, so that he might carry it to his master, whereby he might show the calf was not stolen by him, but torn to pieces by the lion: so from all Samaria as from a political body, two or three, that is very few only, will be snatched from that calamity, and these vile and useless, namely the poor wasted away by leanness, so that they seem to have only bony legs; and the sick, who two or three lie upon the sides of the same bed and pallet, whether in Samaria or in Damascus. Thus from Castro. Wherefore perhaps for this reason the Interpreter for the Hebrew פאת, that is corner, rendered plague, which also signifies side, and wound and disease, so that he might hint that they lie upon the side of the bed from the wound and disease, as if to say: Those will be saved who from the plague of wound and disease lie upon the plague, that is upon the side and corner of the bed. Properly plagues, or small plaques are seams, or joinings, which are woven or sewn onto tapestries, chasubles, coverings, beds, garments. (1) The words ובדמשק ערש, oubi damesceq ares, are obscure. Dammescey interpreters take either as a proper name, or as an appellative. Those who establish it as a proper name go off into different directions: but that explanation seems preferable which with the Vulgate renders it "in the bed of Damascus," that is in a bed of Damascene work and craft, or in a bed spread with Damascene coverings. This interpretation is indeed hindered by the fact that the Hebrews do not usually place genitives before, for they do not say "man's son," but "son of man"; then Damascus in Hebrew is written damescey, but in this place it is written dimesceq, as Peter of Figueiro has already noted; meanwhile all the ancient interpreters had accepted דמשק demesceq as a proper name. Those who take demesceq as an appellative name draw it from Arabic sources and explain it thus: first, silk, particularly white, especially that kind which from the broken threads or compartments of silkworms is drawn out into threads; second, the very threads of silkworms woven into the form of an egg; third, silken cloth (Isaiah III, 24; II Kings vi, 14), indeed also linen, II Kings II, 18. Whatever interpretation you assume from these, the sense is: Israelites who fear nothing, and live securely and softly, will perish. Thus far Ackermann. It is pleasing to add with Maurer, that here the Damascene cloth, in which they lie, that is silk skillfully woven, which even today in Western languages is named from the city of Damascus (Engl. and Dan. Damask, Ital. Damasco, Gall. Damas, Germ. Damast). 13. HEAR, — you, O peoples, says St. Jerome, or rather you, O Prophets, the calamity to which not I, but God through my mouth destines the house of Jacob, that is the descendants of Jacob or of Israel, namely the ten tribes and their altars and temples, in which they worship golden calves in Dan and Bethel. Thus Albertus, Hugo, Arias and Vatablus. Whence the Septuagint have: Priests, hear. But St. Jerome rightly notes: "I think," he says, "the Septuagint placed the very word, which some not understanding, for ערש arese read כהנים, that is priests. For ares our Interpreter and others refer to the preceding verse, and render it bed; but the Septuagint refer it here, and retain it as a proper name. AND TESTIFY, — that is testifying to God, and calling him as witness preach and preach urgently to them destruction, unless they repent from idols and crimes. 13. AND I WILL STRIKE THE WINTER HOUSE WITH THE SUMMER HOUSE. — Thus also Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion. But the Septuagint render: The house with pinnacles, because it has little doors through windows, and as it were pinnacles to repel the severity of cold, says St. Jerome, who by this matter thinks it signified that the Israelites were so luxurious and of such great wealth, that they had double houses, winter and summer, of which some (winter houses) were turned toward the North, others (summer houses) toward the South, so that according to the variety of seasons, of cold and heat and the temperature of the sky they might provide. Thus in Jeremiah xxxvi, 22, Joakim is said to have been in the winter house in the ninth month. Thus in Belgium God destroyed and razed summer houses built in villages for pleasure, on account of the luxury committed in them, through these wars.
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Mystically the same St. Jerome says: "The house, he says, of winter was the kingdom of Israel, in which there was coldness of religion and the worship of God, and various whirlwinds of winds and fierce tempest: and the house of summer, Juda and Jerusalem, in which was the temple, and holocausts were offered morning and evening, and the heat of religion flourished." AND THE HOUSES OF IVORY SHALL PERISH. — "We read that King Achab of Israel was so immersed in delights that he made himself a house of ivory," III Kings xxii, 39, says St. Jerome, not that he made it of solid ivory: whence would he have had so much ivory? but that he inlaid it with ivory; for this is called a house of ivory, as Pliny testifies in book xvi, chapter xliii. See Sanchez. God threatens the Israelites that the Assyrians will lift them up on hooks, and their remnants in boiling pots. Then because of their impure and sacrilegious sacrifices he says he struck them with six plagues, namely famine, drought, burning wind, rust, locusts, pestilence: finally he almost overthrew them as Sodom, yet they were made no better by these plagues, nor did they return to him. Wherefore he threatens them with dire and extreme things and adds: Prepare to meet thy God, who creates mountains, winds, clouds, etc. 1. Hear this word, ye fat kine, that are in the mountains of Samaria: that oppress the poor, and crush the needy; that say to your masters: Bring, and we will drink. 2. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness: behold the days shall come upon you, and they shall take you away with hooks, and your remnants with fish hooks. 3. And you shall go out at the breaches one against another, and you shall be cast out in Armon, saith the Lord. 4. Come to Bethel, and do wickedly: to Galgal, and multiply transgressions: and bring your victims in the morning, your tithes in three days. 5. And offer a sacrifice of praise of leavened things: and call for voluntary offerings, and proclaim it: for so you love to do, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God. 6. I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: and yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord. 7. I also withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I rained upon one city, and rained not upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece upon which I rained not withered. 8. And two and three cities went to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: and yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord. 9. I struck you with burning wind, and with rust: the multitude of your gardens, and your vineyards, your olive yards, and your fig trees the palmerworm devoured: and yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord. 10. I sent death among you in the way of Egypt: I slew your young men with the sword, and took away your horses: and I made the stench of your camps to go up in your nostrils: and yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord. 11. I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: and yet you returned not to me, saith the Lord. 12. Therefore thus will I do to thee, O Israel: and because I will do thus to thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 13. For behold he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth his word to man, he that maketh the morning darkness, and steppeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is his name. 1. HEAR THIS WORD, YE FAT KINE. — In Hebrew, kine of Basan. Thus the Septuagint, Theodotion, Aquila and the Hebrews everywhere. But because the region of Basan, rich in pastures, nourished fat cattle and kine, as is evident from Deuteronomy cap. xxxii, 14; hence our translator rightly rendered it, "fat kine;" and Symmachus, fattened cattle; others, wanton kine. Now Theodoret understands by the kine the wanton, rapacious and imperious women of Samaria. "The kine," he says, "of Basan, he calls women flowing in luxury and pleasures. For such were the kine of Basan, exulting on account of the abundance of pasture. Whence it came to pass that they converted the goods of the poor to their own use (as the kine fed on the pastures of Basan), and did not fear to command the men to whom by divine law they were subject, and ordered them to be brought into order: such was Jezabel, using her husband (Achab) as a slave." Thus also Lyran, Arias and Vatablus. For indeed a kine is a symbol of feminine nature, petulance and lasciviousness. Whence Aelian, lib. IV, cap. xlv, writes that in Egypt a kine and Venus were religiously worshipped, because it was thought that the kine had affinity and agreement with the goddess: nay, and a kine was sacrificed to Venus in Egypt, says Giraldus in his Syntagm.; for, as Columella says, lib. vi, a kine "after spring fatness, exulting, and gladdened by excess of pasture, become wanton." Moreover "a kine, although full of young, is not satisfied with lust." Wherefore Amos here seems to describe the families and houses of the impious, which are "as a congregation of bulls in the kine of peoples," Psalm lxvii, 31. Better do St. Jerome, Rufinus, Rupertus, Albertus, the Gloss, Hugo, Clarius and others judge that these things pertain to the men of Samaria rather than to the women, nay, even more to the men: for men, because they were effeminate, wanton and shameless, are called kine, or calves of peoples, Psalm lxvii, 31; Osee x, 11, and elsewhere. This is evident from what follows: "Behold, the days shall come upon you," namely, men. For the Hebrew שכם schem is masculine, denoting men: therefore the kine of Basan, he calls the wealthy (whence the Chaldean renders it, the rich in substance), and the princes of Samaria, who fed on the goods of the poor, both because they were devoted to gluttony and belly, and because they were destined for fattening and slaughter. Hear St. Jerome: "He speaks to the princes of Israel, and to the chief men of the ten tribes, who were occupied with delights and rapine, that they might hear the word of God, and know themselves not to be oxen for ploughing, but fat kine from the herd, or such as are nourished in the pastures of Basan, which are places most fertile in herbs, and by this he signifies that they are prepared not for agriculture, but for sacrifice and food." Furthermore, why these are called kine of Basan, Rufinus brings forward three reasons. The first, that their glory was to be ended in shame; for Basan in Hebrew signifies confusion and shame. The second, that their human voice was to be changed into a bovine one, namely into a lowing, on account of pain. The third, because God was their belly, and they were occupied in continual feasts and symposia, and therefore, as the Psalmist says: "Their iniquity came forth as it were from fatness." Add a fourth, that they worshipped kine, namely golden calves, as gods. Whence Rupertus understands by the kine of Basan the priests of Bethel, who visibly, being subject to the calves which they worshipped, were like kine; but invisibly they prostituted their souls to infernal bulls, that is to demons. For these said to the princes: Give us victims and oblations, that we may eat and drink; we in turn will expiate your sins before God, and excuse you before the people. Tropologically St. Jerome: The kine of Basan are heretics devoted to Venus and gluttony, such as were Luther, Calvin, Bucer, etc. Likewise the insolent and rapacious rich and nobles, who enrich themselves from the goods of others, especially the poor, and revel in them. WHICH SAY TO YOUR LORDS (namely to kings and princes): BRING, AND WE WILL DRINK, — as if to say, Bring the spoils of the poor, that we may feast and carouse with you; or, as St. Jerome: "Say to us, and we will drink, that is, command only, and we will lay waste all things," that is, we will plunder, says the Chaldean, as lictors, or as drunkards we will absorb. For "by the word: we will drink, he signifies their drunkenness in wine and luxury, which overturn the state of the mind," says St. Jerome.
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Tropologically, the same wicked advocates and procurators say to judges; counselors, magistrates and praetors to princes and magistrates, equally impious. For these, like harpies, gape after the goods of the people, and flying into them distribute those things among themselves, and from them prepare sumptuous banquets and symposia. This enormous crime, as it overturns the commonwealth, so provokes a dreadful and certain anger and vengeance of God. Whence he adds: 2. THE LORD GOD HATH SWORN BY HIS HOLINESS. — In Hebrew בקדשו becodseo, that is, by his holiness, that is, by his sanctity: for the Hebrew beth, that is, in, is the mark of one swearing. Thus the Chaldean, Symmachus and the Hebrews everywhere, as if to say, God hath sworn by himself: for he himself is the supreme and uncreated justice and holiness, which you, O judges and princes, ought to imitate and protect on earth, but now you have violated and overturned the same. Wherefore this holiness of God swears that it will be the most bitter avenger of this violation and, so to speak, sacrilege. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupertus and others, who moreover bring forward three other senses. The first is, God swore by holiness, that is, by his holy temple; the second, by his holy son; the third, by the holy Prophets. Whence the Septuagint translates: The Lord hath sworn by his saints. But what I said at the beginning is the literal and genuine sense. BECAUSE BEHOLD DAYS SHALL COME UPON YOU, AND THEY SHALL TAKE YOU AWAY IN PIKES. — The Septuagint, the Syriac and the Arabic, in arms; Symmachus, in shields; better Theodotion, in spears, as if to say, Days are at hand, in which the Assyrians shall pierce you, O Samaritans, with their pikes and spears. Whence the Zurich Bible translates: He shall take you away with lances. "He preserves the metaphor of cows, says St. Jerome, so that those which he had said were fat cows, he narrates their flesh to be carried on pikes or shields." Perhaps also he alludes to the custom of soldiers, namely to fierce and savage conquerors, who carry the heads of the slain on lances as if in triumph, as the Turks do. For contus is called a stake and a longer spear, or an oblong pole of sailors, by which they themselves thrust and direct the ship. Whence Virgil, V Aeneid: .... And with sharp point of pike. AND YOUR REMNANTS IN BOILING POTS. — The Arabic, in burning pots; the Syriac, in the pot of the hunter; in Hebrew בסירות דוגה besirot duga, that is, in pots of fish, which namely fishermen keep full of boiling water, so that fish fresh, which they draw from the sea, are immediately cooked, as if to say, "As the most boiling cauldron involves small fish equally, so also the cows of Basan shall be oppressed without any order by the miseries of captivity," says St. Jerome. Or more precisely and fittingly, as if to say, As butchers carry the heads of oxen and cows slaughtered by them on long pikes and poles, so that from them the people may know what and how great a cow has been slaughtered, and may take care to buy its flesh; but they cast and cook the remnants, namely the liver, stomach, intestines in boiling pots: so also the Assyrian soldiers shall display the heads, that is, the nobles of Samaria slain or captured by them, so that from them other nations may conjecture what and how great the people of Samaria was, and how great the slaughter and victory from them: but the remnants, namely soldiers and citizens, who shall flee into fortresses, cities, fortified houses, or into caves and caverns, they shall burn in those very pots as fish in boiling pots. Thus Lyran and Dionysius.
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(1) Maurer, after he noted these fat and fierce cattle to be those wealthy courtiers, luxurious and wanton, of whom the Prophet had spoken in chapter III, 9 et seq. and 15, adds: he calls them cattle, not bulls, noting their softness and unbridled manners. Where he uses the feminine ending, he refers to cattle; where the masculine, he refers to those who are signified by the cattle. "For just as Jerusalem, says St. Jerome, having enclosed and besieged peoples, is compared to a boiling pot and full of flesh, Ezech. xxiv, 2: so also the cities of Samaria are compared to boiling pots, which by famine and pestilence compel the enclosed peoples to go out and go into captivity." De Castro adds, that is to say, their bodies torn apart and cut into pieces they will cast into boiling pots, as Antiochus Epiphanes did to the Maccabees, II Machab. vii. Otherwise Rupertus and Remigius, that is to say, the Assyrians will cast the Samaritans confusedly without any order into Assyrian captivity as into a pot. Secondly, the Hebrew besirot, according to Pagninus, Vatablus and Clarius, they interpret as in fishing hooks, that is to say, Just as fishermen draw fish from the sea with hooks, so the Assyrians will draw you out of Samaria with their weapons and carry you away into Assyria. Thirdly, the Chaldean translates: They will lift you up on shields and your daughters in small boats, or fishing vessels, that is to say, By ships which are hollowed out and circular like shields, they will carry you away from Samaria and send you to Cyprus and other remote islands. Fourthly, R. Abraham and R. David for pots translate thorns; for the Hebrew siroth also signifies these. Now thorns, that is hooks; or thorns, that is poles and sharp spears like thorns, so that in the Hebrew manner he says the same thing in the second hemistich as he said in the first; or thorns, that is scourges: for from thorns tyrants made scourges, which, because with their prickles they wounded flesh, tore and rent it, were called scorpions, which the tyrant Roboam threatened to the people, saying: "My father beat you with scourges, but I will beat you with scorpions," III Reg. xii, 14.
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Fifth, Arias translates pro in contis as in frigoribus, and gives the sense, as if to say: Assyrians, you Samaritans, like cattle wanton in summer, will transfer you into cold and freezing regions, where for food you will have nothing other than vile little fish, which were once given to slaves as food. Finally, the Septuagint translates: They shall take you away in arms, and those who are with you, in boiling pestilent pots; for ἔμπυροι signifies boiling; for which some read ἔγεμοι, that is desolate, or desolators; the Complutensian edition, ἐμπόροι, that is merchants. Whence thus they have: They shall take you away in arms and those who are with you in cauldrons pestilent merchants. 3. AND THROUGH THE OPENINGS (of the wall of Samaria, which will be broken down and opened by the Assyrians besieging it with battering rams) SHALL YOU GO OUT ONE AGAINST ANOTHER, — that is one with another, or one after another, that is individually, or together two and three at a time, or in turn and in their own order the captives shall go out, led away by the Assyrians: thus St. Jerome. Whence the Chaldean translator renders: They shall break down the walls over you, and shall lead you out as women, each one before him. He says: "One against another," that is one against another; because he persists in the nomenclature of cattle, by which he called them in verse 1; for cattle are accustomed to be led out in herds through gates, so that two, three and four go out together, others follow in like order and company. Otherwise others, as if to say: One, namely a cow, shall go out against another, namely an opening of the wall, as if to say: Each shall go out through an opening opposite to it, by which he signifies there shall be many ruptures of the wall; just as concerning the walls of Jericho falling down all around, Joshua says, chapter vi, 3: "The walls shall fall down flat, and they shall enter in every man straight before him." Whence Vatablus translates: You shall go out each one before you, that is through the rupture which first occurs to you. Thus also Clarius and Arias. AND YOU SHALL BE CAST INTO ARMON, — as if to say: The Assyrians shall lead you away into Armenia, which is adjacent to Assyria. Thus St. Jerome, the Chaldean, Symmachus, Remigius, Rupertus, Hugo and Clarius. The Hebrew is ההרמונה haharmona, which our author and the others already mentioned translate, "into Armon," or into Armenia. For this was named Aram, or Harmon, from Aram the son of Sem, the first inhabitant; for the letter aleph is often exchanged with he. Second, others divide Harmona by diastole. Whence Theodotion translates, into the mountain (for hor in Hebrew signifies mountain) Mona; Aquila, the Syrian and Arabic, into the mountain Armona; the Septuagint, into the mountain Remna, or, as Theodoret reads, Armana, as if to say: You shall be led away into the mountains of Armenia: for this is mountainous; whence in its mountains first the ark of Noah rested and settled, Genesis viii, 4; indeed learned men think that Armenia was named in Hebrew from mountains, Aram, or Armenia, as if to say: High, lofty: because it is higher and more mountainous than all other provinces. The Old Edition translates, into a high mountain. Third, the more recent scholars, R. David, Vatablus, Arias, a Castro, Marinus and Pagninus, take Harmon or Armon as a name, not proper, but appellative, signifying a palace, a lofty house, a citadel; for the Hebrew רם ram signifies high, lofty; whence Abram was called as if Ab, that is father; ram, that is lofty. The sense is, as if to say: The Assyrian, by conquering Samaria and slaughtering or capturing those who meet him, shall press and force the rest of you to flee and cast yourselves into fortified citadels, but in vain; for he shall also take those by storm, and shall capture and slay you. Otherwise Pagninus; for he translates: You shall cast down the palace, namely of the king adhering to the wall, so that through it you may escape the hand of the pressing Assyrian.
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Tropologically, the kine of Basan, that is the heretics, are cast by the demon into the mountains of Armenia, that is of pride; for every heretic is proud, because he prefers his own judgment to that of the whole Church. Hence Remna is the same as the vision of someone, says St. Jerome, because heretics do not attack all the dogmas of the Church; "but they promise themselves knowledge of some part, so that they are cast out, because they believe themselves to be dividing themselves;" for with the little file of their own wit and judgment they wish to file down faith and the Church. 4. COME. — This is sarcasm, that is hostile mockery, as if to say, Go on, you sacrilegious ones, make merry with your calves in Bethel, with idols in Galgal; satiate yourselves with their victims, gorge yourselves with your idol-sacrifices; but know that you will be slain there by the Assyrians, as victims to the avenging God. Thus St. Jerome. Wherefore the Chaldean and the Septuagint explain this sarcasm plainly, when they translate assertively and with rebuke: You have entered into Bethel, and have acted wickedly in Galgal, you have multiplied to act impiously. OFFER YOUR SACRIFICES IN THE MORNING, — that is, having entered upon the sacrifice of the lamb, which by the law you were accustomed to offer morning and evening to the true God in Jerusalem, now you calf-worshippers offer that same thing in the morning to your calves. Thus Clarius, Arias, Vatablus and others. What and of what kind this continual sacrifice was I have said in Exodus xxix, 38. Secondly, St. Jerome thinks that by morning is signified eagerness, swiftness and multitude of sacrifices, as if to say, Do what you do, continue from earliest morning in the ardor of idolatry to offer victims, so that, with others and others succeeding, you may be able to finish everything before evening, lest the day fail you sooner than your sacrifices and crimes. St. Jerome adds that morning denotes victims slain the day before and kept contrary to the law until the following morning, as if to say, You by the law of Leviticus vii, 15, ought to have eaten the victims on the same day on which you immolated them; but now contrary to the law either from avarice or from gluttony, because namely you cannot devour so many victims on the same day, you keep many of their remains until the morning of the following day; for he also soon rebukes them because they would offer leaven contrary to the law in the sacrifice.
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THREE DAYS YOUR TITHES. — The Septuagint: on the third day, or as the Vatican codex has it, in three days your tithes, that is to say, You contrary to the law of Leviticus vii, 17, keep victims until the third day. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius and Hugo. But that law of Leviticus forbids only victims to be kept, not tithes, which are the subject here. Secondly, Arias, Vatablus and Pagninus translate: Bring on the third of days, that is on the third day, that is in the third year your tithes to your idols, according to the law of Deuteronomy xiv, 29. For day among the Hebrews often signifies a year, as in Genesis xxiv, 1: "And Abraham was old, of many days (that is, of many years)." But that law of Deuteronomy does not command to bring to the temple, but only to keep the tithes in one's own home, and to distribute them in the third year to Levites, strangers, orphans and widows, as Tobias did, cap. I, 7, "so that in the third year he would distribute all the tithe to proselytes and sojourners." I say therefore that properly here three days are to be understood. For God had commanded the Hebrews, Exodus xxiii, 14 and 19, that on three days, or the principal feasts throughout the year, namely on the day of Passover, Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles, they should go to the temple for sacrifice and prayer; and then partly for the journey, partly for oblations and the sacred feast (in which they were to feast with the Levites from their peace offerings before the Lord, that is in the temple before the ark and the Holy of Holies in which God dwelt) they brought with them one tithe of their fruits and goods, which they are commanded to set apart for this purpose, Deuteronomy xiv, 22; and thus Tobias did, as appears cap. I, 6 and 7. That the Israelites did the same in Bethel, as if aping the Jews, this Prophet teaches here, that is to say, Act three times in a year; or on three principal feasts bring your tithes to Bethel to the calves, which you were once accustomed to bring to God in Jerusalem. Thus Rupertus, Lyra, a Castro and others. For from קראו kiru, that is to call, is derived מקרא micra, that is convocation, and assembly of the people; whence solemnity and feast. For in a feast they called micra, that is the Church and assembly of the people, to celebrate the solemnity, and to offer victims and any other oblations whatsoever. 5. AND SACRIFICE OF LEAVENED BREAD PRAISE. — "Praise," that is sacrifice of praise, as the Zurich version translated it, or sacrifice of thanksgiving. Whence Aquila translated it, eucharist. For this is called in Hebrew from its end תודה toda, that is confession, praise, thanksgiving. It is irony and sarcasm, for he mocks their leavened sacrifices, and therefore impure; for the Jews' were unleavened and pure, and this by God's prescription, Leviticus cap. II, 41, and cap. vii, 12, and thus St. Jerome, Rupertus, Lyra and Hugo. Wherefore some Greeks imprudently cite this passage to prove against the Latins that the Eucharist should be celebrated in leavened bread, not unleavened. For Amos does not praise, but blames and condemns here the leavened sacrifice. Note: Nothing leavened could be brought to the altar; leavened loaves could however be brought as gifts for the priests, so that they themselves might eat of them, as I showed in Leviticus vii, 13. Wherefore Vatablus and Arias think less correctly that leaven could be offered in the sacrifice of praise; for this is expressly forbidden in Leviticus II, 11. Mystically leaven is a symbol of corruption and malice, I Corinthians v, 6; whence the Chaldean paraphrast translates: They gather from rapine a sacrifice of praise. Because he who offers to God a sacrifice from rapine offers praise of leavened bread, says St. Gregory hom. 22 in the Gospel.
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AND CALL (celebrate, proclaim, and preach your victims, as if liberal, spontaneous and) VOLUNTARY OBLATIONS, — but in vain. For God, as impure and idolatrous, abhors them. Thus St. Jerome, Rupertus, Remigius and Hugo. Secondly, "call," that is, as Vatablus says, proclaim voluntary sacrifices and oblations, and feasts of calves, and in these convoke the people, so that it may offer voluntary oblations in them, as Aaron did in the making and dedication of the golden calf, Exodus xxxii, 2: "Take, he says, the golden earrings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me. And the people did as he commanded, bringing the earrings to Aaron. And when he had received them, etc., he made of them a golden calf." Thus men in divine things are sparing and stingy, but in those which pertain to pomp, or the belly, namely in the service of the world and the devil, they are lavish, and willingly and liberally exhaust their riches. Whence Arias translates: Make vows; Pagninus: Call to the solemnity, cause voluntary offerings to be gathered. FOR THUS YOU WILLED, O SONS OF ISRAEL, SAYS THE LORD GOD. — in the evening to offer to the true God in Jerusalem, now you calf-worshippers offer the same in the morning to your calves.
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6. WHEREFORE I ALSO GAVE YOU BLUNTNESS OF TEETH (the Arabic translator wrongly rendered it, blessing) IN ALL YOUR CITIES. — Thus also the Chaldean and the Septuagint. "Bluntness of teeth" understand from hunger; for he adds as if explaining: "And want of bread in all your places." For prolonged hunger, just as it dulls and deadens appetite, so likewise it contracts the gums, and thus dulls and stupefies the teeth. Thus Rufinus. Whence the Hebrew ניקיון nikion signifies emptiness (so that the teeth are empty of food) and cleanness of teeth, as Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, St. Jerome, Arias, Vatablus, Pagninus, Marinus and others translate it. For when in hunger and want the teeth have nothing to bite and chew, they are innocent and clean; and from this, with the gums and nerves drying up and contracting, they are dulled, constipated and stupefied, just as the eyes with failing spirits grow dim and stupefied; for this reason Our Lord and the Septuagint translate, "bluntness of teeth." It is a metonymy, unless you prefer it to be onomatopoeia, so that the sound of the word nikion represents by its sound the sound and grinding of stupefied teeth. The sense is, as if to say, Because you deprive me of the sacrifices owed to me, I in turn will deprive you of bread and food necessary for life, and I will cause your teeth from hunger and from eating unripe fruits, which are sour and harsh, to be stupefied. Note that "I gave," namely properly in the past tense; for God often through Elijah and Elisha threatened and brought upon the Israelites, on account of idols and crimes, drought, and thence famine, as appears in III Kings xvii and IV Kings vi, 25. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rupert, Hugh and Lyran, although Vatablus and Clarius take "I gave" prophetically for "I will give," as if God here threatens a future famine. The sense would be fuller if you took "I gave" broadly for "I give, I gave and I will give," as if to say, On account of your idols and crimes I have often brought famine upon you, and I still bring it, and in the future will bring it, both by withholding rains through me, and through enemies, especially the Assyrians, laying waste the cities and fields of Samaria. But the first sense is explained by what after this plague and four other plagues following, he adds in individual verses: "And you returned not to me." And that in verse 12: "Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel;" which words signify that this famine and the other plagues were past, not future. Note that he says: "Bluntness of teeth in all your cities," signifies that this calamity and famine will be common and public, so that not so much individuals as entire cities will be seen to be alienated and stupefied by it. For stupor is a certain alienation either of mind or of the senses, namely that the senses are constipated. Thus Livy says in book v: "Then public fear stupefied private griefs, after it was announced that enemies were at hand." 7. I ALSO WITHHELD THE RAIN FROM YOU, WHEN THERE WERE YET THREE MONTHS TO THE HARVEST. — This plague of drought and barrenness was extraordinary and miraculous, in that one part of the city, innocent and pious, was rained upon, not the other, which was wicked and impious. Similarly, the field of a just man yesterday was rained upon, while the neighboring field of an unjust man yesterday did not feel the rain, and this so that to all it might be manifestly clear that this distinction was the work of God the avenger. Thus God distinguished the fields of Goshen, where the Hebrews were, so that they did not feel the plagues which Moses inflicted on the other fields of Egypt, Exodus viii, 22. St. Bonaventure relates in the Life of St. Francis, cap. viii, that something similar happened to the Greeks through the merits and prayers of St. Francis. For when wolves and hail were laying waste the fields, St. Francis said to the inhabitants: "In honor and praise of almighty God I pledge to you that this entire pestilence will depart, and the Lord looking upon you will multiply you in temporal goods, if believing me, you have mercy on yourselves, so that with your confession made beforehand, you make yourselves worthy of the fruits of penance. Again I announce this to you that, if ungrateful for benefits you turn back to vomit, the plague will be renewed, the punishment doubled, greater wrath will rage upon you. From that very hour, those doing penance at his exhortation, the calamities ceased. Indeed, what is greater, whenever hail would pass through the fields of neighbors, approaching the boundaries of theirs, it would stop there, or turn to another direction." Furthermore in Palestine the heat and dryness are so great that, if rain fails, men and beasts must perish of thirst. "In these places," says St. Jerome, "apart from small springs all water is from cisterns; and if rains are withheld by divine wrath, the danger of thirst is greater than that of famine." When this sterility befell Amos is unknown. For although some refer it to the famine which occurred in the time of Elias, and others to that which occurred in the time of Eliseus, it does not seem to be done sufficiently fittingly: for that drought and famine of Elias, as also that of Eliseus, was universal and equal to all, without discrimination of the guilty and innocent; but this one discriminated the guilty from the innocent. Again, that of Elias was of three years, and that of Eliseus also lasted a long time; but this one of Amos was of three months only, namely those which preceded the harvest. Therefore this drought began at the end of April, when the latter rain was wont to begin in Judea, most necessary. For this caused the shoots to grow, and the stalks to become ears, and the swelling ears to conceive grain, and to produce wheat which without this rain would have dried up, and would have remained in leaf alone, without grain and fruit. Therefore this latter rain in April was for the harvest; as the early rain in October was for the seed, namely for watering the seeds sown, so that the roots might take hold in the earth. Thus St. Jerome.
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Let the owners and tillers of fields note here that drought and sterility are sent upon fields by the particular providence and vengeance of God. When therefore they experience it, let them have recourse to God through penance and prayers, as the Spanish farmers do, who in time of drought proclaim public processions and scourging of farmers; and thus they often draw forth rain from God reconciled, nay, almost by force extort it. Tropologically, St. Gregory, homily 10 on Ezekiel: The Lord, he says, rains upon one part of a city, not upon another, when He causes one part of the people to receive the seeds of preaching and the word of God, not another. Again, one part of the same field is rained upon, not another, when some overcome one vice, not another, for example gluttony, but not anger; or they are patient, but remain avaricious; or they are chaste, but proud, etc. and sterility is sent upon fields by the particular providence and vengeance of God. When therefore they experience it, let them have recourse to God through penance and prayers, as the Spanish farmers do, who in time of drought proclaim public processions and scourging of farmers; and thus they often draw forth rain from God reconciled, nay, almost by force extort it. 9. I SMOTE YOU WITH BURNING WIND. — Here he notes three plagues of fields, burning wind, blight, and the caterpillar devouring the shoots, which equally as drought bring sterility and famine. Burning wind, or blight, is the scorching East wind, which by its heat dries up and burns all the sap of the ears and shoots; or the North wind, which by its most bitter cold, mist and frost likewise burns and withers the crops. Whence it is called burning cold. Hear the Poet: It binds the sea-water with the force of immoderate cold, And the meadows are bitten by the withering frost. Wherefore Theodotion, Symmachus and Aquila translate it as corruption from wind, or corrupted air; by Pliny, book xviii, chapter xxviii, it is called carbuncle in vines, because those vines seem to be burned as if with coal from blight; in crops by the same it is called rust, from the redness which it imparts to crops; by Theophrastus, book iv, it is called blight, because it imparts a color almost like bronze to crops. Pagninus and Vatablus translate it as dryness, from the effect which it produces in the crop. The second plague is blight, which properly is a vice, and as it were the royal disease of crops, when namely the stalks from excessive moisture (whence in Hebrew it is called ierakon, as if greenish) wither and grow pale in the manner of gold or bronze, whence also blight and rust is said; the withered ones moreover dry up and vanish. Hence by Theodotion it is called pallor, by Aquila, Symmachus, and the Septuagint, jaundice, namely the royal disease; for this is the color in those with jaundice. Whence, conversely, the royal disease or jaundice, by Cornelius Celsus and Apuleius is called blight, from the color of gold which it produces in man. And because the same color arises from fear, hence in Jeremiah xxx, 6, it is said: "All faces (of the Israelites from excessive fear) have been turned to blight." Where note: Ierakon, that is blight, or blight, or rust properly arises from moisture, by which crops wither; because however the same color, and the same corruption and withering of crops arises from blight and heat (although Pliny in the place cited contends it arises from cold alone), hence likewise blight is sometimes called blight, blight and rust, as I said a little before. The third plague is the caterpillar, concerning which I have spoken in Joel I, 4.
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10. I SENT DEATH AMONG YOU IN THE WAY OF EGYPT. — This is the fifth plague, but inflicted upon men, namely pestilence, as the Hebrew and Chaldean have it, which Our Author calls "death," because pestilence brings certain death. Add that the Hebrew דבר deber, that is pestilence, by catachresis signifies famine, the sword, and whatever is deadly and mortal like pestilence. You will ask, what plague was this and when did it occur? St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rupert, Hugh, Lyran and others think it happened to those Israelites who were sent to the Egyptians to seek aid from them against the Assyrians; Vatable and Arias, to those who went with a garrison soldier to Egypt to buy grain there to relieve the famine of Samaria. For these men, killed partly by pestilence and partly by robbers on the journey, and their unburied and putrid corpses exhaled a stench which, after the long delay of the former ones, offended the nostrils of others sent in their place. More probably Ribera and a Castro refer this to the disaster which Jehoahaz king of Israel suffered from the king of Syria, which was so great that from the entire army of Israel there remained only fifty horsemen, IV Kings xiii, 7. For then partly the corrupted and sultry air, partly the putrefaction arising from so many slain bodies, breathed forth stench and pestilence upon the survivors. You will say: This disaster happened in Samaria, not in the way of Egypt. I answer: That is true; wherefore the particle "as" seems to be understood in the Hebrew manner, and thus it should be translated with the Chaldean: I sent pestilence among you (Arabic: I smote you with fevers and unknown, unfamiliar evils) as in the way of Egypt; namely, when in the desert I punished and killed your fathers as they journeyed from Egypt to Canaan, on account of their murmuring, with pestilence and other plagues, for example when I sent fiery serpents, which brought a pestilential burning by their bite, Numbers xxi, 6. Add that perhaps this battle and this slaughter happened on the way by which they journeyed from Samaria to Egypt; for just as now the Roman road, the Milanese road, the Parisian road are well-trodden and beaten, so then the way of Egypt was celebrated and public, as is evident from Jeremiah II, 18; Isaiah x, 24; whence Adrichomius and others depict it in the chorographical tables of the Holy Land. Finally, by Hebraism כדרך bederech, that is in the way, it can be explained by כדרך kederech, that is like the way, according to the way, that is according to the manner, mode and custom of Egypt, as if to say: I will punish you with pestilence in that manner and severity by which I punished the Egyptians through Moses; for the fifth plague of Egypt was pestilence so severe that by it all the horses, asses, camels, and all the beasts that were in all of Egypt were killed, as is evident from Exodus ix, 3, 6. Thus bederech, that is in the way, is taken for kederech, that is according to the way, that is the manner, Isaiah cap. x, 26: "The Lord of hosts," he says, "will raise up against him a scourge, according to the plague of Midian at the rock of Oreb, and his rod over the sea, and he will lift it up in the way of Egypt," that is according to the way of Egypt, that is according to the manner by which through the rod of Moses he smote Egypt and inflicted ten plagues upon it, in like manner he will smite Sennacherib and the Assyrians through an angel, killing in one night 185,000 in their camps. UNTO THE CAPTIVITY (Chaldean and Septuagint, with captivity) OF YOUR HORSES. — It seems, as I said, to allude to the times of Jehoahaz, when the Israelites were so worn down by the Syrians that only fifty horsemen remained to them, IV Kings xiii. I MADE THE STENCH TO ASCEND. — For the Hebrew באש beose signifies putrefaction and stench; but the Septuagint, reading with different points באש beese, that is in fire, translate: I brought fire into your camps. Thus the Complutensian, although the Roman reads, I brought out. 11. I OVERTHREW YOU. — First, through Tiglath-Pileser king of the Assyrians, says Arias, who took and overthrew all the cities of Israel, except one, Samaria, IV Kings xv, 29; for this happened in the year 52 of Ozias, or Azariah king of Judah, as is said ibid. verse 27. But Amos began to prophesy in the year 25 of Ozias, as I said in the Proem; it could easily happen therefore that the same man, surviving, in the year 52 of Ozias, after the disaster inflicted upon Israel by Tiglath-Pileser, spoke these things; for Prophets prophesied for many years, as Isaiah for 96 years, Jeremiah for 45 years, Daniel for 76 years. Secondly, by the Syrians, who at other times, and especially in the time of Jehoahaz, as I have already said, so wore down Israel that they nearly destroyed him like Sodom, with only a few escaping and the rest perishing. That this is so is evident from the prophecy of Jonah, which is related in IV Kings xiv, 26: "The Lord saw, he says, the affliction of Israel exceeding bitter, and that they were consumed even unto those shut up in prison and the uttermost, and there was none to help Israel. Neither did the Lord speak to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash, who restored the borders of Israel from the entrance of Emath unto the sea of the wilderness." That this prophecy of Jonah pertains especially to the times of Jehoahaz, not to other times of other kings, as some wish, is evident from the series and deeds of the kings of Israel. For Jehu, who took the kingdom of Israel from the family of Ahab and transferred it to himself, was mighty and fortunate in war, and under him the kingdom of Israel flourished. Jehoahaz succeeded him, under whom it was worn down by the Syrians, as I said. Jehoahaz was succeeded by his son Joash, to whom Eliseus by a threefold striking of an arrow foretold a threefold victory against the Syrians, which Joash indeed obtained, as is evident from IV Kings xiii, 18 and 23; under Joash therefore the kingdom of Israel likewise flourished. Joash was succeeded by his son Jeroboam, who began to reign before Ozias king of Juda, and reigned with him for the last 14 years of his life, of whom Jonah predicts that he himself will restore the fallen state of Israel all the days of Jehoahaz, and Scripture expressly says this in IV Kings xiii, 22: "Therefore Hazael king of Syria afflicted Israel all the days of Jehoahaz."
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Finally, Albert takes these things prophetically of the future, as if to say, "I shall overturn," that is, I shall overturn Israel through Salmanasar; for he in the sixth year of Hezekiah took Samaria and completely destroyed the kingdom of Israel. Thus also Rupert, who takes these things of the destruction of Jerusalem, both by the Chaldeans and by Titus and the Romans. But it is clear from what has been said that these things properly pertain to Israel, that is, to the ten tribes; yet I do not deny that they can be extended to Judah and Jerusalem. For the prophets who prophesied directly to Judah also indirectly looked to Israel, and vice versa. Again, that these things pertain not to the future but to the past time is clear from the fact that Amos adds: "And you returned not to me. Therefore will I do this to you, O Israel." For what Rupert responds, that all these past things are to be expounded in an inchoate or destined act, in this manner: "I smote, I sent death upon you, I overthrew," etc., that is, I decreed to smite, to send death upon you, to overthrow you, and I threatened you through the Prophets; but nevertheless you heeded not these threats, nor returned to me; wherefore I will do this to you, O Israel. This exposition, I say, seems harsh and forced in so many past tenses, which all signify real action, not destination or threats. Wherefore St. Jerome, Remigius, Lyra, Clarius, Dionysius, Ribera, de Castro and others everywhere take these past tenses properly as they sound. AS GOD OVERTHREW SODOM, — that is, As I overthrew Sodom. God speaks in the Hebrew manner of himself in the third person, for the sake of honor, as the Germans do. Thus it is said in Genesis xix, 24: "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord," that is, rained from himself: although Eusebius, lib. v Demonstr. cap. xxiii, thinks that the Father speaks here of the Son, as if to say, I the Father overthrew Israel, as my Son overthrew Sodom. Thus many expound that passage of Genesis xix: "The Lord rained from the Lord," that is, The Son rained from the Father. See the things said there. AS A FIREBRAND, — that is, You were almost overthrown and consumed unto destruction, like Sodom; but God, taking pity on you and wishing to preserve the remnants of your seed and nation, restrained his hand and the enemy, and snatched a few from this calamity, as a firebrand, some burnt and smoking, is snatched from the fire. 12. THEREFORE (because namely with six plagues already recounted, to wit, famine, drought, burning wind, mildew, locusts, pestilence, which I inflicted upon you, you did not repent, nor return to me, but by them like Pharaoh you were hardened all the more) WILL I DO THIS TO YOU, O ISRAEL. — "This," namely, which at the beginning of the chapter I threatened, to wit: "They shall take you away with hooks, and your remnant in boiling pots, and you shall be cast into Armon." Thus de Castro. But these seem lesser than the plagues which he has already inflicted, saying: "I have overthrown you as God overthrew Sodom," etc. But here he threatens a graver plague, because they have despised all the previous ones. Wherefore more forcefully and effectively others say: "This," they say, namely the most dreadful and atrocious things which I have conceived in my indignant mind, and cannot utter for horror. For he speaks anthropopathically, and falls into words and threats with pathos through aposiopesis, as Virgil, Aeneid I: Whom I (namely will most severely punish); but (now) it is better to calm the troubled waves. Thus the Hebrews are wont to use in oaths, especially in threatening and cursing ones, this formula: "May God do this to me, and may he add this to me," and they do not express what they wish to be added or done to them, as if they dared not name those things for fear and detestation, as being horrible and atrocious evils. By a similar euphemism, that is, good omen, they signify curse and blasphemy by a contrary word, and call it blessing, as in Job ii, 9, and III Kings xxi, 10. BUT WHEN I SHALL HAVE DONE THIS (these atrocious plagues which I have conceived in my mind) TO YOU, PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD, O ISRAEL, — that is, If the past plagues seem light to you, if you despise these servants, if you disdain to fight with footmen; behold I, forming the mountains and creating the winds, etc., will invade you as a cataphracted horseman, will exert my strength, will hurl all my spears and weapons against you: steel your breast, fit your shield, oppose yourself to me, join battle with me, turn aside or sustain the blow of my right hand, if you can. It is sarcasm. Whence Symmachus and Aquila translate: When I shall have done this, prepare to resist your God. Thus Albert, Arias, de Castro, and Prado in Ezekiel cap. v, 8. Thus the senseless C. Caligula the emperor rushed upon his Jupiter, who, angered that the sky was more turbulent than his pantomimes and spectacles pleased, challenged Jupiter to battle, nay to mortal combat, exclaiming that verse of Homer: "Either take me away, or I will take you away." Secondly, others, and these very many, understand these things in the opposite sense, as if God here consoles Israel, overthrown lest it despair utterly, and invites it to prepare itself for God through penance and conversion (and God's mercy and grace), especially after some centuries when He who is to be born in Bethlehem will be born: for they think Amos rises in this prophetic manner. Whence in the following passages he describes God's omnipotence and magnificence graphically, lest Israel despise His poverty and humility in the flesh, as it did. For this reason the Septuagint, the Syriac, and both Arabic versions translate: Nevertheless because thus I will do, prepare yourself to invoke your God, Israel. And in the following passages, for "announcing to man His word," they translate, "announcing Christ to men"; and the Chaldean: "Prepare," he says, "yourself to receive the doctrine of the law of your God, Israel," that is to say, Prepare yourself, so that you may receive with all the affection of your mind Him who is God made flesh, coming in assumed humanity. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Albert, Hugh, Vatable and Lyran, who think this prophecy is to be fulfilled at the end of the world: for then all Israel will be converted to Christ, and will be saved, as the Apostle says in Romans xi. Therefore Theodoret wrongly refers these things to Cyrus, who freed the Jews from Babylon. For here we are dealing not with Jews, but with Israelites carried off into Assyria, whom neither Cyrus nor anyone else ever freed from there. The former sense seems to be the literal and genuine one: the latter, because it is that of very many, is probable and fitting, and is to be admitted either as literal or as mystical, as I shall shortly show; so that it is an antiphrasis, that is to say, Meet and resist God angry and avenging, if you are able; but because you are not able to do this, meet Him as your Savior, humble and meek, coming in the flesh to redeem and save you. Or, as St. Jerome says, that is to say, "I did this to correct you, which the previous word described: and because you were unwilling to return to me, I will do to you what is contained in my secret counsel. You killed my servants whom I sent to you; I will send finally my Son: but you, according to your custom, by which you have always resisted the will of God, prepare yourself to contradict and oppose your God, according to that which is written: Behold this one is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. He speaks not commanding, but foretelling, as it were arguing and rebuking, so that at least being corrected you may not do what has been foretold." This opinion is favored by the word "afterwards," for which in Hebrew is עקב ekeb, that is, end, or reward: for reward is the end of work and of the worker. Whence from the Hebrew you may thus translate, "in the end"; or, as Aquila, "afterwards"; or, as Theodotion, "finally meet him." For in the end of the ages Christ was incarnate, and at the end of the world Israel will meet Him. Or thus: For the reward, by which I scourged you as a son, and by so many scourges strove to bring you back to me, for this, I say, my fatherly care toward you, in place of reward give me at least this, that when I come in the flesh, you may meet me, and receive me as your Messiah. Whence the Church in the Ecclesiastical Office stirs up her own with these words of Amos, so that they may meet Christ. The Prophet adds the reason, His immense majesty and power: "For," he says, behold "He Himself is forming the mountains," etc. Which St. Jerome, expounding tropologically: "The Lord," he says, "is exalted in the exalted, and does not dwell in the humble who is exalted; but the creator of mountains ascends into mountains, into those who have citizenship in the heavenly places, and walking in the flesh do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." The Septuagint translates, "establishing the thunder," lest namely it should shake the world, as it seems to threaten with its sound. 13. CREATING WIND. — The Hebrew רוח ruach signifies spirit, soul, wind. Whence first the Chaldean, the Septuagint and St. Jerome in his Commentary translate, creating spirit, which the Macedonian heretics, denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit, eagerly seized upon, and from this proved that the Holy Spirit is not God, but a creature of God: whom St. Athanasius refutes in his letter to Serapion; St. Basil, book III Against Eunomius; St. Jerome here, and St. Ambrose, book II On the Holy Spirit, chapter vii; for here we are not dealing with the Holy Spirit and the heavenly, but with the sublunary and corporeal spirit: for it is joined with clouds, mountains, etc. Secondly, St. Jerome, Rupert and Remigius translate, creating soul; or, as Arius, creating spirits and military spirits, that is, giving soldiers boldness and military virtue. Thirdly, the Alexandrian Arabic translates: I am He who formed thunder, and created spirit; but the Antiochene Arabic: And I bring back spirit, breath to men. But our own Tertullian, in his book Against Hermogenes, chapter xxxii, and Clarius, Vatable, Pagninus, and other more recent scholars translate it well as "creating wind." For wind is rightly joined with mountains, clouds, and other created sublunary things, which, being obvious and wonderful to man, show him the power and magnificence of God the Creator, especially winds, which, since their nature is invisible and yet sensible, their origin unknown, their motion various but their state fixed according to place and time, rightly demonstrate that they are created by God, ruled by God, changed at His nod. Whence God is said to sit upon and ride upon the winds, Psalm xvii, 11: "He ascended upon the Cherubim, and flew: he flew upon the wings of the winds." And the whirlwind wind carried God sitting upon the cherubic throne, Ezech. I, 4. For this reason angels are compared to winds, Psalm ciii, 4: "Who makest thy angels spirits (subtle, swift and strong like winds); and thy ministers a burning fire." Hence also God is said to bring forth winds from His treasures, Jerem. x, 13, and therefore from these Job, chapter xxviii, 25, shows the power of God: "Who, he says, gave weight to the winds and weighed the waters by measure." Hence also the Saints invite the winds, as the magnificent work of God, to praise their Creator so powerful, as the Psalmist, Psalm cxlviii, 8: "Praise the Lord from the heavens, etc. Fire, hail, snow, ice, spirits of storms: which fulfill His word." For, as Seneca says in book v of Natural Questions, chapter xviii, "among other works of Providence, someone might regard this also as worthy of admiration. For He did not discover winds from one cause alone, nor disposed them through different regions for one reason. First, so that He would not allow the air to become sluggish, but by constant agitation would make it useful and vital to the earth. Then so that He would supply rains to the earth, and the same winds would restrain excessive rains. For now they bring clouds, now they carry them away, so that through the whole world rains could be distributed. The south wind drives them into Italy, the north wind casts them back into Africa; the etesian winds do not allow clouds to remain with us: these same winds irrigate all of India and Ethiopia with continuous waters during that season." And Pliny, book II, chapter xlvii: "All winds blow in their turns for the most part, either so that the contrary wind begins when the other ceases, etc. The sun both increases and diminishes breezes, increases at rising and setting, diminishes at midday in summer times. And so in the middle of day or night they are mostly calmed, because they are dissolved either by excessive cold or heat," etc. ANNOUNCING TO MAN HIS WORD. — In Hebrew מה שיחו ma sicho, that is, what is his meditation, thought, counsel, word, work; for siach indeed signifies meditation, and the thing meditated, grave and serious, which we utter by mouth and accomplish by deed: thus translate Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, the Chaldean and the Hebrews everywhere. The Septuagint alone, deceived by similarity and ambiguity of words, as St. Jerome says, namely reading משיחו mescicho instead of מה שיחו ma sicho, that is, His Messiah or His Christ, translated: Announcing to men His Christ; through whom, although Theodotion understands Cyrus, all the others nevertheless understand Christ the Lord. Thus St. Athanasius, in his book On the Faith of Unity and Trinity; Didymus, book II On the Holy Spirit; Tertullian, in the place cited; St. Basil, book IV Against Eunomius; St. Ambrose, book II On the Holy Spirit, chapter vii; St. Augustine, book XVIII Of the City of God; indeed the Council of Sardica in Socrates, book II, chapter xx. Wherefore it is not credible that the Septuagint were deceived here, but that they translated thus by design; either because in the Hebrew Codices at that time there was a double reading, one mescicho, the other ma sicho; or because by ma sicho they understood mescicho to be signified. For the Messiah or Christ is the Father's meditation, conception, utterance, word and supreme, immense, uncreated and divine work. There is therefore here a double version, and also a double sense; but the former is subordinated to the latter. The former: "Announcing to man His word," that is to say, God through the Prophets announces to men His counsels, decrees and words. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupert, Hugh and Lyra. For this reason the Syrian translates: Showing to men what His glory (praise) is; and the Arabic: Sending one who praises (sings beforehand) among men. For who, knowing God's counsels and glory, would not praise them? It could also be translated, says St. Jerome: Announcing to man his word (because the Hebrews have the same reciprocal and absolute pronoun. For by vau with cholem they signify both his and his own), that is to say, God knows the secret thoughts of man, namely what he meditates and intends in his mind, indeed He Himself instills and suggests those thoughts to him, if they are good or indifferent, and can announce and speak them to him through internal inspiration, or to others through the Prophets. Thus Arias and Vatablus. The latter interpretation is: "Announcing to man his word," namely Christ, who is the only begotten of the Father, the only word by which He says, creates, commands and governs all things: for this word and utterance of God comprehends all other things. It is similar to Deuteronomy, chapter xviii, 18, where Moses promises that a Prophet, that is, other Prophets after him, will be given by God; but among them one outstanding and principal, who is called by antonomasia the Prophet, namely Christ. The sense therefore is, that is to say, God the Father announces through us Prophets that He will send His Word to men in the flesh, so that He may reveal to men His will, law, salvation, grace and glory, and may actually confer and impart it to them. Wherefore you, O Israelites, go forth to meet this Messiah of yours who is coming, believe in Him, hope in Him, love Him, worship Him, follow Him; obey Him: thus He Himself will free you from the wrath of God, from sin, from death, from hell, from every enemy. He Himself will make you friends of God, sons and heirs, and blessed forever. For the Prophets are accustomed to establish Christ as the end and liberator of all captivities and miseries. Whence, although they predicted many disasters and much sorrow, they mitigate and sweeten all these things by promising Christ: for Christ is the end and aim of the law and the Prophets. It is confirmed, because for his word Aquila translated, τὰν ὁμιλίαν αὐτοῦ; Symmachus, τὸ φώνημα αὐτοῦ, Theodotion τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ; that is, his discourse and word. And from this place and similar ones it appears that St. John took the name λόγος, by which he constantly calls Christ, saying: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word." Where for Word, in Greek it is λόγος; not that St. John took the word λόγος from Theodotion, who was posterior to St. John by two centuries: but because the Hebrew שיח siach is the same as λόγος, and therefore Theodotion translated it λόγος. Finally, Theophanes of Nicaea in the Symbol of the New and Old Testament, which Turrianus cites, lib. II De Hierarchia ordinibus, cap. I, from the version of the Septuagint considers here to be a prophecy of the Transfiguration of Christ. (1) Thus this verse can be connected with the preceding one: Do not think, adds Amos, that God lacks the faculty to bring to effect what He has threatened, if you do not strive to appease Him by amendment of life, and thus prepare yourself to meet Him; for He is the creator and ruler of all nature. And the creator of the wind, a thing plainly contrary to mountains, observes Rosenmuller, which, although it is the most tenuous and of rare substance and the lightest, yet has marvelous and incomparable power and efficacy, so that it casts down and prostrates the most robust things and otherwise the most firm.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
4:1
v. 1 « Audite verbum hoc, vaccae pingues quae estis in monte Samariae, quae calumniam facitis egenis et confringitis pauperes, quae dicitis dominis vestris : afferte et bibemus » ! — de mulieribus esse sermonem (uti explicant Theod. Theod. M. Ephr. Barh. Mar. Calm. Schegg, Keil) et non de viris primoribus, qui propter luxuriem et mores effeminatos vaccae contemptim vocentur (cf. Hier. Cyr. Ps. Ruf. Rup. Alb. Rib. Sanct. Men. Gord. Trochon), verba ipsa ostendunt, praecipue, quia dicunt dominis suis i. e. maritis, et quia non solum v. 1 sed etiam v. 3 genus femininum grammoaticole adhibetur et ew mulier v. 3 explicite usurpatur. Neque alienum est a prophetis, mulierum quoque vitia quae certe multum valent in viros, perstringere (cf. Is. 3, 16; 32, 11). Comparantur vaccis Basan (LXX 58ay&Xe xijg Bacav[xi3ec) sc. quae « nutriantur in pascuis Basan, quae sunt loca herbarum fertilissima » (Hier. — cf. Num. 32, 4 seq.) !, propter luxuriem, petulantiam, lasciviam ; « pingues ? autem notantur secundum illud, quod b. David accusat : prodiit quasi ex adipe iniquitas eorum ... » (Ps. Ruf.). samaria urbs in monte erat posita (cf. 3 Reg. 16, 94). Nobiles matronae alios iniuste opprimebant et atterebant, ut de eorum spoliis instrumenta luxuriae quaererent (cf. Ps. Ruf.) virosque ad iniustam aliorum spoliationem excitabant, ut haberent, quibus ingluviem explerent. Ergo praeclare cum maritis conspirant, immo eos ad nova facinora propellunt rabie feminina. Paucis verbis vates insignem morum corruptionem depingit furias illas exhibens, quae insatiabili odio et foeda intemperantia viros ad omnia iura conculcanda exstimulant. NN Quare emphatice quoque iis poenam congruam denuntiat
Scelerum reprehensionem, quam vates 3, 9. 10 inceperat, iam ita proponit, ut quantopere morum corruptio in ipsas etiam mulieres serpserit, exhibeat
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v. 2 « iuravit Dominus Deus $n sancto suo : quia ecce dies venient super vos et levabunt vos in. contis et reliquias vestras in ollis ferventibus,
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v. 3 et per aperturas ezibitis altera contra alteram et proiiciemini 1n Armon, dicit Dominus » ; — si Deus iurat, summus certitudinis gradus exprimitur et modo hominibus apto declaratur, quantopere Deo res humanae cordi sint, ut vel remuneretur et promissis stet, vel sceleribus iratus et provocatus puniat ; iurat per sanctitatem suam (hebr.) !, quae scil. punitionem peccatorum exigit ; nam ut Deum sanctum qui populum suum sanctum cesse vult, se manifestavit. Simul assertioni et iuramento pondus accedit : uti Dei sanctitas est immutata, absolute necessaria, ita hac interposita sententiam ultionis immutabilem prorsusque necessariam pronuntiat. Textus lat. ita potest explicari, ut servata metaphora vaccae illae saginatae ad caedem serventur; «iam appropiat tempus, quo carnes vestrae leventur in contis et reliquiae in ollis ferventibus ; transtulit autem similitudinem a vaccis, quae convivantibus apponuntur ; contos ergo hic posuit pro verubus, i. e. subulis, quibus insertae plerumque vaccarum carnes prunarum vapore torrentur, reliquias vero vel intestina vel eas accipe portiones, quae comminutiores in ollis magis quam in subulis decoquuntur » (Ps. Ruf.) ; vel « vaccae postquam interfectae sunt et excoriatae, vecte levantur infixo per nervos posteriorum crurum et sic suspensae deportantur conto » (Alb. ; sim. Sanct. etc.). Dein relicta metaphora v. 3 praedicit eas singulas in captivitatem iri abductum ; per scissuras et ruinas moenium urbe ab hostibus capta sese fuga proripient (cf. Ez. 42, 12) longa serie inter se subscquentes ; at ab hostibus apprehensae demum captivae proiicientur in Armon ?, Armeniam plerique intelligunt. (cf. Sym. apud Hier. et Hier. ipse, Ps. Ruf. Theod. M. Ephr. Rup. Alb. 1. Vel, ut interpretes latini explicant, iuravit per scipsum (cf. Alb. Rib. Lap. Mar. Tir... Barh. Rib. Men. Tir.), quam Assyriis]subiectam et ab iis exsilii loco Israelitis assignatam dicunt. Textus hebr. ita vertendus erit :"et tollent vos in uncinis (aculeis) et reliquias vesiras (— i. e. quae reliquae sunt, aliae scil. quae non uncinis quasi apprehensae abducuntur ; alii posteritatem, liberos explicant cf. Mar. Ros. Hitz. Schegg —) in. hamis piscatoriis eadem scil. imagine, qua utitur Habacuc 1, 15 et Ier. 16, 16. Similiter iam verterunt Pagninus, Vatablus, Clarius, quos vide v. gr. apud Lap. Ceterum S. Hier. notat : « reliquiae earum in ollis ferventibus, pro quo etin hebraico et apud Aquilam scriptum est 4n lebetibus pisciculorum ; pro contis quoque.. Aquila interpretatus est clypeos, Symmachus et LXX arma, solus Theodotio 96pa:x, quem nos secuti contos vel hastas interpretati sumus. Hoc autem significat quod capiantur in proelio et portentur atque auferantur iure victoriae ; servans tamen coeptam vaccarum metaphoram, ut quas esse pingues dixerat vaccas, earum carnes narret in contis vel clvpeis esse portandas. Et sicut lebes ferventissimus minutos pisces pariter involvit, ita et vaccas Basan absque ullo ordine captivitati miseriis opprimendas ». Versio S. Hier. explicari forte potest ex lectione illa ,quam in LXX codex vaticanus praebet £t; MÉÓnxac Uroxatopévou; Eg6aXoUsw. Syrus interpretatur cacabum piscatorum, Chald. vero scapham piscatorum. niam intellexerunt ; neque desunt qui montem Mona, ut habet Theodotio, censent montem Minni (cf. Ier. 51, 27) prope Ararat (cf. Bochartus apud Ros.); ali textum mutant et vertunt : proripietis vos ad montem (tamquam) ad locum refugii (cf. Hitz.). Plura de hac re vide apud Ges. s. v. et Keil et Schegg. Ad ea scelera addunt cultus impii impiam sedulitatem, quam sacer vates acerba ironia exagitat et ridet, imperans illis cum subsannatione, ut studiosius atque crebrius illum exerceant et peccatorum mensuram impleant (cf. Alb. Sanct.) ;
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v. 4 « venite ad Bethel et impie agite ; ad Galgalam, et multiplicate praevaricationem et afferte mane victimas vestras, tribus diebus decimas vestras » ! — de Bethel et Galgala cf. Os. 4, 15; 9, 45 ; 19, 11 ; mane i. e. quovis mane, singulis diebus caedite victimas et plurima sacrificia offerte, non tantum diebus festis! Eadem ironia cernitur in altero membro ; intellige scil. cum Sanct. : decimas afferte non semel in anno, sed tertio quoque die ; mandato enim ad absurdum exaggerato absurda illa sedulitas in idolis colendis vel in falso cultu Deo exhibendo carpitur. Alii tres dies de tribus anni sollemnitatibus maioribus, Paschatis, Pentecostes, festi tabernaculorum explicant (cf. Cyr. Rup. Lap. Men.); verum dies festivitates illas non designat. 1. Legitur hophal in uno codice hebr., prout de Rossi in suppl. adnotat. Pergit in eodem ironiae genere v. B «ef sacrificate de fermentato laudem et vocate voluntarias oblationes et annuntiate ! sic enim voluistis filii Israel, dicit Dominus » ; — in oblatione laudis i. e. gratiarum actionis — ebyapizlay transtulit Aq. — etiam panes fermentati requirebantur, minime quidem, utin altari et in igne sacrificii. cremarentur, sed ut Domino consecrati sacerdoti cederet panis unus, reliqui ad epulas sacrificiales adhiberentur (cf. Lev. "1, 12-14). Admonitio ironica proin in eo est, ut hos ipsos panes ad (audis sacrificium augendum accendant (hebr.), in ipso altari cum victima concrement, proinde, ut ad cultum addant prae nimia sedulitate. At cum fermentatum ab altari omnino arcendum esset, inepta illa sedulitas ridetur. Eadem mente vates dicit, ut voluntarias oblationes publico edicto praescribant et publica quasi indictione. illas offerendas curent et tali strepitu. adhortationis terram impleant — de oblationibus, quae sponte fieri poterant cf. Lev. "1, 16 ; 22, 18 etc. Deut. 12, 6 (vide P. Scholz, die h. Alterthümer des Volkes Israel II, 414). Concludit eadem ironia : talia scil. vos amplectimini, talia vobis placent! « non haec dico tamquam praecipiens sed tamquam declarans voluntatem ipsam vestram et studia vestra, iin quibus ego quoque vos relinquam, ut ad me non redeatis. Simile est illud Apoc. : qui in sordibus est, sordeseat adhuc » (Estius) ! Vel, ut S. Hier. ait : « o Israel fac quod libet, age impie ; cum idolis libere fornicare, ut quanto tu fueris impudentior, tanto mea super tormentis tuis iustior videatur sententia ».
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v. 6 « Unde et ego dedi vobis stuporem dentium in cunctis urbibus vestris et indigentiam panum in omnibus locis vestris ; et non estis reversi ad me, dicit Dominus » ; — famem et penuriam inobedientibus minatus est Deus Deut. 98, 48. 571; stuporem dentium ex esu fructuum immaturorum ac acerborum oriri notum est (cf. Ez. 18, 2: « patres comederunt uvam acerbam et dentes filiorum obstupescunt »); unde ex textu latino prima afflictio erat, ut fructibus malis vesci deberent, quae deinde altera, panis scil. indigentia victusque penuria aucta est (cf. Rib. Sanct. Tir. Schegq) ; stuporem (vou.o:asuóvy) etiam vertunt LXX ! et Syrus et Chald. ; alii hebr. vertunt munditiem dentium « tunc enim mundi sunt dentes, dum nihil mandunt » (fib. Sanct. Lap. Mar. Keil). — At poena frustra est inflicta : non estis reversi ; « quo versu duo pariter indicavit, et illorum videlicet in delinquendo pertinaciam et suam in consulendo benignitatem, qui illa nimirum verbera, non ut puniret, sed ut corrigeret, intulisset. Huic autem consilio infeliciter resistentes quoddam (cum Deo) certamen ingressi sunt » (Ps. Ruf.). | Alia enim poena eos studuit coercere
At quomodo ad tantam impii cultus insaniam progressi sunt ? Deus enim ex sua parte non destitit variis multisque castigationibus eos ad meliorem frugem revocare. Nam quia ipsi sic voluerunt impie agere (v. 3), etiam hebr. Deus poenas inflixit :
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v. l1 « ego quoque prohibui a vobis imbrem, cum adhuc tres menses. superessent usque ad. messem ; et plui super unam civitatem. ct. super. alteram. civitatem non plui ; pars una, compluta est, et pars super quam non plui, aruit » ; — hebr. unus ager complutus est . . . cf. Lev. 26, 19. Deut. 28, 23. S. Iher. diu in Palaestina commoratus rem ita declarat: « prohibui imbrem quae appellatur pluvia serotina et agris Palaestinae arvisque sitientibus vel maxime necessaria est, ut quando herba turgeret in messem et triticum parturiret, nimia siccitate aresceret. Significat autem vernum tempus extremi mensis Aprilis, a quo usque ad messem frumenti tres menses supersunt, Maius, Iunius, Iulius » ; ita utique in parte septémtrionali Palaestinae ; verum in regione meridionali pluvia serotina mense Februario exeunte et mense Martio ineunte cadere et messis frumenti mense Maio et Iunio haberi solet (cf. Schegg, Keil). « Et ne forsitan putarent hoc lege naturae et astrorum cursu ac varietate temporum urbibus et populis accidisse, super unam urbem et agros eius pluere se dicit, et ab altera imbrem suspendere » (Hier.), ut scil. « sentiretis iudicio fieri siccitatem, ut simul, o popule, negato tibi solatio ex vicino mordereris exemplo » (Ps. Ruf. sim. Theod. Rup. Rib. Sanct. Lap.) ;
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v. 8 «et venerunt duae et tres civitates ad unam civitatem ut biberent aquam, et non sunt satiatae ; et non redistis ad me, dicit Dominus » ; — hebr. proprie vacillabant vel titubabant, siti scil. iam fere exhausti et viribus fractis. Sed quamvis in ipsa poenae discriminatione tam aperte manus Dei deprehenderetur, tamen non redierunt. Paucos exstitisse melioris notae inter plurimos obstinatos, ipsa oppositione duarum et trium civitatum ad unam ostenditur. « Neque tamen reversi sunt, quae verba saepe repetit Deus, quasi indigne ferens illud paternae providentiae remedium periisse, cum tamen etiam apud stolidos ac barbaros plurimum soleat habere momenti. Vexatio enim stupidorum doctrina est » (Sanct.). Auxit Deus conatus alias plagas immittens et « hominibus frugum adminiculo destitutis pomorum quoque solatia hortorumque subduxit » (Ps. Ruf. sim. Cyr.) ;
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v. 9 « percussi vos in vento urente et in aurugine ; multitudinem hortorum et vinearum vestrarum, oliveta vestra et ficeta vestra comedit eruca; et non redistis ad me, dicit Dominus ». — illas inflixit poenas, de quibus in Deut. 98, 22. 39. 40. 42; hebr. percussi vos uredine ! 1. e. segetes et plantas uredine et auriugine corrupi atque destruxi ; de eruca cf. Ioel 4, 4. Insuper cum plagae in eorum possessiones inflictae non emendationis fructum ferrent, ipsos peste ac bello et multiplici morte homines perterruit;
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v. 10 « mis? in vos mortem in via Aegypti, percussi in gludio iuvenes vestros usque ad. captivitatem equorum vestrorum et ascendere feci putredinem castrorum vestrorum in nares vestras et non redistis ad me, dicit Dominus » ; — cf. Lev. 96, 95. Deut. 98, 60; eis imniisit pestem (hebr.) eamque quae in Aegypto grassari solet ; est enim in via Aegypti secundum modum Aegypti, pro more Aegypti (cf. Is. 10, 24. 26. Ez. 20, 30 — cf. Sanct. Lap. Tir. Calm.), non in profectione aegyptiaca, ut auxilium ab Aegypto peterent (Cyr. Theod. Theod. M. Rib.), quasi ii nuntii peste essent perempti, dum in Aegyptum iter faccrent. Pesti addebatur bellum et multiplex bellatorum iuvenum caedes ; hebr. intellige simul cum militibus etiam equos captivos fuisse in castris necatos, ita ut putredo castrorum ascenderet in nares superstitum et pestem spargeret et augeret. Ipso illo foetore de sordibus peccatorum et de abominatione et fastidio admoniti sunt, quod sceleribus suis Domino creaverant; at frustra. Per omnes sensus Dominus iis ostendit, quam detestanda sint peccata ; at minime corriguntur. — Alludit vates ad bella cum Syris infeliciter gesta cf. 4 Reg. 6, 25; 8, 12; 13, 3. "1. 22. Istis enim bellis regnum Israel ad summam miseriam est redactum atque fere exstinctum ; ita praecipue tempore Hazael: « et non sunt derelicti Ioachaz de populo nisi 50 equites et 10 currus et 10 000 peditum ; interfecerat enim eos rex Syriae et redegcrat quasi pulverem in tritura areae. » 4 Reg. 13, 1l.
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rham, et facti estis quasi torris raptus ab incendio ; et non redistis ad me, dicit Dominus » ; — sunt, qui subversionem de terrae motu (1, 1) explicent (cf. Hitz.); verum torris semiustus ab incendio erutus potius miseram illam regni conditionem bellis syriacis invectam depingit, de qua etiam omnes fere interpretes subversionem explicant. Comparatione ipsa alludit propheta ad minas iam a Moyse propositas Deut. 29, 29 (cf. Keil), quibus extremam populi iniquitatem castigandum esse praedicit. | Quae omnia cum Deus frustra adhibuerit, iam non restat, nisi, ut ad extremam poenam progrediatur ; hanc minatur v. 12 et eam v. 13 divina potentia et maiestate ostensa confirmat. Et in hebr. quidem v. 12 propterea ita. faciam tibi, Israel ; propterea quia hoc faciam tibi, praeparare in occursum Dei tui, Israel ; loquitur Deus sensu minaci per modum aposiopesis; « cumque dixerit haec faciam tibi, quid facturus sit tacet, ut dum ad singula poenarum genera Israel pendet incertus (quae ideo terribiliora sunt, quia omnia suspicantur), agat poenitentiam » (Hier. ; sim. Sa, Lap. Tir. Calm.) ; praeparare i. e. vide, num Deo possis obsistere; praepara te, ut maiores ictus suscipias ; considera, qualis iudex et quantus ultor tibi sit occursurus ; qualis vero sit ac quantus, v. 13 explicatur. Ad eundem sensum exigenda sunt verba latina
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v. 12 « quapropter haec faciam tibi, Israel ; postquam autem haec fecero tibi, praeparare in occursum Dei tui, Israel » ! — i. e. « postquam autem has atroces plagas, quas mente concepi, facere et infligere coepero, praeparare, q. d. si praeteritae plagae tibi leves videntur,... en ego formans montes et creans ventos etc. te invadam quasi eques cataphractus, vires exseram, hastas telaque omnia in te contorquebo ; obfirma pectus, clypeum apta, - oppone te mihi, ictum dexterae meae declina aut sustine, si potes. Est sarcasmus » (Lap.). venientem ad te Dominum tota aviditate suscipias ». Át certe ad contextum, qui totus in reprehensione versatur, et ad ipsa quoque verba unice apta est expositio, quam Alb. Lap. Men. Schegg etc. sequuntur et quam iam Sym. et quinta editio exhibent : praeparare, ut adverseris Deo tuo (apud Hier.). Minis addit pondus ex divina potentia et maiestate ; videant, num cum tali Deo possint manus conserere vel quid demum plagarum ab eo debeant exspectare
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v. 13 « quia ecce formans montes et creans ventum et annuntians homint eloquium suum, faciens matutinam nebulam et gradiens super excelsa terrae ; Dominus Deus exercituum nomen etus » ; — Deus scil. terram formavit, cuius quasi fulcra et fundamenta montes sunt ; quae in rerum natura fiunt, ipse administrat; id quod uno exemplo creans ventum illustratur ; quae in homine sunt, ipse novit eaque hoinini nuntiat !, « qui cogitationum secreta cognoscit, et quid latens aniinus tacito sermone tractet, intelligit iuxta illud quod in Ieremia secundum hebraicum legimus : pravum est cor hominis et inscrutabile, quis cognoscet illud? ego Dominus scrutans cor et probans renes » (Hier.). Hisce tria alia ad Dei potentiam adumbrandam adduntur : faciens auroram, tenebras, gradiens super excelsa terrae (hebr.) i. e. qui lucem, prosperitatem, tenebras, ruinam et interitum administrat, qui homines vel beatitate vel extrema miseria afficere potest, qui gradiens etc. summo imperio in res omnes valet omniaque sibi habet plene subiecta (cf. Hab. 3, 9); post sollemnem enumerationem sex praeclaris titulis constantem sollemni epiphonemate concludit, una quasi formula maiestatem divinam exhibens: lahve Deus exercituum nomen eius : Deus aeternus, immutabilis, perfectissimus qui simul est Deus foederis — haec omnia nomine Jahve indicantur — est ille, cui exercitus omnes coelestes atque terrestres praesto sunt (cf. Os. 12, 5. Mich. 4, 4). Hoc quasi sigillo apposito minas consignat atque confirmat. IIl. — TERTIA oRATIO CP. 5. 6 : EXCIDIUM ISRAEL ET EXCIDII CAUSAE. Anc.— Sermonis planctusque materia, scil. ruina Israel summatim proposita (8, 1 - 3) sacer vates viam delineat, qua ad excidium properant : a Deo scil. quocum coniuncti solum vivere possunt, desciverunt, ad profanum cultum deflexerunt, ius et iustitiam perverterunt. Quod quo magis percipiant, maiestatis divinae potentiam egregiis exemplis adumbrat ex una parte, ex altera eorum scelera ; praecipue iniustitias commissas exagitat (9, 4- 13). Denuo, uti v. 4, salutis unicam conditionem iis proponit, quam quia spernunt, planctum eventurum vaticinatur universalem (8, 14-11) ; vae ingeminat iis, qui diem Domini audaci praesumptione desiderant, fore scil. diem istum perditionis et caliginis plenum, neque ullo pacto castigationem imminentem sacrificiis redimi posse ait, verum pro inveterata eorum impietate in exsilium eos iri abductum (3, 18 - 21). Alterum vae ingeminat populi principibus, qui falsa fiducia innixi, pro divinis beneficiis ingrati, luxuriei, ingluviei, ebrietati dediti populi curam abiecerunt ; quare captivi abducentur (6, 1 - 7) ; minas Deus iureiurando confirmat iisque descriptione miseriae pondus addit ; necessario enim consequetur perversitatem eorum et superbam elationem oppressio et ruina (6, 8-15).
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1 and 2 (3 and 4) Book of Kings
… The content of R. also finds frequent verification in other historical books, and in the prophetic ones (cf. among many cases: Hos. 7, 7; 8, 4 = II Reg. 15, 10, 14, 25; Hos. 5, 13; 7, 11; 8, 9; 12, 2 = II Reg. 15, 17-20; Am. 7, 10; 4, 1-6 = II Reg. 14, 23-29; It. 7, 1-12 = II Reg. 16, 5; It. 36, 1-37, 38 = II Reg. 18, 13-19, 37, etc.). …
… The Hebrew name Bāfān is generally used with the article; it was a land celebrated for its fertility to such an extent that its name became a synonym for it, and therefore the Septuagint and the Vulgate replace the proper name with the translation "fat": Ps. 21, 13; 67, 16; Ez. 39, 18; Am. 4, 1.
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The amount and the manner of collecting this tribute were not always the same (Lev. 27, 30-33; Num. 18, 20-32; Deut. 12, 6, 11; 14, 22-29; 17-19; 26, 12-15; cf. Am. 4, 4). Numbers and Deuteronomy consider grain, new wine and oil subject to the tithe. …
Gilgal, Gilgala (Heb. Hag-Gilgâl "The Circle")
… received there festively by the tribe of Judah on his return from his flight into Transjordan (II Sam. 19:16). After G. later became a center of idolatry, like the sanctuary of Bethel, it was condemned in the invectives of the prophets (Hos. 4:15; 9:15; Am. 4:4) and after the Babylonian exile its memory was lost.
Simeon (Heb. Šim'ôn; Gr. Symzōn)
… Some will also have emigrated to the northern tribes, with which S. would seem to have had particular relations, to judge from the identity of the calf cult at Beersheba and in the northern centers of Bethel, Gilgal and Dan (Amos 4:4; 5:5; etc.). …
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… Meanwhile, it is known from Am. 2:10; 4:6-9; Hos. 5:10; 6:1 etc.; to speak of a "Deuteronomistic redactor" is to fall into a petitio principii. …
4:11
… God made use of the prophets to recall them to interiority (Am. 4, 11-22; 5, 14-15; Mich. 6, 8; Is. 66, 2; Jer. 4, 3-4 and 14, 7). They inculcated the relationship between the soul and God not only with the ancient concept of filial adoption, but …
… annihilate it; he reserves a "remnant," which he will purify in the long exile and lead back to Palestine to reconstitute the new Israel; this, in due time, will be raised up and absorbed into the kingdom of the M., the end of the whole divine economy (Am. 4, 11; 9, 9; Mic. 4, 6 f.; 7, 19; Is. 1, 9; 7, 3; 10, 20 ff.; 40-66; Jer. 3, 14, 16; 23, 3; 24, 6; 30-31; 33; Ez. 11, 13-20; 34; 37, 12; etc.). …
The catastrophe, already presented by Moses (Deut. 29:22) as an image of the punishments that would strike the enemies of God, is often evoked in biblical tradition either with the name of S. alone (Ezek. 16:49; Matt. 11:23-24; Luke 10:12) or associated with G. (Amos 4:11; Isa. 1:9; 13:19; Jer. 23:14; 49:18; 50:40; Matt. 10:15; Rom. 9:26; Jude 7; II Pet. 2:6: an example for those who would live wickedly in the future).
4:13
… In the minor prophets, even in the most ancient (Am. 2:4; 4:13; 5:8 ff.; 9:2, 5 ff.; Hos. 4:12; 9:10; 13:4), the same faith is found.
… G. sings his glory, in the style of the Prophets and the Psalms (9:6 = Is. 13:13; 9:8 = Am. 4:13...), in creation (9:4-13) and in the upheavals he works in society (12:13-25; cf. Ps. 106 [107]:40). …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.