Under the figure of a hook, which bringeth down the fruit, the approaching desolation of Israel is foreshewed for their avarice and injustices.
In a vision of an apple hooke the captiuitie of the tenne tribes is againe foreshewed, 4. with reprehension of their auarice, and oppression of the poore: 7. for which they shal fal into great miseries.
1These things the Lord shewed to me: and behold a hook to draw down the fruit.Il Signore mandommi questa visione: Io vedea un uncino da cogliere i frutti;THESE thinges hath our Lord shewed to me: and behold an apple hooke.Hæc ostendit mihi Dominus Deus: et ecce uncinus pomorum. 2And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook to draw down fruit. And the Lord said to me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more.E dissemi: Che è quel, che tu vedi, o Amos? E io dissi: Un uncino da corre i frutti. E il Signore disse a me: E venuta la fine pel mio popolo d'Israele: io noi lascerò più lungamente impunito.And he sayd: What seest thou Amos? And I sayd: An apple hooke. And our Lord sayd to me: The end cometh vpon my people Israel: I wil adde no more to passe them.Et dixit: Quid tu vides, Amos ? Et dixi: Uncinum pomorum. Et dixit Dominus ad me: Venit finis super populum meum Israël; / non adjiciam ultra ut pertranseam eum. 3And the hinges of the temple shall screak in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die: silence shall be cast in every place.In quel giorno, dice il Signore Dio, strideranno i cardini del tempio, molti periranno: e in ogni luogo sarà vasto silenzio.And the henges of the temple shal creake in that day, saith our Lord God: manie shal dye: in euerie place shal silence be cast.Et stridebunt cardines templi in die illa, / dicit Dominus Deus: / multi morientur; / in omni loco projicietur silentium. 4Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail,Ascoltate ciò voi, che straziate il povero, e struggete i miserabili del paese,Heare this you that tread downe the poore, & make the needie of the land to fayle,Audite hoc, qui conteritis pauperem, / et deficere facitis egenos terræ, 5Saying: When will the month be over, and we shall sell our wares: and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may lessen the measure, and increase the sicle, and may convey in deceitful balances,E dite: Quando passerà il mese, e venderemo le merci, e (passerà) il sabato, e metterem fuora il grano, farem più piccola la misura, e ricresceremo il peso del siclo, e adopreremo bilancia falsa;saying: When wil the moneth passe, and we shal sel wares: and the Sabbath, and we open the corne: that we may diminish the measure, and increase the sicle, and conuey in deceitful balances,dicentes: Quando transibit mensis, / et venundabimus merces ? / et sabbatum, et aperiemus frumentum, / ut imminuamus mensuram, et augeamus siclum, / et supponamus stateras dolosas, 6That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn?E ci farem padroni de' miserabili col denaro, e de' poveri con un paio di scarpe, e venderemo le vagliature del grano:that we may for siluer possesse the needie, and the poore for shoes, and may sel the refuse of the corne?ut possideamus in argento egenos et pauperes pro calceamentis, / et quisquilias frumenti vendamus ?
7The Lord hath sworn against the pride of Jacob: surely I will never forget all their works.Il Signore ha fatto questo giuramento contro la superbia di Giacobbe: Io giuro, che non mi scorderò giammai di tutte le opere loro.Our Lord hath sworne agaynst the pride of Iacob: If I shal forget euen to the end al their workes.Juravit Dominus in superbiam Jacob: / Si oblitus fuero usque ad finem omnia opera eorum. 8Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up altogether as a river, and be cast out, and run down as the river of Egypt?E dopo tali cose non sarà ella scommossa la terra, e i suoi abitatori non sarann'eglino in pianto? La sovercherà quasi un fiume, ed ella sarà desolata, e sparirà come il rivo di Egitto,Why, shal not the land be moued vpon this, and euerie inhabitant therof mourne: and rise vp as a riuer altogether, and be cast out, and runne downe to the riuer of Aegypt?Numquid super isto non commovebitur terra, / et lugebit omnis habitator ejus, / et ascendet quasi fluvius universus, / et ejicicetur, et defluet, quasi rivus Ægypti ? 9And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light:E avverrà in quel giorno, dice il Signore Dio, che il sole tramonterà a mezzo il dì, e farò, che si oscuri la terra in piena luce:And it shal be in that day, saith our Lord God: The sunne shal goe downe at midday, & I wil make the earth to be darke in the day of light.Et erit in die illa, dicit Dominus Deus: / occidet sol in meridie, / et tenebrescere faciam terram in die luminis: 10And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon every back of yours, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day.E cangerò in lutto le vostre solennità; e in pianto tutte le vostre canzoni, e a tutti voi metterò intorno agli omeri il sacco, e vi farò rader la testa, e il suo duolo farò che sia qual suol essere per la perdita d'un unigenito, e che il suo fine sia come giorno di amarezza.And I wil turne your festiuities into mourning, and al your songues into lamentation: and I wil bring in vpon euerie backe of yours sack cloth, and vpon euerie head baldnes: and I wil lay it as the mourning of an onlie begotten sonne, and the later end therof as a bitter day.et convertam festivitates vestras in luctum, / et omnia cantica vestra in planctum, / et inducam super omne dorsum vestrum saccum, / et super omne caput calvitium: / et ponam eam quasi luctum unigeniti, / et novissima ejus quasi diem amarum.
11Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.Ecco, che viene il tempo, dice il Signore, quand'io manderò sopra la terra la fame, non fame di cibo, né sete di acqua, ma di udire una parola di Dio.Behold the dayes come, saith our Lord, and I wil send forth famine into the land: not the famine of bread, nor thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.Ecce dies veniunt, dicet Dominus, / et mittam famem in terram: / non famem panis, neque sitim aquæ, / sed audiendi verbum Domini. 12And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.E tutti saranno in iscompiglio da un mare all'altro, e da settentrione fino a levante. Anderanno attorno bramosi di udire una parola del Signore, e non la troveranno.And they shal be moued from the sea euen to sea, and from the North euen to the East: they shal goe about seeking the word of our Lord, and shal not finde.Et commovebuntur a mari usque ad mare, / et ab aquilone usque ad orientem: / circuibunt quærentes verbum Domini, / et non invenient. 13In that day the fair virgins, and the young men shall faint for thirst.In quel giorno verran meno per la sete le fanciulle avvenenti, e i giovinetti.In that day the fayre virgins shal faile, & the yongmen in thirst.In die illa deficient virgines pulchræ et adolescentes in siti, 14They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth: and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall rise no more.Coloro, che giurano per il peccato di Samaria, e dicono: Viva, o Dan, il tuo Dio, e viva il pellegrinaggio di Bersabea: anderanno per terra, e non si rialzeranno mai più.They that sweare by the sinne of Samaria, and say: Thy God ô Dan liueth: and the way of Bersebee liueth: and they shal fal, and shal rise no more.qui jurant in delicto Samariæ, / et dicunt: Vivit Deus tuus, Dan, / et vivit via Bersabee; / et cadent, et non resurgent ultra.
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Haydock
Hook. Hebrew, "basket of summer fruit." Septuagint, "bird-cage or net." (Haydock)
Worthington
Not only those who were near, (4 Kings 15:29.) but the rest also were taken, (4 Kings 17:6.) as we pull with a hook the fruit which we cannot reach otherwise. (Worthington)
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Temple, when God comes like a mighty warrior; or when the profane temples shall be pillaged, Amos 9:1. Hebrew also, "the canticles of the temple or palace shall be changed into lamentations."
Calmet
Place. Hebrew, "a multitude of dead bodies shall be cast in every place. Keep silence." (Calmet)
8:5
Haydock
Month: the first day was observed as a festival, Numbers 10:10. (Haydock)
Horace
At the expiration of the month usurers demanded their money. (Horace, 1:sat. 3.; Aristophanes, Nub. 2:1.)
Corn, to sell after the sabbatical year, when it was dearest. Sabbath also denotes all "festivals." These misers think that there are too many.
Sicle. Having a large measure to buy, and a small one to sell again, Deuteronomy 25:13., and Proverbs 20:10.
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Shoes, for almost nothing. Thus they forced the poor to serve, or to sell their effects.
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Calmet
Jacob, because the rich despise the poor. It may also mean, that he swore by heaven, or the temple, (Leviticus 26:19.) or that he would destroy the high places. (Calmet)
8:8
Altogether. Septuagint, "its total ruin shall rise as a river."
The enemy shall retire with the booty. The Nile overflows in summer, and covers Egypt for six weeks, carrying much earth with its impetuous waves, Isaias 18:2.
8:9
Calmet
Light. Usher (the year of the world 3213.) explains this of an eclipse, at Pentecost. The Fathers generally understand that which accompanied the death of Christ; but it only implies great desolation and terror, Jeremias 15:9., and Joel 3:11. (St. Jerome, etc.) (Calmet)
Worthington
In their greatest prosperity, calamities shall unexpectedly fall upon them. (Worthington)
8:10
Baldness, the hair being cut in mourning, Job 1:20.
Calmet
Son, most afflicted, Zacharias 12:10., and Jeremias 6:26. (Calmet)
8:11
Worthington
Lord. During the siege provisions were wanting, but instruction still more so. (Worthington)
Calmet
Israel had banished Amos. They would be left destitute. We find no prophet among them during the captivity, except Tobias, Tobias 13:3. We may apply this to the state of the Jews since the death of Christ. They have no guides. (Calmet)
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Calmet
Sea to sea: from west to south, or to the ocean; in whatever part of the world they may be. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Sin. Septuagint, "propitiation," which the pagans deemed requisite; (Horace, 1:ode 2.) or worship (Haydock) of Baal, (4 Kings 17:16.; Calmet) and all the other superstitions. (Haydock)
Calmet
Way. Septuagint, "thy God," or religion, (Acts 9:2.) or pilgrimage to Bersabee, Amos 5:5. Perhaps the true God was here adored; but it was in a manner which he condemned. (Calmet)
Haydock
In vain do those pretend to honour Him, who follow the traditions of unbelieving men. (Haydock)
8:1
By this vision of a hooke is signified that not only the nerer partes of the tenne tribes should be brought into captiuitie vvhich is writen. 4. Reg. 15. v. 29. but also the rest which vvere further of: as fruite of trees, vvhich can not be gathered vvith the hand, is dravven vvith a hooke: & so al vvere caried avvay. 4. Reg. 17. v. 6.
8:9
In their great prosperitie, vvhen they least suspect, calamities shal fal vpon them.
Concordance Deut. •. Iere 15.
8:10
Concordance Tob. 2. Mar. 1.
8:11
It can not be doubted but in the siege there vvas vvant of bread drinke and of other victuals: but greater vvant of spiritual foode.
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 53.8
… He speaks to the fat kine that are in the mountain of Samaria, and bears witness that the great house and the little house shall fall. He sees now the maker of the grasshopper, now the Lord, standing upon a wall daubed or made of adamant, now a basket of apples
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.19
… the property of the Egyptians, as a part of a wide policy, (for he could both collect and supply corn duly, as he also could foresee the famine, and provide against it afar off,) but the property of their fellow countrymen in an illegal manner, for they say, “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell, and the sabbaths, that we may open our stores?”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.33.12
… Those, moreover, who said, “In that day, saith the Lord, the sun shall go down at noon, and there shall be darkness over the earth in the clear day; and I will turn your feast days into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation,”
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 10
… and I will convert your festive days into grief, and all your canticles into lamentation; and I will lay upon your loins sackcloth, and upon every head baldness; and I will make the grief like that for a beloved (son), and them that are with him like a day of mourning.”
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 13
… But My People hath changed their glory: whence no profit shall accrue to them: the heaven turned pale thereat” (and when did it turn pale? undoubtedly when Christ suffered), “and shuddered,” he says, “most exceedingly;” and “the sun grew dark at mid-day:”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.42
… These proofs would still have been suitable for me, even if they had not been the subject of prophecy. Isaiah says: “I will clothe the heavens with blackness.” This will be the day, concerning which Amos also writes: And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that the sun shall go down at noon and the earth shall be dark in the clear day.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.24
In Amos: “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, the sun shall set at noonday, and the day of light shall be darkened; and I will turn your feast-days into grief, and all your songs into lamentation.”
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 1.11
… And the sun set in midday and the land was darkened in the shining daytime, as is written in Zechariah the Prophet:— It shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, I will cause the sun to set in midday, and will make dark the land in the shining daytime .
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.25
… Tell, O Prophet, the exact time thereof to the Jews, who are unwilling to hear; when shall the sun go down? The Prophet Amos answers, And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at noon (for there was darkness from the sixth hour;) and the light shall grow dark over the earth in the day
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 2.6
… not that the elements change their nature, but that our eyes being confused by the cloud of sadness, are unable to receive the light of the rays clearly, or with the same relish. This is what the prophet of old bewailed, when he said, “The sun shall go down at noon, and the day shall be darkened.”
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 24
24. It is written that in our Lord’s passion there was darkness over the earth from the sixth hour until the ninth. To this also you will find the Prophet witnessing, “Thy Sun shall go down at mid-day.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 8.10
And of this sun God clearly makes mention by the prophet, when He says, “But to those that fear my name the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.” And this again is said to “go down” at midday on sinners and false prophets, and those who are angry, when the prophet says, “Their sun is gone down at noon.”
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St Gregory Thaumaturgus † AD 270 Four Homilies 2
… And let us keep it with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Of old did Israel also keep their festival, but then it was with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, of which the prophet says: “I will turn their feasts into afflictions and lamentation, and their joy into shame.”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 243.2
… No one’s heart is so hard as to lose a father, and bear the bereavement meekly. There is a sound of them that mourn in the city—a sound in the fields, in the roads, in the deserts. But one voice is heard from all that utter sad and piteous words. Joy and spiritual gladness are taken away. Our feasts are turned into mourning.
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.25
… And I will turn your feasts into mourning ; for this was done in the days of unleavened bread, and at the feast of the Passover: then afterwards he says, And I will make Him as the mourning of an Only Son, and those with Him as a day of anguish
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 68
Because, then, the Jews, deprived of all the sanctification imparted by these mysteries, turned their light into darkness and their “feasts into mourning
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Modesty 9
… This (“substance”), accordingly, he “squandered;” having been cast by his moral habits far from the Lord, amid the errors and allurements and appetites of the world, where, compelled by hunger after truth,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 34
… and you supply spiritual food also, not to a particular people, nor to this or that city, circumscribed by narrow boundaries, though its people may think it very illustrious, but to almost the whole world. And you bring the remedy not for famine of bread or thirst of water,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 43.36
… This food he, who was the poorest and most needy man whom I have known, supplied in rich abundance to the relief not of a famine of bread, nor of a thirst for water, but a longing for that Word
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 19.1
… There is a prophetic threatening also against those worthy of vengeance, that they shall be punished with famine; but the “famine” is not a lack of bread and water, but a failure of the word:—“not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 2
This is a soul’s food, this its ornament, this its security; even as not to hear is famine and wasting; for “I will give them,” saith He, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 8
So then the oracles of God are true nourishment. “For I will give unto them,” he saith, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 10
… v. 12 ), this he says here also. Indeed in many places the Scripture calls the teaching “rain.” For (it says) “I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it” ( Isa. v. 6 ), speaking of “the vineyard.” The same which in another place it calls “a famine of bread, and a thirst of water.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 53.8
… He sees now the maker of the grasshopper, now the Lord, standing upon a wall daubed or made of adamant, now a basket of apples that brings doom to the transgressors, and now a famine upon the earth “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 7.7
… understood to be heretics, He says, “Because of their iniquity the love of many shall wax cold.” Since then even in the Churches, that is, in that congregation of peoples and nations, where the Christian name has most widely spread, there shall be so great abundance of sinners, which is already, in great measure, perceived; is not that famine of the word
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.5
… He may indeed relieve one who is defiled from the penalty of her sin, but He will not give her a crown. Let us fear lest in us also the prophecy be fulfilled, “Good virgins shall faint.”
8:1
1. The Lord showed me this, — that is to say, After so many visions and threats, God added this vision of the hook of summer fruits as well, so that by so many comminations as it were by repeated blows He might soften and bend the hard hearts of the Hebrews. Thus concerning Pharaoh and the Egyptians, whom God hardened and drowned in the Red Sea, the Psalmist says in Psalm XVII, 15: "He multiplied his lightnings, and troubled them." Behold a hook of summer fruits, — In Hebrew כלוב קיץ kelub kaits, which the Chaldean, the Rabbis, Pagninus and the Zurich Bible translate as a basket, or a basket of summer, that is of summer fruits, which are namely ripened in summer and when ripe are gathered. The Syriac: behold a sign of the end; for it reads קץ kets, that is the end; the Arabic translates it as vessels of hunting, and soon after as an arrow of hunting, or of capture. Our translator better renders it, "a hook of summer fruits." First, because the matter here concerns an instrument by which fruits are drawn and captured: this however is a hook, not a basket: for by a hook are signified the spears and weapons of the Assyrians. Second, because the Hebrew kelub signifies a hunting instrument. Moses knew this, who in teaching the rude and hard Hebrews, says in Deuteronomy cap. XXXII, 2: "Let my doctrine, he says, come down as rain, let my speech flow as dew, as a shower upon the herb, and as drops upon the grass." Wise schoolmasters imitate this, who teach boys gradually and slowly: for just as vessels of narrow mouth are filled drop by drop, but poured out yield little or no liquid, so also the minds of boys. To this pertains the memorable example of St. Isidore of Seville, Archbishop, who flourished in the time of St. Gregory the Great, Roman Pontiff, and was the brother of St. Leander (to whom St. Gregory dedicated his books of Morals), and succeeded him in the Archbishopric of Seville. For he in his youth was applied by his parents to studies, and since with a slower mind he made little progress in them, although he labored greatly in them, he thought of abandoning them and devoting himself to something else. And as he stood thinking this beside a well, he saw and considered in its stone rim the furrows which ropes of buckets, by their long drawing, had gradually made in the stone. Applying this to himself: If ropes, he said, by long use can excavate stone, why cannot I by long study soften the hardness of my mind, and impress upon it knowledge and learning? Having therefore resumed his books with great spirit, by continuous reading and meditation he made such progress in them that he became the most learned man of his age in sacred as well as profane letters, and even in languages, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, nor had he an equal in that age; to whom therefore Spain and learning, and seminaries, in which St. Ildefonsus, St. Braulius, and other holy Prelates equally learned, were both educated and instructed, owes a debt. Thus his Life has it with Father Ribadeneira and others, on the 4th of April. Second, the word drop signifies the present threats and punishments which the Prophets hold out to the wicked Israelites, to be only a drop if compared with the punishments of hell, where there is rain and a torrent, indeed an ocean of fire burning with pitch and sulphur, which continually burns, rolls and re-rolls the damned, according to that passage in Job cap. XXVI, 14: "Since we hardly hear a small drop of his word, who can behold the thunder of his greatness?" Here therefore are drops and a hissing, in hell there will be a sea and the thunder of God's wrath. 17. THEREFORE THUS SAITH THE LORD: THY WIFE SHALL COMMIT FORNICATION IN THE CITY, — that is to say, Because thou, O Amaziah, for the sake of gain and profit drivest the people to spiritual fornication, that is to idolatry, and resistest Me as I fight against it, therefore justly and fittingly art thou punished with this ignominy and indignation, so that thou mayest see, though raging and gnashing thy teeth, thy wife in the city, thou being left behind, committing fornication and adultery, either with her lovers, as Arias wishes, or with thy enemies, namely the Assyrians, by whom when the city is captured she will be violated. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius and Hugh. Whence St. Jerome from Symmachus translates πορνευθήσεται, that is shall endure fornication. This is the first punishment of Amaziah, concerning which St. Jerome says: "Great, he says, and incredible is the shame, when a husband in the midst of the city cannot prevent injury to his wife. The pain is not so great in a daughter violated, as in a wife polluted: for a husband more willingly hears that his wife is killed, than that she is polluted." The second is the slaughter of children: "Thy sons, he says, and thy daughters shall fall by the sword." The third is spoliation and deprivation of honors: "Thy land, he says, shall be measured by a line," that is to say, the Assyrians and Cutheans, invading and occupying Samaria and Bethel, shall measure and divide thy fields and lands among themselves by lines. For formerly they used lines instead of measuring rods to measure and divide the land. Hence a line, in Scripture, signifies a hereditary lot, or the portion which falls to each in the division of an inheritance by lot, as in Psalm 15:6: "The lines are fallen unto me in goodly places," which in its manner, in the latter hemistich, it explains, saying: "For my inheritance is goodly unto me." Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 9: "Jacob is the line of his inheritance," that is to say, the Jacobites, or Israelites, are the lot and inheritance of the Lord. Joshua chapter 17, verse 5: "The lines (that is, the lots) of Manasseh fell ten." And verse 14: "Thou hast given me a possession of a lot and a line." And chapter 19, verse 9: "In the possession and line of Judah." And verse 29: "Of the line of Achzib." The fourth is: "Thou in a polluted land (by idolatry, infidelity and crimes, namely in Assyria, to which thou art led captive) shalt die." The fifth: not only thou, but also all "Israel," whom thou deceivest, and drivest into idolatry and crimes, "shall be carried away captive from his land" into Assyria. Thus St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Remigius, Rupert, Haymo, Hugh and others. Amos sees a hook of apples, to signify that, just as apples are plucked from a tree with a hook, so the Israelites shall be plucked by the Assyrians, and carried away into Assyria. He gives the reason, verse 4, that they oppressed the poor, and sold them grain too dearly and fraudulently, using false measures. Whence, verse 9, he predicts that their destruction shall be so terrible, that the sun shall be darkened, and all shall put on sackcloth and baldness. Finally, verse 11, he threatens them with extreme famine, both bodily and spiritual. 1. This hath the Lord God shewn unto me: and behold a hook of apples. 2. And he said: What seest thou, Amos? And I said: A hook of apples. And the Lord said unto me: The end is come upon my people Israel: I will not add to pass by them any more. 3. And the hinges of the temple shall strike in that day, saith the Lord God: many shall die, in every place silence shall be cast. 4. Hear this, you that crush the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail, 5. Saying: When shall the month be ended, and we shall sell our wares; and the sabbath, and we shall open the corn: that we may make the measure less, and the price greater, and may use deceitful weights, 6. That we may possess the needy for money, and the poor for a pair of shoes, and may sell the refuse of the corn? 7. The Lord hath sworn by the pride of Jacob: If I shall forget all their works. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein: and rise up wholly like a river, and be cast out, and run down like the river of Egypt? 9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God: that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in the day of light: 10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation: and I will bring up sackcloth upon all your loins, and baldness upon every head: and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the latter end thereof as a bitter day. 11. Behold the days come, saith the Lord: and I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. 12. And they shall move from sea to sea, and from the north to the east: they shall go about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. 13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth; and the way of Bersabee liveth: and they shall fall, and shall not rise up any more. 1. THIS HATH THE LORD GOD SHEWN UNTO ME, — that is to say, After so many visions and threats, God added also this hook of apples, so that by so many repeated threats as it were by repeated blows he might soften and bend the hard hearts of the Hebrews. Thus concerning Pharaoh and the Egyptians, whom God hardened and drowned in the Red Sea, the Psalmist says in Psalm 17:15: "He multiplied lightnings, and troubled them." Behold a hook of apples. — In Hebrew כלוב קיץ kelub kaits, which the Chaldean, the Rabbis, Pagninus and the Zurich Bible translate as a basket, or a basket of summer, that is of summer fruits, which namely are ripened in summer and when ripe are gathered. The Syriac: behold a sign of the end; for it reads קץ kets, that is the end. The Arabic translates it: vessels of hunting, and soon the arrow of hunting, or of capture. Our Douay-Rheims translates better, "a hook of apples." First, because here we are dealing with an instrument by which apples are drawn and captured: this however is a hook, not a basket: for by a hook are signified the spears and weapons of the Assyrians. Second, because the Hebrew kelub signifies a hunting and drawing instrument: for it is derived from כלב keleb, that is a dog, because just as a dog hunts and captures a hare and other beasts, so kelub hunts and captures apples: for each is long, slender, and with a sharp snout and mouth. Third, because the Septuagint translates it, a vessel, that is an instrument, of a fowler. And Jeremias, chapter V, 27, both the Septuagint and our Douay-Rheims translate it, a snare, by which birds are deceived and captured. Fourth, because a hook of apples in many places comprehends and includes a basket, but not conversely does a basket comprehend a hook. For a "hook" of "apples" is a curved and hooked stick, namely a staff curved on one side and hooked, fastened or hung to a basket, by which gardeners draw down branches, so that they may pluck apples and throw them into the basket; or by which they suspend the basket to the branches, so that apples gathered from them may be brought into it. Amos therefore saw a hook, and attached to it a basket, for gathering apples. By apples understand also figs, pears, cherries, plums; for all fruits, especially those which have a softer rind, are called apples. Indeed Pliny, book XV, chapter XXII, even includes nuts in the class of apples. Symbolically, this hook signifies the wrath and vengeance of God, by which God hastened and as it were drew the time of the captivity of the people of Israel, so that the Israelites like apples would be plucked from their region and captured by the Assyrians; whose therefore warlike arms, by which they reduced the Israelites into their power, are rightly also understood by the hook. Whence explaining the hook, he adds: "The end of Israel cometh." Thus St. Jerome: "The sense is," he says, "As branches of trees are drawn down by a hook to pluck apples, so I have hastened the time of coming captivity. Whence the Hebrew kelub by metathesis alludes to כבל kebel, that is a shackle or iron chain, by which the captive Israelites were to be bound. For apples ripe in summer are a symbol of timely captivity and seasonable punishment, as if to say: Now the tree of Israel yields ripe fruit, namely bad figs (such as Jeremias saw in Juda, chapter XXIV, 1); it remains therefore that they be gathered and crushed. Thus in the Apocalypse, chapter XIV, 15, one angel says to another: 'Thrust in thy sickle, for the harvest of the earth is ripe,' that is because the time is ripe and opportune for punishing the wicked, inasmuch as they themselves have now filled up the measure of their sins. This is what Ezechiel says in chapter VII, 6: 'The end cometh, it hath awakened against thee,' that is at a ripe and opportune time it hath risen: just as summer fruits which are ripe in summer, so thy destruction hath ripened, so the end is at hand for thee: for thou shalt gather the fruit of the tree which thou hast planted, and shalt reap the harvest which thou hast sown. The hook alludes to the hook by which once the condemned were dragged, or even struck, and enemies defeated and captured in battle. Whence Juvenal concerning Sejanus condemned to death by the emperor Tiberius, satire X, says: Sejanus is dragged along impaled on a hook. And Cicero, Philippic I: 'A hook was driven into that fugitive who had usurped the name of Gaius Marius.' The same, For Gaius Rabirius: 'Neither our deeds, nor the age of our actions, nor our honours will protect us from scourges, from the hook, and finally from the terrors of the cross.' And Horace, book I of the Carmina, ode 35, to Fortune: Cruel necessity always precedes thee, / Bearing in brazen hand the nails of beams and wedges, / Nor is the stern hook absent, / And liquid lead. Lampridius in his life of Commodus writes that after his death the people cried out to him: 'He who slew the senate and despoiled the temples, let him be dragged by the hook.' And Suetonius in Vitellius writes that he, after death, was dragged by a hook into the Tiber: this was the greatest disgrace. Moreover the bodies of the condemned, as well as of martyrs, were hung by a hook, as we read in the Acts of St. Sebastian, his body was found hanging from a hook in a sewer. Furthermore martyrs were lacerated by hooks just as by claws, as we read in the Acts of the holy martyrs Plato and Pontian. See Gallonio, On the Tortures of Martyrs. The hook therefore signifies that the Israelites, like captives and the condemned, are to be dragged by the Assyrians by a hook either to death or into captivity. Secondly, with a hook are wont to be gathered a few apples which remain in the tree after shaking, on the higher branches: the hook therefore signifies here the Israelites, the remnant after various disasters and slaughters of the Syrians and Assyrians, to be destroyed at last by the final and complete desolation of the city and nation, even those who dwelt in lofty places, fortified or hidden, remote and inaccessible, by Salmanasar in the sixth year of Hezekiah. Thus Lyra, Emmanuel, Mariana and others. Whence the Chaldean renders: Behold a vessel full of the fruits of the end of summer, that is to say, Just as with grapes gathered and the extreme fruits of the field or vineyard collected, the field is deserted, or the vineyard, and the fruits collected in a vessel are carried home; so shall Samaria be desolated, and all its citizens shall be led away into Assyria. The Septuagint signifies the same thing, but by another metaphor, namely of cages, or of a net and a fowler: for they render, behold a vessel, that is an instrument, of a fowler, namely a net, cage, or sticks smeared with birdlime, that birds may entangle themselves in it. The fowler is Salmanasar, the net is his camp and arms, by which he ensnared, captured and led away the Israelites. Hear Theodoret: "This vision," he says, "signifies a swift and expeditious hunting of Israel; for just as birds are easily captured with birdlime, so the people shall be apprehended by the Assyrians." Tropologically Rupert: The hook, he says, is avarice: the branches and apples are the rich and their wealth; for an apple is indeed a light thing, and especially delights children: but to men, and especially to the wise, it is of little account. Thus indeed the goods of the present age are light, and they delight excessively those who are childish in sense; but to the wise who savour heavenly things, they are contemptible. Hence the first man committed the crime of cupidity by which he perished, not through gold, nor through silver, but through a small apple. Rupert adds: Just as a gardener with a hook slowly without noise twists a branch as he wishes with frequent motion, until he plucks the apples; so the avaricious man, thief and fraudulent, has a thousand arts of seizing and drawing to himself the wealth of others, by which he ensnares and hooks the riches of others, so secretly and deceitfully, that they themselves do not feel their losses unless impoverished, and weeping late, according to that of Psalm X, 9: "He lieth in wait secretly, as a lion in his den. He lieth in wait to catch the poor: to catch the poor, when he draweth him. In his net he will humble him, he will crouch down, and the unhappy prey shall fall under his claws." Mystically Ribera: The hook, he says, is death, which draws the branches and apples, that is all the gifts, virtues and vices of man, however hidden; that they may be plucked by God, and each placed in its own place. More distinctly Fernandius, in vision XXIII: Death, he says, with various hooks, that is with various kinds of diseases and accidents, draws the branches, in which there are many apples, that is families, in which there are many heads, and those robust and strong, which seem to death most remote. For human life is rightly compared to apples. First, because, just as apples quickly burst into buds, grow, ripen, are plucked: so also do men. Secondly, just as from apples some ripe, some unripe fall of themselves, some rot in the tree, some are red; but if you open them, you find them full of worms and corrupted: some are plucked by hand, some are beaten down with a stick and force: so some men die in the vigour of manhood; some in youth by natural death, some in putrid old age, some are red outwardly like roses, but within teem with filth and diseases; some die in bed, some in war, combat, etc., by violent death. Hence St. Job says in cap. IX, 26: "My days have passed more swiftly than ships carrying apples;" for these ships are driven more swiftly than others, lest the apples which quickly rot be corrupted before they reach the port where they are to be sold. Thus our age passes most swiftly. Thirdly, Varro in lib. I De Re rustica, cap. XXXV, believes that pomum is so called because it needs drink: "Apples," he says, "which shall be grafted in dry places, water should be added daily in the evening: from which, because they need drink, apples can be said to be so called." Thus the life of men needs not only drink, but abounds in it, and is delighted especially by it.
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Fourth, the Persian apple is said to have the power of poison in Persia on account of the cold, and for that reason was sent to Italy to harm its inhabitants; but when the soil was changed, it changed its nature, and was found to be wholesome, as Columella says: "The apples which barbarous Persia / Had sent, as the story goes, armed with native poisons: / But now, exposed to slight danger of death, / They provide ambrosial juices, having forgotten to harm." Thus the pleasure of human life is in itself, and in its native soil as it were, poisoned: but if it changes its soil and is transplanted into the field of virtue, it puts off vice, and brings forth life and health instead of death. Fifth, the apple bears a round shape, which is round; and of human life, which gyrates and always returns in a circle. Wherefore in the year of the Lord 1013, when the Emperor Henry, newly created, entered Rome, Pope Benedict with the Clergy and Senate went forth to meet him, and offered him the insignia of empire: it was a golden apple, distinguished all around with most precious gems, with a golden cross standing out above it, so that while he looked upon it, he might think that he ought thus to rule in the world as to subject it to the standard of the cross of Christ. The Emperor received the apple, and handling it in his hand: "It is fitting," said he, "for none to see and possess this apple better than for those who, having trampled upon the apples of the world, follow the cross of Christ;" and therefore immediately he sent it to the Cluniac monastery in Gaul. Thus Glaber, and Baronius in the year of Christ 1013. So in the golden bull of Charles IV, cap. XXII, it is handed down and ordained that in the solemn procession, after the emperor is created, the Duke of Saxony shall carry the sword before him, the Margrave of Brandenburg the scepter, the Count Palatine the apple: the apple, because it is spherical, represents the orb. Whence the Chronicle of Hirsau, in the inauguration of the Count of Holland, relates that a golden sphere is given into the hand of the emperor being inaugurated with these words, which the Palatine of the Rhine utters: "Receive the spherical globe, that you may subject all nations to the Roman empire, and be able to be called glorious Augustus." Let the Emperor therefore place himself and his heart in the hand of God, so that as he bears the world, God may rule and govern it: and at the same time let him remember that the empire of the world is small and meager like an apple and a globe, if compared with the heavenly kingdom. Let him therefore aspire to that, and strive to transfer himself and all his to it. Wisely did St. Francis Xavier, lib. II, epist. 5, give this most salutary counsel to John III, King of Portugal (and in him to other princes and prelates), that daily for the space of a quarter hour, meditating upon that divine sentence: "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul?" he should seek from God its true understanding, joined with the sense of the inner mind; and at the same time he should wish that sentence to be the conclusion of all his prayers: "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world," etc., because, he says, the hour is nearer at hand than he thinks, when the King of kings and Lord of lords shall call him to render an account, thundering forth: "Give an account of thy stewardship." He was a true prophet: for shortly after the king departed this life.
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Sixth, poison is often administered to man through an apple, or death is brought about in another way. Cardanus relates a remarkable example of this in his On the Variety of Things, book XII, chapter LVI: When, he says, Kemethus, king of the Scots, had killed Eruthlinthus, the son of Fenella, and also Malcolm Druff the king and kinsman of Fenella; she ordered a statue to be fabricated with wondrous art, in whose hand was a golden apple filled with gems; whoever touched it was immediately destroyed by many arrows shooting forth from the apple: by this means she killed the king, suspecting nothing, when he was invited to the town of Festicarium. Thus the pleasure of this life is a beguiling, but deadly apple, which dazzles with a certain empty splendor and allures the eyes of those whom it will deceive and destroy: "Trust not the horse, O Trojans." Thus Nicholas Causinus, book XI of Historical Parables, chapter V. Again, if you offer a boy an apple and at the same time gold, the boy will choose the apple before the gold; because he is captivated by the appearance of the apple, and knows not the value of gold. Are not therefore old men twice children, who prefer pleasure to virtue, that is, evils to goods, earthly things to heavenly, perishable things to eternal, falsehoods to truths? Truly this apple is alluring, and is called evil. Wherefore among Martial, book XIII, pine nuts thus address the traveler: We are the apples of Cybele, depart hence, traveler, / Lest our ruin fall upon your wretched head. Most excellently St. Bernard, in his tract On the Degrees of Humility: "The serpent, he says, offers to Eve an apple, and steals away paradise. You drink poison that will perish, and will bring forth those who will perish. Salvation perishes, yet childbearing does not cease. We are born, we die, and therefore we are born to die, because we die before we are born. For this reason a heavy yoke upon all your sons even to this day." Seventh, there is also another analogy between the apple and man, worthy of consideration and compassion. You see a tree flowering and adorned with flowers, indeed laden with them; observe that out of any fifty flowers, scarcely one becomes a ripe apple; for before they form into buds, many are either beaten down by wind, or dried up by heat, or gnawed by worms, or wither away from lack of moisture and fall to the ground: but of those which do form into buds, many likewise, before they ripen into apples, fall to the earth by similar misfortunes. Thus precisely out of fifty infants who are born, scarcely one becomes a man; but some die in infancy, others in childhood, others in adolescence. Who would not mourn, who would not groan at this wretched lot of mankind? That philosopher wisely said: "Brief life, he says, prevents us from undertaking long hopes, or aspiring to them." Eighth, among trees "the apple tree is the most infirm, and especially the one that bears sweet fruit," says Pliny, book XVII, chapter XXIV, who also adds: "Sometimes the apples themselves become diseased apart from the tree, if at the necessary times rains, or warmth, or breezes are lacking, or on the contrary abound: for they fall or become inferior." The same, book XVII, chapter II: "If, he says, immediately after they have flowered rains follow, the apples perish entirely, so that almonds and pears, even if it was entirely cloudy or there was a south wind, lose their fruit." In like manner, what among animals is more infirm than man? who is suffocated by a catarrh, that is, a drop of water, is burned by heat, inhales plague from infected air, who suffers from very many, indeed innumerable, and often new and to physicians unknown diseases. In the eye of man alone Galen counts and names a hundred diseases in the book entitled Introduction, or The Physician, in the chapter On Affections of the Eyes. Truly St. Job, having experienced these things, describing man in chapter XIV, 1: "Man, he says, born of woman, living a short time, is filled with many miseries; who goes forth as a flower and is bruised, and flees as a shadow, and never remains in the same state." The flower of an apple as soon as it has bloomed turns yellow; if you peel an apple, or cut it, before you bring it to your mouth, immediately it stains the knife with blackness, loses its vigor, begins to wither: thus also a young man in the flower of age and with rosy countenance, soon loses his bloom, grows pale, grows old. "As grapes in the desert I found Israel, as the first fruit of the fig tree in the top thereof I saw your fathers," says God through Hosea IX, 10. Is not therefore the gathering of men a hook and basket of apples? Daily from some tree or everywhere apples are gathered, until all are brought into the basket: daily some of mankind depart from this life, and are transferred to the gathering of the dead, until all one by one, gradually but in a brief space of time, are transferred to the same place. Wherefore Caesar a Ripa in his Iconography paints death with a scythe and a hook for apples, from this place in Amos: because just as with a scythe he reaps all things, so with a hook he gathers all things, like an apple-picker and apple-gatherer. Now, young men; bloom, rejoice, exult, say: We apples swim, tomorrow to be submerged, tomorrow to die. Considering this, Cicero, though a pagan, wisely judges that the mind ought to be drawn away from all fleeting and earthly pleasure, and fixed upon what is stable and heavenly: "If you wish to look on high," he says in the Dream of Scipio, "and to contemplate this seat and eternal home, do not give yourself over to the talk of the common people, nor place the hope of your affairs in human rewards: virtue itself ought to draw you by its own enticements to true glory. What is called your life is death." The same author, in the Fourth Book of the Academic Questions: "Thinking upon higher and heavenly things, let us despise these affairs of ours as small and minimal." In the Tusculan Disputations, Book I: "Compare our longest lifetime with eternity, and it will be found to be the shortest; then shall we be blessed, when, having left our bodies behind, we shall be free from desires and rivalries." And in the Greater Cato: "We depart from life itself as from an inn, not as from a home; for nature has given us a lodging for sojourning, not for dwelling. Who is there, even if he be young, who knows for certain that he will live until evening? O good gods, what is there in human life that is long? To me nothing seems even lasting in which there is some end. For when that arrives, then what has passed away flows off; only that remains which you have obtained through virtue and right deeds. Hours indeed pass away, and days, and months, and years, nor does past time ever return, nor can it be known what follows." Again from the Tusculan Disputations, Book I: "There are two paths, as Socrates says, and two courses for souls departing from the body. For those who have defiled themselves with human vices and have given themselves wholly to lusts, for them indeed a certain path is closed off from the council of the Gods: but those who have kept themselves whole and chaste, and who have had the least contamination with bodies, and who have imitated the life of the Gods in human bodies, for them an easy return lies open to those from whom they proceeded." What then shall the Christian say, what shall he do? 2. THE END IS COME UPON MY PEOPLE ISRAEL. — "End," that is, the destruction of Israel decreed and predetermined by me. In Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia between קיץ (kaits), that is, summer fruits, and קץ (kets), that is, end. For the root is קוץ (kots), which signifies to be pricked, to be straitened, to be afflicted: hence קוץ (kots) signifies a pricking thorn; and קיץ (kaits) signifies summer, in which the sun pricks, burns and ripens the fruits, as if to say: This hook kaits, that is, of summer fruits, shall burn you, O Israel, like the summer sun; and shall prick you like kots, that is, a thorn; and finally shall bring upon you kets, that is, end and destruction. Wherefore הקיץ (hekits), that is, has awakened and ripened, your evil kaits, that is, summer fruit; and your kots, that is, thorn, and your kets, that is, end, as Ezekiel says in chapter VII, verse 6.
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I WILL NOT ADD ANYMORE TO PASS BY HIM, — that is, to dissemble his sins, to pass by him guilty and leave him unpunished, as one passes by when seeing crimes and criminals and dissembles them; as if to say, The crimes of Israel are so great that I can no longer connive, cannot remain silent and spare; but they, by their enormity and multitude, as it were by constant and powerful outcry, compel me to avenge them. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoretus, Rupertus and others. 3. THE HINGES OF THE TEMPLE SHALL CREAK IN THAT DAY. — Thus also the Zurich and Pagninus versions translate it, as if to say, The hinges of the temple shall creak when enemies break down its doors by force, so that they may plunder and lay it waste. Again they shall creak from the crash of doors burning, when the temple is set on fire by enemies. Thus Theodoretus. The Arabic version: The altars of the temple shall fall in that day; because namely the Israelites had defiled the temple with idols and crimes. Its hinges therefore shall creak when they are broken or torn out by the battering ram or hostile hammers; and when through them the armies of enemies burst into the temple. Otherwise also Sanchez: It was, he says, a sign of war among the ancients to strike the temple doors, according to that passage in Aeneid VII: There are the twin gates of war, dread of Mars. / When the fathers have reached a sure decision to fight, etc., / The consul himself opens with his standards the creaking thresholds. But this was a custom of the Romans, not of the Hebrews. Add that here we are dealing with the destruction of the city and temple, not with a sign of war. Translated word for word from the Hebrew: The songs of the temple shall wail, that is, the songs of the temple shall turn into wailings; the Syriac: The praises (songs, fame and glory) of the temple shall fall. Secondly, Lyran translates: The hinges of the palace shall creak, namely of the king and nobles, when enemies break into their palaces. Thirdly, the Chaldean translates: In place of songs the melodies of the palace, or palaces, shall wail, in which festive songs and musical instruments were wont to resound; and Vatablus: The songs of the palace shall wail. By songs he understands joy, as if to say, The songs of princes and potentates shall turn into wailing and mourning. Our version, with the Septuagint and others already cited, translates better, "the hinges of the temple:" because the Hebrew hechal properly signifies a mighty and powerful temple, or basilica, from the root iachol, that is, he was able, he prevailed, as if to say, A mighty basilica, surpassing others in its magnificence. Fourthly, the Septuagint translates: The ceilings of the temple shall wail, as if to say, So great shall be the cry of enemies and of those slain by them in the temple, that the whole temple shall be filled with wailing, and the very ceilings, echoing back like an echo, shall seem to wail. Thus St. Jerome explains our version and reconciles it with the Septuagint: "The hinges," he says, "of the temple shall creak, or the ceilings. But this must be understood wholly, that so grave a weight of evils shall press upon it, that even the very hinges of the doors and the lofty ceilings shall wail, and shall experience incredible desolation." Whence it is clear, although the Hebrew sciroth elsewhere commonly signifies songs, yet here it signifies hinges and ceilings (for thus the Septuagint and St. Jerome, who were most skilled in the Hebrew language, translate it), perhaps by onomatopoeia: for the word sciroth expresses and imitates the sound of creaking hinges, which is as it were their song. Add that from the root scur, which means to stretch straight, to extend, to sing, and many other things, is derived the noun scor, that is, a wall, and a building from which one looks out, or which projects and extends outward; hence sciroth are called ceilings, which extend throughout the temple above, and which look out over the whole temple. You will ask, of which temple does Amos speak here? Is it of the temple of God in Jerusalem, or of the temple of idols in Bethel? St. Jerome, Theodoretus and Rupertus understand it of the temple in Jerusalem. Others, and more plainly, understand it of that which was dedicated in Bethel to the golden calves. For in Bethel Amos dwelt and prophesied against the golden calves, as is clear from chapter VII, verse 13; whence in this verse 2, he threatens him with a speedy end, which indeed befell him, since Jerusalem was laid waste much later. Just as therefore the Jews called their temple in Jerusalem hechal, that is, a basilica; so their rivals the Samaritans likewise called their shrine in Bethel hechal. That this is so is clear from verse 7: "The Lord hath sworn by the pride of Jacob." For Jacob are called the ten tribes, not two. And from verse 14: "They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say: Thy God, O Dan, liveth." Whence it is clear that these things are said against the Samaritans, and their gods placed in the borders of the kingdom, namely in Dan and Bethel. Thus Ruffinus, Lyran, Clarius, Arias and a Castro. MANY SHALL DIE. — In Hebrew: There shall be multiplied a corpse, that is there shall be many corpses, many shall be slain, in every place he shall cast silence, that is silence, as if to say: Many shall die, and with the inhabitants taken captive or slain, in every place silence shall be cast, as St. Jerome says, that is I shall bring about the greatest desolation, and all things full of people I shall reduce to solitude. It is a metalepsis: for silence is put in place of slaughter and desolation: for from slaughter and carnage desolation shall follow, from desolation solitude, from solitude silence. Whence the Septuagint translates: In every place I shall cast silence. Thus now St. Jerome says: "In the whole circle of the earth the silence of the Jews has spread: wherever they shall be, they mutter rather than speak;" oppressed though they are, they dare not be silent and gape. Secondly, Lyran translates and explains it contrarily, namely by taking beth, that is in, for min, that is from, thus he translates: From every place silence shall be cast; because in every place there shall be a cry, both of enemies slaying and of inhabitants slain. Thirdly, Vatablus thus translates: There shall be multiplied a corpse in every place [which] shall cast (shall say) be silent, as if to say: The one who has charge of casting corpses into the tomb, acknowledging the just vengeance of God in so great a slaughter of the Israelites, shall say to his companion: Be silent, do not complain against the Lord God, that He gives us so many funerals: because we justly suffer these things on account of idolatry and our sins. But here many things must be supplied which are not in the text. Fourthly, the Zurich Bible translates: Many corpses (of the enemy) shall he lay low in every place, and that in silence. Fifthly, Arias, arranging these things differently, and referring them to Amaziah the priest of idols, thus translates and explains: So many shall be the corpses that in every place they shall be cast unburied; but you, O Amaziah, because you do not believe these my oracles and threats, be silent and waiting silently expect the outcome of the matter: for you shall see all these things fulfilled, and then late you shall believe either willingly or unwillingly. But the first sense is plain and genuine. In like manner the region of the shadow of death, that is the state and place of the dead, in which there is the greatest desolation and horror, is called the land of silence, and in Hebrew duma, that is silence. For, as Ovid says in the fifth book of the Fasti: Soon also the lemures they called the souls of silence. And Virgil, in the sixth book of the Aeneid: Gods to whom is the dominion of souls, and the silent shades, / And Chaos, and Phlegethon, places silent in the night far and wide. And below: The judge Minos moves the urn, he of silence / Calls the assembly, and learns the lives and crimes. Morally, learn here that the noise and tumult of the Israelites is fittingly punished by the contrary, solitude and silence. For just as it is the axiom and practice of physicians in diseases that contraries are cured by contraries, so also the judge God cures contrary crimes by contrary punishments, namely pride by depression, gluttony by hunger, lust by diseases and pains, sloth by labors and toils, tumult by desolation. For because the Israelites celebrated the feasts of idols with great noise, pomp, crowd and tumult, namely of golden calves, and by the same means invaded and laid waste the goods of the poor, as is said in verses 4 and 5; hence likewise God fittingly punishes them by the spoliation of all things, slaughter and desolation. In like manner among Christians, cities and provinces in which there was great luxury of things and men, and a crowd of merchandise, usuries and frauds, He punishes by plunder and desolation. By the same reason and right monasteries and orders in which, with silence cast aside, there flourished dissolution, garrulity, detraction, murmuring, envy, etc., He punishes by silence, allowing them to be laid waste by heretics, burned and reduced to solitude. Examples are in Gaul, Germany, Belgium, England, in which alone under Henry VIII, as Sander testifies, eleven thousand temples one year removed. In other provinces likewise we see very many monasteries utterly overthrown, and in some the public cause was to all known, namely the casting aside of silence and religious discipline, and the licentious life of monks, and more than secular. Let God therefore say to such: Because you have cast aside discipline and silence, I with silence, which suffers force from you, shall come to the aid, and that in every place I shall restore, nay I shall cast, reducing all things to ashes and silent fields. 5. WHEN THE MONTH SHALL PASS (thus the Roman, Hebrew and Septuagint texts. Therefore Remigius, Rupertus, Hugo and Lyra read badly, harvest): AND WE SHALL SELL WARES (Septuagint, and we shall trade), AND (when the month shall pass, thus the Syriac) THE SABBATH, AND WE SHALL OPEN THE GRAIN. — Syriac, granaries. Month and sabbath can be understood in three ways: first, synecdochically for any time in general. For the Hebrews measured and divided all time by months and sabbaths. Second, more particularly the month, in Hebrew chodes, was called neomenia, that is the first day of any month: and the sabbath properly was the seventh day of the week. Third, most specially, the sacred month was the seventh month, namely September, in which after the gathering of fruits they celebrated almost the entire month as sacred and festive, as I said in Leviticus, chapter XXIII, 3 and following, and therefore that same month was a sabbath, not of days, but of months: because it was the seventh month, and that a festive one. According to the first meaning of month and sabbath, the first sense of this passage will be this: Every month and sabbath, that is every time, when you, O greedy grain-dealers, see that grain is of low price, you store it away, so that this time may pass, and there may succeed after a time of abundance a time of scarcity, in which you may sell it at a higher price. Thus Castro and Vatable. According to the second meaning the second sense will be this: So much do you pant after gain, that you grieve at the arrival of the feast of neomenia and sabbath, and you wish those to pass quickly, so that when they have passed you may immediately return to your merchandise and profits, and after your custom sell grain at a high price. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rufinus, Remigius, Lyra and Ribera. Where note the wishes of greedy merchants, who dream of nothing but wares, commerce and profits, to which therefore every divine thing is long, and so a Mass of half an hour is often too lengthy. Sanchez adds: The Calends, he says, or the first day of the month the greedy merchants awaited eagerly; because then they gave money at interest, and money-lenders exacted usuries, as is evident from Plutarch, book On Not Lending at Interest, and from Horace, book I, satire III; whence then they sold the pledges of debtors, who could not pay the interest, or seized their goods. To this belongs the exposition of the Chaldean and Paul of Burgos, who by month understand not any month, but the embolismal one, which namely every third year as a thirteenth month, added to the other twelve months of the year by the Hebrews for this reason, that they might make their lunar year equal to the solar, as I said in Exodus, chapter XII, 2, as if to say: When that third longer year shall have passed, after which on account of the added month grain is wont to fail sooner, and to be sold at a higher price, we shall sell it at a high price. Again the Chaldean, Burgensis, Albert and Arias understand sabbath not of days, nor of months, but of years, namely the seventh year of remission, which was entirely sacred and a sabbath, that is festive, as if to say: When the seventh year shall have passed in which it is not lawful to sow, whence a scarcity of grain will follow, then we shall sell it at a high price; as if the Prophet had said this with the seventh and sabbatical year impending or present, censuring the abuses of the greedy who abused it for their shameful profits. According to the third interpretation, the third sense will be here: When the time of harvest shall have passed, in which on account of abundance grain is accustomed to be cheaper; likewise also the seventh month, in which the Jews keep festival and liberally consume their fruits, in the eighth month and those following, when grain begins to fail, we shall sell it at a dear price at our pleasure. This sense is also brought forward by Remigius, Albertus, Rupertus, Lyranus and Hugo. The Hebrew article he added to the word chodes favours this exposition, which signifies a certain month, and one more illustrious than the others, which indeed cannot be other than the seventh month. Again, the nature of the matter favours it: for after the seventh month grain was dearer, and this ordinarily every year. For the Prophet does not seem to speak of the seventh year, or of some similar extraordinary and more rarely occurring event. Finally, one could suppose that by month here is signified the month of harvest, in which they gathered new fruits, namely May or June; and by sabbath is signified the feast of Pentecost, in which from the harvest they offered the first loaves as it were firstfruits to God. For sabbath was fivefold to the Hebrews: first, of days, namely the seventh day of the week; second, of weeks, namely seven weeks numbered from Passover, which make forty-nine days, which being completed, the following day was the fiftieth, which was Pentecost; third, of months, namely the seventh month, of which I have already spoken; fourth, of years, namely the seventh year of remission, which was therefore called sabbatical, and was a festival; fifth, of a week of years: for seven weeks, or septennaries of years, make forty-nine years, after which the following year, the fiftieth, was the jubilee, and was wholly a sabbath, that is a festival. But because immediately from harvest and Pentecost there was abundance of grain, and therefore it was of cheap price, hence these avaricious merchants seem here to note another time, namely after the seventh month, when it began to fail, and its price began to become dearer. AND WE SHALL OPEN THE GRAIN—we shall open the granaries closed at the time of abundance, so that at the time of scarcity we may bring it forth, and sell grain at a dear price at our pleasure. Moreover, how hateful this is to God, He Himself teaches in this place, when presently He threatens many and grave punishments to such men. Let princes and magistrates imitate God, so that they may seize and punish these monopolists, as it were mice that gnaw at grain, nay rather devourers, bringing public famine. Thus did Blessed Charles, Count of Flanders: for when Lambert of Strata, brother of Bertolf, provost of St. Donatus, had redeemed tithes for many years, and had full granaries, and when a scarcity of grain pressed upon the land, he was unwilling to share them with the needy, Blessed Charles ordered his granaries to be broken open, and a great quantity of wheat to be measured out freely to the needy. For this reason monopolists inflicted upon him a violent and sacrilegious death while he was praying in the temple, and he, the protector alike of justice and of public grain supply, merited the palm of martyrdom for having bravely fulfilled his office. Thus his Life, recently published by the Belgians, and Emil. lib. V, contains it. The memory of this celebrated and holy deed still endures at Bruges in Flanders, where the place in which the Count was slain was once shown to me. Procopius relates, lib. III, that John, prefect of the praetorium of Belisarius, in the Vandal war, had nautical bread, lest it become lighter in weight by being twice baked, still raw baked at the public bath's furnace, so that nothing should be lost in weight: but scarcely had they reached Methone when the loaves began to dissolve, and distributed to the soldiers by the modius brought upon them most grievous diseases. Thus the avarice of one afflicted the whole army, and nearly destroyed it. To these avaricious men Horace ingeniously transfers the fable of Tantalus, lib. I Serm. satire I, who "With sacks heaped everywhere sleeps gaping, and as if compelled to spare sacred things, or to rejoice as in painted pictures."
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Moreover, God by just judgment punishes the avaricious with scarcity, and causes the grain which they avariciously hoard to be gnawed by mice, or to be sunk by tempest or shipwreck, or to be plundered by enemies, or to perish by some other chance. It is memorable what we read in the Life of Paulinus, that he, in imitation and love of Christ, poured out his very ample riches upon the poor, and from being very rich became very poor. When one day a poor man asked him for alms, he said to Blessed Terasia, once his wife, now his sister (for he lived with her in continence), that she should give it to him. Terasia answered that she had nothing but a single loaf. Yet Paulinus ordered it to be given; Terasia, fearing lest at dinner she would not have something to set before Paulinus, did not give the bread, but kept it. "Meanwhile," says Gregory of Tours, lib. De Gloria Confess. cap. CVI, "there came certain men saying they were sent by their masters to bring him a supply of grain and wine; but they had been delayed because a storm had taken from them one ship with wheat. Then the man of God, turning to the woman, said: Understand that you have stolen one loaf from that poor man, and therefore this ship has been sunk."
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On the other hand, since that same Paulinus, now bishop of Nola, was so liberal that after he had distributed all his crops to the poor, he finally enslaved himself to redeem the son of a widow, shortly thereafter by God's will he was recognized by the king of the Vandals along with all his citizens, and sent back to Nola laden with grain-filled ships: "and so it came to pass that he who had given himself into servitude alone, returned from servitude to freedom with many, imitating him, namely, who assumed the form of a servant, that we might not be servants of sin. Following in his footsteps, Paulinus voluntarily became a servant for a time alone, that he might afterwards be free with many," says St. Gregory, book III of the Dialogues, 1. Similar is what Leontius relates in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver, concerning a certain wealthy merchant whose crops and goods perished in a shipwreck, who when lamenting and recounting this misfortune to St. John, heard from him: "Know that this has happened to you for no other reason than that this ship was not justly, not honestly acquired by you." He therefore ordered that one of the Church's ships be given to him, laden with twenty thousand measures of grain: with which the merchant sailed most successfully and arrived in Britain, then laboring under famine, where selling the grain at a moderate price, while he consulted the need of the Britons, he himself became enriched. This is what the Wise Man says in Proverbs, chapter XI, 24: "Some distribute their own goods, and become richer: others seize what is not theirs, and are always in want. The soul that blesseth shall be made fat, and he that inebriateth shall himself also be inebriated. He that hideth up corn shall be cursed among the people: but blessing shall be upon the head of them that sell it." And St. Paul, II Corinthians IX, 6: "He that soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly: and he that soweth in blessings (bountifully, liberally, abundantly) shall also reap of blessings." See the words there. Wherefore St. Ambrose, severely and sharply rebuking monopolists, book III of the Duties, chapter VI: "Why," he says, "do you turn the bounty of nature, which gives abundant crops, to fraud? Why do you begrudge the public produce to the use of men? Why do you diminish abundance for the peoples? Why do you affect scarcity? Why do you make sterility to be desired by the poor? For since they do not feel the benefits of fertility, you raising the price and hoarding the grain, they would rather nothing be born than that you traffic in public famine." And soon after: "Shall I call this robbery or usury? The times are seized upon as if of robbery, in which you, a harsh schemer, creep into the very bowels of men. Your gain is public loss. The holy Joseph opened the granaries to all, he did not close them. Rightly Solomon (Proverbs, chapter XI): He that withholdeth, he says, grain, shall leave it to the nations, not to heirs, because the gain of avarice does not pass to the rights of successors. What is not legitimately acquired is scattered, as it were by certain winds, thus to strangers receiving it."
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THAT WE MAY DIMINISH THE MEASURE, AND INCREASE THE SHEKEL. — For measure in Hebrew is ephah, which was a common and customary measure, under which he understands all others by synecdoche. Moreover, the ephah was the tenth part of a cor: but a cor contained 30 Italian modii: therefore an ephah contained three Italian modii, and six Spanish modii (for the Italian modius is double the Spanish). Wherefore the Hebrew ephah was the same as the Attic medimnus, as Josephus testifies in book X of the Antiquities, chapter XII. Again, a satum was the third part of an ephah, namely one Italian modius. See what I said concerning measures at the end of the Pentateuch. He notes not only the avarice by which they sold at very high prices, but also the deceit and fraud of merchants, by which in selling they diminished the measure, that is, they measured out to buyers with a measure smaller than just; on the contrary they increased the shekel, namely by using false scales, of which indeed one pan, in which the shekel was to be placed (so that it might appear to be of just weight), which the buyers paid for the merchandise purchased, was lower and heavier; so that the shekel, otherwise of just weight, when weighed on these false scales, appeared lighter than just, and consequently those buyers had to add some drachmas of silver or gold. Thus Clarius, Ribera, Arias and a Castro. For formerly all money, especially when it was raw and not stamped, was always weighed, and was reckoned by weight, and had its greater or lesser price according to the greater or lesser weight, as is evident from Genesis chapter XXIII, 16, Jeremiah chapter XXXII, 9, Isaiah chapter LV, 2. Secondly, St. Jerome and Vatablus understand by shekel, not a coin, but a weight. For shekel in Hebrew is the same as weight, as if to say, "Let us increase the shekel," that is, when we buy merchandise, let us weigh them with a weight greater than just; but when we sell those same things to others, let us weigh them out with a weight less than just. Whence Vatablus translates: Let us diminish the modius, and increase the weight, and pervert the false balance; and he gives this sense: "Let us sell our wheat with a measure less than just, and by perverting let us use a false balance," as if to say, "In those things which are accustomed to be sold by measure, such as the modius, let us use a measure less than just: but in those things which we shall receive, let us use a weight greater than just." Thirdly, Remigius and Lyran thus expound: "Let us increase the shekel," that is, let us increase the price of wheat, as if to say, Let us conspire to a price greater than just, so that none of us shall sell below it at a lower price, thus so that all buyers are forced to buy our merchandise at that unjust price fixed by us, which vice is called monopoly, concerning which see P. Lessius, On Justice and Right, book II, chapter XXI On Purchase, doubt 21. Fourthly, Mariana explains, as if to say, After the wheat has been sold and money received, let us increase the shekel, that is, the price of the shekel, so that thus the price of money may grow, and our wealth. Note: Shekel in Hebrew is the same as weight, from the root שקל scakal, that is, he weighed, he balanced. Thus in Greek the shekel is called στατήρ from σταθμός, that is, a balance, weight, scale. For the shekel was a common, ordinary and customary coin, of the weight of four drachmas, or a half-ounce, by which not only money, but also metals, and indeed any things whatsoever were weighed. Therefore the shekel was worth four julios, or four Spanish regales: for the julio, as well as the regale, weighs a drachma of silver. There was also a bronze shekel and a golden shekel, of the same weight, but of greater or lesser price according to the material. See what I said concerning the shekel in Exodus chapter XXX, 13. 6. THAT WE MAY POSSESS IN SILVER (that is, in silver, at the price of silver. For the Hebrew beth, that is, in, is a note of price) THE NEEDY, AND THE POOR FOR SHOES, — as if to say, That by these our arts and frauds we may reduce the poor to extreme destitution, by which they are forced to sell themselves to us as slaves, and thus we may possess them, so that they serve us as beasts of burden, and that at a small price, indeed for the price of shoes. AND LET US SELL THE REFUSE OF THE WHEAT — For pure wheat. Note here the various arts and deceits of avaricious merchants, by which they plunder others and enrich themselves. The first is that they sell their merchandise at very high prices. The second is that they diminish the measures. The third is that they increase the shekel, that is, the weight. The fourth is that they use false scales. The Fifth is that they force the poor not only to sell their goods, but also themselves for shoes. The sixth is that they sell wheat mixed with chaff, stubble, oats, sand, etc., for pure wheat. Whence the Arabic version translates: We shall sell the purifications of vessels, that is, what after the wheat has been removed by sweeping the threshing floor, is turned and gathered together. Hence the wrath of God, stirred up, thunders forth against them, and he says: 7. THE LORD HATH SWORN BY THE PRIDE OF JACOB, — that is, against the pride of Israel, by which it proudly dominates the poor and plunders them. Thus the Septuagint, St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Hugo, Lyran and others. In Hebrew, for pride is גאון ghuon, that is, magnificence, loftiness, arrogance. Whence the Chaldean renders: The Lord hath sworn who gave greatness to Jacob; Pagninus: The Lord hath sworn by His loftiness known in Jacob; Arias and the Zurich Bible: The Lord hath sworn by the excellence of Jacob itself, as if to say, He hath sworn by the temple, which was the glory, excellence, magnificence, and as it were the pride of Jacob. Thus Isaiah says in chapter LX, 15: "I will make thee a pride," that is, a magnificence and glory, "of the ages." Thus Vatable and Prado in Ezekiel chapter VII, 24, explaining that passage: "And I will cause the pride of the mighty to cease:" The temple, he says, he calls the pride of the mighty, that is, the most mighty, most proud, most magnificent and most lofty citadel. The first version and the sense of our Interpreter, as it is more congruent with the Hebrew, so also is it more forceful. IF I FORGET. — The word if is a note of one swearing, and a sign of an execratory oath among the Hebrews, as if to say, God hath sworn saying: I swear by myself and my truth, that I will not forget these works and crimes of Israel, but will punish them severely, so that if I forget them, I am not truthful, I am not God. The word if therefore in an oath is either taken improperly for not, or properly if you understand an execration subjoined, for example this one: I am not God. For the Hebrews pass over this in silence and leave it to be understood both on account of the horror and for the sake of good omen, by euphemism.
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Until the end, — forever. 8. SHALL NOT THE EARTH BE MOVED UPON THIS — namely, by desolation, so that it may be plundered and laid waste? Whence the Chaldean renders, the earth shall be desolate. Secondly, in Hebrew it is תרגז tirgaz, that is, it shall tremble, as the Zurich Bible renders it; Pagninus, it shall move itself, as if to say, So great are the crimes of Israel, and so great are the calamities impending upon it on account of them, that justly this earth, hearing, sustaining and feeling them, as if struck with terror and amazement, ought to tremble, and all its inhabitants ought to mourn and wail. It is a prosopopoeia: for he attributes to the insensate earth sense, indignation, horror and trembling for the sake of pathos. For all creatures perceive by natural sense the voice and nod of their Creator, and much more His offense and wrath. AND IT SHALL RISE UP WHOLLY AS A RIVER, AND IT SHALL BE CAST DOWN AS THE RIVER OF EGYPT. — Some, as de Castro, by the river understand a torrent of the desert, which separates Judaea from the desert and from Egypt, of which I spoke in chapter VI, 15,
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as if to say, Just as this torrent flows into the sea and no longer appears, its waters being drawn up by the sea: so the Israelites shall be drawn up by the Assyrians, and by them shall be led away and scattered, so that they no longer appear. Thus Castro, who also cites St. Jerome and others for this exposition: but I have not found the same thing in St. Jerome; and that torrent of the desert is a torrent and is called so, not a river. Add that the river of Egypt is none other than the Nile, or the river of the Nile; whence the Septuagint translate for river, the river of Egypt. Therefore it is better that Clarius, Arias, Vatablus and others throughout understand by the river the Nile: for this is called shortly after the river of Egypt, especially because the Nile divides itself into seven rivers, by which through as many mouths it flows into the sea. And he aptly brings in the Nile rather than other rivers: because the Nile, overflowing every year and stagnating, silts up and makes Egypt fertile (for it does not rain in Egypt, but in place of rain the Nile swells up). Whence the harvest of Egypt is said to be in the Nile, as if in its cause, according to that passage of Isaiah, chapter XXIII, 3: "In many waters is the seed of the Nile, the harvest of the river is its fruit: and the commerce of the nations has been made." Add that the Israelites as merchants bought grain from Egypt; for Egypt was so fertile that it was the granary of the Romans, indeed of the whole East, as if to say, Because you, O Israelites, store up Nilotic grain bought cheaply in Egypt, so that you may sell it dearly, and moreover you adulterate it mixed with refuse, and sell it deceitfully with unjust measures, for this reason I shall bring upon you the army of the Assyrians, which like the Nile by its abundance shall inundate Israel, and shall overturn it with its grain and riches, and transfer it to Assyria. He alludes therefore to the rising, that is the increase of the Nile swelling and overflowing, which then immediately subsides and recedes, and is partly absorbed by the earth, partly flows back into its channel, and from there flows into the sea, as if to say, In like manner with the army of Assyria rising into the land of Israel, you likewise shall rise, and by them shall be gathered into a great multitude, and gathered together shall be driven out in troops to the Assyrians; and there shall be scattered and absorbed, so that dispersed among a most numerous people, you shall scarcely appear to be any. Whence the Chaldean translates: The king shall rush upon it with his very great army like the waters of a river, and shall wash it all away, and shall drive out its inhabitants like the river of Egypt; others translate actively: And the Assyrian crosses over like a river the whole of that (land of Israel), and shall be brought low as by the river of Egypt, as if to say, Just as the land of Egypt is overwhelmed by the Nile, so the land of Israel shall be overwhelmed and oppressed by the Assyrians. Again, just as the Nile overflowing sweeps away all Egypt, so the Assyrians shall sweep away all the fruits and riches of Israel. Secondly, Vatablus translates: And shall rise up like a river the whole of that (land of Israel), and shall be driven (from its place), and shall be absorbed like the river of Egypt, and thus explains it, as if to say, The whole land of Israel shall be covered with waters, and shall be turned wholly as if into a river: by water and river he signifies all the disasters and calamities by which it was to be overwhelmed as if by waters from the wrath and vengeance of God.
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Thirdly, Clarius explains it, as if to say, Just as the Nile vomits forth those things which float upon it, so the land of Israel shall vomit forth from itself the Israelites, and shall cast them into Assyria. Note that it ascends, namely not the inhabitant, but the land: for the Hebrew עלתה aletha, since it is feminine, refers to the land: therefore the land of Israel ascends, shall be cast out and shall flow away: the land, that is the inhabitants, fruits and riches of the land ascend, that is shall be gathered into a heap, so that they may be carried away by the Assyrian enemies and plunderers. Hence consequently the whole, supply not the inhabitant, but the river, as if to say, Just as the whole river, that is the entire river, gathered in Egypt rises up and swells on high: so likewise the whole heap of Israelites to be led away by the Assyrians shall be great, and shall rise to a great sum. Now in the Hebrew is read כלה culla, that is all that, namely the land of Israel, shall ascend: but our Interpreter with other pointing reads כלל cala, that is complete, perfect, whole, namely the river ascends. Thus also the Septuagint read it, for they translate: And shall ascend like a river consummation, and shall descend like the river of Egypt: consummation, that is the whole and consummated multitude as well as the substance of Israel, which mystically, or rather accommodatively St. Jerome adapts to the elect and the reprobate: "So that he who shall have done penance," he says, "shall ascend with the rising river; but he who shall have persevered in sins, shall descend like the river of Egypt, and entering the sea shall be absorbed: and by this he shows the pride of Jacob, against which the Lord swears it shall be devoured by eternal punishments."
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Finally, for "defluet" in Hebrew it is נשקע niskang, that is, let it be submerged in the deep, let it be absorbed, let it go into the abyss. Where note that for נשקעה one should read נשקערה, as the Masoretes teach it should be read; the letter ain therefore is suppressed either by the fault of the scribes, or by the design of the Prophet himself, so that he might indicate complete submersion, says Marinus in the Lexicon. For the root is שקע by ain, that is, to be made deep, to be submerged, to be drawn to the depths; not שקה by he, that is, to be irrigated, to be drunk: for thus it would have been necessary to say נשקתה nisketa, in the feminine gender, because ארץ erets, that is, earth, is a feminine noun. Israel therefore will go into the abyss just as Babylon, concerning which Jeremias says in chapter LI, 63, and from him St. John, Apocalypse chapter XVIII, 21: "And one strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying: With this violence shall Babylon, that great city, be cast down, and shall be found no more." Finally the Syriac translator renders this passage: It shall ascend like a river its end, and shall repel (oppress), and shall descend like the river of Egypt; the Arabic Alexandrian: It shall ascend like a river, and shall descend like the Nile of Egypt; the Arabic Antiochian: And its end shall come like a river, and shall flow away, and shall be cast out like the river of Egypt. 9. THE SUN SHALL GO DOWN AT NOON, — not that the sun shall truly set and be hidden from the Israelites; but that to those struck with excessive fear and sorrow it shall seem to set and be hidden. For fear and sorrow bring darkness to the eyes equally as to the mind, so that those grieving seem to themselves to move about in darkness at noon, nor to behold the light of the sun. This is indeed what the text explains by adding: "And I will make the earth dark in the day of light." Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret and St. Chrysostom, homily 2 to the People, where he asserts that the same thing happened to the Antiochians in his own time, because they, on account of the violated image of the Emperor Theodosius, fearful and anxious, expected in each hour from his wrath snares, gallows and fires. Secondly, symbolically: "The sun shall go down at noon," that is, in the greatest prosperity and happiness of Israel, the greatest calamity and captivity shall befall it, so that it is a parabolic catachresis: for the sun and light are the cause and symbol of joy and prosperity, equally as darkness of calamity and sadness. Thus Remigius, Rupertus, Hugo, Lyranus and St. Gregory, book V of the Morals, chapter I. Again, the sun, that is, the mind and reason, goes down in the angry and sinful man: because the darkness of anger and disturbances occupies his soul, so that, as if placed in blind night, he does not see what he ought to do. Thus Cassianus, book VIII On the Institutes of the Renunciants, chapter IX.
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Allegorically, these things concerning the setting and eclipse of the sun, which was made by miracle in the passion of Christ, by which the sun as if in mourning proceeded, and shone upon the death of its Creator, St. Jerome, Ruffinus, Rupertus here, and Eusebius, book X of the Demonstration, chapter VI; St. Augustine, book Questions from Both Testaments, Question XIII; St. Cyrillus, Catechesis 13; Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter XLII; St. Cyprian, book II To Quirinus, chapter XXIII; Isidore, book On the Passion of the Lord, chapter XLV, expound. 10. AND I WILL BRING SACKCLOTH UPON ALL YOUR BACKS, etc. — I will cause all the Israelites to put on sackcloth, and to shave their heads, and to make them bald: for sackcloth and baldness among the Jews were signs of those mourning, and of the greatest mourning, as appears in Jeremias, chapter VI, 26.
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AND I WILL MAKE IT LIKE THE MOURNING OF AN ONLY SON, — that is, I will afflict the land of Israel most gravely, and thus I will cause it to mourn most bitterly; for when an only son dies, parents, and especially the mother, mourn inconsolably. AND HER LAST THINGS (I will make) LIKE A BITTER DAY, — that is, I will cause the last and final things of Israel to be most mournful and most bitter. Tropologically, let the sinner consider this while he revels, namely that God in the hour of death will convert all delights into sorrows and anguishes. Truly Pythagoras: "Of all evils," he says, "the greatest is pleasure, by which the soul is bound as by a nail and a clasp." 11. I WILL SEND FAMINE INTO THE LAND: NOT A FAMINE OF BREAD, NOR A THIRST FOR WATER, BUT OF HEARING THE WORD OF THE LORD, — that is, I will cause it so that in the time of the siege and fighting of Samaria, the Israelites are so afflicted, distressed, and destitute of mind and counsel, that they will seek the Prophets, whom they now despise, throughout the whole world, so that they might inquire from them, and hear both the oracles concerning the outcome of the siege, and the counsels for escaping it: namely, when and how they are to be delivered.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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Symbolo messis iamiam colligendae (cf. Os. 6, 11) ostenditur prophetae, populum satis superque ad punitionem maturuisse, segetem criminum iam esse demetendam, fructus scelerum iam colligendos et gustandos ; v. 4 « Haec ostendit mihi Dominus Deus : et ecce uncinus pomorum.
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v. 9 Et dixit: quid tu vides Amos? et diri : uncinim pomorum. Et dirit Dominus ad. me: venit. finis super populum meum Fsrael, 1. Lectionein liebr. tuentur Aq. 202 v£ozo;, Sym. Theod. 'Ioxxz cf. cod. syr. hexapl. non adiiciam ultra ut pertranseam eum » ; — vidit scil. uncinum expediri ad poma colligenda ; « sicut uncino rami arborum detrahuntur ad poma carpenda, ita ego proximum captivitatis tempus attraxi » (Hier.). Monet Cyr., Deum agrestius educato prophetae per ea quae ruri maxime fiunt, mysteria revelare. Venit finis ; adest in hebr. iucunda paronomasia ad ultimum verbum quod Amos dixerat y^p, immediate enim pergit Deus Vp? N2;unde etre et ipsa soni affinitate iudicium imminens certo certius declaratur ; finis populi, est reipublicae destructio, populi in captivitatem abductio (cf. "1, 1) ; non adiiciam... vide 7, 8; « hoc significat, quod iniquitates populi sui ultra non transeat, nec negligat, neque impunita scelera transire permittat » (Hier.). Qualis finis sit constitutus, accuratius declaratur
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v. 3 « et stridebunt cardines templi in die illa, dicit Dominus Deus; multi morientur, in omni loco proiicietur silentium » ; — « hoc autem bxegBoXxog accipiendum est, quod tam grave malorum pondus incumbat, ut ipsi quoque portarum cardines et excelsa laquearia ( — ita enim LXX versionem quoque suae explanationi inserit S. Hier. — ) ululent et incredibilem sentiant vastitatem, quando multi morientur et captis habitatoribus vel occisis in omni loco proiiciatur silentium » (Iier.); verum stridere cardines eo sensu plerique volunt dici, quia hostium multitudo praeceps per illos irrumpet, aut quia illos securi aut ariete confringent, vel igne absument et destruent (cf. Ps. Ruf. Cyr. Theod. Theod. M. Rup. Rib. Lap.) ; ita templo in Bethel excidium praedici (Ps. Ruf. Rib. Lap. Men. Tir.) ; nam de templo hierosolymitano (Theod. M. Sa) vatem loqui, negari debet!. — Proinde ira Dei exhibetur primo loco contra falsi cultus locum et usum ; idque forma poetica : ululabunt cardines ; dein contra cultores multi morientur ; demum contra universam rempublicam et humana omnia instituta : « solitudinem hostis in regionem inducet atque omnia triste silentium occupabit » (Calm.), erit scil. sicut in terris solitariis et inviis ; solitudinis, vastationis, mortis silentium longe lateque et stabili ratione dominabitur (cf. Cyr. Theod. Rib.). instrumenti occurrit. Et hane significationem voci revera inesse, ex assyriaco kalaba confirmatur (vide Sírassmaier s. v.). Quare hanc esse vocis genuinam notionem censeo ; neque repugnat ler. 5, 27. Potest enim etiam ibi ita intelligi, ut rete avium unco vel uncis distentum et firmatum tale nomen ex parte illà praecipua sortitum sit. Tale rete inspice ex more Aegyptiorum factum apud Lepsius in monumentis aegyptiacis I] Abtheilung, Blatt 43. 46. 103. Hebr. v. 3 Dv cantica templi ululabunt i. e. cantica guudii cessabunt et lugubri sonitu commutabuntur ; S. Hier. ob oculos habuisse videtur, vel legisse TY? cardines cf. Prov. 26, 14. Ulüimum membrum verte : multa cadavera, in omni loco proiecit (Deus ea), tace i. e. sileat unusquisque a facie Dei ultoris ; tacita cum reverentia et timore perferet mala — cf. D51 6, 10. Iud. 3, « Ne frustra videatur uncinus pomorum et vas aucupis ( — ex LXX interpretatione — ) esse monstratum et per haec vicina imminere captivitas, causae offensae Dei breviter describuntur » (IHier.) ; eas ex avaritia quae est idolorum servitus, repetit (cf. Ps. Ruf.);
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v. 4 « audite hoc qui conteritis pauperem et deficere facitis egenos terrae,
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v. 5 dicentes : quando transibit mensis et venumdabimus merces? et. sabbatum et aperiemus frumentum, ut imminuamus mensuram et augeamus siclum e supponamus stateras dolosas » ? — hebr. vos, inhiantes ! in pauperes, ut scil. eos opprimant et deleant. Tanta vero avaritia stimulantur, ut neomeniam et sabbatum abominentur, quia iis festis diebus a. venditione et turpi lucro arcentur ; unde cum indignatione quaerunt expostulantes : quando praeteribit novilunium et vendamus frumentum (hebr.) ? Neomenia, quamvis in lege mosaica non operum servilium cessatione celebranda praescriberetur, tamen propter festi diei rationem (Num. 10, 10; 98, 11 - 45) mox etiam ea observatione videtur esse culta; certe in fcstorum dierum numero habebatur ?. Unius diei a negotiatione cessationem iam aegre ferunt. Eodem sensu mensis ? est intelligendus, cum ipse S. Hier. in comment. kalendas substituat ; sim. Rib. Sa, Men. Calm. ; unius diei sabbati * requiem etiam fastidiunt ; ita cupido insatiabilis optime depingitur. Eam vero maxima cum iustitiae violatione coniungunt : mensuram enim qua vendunt imminuunt; pretium vero augent i. e. pretium quod pendendum sit maius reddunt et quo magis lucrentur in 3. Per errorem aliqui veteres legunt. messis (cf. Rup. Alb.). Alii mensis finem. exspectari et desiderari volunt, ut usuras cxigant avari illi — cf. Cyr. Theod. M. Calm. — at de tali ucgotio in textu non est sermo. Chald. meusem iutercalarem ponit. 4. Perperam alii de anno sabbatico cogitant ; cf. Cyr. Rup. Sauct. ct iam apud Chald. hac pretii appensione stateram pervertunt (hebr.) eamque stateram fraudis ac doli efficiunt. Sane artificiorum cumulus ! Alterum, cur dies sacros et a forensi strepitu alienos abominentur, est, quia istis diebus iudicia non celebrantur et tamen quaestuosi illi sibi velint adiudicari et in servitutem tribui debitores pauperes ; unde v.6 « uf possideamus 4n argento egenos et pauperes pro calceamentis et quisquilias. frumenti vendamus » ; — cf. 2, 6; pro argento, pro pecunia, quam debitor solvere nequit, ipsum in servum accipere volunt ; immo etiam si sit res minima, par calceorum ; quare simul iniustitia iudicum inde argui- . tur. Demum « in tantam lucri rabiem prosilistis, ut non frumenta, quorum esu hominum corpora sustentantur, sed quisquilias et purgamenta frumenti vendatis pauperibus, pulverem et paleas tritico commiscentes » (Hier.). Hebr. proprie deciduum frumenti; non male Syrus expressit fundum horreorum i. e. purgamenta illa, quae ex tritico in fundo horrei converruntur. Norma iustitiae et ordo rectus ac iustus in vita sociali servandus quam maxime clare natura duce homini imprimitur et illucescit, ita ut eius violatio non possit in criminis censu non haberi ; quare si talia crimina impudenter et in aperta luce grassantur, morum conditionem omni iniquitate esse abiectiorem manifesto comprobatur. Unde intelligitur, cur prophetae ista crimina iniustitiae praecipue efferant ac vituperent et maxima supplicia in eorum patratores denuntient. Ita quoque in sub-
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v. 1 « luravit Dominus in superbiam Iacob : si oblitus fuero usque ad finem opera eorum » ; — i. e. vere, non obliviscar, idque iuro ! est enim ON s iuramenti negativi particula ; in superbiam i. e. contra superbam elationem, qua pauperes opprimunt (Cyr. Hier. Alb. Calm.), vel opibus suis et arcibus fidunt, sese tutos censent (cf. 6, 4). Confert Rup. locutionem. illam : «quibus iuravi in ira mea » Ps. 94, 11; ea observata etiam textum hebr. simili ratione explicare possumus ! : cum 1. Plerumque. tamen 3 vertunt iurare per magnificentiam Iacob, i. e. per eum, qui sit maguificentia lacob i. e. Deus; vel per praeclaram possessionem lacob, per hereditatem tanta esset elatio Iacob, in superbia Iacob, vel propter iactationem eius. lacob dici censet Rup., ut patriarchae Iacob humilitate et. labore fastus posterorum accusetur magisque damnetur. Bene monent Rup. Rib. : «trina iuramenti repetitio (cf. 4, 2; 6, 8 iuravit Dominus in sancto suo — in anima sua) valida vestrae condemnationis est confirmatio ». Pocnam indicat diutissime duraturam ; populum iri abiectum et diutissime maledictionis divinae secum portaturum vestigia iam innuit, quia spondet se non oblivioni daturum usque in finem opera eorum. Eius poenae diuturnitatem in ultimo membro
Sceleris enormitas iureiurando a Domino adhibito declaratur : « magnitudinem iniquitatis tuae, o Israel, Creatoris indignatio publicavit, qui se etiam obtestatione constrinxit, quod nullus tot malorum immemor redderetur, sed donec ultimo eos finiret exitio, vim severitatis intenderet » (Ps. Ruf.) ;
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v. 8 « numquid super. isto non commovelitur terra et lugebit omnis habitator eius » ? — i. e. nonne decet terram, quae iudice descendente contremiscat, etiam tali iureiurando audito terrore penitus concuti et omnia luctu cooperiri. Haec explicatio sane efficacior est et magis proprie contextui insistit, quam quae generatim proponitur : super isto 1. e. super peccato (v. 4- 6), superbia (cf. Rup. Alb.). — A qua strage vero poena illa iuramento firmata incipiat, inundationis symbolo declaratur : « et ascendet quasi fluvius universus et eiicietur. et defluet quasi rivus Aegypti » ; — textum lat.ita fere concipiunt : sicut terra Aegypti obruitur Nilo, sic terra Israel opprimetur ab hostium invasione ; et ascendente exercitu hostili ipsi turmatim conglobati expellentur et inter numerosissimam gentem dispersi diffluent et fere non comparebunt (cf. Rib. Lap. Mar. Men.); in textu hebr. ipsa terrae concussio et eversio, qua fit quasi mare quoddam fluctuans, Nilo ascendenti, fluctuanti, descendenti comparatur : et ascendet sicut fluvius (Nilus) universa terra, et fluctuat, etdefluit (descendit, demergitur) sicut Nilus Aegypti i. e. terra intumescit, tunc agitatur vel quasi propellitur, tunc demergitur, subsidet, vel quasi diffluit et dissolvitur : quae omnia symbola esse videntur acerrimi iudicii (cf. Is. 24, 4). Expeditior tamen et facilior est textus graecus, qui pro n?» legit 002 auvt£Ae:a. consummatio ef ascendet sicut fluvius consummatio ; sim. etiam Syrus! ; lacob, per opes, per templum (cf. apud Sanct. et Lap. Mar. Cali. Schegg, Keil, Trochon rf. Ez. 94, 21. ' videtur, defectiva pro *3«*3, cum veteres omnes versiones flurium exprimant et. parallei.e. «ascendet.. omnia sternens, multisque et insuperabilibus fluentis totam Samariae terram inundans ; descendet vero similiter omnia incidentia secum trahens et nulli penitus parcens » (Cyr). vel, ut Theod. explicat : «obtegam vos multitudine hostium, sicut fluvius Aegypti obtegit terram ; terram autem vestram vacuam relinquentes vos captivos abducent ; hoc enim innuit, cum dixit descendet quasi fluvius Aegypti ». Haec autem inundatio et simul submersio subito irruet et quasi densissimis tenebris omnia obvolvet ;
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v. 9 «et erit in die illa, dicit Dominus Deus, occidet sol in meridie et tenebrescere faciam terram in die luminis » ; — Hebr. occumbere faciam solem in meridie i. e. « eius temporis erit tam tristis et acerba facies, ut die medio sol defecisse et nox irruisse videatur ; ita enim nulla ordinum distinctio, lux consilii nulla remanebit, ac si palpabiles tenebrae terram et coelum pariter miserorum oculis abstulissent » (Ps. Ruf. sim. Hier. Cyr. Lap.); in lumine enim et meridie fausta significatur ac laeta fortunà ; in nocte autem et tenebris ! sors adumbratur tristis et infelix (Sanct. Rib.) ; n meridie i. e. dum omnia fluere faustissime censent, et inexspectato ; sim. Ier. 15, 9 occidit ei sol, cum adhuc esset dies. Subitanea hac rerum conversione terror describitur ac formido, quibus aspectu malorum obruendi erunt ( Theod. Calm.). Quam tristem rerum conditionem, qua omnia iis lugere videbuntur, ulterius per singula vates prosequitur
8:10
v. 10 indicat novissima etus quasi diem amarum se positurum ; et qua in re cernatur poena, v. 11 declaratur. Comminatio illa, Deum in aeternum non esse obliturum scelera eorum, iam est terrore plena; augetur terror iureiurando apposito ; quare quid factum tam terribile subsequi debeat, dicitur v. 10 «et convertam festivitates vestras in luctum et omnia cantica, vestra in. planctum ; et inducam super omne dorsum vestrum saccum et super omne caput calvitium et ponam eam quasi luctum unigeniti et novissima eius quasi diem amarum » ; — cf. Os. 2, 14 et supra 5, 1. 16. 1'] — signa luctus sunt inter alia saccus i. e. vestis lugubris," angusta, ex panno crasso et aspero. facta ? et calvitium, quale sibi tondere solebant lugentes ?. Acerbissimus luctus est de morte unigeniti, « ubi non solum amissa pignora, sed etiam posteritas exstincta lugetur » (Ps. Ruf.) ; praeterea unigenitus amore maximo diligi solet, cum parentes non habeant plures, in quos amor quasi diffluat ac veluti distrahatur ; unde talis amor ad ardentissimi amoris comparationem et amplificationem adduci solet (cf. 9 Reg. 1, 26. ler. 6, 26. Zach. 12, 10— Sanct.). Ponam eam scil. terram, lismus id non renuat. Aliqui vocem 4&5 fingunt notione [ufi. Sed multi codd. apud de Rossi ut interpretes latini communiter supplent ex v. 11 et etiam Schegg — affligam terram gravissime, ut acerbissime lugeat et ut etiam ea, quae novissima ei accident, sint luctus plena. Hebr. commodius explicabis : » ponam id i. e. id efficiam, ut tota eorum agendi ratio luctum acerbissimum prae se ferat. Minae augentur, quia etiam novissima eius fore tristia et amara vates praedicit ; quare calamitatem designat, quae etiam in tempore novissimo i. e. messianico eos opprimet (cf. Schegg). Quaenam vero sint novissima illa amara, v. 14 et 12 declaratur ;
8:11
v. 11 « ecce dies veniunt, dicit Dominus, et mittam famem 1n terram ; non famem panis neque sitim aquae, sed audiendi verbum Dei ;
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v. 12 et commovebuntur a mari usque ad, mare, et ab aquilone usque ad orienlem circuibunt quaerentes verbum Dei et non invenient » ; — i. e. quia nunc voces propheticas spernitis, immo prophetas a prophetandi munere cohibere studetis (1, 10 — cf. Alb. Rib. Sanct. Mar. Tir.), haec doctrina prophetica vobis subtrahetur; tunc demum magno eius desiderio conficiemini (cf. Ps. 3, 9). Per prophetas Deus loqui solebat ad populum, afflictos consolari, res futuras annuntiare ; quare maximae poenae loco habebatur, si Deus munus propheticum subtraheret (cf. Lament. 2, 9. Ex. 1, 26. Os. 3, 4; 9, "I. Mich. 3, 7. Dan. 3, 38). Iam Israelitas tali subtractione iri punitum praedicitur ; sunt, qui id ad tempus obsidionis Samariae referant (Lap. Men. Tir.) ; alii, iique plures, exsilii tempus spectari volunt (cf. Theod. M. Cyr. Sanct. Calm.). Id certe non excluditur; verum vaticinium latius extendi et generatim conditionem exliberi Israelitarum, qui a Deo proiecti et abiecti perpetuis agitentur perturbationibus et pro veritatis doctrina absurdis implicentur erroribus, omnino cum S. Hier. Cyr. Ps. Ruf. Estio, Schegg assumendum est. Id enim suadetur, quia modo de novissimis amaritudine plenis sermo fiebat et quia v. 192 a mari ad mare, ab aquilone et usque ad. orientem (hebr.) vagari, oberrare, titubare dicuntur ; sed iste modus loquendi vagationem per orbem terrarum significat ; cf. Ps. "14, 8. Mich. 7, 12. Bene notat S. Ilier. : « ablata est ab eis lex et prophetae aeterno conticuere silentio ; moventur a mari ad mare, ab oceano britannico usque ad oceanum atlanticum, i. e. &b occidente ad' meridiem et ab aquilone usque ad orientem, toto orbe peregrini, verbum Dei non valent invenire ». Quid vero pro verbo Dei invenerint, exponit Ps.jRuf. : « pro virtutibus morum vitalibusque sacramentis intumescunt rebus;pudendis et ludicris, carnis videlicet concisione et sabbaticis feriis gloriantes ; consequenter nec doctor apud eos aliquis eruditus, nec princeps, nec sacerdos, a quo reformentur, exsistit, quia loquente Moyse oculi eorum velamine conteguntur, quod non aliter aufertur, nisi cum in Christo aboletur ». Maxima ista fames i. e. summa penuria verbi Dei et maxima privatio cernitur, si quis insanias rabbinicas et quisquilias talmudicas obiter tantum inspexerit (cf. Eisenmenger, das entdeckte Iudenthum — | Welte, Tübinger theol. Quartalschrift 1842 ; p. 41 et seq.). Demum totam denuntiationem vates concludit totius populi tabem et intimam ruinae causam nervose complectens
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v. 13 « :n die illa deficient virgines pulchrae et adolescentes in. siti,
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v. 44 qui iurant in. delicto Samariae et dicunt : vivit Deus tuus Dan, et vivit via Bersabee ! Et cadent et non resurgent ultra » ; — si ipse flos et vigor iuventutis contabescit, certe totius populi tabes, defectio, ruina efficacissime delineatur. Ita vero deficient, quia ?urant, i. e. cultu religioso ac divino prosequuntur delictum Samariae i. e. vitulos a rege Samariae erectos et consecratos (cf. 3 Reg. 12, 28) in Bethel et in Dan; qui cultus per emphasin peccatum Israel dicitur. Neque multum refert, si alii delictum Samariae de Aschera in Samaria culta intelligunt (2 Reg. 13, 6 hebr. — Hitz. Schegg). Iurant per viam Bersabee, i. e. non per cultum ibi exercitum (Sanct. Calm.) sed per iter sacrum, per peregrinationem, quam rem omnino sacram et caram habent et modo superstitioso et obeunt et venerantur (cf. Her. Ps. Ruf. Rib. Lap. Men. Tir.) ;simili modo, ut v. g. Arabes hodiedum per peregrinationem meccensem iurare solent (Schegg). Iste cultus impius, ad quem adeo inhiant, omnium malorum fons est fecundus ; et uti ipsi Deum reliquerunt, sic Deus eos prosternit prostratosque deserit : cadent et non resurgent ultra ! quantopere hoc in decem tribubus est impletum !
8:2
… It is essentially expressed in the Decalogue: monotheism and moral precepts (Hos. 4:1 ff. 12-19; 6:6 ff., etc.; cf. Am. 3:1 ff.; 5:21-26; 8:2; Mic. 6:6 ff.; Isa. 1; 5:1-7; Jer. 7; 11, etc.). …
8:5
From prophetic texts (Jer. 17:21-27; Am. 8:5) and from Neh. 13:15-22 it is known that even the market was forbidden on that day.
8:9
… In the customary biblical apparatus of theophanies (trumpet, cry, cloud, smoke, storm), amid human calamities and the convulsions of the entire cosmos (Mt. 24:6-9, 29: prophetic images from Is. 13:10; 34:4; Am. 8:9; etc.) — which has also reached its final goal — Jesus with his own destroys in the parousia all hostile forces (flesh, sin, death in the individual sphere; evil spirits and men in …
8:10
Amos (Hebrew 'Āmōs «Who Bears a Burden», distinct from the name of Isaiah’s father 'Āmōs «Robust»)
… The divine authority of the book is attested in Tob. 2:6, in the allusion of I Mach. 1:41 (Am. 8:10) and in the quotation by St. Stephen (Acts 7:42).
8:11
… messianic kingdom to all who had toiled (Is. 49:10; 55:1-2 "without money"; cf. Eccl. 51:33; Apoc. 22:17). The expression is spiritually evocative, for in the Bible "hunger and thirst" often indicates the desire for supersensible goods (Is. 56:1; Jer. 31:25; Am. 8:11; Ps. 41:2-3; 106:9), which God will fully satisfy.
8:14
Bamah (Heb. "height"; plural Bāmāth)
… The idolatrous b. are indeed inexorably condemned to destruction by the Mosaic legislation (Deut. 12:4; 5; 7:5; Ex. 23:24; Num. 33:52); but the Israelites not rarely venerated them, indeed promoted them in the northern kingdom (Os. 10:8, 9; Am. 8:14; I Reg. 12:31; 13:32; II Reg. 17:29, 32; 23:7, 19; Ez. 6:3-6).
… of the idea in itself and the religious-moral deviations to which it immediately gave occasion in worship justify Moses' reaction against the calf and later the prophets' attacks against the resurgence of the symbol and the related cultic practices (Am. 8, 14; Hos. 8, 4-6; 10, 5-8; 12, 15-13, 4; etc.). …
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.