After the conuersion of the Iewes to Christ, 2. shortly foloweth the general Iudgement. 3. where euerie one according to their desertes, shal receiue (expressed here in parabolical speach) 7. & 19. the wicked euerlasting paine: 18. & 20. and the blessed eternal ioy.
1For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Juda, and Jerusalem:Imperocchè in que' giorni, ed in quel tempo, quand'io avrò liberato Giuda, e Gerusalemme dalla schiavitù,BECAVSE loe in those dayes, and in that time when I shal conuert the captiuitie of Iuda, and Ierusalem.Quia ecce in diebus illis, et in tempore illo, / cum convertero captivitatem Juda et Jerusalem, 2I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land.Adunerò tutte le genti, e le condurrò nella valle di Josaphat, ed ivi disputerò con esse riguardo al mio popolo, e riguardo ad Israele mia eredità, cui elleno han disperso in questa, e in quella regione, essendosi spartita tra loro la mia terra.I wil gather together al Nations, & wil lead them into the valley of Iosaphat: and I wil plead with them there vpon my people, and myne inheritance Israel, whom they haue dispersed in the nations, and haue diuided my land.congregabo omnes gentes, / et deducam eas in vallem Josaphat; / et disceptabo cum eis ibi super populo meo, / et hæreditate mea Israël, / quos disperserunt in nationibus, / et terram meam diviserunt. 3And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink.E si sono diviso a sorte il mio popolo, ed hanno messi i giovinetti ne postriboli, ed han vendute le fanciulle per tanto vino da bere.And vpon my people they haue cast lot: and boy they haue geuen to be a strumpet, and wench they haue sould for wine that they might drinke.Et super populum meum miserunt sortem; / et posuerunt puerum in prostibulo, / et puellam vendiderunt pro vino ut biberent. 4But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head.Ma che è quello, ch'io ho da far con voi, o Tiro, e Sidonj con tutte le regioni de' Filistei? Volete forse vendicarvi di me? E se voi vi vendicate di me, renderò io ben presto con celerità il contraccambio a voi sopra le vostre teste.But what is to me and to you ô Tyre, and Sidon, and al the border of the Palesthines? what, wil you render me reuenge? and if you doe reuenge against me, I wil soone render you quickly recompence vpon your head.Verum quid mihi et vobis, Tyrus et Sidon, / et omnis terminus Palæstinorum ? / numquid ultionem vos reddetis mihi ? / et si ulciscimini vos contra me, / cito velociter reddam vicissitudinem vobis super caput vestrum.
5For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my desirable, and most beautiful things you have carried into your temples.Perocché voi avete rubato il mio argento, ed il mio oro; e le cose migliori, e più belle le avete trasportate ne' vostri templi.For my siluer, and my gold you haue taken: and my desiderable thinges, and most beautiful you haue caried into your temples.Argentum enim meum et aurum tulistis, / et desiderabilia mea et pulcherrima intulistis in delubra vestra. 6And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem, you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off from their own country.E avete venduti a' Greci i figliuoli di Giuda, e di Gerusalemme, per tenerli lontani dal loro paese.And the children of Ierusalem you haue sold to the children of the Greekes that you might make them far of from their coasts.Et filios Juda et filios Jerusalem vendidistis filiis Græcorum, / ut longe faceretis eos de finibus suis. 7Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads.Ecco, che io li trarrò fuora dal paese, dove voi li vendeste; e renderò a voi il contraccambio sopra le vostre teste.Behold I wil rayse them vp out of the place, wherin you haue sold them: and I wil turne your retribution vpon your owne head.Ecce ego suscitabo eos de loco in quo vendidistis eos, / et convertam retributionem vestram in caput vestrum. 8And I will sell your sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.E darò i vostri figliuoli, e le vostre figliuole in potere de' figliuoli di Giuda, ed essi li venderanno a' Sabei, nazione rimota, perchè il Signore ha detto così.And I wil sel your sonnes, & your daughters into the handes of the children of Iuda, and they shal sel them to the Sabaeans, a nation far of, because our Lord hath spoken,Et vendam filios vestros et filias vestras in manibus filiorum Juda, / et venundabunt eos Sabæis, genti longinquæ, / quia Dominus locutus est. 9Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.Dite ad alta voce alle genti: Preparatevi alla guerra, suscitate i campioni: vengano, si pongano in marcia gli uomini battaglieri.Proclaime ye this in the Gentils: sanctifie battel, rayse vp the strong: let them come, let al the men of warre come vp.Clamate hoc in gentibus, / sanctificate bellum, / suscitate robustos: / accedant, ascendant omnes viri bellatores.
10Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.Trasformate in ispade i vostri aratri, ed in lance i marroni; il debole dica: Io ho della forza.Cut your ploughes into swordes, and your spades into speares. Let the weake say: That I am strong.Concidite aratra vestra in gladios, / et ligones vestros in lanceas. / Infirmus dicat: Quia fortis ego sum. 11Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.Uscite fuora, e venite, e ragunatevi insieme da tutti i lati, o nazioni quante voi siete; colà il Signore farà cadere sul suolo i vostri campioni.Breake out, and come al ye nations from round about, and be gathered together: there wil our Lord make al thy strong ones to be slaine.Erumpite, et venite, omnes gentes de circuitu, / et congregamini; / ibi occumbere faciet Dominus robustos tuos. 12Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.Muovansi le genti, e vengano alla valle di Josaphat; perocché ivi io sarò assiso per giudicare le genti, che verranno da tutte parti.Let them arise, and let the Gentils ascend into the valley of Iosaphat: because there I wil sit, to iudge al nations round about.Consurgant, et ascendant gentes in vallem Josaphat, / quia ibi sedebo ut judicem omnes gentes in circuitu. 13Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.Menate in giro la falce, perchè la messe è matura, venite, scendete; perocché lo strettoio è pieno, i tini rigurgitano; perocché la loro malvagità è giunta al colmo.Put in the sithes, because the haruest is ripe: come, and descend, because the presse is ful, the presses runne ouer: because their malice is multiplied.Mittite falces, quoniam maturavit messis; / venite, et descendite, / quia plenum est torcular, exuberant torcularia: / quia multiplicata est malitia eorum. 14Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.Popoli, popoli, alla valle di eccidio; perocché vicino è il giorno del Signore nella valle di eccidio.Peoples peoples in the valley of d concision, because the day of our Lord is nigh in the valley of concision.Populi, populi, in valle concisionis, / quia juxta est dies Domini in valle concisionis. 15The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.Il sole, e la luna sono oscurati, e le stelle han perduto il loro splendore.The sunne and the moone are darkened, and the starres haue withdrawen their shining.Sol et luna obtenebrati sunt, / et stellæ retraxerunt splendorem suum.
16And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.E il Signore ruggirà da Sionne, e da Gerusalemme alzerà la sua voce; e i cieli, e la terra saran commossi. Ma il Signore egli è la speranza del popol suo, e la fortezza de' figliuoli d'Israele.And our Lord wil roare out of Sion, and out of Ierusalem he wil geue his voice: and the heauens, & the earth shal be moued, and our Lord the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.Et Dominus de Sion rugiet, / et de Jerusalem dabit vocem suam, / et movebuntur cæli et terra; / et Dominus spes populi sui, / et fortitudo filiorum Israël. 17And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through it no more.E conoscerete, che io sono il Signore Dio vostro, che abito nel mio monte santo di Sion, e Gerusalemme sarà santa, e gli stranieri non vi metteranno più piede.And you shal know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Sion my holy mount: and Ierusalem shal be holie, & strangers shal passe through it no more.Et scietis quia ego Dominus Deus vester, / habitans in Sion monte sancto meo; / et erit Jerusalem sancta, / et alieni non transibunt per eam amplius. 18And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns.E in quel giorno avverrà, che i monti stilleranno dolcezza, e le colline sgorgheranno latte, e tutti i rivi di Giuda saranno pieni di acque, e dalla casa del Signore zampillerà una fontana, la quale irrigherà la valle delle spine.And it shal be in that day: the mountaines shal distil sweetnes, and the hilles shal flow with milke: and through al the riuers of Iuda shal runne waters: & a fountaine shal issue out of the house of the Lord, and shal water the torrent of thornes.Et erit in die illa: stillabunt montes dulcedinem, / et colles fluent lacte, / et per omnes rivos Juda ibunt aquæ; / et fons de domo Domini egredietur, / et irrigabit torrentem spinarum. 19Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness destroyed: because they have done unjustly against the children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land.L'Egitto sarà abbandonato alla desolazione, e l'Idumea diventerà un orrido deserto; perchè eglino trattarono iniquamente i figliuoli d'Israele; e sparsero ne' loro paesi il sangue innocente.Aegypt shal be into desolation, & Idumea into a desert of perdition, for that they haue done vniustly against the children of Iuda, and haue shed innocent bloud in their land.Ægyptus in desolationem erit, / et Idumæa in desertum perditionis, / pro eo quod inique egerint in filios Juda, / et effuderint sanguinem innocentem in terra sua.
20And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation.Ma la Giudea sarà abitata in eterno, e Gerusalemme per tutti i secoli.And Iewrie shal be inhabited for euer, and Ierusalem vnto generation and generation.Et Judæa in æternum habitabitur, / et Jerusalem in generationem et generationem. 21And I will cleanse their blood, which I had not cleansed: and the Lord will dwell in Sion.E farò vendetta del loro sangue, del quale non avev'io fatto vendetta, e il Signore farà sua dimora in Sion.And I wil clense their bloud, which I had not clensed: and the Lord wil dwel in Sion.Et mundabo sanguinem eorum, quem non mundaveram; / et Dominus commorabitur in Sion.
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Theodoret
Back. The people were just returned when the nations around fell upon them, and were miraculously defeated. (Theodoret)
Worthington
Most people, with St. Jerome, suppose that the general judgment is described, though some explain it of the captives delivered from their enemies. (Worthington)
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Worthington
Josaphat, "the judgment of the Lord," (Haydock) marks the place where the Judge will sit, on the east of Jerusalem, between the temple and Olivet, whence our Lord ascended into heaven. (Worthington)
Haydock
There also he had been seized and treated contumeliously. (Haydock)
But many of the Fathers assert that the whole world will be the scene of judgment, and the first author who determines the situation of Josaphat, is one in the works of Ven. Bede. Here it may denote the great plain reaching from Carmel to the Jordan, where the army of Cambyses perished with its chief. People of almost all nations were there, Ezechiel xxxviii.
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Haydock
Boy, to gratify their brutal passions; (Lamentations v.) or, they have exchanged such for harlots, (Calmet) and paid the latter with captive boys. (Septuagint) (Haydock)
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Calmet
Me. These cities and nations had rejoiced at the ruin of the Jews, Ezechiel xxv. (Calmet)
Haydock
Coast. Septuagint, "Galilee of strangers." (Haydock)
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Temples, or palaces. The Chaldeans had done so, and perhaps had sold some to others.
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Greeks: the Ionians carried on such a traffic, Ezechiel 27:13. Tyre and the Philistines were ready to sell, Ezechiel 26:2., and 25:15.
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Them, particularly under Hystaspes and Artaxerxes.
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Calmet
Sabeans; probably at the bottom of Arabia. (Calmet)
Arrian ii
Thirty thousand Tyreans were sold by Alexander. (Arrian ii.)
Calmet
The Jews would not fail to purchase. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Prepare. Literally, "sanctify." (Haydock)
God sends Cambyses to chastise Egypt. His turn will then come.
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Down. Many perished in Egypt, the rest in Judea, ver. 2.
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Valley, at Jezrahel, the valley of destruction, ver. 14.
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Calmet
Harvest, the time of vengeance, Matthew 13:30., and Apocalypse 14:15. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Nations. Hebrew hamonim, "multitudes." (Haydock)
Calmet
This alludes to the place Amona, where Gog was buried, Ezechiel 30:15, 18. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "sounds have been heard in the vale of justice," where sentence has been pronounced and executed. (Haydock)
Worthington
The repetition of peoples and destruction, shews the crowds (Haydock) which shall be judged and cut in pieces like fuel for the fire, Psalm 128:4. (Worthington)
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Calmet
Shining. All shall be amazed at the fall of Cambyses, Joel 2:30., and Ezechiel 28:30. A storm shall overwhelm his army. (Calmet)
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No more, for a long time. Antiochus and the Romans again profaned the temple. But the Church of Christ is always holy.
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Calmet
Sweetness; oil and honey. (Calmet)
Challoner
Fountain, etc., viz., the fountain of grace in the Church militant, and of glory in the Church triumphant; which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground, brought forth nothing but thorns, or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations. (Challoner)
Haydock
Septuagint have, "bands." Hebrew shittim. (Haydock)
Abundance shall ensue after the death of Cambyses, as a figure of the graces which shall be granted to Christians, Ezechiel 47:2.
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Desolation. Cambyses laid it waste for three years, as Ochus did afterwards.
Calmet
Edom. Judas and Hircan punished them for their former barbarity, Psalm 136:7., and 2 Machabees 10:16., and Ezechiel 25:12. (Calmet)
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Challoner
Judea and Jerusalem. That is, the spiritual Jerusalem, viz., the Church of Christ. (Challoner)
Judea was unmolested for a considerable time.
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Calmet
Which must be supplied in Hebrew. The Idumeans had been spared for a long time. But they shall not escape. (Chaldean, etc.) (Calmet)
St. Jerome
The rites of the law could not purify, as the sacraments of Christ do. (St. Jerome)
Haydock
God will cleanse his people, and will chastise the Ammonites, etc., who had injured them. Septuagint, "I will seek (or avenge) their blood, and will not pronounce innocent;" athooso. (Haydock)
Haydock
Sion, in heaven, (Menochius) and in the tabernacles of the Catholic Church, from the beginning of the world unto eternity. (Haydock)
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A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, etc.... Viz., the fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations.
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Judea—and Jerusalem.... That is, the spiritual Jerusalem, viz., the church of Christ.
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THE PROPHECY OF AMOS
AMOS prophesied in Israel about the same time as OSEE: and was called from following the cattle to denounce GOD’S judgments to the people of Israel, and the neighbouring nations, for their repeated crimes, in which they continued without repentance.
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S Ierom and most other expositers vnder stand this chapter of the general Iudgement, though some expound it of the relaxation of the Ievves from captiuitie, and of the punishment of their enimies.
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And so Iosaphat is literally vnderstood the place on the east side of Ierusalem betwen the Temple and mount Oliuet whence our Sauiour ascended into heauen. Neither is there anie reason why the Iudgement should rather be in an other place seing this is expressed by name, signifying: The Iudgement of our Lord.
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Concordance Apoc. 14.
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This duplication of the vvord peoples importeth an innumerable multitude in that valley of concision (also repeted) to signifie, that there al Gods enimies shal be vtterly damned to eternal destruction, as it vvere cut in peeces, as fuel to the fire of hel. Psal. 128. v. 4. Our iust Lord vvil cut the neckes of sinners.
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Concordance Iere. 21. Amos. 1.
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Concordance Amos. 9.
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Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 47
… And no wonder that the images partake of the character of the realities. But from God—who has promised, indeed, “to pour out the grace of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, and has ordained that His servants and His handmaids should see visions as well as utter prophecies”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 10
… “All flesh is grass.” Well, but Isaiah was not content to say only this; but he also declared, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” They notice God when He says in Genesis, “My Spirit shall not remain among these men, because they are flesh;” but then He is also heard saying by Joel, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 31
… And where (it is said) and in what place is this hell? For some fablers say that it is in the valley of Josaphat, thus drawing that which was said about a certain by-gone war, to apply to hell.
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Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 22
… declared that “Jerusalem was to be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled,” —meaning, of course, those which were to be chosen of God, and gathered in with the remnant of Israel—He then goes on to proclaim, against this world and dispensation (even as Joel had done, and Daniel, and all the prophets with one consent
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 87
… The reverend bishop Agatho with the well-beloved deacon Athanasius is accredited to you with tidings relating to the church. When you learn their import I feel no doubt but that you will approve my resolution and will exult in the church’s victory. For we have cut down with the prophet’s sickle
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 54.19
… as not to find his humility and weakness animated by the vigour and strength of the Lord who protects him. It matters nothing to us by whom, or when we are slain, since we shall receive from the Lord the reward of our death and of our blood. Their concision
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.20.4
… “He will turn again, and will have compassion upon us: He will destroy our iniquities, and will cast our sins into the depths of the sea.” And again, specifying the place of His advent, he says: “The Lord hath spoken from Zion, and He has uttered His voice from Jerusalem.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.33.11
… and having become this which we also are, He [nevertheless] is the Mighty God, and possesses a generation which cannot be declared. And there are also some of them who say, “The Lord hath spoken in Zion, and uttered His voice from Jerusalem;”
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 3.5
… Another characteristic will be, that very many events are figuratively predicted by means of enigmas and allegories and parables, and that they must be understood in a sense different from the literal description. For we both read of “the mountains dropping down new wine,”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… Blessed is he that soweth beside all waters, and upon every soul, tomorrow to be ploughed and watered, which today the ox and the ass tread, while it is dry and without water, and oppressed with unreason. And blessed is he who, though he be a “valley of rushes,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.21
… and His mother is also a virgin; yea, though she is His mother, she is a virgin still. For Jesus has entered in through the closed doors, and in His sepulchre—a new one hewn out of the hardest rock—no man is laid either before Him or after Him. Mary is “a garden enclosed…a fountain sealed,” and from that fountain flows, according to Joel,
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1. FOR BEHOLD IN THOSE DAYS. — On the day of the last judgment, of which it was spoken in the end of the preceding chapter: "When I shall bring back the captivity of Juda," not the Babylonian captivity, but one far more severe than that, and which is only foreshadowed, namely the captivity of sin and blindness, by which the Jews are held captive, and blinded under the yoke of the Mosaic law, which they most stubbornly retain; which will happen at the end of the world, as if to say, After I shall convert the Jews at the end of the world from Judaism to Christianity, and shall lead them from the servitude of Judaism to the freedom of the Gospel, to the lot, namely, and glory of the sons of God, "I will gather together all nations" to the last judgment. Thus St. Jerome, Rupertus and others to be cited presently.
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2. AND I WILL LEAD THEM INTO THE VALLEY OF JOSAPHAT. — You will ask first, when and where was this done? First, some Rabbis think that here is signified the victory which Josaphat king of Juda obtained over the Ammonites, Moabites and Idumeans, when they slew one another with mutual slaughter; and that in the valley of Josaphat, that is of judgment and divine vengeance, which Josaphat besought in II Paralipomenon XX, 12, saying: "Therefore wilt thou not judge them?" But this valley was far distant from Jerusalem, and was at Asasonthamar, which is Engaddi, as is said there in verse 3. And although in verse 26 that valley is called the valley of "Blessing," yet nowhere by historians or geographers is it called the valley of Josaphat. Add to this, this victory occurred long before the times of Joel, who prophesies here of a future time against the Tyrians, Sidonians and Egyptians, not against the Ammonites, Moabites and Idumeans. Moreover under Josaphat there was no captivity of Juda, but rather Juda was then dominating and formidable to its enemies. By the same reasons are refuted others, who understand these things of the defeat of Sennacherib, when the angel struck down 185,000 in his camps, IV Kings XIX. I confess however that here there is an allusion to this valley and the victory of Josaphat, as if to say: The impious will be judged and condemned by Christ and His Saints in the valley of Josaphat, just as the Moabites were slain by Josaphat in his valley, the antitype of this. Whence also in the valley of Josaphat, otherwise most pleasant, was Tophet and Gehenna, where they burned sons to the idol Moloch: which therefore was a living image of hell and the damned, who are tormented by eternal fire, to which they will be condemned by Christ in the same valley. Thus Sanchez. Second, Cyril and Theodoret refer these things to the times of Esdras and Nehemiah: for then the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity. But then no hostile nations were slain by the Jews in the valley of Josaphat. Moreover the modern Jews err completely, who understand these things of the captivity and Roman defeat, by which they were devastated by Titus and Vespasian, as if here their release and liberation were promised to them, with the Romans, Gog and Magog slain in the valley of Josaphat. For this was not a captivity, but the destruction of a nation, and it will last until the end of the world, as Daniel predicted in chapter IX, 26. Whence they suffer the same now for 1600 years, nor has any hope of restoration shone forth, or ever shone forth to them. Add to this, no mention is made here of the Romans, but of Tyre, Sidon and Egypt. Third, some Christians refer these things to the times of the persecutors of the Church, namely Nero, Decius, Diocletian, etc., from whom Christ freed them through Constantine. But then we nowhere read of all nations gathered together in the valley of Josaphat and slain there. Fourth therefore, it is certain that these things pertain to the day of judgment; for he dealt with it at the end of the preceding chapter, to which the Prophet immediately subjoins these things, saying: "Because behold in those days and in that time," namely already a little before designated by me, namely of the final judgment. For then God will gather all nations whatsoever, and will judge in the valley of Josaphat: for God never otherwise gathered all nations scattered throughout the whole world. Thus St. Jerome, Rupert, Remigius, Haymo, Lyran, Vatable, Clarius, Ribera, a Castro and others everywhere; indeed even the ancient Hebrews, whom St. Jerome cites, and Galatinus book XII, chapter I. You will ask, second, what and where is the valley of Josaphat, into which all men will be gathered, and to which Christ the judge will descend from heaven, so that in it he may perform the judgment of all? Some think the name Josaphat here is not a proper noun, but an appellative, signifying the judgment of the Lord; and therefore does not designate a certain place or valley, but indefinitely signifies a place of judgment, whatever that may be in the future. Whence in verse 14 this valley is called "of cutting," because God will cut down the nations in it: thus the Chaldean translator rendered it: I will gather all nations in the valley of the division of judgment. And St. Jerome here, and in epistle 142 to Damasus, says the nations are to be gathered in the valley of the judgment of the Lord, that is in the deep judgment of the Lord: for the Greek κατάξω means the same as I will lead down. St. Jerome is followed by Haymo and Albert. Others think the valley of Josaphat is a certain valley, but still unnamed and unknown, which from the event, namely from the judgment of Christ being carried out in it, is to be named the valley of Josaphat, that is of the judgment of God: for Josaphat is the same as יה שפט, that is, there will be judgment, namely in such a place as God knows and has decreed. Thus the place in which the Antichrist will sit is called, that is will be called, Apadno, that is a royal palace, Daniel XI, 45. Thus the place in which kings will be struck down at the end of the world, Apocalypse chapter XVI, 16, is called, that is is said to be called, Armageddon, that is anathema of destruction, or full destruction. Thus the place in which Gog will be struck down, Ezekiel chapter XXXIX, 11, is named, that is is predicted to be named, Polyandrium, or the valley of the multitude of Gog. Thus Rupert, Arias and Clarius. But it is better, and more genuinely with the Syriac, both Arabic versions and others, to take the name Josaphat here as a proper noun. For the valley of Josaphat is situated between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, which is watered by the torrent Cedron: "Where there was a garden, in which Judas the traitor delivered the Saviour," says St. Jerome, in Jeremiah XXX. Thus the Venerable Bede, Bochart, Saligniac, Adrichomius and others in the Description of the Holy Land: "The valley of Josaphat," says Adrichomius, "which is also called the valley of Cedron, and the valley of mountains, is a wide and deep valley, situated between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, encircling the whole city from the East, which the torrent Cedron passing through fertilizes excellently with its waters. In this valley the pious and religious kings of Judah, Asa, Hezekiah and Josiah burned the idols of the temple, and cast their ashes into the torrent Cedron. This valley was the common cemetery of the whole city, where the common people and the ignoble were buried: for it was the custom of the Jews to be buried outside the city: and there now the Turks are buried. In this valley also on that day, dreadful to all mortals, all men from every side are to be gathered for the final judgment, so that from Christ the judge each may receive the due rewards according to his merits." Whence also the valley is called the valley of cutting, because there the wicked will be separated from the good. At the time when Christians held Palestine, there was here a certain Abbey, in which the Lady Melisendis, queen of Jerusalem, was buried. In the valley of Josaphat therefore was the village of Gethsemane, and the garden, in which Christ praying and sweating blood, betrayed by Judas, was taken by the Jews; and in the same place was buried the Blessed Virgin Mary, as Adrichomius notes. Moreover this valley received its name from King Josaphat, because he himself adorned it with a distinguished title and structure, for example a triumphal arch after his victory over the Ammonites and Edomites, or because a mausoleum was erected for him in it, distinguished by a beautiful pyramid, as Bede and Saligniac relate: for although Josaphat was buried in Sion, as is said in II Paralipomenon XXI, 1; nevertheless a mausoleum could have been erected for him in this valley, into which perhaps his bones were transferred. This opinion is proved first, from the fact that the Septuagint, our Vulgate and others retain the Hebrew name Josaphat as a proper noun. And indeed those who know Hebrew, from the very composition and ending, know that Josaphat is a proper name, just as much as Josiah, John, Joshua, etc. Secondly, because in this valley of Josaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah burned the idolaters and idols, in a type that Christ in the same place was to judge the unfaithful and impious, and was to thrust them into the fire of Gehenna. Thirdly, because in the same valley was the cemetery of Jerusalem: therefore it is fitting that the Hierosolymites, that is the faithful citizens of the Church, should rise again there to be judged by Christ. Again in the valley of Josaphat was Gehenna, in which they burned infants to the idol Moloch: therefore it is fitting that they should be condemned there by Christ to the Gehenna of eternal fire. St. Thomas adds in Isaiah XXX, 33, that the Hebrews think there are the jaws of hell, or certain vents of infernal fire, such as some think exist in Etna, the Vulcanian pot, Vesuvius, Hecla and similar mountains which vomit flames. They bring forward the judgment that there two palms continually smoke, as Etna smokes. But let the credibility of this matter rest with them: for among the Latins nothing of the sort is read. Fourth, because the valley of Josaphat is near Jerusalem is evident from the fact that in verse 16 Joel adds: "The Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem." It is confirmed, because Jerusalem is considered to be the center of the earth, in which God, as the Psalmist says in Psalm LXXIII, 12, wrought salvation through the passion, death and ascension of Christ: therefore it is fitting that the Saints there partake of the fruit of his blood and passion, and of the glory of his ascension. Fifth, because Christ lived in Jerusalem, taught, worked miracles, was judged and put to death: and on the Mount of Olives, which overlooks this valley, showing his glory and majesty ascending into heaven, the angels there foretold that he would return to judgment, Acts I, 11, saying: "This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven." Therefore it is fitting and proper that in the same place he judge the unbelievers and disobedient to him, who were unwilling to believe and obey such great charity of his, his redemption, his doctrine and miracles, by which he proved his doctrine to be heavenly, and himself to be the Messiah and Savior sent by God. For it is just that Christ there display the majesty of his glory where he endured the greatest ignominy; and that he judge there where he was judged, and take vengeance on his persecutors, and all others who were unwilling to use his blood. Thus St. Hilary, Canon. XXV in Matthew: "Gathering, he says, the angels, he shows a gathering to be in the place of passion; and worthily there the coming of brightness will be awaited, where he wrought for us the glory of eternity through the passion of bodily humility." Thus also Remigius, Lyra, Vatablus, Emmanuel, Mariana here, St. Thomas and Albert in chapters XXIV and XXV of Matthew, D. Soto, Paludanus, and passim other Scholastics in IV, disp. XLVII, or XLVIII, and namely Suarez, III part. Question LVII, art. 6, disp. LII sect. III. Moreover, Christ the judge will not descend into the valley of Josaphat itself: for thus he could not be seen by so many millions of men to be judged, but in the air incumbent upon and near to this valley and the Mount of Olives. For he will sit in a bright and glorious cloud. The Virgin Mother, who was buried in this valley and rose again, will sit beside him: likewise the Apostles and apostolic men. But in the valley and places near to it the men to be judged will stand, with the angels standing around: but the elect and blessed will be caught up in clouds to meet Christ in the air, as the Apostle says in II Thessalonians IV, 16. AND I WILL PLEAD WITH THEM THERE. — In Hebrew: And I will judge, that is, I will contend in judgment with them, as the Syriac translator rendered it; the Arabic: And I will judge them there for my people. He alludes by paronomasia in the word נשפטי nispatti, that is, I shall be judged, that is, I shall plead, to the name Josaphat, which in Hebrew signifies the judgment of the Lord, as if to say: In the valley of Josaphat, that is, of the Lord's judgment, I Christ, as God and judge, will contend in judgment with all nations, and will convince and condemn all the unfaithful and impious of the crime, namely that they either did not believe in my redemption, or neglected it, and spurned it. And among other arguments I will bring this: Behold, I rising from death from this Mount of Olives, publicly ascended into heaven before the Apostles and many disciples, to show that I came from heaven, and from there was sent by the eternal Father, delivered to you his law and heavenly doctrine, and confirmed it by true miracles: therefore I, having completed the office of legation and redemption, am recalled by the Father and return, and consequently my life was innocent and heavenly, nor did I merit death on the cross by my sins, but for yours I willingly embraced it. Why therefore did you not believe in me? Why did you not accept my redemption and salvation? Why did you not obey my law? Surely you have no cause which you can allege for your unbelief and disobedience, you are inexcusable: your own mind and reason convict you, your own judgment judges and condemns you, your own sentence, your own conscience declares you guilty and ungrateful, deserving death and hell; but proclaims me to be just, merciful and pious. Christ therefore, sitting above the valley of Josaphat upon the throne of judgment, will decide the matter, and being indignant and roaring, will say to the impious standing in the valley and trembling: Behold, I in this very place labored for you, and suffered terrible things; behold, here in Gethsemani I sweated water and blood for you, was betrayed and captured, bound like a robber, and dragged across the Cedron into the city: behold, near this valley in the house of Caiaphas, and soon in the house of Pilate, I was judged and condemned to death for you, scourged, crowned with thorns, struck with blows, mocked and spat upon: behold, led around this whole city, bearing the cross, at last I was crucified for you on Mount Calvary: behold, here naked suspended between heaven and earth, with hands and feet stretched out, with my whole body I offered myself as a victim to God the Father for you. You are a witness, Pilate; Anna is a witness, Caiaphas is a witness, Judas is a witness, the high priests are witnesses, the Jews are witnesses, who in this very place cried out against me with contentious voices: "He is worthy of death: let him be crucified, let him be crucified." You remember, Pilate, that I stood here as if guilty before your tribunal, and received a sentence of death from you; although you knew me to be innocent, and said: "I am innocent of the blood of this just man." You remember, Caiaphas; you remember, high priests, that when I was adjured in the council: "Tell us if thou art Christ the Son of the living God," I answered: "Thou hast said it; nevertheless I say to you: Hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Yet you did not believe me, but rather mocked me, and condemned and crucified me as a blasphemer. Behold now that day which I foretold and threatened to you: behold now my lot exchanged with yours: you sat as judges, I stood as the accused: now you are the accused, I am the judge. Now you see that I am he whom I said, the Messiah Son of God, the lord and judge of the world: how did you dare to lay wicked hands upon me, how did you dare to blaspheme and kill the Son of God sacrilegiously? Behold the hands which you pierced, the feet which you perforated: behold the sacred stigmata which you impressed upon my body. These judge you, these cry out against you, these condemn you. Go therefore, sacrilegious ones, go, deicides, with Lucifer into eternal fire. And you, O faithless ones, O Turks, O wicked Christians, you knew these things, or could have known and ought to have known; and yet you neglected them, you despised my labors, my sweats, my sorrows: you held the blood of the covenant as polluted: you preferred to follow your lusts rather than me and my doctrine and law: you set momentary pleasures, riches, honors before eternal salvation promised by me, you despised me threatening the fires of hell. Behold now you see him whom you despised: now you perceive that my threats were not vain, but true; my promises not vain, but certain: now you perceive that your lovers, riches, dignities were vain and deceptive: now you perceive that you were foolish and senseless in the love of these things: now you groan and weep, now you beat your breasts; but too late and in vain. Go therefore, wicked ones; go, ungrateful ones: go, unbelieving ones; go, senseless ones; go, accursed ones, into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels from the foundation of the world. But you, O Apostles, who saw me condemned, scourged, crucified, killed in this place, and yet believed in me, followed me even unto death and the cross: you likewise, O men Religious and Apostolic, who embraced my poverty, my humility, contempt of the world and the cross; and who spread my faith, my doctrine and my religion throughout the whole world: you finally, O faithful, who believed in me as your redeemer, hoped in me, loved me, worshipped me; who obeyed my law in all things, who lived a life worthy of me and Christian; who lived soberly, piously and justly in this world, awaiting the blessed hope and this my coming in glory of the great God: Come, O beloved and elect, come, O blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom of heaven prepared for you before the ages, from all eternity. And these shall go into eternal fire, but the just into eternal life. Blessed is he who constantly thinks upon these things, foresees and provides for them. St. Augustine has a similar reproach of Christ the judge to the impious, in sermon 67 On the Seasons, which is On the Day of Judgment. St. Pelagia the penitent was thinking upon these things, who, converted from the vanity of the world through the Blessed Nonnus Bishop of Heliopolis, devoted herself to perpetual penance, and chose this place for it. For she erected a hut on the Mount of Olives, from which the valley of Josaphat is overlooked, so that she might constantly set before her eyes the image of Christ suffering, as well as of the judge to come. Thus it is in her Life on the 8th of October, and Adrichomius in the Description of the Holy Land. To this valley also Blessed Xavier cited the prefect of Malacca, who, overcome by the desire for gold, was hindering his journey to China, and consequently the conversion of the Chinese: "I," said he, "shall never hereafter see him, nor shall he see me in this life, unless when I shall accuse him before that supreme Judge in the valley of Josaphat, because, blinded by the most wicked and shameful cupidity, he has hindered so great a harvest of souls." Thus Tursellius in his Life, book V, chapter VII. To this same valley God here calls us by the oracle of Joel, and will indeed call us through the Archangel, when he with the sound of the trumpet shall call forth all from the monuments to the tribunal of Christ. Pathetically St. Cyril, in his oration On the Departure of the Soul, which our Raderus recites at length in the Viridarium Sanctorum, page 186: "I fear," said he, "death, because it is bitter to me. I fear hell, because it is eternal. I fear tartarus (thus he calls the hell of cold and ice, by which equally as by fire the damned in hell are tormented, as many believe, moved by that passage in Job, chapter XXIV, verse 19: 'Let him pass from the waters of the snow to excessive heat.' Thus likewise Philip the presbyter, St. Thomas, Titelmannus, Stunica and others), because it has no heat. I fear the venomous worm, because it is eternal. I fear the angels appointed to preside over judgment, because they are without mercy. I fear, when I think of that day's terror, and the council unconquerable by gifts, the horrible tribunal, the incorrupt judgment. I fear the river of fire flowing before that tribunal, and the most violent flame torrenting, and sharp swords. I fear the most severe punishments. I fear the punishment that has no end. I fear that gloomy darkness. I fear the deep shadows. I fear the unbroken chains, the gnashing of teeth, the inconsolable weeping. I fear the inevitable proofs. For that judge needs nothing from accusations, nor from witnesses, nor from demonstrations, nor from proofs, but whatever we have done, said, decreed, he brings into the midst before the eyes of the guilty. Then there is no one who stands by and snatches from punishments, not father, not mother, not son, not daughter, not friend, not defender, not the largesse of money, not the abundance of riches, not the pride of power: nay, all these things turn to dust like ashes, and the guilty one alone sustains the sentence either absolving or condemning from his own deeds." And further below: "Then where is the boasting of this world? where is vain glory? where is apparatus? where are kings, where is ornament? where is money? where is nobility, where is pleasure? where is the vigor of the body? where is that false and useless beauty of women? where then is the adornment of garments? where are those who drink wine with tympans and harps? where are theaters? where are hunts?" And after some things: "It is bitter to be in fire, and to cry out, and not to be helped. Insurmountable jaws, an immense gulf, where one enclosed and detained cannot escape or flee: an insurmountable wall of custody, cruel custodians, a dark prison, grim Ethiopians, unbroken chains, immovable fetters, dire and fierce flames, those ministers of his, grave scourges applied to torture, firm nails and unbroken, hard sinews, turbid pitch and torrenting, stinking sulphur, those fiery chambers: an unquenchable pyre, a putrid and virulent worm: an inexorable council, a judge unconquered by grace, an inexcusable defense: the faces of magnates marked with compunction, worn-out nobles, beggars as kings, ignorant wise men, foolish orators, mad rich men: the false flatteries of those writing unheard; the manifest malice of the malicious, the transparent cunning of the fraudulent: woe to the wicked! profane, wicked and impure are they in the sight of God! woe to the contumacious, contentious and turbulent! woe to the perjurers! woe to the gluttons, whose god is their belly!" UPON MY PEOPLE AND MY INHERITANCE ISRAEL. — He calls his people, or Israel, his faithful and holy ones. For the people of Israel was the type of these, once chosen by God, faithful and holy: and they have been substituted and adopted in the place of that people apostatizing from God and Christ, as the Apostle teaches in Romans IX, 8; for as the same says in Galatians VI, 16: "Whosoever shall have followed this rule (of Christ and the Gospel which I preach), peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." The word and signifies, that is, as if to say "Peace" be "upon them," that is upon the Israelites: because they are the true Israelites, not in flesh, but in faith and spirit: for they follow the faith and virtue of Israel, Isaac and Abraham. Therefore their dispersion, that is their persecutions and exiles, God says here he will avenge. The sense therefore is, as if to say, In the valley of Josaphat I shall judge with the unfaithful and impious, who have afflicted my people Israel, that is my faithful ones, and the true and pious worshippers of God, and I shall condemn them and punish them with eternal death. AND MY LAND (of my people, and therefore mine, that one being cast out, among themselves) THEY HAVE DIVIDED. — He persists in the type and allegory of the devastation and destruction of Judea by the Chaldeans, but by this he understands the plunderings and injuries inflicted upon the faithful. Thus the Turks have invaded, occupied, and divided the lands and provinces of Christians: thus the English even now confiscate the goods of the orthodox, and drain them through fines, as once Nero, Decius, Diocletian, etc. did, to whom rightly applies what follows.
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3. AND OVER MY PEOPLE THEY CAST LOTS, — dividing by lot among themselves both the people themselves and their goods, just as the soldiers of the crucified Christ divided His garments by lot among themselves in His sight: which was a great insult and affliction. He alludes to the lot which Haman cast over the Jews concerning the day and month on which he intended to slaughter them, Esther III, 7. He accuses the crowd of the gentiles "concerning three things," says Hugh of St. Victor, "of avarice, of lust, of gluttony. Of avarice, because over the people of the Lord he cast lots. Of lust, because he prostituted the boy. Of gluttony, because for wine he sold the girl." Tropologically: "The demons divide the land of the Lord, that is, the faithful soul, by vices; and over the people of virtues they cast the lot of sins. Then they prostitute the boy, that is, the purity of the mind, to illicit desires. Then they sell the girl, that is, the innocence of the heart, for wine, that is, for temporal joy and earthly pleasure," Thus far Hugh. AND THEY PUT THE BOY IN A BROTHEL, — that is to say, They put the boys of my people in a brothel, so that namely from their bodies exposed to pederasts they might make profit and gain for unnatural and accursed lust; thus also they sold the girls partly to lust, partly to servitude, so that from their price they might buy wine, and thereby satisfy their gluttony. Whence the Hebrew literally has: They gave the boy to a harlot, or for a harlot, which St. Jerome is accustomed to translate and call a brothel. Whence in his Commentary here he says: "They put the boy in a brothel," that is, they prostituted the boy to pimps as a male prostitute, "forcing him to change his manly nature," as Jason did, II Maccabees IV, 9. Thus also Theodoret, Rupert, Hugh and Vatablus. For which reason the Arabic version translates: They exchanged the boys for the wages of harlots, namely substituting boys for harlots, from whom they might capture foul wages, such as is wont to be given to harlots. But the Syriac translates: They gave the boys for the wages of adulteresses, so that they might serve them as servants. Our version rightly translates, "in a brothel." For brothel in Latin signifies not only a brothel-house, but also a harlot. Hear Plautus in the Aulularia: "A fair and modest brothel of the people." The same were called brothels in the feminine. Hear Festus: "Ale-women harlots were called, accustomed to be found in the fields before the bakeries of ale-sellers for the sake of gain; just as those who sat before stables were called brothels." Secondly, the Septuagint translates: They gave the boy to harlots, namely for the price of their bodies prostituted to them, that is to say, They esteemed the boys of the Jews so cheaply that they gave them in place of a price to harlots for the use of their bodies, or for the wages of harlotry. Thus the Chaldean, Lyra, Pagninus, Clarius, Arias and Castro. The Hebrew בזונה bazzona, that is, for a harlot, favors this sense, just as immediately concerning the girls it says, they were sold ביין beiain, that is, for wine; in both cases indeed it is the beth of price. Thirdly, Jerome Prado in Ezekiel XVI, 15: "They put the boy in a brothel," that is, he says, to food in a prostituted inn, so that they might be sold to guests, bought and obtained, that is to say, They gave in the price of food the captive Jewish boy, just as for wine they gave in the price the Jewish girl. For the Hebrew זונה zona, that is, a brothel, properly signifies an inn, which prostitutes food, or wares, or services, or also body, and then is called a harlot. But the Latin brothel never signifies an inn, nor food for sale prostituted. Therefore the first sense is the genuine one, and our Latin Version demands it; then the second, which agrees very well with the Hebrew text. The Prophet here recounts a few, but enormous crimes against innocent boys and girls, to be judged and punished on the day of judgment, and by synecdoche understands all other things under these. Thus Lyra.
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4. BUT WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH YOU, TYRE AND SIDON, AND ALL THE COAST OF THE PALESTINIANS? — That phrase: "What have I to do with you?" is one of aversion, indignation, rejection, reprobation and condemnation, because they presumed to wage war against God Himself and to exercise hatred and enmities, while they were persecuting the people of God. For, as St. Jerome says: "Whoever persecutes the people of God persecutes God Himself, whose people they are." Whence Christ says to Saul: "Why dost thou persecute me? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest," Acts IX, 4. Now Haymo, Rupertus, Arias, Vatablus and Ribera hold that Tyre, Sidon and the Palestinians are here taken literally but used metaphorically, for any impious persons whatsoever: and, conversely, by the Jews are signified all the pious and holy. For Tyre in Hebrew is the same as constriction, and the Tyrians the same as those who constrict, straiten, afflict; the Sidonians, the same as those who hunt, namely unto death: the Philistines, the same as those who sprinkle with ashes, that is, who bring mourning, as St. Jerome notes. Others, and more rightly, take these properly; for just as Joel, from many crimes to be judged in the day of judgment, recounted only a few by way of example a little before, understanding all the rest from these by synecdoche; so also here from all the nations then to be judged, he produces a few by way of example, and by fame, and by proximity, and by crime more notable among the Jews, and leaves the rest to be understood from these partly by synecdoche, partly by metaphor. For the Tyrians, Sidonians and Philistines were fierce and almost perpetual enemies of the people of God, namely the Jews, and often cruelly wreaked havoc upon them, plundering, killing and selling them to the Greeks, that is to the Asiatic nations. Whence against them the Prophets thunder with one voice, and threaten destruction through the Chaldeans, as Isaiah cap. XIV, 29, and throughout cap. XXIII, Jeremiah throughout cap. XXVII, Ezechiel throughout cap. XXVII and XXVIII. For the same reason Joel here threatens them with the same temporal destruction through the Chaldeans (but only touching upon it in passing), and much more with eternal destruction in the day of judgment, namely condemnation and hell. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Lyra, Ribera and others. Joel therefore mixes the letter with allegory: because he speaks in a mixed manner of the enemies of the Jews of his time, and of the enemies of the faithful and holy of any age. Thus Isaiah, cap. XIV, mixes the fall of Belshazzar with the fall of Lucifer; and Ezechiel, cap. XXVIII, mixes the fall of the king of Tyre with the fall of the Cherub. See Can. IV and LII in the Major Prophets. Wherefore some less rightly refer these to the Tyrians, Sidonians and Palestinians who afflicted the Jews in the time of Titus and the Romans; others to those who persecuted the Christians and the nascent Church of Christ in Judea: especially since we do not read that the Tyrians, but the Jews themselves persecuted Christ and the Christians. This is the first and as it were fundamental sense, but under this the Prophet intends another more principal one: namely through these crimes of the Tyrians, Sidonians and Palestinians, and their punishment, he signifies similar crimes both of the Turks and Saracens against Christians, and of any impious who persecute the pious, whom God in the day of judgment, when He shall raise up His faithful and pious from death to life, and shall assert them in the liberty of the glory of the sons of God, will punish and sell to the Sabeans, that is will deliver to be tormented by demons. For the Sabeans were similar in customs and name to these. For Sabeans in Hebrew by the letter signifies captivity, as the Septuagint translates here, and those who take captive, such as demons are. Whence also the Arabic Alexandrian version translates: They shall sell them into captivity, captivity (captives to be led away) to a nation far off. Thus Rupertus, Clarius, Arias, Vatablus, Ribera and a Castro. Again, the Sabæans through sin in Hebrew signify those feasting, those satiated from the root שבע saba, that is, he was satiated; or those drinking and drunk, from the root סאב saab, that is, he drank, so that there is metathesis. For demons will tear the impious in Gehenna, and will feed themselves on their flesh, blood and torments, and as it were become intoxicated. For the Prophet speaks of the final judgment in the preceding passages, as also in the following: whence symbolically through the Tyrians, Sidonians and Palestinians are noted here three classes, that is, all classes of the impious. For Tyre, proud and standing out like a fortress in the sea, denotes the proud: Sidon, devoted to commerce and hunting for riches, denotes the avaricious: Palestinians, that is, the falling ones, denote the carnal, who like swine will fall into the belly and lust, and wallow in the mire of gluttony and lust. For, as St. John says in his first epistle, chapter II, 16: "All that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes (avarice, or the desire of gold and silver), and the pride of life." These God and His Saints will judge and condemn on the day of judgment, according to that Psalm CXLIX: "The Saints shall rejoice in glory, etc.; two-edged swords in their hands to execute vengeance upon the nations, rebukes upon the peoples; to bind their kings in fetters, and their nobles in iron chains. To execute upon them the judgment written: this glory is to all His Saints." AND ALL THE COAST OF THE PALESTINIANS. — Thus also the Zurich Bible and others in various places, as if to say, And all the borders and all the regions of the Palestinians. But the Septuagint retained the Hebrew גלילות gelilot as if a proper name, and translate: And all Galilee of the foreigners, that is, of the Philistines. This is remarkable: for there was no Galilee in Philistia; whence in the Hebrew it is not of the foreigners, but of the Palestinians. Hear St. Jerome: "For Galilee, in the Hebrew it is written gelilot, which Aquila translated ὅρους; Symmachus, terminos: θῖνας moreover, that is, a heap of sands, we should refer to the coasts of Palestine, not to the Galilee of the Philistines, which altogether does not exist." Wherefore I believe the Septuagint, who knew this, wished to retain the Hebrew name gelilot, so that Galilee be an appellative name, not a proper one, signifying borders, boundaries. Thus Andreas Masius in Joshua XIII, 2. The sense therefore is according to the letter, as if to say, What have I to do with you, O Tyrians, Sidonians and Palestinians, who have been bitter and continual enemies of my people (the Jews), and consequently of myself, who am the guardian and God of this my people? Do you wish to take vengeance upon me, because I have often struck you down through the Jews, by this very thing, that since you cannot strike me, you oppress my people, and plunder their gold and riches, you despoil my temple, so that you may adorn the temples of Bel and your idols, and you sell the Jews like slaves to the Greeks, that is, to the gentiles, as Nicanor did, II Maccabees VIII, 14. But come, behold I in turn will avenge myself, and will repay to you these injuries of my people, and retaliation: for I will raise up and deliver my people from your hand, and I will cause that he may rule over yours, and in turn may sell your sons to the Sabæans, who are notorious robbers, as appears from Job I, 15: for although Scripture does not narrate this as having been done elsewhere in reality, yet here it predicts it as future, whence it is not doubtful that it was done: for thus many things predicted by the Prophets we do not read as having been done, and yet we do not doubt that they were done. For we believe their oracles were true, and therefore were truly fulfilled in reality. See Canon XLI on the Major Prophets. 8. Sabæans. — Thus also Aquila and Symmachus, although the Septuagint translates it as "into captivity," for שבי scebi in Hebrew is captivity. But the Sabæans are either Ethiopians, or Arabs of Arabia Felix, of whom the Poet says: "And a hundred altars glow with Sabaean incense." For there is a twofold Saba, one in Ethiopia, the other in Arabia: both distant and far removed from Judæa, as Fr. Pineda learnedly teaches, lib. V De Rebus Salom. cap. VI, num. 3 and 4; whence the Prester John, Emperor of the Abyssinians, glories in this title: "Lord of the Sabæans (that is, of both Sabæ, and of both peoples of the Sabæans) and successor of the Queen of Saba," who came with gifts to Solomon, III Kings X. Furthermore, "The Jews," says St. Jerome, "promise themselves, nay dream, that in the last time they shall be gathered by the Lord, and brought back to Jerusalem. Nor content with this happiness, they assert that God himself will deliver into their hands the sons and daughters of the Romans, so that the Jews may sell them not to the Persians, and Ethiopians, and other nations which are near; but to the Sabæans, a nation most distant: because the Lord has spoken, and will avenge the injury of his people. Thus they, and our Judaizers (Chiliasts) who promise themselves the thousand-year kingdom in Judæa within its borders, and a golden Jerusalem and the blood of victims, and sons and grandsons and incredible delights, and gates distinguished by the variety of gems (of which Apoc. cap. XXI): 'But let us say that the Lord both raised up after his coming and daily raises up, and will raise up those whom various error had led away from their borders; and beautifully: I will raise up, he says, as those lying down and falling, so that those who lay in heresy may stand in the Church, rendering to heretics what they have done, so that their sons and daughters, whom they had instructed in mystical and carnal things, he may deliver into the hands of the sons of Judah, that is into the hands of those who have been princes of Churches, so that converted to better things, they may begin to be subject to ecclesiastical doctrines.'" This is tropological: for literally Joel speaks of the impious, whom God will consign to eternal servitude and prison on the day of judgment.
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9. PROCLAIM THIS AMONG THE NATIONS (proclaim these things with the voice of a herald among the nations): SANCTIFY (Tigurina, declare; Chaldæan, prepare) WAR. — It is a catachresis: for since future festivals were wont to be sanctified among the Jews, that is, declared and published with the voice of a herald, so that the people might prepare themselves holily for them as for sacred things; hence to sanctify is the same as to declare and proclaim. See the sayings of Jeremiah VI, 4; whence Theodoret: "Sanctify war," that is, he says, "stir up the fighters and set them apart for war: for since the holy man sets himself apart from crimes, hence everything that is set apart for something, he calls sanctifying." Tropologically Hugo of St. Victor: "To sanctify war, is to endow war with holiness: is not war sanctified, where virtue triumphs, and vice is slain?" Note that this is said by irony, as if to say: Defend yourselves, O Tyrians, and whatever other nations; but you shall not escape my judgment, my hand, my vengeance, which I will exercise upon you both through the Chaldæans, and more especially through Christ and the angels on the day of judgment. Thus St. Jerome, Lyran, Clarius and Vatablus. Arias adds that all the impious, as if called forth by a trumpet, will rush into war against Christ and the Saints, and will hasten into the valley of Josaphat, and thus like madmen will rush to their own destruction, which Christ will inflict upon them there. But this is scarcely probable: for all will die before the judgment, and will hear the trumpet of the Archangel: "Rise, ye dead, come to judgment;" they will therefore know that they are called to judgment, not to war. Still less probable is what Rupertus and Hugo think, that these things are said to preachers, declaring war against sins and sinners; or to holy men, so that they may prepare arms against the impious, and avenge themselves of them. For it is evident from what follows that these things are said ironically to the impious at the end of the world. Whence it follows: LET THEM COME UP, — let them go forth into battle, let them deploy their lines, let them show their arms and strength.
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10. BEAT YOUR PLOWSHARES INTO SWORDS (This phrase signifies both the desire for war and extreme necessity, namely such that it is needful to forge swords from plowshares, with which to fight for life, even by the weak and infirm. This is what he adds): LET THE WEAK SAY: BECAUSE I AM STRONG, — that is to say, Let the weak in such necessity shake off weakness, summon strength and arms: for the matter concerns his and all others' head and salvation. On the contrary, Isaiah, chapter II, verse 4, signifying the supreme peace to be brought to the world by Christ being born, says: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles." Virgil expresses the time of war by a similar phrase, in the first Georgic: And curved sickles are bent rigid into swords. And Ovid, book I of the Fasti: The hoes ceased, and spades were turned into javelins: And from the weight of the rake a helmet was made. And Martial, book XIV, epigram 34, whose title is: A Sickle from a Sword: A sickle, certain work of the leader, forged me for peaceful uses. Now I am a farmer's tool, before I was a soldier's. Thus that St. Paul turned the sword of persecution into the plowshare of the Gospel, when from a wolf he became a lamb, Tertullian teaches in Against the Gnostics, chapter XIII: "Paul the Apostle, he says, from a persecutor, who previously shed the blood of the Church, afterwards changing the sword for a stylus, and converting the blade into a plow: a ravening wolf of Benjamin, then also bringing food himself." Tropologically Hugo of St. Victor: "What, he says, are plowshares, if not mortified members? What is it to beat plowshares into swords, if not to oppose mortified members frequently to death for the care of faith, for the power of the word? Hoes are various compunctions of mind: spears are severe threats. What is it to beat hoes into spears, if not from various compunction of mind to conceive the ardor of faith, the power of the word, the force of sentences? A sword is the manly conception of present things: a spear is the salutary threat of future things." Whence it follows:
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11. THERE THE LORD WILL CAUSE YOUR MIGHTY ONES TO FALL, — that is to say, However much, O nations, you may be armed, however strong and warlike, nevertheless in the valley of Josaphat you shall be slain by the Lord, you shall fall, and be thrust down into the depths. He says "your mighty ones," not yours, because he speaks collectively to the whole people of nations, as to one. For all these enemies of God and the impious are reckoned as one assembly of the reprobate, one people of the damned. Thus often elsewhere Scripture speaks of the same now in the plural, regarding individuals, who are many; now in the singular, regarding the people, which is one. For "cause to fall" in Hebrew is הנחת hanchat, that is, caused to descend, that is, shall cause: for prophetically the past tense is taken for the future. Whence the Zurich version has: There the Lord shall lay low your heroes. So also the Chaldean and Pagninus. Again hanchat can be taken as an imperative. Whence Vatablus translates and explains: Cause to descend, O Lord, your mighty ones, that namely they may fight against the nations for your Church; or you shall cause to descend from the heavens your mighty angels, according to that in Judges, chapter V, verse 20: "From heaven they fought against them." The Septuagint understands these things otherwise; for they translate: Let the warrior be gentle, that is to say, Cause, O Lord, that your warriors descend from their ferocity, lay down their minds and angers, and be gentle, that they may temper vengeance with clemency: perhaps also for hanchat they read הענה hanne, that is, humble, make humble and meek. Note: Joel and the Prophets speak of the day of judgment as of a day of battle, in which Christ shall fight and crush the reprobate, as his enemies, treading them as in a winepress, and crushing them in the valley of cutting down. The same battle of Christ is described in Revelation, chapter XIX, verse 11; Wisdom, chapter V, verse 18; Isaiah, chapter LXVI, verses 15 and 24.
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12. LET THEM ARISE AND LET THE NATIONS COME UP INTO THE VALLEY OF JOSAPHAT. — These are the words of Christ summoning all nations and calling them to his tribunal, that is to say, Nations, wherever dead and buried, arise from death and from the sepulcher, and go into the valley of Josaphat: "Because there I shall sit to judge all nations." Thus St. Jerome, Rupert, Remigius, Lyra, Hugo, Vatablus and others. He says, "let them come up:" first, because to ascend for the Hebrews is the same as to go, to proceed; second, because Jerusalem is situated in a high place, so that those coming from elsewhere must climb to it: otherwise from Jerusalem itself one descends into the valley of Josaphat, not ascends; third, because the tribunals of judges are usually situated in a lofty and conspicuous place, so that those going to it must climb: thus the tribunal of Christ shall be in a high place above the valley of Josaphat, so that nations going to it rightly are said to ascend; fourth, to ascend for the Hebrews is a military and forensic verb. For soldiers are said to ascend into battle, when they go against the enemy, and when they fight with him; for to ascend signifies to attack a difficult matter, to which one must raise one's mind, and stir up and sharpen one's strength: such indeed is battle, whether military or judicial, namely that in which a defendant with witnesses and judge disputes, and as it were fights for himself and his life.
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13. MITTITE FALCES. — Loquitur hic Christus ad Apostolos aliosque qui secum sessuri sunt judices in die judicii, ut impios condemnent. Ita S. Hieronymus et Remigius; vel potius ad angelos, qui demetent homines in fine mundi, ac mox eosdem resuscitabunt, et ducent ad tribunal Christi, ab eoque damnatos detrudent in tartara, q. d. Vos, o angeli, demetite omnes homines viventes, ut moriantur: «quoniam maturavit,» id est matura est, «messis,» id est quia completus est electorum omniumque hominum numerus, ac mundi sæcula a Deo præstituta jam evoluta sunt; ac proinde Deus illis finem imponere decrevit. Ita Rupertus, Haymo, Lyranus et Vatablus. Proprie autem impiorum maturitas significat tempus eorum post felicem vitam decursam, cum nimirum illa in omni voluptate et turpitudine usque ad maturam ætatem est transacta: tunc enim maturitas est tam ætatis quam iniquitatis, quasi segetis quæ poscit manum et falcem messoris, ut in tartaro, velut horreo condantur. Huc allusit Christus, Matth. cap. XIII, 39: «Messis, ait, consummatio sæculi est; messores autem angeli sunt.» Et mox vers. 41: «Mittet Filius hominis angelos suos, et colligent de regno ejus omnia scandala, et eos qui faciunt iniquitatem: et mittent eos in caminum ignis.» Huc quoque allusit S. Joannes, Apoc. cap. XIV, 15, ubi vidit tres angelos cum falcibus demetentes messem, et vindemiantes botros terræ. Ibidem P. Alcazar censet primum angelum, qui vers. 15 dicit: «Mitte falcem tuam et mete, quia venit hora ut metatur, quoniam aruit messis terræ,» ad litteram esse Joelem, qui hic idem dicit quod angelus ille Joannis: secundum, qui vers. 17, vindemiat botros terræ, esse Mosen qui est typus sapientiæ: tertium vers. 18, qui secundam admonet ut botros vindemiet, esse Eliam, qui est typus zeli: hæc enim demessio et vindemia terræ erit opus summæ Dei sapientiæ æque ac zeli. Porro addit Alcazar Joelem, æque ac Joannem, messi jungere vindemiam hoc sensu, q. d. Vos, o messores, id est prædicatores Evangelici, strenue prædicando insistite messi Dei colligendæ; neque enim vobis laborantibus et sudantibus deerit vini copia et affluentia, quæ vos reficiat et soletur. Nam cum vos totos in messem Domini impendetis, Dominus vicissim vindemiæ curam suscipiet, imo messem vestram illico in vineam maturam convertet, et ex ea exprimet mustum delicatissimum. Nihil enim est quod prædicatores ita recreet, nullum vinum sapidius, quam copiosa seges et fructus prædicationis ipsorum. Dum enim vident tot converti, adeo sanctos evadere, imo martyres fieri, bibunt vinum consolationis suavissimum. Verum hic sensus nec est litteralis, ut patet, sed potius litterali, qui est de damnatione reproborum, adversus et oppositus: ac consequenter nec est mysticus. Hic enim fundari debet in litterali, eique congrue et ex æquo respondere, ut ei naturaliter insertus, et quasi innatus videatur. VENITE, ET DESCENDITE, QUIA PLENUM EST TORCULAR — botris et uvis: in illud ergo vos, o angeli, descendite, ut hasce uvas prematis et calcetis, uti habent Septuaginta. Torcular hoc, sive prælum plenum uvis, id est impiis premendis et conculcandis, erit gehenna, sive infernus. Unde Chaldæus vertit: Conculcate interfectos. Nota metaphoram: calcare enim torcular, in Scriptura significat ulcisci, et acres pœnas de reo sumere; quia sicuti torculari vinum, ita vindicia et supplicio sanguis, anima et vita exprimitur. Sic Thren. cap. I, 15, dicitur: «Torcular calcavit Dominus virgini filiæ Juda.» Et Isaiæ cap. LXIII, 3: «Torcular calcavi solus, etc., calcavi eos in furore meo, et conculcavi eos in ira mea.» Et Apocal. cap. XIX, 15: «Ipse (Christus) reget eas (gentes infideles et impias) in virga ferrea: et ipse calcat torcular vini furoris iræ Dei omnipotentis.» Vide ibi dicta. 14. POPULI POPULI (hoc est, plurimi populi scilicet erunt) IN VALLE CONCISIONIS, — id est Josaphat, ubi concidentur, id est perdentur impii, juxta illud Psalm. CXXVIII: «Dominus justus concidet cervices peccatorum.» Ita S. Hieronymus, q. d. O quot populi, quot turbæ, o quot gentes concidentur in valle Josaphat! Ita Vatablus. Unde Septuaginta vertunt: Sonitus auditi sunt in valle judicii. Hebræum enim המונים hamonim significat tumultus et strepitus turbarum et populi multi. Unde Syrus vertit: Murmur (fremitus) clamoris in profundo cœtuum (in valle congregationis populi); Arabicus: Hic est tumultus casuum, quorum incursus in valle Josaphat. Note: The Hebrew חרוץ charuts can be translated, first, as cutting. Thus Aquila, Symmachus, the Fifth edition and Our version translate it. Second, charuts can be translated as tribulation, threshing, or a threshing-floor, or a dragged iron and toothed instrument, like a saw for sawing, by which grains are beaten out from the chaff as if by sawing, threshed and separated from the chaff. Whence the Zurich version translates: Crowds, crowds shall gather in the valley of beating out; others, in the valley of sawing: the Chaldean, in the valley of the division of judgment; others, in the valley of cutting, that is separation, in which namely the good shall be separated from the evil, wheat from chaff, lambs from goats. Thus Remigius and Lyra. Where note: This passive threshing-floor of the impious fittingly corresponds to the active threshing-floor of the same, by which they themselves had threshed the pious and just in this life. For it is just that they themselves feel and undergo the unjust tribulation which they inflicted on others. Again, this threshing-floor fittingly corresponds to the wine-press, of which it preceded. For then all the happiness of the impious is to be beaten out, equally as the moisture of their former happiness is to be pressed out, says Father Pineda in Job cap. XXIV, 24. Third, Vatablus: The valley, he says, is called charuts, that is cutting, or decision, that is defined, determined and concise judgment. Whence the Septuagint and Theodotion translate δίκης, that is, of cause and judgment. Again the valley of cutting, that is of curtailment and abbreviation, as the Syrian and Our version translate here, Isaiah cap. X, 23, is a valley in which the number of the Blessed is cut short, curtailed, brief and small. Where note: Beautiful is the antithesis between the immense multitude of all nations, and the cutting or abbreviation: for when the impious, whose number is infinite, are cut off, cut away and rejected, God will gather a brief sum and number of the just and elect, according to that of Isaiah cap. X, 23: "The Lord God of hosts shall make a consummation and an abbreviation in the midst of all the earth:" just as in threshing, when the chaff is rejected, few grains of wheat remain. Fourth, the valley charuts can be translated as the valley of cutting off, consumption, destruction, namely of the impious. Fifth, charuts signifies gold cut, or confused, or rather cut off, discrete and separated, that is most purified, which they call obryzum. Just as therefore at Rome the Vatican is called the Golden Mount, because on it St. Peter, the prince of the Apostles, was crucified: so the valley of Josaphat can be called the Golden Valley, both because it will be golden and most happy for the saints and elect, equally as iron and most unhappy for the reprobate, and because when the filth of sins is burned away in judgment, pure gold will remain, says St. Jerome from the Hebrews; and because in judgment, the justice of Christ, and the charity and glory of the Saints will shine like gold. Sixth, charuts, that is cut or cut off, is called a sharp, solicitous, keen and strenuous man. The valley therefore charuts can be translated first, as a sharp or rough valley, namely to the reprobate, just as at Louvain there is the Steep Hill, so called from the steep and precipitous ascent once, in which the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin is seen, who from there is called the Steep-hill Virgin. Second: The valley of the solicitous and anxious where namely the impious shall say to the mountains: "Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us." Third, The valley of keen, strong and strenuous ones, where namely the holy Apostles, virgins and martyrs, who labored and fought strongly even unto death for virtue, shall be crowned by Christ the judge. Thus Father Pineda in Solomon, with the preceding book IV, cap. XVIII. Where note: The Hebrews do not have compound words, but signify them by a simple word, for example חרץ charats signifies to cut with its compounds, namely to cut up, cut off, cut beforehand, cut down, etc. Hence such variety of senses from the Hebrew, and multiplicity of versions, which supplies a wealth of concepts and things to preachers, as is evident here in charuts.
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15. THE SUN AND MOON ARE DARKENED — on the day of judgment so calamitous and horrible; for he does not speak here of signs preceding the judgment: for he dealt with these in chapter II, 30, but of the judgment itself, when all are forced to the valley of Josaphat. Note the hyperbolic hypallagé frequent among the Prophets, by which they say the sun, moon and stars are to be darkened, when they wish to signify the magnitude and atrocity of affliction, fear and horror, as if to say: That day (of judgment) will be of such calamity, that to men struck with amazement and consternation by it, and trembling at the face of the angry judge, the sun, moon and stars appear to fail and be darkened. For to the sorrowful and fearful all things appear sad, mournful and dark. A similar phrase is in Isaiah chapter XIII, 10. Amos chapter VIII, 9, and elsewhere. See Canon XXXII on Isaiah. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius and Rupertus. Some add that truly on the day of judgment the sun, moon and stars are to be darkened, so that they may conform themselves to their Creator Judge, and partly assume, partly receive his wrath and indignation, because they have shone upon and served the impious in their crimes, and therefore they are ashamed, and as if fearing for themselves they hide from the face of the angry judge. Thus St. Jerome. Or because the clarity of Christ and of other blessed bodies will be so great, that by its brightness it will obscure the light of the sun and stars. Thus Remigius and Lyranus. Others, following Origen, tract. 30 on Matthew, think the sun and stars are to be darkened by smoke, which will issue from the fire of the conflagration of the world. Others from lack of nourishment; for they think, just as a lamp is nourished by oil, so also the sun and stars are nourished by vapor, or something similar, and when that fails they are extinguished; but this the Physicists refute. Symbolically, Origen in the same place: "Just as," he says, "in the dispensation of the cross (while Christ hung on the cross) the sun failing, darkness came over all the earth: so the sign (cross) of the Son of Man appearing in heaven on the day of judgment, the light of the sun will fail, and of the moon, and of the stars, as if consumed by the great power of that sign." Allegorically Haymo: The sun, he says, is Christ, the moon the Blessed Virgin, the stars the Saints, who withdraw the light, that is the serenity and favor of their countenance, from the reprobate. On the other hand Origen in the place cited: The sun, he says, of this world is the devil, the moon is the Church of the wicked, the stars are false prophets and heretics, as if the stars fall from heaven, that is, they will fall from their dignity and rank on the day of judgment, when they receive the sentence of damnation from Christ. Tropologically Hugh of St. Victor: "The sun," he says, "is the philosophy of the world: the moon secular power; the stars other powers subject to it. The sun therefore and moon in Josaphat, that is in the humility of judgment are darkened: because from the time the wise of this world, the powerful of this age came to the clarity of faith, immediately they recognized the darkness of their error. The stars moreover withdrew their splendor: because while the disciples of Christ in the cause of faith experienced contempt from the world, and abjection and the struggle of martyrdom; while they saw them shining with signs, adorned with prodigies, glorious with miracles, soon converted from elation, prostrated from earthly dignity, following the humility of Christ, they bent their necks to faith."
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16. THE LORD SHALL ROAR FROM ZION. — Christ the judge, terrible to the wicked, as a lion of the tribe of Judah, Apoc. cap. V, 5, shall roar from Zion, as a lion roars when from a watchtower he watches and looks out for an enemy; that is to say, Christ the judge sitting in the air above the valley of Josaphat, as above Zion and Jerusalem (for these are near and adjoining), breathing forth wrath and fires upon the wicked like a lion, shall pronounce and hurl forth a thunderbolt, that is, a sentence of eternal damnation, with a horrible voice and as it were with a roar upon them, so much so that by this voice the heavens and earth appear to be shaken and to tremble, just as at the roar of a lion the whole house trembles. It is a hyperbole. Thus Lyra. Mystically Rupert: From Zion and from Jerusalem, that is, he says, from the midst of the angels and blessed men, by whom on the day of judgment he shall be surrounded, Christ shall roar against the wicked. Less correctly Arias translates: For Zion and for Jerusalem, that is, for the vindication of his Church and his elect, Christ shall roar against the wicked who have afflicted it. AND THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH SHALL BE MOVED. — Some think that the heavens and the earth, and the whole world as it were troubled and indignant at the passion of its creator, were shaken at Christ's cross and death, and convulsed from their center, and in like manner shall be shaken and torn asunder when Christ the judge shall sit in the valley of Josaphat. For the creature of the world shall fight against the senseless, Wisdom cap. V, 21. They prove this first from Matt. cap. XXVII, 51, where it is said that, Christ hanging on the cross, not only were the rocks split, and the tombs opened, but also the earth (certainly the whole, namely the globe of the earth itself) was moved. For the earth by its motion, and as it were by sense, signified that Christ who was suffering was God, and that he was shaking the earth, and that the earth on account of so great a crime committed against its Lord by men was as it were indignant, and rose up as an avenger against them. Mystically, it signified the new earth and new world of the faithful, to be established through Christ. Moreover, it was signified that by this death of Christ the earthy and stony hearts of men would be moved to repentance. Both they prove from that passage Job cap. IX, 6: "Who moveth the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble." Thus Didymus thinks in the Catena of the Greeks Job cap. I, 9, and Philip the presbyter favors it there, and Hugo of St. Victor here, who says: "The voice of Christ shall be so lofty and terrible that the hinges of the heavens and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken." Secondly, the earth shall be moved because it shall open and swallow up the reprobate, and shall cast them into tartarus; and the heaven shall be moved because it shall receive the Blessed in its bosom, and as it were applaud them. Thus Lyra. Thirdly, "the heavens shall be moved," that is the heavenly ones, namely the Blessed, to exult and rejoice, when from Christ the judge they shall hear: "Come, ye blessed of my Father," "and the earth," that is the reprobate earthborn and children of the earth, to beat their breasts, to tear their hair, to clap their hands and arms, when from the same roaring one they shall hear: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Thus Remigius and Haymo. AND THE LORD IS THE HOPE OF HIS PEOPLE, — that is to say, In that day (of judgment) when Christ roars the heavens and earth shall tremble; but his people, namely true Israel, not carnal but spiritual, that is the faithful and saints, shall stand secure and confident; for they shall trust in their God, and from him shall hope for salvation, glory and eternal kingdom; they shall hope, and shall obtain: for God shall be to them "hope," that is the fulfillment of hope, or he who fulfills and completes their hope. He shall be to them also "strength," strengthening their minds and bodies, and making them immortal, eternal and glorious. This is what the Wise man says, cap. V, 1: "Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those who have afflicted them."
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17. AND YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, DWELLING IN SION. — God here promises to Sion and Jerusalem great and manifold goods, which carnal Jews expect carnally in the advent of their Messiah. The Chiliast judaizers approach, who from this place and from Apoc. cap. XX, 4, thought that after the resurrection and the day of judgment, the saints would live here on earth, namely in Jerusalem, with Christ in all the delights of the flesh, and in all earthly happiness for a thousand years, after which they would be caught up into heaven to eternal glory, as I said on Apoc. cap. XX. But that here is treated of spiritual Sion, not carnal, that is, of the Church and the elect of God, not of the Synagogue and the Jews, and of its spiritual goods, not carnal, is evident first from the fact that these things are to be in the end of the world, when namely Christ in the valley of Josaphat will judge all the nations of all ages, as he said in verses 1, 2, 12. Whence in verse 13, he commands sickles to be sent forth, by which all nations shall be reaped. For which reason, as he says, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their splendor, and the heavens and earth shall be moved. All which things signify these things to be in the end, with the commotion and change of the whole world. Therefore the Jews vainly expect these things in this world and in this life. Secondly, because Daniel, cap. IX, 26, predicted the overthrow of Jerusalem and the temple made by Titus and the Romans to be perpetual and to last until the end of the world; therefore these things do not pertain to the restoration of earthly Sion and Jerusalem. Thirdly, because it is certain that many things here cannot, unless most absurdly, be taken literally and carnally, as they sound, but must be taken mystically. Such are in verse 18: "The mountains shall drop sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns," etc. Fourthly, because in verse 20, he says: "Juda shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation;" therefore he speaks of heavenly Juda and Jerusalem, not earthly: for that shall be eternal, since this is temporal. The second opinion is that of St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupert, Hugh and Vatablus, who refer all these things up to the end of the chapter to the primitive Church, and to the charisms of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, of which he said in cap. II, 28: "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." "The mountains," therefore, says Vatablus, "are the Apostles and their successors; the new wine, the word of God and evangelical doctrine: likewise also milk: but wine is given to the strong, milk to the little ones, as if to say the Apostles will continually teach the Gospel. The channels and rivers are particular Churches: living water, the word of God: the fountain of living water, the abundance of evangelical preaching and that inexhaustible doctrine of the Gospel, whence the souls of the faithful are watered: the house of God the Church. It shall come forth through the works of preachers. The torrent, the Church: settim, a kind of chosen cedar, which like the cedar knows not corruption: so the faithful shall live eternal life. Egypt and Idumea, all nations which have not received Christ, which shall be empty of those graces: Juda and Jerusalem, the Church militant, in which the faithful are men of Juda truly confessing God, as if to say although the Church is oppressed by many, yet it shall remain unconquered. And I will cleanse by the font of baptism or the blood of Christ, the blood of the elect, which I had not cleansed before the passion of Christ." But although these things have been begun and are being done in the Church militant, yet they will be done fully and perfectly in the triumphant; for of that the Prophet properly speaks. For all these things consequently and connectedly will be with the day of judgment, which will take place in the valley of Josaphat, of which he has treated throughout this chapter up to this point. He therefore subjoin in fitting order to the judgment and damnation of the impious the glory of the pious and the elect, which they themselves will receive from Christ the judge on that day, and describes its abundance and magnificence through various metaphors. The same thing is again confirmed from the fact that St. John alluding, nay citing and interpreting Joel, describes the heavenly Jerusalem in almost the same words, cap. XXI, as will appear from the parallels of each, which I shall presently combine. Thus explain Remigius, Haymo, Rupert, Hugh, Lyran, Ribera, a Castro and others. Concerning this heavenly Jerusalem, therefore, or the assembly of the Blessed triumphing, Joel says first, that its citizens, namely the Blessed, shall know, that is, shall feel, shall see and shall taste, that in it, and in those very ones, God dwells through grace and glory, and shows and communicates to them therein his riches, happiness and magnificence, so that he makes them blessed, and fills them with ineffable joy. This is what St. John, alluding to this, says of the same in almost the same, nay in more words, Apoc. cap. XXI, 3: "Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he shall dwell with them. And they shall be his people, and God himself with them shall be their God." Secondly, that it is a holy mountain, because most sublime, abounding in all goods and delights, and all "the rivers of Juda," that is all the powers, all the strengths, all the senses, all the mouths, all the tongues of the Saints confessing and praising God (for these things the Hebrew word Juda signifies) shall flow, namely with perennial waters of praise, thanksgiving and jubilation, as well as of pleasures and all goods. Which St. John, Apocalypse cap. XXI, 10, says: "And he carried me away in spirit to a great and high mountain." Thirdly, that it is holy Jerusalem; which St. John in the same place says: "And he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God." It is called Jerusalem, that is, vision of peace; because in the vision of God the Blessed enjoy the highest, most ample and eternal peace, namely the abundance of all goods: for the Hebrews signify this by peace. It is called holy, because in the heavenly Church there is no spot or wrinkle, as the Apostle says Ephes. cap. V, 27; but full purity, full integrity, perfect holiness. Whence he adds concerning it: "And the strangers shall pass through it no more." He alludes to foreigners, namely the Tyrians, Sidonians, Philistines, Chaldeans, Romans, who profaned and laid waste Jerusalem, as if to say: In like manner the pagans, Saracens, heretics, and impious have polluted, harassed and afflicted the Church militant; but when it is translated to heaven and triumphs, they shall not pollute it, nor afflict it any more. Parallel to this is what St. John says, Apocalypse cap. XXI, 27: "There shall not enter into it any thing defiled, or that worketh abomination." Tropologically Hugo of St. Victor: "Jerusalem," he says, "that is the Church, is holy in her Sacraments, in her precepts, in her judgments, in her counsels, in her promises. For her Sacraments are without dregs, her precepts without burden, her judgments without strife, her counsels without zeal, her promises without deceit of falsehood, without zeal of envy, without strife of controversy, without burden of oppression, without dregs of concupiscence. She is therefore holy, whose is contemplative intellect, heavenly affection, spiritual sense, angelic action." Fourthly, that in it "the mountains shall drop sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk, and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns." To this corresponds what John says in the Apocalypse cap. XXII, 1: "And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb; and on both sides of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Fifthly: "And Juda shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation." To this is equivalent what St. John says cap. XXI, 16: "The city is set in a square;" and vers. 18: "And the building of the wall thereof was of jasper stone;" and cap. XXII, 5: "And night shall be no more, etc., because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and they shall reign forever and ever."
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18. THE MOUNTAINS SHALL DISTIL SWEETNESS, — that is to say, Then in those heavenly mountains, namely in heavenly Sion, which is situated and founded in the mountains both of the empyrean heaven and of the eternity and divinity of the Holy Trinity, that promise shall be fulfilled which has been so often made and sung concerning the holy land flowing with milk and honey; that is, then the life of the Blessed in heaven shall be most joyful, and their happiness, as well as their holiness, which St. John, Apocalypse cap. XXI, 10, says: "And he carried me away in spirit to a great and high mountain." Symbolically, de Castro understands by mountains the three divine persons, who excel all created things and the whole world, as it were divine mountains. From these, therefore, every kind of sweetness shall flow forth into that land of the living, by which all the Blessed shall be made drunk, and the hills of blessed spirits shall flow with the most pure milk of knowledge and angelic purity, and through all the streams, namely through the other blessed men, shall flow the waters of joys, because all shall abound in the possession and enjoyment of God. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm XXXV, 9: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent (not a cup, not a goblet, but a torrent) of thy pleasure." A torrent, says St. Augustine in the same place, signifies both the impetuousness and the abundance of pleasure: "For with thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light we shall see light." Tropologically, Hugo of St. Victor: "Mountains," he says, "are the sublimities of contemplations, hills are the works of innocence, streams are the exercises of penance: sweetness is perfect charity, milk is holy devotion, water is devout compunction; in that day, therefore, that is, in that happiness of union, the bride through the joy of contemplation receives the sweetness of perfect charity; from which descending, and returning to herself, she flows with the milk of devotion: whence, torturing herself with love of heavenly things, she is immersed in the waters of compunction, and thence emerging, she is exercised through penance in harshness. After this she is drawn to the works of innocence, finally she flies to the heights of contemplation, saying: For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?" AND A FOUNTAIN SHALL COME FORTH FROM THE HOUSE OF THE LORD (from the throne of God). — This fountain, or, as St. John, Apocalypse XXII, 1, calls it, a river proceeding from the seat of God and the Lamb, is the outflow of goods which God emanates and pours forth upon the Blessed through His beatific vision, as I have said on Apocalypse XXII. AND IT SHALL WATER THE TORRENT OF THORNS. — Note first: which God shall preserve in His pleasantness, delights and beauty for eternity; because perpetually, as it were a perennial fountain, into it, as well as into its inhabitants, namely into the souls and bodies of the Blessed, He shall flow perpetual verdure of all grace and glory, so that they may become settim, that is, immortal and incorruptible, and white as thorns, like a river watering and making fertile paradise, which brought perpetual verdure and most pleasant fruits to it, Genesis II, 6. Thus Rupertus, Lyra, Ribera, Emmanuel and others. See what is said on Apocalypse XXII, 1 and 2. For torrent in Hebrew it is nachal, which signifies a narrow valley, and thence a torrent which is accustomed to run through it. Whence this torrent is taken metonymically for such a valley, and Symmachus translates it, valley; but the Interpreter preferred to translate it torrent rather than valley, so that the metaphor of the fountain and its exuberance might persist. For, as St. Bernard says in Meditations cap. IV, "in the torrent of that pleasure, accumulated satiety shall desire nothing further, so great shall be the happiness. There indeed shall be a heap of happiness, supereminent glory, and superabundant joy." Second, for thorns in Hebrew and Chaldaic it is Settim, and Lyra and Vatablus retain it as it were a proper name in the Latin version, likewise the Syriac and Arabic each; but Theodotion, Symmachus and our Interpreter translate it, thorns; the Septuagint, ropes; Nazianzenus, oration 40 on Holy Baptism, rushes. Hear St. Jerome: "The Septuagint translated the torrent of ropes, that is, שטים σχοινίων, which signifies either a rope, or according to the Egyptians a measure of a certain journey. For on the Nile ships are accustomed to be drawn by ropes having certain spaces, which they call ropes, so that fresh men drawing may succeed the necks of the weary laborers." A torrent therefore of ropes is a hereditary torrent, which is measured out with ropes, and divided among heirs, namely the citizens of heaven. Moreover, Shittim is a place beyond the Dead Sea in Moab, six miles distant from the city of Livias, where the children of Israel committed fornication and worshipped Baal-peor, and therefore were slain by God, Num. XXV, 1. There trees growing from that place were called shittim, and these shittim woods were incorruptible, and, as the Septuagint renders it, Exod. XXV, 5, ἄσηπτα. Whence the Hebrews believe them to have been the finest kind of cedar. For they were very light, very strong, very solid, very beautiful, and so heavy were these trees that the widest planks were cut from them, says St. Jerome. For which reason the Ark of the Covenant was made from them, the tabernacle and its vessels, as I said at Exod. cap. XXV, 5. Our author here and Isaiah, cap. XLI, 19, translates shittim as thorn, not because it is a thorn, but because the white thorn is similar to it in color and leaves. Therefore it is less probable what Lyra thinks, that Shittim is Cethim, that is Greece, from which Alexander the Great is said to have departed, I Machab. cap. I, 1; for Shittim is written with samech, Cethim with caph, and it is very far distant from Jerusalem. Nor does it please us what Arias writes from R. Saadia, that the torrent of Shittim is a torrent which flows into the Jordan near the city of Shittim. For no geographer has made mention of this torrent or city. From what has been said it is clear that all these things are to be understood not carnally, as they sound, but mystically; for there never was, nor will there be, a fountain which goes forth from Jerusalem and, having crossed so great a tract of land, pours itself out into the plains of Moab, where is the torrent and valley of Shittim. The valley of Shittim, therefore, equally as the Ark and the tabernacle, made from shittim wood, signify the place of the Blessed in the empyrean heaven. Allegorically St. Jerome, in his Apology to Pammachius, for the book Against Jovinian, at the end: "Christ," he says, "a virgin, mother of our virgin, perpetual virgin, mother and virgin, etc. A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, from which fountain that river flows according to Joel, which irrigates the torrent of ropes or thorns; ropes of sins, by which we were formerly bound: thorns, which choke the seed of the householder." The Blessed Virgin, therefore, is the fountain, from which flowed the river, that is Christ, irrigating the torrent of ropes and thorns, that is of our sins and vices. Hence mystically Nazianzenus in the place cited, by this fountain understands baptism; St. Jerome here the grace of the Holy Spirit, which flowing from God, plucks out the thorns of vices from the earth of the heart, and in their place inserts virtues as fruitful trees, so that our thorns, as St. Jerome says: "and vices and sins, which have borne no fruit of justice, may be changed into the Lord's fallow land, and may water our aridity with most abundant waters, and in place of thorns and briars may we put forth many flowers of virtues, and in that place where Israel once committed fornication and was initiated into Baal-peor (god of obscenity) may lilies of chastity and roses of modesty and virginity abound." Thus also Remigius, Hugh, Arias. Hence Hugh of St. Victor: The torrent, he says, of thorns is the impulse, fervor and cruelty of the gentiles. Moreover the fountain going forth from the house irrigated the torrent of thorns, when through the Apostles and their successors the evangelical doctrine converted the gentile people from cruelty, initiated them in faith, and led them to the grace of baptism. You will ask why Shittim signifies the place of the Blessed? I answer, first, because in Shittim was the last encampment of the Hebrews in the desert, Numer. XXXIII, 49, where Shittim is called Abel-shittim, from which the Hebrews soon entered into the promised land. Whence Joshua sent spies into it from Shittim, cap. II, 1. As therefore the promised land was a type of heaven, so also Shittim, being near to it. Secondly, because in Shittim, as appears from Numer. XXV, 1, Israel was blessed by God through Balaam, with magnificent and many blessings, which are recounted, Numer. XXIII and XXIV, who was a type, in like manner of the Saints in heaven to be blessed by God with all heavenly blessing. Thirdly, because Balaam, Numer. XXIV, 5, among other blessings which, inspired by God, he imprecates upon Israel, brings forth this one: "How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel! as woody valleys, as gardens by the rivers, as tabernacles which the Lord hath pitched, as cedars beside the waters. Water shall flow out of his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters." Which most aptly apply to the mystical Israel and Shittim, that is to the elect and heaven, and therefore Joel seems to allude to this here, when he says: "And waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns," in Hebrew shittim. St. Gregentius, Archbishop of Thephrensis, in his Disputation with Herban the Jew, vol. 14 of the Library of the Holy Fathers, reads: "A torrent of rushes"; and by this fountain he understands "that ineffable joy and inexplicable gladness, and fruition, and the sweetness of the odor of the Holy Spirit, which flows forth from that very almighty God ineffably and perpetually, and will water the ranks of the saints, and will fill their hearts with that tremendous and incomparable sweetness." These are compared to rushes; because just as rushes, being dry and spongy, thirst for and drink abundant water; so the Saints thirst for and drink the sea of divine pleasure, according to that saying: "Thou shalt give them to drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure." Fourth, the wood of acacia, being incorruptible, signifies the impassible bodies of the Blessed. Again, just as the ark and the tabernacle were constructed from boards of acacia wood; so the heavenly Church will be compacted together from the saints and elect of God: for the ark, being in the Holy of Holies, having upon it the mercy seat as it were the throne of God, and Cherubim on either side, was a type of the heavenly Church. Fifth, in Shittim Phinehas, by his zeal slaying the fornicators, appeased God, expiated the sin of the people, and turned away from them the curse and plague sent upon them by God into a blessing, Numbers XXV, 7. So the zeal of Christ, by which He abolished sin and expiated His own from it, in the heaven of acacia, that is the thorns of mortality, and the curse of labors and sorrows inflicted upon Adam and his posterity by God, Genesis III, 18, will convert into a blessing of joys and all good things. Sixth, in Shittim Balaam spoke and prophesied concerning Israel: "There shall rise a star out of Jacob." The star is Christ, who although He was born corporally from the Jacobites, or Israelites in Bethlehem, yet spiritually and gloriously will He rise from them, nay, will appear to all of them after the resurrection, as the sun in the heaven, illuminating and blessing all true Israelites: for the proper place of stars is heaven, not earth. Finally, near Shittim, namely in Kadesh, Moses drew forth water from the rock flowing through the wilderness, perhaps through Shittim, Numbers XX, 11. Again, Numbers XXI, 17, God gave to Moses and the Hebrews a well of waters, to which they sang: "Let the well ascend, the well which the princes dug, and which the leaders of the people prepared with the lawgiver, and with their staves." To these places and waters it seems that Joel here alludes in these rivers of Judah, and the fountain of God watering Shittim, especially because the Chaldean and others hold that the rock of Moses and its fountain of waters accompanied the Hebrews through Shittim and other desert places, and that the Apostle wishes to say this, I Corinthians X, 4, when he says: "And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them." See what is said at Numbers XXI, 19. For in like manner that fountain of living waters will everywhere accompany the Blessed in the empyrean heaven.
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19. EGYPT SHALL BE A DESOLATION, AND EDOM A DESERT OF DESTRUCTION. — He names Egypt because she herself was the inventor and teacher of superstition and idolatry, and therefore was hostile to the Jews in spirit and harmful by her example and proximity, inasmuch as she enticed them to her Apis: for Jeroboam fashioned this in golden calves, which he set up in Dan and Bethel, and proposed to the people as gods to be adored. He names Edom, because she was perpetually a rival and enemy to the people of God, namely the Jews. Whence Edom or Idumea in Hebrew means the same as earthly and bloody: Misraim, that is Egypt, means the same as straitening, constraining, afflicting, says St. Jerome; but under these by synecdoche he understands external gentile nations, idolatrous, faithless and impious, as if to say: The Egyptians, Edomites, and other nations like them in impiety will perish, and their regions, polluted by so many sins, will be desolated, and they themselves will go down to the infernal regions on the day of judgment, while the Jews, that is the faithful confessing and praising God, will be saved, and will go into the heavenly Sion.
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20. JUDÆA SHALL BE INHABITED FOR EVER. — It is clear that this cannot be understood of earthly Judæa, as the Jews wish. For this will likewise have its end at the end of the world, and because Holy Scripture promises to the Jews, equally as to other nations, after this life and after the resurrection at the end of the world, an eternal and glorious kingdom in the heavens. Therefore it is necessary to understand this of the heavenly Judæa and Jerusalem, as many verses show, particularly verse 17. The empyrean heaven therefore is called Judæa, that is, the confession and praise of God, because in it the Saints continually praise God and shall praise Him for ever; and, as Tobias says in chapter XIII, 22: "Through its streets alleluia shall be sung." And the Psalmist, Psalm LXXXIII, 5: "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee world without end." For this is their idle business, and their busy leisure. This same heaven, or rather a part and city of heaven, in which the Blessed dwell together as it were as citizens, enjoying God and Christ, is called Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace, that is, the possession of all goods, and of all eternity itself, and indeed of God Himself and the most holy Trinity; for this shall be the lot and eternal inheritance of the Saints. For there God shall be all in all, according to that saying of the Wise Man: To see Thee is the end, the Beginning, the ruler, the guide, the way, the goal the same. Tropologically Hugo of St. Victor says: "Judæa and Jerusalem shall be inhabited for ever; Judæa is confession, Jerusalem is called the vision of peace. For the devout and perfect mind, either descending to knowledge of itself confesses its sins to God through the humility of compunction; or ascending to knowledge of God, is raised through the grace of contemplation to the vision of peace; and then in the voice of exultation and confession the sound of one feasting is made in it: the faithful soul never abandons Judæa, because either struck with compunction it confesses its crimes; or devout it gives thanks for the gifts of grace, or raised on high it utters a hymn receiving rewards."
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21. AND I WILL CLEANSE THEIR BLOOD, WHICH (the Complutensian edition wrongly reads, whom) I HAD NOT CLEANSED. — The Rabbis, such as R. Abraham and R. Kimchi, translate and explain from the Hebrew thus: "and I will cleanse," that is, I will despoil the Egyptians of their riches, and give them to the Jews at the coming of the Messiah: but "their blood (unjustly shed by them in Judea) I will not cleanse," that is to say, I will not forgive them the slaughters and devastations inflicted upon the Jews, but on account of these I will punish them with death. But this translation and explanation is gaping and twisted. For "their blood" pertains to "I will cleanse," which preceded, not to "I will not cleanse," which follows. Therefore the relative אשר ascer, that is, which, must be supplied in the Hebrew according to custom, and thus with Our translation it should be rendered: And I will cleanse their blood (namely of the Jews and Jerusalemites, of whom the discourse was just before, that is of my faithful and elect), which I had not cleansed. Now this can be explained in three ways. First, that is to say, blood, that is, homicides and all other crimes (for blood is the symbol of these in Scripture) which before the passion of Christ and before the coming of the Holy Spirit I had not cleansed, at His coming at Pentecost I will cleanse: for the lustrations and ceremonies of the Old Testament washed the body only, and did not cleanse the conscience, Hebrews IX, 9. Thus St. Jerome and Arias, who think that Joel returns to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of which he spoke in chapter II, 28; or, as Haymo, that is to say, the sins which the elect committed in this life and did not fully amend, I will expiate in death, or after death in Purgatory, so that cleansed they may enter heaven. Or, as Ribera, that is to say, I will take away the sins and the penalty of the blood of Christ and the Apostles from the Jews, which they themselves once imprecated upon themselves, saying: "His blood be upon us and upon our children;" for on the day of judgment the Jews will be converted to Christ. Secondly and better, Lyra and Dionysius: "I will cleanse," that is, I will declare clean the blood of my servants, from the Egyptians and Edomites and other tyrants as if unclean and guilty and shed, which I had not declared before. For the Hebrew נקה nicka signifies to cleanse, to declare innocent, to absolve and to exempt. Whence Marinus in the Lexicon translates this passage thus: I will absolve the blood which I had not absolved; the Syriac and Arabic each: I will avenge their blood and will not spare; for he who does not absolve the guilty does not spare him, if he be a judge, as He is here. Thirdly and genuinely, that is to say, on the day of judgment "I will cleanse," that is, I will avenge the blood of my faithful unjustly shed by the Egyptians and other impious ones, which I had not avenged before: which done, "the Lord," Christ, "will dwell," and will reign gloriously with His faithful forever in "Sion" the heavenly. Whence the Chaldean, the Septuagint, the Syriac and Arabic each translate for "I will cleanse," I will vindicate. For the souls of the Saints demand this vindication, saying: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and revenge our blood?" Apocalypse VI, 10. Thus St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Hugh and a Castro. For it plainly looks back to the blood of which he said a little before: "Because they have dealt unjustly (the Egyptians and Edomites) with the children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land." Nor should you wonder that to cleanse blood signifies to avenge blood. For according to the phrase of Scripture, the earth receiving innocent blood and unjustly shed is thereby deemed to be polluted and to become unclean, from which pollution and uncleanness it is cleansed and expiated, when by the judge and avenger the murderers who shed it are punished and chastised, as is evident from Psalm CV, 38: "The land was infected with blood." Jeremiah II, 34: "In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor," that is to say, On account of the blood shed thou art unclean, therefore by vengeance I will cleanse thee. Thus Solomon says to Benaiah, III Kings II, 31: "Thou shalt remove the innocent blood, which was shed from Joab, from me and from the house of my father; thou shalt remove it, by avenging his murders, by which he slew Abner and Amasa, and by slaying him in like manner. Ezekiel VII, 23: "The land is full of judgment," that is, of the guilt "of bloods." Isaiah XXVI, 21: "Behold the Lord will come forth out of his place to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall reveal her blood, and shall cover the slain no more," to which place Joel seems to allude here: for he says the same thing. For this reason God commanded the Jews that, when the body of someone slain was found, the magistrate of the neighboring city should offer a heifer for the expiation of the land, Deuteronomy XXI, 3. See the remarks there. Most clearly indeed Ezekiel, chapter XXIV, 6: "Woe," he says, "to the city of bloods! etc. For her blood is in the midst of her, upon the clearest stone she poured it out, etc.: That I might bring my indignation upon her, and avenge myself: I have set her blood upon the clear stone, that it might not be covered." Which he explains in verse 13: "Thy uncleanness," he says, "is execrable, because I would have cleansed thee, and thou art not cleansed from thy filthiness, neither shalt thou be cleansed until I cause my indignation to rest upon thee," that is, until I execute vengeance upon thee; therefore the vengeance of blood and crimes is the cleansing and purification of the same. You will say: In this sense the land is rather cleansed than the blood of the innocent poured out upon the land. I answer that both are cleansed. For just as the land receiving unjustly shed blood is reckoned polluted, so likewise the blood itself by this unjust and impious shedding of it is reckoned violated, stained and polluted, both because violence was done to it, and injury and harm inflicted; and also because it incurs a stain upon name and reputation among men: for it is condemned and shed as if guilty and criminal: whence men esteemed it as such. Now through vengeance both these stains are removed; for the injury is repaired by retaliation, and the infamy is removed by vengeance, by which God's declaration of his innocence is made in that very act by which God justly avenges him. For by this vengeance God declares those to be guilty who shed him, and consequently that he himself was innocent, and was unjustly shed by them. Let princes and judges note this, namely that when they punish murderers and the guilty, they cleanse the blood of the innocent which cries out for vengeance to heaven, and at the same time expiate their own land polluted by it, and turn away its divine vengeance from their own head and house. Moreover, they render to the slain innocent, as it were, the just rites due to the Manes and perform the funeral rites, and offer a victim most acceptable and pleasing to divine justice and vengeance. Finally, they imitate, indeed anticipate, the strict judgment of Christ, by which he will punish all the guilty without exception in the valley of Josaphat. Furthermore, let them consider that they cleanse not only shed blood, but also blood about to be shed; for when they punish murderers, they terrify evildoers, and restrain their audacity, angers and quarrels, and thus prevent many murders of many. For, as the Apostle says: "The magistrate beareth not the sword in vain: for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil," Romans XIII, 4. Let them remember the divine oracle hurled at King Achab: "Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man worthy of death (Benadad king of Syria, a murderer and enemy of Israel), thy life shall be for his life, and thy people for his people," III Kings XX, 42. Indeed, as Seneca says: "Impunity of crimes makes men bolder for evil;" and as Cicero, book III On Duties: "Impunity of sinning is the greatest enticement;" for by enduring an old injury, you invite a new one. Wherefore Socrates in Plato, book II On Laws, asserts that "cities are best governed when the unjust pay penalties." The same was said by Solon, as Cicero testifies, to Brutus; Theophrastus in Stobaeus, chapter XLI, when asked what would preserve human life, answered: "Beneficence, honor and punishment." Lycurgus in Cicero, in the place cited, holds that Sparta and all republics stand by punishment and reward. Indeed, Democritus believed in only two gods, punishment and benefit, says Pliny, book II, chapter XVII. More modestly Pope Pius IV had as an emblem a laurel and a rod, with this motto: "Punishment and reward." Finally the Wise Man, chapter XIV, 7: "Blessed," he says, "is the wood, by which justice is done."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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In Sion fore salvationem dixerat. Id iam illustratur et probatur divino illo consilio, quo Deus foederis initi et electionis semel factae memor hereditatem suam gratia et misericordia circumveniet ultione de hostibus capta. Quare 3, 4 « Quia ecce in diebus illis et in tempore illo, cum convertero captivitatem [uda et Ierusalem,v .
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2 congregabo emnes genles et deducam eas in vallem Iosaphat et disceptabo cum eis ibi super populo meo et hereditate mca Israel, quos disperserunt in. nationibus ct terram mcam diviserunt,
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v. 8 et super populum meum miserunt sortem et posuerunt puerum in prostibulo et puellam vendiderunt pro vino ut biberent ». — Quod supra dixerat 2, 48 zelatus est Dominus terram suam... id etiam pro futuro tempore valere dicit propheta, etsi populus nova infidelitate ultionem Dei contra se provocaverit. Veniet scil. tempus, quo Sionem miseratus illam restituturus sit; locutio convertere captivitatem Tn3d7nx 3*U non necessario captivitatem i. e. abductionem, exsilium dicit, verum generatim ex misera conditione restitutionem et ad pristinum florem revocationem significat; est igitur miseriam avertere, sanare, cf. Iob 42, 40 (hebr.) ; Ez. 16, 53. Os. 6, 11; vel etiam intelligi potest locutio inde hoc loco assumpta, quia revera multi ex populo bellis capti, in servitutem abacti ac venditi a gentibus finitimis fuerant, uti v. 3 dicitur. Haec Sionis restitutio iudicio in gentes continetur, a quibus Deus rationem exiget de iniuriis illatis ; cf. Is. 40, 5; 33, 1; 52, 4. 8. Vallem Josaphat i. e. Dominus est iuder allegorice dici et locutionem esse tropicam ad Dei iudicium in genies vario tempore variisque modis exercendum iam ex eo elucet, quod quomodo gentes in una valle congregari et puniri possint non apparet ; insuper valde incertum est, utrum eius nominis vallis exstiterit et v. 14 alia appellatione selecta non. nomen sed rem nomine expressam spectari propheta indicat. Neque unquam hostes in valle prope Ierusalem victi deletique sunt. Facile tamen concesseris cum /tup. et Sanet. praeter ipsius nominis significationem hostium devictionem a rege Iosaphat in valle benedictionis olim factam (2 Par. 20, 16-26) etiam huic designationi aptam praebuisse occasionem et felicem in ea contineri allusionem. — Dispersio Israel iam facta est a Theglathphalasar (4 Reg. 15, 29. 4 Par. 5, 26); unde non opus est de everso regno israelitico i. e. de tempore post an. 22 vcrba interpretari ; certe etiam in bellis antecedentibus captivi Israelitae inter nationes dispersi sunt. lam lIehu Assyriis tributum solvere debuit, et ante eum Achab ab Assyriis sub Salmanassar II. devictus est; saepius in annalibus regum Assyriorum expeditiones militares Palaestinam: versus recensentur ; quare antiquis etiam temporibus de dispersione quadam Israelitarum sermo fieri potuit (cf. ScArader, Keilinschriften u. A. T. 2. ed. p. 199. 201. 2071-210. Vigourowz, là Bible et les découvertes mod. 3. ed. IV p. 36 et seq.). De occupatione terrae israeliticae varia iam exstant exempla in bellis, quae inter Israel et Syros gerebantur (cf. 4 Reg. 10, 32. 33; 13, 3) ; eius mentio fit Am. 1, 13. 4 Reg. 14, 26; praecipue tamen divisio facta est translatis habitatoribus in Assyriam (4 Reg. 15, 29). In omnibus istis bellis multi Israelitae captivi ducti atque in servitutem venditi sunt. Quam indigne ab hostibus habiti sint, puerorum puellarumque sorte declaratur ; hebr. puerum dederunt pro meretrice !. S. IHlier. explicat : « posuerunt pueros in prostibulum, ut virilem cogerent mutare naturam... vendiderunt puellam pro vino ut biberent et libidini praeferrent. gulam » (cf. Ub. Sanct. Lap. Men. Tir. Sa, Calm. ; fornicationis pretium designari censet. Mear.). Quae in universum accusaverat, iam speciatim de quibus valeant exponit
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v. 4 « verim quid mihi et vobis, Turus et Sidon, et omnis terminus Palaesthinoruin ? numquid ultionem vos reddetis mthi ? et si uleiscinini vos contra me? cito velociter reddum vicissitidinem vobis super caput vestrum »! — hebr. et etiam quid vos mihi! scil. quid rei vobis mecum est? quare mihi molestiam creatis populum meum infestantes? Dein duplicem ex hebr. ponit quaestionem, qua hostilem agendi modum sibi explicari postulat : numquid. retributionem redditis mihi vel committitis adversum me ? i. e. num iniuriam a me illatam rependere vultis vel sine tali causa in me facinus aliquod committere vobis in animo est ? Si quid molimini, cito velociter debitam vicem rependam vobis, poenam facinoris in caput vestrum convertam. Nulla proin causa adest, cur populum Dei aggrediantur ; nihil enim iniuriae iis illatum est neque impune lacessent ipsi priores clientem Dei. Nihilominus a vehementi infestatione non abstinuerunt :
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v. 5 « argentum enim meum et aurum tulistis et desiderabilia mea et pulcherrima $intulistis in delubra vestra » ; —hebr. etiam explicari potest in delubra et palatia vestra. Diripuerunt thesauros templi et opes civium iisque idolorum templa et suas domos exornarunt in Domini contemptum. Quando haec facta sunt? Forte cum (4 Reg. 14, 13) Ioas rex Israel lerusalem caperet et auferret omne argentum et aurum et omnia vasa ex Domini domo, etiam aliarum gentium copiae sub eo stipendia meruerunt . Antea, temporé Ioram, Philisthini et Arabes vastaverunt Iudam diripueruntque cunctam substantiam, quae inventa est in domo regis (2 Par. 21, 1). Eadem vel alia occasione — nam pauca solum fragmenta supersunt asservata in libris sacris de plurium saeculorum rebus gestis — etiam
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v. 6 « et filios Iuda et filios lerusalem vendidistis filiis Graecorum, ut longe faceretis eos de finibus eorum » ; — similium scelerum etiam Amos accusat Philisthaeos (1, 6), Tyrios (1, 9) ; variarum impugnationum mentio fit Ps. 82, uti iam Rib. monet. Peculiare crudelitatis genus in eo cernitur, ut populi Dei socios in remotissimas regiones vendiderint, quo magis omnis ad Dei templum redeundi spes 1is adimatur. At Deus vigilat in suos : consilium hostium confundet losque eadem poena castigabit v. '] « ecce ego suscitabo eos de loco in quo vendidistis eos et convertam retributionem vestram in caput vestrum,
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v. 8 et vendam filios vestros et filias vestras ih manibus filiorum Iuda et venumdabunt eos Sabaeis, genti longinquae, quia Dominus locutus est » .— Deus suorum curam se gerere promittit, etsi longe absint. Per iustam ultionem minatur, se traditurum esse filios eorum et filias Iudaeis, ut isti illos vendant Sabaeis in regionem remotam felicis Arabiae ?. Philisthaei iam per Azariam (2 Par. 26, 6) et Ezechiam devicti sunt (4 Reg. 18, 8), quorum multi certe etiam servitutem subierunt iure belli et captivitatis. Utrum et quomodo Phoenices poenas luerint per Iudaeos, dici non potest. Phoenices ab Assyriis ct Chaldaeis fuisse expugnatos et victos, certum est; tempore Machabaeorum aliquae regiones Philisthaeorum et Phoenicum Iudaeis parebant (cf. 4 Mach. 10, 86. 89. 11, 59. 60). Notat Ps. Ruf. : « quod totum sane vel statim post Assyriorum exitum vel post reversionem de captivitate Machabaeorum temporibus videtur impletum ». Id factum esse fortasse capta per Alexandrum Magnum Tyro, Calm. censet ; ceterum vide, quae Sophonias (2, 4-1) et Zacharias (9, 1-6) iisdem gentibus minentur, quae Ieremias (cp. 4'1) et Ezechiel (95, 13-99 cp.) vaticinentur. in valle Iosaphat, ubi mortui in vitam redierint, Deum de omnibus iudicium habiturum et quotquot sub coelo sunt de his quae adversum ipsos perpetraverint, rationem reddituros. Quae cogitatio fieri nequit, quin ridicula sit, quandoquidem divinitus inspirata Scriptura prophetiam completam esse dicit et pugna commissa in valle losaphat a vicinis gentibus poenas exactas ». Scholz nomen hoc a vate efformatum esse censet secundum Os. 4, 5 (vallis Iezrahel) ad designandam urbem messianicam, lerusalem novi foederis, contra quam hostes expeditionem suscipiunt.
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v. 9 « Clamate hoc in gentibus, sanctificate bellum, suscitate robustos ; accedant, ascendant omnes viri bellatores » ! — prophetae vel praecones admonentur, ut ?n gentibus i. e. longe lateque per gentes, ubique annuntient et exhortentur : consecrate vos sacro bello ; « mihi consecrate, ego enim bellabo et ad meam gloriam res agetur... omne autem quod sanctificari dicitur, semper cum divina gloria coniunctum est » (Cyr.). Quare sermo fit ad Dei cultores, ad omnes qui sub signis Dei militant (Cyr. Rup. Alb.), non, ut compluribus placet, ad impios et hostes (Rib. Lap. Sa, Mar. Keil, Scholz); hostes v. 11 alloquitur propheta, quare iam ad totius sermonis conformationem apte v. 9. 10 bellatores Dei intelliguntur, qui arma arripiant et in certamen descendant. Indicat igitur propheta, in ipsa periodo messianica fore certamina subeunda, fore incursus hostiles, quibus omni vi sit obviandum. Repetta enim adhortatio rem agi gravissimam et strenue csse adlaborandum ostendit. Omnem quoque conatum esse exserendum et cuncta quasi in bellica instrumenta esse vertenda — tantae molis pugna instat! — declaratur
Ex iudicio particulari propheta progreditur ad sacrum quoddam, et universale bellum, quo tempore messianico erit dimicandum. Periodum nempe spectari messianicam, elucet ex v. 15. 16 i. e. ex signis illis, quae supra 2, 30. 31 illi periodo aperte adscripserat. A v. 9 usque ad v. 15. 16 una quasi scena describitur, quare iam v. 9 et seq. eidem periodo attribui debent. Bellum indicit, ad quod omnes omni conatu vires conferant :
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v. 10 « concidite aratra vestra in gladios et ligones vestros in lanceas ; infirmus dicat : quia fortis ego sum » ! — ne infirmi quidem à pugna excipiuntur ; sed tale aderit adiutorium, ut ipsi imbecilles confidenter suam possint iactare fortitudinem. Cur, declaratur v. 12. 13. Instat igitur concertatio generalis, cui nemo se subducere possit; vel in universali illa oppugnatione quam hostes Dei contra regnum Dei suseipiunt, unusquisque suas agere debebit partes, idque strenue ae fortüier. Si igitur periodus messianica aliis in vaticiniis tamquam tempus pacis describitur, haec quidem verissima sunt, attamen indolem illam pacis talem esse, quae infestatione minime careat et quae strenuo adversus inimicos conatu et forti certamine et acquirenda sit et conservanda et defendenda, hoe oraculo edocemur. Complent enim inter se vaticinia neque doctrina integra in uno loco traditur, verum ex pluribus sedibus est colligenda et varia oracula ita inter se sunt concilianda, ut sua cuique stet veritas. Uti v. 9. 10 bellatores Dei ad arma capessenda adhortatus est, ita nuhc hostes Dei ironice exstimulat, ut vires colligant, manus conserant
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v. 144 « erumpite et venite omnes gentes de circuitu et congregamini ; ibi occumbere faciet Dominus robustos tuos » ; — admonentur scil. uti apud Isaiam : « congregamini populi et vincimini . . confortamini et vincimini » (8, 9. 10). In altero membro textus latinus ' statim indicat, irritos fore conatus, insigni clade per Dei potentiam omnes prostratum iri. Haec igitur ratio est, cur etiam infirmus animos sumat et dicat : quia fortis ego sum. Verum in textu hebr., uti iam Lap. Mar. agnoverunt, precatio fit ad Dominurm, ut contra agmina hostilia in certamen deducat heroes suos i. e. angelos: eo fac descendere, Domine, robustos (uos. (angelos tuos) cf. Lap. Mar. Keil, Wünsche, Merz. Sunt igitur angeli certaminis comites, socii, adiutores et propheta efflagitat, ut agmina illa coelestia bellatoribus Dei opem ferant ; optima sane ratio, cur infirmus quoque tali subsidio munitus dicat et confidat se fortem esse. Uti Deus angelos misit ad Aegyptios prosternendos, ad Assyrios vincendos, ad victorias Machabaeorum ducibus conciliandas, ita in universali illo conflictu inter Dei pugnatores et agmina hostium Deus suos roborat et iuvat acie illa coelesti. Nam quemadmodum diabolus suos instigat ad regnum Dei oppugnandum, eodem modo angeli Dei militibus assistunt. falces ipsi admonentur angeli, ut messem colligant. Est scil. ista admonitio et parabola messis praeformatio quaedam illius parabolae, quam Christus enuclcatius proponit Matth. 13, 38-42; v. g. v. 41:« mittet filius hominis angelos suos et colligent de regno eius omnia scandala », et v. 30: « dicam messoribus : colligite primum zizania » . . ; insuper iste sensus apte illustratur Ap. 44, 15 - 20, prout etiam advertunt Rib. Men. Tir. Gord. Huius certaminis exitum colligi docet in iudicio universali et ultimo, quo omnes coram Dei tribunali gentes sistuntur; quare dimicationis illius progressum ita delineat, ut gentes demum ad vallem iudicis Domini propellantur
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v. 12 « corsurgant et ascendant gentes in vallem Iosaphat ; quia ibi sedebo ut iudicem omnes gentes in. circuitu » ; — de Iosaphat valle vide ad v. 2. Exitus hic alia est ratio, cur in ea dimicatione ne infirmus quidem animo cadere debeat (cf. v. 10). Tale autem iudicium erit, cum hostium malitia creverit et magnam quandam mensuram impleverit. Hanc messem ut colligant, angeli mittuntur
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v. 13 « milite falces, quoniam maturavit messis ; venite et dcscendite, quia plenum cst torcular, exuberant torcularia ; quia multiplicata est malitia eorum ». — Imaginem hane Christus parabola sua egregie illustrat cf. Matth. 13, 29. 30. 40 - 42. In hebr. aptius : venite et calcate * scil. uvas. Iudicium imagine sessis (cf. Is. 1"1, 5. Os. 6, 11) et vindemiae (cf. Is. 63, 1) proponitur ; qua comparatione innuitur malitiam suis incrementis quasi maturescere et augeri multum in modum. Concordant Christi verba : « sinite utraque crescere usque ad messem » et S. Pauli doctrina de apostasia magna futura (2 Thess. 2, 3). « Exspectavit Dominus, ut calcaret torcular, donec ille racemorum adveniret cumulus, qui lacum i. e. praevisam a Deo mensuram impleret » (Sanct.). JA Hanc gentium messem angeli colligunt, comportant, Deo iudici sistunt :
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v. 14 « populi populi n. valle concisionis : quia ?uxta, est dies Domini in valle concisionis » ; — vallis « Dominus iudicat » iam ex effectu in Dei hostes appellatur vallis concisionis ? nomine symbolico. Adnotat S. e exhiberi seusum. lpse vertit : ibi confundit Deus fortes tuos, et formam aphelicam esse vult litera 5 inserta. Sed cur tales fiugere anomalias ? Imperativum rite agnoscunt Ewald, Hitz. Olshausen (Lehrb. d. hebr. Spr. p. 567) aliique. Sed si allocutio fitad Deum, sensus ucquit esse : Deus fac occumbere fortes tuos ! 1. cf. "m Is. 14, 6. Ez. 34, 4. Ita rite LXX xatttte ; ita. Syr. et Chald. vocem hebr. intellexerunt. Vidit etiam Heoubig. hanc notionem requiri, et ideo textum hebr. mutat ; at textus immutatione minime indiget. S. Hier. illam saltem commentario inserit : « descendant calcentque torcularia ». 2. (mn Is. 28, 27 ; & verbo vn decidere, firmiter constituere, definire, incidere ; cf. Is. Hier. : «in eo loco, ubi nos posuimus populi populi et. Septuaginta transtulerunt : sonitus exauditi sunt, in hebr. scriptum est. amonim, amonim (nm'3125), quod utique multitudinem et turbas eorum qui iudicandi sunt et strepitum sonitumque significat. Rursum ubi nos diximus in valle concisionis sequentes translationem Aquilae et Symmachi et quintae editionis, Septuaginta et Theodotio z35 8x5 xai c6 xploeu; i. e. causae et. iudicii transtulerunt... idcirco autem gentium, de quibus supra diximus, in valle iudicii sive concisionis populi congregantur, ut interficiantur et corruant et a Domino iudicentur ». Igitur secundum tpsum S. Hier. hebr. verte tumultus, tumujtus in valle decisionis (vel tribuli ?) ! Hic vero dies Domini solitis vestitur in rerum natura perturbationibus
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v. 49 « sol et luna obtenebrati sunt et stellae retraxrerunt splendorem suum » ; — cf. 9, 10. 31. In ista vero universae mundi machinae coninuotione et omnium terrore (cf. Luc. 21, 26) Dominus e medio regno suo quasi ex sua propria sede vocem suam emittet i. e. omnes ad iudicium colligit sententiam poenamque promulgat cf. Ioan. 5, 28 : quia venit hora, in qua omnes, qui in monumentis sunt, audient vocem Filii Dei; ita similiter
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v. 16 « et Dominus de Sion rugiet et de lerusalem dabit vocem suam, et movebuntur coeli et terra ; et Dominus spes populi sui et forti- (udo. filiorum Israel » ; — dum omnia contremiscunt, Dominus suis se praebet certam spem ; pii animis non cadent, firmiter fiduciam retinent neque unquam confundentur ; mediis in angustiis et totius mundi ruina Dominus illis est fortitudo ; cf. Luc. 21, 28 : « his autem fieri incipientibus, respicite et levate capita vestra, quoniam appropinquat redemptio vestra ». runt Haimo, Rup. Alb. Rib. Sanct. Lap. Sa, Men. Mar. At ne isti quidem in solis et lunae obtenebrationis explicatione consentiunt ; dum enim aliis ea vere sint signa, quae fiant in sideribus (cf. Sanct. Mar. Gord.), aliis praeplacet rem explicare ex affectu moerentium : « videtur enim tunc hominibus prae afflictione animi sol obscurari ; unde apud nos vehemens comminatio est : efficiam ut stellas medio in die videas » ( Rib. sim. Lap. Sa, Men. Tir.). Eandem viam, ut patet, ingrediuntur, qui totam prophetiam de iudicio contra hostes Assyrios etc. exponunt ; unde ipsis non sol obtenebratur, sed victi caligine offunduntur (cf. . Cyr.), non mundo, sed timentibus ingruunt tenebrae ( Ps. Ituf.), non sideribus, sed occisis deerit lumen (Theod. M.) etc. :
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Ex tali rerum exitu, quem prophetia docet, duo discuntur : Dominum Sioni adesse et illam reddere sanctam depulsa omni iniquitate. Bene nexum TÀeod. exponit : « haec autem omnia Dominus facturus est misericordia in populum suum utens, ut hac fruens providentia cognoscat, inquit, quod ego sum Deus.. » (sim. Cyr.) ; ita v. 1'1 « Et scietis, quia ego Dominus Deus vester, habitans in. Sion monte sancto meo ; et erit lerusalem sancta et alieni non transibunt per eam amplius » ; — i. e. in Sion sedem quasi suam fixit, hoc regni sui domicilium est; quare oppugnatores omnes deiiciet, et ibi se ut. Deum foederis qui promissis stet, manifestabit et cum ipse sit sanctus, etiam regnum suum sanctitate florere vult. Nunc ratio est explicata, cur in Sion sit salvatio (3, 32) et cur in omnes hostes animadvertat : ibi enim thronum elegit, haec est illa hereditas, quam sibi acquisivit. Sion igitur consideratur tamquam theocratiae sedes et est ipsum theocratiae symbolum ac repraesentatio eo magis apta, quia vetus theocratia ibi consistebat. s Deus sanctus recedere iubet omnes qui operantur iniquitatem eosque a suo regno arcebit 1. e. alieni non transibunt ; in suos vero effudit spiritum suum (2, 28); huius effusionis et sanctitatis inde consequentis benedictionem et copiam imagine fertilitatis uberrimae ac felicissimae describit
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v. 18 « et erit in dte illa, stillabunt montes dulcedinem et colles fluent lacte et per omnes rivos Iuda ibunt aquae, et fons de domo Domini egredietur et irrigabit torrentem spinarum » ; — hebr. stillabunt montes musto... i. e. vineae in montibus plantatae tantam copiam uvarum musto plenarum afferent, pecudes in collibus pascentes tantam lactis abundantiam ministrabunt, ut ipsi montes et colles videantur non iam aquarum fontes effundere, verum musti lactisque scaturigines. Tota vero regio et campi universi rivis nunquam deficientibus irrigabuntur. Haec aquarum profluentia agrorum fertilitatem summam efficiet. Sanctitas per Dei spiritum effusa hac rerum omnium abundantia apte delineatur ; nam, uti peccatum maledictionem etiam in res creatas induxit (cf. Gen. 3, 16), uti ipsa etiam terra vastatione, incendiis, inundatione, sterilitate etc. propter hominum peccata saepe puniebatur, ita consequens est, ut ex hominum sanctitate instaurata ad res etiam creatas splendor quidam redundet, vel ut ipsa natura pulchrior effecta. et fecundior suo modo testimonium ferat sanctitati liominum. Idque eo ma- .£is, quia in lege certus quidam nexus statuitur inter hominum pietatem et regionis ubertatem ; unde pro indole veteris foederis eo ipso regio uberrima omnibusque bonis abundans testimonium reddit religioni et sanctitati incolarum. Quare, si propheta inauditum quendam abundantiae et amoenitatis gradum describit, ex eo facile concludunt ii, qui normae mosaicae memores sunt (cf. Lev. 26. Deut. 28), adfuturum esse ingens quoddam sanctitatis incrementum. Ceterum vide, quae ad Os. 2, 21 et ad Amos 9, 13 adnotavimus. Haec autem revera symbolice dici, ipse propheta inhuit, cum fontem de domo Domini egredientem exhibeat ; fons enim e templo non egrediebatur alius, nisi fons metaphorice dictus, fons benedictionis etc. ; cf. Ez. 41, 1. Zach. 13, 1. Ap. 22, 4. Isto fonte ait ipsum desertum irrigari et proinde ad fertilitatem adduci. In hebr. est vallis schittim i. e. vallis acaciarum '. Ceterum scAittim vel settim, uti S. Hier. scribit, ita. explicat idem : « est genus arboris in eremo spinae albae simile, colore et foliis, non magnitudine. Alioquin tam grandes arbores sunt, ut latissima ex illis tabulata caedantur, lignumque fortissimum est et incredibilis levitatis ac pulchritudinis... quae ligna in locis cultis et in romano solo absque Arabiae solitudine non inveniuntur » ; unde maxime obvia significatio esse videtur: ipsam solitudinem et eremum fonte illo irrigatum iri et fertilem redditum (cf. Schegg), qua re eximia novae periodi felicitas effertur. Nam quod alii volunt, vallem Cedron ita vocari (Cyr. Hitz.), probare nequeunt; intelligi autem Settim. regionem in. campestribus Moab ? sitam (JIier. Rib. Lap. Wünsche) incredibile est, quia fontem e templo egressum per Iordanem in regionem Moab fluere, nimis miro modo fingitur. | Quod modo dixerat : alieni non transibunt, iam ex sui temporis conditione in iis ostendit, qui quam maxime in populum Dei se hostiles gerere animos prae se tulerunt ; poenas scil. scelerum dabunt
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v. 19 « Aegyptus in desolationem erit et Idumaea àin desertum perditionis pro eo quod nique egerint in filios Iuda et effuderint sanguinem innocentem in terra sua » ; — quod supra v. 4 et seq. de Tyriis et Philisthiim conquestus est, etiam in Aegyptiis et Edomitis reprehendit ; Edomitas eodem fere modo accusat Amos quoque (1, 11) et Abdias (v. 10). Edomitas rebelles fuisse contra regnum iudaicum, lege 4 Reg. 8, 20 ; illorum regionem in solitudinem redactam sollemniter affirmat Malachias (1, 3. 4). Etiam Aegyptii Iudaeos bellis oppresserunt (iam 3 Reg. 14, 25) et qui ad regiones aegyptiacas confugerunt variis bellis exagitati, eos interemerunt, uti proplreta conqueritur. Aegyptios punitos per Cambysen et ita Ioelis oraculum impletum esse censent S. Cyr. Theod. Calm. ; at iidem in hac poenae denuntiatione simul cernunt. omnem fastum terrenum iri deiectum et impetus hostiles in Dei populum fore irritos auctoresque in interitum esse ruituros (sim. S. Hier.). Ceterum vide oracula contra Aegyptum Is. 19; Ier. 46 ; Ez. 30- 32; contra Edom Ier. 49, 1. Ez. 33. Dum hostibus vastitas et interitus immineat, Dei populus securitate et pace fruitur
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v. 20 « et Iudaea in aeternum habitabitur et lerusalem 1n generationem et generationem » ; — regnum enim aeternum Davidi est promissum et thronus eiusffirmus stabit, uti per Nathan domui Davidis est annuntiatum (2 Reg. '1, 14). Foedus quoque sempiternum post punitionem a Deo iniri servarique inviolabile Osee vaticinatus est (2, 19 et seq.), eodemque modo Isaias hostibus prostratis de regno pacis sempiternae crebro mentionem infert (9, 71; 14, 41; 54, 1 etc.), idque fieri ait zelo Domini exercituum (Is. 9, 1). Iste zelus beneficiis in fideles collatis et ultione in inimicos potissimum manifestatur (cf. supra 2, 18). Quare summam oraculorum complexus propheta concludit
3:21
v. 24 « et mundabo sanguinem eorum, quem non mundaveram ; et Dominus commorabitur in Sion » ; — hebr. verte: et sanguinem eorum sacrosanctum habebo, quem non sacrosanctum habui! i. e. oppressionem populi sui, quam in vetere foedere saepius permisit Deus, iam non permittet ; est enim populus nunc Deo carissimus, pretiosus coram eius conspectu, quare cura vigili providebit, ne quis ei iniuriam impune inferat ; cf. Ps. 14, 14: « et honorabile nomen eorum coram ipso, » vel ut hebr. textus fert : « et pretiosus sanguis eorum in oculis eius » i. e. princeps pacis messianicus Siddim, quae olim mari mortuo erat destructa (cf. Schegg, Loch); eam regionem etiam Scholz intelligit. 1. Cf. npa innocentem, purum, sanctum habere, declarare ; vide Merz p. 27. sanguinem pauperum non spernit, immo pretiosum habet, maximi aestimat, eorum curam habebit tenerrimam. Ex hac significatione facile fluit altera, quam eommuniter sequuntur : e£. vindicabo setnguinem eorum, quem, non vindicaveram ! i. e. si quis illis manus intulerit, divinam ultionem celeriter experietur; in novo rerum ordine maiore studio atque aemulatione Deus populi sui iniurias vindicabit. Vel verba possunt etiam referri ad v. 19: punitione illa Aezyptiorum et Edomitarum Dominus ulciscitur iniurias, quas longo tempore prorsus negligere videbatur. Hac ultione exercita Dominus tamquam auctor salutis habitabit i. c. stabili modo propriam sibi sedem, requiem, domicilium constituet in Sion i. e. in medio populo suo. Suos igitur magni aestimat et quasi cum reverentia eorum curam habet, ab hostium incursu vindicat, inter eos inha bitat : « ecce tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus », vel, uti Ps. Auf. advertit: « ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi ». Hac eximia consolatione Ioel divinae providentiae normam in recendo populo absolvit. Amos (psoy ! i. e. Qascázov qui apud Latinos portans dicitur — S. Hier. praef. in Ioel —) fuit de oppido Thecue, « quod sex millibus ad meridianam plagam abest a sancta Bethlehem, quae mundi genuit Salvatorem ; et ultra nullus est viculus, ne agrestes quidem casae ? et furnorum similes quas Afri appellant mapalia... et quia humi arido atque arenoxo nihil omnino frugum gignitur, cuncta sunt plena pastoribus, ut sterilitatem terrae compensent pecorum multitudine. Ex hoc numero pastorum Amos propheta fuit, imperitus sermone ?, sed non scientia » (S. Hier. in prologo ad Amos). Fuit Thecue « viculus in monte situs et duodecim millibus ab Hierosolymis separatus » (idem in Ier. 6, 1). Ut ipse propheta narrat, a pecorum cura et humili vitae conditione vocatus est ad munus propheticum a Domino, qui ex beneplacito eligit quem vult et qui humilia et abiecta et ea quae non sunt assumit, ut fortia confundat (cf. 1, 14). Fuit ipse DYTp32 ex pastoribus; quamvis "7pá 2 Reg. 3, 4 de rege Moabitarum gregum multitudine nobili dicatur, tamen Amos minime censeri debet herus quidam dives, cuius greges servi et pueri pascebant. ld enim excluditur, quia se vocat "p53 qui gregis curam et munus pastoritium ipse exerceat et quia vellicans sycomoros tenuem vitae rationem designat. Munus propheticum obiit tempore Oziae regis Iuda et Ieroboam regis Israel. Diu isti reges simul praeerant; anno enim 13 Ieroboam regis! , qui per annos 41 regnavit, Ozias regnum capessivit et per 52 annos tenuit. Res utriusque regni prospere agebantur. leroboam .« restituit terminos Israel ab introitu Emath usque ad mare solitudinis... vidit enim Dominus afflictionem Israel amaram nimis » (& Reg. 14, 25); Ozias autem vel Azarias feliciter bella gessit contra Philisthiim, Arabes et Ammonitas, arces urbesque munitas erexit et regni iudaici conditionem prosperam reddidit ac florentem (cf. 2 Par. 26, 1-15). At splendore illo externo et bellico morum corruptio et defectio a sincero Dei cultu in utroque rcgno male obtegebatur. Ieroboam « fecit quod est malum coram Domino; non recessit ab omnibus peccatis Ieroboam filii Nabat, qui peccare fecit Israel » (4 Reg. 14, 24) ; etiam Ozias « excelsa non est demolitus ; adhuc populus sacrificabat et adolebat incensum in excelsis (l. c. 18, 4), et cum roboratus esset, elevatum est cor eius ininteritum suum et neglexit Dominum Deum suum » (2 Par. 26, 16); insuper Iudaeos quoque et cultu idololatrico deliquisse et varia morum depravatione laborasse, ex libris Osee et Amos nimis perspicuum apparet (Os. 4, 15; 5, 10. 19. 44; 6, 11; 8, 14; 12, 2. Am. 2, 4; 6, 1); immo Bersabee oppidum in finibus Iuda situm cultu illicito celebre erat et ab ipsis Israelitis frequentatum (Am. 5, 8; 8, 14). Quare propheta intrepide munere suo fungens medio in splendore externo regni utriusque ruinam miseram praenuntiat morumque censor fortiter in contemptores Dei invehitur (cf. "1, 12). In tres partes commode librum disperties : cap. 1. 2-cp. 3-6.-cp. '1-9. Et prima quidem parte iudicium Deifin gentes et in populum electum denuntiat. Incipit gentibus vicinis varia exprobrare crimina, quibus in populum Dei peccaverant, iisque congruam praedicere castigationem. Hac quasi praeparatione praemissa iudicium Dei in ipsum populum electum, in Iuda et Israel, devolutum iriait, quippe qui legem Dei abiecerint et beneficiis a Deo acceptis ingratos se et indignos praestiterint ; quare ignem missum iri ait in Iuda et Israel esse periturum. Quam accusationem criminum et denuntiationem poenae in altera parte (cp. 3-6) latius prosequitur et per singula enucleate proponit. Tribus enim orationibus vel totidem reprehensionibus et singula scelera exagitat et imminentem castigationem varie illustrat. Atque in prima oratione (ep. 3) beneficium Dei quod electione in populum Dei facta consecuti sunt iis in memoriam revocat ; a quo cum turpiter desciverint adeo, ut ipsae gentes in eos ferre debeant sententiam, regni interitum, urbis excidium, necem populi praenuntiat. Altera oratione (cp. 4) eorum mentem iniquitate. quasi inveteratam perstringit : ostendit enim, quoties et quam sedulo Deus variis poenis iam inflietis cos ad meliorem frugem reducere studuerit ; verum pro corumPeontumacia frustra et in vanum omnia cessisse ; unde nihil aliud relinqui, nisi ut eiecti ,e terra. deleantur. Hunc populi inieritum oratione tertia (ep. 8. 6) plangit propheta recolens cum dolore, qua via illud sibi excidium paraverint, quam futurum sit horrendum, atque incusans principes fautores iniquitatis et ruinae auctores. Tertia parte exponit propheta, quibus visionibus symbolicis Deus ipsi rerum futuram conditionem delineaverit. Et bis quidem propheta sua apud Deum intercessione castigationem iamiam imminentem avertit. Deinde in duabus visionibus cernit Deum curam et protectionem populi ingrati abiicere et iusto iudicio illos excidio tradi; post utramque vero visionem ea inserit, quibus infligendae poenae et necessitas probetur et modus declaretur. Demum ultimo capite toti vaticinio finem imponit egregium, omnia complexus quae de excidio vaticinatus erat; at ea illustrat et laeta spe perfundit proposita instauratione messianica plena sanctitate et. per orbem diffundenda, ad quam perfectionem attingendam tota veteris legis ratio ordinatur. Quare illa proposita optime defungitur munere prophetico ostendens, ad quam lucem per noctis et castigationis tenebras demum per Dei providentiam sit perveniendum. Eius dicendi genus S. Hier. quidem non magni aestimare videtur ; vocat enim prophetam nostrum « imperitum sermone sed non scientia » (prolog. c. 1028). Maiore honore eum afficit S. Augustinus, qui ad eloquentiam prophetarum commendandam ex eo honorifica mentione facta exemplum (Am. 6, 1) promit (doctr. christ. 4, 1. M. 34, 96 ; vide infra ad 6, "). Atque Loth. quoque, sane subtilis sermonis iudex, magnis eum effert laudibus ; monet, ne quis ita sequatur auctoritatem S. Hier., ut putet vatem eum fuisse plane rudem et indisertum et ab omni ornatu alienum ; « id autem longe est secus : evolvat modo scripta eius aequus iudex, de re non de homine quaesiturus ; censebit, credo, potius pastorem nostrum puxàiv üccepmxévat «Qv. ürepAiav zpconzóv, ut sensuum elatione et magnificentia spiritus prope summis parem, ita etiam dictionis splendore et compositionis elegantia vix quoquam inferiorem » (de sacra poesi Hebr. ed. Rosenmüller p. 245). Huic encomio recentiores quoque calculum adiiciunt ; cf. De Wette-Schrader, Einl. 2. 289 ; Bleek-Kamphausen, Einl. 2. 238; Kaulen, Einl. p. 348 n. 406; laudant enim sermonis concinnitatem, elegantiam, puritatem atque venustam quandam simplicitatem (cf. Zschokke, hist. s. p. 263, Vigouroux, Manuel bibl. II p. 630). Uti Osee, ita Amos quoque, prout legentibus compertum est, multa ex Pentateucho sibi nota effert ; de qua re vide, quae ad Osee (Proleg. 4 p. 13) dicta sunt ; illa invenies ex Amos collecta apud Reinke (Beitraege ; 8, 139) et Trochon (l. c. p. 131). ARc. — Post inscriptionem usitatam (1, 1) sententia iam ex loele nota iudicio Dei praeludit generatim (1, 2) ; dein iudicia Dei fore annuntiat super sex gentes vicinas criminum causis adductis ; et quidem tres gentes recenset nullo cognationis vinculo Israelitis coniunetas : Syros, Philisthacos, Tyrios, quorum scelera et poenam sceleribus a iusto iudice intligendam enumerat (1, 3- 10). Dein tres in medium profert. gentes, quae aliquo sanguinis et propinquitatis vinculo cum Isiaelitis sociantur : Idumaeos, Ammonitas, Moabitas, quibus pariter et erimina. conimissa. exprobrat. et castigationem praedicit (1, 11 - 2, 3). Ita genibus iuste percussis iudicia Dei in ipsum populum electum .iri devolutum docet, quippe qui peccatis se similem gentibus reddiderit ; quare et Iu!ae et Ixraeli erimina obiicit, poenam declarat et quantopere Israel beneficiis acceptis se ingratum exhibuerit, exemplis allatis ostendit (2, 4 - 16).
3:2
The only passage of Holy Scripture where mention is made of the "valley of I." with reference to a judgment of Yahweh is Joel 3, 2.12.14: "I will gather all the nations, I will bring them down into the valley of I., and there I will enter into judgment with them... …
3:6
… In Isa. 66:19 Yahweh promises that he will bring the Israelites as far as the Greeks and the "islands." Ezek. 27:13, 19 and Joel 3:6 (Heb. 4:6) speak of the slave, vessel and metal trade that the Tyrians carried on with the Greeks. …
3:14
… The expression of Joel, "valley of I.," must have not a topographical but a symbolic and metaphorical sense, founded on the etymology of the name (Jēhōšāphat = "Yahweh judges"): the place where Yahweh will judge, will promulgate "the decision" (Joel 3, 14). Therefore St. Cyril of Alexandria defines such a belief, prevalent especially among the Jews, as "an old wives' tale" (PG 71, 389).
3:15
The expressions used by the prophets to announce the "day of Yahweh," that is, the various manifestations of Yahweh's justice against the nations ("the sun will be darkened," "the stars will fall," etc.; Isa. 13:10; 24; 34; Ezek. 32:7 f.; Joel 2:10; 3:15; Zeph. 1:15; etc.) are merely grandiose metaphors (J.-M. …
3:17
… When Solomon had the Ark transferred from its temporary dwelling on the S. into the Temple he built on the hill of Moriah (II Par. 3:1 and 5:2), this hill was in the poetic language of the Psalms and the Prophets called S. (Ps. 73:2; Is. 8:18; 10:12; Jer. 31:13; Joel 3:17); indeed the glorious name was used, symbolically, for the whole city of Jerusalem (Is. 29:9;
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.