Homilies on Joshua

In the divine books it is related that for the construction of the tabernacle each person made an offering according to his means: the powerful and the princes of the people gold, silver, and precious stones; others bronze and wood, but wood that does not decay; some also scarlet, purple, and fine linen, and others flax, which would serve for the garments of the priests and the robe of the high priest. The poorer, too, who offered red-dyed skins and goats’ hair, are not rejected. For this reason Bezalel is said to have been filled with all wisdom by God, so that, understanding for what uses each of these things was suited, he might reject nothing that the devotion of the givers offered. Since, then, you too, father Chromatius, ever venerable to me, enjoin and command us to contribute something to the building and construction of the divine tabernacle from the wealth and resources of the Greeks, I have set out for you from Greek into Latin, according to the smallness of my powers, the twenty-six little addresses on Jesus son of Nun which the aged Adamantius delivered extempore in the church. Let it be for your judgment, you who are the Bezalel of our time, to weigh the things we offer: even if no pure gold is found in them that would serve for the altar, nor silver that would make the bases of the columns of the church or adorn their capitals, and if none of those stones can be found among them which, set into the oracle, might adorn your high-priestly breast, conscious of divine things, you can at least see whether something of purple and of royal adornment is in them, or whether the color of scarlet and of mystic blood is woven in; whether anything imitates the purity of fine linen and the strength of flax, and has anything worthy of the priestly vestments; and finally, whether you find red-dyed skins among us, that is, the modesty of a blushing brow; or at the very least, whether you find goats’ hair, with which we may cover our poverty, or, if we incur any faults, purge them by repentance. Let the whole of this, then, depend on your judgment. If there is anything that can please, let it be credited to the author; for we do not think it right to plunder what others have won by their labor and apply it to our own praise. But if the speech of an unpolished style roughens the force of the thoughts, let this be laid to my charge, or, if I may say so with your pardon, to your own, since you demand from the unlearned a work that ought to have been enjoined on the learned.

God has given a name which is above every name to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And this name which is above every name is “Jesus.” And because this name is above every name, therefore at the name of Jesus every knee bows, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And because it is the name above every name, therefore for many generations no one was called by it. Moses wrote the book of Genesis, in which we read of Abraham and of those who were born from him, among whom there were very many righteous men; but none of them was found worthy to be called Jesus. Neither was Abel called Jesus, nor he who first began to call on the name of the Lord God, nor he who pleased God and was translated, whose death was not found, nor he who alone was found righteous before God in his generation, Noah; not even he who had received the promises of the covenant, Abraham, nor he who was born of him, Isaac; nor Jacob the supplanter, nor any of his sons. Moses was faithful in all his house, and yet he was not called Jesus. But I find the name of Jesus first in Exodus, and I want to see when the name of Jesus is first given. “Amalek came,” it says, “and fought against Israel, and Moses said to Jesus in Rephidim.” This is the first naming of the name of Jesus: “Choose for yourself mighty men from all the sons of Israel, and go out and fight with Amalek tomorrow.” Moses confesses that he cannot lead the army; he confesses that he cannot prevail, although he had led them out of the land of Egypt. And therefore, it says, he called Jesus and said: “Choose for yourself men and go out.” You see to whom he yielded the waging of war against Amalek. In this we first learn the name of Jesus, where we see him as general of the army: not one on whom Moses enjoined the command, but one to whom he yielded the first place. Moses cannot choose mighty men: “You,” he says, “choose for yourself mighty men from all the sons of Israel.” Here, then, where I first learn the name of Jesus, there at once I see also the sacrament of the mystery: for Jesus leads the army.

“And it came to pass that when he lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he let down his hands, Amalek prevailed.” Then, therefore, Jesus prevails the more and then conquers, when Moses raises his hands. But that people was conquered by Amalek because he no longer raised his hands, but they were let down; for they are the ones to whom it is said: “If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also. And behold, you seek to kill me, you who do not keep the law.” For since the law and the works of the law have ceased among them, because, seeking to establish their own righteousness, they were not subject to the righteousness of God, the hands of Moses were let down, unbelief prevailed, the people is conquered. But Nadab and Abihu and Eleazar are left in the camp to judge the people. Jethro too is left, to judge the people with them. Jesus, however, is not left behind, but follows Moses up the mountain, with a certain addition of a wonderful word, in that it says that he “stood by” Moses. How did he stand by him? Not as a second, not as an inferior, but as a helper and protector. But what does this mean, that when he was first named, the name of his father was not indicated, nor the second time, nor the third; but when his father Nun is named, then he himself is called not Jesus but Ause? For among those who were sent to spy, his name is written Ause. And perhaps, as it seems to me, on account of the office of spy he was called not Jesus but Ause, and named son of Nun. But when he returns with the task completed, and, when all were terrified, alone raises up the fallen and alone lifts the people out of despair, then he is named Jesus by Moses; nor is he called son of Nun, but the one to whom Moses had said: “Lead out the army and fight against Amalek.” Considering this too, we perceive his greatness: that when at the transfiguration of Moses’ face the sight of all the sons of Israel was dazzled and no one could look upon his face, Jesus not only looked upon his face but also remained within the inner parts of the tabernacle, sharing in its mysteries.

Why, then, are all these things set before us? Surely because this book does not so much show us the deeds of the son of Nun as depict for us the mysteries of Jesus my Lord. For he it is who after the death of Moses took up the command; he it is who leads the army and fights against Amalek; and what was there foreshadowed on the mountain by outstretched hands, he fastened to his cross, triumphing over principalities and powers in himself. Moses, then, is dead; for the law has ceased, since “the law and the prophets were until John.” Do you want me to bring proofs from the Scriptures that the law is called Moses? Hear what he says in the Gospel: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them,” where he undoubtedly calls the law Moses. Moses the servant of God is dead, then; for the law is dead, and the precepts of the law now cease. Or if the authority seems too slight to you when these things are put forward by me, follow the authority of the Apostle, who says that a woman is bound to the law while her husband lives, and will be called an adulteress if she is with another man; but if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of the husband, so that she is no longer an adulteress if she is with another man. By the woman he undoubtedly means the soul which was held under the law of Moses, of which he says: “While the husband lives she is bound to the law. But if her husband dies” — undoubtedly the law — he declares free the soul which seemed to be subject to it. Therefore the law must die, so that those who believe in Jesus may by no means incur the charge of adultery.

Jesus, then, my Lord and Saviour, has taken up the command; and, if you will, let us compare the deeds of Moses with the command of Jesus. When Moses led the people out of the land of Egypt, there was no order among the people, no ceremonial observance among the priests. They pass through the water of the sea, salt water with no sweetness in it, and the water was a wall to them on the right and on the left. These things we know were done under Moses’ leadership. But when my Lord leads the army, let us see what is done, things which even then were foreshadowed. The priests go before; the ark of the covenant is carried on the shoulders of the priests; nowhere is there a sea any longer, nowhere does a salt wave meet us; but under the leadership of my Lord Jesus I come to the Jordan, and I come not in the confusion of flight, nor terrified by fear, but I come with the priests, who carry on their necks and shoulders the ark of the covenant of the Lord, in which the law of God and the divine letters are kept. I enter the Jordan not in stealthy silence, but to the songs of trumpets sounding something mystical and divine, so that I may advance to the proclamation of the heavenly trumpet. There it was said that the water was divided into two parts, and one wall of water was made on the right, another on the left. But here he who came to break down the middle wall of partition made both one: for on one side the water was raised up, while the other part flowed down into the sea. Then he says here: “Prepare provisions for yourselves for the journey”; and today, if you listen, Jesus says to you: If you follow me, prepare provisions for the journey. For the provisions are works, which accompany us to the journey to come like a faithful supply for the road. Let us see, however, since it is not fitting to read the divine letters carelessly and as if in passing, why he orders them to prepare provisions when they had no grain. For manna was their food. But when we have crossed the banks of this river, the manna ceases; and therefore if each one has not prepared provisions for himself, he will not be able to follow Jesus as he enters the land of promise. But see what fruits he first takes in the land of promise: “Then,” it says, “they ate first the fruits of the region of palms, and ate first unleavened bread.” You see, then, that for us who have left the road of this world, if we follow Jesus our king, the palm of victory meets us first, and, the leaven of malice and wickedness cast away, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth is prepared for us. Our Jesus, however, sends spies to the king of Jericho, and they are received as guests by a harlot. But that harlot who received the spies sent by Jesus received them so that she might no longer be a harlot. And the soul of each one of us was a harlot as long as it lived in the desires and lusts of the flesh. But it received the spies of Jesus, the angels whom he sent before his face to prepare his way. Yet if each soul receives them in faith, it does not place them in low or lower places, but in upper and lofty ones, because we have received the Lord Jesus not from lowly and earthly things, but as proceeding from the Father and coming from heaven.

But neither do I take the stalks of flax in which the spies hid as being without mysteries. For linen is a priestly garment, by which is signified either that the summit of the priesthood was conferred on those who were to be invited, as the apostle Peter says: “But you are a holy nation, a royal priesthood”; or else that in the mystery of the law, where it is written about the priests, the calling of this people from the Gentiles lay hidden. At once, then, the harlot took up enmity against the king of Jericho. Why, unless because the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh? And again he says: “This world hates you, because it hated me before you.” There is, then, a certain king hostile to this harlot, who is the prince of this world, who pursues the spies of Jesus and wants to seize them, but cannot catch them, because they make their way through the mountains: they do not walk through low places nor take delight in valleys, but seek the tops of the hills and the heights of the mountains; for this harlot says: “I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence my help shall come.” The prince of this world cannot climb there, nor can he come to Jesus by the lofty road; indeed even if, tempting him, he set him on the heights, he says to him: “Cast yourself down”; for he always loves what is low and falling; in these he reigns, in these he sets his throne, in which he may even go down to hell. Moses did not say, “Let the sun stand still,” nor did he command the greatest elements, as Jesus did. “Let the sun stand still,” he says, “over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Elom”; and therefore Scripture adds and says that “never did God so hear a man.” My Jesus, then, made the sun stand still not only then, but much more now at his coming. Indeed, while we wage war against our enemies and wrestle against principalities and powers and the rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, the Sun of righteousness stands by us unceasingly, never deserts us, nor hastens to set, because he himself said: “Behold, I am with you all days.” And he is with us not only for a doubled day, but all days, until the end of the age, until we too overcome our adversaries.

But let us see also what Jesus promised his soldiers: “Every place,” he says, “which you tread under the soles of your feet shall be yours.” He had said this to those who were then living, about the regions of the Canaanites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and the other nations whose regions they took as an inheritance after the unworthy inhabitants had been driven out. But let us see what is promised to us in these words. There are certain diabolical nations of the adverse powers against which our contest is waged and our struggles are sweated out in this life. As many of these nations, then, as we put under our feet, as many as we conquer in the contest, we will take their regions, their provinces and kingdoms, as the Lord Jesus distributes them to us. For they were once angels; they were glorious in the kingdom of God. Do we not read what Isaiah says of one of them: “How has Lucifer fallen, who rose in the morning?” This Lucifer undoubtedly had his seat in heaven; but since he has become a renegade angel, if I can conquer him and put him under my feet, if I am found worthy that my Lord Jesus should crush Satan under my feet, I shall consequently be found worthy to receive the place of Lucifer in heaven. So, then, we understand it to be promised us by Jesus our Lord that every place which we put under the soles of our feet shall be ours. But let us not think that we shall come into this inheritance through idleness and negligence, yawning and drowsing. Anger has an angel of its own nation; unless you conquer it in yourself and cut away from yourself every motion of wrath and fury, you will not be able to take as your inheritance the place which that angel once held, because through your sloth you have not driven him out of the land of promise. Likewise pride and envy and avarice and lust have certain angels who incite and instigate these evils; unless you conquer their vices in yourself and exterminate them from your land, which has now been sanctified through the grace of baptism, you will in no way receive the fullness of the promised inheritance.

Under Moses it was not said, as it is said under Jesus, that “the land rested from wars.” It is certain that this land of ours too, in which we have our struggles and endure our contests, will be able to rest from wars only by the power of the Lord Jesus. For within us are all these nations of vices, which assail the soul continually and without ceasing. Within us are the Canaanites, within us are the Perizzites, here are the Jebusites. How, then, must we labor, how keep watch, how long persevere, so that, when all these nations of vices have been driven out of us, our land may at last rest from wars? And therefore the prophet admonishes us to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. This meditation on the divine words is like a trumpet rousing your mind to battle, lest perhaps you sleep while the adversary is awake. Therefore the day is not enough for meditation, but the night too is added. But what will you do, you who not only sleep at night, but also spend the whole day serving either the business of the world or the pleasures of the flesh, and scarcely come together to church on feast days? Some of you, indeed, even when you come, do not come, because when they come they give their time not to the word of God but to idle stories. For this reason the divine word says to you: “Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and you will touch Christ.” “Rise from the dead” is said to those who remain in dead works, persisting in their uncleanness and crimes, which, though they are not manifest to men, are known to God. But at least from this point repent, and come together to God with your whole heart; give yourselves to prayers, give yourselves to the word of God. What does it profit if we fast for our sins and then commit sins again? What does it profit to have washed and to wallow again in the mire? You have fasted for some time? That is as if you had left Egypt for a while. You have crossed the Red Sea, you have followed Moses, that is, keeping the precepts and commandments of the law; but now Jesus has taken you over from Moses, to circumcise you a second time, in the place called the hill of foreskins. You must therefore cut away not only the worship of idols, which you cast off at the beginning, but now avarice too must be circumcised from you, which is a subtler worship of idols. Finally Jesus, circumcising the people with the second circumcision, says this: “Today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt.” As long as we sin, as long as the vices of the passions reign in us, even if we seem to have left Egypt by abandoning idols, the reproach of Egypt has not yet been taken away from us. If, then, you receive this second circumcision with knives and cut off from yourself every vice of anger, pride, envy, lust, avarice, iniquity, and the rest like them, then the reproaches of Egypt will be wiped away from you, and, carried over into the land of promise, you will receive the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, through the true Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, to whom is glory for ages of ages. Amen.

We must also tell of the death of Moses; for if we understand how Moses dies, we will be able to perceive how Jesus reigns. If you consider Jerusalem overthrown, the altar deserted, nowhere sacrifices, nor holocausts, nor libations, nowhere priests, nowhere high priests, nowhere the ministries of the Levites — when you see all these things cease, say that Moses the servant of God is dead. If you see no one coming three times a year into the sight of the Lord, nor offering gifts in the temple, nor slaying the passover, nor eating unleavened bread, nor offering first-fruits, nor consecrating the first-born — when you do not see all these things celebrated, say that Moses the servant of God is dead. But when you see the Gentiles coming into the faith, churches being built, altars sprinkled not with the blood of cattle but consecrated with the precious blood of Christ; when you see priests and Levites ministering not the blood of goats and bulls but the word of God through the grace of the Holy Spirit, then say that Jesus has taken up and holds the command after Moses — not Jesus the son of Nun, but Jesus the Son of God. When you see that Christ our passover has been sacrificed and we eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; when you see the fruits of the good land in the church, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold, that is, widows, virgins, and martyrs; when you see the seed of Israel multiplied from those who were born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God; and when you see the children of God who were scattered gathered into one; when you see the people of God keeping sabbath, not resting from common life, but resting from the work of sin; when you see all these things, say that Moses the servant of God is dead and Jesus the Son of God holds the command. Indeed, in a certain little book too, although it is not held in the canon, a figure of this mystery is described. For it is related that two Moseses were seen: one alive in the spirit, the other dead in the body. What is foreshadowed in this is surely that if you look at the letter of the law, empty and void of all the things we mentioned above, that is Moses dead in the body. But if you can remove the veil of the law and understand that the law is spiritual, that is Moses who lives in the spirit.

“And the Lord,” it says, “said to Jesus son of Nun, the minister of Moses: Moses my servant is dead. Now, therefore, arise and cross this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I give you.” You will perhaps ask how our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, too was the minister of Moses: because when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, made under the law. By this, then, that he was made under the law, he became the minister of Moses. But God says that they are to cross into the land, not one which Moses gave, but which, he says, “I give you.” You see, then, that when Moses was dead God gives the land to the people through Jesus. What land? Undoubtedly that of which the Lord says: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

“Every place,” it says, “on which you go up with the soles of your feet, I will give it to you.” What are the places we go up with the soles of our feet? The letter of the law is laid on the ground and lies below. So he who follows the letter of the law never goes up. But if you can go up from the letter to the spirit, and climb from the literal account to a loftier understanding, then you have truly gone up to a high and lofty place, which you will receive from God as an inheritance. For if in the things that are written you understand types and perceive that they are figures of heavenly things, and with mind and sense seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, then you will receive that place too as an inheritance, as our Lord and Saviour says: “Where I am, there my minister will be also.” If, then, by faith, purity of life, and virtue you reach Christ seated at the right hand of God, and walk that place with those footsteps of your feet which Jesus washed, God will give it to you; and then you will be not only an heir of God but also a co-heir of Christ.

“As I said to Moses, the desert and this Antilebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.” God subjected to Jesus the desert, that is, the deserted places of which the prophet says: “Rejoice, thirsty desert”; and: “Many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband.” And again he did not say Lebanon but Antilebanon, which Jesus received from God. Antilebanon is so called as if “in place of Lebanon.” If, then, you look at that former people, Israel according to the flesh, which was the true olive, I understand that it was the true Lebanon; but when you see that because of its unbelief the kingdom is taken from it and given to a nation producing its fruit, take that people which is brought into the kingdom in place of the one expelled to be the Antilebanon, which is the church of God gathered from the Gentiles through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ages of ages. Amen.

Moses distributed the inheritance of the land beyond the Jordan to two and a half tribes, that is, to the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. To the remaining tribes not Moses but Jesus divides the land. A pact, however, was made with those two and a half tribes that had received land beyond the Jordan, that, leaving their women and infants in that land beyond the Jordan, they themselves should fight together with their brothers until these too obtained their inheritance. It was necessary, then, since Moses, who had made this pact, had died, that Jesus should demand what was promised and urge them to bring help to their brothers who were about to fight. This the text recounts as history; but since we perhaps have now turned to the Lord, who takes away the veil from the reading of the Old Testament and grants to his servants who believe in him that with unveiled face they may behold the glory of the Lord, let us perceive that all these things which happened to them in figure were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. And therefore, as we said before, let us try to rise from the letter to the spirit, from figures to truth; and let us consider what form these two and a half tribes bear, which receive the land of inheritance through Moses, and what form the remaining nine and a half bear, which receive the promised holy land through Jesus. And first of all I think it could not have happened by chance that those who receive their portion through Moses were all first-born. For Reuben is the first-born of Leah, Gad the first-born of Zilpah, and Manasseh the first-born of Asenath the Egyptian, daughter of Potiphera priest of Heliopolis, whom Joseph took as wife. I can never persuade myself that it happened by chance that all to whom the inheritance was assigned through Moses were first-born; rather I think that in them was already then foreshadowed the form of two peoples: one which seemed to be first-born by the order of nature; the other which would receive the blessing of the inheritance through faith and grace. Nor is rest given to those who receive the inheritance through Moses, that is, those who pleased God through the law, unless they help their brothers. Only the women and infants take their rest through Moses; but the men do not rest, but go out to the aid of their brothers. See, I pray you, how those who were justified in the law before the coming of Jesus Christ my Lord come to the aid of me, who today labor in the contest of this life and have a struggle against enemies, that is, against contrary powers. See how Isaiah stands by me as a helper, when he enlightens me with the words of his reading. See Jeremiah coming girded and ready to our aid, and with the darts of his book putting to flight the fiercest enemies, the darkness of my heart. Daniel too girds himself for our aid, instructing and forewarning us about the presence and kingdom of Christ and the future deceit of the Antichrist. Ezekiel too is present, signifying heavenly mysteries to us in the fourfold circles of the wheels and enclosing a wheel within a wheel. Hosea too leads the twelvefold ranks of the prophetic host, and all go forth with their loins girded in the truth which they proclaim to the aid of their own, so that, instructed by their books, we may not be ignorant of the devil’s wiles. These, then, who are strong, armed and girded about the loins with truth, go out to the aid of their brothers and fight with us. But the infants and the women do not go out to our battle. No wonder: for one who does not speak is called an infant. How could he help me who said nothing? What of his do I find to read? Whose word instructs me? But the apostle calls the woman a weaker vessel. Hence, consequently, the weaker vessel does not come to the battle, lest it be broken and perish. So too it is said of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels: “A bruised reed he will not break.” Since, then, women are commanded to be taught by their husbands at home, and are placed in the rank of disciples rather than of teachers, one who cannot teach me, and in whom I find nothing that I ought to imitate or hold, does not come to my aid.

Let us see, then, what those from the land that Moses distributed say to Jesus: “As we heard Moses,” they say, “so we will hear you.” Nothing is so true as that everyone who has heard Moses should hear Jesus our Lord as well. For Moses wrote of him. Hence the Lord too in the Gospel, rebuking them because, since they did not believe him, they did not believe Moses either, says: “If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also; for he wrote of me.” To me, however, this too does not seem idle, that these tribes which are provided for through Moses are not three whole tribes, and those which obtain their inheritance through Jesus not nine whole ones, but two and a half here and nine and a half there; and one tribe is divided into two parts, so that neither here is the number three wholly completed, nor there the number ten perfectly and wholly accomplished. In this I think it is indicated that those earlier men also, who were guided by the law, did touch the knowledge of the Trinity, yet not wholly and perfectly, but in part. For within the Trinity they lacked also the knowledge of the incarnation of the only-begotten of God. For though they believed in his coming, and not only believed but also preached his other dispensations, yet they could not also see and attain what they had believed; as the Lord says of them to his disciples: “Many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” For their faith was not whole, because the dispensation of the flesh had not yet been fulfilled in Christ; and what we now believe as already done and fulfilled, they believed only as future. For this reason, then, those tribes are neither two, lest the fathers be outside the faith and salvation of the Trinity, nor three whole and perfect, lest the sacrament of the blessed Trinity should seem already fulfilled in them. But they touched the third number, and, as the Lord said, they desired to see what we see and to hear what we hear, but could not, because the Son of Man had not yet been lifted up, nor had the fullness of the times yet come. Here something further moves me too. I think that perhaps even at the coming of Jesus and his incarnation we do not yet learn what is perfect and whole; and neither when he is led to the cross and is consummated in all things, nor when he has risen from the dead, will he by himself lay open to us all that is perfect. We still need another who may open and reveal all things to us. Hear the Lord himself saying in the Gospels: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot hear them now. But the Spirit of truth will come, who proceeds from the Father, and he will take of what is mine and will declare all things to you.” You see that not only with Moses is this third number not shown fulfilled, but Jesus too still says to his disciples: You cannot yet hear, unless that Paraclete come, the Spirit of truth; because through him and in him the perfection of the Trinity is fulfilled. For that there are nine and a half tribes which act under the leadership of Jesus, and not a whole ten, the number said to be complete and perfect in all respects, the same reason undoubtedly applies: that what the Lord Jesus says is reserved for the Holy Spirit should seem only half full and halfway. For although through the Lord and Saviour repentance is preached, and conversion from evil to good, and remission of sins is given to all who believe, and all the things that seem to tend toward the perfection of the number ten are completed, yet the perfection and sum of all goods consists in this, that after all these things one is found worthy to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise nothing will be thought perfect in one who lacks the Holy Spirit, through whom the mystery of the blessed Trinity is fulfilled. Do you want me to prove to you still more clearly that among that former people, whom Moses foreshadowed in the two and a half tribes, not all things were whole or perfect? The account written in this very book of Jesus son of Nun shows this too, when it says that the true altar was in the land that Jesus distributed, but those who were beyond the Jordan, that is, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, made themselves an altar — not the true altar, but one that bore the type and form of the true altar which was with Jesus. Do not wonder, then, if those did not receive the whole knowledge of the Trinity who did not build a whole or true altar. And so, too, it is said that not many enemies, nor several kings of the contrary powers, were cast down by them. Only Sihon, it says, king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and the Amalekites they cast down beyond the Jordan. But where Jesus leads the army, now five kings fall together who had fled into caves, and not only fall but are hanged on a tree; now twenty-nine are slain together, and immense multitudes of the hostile army are laid low, and all are exterminated who possess the holy land in uncleanness, who hold the land flowing with milk and honey in the bitterness of malice.

Meanwhile spies are sent by Jesus into Jericho and are received by the harlot Rahab. These spies who are sent before the face of Jesus may also be thought to be angels of God, as it is written: “Behold, I will send my angel before your face, who will prepare your ways.” This was fulfilled invisibly through others, but visibly through John, of whom this very word was written. Indeed, concerning John’s baptism the Lord says that the scribes and Pharisees did not believe him, but the harlots and tax collectors believed and were baptized. So in this too it is fulfilled that the harlot received the spies of Jesus, through whom she is also related to have been snatched away from the destruction of the whole enemy nation.

But let us see at last who this harlot is who is called Rahab. Rahab is interpreted “breadth.” What, then, is this breadth, if not the church of Christ, which is gathered from sinners as from harlotry? And it says: “The place is narrow for me; make room for me, that I may dwell.” “But these, who has brought them up for me?” And again, to her it is said: “Enlarge your tent-pegs and extend your curtains.” This breadth, then, is the one that received the spies of Jesus. I know that once, when discussing in a certain church the two harlots of whom it is written in the third book of Kingdoms, who came to the judgment of Solomon, one of whom had a living infant and the other a dead one, I examined the matter more carefully and said that the harlot was this one, to whom Solomon — not that Solomon, but this one who came to make peace between the things in heaven and those on earth — ordered the living infant to be returned; while the other, who had the dead infant, was the synagogue of that former people, or of those who have turned aside into heresy. There is also another harlot whom in Hosea the prophet is ordered to take, undoubtedly as a figure of the one gathered from the Gentiles. Such, then, is this harlot too said to be who received the spies of Jesus; but once she has received them, she places them in the upper rooms and establishes them in lofty and exalted mysteries. For no one who is sent by Jesus is found below and lying on the ground, but remains in the upper places; and not only does he himself remain in the upper and lofty places, but this harlot too who received them is made, from a harlot, now a prophetess, for she says: “I know that the Lord your God has given you this land.” You see how she who was once a harlot, impious and unclean, is now filled with the Holy Spirit, and confesses things past, believes things present, and prophesies and announces things to come. So, then, Rahab, which is interpreted “breadth,” is enlarged and advances until her sound goes out into all the earth. Japheth too, in a similar way, is interpreted “enlargement”; and he too bore the form of this people that is saved from the Gentiles, and Canaan the boy is made subject to him as a slave by his father, and to his brother Shem, who bears the form of those saved from the circumcision. In this the kindness and providence of God are to be admired, who, to offer a remedy to the sinner Canaan and to confer salvation on him, made him a slave to his brothers, as Esau was made to serve his brother Jacob: not that he might perish, but that by obeying better men he might gain salvation. For it is of the greatest benefit to the wicked, and to sinners who do not know how to conduct themselves rightly, not to be left to themselves, but to become servants of the saints and be subject to better men, so that they may be ruled not by their own bad judgment but by the good judgment of those others. You see how great is the kindness of God, which he hides and conceals from the ears of the crowd and covers with harsher words, lest perhaps the wicked and ungrateful servant become contemptuous when he has understood the exceeding goodness of his Lord.

But let us see what this wise harlot did with the spies. She gives them mystical and heavenly counsel, with nothing earthly in it. “Go away,” she says, “by the mountains”: do not walk through the valleys, flee what is low and cast down, proclaim what is lofty and sublime. And she herself puts a scarlet sign in her house, by which she was to be saved from the destruction of the city. She was to receive no other sign than scarlet, which bore the form of blood. For she knew that there was salvation for no one except in the blood of Christ. This command too is given to her who was once a harlot: “All,” it says, “who are found in your house shall be saved. But as for those who go out of the house, we are free of your oath.” If anyone, then, wants to be saved, let him come into this house of her who was once a harlot. Even if someone of that people wants to be saved, let him come to this house, so that he may obtain salvation. Let him come to this house, in which the blood of Christ is the sign of redemption. For among those who said: “His blood be on us and on our children,” the blood of Christ is for condemnation. For Jesus had been set for the fall and rising of many, and therefore for those who speak against his sign his blood becomes punishment, for those who believe, salvation. Let no one, then, persuade himself otherwise, let no one deceive himself: outside this house, that is, outside the church, no one is saved. For if anyone goes outside, he becomes guilty of his own death. Here blood is the sign, because here is the purification that is accomplished through blood. And that this sign hangs in the window indicates, I think, that a window is what lights a house, and through it we receive not the whole light, but as much as suffices for our eyes and sight. Since, then, the incarnation of the Saviour did not bring before us a pure and complete sight of the Godhead, but through his incarnation made us see the light of the Godhead as through a window, it seems to me that the sign of salvation was given through the window: by this sign all will obtain salvation who are found in the house of her who was once a harlot, washed in water and the Holy Spirit and in the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

To the sinner, indeed, every land is an enemy, as it is written of the Egyptians: the land fought against them, the rivers fought against them, the very air fought against them. But to the righteous man, things that seem inaccessible are made level and easy. The righteous man crosses the Red Sea as if on dry land; but the Egyptian, if he tries to cross, will be drowned, nor will the water become a wall for him on the right hand and on the left. The righteous man, even if he enters a terrible and vast desert, has food supplied to him from heaven. So too in the Jordan, the ark of the covenant was the leader of the people of God. The priestly and Levitical order stands still, and the waters, as if showing a kind of reverence to the ministers of God, check their course and are heaped up in a mass, granting the people of God a way that does them no harm. And do not wonder when these things done for the former people are told to you; to you, Christian, who through the sacrament of baptism have passed through the streams of the Jordan, the divine word promises things far greater and loftier: it promises you a way and a passage through the very air. For hear Paul saying of the righteous: “We shall be caught up,” he says, “in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” There is nothing at all that the righteous man need fear; all creation serves him. Hear, then, how God promises him through the prophet too, saying: “If you pass through fire, the flame will not burn you, for I am the Lord your God.” Every place, then, receives the righteous man, and every creature renders him due service. And lest you think that these things were done among those of former times, but nothing of the kind is done in you who now hear them: all are fulfilled in you according to their mystical meaning. For you who have recently left the darkness of idolatry and desire to come to hear the divine law, you are now for the first time leaving Egypt. When you were added to the number of the catechumens and began to obey the precepts of the church, you crossed the Red Sea; and, placed in the stations of the desert, you give your time daily to hearing the law of God and to beholding the face of Moses unveiled by the glory of the Lord. But if you come to the mystic font of baptism, and, in the presence of the priestly and Levitical order, are initiated into those venerable and magnificent sacraments which are known to those who are permitted to know them, then too, having crossed the Jordan through the ministry of the priests, you will enter the land of promise, in which Jesus receives you after Moses and himself becomes the leader of your new journey. And you, mindful of such great and mighty works of God, that the sea was divided for you and that the water of the river stood still, will turn to them and say: “What ails you, O sea, that you fled, and you, Jordan, that you turned back? You mountains, why did you skip like rams, and you hills like lambs of the flock?” And the divine word will answer you and say: “At the presence of the Lord the earth was shaken, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water and the cliff into springs of water.”

How many things were done before! The Red Sea was crossed on foot, manna was given from heaven, springs burst out in the desert, the law was given through Moses, many signs and wonders were done in the desert, and nowhere is Jesus said to have been exalted. But where the Jordan is crossed, there it is said to Jesus: “On this day I begin to exalt you in the sight of the people.” For Jesus is not exalted before the mystery of baptism; but his exaltation, and his exaltation in the sight of the people, takes its beginning from there. For if all who are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death, and the death of Jesus is completed in the exaltation of the cross, rightly then is Jesus first exalted for each of the faithful when he comes to the mystery of baptism; for so it is also written that God exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Yet the people is led by the priests and makes its way to the land of promise under the guidance of the priests. And who among the priests today is so great and of such a kind that he deserves to be enrolled in that order? For if there is anyone such, the streams of the Jordan will yield to him and the very elements will revere him: part of the waters of the river will spring back and be held in check behind, while part will flee in rapid flow into the salt sea. Yet I think that even this is not written without a mystical reason, that part of the waters of the Jordan sinks into the sea and flows away into bitterness, while part remains in sweetness. For if all who are baptized kept the sweetness of the heavenly grace they had received, and none turned to the bitterness of sins, it would certainly not have been written that part of the river was plunged into the depths of the salt sea. And therefore it seems to me that in these words the variety of the baptized is signified. For we often see it happen (I mention it with grief) that those who receive holy baptism, when they give themselves again to the affairs of the world and the allurements of lust, and drink the salt cup of avarice, are formed in that part of the waters which flows down into the sea and perishes in the salt waves; while the part that remains steadfast and keeps its sweetness signifies those who hold unwaveringly the gift of God they have received. And rightly is there one part of those who are saved, because there is one bread which came down from heaven and gives life to this world, and one faith, and one baptism, and one Spirit with which all are given drink in baptism, and one God, the Father of all. Meanwhile there is the priestly and Levitical order, to show the way to the people of God which has gone out from Egypt. For they are the ones who teach the people to go out from Egypt, that is, from the errors of the world, and to cross the vast desert, that is, to pass through the various kinds of temptation and not be harmed by the serpents, which are the bites of demons, and to avoid the poisons of evil suggestions. And if anyone perhaps has been struck by a serpent in the desert, they are to show him the bronze serpent hung on the cross: whoever looks on what that serpent signified will escape the devil’s poisons through it. It is the priestly and Levitical order that stands by the ark of the covenant of the Lord, in which, without doubt, the law of God is carried, so that they may enlighten the people of God, as the prophet says: “Your word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” This light is kindled by the priests and Levites. But if anyone of this order puts the lamp that has been lit under a bushel, and not on a lampstand so that it may give light to all who are in the house, let him consider what he will do when he begins to render account to the Lord of light for those who, receiving no light from the priests, walk in darkness and are wrapped in the obscurity of sins.

See, then, what it says: “The people,” it says, “was two thousand cubits away from the ark of the covenant.” But the priests and Levites were near, very near indeed, so that the ark of the Lord and the divine testimony were carried on their shoulders. Blessed are those who are found worthy to be near to God. But remember what is written: “Those who draw near to me draw near to fire.” If you are gold or silver and draw near to the fire, you will shine forth through the fire far more splendid and bright. But if you are aware that on the foundation of faith laid in you, you have built wood, hay, straw, then if you draw near to the fire with such a building, you will be consumed. Blessed, then, are those who are near, who are so near that the fire gives them light and does not burn them. Yet Israel too will be saved, but it will be saved from afar, and will make its way not by its own strength but by the help and providence of the priests.

When, then, do they come to the crossing of the Jordan? For I have noticed that this too is not marked without cause, that the time should also be marked: “On the tenth day,” it says, “of the first month.” This is the very day on which the mystery of the lamb was commanded in Egypt. On the tenth of the first month these things were celebrated in Egypt; on the tenth of the first month they enter the land of promise. This seems to me very blessed: that on the very same day on which one has escaped the errors of the world, he should be found worthy to enter the land of promise too, that is, on this day on which we live in this world. For our whole present life is designated as one day. And therefore we are taught through this mystery, that we should not put off our acts and works of righteousness until tomorrow, but today, that is, while we live, while we remain in this world, let us hasten to fulfill all that pertains to perfection; and so at last we will be able to enter the land of promise on the tenth day of the first month, that is, the blessedness of perfection. And if you observe carefully, you will find that very many other things in the narrative of the Scriptures are summed up in this day. Not to extend our sermon about each of them further than we wish, this is to be understood about the fact that this day is so often repeated: that although there is for us one general perfection, yet each single kind of virtue that we undertake to develop, if we can fulfill it wholly and perfectly, has also its own perfection. For example, if one who is irascible desires to acquire the virtue of gentleness, he will doubtless stumble at first in many things, until by long meditation he turns the practice of a long time into nature. And when he has obtained what he set out to obtain, he attains the perfection of gentleness, yet he does not thereby possess the perfection of all the virtues. So, then, many perfections are found in the single virtues. But the general perfection is that which contains in itself the sum of all perfections. That is why many things done on this day are summed up, to signify that many perfections tend to one end, as the prophet too says: “My soul has long been a sojourner.” And again: “While they say to me every day: Where is your God? I remembered these things and poured out my soul within me; for I shall go into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God, with the voice of exultation and confession, the sound of those who feast.” For after the labors and temptations we have endured in the desert of this life, after the crossing of the Red Sea, after the streams of the Jordan, if we are worthy to enter the land of promise, we shall come there with joy and exultation, following the priests of the Lord Christ our Saviour, to whom is glory. Amen.

Of those who crossed the Red Sea the Apostle says that all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Of those who crossed the Jordan we too can declare in a similar way that all were baptized into Jesus in the Jordan, so that the things related as done at the Jordan bear the form of the sacrament that is celebrated through baptism. But what is written, “And the people hastened to cross the Jordan; and it came to pass, when all the people had crossed, the ark of the covenant of the Lord also crossed,” does not seem to me to have been added idly by the Holy Spirit, when he said that the people hastened to cross. Hence I too think that for us also, when we come to saving baptism and receive the sacraments of the word of God, the matter must not be handled idly or sluggishly, but we must hasten and press on until we have crossed everything. For to cross everything is to fulfill everything that is commanded. Let us hasten, then, to cross, that is, first to fulfill what is written: “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” so that, laying aside all arrogance and taking up the humility of Christ, they may be worthy to attain the promised blessedness. But when we have fulfilled this, we must not stand still or cease, but cross the others too that follow, that we may hunger and thirst for righteousness. We must cross what follows, that we may mourn in this world. The rest too must be crossed quickly, that we may become meek and remain peacemakers, so that through this we may be called sons of God. We must also hasten to cross the time of persecutions by the virtue of patience. And when we have gained each of these things that belong to the glory of virtue, not sluggishly or remissly but with all urgency and speed, this seems to me to be crossing the Jordan in haste. But when we have crossed and been able to obtain what we ought to obtain, again there follows the care of diligence and caution, lest perhaps, walking more carelessly, our steps should slip by some unforeseen fall, as the prophet also says: “My steps had nearly slipped.” Nor should our concern be less in keeping the virtues than in acquiring them.

Are not these signified to you in what is said, that forty thousand men girded, or ready for action, crossed over for battle in the sight of the Lord to take the city of Jericho? Let us ask who these are whom Scripture calls girded or ready. I do not dare to presume anything of myself and pronounce on it; let us rather be taught in such matters by the letters of the Apostle. Let us learn from Paul’s exposition who these girded men are. Hear what he says: “Stand, then, having your loins girded with truth.” You see, then, that Paul recognizes as girded those who are girded with the belt of truth. Truth, therefore, ought to be our belt too, if indeed we keep the sacrament of this military service and of its belt. For if truth is our belt, with which we are girded for the service of Christ, whenever we speak falsely and a lie proceeds from our mouth, we are ungirded from the service of Christ and stripped of the sword-belt of truth. So if we are in truth, we are girded; if in falsehood, ungirded. But let us rather imitate these forty thousand girded men who go before into battle in the sight of the Lord, and let us always be girded with truth. Nor shall I pass over idly what Scripture adds, that the girded men go forward in the sight of the Lord. For it is not enough to seem to keep the truth before men. It is possible to deceive men and to seem truthful, but you are not therefore girded with truth unless you keep the truth in the sight of the Lord too, that is, not only in what men hear with the voice, but also in what God sees in the heart, so that nothing false is laid up in the heart, as the prophet says of such men: “Who speak peace with their neighbor, but evil is in their hearts.” One who wishes to go forth girded in the sight of the Lord to take Jericho must be free of all these things, because in crossing the river Jordan we cross over to battles and wars. Do you want to learn again what battles await us, what wars receive us? Do not learn it from me, but again from the apostle Paul himself; he teaches you, saying: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” What is written are forms and figures. For so the Apostle says: “All these things happened to them in figure, but they were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” If, then, they were written for our sake, come, why do you delay? Let us go out to war, that the city of this world’s malice may be taken by us, that the walls of proud sin may be destroyed. Perhaps you look about for the road by which you must advance, for the battlefield you must seek. What I am about to say will perhaps seem new to you, but it is true: look for nothing outside, apart from yourself. Within you is the battle you are to fight; within is the evil building that must be torn down; your enemy proceeds from your own heart. This is not my word but Christ’s. Hear him saying: “For from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.” You see how great and of what kind is the army of your enemies that proceeds against you from your heart? These must be routed by us in the first slaughter, these laid low in the first line of battle. If we can overthrow their walls and cut them down to destruction, so that we leave none of them to bring word or to draw breath, if none of them at all breaks out alive again in our thoughts, then through Jesus that rest will be given us, that each may rest under his vine and under his fig tree, when there is no longer anyone to terrify the sons of Israel.

Yet forty thousand armed men cross the Jordan, girded, in the sight of the Lord for battle, and then Scripture says that “on that day the Lord exalted Jesus in the sight of the whole race of the sons of Israel.” This exaltation may well have belonged to the son of Nun, so that as leader of that people he might be held in honor among those he ruled; but let us see how our Jesus, my Lord, the leader and ruler of this people, is exalted in the sight of the whole race of the sons of Israel. I think that he is always exalted and lofty with the Father. But what is needed is that God should exalt him in our sight. And he is exalted in my sight when the sublimity and loftiness of his divinity is opened to me. When, then, was his lofty divinity revealed to me? Surely then, when I crossed the Jordan and was being armed for the battles to come with the various defenses of the sacraments.

“And they feared Jesus,” it says, “as they feared Moses.” Everyone who is under the law fears Moses; but when he has crossed over from the law to the Gospel, with the change of observance the fear too is changed, as the Apostle says: “For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God; I have been crucified with Christ. And now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

After this the son of Nun is ordered to make knives of stone, and to sit and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. I would like in this place to ask the Jews how anyone can be circumcised a second time with the circumcision of the flesh. For once a man has been circumcised, he has nothing further that could be removed a second time. But by us, to whom it is said that “the law is spiritual,” see how worthily and fittingly these things are explained. For we say that one who has been trained in the law and taught by Moses has cast off the errors of idolatry and laid aside the superstition and worship of images. This is the first circumcision, through the law. But if he comes from the law and the prophets to the faith of the Gospel, then he receives also the second circumcision, through the rock, which is Christ, and what the Lord said to Jesus is fulfilled: “Today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from the sons of Israel.” And as the Apostle said, “They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ,” so we too can fittingly say in this place: They were circumcised by the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. For unless someone has been purified through the Gospel by the second circumcision, he cannot lay aside the reproach of Egypt, that is, the allurements of bodily vices.

Let us see, however, what this is that is said: “Today I have taken away the reproach from the sons of Israel.” All men, even if they come from the law, even if they have been instructed by Moses, still have in themselves the reproach of Egypt, the reproach of sins. Who will be like Paul, even in the observance of the law? Hear him saying: “As to the righteousness which is in the law, I lived blameless.” Yet he declares and says: “For we too were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” Do these not seem to you reproaches, and reproaches of Egypt? But since Christ came and gave us the second circumcision through the baptism of regeneration and purified our souls, we have cast all these away, and in their place have taken up the pledge of a good conscience in the Lord. Then through the second circumcision the reproaches of Egypt were taken away from us and the vices of sins purged. Let no one, then, if he has been wholly converted, if he has repented from the heart, if he has faithfully crossed the streams of the Jordan, if he has been purified by the second circumcision through the Gospel, fear the reproaches of his past offences. You hear that today he has taken away from you the reproach of Egypt. The Lord signifies this too in the Gospels when he says: “Your sins are forgiven you; but now sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.” For if after the remission of sins you sin no more, the reproach of Egypt has truly been taken away from you. But if you sin again, the old reproaches roll back upon you again, all the more because it is a far greater crime to trample on the Son of God and count the blood of the covenant unclean than to neglect the law of Moses. For it is a far greater reproach for one who commits sexual immorality after the Gospel than for one who does so while placed under the law, because he takes the members of Christ and makes them members of a harlot. You see, then, how much heavier and more heaped-up are the reproaches that roll back upon you if you are negligent. Indeed, no one now accuses you of sexual immorality, but condemns you for the crime of sacrilege, because it is said to you: “Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of God? And if anyone violates the temple of God, God will destroy him.” Even if you did not know this before, yet now, since these words are spoken in your ears and teaching of this kind is poured into your heart, know that, having heard these things, you have now been made the temple of God and a member of Christ. See how far you have advanced from being a little man of earth. You have advanced, without doubt, into the temple of God, in which God must dwell; and you who were flesh and blood have advanced so as to be a member of Christ. But as this advance is great, so departure is terrible, and a fall almost beyond remedy. For you may no longer use the temple of God except in holiness, nor turn the members of Christ back to unworthy business. And therefore if ever the allurement of evil desire assails you, remember what you now hear, go out to meet that enemy who proceeds from yourself, that is, from your heart, and resist him with words like these, and say: I am not my own, for I have been bought with the price of the blood of Christ and have been made his member. I may not take a member of Christ and make it the member of a harlot. Tell him: I have been made the temple of God; I may not bring anything unclean in there, nor is it lawful for me to violate the temple of God. And add this too: that he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body — not against this body only, which has been made the temple of God, but also against that of which it is said that the whole church is the body of Christ; and he who has stained his own body is seen to sin against the whole church, because through one member the stain spreads into the whole body. There is also that reproach of Egypt which, if you are negligent, is suggested even after the crossing of the Jordan and after the second circumcision of baptism by the brand of old habit: to observe auguries, to inquire into the courses of the stars and pry from them into the outcome of future events, to watch for omens, and to be entangled in the other superstitions of this kind. For Egypt is the mother of idolatry, and it is certain that reproaches of this kind sprout from it: if you take them up after the Jordan has been crossed and entangle yourself again in these snares, you undoubtedly drag the reproaches of Egypt along with you. But if ever such curiosity accosts you and an enemy of this kind bursts out of your heart, tell him: I follow Jesus as my leader, in whose power are the things to come. What is it to me to know the things to come? Whatever he wills, that will come to pass. Therefore, that the second circumcision may truly be fulfilled in us, through which we lay aside the old reproaches of Egypt, we must be wholly separated from all these things, so that, purified in body and heart, we may lift up pure hands to God, and with pure mouth too, with cleansed lips and sincere mind, glorify God by prayer and by deeds in Christ Jesus our Lord, whose is the power and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Those who were not obedient to the commandments of the Lord are called uncircumcised. From this it is understood that those are called uncircumcised who do not obey the commandments of the Lord. And yet, because God loves every soul, he does not wholly abandon either the circumcised or the uncircumcised. For he sent Jesus to circumcise all together, the worthy and the unworthy — not Jesus the son of Nun, for he did not circumcise the people with a true and perfect circumcision, but Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. For he it is who has truly taken away and cut off from us the pollution of the flesh, and purged the defilements of sins from our heart and soul. Hear, then, what Scripture says of those who were prefigured through the son of Nun: “And the sons of Israel, when they had been circumcised,” it says, “rested in the same place, staying in the camp until they were healed; and then the Lord said to Jesus: This day I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you.” For it is not enough for us to be circumcised; we must also be healed after circumcision, that is, until a scar closes over the wound of the circumcision itself. When, then, does the scar close over the wound of our circumcision? I think that to be circumcised by our Jesus is this: to lay aside our former practices, to cut off foul and disordered habits and whatever is repugnant to the rule of decency and piety. But when we do this at the beginning, we are hampered in a way by the very difficulty of what is new, and as if with a certain labor and pain of mind we change the faults of old habit by new instruction. And therefore, as I said, there is a certain difficulty at the beginning, so that we can only hardly and with pain cut off the first things and take up the second. This, then, seems to me to be the time in which we are said to stay as in the pain of our circumcision, until the scar closes and we are healed. And the scar closes when we now carry out the new practices without difficulty, and what formerly seemed unaccustomed and hard turns into habit for us. And then we are truly said to be healed, when, free of vices, we turn the virtues into nature by new practice. And so at last the divine word rightly says to us what follows: “This day I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you”; because after the reproach of Egypt was taken away, then it is said: “And the sons of Israel kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.” For they could not keep the passover before circumcision, nor eat the flesh of the lamb immediately after circumcision, before they were healed. But after they were healed, it is said that the sons of Israel kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month. You see, then, that no one unclean keeps the passover, no one uncircumcised, but whoever is clean and circumcised, as the Apostle too interprets it, saying: “For Christ our passover has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Moreover, when the people went out of the land of Egypt, it carried dough wrapped in its garments. When the dough had run out and they had no bread, God rained manna on them. But when they came to the holy land and received the fruits of the region of palms, the manna failed them, and then they began to eat of the fruits of the land. So three kinds of food are described in general. One is that which we eat as we go out of the land of Egypt, but this suffices for a short time. After it comes the manna. Third, we now take fruit from the holy land. In these differences (as far as the understanding of my littleness can reach) I think this is indicated: that the first food, which we carried with us when we came out of Egypt, is this slight secular learning, or, if anyone perhaps has attained to a knowledge of liberal letters, that, which can help us a little. But placed in the desert, that is, in the state of life in which we now are, we eat manna, in that we are instructed by the teachings of the divine law. But he who is found worthy to enter the land of promise, that is, to obtain what has been promised by the Saviour, eats the fruits from the region of palms. For truly he will find the fruit of the palm who has conquered the enemy and come to the promises. For it is certain that however great are the things we can now understand or perceive in the law of God or in the divine letters, much more sublime and lofty will be those which, when the enigma ceases, all the saints will be found worthy to see face to face, because “what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, God has prepared for those who love him.” But if the law is to be understood according to the letter alone, the sons of Israel will undoubtedly be found, while they were enjoying better things (for they received manna from heaven), to have received worse things from the promise, since, when the Egyptian food first failed them, the better food, manna from heaven, had followed. And how will it now be thought that when the better food ceased a worse one followed, unless because a greater and truer meaning is found in the spiritual understanding than in the text of the letter? But meanwhile, after Jesus brought the people into the holy land, then, when all had been conquered, he celebrates the passover.

“And it came to pass, when Jesus was in Jericho, that he looked up with his eyes and saw a man standing over against him, and a drawn sword was in his hand. And Jesus came near and said to him: Are you ours, or of our adversaries? And he said: I am the prince of the army of the power of the Lord; now I have come.” He looks up with his eyes, then, and sees the prince of the army of the power of the Lord, as one who had not looked up before, but only then, when he was to see the prince of the army of the Lord. Yet when Jesus had seen him, he did not see him as an ordinary man, but understood that he was a certain power. For he is not yet certain whether the one he sees is one of the divine powers or one of the contrary ones, and therefore he asks and inquires, saying: “Are you ours, or of our adversaries?” And he says: “I am the prince of the army of the power of the Lord; now I have come.” And when he had heard this, Jesus worshipped and said: “Lord, what do you command your servant?” What is it that Jesus teaches us by this? Undoubtedly what the apostle says: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God.” Jesus recognized, then, not only that he is from God, but that he is God. For he would not have worshipped unless he had recognized God. For who else is the prince of the army of the powers of the Lord but our Lord Jesus Christ? For the whole army of heaven, whether angels or archangels, or virtues, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all these, which were made through him, serve as soldiers under him as their prince, who is the prince of princes and who bestows rule on rulers. For he it is who says in the Gospel: “Have authority over ten cities.” And elsewhere: “You, have authority over five cities.” This is he who, having received the kingdom, returned.

But meanwhile let us see what the present reading suggests. Jesus is in Jericho; the enemy still holds the city; they are not yet conquered; and yet it is already said to Jesus: “Loose the shoe from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.” And how is Jericho holy ground, when it is held by the enemy? Perhaps this is what is indicated: that wherever the prince of the army of the power of the Lord comes, he sanctifies the place; for Jericho itself was not a holy place, but because the prince of the Lord’s army came there, the place is called holy. I dare to say something more: that even where Moses stood was not in itself a holy place, but because the Lord stood with Moses, the presence of the Lord had sanctified the place; and therefore it is said to him: “Loose the strap of your shoe, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.” Hence we too, if by our life and merits we approach God and are made worthy that God should stand by us, are told also to loose from the feet of our soul whatever bond of mortality is tied to them. For these are the feet which Jesus washes; and unless he washes them, we will have no part with him. If, then, we loose every bond of mortal care from our soul and senses, God will at once gladly be present with us and stand by us.

But let us see what comes next. Jericho is surrounded; it must be taken. How, then, is Jericho taken? No sword is drawn against it, no ram is aimed at it, no spears are hurled; only the priestly trumpets are used, and by them the walls of Jericho are brought down. For we often find Jericho set in the Scriptures as a figure of the world. For in the Gospel too, the man who is said to have gone down from Jerusalem to Jericho and to have fallen among robbers was undoubtedly a figure of that Adam who was thrust out of paradise into the exile of this world. But the blind men too who were in Jericho, to whom Jesus came to make them see, bore the form of those who were oppressed in this world by the blindness of ignorance, to whom the Son of God came. This Jericho, then, that is, this world, is going to fall. For the consummation of the age has long since been proclaimed in the holy books. How, then, will its consummation be given? By what instruments? “By the sound of trumpets,” it says. What trumpets? Let Paul reveal to you the secret of this mystery. Hear what he says: “The trumpet will sound,” he says, “and the dead who are in Christ will rise incorruptible,” and “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.” Then, therefore, Jesus our Lord will conquer Jericho with trumpets and lay it low, so that from it only the harlot is saved, and all her house. Our Lord Jesus will come, it says, and he will come with the sound of trumpets. But let us pray even now that he may come and destroy the world, which lies in the evil one, and all things that are in the world, because “all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.” May he destroy these things, may he dissolve them very soon; but may he save this one alone, who received his spies, who placed his apostles, received in faith and obedience, in the upper rooms; and may he join and unite this harlot with the house of Israel. But let us no longer bring up or reckon against her the old fault. Once she was a harlot, but now she has been joined as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ. Hear the Apostle saying of her: “I have resolved this very thing, to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ.” He too was of her number who said: “For we too were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, slaves to various desires and pleasures.” Do you want to learn still more fully how the harlot is a harlot no longer? Hear Paul again, saying: “And such indeed you were; but you were washed, you were sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” For so that she might escape and not perish with Jericho, she received from the spies a most powerful sign of salvation, the scarlet cord. For through the blood of Christ this whole church is saved, in Jesus Christ our Lord himself, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Jericho is brought down by the trumpets of the priests. As soon as the blare of the trumpets sounded, the circuit of the walls was thrown down. We said before too that Jericho bears the form of the present age, whose strength and defenses we see destroyed by the priestly trumpets. For the strength and defenses on which this world relied as on walls were the worship of idols, the deceit of divinations managed by the art of demons, the inventions of augurs, soothsayers, and magicians; by all these, as by the strongest walls, this world was surrounded. Besides this, it was fortified too by the various doctrines of the philosophers and their most eminent assertions and disputations, as by lofty and strong towers. But our Lord Jesus Christ, whose coming that earlier son of Nun signified, came and sent his priests, the apostles, carrying hammered trumpets, the magnificent and heavenly doctrine of the preaching. Matthew first sounded the priestly trumpet in his Gospel. Mark too, Luke, and John each sounded their own priestly trumpets. Peter also sounds with the two trumpets of his epistles; James too and Jude. John still adds to these, sounding the trumpet through his epistles and Apocalypse, and Luke, describing the acts of the apostles. But last of all came he who said, “For I think that God has displayed us apostles last,” and thundering with the trumpets of his fourteen epistles, he threw down to their foundations the walls of Jericho, all the engines of idolatry, and the doctrines of the philosophers.

I am moved too by what the account relates, that not only did the priests sound the trumpets so that the walls of Jericho might fall, but also, when the sound of the trumpet was heard, the whole people is said to have howled with a great howl, or, as other copies have it, to have shouted with a great jubilation. And although this word seems to have been translated improperly — for what is written in the Greek properly means neither jubilation nor howling, but rather indicates that cry with which, in time of war, an army raising a united shout is accustomed to urge itself on to battle with one mind — yet in the Scriptures this word has more usually been rendered “jubilation” than “howling,” as there: “Shout with jubilation to the Lord, all the earth.” And again: “Blessed is the people that knows jubilation.” This too has long moved me: what so great a work this is that makes a people blessed. He did not say, “Blessed is the people that knows mysteries,” or “that knows the reckoning of heaven and earth and stars,” but “Blessed,” he says, “is the people that knows jubilation.” In other places the fear of God makes one blessed, but it makes only one man blessed. For so it says: “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord.” Elsewhere several are made blessed, such as the poor in spirit, or the meek, or the peacemakers, or the pure in heart. But here blessedness is poured out, and some cause of blessedness so great is indicated here that it makes the whole people equally blessed — provided that it knows jubilation. Hence this jubilation seems to me to indicate a certain disposition of concord and unanimity. If it falls upon two or three disciples of Christ, the heavenly Father grants them whatever they ask in the name of the Saviour. But if the blessedness is so great that the whole people remains of one heart and one mind, so that all say the same thing, remaining in the same mind and the same judgment, then, when such a people raises its voice with one accord, there will happen what is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that there was a great earthquake where the apostles were praying with one accord with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus; and when the earthquake has come, all earthly things will be destroyed and fall, and the world itself will be overturned. Hear, then, our Lord and Saviour encouraging his soldiers to this very thing, as he says: “Take courage, I have conquered the world.” Under his leadership, then, the world has already been conquered for us, and its walls, on which the men of this age relied, have collapsed. But each of us too must fulfill these things in himself. You have Jesus as your leader within you by faith; make yourself hammered trumpets, if you are a priest — or rather, because you are a priest (for you have been made a royal nation and a holy priesthood; it is of you that this is written) — make yourself hammered trumpets from the holy Scriptures; draw out meanings from them, draw out words from them, for that is why they are called drawn trumpets. Sound with them, that is, sound in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, sound in the prophetic mysteries, in the mysteries of the law, in the teachings of the apostles. And if you sound with such trumpets and carry the ark of the covenant around seven times, that is, if you do not separate the mystical precepts of the law from the trumpets of the Gospel; if you also demand of yourself the harmony of jubilation, that is, that the people of your thoughts and senses that is within you should always utter a voice in concord and harmony, and that you do not sometimes speak the truth and at other times, flattering a powerful person, stain yourself with a lie; if laxity does not sometimes make you fawning and anger at other times savage; if you are not found arrogant toward the lowly and humble before the proud; finally, if no battle is being waged within you, while the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh — if these things now stand firm and agree within you, send forth the voice of jubilation, because the world has been destroyed and thrown down for you. Such, I think, was he who said with confidence: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Yet something in this passage still moves me; I seem to have perceived too little about jubilation, and to have spoken in a lowly way of great things. At the coming of Jesus the walls of Jericho were overthrown; at the coming of my Lord Jesus the world is conquered. Yet how the world is conquered I would like to know more plainly and to understand more clearly what is said. I, then, who teach you, wish to learn together with you. Let us take Paul as our common teacher. For he is the fellow initiate of Christ, who can show us how Christ conquered the world. Hear him, then, saying: “What was contrary to us he took out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and stripping the principalities and powers he made a public example of them, triumphing over them boldly on the wood of the cross.” From these words, then, I understand this: that the heavenly powers, seeing the battle of Jesus, the contrary principalities and powers stripped of their power, the strong man bound and his goods plundered, sounded their heavenly trumpets, because when the prince of this world was bound the world was conquered; and the heavenly army raised the shout of jubilation at Christ’s triumph. Truly blessed, then, is the people of the Gentiles that knows this jubilation of the heavenly army, and that recognizes and believes the mysteries.

But let us see what is indicated in what follows. For Jesus says: “Keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest perhaps you covet and take of the accursed thing and make the camp of the sons of Israel accursed, and destroy us and the whole congregation of the Lord.” What is indicated in these words is this: See that you have nothing worldly in you, that you do not bring worldly habits, vices, or evasions from the world with you into the church. But let all worldly conduct be accursed to you. Do not mix worldly things with divine ones; do not bring the affairs of the world into the secrets of the church. This is what John too sounds with the trumpet of his epistle, saying: “Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world.” And Paul likewise: “Do not,” he says, “be conformed to this world.” For those who do these things take of the accursed thing. But those too who, for example, though they are Christians, celebrate the festivals of the Gentiles bring the accursed thing into the churches. Those who seek out men’s lives and deeds from the courses of the stars, who inquire into the flights of birds and the other things of this kind that were formerly observed in the world, bring the accursed thing from Jericho into the church, pollute the camp of the Lord, and cause the people of God to be conquered. And there are many other sins too by which the accursed thing from Jericho is brought into the church, by which the people of God is conquered and laid low by its enemies. Or does not the Apostle too command these same things, when he says: “A little leaven corrupts the whole lump”?

But let us see now what follows. When Jericho was overthrown, Rahab the harlot alone was saved. For so it is written of her: “And Rahab the harlot and all her father’s house Jesus kept alive, and she was added to Israel until this day.” I would like to ask the Jews, and those who are indeed called Christians but still keep a Jewish sense in the Scriptures, how they explain that Rahab the harlot was added to the house of Israel until this day. How is Rahab said to have been added until this day? For it is the custom of holy Scripture to say this of things that last until the end either of life or of the age. For example, it says: “He is the father of the Moabites until this day,” which means until the end of the age. And again it is said in the Gospel that “this saying has been spread abroad among the Jews until this day,” that is, as long as the age stands. But how is Rahab the harlot said to have been added to the house of Israel until this day? Is the succession of descendants credited to the mother, so that she seems to be preserved in the renewal of her offspring? Or is it rather to be understood that she has been joined and united to the true Israel until this day? And if you want to see more clearly how Rahab is joined to Israel, look at how a branch of the wild olive is grafted into the root of the good olive, and you will understand how those who have been grafted into the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are rightly said to have been joined and added to Israel until this day: because we, branches of the wild olive taken from the Gentiles, who once played the harlot, worshipping wood and stone in place of God, have been grafted into their root until this day; and through faith in Christ we have been made the upper, while that people which remained in unbelief has been made the lower, according to the prophecy of Deuteronomy. If anyone, then, has Christ in himself, who is the head of all, he is made the head; for they denied Christ Jesus and were made the tail, and those who were first have become last.

But this too is not to be passed over idly, that when one man sinned, wrath came upon the whole people. When does this happen? When the priests who preside over the people wish to seem kind toward offenders, and, fearing the tongues of sinners lest perhaps they speak ill of them, forget priestly severity and are unwilling to fulfill what is written: “Rebuke the sinner before all, so that the rest may have fear”; and again: “Remove the evil from among yourselves.” Nor, kindled with zeal for God, do they imitate the Apostle, who says: “I have delivered such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved.” Nor are they eager to fulfill that command of the Gospel, that if they see someone sinning, they should first meet him privately, and then also before two or three witnesses; and if he despises this and is not corrected after the rebuke of the church, they should hold him, expelled from the church, as a Gentile and a tax collector. And while they spare one, they bring about the ruin of the whole church. What kind of kindness is this? What kind of mercy is this, to spare one and bring all into danger? For the people is polluted by one sinner. As the whole flock is infected by one diseased sheep, so too when one person commits sexual immorality or any other crime, the whole congregation is polluted. And therefore let us watch over one another, and let the conduct of each be known, above all to the priests and ministers. Nor let them think they are right to say: What concern is it of mine if another does wrong? That is as if the head should say to the feet: What concern is it of mine if they hurt? If my feet are in a bad way, it is no business of mine, so long as the head stays healthy. Or as if the eye should say to the hand: I do not need your work; what concern is it of mine if you hurt? If you are wounded, shall I, the eye, be troubled by the sickness of the hand? Such, then, is what those do who preside over churches, not considering that all of us who believe are one body, having one God who binds and holds us together in unity, Christ, of whose body you who preside over the church are the eye, surely so that you may look around at everything, survey everything, and foresee even what is to come. You are a shepherd; you see the little sheep of the Lord, unaware of danger, carried toward cliffs and hanging over steep places: do you not run to meet them? Do you not call them back? Do you not at least restrain them with your voice and deter them with the cry of rebuke? Are you so forgetful of the Lord’s sacrament that, while he left the ninety-nine in heaven and came down to earth for the one little sheep that had strayed, and when he had found it carried it on his shoulders to heaven, we should in nothing at all follow the example of the master shepherd in caring for the little sheep? We do not say this so that anyone should be cut off for a slight fault; but if perhaps someone, warned and rebuked for an offence once, twice, and a third time, shows no amendment, let us use the discipline of the physician. If we have anointed with oil, if we have soothed with plasters, if we have softened with poultices, and yet the hardness of the swelling does not yield to the medicines, the only remedy left is to cut it away. For so the Lord says: “If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you.” Does a hand of our body ever cause us to stumble, so that the Gospel should say of this bodily hand: “Cut it off and throw it away from you”? But this is what it means: that if I, who seem to be your right hand, and am called a presbyter, and seem to preach the word of God, do anything against the discipline of the church and the rule of the Gospel, so as to cause scandal to you and to the church, then let the whole church, agreeing with one consent, cut me off, its right hand, and throw me away from itself. For it is better for you, the church, to enter the kingdom of heaven without me, your hand, who by doing evil caused scandal, than to go with me into Gehenna. We have said these things because we see it related in the holy Scriptures that on account of one sinner the sons of Israel became accursed, so that they were conquered by their enemies.

But let us see what his sin itself was like: “He stole,” it says, “a tongue of gold and put it in his tent.” I do not think there was such force of sin in that theft of a little gold that it stained so numerous a church of the Lord. But let us see whether perhaps the great and grievous bitterness of this sin is a matter for the inner understanding. There is much charm in words, and much beauty in the discourses of philosophers and rhetoricians, who are all of the city of Jericho, that is, men of this world. If, then, you find among the philosophers perverse doctrines adorned with the assertions of splendid speech, that is the tongue of gold. But see that the brilliance of the work does not deceive you, that the beauty of the golden speech does not carry you away: remember that Jesus commanded that all the gold found in Jericho should be accursed. If you read a poet weaving gods and goddesses in measured verses and a very splendid song, do not take delight in the sweetness of the eloquence: it is a tongue of gold. If you take it up and put it in your tent, if you bring into your heart the things asserted by them, you will pollute the whole church of the Lord. This the unhappy Valentinus did, and Basilides; this Marcion the heretic did too. These men stole tongues of gold from Jericho and tried to bring into the churches the sects of the philosophers, which are not right for us, and to pollute the whole church of the Lord. But let us follow the example of the Fathers who went before us; let us examine more carefully lest anyone have a tongue from Jericho hidden in his tent, and let us cast out the evil from among ourselves; for even if we leave off, God will convict him, so that he himself will confess of his own accord and say: “I stole a tongue of gold and pure bracelets.” You see what kind of theft he committed? He steals a tongue and pure bracelets. Pure bracelets are works in which nothing divine is mixed, but the whole is done according to man. Indeed, it is our custom too in our disputations to say that we do not call Christ a pure man, but confess him to be God and man. But what is stolen from Jericho is said to be pure, that is, without God, and this was indeed the cause of sin for the thief. And therefore let us think nothing pure and merely human of Christ, but confess him equally God and man, because the wisdom of God too is called manifold; so that through this we may be found worthy to receive a share in the wisdom of God, who is Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

We beseech you, hearers of the sacred books, not to listen with weariness or distaste to what is read because its narrative seems less delightful. For you ought to know that what is read is indeed worthy of the utterance of the Holy Spirit; but to explain it we need the grace of the Holy Spirit, the grace of which the Apostle says: “To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit.” We too, then, need this in the present passages, in which it is related that Jesus succeeded Moses and himself leads the people; and in the present reading an account of the following kind is sketched. Those who lived in the city of Ai at first seemed to conquer and rout the sons of Israel because of the sin they had committed. But after the evil was removed from their midst, Jesus, the leader of the people, is commanded by God to divide the people into two parts, so that one part should feign flight, while the other remained in ambush, by which Ai would be deceived when Jesus gave the command. When this had been so arranged, the king of Ai, seeing Jesus and the sons of Israel from afar, is roused to battle against them. And as they feigned flight, the men of Ai pursued them more fiercely, and, as if about to carry off spoil from their enemies, all went out of the city together, so that, as Scripture says, they left the city empty. But after they had advanced to the appointed place, Jesus turned and gave the signal for those in ambush to rise up and cut down the enemy from behind; and so, the one group behind and the other in front, they shut in the enemy between them and destroy them all. And in this way, when the inhabitants of Ai had been conquered, they hanged their king on a double tree.

When they have heard these things, the hearers are likely to say: What is this to me? What does it profit me to know that the inhabitants of Ai were conquered, as though similar or even greater wars had not been fought, or were not being fought? Was this the concern of the Holy Spirit, that, leaving out the destruction of so many and such great and famous cities, the taking of the town of Ai should be committed to writing in the sacred books? Perhaps what we are doing is rash, in trying to explain such steep and difficult places of holy Scripture; but if you help us with your prayers, not only shall we escape the charge of boldness, but God, the Father of the Word, embracing our devotion, will give a word when we open our mouth, by which you will be edified and we will not appear lacking in devotion. Praying, then, and with attentive minds, listen. At first we were conquered because of our sins, and the inhabitants of Ai killed very many of us. Ai is interpreted “chaos.” And we know that chaos is the place or dwelling of the contrary powers, whose king and prince is the devil. Coming against him, Jesus divides the people into two parts, and sets some in the front and others in the rear, who come unexpectedly behind the backs of the enemy. And see whether the first part of the people is not that of which he says, “I came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and of which Paul says, “Grace and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and then also to the Greek,” that is, to the Gentile who comes later. This, then, is the people that is placed first and that, as it were, flees with Jesus. But the later people is that gathered from the Gentiles; coming unexpectedly (for who would have hoped that the Gentiles would be saved?), they cut down the adversaries fiercely from behind; and so both peoples lay low and conquer the band of demons shut in between them. But perhaps you will say to me: How, then, is the earlier people represented as fleeing? Very fittingly. For those who follow Jesus were seen to flee from the burdens and precepts of the law, from the observance of the sabbath, from the circumcision of the flesh, from the slaughter of victims. But again, he has not fled who has followed Christ, the perfection and fullness of the law.

After all this, the king of Ai too is said to have been hanged on a double tree. In this place a mystery is covered which is hidden from very many; but with your prayers we will try to open it, not by our own opinions but by the testimonies of divine Scripture. We said above that the king of Ai can be compared to the devil; here it is worth knowing clearly how he was hanged on a double tree. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was double. Perhaps what I say seems strange and new to you, that the cross was double, that is, that it has a double and twofold meaning: because visibly the Son of God was crucified in the flesh, but invisibly on that cross the devil with his principalities and powers was nailed to the cross. Will this not seem true to you if I produce the apostle Paul as witness to these things? Hear, then, what he declares about them: “What was contrary to us,” he says, “he took out of the way, nailing it to his cross; stripping the principalities and powers, he made a public example of them, triumphing over them boldly on the wood of the cross” — although in other copies it has “triumphing in himself,” among the Greeks it has “on the wood.” There is, then, a twofold meaning of the Lord’s cross: the one of which the apostle Peter speaks, that Christ, being crucified, left us an example; and this second one, by which that cross was a trophy over the devil, on which he was both crucified and triumphed over. That is why the apostle Paul too said: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” You see that here too the Apostle has set forth a twofold meaning of the cross. For he said that two things contrary to each other were crucified: himself, a saint, and the sinful world, undoubtedly after the pattern of Christ and the devil which we stated above. For we are crucified to the world when the prince of this world comes and finds nothing in us. And the world is crucified to us when we do not admit the desire of sin.

But if perhaps one of the hearers is more attentive, he can say: The pattern of the events does seem fitting, but this still troubles me: as far as the figure of the account shows, the devil and his army were destroyed; how is it, then, that we see the devil and the contrary powers still so strong against the servants of God that even the apostle Peter warns with great caution and says we must watch, because “our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour”? Let us see, then, whether in this too we can find something worthy of the utterances of the Holy Spirit. One coming of Christ has been fulfilled in humility; another is awaited in glory. And this first coming in the flesh is called in the holy Scriptures, in a certain mystical language, his shadow, as the prophet Jeremiah also proclaims, saying: “The breath of our face, Christ the Lord, of whom we said: In his shadow we shall live among the nations.” And Gabriel too, bringing Mary the good news of his birth, says: “The power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Because of this we understand that very many things are foreshadowed in this first coming of his, whose fulfillment and perfection will be accomplished in the second coming. And the apostle Paul says that “he raised us up with him and made us sit together in the heavenly places.” And certainly we do not yet see believers either already raised up or seated in heaven; but these things are now foreshadowed through faith, because in mind and hope we are lifted up from earthly and dead works and daily raise our heart to heavenly and eternal things; this will be fulfilled at his second coming, so that what we have now anticipated by faith and hope we may then hold bodily, in actual fact. So, then, it must be understood of the devil too that he has indeed been conquered and crucified, but for those who have been crucified with Christ; for all believers, however, and for all peoples alike, he will be crucified then, when what the Apostle says is fulfilled: that “as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” In this, then, there is also a mystery of the future resurrection. For then too the people will be divided into two parts, and then too some will be first and others last; and when they have come together to Jesus as one, then there will no longer be any devil at all, because there will no longer be death. Do you want us to prove this too to you by divine testimonies? Hear the Apostle saying: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not go before those who have fallen asleep; for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead who are in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” And speaking of the devil, he says: “The last enemy, death, will be destroyed”; for death will truly be conquered then, when this mortal is swallowed up by life.

But let us see what follows next: “And Jesus burned Ai,” it says, “and it became a city that is not inhabited forever.” You see that what follows belongs more to the truth of the mystery than to that of the history. For that place on earth is not so much uninhabitable forever as the place of the demons will be uninhabitable, when no one will sin any longer and sin will not reign in anyone, when the devil and his angels will be handed over to the eternal fire, while our Lord Jesus Christ sits as king and judge and says to those who conquered, the earlier and the later: “Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you by my Father.” But to others he will say: “Go into the eternal fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels,” until he provides for every soul by the remedies that he knows, and all Israel is saved.

But something else occurs to me in this place as I consider Jesus fleeing before the army of Ai. What do you think Jesus in flight signified? Let us see whether perhaps there is something that we conquer by fleeing, and whether there is a certain perfect virtue in flight. The apostle Paul teaches us, saying: “Flee sexual immorality.” You see, then, that there is a certain spirit of sexual immorality that we must flee, all of us who wish to remain chaste, devout, and pure in Christ. This, then, is the flight that brings salvation; this flight belongs to virtue; this flight confers blessedness. And not only must the spirit of sexual immorality be fled; but in the same way that it was said, “Flee sexual immorality,” let us hear it said to us: Flee anger, flee avarice, flee evil-speaking. Yet I do not know whether anyone escapes these, whether anyone gets away. Such was the army of Ai which Jesus taught his soldiers to flee; and perhaps it is about these that he commands his disciples, saying: “If they persecute you in this city, flee to another; and if in another, flee to another.” For he wants us to flee from enemies of this kind; he wants us to be far removed from evils of this kind. And if meanwhile we can escape the contagion of these evils by fleeing, then all the holy powers, seeing our devotion and the purpose of our mind — perhaps those of which the apostle Paul says, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”, who are perhaps the holy angels — seeing that we suffer the pursuit of the demons, rise up against those who pursue us and destroy them all, cutting them down from behind. For Jesus is with those who suffer pursuit rather than with those who pursue. And rightly, for Jesus delights to be with those who flee sexual immorality, who flee pride, who flee deceit, and who flee lying. If, then, we understand what is written in this way, the reading will perhaps seem worthy of the pen of the Holy Spirit. For what does it profit me to know that the king of Ai was hanged on a double tree? But if I know that the power of the cross is twofold, on which both Christ is hanged in the flesh and the devil with his army is triumphed over, my soul will be edified by understanding the mystery. And, that we may perhaps extend the breadth of the mystery still more loftily, in this tree is understood the knowledge of good and evil, on which both the good one, Christ, and the evil one, the devil, hung: the evil one so that he might perish, the good one so that he might live by power, as the Apostle too says of Christ, that “he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God”; indeed, not only that he might live, but that he might also give life, because he himself is the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. But these things are to be understood as said figuratively. For Christ himself is called the tree of life. But just as in other places he is shown to be both priest and victim and altar, and one understanding is not hindered by another, but each is perceived figuratively of him in its own place, so now too, in the figures of the mysteries, a diversity of persons drawn from one and the same thing will be no hindrance.

But let us see what is also written in what follows: “And they struck them,” it says, “with the edge of the sword, until none of them was left who was saved, nor any who escaped.” When the Jews read these things, they become cruel and thirst for human blood, thinking that the saints too struck those who lived in Ai in such a way that none of them was left who was saved, nor any who escaped; they do not understand that mysteries are foreshadowed in these words, and that what is indicated to us is rather this: that of those whose dwelling is chaos and who have reigned in the abyss, the demons, we must leave none at all, but destroy them all. And we destroy the demons, not by destroying their substance itself; but because their work and endeavor is this, to make men sin, and this is their life, that we should sin, without doubt their destruction comes if we do not sin. All the saints, then, kill the inhabitants of Ai and destroy them and do not let one of them go: those, undoubtedly, who guard their heart with all diligence, that evil thoughts may not proceed from it, and who also keep watch over their mouth, that no evil word may proceed from their mouth. This is to leave none to escape, when not even an evil word escapes them. Come, then, you too, let us prepare ourselves for battles of this kind; let us strike Ai with the edge of the sword and wipe out all its inhabitants, all the contrary powers. Would that I too, now while I speak the word of God to you, could strike the heart of sinners! If I do so, it is certain that with the sword of my mouth I shall strike sexual immorality, strike malice, check rage, and whatever other evils there are I shall wipe out with the edge of the sword, that is, with the word of my mouth, and leave none of them that is saved or that escapes. For if we wipe out all these enemies of ours, then we shall truly celebrate a feast to God, and, our adversaries conquered, we shall rejoice in a glad solemnity. Something of this kind seems to me to be signified by the holy prophet too in the Psalms, where he says of himself: “In the mornings I killed all the sinners of the land, to destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity.” For whether the city of the Lord is taken to be the church of the living God — the teachers cast out of the church and kill those who work iniquity, the contrary demons and adverse powers who drive men to sin, by teaching, instructing, and unlocking the mysteries hidden in the divine letters, from places such as those in which we now are; or whether we understand the city of the Lord to be the soul of each of us, which is built by the Lord from living stones, that is, from various and diverse virtues — from this city too every holy and diligent person casts out the sinners, that is, kills the worst thoughts and depraved desires in the morning. For the righteous man says: “In the mornings I meditated on you, because you have been my helper.” What is this morning, if not our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true light, and who, rising in our hearts, enlightening the darkness of our ignorance and revealing to us mysteries of this kind, makes us see light in his light? If, then, you ever read in the holy Scriptures of the battles of the righteous, of the slaughter and carnage of the slain, and that the saints spare no enemies at all — indeed, that if they did spare any, it was counted to them as sin, as it was counted to Saul, who had kept Agag king of Amalek alive — understand the wars of the righteous in the way we have explained above, because these wars are waged by them against sin. And how will the righteous remain righteous if they keep even a little sin in themselves? That is why it is said of them that they did not leave even one who was saved or who escaped. Perhaps you will not believe me that a battle against sin is enjoined on us; believe Paul when he says: “You have not yet resisted to the point of blood against sin.” You see that a battle against sin is set before you, and that this battle must be fought to the point of shedding blood? Or does not divine Scripture show this plainly in those places where it is its custom to say, “Sanctify war,” and, “You shall fight the battle of the Lord”? For what else is it to sanctify war than, when all the enemies of our soul, which are the vices of sins, have been slain, and the members that are on the earth have been put to death and all evil desires cut off, to be made holy in body and spirit, and, acting bravely, to come into the sight of the living God and, as the palm of victory, to be crowned for the merit of virtue by Christ Jesus our Lord? To whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

After Jesus overthrew Ai, that is, chaos, it was fitting to offer to the most high God of all some gift worthy of so great a victory. Let us see, then, what it is that he does after the victory: “Jesus built,” it says, “an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, and made it as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the sons of Israel. And it is written in the law of Moses that an altar is to be made of whole stones on which no iron has been laid.” And after Jesus had made the altar, “he placed holocausts on it to the Lord and offered a sacrifice of salvation; and after the sacrifice Jesus wrote Deuteronomy, the law of Moses, on the stones, and wrote it before the sons of Israel; and all the elders of Israel, and the judges, and their scribes went before the ark of the covenant of the Lord on this side and on that.” Let us see, then, what is indicated in all these things, and what edification the present reading gains for us. All of us who believe in Jesus Christ are said to be living stones, as Scripture declares, saying: “But you are living stones, built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And just as with these earthly stones we know it is the practice that the stronger and more powerful stones are laid first in the foundations, so that the weight of the whole building can be entrusted to them and set upon them; that the next ones, that is, those a little inferior to them, are arranged next to those in the foundation; that those still more inferior are placed a little higher above the foundations; and then, by comparison, that the weaker stones are placed in the upper parts, near the very top of the roof — so now understand also of the living stones that some are in the foundations of this spiritual building. Who are those placed in the foundations? The apostles and prophets. For so Paul says, teaching this himself: “Built,” he says, “upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus our Lord himself being the chief cornerstone.” And that you may prepare yourself more readily, O hearer, for the construction of this building, so as to be found a stone nearer to the foundation, learn that Christ himself is the foundation of this building which we have now described. For so the apostle Paul says: “For no one can lay any foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.” Blessed, then, are those who build devout and holy buildings on so noble a foundation. But in this building of the church there must also be an altar. Hence I think that all those among you, the living stones, who are fit and ready for this, to give themselves to prayers and to offer petitions to God day and night and sacrifice the victims of supplication, are the ones from whom Jesus builds the altar.

But observe what praise is given to these very stones of the altar. “As Moses the lawgiver said,” it says, “the altar is to be built of whole stones on which no iron has been laid.” Who do you think these whole stones are? Each one’s conscience knows who is whole, who is uncorrupted, unpolluted, unstained in flesh and in spirit; who is the one on whom no iron has been laid, that is, who has not received the fiery darts of desire from the evil one but has quenched and repelled them with the shield of faith; or who is the one who has never received the iron of fighting, the iron of war, the iron of quarrels, but has always been peaceable, always quiet and meek, formed by the humility of Christ. These, then, are the living stones from which Jesus our Lord built an altar of whole stones on which no iron has been laid, so that he might offer on them holocausts and a sacrifice of salvation. I think that perhaps such whole and undefiled stones may be the holy apostles, all together making one altar because of their unanimity and concord. For so it is related that all, praying together with one accord, opened their mouth and said: “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all.” These, then, who were able to pray with one mind, with one voice and one Spirit, are perhaps worthy to build together one altar, on which Jesus may offer sacrifice to the Father. Yet let us too try to take pains that we all say the same thing with one accord, thinking one thing, doing nothing through contention or vainglory, but remaining in one mind and the same judgment, if perhaps we too can be made stones fit for the altar. For Jesus our Lord does not desert us; but although, when we give ourselves to prayer, we do not know what to pray for as we ought, yet the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings. And “the Lord is the Spirit.” If, then, the Spirit helps our prayers and offers them to the Father, the God of all, with groanings that we cannot express, it is certain that he also carefully seeks from us the building of the altar.

But the adornment of the altar is not yet complete, even if it is built of whole stones, even if no iron and no darts of the evil one are found laid on them; something is still lacking, and there is still something that Jesus adds to all these. What is that? “Jesus wrote,” it says, “on the stones of the altar Deuteronomy, the law of Moses, and wrote it in the sight of the sons of Israel.” However the son of Nun may then have been able to write the law on the stones of the altar, and to sketch types as far as he could, let us meanwhile see how our Jesus wrote Deuteronomy, which is called, as it were, the second giving of the law, on living and whole stones. If, then, you want to see how, the first law having been weakened, Jesus writes the second law, hear him saying in the Gospels: “It was said to those of old: You shall not kill. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is a murderer.” And again: “It was said to those of old: You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you: If anyone looks at a woman to desire her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And: “It was said to those of old: You shall not swear falsely. But I say to you: Do not swear at all.” You see the Deuteronomy that Jesus wrote on living and whole stones, not on tablets of stone but on fleshly tablets of the heart, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. And if you want to know more clearly in which hearts Jesus wrote the law and in which he did not, let the authority of the Scriptures reveal this too to you, so that you who have been called from the Gentiles may take comfort and not be afraid of the boasting of those who glory that they received the law of Moses written on tablets and pages. Hear, then, in whose hearts the Lord Jesus wrote the law. Paul says: “For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness.” If, then, you see Gentiles come to Jesus, believe in him, and fulfill the work of the law, which those who had received the law could not fulfill, do not hesitate to say of them that Jesus wrote Deuteronomy on these whole stones.

I am indeed moved by what Scripture added next: “And Jesus wrote,” it says, “Deuteronomy on the stones before the sons of Israel.” How he could write so large a book while the sons of Israel stood by and stayed there, without leaving until the writing of so many words was finished, or how the stones of the altar could hold the contents of so large a book — let those champions of the letter, the Jews, who do not know the spirit of the law, tell me. How is the truth of the history shown in this? But among them, to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. For us, however, who have turned to the Lord Jesus, the veil is taken away, because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom of understanding. Our Lord Jesus, then, does not need much time to write Deuteronomy, to fix the second law in the hearts of believers and seal the law of the spirit in the minds of those who are worthy to be chosen for the building of the altar. For as soon as anyone has believed in Jesus Christ, the law of the Gospel is written in his heart, and written in the sight of the sons of Israel. For when the sacrament of faith was handed on to you, there were present the heavenly powers, the ministries of the angels, the church of the first-born. For if we rightly understand that Israel means “a mind seeing God,” this is most rightly said rather of the ministering angels, according to the Lord’s saying about little children — and you too were a little child in baptism — that “their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” Before these sons of Israel, then, who were present at that time when the sacraments of faith were handed on to you, and who see the face of God, Jesus wrote Deuteronomy in your heart. Do you want us to prove to you still more clearly from the holy Scriptures that Jesus writes the second law before the sons of Israel? The Apostle plainly shows it to the Hebrews, saying: “For you have not come to the sound of a trumpet and a burning mountain, but you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the church of the first-born enrolled in heaven, and a multitude of angels praising God.” You see, then, that before all these, who are rightly called sons of Israel because they always see God, Jesus writes his law in the hearts of believers. And now too, through these things that we are saying, Jesus writes Deuteronomy in the hearts of those who receive what is said with whole faith and whole mind, who hear and keep what is said with whole hearing and a whole heart, and not with a corrupt and reprobate sense regarding the faith; for Deuteronomy must be written on whole stones.

After this he says: “And all Israel,” it says, “and the elders and judges and scribes went before the ark of the covenant of the Lord on this side and on that.” The ark of the covenant of the Lord is that in which the tablets of the law written by the hand of God are kept. And around this ark of the covenant everyone who is truly Israel walks, and is not far from it. But the Levites and priests even carry it on their shoulders. For whoever live with priestly devotion and holiness — not only those who seem to sit in the priestly assembly, but rather those who act as priests, whose portion is the Lord and who have no share on earth — these are truly the priests and Levites of the Lord, who carry the law of God on their shoulders, that is, by acting and fulfilling in deed what is written in the law.

“And also the proselyte,” it says, “and the native together; and half of them were by Mount Gerizim and half by Mount Ebal.” How shall we explain these things too? Truly we need the help of God to explain who are the half who walked by Mount Gerizim, and who are the half who, although they too are saved, could not walk by Mount Gerizim but walk by Mount Ebal. Mount Gerizim holds the blessings, but Mount Ebal the curses that threaten sinners. For, as it is written in Deuteronomy, they set six tribes on Mount Gerizim to bless, and these the nobler and more distinguished tribes, namely Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; and the other six, less noble, to curse: among them Reuben, who went up to his father’s bed and defiled his father’s couch, and Zebulun, who is the last son of Leah.

These things relate the deeds of ancient history; but how shall we refer this narrative of history to a mystical understanding, so as to show who those are who walk by Mount Gerizim and who those are who walk by Mount Ebal? I see it in this way: there are two kinds of those who by faith hasten and hurry toward salvation. One is of those who, kindled with desire for the heavenly promises, strive with the greatest zeal and diligence that not even one blessedness, the least, should pass them by, desiring not only to receive the blessing and to be made part of the lot of the saints, but also to stand in the sight of God and to be always with the Lord. But there are others who also tend toward salvation, but are not so much inflamed with love and desire for the blessings as they have this rather in view, so that they say: It is enough for me not to go to Gehenna; it is enough for me not to be sent into the eternal fire; it is enough for me not to be cast out into the outer darkness. Since, then, there is such variety of purpose among the faithful, this seems to me to be signified in this place: that the half who walk by Mount Gerizim, which was chosen for the blessings, signify in particular those who come to salvation not from fear of punishment but from desire for the blessings and promises. But the half who walk by Mount Ebal, on which the curses were pronounced, signify those others who come to salvation by fulfilling what is written in the law from fear of evils and dread of punishments. Here it now belongs to God alone to know, out of all of us sons of Israel, who is the one who, kindled with desire for the good itself, does what is good, and who of us tends toward the good from fear of Gehenna and terror of the eternal fire, and is eager and hastens to fulfill what is written. It is certain that those are nobler who do what is good out of desire for the good itself and love for the blessings than those who pursue the good from fear of evil. Jesus alone, then, is the one who can discern minds and spirits of this kind out of the whole people, and set some on Mount Gerizim for the blessings and others on Mount Ebal for the curses — not that they may receive the curses, but that, looking on the curses written beforehand and the punishments appointed for sinners, they may beware of incurring them.

After this it is related that Jesus read all the words of the law, that is, the blessings and the curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law, and there was not one word of all that Moses had commanded which Jesus did not read before the whole assembly of the sons of Israel. The explanation of the history is easy, how the son of Nun read all the words of the law that Moses wrote before the whole assembly of the sons of Israel; but to show how our Lord Jesus does this for his people does not seem to me idle. And I think that whenever Moses is read to us, and by the grace of the Lord the veil of the letter is removed, and we begin to understand that the law is spiritual — that, for example, when the law says, “You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain,” it spoke not of oxen but of the apostles; and again, when it is said in the law that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman, I understand in these two covenants and two peoples — this law, understood in this way (which Paul calls spiritual), the Lord Jesus reads to us, and he it is who recites these things in the ears of the whole people, commanding us not to follow the letter that kills but to hold to the spirit that gives life. Jesus reads the law to us, then, when he reveals to us the secrets of the law. For we who belong to the catholic church do not despise the law of Moses, but receive it, provided that Jesus reads it to us. For so we will be able to understand the law rightly, if Jesus reads it to us, so that as he reads we may grasp its sense and meaning. Or are we not to think that he had taken his sense from there who said, “But we have the mind of Christ, that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which we also speak,” and those who said, “Did not our heart burn within us while he opened the Scriptures to us on the road?” when, beginning from the law of Moses up to the prophets, he read them all and revealed what was written about himself. Yet a wonderful figure of speech is shown in what is written, when it says: “There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Jesus did not read in the ears of the whole church of Israel.” And first let us see what it signifies that he read it in their ears. I fear that perhaps our sermon may offend some of the hearers; but still it must be said that not all of us who hear the law belong to the church of the sons of Israel; yet it does not follow, if there is some difference between the hearers of the law and the church of the sons of Israel, that the hearer is excluded from salvation.

Pay attention, then, more carefully to the words of Scripture, which says: “There was not one word of all that Moses commanded which Jesus did not read in the ears of the whole church of the sons of Israel.” And it adds: also to the women and infants and proselytes. For our Lord Jesus knows that there are other ears besides these fleshly ones, and these he requires for hearing his words and for hearing the law. Hence in the Gospel too, after he had taught each thing that was needed, he adds and says: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” If he had said this of fleshly ears, it would seem superfluous. For no one without ears had come together to hear his words. But since he knew that what was said had to be received in the ears of the inner man, that is, in the understanding of the heart (for what profit is it to hear a sermon if it is not retained and kept in the heart?), he therefore asked his hearers for ears. This, then, we say now too, following the authority of Scripture, whether when the Scriptures are read in the church or when a sermon of explanation is delivered to the people: see that the words of the law are indeed read by Jesus, but are not read to very many; for Jesus reads the law to those who have ears to hear. And as to his adding women, infants, and proselytes to the church of the Lord: if we understand the women, infants, and proselytes separately and regard them as a kind of retinue of the church — since in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay — we say that strong food is given to strong men, namely to those of whom the Apostle says, “But solid food is for the perfect,” and from whom he prepares for himself a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but those whom he sets apart under the name of women or infants or proselytes, let us understand to be those who still need milk, or who, like the weak (as women are), eat vegetables. But if the whole church is taken together, the men are understood to be those who, perfect in all things, know how to stand armed against the wiles of the devil; the women, those who do not yet do what is useful of themselves, but by imitating the men and following their examples; hence they are also said to have a head: “For the head of the woman is the man.” The infants will be those who, having recently received the faith, are nourished with the milk of the Gospel. And the proselytes will be the catechumens, or those who are now eager to be joined to the faithful. John too, thinking similar things about each of these, writes in his epistle and assigns to each age its own deeds. But as Jesus recites the law to you and reveals the spiritual understanding to your hearts, do not remain proselytes, that is, catechumens, any longer, but hasten to receive the grace of God, so that you too may be numbered in the church of the sons of Israel. And you, infants, do not be children in understanding, but be infants in malice, and in understanding be mature, as the Apostle also says to the Hebrews: “Leaving the word of the beginnings of Christ, let us go on to perfection.” And you too who, under the name of women, are weak and slack and listless, be admonished to lift up the drooping hands and the weak knees, that is, to rouse negligent and sluggish minds, and to take up manly constancy in fulfilling the precepts of the law and the Gospel, and to hasten quickly to the perfection of strong men. For divine Scripture does not know how to separate men and women according to sex. For indeed with God there is no distinction of sex, but one is called man or woman according to the difference of soul. How many of the female sex are numbered among the strong men before God? And how many men are reckoned among the slack and listless women? Does not that man seem to you to be counted among the women who says: I cannot keep what is written; I cannot sell what I have and give to the poor; I cannot offer the other cheek to one who strikes me; I cannot bless one who curses me; I cannot pray for one who blasphemes me; I cannot suffer and endure persecution? He who says he cannot fulfill the other similar commandments, what else does he seem to you than one to be numbered among the women, who can do nothing manly?

But let us see what is written after this: “And all the kings of the Amorites heard,” it says, “those beyond the Jordan, and those in the hill country and in the plain and along all the coast of the great sea, and those in Antilebanon, and the Hittites and Amorites and Canaanites and Perizzites and Hivites and Girgashites and Jebusites, and they came together as one to fight against Jesus and Israel together.” The history of the events is plain and needs no explanation, since it was evidently fulfilled; yet from these visible deeds let us contemplate the wars and triumphs which our Lord Jesus the Saviour waged, although we also see these things visibly fulfilled in him. For the kings of the earth came together, the Senate and people and princes of Rome, to fight against the name of Jesus and Israel together. For they decreed by their laws that there should be no Christians. Every city, every class attacks the name of Christians. But as then all those kings, coming together against Jesus, could do nothing, so now neither the princes nor these contrary powers will be able to prevent the race of Christians from spreading more widely and abundantly. For it is written that “the more they humbled them, the more they multiplied and grew very strong.” And we are confident that not only will our visible enemies and adversaries be unable to prevail over us, but also, as our Lord Jesus conquers, Satan will quickly be crushed under the feet of his servants. For under his leadership his soldiers always conquer, so that we too may say, as is written in Ezra: “From you, Lord, is the victory, and I am your servant; blessed are you, God of truth.” Let us too always call upon him, that he may give us victory in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places,” says the Word of God. And the resurrection of the dead too will not give equal glory to those who rise; but “one is the flesh of birds, another of cattle, another of fish; and there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one and that of the earthly another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. Star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead.” Many differences, then, are indicated among those who come to salvation. Hence I think that these Gibeonites too, whose history has been read, are a certain small portion of those who are to be saved, yet in such a way that they are not saved without being branded with some mark of disgrace. For you see that they are condemned to the service of the people and to the ministry of the altar of God, because they approached the sons of Israel with guile and cunning, dressed in old rags and shoes and carrying a provision of old bread. These, then, come to Jesus with all their oldness and ask of him only this, that they may be saved. In their figure something like this seems to me to be shown. There are some in the church who believe indeed and have faith in God and assent to all the divine precepts; who are also devout toward the servants of God and desire to serve them, and are quite ready and prepared for the adornment of the church or its service; but in their own acts and conduct they are wrapped in obscenities and vices, by no means putting off the old man with his deeds, but wrapped in their old vices and obscenities as if covered with old rags and shoes. Apart from believing in God and seeming devoted to the servants of God or to the worship of the church, they apply no amendment or renewal to their habits. To these, then, Jesus our Lord grants salvation indeed, but in a way their very salvation does not escape the brand of disgrace. A similar figure of these is also described in the little book called the Shepherd. For it says that there is a certain tree called the elm, which bears no fruit, yet carries the vine, which bears much fruit; and because it is a support to the vine, which, leaning on its strength, can bear or keep a great deal of fruit, the elm too, though fruitless, seems necessary and useful by the very fact that it serves the fruitful vine. Understand something of this kind also in the Gibeonites, who have not put off the old man with his deeds, yet minister to the saints and serve them and render some service, and in such a rank receive salvation from Jesus with an oath interposed. I would not wish to obtain salvation in the rank of the Gibeonites, nor to be numbered among the hewers of wood or the carriers of water, but to take an inheritance among the Israelites and receive a portion of the land of promise.

It must indeed be noted that heretics, those who do not receive the Old Testament, are accustomed to bring false charges when they read this passage, and they say: See how Jesus son of Nun had no humanity, in that, while granting salvation to men who had come to him as suppliants, he inflicted on them a mark of disgrace and the yoke of servitude. If a soul little instructed in the divine Scriptures hears this, it can at once be weakened and endangered, so as to flee from the catholic faith. For such souls do not understand their deceptions. For Jesus, looking at the measure of their faith, kept a fitting judgment toward them. Rahab the harlot, moreover, who believed with whole faith together with all her house and received the Israelite spies with the fullest devotion, was received wholly into the fellowship and society of the people, and it is written of her that she was added to the sons of Israel until this day. But these men, who did not so much love fellowship with the Israelite nation as, terrified by fear of their own destruction, approach Jesus with cunning and fraud — how could they earn freedom of life and fellowship in the kingdom by servile tricks? Indeed, do you want to know that the condition assigned to them by Jesus was worthy of the baseness of their minds? They themselves say: “We have heard how great things the Lord did for you at the Red Sea and in the desert.” And though they said this, and confessed that they had heard and knew of the divine wonders, yet they did nothing worthy of faith, nothing worthy of their admiration for such great mighty works. And therefore Jesus, seeing their narrow and slight purpose in faith, keeps a most just measure toward them, so that those who had brought some faith, however little, should obtain salvation, yet should not receive the summit of the kingdom or of freedom, because their faith was ennobled by no addition of works; for the apostle James declares that faith without works is to be held dead.

Yet we must know how much we are taught by the foreshadowings of such figures: that if there are any such among us whose faith extends only so far as to come to church and bow their heads, show courtesy to the priests, honor the servants of God, and also contribute something to the adornment of the altar or the church, but who apply no zeal to cultivating their habits too, amending their acts, laying aside their vices, cultivating chastity, softening their anger, restraining their avarice, curbing their rapacity, and do not remove from their mouth evil-speaking and foolish talk or scurrility and the poisons of detraction — let those who are such, who do not wish to amend themselves but persist in these things until extreme old age, know that their part and lot will be assigned by the Lord Jesus with the Gibeonites. But rather we beseech you, brothers, discharging the embassy of the word of God, that while we still have the power to amend, we may take pains and hasten, casting away the ancient filth and old rags of vices, to be joined and united to the freedom of the Israelites. And do you want to see how great is the freedom of the Israelites? It is commanded in the law that a Hebrew boy, if he happens to fall into servitude, may not serve more than six years, but in the seventh year the law orders that he be released free. So great is the care for freedom among them. If we recall this to spiritual understanding: even if you are a Hebrew boy who has fallen into servitude (for he is a boy who falls into servitude through weakness of mind — what servitude? Scripture says, “He who sins is a slave of sin”; into this servitude it is not a manly and perfect mind that falls, but a boyish and weak one) — even, then, if you are a Hebrew boy, that is, one of the faithful who has also received baptism in the church, and after this have fallen into the servitude of sin, let six years’ servitude be enough for you; in the seventh year take care not to serve, but hasten to your freedom. The number seven signifies the law of the commandments, but the number six bears the figure of this world. As long, then, as you savor the things of this world, are busied with them, and think according to the flesh, you must serve sin. But when you come to the number seven, that is, to the knowledge of the law, then seek your freedom and return to your father’s nobility, lest, if you remain in your evils and persist in sins, with a mark fixed in your ear as one who does not hear the words of God admonishing you and calling you back to your former freedom, you become a slave of sin forever. Then I ask you whether you would willingly become a slave in this world, from being a householder and a man of noble birth. You undoubtedly refuse, since we see very many even of servile condition hasten to freedom and desire, as far as they can, even to become rich, and to cover the baseness of their low birth with honors sought from wherever they may. If, then, in this life no one wants to be a slave, but everyone desires as far as possible to be free and rich and noble, so as not only to have enough for himself but also to give to others, shall we tolerate servitude with indifference in those eternal things that are never to be changed, and does it seem a small matter to us to be assigned to the hewers of wood and carriers of water? Therefore, while it is day, let us work what is good and give our effort to our amendment, so that by our acts, our conduct, and our habits we may deserve to be ennobled and be made worthy to receive the spirit of adoption, that we may rather be counted among the sons of God, through his only and true Son Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

For those who have joined themselves to the sons of Israel, all who were formerly their friends become enemies after their friendship and familiarity with the sons of Israel. The Gibeonites had received a covenant of peace from the sons of Israel; the Jebusite king of Jerusalem, inviting four other kings to join him, sets out to attack them. But the Gibeonites, seeing that five kings had conspired to make war on them, do not trust at all in their own strength and resources, but send to Jesus asking for help. And he, with divine permission, comes to the Gibeonites to bring help. Here wonders from heaven are shown. The Lord rains down hailstones from above and lays waste the army of the five kings who were fighting against Jesus. Then Jesus, seeing the divine right hand fighting with him and everything going forward successfully, raises to heaven a new and wonderful prayer, saying: “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Elom, until they overcome this people. And the sun and the moon stood in their place until the Lord conquered their enemies. And the sun stood in the midst of heaven and did not go on to its setting for the space of one day. There was no day like it before, nor did God so hear a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. And those five kings fled and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah.” These things, done according to the history, proclaim to all ages the miracles of divine power, and they need no interpretation from outside, since the light of the deeds shines forth in them. Yet let us seek what spiritual understanding they contain.

When the human soul has joined itself to the Word of God, it must not doubt that it will at once have enemies, and that those whom it had as friends before will be turned into adversaries; and let it expect to suffer this not only from men, but let it know for certain that this threatens it from the contrary powers and the spiritual forces of wickedness as well. And so it happens that he who seeks the friendship of Jesus must know that he will have to bear the enmity of many. Hear the Apostle saying: “All who wish to live devoutly in Christ will suffer persecution.” And Solomon too says something similar: “Son,” he says, “when you come to the service of the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation.” The Gibeonites, then, of whatever sort they may be, are attacked even now because of their friendship with Jesus; and even if they are hewers of wood and carriers of water — that is, even if you are of the lowest merit in the church — yet by the very fact that you belong to Jesus you will be attacked by the five kings. But the Gibeonites are not abandoned or despised by Jesus, nor by the leaders and elders of the Israelites; they bring help to their weakness. Does not that command of the Apostle seem to you to do this in us and to enjoin it, where he says: “Comfort the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient toward all”? And again: “But you who are stronger, bear the weaknesses of the weak.” In this way, then, Jesus with his leaders and princes is present to those who are attacked by the contrary powers for his name’s sake, and not only gives help in war, but also lengthens the time of day and, prolonging the span of light, drives off the coming of night.

We wish, then, if we can, to show how our Lord Jesus prolonged the light and made the day longer, either for the salvation of men or for the destruction of the contrary powers. When the Saviour came, the end of the world had already arrived. Indeed he himself said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” But he held back and checked the day of consummation, and prevented it from arriving. For God the Father, seeing that the salvation of the nations can be accomplished through him alone, says to him: “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” Until, then, the Father’s promise is fulfilled and churches grow from the various nations and the whole fullness of the Gentiles comes in, so that then at last all Israel may be saved, the day is prolonged and its setting delayed; the sun never goes down, but is always rising, while the Sun of righteousness pours the light of truth into the hearts of believers. But when the measure of believers has been filled, and the worse and faded age of the last generation has come, when, as iniquity increases, the love of many grows cold, and very few remain in whom faith is found, then the days will be shortened. In the same way, then, the Lord himself knows, when it is the time of salvation, to prolong the day, and to shorten it when it is the time of tribulation and destruction. But we, while we have the day and the span of light is prolonged for us, let us walk honestly as in the day and do the works of light.

But let us also see what it means that it says there were five kings, and that these fled into caves. We have often said that the battle of Christians is twofold. For the perfect, and for such as Paul was and the Ephesians, as Paul himself says, the struggle was not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. But for the lower ones, those not yet perfect, the battle is still waged against flesh and blood, for those who are still attacked by carnal vices and frailties; and I think this is indicated in this place too. For we said that war was declared on the Gibeonites by the five kings, and we said that their figure is found in those who are imperfect. These, then, are attacked by the five kings. And the five kings indicate the five bodily senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. For through one of these each person must fall into sin. These five senses are compared to those five kings who attack the Gibeonites, that is, carnal men. And that they are said to have fled into caves may perhaps indicate this: that a cave is a place dug deep into the earth. So these senses we spoke of above, when, placed in the body, they have sunk themselves in earthly acts and have done nothing for the work of God but everything for the service of the body, are said to have fled into caves.

We must know, however, that these very kingdoms whose kings are now conquered by Jesus and flee to caves afterwards come into the lot of the saints and are called the portion of the Lord, such as the kingdom of Jerusalem, or of Lachish, or of Hebron. In this I think it is indicated that these five senses too, which we explained above, placed in the body, when they have been conquered by Jesus so that unbelief and incredulity are driven out of them, and when they die to sin by ceasing from the service of sin — the soul will afterwards use these very senses as ministers to work the righteousness of God; and so it happens that in Jerusalem, where formerly a worthless and most wicked king reigned, David strong of hand, or the peaceful Solomon, afterwards reigns. For evil powers sit beside these very bodily senses of men of which we spoke, and solicit them to evil desires and to rendering foul services to the soul. If faith in Christ overcomes these evil powers, and they are hanged on the wood of his cross, so that he triumphs over them too on the wood of his cross, then, when they have been slain and driven from the kingdom, the soul becomes the portion of God; then Jerusalem becomes the kingdom of God, and a temple is built in it for the Lord. Was not he thinking this of himself who said: “For we too were once senseless, unbelieving, going astray, slaves to various desires and pleasures”? For this is nothing other than what is written, that Jerusalem was once under King Adonibezek, and the other cities under other kings.

But meanwhile Jesus killed the enemies, not teaching cruelty by this, as the heretics think, but signifying in what was done the mysteries to come: so that, when he has slain those kings who hold the kingdom of sin within us, we may be able to fulfill what the Apostle said: “As you presented your members to serve iniquity unto iniquity, so now” let us present our members to serve righteousness unto justification. What is it, then, that they blame in this place as cruel? This, they say, which is written: “Put your feet on their necks and kill them.” What if this is found to be not cruelty but humanity and kindness! Would that you too were one to put your feet on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy, and to trample the dragon and the basilisk, that is, the little king who once reigned in you and held the kingdom of sin in you; so that, when all those have been slain who reigned in you by the work of sin, Christ Jesus our Lord alone may reign in you, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

If the things foreshadowed through Moses concerning the tabernacle, the sacrifices, and all that worship are said to be a type and shadow of heavenly things, then undoubtedly the wars waged through Jesus, and the slaughter of kings and enemies, must also be said to be a shadow and type of heavenly things — namely of those wars which our Lord Jesus, with his army and his officers, that is, the peoples of believers and their leaders, wages against the devil and his angels. For he it is who, in Paul and in the Ephesians, fights against principalities and powers and the rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And see, ungrateful heretic, how wholly the new agrees with the old. To those of old was promised the kingdom of the holy land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that was then held by sinners and by most wicked inhabitants and kings. Jesus came into that land with the army of the Lord and the leaders of Israel; he attacks them all, slays them, takes possession, and for the merit of victory receives the kingdoms of those he has conquered. To you, through the Gospels, kingdoms of earth are not promised, but kingdoms of heaven are promised. But these kingdoms are not empty or vacant; they have their inhabitants, sinners and wicked spirits, renegade angels. There dwell those against whom Paul, sounding the apostolic trumpet, exhorts you to battle; and as there Jesus said that you will have war against the Amorites and Perizzites and Hivites and Jebusites, so here too Paul declares to you, saying: “Your struggle will not be against flesh and blood,” that is, we shall not fight as the ancients fought, nor must we wage battles on earth against men, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness. Now surely you understand in what places struggles of this kind must be undertaken by you. Or if understanding is not enough for you unless the places themselves are marked for you in plain words, hear what follows: “Against the spiritual forces,” it says, “of wickedness in the heavenly places.” You have heard who those are whom you must drive out of heaven by war and force, so that you may receive those places of the kingdom of heaven by the lot of inheritance. And does not the Lord too in the Gospel plainly indicate this, when he says: “From the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it”?

Why, then, O heretic, do you not stop bringing false charges even against our Lord and Saviour, who commands that the kingdom of heaven, which he had promised to those who believe in him, be seized by force? And certainly, if force must be used, it is certain that it must be used against those in possession. For to do violence is to drive out the possessor and seize the possession. Tell me, then: what else is it that you accuse Jesus, the successor of Moses, of having done? And would that we were worthy that the Lord Jesus should open to us the hall of his wisdom and lead us within the treasures of his knowledge, and should deign to unlock more fully and open more perfectly to us the things whose figures we now try, step by step, to behold and examine in part, as through a mirror and in an enigma. You would see how it would become clear to us which of the spiritual enemies who now attack the spiritual Israel was represented by this prince of Makkedah, and that of Lachish, and that of Libnah; or of what vice or error within you, in which the soul is entangled, each of those bears the form whom the people of the Lord killed under the leadership of Jesus — those, namely, who hear his commands and keep his precepts, to whom he gives power to tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy. Let us pray, then, that our feet too may be such, so beautiful, so strong, that they can trample on the necks of enemies, that they can so trample on the head of the serpent that it cannot bite our heel. For he who fights under the leadership of Jesus against the contrary powers must also deserve what is written of the earlier warriors: “And all the people,” it says, “returned safe to Jesus, and none of the sons of Israel muttered with his tongue.” You see, then, that he who serves as a soldier under Jesus must return safe from battle, and must nowhere receive a wound from the fiery darts of the evil one; he must not be polluted in heart, not be stained in thought, not give place to the wounds of the demons through anger, through desire, or through any other deadly blow. And as for the addition that no one muttered with his tongue, this seems to me to show that no one boasted of the victory, no one ascribed his conquest to his own strength; but knowing that Jesus is the one who grants victory, they do not mutter with their tongue. Understanding this well, the Apostle said: “Not I, but the grace of God which is in me.” And I think that the Lord’s command looks to this too, where he says: “When you have done all these things, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we ought to have done.” For in this too he seems in a similar way to forbid boasting over things successfully done.

But Marcion and Valentinus and Basilides and the other heretics with them, because they are unwilling to understand these things in the way worthy of the Holy Spirit, have turned aside from the faith and given themselves over to many impieties, bringing forward another God, the God of the law, the creator and judge of the world, as if he taught a kind of cruelty through these writings, in that they are commanded to trample on the necks of their enemies and to hang on a tree the kings of the land which they invade by violence. Would that my Lord Jesus, the Son of God, would grant me this, and command me to trample with my feet the spirit of sexual immorality, to tread on the necks of the spirit of anger and rage, to tread on the demon of avarice, to tread on boastfulness, to crush with my feet the spirits of pride; and when I have done this, to ascribe the sum of the work done not to myself but to his cross, following Paul, who says that through him the world has been crucified to me, and what we mentioned above, where he says: “Not I, but the grace of God which is in me.” If I am found worthy to do this, I shall be blessed, and what Jesus says to those of old will be said to me too: “Act manfully and be strong; do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the Lord God has delivered all your enemies into your hands.” If we understand these things spiritually and conduct wars of this kind spiritually, and drive all those spiritual forces of wickedness out of the heavenly places, then at last we shall be able also to receive from Jesus, by the lot of inheritance, their places and kingdoms, which are the kingdoms of heaven, by the gift of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

“All these things that happened to them in figure were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” When one who is a Jew outwardly, who has circumcision visible in the flesh, reads this, not knowing what it is to be a Jew inwardly in the circumcision of the heart, he thinks it is nothing other than an account of wars and slaughter, and of Israelites conquering under the leadership of Jesus and plundering the kingdoms of the nations. But he who is a Jew inwardly, that is, a Christian, who follows not so much Jesus the son of Nun as Jesus the Son of God, understands all these things to be mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and says that even now my Lord Jesus Christ makes war on the contrary powers and casts them out of the cities they possessed, that is, out of our souls; and he kills the kings who reigned in our souls, so that sin may no longer reign in us; so that, after he has slain the king of sin from the city of our soul, our soul may become the city of God, and God may reign in it, and it may be said to us: “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” This, then, is a work of the highest mercy, which the heretics accuse of cruelty: that what the Lord Jesus foreshadowed earlier through the son of Nun in each of the cities, he now fulfills in truth in each of the souls of believers: so that those cities which were possessed by evil and most wicked kings, after the prince of the power of the air of this world, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, once these have been driven out and destroyed, he may deign to make a dwelling place of God and a temple of the Holy Spirit; so that the members which under the wicked king had served iniquity unto uncleanness may now serve righteousness unto sanctification. In this way, then, understand that Jesus killed the king of Jericho and the king of Ai and the king of Libnah and the king of Lachish and the king of Hebron, so that all these souls, which formerly kept the law of sin under the most wicked kings, may now live under the laws of God.

And if we examine the interpretations of the names themselves more closely and diligently, it will be found that the meaning of the names can be applied now to the understanding of the evil kingdom, now to that of the good. For instance, Libnah is interpreted “whiteness.” But whiteness is understood in different ways: there is the whiteness of leprosy, and there is the whiteness of light. It is possible, then, that the very interpretation of the name indicates the difference between the two states: that Libnah had the whiteness of leprosy under the evil kings, and when that was destroyed and overthrown, and Libnah came into the kingdom of Israel, it received the whiteness of light; for whiteness is set down in the Scriptures as both praiseworthy and blameworthy. Again, Lachish is interpreted “way.” And a way is held in the Scriptures as both praiseworthy and blameworthy. This is not hard to prove, as it is said in the Psalms: “And the way of the ungodly will perish”; and elsewhere, on the contrary: “Make a straight way for your feet.” It can be understood here too, then, that the city of Lachish was at first a way of the ungodly, and when that was destroyed and overthrown, it was afterwards, when the Israelites reigned, brought to the straight way. And likewise Hebron, which they say is interpreted “joining” or “marriage.” The joining of our soul was at first with an evil man, the devil, a most wicked husband; when he was destroyed and extinguished, the soul was freed from the law of its former and most wicked husband and joined to a good and lawful husband, the one of whom the apostle Paul says: “I have resolved to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ.” So, then, the understanding of the names themselves also fits this twofold state of each city.

I think that it is better to understand the wars of Israel in this way, and better to think that Jesus fights in this way and destroys cities and overthrows kingdoms. For in this way that saying too will appear more devout and more merciful which says that he so overthrew and laid waste each city that nothing was left in it that breathed, neither anyone who was saved nor anyone who escaped. Would that the Lord would so cast out and extinguish all former evils from the souls that believe in him and that he claims for his kingdom, and from my own soul, that no sense of malice might breathe in me any longer, no impulse of anger, no impulse of any evil desire be kept alive in me, and no evil word remain to escape from my mouth! For in this way, purified from all my former evils under the leadership of Jesus, I shall be able to be made one of the cities of the sons of Israel, of which it is written: “The cities of Judah will be built, and they will dwell in them.” For now Jesus destroys and builds up the soul of each of us; and as we said then, when we were discussing Jeremiah, that he had received words in his mouth by which to overthrow and to build, to uproot and to plant, so also now, in what we have in hand, I think it must be understood — not as the heretics or the Jews understand it — but as it was said there to Jeremiah: “Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to root up and to overthrow and to destroy, and after this to build and to plant.” So too we must believe of the things written as done through Jesus, or rather of the things that are done in us even now through our Lord Jesus. For the first work of the Word of God is to root up the evils that were there before, the thorns and thistles of the vices. For while the roots of these evils hold the ground occupied, it cannot receive good and holy seed.

This, then, is the necessary and first work of the Word of God: to root up the plant of sin, and to uproot and consume with fire every plant that the heavenly Father has not planted. The second work then is to plant. What is it that God plants? Moses says that God planted a paradise. But God plants now too, and plants daily in the souls of believers. For in the soul from which he cuts out anger he plants gentleness; in the soul from which he cuts out pride he plants humility; in the soul from which he roots out wantonness he plants chastity; and in the soul from which he roots out ignorance he implants knowledge. Does it not seem to you that the planting God plants should be of this kind, rather than of sensible and earthly trees? Likewise among the first works of the Word of God is to destroy the diabolical buildings that the devil has constructed in the human soul. For he had built towers of pride in each of us and walls of arrogance; these the word of God overthrows and undermines, so that, according to the Apostle, we may rightly become God’s field and God’s building, set on the foundation of the apostles and prophets by Christ Jesus himself, the chief cornerstone, from whom the joining of the building grows into a temple of God in the Spirit; and so at last we may be found worthy to be made sharers in the inheritance of the holy land, in the portion of Israel, when all our enemies have been extinguished and destroyed, so that none of them is left to breathe in us, but only the Spirit of Christ breathes in us, through our mouths, our words, and our spiritual understanding, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is power and might for ages of ages. Amen.

Before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when Israel according to the flesh read these same Scriptures, it understood nothing else in them but wars and the shedding of blood, so that their minds were sharpened by them to excessive ferocity and they were always feeding on wars and seditions. But after the presence of my Lord Jesus Christ poured the peaceful light of knowledge into human hearts — since, according to the Apostle, he himself is our peace — he teaches us peace from the very reading of wars. For peace is restored to the soul if its enemies, sins and vices, are driven away from it. And therefore, according to the tradition of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we read these things we too are armed and roused to battle, but against those enemies that proceed from our heart, namely evil thoughts, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies, and the other like adversaries of our soul, of which we try, as this Scripture relates, if it can be done, to leave none that is saved or that breathes. For if we overcome these enemies, we shall fittingly also overcome the powers of the air and drive them out of the kingdom they had set up within us over the seats of the vices. In the previous readings the king of Jerusalem had gathered four other kings with him against Jesus and against the sons of Israel; but now it is no longer one who gathers four or five: see how great a multitude one gathers. “When Jabin king of Hazor heard,” it says, “he sent to Jobab king of the Amorites, and to the king of Symeon, and to the king of Azef, and to the kings who were around great Sidon, and through the hill country, and into the Arabah opposite Chinneroth, and to the plains, and to Faneandor, and to the Canaanites who were along the sea on the east, and to the Amorites who were along the sea, and to the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites who were in the hill country, and to the Hivites who were below the desert at Masecma; and they went out, they and their kings with them, like the sand of the sea in number, with horses and very many chariots. And all these kings came together and assembled in one place at the water of Maron to fight against Israel. And the Lord said to Jesus: Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this hour I will deliver them wounded before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire. And Jesus came, and all the people of warriors with him, upon them at the water of Maron, and fell on them suddenly in the hill country; and the Lord delivered them into the hands of Israel, and they pursued them as they fell as far as great Sidon, and as far as Masefoth at the water, and as far as the plains of Masfe toward the east, and slaughtered them until none of them was left who escaped. And Jesus did to them as the Lord had commanded him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire. And Jesus turned back at that time and took Hazor and killed its king with the sword.” You see what great swarms of contrary powers and most wicked demons are stirred up against Jesus and the army of Israel? All these demons, before the coming of our Lord and Saviour, possessed human souls quietly and securely and reigned in their minds and bodies. But when the grace and kindness of God our Saviour appeared on earth, teaching us to live devoutly and holily in this world, separated from every contagion of sin, so that each soul might recover its freedom and the image of God in which it was created in the beginning — for this reason battles and wars arise from those wicked former possessors of souls. And if the first are crushed, many more rise up afterwards, come together into one, and conspire for evil, they who are always at odds with the good. And if they are conquered a second time, other, more wicked powers rise up a third time. And perhaps the more the people of God increases and grows and multiplies, the more of them conspire to attack it.

But let us try, as God grants, to examine each of the kings of the hostile army, and from the meanings of each one’s name to consider also the work he does in malice. First of all, the one named as the author of this war, who gathers the others and invites them to the conspiracy of crime, is called Jabin, who was king of Hazor. For he is the one who is said to have summoned the others too. Jabin is interpreted “understanding” or “prudence.” Who, then, is this understanding or prudence, if not the one whom the prophet Isaiah calls “the great understanding”? For he says: “And I will bring it upon the great understanding, the prince of the Assyrians, who said: By my own strength I will do it, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the boundaries of the nations and plunder their strength.” This, then, is the one who there is called the great understanding, the king of the Assyrians, but here Jabin, understanding or prudence. For the serpent too is written to have been in paradise more prudent than all the beasts that were on the earth. And the steward of iniquity is said to have done prudently what he did. This Jabin, then, is king of Hazor. And Hazor is interpreted “court.” The whole earth, then, is the court of this king, who holds the rule of the whole earth as of a single court, and he is the devil. And do you want to see that the earth is his court? In the Gospels it is written that the strong man sleeps secure in his court until a stronger one comes who binds him and takes away what he possesses. He is, then, the king of the court, the prince of this world: he sends to Jobab; for it is he who sends to all the nations and invites them to battle. He sends also to the king of Maron. Jobab is interpreted “enmities,” and Maron “bitternesses.” The devil, then, sends to another hostile power, undoubtedly one of the renegade angels, a power that is king of bitternesses; by its authorship and agency, of course, come all the bitternesses and harsh things inflicted on wretched mortals in this world. These are the various kinds of sin. For nothing can be more bitter than sin, even if some things seem sweet at first, as Solomon writes: “But in the end,” he says, “you will find more bitter than gall what seemed sweet at the beginning, and sharper than the edge of a sword.” The nature of righteousness is the opposite: at the beginning it seems more bitter, but in the end it is found sweeter than honey, when it has borne the fruit of virtue. The devil, then, sent to Jobab, the hostile king of bitterness. And he sends also to the king of Symeon, which is interpreted “hearing.” But hearing seems to be twofold. Sometimes God hears a man, as Simeon, one of the patriarchs, received his name because God had heard his mother’s prayer. It is also called hearing when someone hears the command of the devil. For the devil is accustomed to say: “If you fall down and worship me, I will give you all these things.” But if you follow Jesus, you say to him: I will worship the Lord God, and him only will I serve. But those who are of his party hear him, as this Symeon now did: hearing him, he came to fight against Jesus. He sends also to the king of Ziph. Ziph is interpreted “how it flows!” as in the words of one who wonders; because it is truly to be wondered at how all the carnal things of this world flow away, and how fleeting and perishable are the things that unbelieving men consider lasting and perpetual. But one who considers the nature of things and observes how the things thought good in this life are always dwindling and passing away, says: How it flows! The devil also calls against the sons of Israel those who are around great Sidon. I, for my part, though I have stayed several times in the region of Sidon, have never found that there are two Sidons, one great and the other small, as far as the earthly place is concerned. But if I go back to the interpretation of the name, which means “huntress” or “hunters,” I see that among the adverse powers, among whom there are many differences, some are hunters in small things and some hunters in great things; that is, some deceive souls through small sins, others through great ones. For example, when the soul is deceived by the pleasures of the world and the delights of the flesh, it must be said to have been caught in something small. But when it either denies Providence or worships demons as God, it must be thought to have been deceived in something great. And therefore he now sends to great Sidon, so that they may gather as for a great hunt against the sons of Israel. He sends also to the hill country. The hill country must be understood as every thought that exalts and raises itself against the knowledge of God. He sends also to the Arabah. The Arabah is interpreted “ambushes.” He invites, then, the powers that lie in ambush, which deceive human souls not by force or open attacks but by unforeseen ambushes and cunning; such perhaps as those of whom the prophet says: “He lies in wait in secret like a lion in his den; he lies in wait to seize the poor.” But if anyone is such as Paul, he says confidently: “For we are not ignorant of his wiles.” He sends also to Chinneroth. Chinneroth is interpreted “as if lamps.” Not lamps, but as if lamps. For a lamp is one thing, and “as if a lamp” another. John “was a burning lamp,” because he was an angel of light. But “as if a lamp” is he who “transforms himself into an angel of light.” And if you wish to know still more clearly the difference between the lamps and the things that are as if lamps, which are in Chinneroth, hear the Saviour saying to his disciples: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning.” Those in the church, then, who teach the catholic faith and enlighten the people of God with the word of truth are burning lamps. But those who teach heretical doctrines from the testimonies of holy Scripture with false assertions seem to light lamps because they read the Scriptures; but because they use false assertions, they are not lamps, but as if lamps. He sent also to the plains; for he had to call into his fellowship those too who are in the plains and whose minds are set on low and earthly things. He sent also to Faneandor, which is interpreted “turning.” And turning is understood in two ways. For there is a turning by which someone turns to God, or is turned by God to good things. But there is also another turning, by which King Jabin, that is, the devil, turns souls to himself, as we explained above about Symeon; such must be thought that turning which had happened to the Galatians, of which the Apostle says: “You were running well; who hindered you?” that is, turned you from the good course and the straight road. He sends also to those who were in the coastal places, to the Canaanites, neighbors of the waves, who are interpreted “as if moved,” that is, those who are always stirring everything with motions and waves; and to the coastal Amorites. The Amorites are interpreted “growing bitter,” and they are like those of whom we spoke above. Such, then, is the roll of the whole army of invisible enemies gathered by King Jabin to attack us who follow Jesus, our leader and Saviour. But what does the Lord say? “Do not be afraid of them,” he says, “for tomorrow at this hour I will deliver them into your hands.” I see that today we cannot crush them all or kill them all, but that tomorrow they will be destroyed, that is, after the consummation of this age. For then every contrary power will be destroyed, and then it will be wholly conquered, when you see it said to those on the left: “Go into the eternal fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels.” For then we too, if we conquer and are able to prevail, following Jesus our leader, shall receive the kingdom that God the Father has prepared for his saints and for those who have fulfilled his commandments and righteous ordinances, through our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Unless these carnal wars bore the figure of spiritual wars, the books of Jewish history would never, I think, have been handed down by the apostles to the disciples of Christ, who came to teach peace, to be read in the churches. For what would this description of wars profit those to whom Jesus says, “My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you”? And to whom it is commanded and said through the Apostle, “Not avenging yourselves,” and, “Rather accept injury,” and, “Rather suffer fraud”? Hence the Apostle, knowing that no more wars are to be waged by us in the flesh, but that the struggles of the soul are to be sweated out against spiritual adversaries, like a commander gives an order to the soldiers of Christ, saying: “Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” And so that we might have examples of these spiritual wars from the deeds of the ancients, he wished these narratives of events to be read to us in church, so that we, if we are spiritual, hearing that the law is spiritual, may compare spiritual things with spiritual in what we hear, and may consider, from the nations that visibly attacked carnal Israel, how great are the nations of contrary powers among spiritual beings, which are called the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, and which stir up wars against the church of the Lord, which is the true Israel. The Moabites come, and the Ammonites, and all those kings and invisible nations that we mentioned above come to fight against us, in order to make us sin. For just as the body dies when it receives a wound from iron, so the soul dies when it receives the wound of sin. And I think that saying the same things more often ought to be tiresome for us, but is necessary for you. Would that you might keep these things, said more often and frequently impressed on your minds, so that when you read these books you hold neither a Jewish sense nor a heretical one in them! But now that we have given this general admonition, it will not be superfluous to discuss a few things specifically about what has been read. Let us go back, then, over what was passed over earlier, and discuss it.

“And Jesus did to them,” it says, “as the Lord had commanded him. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire. And Jesus turned back at that time and took Hazor and killed its king with the sword, and killed with the edge of the sword everyone who breathed in it, and all were exterminated, so that no one was left in it who breathed.” A command is said to have been given by God to Jesus that, after he had defeated the enemies mentioned above, he should spare none, but hamstring their horses. Hence Jesus, as if fulfilling a command of God, did as the Lord had commanded him. In this, first of all, we say to those who want it to be understood only according to the letter: if some of the enemies had survived, it would seem logical to hamstring the horses, so that no one could use them to flee. But now, since it is said that none of the enemy was left who breathed, why are the horses too ordered to be hamstrung, when they could certainly have been of use and service to the victors? And do you want to know that the Israelites were accustomed to take care of this matter and its usefulness, and to keep the beasts for their own use when the enemy had been conquered? In Numbers we read it written that when, by God’s command, they had gone out to fight against the Midianites, after conquering the enemy they kept several thousand donkeys from the enemy’s spoil, to be useful for their own needs, and it is not related there at all that they killed the donkeys after overcoming the enemy.

Let us, then, comparing holy Scripture with itself and comparing spiritual things with spiritual, ask why it is not written of the donkeys that they were hamstrung, nor are the spoils or animals of the Midianites said to have been killed, but to have been useful for the needs of the Israelites; whereas concerning these enemies, who had not donkeys but horses, the Lord himself commanded and said, “You shall hamstring their horses,” which Jesus also fulfilled as he was commanded by the Lord. Do we think that these things happened by chance, that the enemy’s horses were destroyed and the donkeys kept, and do we suppose that chance things occur in the commandments of God? Or does it seem more worthy for us to think that Scripture indicates something mystical in these things? Indeed, the sons of Israel are never reported to have used horses, and the law commands nothing about horses but about donkeys, as animals that seem to exist to help human labors and to carry their burdens, whereas horses exist rather for the destruction of men, for this is what is done with them in battles. The horse is taken as an animal of wanton motion and a proud neck. Donkeys, then, are often set by Scripture as a type of the Gentiles; just as the Saviour too is shown sitting on a donkey, but is never related to have sat on a horse. And when he sends his disciples to untie the donkey and the donkey’s colt, he says to them: “If anyone questions you, say that the Lord has need of them.” And sitting on it he enters Jerusalem, and he is never said to have entered sitting on a horse. The prophet too had foretold of him that he would come to Jerusalem sitting on a donkey, saying: “Behold, your king, meek, sitting on a beast of burden and a young colt of a donkey. And he will destroy the chariots of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem.” You see, then, that according to the prophet’s saying, he who sits on a donkey will destroy the chariots of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. And therefore the donkeys, as we said, seem to me to bear the figure of the Gentiles, on whom the Lord is written to have sat; but the horses and chariots that are destroyed bear the figure of those who, placed in the heavens, fell through wantonness and pride, when they either offered themselves as inciters to lust after the daughters of men, or followed him who said, “I will set my throne above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High.” Hence perhaps the prophet too says: “A horse is a vain hope for safety.” And again he says of those who trusted in demons: “Some in chariots and some in horses, but we will call on the name of our God.” For he would not have compared chariots and horses with God as objects of invocation, but he surely shows this: that as we call on the true God, so they call on chariots and horses, that is, on demons, whom those nations invoked that were waging war against Israel. Scripture also mentions the horses of the Egyptians, and these very horses that it now orders to be destroyed. From this we are given to understand that in the type of the donkeys the nations that come to faith are rightly preserved, while in the type of the horses and chariots the demons, who are the adversaries and enemies of human salvation, are rightly destroyed. And if we understand that the passions of the body, that is, lust, wantonness, or pride and levity, on which the unhappy soul rides and is carried off to precipices, are what are now called horses and chariots, and that they are what God’s command orders to be hamstrung, this understanding will not be contrary to our reasoning. For a horse is hamstrung when the body is humbled by fasts and vigils and every affliction of abstinence. And the chariots are burned with fire when the word of the Lord is fulfilled in us, who says: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” With this fire those confessed that they were already burning who said: “Did not our heart burn within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?” Therefore a horse is called a vain hope for safety, if we allow the motions of our body to run unbridled and do not put the wanton and proud necks of the flesh under the yoke of abstinence. And now, if perhaps someone is stirred and pricked by these words of God that we are speaking, and he who yesterday was carried headlong and hot into lust like a horse, today, having heard these things, repents and is converted, and, according to the prophet, pierced with the fear of God, reins himself in, checks himself, calls himself back from sin, and from now on leads a modest and chaste life, then we too will be seen to have hamstrung the horses with the drawn sword of the word of God; and by this God’s command is more worthily fulfilled than if someone were to hamstring beasts of the horse kind taken from the spoils of the enemy. But whose horses are hamstrung? This too is worth asking. The horses, it says, of Jabin are to be hamstrung. And Jabin is interpreted “prudence” or “understanding.” What is this prudence, or what understanding, whose chariot is to be hamstrung? Surely that of which the Apostle says that “the prudence of the flesh is hostile to God,” and that understanding of which he speaks, “puffed up by the understanding of his flesh.” And Jabin is king of Hazor. Hazor is interpreted “court.” This is the Hazor which is said to hold the rule over all these kingdoms: he is understood as the prince of the world, reigning in his court, that is, over the earth, or, what is more, in the vices of the flesh. And the horses of all those kings too, whose power we explained before according to the interpretation of their names, are said to be killed by Jesus. If we serve rightly as soldiers under the leadership of Jesus, we must cut off these vices in ourselves and, taking the spiritual sword, hamstring all this most wicked cavalry of vices. And we must also burn the chariots, that is, cut away from ourselves every spirit of arrogance and self-exaltation, so that we may no longer call on horses or arms, but on the name of the Lord our God. And how shall we fulfill in ourselves this too, that none is to be left who breathes? We must see what it is that by the Lord’s command is not allowed even to breathe. For example, if anger rises in my heart, it can happen that I do not carry out the works of anger, either deterred by fear or restrained by dread of the judgment to come; but this, it says, is not enough; rather you must act so that not even the very stirring of anger has any place in you. For if the mind boils up and is disturbed, even if it has not carried out the deed, the disturbance itself is unbecoming to one who serves under the leadership of Jesus. The same must be thought of the vice of desire, and of sadness, and of all the rest. With all these the disciple of Jesus must so deal that nothing of them at all breathes in his heart; lest perhaps, if either the habit or the thought of some small vice is left in the heart, it grows strong in course of time and, lurking, gradually gathers strength, and at last calls us back to our vomit, and the last state of the man to whom this happens becomes worse than the first. This is what the prophet too foresaw and warned of in the Psalms, saying: “Blessed is he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock” — the little ones of Babylon, that is, who are understood to be nothing else than the evil thoughts that confuse and disturb our heart; for this is what Babylon is interpreted to mean. These thoughts, while they are still little and just beginning, must be seized and dashed against the rock, which is Christ, and slain at his command, so that nothing remains in us that breathes. As, then, there it is blessed to take the little ones of Babylon and dash them against the rock, and to kill evil thoughts at once in their beginnings, so here too it must be understood as blessed and perfect if nothing is left in us that can breathe in the manner of the Gentiles.

“And all their kings,” it says, “Jesus killed with the edge of the sword.” Sin reigned in all of us, and vices reigned in all of us, and there was a general kingdom of sin in all of us, as the Apostle says: “For all have sinned and lack the glory of God.” Yet each one had in himself some particular king who reigned in him and lorded it over him. For example, in one avarice held the kingdom, in another pride, in another lying reigned, in another lust ruled, and another endured rage as his king. And that this is so, and that sin reigns in each of us, believe the apostle Paul, who says: “Let not sin, then, reign in your mortal body, so as to obey it.” There was, then, a kingdom of sin in each of us before we believed. But after Jesus came and killed all the kings who held the kingdoms of sin in us, he commanded us to kill all these kings and to leave none of them. For if anyone keeps any of them alive in himself, he cannot be in the army of Jesus. If, then, avarice still reigns in you, or boastfulness, or pride, or lust, you will not be a soldier of Israel, nor are you fulfilling the command that the Lord gave to Jesus: “As Moses,” it says, “the servant of the Lord commanded him.” Here Moses the servant of the Lord is the word of the law itself, as he says in the Gospel: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” The law, then, commanded us to kill all the kings of sin that provoke us to sin. So Jesus did, and he did not transgress anything of all that Moses commanded him. We have spoken, according to our earlier order of exposition, of how Jesus fulfills in us whatever the law of God, which is here called Moses, commanded; and it is he who kills the vices in us and overthrows the most wicked kingdoms of sin. But it can also be said of our Lord and Saviour himself that what Moses commanded in the law Jesus did, and did not transgress anything; since the Apostle says that when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. If, then, he was made under the law, while he was under the law he fulfilled all that the law commanded, so that he might redeem us from the curse of the law. And he says of himself: “I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.”

“And Jesus took them all in war, because it came from the Lord that their heart was strengthened and that they came out to battle against Israel.” He did not say that Jesus took some in war and did not take others, but that he took all, that is, captured all and destroyed all. For the Lord Jesus has purged away the kinds of sin and destroyed them all. For we were all senseless, unbelieving, going astray, serving various desires, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another, and every kind of sin that is found in men before they believe. Rightly, then, it says that Jesus killed all who came out to war. For there is no kind of sin so great that Jesus, who is the Word and Wisdom of God, is not superior to it. For he surpasses and conquers all things. Do we not believe that every kind of sin is taken away when we come to the saving washing? For the apostle Paul too indicates this: after listing all kinds of sins, he adds at the end and says: “And such indeed you were; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In this way, then, he is said to have taken all in battle and destroyed all, because it came from the Lord that their heart grew strong and that they came out to battle against Israel, so that they might be exterminated. For as long as the hostile powers that work sins in us do not come out, do not provoke us to sin, and do not challenge us to fight, they cannot be killed or exterminated. That is why God is said to permit, and indeed almost to incite, the adverse powers to come out to battle against us, so that we may win the victory and they may meet destruction. Hence there seems to me to be an infinite number of contrary powers, because there are certain spirits in almost every single person, devising different kinds of sins in men. For example, there is a spirit of sexual immorality, another spirit of anger; there is a spirit of avarice, and another of pride. And if there happens to be someone who is driven by all these evils, or even more, he must be thought to have all these hostile spirits in him, or even more. Hence too we must believe that there are several for each person, because individual men do not have single vices or commit single sins, but each is seen to commit several. And again, we must not think that one spirit of sexual immorality seduces both the man who, for example, commits sexual immorality in Britain and the one who does so in India or in other places, nor that there is one spirit of anger that drives different men in different places; but I rather think that there is one prince of the spirit of sexual immorality, but innumerable spirits who obey him in this office, and that different spirits serving under that prince solicit each individual man to sins of this kind. Likewise I think there is one prince of the spirit of anger, but innumerable spirits working under him, who kindle the sins of this vice in each individual man. Likewise there is one prince of avarice, and so of pride and of the other evils. And therefore the Apostle speaks not of one principality among the contrary powers, but of several, against which he writes that he and all of us have a struggle. Yet I think there is a prince of all these, more eminent, as it were, in wickedness and higher in crime, who alone, as leader of all the princes and master of the whole wicked army, harasses the whole world, which each of those spirits solicits in part to sin through the various kinds of sins; and his figure we revealed above, as far as the small grasp of our understanding allowed, when we were discussing Jabin.

I think indeed that all the saints, fighting against these spirits that incite to sin, conquering them and overcoming each one of them, diminish the army of the demons and, as it were, kill very many of them. For example, when someone has overcome the spirit of sexual immorality by living chastely and modestly, it is no longer permitted for that spirit, conquered by that saint, to attack another man again; but just as those spirits begged Jesus not to be sent into the abyss — which the Lord granted for the present, for the sake of the present dispensation — so it seems consistent that each wicked spirit, when conquered by the saints, is led away either into the abyss or into the outer darkness or into whatever place it deserves, by Christ the just judge, who presides over the contest of mortals in this life. And hence it is that, now that a very great number of demons have been removed, the nations are set free to come to faith; which they would by no means be allowed to do if the legions of demons remained whole as they had been before. But if what we say seems hard to anyone, that many demons are occupied with each sinner, or if he thinks it a fable, let him return to the authority of the Gospel, and he will find that the man who lived among the tombs, suffering from a demon, when asked by the Saviour, “What is your name?” answered, “Legion; for we are many demons,” he says. Why, then, does it seem strange if individual demons are assigned to individual kinds of sin, when it is written that a whole legion of demons was in one man? I remember that I said something similar in those places where we were expounding the verse of the psalm in which it is written: “In the mornings I killed all the sinners of the land, to destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity.” So too it is said that two-edged swords are in the hands of the righteous, undoubtedly to slay the contrary powers. And I think that a stronger proof of what we have said can be brought from that statement of the apostle Paul, when he says: “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” For if Satan is one, how can he be crushed under the feet of the servants of God and then be at work again? For if he has been crushed, and crushed by God, he certainly cannot work any longer. Perhaps, then, we must think that there are as many Satans as there are those who do the works of Satan. For this seems to me to be indicated also in Wisdom, where it is said that “when the ungodly man curses Satan, he curses his own soul.” And also in a certain little book called the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, although it is not held in the canon, we find a sense of this kind, that individual Satans are to be understood in individual sinners. And the very interpretation of his name, as those learned in Hebrew relate, seems to mean the same thing more plainly. For Satan means “adversary.” All, then, who oppose the will of God can be called Satan. We have said these things because of what is written: “The Lord strengthened their hearts to come out to battle against Israel, so that they might be exterminated.” Blessed, then, is he who holds the spiritual sword unceasingly and does not withdraw it from the necks of these enemies of whom we spoke above, as the prophet Jeremiah too says: “Cursed is the man who does the works of the Lord negligently and keeps back his sword from the blood of the enemies.” If we understand this according to the letter, we shall have to shed blood unceasingly. The Jews, who are wholly flesh and blood, think this and become cruel and implacable, saying that a curse is laid on those who cease from shedding blood; and therefore their feet are swift to shed blood. But let such an understanding seem right to them, since they are flesh and blood; as for me, may the Lord grant that I never neglect the works of the Lord nor withdraw the spiritual sword of the word of God from the blood of the contrary powers, but mortify them in each of my hearers. And they are killed in you only if, having heard these things, you do not do their works.

And it is said in what follows that “Jesus took all the land, as the Lord had commanded Moses.” In the case of Jesus the son of Nun, I do not see that he took all the land. For how much land did he take, who held only Judea? But our Lord Jesus truly took all the land himself, in that the multitude of believers runs to him from all the earth and from all nations. After this it is also added, once Jesus had taken all the land: “And the land,” it says, “rested from wars.” How will this be seen to be truly said of the son of Nun, that the land rested from wars, when in his times it hardly ever rested from wars? But this is fulfilled in my Lord Jesus Christ alone. For if you consider yourself, who have come to Jesus and through him, by the grace of baptism, have obtained the remission of sins, and in whom the flesh now no longer fights against the spirit nor the spirit against the flesh, your land has rested from wars — provided that you carry about the death of Jesus Christ in your body, so that, when all wars have ceased in you, you are made a peacemaker and are called a son of God. But this will happen after you have fought through your wars and conquered your adversaries. Then rest will be given you, so that you may rest under your vine, which is Christ Jesus, and under your fig tree, which is the Holy Spirit, and so give thanks to God the Father almighty in Christ Jesus our Lord himself, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Some before us too have observed and noted in the Scriptures that presbyters, or elders, are so called not because they have led a long life, but that they are honored with this venerable title for maturity of understanding and gravity of life; especially when the word that follows is added to “presbyter”: “full of days.” For if one were to be called a presbyter or elder for length of age, who should have been reckoned by this name rather than the first man Adam, or certainly Methuselah, or Noah, who are said to have lived in this world far more years than all the rest? But now let us note that Scripture does not relate that any of them was called a presbyter or elder; rather, the one who led a life of far shorter span, Abraham, is the first to be called presbyter or elder in the holy Scriptures. It was also said to Moses by the Lord: “Choose for yourself from all the people presbyters whom you know to be presbyters.” But you too, O hearer, observe throughout Scripture whether you can find anywhere this title “elder” and “full of days” given to a sinner. Now, then, it is the voice of the Holy Spirit declaring Jesus a presbyter or elder and advanced in days. For so it says: “For Jesus,” it says, “was a presbyter or elder and advanced in days.” This certainly could not be said of a sinner, because a sinner is not advanced in days. For he does not stretch himself out to what lies ahead, forgetting what lies behind, but always turns back and returns to his vomit, and therefore he is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. But he who always stretches out to what lies ahead and is carried on toward perfection is advanced in his days. And now, then, the Lord says to Jesus: “You are advanced in your days.” I do not know whether in this place it can seem that the Lord was telling Jesus what all could see and all knew about his old age. And what kind of great divine answers are these, delivered to men, if they tell an old man, “You are old,” which all could see and all knew? But it seems to me that some great testimony is given by the Lord to the son of Nun when it is said to him, “You are advanced in days.” And as far as it is permitted to us to speak out or to open the divine mysteries, I think that, as this sun makes days for this world, so the Sun of righteousness makes certain spiritual days, which are lit by the brightness of truth and the lamp of wisdom. If, then, anyone passes this present life in the commandments of God — a life which, as Jacob said, is of few and evil days — and keeps himself unstained from this world, and subdues all his spiritual adversaries and enemies, he is advanced and promoted from these few and evil days to those eternal and good days, marked by the light of the eternal sun. In some such way, then, we must understand that Jesus too is declared by the divine answer to be advanced in days.

But since we have undertaken to refer what is said of Jesus also to our Lord and Saviour: who is understood to be a presbyter and elder advanced in days as truly as he who is the beginning, the firstborn of all creation? That is perhaps why he alone is truly and fully called presbyter, before whom there is no one. Therefore, although there are those who are called in the Scriptures presbyters or elders, or high priests, yet the Lord Jesus, as among high priests he is the prince of high priests and as among shepherds he is the prince of shepherds, so also among presbyters or elders he is to be thought the prince of presbyters, and among bishops the prince of bishops; and whatever title of honor there is, the Saviour is to be believed first in it and its prince, because he himself is the head of all.

But the divine answer adds further and says: “You are advanced in days, and very much land remains.” Above it was said, as we observed, that the land rested from wars, and that Jesus took all the land; and here it is written that very much land remains. Do you think that Scripture contains things contrary to each other? This must not even be lightly suspected. But let us return to the spiritual understanding, and in it you will find nothing contradictory. Consider how, at the first coming of our Lord and Saviour, when he came to sow his word in the world, he took all the land by the mere casting of the seed, and how he drove out of it the adverse powers and renegade angels that had besieged the minds of the Gentiles, and meanwhile sowed the word and spread the churches. This is his first possession of the whole land. But follow me, O hearer, along the fine lines of the word, and I will show you how he also takes this land a second time, the land which Jesus is now told remains in great measure. Hear Paul saying of him: “For he must reign until he puts all his enemies as a footstool under his feet.” This, then, is the land that is now said to remain in great measure, until all are wholly subjected under his feet and he thereby takes all as his inheritance. “And this,” it says, “is the land that remains: all the borders of the Philistines,” and very many others that follow. Many still remain, as far as our own times are concerned, which we see are not yet subjected to the feet of Jesus, who must surely gain possession of all things. For there could be no end of things unless all were first subjected to him. For so the prophet too says that all nations will serve him: “From the ends of the rivers to the ends of the earth, the Ethiopians will fall down before him”; and: “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they will offer sacrifices.” Hence it is clear that at the second coming Jesus will gain possession of this great land that remains; but blessed are those who were gained at his first coming. For they will truly be pleasing who receive the inheritance of the land of promise by war and arms, while many adversaries resist and many enemies attack. But when anyone is subjected by necessity, at the time when even the last enemy, death, must be destroyed, there will no longer be any favor for those who are subjected.

After this, when he had listed very many nations, he said of the Sidonians alone: “And all the Sidonians I will exterminate from before the sons of Israel.” The Canaanites were named, and also those who are over against Egypt, and those from the borders of Ekron, and the left-hand parts of the rivers, and very many other nations; and of the Sidonians alone the Lord says that he will overthrow them. Now the Sidonians, as we said before, are called “hunters.” Who, then, are understood to be these evil hunters whom the Lord exterminates, if not those contrary powers of which the prophet says, “They prepared snares for my feet,” with which, that is, they hunt souls and deceive them into sin? These, then, the Lord exterminates; because if such hunters have perished, when there is no longer anyone to stretch out snares and nets to deceive souls into sin, then each one will rest under his vine and under his fig tree.

This too was read to us today, that Moses gave an inheritance to some; and after this we read that Jesus too, according to the Lord’s command, distributed the inheritance. Moses, then, first distributed the inheritance, and Jesus second. Here understand Moses as the law. Those, then, who lived according to the law received their inheritance first, but outside the land of promise. Then, when they had received the land of inheritance, they do not possess it or divide it among themselves, but wait until it is distributed to them by lot through Jesus. Is this not plainly what the Apostle says to the Hebrews, writing of the earlier fathers, who he said pleased God by faith? And he adds, saying: “And all these, though they received testimony through faith, did not yet obtain the promises, since God provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” They already have their promise, then, and have rested, and have been judged worthy to receive their inheritance through Moses; yet they too are still fighting, and are in the contest on behalf of those who serve as soldiers under Jesus. But you ask who these are who fight, and what that battle is which they wage. I think it is this: that all those fathers who have fallen asleep before us fight with us and help us by their prayers. For I also heard one of the older teachers say this, on that passage where it is written in Numbers that this assembly will lick up that assembly “as a calf licks up the green grass in the field.” He said, then: Why was such a comparison chosen, if not because this is what is to be understood in this place: that the assembly of the Lord which has gone before us among the saints consumes the opposing assembly with mouth and tongue, that is, consumes our adversaries with prayers and supplications? We must not fight, then, with weapons against our invisible enemies, but with prayers and meditations on the word of God, with works and with right thoughts. For so the fathers too were armed, conquering by faith and works. See, finally, that it is written of them: “They believed God,” it says, “and Moses his servant. And then Moses sang this song and said: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honored.” So, then, let us too, cultivating full faith and perfect works, unceasing prayers, meditation on the divine word, and spiritual understanding, and fortified with all these as with the armor of God, stand against the wiles of the devil, calling on God our helper in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

As those who receive the law, which is the shadow of that true law, serve the shadow and pattern of heavenly things, so those who divide the land by inheritance in Judea follow the pattern and shadow of the heavenly division. The truth, then, was in heaven, but the shadow and pattern of the truth on earth. And as long as this shadow stood on earth, there was an earthly Jerusalem, there was a temple, there was an altar, there was visible worship, there were high priests and priests; the cities and villages of Judea also stood, and all the things that are now read as described in this book. But when, at the coming of our Saviour God, the truth descended from heaven and sprang up from the earth, and righteousness looked down from heaven, the shadows and patterns ceased (for Jerusalem fell, the temple fell, the altar was taken away), so that there is no longer a place either on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem where one must worship, but the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and truth. So, then, now that the truth is present, type and shadow ceased; and when the temple was present which was built by the Spirit of God and the power of the Most High in the womb of the virgin, the temple built of stones was destroyed. The high priest of the good things to come was present; the high priests of bulls and goats ceased. The Lamb of God came, who takes away the sin of the world; the lamb taken from the flock and slaughtered in vain for so many ages ceased. If, then, all these things that had been given in shadow to those before us ceased when the truth was present and at hand, it followed without doubt that, once the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven had been revealed, the earthly inheritance should cease. And the reason why all these things came to an end is this: that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become subject to God; lest perhaps any of the unbelieving people should take occasions for their unbelief, and, having the shadows handed down to them from of old, whether of the temple, the altar, the high priests, or the priests, should think that, as long as the state of the ancient worship remained, they would be transgressing the order of religion if they passed over to the faith. That is why divine providence arranged for all these things which had long been foreshadowed on earth to be taken away, so that, when the types ceased, they might in a way receive a road for seeking the truth. If, then, O Jew, coming to Jerusalem, the earthly city, you find it overthrown and reduced to ashes and embers, do not weep, as you now do, like children in understanding; do not lament, but instead of the earthly city seek the heavenly. Look up, and there you will find the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of all. If you see the altar abandoned, I do not want you to be saddened. If you do not find a high priest, I do not want you to despair. There is an altar in heaven, and the high priest of the good things to come stands by it, chosen by God after the order of Melchizedek. So, then, by the kindness and mercy of God the earthly inheritance too has been taken away from you, so that you may seek your inheritance in heaven.

Yet let us see what is described through the shadow, since in the shadow of the law the truth is sketched. A first and a second division of the inheritance is related. The first is described as made through Moses, but the second, which is more powerful, through Jesus. And Moses assigns the possession beyond the Jordan to the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh; but all the rest receive their inheritance through Jesus. We have already spoken of these before: how those who pleased God through the law, preceding in time those who come to the promises through faith in Jesus, have not yet attained what is perfect, waiting for those who come later, at a different time indeed, but who please God by one faith, as the Apostle says, so that they should not attain perfection apart from us. Meanwhile, neither Moses nor Jesus gave an inheritance to the Levites, because the Lord God himself is their inheritance. What else are we to understand by this, if not that there are some in the church of the Lord who surpass all the others in strength of mind and grace of merits, and for whom the Lord himself is said to be the inheritance? And if it is permitted to be bold in such matters and to open something of the hidden secret, let us see whether perhaps this is what secretly shows the figure of the priests or Levites: that in the whole people (I mean of those who are saved) the greater part by far, and far more numerous, are those who, believing simply in the fear of God, please the Lord by good works, honest habits, and commendable acts. But few are they, and very rare, who, devoting themselves to wisdom and knowledge, keeping their mind clean and pure, and cultivating their souls with all excellent virtues, by the grace of their teaching light up for the other, simpler believers the road by which they walk and come to salvation. These are perhaps now signified under the name of Levites and priests, whose inheritance is said to be the Lord himself, who is wisdom, which they have loved above all else. Yet I find a certain difference between what Moses distributed and what Jesus distributed. For Moses, when he distributed land beyond the Jordan to the two and a half tribes, did not give the Levites the portion of dwelling that belonged to them; but Jesus gave it, not only in the tribes that he himself provides for, but also in those that had been settled by Moses beyond the Jordan. For dwellings are assigned to the Levites in each tribe, so that through this we might learn a far more magnificent mystery. For this Levitical or priestly order, which devotes itself to the wisdom and knowledge of God, could not receive a lot of dwelling from Moses, because Moses was a minister not of the truth but of the shadow and pattern. But Jesus our Lord, who was the Wisdom of God, himself provides dwellings for the wise. For Moses could not say: “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” For this is to give a portion to the Levites. Nor could Moses say that he who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple. Nor could Moses say: “Everyone who does not hate father or mother, and brothers and sisters and children, and his own soul as well, cannot be my disciple.” Moses could not say this; therefore he himself could not assign the dwellings of the priests and Levites. Blessed, then, is he who shows himself such, and is found perfect in all these things that Jesus commanded, so that he may receive from Jesus the lot of a heavenly dwelling in the future; of whom the Lord Jesus himself says: “Father, I desire that where I am, these too may be with me”; and: “As I am in you and you in me, and we are one, so that these too may be one in us.”

But if, hearing that the Lord is said to be the inheritance of the perfect and more eminent, you do not know and are unsure what is signified by this name, hear that the Lord is wisdom. He, then, of whom it is said that the Lord is his inheritance will receive wisdom as his inheritance. The Lord is called righteousness. He, then, whose inheritance is the Lord will obtain righteousness as his inheritance. The Lord is peace, the Lord is redemption, the Lord is salvation; in the Lord are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Hence he whose inheritance is the Lord will receive all things as his inheritance. Yet those too, whose inheritance is said to be the Wisdom of God, the Word of God, truth and righteousness, meanwhile receive a dwelling among those whose inheritance is on earth; so that through fellowship with them those who are not yet strong enough by themselves may be made sharers through them in the wisdom and knowledge of God, and in his truth and Word. And so the divine dispensation reaches even to the very least, so that those who cannot themselves be directly capable of divine grace may be found worthy to be enlightened through fellowship with these, and what is written may be fulfilled: “He who had much did not have too much, and he who had little did not have too little”; and also what the Apostle says to the Corinthians about the saints at Jerusalem: “That your abundance,” he says, “may supply their need, and their abundance may supply your need.” So, then, the Levite and the priest who have no land are now commanded to dwell together with the Israelite who has land, so that the priest and the Levite may receive from the Israelite the earthly things they do not have, and the Israelite in turn may receive from the priest and the Levite the heavenly and divine things he does not have. For the law of God has been entrusted to the priests and Levites, so that they may devote themselves to it alone and give their time to the word of God without any anxiety. But in order to be able to give their time to it, they must make use of the services of the laity. For if the layman does not provide the priests and Levites with what is necessary, they will be occupied with such things, that is, with bodily cares, and will give less time to the law of God. And if they do not give their time and effort to the law of God, it is you who are in danger. For the light of knowledge that is in them will be darkened if you do not supply oil for the lamp; and through your fault that will happen which the Lord said, that “when the blind leads the blind, both fall into the pit.” And in you too will be fulfilled what the Lord said: “For if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” So that the light of knowledge may shine in the priests, then, and their lamp may always be lit, fulfill your duty, carry out God’s command concerning service to the priests. But if perhaps, having received from you what is necessary — and that not as an exaction but as a blessing — they neglect to apply themselves to learning, to give their time to the word of God, and to meditate on the law of God day and night, they will see for themselves how they are to render account to the Lord for your souls. But let us rather pray to the mercy of almighty God that he may deign to enlighten us all with his light, his truth, and his splendor, and to give us his word as a lamp for our feet and as a light for our paths, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is the true light of the world, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Let us learn from the law how necessarily the division of the land is described, which is said to have been made first through Moses and second through Jesus — not that we should keep both, but that, learning the reason for both, we may hold only that which is handed down by Jesus our Lord. Moses, then, distributed the land beyond the Jordan; but this land, which is the holy land and the good land, Jesus distributed together with the princes of the tribes of Israel. You see, then, that when that true inheritance of the holy land began to be distributed by the Saviour, the princes of the tribes of the true and spiritual Israel were also brought in. And whom do we think to be the princes of our tribes, or the princes of the church, if not the holy apostles, to whom the Saviour says, “You too will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”? Yet the priest too is brought in for the division, the priest who is the secret and mystical word of God. For so it says, that Jesus and Eleazar came together to divide the land.

And let us see who first received an inheritance from Jesus. “Caleb,” it says, “son of Jephunneh.” For he is the first to ask, and he asks with certain reasons and words that are recorded; and these words too can instruct us for salvation. First of all, Caleb is interpreted “as a heart.” Who, then, is “as a heart,” if not one who in all things applies himself to understanding, and who is said to be no other member of the body of the church than that which is more excellent in us, the heart: that is, one who does everything with reason and prudence and so manages all things as if he were nothing but heart? And his father Jephunneh is interpreted “turning.” This Caleb, then, is the son of turning. Why, unless because, having turned to God, he brought forth such fruit from himself that he begot a son, the heart? Everyone, then, who gives his time to divine thoughts and does all things prudently and reasonably is a Caleb. He, taught first by Moses and then by Jesus, at whose side he stood, says: “You know the word that the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God.” You know the word that the Lord spoke. For who else can know the word that the Lord spoke to Moses but Jesus alone? No one has understood the law as Jesus taught it. For he taught and opened all things; he revealed to Paul that “the law is spiritual.” “As he spoke,” it says, “concerning me and concerning you.” Moses spoke, he says, concerning me and concerning you. Concerning you: this is what the Lord said, “If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also; for he wrote of me.” And as for “concerning me,” that is, concerning Caleb, who is the heart, it is certain that Moses wrote concerning the heart, since he wrote everything prudently and wisely. He says, then: “Today I am as strong as I was then.” For the saint is equally strong in present things and in past, in new and in old, in the Gospels and in the law. This, then, is what he says, that he is as strong today under Jesus as he was then under Moses, because the watchful heart is strong in the mysteries of both testaments.

But let us also see the first request that Caleb son of Jephunneh made of Jesus. “I ask of you this mountain,” he says, “as the Lord said on that day.” The saint asks for nothing low or cast down, nothing that lies in sunken valleys, but asks for a lofty mountain, a mountain on which there are great and fortified cities. For it is written that “there are the Anakim, great and fortified cities.” And he asked for these because he knew how to make war, as it is written: “The wise man will take fortified cities and destroy the stronghold in which the ungodly trusted.” Do you think that when Solomon said this he wanted to teach us that the wise man would take cities and destroy strongholds built of stones? Or does it not rather indicate that the cities and walls are the doctrines of the ungodly and the syllogisms of the philosophers, by which they build up all kinds of impious things contrary to the divine law that are observed among pagans or barbarians? Among these too must be reckoned as fortified cities, set on mountains, the things that heretics set up on assertions drawn from the Scriptures as on high mountains. These cities, then, every wise man who preaches the word has destroyed, and has overthrown the cities of falsehood with the battering ram of truth, as the apostle Paul said: “Destroying arguments and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” So, then, now too this most wise Caleb stands before Jesus and promises that he is strong for war and ready for battle; and therefore he asks to be granted, as it were, the faculty of disputation, so that he may engage with the dialecticians of this world, with those who uphold falsehoods as truths, in order to refute and overcome them and overthrow everything they have built with false assertions. That is why, seeing his eagerness, “he blessed him,” it says, namely because he asks for and dares such things. And you too, if you are willing to apply yourself to study, to meditate prudently on the law of God, and to become a heart in the law of God, can overthrow these great and fortified cities, that is, the assertions of falsehood, so that you too may be worthy to be blessed by Jesus and to receive Hebron from him. Hebron is interpreted “joining” or “marriage.” By this perhaps it may be shown that in it is the double cave bought by the patriarch Abraham, in which lie the married couples of the fathers and their remains, that is, Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, Jacob with Leah. Caleb, then, was worthy to receive the remains of the fathers as his inheritance, undoubtedly because by the wisdom that was in him, by which he was strong both under Moses and under Jesus, he had understood the reason for that joining itself and had perceived why Sarah alone lay there with Abraham, and neither Hagar nor Keturah was worthy to be joined to him; or why Leah alone was seen to lie with Jacob, and neither Rachel, who had been more loved, nor any of the concubines was joined to him in the tomb. He, then, the prudent and wise Caleb, takes his inheritance among the tombs of the fathers. To him Jesus gives Hebron, the chief city of the race of the Anakim, and it becomes his lot until this day. Would that the lot of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob might be given to me too, and that my God might become my God as he became the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Moses distributed an inheritance, and Jesus too distributed an inheritance. But it is not written in Moses’ distribution of the inheritance that the land rested from wars; whereas in Jesus’ distribution the very preface of the passage begins thus: “And the land,” it says, “rested from wars.” If, then, you wish to be made worthy to obtain an inheritance from Jesus and to receive a portion from him, you must first bring all wars to an end and abide in peace, so that it may be said of the land of your flesh too that the land rested from wars.

Next, although it is the custom of holy Scripture to name the four parts of the world, which are called either axes or regions, in the description of the boundaries of the tribe of Judah only two are named and two are passed over in silence. For it is written thus: “And the boundaries of the tribe of the sons of Judah according to their peoples were from the borders of Idumea, from the desert of Sin, to the west.” And when he had described the boundaries from the west, he then says: “And from the east, all the salt sea”; and he passed over the other two parts in silence, that is, the north and the south. See, then, whether these things are not full of mysteries. Although we cannot perceive or explain each detail, yet as the Lord deigns to grant and we are able to grasp, we will try to discuss each point. “The boundaries of Judah were,” it says, “according to their peoples, from the borders of Idumea, from the desert of Sin, to the west.” The boundaries of Judea, then, are next to the borders of Idumea. And Idumea, as we have often said, is interpreted “earthly.” After the earthly, then, come the boundaries of Judea. “And from the desert,” it says, “of Sin.” Sin is interpreted “temptations.” After temptations, then, come the boundaries of the inheritance of Judea. West and east are named, and the places we mentioned above are neighboring, indeed adjoining. And the valley of Egypt too is marked as neighboring the western parts, which is from the desert to the west; and on the east the boundaries are girded by the salt sea.

After this: “from the hills,” it says, “that stretch to the west; and from there one goes up from the west as far as Kadesh-barnea, and so it extends from the west to the west of Kadesh. And these are their boundaries on the southwest, and from there it went on to the valley of Egypt.” You see how in the western parts it names the southwest, and Egypt, and the setting? Undoubtedly so that each one may know that all these things must be escaped and passed through by him, so that only then can he come to the royal tribe, of which the Apostle says: “For it is evident that our Lord sprang from Judah.” … is interpreted “earthly.” And beyond the borders of Idumea is the desert. A little before, we said of the desert of Sin that it signified temptations; and therefore we must cross the desert of temptations, so that we may thus come into the inheritance of the sons of Judah. But we must also climb the ascent of the hills of Akrabbim, which is interpreted “scorpions.” We must, then, pass over and trample even the scorpions, those undoubtedly of which the Saviour says: “Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions.” He, then, who wishes and desires to enter the inheritance of the tribe of Judah must climb these ascents and trample on and escape the scorpions that stand in his way. Hence I think that the Lord said to the prophet Ezekiel, as he made this journey: “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of scorpions.” “And the boundaries are,” it says, “as far as Kadesh.” Kadesh is interpreted “holy” or “sanctification.” The boundaries of Judah, then, reach as far as sanctification.

But let us see also what the boundaries are on the eastern side. Not that I wish to draw up a catalogue of places now, but that we may contemplate the images of the mysteries that are signified by these things. It is said, then, that on the eastern side of the tribe of Judah is the salt sea, and after this the spring of the sun and the city of the sun are named in its portion, and that in the same tribe there is also the city of letters. Everyone, then, who wishes to enter into the portion of the sons of Judah must first cross the salt sea, that is, overcome the waves and storms of this life and escape everything in this world that is compared to the waves of the sea for its uncertainty and slipperiness, so that he may come to the land of Judah and approach the spring of the sun. And what is the spring of the sun, or of which sun? Undoubtedly of the one of whom it is written: “But for you who fear my name the Sun of righteousness will rise.” Of this sun, then, if you first escape the salt sea, you will find the spring in the land of Judah. What spring? That one, surely, of which Jesus said: “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, it will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” When, then, you find such a spring of this sun as we have described, you will also find its city. For there is there, it says, also a city of the sun. A city of the sun is spoken of in Egypt too. But that city in Egypt took its name from this sun, which the heavenly Father commands to rise on the good and the evil; whereas the city in Judea belongs only to the saints, because it is the city of God. And the spring of which we spoke above has become the river that gladdens the city of God. And you too, if you are fortified on every side and surrounded by the wall of self-control, if you are strengthened with the towers of wisdom and magnanimity, will yourself become a city of God. But if to all these you add the light of knowledge, as Isaiah said, “Light for yourselves the light of knowledge,” and the Sun of righteousness shines on you, you too will become a city of the sun, or will receive the city of the sun by the lot of inheritance. And if you give yourself to the law of God and meditate on it day and night, so that the book of the law does not depart from your hand, as was said to Jesus, and if you remember the Saviour’s command where he says, “Search the Scriptures” — if, then, you devote yourself to such studies and gain learning in the divine law, whether by reading or by hearing, the city of letters will become your portion. These things we have discussed as far as our understanding allows, and according to the capacity of your hearing; but the sum of knowledge, and a deeper and clearer understanding of these things, will belong to those who will be found worthy to obtain the true inheritance of the true and only-begotten Son of God, which has been promised to those who have loved him perfectly, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

If there are any who are able to ascend to the holy land and the good land of the living, in which there is no death, if anyone has been found worthy by the Spirit to climb up to see these things, he can know more truly the differences of the inheritances, and of the places and names that are written in these passages. But since it is difficult to find a soul so learned or so filled with the grace of the Spirit, we will try, for the sake of the common consolation — lest perhaps the divine word and the reading become tedious to the hearers if it receives no explanation — with your prayers and with the Lord’s gift, to touch meanwhile on such things in readings of this kind as can edify our souls. And if there are things that either we cannot perceive at present or you cannot yet hear, still, made more correct and better by the things we discuss, we ought to hope that, having become better, we shall also grasp those things we cannot grasp now. And indeed it would be best to attain these things while we are in this life, where the reward of labor is just; if not, perhaps they will become known after death to those who are found worthy. Yet I also give this admonition, that no small benefit is conferred on the soul by the very fact that these words enter our ears, even if they seem obscure. For the Gentiles believe that certain songs, which they call incantations, whispered by those who have this art, with certain names invoked which not even those who invoke them understand, by the mere sound of the voice put serpents to sleep or even draw them out of their hidden holes; and they are often said by voice alone to check swellings or fevers or other such things in human bodies, and sometimes even to inflict on the soul a kind of stupor of the senses, where the faith of Christ has not resisted. How much more, then, must we believe that every utterance of holy Scripture, whether of words or of names, is stronger and more powerful than any incantation and song? For as among unbelievers the contrary powers, hearing this or that name in songs or incantations, come and render service, and work at that for which they perceive themselves invoked by this or that name, in a way bound to the business of their office and of the ministry to which they have given themselves over: so much the more do the heavenly powers and angels of God who are with us — as the Lord says of the little ones of the church, that their angels always stand in the sight of the Lord, seeing his face — receive it gladly and gratefully if we continually bring forth from our mouth the words of Scripture and the utterance of these names, like certain songs and incantations. For even if we do not understand what we bring forth from our mouth, yet the powers that are present with us understand, and, as if invited by a song, they delight to be with us and to bring us help. And that there are many divine powers not only around us but also within us, the prophet indicates when he says in the Psalms: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all my inmost parts, his holy name,” that is, all that is within me. It is clear, then, that there are many powers within us to whom the care of our souls or our bodies has been entrusted; and these, if they are holy, are delighted when the Scriptures are read to us and become stronger in their care for us, even if we speak in tongues and our spirit prays but our mind is unfruitful. For the holy Apostle said this too, and brought to human ears a wonderful mystery, as it were, saying that it can sometimes happen that the spirit which is in us prays while our mind is unfruitful. Understand from this, then, that our mind is sometimes unfruitful, but the spirit, that is, those powers that have been given to help our soul, are fed and refreshed by hearing holy Scripture, as by divine and rational food. Why do I say that divine powers are fed and feast within us if we bring forth the words of divine Scripture from our mouth? Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, if he finds us occupied with these things and giving effort to studies and exercises of this kind, not only deigns to be fed and refreshed in us, but also, if he sees these banquets prepared with us, deigns to bring the Father with him. But since these things seem very great and beyond man, let them be proved to you not by my words but by those of the Lord and Saviour himself, who says: “Amen, I say to you, that I and the Father will come and make our dwelling and dine with him.” With whom? Surely with him who keeps his commandments. But, as we said, just as by meditations of this kind we call forth the fellowship and services of the divine powers toward us, so on the contrary by the utterance of words and names of this kind we put to flight the snares of the evil powers and the attacks of the most wicked demons. For example, just as some of you have sometimes seen a serpent put to sleep by incantations and carried in the hands, or drawn out of its holes, unable to harm with its poisons, since they are numbed by the power of the incantation, so also by the power of the divine reading, if there is within us a serpent of the contrary power, if some snake lies hidden to lie in wait, it is driven out by the songs of Scripture and by persistence in the divine word — if you bear it patiently, if you do not turn your hearing away, worn out by weariness.

If, then, O hearer, you sometimes hear a Scripture read in your ears that you do not understand, and its sense seems obscure to you, meanwhile take this first benefit: that by the mere hearing, as by a kind of incantation, the poison of the harmful powers that besiege you and lie in wait for you is driven out and put to flight. Only take care that you do not become like the deaf asps that stop their ears so as not to hear the voice of the charmer and of the charm that is sung by the wise man. For example, there is a song that is chanted and sung by the wise Moses, and that is chanted and sung by the wise Jesus son of Nun, and that is chanted and sung by all the wise prophets. We have said these things, then, so that we may not grow disgusted when we hear the Scriptures, even if we do not understand them, but that it may be done to us according to our faith, believing that all Scripture inspired by God is useful. If, then, it is inspired by God and useful, even if we do not perceive its usefulness, we must nevertheless believe that it is useful. Physicians sometimes give some food, or sometimes a drink, for example to clear dimness of sight; and yet in eating the food or drinking we do not feel that it is useful and benefits the eyes; but when one day, then a second and a third have passed, the power of that food or drink, carried to the sight in its own time through certain hidden passages, gradually cleanses the sight, and then at last we begin to feel that the food or drink has benefited the eyes. And the same thing usually happens in the other parts of the body as well. In this way, then, we must believe also of holy Scripture that it is useful and benefits the soul, even if our mind does not grasp its meaning at present; because, as we said, both the good powers that are with us are refreshed and fed by these words, and the contrary powers are numbed by these meditations and put to flight. But perhaps the hearers will say: You are telling us this to excuse yourself from the duty of discussion and to stop at this, without offering us any consolation at all from what is possible, and without praying the Lord to grant his grace to reveal what has been read, so that we may take at least a little food from the explanation of hidden and secret things. We did not say these things for that reason, nor did we put them forward as an excuse, but to show that there is a certain power in holy Scripture that suffices for the reader even without explanation.

But now, since there is not enough time for us to discuss everything that has been read, let us at least touch briefly on a few things, as the Lord grants. The distribution of the inheritance that Jesus distributed begins with Caleb. For the lot of his portion was given to this Caleb before his tribe, that of the sons of Judah, received its own; and it is given to him not in some remote parts but in the midst of the sons of Judah; and the portion was given him not by lot but by the command of the Lord, and a whole city is given him. Who else was fit to obtain such an inheritance and receive such a portion, if not Caleb, who alone was saved with Jesus son of Nun out of the six hundred thousand armed men who had come out of Egypt? It was right that he should receive the mother city. And so it is written: “Jesus gave him the city of Arba, the mother city of Anak, which is Hebron,” where the tombs of the fathers were. From this city of Arba, then, which was the mother city of Anak, that is, Hebron, he exterminated the three sons of Anak. What do you think Scripture wished to show us when it noted this too, that Caleb, having received the portion of his inheritance, exterminated the three sons of Anak, and recorded their names, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the generations of Anak? Let us see, then, why it is not enough for it to say “the sons of Anak,” but it also adds their names, and on top of all this adds: “These were the generations of Anak.” And in what follows it relates that, having received the lot of his inheritance, Caleb went up against the inhabitants of Debir. And the name of Debir was formerly the City of Letters. We must see, then, what it means that it was formerly the City of Letters and afterwards became Debir.

It is further related that Caleb, who had a daughter, proposed a condition, saying: “Whoever is able to destroy the City of Letters and take it, I will give him Achsah my daughter as his wife.” And when he had proposed this, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took the City of Letters. Holy Scripture has also set down this point for inquiry — if indeed, as we said, nothing in these words is to be passed over idly — that Othniel is said to be Caleb’s brother, while Caleb is written as the son of Jephunneh and Othniel as the son of Kenaz. How, then, will he be seen to be Caleb’s brother who is not the son of Jephunneh, since the one is called the son of Jephunneh and the other, who is said to have taken the City of Letters, the son of Kenaz? Of him it is added that he was also younger, and that by the condition set for valor he rightly received Achsah, Caleb’s daughter, as his wife, because he destroyed and wiped out the City of Letters. And Achsah, going out of her father’s house, she who had been given in marriage on a fixed condition, sitting on a donkey, said to her husband: “I will ask my father for a portion of a field.” And she cried out from the mountain, and Caleb said to her: “What is the matter with you?” And she said to him: “Give me a blessing, because you have given me in marriage in the land of the south.” “And she received the upper Gonetla and the lower Gonetla.” And Scripture concluded, saying: “This is the inheritance of the tribe of Judah.” You see that truly the help of God is needed so that these things can be explained? It is altogether impossible for any man to discuss them unless he has been enlightened by the grace of God. Therefore help me with your prayers and labor together with me, that the Lord may deign to show us the light of truth in such obscure and hidden places, so that we too may be able to make clear to you how these things are true and useful and divine, though, because of the frailty of human nature, covered with sacraments and wrapped in mysteries.

First, then, let us discuss why Caleb received a mother city, and the one that is named first among all the others in the land of promise as a mother city, the mother city of Anak. Anak is interpreted “empty humility” or “empty answer.” Caleb, then, received the mother city of empty humility. It is certain that there are two humilities. One is praiseworthy, of which the Saviour says: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” And of this humility it is said that “everyone who humbles himself will be exalted”; and elsewhere: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” But there is also another, blameworthy humility, that of sinners, such as the one Scripture speaks of in the case of unlawful intercourse, that “he humbled her,” as was written of Amnon, that he humbled his sister Tamar. There is, then, an empty humility that comes down from sin. Of this empty humility, then, Caleb took or destroyed the mother city, and killed the three sons of Anak, who were the sons of empty humility; and having killed them he himself inhabits the city and does the things written in what follows. And who are these sons of empty humility whom Caleb exterminated? The first is Sheshai, which is interpreted “outside me,” that is, outside the holy, because the son of empty humility is outside the holy, indeed outside God. Another is Ahiman, which is interpreted “my brother outside counsel,” as if we were to say “a brother without counsel.” For all the brothers who are born of empty humility are certainly outside counsel. The third is Talmai, which is interpreted “precipice” or “suspension,” which signifies that there is nothing stable in it, but everything wandering and rushing headlong. These three sons of Anak, then, Caleb exterminated and killed, and after them he went down to Debir. The name of Debir was formerly the City of Letters. Debir is interpreted “speech.” But Debir was formerly called the City of Letters. By the City of Letters, then, understand the whole instrument of the Old Testament: that is, let us understand this very Scripture that we are now trying to discuss to be the City of Letters, which afterwards becomes Debir, that is, speech. For these things that were formerly in letters, and were understood according to the letter, have now become speech in the churches, Christ the Lord revealing them, as first the holy apostles spoke and discussed them, removing the surface of the letter and bringing forth from it spiritual speech. And each of the teachers of the churches too turns the letter of the law into speech and Gospel discourse. But who are the three sons of Anak whom Caleb kills, in whose person we have placed the power of the law? The empty humility must be taken to be what all the poets and philosophers of this world thought about the divinity, because what they thought is both lowly and unworthy of God. For what is so lowly, and so emptily lowly, as to assert or suppose that wood and stones are gods? The first son of this empty humility, then, is Sheshai, who is called “outside me”; that is, their first thought is both outside the truth and outside God. The second is Ahiman, that is, “a brother without counsel.” And rightly, for this is the brother of that error which proceeds without counsel. For what is so without counsel as to abandon God who made us and to follow those whom we made? The third thought of error is Talmai, that is, “precipice” or “suspension.” For the last end of this error tends toward the precipice and the depth of hell. These thoughts of paganism, then, as sons of Anak of the ancient error, the law cut off, the law which even according to the letter proclaims the true God and Creator of all.

But now Caleb goes up to this City of Letters and says: “Whoever destroys this City of Letters and takes it, I will give him Achsah my daughter as wife. And Othniel son of Kenaz took it.” Othniel, who took the City of Letters, is interpreted “answer of God.” He can be called an answer of God to whom God answers, that is, to whom he reveals secrets and opens hidden things. He, then, is the one who can take the City of Letters and destroy the killing letter of the Old Instrument. “Caleb’s younger brother.” And I, from the church, am Caleb’s younger brother, who, having destroyed and thoroughly examined the letter of the law, seek the spiritual sense in it. And I destroy the letter when I am no longer circumcised according to the flesh, nor eat unleavened bread according to the flesh, nor keep the Passover with the Jews, nor observe the Sabbath according to the letter. For it has been promised me that, if I destroy the City of Letters, I shall receive the daughter of my elder brother. For I was formerly the son of Kenaz, which is interpreted “contempt.” For who was contempt as we Gentiles were, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, having no hope, and without God in this world? But that elder brother of mine, whose daughter I now receive because I destroyed the City of Letters, was the son of Jephunneh, which is interpreted “turning.” He gives me, then, his daughter; that is, the law gives to me, the younger brother, the knowledge of its God, or understanding, as it is written: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits.” We must know, however, that the law, whose person we have now given to Caleb, is one thing, and the letter of the Old Testament, which we have figuratively called the City of Letters, is another. Having received his daughter, then, I, his younger brother, lead her out of her father’s house. And when she comes with me, sitting on a donkey (on what donkey? undoubtedly the one that the Saviour’s disciples untied), she says to her father: “Give me a blessing, father. And she received the upper Gonetla and the lower Gonetla.” The Apostle says this more plainly: “Having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” And so the Saviour promises to those who follow the perfection of his word that they will receive a hundredfold in this present age, and in the age to come will obtain eternal life. This, then, is to have received in blessing the upper Gonetla and the lower Gonetla. Let us pray that we too may be found worthy to obtain this blessing, through Christ our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

The sons of Judah wanted to destroy or kill the Jebusites of Jerusalem and could not; therefore the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem until this day. Beginning with the letter, we want to ask those who think these things can stand according to the letter what is meant by “until this day,” a phrase that Scripture always uses to signify the perpetuity of the age, as when it says, “Do not turn away from the Lord this day,” that is, as long as the age stands. Let him show me, then, how the Jebusite lives with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem as long as the age stands, when not even the sons of Judah themselves live in Jerusalem. Therefore this cannot be true either, that the Jebusites live with the Jews in Jerusalem, since not even the Jews live there. But let us understand these things spiritually, taking up the parable of the Gospel which says of the tares: “Let both grow, lest perhaps, when you want to root up the tares, you root up the wheat along with them.” As, then, in the Gospel the tares are allowed to grow together with the wheat, so too here in Jerusalem, that is, in the church, there are certain Jebusites, those who lead an ignoble and degenerate life and are perverse in faith, in acts, and in all their conduct. For it is not possible for the church to be cleansed completely while it is on earth, so that no ungodly person or sinner seems to remain in it, but all in it are holy and blessed, and no stain of sin at all is found in them. But as it is said of the tares, “lest perhaps, rooting up the tares, they root up the wheat with them,” so too it can be said of those in whom there are sins that are either doubtful or hidden. For we do not say of those who are manifestly and evidently criminal that they should not be expelled from the church. Hear, then, Scripture saying that the sons of Judah could not destroy the Jebusites, but lived with them in Jerusalem until this day. Hence I beseech you who are faithful so to keep your life and conduct that you neither suffer scandal in anything yourselves nor give scandal to others; but let it be your greatest zeal and your greatest care that no polluted person enter this holy assembly of yours, that no Jebusite live with you. You see, then, that Scripture says that the sons of Judah could not drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem. And Jebusite is interpreted “trampling.” Since, then, we cannot drive out those who trample on us, let us at least drive out those we can, whose sins are manifest. For where sin is not evident, we can drive no one out of the church, lest perhaps, in rooting up the tares, we root up the wheat along with them.

Yet I am moved by his saying that they could not drive out the Jebusites, that is, those whose name is interpreted “trampling.” And so let us see who the tramplers in the church are. Undoubtedly those of whom the Lord says in the Gospels: “Do not give what is holy, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you.” This, then, is the Jebusite, the trampler: those who hear the word of God unworthily, and when they have heard it, neither depart as unbelievers nor remain as believers, but, having gained knowledge of the mysteries and searched out the more secret things of our faith, afterwards turn and attack us, and by their contradictions burst our hearts, trampling on the pearls of the Lord’s word and staining the ornaments of the faith. It is of these, then, that it is said that the sons of Judah could not drive the Jebusite out of Jerusalem until this day. Something similar is written of Ephraim too; for Scripture says: “And Ephraim did not destroy the Canaanite who lived in Gezer, and the Canaanite has lived in Ephraim until this day.” Ephraim is interpreted “fruitfulness.” He, then, who bears fruit and grows in faith cannot exterminate the Canaanite, the most wicked seed, the cursed seed, the ever-shifting seed, the unstable seed; for this is what Canaanite is interpreted. And it is certain that the Canaanite always lives with one who bears fruit and grows, for the motions of temptation never leave him. But if you truly bear fruit in God and see someone of this kind, restless, turbulent, unstable, know that he is a Canaanite. If you cannot drive him out of the church, because “the sons of Ephraim could not destroy the Canaanites,” observe what the Apostle commends, saying: “Withdraw from every brother who walks in idleness.” But since Solomon urges that what we read be written in the heart threefold, besides what we have said I will bring to your ears what occurs to my heart; and you, do what is written, that when one speaks, all examine. So when I say what I think, you discern and examine whether anything is right or less right. Of Jerusalem we have often said that it is interpreted “vision of peace.” If, then, Jerusalem is built in our heart, that is, if the vision of peace is founded in our heart, and we always behold and keep in our heart Christ, who is our peace; if we are so fixed and stable in this vision of peace that no evil thought or plan for any sin ever rises into our heart — if this can be so, we shall be able to say that we are in Jerusalem and that no one else lives with us except those who are holy. But now, even when we come to great progress and cultivate ourselves with the greatest zeal, I still do not think that such purity of heart comes to anyone that he is never stained by the contagion of a hostile thought: it is certain that the Jebusites too live with the sons of Judah in Jerusalem. Yet we have not said this so that we may neglect to drive them out as far as possible; rather we must take pains and try daily to drive them out of Jerusalem; but, as it is written, we cannot drive them all out at once. The same must be thought of those who bear fruit, who are called sons of Ephraim; they too must always drive the Canaanites, that is, wandering and slippery thoughts, out of their souls. And God is able to subject both Jebusites and Canaanites to us, as it is written: “And he subjected the Canaanites to the sons of Ephraim.” Let us, then, pray to the Lord himself that he may drive evil thoughts out of us and bring in good ones, worthy of Jerusalem, the heavenly city, in which nothing polluted and filthy may be found that might convict us on the day of judgment by the thoughts of our conscience, but that purity of heart may be found in us in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages.

The Canaanites are said three times to be among the sons of Ephraim; but let us observe what the order of the statements is in each case, that is, what the first statement contains, which says that the Canaanites are with the sons of Ephraim, and what the second and third contain. For if we observe more carefully how the Canaanites are said three times to be with the sons of Ephraim, and if, by the Lord’s gift, we can investigate the order and what is related as done the third time, I think we shall not be unbelieving that these things were truly written not merely so that a narrative of events might be handed down to us, but that they are filled with divine sacraments worthy of God. First, then, it was said that “Ephraim did not destroy the Canaanite who lived in Gezer, but the Canaanite lives in Ephraim until this day, and became a slave under tribute, until Pharaoh king of Egypt went up and took the city and burned it with fire, and slaughtered the Canaanites and the Perizzites and those who lived in Gezer, and Pharaoh gave it as a dowry to his daughter.” Second: “And it came to pass,” it says, “when the sons of Israel grew strong, that they made the Canaanites subject, but they did not utterly exterminate them.” Third, when the men of the tribe of Ephraim spoke against Jesus, wanting to receive a larger lot of inheritance in proportion to their numbers, because they were many and strong; and they are told to go up into the forest and take a larger place for themselves; and, so that they may occupy wider spaces, they are told to exterminate the Canaanite.

Let us see now, then, what this threefold account of the Canaanites means. At first the Canaanite is indeed with us and under tribute, yet he is not obedient to us, nor a slave. Second, he is also made a slave and obedient. Let us take the Canaanite here to be our flesh, or the things that belong to the flesh. At first it is with us, that is, joined to the soul, but not obedient, except only that it pays tribute: that is, it provides the service of doing or moving something; yet it lusts against the spirit and does not obey the soul, but gives way to its own desires. But if we have now made some progress, the flesh becomes our slave, obedient and submissive to the will of the soul. And this is the second advance of the soul, when it has made the flesh both serve and obey it. But the third is what is perfect. For if we now come to perfection, the Canaanite is said to be exterminated by us as well and handed over to death. And how this is fulfilled in our flesh, hear the apostle Paul saying: “Put to death your members that are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness,” and the rest that follow. And again he says: “And those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and desires.” So, then, the third time, that is, when we come to perfection, put our members to death, and carry about the death of Christ in our body, the Canaanite is said to be exterminated by us.

But this too must not be passed over idly, that Pharaoh is said to have come and taken the city of Gezer, in which the Canaanite lived with Ephraim, and to have given it as a dowry to his daughter. Gezer is interpreted “building.” If, then, the body and the soul live in one and the same building, that is, joined and allied with each other, so that the body lives carnally and the soul does not hasten more quickly to make the flesh obedient and subject to itself, it is to be feared that Pharaoh may come from Egypt and lead the unhappy soul captive, so as to hand it over as a dowry to his daughter. For if you consider what the Apostle said, that another law rises up in our members and leads us captive in the law of sin, you will find how that Pharaoh, who is the author and king of sin, will force the soul that has lived carnally to be given as a dowry to his daughter, who is the law of sin.

After this we must also note that the sons of Joseph raise a question about the inheritance and seek a larger lot, saying to Jesus: “Why have you given us one lot of inheritance and one portion? But I am a great people; the Lord has blessed me.” If, then, we too are a great people and the Lord blesses us, we shall hear from Jesus: “You are a great people; go up into the forest and clear it for yourself, and prepare a place in the land. Clear out the Perizzites and the Rephaim.” We must, then, drive out the Perizzites. And we find that Perizzites is interpreted “fruitfulness.” But, as we have often said of other names, there is a double interpretation in this one. For there is a good fruitfulness and an evil fruitfulness, as is indicated in the Gospels, that “a good tree bears good fruit, and an evil tree bears evil fruit.” We must, then, drive out from ourselves everything that does not bear fruit well, cut off the fruit of sin, and clear out the fruits of injustice. “And the Rephaim,” it says, “clear out,” or rather, clear them out from yourself. We find Rephaim interpreted “a mother loosened.” There is in our soul a power that also gives birth to thoughts, and is, as it were, the mother of the thoughts or understandings that proceed from us, according to what is said in a mystery of the soul as of a woman: “But she will be saved through childbearing, if she remains in faith and chastity.” These mothers, then, that is, this generative power, in those in whom it is strong, vigorous, and robust, generates strong and powerful thoughts that cannot be overcome by an opponent. But in others this power is loosened and slack, as is shown by their thoughts, when some weak and inept thoughts are brought forth that have no strength in them. This, then, is signified under the name of Rephaim: that we should clear out from ourselves such slack mothers, which give birth to untrained and useless thoughts. And the spiritual understanding has kept the exact sense well. For it did not say that the Rephaim were to be exterminated, but cleared out. For we are not commanded to overturn and exterminate the natural movements of the soul themselves, but to clear them out, that is, to purge and drive away the filth and uncleanness that have come upon them through our negligence, so that the natural vigor of their own inborn power may shine forth.

After this the sons of Ephraim say to him further: “The mountain is not enough for us, and the Canaanite who lives in me has chosen horses and iron.” You will never find an Israelite who has a horse; but the Canaanite has that horse which is a vain hope for safety. The Canaanite also has the iron of war. But what did Jesus answer them? “If you are a great people and have strength, you shall not have one lot, because the forest is yours, and you shall clear it.” You see what is said to us through the spiritual understanding: that we should clear the forest that is within us, and, cutting down the useless and fruitless trees from ourselves, make there a newly broken field that we may always renew, and from which we may gather fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold? Does not the word of the Gospel announce the same thing to us, saying: “Behold, the axe is already laid to the root of the tree; every tree, then, that does not bear fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire”? This is what Jesus the son of Nun commanded our forefathers about cutting down fruitless trees; this is what the Lord Jesus sets down for us as commands in the Gospels: and how is it not true that the shadow went before and the truth followed?

And what is it that Jesus added: “If you clear the forest,” he says, “it will be yours, when you have exterminated the Canaanite”? We have already said above how the Canaanite who lives with us first only pays tribute, second becomes obedient and subject, and third, in the putting to death of our members, is even said to be exterminated. If we understand these things rightly, and the Lord has granted us by his grace to understand them in this way, it may be something worthwhile to have brought these things out of their secret and hidden places into public view, and that what was kept covered has come to our knowledge. And let us try, according to what we have said, quickly to subject to ourselves the Canaanite who is with us and make him obedient, and after this also to exterminate him; because if we let him be and neglect him, Pharaoh will come from Egypt and begin to give our place as a dowry to his daughter and to hand us over captive to the law of sin. But far be it from the nobility of Israel that an Israelite should serve the daughter of Pharaoh — that one whom God has already brought out of the land of Egypt should serve again that Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea! Let us take care, then, as Jesus says here too, that we prevail against the Canaanites; lest, if perhaps they prevail over us and overcome us, they make us Canaanites instead of Israelites, as happened to that man whom the allurement of the flesh had overcome, to whom the prophet says: “Seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has seduced you.” Let it not befall us, then, to hear “seed of Canaan,” because “cursed be Canaan; a servant shall he be to his brothers.” But may the Lord grant us to be sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, heirs according to the promise, and for this raised up from stones, so that we may be sons of Abraham through Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

In human custom, when something is divided by lot, the lot seems to fall by chance to one person, or another lot to another; but in holy Scripture it is not so. I sometimes asked myself whether the holy fathers would have entrusted the decision of so great and important a matter to lots; for if this had been done so among the saints, it would no longer seem strange concerning other men or Gentiles if nothing excellent were found in the things that are said to have been divided by lot by the saints. But let us see whether perhaps we find something set down in the Scriptures that shows us what power is contained in lots. Let us begin, then, with Leviticus, where it is written: “And they shall take two lots,” it says, “one lot for the Lord and one lot for the apopompaeus,” that is, “the one sent away. And on whichever goat the lot of the apopompaeus falls, he shall take that goat and lead it alive into the desert and release it there in its release.” But the other goat they shall sacrifice to the Lord, and the rest that is there, which those who read it know. And again, where Moses divided by lot to the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who had asked to receive the land beyond the Jordan, which the sons of Israel had taken. And Jesus too, according to God’s command, gave a portion to Caleb son of Jephunneh and to the tribe of Judah; he gave also to the tribe of Ephraim and to the one that remained, the half-tribe of Manasseh. And after this, it says, he gathered the assembly of the sons of Israel and said: “I will cast a lot, and bring forth the lot before the Lord, if you first describe the land and bring its description.” And so after this, when lots had been cast, the inheritance is distributed to the people of God; and this lot is cast not by chance but according to what had been predestined by God. Indeed, the tribe of Benjamin first received its lot where Jerusalem was; after it the tribe of Simeon second, after this Issachar, then Zebulun, then Asher, then Naphtali, then Dan. Among them come last those three tribes descended from Jacob’s concubines.

What the reason for lots is, then, I used to ask myself, so that from many testimonies of Scripture I might come to know what was hidden. I found in the Scriptures that Gentiles too had used lots, when Jonah was sailing and the storm was pressing on them. For those who were sailing say: “Let us cast lots and see on whose account this great evil has come,” as if the lot were so powerful that it could reveal the one on whose account danger threatened the sailors. And although they were Gentiles and strangers to the knowledge of God, they were not deceived in this opinion; the lot revealed to them what was true. Indeed, “the lot fell,” it says, “on Jonah.” Searching further into these things, I find Solomon too saying in Proverbs: “The lot puts an end to disputes and decides between the powerful,” as if showing that disputes cease where a lot is cast. But since I found that not a few things are related about lots in the Old Testament, I turned to the New Testament too, to see whether perhaps lots are despised there. But not even there is their use rejected, and I find that once, when one apostle was lacking from the number of the apostles and another had to be put in the place of Judas, the apostles came together — and they were certainly much wiser than those who now ordain bishops or presbyters or deacons — and chose two and set them in the midst; yet they did not leave the decision about them to themselves, to make the one they themselves wanted, but praying, it says, they cast lots between the two whom they had set before God, that is, Joseph called Barnabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. “And the lot fell,” it says, “on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” With prayer offered first, then, the lot conveyed the divine judgment, no longer by chance but by providence. But I still searched in the New Testament whether the lot is mentioned in spiritual or mystical matters, which seem to concern souls. I find Paul writing to the Ephesians and saying of Christ: “In whom,” he says, “we have been called by lot, predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who first hoped in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” And also writing this to the Colossians: “Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us fit for a share in the lot of the saints in light.” Having gathered, then, so many testimonies about lots from the holy Scriptures, so that by considering many passages we might grasp the power of the thing more carefully — for my part, from all these either no clear sense has yet been able to emerge plainly, or a fear has come over me of declaring and bringing forth a secret about so great a matter. Yet let it suffice to have attained, as far as the matter allows, what the lot cast by the apostles signifies to us: that where a lot is cast in whole faith and after prayer, the lot declares openly what the will of God holds in secret.

But according to the inner understanding, as Paul seems to indicate when he says “in the share of the lot of the saints” and “called by lot in Christ,” we must consider whether perhaps the lot is cast not only among men but also among the higher powers, and whether some power presides over this office, which, for example, when the son of Nun was distributing the inheritance by lot, gave guidance not according to any favor but according to what it knew to please God; and made the first things fall to the one it knew to hold the first place with God, so that what is held hidden with God might be shown to men too by the governance of the lot; and made another the holder of the second place and another of the third. I think that this was done not only on earth but also in the heavens, and that a lot of this kind, which is decided with God by consideration of merits, was also held at that time “when the Most High divided and established the nations and scattered the sons of Adam, and set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and Jacob became the portion of the Lord, Israel the line of his inheritance.” For you see that here too it says that the portion and the line of Israel belong to the Lord by lot. It must not be thought, then, that it came by chance through the lot to one angel to receive this nation, for example the Egyptians, to another the Idumeans, to another the Moabites, to another India, or any of the nations on earth; but even if the nations are said to have been divided by lot according to the number of the angels of God, yet that lot must be believed to have been there too what we said it is among men: the lot reveals in public the judgment of God that is hidden; so that each angel received this or that nation in the division by his own merit and virtue. And why do I speak of great and general things? Not even for each one of us must anything be said to happen without a lot of this kind, dispensed by God’s judgment: for example, that one of us receives this or that kind of life from birth; or certainly what we have often taught from the holy Scriptures happens to men, that both good angels and contrary angels attend them: for it was certainly not by chance and without judgment that one angel obtained by lot to be the guardian of a particular soul, for example of Peter, and another of Paul, or another of one little child of the church, of whose angels the Lord says that they always see the face of his Father who is in heaven. Of these it must certainly not be doubted that, by the judgment of God, who sees clearly their dignity and the quality of our souls, they obtain by lot the guardianship of each one of us, by a certain mystical lot directed by the dispensation of Christ. And I, for my own opinion, think it may boldly be said also of the powers that have undertaken the ministries of this world, that it is not by chance or accident that one power presides over the sprouting of the earth or of trees, another supplies and sufficiently provides springs and rivers, another rains, another winds, another presides over the animals of the sea, another over those of the land, or over each of the things that spring from the earth; and that in each of these there are ineffable sacraments of the divine dispensation, so that all things are allotted in their order and with a fitting office through each power. For so too the apostle Paul says: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

In imitation of these things, then, it must be believed that here too Scripture relates that the lots are drawn by Jesus and that the inheritance of each tribe is decided by divine dispensation, and that by the ineffable providence and foreknowledge of God a pattern of the future inheritance in heaven is foreshadowed in these lots. For since “the law is said to have a shadow of the good things to come,” and as the Apostle says of those who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, “you who have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” there is a city in heaven that is called Jerusalem and Mount Zion. It is certainly not without cause that Benjamin received Jerusalem and Mount Zion in his lot, but because the reason of that heavenly Jerusalem undoubtedly required that an earthly Jerusalem, which keeps the figure and form of the heavenly one, should be given to Benjamin. So too it must be said of Bethlehem, that it is not without a definite reason that it is assigned to the lot of Judah, or Hebron, or the other individual cities to the individual tribes, except that, as we said, those heavenly places in which Jerusalem and Zion are named, and undoubtedly the other places neighboring or joined to them, contained in themselves, in heaven, the cause and reason by which they were governed when distributed by lot on earth. This is why divine wisdom arranged for certain names of places to be written in the Scriptures that contain a certain mystical interpretation, by which it is shown to us that these things are arranged for definite reasons and not by chance or accident. For just as we must not think it happened by chance, for example, that one angel was called Michael, another Gabriel, and another Raphael; and, to come down to human things, just as it was not by chance that one patriarch was called Abraham, another Isaac, and another Israel — nor even among women did it happen by chance, but by a definite and divine reason, that one was called Sarah after Sarai, or one Israel after Jacob, or one Abraham after Abram; and as it is certain that each of the angels or of men receives his name from the offices and acts enjoined on him — so it follows that there are also certain heavenly places and cities, as the heavenly Jerusalem and Zion are spoken of, and that there are others too whose type and image is contained in these on earth, which are now mystically signified to us in this Scripture through Jesus son of Nun. Of these very cities, I think, it is said: “The cities of Judah will be built, and they will dwell there and inherit it.” Of these too the Lord and Saviour says that there are many dwelling places with the Father. And of these cities we must believe that the Lord speaks to the servant who had traded well: “You will have authority over ten cities,” and to another, “over five cities.” These things about the division by lot of the land of Judah we have dared to bring before you as far as was permitted, prompted by Scripture, which speaks of a heavenly Jerusalem and Mount Zion and says that the other things written in the same way are in heaven; and this has given us occasion to think, concerning all these things, that heavenly mysteries are described in them. And we say this so that you may not read these things with distaste and think that it is a worthless Scripture because it is thick with so many names; but rather know that ineffable mysteries are contained in them, greater than human speech can utter or mortal hearing can hear; which, I think, cannot be explained worthily and fully not only by me, the least of all, but not even by those who are much better than I. Indeed I do not know whether they are uttered fully and completely even by the holy apostles themselves. I did not say that they are not fully known, but that they are not fully uttered. For it is certain that these things were known and fully grasped by him who was caught up to the third heaven, who, being in heaven, saw the heavenly things, saw Jerusalem the true city of God, saw Mount Zion there too, wherever it is, saw Hebron too, saw all these things that are written as divided by lot; and he not only saw them but also comprehended their reasons in the spirit, for he himself confesses that he heard words and teachings. But what words? “Unutterable words,” he says, “which it is not permitted for a man to speak.” You see, then, that Paul comprehended all things in the spirit, but it was not permitted for him to utter them to men. To which men? Undoubtedly to those of whom he said in reproach: “Are you not men, and do you not walk according to man?” But perhaps he told them to those who no longer walked according to man. He told them to Timothy, he told them to Luke and the other disciples whom he knew to be capable of ineffable sacraments. Indeed, he admonished Timothy of something of this kind in a mystery, saying: “Remember the words you have heard from me, and entrust them to faithful men who are fit to teach others.” So, then, believing these things to be divine and mystical, let us prepare ourselves by the acts and merits of our life to be worthy and fit to grasp them, so that, when we have understood them worthily, we may also be found worthy to obtain them as our inheritance in heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Of the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem we said a while ago how the sons of Judah could not exterminate them, and also of the Canaanites living in their midst whom the sons of Ephraim could not exterminate. The present reading relates something similar of the Amorites, saying that “the Amorite continued to live in Elom and in Salamin, and the hand of Ephraim was heavy upon them.” Amorite is interpreted “bitter” or “bitterness.” Living, then, in Elom, which is interpreted “those who butt like rams,” or in Salamin, which is interpreted “the peaceful,” bitternesses remain and dwell among those who butt like rams and among the peaceful. Those who butt like rams are those who, engaged in contests, try to storm the houses and structures of the devil; the peaceful are those who, having overcome carnal desires, keep peace of soul. Yet in both the contrary power, bitterness, persists and strives to remain. In this we can understand something of the following kind, since it says that the Amorite continued to live among them. For example, if a hostile power of a demon from the band of bitterness besieges someone’s body and disturbs and deceives his mind, and many prayers, many fasts, and many invocations of exorcists are applied, and to all these the demon remains deaf and persists in the possessed body, enduring more easily the punishments of the exorcists, the torments applied to it by the invocation of the name of God, than departing from the man it shamelessly and wickedly besieges — so too here we must understand those who are called Amorites, who remain and persist in living in Elom and in Salamin. And to show truly that they persist while bearing punishments and scourges, Scripture says: “And the hand of Ephraim was heavy upon them.” But how is the hand of Ephraim made heavy upon the Amorites? Either, as we said, the hand of Ephraim, laid more forcefully in the imposition of hands by the exorcists, is said to be heavy upon the unclean spirits; or else good acts and good works weigh upon and afflict the race of demons and the contrary powers. For the better we act and the more we live in what is best, the more troublesome and heavy this becomes to them. But one who lives in shamefulness and crimes is pleasing and acceptable to them and in a way provides them with pleasures. Whoever makes his hand heavy upon them by good acts, even if he cannot drive them out completely, will certainly make them tributary and subject.

“And the sons of Ephraim went away to go through the land according to their boundaries.” And after relating that account, Scripture shows in what follows how great was the gentleness and humility of Jesus, who was truly worthy to bear the name of the Lord Jesus our Saviour. For it says: “The sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus son of Nun among themselves, by the command of the Lord, and they gave him the city he asked for, Thamnasachar, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and he built the city there and lived in it.” He it is who gave the inheritance to all the sons of Judah, who gave to Ephraim and to the half-tribe of Manasseh; he also gave an inheritance to the magnificent Caleb son of Jephunneh; he sent three men from each tribe to go through the whole land and describe it in a book and return and show it; he cast the lots for all, and he kept himself for the last. Why do you think he wanted to be the last of all? Undoubtedly so that he might be the first of all. And he did not presume to take an inheritance for himself by lot, but received it from the people; and the people gave an inheritance to the one from whom it had received its own. For so it is written: “And the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus son of Nun.” But these things too happened to them in figure, to be set before us as a pattern, so that we too may keep the command that he fulfilled in deed, which says: “The greater you are, the more humble yourself, and you will find favor before the Lord.” And again what is written: “If they have made you leader, do not be lifted up, but be among them as one of them.” See, then, how he was the leader of the people, he who had brought them into the holy land, the land of promise; he was the successor of Moses; and he does not allow himself to take a lot of land, but waits to receive a little portion from the people, he, the leader of the people. And having received his little portion, Jesus, worthy of this name, builds the very place he received and establishes it, so as to make it truly worthy of the gift of God and of the divine inheritance.

But since we are accustomed to refer to our Lord and Saviour what is written about Jesus, perhaps this whole people of ours too gives some portion to my Lord Jesus and assigns him, as it were, a place to dwell. But lest what is said should seem insulting, let us ask how we, his servants, give him a place to dwell. If I could become good, I would give the Son of God a place in me, and the Lord Jesus, having received the place from me in my soul, would build it and adorn it, and make in it impregnable walls and lofty towers, and build in me, if I were worthy, a dwelling worthy of himself and of the Father; and so he would adorn my soul and make it capable of his wisdom and knowledge and of all holiness, so much so that he would bring God the Father too in with him to make a dwelling in it, and even to dine with such a soul on the food that he himself would provide. That we may be found worthy to obtain this, let us prepare in ourselves a clean heart, so that the Lord Jesus may deign to enter willingly and gladly the clean lodging of our heart: to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

All the sons of Israel received their lots in the land, but for the Levites God alone suffices as their inheritance. But since the Levites receive tithes and first-fruits of the produce from the sons of Israel by the Lord’s command, they ought also to receive tithes, so to speak, of the land and of the dwellings; for this is to have received tithes from everything. And so the chief men among the sons of Levi came to Eleazar the priest and to Jesus son of Nun and to the princes of the tribes of the sons of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan and said: “The Lord commanded by the hand of Moses that cities be given us to dwell in, and their pasture lands for our animals.” A lot had to be cast for the pasture lands and the cities too, lest the division made among the Levites should seem indiscriminate and by chance. As, then, the distribution by lot made among the sons of Israel had a reason by which one was held worthy of the first lot and another of the second (of which we have already treated as well as we could), and likewise for those who received land through Moses beyond the Jordan and from Jesus in the land of promise, where the first lot fell to Benjamin and afterwards to the others, of whom Dan was last; so there must be some reason also in the order of the priestly and Levitical lot, so that the first lot is drawn for some, the second for others, the third for others, by which this or that place is assigned to each. The sons of Levi are said to be Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; and Kohath is shown to have held the first place in honor, because the sons of Kohath were Amram, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. From Kohath, then, one part of the people was made priestly, namely Aaron and his sons. Moses is to be counted either in the priestly order or, if anything can be higher than the priestly, in that. But his sons are another matter. The rest of the sons of Kohath held the second rank in the tribe of Levi, those from Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Then after these, after Kohath, Gershon among the sons of Levi receives a portion in the third place, and Merari last of all. This is the difference between the first, second, third, and fourth rank that we first observed in Numbers. For after the twelve tribes had been ordered to keep watch around the ark of the covenant of the Lord on the four sides of the world, and three tribes were stationed on the east, three on the southwest or south, three toward the sea, which is to the west, and three toward the north wind, which is the north, these too are assigned there, on the four sides of the world, in the same order. On the east, where the tribe of Judah was, which was first among the others, Aaron and his sons are placed; and the remaining sons of Kohath are appointed to lift the ark of the covenant of the Lord on their shoulders and to sound the trumpets, so that when the first trumpet sounded those on the east would break camp; when the second sounded those on the south would rise; at the third, those on the west; at the fourth, those on the north. You see how great an order and how great a consistency of things is kept in the holy Scriptures: how nothing is done except with measure, reason, and order. Look more carefully, and you will find everything ordered in this way throughout Scripture. But if it is hard for you to lead the watchful eye of the heart through all the books, at least in this place pay closer attention to what is related.

“The first lot,” it says, “came out for Kohath, and it fell to the sons of Aaron the priest, who was among the Levites.” For whom was it fitting that the first lot should come out? To whom should the first place be given, if not to Aaron, the first high priest, first in the merits of his life, first in honor and virtue? Now at least it is certain to you that this lot is not by chance, but that a heavenly power is present, governing it according to the judgment of divine providence. Where, then, does the just lot assign the first dwellings to the sons of Aaron? “In the tribe of Judah,” it says, “in the tribe of Simeon, and in the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities by lot.” You see how dwellings are distributed to chosen men in chosen tribes. And who ought to receive the second lot? “The sons of Kohath,” it says, “who remained after the sons of Aaron.” And what tribes do they receive? “In the tribe of Ephraim,” it says, “and in the tribe of Dan and in the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities by lot.” And who are the third? “The sons of Gershon.” And in what tribes do they receive their lot? “In Issachar,” it says, “and Asher and Naphtali, and in the half-tribe of Manasseh which is in Bashan,” likewise twelve cities. And who are the last among the Levites? “The sons of Merari,” it says. Let us see in what tribes these last receive their portion. “From the tribe of Reuben beyond the Jordan and Gad, which was with it beyond the Jordan, and from the tribe of Zebulun,” which is itself the last among the sons of Leah, “they receive twelve cities by lot.”

But we have not yet touched on the things in these passages that are most to be observed; and even if we cannot lay open their deeper meaning, it will not be tiresome at least to touch on the main points, so that from them each of the hearers may take occasion to seek a higher and mystical understanding. Since there are four parts of the world, Kohath received the first lot among the sons of Levi on the eastern side, with those tribes that themselves hold the first place of all. See, then, how everything agrees. Of the four parts of the world, it is certain that the eastern region is held to be the nobler, and in it was also the tribe of Judah, nobler than all the rest; and the sons of Kohath the priest draw the first lot in the first tribes and the first part of the world, with Gershon and Merari, who were first among the sons of Levi. So, then, the first three sons of Levi receive the east. But the west, where Reuben, Simeon, and Gad were, Kohath obtains by the second lot from the tribe of Simeon. Merari, however, first obtains Reuben, and again Merari, third in Numbers, received Zebulun from the east, so that justice may be kept, and so that by the lot that is drawn according to the Lord it may also direct the minds of believers to contemplate the mysteries of the age to come. After this, of those who were toward the sea, that is, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, when Kohath had received Benjamin by the second lot, the rest of his family obtained Ephraim. After this Gershon obtains those of the half-tribe of Manasseh that was in the holy land, and again Gershon himself obtains the other half-tribe of Manasseh as well. But since those who were in the north had to receive something of priestly grace, lest they seem entirely stripped of heavenly gifts, among those whose rank was last in the north, that is, Dan, Naphtali, and Asher, Kohath again — not among the priests, but among the rest — received the first lot in Dan, Gershon the second in Asher, and the same Gershon the third in Naphtali.

Who can follow and comprehend all these things? Who is able even to remember and observe the very order of the ministries? But if even according to the letter alone the text of the narrative itself can hardly be explained, and the intermingling of places and persons contained in the account unravelled, what shall we say of the sacraments that are described through these things, in which the distributions of the future inheritance are foreshadowed, and through which the division of the holy land that the meek will receive as their inheritance will be carried out? Who could explain the different positions of the camps — how in the resurrection the distribution is to be made for each of the saints in priestly or Levitical order, so that, as the Apostle says, in the resurrection all things may not be done in confusion, but “each one comes in his own order: Christ the first-fruits, then those who are Christ’s, who believed at his coming, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has subjected to him every principality and power”? There, without doubt, there will be certain arrangements of the camps of this kind, and priestly distributions and orders, and the signals of the trumpets. For perhaps, just as God has ordered the stars of heaven and placed them according to certain wonderful and ineffable reasons, setting some of them at the axis of the north, others in the parts of the east, others in the southern vault, and others in the west, so I believe that those too who will rise from the dead as such — like the stars in multitude and brightness, coming, that is, from the seed of Abraham — God will order in the kingdom of heaven according to the order of the stars and the parts of heaven: and he will give to some a lot toward the east, to others toward the west, to others toward the south, and those whom he knows he will set toward the north; since “many will come from the east and the west,” from the four parts of the world, “and recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

It was said above that the sons of Israel gave a lot to Jesus on Mount Ephraim, and that, having received the lot, Jesus built a city there and lived in it. But now Scripture repeats the same things again so as to add this, that the rock swords, that is, the knives of stone with which Jesus had circumcised the sons of Israel in the desert, he laid up in the city that he had built and in which he lived. Hence the exposition must be repeated anew and the addition explained, so that, God granting, the full sense of Scripture may be brought out. For we said above that our Lord Jesus Christ too asks of us a place to build and to live in, and that we ought to become such — so clean of heart, so simple of mind, so holy in body and spirit — that he may deign to receive a place in our soul too, and build it, and live in it. And who do you think in the whole people are so acceptable to God as to be worthy to be chosen for this? Or perhaps not even individuals can be capable of this, but the whole people and the whole church together can scarcely be capable of receiving the Lord Jesus into itself and having him dwell in it? Let us see, then, what this place is in which Jesus is to dwell: “On Mount Ephraim,” it says, that is, on the fruitful mountain. Who do you think are the fruitful mountains among us on which Jesus may dwell? Surely those in whom are the fruits of the Spirit: joy, peace, patience, love, and the rest. These, then, are the fruitful mountains, which bear the fruit of Christ and are always lofty in mind and hope. And though such may be few, yet even if they are few, the Lord God dwelling in them, who is the true light, will send the rays of his light over all the others too, whom he has not yet judged worthy to be his dwelling in the first place.

But now let us see what the rock swords are with which Jesus circumcised the sons of Israel. If you pray for us that our word may be living and effective and sharper than any sword, the Lord Jesus will grant us too that the word of God which we speak to you may circumcise all uncleanness, cut away impurities, cut off vices from the hearers, and lop off everything by which the power of the mind and its natural efficacy are covered over. And so, by the word of God, which is now called the rock sword, you too will be circumcised by Jesus and will hear that he has taken away the reproach of Egypt from you today. For what does it profit us to have gone out of Egypt and to carry the reproaches of Egypt about with us? What does it profit to walk through the desert — that is, what does it help us to have renounced the world in baptism, and to keep the former filth of our habits and the uncleanness of carnal vices? After the crossing of the Red Sea, then, that is, after the grace of baptism, the carnal vices of our old habits too must be taken away from us through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that at last we may be free of the reproaches of Egypt. These very rock swords and stone knives, then, with which we have been circumcised a second time by Jesus, are laid up in the place that Jesus asked for and received; in the place he possesses in the soul of the righteous, there he lays up the swords too. We have often shown that the sword means the word of God, by which sins are cut off and purged from the souls of the hearers. This power of the divine word, then, is laid up in the place to which the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom are given, so that at the right time the soul that has been filled by the gift of the Spirit with the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge may bring forth these swords in the church and circumcise a second time those who need the second circumcision. And that it says rock swords, that is, knives of stone and not made of iron by a craftsman’s work, shows that this word of God, which can circumcise uncleanness from the souls of the hearers, does not come from the art of grammar or rhetoric, nor is it tamed by the hammers of teachers or filed on the anvils of study, but comes down from that rock which was cut from the mountain without hands and filled the world, and which bestows spiritual gifts on believers. After this Jesus calls together the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who had fought with him to overcome the enemies of Israel, and sends them away to their inheritance, giving them certain gifts as well, as it is written. In this the following mystery seems to be indicated: that when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, those who had been taught and instructed through Moses, and who brought us help by their prayers and supplications while we were engaged in the contest, will receive what was promised them by the Lord Jesus; for they had not yet obtained the promises, waiting until our calling too should be completed, as the Apostle says; and now at last they may obtain the perfection that had been deferred for them, with the gifts they receive from Jesus, so that each may dwell in peace, when every war and every attack has ceased.

After this it was read to us that the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who were beyond the Jordan, built a huge altar; and the rest of the sons of Israel, not knowing why the altar had been built, send Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron with ten men chosen from each tribe: if perhaps they had done this as men departing from God, or had become apostates and were acting against the command of God, they would be attacked by the rest of the sons of Israel; if otherwise, the envoys were to learn the reason. And the others give satisfaction about the altar and say: “We know that the true altar is with you, where Jesus dwells; but we made this altar in the likeness of the altar that is built among you, so that with us too there might be a figure and image of the true altar, lest perhaps tomorrow it should please you to say: The Jordan is the boundary between us and you, and it divides us, and therefore you have no portion in our altar.” This is the answer they sent. But let us see what sacrament the deed contains. The former people of the circumcision is signified in Reuben, who had been firstborn; and also in Gad, who himself is a firstborn, and in Manasseh, likewise a firstborn. When I say firstborn, I am speaking according to time. They built the altar, then, it is said, so that there might seem to be no division or separation between us and those who were righteous before the coming of Christ, but to show that, even if they lived before the coming of Christ, they are nevertheless our brothers. For although they had an altar then, before the coming of our Saviour, they knew and perceived that that altar was not the true one, but a figure of this future and true altar. They knew this, then: that the true victims, which could take away sins, were not offered on the altar which the firstborn people had, but on this one where Jesus was; here heavenly victims, here true sacrifices are consummated. So there comes to be one flock and one shepherd, the righteous of old and those who are now Christians. And as proof of these things I wish to recall a certain account, if the Lord grants that we may find its spiritual explanation. Once the people was falling and dying in the desert. Aaron the high priest came and stood in the midst between those who were dying and those who were living, so that the devastation of death might not advance any further against the living. Now too my true high priest, the Lord, has come and has interceded, standing in the midst between the dying and the living, that is, between those of the Jews who received his presence and those who not only did not receive it but killed themselves rather than him, saying: “His blood be on us and on our children.” Hence also all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom they killed between the temple and the altar, is required of that generation which said: “His blood be on us and on our children.” These, then, are the part of the people that is dead, because they keep neither the unleavened bread nor the feast days fittingly, but their feast days have been turned into mourning and their songs into lamentation; even if they wished, they will not be able to celebrate a feast in the place that the Lord God has chosen. And we indeed have not said to them, “You will have no part in this altar or in the inheritance of the Lord”; but they of their own accord refused the true altar and the heavenly high priest, and have been brought to such misfortune that they have both lost the image and not received the truth; and therefore it is said to them: “Behold, your house will be left to you desolate.” For the grace of the Holy Spirit has been transferred to the Gentiles. The solemn feasts have been transferred to us, because the high priest too has passed over to us, not an imaginary one but the true one, chosen after the order of Melchizedek; and he must offer true victims, that is, spiritual ones, among us, where the temple of God is built from living stones, which is the church of the living God, and where the true Israel is, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.