Book of Rules 4

We speak of species and genus, not according to the rhetorical power of human wisdom, by which he who was able beyond all others did not speak, lest he make the cross of Christ void if it had needed, like falsehood, the help and ornament of speech; but we speak according to the mysteries of heavenly wisdom under the teaching of the Holy Spirit. He, having set faith as the price of the truth of the mystery, narrated hiding the genus in the species: as in the old Jerusalem he took up the whole church that is now throughout the world, or in one member the whole body, as in Solomon. But this is no less hidden than the rest, which are concealed not only by the species of the word but also by a manifold narrative. Therefore, having asked the help of God’s grace, we must labour so that the spirit may multiply the entrances of reading, and so that the subtle speech which, to hinder understanding, inserts the genus into the species or the species into the genus, may easily be seen to be genus or species. For while it narrates the species, it passes into the genus in such a way that the passage does not at once appear clearly; but in passing it sets down words that fit both, until gradually it exceeds the measure of the species, and the passage becomes clear when what began from the species fits only the genus; and in the same way it leaves the genus, returning to the species. Sometimes, however, it returns from species to genus not in the way described. Sometimes it passes in the way described and returns plainly with a like variety of order: it ends the narrative either from species into genus or from genus into species. Sometimes it goes back from this to that more than once; and the whole narrative neither exceeds the species nor passes over the genus, fitting both. This variety of transfer and order demands faith, which seeks the grace of God. So the Lord speaks through Ezekiel, and joins to the kings of those who had been captured and scattered from Jerusalem the coming of the nations, and in the land which our fathers possessed he expresses the world. For the seven nations promised to Abraham are a figure of all the nations. “The word of the Lord came to me,” it says, “saying: Son of man, the house of Israel dwelt in the land and defiled it by their way and by their idols and sins; their way before my face became like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. And I poured out my wrath upon them, and scattered them among the nations into which they went, and they defiled my holy name there, when they themselves said: These are the people of the Lord, and they have gone out of your land. And I spared them for the sake of your holy name, which the house of Israel defiled among the nations into which they went there. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord: I do not do this for you, house of Israel, but for the sake of the holy name which you defiled among the nations in whose midst you went.” There it begins to join the genus: “And I will sanctify my name, that great holy name which has been defiled among the nations, which you defiled in their midst; and the nations will know that I am the Lord, when I am sanctified in you before their eyes; and I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all lands, and bring you into your land.” It plainly exceeds the species: “And I will sprinkle you with clean water, and you will be cleansed from all your idols, and I will cleanse you; and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh; and I will put my Spirit within you, and make you walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them. And you will dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you will be my people, and I will be your God; and I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses.” It touches the species, yet without leaving the genus: “And I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring famine upon you; and I will multiply the fruit of the tree and what grows in the field, so that you will no longer receive the reproach of famine among the nations. And you will remember your evil ways and your thoughts that were not good, and you will loathe them before their face for your iniquities and their abominations. Not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord; be it known to you; be ashamed and turn from your ways, house of Israel. Thus says Adonai the Lord: On the day when I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also make the cities to be inhabited; and the land of Judah, which had been laid waste by wars, will be tilled, because it was desolate in the sight of everyone who passed by. And they will say: That land which had been desolate has become like a garden of delights, and the cities that were deserted and desolate and demolished are fortified and inhabited. And the nations that are left round about you will know that I am the Lord: I have built up what was demolished and planted what was desolate; for I the Lord have spoken and done it.” The Apostle too interprets the entering of the nations as promised in the entry of Jacob, saying: “Until the fullness of the nations comes in, and so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The deliverer will come from Zion and will take away ungodliness from Jacob.” And by the same kind of speech he returns to the species, saying: “According to the gospel they are enemies for your sake.” Likewise in Ezekiel he begins from the species, in a way that fits the genus too, and ends in the genus alone, showing that the land of the fathers is the possession of the world: “Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will take the whole house of Israel from the midst of the nations into which they went there, and I will gather them from all who are round about them, and bring them into the land of Israel; and one prince will be over them. And they will no longer be two nations, nor be divided any more into two kingdoms, lest they still be defiled by their idols. And I will deliver them from all their iniquities by which they sinned in them, and I will cleanse them, and they will be my people, and I the Lord will be their God.” It plainly passes into the genus: “And my servant David will be prince in their midst, one shepherd of all, who will walk in my commandments and keep my judgments and do them; and they will dwell in their land, which I gave to my servant Jacob, where their fathers dwelt; and they themselves will dwell in it, and David my servant their prince for ever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will put my holy things in their midst for ever, and my dwelling will be among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them, while the holy things are in their midst, says the Lord.” Thus there he inserts the coming of the nations into the departure from the dispersion of Israel. It is shown that the desert was a figure of the people of the desert, in which the church now is; and that the same wicked, although they are called back with the people of God from the nations into the land of Israel, yet are not in the land. “As I live, says the Lord, if I answer you, and if this comes up into your heart, it will not be as you say: We will be like the nations and like the tribes of the earth, to serve wood and stones. As I live, says the Lord, with a strong hand and a raised arm and with wrath poured out I will reign over you; and I will bring you out from the peoples and receive you from the regions in which you are scattered, with a strong hand and a raised arm and with wrath poured out; and I will bring you into the desert of the peoples, and I will plead with you face to face. As I pleaded with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, says the Lord; and I will bring you under my rod, and bring you in by number; and I will pick out from you the ungodly and the deserters; for I will bring them out from their sojourning, and they will not enter the land of Israel; and you will know that I am the Lord.” Likewise to that captivity of the mountains of Israel God promises fruitfulness and the multiplication of peoples to the end: “Because,” it says, “they have given your land to themselves as a possession with joy, dishonouring souls, and have laid it waste for plunder: therefore prophesy over the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and the hills, to the streams and the groves: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I have spoken in my zeal and in my wrath, because you bear the reproach of the nations. Behold, I will lift up my hand against the nations that are round about you; they will receive their own reproach. But you, mountains of Israel, my people, who are about to come, will eat your grapes and your fruit. For behold, I am for you, and you will be tilled and sown; and I will multiply upon you the whole house of Israel to the end, and the cities will be inhabited, and what was desolate will be built.” Likewise there, as if in the last resurrection, the first is signified: “He spoke to me,” it says, “saying: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say: Our bones are dried up, our hope has perished, we have breathed our last. Therefore prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will open your tombs and bring you out of your tombs, and bring you into the land of Israel; and you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring my people out of the tombs; and I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live; and I will set you upon your land, and you will know that I am the Lord.” Is it plain that we shall know the Lord when we have risen, and not now, when we rise through baptism? Or will the dead be able to say, “Our bones are dried up,” so that we may rightly believe this was promised to the dead? For God has opened what the mystery is, lest it come into doubt; for we believe that no Christian doubts the last resurrection of the flesh. And the Lord according to John shows these resurrections, saying: “Truly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but passes from death to life. Truly I tell you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” He joins the last resurrection: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, but those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” First he said: the dead who hear will live; second: all who are in the tombs will come out. Likewise, that the whole body is signified in one man, God promises David in the book of Kings, saying of Solomon: “I will raise up his kingdom; he will build me a house.” These things fit; but it exceeds the species, saying: “And I will establish his throne for ever.” Likewise for both: “I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me. And if his injustice comes, I will rebuke him with the rod of men and with the strokes of the sons of men; but my mercy I will not take away from him, as I took it from those whom I removed from my sight; and his house will be made faithful.” Again it exceeds the species: “and his kingdom for ever in my sight, and his throne will be established for ever.” But what seems, in the exceeding of the species, to promise the throne of Christ for ever, promises the throne of the son of man, and so of the body of Christ, that is, of the church. For it was not for the sake of David that God promised that Christ would reign, to whom before the foundation of the world he promised this glory. And through Isaiah God says thus to Christ: “This will be a great thing for you, that you should be called my servant, and raise up the tribes of Jacob, and turn back the dispersion of Israel. Behold, I have set you as a covenant of the race, as a light of the nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth.” What greater thing for the Son of God than to be called “my servant,” and to turn back the dispersion of Israel, or that through him Israel itself, and heaven and earth, and the things in them visible and invisible, were made? But he said it was a great thing for him who was mingled with the Son of God from the seed of David. For every promise to Abraham and David is this: that their seed should be shown mercy by him to whom all things belong, and should be co-heir for ever; not that Christ, who was made king of all by the Father, should reign for their sake. What do we say of Solomon? Is he with God, or was he rejected after his idolatry? If we say he is with God, we shall promise impunity to the worshippers of idols. For Scripture does not say that Solomon repented or recovered wisdom. But if we say he was rejected, the voice of God meets us, which says that not even the earthly kingdom would be taken from Solomon, for David’s sake, as it is written in the book of Kings: “I will surely tear the kingdom from your hand and give it to your servant. But in your days I will not do it, for the sake of David your father; from the hand of your son I will take it. Yet I will not take the whole kingdom; I will give one sceptre to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen.” For what does it profit David, if for his sake his son obtained the kingdom of earth, only to lose that of heaven? From which it is plain that Solomon is with God, from whom the kingdom of earth was not taken because of David, as he had said: “I will rebuke his sins with the rod of men, but my mercy I will not take away from him.” But if he was neither rejected nor do worshippers of idols possess the kingdom of God, it is plain that Solomon was a figure of the twofold church, whose breadth of heart and wisdom were like the sand of the sea, and his idolatry horrible. “I will surely tear,” he says, “your kingdom from your hand; but in your days I will not do it; from the hand of your son I will take it.” “I will surely tear” belongs to continual action, as “blessing I will bless, and multiplying I will multiply your seed.” For he shows that Solomon will always be in his son, that is, in his descendants; from whom, in the times after Solomon, God does not take away the kingdom, according to the promises to the fathers, but corrects it for ever, so as to take it away continually according to the idolatry of Solomon persevering in his sin. Otherwise, how does he tear or not tear from the hand of Solomon, if Solomon is not now in his sons, good or bad? But what he says, “Yet I do not take the whole kingdom,” returns to the species, beginning another figure in Solomon’s son and servant. In Joshua son of Nun too the Lord speaks thus, showing that a body would be in one man, but in this place only the evil: “The people has sinned,” he says, “and transgressed the covenant that I made with them; they have stolen from the devoted things and put it among their goods”; though Achar of the tribe of Judah alone had done it. Understanding that this body would always exist, Joshua said, as he was killing him: “May God destroy you, as also today.” But this is much more necessary to know: that absolutely all the cities of Israel and of the nations, or the provinces which Scripture addresses, or in which it reports something done, are a figure of the church: some of the evil part only, some of the good, some of both. And if there are some things that seem to fit even the nations who are outside, yet the whole adverse body is addressed in the part that is within, as in captive Israel a return to God is promised to the nations. For it is impossible for the law to speak to one who is not in the law, to speak of him, yet not to him; and if anywhere, without this occasion, it addresses foreigners not specifically in Israel, they must by all means be believed to be within; since, even if what was prophesied happened specifically, it is still the church. In short, the proper sense does not fit all the species. For Damascus and Tyre and Soor and many others still exist, which God had said would be utterly removed and not restored. But that the church is addressed in foreign cities is plain in Ezekiel, who, when the Lord told him to foretell destruction on Teman, which is Esau, and on Dagon, which is the idol of the Philistines, understood that it was a parable against Jerusalem and the temple. “The word of the Lord came to me,” he says, “saying: Son of man, set your face against Teman, look toward Dagon, prophesy against the high forest of the Negeb: Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree and every dry tree in you. The kindled flame will not be quenched, and every face from the east to the north will be burned in it, so that all flesh may know that I the Lord have kindled it; it will not be quenched any more. And I said: No, Lord; they say to me: Is not this a parable that is being spoken? And the word of the Lord came to me,” he says, “saying: Therefore, son of man, prophesy and set your face toward Jerusalem, looking at their holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel. Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will draw my sword from its sheath and destroy from you the enemy and the unjust. So my sword will go out from its sheath against all flesh from the east to the north, and all flesh will know that I am the Lord, who have drawn my sword from its sheath; it will not go back again.” “Set your face,” he says, “against Teman, and look toward Dagon.” And he interpreted it, saying: “Set your face toward Jerusalem, and look at their holy places.” And he points it against all Jerusalem, saying: “I will destroy from you the enemy and the unjust.” So he says it will happen generally: “So my sword will go out against all flesh from the east to the north.” He shows that in Jerusalem are Teman, which God kills there, and Dagon, and all the abominations of the nations, Solomon son of David working in his sons; by whom too the temples of God were plainly thrown down and demolished, and, spiritually burned, cast into the brook, that is, the world, by Josiah, who is born son of David, so that the altar in Bethel might be broken, as it is written: “Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Behold, a son will be born of the house of David, Josiah by name.” Nineveh, a city of foreigners, is a figure of the twofold church. But since it would take long to follow the order of the readings in interpreting, it will be enough to speak of what cannot fit the species. “Nineveh,” it says, “was a great city”: so much so that, though it was hostile to God, as the metropolis of the Assyrians, which both destroyed Samaria and always oppressed all Judaea, yet, as a figure of the church, at the preaching of Jonah, that is, of Christ, it was wholly set free. The same Nineveh is described by the following prophet as wholly to perish, to which the Lord, preaching, says: “It is the sign of Jonah in the belly of the whale.” And so that the prophet himself might show that that city is not the specific one, he inserts some things that exceed the measure of the species: “There was no end,” he says, “to its nations,” though it was a city of one nation. And again: “You have multiplied your trading above the stars of heaven,” that is, the church. And again: “On whom has not your wickedness always come?” Could the wickedness of one city have come upon every man, or always, except that of the city which Cain founded with his brother’s blood in the name of his son, that is, of his posterity? The prophet teaches still more plainly that Nineveh is the church: “And he will stretch out his hand toward the north” (that is, the people estranged from the sun, against the south) “and destroy the Assyrian.” And this: “Nineveh, a desolation without water in the desert; and flocks will feed in its midst, all the beasts of the earth, and chameleons, and he-goats will lie in its panelled ceilings, and beasts will give voice in its ditches, and ravens in its gates, because the cedar is its height: the scornful city that dwells in hope, which says in its heart: I am, and there is none after me.” And further: “How has it become a desolation, a pasture of beasts? Everyone who passes by it will hiss and shake his hands. O illustrious and redeemed city, the dove that heard the voice, did not receive discipline, did not trust in the Lord, and did not draw near to its Lord. Its princes in it are like roaring lions; its judges like wolves of Arabia, leaving nothing in the morning. Its prophets are lifted up in spirit, scornful men; its priests profane the holy things and do violence to the law; but the Lord is just in its midst and will not do injustice.” Egypt likewise is twofold. “Behold,” it says, “the Lord sits upon a light cloud and comes into Egypt.” The cloud is the spiritual body after baptism and the glory of the Son of Man; for the first coming of the Lord is of one coming continually in his body, as he says: “From now on you will see him coming on the clouds of heaven.” “And the works of the hands of Egypt will be shattered before his face, and their heart will be weakened in them; and Egyptians will rise against Egyptians, and a man will fight his brother and a man his neighbour, and city will fight against city, and nation will rise against nation,” that is, Egypt against Egypt, “and law against law,” namely by difference of meaning under one law; “and the spirit of the Egyptians will be troubled within them, and I will scatter their thoughts.” And after mixing now species with genus, now genus with species, he added, saying: “On that day there will be an altar of the Lord in the region of the Egyptians, and pillars to the Lord at its borders; and it will be a sign for ever to the Lord in the region of the Egyptians.” He did not say: there may be an altar at the borders of Egypt for ever; but: there will be. Ezekiel shows more plainly that the whole world is Egypt, saying: “O the day! for the day of the Lord is near, a day of cloud; it will be the end of the nations; and a sword will come upon the Egyptians.” And he joins the species: “And there will be tumult in Ethiopia, and the wounded will fall in Egypt, and its foundations will fall, the Persians and Cretans and Lydians and all the mixed peoples; and the sons of my covenant will fall by the sword in it with them.” This happened when after the destruction they went down into Egypt and were killed there by Nebuchadnezzar according to the prophecy of Jeremiah. But it will also happen generally on the last day, when the sons of the covenant fall with the Egyptians, living in the manner of the Egyptians. Likewise through Ezekiel God threatens the king of the Egyptians and his multitude, because they were terrible to the saints, though reckoned among the circumcised: which fits only those who flatter themselves with circumcision, that is, with the sacraments. “Because therefore he gave his terror upon the land of life, Pharaoh will sleep in the midst of the uncircumcised, wounded by the sword, and all his multitude with him, says the Lord.” And there from genus to species: “Thus says the Lord: I will throw you down upon the land of many peoples, and draw you out with my hook, and stretch you out upon the plains; and I will set upon you all the birds of heaven, and I will fill all the beasts of the whole earth; and I will put your flesh upon the mountains, and fill the hills with your blood; and the land will be watered with what comes out of you; with your multitude on the mountains I will fill the brambles from you; and I will cover the heaven when you are extinguished, and darken its stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All that shine with light in heaven will be darkened, and I will put darkness upon your land, says the Lord.” He joins the species: “And I will provoke the heart of many peoples, when I lead your captivity among the nations, into a land you did not know.” It exceeds the species: “And many nations will be grieved over you, and their kings will be stupefied with alienation of mind, when my sword flies over their faces; in their midst it will be for ruin from the day of your ruin.” It returns to the species: “For thus says the Lord: The sword of the king of Babylon has come upon you, with the swords of giants, and I will cast down your strength, pestilences from the nations all of them; and they will pay back the insult of Egypt, and all its strength will be crushed.” Into the genus: “And I will destroy all the cattle beside much water, and the foot of man will not trouble it any more, nor the hoof of cattle tread it. Then their waters will rest, and their rivers will run like oil, says the Lord.” Species: “And I will give Egypt to destruction, and the land with its fullness will be made desolate, and I will scatter all who dwell in it.” Genus: “And they will know that I am the Lord.” “I will cover,” he says, “the heaven when you are extinguished, and darken its stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All that shine with light in heaven will be darkened over you, and I will put darkness upon your land.” At the Lord’s passion there was darkness not in the land of Egypt only, but in the whole world. Nor, when Egypt was captured, were the nations stupefied, expecting their own ruin from the day of its ruin. For of Soor too it is written thus: “Thus says the Lord to Soor: Will not the islands be shaken at the day of your ruin, at the groaning of the wounded, while they are slain by the sword in your midst? And all the princes of the sea will come down from their seats, and take off their mitres and the garments of their gold; they will strip themselves in stupor of mind; they will be stupefied and will fear at your destruction, and groan over you, and take up a lament and say to you: How is that renowned city destroyed from the sea, which gave its terror to all who dwell in it? And the islands will fear from the day of your ruin. At the cry of your voice your pilots will fear with fear, and all your oarsmen will leave the ships, and the passengers and the pilots of the sea will stand upon the land, and wail over you with their voice, and cry bitterly over you, and put earth on their heads, and spread ashes, and take up over you a lament of sons, the lament of Soor: How much reward have you found from the sea? You have satisfied nations with your multitude, and by your trade you enriched all the kings of the earth. But now you are grieved in the sea; your trade is in the depth of the water, and all your company in your midst. All your oarsmen have fallen; all who dwell in the islands are grieved over you, and their oarsmen are stupefied with alienation of mind, and their faces weep over you. Their merchants from among the nations will hiss at you; you have become destruction; you will be no more for ever, says the Lord.” Do the things that are said fit one island, or could it alone enrich all the kings of the earth? But we leave some things to suitable places, in which, though they are said briefly, they can be seen. Tyre is twofold, as is said through Isaiah, who after many things of species and genus added this too, saying: “After seventy years Tyre will be like the song of a harlot. Take a lyre, a corner-harp, harlot city, forgotten; play the lyre well, sing many songs, that you may be remembered. And after seventy years God will visit Tyre, and it will be restored again to its former state.” Is it credible that all the kingdoms of the earth came to Tyre for the sake of trade? And if they come, what use was it to foretell to Tyre a future commerce with all the kingdoms of the earth, if Tyre is not the church, in which all the business of the earth is eternal life? For it goes on and shows what its business is, saying: “And its trade and its wages will be holy to the Lord. For it will not be gathered for them, but for those who dwell in the sight of the Lord. All its trade is to eat and drink and be filled, as a sign of remembrance in the sight of the Lord.” If, then, its trade is holy to the Lord, how can it belong to all kingdoms, unless this Tyre is everywhere? For it goes on and openly shows what Tyre is, saying: “Behold, the Lord will corrupt the world and lay it waste, and strip its face; he will scatter those who dwell in it, and the people will be as the priest.” Is it of that world whose trade is holy to the Lord? “And the servant as the master, and the maid as the mistress, and the buyer as the seller, and the debtor as the creditor, and the lender as the borrower: for the earth will be corrupted with corruption and laid waste with wasting; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things. The earth mourned, the world was bowed down, the high ones of the earth mourned. And the earth committed crime because of those who dwell in it, for they transgressed the law and changed the ordinances of the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse has devoured the earth, because those who dwell in it have sinned. Therefore those who dwell in the earth will be needy.” Can those be needy whose trade in all the kingdoms of the earth is to eat and drink and be filled, not for a time but as a sign of remembrance in the sight of the Lord? “And few men will be left. The vine will mourn, the wine will mourn; all whose soul rejoices will groan. The joy of the tambourine will cease”: when the shamelessness and riches of the ungodly cease. Will the voice of the lyre of the saints cease? “They are confounded; they did not drink wine; the wine has become bitter to those who drink it. Every city is deserted; all will shut, that they may not enter; howl, you diviners; everywhere all the joy of the earth will cease, and cities will be left deserted, and houses abandoned will perish.” “All these things will be in the land in the midst of the nations.” If every city is deserted, what are the nations in whose midst these things are done? Even if some of these things seem to happen obscurely, yet all are spiritual. He calls every city deserted, spiritually dead: but of that harlot Tyre, not of the one whose trade is holy throughout the world. But in Jerusalem few men will be left, the state of those who perish being certainly preserved. Few will be left of those whom he calls spiritually dead: those who have lived again through remembrance, whom the churchman has not killed, as we read in many places. But since our purpose must be fulfilled, we are content with two examples. God threatens fire from the fire of Israel to the king of the Assyrians, that is, to the adverse body, and says to the Syrian, or to the stubble, that after a little they will be fire. “The Lord of hosts,” it says, “will send into your honour dishonour, and into your glory a burning fire; and the light of Israel will burn, and it will be a fire to you, and it will sanctify it in a burning flame” (namely the light of Israel), “and it will devour the forest like hay. In that day the mountains will burn, and they will flee over the precipices, like one who flees from a burning flame; and those who are left of them will be counted, and a child will write them down.” “Those who are left,” he says, “of them.” For can the fire that burns fail to burn? But those of the burned who have survived will be made fire. In Zechariah we read that those whom the church has not killed return, because they are converted to it; but that the others are spiritually killed by torments. For he plucks out the eyes of those who stand, and makes their flesh waste away: “He will dwell in Israel confidently,” it says, “and this will be the slaughter with which God will strike the peoples, as many as fought against Israel. Their flesh will waste away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will melt from their sockets, and their tongue will waste away in their mouth. And on that day there will be a great estrangement upon them, and each will take the hand of his neighbour, and his hand will be filled with the hand of his neighbour” (that is, the blind leading the blind). “And Judah will fight in Jerusalem, and will gather the men of all peoples, and gold and silver and clothing in very great abundance. And this will be the slaughter of the horses and mules, camels and asses, and all the cattle that are in those camps, according to this slaughter. And whoever are left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year by year to worship the King, the Lord God almighty, to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles.” Elam belongs to the foreigners. Here he joins the general to the specific, and shows that it is twofold. “Thus says the Lord: I will break the bow of Nair, in Elam their sovereignty.” And it exceeds the species: “I will bring upon it,” he says, “the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and there will be no nation that does not come there to drive out Elam.” It returns to the species: “And I will terrify them before their enemies who seek their lives, and I will bring them upon them according to the wrath of my indignation, and I will send my sword after them until it consumes them.” It joins the genus: “And I will set my seat in Elam, and destroy from there the king and the mighty. In the last days I will turn back the captivity of Elam for ever, says the Lord.” Must it be believed that there was no nation that did not come to fight against Elam, or that the seat of the Lord is there, whose captivity he turns back, unless it is a figure of the church? But some species are of the left only, like Sodom, as it is written: “Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom”; and the city which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord too was crucified. From this Sodom Lot will go out, which is the departure, so that the man of sin may be revealed. Babylon, the city opposed to Jerusalem, is the whole world in its part, which is in … Israel. These things are addressed: “The vision,” it says, “against Babylon”; and it says that the holy soldiers of God will come against the whole world: “Lift up a signal and exult over them, do not fear; exhort them; open the hands of the rulers: for behold, I command. They are sanctified, and the giants are called; they come to appease my wrath, rejoicing and at the same time doing injury. The voice of many nations on the mountains, like that of many nations; the voice of kings and of gathered nations, when the nation and king of the Medes overthrows Babylon.” For it goes on and says who these kings are and what Babylon is: “The God of hosts has commanded a warlike nation to come from afar, from the uttermost foundation of heaven. God and his warriors have corrupted the whole world. Howl, for the day of the Lord is near, and destruction from God will be present. Therefore all hands will be loosened, and every soul of man will tremble. The envoys of the woman in labour will be troubled, and the surrounding walls; they will be terrified one at another, and their faces will be changed like flame. For behold, the incurable day of the Lord comes, of indignation and wrath, to make the world desolate and to destroy sinners from it.” He speaks of the day of the Lord from the time when he suffered, from which the world is spiritually killed, the army of God killing it, while the wicked do not see its light, as if they are being kept, saying: “For the star of the outer heaven and all its lights will give light and grow dark, and its light will not remain. And I will inflict evils on the dead of the earth, and on the unjust their sins; and I will destroy the injury of the wicked, and humble the injury of the proud.” “And those who are left” (that is, those whom the soldiers mentioned above have not killed) “will be more honoured than gold that has not touched fire, and a man will be more honoured than a sapphire stone. For heaven will be indignant, and the earth will be shaken from its foundations, because of the rousing of the wrath of God on the day when his indignation is present.” He joins the species: “And he who is left will be like a fleeing roe and like a straying sheep, and there will be none to gather them, so that a man may turn to his people and hasten to come to his tribe. For whoever falls will be overcome; and whoever are gathered will fall by the sword; and their daughters will fall before their eyes, and they will plunder their houses and have their wives. Behold, I stir up the Medes against you, who do not count money, nor do they need gold.” He subtly inserts the genus: for when you are …, there is no need of gold and silver, except for the churchman, who enjoys life spiritually. “They will shatter the fattened youths, and they will have no pity on your sons, and their eyes will not spare your grandsons.” All these are written spiritually, as of the same Babylon: “Happy is he who will prevail, and dash his little ones against the rock.” For he did not call the king of the Medes happy, because he prevailed against Babylon, and not the churchmen, who prevail and dash the sons of Babylon against the rock of stumbling. And he prevails, as it is written: “He who now prevails, let him hold on, until he is taken out of the midst.” And after many things of species and genus, at the close of the prophecy he openly shows that all are Babylon, and that he destroys them in his land and on his mountains, that is, in the church. “Thus says the Lord: I will make Babylon a desert, so that hedgehogs will dwell in it, and it will come to nothing; and I will make it a pit of mud for destruction. Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: As I have said, so it will be; and as I have planned, so it will stand: that I will destroy the Assyrians in my land and on my mountains, and they will be trodden down, and their yoke will be taken from them, and the glory will be taken from their shoulders. This is the plan which the Lord has planned for the whole world, and this the hand raised over all the nations of the world. For what the holy God has planned, who will scatter, and his strong hand who will turn back?” And whenever, after the destruction, he threatens that the ruins of the city will be a dwelling of beasts, he means that unclean spirits will dwell in men whom the Holy Spirit has deserted. For the slain inhabitants cannot feel this injury or the ruin. “The words,” says Amos, “which he saw concerning Jerusalem,” and he began: “For three impieties of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away from it, because they sawed with iron saws women with child.” And again: “For three impieties of Idumaea, and for four, I will not turn away from it, because it pursued its brother with the sword.” And he addresses many other cities of foreigners in the figure of the church. Wherever he names Idumaea, Teman, Bozrah, Seir, he means evil brothers; for they are the possessions of Esau. By iron saws he means hard and harsh men who saw through the churches in labour. Likewise Jeremiah testifies that all the nations under heaven drink the wrath of God in the city of God and are struck there, saying: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Take the cup of unmixed wine from my hand, and you will make all the nations to whom I send you drink; and they will vomit and go mad before the sword which I send among them. And I took the cup from the hand of the Lord, and made the nations drink to which the Lord sent me: Jerusalem itself and the cities of Judah, and its kings and its princes, that they might be made a desolation and a waste and a hissing; and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his mighty men, and all his people, and all his mixed peoples; and all the kings of the foreigners, Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron and those over against Azotus; and Idumaea and Moab and the sons of Ammon; and the king of Tyre and the king of Sidon, and the kings beyond the sea; and Dedan and Teman and Bozrah, and all who cut the corners of their hair; and all the mixed peoples who dwell in the desert; and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Persians, and all the kings from the east, far and near, each to his brother, and all the kingdoms of the earth that are on the face of the earth. And you will say to them: Thus says the Lord almighty: Drink and be drunk and vomit, and you will fall and rise before the sword which I send among you. And to those who refused to take the cup so as to drink, you will say: Thus says the Lord: You shall surely drink; for in the city in which my name is called, upon it I begin to afflict you, and you will not be cleansed with cleansing, for I call down a sword upon the inhabitants of the earth.” “You will make drink,” he says, “Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, and its kings and princes.” Then he says, “and all the kingdoms of the earth that are on the face of the earth,” to show that from the specific Jerusalem he passed to the general, in which are all the nations of the earth, whom God strikes there; as he also interpreted, saying: “For in the city in which my name is called, in it I begin to afflict you, and you will not be cleansed with cleansing.” Did Jeremiah, while he was in the body, who never went out of the prison of Judaea except when dragged into Egypt, plainly give this drink, unmixed wine poured into the cup, to all the nations under heaven? Or does he now prophesy through the church? But if then too and now the place is in the church, it is plain that all the nations to whom that Jeremiah speaks are also addressed in their principal part. For whatever Satan has that is highest, whatever weighty, whatever on the right in his body, he has mixed with the heavenly things, as is the custom of those at war, to set the strong against the strong. Hence the Apostle says that the saints’ fight is not against humanity, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.