Amos 2

1–3

(Chapter 2, Verse 1 and following) Thus says the Lord: Concerning the three sins of Moab, and concerning four, I will not revoke my punishment, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth, and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And I will cut off the judge from the midst of her, and will slay all her princes with him, says the Lord. LXX: Thus says the Lord: Concerning the three impious acts of Moab, and concerning four, I will not turn away from them, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to ashes. And I will send fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the foundations of its cities, and Moab shall die with affliction, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And I will cut off the judge from her, and will slay all her princes with him, says the Lord. Not only the sons of Ammon, but also Moab, was descended from Lot, who was the son of Abraham's brother. And in order to demonstrate that He is the Lord of all and that all souls belong to Him, who is their creator, He avenges the injustice of the king of Edom, indeed the crime that was perpetrated against him by the Moabites, that they burned his bones to ashes, and their cruelty and rage did not end even in death. The Hebrews tell that the bones of the king of Edom, who had gone up with the king of Israel, Joram, and the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, against Moab in revenge for a grievance, were later torn apart and burned by the Moabites (2 Kings 3). Therefore, they say, God declares that he will send fire upon Moab, or the capital city of the Moabites, from which the whole province is named, or the entire province, to devour the city of Carioth, which is the name of the city. Although the Seventy translated it as 'the cities of Moab', that is, Moab: and it will perish in the sound and wailing of the conquering army, of which one is called Saon in Hebrew, the other Therua; and in the blast of the trumpet or horn, for this is what Sophar means. And when Moab shall perish, the counsel of the princes and judges shall be in vain, with the cities and leaders being overthrown. However, it is necessary to transfer the perfect captivity, or Solomon's, and conclude it in Edom, so that it may make them humble and earthly from the high and heavenly, as Gaza and Tyre are said to have done. Thus, we should not burn the bones of the king of Edom and dissolve them into ash and dust. The Jews transfer spiritual understanding into Edomite flesh, and weaken and diminish the royal sense, which is found in scripture and is most solid and firm, with certain genealogies and unnecessary traditions, reducing it to dust. And it is not only they who do this, but all heretics who want to sit God on a high and elevated throne in a human likeness, and to place feet on the ground so that they do not hang; to have a nose to smell the fragrance of good scent, eyes to see, hands to work, feet to walk, ears to hear, a mouth to speak, teeth to chew food. He who reads that Judah went in to Thamar the harlot and from her begot two sons (Gen. XXXVIII): if he follows the disgraceful letter and does not ascend to the beauty of spiritual understanding, he will burn the bones of the king of Edom. He who thinks that Hosea took a harlot as a wife (Hosea I), and understands nothing more in the statement than what is contained in simple words, he will burn the bones of the king of Edom. And therefore the Lord will send fire into Moab, which is interpreted 'from the father,' because although he was indeed born from God, yet he has forsaken him. And it shall devour cities, or towns, because it is interpreted as Carioth. Hence Cariathiarim is translated into our language as the village of the woods. And Moab shall not die in any other way except in a clamor, and a noise, and a wailing, and the blast of the trumpet, so that they may be overwhelmed in their high senses, which are compared in holy books to the blasts of the trumpet. Then the judges and princes, and all those who are in charge of earthly works, are destroyed by the divine word, and the Church commands to the teachers: \"Climb up to a high mountain, you who preach Zion, lift up your voice, you who proclaim Jerusalem\" (Isaiah XL, 9).

Commentary on Amos

4–5

(Verse 4, 5.) Thus says the Lord: On account of three crimes of Judah, and on account of four, I will not turn them aside, because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his commandments. They have been deceived by their idols, after which their fathers walked, and I will send fire into Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. LXX: Thus says the Lord: On account of three impieties of the sons of Judah, and on account of four, I will not turn away from them, because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his precepts, and they have been deceived by their vanities, which their fathers followed, and I will send fire into Judah, and it will devour the foundations of Jerusalem. Regarding the other aforementioned cities and peoples, such as Damascus and Gaza, Ashkelon and Gaza, Ashkelon and Azotus, Tyre and Idumea, and the sons of Ammon and Moab, it does not reproach them for rejecting the law of God and despising His commandments; for they did not have the written law, but the natural law. Hence, it says that they violated their own bowels and the bowels of mercy, and crushed pregnant women in iron chariots, and carried away the captivity of Solomon, whether it was perfect or incomplete, and confined it in Idumea, and did not remember the covenant of their fathers, and pursued their brother with the sword. And they burst forth not only with cruelty, but with fury, to the extent that they burned the bones of the king of Idumea, and did not allow death to be the final evil for everyone. But Judas, at that time, in which these things were being said, had the religion of God and the temple and the ceremonies, who had received the law, and the precepts, and the judgments, and the testimonies, and the commandments (concerning the difference of which is more fully debated in the eighteenth psalm, and in the one hundred and eighteenth), is reproached by the Lord and convicted, and will receive worthy punishments, because he has rejected His law, and has not kept His commandments. Because he rejected and despised them, his idols deceived him in order and way. For he could not be deceived by idols before he rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep His commandments. These are the idols after which their fathers went in Egypt, fabricating the images of the Egyptian bull, and worshiping Beelphegor, and honoring Astaroth and Baalim. Therefore, the Lord threatens even Judah that he will send fire, which will devour the houses and foundations of Jerusalem: not the one in which the vision of peace dwells, but those that have risen under the name Jerusalem in different cities. Whatever we have said about Judah, it pertains to the Church, in which there is true confession, and the peace of the Lord, and the vision of truth. And therefore it is argued against him, that he has despised the law of God and has not kept his commandments, and each one, worshipping his own vices and sins, has begun to have God from whom he has been conquered, as the apostle Peter says: For by whom a person is overcome, to him he is a slave (2 Peter 2:19). The covetous worships gold, the glutton worships his belly, the lustful worships his genitals and Beelphegor: the lascivious woman, although she may live in luxury, is dead, and she worships the pleasures of Venus. Where will the Lord send fire upon Judah, and it will devour the most wicked and sinful houses, which have lost the glory of Jerusalem; at the same time, we learn that the Creator of all things does not only care for the Jews and Israel, but also for all the nations, and according to the Apostle, those who sin without the law will perish without the law, and those who commit sins under the law will be judged by the law of the Lord (Rom. II).

Commentary on Amos

Many, truly, are the shoes of the sinful soul, by which it is bound and cramped. For each man is cramped by the cords of his own sins. Accordingly, Abraham swears to the king of Sodom, "I will not take of all that is thine, from a thread to a shoe-latchet." On account of these being defiled and polluted on the earth, every kind of wrong and selfishness engrosses life. As the Lord reproves Israel by Amos, saying, "For three iniquities of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn him back; because they have given away the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, which tread upon the dust of the ground."

Fragments Found in Greek Only in the Oxford Edition

He might also have been betrayed by any stranger, did I not find that even here too he fulfilled a psalm: “He who did eat bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.” And without a price might he have been betrayed. For what need of a traitor was there in the case of one who offered himself to the people openly and might quite as easily have been captured by force as taken by treachery? This might, no doubt, have been well enough for another Christ but would not have been suitable in one who was accomplishing prophecies. For it was written, “The righteous one did they sell for silver.” The very amount and the destination of the money, which on Judas’s remorse was recalled “from its first purpose of a fee” and appropriated to the purchase of a potter’s field, as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew, were clearly foretold by Jeremiah: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him who was valued, and gave them for the potter’s field.”

Against Marcion 4.

6–8

(Vers. 6 seqq.) Thus says the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my word: Because they sell the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the weak into the dust of the earth, and they force the lowly off the path. Son and father go to the same prostitute, profaning my holy name. Upon garments taken in pledge, they recline beside every altar; and the wine of those who have been fined, they drink in the house of their God. LXX: Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away from them: because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. They trample on the dust of the earth and crush the heads of the poor. They turn aside the way of the humble, and a man and his father go in to the same maiden to profane my holy name. They tie themselves to altars with cords and drink wine obtained through fraud in the house of their God. Therefore, he places the last of Israel, that is, the ten tribes, because we have foretold in writing nearly everything that follows in order to include the prophetic discourse of the book under one text. Therefore, first of all, their wickedness or impiety is in three or four crimes, namely, that they sold a man for money, and a just man, who is more admirable in this, that he was not overcome by poverty so as to do anything unjust: and indeed, if they had sold a poor just man compelled by the necessity of hunger for a price, there would be some excuse for the crime; but now they have sold the precious soul of a man for a most worthless thing, for shoes with which they trample on dust and dung. These people, according to the Septuagint, strike the head of the poor; according to the Hebrew, they crush the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth, and they are so filled with pride that they refuse to walk with other men. And so, not satisfied with this wicked deed, both the son and the father have violated together a young girl, in order to desecrate the holy name of God. Therefore, whatever is done shamefully is attributed to an injury against God, who says: Through you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles (2 Peter 2:2). This is what the Apostle writes to the Corinthians: Indeed, fornication is heard among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, so that someone may have his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you (II Cor. V, 1, 2). It often happens that a father defiles his son's wife, the father-in-law defiles his daughter-in-law, which is prohibited in the Law: You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, and you shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law (Leviticus XVIII, 7). Therefore, the letter also has the greatest usefulness if it is preserved. And because every vice, if it exceeds the boundary of shame, punishes crimes with other crimes, and it always proceeds to worse things, even over the pledged garments, ten tribes slept next to every altar, which the Hebrews interpret as follows: On the garments of those who did not want to go to idols, and they reclined on what they had forcibly taken while feasting in the idol. According to the Septuagint, there was such contempt for God that they would stretch out their garments in which they sleep or commit fornication, with ropes next to the altar, and they would make παραπετάσματα, that is, veils, so that no one could see the fornicators in the Temple. And they would also serve drunkenness and lust, even buying the wine they drank not with their own labor, but with deceit. And they would do this in their god's temple, so that they would defile those whom they thought were gods with filth and debauchery. They speak these things and thus explain, those who follow a simple history. But we, who taught in Hosea, under the name of the Israelites, and Samaria, and Ephraim, and the sons of Joseph (from which tribe Jeroboam was, who separated the people from the kingdom of David and Jerusalem, and the temple of God), are understood to signify heretics: even now, after Judah and Jerusalem, which is interpreted as the Church, let us understand that the prophetic discourse is directed towards heretics, who sell a holy and righteous man, but poor, for money. A poor and just man, he is an ecclesiastic, who does not have knowledge of the Scriptures, but is content with simplicity, and does the commandments that are given, of whom it is written: The poor man does not endure threats (Prov. XIII, 8). And to the Galatians: Only that we should be mindful of the poor (Gal. II, 10). All heretics do these things for wealth, and for the shoes with which they trample on the dust of the earth: for they cannot stand with bare feet on the holy ground (on which Moses and Joshua the son of Nun stood, Exod. III; Josh. V): therefore the apostles are commanded to walk with bare feet (Luke X), so that they have no possessions or skins, which pertain to the flesh), thus they strike the poor on the head. And the Savior commanded his disciples that, if perchance, because they were still in the world, some mortal thing had clung to their actions, they should shake the dust off their feet (Matt. X, Mark V). But the heretics strike the heads of the poor, although this is not written in Hebrew (Let it be read in Greek), because they have turned away from the path of the humble. That path of the humble is the one that says: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John XIV, 6), which urges us to walk in it, and it says: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt. XI, 28). But all the leaders of the heretics swell with pride, concerning whom the Apostle also speaks: 'Lest being puffed up he fall into the judgment of the devil' (1 Timothy 3:6), who says: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north' (Isaiah 14). Therefore, God resists the proud heretics, but gives grace to the humble ecclesiastics (James 4). Moreover, the son and the father entered unto a maiden, to violate and defile the holy name of God. We often read that our father is the Jewish people, as Paul says: I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (I Cor. X, 1, 2). And in another place: Ask your fathers, and they will tell you; your elders, and they will declare to you (Deut. XXXII, 7). And again: For your fathers, sons are born to you (Psal. XLIV, 17). And the Church of the Gentiles speaks: The sons of my mother fought against me (Song of Songs 1:5). Therefore we are sons, and the father is the Jewish people. We sin and commit a crime, when we enter into the observation of the Sabbath and circumcision, abolishing the ceremonies of the law with our parent, to whom the Apostle says: Behold, I Paul say to you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing (Galatians 5:2, 4). And again: Those who are justified by the law have fallen from grace. Whoever enters the Church in such a way that he keeps the law in the gospel, he enters with the father to the virgin and commits fornication, and violates the name of the Lord. Hence those who say that they do not harm the Jews after the advent of Christ, if they believe in the Lord in such a way that they also keep the precepts of the Law, they contaminate the father and the son with one fornication. And they also tie their garments with ropes and make veils next to the altar, pretending the faith of Christ. For as many as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ (Galatians 3), and they oppose their garments, which have bound them with the cords of sins, to the eyes of those who see, so that their wicked deeds may not be seen: so that whoever looks at the altar may not suspect immorality. All heretics under the name of Christ do this, fornicating and obscuring the testimonies of the Scriptures with their errors and lies. Therefore, the apostles spread their garments on the colt of an ass, so that the Lord may sit more comfortably (Matthew 21), and he may trample the path adorned with the Law and the Prophets. On the contrary, heretics do not lay down their garments in the footsteps of the Savior; but they bind them next to the altar, and they pretend their sins, in order to drink the wine of deceit, or of the condemned, who, because they have departed from the Church, have been condemned. This wine is the wine of Sodom, the fury of dragons and adders, which whoever drinks it cannot be healed. But they drink the wine not in the house of God, where the temple is and Jerusalem; but in their own house of God, which they have fabricated for themselves with crafty speech.

Commentary on Amos

He does not leave him unpunished, but rather subjects to punishments Israel, that is, the tribes in Samaria. And that they themselves, sinning unguardedly, have all but consumed the tranquility owed by God to the weak, the turning away for three and four sins would show, which having suffered they must necessarily be subjected to terrible things, and be in every evil. Therefore, the divine David, fearing this thing, and knowing it to be a cause of destruction, implored, saying, "Do not turn Your face from me, and do not turn away in wrath from Your servant." For wrath always follows, and, as it were, accompanies the turnings away.

Commentary on Amos

"They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals": They did not endure to speak rightly and justly, and to render for each of those being judged the justice that accords with the law. But if it happened that a man was righteous, sober and gentle, modest and unboastful; for such a one would be understood as both righteous and needy, or poor in spirit; being brought to judgment by one of the more powerful, this man is sold to his enemies, although the law clearly proclaimed, "You shall not take person in judgment;" and again, "You shall not slay the innocent and the just." For the one entrusted with judging is certainly established in the order of God, to whom alone judging is proper. "For there is one lawgiver and judge," according to the voice of the saint. Therefore, the one who falsifies the account of justice and shows partiality will certainly insult the divine dignity, and offends God who says, "Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion every one to his brother." He accuses them, therefore, of selling the just and the needy to their enemies, and of being accustomed to doing this for the sake of a few and most worthless gains, which would scarcely suffice for those who received them for the purchase of sandals.

Commentary on Amos

a man and his father go in to the same maiden: In these laws it is not written that a father and son ought not to have the same concubine, but, in the prophet, it is thought deserving of the most extreme condemnation, “A man and his father” it is said “will go in unto the same maid.” And how many other forms of unclean lust have been found out in the devils’ school, while divine scripture is silent about them, not choosing to befoul its dignity with the names of filthy things and condemning their uncleanness in general terms! As the apostle Paul says, “Fornication and all uncleanness…let it not be once named among you as becometh saints,”Eph. v. 3. thus including the unspeakable doings of both males and females under the name of uncleanness. It follows that silence certainly does not give license to voluptuaries.

The example of the patriarch seemed injurious to many who indulged their flesh so far as to live with sisters in their lifetime. What ought to be my course? To quote the Scriptures, or to work out what they leave unsaid? In the Pentateuch, it is not written that a father and son ought not to have the same concubine, but in the prophet, it is thought deserving of the most extreme condemnation. “A man and his father,” it is said, “will go in unto the same maid.” It makes one reflect upon how many other forms of unclean lust have been found out in the devil’s school, while divine Scripture remains silent about them, not choosing to befoul its dignity with the names of filthy things and condemning their uncleanness in general terms! Recall that the apostle Paul says, “Fornication and all uncleanness … let it not be one named among you as become saints.” This includes the unspeakable doings of both males and females under the name of uncleanness. It follows that silence certainly does not give license to voluptuaries.

Letter 3

They so multiplied their ill-gotten gains as to betray the rights of the needy for the basest profit (the meaning of the phrase “sandals trampling the dust of the earth,” which was clear proof of their setting no store by justice, especially as they easily did so for base profit). “They pummeled the heads of the poor.” Of the same people he says that they not only failed to vindicate their claim on justice but even belabored them without risk—hence his going on, “and strayed from the path of the lowly.” Though their behavior was correct, they changed the verdict to a negative one, scorning them for their lowliness.

Commentary on Amos 2:6–8

Cain was the first murderer. Afterwards a deluge engulfed the earth because of the exceeding wickedness of humanity. Fire came down from heaven upon the people of Sodom because of their corruption. Subsequently God elected Israel, but even Israel became perverse, and the chosen people were wounded. For while Moses stood on the mountain before God, the people worshiped a calf in the place of God. In the days of their lawgiver Moses, who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” a man dared to enter a brothel and be wanton. After Moses, prophets were sent to heal Israel, but in their exercise of healing they deplored the fact that you could not overcome evil. One of them says, “The faithful are gone from the earth. Among men the upright are no more!” and again, “All alike have gone astray; they have become perverse; there is not one who does good, not even one.” And again, “Cursing and theft, and adultery, and killing have overflowed” upon the land. “They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.” They engaged themselves in auguries and enchantments and divinations; and again, “They fastened their garments with cords and hung veils next to the altar.”

Catechetical Lecture 12:6

9–11

(Verse 9 and following) But I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedar trees, and he was strong like an oak tree. And I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below. I am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you into the wilderness for forty years, so that you could possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. LXX: But I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; and I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots beneath. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, that you might possess the land of the Amorites. And I took your sons as prophets and your young men as consecrated ones. Is it not true that you have sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals? You have struck the heads of the poor, crushing them to the ground, and you have turned aside from the way of the humble. So much so that both father and son go to the same girl, defiling my holy name. Your garments are stained with the blood of the innocent and your clothes are polluted with adultery. You have bound yourselves with the chains of sin, committing adultery even in the sanctuary and joining injustice with drunkenness. You drink wine bought with foreign money in the house of your God. But on the contrary, I bestowed good things upon you in return for the evils you inflicted on me, so that I might destroy, before your presence, Seon, the king of the Amorites, who was so lofty and strong like a cedar and an oak, and I broke his fruit from above and his roots from below. I led you out of Egypt (Deut. 29), and for forty years I made you go around in circles to reach the holy land, so that you might possess the land of the Amorites, of which we have spoken before: which Moses divided to the sons of Reuben and Gad, and to half the tribe of Manasseh (Num. 32); and after so many benefits, I also added this, that I would take prophets for myself from your sons, and from your young men or chosen ones, I would make Nazarites, who the Seventy have interpreted as sanctified. And indeed, when it comes to praising God, the order of history must be preserved; but it often happens that what happened first is told last, and what is most recent is related to what came first. The seventy-seventh and one hundred and fourth psalms, where the power of signs is described, not the order, will teach us this, as well as the titles of the psalms, of which we will give just two examples: the third psalm and the fifty-first, where what happened first is narrated last, and what we read last is referred to in the beginning. For before we read in the book of Kings about Doeg the Edomite (1 Kings 21, 22), which is titled as the fifty-first psalm, how Absalom rose up against his father (2 Kings 15), which is mentioned in the title of the third psalm. And so the last Amorite was exterminated or erased, as is now first reported, and he made them go up from the land of Egypt and led them into the desert for forty years, we read about this in the beginning (2 Kings 21), which are called the last here with the order changed. Therefore, before God brought us out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, He exterminated before our face the Amorite, who is called bitter or insolent, that is, speaking, or notorious, and celebrated in frequent conversation. But this Amorite is also called Seon, an unfruitful and barren tree, not because it does not produce fruit, but because it produces bad fruit, of which it is said: Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matth. 3:10; 7:19). And concerning false prophets, we read: They come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves, by their fruits you shall know them (Matthew VII, 15, 16): namely, by their evil fruits. Therefore, whether they do not bear fruit, or they bear fruit but not good fruit: they are called fruitless trees. This is similar to Seon, about whom it is written: Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees (Luke III, 9), because he was a fruitless tree, and when the Lord struck, he was cut down, whose height is compared to that of cedars, of which we read: I have seen the wicked exalted, and lifted up as the cedars of Lebanon: and I passed by, and behold, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found (Psalm XXXVI, 35, 36). And he says that he passes beautifully, because he who passes from the world can say: Passing, I will see this great vision (Exod. III, 3), the cedar is removed, and the place of pride cannot be found. His strength, like that of the hardest and strongest oak tree. From which word, Philo, the most eloquent of the Hebrews, thinks that Esau is called 'δρύινον', that is, oaken and strong: although Esau can also be understood as 'ποίημα', that is, a work, referring to evil deeds. About this strong and robust, the Lord speaks in the Gospel: When a strong armed man guards his courtyard, all the things he possesses are in peace; but if a stronger man comes and defeats him, he will take away all his weapons in which he trusted, and distribute his spoils. And the Lord has granted us that he would crush and take away the fruits of this Amorite Sihon, whom we have interpreted as the fruitless tree, because they were evil, so that no one, thinking them good, would eat and perish. He also cut and crushed its roots, so that nothing would grow afterward from the evil tree. The Lord Himself made us leave the world, and for forty years, which is always a number of affliction and fasting, mourning and sorrow, through tribulations and distress, to come into the holy land, so that we would possess the land of the Amorites first, and that region would become our possession, and later He would raise up Prophets from our descendants, all holy men who received the prophetic spirit, about whom we read more fully in the first Epistle to the Corinthians (I Cor. XIV). And from our young men, or chosen ones, let him take the Nazarites and the sanctified ones, who offer their souls to God as a sacrifice, and who do not touch wine that can intoxicate and disturb the state of mind, so that they may have the hair of Samson, in whose head (for the head of a man is Christ) strength and victory resided (Judges 16).

Commentary on Amos

[This was the reason why] the Lord accused the Israelites more severely and showed that they deserved greater punishment, because they sinned after receiving the honors that he had bestowed on them. He said, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will visit upon you your iniquities,” and again, “I took of your sons for prophets and of your young men for consecration.” And before the time of the prophets, when he wanted to show that sins received a much heavier penalty when they were committed by the priests than when they were committed by ordinary people, he commanded as great a sacrifice to be offered for the priests as for all the people. This explicitly proves that the priest’s wounds require greater help, indeed as much as those of all the people together. They would not have required greater help if they had not been more serious, and their seriousness is not increased by their own nature but by the extra weight of dignity belonging to the priest who dares to commit them.

On the Priesthood 6:10

Samson and Samuel drank neither wine nor strong drink, for they were children of promise and conceived in abstinence and fasting. Aaron and the other priests when about to enter the temple refrained from all intoxicating drink for fear they should die. From this we learn that they die who minister in the church without sobriety. And hence it is a reproach against Israel: “You gave my Nazirites wine to drink.”

Against Jovinianus 2:15

(Verse 12.) Is it not so, sons of Israel, says the Lord, that you offered wine to the Nazarenes and sent commands to the prophets, saying: Do not prophesy. Likewise, the Septuagint. I granted you so many benefits, that I would kill your enemies and give their land to you, and I would choose prophets and Nazarenes from your sons and young men, and I would consecrate them to my worship. Can you say that I have not done these things, and that I have denied my mercy towards you, by which you live? Why did you burst forth into such rage, that you would get my Nazarenes drunk with wine, whom the law commands not to drink anything that can intoxicate? (Num. VI): and you would command the prophets not to prophesy in my name. This is what the priest Amaziah of Bethel commanded the prophet Amos, whom we now have in our hands: and it was commanded by the king to Jeremiah, not to speak the words of the Lord to the people, to the extent that his words were even burned with fire. Tatianus, the leader of the Encratites, attempts to construct his heresy on this matter, stating that wine should not be drunk, since it is commanded by the law that Nazarenes should not drink wine, and now they are accused by a prophet who provides wine to the Nazarenes. If they follow the letter in all things and introduce Jewish fables into the churches of Christ, then they should also grow their hair long, abstain from eating dried and green grapes, and not approach their deceased mother and father. And if by chance they have done these things and have been overcome by human frailty or necessity, they should shave their heads, and all their days of dedication and work shall be void. But if they do not do these things, nor are they able to mix water with wine like the Jewish innkeepers, let them understand the shadows of truth, the grace of the Gospel, the necessity of the Law, and that drunkenness with which the vigor of the soul is intoxicated and overwhelmed by worldly cares, and let them command those prophets, saying: 'Do not prophesy, you who, overcome by envy, forbid learned men from speaking the word of doctrine.' And as the Lord says: 'Go and say to this people' (Is. VI, 9), they on the contrary command them not to speak in the name of the Lord, especially if the one teaching provides for the utility of the readers and listeners, not for shameful gain, fame, and boasting.

Commentary on Amos

13–16

(Verse 13 onwards) Behold, I will roar underneath you, like a heavily loaded wagon roars with hay, and the fleet warrior shall perish, and the strong shall not retain his strength, and the mighty shall not save his soul, and the archer shall not stand, and the swift-footed one shall not be saved, and the rider of the horse shall not save his soul, and the strong of heart among the strong ones, shall flee naked on that day, says the Lord. LXX: Therefore, behold, I will roll under you like a wagon full of straw is rolled, and the swift one shall perish in flight, and the strong one shall not retain his strength, and the warrior shall not save his soul, and the archer shall not endure, and the swift-footed one shall not be able to be saved, and the horseman shall not save his soul, and his heart shall be found among the mighty, and the naked one shall flee on that day, says the Lord. With me granting benefits to you, and leading you out of the land of Egypt, and destroying the Amorite before your face, so that you could possess his land, and raising up prophets from your sons, and Nazarites from your young men, you made my Nazarites drink wine, and said to the prophets: Do not prophesy. Therefore, just as a cart is burdened with a load of straw or hay, and it screeches and makes a loud noise from afar, so I, unable to bear your sins any longer, and handing you over to the fire like straw, will cry out and say: The quick will perish in flight, whom the Hebrews understand to be Jeroboam the son of Nabath, who had previously fled to Egypt (1 Kings 11). But here we will not take the princes themselves, but their houses and offspring. And the strong will not retain his strength: strong is interpreted as Basan, who was very ready for war (3 Kings 15). And the mighty will not save his soul: they understand this as referring to Amri (or Omri) here. And the one holding a bow will not stand or sustain: they think this refers to Jehu son of Namsi (or Nemsi), who struck King Joram of Israel with an arrow (4 Kings 9). And he who is swift on his feet will not be saved: Manahen they understand, who vainly hastening directed gifts to the king of the Assyrians (2 Kings 15): And the rider of the horse will not save his life: this Phacee, the son of Romelia, they interpret, who united with Aram, that is, Syria, devastated many things under the reign of Achaz, king of Judah. And with a strong heart, he will flee naked among the strong on that day, says the Lord (Ibid.). Only Osee, who was the last king of the ten tribes, and who attempted to bring back the errant people to the worship of God (2 Kings 18), will go out as if naked from the fire. Moreover, he calls them naked because under him the ten tribes were captured. This is what the Hebrews assert, and as it has been handed down to us, we have faithfully explained it to our people. But now let us return to our own matter. God threatens to roll a cart over them, burdened with hay or straw, so that because they do not have grain to store in granaries, their hay and straw will be consumed by fire. This is the hay of which the prophet says: Let it become like the hay of buildings, which withers before it is uprooted (Ps. 128:6). And: All flesh is grass (Isaiah 40:6). But that straw is what the prophet mourns lamentably for when it catches fire, saying: Woe is me! for I have become like one who gathers straw in the harvest, and like grape clusters in the vintage, when there is no bunch to eat the firstfruit. Woe is me! my soul (added in some versions), for the kind-hearted person has perished from the earth, and there is no one who does what is right among humanity: all are judged by blood (Micah 7:1), and so on. This is hay and straw, of which the Apostle speaks: Each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire. And the rolling cart, that is what we read about in Isaiah: Moab shall be trampled down as straw is trampled in the dung-pit. And in another place: I will make you like a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff. And after you have broken the mountains and hills, the swift flight shall cease, as Paul says: Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. And in another place: You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth (Gal. 5:7) ? And about himself, fearing, he said: Not that I have now received, or am already perfected; but I pursue, if I may apprehend, in which also I am apprehended by Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12) . He did all these things, lest the flight from the swift be in vain: wherefore when he had now reached the end, and had received the reward of victory, he said securely: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; as to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day; and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming (2 Tim. 4:7, 8) . If we flee with quickness, sin will not be able to apprehend us; but if malice binds our feet, we will speak with the prophet to God: Where shall I go from your spirit, and where shall I flee from your face (Ps. 138:7)? The Apostle speaks about wicked runners: It is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of the one who has mercy of God (Rom. 9:16) . It follows: And the strong will not obtain his strength: not because he is strong, but because he boasts of being strong. Whether one trusts in their own strength and not in God's mercy, according to what is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart' (1 Corinthians 2:19): not that true wisdom can perish, and the understanding of truth be rejected; but that the wisdom of those who consider themselves wise and trust in their own erudition may perish. Likewise, the strong or warrior who does not save his own soul is the one who does not possess the full armor of the Apostle: having a shield, but not faith; girded with a belt, but not in truth; clad in armor, but not in righteousness; wielding a sword, but not for salvation (Ephesians 6). A warrior of this sort does not sanctify battle, nor can he wage war in the name of the Lord, fighting against truth for the sake of lies. Such a warrior cannot say: Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands to fight and my fingers to war. My mercy and my refuge (Ps. CXLIII, 1). The heretics also have archers who, in vain, try to draw the bow, they cannot withstand the arrow of the Lord, as spoken by Isaiah: But I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity' (Isa. XLIX, 2). These are the archers, of whom David also sings: Look, the sinners have bent their bow, they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, to shoot at the upright in heart in the darkness (Ps. X, 2). And the swift (he says) will not be saved by his feet, who runs through the testimonies of the Scriptures because of the sharpness of his wit, and tries to oppress the truth with the eloquence of speakers or with the sophisms of the dialecticians, and is hindered in it and falls, because he trusts not in God but in his own feet. The horse also will not save his own soul, who disregards the saying through the prophet: The horse is a deceitful hope for salvation (Ps. 32:17). And he does not know that it is written: All who mounted horses have slumbered (Ps. 75:7). This one will not save his own soul; but perishing, he will hear: Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God. They are impeded and have fallen; but we have risen and have been raised up (Ps. 19:8-9). A strong man, even with a courageous heart, will flee when naked among the brave. This place can be interpreted in two ways: either he is able to escape because he has stripped himself of the old man and the garments of sins, and he is burdened by no weight, or on the contrary, he is naked and has lost the clothing of Christ, of which it is said in the Apostle: Put on Christ Jesus (Rom. XIII, 14) . And in another place: For if we are clothed, we shall not be found naked (II Cor. V, 3); his strength will be of no use to him; but on the day of battle and struggle, he will flee from those who pursue him, and not being able to resist the enemies without armor, he will show them his back.

Commentary on Amos

He sometimes compares himself with deep condescension, on account of our infirmity, to objects without sense, as he says by the prophet, “Behold, I will shriek over you as a cart creaks when laden with hay.” For since the life of the carnal is hay (as it is written, all flesh is hay), in that the Lord endures the life of the carnal he declares that he carries hay as a cart. And to creak under the weight of the hay is for him to bear with murmuring the burdens and iniquities of sinners. When therefore he applies to himself very unlike resemblances, we must carefully observe that some things of this kind are sometimes spoken of concerning God, on account of the effect of his doings, but sometimes to indicate the substance of his majesty.

Morals on the Book of Job 6:32.7

swift: Jeroboam I. Other kings are described afterwards.