"And all the people of Ephraim and those who dwell in Samaria will understand in vexation and high hearts." This is the same Ephraim from whom the apostate Jeroboam sprang up and dragged the ten tribes with him into schism and, having drained the golden youths, persuaded the people to depart from the service of God and serve the Egyptian idols. For this reason, "those who dwell in Samaria, in vexation and with high hearts," having come to the consciousness of the truth, received the Word, as the Book of Acts also relates, which the Apostles heard, that Samaria received the Word" (cf. Acts 8:14).

Then the Prophet describes what their vexation and pride were. For, despising the lot of David, because it was convenient to destroy his kingdom, they said in mockery: "The plinths have fallen, but come, let us cut out the stone." Plinths was the name given to the organization of the kingdom of the sons of Jesse, and the firmness of the stones, which were mutually united among themselves, was the name given to one's power and harmony in the affairs of life.

"And let us cut down," it is said, "the blueberries and the cedars, and let us build ourselves a pillar" instead of the temple which Solomon had built for Judah. Similar things were planned by those who, by the construction of a high pillar, intended to make heaven accessible to themselves. And they said: "Come, let us make plinths and bake them with fire" and again: "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a pillar, the top of which shall be even unto heaven" (Gen. 11:3, 4). "Blueberry" is the most abundant tree, but its fruits are completely tasteless, unless someone extracts some juice from them with a careful incision, which has a pleasant effect on the taste. Therefore I take this tree as a symbol of pagan society, growing in number, but as if impoverished in the mind from habit to pagan customs; if anyone is able to make incisions in it with a word, receiving sweetness from this change, it becomes useful. And cedars are sometimes taken as the image of great souls, having impulses worthy of praise, because they are sublimely wise and have a dwelling in heaven, as we know from the Psalms, where David includes cedars among those who praise God and says: "Fruitful trees and all cedars" (Psalm 148:9) and again: "The trees of Poland, the cedars of Lebanon, which Thou hast planted, shall be satisfied" (Psalm 103:103). 16). But we also know that sometimes cedars are called cruel and unyielding morals, "which are levied upon the mind of God" (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:5). For this reason "the Lord draweth forth the cedars of Lebanon" (Psalm 28:5). And those who exalt themselves with falsely named knowledge, and imagine that they have comprehended the mysteries of the most high God, are also called cedars. "Seeing the wicked, exalted and exalted like the cedars of Lebanon." And their extermination is instantaneous. "Thou didst pass by, and behold, thou shalt not be" (Psalm 36:35-36). It was these cedars that were taken for the construction of the pillar, before the coming of the Word, by those who lived in Samaria "in vexation," mocked the worship of God by the Jews, and called everything called by their dogmas fallen plinths.

(11) "And God will destroy those who rise up on Mount Zion," on Him, "and scatter his enemies:" (12) "Syria from the east of the sun, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun, devouring Israel with all their lips."

And so He promises them to destroy and bring down all those who rise up against Mount Zion, and to scatter their impious concord against the truth. These enemies are Syrians and Greeks, some of whom live in the east, and others in the west. They will be scattered because they have "devoured Israel with all their lips." And here the Prophet calls the mouth the catching power of the word, which they fully used to lay a snare in simplicity for believers in God.

"In all of them His wrath is not turned away, but His hand is still exalted." (13) "And the people were not converted, until they were wounded, and did not seek the Lord."

At the same time, since the enemies of God, even those who are being punished, did not come to contrition of heart, then "wrath is not turned away, but the hand," that is, the punitive force, is raised against those who do not repent of the malice and deceit with which they acted. And so, since these people are healed not by words, but by punishment, it is written: "And the people were not converted, until they were wounded." Therefore, punishments are necessary for such people. Therefore let no one trouble to find out the causes of sorrowful phenomena: why droughts, why rains, why thunderclaps, why hail? This is for us, who have an impenitent heart and are not first converted, except when we are "wounded."

(14) "And the Lord will take away the head from Israel, and the error, great and small, in one day."

After the Word sent to them reaches them, according to the word of the Prophet, all their evil dispositions will be thrown into confusion, the princes and their attendants, and those who think highly of themselves in their power, and those who are subordinate, will be taken away. The presidency of the elders and those who judge by partiality will be dishonored. And those who have no degree among the people, but set themselves up and falsely ascribe to themselves the prophetic gift, not receiving it from the Spirit, "teaching the wicked" (cf. Isaiah 9:15), such as there were false prophets under Jeremiah Ananias (cf. Jeremiah 28:5) and under Micah, in whom there was "a deceitful spirit and deceived" Ahab, inciting him to war with the Sirians (cf. 1 Kings. 22:22), and they, constituting, as it were, a "mistake" of the people, will also be taken away.

(16) But even "the blessed people flatter them" and deceive them. (17) "For this reason the Lord will not rejoice over their young men" and for those who are in the bloom of age; And if any man be an orphan among these people, and if any man be a widow, they shall not receive mercy. For that which is weak and helpless is worthy of pity, and that which is strong in malice and wickedness is worthy of abhorrence and hatred. That is why the Prophet adds that "His wrath is not turned away," "but His hand is still exalted," and threatens both those who flatter and those who are deceived among the people, among whom "all iniquity and wickedness speaketh unrighteousness."

But this threat has a certain kind of beneficence, because (18) "it will burn like the fire of iniquity." For the Good Lord, doing good to people, arranges that the substance prepared by iniquity is given over to destruction. "And like a dry cereal," says the Prophet, "it shall be consumed by fire, and it shall burn in the thickets of the oaks." As long as the soul is suppressed by earthly passions, hitherto its passions, struck by carnal wisdom, spread out like a "rope," mutually serving as the beginning of one another, and being born of one another. For just as the "rope" is the most fruitful of all things, and its birth never ceases, but the end of the first birth is always the beginning of the next, so is the nature of sins: one sin follows another. Fornication is born of fornication, the habit of lying becomes the mother of lies, and he who is tempted to steal easily dares to do wrong, because the previous sin becomes a pretext for a new sin. Therefore, if we expose sin by confession, then let us make it a dry cloth, worthy of being "devoured" by the purifying fire. But it flares up "in the thickets of oak forests". Notice what is said about oak groves in the First Book of Samuel. All the people who were in the battle went up to the oak grove and were exhausted, not eating (with the seventy: and the whole land dined). But Absalom also enters the oak grove during the battle (cf. 2 Samuel 18:9). Therefore, if our sin does not become like a "dry reed," it will not be consumed by fire and will not be kindled. And the Prophet calls people pretended to be thickets of oaks, who have a hidden mind, who keep much evil in the secret of their hearts.

Then the Prophet adds that (19) "Because of the fury of the Lord's wrath the whole earth is burned." By which it shows that earthly things are given over to the punitive fire for the benefit of the soul, as the Lord Himself gives us to understand, saying: "Thou hast come to bring fire upon the earth," and would like to see "if it has already been kindled" (cf. Luke 12:49). "And people will be burned with fire." He does not threaten with destruction, but means purification, according to the words of the Apostle: "His work shall be burned up, it shall be cut off; but he himself shall be saved, as by fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15).

Then the Prophet depicts malice in people and rebellion, which has not ceased among them and has reached a complete incurability. For he says: "A man will not have mercy on his brother." (20) But whoever comes to receive any help will "turn away to the right hand," that is, he will become ill-disposed towards him, "as if he were hungry, and he will be taken away from them." For whoever does not do what is right and is worthy of approval will be satisfied with what is unfavorable and unlawful. So, what does it mean to "come down from the Shuiikh"? The prophet interprets. "And he shall not be satisfied," he says, "a man who eats the flesh of his arms."

And this makes us see some kind of brutal state of mind, depicting how brothers, cruelly attacking one another, devour each other. "For Manasseh is Ephraim, and Ephraim is Manasseh." For the Prophet presents them as cruel and likens them to carnivorous beasts, so that they insatiably devour the "flesh of the arm" of another, which is why their end is complete destruction, according to the words of the Apostle: "If ye bite and devour one another, take heed, lest ye be destroyed by one another" (Gal. 5:15). But those who are so hostile to one another will at the same time be unanimous in their evil against their neighbor. For it is said: "Together they shall make war on Judas," that is, those who confess to God and abide in His service, because Judas is interpreted as "confession." But the Prophet, being at odds with himself, expresses some kind of agreement in the struggle with virtue. For example, audacity and cowardice are opposite to each other, one as an excess, the other as a defect; but they equally oppose the courage that forms the middle between them, and besiege it, as it were, on both sides. Therefore it is said that Ephraim and Manasseh devour each other's flesh, but came together "together to fight Judah."