Thus, the Lord commands and smites the great house with destruction, while the small house faces fractures. Can horses be pursued on the stones, and can they be still before the females? As you have turned justice into fury and the fruits of righteousness into bitterness, you who do not find joy in any good words, who declare, Have we not achieved greatness by our own strength? Behold, I, the Lord of hosts, shall raise up a cruel nation against you, O house of Israel, and shall break you, preventing your entry into Emath or the stream in the West.
You have descended into such madness that in the face of death and impending calamities, you refuse to invoke the name of the Lord. The Lord will command and strike both the greater house and the smaller with calamity. If He orders, how does He strike, and if He strikes, how does He command? Since He commands and sends His servants to strike, He Himself is the one dealing the blow. Although the Father commands and the Son executes, the one who commands also acts, as expressed in the scripture, "He spoke, and they were; He commanded, and they came to be" (Psalm 148:5). For "all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3). Likewise, when it refers to the death of the firstborn in Egypt, the Lord Himself is identified as the slayer (Ex. 12). Here, the Lord issues the command and strikes through His servants—the greater house representing the ten tribes known as Israel faces destruction, while the lesser house, which represents the two tribes governed by the descendants of David, suffers fractures.
Observe the distinction in their treatment. Israel, having committed greater transgressions, suffers complete devastation and is exiled indefinitely. Conversely, Judah, which housed the temple and sinned less, is held captive for seventy years and faces affliction, not destruction, but only fractures. A house that bears cracks can be mended, while devastation requires rebuilding. The comparisons made between the state of both houses and the behavior of horses and buffaloes signify that horses cannot stride over rocky paths, while buffaloes, too strong to bear the yoke, refuse to till the land, wild as they are in their natural state. Yet, while these creatures cannot change their essence, you have altered the nature of God, turning sweetness into bitterness and His truth's fruit into gall. You take pleasure in voids—whether in idols or golden calves, which hold no value according to Esther's proclamation, "Thou shalt not give Thy sceptre to those who are not" (Esther 4:17), or in deceitful nothingness. You mistakenly believe that through your own prowess, you have secured power and authority to subdue your adversaries.
As the greater and lesser houses merit respect but instead face destruction and fractures due to their sins, behold, I will raise a fierce nation, the Assyrians and Chaldeans, against you, capable of crushing you entirely, from the utmost ends of your land to the flow in the wilderness, or the West, as translated in the LXX—specifically from Emath to Rinokorura, between which and Pelusium the Nile's arm flows into the sea. Previously, we identified Emath as Epiphania, taking its name from Antiochus who bore the title Epiphanes. Those interpreting the greater house as the ten tribes cannot justify why the threat applies to them alone if the borders encompass not just ten, but all twelve tribes, including Judah and Benjamin.
Some interpret the larger and smaller houses metaphorically as the Jewish nation and the church composed of Gentiles. The former is deemed great due to its patriarchs, the law, and the prophets, while we are seen as smaller, lacking the covenant and commandments of God, as noted in the Song, "My sister is small and has no suckling" (Song 8:8). Should this greater and lesser house, unified as God’s family, lack adherence to His teaching and commandments, they will inevitably face calamity and fracture.
Thus, whenever God's house, that is, the Church, experiences a downfall due to persecution or is divided by heresies and discord, it signifies divine consequences. To avoid this, we must reflect on the example or comparison given. Horses cannot pursue on stone; the rock is Christ (1 Cor. 10), who preferred His apostles also be termed rocks: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church" (Matt. 16:18). He standing upon these stones cannot be pursued by the adversaries referred to as horses; they shall falter in their paths and stumble at every stone.
Let us transition to another analogy to examine the LXX’s translation. If we were to focus solely on the Hebrew text, it might appear as if we are deceiving the diligent reader, neglecting the common edition entirely. "Or shall be silent," he states, "before the females," likely referring to the horses mentioned earlier that "shall be pursued by horses on rocks." These horses, symbolizing the adversarial forces driven by lust, dare not approach a man of strength empowered by God. However, should they encounter a feminine spirit, entangled in indulgences and leisurely pursuits, they become frantic, unable to contain their desires.
The result is this: "for you have turned judgement into rage." The one who transforms justice into wrath is one who judges in anger, disregarding the Lord’s teachings, such as “Look not upon the face in judgement” (Deut. 16:19) or “Thou shalt not show favoritism to the poor in judgement” (Ex. 23:3), leading to decisions made with preconceived notions instead of truth. They twist the sweetest fruit of truth into bitterness, similar across all virtues, including wisdom, bravery, and temperance, which cannot reside within an angry heart, and even if received, would yield bitterness. Thus Isaiah proclaims: "Woe to those who call sweet bitter and bitter sweet" (Isaiah 5:20). They are admonished for failing to recognize the essence of the situation and for distorting the sweetest fruit of Christ's truth into bitterness.
Anyone who allows familial ties or animosities to guide their judgements distorts the judgement of Christ, which is truth, and transforms its fruit into bitterness. Such individuals fail to rejoice at any good word or find joy “in vain,” as Simmachus renders it, boasting arrogantly, "Have we not, by our own strength, achieved greatness?" In contrast, the righteous will boast in the Lord, asserting, "Through Thee, we shall push our adversaries" (Psalm 43:6), and in another instance, "I shall not trust in my bow, nor shall my sword save me" (ibid. v. 7). In Exodus, we read refers to Moses whose face shone (Ex. 34:29) and declared, "By Thee, I will deliver my enemies with a horn."
Also, we find reference to raising up the horn of God's people (Psalm 148:14) and "lifting up the horn of His Christ" (1 Kings 2:10), as well as reference to the altar's horn and to the clean animals with horns that are offered unto God; yet now is not the time to elaborate. Therefore, in light of such profound sins and excessive pride, speaking wrongfully against God and elevating themselves into heaven (Psalm 73), the Lord God Almighty declares He will raise up a fierce nation who will crush and destroy them, preventing their access to Emath and the stream in the West. Emath signifies 'fortress' or 'wall.' Hence, this merciless nation, tasked with enacting punishment, will bar them from finding refuge in the fortified city—the celestial Jerusalem—so that they cannot enter and find salvation, similar to Genesis where the cherub with a flaming sword safeguarded the way to the tree of life (Gen. 3), preventing an unworthy individual from re-entering paradise.
The subsequent phrases "unto the flood in the West" may relate to the sixty-seventh psalm: "Sing unto the Lord, sing unto His name, prepare the way for Him who ascended into the West. The Lord is His name" (Psalm 67:5). If our wicked deeds are not absolved, Christ will not ascend above us; yet when they are removed, Christ shall guide us, prospering and completing us in goodness, receiving the command in the same psalm: "Sing unto God, sing unto the Lord who has ascended into the heaven of heavens to the east" (Psalm 67:33-34). Thus, in the sacraments, we must first renounce him who resides in the West—our sins—and then, turning towards the East, unite with the Sun of righteousness, pledging our service to Him.
Instead of "the stream in the West," Simmachus translated it as "the valley of the field," Theodotion referred to "the stream in Arabia," and Aquila denoted "the stream that is in the plain." Such terminology illustrates that for those removed from the fortified city, sins cannot perish, and they cannot reach the stream of purity, whether in the field, the plain, or the wilderness, which is identified as the stream of sweetness (volurtatis), as stated in the Psalm: "Out of the stream of Thy sweetness shall they be plowed" (Psalm 35:9).
THEOSIS