THEOSISJerome of Stridon
See vv. 22 Therefore, O Holla, this is what the Lord God says: I will awaken all your lovers against you, those who have deeply satisfied your soul, and I will gather them to you from every direction: the children of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, the nobles, and the oppressors, along with the princes and the offspring of the Assyrians, the handsome young men, the chiefs and officials, and all the leading rulers. A host of nations will come against you with chariots and wheels; they will arm themselves with armor, shields, and helmets to surround you. I will bring judgment upon them, and they will judge you with their own judgments; my jealousy will turn toward you, and they will act with fierce wrath upon you.
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They will remove your nose and your ears, and the remainder will fall by the sword. Your sons and daughters will be taken away, the rest of you will be consumed by fire; they will strip you of your garments and seize the vessels of your glory. They will put an end to your wickedness and your fornication from the land of Egypt; you shall not raise your eyes against them, nor remember Egypt any longer. LXX: Therefore, Oolibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, those from whom your soul has turned away, and I will bring them upon you from all sides: the children of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, as well as all the offspring of the Assyrians with them, the choice young men, leaders, and dignitaries, all the three hundred and esteemed horsemen. They will come against you from the north, with chariots and wheels, accompanied by a multitude of nations, armed with round and half-round shields, and they will establish a perimeter around you. I will execute judgment in their sight, and they will judge you according to their own judgment; my jealousy will be directed at you, and they will deal with you in fierce fury. They will take away your nose and your ears, and with the sword, they will slay the rest of you. Your sons and daughters will be taken away, and the remainder shall be consumed by fire; they will strip you of your garments and carry away the vessels of your glory. They will destroy your wickedness and your fornication from the land of Egypt; you shall not lift your eyes to them nor remember Egypt any longer. Because you have recalled the flesh of the Egyptians and have mimicked the abominations of an unclean people who worship idols of all kinds; I will bring upon you your lovers, from whose embrace you have turned away, being satiated by their companionship, so that your former strong affection has now turned to the same animosity. The sons of Babylon, I say, and all the Chaldeans, nobles, oppressors, and princes will come upon you; in the Hebrew language, they might suggest names like Phasud and Sce, understood to refer to eastern nations, though these titles do not appear in the book of Kings, in the Chronicles, or in Jeremiah, who documents the captivity of Jerusalem, nor elsewhere in the sacred Scriptures. It's no surprise that the LXX provided these names in Jewish contexts, as Simmachus and Theodotion similarly used them. All the Assyrians, horsemen, handsome young men, leaders, and dignitaries will arrive against you on chariots and horses, equipped with armor, helmets, and shields, to surround you, and I will entrust them with judgment so you may be judged by those whom you have abandoned and whose covenant you have violated; they will judge you with their own judgment, as an unfaithful woman. And I will turn my jealousy upon you, which they will execute against you with fierce wrath. My jealousy is kindled by enmity due to the broken bond of fidelity. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, just as a woman committing adultery and found guilty is disfigured, so that you might cease to be desirable. For just as the beauty of a woman’s face is found in her nose and ears, which may be adorned with jewels, so too shall the dignity of kings and judges, represented by their faces and ears, be destroyed by their sword. They will take your sons and daughters, not mine, for they were born of infidelity; the remainder will be consumed by fire. They shall remove your garments, with which I adorned you, and the vessels of your glory—silver and gold meant for the sacrifices in the temple. It is written, ‘I gave them gold and silver, and they made Baal of them’ (Hos. 2:8). I will accomplish all these things so that when you have lost your beauty and marred your attractive visage, your iniquity and your promiscuity learned and practiced in Egypt may finally cease; that when you have lost your nose and ears, you may no longer dare to look upon the Chaldeans or reveal your ugliness before former lovers, nor remember your fondness for the Egyptians, whose lavish flesh tempted you. All this is spoken using the metaphor of an adulterous woman disfigured by her unfaithfulness, so that she would no longer take pride in her beauty but rather feel shame for the unattractiveness earned through her immorality. Everything expressed in an allegorical sense concerning Jerusalem may also apply to the soul, which, through virtue, has been united with God, but later, through vice, became unfaithful and turned away from Him. Following the revelation of all her wickedness, she was laid bare and marred, exposed to all, that she might ultimately forsake her sin, no longer glorifying her status but, burdened by her guilt and the memory of Egypt, daring not to lift her gaze toward heaven. Thus, her nose is severed, and her ears removed, for she has turned beauty into an offense and listened to the cries of blood. This understanding not only pertains to the senses of smell and hearing but also involves sight, from which Samson and Samuel were deprived through their misdeeds. That they should not traverse the earth with their voices, being stripped of all perception, having lost their lives within themselves. All this shall come to pass so that all things may be purified through fire, enabling the destruction of Egyptian fornication and allowing her to turn her gaze away from evil.