THEOSISJerome of Stridon
Thus declares the Sovereign Lord: Behold, an affliction approaches, the end is at hand, the end is upon us. It has stirred against you; truly, it has arrived. This devastation has descended upon you, O resident of the earth. The Seventy do not have this, but their version includes it as a footnote from Theodotion's translation. Yet we shall adhere to the Hebrew text. Rather than using the term affliction, we interpret according to Symmachus, who rendered κακώσις; in both Hebrew and Greek, it appears as κακία or πονηρία, signifying evil. It is declared that the final hour has come for the transgressors of Israel, ensuring they cannot evade the decrees of God, which they long ago earned.
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Since they had not yet completed the fullness of their sins, the punishment was postponed, in line with the scripture, “The sins of the Amorites shall not be fulfilled” (Genesis 15:16). Consequently, the Lord declares to the Jews, “You too fill the measure of your forefathers” (Matthew 23:32). Thus, tribulation has arrived, anguish has come, and bondage is upon you. Do not think that I merely threaten the future again: I reveal and declare with clarity. Behold, the end is here, the end is here, the end is here. He who once appeared to you as asleep and at rest has swiftly arisen and stands against you. There has come a degradation, which in the Hebrew is represented by the term //sephphira, and which Aquila translated as προσκόπσις, meaning contemplation and foresight—events you have always feared—and which Aquila also conveyed as πλοκή, denoting the weaving together of all miseries. Furthermore, the phrase, O resident of the earth, must be understood in light of John's Revelation, “woe to those who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 8:13). For the righteous person is not an inhabitant of the earth, but a sojourner and pilgrim, as he declares: “I am a stranger and a wanderer, as were all my fathers” (Psalm 38:13). Similarly, Abraham is referred to as a Jew, or περάτης, a wanderer and stranger, journeying from this age to the age to come. We may also interpret this passage spiritually in reference to the Jewish people, upon whom judgment and desolation came from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom they murdered between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35). For as long as they refrained from harming the Son of God, the divine decree against them slumbered and delayed. However, when they killed the heir to ensure their inheritance would perish, that decree awakened against them, unleashing a cascade of calamities because they sought earthly desires instead of heavenly ones.