Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
XVIII. Chap. xxiii, ver. 2. “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother, and they committed fornication in Egypt. And their names were Oolla the elder, and Ooliba her younger sister.” Who these are, he explains saying: “Now their names are, Samaria Oolla, and Jerusalem Ooliba.” For Oolla signifies “her tabernacle,” namely that of Samaria, which is in Dan and Bethel, containing the golden calves which she worships for God. Ooliba signifies “my tabernacle in her:” for God had his tabernacle in Jerusalem. By fornication he means the idolatry of both, of which he adds: “Oolla therefore committed fornication against me, and was mad with love of her lovers, the Assyrians:” because Samaria worshipped the gods of the Assyrians. “Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of Assur.” For Samaria was overthrown by Salmanasar the Assyrian, in the sixth year of Ezechias. “Which when her sister Ooliba (Jerusalem) had seen, she was more mad in her lust than she:” because, as follows, she worshipped the gods of the Chaldeans and Egyptians. “Therefore, O Ooliba, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will raise up all thy lovers against thee, the sons of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans: they shall cut off thy nose and thy ears: and what remaineth, they shall cut down with the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy last shall be devoured by fire. Thou shalt drink the cup of thy sister, deep and wide, and thou shalt be filled with sorrow. And thou shalt drink it, and drink it up to the dregs, and shalt devour the fragments thereof. Thou shalt tear thy breasts: thou also shalt bear thy wickedness, and thy fornications:” This cup is of death and destruction, namely the measure of punishments proportioned to the sins of the Jews, which the avenging God mixed and gave them to drink.
XIX. Chap. xxiv, ver. 3. “Son of man, set on a pot, and put water in it. Gather together the pieces thereof into it, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder, choice and full of bones. Take the fattest of the flock, and make a pile of bones under it. The seething thereof is boiled up, and the bones thereof are boiled in the midst of it:” The pot is Jerusalem, in which the flesh, that is the citizens, are to be boiled and consumed by the Chaldeans. Hence he adds in explanation: “Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust is in it, and whose rust is not gone out of it. Woe to the bloody city, for I will make a great bonfire. Heap together the bones, which I will kindle with fire: the flesh shall be consumed, and all the composition shall be boiled, and the bones shall be wasted away.”
XX. Ver. 16 and 21. “Son of man, behold I take from thee the desire of thy eyes with a stroke,” (that is: I will cause thy beloved wife to die of disease), “and thou shalt not lament, nor weep,” that by this thou mayest portend the destruction of the city and the temple, in which there will be so great a slaughter that no one will mourn brother, father or wife. “And my wife died in the evening, and in the morning I did as he had commanded me.” Moreover, explaining this, he adds: “Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your empire, and the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth: and your sons shall fall by the sword. And you shall do as I have done.” that is: You shall not mourn them. “And Ezechiel shall be to you for a sign.”
XXI. Chap. xxviii, ver. 2. “Son of man, say to the prince (king of Tyre): Thou hast said: I am God, and I sit in the chair of God in the heart of the sea: whereas thou art a man, and not God, and hast set thy heart as if it were the heart of God:” Thou hast had so great courage and spirit as if thou wert God. “Therefore thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised, by the hand of strangers,” that is: The uncircumcised, namely the Gentile Chaldeans, shall slay thee likewise uncircumcised. “Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty; thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God: every precious stone was thy covering. Thou a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set thee in the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked in the midst of the stones of fire, until iniquity was found in thee, and thou hast sinned. And I cast thee out from the mountain of God, and destroyed thee, O covering cherub, out of the midst of the stones of fire. All that shall see thee among the nations shall be astonished at thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more:” He compares the king of Tyre, for his wisdom, wealth and glory, to a Cherub, whom for his pride he deprived by the Chaldeans of kingdom and all goods. See what is said on Ezech. xxviii.
XXII. Chap. xxix, ver. 3. “Behold I come against thee, Pharao, king of Egypt, great dragon, that liest in the midst of thy rivers (the streams of the Nile), and sayest: The river is mine, and I made myself. And I will put a bit in thy jaws: and I will draw thee out of the midst of thy rivers; I have given thee to the beasts of the earth, and to the fowls of the air to be devoured:” As in chapter xxviii he foretold destruction to the proud king of Tyre, so here he foretells the same to proud Pharao. He adds the cause: “Because thou hast been a staff of reed to the house of Israel:” For thou didst support their rebellion against the Chaldeans, and therefore like a reed thou wast broken and crushed with them by the Chaldeans.
XXIII. Ver. 18. “Son of man, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon made his army to undergo hard service against Tyre (besieging it thirteen years): every head (of his soldiers carrying stones, wood and earth to fill the sea surrounding Tyre) was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: and there was no reward given him. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will give to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon the land of Egypt: and he shall take the spoils thereof, and it shall be wages for his army, because he hath laboured for me,” to execute my vengeance against Tyre, as if to say: To the Chaldeans for the taking of Tyre I will give the spoils of Egypt, as wages. Hence he adds:
Chap. xxx, ver. 2. “Howl (O Egyptians), woe, woe to the day: for the day is near, the day of the Lord is at hand (on which he will cut you off): a cloudy day, it shall be the time of the nations.”
XXIV. Chap. xxxi, ver. 3. “Son of man, say to Pharao: Behold Assur like a cedar in Libanus, fair of branches, and thick with leaves, and of a lofty stature, and its top was elevated among the thick boughs.” Pharao is called Assur; because in wealth, power and glory he compared himself with Sennacherib and the other monarchs of the Assyrians: hence he is also called a cedar. “The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Because he was lifted up, etc., I have delivered him into the hand of the mightiest of the nations (Nabuchodonosor). And strangers, and the most cruel of the nations shall cut him down. This is Pharao, and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.”
XXV. Chap. xxxii, ver. 2. “Thou art likened to a lion of the nations (O Pharao), and to a dragon that is in the sea: and thou didst push with the horn in thy rivers. I will spread out my net upon thee, and cast thee out upon the land. And I will cover, when thou shalt be extinguished, the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. I will cause all the lights of heaven to mourn over thee.” as if to say: So great shall be the slaughter of thee and thine, O Pharao, that the heavens will seem to men to be darkened and to mourn. It is a hyperbole. Hence of the same he adds:
Ver. 19. “Go down, and sleep with the uncircumcised, with them that go down to the pit. There is Assur, and all his multitude, who once gave terror in the land of the living. There is Elam, there Mosoch, and Thubal. There is Idumea, and her kings. There are all the princes of the north, and all the hunters: who slept uncircumcised with them that were slain by the sword, and bore their confusion with them that go down to the pit.”
XXVI. Chap. xxxvi, ver. 25. “I will pour upon you clean water (in the baptism of Christ), and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments.” See chap. xi, ver. 19.
XXVII. Chap. xxxvii, ver. 1. “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a plain that was full of bones. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live? And I said: O Lord God, thou knowest. And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Behold I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and you shall live.” Ezechiel adds that he prophesied this to them, and that they were presently endowed with skin, flesh and sinews, and with spirit and life. This was a figure of the resurrection; but under it he signifies that the Jews who were in Babylon as if dead, and like dry bones, would return to liberty and their country, and so as it were to life. For this is what he adds in explanation: