3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
(Vers. 2 seqq.) If they descend to the depths, my hand will bring them up from there. And if they ascend to heaven, I will bring them down from there. And if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search and take them from there. And if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, I will command the serpent to bite them. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, I will command the sword to kill them. I will set my eyes upon them for evil and not for good. And the Lord, the God of hosts, who touches the earth and it withers, and all who dwell in it mourn, and it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the river of Egypt. Seventy: If they are buried in Sheol, from there my hand will pluck them up; and if they ascend to heaven, from there I will bring them down. If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them; and if they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good. And the Lord God Almighty, who touches the earth and shakes it, and all its inhabitants will mourn, and their end will come like a flood, and their downfall like the river of Egypt. He who said before, there will be no escape for them, now cuts off their escape into separate parts, and hyperbolically testifies that even if they do this and that, they will not be able to escape. If they descend to the depths, he says, my hand will bring them out from there: not because anyone is able to be pulled back from the depths before the day of resurrection, but because even those in the depths are under His power. We learn that what was foretold about Dathan and Abiron has come to pass, whom the gaping earth swallowed up while they were still alive (Numbers 16). And if they were to ascend, it is said, even to the heavens, I will bring them down from there; for Enoch and Elijah, taken up with their bodies into heaven (Genesis 5; 2 Kings 4), are governed by the will of God. Consider the different realms: we descend to hell, we ascend to heaven; we are brought forth from hell, we are brought down from heaven. In the former, there is extreme despair; in the latter, there is the greatness of pride. If they should hide in the summit of Carmel, or near the borders of Phoenicia in the northern region, or towards the south due to the vastness of the desert, where Nabal the Carmelite used to live (1 Samuel 25), then, he says, I will search and take them away: and if they attempt to avoid the eyes of God in the depths of the sea (Jonah 1), or as I speak of the prophet, in Tarshish, there I will command the serpent, which here signifies Leviathan or a whale, to come against the enemies through the serpent and the whale. And he will bite them, that is, he will devour them with his jaws. And lest we feel any captivity from the enemies through the things he said above, Scripture opens up what he had previously said in riddles. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them, so that they may not think of the end of their evils as servitude; but let the hostile sword also pierce the captured ones: and those who are able to survive and escape death, may not escape the gaze of God, but he shall set his eyes upon them for evil, and not for good, so that he may always visit them and compel them to penance through torments. And the almighty God declares that He will do these things, at whose touch and command the foundations of the earth are shaken or decay, and all its inhabitants are filled with weeping and mourning. He speaks these words to show the magnitude of His divine power, not that He actually desires to do what He threatens; for His powers do not fulfill His will. But if the earth decays or trembles, even insensible nature perceives its Creator; how much more so does man, a fragile creature whose spiritual treasure is enclosed in earthen and corporeal vessels? And just as the river of Egypt flows into the sea and is sucked up, so too the land of Israel, of which it was said above: Whoever touches the land and decays, shall go into captivity and be devoured by enemies; in a metaphorical sense, what is possessed emerges from what is possessed, as indicated by divine speech. And we have interpreted these things in accordance with the order of the following history, as best we could, although our understanding may have failed in some instances. Furthermore, David explains the entire extent of this place, saying: Lord, you have tested me and you know me (Ps. 139:1). And immediately he adds: Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your face? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me; your right hand will hold me fast (cf. Ps 139:7-10). In Deuteronomy, we read something similar: This commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?' (cf. Deut 30:11-12). Nor is it placed beyond the sea, so that you may say: Who will go across the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it, but the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it (Deuteronomy XXX, 11, 12). For when the soul, released from the bodily bonds, has the freedom to fly wherever it wishes or is compelled to go, due to its subtle substance, will it be led to the underworld (of which it is written: Let sinners be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God (Psalm IX, 18)). And, in hell, who will confess to you? (Psalm 6:6) And, your glory descended into hell. (Psalm 48:18) Certainly, he will be lifted up to heavenly things, where spiritual wickedness is in the heavens, and if he desires to claim the knowledge of true circumcision, for this is interpreted as Carmelus, and with contempt for humility, he will dwell in the mountains, and there he will not be able to escape the searching hand of God. But if, in despair of salvation, he attempts to avoid the eyes of the Lord and reaches the furthest boundaries of false waves, even there the Lord will command the twisted and ancient serpent (Revelation 20), who is the enemy and avenger, and he will bite her. Also, she will be punished by the sword of the Lord for her vices and sins, and He will set His eyes upon her for evil, not for good, so that through torture and punishment she may return to the Lord. And when Almighty God touches their land and shakes it, and causes all earthly things to wither, understanding their crimes, they will turn to mourning, and the Lord Himself will ascend and descend twofold. He will ascend over the saints like a river of consummation, that is, of the earth, in order to consume their earthly works. He will descend upon sinners like the river of Egypt, so that they may be cast into the bitterness of torment by the force of the Lord.
[Daniel 7:2-3] "And during the night I saw in my vision, and behold, the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts were coming up out of the sea, differing from one another." The four winds of heaven I suppose to have been angelic powers to whom the principalities have been committed, in accordance with what we read in Deuteronomy: "When the Most High divided the nations and when He separated the children of Adam, He established the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels. For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the line of His inheritance (Deuteronomy 32:8). But the sea signifies this world and the present age, overwhelmed with salty and bitter waves, in accordance with the Lord's own interpretation of the dragnet cast into the sea (Matthew 13:47-50). Hence also the sovereign of all creatures that inhabit the waters is described as a dragon, and his heads, according to David, are smitten in the sea (Psalm 74:13). And in Amos we read: "If he descends to the very depth of the sea, there will I give him over to the dragon and he shall bite him" (Amos 9:3). But as for the four beasts who came up out of the sea and were differentiated from one another, we may identify them from the angel's discourse. "These four great beasts," he says, "are four kingdoms which shall rise up from the earth." And as for the four winds which strove in the great sea, they are called winds of heaven because each one of the angels does for his realm the duty entrusted to him. This too should be noted, that the fierceness and cruelty of the kingdoms concerned are indicated by the term "beasts."
While the little one is nourished by the example of the one who from greatness descended to humility, the devil has lost what he held: because the proud held only the proud. When such an example of humility was displayed before them, people learned to condemn their own pride and to imitate the humility of God. Thus also the devil, by losing those whom he had in his power, has even himself been humbled; not chastened, but thrown prostrate. “You have humbled the proud like one that is wounded.” You have been humbled and have humbled others. You have been wounded and have wounded others, for your blood as it was shed to blot the handwriting of sins8 could not but wound him. For what was the ground of his pride, except the bond that he held against us? This bond, this handwriting, you have blotted out with your blood. Him therefore you have wounded, from whom you have rescued so many victims. You must understand the devil wounded, not by the piercing of the flesh, which he has not, but by the bruising of his proud heart. “You have scattered your enemies abroad with your mighty arm.”
[AD 420] Jerome on Amos 9:2-5