7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
Are you not like the children of Ethiopia to me, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Cappadocia, and the Syrians from Cyrene? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth: yet will I not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. LXX: Are you not like the children of Ethiopia to me, O sons of Israel, says the Lord? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord. As for Cyrene, Aquila and the fifth edition have put the Hebrew word itself, Cir (), and the Septuagint the pit, that is, βόθρον, Theodotion the wall, Symmachus Cyrene: whom we also followed in this place. I will conclude the understanding of this whole passage that I have proposed, and of all that is contained in this chapter, with a brief discourse, up to the point where it is written: Those who say, 'Evil will not come to us, and the sword will not come upon us,' so that we may know what is said: I am the Lord God Almighty, who cannot be hidden, who touches the earth and it quakes; who builds my ascension in heaven; who calls forth the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth; whose name is the Lord, who am the creator of all things: I fashioned all peoples from the same clay and generated them by an equal lot. Finally, I have brought together the Ethiopians, Palestinians, Syrians, and Jews, who are distant in location and body, under the law of mortality. I also exchange and move my slaves here and there at my own discretion, and transfer them to all provinces. Do not become proud because I led you out of Egypt and did not allow you, as my chosen people, to serve Pharaoh: I have done the same with the Palestinians, whom the Seventy foreigners transported, who are called Caphthorim in Hebrew, in order to transfer them from Cappadocia and settle them in the regions of Palestine. I also transferred the Syrians, that is, the Aramaeans, from Cyrene. From this, those who have become equal in status will be punished by the judgment of my equal justice, and I will overthrow all impious kingdoms without discrimination of persons. But you, O sons of Israel, of whom I said: My firstborn son is Israel (Exod. IV, 22). And: Out of Egypt I called my son (Hosea XII, 1), I will strike with a rod, and I will visit your sins; but I will not destroy you forever, and I will not take away my mercy from you (Ps. LXXXVIII), and like those shaken and sifted in a sieve, I will cleanse and choose, so that whoever is a stone, and strengthened by repentance, will not fall from my sieve; but whoever falls like dust to the ground, let them be struck by the sword, so that they may die, the sinners of my people, not because they have sinned before, but because they have persevered in sins until death. But everyone in Israel, who sees God with their mind and is led out of Egypt, if they desire the vices of Egypt and the delights of the world, not only return to Egypt, but also to Ethiopia, in which, according to Jeremiah (Chap. 13), they cannot change their skin; they are saved by the coming of Christ, and what is written is fulfilled in him: Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God (Psalm 68:31). And when they worship him, it will be said of them: The Ethiopians will fall before him (Psalm 72:9). Those who have fallen down and carried victims from Ethiopia across the rivers to the Lord, will be able to say: I am dark and beautiful, because the sun has made me pale (Song of Solomon 1:4). For bodies withering in shadows and idleness cannot endure the temptations and heat of the world; but those that are prepared for struggle and contests, having been dried by the sun, overcome the injustices of the world and obtain the blessing of the Holy Spirit, as it says to the just: The sun shall not scorch you by day, nor the moon by night (Psalm 121:6). Therefore, the Ethiopians are turned into the children of God, if they repent, and the children of God are turned into Ethiopians, if they have fallen into the depths of sins. For the Creator God Himself turns the Cappadocians into Palestinians, and those who were engaged in the coldness of faith, and were subjected to the harsh northerly wind, He made to fall, and having set aside their pride, they felt the judgment of the Lord. He also transferred the Syrians, that is, the lofty and sublime ones, who were called Aramaeans, from Cyrene to a weak wall, or that which threatened the most bitter sea, and was near the Syrtes, and was held in a pit next to seventy (others), into a good direction, so that He might make them lofty. For the eyes of the Lord are over all kingdoms of sin, which the devil shows to the Lord (Matthew 4), and about which the Apostle says: Sin does not reign in your mortal body, to obey its desires (Romans 6:12). However, when he visits sinners with his rod and crushes and strikes those who remain in sin, he does not allow those souls who are called the house of Jacob, who supplant sin and overcome in battle, and attack the heel of the bloody brother, to perish forever.
[AD 420] Jerome on Amos 9:7-8