8 Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
(Ver. 23, 24 onwards) Again, I raised my hand against them in the wilderness, to scatter them among the nations and disperse them in the lands, because they had not performed my judgments, and had rejected my commandments, and had violated my Sabbaths, and their eyes had been after the idols (or thoughts) of their fathers. Therefore, I also gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments in which they would not live, and I defiled them in their offerings (or transgressions), as they offered (or led astray) everything that opens the womb because of their sins (for which the Septuagint translated, to destroy them and what they had overlooked): and they will know that I am the Lord. Where in the Old Testament, against their children, who fell in the wilderness, the Lord lifted up His hand to scatter them among the nations, Scripture does not say; but it is to be believed that this was done in accordance with what is reported here. Or he signifies by this, that after they entered the promised land, they were given over at various times, for many sins, to different nations and kings, and at that time the commandments of the Lord, which were good according to their nature, and the judgments by which believers could live, were made not good for them, since they were in no way able to keep the precepts of the law in captivity, and to do what the divine word commanded. He did not say, 'I gave them evil commandments,' but, 'not good commandments.' For it does not immediately follow that what is not good is evil, as the Apostle teaches, it is good for a man not to touch a woman; but because of incontinence, let each possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor (I Cor. VII). And if he does not do this, it is neither good nor evil. Therefore, God gave them, dispersed among the nations, not good commandments, that is, he allowed them to follow their own thoughts and desires, to do what is not appropriate. And he defiled them in his gifts: just as a Priest separates lepers from the people, and shows that they are defiled; while they offer to idols what they should offer to God. And they pass everything that opens the womb through the fire of Baal, that is, the firstborn; so that after they have deserted God and been handed over to the worship of idols, then they may understand that He is the Lord whom they have provoked to anger by their own fault. Symmachus interpreted this passage more explicitly, treating the future as past. Therefore, I will also give them bad precepts and judgments for which they will not live, and I will defile them because of their gifts, as they consecrate and offer everything that opens the womb, so that I may destroy them, and they will know that I am the Lord. And the meaning is this: because I have seen the sons of the fathers equaling the wickedness of their ancestors and doing the same things for which they offended God, I wanted to divide them into nations and disperse them throughout the whole world, and give them bad precepts and judgments in which they would not live, so that I may defile them with their gifts, for they consecrated everything that opens the womb to idols, and I may destroy them forever, and they will know that I am the Lord. Through which he showed that he had not given them good commandments who dwelt in the wilderness, but to those whom he wanted to scatter among the nations, and to make foreigners in the whole world, he gave them a desire for things that he did not give: so that there they would do good commandments of God, not good because of their own fault, while they exhibited to idols what God had commanded to be exhibited. This can also be said, that before the offense, they received only the Ten Commandments; but after idolatry and blasphemy, they received multiple ceremonies of the law, so that they would offer victims to God rather than to demons, and by comparison with sacrilege, what was not good in itself became lighter, and by no means evil, because it was offered to God, and yet not good, because they offended the author of good.
(Verse 27, 29 onwards) Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them: Thus says the Lord God: Moreover, your fathers have blasphemed against me and have treated me with contempt, even as they spurned me. And I brought them into the land that I had lifted my hand to give them ((Vulgate adds: that land)): they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices and presented there the irritation of their offerings, and they placed there the fragrance of their sweetness, and they poured out their ((Vulgate is silent on this)) libations there. And I said to them, 'What is the high place to which you are going?' And its name was called the High Place until this day. Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: As for your fathers, they have provoked Me to anger by their iniquities, by the fact that they have fallen away from Me. So I brought them into the land that I had lifted My hand in an oath to give them.' They saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices. They also presented there the provocation of their gifts, and they set there their pleasing aroma, and they poured out there their drink offerings. And I said to them: What is abbana, because you enter there? And they called its name abbana until this day. I wanted, he said, to scatter them in the wilderness, and to give them not good precepts, so that they would sacrifice to idols what they should have offered to me, and consecrate all their first-fruits to them by fire, so that I might kill them and destroy them. But when he says, I wanted, he shows that he did not do what he wanted. And that which follows: 'And they shall know that I am the Lord,' is not found in the Septuagint. For it did not seem fitting to them to know after their destruction that he himself is the Lord. But you, son of man, speak again to them, that is, to the elders of the house of Israel, who have come to inquire of you: Your fathers, from whom you have descended, have also blasphemed against me and held me in contempt; after I brought them into the land which I had given them to possess, they turned against me to provoke me. For when they saw every high hill and leafy tree, they would sacrifice on the mountains and in the groves and thickets, and offer victims to the idols, and pour out libations. And when I saw this, I said to them: What is this, Bama? for it is called high: or why do you enter into such a place which you have chosen for yourselves in all the hills, so that even today these places are called Bamoth, and the ancient error retains its original name? Regarding Bama, which we translate as excelsum, there is an error in the Septuagint edition, where it is written as ἀββανὰ, which does not resonate in the Hebrew language. Bama can mean 'in which' if the two syllables are divided into two words, but in the present context, that sense does not fit. However, wherever it is written in the Books of Kings and Chronicles: 'The people still sacrificed and offered incense on the high places,' Bama in the singular and Bamoth in the plural mean 'high places.'
(Verse 35, 36, and following) And I will bring you into a desert of peoples, and there I will judge you face to face. Just as I contended with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, says the Lord. And I will subject you to my scepter, and I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant, and I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked: from their place of residence I will bring them out, and they will not enter the land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. Thus says the Lord: I will do for you who are in Babylon, and now serve idols, what I did for your ancestors in Egypt. I will lead you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will judge you face to face, just as I contended with them in judgment when they came out of Egypt. And after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and I will make a covenant with you and bring you into your land with the bonds of love, so that bound by my love, you will never be able to depart from me. But I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked, who persist in the hardness of their hearts in evil deeds, not for possession, but for rejection. And I will indeed bring them out of the land of their dwelling, so that when they are brought out, they will not enter the land of Israel; but they will perish in various regions. And by the distinction between good and evil, you shall know that I am the Lord, who judges all things. The rest of the discourse hastens, and we briefly go through each point, in order to provide only the meaning to the readers.
(Chapter 23, verses 1 onwards) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. And they played the harlot in Egypt, in their youth they played the harlot. There their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms were broken (or, as it is in the Septuagint, There their breasts fell and there they were deflowered). Their names were Oholah the elder (or, the elder sister), and Oholibah her sister. And I took them (whether they were given to me) and they bore sons and daughters. And their names were Samaria Oolla and Jerusalem Ooliba. Therefore, Oolla prostituted herself with me and she went mad (or went away) to her lovers in Assyria, who approached her, dressed in purple, rulers and officials, all young men, choice horsemen. And she gave her fornications over them, all the elect sons of Assyria, and in all on whom she had been mad upon with her uncleanness (or inventions), she was defiled. Moreover, she did not leave her fornications which she had in Egypt. For they also had slept with her in her youth, and they broke the breasts of her puberty (or they also deflowered her): and they poured their fornication over her. Therefore, I handed her over to the hands of her lovers, to the hands of the sons of Assyria, on whose lust she had gone mad. They uncovered her shame; they took away her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. And she became a byword among women; judgments were executed upon her. The Scripture testifies that the twelve tribes of Israel, which were united in Egypt, later divided into two and ten tribes, called Judah and Israel, as recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles. The tribe of Judah ruled from the line of David, with Rehoboam as the son of Solomon in Jerusalem, where there was a temple and priests, and a large part of the tribe of Levi. But in Samaria, Jeroboam the son of Nabat from the tribe of Ephraim and Joseph ruled over the ten tribes; of which Samaria is now called Oolla, which in our language means tabernacle: but Jerusalem is called Ooliba, which means my tabernacle in it. For indeed, even among the ten tribes, there was a tabernacle not of God, but of idols. For Jeroboam had set up golden calves in Dan and Bethel in order to turn the people away from the worship of God. Let us therefore speak about each. These two women, Samaria and Jerusalem, were daughters of the same mother from the lineage of Israel, and they committed adultery in Egypt during their youth. For they would not have received the Law when they were brought out of Egypt and gathered at Mount Sinai, which prohibited them from worshiping idols, unless they had worshiped Egyptian idols while in Egypt. However, the mother of both could be Chethaea, of whom we read above: Your father was Amorrhaeus, and your mother was Chethaea (Above, XVI, 3). But when it is said: Let each one remove the abominations of Egypt from his sight, it signifies that in Egypt the Israelites worshipped idols and fell there, whether their breasts of virginity were broken or not. And Samaria is said to be greater and older, either because of the multitude of the ten tribes, or because after the death of Moses from the tribe of Ephraim, Joshua the son of Nun led the people: hence we read that Jeroboam, who split them, was from the house of David (3 Kings, XII). And God had them, whether they were made by him, when they groaned from the works of Egypt, serving clay and brick. And afterwards they bore sons and daughters, either in the wilderness or in the promised land. And first Oolla, that is, Samaria, fornicated against God, when she went mad for the Assyrians, who were dressed in her hyacinth garments, not just any people, but leaders and magistrates, not those worn out by age, but all young men, chosen horsemen, from whom she followed idols and from whom she demanded help against the command of God. Those who came and defiled her, did not leave anything that she had done in her youth in Egypt. For even the Egyptians had sexual relations with her in her youth, of whom she worshiped their idols; and there, her virginity was taken and her breasts were broken. And there was such an abundance of fornication, that it is said that they did not fornicate with her, but rather poured out their own fornication upon her. Therefore, she was delivered to her lovers, Phul, Theglathphalassar, and Salmanasar, in whose lust she went mad, and they uncovered her shame, metaphorically, like that of a harlot woman (2 Kings 17 and 18, 1 Chronicles 5). However, the revelation of the city is that it is captured, and they took captive its sons and daughters, and they slaughtered it with the sword, so that it is butchered as an example for all women, and it is celebrated in a negative way by everyone's speech. Those who carried out judgments and vengeance in it, so that they left nothing of salvation in it; but to this day, ten tribes are held captive in the mountains and cities of the Medes, to which they were transferred. We have discussed more fully the allegorical meaning of Joseph, Ephraim, Samaria, Jezreel, and Israel, and how they are contrary to the house of David and Jerusalem, which signifies the Church. The psalm, which is the seventy-seventh, speaks of this: The sons of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle (Psalm 77:9). And again: He rejected the tabernacle of Joseph and chose the tribe of Judah (Ibid., 67). For God has chosen the house of confession, which is the Church, and rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, which signifies increase. They, neglecting the Law of God, added golden calves to their worship, and they are called Oolla, which means tabernacle, not of God, but of error and demons. And the elder and older sister, because of the multitude and captivity by the Assyrians, committed fornication against God, for she abandoned the truth of faith and went mad for the leaders of the heretics, who were clothed in hyacinth, promising her lofty and heavenly things; and the climbers, of whom it is said: These are in chariots, and on horses (Ps. XIX, 8), chosen sons of the Assyrians and leaders and magistrates, who promise themselves knowledge and eloquence. But he did this because he had the same fornications that he had in Egypt, that is, before he believed, and he still lived in the world, he also practiced them in heresy. And she was deflowered (or They were deflowered) by Assyrian men who persist in wickedness, whether as avengers. For our adversary, the devil himself, is an enemy and avenger (I Peter V). They shattered the breasts of Samaria; and they destroyed her virginity that she had in the Church. Therefore, they were delivered to their lovers, according to the Apostle who writes: I have delivered them to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme (I Tim. I, 20). And: I have delivered them to the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved (I Cor. V, 5). They uncovered the shame of miserable Samaria, and they displayed all its turpitude, leading captive the sons and daughters who were born to it, endowed with knowledge and deceived the simple and inexperienced, and killed it with a spiritual sword. They are celebrated in speech throughout the whole world in a negative light, and they become infamous among all the teachings of the world, so that the depravity of that woman may serve as an example for all.
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 20:23-24:26