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ST. AUGUSTIN'S CITY OF GOD

Book 17

Argument—In this book the history of the city of God is traced during the period of the kings
and prophets from Samuel to David, even to Christ; and the prophecies which are recorded in the
books of Kings, Psalms, and those of Solomon, are interpreted of Christ and the church.
Chapter 1.—Of the Prophetic Age.
By the favor of God we have treated distinctly of His promises made to Abraham, that both the
nation of Israel according to the flesh, and all nations according to faith, should be his seed, and
the City of God, proceeding according to the order of time, will point980 out how they were fulfilled.
Having therefore in the previous book come down to the reign of David, we shall now treat of what
remains, so far as may seem sufficient for the object of this work, beginning at the same reign.
Now, from the time when holy Samuel began to prophesy, and ever onward until the people of
Israel was led captive into Babylonia, and until, according to the prophecy of holy Jeremiah, on
Israel’s return thence after seventy years, the house of God was built anew, this whole period is
the prophetic age. For although both the patriarch Noah himself, in whose days the whole earth
was destroyed by the flood, and others before and after him down to this time when there began to
be kings over the people of God, may not underservedly be styled prophets, on account of certain
979 Infans, from in, not, and fari, to speak.
980 Has pointed.
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things pertaining to the city of God and the kingdom of heaven, which they either predicted or in
any way signified should come to pass, and especially since we read that some of them, as Abraham
and Moses, were expressly so styled, yet those are most and chiefly called the days of the prophets
from the time when Samuel began to prophesy, who at God’s command first anointed Saul to be
king, and, on his rejection, David himself, whom others of his issue should succeed as long as it
was fitting they should do so. If, therefore, I wished to rehearse all that the prophets have predicted
concerning Christ, while the city of God, with its members dying and being born in constant
succession, ran its course through those times, this work would extend beyond all bounds. First,
because the Scripture itself, even when, in treating in order of the kings and of their deeds and the
events of their reigns, it seems to be occupied in narrating as with historical diligence the affairs
transacted, will be found, if the things handled by it are considered with the aid of the Spirit of
God, either more, or certainly not less, intent on foretelling things to come than on relating things
past. And who that thinks even a little about it does not know how laborious and prolix a work it
would be, and how many volumes it would require to search this out by thorough investigation and
demonstrate it by argument? And then, because of that which without dispute pertains to prophecy,
there are so many things concerning Christ and the kingdom of heaven, which is the city of God,
that to explain these a larger discussion would be necessary than the due proportion of this work
admits of. Therefore I shall, if I can, so limit myself, that in carrying through this work, I may,
with God’s help, neither say what is superfluous nor omit what is necessary.
Chapter 2.—At What Time the Promise of God Was Fulfilled Concerning the Land of Canaan,
Which Even Carnal Israel Got in Possession.
In the preceding book we said, that in the promise of God to Abraham two things were promised
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from the beginning, the one, name ly, that his seed should possess the land of Canaan, which was
intimated when it was said, “Go into a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great
nation;”981 but the other far more excellent, concerning not the carnal but the spiritual seed, by
which he is the father, not of the one nation of Israel, but of all nations who follow the footsteps
of his faith, which began to be promised in these words, “And in thee shall all families of the earth
be blessed.”982 And thereafter we showed by yet many other proofs that these two things were
promised. Therefore the seed of Abraham, that is, the people of Israel according to the flesh, already
was in the land of promise; and there, not only by holding and possessing the cities of the enemies,
but also by having kings, had already begun to reign, the promises of God concerning that people
being already in great part fulfilled: not only those that were made to those three fathers, Abraham,
981 Gen. xii. 1, 2.
982 Gen. xii. 3.
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Isaac, and Jacob, and whatever others were made in their times, but those also that were made
through Moses himself, by whom the same people was set free from servitude in Egypt, and by
whom all bygone things were revealed in his times, when he led the people through the wilderness.
But neither by the illustrious leader Jesus the son of Nun, who led that people into the land of
promise, and, after driving out the nations, divided it among the twelve tribes according to God’s
command, and died; nor after him, in the whole time of the judges, was the promise of God
concerning the land of Canaan fulfilled, that it should extend from some river of Egypt even to the
great river Euphrates; nor yet was it still prophesied as to come, but its fulfillment was expected.
And it was fulfilled through David, and Solomon his son, whose kingdom was extended over the
whole promised space; for they subdued all those nations, and made them tributary. And thus,
under those kings, the seed of Abraham was established in the land of promise according to the
flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan, so that nothing yet remained to the complete fulfillment of that
earthly promise of God, except that, so far as pertains to temporal prosperity, the Hebrew nation
should remain in the same land by the succession of posterity in an unshaken state even to the end
of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the Lord its God. But since God knew it would not do
this, He used His temporal punishments also for training His few faithful ones in it, and for giving
needful warning to those who should afterwards be in all nations, in whom the other promise,
revealed in the New Testament, was about to be fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ.
Chapter 3.—Of the Three-Fold Meaning of the Prophecies, Which are to Be Referred Now to the
Earthly, Now to the Heavenly Jerusalem, and Now Again to Both.
Wherefore just as that divine oracle to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the other prophetic
signs or sayings which are given in the earlier sacred writings, so also the other prophecies from
this time of the kings pertain partly to the nation of Abraham’s flesh, and partly to that seed of his
in which all nations are blessed as fellow-heirs of Christ by the New Testament, to the possessing
of eternal life and the kingdom of the heavens. Therefore they pertain partly to the bond maid who
gendereth to bondage, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children; but
partly to the free city of God, that is, the true Jerusalem eternal in the heavens, whose children are
all those that live according to God in the earth: but there are some things among them which are
understood to pertain to both,—to the bond maid properly, to the free woman figuratively.983
Therefore prophetic utterances of three kinds are to be found; forasmuch as there are some
relating to the earthly Jerusalem, some to the heavenly, and some to both. I think it proper to prove
what I say by examples. The prophet Nathan was sent to convict king David of heinous sin, and
predict to him what future evils should be consequent on it. Who can question that this and the
983 Gal. iv. 22–31.
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like pertain to the terrestrial city, whether publicly, that is, for the safety or help of the people, or
privately, when there are given forth for each one’s private good divine utterances whereby
something of the future may be known for the use of temporal life? But where we read, “Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make for the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah,
a new testament: not according to the testament that I settled for their fathers in the day when I
laid hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my
testament, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the testament that I will make for
the house of Israel: after those days, saith the Lord, I will give my laws in their mind, and will
write them upon their hearts, and I will see to them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be
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to me a people;”984—without doubt this is prophesied to the Jerusalem above, whose reward is God
Himself, and whose chief and entire good it is to have Him, and to be His. But this pertains to
both, that the city of God is called Jerusalem, and that it is prophesied the house of God shall be in
it; and this prophecy seems to be fulfilled when king Solomon builds that most noble temple. For
these things both happened in the earthly Jerusalem, as history shows, and were types of the heavenly
Jerusalem. And this kind of prophecy, as it were compacted and commingled of both the others
in the ancient canonical books, containing historical narratives, is of very great significance, and
has exercised and exercises greatly the wits of those who search holy writ. For example, what we
read of historically as predicted and fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, we
must also inquire the allegorical meaning of, as it is to be fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according
to faith. And so much is this the case, that some have thought there is nothing in these books either
foretold and effected, or effected although not foretold, that does not insinuate something else which
is to be referred by figurative signification to the city of God on high, and to her children who are
pilgrims in this life. But if this be so, then the utterances of the prophets, or rather the whole of
those Scriptures that are reckoned under the title of the Old Testament, will be not of three, but of
two different kinds. For there will be nothing there which pertains to the terrestrial Jerusalem only,
if whatever is there said and fulfilled of or concerning her signifies something which also refers by
allegorical prefiguration to the celestial Jerusalem; but there will be only two kinds one that pertains
to the free Jerusalem, the other to both. But just as, I think, they err greatly who are of opinion that
none of the records of affairs in that kind of writings mean anything more than that they so happened,
so I think those very daring who contend that the whole gist of their contents lies in allegorical
significations. Therefore I have said they are threefold, not two-fold. Yet, in holding this opinion,
I do not blame those who may be able to draw out of everything there a spiritual meaning, only
saving, first of all, the historical truth. For the rest, what believer can doubt that those things are
spoken vainly which are such that, whether said to have been done or to be yet to come, they do
not beseem either human or divine affairs? Who would not recall these to spiritual understanding
if he could, or confess that they should be recalled by him who is able?
984 Heb. viii. 8–10.
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Chapter 4.—About the Prefigured Change of the Israelitic Kingdom and Priesthood, and About
the Things Hannah the Mother of Samuel Prophesied, Personating the Church.
Therefore the advance of the city of God, where it reached the times of the kings, yielded a
figure, when, on the rejection of Saul, David first obtained the kingdom on such a footing that
thenceforth his descendants should reign in the earthly Jerusalem in continual succession; for the
course of affairs signified and foretold, what is not to be passed by in silence, concerning the change
of things to come, what belongs to both Testaments, the Old and the New,—where the priesthood
and kingdom are changed by one who is a priest, and at the same time a king, new and everlasting,
even Christ Jesus. For both the substitution in the ministry of God, on Eli’s rejection as priest, of
Samuel, who executed at once the office of priest and judge, and the establishment of David in the
kingdom, when Saul was rejected, typified this of which I speak. And Hannah herself, the mother
of Samuel, who formerly was barren, and afterwards was gladdened with fertility, does not seem
to prophesy anything else, when she exultingly pours forth her thanksgiving to the Lord, on yielding
up to God the same boy she had born and weaned with the same piety with which she had vowed
him. For she says, “My heart is made strong in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God; my
mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; I am made glad in Thy salvation. Because there is none
holy as the Lord; and none is righteous as our God: there is none holy save Thee. Do not glory so
proudly, and do not speak lofty things, neither let vaunting talk come out of your mouth; for a God
of knowledge is the Lord, and a God preparing His curious designs. The bow of the mighty hath
He made weak, and the weak are girded with strength. They that were full of bread are diminished;
and the hungry have passed beyond the earth: for the barren hath born seven; and she that hath
many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh alive: He bringeth down to hell, and
bringeth up again. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich: He bringeth low and lifteth up. He
raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, that He may set him
among the mighty of [His] people, and maketh them inherit the throne of glory; giving the vow to
him that voweth, and He hath blessed the years of the just: for man is not mighty in strength. The
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Lord shall make His adversary weak: the Lord is holy. Let not the prudent glory in his prudence
and let not the mighty glory in his might; and let not the rich glory in his riches: but let him that
glorieth glory in this, to understand and know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in the midst
of the earth. The Lord hath ascended into the heavens, and hath thundered: He shall judge the
ends of the earth, for He is righteous: and He giveth strength to our kings, and shall exalt the horn
of His Christ.”985
Do you say that these are the words of a single weak woman giving thanks for the birth of a
son? Can the mind of men be so much averse to the light of truth as not to perceive that the sayings
this woman pours forth exceed her measure? Moreover, he who is suitably interested in these
985 1 Sam. ii. 1–10.
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things which have already begun to be fulfilled even in this earthly pilgrimage also, does he not
apply his mind, and perceive, and acknowledge, that through this woman—whose very name, which
is Hannah, means “His grace”—the very Christian religion, the very city of God, whose king and
founder is Christ, in fine, the very grace of God, hath thus spoken by the prophetic Spirit, whereby
the proud are cut off so that they fall, and the humble are filled so that they rise, which that hymn
chiefly celebrates? Unless perchance any one will say that this woman prophesied nothing, but
only lauded God with exulting praise on account of the son whom she had obtained in answer to
prayer. What then does she mean when she says, “The bow of the mighty hath He made weak, and
the weak are girded with strength; they that were full of bread are diminished, and the hungry have
gone beyond the earth; for the barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed
feeble?” Had she herself born seven, although she had been barren? She had only one when she
said that; neither did she bear seven afterwards, nor six, with whom Samuel himself might be the
seventh, but three males and two females. And then, when as yet no one was king over that people,
whence, if she did not prophesy, did she say what she puts at the end, “He giveth strength to our
kings, and shall exalt the horn of His Christ?”
Therefore let the Church of Christ, the city of the great King,986 full of grace, prolific of offspring,
let her say what the prophecy uttered about her so long before by the mouth of this pious mother
confesses, “My heart is made strong in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God.” Her heart is
truly made strong, and her horn is truly exalted, because not in herself, but in the Lord her God.
“My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies;” because even in pressing straits the word of God is
not bound, not even in preachers who are bound.987 “I am made glad,” she says, “in Thy salvation.”
This is Christ Jesus Himself, whom old Simeon, as we read in the Gospel, embracing as a little
one, yet recognizing as great, said, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine
eyes have seen Thy salvation.”988 Therefore may the Church say, “I am made glad in Thy salvation.
For there is none holy as the Lord, and none is righteous as our God;” as holy and sanctifying, just
and justifying.989 “There is none holy beside Thee;” because no one becomes so except by reason
of Thee. And then it follows, “Do not glory so proudly, and do not speak lofty things, neither let
vaunting talk come out of your mouth. For a God of knowledge is the Lord.” He knows you even
when no one knows; for “he who thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing deceiveth
himself.”990 These things are said to the adversaries of the city of God who belong to Babylon,
who presume in their own strength, and glory in themselves, not in the Lord; of whom are also the
carnal Israelites, the earth-born inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem, who, as saith the apostle, “being
986 Ps. xlviii. 2.
987 2 Tim. ii. 9; Eph. vi. 20.
988 Luke ii. 25–30.
989 Rom. iii. 26?
990 Gal. vi. 3.
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ignorant of the righteousness of God,”991 that is, which God, who alone is just, and the justifier,
gives to man, “and wishing to establish their own,” that is, which is as it were procured by their
own selves, not bestowed by Him, “are not subject to the righteousness of God,” just because they
are proud, and think they are able to please God with their own, not with that which is of God, who
is the God of knowledge, and therefore also takes the oversight of consciences, there beholding the
thoughts of men that they are vain,992 if they are of men, and are not from Him. “And preparing,”
she says, “His curious designs.” What curious designs do we think these are, save that the proud
must fall, and the humble rise? These curious designs she recounts, saying, “The bow of the mighty
is made weak, and the weak are girded with strength.” The bow is made weak, that is, the intention
of those who think themselves so powerful, that without the gift and help of God they are able by
human sufficiency to fulfill the divine commandments; and those are girded with strength whose
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in ward cry is, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak.”993
“They that were full of bread,” she says, “are diminished, and the hungry have gone beyond
the earth.” Who are to be understood as full of bread except those same who were as if mighty,
that is, the Israelites, to whom were committed the oracles of God?994 But among that people the
children of the bond maid were diminished,—by which word minus, although it is Latin, the idea
is well expressed that from being greater they were made less,—because, even in the very bread,
that is, the divine oracles, which the Israelites alone of all nations have received, they savor earthly
things. But the nations to whom that law was not given, after they have come through the New
Testament to these oracles, by thirsting much have gone beyond the earth, because in them they
have savored not earthly, but heavenly things. And the reason why this is done is as it were sought;
“for the barren,” she says, “hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.”
Here all that had been prophesied hath shone forth to those who understood the number seven,
which signifies the perfection of the universal Church. For which reason also the Apostle John
writes to the seven churches,995 showing in that way that he writes to the totality of the one Church;
and in the Proverbs of Solomon it is said aforetime, prefiguring this, “Wisdom hath builded her
house, she hath strengthened her seven pillars.”996 For the city of God was barren in all nations
before that child arose whom we see.997 We also see that the temporal Jerusalem, who had many
children, is now waxed feeble. Because, whoever in her were sons of the free woman were her
991 Rom. x. 3.
992 Ps. xciv. 11; 1 Cor. iii. 20.
993 Ps. vi. 2.
994 Rom. iii. 2.
995 Rev. i. 4.
996 Prov. ix. 1.
997 By whom we see her made fruitful.
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strength; but now, forasmuch as the letter is there, and not the spirit, having lost her strength, she
is waxed feeble.
“The Lord killeth and maketh alive:” He has killed her who had many children, and made this
barren one alive, so that she has born seven. Although it may be more suitably understood that He
has made those same alive whom He has killed. For she, as it were, repeats that by adding, “He
bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up.” To whom truly the apostle says, “If ye be dead with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”998 Therefore
they are killed by the Lord in a salutary way, so that he adds, “Savor things which are above, not
things on the earth;” so that these are they who, hungering, have passed beyond the earth. “For ye
are dead,” he says: behold how God savingly kills! Then there follows, “And your life is hid with
Christ in God:” behold how God makes the same alive! But does He bring them down to hell and
bring them up again? It is without controversy among believers that we best see both parts of this
work fulfilled in Him, to wit our Head, with whom the apostle has said our life is hid in God. “For
when He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,”999 in that way, certainly, He
has killed Him. And forasmuch as He raised Him up again from the dead, He has made Him alive
again. And since His voice is acknowledged in the prophecy, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell,”1000 He has brought Him down to hell and brought Him up again. By this poverty of His we
are made rich;1001 for “the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich.” But that we may know what this
is, let us hear what follows: “He bringeth low and lifteth up;” and truly He humbles the proud and
exalts the humble. Which we also read elsewhere, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to
the humble.”1002 This is the burden of the entire song of this woman whose name is interpreted
“His grace.”
Farther, what is added, “He raiseth up the poor from the earth,” I understand of none better than
of Him who, as was said a little ago, “was made poor for us, when He was rich, that by His poverty
we might be made rich.” For He raised Him from the earth so quickly that His flesh did not see
corruption. Nor shall I divert from Him what is added, “And raiseth up the poor from the dunghill.”
For indeed he who is the poor man is also the beggar.1003 But by the dunghill from which he is
lifted up we are with the greatest reason to understand the persecuting Jews, of whom the apostle
says, when telling that when he belonged to them he persecuted the Church, “What things were
gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ; and I have counted them not only loss, but even dung,
that I might win Christ.”1004 Therefore that poor one is raised up from the earth above all the rich,
998 Col. iii. 1–3.
999 Rom. viii. 32.
1000 Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 27, 31.
1001 2 Cor. viii. 9.
1002 Jas. iv. 6; 1 Pet. v. 5.
1003 For the poor man is the same as the beggar.
1004 Phil. iii. 7, 8.
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and that beggar is lifted up from that dunghill above all the wealthy, “that he may sit among the
mighty of the people,” to whom He says, “Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones,”1005 “and to make them
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inherit the throne of glory.” For these mighty ones had said, “Lo, we have forsaken all and followed
Thee.” They had most mightily vowed this vow.
But whence do they receive this, except from Him of whom it is here immediately said, “Giving
the vow to him that voweth?” Otherwise they would be of those mighty ones whose bow is
weakened. “Giving,” she saith, “the vow to him that voweth.” For no one could vow anything
acceptable to God, unless he received from Him that which he might vow. There follows, “And
He hath blessed the years of the just,” to wit, that he may live for ever with Him to whom it is said,
“And Thy years shall have no end.” For there the years abide; but here they pass away, yea, they
perish: for before they come they are not, and when they shall have come they shall not be, because
they bring their own end with them. Now of these two, that is, “giving the vow to him that voweth,”
and “He hath blessed the years of the just,” the one is what we do, the other what we receive. But
this other is not received from God, the liberal giver, until He, the helper, Himself has enabled us
for the former; “for man is not mighty in strength.” “The Lord shall make his adversary weak,” to
wit, him who envies the man that vows, and resists him, lest he should fulfill what he has vowed.
Owing to the ambiguity of the Greek, it may also be understood “his own adversary.” For when
God has begun to possess us, immediately he who had been our adversary becomes His, and is
conquered by us; but not by our own strength, “for man is not mighty in strength.” Therefore “the
Lord shall make His own adversary weak, the Lord is holy,” that he may be conquered by the saints,
whom the Lord, the Holy of holies, hath made saints. For this reason, “let not the prudent glory in
his prudence, and let not the mighty glory in his might, and let not the rich glory in his riches; but
let him that glorieth glory in this,—to understand and know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice
in the midst of the earth.” He in no small measure understands and knows the Lord who understands
and knows that even this, that he can understand and know the Lord, is given to him by the Lord.
“For what hast thou,” saith the apostle, “that thou hast not received? But if thou hast received it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?”1006 That is, as if thou hadst of thine own self
whereof thou mightest glory. Now, he does judgment and justice who lives aright. But he lives
aright who yields obedience to God when He commands. “The end of the commandment,” that
is, to which the commandment has reference, “is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience,
and faith unfeigned.” Moreover, this “charity,” as the Apostle John testifies, “is of God.”1007
Therefore to do justice and judgment is of God. But what is “in the midst of the earth?” For ought
those who dwell in the ends of the earth not to do judgment and justice? Who would say so? Why,
then, is it added, “In the midst of the earth?” For if this had not been added, and it had only been
said, “To do judgment and justice,” this commandment would rather have pertained to both kinds
1005 Matt. xix. 27, 28.
1006 1 Cor. iv. 7.
1007 1 John iv. 7.
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of men,—both those dwelling inland and those on the sea-coast. But lest any one should think that,
after the end of the life led in this body, there remains a time for doing judgment and justice which
he has not done while he was in the flesh, and that the divine judgment can thus be escaped, “in
the midst of the earth” appears to me to be said of the time when every one lives in the body; for
in this life every one carries about his own earth, which, on a man’s dying, the common earth takes
back, to be surely returned to him on his rising again. Therefore “in the midst of the earth,” that
is, while our soul is shut up in this earthly body, judgment and justice are to be done, which shall
be profitable for us hereafter, when “every one shall receive according to that he hath done in the
body, whether good or bad.”1008 For when the apostle there says “in the body,” he means in the
time he has lived in the body. Yet if any one blaspheme with malicious mind and impious thought,
without any member of his body being employed in it, he shall not therefore be guiltless because
he has not done it with bodily motion, for he will have done it in that time which he has spent in
the body. In the same way we may suitably understand what we read in the psalm, “But God, our
King before the worlds, hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth;”1009 so that the Lord Jesus
may be understood to be our God who is before the worlds, because by Him the worlds were made,
working our salvation in the midst of the earth, for the Word was made flesh and dwelt in an earthly
body.
Then after Hannah has prophesied in these words, that he who glorieth ought to glory not in
himself at all, but in the Lord, she says, on account of the retribution which is to come on the day
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of judgment, “The Lord hath ascended into the heavens, and hath thundered: He shall judge the
ends of the earth, for He is righteous.” Throughout she holds to the order of the creed of Christians:
For the Lord Christ has ascended into heaven, and is to come thence to judge the quick and dead.1010
For, as saith the apostle, “Who hath ascended but He who hath also descended into the lower parts
of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up above all heavens, that He might
fill all things.”1011 Therefore He hath thundered through His clouds, which He hath filled with His
Holy Spirit when He ascended up. Concerning which the bond maid Jerusalem—that is, the
unfruitful vineyard—is threatened in Isaiah the prophet that they shall rain no showers upon her.
But “He shall judge the ends of the earth” is spoken as if it had been said, “even the extremes of
the earth.” For it does not mean that He shall not judge the other parts of the earth, who, without
doubt, shall judge all men. But it is better to understand by the extremes of the earth the extremes
of man, since those things shall not be judged which, in the middle time, are changed for the better
or the worse, but the ending in which he shall be found who is judged. For which reason it is said,
“He that shall persevere even unto the end, the same shall be saved.”1012 He, therefore, who
1008 2 Cor. v. 10.
1009 Ps. lxxiv. 12.
1010 Acts x. 42.
1011 Eph. iv. 9, 10.
1012 Matt. xxiv. 13.
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perseveringly does judgment and justice in the midst of the earth shall not be condemned when the
extremes of the earth shall be judged. “And giveth,” she saith, “strength to our kings,” that He may
not condemn them in judging. He giveth them strength whereby as kings they rule the flesh, and
conquer the world in Him who hath poured out His blood for them. “And shall exalt the horn of
His Christ.” How shall Christ exalt the horn of His Christ? For He of whom it was said above,
“The Lord hath ascended into the heavens,” meaning the Lord Christ, Himself, as it is said here,
“shall exalt the horn of His Christ.” Who, therefore, is the Christ of His Christ? Does it mean that
He shall exalt the horn of each one of His believing people, as she says in the beginning of this
hymn, “Mine horn is exalted in my God?” For we can rightly call all those christs who are anointed
with His chrism, forasmuch as the whole body with its head is one Christ.1013 These things hath
Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the holy and much-praised man, prophesied, in which, indeed, the
change of the ancient priesthood was then figured and is now fulfilled, since she that had many
children is waxed feeble, that the barren who hath born seven might have the new priesthood in
Christ.
Chapter 5.—Of Those Things Which a Man of God Spake by the Spirit to Eli the Priest, Signifying
that the Priesthood Which Had Been Appointed According to Aaron Was to Be Taken Away.
But this is said more plainly by a man of God sent to Eli the priest himself, whose name indeed
is not mentioned, but whose office and ministry show him to have been indubitably a prophet. For
it is thus written: “And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I plainly
revealed myself unto thy father’s house, when they were in the land of Egypt slaves in Pharaoh’s
house; and I chose thy father’s house out of all the sceptres of Israel to fill the office of priest for
me, to go up to my altar, to burn incense and wear the ephod; and I gave thy father’s house for food
all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel. Wherefore then hast thou looked at mine
incense and at mine offerings with an impudent eye, and hast glorified thy sons above me, to bless
the first-fruits of every sacrifice in Israel before me? Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
I said thy house and thy father’s house should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith,
Be it far from me; for them that honor me will I honor, and he that despiseth me shall be despised.
Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thy seed, and the seed of thy father’s house, and thou
shalt never have an old man in my house. And I will cut off the man of thine from mine altar, so
that his eyes shall be consumed, and his heart shall melt away; and every one of thy house that is
left shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon these
thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them. And I will raise me up
a faithful priest, that shall do according to all that is in mine heart and in my soul; and I will build
1013 1 Cor. xii. 12.
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him a sure house, and he shall walk before my Christ for ever. And it shall come to pass that he
who is left in thine house shall come to worship him with a piece of money, saying, Put me into
one part of thy priesthood, that I may eat bread.”1014
We cannot say that this prophecy, in which the change of the ancient priesthood is foretold with
so great plainness, was fulfilled in Samuel; for although Samuel was not of another tribe than that
which had been appointed by God to serve at the altar, yet he was not of the sons of Aaron, whose
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offspring was set apart that the priests might be taken out of it. And thus by that transaction also
the same change which should come to pass through Christ Jesus is shadowed forth, and the prophecy
itself in deed, not in word, belonged to the Old Testament properly, but figuratively to the New,
signifying by the fact just what was said by the word to Eli the priest through the prophet. For
there were afterwards priests of Aaron’s race, such as Zadok and Abiathar during David’s reign,
and others in succession, before the time came when those things which were predicted so long
before about the changing of the priesthood behoved to be fulfilled by Christ. But who that now
views these things with a believing eye does not see that they are fulfilled? Since, indeed, no
tabernacle, no temple, no altar, no sacrifice, and therefore no priest either, has remained to the Jews,
to whom it was commanded in the law of God that he should be ordained of the seed of Aaron;
which is also mentioned here by the prophet, when he says, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I
said thy house and thy father’s house shall walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, That
be far from me; for them that honor me will I honor, and he that despiseth me shall be despised.”
For that in naming his father’s house he does not mean that of his immediate father, but that of
Aaron, who first was appointed priest, to be succeeded by others descended from him, is shown
by the preceding words, when he says, “I was revealed unto thy father’s house, when they were in
the land of Egypt slaves in Pharaoh’s house; and I chose thy father’s house out of all the sceptres
of Israel to fill the office of priest for me.” Which of the fathers in that Egyptian slavery, but Aaron,
was his father, who, when they were set free, was chosen to the priesthood? It was of his lineage,
therefore, he has said in this passage it should come to pass that they should no longer be priests;
which already we see fulfilled. If faith be watchful, the things are before us: they are discerned,
they are grasped, and are forced on the eyes of the unwilling, so that they are seen: “Behold the
days come,” he says, “that I will cut off thy seed, and the seed of thy father’s house, and thou shall
never have an old man in mine house. And I will cut off the man of thine from mine altar, so that
his eyes shall be consumed and his heart shall melt away.” Behold the days which were foretold
have already come. There is no priest after the order of Aaron; and whoever is a man of his lineage,
when he sees the sacrifice of the Christians prevailing over the whole world, but that great honor
taken away from himself, his eyes fail and his soul melts away consumed with grief.
But what follows belongs properly to the house of Eli, to whom these things were said: “And
every one of thine house that is left shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall be a sign unto
thee that shall come upon these thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both
1014 1 Sam. ii. 27–36.
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of them.” This, therefore, is made a sign of the change of the priesthood from this man’s house,
by which it is signified that the priesthood of Aaron’s house is to be changed. For the death of this
man’s sons signified the death not of the men, but of the priesthood itself of the sons of Aaron.
But what follows pertains to that Priest whom Samuel typified by succeeding this one. Therefore
the things which follow are said of Christ Jesus, the true Priest of the New Testament: “And I will
raise me up a faithful Priest that shall do according to all that is in mine heart and in my soul; and
I will build Him a sure house.” The same is the eternal Jerusalem above. “And He shall walk,”
saith He, “before my Christ always.” “He shall walk” means “he shall be conversant with,” just
as He had said before of Aaron’s house, “I said that thine house and thy father’s house shall walk
before me for ever.” But what He says, “He shall walk before my Christ,” is to be understood
entirely of the house itself, not of the priest, who is Christ Himself, the Mediator and Saviour. His
house, therefore, shall walk before Him. “Shall walk” may also be understood to mean from death
to life, all the time this mortality passes through, even to the end of this world. But where God
says, “Who will do all that is in mine heart and in my soul,” we must not think that God has a soul,
for He is the Author of souls; but this is said of God tropically, not properly, just as He is said to
have hands and feet, and other corporal members. And, lest it should be supposed from such
language that man in the form of this flesh is made in the image of God, wings also are ascribed
to Him, which man has not at all; and it is said to God, “Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings,”1015
that men may understand that such things are said of that ineffable nature not in proper but in
figurative words.
But what is added, “And it shall come to pass that he who is left in thine house shall come to
worship him,” is not said properly of the house of this Eli, but of that Aaron, the men of which
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remained even to the advent of Jesus Christ, of which race there are not wanting men even to this
present. For of that house of Eli it had already been said above, “And every one of thine house
that is left shall fall by the sword of men.” How, therefore, could it be truly said here, “And it shall
come to pass that every one that is left shall come to worship him,” if that is true, that no one shall
escape the avenging sword, unless he would have it understood of those who belong to the race of
that whole priesthood after the order of Aaron? Therefore, if it is of these the predestinated remnant,
about whom another prophet has said, “The remnant shall be saved;”1016 whence the apostle also
says, “Even so then at this time also the remnant according to the election of grace is saved;”1017
since it is easily understood to be of such a remnant that it is said, “He that is left in thine house,”
assuredly he believes in Christ; just as in the time of the apostle very many of that nation believed;
nor are there now wanting those, although very few, who yet believe, and in them is fulfilled what
this man of God has here immediately added, “He shall come to worship him with a piece of
money;” to worship whom, if not that Chief Priest, who is also God? For in that priesthood after
1015 Ps. xvii. 8.
1016 Isa. x. 21.
1017 Rom. xi. 5.
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the order of Aaron men did not come to the temple or altar of God for the purpose of worshipping
the priest. But what is that he says, “With a piece of money,” if not the short word of faith, about
which the apostle quotes the saying, “A consummating and shortening word will the Lord make
upon the earth?”1018 But that money is put for the word the psalm is a witness, where it is sung,
“The words of the Lord are pure words, money tried with the fire.”1019
What then does he say who comes to worship the priest of God, even the Priest who is God?
“Put me into one part of Thy priesthood, to eat bread.” I do not wish to be set in the honor of my
fathers, which is none; put me in a part of Thy priesthood. For “I have chosen to be mean in Thine
house;”1020 I desire to be a member, no matter what, or how small, of Thy priesthood. By the
priesthood he here means the people itself, of which He is the Priest who is the Mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus.1021 This people the Apostle Peter calls “a holy people, a royal
priesthood.”1022 But some have translated, “Of Thy sacrifice,” not “Of Thy priesthood,” which no
less signifies the same Christian people. Whence the Apostle Paul says, “We being many are one
bread, one body.”1023 [And again he says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.”1024] What,
therefore, he has added, to “eat bread,” also elegantly expresses the very kind of sacrifice of which
the Priest Himself says, “The bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”1025 The
same is the sacrifice not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedec:1026 let him
that readeth understand.1027 Therefore this short and salutarily humble confession, in which it is
said, “Put me in a part of Thy priesthood, to eat bread,” is itself the piece of money, for it is both
brief, and it is the Word of God who dwells in the heart of one who believes. For because He had
said above, that He had given for food to Aaron’s house the sacrificial victims of the Old Testament,
where He says, “I have given thy father’s house for food all things which are offered by fire of the
children of Israel,” which indeed were the sacrifices of the Jews; therefore here He has said, “To
eat bread,” which is in the New Testament the sacrifice of the Christians.
1018 Isa. xxxviii. 22; Rom. ix. 28.
1019 Ps. xii. 6.
1020 Ps. lxxxiv. 10.
1021 1 Tim. ii. 5.
1022 1 Pet. ii. 9.
1023 1 Cor. x. 17.
1024 Rom. xii. 1.
1025 John vi. 51.
1026 Heb. vii. 11, 27.
1027 Matt. xxiv. 15.
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Chapter 6.—Of the Jewish Priesthood and Kingdom, Which, Although Promised to Be Established
for Ever, Did Not Continue; So that Other Things are to Be Understood to Which Eternity is
Assured.
While, therefore, these things now shine forth as clearly as they were loftily foretold, still some
one may not vainly be moved to ask, How can we be confident that all things are to come to pass
which are predicted in these books as about to come, if this very thing which is there divinely
spoken, “Thine house and thy father’s house shall walk before me for ever,” could not have effect?
For we see that priesthood has been changed; and there can be no hope that what was promised to
that house may some time be fulfilled, because that which succeeds on its being rejected and changed
is rather predicted as eternal. He who says this does not yet understand, or does not recollect, that
this very priesthood after the order of Aaron was appointed as the shadow of a future eternal
priesthood; and therefore, when eternity is promised to it, it is not promised to the mere shadow
and figure, but to what is shadowed forth and prefigured by it. But lest it should be thought the
shadow itself was to remain, therefore its mutation also behoved to be foretold.
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In this way, too, the kingdom of Saul himself, who certainly was reprobated and rejected, was
the shadow of a kingdom yet to come which should remain to eternity. For, indeed, the oil with
which he was anointed, and from that chrism he is called Christ, is to be taken in a mystical sense,
and is to be understood as a great mystery; which David himself venerated so much in him, that he
trembled with smitten heart when, being hid in a dark cave, which Saul also entered when pressed
by the necessity of nature, he had come secretly behind him and cut off a small piece of his robe,
that he might be able to prove how he had spared him when he could have killed him, and might
thus remove from his mind the suspicion through which he had vehemently persecuted the holy
David, thinking him his enemy. Therefore he was much afraid lest he should be accused of violating
so great a mystery in Saul, because he had thus meddled even his clothes. For thus it is written:
“And David’s heart smote him because he had taken away the skirt of his cloak.”1028 But to the
men with him, who advised him to destroy Saul thus delivered up into his hands, he saith, “The
Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s christ, to lay my hand upon him,
because he is the Lord’s christ.” Therefore he showed so great reverence to this shadow of what
was to come, not for its own sake, but for the sake of what it prefigured. Whence also that which
Samuel says to Saul, “Since thou hast not kept my commandment which the Lord commanded
thee, whereas now the Lord would have prepared thy kingdom over Israel for ever, yet now thy
kingdom shall not continue for thee; and the Lord will seek Him a man after His own heart, and
the Lord will command him to be prince over His people, because thou hast not kept that which
the Lord commanded thee,”1029 is not to be taken as if God had settled that Saul himself should
1028 1 Sam. xxiv. 5, 6.
1029 1 Sam. xiii. 13, 14.
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reign for ever, and afterwards, on his sinning, would not keep this promise; nor was He ignorant
that he would sin, but He had established his kingdom that it might be a figure of the eternal
kingdom. Therefore he added, “Yet now thy kingdom shall not continue for thee.” Therefore what
it signified has stood and shall stand; but it shall not stand for this man, because he himself was
not to reign for ever, nor his offspring; so that at least that word “for ever” might seem to be fulfilled
through his posterity one to another. “And the Lord,” he saith, “will seek Him a man,” meaning
either David or the Mediator of the New Testament,1030 who was figured in the chrism with which
David also and his offspring was anointed. But it is not as if He knew not where he was that God
thus seeks Him a man, but, speaking through a man, He speaks as a man, and in this sense seeks
us. For not only to God the Father, but also to His Only-begotten, who came to seek what was
lost,1031 we had been known already even so far as to be chosen in Him before the foundation of
the world.1032 “He will seek Him” therefore means, He will have His own (just as if He had said,
Whom He already has known to be His own He will show to others to be His friend). Whence in
Latin this word (quærit) receives a preposition and becomes acquirit (acquires), the meaning of
which is plain enough; although even without the addition of the preposition quærere is understood
as acquirere, whence gains are called quæstus.
Chapter 7.—Of the Disruption of the Kingdom of Israel, by Which the Perpetual Division of the
Spiritual from the Carnal Israel Was Prefigured.
Again Saul sinned through disobedience, and again Samuel says to him in the word of the Lord,
“Because thou hast despised the word of the Lord, the Lord hath despised thee, that thou mayest
not be king over Israel.”1033 And again for the same sin, when Saul confessed it, and prayed for
pardon, and besought Samuel to return with him to appease the Lord, he said, “I will not return
with thee: for thou hast despised the word of the Lord, and the Lord will despise thee that thou
mayest not be king over Israel. And Samuel turned his face to go away, and Saul laid hold upon
the skirt of his mantle, and rent it. And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom
from Israel out of thine hand this day, and will give it to thy neighbor, who is good above thee, and
will divide Israel in twain. And He will not be changed, neither will He repent: for He is not as a
man, that He should repent; who threatens and does not persist.”1034 He to whom it is said, “The
Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not be king over Israel,” and “The Lord hath rent the
1030 Heb. ix. 15.
1031 Luke xix. 10.
1032 Eph. i. 4.
1033 1 Sam. xv. 23.
1034 1 Sam. xv. 26–29.
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kingdom from Israel out of thine hand this day,” reigned forty years over Israel,—that is, just as
long a time as David himself,—yet heard this in the first period of his reign, that we may understand
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it was said because none of his race was to reign, and that we may look to the race of David, whence
also is sprung, according to the flesh,1035 the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.1036
But the Scripture has not what is read in most Latin copies, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom
of Israel out of thine hand this day,” but just as we have set it down it is found in the Greek copies,
“The Lord hath rent the kingdom from Israel out of thine hand;” that the words “out of thine hand”
may be understood to mean “from Israel.” Therefore this man figuratively represented the people
of Israel, which was to lose the kingdom, Christ Jesus our Lord being about to reign, not carnally,
but spiritually. And when it is said of Him, “And will give it to thy neighbor,” that is to be referred
to the fleshly kinship, for Christ, according to the flesh, was of Israel, whence also Saul sprang.
But what is added, “Good above thee,” may indeed be understood, “Better than thee,” and indeed
some have thus translated it; but it is better taken thus, “Good above thee,” as meaning that because
He is good, therefore He must be above thee, according to that other prophetic saying, “Till I put
all Thine enemies under Thy feet.”1037 And among them is Israel, from whom, as His persecutor,
Christ took away the kingdom; although the Israel in whom there was no guile may have been there
too, a sort of grain, as it were, of that chaff. For certainly thence came the apostles, thence so many
martyrs, of whom Stephen is the first, thence so many churches, which the Apostle Paul names,
magnifying God in their conversion.
Of which thing I do not doubt what follows is to be understood, “And will divide Israel in
twain,” to wit, into Israel pertaining to the bond woman, and Israel pertaining to the free. For these
two kinds were at first together, as Abraham still clave to the bond woman, until the barren, made
fruitful by the grace of God, cried, “Cast out the bond woman and her son.”1038 We know, indeed,
that on account of the sin of Solomon, in the reign of his son Rehoboam, Israel was divided in two,
and continued so, the separate parts having their own kings, until that whole nation was overthrown
with a great destruction, and carried away by the Chaldeans. But what was this to Saul, when, if
any such thing was threatened, it would be threatened against David himself, whose son Solomon
was? Finally, the Hebrew nation is not now divided internally, but is dispersed through the earth
indiscriminately, in the fellowship of the same error. But that division with which God threatened
the kingdom and people in the person of Saul, who represented them, is shown to be eternal and
unchangeable by this which is added, “And He will not be changed, neither will He repent: for He
is not as a man, that He should repent; who threatens and does not persist,”—that is, a man threatens
and does not persist, but not God, who does not repent like man. For when we read that He repents,
1035 Rom. i. 3.
1036 1 Tim. ii. 5.
1037 Ps. cx. 1.
1038 Gen. xxi. 10.
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a change of circumstance is meant, flowing from the divine immutable foreknowledge. Therefore,
when God is said not to repent, it is to be understood that He does not change.
We see that this sentence concerning this division of the people of Israel, divinely uttered in
these words, has been altogether irremediable and quite perpetual. For whoever have turned, or
are turning, or shall turn thence to Christ, it has been according to the foreknowledge of God, not
according to the one and the same nature of the human race. Certainly none of the Israelites, who,
cleaving to Christ, have continued in Him, shall ever be among those Israelites who persist in being
His enemies even to the end of this life, but shall for ever remain in the separation which is here
foretold. For the Old Testament, from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage,1039 profiteth
nothing, unless because it bears witness to the New Testament. Otherwise, however long Moses
is read, the veil is put over their heart; but when any one shall turn thence to Christ, the veil shall
be taken away.1040 For the very desire of those who turn is changed from the old to the new, so that
each no longer desires to obtain carnal but spiritual felicity. Wherefore that great prophet Samuel
himself, before he had anointed Saul, when he had cried to the Lord for Israel, and He had heard
him, and when he had offered a whole burnt-offering, as the aliens were coming to battle against
the people of God, and the Lord thundered above them and they were confused, and fell before
Israel and were overcome; [then] he took one stone and set it up between the old and new Massephat
[Mizpeh], and called its name Ebenezer, which means “the stone of the helper,” and said, “Hitherto
hath the Lord helped us.”1041 Massephat is interpreted “desire.” That stone of the helper is the
mediation of the Saviour, by which we go from the old Massephat to the new,—that is, from the
desire with which carnal happiness was expected in the carnal kingdom to the desire with which
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the truest spiritual happiness is expected in the kingdom of heaven; and since nothing is better than
that, the Lord helpeth us hitherto.
Chapter 8.—Of the Promises Made to David in His Son, Which are in No Wise Fulfilled in Solomon,
But Most Fully in Christ.
And now I see I must show what, pertaining to the matter I treat of, God promised to David
himself, who succeeded Saul in the kingdom, whose change prefigured that final change on account
of which all things were divinely spoken, all things were committed to writing. When many things
had gone prosperously with king David, he thought to make a house for God, even that temple of
most excellent renown which was afterwards built by king Solomon his son. While he was thinking
of this, the word of the Lord came to Nathan the prophet, which he brought to the king, in which,
1039 Gal. iv. 25.
1040 2 Cor. iii. 15, 16.
1041 1 Sam. vii. 9–12.
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after God had said that a house should not be built unto Him by David himself, and that in all that
long time He had never commanded any of His people to build Him a house of cedar, he says, “And
now thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith God Almighty, I took thee from the
sheep-cote that thou mightest be for a ruler over my people in Israel: and I was with thee
whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thy face, and have made
thee a name, according to the name of the great ones who are over the earth. And I will appoint a
place for my people Israel, and will plant him, and he shall dwell apart, and shall be troubled no
more; and the son of wickedness shall not humble him any more, as from the beginning, from the
days when I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give thee rest from all thine enemies,
and the Lord will tell [hath told] thee, because thou shall build an house for Him. And it shall come
to pass when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shall sleep with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed
after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will prepare his kingdom. He shall build
me an house for my name; and I will order his throne even to eternity. I will be his Father, and he
shall be my son. And if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the
stripes of the sons of men: but my mercy I will not take away from him, as I took it away from
those whom I put away from before my face. And his house shall be faithful, and his kingdom
even for evermore before me, and his throne shall be set up even for evermore.”1042
He who thinks this grand promise was fulfilled in Solomon greatly errs; for he attends to the
saying, “He shall build me an house,” but he does not attend to the saying, “His house shall be
faithful, and his kingdom for evermore before me.” Let him therefore attend and behold the house
of Solomon full of strange women worshipping false gods, and the king himself, aforetime wise,
seduced by them, and cast down into the same idolatry: and let him not dare to think that God
either promised this falsely, or was unable to foreknow that Solomon and his house would become
what they did. But we ought not to be in doubt here, or to see the fulfillment of these things save
in Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh,1043 lest we should
vainly and uselessly look for some other here, like the carnal Jews. For even they understand this
much, that the son whom they read of in that place as promised to David was not Solomon; so that,
with wonderful blindness to Him who was promised and is now declared with so great manifestation,
they say they hope for another. Indeed, even in Solomon there appeared some image of the future
event, in that he built the temple, and had peace according to his name (for Solomon means
“pacific”), and in the beginning of his reign was wonderfully praiseworthy; but while, as a shadow
of Him that should come, he foreshowed Christ our Lord, he did not also in his own person resemble
Him. Whence some things concerning him are so written as if they were prophesied of himself,
while the Holy Scripture, prophesying even by events, somehow delineates in him the figure of
things to come. For, besides the books of divine history, in which his reign is narrated, the 72d
Psalm also is inscribed in the title with his name, in which so many things are said which cannot
1042 2 Sam. vii. 8–16.
1043 Rom. i. 3.
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at all apply to him, but which apply to the Lord Christ with such evident fitness as makes it quite
apparent that in the one the figure is in some way shadowed forth, but in the other the truth itself
is presented. For it is known within what bounds the kingdom of Solomon was enclosed; and yet
in that psalm, not to speak of other things, we read, “He shall have dominion from sea even to sea,
and from the river to the ends of the earth,”1044 which we see fulfilled in Christ. Truly he took the
beginning of His reigning from the river where John baptized; for, when pointed out by him, He
began to be acknowledged by the disciples, who called Him not only Master, but also Lord.
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Nor was it for any other reason that, while his father David was still living, Solomon began to
reign, which happened to none other of their kings, except that from this also it might be clearly
apparent that it was not himself this prophecy spoken to his father signified beforehand, saying,
“And it shall come to pass when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shall sleep with thy fathers, that I
will raise up thy seed which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will prepare His kingdom.”
How, therefore, shall it be thought on account of what follows, “He shall build me an house,” that
this Solomon is prophesied, and not rather be understood on account of what precedes, “When thy
days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee,” that
another pacific One is promised, who is foretold as about to be raised up, not before David’s death,
as he was, but after it? For however long the interval of time might be before Jesus Christ came,
beyond doubt it was after the death of king David, to whom He was so promised, that He behoved
to come, who should build an house of God, not of wood and stone, but of men, such as we rejoice
He does build. For to this house, that is, to believers, the apostle saith, “The temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are.”1045
Chapter 9.—How Like the Prophecy About Christ in the 89th Psalm is to the Things Promised in
Nathan’s Prophecy in the Books of Samuel.
Wherefore also in the 89th Psalm, of which the title is, “An instruction for himself by Ethan
the Israelite,” mention is made of the promises God made to king David, and some things are there
added similar to those found in the Book of Samuel, such as this, “I have sworn to David my servant
that I will prepare his seed for ever.”1046 And again, “Then thou spakest in vision to thy sons, and
saidst, I have laid help upon the mighty One, and have exalted the chosen One out of my people.
I have found David my servant, and with my holy oil I have anointed him. For mine hand shall
help him, and mine arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not prevail against him, and the
son of iniquity shall harm him no more. And I will beat down his foes from before his face, and
1044 Ps. lxxii. 8.
1045 1 Cor. iii. 17.
1046 Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4.
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those that hate him will I put to flight. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my
name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the undertaker of my salvation. Also I will
make him my first-born, high among the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for
evermore, and my covenant shall be faithful (sure) with him. His seed also will I set for ever and
ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.”1047 Which words, when rightly understood, are all
understood to be about the Lord Jesus Christ, under the name of David, on account of the form of
a servant, which the same Mediator assumed1048 from the virgin of the seed of David.1049 For
immediately something is said about the sins of his children, such as is set down in the Book of
Samuel, and is more readily taken as if of Solomon. For there, that is, in the Book of Samuel, he
says, “And if he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the
sons of men; but my mercy will I not take away from him,”1050 meaning by stripes the strokes of
correction. Hence that saying, “Touch ye not my christs.”1051 For what else is that than, Do not
harm them? But in the psalm, when speaking as if of David, He says something of the same kind
there too. “If his children,” saith He, “forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they
profane my righteousnesses, and keep not my commandments; I will visit their iniquities with the
rod, and their faults with stripes: but my mercy I will not make void from him.”1052 He did not say
“from them,” although He spoke of his children, not of himself; but he said “from him,” which
means the same thing if rightly understood. For of Christ Himself, who is the head of the Church,
there could not be found any sins which required to be divinely restrained by human correction,
mercy being still continued; but they are found in His body and members, which is His people.
Therefore in the Book of Samuel it is said, “iniquity of Him,” but in the psalm, “of His children,”
that we may understand that what is said of His body is in some way said of Himself. Wherefore
also, when Saul persecuted His body, that is, His believing people, He Himself saith from heaven,
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”1053 Then in the following words of the psalm He says,
“Neither will I hurt in my truth, nor profane my covenant, and the things that proceed from my lips
I will not disallow. Once have I sworn by my holiness, if I lie unto David,”1054—that is, I will in
1047 Ps. lxxxix. 19–29.
1048 Phil. ii. 7.
1049 Matt. i. 1, 18; Luke i. 27.
1050 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15.
1051 Ps. cv. 15.
1052 Ps. lxxxix. 30–33.
1053 Acts ix. 4.
1054 Ps. lxxxix. 34, 35.
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no wise lie unto David; for Scripture is wont to speak thus. But what that is in which He will not
lie, He adds, saying, “His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me, and as
the moon perfected for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven.”1055
Chapter 10.—How Different the Acts in the Kingdom of the Earthly Jerusalem are from Those
Which God Had Promised, So that the Truth of the Promise Should Be Understood to Pertain
to the Glory of the Other King and Kingdom.
That it might not be supposed that a promise so strongly expressed and confirmed was fulfilled
in Solomon, as if he hoped for, yet did not find it, he says, “But Thou hast cast off, and hast brought
to nothing, O Lord.”1056 This truly was done concerning the kingdom of Solomon among his
posterity, even to the overthrow of the earthly Jerusalem itself, which was the seat of the kingdom,
and especially the destruction of the very temple which had been built by Solomon. But lest on
this account God should be thought to have done contrary to His promise, immediately he adds,
“Thou hast delayed Thy Christ.”1057 Therefore he is not Solomon, nor yet David himself, if the
Christ of the Lord is delayed. For while all the kings are called His christs, who were consecrated
with that mystical chrism, not only from king David downwards, but even from that Saul who first
was anointed king of that same people, David himself indeed calling him the Lord’s christ, yet
there was one true Christ, whose figure they bore by the prophetic unction, who, according to the
opinion of men, who thought he was to be understood as come in David or in Solomon, was long
delayed, but who, according as God had disposed, was to come in His own time. The following
part of this psalm goes on to say what in the meantime, while He was delayed, was to become of
the kingdom of the earthly Jerusalem, where it was hoped He would certainly reign: “Thou hast
overthrown the covenant of Thy servant; Thou hast profaned in the earth his sanctuary. Thou hast
broken down all his walls; Thou hast put his strong-holds in fear. All that pass by the way spoil
him; he is made a reproach to his neighbors. Thou hast set up the right hand of his enemies; Thou
hast made all his enemies to rejoice. Thou hast turned aside the help of his sword, and hast not
helped him in war. Thou hast destroyed him from cleansing; Thou hast dashed down his seat to
the ground. Thou hast shortened the days of his seat; Thou hast poured confusion over him.”1058
All these things came upon Jerusalem the bond woman, in which some also reigned who were
children of the free woman, holding that kingdom in temporary stewardship, but holding the kingdom
1055 Ps. lxxxix. 36, 37.
1056 Ps. lxxxix. 38.
1057 Ps. lxxxix. 38.
1058 Ps. lxxxix. 39–45.
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of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose children they were, in true faith, and hoping in the true Christ.
But how these things came upon that kingdom, the history of its affairs points out if it is read.
Chapter 11.—Of the Substance of the People of God, Which Through His Assumption of Flesh is
in Christ, Who Alone Had Power to Deliver His Own Soul from Hell.
But after having prophesied these things, the prophet betakes him to praying to God; yet even
the very prayer is prophecy: “How long, Lord, dost Thou turn away in the end?”1059 “Thy face”
is understood, as it is elsewhere said, “How long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me?”1060 For
therefore some copies have here not “dost,” but “wilt Thou turn away;” although it could be
understood, “Thou turnest away Thy mercy, which Thou didst promise to David.” But when he
says, “in the end,” what does it mean, except even to the end? By which end is to be understood
the last time, when even that nation is to believe in Christ Jesus, before which end what He has just
sorrowfully bewailed must come to pass. On account of which it is also added here, “Thy wrath
shall burn like fire. Remember what is my substance.”1061 This cannot be better understood than
of Jesus Himself, the substance of His people, of whose nature His flesh is. “For not in vain,” he
says, “hast Thou made all the sons of men.”1062 For unless the one Son of man had been the substance
of Israel, through which Son of man many sons of men should be set free, all the sons of men would
have been made wholly in vain. But now, indeed, all mankind through the fall of the first man has
fallen from the truth into vanity; for which reason another psalm says, “Man is like to vanity: his
days pass away as a shadow;”1063 yet God has not made all the sons of men in vain, because He
frees many from vanity through the Mediator Jesus, and those whom He did not foreknow as to be
delivered, He made not wholly in vain in the most beautiful and most just ordination of the whole
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rational creation, for the use of those who were to be delivered, and for the comparison of the two
cities by mutual contrast. Thereafter it follows, “Who is the man that shall live, and shall not see
death? shall he snatch his soul from the hand of hell?”1064 Who is this but that substance of Israel
out of the seed of David, Christ Jesus, of whom the apostle says, that “rising from the dead He now
dieth not, and death shall no more have dominion over Him?”1065 For He shall so live and not see
death, that yet He shall have been dead; but shall have delivered His soul from the hand of hell,
1059 Ps. lxxxix. 46.
1060 Ps. xiii. 1.
1061 Ps. lxxxix. 46, 47.
1062 Ps. lxxxix. 47.
1063 Ps. cxliv. 4.
1064 Ps. lxxxix. 48.
1065 Rom. vi. 9.
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whither He had descended in order to loose some from the chains of hell; but He hath delivered it
by that power of which He says in the Gospel, “I have the power of laying down my life, and I
have the power of taking it again.”1066
Chapter 12.—To Whose Person the Entreaty for the Promises is to Be Understood to Belong, When
He Says in the Psalm, “Where are Thine Ancient Compassions, Lord?” Etc.
But the rest of this psalm runs thus: “Where are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou
swarest unto David in Thy truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, which I have
borne in my bosom of many nations; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith
they have reproached the change of Thy Christ.”1067 Now it may with very good reason be asked
whether this is spoken in the person of those Israelites who desired that the promise made to David
might be fulfilled to them; or rather of the Christians, who are Israelites not after the flesh but after
the Spirit.1068 This certainly was spoken or written in the time of Ethan, from whose name this
psalm gets its title, and that was the same as the time of David’s reign; and therefore it would not
have been said, “Where are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou hast sworn unto David
in Thy truth?” unless the prophet had assumed the person of those who should come long afterwards,
to whom that time when these things were promised to David was ancient. But it may be understood
thus, that many nations, when they persecuted the Christians, reproached them with the passion of
Christ, which Scripture calls His change, because by dying He is made immortal. The change of
Christ, according to this passage, may also be understood to be reproached by the Israelites, because,
when they hoped He would be theirs, He was made the Saviour of the nations; and many nations
who have believed in Him by the New Testament now reproach them who remain in the old with
this: so that it is said, “Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants;” because through the Lord’s
not forgetting, but rather pitying them, even they after this reproach are to believe. But what I have
put first seems to me the most suitable meaning. For to the enemies of Christ who are reproached
with this, that Christ hath left them, turning to the Gentiles,1069 this speech is incongruously assigned,
“Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants,” for such Jews are not to be styled the servants
of God; but these words fit those who, if they suffered great humiliations through persecution for
the name of Christ, could call to mind that an exalted kingdom had been promised to the seed of
David, and in desire of it, could say not despairingly, but as asking, seeking, knocking,1070 “Where
1066 John x. 18.
1067 Ps. lxxxix. 49–51.
1068 Rom. iii. 28, 29.
1069 Acts xiii. 46.
1070 Matt. vii. 7, 8.
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are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? Remember,
Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, that I have borne in my bosom of many nations;” that is, have
patiently endured in my inward parts. “That Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith
they have reproached the change of Thy Christ,” not thinking it a change, but a consumption.1071
But what does “Remember, Lord,” mean, but that Thou wouldst have compassion, and wouldst for
my patiently borne humiliation reward me with the excellency which Thou swarest unto David in
Thy truth? But if we assign these words to the Jews, those servants of God who, on the conquest
of the earthly Jerusalem, before Jesus Christ was born after the manner of men, were led into
captivity, could say such things, understanding the change of Christ, because indeed through Him
was to be surely expected, not an earthly and carnal felicity, such as appeared during the few years
of king Solomon, but a heavenly and spiritual felicity; and when the nations, then ignorant of this
through unbelief, exulted over and insulted the people of God for being captives, what else was
this than ignorantly to reproach with the change of Christ those who understand the change of
Christ? And therefore what follows when this psalm is concluded, “Let the blessing of the Lord
be for evermore, amen, amen,” is suitable enough for the whole people of God belonging to the
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heavenly Jerusalem, whether for those things that lay hid in the Old Testament before the New
was revealed, or for those that, being now revealed in the New Testament, are manifestly discerned
to belong to Christ. For the blessing of the Lord in the seed of David does not belong to any
particular time, such as appeared in the days of Solomon, but is for evermore to be hoped for, in
which most certain hope it is said, “Amen, amen;” for this repetition of the word is the confirmation
of that hope. Therefore David understanding this, says in the second Book of Kings, in the passage
from which we digressed to this psalm,1072 “Thou hast spoken also for Thy servant’s house for a
great while to come.”1073 Therefore also a little after he says, “Now begin, and bless the house of
Thy servant for evermore,” etc., because the son was then about to be born from whom his posterity
should be continued to Christ, through whom his house should be eternal, and should also be the
house of God. For it is called the house of David on account of David’s race; but the selfsame is
called the house of God on account of the temple of God, made of men, not of stones, where shall
dwell for evermore the people with and in their God, and God with and in His people, so that God
may fill His people, and the people be filled with their God, while God shall be all in all, Himself
their reward in peace who is their strength in war. Therefore, when it is said in the words of Nathan,
“And the Lord will tell thee what an house thou shalt build for Him,”1074 it is afterwards said in the
words of David, “For Thou, Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hast opened the ear of Thy servant,
saying, I will build thee an house.”1075 For this house is built both by us through living well, and
1071 Another reading, “consummation.”
1072 See above, chap. viii.
1073 2 Sam. vii. 19.
1074 2 Sam. vii. 8.
1075 2 Sam. vii. 2.
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by God through helping us to live well; for “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain
that build it.”1076 And when the final dedication of this house shall take place, then what God here
says by Nathan shall be fulfilled, “And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant
him, and he shall dwell apart, and shall be troubled no more; and the son of iniquity shall not humble
him any more, as from the beginning, from the days when I appointed judges over my people
Israel.”1077
Chapter 13.—Whether the Truth of This Promised Peace Can Be Ascribed to Those Times Passed
Away Under Solomon.
Whoever hopes for this so great good in this world, and in this earth, his wisdom is but folly.
Can any one think it was fulfilled in the peace of Solomon’s reign? Scripture certainly commends
that peace with excellent praise as a shadow of that which is to come. But this opinion is to be
vigilantly opposed, since after it is said, “And the son of iniquity shall not humble him any more,”
it is immediately added, “as from the beginning, from the days in which I appointed judges over
my people Israel.”1078 For the judges were appointed over that people from the time when they
received the land of promise, before kings had begun to be there. And certainly the son of iniquity,
that is, the foreign enemy, humbled him through periods of time in which we read that peace
alternated with wars; and in that period longer times of peace are found than Solomon had, who
reigned forty years. For under that judge who is called Ehud there were eighty years of peace.1079
Be it far from us, therefore, that we should believe the times of Solomon are predicted in this
promise, much less indeed those of any other king whatever. For none other of them reigned in
such great peace as he; nor did that nation ever at all hold that kingdom so as to have no anxiety
lest it should be subdued by enemies: for in the very great mutability of human affairs such great
security is never given to any people, that it should not dread invasions hostile to this life. Therefore
the place of this promised peaceful and secure habitation is eternal, and of right belongs eternally
to Jerusalem the free mother, where the genuine people of Israel shall be: for this name is interpreted
“Seeing God;” in the desire of which reward a pious life is to be led through faith in this miserable
pilgrimage.1080
1076 Ps. cxxvii. 1.
1077 2 Sam. vii. 10, 11.
1078 2 Sam. vii. 10–11.
1079 Judg. iii. 30.
1080 Israel—a prince of God; Peniel—the face of God (Gen. xxxii. 28–30).
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Chapter 14.—Of David’s Concern in the Writing of the Psalms.
In the progress of the city of God through the ages, therefore, David first reigned in the earthly
Jerusalem as a shadow of that which was to come. Now David was a man skilled in songs, who
dearly loved musical harmony, not with a vulgar delight, but with a believing disposition, and by
it served his God, who is the true God, by the mystical representation of a great thing. For the
rational and well-ordered concord of diverse sounds in harmonious variety suggests the compact
unity of the well-ordered city. Then almost all his prophecy is in psalms, of which a hundred and
fifty are contained in what we call the Book of Psalms, of which some will have it those only were
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made by David which are in scribed with his name. But there are also some who think none of
them were made by him except those which are marked “Of David;” but those which have in the
title “For David” have been made by others who assumed his person. Which opinion is refuted by
the voice of the Saviour Himself in the Gospel, when He says that David himself by the Spirit said
Christ was his Lord; for the 110th Psalm begins thus, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at
my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”1081 And truly that very psalm, like many
more, has in the title, not “of David,” but “for David.” But those seem to me to hold the more
credible opinion, who ascribe to him the authorship of all these hundred and fifty psalms, and think
that he prefixed to some of them the names even of other men, who prefigured something pertinent
to the matter, but chose to have no man’s name in the titles of the rest, just as God inspired him in
the management of this variety, which, although dark, is not meaningless. Neither ought it to move
one not to believe this that the names of some prophets who lived long after the times of king David
are read in the inscriptions of certain psalms in that book, and that the things said there seem to be
spoken as it were by them. Nor was the prophetic Spirit unable to reveal to king David, when he
prophesied, even these names of future prophets, so that he might prophetically sing something
which should suit their persons; just as it was revealed to a certain prophet that king Josiah should
arise and reign after more than three hundred years, who predicted his future deeds also along with
his name.1082
Chapter 15.—Whether All the Things Prophesied in the Psalms Concerning Christ and His Church
Should Be Taken Up in the Text of This Work.
And now I see it may be expected of me that I shall open up in this part of this book what David
may have prophesied in the Psalms concerning the Lord Jesus Christ or His Church. But although
1081 Ps. cx. 1, quoted in Matt. xxii. 44.
1082 1 Kings xiii. 2; fulfilled 2 Kings xxiii. 15–17.
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I have already done so in one instance, I am prevented from doing as that expectation seems to
demand, rather by the abundance than the scarcity of matter. For the necessity of shunning prolixity
forbids my setting down all things; yet I fear lest if I select some I shall appear to many, who know
these things, to have passed by the more necessary. Besides, the proof that is adduced ought to be
supported by the context of the whole psalm, so that at least there may be nothing against it if
everything does not support it; lest we should seem, after the fashion of the centos, to gather for
the thing we wish, as it were, verses out of a grand poem, what shall be found to have been written
not about it, but about some other and widely different thing. But ere this could be pointed out in
each psalm, the whole of it must be expounded; and how great a work that would be, the volumes
of others, as well as our own, in which we have done it, show well enough. Let him then who will,
or can, read these volumes, and he will find out how many and great things David, at once king
and prophet, has prophesied concerning Christ and His Church, to wit, concerning the King and
the city which He has built.
Chapter 16.—Of the Things Pertaining to Christ and the Church, Said Either Openly or Tropically
in the 45th Psalm.
For whatever direct and manifest prophetic utterances there may be about anything, it is necessary
that those which are tropical should be mingled with them; which, chiefly on account of those of
slower understanding, thrust upon the more learned the laborious task of clearing up and expounding
them. Some of them, indeed, on the very first blush, as soon as they are spoken, exhibit Christ and
the Church, although some things in them that are less intelligible remain to be expounded at leisure.
We have an example of this in that same Book of Psalms: “My heart bubbled up a good matter:
I utter my words to the king. My tongue is the pen of a scribe, writing swiftly. Thy form is beautiful
beyond the sons of men; grace is poured out in Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for
evermore. Gird Thy sword about Thy thigh, O Most Mighty. With Thy goodliness and Thy beauty
go forward, proceed prosperously, and reign, because of Thy truth, and meekness, and righteousness;
and Thy right hand shall lead Thee forth wonderfully. Thy sharp arrows are most powerful: in the
heart of the king’s enemies. The people shall fall under Thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever: a rod of direction is the rod of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hast hated
iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above Thy fellows.
Myrrh and drops, and cassia from Thy vestments, from the houses of ivory: out of which the
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daughters of kings have delighted Thee in Thine honor.”1083 Who is there, no matter how slow,
but must here recognize Christ whom we preach, and in whom we believe, if he hears that He is
God, whose throne is for ever and ever, and that He is anointed by God, as God indeed anoints, not
1083 Ps. xlv. 1–9.
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with a visible, but with a spiritual and intelligible chrism? For who is so untaught in this religion,
or so deaf to its far and wide spread fame, as not to know that Christ is named from this chrism,
that is, from this anointing? But when it is acknowledged that this King is Christ, let each one who
is already subject to Him who reigns because of truth, meekness, and righteousness, inquire at his
leisure into these other things that are here said tropically: how His form is beautiful beyond the
sons of men, with a certain beauty that is the more to be loved and admired the less it is corporeal;
and what His sword, arrows, and other things of that kind may be, which are set down, not properly,
but tropically.
Then let him look upon His Church, joined to her so great Husband in spiritual marriage and
divine love, of which it is said in these words which follow, “The queen stood upon Thy right hand
in gold-embroidered vestments, girded about with variety. Hearken, O daughter, and look, and
incline thine ear; forget also thy people, and thy father’s house. Because the King hath greatly
desired thy beauty; for He is the Lord thy God. And the daughters of Tyre shall worship Him with
gifts; the rich among the people shall entreat Thy face. The daughter of the King has all her glory
within, in golden fringes, girded about with variety. The virgins shall be brought after her to the
King: her neighbors shall be brought to Thee. They shall be brought with gladness and exultation:
they shall be led into the temple of the King. Instead of thy fathers, sons shall be born to thee:
thou shalt establish them as princes over all the earth. They shall be mindful of thy name in every
generation and descent. Therefore shall the people acknowledge thee for evermore, even for ever
and ever.”1084 I do not think any one is so stupid as to believe that some poor woman is here praised
and described, as the spouse, to wit, of Him to whom it is said, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever: a rod of direction is the rod of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated
iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above Thy
fellows;”1085 that is, plainly, Christ above Christians. For these are His fellows, out of the unity and
concord of whom in all nations that queen is formed, as it is said of her in another psalm, “The city
of the great King.”1086 The same is Sion spiritually, which name in Latin is interpreted speculatio
(discovery); for she descries the great good of the world to come, because her attention is directed
thither. In the same way she is also Jerusalem spiritually, of which we have already said many
things. Her enemy is the city of the devil, Babylon, which is interpreted “confusion.” Yet out of
this Babylon this queen is in all nations set free by regeneration, and passes from the worst to the
best King,—that is, from the devil to Christ. Wherefore it is said to her, “Forget thy people and
thy father’s house.” Of this impious city those also are a portion who are Israelites only in the flesh
and not by faith, enemies also of this great King Himself, and of His queen. For Christ, having
come to them, and been slain by them, has the more become the King of others, whom He did not
see in the flesh. Whence our King Himself says through the prophecy of a certain psalm, “Thou
1084 Ps. xlv. 9–17.
1085 Ps. xlv. 7.
1086 Ps. xlviii. 2.
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wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people; Thou wilt make me head of the nations. A
people whom I have not known hath served me: in the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me.”1087
Therefore this people of the nations, which Christ did not know in His bodily presence, yet has
believed in that Christ as announced to it; so that it might be said of it with good reason, “In the
hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me,” for “faith is by hearing.”1088 This people, I say, added to
those who are the true Israelites both by the flesh and by faith, is the city of God, which has brought
forth Christ Himself according to the flesh, since He was in these Israelites only. For thence came
the Virgin Mary, in whom Christ assumed flesh that He might be man. Of which city another psalm
says, “Mother Sion, shall a man say, and the man is made in her, and the Highest Himself hath
founded her.”1089 Who is this Highest, save God? And thus Christ, who is God, before He became
man through Mary in that city, Himself founded it by the patriarchs and prophets. As therefore
was said by prophecy so long before to this queen, the city of God, what we already can see fulfilled,
“Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee; thou shall make them princes over all the earth;”1090
so out of her sons truly are set up even her fathers [princes] through all the earth, when the people,
coming together to her, confess to her with the confession of eternal praise for ever and ever.
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Beyond doubt, whatever interpretation is put on what is here expressed somewhat darkly in figurative
language, ought to be in agreement with these most manifest things.
Chapter 17.—Of Those Things in the 110th Psalm Which Relate to the Priesthood of Christ, and
in the 22d to His Passion.
Just as in that psalm also where Christ is most openly proclaimed as Priest, even as He is here
as King, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy
footstool.”1091 That Christ sits on the right hand of God the Father is believed, not seen; that His
enemies also are put under His feet doth not yet appear; it is being done, [therefore] it will appear
at last: yea, this is now believed, afterward it shall be seen. But what follows, “The Lord will send
forth the rod of Thy strength out of Sion, and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,”1092 is so
clear, that to deny it would imply not merely unbelief and mistake, but downright impudence. And
even enemies must certainly confess that out of Sion has been sent the law of Christ which we call
the gospel, and acknowledge as the rod of His strength. But that He rules in the midst of His
1087 Ps. xviii. 43.
1088 Rom. x. 5.
1089 Ps. lxxxvii. 5.
1090 Ps. xlv. 16.
1091 Ps. cx. 1.
1092 Ps. cx. 2.
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enemies, these same enemies among whom He rules themselves bear witness, gnashing their teeth
and consuming away, and having power to do nothing against Him. Then what he says a little
after, “The Lord hath sworn and will not repent,”1093 by which words He intimates that what He
adds is immutable, “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,”1094 who is permitted
to doubt of whom these things are said, seeing that now there is nowhere a priesthood and sacrifice
after the order of Aaron, and everywhere men offer under Christ as the Priest, which Melchizedek
showed when he blessed Abraham? Therefore to these manifest things are to be referred, when
rightly understood, those things in the same psalm that are set down a little more obscurely, and
we have already made known in our popular sermons how these things are to be rightly understood.
So also in that where Christ utters through prophecy the humiliation of His passion, saying, “They
pierced my hands and feet; they counted all my bones. Yea, they looked and stared at me.”1095 By
which words he certainly meant His body stretched out on the cross, with the hands and feet pierced
and perforated by the striking through of the nails, and that He had in that way made Himself a
spectacle to those who looked and stared. And he adds, “They parted my garments among them,
and over my vesture they cast lots.”1096 How this prophecy has been fulfilled the Gospel history
narrates. Then, indeed, the other things also which are said there less openly are rightly understood
when they agree with those which shine with so great clearness; especially because those things
also which we do not believe as past, but survey as present, are beheld by the whole world, being
now exhibited just as they are read of in this very psalm as predicted so long before. For it is there
said a little after, “All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the
kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him; for the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He shall rule
the nations.”
Chapter 18.—Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in Which the Death and Resurrection of the
Lord are Prophesied.
About His resurrection also the oracles of the Psalms are by no means silent. For what else is
it that is sung in His person in the 3d Psalm, “I laid me down and took a sleep, [and] I awaked, for
the Lord shall sustain me?”1097 Is there perchance any one so stupid as to believe that the prophet
chose to point it out to us as something great that He had slept and risen up, unless that sleep had
been death, and that awaking the resurrection, which behoved to be thus prophesied concerning
1093 Ps. cx. 4.
1094 Ps. cx. 4.
1095 Ps. xxii. 16, 17.
1096 Ps. xxii. 18, 19.
1097 Ps. iii. 5.
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Christ? For in the 41st Psalm also it is shown much more clearly, where in the person of the
Mediator, in the usual way, things are narrated as if past which were prophesied as yet to come,
since these things which were yet to come were in the predestination and foreknowledge of God
as if they were done, because they were certain. He says, “Mine enemies speak evil of me; When
shall he die, and his name perish? And if he came in to see me, his heart spake vain things: he
gathered iniquity to himself. He went out of doors, and uttered it all at once. Against me all mine
enemies whisper together: against me do they devise evil. They have planned an unjust thing
against me. Shall not he that sleeps also rise again?”1098 These words are certainly so set down
here that he may be understood to say nothing else than if he said, Shall not He that died recover
life again? The previous words clearly show that His enemies have mediated and planned His
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death, and that this was executed by him who came in to see, and went out to betray. But to whom
does not Judas here occur, who, from being His disciple, became His betrayer? Therefore because
they were about to do what they had plotted,—that is, were about to kill Him,—he, to show them
that with useless malice they were about to kill Him who should rise again, so adds this verse, as
if he said, What vain thing are you doing? What will be your crime will be my sleep. “Shall not
He that sleeps also rise again?” And yet he indicates in the following verses that they should not
commit so great an impiety with impunity, saying, “Yea, the man of my peace in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, hath enlarged the heel over me;”1099 that is, hath trampled me under foot. “But
Thou,” he saith, “O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.”1100 Who
can now deny this who sees the Jews, after the passion and resurrection of Christ, utterly rooted
up from their abodes by warlike slaughter and destruction? For, being slain by them, He has risen
again, and has requited them meanwhile by temporary discipline, save that for those who are not
corrected He keeps it in store for the time when He shall judge the quick and the dead.1101 For the
Lord Jesus Himself, in pointing out that very man to the apostles as His betrayer, quoted this very
verse of this psalm, and said it was fulfilled in Himself: “He that ate my bread enlarged the heel
over me.” But what he says, “In whom I trusted,” does not suit the head but the body. For the
Saviour Himself was not ignorant of him concerning whom He had already said before, “One of
you is a devil.”1102 But He is wont to assume the person of His members, and to ascribe to Himself
what should be said of them, because the head and the body is one Christ;1103 whence that saying
in the Gospel, “I was an hungered, and ye gave me to eat.”1104 Expounding which, He says, “Since
1098 Ps. xli. 5–8.
1099 Ps. xli. 9.
1100 Ps. xli. 10.
1101 2 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Pet. iv. 5.
1102 John vi. 70.
1103 1 Cor. xii. 12.
1104 Matt. xxv. 35.
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ye did it to one of the least of mine, ye did it to me.”1105 Therefore He said that He had trusted,
because his disciples then had trusted concerning Judas; for he was numbered with the apostles.1106
But the Jews do not expect that the Christ whom they expect will die; therefore they do not
think ours to be Him whom the law and the prophets announced, but feign to themselves I know
not whom of their own, exempt from the suffering of death. Therefore, with wonderful emptiness
and blindness, they contend that the words we have set down signify, not death and resurrection,
but sleep and awaking again. But the 16th Psalm also cries to them, “Therefore my heart is jocund,
and my tongue hath exulted; moreover, my flesh also shall rest in hope: for Thou wilt not leave
my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou give Thine Holy One to see corruption.”1107 Who but He that
rose again the third day could say his flesh had rested in this hope; that His soul, not being left in
hell, but speedily returning to it, should revive it, that it should not be corrupted as corpses are wont
to be, which they can in no wise say of David the prophet and king? The 68th Psalm also cries out,
“Our God is the God of Salvation: even of the Lord the exit was by death.”1108 What could be more
openly said? For the God of salvation is the Lord Jesus, which is interpreted Saviour, or Healing
One. For this reason this name was given, when it was said before He was born of the virgin:
“Thou shall bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from
their sins.”1109 Because His blood was shed for the remission of their sins, it behoved Him to have
no other exit from this life than death. Therefore, when it had been said, “Our God is the God of
salvation,” immediately it was added, “Even of the Lord the exit was by death,” in order to show
that we were to be saved by His dying. But that saying is marvellous, “Even of the Lord,” as if it
was said, Such is that life of mortals, that not even the Lord Himself could go out of it otherwise
save through death.
Chapter 19.—Of the 69th Psalm, in Which the Obstinate Unbelief of the Jews is Declared.
But when the Jews will not in the least yield to the testimonies of this prophecy, which are so
manifest, and are also brought by events to so clear and certain a completion, certainly that is
fulfilled in them which is written in that psalm which here follows. For when the things which
pertain to His passion are prophetically spoken there also in the person of Christ, that is mentioned
which is unfolded in the Gospel: “They gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me
1105 Matt. xxv. 40.
1106 Acts. i. 17.
1107 Ps. xvi. 9, 10.
1108 Ps. lxviii. 20.
1109 Matt. i. 21.
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vinegar for drink.”1110 And as it were after such a feast and dainties in this way given to Himself,
presently He brings in [these words]: “Let their table become a trap before them, and a retribution,
and an offence: let their eyes be dimmed that they see not, and their back be always bowed down,”1111
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etc. Which things are not spoken as wished for, but are predicted under the prophetic form of
wishing. What wonder, then, if those whose eyes are dimmed that they see not do not see these
manifest things? What wonder if those do not look up at heavenly things whose back is always
bowed down that they may grovel among earthly things? For these words transferred from the
body signify mental faults. Let these things which have been said about the Psalms, that is, about
king David’s prophecy, suffice, that we may keep within some bound. But let those readers excuse
us who knew them all before; and let them not complain about those perhaps stronger proofs which
they know or think I have passed by.
Chapter 20.—Of David’s Reign and Merit; And of His Son Solomon, and that Prophecy Relating
to Christ Which is Found Either in Those Books Which are Joined to Those Written by Him,
or in Those Which are Indubitably His.
David therefore reigned in the earthly Jerusalem, a son of the heavenly Jerusalem, much praised
by the divine testimony; for even his faults are overcome by great piety, through the most salutary
humility of his repentance, that he is altogether one of those of whom he himself says, “Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.”1112 After him Solomon his son
reigned over the same whole people, who, as was said before, began to reign while his father was
still alive. This man, after good beginnings, made a bad end. For indeed “prosperity, which wears
out the minds of the wise,”1113 hurt him more than that wisdom profited him, which even yet is and
shall hereafter be renowned, and was then praised far and wide. He also is found to have prophesied
in his books, of which three are received as of canonical authority, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the
Song of Songs. But it has been customary to ascribe to Solomon other two, of which one is called
Wisdom, the other Ecclesiasticus, on account of some resemblance of style,—but the more learned
have no doubt that they are not his; yet of old the Church, especially the Western, received them
into authority,—in the one of which, called the Wisdom of Solomon, the passion of Christ is most
openly prophesied. For indeed His impious murderers are quoted as saying, “Let us lie in wait for
the righteous, for he is unpleasant to us, and contrary to our works; and he upbraideth us with our
transgressions of the law, and objecteth to our disgrace the transgressions of our education. He
1110 Ps. lxix. 21; Matt. xxvii. 34, 48.
1111 Ps. lxix. 22, 23.
1112 Ps. xxxii. 1.
1113 Sallust, Bell. Cat. c. xi.
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professeth to have the knowledge of God, and he calleth himself the Son of God. He was made to
reprove our thoughts. He is grievous for as even to behold; for his life is unlike other men’s and
his ways are different. We are esteemed of him as counterfeits; and he abstaineth from our ways
as from filthiness. He extols the latter end of the righteous; and glorieth that he hath God for his
Father. Let us see, therefore, if his words be true; and let us try what shall happen to him, and we
shall know what shall be the end of him. For if the righteous be the Son of God, He will undertake
for him, and deliver him out of the hand of those that are against him. Let us put him to the question
with contumely and torture, that we may know his reverence, and prove his patience. Let us
condemn him to the most shameful death; for by His own sayings He shall be respected. These
things did they imagine, and were mistaken; for their own malice hath quite blinded them.”1114 But
in Ecclesiasticus the future faith of the nations is predicted in this manner: “Have mercy upon us,
O God, Ruler of all, and send Thy fear upon all the nations: lift up Thine hand over the strange
nations, and let them see Thy power. As Thou wast sanctified in us before them, so be Thou
sanctified in them before us, and let them acknowledge Thee, according as we also have
acknowledged Thee; for there is not a God beside Thee, O Lord.”1115 We see this prophecy in the
form of a wish and prayer fulfilled through Jesus Christ. But the things which are not written in
the canon of the Jews cannot be quoted against their contradictions with so great validity.
But as regards those three books which it is evident are Solomon’s and held canonical by the
Jews, to show what of this kind may be found in them pertaining to Christ and the Church demands
a laborious discussion, which, if now entered on, would lengthen this work unduly. Yet what we
read in the Proverbs of impious men saying, “Let us unrighteously hide in the earth the righteous
man; yea, let us swallow him up alive as hell, and let us take away his memory from the earth: let
us seize his precious possession,”1116 is not so obscure that it may not be understood, without
laborious exposition, of Christ and His possession the Church. Indeed, the gospel parable about
the wicked husbandmen shows that our Lord Jesus Himself said something like it: “This is the
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heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.”1117 In like manner also that passage
in this same book, on which we have already touched1118 when we were speaking of the barren
woman who hath born seven, must soon after it was uttered have come to be understood of only
Christ and the Church by those who knew that Christ was the Wisdom of God. “Wisdom hath
builded her an house, and hath set up seven pillars; she hath sacrificed her victims, she hath mingled
her wine in the bowl; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent her servants summoning to
the bowl with excellent proclamation, saying, Who is simple, let him turn aside to me. And to the
void of sense she hath said, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled
1114 Wisd. ii. 12–21.
1115 Ecclus. xxxvi. 1–5.
1116 Prov. i. 11–13.
1117 Matt. xxi. 38.
1118 Ch. 4.
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for you.”1119 Here certainly we perceive that the Wisdom of God, that is, the Word co-eternal with
the Father, hath builded Him an house, even a human body in the virgin womb, and hath subjoined
the Church to it as members to a head, hath slain the martyrs as victims, hath furnished a table with
wine and bread, where appears also the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, and hath called
the simple and the void of sense, because, as saith the apostle, “He hath chosen the weak things of
this world that He might confound the things which are mighty.”1120 Yet to these weak ones she
saith what follows, “Forsake simplicity, that ye may live; and seek prudence, that ye may have
life.”1121 But to be made partakers of this table is itself to begin to have life. For when he says in
another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, “There is no good for a man, except that he should eat
and drink,”1122 what can he be more credibly understood to say, than what belongs to the participation
of this table which the Mediator of the New Testament Himself, the Priest after the order of
Melchizedek, furnishes with His own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the
sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of that which was to come; wherefore
also we recognize the voice in the 40th Psalm as that of the same Mediator speaking through
prophesy, “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; but a body hast Thou perfected for me.”1123
Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, His body is offered, and is served up to the
partakers of it. For that this Ecclesiastes, in this sentence about eating and drinking, which he often
repeats, and very much commends, does not savor the dainties of carnal pleasures, is made plain
enough when he says, “It is better to go into the house of mourning than to go into the house of
feasting.”1124 And a little after He says, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the
heart of the simple in the house of feasting.”1125 But I think that more worthy of quotation from
this book which relates to both cities, the one of the devil, the other of Christ, and to their kings,
the devil and Christ: “Woe to thee, O land,” he says, “when thy king is a youth, and thy princes
eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes
eat in season, in fortitude, and not in confusion!”1126 He has called the devil a youth, because of
the folly and pride, and rashness and unruliness, and other vices which are wont to abound at that
age; but Christ is the Son of nobles, that is, of the holy patriarchs, of those belonging to the free
city, of whom He was begotten in the flesh. The princes of that and other cities are eaters in the
morning, that is, before the suitable hour, because they do not expect the seasonable felicity, which
1119 Prov. ix. 1–5 (ver. 1 is quoted above in ch. 4).
1120 1 Cor. i. 27.
1121 Prov. ix. 6.
1122 Eccles. ii. 24; iii. 13; v. 18; viii. 15.
1123 Ps. xl. 6.
1124 Eccles. vii. 2.
1125 Eccles. vii. 4.
1126 Eccles. x. 16, 17.
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is the true, in the world to come, desiring to be speedily made happy with the renown of this world;
but the princes of the city of Christ patiently wait for the time of a blessedness that is not fallacious.
This is expressed by the words, “in fortitude, and not in confusion,” because hope does not deceive
them; of which the apostle says, “But hope maketh not ashamed.”1127 A psalm also saith, “For they
that hope in Thee shall not be put to shame.”1128 But now the Song of Songs is a certain spiritual
pleasure of holy minds, in the marriage of that King and Queen-city, that is, Christ and the Church.
But this pleasure is wrapped up in allegorical veils, that the Bridegroom may be more ardently
desired, and more joyfully unveiled, and may appear; to whom it is said in this same song, “Equity
hath delighted Thee;1129 and the bride who there hears, “Charity is in thy delights.”1130 We pass over
many things in silence, in our desire to finish this work.
Chapter 21.—Of the Kings After Solomon, Both in Judah and Israel.
The other kings of the Hebrews after Solomon are scarcely found to have prophesied, through
certain enigmatic words or actions of theirs, what may pertain to Christ and the Church, either in
Judah or Israel; for so were the parts of that people styled, when, on account of Solomon’s offence,
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from the time of Rehoboam his son, who succeeded him in the kingdom, it was divided by God
as a punishment. The ten tribes, indeed, which Jeroboam the servant of Solomon received, being
appointed the king in Samaria, were distinctively called Israel, although this had been the name of
that whole people; but the two tribes, namely, of Judah and Benjamin, which for David’s sake, lest
the kingdom should be wholly wrenched from his race, remained subject to the city of Jerusalem,
were called Judah, because that was the tribe whence David sprang. But Benjamin, the other tribe
which, as was said, belonged to the same kingdom, was that whence Saul sprang before David.
But these two tribes together, as was said, were called Judah, and were distinguished by this name
from Israel which was the distinctive title of the ten tribes under their own king. For the tribe of
Levi, because it was the priestly one, bound to the servitude of God, not of the kings, was reckoned
the thirteenth. For Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Israel, did not, like the others, form one tribe,
but two, Ephraim and Manasseh. Yet the tribe of Levi also belonged more to the kingdom of
Jerusalem, where was the temple of God whom it served. On the division of the people, therefore,
Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned in Jerusalem as the first king of Judah, and Jeroboam, servant
of Solomon, in Samaria as king of Israel. And when Rehoboam wished as a tyrant to pursue that
separated part with war, the people were prohibited from fighting with their brethren by God, who
1127 Rom. v. 5.
1128 Ps. lxix. 6?
1129 Cant. i. 4.
1130 Cant. vii. 6.
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told them through a prophet that He had done this; whence it appeared that in this matter there had
been no sin either of the king or people of Israel, but the accomplished will of God the avenger.
When this was known, both parts settled down peaceably, for the division made was not religious
but political.
Chapter 22.—Of Jeroboam, Who Profaned the People Put Under Him by the Impiety of Idolatry,
Amid Which, However, God Did Not Cease to Inspire the Prophets, and to Guard Many from
the Crime of Idolatry.
But Jeroboam king of Israel, with perverse mind, not believing in God, whom he had proved
true in promising and giving him the kingdom, was afraid lest, by coming to the temple of God
which was in Jerusalem, where, according to the divine law, that whole nation was to come in order
to sacrifice, the people should be seduced from him, and return to David’s line as the seed royal;
and set up idolatry in his kingdom, and with horrible impiety beguiled the people, ensnaring them
to the worship of idols with himself. Yet God did not altogether cease to reprove by the prophets,
not only that king, but also his successors and imitators in his impiety, and the people too. For
there the great and illustrious prophet Elijah and Elisha his disciple arose, who also did many
wonderful works. Even there, when Elijah said, “O Lord, they have slain Thy prophets, they have
digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life,” it was answered that seven
thousand men were there who had not bowed the knee to Baal.1131
Chapter 23.—Of the Varying Condition of Both the Hebrew Kingdoms, Until the People of Both
Were at Different Times Led into Captivity, Judah Being Afterwards Recalled into His Kingdom,
Which Finally Passed into the Power of the Romans.
So also in the kingdom of Judah pertaining to Jerusalem prophets were not lacking even in the
times of succeeding kings, just as it pleased God to send them, either for the prediction of what
was needful, or for correction of sin and instruction in righteousness;1132 for there, too, although far
less than in Israel, kings arose who grievously offended God by their impieties, and, along with
their people, who were like them, were smitten with moderate scourges. The no small merits of
the pious kings there are praised indeed. But we read that in Israel the kings were, some more,
others less, yet all wicked. Each part, therefore, as the divine providence either ordered or permitted,
1131 1 Kings xix. 10, 14, 15.
1132 2 Tim. iii. 16.
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was both lifted up by prosperity and weighed down by adversity of various kinds; and it was afflicted
not only by foreign, but also by civil wars with each other, in order that by certain existing causes
the mercy or anger of God might be manifested; until, by His growing indignation, that whole
nation was by the conquering Chaldeans not only overthrown in its abode, but also for the most
part transported to the lands of the Assyrians,—first, that part of the thirteen tribes called Israel,
but afterwards Judah also, when Jerusalem and that most noble temple was cast down,—in which
lands it rested seventy years in captivity. Being after that time sent forth thence, they rebuilt the
overthrown temple. And although very many stayed in the lands of the strangers, yet the kingdom
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no longer had two separate parts, with different kings over each, but in Jerusalem there was one
prince over them; and at certain times, from every direction wherever they were, and from whatever
place they could, they all came to the temple of God which was there. Yet not even then were they
without foreign enemies and conquerors; yea, Christ found them tributaries of the Romans.
Chapter 24.—Of the Prophets, Who Either Were the Last Among the Jews, or Whom the Gospel
History Reports About the Time of Christ’s Nativity.
But in that whole time after they returned from Babylon, after Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah,
who then prophesied, and Ezra, they had no prophets down to the time of the Saviour’s advent
except another Zechariah, the father of John, and Elisabeth his wife, when the nativity of Christ
was already close at hand; and when He was already born, Simeon the aged, and Anna a widow,
and now very old; and, last of all, John himself, who, being a young man, did not predict that Christ,
now a young man, was to come, but by prophetic knowledge pointed Him out though unknown;
for which reason the Lord Himself says, “The law and the prophets were until John.”1133 But the
prophesying of these five is made known to us in the gospel, where the virgin mother of our Lord
herself is also found to have prophesied before John. But this prophecy of theirs the wicked Jews
do not receive; but those innumerable persons received it who from them believed the gospel. For
then truly Israel was divided in two, by that division which was foretold by Samuel the prophet to
king Saul as immutable. But even the reprobate Jews hold Malachi, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra
as the last received into canonical authority. For there are also writings of these, as of others, who
being but a very few in the great multitude of prophets, have written those books which have
obtained canonical authority, of whose predictions it seems good to me to put in this work some
which pertain to Christ and His Church; and this, by the Lord’s help, shall be done more conveniently
in the following book, that we may not further burden this one, which is already too long.
1133 Matt. xi. 13.
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