CHAPTER 3

From Micah.

The Prophet foretells what will be the Signs of the Coming of the Lord to Men, the Complete Destruction of the Sacred Customs of the Jews, the Knowledge of the God that was announced by the Prophets, the Deepest Peace of All Nations.

(405) [Passages quoted, Micah i. 2-4; iii. 9-12; iv. 1-4.]

(d) I HAVE already considered this prophecy among the passages. And I have pointed out that only from the date of our Saviour Jesus Christ's Coming among men have the objects of Jewish reverence, the hill called Zion and Jerusalem, the buildings there, that is to say, the Temple, the Holy of Holies, the Altar, and whatever else was there dedicated to the glory of God, been utterly removed or shaken, in fulfilment of the Word which said:

"Behold the Lord, the Lord comes forth from his place, and he shall descend on the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be shaken under him."

And when those kings are shaken, the souls of the Jews, called "valleys," because of the contrast of their wretchedness with their former exaltation, bewailing the passing of (406) the aforesaid glory, will melt like wax before the fire, and be as water rushing down a chasm, through the multitude of those that fall from bad to worse. And all this it says will come to pass because of the sin of the house of Jacob, and the transgression of the house of Israel. And it goes on to describe this sin and transgression, "They that defile judgment and pervert all that is right, who build Sion with blood and Jerusalem with unrighteousness." With blood! Yes, this was the cause of their final misery, for that they pronounced the impious curse upon themselves, saying, (b) "His blood be on us and on our children." Therefore, it says this, "Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a storehouse of fruit," a prophecy which was only actually fulfilled after the impious treatment of our Saviour. For from that time to this utter desolation has possessed the land; their once famous Mount Sion, instead - 141 - of being, as once it was, the centre of study and education based on the divine prophecies, which the children of the (c) Hebrews of old, their godly prophets, priests and national teachers loved to interpret, is a Roman farm like the rest of the country, yea, with my own eyes I have seen the bulls plowing there, and the sacred site sown with seed. And Jerusalem itself is become but a storehouse of its fruit of old days now destroyed, or better, as the Hebrew has it, a stone-quarry.

So Aquila says, "Therefore for your sake the land of Zion shall be ploughed, and Jerusalem shall be a quarry of (d) stone," for being inhabited by men of foreign race it is even now like a quarry, all the inhabitants of the city choosing stores from its ruins as they will for private as well as public buildings. And it is sad for the eyes to see stones from the Temple itself, and from its ancient sanctuary and holy place, used for the building of idol temples, and of theatres for the populace. These things are open for the eyes to see, and it should be clear as well that it is hence that the new law and word of the new Covenant of our Saviour Jesus Christ goes forth. For countless companies (407) of people, races of all kinds deserting their fathers' gods and their old superstitions, call on the Supreme God. And thus it is reckoned the deepest peace, there being no diversity of government or national rule, that nation should not take up sword against nation, and that they should not learn war any more, but that each farmer should rest under his vine and under his fig tree, according to the prophecy, and that none should make him afraid. (b)

As this state of things was never achieved at any other time but during the Roman Empire, from our Saviour's birth till now, I consider the proof irrefutable that the prophet refers to the time of our Saviour's coming among men.