CHAPTER 6

From Amos.

Of the Eclipse of the Sun at the Time of Our Saviour's Passion, and of the Total Destruction of the Jewish Nation.

[Passage quoted, Amos viii. 7-12.]

THIS prophecy foretells the pride, insolence and rebellion of the Jews against our Saviour, and says that the Lord (486) sware against the presumption of Jacob, that their insolence ^{- 213 -} against Him should never be forgotten, and that their land and its inhabitants should undergo suffering and mourning, and that no more as before should they be punished a little while and then restored, but that this judgment should last for ever. For He says, "Complete destruction shall come upon them," meaning that wrath in the time of the Roman Empire would attack them, that a river should rise on them as on men who before were lifted up.

And then after this anger of God against them, their state, He says, will again "Come down like the river of (b) Egypt."

By which I think is meant, that the ancient glories of the Jews once so lofty, so prized by God, and as it were exalted on high, will become like the state of the heathen nations, which flow and pass by like a river, and will go from height to depth. And He next tells what will happen at the time of the saving Passion, "In that day," He says, saith the Lord, "the sun shall set at midday, and the light shall be (c) darkened on the earth at daytime," and this was plainly fulfilled, when our Lord was lifted up, according to the Gospel:

"And there was darkness over all the earth from the sixth hour even to the ninth hour, and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani."  

This prophecy was thus fulfilled, and it goes on to say:

"And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your song into lamentation. And I will bring sackcloth (d) on all loins, and baldness on every head: And I will make him as grief for a dear one, and them with him as a day of pain. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send famine upon the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord," etc.

And all this prophecy of what would result from their insolence against the Christ has been clearly proved to have taken place after their plot against our Saviour. For it was not before it, but afterwards from that day to this that God turned their feasts into mourning, despoiled them of their famous mother-city, and destroyed the holy Temple (487) ^{- 214 -} therein when Titus and Vespasian were Emperors of Rome, so that they could no longer go up to keep their feasts and sacred meetings. I need not say that a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord has overtaken them all, in return for their rejection of the Word of God; since with one voice they refused Him, so He refuses them.