As Fabiola^[1] was not ashamed of the Lord on earth, so he shall not be ashamed of her in heaven. She laid bare her wound to the gaze of all, and Rome beheld with tears the disfiguring scar that marred her beauty. She uncovered her limbs, bared her head and closed her mouth. She no longer entered the church of God but, like Miriam the sister of Moses, she sat apart, outside the camp, till the priest who cast her out should himself call her back. She came down like a daughter of Babylon from the throne of her daintiness, she took the millstones and ground meal, she passed barefoot through rivers of tears.

Come down, sit on the ground, virgin daughter of Babylon. Isaiah calls her virgin not because she was chaste—in fact she was corrupt and shameless—but because she was dressed in the manner of a virgin. Sit down on the ground; it is not a throne. You have been deprived of royalty, he says; you have changed place with a slave. Sink down into the shades, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more be called tender and luxurious. You have lost your good fortune of former times; you do not revel in the misfortunes of others. . . . The one who has redeemed you has the name the Lord of Hosts. If anyone wants to understand this passage as applying equally to Babylon, one should recognize that through its punishment it has been spared from sinning more. Because Babylon no longer was in power, it no longer sinned and gained the benefit of avoiding greater sins.

Bare your legs and cross the rivers. Your shame will be uncovered and your disgrace shown. For she was once led into captivity. She was taken from her own land into that of the victors. Being between the two rivers, they had to cross on their feet and uncover themselves. What decorum the women had was lost, and out of necessity even the private parts of their bodies were exposed to many.

These words are spoken by the Lord, our redeemer and the one who has freed us from a life of hard labor. . . . Or as Symmachus puts it, You will no longer be called queenly. For I was angry with my people and harmed my inheritance. And I, for reasons of the right discipline, handed my people into your hands, as part of my taming them, but you showed fellow sufferers no kindness by treating them excessively harshly.

But when these accursed ones obtain possession of anyone, they immediately forget not only all others but even themselves. Raising their brow in great haughtiness, they neither grasp the times and seasons nor respect human nature in those whom they injure. Like the tyrant of Babylon, they attack more furiously; they show pity to none. For they persecute him whom you have smitten, and him whom you have wounded, they afflict still more.^[1] Had they not acted in this manner, had they not driven into banishment those who spoke in my defense against their calumnies, their representations might have appeared to some persons sufficiently plausible.

For they have burned the temple of God, they have consecrated the sacred vessels to idols, and they have used cruelty against the prisoners. I gave them into your hands. You would not have carried off the victory if I had not willed it. I delivered them [to you] because I wanted to correct them, not exterminate them. But you did not extend mercy to them; you made the yoke of the aged very heavy. Even age did not seem to you worthy of respect. [Isaiah] has by this trait shown the extent of their hardness.

Out of love God disciplines, then, those who were thoughtless. . . . They were made docile through their trials. He did this by delivering them into the hands of their enemies or by the affliction of other pains, just as fire and iron often heal a wound where medicine fails. In the same manner our God, a lover of virtue, when he sees a soul rushing onto the rocks with the force of vast waves and getting mixed up in the ways of wickedness, restores that person through harsh punishments.

Thinking that you would prove to be better than the Persians, you said, I am and there is no other, and you were encouraged by the oracles of demons and astrologers. And you called on a hope that was fornication and that was far removed from God. For the association between God and all humanity by nature is very different from that between demons and humans, which provides communion through sorcery. So Paul likens idol worship to a spell when he writes of idol worship, sorcery.^[1] But for the Babylonians and others, idolatry does not lead to pardon or deliverance but to destruction.

And what follows describes very clearly the arrogance of the kingdom of the Chaldeans and the foolishness of their royal people, in such a way that they ascribed to themselves immortal power and an indestructible rule. However, suddenly you will experience a loss of men and the destruction of your children—that is, men to rule among you, and children meaning those to be ruled. These things will come at once upon you and reveal you abandoned and childless. This will affect you not only through these things proclaimed but also through the extent of sorceries and incantations.

Two plagues shall come to you in one day, because you were deceived by the art of the Chaldeans and ignored your doom. The loss of children and widowhood shall come on you, that is, sterility. The loss of children indicates the destruction of the city; the widowhood, the privation of the kingdom.

And since Isaiah could not find one man to address, he spoke to the daughter of the Chaldeans, promising these things especially: The astrologers of heaven maintained and supported you, announcing to you what was coming to you from heaven. For in this way we are taught that what the Lord wishes to give to each nation cannot be known by the lovers of learning. . . . But to us each word is gathered into two principal ones, first to the human customs of every city and to their good daimons, and second to oppose any sorcerers and deceivers and cheats, destroying and turning from the truth into the deceitfulness of human beings.

Suddenly, [Isaiah] says, you will receive destruction and undergo the misfortunes that you do not expect. [There shall be] a pit, and you shall fall into it; and grief shall come on you, and you cannot be cleared. Symmachus and Aquila have rendered the translation of this passage as follows: And a misfortune will befall you that you will not be able to avert, that is to say, I will precipitate you into unavoidable misfortunes, and you will not obtain a pardon, for you have sinned beyond [the point] of being pardoned. And destruction shall come suddenly on you, and you shall not know. For Babylon had not been expecting a change [of fortune] and had had no dread of seeing the situation reversed.