Indeed, the prophets repeatedly charged the people, saying, Hear, you rulers of Sodom, and Your princes are faithless.^[1] And again Micah: Is it not for you to know justice? In fact, everywhere they vehemently upbraided them. What, then? Will someone on that account find fault with God? Perish the thought! The fault, in truth, is with them. Moreover, what better proof could one offer that you do not know the law, than that of your failure to obey it?

He delivers this address to the leaders: those entrusted with judgment trampled on justice; hence he puts it in the form of a question, Was it not you who had responsibility for judging, for punishing the guilty and letting the innocent go free without blame? How did you, then, who were entrusted with administering the laws, turn from the practice of good works and ardently support evil? You exercised such greed in regard to the needy as to strip them of all their possessions (suggesting this by saying robbing people of their skins and the flesh from their bones).

The sun will go down^[1] upon those prophets who lead my people astray, dwelling in darkness. It will be night for you, without vision, and it will be dark for you, without dawn. For, when [the spirit] goes out of a man, it goes about wandering.^[2] It does this quite by nature. [The Lord] rendered this judgment with regard to [the people]: Thus will it be for this generation.^[3] That is, in the days of the prophets the evil spirit had gone out from them, [that spirit] that was sin itself.

If, further, one works through the twelve minor prophets, many testimonies to the Holy Spirit are to be found. Thus Micah speaks as God’s mouthpiece and says, Truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. Joel cries, ‘And it shall come to pass afterwards,’ says God, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh’ and what follows.^[1] Haggai said, ‘For I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts . . . ‘my Spirit remained among you.’^[2] And in like manner Zechariah says, Receive my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets.^[3]

But when some of those accustomed to pervert what is right turn my words aside into what seems best to them, let your holiness not wonder at this. [Know] that those involved in every heresy collect from the divinely inspired Scripture as pretexts of their own divination whatever was spoken truly through the Holy Spirit, corrupting it by their own evil ideas and pouring unquenchable fire upon their very own heads. But since we have learned that some have published a corrupt text of the letter of our all-glorious father, Athanasius, to the blessed Epictetus, a letter which is itself orthodox, so that many are done harm from it, thinking that for this reason it would be something useful and necessary for our brothers, we have sent to your holiness copies of it made from the ancient copy which is with us and is genuine.

You are permitted, O priest, to live, not to luxuriate from the altar. The mouth of the ox which treads out the corn is not muzzled. Yet the apostle abused not the liberty,^[1] but having food and raiment^[2] was thereby content, laboring night and day that he might not be chargeable to anybody.^[3] And in his epistles he calls God to witness that he lived reverently^[4] and without avarice in the gospel of Christ. He asserts this too not of himself alone but of his disciples, that he had sent no one who would either ask or receive anything from the churches. But if in some epistles he expresses pleasure and calls the gifts of those who sent them the grace of God,^[5] he gathers not for himself but for the poor saints at Jerusalem.^[6] But these poor saints were those who of the Jews first believed in Christ and being cast out by parents, kinsmen and connections had lost their possessions and all their goods, the priests of the temple and the people destroying them. Let such poor receive. But if on plea of the poor a few houses are enriched and we eat in gold, glass and china, either let us with our wealth change our habit or let not the habit of poverty seek the riches of senators. What avails the habit of poverty while a whole crowd of poor longs for the contents of our purse? Wherefore, for our sake who are such, who build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem by iniquity, who judge for gifts, give answers for rewards, divine for money, and thereon claiming to ourselves a fictitious sanctity say, Evil will not come upon us, hear the sentence of the Lord which follows: Zion and Jerusalem and the mountain of the temple—that is, the temple of Christ—shall (in the consummation and the end, when love shall grow cold^[7] and the faith shall be rare) be plowed as a field and become heaps as the high places of a forest, so that where once were ample houses and countless ears of corn there should only be a poor cottage, keeping up the show of fruit which has no refreshment for the soul.

Hence again the divine Micah was unable to brook the building of Zion with blood, however you interpret the phrase, and of Jerusalem with iniquity. Meanwhile, these heads of the house of Jacob abhorred justice. The priests were teaching for hire. The prophets were prophesying for money! What does Micah say will be the result of this? Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a storehouse of fruit, and the mountain of the house shall be as the grove of the forest. He bewails also the scarcity of the upright, there being scarcely a stalk or a gleaming grape left, since both the prince asks and the judge curries favor,^[1] so that his language is almost the same as the mighty David’s: Save me, O Lord, for the godly man ceases.^[2] Their blessings shall fail them, for you consume like a moth what is dear to him.^[3]

Isaiah^[1] lived almost a thousand years ago and saw Zion in its primitive form. The city was still standing, beautified with public squares and clothed in honor; yet he says, Zion shall be plowed like a field. He was foretelling what has been fulfilled in our day. Observe the exactness of the prophecy; for he said, Daughter Zion shall be left like a hut in a vineyard, like a shed in a cucumber patch.^[2] Now the place is full of cucumber patches.^[3] Do you see how the Holy Spirit enlightens the saints? Therefore do not be distracted by a common term but hold fast to what is exactly true.