Herod sought him after his birth. He was going to kill all the children in that place. And the prophet revealed this too, foretelling it long beforehand when he said, A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, mourning and much weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are not.^[1] The Scriptures also predicted that he would come to Egypt when they said, Out of Egypt I called my son.

It is as a result of folly and a childish attitude that they suffer this punishment. I recalled them from Egypt and freed them from that harsh servitude, but they proved ungrateful to me and opted for the worship of the idols (referring to them as Baals). Though I was the one who taught them to walk, who cured them of their awkward gait, showed them paternal affection and applied all kinds of healing to them, they refused to acknowledge me, even though I protected them from manifold destruction at the hands of the invaders as if clutching them to me in love like a kind of bond. It is in love that even now I care for them and invest them in these chastisements, acting in the manner of someone striking a forward child on the cheek.

Because Israel, symbolically called son since Egypt,^[1] had lost its sonship through having worshiped Baal and offered incense to idols, John gave them a name which suited them: race of vipers.^[2] Because these had lost that title of sonship, which had been poured over them through grace in the days of Moses, they received from John a name congruent with their deeds. After the Lord went down into the land of the Egyptians and had returned from there, the Evangelist said, Now the true word spoken by the prophet is accomplished. He said, I will call my son out of Egypt.^[3] He also said, He will be called a Nazarene,^[4] because in Hebrew nezer means a scepter,^[5] and the prophet calls him a Nazarene because he is the Son of the scepter.

I will address myself as is right to those who have come from Egypt. They have come here eagerly, having overcome ill will by zeal. They come from that Egypt which is enriched by the river who is Christ, raining out of the earth and like the sea in its season—if I too may follow in my small measure those who have so eloquently spoken of these matters. They too are enriched by Christ my Lord. He too was once fugitive in Egypt; the first, when he fled from Herod’s massacre of the children,^[1] and now by the love of the fathers for their children, by Christ the new food of those who hunger after good,^[2] who offers the greatest alms of corn of which history speaks and men believe. He is the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world, that life which is indestructible and indissoluble. It is of him that I now seem to hear the Father saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

Because I am kind and good, I bound the feet of Ephraim, that is, the whole Israel . . . although he was awkward. God himself declares why this is so: I will take them in my arms. This image is from child raising. Those who take infants in their arms are those who bind their feet, bringing their feet together. For it is necessary, I think, that the thighs and knees of anyone who sits down should be drawn together. And in fact this is so. I bound the feet as, for instance, it was written about Abraham, who bound his son Isaac when he thought to bring him as a sacrifice to God. One must note that the Hebrew version and other versions do not have I bound the feet but rather I became as one who nourishes Ephraim.

And as the lover of humankind I will draw them to believing in cords of love, just as that which is written in the Gospel: No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me will have drawn him.^[1] But they thought that my light yoke was very heavy; and I bent toward them, leaving the kingdom of heaven so that I may eat with them, having assumed the human form. Or rather, I gave them my body as food; I was both food and table companion.

The philanthropy of God does not tolerate [abandonment]. What can I do for you? Shall I view you as I did Sodom and destroy you like Gomorrah? My heart is upset. Here the love of God appears to imitate the passionate human being or, better yet, the affectionate mother. My heart is upset, just as a woman would say about her child. My heart is upset just like the mother’s. However, the previous metaphor was only partially adequate. My heart is troubled in my regret? God is troubled! Let no one ever think it! God forbid!

My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. God imitates a father and mother who are naturally worried and cannot turn away from their children for too long. He says that, however, not because he wills one thing now and then changes his mind. Rather, he expresses his thought in different ways, in anger and love, in threat and mercy, chastising and persuading.

In the same book, it is written, I am God and not man, the holy one in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into the city, into the den, to be sure, of vices. He himself is the only one who does not enter into the city that Cain built in the name of his son, Enoch. All of this is chanted daily by the lips of the priests: ho monos anamartētos which in our language is translated as qui solus est sine peccato.^[1]