[Jerusalem] was like this for refusing to the end to hear the word of the prophet sent to it and not accepting in any way the instruction from that source. Though seeming to undergo a change for a while, once more it went back to its characteristic wickedness; at any rate, it took no account of God’s sending the prophet, nor did it make the decision to pay attention to him later, despite having such a remarkable experience. On the contrary, it forsook him completely and declared war on him, attacking Jerusalem after the annihilation of the ten tribes, the city in which the temple of God was to be found.

Nevertheless, lest under the cover of abundance anyone think that we are concealing a lack of defense, we shall bring forward one testimony from the prophets, by which it can clearly be shown that they are holy prophets, divinely inspired. They predicted with a certain and most faithful prophecy that in the time of New Testament, spiritual sacrifices were to be offered not to the Father only but also to the Son by the faithful. For Zephaniah says, ‘Therefore wait for me,’ says the Lord, ‘for the day when I arise as a witness. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them my indignation, all the heat of my anger; for in the fire of my passion, all the earth shall be consumed. At the time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, my scattered ones, shall bring my offering.’

Since this text^[1] did not literally refer to wild beasts, let the Jews say when this actually happened. For a wolf has never pastured a lamb. If it were to happen that they would pasture together, how would this benefit the human race? The text referred not to wild beasts but to wild people. It referred to Scythians, to Thracians, to Mauretanians, to Indians, to Sarmatians, to Persians. Another prophet made it clear that all these nations would be brought under one yoke when he said, And they shall serve him under one yoke, and each one shall adore him from his own place.^[2] No longer, he said, will people worship him in Jerusalem but everywhere throughout the world. No longer are people bidden to go up to Jerusalem, but each one shall remain in his own home and offer this worship.

Another prophet again made clear the way God would be worshiped. They shall each adore him in his own place and serve him under one yoke.^[1] And again another prophet said, The virgin of Israel had fallen. Never more shall she rise.^[2] And Daniel explained clearly that everything would be destroyed—the sacrifice, the libation, the anointing, the judgment.^[3]

Then let my shoulder fall from its joining and my arm be broken in pieces ailing the bones.^[1] Because bodily action is carried on by the shoulder and the arm, when the good things put forth with the lips are not fulfilled in deed, he wants the shoulder to fall and the arm to be broken in pieces. . . . But if this sentence of a curse is to be referred to a spiritual meaning, it is no doubt plain that the arm is linked to the body by the shoulders and, as by the arm is meant good practice, so by the shoulder, the knitting together of social life is denoted. So the prophet, regarding the holy peoples of the church universal and that they should serve God in concord, says, And they shall serve him with one shoulder.

If anyone is able, insofar as he found that Israel is saved after the full number of pagan nations,^[1] let him consider having passed over by reason the remaining period, when it is that all serve God under a single yoke, according to what is said in Zephaniah, And from the ends of Ethiopia they offer sacrifices to him, when, as it is said in the sixty-seventh psalm, Ethiopia stretches forth its hand to God, and to the kings of the earth the word commands, saying, Sing to the Lord, raise a psalm to the God of Jacob.^[2]

Live now in utter delight, O Jerusalem, living in complete happiness and satisfaction; for God has removed all your lawless deeds and of necessity has rescued you from the power of the foe, to whom you were subjected in paying the penalty of punishment. The Lord will now be in your midst, showing his kingship by his care for you, so that trouble will no longer be able to approach you.

Take heart, O Jerusalem, the Lord will take away your iniquities. The Lord will wash away the filth of his sons and daughters by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.^[1] He will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your sins.^[2] Choiring angels shall encircle you, chanting, Who is it that comes up all white and leaning upon her beloved?^[3] For the soul that was formerly a slave has now accounted its Lord as its kinsman, and he, acknowledging its sincere purpose, will answer, Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, ah, you are beautiful . . . your teeth are like a flock of ewes to be shorn—a sincere confession is a spiritual shearing. And further: all of them big with twins,^[4] signifying the twofold grace, either that perfected by water and the Spirit or that announced in the Old and in the New Testament. God grant that all of you, your course of fasting finished, mindful of the teaching, fruitful in good works, standing blameless before the spiritual bridegroom, may obtain the remission of your sins from God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

As far as the deeper meaning of the passage is concerned, it clearly commands Jerusalem to rejoice exceedingly, to be especially glad, to cheer up wholeheartedly as its trespasses are wiped out, evidently through Christ. The spiritual and holy Zion—that is, the church, the holy multitude of the believers—is justified in Christ and only in him. By him and through him we are also saved as we escape from the harm of the invisible enemies, for we have a Mediator who was incarnated in our form, the king of all, that is, the Word of God the Father. Thanks to him, we do not see evil anymore, for we have been delivered from the powers of evil. He [the Word] is the armor of good will, the peace, the wall, the one who bestows incorruption, the arbiter of the crowns, who shut down the war of the incorporeal Assyrians and made void the schemes of the demons.

I am aware that some commentators understood this [text to apply to] the return from Babylon and the renovation of Jerusalem, and I do not contradict their words: the prophecy applies also to what happened at that time. But you can find a more exact outcome after the incarnation of our Savior: then it was that he healed the oppressed in heart in the washing of regeneration, then it was that he renewed human nature, loving us so much as to give his life for us. After all, greater love than this no one can show than for one to lay down one’s life for one’s friend, and again, God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son so that everyone believing in him might not be lost but have eternal life.^[1]

The salvation of human beings rests with divine lovingkindness alone: we do not earn it as the wages of righteousness; rather, it is a gift of divine goodness. Hence the Lord says, on your behalf I shall save and welcome and make my own what has become another’s, render it conspicuous, make it more famous than all others, free it from its former shame, and from being captives and slaves I shall make them free people and my own. Now, as I have said, this he both made a gift of to those returning from Babylon at that time and also granted to all people later. We who were once in thrall to the devil but are now freed from that harsh captivity and unmindful of the error of polytheism have become God’s own, being famous beyond pagans and barbarians, according to the prophecy, and we who were once far off have become near, according to the divine apostle.