Homilies on Numbers — Homily 16
Latin source: Origen, In Numeros homiliae (Rufinus's Latin translation), from the public-domain critical text of W. A. Baehrens, GCS 30 = Origenes Werke VII (Leipzig, 1921). This English translation is released into the public domain.[§1] In the previous treatise we attempted, so far as was possible, to explain the first parts of Balaam's prophecy. Now we take up the beginning of the second prophecy, so that, if the Lord deigns to inspire us, we may bring forward for the assembly, to the best of our strength, whatever occurs to us concerning this one as well. For it seemed to me unfitting, although these matters appear difficult, to interrupt the treatment of them, so as not to expound the individual points that we are able to grasp. Therefore King Balak, as if astonished and stricken by those things which he saw being said by Balaam contrary to his hope — for he was hearing blessings instead of curses — no longer bearing it, interrupts his words and says: "What have you done to me? I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them with a blessing." The bitter king did not endure the sweetness of blessings, but seeks curses, demands curses; for he is of the kindred of that one to whom the Lord said: "Cursed are you above all the beasts of the earth." But what did he answer him — he in whose mouth God had placed the word? "Shall I not," he says, "take care to speak whatever God puts into my mouth?" At this Balak, thinking that Balaam had been terrified by the multitude of the Israelite people and had therefore not dared to utter curses, believed that a change of place would profit him, and says to him: "Come yet with me to another place, from which you will not see them, but you will see some part of them, though you will not see them all, and curse them for me from there." Mad man, who would believe that the grace of Israel could be concealed by the interposition of a place, and who did not know that a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden. "And he took him," it says, "to the lookout of the field, to the top of the hewn mountain, and there he built seven altars, and placed a calf and a ram upon the altar. And Balaam said to Balak: Stand by your sacrifice, but I will go to inquire of God. And God met Balaam, and put a word into his mouth and said: Without doubt, return to Balak, and you shall speak these things. But he — that is, Balak — was standing beside his burnt offerings, and all the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him: What has the Lord spoken?" The matter indeed is carried on with profane sacrifices, and divination is sought by magical art; yet God, willing that grace should abound there where sin had superabounded, deigns to be present and does not flee from these things which were being done not according to Israelite discipline but according to the error of the gentiles. But he is present not to the sacrifices, but to the one coming to meet him, and there he gives his word and there foretells the mysteries to come, where above all the faith and wonder of the gentiles hangs, so that those who are unwilling to believe our prophets may believe their own soothsayers and seers.
[§2] "And taking up," it says, "his parable, he said." By a parable, then, Balaam says: "Rise up, Balak, and hear; give ear as a witness, son of Zippor. Not as a man is God deceived, nor as a son of man is he frightened; when he has said, shall he not do it? shall he speak, and not abide by it? Behold, I have been taken up to bless; I will bless, and I will not turn it away. There shall be no labor in Jacob, nor shall sorrow be seen in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, the glories of princes are with him. God, who led him out of Egypt, his glory is as that of a unicorn. For there shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In due time it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish. Behold, a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion; it shall not sleep until it devours the prey, and it shall drink the blood of the slain." This is the content of the second prophecy in the words of Balaam. Let us therefore see first this very thing which he says: "Rise up, Balak, and hear." For if he had not said above that he was standing beside his burnt offering, it would not seem greatly worth inquiring why he said: "Rise up, Balak." But now, since he urges to rise up the one whom he had just said was standing, the prophetic utterance is not to be passed over idly. Therefore, in that he said above that he was standing at his burnt offering, he indicates that he was not standing rightly. For he was standing, set in idolatry, and was standing as an enemy of God — which was rather not to stand, but to fall. So then, as one who ought to fall from that standing — nay rather, as one who had already fallen — thus now, by prophetic understanding, he commands him to rise up; inasmuch as, by the very fact that he had seemed to stand in idolatry, he had fallen. Let him therefore rise up, such a one as he is, let him rise up in mind, let him rise up in faith, and let him become a witness — if indeed he is converted, a witness of faith; but if he remains unbelieving, that he may be a witness of his own condemnation.
[§3] But let us hear what he announces to him. "Not as a man," he says, "is God deceived, nor as a son of man is he himself frightened." Do not hold, he says, this opinion about God, so as to think that he is like a man who can be thwarted in the things he speaks. For men are hindered by many occasions and vices, so that what they say is not true. For either they speak in anger, and when the anger ceases they have spoken in vain, or for the sake of fear or desire or boastfulness and other things like these; and indeed vain and empty will be everything whatsoever they have spoken while vice held sway. But God, in whom there is no passion, no frailty, says everything he says according to the merits of the causes; and therefore he can never be thwarted, because whatever is brought forth by reason cannot be devoid of reason. God, therefore, is not like a man who speaks in vain, nor is he frightened as a son of man — or, as we read in other copies: nor does he frighten as a son of man. In men, terror too sometimes changes a resolve; but God, who is above all things, by whom could he be frightened so as to change his resolve? But if we take it according to what we said is read in other copies, that is: "nor does he frighten as a son of man," this will seem to be said: that men indeed sometimes make terrors and threats out of boastfulness, even at times against those whom they cannot harm; but God does not frighten men as one who cannot punish, but even if he frightens, he frightens with reason; for he frightens in order to rebuke a man in the tribulation of the hearing, so that, deterred by the word of the threat, he who acts wickedly may amend himself, and the very punishment of his wicked deeds may not come upon him. God, therefore, does not frighten as a man does; for man, as we said, terrifies out of boastfulness, but God terrifies for the sake of amendment.
[§4] After this he says: "When he has said, shall he not do it? shall he speak, and not abide by it?" The passage is to be read thus, as if he spoke in the manner of one asking: he — that is, God — what he says, will he not also do? and the things he has spoken, will he not abide in them? Since indeed men do not do what they say, and through the vice of human frailty do not abide in the things they speak; for man is changeable, but God is unchangeable. But someone may object and say: how then did God not abide in the things he spoke concerning Nineveh, that after three days it should be overthrown? nor in the things he spoke concerning David, where death had been promised for three days, to lay waste the people, yet within one day, up to the hour of the midday meal, it ceased? And perhaps it will seem that these things which are said by way of question are not to be taken altogether as fixed, but that there is a certain figure of speech which seems to show something intermediate, yet does not declare the force of a fixed and irrevocable statement — so that something is seen to be said more moderately in what is written, "When he has said, shall he not do it?" than if it had been written, "When he has said, he will by all means do it." But let us also review the very passages of Scripture which are set down either in Jonah or in the books of Kingdoms, lest perhaps there too, as is customary, the divine Scripture may hold something of a secret. It is written, then, in Jonah: "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amathi, saying: Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it, for the cry of its wickedness has ascended to me." And after the whale was commanded, and it cast Jonah out onto the land, again it is written: "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying: Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it according to the preaching which I spoke to you." And Jonah indeed preached and said: "Yet three days" — or, as the Hebrews say they have it written, "yet forty days" — "and Nineveh shall be destroyed." But the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and clothed themselves in sackcloth, from the least to the greatest of them. And a little later: "And God saw their works," it says, "that they were turned from their evil ways; and he repented" — or, as we read in other copies, "God was entreated concerning the evil which he had spoken to do to them, and did not do it." Observe, then, in these things which we have taken from the prophet, that it is not found said in the words of God, by which he spoke to the prophet: "Yet three days and Nineveh shall be destroyed"; but Jonah, "when he was entering," it says, "into the city about a three days' journey," himself said: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed," so that this word, which was spoken and was not fulfilled, appears to have been uttered by Jonah rather than by God. But let us also bring forward from the second book of Kingdoms what is written, where, when David had numbered the people, "the word of the Lord came," it says, "to Gad the seer prophet, saying: Go and speak to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I will raise up against you; choose for yourself one of these, which I shall do to you. And Gad went in to David, and announced to him, saying: Either there shall come to you for three years famine upon your land, or for three months that you flee before your enemies who pursue you, or for three days let there be death in your land; now therefore know and see what I shall answer him who sent me. And David said to Gad: I am in very great straits on every side. But let me rather fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, and let me not fall into the hands of men. And the Lord gave death in Israel from morning until the hour of the midday meal, and there died of the people, from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand men. And the angel of God stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, and the Lord was entreated concerning the evil and said to the angel who was destroying the people: It is enough, withdraw your hand." Observe, then, how not even in these three threats is God found to have said anything about a death of three days. For it is set down in the words of Gad, not in the commands of the Lord; and the things that are said through a prophet are not always received as if spoken by God. Finally, through Moses too God indeed spoke many things, yet some things Moses also commanded on his own authority; which the Lord distinguishes in the Gospels with an evident distinction, when, being asked about the divorce of a wife, he says: "For the hardness of your heart Moses wrote these things for you; but from the beginning it was not so. For he who made man made them male and female and blessed them and said: For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall be in one flesh"; and he adds: "What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." You see, then, that here too God indeed did not command nor will that divorce be done; but that Moses, on account of the hardness of the Jews' heart, wrote that a certificate of divorce should be given. Paul too shows this in his letters, when he says of certain things: "The Lord says, and not I," and of others: "But these things I say, not the Lord," and again in others: "I have no command of the Lord, but I give counsel," and again: "What I say, I say not according to the Lord." Hence likewise in the rest of the prophets also, some things the Lord spoke and not the prophets, but other things the prophets and not the Lord; and thus the objection raised will seem to be dissolved, since the Lord recalls and changes for the better not so much his own words as the prophet's. But I rather think that the former solution agrees with the meaning of the whole of Scripture, and especially with those sayings in which God is called patient and of much mercy and repenting over evils — or most of all with those things which are generally pronounced by Jeremiah, in which it is evidently shown that, on account of his many mercies and his incomprehensible goodness, God says and does not do, speaks and does not abide by it. God therefore says through Jeremiah: "I will speak unto the end" — that is, I will speak from a fixed decree — "over a nation and over a kingdom, to take them away and destroy them; and if that nation turns from its wickednesses, I will repent of all the evils which I purposed to do to them. And I will speak unto the end over a nation and a kingdom, to rebuild them and replant them; and if they do evils in my sight, so as not to hear my voice, I will repent of all the good things which I had spoken to do to them." How then can we prefer to these things, which are said absolutely through Jeremiah, those which are said in a suspended manner through Balaam, unless because the former are to be affirmed for the negligent and the scornful, while the latter are to be attended to more secretly by the more perfect?
[§5] But after this Balaam: "Behold," he says, "I have been taken up to bless; I will bless, and I will not turn it away." Balaam was taken up to bless not by Balak, but by God, who put a word into his mouth by which he should bless the people, and this blessing he does not turn away. For a human tongue cannot, even if it wishes, turn away the word of God. After this: "There shall be no labor," he says, "in Jacob, nor shall sorrow be seen in Israel." Openly in these words he announces the state of the life to come; for who is there who passes through this life without labor and sorrow? Not even if one be a Peter or a Paul. How is he not in labor and sorrow, when he is thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, thrice shipwrecked, is in the deep of the sea a day and a night, and endures countless other things which he writes about his labors and sorrows? But this will be fulfilled there, where it is said: "Sorrow and sadness and groaning have fled away." Yet this refers not to all, but only to those who by their merits shall have been Jacob and Israel; as was also that poor Lazarus, who indeed passed the present life in labor and sorrow, but there it is said to the rich man: "Remember, son, that you received your good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things. But now he is at rest here, while you are tormented." He, then, is Israel and Jacob, into whom labor and sorrow do not come. But that rich man was indeed himself also Israel according to the flesh; for it is said to him that his brothers have the law and the prophets, let them hear them; but because he was not Israel according to the spirit, therefore labor and sorrow came upon him.
[§6] "The Lord his God is with him, the glories of princes are with him." For God never deserts his Israel. But let us see of what princes the glories are with this Israel. The glory of princes is power, principality, and kingdom. But since there are also certain princes who are to be driven from their principality, or perhaps have already been driven out, and into their place and principality are to be introduced those who are truly Israelites — all those glories which those princes had in the heavens, princes who did not keep their principality but forsook their eternal dwellings, this Israel and Jacob, who wrestled and prevailed, shall receive; and thus the glories of princes shall be with him. "God, who led him out of Egypt, his glory is as that of a unicorn." That Israel indeed was led out of this earthly Egypt, but this spiritual Israel out of the Egypt of the world and out of the power of darkness, and his glory is as that of a unicorn. The unicorn is said to be an animal formed in that shape which the very indication of its name signifies. We read this animal frequently set down in the divine Scriptures, but especially in Job its might and power are set forth by the words of God himself, in which — as in very many places — Christ is understood to be signified. And in the divine Scriptures we have often found a horn set down for a kingdom, just as the prophet also says: "The four horns are four kingdoms." Under the name of the unicorn, therefore, this seems to be shown in Christ: that everything which is, is his one horn, that is, his one kingdom. For the Father has subjected all things under his feet, until even the last enemy, death, is destroyed, and Christ, as a unicorn, holds the one kingdom of all, because, as it is written: "Of his kingdom there shall be no end." There shall be, then, he says, to him — that is, to that spiritual Israel — glory, as is the glory of the unicorn. For so the Lord himself also says in the Gospel: "Father, grant to them that, just as I and you are one, so these also may be one in us." And therefore a glory like the glory of the unicorn will be given to Israel, especially when he will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of his glory.
[§7] "There shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel; in due time it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish." Therefore, since it has now seemed good to us to discuss each single thing more carefully, it does not seem absurd if we also inquire what augury or divination is — since indeed it pleased Scripture to make mention of these, lest anyone perhaps ignorantly fall into them. It seems to me, then, that the foreknowledge of things to come, so far as concerns the thing itself, is something intermediate — that is, neither properly good nor properly evil; since sometimes even from the side of the devil a foreknowledge of things to come can reach the knowledge of men. But without doubt, when the time and occasion demand and it is the will of God, foreknowledge is also given by God to men through the prophets; and therefore we said that it cannot properly be called good, since it sometimes comes from evil, nor properly evil, since it sometimes descends from God. And although examples of this abundantly supply themselves even from the divine Scriptures, yet we believe it suffices if we use that which we read written in the books of Kingdoms, where the ark of God was captured by the Philistines and brought down to Azotus, and there "they brought it," it says, "into the house of Dagon, and Dagon was found to have fallen prone to the ground before the ark of the Lord's covenant. And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the men of Azotus and scattered them, and struck them in the buttocks." After this, it says, the ark entered into Accaron, and the men of Accaron sent and gathered all the satraps of the Philistines and gathered their priests and diviners, saying: "What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Show us how we shall send it back to its place." The priests and diviners answered: "If you send back the ark of the Lord God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but you shall surely give it a gift for your trespass, and then you shall be healed, and it shall be made known to you. But if not, his hand will not depart from you." And a little later: "And now," it says, "make a new cart, and take two cows that have calved, on which no yoke has been placed, and yoke the cows to the cart, and lead their calves back home away from them. And take the ark of the Lord, and place it upon the cart, and the golden vessels which you have offered to it for your trespass, place together upon the cart, and all its holy things; and send it away, and let it go; and see: if indeed it goes by its own way and ascends to its own borders, to Bethsamis, it is this that has done us these great evils; but if it does not go thither, we shall know that his hand has not touched us, but that these things happened to us by chance." Observe, then, in these things, how the priests and diviners consider by set signs the cause of the evils which had happened to the Philistines — whether it came from the hand of God and on account of the injury to the ark, or happened by chance — saying: "If it ascends by its own way and to its own borders, to Bethsamis, it is this that has done us these evils." Finally, in what follows it is reported: "And when they had placed the ark of the Lord upon the cart," it says, "they set the oxen straight on the way, over against the way that leads to Bethsamis, and they did not turn aside to the right or to the left." Who then, in these things, if he examines carefully, would say that this foreknowledge, which was foretold about the direction of the oxen, was either fortuitous or composed by some art, and not administered by a certain operation of demons — who greatly feared the power of the ark of the Lord, by which not only were the Philistines afflicted and punished, but the very worship of the demons was destroyed, since their images and temples fell down at the entrance of the ark of the Lord? There is, then, in the ministry of foreknowledge a certain operation of demons of this sort, which is gathered by certain arts by those who have handed themselves over to demons, and which seems to be grasped and understood now through those things which they call lots, now through those which they call auguries, now also from the inspection of entrails, which they call extispicy, and by other deceptions like these. These arts have advanced so far toward deceiving the human race that even Manasseh, the son of the most just Hezekiah, deceived by this error, built, as Scripture says, an altar to all the host of heaven in both houses of the Lord. But I judge this host of heaven to be what Paul writes of as the spiritual wickednesses set in the heavenly places. Unless, then, there were much of deception and error in these arts, I do not think the son of so great a man, brought up in the law of the Lord, could have fallen into those impieties which are recorded written about him in the fourth book of Kingdoms. For it says: "And he practiced lots and augury, and made a burnt offering, and led his sons through the fire, and made soothsayers to abound, to do evil in the eyes of the Lord and to provoke him." Such, then, were the things he sinned in, of which it could be said that they were done "with all power, with lying signs and wonders, so that even the elect were deceived." For through him the people also was deceived, to do evil in the sight of the Lord above those nations which God had destroyed from before the face of the children of Israel. But in the second book of Chronicles as well, similar things are written about Manasseh: "And he made groves," it says, "and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, where the Lord had said: In Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And there he set up altars to all the magnificence of heaven in both houses of the Lord. And he himself led his sons through the fire in Gehennon; and he practiced lots and did sorceries and augury, and made ventriloquists and enchanters, and multiplied them, to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him." All these things, then — that is, whether augury, or extispicy, or any sacrifice whatever, or even the casting of lots, or any motions of birds or of beasts, and any inspection of entrails, so as to seem to show something about the future — I do not doubt are done by the operation of demons, who direct the motions of birds or beasts or entrails, or of lots, according to those signs which the same demons taught to be observed by those to whom they handed down the knowledge of this art. From all of which he who is a man of God and is numbered in God's portion ought to be utterly a stranger, and to have nothing in common with these things which demons work by hidden contrivances; lest perhaps through these he be again associated with demons and be filled with their spirit and power and be restored anew to the worship of idols. For our divine and heavenly religion abjures all these things, indicating it in Leviticus by an open law and saying: "You shall not divine, nor practice augury," and a little later: "You shall not follow ventriloquists," it says, "nor join yourselves to enchanters, to be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God." And again in Deuteronomy: "But if you," it says, "enter into the land which the Lord your God will give you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. Let there not be found in you one who purifies his son or his daughter in the fire, nor one divining divination, nor one casting lots, nor a sorcerer, nor an enchanter, nor a ventriloquist, nor an inspector of portents, nor one questioning the dead. For everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord; for on account of these abominations the Lord your God overthrows these nations from before you." In all of which he seems to show that everyone who is occupied in these things does nothing else than question the dead. For they are dead, because they are not partakers of life. But our God is the God of the living and not of the dead. But to all these laws this too is added: that he who wishes to be perfect should learn from no one else except from him who by the power of God has been chosen a prophet, to minister to the people. It says, therefore: "Be perfect in the sight of the Lord your God; for these nations, whose inheritance you have received, they hearken to soothsayers and diviners; but to you the Lord your God has not so given. For the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from your midst, from your brothers; him you shall hear. According to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb in the day of the assembly, when you said: We will not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, and we will not see this great fire any more, lest we die." God does not wish us to become hearers and disciples of demons, nor does he wish that, if we want to learn anything, we learn it from demons. For it is better to be ignorant than to learn from demons, and it is better not even to learn from a prophet than to inquire of diviners. For divination is not, as some think, given divinely, but rather, as it seems to me, has received its name by antiphrasis, that is, by the contrary, as being something that happens through men filled with a demon. But the rite of the gentiles believed everything to be divine that is brought forth through any spirit whatsoever; yet God commands us to learn nothing from these, lest we become their associates and fall into the things which Isaiah says: "And your words shall be humbled to the earth, and your speech shall be sunk beneath the earth; and your voice shall be as of one speaking from the earth, and your voice shall be weakened to the ground." For this reason our Lord Jesus too does not deign to receive testimony from demons, but says: "Be silent and come out of him." His own apostle Paul too, imitating him, "grieving," it says, "turned and said to the spirit of Python: I command you in the name of Jesus Christ; depart from her." In which you may perhaps ask why Paul, grieving, rebukes the spirit of Python. Had it said anything blasphemous? For "a woman," it says, "having a spirit of Python followed Paul and those who were with him, and cried out, saying: These men are servants of the Most High God, who announce to you the way of salvation. And she did this for many days." Whence it is shown that Paul grieved not because of blasphemy, but because he judged it unworthy that testimony be given to his preaching by a spirit of Python. But if Paul does not allow it to give testimony to him, but grieves over this: how much more ought we to grieve, when at any time we see souls being deceived by those who believe, as though in some divine spirit, in a spirit of Python or a ventriloquist or a diviner or an augur or any other demons of this kind? For this reason, then, "there shall be," it says, "no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel." But what is added to these things? "In due time," it says, "it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish." What does "in due time it shall be told" mean? When it is fitting and when it is expedient — that is "in due time." If, then, it is expedient for us to foreknow the future, it will be told by God through the prophets of God, through the Holy Spirit; but if these things are not told nor announced, know that it is not expedient for us to foreknow what is to come. But if they are not told us for this reason, because it is not expedient for us to know them, those who by various arts and invocations of demons are eager to foreknow the future do nothing else than desire to learn the things which it is not expedient for them to know. But "Jacob" in these words is to be understood as everyone whose struggle is against the principalities and powers and against the rulers of this world; and understand "Israel" as everyone who, through the purity of faith and the cleanness of mind, sees God. But someone may say: if we ought to learn about the future from God alone and to receive neither a diviner nor an augur nor any other of these, then not even this Balaam himself is to be received by us; for he is one of those whom the divine judgment forbids to be received. But attend more carefully and remember what we read above, where it is said of him that the Lord put his word into his mouth; therefore we now learn these things not from Balaam, but from the word of God which is placed in his mouth. For unless they were the words of the Lord, he would surely not have revealed them to his servant Moses; and these things, since he was set far away when they were being spoken by him to King Balak, it is certain that Moses could not have known unless they had been revealed to him by God. But further, to destroy divination or augury and other such things utterly, we will also fittingly add this: that all these people use the ministry of birds or animals — but of such as are both written as unclean in the law and are found always to be lying in wait against the human race, from which fact they are indeed judged suitable and worthy for the ministry of demons. For dragons and other serpents are said to minister to spirits of Python; and to augurs and to those who are thought to catch auspices for divining from chance occurrences, either wolves bring omens, or foxes, or hawks, or ravens, or eagles, or other such creatures — which in the law Moses, for these reasons I believe, marked as unclean.
[§8] After this: "Behold," it says, "a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion." In these words he seems to me to describe the confidence of the people believing in Christ, and the freedom which it has in faith, and the exultation which it bears in hope. For it is compared to a lion's cub while it presses toward perfection, glad and swift; but it is likened to a lion when it now obtains the things that are perfect. For just as the lion and the lion's cub fear no animal, no beast, but all things are subjected to them, so also to the perfect Christian, who takes up his cross and follows Christ, who can say: "For to me the world is crucified, and I to the world," all things are subjected, all things are trodden underfoot. For he despises and scorns all things that are in this world, and imitates him who is called the lion of the tribe of Judah and the lion's cub, because, just as he himself is the light of the world and gave to his disciples that they too should be the light of the world, so also, since he himself is a lion and a lion's cub, he ascribes to those who believe in him the name of lion and lion's cub. But see that these things are evidently said not about that people which existed then, but about this people which was to be; for it says: "Behold, a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion." He says the people that was to be would rise up. For if he were speaking of the one he was seeing, he would doubtless have said: "Behold, a people has risen up like a lion's cub." But it is certain that he speaks of that people, of which it is also written in the Psalms: "And they shall announce his righteousness to a people that shall be born, whom the Lord has made." This people, then, is a lion's cub while, still like newly born infants, they desire the reasonable and guileless milk; but a lion exulting, when, having become a man, it has put away the things that were of a little child.
[§9] "It shall not sleep until it devours the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain." In these words, who will be so contentious a champion of the historical narrative — nay rather, who will be found so brutish — as not to flee, shuddering at the sound of the letter, by very necessity to the sweetness of allegory? For how will this people, so praiseworthy, so magnificent, of which the discourse recounts such great praises, come to this, that it should drink the blood of the slain — when the eating of blood is forbidden by God with such strong precepts, so that even we who have been called from the gentiles are necessarily commanded to abstain, just as from the things sacrificed to idols, so also from blood? Let them tell us, then, who is this people that has the practice of drinking blood. These were the things which, hearing them in the Gospel also, those who followed the Lord from among the Jews were scandalized and said: "Who can eat flesh and drink blood?" But the Christian people, the faithful people, hears these things and embraces them and follows him who says: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in yourselves; for my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink." And indeed, he who said these things was wounded for men; for "he himself was wounded for our sins," as Isaiah says. But we are said to drink the blood of Christ not only by the rite of the sacraments, but also when we receive his words, in which life consists, just as he himself says: "The words which I have spoken are spirit and life." He himself, then, is the wounded one, whose blood we drink — that is, whose words of doctrine we receive. But those too were no less wounded who preached his word to us; for when we read the words of them also — that is, of his apostles — and gain life from them, we drink the blood of the slain. "It shall not," it says, "sleep until it devours the prey." For this people, which is compared to a lion's cub or a lion, will not rest nor sleep until it seizes the prey — that is, until it plunders the kingdom of heaven, because "from the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent plunder it." But that you may more evidently recognize that these things are written about our people, which is confederated in the sacraments of Christ, hear how Moses too pronounces similar things elsewhere, saying: "Butter of cattle and milk of sheep with the fat of lambs and rams, of the young of bulls and of goats, with the fat of the kidneys of wheat; and they shall drink the blood of the grape as wine." And this blood, then, which is named "of the grape," is of that grape which is born from that vine of which the Savior says: "I am the true vine, but the disciples are the branches, and the Father is the vinedresser, who prunes them, that they may bring forth much fruit." You, then, are the true people of Israel, who know how to drink blood, and know how to eat the flesh of the Word of God and to drink the blood of the Word of God, and to draw the blood of that grape which is from the true vine and from those branches which the Father prunes. The fruit of these branches will rightly be called the blood of the slain, which we drink from their words and doctrine, if only we are like lion cubs rising up, and like a lion exulting. Let these things, said meanwhile about the second vision of Balaam, suffice. But let us pray the Lord that he may deign to open to us, for understanding the rest of the things prophesied by him, still clearer meanings and ones nearest to the truth, so that, considering in the spirit the things that were written through the spirit, and comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we may expound worthily of God and of the Holy Spirit, who inspired these things that are written, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.