The Deception of Baal Prophets and the Drought of Elijah
A shadow. Therefore, this one alone gives good things to those asking him, as he is the one whom the soul finds, and as he is the one raising up desire, the Lord, who fills your desire with good things. Faith and knowledge must stand over his giving of the good, so as not to fall into error. For example, thought is a good thing, and a useful good thing is addressed as beautiful.
To say it hymnologically: 'Make good,' learn from the loud-voiced Isaiah to make the beautiful; the Apostle says to hold fast to the beautiful with an apostolic voice: 'Test all things, hold fast to the beautiful, abstain from every kind of evil' (1 Thess 5:21). 'For if anything is good, it is of him; and if anything is beautiful, it is from him,' in harmony with 'milk for young men and fragrant wine for virgins' (1 Cor 3:2), and these things are perceived by the sense of fire and the hand. For it is not spiritual and of a soulful man to not receive the things of the Spirit, regarding such things as folly, so that the senses of the inner man are defiled. For how would the sense of smell and taste not be harmed by not tasting the Lord, according to what was said: 'Taste and see that the Lord is good' (Ps 34:8), and the comprehension of the holy breath of his name, according to: 'Myrrh has been poured out for you, therefore the maidens loved you' (Song 1:3)?
Zach. X, 1–3: You ask for rain from the Lord at the right and wrong time; the Lord made visions and winter rain, he will give to each of them vegetation in the field. Because those who utter maxims spoke labors, and the diviners spoke false visions...
They spoke false dreams and made vain calls; therefore they were dried up like sheep and were harmed, because there was no healing. My anger was provoked against the shepherds, and I will visit the lambs.
When wickedness prevails, drought occurs often, as God judges; therefore the one raging against such things is to be calmed, lest falling into error, as if instead of God they were flattering demons; it is better to be calmed, as to receive prophecies and dreams from them. Such a deception occurred to the Hebrews in the times of Elijah the great prophet, when rain did not become upon the earth for three years and six months, as all things were driven to despair, as an assurance of death, and other animals were ruined through the scarcity of their fodder.
This harm having prevailed, it was the custom for Israel, having been benefited many times by God in such things, to be surrounded by Him and to ask rain from Him so that prosperity might exist. This they have not done, because deception has prevailed, as those seeking from idols are able to drink in what they are not able to provide. And madness came from Jezebel, the wife of the one ruling the Hebrews, being exceedingly an idolater, as she had ensnared him and her husband.
In her days, therefore, the prophets of Baal increased, being an image of the Sidonians, prophesying and uttering words and this very thing being found by them being highlighted in dreams, always daring to follow predictive paths, variously lying when favorable weather arrived, so as to no longer ask for the provision of rain, 'that rises the sun upon the good and the bad and rains upon the just and the unjust' (1 Kings 17:14). Since, therefore, those submitted to me have fallen into such ignorance, God, taking pity on those thus submitted, cast upon the prophet to say: 'Ask for rain' (1 Kings 18:41).
Greek
ἀποσκίασμα̣.» ∆ιὸ μόνος οὗτος ··························· δίδωσι̣ν «ἀγαθὰ τοῖς αἰτοῦσιν αὐτόν» ·····················τ̣ου τυγχάνει, καὶ ··································ου, ὡς τὸν πόθον 3.227 ···························· ἐγείροντα τὴν ψυχὴν ···························· τὸν Κύριον «τὸν ἐμπιπλῶντα ἐν ἀγαθοῖς τὴν ἐπιθυμ̣ίαν σου». Ἐπιστατέον ····························· π̣ίστις καὶ ἡ ἐπίγνωσις ···························· αὐτοῦ ἐνδιδομένου καλοῦ ·····························ο̣υ κατορθώματος. Οἷον ···························· τὴν ἐπίνοιαν ἀγαθὸν καὶ ························ν καὶ ὠφέλιμον ἀγαθόν ἐστιν ···························ες προσαγορεύεται καλόν. 3.228 ···············ὑμνῳδὸν εἰπεῖν· «Ποίησον ἀγαθόν» ·······················τὸν μεγαλόφωνον Ἠσαΐαν μάθετε καλὸν ποιεῖν ········ε̣ρον Ἀπόστολον, τὸ καλὸν κατέχειν ·········· ἀποστολικῇ φωνῇ· «Πάντα δοκιμάζετε, τὸ καλὸν κατέχετε, ἀπὸ παντὸς εἴδους πονηροῦ ἀπέχεσθε.» «Ὅτι εἴ τι ἀγαθόν, αὐτοῦ· καὶ εἴ τι καλόν, παρ' αὐτοῦ», ἁρμονίως ··············· «σῖτος νεανίσκοις καὶ οἶνος εὐωδιάζων εἰς παρθένους» ······ι̣ αἰσθητοῦ δὲ πυροῦ καὶ προχείρου ···········λ̣εται ταῦτα. 3.229 Οὐ γὰρ πνευματικὴ καὶ 3.236 ψυχικοῦ ἀνθρώπου πρὸς τῷ μὴ δέχεσθαι τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, μωρίαν αὐτὰ ἡγουμένου τῷ βεβλᾶφθαι τοῦ ἔσω ἀνθρώπου τὰς αἰσθήσεις. Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἐβλάβη ἡ ὄσφρησις καὶ γεῦσις τοῦ μὴ γευομένου τοῦ Κυρίου κατὰ τὸ λεχθέν· «Γεύσασθε καὶ εἴδετε ὅτι χρηστὸς ὁ Κύριος», καὶ ἡ ἀντιλημπτικὴ τῆς ἱερᾶς πνοῆς τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ, κατὰ τό· «Μύρον ἐκκενωθὲν ὄνομά σοι, διὰ τοῦτο νεάνιδες ἠγάπησάν σε»; 3.237 Zach. X, 1–3: Αἰτεῖσθε ὑετὸν παρὰ Κυρίου καθ' ὥραν πρόϊμον καὶ ὄψιμον· Κύριος ἐποίησεν φαντασίας καὶ ὑετὸν χειμερινόν, δώσει αὐτοῖς ἑκάστῳ βοτάνην ἐν ἀγρῷ. ∆ιότι οἱ ἀποφθεγγόμενοι ἐλάλησαν κόπους, καὶ οἱ μάντεις ὁράσεις ψευδεῖς, καὶ τὰ ἐνύπνια ψευδῆ ἐλάλουν, μάταια παρεκάλουν· διὰ τοῦτο ἐξηράνθησαν ὡς πρόβατα καὶ ἐκακώθησαν, ὅτι οὐκ ἦν ἴασις. Ἐπὶ τοὺς ποιμένας παρωξύνθη ὁ θυμός μου, καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀμνοὺς ἐπισκέψομαι. 3.238 Κακίας ἐπιπολαζούσης, ἀβροχία γ̣ίνεται πολλάκις 3.238 κρίναντος Θεοῦ, διὸ ἐξευμενίζεσθαι ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις τὸν ἀγανακτοῦντα κατὰ τῶν οὕτω εἰς ἀθεότητα ·········ς πεσόντων, ὡς ἀντὶ Θεοῦ δαίμονας προιλ̣άσκεσθαι ··θεν ἐξευμενίζεσθαι, ὡς μαντείας καὶ ἐνύπνια λαβεῖν παρ' αὐτῶν. Τοιαύτη ἐπαγωγὴ ὑπῆρκται τοῖς Ἑβραίοις κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους Ἠλίου τοῦ μεγάλου προφήτου, ὑετοῦ μὴ γενομένου ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἐπὶ ἔτη τρία̣ καὶ μῆνας ἕξ, ὡς παντὸς ἀπορῆσαι γενήματος, ὡς ἐγγυ`̣ς θανάτου στῆναι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ζῷα φθάσαι διὰ σπανιότητα τὴν τῶν ἐπιτηδείων. 3.239 Ταύτης τῆς κακώσεως ἐπιπολασάσης, ἀκόλουθον ἦν τὸν Ἰσραὴλ εὐεργετηθέντα πολλ̣άκις ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις Θεοῦ περιέχεσθαι καὶ αἰτεῖσθαι παρ' αὐτοῦ ὑετὸν ἵν' εὐθηνία ὑπαρχθῇ. Τοῦτ' οὐ πεποίηκεν, ἐπικρατησάσης ἀπάτης ὡς δυναμένων τῶν εἰδώλων ἐπι̣νεύειν τοῖς ζητοῦσιν παρ' αὐτῶν ἃ μὴ δύνανται παρασχεῖν. Γέγονε δὲ ἡ φρενοβλάβεια ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰεζάβελ, γυναικὸς τοῦ βασιλεύοντος τῶν Ἑβραίων, σφόδρα εἰδωλολατρούσης ὡς συναπαχθῆναι αὐτῇ καὶ τὸν ἄνδρα. 3.240 Ἐπλήθυνον γοῦν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις αὐτῆς οἱ προφῆται τοῦ Βαάλ, ἀγάλματος ὄντος Σιδωνίων, μάντεις καὶ ἀποφθεγγόμενοι καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐνυπνιασταὶ ὀνείρων ἐξεχόμενοι τυγχάνοντες, θέλγοντες ἀεὶ τολ̣μήρως προγνωστικαῖς δῆθεν ὁδοῖς, διαφόρως ψεύδοντες ἐπιγενομένης εὐετηρίας, ὡς μηκέτι αἰτεῖσθαι χορηγεῖν ὑετὸν «τὸν ἀνατέλλοντα τὸν ἥλιον ἐπὶ ἀγαθοὺς καὶ πονηροὺς καὶ βρέχοντα ἐπὶ δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους». 3.241 Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν εἰς τοσαύτην ἄγνοιαν πεπτώκασιν οἱ παρὰ ···········μου ὑπαχθέντες, οἶκτον 103 λαβὼν ὁ Θεὸς τῶν οὕτω ὑπαχθ̣έντων ὑπέβαλε τῷ προφήτῃ φάναι· «Αἰτεῖσθε ὑετὸν»
About this text
Didymus the Blind on Zechariah.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.