As an indictment of those who presume to apply themselves to the prophetic utterances without due preparation, and also by way of education of those coming after, let us come to the task of clarifying the prophetic books with God’s assistance, making a start with Hosea, who happens to be the first in time of the other prophets.¹ Blessed David, remember, as I said before, had clearly addressed in psalms all the vicissitudes that would befall the people; but silence prevailed during the intervening time for the reason that he had foretold everything satisfactorily. The time came, however, for the...

The task now before us is to begin clarifying blessed Joel the prophet.¹ The theme of his work, in general terms, is that also of all the prophets, who were anxious to disclose what was going to happen in regard to the people according to the grace of the Holy Spirit given to them in regard to that. First place among them, as I said before, was held by blessed David, who long ago—in fact, very long ago—and well before the outcome of the events mentioned all that would happen in regard to the people at different times.²...

It is quite obvious, on the one hand, that the blessed prophet Amos, on whom with the grace of God it is now our task to comment, speaks in almost all his prophecy of the fate that would befall the people. Thus he reveals the ten tribes would suffer first at the hands of the Assyrians, and what was due to affect Jerusalem, and the tribe of Judah, and then the rest of that kingdom at the hands of the Babylonians. On the other hand, it was not without purpose¹ that reference to this was made by the prophets; it...

Idumeans were hostile to the Israelites from olden times, giving high priority to their destruction and taking satisfaction in the disasters befalling them, to the extent that they even conspired [305] in every scheme with those attacking them at times when by divine permission they were reduced to experiencing troubles. Israelites were descended from Jacob, you see, and Idumeans from Esau, and these men were brothers, sons of Isaac: when by divine decision the privileges of the firstborn passed to Jacob, Esau felt hatred for his brother and intended to do away with him when opportunity offered, so his mother...

The god of both the Old and the New covenant is one, the Lord and maker of all things, who with one end in view made dispositions for both the former and the latter.¹ While of old he had determined with himself the manifestation of the future condition of things, whose commencement he brought to light in the Incarnation of Christ the Lord, he nevertheless judged it necessary for us first, to take on this condition—I mean our present one—and later, to be transformed into the other through the resurrection from the dead so that we might realize...

Blessed micah also emerges prophesying things similar to what Hosea, Amos, and the rest all prophesied to these people.¹ Under the influence of spiritual grace, in fact, he did his best to foretell what would happen to the people at the hands of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, from the very outset delivering a message of general application to the whole of Israel—that is, the ten tribes, of whom Samaria happened to be head, and the two, who were led by Jerusalem.

It also emerges that he was prophesying at the same time as those others, that is, in...

Nineveh was a large city, priding itself on its vast population, as the divine Scripture informs us, and was the most famous of all those in Assyria. In it was in fact the palace, and the king of the Assyrians made it his residence for a long period.¹ These people, however—I mean the inhabitants of Nineveh—when God wanted to give a demonstration of his characteristic grace, as we said more clearly in commenting on the prophecy of blessed Jonah, were seized with such dread at a simple threat made by an unknown man as to be converted with...

After taking the ten tribes off to his own country as captives, the Assyrian advanced on Jerusalem; but he [425] sustained that fearful attack by the angel, and in the great shame predictably arising from it he turned tail for his own country.¹ Then it was that blessed Habakkuk delivered this prophecy in Judah, dividing his treatment into two parts.² One is the censure of those among the people exercising influence and judgment, who afflicted the poor with hardships many and varied, for which above all he declares the troubles from the Babylonians would be inflicted on them. The other...

Blessed zephaniah delivered this prophecy at no great distance in time from blessed Habakkuk, dealing in his prophecy with the present in the time of Josiah, king of Judah, as the book indicates.¹ A short time after him the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem, and made a vast number of dispositions affecting the tribe of Judah, killing many and taking a great number off into captivity. They also plundered Jerusalem, and in particular set on fire the divine Temple and all the most beautiful of the city’s buildings; they even went further and dismantled its walls to prevent the inhabitants being in...

The blessed prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Micah directed their discourse in general to all the Israelite people, both those of the ten tribes ruled by Samaria and especially those of the tribe of Judah, who dwelt in Jerusalem.¹ They accused both in similar fashion of acts of impiety and [476] lawlessness, which they committed in various ways, and went on to mention also the troubles that would thus befall them for sinning without repentance, namely, the fate of the ten tribes, first at the hands of the Assyrians, and later what happened to those of the tribe of Judah...

It is clear that, at the same time as the prophet Haggai, blessed Zechariah was also prophesying: in the [496] second year of Darius, as you can learn from the divine Scripture itself,¹ the former says he began his prophecy according to a divine revelation, and similarly the latter. So it becomes clear that each was delivering his prophecy after the return of the Israelite people when brought back from Babylon to Judea. When Cyrus, you see, who was the first to rule over Persians and Medes at the same time, gave instructions for them to return to their own...

The blessed prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied through divine influence after the return of the people from Babylon. While blessed Haggai addressed the people on the rebuilding of the Temple and in particular disclosed the destruction of those in the company of Gog, blessed Zechariah mentioned those things as well as the doings of the Maccabees much later,¹ setting out as well many and varied revelations in which he indicated the variety of God’s beneficence towards them and provided instruction sufficient to bring them to the practice of religion and a devout life. Since Jews, however, though vouchsafed divine providence...