Jerome, on Ezek 16:56

“And Sodom thy sister was not heard of in thy mouth, in the day of thy pride,”

“(Verse 56 and following) However, your sister Sodom was not heard in your mouth on the day of your pride before your wickedness was revealed, like it is now with the disgrace of the daughters of Syria, and all the daughters of Philistia around you who surround you. You carried your own wickedness and disgrace, says the Lord God. LXX: If your sister Sodom had not been heard in your mouth on the days of your pride before your wickedness was revealed, like it is now with the daughters of Syria, and if this had not been so, what would have happened to you and all the foreign daughters around you who surround you? You carry your impieties and your iniquities. Symmachus interpreted this passage as follows: Because your sister Sodom was not heard through your mouth on the day of your pride, before your disgrace was revealed, like the time of reproach of the daughters of Syria and all the daughters of Palestine around you, who surround you in a circle. You will bear your crime and your wickedness. Theodotus interpreted it as follows: And your sister Sodom was not heard through your mouth on the day of your pride, before your evil was revealed: like the time of reproach of the daughters of Syria and all the daughters of foreign nations around it, who abhor you in a circle. Your fornication and your contaminations, you have borne, says the Lord Adonai. Our translation agrees with the Aquila edition; all of which I have placed, so that from the comparison of all, we may find some trace of meaning, and in the meantime without prejudice from others, it seems to us that the order of the reading must be restored as follows: In the days of your pride, when you were sinning, you did not remember the overthrow of your sister Sodom, before your wickedness was revealed to such an extent that you became a reproach to all the cities of Syria and Palestine which are around you. Therefore, because you have overcome in the crime against your sister, and you were not terrified by her example, so as not to endure similar things, and you did not refrain from stepping forward: now, however, your disgrace has been revealed, listen to the sentence of God. Either you have carried, according to the Septuagint: or you have carried, according to Aquila and Theodotion: or you will carry, according to Symmachus, your crime and disgrace, so that after you have endured punishment for sacrilege, you may obtain forgiveness not by your own terms, but by my clemency. Syria is said to be called Aram in the Hebrew language, which means 'sublimity'. And according to the explanation of that passage of the prophet Isaiah, in which Aram and Ephraim conspire against Judah and Jerusalem, the clever wisdom of the nations and the claim of sublimity in knowledge, joined with the malice of heretics, attacks Judah, in which there is true confession and cannot be overcome. Here also the same arrogance of Syria, that is, of the philosophers with the daughters of foreigners, in which the manifold errors of various doctrines are shown among nations, mocks Jerusalem and reproaches her, though she is overcome by her own vices.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.