Hab 3:3

“And there are also some of them who say, "The Lord hath spoken in Zion, and uttered His voice from Jerusalem;" and, "In Judah is God known;" -these indicated His advent which took place in Judea. Those, again, who declare that "God comes from the south, and from a mountain thick with foliage," announced His advent at Bethlehem, as I have pointed out in the preceding book. From that place, also, He who rules, and who feeds the people of His Father, has come. Those, again, who declare that at His coming "the lame man shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall [speak] plainly, and the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear," and that "the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, shall be strengthened," and that "the dead which are in the grave shall arise," and that He Himself "shall take [upon Him] our weaknesses, and bear our sorrows," -[all these] proclaimed those works of healing which were accomplished by Him.”

“Habakkuk the prophet says, "God shall come from the south, and the holy one from the dark and dense mountain." Whom would they have come from the south? If they say that God the Father almighty came, then God the Father came from a place; consequently, he is also enclosed by space and contained within the limits of some abode. Thus the sacrilegious heresy of Sabellius, as we said, takes concrete form because of these people who believe that Christ is not the Son but the Father. It is strange how these heretics, while insisting that Christ is a mere man, make an about-face and acknowledge that Christ is the Father, God almighty.”

“(Verse 3) God will come from the South, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. LXX: God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from the dark and thickly wooded mountain. Diapsalma. Aquila and Symmachus, and the fifth edition, set forth the Hebrew itself in Teman (): only Theodotion interpreted what Teman meant, saying, 'God will come from the South, and the holy one from Mount Paran, to the end.' From this we understand that the reading of the Seventy is from the dark and thickly wooded mountain. But even this, which the Seventy translated as 'psalm', and we have retained, forever; Symmachus interpreted as 'eternity'; Theodotion, 'to the end'; the fifth edition has the Hebrew 'Sela'. Therefore, God will come from the South, that is, from the South, from the clear light, and from those who are called the sons of days. Hence, in the Song of Songs, the bridegroom drives away the north wind and calls the south wind, saying: Arise, o North wind, and come, o South wind, blow through my garden, and let my spices flow (Song of Songs IV, 16). God is always in the midday: Where, he says, do you graze? Where do you lie down? in the midday (Ibid., I, 6). And to Abraham when he was under the oak, God did not come except in the midday (Gen. XVIII and XLIII). And Joseph, who foreshadowed the Savior, makes a meal for his brothers at midday. Therefore, the recognition of God the Father comes to those who are worthy in full light. And the recognition of the Holy One, that is, the Son of God, comes from the shady and thick mountain. The shady and dense mountain, or rather the Father himself, is understood to be full of virtues and all wisdom, protecting all things with his majesty, and spreading his wings, and cherishing his children; or certainly a paradise and heaven full of angels, full of virtues, full of abundant trees. And I wish that it may also happen to me, that God may come to my voice and my exposition in clear light, and his Son, of whom it is written: 'Be holy, for I am holy' (Lev. 20:26), from the lofty and dense eloquence, and the intertwining testimonies of the Scriptures from here and there, and as the Father and the Son come together, may their listener be made their dwelling, and may the Scripture be fulfilled, saying: 'I and my Father will come to him, and we will make our dwelling with him' (John 14:23). But because it is written in Hebrew as the shady and dense mountain, it is interpreted as the mountain Pharan, and Pharan means the mouth of the seer: fittingly, according to our interpretation, the knowledge of the Son comes in the eloquent speech of a learned man, and not just any speech, but one that is full of light, full of eyes, so that it may be clearly and purely conveyed to the ears of the listeners. And by what he says about the mountain, understand sublime teachings. I have heard this Hebrew passage explain that Bethlehem is located to the South, where the Lord and Savior was born, and it is he about whom it is now said: The Lord will come from the South, that is, he will be born in Bethlehem and rise from there. And because he who was born in Bethlehem once gave the Law on Mount Sinai, he is the Holy One who came from Mount Paran: for Paran is adjacent to the mountain of Sinai. And what is inferred, diapsalma, that is, always, has meaning: he who was born in Bethlehem, and who in Sinai, that is, in Mount Paran, gave the Law, is always the author and giver of all past, present, and future benefits. In the Psalter, there is a more detailed discussion about the diapsalmate, which is called Sela in Hebrew. Also, according to the Septuagint, the diapsalmate is only found in the Psalter and in the present place. From this, we rightly understand that the song of prayer was marked by the Septuagint.”

“But tell us the other thing you were saying you were going to tell us. "The prophet," says he, "says God 'will come from Afric,' and now of course where the Afric is, there is Africa." Well, there's a fine testimony for you! God will come from the Afric, and from Africa God will come. The heretics are announcing another Christ who is born in Africa and goes through the world. I'm asking what it means, God will come from Africa. If you said, "God has only remained in Africa," you would certainly be saying something shameful enough. But now you also say, "He will come from Africa." We know where Christ was born, where he suffered, where he ascended into heaven, where he sent his disciples from, where he filled them with the Holy Spirit, where he instructed them to evangelize the whole world, and they complied, and the world is filled with the gospel. And you say, "God will come from Africa!" …So how does he come from "the shady mountain"? Read the Gospel once more: it was from the Mount of Olives that Christ ascended into heaven. Continue. And what could be clearer? You hear "from the Afric"; you have heard "from the shady mountain." We recite the law, we recite the Gospel; you have heard "beginning from Jerusalem"; now hear "throughout all the nations." In the same prophet continue with those words that you ignored, those words you left out.… "God will come from the Afric, and the Holy One from the shady mountain," that is, from the Mount of Olives, where he ascended into heaven, where he sent his disciples from, where he also said as he was about to ascend, "It is not for you to know the times which the Father has placed in his own power; but you will receive might from on high, and you will be witness to me … in Jerusalem, and in Judea and in Samaria, and as far as the whole earth."”

“Where we recognize Christ in what is written: "God will come from the south and the holy one from the shady mountain; his strength will cover the heavens," there we recognize the church in what follows: "And the earth is full of his praise." Jerusalem was settled from Africa, as we read in the book of Joshua, son of Nun; from there the name of Christ was spread abroad; there is the shady mountain, the Mount of Olives, from which he ascended into heaven, so that his strength might cover the heavens and the church might be filled through all the earth with his praise.”

“God will come from Lebanon and the Holy One from the dense and dark mountain. Lebanon is the highest mountain of Phoenicia, notable for its lofty, incorruptible, and aromatic trees, from which the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem was also made, as Scripture testifies; hence in the Scriptures, sometimes even the temple itself is designated by the name of Lebanon. Hence, for instance, Zechariah speaks about the coming of the Chaldean army against it: "Open, O Lebanon, your gates, and let fire consume your cedars" (Zech. XI, 1). Therefore, God comes from Lebanon, because the Lord appearing in the flesh sowed the first seeds of the Gospel in that very temple, and from there filled the entire world with the seed of His faith and truth. Hence, Isaiah says, "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah II, 3). He sprinkled there the first seeds of faith not only through the apostles, who, filled with the Holy Spirit after His passion and resurrection, laid the first foundations of the Church there by preaching, whose sound then went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Psalm XVIII, 5); but also through Himself, first in that very temple giving testimony of the faith to be had in Him, sitting in the midst of the doctors when He was of tender age, asking them questions as a mere boy, but answering those teaching as God of eternal majesty; where, being sought and found by His parents, He Himself indicated that He was God and God's Son by saying: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke II, 49). However, it should be noted that in the Hebrew truth this verse is as follows: "God will come from Teman," that is, from the South, which has an easy sense according to the letter, because Bethlehem, where the Lord was born, is situated to the south of Jerusalem. And when He was brought to Jerusalem by His parents on the fortieth day of His birth, that an offering might be made for Him according to the law, God indeed came from the South. And he says, "the Holy One from the dense and dark mountain." The Holy One, the same Mediator of God and men, who is plainly called God above, of whom Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mother said: "Therefore, the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke I, 35). The mountain from which the same Holy One is sung to come can be understood to mean the kingdom of the Jews, from which He took His fleshly origin. From which also Daniel saw the stone cut out without hands, that is, Christ begotten without the work of a man, who crushing the kingdoms of the world, would fill the whole world with the glory of His name (Dan. II, 45). This mountain is rightly called dense and dark; for it has many fruitful trees, that is, many holy men laden with the fruits of virtue, who both instruct our hunger with the sweetest taste of their doctrine, and with the shade of their intercession protect our frailty from being dried up by the heat of tribulations from the inner greenness of love. This fits figuratively with what the apostle Peter, certainly a distinguished tree of this mountain, not only refreshes the hungry and thirsty for righteousness with the fruit of doctrine but also saves the sick with the shadow of his body (Acts V, 15). These holy and sublime men can also be designated by the term "South," from whom God is said to come, on account of the fervent love with which they are usually enflamed in the Lord and the doctrine with which they enlighten men, from which South God came because He deigned to be incarnate from such men. From which South God comes daily, when, reading or hearing their words or examples, the love or knowledge of truth is more perfectly generated in our hearts.”

“His majesty covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. The dispensation of the Lord's incarnation having been described, he immediately added the mystery of the ascension by which the same humanity was to be glorified, according to the saying of the Psalmist: His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit reaches to the end thereof (Ps. 18:7). For his majesty covered the heavens, because he who was made a little lower than the angels through the incarnation, was crowned with glory and honor through the resurrection, and established above the works of the Father's hands through the ascension, and all things are placed under his feet (Ps. 8:6), and as the apostles preached, the earth was filled with his praise: this very thing being briefly but very clearly included at both the beginning and end of the same psalm, when it is said: O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! for your magnificence is elevated above the heavens (Ps. 8:2). But even before the passion and resurrection, when the Word made flesh dwelt among us, his majesty covered the heavens, because the assumed humanity, though still mortal, surpassed the heavenly powers. And the earth is full of his praise, with the same heavenly virtues truly knowing that he was the creator of the earth, as of all creation by divinity, who then dwelled on earth through humanity: from which, at his birth, they sang: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Lk. 2:14).”