Hos 10:13

“"You harvested impiety and iniquity; you consumed the fruit of lies." LXX: "Why are you silent about his impieties and injustices? You harvested the fruit of deceit." Against my will, I often find myself debating the nuances of the Hebrew language. For we do not merely repeat sentiments in the manner of rhetoricians, we construct words and rouse the admiration of our listeners or readers by means of our declamatory style. Instead, we strive to explain what is obscure, especially to those who are unfamiliar with the language of others. Above the place where we have interpreted, "Judas will till," in Hebrew is read "Jeros" with the first letter being Yod, which the Septuagint, thinking it was the letter Vau, translated as "and I will be silent." Now it is also written as "Arasthem" in Hebrew which we translate as "you plowed;" for this the Septuagint translated, "why are you silent," interpretating similarly to the mistake above, interpreting "silence" instead of "plowing." The meaning of these words is: Over the neck of the calf of the contentions Ephraim, which I love, I have passed the harrow. And I have ascended in order to plow the land of Judah and to break its furrows. Jacob will harrow its land and bring the warmth of the sun. And I warned them to sow in justice, and to reap in mercy, and to make for themselves new fields; and to know that the time for seeking the Lord is when he comes to teach us justice. While I ordered them to receive the fruits of justice and mercy from happy new fields, they plowed impiety, through which they acted impiously against the Lord, abandoning the Creator and worshiping idols, and they harvested iniquity, receiving bad fruit from bad seed, from which they not only made bread of ash, but also deceitful and false, which would deceive the eater with vain hope. "These are heretics who plow with composed speech, and protect or remain silent about impiety: so that impiety might not appear, but piety be believed. Therefore, because they said in their heart, 'there is no God' (Psalm 13), they have become corrupt and abominable, and they have reaped or harvested iniquities. For just as the love of money is the root of all evils (1 Timothy 6): so impiety is the root of all sins and wickedness, which whoever plows or sows will reap iniquities." Therefore, those who plowed iniquity, and reaped sorrow, have eaten the fruit of lies: preaching all the false things to deceive the people, so that they do not seek the true bread, which comes down from heaven: but the bread of lies, which suffocates and kills those who devour it.”

“"They ate the fruit of deception," namely, they had a useless and senseless hope. For the true fruit is the one that can save and help, the love toward God and the glory of righteousness. On the contrary, the false fruit would reasonably be considered impiety, for in the end it altogether descends to what is abominable.”

“reaped iniquity--that is, the fruit of iniquity; as "righteousness" (Hos 10:12) is "the fruit of righteousness" (Job 4:8; Pro 22:8; Gal 6:7-8). lies--false and spurious worship. trust in thy way--thy perverse way (Isa 57:10; Jer 2:23), thy worship of false gods. This was their internal safeguard, as their external was "the multitude of their mighty men."”

“It is the bishop's duty not to be silent in the case of offenders but to admonish them, to exhort them, to wrestle them down, to afflict them with fastings, that so he may strike a pious dread into the rest. For he is called to bring up the children of Israel in piety. For the bishop must be one who discourages sin by exhortations, who sets a pattern of righteousness, who proclaims those good things that are prepared by God, and who declares that wrath which will come at the day of judgment, lest he neglect the field of God and increase its condemnation. To avoid this carelessness, hear that which is said by Hosea: "Why have you held your peace at impiety? You have reaped the fruit of lies."”