Teaching Christianity (continued)
indeed they seem to be wrapped up under metaphorical expresssions, the sweeter they taste when they are finally unpacked.[21] Here, however, where I quote such a passage, I am not to be required to expound what is said, but only to draw attention to the way it is said. And I will do this most effectively from the book of that prophet who said he was a shepherd or herdsman, and was taken away from that by God and sent to prophesy to God's people. I will not take it, however, from the version of the Seventy translators,[22] who were also divinely inspired in their translation, and for that reason appear to have said some things rather differently from the original, in order to encourage the reader to concentrate on searching out the spiritual sense, which is why much of their text is more obscure, because couched in more figurative language. Instead I will quote it as translated from Hebrew into Latin speech by the presbyter Jerome, who was well versed in both languages.
16. So then, when this rustic prophet, or rustic turned prophet, was attacking the godless, the proud, the lovers of luxury, who were thereby utterly neglectful of the demands of brotherly love, he cried out with the words, Woe to you who are opulent in Sion, and place your trust in the mountain of Samaria, aristocrats, heads of peoples, pompously pacing into the house of Israel! Pass over to Calneh and see, and go from there to Hamath the great; and go down to Gath of the Philistines, and to each of their best kingdoms, if their boundaries are wider than your boundaries. You that have been set apart for the evil day, and are drawing near to the throne of iniquity; who sleep on beds of ivory and sport wantonly on your quilts; who eat lamb from the flock and veal from the midst of the herd; who sing to the voice of the psaltery. They imagined they had instruments of song like David, drinking wine in goblets and smearing themselves with the finest ointments; and they felt nothing for the grinding down of Joseph (Am 6:1–6).