"My conscience is at rest, and I know that it is not from any fault of mine that I am suffering; moreover affliction in this world is a ground for expecting a reward hereafter." When the enemy was more than usually forward and ventured to reproach her to her face, she used to chant the words of the Psalter.… When she felt herself tempted, she dwelt upon the words of Deuteronomy.… In tribulations and afflictions she turned to the splendid language of Isaiah: "You that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts, look for tribulation upon tribulation, for hope also upon hope. Yet a little while must these things be by reason of the malice of the lips and by reason of a spiteful tongue." This passage of Scripture she explained for her own consolation as meaning that the weaned, that is, those who have come to full age, must endure tribulation upon tribulation that they may be accounted worthy to receive hope upon hope.
We read in the book of Job how, while the first messenger of evil was yet speaking, there came also another; and in the same book it is written, "Is there not a temptation"—or as the Hebrew better gives it—"a warfare to man upon earth?" It is for this end that we labor, it is for this end that we risk our lives in the warfare of this world, that we may be crowned in the world to come. That we should believe this to be true of people is nothing wonderful, for even the Lord was tempted, and of Abraham the Scripture bears witness that God tested him. It is for this reason also that the apostle says, "We glory in tribulations … knowing that tribulation works perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint." And in another passage [we read], "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or family or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, 'for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' " The prophet Isaiah comforts those in a similar case in these words: "You who are weaned from the milk, you who are drawn from the breasts, look for tribulation upon tribulation, but also for hope upon hope." For, as the apostle puts it, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
(Vers. 10 seqq.) Who will teach knowledge, and who will make understanding? Weaned from milk, pulled from the breasts: command, re-command; command, re-command; wait, re-wait; wait, re-wait; a little here, a little there. For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, 'This is the rest, give rest to the weary,' and 'This is the refreshing,' but they would not hear. And the word of the Lord will be to them, command, re-command; command, re-command; wait, re-wait; wait, re-wait; a little here, a little there, that they may go and fall backward, and be broken, snared, and caught. LXX: To whom shall we announce evil, and to whom shall we announce good news? Those who have been weaned from milk, those who have been taken away from the breast. Expect tribulation upon tribulation; wait for hope upon hope; still little, still little: because of the mockery of lips, because of the other tongue with which they will speak to this people, saying to them: This is the rest for the hungry, and this is the crushing, and they did not want to hear. The word of the Lord will come upon them: Tribulation upon tribulation: wait, wait; hope upon hope: still little, still little; so that they may go and fall backward, and be crushed, and be endangered, and be captured. Who, he says, is worthy of the teaching of the Lord, to whom are the words of the Savior saying: 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear' (Matthew 12:15), so that what he has heard with his ears, he may understand with his heart? The following verse shows who they are: 'Weaned from milk, drawn from the breast, who are not nourished with milk in infancy, but are fed with solid food; who were drawn from the breast with Isaac: for the joy of this, Abraham made a great feast' (Genesis 22); they deserve to hear the mysteries of the Lord, and to understand what the priest and prophet do not know, intoxicated and absorbed by wine, who wandered and did not know the one who sees, because all their tables are filled with vomit and filth, who, when the prophets announce the future and threaten torments unless they did what was commanded, used to say scoffing: 'Command, re-command; command, re-command,' that is, 'order, order, command what we should do.' And when they abused the patience of God, who delays his anger in order to show mercy; who used to say even this in jest through the…
