Zephaniah 2:1

Struggle, my beloved, for the time is near and the days have been shortened. There is no father who instructs his children, there is no child who obeys his father; good virgins are no longer; the holy fathers have died on all sides; the mothers and the widows are no longer, and we have become like orphans; the humble are crushed underfoot; and blows are showered upon the head of the poor. Therefore there is little to hold back the wrath of God from grieving us, with no one to console us. All this has befallen us because we have not practiced mortification.

One of the prophets rightly spoke of this relation to those who had fallen into negligence: "Be gathered again and tied back together, you undisciplined nation, before you become like the flower that passes away." A disciple can also be said to "attach" himself to a teacher in terms of a love of study, and we too can attach ourselves to one another not in one fashion only but in many. In short, when someone assists another in a task, should we not consider that he has been conjoined by will to the one who receives his assistance? It seems to us that this is exactly what these innovators mean by conjunction. You must have heard how they stupidly maintain that God the Word assumed a man, as if he were a different Son to himself, and then proposed him as a kind of assistant to his designs so that he underwent the trial and death, came to life again, rose up to heaven, and even sat upon the throne of the ineffable Godhead? With arguments such as these have they not completely and utterly proven that this man is altogether different from the true and natural son?

(Chapter 2, verses 1, 2.) Come together, gather, o unlovable nation: before the command gives birth, like passing dust, to the day: before the wrath of the fury of the Lord comes upon you, before the anger of the indignation of the Lord comes upon you. LXX: Gather and collect, o unlearned nation: before you become like a passing flower of the day: before the wrath of the Lord comes upon you: before the day of the anger of the fury of the Lord comes upon you. After the description of the evils that are to come on the Lord's day (according to the double exposition of captivity which we mentioned above), the people are called to repentance and it is said to them: Come together and gather, or as it is written in the Septuagint, be gathered, that is, be united by the bond of love (according to the Apostle): an unlovable people, who are unworthy of God's love, or an unlearned people, of whom it is said in Deuteronomy: A foolish and senseless people (Deut. XXXII, 6). And in Jeremiah: You have struck your children without cause; you have not received discipline (Jer. II, 30), before what has been prophesied comes to pass, before the prescribed command takes effect (which will come as easily as dust blown by), before the fury of the Lord is fulfilled upon you. At the same time, behold the mercy of God: it was enough for the wise to have described the onslaught of the impending evils; but because He does not want to impose punishment, but only to frighten those who will suffer, He himself prompts them to repentance, so that He does not do what He has threatened. But in general, the entire multitude of believers, and those who are called the people of God, gathers in the Church, and it is said to them: Come together in the Church, join us with love and peace, O uninstructed people, who do not want to receive God's discipline, nor have knowledge of His commandments; but you delight in the riches and physical well-being and beauty of this world, and also in the pleasures of the flesh, which pass away like a flower that withers in a single day. Therefore I say to you, come together, unite, so that when the time of judgment comes and all your glory has passed away, you may be willing to repent, when there is no longer a place for repentance, but only for punishment. Someone may ask, how can this be understood as each person passes from the world? Therefore, it is said to…