Jerome : (Verse 13.) And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain shall be in the midst of your idols, round about your altars, upon every high hill, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols. It is evident according to the literal sense, and needs no interpretation, that in the mountains of Israel, and in the high places, among the altars and groves, which are called thick trees, the army of Israel was slain, that they might be punished in the same places where they had sinned. According to allegory, let us follow the proposed order. When the masters of heretics, who are instructed in the knowledge of Scriptures, have been crushed and overcome by the Ecclesiastical men, we see them lying among the idols they created, and those who elevated themselves against the knowledge of God lie scattered on the mountains and hills beneath every leafy tree; those who have pompous words and the shadow of leaves, but do not have the fruits of good works; those who are under every leafy oak tree, which does not bear the fruits of men, but of pigs: where they burn fragrant incense not to God, but to their idols. And they could not say what is written about Noah: 'The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma' (Gen. VIII, 21): and that which Paul speaks: 'For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing' (II Cor. II, 15). But just as a holy person delights God with their fragrance, so sin is committed from whose person that psalm is sung: 'My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness' (Ps. XXXVII, 6), he kindles his foul incense for his idols. What we interpreted, on all the highest points of the mountains: and a little later: And under the whole leafy oak, they left seventy. — Commentary on Ezekiel