18.  Esaias lived nearly a thousand years ago; and he beheld Zion as a booth.  The city was still standing, and beautified with public places, and robed in majesty; yet he says, Zion shall be ploughed as a field Micah iii. 12; ascribed by Cyril to Isaiah., foretelling what is now fulfilled in our days Cf. Euseb. Dem. Evang. vi. 13:  “In our own time we have seen with our eyes the Sion of old renown being ploughed by Romans with yokes of oxen, and Jerusalem in a state of utter desolation as the oracle itself says, like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.  As Cyril at that time saw the Prophet’s prediction fulfilled, so we also to the present day see most plainly the fulfilment of the divine oracle, and Sion ploughed before our eyes:  for except the Church of the Apostles, with the houses lying around it, and the house of Caiaphas and the cemeteries, all the remaining space of this hill, lying without the city, is under plough.” (Jerusalem Editor)..  And observe the exactness of the prophecy; for he said, And the daughter of Zion shall be left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers Isa. i. 8.  ὀπωροφυλάκιον is the hut of the watchman who guarded the crop when ripening for harvest.  Σικυήλατον is explained by Basil in his comment on the passage of Isaiah as “A place that produces quick-growing and perishable fruits.”  This agrees with the etymological sense of the word as “a forcing-bed for cucumbers” (Hippocrates apud Fritzsche, “Der Brief des Jeremia,” v. 70).  On the form σικυηράτῳ, see the notes on the Epistle of Jeremy in the Speaker’s Commentary..  And now the place is filled with gardens of cucumbers.  Seest thou how the Holy Spirit enlightens the saints?  Be not therefore carried away to other things, by the force of a common term, but keep fast the exact meaning.