Ephrem the Syrian : "Untie the donkey and bring it to me."He began with a manger and finished with a donkey, in Bethlehem with a manger, in Jerusalem with a donkey. This is like, "Rejoice, daughter of Zion, for behold, your king is coming to you, just and lowly and seated on a donkey." But the daughter of Zion saw him and was troubled. She looked at him and became sad. He the merciful One, and the Son of the merciful One, had spread his benevolence over her like a father, but she conducted herself as perversely toward him as she had done toward the One who had sent him. Not being able to abuse the Father, she displayed her hatred against his Only Begotten. The daughter of Zion repaid him with evil for the immensity of his grace. The Father had washed her from her blood, but she defiled his Son with her spitting. The Father had clothed her with fine linen and purple, but she clothed him with garments of mockery. He had placed a crown of glory on her head, but she plaited a crown of thorns for him. He had nourished her with choicest food and honey, but she gave him gall. He had given her pure wine, but she offered him vinegar and soaked it with blood. The One who had introduced her into cities, she drove out into the desert. The One who had put shoes on her feet, she made hasten barefoot toward Golgotha. The One who had girded her loins with sapphire, she pierced in the side with a lance. When she had outraged the servants of God and killed the prophets, she was led into captivity to Babylon, and when the time of her punishment was completed, her return from captivity took place. — COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON 18:1 Jerome : This is in accordance with what the Samaritan, who is interpreted as a guardian, did: he first soothed wounds with the infusion of oil, and then restrained them with the severity of wine (Luke 10). But our Lord was anointed with another oil, which did not mitigate the pain of wounds, but bestowed joy, as the Holy Spirit said to him: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions (Ps. 44:8). — Commentary on Ezekiel Jerome : With this linen, the loins are girded whenever the thick incentives of lust are to be restrained and nothing of gross humor is left in them. And we fulfill the precept of the Apostle who says: Stand therefore, having your loins girded with truth (Ephes. VI, 14); as if he were saying in other words, with linen. — Commentary on Ezekiel Jerome : (V.9) And you became mine, and I washed you with water, and I cleansed your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. For I spread my wings and covered your shame, and I swore to you, and I entered into a covenant with you; therefore you have become my possession: that which once belonged to another, when you appeared unclean, you began to belong to me, when I established my covenant with you by oath. Or, according to the custom of the prophets, 'You have become mine,' he said, 'insofar as you are united to me by marriage: and I washed you,' he says, 'with the water of saving baptism.' For unless someone is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). And elsewhere we read: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mark 1:8). Concerning this baptism, Isaiah also speaks, saying: The Lord will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion; and he will cleanse the blood from their midst with the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning (Isaiah 4:4). But when he has washed and cleansed the blood, just as he healed the woman who was bleeding for twelve years by touching the edge of his cloak (Mark 5), it is not enough for him to wash with water and cleanse with blood, unless he also anoints with oil. This is in accordance with what the Samaritan, who is interpreted as a guardian, did: he first soothed wounds with the infusion of oil, and then restrained them with the severity of wine (Luke 10). But our Lord was anointed with another oil, which did not mitigate the pain of wounds, but bestowed joy, as the Holy Spirit said to him: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions (Ps. 44:8). And there are fake strengths that simulate the gentleness of oil, promising sweet things through heretics; which turn into bitterness, and which the prophet detests when he says: But the oil of the sinner will not anoint my head (Ps. 140:5). But if someone is anointed by unction, that is, Christ is called, see how much Jerusalem has advanced: so that she herself, anointed with spiritual oil, has received the name of Christ; according to which we also read in the Psalms about Abraham: Do not touch my Christs, and do not malign my prophets. — Commentary on Ezekiel