Jerome : If, as I was saying, we are in the church, if we possess the faith of the church, of the apostles, of Christ, the truths of Christian teaching, we are the mountains of Zion. We do not want to be among the valleys of Zion; we want to be mountains of Zion. Zion, indeed, has its valleys; it has plains, too. The sinner is a valley of Zion, not a mountain. Someone may interpose, "You are giving us your own opinion." Let us call upon the testimony of Isaiah when Zion had fallen into sin, in which after many visions, the prophet mentions one against Idumea, one against Moab, one against Edom and the sons of Ammon, and lastly, "a vision of the valley of Zion." Because Zion had descended from sublime faith, it fell recklessly from the mountain into the valley.Before all else, then, let us flee from the valleys of Zion and come to the plains; from the plains, let us go to the hills, from the hills up the mountains. — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 45 (Psalms 132) Jerome : In the Greek language, a gift is called δόμα, and in Latin it is called tectum. Furthermore, Magog is interpreted as being uncovered. Therefore, all pride and false knowledge of name, which raises itself against the knowledge of truth, is demonstrated by these names. These are the roofs, about which Isaiah speaks in a vision against the Valley of Zion: "What has happened to you now, since you have all gone up to empty roofs?" And we will interpret the roofs as the leaders of heretics: and we will call those who have received their teachings from the roofs. And beautifully after many mystical prophecies in this volume, the final prophecy is against Gog and Magog. — Commentary on Ezekiel Jerome : (Chapter 22—Verse 1) The burden of the Valley of Vision. Although it is not found in Hebrew, they translated it more clearly as the word "Valley of Zion". For this city is the seedbed of prophets, in which the Temple is built, and the visions of the Lord are multiplied. Therefore, because it is compared to other nations and considered one among many, it is not called a mountain, according to the prophecy: Its foundations are on the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob (Psalms 87:1); but it is called a valley, because it is humbled. In other words, Jeremiah himself says this: when he received a cup full of wine, he gave it to all the nations, and finally he offered it to Jerusalem to drink, vomit, fall, and go crazy, signifying the destruction of Babylon (Jeremiah 25). The history of the kings and Jeremiah explains this more fully. From this, we understand that the creator of all is equally God, and that he judges and dispenses everything according to his will, as he himself says through Amos: Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel? The Lord says: Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom (Amos 9:7). So the Jews should not think that they have a privilege because they were brought out of Egypt, for God also says that other nations were transferred to other lands by his authority. What is also your concern, since you have ascended and fully entered the roofs, the city full of clamor, a crowded city, an exulting state? The Hebrew explained to me that the present Vision does not pertain to that time when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and led Zedekiah bound and blinded to Babylon, but to the times of Sennacherib when the high priest Sobna betrayed a great part of the city, and only Zion, that is, the citadel and the Temple, remained, as an example of the Roman city, which, while the Gauls were attacking, preserved the patricians and the flower of youth in the citadel. But we can also speak about the Babylonian captivity: although Eusebius refers everything to the coming of Christ and thinks that it was completed in the times of Vespasian and Titus. Let us take each point briefly, touching on the threefold explanation. What about you? What do you have, Zion, that you too have ascended all the roofs? When he says 'you too', he shows that others had already ascended. Have you also been counted among the nations that you are besieged by enemies and ascend the roofs filled with the wailing and lamentation of miserable women, once a royal city? — Commentary on Isaiah Jerome : (Chapter 22, Verse 1) The burden of the valley of vision. LXX: The word of the valley of Zion. In the book of Hebrew Names, we have defined Zion as the watchtower that is situated in the heights and contemplates those who come from afar. Therefore, when Zion is referred to in accordance with the laws of tropology, it signifies the Church. This is written in the second psalm from the perspective of the Lord and Savior: 'But I have been set as king by Him upon His holy mountain Zion' (Psalms 2:6); and, 'They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion' (Psalms 125:1); and, 'The Lord loveth the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob' (Psalms 86:2); And the Apostle makes it even clearer: 'But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem' (Hebrews 12:22). Now we inquire why in the present vision, it is called the valley of Zion. And from the very sequence of words, we are led to spiritual understanding so that we may know that all the leaders of perverse doctrines, who have fallen from the sublimity of the sense of the Holy Scriptures and have descended to lowly things, are dwelling in the valley of Zion. I think that Solomon also says something similar in Proverbs, saying: 'The eye that mocks a father, and scorns to obey a mother, will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the young eagles.' (Prov. 30:17). For as soon as the heretics mock the Creator Father and despise the old age of the Church mother, they are dug into by filthy and unclean birds, which are drawn to opposing strengths. And they cannot say: I lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where does my help come? (Ps. CXX, 1): but they are cast down like the beasts of the earth. What is also true for you, because you ascended and you are all in the roofs? LXX: What happened to you now, because you all ascended into empty roofs? This, which is sought next to the interpreters of the LXX in the book of Kings, whether it was said by Elisha (4 Kings 2:14): Where is the God of Elijah Aphpho (), is more clearly stated in the present place, because the Seventy translated it as 'now'; in Hebrew it has Aphpho, which we also interpret as 'now', and Aquila, wishing to preserve the Hebrew idiom, put καίπερτοι, which the Latin language does not explain. But when he says, 'What is it to you also?' he asks why she ascends among others herself, and why she remains with the opinion of the lofty in lowly things. And the meaning is this: when philosophers swell, and all secular wisdom disputes about lofty things, despising the simplicity of the Church, why do you also follow lofty things? which the Seventy have interpreted as more important, 'vain dwellings,' that is, empty roofs, in order to show that there is another roof, from which the Savior prohibits descending (Matthew 24): which yet is not an empty roof. Finally, the apostle Peter at the sixth hour of prayer ascended to the roof (Acts X). Now, however, to demonstrate the great variety of heresies, he mentioned not one roof, but many roofs. — Commentary on Isaiah