Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Hosea 12:1

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

God of my heart … I didn't know how to love you, because I did not know how to conceive the existence of anything—however glorious—beyond mere matter. The soul that goes puffing and wheezing after such figments of the imagination [as fortune telling] is one that goes whoring from you and trusts what is phony and feeds on the wind. Yet while I wouldn't have this sorcerer sacrificing to demons on my behalf, I was actually sacrificing to them myself just by being involved in my superstition. …

Confessions 4:2 ↗

Jerome

"Ephraim feeds on the wind and follows after the east wind: all day long he multiplies lies and desolation. And he made a covenant with the Assyrians and brought oil into Egypt." LXX: "But Ephraim is a spirit of wickedness, following the heat: all the day long he hath multiplied lies and vanities, and he hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil he carried into Egypt." The sacred story tells that Manahen, king of Israel, after making peace with the Assyrians, sought aid from the Egyptians (2 Kings 15), and this is what is now …

Commentary on Hosea 12:1 ↗