How is it Israel, that you are in your enemies' land, that you have become old in a strange country, that you are defiled with the dead,
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John Cassian
AD 435
When the children of Israel had been taken captive by Necho, king of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Assyria, came up and brought them back from the borders of Egypt to the land of Palestine, not meaning to restore them to their former liberty and their native land but meaning to carry them off to his own land and to transport them to a still more distant country than the land of Egypt in which they had been prisoners. And this illustration exactly applies to the case before us. For though there is less harm in yielding to the sin of pride than to fornication, still it is more difficult to escape from the yoke of pride. In the same way, in fact, the slave who is carried off to a greater distance will have more difficulty in returning to his native land and the freedom of his ancestors. The prophet’s rebuke will be deservedly aimed at him, “Because you are grown old in a strange country,” since one is rightly said to have grown old in a strange country if he has not gotten rid of the yoke of his passions. - "Conferences 1.5.12"
