Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude.
Read Chapter 13
Bede
AD 735
It is known that the Moabites and the Ammonites, because they were born from incest, figuratively represent heretics, whose authors through their faulty understanding corrupt the teaching of the Fathers from which they themselves were instructed, just as the daughters of Lot secretly and in darkness and illegitimately use the seed of their father; and for this reason the offspring of such ones (i.e., adherents of heresies) can never have any part in the Lord’s church. For those who are set straight from these heresies will no longer be the offspring of such mothers. Now they would meet the children of Israel with food and water as they are coming from Egypt if they themselves, living well and dwelling in catholic peace, were to bestow the solace of God’s Word on those who, recently rescued from the servitude of sins through the water of baptism as if through the waves of the sea, are panting for the freedom of the celestial homeland.
And Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah built the Valley Gate. We know that the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which was also called Gehinnom (that is, the Valley of Hinnom), lies toward the eastern side of the city of Jerusalem, through which the brook of Kidron (of which mention is made in the gospel) flows from north to south when it takes in water from snow or rain. But we read that the Valley of Gihon is in the west of this same city, as the book of the Chronicles states concerning King Manasseh of Judah, as was mentioned above: After this he built a wall outside of the City of David, to the west of Gihon in the valley. Now Gihon is the name of the spring where Solomon was anointed king outside the city.4 Therefore, whether in this passage Ezra means this or that or another valley of this same city, the mystical meaning is clear, namely that the Valley Gate is built in Jerusalem when either the elect who recently have been imbued with knowledge of the faith, or those who had gone astray b...
