10.  What are we to do now, my brethren, when crushed, cast down, and drunken but not with strong drink nor with wine,58    Isai. xxix. 9. which excites and obfuscates but for a while, but with the blow which the Lord has inflicted upon us, Who says, And thou, O heart, be stirred and shaken,59    Hab. ii. 16. and gives to the despisers the spirit of sorrow and deep sleep to drink:60    Ps. lx. 2, 3; Isai. xxix. 10.  to whom He also says, See, ye despisers, behold, and wonder and perish?61    Hab. i. 5; Acts xiii. 41.  How shall we bear His convictions; or what reply shall we make, when He reproaches us not only with the multitude of the benefits for which we have continued ungrateful, but also with His chastisements, and reckons up the remedies with which we have refused to be healed?  Calling us His children62    Deut. xxxii. 5. indeed, but unworthy children, and His sons, but strange sons63    Ps. xviii. 46. who have stumbled from lameness out of their paths, in the trackless and rough ground.  How and by what means could I have instructed you, and I have not done so?  By gentler measures?  I have applied them.  I passed by the blood drunk in Egypt from the wells and rivers and all reservoirs of water64    Exod. vii. 19. in the first plague:  I passed over the next scourges, the frogs, lice, and flies.  I began with the flocks and the cattle and the sheep, the fifth plague, and, sparing as yet the rational creatures, I struck the animals.  You made light of the stroke, and treated me with less reason and attention than the beasts who were struck.  I withheld from you the rain; one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered,65    Amos iv. 7. and ye said “We will brave it.”66    Jer. xviii. 12 (LXX.).  I brought the hail upon you, chastising you with the opposite kind of blow, I uprooted your vineyards and shrubberies, and crops, but I failed to shatter your wickedness.

Ιʹ. Νῦν δὲ τί ποιήσωμεν, ἀδελφοὶ, συντετριμμένοι, καὶ τεταπεινωμένοι, καὶ μεθύοντες, οὐκ ἀπὸ σίκερα, οὐδὲ ἀπὸ οἴνου, τοῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον σαλεύοντος καὶ σκοτίζοντος, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῆς πληγῆς ἣν ἐπήγαγε Κύριος, ὁ λέγων: Καὶ σὺ, καρδία, σείσθητι καὶ σαλεύθητι: καὶ ποτίζων τοὺς καταφρονητὰς πνεῦμα λύπης καὶ κατανύξεως: πρὸς οὓς καὶ λέγεται: Ἴδετε, οἱ καταφρονηταὶ, καὶ ἐπιβλέψατε, καὶ θαυμάσατε, καὶ ἀφανίσθητε; Πῶς οἴσομεν αὐτοῦ τοὺς ἐλεγμούς: ἢ τίνα δώσομεν τὴν ἀπόκρισιν, ὅταν ἐπὶ τῷ πλήθει τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν, ἐφ' αἷς ἀχάριστοι μεμενήκαμεν, ἔτι καὶ τὰς πληγὰς ἡμῖν ὀνειδίζῃ, καὶ ἀπαριθμῆται τὴν ἰατρείαν, ἐξ ἧς οὐ τεθεραπεύμεθα; Καὶ τέκνα μὲν, ἀλλὰ μωμητὰ καλῶν λέγῃ, καὶ υἱοὺς μὲν, ἀλλ' ἀλλοτρίους καὶ χωλάναντας ἀπὸ τῶν τρίβων αὑτῶν δι' ἀνοδίαν τε καὶ τραχύτητα: Πῶς ἔδει, καὶ πόθεν ὑμᾶς παιδευθῆναι, καὶ οὐ πεπαίδευκα; Δι' ἁπαλωτέρων φαρμάκων; ἐπήγαγον. Παρῆκα τὸ Αἰγύπτιον αἷμα πινόμενον ἐκ πηγῶν καὶ ποταμῶν καὶ πάσης συναγωγῆς ὕδατος, τὴν πρώτην πληγήν. Παρῆλθον τοὺς βατράχους, καὶ τὸν σκνῖπα, καὶ τὴν κυνόμυιαν, τὰς ἑξῆς μάστιγας: ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν κτηνῶν, καὶ τῶν βοῶν, καὶ τῶν προβάτων ἠρξάμην, τῆς πέμπτης πληγῆς, καὶ τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἐνέσκηψα, ἔτι τῶν λογικῶν φειδόμενος. Οὐδὲν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἡ θραῦσις: ἀλλὰ γεγόνατέ μοι καὶ τῶν πληγέντων ἀλογώτεροι, καὶ ἀπαιδευτότεροι. Ἀνέσχον ἐξ ὑμῶν τὸν ὑετόν: μερὶς μία ἐβράχη: καὶ μερὶς ἐφ' ἣν οὐκ ἔβρεξα, ἐξηράνθη: καὶ εἴπατε: Ἀνδριούμεθα. Ἐπήγαγον ὑμῖν χάλαζαν, τῇ ἐναντίᾳ πληγῇ παιδεύων, ἀμπελῶνας ὑμῶν καὶ δρυμῶνας καὶ γεννήματα ὑμῶν ἐξεθέρισα: καὶ τὴν κακίαν ὑμῶν οὐ συνέτριψα.