Ambrose of Milan

In his own words on Zechariah

• Zechariah 3:1

  But because he forgot the commandment of God and fulfilled the will of the serpent, the devil held his hand and caused him to reach for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in order to eat of the forbidden fruit. In him, judgment was pronounced on all, and the adversary began to stand at the right hand of all. Hence, that cursed form came forth against Judas: And let the Devil stand at his right hand (Psalm 108:6). If that curse is severe, then this blessing is the greatest, by which the chains of harsh curses are loosened. Therefore, the Lord Jesus placed the devil at His right hand, just as we read in the book of Zechariah (Zach. III, 1); for He had taken up the cause and place of mankind.

  THE PRAYER OF JOB AND DAVID 3:10.27

• Zechariah 3:8

  Of Him He has also spoken by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, saying, "I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My Servant David, He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and My Servant David a Prince among them." Now king David was already dead, and therefore the true David, the truly humble, the truly meek, the true Son of God, strong of hand, is announced by this name; he also is intended in the book of the prophet Zechariah, where God the Father says, "Behold I will send my servant, the Orient is His name." Did then His being "clothed in filthy garments" deprive the Sun of righteousness of the brightness of His Godhead?

  LETTER 46:11

• Zechariah 4:4

  However, since here in Genesis we read that paradise was planted by God in the East, and there the man whom God formed was placed; we can now find the author of this paradise. For who else could have created paradise but the all-powerful God, who spoke and things came into being, never needing those things which he desired to be generated? Therefore, he himself planted the paradise of which Wisdom says: "Every planting that my Father has not planted will be rooted up" (Matthew 15:13). Good planting of angels, good saints. For saints are called under the fig tree and vine in that future time of peace, in which there is a type of angels (Micah IV, 4).

  ON PARADISE 4

• Zechariah 5:7

  The deserts of each one of us are suspended in the balance, which a little weight either of good works or of degenerate conduct sways this way or that; if the evil preponderate, woe is me! if the good, pardon is at hand. For no man is free from sin; but where good preponderates, the evil flies up, is overshadowed, and covered. Wherefore in the Day of judgement our works will either succour us, or will sink us into the deep, weighed down as with a millstone. For iniquity is heavy, supported as by a talent of lead; avarice is intolerable, and all pride is foul dishonesty. Wherefore exhort the people of God to trust rather in the Lord, to abound in the riches of simplicity, wherein they may walk without snare and without hindrance.

  Letter 2

• Zechariah 9:9

  Without Benjamin, the patriarchs went forth; without Paul, the apostles. Neither of them came first, but being summoned by the first, they made greater profit from the arrival of those who came before. There is, he says, grain in Egypt, that is, where there is greater hunger, there is greater plenty. There is much grain in Egypt. Finally, even God the Father says: Out of Egypt I have called my Son. From this seed comes that abundance. For there could not have been a harvest unless the Egyptians had sown the seed beforehand. Therefore, there is grain that no one believed existed before. The patriarchs trade in this grain. And indeed, they brought silver, but the good Joseph gave grain and returned the silver. For Christ is not bought with money, but with grace. Your price is faith. These divine mysteries are bought. However, that unclean donkey carried this grain in the law, but now it is clean in grace.

  On Joseph the Patriarch, 8:45

• Zechariah 9:10

  For peace and tranquillity of the soul is above all glory of any house; for peace passeth all understanding. This is that peace above all peace which shall be granted after the third shaking of the heaven, the sea, the earth and the dry land, when He shall destroy all Principalities and Powers. For heaven and earth shall pass away, and all the fashion of this world; and every man shall rise up against his brother with the sword, that is, with the word piercing the marrow of the soul, that whatever opposes itself, the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem may be cut off, as Zechariah says. And thus there will be peace over all, the passions of the body offering no resistance, and the unbelieving mind no obstacle, that Christ may be all in all, offering in subjection to the Father the hearts of all men.

  Letter 30

• Zechariah 12:1

  Therefore he referred the thunders to the words of the Lord, the sound of which went out into all the earth. And we understand the word spirit in this place of the soul, which he took endowed with potential reason and perfection. For the Scripture often designates the soul of humankind by the word spirit, as you read: "Who creates the spirit of man within him." So too the Lord signified his soul by the word spirit, when he said, "Into your hands I commend my spirit."

  On the Holy Spirit 2.4.56

• Zechariah 14:5-6

  Yet learn that the Son knows the day of judgment. We read in Zechariah: "And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him. In that day there shall not be light but cold and frost, and it shall be one day, and that day is known to the Lord." This day, then, was known unto the Lord, who shall come with his saints to enlighten us by his second advent. But let us continue the point that we have commenced concerning the Spirit: "He shall glorify me." So then the Spirit glorifies the Son, as the Father also glorifies him, but the Son of God also glorifies the Spirit, as we said. He then is not weak who is the cause of the mutual glory through the unity of the eternal light, nor is he inferior to the Spirit, of whom this is true that he is glorified by the Spirit.

  On the Holy Spirit 2.11.119-20