Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, And the house of Israel with deceit; And Judah still us unruly with God, And is unfaithful to the Holy One.
He says further, that he was faithful with the saints By saints some understand God. The word קדושים, kodushim, we know, is plurals and sometimes an epithet of the singular number is joined to it, though not often. In the last chapter of Joshua (83) we have these words, קדושים הרא, kodushim eva, holy is he But as I have said, these examples are rare. And here I know not whether or not the Prophet means God. I would rather refer this word to the holy fathers or to the whole Church; so that the Prophet calls here קדושים, kodushim, saints, Abraham and others who justly deserved to be counted among the children of God; and I am inclined to include the angels. But of the sanctuary we do not find this word anywhere used; when the Scripture refers to the sanctuary, the letter מ, mem, is added. He uses indeed the plural number, though one may suppose that both the sanctuary and its worship are here intended. But as this application would be strained, and without example, I am satisfied with this plain meaning — that Judah was faithful with the saints; that is, that he retained faith in God together with the fathers, and departed not from the pure worship which had been delivered to him, according to which God had made his covenant with Abraham and his seed. 