Better sword-death than famine; Word as sword; Bethlehem bread

For better to die swiftly in war than to be mastered by famine through lack of the field’s products. And you would say a sword and a dagger is also the word of God; for Paul says: “and the sword of the spirit, which is a saying of God,” by which, the bride says, “I am wounded with love.” And David also says: “gird your sword upon your thigh, O powerful one, in your beauty and your comeliness.” Those struck by such a sword fall under Jesus’s feet according to “peoples will fall under you,” having confessed his kingdom, but not to be taken by a soul-famine. For offspring of a country is the Christ, the one born in Bethlehem, which is signified House of Bread—of whom Jews having become untasting were led away unto a country of demons. And a field blessed by the Lord and very fragrant, of which Jacob was smelling, shows Christ’s church.