The Blood Drinkers

'Super tribus sceleribus Damasci, et super quatour non convertam eum,' et secundum Septuaginta, 'non adversabor eum,'  Id est, Damasci populum, sive Aram, id est, Syrum, hunc sensum juxta historiam habere potest: Si semel meum esset popoulum persecutus, aut secundo, darem veniam; nunc vero cum tertio et quarto crudelis exstiterit, ut captivam multitudienm plaustris ferreis fereret: nonne debeo eum plagis corripere? nonne clementiae meas vultum avesare ab eo? Juxta tropologiam vero hoc possumus dicere: Primum peccatum est, cogitasse quae mala sunt. Secundum, cogitationibus acquievisse perversis. Tertium, quod mente decreveris, opere complesse. Quartum, post peccatum non agere poenitentiam, et in suo sibi complacere delicto. Hoc omnes faciunt haeretici, qui non solum cogitant, et faciunt mala, sed doctrina sua quosque simplices decipiunt, et in morem Damascenorum, qui interpretantur, sanguinem bibentes, eorum quos deceperint, sanguinem bibunt. Super hujuscemodi, inquit, peccatis Dominus: nonne dignum est, ut eos plagis corripiam, et avertam ab eis faciem meam? ut qui veritatem dogmatum meorum non vident, aversione vultus mei tenebris obruantur. Sanctus Hieronymous, Commentariorum In Amos Prophetam

'For the crimes of the tribe of Damascus and because of four, shall I not oppose him?' or as the Septuagint has it, 'shall I not be averse to him?'  That is, the people of Damascus, or Aram, that is, Syria. In the historical sense the meaning of this is: If once my people you had persecuted, or twice, I could have forgiven it, but now indeed three and four times you have cruelly oppressed so that a captive multitude in iron bonds is made, and should I not then correct with blows? Should I not turn the clemency of my face from them? In a figurative sense we are able the meaning is this: The first sin is to have thought some evil, the second is to acquiesce in perverse thoughts, the third is that the mind resolves the work is to be done, the fourth is a lack of penitence after sin and pleasure in the crime. This is what heretics do, who not only think and do evil but even deceive the simple with their own teachings and in the manner of the Damascenes, who are interpreted drinkers of blood, they are the drinkers of the blood of those who they deceive. On account of such sins, says the Lord, is it not right that I should correct them with blows and avert my face from them? Thus they who did not see the truth of my teaching, by the turning away of my face, are overwhelmed by darkness.  Saint Jerome, Commentary on Amos.