The vanity of pleasures, riches, and worldly labours.
Humane deligthes are al vaine: 4. as gorgious buildinges, fruitful vinyards, plentie of fish, cattle, seruantes, siluer, gold, musike: 11. not satisfying mans desire. 18. Neither can anie man know, how his heyre wil behaue himself.
1I said in my heart: I will go, and abound with delights, and enjoy good things. And I saw that this also was vanity.Io dissi in cuor mio: Anderò a provarla copia delle delizie, e a godere dei beni. E riconobbi, che questo pure è vanità.ISayde therfore in my hart: I wil goe, & flow in delightes, and enioy good thinges. And I saw that this also was vanitie.Dixi ego in corde meo: Vadam, / et affluam deliciis, et fruar bonis; / et vidi quod hoc quoque esset vanitas. 2Laughter I counted error: and to mirth I said: Why art thou vainly deceived?Il riso lo condannai di pazzia: e al gaudio dissi: Come vanamente ti inganni!Laughter I haue reputed errour: and to ioy I haue saide: Why art thou deceiued in vaine?Risum reputavi errorem, / et gaudio dixi: Quid frustra deciperis ? 3I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly, till I might see what was profitable for the children of men: and what they ought to do under the sun, all the days of their life.Risolvei in cuor mio di divezzar la mia carne dal vino per rivolgere l'animo alla sapienza, e per fuggir la stoltezza; sino a tanto che io avessi veduto quel, che sia utile pe' figliuoli degli uomini, e quel, che sia necessario di fare sotto del sole nei giorni contati della sua vita.I haue thought in my hart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might transferre my minde to wisdom, and might auoid follie, til I might see what should be profitable for the children of men: what is nedeful to be done vnder the sunne, in the number of the dayes of their life.Cogitavi in corde meo abstrahere a vino carnem meam, / ut animam meam transferrem ad sapientiam, / devitaremque stultitiam, / donec viderem quid esset utile filiis hominum, / quo facto opus est sub sole numero dierum vitæ suæ. 4I made me great works, I built me houses, and planted vineyards,Or io feci opere grandi, fabbricai delle case, e piantai delle vigne.I haue magnified my workes, I haue built me houses, & planted vineyards,Magnificavi opera mea, / ædificavi mihi domos, / et plantavi vineas; 5I made gardens, and orchards, and set them with trees of all kinds,Piantai orti, e giardini, e vi messi ogni specie di piante.I haue made gardens, and orchards, and set them with trees of al kindes,feci hortos et pomaria, / et consevi ea cuncti generis arboribus; 6And I made me ponds of water, to water therewith the wood of the young trees,E formai delle peschiere di acque per annaffiare la selva de' giovani arboscelli.and I haue made me ponds of waters, to watter the wood of springing trees,et exstruxi mihi piscinas aquarum, / ut irrigarem silvam lignorum germinantium. 7I got me menservants, and maidservants, and had a great family: and herds of oxen, and great flocks of sheep, above all that were before me in Jerusalem:Ebbi in mio dominio dei servi, e delle serve con molta famiglia, ed armenti, e greggi di pecore numerosi, sorpassando tutti quelli, che furono avanti a me in Gerusalemme:I haue possessed menseruants and wemenseruants, and haue had a great familie: heardes also, and great flockes of shepe, aboue al that were before me in Ierusalem:Possedi servos et ancillas, / multamque familiam habui: / armenta quoque, et magnos ovium greges, / ultra omnes qui fuerunt ante me in Jerusalem;
8I heaped together for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings, and provinces: I made me singing men, and singing women, and the delights of the sons of men, cups and vessels to serve to pour out wine:Ammassai argento, ed oro, e quel, che aveano di più prezioso i regi, e le provincie: e mi scelsi de' cantori, e delle cantatrici, e le delizie de' figliuoli degli uomini, delle coppe, e de' vasi per mescere i vini.I haue heaped together to myself siluer, and gold, and the substance of kinges, and prouinces: I made me singingmen, & singingwemen, and the delightes of the children of men: cuppes, and goblets to serue to powre out wines:coacervavi mihi argentum et aurum, / et substantias regum ac provinciarum; / feci mihi cantores et cantatrices, / et delicias filiorum hominum, / scyphos, et urceos in ministerio ad vina fundenda; 9And I surpassed in riches all that were before me in Jerusalem: my wisdom also remained with me.E superai nelle ricchezze tutti quei che furono prima di me in Gerusalemme; e la sapienza ancora fu sempre meco.and I surpassed in riches al, that were before me in Ierusalem: wisdom also hath perseuered with me.et supergressus sum opibus / omnes qui ante me fuerunt in Jerusalem: / sapientia quoque perseveravit mecum. 10And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not: and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared: and esteemed this my portion, to make use of my own labour.E non negai agli occhi miei nulla di tutto quel, ch'ei desiderarono, e non vietai al mio cuore, il godere di ogni piacere, e il deliziarsi in tutte queste cose preparate da me, e questa credetti la mia porzione, il godere di mie fatiche:And al thinges, that myne eies desired, I haue not denied to them: neither haue I stayed my hart, but that it enioyed al pleasure, & delighted itself in these thinges, which I had prepared: and this I estemed my portion, if I did vse my labour.Et omnia quæ desideraverunt oculi mei / non negavi eis, / nec prohibui cor meum quin omni voluptate frueretur, / et oblectaret se in his quæ præparaveram; / et hanc ratus sum partem meam si uterer labore meo. 11And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought, and to the labours wherein I had laboured in vain, I saw in all things vanity, and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun.Ma volgendomi poi a tutte le opere fatte dalle mie mani, e alle fatiche, nelle quali io avea sudato inutilmente, in ogni cosa io vidi vanità, e afflizione di cuore, e che niente dura sotto il sole.And when I had turned myself to al the workes, which my handes had done, & to the laboures, wherin I had swette in vaine, I saw in al thinges vanitie, and affliction of minde, & nothing to be permanent vnder the sunne.Cumque me convertissem ad universa opera quæ fecerant manus meæ, / et ad labores in quibus frustra sudaveram, / vidi in omnibus vanitatem et afflictionem animi, / et nihil permanere sub sole.
12I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and folly, (What is man, said I that he can follow the King his maker?)Passai a contemplar la saggezza, e gli errori, e la stoltezza. Che è egli l'uomo (dissi io) che seguir possa il re suo Creatore?I passed further to contemplate wisdom, and errors, and follie (what is man, quoth I, that he can folow the king his Maker?)Transivi ad contemplandam sapientiam, / erroresque, et stultitiam. / (Quid est, inquam, homo, / ut sequi possit regem, factorem suum ?) 13And I saw that wisdom excelled folly, as much as light differeth from darkness.E riconobbi, come tanto va avanti la sapienza alla stoltezza, quanto la luce è distante dalle tenebre.and I saw that wisdom so much excelled follie, as light differeth from darknes.Et vidi quod tantum præcederet sapientia stultitiam, / quantum differt lux a tenebris. 14The eyes of a wise man are in his head: the fool walketh in darkness: and I learned that they were to die both alike.Il saggio ha occhi in testa: lo stolto cammina al buio: ma io appresi, che e l'uno, e l'altro vanno egualmente alla morte.The eyes of a wiseman are in his head: the foole walketh in darknes: and I haue lerned that there was one death of both.Sapientis oculi in capite ejus; / stultus in tenebris ambulat: / et didici quod unus utriusque esset interitus. 15And I said in my heart: If the death of the fool and mine shall be one, what doth it avail me, that I have applied myself more to the study of wisdom? And speaking with my own mind, I perceived that this also was vanity.Onde io dissi in cuor mio: Se e lo stolto, ed io egualmente morremo, che giova a me l'aver fatto maggior studio della sapienza? E dopo averla discorsa coll'animo mio, conobbi, che questo stesso è vanità:And I sayd in my hart: If the fal of the foole & myne shal be one, what doth it profite me, that I haue bestowed greater labour for wisdom? And speaking with my minde, I perceiued that this also was vanitie.Et dixi in corde meo: / Si unus et stulti et meus occasus erit, / quid mihi prodest quod majorem sapientiæ dedi operam ? / Locutusque cum mente mea, / animadverti quod hoc quoque esset vanitas. 16For there shall be no remembrance of the wise no more than of the fool forever, and the times to come shall cover all things together with oblivion: the learned dieth in like manner as the unlearned.Perocché non sarà eterna la memoria del saggio, come neppure dello stolto; e i tempi avvenire seppelliran nell'oblio tutte a un modo le cose: muore il dotto appunto, come l'indotto.For there shal be no memorie of the wise in like maner as of the foole for euer, and the times to come shal couer al thinges together with obliuion: the lerned dieth in like maner as the vnlerned.Non enim erit memoria sapientis similiter ut stulti in perpetuum, / et futura tempora oblivione cuncta pariter operient: / moritur doctus similiter ut indoctus.
17And therefore I was weary of my life, when I saw that all things under the sun are evil, and all vanity and vexation of spirit.E perciò mi venne a noja la vita o in veggendo come i mali tutti si trovano sotto del sole, e che tutto è vanità, ed è afflizione di spirito.And therfore I haue bene wearie of my life, seing al thinges vnder the sunne to be euil, and al thinges vanitie and affliction of spirite.Et idcirco tæduit me vitæ meæ, / videntem mala universa esse sub sole, / et cuncta vanitatem et afflictionem spiritus. 18Again I hated all my application wherewith I had earnestly laboured under the sun, being like to have an heir after me,Detestai di poi tutta la mia sollecitudine, onde con tanto studio mi affannai sotto del sole, mentr'io son per avere un erede dopo di me,Againe I detested al myne industrie, wherwith I haue laboured vnder the sunne most studiously, being like to haue an heyre after me:Rursus detestatus sum omnem industriam meam, / qua sub sole studiosissime laboravi, / habiturus hæredem post me, 19Whom I know not whether he will be a wise man or a fool, and he shall have rule over all my labours with which I have laboured and been solicitous: and is there anything so vain?Il quale io non so se sia per essere sapiente, o stolto, e il quale possederà le mie fatiche, che a me costarono sudori, ed affanni. Or v'ha egli cosa vana più di questa?whom I know not, whether he wil be a wiseman or a foole, and he shal rule in my labours, wherewith I haue swette and haue bene careful: and is there anie thing so vaine?quem ignoro utrum sapiens an stultus futurus sit, / et dominabitur in laboribus meis, / quibus desudavi et sollicitus fui: / et est quidquam tam vanum ? 20Wherefore I left off and my heart renounced labouring anymore under the sun.Per la qual cosa io mi presi riposo, e il cuor mio rinunziò a travagliarsi mai più sotto del sole.Wherfore I ceased, and my hart hath renounced to labour anie more vnder the sunne.Unde cessavi, / renuntiavitque cor meum ultra laborare sub sole. 21For when a man laboureth in wisdom, and knowledge, and carefulness, he leaveth what he hath gotten to an idle man: so this also is vanity, and a great evil.Conciossiachè dopo che uno ha faticato con saggezza, e prudenza, e sollecitudine, gli acquisti suoi lascia ad un infingardo: e questo è certamente vanità, e male grande.For whereas one laboreth in wisdom, and doctrine, and carefulnes, he leaueth the thinges gotten to an idle man: and this therfore is vanitie, and great euil.Nam cum alius laboret in sapientia, / et doctrina, et sollicitudine, / homini otioso quæsita dimittit; / et hoc ergo vanitas et magnum malum.
22For what profit shall a man have of all his labour, and vexation of spirit, with which he hath been tormented under the sun?Imperocché qual vantaggio trarrà l'uomo di tutte le sue fatiche, e delle afflizioni di spirito, ond'egli si è straziato sotto del sole?For what profite shal be to a man of al his labour, and affliction of spirite, wherwith he is vexed vnder the sunne?Quid enim proderit homini de universo labore suo, / et afflictione spiritus, / qua sub sole cruciatus est ? 23All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?Di dolori, e di amarezze sono pieni tutti i suoi giorni, e neppure la notte ha posa il suo spirito: e questo non è egli vanità?Al his daies are ful of sorowes and miseries, neither by night doth he rest in minde, and is not this vanitie?Cuncti dies ejus doloribus et ærumnis pleni sunt, / nec per noctem mente requiescit. / Et hoc nonne vanitas est ? 24Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.Non è egli meglio mangiare, e bere, e far del bene all'anima propria colle proprie fatiche? E questo è pur dalla mano di Dio.Is it not better to eate and drinke, and shew vnto his soule good thinges of his laboures? & this is of the hand of God.Nonne melius est comedere et bibere, / et ostendere animæ suæ bona de laboribus suis ? / et hoc de manu Dei est. 25Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?Chi consumerà, e accumulerà delizie, come ho fatto io?Who shal so deuour, and flow with delightes as I?Quis ita devorabit et deliciis affluet ut ego ? 26God hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.All'uomo, che è retto dinanzi a lui, ha data Dio la sapienza, e la scienza, e la letizia; ma al peccatore ha date le afflizioni, e la inutile cura di accumulare, e ammassare de' beni per lasciarli a chi Dio vorrà: e questo pure è vanità, e inutile angoscia di animo.To a man good in his sight, God hath geuen wisdom, and knowlege, and ioy: but to the sinner he hath geuen affliction, and superfluous care, to adde, and to gather together, and deliuer it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanitie, & vaine carefulnes of the minde.Homini bono in conspectu suo / dedit Deus sapientiam, et scientiam, et lætitiam; / peccatori autem dedit afflictionem et curam superfluam, / ut addat, et congreget, / et tradat ei qui placuit Deo; / sed et hoc vanitas est, et cassa sollicitudo mentis.
2:1
Calmet
Delights. He speaks in the name of libertines, (St. Gregory, Dial. 4:4.) or after his conversion. (Calmet)
Worthington
The worldling might object that since wisdom affords not content, it is best to try pleasure. But this meets not with the approbation of the wise, as all terrestrial joy is short, and can yield no more than a passing consolation. (Worthington)
2:2
Calmet
Why. Hebrew, "What doth that?" Septuagint, "Why dost thou so?" Immoderate laughter is a sign of folly, Ecclesiasticus 21:23. (Calmet)
St. Jerome
"Even spiritual joy is a temptation." (St. Jerome)
2:3
Calmet
Wine, and to lead a temperate life. (Calmet)
Haydock
Protestants, "to give myself unto wine, (yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom) and to lay hold on folly," etc. (Haydock)
Haydock
I wished to indulge myself in pleasure, yet so as not to lose the reputation of wisdom, Ecclesiastes 5:9. (Haydock)
2:4
Works; palaces, towns, and particularly the temple. Many, like Solomon, will refrain from wine, and still yield to other excesses.
2:5
Calmet
Orchards. Hebrew, "paradises," in which fruit-trees were planted. (Calmet)
2:7
Haydock
Family of slaves, "born in my house," (Protestants) distinct from those whom I got for money. (Haydock)
There were generally procured from foreign nations, as the Hebrews obtained their liberty on the sabbatic year.
Sheep. David had the like; but Solomon had also horses, 3 Kings 10:21.
2:8
Silver, which became, in consequence, of little value.
Athen. xii
Singing. At the court of Persia, people sung all night, and during the feasts. (Athen. xii., and 14.)
Haydock
Cups and vessels; (Aquila and Symmachus) or, "men and women to," etc., (Septuagint) or "a field and fields;" (Calmet) or, Protestants, "as musical instruments, and that of all sorts." Hebrew shidda beshiddoth. (Haydock)
2:9
2:10
Calmet
Labour. Hebrew, "and this was my portion of all my labour." I perceived that I could not thus obtain content. (Calmet)
Menochius
"Thou (O God) hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till they repose in thee." (St. Augustine, Confessions 1:1.) (Menochius)
Aurelius makes the same confession as Solomon, respecting the insatiable nature of his own heart, and the emptiness of pleasure, etc.
2:12
Calmet
What. Hebrew, "For what man shall come after the king?" Septuagint, "after counsel?" Many other versions may be given of this obscure text. Solomon stopt at human wisdom, without consulting the divine; or he asks who shall have greater facility to acquire knowledge than himself, or equal his works? (Calmet)
Menochius
Man's wisdom compared with God's is contemptible; though it be preferable to folly. (Menochius)
2:14
Calmet
Darkness and ignorance. He knows not whither he is going, Proverbs 4:19., and 17:24. Wisdom is to be preferred before wealth, etc. (Calmet)
Consideration directs a person to do good.
Worthington
Alike. Thus worldlings speak, who reflect not on the life to come. (Worthington)
Menochius
In many respects all resemble one another, though their sentence be very different. (Menochius)
2:15
Calmet
Vanity. This inference was false, (ver. 16.) or my labouring for wisdom was to no purpose. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "I then spoke more in my heart, (for the fool speaks out of his abundance) since this also is vanity." (Haydock)
2:16
Calmet
Unlearned. He answers, (Jansenius) or rather continues the objections. (Geier) (Calmet)
2:17
Life. Hebrew, "I hated life," as all is attended with anxiety, Romans 7:24.
2:19
Solicitous. We naturally desire to have our plans perfected. Solomon had, perhaps, a presentiment of Roboam's misconduct, Ecclesiasticus 47:27.
2:20
Calmet
Off, in a sort of despair; suggested by worldly wisdom. Religion alone can impart steady principles. (Calmet)
Haydock
Protestants, "I went about, to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun;" in the transactions of the world. (Haydock)
2:21
St. Jerome
Wisdom. The writings of the wise are often perverted by perverse heretics. (St. Jerome)
Calmet
Idle heirs dissipate the possessions, which had been accumulated with such industry. (Calmet)
Menochius
Riches tend to encourage the profligacy of the heir. (Menochius)
2:24
Worthington
Drink, using with moderation the things which we have acquired, rather than to be solicitous for more, (Worthington)
St. Augustine
which may fall into the hands of an idle heir, who is appointed by God, ver. 26. This may also be the plea of libertines, (Calmet) who would use freely what he has given. (St. Augustine, contra Jul. 4:3.)
2:26
Calmet
Pleased God, though he may not be his relation, Proverbs 26:16., and Job 13:22. (Calmet)
2:1
A vvordlie man may obiect, that seing vvisdom bringeth not felicitie in this life, it semeth best to take his pleasure & ease, & not to labour for it.
But the wiseman cōfuteth this conceipt. Because wordlie ioy is short & vncertaine, neither is anie ioy that men haue in this life true ioy of the blessed, but only a consolation in miseries.
2:14
Consideration is the directorie of al good workes.
2:15
The conceit of worldlie men not considering the life to come.
2:24
It is better to vse that is honestly gotten for our necessitie, then to be stil solicitous to get more.
2:1
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
Ver. 1 . “I said in mine heart, Go to now, make trial as in mirth, and behold in good. And this, too, is vanity.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 1.30
… and be not surprised, nor be disturbed, if such things happen. For it is said, “My Son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation.”
2:2
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
2 . “I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doest thou?”
2:3
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
3 . “And my heart directed me in wisdom, and to overcome in mirth, until I should know what is that good thing to the sons of men which they shall do under the sun for the number of the days of their life.”
2:4
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
4 . “I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 12
… No, all these are “very good.” ( Gen. i. 31 .) But what is vain? Let us hear the Preacher himself, what he saith; “I planted me vineyards, I gat me men singers and women singers, I made me pools of water, I had great possession of herds and flocks, I gathered me also silver and gold, and I saw that these are vanity.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 1 Timothy 15
Hear what Solomon says, who knew the present world by actual experience. “I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens, and orchards and pools of water. I gathered me also silver and gold. I gat myself men-singers, and women-singers, and flocks, and herds.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 15
… xv. 32 .) “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” ( Eccles. i. 2 .) It is not I that say it, but he who had had the experience of all things saith thus: “I builded for me houses, I planted vineyards, I made me pools of water, [I had] men servants and women servants.” (
2:5
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
5 . I made me gardens and orchards.
2:6
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
6 . I made me pools of water, that by these I might rear woods producing trees.
2:7
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
7 . I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had large possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me.
2:8
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
8 . I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I gat me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as cups and the cupbearer.
2:9
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
9 . And I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
2:10
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
10 . And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any pleasure.”
2:12
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
12 . “And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what man is there that shall come after counsel in all those things which it has done?”
2:13
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
13 . “Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as much as light excelleth darkness.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 79
And what is the use of understanding, thou wilt say, to the poor man? As might be expected thou art ignorant; for neither doth the blind man know what is the advantage of light. Listen to Solomon, saying, “As far as light excelleth darkness, so doth wisdom excel folly.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.3
… and delusions of this life, and the shifting nature of the present time, in which there is nothing substantial, nothing lasting, he bewails, among the other vanities that are under the sun, this also, that though wisdom excelleth folly as light excelleth darkness, and though the eyes of the wise man are in his head, while the fool walketh in darkness,
2:14
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
14 . “The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Mysteries 6
30. Consider now why this is done, for “the eyes of a wise man are in his head;”
2:15
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
15 . Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise?”
2:16
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
16 . “For there is no remembrance of the wise equally with the fool forever.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 100.9
… And then, when he hath gone forth himself too, he also becometh a reproacher, and a slanderer; and records those things only (sometimes real), which he asserts that he could not have endured. But the real troubles of the wicked ought to be endured for the society of the good. The Scripture saith unto him: “Woe unto those that have lost patience.”
2:24
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
24 . “And there is nothing good for a man, but what he eats and drinks, and what will show to his soul good in his labour. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 17.20
… and seek prudence, that ye may have life.” But to be made partakers of this table is itself to begin to have life. For when he says in another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, “There is no good for a man, except that he should eat and drink,”
2:25
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to Hero, a Deacon of Antioch 1
… “For who shall eat or who shall drink without Him? For if anything be beautiful, it is His; and if anything be good, it is His.”
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
… And how should not intemperate eatings and drinkings also be contrary to God? He speaks, therefore, of things mystical. For no one shall partake of the spiritual table, but one who is called by Him, and who has listened to the wisdom which says, “Take and eat.”
2:1
1. I said in my heart (from the Hebrew render to my heart. Thus the Syriac): I WILL GO, AND ABOUND IN DELIGHTS, AND ENJOY GOOD THINGS: AND I SAW THAT THIS ALSO WAS VANITY. — For abound in delights the Hebrew is anassecha besimeha, which can be translated in two ways: first, I will test you in joy, if anassechia is derived from nasa, that is, he tested, to which the affixed pronoun cha, that is, you, is attached: thus the Septuagint. Second, I will mix joy, or I will mix in joy, namely wines; or rather, I will pour out in joy, namely my heart, if anassechia is derived from nasach, that is, he mixed, poured, poured out, made a libation, to which the He paragogic is attached in the future tense in the usual manner. Following this, Our translator renders it, I will abound in delights, namely wines, and I will frequent banquets and feasts, which carnal men esteem as the greatest joys. Whence the Zurich Bible renders it, I will gladly indulge in cups. But both senses come to the same thing. For Solomon addresses himself, and says to his heart: "I will test you in joy," that is, O my soul, who in the investigation of wisdom have found affliction, I will prove you with festive and joyful feasts, and I will see whether in them you will find the satiety, rest and happiness which you seek; therefore I will indulge my genius, I will live sumptuously. The Complutensian translators render it, I will accustom you to delights. Again, for I will enjoy good things the Hebrew is see in good, that is, see good, that is, taste good, enjoy good things: for sight, being the noblest of all the senses, is hence taken for taste and any sense, as in Psalm 33:9: "Taste ye, and see (that is, know) that the Lord is sweet;" the Zurich Bible, I will try how much good is in it; others, you will see, O my soul, the whole company of goods, and you will choose for yourself the best; the Septuagint render this passage thus: "I said in my heart: Come now (Olympiodorus, come on), I will test you in gladness, and see in good; and this also is vanity;" Pagninus and the Zurich Bible, this also is emptiness; the Syriac, I said to my heart: Come and let me investigate you in gladness, and see good; and behold, this also is vanity; the Arabic, I said in my heart: Come that I may tell you in joys, and see you in good fortune, and behold this is vain; the Chaldean of Costus, but I said silently to myself: Come, I will prove myself with delights, and living I will enjoy pleasures; the Chaldean of the Complutensian translators, I will see the good things of this world, and when tribulation and sadness come to me, I said in my word: Behold, this also is vanity; Aquila, it is vapor and smoke; the Author of the Catena, I have wholly determined to give myself over to vices, and to experience pleasures; and I understood all these things to be vain; Nyssenus in the Septuagint appears to have read in acrostic; whence he renders it, I will test you in folly. But it should be read with the Complutensian, Vatican and Royal manuscripts in the supposition, and should be rendered, I will test you in gladness: for thus the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Arabic and Vulgate have it. Now First, Albinus, Hugo the Cardinal, Dionysius, Vatablus, and indeed Gregory, in the Fourth Dialogue, chapter 4, hold that Solomon here speaks as a preacher not so much from his own as from the sense and opinion of the common people and carnal men. But this is refuted by his own words: "I said in my heart," as if this were the intimate thought and choice of his heart. Second, on the other hand, Hugo of St. Victor and the Author of the Greek Catena hold that Solomon, despairing of happiness through the study of wisdom, as being laborious and troublesome to acquire, here wholly gave himself over to pleasures, so that in them he might find happiness and pure joys. "Behold," he says, "how the despairing mind throws itself wholly into pleasure, and now calls only the blandishments of the flesh good things, because in them it does not find labor and affliction, as if regarding the investigation of truth, in which it had previously labored more than was fitting through curiosity, as an evil thing." Third, St. Jerome holds that here the discourse is also of spiritual joy, which is called vanity because we see it through a mirror and in an enigma, not face to face, as the blessed do in heaven, I Corinthians 13. Cajetan agrees, who renders it, I will mix joy: where, he says, I will mix signifies that Solomon wished to cast himself wholly like a pig into pleasures, but wished to mix them with the study of wisdom, so that the tedium of this he might temper and season with the joy of those: just as the studious have their honest recreations, by which they refresh body and mind, so that they may be able to bear the labor of studies, according to that saying of Cato: Intersperse your cares sometimes with joys, So that you may be able to endure any labor with your mind. Fourth and genuinely, Solomon seeking the quietness, satisfaction and happiness of mind through all things of the whole world, when he had not found it in the study of wisdom, as I said at the end of the preceding chapter, namely in something difficult and gloomy, added his mind to seek it in the opposite direction, namely in delights, comforts and pleasures: he therefore gave himself to these not from desperation, nor from intemperance, but for the sake of experience, that is, so that he might experience what true joy and happiness there was in them. Thus the Nyssene, who teaches that Solomon "pursued his deeds with certain counsel, and having willed to lower himself to pleasures." For he wishes Solomon to have still remained firm in his mind, and "to have relaxed himself to those things which are thought to be pleasant and delightful to sense, not the mind drawn to these by disturbance, but so that he might consider whether sense, which would have lingered in them, contributes anything to the knowledge of true good." Solomon therefore says to his heart, still devoted to the study of wisdom, fearful, modest, and estranged from the pleasures of the flesh, but grieving and sorrowing from the more troublesome study of wisdom, as if coaxing, so that he might bend it to those things and lighten and wipe away its sorrow: Come now, my heart, I beseech you, release somewhat the rigour of your study, and set aside for a time the severity of your labour so burdensome; try the institution of a more pleasant life, refresh yourself with pleasures, taste the cup of delights which I propose to you; see whether it is not more pleasant than the austere wine of wisdom; by experience you will learn what you so desire to know, whether happiness and joy of this life is situated in delights. This is what the Nyssene means when he says: "Having tasted a severer life, he descended to the participation of pleasant things, and when he had shown himself to be estranged from laughter, grave and constant, through which disciplines of wisdom are especially acquired by the studious; then he relaxes himself to those things which are thought to be pleasant to sense, not in mind." Now let us weigh each word. "I said in my heart," that is, I thought, deliberated, decreed silently within myself and secretly in my heart, which I would not have dared to say publicly: for it would have shamed me to profess a voluptuous life, and to prefer it to wisdom, lest I should appear an epicurean. "I will go." This word signifies the desire of wandering, and roaming through all kinds of pleasures. For since it is the nature of pleasure that it does not satisfy the mind, but at the end of itself, when it is fulfilled, it makes the voluptuary bitter, and pierces him with the sting of pain, hence it causes his mind to recoil from it, to seek other things, and other things without end; because everywhere he finds pleasure ending in sorrow, which fleeing he always seeks another and another joy. I WILL ABOUND IN DELIGHTS. — In Hebrew anassecha, that is, I will pour myself out in joy, namely my heart; or, I will drink my heart in joy; or, I will pour out to joy, that is, I will give myself wholly to joy, so that I may overflow with it: just as wine or liquid, which is poured out to God, is wholly poured out to God, and is poured out at the foot of the altar in honour of God. By joy, by metonymy, he understands not only the delights of taste, but also any similar things bringing joy to the senses: namely laughter, wine, magnificent houses, gardens, orchards, a splendid household, riches, treasures of gold and silver, and other things delighting the eyes, which he enumerates from verse 1 to 10. Thus in Matthew 25:21, it is said: "Enter into the joy of your lord," that is, enter into the nuptial feast abounding in all goods which bring joy, so that if you enter into it, you seem to enter into pure joy. Hence some here translate, I will cover myself with joy. For in Hebrew nasach, that is, to pour out, alludes both in letters and in meaning to Job sachach, that is, to cover, to hide, to conceal. AND I WILL ENJOY GOOD THINGS. — In Hebrew, and see good, as if to say, O my little heart, see, that is, taste, and experience how great goods are laid up in delights and joys, and delight yourself in them and enjoy them. Theologians distinguish to use from to enjoy, in that we use means, we enjoy the end and the highest good. It is therefore perverse to enjoy things to be used, and to adhere with love to these inferior goods, which is, as Cardinal Hugh says, to embrace the ark for its price, a small gift for a friend, little joys for a bride, footprints for the deer, a phantom for the thing, a shadow for the body, the way for the end, most vain intuitions for the highest truth, the thinnest drops for the abyss of sweetness, the creature for the Creator God. AND I SAW THAT THIS ALSO WAS VANITY, — because pleasures are alluring, and stir up and inflame the animal man, or even merely by name, immediately to their concupiscence; therefore before he enumerates them one by one, lest anyone be captivated by their memory, he immediately subjoins their antidote, namely that they are vain, indeed mere vanity, and this First, because they are thin, brief and meager, and tickle and irritate the palate and sense only: for they perpetually flow away and flee before they can be grasped, as St. Augustine teaches, serm. 23 On the Words of the Lord. Wherefore they do not fill or satisfy the soul, and therefore soon turn into weariness and nausea, as St. Gregory teaches, hom. 36 in the Gospel. Hence they are to be reckoned not so much as goods as lesser evils. For you eat because you hunger, namely eating afflicts you less than hunger: drive away hunger by eating, and eating will be a punishment to you. Thus St. Bernard, serm. On Beginnings, Middles and Ends: "You desire to eat," he says, "because hunger torments you. Both are labor, but because hunger is more grievous, you do not know eating to be labor. Finally after hunger has been driven away, see if you do not judge eating more grievous than hungering. Thus all things under the sun are constituted, so that nothing in them is truly pleasant, but man always wishes to pass from one to another, and both are relieved only by alternation, as if he leaps from water into fire, and thence again leaps back into water, inasmuch as he cannot bear either. For the remedy of all labor is the beginning of another labor. No one in this wicked age can have what he wishes, since neither the just is satisfied with justice, nor the voluptuous with pleasure, nor the curious with curiosity, nor the ambitious with empty glory." Again, for whom does he prepare these feasts so studiously? surely for the body. And what is the body? Let Solon, one of the seven wise men of Greece, answer: "The body," he says, "when raw, is rottenness: when it lives, a beast: when it dies, food for worms." Thus now you fatten your flesh, so that you appear a delicate feast for worms after death. Finally St. Basil in Psalm 33: "In bodily pleasures," he says, "there is more trouble than pleasure. In marriages sterility, widowhood, jealousy; in agriculture infertility; in commerce shipwrecks; in riches snares. Moreover pleasures themselves and satiety, and the constant use of pleasures bring with them many and various diseases, manifold afflictions. To this pertains the proverb of the Arabs, Cent. 1, num. 67: "There is not in the lasting, that is there is not lasting in eternity pleasure: thus miseries are not remnants," as if to say No one ever has it so well and pleasantly that it is durable; and conversely there is no evil that does not have an end, or no pleasure or misery is perpetual or long-lasting. Note the Arabism: "There is not in the lasting, that is there is not lasting." Thus they say: God is in the powerful, that is he is powerful; I am in the believing, that is I am believing. Therefore nothing is briefer or more vain than pleasure. For when lips are separated from it, no trace of it remains. Second, because they are prepared with great labor, cares and expense, whose trouble is graver and more lasting than the slight and brief pleasure which is perceived from them. How many are there who, in order to set up a splendid banquet, carefully prepare for many days, weeks and months delicate wines, pheasants, swans, breads, sweetmeats of every kind, and to seek and prepare these occupy a crowd of servants, cooks, and the whole household; and spend many hundreds of coins, by which many poor could have been fed for several months, on a single meal, so that they may receive a few guests sumptuously, for only two or three hours? I certainly would not purchase so slight and brief a pleasure at such great cares, and such a loss of wealth, time and servants, and would say: "Pleasure bought with pain harms," and with such pain, "pleasure," especially which soon turns back into sorrow, from which it was born. Behold those returning home from the banquet, and you will see them burdened, morose, sad, anxious, because at table they said, or heard, or did, or suffered something incongruous, troublesome, harmful. Truly the Wise Man: "Sorrow occupies the extremes of joy." Hence the Chaldean renders, when first anguish and affliction came upon me, I said: This also is vanity. Third, because they burden the stomach, impede sleep, afflict and torment the other members, and are immediately turned into filth and excrement. For, as Nazianzen says, oration 38: "Delights are nothing other than precious excrement." Precious, because they are held in high esteem by the gluttonous, and purchased at great price by them. Following Nazianzen as his master, St. Jerome, epistle 13 to Paulinus: "He who desires Christ, and feeds on that bread, does not greatly inquire from what precious foods excrement is made: whatever is not felt after swallowing, let it be to you the same as bread and vegetables." And Nicetas in oration 38 of Nazianzen, near the end: "Every pleasure, he says, which is neither received from God nor in God, is the excrement of pleasure." These very men learned this from St. Paul, who, in Philippians iii, 8, says: "For whom (Christ) I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ." Truly Climacus, Step 26: "But if everywhere it reeks of corrupted wine, if it is satiated with feasts, think of the wretched soul in such a body as if buried in a sepulchre." More vividly St. Chrysostom, homily 29 on Matthew: "Certainly, he says, if you could see the soul of a man given over to delights, you would not doubt that it is far better to lie in a sepulchre than to be ensnared by these and pressed down by a heavy covering of insensibility as if by a stone." And after he has compared drunkards and gluttons with a dead man already buried four days, he adds: "Come then, let us see their head bound: for indeed when they are frequently drunk, they are bound with many wrappings and bands just like the dead. Thus all the organs of their senses are shut up and bound." And after some further remarks he adds: "You have seen the dead, now see the embalmer. Who then is the embalmer? no one other than the devil, who binds and polishes you so carefully that you seem to be not men, but wood." Fourth, because they overwhelm the mind, dull it, make it unfit and stupid, so that they cannot pray, study, work, or reason; finally they make it so that a man does not appear to be a rational being, but a pig and an irrational brute. Wherefore rightly St. Eucherius, epistle to Valerius: "Will anyone from that school of Aristippus see the truth, he says, who differs in his intellect from swine or cattle by nothing, since he places happiness in the pleasure of the body, to whom God is the belly and glory in his shameful parts?" Hence also that saying of Horace: "A pig from the herd of Epicurus." And Seneca: "Pleasure, he says, is not the good of a man, but of cattle." And Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Gentiles: "They, he says, like worms in mud and abysses, namely wallowing in the flowing of pleasure, are nourished by useless and foolish delights, truly swine-like men. For swine delight more in mud than in clean water, and to roll in a heap of gathered straw is a kind of insane delight to them, as Democritus says. Let us not therefore become like swine, but as true children of light let us behold the light, and look upward, lest the Lord find us to be bastards, as the sun does eagles. And St. Chrysostom, homily 58 on Matthew: "What, he says, does not the foulness of delights bring about of evil? It makes swine out of men, nay rather much worse. For a pig wallows in mud and is nourished by excrement: but this man builds for himself a more abominable table, devising wicked mixtures. This man is certainly separated from the demoniac by no distinction: for he is equally foolish and mad. And we pity the demoniac, but we turn away from this man and hate him, because he willingly brings madness upon himself, and makes his mouth, eyes, ears and all the other instruments of sense most bitter sewers of pleasure." And after some remarks: "How much better is an ass than a drunkard, how much superior is a dog? All certainly the animals which lack reason, when they drink or eat beyond what is sufficient, even if a thousand men compelled them, never go beyond: you are therefore worse than dogs and asses, who become drunk." Finally Plato, book IX of the Republic, calls the voluptuous cattle, and pleasures shadows and simulacra of true pleasure: just as the poet Stesichorus says, the Trojans, not knowing the true Helen, contended only over her image. They are therefore similar to the apples of Sodom, which appear beautiful on the outside; but when you open them, they dissolve into ashes and dust, as I said on Genesis xix, from Josephus and others. Fifth, because feasts create fevers, diseases and death. For, as the Wise Man says: "Gluttony kills more than the sword." "Because of gluttony, says Ecclesiasticus chapter 37, verse 34, many have died: but he that is temperate shall add life." See the sayings there. Most excellently St. Chrysostom, homily 45 on Matthew: "Just as, he says, sharp thorns however they are taken and bound, wound the hands, in the same way delights will effect the same thing for feet, hands, head, eyes, and all the members alike: and they are also barren, producing no fruit whatsoever like thorns, and much more than almost everything else they destroy a man. For by delights old age creeps in more quickly, by delights the senses are dulled, by delights thought is retarded, more quickly is the mind covered with darkness, the body is dissolved, a greater abundance of filth is stored up and laid away: thus from a great heap of the afflicted, a ship excessively burdened with cargo, frequent shipwrecks occur. For what, answer me, I beseech you, do you strive to make your body fat? Is it so that we may lead you to be sacrificed, or so that we may place you sacrificed on the table? Certainly fat birds are useless for a healthier diet." And further down: "Why will someone especially marvel at their madness and stupidity from this, because they do not even spare themselves as much as others do their wineskins. For those who carry wines here and there do not wish to fill the wineskins too much, lest when distended they burst: but these men do not even grant their troublesome belly the dignity of wineskins, but distend and fill it up to the double throat." Sixth, because delights draw man into gluttony, drunkenness, excess and hell; and so it is a certain sign of reprobation if anyone abounds in riches and delights in this life: but of predestination on the contrary, if anyone lacks both, as is evident in the rich man feasting and Lazarus, Luke 16, 25, where Abraham says to the feasting man, imploring his own help and that of Lazarus: "Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." St. Jerome gives the reason, epistle to Furia, on Preserving Widowhood: "Not the fires of Aetna, he says, not the volcanic earth, not Vesuvius and Olympus burn with such heat as youthful marrow full of wine and inflamed by feasts." Therefore the vanity and harm of delights is evident from this, that the glutton fattens his own flesh for the fuel of hell: just as a master fattens a pig so that he may slaughter it, according to that saying of Martial, book 14: May that pig make for you good Saturnalia, / Fattened among foaming boars in the oak. Hence a pig is called such because it feeds with extended snout, and the earth, while it roots out the roots of herbs, extends its gullet more widely. The glutton therefore is a pig from the herd of Epicurus, whom the devil fattens for the fattening of hell. There exists on this matter an elegant fable of a fox and a pig in Cyril, book 4 of Moral Apologies, chapter 2: "Luxuriously, he says, a pig nourished by its master, when fattened was resting, and a fox coming to it greeted it and said: How is it with you, brother? But he answered: What do you seek? Do you not see that I rest happy, satisfied, fattened, never tired, but always delighted. Without care therefore, by my caring master, I always live in saffron. Why therefore do you wander about all day hungry and famished, and do not come to dwell with such a friend?" When the fox heard these things, mocking the senseless one, added: "Certainly it is true that fatness dulls the sense, takes away the millstone, and continued delights overturn the intellect. For this reason you have seen little, and have never judged rightly. Surely this man has become a fisherman upon the earth, adorns the hook with the sweetness of food, and sweetly draws the unwary to death. He has become a magnet attractive to man, who kills with laughter, and by foods allures the drawn one to hanging, and like a cunning hunter calls with a sweet pipe to the snare. For he fills your belly so that he may eat you cooked more savory. He gives bran so that he may make you fatter; he provides broth so that he may take your flesh. O if you had entered his house and looked around more carefully, you would certainly have known from the other smoked pigs hanging there, whom he had thus nourished, the fire prepared for you by him. Therefore with good and sweet foods he leads you to death, and will convert these delights for you into eternal sorrows." Whence he collects this moral of the fable for abstinence: "May such a friend be far from me, who suborns hatred with love, and hides the hook of eternal death under the delights of the world. I abhor his food, and reject his flattering hand, and from now on I spurn his comfort. I do not wish that he lead me with laughter to mourning, and that by his false delights he separate me from you from vital fellowship. I choose the cup of Pharaoh, not the basket of dishes; I spurn the chaff, not the scourge; I love the arrow of Jonathan, and flee the kiss of Joab. Having said these things, he immediately fled."
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He aptly connects laughter to delights, because delights and joys dissolve a man into laughter, as if to say: Men are accustomed to be dissolved in delights, and from this to be dissolved into laughter, cackling and foolish joys, as if they had already obtained their highest wish, the highest good and happiness of things: I found them to be utterly deceived, and to have obtained neither peace of mind, much less happiness; but rather to depart from these burdened, restless, anxious, and sad: wherefore I said their laughter is not laughter, but error; and their joy is not joy, but deception. By laughter and joy therefore understand excessive and unrestrained gladness, both internal and external, which is expressed by laughter, jests and cackling. Likewise delights, riches, and the splendor and abundance of things which stir up this gladness and laughter: by metonymy, so that laughter is put for the object, or cause of laughter, namely for the allurements which stir up laughter. Therefore Arboreus rather narrowly restricts this laughter to mockers and scoffers, as if Solomon were inveighing against them here. It is an apostrophe for emphasis and pathos. For he addresses laughter and joy as if they were foolish and deceitful persons, and rebukes them, and reproaches their foolishness and deceitfulness. For error the Hebrew is meholal, which R. Solomon renders mixed, from the root mahal, that is, to mix, according to that passage in Isaiah 1, 22: "Thy wine is mixed with water." But others think that the letter mem in meholal is servile throughout, not radical; the root being halal, that is, he shouted, he jubilated, he praised. Whence some render, I said to laughter: Be praiseworthy; which the Syriac seems to have regarded, when it renders, I said to laughter: Let it be useful. But all the others render it contrarily. Whence meholal Our author first renders as error; second, the Chaldean as derision; third, Symmachus as tumult; fourth, the Septuagint as periphora, that is, circumlocution, circulation; fifth, Nyssenus, Olympiodorus and others render it as madness. Our author therefore first renders it as error, as if to say: Laughter is error, and those who laugh at ridiculous things err: wherefore they are far removed from true wisdom and prudence, because they rashly, without judgment and due measure, on account of things and pleasures of the world so base and vile, rejoice so much and applaud themselves, that they burst forth into unrestrained laughter and cackling, when, as I said a little before, delights bring forth sorrow, and ought rather to stir up weeping than laughter. For, as St. Augustine says in a passage to be cited shortly: "Those who weep over vain things weep in vain, and those who laugh over vain things laugh at their own evil." They err therefore, because they rejoice where they ought to grieve, they laugh where they ought to weep: just as infants play and laugh, even while their parents are dying. Whence natural philosophers teach that laughter arises from wonder, wonder from ignorance: but this is error, or joined to error. Error therefore denotes immoderate exultation of the mind, beyond what is fitting or proper, beyond measure, beyond the limit that the merit and order of things permit. For he errs who judges that from a thing and a moderate pleasure one ought to rejoice not moderately, but supremely, and therefore rejoices supremely, laughs and cackles. Again, by I said error understand that it is to be restrained: for error is to be corrected, and what is excessive in laughter or any other thing, this is to be checked and restrained, so that it is a metalepsis. Whence the Thaumaturgus renders, I restrained uncontrolled laughter, and I curbed pleasure to temperance, and I was bitterly angry at it. Immoderate laughter is error, both passively, because it truly errs as I have already said; and actively, because those who laugh cause error, seduce and deceive, so that they pour themselves out into delights, on account of which they will soon grieve and mourn greatly: wherefore on both accounts it is to be restrained and checked. AND I SAID TO JOY: WHY DOST THOU DECEIVE THYSELF IN VAIN? — He explains that laughter is error, namely, that the laughter and joy of this world is nothing other than mere fraud and deception: for it promises to the soul peace, gladness, happiness, and does not deliver it; but rather brings the contrary, namely disquiet, sorrow, misery. For this latter hemistich in the Hebrew manner explains the former, as frequently happens in the Psalms. Laughter therefore is the same as joy, error the same as deception. The Hebrew and Septuagint have, and with joy I said: What are you doing? Symmachus, what are you yourself doing? The Syriac, what have you done? The Arabic, why have you done this? Pagninus, what good are you doing? Tigurina, I know not joy, what to bring forth; Vatablus, what then is it that you bring? The Chaldean, concerning joy thus I understood: What profit is it to a man that he be wonderfully inflamed by it? Others clearly, as if to say, To what end do you pour yourself out into laughter, jests and unbridled joy? Pineda translated it, what are you cooking? as if to say, You think you are cooking delicacies, but you know not that you are cooking most bitter things; you think you are cooking a feast, but you are cooking food for diseases and death. You prepare honey, but you will find gall. Thus to do is taken for to cook in Genesis xviii, 7, where concerning Abraham's servant cooking a kid it is said: "He made haste and cooked it;" for to do is indeed to cook. Therefore joy deceives and destroys man, and at the same time it deceives itself along with man, because it does not bring the true, solid and permanent joy which it promises, but immediately ceases and is turned into sorrow. By joy understand delicacies, and whatever pleasures that produce joy, but a deceitful, counterfeit joy, and situated only in the vain opinion of men who thirst for them, whereas in reality they rather produce sorrow and mourning. Whence the Wonderworker translated it for joy as, pleasure; others, joyfulness: for which reason pleasures, which appear to be, are in reality not, nor do they fill the poverty and greed of the mind, as those damned in hell confess and late repent, Wisdom v, 4. Hear the Nyssene: "As if a wild beast creeping upon my senses, I immediately resisted pleasure and opposed it, saying: What are you doing? Why do you weaken the virtue of nature? Why do you soften the strength of the soul? Why do you enervate the powers of the spirit? Why do you bring destruction to reason? Why do you cast the darkness of your shadows upon the purity of the serenity of pure thoughts?" Following Solomon, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius is said thus to have spoken to his people concerning the vanity of the world: "What I have freely experienced I will set forth, though with the mark of my name, but perhaps hereafter it may profit a future age. Through all vices I have exercised myself, and made trial whether human wickedness could satiate itself. I discovered that the more food I take, the more I do not mitigate hunger, but increase it; the more I indulge in sleep, the greater the desire for sleep; the more things I have, the more things do I covet; the more diligently I seek, the less do I find: finally I have never obtained anything that would satisfy appetite, and not rather provoke a desire to have something else."
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Hebrew and Chaldean, until I should prove and see what of them would be good for the sons of men, that they should do, while they themselves subsist in this world under the sun in the number of the days of their life. I considered what would not be good in men, and what they could do while in this world, from which they might obtain perpetual joy and pleasure in this life; Syrian, I thought in my heart to gladden my flesh with wine: and my heart thought upon wisdom, and held folly; Arabic, and my heart hoped if it could draw my humanity, as an abstraction of wine: for my heart sent me to wisdom, and to embracing joy through it, etc. Note, for as I should draw from wine my flesh, in Hebrew it is, to draw in wine (or into wine) my flesh. Secondly, the Chaldean translates, to laughter I said derision in the time of my tribulation, or, as Costus translates, ridicule from joy itself at the time of calamity I said: It is ridiculous, because it is ridiculous to laugh at a light matter and of no moment. For this laughter is worthy to be laughed at. Whence the wise laugh at those who laugh rashly, without reason: indeed the world itself, provoking us with its mockeries to laughter, laughs at us. Whence St. Augustine, sermon on the chapter of Fasting: "This world," he says, "either laughs at us, or is laughed at by us; either we are despised, or we despise." Thirdly, Symmachus translates, to laughter I said tumult, and that without cause; and Arabic, to laughter I said: What is the cause of your exaltation? For those who laugh effusively, clap and cackle, stir up great noises, clamors and tumults, and toss their heads, arms, and whole body incontinently, as if agitated and shaken by unbridled joy. Morally, learn here that the world's allurements are full of foolish clamor and noise. And so the world's laughter, says Pineda, is tumult, it is vociferation; and although those delights of it promise peace and quiet of soul, they effect nothing less than quiet: for they are nothing other than agitation of soul, disturbance, murmuring, clamor, thunder, and whatever else is opposed to the quiet and tranquility of soul. You might say that worldly vanity, like hens with a vile egg laid, cackles and makes noise by singing. Although that tumult or song is not so much a sign of joy and laughter, as of internal pain, sobbing and conceived vanity. Thus concerning that very bird Columella testifies: "Hens about to lay testify by frequent sobs." But what other cause of pain than that the belly, having laid an egg, received the most vain air? Thus Columella, book VIII, chapter v. Add that hens sometimes lay eggs that are wind-eggs, indeed empty and swollen with wind: such precisely are the vain joys of the world. Note to the exaltation of yours, as the Arabic translates. For more effusive and boastful laughter is a sign of exaltation and arrogance, such as the glorious and arrogant are wont to display, who show off and boast their own things, despising others and sometimes God himself. Whence the Hebrew meholal signifies the pride, folly and impiety of the arrogant, as appears Psalm chapter LXXIV, 4: "I said to the wicked: Do not act wickedly (in Hebrew, laholelim al tahollu), do not lift up your horn on high, do not speak iniquity against God." Fourthly, the Septuagint translates: To laughter I said periphora, that is circumlation, circuit, circumvagation, vertigo, also error, hallucination. Whence first, the Thaumaturgus understands by circumvagation laughter let loose, and wandering rashly in inept jests, cachinnations, gesticulations, tossings of the head, hands and other members, as fools do. Secondly, Olympiodorus translates, to laughter I said: Circumvagrate far from me, and depart; but this seems more alien. Thirdly, others better judge that laughter is called circumvagation, because it leads man beyond the bounds of modesty and reason, and causes him to break forth into unrestrained effusions of joy, to err and wander. Fourthly, because it compels the intemperate man through all kinds of pleasures, that he might satiate himself, to wander about, like a wretched beggar and vagabond, like one who labors with vertigo of the head, so that he always wishes to go and circle about. Whence St. Basil in Psalm 1, in the Greek Catena, citing this passage, calls laughter vertigo: "Every soul," he says, "as if seized by vertigo, wavers in reasoning, when it both turns heavenly things in its mind in choosing virtue, and when beholding present things prefers pleasure." Fifthly, because it induces grave error and hallucination in man, as I said in the first explanation: for periphora here rather signifies error, as the Hebrew and Vulgate have, than circulation. Sixthly, you may translate periphora as circumlation, that is delirium and madness. Whence Fifthly, Nyssenus translates it, laughter I called an emotion of the mind; Olympiodorus, I called laughter to madness, that is to say, You are insane and of disturbed mind, because by laughing immoderately you conduct yourself indecorously and pervert your appearance, so that by ridiculous gestures you appear a fool, mad and foolish. And he adds that laughter, that is earthly pleasures, is called periphora, that is a carrying about, "either because, he says, these earthly goods are carried about by every wind, which furnish matter for joy and pleasure; or change it: changing into alpha, we read not periphora, but paraphora, that is insane ecstasy and excess of mind: for they seem to go mad and to be forgetful of themselves, who in a place of misery and tears falsely think that they ought to rejoice." And such are those who, as Seneca said, in chapter XII of On the Happy Life: "Go mad with cheerful madness, and rage through laughter." Hence some translate it, laughter I called madness; others, habitual laughter I called mad; others, to laughter and pleasure I said: You are mad, or you make mad. For the Hebrew halal indeed signifies to lift up the voice on high in praising and exulting; whence Hallelujah is a song of joy, exultation and praise. Hence by catachresis halal signifies to become foolish, to go mad. For fools are wont, boastfully and vaingloriousy with effusive clamor, laughter and cackling, to celebrate and proclaim their affairs beyond belief and truth, which is certainly a sign of madness. Whoever therefore rejoices so much over a base thing and vile pleasure that he pours himself out into laughter and cackling, is of disturbed mind, vainglorious and mad; especially because, despising the pleasure experienced, he seeks another and another useless and harmful pleasure wandering about like a hungry, wretched and demented man, according to that passage in Wisdom iv, 12: "Inconstancy (in Greek rhembasmos, that is a whirlwind) of desire perverteth the sense without malice." Nyssenus gives the reason, describing laughter thus: "An indecorous dilation of the mouth, and trembling of breath and shaking of the whole body, and drawing apart of the cheeks, and opening of teeth and tongue and palate, and breaking of the neck and voice beyond reason, which together with the breaking of breath is interrupted, what is this other than madness?" Whence the Greeks call this immoderate and uncontrolled laughter synkrusion, which shakes the whole man; and Nazianzenus in the Cycnaean Poems: "Laughter, he says, is an impulse of the cheeks and a leaping of the heart." The physical cause a priori is that laughter arises from a certain petulance of the spleen, when it draws off dregs especially from the blood: then indeed it extends and loosens the nerves and arteries, and disperses the spirits. Whence sometimes the body exhausted by this falls down of its own accord. Hence we read that some have died from laughter and breathed out their soul, as Rhodiginus teaches that it happened to Zeuxis and Verrius, most excellent painters, in book I, chapter xlviii. Again Aristotle, in book III of the Parts of Animals, chapter x, assigns tickling as the cause of laughter. "For those who are tickled laugh quickly, he says, because the motion quickly reaches that place, which although it heats slightly, nevertheless opens it, and moves the mind against the will. But the reasons why man alone of animals is tickled are both the thinness of the skin, and that he alone of all animals laughs. For tickling is laughter through such a motion of the part which fills the armpit. It is also handed down that a blow, with the breastplate pierced, brought laughter in battles, namely from the heat which the wound moves." Whoever therefore laughs immoderately has immoderate tickling, either of body or of mind, and therefore pours himself out into effusive laughter, which is a sign of a mind lacking self-control and mad: for soon this tickling turns into pain, and laughter into sorrow; just as a candle extinguished in flame turns into smoke, and light into darkness. Hence we see melancholics laugh effusively and rejoice, soon when the joy and laughter cease they become more sad or angry than they were before; whence Bede in Proverbs: "Headlong to laughter, headlong also is he borne to anger." More fully and clearly the Conimbricenses, lib. III De Anima, cap. xiii, Quaest. 1, art. 6, assign the physical causes of laughter thus: When a pleasant thing presents itself to us, and one which is able to excite laughter, the mind is suffused with joy and gladness, by which the heart, infected with this, impatient of delay, dilates itself, and there occurs a great effervescence of blood and a diffusion of vital spirits, to which the motion of the muscles of the thorax, and especially of the diaphragm, follows (the diaphragm is indeed a certain membrane, partly horny, partly nervous, separating the heart from the viscera, which Aristotle, lib. III De Partib. anim. cap. 1, calls a cincture, and thinks its function is to prevent vapors which rise from the stomach from harming the heart): at the agitation and extension of the diaphragm, the muscles which are at the sides of the cheeks are stretched out at the same time, and that gesture of the mouth which is called laughter is made, by which the joy and gladness of the mind is expressed. Therefore the efficient cause of laughter will be, principally indeed the soul, instrumentally the appetite and the power executing motion, and at the same time the effusion of blood and spirits, which are as it were the forerunners of laughter; the end, the expression of joy or gladness; the form, the very drawing back of the mouth and face. Thus indeed laughter can be defined in this manner: "Laughter is a certain agitation of the mind moved by a pleasant thing, to express the joy conceived within, by which the muscles of the thorax and mouth are moved by a certain impulse." Now there are some inclined to laughter, others severe. For since the object of laughter is a new thing, those to whom anything new is laughable, such as children and the common people, laugh easily from this cause; not so the aged and philosophers. Likewise because the object of laughter is a pleasant and joyful thing, those are continually drawn to laughter who are cheerful by their own nature, such as those are wont to be who have much blood, and that sweet, not bilious or melancholic. Thus the agelasts, that is, those who never laughed in their lives, were Anaxagoras, Heraclitus, Phocion, Aristoxenus, Socrates, Cato, Crassus, as Cicero, Pliny, Aelianus, Laertius and others testify. Note that this is said concerning untimely and excessive laughter; for moderate and timely laughter befits a man, and is suited to his nature, and makes him serene and joyful. Whence Clement of Alexandria, lib. II Paedag. cap. v, teaches that laughter is natural and fitting for man, if measure is applied to it: "A becoming and decorous relaxation of the face through laughter," he says, "like a musical instrument is meidiama, that is a smile; but an unbecoming one is dissolution and loud laughter." And Philo, lib. De Praemiis et paenis, says the affection of laughing is among others most honorable, as one which fills the whole soul with tranquility and security. Laughter therefore makes the soul cheerful. Whence Martial, lib. VII, epigr. 24: Nor is a face pleasing to which gelasinus is absent. Gelasinus, that is the drawing back of the mouth, and the lines which are made by laughing; for gelos to the Greeks is laughter. Hence just as the Romans decreed divine honors to Vitulina and Lubentia, the presiders over gladness, so the Greeks referred Laughter among the gods, and instituted a festival day, and held annual games with solemn rites for this god, especially the Thessalians and among them the Hypatenses, who became very celebrated and distinguished in the veneration and worship of the god gelastos. Lycurgus also, the author of a most severe and rigid discipline, placed a marble statue of Laughter in Sparta in the bridal chamber; and he ordained that his citizens, having completed the labors of military service, should religiously supplicate this god, as Giraldus says, syntagm. 1, where an elegant poem of Coelius Calcagninus on Laughter is recited. Thus our Pontanus in Atticis bellariis, num. 113. Therefore inept, immoderate, scurrilous and dishonorable laughter, which arises from a base object, this is understood, which is unbecoming to all men, but especially to the faithful, preachers and religious. Whence St. Augustine, St. Basil, St. Bernard and others note that it is read often of Christ that He wept, never that He laughed. Hence also His words are: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted," Matt. v. "Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep," Luke vi, 25. Hence also St. Chrysostom notes, homil. 6 in Matt., that in the Scriptures it is not read of Paul, or any other saint, that he laughed. St. Chrysostom overlooked Abraham, who was holy and laughed, having received the oracle concerning Isaac to be born to him, Gen. cap. xvii, 17. Wherefore St. Basil, rule 31 from the Shorter Rules, and St. Ephrem, vol. I, tract. That One Ought Not to Laugh, p. 110, in the Roman edition of Vossius, seem to condemn altogether all laughter in the faithful, especially in monks, who profess mourning. For St. Basil asks: "Is it not permitted to laugh at all?" and he answers: "Since the Lord condemns those who laugh in this life, it is abundantly clear that no place at all is given to the faithful in which he ought to laugh, and especially in so great a multitude of those who through transgression of the law dishonor God, and give themselves to death in sins, for whom it is fitting to mourn and groan." But understand this of much, frequent, and unrestrained laughter; likewise of necessary laughter, whence he carefully says: "in which he ought to laugh," it is not permitted; therefore a little and holy laughter, which arises from the conversion of sinners, concerning which Christ testifies the angels rejoice, or from a similar pious cause, he does not forbid, as is evident from his Admonition to a Spiritual Son. For, as it says in Ecclesiastes cap. xxi, 23: "A fool exalteth his voice in laughter: but a wise man will scarcely smile gently." See the remarks there. St. Gregory relates, lib. IV of the Dialogues, cap. xiv, 5, that Isaac, renowned for great virtues, was nevertheless so filled with such joy that through it he seemed to hide his virtues, indeed to obscure them for some. The philosophers followed Solomon. Heraclitus is celebrated among them, who whenever he went out of his house, wept, just as Democritus on the other hand laughed: to the former, all things which we do seemed miseries; to the latter, absurdities. Plato, lib. III of the Republic, condemns those excessively given to laughter: "For unrestrained laughter, he says, is followed by violent change." Epictetus in the Enchiridion: "Laughter, he says, neither much, nor for many reasons, nor uncontrolled." Dionysius the Philosopher in Stobaeus, discourse 72: "Continuous and intense laughter, he says, is worse than anger. For this reason it especially flourishes in harlots and duller children. To me indeed a face seems to be more adorned by tears than by laughter: for tears are usually joined with some good teaching, but laughter with wantonness: and by weeping indeed no one has brought upon himself an author of insult, but by laughing he has increased the hope of disgrace." But the foolish Anabaptists called by the name Ejulantes err, who weep and wail perpetually, saying that nothing is equally pleasing to God as to weep and wail continually, as Staphylus relates, and from him Gabriel Prateolus in the Catalogue of Heresies, under the word Ejulantes. Which first, some explain thus concerning a mixture of wisdom with pleasure, as if to say: I Solomon, having experienced in the study of wisdom alone that there is great labor and pain, but in pleasures alone that there is great vanity and baseness, determined to join both together, and to mix and temper one with the other, and thus to try whether in this mixture the mind would find rest, and would find the tranquility and happiness long sought: I determined therefore to draw my flesh into wine, that is to indulge the flesh with the drink of wine to excite joy, and to supply the animal spirits, which are necessary for contemplation and the study of wisdom: but I determined to give my heart and mind to wisdom, so that thus both the flesh might obtain its delights of wine, and the heart or mind its food and feast of wisdom. Thus from R. Abraham Vatable: "When I saw, he says, that wisdom alone generates pain, and that laughter alone does not profit, I sought a way to reconcile both, and I drew my flesh into wine, and my understanding into wisdom." But this exposition seems incongruous, both because no one can at the same time devote himself professionally to wisdom and to gluttony, especially to drunkenness, according to that saying of St. Jerome: You cannot at once fill the belly and the mind; for the belly seething with wine obscures and dulls the head, so that it cannot contemplate, meditate and study wisdom, and Solomon knew this very well; and because Solomon would certainly have subjected his judgment concerning this experiment of this mixture in his own manner, and would have said: "And I found that this also was vanity;" but he did not do this. Secondly, the Chaldean translator rendered it, I explored in my heart with Costus, so that among feasts and cups I might display my body. Thus also the Syrian. And Vatablus: I investigated therefore that my heart's body might delight itself with prolonged pleasure, as if to draw were the same as to stretch out and to prolong delay. And Cajetan: "To draw flesh in wine," he says, "is to be a drunkard, and never to be sober. For men of this sort draw their flesh in wine: and because they are deprived of the acts of true rational life, inasmuch as they are never fully sober, for this reason they do not so much lead their life as draw their flesh, not conduct it, unto death." St. Jerome is added, who in his Commentary rendered it, I considered in my heart, that I might draw my flesh in wine; and thus he explains it: "I wished to spend my life in delights, and to free my flesh from all cares, and as it were with wine, so to lull it to sleep with pleasure. Then what follows: 'But my heart led me in wisdom,' thus he connects it with the latter part, so that he might signify the struggle of flesh and spirit, or of drunkenness and wisdom in Solomon. Whence in Hebrew it is, my heart led me in wisdom, that is, says St. Jerome: 'My thought and natural reason drew me back, and led me to seek wisdom and to trample upon folly, so that I might see what good thing it was that men could do in the course of their life. Elegantly indeed he compared pleasure to drunkenness. For drunkenness overturns the vigor of the mind, and he who could exchange it with wisdom, and (as in some codices it is found) obtain it, he could arrive at knowledge of this matter, what in this life is to be desired, what to be avoided.' Thirdly, the Septuagint, reading keiain, that is like wine, for beiain, that is in wine, render it, I considered whether my heart would draw like wine my flesh, and my heart led me in wisdom, and that I might obtain joy. Where note, for "would draw" in Greek it is helkysei, for which Thaumaturgus and some others read eklysei, that is would dissolve; but the former reading is conformable to the Hebrew, the Vulgate, the Chaldean, the Syrian, the Arabic and the others. The sense is, as if to say, I thought to do with wine what I did with laughter, saying: "I counted laughter an error." I thought therefore to try whether, as wine draws flesh and the palate by its taste and sweetness, so wisdom by its beauty and form would draw to itself the heart and mind, so that giving itself to wisdom itself it would draw to itself flesh, would rule over pleasure, and would restrain all the appetites of gluttony and drunkenness. Thus Moringus: "I thought with myself," he says, "whether the mind and reason be efficacious in drawing my flesh as wine is," that is, how efficacious wine is in drawing flesh and gluttony. For of old it was doubted whether wine be stronger than a king, than a woman, than truth, as appears in III Esdras III. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus is added: "When I had thought," he says, "that the soul had such power as to be able to check the drunken nature of the body and flowing like wine, and again to master the desire of continence, I determined that it was necessary for me to consider what finally would be useful to men." Fourthly and genuinely, St. Jerome, who in his Commentary had rendered it, that I might draw my flesh in wine, afterwards at the command of Damasus, composing the Vulgate version, having considered the matter better, rendered it, that I might withdraw my flesh from wine; and the Church received and approved that version. For the Hebrew masach signifies to draw with all its compounds (for the Hebrews lack compounds, and therefore for them they use the simple verb, or the root and theme itself), namely to draw to, to draw out, to draw from, to draw away. Again beiain, that is in wine, is not rarely taken for meiain, that is from wine; for beth is sometimes taken for min, that is from, away from, of; and therefore here it is evident that it should be understood from the connection and thread of the whole discourse. For it preceded: "I counted laughter an error; and I said to joy: Why art thou vainly deceived?" Hence it is fitly subjoined: "I thought to withdraw my flesh from wine." For by wine equally as by laughter, symposia, feasts and any carnal pleasures he understands by synecdoche. For from wine follow luxury, laughter, dancing and all wantonness. Properly however he understands drunkenness; for this is contrary to the study of wisdom, because the fume of wine dulls the head, obscures it, and sometimes deprives of reason and judgment, so that one cannot be free for wisdom. By wine therefore, understand immoderate use of wine. For wine taken moderately sharpens the intellect. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: When I had discovered that laughter and all the joys of the world are mere vanities, errors and deceptions, I thought to withdraw my flesh from wine and other pleasures, so that I might be free for wisdom, until through it I might see what would be useful for men to attain solid joy and happiness, "which being done," that is, what they ought to do under the sun all the days of their life, so that in that said joy and happiness they might persist constantly throughout their whole life. That this is the meaning is clear from the Hebrew, Chaldean, Olympiodorus and the Fathers in the Greek Catena, who explain it thus: "I thought in what manner the study of intelligible things might compel the sense of the flesh to obey the intelligible part of the soul, as if the inferior were drawn and yielded to the superior;" another there: "Suspecting, he says, the approach of pleasure, not otherwise than the approach of some thief, who insinuates himself secretly into the treasures of the soul." Again, by "I might obtain" they do not understand "I had, possessed, enjoyed;" but "that I might obtain," that is, that I might rule over joy, as a general of war obtains the enemy when he conquers and captures him: for this is what the Greek "tou kratesai ep' euphrosynen" signifies, that is, that I might govern with authority and rule over exultant joy, and restrain immoderately exulting pleasure. Whence the Wonderworker: "Continence, he says, brings desire into servitude;" and Nyssenus: "That I might obtain dominion over joy;" and Cajetan: "That I might restrain folly, lest my heart revel through it." It could be translated from the Hebrew as "that I might obtain," that is, "that I might possess wisdom;" for this is what sichlut signifies through shin, although through samech it signifies folly, as I said in chapter 1, verse 17. Whence St. Jerome in his Commentary translates it as "that I might obtain folly," that is, that I might apprehend, seize, subject (for this is what the Hebrew "leechoz" signifies) folly, which is the same as what he himself translated in the Vulgate as "and I avoided folly." For the enemy is conquered and captured so that he may be guarded against and avoided lest he be able to harm; but gluttony and lust are conquered not so much by resisting as by fleeing occasions and enticements, which in order that our author might signify, he wisely translated as "I avoided." Therefore Olympiodorus judges less correctly that Solomon here signifies that he abused the wisdom given to him by God in investigating carnal pleasures, so that he might obtain them and feed and immerse himself in them. THAT I MIGHT SEE WHAT WAS USEFUL FOR THE SONS OF MEN. — The Hebrew: what was good; the Chaldean: what that good was of the sons of men, which namely might calm them, gladden them and make them blessed. WHICH BEING DONE IS NECESSARY UNDER THE SUN. — The Hebrew: what they do under the sun, that is, what all men ought to do if they are wise and wish to be happy; in what they ought to occupy themselves as long as they live here; for which reason they ought to do this one thing, devote themselves entirely to this one thing, pursue this one thing with all their strength, according to that word of Christ to Martha: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary," namely "Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her," Luke x. "The number of the days of his life." — Solomon signifies that he sought out this good, as Nyssenus says: "That it would not be suited to one age alone, but would be perpetual and not temporary, and would extend into the whole of life; and would be good for every age, the first, and the middle, and the last, and for every number of days: for on account of none of those things which happen in torpor is it permitted to be affected perpetually with pleasure; but the pleasure of drinking ceases together with satiety, and in eating likewise satiation extinguishes appetite." the purpose is serious, and truly good and honest." Moreover, Olympiodorus presses this comparison with wine further: "The cup, he says, which we drain by drinking, is taken from our sight, and vanishes. I considered therefore whether in worldly prosperities and human pleasures the human mind could be so manly, as to be able to consume and destroy, as it were wine drunk down, the desires of the flesh." Therefore Solomon, blushing that he was overcome by wine, thinks thus to overcome wine. He thinks therefore to try whether the mind is not more powerful in overcoming wine, and in taming gluttony, than wine was in overcoming, and casting down the mind from the state of reason. Thus Nyssenus: "If ever, he says, I felt pleasure creeping in gradually, and flattering, and beguiling the senses, I immediately resisted, rebuking it, that it wished to soften and make me effeminate: in this manner I considered, how the motion of the body reason would overcome, in itself warring with itself and in discord, when on one side the mind, on the other the flesh drew, or rather reason would absorb the prudence of the flesh. Just as when the thirsty drain the cup; for wine does not remain in it, but is changed into him who drinks it: which being done, an expedient and certain way was made clear to me, with all error removed, to the knowledge of things." Now let us weigh the individual words: For "I cogitated" in Hebrew is tarti, that is, I investigated thoroughly, I explored, I surveyed all around. For the root tur signifies to investigate, to survey in a circle all things in a circle, to look around at all things in order all around. Whence tor is the turtledove, because it turns its head continually in a circle, so that it may look around at all things, and because it meditates as it were consulting with itself and deliberating; although others think the turtledove is called by this name from the sound of the voice which it utters in moaning. Solomon signifies therefore that he does not pronounce these things rashly and on the spur of the moment; but having first scrutinized all things with great examination, he dictates these things with mature judgment. For from investigation and examination by metonymy he leaves to be understood the judgment and decree, which is wont to follow after examination. "To abstain from wine" denotes a great inclination of corrupted nature toward wine and pleasures, so that it must be abstracted and torn away from them with great force and pain, just as if the skin were scraped from it; just as a bone, which a dog gnaws, cannot be torn from it except with great force. For "that I might turn my mind to wisdom," in Hebrew it is, my heart leading me into wisdom, by which I avoided foolishness, as follows, and by which, as Nyssenus reads, I obtained dominion in joy (pleasure). Whence R. Haccados: "My heart, he says, led me through wisdom, lest the heel should prevail over me, which would destroy me. For the Hebrew noheg signifies properly to lead away, or to lead elsewhere and in the contrary direction, just as a boy is led away by a pedagogue from play to school. Solomon says therefore: I determined to abstain my flesh from wine, so that I might lead my mind away from bodily delights to spiritual ones, namely from gluttony to wisdom; by which he signifies that these two are contrary, and mutually opposed to each other diametrically; wherefore he who wishes to devote himself to wisdom ought to renounce pleasure, and the more he renounces it, the more closely he is joined to wisdom, and becomes more capable of it. Hence Cajetan and Pagninus translate, that I might accustom my heart to wisdom. For, as the Greeks say in the Catena: "He who follows the guidance of wisdom, commands pleasures with joy." "AND TO AVOID FOOLISHNESS." — The Chaldean, that I might learn the foolishness of youths; the Septuagint seem to have translated approver, that is, foolishness, as our text has, the Hebrew, Syriac and others. Now however in the Septuagint euphrosynen is read, that is, joy. Whence they translate, that I might obtain joy; Olympiodorus, my heart abounding in joy; the Arabic, my heart sent me to wisdom, and to embracing joy through it. But the sense comes to the same thing: for by joy, namely inept and poured out into carnal pleasures, they understand, which is nothing other than foolishness. Hence the emblem: Lest you go mad with cheerful madness, Lest excessive pleasure harmful to the mind seize it, And press your limbs pleasantly with frenzy. Madness allures only with a laughing face, It carries poisons in golden honey. Again, the word "number" signifies that the days of man are few and easily numbered. For thus "days" or "men numbered" are called in Hebrew those who are few, who can be numbered immediately, as in Genesis xxxiv, 30, and Numbers ix, 2. This is what Job says, chapter xiv, 5: "The days of man are short, and the number of his months is with thee." Hence the old saying: "The whole of life is one day: All are daily: A pleasure of a day and vain glory." Morally, note here, first, that one devoted to wisdom must abstain the flesh from wine and other pleasures of the flesh, as Daniel did with his companions, who by this obtained great knowledge of things, and Daniel the gift of prophecy, Daniel 1, 8 et seq., where I have said much on this matter. The same did St. Jerome, St. Basil, St. Gregory, St. Chrysostom and other Doctors; indeed also philosophers, such as Crates, Zeno, Socrates; but especially the Ascetics and Anchorites, among whom the Essenes hold first place by a double title, concerning whose continence wonderful things are narrated by Eusebius, Philo and Josephus. Secondly, it is the work of the wise man in all his actions to look to the end, namely that he may direct them to salvation and happiness; for this is the end for which he was created, this his supreme good. Let him therefore constantly think on this: "The eye on the goal, The eye on the back of the head," so that he may regard not only those things which are before, but also those which are behind, namely the end and future things. And that saying of Aristotle: "Behold pleasures not coming, but departing." For those coming allure by their appearance and deceit, those departing fix the sting of sorrow in the mind. And that of the Wise Man: "What fortune has lent, it will take away; what nature has changed, it will reclaim: what virtue has prepared, it will retain."
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Whence St. Gregory Thaumaturgus and Olympiodorus rightly connect this verse with the preceding one. For thus says Thaumaturgus: "A wonderful desire seized me, that I might see in what manner mortals might worthily occupy themselves through this life. Wherefore I omitted nothing of all things which are deemed worthy of admiration that I did not treat. Palaces have been built on high, vineyards have been planted," etc. I MAGNIFIED MY WORKS — many, great and magnificent works I built, namely magnificent houses, vineyards, gardens, etc. For by magnitude is understood multitude, and so great in Hebrew is often the same as much, and magnitude the same as multitude, as I have shown elsewhere. It is an enallage of quantity, by which continuous is put for discrete, and vice versa. Whence the Syriac translator renders it, I multiplied my works; and the Chaldean, in building indeed magnificent works in Jerusalem I was abundant; others, many in number, and in magnitude vast works I constructed. By works understand, not so much public works erected for the good of Jerusalem or the kingdom, such as were the temple, walls, ditches, fortresses, towers, cities, bulwarks, III Kings ix, as private ones, which Solomon built splendidly for his own pleasure, not necessity, but enjoyment and luxury. For he says: "My works: and I built me houses, and planted vineyards." Again by works he understands things skillfully made, artificial, wrought, polished by immense study, art and industry. Whence the Arabic translator renders it, I magnified my arts. Whatever also is excellent in nature, whatever is recondite in art, this Solomon procured for himself from Tyre and round about. I BUILT ME HOUSES — such as that which Solomon built on account of his opulence and magnificence for thirteen years, so splendid and admirable, that at the sight of it the queen of Sheba was astonished, III Kings cap. vii, and cap. x, vers. 27. Similar was the house of the forest of Lebanon, and another which he built for the daughter of Pharaoh, whom he had taken as a bride. See Josephus, lib. VIII Antiquities cap. v, or according to another edition, cap. 11, and Abulensis, III Kings VII, Question I and seq. That Solomon built many other houses, to satisfy his desire for building, is clear from this place, and from the Chaldean, who renders it, I built me many houses; and from that III Kings cap. IX, vers. 10: "He built whatsoever he pleased, that he might build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in the land of his power;"; in Hebrew it is, he built the desire, which Solomon desired to build: which phrase denotes an ardent zeal in Solomon for building, not to say a lust. The Chaldean adds, I made a throne of ivory and a seat of the kingdom. Tropologically, see the Nyssene on the manner in which the house of the spiritual soul ought to be built and adorned, and therefore excessive ornament of the bodily house is to be guarded against, lest the mind exhaust its cares, wealth and time upon it, so that little remains for it to expend on the building of the soul, as Nero did, who was in nothing more ruinous than in building, says Suetonius, cap. xxxi of his Life. For he built in Rome a palace from the Palatine hill to the Esquiline so immense, that it was like a city. Whence, as the same Suetonius, namely cap. xxxix, this distich was written against him: Rome shall become a house: migrate to Veii, Quirites, If this house does not also seize Veii. And Martial, epigram. 2: And now one house stood in the whole city. Its ruins and remains still exist, which indicate its wonderful magnitude. Wisely Seneca, epist. 90: "From nature," he says, "luxury has departed, which daily incites itself, and grows through so many ages, and aids vices by ingenuity; all these arts, by which either a city is excited, or resounds, conduct the business of the body, to which all things were once provided as to a servant, now are provided as to a master." I PLANTED VINEYARDS. — Of Solomon's vineyards no mention is made in the books of Kings; but in Canticles cap. viii, 11, where the bride says: "A vineyard was to the peaceful one in that which has peoples;"; in Hebrew, to Solomon in Baal hamon, which Aben-Ezra says is the proper name of a place near Jerusalem, where the greater part of the people had most excellent vineyards. Others, to whom the Chaldean favors, think it to be a cognomen of Jerusalem itself, which on account of the frequency of inhabitants was so called. For Baal hamon is the same as lord or lady of multitude, that is of many people. Moreover this vineyard was so fertile, and of such great produce, that it was valued yearly at a thousand pieces of silver. For he adds: "He delivered it to keepers; every man brings for the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of silver." Again, some refer to this place the vineyards of Engaddi, most highly praised, because the grapes bore a Cypriot flavor and odor: for cypress is an aromatic tree, and they think this is signified in Canticles, chapter 1, 13: "A cluster of cypress is my beloved to me, in the vineyards of Engaddi." But whether this comparison of the beloved with cypress and the vineyards of Engaddi is drawn from Solomon's own vineyards or from those of others is not sufficiently clear, especially because Engaddi was far distant from Jerusalem, being near Jericho. But what prevents Solomon from having had his pleasures, villas and vineyards in remote places of Judaea, just as the Romans once had them at Capua and throughout all Campania? Certainly once in Judaea alone, and indeed in Engaddi alone, there was a most excellent balsam vineyard; for balsam is a shrub which, if cut with sharp glass, stone, or bone, distills a most precious juice, of extraordinary sweetness and virtue for healing diseases, which they call opobalsamum, and it is preferred to all odors. See Adrichomius on Engaddi. Similarly on Mount Lebanon there were most pleasant gardens, which were irrigated by a fountain of gardens, of which in Canticles, chapter IV. This fountain gradually increasing made a river, which was called the Sabbatic, because by the wonderful providence of God it flowed on the Sabbath only, and dried up on the other six days, as Josephus testifies, book VII of the Wars, chapter xxiv. See Adrichomius. Furthermore, the planting and cultivation of vineyards is most honorable, most pleasant and most useful, as Columella teaches, book III, chapter III: for they produce excellent wines in great abundance. Certainly that these were excellent and most delicate (such as the Falernian wines of the Italians) cannot be doubted by one who looks more deeply into these words of his and the following ones, and at the same time considers his nature, genius, and zeal for investigating all things in the world that are delicate, precious, and excellent. Now indeed that vines and grape clusters in Palestine were huge and excellent is clear from the cluster which two scouts sent by Joshua to explore it brought forth from there, and carried it on a pole to him, Numbers xiii, 25, and from the vine Sorec, most excellent, of which Isaiah v, 2, whose grapes did not have a stone, as the Hebrews testify, and gave most delicate red wine, and thus wine of Cos, that is of the best color, odor and taste, as Adrichomius says in the description of the Holy Land in Daniel. Likewise from the fact that Israel is said to have dwelt quietly under its vine and under its fig tree, III Kings, chapter IV, 25. Vines therefore must be tall like trees and fig trees. Whence also Genesis, chapter XLIX, 11, Jacob blessing Judah, says: "Binding his foal to the vine," so that namely he might load an ass from it. Again, Solomon whatever was rare and precious in the world, and thus in India, he brought by ships into Judaea: wherefore it is not doubtful that he also brought precious vines from regions where those excellent ones are. Certainly Pliny, book XIV, chapter 1, writes that in interior Africa such large grapes are produced "that they exceed the size of infant children," and grapes also "swell in the manner of breasts of bumasti." For the grape is called in Greek bumasti, because it resembles the udders of an ox in swelling and size; whence by Varro, book II On Agriculture, chapter IV, it is called Bumamma, and by Macrobius, book III of the Saturnalia, the last chapter, Bummammia. Strabo also, book II, chapters x and xv, mentions grape clusters of two-foot size, and we see two-foot clusters produced in some places of Italy. Finally, that wines and all red things, but no white ones, could be produced in Palestine, I have learned in Rome from those who have explored that land. Under vineyards and vine-plantations some understand olive groves and fig orchards: for these are accustomed to be joined together, and thus in the same often fertile field one sees olives and figs inserted and mixed with vines, as in Lombardy one can see. Mystically, the vineyard of the soul, both one's own and that of another, must be planted, pruned and cultivated. Hear St. Ambrose, book II, epistle 7: "Let luxury be cut away," he says, "let delights be pruned away, and if anyone has been luxurious, let him bid farewell to higher things. For a pruned vineyard bears fruit, a half-pruned one grows leaves, a neglected one grows wild, and therefore it is written: As an imprudent man is agriculture, and as a man lacking sense is a vineyard; if you leave him, he will be desolate. Let us therefore cultivate our body, let us chastise it, reduce it to servitude, not despise it: for our members are weapons of justice, and also weapons of sin."
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In Hebrew, I made gardens and paradises. A garden is common for vegetables; hence a garden is called as it were ortus, because vegetables arise in it. But a paradise is a garden of choice trees, shrubs, flowers, fountains, statues, birds, fish and vivaria, of roebucks, stags, wild beasts, and every kind of pleasantness and delights, such as were those of the ancient Romans Lucullus, Pompey, Cicero, etc., in the Tusculan and Tiburtine fields, which are now there either equal or nearly equal to those of the Estes, Aldobrandinis and similar ones, who contend with the gardens of Alcinous in pleasantness and value, if they do not surpass them, where I have heard with my own ears not only the hydraulic organs, but also the singing of birds. Concerning the word Paradise, see what is said at Genesis II, 8. Our translator renders it orchards, because in paradises fruit-bearing trees of every kind excel, namely apple-bearing ones: for pomum signifies any fruit which has a softer rind, and is distinguished from a nut, which contains almonds, hazelnuts and all fruits of hard rind. Subsequently also pomum embraces all fruits both of hard and soft rind, and nuts of every kind. Thus it is taken here. "Of all kinds of trees;" in Hebrew and Greek it is, of all kinds of fruits of trees, not that all were fruit-bearing, or that Solomon planted only fruit-bearing ones, since even non-fruit-bearing ones, such as cedar, plane-tree and cypress bring wonderful pleasantness by abundance of foliage, height, odor, and other gifts; but because besides these he also planted fruit-bearing ones fertile in diverse fruits and apples, says St. Jerome. It is probable that Solomon sought out precious shrubs and trees from Arabia, Egypt, India and the whole world, and transferred them to his Jerusalem paradises; whence Josephus, in book VIII of the Antiquities, chapter 11, relates that a balsam plant brought as a gift by the queen of Sheba was happily planted by Solomon in the soil, and subsequently produced abundantly in Palestine, and so in such great quantity that Pliny afterwards wrote, in book XII, chapter 25, "balsam was granted to the land of Judea alone." For balsam was formerly the property of Sheba and Arabia Felix, and thrived most happily at Mecca and Medina, the principal cities of Arabia Felix, as Prosper Alpinus teaches in his Dialogue on Balsam, chapter II; Strabo, book XVI; Diodorus Siculus, book I; Pausanias, book IX, and others. From there it was transferred by the queen of Sheba to Judea to Solomon, and when he planted it, it thrived most happily in Jericho. From there transferred to Egypt and watered by a spring which gushed forth for the Blessed Virgin and the child Jesus, when fleeing Herod she withdrew there, it is taught by Baronius, Burchard, Adrichomius and others to have sprouted abundantly. Again, it is probable that Solomon planted in his paradises all the shrubs and trees, especially aromatic ones, which are named by Solomon in the Canticles, such as cedars, cypresses, calamus, myrrh, frankincense, cinnamon, aloe, honeycomb with honey, Canticles chapter 5, verse 1, that is, honeyed cane, or sugar cane, from which sugar is extracted, as some translate it. "I sowed" hints that Solomon planted paradises not only with others' hands, but also with his own, as Cyrus the Younger did in the Sardian paradise, as Cicero testifies in On Old Age, about which more presently, and the Emperor Diocletian, having voluntarily abdicated his empire, withdrew to his country estate at Salona, and there devoted himself to planting and horticultural work. Homer describes Laertes, the father of Ulysses, in the Odyssey, last book, found by his son tilling the fields. Indeed, Noah planted a vineyard, and was the first to press wine from it. And Adam and the others before the flood, and after it Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other Patriarchs were farmers. At Rome the Hortensius family was celebrated, so called from the cultivation and study of gardens. This age has similar Hortensius figures, among whom we once saw at Louvain Justus Lipsius, free from studies, diligently spending time in sowing flowers in his garden. See him himself, book II of On Constancy, chapters II and III, and Virgil, I Georgics, where he celebrates the cultivation and pleasantness of gardens with wonderful elegance. Now indeed gardens bring great utility as well as pleasure. At Rome we see very many gardeners, and they are wealthy, because Italians feed and sustain themselves more on herbs than on meat. Among these "cabbage is the glory of gardens," says Columella. Under "I sowed," understand also "I grafted." For, as Cicero says in On Old Age: "Not only plantings delight, but also graftings;" and Solomon was most skilled in these, inasmuch as he knew the powers and gifts of all trees, herbs, shrubs, and knew which, to which, and in what manner ought to be grafted and inoculated. Whence Fonteius translates: I set in order vines, And grafted pears, figs, quinces, plums, I set innumerable species, every kind of beasts. Moreover, that the gardens of Solomon were remarkable and surpassed the hanging gardens of Nitocris, which Nebuchadnezzar erected for her as if for his wife with wonderful art and greater expense, so that they were held to be a marvel of the world, Pliny easily persuades us in book XV, chapter IV, from Solomon's desire, wealth and magnificence. Those gardens were partly in the city of Jerusalem, namely in the royal palace of Zion, partly outside the city where the fields are more beautiful. Just as the Romans in the suburbs erected gardens, such as those of Caesar and Antony near the Tiber, concerning which Dionysius speaks in book XLVII. Hence our Vilalpandus, volume III, part I, book II, from Josephus, book VI On the War, chapter vi, teaches that the gate of Jerusalem called Genath, or the gate of the flock, was likewise the gate of gardens (for to gan in Hebrew signifies garden), through which there was an exit and descent into the valley of Hinnom, most pleasant, and the torrent of Cedron, noble for its gardens, and toward the valley of Josaphat. There therefore were the most pleasant gardens, which were watered by the torrent of Cedron. Whence that passage of the Bride, Canticles vi, 10: "I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valleys;" the Septuagint translates it, fruits of the torrent. Whence likewise there Adrichomius in the description of Jerusalem depicts the royal garden, which in the Canticles is called a garden enclosed, in which was the fountain of Rogel and all pleasantness. Tropologically, Nyssenus here has an invective against the useless cultivation of gardens, and shows in what manner and with how much vanity delights are sought on earth through buildings, in the air through plants, in water through pools and fountains; yet moderate cultivation of gardens and pleasant agriculture is praiseworthy and useful, and was commended by God to Adam in paradise, Genesis ii, 15. For, as St. Augustine says, book VIII On Genesis according to the letter, chapter ix: "What occupation is more innocent than this, and what is fuller of great consideration for the prudent?" A garden, says St. Isidore, book XVII Origins, chapter x, is named because something always arises there. For while other land produces something once a year, a garden is never without fruit. Olus is named from nourishing, because the first men were nourished by vegetables before they ate grain and meat. For they were nourished only by the fruits of trees and vegetables, just as animals by herbs. Therefore, just as Adam would have cultivated paradise, if he had persisted innocent in it, not only for the eating of fruits, but also for perceiving through experience the natures, gifts and properties of herbs, fruits and shrubs, and from these would have risen to a clearer knowledge, love, praise and thanksgiving of God the creator: in exactly the same way Solomon cultivated his gardens. Whence it is said "he disputed concerning trees from the cedar which is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall," III Kings iv, 33: wherefore it was pleasing to Solomon to handle, plant and cultivate these things, equally as it was useful: just as it was for Hercules to plant oaks with his own hand, as Pliny writes, book XVI, chapter IV; and for Agamemnon to plant plane trees, as the same Pliny relates, book XVI, chapter xliv; and for Cyrus to glory that he had a field planted by his own hands, and rows arranged in quincunx order, and many trees planted by his own hand, as Cicero testifies in On Old Age. "Antiquity," says Pliny, book XIX, chapter IV, "marveled at nothing sooner than the gardens of the Hesperides, and those of the kings Adonis and Alcinous, and likewise the hanging gardens, whether Semiramis or the king of Assyria Cyrus made them. The Roman kings indeed cultivated them themselves. For even Tarquinius Superbus sent that cruel and bloody messenger to his son from a garden." Moreover, the Chaldean from the version of the Conimbricenses and Costus adds much here paraphrastically. For thus it has: "I established in Jabne vineyards round about, so that I and my chamberlains might at some time feast, and pour out new and old wine as a libation at the altar. I planted irrigated gardens and pleasure grounds most full of verdure, where I sowed all kinds of vegetables, which would be useful for sustenance and banquets, or for health; I also added herbs noble in scent; likewise sterile trees and those bearing aromatics, which demons and harmful angels brought to me from India; all likewise fruit-bearing trees. But the boundaries of the gardens were from the wall of Jerusalem to the shore of the waters of Siloah." Chamber servants were intimate officials of the king, who procured quiet and silence in the court, and restrained the tumult of servants and all things, lest they should offend the king's ears, concerning whom Justinian speaks in the chapter On Chamber Servants, and Procopius in book II of the Persian War: "The Romans," he says, "call a minister for those things which pertain to quiet in the palace a chamber servant, or one conscious of the secrets of the prince's household." But these things were rightly cut out and excised from the Chaldean text in the Royal Bibles. For they contain certain doubtful and apocryphal matters, certain fabulous and unworthy things, such as what they say about Solomon having used the art of magic, and having received through demons foreign plants from remote regions of the earth. Finally, in his gardens and paradises, Solomon testifies in verse 11 that he found vanity and affliction of spirit. For besides the vanity common to all earthly things, that which is peculiar to those paradises is that they demand perpetual care, and the constant cultivation and restoration of beds, pergolas, hedges, fountains, storehouses, labyrinths, vivaria, etc., into which vast sums must be expended each year. Again, because they are visited by many, even by prelates and princes, whom it is necessary to receive lavishly and splendidly: wherefore paradises serve not so much the master as his guests, with whom the master's time must be wasted and his wealth squandered. Moreover, in paradises one indulges in feasting, drinking parties, wantonness, luxury and other vices. Finally, paradises often seize the master's entire thought, desire and care upon themselves, so that he is neither able nor willing to think about other matters which fall to him. Wherefore St. Charles Borromaeus used to say to Bishops and Prelates that they ought to have no other paradise than the Bible and Holy Scripture. Most excellently does St. Gregory of Nazianzus say in oration 9: "How long," he says, "do you seek vanity and falsehood, namely this life and its delights, and a small glory and humble power, false prosperity, thinking it to be something great and ample; which indeed have this character, that they belong no more to those by whom they are obtained than to those who hoped to have them; nor again to these more than to those among whom they were never even in expectation; but like dust in a whirlwind, so are they carried from one to another, and like smoke they vanish away, and like a dream they deceive men, and like shadows cannot be held in the hands, and finally are so constituted that neither do those who do not have them despair of obtaining them when they are absent, nor when they are present are they faithful and certain." That saying of St. Augustine is well known: "Man (Job) conquered in dung, he was conquered (Adam and Solomon) in paradise."
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For pools Aquila translates limnas, that is marshes, ponds; Symmachus, dexemenas, that is cisterns, channels, receptacles of waters. Pools here can properly be understood as fish-ponds, in which fish are kept and nourished. For fish were in ancient times a delicacy, indeed some people fed on fish alone, not on meat. For fish are more moist, colder and easier to digest; and there is far greater variety of fish than of meats. Such were the pools of Nero, in which he himself fished with a net of gold, bound with purple and scarlet cords, as Suetonius says, chapter xxx and xxxi of his Life. Remarkable are the things which Pliny writes concerning the tameness and delight of fish in pools, lib. III, cap. II, where among other things he says: "Fish feed from the hand in many of Caesar's villas, etc.; in the fountain of Jupiter at Labradius eels wear added earrings. In the fountain of Apollo, which they call Curium, summoned three times by a pipe they come to the augury. In the lake of Venus at Hierapolis in Syria, called forth by the voices of the priests, they obey, adorned with gold they come, fawning they are scratched, their gaping mouths they offer for hands to be inserted." The same, lib. XX, cap. xi, assigns this remedy to sick fish: "If fish are sick in pools, they are refreshed with green parsley." Secondly, by pools can be understood generally cisterns, lakes, streams and any receptacles of waters. For these first serve for pleasantness; for clear and crystalline waters wonderfully delight the sight, especially when one navigates in them by boats. Secondly, for refreshment; for in a pool they washed themselves, indeed they swam. Whence also kolymbetra, that is a bath or swimming-pool was called, such as was the swimming-pool of Siloam, to which sent by Christ the blind man, washing himself in it was enlightened, John IX. Whence Pliny the Younger, lib. V, epist. 6 to Apollinaris: "If you wish to swim, he says, more widely or more warmly, in the courtyard there is a pool." The same, lib. II, epist. 17: "A warm pool adjoins wonderfully, from which swimmers behold the sea." Thirdly, by pools can be understood baths and bathing-places, in which they washed bodies with warm waters, warmed them, and cured them from cold diseases, such as are the baths of Charlemagne, which at Aachen flow most hotly from the earth, so that bathers must temper their heat with cold water. Thus the magnificence of the Romans was in baths, and these were an imperial and royal work, such as were the baths of Diocletian, Constantine, Antoninus, whose remains, indices of former magnificence, we still behold. Fourthly, in pools or ponds were held naumachiae, or games and naval battles for the delight of spectators. Thus Nero, drawing the Tiber into the sloping gardens of Rome, made a pool or pond, in which a naumachia was exercised, for his and the people's recreation. Fifthly and chiefly, these pools and ponds served for the irrigation of gardens and trees. Whence Solomon adds: "That I might water the forest of trees springing up." For since Judaea is dry and thirsty, that it might become moist and fertile, it needs irrigation of waters: and this in Scripture is called its blessing. Whence also a pool in Hebrew is called berecha, that is blessing. Hence Axa asked it from her father Caleb saying: "Give me a blessing," that is an irrigation of waters. "Thou hast given me a southern and dry land, join to it also a watered land. Caleb therefore gave her an upper watered land and a lower watered land," Joshua xv, 19. Thus the Thaumaturgus: "Pools, he says, were made great for the reception of waters, distributed for the abundant and copious irrigation of trees. Hence from pools were made aqueducts, by which water through all the garden plots, and through the workshops and great chambers was derived with great art, equally with convenience and pleasantness. Indeed the magnificence of the ancient Romans was in aqueducts, whose remains we still behold." Hence the Chaldean thus has it, I added moreover to the house of the banquet water-pipes, most suitable for the irrigation of trees and herbs, and I made from them castles and aqueducts to the forest, planted with various trees, to be irrigated. For most trees love the irrigation of waters; except a few: for "cypresses, walnuts, chestnuts, laburnum hate waters," says Pliny, lib. XVIII. Furthermore, what, how many and what kind the pools of Solomon were is uncertain, because neither Scripture nor Josephus express them: only Josephus, lib. VI of the War, cap. vi, names the Pool of Solomon. The Pool of Bethesda, that is to say the sheep pool or cattle pool, in which the sheep to be sacrificed were washed, Vilalpandus, Adrichomius and others consider to have been a work of Solomon in their description of the temple: but that does not pertain here, because it served not the pleasures of Solomon, but the uses of the temple. The Pool or bathing place of Siloam, in which the blind man was healed in John IX, some think to have been a work of Solomon. This pool arises from the nearby spring of Siloam, which gushes forth from the root of Mount Sion: its water flows clear, sweet and most abundant with silence and gently into the torrent Cedron, Isaiah viii, 22; concerning which Saligniacus writes thus, lib. X, cap. 1: "The water of this spring is still held in esteem even by the Saracens themselves today. For since they naturally stink like goats in their bodies, they wash themselves and their children in this spring, and by this washing they mitigate their stench. Indeed the Turks also hold it in high regard, because they have found by experience that its use benefits the sight of the eyes." Some also attribute to Solomon the pools in Heshbon, because their beauty is compared to the eyes of the Bride of Christ on account of the clear knowledge of God, Cant. VII. Finally, understand by pools the springs, which conducted from a higher place through channels, gush forth in gardens and courtyards to the great pleasure of those beholding them; for these indeed make a pool or pond. The spring Gihon was celebrated in Jerusalem, and it was twofold, namely upper and lower: it arises from Mount Gihon, where Solomon was anointed king by the prophet Nathan and the high priest Zadok, III Reg. 1. Mystically, the pools are the merits of Christ and the Holy Sacraments, which contain the merits of Christ, which Christ the Lord as the true Solomon instituted, that they might irrigate the forest, that is the Church, in which germinate trees of all kinds, that is all eminent saints, both patriarchs and prophets as well as apostles, virgins and martyrs. The upper pool is baptism, the lower is penance.
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By servants, understand both hired servants and slaves; for these are properly possessed, just as beasts of the field and property. Whence Plato calls them animate possession; Plutarch, animate instruments. Hence the Nyssenus translates, I possessed servants and handmaids as herds of goats and swine, inasmuch as both were subject in the same order of power and dominion. By family understand wives, sons, vernae, that is, sons born of slaves under the master's dominion. Whence in Hebrew it is, sons of the house; the Septuagint, and vernae were born to me; Arabic, and they became sons of the people of my house; Campensis, and vernae were born to me from them. The abundance of these contributes both to the splendor and magnificence of the master, and to his power and works, so that through them both at home and abroad he may accomplish whatever he wishes, whether for utility or for pleasure. For servants obey the master's nod, and perform all his business, whether domestic, rural, or forensic. Such are farmers, cooks, grooms, camel-drivers, chariot-drivers, cup-bearers, bakers, smiths, weavers, dyers, attendants, satellites, men-at-arms, chamberlains, keepers of silence, and messengers, etc. Solomon had an innumerable multitude of servants and handmaids. Our Vilalpandus, vol. II, book V, disp. 3, cap. LI, reckons them at forty-eight thousand six hundred men. But if you count prefects, officials, and courtiers here, the supply was far greater, as is gathered from the daily provisions of Solomon's court, III Kings IV, 22: "The food of Solomon," it says, "for each day was thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture oxen, and a hundred rams, besides venison of harts, and roebucks, and fatted fowl." Herds are called so as if armaments from the arms which they have, strong for bearing burdens, and that they might be armed for battle. Whence Virgil, IV Aeneid: Horses are armed for war, these herds are prepared for war. Or herds as if aramenta, namely beasts of burden by which the land is ploughed; such are horses, asses, camels, cows, oxen, buffaloes. Moreover, Solomon's horses were very many, as is evident from their stables: "For he had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen," III Kings IV, 26, that is, he had forty thousand chariot horses in stalls, and twelve thousand horsemen. This is a hypallage. That this is the sense is clear from II Paralipomenon ix, 25, where it is said: "Solomon also had forty thousand horses in stables." For each horse in a common stable had its own manger, that is, a place enclosed, in which fodder was given to it. Solomon therefore possessed in all fifty-two thousand horses in stables. Moreover, Solomon possessed, equally as Saul, David, and other ancient kings, great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, both for food and clothing, and for commerce, and for sacrifice, so that when he himself offered a thousand victims at one time, III Kings III, 4, so much so that the queen of Sheba marveled at the number of his annual victims, III Kings x, 25. Thus Agag was the prince of the Shepherds of Saul, I Kings xv, 9; thus "Mesa king of Moab fed many flocks, and paid to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams with their fleeces," IV Kings III, 4. The wealth of the ancients therefore was not in gold and silver, but in cattle and herds; whence money, which was afterwards stamped with the image of cattle, to which it succeeded, took its name. Thus Varro, book IV On the Latin Language, and Pliny, book VIII, cap. III; namely, while the world was still living, living riches pleased, and flourishing and increasing ones. But now, to a world growing old and near death, dead and buried riches of bronze, gold and silver please: in which matter, says Nyssenus, man has transgressed the limits prescribed by God, disemboweling and laying waste the earth, digging up what God wished to be hidden. Moreover, the proper vanity of servants and handmaids is that they serve their master, not from love, but from fear, or hope of reward and gain. Again, that they are of servile disposition, and require great care and constant governance from their master, according to that passage in Ecclesiasticus XXXIII, 25: "Food, and a rod, and burdens for an ass; bread, and discipline, and work for a servant. He worketh in discipline, and seeketh to rest; he looseth his hands, and seeketh liberty. The yoke and the cord bend the stiff neck, and continual labours bow the servant. Send him to work, that he be not idle, for idleness teacheth much evil." Furthermore, that they serve only to the eye, and are often unfaithful and thievish. To this pertains the notable saying of Rabbi Hillel in Pirke Avoth, that is, the Sayings of the Fathers, cap. II: "He who multiplies flesh, multiplies worms; he who multiplies riches, multiplies with them sorrows; he who multiplies women, multiplies enchantments; he who multiplies handmaids, multiplies fornication; he who multiplies servants, multiplies thieves; he who multiplies the law, multiplies life; he who multiplies study, likewise multiplies wisdom; he who multiplies counsel, multiplies prudence; he who multiplies justice, multiplies peace; he who acquires the word of the law, lendeth himself eternal life in the world to come." Allegorically, St. Jerome says: Christ, who is the true Solomon in the hall, that is in His Church, has "servants who have the spirit of fear in servitude, and desire spiritual things more than they possess them. But He calls handmaids those souls which are still devoted to the body and to the earth; vernae, who precede servants and handmaids, yet are not yet granted liberty, nor nobility by the Lord. But there are others in the manner of oxen and sheep, on account of their works and simplicity, who without reason and knowledge of Scripture labour indeed in the Church, but have not yet arrived at the point of deserving to be men, and to return to the image of the Creator; of whom it is said: Men and beasts Thou wilt save, O Lord," Psalm XXXV, 8.
2:8
The Septuagint, συνήξα, that is, I gathered, collected, amassed abundantly; the Arabic, I aggregated; the Chaldean, treasures of gold and silver I gathered together, and I fashioned from demanded gold statues and weights of equal and good measure. The census (or property, as the Complutensian translators render it) also of kings and provinces was brought to me as tribute. Gold that is demanded is often refined by fire, and therefore is most purified and excellent; for by frequent action of fire it contracts tubercles and pustules, as Sabellicus teaches at chapter XLIV of Suetonius on Nero, and Cujacius, book VII of Observations, chapter XL: concerning which it is said in Psalm XI, 7: "Silver tried in the fire, purged seven times," that is, manifold, such as is obryzum gold. You will ask, what and how great were the riches of Solomon? I answer that this can be gathered first from the fact that those riches of Solomon were obtained to him from a singular promise and gift of God: but the gifts of God are extraordinary and surpass all human things. Hear God speaking to Solomon: "But I will give thee riches and glory, so that none of the kings, neither before thee, nor after thee, shall be like unto thee," II Paralipomenons I, 12; which words, although some limit to the kings of Israel, others in various ways, are nevertheless in themselves unlimited and absolute. Whence our Vilalpandus shows in many ways that Solomon was more opulent than all kings and monarchs whatsoever: concerning which more presently. Secondly, from the fact that David his father left to him for the building of the temple "a thousand thousand talents of silver:" a thousand thousand, that is, ten hundred thousand; and "of gold a hundred thousand talents." The talent of the Hebrews, as I showed at the end of the Pentateuch, was twice as great as the Attic talent; for it contained "three thousand shekels," that is, 125 pounds of gold, which make "twelve thousand French crowns." Our Salianus adds in the Annals "and five hundred." Whence he reckons these talents of gold and silver of David to have made 2672 millions, and moreover 125 thousand golden coins. To which if you add 72 millions and 926 thousand and 666 gold pieces, which were given liberally by the people in I Paralipomenons XXIX, 4, these two sums will amount to twice two thousand seven hundred and 45 millions, 51 thousand and 666 gold pieces. Whence Budaeus, book IV of De Asse, reckons these riches of David, left to Solomon, to have been ten times greater than those of Darius the last king of the Persians, which Alexander occupied when he conquered him. For Darius had only 87 thousand talents; but those which Solomon gathered together, he reckons to go to infinity. Indeed this sum of David's riches and millions seems almost incredible; for it contains so much gold as scarcely exists in all of Europe; and Justus Lipsius meditating on the work De Amplitudine imperii Hebraeorum, as a counterpart to another which he had published on the magnitude of the Roman empire, was deterred by it, since he could not grasp so great a magnitude of riches; wherefore some think that the talents already recounted were smaller, which Eusebius favors, book IX of De Praeparatione, near the end: "But I say talent," he says, "which they call a shekel." A shekel has the weight of four drachmas; wherefore if it was of silver, it was worth four Julios or Spanish reales; but if of gold, it was worth four French crowns, for these have the weight of four drachmas. But thus this sum of David would have been small, unless you say that these shekels were not simple, but double, indeed tenfold, in the way that a Spanish real, if decupled, makes a Philippic, a daler or golden coin. This David left to Solomon for the temple; but for the palace and his own uses, from the very abundant and continuous spoils of enemies, with whom he fought throughout his whole life and was always victorious; likewise from revenues and other disbursements he added very much, so that Josephus, book VII of Antiquities, chapter XII, writes: "The king David left to his heir such riches as no other king either of the Hebrews or of other nations." He adds that the high priest Hyrcanus received from the sepulcher of David three thousand talents; Herod then a great quantity of gold, etc., so that some think that a thousand millions were buried with David. Thirdly, from the gold and riches which were brought to him by ships from Tharsis and Ophir, concerning which it is said in III Kings IX, 26; II Paralipomenons VIII, 17, and III Kings X, 14: "The weight of gold that was brought to Solomon every year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, besides that which the merchants brought," so that those six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold appear to be dug out yearly from the very mines by Solomon's servants; but other gold, of which there is no number, brought to Jerusalem by trade and commerce of those nations whose shores Solomon's ships visited. Thus Pineda. Fourth, from tributes and taxes, which were paid to him annually both by each tribe of Israel (which some conjecture from III Kings IX, 15 to have been as much as King Hiram of Tyre gave to Solomon, namely 120 talents of gold, not that each tribe paid so much—for this would have been enormous and impossible—but all together; and then all the kings round about him were tributary and subject to him, II Paralipomenon VIII, 8, and III Kings IV, 21 and 24. Fifth, from gifts and presents; for Hiram gave him one hundred and twenty talents, not annually, as some think, but once. The Queen of Sheba gave him the same amount. In III Kings X, 10, and II Paralipomenon cap. IX, 23, it is said: "All the kings of the earth desired to see the face of Solomon, etc., and they brought him gifts, vessels of silver and gold, and garments and arms and spices, horses and mules every year." Sixth, from the wisdom imparted to Solomon, by which he increased the annual census of fields, flocks, revenues, business dealings, etc., with wonderful industry beyond the common manner of others; likewise from the great peace, which was perpetual in his kingdom for forty years. This is what is said of Wisdom, Wisdom cap. VIII, 18: "In the works of her hands is honesty (that is, riches) without defect." And Proverbs VIII, 18, Wisdom herself says: "With me are riches and glory, proud riches and justice." Seventh, from the buildings which he constructed. Certainly some think he spent three thousand millions of gold on the temple. For this temple was a wonder of the world, and, as much as is permitted to man, a house worthy of God, and among mortals a throne of glory. Hence David, vowing for the building of the temple, left to Solomon "three thousand talents of gold of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of the most tried silver for gilding the walls of the temple," I Paralipomenon cap. XXIX, verse 4. What then do we believe he left to him for the machinery of so great a building itself? Likewise from the magnificent expenses of the court and of an almost innumerable household, recounted in the preceding verse, and of the workers. For he maintained, throughout all the years of the building of the temple and of his own houses, thirty thousand Israelites cutting wood in Lebanon, "and seventy thousand of those who carried burdens, and eighty thousand stone-cutters on the mountain, besides the overseers who presided over each work, numbering three thousand and three hundred." These were Tyrians, whom King Hiram of Tyre had submitted to him, to whom therefore Solomon provided "twenty thousand measures of wheat for food for his household, and twenty measures of the purest oil every year," III Kings V, 11 and following. Moreover he maintained 52 thousand horses with their horsemen, chariots and carts, as I said in the preceding verse. Finally, our Vilalpandus, tom. II, lib. V, cap. XLIV, up to LI, carefully calculating each head of Solomon's revenues, compares and prefers Solomon's wealth to the revenues and opulence of the kings and monarchs of the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and even Romans, so that he estimates Solomon's census to have exceeded the census of the kings of the Persians forty times over. For Solomon himself, he says, collected annually from tributes 2226 talents from Ophir, besides 450 talents, which joined together make more than forty-five millions of gold. To these add the revenues from tolls, pastures, merchants, moreover very great and numerous spoils, which David brought back from enemies throughout his whole life of fighting. Some add the annual census of the poll tax, by which each person annually gave half a shekel according to the law to the temple: for the Jews individually paid this, both those who were in Judaea and those who were innumerable throughout the whole world. But this census went to the high priest and the temple, not to the king and the court. Our Lorinus, precisely reviewing, calculating and determining each of Solomon's revenues, finally concludes and says: "The sum of all these things which Solomon had throughout his whole life, of which Scripture designated a certain number, is three thousand nine hundred three millions, and seven hundred sixty-five thousand, and nine hundred twenty-four scuta of Roman money in silver: to which if we add one thousand four hundred forty talents of gold multiplied by thirty-six years, it will yield four thousand six hundred eighty-six millions, two hundred thirty-three thousand, one hundred twenty-four. Besides these, however, as is gathered from what has been said, he had a very great other sum collected from many other things, the sum of which cannot be determined, such as and of such magnitude as no monarch or republic ever had." Yet this precise calculation of Solomon's wealth can scarcely be proved from Scripture, and it assumes as true and certain certain things that are uncertain, indeed less probable, such as that Hiram gave Solomon 120 talents annually, when it is more true that he gave them only once; that each tribe paid Solomon the same amount annually, when it is more true that all together did not pay more; etc. It suffices therefore to say in general that Solomon's riches were very great and innumerable, inasmuch as they represented the spiritual riches of Christ, who is the true Solomon. For these are very great, namely the graces, gifts, virtues, and innumerable crowns of heavenly glory, which Christ both possesses in himself and distributes and imparts to innumerable Saints, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs and Virgins. Hence Solomon is said to have made it so that there was such an abundance of silver in Jerusalem as there was of stones, III Kings X, 27, and to have gathered brass as gold, and filled silver as lead, Ecclesiasticus XLVII, 20; and again II Paralipomenon cap. IX, 20: "Silver," he says, "in those days was reputed as nothing," which although spoken by hyperbole, nevertheless signify that Solomon's riches were immense. Whither went such a multitude of riches? It went away, vanished like smoke, nay, from all those things Solomon when dying carried away not even an obol. Go now, ye covetous, heap gold upon gold, fill chests with silver, and know that all these things must be left behind by you at death, and that nothing but virtue and beneficence will accompany you to the tribunal of Christ. And substances. — In Hebrew it is סגולה segula, that is treasures and precious things, such as gems, precious objects, ornaments. The Septuagint translates this as the riches of kings; the Syriac, the possession of kings; the Arabic, the worlds of kings and regions; Vatable, precious world; the Zurich Bible, the peculium of kings; others, desirable treasure; Campensis, those things which properly pertain to kings and lords of provinces; Arias, the peculium of kings, the treasuries of royal treasuries, and the repositories of other princes. Therefore Solomon received from kings and provinces not common things, but choice and excellent things, namely the finest gold, the brightest silver, the most precious gems, and whatever was rare, choice and precious among them. Hence God says of Israel: "You shall be to me a peculium (Hebrew, in segula) out of all peoples," Exodus cap. XIX, vers. 5. See the things said there, and I Peter cap. II, vers. 9, to those words: "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition." Furthermore Solomon heaped up these riches: first, when young, from the gift of God, whence I heaped up signifies great heaps and accumulations of riches collected by him; then when growing old from avarice, says Nyssen, and then from neches, that is substance given by God, with cupidity spurring him on, he made kenes, that is a heaping up and scraping together of riches, oppressing his subjects through excessive tributes, which he then poured out upon his flatterers and parasites, and upon a thousand wives and concubines, and the rest of the luxury of his table and pleasures: in which matter he sinned against the law of God thus ordaining concerning a king, Deuteronomy cap. XVII, 17: "He shall not have many wives, which may allure his mind; nor immense weights of silver and gold." And for this reason ten tribes rebelled on account of his excessive exactions, and rejecting his son Rehoboam, they made Jeroboam king for themselves, III Kings cap. XII, vers. 4 and following: "Your father," they say, "imposed a most grievous yoke upon us," etc. Finally the vanity proper to riches is first this, that gold and silver are nothing but red and white earth, as St. Bernard says, to which only human estimation gives value, which nevertheless is heaped up, that is reduced into heaps, so that from it coined money is shut up in chests and is of no use or benefit, but lies hidden in dark dungeons as it were. Whence St. Chrysostom, oration 4, disputing with Alexander, says that the avaricious spirit will not "gather riches, but cause losses; or if it gathers riches, it will keep them bound and unfruitful, truly riches shut up in certain hidden and dark prisons." And Nyssen, homily 4, pressing the point of I heaped up: "Gladly," he says, "would I know what profit will return to him who gathers this material, and sees in the whole what he now sees in the small, nor does it bring any gain to the soul. He counted, stored away, sealed with a seal; when asked for it, he denied, and when trusted, he even swore falsely. This is blessedness, this is his end, that study is placed in it." Second, that a thousand cares, fears, and anguishes torment the rich man, lest anyone steal them; lest they perish by shipwreck, fire, or robbery. Whence St. Gregory says: "Do not, he says, love those things which, when loved, defile; when possessed, burden; when lost, torment." And St. Basil in the Melissa of Antonius, part I, cap. XXXIV: "Whatever you see (O miser, he says), whatever you imagine, is gold. This is to you a dream when sleeping, and a thought when waking. For just as those who rave in madness do not see the things themselves, but imagine what their affliction suggests to them: so your mind, held fast by avarice, sees nothing but gold and silver, and indeed gold presents itself to your sight more pleasantly than the sun." Hear also Seneca in Hercules Oetaeus, Act. 2: O if the breasts of the rich were laid open, What countless fears does lofty Fortune stir within! Brutia, when Corus strikes the sea, the wave is milder. The poor man carries a secure breast. Third, that they increase cupidity immensely; for he who has gained a hundred gold pieces soon desires to gain two hundred, immediately three hundred, four hundred, a thousand, and then not one million, but several, according to that saying: The love of money grows as much as money itself grows. The more waters are drunk, the more they are thirsted for. Fourth, that riches are the occasion and stimulus for gluttony, luxury, pride, and all crimes, as they were for Solomon: for from riches one goes to excess, from excess to debauchery, from this to heresy, idolatry and atheism. Hear St. Chrysostom, graphically depicting the vanity, nay the perversity of riches: "I call riches the parents of all luxury and wickedness, the patrons of all intemperance and lust, the inventors of all vice, the helpers of all destructive pleasures, the enemies of continence, the foes of chastity, the secret thieves of all virtue." Thus Chrysostom, reciting the words of St. John of Damascus in the Parallels, lib. II, cap. XVII, from Basil thus attributes: "How long, pray, will gold be the snare of souls, the hook of death, the allurement of sin? How long will riches be the parents of wars, on account of which arms are forged, swords sharpened? On account of them do kinsmen not acknowledge their nature, do brothers regard each other with hostile and bloody eye. Because of riches does solitude nurture robbers, the sea pirates, cities sycophants? Who is the father of falsehood? Who is the artificer of false writing? Who is the procreator of perjury? Is it not riches? Who converts to your destruction those things which are yours? Were riches granted to you for the support of life, or for the material and aid of vices?" etc. And again from the same: "See lest, when you have accumulated riches with innumerable labors, you prepare for yourself and others the material of sins, and thus discover that you have brought upon yourself a double punishment, namely both on account of those to whom injury has been done by you, and also on account of those to whom you have furnished the occasion and provision of vices." See also St. Basil, homily on Rich Misers, and Isidore of Pelusium, lib. II, epist. 146, where he cites that saying of Isocrates: "Riches are rather the servants of vice than of virtue, in that they bring license for idleness, and encourage young men toward pleasures." And soon after: "Among the ancients it was the custom that after a banquet they would take up the lyre and sing this: O riches, would that you were neither seen on earth nor on sea!" And this he confirms by the example of Aristides, Plato, Epaminondas, and Crates, who, ceding his riches to the senate, said: "Crates gives Crates freedom as a gift." Fifth, that they expose a man to the danger of present and eternal death: for many rich men are killed on account of money, so that the killer might steal it; many likewise are damned on account of the same, whence Christ says: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven," Matt. cap. XIX, 24. What then did all this wealth profit Solomon? nay, how much did it harm him, since it led him into danger of eternal salvation, nay made him guilty of hell? How much better would Solomon have been poorer than Irus, than richer than Cyrus! How much would he now prefer to have begged with Lazarus, than to have gorged himself with the Rich Man! For he himself was a gulf of riches, and a glutton of the patrimonies of so many kings and peoples. Let princes remember who, in order to enrich themselves, burden the people with excessive tributes, suck the blood of themselves and the poor, and are to be accused before the tribunal of Christ as guilty of murder, and to be condemned to eternal death. For, as it is said in Eccles. cap. XXXIV, vers. 25: "The bread of the needy is the life of the poor; he that defraudeth him thereof, is a man of blood. He that taketh away the bread which is gotten by sweat, is like him that sheddeth blood. He that defraudeth the laborer of his hire, is a murderer." I MADE MYSELF SINGERS AND SINGERS. In Hebrew, שרים ושרות sarim vesaroth; which if written with sin, signifies princes and princesses. But here it is written with shin; whence it signifies inspectors and inspectresses, likewise singers and songstresses, who continually inspect the musical notes and the thing to be sung. Some add that it signifies musical instruments, for singers sing with these. Whence Pagninus translates, I made myself diverse musical instruments. And our Pineda by singers and songstresses, as our translator properly rendered it, understands every kind of musical instruments: for indeed the same noun, varied through diverse genders, denotes every diversity and universality of the thing which the noun signifies. For since the Hebrews have only those two genders, masculine and feminine, whoever speaks of both genders of some thing comprehends that thing universally, as in Isaiah, chapter III, 1: "I will take away from Juda the mighty man and the man of war, all the store of bread, and all the store of water." Which passage Cyprian reads thus, book I of Testimonies to Quirinus: "I will take away the mighty one and the mighty one, the might of bread and the might of water." Berzellai says, II Kings, chapter XIX, verse 35: "Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women?" where the Chaldean of the Complutensian edition reads, shall I hear a great voice of harps and hymns? where you perceive singers and songstresses to be taken for musical instruments. Moreover David for the worship of God in the temple, and Solomon for his delights at table and in the hall, made these musical instruments: the psaltery, the organ, the harp, the pipe, the timbrel, the ten-stringed instrument, the bell and the cymbal, strings, the trumpet, the flute, the sambuca, which some call the harp, others the trumpet, others the tube, so that sambuca is said to be as it were שמש scemes, that is of the sun, bucca, that is tube, because the mouth inflated like a tube would sound. Better do others wish sambuca to be said because it was made from the sambucus tree, or rather from a hollow shrub, as St. Jerome indicates to Dardanus. Most rightly do others judge sambuca to be a Hebrew word. For in Daniel, chapter V, verse 5, sabbecha as sambuca (for the letter m in dagesch is absorbed, and for the sake of euphony is changed to b, a neighboring labial, and becomes liquid); for indeed the root כבך sabach signifies to interweave, to implicate, to intertwine, one is inserted into another, and now is drawn tight, now is loosened from the sambuca. But truly and genuinely, take singers and songstresses for men and women, whether youths and maidens, singing melodiously both with voice and with musical instrument: for at the same time while they sing with the mouth, they strike with the hand the organ, harp, psaltery, or another instrument; and thus a double and full harmony is made from one and the same singer: but if more do the same thing harmoniously and melodiously, an admirable and heavenly symphony is made, which ravishes those hearing it and delights them with wonderful pleasure. Moreover princes are accustomed to have musicians in the hall at hand, so that whenever it pleases them they may command them to sing, and by this their modulation dispel their cares and sorrows; especially indeed they use them at table or from table, and this was an ancient custom, especially of the Syrians and Egyptians, that they would have comely and adorned boys singing at table, who by their form and becoming appearance, and by their modulating voice would feed equally the ears and eyes of the guests. Whence Ecclesiasticus, chapter XXXII: "A signet of a carbuncle in a setting of gold, and the comparison of musicians in a banquet of wine," he says. "As in the working of gold a sign is an emerald, so is the number of musicians in a pleasant and moderate wine." See the things said there. The sense therefore is, as if to say, "I made," that is I procured, constituted, disposed, ordained, distributed through choirs for myself singers and songstresses, who at fixed hours and places by singing would delight me. For to make is a general verb signifying any action, disposition, ordination. Again "I made" properly, that is I commanded to be made, and by giving a price I took care to have made all kinds of musical instruments, precious and skillfully wrought, with which male and female psalmists, equally as with voice would sing, and would recreate me. Whence the Chaldean translates, I made in the house of the Sanctuary (it would have been better to say, in the hall) musical instruments, so that singers and songstresses would sing in them. AND SINGING WOMEN. — These indeed the luxurious and effeminate employed fully and completely for the delights of singing: for the voice of women is softer, sweeter and more delicate; wherefore it is wont to emasculate and enervate the ears and mind of men. Thus Antoninus Verus the Emperor, as Capitolinus says in chapter VIII of his Life: "They brought with them (from Syria) female lyre-players, and flute-players, and actors, and buffoons and mime-performers, and conjurers, and all kinds of slaves, on which Syria and Alexandria feed their pleasures." Thus also among the Hebrews there were male and female singers. Hear Ezra, book II, chapter VII, verse 67: "Besides servants and handmaids, who were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven, and among them singers and singing women." Similar ones existed among the Romans. Whence Plautus in the Sticho: "Female lyre-players, female flute-players, female sambuca-players (who played the sambuca), he brought with him of exceptional beauty." And Livy, book IX of the Macedonian War: "Then female harp-players and sambuca-players and the entertainments of banquet dancers were added to the feast." That the kings of the Persians had similar singing women and harp-players in their delights, both in voice and in musical instrument, is taught by Xenophon, book IV of the Paideia, Curtius book V, Athenaeus book II, and Brissonius, book IV On the Kingdom of the Persians, and they add that they joined with their singing the gestures of the arms, dances, and numerous motions of the body, which were indeed scarcely chaste, nay rather enticements to lust. Whence Ovid, in the Remedy for Love: "Lyres enervate the spirit, and the singing of lyres, and voice, and arms moved to their rhythms." Furthermore, the proper vanity of singers is first that singing is nothing other than voice and sound striking and passing through the air: for where it has sounded, it has gone and vanished. Second, that singers are surpassed in sweetness and variety of modulation by birds, especially by the blackbird and the nightingale, which, although it is a vile and tiny bird, nevertheless surpasses all birds and men in song, and therefore seems to be nothing other than voice and song. Third, that the voice of boys, delicate and thin, after a few years changes and becomes coarse, and loses its delicate grace and beauty in singing. Fourth, that the voices of boys and especially of women enervate the spirit, and gradually invite to unchaste loves. Just as the Sirens, so also harlots allure, madden and destroy lovers by song. Whence in Proverbs V, 3, it is said: "The lips of a harlot are a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil; but her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword." Wherefore St. Jerome commands Furia "to drive out from her house female lyre-players and harp-players and this kind of choir of the devil, as the deadly songs of the Sirens." And Gregory of Nyssa here says: "O wicked and importunate art! how densely does it pour forth a flood of pleasures heaped together, which like certain double torrents through hearing and sight inundates souls, so that evil is both seen and heard! Song overturns hearing, song overcomes and prostrates the eye. Hence the feminine voice through the harmony of songs made, carries away the heart with it, and leads to vice. From there sight, like some war machine directed at the eyes because it had already been broken by the songs that had struck the ears, strikes and turns away the soul. The leader of this assault is wine, which like some wicked archer pierces a man with double arrows, directing its darts at the ears and eyes." To this vanity of song is opposed the truth of the same, by which once Christians in the Agape or Eucharistic banquet sang praises and hymns to God, as Tertullian testifies, Apology chapter XXXIX, in imitation of Christ, who after the last supper, having said a hymn, went out with the Apostles to the Mount of Olives, Matthew chapter XXVI, verse 30. Whence the Apostle, Ephesians III, verse 18: "Be not, he says, drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking to yourselves in Psalms, and Hymns, and Spiritual Canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." See the sayings there. AND THE DELIGHTS OF THE CHILDREN OF MEN. Some interpret these delights as the "singers and singing women" already mentioned, so that it is an epexegesis, by which their end and use are explained, as if to say: Singers and singing women serve no other purpose than for delights, so that they may entertain the luxurious children of men. Whence the Syriac version translates, I made singers and singing women for myself, and sweetness in the children of men; the Arabic, I made singers and singing women for myself with pleasure with the children of men. Others more plainly understand by these any kinds of tables, feasts, wines, cupbearers, vessels, dishes, baths, or as the Chaldean says, crowns, dining couches or beds in which the ancients reclined, and young men adorned serving at banquets, etc., delights and luxuries, which Philo depicts graphically in his book On the Contemplative Life. Whence for delights Aquila translates τρυφάς, that is softness, pleasures, luxury; Symmachus, σπαταλάς, that is delicate foods, dainties, luxuries. Lyra understands by delights the beautiful wives and concubines of Solomon, and very many of them, namely a thousand. Tropologically, delights are vain and deceptive, because the life of the flesh in delights is often the death of the soul, reason and spirit. I do not assert this, but St. Paul speaking of a widow, I Timothy V, 6: "She that liveth in delights, he says, is dead while she liveth." For he who delights in the flesh cannot delight in the Almighty, Job chapter XXVII, 10. St. Gregory gives the reason in the same place, XVIII Morals, chapter VIII: "Two loves, he says, cannot be contained in one heart, nor does the seed of heavenly charity spring up in it, where the thorns of the lowest pleasure kill it." St. Chrysostom gives a similar reason, homily 13 on the First Epistle to Timothy: "He is dead, he says, whoever lives in delights while living. In what way? He lives for the belly alone, dead to all other senses. For he does not see what ought to be seen, nor hears what it is necessary to hear, nor speaks what it is fitting to speak, and shows nothing living in himself except the belly's gluttony alone: otherwise just as someone dead lying in a bed, with eyelids closed and eyes shut, has no sense at all, so also this man, indeed far worse than he has become. For he does not feel good and evil equally in the same way; but this man admits the sense of evils only, but feels nothing of good at all. Nothing of those things which are preserved for the future life moves him, but he persists immobile in all things; and thus he is dead, as if cast down into some dark and shadowy cavern, and filled with all filth, hidden in the innermost and dark recesses of vices, and always lives in darkness like one dead." And further in the Moral: "We fill ourselves with greater stench day by day, when we press more into delights, our body flowing away like a wineskin; and when someone distended with such satiety, also violates the brain with frequent belchings, foul vapors exhale from the body everywhere, as from some furnace growing hot with internal heat, as is the opinion of the wise. But if even those who are outside are so indignant and bear it heavily, what do you think the brain suffers internally, when it is continually shaken by such vapors and cannot evaporate? What those cavities, the liver and spleen? what the very receptacles of excrement? and what is worse, we carefully tend the latrines so that they are blocked lest excrement exhale upward: but we do not care to cleanse the latrines of our belly; rather we block and obstruct them, and with the smoke itself ascending to the upper regions, where the king himself has his seat, namely the brain, we desire it, and are moved by no care. Why, I ask? Namely, because we do not regard it as an honorable king, but as some unclean dog." And after some things: "Deservedly therefore, he says, she that liveth in delights is dead; for nothing can be spoken or heard fittingly by a soul obsessed with delights: for it becomes soft, idle, weak, illiberal, fearful; sometimes indeed full of boldness, flattery, ignorance; a receptacle of indignation, anger and all evils, destitute of all good virtues. She that liveth in delights, he says, is dead." "It is not seemly for a fool to have delights," Proverbs chapter XIX, verse 10, namely true, heavenly and divine delights, which God holds in His right hand, Psalm I, verse X, and which He promises to those redeemed by the blood of Christ, Isaiah LI, 3, that is the delights of Holy Scripture, the Eucharist, devotion, love, and future beatitude, in which the bride abounded, Canticles VIII, 5; for in that state, as the Psalmist says, Psalm XXXV, verse 9: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house, O Lord, and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure." They shall truly be inebriated, because, as St. Augustine says: "The human mind shall be absorbed and lost, and shall become divine; because with the torrent of thy pleasure thou shalt make them drink." This world gives us drink from a chalice, or rather a drop of pleasure, which nevertheless often contains more bitterness than sweetness; but in the future it will give a torrent of sorrows. Thou, O Lord, givest us here a drop of sorrow, but in the future thou shalt give a torrent, nay a sea of pleasures, "because with thee is the fountain of life," namely "God himself shall be their God;" God himself filling the desire of the soul with good things, shall be to reason the fullness of light, to the will a multitude of peace, to memory the continuance of eternity. In a word: God shall be all in all, God all glory, all riches, all knowledge, all joy, shall pour forth all the treasures of His delights upon His chosen friends, nay shall pour forth Himself entirely, and thus shall inebriate the soul with glory and joy, so that neither that soul nor our heart could contain it, but the joy would burst forth and break asunder, unless God sustained it beyond nature. Why therefore, unhappy man, dost thou wander through many created things, seekest thou delights, and findest them not? Love the One in whom are all things. If honor delights thee, if riches: "Glory and riches in his house;" if beauty, "The just shall shine as the sun;" if knowledge, if liberty, if strength: "They shall be like the angels of God;" if satiety, if inebriation: "We shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear;" if melody, there with the angels we shall sing the Holy, Holy, Holy, and perpetual alleluia; if society, if friendship, there is the wonderful fellowship of the Saints and the eternal length of all ages. And all these things for all eternities, as long as the world, as long as hell, as long as angels, as long as God shall be God. O dear eternity, eternal truth, true charity, dear happiness, my God, my love, my God and all things! "For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth? Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever." O human heart, unworthy heart, heart experienced in troubles, overwhelmed with troubles, how dost thou not fix thyself entirely in this one thy good, thy rest, thy center, and pursue this one thing with all thy vows and endeavors? CUPS AND PITCHERS IN SERVICE FOR POURING OUT WINES. In Hebrew it is שדה ושדות scidda vesciddot, which is translated variously by different ones: first, the Septuagint, whom St. Jerome once followed, translate it as wine-servants and wine-servants; Olympiodorus, as cupbearers and cupbearers: "So that," he says, "from the varied appearance of those serving, and from alternating change, he might provoke appetite for cups; or as being very soft and expressing an effeminate character;" Nyssenus adds: "Youth adorned for beauty, or boys made effeminate by adornment, or even the female sex itself present at the banquet, with kind invitations kindles an unseemly flame;" Neocaesarius: "Cupbearers chosen and distinguished from both sexes, whom I could not even number;" second, the Syriac: I made myself drinkers and drinkeresses. So also the Arabic. Third, the Chaldean understands it as baths and bathhouses: I made, he says, siphons which would pour out warm waters, and siphons which would pour out hot waters. For the ancient Hebrews, Egyptians, Syrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, frequently bathed themselves in baths and bathhouses for cleanliness and pleasure, as is evident from Judith X, 3; Genesis XIX, 2; Exodus II, 5; Daniel XIII, 15; II Kings XI, 2, and from Brisson, book II On the Kingdom of the Persians. Fourth, R. Solomon translates it as chariot and chariots, or wagon and wagons. Fifth, Reuchlin in the Lexicon: honor and magnificences, that is the most splendid and most magnificent things. Sixth, Marinus and the Innovators everywhere: symphony and musical harmony. Seventh, Aben-Ezra, Campensis, Vatablus, Pagninus, the most select and most beautiful women captured in war. To this pertains the translation of Hutter the innovator in the Lexicon, who renders it as wife and children. Eighth, our author excellently translates, cups and pitchers in service for pouring out wines, that is, by which cupbearers and other servants of the table, while they minister to the guests, pour out wines, mix, and offer them for drinking. For the Septuagint also translates, I made myself ministers of wine and maidservants; and Aquila, I made, that is I mix, I temper, I dilute, whose preterite is, κεκράμαι; whence κρατήρ, and κρατήρ, that is a cupbearer, a butler, who skillfully tempers wine with water, mixes and dilutes it. Mystically St. Jerome, translating from Aquila κύλικα καὶ κυλίκια, that is large and small cups, or mixing bowls and goblets, so that namely from the larger into the smaller wine poured out might be offered to the guests, adapts these things to Christ, who as the "Wisdom of the Father in a mixed bowl, Proverbs III, calls to himself those passing by: The body of the Lord, he says, we ought to receive as a great mixing bowl, in which not mere divinity, as it was in heavenly things; but on account of us tempered by means of humanity in the middle, and through the Apostles into smaller κυλίκια, that is small cups, wisdom poured out to believers throughout the whole world."
2:9
"All," both kings, both merchants, and any others whatsoever, however most wealthy. To "riches" is not in the Hebrew, Septuagint and Syriac, but is understood; but for riches take delights and abundance of all goods. For Ops (whence opes, riches) was to the pagans the daughter of Heaven from Vesta, and sister and wife of Saturn, namely Earth; whom, as Servius writes, the Greeks call Rhea, from ῥέειν, that is to flow, because the earth flows with all things. Hence Festus: "Ops," he says, "the ancients called what we now call wealthy, as the opposite testimony is to him in need." And Cicero, in On Old Age: "Those," he says, "to whom there is nothing of resources in themselves for living well and happily, to them every age is burdensome." Just as therefore riches are of gold and silver, so also are they of delights, wines, cups, pitchers, etc., namely their abundance and affluence. The Hebrew texts therefore word for word have, I became great and increased, or accumulated. What? Various ones supply various things. The Arabic supplies, fame and status: "My fame," it says, "has been magnified, and my status has been increased beyond all, who preceded me in Jerusalem"; Symmachus supplies, greatness: "In greatness," he says, "I surpassed all," so that in the Hebrew there is a hendiadys: I became great and increased or surpassed, that is I surpassed in greatness; St. Jerome in the old edition, which he has in his Commentary, supplies wisdom: "And I was magnified," he says, "and I added wisdom"; the Zurich Bible, I accumulated pleasant things; Vatable, I increased myself, that is my dignity and magnificence; R. Haccados, I was greater than the custom of other kings, as it is written: I made myself a throne of ivory, which was done in no other kings. But Our translator most excellently supplies riches with the Chaldean, who renders, I multiplied goods and added riches; or, as Costus renders, and flowing with delights I gathered together riches more abundant than anyone before that time had in Jerusalem. For the whole preceding discourse was about delights and riches, and riches generate greatness, fame, status, pleasant things, dignity and magnificence, and therefore tacitly embrace them. He repeats and emphasizes what he said in the preceding verse. He alludes to that in II Paralipomenon IX, 22: "Solomon was magnified above all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom." Assuredly God wished to magnify him thus, so that in this magnificence he might better experience the vanity of all things, and represent and persuade it more effectively to others, says Nyssenus. Whence he surpassed all kings, according to that in III Kings III, 13: "So that there was none like thee among kings, all the days before." And II Paralipomenon I, 12: "So that there was none like thee among kings neither before thee, nor after thee." Briefly but forcefully St. Lawrence Justinian, On the Wood of Life, chapter III: "Deceptive sweetness," he says, "in temporal goods, fruitless labor, good hope, perpetual fear and dangerous pleasure is inherent, to which the beginning is without prudence, the progress without shame, and the end with punishment." WISDOM ALSO PERSEVERED WITH ME. The Hebrew, wisdom also stood or stood by me; others, remained with me; the Syriac, my wisdom rose for itself; the Arabic, yet my wisdom remained with me; the Interpreter Olympiodorus, it was stable for me. Those who think that Solomon wrote this book after his fall and penitent, labor here, so that they might assign wisdom persevering with him in the fall. Therefore first, some understand by wisdom human and animal wisdom, namely skill in devising new kinds of pleasures, and in increasing riches, delights, luxury, pomp and glory, which is the wisdom of worldly men and sinners. Thus Nyssenus: "I found," he says, "whatever could be devised for enjoying, and instructed in all wisdom I proceeded to make trial of those things. And so sight also lent aid to desire, and free will was filled with those things which were delightful." And Hugh of St. Victor: "What is this wisdom," he says, "which loves discourse and disdains solitude? See lest perhaps likeness deceive you, and it be not wisdom which seems to be wisdom." And Olympiodorus: "So exalted was I, that in no counsel or reason did I ever go astray," that is to say, No cast or fishing in the search for pleasure fell out fruitless for me. The Chaldean favors this interpretation, who renders, wisdom also stood in me, and it itself helped me; or, as Costus renders, I gathered together riches, etc., and I ascribe this to my wisdom, which provided me aid. Secondly, Bonaventure, Titelmann and Dionysius reply that wisdom here is taken not as practical, but as speculative, which Dionysius calls unformed, that is, destitute and empty of grace, charity and good works: just as even now, he says, many theologians and jurists not moderately learned, and ready in alleging the Scriptures and the teachings of the Fathers and laws, are of detestable life. To the same point pertains what Morinus says, and the Interlinear Gloss indicates, that wisdom persisted in contemplation and speculative judgment, not in practice and moral use. For Solomon, abusing wisdom, rendered it animal, worldly, diabolical, earthly. Hence Solomon's sin is aggravated, and in his confession penance is more clearly declared, in that he sinned knowingly and prudently, and converted so notable a wisdom to the offense of its Author, and this he knows and displays. Thirdly, Thaumaturgus and Alcuin for "persisted," translate from the Hebrew, "stood with me," and explain it contrariwise: "stood," that is, ceased and was diminished, as if to say, With concupiscence prevailing in me, wisdom growing in me stood still, and I felt it diminished and decreased; for what does not advance further, but declines, we assert to stand. Thus in IV Kings IV, 6, it is said: "The oil stood," that is, ceased, subsided, failed. Hence the Fathers teach that Solomon's luxury was punished by the privation of wisdom. For indeed naturally pleasures dull reason, mind and wisdom. Thus St. Augustine, book III On Christian Doctrine, chapter XXI; St. Ambrose, Apology 2 for David, chapters VI and VII; St. Gregory, III part of the Pastoral, admonition 27, and others. Fourthly, others by wisdom understand knowledge of natural things, which God infused into Solomon as well as into Adam, which in both remained after sin, so that they might teach the same to posterity. Fifthly, Pineda takes wisdom for experience and most true knowledge of things, as if to say, In enjoying pleasures wisdom stood by me and aided me, so that concerning things of which I gained experience I might judge rightly and bring forth true judgment. Sixthly and genuinely, wisdom here, as in Proverbs and the other books of the Wise, is taken not as speculative, but as practical, for prudence, and sincere practical judgment concerning things to be done, which therefore is conjoined with right choice of the will and virtue, indeed it commands and produces that. Whence Lyra says that wisdom persisted with Solomon even while abstaining from delights, until he used them immoderately, was deceived by women, and led away to idols. Therefore it seems Solomon speaks here of himself in that state in which he indeed indulged in pleasures, but moderately and for an honest end, namely that he might investigate and experience what good was in each, and whether the human mind could be satisfied, find rest and be blessed in any thing. For when shortly after he used them immoderately God abandoned him, he lost true wisdom and holiness, and was infatuated and corrupted, as Scripture says, III Kings XI. Hence the Hebrews for "persisted" have "stood by," as if to say, In so many delights wisdom stood by me as a directress and teacher, both lest I be seduced by them and immerse myself wholly in them; and also that I might sincerely bring forth judgment concerning their vanity, and that true happiness is to be sought elsewhere. Whence the Chaldean translates, wisdom aided me. This same thing is confirmed from the preceding passages, where he plainly signifies that he, with mind still whole and uncorrupted, investigated all things with the study of true wisdom and happiness, that he might find in what it consisted. Whence in chapter I, verse 12, he says: "I proposed in my mind to seek and investigate wisely concerning all things that are done under the sun." And verse 16: "My mind contemplated many things wisely, and I learned. And I gave my heart to know prudence and doctrine, and errors and foolishness." And chapter II, verse 3: "I thought in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might transfer my mind to wisdom, and avoid foolishness, until I should see what was useful for the sons of men." What therefore he said there, the same he asserts here saying: "Wisdom also persisted with me;" which all signify that Solomon still pure and undefiled experienced, felt, tasted, judged these things. Allegorically St. Jerome, expounding these things of Christ, of whom Solomon was a type, says that wisdom stood not in Solomon, but in Christ, as if full and accumulated in all its parts, so that it could not be increased: "He who makes progress in wisdom," he says, "does not have wisdom standing still with him; but he who does not receive progress, nor grows by moments, but is always in fullness, he can say: Wisdom stands by me."
2:10
For 'I denied not' in Hebrew is לא אצלתי lo atsalti, that is, I did not separate, I did not keep for myself; the Septuagint has, I did not take away; the Arabic, I did not hide; others, I did not segregate, I did not snatch away, I did not remove from sight. For 'nor prohibited,' others translate, I did not restrain, I did not curb, I did not bridle, I did not turn away. It denotes a spontaneous and impetuous inclination of the eyes and heart toward pleasures, an impulse and course, which he himself did not restrain, but gave full rein to it, within the limits however of what is lawful and honest, and of the law, lest he commit anything unlawful or forbidden. Now first, the Chaldean takes by eyes senators and judges, to all whose questions Solomon answered: for thus it has in the Complutensian version, all things which the princes and judges appointed asked of me for purifying and for defiling, I did not prohibit the interpretation of words from them; nor did I prohibit my heart from all joy of the law, when I had time free; because my heart exulted in the wisdom which was given to me before the face of the Lord, and before all the sons of men; and I was gladdened in it more than in all my labors: and this is my good portion, which is prepared for me, that I may receive from it perfect retribution in the age to come from all my labors. But these eyes are symbolic. Whence the whole Chaldean version is symbolic and mystical, not literal and genuine. Second, R. Haccados in Galatinus takes eyes not of the body, but of the mind and spirit: The intelligences, he says, of my soul, I loosened the reins with the eyes, and gave myself wholly to the investigation and contemplation of spiritual and heavenly things, and in it I drew wonderful pleasure of heart, and was gladdened in it more than in the sense and taste of bodily things. But this sense likewise is spiritual and mystical. Third, therefore genuinely according to the letter take the eyes of the body, as if to say, Whatever pleased my eyes, whatever seemed to them beautiful and agreeable, that I granted to them, I took nothing from them, I kept nothing back, but permitted them to pour themselves forth at will with full power into pleasant things, and to satiate themselves by beholding the desired appearance of things with full mouth and orb, yet within the limits of honesty: for Solomon had not yet overstepped them, as he finally did by indulging them too much. He says moreover they desired, in Hebrew שאלו shaalu, that is they requested; Symmachus, ἐπεθύμησαν, that is they coveted, because the eyes are indices and enticers of concupiscence. Whence by St. John, epistle I, chapter II, verse 16, it is called the concupiscence of the eyes: wherefore take the eyes here not bare and alone, but with sensitive appetite and the concupiscence of things which sits upon or attends the eyes. Whence explaining he adds: "Nor did I prohibit my heart from enjoying every pleasure." By the eyes therefore take also the heart, that is the appetite and the will; because where the eye is, there is the heart and love. Whence that saying: "Having eyes full of adultery," II Peter, II, 14. For the eyes are leaders in love, because no sense is nearer and more closely joined to the heart and mind than sight and the eye. Whence in it is the proper seat of the soul, says Pliny, book XI, chapter XXXVII. Hence in the eye all the affections of the soul are laid bare and seen, nor does any sense operate more swiftly and spiritually than it, says Philo, book On the Special Laws. Finally, there is the greatest sympathy between heart and eyes. Whence that common saying: "Eyes and heart are procurers (that is, conciliators and mediators) of sin." And that in chapter XI, verse 9: "Walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thy eyes." The reason a priori is, that the eye is given by God and nature to the heart, as it were as a light and guide of its appetitions and actions. For without the eye the heart is as it were blind, nor can it wish or desire anything seen. For there is no desire for the unknown. Just as therefore a man in darkness follows a lamp going before him, whithersoever it leads, so the heart follows the eye and sight. Hence the eye, because it is swift, subtle and versatile, whithersoever it turns and moves, thither it draws the heart also. Conversely the heart through the eye displays and expresses its affections, and through the eye as it were through a messenger attracts and invites others to itself. The eye therefore moves the imagination, the imagination moves the sensitive appetite, this moves the will: just as a little bird moves a boy, the boy moves his mother, the mother moves the father to pursue and catch the little bird, and give it to the boy. For the eye is like a little bird, the imagination like a boy, the appetite like a mother, the will like a father. Hear Hugo of St. Victor here, homily I, graphically depicting this wandering and versatile concupiscence of the eyes: "The sight," he says, "captures the deceptive tricks and slippery deceits of things: forgetting itself it pours itself outward, and giving itself wholly to curiosity circles through all things, surveys all things, if perchance anything new, if anything wonderful should occur: always turned to every motion of things, always headlong, wanton, petulant, impatient and slippery, it burns like something impatient, expecting to see what is to come, and to every change of things, whether sad or joyful, it is varied by the fluctuation of an inconstant mind." Morally learn here first, how harmful the eyes are, if the reins are loosened to them; on the other hand how necessary is continence of the eyes, that the integrity of the mind be preserved. For the eyes are gates and windows, through which good or evil objects enter into the soul. Hence through the eyes David fell into adultery with Bathsheba, and Solomon into love of seven hundred concubines. I have said more on this matter elsewhere, especially on Lamentations, chapter III, verse 51, to those words: "My eye hath wasted my soul." And Ecclesiasticus, chapter XXV, 28, to those words: "Look not upon a woman's beauty." And Jeremiah, chapter IX, 21, to those words: "Death is come up through our windows." Wherefore Job, chapter XXXI, 1: "I made," he says, "a covenant with my eyes," that is, as St. Chrysostom reads, homily 34 on Matthew: "I set a law before my eyes" (for covenant here means law and decree), "that I should not so much as think upon a virgin." For the origin of thought is the eye and sight. Whence Ecclesiasticus, chapter IX: "Look not," he says, "upon a virgin, lest perhaps thou be scandalized at her beauty." Wherefore Seneca, On Remedies for Misfortunes, places chastity and innocence in blindness: "I have lost my eyes," he says, "how many desires has the way been cut off? how many things will you lack, which you would not have seen or would have had to dig out? Do you not understand that blindness is part of innocence? To this one the eyes show adultery, to this one incest, to this one a house which he covets, to this one a city and all evils." Certainly they are incitements to vices and guides of crimes. Hence the saints rejoiced in blindness, and some of them asked it of God and obtained it, as St. Audomarus, St. Aquilinus, Marius of Chalcedon. Secondly, how harmful it is to indulge one's desires and affections, on the other hand how salutary is their mortification. For Solomon, indulging his desires, precipitated himself into luxury and idolatry. Again, how dangerous it is to wish to try whatever is lawful, and not to set limits to pleasure for oneself, except in that which is unlawful. For easily does the curious person transgress these limits and this boundary between the lawful and unlawful, being as it is slight and indivisible, and thus falls into sin, as Solomon did. So he who wishes to beware of nothing except what is mortal sin commits many venial sins, through which he becomes close to mortal sins, and finally falls into them, according to that: "He that despiseth small things, shall fall by little and little." Eccles. XIX, 1. See the things said there. "Wilt thou therefore beware of unlawful things, abstain from lawful things," says a certain Saint. AND WAS DELIGHTED IN THOSE THINGS WHICH I HAD PREPARED. The Hebrew: because my heart was made glad in all my labour; Symmachus: from all the study of my labours. Certainly those things which are obtained by labour delight more than those which come from inheritance or donation as it were to one sleeping, both because they are more one's own, and because they have cost dearly, according to that Psalm CXXV, 6: "Going they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming they shall come with rejoicing, carrying their sheaves." And that Psalm CXXVII, 2: "For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee." Hence Benjamin was most dear to his father Jacob, because he had been to him benoni, that is, son of sorrow, his mother dying in the effort of bearing him, Genesis XXXV, 18. Moreover Aristotle, lib. IX Ethic. cap. VII: "All things, he says, are dearer to all which have been made with the greatest labour." And Livy, Decade I, lib. IV: "Labour, he says, and pleasure most unlike in nature are joined together by a certain partnership." And another: "Just as the best seasoning of food is hunger, so the best relish of virtue and true pleasure is labour." It is a saying of King Alfonso of Aragon in Panormitanus, lib. I De Gestis ejus: "The food of kings is honour, which the immortal gods sell to men not through idleness or luxury, but through hard labours and many sweats." AND I ESTEEMED THIS MY PORTION, IF I SHOULD USE MY LABOUR. Hebrew and Septuagint, and this was my portion from all my labour; Campensis, in all my troublesome effort; others, in the weariness of my body and mind, constant anxiety, and care of pleasure. Cyril represents all these things elegantly and graphically in a refined fable of a dog and fox, pregnant with forceful arguments, in book IV of his Moral Apologies, chapter III, whose title is: On the Evil of Delights. "In the midday heat," he says, "to a dog drawing breath with open mouth and restless breast to cool his heart, a young wolf said: O senseless one, miserable and willingly subject to calamity, if such straits please you so much! Why do you not cast yourself into a furnace with Empedocles the Sicilian? Surely if penalities contrary to nature delight you so much, wait a little, because in death you will find all penalties. Why therefore in so brief a life, spurning refreshments, do you burn from now on? For you do not know sleep while the sheep rest at night; while they feed all day, you take only bread and water: in the night frost and daytime heat, while they are covered with thick fleece and warm each other, you live naked-skinned alone in the tempest of the air; while they lie without fear, you with suspended eyelid fear here a tooth, there a claw in the open, keeping watch. What are your delights at times, except sour milk, a foul intestine, a stony bed, and the sweet odour of sheep dung? What more? You are more wretched than all, and you have already made the world a hell for yourself. Rise, wretch, and leaving behind penalties seek delights, so that at least before you end your life, by tasting a drop of consolation, you may know by experience what is good." By these arguments the wolf persuaded the dog to an idle and voluptuous life; whence he adds: "But the dog, overcome by this strong exhortation, came to the little sheep for his freedom and said: I have long served you, and beset on all sides by miseries I stood with you. I will go therefore, that according to the wolf's advice I may rest somewhat in delights. When they heard this, they groaned and said: Although we are simpler than you, yet wisdom dwells with the simple (Proverbs VIII, 32); for this reason we beg you to hear your ancient friends, and never believe your enemy; you know surely that the wolf is cunning: whom he does not strike down with his tooth, he wounds with his art: wherefore because rigid life has long been your bitterest enemy, now through exhortations of delights he attacks, so that he may find you softened by delights, and more cunningly sink his hostile tooth into delicate flesh." Then, recounting the grave harms of delights: "Do you not know," they say, "that by delights not only is flesh softened, but the rigour of the soul is also broken, the ardour of vices is sharpened, and the yoke of virtues is bent, the tumult of passions enters the heart itself, and the splendour of reason is obscured? Surely delights (Judges XVI) broke Samson, a most mighty man, and (II Kings XI, 2) overthrew David, a most holy man, and (III Kings XI) deceived Solomon, a most wise man. What evil do not bodily delights work? Outwardly they soften all with garments, baths and ointments; inwardly truly they fill with foods, seasonings and wines. For this reason the foot is weighed down by fearfulness, heat is dulled by moisture, and the skin is softened, penetrated here and there most lightly." From which they rightly conclude: "Therefore, my brother, if you seek delights, you love destruction, and in a sweet stream you wish to be lethally submerged. You crave poison in sugar, and you wish to be led into eternal straits with laughter and songs. Believe us, believe, and acknowledge that in the delights of this life all evil lies hidden. For the rigour of the flesh is the health of virtue. When he heard this, the dog, appeased, rested with the sheep." The word portion signifies five things. First, a portion is a part of a whole, for the whole is divided into its parts. Whence חלק chelec, that is portion, is said from חלק chalac, that is I divide, I partition, because the whole is divided by partitioning into its parts. Others derive portion from pari, because parts joined together are equal to the whole. Others from parum, because a portion is something small in respect to the whole. Second, a portion is a lot falling to each one. For from the whole of lots, conditions and kinds of things attributed by God to the whole human race, to each one his own portion and lot is assigned by the same. Third, a portion is an inheritance or hereditary portion; for the whole paternal inheritance is divided among the heir brothers, to each of whom his portion falls, according to that Psalm XV, 3: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup." Fourth, a portion is fruit, as Campensis translated it, reward, gain accruing to each one from work or labour. Whence some derive portion from pario or partu, because a portion deduced from labour is as it were brought forth. Fifth, the portion of each one is that which is most dear to him, namely the good which he loves before all others, chooses for himself and pursues. Thus Christ threatens Peter: "If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me" in the kingdom of heaven, John XIII, 8; and the Psalmist: "Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever," Psalm LXXII, 26. Here it can be understood in all these ways, but more in the second and fourth, and especially in the fifth: for Solomon assigns to himself his lot and the fruit of his labour, namely this, that he might enjoy the fruit of his labour as a part, that is as the fruit of his labours, supremely loved by him. The sense therefore is, as if to say, I have esteemed this portion, that is this fortunate lot, this fruit, this supreme good of mine in this life, this happiness of mine to be, if I should use my labour, that is the riches and delights which I had acquired by my labour. Where note the vanity of this portion, both because it was a part of joy, not the whole joy, and therefore it did not satisfy him, and so from the pleasure of one thing he would slip into another and another without end, seeking satiety and not finding it, because it cannot be found except in God and heaven, according to that: "I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear," Psalm XVI, 15; and also because this portion gave him little gladness, which namely did not exceed his labour, but was measured out to him: for as much as he laboured, so much did he delight in his labour without any increase of gain, nay with loss, since on the other hand God repays for an ounce of labour talents of joys, according to that: "He that hath left father, etc., and followed me, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting," Matthew XIX. Mystically, the Chaldean understands these things of eternal happiness: "And this very thing," he says, "was my good portion, which was appointed to receive upon it the perfect reward in the age to come from all my labour." St. Jerome: "The eyes of the soul," he says, "and the intuition of the mind desire spiritual contemplation, which the sinner, being ignorant, prevents his heart from true joy. To this therefore Ecclesiastes gave himself wholly, and compensated light tribulations in this age with eternal glory. For this is our portion, and perpetual reward, if we labour here for virtues."
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The sense is clear, as if to say, When I had turned my mind to considering the fruit of my works and labours, namely of gardens, palaces, pools, servants, chariots, treasures, gold, silver, etc., I saw that I had spent my labours in vain, because in all those things I found not the quiet of mind and happiness which I sought, but vanity and affliction of spirit: for nothing lasts long under the sun, but all things gradually perish and vanish away, and thus leave their master empty, nay afflicted, because he is deprived of those things which he had prepared with so much labour. See the words of verse 1, and chapter I, verse 2. Truly Seneca, On the Happy Life, chapter XIV: "So that," he says, "we hunt with labour and danger, and the anxious possession of those things which are caught is also troublesome; for often they wound their master: thus those having great pleasures have turned into great evil." See the same throughout the whole book On the Shortness of Life. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena: "For the end of all such things," he says, "is one, vanity, of which nothing is found to remain for the future. For as soon as the activity ceases, pleasure is scraped away, nor does it store up anything for tomorrow, and when the activity of pleasure has passed, not even a trace of gladness or remnant of pleasure remains to those who were devoted to pleasure." Gregory of Nazianzus in praise of Caesarius: "I saw that this also was vanity. I have seen all things, says Ecclesiastes, I have gone through all human things in thought, riches, delights, power, unstable glory, wisdom which flees more than it is held, delights again, wisdom again, turning over the same things often, the pleasures of the belly, gardens, flocks of servants, abundance of possessions, cupbearers of both sexes, singers and songstresses, arms, attendants, nations bowing down to the knees, collected tributes, the haughtiness of the kingdom, finally all things both necessary for the use of life and superfluous. And what after all these things? All vanity, vanity of vanities and presumption of spirit, that is a certain considered impulse of the mind and distraction of man, perhaps punished by this penalty on account of the ancient fall." AND NOTHING REMAINETH UNDER THE SUN. — In Hebrew, and there is not (אין) itron, that is remainder, residue. And, as the Interlinear Gloss says: How man remaining. St. Jerome in his Commentary translates it, and how can he imitate God in the comprehension of wisdom? there is no abundance under the sun; and he explains this mystically thus: "Christ placed his tabernacle in the sun, and therefore he who has not yet attained to the brightness, order and constancy of the sun, in this Christ can neither dwell nor abound." Concerning the Hebrew itron I have said more in chapter 1, verse 3. Excellently St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, chapter III: "In this vanity," he says, "to which as much seemed fitting to be impressed, the wisest man devoted this whole book, certainly for no other reason than that we might desire that life which has no vanity under this sun, but truth under him who made this sun."
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This is a parenthesis: for τὸ "I have passed over to contemplate wisdom" depends on those things which follow after the parenthesis, and there its connection and meaning is completed. Thus, when the matter was better considered, St. Jerome translated it; for he had first translated it, "for who is there among men who can go after the king before his maker?" He says therefore that he contemplated wisdom, so that he might follow it, and folly, so that he might avoid it; and he discovered that wisdom so far excels folly as light excels darkness: yet if the same be compared with God's wisdom, it is small and empty. For "I have passed over" in Hebrew it is פניתי paniti, that is, I turned my face, I looked back. This word denotes a weariness of pleasures, and the mind of Solomon wavering and eager for truth, as if to say: After having experienced the vanity of riches, delights, and all bodily things, from a desire and zeal for finding rest and happiness, I turned my mind again to the interrupted pursuit of wisdom, about to try again whether I might find in it that rest and happiness so greatly desired: for it itself seemed to me better, more worthy, more heavenly than all bodily things; but immediately discovering in it also smallness and vanity, by an abrupt and pathetic exclamation I cry out: "What is," I say, "man, that he can follow the king his maker?" as if to say: What is man, not only in riches, delights and all magnificence, but even in human wisdom to be equalled to God, or before God not vain, small, defective and wanting? For in what way can miserable man, ignorant and blind, be able to follow, much less to attain to God his creator, who by his wisdom surveys and comprehends all things that are or can be? Moreover, since the wisdom of God is threefold—first, speculative; second, practical or artificial, by which He creates, forms, preserves, governs and perfects all things; third, active, or moral and ethical, by which He exercises all His actions, both internal and external, prudently, justly and holily according to the dictate of right reason and eternal law—in none of these can man imitate God and follow Him closely, but is transcended by Him and differs from Him infinitely. First, indeed, the speculative wisdom of God surpasses and transcends all human knowledge and wisdom infinitely, because it is commensurate with God the immense. Second, the same is done by the practical wisdom of God; for who creates, forms and makes the things which God makes? Indeed, who is able to scrutinize and penetrate those things which God creates and makes, and the manner of creating and making them? What do the gardens, houses, and pools built by Solomon amount to, compared with the heaven, sun, stars, earth, sea, etc., created by God? especially since Christ, comparing one lily growing of itself with the golden and jeweled garments of Solomon, says: "For I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these," Matt. VI, 29. Who can fully investigate the secret counsels and decrees of God, why one is rich, another poor, one a king, another a commoner, one wise, another foolish; and especially why one is faithful, another unfaithful, one holy, another impious, one predestined, another reprobate? All certainly ought to exclaim with the Apostle: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!" Rom. XI. Third, who can imitate the ethical wisdom of God? For who can follow, or even understand and comprehend in mind, how great is the goodness, justice, patience, magnificence, and holiness of God? Who can comprehend the charity of God, which He showed us through Christ in His incarnation, preaching, passion, the Eucharist, and His whole dispensation? How small is our humility, we who are worms of the earth, if compared with the humility of Christ? "Who, being in the form of God, emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man," Phil. II. How small is our obedience, if compared with the obedience of Christ, who, though He was the King of glory, to His Father "became obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross?" How small is our patience, if reckoned with the patience of Christ, who suffered the most atrocious pains, the greatest reproaches, extreme poverty, and finally torments of every kind on the cross with divine patience, gentleness and constancy? Think the same of all the other virtues of the Saints, which, compared with the virtues of Christ, are nothing other than what shadow is to body, what vanity is to truth, what a drop is to the sea, what a point is to heaven, what a grain of sand is to the whole universe. This is the genuine sense of the Vulgate version, whose author St. Jerome read in the Hebrew עשהו osehu, that is, his maker, or עשהו asahu, that is, he made him. For which now others with different pointing read עשוהו asuhu, that is, they made him or it. Therefore St. Jerome thought it should be transferred thus word for word from the Hebrew: "What is man that he can follow the king, whom he has already made him; whom (namely man) made king," that is, whose maker is God. Whence secondly, in the Vulgate he translated it more clearly as his maker; for the pronoun illum from the pleonasm of the Hebrews is redundant: for the Hebrews attach a demonstrative to the relative pronoun, for a more express demonstration of the thing or subject, as "whose seed in itself," for which the Latins say, "whose seed in itself," Gen. I, 11. To this pertains the explanation of R. Haccados, which is as follows: Who is so perfect and so complete in every respect, that he can contend with equal step through all the precepts of the divine law with the divine law? And of others, who explain it thus, as if to say: Who among men is there, who dares to contend with God his maker with equal step regarding happiness, and to arrogate to himself the blessedness of His tranquil life, when he cannot even imitate His works, nor attain and equal even the more abject creatures of His in elegance, efficacy and other gifts? Whence Campensis paraphrases thus: "Again I turned myself to see what wisdom I had used in all those things, and I found much madness in wine; and in the rest manifest foolishness. For what is man, that he should attempt something great in imitation of the king God, when he cannot equal even any however small of all the things which He made innumerable?" From what has been said, it is clear that Lyra and Dionysius err in thinking that Solomon speaks here according to the opinion of the Epicureans and Simonides, who, as Aristotle testifies in Ethics, book X, taught that man, being constituted of body, ought to pursue only bodily things and not rise to spiritual things. For in this place the change of persons is unusual and harsh: for the preceding and following passages indicate that all these things are said from one and the same person and mind of Solomon. Titelmannus more aptly refers this parenthesis to the magnificent works of Solomon, concerning which the discourse had gone before, as if to say: Therefore I pass from these works of mine to contemplate wisdom, because in those I can in no way rival the magnificence of God, but I can imitate the wisdom of God. For what were those, he says, however magnificent the buildings of Solomon, the house of the forest of Lebanon, and his royal dwelling, if compared to the structure of heaven? What is that same temple so celebrated, so admirable to all, if you compare it to the temple of God not made by hands? What are those gardens planted and cultivated by hand, if they are compared with the whole earth, which germinates beautifully by the word of the Lord, as if with one very broad and most pleasant garden? And so in all other things. Truly Solomon was nothing, however great in all his glory, so that he could follow his king maker. And according to this interpretation, Solomon here reproves and mocks himself, just as we are accustomed sometimes to mock ourselves for the follies of past time, because we once esteemed greatly those things which we now esteem as nothing. To this Isidore Clarius adds, who translates: What is man, that he can follow the king in the things which he made? that is, who, by imitation of the king, attempts something great, when he cannot equal even the smallest of all those things which the king made innumerable and great. These things concerning the Vulgate version. For others distinguish the king from the maker, or God, and translate otherwise. Whence secondly, the Syriac renders thus: And I looked to see wisdom, transgression and folly. For who is that man who shall enter after the king in judgment? then with him who made him? Where by king he understands Solomon, but by maker God, as if to say: I perceived that the wisdom of men is exiled. For who of them is there, who in wisdom with me, who am a king most wise constituted by God, can contend or strive in judgment? By what reason therefore would he contend with God himself? Others refer these things to the repentance of Solomon, as if by his example he exhorts the same to his subjects, whom he had led by his scandal to idolatry, as if he says: I perceived that wisdom is placed in the faith and worship of God, I perceived also that folly is placed in perfidy and idolatry. Who therefore have followed me acting foolishly and worshipping idols, follow me now coming to my senses and adhering to God. But who will do this? Few indeed, because all are more prone to evil than to good, more readily follow the evil examples of kings than the holy. Thus the Wonderworker, Olympiodorus, St. Jerome and Albinus. Hear the Wonderworker: "At length awakened and restored to sight, I perceived that the things which I held in my hands were shameful and full of harshness, and the works of a spirit not good. Therefore, having collected together the good things of wisdom and the evils of folly, I have pursued this great man with great admiration, who, when he was being carried headlong and wandering recklessly, afterwards, having recovered his mind, returned to virtue and duty." St. Jerome: "He says," he says, "that after condemning pleasures and delights he returned to seeking wisdom, in which he found more error and folly than true and certain prudence; for I do not think that man can know the wisdom of his creator and king so clearly and purely as he knows it who is the creator. And so those things which we know, we rather opine than hold, and esteem more than know to be true." Thus also Hugh of St. Victor, Olympiodorus, St. Bonaventure, Cajetan, Lyra, Arboreus and others. Again, you may refer this parenthesis appropriately and genuinely to errors and folly, as if to say: Errors and folly I have joined to wisdom: because who of men is so wise and circumspect that, like God, he remains fixed continually in wisdom, nor sometimes declines into some error and folly, so that he thinks, says or does something imprudently, ignorantly and foolishly? Surely no one. So also St. Jerome, and from him Albinus: "At length," he says, "returning to myself, and beholding my works full of vanity, full of filth, full of the spirit of error; for I could find nothing that is esteemed good in the world to be good. Considering therefore what were the good things of wisdom and what the evil things of folly, consequently I broke forth into praise of that man who, after restraining his vices, could be a follower of virtues." Third, the Septuagint translates for king the word counsel, because the Hebrew melech, that is king, signifies also a counselor and counsel, from the fact that it is the business of kings to counsel the commonwealth, as I have shown in many places from Daniel, chapter IV, 24; they translate therefore, who is the man who shall enter after counsel, together with whatsoever they did it. Thus the Complutensian editors, although the Vatican manuscripts delete the together. Others translate, together whatsoever they shall do with it; Aquila, but what man is there that he should follow counsel? The Arabic, who indeed is drawn after counsel? The sense is, that is to say, Who is the man, who so wisely and deliberately conducts all his affairs, that he never departs from wisdom and counsel into error and folly, by which he might do something unwisely and without deliberation? Which sense is the same as that which the Vulgate introduces, as I said at the beginning, and Gregory the Wonderworker and St. Jerome already cited: for prudent counsel is to pursue virtues having abandoned vices. Otherwise Olympiodorus, who explains it in three ways, and therefore thinks that it is taught here how much wisdom differs from folly, that is virtue from pleasure: by counsel he understands deliberation about the manner of fulfilling his desires and wishes: "Let us inquire," he says, "whether a man who has chosen to live according to this folly can fulfill his desires; for this is what it means to follow after deliberation," that is to say, I Solomon, of my counsels and wishes, to whom so much abundance of means was available, was not master: therefore there is no reason why anyone else should be confident that he will be master of his own. Who therefore is the man, who will go after, or who can follow his counsel or deliberation, that is to say, None or few; for not everyone who desires to become rich fully achieves this; nor he who is desirous of glory is altogether satisfied with his wish; and in the same manner the matter stands in other things: but he who has loved wisdom, being happily led by God, follows through his deliberation completely, that is, finds what he desires. Another sense of Olympiodorus is, that Solomon, struck with wonder, breaks forth into the question: Who is the man who can withdraw himself, and turn away from his desires, and examine the movements of his choice, and his proposed end, so that he may judge whether he lives wisely or foolishly? Third, Olympiodorus explains it thus, that is to say, Solomon, lifted outside his body, and through wisdom seeing that after the departure from this life no one can return to life, and again enjoy the same things which while he lived he exercised with sure deliberation, preferred wisdom to folly. Fourth, the Chaldean translates, I have also examined wisdom and understanding in the administration of the kingdom with care; for what does it profit a man as by supplication, when judgment has already been given by the king, since already the punishment has been decreed to be repeated by him? that is to say, No one can escape or overturn the punishment decreed by God upon the foolish, that is the voluptuous: therefore wisdom is to be preferred to folly. HIS MAKER. — The interpreter reads osehu, as I said: now they read asuhu, that is they made it or him. Whence various ones, supplying various things, give various senses. First, Vatable and Pagninus translate, what is man, that he should come after the king, which they have already done? and thus he explains it, that is to say, "What is man that he should come after the king, namely that he should know what they have already done in doing? that is what has been done by men both foolishly and wisely," that is to say, "Who is that private man, who can perceive and know more exactly what has been done, than I know, who am king?" Second, others according to the Septuagint thus explain it, that is to say, How rare is he, who follows the counsel of holy and wise life, and fulfills all those things which they did it, that is all things annexed and prior to counsel, which produce and beget it as it were? Surely few are, and perhaps besides me Solomon scarcely anyone. For so many things to be done surround this counsel, that it is difficult to look around at all, much less to keep and fulfill them. It can also be translated, who did it, that is to say, Who will follow those eminent heroes, who undertook this counsel of wise and perfect life, and in fact fulfilled it by their morals; such as were Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, etc. Surely very few: for most of all follow their own desires, and the institutions and life of their parents and ancestors, and in riches and delights, in which those placed their happiness, these also their descendants place and establish theirs. Whence some translate, who is the man, etc., who will not be about to do those things which others have done. Third, the Arabic translates, who indeed is drawn after counsel, and will know that which men have done through it? For the Hebrew eth signifies through, with, before, near and many other things, as is evident from the Lexicons. Fourth, Cajetan: A reason is given, he says, as the particle (because) indicates, why Ecclesiastes turned himself to see wisdom and folly, etc., or to discern between the wise and the foolish, and the crafty, because those through wisdom will come after the king, and will obey him (whom they have already made him), that is, chosen by themselves; these through folly and craftiness have been reduced into the power of tyrants and evil princes. Fifth, more plainly Pagninus translates it, for what is man, who is about to come after the king, who will not do what others have already done to him? That is: Who would presume henceforth to know more, or to prosper more than the king, who am I, when others have tried this in vain hitherto: for they began, nor were they able to complete it. Sixth, more simply Titelmanus translates it, what is man, that he can follow the king through those things which they have done? that is, what is the power of man, that he should attempt to equal the king of all, God, and as it were to appear equal to him through those works which men have done or can do? as if to say: Through no works, or in no works which can be done by men, can anyone equal God in making things equal. Seventh, more sublimely and more divinely others think that the mystery of the Holy Trinity is here intimated. For just as in Genesis XI, it is said in the plural: "Elohim bara, that is, God (triune in persons) created heaven and earth:" so here it is said, the king made him, that is, the three royal and divine persons made and created man in their image and likeness, so that through memory he might be like God the Father, through intellect the Son, through will and affection the Holy Spirit. Thus Galatinus, book II, chapter IX. Wherefore the whole wisdom, justice and happiness of man consists in this, that he assimilate himself to God, as much as he can. For, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus, chapter XXIII, 38: "Great glory it is to follow the Lord." Moreover, Marcus Antonius the Emperor, surnamed the Philosopher, when asked what was the highest good of man, answered: "If he imitate the gods, and the imitation of them is that which requires the fewest things, and which benefits the greatest number," as Julian the Apostate relates in the Caesars. Morally here and elsewhere Holy Scripture celebrates God, as he is king and as he is maker, that is God's governance and creation, or God's wisdom and omnipotence, and opposes these to our foolishness and weakness, so that in this way it may lay low our pride, presumption, ingratitude, distrust, anxiety and excessive solicitude. Hence Job, chapter IX, 4: "He is wise in heart, he says, and mighty in strength: who hath resisted him, and had peace?" And verse 10: "Who doth great things and incomprehensible and wonderful things, of which there is no number." And verse 14: "How much more am I, that I should answer him, and speak words with him?" See Isaiah, chapter XL, 12 and following.
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13. AND I SAW THAT WISDOM EXCEEDETH FOLLY, AS MUCH AS LIGHT DIFFERETH FROM DARKNESS. — For exceedeth and differeth, in Hebrew it is iitron, that is, remainder, surpassing, dignity, excellence, as I said cap. I, vers. 3. Whence the Septuagint translates, and I saw that abundance (the Complutensian edition, excess) is of wisdom over folly (Symmachus, lack of discipline, inexperience, rusticity, lack of wisdom, ineptitude, rashness), as abundance of light over darkness; Thaumaturgus, great indeed is the interval of wisdom from lack of wisdom, and so great a difference as there is between day and night; the Arabic version, so much superiority, as the superiority of light over darkness; the Syriac, and I saw there to be gain in wisdom much more than in folly, as light is more excellent than darkness; Vatablus, and the dignity or excellence of wisdom above folly; Pagninus, wisdom is more useful than folly, as light is more useful than darkness; others, so great is the amplitude, fruit, reward, recompense of wisdom before folly, as is the amplitude, fruit, excellence of light before darkness, of the sun before mist, of sight before blindness; the Chaldean, I saw in the spirit of prophecy, that wisdom exceedeth folly, as the light of day exceedeth the darkness of night. Note appropriately that wisdom, that is, prudence, virtue, holiness is compared to light; folly indeed, that is, imprudence, vice and wickedness is compared to darkness on account of many analogies on both sides. The first is, that as light is a true quality having solid essence and existence; darkness indeed is nothing but privation of light, and therefore nothing: so also wisdom, that is, virtue, has solid subsistence; darkness indeed, that is, vices, are only privation of virtue, nor do they have solid essence or goodness. Thus Gregory of Nyssa. The second, as light drives away darkness, and darkness light: so wisdom drives out lack of wisdom, and virtue vice; and conversely if lack of wisdom should dominate, it drives away wisdom, and vice drives away virtue. Thus Olympiodorus. The third, there is the greatest antipathy of light and darkness, by which it comes about that they have no fellowship of place, time or subject, according to that: "He divided the light from the darkness," Genesis I, 4. And: "What fellowship hath light with darkness?" II Corinthians VI, 14. And Ecclesiasticus XVI, 17, the Greek Complutensian Codices have, he divided light from darkness with adamant, that is, with such firmness and separation did he divide light from darkness, as if he had built between them a wall of adamant. The fourth, light is the most noble quality, heavenly and divine; such also are wisdom and virtue: darkness indeed are horrible mist, and infernal and diabolical; such likewise are lack of wisdom and malice. The fifth, light directs all the steps and actions of man; darkness indeed hinder both. So wisdom directs all the operations of man, which lack of wisdom disturbs and perverts. Note secondly, Pineda, that by light can be understood the sun and day; because the sun produces light, and light produces day, but by darkness the night and mist, because they cause it. Wisdom therefore and virtue is similar to the sun and day: lack of wisdom indeed and vice is similar to night. For as the sun illuminates the world and all things, so wisdom illuminates the mind of man with its radiance and rays, and adds to it splendor, dignity and wonderful ornament. Again, as the sun fosters these lower things with its heat and makes them grow, produces variety and beauty: so wisdom transmits its splendor to the body. "Wisdom (indeed) of a man shineth in his countenance;" it moderates human senses, brings measure to the eyes, mouth, ears, and brings temperance and beauty to all actions: but on the contrary folly, when once it has settled in the mind, involves all things in mist and darkness, defaces all things with horror and squalor, blinds the mind, makes the senses sluggish and squalid, pours deformity and intemperance upon the whole body. I have reviewed more analogies of the sun and wisdom, or of light and virtue, Genesis I, 8 and 16; Isaiah XLV; Ecclesiasticus XLIII, 2; Ephesians V, 8, to those passages: "You were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk therefore as children of light: for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth;"; James I, 17, I John I, 5 and following. Symbolically, light is a symbol of the eye and sight, darkness indeed of blindness and loss of sight: hence wisdom, which is spiritual light, is similar to the eye and sight; folly indeed, to blindness and loss of sight. For what light is to the eye, the eye is to the body, and the intellect to the soul. Whence it follows: "The eyes of the wise are in his head; the fool walketh in darkness."
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Campensis: the wise man has eyes in his forehead, the fool like a blind man gropes about; Vatablus: the circumspect man is wise, he sees what ought to be done, whereas the fool is blind and improvident; the Chaldean: the wise man contemplates in the beginning what will be in the end, and praying turns aside and delays the unfavorable judgments of God from men; but I know that if the wise man had not prayed, nor the wretched one removed that decree from the world, when vengeance comes into the world, all will be reckoned by the same outcome. For "destruction" in Hebrew is micre, that is, meeting, outcome; the Syrian: one accident befalls all; the Arabic: one meeting meets all of them; Thaumaturgus: equal lot; the Greek Scholiast: one end; St. Jerome: common destruction, the same plague, the same death, equal distresses; St. Augustine: one incursion; Campensis: the same exit; Zurich: the same fortune. He explains and confirms what he said, that wisdom is light and folly is darkness, from the fact that wisdom is as it were an eye in the wise man's head, illuminating all things around him like light; but folly surrounds the fool with Cimmerian darkness of mind. Therefore the sense of this adage is, as if to say: The wise man has bright eyes in his head, as sentries, eyes, I say, both the bodily eyes of the forehead and rather the spiritual eyes of the mind, by which from on high as from the citadel and watchtower of the head he sees all things near at hand and foresees things from afar: whence it comes to pass that all things are bright and clear to him, and he walks in perpetual light, and provides for all things, avoids harm, pursues what is useful; this light is circumspection, prudence and providence. The fool, on the other hand, as if he had eyes in his heel, not in his head; in his ankle, not in his brain, does not foresee or provide for damages or advantages; but like one walking in darkness he pursues whatever pleasures he encounters, and therefore falls into much harm, indeed into the destruction of body and soul, according to that in Proverbs, chapter IV, 19: "The way of the wicked is darksome, they know not where they fall." Thus St. Basil in Psalm XXXIII. Hear the Nyssene, oration 12 on that passage: Let us make man to our image: "You were born," he says, "so that it should be repugnant to your nobility of nature. Do not look upon these earthly things, but upon heavenly things, where Christ is. For if you be risen with Christ, as Paul says, seek the things that are above, where Christ is. For by this condition and law you were formed. The form of your body is a certain rudiment by which you are taught to what end you were created; you were made to contemplate God, not that your life should creep on the ground, not that you should enjoy pleasure after the manner of beasts; but that you should compose your own life according to the form and institution of heavenly life. And not without wit did the wise man Ecclesiastes say by this grace: The eyes of the wise man are in his head. Whose eyes are not in the head? But here in the head, that is, so that they may contemplate those things which are on high. For he who looks not to the good things which are on high, but to those which are on earth, certainly fixes and draws down his eyes to the earth." He alludes to the first creation of man and animals, in which man was created with an upright body and head, so that with his eyes he might gaze upon and desire heaven and heavenly things; but the other animals were created with head and eyes turned downward to their feet and the earth depressed, because they think of, love and pursue nothing but earthly fodder and grass, according to that of Ovid in the Metamorphoses, book I: And whereas the other animals look prone upon the earth, He gave to man a face lifted up, and commanded him to gaze upon heaven and to raise his upright countenance to the stars. Hence certain animals, especially fish, have eyes in the belly: whence that saying in Homer: "The eyed sole;" and they note the foolish, "who are minded of earthly things, whose god is their belly," Philippians III, 19: who therefore are rightly called Dagonists. Hear St. Ambrose, book VI of the Hexameron, chapter IX: "And first of all let us know that the structure of the human body is like that of the world. For just as heaven stands out above the air, and the seas above the earth, which are as it were certain members of the world: so also we see the head standing out above the other parts of our body and being the most excellent of all, as heaven is among the elements, as a citadel among the other walls of a city. And in this citadel there dwells a certain royal wisdom, according to the prophetic saying, because the eyes of the wise man are in his head: this is safer than the others, and from it vigor and providence are brought forth to all the members. For what does the strength and power of the arms avail, what does the swiftness of the feet, unless the imperial power of the head, as its prince, should aid it? From this indeed either all things are deprived, or all things are sustained. What does strength accomplish, unless the eye leads it into battle? What does flight, if sight is lacking? The whole body is a prison, shuddering in dark confinement, unless it is illuminated by the sight of the eyes. What therefore the sun and moon are in heaven, that the eyes are in man. The sun and moon are two lights of the world. But the eyes are as it were certain stars shining forth in the flesh from above, and they illuminate the lower parts with clear light, nor do they allow us to be wrapped in the darkness of night; certain sentries of ours keep watch day and night. For even from sleep they are aroused more quickly than the other members, and while awake they look around at all things; for they are nearer to the brain, from which all the use of seeing flows." And with some things interjected: "Therefore the head explores all things with the eyes, searches out hidden things with the ears, knows secret things, hears what is done by others on earth." See the same author, book On the Ark of Noah. For this reason in baptism the head of the baptized is anointed. Hear St. Ambrose, tract. 2 On the Sacraments, and it is found On Consecration, distinction 4, Canon LXXXVIII: "You have received a mystery, that is, ointment upon the head. Why upon the head? because the sense of the wise man is in his head." Tropologically Cajetan: "The eyes of the wise man," he says, "are in his head," that is, he continually regards his head reflectively as in a mirror, because the wise man first knows himself, and carefully examines all the thoughts and intentions of his mind, and thus operates in the light. To this applies the old saying: "The eye in the breast," that is to say, Examine yourself. Thus at last who you are, how great, by what fortune you will see, And with your own foot prudently measure yourself. Again, that is to say, the wise man is recognized by his eyes and head, according to that in chapter VIII, 1: "The wisdom of a man shineth in his face." And Proverbs XVII, 24: "In the face of the prudent shineth wisdom, the eyes of fools are in the ends of the earth." Furthermore, the eyes of the wise man, that is, of the prince (for he ought to excel in wisdom above others, by which he may wisely rule all his subjects), are in his head: because a prince, such as Solomon was, ought to excel by his head, that is, by dignity and authority, and so by his eyes, that is, by vigilance and circumspection, so that from the high throne of his kingdom he may look around upon all his subjects, and may ward off from them all harmful things, and may procure what is beneficial. Hence the Egyptians gave a hieroglyphic of God as "an eye on a staff," denoting by the eye God's providence, by the staff His power. Whence that saying: "An eye on the scepter," that is, let vigilance be in the king and prince. Thus St. Ambrose in Psalm I, reading sense for eye: "The sense," he says, "of the wise man is in his head. Which can also be referred to those who excel in the Church." The same, in the Exhortation to Virgins: "The eyes of man are in his head, that is," he says, "the sense of your wisdom." For eyes are a type of wisdom and sense. Allegorically St. Jerome, Olympiodorus, Salonius, Hugo and others understand by the head Christ, toward whom the eyes of our mind ought always to be directed, so that we may learn and draw wisdom from Him. "Whoever shall have reached the perfect man," says St. Jerome, "and shall have merited that Christ be his head, will always have his eyes toward Christ, and raising them on high will never think of lower things." And St. Gregory, XVII Morals, chapter V: "The eyes of the wise man," he says, "are in his head, because namely every wise man considers with all his intention Him, whom he thinks himself to be a member of through faith." And book XX, IV: "The eyes," he says, "of the wise man are in his head, while he always contemplates the works of his redeemer, which he ought to imitate." And, as the same says, homily 2 on Ezekiel: "When all our intention is raised toward Him, lest if the eye of the mind should neglect to behold the ways of light, it should immediately be shut up in the darkness of error." Hence the Psalmist says, Psalm CXVIII: "I will exercise myself in thy commandments, and I will consider thy ways." Anagogically, the spiritual eyes of those who are devoted to the contemplative life are in the head, that is in the superior part of the soul, which is called mind and spirit; but those of the ecstatic are in the very apex of the mind, by which they fly toward God, and merge themselves into Him so that they may be seen to be deified, and to become one spirit with Him, because through an enigma they see God, and in Him they taste beforehand the joys of future happiness. Thus Lyra, and indeed St. Jerome, in chapter 51 of Isaiah and in chapter 2 of Daniel. AND I LEARNED THAT ONE DESTRUCTION WOULD BE FOR BOTH. — In Hebrew it is micre, that is, meeting, accident, fall, event, as the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Chaldean, Vatablus, and Pagninus translate it, through whom St. Augustine, book 20 of The City of God, chapter 3, understands those evils which we see to be common to the good and the bad. Olympiodorus, however, understands both good and bad things, as if to say: Indifferently to the wise man and the fool, that is to the upright and the wicked, disease befalls equally as health, riches equally as poverty, honor equally as contempt, and especially life equally as death. Hence Our Author aptly translates it as destruction; for no event is so common to all, which befalls each with certainty, to both the pious and the impious, as death, according to that saying of Horace: Pale death with equal foot strikes the poor man's cottage and the towers of kings. Death therefore is micre, that is, the common fall and setting of all, with no one whatsoever excepted. Again, death is micre, that is, a meeting; for it meets those who are not thinking of it, and not expecting it, it seizes the unwary, it intercepts men in their business, pleasures and prosperities, so that when they are in the midst of riches, honors and glory, death may meet them from the side, and in a moment cut down all these things, and slay them while they are exulting. Many believe that Solomon says this not from his own person, but from that of others, who deny the immortality of the soul. "So that he may represent," says Nyssen, "the objections of those who are of small and abject spirit toward this life, and who believe that virtue brings them no profit, since life ends in the same way for both." Thus also Thaumaturgus, Olympiodorus, Hugh of St. Victor, Lyra and others. But there is nothing that compels us to say this; rather the following and preceding passages indicate that Solomon here speaks from himself and his own mind. The sense therefore is, as if to say: My mind suggested to me to investigate what difference there is between wisdom and foolishness, and I found that wisdom surpasses foolishness in the soul indeed as much as light surpasses darkness; yet in this I found them equal, that as regards the body to both, namely to the wise and the foolish, the same lot and death befalls, and from this I discovered that both wisdom and foolishness have their own vanity, that is, transience and destruction, by which they vanish away. For all these things tend toward this, so that he may show to all in things which are under the sun on earth, he has found vanity, and thence he concludes that truth-seeking, the mind must be fixed on God and heaven, in which there is no vanity, but true stability and stable eternity.
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"What profit is it to me," namely for prolonging this life on earth, since wisdom cannot preserve this life for me, and guard it from death; but the wise man, equally as the foolish man, that is the upright equally as the wicked, must undergo the law of death common and fatal to all: for in the other life wisdom will profit much, that is the study of virtue, inasmuch as it will procure for the wise man eternal happiness and glory; whereas foolishness, that is impiety, and crimes will bring to the impious man hell and eternal death. Therefore Solomon here abstracts from the future state of the pious and impious after this life, and regards only the present state of this life, as philosophers and natural scientists are accustomed to do, because he speaks to a rude age and to rude Jews. Whence he significantly adds in the following verse, "under the sun," as if to say, All things under the sun are vain. If therefore you seek truth and true happiness, seek it above the sun, with God in the empyrean heaven. For throughout this entire book he shows that all earthly things are vain, that is they end in death and vanish: but heavenly things are true, that is they endure, are established, are made eternal. Others think that Solomon speaks these things from the mind of the foolish, that is the impious, who cling to present things, do not care for future things, nor believe or hope in them: whom the Septuagint favors, which for iother, that is greater, translates abundantly and in abundance. Whence thus from them St. Jerome reads: "Why have I become wise? Then I spoke abundantly in my heart, because the foolish man speaks from abundance (that is from the superfluity of foolishness in himself, says Olympiodorus. For "the streams of garrulity burst forth as from a fountain of foolishness," says St. Gregory), because this too is vanity." And the Syriac, following the Septuagint in its manner, I spoke, he says, in my heart, that this too is vanity, because the foolish man speaks much more; the Arabic, when I spoke in my heart of his excellence, because the foolish man speaks from the excellence of his heart. But truly the foolish is not in the Hebrew. For which reason our Vulgate version, and its interpretation reviewed a little before, is truer and more genuine. Finally the Chaldean reducing the thesis to the hypothesis, understands by the foolish Saul, but by wisdom Solomon himself; whence he translates, and I said in my heart: As it happened to Saul the king, who turned aside into his foolishness, and did not keep the commandment which was commanded to him concerning Amalek, and the kingdom was taken from him; to me also it will come: and why was I wiser than him? And I spoke in my heart, that this too is vanity, and there is nothing except by the sentence of the word of the Lord. AND I SPOKE WITH MY MIND, I OBSERVED THAT THIS TOO WAS VANITY,—as if to say, And thus reasoning and disputing with myself in my heart, I determined that this too was vanity, namely to wish to rest in wisdom for its own sake, and to be unwilling to tend toward a further end, namely toward eternal life, to which wisdom ought to lead. For this is the light and guide to life perpetual and blessed. Thus Titelmanus and others. Otherwise the Septuagint, which refers these things to the foolish. Whence following them St. Jerome, Thaumaturgus, Olympiodorus, Albinus and others, think that here there is a correction; that Solomon corrects the opinion of the foolish reviewed in the preceding verse, as if to say, The foolish, from the fact that the same destruction and the same death befalls the wise as befalls the foolish, infer: therefore it profits nothing to study wisdom and virtue. But I pronounce this judgment of theirs to be vanity, that is vain and foolish.
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St. Jerome, Thaumaturgus, Olympiodorus, Albinus and Hugh of St. Victor, following the Septuagint, think that here is noted the distinction between the wise man and the fool, or the pious and the impious, in that the memory of the wise man endures forever; but that of the fool is not like it, but unlike it, because it vanishes with this life. And so they do not refer the negation to "similarly," as if to say, "The memory of the wise and the fool will not be similar forever," that is in the future age of eternity, which will cover and bury all present times in oblivion: wherefore the learned does not die similarly to the unlearned; for they do not think the negation is to be repeated here by Hebraism from the beginning of the verse, as if to say, In the future age the memory of the wise and the fool will be unlike, that is of the good and the bad; because then the memory of the wise will flourish, but that of the fool will be delivered to eternal oblivion. Whence the Chaldean translates, there is no memory in the coming age for the prudent with the foolish; and as soon as a man departs from the living, both those things which happened in his times and those which will happen after him are utterly crushed by oblivion. Why therefore will men think that the outcome of the just and the wicked is the same? Thus likewise these final words St. Jerome in his Commentary, Olympiodorus, Arabicus, Vatablus and others utter by interrogation, whereas on the other hand the Latin Vulgate reads them assertively, and says: "The learned dies similarly to the unlearned;" which reading is more conformable to the Hebrew, and therefore truer. The plain sense of the Vulgate therefore is, as if to say, Although wisdom by its nature surpasses foolishness, that is virtue surpasses vice, as much as light surpasses darkness, nevertheless in this they are equal, that death cuts down both: so much so that wisdom cannot preserve life, that it cannot even preserve memory. For time takes from every man, as his life, so also his memory, and buries him in oblivion. Wherefore the wise man dies equally as the unwise, and after death the memory of both is immediately delivered to oblivion and vanishes. Both therefore have this deplorable vanity inherent in them, nay rather sometimes the fool, that is the wicked, has a longer memory and greater fame than the wise, that is the good, as Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander and other gentile tyrants had: from which prudent men rightly conclude that after this life there remains judgment, and another life in which by the just judge God rewards to the good their merits, and punishments to the wicked. For this is required by God's providence and justice. Although therefore such is the dignity of God, and such His merits toward us, that even if He had decreed no rewards for the good, nor punishments for the wicked, He would nevertheless be to be honored by all with every love, obedience and worship; and although virtue has such great honesty and beauty, that it is to be sought and desired for its own sake, with no penalty or reward proposed, nay even if no other life remained to man, but the soul perished with the body: for which reason St. Bonaventure, when the devil suggested to him that he was reprobate, and therefore urged him to seize the pleasures of this life, since he would be excluded by God from future ones, answered: "If it is not given to enjoy God and virtue after this life, let us enjoy it in the present;" for so true and solid are its joys, that all the delights of the world and the flesh are not to be compared with them; for the peace, serenity and joy of a good conscience, which virtue produces, surpasses all the pleasures of the world: nevertheless, these things notwithstanding, great vanity and misery is annexed to wisdom and virtue, in that it is cut down and ended by death. Whence unless one hoped for another blessed and eternal life, it would be very wretched, and few would undertake its labors and sorrows, as being without reward. Wherefore the Apostle says in I Corinthians XV, 19: "If in this life only we are hoping in Christ, we are more miserable than all men," because without hope and fruit we strive for the mortification of the flesh, and renounce its pleasures, which others indulge in. Note that all these things are to be understood of the present life and memory among men, which both the wise man and the fool, both the upright and the wicked, end in death equally, not however of the future life with God. For in that life the upright and the wicked will be unequal and most dissimilar. For "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," Psalm CXV. On the other hand "the death of sinners is very evil," Psalm XXXIII; similarly: "The just shall be in everlasting memory," Psalm CXI. Again: "But the just shall live for ever, and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the Most High," Wisdom cap. V. On the other hand concerning the impious it is said Psalm LXXXVII, 6: "Thou hast forgotten them, and they are cast off from thy hand." And Psalm XLVIII: "They are laid in hell like sheep, death shall feed upon them." Hell is also called Lethe, that is forgetfulness, and the land of forgetfulness, Psalm LXXXVII, 13; because the damned, who dwell in it, are rejected, despised and as it were delivered to eternal oblivion. Hence the poets fable that Lethe is a river among the infernal regions, whose waters if anyone tastes, he forgets all things; concerning which Lucan, lib. IX: Which beside the silent Lethe glides along, Bringing (as fame reports) oblivion in its veins to the infernal regions. Virgil has similar passages, VI Aeneid., and Ovid, book I of the Tristia, Elegy VII. Indeed both Varro and Festus derive lethum, that is death, from the Greek lethe, that is forgetfulness, which death brings; although Priscian derives it from the ancient word leo, that is deleo, because death deletes all things. Hence also the ancient version in St. Jerome at this place has it thus: "Because behold in the days that shall come all forgetfulness shall cover all things;" which Olympiodorus explains thus, that is to say, In the coming age whatever shall have befallen us in this life, whether infirmity, whether health, whether riches, whether poverty, shall pass into oblivion. 17. AND THEREFORE I WAS WEARY OF MY LIFE, SEEING ALL THINGS TO BE MISERABLE (wretched, full of hardship, perishable, which end in death) UNDER THE SUN, AND ALL THINGS TO BE VANITY AND AFFLICTION OF SPIRIT. The Hebrew: and I hated life, because evil was the work that was done upon me, which was made under the sun, because all things are vanity, and reut, that is malice, or affliction of spirit, as the Arabic translates; the Septuagint translates proairesis, that is choice, or presumption of spirit; the Chaldean, contraction of spirit, or, as Costas translates, sadness of soul; the Syriac, perturbation of spirit; Pagninus, thought of spirit; St. Jerome, pasturing of wind; Cajetan, breaking of spirit; Campensis, torment of soul; others, irritation or weariness of spirit; others, vexation of soul. See the remarks on verse 15, and cap. I, 14. This weariness of life is felt also by the wise and the holy, both on account of the labors, troubles and sorrows of life, and on account of its brevity and end, namely that all its goods end in death, and on account of its desires, temptations and dangers of sin and damnation, which it frequently suggests, even to the perfect on account of the desire to enjoy God, whom they love so greatly, and to love and praise him most intensely always. Whence St. Paul felt this weariness saying: "Unhappy man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans VII. And: "But I am straitened between two: having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ," Philippians II, 23. See the remarks there. The same weariness of this life and desire of migration to a better one had St. Job, cap. X, 1; Jonas, cap. IV, 8; Rebecca, Genesis cap. XXVII, 46; Elias, III Kings XIX, 4; David, Psalm CXLI, 8; Jeremias, XX, 14; St. Augustine, besieged by the Vandals in his Hippo; indeed even Christ with his passion imminent, Mark XIV, 33. See St. Cyprian, On Mortality, and St. Ambrose, lib. On the Good of Death. Furthermore others assign another cause of this weariness of the Wise man, namely that he sees the foolishness of fools, that is the impiety and crimes, on account of which he grieves and sighs. Whence the Chaldean translates, I hated certainly the life of those living wickedly. For I can bear those nefarious deeds, of which men in this world are exceedingly fond, only with difficulty. And Symmachus, evil seemed to me the work, which shall be done under the sun. For evil work (says Olympiodorus) he understands the laborious life of sinful men. Nyssenus and Thaumaturgus refer it to the labors of the exact life itself and studies of vanity: "I began (he says) to curse my whole life, which I had spent in vain things, and consumed wasting away in earthly labors: for indeed all things were elaborated for me with great trouble."
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Hebrew, I have hated also all my labour which I have laboured under the sun, for that I must leave it to the man that shall come after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool, that shall have dominion over all my labour, wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun? that is, wherein I have wisely laboured under the sun, wherein I have wisely gathered riches. The interpreter of Nysseni, which I have discovered by my diligence; otherwise by antiphrase he translated it, wherein I acted foolishly, or wherein I was deceived; the Chaldean, and I was astonished in my heart, and said: This also is vanity. Thus also the Septuagint, except that for who shall have dominion, they translate doubtfully, whether he shall have dominion. So also the Arabic. Another translates it, or whether he shall be occupied in lusts, or whether he shall have dominion according to his pleasure and lust, and shall use and abuse my riches. The Septuagint translates exousiaszetai, that is, he shall exercise authority and rule; the interpreter of Nysseni, he shall command; the Complutensian editors, he shall be licentious; others, he shall have power; Campensis, he shall receive all things of mine. In Hebrew the verb is scalat, that is, to have dominion at pleasure with full right. Whence sultan, or soldan, is an absolute king or emperor, such as the Turk. "I have hated," that is it wearied me, as our translator rendered it in verse 17, I loathed, I abhorred, I detested. He passes to the vanity of the study of enriching sons and heirs; which holds and occupies a great part of mankind: but he passes over appropriately and opportunely. For when at the beginning of the chapter he had recounted the vanities of riches, gardens, delights, etc., he passes from these to wisdom, in which although he asserts he has found this vanity superior to others, that the wise man dies equally as the fool; now, lest anyone should object and say: Although the wise man dies, yet he leaves behind him sons and heirs, in whom his name and fame survive, and thus in whom as in a living image of himself he survives and lives; he answers that there is great and manifold vanity in seeking and enriching an heir. The first is, that in this matter there is so great a desire innate in man, and likewise such solicitude and assiduous labour and pain, and thus the whole life is consumed in heaping up riches, which in heaping up he does not enjoy; nay, shortly after in death he is forced to abandon them, and to return poor to the earth, from which he came forth poor, according to that saying: "Naked came I into this world, naked shall I return to the grave." And that of the Apostle: "For we brought nothing into this world, no doubt that neither can we carry anything out," I Timothy VI, 7. Whence Saladin, who by great labours and battles had conquered the kingdom of Syria and Egypt, when dying ordered a linen cloth, in which his body was to be wrapped, to be carried aloft on a spear through the camps, and a herald to proclaim through the streets and crossroads: "Saladin, emperor of Asia, dying shall carry away with him nothing else from such great riches." Thus Blondus, decade 6, book VI. Such a man therefore defrauds his own genius, that he may fill the gaping jaws of another. Truly Seneca, epistle 14: "He thinks," says he, "of increase; he has forgotten use: from a master he becomes a steward." Wherefore Plutarch in his Moral works compares them to channels, which serve water not for themselves but for others: "That these also," says he, "serve others in the manner of earthen channels, which retain no water in themselves, but each one passes it to the next, until from without some sycophant or tyrant, breaking the pipe, diverts and turns away the riches to another place." Second, that he will leave it to another, and know not to whom—whether to a son or to a stranger. For often sons are lacking, or if they exist, they are deprived of their father's goods, according to that: "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them," Psalm XXXVIII, 7. And: "Fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and the things which thou hast provided, whose shall they be?" Luke XII, 20. Thus Rehoboam lost the riches left to him by his father Solomon, and the kingdom of ten tribes, III Kings XII, 20. Moreover, Sesac king of Egypt, in the fifth year after Solomon's death, plundered his treasures. Whence St. Antony, in St. Athanasius, citing this passage (though translated somewhat differently), thus exhorts his followers to the study of truth and virtue: "We ought to perceive this above all, that even if we wish to retain our riches, by the law of death we are torn from them unwillingly, as it is written in the book of Ecclesiastes: For man knoweth not what shall come after him, and who shall gather the things which he hath laboured for. Why therefore do we not make a virtue of necessity? Why do we not willingly relinquish what must be lost at the end of this light, in order to gain the heavenly kingdoms? Let Christians have no care for those things which they cannot take with them; rather ought we to seek that which leads us to heaven, namely wisdom, chastity, justice, virtue, watchful understanding, care for the poor, robust faith in Christ, a spirit victorious over anger, hospitality. Following these things, we shall prepare for ourselves a dwelling in the land of the quiet, according to the Gospel." Third, that he knoweth not whether the heir, even if he be a son, to whom he gathers riches with such care (and thereupon by fair means and foul, with certain danger to his own soul and damnation), shall be wise or foolish, grateful or ungrateful, a guardian or a spendthrift: for often sons, living luxuriously and in excess, immediately squander the riches gathered by their parents over so many years and with such labours. The same do grandsons, who waste in dice, drinking parties, trifles and displays, or pour out upon harlots, the goods left to them by their uncles because they lack sons, and accumulated with great solicitude. Wherefore what is more vain? Solomon seems to have foreseen the foolishness of his son Rehoboam, nay, to have noted in him its very beginnings and certain signs: for he was already advanced in age, and thus forty years old, when he succeeded his father in the kingdom. Whence the Chaldean renders it: and I hated the labours which I have undergone in this life under the sun; for what shall be left to Rehoboam my son, who shall succeed me in the kingdom, Jeroboam his servant, rising up, shall take ten tribes from his hand, and shall come into partnership of the kingdom with him. Hence Ecclesiasticus XLVII, 27, concerning Solomon saith: "And he left behind him of his seed foolishness to the nations, and Rehoboam diminished in wisdom, who turned away the people by his counsel." Thus we often experience that sons degenerate from the wisdom and virtue of their parents, and it is almost common that the sons of the wise are less wise than others, nay, are foolish. Whence that saying: "The sons of heroes are a curse." The physical and ethical causes of this matter I have reviewed in Ecclesiastes XXX, 43. Fourth, that the heir is often unknown, ungrateful, foolish and prodigal, and "shall rule over all my labours, wherein I have laboured," so that namely I have been the servant of my riches, he shall be the master; I have sweated in labours to gather them together, he shall domineer over them voluptuously and triumph. Wherefore wisely Olympiodorus: "It is better," he says, "by ourselves, while we are in this life, to dispense our riches in the necessities of the poor and needy, that we may lay up for ourselves an unfailing treasure in heaven, than to transmit them to others in their inheritance, whatever sort of persons they may happen to be." And St. Chrysostom, homily 9 On Penance: "Dost thou wish," he says, "to leave a good inheritance to thy sons? Leave alms." And St. Cyprian, treatise On Works and Almsgiving, somewhat before the end, speaking of the widow who, setting aside her sons, gave the flour which she had in bread to Elias, III Kings XVII, and therefore deserved to receive from him the multiplication of flour and oil: "The mother did not take away from her sons," he says, "what she gave to Elias; but rather she conferred upon her sons what she did kindly and piously." He then objects to himself: "But indeed there are many free children in the house, and the multitude of thy sons delays thee, so that thou dost not apply thyself more liberally to good works;"; and he answers: "But in this very thing thou oughtest to work more, because thou art the father of many pledges. There are more for whom thou mayest beseech the Lord; the sins of many are to be redeemed, the consciences of many are to be purged, the souls of many are to be freed." And after some things: "If therefore thou truly lovest thy sons, if thou showest them full and paternal sweetness of charity, thou oughtest to work more, that thou mayest commend thy sons to God by just working. And think not him a father to thy children, who is both temporal and weak; but compare him who is eternal and firm father of spiritual children. Assign to him thy faculties, which thou keepest for heirs; let him be guardian to thy children, let him be curator, let him be protector against all injuries of the world by divine majesty. A patrimony entrusted to God neither the commonwealth takes away, nor the treasury invades, nor any legal calumny overturns. The inheritance is placed in safety, which is guarded with God as keeper. This is to provide for dear pledges in the future, this is to consult for future heirs with paternal piety, according to the faith of Holy Scripture saying: I was young and now am old, and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is merciful all the day long and lendeth, and his seed shall be in blessing. And again: He that converseth without reproach in justice, leaveth blessed children after him," Proverbs XX. Mystically, St. Jerome and from him Albinus (although they themselves bring forward this sense as literal) expound these things of spiritual labour, whereby day and night the wise man labours in the Scriptures to compose books, to leave a memory of himself to posterity, and nevertheless they fall into the hands of fools, who frequently according to the perversity of their heart draw seeds of heresy therefrom, and calumniate the labours of others. St. Jerome proves this to be a more fitting sense, even according to the letter, because it is subjoined: "And he shall rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewn myself wise under the sun:": "For what," he says, "is the wisdom to gather together earthly riches?" But this reason does not press: for wisdom among the Hebrews is taken broadly for any prudence, skill, industry, as I have shown above.
2:20
"He renounced," that is, he sent word renouncing his inner labor, he bade farewell to labor, he was unwilling to labor any further. Thus we are said to renounce an office, life, friends, when we reject those things. Whence Quintilian, book X, chapter 7: "In my opinion," he says, "he will renounce civil offices," that is, he will bid farewell; and to renounce a deposit according to Ulpian, is to set aside the care and custody of deposited things. In Hebrew it is, "and I turned myself that I might renounce from my heart all labor, which I labored under the sun"; Symmachus, "I turned myself about"; the Syriac, "and I turned myself that I might ease the essence of my heart from all labor, which I labored under the sun"; the Arabic, "I returned to despise in my heart the whole of my labor"; the Scholiast, "that I might refuse labor"; others, "that I might restrain my heart from labor"; the Chaldean, "that I might make my heart despair over all labor which I labored to seek." For the Hebrew word iaas in the piel form signifies to renounce one's mind from that thing which one strove to accomplish, and it connotes distrust and desperation. Whence noas in the niphal passive signifies to be overwhelmed by evil, so that one despairs and desists from undertakings, as if the evil were extreme and incurable, as if to say: It is finished, all is lost, it is despaired of, it is lamented. 21. FOR WHEN ANOTHER LABORS IN WISDOM AND DOCTRINE AND SOLICITUDE, HE LEAVES HIS ACQUISITIONS TO A MAN WHO IS IDLE: AND THIS THEREFORE IS VANITY AND A GREAT EVIL. Some insert these words by way of parenthesis in this manner: For when another labors in wisdom and doctrine and solicitude (in Hebrew, in righteousness), he leaves his acquisitions to a man who is idle. And this therefore is vanity, as if he were to say: It is vanity to heap up riches for an heir. For he leaves those acquired by great labor and care to an idle man; when another, who is wise, devotes himself to himself, and heaps up for himself wisdom, doctrine and righteousness, or justice. The Septuagint favors this, which translates, "What is man, because his labor is in wisdom and in knowledge and in virtue; and to the man who did not labor in it, he will give his portion"; Campensis, "whatever thus has been allotted to him." Thus Olympiodorus, who expounds the Septuagint thus, as if to say: I despised laboring about vain things, collecting by reasoning that there is another labor worthy of praise, which gathers stable riches of virtues. Now this is the kind of labor which a man labors, so that he might acquire wisdom, knowledge and fortitude. This labor therefore, judging it more worthy, I turned myself, that I might renounce from my heart all labor which I labored under the sun, that is, about vain things; thus also the Wonderworker: "Moreover," he says, "when we have cast them aside (the vain ones, who heap up riches for an uncertain heir), then it will be clear that the true goods of man are the treasures of wisdom and the possession of fortitude; but if anyone, neglecting the care of these, is incited by the desire of some other thing, he both prefers evils to goods, and pursues vice in place of benignity and virtue." Thus also the Nyssene. But truly all the Latin and Greek codices, equally as the Hebrew, place no parenthesis here. Wherefore Solomon proceeds to amplify in many ways the vanity of those who place all their effort in heaping up riches for an heir, whom they know not what sort he will be, wise or foolish, upright or wicked: for this signifies the reason for what preceded, why Solomon ceased to labor and sent word renouncing the labor by which the heir was to be enriched: because namely this labor, since it is burdensome, leaves acquisitions to an idle and inert heir; wherefore the laborer has nothing except labor and trouble; but the idle heir has all the fruit of the labor and abundance of things: which "is vanity and a great evil:" evil, that is, wretched indignity, great affliction. Moreover, when he says: "When another labors in wisdom and doctrine and solicitude," by these three understand three excellent gifts of the soul, by which riches are prepared, not only spiritual but also corporeal. For wisdom denotes the study of heavenly and divine things, and the religion of God, and the worship which is due to God and obtains all things necessary for the body, according to that promise of Christ: "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you," Matt. VI. By doctrine understand human prudence, which prudently directs all business and actions, so that they succeed happily and produce abundant fruits and riches. By solicitude understand diligence, care, industry, which wonderfully avails for increasing riches. For solicitude in Hebrew is kisron, that is, rectitude, congruity in doing things fittingly, industry. The Septuagint translates it andreia, that is, virtue, which is of a strong man, fortitude; the Arabic translator renders it, strength; the Scholiast, vigor; the Syrian, prosperity; the Interpreter of Nyssa, the virtue of an exalted mind; Thaumaturgus, the acquisition or attainment of fortitude; the Chaldean, justice; Campensis, frugality. By all these indeed riches are prepared, or if already acquired, are increased. All these things increase the vanity of the matter. First indeed it is vain and evil, that is, miserable, that riches which you have prepared with such wisdom, prudence, virtue, you leave to an idle and lazy man, who labored nothing in them, as the Hebrew has it. Secondly, it is vain and miserable, says St. Jerome, "that the sweat of the dead becomes the delights of the living," especially when the living heir abuses the riches acquired by the virtue of the deceased, for luxury and vices, as the prodigal son did, Luke XV, 13, and as grandsons do, that is, the prodigal; for indeed grandsons often squander the patrimony of uncles or grandfathers through gluttony and luxury; hence the prodigal are called grandsons. Similarly in a mystical sense, posterity often despise, indeed vituperate, censure, and destroy the writings or works of their masters. Hugo of St. Victor gives the reason: "Because the negligence of those who follow refuses to assume in use what the keen diligence of those who went before acquired not without great labor and care." Most excellently St. Chrysostom in the Melissa of Antonius, part I, cap. XXXV: "Insatiability," he says, "is exceedingly violent, and avarice most powerful; the rapacious disturb the life of men, and the plunder is theirs indeed, but the delights belong to others; the curse falls upon him, the enjoyment passes to others; sighs are uttered against him, abundance comes to others; tears are shed against him, the money is used by others; he himself is punished in the lower regions, and others often revel in his riches and sing." Wisely Demochares: "Not the rich man," he says, "but he who uses riches is blessed;"; and Democritus: "Many of the rich are stewards, not masters of riches." Thus Maximus, serm. 12. Thirdly, that the avaricious often leave their riches not to sons, but to strangers as heirs, indeed to enemies. Whence the Chaldean translates: you will find a man whose highest study is in wisdom and knowledge of things and justice: he departing from this life without children, to whom he has not watched over, will leave his things as if that man's portion. Is not this also vanity and a signal evil? For, as Salvian rightly says, at the beginning of book IV of On the Governance of God: "What is dignity in the unworthy, except ornament in mud?" Most excellently St. Ambrose, in the book On Naboth, cap. IV, exaggerating this vanity of the avaricious: "From you therefore," he says, "first do you exact punishment, before you distribute to the poor. You therefore by your affection pay the penalties of wretched poverty, and the poor indeed have nothing to use; but you neither use them yourselves, nor allow others to use them; you dig gold from the veins of the mine, but again you hide it away. How many lives do you bury in that gold? Why is it preserved, when you have read of the avaricious rich man: He layeth up treasures, and knoweth not for whom he gathereth them? The idle heir waits, the fastidious heir complains that you die too late. He hates the increase of his inheritance, he hastens to losses. What therefore is more miserable, when you do not even leave thanks with him for whom you labor? For him you endure hunger all your sad days, fearing daily losses of your table; for him you heap up daily fastings." Fourth, that avaricious poor people defraud the poor and in them Christ of due nourishment from charity, Salvianus speaks pathetically, book IV to the Catholic Church: "Every needy person is in need for himself alone and in himself: Christ alone is he who begs in the universality of all the poor. And since these things are so, what do you say, O man who call yourself Christian, when you see Christ in need, that you leave your resources to those who are not in want? Christ is poor, and you heap up the riches of the wealthy. Christ hungers, and you prepare delicacies for those who abound. Christ also complains that water is lacking to him, and by you the shops of drunkards are filled with wine. Christ is worn down by the want of all things, and by you abundance is gathered for the luxurious. Christ promises you eternal rewards both for the gifts given by you and for the remunerations from you, and you bestow all things on those who will give nothing in return. Christ sets before you good immortal things for good deeds, and eternal evils for evil deeds; and you are moved neither by heavenly goods nor shaken by perpetual evils: and you say you believe in your Lord, whose recompense you do not desire, nor whose wrath do you fear? You do not believe, therefore, as we have already said in the book above, you do not believe," etc.
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Campensis, and this is foolish; Hebrew, for what happens to a man in all his labor and the malice of his heart, which he himself labors under the sun? because all his days are in sorrows, and indignation is his occupation: and indeed in the night his heart does not sleep; and this is vanity. For affliction in Hebrew is raion, that is malice, that is misery, affliction. The Septuagint translates it, en proairesei, that is in choice, or pleasure of his heart; Pagninus, in thought; others, in striving, or weariness of his heart, as if to say: To what end, to what fruit does the greedy man so constantly and so much strive, and exhaust himself? surely to none. Campensis, in torments of the mind, by which he torments himself; others, in contrition. For labor Aquila translates basanos, that is torment, penalty, torture, punishment, examination, trial; the Septuagint algema, that is trouble, calamity, torment of pain, grief and sickness. He proceeds to exaggerate the vanity and affliction of the greedy, who heap up riches for an uncertain heir, and defraud their own spirit of their use and fruit. For to them all labor, and the very riches themselves do not profit, but greatly harm: and this first, because such a man labors perpetually, and does not enjoy his labor; wherefore his whole life is labor and torture, indeed a continuous rack of labors and sorrows: "And all his days are full of sorrows." Because, as Hugo and Bonaventura say: "The search has great punishment, but the finding has no fruit." Wherefore less genuinely does Olympiodorus refer these things equally to the labor of the good and the bad: "There comes, he says, to a man labor, which he labors, whether he be good or bad, from the choice of counsel, so that if expended in virtue it be praiseworthy, but if truly in vice, it makes days full of sorrows and troubles." For it is clear from what precedes and follows that here only the labor of the bad and greedy is treated, not truly of the good. Excellently Salvianus, book II Against Avarice, inveighs against the greedy, those striving to enrich heirs: "What, he says, is this madness, O most wretched, that you make other heirs, but disinherit yourselves; that you leave others rich even for a short time, but damn yourselves to eternal beggary!" And indeed Plutarch in his Moral: "Avarice, he says, like a troublesome and slow mistress, compels one to prepare, forbids one to enjoy, and while it excites desire, it takes away pleasure; and plainly possessing much, and never achieving that things go well with oneself, it brings to mind the bathkeeper's donkey, which constantly carrying wood and sticks, filled always with smoke and ash, comes into no part of the bath, heat and cleanliness." Wherefore Palladius called gold the child of sorrow and care, nor does he think it born from that alone, but nourished, educated, warmed, and he affirmed that the rich live perpetually with it, namely with sorrow and labor. Prosper, book II On the Contemplative Life, chapter XIII: "Those who have riches, he says, do not seek them without labor, do not find them without difficulty, do not keep them without care, do not possess them without harmful pleasure, do not lose them without sorrow." Second, that all his days are "full of troubles." In Hebrew, anger is his occupation; the Chaldean, anger of fury is his business; the Septuagint, of wrath is his distention; the Syrian, fury is his conversation; another, indignation is his business; Campensis, his efforts are full of weariness; the Interpreter of Nyssen, anger is the vexation of his mind; the Arabic, because the whole of his days is in confusion, full of sorrows and wrath. For many things occur to the greedy man which sharpen his anger and inflame his bile, such as the negligence of servants, the treachery of partners, shipwreck of riches, plunder by enemies, fires, corruption of goods, decrease in price, and a thousand such things, on account of which he grows angry, bursts into flame, is in turmoil, rages, is cruel. Therefore all the work and labor of the rich is nothing other than the irritation and torture of his own mind. O a man remarkable in tormenting and flaying himself! Truly Seneca, epistle 80: "Of those, he says, who are called happy, their cheerfulness is feigned, or grave and festering sadness, and indeed graver, because sometimes it is not permitted to be openly miserable, but amid troubles that eat away the heart itself, one must necessarily act happy." To this pertains that passage of Juvenal, Satire 14: But why these riches through torments forced? When madness is undoubted, when it is manifest insanity, That you die rich, live in the fate of the poor. Again Seneca, epistle 108: "Much is lacking to poverty, everything to avarice. The greedy man is good to no one, worst to himself." Third, that neither by night does he rest in mind, because cares and anxieties lest his merchandise perish, lest it be plundered, lest it be sold at a lower price, etc., do not allow him to rest; whereas the poor man, content with his meager lot, lives joyfully by day and sleeps soundly at night. Therefore the miser is tormented by day with sadness and anger, and that manifold; but by night with disquiet, sleeplessness and cares. Thaumaturgus: "For indeed day and night, he says, always pressed by labors both of body and mind, he lacerates his heart with perpetual and fleeting cares, and torments and racks himself with troublesome business and cares;" or, as another translates it, his soul is harassed by perpetual cares, his breast groaning and palpitating over absurd business; and St. Cyprian, in his epistle to Donatus: "Amid his riches anxious thoughts and uncertain solicitude rack him. Neither food nor sleep comes to him secure; he sighs in the banquet, and when with feasting he has laid his wan body in a softer bed, he lies awake on the couch. Eminence exacts penalties equally from the more powerful." More forcefully St. Augustine, tract. 9 in John: "O man, he says, who labor in loving avarice, what you love is loved with labor; God is loved without labor. Avarice is a mistress commanding labors, dangers, sorrows, tribulations, and you will obey. To what end? that you may have wherewith to fill your chest, and lose security; perhaps you were more secure before you had, than when you began to have. Behold what avarice has commanded you. You have filled your house, thieves are feared: you have acquired gold, you have lost sleep. God, when loved without labor, is acquired and retained." Isidore of Pelusium, book II, epistle 233, compares avarice or the desire for riches to the hydra, which had many heads and an insatiable belly; to Briareus the hundred-handed giant, and to Scylla devouring all things with ships; and finally he says it is like a woman loving and wicked, "endowed with a bestial form, he says, and breathing fire, and having six hundred vipers in place of hair on her head, perpetually hissing and vomiting deadly poison; likewise six hundred hands abounding in claws, by whose work and aid she tears some, shoots others with arrows, extorts money from others; and finally six hundred mouths. For she not only threatens and constructs calumnies, but is also worshipped, and addressed in servile manner, and perjures herself, and for the sake of base gain devises innumerable occasions." Moreover he gives to it keen, harsh and fiery eyes, ears closed to the groans of the poor; he says it is apodal, that is, without feet, because whomever it has once seized, it cannot or knows not how to depart from him. Whence he concludes: "Who therefore would be seized by such a fierce and insatiable rage, and by innumerable sins and curses, and disgraces, and intemperances, and petulances inflaming us? Who would bring himself to live so miserably in this life, that day and night he is lacerated as by certain scourges, so that he feels no rest or sleep, and in the future receives the beginning of punishments and tortures? But why do I say beginning? For here it torments and racks those whom it has seized more bitterly than any tyrant, insulting them, and touching the principal parts, and not allowing them to rest even a little, but inflicting upon them a heavier punishment than those suffer who are condemned to the mines (which is the most atrocious punishment). For to them, when their work is finished, it is permitted to enjoy sleep and rest; to these it obstructs that port of sleep as if with heaped earth, and proposes by night also those savage and inhuman edicts; for it sends these to robberies, those to perpetrate murders," etc. Hence it is clear that misers are slaves and bondsmen of gold, indeed worse than slaves. For slaves defraud their nature and spare themselves food in order to spend money by which they may redeem themselves and bring themselves to freedom. But the miser defrauds his nature in order to hoard wealth, and shuts it up in a chest as in a prison, and at the same time enslaves himself to it: "For where your treasure is, there is your heart also," says Christ; they are therefore more miserable than Tantalus, who thirsts amid waters; and Midas, who perished of hunger using gold for food. See Horace, book I of Satires, Satire 3. Haiton the Armenian, in his History of Tartary, cap. XXVI, relates that in the year of the Lord 1258, a Caliph was captured by the enemy Haolano, forced to die of hunger, because he had shut him up in a chamber full of gold and gems, because he was greedy of gold, and from avarice had not supplied the necessary expenses for war, and therefore was defeated and fell into the hands of Haolano. Fourth, that the avaricious, in order to enrich their sons or grandsons, commit many frauds, usuries, unjust contracts, and cruelty toward the poor, by which they bring upon themselves hell and eternal torments. Salvianus expounds this gravely, book III to the Catholic Church: "Love, he says, we do not resist, love your sons, but nevertheless in the second degree from you; so love them that you do not appear to hate yourselves. For it is thoughtless and foolish love that is mindful of another and forgetful of itself. The son shall not receive, says Holy Scripture, the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father receive the iniquity of his son. And the Apostle says: Each one, he says, shall bear his own burden. Whence thus he concludes: Therefore riches left to sons do not free parents from beggary; nay, wealth left immoderately to sons is the parents' eternal beggary; and by this means no sons are more harmful to parents than those too much loved. For while they abound in paternal goods, the parents are tortured in eternity. Even if the son be so pious that for the sake of alleviating his father's punishment he should afterwards wish to share the goods left with his father, he will not be able; for after death the piety of the son will not be able to restore to the father what his own lack of devotion and infidelity will deny to each one." And after a few intervening remarks, he presses the same point more sharply by the example of the rich man: "The flames, he says, of the unhappy dead are not cooled by the riches of heirs. That rich man in the Gospel, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, without doubt because he himself had been wealthy in this world, had also enriched his heirs by his death; but this availed him nothing, that his brothers were lying rich upon his wealth and talents, and he could not obtain that one drop of refreshment. They were in abundance, but he in want; they in rejoicing, but he in pain; they in riches, but he in torments; they perhaps continually in luxury, but he always in flame. O unhappy, O pitiable condition! With his goods he prepares beatitude for others, affliction for himself; joys for others, tears for himself; brief pleasure for others, eternal ruin for himself. Where then were his relatives, where his kinsmen, or his sons, if he had any, or his brothers, whom he remembered, and whom certainly he loved with such great love that even placed in punishment he would not forget them? What did they profit him, what did they avail him? The unhappy man was tortured, and while his riches were devoured by others, he, burning, sought a drop of refreshment and could not obtain it." And again after a few words, he exclaims at their pitiable folly: "O condition grave beyond measure and to be lamented! The poor man buys beatitude with beggary, the rich man punishment with wealth. The poor man, having absolutely nothing, bought eternal riches with want. O how much more easily could the rich man, who among torments raging and among punishments crying out: Father, he says, Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, that he may cool my tongue, because I am tormented in this flame, etc., have obtained these with so much possession of things!"
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Some translate it, but I see that this very thing is from the hand of God: the Zurich Bible, for no other good comes to man from his labor than that he eats: which I also see is exhibited by the hand of God. Olympiodorus, Bonaventura and both Hugos, namely the Cardinal or of Saint-Victor and Victorinus, indeed St. Gregory, in the Fourth Book of Morals, book 1 and 4, hold that these and the following things are said according to the opinion of fools, namely of Epicureans, who lived a pecuniary life, whose mind and voice was this: Eat, drink, play; after death there is no pleasure. They therefore held this to be from the hand of God, that is, this to be good and a gift of happiness given by God. Thus that rich voluptuary said, in Luke XII, 19: "Soul of mine, eat, drink, make good cheer, thou hast much goods laid up for many years." Indeed Socrates also said, "the good eat in order to live, but the wicked live in order to eat and drink." Thus Laertius, in book VIII; and Aurelianus concerning Bonosus the drinker said, "he was born not to live, but to drink," as Aelian testifies, in book XII of Miscellaneous History, chapter XXIX. But the connection of the discourse demands that these things be said from the mind of Solomon himself, as if to say: I, seeing the vanity and foolishness of the avaricious, who heap up riches for an uncertain heir, not for themselves, say it is better to eat and moderately use one's own goods, nor to defraud one's own nature, but to show, that is to exhibit to one's soul goods, that is comforts and pleasures, so that one may honestly indulge one's nature, and this to be a signal gift of God. Thus St. Jerome, Albinus, Lyra, Dionysius, Titelmans, and others everywhere. Whence some from the Hebrew thus translate: and who eats more justly, or who hastens (to my labor) more than I? Thus to show often in Scripture signifies to exhibit, to give, to bestow; for the gift which is given is shown to him to whom it is given, so as to feed his eyes and senses. It is a metonymy. Thus in Psalm XLVIII, 8, the Psalmist prays: "Show, that is exhibit, to us thy mercy;" whence explaining he adds: "And thy salvation (that is salvation or the Savior) give to us." Thus in Exodus XXXIII, 19, God says to Moses: "I will show all good to thee," that is, I will exhibit to thee my essence or myself, so that thou mayest see me face to face, but in an assumed body. For the vision of God contains all good. Psalm LXX, 20: "How many tribulations hast thou shown, that is sent upon, me." Psalm LIX, 5: "Thou hast shown, that is sent upon, thy people hard things." Tropologically Titelmans: To show, he says, goods to the soul, signifies not only to exhibit comforts to itself, but also to others through works of mercy; moreover to be devoted to piety: for these are the food, life and salvation of the soul. Whence the Chaldean paraphrast translates: therefore why should any other thing be held to be the supreme good of man, than that he eat and drink, and receive himself most sumptuously in the light of all, and cause his soul to see good before the children of men, by executing the commandments of the Lord, and walking in the ways that are right before him, so that he may do good to him from his labor. But this is mystical, not literal, as I shall presently show. AND THIS IS FROM THE HAND OF GOD,—this, namely to eat and to show to one's soul goods, as if to say: to wish to enjoy the fruit of one's own labor, nor to avariciously hide it away for an heir, is a signal gift and benefit given and received from the hand of God: hand therefore, because it is the instrument of giving and bestowing, hence it is taken metonymically for the very giving and bestowing itself; understand a natural gift, which remains from the dictate of natural prudence, and from the lawful and liberal love by which one loves oneself. Mystically St. Augustine understands these things of the reception of the Eucharist; for thus he says, in book XVII of the City of God, chapter XX: "For what in this opinion could be said more credibly to be understood, than that which pertains to participation in the table, which the priest himself the mediator of the New Testament exhibits, according to the order of Melchizedek, of his body and blood?" Again St. Jerome and St. Gregory in the Fourth Book of Morals, book 1, understand these things of the food of Holy Scripture and the word of God; Thaumaturgus also and Nyssenus, of wisdom and doctrine, which like food nourishes the soul, cheers it, strengthens it and makes it blessed. For Thaumaturgus thus translates: "For neither does the supreme and perfect good consist in eatables and drinkables, although otherwise food comes to mortals most greatly by God's benefit. But a man endowed with virtue, having obtained the wisdom of God as a gift, enjoys heavenly pleasure." And Anastasius of Sinai in Questions and Answers on Various Matters, Question XLIII: "Not carnally, he says, does Ecclesiastes command to eat and drink, but spiritually. For he who said: Be not deceived in the satiety of the belly; how would he, to overturn what he said, command to rejoice and indulge the belly? But someone eats and drinks spiritually, working the commandments of God, the food that remains unto eternal life."
2:25
Hebrew, who will eat and who will hasten, or accelerate beyond (namely to the fruit of his labor, for instance to feasts) before me. In Hebrew the word is chus, which properly signifies to hasten. Pagninus adds, and to feel, or to enjoy with the senses. Whence he himself translates, who will eat and enjoy with the senses (especially with taste) as I do? Symmachus translates analosai, that is, will make expenditure or will consume; Aquila, and he who followed him, St. Jerome in his Commentary, contrarily translates will spare, that is will spare: "Who eats," he says, "and who spares without him?" because for chus with shin, he reads chus with sin, which is the same as chus, that is to spare. Now first, Olympiodorus, both Hugos, Bonaventura and Lorinus, judge these things to be said according to the opinion of the Epicureans; for these indeed devour like wolves and abound in delights, as Solomon did after his fall. Secondly, others judge that Solomon uses this phrase so that he might turn the avaricious and sordid man to the other extreme and contrary, in which he himself had at some time been, namely to the liberal use of his own riches. For thus the ethicists (as Aristotle in the second book of the Ethics) teach that the vicious man ought to strive toward the other extreme, so that he might arrive at the mean of virtue: just as a curved rod is bent in the opposite direction, so that it might be brought to the mean of straightness. Thirdly and genuinely, Solomon here confirms by his own example what he said in the preceding verse, and allures the avaricious, so that they might use moderately the riches acquired by their labor, and might not defraud themselves of them, so as to preserve them for an heir, as if to say: Take me as an example of the use and enjoyment of goods, and imitate me, your most wise king. For I, on account of royal magnificence, devoured, that is, ate liberally and abounded in delights. For who lived more sumptuously, more liberally, more magnificently than I? as Campensis translates. It is evident from the third book of Kings, chapter four. Hence also the Zurich Bible translates, who indeed ate, and who was more prompt to labor than I? Vatablus, who ought to eat, and who ought to prepare (namely for the enjoyment of riches acquired by my labor) except I? For to devour, just as to become intoxicated, is sometimes taken not in a bad sense, so as to signify gluttony, but in a good sense, so as to denote liberal use and abundance, and it is the same as to abound in food and drink, but within the bounds of temperance and lawful cheerfulness. For thus the brothers of Joseph, feasting with him, became intoxicated, that is, were made cheerful, Genesis 43:34. Thus also St. John devoured, that is, eagerly ate, the book, Apocalypse chapter nine. And the rod of Aaron devoured the rods of the magicians, that is, the serpent of Aaron devoured the serpents of the magicians. For both rods were turned into serpents, Exodus 7:12. Mystically, you should refer these things to the study of wisdom, as I said at the end of the preceding verse. For wisdom was given to Solomon from heaven. Whence the Chaldean translates, and who, I pray, either in the understanding of the law more vigilant, or concerning that day of the supreme coming judgment more solicitous than I? Furthermore the Septuagint, for mimmenni, that is before me, or as I, reading mimmennu, that is from him, that is without him, translates, who indeed will eat, and who will drink without him? namely God, as if to say: The food and drink which you eat and drink is not yours, but God's gift, received from his liberal hand, as he said in the preceding verse; therefore it ought to be referred to him through the giving of thanks. So also the Arabic: Because, it says, who eats or drinks outside of himself; so also the Syriac and the Thaumaturgus: For nothing, he says, serving our salvation, is outside his providence. Hence Clement of Rome, in the fourth book of the Constitutions, chapter four, admonishes widows, orphans and the poor, so that those things which are given to them, they might receive with all fear, reverence and thanksgiving. "For who of you," he says, "eats or drinks without him?" namely God. For he cites this passage according to the Septuagint. For St. Jerome and his Latin Vulgate version did not yet exist. And Olympiodorus: "Indifferent gifts," he says, "are bestowed by God upon men, such as riches, good health, authority; therefore nothing good is found in men, except the pleasure of eating and drinking."
2:26
In Hebrew it is malice, that is, affliction of spirit, concerning which I said in verse 11 and chapter I, 14. The Zurich translation renders it "for the sinner," that is, one wandering from the straight path of wisdom and happiness and of a pleasant life. The Syriac renders it, "because to a man to whom good is in his sight, he gave wisdom," etc. The Arabic, "he granted indeed to man good, and gave to this one the countenance of wisdom and joy; and gave to him who sins confusion, so that it may increase and gather, so that he may give it to the good before the face of God." The Chaldean, "because to a man whose works are right, he grants in this world wisdom and thought, and also in the world to come joy; but to the wicked he subjects some evil, so that he may gather riches and collect many things of property, so that at some time received from him, they may be transferred to him whom God has chosen." This also is vanity to the impious, and sickness of spirit. To this pertains the Arabic proverb, Century 1, number 33: "Strike the evil Medic (narangum) with the evil pomegranate, that is, place wisdom in your heart, and treasure knowledge in your heart." He insists on declaring the vanity of the avaricious, heaping up riches for their sons and heirs, and confirms it from the distinction between the good and sinners. The sense is, as if to say: This is the distinction between the wise or good man and the foolish or sinner, that God gives to the wise man, who is good in his sight, that is, who pleases God and is acceptable to him, wisdom to know the truth, namely that the true good of each man is situated in God and in the knowledge, love and worship of God; and knowledge by which he prudently gathers riches and distributes them according to the prescription of God's law for the sustenance of himself and his family, and what remains he expends on the relief of the needy; and from this joy, because relying on truth, that is, on God, he esteems vain riches lightly and distributes them rightly for honest uses by which he gains for himself God's grace and glory. Whence the Chaldean renders it, "and gave to him joy with the just in the future age; but to the sinner God gave affliction and care, so that laboriously and anxiously he may heap up riches, and then leave them to an heir, not whom he himself intended in his mind, but to him who pleased God, whom namely God has designated, such as is some poor man or just man liberal, who will expend them on the poor or pious works." Symmachus renders it, "so that they may be given to him who shall please God," according to that in Proverbs chapter XIII, 22: "The good man leaveth heirs, sons and grandsons, and the substance of the sinner is kept for the just;" or, as St. Augustine reads it, epistle 50: "The riches of sinners are treasured up for the just." And Job, chapter XXVII, 16: "If he shall heap together silver as earth, and prepare gold as clay; he shall prepare it indeed, but the just shall be clothed with it, and the innocent shall divide the silver." Note first, that it is said, good in his sight, Albinus refers "his" to the good man himself, as if to say: A man who appears to himself in his conscience good and upright. But truly "his" refers to God, who follows. Now "good in the sight of God" by Hebraism is the same as pleasing to God, grateful to the eyes of God. Now someone can be grateful to God for many reasons and on account of various gifts both of nature and of grace; on account of gifts of nature even sinners can please God: on account of gifts of grace only the just, who are properly said to be grateful to God and to please him as his friends, sons and heirs. And thus it is taken here. For it is opposed to the sinner, although by sinner here is properly understood the avaricious man, and consequently by the good in the sight of God, the liberal man, as in Psalm CXVII, 2: "Give praise to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever." Note secondly: For the joy which God gives to him who pleases and is grateful to him, to the sinner he gives affliction and care, that is, labor, solicitude, trouble, difficulty in heaping up riches. This affliction is partly punishment, and by this reasoning it is positively sent by God to the sinner, so that he may chastise his sins, especially of avarice, as with a scourge, and impel and compel him to seek heavenly goods, as Olympiodorus says: partly it is fault, inasmuch as it proceeds from avarice, and is its affection and act, and thus not positively but permissively is it inflicted on the sinner by God. For God chastises one sin by a lesser sin, permits the sinner to fall, in punishment of preceding sins, into such great avarice, which brings him a thousand cares, anguishes and sorrows. Therefore, just as wisdom, virtue and liberality beget joy of mind and the wonderful gladness of a conscience exulting in good works: so too foolishness, vice and avarice beget anguishes of mind, sorrows and solicitudes. Truly Seneca, epistle 23: "I said that this is the foundation of a good mind; it is also its summit." Note thirdly: This maxim signifies what often happens from God, not what always happens: for sometimes conversely God allows the just to be afflicted by poverty for the increase of patience and merit, so that with all their labor and care they can scarcely prepare the necessities for sustaining their family; but to the impious He gives abundance of riches freely and without labor, who therefore rejoice and feast in them, as He not rarely did in the New Testament: but in the Old Testament He did almost the contrary. For He had promised the Jews abundance of temporal things, if they served Him faithfully. Whence examples of this sentence are in the Hebrews, who under the leadership of Moses going out from Egypt, obtained from God the riches and spoils of the Egyptians, Exodus cap. XII, 36. The same, under Joshua, conquering the Canaanites possessed their riches, as is evident from the book of Joshua, etc. Thus David possessed the goods of the avaricious and foolish Nabal, taking his wife Abigail, I Kings XXV, 42; likewise the riches of the Syrians, Ammonites, II Kings X and XI; and of the Moabites, II Kings VIII, 4 and 11. Thus the riches heaped up by Diocletian and Maximian, sworn enemies of Christians, Constantine the Great obtained, and from them built very many basilicas and temples most magnificently for Christians. The same we often see happening today. Indeed, God has derived the riches of very many heretics to Christians, indeed to religious. Thus from the goods of heretics He erected several colleges of the Society of Jesus, which would overturn heresy, and convert heretics to the orthodox faith. Such is the college at Augsburg founded by the Fuggers, some of whom were then Lutherans: such also is the college at Ghent in Belgium, where Charles V was born, and many others. BUT THIS ALSO IS VANITY, AND A VAIN EXERCISE OF THE MIND. — He speaks of the sinner and miser, to whom God gave affliction and superfluous care: for to the good and liberal man He gave wisdom and joy, as he said a little before. Therefore Cajetan less correctly extends the same to the good and liberal man, who enjoys riches obtained by his labor. For although, he says, this is a gift of God, nevertheless it is called vanity, because it is a small thing and quickly vanishes. Hugo of St. Victor also less aptly extends the same "to the vanity and vain solicitude of the just man, seeking the riches of the sinner, or desiring them, and if he has received them, setting his heart upon them." For vain exercise of the mind, from the Hebrew you would translate, feeding on wind, that is to say, riches and all earthly things do not fill the mind any more than wind satisfies hunger. Hear St. Bernard On the Love of God: "Justice using the reason of the spirit is food vital and natural; but money (and he would say the same of other goods) does not thus fill or diminish the hunger of the soul, as neither does wind the hunger of the body. Finally, if you see a hungry man with open mouth drawing in air with inflated cheeks, as if to relieve his hunger, would you not think him mad? Thus it is no less madness, if you think the rational spirit is inflated by any corporeal things no more than satisfied. For what comparison is there from corporeal to spiritual things? For neither can those be refreshed by spiritual things, nor these on the other hand be refreshed by corporeal things."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
2:3
… supernatural, when the motive concerns a supernatural good (merit, reparation, the imitation and love of the Savior, the final possession of God and the means to attain it). For this reason Sacred Scripture praises and inculcates patience many times (Eccl. 2, 3-5; Lk. 21, 19; Rom. 9, 1; II Cor. 8-10) and offers us a model of it in the whole book of Job and in the various episodes of the Passion of Jesus.
2:22
This doctrine is founded both in Sacred Scripture (Joel, 2, 12 ff.; Lk. 13, 3-5; Acts 3, 19; cf. Ezek. 18, 21 ff.; Jer. 18, 8; Eccl. 2, 22), in which God's forgiveness is conditioned upon the detestation of one's own faults and the will to bring forth fruits of penance; and in the constant teaching of the Fathers, who, …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.