In the twenty following chapters are contained many wise sayings and axioms, relating to wisdom and folly, virtue and vice.
1A wise son maketh the father glad: but a foolish son is the sorrow of his mother.Il saggio figliuolo da consolazione al padre suo: ma il figliuolo stolto è l'afflizione di sua madre.A wise sonne maketh the father glad: but a foolish sonne is the sorow of his mother.Filius sapiens lætificat patrem, / filius vero stultus mœstitia est matris suæ. 2Treasures of wickedness shall profit nothing: but justice shall deliver from death.Non faranno pro i tesori raccolti dall'empietà; ma la giustizia libera dalla morte.The treasures of impietie shal profit nothing: but iustice shal deliuer from death.Nil proderunt thesauri impietatis, / justitia vero liberabit a morte. 3The Lord will not afflict the soul of the just with famine, and he will disappoint the deceitful practices of the wicked.Il Signore non affliggerà colla fame l'anima del giusto, e sventerà le mire degli empj.Our Lord wil not afflict with famine the soule of the iust, and the deceitful practises of the impious he wil ouerthrow.Non affliget Dominus fame animam justi, / et insidias impiorum subvertet. 4The slothful hand hath wrought poverty: but the hand of the industrious getteth riches. He that trusteth to lies feedeth the winds: and the same runneth after birds, that fly away.La mano oziosa produce la mendicità, la mano attiva accumula ricchezze. Chi fa capitale delle menzogne si ciba de' venti, ed egli pure va dietro agli uccelli, che volano.The slothful hand hath wrought pouertie: the hand of the strong getteth riches. Who so trusteth to lyes feedeth the windes: and the selfe same man foloweth the flying birdes.Egestatem operata est manus remissa; / manus autem fortium divitias parat. / Qui nititur mendaciis, hic pascit ventos; / idem autem ipse sequitur aves volantes. 5He that gathereth in the harvest, is a wise son: but he that snorteth in the summer, is the son of confusion.Chi fa sua raccolta al tempo della messe, è un saggio figliuolo, chi dorme nell'estate, è un figliuolo, che fa vergogna.He that gathereth in the haruest, is a wise sonne: but he that snorteth in summer, is the sonne of confusion.Qui congregat in messe, filius sapiens est; / qui autem stertit æstate, filius confusionis. 6The blessing of the Lord is upon the head of the just: but iniquity covereth the mouth of the wicked.La benedizione del Signore posa sulla testa del giusto: ma la faccia degli empj è ricoperta dalla iniquità.The blessing of our Lord is vpon the head of the iust: but iniquitie couereth the mouth of the impious.Benedictio Domini super caput justi; / os autem impiorum operit iniquitas.
7The memory of the just is with praises: and the name of the wicked shall rot.Si loda la memoria del giusto; ma la rinomanza degli empj marcirà.The memorie of the iust is with prayses: and the name of the impious shal rotte.Memoria justi cum laudibus, / et nomen impiorum putrescet. 8The wise of heart receiveth precepts: a fool is beaten with lips.Colui, che è saggio di cuore accetta gli avvertimenti; per lo stolto ogni parola è flagello.The wise of hart shal receiue preceptes: a foole is beaten with lippes.Sapiens corde præcepta suscipit; / stultus cæditur labiis. 9He that walketh sincerely, walketh confidently: but he that perverteth his ways, shall be manifest.Chi cammina con semplicità, con fidanza cammina: chi è storto ne' suoi andamenti sarà discoperto.He that walketh playnly, walketh confidently: but he that depraueth his wayes, shal be manifest.Qui ambulat simpliciter ambulat confidenter; / qui autem depravat vias suas manifestus erit. 10He that winketh with the eye, shall cause sorrow: and the foolish in lips shall be beaten.L'occhio che ammicca, sarà apportator di dolori: e allo stolto faranno piaga le labbra.He that wincketh with the eye, shal geue sorow: and the foole in lippes shal be beaten.Qui annuit oculo dabit dolorem; / et stultus labiis verberabitur. 11The mouth of the just is a vein of life: and the mouth of the wicked covereth iniquity.Sorgente di vita è la bocca del giusto; ma la bocca degli empj racchiude iniquitàA vayne of life, the mouth of the iust: and the mouth of the impious couereth iniquitie.Vena vitæ os justi, / et os impiorum operit iniquitatem. 12Hatred stirreth up strifes: and charity covereth all sins.L'odio accende le risse, la carità ricuopre tutti i mancamenti.Hatred rayseth brawles: and charitie couereth al sinnes.Odium suscitat rixas, / et universa delicta operit caritas. 13In the lips of the wise is wisdom found: and a rod on the back of him that wanteth sense.Sulle labbra del saggio trovasi la sapienza; e la verga sul dosso di colui, che manca di buon giudicio.In the lippes of the wise wisdom is found: and a rod on his backe that lacketh witte.In labiis sapientis invenitur sapientia, / et virga in dorso ejus qui indiget corde. 14Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the fool is next to confusion.I saggi nascondono il loro sapere: la bocca dello stolto si caparra rossori.Wise men hide knowledge: but the mouth of the foole is next to confusion.Sapientes abscondunt scientiam; / os autem stulti confusioni proximum est. 15The substance of a rich man is the city of his strength: the fear of the poor is their poverty.Le facoltà del ricco sono la sua città forte: la miseria de' poveri li fa paurosi.The substance of a rich man, is a citie of his strength: the feare of the poore their pouertie.Substantia divitis, urbs fortitudinis ejus; / pavor pauperum egestas eorum.
16The work of the just is unto life: but the fruit of the wicked unto sin.Il giusto lavora per vivere, guadagni dell'empio sono per lo peccato.The worke of the iust vnto life: but the fruite of the impious vnto sinne.Opus justi ad vitam, / fructus autem impii ad peccatum. 17The way of life, to him that observeth correction: but he that forsaketh reproofs, goeth astray.Chi tien conto della disciplina egli è nella via della vita; chi schiva la correzione è fuori di strada.The way of life, to him that keepeth discipline: but he that fors keth reprehensions, errethVia vitæ custodienti disciplinam; / qui autem increpationes relinquit, errat. 18Lying lips hide hatred: he that uttereth reproach, is foolish.Le labbra menzognere nascendone malevolenza: è privo di mente chi svela l'infamia altrui.Lying lippes hide hatred, he that vttereth contumelie is vnwise.Abscondunt odium labia mendacia; / qui profert contumeliam, insipiens est. 19In the multitude of words there shall not want sin: but he that refraineth his lips, is most wise.Il molto parlare non sarà senza peccato; ma chi sa affrenar le sue labbra ha perfetta prudenza.In much talke there shal not want sinne: but he that moderateth his lippes is most wise.In multiloquio non deerit peccatum, / qui autem moderatur labia sua prudentissimus est. 20The tongue of the just is as choice silver: but the heart of the wicked is nothing worth.La lingua del giusto è come il più fino argento: ma il cuore degli empj non vai niente.The tongue of the iust, is chosen siluer: but the hart of the impious is nothing worth.Argentum electum lingua justi; / cor autem impiorum pro nihilo. 21The lips of the just teach many: but they that are ignorant, shall die in the want of understanding.Le labbra del giusto istruiscono un gran numero di persone; ma quelli, che non ricevono la istruzione, per inopia di cuore periscono.The lippes of the iust teach verie many: but they that are vntaught, shal die in the penurie of witte.Labia justi erudiunt plurimos; / qui autem indocti sunt in cordis egestate morientur. 22The blessing of the Lord maketh men rich: neither shall affliction be joined to them.La benedizione del Signore è apportatrice di ricchezza, e non mena seco afflizione.The blessing of our Lord maketh men rich: neither shal affliction be ioyned to them.Benedictio Domini divites facit, / nec sociabitur eis afflictio. 23A fool worketh mischief as it were for sport: but wisdom is prudence to a man.L'insensato commette i delitti come per giuoco; ma la sapienza dell'uomo sta nella prudenza.A foole worketh mischeefe as it were by laughter: but wisdom is prudence to a man.Quasi per risum stultus operatur scelus, / sapientia autem est viro prudentia.
24That which the wicked feareth, shall come upon him: to the just their desire shall be given.Verrà sopra l'empio quel, ch'egli teme: i giusti otterranno quel, che desiderano.That which the impious feareth, shal come vpon him: to the iust their desire shal be geuen.Quod timet impius veniet super eum; / desiderium suum justus dabitur. 25As a tempest that passeth, so the wicked shall be no more: but the just is as an everlasting foundation.Verrà meno l'empio come turbine che passa: ma il giusto è come un fondamento eterno.As a tempest passing the impious shal not be: but the iust as an euerlasting fundation.Quasi tempestas transiens non erit impius; / justus autem quasi fundamentum sempiternum. 26As vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that sent him.Quello che è l'aceto pei denti, e il fumo pegli occhi, lo è il pigro per quelli, che lo hanno spedito.As vinegre to the teeth, and smoke to the eies, so a sluggard to them, that sent him.Sicut acetum dentibus, et fumus oculis, / sic piger his qui miserunt eum. 27The fear of the Lord shall prolong days: and the years of the wicked shall be shortened.Il timor del Signore allunga la vita; gli anni degli empj saranno accorciati.The feare of our Lord shal adde dayes: and the yeares of the impious shal be shortened.Timor Domini apponet dies, / et anni impiorum breviabuntur. 28The expectation of the just is joy: but the hope of the wicked shall perish.L'espettazione de' giusti è lieta: ma le speranze degli empj anderanno in fumo.The expectation of the iust is ioy: but the hope of the impious shal perish.Exspectatio justorum lætitia, / spes autem impiorum peribit. 29The strength of the upright is the way of the Lord: and fear to them that work evil.La via del Signore fa forte il giusto: quelli, che male operano son paurosi.The strength of the simple the way of our Lord: and feare is to them that worke euil.Fortitudo simplicis via Domini, / et pavor his qui operantur malum. 30The just shall never be moved: but the wicked shall not dwell on the earth.Il giusto non sarà smosso giammai; ma gli empj non avranno abitazione sopra la terra.The iust for euer shal not be moued: but the impious shal not dwel on the earth.Justus in æternum non commovebitur, / impii autem non habitabunt super terram. 31The mouth of the just shall bring forth wisdom: the tongue of the perverse shall perish.La bocca del giusto darà frutti di sapienza: la lingua de' malvaggj anderà in perdizione.The mouth of the iust shal bring forth wisdom: the tongue of the froward shal perish.Os justi parturiet sapientiam; / lingua pravorum peribit.
32The lips of the just consider what is acceptable: and the mouth of the wicked uttereth perverse things.Le labbra del giusto ruminano cose gradevoli, e la bocca dell'empio cose perverse.The lippes of the iust consider grateful thinges: and the mouth of the impious peruerse thinges.Labia justi considerant placita, / et os impiorum perversa.
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Mother. A virtuous child cannot be indifferent to the joy of his parents.
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Wickedness. Riches ill acquired, or tending to corrupt the heart, Luke 16:9.
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Haydock
The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence. (Haydock)
St. Bernard
Otiositas mater nugarum, noverca virtutum. (St. Bernard, consid. ii.)
Calmet
He, etc. This is not in Hebrew, Greek, St. Jerome, or in several Latin copies. (Calmet)
We find it in the Septuagint, Proverbs 9:13.
Menochius
Away. He derives no benefits from lies. (Menochius)
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Haydock
He. Septuagint, "a son well educated shall be wise, and shall have the unwise for his servant. An intelligent son has been saved from the heat. But the wicked son is destroyed by the wind in time of harvest." (Haydock)
A good part of this is not in the original; yet it is received by the Greeks.
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Wicked. Or, as the Hebrew seems to indicate, "the wicked covereth iniquity, by an hypocritical exterior," (Calmet) or, "the injury" (Mont.[Montanus?]) done to another, (chamas.; Haydock) "unseasonable, or infinite mourning," penthos auron. (Septuagint)
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Calmet
Rot. Hebrew, "stink." His reputation shall be lost, Genesis 34:30. (Calmet)
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Menochius
Lips. He will not bear correction. (Menochius)
Calmet
But suffers the punishment of his own unguarded speeches; or rather the man who hath foolish lips, shall be beaten, ver. 13. (Calmet)
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Menochius
Sincerely. Or Simply, Hebrew, "in uprightness," (Haydock) or innocence. (Menochius)
Manifest. The hypocrite shall be at last detected.
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Calmet
Sorrow. Septuagint add, "to men as well as to himself." (Calmet)
Kennicott
"But he who chides boldly shall make peace," (Haydock) or "work safety," as the Syriac and Arabic also read, instead of Hebrew, "a prating fool shall fall." "When a man connives at his friend's failings,...the offender is encouraged to sin on, and to heap up matter for very sorrowful reflections; but the man, who with an honest freedom, prudently reproves him, most effectually contrives his honour and safety." The consequences of a virtuous and a vicious friendship, seem to be also expressed in the next verse. Thus the latter hemistic generally illustrates the first. But here, part of ver. 8. may be improperly inserted. The two parts of the verses in Proverbs, etc., being arranged in distinct columns, has occasioned sometimes a part, and sometimes a whole verse, to be omitted, as the transcriber might mistake the line. (Kennicott)
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Life. Or a never-failing spring, fons perennis, as we should speak in Latin, Proverbs 13:14., and Apocalypse 7:17.
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Confusion. He speaks inconsiderately, and involves himself in continual dangers, while the wise are cautious in their speech.
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Poverty. Diffidence hinders the advancement of the poor, as presumption is too common among the rich. A happy mediocrity is best, ver. 16.
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Life. In abundance he is not puffed up; but the wicked make use of their fruit or revenue to do evil. Their works are bad, unless they turn to God by at least an initial love of justice.
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Calmet
Foolish. We must neither dissemble our resentment, through hypocrisy, nor manifest it without reason. (Calmet)
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St. Augustine
Sin. A prolix discourse on subjects of importance is not reprehended. (St. Augustine, Retrac. 1.)
Calmet
But it is very difficult to speak much, without going against some virtue. (Calmet)
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Understanding. Literally, "hear." (Haydock) (Ver. 13.)
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Man. He is enabled to see the evil of sin, and to avoid it, Job 15:16.
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Him. He spoils all their projects, (Calmet) and becomes a nuisance.
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Cicero
Evil. Conscience upbraids them, and punishment is before their eyes. (Haydock) Magna vis est conscientiae. (Cicero, pro Mil.)
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Calmet
Earth. This the Jews frequently experienced. The more enlightened understood, that such promises regarded also eternity. (Calmet)
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VVisdom in general.
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Iustice.
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Confidence in God.
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Industrie.
Truth.
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Diligence.
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Equitie.
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Good fame.
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Desire to lerne.
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Sinceritie.
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Vnfained freindshipe. VVhol some talke.
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Charitie. Prudent speach. Discretion inspeaking.
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Iust gaine.
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Iust intention.
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Loue to be corrected.
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Internal and external charitie. Moderate speach Sinceritie of hart.
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Loue of doctrin.
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Spiritual riches.
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Sorow for sinne.
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Remorfe of conscience
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Iustice in general
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Diligence.
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Feare of God
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Pietie.
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Obseruation of Gods lavv, fulfulling al iustice.
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Speaking and Meditating good thinges.
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 37
… Imagine the Trinity to be a single pearl, alike on all sides and equally glistening. If any part of the pearl be injured; the whole beauty of the stone is gone. So when you dishonour the Son in order to honour the Father, He does not accept your honour. The Father doth not glory in the dishonour of the Son. If a wise Son maketh a glad Father,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 52.7
… “If anything,” writes the apostle Paul, “be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted; and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” “A wise son maketh a glad father;”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Lord's Prayer 21
21. For daily bread cannot be wanting to the righteous man, since it is written, “The Lord will not slay the soul of the righteous by hunger;”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On Works and Alms 11
11. Are you afraid that your patrimony perchance may fall short, if you should begin to do liberally from it? Yet when has it ever happened that resources could fail the righteous man, since it is written, “The Lord will not slay with famine the righteous soul?”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 7
… I will satisfy her poor with bread.’ We may also hear our Saviour saying, ‘Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 16
… For He who hath promised the kingdom of heaven and such great blessings, how shall He not give things present? Let us not covet superfluous things, but let us keep to a sufficiency, and we shall always be rich. Let shelter be what we seek and food, and we shall obtain all things; both these, and such as are far greater.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 18
But (you say) it makes one humble and of little account. [True:] for we have need of this, for it benefits us much. “Poverty” (it is said) “humbles a man.” (
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 15.7
… But in vain, for “he who trusteth in lies feedeth the winds: and the same runneth after birds that fly away.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.18
… Thus Thou grantest the prayers of him that asketh, and blessest the years of the just;
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St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 1.2
… The memories of such are not extinguished (equally) among men in consequence of the changes of lot befalling them. Wherefore he has added this: “And how shall the wise man die along with the fool? The death of sinners, indeed, is evil: yet the memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked is extinguished.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 7.1
… But even in my tears and admiration I must respect the law which regards such matters: nor is this alien to our philosophy; for he says The memory of the just is accompanied with eulogies,
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 17
… ( 1 Pet. iii. 15 .) And Paul exhorts in like manner, saying, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” ( Col. iii. 16 .) What do they who are more slothful than drones reply to this? “Blessed is every simple soul,” and, “he that walketh simply walketh surely.” (
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.54
In the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “We see now through the glass in an enigma, but then with face to face. Now I know partly; but then I shall know even as also I am known.” Also in Solomon, in Wisdom: “And in simplicity of heart seek Him.” Also in the same: “He who walketh with simplicity, walketh trustfully.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 7
… Was it not to shepherds that the Gospel was first preached? and to Joseph, being a man of simple mind, insomuch that he did not let a suspicion of adultery frighten him into doing wrong? Did not God elect rustics, those artless men? For it is written, “Blessed is every simple soul.” ( Prov. xi. 25 .) And again, “He that walketh simply, walketh surely.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 15
… But David was guileless. What then? Look at the end of them both, look, how full of utter madness was the former! For inasmuch as he looked solely to the hurt of his father, in all other things he was blinded. But not so David. For “he that walketh uprightly, walketh surely” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 117.4
… If you went straight to him, the reason why you left your mother is plain. If you fell in with him afterwards, you shew by your choice what you missed under your mother’s roof. The pain that I inflict is severe and I feel the knife as much as you. “He that walketh uprightly walketh surely.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.11
Let the insincere hear what is written, He that walketh in simplicity walketh surely (
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John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 16.8
… whereby consequently our spiteful and malignant enemy sows discord between brethren who were of one mind. For these words of wise Solomon are true: “Contention breeds hatred: but friendship will be a defence to all who do not strive.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
… He that resteth upon falsehood feedeth the winds, and followeth the flying birds. For he hath left the ways of his own vineyard, and hath made the wheels of his tillage to err. He walketh through the dry and desert places, and with his hands he gathereth barrenness.
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 63.24
… So that even in these material riches there is place for virtue. You are like steersmen in the vast sea. If a man steers his course well, he quickly passes over the sea so as to attain to the port, but one who knows not how to direct his property is drowned together with his freight. And so it is written: “The wealth of rich men is a most strong city.”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.7
… Solomon, e.g., declaring in one passage, that “instruction unquestioned goes astray;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 37.3.5
… And perhaps thou wouldest say, “To whom shall I give them?” The self-same Lord, who bade thee not lend on usury, comes forward as the Person to whom thou shouldest lend on usury! Hear from Scripture in what way thou mayest “lend unto the Lord.” “He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth unto the Lord.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
… He that resteth upon falsehood feedeth the winds, and followeth the flying birds. For he hath left the ways of his own vineyard, and hath made the wheels of his tillage to err. He walketh through the dry and desert places, and with his hands he gathereth barrenness. The mouth of the froward is near to destruction, and
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Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 5.1
It is not, my reverend Ambrosius, because we seek after many words—a thing which is forbidden, and in the indulgence of which it is impossible to avoid sin
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 5.4
… We started from the words of the preacher, where he says: “My son, beware of making many books.” With this I compare a saying from the Proverbs of the same Solomon,
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.104
In Solomon: “Out of much speaking thou shalt not escape sin; but sparing thy lips, thou shalt be wise.”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 263.4
… With his facility of writing, and a tongue ready to argue on any subject, he has filled the world with his works, in disregard of the advice of him who said, “Beware of making many books.” In their multitude there are certainly many errors. How is it possible to avoid sin in a multitude of words?
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 265.2
… Wherefore, I beseech you, as skilful physicians, and instructed how to discipline antagonists with gentleness, to try and bring him back to the right order of the Church, and to persuade him to despise the wordiness of his own works; for he has proved the truth of the proverb “in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 3.3
11. The virtue of silence, especially in Church, is very great. Let no sentence of the divine lessons escape you; if you give ear, restrain your voice, utter no word with your lips which you would wish to recall, but let your boldness to speak be sparing. For in truth in much speaking there is abundance of sin.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Instructions to Catechumens 2.4
… While we wonder then at his kindliness, let us show forth our doings, and before all others let us curb the vehemence of our tongue, and not always be giving utterance. “For in the multitude of words there wanteth not transgression.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 3.1
1. Critob. I am charmed with the exuberance of your eloquence, but at the same time I would remind you that,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.28
… My knowledge and my ignorance are in Thy sight; where Thou hast opened to me, receive me as I enter; where Thou hast closed, open to me as I knock. May I remember Thee, understand Thee, love Thee. Increase these things in me, until Thou renewest me wholly. I know it is written, “In the multitude of speech, thou shalt not escape sin.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.14
… xxvi. 10 ). Moreover, that any one who gives himself to much speaking cannot keep the straight way of righteousness is testified by the Prophet, who says, A man full of words shall not be guided aright upon the earth ( Ps. cxxxix. 12 ). Hence also Solomon says again, In the multitude of words there shall not want sin (
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 To the Bishops of Egypt 2
Let them however thus dream and imagine vain things. We know that when our gracious Emperor shall hear of it, he will put a stop to their wickedness, and they will not continue long, but according to the words of Scripture, ‘the hearts of the impious shall quickly fail them
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 The Martyrdom of Ignatius 6
… it, being that which is called the thirteenth in the Roman tongue, on which the people were wont to assemble in more than ordinary numbers ), he was thus cast to the wild beasts close beside the temple, that so by them the desire of the holy martyr Ignatius should be fulfilled, according to that which is written, “The desire of the righteous is acceptable
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 7
… For “the righteous man who avoids them is saved for ever; but the destruction of the ungodly is sudden, and a subject of rejoicing.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 49.2.7
… And verily he had eaten for a time, he digested ill for everlasting. Is then unrighteousness eaten? perhaps some one saith: what is it that he saith? Unrighteousness eaten? It is not I that say: hear the Scripture: “As a sour grape is vexation to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so is unrighteousness to them that use it.”
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) 14
… besought God, saying, ‘Take me not away in the midst of my days .’ And Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, being assured of this truth, said, ‘Thou shalt come to thy grave like ripe corn, gathered in due time, and like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season .’ And Solomon confirming his words, says, ‘The souls of the unrighteous are taken away untimely
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1. A WISE SON MAKETH A GLAD FATHER: BUT A FOOLISH SON IS THE SORROW OF HIS MOTHER. — The Arabic version: grieveth, or maketh sad his mother. "A wise son" is virtuous, modest, obedient; "a foolish son" is vicious, petulant, contumacious. Thus throughout this book the wise man is called virtuous, the foolish man vicious, because true wisdom is virtue and probity itself, and conversely the greatest folly is vice and depravity. He says therefore that the virtue of a son is joy to his father, but his vice is sorrow to his mother, because a son is part of his parents, their flesh and blood: therefore the virtue and vice of a son redound directly upon the parents, and bring them either joy or sorrow. Under father understand also mother, and conversely under mother understand also father. Yet he attributes joy to the father, sorrow to the mother: first, for the sake of variety; second, because fathers, being sanguine in temperament, are more prone to joy, while mothers, being phlegmatic and melancholic, are prone to sorrow; third, because fathers educate and chastise their sons more strictly: whereby it comes to pass that sons acquire good habits, by which they gladden their father; but mothers treat their sons more indulgently and connivingly: whereby it comes to pass that sons become vicious, petulant, contumacious, and thus bring sorrow to their mother, all the more because she herself by excessive indulgence was the cause or occasion that her sons became such. She grieves therefore, because she herself gave occasion for grief. Thus Baynus. Truly Quintilian says: "That soft education, which we call indulgence, breaks all the sinews both of mind and body;"; fourth, because a wise son is elevated to public honors, offices and positions, which the father regards, and therefore rejoices; but a foolish son lives privately with his mother an idle and voluptuous life, and is burdensome and rebellious to his mother: wherefore she, beholding these hidden disgraces and reproaches of her son, constantly mourns and grieves. Thus R. Solomon, R. Levi and Aben-Ezra. Finally, mothers love their sons more tenderly than fathers do, both because they are women, and because they are more certain that they are their sons than fathers are, and because they confer more upon their sons than fathers do; for, to say nothing of other things, they nourish and carry them in the womb for nine months with great pains, disgust and anguish; then they bring them forth with great torment and danger to their lives; finally, when born, they nourish and feed them with their own milk for many years. Hence it comes to pass that they are more anxious about the lives and morals of their sons, and grieve and mourn more if they turn out depraved, whom they have brought forth and educated with such great expenditure, labor and pain. It is added that sons, for the reasons already stated, imitate the disposition of their mother more than that of their father; wherefore the blame and reproach is given more to the mother than to the father, if the son turns out insolent and vicious. Therefore she grieves over both the reproach and blame of her son and her own. To this pertains that saying of Menander: "A wise son is the joy of his father." Conversely, Valerius Maximus, book I, chapter II, gives this reason why Dionysius the tyrant did not pay the penalties of his crimes while living: "He paid the penalties in the disgrace of his dead son, which he had escaped while living." Furthermore, Solomon places this maxim in the first place, to admonish both parents to educate their sons honorably and to correct their vices, that they may be a joy to them, not a sorrow; and sons, that they conduct themselves well and be obedient to their parents; for thus it will come to pass that they will gladden them, not sadden them. For sons are wont to be moved by love and reverence for their parents, and this is indeed the greatest stimulus to virtue for them, which Solomon therefore applies to them here. Thus St. Augustine was a sorrow to St. Monica his mother by his heresy and fornication, whose sorrows and tears, by which she as it were brought him forth a second time, he himself recounts at length in the books of his Confessions. Thus Blanche, the holy queen, educated St. Louis, king of the French, her son, with great care, and was the cause of his sanctity. Repeatedly she would sing to him that saying: "My son, I would rather see you dead than committing some mortal sin, by which you would incur the offense and hatred of God." Thus not rarely do vicious sons afflict their mothers with great sorrow by their depravity, indeed they consume and kill them; wherefore they are truly parricides and matricides. Mystically, "a wise son" is a faithful virtuous man, especially a penitent sinner; he "gladdens his father," that is Christ, who begot him by his blood, and his mother, that is the Church, who brought him forth from the womb of baptism; but a vicious man saddens them both. A type of this sorrow exists in the widow mother of the city of Naim, mourning her only son already dead, whom Christ, moved by the mother's tears, recalled to life, Luke chapter VII, verse 11, as St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Augustine, Bede and others explain there. Again, wise sons are disciples, subjects, penitents; these indeed, if they conduct themselves well, gladden their masters, Superiors, Confessors, etc.; but if badly, they afflict them with great sorrow, because, as the philosopher Sixtus says in his Sentences, number 164: "The sins of students are the reproaches of teachers." For they have toward their subjects the affection both of a mother and of a father. Hence one said to a Prelate: Have the stripes of a father, have the breasts of a mother. Let them therefore say with Jeremiah chapter IX, 1: "Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people."
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2. TREASURES OF IMPIETY SHALL PROFIT NOTHING: BUT JUSTICE SHALL DELIVER FROM DEATH. — First, with Hugh, these are understood generally of any treasures and riches, even those justly and lawfully acquired; for all riches are called "of impiety," that is, impious, in that sense in which Christ calls them "the mammon of iniquity," Luke XVI, 9, namely first, because riches are often acquired through injustices. Whence that saying: "A rich man is either wicked, or the heir of the wicked;" secondly, "of iniquity," because riches are the occasion, matter and stimulus of all sin, especially injustice; thirdly, "of iniquity," that is, unjust, that is, unfaithful, deceitful, perishable, vain and false, not true, not faithful and stable, as Christ explains in the same place, verse 11 of the same chapter; fourthly, St. Augustine adds (Sermon 35, On the Words of the Lord), "of iniquity," because the impious are wont to reckon these for true riches; for they know not the spiritual, heavenly and eternal riches, which no one can take from them. Here there is in this discourse consisting of two members an ἐπαλλαγή, or elliptical alternation, where in one member one thing is expressed, in the other another, and yet in both members both are to be understood. Hence for "treasures of impiety" some here translate, treasures of disquiet, disturbance, commotion, sedition; for all these things the Hebrew word רשע resea signifies. Thus therefore the sense will be, as if to say, Treasures however great do not profit, but rather harm, because they bring to the mind perpetual disquiet, disturbance and as it were a sedition of the passions, so that now fear of losing them conflicts with desire to retain them, now hope of increasing them conflicts with fear of diminishing them, now anxiety of preserving them conflicts with obligation and sorrow of restoring them, or distributing them to friends or the needy. For this reason Christ calls riches thorns, which prick and lacerate those who touch them, Matthew chapter XIII, verse 22. Whence St. Gregory and St. Bernard teach that they are not to be loved, as being "things which when loved defile, when possessed burden, when lost torment." Wherefore Clement of Alexandria, book VI of the Pedagogue, chapter VI: "Riches," he says, "are like a serpent, which if anyone does not know how to take safely from a distance, grasping the beast by the tail without danger, it will coil around his hand and bite. So too riches, if seized by an inexperienced man, cling to him and bite. But if someone, showing himself magnanimous, uses them rightly and knowingly, he will remain unharmed." See St. Chrysostom, homily 82 on Matthew, where he shows that the avaricious man is like one possessed by a demon, and that he is agitated by a thousand torments equally as that one, rages and is driven mad in many ways. Secondly, properly and genuinely, "treasures of impiety" are called riches acquired by impiety, as Pagninus translates, or obtained or preserved through impiety, for example through usuries, robberies, unjust contracts, through mercilessness, through violation of feasts and other divine or human laws. These indeed, although they may seem to profit for a short time, during which the wicked rich man enjoys them, yet in the end do not profit him, but harm him, both because "ill-gotten gains are ill-spent;" and because, even if they sometimes profit among men, yet before God they do not profit: for God will often punish his impiety in this life, and always in the future: for God cannot be corrupted by gold, as judges and princes are corrupted; and finally because at the hour of death they will not deliver the wicked rich man from death, both present and eternal; for the impious man is guilty of this, according to that saying of Christ, Matthew XVI: "For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?" But on the contrary "justice shall deliver from death," because, although sometimes among men, says Jansenius, on account of justice the just are killed, yet before God justice of man frequently brings it about that he escapes some common divine vengeance, and human persecution, as appeared in Daniel and the three youths; but it always brings it about that man is delivered from perpetual death (which alone is true death), for the avoidance of which the treasures of the impious will profit nothing. In this part, however, it is sufficiently insinuated that treasures justly obtained and distributed profit, according to that saying: "He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor, his justice remaineth for ever and ever." Moreover, as the former sentence is hortatory to wisdom, by which parents are gladdened: so this is to justice, by which one more certainly obtains what the impious strive to obtain through their riches. Solomon therefore signifies that justice ought to be studied rather than the amassing of riches; because the former profits, the latter harms; and there is an antithesis between impiety and impious treasures, and justice and just treasures: for these deliver from death, those not at all, but rather are the cause of death. This is what he says in Ecclesiasticus, chapter XL: "The substance of the unjust shall be dried up like a river, and shall make a noise like a great thunder in a storm." And Christ: "Fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee; and the things that thou hast provided, whose shall they be?" Luke XII, 20. And Abraham to the rich man Dives placed in hell: "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," Luke XVI, 25. Thus the rich in hell, wise too late, groan and wail: "What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow," Wisdom V, 8. Furthermore the Septuagint translates, treasures shall not profit the lawless, that is, those who transgress the law. They allude to νόμισμα, that is, coinage, which is said from νόμος, that is, law, as if to say: Coinage shall not profit the lawless, money shall not profit those outside the law, because since money is said from law, it befits and profits only those devoted to the law; but it does not befit the lawless and harms them. For numisma is said from νόμος, and money as it were νόμος, with ν added, so that it becomes νοῦμος, with the first syllable long, because when the old custom of exchanging thing for thing was set aside, money marked by law was established, and a price was imposed upon it. Whence money is called moneta, because by the sign of coinage men were warned (monerentur) of what price it was: thus Festus, Pompeius, Ambrosius Calepinus and Nicholas Perottus in epigram 40 of book V of Martial; although Isidore, in book XVI of the Etymologies, chapter XVII, says: "Coins, he says, are called from Numa Pompilius, the second king of the Romans, who first marked them among the Latins with images, and inscribed them with the title of his name. Hence numisma is also said, because it was marked with the names and likenesses of princes." Peter Gregorius adds, in De Republica, and from him our Salazar, that coins are said from νόμος, that is, law, because they are to be made and spent according to laws and the canons of justice. Wherefore since the impious unlawfully against right and divine law either mint or hoard them, hence as it were unjust possessors they are despoiled by God; nay, they are also deprived of life, just as those are deprived of life who mint illegitimate and counterfeit coins. Hence St. Ephrem, in the tract Against the Rich: "If, he says, the law punishes those who adulterate money against the laws, God also rightly despoils those who against His laws prepare for themselves adulterated riches. Nay, even Plutarch, in the Moralia: "He who, he says, adds riches and glory to a wicked man, furnishes wine to one who adulterates it, honey to the bilious, food to those with a flux of the bowels, which increase the disease of the mind, that is, folly." Mystically, the author of the Greek Catena: "Treasures of impiety, he says, are arts, eloquence and sciences, which both heretics and vain and ambitious men procure for themselves with great effort. But all these shall profit them nothing, nor shall they deliver them from present and eternal death. Excellently our Thomas, called the Teacher, in the Imitation of Christ, book I, chapter III: "When the day of judgment comes, he says, it shall not be asked of us what we have read, but what we have done; nor how well we have spoken, but how religiously we have lived." And book III, chapter XLVIII: "The time shall come when the Master of masters shall appear, Christ the Lord of Angels, about to hear the lessons of all, that is, about to examine the conscience of each; and then Jerusalem shall be searched with lamps, and the hidden things of darkness shall be made manifest, and the arguments of tongues shall be silent." BUT JUSTICE SHALL DELIVER FROM DEATH. - What is this justice? First, Vatablus understands wisdom: Wisdom, he says, which begets justice, delivers from death. Second, Rabbi Solomon and Rabbi Levi understand almsgiving, according to that in Psalm CXI, 9: "He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor, his justice (that is, his almsgiving) remaineth for ever and ever." And that word of Tobias to his son, chapter IV, 11: "Almsgiving delivereth from all sin and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness." Third, Lyra takes justice properly so called, which is the virtue giving to each his due; for this is opposed to injustice, and to riches unjustly acquired. Fourth, the author of the Greek Catena understands by justice penance; for by this the penitent, justly punishing sin, delivers himself from the death of the soul. Fifth and best, you should understand justice here universally, as it is a general virtue, or rather the complex of all virtues making a man just, pious and holy: for it is opposed to impiety and to riches impiously, that is, wickedly, acquired. This often delivers the just from present death (as it delivered Noah from the flood, Lot from the burning of Sodom, the three youths from the burning fiery furnace, Daniel from the lions, Jonah from the belly of the whale), always from eternal death.
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3. THE LORD WILL NOT AFFLICT WITH HUNGER THE SOUL OF THE JUST, AND HE WILL OVERTHROW THE SNARES OF THE WICKED. — God afflicts the Jews with hunger of their souls through fasting, but fasting is the health of soul and body. "He will not afflict with hunger," therefore, namely with forced and harmful hunger, so as to consume them unwillingly with famine. Whence the Septuagint translates: the Lord will not kill with hunger the soul of the just; St. Jerome, in Isaiah LXV, will not destroy; Symmachus and Theodotion, οὐ λιμαγχονήσει, that is, will not suffocate with hunger as with a strangling of the just; for hunger like a strangling constricts the throat, and thus suffocates the famished. The sense therefore is, as if to say, God will not permit the just to be afflicted with hunger, so that his soul, that is, his life, be snatched from him and as it were strangled; but rather he will provide him with food through wondrous and new providence, just as he nourished Daniel in the lion's den through an Angel who snatched Habakkuk, he nourished Elijah through ravens, he nourished three million Hebrews in the desert with manna for forty years. On the other hand, God threatened the impious Jews and sent them famine, as when in the time of Elijah he shut up heaven so that it would not rain for three years. Again, when he reduced the Jews, who had despoiled Christians of their goods, as the Apostle testifies, Hebrews X, 34, to such great famine that mothers ate their own sons, and many thousands of them were strangled by famine as with a strangling. Hear Hegesippus, book V On the Destruction of Jerusalem, chapter XXIV: "With their throats already closed off they were strangled, their inner organs had stiffened, the passages of food were obstructed, the veins of the liver, which draw in food, had dried up; the function had perished, and avidity accumulated: strength had failed, and appetite remained." Therefore this statement restrains the avarice and error of worldly men, who, lest they suffer want and famine, gather riches by fair means and foul. For they are deceived, and through this are reduced to famine. You will say: Do we not sometimes see the just afflicted with famine? Do we not read that many Martyrs were tortured in prisons, indeed killed by famine? I answer: These statements signify not what always, but what often happens. In the Old Testament, however, God ordinarily did not permit the just Jews to be afflicted with famine, because he had promised them abundance of riches and crops if they kept his law. In the New Testament, however, he promised to the just Christians not so much abundance of temporal goods as of spiritual abundance. Wherefore when God permits the just to hunger, he supplies them with abundance of spiritual nourishment, namely grace and heavenly consolations, and with these he feeds their soul, strengthens it, gladdens it, fattens it. For he who stands by his promises, if for a base thing, for example a penny which he promised, he gives a greater thing, for example a golden coin, certainly stands by his promises. Therefore God, promising temporal things, if he substitutes for them spiritual things, which are of far greater moment, is certainly to be said to have stood by his promises. Furthermore, God also in the new law rarely permits the just to be consumed by famine (I except Martyrs; in them indeed famine is part of Martyrdom and triumph); indeed often he nourishes them through miracle, as he nourished St. Mary Magdalene in the cave through rapture and angelic song; and St. Paul, the first Hermit, in the desert through a raven, which for 60 years brought him half a loaf daily; but when St. Anthony came, it doubled the ration and brought a whole loaf. Thus he nourished many Martyrs in prisons through Angels. Thus daily he nourishes so many thousands of poor nuns and monks, especially mendicants, that it is like a miracle, that in the one Order of St. Francis God continually nourishes through the alms of the pious more than a million, that is ten hundred thousand Religious (this number they equal, indeed surpass, if all men and women, followers of the poverty of St. Francis and St. Clare, are numbered), who have no income, no revenues, but are rich in poverty alone, and rich in the blessing alone of St. Francis, who gave this to his followers as a provision: "Cast thy thought upon the Lord, and he himself will nourish thee." Here therefore is fulfilled that of the Apostle, II Corinthians VI: "Having nothing, and possessing all things." This is the hundredfold promised to the poor in spirit by Christ, Matthew XIX, 29. This is the majesty of evangelical poverty, which namely claims for itself the possession of the whole world. "For to the faithful the whole world is riches," says St. Bernard, sermon 21 in the Canticles. Furthermore, understand by the just here anyone, but especially the merciful, according to that promise of Christ: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Whence St. Cyprian, On Works and Almsgiving: "Do you fear," he says, "lest your patrimony fail, if you begin to work generously? When did it happen that the just lacked the means of life, when it is written: The Lord will not kill with hunger the soul of the just?" as if to say: It is impossible that God should permit to perish by hunger him who feeds the hungry, that God should snatch away by hunger the life of him who sustains the life of the famished perishing by hunger. Mystically, St. Basil in chapter 1 of Isaiah, Bede and Hugh understand these things of spiritual hunger, that is, of the deficiency of the word of God, grace and the Sacraments. Whence St. Basil notes that it is said here, the Lord shall not afflict the soul of the just with hunger: "For he does not speak," he says, "here of bodily hunger (certainly he would have said of the bodies of the just), but of the starvation of souls." Hugh, however, understands hunger as the hunger of vices. What is luxury, he says, but insatiable hunger for pleasure? What is pride but insatiable hunger for dignities? What is avarice but insatiable hunger for possessions? Which indeed accord with those things which John said: "All that is in the world is either the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life." Hence St. Thomas, in his Opuscule on the Eucharist, draws to its frequent reception with this sentiment: "The Lord shall not afflict with hunger the soul of the just," because the Eucharist satisfies the hunger of vices already mentioned: again it satisfies the hunger of the soul yearning for it, and its other vows and desires; indeed and not rarely the hunger of the body. Thus John the Abbot, in Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter 61, lived for many years without food, nourishing himself solely with the Eucharist on Sunday. St. Catherine of Siena lived for a long time on the Eucharist alone, indeed having received it she loathed all bodily food; and when she was forced to receive it by command of her confessor, she immediately rejected it with her stomach resisting. AND SHALL OVERTHROW THE DEVICES OF THE WICKED. - For devices the Hebrew is הות hauvat, for which the Septuagint, reading חות chouvat, translated life: "The life, they say, of the wicked he shall overthrow." But the others read hauvat, that is vanity, wickedness, devices, breakings, destructions. Whence the Zurich Bible translates it, cunning (Vatablus, calamity, damage, ruin) truly of the wicked he shall drive away. And thus there is an antithesis with the preceding hemistich between the justice of the just and the devices of the wicked; for God protects and nourishes that; these he overthrows, as if to say, God will not permit the just and good to be despoiled of goods and afflicted with hunger; but the wicked, who through frauds and devices strive to despoil the good of goods and reduce them to hunger, he will drive into the same ruin which they themselves have devised for the good, so that they may be caught in their own deceits, and as it were ensnared in their own arts like nets, and thus he shall overthrow them. Whence Pagninus, and on account of the wickedness of the wicked God shall expel. With a twofold benefit therefore God affects the just, and as it were fights for him with a twofold weapon. First, in that he drives hunger from him; second, in that he scatters and overthrows the devices of the wicked striving to reduce him to hunger, according to that Psalm 33, 11: "The rich have wanted and suffered hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good." Moreover David compares the devices of the wicked to the devices of lions lying in wait for prey, and swooping upon it. "He lieth in wait," he says, "in secret as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait that he may catch the poor, to catch the poor whilst he draweth him," Psalm 9, 9; but God breaks these devices of lions. Whence he adds verse 15: "Break thou the arm of the sinner and of the malicious; his sin shall be sought, and shall not be found." Finally hauvat the Chaldean translates, קנינא kiniyana, that is possessions; R. Saadia and Baynus, substance and riches. Whence the Syriac, the possessions of the wicked he shall destroy; the Chaldean, the possessions of the wicked he shall drive away, as if to say, God shall protect the riches of the pious, lest they be afflicted with hunger, but the riches of the wicked he shall overthrow, so that they may be tormented with hunger. For the Hebrew hauvat is derived from חיה haia, that is to be, to subsist; whence it signifies substance, that is possessions, and alludes to הון hon, that is riches. Again hauvat you may translate as being, in this sense, as if to say, God shall overthrow the being and life of the wicked, that is he shall take life from them, as the Septuagint translates.
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4. SLOTHFULNESS HATH WROUGHT POVERTY: BUT THE HANDS OF THE STRONG SHALL PREPARE RICHES. — The sense is clear, as if you were to say: Labor brings forth wealth, idleness brings forth want; diligence enriches, negligence impoverishes; fervor is the parent of opulence, torpor of poverty. For poverty in Hebrew it is ראש ras; which, if you read it with another pointing ראש ros, signifies poison, venom, as if to say: Slothfulness is like a slow poison, which creeping gradually infects the whole man, and destroys him equally by torpor as by hunger and death. But it should be read ras, that is poverty, not ros, that is poison; for ras is read by the Septuagint, our Vulgate, the Chaldean and others. Take poverty literally for want of riches. Allegorically, Bede takes poverty of goods in heaven, as if to say: Whoever has lived remissly and sluggishly in this life, he shall be deprived of all goods in the future age. In Hebrew it is, poor becomes he who acts with a slack hand. For slack in Hebrew it is רמיה remia, which signifies both fraudulent and cast aside, that is slack, inert and sluggish. For the sluggish are wont from inertia to stretch out slack hands, indeed to cast them aside; likewise because they are unwilling to labor, they become fraudulent and thieves, that they may procure food for themselves, as we see in idle beggars. Again, he who relies on fraud becomes slack and inert, because he thinks fraud sufficient for procuring his livelihood; but both are deceived, because both fraud and slothfulness are the cause of poverty; for God punishes the fraudulent and reduces them to poverty, as experience shows. Whence the Chaldean translates, poverty wears down the deceitful man, and the hand of the upright enriches; the Syriac, but the hands of the just shall be enriched; Pagninus, a fraudulent hand makes poor; the Zurich Bible, he who works with a fraudulent hand is needy. Vatable for fraudulent translates, as our Vulgate, slack, and connecting both thus explains it, as if to say: He who wishes to increase his wealth by evil arts, as idle men do, who deceive others that they may live, shall be reduced to poverty. R. Solomon, R. Levi and Aben-Ezra כף רמיה caph remia (which our Vulgate translates, slack hand; others, fraudulent) translate, fraudulent balances. Whence thus they transfer it, he shall be poor, whoever has fraudulent balances, so that he does not give just weight in the price when he sells; and weighs them more than just when he buys. The Septuagint translates, poverty humbles a man, that is, makes him so that his hand is cast down and abject, as the vile and humble are wont to be; the Arabic, following the custom of the Septuagint, translates, poverty depresses man; the hands of the bold shall be enriched. Some by a slack hand, namely for giving, understand a miserly hand, as if to say: כף caph, that is a curved and closed hand, miserly, and holding fast to goods, brings poverty and want; on the contrary, the hand of the strong, that is open, that is liberal, and poured out in almsgiving, heaps up riches and fortunes. Whence Ecclesiasticus, chapter IV, 36: "Let not," he says, "thy hand be stretched out to receive, and closed to give." For, as he says: "More are the treasures of riches stored up, very few are they brought forth." But this sense is more restricted; and "slack hand" properly is not miserly, but slothful and lazy; just as the hand of the strong is not liberal, but laborious, diligent, industrious. For strong in Hebrew it is חרוצים charutsim, which the Syriac translates as just; the Chaldean, upright; the Septuagint, ἀνδρείων, that is manly, who act manfully; the Zurich Bible, diligent; Baynus, solicitous, such as merchants are wont to be attentive to business; whence Pagninus translates, and the hand of solicitous merchants shall enrich them. Properly charutsim signifies keen men, who what they think and begin, they pursue strenuously, nor do they cease until they bring the matter to its intended end. For the root חרץ charats signifies to sharpen, to sharpen thoroughly, to exercise one's strength and virtue, to act keenly and eagerly, to press on, to bring a matter to its end. Others translate charutsim as cut, cut short, precise, such as are attentive to business, who precisely exact or arrange their affairs to the last penny or moment. Whence merchants have this axiom: If you wish to become rich, be attentive to all things, even the smallest, neglect nothing, pass over no opportunity of gain, even the smallest, because from many small things something great and excellent is made. Our Vulgate translates strong, that is diligent, strenuous. For he who is strong presses the matter strenuously, and urges it to the end. For prepares riches in Hebrew it is תעשיר tascir; which if you read with another pointing on the left תעשיר tasir, that is decimates, the sense will be, as if to say: The strenuous labor of the diligent gains ten from one, and multiplies the capital tenfold; just as fertile earth from one grain sown produces ten, indeed 30, 60 and 100. Moreover, this opinion holds place both in spiritual riches, namely wisdom and virtue, and in temporal ones. For the student of virtues will gather great heaps and treasures of them, while the negligent and lazy will remain destitute of them; assuredly, as the Comic poet says: The heavenly ones pay all things to mortals with sweat; Whatever is in the world serves entirely diligence. Virtue grows by labor and money. Just as therefore merchants intent on riches daily add gain to gain, coin to coin, gold to gold: so much more should the merchant of merits daily add virtue to virtue, deed to deed, degree to degree, and should consider a day lost to himself in which he advanced nothing in virtue, in which he bestowed no bodily or spiritual alms on anyone, in which he did not overcome himself in some matter, wherefore let him flee idleness and leisure as a plague. Concerning St. Anthony, Sozomenus writes, book I of his History, chapter XIII: "Nor did he ever bring himself to be idle, and he exhorted one who was about to live a noble life to labor." And St. Athanasius says that he gathered honey of virtues from the conversation of the Saints like a bee: for from one who excelled in humility he learned humility, from another patience, from a third charity, from a fourth another virtue in which he was eminent. St. Ephrem, in the Spiritual Canticle: "He who loves idleness," he says, "will never prosper." St. Ambrose, book I On Cain, chapter IV: "Rewards are promised," he says, "not to those sleeping, not to those idle, but to those watching, and wages are prepared for labor." St. Leo: "The kingdom of heaven does not come to those sleeping, nor is eternal beatitude conferred upon those torpid in idleness and sloth." St. Jerome, or whoever is the author, in the epistle to Demetrias: "The mind must be roused," he says, "always by spiritual spurs, and renewed daily with greater ardor. Persistence in prayer, illumination, reading, solicitude of vigils, both day and night are its incitements. For nothing in this purpose is worse than idleness, which not only does not acquire new things, but also consumes what is prepared... the way of holy life proceeds with progress and grows, with cessation it becomes torpid and fails." St. Bernard, book On Consideration to Eugene, chapter XIII: "If rightly," says the Wise man, "he exhorts wisdom to be written in leisure, one must beware that in leisure there is leisure. Idleness must therefore be fled, mother of trifles, stepmother of virtues." St. Basil, in the Constitutions of Monasteries, chapter V: "What of the Apostles? Did they not also imitate the Lord? Were they not constant in labors? Observe Paul laboring without ceasing." Concerning Blessed Alcuin, who flourished in the time of Charlemagne in Gaul with praise for learning, the author of his Life writes: "He fled idleness in all ways. For he either read, or wrote, or instructed disciples, or devoted himself to prayer, or to the chanting of psalms, indulging only in the inevitable necessities of the body." St. Bonaventure, in the Rule of Novices, chapter VIII: "Let your whole life run through these three things, so that you always pray, or read, or serve, and especially the elderly, the poor and the sick; and having done services do not stand idle with the brothers, but immediately go to your cell, and there pray or read." This was once the sole study of Religious and Anchorites, who are hence called Ascetes, that is, practitioners, because they exercised themselves in the continual struggle and victory over vices, and in the perpetual use of contrary virtues. Such was Barlaam, who exhorting his disciple Josaphat to the same ascesis, among other things says, "virtues are the ladders of heaven;" wherefore just as heaven is distant from us by a space of great height, so must it be striven for and ascended by many and great steps through the ladders of virtues. See Damascene, in the History, chapter XI and following. What if we grew daily in charity, humility and patience, if we added three degrees daily, we would ascend to heaven by as many steps as it were, and after a year, indeed after ten or twenty years, how high we would see ourselves ascended, how many heaps of virtues and merits we would see accumulated and rejoice? Think of eternity. Life is brief: live, endure, labor, trade for eternity. Abbas Athanasius, says John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CXXX, rapt in ecstasy saw choirs praising God, and when he turned to enter among them, he heard: "No one enters here negligent; go, strive, despise the vanities of the world." Thus one goes to the stars. And chapter CV, an Angel says to Christopher: "Pray that we may light your lamp." Then he to himself: "Christopher," he says, "greater labor is needed." HE THAT TRUSTETH IN LIES, HE FEEDETH ON WINDS; AND THE SAME HIMSELF FOLLOWETH FLYING BIRDS. - This sentence is already lacking in the Hebrew, Chaldean, some Latin texts and the Complutensian Septuagint, although it is found in the Roman texts, not in this place, but in the preceding chapter, after verse 12. However, the Roman Latins have it, and it was read by St. Augustine, book III Against Cresconius, chapter IX; Clement of Alexandria, book I of the Stromata; Antonius in the Melissa, sermon 22, and others. Wherefore it seems to have existed formerly in the Hebrew, and to have the canonical authority of Holy Scripture. Akin to this is the proverb of the Arabs: "Falsehood is weakness, and truth is strength. Falsehood is baseness, and truth is magnificence, or nobility." By lies, first, understand riches obtained through frauds and lies, so that this maxim pertains to that which preceded: "Poverty is wrought by the hand of the slothful," for which others translate, fraudulent, as if to say: He who through lies and frauds strives to become rich, he feedeth on winds, that is, vainly and fruitlessly labors just as if he were feeding winds; or, as is commonly said, he hunts winds with a net: for soon through that they burst forth winds: in like manner the riches which the avaricious man seeks through frauds, like wind and flying birds, will fly away from him, he will follow them, and will not overtake them. Whence most excellently St. Gregory of Nazianzus: "What," says he, "is the need to store up many riches against the changes of time, which otherwise winnow unstable wealth from one to another?" The same to citizens struck with fear: "It is more," says he, "to be trusted to winds or to letters written in water, than to riches." And in the oration to Julian the tax-equalizer: "As dust," says he, "from a whirlwind, so riches from one to another are continually winnowed and tossed about, and like smoke they melt away, and like a dream they delude men, and like shadows cannot be held in the hands, neither are they desperate for those lacking them, nor sufficiently certain for those possessing them." The same to Seleucus, in the third Iambic, asserts that riches "mock avaricious minds," and imitate the cunning of a Harlot, who deceives her suitors, This one thus, and that one in a different way. Again he says they are Like waves, with light motion Which we see carried on high, sink and quickly. Whence the Roman Septuagint, chapter IX, 12, after: "He that trusteth in lies, he feedeth on winds," subjoin these two maxims: "For he hath forsaken the ways of his vineyard; and in the paths of his field he hath gone astray; and he walketh through places without water and dry, and the land appointed for thirst, but gathereth with his hands what is unfruitful." By which words he who trusteth in lies, as first, he compared to one feeding winds; second, to one following flying birds: thus third, he compares to a foolish farmer, who forsakes his vineyard, and through his field (from which, if he cultivated both equally, he would reap great fruits of wine and grain) wandering passes to places without water, dry and parched with thirst, from which he could hope for no fruit: whence "he gathereth with his hands what is unfruitful," or, as the interpreter of Clement of Alexandria translates, book III of the Stromata, gathering with his hands the barrenness of fruits, as if to say: In place of fruit and harvest he brings back nothing but dryness and barrenness. Whence Clement, adapting all these things to false heresy and heretics, book III of the Stromata: "He," says he, "who trusteth in falsehoods, he feedeth on winds, and pursueth flying birds. He does not understand the word here as philosophy, since these things argue probably to many, and speak probably; but he attacks heresies. He therefore infers: For he hath forsaken the ways of his vineyard, and in the paths of his own husbandry he hath gone astray. But these are they which forsake the Church from the beginning. Now whoever hath fallen into heresy, passeth through a wilderness without water, an uninhabitable land, traversing a thirsty earth, gathering with his hands the barrenness of fruits." Second, by lies understand false and deceitful hopes, which men, abandoning God, place in friends, relatives, princes; likewise in their own riches, strength, talent, wisdom, so that they may obtain benefit, dignity, riches, prelacy, glory, etc. He feedeth on winds, that is, labors in vain, because either he does not attain what he seeks, or, if he attains it, he will not find in it the peace and joy which he sought, but troubles, weariness, anguish, envies and a thousand like miseries, so that he repents of the deed, and wishes and says: Would that I had never sought this dignity! would that I had never attained it! Thirdly, by lies understand false reasonings, errors, paralogisms, fallacies, by which heretics, sophists and proud doctors strive to defend and support their dogmas. For these feed on winds, because when the falsity of their reasonings is laid bare, their dogmas, honor and authority collapse and flee from them like flying birds. Thus St. Augustine, book III Against Cresconius, chapter IX, who applies this saying to Cresconius and the Donatists, and by winds understands demons, who are spirits puffed up and puffing like winds: "Whoever trusts in falsehoods," he says, "feeds on winds, that is, becomes food for evil spirits." But this is mystical, not literal. Fourthly, by lies understand whatever is said and done falsely, by which liars strive to excuse and conceal their vices, or to obtain something. For whoever relies on these feeds on winds: for when the lie and fraud are exposed, he will obtain nothing except the name of a liar and a fraudulent person. What it is to feed on winds I explained at Hosea XII, 1, where concerning Israel placing its hopes in the Assyrians and Egyptians, but deceitful ones, because through them it was not delivered from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, it says: "Ephraim feeds on wind, and follows the east wind." Where I said that "feeds" can first be taken passively, as if to say Ephraim feeds, that is eats winds; lives and is nourished by wind. Thus the proud are nourished by honor, and by the swollen opinion of themselves as by wind, by which puffed up and swollen they walk, just as chameleons are nourished by wind; but just as a chameleon living on wind is dry and bloodless, and therefore changes colors, and takes on the color of the thing to which it is applied: so also the ambitious man, dried up by ambition and bloodless from fear of losing honor, is now ruddy and joyful, now pale and sad, now happy, now miserable; wherefore he cannot be blessed. Thus Aristotle, book I of the Great Moral Virtues, chapter III. Secondly, "feeds" can be taken actively, so that "feeds on winds" is the same as nourishes winds, namely gives himself as food to winds; so that winds, namely the Assyrians, in whom he trusts, devour him. Or "feeds," that is rules, and leads winds to pasture, just as a shepherd rules and leads cattle, sheep, goats, etc. to pasture. For this is what the Hebrew word רעה raa properly signifies, according to that Psalm XXII, 1: "The Lord rules (in Hebrew raa, that is feeds, as a shepherd feeds sheep) me, and nothing shall be wanting to me, in a place of pasture there he hath placed me." For it is foolish and impossible to rule winds as sheep, and to lead them to pasture: although by magic the magicians sometimes appear to feed winds. For the Methoneans, says Pausanias, in Corinth., when a wind rages, offer a rooster, and having torn it apart and buried it under the vines, they calm the harmful blasts of the African wind. Eunapius and Suidas, and from them Sigonius, book IV of the Western Empire, relate that Constantine the Great punished with death the philosopher Sopater, because by his incantations he had restrained the winds, so that ships would not carry grain to Constantinople afflicted by famine. The Finns and the Northern Lapps, peoples, exhibited winds for sale to merchants, offering three knots consecrated by magical art hanging from a cord; by loosening the first they would have calm winds, by the second more violent, by the third most violent. Thus Olaus, book III, chapter XVI, from Saxo Grammaticus. They use this art in navigating at their discretion, so that it seemed good to them to favor or not; thus they stop and move breezes and rivers, says Ziegler in Scandia. See more in Alexander ab Alexandro, book III Genial Days, chapter XII. But these are superstitious and magical, and therefore most harmful. For magicians pledge their own souls and those of their consultants and their bodies to the devil for wind. Omitting magical matters, take the physical explanation. When sometimes the Etesian winds blew so violently as to damage crops, Empedocles ordered asses to be flayed and made into skins, and these to be stretched on promontories, so that they would catch the wind; by which being calmed he was called κωλυσάνεμος, that is prohibitor of winds, says Suidas, with whom let the credibility rest. For this too is difficult to believe; and even if it be true, this is not to feed, that is to rule winds at pleasure; nor to provide them with food. For God alone is He who, just as He creates winds, so also feeds and rules them, and in this shows forth His magnificence and omnipotence. Hence it is said to walk, nay to fly upon the wings of the winds, Psalm XVII, 11; and the winds are Angels, that is, messengers of God, according to that: "Who makest thy Angels spirits," that is, winds, Psalm CIII, 4. And Job, cap. XXVIII, 25: "Who hath made," saith he, "the winds to have weight, and the waters to be measured by measure." And Amos IV, 13, God is called "forming the mountains, and creating the wind," where I have said more on this matter. Hence when the Emperor Theodosius fought for God, the winds of God fought for Theodosius against Eugenius, when the weapons of the enemy were turned back upon the enemies themselves, so that Theodosius could be said to have fed the winds and the winds in turn to have fed Theodosius; concerning which Claudian, in Paneg.: O thou too much beloved of God, for whom the ether fights, And the confederate winds come to the trumpet call. Note: Rightly is a lie compared to the wind and to flying birds. First, because, as the wind is fluid, light and evanescent, and straightway vanishes into thin air, so also a lie like wind and smoke is dispersed and vanishes. "That which deceives," saith Seneca, epist. 8, "has nothing solid in it; a lie is thin, if thou shalt examine it carefully." Secondly, as the wind does not adhere, but passes most swiftly, so also a lie. Whence Petrarch elegantly, lib. II De Vita solitar., comparing a lie with a diver, who dwells beneath the waters: "Feigned things," saith he, "are straightway laid bare, the paint is washed away by sweat, and even a clever lie yields to the truth, and before the gaze of one who looks more closely is transparent. No one lives long under water, he must burst forth, and open the brow which he had hidden, that he may be nourished by the winds and the soft breeze." Thirdly, as from one wind many are generated, and others contrary, which clash and struggle with one another: so from one lie many are born, and they are contrary to one another and struggling. Fourthly, the wind, although it be thin and empty, yet distends skins: and liars are swollen with the wind of vanity and pride. Again, the wind makes birds sing; for swans struck by the zephyr sing more sweetly. For the density of the wings is raised up, reflecting the tempered strings of the lyre, and the zephyr straightway suggests the plectrum. Moreover, as there are hydraulic organs, which are driven by water: so there are also anemaulic ones, which by wind skillfully received sound harmoniously. Such I have seen at Tusculum, in which nightingales and other birds, made by art like living nightingales and birds, sang and modulated by the wonderful artifice of the wind. In a similar way, the wind of vanity and ostentation drives liars, so that they skillfully and elegantly compose and chant their lies; but as in those there is no fruit besides sound, so also in these. For liars are like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Fifthly, St. Basil, hom. 6 Hexam.: Vultures, saith he, and cocks lifted up into the aerial regions conceive eggs by the mere breath of the winds which, because they are from the wind, are therefore called abortive and empty and wind-born. Thus liars from the wind, that is, from the devil, who is the father of lies, conceive lies, frauds and deceits, which outwardly appear fair, but within are empty and vanish into smoke; which nourish none but the devil, whose eggs and offspring they are. Whence St. Augustine, lib. III Contra Crescon. cap. IX: "Moreover," saith he, "if he is cursed who hath put his hope in man, how much more he who puts his hope in the falsity of human opinion? so that he may fall into that other thing which is written: He that trusteth in falsehoods, he feedeth on winds, that is, he becomes food for evil spirits." Concerning such, Hosea X, 13 saith: "You have ploughed impiety, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies; because thou didst trust in thy ways, in the multitude of thy mighty men." Sixthly, the wind, although subtle, is sometimes so strong that it levels and overturns trees, towers, houses: so a lie, although in itself empty, yet sometimes is so covered and armed with deceits and frauds, that it stirs up deadly wars among kings and peoples, and overturns cities, kingdoms and empires. Tropologically, they are windy and feed on winds, who pursue the opinions and rumors of the common people; and who delight in their own flatteries and the detraction of others; for many lies are mixed with these. For, as Jeremiah cap. IX, 3 saith: "They have bent their tongue like a bow for lies." Wherefore such feed on winds, and like foolish dogs follow flying birds, until, becoming aware of their own foolishness too late, they repent, and laugh at and condemn it. Thus Hugo. Finally, those who trust in creatures rather than in the Creator. For all creatures are wind and shadow, if compared with the Creator. Whence the Psalmist, Psalm IV, 3, lamenting exclaims: "O ye sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?" And Isaiah cap. XXVIII, 15: "We have made a covenant with death, and we have made an agreement with hell. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us, etc. The hail shall sweep away the hope of falsehood." And Jeremiah cap. XIII, 25: "This is thy lot, and the portion of thy measure from me, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in falsehood." And cap. XVI, 19: "Verily our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit." After the meaning already explained, the Septuagint here adds another, which exists neither in the Hebrew nor in the Latin Vulgate, and it is this: "A son instructed shall be wise, but the foolish shall serve a foolish master;" and St. Augustine read this, lib. XVI De Civit. cap. II, and explains it thus: "The wicked are wont to disturb the peace of the Saints; but this turns to the profit of those making progress, according to that saying of the Apostle: There must be heresies, that they also, who are approved, may be made manifest among you. Whence also it is written: A son instructed shall be wise; but the foolish shall serve a foolish master," that is to say, by God's providence it comes to pass that the wicked, for example heretics, harass the faithful and pious, for their testing, so that they may grow in faith and virtue: wherefore the foolish, that is the wicked, although they seem to rule over the pious, in truth they serve and minister, because God uses them as it were as ministers to sharpen the virtue and glory of the pious. Again, that is to say, a son instructed in discipline and composed in morals is wise; yet often, by God's arrangement, it comes to pass that he has a foolish servant, so that he may exercise both his patience and his prudence, and so that the foolish servant may be prudently ruled by the prudent master, and may learn prudence. Moreover, servants, because they are of servile nature; hence if they obtain a wise master, that is a modest and pious one, they become insolent and troublesome to him; but if a harsh and imperious one, they submit their necks. The wise man therefore should treat servile natures in a servile manner, and should use that saying of Melania in Palladius in the Lausiac History, cap. CXVII: "Against the foolish, with pride of spirit, one must deal as with a dog and a hawk." Thirdly, and most appropriately thus expound it, so that the power, authority, dignity and majesty of wisdom may be signified, which is so great that it even commands and rules over the foolish, that is to say, a son instructed and prudent shall not only be wise for himself, but shall also be able to rule others, indeed he shall know how to use the foolish and unwise as servants; by his own wisdom he shall know how they ought to be tamed and ruled, and to what services applied, so that they may learn to be wise for themselves and useful to others. This is what Solomon followed, and Ecclesiasticus says cap. X, 28: "A wise servant shall rule over foolish masters." See the remarks there.
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5. HE THAT GATHERETH IN HARVEST (Chaldean, he that worketh in summer), IS A WISE SON; BUT HE THAT SLEEPETH IN SUMMER (Chaldean, in harvest) IS A SON OF CONFUSION. — In Hebrew, a son confounding, both himself and his parents, his house and family. This is a precept or admonition of domestic prudence. Therefore grammatically and literally it signifies that in harvest and summer the husbandman must labor (such were the ancient fathers, and most men in the first ages of the world) by the command of God, Genesis III, 15, and cap. III, 17, so that he may provide food for himself and his own in winter: for if he should be idle and sleep, and let the harvest pass by, he will hunger in winter and be forced to beg or be consumed by hunger; which will be great damage to him, and likewise confusion and shame. Parallel to this maxim is that of Ben-Sira in the Alphabet, letter lamed: "Sleep not in thy youth, and in thy old age do not lead about an old woman." Symbolically therefore, under the veil of the letter and parable, it is signified, first, that one must labor in adolescence, so that food may be prepared for old age. Again, in adolescence one must study wisdom and virtue, so that we may enjoy them in old age. For adolescence is rightly called summer and harvest, because it is vigorous, spirited, fervent, apt for study and labors, docile, ingenious; for just as the mind and body are formed and accustomed either to virtue or vice, either to labor or idleness in adolescence, so it endures and persists almost throughout the rest of life. Whence the Septuagint translates, unharmed (they read for אגר oger, that is, gathering, with other pointing אגר agur, that is, gathered, preserved, unharmed) the intelligent son escaped from the heat; but he that is corrected by the wind becomes a son of iniquity in harvest, that is to say, A young man wise in adolescence, when the heat of blood and concupiscence is wont to boil over, escapes from it, because he extinguishes this heat by taming and mortifying his passions; but the foolish one, who allows himself to be carried away by the burning wind, or the blight of concupiscence, in adolescence, "becomes a son of iniquity in harvest," that is in old age, in which men are wont to reap what they have sown and learned in youth. For virtues and vices of adolescence cling to man even to old age and death. Blight is a burning wind, which dries up grain, namely ears of corn, so that they are empty and yield no flour; thus concupiscence dries up all vigor and the marrow of virtue, and makes man empty, void of all good and virtue. But the author of the Catena of the Greeks thus explains the Septuagint version, that is to say, Crosses and calamities accepted with a patient mind bring life, but with an impatient mind bring death: "A man of understanding, he says, who through crosses and calamities is tried and tested no less than gold is wont to be tested through a burning furnace, produces the joyful fruits of justice; on the contrary, a man of iniquity is often corrupted and depraved by those very things through which he ought otherwise to become better, and is altogether even lost." Didymus there: "He who is strong in natural wisdom and understanding, him neither does the sun burn by day, nor the moon by night. By heat he designates the cares and troubles of this life. But those who are cast down by such things and as it were fail, he calls hay. Our Savior Christ calls those afflictions and persecutions which sometimes happen on account of the word of God, heat in the evangelical parable." Secondly, summer and harvest is a symbol of opportunity, or of time suitable for doing a thing well, that is to say, He who seizes the opportunity of accomplishing a thing, while it offers itself, is wise; he who neglects it, is foolish: for "opportunity has hair in front, behind she is bald." Thirdly, summer is a symbol of the present life, winter of death and the state of the future age, where there is no time for laboring and reaping, that is to say, He who by laboring gathers for himself in this life the merits of good works, so that from them he may gather the rewards of eternity, he truly is wise: but he who in this life neglects these things, and gives himself over to the body, to gluttony and luxury and sleeps, he is foolish, and will be confounded in the day of judgment: because then he will see himself condemned on account of this neglect of time, and tormented in the flames of hell with eternal fire. Whence Ecclesiastes wisely admonishes, cap. IX, 10: "Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly; because neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening." Wherefore St. Gregory of Nazianzus in his Tetrastichs says that the present life is a fair, in which all things may be bought, after which nothing: "I would have thee believe this life to be a fair; If thou knowest how to trade, thou shalt gain profit, Exchanging things that fade for things eternal: After this time another shall not be afforded." Thus Gregory of Nazianzus. Mystically Hugo: Tribulations, he says, and labors, by which men are continually afflicted in this life, are heat and summer, in which it is permitted to gather a great harvest of humility, patience, charity and other virtues; he therefore who is wise seizes this time: but he who is foolish, by his impatience, inertia and acedia, lets it pass by and lose it. To this pertains the example of the ant proposed by Solomon, cap. VI, 6: "Which prepareth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest, which she may eat." Where I have reviewed many analogies of the ant and diligence.
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6. THE BLESSING OF THE LORD UPON THE HEAD OF THE JUST: BUT THE MOUTH OF THE WICKED COVERETH INIQUITY. — The Complutensians and certain others read, iniquity; in Hebrew, blessings upon the head (or to the head) of the just; but the mouth of the wicked covereth iniquity, or iniquity, as Symmachus and Aquila translate; Theodotion, rapine; Vatablus, injury. Now first, Vatablus gives this sense, that is to say, The just man is accustomed to be blessed; but the wicked man always thinks of evil, so that he may inflict injury, calumny, rapine upon others. But here no antithesis appears between the just and the wicked. Secondly, Cajetan, that is to say, The nature and character of the just is to bless others; that is, to pray well and to do good, if he can: but "the mouth of the wicked covereth iniquity;" or, as he himself translates, "is covered with iniquity," because it is full of curses, calumnies, reproaches, etc. Here there is a clear antithesis between the blessing of the pious and the curse of the wicked. Thirdly, some explain "upon the head" as with open head and mouth he boasts: The blessing of the Lord upon the head of the just, that is, they say, the just man, what he has justly acquired and sought by honest industry, he displays and sells openly. For thus it is said below: "The fruit of good lips is glorious." And in Acts XX, 34, St. Paul said glorying: "You yourselves know that these hands have ministered to me and to them that are with me." But on the contrary: "The mouth of the wicked covereth iniquity," or rapine, or injustice (all come to the same thing), that is, he hides and conceals his gains, and does not dare to display openly the arts and frauds by which he has become rich; for frauds and crimes, because they are shameful, flee the light, love darkness. Fourthly, that is to say, "Blessing," that is, the grace of God, covereth the head of the just; but iniquity and crime covereth the mouth and head of the wicked, that is to say, Grace and sin distinguish the just from the wicked: for grace is proper to the just, sin to the wicked. Wherefore the works of the just are works of grace and virtues; but the works of the wicked are rapine, frauds and crimes. Whence the Chaldean translates, in the mouth of the wicked rapine is covered. And R. Levi: "In the just," he says, "blessings flow down upon the head, namely that he may be prudent: for he will continually be occupied in the thought of good things; or also the voice of the head signifies the beginning of the matter: for in the beginning the just man displays the blessings with which he is laden as he goes forth; but the wicked man hides the iniquity which he schemes, lest, if he reveal it, he be prevented from accomplishing it. It signifies therefore that the just man, when he undertakes anything, always experiences himself enriched by blessing; and also that he is laden with goods, and help is afforded, so that he may enjoy the desired end; since he has nothing but what is honest in his wishes, and that he may benefit others. Wherefore at the beginning of the undertaking it is to be hoped that blessings will be bestowed upon him: for if others are aware of his intention, they will most willingly bring aid. But the opposite happens to the wicked. For they always fear lest they obtain those things which they vehemently desire, if others perceive it; wherefore they wish the crime which they wickedly strive to accomplish to be hidden from others. In which matter it is repaid to them equally, since the memory of the just is in blessing," etc. Fifthly and genuinely, that is to say, "Blessing," that is, the abundance of all goods, shall flow down and as it were rain down from heaven upon the head of the just; but the mouth and head of the wicked shall be covered with iniquity, that is, with the punishment of iniquity, which because it is just, will so stop up their mouth that they do not even dare to mutter or gape against God or men, according to that Psalm CVI, 42: "The righteous shall see and be glad; and all iniquity shall stop her mouth." The wicked therefore shall be covered with confusion, condemnation and the punishment of frauds, lies, injuries, and other iniquities which they have committed with mouth and head (for there are reason and will), that is, with the punishment of iniquity, which because it is just, will so stop up their mouth, that they do not even dare to mutter or gape against God or men, according to that Psalm CVI, 42: "The righteous shall see and be glad; and all iniquity shall stop her mouth." The wicked therefore shall be covered with confusion, condemnation and the punishment of frauds, lies, injuries, and other iniquities which they have committed with mouth and head (for there are reason and will). Note first, that by mouth is understood the head and face synecdochically; but he says mouth, because the wicked perpetrate most frauds, injustices and crimes by the mouth; secondly, iniquity is taken metonymically for the punishment of iniquity both here and often elsewhere. Whence the Septuagint translates, but the mouth of the wicked shall cover untimely mourning, in Greek πένθος ἄωρον, which the interpreter of the Greek Catena translates in the nominative, lamentation and untimely mourning. Whence Origen explains this there: "To the just man, prudent and well-ordered, even difficult and afflicted matters become easy; but to one otherwise disposed, even light matters and those having some consolation appear difficult." The sense therefore of the Septuagint is, as if to say, Soon the wicked, and before the time predetermined by themselves, shall be punished, and therefore shall mourn: yet afterwards by confusion they shall try to hide their mourning, and by putting on a cheerful countenance to cover and conceal their face. Again this shall be untimely lamentation, that is, before the time of the final judgment and of hell, so that this mourning here is a prelude to eternal lamentation; thirdly, by the just understand anyone, but especially the merciful and charitable: for this one is called just in Scripture in a particular way; and he, being beneficent, is accustomed to be blessed by God and men. Whence to this is aptly opposed חמס chamas, that is, violence, injury and iniquity, which the wicked is accustomed to inflict on others, and therefore incurs punishment and torment, according to that Psalm CVIII, 17: "He hath persecuted the poor man and the needy, and the contrite in heart, to put him to death: he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him." Wherefore our Salazar thus expounds it, as if to say, "The blessing of the Lord upon the head of the just," that is, an abundance of all goods shall befall the merciful; "but the mouth of the wicked shall cover iniquity," that is, the punishment of iniquity, namely the curse of God, want and poverty shall befall the unmerciful and avaricious, especially when on the day of judgment, with those like themselves unmerciful, he shall hear from Christ the judge: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire. For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat;"; whereas on the other hand the merciful shall hear: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat," Matthew XXV. Whence St. Chrysostom, in the homily That Almsgiving is the Art of All Most Profitable: "Almsgiving," he says, "is a garment which shall rise again with man; in these garments shall shine those who then shall hear: You saw me hungry," etc. A notable example of this sentence stands forth in Joseph, Genesis XLIX, 25, to which Solomon here alludes: for Jacob the father, about to die, blessed his son Joseph, just and holy, saying: "The Almighty shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth beneath," etc. See the words there.
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7. THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS WITH PRAISES: AND THE NAME OF THE WICKED SHALL ROT. — In Hebrew, the memory of the just is in (or unto) blessing; the Septuagint, the memory of the just with praise, but the name of the unjust is extinguished; the Chaldean, the memory of the just is a blessing; the Syriac, in blessing; the Zurich Bible, the memory of the just has praise (Vatablus, it is celebrated and approved), but the name of the wicked is base; Vatablus, it will fade away, it will rot. The sense is, as if to say, The memory of the just is grateful, sweet and honored, so that both God and prudent men, when they make mention of him, bless him, praise him, celebrate him; but the name, fame, reputation, praise and glory of the wicked gradually becomes corrupted, base, rejected and abolished. Thus Abraham, Noah, Moses, Aaron, David and other just men of the Old Testament are praised in Ecclesiasticus XXIV and following, and by the Apostle in Hebrews XI. Again, Aben-Ezra thus translates and explains: "The memory of the just with blessing," that is, God will remember the just on account of the blessing with which He will heap upon him, according to that in Psalm CXIII, 12: "The Lord hath been mindful of us, and hath blessed us." Therefore He will remember the just, and will follow him with blessing; but the name of the wicked shall rot, that is, it shall be consigned to oblivion like a rotten tree, which does not grow. And Bain: It can happen, he says, that while the wicked man conceals his crime, the fame of the just and upright man may enjoy some duration; but as a flower withers gradually, and flesh rots, which is not preserved with salt: so the fame of the wicked, lacking the fruit of virtue and the salt of divine wisdom, withers and corrupts. Aptly is the infamy of the wicked compared to rottenness. First, because rottenness occurs when in the whole some part is corrupted, which gradually infects and corrupts others. So one vice creeps into another, and consequently one infamy into another, which gradually infects and stains the whole man. Second, rottenness occurs when the rotting parts are separated from the healthy and whole: so infamy arises when vices are separated from virtues, and when someone separates himself from the company of the upright and associates with the wicked; for these themselves rub their wickedness upon him and breathe infamy upon him. Third, things rot first when moist, then when dry, namely when the parts which are corrupted separate themselves from nature and from their natural temperament of heat and cold, moisture and dryness. "Wherefore all other things rot except fire; for earth, water and air rot (indeed even wood, stones and metals); all these things are matter for fire," says Aristotle, book IV of the Meteorology, chapter II. So when someone departs from his office, namely from that moderation which his status and rank require, then he contracts vice and infamy. Fourth, Aristotle in the same place defines rottenness from its principles and causes thus: "Rottenness," he says, "is the corruption of that which in each moist thing properly and according to nature, of heat, by alien heat; but this is that of the surrounding. Wherefore, since according to need it suffers heat, but since it is in need of such a power, all cold, both causes will be, and rottenness a common affection both of its own coldness and of alien heat. For this reason all things that rot become drier, and finally earth and dung. For when the proper heat departs, that which is moist according to nature evaporates, and what induces moisture is no longer; for the proper heat induces by drawing." In like manner the soul rots from internal cold and external heat, namely when in it the love of God grows cold and the love of the world is kindled, namely of riches, honors, pleasures: for through that gradually all the vital juice of charity and virtues evaporates, and in its place there succeeds the corruption and decay of concupiscence. Fifth, Aristotle from the aforesaid concludes that things rot more easily in summer than in winter, in warmth than in heat, in stillness than in motion. "And in cold," he says, "they rot less than in heat; for in winter there is little heat in the surrounding air and water; wherefore nothing can happen: but in summer more. And neither what is frozen: for it is colder than warm air, therefore it is not overcome; but motion dominates. Neither what is hot or warm: for the heat in the air is less than that in the thing; wherefore it does not dominate, nor does it cause any change. Similarly also what is moved and flows rots less than what is not moved; for the motion which comes from the heat in the air is weaker than that which pre-exists in the thing; wherefore nothing causes change. But the same reason also why much less rots than little; for in the greater the proper fire and cold are more ample than that the virtues in the surrounding should dominate. Wherefore also the sea divided in part rots quickly; but the whole does not. And other waters in the same way." In a similar manner in summer, that is in prosperity, virtue and fame putrefy more easily through vices than in winter, that is in adversity: likewise in lukewarmness rather than in fervor, and in rest rather than in motion, by which one is carried to good works. For this motion sharpens the heat of virtue and charity, which excludes all putrefaction of vices: just as the society of the just, which is as it were a sea of holiness, from which if anyone separates himself, he easily becomes corrupted and putrefies, as is seen in apostates from Religious orders. Sixthly, from putrefaction are born worms and serpents. Whence that saying of Ovid, book XV of the Metamorphoses: "There are those who, when the spine has putrefied in a closed sepulcher, believe that human marrow is changed into a serpent." Moreover, that the corpses and their worms of those who have given themselves to delights, to the belly and to lust, are more putrid, more foul and horrible than those of the sober and chaste, reason and experience teach. In a similar manner the infamous on account of vices generate serpents, namely sons, grandsons, friends, companions of serpentine manners; for they themselves have taught these by word and example. Thus the posthumous and putrid fame of Arius, Luther, Calvin, Machiavelli still brings forth Arians, Lutherans, Calvinists, Machiavellists, especially because their disciples and books remain, which continually resow their sect. For nothing is more virulent and pestilential than heretical, magical, and amatory books; from these many learn and imbibe heresy, magic, and loves. Seventhly, Pliny assigns honey as a remedy for putrefaction. For thus he says, book XXXII, chapter XXIV: "The nature of honey is such that it does not allow bodies to putrefy with a pleasant taste and not harsh, different from the nature of salt." Just as therefore salt by its saltiness, so honey by its sweetness preserves bodies from putrefaction. Honey is a symbol of goodness, benignity, affability, beneficence: for these things procure for a man the best fame and sweeten and correct all infamy. Hence of Josias it is said in Ecclesiasticus, chapter XLIX, verse 1: "The memory of Josias is made into the composition of a sweet odor, the work of the perfumer. In every mouth his memory shall be sweetened as honey." See the things said there. Again, cedar heals putrefaction; for, as Pliny says, book XXIV, chapter V, "it preserves the bodies of the dead uncorrupted through the ages, it corrupts the living; a wonderful difference, since it takes away life from the breathing, for the dead it is as life." Hence things worthy of cedar are called worthy of eternity; for cedar, because it is incorruptible, is a symbol of immortality and eternity. Cedar moreover is a symbol of wisdom, integrity and strength, as I have shown at length in Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 17. Furthermore, balsam heals putrefaction, because it supplies a fragrant and strong juice, by which bodies are as it were nourished and preserved. Balsam is a symbol of fragrant and holy actions, by which fame and glory are nourished lest they putrefy. Whence Plutarch in his Moral Essays: "The ship of Delos," he says, "while it is continually repaired and restored, is made perpetual through many centuries: thus something must always be added to fame, lest it putrefy."
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8. THE WISE OF HEART RECEIVES PRECEPTS: THE FOOL IS BEATEN BY LIPS. — Τὸ of heart coheres with wise, not with precepts, as is evident from the Hebrew construction. For beaten in Hebrew is ילבט illabet, which the Septuagint translates as shall be supplanted; the Chaldean, shall be taken; Theodotion, φυρήσεται, that is, shall be fermented, shall be worked like leaven and kneaded; Aquila, shall be beaten; Symmachus, shall be twisted; Baynus, shall fall; R. Joseph, shall limp; R. Solomon, shall be wearied; Tigurina, incurs various things; Marinus, Vatablus and others throughout, strikes, offends. All these versions come down to the same thing. First therefore the plain sense is, as if to say, He who is truly wise "of heart," that is, truly wise, admits the precepts of superiors and teachers willingly, allows himself to be taught and admonished by them: but the fool is beaten by the lips of the teacher and reprover, because it is troublesome for him to hear the teacher and to have his defects rebuked: wherefore as many words as he is corrected by, so many as it were with scourges is he beaten and chastised. Thus Bede, Lyra, Jansenius, Baynus and others, and in this sense the antithesis of the wise and the fool is clear. Secondly, "the fool is beaten by his own lips," and, as the Chaldean translates, is taken by his own lips, namely because speaking rashly many things, he murmurs against his superior, detracts, threatens, and is easily convicted by those standing by of falsehood, or sedition, fraud, calumny, cursing, etc., indeed not rarely he pays penalties; and so by his own petulant lips he is beaten, that is, he brings upon himself blows, wounds and stripes. Whence Pagninus translates, on account of his lips he shall be punished. He therefore opposes the wise man to the fool, in that the former, keeping silent, patiently and willingly receives the doctrine, admonitions, laws, edicts of superiors; the latter, however, garrulous and tumultuous, clamors against them, murmurs, and speaks much ill of rulers and superiors (as we see happen when new laws are made and promulgated), on account of which he is punished and brings grave harm upon himself. The foolishness of these men is what this Wise Man rebukes here. This sense is very apt. Thirdly, τὸ by lips from the Hebrew can be connected with fool, not with is beaten, so that there is an antithesis between the wise of heart and the fool of lips, or, as Cajetan translates, the fool of lips. Whence the Septuagint translates, he who is not covered (some wrongly read upright for covered; for this is ἄστεγος) by lips, turning aside shall be supplanted. "Fool of lips" or "of lips" is said of one who speaks rashly, and whatever comes into his mouth he utters; who can hide nothing, dissemble nothing; but reveals anger, hatred and the heat of his mind by words; who is headlong in speaking, so that he wishes to teach before he learns, so that the sense is, as if to say, He who is wise of heart will not speak rashly from his mouth what he feels in his heart, will not suddenly rush forth to teach; but rather prefers to hear others, and to receive from them the precepts of life. But he who is foolish, both in heart and in mouth and lips, rashly rushing forth to speak anything, to teach rather than to learn, he shall strike and offend, both through the fault of evil speech, and through its punishment: for now he shall offend truth through falsehood, now charity through detraction, now reverence through excessive liberty, now peace through quarrels and dissensions, etc.; and consequently he shall offend, that is, shall pay the penalties of these faults, so that now he is convicted of falsehood, now he is punished as a calumniator, now he is punished with death as a seditious person. Whence there is a proverb of the Arabs: "Beware lest your tongue strike your neck." For not rarely are men punished with death on account of the incontinence of the tongue. Wherefore St. James admonishes, cap. 1: "But let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak." Moreover, what Theodotion translated, "the fool shall be fermented by his lips," denotes that the qualities of ferment are fitting to the fool, namely that the fool, while corrected by the lips of admonishers, like a mass fermented by the force of ferment, that is, of correction, is first inflamed with anger and swells with pride; secondly, is turned into sourness and bitterness, so that he rises up against the one correcting him and tears him with quarrels and reproaches; thirdly, spreads this bitterness of his through the whole mass, that is, through the whole assembly of the people; fourthly and properly, τὸ fermentabitur denotes that he, like a mass fermented, is kneaded under the hands of those kneading, that is, is beaten, confused, macerated, tortured by words and blows, as Our translator and all others rendered it. Some add that ferment is here taken for malice, as if to say: The wise man eagerly receives and drinks in the precepts of virtue; but the fool delights in lips which suggest ferment, that is, malice, namely loves, impudicity, obscenity, quarrels, rebellions. Whence he is immediately fermented by them, that is, infected, polluted, corrupted, according to that: "Because my heart hath been inflamed," or, as others translate it, "Fermented, and I am brought to nothing, and I knew not," Psalm LXXII, verse 21. Which words St. Augustine and others understand of the heat of lust, which burns the reins. Again, what R. Joseph translated, "the fool shall halt by his lips," signifies first, that the discourses of the fool halt, that is, fail and abound in defects, and are maimed and mutilated, namely mixing false things with true, base things with honest, imprudence with prudent things, inept things with apt. Secondly, that they do not execute in deed what they teach by mouth. For speech halts when action does not equally correspond to it; for speech and action are as it were two feet of the teacher and preacher, as St. Chrysostom teaches, homily 20 to the People. Finally, the Septuagint translates ὁ δὲ ἄστεγος χείλεσι σκολιάζων ὑποσκελισθήσεται, that is, "but he who is not covered by his lips, acting obliquely (perversely), shall be tripped up": for στέγος is a roof; for στέγω means the same as to cover, to conceal, to bear, to suffer, to endure. Whence ἄστεγος means the same as lacking a roof, a stranger, impatient, one who can conceal nothing, however secret, can endure nothing, intolerable. Therefore the garrulous man is ἄστεγος, because he is like a house having a door (for the mouth is a door), but lacking a roof, and therefore exposed to all the injuries of the air; thus the garrulous man is exposed to the ridicule, reproaches and jeers of all. Whence Plutarch in his Moral: "Just as," he says, "a house lacking a door is of no use, so much more is the mouth lacking a closure of no use." The sense therefore is, as if to say: The talkative man is like a stranger who, lacking a roof and a house, wanders through unknown ways and regions, and often strays from the way and takes oblique paths, by which he is carried into trackless places, and is dashed against stones, is swept into ditches, cliffs and precipices. In a similar way the talkative man speaks of things unknown, in which he is a guest and stranger, and his tongue wanders. Whence it is necessary that he often stray from the true, straight, honest and prudent, and strike upon the false, twisted, base, insipid and inept, for which he shall be beaten with words and blows. To embrace the whole matter in a word: "He who recklessly pours out anything whatsoever almost always strikes upon something." For the tongue lashing others is to himself the greatest scourge. See what I said concerning the harms of the tongue at James cap. III, verse 5, and Ecclesiasticus XXVIII, 16.
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9. HE THAT WALKETH SIMPLY, WALKETH CONFIDENTLY: BUT HE THAT PERVERTETH HIS WAYS, SHALL BE MADE MANIFEST. — The Septuagint: he that walketh simply (Aquila and Symmachus, in simplicity) walketh confidently; but he that distorteth his ways, shall be known. Some translate for "shall be known," "shall be broken," as if for ידע iada, that is, he knew, by the transposition of the letter ד with the related ר, or rather by catachresis, it is the same as ירע iara, that is, he broke; for thus in Judges VIII, 16, to know someone in thorns signifies in Hebrew to scourge and break someone with thorns. Thus R. Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Pagninus and Cajetan. But all the others translate, "shall be known," not "shall be broken"; for iada properly signifies to know. Hugo expounds τὸ "simply" as humbly, that is to say, He that walketh in humility and contempt of himself, he walketh confidently, because, when he placeth himself in the lowest place, he hath no further place to fall and descend, wherefore he feareth not depression and loss of honour, which the proud fear exceedingly. Or, he says, "walketh simply," he who walketh by one way only, which is Christ, namely he who followeth the life and virtues of Christ. But I say, "he that walketh," that is, liveth, acteth, converseth, "simply," that is, innocently, candidly, without fiction and deceit, wholly, perfectly, he "walketh confidently," that is, he is secure, feareth nothing, because he hath nothing that he ought to hide, and feareth no evil from others, since he hath done harm to no one. Thus also the Author of the Greek Catena saith and pursueth this: "He, he says, who departeth from a wicked action, he shall be secure; but he who walketh where it is not fitting, shall lose his own fraud;" Procopius translateth: "Just as a thief, even if by a thousand arts he conceal his dishonesty, it cometh to pass that he is discovered, and he who hopeth to conceal himself by his cunning is forced to come into the sight of all; so he that walketh rightly retaineth all freedom with fear cast off, nor feareth lest to anyone be revealed what might suffuse him with shame; for he walketh by the right way." Hence it is a proverb of the Arabs: "Beware lest thy tongue strike thy neck." For not rarely do men lose their heads on account of the incontinence of the tongue. Wherefore St. James admonisheth, cap. 1: "But let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak." Morally, learn here how great is the force and strength of simplicity, candour and innocence, inasmuch as it maketh a man free from fear, joyful in perils, confident in adversity, finally superior and exalted above misfortunes and even death itself. Whence the author of the Imperfect Work among St. Chrysostom, hom. 25 in Matthew: "Just as, he says, if thou castest a small spark into a great depth, thou straightway extinguishest it: so also all superabundance of sadness cast into a good conscience is easily extinguished." And Plutarch in his Morals: "As the nepenthe herb, he says, praised by Homer, added to cups driveth away all sadness (whence in Greek it is called nepenthe, as if νηπενθές, that is, without pain), so a good mind implanted in us abolisheth all solicitude of life." Finally St. Gregory, lib. XII of the Morals: "There is nothing, he says, which the simple man feareth to suffer from others; for he hath as it were a certain art of his own in his simplicity, nor is he suspected to suffer what he remembereth not to have done. But on the contrary the perverse mind is always in labours, because either it contriveth evils which it may bring upon itself; or it feareth lest these be brought upon it by others." Examples are in the Lives of the Fathers. Abba Theodore said: "If heaven should cleave to earth, Theodore feareth not." For he had asked by prayers of God that he would take away fear from him. Abba Sisois praying for a disciple possessed by a demon: "God, he said, thou willest, thou willest not, I release him not unless thou healest him;"; and he was healed. Another elder entering the cave of a roaring lion: "Why art thou troubled, he said, O lion? there is a place that can hold thee and me; but if thou wilt not, depart hence." But the lion, not bearing it, went forth from there. Thus St. Antony, confident in God, laughed at all the phantoms of demons, and St. Athanasius at all the persecutions of the Arians. St. Pachomius by confidence in God trod upon serpents and tamed crocodiles. Aeneas Sylvius relateth that King Alfonso, being asked who would be free, answered: The wise man, and master of himself, whom neither poverty, nor death, nor chains terrify. That saying of Father Syrus is celebrated: "The guilty man prays, the innocent man grows angry." Hence the salamander unharmed in fires is a symbol of innocence, concerning which the Poet writes: The salamander walks unharmed through the midst of fires; namely it always remains unharmed and integrity is preserved. And the hedgehog rolled into a ball against dogs, concerning which the Poet: Integrity and virtue protected by their own defense, Are not exposed to the bites of envious adversity. Whence innocence itself is depicted fearless with this motto: "Lightning does not terrify me." I fear not lightning, the laurel shoots drive it away: Integrity despises the insults of Fortune. "He that depraveth his ways," that is, he who acts wickedly, and especially he who operates fraudulently and deceitfully, "shall be made manifest;" for deception and wickedness cannot remain hidden for long without revealing and exposing themselves by some indication: wherefore then they bring shame and fear to a man, and moreover harm and punishment. There is here, as in other proverbs, an antithesis, but concealed by metalepsis, by which the consequent is understood from the antecedent, and by metonymy, by which the effect is understood from the cause, and vice versa. Therefore "shall be made manifest" is opposed to "walketh confidently," because he who walks wickedly, since he fears the manifestation of his wickedness and fraud, always proceeds fearfully; but after that has been made manifest, he proceeds confused and anxious: whereas the just man proceeds confidently, that is fearlessly, free, unafraid. "For a troubled conscience always presumes evil," Wisdom XVII. And, as Job says in chapter XV, "the sound of terror is always in his ears, and when there is peace, he always suspects snares. He believeth not that he may return from darkness." Wherefore truly St. Cyprian, book I epistle 3 to St. Cornelius the Pontiff On the Frauds of Fortunatus: "This is, he says, brother, true madness, not to know and not to understand that deceits do not deceive for long. It is night so long as day is breaking; but when day is made clear and the sun has risen, darkness and gloom must yield to light, and the robberies that were raging must cease." Thus St. Peter, innocent, about to be executed by the sword the next day, slept securely in prison, Acts XII, and Daniel in the den of lions. "The unconquered force is always its innocence." It is memorable what Osorius writes, book VIII On the Deeds of Emmanuel, that Albuquerque, the viceroy of India renowned for the glory of his deeds, in a grave tempest, seizing a boy, said: "Trusting in the innocence of this child, I am confident that by the kindness of Christ I shall emerge from the waves." Christ heard, was present and he emerged. So great is another's innocence with God, how much more then one's own! namely "innocence is the mother of security. For true innocence harms not even an enemy."
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10. HE THAT WINKETH WITH THE EYE SHALL GIVE SORROW: AND THE FOOL SHALL BE BEATEN WITH THE LIPS. — That is, he shall be punished, tormented both in this life and in the future. Whence Salonius: "He shall be beaten, he says, that is, he shall be condemned, on account of the wicked words which he has spoken." It is difficult to see the connection of the former part with the latter. I say briefly, that they are to be joined partly by antithesis in this manner, as if to say: He who winketh with the eye presumptuously giveth sorrow to others; but the fool, who speaketh presumptuously, giveth sorrow to himself by his lips, because he shall be beaten by those whom he hath injured with words. For he compareth an unbridled and presumptuous eye with an unbridled and presumptuous tongue; in that the one bringeth sorrows and stripes to others, the other to himself. Partly by similitude in this manner, as if to say: He that winketh with the eye is like unto the fool with his lips. For as he that winketh with the eye bringeth sorrows and stripes equally upon himself as upon others, while he is beaten and scourged on account of his winks and eye-blinkings: so likewise the fool with his lips bringeth sorrows and stripes upon both himself and others. For as his tongue beateth others, so in turn he is chastised and beaten by them both in words and in stripes. Therefore, as in verse 8, he opposed the fool with his lips to the wise in heart: so now he composeth and compareth the same fool with him that winketh with the eyes; for in many sentences here he attacketh the vice and presumption of the tongue. Furthermore, he aptly compareth the fool with his lips to him that winketh with the eyes, because fools, that is, the wicked, the crime which they dare not speak openly, they hint at by the winking of the eyes; whence they speak the same thing by their lips among their own, and by eye-blinkings before others; they discourse therefore both with eyes and with lips. Furthermore, men are wont to wink with the eyes for various reasons. First, from wantonness and lust; for thus young men allure maidens to themselves by the winking of the eyes. For the first signs and enticements of love are the casting of the eyes. These give sorrow both to the husband of the woman to whom they wink, because they stir up jealousy in him; and to the wife herself, because she is therefore beaten by her husband; and to herself, because she exposeth herself to the danger of being slain by her husband as an adulteress. Thus Clement of Alexandria expoundeth it, book III of the Paedagogus: "Wanton, he saith, looks, and with versatile, and as it were winking eyes to gaze, is nothing else than to commit adultery with the eyes, since through the eyes lust entereth the first preliminaries of the struggle. For he that winketh with the eye with guile gathereth sorrows for men. Such a one, namely that effeminate king Sardanapalus of the Assyrians, they paint reclining on a bed with his feet raised up, plucking purple, and rolling the whiteness of his eyes. Those women who exercise these things are their own procuresses by their own gaze." Secondly, flatterers wink with the eyes, and they are the same as fools with their lips, because they are beaten by the same. Thus our Salazar, as if to say: The flatterer, by winking with the eyes and approving the vices of others, bringeth sorrow to those to whom he flattereth, because he is the cause that they themselves add vices to vices, on account of which they afterwards incur grave sorrows and punishments: whence he himself, as it were a fool with his lips, shall be beaten, because from him to whom he hath flattered, and to whom he hath been the cause of sorrows, he shall at length receive stripes and wounds. Wherefore Plutarch in his Morals: "As painting, he saith, is silent poetry, so often the flatterer praiseth in silence, namely by countenance, by nod and by obsequiousness." And Maximus, sermon 11: "As ravens, he saith, flying about pluck out the eyes of carcasses, so flatterers by their flatteries pluck out the eyes, namely the reason and mind, and corrupt them, κόλαξ therefore is κόραξ, that is, the flatterer is a raven. Whence that saying, κρείττον εἰς κόρακας ἢ εἰς κόλακας ἐμπίπτειν, that is, it is better to fall into ravens than into flatterers." These he warneth to be avoided in Ecclesiastes, chapter VII, verse 6: "It is better, he saith, to be rebuked by a wise man, than to be deceived by the flattery of fools." For, as St. Augustine saith in Psalm LIX, "the tongue of the flatterer pursueth more than the sword of the persecutor." The flatterer therefore is like unto the polypus, saith St. Basil, homily On Reading the Books of the Gentiles: "For what is just, he saith, among those who have regard for justice, he praiseth; among the unjust he straightway blameth, after the manner of the polypus, which rendereth the colour of the earth which it hath touched." See Plutarch in the Comparison of the Flatterer and the Friend. Third, mockers announce with their eyes. For they give pain to the mocked, and often to themselves. For those who mock others are in turn mocked by the same, and they pay for their mockeries with similar mockery, or even with blows and stripes; therefore the mocker winking with his eyes gives pain to others, and therefore in turn he himself, as it were foolish, is beaten by his own lips, since on account of his mocking lips he is punished with words and stripes. Thus Aben-Ezra, Bede and Cajetan. Whence the Hebrew word procarats properly signifies to cut out, to cut, and from this by metaphor to wink with the eyes; because winking, he cuts his eyes as it were and his eyelids in that frequent and often repeated winking, and by that sign he seems likewise to cut the honor of him whom he mocks by winking. Thus Marinus in the Lexicon. Fourth, thieves, traitors, robbers and other criminals wink with their eyes to their associates, so that they may secretly indicate to them the manner and time of completing a theft, betrayal, murder, or similar crime, into which they have previously conspired by secret agreement. Thus R. Solomon, R. Levi and Baynus. Fifth, and most appropriately, they wink with their eyes—the false, the simulated, the deceitful, the hypocrites—who pretend to be friends, and when occasion is given, they exercise the enmity which they cherish in their heart, and they supplant the unwary friend. Whence the Septuagint translates, "he that winketh with the eye in deceit" (the Syriac, "in fraud"), "gathereth sorrows to men." For thus in Scripture, especially in Solomon, those who are deceitful and fraudulent are said to wink with their eyes, as in chapter VI, verse 12: "A man that is an apostate, a man of iniquity, walketh with a perverse mouth, winketh with his eyes, etc., deviseth evil with a perverse heart." He alludes to that of his father David, Psalm XXXIV, 19: "Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: who hate me without cause, and wink with their eyes;" which explaining he adds: "For they spoke to me peacefully, and speaking in the anger of the earth, they devised deceits." The Zurich Bible is added, which thus translates, "he that winketh with his eyes, maketh mischief;" but he that foolishly speaketh falleth into various things, that is, says Vatablus, he who is painted and feigns his countenance, shall greatly hurt; but he who speaks foolishly, hurts little, because he is immediately discovered. Finally, thus Solomon is interpreted by his follower as is customary in Ecclesiasticus chapter XXVII, verse 25, saying: "He that winketh with the eye deviseth wicked things, and no one will cast him off; in the sight of thy eyes he will spit upon his mouth, and upon thy words he will wonder; but at last he will pervert his mouth, and in thy words he will give scandal," and consequently pain, as Solomon says here. Moreover the Septuagint for ילכם tillabet, that is "he shall be beaten," reading שלם jescallem, that is "he shall make peace," translate, "he that winketh with the eye in deceit gathereth sorrows to men; but he that rebuketh with liberty, maketh peace." The Septuagint follows the Syriac as is customary, which says, "he that winketh with the eye in fraud, gathereth sorrows; he that openly rebuketh, maketh peace," as if to say: He who secretly winking with his eye, deceitfully mocks the vices of another, or devises evil for him, this one afflicts him with sorrow, both because he mocks him, or devises evil, and because he does it secretly and deceitfully; but he who openly reproves the vices of another, this one maketh peace, because by his reproof he causes it that the reproved one correct the vices, which were the cause of hatreds and quarrels, and thus peace returns between friends, associates and citizens. Or, as the author of the Greek Catena says, as if to say: The wise man by free reproof of vices often brings the sinner to repentance and amendment; but the fraudulent man sows nothing but sorrow and enmity.
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11. A VEIN OF LIFE, THE MOUTH OF THE JUST: AND THE MOUTH OF THE WICKED COVERETH INIQUITY. — Some read, iniquity. Whence the Syriac, and the mouth of the wicked covers iniquity; the Arabic, a fountain of life in the hands of the just, and the mouth of the impious stops up destruction. Some understand by "a vein of life" a vein of blood; for in blood consists the soul and life, as if to say, Just as a vein continually contains vital blood, and dispersing it through the body gives it life: so likewise the mouth of the just flows with words of blood, that is, vital words, which bring life to the souls of those who hear. But "a vein of life" is here called a fountain of life, as the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Aquila, Symmachus translate it, and thus our translator rendered it, Psalm XXXV, 10: "For with thee is the fountain of life;" now a fountain of life is called that which continually pours forth living waters, that is, flowing, clear, sweet and healthful waters: for dead waters, opposed to living waters, are called still waters, which do not flow, and therefore become putrid, are bitter and salt, and bring harm: such as are in pools and marshes. Whence also the Dead Sea is called the Lake of Asphaltites, both because it is stagnant, and because it neither nourishes fish nor any living thing. The sense therefore is, as if to say, The mouth of the just is a vein and fountain of life, because it continually brings forth vital words, which namely inspire life of grace to those who hear; for it teaches them to live rightly, so that they may obtain from God blessed and eternal life. On the contrary, the "mouth of the wicked" in itself "covereth" and shuts up "iniquity," so that it is as it were a vein and fountain of iniquity, which continually bubbles forth wicked, lustful, detracting, blasphemous, fraudulent, unjust, impious words, which bring destruction and death to those who hear. Whence in Hebrew it is, the mouth of the wicked shall cover rapine; the Zurich Bible, violence; the Chaldean, injury. Thus Aben-Ezra: "The mouth of the just," he says, "is as it were a fountain bringing life to those who have drawn instruction from his mouth. Therefore from him life emanates, when he forms others in the institution of morals." The mouth therefore of the wicked is as it were a pool with dead waters, that is, with putrid, dishonorable, harmful and pestilential things and words, which it pours forth into others, stagnating; nay, the mouth of the wicked is as it were the Dead Sea killing all things, and continually exhaling sulphurous vapors, that is, infernal lusts and passions. That mouth therefore covers iniquity, or iniquity, first, because it is so full of iniquity, that iniquity itself as it were overflowing stagnates and covers his mouth; secondly, because it covers and hides by the mouth the iniquity which it devises and presses in the heart; thirdly, because iniquity, that is, the punishment of iniquity, returns upon his mouth as it were of its author, and covers it with confusion and sorrow. Note, that by mouth is understood also the heart. For the heart properly is a vein and fountain of life and death, that is, of vital and lethal words; but the heart is so joined to the mouth, and conversely the mouth to the heart, that they seem to be one and the same in man. Hugo adds, who thus expounds, as if to say, The mouth of the just is as it were a pure fountain of water, because it brings forth the sentiments of its pure heart candidly, feigns nothing, hides nothing; but the mouth of the wicked covers and hides the iniquity which it devises in its heart, so that in its time it may work it out to the destruction of others. Again Lyran adapts these things to the confession of sins, as if to say, The mouth of the truly penitent just brings forth the vital waters of pure and sincere confession of sins, by which he obtains pardon and the life of grace; but the mouth of the impenitent and wicked covers up its crimes, and thus remains in death and mortal sin. Our Salazar accommodates these things to confession at length and elegantly. But this is a narrower explanation: For the Wise Man speaks generally, and deals more with the salutary words of teachers, admonishers, confessors, preachers, by which those who hear are stirred to virtue and the life of grace; these therefore are veins and channels pouring forth vital words to all. Add, that sacramental confession had not yet been instituted in the time of Solomon, and a sinner confessing could not yet be called the mouth of the just, but of the penitent. Mystically Hugo: A vein of life is the mouth of the just, that is of Christ, he says, who is the just one by antonomasia, because the Holy of Holies; for by the word of Christ many souls have been recalled from the death of sin to the life of grace, and many bodies from natural death to human life. Moreover the Septuagint translates, A fountain of life is in the hand of the just: but the mouth of the impious shall cover destruction; which our Salazar explains at length and elegantly in his manner concerning almsgiving, that is to say, Almsgiving in the hand of the just is as it were a fountain of life, that is a vital and perpetual fountain, which continually pours forth, nay gushes forth waters of beneficence and liberality; but the mouth of the impious, that is the opening of the fountain, namely of the liberality of the impious, covers destruction, namely lost covetousness and avarice, by which they wish to scrape together all things, to give out nothing. And thus St. Basil in his homily On the Rich Growing Wealthy teaches, and St. Chrysostom, homily 55 to the People, teaches that beneficence is as it were a fountain, from which all good things and gifts continually spring forth, because as much as they draw out from above by giving, so much springs forth from below by receiving, as happens in wells and fountains. But the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Aquila, Symmachus and Our Version require the former sense; for here the matter is concerning the mouth and words, not the hand and almsgiving. Wherefore lest the Septuagint dissent from the original text and the other interpreters, thus they are to be expounded, that is to say, A fountain of life is in the hand, that is in the power, namely in the mouth of the just, from which at pleasure he brings forth vital words. Whence by antithesis they oppose to it: "But the mouth of the impious shall cover destruction," that is to say, But the mouths of the impious continually bring forth lost words, harmful, pestilential; for these, and no others, they contain within themselves, cover and conceal. Whence the author of the Greek Catena thus expounds the Septuagint, that is to say, The actions of the just bring forth salvation and eternal life; but the words of the impious bring forth and merit nothing else than punishment and penalty: because indeed most actions are done by the hand, hence the hand signifies any actions whatsoever, even utterances, which are made by the mouth. Thus Salonius.
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12. HATRED STIRS UP QUARRELS: AND CHARITY COVERS ALL OFFENCES. — The Arabic, almsgiving; the Septuagint, hatred shall stir up contention (Symmachus and Theodotion, battles); but over all those not contending charity shall cover; the Scholiast, but all those committing injury covers love; St. Athanasius, in the Synopsis of Holy Scripture cap. XIV, for νεῖκος, that is contention, reads νῖκος, that is victory; whence he has, hatred excites victory (for victory indeed excites emulation, envy and hatred. Whence also the Arabic translates, hatred elevates dominion, or superiority, or victory); but all those who are not contentious, covers friendship. But the true reading of the Septuagint is νεῖκος, as is evident from the Hebrew, Symmachus, Theodotion and the Latin Vulgate. The Syriac goes another way, hatred, it says, excites judgment, and over all the wicked covers confusion; the Zurich Bible, hatred excites occasions of contentions, but love covers all transgressions; Vatable, charity pardons to others all offences. The sense is, that is to say, Hatred causes him laboring under it to seize the occasion of censuring him whom he pursues with hatred, and of contending and quarreling, even where there is no fault or offence. But love and charity so flees quarrels and disputes, that it even covers, conceals and hides the very faults and offences which could be the cause of quarrels. Whence the author of the Greek Catena, expounding the version of the Septuagint, hatred, he says, and enmity stir up battles and contentions, but the pursuit of peace generates grace and friendship. Lyranus restricts these to correction: "Just as, he says, hatred by quarreling manifests the defects of others, so charity conceals them, except insofar as fraternal correction requires;" nay even this correction is first to be done in secret, according to the precept of Christ, Matt. XVIII, 15: "If thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone." On which words St. Augustine writing gives the reason: "For if thou alone, he says, knowest, and wishest to reprove before all, thou art not a corrector, but a betrayer." But this is a general sentence, and is not to be restricted to correction alone. Whence St. Peter citing it in his epistle I, cap. IV, vers. 8, extends it to all the offices of charity: "Before all things, he says, having among yourselves a constant mutual charity, because charity covers a multitude of sins." And St. James, cap. V, vers. 20: "He who, he says, shall convert a sinner from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins." See the words in both places. For in I Pet. IV, I have explained these things at length, and shown that charity covers sins both one's own and those of others, both past and present and future. Wherefore I shall add nothing here, nor shall I repeat the matter.
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13. IN THE LIPS OF THE WISE SHALL WISDOM BE FOUND: AND A ROD ON THE BACK OF HIM THAT WANTETH HEART. — That is, of the foolish. In Hebrew, a rod upon the heart of him that is small of heart. First, the Septuagint thus translate and explain it: he who brings forth wisdom from his lips, a rod strikes the senseless man, as if to say, Wisdom is found in the lips of the wise; but the fool, because by the same he sees his own foolishness and vices exposed and corrected, hence he abhors it as a rod by which he is scourged. Whence some thus translate it: in the lips of the wise wisdom is found, and the same rod is in the body of him that wanteth heart. Secondly, Baius, as if to say: If anyone seeks wisdom, he will find it in the lips of the wise; but because the foolish man does not seek it for himself, therefore at length a rod will be found on his back, and affliction will give understanding to him who would not be taught. Thirdly, Cajetan, as if to say: The wise man willingly and readily brings forth wisdom: but the fool only when compelled by the rod, so that unless you drive him with the scourge, you will not draw forth even a crumb of wisdom from his mouth. Fourthly, more aptly others, as if to say: The wise man willingly and gladly eructates wisdom; but the fool, who like an ass must be driven by the rod to wisdom, so that he may learn and do it rather than teach it, must be driven to this by the correction and sharp goad of the wise man, as if to say: The wise man abounds in wisdom; but the fool lacks wisdom, and abounds in foolishness, and therefore needs the rod, so that compelled by it he may learn to be wise. Fifthly, appropriately our Salazar: In the lips of the wise wisdom is found, that is, the words which the wise man uses testify to his wisdom; but the words of the foolish and senseless man testify to his foolishness and fatuity, the blows and scourges by which he is beaten; the marks, I say, of the blows, and the bruises of the wounds, which remain impressed. This is what those words mean: "And a rod on the back of him that wanteth heart;" supply, is found, that is, the marks of the rod. In short I would say: The words of the intelligent testify to wisdom, the blows of the foolish to foolishness. Sixthly, more plainly and fully Jansenius: He indicates, he says, that through wisdom it comes to pass that wisdom is found in the lips of the wise, which makes him speak many things wisely, which conduces to the honor and glory of the wise man himself. But through foolishness it comes to pass that a rod is found on the back of the fool, that is, so that on account of many things which he does and says foolishly, it happens that he is gravely chastised and punished with much dishonor to himself. He signifies therefore that wisdom adorns its possessor among men, foolishness disgraces him; and that, just as honor is found in the lips of the wise, so dishonor is found on the back of the fool. These three last interpretations are genuine, and come down to nearly the same thing. Therefore the antithesis is clear, that the wise man bears the honor of wisdom in his mouth, the fool bears the dishonor of foolishness on his back, namely the marks of scourges, by which he has been driven to do, learn and say something well and wisely. The same thing is noted by the allusion and antithesis of the Hebrew words siphte, that is lips, and schebet, that is rod, as if to say: The wise man bears his honor in siphte, that is in the lips of wisdom; but the fool bears his dishonor and reproach in schebet, that is in the rod, that is in the marks of the rod on his back. Morally, Hugo and Salazar note that wisdom is found in the lips of the wise, as a treasure hidden in a field. Therefore just as formerly a treasure was wont to be sought by the indication of coals, or fragments of glass, or nettles (for by these signs they formerly marked the place of the treasure, which they dug up): so likewise, he who seeks wisdom and the wise man, let him carefully examine certain lips, which bear uncorrupted words like coals blackening, like fragments of glass wounding and shedding blood, pricking and lacerating like nettles. Let him examine, I say, lips which censure vices, accuse crimes, reprove sins, and which are not softened by any flatteries. Mystically Bede: "A rod on the back, he says, is vengeance in the latter things, that is in the life to come. Whoever therefore does not wish to bear the rod on his back, let him bear wisdom in his lips, let him speak the praises of Christ, and preach his precepts."
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14. THE WISE HIDE KNOWLEDGE: BUT THE MOUTH OF THE FOOL IS NEAR TO CONFUSION. — The Septuagint: the wise will hide the sense, but the mouth of the rash, in Greek προπετοῦς, that is, headlong, impudent, approaches ruin. For confusion the Hebrew is מחתה mechitta, that is, ruin, fracture, whether of body or of mind, such as is the consternation and confusion of mind. Whence the Syriac translates, the hasty mouth is near to breaking; the Chaldean, destruction is near to the mouth of the foolish; the Zurich version, the wise dissemble knowledge, but the mouth of the fool brings terror; Pagninus, the mouth of the fool is near ruin; others, the mouth of the fool is prostration to itself; Banus, the mouth of the fool near fracture; Vatablus, near the mouth of the fool is destruction (calamity). Some with R. Levi take ruin and destruction as active, as if to say, The fool by his garrulity, petulance, witticism and lies disturbs all things, stirs up quarrels, and brings ruin and destruction to many. Better do others take ruin as passive; whence Our version translates, is near to confusion. The sense therefore is, as if to say, The wise man does not arrogantly display wisdom, but wisely and modestly hides and conceals it, so that at an opportune time he may bring it forth and speak it: wherefore he says nothing except what is well weighed and ruminated in mind; but the fool does not know how to hide what he knows, or thinks he knows; but like fermenting must, whatever he has in mind, he recklessly belches forth with his mouth: by which it comes to pass that he says many things that are dull, arrogant, seditious, slanderous, on account of which he is reproved; and therefore he is confounded, and is afflicted with shame and ignominy; indeed he is broken, and is punished with blows and stripes, and sometimes in his tongue or another member, and even in his life. Hence R. Solomon: The wise, he says, hide wisdom, that is, they lay it up in their heart, lest it ever be blotted out, according to that: "I have hid thy words in my heart." So also R. Levi and Aben-Ezra. But if sometimes the mouth of the fool is not confounded, the cause is either his wickedness and shamelessness, or that between his words and the derision of his hearers there intervenes a curtain of simulation. For in his presence they conceal their laughter, or even by flattering praise him; but in their heart, in his presence; and in his absence openly among themselves they mock his dull sayings. Parallel to this sentiment are the maxims of the Philosophers. Of Zeno: "For this reason we have two ears and one mouth, that we may hear much, but speak very little. Wherefore in the talkative, the ears have flowed into the tongue." Thus Laertius relates it, book VII, chapter 1. Of Euripides: "The end of unbridled mouth and illegitimate folly is misfortune and broken teeth." Of Apollonius: "Talkativeness has many errors, but silence is safe." Of Cato: For never to have been silent harms; to have spoken harms. Of Demosthenes: "If you had been as wise as you were talkative, you would never have spoken so much." Of Democrates: "Avarice is to wish to say all things, and to hear nothing." Of Theocritus against Anaximenes the verbose: "A river of words begins, a drop of mind;" indicating that he has much of words, little of mind and wisdom. Of Theophrastus: "More trust is to be placed in an unbridled horse than in an uncontrolled word." Finally, it is a proverb of the Arabs: "The mouth is the prison of the tongue." Morally, learn that the wise conceal their wisdom and virtue, because they strive to prove it to God alone; wherefore they do not seek the eyes and praises of men, and they say with the Apostle: "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ," Galatians I, 10. Such were the first Christians, of whom the same Apostle says, Colossians III, 6: "You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God;" where I have said much on this matter. The first among these was the Blessed Virgin, who, loving secrecy, hid herself in the temple until the angel's announcement concerning the bearing of the Word, "intent upon her work, modest in speech, accustomed to seek the judgment of her mind not from man, but from God," as St. Ambrose says, at the beginning of book II of his work On Virgins. The Essenes imitated her, and afterwards so many companies of Ascetics, such as St. Anthony, St. Hilarion, who, as St. Jerome says in his Life, "frequently changed his place, fleeing honor and importunity: for he always desired silence and an ignoble life;" St. Paul, St. Macarius, St. Pachomius, St. Romualdus and countless others. And how many there are today in Religious communities, men and women outstanding in wisdom and virtue, who, in order to trample upon the glory of the world and to devote themselves solely to God and the salvation of souls, say with the Psalmist: "I have chosen to be abject in the house of my God rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners." These are known to God, unknown to the world, burning with zeal for God, they offer tears for the whole world; hence by their merits and prayers the world stands. Their axiom is this: "Live for yourself, or rather live for God, and far flee great names. He lived well who hid well; λάθε βιώσας, λάθε ἀποθανών, live in hiding, die in hiding," so that on that great and decisive day of the age, which will be the horizon of time and eternity, having spurned the pomp of the world, you may deserve to be blessed and made happy by Christ the judge with the choirs of the heavenly citizens and the eternal glory of the Saints. Cyril exhibits this principle, illustrated by the celebrated parable of the peacock and the hedgehog, adorned with festive parables of things, to be viewed as it were with the eyes, in book II of his Moral Apologies, chapter XXI, which has the title: Against the vainly pompous and those who wish to appear. "The peacock," he says, "meeting the hedgehog, in order to display his own glory before him and to confound him with his spiny skin: immediately raising his tail, and as if with purple variety, with a wonderful starry appearance with feathers arranged in golden order, flying about hither and thither offered himself to the eyes of the beholder. But the hedgehog, understanding by a nod of prudence that the peacock was being lifted up by vain glory, in order that he might lose it, collected himself into a ball and with hidden face, presented only his spines everywhere. When the peacock saw himself thus mocked, immediately seized with anger, he attacked him with words of lamentation and said: Although man always delights to see beautiful things with wonderful admiration, you nevertheless with hidden eyes not only disdained to see that beauty, but even presented yourself to me as a horrible ball of spines and a deformed shape. To which the hedgehog replied: Surely he does no injury to anyone who uses what is his own. Nevertheless, I beseech you, tell me peacefully, what is more worth to you, to be seen or to be? Surely if you say to be, what have you to do with my eyes? For without them you exist no less. But if you desire more to be seen, then you have become a shadowy pomp, and you seek a pupillary mirror." Remember that the basilisk's eye kills. Nay, even with your permission I shall rightly say to you what the fox once said to the ape congratulating herself before a mirror: Rejoice, sister, rather that you are, and by no means that you appear in the light of a mirror's likeness. For because you are, you have the substance of wildness; but insofar as you appear in the likeness of a mirror, you become only a shadow of vanity." Then he demonstrates the same thing by various parables of the tiger, smoke, seed, leprosy, aromatics, and the chestnut: "Have you not heard that the swiftest tiger lost the young she had seized, because with her eye fixed on a mirror by the way, admiring the false likeness of herself, she now thought she had found them, and thus on account of the vain appearance loved, she lost the substance of her offspring. Why therefore do you scatter yourself with the winnowing fan of pomposity, and seek only on the surface that which is without? Remember that smoke vanishes when it is scattered; and the earth does not sprout unless the seed cast into it is hidden in its depths. External whiteness clouds the eye, and leprosy sprinkled over the skin contaminates the limb. But a hidden form shines more brightly, and an aromatic thing when it is hidden, delights the sense of smell more. Thus also the chestnut is hidden under a spiny husk, so that, spurning vain appearance, the medullary sweetness may be sought under true existence. In this way therefore I am surrounded by spines outwardly, so that in substance I may be safe. Thus (Exodus XXXIV, 33) the face of Moses is hidden with a luminous veil, and (Exodus XXXVI, 14, 19) the Sanctuary of God is covered all around with many coverings." Finally, concluding with the parable of the ant and the chameleon, he assigns this moral: "If you have heard the counsel of the ant, given to the chameleon glorying and rejoicing in his golden color, consider that this same thing is said to you, namely, close your eye, and you will be established in true glory. For with two eyebrows, so that the closure may be held more firmly, the eye is closed, and with one only, so that the eyelid is rarely held open, it is opened."
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15. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE RICH MAN, A CITY OF STRENGTH TO HIM: THE FEAR OF THE POOR, THEIR WANT. — The Chaldean: the possession of the rich man is a city of his riches (the Syrian: fortified cities), and the fear of the poor, their necessity; R. Solomon, the want of the poor is the sum of their calamity; Aben-Ezra, the poor, that is the faint-hearted, were overwhelmed by the name of want. The sense is, as if to say, Riches fortify the rich man, surround and strengthen him against poverty, persecutions, calumnies and other calamities of this life, just as a strong city fortifies and defends its citizens against all incursions of enemies, robberies, slaughter, etc. Wherefore the rich man, trusting in riches as in a fortified city, dwells bold and courageous: but the poor man, on account of want, lies open to all injuries, because he has not means by which to ransom and defend himself, and therefore walks timid and fearful, just as the cold and the sick, who lack blood and heat, walk pale and fearful: for "riches are to a man as blood," says the Wise Man. Whence the Zurich version translates, the wealthy man trusts in his riches as in a most strong city: but the poor are made timid by their own poverty; Vatable, the consternation of the needy is their want, that is, the poor lose confidence on account of their poverty. Thus we see the rich walking upright, confident, courageous, unafraid; but the poor contracted, abject, faint-hearted, fearful. For fear in Hebrew it is מחתה mechitta, that is consternation, contrition, as Pagninus translates it; fracture, or breaking, as the Syrian. Thus Bede: "The rich," he says, "trust in riches, as in a fortified city. The poor therefore fear, lest they fail, because they know themselves to be needy." Hence the poor man is called from small money or household, and πτωχός in Greek from πτώξ, that is fearful, timorous. Whence πτωχεύειν, that is to live in want and to beg, is πτώσσειν, that is to fear, to be afraid, to be struck with fear. And Lyra: "The rich man," he says, "trusts in the greatness of his riches, as one besieged in the strength of walls: the fear of the poor, their want: because wicked men do not fear to wrong the poor." For, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus VII, 13, "as wisdom protects, so does money protect." Solomon therefore signifies that riches have great advantages, if one uses them rightly: but that poverty is in itself disadvantageous, unless it is supported and as it were animated by a higher spirit, namely the Gospel spirit. Whence also Aristotle in the Ethics, Book I, Chapter X, teaches that riches are the most apt instrument for acquiring happiness, and that they provide matter for virtue. Furthermore, this saying, since it is a proverb, indefinite and general, can be adapted to various things and purposes. Hugo, Cajetan and our Salazar think it is said against the rich and riches, in that these beget pride and boldness; and against the poor and poverty, in that this abjects man, and therefore tacitly commends the golden mean; for Solomon sought this in Chapter XXX, saying: "Give me neither riches nor poverty, but give me only what is necessary for my food." For, as the Poet says: Whoever loves the golden mean, Safe from the filth of a decayed roof, Sober, lacks the envy of a palace. So also our Fernandez in Genesis, Chapter XVII, at the end: "The substance of the rich man, a city of strength to him," as if to say, Closed, he says, surrounded, excellently fortified, finally strong and unconquered, nay even victorious, the rich man holds himself within his riches, or against the very justice and power of laws and judges. Indeed, the cause of the wealthy or illustrious man is wont to be impregnable, though adorned with execrable crimes. What more? As truly as elegantly wrote St. Cyprian, in his letter to Donatus: "There is no fear of the laws; no fear of the prosecutor, of the judge: what can be redeemed is not feared. To be innocent among the guilty (add also poor and ignoble), is a crime." Thus he. Whom you see absolved, fear lest he be rich; whom you see condemned, know him to be a pauper. Such is the world today. Thus Fernandez. To this pertain the verses of Menander among Stobaeus, discourse 89, in which he sings that he knows no other gods than silver and gold, which can do all things: I truly think our useful gods are, And silver, and gold especially: These indeed, if you dedicate your property in your house, Whatever you wish, ask, all things will come to you, Field, house, and slaves and silver vessels, Witnesses, friends, judges: finally give, And you will have them, or serving gods themselves. Melius Baynus, Jansenius and others refer it to labor and the flight from idleness, of which he spoke in verses 4 and 5: "The hand of the slothful hath wrought poverty; but the hands of the strong prepare riches." The sense therefore is, as if to say: Be diligent in work and labor, so that you may prepare for yourself sufficient wealth for a comfortable life: for these will fortify you like a very strong city; if indeed from sloth you give yourself to idleness, you will fall into poverty which will make you fearful, as being subject to all injuries. The Septuagint favors this when they translate: "The possession of the rich is a fortified city, the destruction of the impious is poverty." Where, since they oppose the rich to the impious, they seem to understand by the rich the industrious and diligent, but by the impious the slothful and idle, and therefore fraudulent and thievish, as if to say: The industrious by their labor prepare for themselves possessions, which are to them a protection, as it were a fortified city; but the slothful and impious by their torpor create for themselves poverty, which crushes them and reduces them to the straits of hunger, want and death. Hence tropologically it is signified that riches of virtues are to be prepared by labor: for these are as it were an impregnable city, which protects man against all adversities and strengthens him. Whence Hugo: "This abundance is the city of the elect, he says, whose rampart is contempt of earthly things, wall hope, outwork patience, tower humility, fountain fortifying the tower tears, stream of this fountain the water of tears, watchman prudence, gatekeeper obedience, king charity, guards soldiers justice, temperance and fortitude." Truly the Lyric poet: "True riches are those which serve virtues. Consider the greatest riches to be the greatest virtue." Anagogically it is signified that we must labor here, so that through good works we may prepare for ourselves the riches of great glory in the heavenly Jerusalem, which will be to us an unconquered and very strong city. Whence the author of the Greek Catena thus explains, as if to say: "Men devoted to virtues, who abound in good works, prepare for themselves through virtue the heavenly Jerusalem, which is a city fortified beyond others; but the impious who possess no good work bind themselves by the debt of eternal punishment. For by the name of destruction he designated this, just as by the lack of good works death itself." And Bede: "He who is rich in God, he says, through good works, trusts in him as in an impregnable city, because he cannot be overcome by any enemy. But those who are straitened by lack of virtues, therefore lack heavenly riches, because by harmful fear they fear to endure hard labors for the Lord." Where note that Bede takes fear actively, as if to say: The fear of the slothful, namely the fear and horror of labor is the cause of their poverty; just as on the other hand fortitude, that is, strong and vigorous labor is the cause of the substance of the rich. Yet it may be more genuinely understood according to the letter that fear here should be taken passively as an effect, as is evident from the city of fortitude, which is opposed to fear: so that the sense is, as if to say: Just as the substance of the rich causes a city of fortitude, that is, confidence and security, such as citizens have in a strong city: so on the other hand poverty of the poor causes in them fear. The heavenly Jerusalem is also called "a city of fortitude," first, because through fortitude the entrance into it is to be prepared, and no one except the strong enters into it. Whence in the Lives of the Fathers in the Life of Epictetus and of the Martyrs Astius we read of Vigilantius, sent by Astius to his parents, to console them concerning his death, when they asked what that region of paradise was in which he said their son dwelt and lived, Vigilantius answered: "It is a region of the strong or of strong men; the city is called to Christians the heavenly Jerusalem, whose wall is constructed of the purest gold, having twelve gates, and in each hang pearls." This city, and the hall of the strong of Christ, was foreshadowed by the thirty very strong soldiers of the hall of David, II Kings, XXIII. Secondly, because it is very strong in itself. Whence Isaiah sings of it XXVI, 1: "The city of our strength is Sion; the Savior shall be placed in it as a wall and bulwark." Others translate from the Hebrew: The city of strength is Sion to us; God will place salvation both in the walls and in the bulwark, as if to say: Do you wish to know how strong that city of the Blessed is? Hear: salvation itself has surrounded it with its walls and bulwarks; God has placed salvation for it in place of walls and bulwarks: salvation therefore surrounds and defends the city on all sides. But there is no one who can harm that salvation and safety itself. Moreover, St. Ambrose accommodates these things to almsgiving, which purchases heaven not so much by strength as by liberality. For martyrs purchase heaven with flesh, that is, with blood; but almoners with a cheap price, namely with silver and gold, that is, with white and red earth. Thus, St. Ambrose says, in book III, epistle 25 to the Church of Vercelli, somewhat before the end: "There is therefore, he says, a place for virtue even in these material riches. You are as it were pilots in a great sea. If anyone steers his ship well, he quickly crosses the strait, so that he may reach the harbor; but he who does not know how to govern his wealth is sunk by his burden. Therefore it is written: The possession of the rich is a strong city. What is this, except Jerusalem which is in heaven, in which is the kingdom of God? This is a good possession, which produces perpetual fruits. A good possession, which is not left here, but is possessed there. In this possession, he who shall be says: The Lord is my portion. He does not say: My portion stretched out and spread from those to those boundaries."
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16. THE WORK OF THE JUST UNTO LIFE: BUT THE FRUIT OF THE WICKED UNTO SIN. — For fruit in Hebrew is תבואה tebua, that is, produce, such as the harvest of fields and the vintage of vineyards. Whence Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion translate, the offspring of the wicked; the Septuagint, the works of the just make life; but the produce of the wicked ἁμαρτίαι, that is, sins, namely are; or, as the Complutensian edition reads, ἁμαρτίᾳ, that is, to sins, supply, serve or abound. First, Rabbi Solomon thus explains it, as if to say: Solomon completed the work of the temple unto the life of the Israelites, so that namely they might expiate their crimes therein: but the fruit of Manasseh was unto sin, because he brought an idol into the temple. But this exposition is either mystical, or by example only. Second, others understand by work the work of man, by produce the fruit of the earth, so that work is gain obtained by labor, produce is wealth and unearned income, which comes to the idle rich man from the fertility of the earth: so that Solomon here prefers the laborious life of the poor, obtained by work, to the idle and inert life of the rich, as if to say: Work and labor, by which the just man of modest fortune seeks his livelihood, is better, holier and happier than the idleness of the rich, to whom the earth or annual income spontaneously supplies riches. For labor sustains the life of the body, obtains the life of grace, and merits the life of glory. But idle inactivity, by which the wicked rich man is dissolved in wealth and luxury, is the cause of many sins, such as pride, gluttony, lust, etc. This sense is very fitting. To this agrees that saying of the lyric poet: "The pleasure of riches and luxury are attendants." Third, Cajetan explains it, as if to say: The just man directs his works and labors to the preservation of the life both of body and soul; but the wicked man directs not only his labors, but also the produce of the earth to sin: so depraved is his intention, that he even abuses the goods which nature spontaneously produces, to sin. Fourth, simply and plainly Jansenius: The just man, he says, works and labors, not that he may have wherewith to luxuriate and satisfy depraved desires, but that he may live; and the fruit, or as the Hebrew has it, the produce which comes to the wicked from his labors, or even without his effort, is used by him for sin. This therefore is the difference between the just and the wicked, that the just man seeks work, the wicked man seeks fruit and produce of works, whether his own or others'. The just man seeks from his work life, the wicked man uses his goods for sin. Wherefore to this opinion are antistrophes those sayings of the wise: "Riches are given to preserve life, not to govern it. Prudence makes riches clear-sighted. Riches serve the wise man, command the fool. Riches are the wise man's, the foolish man is riches'." Mystically, understand by bodily life the spiritual life of grace, as if to say: The just man does all things so that he may increase the life of grace and glory, namely so that through the great merits of good works he may obtain great glory in heaven; but the wicked man abuses all his labor and produce for sin, so that he may satisfy his desires; and thus he prepares for himself greater torments day by day in hell. It is a clear antithesis: for the works of the just tend to life; but those of the wicked to sin, and consequently to present and eternal death. Thus Lyran, Hugh, Jansenius and others. Moreover Dionysius: The fruit, he says, of the wicked, that is, his delight, or inner action tends to sin, because desire, when it has conceived, brings forth sin, James I. The thoughts therefore, intentions and efforts of the just are directed to good, namely to virtues, which procure for man the life of grace and glory; but those of the wicked are directed to evil, namely to sins, by which they procure for themselves death and hell; for the glutton is directed to nothing but delights, the miser to riches, the angry man to quarrels, the proud man to arrogance, etc.
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17. THE WAY OF LIFE, TO HIM THAT KEEPETH DISCIPLINE: BUT HE THAT FORSAKETH REPROOFS, ERRETH. — In Hebrew מתעה mate, that is, causing to err, because not only does he himself err, but he also leads others into his error. Now because the Hebrews lack cases, hence they translate these words variously according to different cases. The Septuagint: the ways of life keeps discipline; but discipline lacking reproof (in Greek ἀνεξέλεγκτος, which the author of the Greek Catena translates as that which has not been examined and approved) errs; the Scholiast: the way of life keeps the innocent; Symmachus: the path to life keeping discipline; Pagninus: the path to life keeping correction; the Syriac and Chaldean: the way of life keeps discipline. For discipline in Hebrew is מוסר musar, that is, chastisement, correction, reproof, discipline, whether that which is given by man or that which is from God, such as when He sends diseases, famine, wars and other tribulations. The sense therefore is, as if to say: The way of life is the keeping of discipline; or, he who keeps discipline or reproof, he walks in the straight and royal way to holy, happy and eternal life: but he who rejects reproof, he wanders from the way of life and walks straight toward eternal death. Solomon therefore teaches that the wise man willingly subjects himself to discipline and correction, both of men and of God, namely when God corrects us, either through Holy Scripture, or through internal inspirations, or through external scourges and tribulations, so that we may change our life and cut away vices; or that we may ascend to greater humility, patience, contempt of the world and other virtues. St. Chrysostom gives the reason a priori, in Psalm VIII, 10: "Inflict, he says, punishment, and you will cause cessation from vice; for just as putrefactions yield to burnings and cuttings, so also from punishment is wickedness driven away. He who is cut and burned enters upon the path to health." Whence Clement of Alexandria, book I of the Paedagogus, chapter VIII: "Reproof is, he says, as it were a certain surgery of the affections of the soul; but the medicine is the imputation of shame, which dissolves affections that have already hardened, and purges away the filth of immodest and lustful life, and levels down the flesh of pride and arrogance that has grown up. Now admonition is as it were a certain diet for the sick soul: it advises what things are to be taken; and it forbids what things are not." And a little later: "It is a sign of benevolence, he says, not of hatred, to reprove; for both the friend and the enemy cast reproach, but the enemy indeed in mockery, the friend in benevolence," so that he may lead to virtue and salvation him whom he corrects. Therefore labors, corrections and tribulations are "the royal way to heaven," says the Nazianzene, in the Oration on the Plague of Hail: but he who rejects them, he wanders from heaven and goes astray to the depths. In this way indeed walked Christ our king, and therefore He says: "Ought not Christ to have suffered, and so to enter into His glory?" Luke XXIV. If therefore you feel trouble in discipline, in correction and tribulation, look to the end: for it will lead you to heaven, it will lead you to glory. "Do not therefore look, says St. Chrysostom, at the fact that the way is rough, but where it leads; nor at another, that it is broad, but where it ends:" for the narrow way leads to heaven, the broad to hell, as Christ says, Matthew VII, 13. The reason is concupiscence innate in us: for this, lest left to itself it luxuriate and overflow into vices, must be restrained by discipline, just as we restrain the petulance of children with the rod. Blessed Aegidius, companion of St. Francis, when asked why St. John the Baptist, although he was pure from sin and innocent, nevertheless lived so austere a life in the desert, answered aptly: "Why is flesh rubbed with salt? Surely so that it does not rot; so also the innocent flesh must be rubbed with the salt of penance and austerity, lest it be corrupted by pleasure." This is the paradox which St. James established as it were as the principle of his doctrine, at the beginning of his Epistle, saying: "All joy to you, my brethren, when you shall fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And patience hath a perfect work;" where I have dealt with this matter at length. To this pertains that saying of the Poet: However much lilies rise from the midst of thorns: So virtue itself grows and thrives from evils. For virtue, like flour, becomes most pure when sifted. Finally, the version of the Septuagint is to be noted: "Discipline indeed, lacking reproof, errs, because lacking the norm and file of reproof it wanders rashly and goes astray, nor does it attain its end, which is the correction of morals." Let Superiors and preachers note this, who are too mild and sweet, and from this let them learn to mix rebukes and objurgations with sweetness, when it is necessary: for without these, deep-seated vices are not cut away; just as filth embedded in tin dishes is not washed away unless rubbed with sharper lye: and graver diseases are not cured unless by the cutting of iron or the burning of cautery. Let both they themselves and those hearing and subject to them hear and learn that word of the Apostle: "But if you be without chastisement, of which all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons, etc. Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring joy, but sorrow; but afterwards it will yield to them that are exercised by it the most peaceable fruit of justice," Hebrews XII, 8. Such a preacher was Christ the Lord, who thus began to preach: "Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matthew IV, 17. The same repeatedly hurled woes of malediction and eternal damnation against the Scribes and Pharisees, as is evident throughout chapter XXIII of Matthew. Such was John the Baptist thundering against the Jews: "Generation, he says, of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance," Matthew III, 7. Such was St. Peter: "Do penance, he says, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that when the times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord," etc., Acts III, 19. Such was St. Paul in the Areopagus: "And, he says, God indeed having winked at the times of this ignorance, now declareth unto men that all should everywhere do penance: forasmuch as he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in equity," Acts XVII, 30. The same rebuked Elymas the magician thus: "O full of all guile, and all deceit, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all justice, thou ceasest not to pervert the right ways of the Lord. And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind," Acts XIII, 10; and to the Galatians, chapter III, 1: "O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?" Such were the other Apostles, whose perpetual preaching by the precept and example of Christ was this: "Do penance." Such were all the Prophets, as is evident from their books and oracles. Finally, to this pertains the paradox of Climacus, at step 4, which is the apex of Christian perfection, nay of Religious perfection: "Drink, he says, with the utmost alacrity the rebukes and mockeries offered to thee by any man, no otherwise than water of life." Why? because in this way, first thou dost most highly honor God, and offerest to him mystical unions. Secondly, thou art most like to Christ saying: "But I am a worm, and no man, the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people." Thirdly, thou dost most greatly humble thyself, thou sufferest, thou overcomest thyself. Fourthly, thou obtainest great grace from God. Fifthly, thou securest salvation for thyself. Sixthly, in this consists true sanctity and the apex of perfection. Seventhly, thou redeemest the pains of hell. Eighthly, thou givest to others an example and mirror of heroic virtue. In these therefore exult and rejoice, as did Juniper the companion of St. Francis, who answered those casting reproaches upon him: "Friend, cast these unions into my bosom; for these pearls do I desire."
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18. CONCEAL HATRED WITH LYING LIPS: HE THAT UTTERETH REPROACH IS A FOOL. — In Hebrew, he that uttereth infamy is himself a fool; the Septuagint on the contrary translate, unjust lips conceal enmity; but those who utter reproaches are most foolish. But for lips δίκαια, that is just, it seems that ἄδικα, that is unjust, should be read, as Theodotion translated. For the Hebrew have lips of falsehood; Aquila and Symmachus, lips of the liar. For reproaches in Hebrew it is דבה dibba, which signifies an infamous thing, a crime, a disgrace, a reproach. Whence Aquila and Symmachus translate, vituperations, whether they be made against the absent through detraction or against the present through reproach. Now first, from the Hebrew, the Zurich Bible thus translates and explains it in the manner of one sentence with two members, he that concealeth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth infamy, is equally a fool. Jansenius following this censures the Vulgate version; for that version recited thus he says: Almost all translate in this or a similar manner, when neither does the sense rightly consist, nor do the Hebrew have it thus. For it is not a verb of plural number, but singular concealing or covering, so that it should be translated in this manner: "Concealing hatred with lying lips, and uttering infamy, he himself is a fool," that is, each of these is a fool. And so two contrary vices of the tongue are here described, one of which is to cover hatred with false words and speeches simulating friendship for the purpose of deceiving; the other is to utter from hatred someone's infamy and reproach. Both of these, however much they are diverse and contrary, are of the foolish and the stupid: because they are done imprudently and impiously. Our text, so that it may approach this sense, is thus to be understood: Lying lips sometimes malignly conceal hatred lurking in the heart, and yet at the same time he who does this is also foolish, and he who does not conceal hatred, but from hatred uttereth another's infamy: thus Jansenius. But the Septuagint, the Syriac, Pagninus and the Chaldean agree with the Vulgate version: The enemy, he says, lieth in wait with lips of falsehood, and he that uttereth detraction is a fool. For although מכסה mecasse, that is concealeth, covereth, hideth, be of singular number, yet by enallage, frequent among the Hebrews, it is taken for plural מכסים mecassim, that is conceal, especially because there follows a noun of singular number שנאה sina, that is hatred, even though it does not cohere with it: and שפתי siphte, that is lips, with which it coheres, although it be dual, is nevertheless used both for plural and for dual and singular: indeed all dual and plural nouns among the Hebrews, which lack the singular, or rather are used in the dual or plural rather than the singular, such as siphte, that is two lips, signify both singular and plural or dual, namely both one lip and two, or more lips. Whence a verb or participle cohering with them can be placed and translated equally in the singular as in the plural, as in this place you can translate both concealeth a lip as conceal lips. Or certainly our translator for מכסה mecasse in the singular read מכסות mecassot in the plural feminine: for siphte, that is lips, in Hebrew is often of the feminine gender, yet sometimes it is of the masculine. And there is an elegant antithesis between the liar concealing hatred and the fool uttering reproach, as if to say, He who cunningly concealeth and hideth hatred, preferring friendship with his lips, he is covered and feigned, namely a hypocrite, a liar and fraudulent: but he who the reproach and disgrace of another, which he knows in secret, doth not conceal and hide, but bringeth forth into the light and revealeth, he is foolish. Foolish, that is wicked, unjust and impious: because he bringeth forth into the light the secret crime and disgrace of his neighbor, and therefore sinneth mortally against charity and justice, as St. Thomas teacheth, II-II, Question LXXII, article 2, and Question LXXIII, article 2, and there other Theologians. Again he is foolish properly, first, because he revealeth his own talkativeness, imprudence, evil-speaking; secondly, because by the same he provoketh him whose crime he revealeth, so that he himself in turn may return like for like, and may lay bare his own hidden crimes; and thus he exposeth himself to the danger of infamy; thirdly, because he createth for himself enmity, angers, quarrels and grave evils, and sometimes death; fourthly, because it is childish and womanish to rail. For foolish and cowardly children and women, since they cannot avenge themselves with their hands, avenge themselves with their mouth, hurling disgraces and volleys of curses upon their adversary. I have said more on this matter Ecclesiasticus XXIII, 7 and 15, and XXVIII, 15. Solomon therefore censures here two vices that appear opposite to each other, but are in reality often connected, and proceeding from the same root of hatred. The first is to conceal hatred: for it is better to lay bare hatred than to conceal it: for when laid bare it exhales and diminishes, or vanishes; but when concealed it intensifies itself, grows dense and increases, just as hidden fire creeps, grows and increases; but when bursting forth into flame, it either consumes itself, or is extinguished by men with water poured upon it. Whence Moses, nay God himself, in Leviticus XIX, 17, ordains: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart, but thou shalt openly rebuke him, lest thou incur sin on his account." And indeed Seneca in the Proverbs says: "More grievous, he says, is the enemy who lies hidden in the breast. Every evil is more grave which lies concealed from sight. For him who is an adversary openly, thou canst easily avoid by taking precaution. The Trojan horse deceived for this reason, because it feigned the form of mercy." The same author elsewhere: "He who shows hatred loves to be loved and known." It is added that here there is a twofold wickedness, namely first, hatred; second, hypocrisy, that is, concealment of hatred and simulation of friendship. But, as Cassiodorus says in Psalm LIV: "The most grievous kind of enmity is to be an adversary in heart, and to simulate devotion with the tongue." And Boethius, book III of the Consolation: "There is, he says, no plague more efficacious for doing harm than a familiar enemy." Wherefore Aristotle in the Ethics teaches that the wise man and the magnanimous man is open both in love and in hatred, and proclaims and professes both openly and freely. For thus he says in book IV of the Ethics, chapter III: "It is necessary also that the magnanimous man bear both hatred and love openly: for to wish to hide is the mark of a fearful man; and let him have greater care for truth than for opinion and do and say all things openly." The second is to utter contumely, which arises from the former, namely from hatred: for hatred is concealed for a time for this reason, that at an opportune moment it may burst forth into contumely and injury. Wherefore the remedy for both vices is to cut off the root, namely to lay aside hatred: for thus we shall neither as liars conceal hatred, nor as fools utter contumely. The Septuagint perhaps intended this when they translate, just lips cover enmities, that is, they abolish them, blot them out, extinguish them (for charity covereth a multitude of sins), lest they burst forth into contumely and become irreconcilable. For, as Plutarch wisely says in the Moralia: "Friendships after mutual insults and mutual laceration of reputation either do not come together, or come together scarred." Whence Bede infers: "If therefore, he says, thou desirest to be truthful and wise, cover not hatred in the secret of thy heart, nor utter it through the contumely of thy mouth, but let thy heart be filled with love and thy mouth with truth." He who utters contumely acts unwisely if he creates for himself, if the crime which he objects to another either secretly through detraction, or publicly and openly through contumely, is not true, but false. For then he to whom he detracts or speaks insultingly can justly accuse him of falsehood and falsity, and make him liable to the charge of calumny in judgment and demand from him the penalty of retaliation. But if he himself, because he is upright and patient, does not do this, the greater is his resulting praise, and conversely the greater shame and disgrace of the calumniator. For, as St. Augustine wisely says, sermon 13 On the Resurrection: "A curse repelled by patience returns to its own author, he being unharmed to whom it was directed." Whence also Seneca, epistle 77: "With equanimity, he says, must the insults of the ignorant be heard, and contempt itself must be despised by him who goes toward what is honorable."
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19. IN MUCH SPEAKING THERE SHALL NOT WANT SIN: BUT HE THAT RESTRAINETH HIS LIPS IS MOST WISE. — In Hebrew, in a multitude of words transgression shall not cease, or transgression; and he who restrains or forbids his lips is understanding or wise; the Septuagint, from much speaking, or, as St. Cyprian reads it, from much speaking, thou shalt not escape sin (Symmachus, vice); but he who spares his lips shall be sensible; St. Isidore in the Soliloquy, much speaking shall not escape guilt. You will ask, what is called here much speaking? For both Christ and the Saints spoke and wrote many things holily, as is evident from the Gospels and the books of the Fathers, in which therefore sin was wanting. First, Clement of Alexandria, in book II of the Pedagogue, chapter VI, understands by much speaking inept, idle and frivolous words: "Inept trifles also, he says, are to be passed over in silence. For Scripture says: From much speaking thou shalt not escape sin." This is true, but not an adequate exposition. To this is added St. Bernard, who understands by much speaking idle words. For thus he writes in the sermon On the threefold custody of the hand, tongue and heart: "How true, he says, brothers, is the sentence that in much speaking sin shall not be escaped! For to pass over other things, if a word is idle for this reason, that it has no reasonable cause; what account can we give of that which is contrary to reason? Let none of us, brothers, make light of the time which is consumed in idle words, since time is acceptable, and the day of salvation. The word flies irrevocable, time flies irrevocable, nor does the foolish one notice what he loses. It pleases to chat, they say, until the hour passes. O until the hour passes, o until time passes, until the hour passes, which the mercy of the Creator grants to thee for doing penance, for obtaining pardon, for acquiring grace, for earning glory. Until time passes, in which thou shouldest have made divine piety propitious to thee, hasten to the society of angels, sigh for the lost inheritance, aspire to the promised happiness, stir up the remiss will, weep for the committed iniquity." Second, Cresconius the Grammarian understands by much speaking eloquence, as if the art of oratory, or rhetoric, is here noted and condemned. Whence he himself reads thus, from much eloquence thou shalt not escape sin. Whom St. Augustine refutes, in book I Against Cresconius, chapter I, defining much speaking thus: "It was not said, he says, from much eloquence, but from much speaking. But much speaking is superfluous speech, namely a vice contracted from the love of speaking. For the most part those who love to speak do not even know what they are speaking, etc. Eloquence truly is the faculty of speaking congruently explaining what we feel: which is then to be used, when we feel rightly. In this way the heretics did not use it." Whence the same in book I of the Retractations, in the Prologue, assigns this reason for writing the books of Retractations: "That also which is written: From much speaking thou shalt not escape sin, terrifies me greatly, not because I have written much, or because many things also, which were not said, are nevertheless said and written by me. For it be far from me to reckon much speaking, when necessary things are said, however great the multitude and prolixity of words they are said with. But I fear this sentence of holy Scripture for this reason, because from so many disputations of mine without doubt many things can be gathered, which if not false, yet certainly seem, or even are proved not necessary. But whom of his faithful did not Christ terrify, when he says: Every idle word whatsoever a man shall speak, he shall render an account for it in the day of judgment? Matt. XII. The same concludes his books On the Trinity with this prayer to God: "Before thee is my firmness and my infirmity; preserve that, heal this. Before thee is my knowledge and my ignorance. Where thou hast opened to me, receive me entering: where thou hast shut, open to me knocking. Let me remember thee, understand thee, love thee. I know it is written: In much speaking sin shall not be escaped. But would that in preaching thy word, and praising thee only I should speak! Not only would I escape sin, but I would acquire good merit, however much I should thus speak." Therefore much speaking is a vice by which a man is excessively eager to speak, and so while speaking he utters more than is fitting, and is prodigal of words, as do those who are of incontinent and intemperate tongue, and always desire to speak, and mix discourse into all matters, and rashly bring forth their own judgment and censure concerning individual things. For they easily fall into sins: because with the tongue slipping, and memory failing, and the itching to speak driving them on, they easily mingle falsehoods with truths, harmful things with useful, vain and idle things with necessary; and it is difficult, indeed impossible, for them to apply the caution and circumspection which is required to all their utterances. Wherefore they imprudently pour forth many things, offend many, and through the levity of a wandering tongue slip into detraction, mockery, scorn, abuse. Thus St. Ambrose, lib. I De Cain et Abel, cap. IX: "We, however," says he, "let us close the door, lest fault enter, lest some slip of speech go out: fault enters if a slip goes out. Hear how fault enters. From much speaking, says he, thou shalt not escape sin: much speaking went out, sin entered, because in much speaking in no way can he who intends an exit endure in this attention and intention for so long a time without becoming weary and slipping: but to brief utterances he is able to give fitting attention, and in the same mental vigilance he is able to endure for a short time: 'Bind,' says St. Ambrose, lib. I De Offic. cap. III, 'thy speech, lest it run wild, and by much speaking gather sins to itself; let it be more restricted, and be confined within its banks: quickly does a river overflowing gather mud.' Therefore Solomon here suggests the remedy: 'But he that restraineth his lips is most wise.' In Hebrew משכיל maskil, that is, he is wise, namely by antonomasia in the highest degree, that is, most wise. For restraineth, in Hebrew it is חושך chosech, that is, he forbids, he inhibits, both through silence, which is 'a safe asylum of the mind,' says St. Ambrose, I Offic.; and then through measured and circumspect speech: for both are opposed to much speaking, and correct it. Moreover silence teaches one to premeditate what and how thou shalt speak, and thus to speak circumspectly and prudently. He therefore who is silent and speaks sparingly is most wise; first, because he avoids the harms of an exuberant tongue, which are very many and very great. Again because he governs the tongue, which on account of its slipperiness is most difficult to govern. And so he who knows how to govern it is wonderfully prudent and perfect, as St. James teaches cap. III, vers. 2. Secondly, because silence is the sign and effect of a mature, collected, divine mind; for he who is silent speaks with himself and with God. Whence Solon used to say: 'A fool cannot be silent; wherefore if he shall have been silent, he will be reckoned wise.' And Seneca: 'Taciturnity is to a foolish man in place of wisdom.' Wherefore St. Benedict, the Patriarch of Religious in the West, in his Rule cap. VI, concerning taciturnity thus ordains: 'Let us do,' says he, 'what the Prophet says, Psalm XXXVIII: I said, I will keep my ways, that I offend not with my tongue. I set a guard to my mouth, I was dumb and was humbled, and kept silence from good things. Here the Prophet shows, if from good conversations one must sometimes be silent on account of taciturnity, how much more from evil words, on account of the punishment of sin must one cease. Therefore, although concerning good and holy conversations for edification, to perfect disciples on account of the gravity of taciturnity, rare permission to speak is granted; because it is written: In much speaking thou shalt not escape sin.' And Diadochus in his ascetical works De Perfectione, cap. LXX: 'Silence,' says he, 'is the mother of the wisest thoughts. As if thou shouldest open the door of a bath too frequently, the heat departs: so too, opening the mouth too much in speaking, devotion is lost.' And St. Isidore: 'A talkative man is unskilled; the wise man uses few words. Knowledge makes speech brief (hence angels, because they abound in ample knowledge, say in one word as much as men in a thousand words, and God, all-knowing, says all things in one word). To speak much is folly. For the voice of the foolish is in the multiplication of speech. Let there therefore remain measure in the word, a balance in discourse.' St. Antiochus gives another reason why much speaking is a cause of sins, hom. 102 De Silentio: 'Immoderate,' says he, 'and unbridled utterance of words, by which the tranquility of the mind is endangered, not only makes it grow slack concerning spiritual operation, and become sluggish; but also delivers it and gives it over to the most troublesome demon of acedia. And just as the doors of a boiling bath if they are continually opened, quickly drive out and expel the inner heat to what is outside: so also the soul,' etc. St. Dorotheus agrees, in his teaching on Compunction, chapter 24: "Abstain from much speaking, he says, for this extinguishes the rational and heavenly thoughts coming to the heart," and he gives the likeness of a furnace (similar to those in hypocausts) that is hot, which preserves heat as long as the door is closed; but if that is opened, the heat exhales. In a similar manner the heart preserves the heat and spirit of devotion as long as it closes the door of the mouth: but if it opens that, through words that heat and spirit exhales. Thirdly, with St. Chrysostom in Psalm CXL, precisely and strictly: In any much speaking, even pious, holy and necessary, sin is not lacking, because it is impossible for a weak and frail man, in his many individual utterances, to apply that circumspection and moderation which is required, just as it is impossible to act and live for several days without vice and sin, as Francis Suarez teaches, indeed Solomon himself, chapter XXIV, 16: "Seven times, he says, in the day shall the just man fall." It is similar in an archer, who although he be most skilled in shooting, and strikes the target with an arrow certainly whenever it pleases him, yet if he were to shoot at the target a hundred times in succession, it is impossible that he always strike it and never miss: because the attention and effort of the human mind is finite and frail, and after many acts elicited it grows weak, becomes slack and fails. Wherefore it is better to make sermons and discourses brief and frequent, as St. Leo, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Bernard and others did, than lengthy and rare. Preachers sin in this matter, who exceed an hour in preaching, and thus by their prolixity create tedium for their hearers, fatigue for themselves and danger of speaking ill. For the mind, like a bow too much stretched, in discourse is weighed down, falls imprudently, although to speak beyond measure is not a grave sin." And St. Gregory, admonition 15, III part of the Pastoral: "Those who are devoted to much speaking (he says) are to be admonished, that they may carefully observe from how great a state of rectitude they fall away, while they are dissipated through manifold words. For the human mind, like water enclosed round about, is gathered to higher things, because it returns to that from which it descended; but when relaxed it perishes, because it has scattered itself uselessly through lower things. For as many superfluous words as it is dissipated from the judgment of its silence, by so many streams as it were is it led outside itself: whence also it does not suffice to return inwardly to knowledge of itself, because scattered through much speaking, it excludes itself from the secret of intimate consideration." These and many more things St. Gregory says. Thirdly, because prudent speech, since it is directed entirely toward others, requires before other actions of man great circumspection; and therefore he who has it ought to be most prudent. For he who prays, prays to himself and to God: he who fasts, fasts for himself: he who gives alms, gives what he wishes: but he who speaks, ought to foresee what, where, how, when, before whom or to whom he speaks, so that he may edify all, harm or offend no one. For otherwise before Prelates, otherwise before subjects, otherwise before the learned, otherwise with rustics, otherwise with the just, otherwise with sinners, otherwise with Spaniards, otherwise with Italians, etc., one must speak: for what benefits the phlegmatic, for example, this harms the choleric. See St. Gregory, III part of the Pastoral, where he teaches at length how the proud, the pusillanimous, the gluttonous, the wrathful, the fervent, the sluggish, etc., are to be admonished, each according to his condition accommodated to his nature. Hence the symbol of moderation of the tongue is the elephant, who although he be the greatest in bulk of animals, and likewise most prudent, yet has a very small tongue, and placed within, so that it almost escapes the eyes, as Aristotle testifies, book II On Animals, chapter VI. Thus the most noble and most prudent are sparing in words, but effective in deeds: "I do not believe augurs, who enrich ears with words," says Accius in the Astyanax. Following Solomon, Sirach, Ecclesiasticus chapter XXVIII, 29, gravely admonishes concerning the care and custody of the tongue to be applied: "Your gold, he says, and your silver melt down, and make a balance for your words, and a bridle straight for your mouth; and take heed lest you slip in your tongue, and fall before them that lie in wait for you, and your fall be incurable unto death." Where I have said more on this matter. A memorable example is in the book of Sentences, or Apophthegms of the Fathers, chapter XXV: A celebrated anchorite, it says, saw, when the brothers were speaking of Holy Scripture and pious matters, angels mingling with them, exulting with cheerful countenance. But when they turned to vain conversation, he saw angels withdrawing with indignation, and demons in the form of pigs wallowing among those conversing. Wherefore going about the monasteries he admonished, saying: "Restrain yourselves, brothers, from much speaking, and from idle words the tongue, because an evil destruction of the soul is generated, and we do not understand that through these we are hateful both to the Lord God and to the holy angels. For divine Scripture says: For in much speaking thou shalt not escape sin; for these things make our mind and soul weak and empty."
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20. SILVER TRIED, THE TONGUE OF THE JUST: BUT THE HEART OF THE WICKED FOR NOTHING. — For "tried" the Septuagint translates πεπυρωμένος, that is, ignited, tested by fire, refined by fire and purged both of earth and dross, and of tin, lead and other metals. For, as Pliny says, lib. XXXIV, cap. XVI, in the same vein are born tin, silver and lead. For when the material is melted by fire, first tin flows out, then silver and lead: "That, says Pliny, which flows first in the furnaces is called tin; that which flows second, silver; that which remains in the furnaces, galena, which is the third portion added to the vein. This again melted gives black lead." For there is great proximity of metals to one another, and therefore silver approaches gold. Whence, as the same author says lib. XXXIII, IV: "In all gold is contained silver of varying weight, in some a tenth part, in others a ninth, in others an eighth part, etc. Wherever a fifth part of silver is present, it is called electrum;" which he testifies was held in esteem by the ancients. Moreover, the method of mining and purifying silver the same author describes lib. XXXIII, cap. VI: "It is found, he says, only in mines, and is born with no hope of itself, with no bright sparks as in gold. The earth is partly reddish, partly ashen. It cannot be smelted except with black lead or with lead ore, which they call galena, which is usually found near silver veins; and by the same operation of fires a part descends into lead; but silver floats on top like oil on water. It is found in almost all provinces, but in Spain it is most highly praised." He then adds the origin of quicksilver: "There is also a stone in these veins, from whose cavity a flow of eternal liquid is called quicksilver, the poison of all things. It eats away and breaks through vessels, passing through with dire decay. All things float in it except gold; it alone draws that to itself. Therefore it also purifies most excellently, casting out its other impurities by frequent shaking in earthen vessels, so that with vices cast out, it itself also departs from gold." Hence silver, on account of its purity, signifies in Scripture wisdom, law, doctrine and the words of God, says St. Augustine, lib. XVII De Civit. V, and St. Gregory, IV Moral. cap. XXVIII. And it is clear from Psalm XI: "The words of the Lord are pure, (as) silver tried by fire, proved sevenfold;" pure, that is, pure, holy, irreproachable, and, as St. Augustine says in the same place, "The words of the Lord are pure, without the corruption of simulation, proved to sinners through tribulations. Purged sevenfold through the fear of God, through piety, through holiness, through fortitude, through counsel, through understanding, through wisdom," namely through the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. But Ambrosiaster in Apoc. III, 18: "Sevenfold, he says, on account of the sevenfold purification, which is made through seven virtues contrary to the capital vices." For pride is purged through humility, anger through gentleness, lust through chastity, gluttony through abstinence, envy through love, sloth through fervor, avarice through liberality. The sense therefore is, as if to say, The tongue of the just speaks wisdom and holiness, namely the words of God, which are pure and precious like silver, because they flow from a wise and holy heart. But the heart of the wicked, and consequently its tongue and words, because they are unwise and impure, are therefore esteemed as nothing, and are for nothing. Note five analogies of silver and the tongue and speech of the wise and just. For the qualities of silver are five: the first is brightness and luster; the second, value; the third, solidity; the fourth, purity; the fifth, sound. These same qualities are in the tongue of the just. Therefore first, just as silver shines, gleams and sparkles before gold and other metals: so the words of the wise shine, gleam and sparkle, and are like a most limpid fountain, of which the Poet says: "There was a fountain clear, silvery with bright waters." The words therefore, equally as the heart of the wise, are silver, that is, shining like silver and pleasing; but the words, equally as the hearts of the wicked, are leaden, brazen and iron, that is, dark, gloomy, grave, hard, troublesome. Thus we read of St. Mechtilde in her Life: "She kept silence exactly; but when she spoke, she spoke like an Angel, so that if you conversed with her, you would think you were speaking with an Angel." Secondly, just as silver is the most precious of metals after gold, so also the words of the wise are precious, and are listened to by the prudent, esteemed, and held in great price. Hence silver is the common measure of things and silver coin, which succeeded the ancient, crude and bronze currency: thus the wise man sets a price on virtue, so that whatever he has said and done, all esteem as honorable and virtue itself; for life and deeds add greater weight and value to virtue than speech and words. Hear Pliny, lib. XXXIII, cap. III: "King Servius first stamped bronze. Before that, the Romans used crude metal, as Remeus reports. It was stamped with the mark of cattle; whence also it was called money. Silver was stamped under the consul Q. Fabius, five years before the first Punic War; and it was agreed that a denarius should be worth ten pounds of bronze. The gold coin was struck sixty-one years after the silver coin." Hence the Romans made Aesculanus a god, as it were the overseer of bronze, and Argentinus, as it were the overseer of silver. Which St. Augustine ridicules, lib. IV De Civit. cap. xxi: "The Romans commended themselves to the god Aesculanus and his son Argentinus, so that they might have bronze and silver money. For this reason they made Aesculanus the father of Argentinus, because bronze money began to be in use first, then silver. But I wonder that Argentinus did not beget Aurinus, since gold money also followed." More truly, a wise and holy man is Argentinus, because he is silvery, that is, heavenly (for the brightness and whiteness, as much as the value of silver, represents heaven sublime, excellent, bright and white), and speaks divinely in a silvery manner. Thirdly, silver is of solid nature, and is not easily shaken, says R. Levi; thus the words of the just are called solid, both because they are well weighed and premeditated, and therefore truthful and circumspect, and because they flow from the dictate of justice and prudence and constancy, because they speak truth fearlessly and constantly, and stand firm for it even unto death, just as pure silver is constant and resists fire. For from solidity the assayers prove the purity of silver: when they see that silver extracted by fire has lost nothing, but when weighed on a balance has the same weight it had before the test of fire, then they judge it to be pure and unmixed. Fourthly, silver that is chosen is properly that which has been purged from dregs, dross and other metals and selected. Whence the Septuagint translates πεπυρωμένον, that is, ignited and purged by fire. The tongue of the just is similar: for it first purges what it thinks to say from every mixture of falsehood, vanity, flattery, ostentation, obscenity, hypocrisy, fraud; indeed it speaks only a few things with great selection, and therefore rare and chosen words. You will ask, in what furnace and fire is the speech of the tongue ignited and purged? I answer first, in the fire of consideration, discernment and judgment; for this, because it is keen and exact, is called fire in Scripture, as in Daniel VII, 9, where describing the judgment of God: "His throne was like flames of fire; his wheels burning fire. A swift river of fire issued forth from before him." Therefore the wise man in the furnace of discernment examines and purges what he is about to say, according to that saying of St. Bernard: "Let words first be brought twice to the file, before once to the tongue." Secondly, this fire is the grace of Christ and charity, and its author the Holy Spirit, who purges, rules and ignites the hearts of the just, so that they speak nothing but what is right, true, holy and burning with charity. This is what Malachi predicted of Christ, cap. III, vers. 2: "For he shall be as a refiner's fire, and as the herb of fullers; and he shall sit refining and cleansing silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold and as silver." Hence St. Augustine assigns the fire purging the tongue to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Mystically, this fire is tribulation and persecution, which melts down the minds and tongues of Confessors and Martyrs, and purges them from all levity, idleness, concupiscence, and inspires in them the constancy and burning love of God, so that before tyrants and the impious they fearlessly profess, teach and preach the faith and laws of God, and say with St. Lawrence: "Thou hast proved my heart by fire, and iniquity hath not been found in me," Psal. XVI, 3. For which St. Jerome translates: "Thou hast proved my heart, thou hast visited it in the night; thou hast tried me by fire, and iniquity hath not been found in me," so that equally truth and profession of the mouth may correspond to knowledge and confession of the heart. Therefore, just as silver is not only not consumed by fire, but is also made purer and more brilliant, says Baynus, so the tongue of a just and wise man is so far from being infected by the lies of an enemy or the detraction of a fool, or from repaying curse with curse, reproach with reproach, that even according to Paul it blesses those who curse it; it is so far removed from sowing quarrels among brothers, that it brings many to concord, and feeds the hungry with the word of life, by which man lives, not by bread alone. O precious and chosen tongue, to which no flame of persecution can impose silence, so that the faith of Christ does not resound, so that it expels hatred from the heart and falsehood from the tongue with the sweetest sound. Such was the tongue of Christ Jesus, in whose mouth no guile was found; who when he was cursed, did not curse; when he suffered, did not threaten; to whom the Lord gave a learned tongue, that he might know how to sustain him who has fallen by a word. Yet this tongue, although chosen, did not penetrate the heart of the wicked Jews: for the wicked have very little heart and understanding, and on account of the defect of heart they were not fed by the word of life and the food of this tongue, but like fools they died of hunger. Fifthly, silver before gold, tin, bronze and other metals resounds with a silvery, that is, a pleasant and agreeable sound: whence money-changers are accustomed to test the goodness and purity of silver by its sound. Hence God had commanded Moses to make trumpets of silver, that with them he might call together so many thousands, indeed millions of people, Num. X, 2; for silver trumpets before horns and bronze ones are sonorous and pleasant. Whence also in bells and chimes, when they cast and forge them from bronze, they are accustomed to mix silver, and the more silver is mixed in, the more fully and sweetly they resound. In a similar way the silvery and fiery voices resound fully and sweetly, and the sayings of the wise and just; such as were the Apostles, of whom it is said Ps. XVIII, 5: "Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the whole world." And Elias, of whom Eccli. XLVIII, 1: "Elias rose up like a fire, and his word burned like a torch." Thus the wise, such as were the Apostles, are a light of the world, who illuminate the world with their light and kindle it with fiery tongues with divine love, "and bear a new sun and new stars." Finally, the tongue of the wise is like quicksilver, or liquid silver, which balances and moves itself in every direction, and which effectively purifies gold: for thus the tongue of the just, shining with wisdom and burning with charity, moves itself in every direction, so that it may eradicate and purify whatever is vicious even in religious men. It is memorable what we read in the Life of St. Anthony of Padua, that he himself with a silvery and fiery tongue preaching, like quicksilver everywhere among the nations, removed heresies, hatreds, lusts, usuries, gambling and other crimes, and therefore obtained this reward, that after his death, the rest of his flesh being gradually consumed, his tongue alone remained whole and unharmed, which therefore 32 after his death in the year St. Bonaventure religiously visiting and kissing with tears: "O blessed tongue, he said, who always praised God, and were the cause of many praising him! Now it is clearly evident how much merit and price you are with him, who formed you for so sublime an office of his herald." BUT THE HEART OF THE WICKED FOR NOTHING. — In Hebrew, the heart of the wicked as something small; Aquila and Theodotion, as little; Symmachus, συρεκίς, that is, of base and no value; the Chaldean, breaking; the Syrian, rebellion. The Zurich Bible thus translates and explains: the tongue of the just is chosen silver, which the heart of the wicked esteems as nothing; in Hebrew, values as little, as a small thing, that is to say, the wicked make little account of the wisdom which the tongue of the just utters. Vatablus: the heart of the wicked is as it were very small, supply, of silver, that is to say, it is of little value. Baynus translates: the heart of the wicked as scanty, which can be referred, he says, to quality or to time, that is to say, the understanding of the wicked lasts a short time, or the wicked have little good sense and heart. Aben-Ezra, that is to say, very little is what you learn from the wicked; or the heart, that is, the knowledge, of the wicked is not much approved. R. Solomon: The heart of the wicked for nothing, because it does not admit the reproofs of the just. R. Levi, that is to say, the mind and heart of the wicked will have only the briefest use in the body. The Septuagint translates: but the heart of the wicked shall fail, that is to say, the heart and tongue of the just, like chosen silver, are solid, and therefore endure and are constant; but the heart and tongue of the wicked, namely his senses and utterances, are fragile and perishable, and therefore quickly fail. Moreover, Pliny describes the natural increase of the heart as well as its decrease in this manner, lib. XI, cap. XXXVII: "It increases in man through individual years, and two drachms of weight accrue up to the fiftieth year; from that point the same amount is taken away, and therefore man does not live beyond one hundred years on account of the defect of the heart, the Egyptians think." Far greater and swifter is the decrease of the moral heart, namely the sense and wisdom of the foolish and impious man, because cupidity always snatching him away, he remains fixed and departs into his foolish desires and trifles. Hence "the fool is changed like the moon," Eccles. XXVII, 12. Whence Origen in the Greek Catena explains this entire verse thus: "The speech of the just is approved (like chosen silver), because it gives credence to things themselves. But the heart of fools fails, because it is perpetually changed and fluctuates." Our author translates plainly and fully to the word: "The heart of the impious for nothing," that is, the mind and sense, and consequently the speech flowing from it, of the impious is of small or no value and moment, whereas on the other hand the heart, that is the mind and sense, and the speech of the just is precious like silver. You will ask, why does Solomon oppose to the tongue of the just not the tongue, but the heart of the impious? I answer, by heart he understands the mouth and tongue; for what the heart feels, the mouth speaks, especially because the foolish and impious pour forth from their mouth whatever they have in their heart, according to that passage, Eccles. XXI, 29: "In the mouth of the foolish is their heart, and in the heart of the wise is their mouth." Therefore the foolish and impious, just as they ruminate in their heart vile and worthless things, indeed impure, evil and harmful things, so they belch forth the same from their mouth. But the wise and pious, just as they turn over in their heart sublime, holy, heavenly and divine things, so they utter the same from their mouth: therefore their heart and mouth are silver, theirs leaden, earthly and sordid.
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21. THE LIPS OF THE JUST SHALL TEACH MANY: BUT THEY THAT ARE FOOLS SHALL DIE IN THE WANT OF HEART (In Hebrew evilim, that is, the unwise, the foolish: thus the Chaldean and Syrian). — For teach, in Hebrew it is iiru, that is, they feed, namely by teaching, that is, they instruct; for lips cannot feed otherwise, according to that in Jeremiah III: "And they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine." Now therefore the meaning is clear, and its antithesis, as if to say: The just abound so much in wisdom that they not only instruct themselves, but also teach many others honest and holy morals, by which one arrives at a blessed life; but the unlearned and unwise, that is, the impious, are so destitute of wisdom that they know not how to instruct and direct themselves (much less others). Wherefore in the want of heart, that is, in their poverty of mind and wisdom, namely in their foolishness, that is, in concupiscence and impiety, as they live, so also shall they die; and therefore the just shall be happy, and shall tend toward eternal life; but the impious, on account of their foolishness and impiety, shall be most miserable, and shall go to the depths, where they shall be tormented by perpetual hunger of mind and wisdom and by eternal death. For "in foolishness" in Hebrew idiom is the same as "on account of foolishness"; for by its demerit they are punished with death, as if to say: The impious on account of their imprudence and wickedness bring ruin and death upon themselves. Thus R. Levi. Again, with Jansenius, you may explain it thus, so that there is not signified a difference between the effects and conditions of the just and the foolish, but only the efficacy of the words of the just is described, which however does not reach the foolish, so that the sense is: The lips of the just do indeed feed many; but the foolish, because they refuse to be fed by the just, on account of the lack of wisdom shall die. And our Interpreter seems to have followed this sense, and thus our version stands correctly. For the sense is: The lips of the just teach many; but those who do not allow themselves to be taught by them, but remain unlearned, shall die through the want of heart. Hence it is also commonly said, says Lyra: "It is much to be poor, who is foolish or unlearned." The Septuagint, reading for the letter ד the related ר and substituting other points, for ירעו רבים iiru rabbim, that is, they teach many, read ידעו רמים iadeu ramim, that is, they know exalted things; whence they translate: the lips of the just know exalted things, namely they contemplate heavenly and divine things, of which the mind and heart of the unwise and impious is destitute, and therefore dies the death of sin and of hell. Thus the author of the Greek Catena: "The just know the reason of sublime things; but the unwise know or seek nothing sublime." But the Chaldean, with the Syrian, took ירעו iiru in the signification of Chaldean and Syrian, in which the root רעה raa, which to the Hebrews signifies to feed, to the Chaldeans and Syrians signifies to think, to will, to love, and to conciliate love. Whence the Chaldean translates: the lips of the just please many; the Syrian: they love much, or cause to love. For the just man possesses peace and charity, and being full of these, he breathes the same into others and inspires them even by his mere presence. Whence he easily settles disputes and reconciles peace among the dissident, following that beatitude of Christ: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God," Matthew V. Whence St. Bernard, sermon 23 in the Canticles: "A tranquil God tranquilizes all things, and to behold the quiet is to rest." The Saints participate in this tranquility of God, who are the seat and throne of God, in whom, as he says in the same place, "there is no sense in want, nor care that pierces, nor guilt that bites." The same, book V On Consideration, chapter V: "God loves as charity, knows as truth, sits as equity, rules as majesty, governs as principle, protects as salvation, works as virtue, reveals as light, assists as piety. All these things the Angels do, and we do also; but in a far inferior manner, not indeed by the good that we are, but by what we participate." Wherefore St. Chrysostom, homily On Meekness, vol. V: "If capital enemies are at odds with one another, meek men are placated by correction and become tame, even if by nature they are prone to anger and fury. But those who cannot be reconciled by this are plainly intractable, and worthy of no honor." He adds then: "As soon as he shall have seen, he softens the raging: for he has need neither of many words nor of admonitions, but he persuades peace before he speaks. Just as the brightness of the sun, as soon as it appears, puts to flight the darkness, so the benign and just man by his presence composes turbulent things, and renders them quiet and tranquil. And this too is worthy of being noted, that Christ calls only the peacemakers the children of God. And why does he communicate his name to the peacemakers? Because he alone imitates the Son of God as much as he is able, who becomes to others the author of peace and friendship." And soon after: "Now what nerves are in our bodies, the peacemaker is in a house, in the Church, in a city; for Paul, in his manner, calls the brethren a body and members of one another. Whence it is true that which the peacemaker has the same virtue in a house, Church, and city, which nerves have in bodies, joining and connecting things dispersed and separated."
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22. THE BLESSING OF THE LORD MAKETH RICH (In Hebrew itself enriches), AND SORROW SHALL NOT BE JOINED WITH IT. — The Septuagint: the blessing of the Lord upon the head of the just enriches, and sorrow shall not be added to them, or it does not have any sorrow of heart joined with it; Vatablus: the blessing of the Lord enriches, nor does it bring with it anything troublesome. Wherefore Cajetan less correctly interprets by affliction or sorrow penance, not of man, but of God, as if to say: God does not repent that He has enriched the just; hence He does not revoke or take away the riches once given to them: "For the gifts of God are without repentance," Rom. XI, 29. For "them" in Hebrew it is "it", namely the blessing, as if to say: The blessing of God is mere blessing; wherefore no sorrow or curse can be joined with it. But since this blessing of God is found in the rich, namely in the just, whom God enriches, hence our translator rightly renders "them". The sense therefore is, as if to say: Not chance, not fortune, not fraud, not usury, not rapine, by which the impious strive to become rich, nor even industry or one's own labor, but God's favor and blessing, that is, His beneficence, is the proper and principal cause enriching just men; which likewise causes that sorrow shall not be joined with them, either in acquiring, or in preserving, or in spending the riches given to them by God, because the just, placing their hope in God's providence and blessing, and trusting in Him rather than in their own labor and industry (although they do not neglect it), rest secure in that, knowing themselves to be the care of God. Wherefore they labor without anxiety, and commit the fruit and gain of their labor to God, content with that measure of gain and riches which God has given; whereas on the other hand the impious are tormented with a thousand cares and anguishes that they may acquire, increase and preserve riches, nor are they ever content with them, but always desire more. By riches understand temporal ones, for these were promised to Solomon and the Jews by God, under which understand mystically spiritual riches, namely wisdom, grace, virtues, etc., promised to Christians, according to that passage in Wisdom VII, 9: "All gold in comparison with her is as a little sand, and shall be counted as mud in the sight of her." And again: "Her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness," but charity and joy. It signifies therefore first, that it is God's to enrich, and therefore he who wishes to become rich ought to seek God's favor and blessing, both through a just and holy life, and through prayer and invocation. Secondly, that God's curse is the cause of poverty; and therefore we see the poor, who through frauds, thefts, unjust contracts strive to become rich, are impoverished by God cursing them, and all their labors and cares are made vain and come to nothing. Thirdly, that riches given by God to the just bring with them peace of mind, moderation, gladness, joy; whereas riches given by the world bring a thousand anxieties, disturbances, lawsuits, sorrows, which overwhelm and extinguish all the pleasure of riches; for the world mixes and adds this addition of sorrows to all its gifts in the manner of interest and usury. Thus God, blessing Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, etc., enriched them, and they themselves acknowledged this and confessed it with thanksgiving, as appears in Genesis XII, 2, and cap. XVIII, vers. 18, and cap. XXII, vers. 17, and cap. XXIV, vers. 1 et seq. Thus concerning Religious and Apostolic men the Apostle says: "Having nothing, and possessing all things." "For the providence of God is the wealth of the poor," says St. Chrysostom, and it is certain, perpetual and inexhaustible. Whence St. Francis gave his followers no other provision than this: "Cast thy thought upon the Lord, and He Himself shall sustain thee." We see how many and how great estates and revenues God's blessing has given to the monasteries of the Order of St. Benedict; indeed they were so great that Trithemius writes, if all were gathered into one, they would easily equal a third part of Europe. It is a famous saying of the King of France concerning St. Maur: "This monk acquired more by his breviary than my ancestors did by the sword." St. Jerome gives the reason, namely that the Religious, leaving all things for God, possesses God; and all riches are God's. For thus he says in his epistle to Pammachius: "To the Religious Christ is all things, so that he who has given up all things for Christ may find one in place of all, and may be able to proclaim with free voice: The Lord is my portion," who is rich in mercy equally as in opulence.
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23. AS THROUGH LAUGHTER A FOOL WORKETH WICKEDNESS: BUT WISDOM IS TO A MAN PRUDENCE. — Salazar takes the word "as" not properly, as a note of similitude, but by catachresis as a note of truth, just as it is taken in John I, 14: "We saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father." Whence the Septuagint, reading the letter beth as the cognate kaph, reading bischoc as kischoc, translate: in laughter the unwise man acts wickedly; the Chaldean: when the fool laughs, he worketh wickedness. The sense therefore is first, that is to say, The fool, that is the wicked man, while he laughs and smiles, while he shows himself cheerful and joyful, plots wickedness and harm. "But wisdom to a man is prudence," that is to the prudent man wisdom is caution, lest he suffer himself to be deceived or circumvented by the wicked; for the prudent man discerns from the manner of laughter the mind and machinations of the foolish. For as Seneca says, "There is laughter, loud laughter, smiling, mockery and subtle smiling. The sincere laugh, fools burst into loud laughter, flatterers smile, jesters mock, the cunning and deceitful smile subtly. These things prudent men discern clearly." Secondly, that is to say, In laughter, or when he laughs, the fool worketh evil, that is laughter and the opportunity of jesting furnish occasion for great crimes. Aristotle gives the reason, lib. IV of the Ethics, cap. VIII: Because laughter administers license and a certain freer faculty, and shame departs amid laughter and jests, modesty withdraws. And pseudo-Augustine: "Frequent laughter corrupts morals; for it relaxes the nerves of strictness drawn tight; but a stern countenance is the guardian of discipline." St. Chrysostom, hom. 62 to the People, recounts certain places where laughter is more licentious, and teaches that the greatest crimes occur in these, namely in theaters, in banquets and such like others. The sense therefore is, that is to say, Laughter and jests, loosening the rigor of the mind, are the cause that the mind flows forth into gluttony, lust, abuse and other crimes. But "wisdom to a man is prudence," that is the very wisdom by which the prudent man excels imposes measure upon jests and laughter, prescribes laws, lest perchance excess bring license and liberty of sinning. Such are in the courts of princes the flatterers, who in order to indulge the desires of princes excuse or evade all their crimes through jest and laughter. Such in the court of Henry VIII, king of England, was Francis Bryan, a knight banneret. For when the king, captivated by love of Anne Boleyn, thought to take her as wife, whom they said was the king's own daughter (because the mother of Anne had been the king's concubine), he asked of Bryan, says Sander: "What sin would it seem to know first the mother, then the daughter?" To whom Bryan: "Altogether such, O king, as to eat first a hen, then her chick." When the king received this word with great laughter, he is said to have said to Bryan: "Truly you are deservedly my vicar of hell." The king therefore, having kept both the mother first and afterwards the daughter Mary Boleyn as concubine, at length began to turn his mind to another daughter also, Anne Boleyn. WISDOM IS TO A MAN PRUDENCE. — In Hebrew, understanding. First, the Septuagint thus genuinely translate and explain: wisdom to a man begets prudence. Whence Lyra: Wisdom is knowledge of divine things; this in a virtuous man begets prudence, because through knowledge of divine things one proceeds to directing human acts, about which prudence properly is concerned. And St. Thomas, I part. Quest. I, art. 6: "He is called prudent who is wise, insofar as he orders human acts to their due end. Whence in Proverbs X it is said: Wisdom is to a man prudence." Secondly, the Chaldean translates: wisdom is to the prudent man, so that through wisdom he may avoid the crime which the fool worketh through laughter and defend himself against it. Thirdly, the Zurich Bible: Jest is to the fool to have designated wickedness; but if anyone observes this, that is wisdom. Fourthly, Vatable: wisdom is to a man of understanding, that is wisdom abounds in the man of understanding. Fifthly, Jansenius, transposing the words: Prudence is to a man wisdom, that is to prudently observe and understand how serious a matter it is to work wickedness and to what great evil it leads a man is great wisdom to a man. Moreover I have already often warned that wisdom and prudence in this book signify the same thing in the matter, namely ethics, or practical science. Whence it is significantly said: "Wisdom is to a man prudence," that is to say, In human affairs wisdom is prudence, and the wise man is a prudent man, because he prudently orders the actions of human life to the ultimate end; for otherwise wisdom taken simply differs in its whole genus from prudence, and is the contemplation of the highest things, namely God, Angels and heavenly things. Thus St. Thomas, II II part., Quest. XLVII, art. 2, ad 1.
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24. WHAT THE WICKED MAN FEARS SHALL COME UPON HIM; BUT TO THE JUST SHALL BE GIVEN THEIR DESIRE. — In Hebrew: fear itself shall come upon the wicked; the Syriac: the wicked man shall be dragged to perdition, and what the just man hoped for shall be given to him; Vatablus: things which the wicked fear come upon them, but to the just is given what they desire; the Septuagint: the wicked man is carried about in perdition, but the desire of the just is acceptable. Or more clearly, as the interpreter of the Greek Catena translated it: the wicked man wallows in the pit of perdition; but the desire of the just is pleasing or acceptable to God. And he explains it thus, that is to say: The wicked man wallows in perdition, inasmuch as when some temptation comes upon him, without any fear he immediately gives himself over to sin; whereas on the other hand, through patience and endurance, he ought to have resisted the temptation that had come upon him. This sentiment is connected with the preceding one, and limits and moderates it through occupation. For someone will say: If the fool works out his thoughts and crimes through laughter, therefore he is always joyful and cheerful, living a pleasant and blessed life. I answer that this laughter is mixed with great fear, and so the wicked man laughs outwardly, but inwardly fears and trembles. For while he is plotting a crime, or has committed or is committing one, immediately his conscience suggests to him a host of punishments and evils impending upon the crime and the criminal, which shake him with great fear and anguish. Nor is this fear vain and empty, but real and serious; for the things which he fears from an angry God shall come upon him. These evils are both future in hell, and present, namely infamy if the crime is revealed, loss of goods, fear lest what he is plotting have an unhappy outcome, offense of friends, neighbors and all citizens, imprisonment finally and death itself; for all these things the crime itself deserves. On the other hand, the just, who put on a grave and severe countenance to display prudence, hide in their hearts their hopes and joys, because they firmly hope to enjoy their desires. For God has promised this to them here and elsewhere, as in Psalm 144:19: "He will do the will of them that fear him, and he will hear their prayer, and save them"; and he gives them the pledge and earnest of this very thing in the desire itself. For when God wishes to bestow some gift upon someone, he first sends into him a great desire for it, both that through this he may become capable and pray for the gift, and that the gift may be more pleasing the more and longer it was desired. For this reason God is accustomed to defer the desired thing, so that the delay may increase the desire and prayer, and the desire may accumulate joy when he possesses the thing itself. Therefore there is here one antithesis, but twofold in force, that is to say: Upon the wicked shall come not what he hopes for, but what he fears; but on the other hand, to the just shall come not what he fears, but what he hopes for. Thus we see and experience God fulfilling in the good the desires of his servants, even in domestic and small matters, indeed surpassing and exceeding them, according to what the Church professes: "O God, who surpassest the merits and desires of those who beseech thee," etc. We read in the Life of St. Hildegard that many were accustomed to commend themselves to her prayers and were granted their petitions and gave her thanks; and when she marveled at this because she had forgotten them and had not prayed for them, she received an answer from God that he had granted it to them not because she had actually prayed for them, but because she had intended to pray; for he himself hears the silent and virtual vows of his servants, even if they do not pass into act. Moreover, God especially fulfills in his servants the desire for greater virtue and perfection; for this desire is an effective means for requesting perfection through prayer and procuring it through action. Wherefore, as Blessed Lawrence Justinian wisely admonishes: "Whoever desires to abound in the delights, riches and honors of that heavenly life, as long as he lives in the flesh, as long as it is permitted to work, let him not cease to scatter the seeds of virtues, that he may be able to gather sheaves of merits in the heavenly barns. Let him always strive to make progress, let him continually meditate on how he may grow in the way of God. And let him never permit the desire of perfection to be rooted out of himself, but rather, however much he may have made progress, although he may have been enriched with many virtues, let him continually say with the Apostle: I do not count myself to have apprehended. And stirred by these goads of burning love, let him always seek greater gifts and desire better spiritual charisms." Desires therefore are of great importance for attaining perfection, especially ardent and efficacious ones; they ought therefore to be increased and sharpened. When therefore, O man of God, thou feelest a desire for some grace, virtue, conversion of souls, etc., to be sent into thee by God, know that God will truly give thee the thing desired; for this reason he sends into thee its desire and as it were sends it as a herald beforehand. For just as, as Alcuin says in his Responses to the Emperor Charlemagne, the fear by which God strikes the minds of the wicked before punishment is the "herald of divine wrath and vengeance," so fear announces punishment to the wicked, and desire announces that the desired thing shall soon come to the pious.
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25. AS A PASSING TEMPEST SO SHALL THE WICKED NOT BE: BUT THE JUST SHALL BE AS AN EVERLASTING FOUNDATION. — In Hebrew: as a whirlwind passes, so the wicked shall not be; but the just as the foundation of the world or age. This is, says Vatablus, as quickly as a whirlwind passes, so quickly shall the wicked cease to be; but the just shall remain in life, as the foundation of the world perseveres. The Chaldean: as a whirlwind passes, so shall the wicked pass away; the Syriac: as a whirlwind suddenly passes, so shall the wicked be destroyed and shall not be found; but the foundations of the just shall be laid for eternity; the Arabic: in the passing of the whirlwind the wicked perishes; but the just, when he has turned aside from evils, shall preserve himself for eternity. The Septuagint, reading ב for כ, namely בסופה besupha for כסופה kesupha, that is in tempest, translate: when the tempest passes or comes upon, the wicked is blotted out, but the just, turning aside from it, is preserved for ever. For tempest in Hebrew is supha, that is whirlwind, tempest, storm, as it were laying waste and bringing to an end. For the root suph signifies to cease, to end, to finish; and soph is end, terminus. Now in general the sense is adequate, as if to say: As a tempest quickly passes and ceases, so also the wicked; but the just endures both in this life and more so in the future and eternal life. In particular, however, because tempest can be taken in two ways, namely passively and actively, hence there is a twofold sense here. The former, taking it passively, as if to say: When public calamity and disaster, temptation and tribulation come upon, the wicked is seized and snatched away by it; but the just remains firm and unshaken in it, either because he prudently avoids it, or because he is protected by God, or, if it comes upon him, he bears it and overcomes it with fortitude. Thus Jansenius. To this exposition the Septuagint and the Zurich Bible are favorable, when it translates: where the tempest passes, the wicked is nowhere, but the foundation of the just is perpetual. Whence Christ compares the just to a house built upon a rock, which resists every tempest and storm; but the wicked to a house built upon sand, which the storm destroys, Matthew VII, 24. In like manner Jeremiah XXIII, 19: "Behold the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation shall go forth, and a storm bursting forth shall come upon the head of the wicked." And Nahum I, 3: "The Lord is in tempest and whirlwind in his way." The latter, taking it actively, as if to say: The wicked is like a passing storm and whirlwind, because although for a time he is terrible to men like a tempest, yet he does not last long, but like a passing storm is suddenly taken from life. Which, although it may seem long here, yet to the eternity that follows, in which he dies an eternal death, is brief. But the just is compared to an everlasting foundation, that is one lasting long, because according to the promises of the Old Testament he persists long in this life; or, even if he is not given to live long here, yet he does not cease to live, so that through bodily death he may attain true and eternal life. This sense is required by the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac and our text. Solomon, following his custom, in Ecclesiasticus XI, 13: "The substance of the wicked shall be dried up like a river, and shall resound like a great thunder in rain." Note that the wicked is rightly compared to a storm and whirlwind. First, because the wicked, like a whirlwind, rush upon the just and afflict and vex them; but the just bears these afflictions with a strong mind, as a firm and unshaken foundation. Second, because as a tempest, so also the raging of the wicked is fierce, violent, rough and horrible, with thunders resounding, lightnings flashing, winds roaring, thunderbolts falling, torrents of rain pouring down, according to that saying of Virgil, Aeneid V: "The tempest rages without measure and the lofty lands tremble with thunder / and the fields, a turbid rain rushes through the whole sky / with waters, and darkest with thick South winds." Thirdly, both are sudden and unexpected; for the impious man arises suddenly, but passes away suddenly and perishes. Wherefore he must be endured with a strong spirit, in the certain hope that he will quickly pass away. Thus Julian the Apostate, like a tempest, passed through raging against Christians; for he reigned scarcely two years. Whence when he cast St. Athanasius out of Alexandria, and therefore the Christians wept: "Be of good courage," said Athanasius, "for it is a cloud, and will soon vanish." He was a true prophet, for in that same year Julian fell in Persia, thus Sozomenus V, 14. Fourthly, because both often inflict great damage. Read the history of the ten persecutions of the primitive Church — those of Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Antoninus, Severus, Maximinus, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, Diocletian — and you will see what great slaughters of Christians they produced. Fifthly, because both destroy themselves and end in themselves, and bring upon themselves the same slaughter and destruction which they inflict upon others, and as the silkworm wraps itself in its cocoon and dies. The impious man therefore is engulfed in his own tempest; but the just man overcomes it or passes through it and sails to the harbor of happiness and eternal stability. Thus Nebuchadnezzar is compared to a whirlwind and tempest, Jerem. IV, 13: "Behold, he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots like a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe to us, for we are laid waste." And concerning Antiochus invading Ptolemy Philometor, Daniel says, XI, 40: "And the king of the north shall come against him like a tempest, with chariots and with horsemen, and with a great navy." And concerning Cyrus invading Babylon, Isaiah says, XXI, 1: "As whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land." Moreover, R. Levi thus expounds it: "Like a tempest, that is to say, When a storm and tempest shall come, it will be driven only to destroy the impious, just as if the purpose of the tempest were to punish the wicked with destruction." Thus Aristotle in the Meteorology says God thunders so that by this sound He may strike impious men with fear of the divine. Whence also sinners are not rarely struck by lightning, for example adulterers, fornicators, sodomites, when they are caught in the act; for the air is indignant and rages by thundering and lightning against the impious, who abuse the air for their crime, according to that passage in Wisdom V, 21: "The whole world shall fight with him against the unwise. The shafts of lightning shall go forth unto their mark, and shall leap upon the mark as from a well-bent bow of the clouds, and as stones slung with a sling shall be scattered in the air, and the water of the sea shall rage against them." Finally, our Fernandez elegantly explains this passage in Genesis XXXI: "The impious shall not be like a tempest." The sky is sometimes covered with darkness; then malignant flashes of lightning gleam, the ether roars, thunders rumble, the tempest rages. What then? Fear and horror on the earth. Good, but when the cloud is finally dissolved into rains, the tempest is silent, serenity returns to the sky, the life-giving light revisits the lands. At last the roar which had terrified the nations ceases; only mud and filth remain to be seen on the earth. So it is with the children of this world: while they live, they resound, are heard, known, celebrated, and are a wonder and terror to mortals, with the names and titles of honors and dignities, with the noise of most vain pomp, with the tinkling of gold and silver made and unmade; it is a tempest. But when death intervenes and their bodies are buried, their pride and memory are likewise buried. Most excellently indeed does the Wise Man add: "But the just shall be as an everlasting foundation." The impious man indeed is in the eyes and on the lips of men; the just man, however, lies hidden under the earth, like the cement of a wall: he is despised, oppressed. But how different is the end of each! His soul is consigned to eternal fires, his glory vanishes, and his memory is buried in perpetual oblivion. But to the just man it is said: "Lift up thy head, raise thy eyes on high, for thy redemption is at hand: arise from the earth, and enter into the joy of thy Lord." Morally, the just man is an everlasting foundation, because fixed in God and heaven, he stands unmoved amid adversities and prosperities, and says: "Though the broken world should fall, / The ruins shall not shake my soul." Hence Aristotle in the Ethics teaches that the man endowed with virtue is like a square stone, which, in whatever direction it is rolled, stands square and firm, and meets every chance of fortune with a square disposition of mind and countenance. And Seneca defines virtue to be an equality and tenor of life consonant with itself in all things. And in the Tablet of Cebes, true discipline is painted standing upon a square stone, while fortune stands upon a rolling globe. Add that the just are the foundation of the world, because on account of them the world is stable, which otherwise would often be overthrown by God on account of the crimes of the impious. Whence that saying of Rufinus: "Who would doubt that the world stands by the prayers of the Saints." Elegantly St. Augustine in Psalm LXXXVI: "The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains. Not without reason was the ark of Noah built of squared timbers, which nevertheless bore a figure of the Church. What is it then to be squared? Observe the likeness of a squared stone. A Christian ought to be similar in every temptation of his. A Christian does not fall, and if he is thrust, and if he is turned in any way, he does not fall; for a squared stone, whichever way you turn it, stands. The Martyrs seemed to fall when they were struck; but what did a certain voice of the Canticle say? When the just man shall fall, he shall not be bruised, for the Lord supporteth his hand. So therefore square yourselves for all temptations prepared; whatever may thrust, let it not overturn you; let every accident find you standing." And St. Gregory Nazianzen, oration 28: "There is a certain tree in fables which, when it is cut, grows green and contends against iron, lives by death and sprouts by cutting, and when it is consumed grows. Such indeed a philosophical man seems to be. For he flourishes amid tortures and the troubles of life, and considers the harvest of virtue to exist, and in adversities rejoices and glories." And soon after: "Two things these cannot be seized and overcome, God and Angel; a third is the philosopher, in matter devoid of matter, in body uncircumscribed, on earth heavenly, in passions impassible, bearing easily that all things overcome him except in greatness of soul, by this very fact that he suffers himself to be overcome, overcoming those who seem superior to him."
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26. AS VINEGAR TO THE TEETH, AND SMOKE TO THE EYES, SO IS THE SLOTHFUL MAN (Chaldean: the slothful messenger) TO THOSE WHO SENT HIM. — Vinegar indeed cleanses and strengthens the teeth, but nevertheless by its sourness it brings pain and numbness to them, so that they cannot chew food; for by vinegar the teeth are dulled and stupefied and become sore, says Lyra. Wherefore Cajetan wrongly contends that for "vinegar" it should be translated "sour"; for sour things harm the teeth, whereas vinegar benefits them. But smoke obscures the clear eyes with its darkness, torments them, and draws forth tears. Whence there exists a riddle of smoke in the Symposium: "I have tears, I have tears, but there is no cause of pain. / There is a path to heaven, but heavy air hinders me; / And he who begot me is not born without me." Now the sense in general is adequately expressed, as if to say: As vinegar brings trouble and harm to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so likewise the slothful man creates trouble and harm to those who sent him, because he performs sluggishly, remissly, imperfectly, and negligently those things for which he was sent, and returns slowly and reports to the sender what he has done. But in particular, first, Jansenius thus explains it: By this sentence he admonishes one to consider carefully to whom one commits one's business to be managed and cared for. As vinegar is harmful to the teeth, which it stupefies on account of its sourness, and as smoke is harmful to the eyes which it dulls and pricks, so the slothful man is harmful and troublesome to those who sent him, because while he poorly cares for their cause committed to him through his sloth, he brings both harm and pain to them, and causes them to be unable to arrange their cause well. So also R. Levi and Aben-Ezra. To these add that saying of Ausonius, epigram 110: "A healthy slothful man is much worse than a feverish one, / He drinks double, and devours double portions of food." Second, as if to say: As smoke before the eyes goes into the air and vanishes, so the slothful man sent by his master goes and does not return, and thus keeps him in suspense. Again, as teeth stupefied by vinegar cannot chew food and eyes obscured by smoke cannot perceive what is present, so the master eager to know what the slothful man sent by him has accomplished in the matter, while he delays, neither desires to take food nor to see anything pleasant, because the slothful man's return and response keeps him anxious. Third, as vinegar makes the teeth sour and slow to chew and smoke makes the eyes slow and sluggish to perceive, so the slothful man breathes his sloth upon his master, so that on account of his tardiness he is forced to execute slowly, sluggishly, and imperfectly the sharp matter which he had intended in his mind. Fourth, more closely and forcefully our Salazar thinks it is signified here that the slothful man stirs up anger and moves bile in his master, as if to say: As from vinegar comes stupor of the teeth, from stupor comes grinding and clashing; likewise from smoke the eyes are darkened and constricted, so also on account of the slothful servant performing tardily and haltingly the matters entrusted to him, such vehement and bitter anger sometimes seizes those who sent or entrusted him that their teeth stupefied by excited bile grind and clash, and their eyes growing dark are dulled by rage; and finally they pour out all the conceived anger and fury upon that sluggish servant. Hence Aristotle in Stobaeus, discourse 18: "As biting smoke does not permit the eyes to see what lies at the feet, so anger arising obscures reason." To this applies that saying of the Comic poet: "The tardiness of many messengers has destroyed them." And yet sometimes prudence advises using it thus: "Do not hasten if destined to a sad messenger." Symbolically, the slothful man and sloth are a symbol of iniquity and wickedness, which harms the soul more than vinegar harms the teeth and smoke the eyes, both because sloth or acedia is one of the seven capital vices, and because it itself is the source and origin of all evils: "For idleness has taught much wickedness," Ecclesiasticus XXXIII, 29. Whence the Septuagint thus translates: as the sour grape is harmful to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so iniquity is to those who use it. And the author of the Greek Catena: "Iniquity is harmful to its authors; for it also takes away sense and seriously offends the mind, nor does it easily end once begun." He alludes to that saying of Moses, Deuteronomy XXXII, 32: "Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrah: their grape is a grape of gall, and their clusters most bitter." To this in turn Ezekiel XVIII, 2 alludes: "The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the children are set on edge." St. Augustine in Psalm XLVIII reads and explains it thus: "Just as unripe grapes are a vexation to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is iniquity to those who use it. For whoever shall have eaten iniquity, that is, whoever shall have willingly possessed it, will not be able to eat justice. For bread is justice. Who is the bread? I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. How then, just as he who eats unripe grapes with his mouth, his teeth become numb and stupefied, and he becomes less fit for eating bread — so he who has used iniquity and been fed on sins begins to be unable to eat bread. He praises the word of God, and does not do it. But what do those do whose teeth have become stupefied? They abstain somewhat from unripe grapes and apply themselves to bread; so also we, if we wish to eat justice, let us abstain from iniquities and apply ourselves to justice, and there will be born in the heart not only delight in praising justice, but also facility in eating it, that is, in doing it." Furthermore, iniquity is rightly compared to vinegar and unripe grapes, because just as these are sour to the teeth, so iniquity is sour to minds; for it creates in them both numbness and pains, both present and eternal. Again, just as unripe grapes are immature, which are plucked and tasted before the time of ripeness, so iniquity and the iniquitous seek to taste pleasure before the proper time, and therefore from its sourness his teeth become stupefied; for the time of pleasure is in the future life, but the time of labor and the cross is in the present. Moreover, iniquity is rightly likened to smoke. First, because like smoke from worldly darkness it covers the vision of the mind, as St. Ambrose says; for sin blinds the judgment of reason, so that it judges evil to be good. Second, just as smoke causes tears, so iniquity stirs up many sorrows. Third, just as smoke soon vanishes, so the pleasure of sin quickly passes, but leaves fixed in the mind a sting and guilt. Fourth, St. Macarius: "Just as a house filled with smoke pours it out into the air, so sin abounding in the soul overflows outwardly." Fifth, just as flame is near to smoke — for smoke arises from fire and in turn becomes fire — so iniquity arises from the fire of concupiscence and in turn kindles it more. Sixth: "Just as smoke puts bees to flight, so lamentable sin expels the guardian of our life, the angel," says St. Basil. Seventh: "The nature of smoke neither subsists substantially in itself, nor consists of any body." So sin is not substance, indeed it is not being; for every being is good. Sin therefore is only a privation of being and good. Eighth, just as in smoke light is mixed with darkness, so in sin true things are mixed with false, good things with evil. Finally, just as smoke ends in fire, so sin ends in the eternal fire of hell. Mystically and tropologically Lyra: "Vinegar, which degenerates from wine, and smoke, which ascending from fire vanishes, these are those who depart from their ecclesiastical life and charity through pride or sloth and even impugn it with words, of whom it is said in I John II: They went out from us, but they were not of us." And Salonius: "Slothful is the evil-living Catholic, who does not labor nor work so as to merit reaching eternal beatitude. By vinegar and smoke the perfidy of heretics is designated; by eyes and teeth the preachers of the holy Church, who are rightly called eyes, because they foresee the right paths, and also beautifully teeth because they are accustomed to minister spiritual food to the faithful. Therefore, just as the perfidy of heretics is contrary to good teachers, so the slothful one, that is, the evil Catholic, is burdensome to those same good teachers who sent him, that is, who commanded that he fulfill his faith by works."
10:27
27. THE FEAR OF THE LORD SHALL ADD DAYS, AND THE YEARS OF THE IMPIOUS SHALL BE SHORTENED. — The Septuagint: shall be diminished; Vatablus: shall be cut off, according to that: "Men of blood and the deceitful shall not live out half their days," Psalm LIV, 24. Impiety makes the impious short-lived, but the fear of God makes the pious long-lived. See the sayings at cap. III, 2, and Eccli. I, 12. These sentences signify not what always, but what often happens, especially in that age of Judaism. Furthermore, R. Levi thus explains: "Here he grants to the man a longer span of life; for since he lies in the bosom of divine providence, he escapes the calamities by which, pressed down, he would be driven to death before the age of nature's decline; but the years of the impious shall fall away, nor shall they reach the appointed time; for untimely death shall punish them on account of their wicked deliberation" — namely intemperance or imprudence, by which they recklessly cast themselves into the danger of death, or certainly on account of their demerits, for which God punishes them with swift death. Finally, St. Augustine in Questions on the Old and New Testament, Question XXVIII, understands by the impious idolaters: "When Solomon says: The years of the impious shall be diminished, how then is it that we see the impious sometimes long-lived? It would indeed have been fitting that all the impious not only depart from this light sooner, but also enjoy not even a moment's time of life, they who, forgetful of their Creator, attribute the authority of all life to the creature. But Scripture addresses those impious who, when they acted under the law of God, were more inclined toward idols. For they are worse than other impious men; for knowing God and despising him, they obey servants." And that this was said of these he proves the Apostle saying: "Now we know that what things soever the law speaketh, it speaketh to them that are in the law; but the Gentiles are not held in the number of the living."
10:28
28. THE EXPECTATION OF THE JUST IS JOY: BUT THE HOPE OF THE WICKED SHALL PERISH. — For expectation in Hebrew is tochelet, that is hope, expectation; Symmachus renders it ὑπομονή, that is patience, forbearance, perseverance in a troublesome matter with expectation of a better lot; Theodotion translates it προσδοκία; in the same sense Aquila, ἐσπαδοκία, that is waiting for, of which the Apostle speaks, Rom. VIII, 19: "The expectation (in Greek ἀποκαραδοκία) of the creature waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God." The Septuagint: joy remaineth with the just. Expectation or hope can first be taken properly, as if to say: The hope of the just is joyful and rejoices even in tribulations, because it is certain from the promise of God that it will obtain the thing hoped for, for example eternal beatitude. Whence the Syriac renders it: the hope of the just is in joy. But the hope of the wicked is not joyful, but anxious and tormenting, because it is doubtful and fears or distrusts that it will obtain the thing hoped for; for if it hopes for temporal goods, it often does not obtain them; if for eternal goods, it will certainly be deprived of them. This is what the Apostle says, Rom. XII, 12: "Rejoicing in hope," and therefore on account of this hope "patient in tribulation." And Hebr. XI, 1, he thus defines faith joined with hope: "Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not." For this reason St. Francis used to say: "So great is the glory which I expect, that every punishment delights me." Hence that brief but efficacious exhortation of his, to be meditated upon constantly: "Brief pleasure, eternal punishment. Slight labor, immense glory. Many are called, few are chosen, all shall receive their reward." Secondly, expectation and hope can be taken metonymically for the obtaining of the thing hoped for, when namely hope is turned into the thing itself, as if to say: The happiness which the just hope for and expect, coming to them certainly, will bring them great joy. For when they see themselves possessing so joyful a thing and so long hoped for, and their desires fulfilled, and abounding in all goods, they will rejoice wonderfully. But the wicked fall short of their hopes, and therefore are afflicted and tormented, both because their hope is wholly fixed on present things, which, being fleeting and evanescent, quickly pass away and perish, as the author of the Greek Catena says, and because they do not attain the eternal goods, which are the primary object of hope. Hugo adds thirdly: "The expectation of the just is joy," that is, joy itself awaits the just in heaven, in that heaven is to be adorned and beautified by them and beatitude itself is as it were to be ennobled; for its dignity consists in this, that it is not given to the wicked but to the just, whose virtue merits so great a reward, and so the just, just as they are adorned and glorified by beatitude, so in turn they bring beauty and splendor to beatitude and heaven. So great is the dignity of the just, so great is the beauty of justice, so great is the splendor of grace and holiness. Most excellently St. Bernard on Psalm CXI, sermon 4: "If the expectation of the just is joy, and such joy that nothing which is desired in the world can be compared to it, what will be the thing itself which is expected? Eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee, the things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee," Isaiah LXIV. The same, sermon 67 in the Canticles, comparing expectation to adoration, possession to tasting: "Finally, the expectation of the just is joy; for the sinner expects nothing. And hence the sinner is one who, not only detained by present goods but also content with them, expects nothing for the future, deaf to that voice: Wait for me (saith the Lord) in the day of my resurrection. And therefore Simeon was just, because he expected and already smelled Christ in spirit, whom he had not yet smelled in the flesh. And blessed in his expectation, because through the odor of expectation he came to the taste of contemplation. Finally he says: And mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Luke II. Just also was Abraham, who himself expected to see the day of the Lord and was not confounded in his expectation; for he saw, and was glad. The just Apostles when they heard: And you yourselves like to men that wait for their lord. Why not just also David, when he said: I have waited, waited for the Lord?" Psalm XXXIX.
10:29
29. THE STRENGTH OF THE SIMPLE IS THE WAY OF THE LORD: AND FEAR TO THOSE WHO WORK EVIL. — For simple in Hebrew is lattom, that is, the upright; the Septuagint: the holy; or in the dative, to the upright, to the innocent, to the perfect. For fear in Hebrew is mechitta, that is, breaking, fracture either of body or of mind, namely consternation and fear. First, the Syriac translator thus renders and explains: he strengthens the perfect in the way of the Lord and breaks those who work evil; the Chaldean: and destruction to those who commit iniquity; the Septuagint: a fortification as a firmament, and the strength of a holy man is the fear of the Lord, but breaking to those who work evil. For in Hebrew maoz signifies both strength and a strong place, namely a fortification and a citadel. Whence the citadel of Antichrist shall be called Maozim from fortification, Daniel XI, 39. The Zurich Bible: the way of the Lord is strength to the upright, but fear to the wicked; Vatablus: consternation of mind, supply, is the way or commandment of God, "because it is wont to break the mind of him who works iniquity." For the law threatens the wrath of God and destruction, just as it promises to the observer of it the grace and glory of God. The law therefore strengthens the pious, dismays the impious. The sense therefore is, as if to say, "The way of the Lord," that is, the law and the keeping of the law, namely virtue, justice, integrity, holiness, by which the just know that they please God and are his care as friends and sons, from whom they expect an eternal inheritance — this holiness so strengthens them that they fear nothing adverse and overcome all tribulations and persecutions with fortitude. But the same law and holiness strikes down, dismays, and makes fearful those who work evil, because being destitute of it they know themselves to be hateful and abhorrent to God; and therefore they expect from him nothing but wrath, punishments and vengeance. They fear with justice therefore. This sense is connected and profound, and therefore genuine. We shall hear a similar saying in chapter XXI, 13. Second, more plainly, as if to say, Just as "the way of the Lord," that is, integrity, strengthens and makes courageous the simple, that is, the upright and perfect, so on the other hand the way of the impious who work evil, that is, their malice and dishonesty, brings them trembling and fear; for being conscious of evil they expect nothing but evils and penalties. The cause is that the way of the Lord leads to the Lord, and therefore is directed, protected, fortified and strengthened by him. Therefore "the strength of the simple is the way of the Lord" is in reality the same as the strength of the simple is God himself, according to that Psalm XLII, 2: "For thou art, O God, my strength" (in Hebrew maozi); II Kings XXII, 33: "God who hath girded me with strength" (in Hebrew maoz); Proverbs XVIII, 10: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the just runneth to it, and shall be exalted"; Psalm XXXVI, 39: "But the salvation of the just is from the Lord, and he is their protector in time of tribulation." Now "if God be for us, who is against us?" Romans VIII. And St. Augustine: "Why dost thou fear, O man, placed in the bosom of God?" Wherefore below in chapter XXVIII, 1 Solomon says: "The just shall be as confident as a lion without fear." Nay, even Cicero in the Pro Milone: "Great is the power of conscience in both directions, so that neither do those fear who have done nothing wrong, and those who have sinned think punishment is always before their eyes." And the Poet: "Let this be a wall of bronze, / To be conscious of nothing to oneself, to grow pale at no guilt." The innocent therefore acts securely amid so many perils of life, nor is there any terror so great as to move him. For he is fixed in mind upon God, trusts in him alone, and knows himself to be his particular care. On the other hand the guilty and the sinner is fearful everywhere and trembles. "For just as shadows follow bodies, so sins follow souls and present manifest images of deeds," says St. Basil. And St. Chrysostom: "Just as those who walk by night tremble even if there is no one to terrify them, so also those who sin cannot be of confident mind, even if there is no one to reprove them." A terrible phantom and specter of sin follows them. The same: "Just as those who dwell in a prison condemned to death, awaiting condemnation and death, or if they enjoy abundance of delights, live a life far more troublesome and anxious, so also those who are troubled by an evil conscience." The same: "The fear of God is a safe armor, an impregnable shield."
10:30
30. THE JUST SHALL NOT BE MOVED FOR EVER: BUT THE WICKED SHALL NOT DWELL ON THE EARTH. — For "shall not be moved" in Hebrew it is lo iimot, that is, shall not be shaken; Aquila, me sphale, that is, shall not stumble or shall not fall; Vatablus: shall not be moved from place. Solomon alludes to those words of his father David: "He that doeth these things shall not be moved for ever," Psalm XIV. "He that trusteth in the Lord, as mount Sion, shall not be moved for ever," Psalm CXXIV. "But the just shall inherit the land, and shall dwell therein for ever and ever," Psalm XXXVI. For "for ever" in Hebrew it is leolam, that is, for an age, that is, for a long time, many years and ages. The sense therefore literally is, as if to say, The just man and his family, namely his sons and grandsons, protected by God in their cities and houses shall dwell safe and firm for many years and ages, and shall live a tranquil and happy life. But the wicked shall not dwell long on the earth, but shall be quickly driven out from it by God avenging, either by an enemy or by death. For God had promised this to the just among the Jews and had threatened the unjust, Leviticus XXVI, and elsewhere. But if sometimes He did not actually perform this, He compensated the brevity and hardships of this life with the eternity and happiness of another life in heaven. Whence Cajetan thinks that here is promised to the Jews a firm possession of the holy land if they persisted in the worship and justice of God, but expulsion from it if they departed from justice. R. Levi moreover: "The just man remains stable in his seat; but the wicked dwell in a certain place only for a very brief time; for when they have become accustomed to wicked actions, they shall be hated by very many." Anagogically, to the just Christians is promised the land of the living in the heavens, from the possession of which they shall not be moved for ever; but the wicked shall not inherit it, but shall be thrust down under the sky and under the earth into the depths of hell, says Hugh. Tropologically, the just shall not be moved, even if he be struck by grave tribulation or temptation; but constant and strong he shall stand and shall not allow himself to be moved from God, His law and justice. Whence Aquila translated: shall not stumble, shall not fall; in Hebrew: shall not be shaken. And R. Levi: "The just for an age, that is, within the span of life prescribed to him, shall not be moved," according to that of Exodus XXIII, 26: "And I will fill up the number of thy days." And the author of the Greek Catena: "The just is so firmly established in the grace of God that, walking in the way of life, he cannot be troubled or be changed from good to evil."
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31. THE MOUTH OF THE JUST SHALL BRING FORTH WISDOM, AND THE TONGUE OF THE PERVERSE SHALL PERISH. — For "shall bring forth" in Hebrew is ianub, that is, shall bear fruit; the Zurich Bible: shall propagate; the Chaldean: makes known; the Syriac: speaks, as if to say: Just as the earth brings forth and bears its fruits, such as wheat, grapes, apples, nuts, etc., so the mouth of the just, like fertile earth, brings forth and bears wisdom, which is something stable and eternal, as Rabbi Levi says, and propagates and disseminates it in others; and therefore it is fitting that this mouth should remain and endure like a fruitful field or tree. But the tongue of the impious, because it brings forth vain, foolish, perverse, impious things, like a barren and harmful tree, deserves to perish and be cut down, and in fact often does perish and is cut down. Whence in Hebrew it is: the tongue of perversities shall be cut off; the Syriac: shall be amputated. The word "shall bring forth" signifies, first, that the just speaks nothing except what is preconceived in the mind, examined and premeditated, and therefore approved and perfect like a well-formed fruit and offspring: "For speech is the fruit of thoughts," as Clement of Alexandria says. Second, that the utterances of the just are as it were his offspring and children, which he himself brings forth with great effort, labor and toil, just as a woman brings forth offspring with great effort and pain. Third, that the just speaks at the opportune time, just as the earth produces ripe fruits at the appointed time. Such are the sermons of preachers, confessors and the like, who bring forth souls to Christ with great labor, pain and groaning like does, as St. Gregory teaches at length on that passage of Job XXXIX, 1. Fourth, "shall bring forth," equally as the Hebrew ianub, signifies the abundant fruit of the just man's speech; for from tanub comes tenuba, that is, produce and abundance of fruits, as Aben-Ezra says; for reward corresponds to labor, and just as the earth, so also the mind and tongue of the just strives and brings forth precious and abundant offspring and fruits with great expenditure of time and labor. The Septuagint translates: the mouth of the just distills, that is, drips wisdom. The word "distills" signifies, first, the preciousness of the words of the just. For just as myrrh distills stacte, which is the most precious myrrh, so the mouth of the just distills holy utterances, especially in exhorting sinners to penance and change of life, according to that passage in the Canticle V, 13: "His lips are lilies, distilling choice myrrh." Second, that the utterances of the just are few and sparing, just as a drop and resin drips drop by drop. Third, that they are well weighed and refined. Fourth, that the just accommodates himself to the rudeness and infancy of his disciples; for just as a teacher gradually instills into children the manner of reading and writing, lest if he gives them everything at once he confuse their memory, so likewise does the wise and just man. For the rude and children are like vessels with a narrow opening, into which therefore one must drip liquid; for if you pour in the whole, it will overflow and be lost. Fifth, that the just keeps much more in his heart than he brings forth in speech. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 43 on Matthew: "From words as from streams, infer that there is a much greater fountain. For what is brought forth outside flows from it, and what is inside is its overflow." And soon after: "In like manner, approved words signify that there is much more approved virtue within."
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32. THE LIPS OF THE JUST CONSIDER WHAT IS PLEASING, AND THE MOUTH OF THE WICKED UTTERETH PERVERSE THINGS. — "Consider," that is, they utter after considering. It is a metalepsis, such as that: "The mouth of the just shall meditate," that is, shall speak wisdom after meditating. For "consider" in Hebrew is iedeun, that is, they know; Aquila and Theodotion: they shall know; Pagninus: the lips of the just know what is pleasing to God, and the mouth of the wicked speaks perverse things; Vatablus: the lips of the just know what is acceptable (Zurich: pleasing), that is, they speak knowingly and aptly those things which please God and men. The sense is, as if to say, The just man considers what things are pleasing to God and men, and utters them with grace, dignity and elegance; and therefore he pleases all, and all applaud him. And the mouth of the wicked speaks perverse things which displease God and men; and therefore he displeases all. Whence the Septuagint, for iedeun, that is, they know, reading with neighboring letters but different points iariph, that is, they distill, or rather iiddeun in piel, that is, they cause to know, they instruct, translates: the lips of just men distill graces (as it were gems); but the mouth of the wicked katastrephetai, which the Complutensian editors translate: is turned away; others: is perverted, is subverted; better the Roman: perverts. Therefore, whatever words the just man speaks, so many graces, so many roses, so many pearls distill from his mouth, according to that of the Bride, Psalm XLIV: "Grace is poured abroad in thy lips, therefore hath God blessed thee for ever." In Belgium there is celebrated a certain Joscio, a Religious of St. Bertin, who about 500 years ago, daily greeting the Mother of God with five psalms beginning with as many letters of the name MARIA, was found after his death to carry five roses on his face and in his mouth with the inscription of the name Maria. Therefore, offering roses of psalms to the Mother of God in life, after death he merited to be adorned by her with as many heavenly roses — thus the archives of the monastery of St. Bertin, St. Antoninus and others have it. As often therefore as you devoutly recite the Angelic Salutation to the Mother of God, so many roses do you draw forth from your mouth to her; which if you repeat to the number of the psalms, you will offer her a rosary in the manner of a psaltery, a rosy crown, nay rather a gem-like one, more excellently. Furthermore, Cajetan translates and explains coldly thus: the lips of the just make known the will, that is, the just man explains his will by words without deceit and fraud; but the mouth of the wicked shall speak revolutions, that is, he wraps up his counsels in fraudulent words. Better Rabbi Solomon: "The lips of the just know ratson, that is, benevolence of their creator to gain for themselves, and to appease him; they also have clear understanding by which they bind mortals to themselves, and friendship among them is preserved." And Rabbi Levi: "The tongue of the just ratson, that is, knows how to merit the propensity of mortals toward itself, since his words happen to be agreeable and pleasing." And the interpreter of the Greek Catena thus translates and explains from the Septuagint: the lips of just men pour forth gracious speech; but the mouth of the wicked, as it were perverse, stirs up disgust. The discourses of the just are so apt and harmonious that they appear filled with graces, so again so firm that they cannot be loosened; but the speech of the wicked produces weariness and abomination. This is what the Apostle admonishes, Ephesians IV, 29: "Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth, but that which is good to the edification of faith, that it may give grace to the hearers." And Colossians IV, 6: "Let your speech be always in grace seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
10:1
… The treasures of wickedness shall come to nothing / but righteousness shall deliver from death" [Prov. 10:1-2]); c) synthetic: the second member completes and develops the first ("Whoever honors his father will be gladdened by his children / and on the day of his prayer he will be heard. …
… inculcate a truth or a principle of moral and practical order: it is the parable more properly so called (Ezek. 17, 2; 24, 3), the similitude and the example, the saying of popular use (more precisely proverb: I Kings 5, 12; Job 13, 12; Prov. 1, 1.6; 10, 1; 25, 1; 26, 7.9), the witty and sarcastic mot (Ezek. 12, 22 f.; 18, 2 f.; Mic. 2, 4; Hab. 2, 6), the words of mockery
10:7
… At other times abbreviations occur for formulas of praise, for example z-s-l (the memory of the righteous for a blessing, Prov. 10, 7).
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.